Oldworseandworse

Hi Steve, I don't think I have weathered anything quite so heavily as 25 275. I needed to keep looking at the source photo in an attempt to get it somewhere close. I can't claim to be doing anything original, as I use techniques that can be found in the excellent books by Martyn Welch and Tim Shackleton as well as those used by modelling friends. In this case I started with acrylic paints and washes, brushed and dry brushed on. I made sure to let each application dry before further applications. This I call the harsh weathering stage because at this point you are wondering how the hell your going to get the weathering to look remotely realistic. Then comes the magic bit; airbrushing with enamel paints to blend everything in. Patience is required here if you are to get the effect you want. You also need to keep changing the paint mix. I normally mix from a simple palette - Matt Black, Matt White, Humbrol(62) Matt Leather and Gun Metal from Humbrol's Metalcote range. Continually changing the blend of those 4 colours and using your source photo to make sure you get the right shade of dirt in the right place is the way to get the effect you are trying to recreate. To finish this project off, I knocked back each application with sparingly applied thinners (white spirit), then dry brushed with an old flat brush to create the streaking. Once happy, I sprayed the whole lot with Testors Dullcote, a rattlecan matting agent. A warning -Don't spray the cab windows unless you want to lose all that lovely cab detail behind frosted glass! Last but not least; avoid handling the model for a few days; although paint that is air brushed on takes only seconds to become touch dry, the number of applications required for this degree of weathering will mean that curing will take several days. I hope I have not put you to sleep and that you find this helpful. Cheers, Bill.

We are off on another West Country jaunt in January to a one day exhibition at Weston Super Mare. The show is to be held on Sunday 13th January 2019 at The Campus, Highlands Lane, Locking Castle, Weston Super Mare, BS24 7DX and will have 25 working layouts plus some trade support. opening time is 10.00am - 4.30pm with an early bird entry of 09.30 for those willing to pay a supplement. While I have been busy either producing, detailing or weathering additional stock, Paul has been tinkering with the new wiring to interlock the points and signals. I am currently working on some Grampus wagons built from Parkside Dundas kits and will post a few photos when i have completed them in a couple of weeks time. In the meantime you may be interested in a few shots of the stuff I have nearly completed and one of a pair of 25's straight out of the box. a condition Paul and I intend to change before they are again seen on Blowers Green. We have had a bit of a shortage of these workhorses which were commonplace all around the Birmingham area. It is intended to further detail and weather these Heljan RTR locos and add a green example and a 25/0 as well. To go with the class116 high density unit already on the layout I am adding a 128 parcels, which i am in the process of weathering (see above), as well as an Easy build 121/122 single car unit which is in the 'workshop' awaiting my attention. I could not resist having a GUV to go with the 128 and so the image above shows my RTR model awaiting a final dusting with the airbrush. You can't have enough brake vans! So a pair of superb Dapol RTR Standard brake vans have been treated to some fairly serious weathering with both brush and airbrush. Likewise, can you ever have enough 16 ton minerals! A further 6 heavily weathered examples are pictured above. I built these from Parkside Dundas kits, adding instanter links and transfers from 3 different sources, then weathering them using brushed acrylics, weathering powders and airbrushed enamels. All that is required now is some work with the airbrush to finish them off. Cheers for now.

My thanks to RobD2 for the pictures and nice to meet you at the weekend. Lydney is a very friendly show and the team really appreciated the way we were looked after by the organisers. We will be very happy to exhibit the layout at the 2020 show if the verbal invitation we received becomes a firm one. My thanks also to the operating team for their efforts this weekend; you guys make it all worthwhile. I know that Steve and Paul got some cracking shots of the layout and I look forward to seeing them posted on this thread soon.

The Blowers Green team and I would like to thank Simon, Dan and all those at the Forest of Dean MRC for looking after us so well. We all enjoyed the show very much. A really friendly show and a good venue. It was also good to meet some of the RMwebbers who took time out to come and see the layout. Thanks for the pictures on the Blowers Green thread RobD2, don't waiver buy that 08. Finally, we look forward to exhibiting at the show in 2020 if you will have us back. Hopefully by then we should have added a station building on the bridge, completed the scenic extension over the tunnel and added more stock.

