Ruston

I visited Dunaskin a few years ago. The fireless had been advertised as running on that day, so when I got onto the platform and saw it parked up on a siding I felt quite disappointed. Then a member of staff walked across the track, got in the cab, rang the bell and the loco moved off to collect some wagons! I had never seen a fireless in working order before and never expected that it would be completely silent when parked up. Unlike a normal steam engine there wasn't a constant hiss or any little leaks of steam to show that it was ready to work, hence me thinking it was out of use. The Barclay 0-4-0ST that was running the passenger service failed and although the fireless couldn't pull the train, due to having no train brakes, we passengers all took turns in cramming into the cab for rides, which was a bonus. Another odd thing about it was that it didn't have the usual screw-operated brake but some sort of over-centre weighted lever in the cab to operate the brakes. I presume this is common to all fireless Barclays.

I saw this elsewhere on the interwebs and thought of this thread.

I wasn't going to buy one of these as I didn't have a layout that was really suitable for it, but I bought it anyway and then built a layout to suit it. I may have to get another one now.

Cheers, Rob. It won't do any harm to have a few loose ones lying about. These little details are the sort of thing that the various 3D printing folks could be selling. I've got some hollow open-ended oil drums that could use a load of chair screws. I made some removable coal loads. I was going to make them using dilute PVA in the same way we ballast track, but it would take days for the glue to dry, so I tried superglue. I use superglue for most modelling that needs glue and my usual type is the Javis yellow top stuff, the one that's mid way in consistency between the really watery blue top and the very thick red top. I have a bottle of the blue top that I bought as a last resort when I couldn't get any yellow top, but it goes everywhere and I spent a lot time ungluing myself from things when I used it. I reckoned it would be ideal for gluing coal loads in a very short time. I cut rectangles of card to fit the wagons and smaller rectangles to support the larger ones and then glued them together. I then tore off bits of kitchen roll that I had used to wipe brushes on, scrunched them up, flattened them a bit and glued them to the card. Then I dripped the runny superglue on and whilst it was still wet I sprinkled on coal that had been previously crushed and sieved. When I covered the kitchen roll in the runny superglue there was some kind of exothermic reaction and it started to smoke! So what did I do? I dropped a load of coal on top! 😁 Nothing caught fire anyway, so no harm, no foul. Instead of waiting for days for the glue to set, it was all dry and ready to use within minutes. Repeat 8 more times for one train of 21-ton hoppers. Just 22 loads for RCH minerals and 9 for 21-ton steel minerals to go. The HAA/HOP32 still need loads but I'm going to wait and see what Accurascale come up with. Having those cross members at the top means a load cannot be placed in or taken out as the wagons stand currently. A lot of the coal that is going to make these loads was collected on dog walks of the British Oak trackbed.

Excellent and informative set of posts there, Mol. No progress as such, but...

Wm. Pepper's Kerr Stuart Victory gets a heavy coal train moving toward the BR exchange sidings at Blacker Lane opencast Disposal Point.

A filthy Coal Board Hunslet crossing Blacker Lane at Calder Grove, West Riding, 1972.

It comes in all sorts of thicknesses. Anything from 5 thou. to 60 thou. so Plasticard is quite suitable.

Of course, you're right. I guess it's just one of those imagined things. When I look again at the Flickr photo that shows the orange Jinty and the viaduct, there's a lot of both wooden and concrete sleepers lying about but not one with a chair on it.

The roller, from the bottom of page 9, has been reassembled. I've still got to make a new exhaust for it. I also made some sleepers from balsa. I'd like to have some lying around with chairs on them but I don't have any chairs and C&L want well over £20 for a pack of 250, which is a huge waste of money when I only need about two dozen.

I might do. The Leyland Boxer skip lorry on Charlie Strong's yard was built from one of their kits. The sun was shining through the shed windows and I had the proper camera with me, so took this snap. It's going to look alright once the trees are in place and the buildings are finished.

Hi Rob. I've just googled Oxford Diecast Leyland Bison and I get lots of bus models, a few LDV vans and some old-looking Leyland lorries, but nothing that looks like either of those lorries in the photo, or in fact anything that looks like a 1970s lorry at all.

I don't think it ever worked there. It was saved and the last I knew of it was at the Severn Valley Railway.

