Artless Bodger

The Bachmann one looks a bit more like a Scotch marine boiler.

Wasn't the K&ESR example obtained from the SR as a swap for Hecate? Hecate was bought for the Maidstone and Headcorn extension, unused as the line wasn't built.

Great inspiration! A few years back I bodged two old Farish N gauge generic suburbans into a 2H demu on my Roco ET90 chassis, over time it has looked less and less satisfying, so having collected some Farish generic corridor stock I have begun a 4COR bodge to re-use the chassis. It's a reprise of something I did in the 80s using the same coach types and a Farish 101 chassis - long departed. Being a lazy modeller I wonder how long it will take me to complete? It will be in BR blue, how I remember them from the Ore - Brighton services in the early 70s. Unhappy 2H, Chassis and opened out carriage body, composite photo of driving motor brake conversion in progress.

Here's the boiler house with a coat of humbrol light stone, and the chimney with an attempt at dry brushing with darkened red brick over the original red brick coat. I think I'll leave it at this for a while, see how I feel about it. I've also finally stuck the machine house roof on, replaced the windows and fitted some dryer exhaust vents. It's a bit cobbled together using parts recovered from the old layout - it fills a gap in the backscene with a purpose. Also in view - I gave the trolley bus a bit of a repaint, I'm happier with it now. Still needs some trolley poles in the raised position, destination blinds detail painting and adverts, I might get round to them in the next 6 months or so.

If I remember an article in Railway Bylines correctly, there were originally 2 in the class used on the Mound Junction to Dornoch branch, the final one broke its crank axle, the replacement was a 16xx of all things!

Dornoch by any chance? Very nice.

Yes, that's how I interpret it, the crank you have drawn on the low gear spigot, it could be transferred to the high gear spigot concentric with the red circle.

This is indeed your option B. Regarding the hoist, looking at this photo; the hoist chain or cable is wound onto the drum on the same axle as the large pulley wheel, so you get maximum mechanical advantage, at a guess about 10 to 1. The big pulley is driven by the continuous chain loop around the small drum at the bottom of the post, this has one direct hand crank drive (left hand square spigot) for light loads (1 to 1), and has a geared drive from the right hand square spigot via the larger pulley / disc / gear furthest from the upright on the left hand shaft again at a guess about 10 to 1. So you have high and low gear winding. One crank handle demountable, put on the desired spigot. The metal loop in the 6-8 o'clock position on the big pulley keeps the transmission chain loop from jumping off. I'd expect to find a ratchet perhaps somewhere to hold the load once lifted.

Yes, thanks for the feedback, I'm glad someone else thinks it's too dull, yellow too. I'll recoat with something less dark, maybe white with a hint of yellow, or I think I've got some light stone but that is enamel, if I leave the existing paint a few days overpainting with enamel should be ok? The sort of appearance I'd like is shown in the photos below, though I think they are overexposed. I've not tried to paint a weathered, faded appearance before so it is an experiment. Reeds seemed to paint all it's buildings, corrugated iron and concrete in a pale cream at one time. However some of the less used or semi derelict bits were just rust.

I earned a black mark from Head Gardener this afternoon when I managed (mis-managed?) to drop my secateurs into the shredder. Thanks to the amount of stuff already in there, even with my slow reflexes I managed to turn the machine off just as it jammed, no significant damage to the shredder (slight ding in one blade of the whanger) but the secateurs are most definitely dead. Luckily they were 'my' pair, ones Head Gardener had replaced as they were not sharp enough for pruning, but ok for me to chop up bits for shredding or the brown bin. So a bit of a dent in this month's allowance to replace them. Not such a bad thing perhaps, I've been internally debating for months how I might use the allowance not consumed as it would have been in social events (pub meets with old colleagues) and trips out had it not been for the virus. Naturally this ranged around which loco to buy next - too many options depending on whether I keep to a narrow definition of the area my layout is supposed to occupy, or go for rule 1. However, I have recently read an article on research into enjoyment and wanting, apparently the two are not linked in the brain, wanting something is not a guarantee that you will enjoy it when you've got it (at least I think that was the conclusion). This does sound rather true for me, generally the anticipation of something is better than achieving it, so one purchase just leads to the next. Doesn't stop me wanting that C class / class 33 / birdcage set etc. The colour of the boiler house looks more like dull green today, not what I had in mind, so once I'm sure the paint has dried thoroughly I think it will get a thin coat of pale yellow / cream. Hopefully the patchy appearance now will act as a sort of pre-shading and give the shabby worn effect I'm after.

