dougidle

Well... the update for the end of January is well overdue.... so here it is. For January, I planned to fit the final 2 points, experiment with delayed action couplings and complete a couple of wagons. One of the things that delayed this update was the points... I managed to get a couple of tortoise motors and then ran out of layout wire. Once I had the wire and had them fitted the layout developed a short circuit which I had to completely rewire it to find (it was a dodgy bit of soldering on one of the older point motors). It's now working... and here's video to prove it. I also wanted to experiment with delayed action couplings. I bought a trial pack of sprat and winkle couplings but found them a pain to put together. In principle though, I liked them and decided to persevere. To make life easier I bought some straight wire and some mounting plates and want to use them later this month. Lastly, I wanted to build a Bloater and Cattle wagon. Both of these got done but the paint on the Cattle wagon didn't dry well - it was thin out of the pot and dried shiny. It looks ghastly and I assume the pot is a dud. I'll wait until I have some more ready for painting and buy a fresh pot. The Bloater came out well and makes a nice change from all the grey. For February I planned to: - rewire the layout so it works (done) - fit delayed action couplings to 4 wagons - Make up a shopping list for the platforms which I want to have a look at building in March Thanks for reading, Doug

Your station is looking really good Roger. I'm hoping to get some platforms put down in early February and then do a bit of ballasting. I'll probably get around to the station after that. I'm planning on making it out of card and scribed DAS clay which will be an adventure as I've not done it before. I'm lucky in 4mm as Oxford made a 6 wheel toad - although it has a few errors. I've got one which I intend to correct and repaint as the Bridport one at some point. I bought another 4 wheel one too which I'll letter up as Weymouth van. Cheers, Doug

That's a great looking Toad Roger and thanks for the update on nets traffic. I also didn't make much progress in December... My plan had been to fit the final 2 point motors, rebuild the gearbox for 4803 and have a play with delayed action couplings. Sadly, none of these things happened. I couldn't find any tortoise motors in the UK at all - there was a restock just before Christmas at Coastal DCC and I bought 2 so hopefully they will arrive in early January. I did play with 7th gearbox for 4803 but it wasn't going to be a quick job so I decided to put it on hold for a while. I didn't get around to experimenting with couplings either. Over the same period, the 14xx detailing kit came back into stock at Wizard so I picked up one for use in 2021. I also ordered a trial pack of Sprat and Winkle couplings to experiment with. Santa brought a couple of items for the layout too - a Coopercraft cattle wagon and a Parkside Bloater. the Bloater is outside my time period unfortunately but it's a nice looking wagon so I can live with it. I was also given a couple of nice Dorset based wagons - a Dorchester based grain hopper and a Hall & Woodhouse brewery wagon. For January, I plan to - Fit the final 2 points - Experiment with delay action couplings and made a decision about whether to use them or not - Complete the Cattle and Bloater wagons

The layouts looking really good - it's nice to see the whole station in one shot.

Hi John - I'm enjoying watching your build which is progressing a lot quicker than mine! I was curious how you're getting on with the couplings as I'm thinking of trying them out too. Do they just clip into pockets to replace the stock ones or did you have to do anything special to fit them? Thanks, Doug

It's the start of a new month and that means time for an update on the layout. Very early in November I completed work on the control panel and fitted it under the layout. It was relatively straight forward and everything is in place to add the wiring and final two motors so that everything works. It's the first time I've built a control panel and I'm pretty happy with it. To prove it all works, here's a short video of it in action: I didn't get a chance to rebuild the gearbox for 4803 as I'd intended but I did get a new chimney for her after a fellow RMWeber kindly turned one for me on his lathe. I hope to redo the gearbox this month and do a bit of work to tidy the chassis generally. I found a good priced 45xx in GWR livery on ebay and got that too... so now I have 3 locos. I have plans to convert her to EM in the new year. Bridport had a number of 45xx locos at various times and I'll renumber her to a time when there would have 4660 would also have been there. With all the work I've done on the points I'm now thinking that it would be nice to have some delayed action couplings so that I can actually shunt. the 3 links look great but they're a bit of a pain to operate. Plans for December: - Fit the final 2 point motors - Rebuild the gearbox for 4803 - Have a play with delayed action couplings. Thanks for reading, Doug

It's fine Rob - I trust you :-)

Hi Rob, At the moment I don't have any chimney at all - if you're able to turn one for me that would be great. Feel free to PM with me the cost and I'll sort it out. Many Thanks, Doug

That would be brilliant - thanks!