Having had a very quick skim through the website that Durley linked to I'd say so! Way beyond my pay grade for sure. Best to work on the KISS principle.

I added some static grass to some areas. I'm not sure about it. It may look better when I add some more. None of these shed area buildings are fixed down yet. The shed itself needs joint pieces adding before it can be planted permanently. They've probably got a proper engineering or architectural name but I mean where the various pieces of angle iron come together and the plates that they all bolt to. I have found a photo of the loco watering facilities at British Oak but I won't be changing what I've got now. There was a rectangular tank, with plain flat sides, mounted high on the outside of the rear of the shed. A pipe and bag swung out and the loco was watered on the track that ran past the shed. Obviously, I couldn't replicate that anyway as the nearest track diverges away too far from the shed on the layout. I don't know how steam engines were coaled but one of the uses of the JCB could be that, so that's how it's done at Blacker Lane.

I remember those Ripponden & District lorries from when I was a kid. They seemed very old fashioned with the sign-written lettering and those fibreglass tops on the load area. I could have one waiting at the level crossing. For the coal lorries I've decided to do them all in Hargreaves orange livery. I'm not sure what the nearest one is, some sort of Leyland? I think the one behind it is a Leyland Mastiff. Incidentally, the Flickr photo above shows the towed vibratory roller and compressor that I mentioned earlier. I am waiting for this beast to arrive in the post, in the form of the Model Rail/Heljan RTR loco, any time now. 12099, at British Oak. It went on to work at Bowers Row, where it must have recieved an overhaul, or at least a fresh coat of paint. When I saw it in Booth's scrapyard it looked in better condition than above. I will definitely weather it but perhaps to Bowers Row condition, rather than the full-on faded wreck it looked at British Oak. Or is that just taking the easy way out? 🤔

The jackshaft crank looks strange without a balance weight. Is there a particular reason that you've made it that shape?

The Fowler's looking a bit different now. I never realised how different those standard ones are from the GWR one.

I put some corrugated sheet on the new building but my supply didn't stretch to doing the roof. There is now a piece of mirrored plasticard behind the new building, which I think looks quite effective. Better than a blank white wall anyway.

Could someone please answer this? @AY Mod?

I see. I still reckon I'm better off using the ear ring blanks. I can make them as any sort of mounting I like. Swan-necked, pendant etc. Rubbish phone pic, so not the best of focus. The building has some paint on it now. I've made a start on the card shell of another building and have begun to paint some trees on the backscene. They're very rough but aren't finished. They don't need to look much in any case as a row of model trees will be in front of the painted ones, which are only there to provide some depth to the scene so that it will look more like a wood than a row of trees on a ridge.

Thanks. They look alright but at £9.59 each, they can keep them! These are ear ring blanks. Ebay, £3.11 for 100 of any of these sizes. That's more in my price range. I don't need them to light up so a short length of plastic rod that has had the end heated in a flame to make it bulb-shaped will be glued on and Bob's your uncle. I'm not sure the stalk will bend, being Stainless, but it could be replaced with brass wire. A pack of 4mm and one of 6mm, I think I'll have. The 4mm for over doors in the screens, offices etc. and the 6mm for general yard use.

Merry Christmas to everyone who reads this rubbish. After a huge meal that had me worried of the consequences should anyone offer me a "waffer thin meent", I retired to the shed and had another look at the ladder and the landing, shown in the previous pic. It was obvious that anyone climbing the ladder would hit their bonce on the landing, so I ripped the landing off and made a new one. It needs a few uprights to join the horizontal rails but I'll have my Christmas pud and let the MEK joints set before adding the uprights. The bargeboards have been added and some greenery has begun to sprout on the embankment. Thanks but that would be even bigger than the poppy part, I would think. I've been told that ear ring blanks (no, I don't really know what they are either) can make decent industrial lamps, so I'll look into that in more detail.

Close. Ladders but not signal ladders. You can probably buy ladders with cages as 3D prints but where are you going to get one on a Sunday, on a Christmas Eve and for less than 2p worth of Plasticard?

I guess that might work for Gauge 1 but it'll be rather large for 4mm. I'd also have to wait until next November. No prizes but can anyone guess what these are going to be?