Johndc120

Working on wagons tonight. 
 

firstly the complete set of conflats for they layout, these will be mixed in with the freight for the yard but also they are ideal as tail loads for small B-set passengers. The tail loads are an operators choice, for operators without much knowledge of the layout you can go without. whereas the more competent ones can arrive with a tail load, drop it off in the yard, pick a different one up if they want or just shunt the original to the back of the train before heading off down the branch

Chains to be added

Secondly a very iffy numbered Hornby lowmac, the number really doesn’t make sense on this vehicle and I believe that’s because it’s an eastern number which Hornby have just put a W infront to make it western region… hmmm!! Some weathering and it’s be fine I guess!!

anyway the crate it came with looked bad so a good Oxford die cast tractor later and some chains and it looks okay, just to weather it down now

10 hours ago, Andy Keane said:

Got it. What colours do you use on the ballast? Do you have some pics of the weathered ballast?

thanks

andy

I’ve had to lift these from Shwt’s Facebook which seems to be my photo cloud

mainly I use the same sleeper grime colour I use to paint the sleepers. It’s the German camo black brown. although this is mixed in with oil black for oil stains and a few other more detail bits like grease on the pointwork

this is the unweathered ballast just gone in, all very uniform 

This is new weathered with the black brown, for track where a train is not normally stopped I just weather along under the rails, for sections where the train stops I give a much heavier weathering to the the whole track bed

Finally grass can then be introduced if felt the area needs it, shwt being a 1960s partyly disused line it’s got quite a lot

john

23 minutes ago, Andy Keane said:

Thanks, really helpful reference images. Last time around you mentioned something about weathering the ballast as well?

Yeah so as you weather the ballast, you tend to dull off the rust colours so you have to go a little heavy with the rust and once the ballast is done the rest will blend back in correctly 

1 hour ago, Andy Keane said:

Could you reinstate these pictures. They were really useful and I see they went in the great crash.

thanks

Andy

Sure thing, just got to remember which photos they were 

So start to finish

this is the primer, it’s Vallejo grey primer which looks very light. The key is to clean the top of the rail between coats

the next stage is to spray the whole thing in German camo black brown

this has had 2 coats

following this is rust layers, using the paint colours ‘dark fleshtone’ and ‘filthy brown’ 

Lastly the concrete colour for the concrete pots and rodding parts was touched in using Vallejo ‘stone grey’

17 hours ago, MrWolf said:

I've been having similar thoughts and I'm going with the idea of a S&T Department work train replacing telegraph poles or perhaps a signal.

Already you need a crane and runner, a flat or two, tool van / workshop (ISTR converted Fruit D vans with windows in later BR days?) and probably a PW dept Toad.

Jidenco models did a lovely 13t S&T open wagon which would look lovely in that train

Hi All,

We’re getting closer and closer to SWAG now, prep work on the locos and stock is beginning to happen. 
 

If you don’t know we operate Shwt via phone and tablets for complete hands free control. If you’re interested and want to have a play on the layout/take some of the operating duties off us!!! You’re more than welcome.

please ensure you download 

withrottle for iPhone/ipad (the lite free version)

engine driver for android devices

Look forward to seeing you all there

Shwt

3 hours ago, Tortuga said:

Very nice. What are the ballast wagons please? Herrings?

Thank you, yes they are indeed herring wagons, they’re all Cambrian wagon kits which are okay but a bit awkward to build. 
 

An interesting thing is the herring wagons and ballast plough are set up for centre drop only, same as the catfish, the GWR plough could not spread anything laid outside the rails from a dogfish

John

Another couple of locos ready for duty on Elmore

the 5101 class is a good loco for the layout as it’s a good all round mixed traffic engine able to pull the heavier trains up the hill. Although with it’s larger wheels, it may still require assistance with heavy stone trains from the resident banker/yard pilot. this one being in this livery might well get more use on the larger passenger train 

The 72xx is a bit of extravagance for us, it would be an extreme situation to see such a large loco on a branch line and we’ll give you a clue as to what that situation might be, this little project has been on the go for a while and it’s about time I got it finished!!

V2 of the paving slabs ready to go!!

this should be enough to do the 1.4m of platform

Last night we made good progress on the bay platform laying the edging blocks down to the end and round the back of the buffer beam.

underneath the edge blocks we have also added the stepped courses to build out the support under the blocks.

finally we started to look at a 3D printed option for the main platform, these are 2’6 x 3’ slabs, they come out perfectly to the structure gauge but just a touch thick, also I would prefer a little bit more detail on the mortar gaps. V2 will be coming next week!!!