EXETER SHOW 2018 Thanks for the posts guys, particularly the pictures from mudmagnet. What a great weekend. My thanks go to Dave and the EXE MRS team for putting on a fantastic show and inviting Blowers Green to exhibit this year. We would love to come back in 2020 Dave - you have just got to keep drawing breath!! This was the first outing for the layout since the major overhaul of the operating system, which for various reasons has taken over 12 months to complete. The system is still analogue but there are now 3 control panels instead of the large single central panel that I put in when the layout was first built (see swindon123's earlier post). This has made operating at exhibitions so much better for the operators and it seemed to draw a lot of interest from the show visitors on both days. It certainly made up for Paul's hard work in the system design and for the many hours that yours truly spent building the panels, soldering more than 2000 joints (not smoking them!) and laying in several hundred metres of equipment wire. The heat on Saturday, particularly the sun through the glass panels in the roof, did cause us one or two problems when the curved stock rails on a couple of turnouts decided they wanted to be much longer than the available space allowed, preventing the switch blades from closing snugly against them. Our next show is Lydney which will take place on Saturday 29th and Sunday 30th September 2018. This will be followed by Weston-super-Mare in January 2019, Burnham- on-Sea in August 2019 and Taunton (not yet confirmed) in October 2019. So, plenty of exposure in the West Country but nothing in the Black Country as yet. I have enjoyed talking to quite a few Black Country men at the various exhibitions we have attended and they have all said how much we capture the 'feeling' of that region and the small part of Dudley that we portray with Blowers Green. So if you want to see Blowers Green at an exhibition near you, wind up your club's exhibition manager to send us an invitation for 2020 or beyond. I didn't get the chance to take any images at Exeter, but Paul did, so keep watching this space for his next post. Cheers for now.

Hi Kevin and Danstercivicman, thanks for your kind comments about the layout. We had a good time at Burnham and the layout ran faultlessly. We had a lot of good feedback from those that visited the show, although it was sad that so few attended. Perhaps the Christmas show should not be held on the same weekend as Warley. My thanks to Norman for inviting us and making sure we were looked after; the catering arrangements were splendid. We hope the attendance at next years show is much better. Our next show will be Exeter 2018 followed by Lydney in September 2018. We have just received an invitation to Weston Super Mare - January 2019 and have a yet to be confirmed invitation to Wimborne in September 2019. I did not take any photos this time but I know that Swindon 123 and Steve did so perhaps they can post one or two when they get time. We are now embarking on a major change to the operating system, it will remain analogue, but will have new control panels which i am building to a design borrowed from Hornsey Broadway. My thanks to Kier for his assistance with this and Paul for producing the wiring diagrams and for designing and printing off the panel track plans. I also plan to increase the number of loco and stock cassettes so that the ever growing stock list can be accommodated and fiddle-yard operators no longer need go hunting for empty cassettes to enable them to receive arriving trains. So, lots to do and plenty to look forward to. Cheers for now, Bill.

Hi Wayne, Thanks for sharing some of the images you took at Swansea Show. I was away when you asked if we would mind you posting some images and asked Paul to reply on my behalf. Thanks for that Paul and for posting some of the images you took at the show. My thanks also to Kier for his magic with paintshop. I have not added much to the layout over the last 12 months due to a medical condition affecting both my eyes. Despite the frustration of having blurred vision I have, with the assistance of Paul, added a number of road vehicles, an industrial building and some trees, images of which i post below. Cheers, Bill.

Sp1 asked if there was any chance of seeing the layout at an exhibition near to Dudley; sadly there have been no invitations to any shows in the Black Country. Perhaps some of you good folks can persuade an exhibition manager near you to check out this thread and my entry in Exhibition Layouts and get in touch. in the meantime you may be interested to know that Blowers Green is invited to the following exhibitions in 2017:- Ross on Wye 19th & 20th August 2017 Swansea 7th & 8th October 2017 Burnham and District 25th & 26th November 2017 perhaps with some help from those of you that like Blowers Green we will get some Black Country invitations for 2018. Cheers for now, Bill.

Hello All, Here are some more images taken at Monmouth Show. The colour ones were taken by Zac Payne and the Black and white ones by my eldest son, Stephen. An atmospheric view of the yard Class 116 cab view of Dudley Tunnel Fuel oil by rail, lubricating oil by road vehicles pass on New Road Bridge 03382 shunting the general yard 08111 shunts more cripples Class 33 6518 on a down goods

Hi Randall, Thanks for the thumbs up. The answer to your last question probably answers the Mk1/parcels stock one. The layout is operated using a cassette system on 1.4m long fiddleyard boards; there are two lengths of cassette, one long enough to take a loco and the other long enough to take 6 standard wagon lengths, each cassette doubles as a stock carrier. When I built the DMU I had to make a pair of cassettes specifically for the Tysley set. This is also designed to act as the unit's carry case. It would in theory be possible to run a loco hauled suburban or short parcels but at present I am sticking with the wagon repair theme and mostly running short wheel base wagons. Longer wheel base wagons just look wrong on what is, for 7mm, a relatively small space, as do longer trains on the mainline. I do plan to build a class 122 to go with the 116 but I am making no promises about a date for it's debut!! Hope this answers your questions. Cheers' Bill.

