2996 Victor

Chris, Great article and photos - Twigg Street looks fantastic. Well done, Sir! Hope to see it at a show soon. Best regards, Mark

Brilliant. Just brilliant.

All, apologies if this has been covered elsewhere, but searching didn't turn up anything. Does anyone have any experience of Trout Creek Engineering craftsman-style wood kits? Although Trout Creek seem to be a defunct manufacturer, several of their kits cover a subject that has recently piqued my interest, and I'd like to know a little more before deciding to whether to spend time searching them out. Similarly, does anyone have experience of LaBelle Woodworking craftsman-style kits? They look good and are still in production, which is a bonus! But again, some inside information would be good. Cheers, Mark

And many British, too!!! Regards, Mark

Hi Seb and welcome! Great plan - Lakemont looks to be full of operational interest. The standard of your modelling is superb - you've achieved an open and airy feel with nicely-observed detail. I particularly love the way you've captured the patchy grass around the spur track and between the rails - beautifully understated! This is such a fantastic scene: As is this - the trees are incredible: All-in-all, a standard I can only aspire to emulate! Please keep posting the photos and details of your progress. Best regards, Mark

Finally, flat car #3 is finished to the pre-lettering/pre-full-weathering stage! It's taken a bit longer than it should have, but hey ho! I won't bore everyone with a photograph because, let's face it, until it's completely finished and with a load, it looks exactly like the previous two do and all the subsequent ones will..... An interesting photo turned up on t'interweb the other day, of what purports to be a Cass ballast car: It shows not only the "M LBR Co" for the Mower Lumber Co, but also the faded "WV P P Co" of the preceding West Virginia Pulp & Paper Co, while the font of the running number looks very similar to that found on the 40' flat cars in Greenbrier & Elk River RR days..... Cheers, Mark

Excellent footage - really inspiring, not that I need another project to think about! But I have got a Decapod in WM colours, bought "just cos", that hasn't otherwise got a purpose..... Must.... Resist..... Cheers, Mark

.....and now June. Possibly.....?

Hi Prof, thanks for your encouragement - it's certainly welcome at the moment, although lack of time is the issue! I'm still mulling over my track layout, my earlier "design" has been pretty much consigned to history..... Could we have a little more background detail on your project? That water tower - are modelling Cass Depot? Incidentally, the Cass & Mower Logging Trains video has been taken off YouTube - I think Green Frog caught wind of it..... But I got a nice new copy on DVD from Steam Powered Video http://www.spv.co.uk/railroading.shtml and it's had several viewings in the last month or two! SPV's website has got some interesting stuff - it's well worth a look. Finally for now - and please don't laugh or say "I told you so!" - but having now built several of the Tichy 40' Flat Cars out of the box, I can only agree with what you said somewhere above that they make excellent representations of the Cass/Mower cars straight from the box..... Best regards, Mark

No progress to report, other than re-linking the photographs in this thread - it's not even as if they were on Photobucket!!!

No progress to report, other than to have re-linked the majority of photographs! Slightly annoying, it's not like they were even on Photobucket

Hi, Sorry if I'm barking up the wrong tree, but do you mean the Redruth & Chasewater Railway? It was 4'-0" gauge, and used three Neilson Box Tanks for motive power in later years. If so, there was a layout built donkey's years ago by Bob Tivendale, featured (I think) in Practical Model Railways. I seem to recall some drawings in the articles. Best regards, Mark

Neil - thanks! I thought the same, the sleepers (ties?) do have a slightly rough-and-ready look to them like a toned-down version of PECO crazy track which I'm not keen on, but the overall appearance is pretty good. However, a little more digging seems to suggest that ME did do HOn30 (9mm gauge) track, but that it's been discontinued..... I've been increasingly thinking that I may have to build my own track, which I'm actually quite keen to do although it's not something I've done before, but I'm more than a little apprehensive about building pointwork from scratch. The assymetric 3-way point is fairly fundamental to the compactness of the layout, but I'm leaning toward a slight redesign so that I could perhaps make use of point kits. ME rail is available from a few places in the UK, along with their spikes. I guess I'd have to cut my own sleepers from stripwood, which wouldn't be an issue, or I could C&L as you've suggested, presumably with copper-clad sleeper strip OO9MM - thanks for your kind comment. The biggest issue with the Code 55 PECO rail is that its not really Code 55 flat-bottomed rail. I suppose the Atlas track is an option, and I did consider taking out every other sleeper, but as you say, the overall look would be Hudson-esque. I'm not ready to start track-laying yet, so I can consider my options for a little longer!

