Dave John

Oh, glad you liked the idea Ian. I have no objection to anyone following on from modelling things I do; I expect they have been thought up by others over the years independently so I would hesitate to claim they are my ideas anyway. 

Cheers Mikkel,

The front face of the station would only be visible from an acute angle, I'm still considering a mirror on the end backscene board of the layout. In theory another board could be added. but that would need a bigger house, or a whole wall demolished with some serious steelwork in place.   Don't tempt me..... 

Apologies, I have no idea how it doubled up the pics. 

Some great modelling there, Very original and well implemented.

I have always been interested in the early years of of the railways, my Edwardian era stuff could well be described as modern image if we take a real view of history. However two things strike me when I look at early railways ; fixed engines for rope haulage on inclines and horses to assist . I accept both are hard to model, but I think both were far more common then we sometimes think. 

Hi Steve,

The most comprehensive reference article about the CR bogie wagons is by Jim MacIntosh in TTL No. 68. Essentially the first wagon 72000 to Diagram 50 was rated at 50 tons, but I think that would be its iron ore capacity, so probably 30 tons with coal. Subsequent batches of the steel bodied varieties to Diagram 54 were rated at 30 tons. 

In that article is a photo of 72000 as built, (NRM ref SRX456) and I took the lettering of the wagon from that. It is however a works as built photo, so it may be that somewhere there is a photo of the wagon in later years with different lettering and showing a different capacity. ( If so, please tell me  ! ) The photo on p99 of "Caledonian Railway Wagons" by Mike  Williams shows the Diagram 50 and a Diagram 54 together, so it must be 1905-1910  ish. The Diagram 50 still has the lettering on the top plank of the body and the smaller CR. 

All the lettering on mine came from the HMRS pre grouping wagon methfix transfer sheet. 

Hope that helps. 

( I do like answering questions like this since every time I go back to reference material I invariably find all sorts of other interesting stuff ) 

The two layouts together give a lovely perspective view. Busy, but not crammed with track. ( I see far too much track on so many layouts ) 

I am watching the whole modular thing with interest. For much of my professional life I have been wittering on about "access for the purpose of maintenance".  So building things as modules makes good sense, not only can you get at the module from all angles to build it, you can also get in to clean and maintain it. Really, I look at some layouts and wonder how they even get at them to do the dusting. 

Green, Red, polished brasswork. So tempting Mikkel..... 

Hi dave, 

My first tip would be to go to the silhouette site and download the software. Its free, easy to learn, and will let you get a feel for things before buying a cutter. Also various people can design things and just email the files to a group member who has the cutter.   Next step, there is a great thread on rmweb, with lots of folk trying cutting card and styrene, I learned a lot from that.

That led me to buy the basic portrait cutter, big enough for my needs in 4mm. I paid about £150, that included spare blades and a couple of spare mats. I am still on the first blade. 

Similarly the thread on the CRA forums is full of good stuff, I have uploaded the file for the balustrade there. Feel free to use it. I note that the girders with curved stanchions at scotstoun is the same as Benalder street, in fact they turn up all over the caley in glasgow. Look back a couple of posts at the station building, I think the windows along the L+D have similar stonework details, pics of scotstoun east seem to be like that.  In time I will start an architectural thread on the CRA forums and upload my drawings there. 

Also a lot of modelmakers have been using the silhouette to make period rolling stock, I will be catching up on that as time permits. Plenty of info on forums about that. 

Hope that helps a bit.

Good idea, I'll try painting a bit after tea. 

Cheers Mikkel. 

I'm not sure what i will do with that area eventually. For now I'm just enjoying the light and the blonde sandstone. 

( just a wee aside, the chap that lives in the middle right flat in pic 1 visited ; he had seen the trains from over there and wanted a closer look. He has played about with N gauge but likes the look of period EM . It would only be a 40 ' bridge...... ) 

Very neat job.

An interesting way of doing it. 

Just a thought, is there a local area library in that part of NZ that might have accurate maps online? 

Hello Mikkel, thanks for liking it. 

The windows were done with 10 thou clear slaters sheet scribed in the silhouette with the blade set right down at 1. I then wiped some white rotring ink into the grooves and went round the edges with white enamel to form the putty line which sits in a 10 thou window frame. It took several goes to get the technique, but was fun playing about trying. 

I used the mirror trick at the end of the previous layout to give a longer perspective view. You do see two buildings face to face, but the odd thing is that the brain seems to accept it. Actually I think that is true of a lot of modelmaking, we see what we want to see and blank out the rest. I might give it a try and see if it looks ok.

Thanks Steve, the CRA forum is my major reference point. I just like to leave a window open for that odd pic of a complex bit of track with a long sleeper. 

An excellent model, and a very original subject. 

Those wagon tarps are very neat.

I tend to think that far more open wagons were sheeted when on the move than is depicted on models, if your chap at the exhibition turns up again ask him why so many had five digit serial numbers. 

Hi Richard,

They are a timber frame base, with a deep ply box on the top. The ply box is hinged at the rear, so when the boards are split they can lift up like a car bonnet. My days of upside down soldering are over. All 4 boards are on castors with long 10 mm bolts through brackets, the floor in that room is very dished after 120 years of movement. I can therefore move them about to work from a comfortable angle, and adjust levels easily. The backscene boards are 6mm ply, they are held to the rear ply face with bolts and wing nuts, again so they can be easily removed for access. Alignment between the boards is kept solid by the taper brass type baseboard alignment pins.

The deep front face of the plywood box has cutouts for the various control panels, so the local wiring is kept short and is easy to troubleshoot if anything goes wrong. 

Hope that describes it , I will post some pics next time I move them out. 

A solid start and a great space to work in, hope it all progresses well. 

Some lovely pictures, I do like the pebble station sign and your glorious flowerbeds.

Just a thought, I wonder if a correct font could be cut out using a silhouette cutter? I have been impressed by the stuff that folk have done with that as shown on the forum thread, but I'm new to it and haven't tried letters yet. 

True, I have tried a bit of light weathering on some stock. I fall into the "they went out clean and came back looking like they had done a days work" camp. Not filthy like the last days of steam, but a more subtle patina of use.