Hi! While I wait for Wizard Models to have the 14xx detailing kit in stock again I thought I'd see if anyone has one cluttering up a storage box that they'd like to move on? Right now, I'd settle just for the chimney! Thanks, Doug

That's a beautiful model Gerry, thanks for sharing it. I love your book too - it becoming available was a big factor in deciding to model West Bay. Although in hindsight there are so many other models of it maybe I should have chosen Abbotsbury! It's a shame to have missed the exhibition. I've only been to West Bay twice - last Christmas and on a cub camp in the eighties! I have an old copy of Railway Modeller which has a plan of the station and descibes the DAS method which I was planning to try out on my own model. I doubt it will turn out as nicely as yours but I'll give it a shot. Thanks for reading, Doug

October saw a lot of progress on the layout with track laid and train actually running. In the second half of the month things slowed down a little - although I did build a couple more wagons and also find a Weymouth based PO wagon that I'd been looking for for ages. The two Minks are from Coopercraft kits while the PO wagon is a limited edition from Bachmann In November my goals for the layout are - Wire up two more points (the tortoise motors arrived today) - Build a control panel to switch the points - Rebuild the gearbox for 4803 so that the loco moves. 4803 is a loco that that I built a chassis from the High Level kit - the kit was really good but I made a bit of pigs ear of it. After several months of fiddling a friend in the EM gauge group on Facebook rescued it for me - the main problem being the gearbox. He built a gearbox himself but I now want to rebuild the gearbox myself before the loco sees service. I want to be confident that I can build one before I go any further with loco construction. For the control panel I've made a diagram and printed it off. I plan to mount the switches on the diagram and mount the whole thing on some 2mm plasticard. Thanks for reading, Doug

After WIMorrisons post about the Roco Z21 I've been looking at that and it's a strong contender just for the nicely laid out interface on my phone. I like the idea of a secondhand LH100 and am keeping an eye on eBay so will have to see what comes up first. I do like the idea of a decent screen which was the only downside of the LH100 when I had it. It did work faultlessly though and that's a big plus in my view!

Thanks Both - I am hoping to get the Pannier Papers book for Christmas - good to know that it has a photo of her in. I've also had a poke about the gwr.ork.uk and greatwestern.org.uk sites and they're really useful. Thanks again, Doug

It'l be in EM. I'll be following your build as I don't think I'll get much done on mine until coming up to Christmas. I have a 57xx and 48xx in O gauge for the garden but no Autocoach yet :-(

Thanks Iain - I hadn't considered the touchscreen and will take a look at the Z21 and app. I've no problem using my phone or iPad.... I use them for everything else! Thanks, Doug

By a strange coincidence I've started a project to convert my 5775 to 4660!

Hi All, Several years ago, I had a Lenz Set 100 that I sold when my interest in modelling waned. Now I've returned to the hobby and having got a layout working am looking at DCC once again, mainly to get sound working. When I left, it was only just starting to be available whereas now it looks much more popular. I really liked my Lenz 100 - it did the job, I found it easy to use and I liked the way it felt and looked. I've been looking at their new Set 101 or even an LZV200 with the new smaller controller - does anyone have any experience of using these with sound equipped locos please? Thanks, Doug