The other thing I've been working on is a low relief boiler house for the paper mill at the back of the layout. The stock preparation building and machine house were recovered from the previous layout and butchered to fit, leaving a gap in the backscene. There was a mixture of boiler types and building styles at the mills I worked in or was familiar with, and the result is a mishmash mostly representing east mill Stirling Boiler house at Aylesford. I made several cardboard cut-outs to try in the gap to get an idea of what looked right, then transferred the chosen one to PS sheet. The skin is made from corrugated PS sheet (1mm corrugations), bought from 4D Models just before the first lockdown, it is scribed into panels representing overlapping 8' x 4' sheets. The chimney is half of one left over from a Walthers Cornerstone kit used on the previous layout. The structure is a bit of a bodge; I wanted to avoid laminating the corrugated sheet to a thicker PS carcase as I've experienced pitting and bubbling from trapped solvent pockets, so thought of using foam board (of which I have an excellent sufficiency) and using double sided tape. Having made 4 layers of foamboard I then realised that gluing the edges of the skin together in-situ would risk solvent getting into the foam core so the shell is currently loose and somewhat precariously butt welded with solvent along the corners, it is jiggled into place over the foamboard core which supports it and, separately, the chimney. Then the colouring debate; dull brown like Overton before it was reclad, rusty red as APM east mill, or faded cream like APM west mill (as seen in the Aylesford Paper Mills Traffic thread)? Or of course just some shade of grey. I've tried to get a faded patchy creamy yellow, so far just one coat and I'm not sure if I like the result enough to leave it or need to recoat, though I want to avoid a uniform appearance. With no suitable cream paint to hand I used a mix of Tamiya dark yellow and flat white paints left from AFV modelling days. I have both Humbrol and Tamiya acrylics and find them very different to use. Some of the Humbrol ones have very compacted pigment which is difficult to disperse in the vehicle, while the Tamiya is a soft paste which disperses very easily. The vehicles are clearly different Humbrol is water like and easily thinned with water, the Tamiya has some organic solvent (IPA? and perhaps an aldehyde, it smells quite fruity), I thin with water but the result is not ideal and the paint skins rapidly. Mixing Tamiya and Humbrol acrylics can also lead to some sort of incompatibility. How do others find these paints? I only brush paint and mix paints in metal tin lids. Coverage with the Tamiya paint is patchy (something I don't recall from occasionally painting AFV models with them) and they brush out to incomplete coverage so maybe they've not aged well. I see that other modellers on RMweb use Games Workshop and Vallejo paints and seem to get along fine with them - do you have to only mix like with like? Any suggestions gratefully received, thank you.

I've also done a bit of painting, finally the turntable got painted. The girders are Humbrol slate grey, I'd expected it to be more like GWR wagon grey, but it is quite green (Honister slate?). The 'wheels', halved GF plastic wagon wheels, were glued to the ends of the deck and the wheel treads and support rail in the pit painted with a dulled silver / steel mixture. I had decided to remove the two spur tracks beyond the 'table as I want the space for some scenic development and they were unpowered anyway - originally to catch overshoots and park one or two of my hangar queen locos, but they can stay in their boxes. Despite the paint the electrics still work which is a minor miracle. Sorry the photo is a bit out of focus.

