Philou

@JeffP Have a safe journey - it's set fair from North to South for the next couple of days - excepting along the Atlantic coast where it's going to be damper - but milder. Today's images are the buildings for Dymented and the small waiting room at Pontrilas - you may notice a bit of recycling going on! Pontrilas - Waiting room on the Shrewsbury platform (is it the up or the down side?): Dymented - showing the adapted Ledbury island platform building now as the main building on the Ledbury side of the station: ..... and the Pontrilas waiting room simply recycled as the Dymented waiting room on the Pontrilas platform: More buildings on their way, BUT I have an appointment with another load of wood to collect and cut, and there may not be a lot to show tomorrow. Cheers everyone, Philip

Hello chums, A not-a-lot progress report. Though the weather has been very dry and sunny it has come with a cost! The night before last the temperature was down to -6.7°C and last night is was -9.7°C a few miles away. It's been far too cold in the barn to do any mortar work - though I did make a start infilling two days ago. It's not going to get any warmer for a couple of days yet. I haven't been idle - gardening called (I don't like gardening at all - it's Mrs Philou domain) cutting back fruit trees and roses and the such-like. In the evenings, I've been doing some more 3D modelling and here are the results: First off is the signal box coloured up (apologies for the rather 'gaudy' brickwork): Next off are various shots of the Ledbury main station building and the island waiting room. I sorted out the 'funny' roof-line. I worked out that it must be a flat-roofed extension that I was looking at, though I only have the one grainy photo to work from - but it was the only solution that made engineering sense otherwise. If anyone does know better - please let me know. I think the main building is a little short - not by much - but the refreshment room 'L-wing' is definitely short - I should have increased it, but it only became obvious when the roof went on when comparing the photo and the 3D model. I shall amend it when I come to make the model. It will have a knock on effect on the Stationmaster's house and that will need to move accordingly - I'll model that later as I want to do the station buildings first. The main building without its canopy: .........and the front elevation: The main building with the canopy in place showing the cut-out on the valance underside to permit the junction/starter signals to be seen from the signal box: The main and island platform buildings in-situ on their respective platforms complete with cast-iron canopy supporting columns: More as to come as when they're completed. Tomorrow will be the main building for Dymented - a mash-up of the Ledbury island building. I shall add some doors and windows to the main entrance side and put on a smaller canopy - I have one that I made earlier. Cheers, Philip

I, like @Andy Hayter above, live in a not-spot here in the sticks of eastern France and whilst I upgraded Mrs Philou's mobile to one that is wi-fi enabled - not cheap! - (thanks to Orange who decided that our Femtocell would be switched off, thus no mobile at home), the new phone is not much better for as soon as you move into a part of the house that has no wi-fi (very thick stone walls) the wi-fi connection drops and you have a 'have you tried turning it off and on again situation?'. (Takes a breath) No, this is not an improvement. I have inherited Mrs Philou's old phone and it is NOT wi-fi enabled, so seemingly I shall be stuffed as I assume 'customer not present' will no longer work either. I can always pay by cheque I suppose. Plus ça change ...... etc. I don't think Paypal is affected - yet. Cheers, Philip

