Dave John

All a bit southern so far. One could always choose Coketown for a location set in the industrial Victorian north. Just the facts.....

Excellent modelmaking. I'm amazed that you managed to slot a motor into that. The building is a great backdrop, I like the round window. Odd really , folk say "pre grouping" and forget that there was 80 + years of it. Far more than any of the modern eras.

Well, time will tell bgman. The roof structure is very light and has a bit of flexibility. It has been on and off a dozen times so far with no problems. Magnet to magnet would be too strong I think, the soft iron transformer laminations give a solid but very localised pull. I have details for the interior Mikkel, essentially matchboard to dado height and cream walls above seemed to be the general pattern. The toilet areas were tiled in the same way as the exterior, though only the upper parts of those would be visible. Oh, and 11 panelled doors to make.

A good week, thats the basic structure put together. Simple really, just put some plasticard on a nice flat surface and make sure it all goes together square. I was concerned about the top edge and so decided to strengthen it with some brass strip. A thought struck me, why not use the strip to feed power to the fireplace LEDS? Now I wouldn’t want a soldering iron too close to the walls, so I soldered some sockets from a turned pin IC socket to the strip in the right places before glueing the strip in. The LEDS for the fireplaces just plug into the strip. Next question, how to hold it down. Back to magnets again, the idea is that these will hold against steel plates in the platform itself. As ever with my work I have a fear of not being able to get into things to clean or fix. So, same idea applied to the roof. The pic shows some 5x5x1 mm magnets on spacers glued in place. These pull onto the soft iron plates fitted into the roof itself. Hard to get a picture , but you can lift the whole thing up and the magnets still grab, but a slight knock and the whole roof shifts slightly. As I have written before I’m getting a bit clumsy and this way might well reduce the chance of the odd knock causing damage. A couple of pics roughly positioned on the platform. Anyway, with all those windows I am going to have to model the interior reasonably well since it will be rather visible. Should be fun.

Lovely modelling as ever Mikkel. You get a subdued tone to the paintwork which I think is very realistic and photographs well. I had the same problem with plastic fishplates on the inner rails fouling flanges. Perhaps they would clear p4 . I ended up using etched on the inside of rails, even then they needed a trim to fit snugly into the rail profile.

Well, on a 3 axle chassis I can't think of a reason why an underslung compensating beam wouldn't work. I will be interested to see how the chassis "hornblocks" wear over time. I like the idea of 3d printed chassis but that would be my concern. All part of a learning curve, so thanks for having a go at it.

I came back for another look, really its top class. I am taking notes for the horse painting, something I need to get better at. There should be a couple of old codgers leaning on the fence as the horses produces some manure . Says the first " eee lad thee should put that on yer Rhubarb" ..... The second takes a long smoke on a old clay pie and replies ; " Well, we always put custard on ours " ........... Sorry, couldn't resist .

Many thanks. The sides just need a bit of touching up, hopefully I can start putting it all together next week.

I totally agree, the silhouette has opened up the construction of architecture that would be almost impossible to hand cut with accuracy.

Things are progressing slowly. Winter tends to slow modelling down, paints and glues take ages to dry, the light is bad, there is a tendency to sneeze all over what you are trying to build. Must be a lot worse for folk who model in lofts and sheds. Really a case of watching paint not drying. Anyway, thats the major sections of the platform building ready to form into a structure. All still delicate, I think I am going to have to add a top internal rail to prevent it warping over time. A couple of pics of it coming together.

yep . bang on.

Very neat work with the downpipes. The whole thing is getting to look very impressive.

Chassis coming along nicely there. Your post inspired me to have a dig about and there is quite a lot of video of simplex in action. I rather liked this one. The horn in your audio clip must be a later addition, would they have had any sort of warning horn early on, given that they had no air and no electrics ?

The custom spoked wheels look good in place.

I have vague memories of a model railway set on the moon way back. Just for fun. Late 70s in a magazine. If you really want to build some rule 1 stuff have a look at these; http://www.douglas-self.com/MUSEUM/LOCOLOCO/fictional/fictional.htm#rg

And welcome to the Caley. There is a etched kit for the Caley single from London road models, but it isn't an easy build.

I think the gaugemaster lights are mini incandescent lamps so for dimming you would be down at much lower resistances.or the little pwm dimmer unit they sell.

Ok, I have pre - orded 2 of them. Frightening really, first rtr engines I have bought since the early 1980s. I expect folk will talk about details for ages till we see them, but for anyone interested these 3 books will help with the many variations in livery and fittings seen throughout the lives of these engines. Caley 828 , Jim Macintosh , ( published by CRA ) Caledonian Railway Livery , Jim Macintosh , (Lightmoor Press and the CRA) The Caledonian Railway Jumbos, H.J.C. Cornwell , (Lightmoor Press and the CRA) I just hope they run as well as my tatty old black liveried one, a rough video of which can be seen here as a wee taster. http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blog/2091/entry-19965-shunting-part-2-look-no-hands/

Hmm, RTR caley ? Mind you , conversion to EM and goods black ..... Still, if it gets folk into pre group modelling its a good thing, and then there is the excellent caley coaches kit for anyone that wants one in the meantime . Anyway , sorry to wander off topic a bit , back to enjoying Bens conversions.

Lovely. Those con rods are perfect. I polished up that handle so carefully, That now I am the Ruler of the Queen's Navy............

I think tiles. The evidence for this is a photo by Stuart Rankin of Partick West from which examples of the green and orange tiles used there were recovered. Also John Paton in his articles for "The true Line " also described them as tiles. I think glazed brick came into use a bit later. Certainly most Glasgow buildings from the 1890s use tiles on a sand and cement render over ordinary brick. In terms of size they are about 8 inches long, a bit smaller than a glazed brick. Much is still in evidence, numerous closes in west end tenements ( known as a wally close round here ) employ that technique and many are still in a good state today. They tend to be sheltered from direct sunlight and the original colours are well preserved, thats how I acquired the master photos for those.

It has taken a while, but I am now reasonably happy with the tiling. So here is a completed bit of wall, nothing like harsh close up photos to show all the errors. The tiles are printed on photo paper then given a coat of a photo matte uv resistant sealing spray. I have no idea how stable these things are long term. Time will tell I suppose. I think they will look ok from normal viewing distances.

Well, being self employed or running a small business is damn hard work. I have had good service from modelmaster over many years. Actually the same goes for most of the other small businesses that cater for the specialist end of modelmaking. If any of the small businesses in that trade decide to slow down a bit and deal with stuff on a bit slower basis then thats fine with me, I do in some ways look back to the days when you sent a letter with a list ( cheque enclosed, with some firms I would trust even an open cheque ) and then a small parcel arrived a few weeks later. So if anyone in the trade decides to just potter on and work at their speed rather than the one click instant world we now live in I for one am fully in support of that.

Those look very good, much clearer than the commercial offerings.

Just slightly damp cotton buds Mikkel.