The cold and wet weather has put me off doing much in the garden, so I've spent some time spoddling around on my layout. A first foray into ballasting trying out the 3 types of material I had to hand, from front to back in the photo; medium brown woodland scenics ballast (bought years ago for the OO but never used), fine brown woodland scenics and the pale stuff is some of Head Gardener's horticultural grit sand (taken with permission) with the grit sieved out in the tea strainer. I've used Ballast Bond for the latter two, it works well without prior wetting (with so much cardboard geology I hesitate to spray or mist the layout with water). The fine brown ballast darkened considerably so I'm not too keen on the colour of the result. The coarser ballast also darkened and reddened a bit I feel, that was glues with Ballast Bond in parts and diluted PVA in others (with a bit of detergent and IMS added), I did pre-wet the bits glued with PVA with a dribble of IMS (surgical spirit actually, again what was to hand) as without it the ballast tended to rise up the meniscus of the glue drops and I feel the detergent made bubbles more likely to form when applied (by a teat pipette). I'm not sure which ballast to go with yet. I definitely will not be ballasting the tracks along the back of the layout as it is too far to reach and control application properly.

Found this photo https://thetransportlibrary.co.uk/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=86597&search=Maidstone+East of a down boat train in 1951, shows the down bay with what I think is a post war tin HAL in it. The fence on the down platform edge is interesting and the starting signal would suggest direct departure of passenger trains in the up direction from the bay was possible via the double slip. There is another photo on the same site (select Maidstone East) which shows the down end of the down platform before the access ramp from the ticket office was removed to accommodate the sand drag when the track plan was altered for a reversible centre road ('62 resignalling?) - at the time of the photo the centre road was still a down loop siding. So, usefully I've learned more about ME from this thread as I have no recollection of the down bay in use. My earliest railway memory is of a steam engine in the down platform seen through the railings at the foot of the up side access ramp, I was about 4 at the time. Later memories are of single 2HAPs on the London services, combining with a 2HAP from Gillingham at Swanley, dividing in the down direction, cue more anxiety if we were in the right portion, opening the drop light to listen carefully when they said which portion went where, as on occasion it wasn't the same as said at Victoria.

There was a double slip in the down line leading into the down bay / dock and sidings - a bit of prototype for everything. Speed was low here as the down trains had reached the foot of the bank down from Barming and rounded an almost 90 degree lefthand curve, before the S bend though the station and Week Street tunnels immediately onto the up grade to Bearsted, a nightmare for boat trains. The middle road was reversible, and in the autumn a BRCW type 3 was sometimes stabled in the centre road in case trains needed to be banked, especially up to Bearsted (the gradient was 1 in 88 I think, mainly tree lined). The slip allowed direct departure onto the up line from the yard and was partly located on the 'high-level' bridge over the river. We used to go to the coast from ME in the mid '60s onwards and I don't particularly recall a long down bay (1929 aerial view shows just a short dock behind the old signal box). I helped a school friend photograph the goods yard for a project he was doing for the Kent Archaeological Society (early '70s), it was largely disused then though the goods shed was still standing and the old Midland railway coal yard, complete with short iron rails (I recall reversible bullhead) and wagon turntables, as shown on the maps on the NLS website (perhaps the photos are available from the KAS or in Archaeologia Cantiana?). Before the up platform was lengthened to 8 cars (late 60s?) we sometimes caught an electric unit from the up bay and the building backing onto the footpath past Brenchley Gardens and over the high-level was still in existence (I recall it as a water tower but my memory is vague). The long down dock siding was for military traffic from the adjacent engineers' barracks though this had been a cavalry depot school before (Nolan of the charge of the light brigade was instructor there). The down layby siding west of the bridge as noted above would hold a 4 car unit. I used to meet my wife off a down train in the early 80s, the previous down was from Holborn Viaduct and split in the down platform, a 4EPB went to the layby overnight, I cannot remember if the rest went to the down bay / dock or continued to Ashford. Our morning train from Bearsted would be 4 cars (CEP or VEP) and at ME coupled to the 4EPB which had moved into the up platform - there was usually a scramble of people leaving the rear 4 to go forward to get seats nearest the barrier for arrival in London! Trains stabled overnight in the down dock siding, though fenced off from the carpark (as the goods yard had become, with the Royal Mail parcels depot where the coal yard had been, now under the road I think) were used by the local glue sniffers as the doors were not locked. Whereas down trains terminating at ME in recent years ran into the new down bay (platform 3), earlier they terminated int he down platform, reversed over the slip / crossover and shunted back into the up platform. At one time I recall 3 trains an hour from London, 1 terminating, the others going forward to Ashford, one semifast which then continued to Margate (after a lengthy wait at Ashford to connect with the Folkestone and Dover service from Charing Cross). OT but returning from the coast at times we had to change at Ashford and in platform 1 there would be 3 x 2 car units each for a different destination; a HAP for Charing Cross via Tonbridge, another HAP for Victoria via Maidstone and at the country end a 2H for Hastings - woe betide the unwary passenger who got on the wrong one. If you can find it there was a good oblique aerial view taken in the green - blue transition period looking north which was emblazoned on the whole of one wall of a building society in Maidstone, perhaps a Kent Messenger photo as their offices and press was just cross the road from the ticket office.

