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Captain Kernow

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Blog Entries posted by Captain Kernow

  1. Captain Kernow
    I've had a rolling road for some time, but have always preferred to run locos in on a circle of track, in both OO and P4 gauges.
     
    My 16XX (built from the old Cotswold kit, now available again from SE Finecast) was constructed a few years ago, but I've never been completely happy with the running.
     
    I had given it what I considered to be a 'good running in' (several hours, all told) on my circle of P4 track, which has to be laid out on newspapers on the floor, but that didn't improve the quality of the running to the extent that I had hoped. The loco has a heavy whitemetal body, on a pair of Gibson 64XX milled frames (the wheelbase is the same as the 16XX, but the frames need to be slightly lengthened at one end and shortened at the other by the same amount to get the relationship between the axle centres and the splashers on the body right). It is driven by a Mashima motor via a High Level gearbox.
     
    I've tinkered with the quartering and the side rods, but never quite managed to get the level of smooth running that I wanted.
     
    A few months ago, however, when I was doing more work at my workbench and could keep an eye on proceedings, I decided that I had nothing to lose by putting the loco on the Bachrus rolling road and giving it a significant spell of running forwards and backwards.
     

     
    At the end of that process, given the running on the rolling road under the control of my Gaugemaster (DC) controller, I was still sceptical, but I hadn't tried it on a piece of track and under the control of my slow speed hand-held controller until this afternoon.
     
    Whilst still not quite 'perfect', I was pleased to see that the running was better than I had expected, so rather than rush into building a Branchlines chassis for it (the parts for which I obtained earlier this year), I will persevere with another spell on the rolling road and see how that goes.
  2. Captain Kernow
    So now to the details of the chassis build.
     
    This blog is essentially about putting a replacement etched chassis kit under an existing RTR body, but it's also about me finally realising a desire to get this long-standing loco running properly.
     
    I do like Perseverence chassis kits. They are pretty straightforward and simple to build, they have helpful tabs and slots for the frame spacers (should you choose to use the manufacturers recommended configuration) and are, in my view, entirely adequate for a 'layout loco' that's going to spend more time running on a layout than being closely inspected by the unforgiving macro lens of digital cameras.
     
    I know that High Level do a chassis kit for the J72, and indeed I have one or two of Chris Gibbon's chassis kits under some of my other RTR bodies, and I would imagine that his kit is probably the best and most detailed/comprehensive for a J72 in 4mm scale.
     
    I have used one of High Level's excellent gearboxes, however.
     
    The chassis kit instructions are pretty straightforward, with diagrams and plenty of description. I think that these kits were unavailable for a while, but they are most definitely back on the market now. More information can be found on their website here - http://www.perseverancekits.co.uk/
     
    One of the first things I did, after removing the J72 body from the old Mainline split chassis, was to glue in new chassis fixing points at the front and rear. The front fixing is (as per the kit instructions) one of the frame spacers, with an 8BA nut soldered in place. The rear fixing point is made up of plasticard and has another 8BA nut glued in place and 'trapped' by being closely surrounded by more plasticard, plus a piece on top of the nut. You will need to ensure that the 8BA bolt is cut to exactly the right length for this one.
     
    The rear fixing point also functions as a shelf for the body to sit on the rear of the chassis, so it's important to get the position of this exactly right, relative to the rest of the body:

     
    As I was building this chassis with single beam compensation, the leading and middle axle holes were cut out for the hornblocks:

     
    I then turned to the motor and gearbox. I had a Loadhauler gearbox left over from another project a few years ago, where I decided to change the gearbox. I cleaned this up and attached a Mashima 1220 motor to it and ran it in for a few hours, with the motor sitting on a bit of bluetack and wires directly soldered to it. All seemed to be well.
     

     
    It was at this juncture that I realised that I ought to check that the motor and gearbox would actually fit in this rather small loco. It didn't, the Loadhauler is too tall for a J72.

     
    I then got out my acetate print-off from the High Level website, that shows the actual size of the gearboxes. I worked out that a Humpshunter was the one I wanted, so I e-mailed Chris at High Level and asked for the price of a 90:1 example. I got a really quick response from Chris, together with a gearbox in the post extremely quickly, so many, many thanks to Chris for his usual excellent level of service.
     