Hi! I've been working on an EM gauge model of West Bay on the Bridport branch since just after Christmas and am finally in the position of having some working track and a working loco. I'm now getting more interested in making sure the locos are more accurate to those that would have run on the line. The two in question are 57xx 4660 which according to Gerry Beales excellent book spent time on the branch between 1943 and 1945 and 48xx 4803 which was around at the same time. I've been able to work out a little bit about both locos - they were both shedded at Weymouths at around the same time and I think that as a new loco during the way, 4660 would have been in black for the period I'm modelling which is the late forties. Apart from that I have very little info on her. 4803 I have no idea about - I hope she'd have been in green as I'd like at least one green loco on the layout. I have quite a few photos of 4803 from the excellent book about the Abbotsbury line although these are mostly from the BR period. Quite often I see posts here or in the modelling magazines where people have extensive knowledge on locos and can produce dates of when they were refitted, what liveries they were in etc. As a new comer, where can I find all this information please? Where's a good place to start? Just to be clear, I'm not asking for the information, just some pointers on where to start looking for it Thanks, Doug

Big news in West Bay! The parts to convert the Bachmann 57xx to EM arrived during the week and I spent a pleasant 90 minutes converting the loco last night and this morning. Here she is posing on the sector plate. I have to admit that the GW Models wheel jig was absolutely terrific and I highly recommend it. It made fitting the wheels to the axles and quartering them a total breeze. Just to prove that she works, here's a short video of he actually pulling a train. Now that she's running I need to decide what to renumber her as. I had originally planned to use 7719, the same as my O Gauge loco. When I chose that number it was because I'd not been able to find any record of a 57xx at Bridport. Since reading Beales book about the branch I discovered that 8744 was there in 1947 - so I need to find out a bit about the loco and see if she'll match my model. If she does I'll renumber both the EM and O gauge locos. As well as all that, I also got the first point wired up and working using a Tortoise point motor. While it was expensive I was really impressed with the device and plan to get the others over the next few month so I can have the whole layout working.

They do indeed - I built one and run it in the garden :-)

Hi Dave, That's a Bachmann RTR wagon that was made for Buffers which I got from eBay :-) POW Sides do a version of it too. Cheers, Doug

By way of a small update, I've relaid the sector plate to have 4 roads rather than the previous 3. It was also a good excuse to use up some of the C&L track I had lying around. I've also ordered some bits and pieces to convert the Bachmann 57xx I have from OO to EM so I might even have a loco that runs by this time next week! Cheers, Doug

Over the last week I've made quite a lot of progress on the layout. A redundancy payout meant that I had a bit of money and after struggling with a point kit for weeks I bit the bullet and bought all the track I needed from the EM Gauge Society. Their B6 points are a bit longer than the A5 ones I was planning on using so I had to compress things even more. I think it still captures the feel of the place, even if it is a bit shorter and once the buildings and some scenery are in place it'll look fine. I have a Tortoise point motor which I'm going to use as a test on the first point - hopefully by the end of the week. I also need to relay and wire up the sector plate. Again, I hope that'll be done by the end of the week. All I need then is a loco and I can actually run a train! Cheers, Doug

Thanks Dave - I've seen Richards Westcliffe a few times before and it never ceases to impress me. It's a beautiful layout and I can easily see why it's won so many awards. The more I see this and think of my own layout the more I'm tempted to use West Bay as a starting point - it's still my intention to model the station and track plan as it was without adding any more buildings or track work but, forced by the space I have available I'll have to do something like Richard did with a tunnel (or maybe a large copse of trees) for a scenic break before the fiddle yard. I'm also planning on increasing the loco stock from those that would have appeared just before nationalisation with a 48xx, 57xx and even a 2251 - rolling stock will feature a number of Bridport based wagons but also draw from other local areas included Weymouth and Dorchester. These wagons would never have run to West Bay but will make from some colourful trains for me to play with Over the weekend, I made an order from the EMGS stores for all the track and point work I need to complete the track plan. After struggling over the last few weeks to complete a C&L point kit and get it running reliably I decided to just buy it all off the shelf and crack on. As a couple of examples, here are two attractive, locally based brewery wagons. In the background you can see a couple of old Superquick models I made up just to give the layout a bit of 3D feel rather than just a track plan on a board!