In the days I used to work in Maidenhead (late '80s), on arrival back in platform 6 at Reading one evening we heard a warning broadcast over the tannoy for passengers on platform 5 to keep well away from the rear end of an arriving HST. I nipped over to platform 4 to find out why. There on the back of the HST, on the curved underside of the nosecone was a football sized brown lump - a swarm of bees. The train duly departed for London with the swarm still attached. It had been hanging on the back at least since Didcot.

I had a similar accident with mine about 50 years ago (how time flies), the chimney broke off and never sat straight again. I may be trying to teach you to suck eggs, but I recall a speed restrictor on the side of the chassis, it comprised a springy strip that pressed on the projecting end of one of the gear shafts, and the pressure was adjusted by a small screw. The main problem was to restrict the fully wound speed to a reasonable degree meant the loco came to a premature halt. Not a very sophisticated governor. No longer with us I'm afraid, oh for some foresight when I was younger. WRT the J83 body - did not the NBR have a Drummondish 0-4-4T? And a couple of 4-4-0Ts? And there was a Drummondish Caley 0-4-4T too. Jinty body - Stanier 0-4-4T, but the Johnson option too, especially if you remove the belpaire and reprofile the cab roof? A large prairie body suggests a County tank?

Some sporadic activity over the last week or so, I'm trying to concentrate on one area rather than flit about from one project to another. So quite a bit of progress on the brewery / raised road and station. Painting - one of my weak areas, I've painted road surfaces, the fences and now the station footbridge is in hand, and typically is looking the worse for it. The 'witches nose'* bank under the building by the bridge has had filler applied and the retaining wall, though the first attempt proved to be tight for clearance. The inner circuit is supposed to be a goods line but I'll probably run passenger trains on it at intervals. The bank proved to foul a mk1 once the brick card had been applied so after trimming back fresh card was applied and a coping strip. The Knights of Ni have spotted the big gap at the back and demanded a shrubbery to fill it. Just awaiting delivery of some scenic scatter to coat the top. This will be the first 'nature' scenery I've tried for a couple of decades (layouts usually never get as far as scenery), so I'll be surprised if it goes according to the mental picture I have. I've also had my first experience of using Redutex, for the cobbles in the brewery yard - I was impressed how easy it was to use and am quite happy with the result. I've also had a rethink about the goods yard, the long siding by the through line was going to be the coal siding, but there is not enough room for bins etc so the infill foamboard has been lifted, it will now be a reception / lay-by siding. Coal will be handled on the longer angled spur. *From the headland at Southerndown of the same shape. Oh, and the station has been renamed as there are other Tovils in existence on RMWeb, it has become Fant, not a difficult choice as the real Tovil station was across the river from its namesake and actually in Fant.

One of my mistakes in the past - I'd used scraps of copperclad recycled from work, and had cut the copper between the rails but still had shorts, I'd overlooked that the copper (on a glass fibre base) was clad both sides, and I'd nailed the pieces to the board edge through pre-drilled holes, thus conducting between the surfaces. Once I'd realised it was cured by cutting topside between the rail and the nail, but it flummoxed me for weeks until I twigged. We'd been scrapping old electrical instruments made in house (had to destroy them so snoopers couldn't reverse engineer them) and I got permission to recover any toggle switches in my own time. This was great, there were what appeared to be 1 pole on / off and 2 pole on / off / on types and saved money when funds were short, but many years later I had recurrent electrical problems, locos moving when the switches were off. I could not fathom the reason and it was a contributory factor to scrapping that layout. Similar problems and shorts occurred with the next layout, it was only when using a magnifier to read the stamped info on the switch I found that a few were on / on / on - problem solved, and I ended up replacing all the switches and bought crimp tag connectors too to avoid having to solder, the wiring is a birds nest but it works.