Hello chaps and chapesses, Bit more progress today both on the virtual layout AND in the barn! I finished the body of the main station building at Ledbury - mostly guesstimating platform side as the station appears to have been extended at sometime, possibly prior to 1900, as looks nothing like the colour-wash drawing of the original plan! From what I can tell from various photos, there used to be the gents at the Hereford end of the main building but these were later demolished and new ones in what looks like a corrugated tin shed positioned under the supports of the footbridge - right in front of the Refreshment Rooms that were possibly built at the same time (very nice! The tea always looked a tad weak!). The Refreshment room was a wing at right angles to the original building adjoining the footbridge. The windows were totally different to the rest of the building and MAY have been bay-shaped rather than flat as I have drawn them. I only have the one grainy photo to work from and the Refreshment Room is rather lost in the gloom of the very deep canopy. I think it has shiplap along the bottom, and probably at the top, of the windows - just can't tell. It's MY representation of the building. I've also made a start on the island platform building, a bit of a rinse and repeat operation regarding the doors and windows. I shall probably do the roof of the main building tomorrow - fun time to be had there as well as there seems to be break in the roof line to cover an additional extension to the Refreshment Rooms (might have been for something else, of course) but the roof appears to have had its slope changed rather than extend the ridge or make a new hip. You'll see what I mean when I put the roof on. As for 'proper' work, I went into the barn and prepared some covering for the new floor so to avoid getting too much mortar onto it. I also removed some ends of big nails that had penetrated through the original roofing timbers that were at my skull height - I didn't want my head being penetrated by them either! I then brought up a few buckets of assorted stones to start in-filling the missing stonework along the wall-tops and in-between the joists. I also found a roll of chicken-wire that I can re-cut to help deter any rodents from entering where the stone may not be that good. All-in-all a good day today and hopefully more tomorrow. Here are two views of the main building and the commenced island building: Platform façade: Front entrance (island building on right): Cheers, Philip

Here we are: Ledbury Station underway. I've just done the basic shape and created cut-outs within which to place the windows ans doors. It wasn't as easy as the 'box despite having a largish photo of the station front. When blown up the bricks and coursing became indistinct and it was more guesstimate than accurate 'counting'. I think the essence of it is there - but I'm pleased with the sash-windows. I've shown two in place in what was the refreshment room area. I should like to tone the brickwork colour down a bit - too orange for my tastes - but the pallette in the free version of SketchUp is limited. As mentioned in the previous post, I'm doing this so that I shall have a measurable model in the computer for when it's time to make the real one. Another reason is that it's making my brain work counting, converting into 4mm and then drawing out. Tomorrow will see the detailing on the corbelling finished, doors drawn and windows in place. Then round to the platform façade. The windows I shall re-use but as far as I can see, the doors are single leaf affairs, though I shall need to peruse several photos first. The refreshment room windows are very different, large small paned ones with a semi-glazed door. I then will do the roof - the chimneys are very different from your 'bog' standard ones. I'm keeping the canopy 'til last as I have an option on the woodwork - either standard 'spear'(?) or an earlier swallow-tail shape. Whichever, the platform side will be interesting due to a cut-out on the underside to allow the branch line junction signals to be sighted from the 'box. Keep well everyone, I've now tested Covid-negative and able to circulate freely. The only remaining after-effect is that I'm a bit like Bob Flemmings but even that is drying up! Cheers, Philip

Right chaps and chapesses, I had a severe telling-off by me to just DO something - so whilst it's sunny but mighty cold, too cold for outside work, I decided I would carry on with the 3D plan and I created the Ledbury Signal Box. You may well be asking, 'Why bother. It's virtual and doesn't exist'. Very true, BUT I now have a scale model (albeit arrived at by tedious brick-counting and guesstimating) from which I can take measurements to create a cardboard/styrene model. I am very happy with it as the proportions are better than my first attempt (lost in a hard-drive failure). There are things that I didn't take into account, for example, the stairs leading to the 'box start somewhere on the ramp and not at ground-level - to be adjusted on the model. I didn't do the rainwater goods nor the toilet down-pipe as I find doing cylinders (pipe forms) difficult as modelling them in 1:76.2 scale in SketchUp not a simple matter (nor can I create spheres). The tutorials are not particularly simple in very small dimensions. Here are two views: Next off will be Ledbury Station and the island waiting room - all brickwork - so I can count bricks again. The waiting room I can duplicate as the main station building of Dymented. Going over to Pontrilas, the signal box is a one-off shiplap affair (no brickwork from which to count!) and the station building is ashlar stonework but I have got a fair number of photos and using doors as a guide, I should be able to do something reasonable. The island building I shall duplicate as the island building for Dymented. I do also need two 'generic' GWR 'boxes though, one for Dymented and one for the eastern portal of Ledbury tunnel. Two for the price of one there methinks, too. That leaves just three goods sheds - the one at Ledbury seems to be a one-off design - I might borrow that for Dymented - we'll see. There will be the Stationmaster's house at Ledbury, an industrial-type loading/unloading building for Dymented, a couple of platelayers' huts here and there and a lamp hut for Pontrilas. There is a coaling stage for Ledbury but no evidence of one at Pontrilas other than coaling that was done at the engine shed diect from a parked-up coal wagon. There is also a water tank at Ledbury to be done but the one at Pontrilas was incorporated into the station building (which is going to be my model), before the building was remodelled. A new water tank was installed beyond the Golden Valley branch junction in the late 40s, early 50s, but I don't know where it was in between times, though there was a pumphouse on the river Dore. Could water have been pumped direct rather than stored in the period between the station building being remodelled (1920s?) and the tank of the 50s? One engine shed of corrugated iron for Pontrilas with a parachute tank and that's it. I mustn't forget water-cranes, but I shan't be modelling them in 3D as RTP ones will do! Cheers everyone, Philip

