Chris Williamson

Well, @Keith Addenbrooke in part gave me an idea and in part confirmed an idea. Close inspection of the best two photos I have of Peel shed reveal small timbers on the underside of the slates on the chimney capping. If only I could reproduce these I'd have a jig of sorts. This was first cut out as a much larger 'V' shape to get the correct angles. It was trimmed to size and shape once the angles were confirmed to be correct. With two identical supports made, I 'castellated' the top of the chimney to leave matching verticals and then carefully attached the new pieces. All that remains is to add a couple of squares of thinned Wills slate roof. Watch this space.

It is a shame given that all the other buildings survived up to the point of being built over by MNH. Better still, if only we still had the whole line from Douglas to Peel instead of just a part of it in your shed!

As always, the small details are the most time consuming to build. At a rough count, around 50 individual pieces make up this ventilator. Then there's a second one to follow this one. Thinning Wills slate roofing was an interesting and inescapable exercise. Second half of the ventilator roof still to be installed. The basis of the top chimney in place. I'm still considering how to construct the tiny pitched slate capping.

Loco shed progress:

A bit more progress this week. Making brick window arches. Forming the full depth of the window recesses and adding window ledges. Trial fit against the original carboard mock-up. Next, to apply filler where needed and tidy up the brickwork on the joints in the recesses.

@Keith AddenbrookeIf you can get hold of it, shelac is good at sealing MDF and ply to stop it from curling. Once dry you can then spray prime from a rattle can. I've used it with success on IoMR 15mm garden rail wagon kits.

The major structure of the Long Dry is complete. A pause, now, while I think about the walkway to the door in the corrugated part of the building. Window frames are still troubling me, too. I've seen a small combined laser and blade cutter advertised that I'm contemplating. Hmmm... Meanwhile, a somewhat experimental leap into new territory. The mine's loco shed is based on the one that stood at Peel. Can I convincingly set brick detail into slate walling sheet? This isn't going to be quick and I've accepted that a degree of filler is going to be needed. Nonetheless, the joints need to be as tight as possible.

Work has started on the fill-in pieces. First, a better view of the treatment of the edge. This looks a bit crude in closeup and from below. The effect is convincing from the side or above. The fiddly bit: cutting to size. Checking the fit. One end done.

@Keith AddenbrookeI really had no choice! Every time I relaxed the pressure the roof wanted to unstick and revert to a flat sheet. I'd to sit tight until the solvent had completely hardened and the weld was solid. Even then I kept a close eye for a while.

Today: the job I have been dreading; it was time to put the corrugated roof on! First a paper template. Then very careful trimming of the previously made up roof through a series of very fine reductions with a test fit between each. Given how hard it was to accurately hold the otherwise flat roof in place around the curved formers, each cut was checked, double-checked and then checked at least another couple of times to be quite sure of the alignment. I also roundly cursed my oversight in allowing the design to have the corrugated shed overlap the stone building. With the roof cut to final size the edges were chamfered to reduce the apparent thickness of the Wills sheets and then the underside of the corrugations formed along the length of the roof. A little knife blade nick under the apex of the upper surface of each corrugation followed by a light touch with the 'sharp' edge of an oval profile needle file did the job. Combined with the chamfer, this gives a convincing impression of the edge of a sheet of corrugated iron. Finally, the critical step. Sh*t or B*st really. Get this wrong and the build is ruined. A deep breath, an open window and work quickly. The back of the roof was liberally coated in cement / solvent and left to soften. A coat of the same was then quickly applied to the roof framework / former. Wasting as little time as possible the roof was aligned onto the framework and pressed it into place with both hands. With no other way of clamping the job, I then spent the next hour or so desperately clutching the build to my chest with both hands pressing the roof into place. A lot of pressure was require to keep all of the roof curved and in contact with the frame and the edges of the existing corrugated sides. I was very glad, indeed, that framework had been so robustly made and that the structure of that end of the build is as strong as it is. This is not the most delicate or elegant of ways to roof a model building. I've struggled to get the camera to focus, so here are some slightly dubious photos to give you an idea of the end result. Whatever, I'm please and will sleep well tonight. Next up, the fill-in pieces to go under the roof at each end.

Another laborious process ongoing: blending the edges of the Wills slate walling sheets where they join. Having added buttresses to support a wooden walkway built out over the river, there's a good number to deal with. Where possible, I've avoided placing the raw edge on the front face. The adjoining faces have also been cut from a continuous strip wherever possible. In this way there's a degree of alignment in the stonework courses. Plastic putty has been used to fill gaps and form mortar flaunching on the stepping of the buttressing, etc. Work in progress at the bottom of the photo. A sharp blade to start. Occasional use of a wedge shaped needle file where needed. An old toothbrush to burnish out any debris and obvious file marks. One end completed. With luck, the joints will be all-but invisible once painted.

