Northroader

Makes you do everything twice…

There’s quite a good range of small Scottish stations available from Pop Up Designs, although you’ll probably find you need to modify them a bit, how they’re constructed, to have a good appearance on a layout, painted. I think they intended them as a kind of craft range with their other bits and bobs, to go on a shelf unpainted, but then did them in the right scales for the model railway market. https://www.popupdesigns.co.uk

The station building kit is progressing, I’ve now trimmed off all the projections, and gone over with a 2mm ply capping strip at floor level, and card capping over the vertical parts. Then windowsills have been added, and a plastikard strip round the outer edges of the window frames. A coat of primer, and now I’m working around with the body colours. I’m comparing it with a photo of the preserved station at Dufftown, taken from Peter Smith’s very useful thread: https://www.stationcolours.info The brown framing was done with Precision Paints P.91, SR freight umber, but the panelling was interesting, as I used P.P. P.476, which is the Stroudley “Improved Engine Green”. This might demonstrate that taking paint samples from full size locos might be too dark when applied to a model, although working here where a darker colour is needed. I’m building a layout whose size would qualify it as a microlayout, but where you normally expect just wagon shuffling, I do want to have some passenger working as well, together with a bit of representative architecture, which is where this building comes in. It’s proved it’s worth with planning, as I find putting it down on the baseboard, the board is just too narrow. The board was brought here in triumph as the last surviving piece of the old lines, and which had been reconditioned ready for the move. Now it’s been widened up to 13.4”, 340mm., by adding some 10mm. foam-board strips along the front. I’m getting into using foamboard quite a bit, there’s a small layout running in parallel with this job using it for baseboard construction, (See over on the “Beyond Dover” or “Ballycombe” threads for details), and I think I’ll do the fiddle board on this line the same way.

Bit lower, bit longer, ramp each end, no railings, fence at back.

https://harwellscouts.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/M4.pdf

I lifted this picture off the Didcot site, a 2-2-2 on a Birmingham train at Goring troughs, the last of which didn’t go til 1914? I would expect if the 4-2-2s displaced the Sir Daniels, the older engines would turn up beyond Wolverhampton?

It was probably changed at Wolverhampton in any case.

Thanks, Eric, a nice bit of urban LBSC. I did see this at a show somewhere, and enjoyed it, much later I met up with you, so belated congratulations on a well modelled layout. The 4’ size in 00 would allow luxury ltems like points, this job of mine will be much more basic. Agreed ref the thin plywood strips facing the layout, sooner or later I must add some.

Actually, one of those was done in living memory, using a brake van, sorry, no pictures. We put a frame like the GWR one in the cigarette card picture round the van, but with folding down extensions like small goalposts done in welding rod. It was needed because the Civil Engineers did their track maintenance by covering it with ballast, then going along with a tamper which set a new level and packed the ballast under the sleepers to get it. All very well, but it meant the height gradually crept up over the years. This was demonstrated by a stone bridge near St.Devereux on the Hereford - Newport line, which had stayed the same since it was built. The highest piece of rolling stock turned out to be the spindle on the safety valves of No.6000 “King George V”, out on a special working. Fairly soon after that there was the gee-whiz laser measuring thingy turned out by Derby.

Sorry, Mikkel, I was going along the top bar, and wondering “what’s this do?”, and now… I recall you did a foamboard construction sometime back for a cameo layout, which worked out well?

Thing Is, I need to move the boards relative to each other to do shunting, the fiddle yard will be treated as a large cassette. There won’t be any points. (help! how do you get rid of that damned “page” command?)

FOAMBOARD BASEBOARD CONSTRUCTION. Well, I need a baseboard for this hypothetical layout, and opted to try out foamboard for a change. Previously I’ve used some 5mm thick for the shell of a station building, and also for the base of a tiny layout, and quite taken with how you can use it, so rather than go out to the big orange shed and get some 2”x1” and chipboard, I sent off for a pack of 10mm thick foamboard. It came in A1 paper size, 33.1” x 23.4”, or 840mm x 594mm, and as I used just two sheets for this job, it comes in quite competitively with using timber, although the timber option would be more durable. I cut a strip off lengthwise 12” wide, which formed the top of the main baseboard, and this left enough to make six 48mm strips, which I stuck together in pairs to form the reinforcing subframe, using PVA Bond for the adhesive. The fiddleyard top was 9” wide and the same length, which should give me three roads, quite ambitious for a simple little line. Here’s a picture of the underside construction, and the two parts together. There’s a small station building and a standard gauge 0-6-0T in 7mm scale to give clue of how it fits together. Obviously it won’t take screws, nails, or track pins, everything has to be glued down. There’s a 5mm thick sheet at the back to support a backscene, and this is bolted on, but where the bolt goes through there’s 2mm ply pads glued on. The two boards are resting on a smooth “tabletop” support (an old foamcore door) and my intention is to have the tracks from the main board and the fiddle engaging with each other for trains passing over, but leave the two boards lying loosely on the support. Whatever next?