The old conundrum of track is rumbling on.....I spotted this whilst trawling the interweb: Left to right, it shows HO, HOn30 and N track. The HOn30 track looks quite presentable, all things being equal, but I can't seem to discover who the manufacturer is. I'm becoming more and more disillusioned with PECO track. Yes, I know its pretty robust, and as far as running is concerned, it seems to be about the best that RTR can offer. But their OO9 track just looks too twee and the weight of the rails is far too heavy for the majority of UK narrow gauge lines, which is why I was looking at their Code 55 N track. But again there are drawbacks, not least the sleeper size and spacing which to be honest doesn't look right even for N scale standard gauge. And of course, to build in the robustness, the rail isn't actually flat bottom: Apologies for the blurriness of the photograph, but it shows the extra "bit" on the base of the rail that sits in a moulded channel in the sleeper base, which would make it impossible to re-sleeper. In the meantime, a visit over the weekend to WD Models in Chesterfield - great shop! - found this little item falling into my shopping bag: Yes, I've succumbed to the lure of Bachmann's Class D..... I have to say I'm really rather impressed with the quality, but the price means it'll probably remain a one-off among the Dundas kits! Shame about the track Cheers for now, Mark

Now due for release sometime between April and May.....

The next 40' Flat Car almost finished - just the brake staff and wheel to add, the wooden deck to wet sand and it's ready for lettering and weathering: And the brake staff and wheel (along with two intended for my Ashover Light ex-War Department Bogie Wagons!): Rather than mount the brake wheels on the wire supplied with the Tichy Train Group kits, they are mounted on brass pins as the pin head gives a better register and helps to keep the wheel "square". The pins are also stiffer than the wire, so hopefully they'll be more resilient over time! Cheers for now, Mark

A small amount of progress has occurred, with the Dundas WD Class E Bogie Wagon taking shape nicely. Here's the main body of the wagon, visually surprisingly different to the Class D: Plus the bogies: The brake wheels are stolen from a Tichy Train Group sprue as they're a bit finer than the Dundas items, and the brake stands themselves are brass pins rather than the flimsy plastic rod supplied, in the hope of increasing their resilience! A little extra brake gear detail will be added and the pins cut to length. Here are another pair of bogies for one of the long-suffering Class Ds: And their brake wheels (plus one that belongs to one of my HO AC&F 40' Flat Cars!): Onward and upward..... Cheers for now, Mark

Hi, So sorry to hear of your loss; I remember losing my Dad (at a far-too-young age) only too clearly. I'm really not sure how I've managed to miss your thread until now. But may I just say that I am absolutely in awe of your modelling skills - utterly incredible workmanship. Keep it up and keep posting. With very best regards, Mark

Hi Jerry, I've been following your thread with interest, as I'm also new to the world of American model railroading. I'm in the early stages of a West Virginia logging road project http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/126410-greenbrier-elk-river-rail-road-wv . I'm not too far along with things as yet, but I've been lucky to get some great advice from forum members, so it might worth a quick look. Coupling-wise, FWIW I've settled on the Kadee #158 whisker coupling, which is scale sized and self-centring, and I'd suggest a height gauge is essential. Best of luck! Cheers, Mark

No progress at all, in fact a backward step, really. The "new" shade of grey certainly looks the part, so all good there. However, I'm still struggling to pick out the ironwork. Now that I've got decent magnification, I can see what I'm doing, and the paintbrush is steady. The problem seems to be getting the correct quantity of paint on said brush to allow it to flow out and around the bolt head detail without running irregularly over the edges of the "strapping". Frustrated does not describe it!!! I'm going to try spraying overall a darker grey shade to represent weathered black for the ironwork, and the washing light grey over the wooden components, and see if that gives a better outcome. I don't fancy shelling out £25 each for the Bachmann versions! Back to the drawing board.....

Today, there arrived a small envelope that yielded a small piece of corrugated cardboard to which was taped a sprue of parts and upon which was written "Replacement parts - no charge". "Very gracious", thought I, except that instead of the sprue of 10" queenposts I expected to find, it was a sprue of brake stand brackets and handwheels for the 22' ore cars. Which was indeed a very gracious response to an e-mail request I sent to the maker some time since, although in the meantime I had ordered a replacement, which arrived and was fitted as noted in post #77 above. Hopefully, the queenposts will be on their way soon.....

And then there were two! Another dismal photograph, of course, thanks to poor lighting and a poor camera, but you get the idea!