Johndc120

Well fingers crossed for 2021 for Taunton, I know the organiser wanted to speak to me about it when we’re there exhibiting Bicsdale in October. Yes Bicsdale was completed a few years ago now and it was in Model Rail’s ‘great british model railways’ mag. I know it’s only a shunting puzzle but it keeps us busy and the brain cells active! I’m glad you liked it, it can be a bit of a marmite layout good to meet you and look forward to catching up again soon John

Day 9 - fitting the GWR American bogies and NEM coupling pockets. The end is now in sight as all that’s left to do is paint and weather the bogies

Day 8 - The monster has gone though the weathering works today. I’m really happy with how it’s looking now. The bogie sides arrived this morning as well so will hopefully get those on tomorrow ready for painting

Day 7 - I’ve done some detail painting on the door handles, handrails and window bars. I’ve cut and filed some windows up from .5mm clear plastic to give the model a more flush glazed appearance and finally I’ve added some very unassuming transfers which officially makes this W594W

Day 6 - the monster gets it’s first coat of paint, I can’t find a prototype picture of one in 1955 so I’m working to what all the other non-passenger carrying vehicles were painted in. I fo wonder if it might have just stayed GWR brown but seen as I can’t find a prototype we’ll never know still waiting for the bogie sides from dart castings

Day 5 building up brassmaster compensated 9’ bogies. I’m waiting for the MJT cosmetic bogies which are the american style bogies. It’s nice to see it on it’s own wheel and see how it’s riding, currently it’s sitting a little high at the moment so that needs to be fixed

Tonight we’ve cut all of the plywood for the layout, so we now have 5 complete kits to build the 5 baseboards.

Day 4 today I’ve been detailing the body, I’ve reduced the moulding around the windows as it was far too crude. Added T handles and hand rails it’s still on the temporary bogies at the moment

Day 3 - underframe detail I’ve been working on the brake rodding, Having a look at some photos I believe this is close to what would be right, being underneath and black I’m sure no one will look too closely anyway I’ve put it on some temporary 7’ bogies for the moment to check the rod heights

Day 2 - fitting window bars. The kit is designed to have glazing behind the plastic sides, in reality they were much more flush glazed and the window bars were just behind the glass. I’ve drilled through from the top of the body and inserted 0.45mm wire for the bars. I’ll fit the glazing after in front of these bars

Day 1 The body has been assembled and the roof has been test fitted. When I received the kit I found there to be a nasty dent in the roof (possibly a moulding failure). This has had to be filled and sanded back, you can see the difference in colour in the picture but once painted hopefully you’ll never know

Hi all, this topic follows the building of an old Ian Kirk kit for a GWR monster. It’s an old kit and although quite nice it’s very crude in places so I’ll be making some improvements along the way, hopefully I can get it looking more like the prototype

Progress on the platform starter signal today, nice to get the stage and ladder on it

Thanks David, Yes it’s designed as an exhibition layout so although it might be a branch line terminus, the double track on entry allows us to keep the layout busy at all times. Not prototypical but people don’t like to see a layout with nothing going on. Spot on size wise, it’s 16’ x 2’ with a 5’ Cassette F/Y John

It may not look like much but after several months designing and planning we’ve finally started cutting timber for the baseboards. This is all of the softwood blocks which are used in the ply sandwich and risers to support the track bed (166 blocks in total)

Progress made on some of the signals today. the photos are of the platform starter with elevated ground disc, the branch home with equal routes into either platform and the advanced starter with the main route for the mainline and reduced for the branch line

Certainly, the issue I've got at the moment, my current layout bicsdale is booked into rail-ex Taunton this year and Cardiff main show next year and they clash so Shwt will likely end up at Railex Taunton October 2021 and Cardiff October 2022. this is the downside of having 2 layouts on the go! haha John

The Design of the signals, all will be MSE brass kits motorised using servos

Based just south of Gloucester Elmore is a terminus station with 2 exits, the main heading back towards Gloucester and a branchline which feeds the outer industrial areas of Gloucester and the small villages in the surrounding area. The Design includes a 2 platform station with a main platform and short bay which is for the branchline passenger trains, a small goods yard and a section of double track on exiting to allow trains to pass the next incoming train before exiting to the F/Y. This probably wouldn't be prototypical but will allow us to keep the layout busy at all times for exhibitions. This is the design of the layout

Thank you Roger, it's an unusual subject to model. Hopefully we've depicted it well. The current shows we're booked into are Swansea Doncaster Bracknell EM expo Wakefield EM expo Alton also planned in but not confirmed are Alexandra palace Taunton Cardiff John

Thnaks Guys, I'm really glad it didn't disappoint. I totally agree Dave, I've seen so many fantastic layouts over the years spoilt with rubbish lighting. I know someone who is a stage lighting designer and this lighting frame is based on her rough suggestions, the first thing is the colour temperature. You're looking for a white light with around 5000K to 5500K which gives a lovely natural daylight look to the layout. Warm white is <4700K and it looks quite yellow. Cool white is >6000K which can look very blue (especially in a hall with sodium lighting). Our design has 2 rows of diffused lights to eliminated shadowing, the first row is right at the front to catch any shadows coming forward and the second row is just beyond half way back to give an even coverage over the whole layout. Thanks John

Looking forward to our next outing with bicsdale, not long to go now

D6322 going through the works ready for Shwt’s first outing at Penarth model railway show this weekend

Sorry for all of the separate posts but the pictures are too large to upload together. photos start on page 6