Looking good. You know it makes sense! p.s. here’s some shorties helping to plan the new line. It’s long enough, but it’s too narrow!

FAIRBAIRN 2-2-2T. Well, the intention is to have “Irish days” and “Portuguese days”, swapping buildings, scenic, and trains. The Fairbairn 2-2-2T is a must, no home should be without one, in my opinion. I did build one, which I’ve given away before the move, so doing a replacement is fun. The last one was done from a side-on photograph, but you can download a diagram, from another preserved one. Brush up your Portuguese, here’s another rabbit hole to fall down: http://vfco.brazilia.jor.br/locomotivas/vapor-EFCB-Estrada-de-Ferro-Central-do-Brasil/pagina-01-locomotiva-Fairbairn-Sons-2-2-2-Baronesa-01-Maua.shtml another microlayout?

NEWS FROM SÃO LUCAS. Bom dia, meus amigos. Hoje é a festa de São Judas Tadeu. Regulars on this thread will know that there’s a sub-plot running with a 5’6” gauge line struggling to emerge, not at all successfully. Well, now I’ve settled in and looked round, I’ve identified a space for a small layout, and kill two birds with one stone, which isn’t really something you’re supposed to do these days. I also have a partiality to Irish lines, which are 5’3” gauge. So far I’ve modelled them as standard gauge, but in following some nice layouts over on the IRM web using the correct gauge, I’d like to try something wider as well. Consider, 4’8.5”, 5’3”, 5’6” ——- 32mm, 36.75mm*, 38.5mm. (* I’m afraid I’m not that keen on working out a gauge on a calculator, then using it with the implication that you’re modelling to a hundredth of a millimetre tolerance, which isn’t something I’m remotely capable of. Round up to 37mm, I would say.) Anyway, I feel the two non standard, wider gauges could be merged to one in a model layout, with not that much of a difference between them, but which is quite distinctive to standard gauge, and as Slaters do Irish gauge driving axles, I could use these rather than the arrangement with brass tubes I’ve described some time ago on here. A small lightweight board is being made, and then I’ll look at slightly slimming down the Estado Fairbairn frames that have appeared on here. If you go ‘Beyond Dover’, you’d need to go clockwise in a very large circle before you reach the Western Fringes of Europe, but see how we get on with that, as well as the standard gauge goings on. Acenda uma velo so padroiero das causas perdidas, e rogue a Nossa Senhora do Paraíso, que interceda por nos pecadores.

If you lift both ends of a wagon with jacks at the same time, the b***** thing shows a tendency to walk sideways.

Well, Don, it works out at about four and a half hours. I do enjoy train trips, so it was relaxing. The two previous days they’d had very heavy rain around Swindon, so the country was saturated, and trains from the West cancelled. Through the Goring Gap area this time of year with the trees turning colour is really enjoyable, then once past the North Downs the run through the Weald is lovely, nice country, and most of the old Brighton stations still standing. The Flying visit bit? Well, I got there late Saturday morning at the same time as everybody else. The venue isn’t as bad as the old Westminster Central Hall gigs, but besides a smallish main hall, there’s a lot of side rooms, corridors, stairs, council rooms, and so on, and the circulation is a bit restricted as a result. So I picked out the bits I wanted to see in the guide, a quick glimpse of the rest, and on past the trade stuff. (Thank goodness there is a very good model shop in Cheltenham, and I’m in town this week, so….)

