37Oban

Hi, a few more bits and pieces as the tidy up continues! CR refrigerator van. An Ebay find. Needs a repaint into chocolate livery, wheels replaced, MacIntosh brakes and tie bars. Hornby teak clerestory's masquerading as CR 1st/3rd brakes (2) and all 3rds (4). Repainted, compartment partitions and passengers added. Need transfers, roofs, weathering and couplings. Will do until I can get around to making more accurate models, sometime in the next 5 years! Hudswell Clarke railcar as used on the Spurn Head Railway. A Shapeways purchase, bought because swmbo liked the looks of it, and needed quite a bit of prep work. Colour scheme is totally imaginary! Must figure out a way of making a suitable chassis and power train, but that's a job for the New Year. Will be run on the Kilnsea iteration of my layout despite being out of it's time frame. Rule 1! Quite a few models currently packed away, in various states of completion, nearly all of which are kits. CR. Cl 55 Oban Bogie, Cl 34 2-6-0, Cl114 0-4-4 passenger tank, Cl 721 Dunalastair, Cl 782 shunting tank loco. Several Ratio coach kits being converted to 4 and 6 suburban stock, a C&O 6-wheel road van and 6-wheel brake van. BR: Cl 100, 105 and 120 dmu's Kilnsea. K3, J39, D11/1 and a Bachmann j72 needing a new chassis. I also have classes 06, 17, 20, 27, 29 and 31 to convert, or already converted, to EM, plus 4 Pullman coaches, to be used as excursion traffic to St Mungos and Kilnsea, and various coaches, such as a Gresley twin-set and some teak stock, to build/complete. Looks like New Year will be busy! In the meantime, I have enough chassis kits I can build in the odd hour that won't take up much room in my work.., I mean front room! I also need to research various bogie vehicles for St Mungos and design the station buildings. All in all, I won't get bored! Roja

Hi, as far as I'm aware, the oil tanks, being air braked, didn't need block, or barrier, wagons. At least, all the times I saw them there I never saw any other wagons in their consists. However, if needed, any other air-braked vans etc could be added to this service. Security for the Ferryvan would not be a problem. If it was used for whisky, once loaded it would be examined, then sealed by a customs official using official seals on the door locks. Apart from signal checks, and one, maybe two stops, to allow passing trains on the the line between Crianlariach and Craigendoran, the train would be routed directly to, I would assume, Mossend yard prior to transit to the south coast and Europe. This is all conjecture, I have no actual knowledge that this is, in fact, what actually happened, but it seems quite plausible. Maybe someone more knowledgeable on the movement of whisky from the various distilleries to Europe via rail could put me right. Roja

Hi, speaking from experience, if you are thinking about repainting the buildings the longer you put it off the harder it is to do it. Then, when you do eventually get round to doing it, it nearly always goes better than you feared and you wish you'd have done them earlier! Roja

Hi, well, here I am, back a wee bit later than expected, thanks due to life and bits and bobs getting in the way! And now Christmas is coming, so the modelling room has had to be, er, tidied, ready for the festivities! So, before, packing items in boxes, here's a few photo's of a what I am up to. These are, from r-l, Dia 52 and Dia 46 mineral wagons. Dia 46 and Dia 22 mineral wagons. These wagons are scratch built using limewood strip for the planking with plastic strip for the iron work running on modified Parkside chassis. Dia 114 tube wagon. Plastic card body on extended Parkside chassis. Dia 105 6-wheel 15t van. All plastic body on Brassmasters chassis. Dia 54 30t open bogie goods. Modified Parkside kit. Buffers for all the models are cast white metal from Wizard. Further weathering work needs doing then couplings, S&W, will be fitted. Sorry for the quality of the pics, hopefully get it sorted before posting more photos! Roja

Hi, prior to my previous post re: the ferry van, I think would be added to a normal freight service on an "as required" basis. At the time Oban received a regular freight service, mainly fuel oil for the ferries and fishing fleet and central heating oil, with other wagons added as needed. Roja

Hi Ian, I think I've talked myself into having a wee dram myself later! First I have to do a wee bit of wagon painting and I don't think a dram would help with painting the fine iron straps! Roja

Hi, that's an interesting photo. When I lived in Oban, in the mid-eighties, I cannot ever recall seeing a ferry van there. I would assume it was for whisky traffic, there being a distillery in the heart of the town, and I can heartily recommend it's 14 yrs old product! Roja

Hi, before, and for a few years after WW2 my father worked at a butchers in Brigg. Although he didn't know the details, or just wasn't interested in the railway vehicles used (much more likely, being ex-navy!) rabbits were sent by train during the harvest season. They sent as couples, ie, always two together. Unless there was a glut of harvest rabbits, I doubt a van would be used, their being moved in the brake compartment of a passenger train. If a van was used it would be a standard ventilator van, rabbits not having to be refrigerated until fully dressed, and I don't mean evening wear! From Brigg I would assume this traffic would head to Sheffield. Rabbits were/are a cheap source of meat, and a valuable commodity in an industrial town such as Sheffield. Although rabbits were mainly seasonal he occasionally had to take couples to the station during the rest of the year. I would have thought these were special orders. Roja