1 hour ago, geoff said:

Is this of any assistance? Taken at Didcot GWR last year.

 

Geoff

Thank you Geoff

I found this one when I first started doing research on it, my boy has been to didcot a few times so it was a good excuse to make another visit where I took lots of photos. It’s all well and good having the diagrams but sometimes you need to actually see it to translate them

More progress on the platforms this week

Since the last post the tops were clad in 40 thou, the sides then had the first layer of English bond added. I then realised I’ve completely cocked up the measurements and the platforms were 2mm too narrow!! So a bit more cladding to each side to bring out the platforms nobody will ever know!!!!

so after the brick sides were stuck on the edging could then be added, on the bay we are using bullnose stones which would have been the originals however on the main platform we gone for a rebuild using large edging slabs. Once these are all in we can then add the stepped courses to support underneath the edge

We’ve only added 3 of the edging slabs so far just to check for clearance 

the other project on the go at the moment is a rotank wagon. This was a nice little project thought up because we don’t have any milk facilities on Elmore but we do have the end loading dock. It’s a Hornby chassis with 3D printed too. It’s not perfect especially on the tank as I’m really struggling to find detailed pictures or diagrams but hopefully it’s a good representation 

This evening I’ve had fun a Bachmann Wickham trolley! 
 

First challenge was to convert it to EM gauge, not too much trouble on this one as the existing wheels could just be pulled although under the cab there are wheel protectors which have sadly had to go, along with some of the footboards. I’ve had to 3D print some resin packing washers to stop the sideplay.

The next challenge was where to fit a DCC decoder, I’ve chosen to fit it above the motor but to gain the room I’ve 3D printed some sleepers with a cutout made for decoder which will be a TCS Z2. They were simple shaped sleepers which I’ve glued some C&L chairs to (keys removed)

The last jobs have been to weather the model plus just give the ballast a bit of wash with black and dirty brown 

now to fit the chip and a modelu crew 

A couple of bits of progress this week, firstly the platforms have had the plastic cladding cut down to the correct profile. This is now ready for the top surface to go on and then we’ll start adding the brick

an old kit for a 54xx has now had a chassis built for it, this is an Alan Gibson chassis and wheels, it really does look different with the 5’2 wheels, this loco is intended to go on the autocoach working when finished

also under construction is a Jidenco models of the later twin tank gas wagon. This will be used for filling horse boxes and just another wagon to be shunted about on a mixed goods

Back to work on the layout and the first job is to redo the platforms as they were plasticard and the heat had got them causing them to warp and we just weren’t happy

so version 2 has now started, these are solid wood platform which we are now starting the cladding process with 40 thou plasticard

A couple of beautiful photos taken of Shwt by fellow modellers at the show

taken by Richard Street

taken by Rod Mackay

13 hours ago, DLT said:

First time I had seen Shwt for real, and I was most impressed.  We too had a good weekend and enjoyed the curry.

I believe Shwt will be at the Taunton SWAG do in April?

Cheers, Dave.

Thanks Dave,

it was lovely to see Bridport again, it’s a while since seeing it last at warley and it left an impression then. I love the concept of the L shaped layout and it runs so well

John

The cars are packed, everything on the list found and ready to go for the journey tomorrow. The stress of getting everything ready to go is over, now we can relax and enjoy the weekend

An interesting evening of Show prep, first challenge was to produce a demo piece for our static grass work.

this is a step by step guide building up the layers which we can just quickly show people

the following shots are each step in turn

plain baseboard

a base layer of paint to hide the baseboard

2mm fibres as a ground cover

4mm fibres to pick out longer grass areas

6-12mm fibres for long grass and bushes

Foliage added to the long fibres

The next job was cleaning stock and sorting a few jobs. This included adding some braking to the sls coach rake (they run too freely for kadees) 

my class 73 couldn’t pull itself let alone anything else so it’s been stripped down, cleaned oiled and now with a lot of lead (a very lot!!!) inside to help with traction

finally a swap out of the chip in the Jinty, I’ve never been happy with it’s running performance so a bit of open heart surgery later and the lokpilot chip is no more and now replaced with a TCS M1 decoder with a stay alive

A week and a half away from febex, organising the troops and prepping the layout is well underway. Look forward to seeing you there