SR Rich

Hello Paul Thank you for your suggestion, I actually got some brass bogie etches from Invertrain and will add my own resin printed axle boxes etc to the side of the etches. Is it a Balloon driving trailer you are collecting from Roxey Mouldings? I cannot find any O gauge balloon trailers on the Roxey Mouldings web site. Look forward to seeing the balloon kit when you have built it and enjoy the show in December. Richard

Hello Phil Thanks for your kind words. The back scenes on this layout are made by I D Backscenes, this one is one called Village Long 202B, there are two pieces 15" high and each piece is 1.5 meters long (so a total of 3meters per pack) and there are four packs in the Village Long series, so you could have a total of twelve meters of continuous back scene. Here is a link http://www.idbackscenes.com/index.php/id-backscenes-scenic-backgrounds-village-long-202 They are available from model shops. This is the right hand side of pack 202B, under the red line is hidden behind the cutting and takes out the more modern looking houses. Here is the back scene in place on the layout, on other another layout I have used carefully placed trees to hide other more modern structures. Just had a look at Seaton Junction, looks very good and plenty of progress as well. Take care Richard

Hello Thomas Here is a few pictures from our layouts from the exhibition. We decided to run smaller tank engines and small coaches this year, so a good pre-grouping flavour (before 1923). London, Brighton & South Coast Railway to start with, Loco number 626 and all the coaches you can see are kit built by me and the terrier number 677 is a re painted Hornby terrier. This next picture shows a train from the Somerset & Dorset Joint Railway (blue coaches), a train from the South East & Chatham Railway (red coaches) and it seems a continental engine in the goods yard. Next is the SD&JR train a little closer. This is Stuarts quay side layout, I operated this layout this year, operation it is quite a challenge on this compact layout, with many points, small sidings (max a loco and two wagons) and being DC contolled. Now we move to the narrow gauge (OO9). A very busy scene with many locos. We also had a very small visitor to Rotherhurst this year . As usual any comments or questions welcome. Richard

Hello all Here are a few pictures from the exhibition of the LBSCR trains shown in the last few posts. Both together And black and white. Richard

Hello Here are a few pictures of the locos I have just finished. The terrier is a Hornby loco but was in KESR blue livery ( unfortunately Hornby do not produce the terrier in LBSCR umber), this has been repainted, lined and crew added. The D1, since the last post I have straightened the chimney, it was then painted, lined, coal added and crew painted and planted. These terrier will go with the balloon coach and the D1 with the umber liveried stroudley coaches, ready for the exhibition this weekend. I will post up some pictures after the weekend of these locos with the appropriate coaches. As usual any comments or questions welcome. Richard

Hello For anyone in the Bergen (Norway) it is just one week until the annual model railway exhibition, again one of our layouts has been used on the poster. For more information Click here to go to website. If you are there come and say hello. Richard

Hello A couple of updates for today. I will start with the LBSCR D1, last mentioned back in April, this I started a few weeks ago and I am quite happy with progress so far. I started with the chassis. After soldering in the axle bearings I use the Poppys Woodtech loco box (i think it is called) to hold the chassis square and flat (not twisting) while I soldered in the motor mount and frame stretcher in place, I then put it all together and check it runs freely either on a rolling road or the layout. I then take it all apart and paint the frames and this time the wheels, I first use the Tamiya metal priming spray, Black spray undercoat, then the appropriate colour on the frames and finish with a satin varnish. After painting is when I then add the pick ups for the motor, two of the driving wheels that came with are insulated, so this time I have a live chassis and only need pick ups on the wheels on one side of the chassis. I used phosphor bronze strip for the pick ups, which is difficult to see on these pictures. I have used the DS 10 motor, its a bit noisy but works ok and came with the kit. I had to add the suppressor ( I think its called, I am sure someone will correct me ) to the motor because it either turned the lights on in the Hornby four wheeler's on the adjacent track or upset the signals on the layout. Here is a few pictures of the body, the chimney looks as though it is sloping forward a lot but It has been exaggerated by the camera, its not as bad as it looks and will be rectified before painting. The body is finished apart from attaching the roof, I leave this of for ease of painting inside the cab and putting a driver and fireman in. This I think is now ready for painting. The other thing is continuing with some 3D printing projects. I have designed the interior for the balloon trailers, this is O gauge and the interior is in two parts because they are easier to handle and the printer is not large enough to print the full length. And this is the interior in place. All I need now is more resin to arrive, so that I can print out an improved version of the body and other projects. As usual any comments or questions welcome. Richard

Hi Thank you for your kind words. All the vans and associated parts, I have designed and printed myself. I have some more items of rolling stock I am working on for the future. Richard

Hello Gary Thank you for your suggestions for the bogies for 4 mm, I have now found a couple of places I can get the LBSCR 8" bogies from in 7mm and thank you for your kind comment. Richard

Hello All Another few months seem to have rolled by. I have just finished the Smallbrook Stroudley coaches in LBSCR umber & white livery. Another project has been some N gauge wagons, I again cheated here and bought Peco chassis to go under resin printed bodies, there are type A & D open wagons, Dia 8 standard and poultry covered goods vans and an LBSCR well wagon. I am waiting for more transfers to arrive so I can finish the rest. I am also printing these in OO and O gauges in future. A project I am working on at the moment is designing and resin printing LBSCR balloon coaches in thee gauges, the one below is O gauge. This is the first print of this coach, so I have some things to change and some improvements to make, it is printed in two parts because of the size of my resin printer (it took 27 hours to print). The interior has been designed but not printed yet and the roof I have not given much thought to yet, maybe formed plastic or wood strips over a former. I think I will have to find some brass bogies for this coach because the resin ones are bending slowly with the weight of the body. Does anyone know where I can find the correct bogies? The D1 is still in the box but I want to get it finished for an exhibition at the end of September. As usual any comments or questions welcome. Richard