My brother is an instrument engineer, they use small numbered rings which slip over the wires to code them. I've had a similar problem with power feeds (all red or black), and used small cardboard tags made from cereal box card, with a hole punched near one end, for each pair - not elegant but cheap and cheerful. I like your turntable modification. A nice layout idea, I look forward to seeing it develop - I've toyed with a what if, Ramsgate Sands lasted into BR times, in memory of visits to relatives in Ramsgate in the 60s (though we went by East Kent bus from Margate). Ramsgate Sands station was an amusement arcade by then - Merrie England iirc. It reminded me of the Hornby Dublo station (the cream plastic buildings).

The station building is the ticket office from the Metcalfe Country Station, fitted with new end walls, chimneys and a new roof. It replaces the PECO one recovered from the old layout, which I could not dismantle without breaking (attempts to recycle factory low reliefs from the old layout led to cut and shut with unsuccessful outcomes too). It has the advantage of only one door on the railway side - no chance of passengers or staff stepping off the edge of the bridge. Keeping with work in the same areas, I've put more brickwork on the walls of the sloping road and completed the arched bridge. I used a different approach to representing the arch ring brickwork. Previously I had scanned a scrap of brickpaper from the 1980s which I recoloured in Paint.net, step and repeated then printed. Cutting the required rings of bricks with the compass cutter (ruining several as the paper surface delaminates and the narrow ring is very flimsy) before gluing them to the previously cut brick-card arches - seen to the right as the arch industry in the photo. This time I made a template and used it to colour in the arch ring with purple and blue pencils, as seen on the bridge arch. I then discovered in my wife's art box a watercolour pencil which I've used to colour the cut edges of the card (it's a burnt carmine pencil) - it looks worse in the photo than in normal lighting on the layout. Last night I painted (daubed) acrylic grey onto the girders - the acrylic doesn't take that well on the printed side of the cereal box card, but it suffices. One thing I've learned from this is to ensure structures are designed to break down into smaller pieces for working on and that the joins should be properly positioned - the elevated roadway is a big chunk to manipulate when fitting or painting parts, and the footbridge is precarious at best. We live and learn.

I've recently recovered my enthusiasm for my layout, having gone through an introspective period when I questioned (again) what I want from my modelling. I packed everything away to ensure I wouldn't do anything I'd later regret. Some poor weather stopped progress in the garden and gave me time to fill and the models came out again. I've been concentrating on the 'train set' bit, the through station and the elevated roadway, and reaping the rewards of not planning properly before I started. The first thing to do was to arrange access for passengers from a station building on the overbridge to the platforms. The British outline footbridge kits were not apparently tall enough thus requiring 2, however for a smaller cost I could buy a Faller one which I had dimensions for - cue some scale drawings to see if it would fit the bill. Once the Faller kit was to hand the problems multiplied - lack of clearance for the support columns between tracks, platform ramp in the way (it got cut back to fit), supports positioned on the ramp (more scale drawings). Then, to make it look a bit more like British practice I decided to fit wooden sides rather than the skimpy railings. The upshot was that it kept me well occupied. Some parts are glued to the platforms, the main span lifts off, though it is a bit precarious. Hopefully the photos show the bodges involved.

That's looking very neat, wish I could paint lining that tidily. Assuming you are using a paint pen as before, is your base colour matt or gloss, and how does that affect the spread and density of the paint?

The original London and Blackwall railway used something similar, with carriages clipped to the rope and detaching at each station, you had to join the right carriage for your destination, and for some journeys go to the Minories end and go back.

Ah, no wonder I didn't recognise what it is, you don't need them for finger operated points.