I made no progress at all this week - still haven't found my mojo really. What I did find mooching around in some of the darker corners of the barn were TWO stock boxes that I hadn't catalogued during last year, so that kept me busy for an afternoon and it was train-related. Unfortunately no gems in the boxes - rather the opposite - a half dozen or so Playcraft trucks in their boxes. They were grim!! A half dozen or so continental wagons by Sachsenmodell again boxed and never run - I don't remember where they came from! Apart from some kit-built Ratio and Airfix kit wagons (all awaiting painting) what I did find were about a dozen Trix Wagonmaster trucks - I suspect they're the odd scale ones - but they still run ever so smoothly. One was priced at 3/11d (less than 20p) and the others at 5/3d (26p). For their time, I thought they were the bee's knees!! Apart from the continental wagons mentioned above, they ALL had proper couplings - Peco type - yay!! The need to get out and do something suddenly bit this afternoon so I went and fetched a trailer load of wood and cut that ready for the burner - stocks were getting low anyway. The RCD tripped again as I started the saw - so definitely no power now in the barn - so I'll have to have a good look at that sooner rather than later as I'll need the circuit up and running just to enable the lighting to set up so I can see what I'm doing. If I'm a good boy AND JUST GET ON WITH IT, I may have something to report during next week - here's hoping. Cheers, Philip

Mrs Philou is now positive and confirmed by a Lateral Flow Test at the pharmarcie this morning. Less symptoms than I, limited to sneezes in her case. We have enough food to last a good few days - cats may run out of foodstuff before us! Back to the proposed layout: I am tempted to go into the barn tomorrow and get some of my track out of stock as there is an aspect of Ledbury Goods yard (as was) that is bugging me as it doesn't sit well on the 3D plan and doesn't look much like the photos or the OS sheets. It's just the one siding that isn't coming together. It'll give me something to play with physically. From the photos and OS plans that are available, it can be seen that the pointwork has been altered a few times, but unfortunately not all has ever been photographed - goods yards were no doubt seen as unglamorous and not worth taking many pictures. I do have a question relating to flexible track: I am going to be using Peco Code 75 track and pointwork plus I am going to invest in some of the Finetrack (?) point kits (there is a thread on the products on RMWeb) as apparently the switches can be altered slightly by cutting through the webbing prior to assembly. The question I ask is: How do you ensure that very short pieces of flexi-track hold a neat curved shaped? I can do down to 4" using a track pin at each end plus one in the centre having pushed the piece into shape first - but what about shorter infillers that are curved? I don't have roller bars and having bent pieces in years gone with pliers and the like - shall we say the results were somewhat 'meh'. Cheers everyone, Philip

@mdvle It's a good thought, but IIRC the issue being an importer within the EU you become responsible for ensuring that the imported item complies with the CE mark (and not just the finished product but EVERYTHING within it). I may be reading too much into it, but it's what struck me the most - VAT seemed a doddle in comparison! Cheers, Philip

Thanks for the friendlies/supportive chaps - it is appreciated. I reckon at the moment it's probably no worse than a dose of man-flu. I've no temperature - just some mucus stuck in the tubes. I'm waiting for Mrs Philou to show positive as she's feeling down but testing negative at the moment. I will say the Health Service here are the ball as I had my pass sanitaire issued yesterday (valid from the 25th) and a phone call this morning at 10 o'clock checking I was at home and taking down contact details. My niece who works on the rigs in the North Sea (she's British dammit Carruthers) was on leave and checked upon by the local gendarmerie from time to time during her enforced confinement (she lives nearby) despite the oil industry being super-hot on isolation (can't risk an outbreak on the rigs).