I have just finished a couple of N gauge Billington brake vans, one is the 4 wheel 10/12t type and the other is the 6 wheel 20t type, the body was designed and 3d resin printed by me. The chassis are both modified to make them the right size and get the wheel, springs & axle boxes in about the right place ( the photos I have show the spring hanger brackets very near the buffer beam). I started with cutting off the short pieces of buffer beam with the buffers on, cut out the coupling housings and moved those back so that they were as close as possible to the axle, when these were glued in place I cut off any of the sole bars/ chassis that protruded past the coupling housings, then glued the buffer beam with the buffers back in place and cut away any of the brake gear that was not needed. On the 6 wheel type I drilled holes in the chassis so the wheels would turn without fouling, took the W iron, spring & axle box assembly from another kit and glued those in making sure the new axle was parallel and not higher than the originals. The lower running boards have been fixed into slots I cut in the axle boxes using a fine saw, this has made them quite sturdy and hopefully not easily broken, the top ones are just glue on. Here are some pictures of the finished brake vans with bodies and couplings fitted. From the books I have looked at, it said the brake vans have red ends but it does not say if the wall with the door in the veranda has any red paint like the SR brake vans. Both of these have been glazed and painted inside, although I don't think anyone will notice. Just a picture showing where the brake van belongs ( I don't run my engines on this fluffy cloth, it's just for photos). That's all for N gauge for now, until I do some more 3d printing. The next projects will be OO gauge, the kits in the picture below and a re-paint of a new Hornby terrier to go with the balloon trailer, these will all be in Marsh umber livery. So there is a little to keep me busy. As usual any comments or questions welcome. Richard

Hello All Time flies, I have just seen when I last posted. We have not been idle, here is an update for the O gauge. These are some of the kits we have either built or finished off. They are either Slaters or Parkside Dundas kits. Here is a couple more pictures of the wagons finished The cows have been repainted to a breed more common in the 1900's, although it's hard to see. We are concentrating on two time periods, I am focusing on LBSCR and together we are doing early British Railways. Stuart has finished some other wagon kits, but I do not have photos for those. To come, we are in the final stages of painting and finishing off a Fairburn tank engine, I have more LBSCR 3d printed wagons to build and paint ( a clue to one of the wagons in the next post ) and we have more BR locomotives to finish off. As usual any comments or questions welcome. Richard

Hello all Just thought I would post up some pictures from the Bergen ( Norway) exhibition we attended at the end of September. Everything went well apart from a failed controller on the OO9 part of the layout , which was quickly sorted out. Stuart's new electric trickey for the fiddle yard worked perfectly, see details in the previous post. The new track layout on Rotherhurst worked very well, after I took up most of the points after last years exhibition ( There is a write up earlier in this thread about the track relay). This is Stuart operating his dock themed layout, it is still a work in progress and hopefully we will see more progress in the future. This is the fiddle yard with a SR Z class on the left and three LBSC engines on the right, Atlantic with the nine Stroudley 4 wheel coaches, a C2X in the center and a Terrier with balloon coach on the right. When we operate at the exhibition, we use the right hand track for through trains to the loop for turning the train and when they come back from the loop we select an empty siding for the train to be parked in, the next three lines are used for passenger trains because they are generally longer than the goods trains and the three lines on the left are for the goods trains. Just a view of Rothergate OO9 layout, the two holes you can see in the front of the layout are for operating the new uncouplers I installed before the exhibition, the levers go to the back as well so they can be operated from either side, unfortunately they seem to be a magnet for the kids to fiddle with, so were quickly covered over. Now I start thinking of what I can do to improve the layout(s) for next year, I am not sure Stuart is so keen! Richard

Hello Thomas Thanks for your nice comment. The Bergen exhibition went well, a few new layouts there, which is always good. we had a very enjoyable weekend, who does not like playing trains for a whole weekend ? The only problem we had was a controller failure which was quickly rectified. Here are a few general pictures of the layout at the exhibition, I will post up a few more on the layout thread ( link below). Richard

Hello all I have now finally finished more of the LBSCR covered goods wagons. This first picture shows the added parts quite clearly, as they are not painted, buffers, lamp brackets, two types of brake gear, coupling hook and nem pockets. These are the OO wagons. I am getting used to the printed so the print quality of the wagons can be variable, I don't like to waste anything, so I will use the not quite perfect wagons on my layout (they don't look any different from 6 foot away). I have painted two for my SR collection and I think I have enough for my LBSC collection as you will see later. These are the O gauge wagons one is a poultry version (on the left with louvers in the doors) and a standard wagon (on the right). As you can see there are two types of brake gear and axle boxes to represent wagons from different periods during LBSCR days. The works plates ( white oval under the doors), the poultry van has the number printed in by the 3d printer, the other has transfers in the works plate I the though why not try N gauge, with these I just printed out just the van body and put them on Peco 10' rtr chassis ( I know cheating but less stress and frustration from messing around with such small parts). Then I went a step further Z gauge body. Madness! Here's the final picture for now, my rake of covered goods vans with a C2X and Billington brake van. As usual any comments or questions welcome. Richard