    While I was waiting for the new gearbox, I put the hornblocks together and laid the essential chassis components out:

     
    Although I do have a chassis building jig (the Hobby Holidays one), I didn't really need it to solder the frames together, but instead used these Comet jigs:

     
    Here is the soldered up chassis, albeit with the hornblocks and some other detail still to be added:

     
    Next thing was to get the chassis rolling. I had bought Markits wheels for the J72, and set about fettling the wheels to take the squared off axle ends. I don't know if many of you have had this problem, but 'as bought', it's often difficult to get a Markits wheel to fit the axle end, without a bit of careful fettling to the square hole in the wheel. Fortunately I had a small, square section file that was exactly the right size:

     
    Around this time, the new gearbox arrived, so I made that up and attached a Mashima 1020 motor to it. The smaller motor is necessary, because on the J72 it will need to sit between the frames slightly, where the distance is just under 11mm:

     
    I tested the gearbox and motor combination, having first run the motor in for a while on a bit of bluetack. The slow and smooth motion as the driving wheel revolves so very slowly is just a joy to behold. Chris has refined the construction of his gearboxes in the few years since I last assembled one, and they are just fantastic.
     
    The next task, having soldered the hornblocks to the chassis, using the Hobby Holidays jig and the coupling rods as a guide to the precise correct location, was to get the wheels in the chassis and the coupling rods on. They are temporarily held in place by small bits of plastic wire insulation. Fortunately the chassis rolled really smoothly, as I propelled it in either direction with my Peckett 'Plantagenet':

     
    Similar view but with the J72's body on the chassis:

     
    I hadn't got the rear body fixing point quite right, in that the body was sittling a fraction of a mm too high at the back:

     
    Fortunately there was some metal on the rear of the frames that could be removed to give the correct rear buffer height.
     
    So this is the current state of play:

     

     
    I did need to add an additional frame spacer just under the motor, so that it wouldn't fall down into the frames and foul the compensation beam:

     
    The next jobs are to test the chassis under power, and once I'm happy with that, fit the brake gear and pick ups. There will then need to be some weight added to the loco body and I can then paint and weather the chassis and give the loco body a little gentle weathering as well.
  3. Captain Kernow
    Background
     
    Having completed my first new loco for several years, namely the 'Planet' diesel, which will form the 'modern image' motive power for the Vale of Radnor Light Railway and still not being in a position to build the baseboards for 'Bethesda Sidings', my thoughts have turned to providing one of the steam locos for this outrageously improbable light railway.
     
    All the locos of the VoRLR are authorised by the Western Region Sectional Appendix to run into the BR yard at Bethesda Sidings, for the purpose of exchanging traffic with the light railway.
     
    Although I have other OO industrials, I do like building locos and rather like the idea of providing all-new motive power for this particular layout, hence this next project.
     
    I should make one thing clear from the outset, though. The Captain doesn't normally 'do' the LNER. I don't know that much about it and normally stay in the security of my GW/MR/S&DJR comfort zone, and don't go anywhere near the products of the eastern side of the country.
     
    However, there are exceptions. I'd do almost anything to help any B12 that was lost on a dark and stormy night in the West Country, having owned at least two Triang/ Triang Hornby ones in my youth. Also some locos that look a bit like B12s might also find sanctuary in Kernow Towers, such as a Claude Hamilton, if the price down in Camborne is right.
     
    I was also rather taken by the recent Hornby J15, but was a bit put off by the handrail knob 'issue'.
     
    The other exception is the rather cute little J72. I got introduced to the old Mainline one many years ago, shortly after they first came out, when I bought one on behalf of a friend in Germany, who liked to have a few English locos on his vast Fleischmann/Marklin layout, so I was charged with bringing one back after a break in Blighty, when I was working over there as a student.
     
    A few years later, and I eventually ended up with two of the coves myself, one was black and I don't recall the original colour of the other one. They were both Mainline examples, of course, as Bachmann UK was still some years away, and they both had the horrible old split chassis system. Apart from that, though, I thought they were fab.
     