Having read on another threads regarding Correos España I do sympathise with you both ( @Enterprisingwestern @Neal Ball) - there is seemingly a black hole in the Iberian peninsula. The Dutch seem to be hot on collecting the VAT, whereas here is France it seems to be a hit'n'miss affair as to whether La Poste is bothered to collect or not, though Chronopost (Parcel Farce equivalent) do! So far, only had one charge from a half-dozen parcels and ALL delivered with three days from the UK. Good luck in getting all your deliveries, Philip

No import duty on 'toys' which model trains are classed. You maybe thinking about VAT which is payable plus any charges for collecting the VAT (been there done that ). Cheers, Philip PS: There is a thread elsewhere setting it all out, plus the code applicable to model trains.

Hello chaps, Still nothing to report nor photos nor pictures to show. I have my crushed stone and lime but there was a slight hiatus in the village as we had strong winds that brought a few trees down (before Dudley and Eunice) and I spent three days with Mr Mai..ai..air (in my best Larry the lamb voice) cutting and clearing. THEN, we had the grandchildren unexpectedly given/sent/gotten rid of/ for the mid-term break. That meant a 500 mile round trip to pick them up and another 500 miler to give them back. So a whole fortnight has just slipped by entertaining 10 and 12 year-olds, and whilst I was looking forward to getting underway again, I was tested Covid-positive today so I have to avoid contact for the next 7 days. I feel rather rough as it's on my chest and as a child, I was always prone to bronchitis (coal fire and no central heating - pfff .......... kids of today ....... mumble mumble). Tomorrow announces wet weather for the next four days (we had the backside, er, end, of Eunice last night), and I shall attempt a re-start if there's a break as I shall be under cover most of the time excepting collecting a barrow of crushed stone now and then to make my lime mortar. I'll keep you updated asap. Cheers, Philip

Thumbs up for Lord and Butler (Non-disclaimer though as he is my brother). As @NHY 581 said above they are decent and will be fair. Cheers, Philip

Chums, You've heard of the 1000 and 1 nights? Well, I've just screwed my 1000 and 3rd screw into the flooring. My missing planks arrived unexpectedly yesterday afternoon and so I was busy today in the train room trimming and filling-in the spaces. It took for ever as the one wall has a most definite 'hump' in it and all the planks bar one involved a good deal of circular saw usage to get them to fit. The planks were not of tip-top quality either as they all had shakes in them and two were heavily water-logged. I have two trimmers around the stairwell to cut and fix tomorrow. I still need to order two more planks to form the cellar doors, but I'm in no rush for them. Tomorrow (or Saturday), I shall get my crushed stone and lime to start repairs to the wall. I had a closer look today and some of the wall looks literally as if it was thrown together. I did find some small lumps of stone that had fallen out and onto the floor since my last session of flooring just before Christmas - so there is work to be attended to. I also had a mysterious trip in the lighting circuit in the barn - I have no idea what that's all about but there was one of my LED spots that flickered just the once and when switching the lights off that there was a huge BANG! and everything went off in the barn - including the freezer (not good). Not only did the trip go on the circuit but one of the two main trips went in the consumer unit. The whole barn is due to be rewired (it was first done about 15 years ago) as part of the railway room electrics with a new consumer unit in the barn itself. I shall spend a bit more and buy good quality sockets and switches (for a certain definition quality for Euro-electrical fittings) as what I originally bought wasn't that good. I shall also re-do all the external switches and sockets on the sun-deck at the same time. The concept 3D plan is also galloping ahead as I'm back at Ledbury station and presently tackling the unusual brick wall forming the station boundary with Bromyard Road. Possibly a photo and a picture tomorrow. Cheers, Philip