And people say Steam Punk is just fantasy!😆 Roja

Hi, 3 cracking videos! Can almost see the clag in the cold start! Roja

Well, I'm back! My, hasn't time flown! Especially if you throw a clock! Enough frivolity, time for a long, very long, overdue update on St Mungo's! The layout is still stored. The impending house move didn't happen, but we're still looking! Finding something in our budget, and requirements, is proving a wee bit tricky, but something will turn up, hopefully sooner rather than later! However, despite the layout being stored, I've still been busy, even if it's been in fits and starts! One of the major decisions I, and my significant other, decided upon, was to operate St Mungo's in 2 different time periods, and a 3rd in a different location. Currently the main period is Caledonian c.1918-1921, followed by BR c.1962-1970. The third is a complete change of place! My SO is from Hull, and has memories of travelling from Hull to Withernsea and Hornsea by train when she was a little girl before the lines were closed in October1964. I bought the book Hull to Hornsea and Withernsea plus the Spurn Head Railway, and we both enjoyed looking through it, bringing back many memories for her! However, the section on the Spurn Head railway was a revelation, and very nearly resulted in a complete change of direction! One item of rolling stock on the railway grabbed both of us is a 20-seater Hudswell Clarke railcar. It was one of those things that may well have remained a pipe dream, unless resulting in scratchbuilding, which is not exactly my strongest suit, but a chance browse on Shapeways, and there it was! I resisted, I really did, but eventually gave him, and bought it! I think it was put there by the Borg just to snag me! It is now waiting being motorised, of which I have an idea or two and will reveal at a later date. Buying that resulted in needing somewhere to run it. We thought about it, maybe using Rule 1 to run it on St Mungo's, but that's not ideal, then thought about a small layout based on Spurn Head, but a lack of space killed that idea. After a bit more thought we realised the track plan for St Mungo's could also be used as a small East coast terminus. All it would need is a change of buildings, figures and a few other details, and the dmu stock, plus a couple of loco's could be used, so that was decided. Then we spent some time trying to figure whereabouts it could be situated, somewhere between Withernsea and Bridlington. However, nothing really clicked, for various reasons, then I had a brainwave: Kilnsea! The Spurn Head railway was never connected to the rail network, but ran 4 miles from Kilnsea to Spurn Point. It was a military railway, with gun emplacements designed to protect the mouth of the Humber, Hull and, to a lesser extent, Grimsby, from aerial threats during both WW1 and WW2. It boasted some unusual motive power and rolling stock, including the 'bitsa', a home-made contraption cobbled from various bits, including an Itala racing car, and small boat fixed to a 4-wheel chassis and powered by a sail! The book is worth it's cost just to see these! Because it wasn't part of the rail network, for maintenance purposes, rolling stock was transported to and from Hull by road. This didn't make sense to me, although I guess the cost of construction of a line from the Withernsea branch to Kilnsea, and the time needed, was prohibitive, but in my world this line was built at the same time as the Withernsea branch and Kilnsea became a small holiday resort in it's own right. Not a particularly grand place, and very quiet, but popular with the locals and those from Hull. Kilnsea it is! My stash of kits and other bits has being growing steadily, as has my scratch-built stock. I am more of an artistic modeller, and by that I mean I only model what can be reasonably seen and if you can't see it when you're stood on a platform or as a train passes you, no matter how slow, I don't model it! I have nothing against those that add all the details, especially regarding underframe details, in fact, I am in awe of their skills, but it's not for me. Our hobby is a broad church! One more thing I will say is nothing looks as good as wood. I shall reveal more about this in the, hopefully, not too distant future, along with some photographs of rolling stock. Must pull my finger out and get photographing! Oh, I've also made one of the Scalescenes boxfile kits. It was great fun, and easy to modify. Poppy Hill distillery is to EM gauge and smewhere to try my stock out, especially my Caley wagons and a couple of loco's. All it needs is a fiddlestick. Must get that built too! The list is growing ever longer! That's it for now! Hopefully the next update will only be a few days away, unless the calendar speeds up! Roja

Perhaps fine tissue paper, the sort used for wrapping delicate items, may be a better solution? May need a bit of experimentation but I would think a thin bead of well-watered down pva would be sufficient to hold pieces together as the items aren't under much stress! Roja

Hi, what works for one doesn't always work for some-one else. There's no harm in trying new techniques, that's how we learn new things, and if it works that's fine, but if it doesn't then there's always the one we know to fall back on. Trying new things is one of the joys of our hobby! Roja

Agreed. Wrong colour, shape and the legs/feet should be whiter for an Orpington! They are also available in white, black, blue and golden laced varieties. Roja

Hi, that is true for the 23's in the most part, but they did, if rarely, head onto stray metals. I'm sure I've seen a photo of 2 23's on a train, I think near Gainsborough, and unless my memory is playing me up - nothing new there - I think there was a photograph of one on a train supposedly at Mablethorpe. Unfortunately I didn't save the photograph as it isn't my area of interest. Roja

Hi, I enjoy watching the way various modellers approach building locomotive kits, even if it's one that hasn't been available for many years. Imho it doesn't matter what the prototype is, you can always learn ways of doing things that you had never thought off which you can apply to your own endeavours! Roja

But has he heard of General John Sedgewick? Admittedly, he said elephant instead of barn door, but you get my drift!

Famous last words!

Hi Mick, after a quick glance, maybe 12 ba bolts and nuts to attach the tops of the combination link and back link to the gear above the footplate. Just a thought! Roja

Was it caused by sparks from a steam locomotive during a drought?😄 Roja

Good to see you back and modelling! Roja

It's a pleasure, I find what you're doing quite inspiring!

Evolution in progress! They've taken over from wire coat hanger left in wardrobes! Roja

Hi, not a criticism, but the bales look more like straw than hay. Good quality hay has a pale greenish colour from the grass, straw can vary from pale yellow to a golden hue depending on the variety of corn. Roja

And maybe some scraggly brambles! Roja