Hello again. Thanks again for the positive comments. it is always nice to know that what you are doing is appreciated. One or two of you, specifically two tone green and leopardml2341, asked for more pics like the last lot, so here are a few more. 12t shock van 'Ban the Bomb' and vanwide sit at the back of the yard waiting to be unloaded. View from behind the layout - New Rd end. Class 116 on the down. Tysley Unit enters Dudley Tunnel South Portal. 20019 stands out well in poor light. 47499 enters yard with a train of 'cripples'. 37029 draws train into the yard. 47575 in early RES livery exits Dudley Tunnel. This selection consists mainly of locos with a couple of shots of the 116 and a couple showing some of the stock. I am planning to take more shots of the stock in the near future so that I can feature individual items of rolling stock in future posts. I hope you like this little lot. Cheers for now, Bill.

Hi all. Once again many thanks for your responses. Perhaps a few of you could persuade some of the exhibition managers out there to look at my details on the Exhibition Layout Database and drop me an email. I have now resized some more images of the layout and have selected a few showing more of the locos. Most of the photos were again taken at exhibitions so may not be of the highest quality. 31193 waits for the board to come off 25213 drifts out of Dudley Tunnel An interesting trio at New Rd Bridge end 31193 emerges from Dudley Tunnel 47499 draws it's train into the yard 47575 'City of Hereford' a modified and repainted Heljan. 47575 took more work than i expected but it looks the part. Hope you like this selection. Cheers for now Bill

Hello Again, As promised I have now managed to re-size some more images of the layout taken at previous exhibitions. They include several showing detailed and weathered locos in the yard and one or two of the little cameos that I am slowly adding to keep the viewers interest. Hope you enjoy this small selection. 03382 awaits it's next turn. 20019 and 20021 in the reception Road. 47068 awaiting release. Busy in the yard. It might get through it's MOT! Where are the crew vans - I need a brew. Cheers for now, Bill.

Hello all, I have been practising my photo reduction skills with the help of Swindon123 as my mentor. Here are 3 that we resized today featuring some of the locos and rolling stock that run on the layout. Many of the photos that will be posted over the coming weeks will have been taken at exhibitions the layout has attended over the last few years, prior to the addition of the Dudley Tunnel boards. 31193 runs round it's wagons on the reception road. Viewed from under New Road Bridge, 25213 standing on the block at the end of the reception road. 03382 and 6518 standing on the block at the end of the reception road. As I improve my IT skills I will add more photos and information to this thread. I also intend to add the layout details to the RMweb exhibition layout database and if I can find out how, will link one to the other. The computer may 'say no'! Cheers for now, Bill.

My thanks to Paul for his posts and images and to those of you who have commented so far. The concrete track is made using 'Peco individulay' products. The concrete sleepers come in packs which are sufficient for 1 yard of track and are individually threaded onto flat bottom nickel silver rail, which is also supplied in packs. The bullhead track is standard Peco flexible nickel silver track laid on 1/8" cork tiles whilst the mainline is laid on two layers of cork tile to give a good ballast shoulder. The mainline crossing and one of the turnouts in the yard are made from C & L components using their templates. All the other turnouts and the catch point are standard peco with the original tie bar replaced by paxolin tie bars and Ambis Engineering etched components. All turnouts are driven by 'tortoise' point motors with polarity switched by the point motor or via a relay. The pipe is 28mm copper overlaid with strips of rivet embossed plasticard from the slaters range and secured using Loctite 'shock absorbing' super glue. I had considered getting the rivet detail as etched sheets so that they could be soldered in place but the super glue/plasticard combination offered a swifter solution and gave the strapping the thickness I required. The new Dudley tunnel boards are far from complete with brickwork weathering/detailing, scenic work to the embankments and security fencing to the 'Gasworks' pad still to be added. Once I have cracked how to shrink my photo files so that they are accepted i will post images of the locos and stock that we run on Blowers green. Cheers for now, Bill.