Hello chums, Unfortunately due to the continuing spell of cold weather (0°C most days), there has been absolutely no physical progress to report, even my delivery of planking hasn't yet arrived. All that has happened is that we've burnt a lot of wood over the last fortnight and I have to get some more tomorrow and cut it Monday - just in time for a spell of mild but windy and wet weather - hey ho! What I have done is continued with the 3D conceptual plan and I have arrived at the Ledbury viaducts (yes, I know that there is only supposed to be the one, but there you go), and I am quite happy with the models. The branch line one is based exceedingly loosely on Walnut Tree (now demolished) - I even managed to show the catwalk that isn't evident on the photos that can be seen on t'intertubes. Here are a few images: (The white block in the second image is just my board edge to be trimmed to size). Fine tuning of the landscape to do and then bridges, station buildings, goods sheds, signal boxes, other railway associated buildings and then a spot of colour. Cheers everyone and have a good weekend, Philip

As an add-on to my earlier post, I forgot to say that I CAN get black japanned stamped steel hinges as shown in the cellar door drawings. Apparently they're charnières à l'anglaise (English hinges). They too, will be delivered with my planks. What a good egg is my timber merchant. Cheers, Philip

Huzzah and Hooray! My planks are back in stock and the weather is set mild for next week. I'm not sure when the planks will be delivered, but I can go get some fine crushed white stone and some lime and I can re-start works, firstly by in-filling the wall tops around all the eaves from the inside. I shall try off a ladder for the lower bits and then some scaffolding for those out-of-reach parts. It's only about 3.5m to the ridge from the new floor. Working from a ladder is not too clever as I shall need at least three four hands - one to hold myself to the ladder, one for the bucket of stones, one for the lime mortar mix and one to 'palm' the mix into place - err - maybe scaffolding would be best . In other news, my Christmas present that I wasn't supposed to know about but arrived when Mrs Philou wasn't there, it turned out to be a selection of points - good show! I've also carried on trying to complete my 3D plan - it's not going as fast as the first time due to things that I see and don't like - so three steps forward and maybe two back - but it's all going forwards. I've reached Pontrilas station and heading towards 'Dymented' (I really must change the name!) I did think of an amalgam of Dymock and Peterchurch (one station each on the Golden Valley and Gloucester branches) but it gave Dymchurch (but that was too close to the RH&DR one) and Petermock that just doesn't do it!! I did see somewhere else (another thread here I think) Pump Heol/Five Ways and I happen to have 5 sidings at Dymented - so maybe that would be good. An old pal of mine called yesterday that I haven't seen or spoken to for over 15yrs. Happened to go to Lord and Butler's to see about re-starting a railway and got my 'phone number from my brother! He's decided to go for N - though I think at our age it ought to be 0! That was a good call. Here's Pontrilas, the platforms are in place, but not buildings yet nor the signalbox on the underbridge (which I quite like) leading to the old chemical works: Here's a link to the StreetView picture of the underbridge and signal box: https://www.google.com/maps/@51.9447812,-2.8749956,3a,90y,118.73h,99.54t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s_sSmZLmRz54O4Z6op6mbgg!2e0!7i16384!8i8192 More updates to follow soon. Cheers, Philip

I haven't a dog in this fight, but I knew last Thursday that the announcement was due at 7am and not 10am as announced here on RMWeb. This may have been 'in the air' for a little while. @wombatofludham Pity the Carry On team are no longer about - Carry On Titgate with Kenneth Williams starring as SK (produced by Studiocanal) . Cheers, Philip

Hi, I know nothing about the loco, but just looking at the photo, you can see that the back-to-backs of the centre pair are definitely closer than the outer pairs of driving wheels. Regarding connecting rods, you should be able to make a pair out of some nickel silver or brass, provided you have access to a good, small drill - pillar drill better - and a quality bit. You'll have to have a steel straight edge for marking out and a centre punch to accurately place the marks to start the holes, but it should be doable . I'm not sure how it should be held in the wheels though - I can see a screw in the centre driver (bottom one in the picture). Good luck with the repair! Philip