    Notwithstanding the fact that I very much liked these Eastern engines, neither was destined to remain in BR (E) or LNER liveries for long. In fact, one of the reasons I like them, is that they seem ideally suited to being sold out of service for further use in industry and/or light railways.
     
    The black J72 was the first to be given the ‘treatment’, and was heavily weathered, named ‘Charlotte’ and re-lettered as a loco sold to the National Coal Board. She then went back in her box for several years, until I had need of an NCB loco, when ‘Engine Wood’ made its first exhibition appearance in 1994.
     
    Although ‘Charlotte’ initially ran on ‘Engine Wood’ with the old Mainline split chassis, that eventually gave up and was replaced by a Perseverence chassis, which (despite the loco being in OO), I fitted compensation to, for improved electrical pick-up.
     

     
    The other J72 was re-sprayed in GW green in the early 1980s (Brunswick Green, yes, I know, great, isn’t it?) and given the name ‘Jennifer’. She adopted the guise of a loco sold to an unspecified light railway and which eventually ended up in the care of the Herefordshire Railway Society at their preservation base at Lower Vowchurch. When that group eventually disbanded and vacated the site, ‘Jennifer’ was removed to a private location, where she is probably still resident today.
     
    The 4mm version of ‘Jennifer’ also retained her old Mainline split chassis and never even had a layout to run on, as she wasn’t really suitable for ‘Engine Wood’. By the time that I built ‘Bleakhouse Road’, her old split chassis had also given up, and so she wasn’t going to be usable on the South Polden Light Railway. As such, she just stayed in her box for many more years.
     
    I even bought a completed etched chassis from a friend some years ago, with the intention of getting ‘Jennifer’ running again, but the chassis never worked very well and turns out to have been for a J71 with larger wheels and was eventually disposed of.
     
    Fast forward again to the decision to build ‘Bethesda Sidings’ and the subsequent announcement of the Cameo Layout Competition. Here now was an ideal scenario to run ‘Jennifer’ and I got quite energised at the thought of putting a new etched chassis under her.
     
    First thing was to get her out of the box and pose for some photos:
     

     
    I then went about getting the necessary parts to get her running again, principally a Perseverence chassis kit, some Markits 4’ driving wheels and a spare High Level gearbox from my Spare Gearboxes box.
     
    More to follow.
  4. Captain Kernow
    Having got to the stage where the loco was running more or less to my satisfaction, it was time to finish the work on the body, paint the loco and weather it.
     
    Part of the cab floor area had to be removed to accommodate the High Level gearbox:

     
    Even though this probably wasn't going to be too visible, especially once a portly driver was installed, I decided to box the gearbox in with plasticard, to represent a kind of 'control desk':

     
    All very basic stuff and it was indeed scarcely visible, once the cab roof was put on and the glazing fitted.
     
    The kit didn't provide an exhaust pipe, and I believe that such provision varied on the prototype, but others had fitted an exhaust, so I decided to do likewise, and used some brass rod and tube to make a rather basic exhaust pipe:

     

     
    The large industrial buffers were trial fitted:

     
    The cab roof overhangs at the front but not at the sides, and I considered for some time whether to glue the roof on, once the interior had been painted and the flush glazing fitted. In the end, I decided that I wanted to retain some kind of access to the cab interior. The flush glazing was always going to be a simple 'press fit' in the window apertures, so in the event of a piece coming loose, replacing it was always going to be much easier, if the cab roof could be removed.
     
    In the end, I decided to fabricate a brass 'girder' to be soldered at roof height, with a 12 BA nut soldered exactly in the middle. A corresponding hole would be drilled and countersunk in the cab roof, and the screw head hidden on the outside by a small piece of plasticard, representing a roof ventilator:

     
    The 'cab roof ventilator' piece of plasticard is not shown in this view, but the countersunk hole for the 12 BA bolt is visible:

     
    It was now time to paint the model. I had chosen two Halfords aerosols, 'Ford Meadow Green' and a generic 'British Racing Green' as possible liveries, and I wanted to see what they both looked like on top of both red and grey primer, so I made up some trial pieces of plasticard and sprayed them. Here they are in grey and red primer, each waiting the respective top coats:

     
    In the end, I decided to use the red primer as the undercoat (notice the replacement Archers rivets):

     
    I then sprayed the 'Ford Meadow Green' and brush painted some of the other colours, when the green had dried:

     
    It was beginning to look more like a finished loco now, but there was still the question of the cab glazing. At the beginning of the project, I had measured each individual cab window and I later cut individual glazing pieces from a sheet of 15 thou glazing material and ensured that each one fitted its respective window. I then laid them out so that there would be no confusion later, when I came to fit them:

     
    The initial weathering was then done, consisting of spraying a light misting of a 'weathering mix' over the whole loco (Humbrol enamels, including a dark grey, Metalcote Black and No. 62 Matt Leather), and then wiping most of it off using a flat brush, dampened with thinners:

     

     

     
    Prior to the final bit of weathering (drybrushing), I needed to fit the sprung buffers. As mentioned in a previous blog entry, these are Kean Maygib steel industrial buffers, and in my view, look better than the smaller, oval buffers supplied with the kit (which in any case, weren't sprung).
     
    I had already glued the brass buffer shanks in place and cleaned out the 0.5mm holes that take the thin spindle of steel that is supposed to go through the shank. You put the small coil spring on first and when the buffer head is in the correct position, you bend the thin shank behind the buffer beam slightly, to 'trap' the buffer and it's spring in place.
     
    This would work fine for a normal loco, but on the 'Planet', the outside frames form a substantial whitemetal barrier, and when I had put the full length of the buffer in place, the 0.5mm steel spindle at the end wasn't visible - it just wasn't long enough.
     
    I found a piece of 0.5mm brass rod and poked it through the buffer hole, and eventually it appeared in the space behind the outside frames and the buffer beam. Unless I decided to glue the buffer heads in place, there was only one thing for it, which was to cut the 0.5mm steel spindles off and drill the back of the buffer heads to accept a longer length of 0.5mm rod, which I would solder in place. This is what I then did:

     

     
    Once the buffers were in place and working nicely, I then glued the nameplates in place and finished the weathering with a bit of dry brushing.
     
    The finished loco looks like this:

     

     

     

     
    The last job was to make one of my standard design of loco boxes from Daler board:

     
    The loco is now 'in service', and awaits the construction of it's outrageously improbable light railway.
  5. Captain Kernow
    One thing I will say about the Roxey 'Planet' kit, is that is relatively easy to build, especially if you are happy to stick with the Tenshodo 'Spud' motor bogie option. Being whitemetal gives it the advantages of having some decent weight about it and also giving the builder the option to glue the main body components together, instead of soldering.
     
    It is arguably a good 'starter kit' for someone wanting an industrial diesel and something with a bit of character. DJH do a 'starter kit' for an 02 0-4-0 diesel, which is pretty straightforward to put together and is also whitemetal, but might look, to some, as having a bit too much 'muscle' for a small industrial system or an impecunious light railway. There are plenty of other options available if you are happy to build an etched kit, and the ranges of Judith Edge Kits and High Level Kits offer much inspiration in that regard.
     
    Anyway, back to the loco. Given that I wasn't using a 'Spud', I needed to build a basic 0-4-0 chassis to accommodate the High Level 'Quad Driver' gearbox and carry the weight of the loco body. A couple of bits of brass were cut to size, axle holes drilled out and some spare Comet frame spacers used:

     
    In this photo, you can see that I've inked in the outline of the High Level gearbox, just to make sure everything fitted OK:

     
    I put some wheels on the chassis and test fitted it to the loco body:

     
    By this time I had just about worked out where the respective gear wheels went in the chassis and had also test fitted the motor to the gearbox:

     
    At this point, and remembering a comment on one of the other threads on the building of this kit, I had to put one of the driving gear wheels on the rear driven axle. The axles are 2mm, and the driving gear wheels are a rather tight force fit, so lining every thing up, including axle washers to reduce slop and some 2mm internal diameter brass tubing to keep the gear wheels in their correct positions within the gearbox and drive extension, was going to be interesting. This is what it looked like with just the rear axle drive in place:

     
    Having established that the motor would drive the rear axle and the adjacent gear wheels nice and smoothly, it was time for a further trial fit of the chassis to the body, this time with the motor attached, to enable the radiator front and top of the bonnet to be glued on, without fouling the Mashima 1020 motor inside:

     

     
    Time now to glue the top of the bonnet on with 5 minute epoxy. My left hand acted as a clamp for around 10 minutes or so:

     
    With the glue having set, I put the body aside for the glue to really harden and went back to the chassis.
     