Anyway, back to the build. Some Evergreen strip used to form the ridge tiles. The curious arrangement of the roof where the big chimney meets the ridge was tricky to replicate,

Another distraction from the ongoing building project. Working on some new fittings for the GGR replica 4-wheeler coaches. The Unimat 3 was purchased by my father some 40 years ago. He then upgraded to something more substantial with the Unimat being passed on to my late brother. I managed to reclaim it while clearing his house a couple of years ago. I now have to relearn the art of setting up and using a lathe and mill. I recall that accurate setup is always the hard and slow part of the job. Once that's done, the rest is easy. This time, I only need to use it as a clever pillar drill.

Were white-metal loco kit bodies more prevalent in times past? Thinking about it, they probably were; along with scratch-built locos made from sheet and turned brass, perhaps? The QHs are capable enough on the flat and on gentle gradients. They may even benefit from their short wheelbase when negotiating tight curves. I suspect the Baldwin's issue pertains to it's light weight / distribution as well as its comparatively long wheelbase. The modern RtR loco adds a huge improvement in detail and realism, but alas, at the expense of pulling power / adhesion.

Mr Williamson gave some consideration to the question posed before replying. He would like it to be noted that this is his opinion with a hint of aesthetic prejudice thrown in for good measure. He's very happy for others to pose alternative points of view. First of all I did originally note that I'd consider a gradient of up to 2.5% as acceptable if circumstances dictated the need. Otherwise, I'd base my observation on my own layout and my limited experience of 1 to 1 scale operation at Groudle Glen Railway. Alas, I can't provide exact figures for my own layout as the related AnyRail file was lost to a hard disc failure. However, the layout incorporates three gradients. The steepest, up to a mineworking, varies between 2% and 2.5%. The steeper first part is predominantly straight with a passably gentle180 degree curve at about 2% on the remainder. Six wagons is about the limit for most of my locos working up this. I have a Baldwin that barely makes it to the top running light engine. My two Quarry Hunslets are definitely thrashing as they round the curve. Not having a great deal of room at the bottom of the straight and needing to incorporate the steeper part of the climb in to it, there wasn't much opportunity to ease the line into the steeper part of the gradient. As this can't be hidden it looks rather more abrupt than I really care for. Had more room been available to ease into the gradient then, perhaps, it would look a little more natural. More often than not I'd contend that the average 009 layout compresses real world linear features to fit everything in. Herein lies the aesthetic problem. The two other gradients on the layout relate to the 'main line'. I've sited the fiddle yard under the mine. To allow sufficient clearance, the two ends of the fiddle yard rise into the scenic section. They are both something less than 2%. Nonetheless, one of these also traverses a 180 degree curve of just over 9 inches radius. Most of my locos will haul two Peco L&BR bogie coaches upand around this but all really struggle with three coaches. In the real world, GGR, "The line that runs uphill to the sea" climbs a section of about 1 in 38, if I've remembered correctly. In descent, great care is needed on the brakes on the part of both driver and guard. In ascent, the gradient ramps up gradually and levels off similarly. Unlike my layout, the gradient is barely discernible unless you walk up it. However, it takes a skilled driver to get up it. Boiler sight-glass levels need careful monitoring if the cylinders are to be prevented from priming or arrival made at the top with too little water in the boiler. Damp days and fully loaded trains are inevitably difficult and under these conditions it's not unknown for the train to fail to make it to the top on the first run. On such days we could indeed do with a couple of 'sanders' stood on the front buffer beam Darjeeling style. Inevitably, the train has to set back and the guard sand first behind and then ahead. We do have sandboxes and sanders on the locos, but we also have Manx weather. The chances of the sand in the boxes staying dry enough for any length of time are about zero and a near solid mass of damp sand isn't going to go anywhere if the sanders are operated. A final thought consequent to a conversation yesterday evening. I gather one of the GGR locos visited Leighton Buzzard a few years ago. It may have been Sealion. Test running was undertaken on the Friday of the visit. Our driver was horrified to meet a party of school children walking down one of the steep banks as the loco charged uphill under the supervision of someone from LB. The instruction was to keep going regardless otherwise they'd never get going again. Happily the incident passed off with everyone unscathed.