Evening everyone, Just to say that I'm still alive and about - but nothing physical to report back regarding works in the barn. Apart from being too cold to do any masonry work, I think my mojo got a hangover at Christmas and hasn't yet surfaced. I haven't been letting things slide as I've being busy doing the 3D landscape plan of the layout. I think I've sorted the Malvern Hills and the sloped ceiling - definitely a case of less was more this time. I've done all the cuttings for Ledbury station and I've moved eastwards to the end of the tunnel where it becomes the River Dore/A465 overbridges. There is plenty to do and I have arrived at a point of recreating the two bridges. They will be co-joined to save space. Here are two pictures - they look naked as I have as yet not coloured anything to save on computing power. Landscape first, then the two Ledbury viaducts and then all the buildings. This is Ledbury station yard and tunnel (the grey bit above is the sloping ceiling): This is Ledbury tunnel, East end, with the Big Beam just above. I think this could just work: Talking of buildings, I had a most bizarre conversation with Mrs Philou this afternoon as she got the hump (as did our neighbour who was in for a cup of coffee) as I said I wasn't having any houses on the layout. 'Your having that huuuuuuuuge layout and no houses ?' 'No houses, not any in the immediate vicinity the railway .' 'But .... but ..... doesn't the railway go through towns and villages?' 'Yup, but no houses, or buildings for that matter, close enough to be included. The only building that is a house, is the Stationmaster's one at Ledbury. Stations and good sheds plus signal boxes as appropriate, but no houses, or shops, or factories, none.' ' But what about all those buildings upstairs that you spent ages doing (Scalescene card ones that I did about 5 years ago).' 'None.' 'Well, I hope they're soon gone from the upstairs spare bedroom.' 'Yes dear, as soon as the new room is ready.' 'Humph ..... '. I think she was genuinely disappointed that I wouldn't be having hundreds of cottages and farms. 'Well, what about some cows then?' piped up Mrs Neighbour. 'Look', said I opening up Google Earth, 'here's the railway and these hills are The Malverns, mostly open land and there is no farming - might be a few sheep.' 'Oooh, sheep, you must have some sheep then.' 'Not really, the bit I'm doing of the hills is mostly wooded and where there could be some on the Colwall side, is mostly cutting on the model.' 'Oh, what about over on the other station (Pontrilas).' 'Same thing really, mostly cutting and the boards have to be narrow so that I can reach. The only cows will be those in the cattle docks at the two stations'. 'Well there you are, then you can have some cows ..... boring otherwise.' Weird or what? Or is she (and Mrs Neighbour) actually taking an interest? She has, in fairness, been very supportive in my construction efforts even wanting to help in doing the big timber work right at the start. Should I nurture her interest? What will she be able to do? (She can give me a hand threading electrical cabling in its conduit, but that's some time off). Ideas on a postcard to the usual address, ta. Cheers, Philip

Having spoken with Peter a few minutes ago (11:30 06/01/2022), I can confirm that the models can only be purchased by personal callers due to the fragile nature of the models and their fine finish - they are very, very good (see above) - and he wants to avoid any possible damage to them via post or courier. Earlier, I mentioned EM gauge locos (I shall re-axle the one I have), there are only about half-a-dozen, the rest are 00. In amongst them are locos built/painted by Larry Goddard and Alan Gibson to name a few. Cheers, Philip

@DinOh OK then, here's one cabinet of a selection LMS/MR locos. As @NHY 581 has said, please call the shop on 02 920 667 225 as I haven't had any updates as to what may be available for purchase: Cheers, Philip

Here another cabinet as originally acquired: Cheers, Philip

I think they were the phat phingered sort . I'll amend it straight away. Good to know that there were some boxes too. My info was based on what they had just collected - hence the display cabinet in the previous photo. Cheers, Philip