Thanks, Jordan, actually I kept it down to a flying visit, so I was back for tea, and the prospect of being allowed out again. If anyone’s interested, here’s a link to David’s account of “Northport Quay” over on IRM: https://irishrailwaymodeller.com/topic/10740-northport-quay/#comment-164658

The lifting jack is in front of one of the gentlemen in the picture. More recent times you’d have a “stand”, like a sort of welded up goalpost to go under across the nearest end of the wagon. These folks are using a wheelset as a stand, there’s “scotches” (wedges) each side of the wheels underneath, and a “biscuit” (a thin slice of hardwood) on top of the tyre and under the headstock, so it’s fairly stable while you pick up the other end with the jack in the middle under the headstock.

Yesterday, I was allowed to have a day out for the first time since my operation, so after a rigorous briefing from my wife and daughter, and promising as to how I should conduct myself, at the crack of dawn I was loaded on to the first train out of town. The journey took me to Uckfield in East Sussex, where the Uckfield M.R.C. were having their annual show. I’ve been there once before, and knew that it would be worth attending. This time it was “small and simple” which really caught my attention, although the club are very careful to have a wide spectrum of layouts on display, differing scales, eras, and sizes. First off then was Richard Barton’s “Arcadia”, a Colonel Stephens type terminus. I’ve found that if there’s a S scale layout at a show, it’s always a good one, and Arcadia proves the point. Richard is a stalwart of the Brighton modelling circle, and has been extremely helpful with helping my model slimming down exercise this summer. The Brighton line is very modellable, the Digest is most useful, and I’m finding what a great bunch of folks are modelling it, so maybe just perhaps a little bit more LBSC could appear at Washbourne one day? Back on the pages of this thread you’ll find accounts of some of the few times I’ve been to Ireland, and I’m quite taken by the country, the folks, and their railways. So next must see was David Holman’s “Northport Quay”, set out on the West Coast, done in 7mm scale and to the proper 5’3” gauge. First full show it’s been to, replacing his previous lines with something a bit more compact for putting in a car, and to my mind becoming more space friendly in the process. Next layout up is Rob Gunstone’s “Ewe”, a very neat 00 layout inspired by the Wisbech and Upwell tramway. First thing to notice is track placement, gentle curves not parallel with the front edge of the baseboard, then very skilful weathering of the mainly RTR locos and rolling stock, careful and thorough scenic work, and the whole lot operating at a gentle unhurried pace. The Uckfield club must have done a lot of string pulling to get their special feature for this year together, bringing together some of the late Iain Rice’s layouts, a real treat. Two of these I really enjoyed, again small and simple, firstly “Hepton Wharf”, a L&Y P4 layout set in the Pennines. I first saw this a long time back at a Manchester Co-Op show, and since then it’s been extended to the right over a level crossing into a second fiddle yard, and a small passenger platform added. The buildings and scenery combine to give a very good feel of “place”. The other small line of Iain’s which I really liked was “Trerice”, another P4 layout. Generally I’m not that bothered by single purpose layouts centred on a single industry, but this one is quite special, Cornwall, china clay, a Beattie tank engine? Well, that’s about it, there were other noteworthy layouts there, I assure you, but that’s the ones that really stood out for me. My thanks to the Uckfield gang for laying on such a good show. I came home empty handed, mainly because the trade stands were biased towards 4mm, also because I was told I must finish what I’ve started before getting anything else, a job which will be honoured more in principle than practice, I fear.

Presumably the prototype would be in cast iron, and used as support like that, they would be in tension. That’s a no-no, best placed under the platform, then they’re in compression.

Where’s me calculator gone in the move.? 3/16” x 6’ is, er, an inch and an eighth, which is, durh, about 28mm, so that means you got proper size figures for S scale? Although that’s supposed to be 1:64 scale, and this ere war games is 1:55? and then you go round a model show, and if there’s an S scale job there, it hits you that it’s just perfection, think, ooh, er,.. http://www.s-scale.org.uk/gallery.htm so really, you’re on a winner, me old mate.

The bars are pinned, not fixed, at each end. This allows the two curved rubbing faces to maintain contact on a curve. If you had a central drawbar, I think you’d need to allow a gap when the wagons are in a straight line, or the faces would jam on a curve.

Yes, just a small amount of heat applied to the staple is all that’s needed, you’ll soon get the hang of it. You can just keep your head back from over it, so you’re not breathing any wisp of fumes, but the amount that’s produced is very low, you have a hard job to spifflicate yourself.

Glad to see some creative jobs starting to appear again in your life, good luck with the way it’s going.