    I put the remaining driven gearwheel on the leading axle and wired the motor up to test run the whole assembly:

     

     

     
    It ran pretty well, in fact, thanks to the excellent design and engineering of the High Level product.
     
    A bit more work saw the Maygib industrial buffer shanks glued in place. The kit comes with a cast oval buffer, but I felt that some large, round industrial buffers were what I really needed:

     

     
    Next was to get the loco running properly 'under its own power', ie. on some track with the pick ups fitted.
     
    My first attempt at gluing some copper clad sleeper onto the chassis, to mount the pick-ups on, didn't work:

     
    The copper clad sleeper stuck out too far from the sides of the chassis and prevented the body from sitting back on the chassis, so that came off and smaller bits were glued on the side of each frame, and pick ups soldered on:

     
    The pick ups in the photo above were from 0.5mm phosphor bronze wire. This was another 're-learning' point. I had forgotten how relatively unyielding that diameter of wire is, when configured like that, so these were replaced with thinner p/b wire (0.4mm, I think), and that made a big difference.
     
    The loco was then put on the test track for further testing:

     
    I had built the chassis as uncompensated, as I reasoned that by building it square, so that all wheels were on the track at the same time, the pick ups should work OK off all four wheels. This proved to be rather idealistic, as in practice there are often tiny imperfections that inhibit current collection, so I had to dismantle the chassis more or less completely, and provide some basic compensation, which took the form of slight vertical ovals in the axle holds at one end, together with a bar for the centre of the axle to rest on. The other driven axle remained fixed. The compensated end is the left hand end in this photo:

     
    After that, the loco ran much more smoothly, especially after I had applied a small amount of Carr's Microgrease to the gear wheels (not really necessary with Delrin gears, but there you go), and some lubrication to the axle holes. There were still some minor hesitations, though, so I then installed some additional wiper pick-ups, acting on the edges of the wheel flanges, plus I ran the whole chassis on a rolling road for a couple of hours. That bedded it all in nicely and I was now happy with the running.

     

     

     
    One more installment to follow.
  6. Captain Kernow
    With regard to this project, I wasn't planning on going into loads of detail about what this kit was like to build, as there are already two threads on RMWeb by others who have also done so. One is by Paul G ('5050') and the other by Gordon A ('Steamraiser'). Paul's thread can be found here - http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/97619-the-next-project-roxey-planet/ and Gordon's thread is on the older version of RMWeb, and can be found here - http://www.rmweb.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=25602
     
    I must say at this point that both gentlemen were very helpful when I had some questions during the course of my own build, particularly with regard to the High Level 'Quad Drive' gearbox, so my thanks to them both again.
     
    As this project was my first loco build for several years, I thought I would touch upon some of the 're-learning' issues that I encountered along the way, as I had done practically no modelling (apart from the point construction featured on my blog earlier this year) of any kind since 2014 prior to this.
     
    I will say at this point that although I was keen to start a loco kit project, it took me a while to decide whether to do the 'Planet' or something else from the 'to do' box. One kit that was also taken out was a Judith Edge Ruston 88DS kit, which is definitely to be in P4. I think, though, that it was the decision to build the 'cameo' shunting layout ('Bethesda Sidings') that swung it for me.
     
    Having only used my modelling table for a very limited number of non-modelling related tasks over the previous three years, I found that not everything was where I wanted it to be, and I had to search for some tools and other items. Fortunately, most things were not too difficult to find, but it wasn't quite the same thing as simply starting a new kit build project from an already 'operational' modelling table.
     
    Although I'd lost the modelling mojo for over two years, it had been even longer since I had assembled a whitemetal loco kit. I removed all the pieces from the kit box, as shown in the photo in the previous blog entry, and had a good look at them.
     
    Due to the outside frames of this loco, the majority of the body and frames could go together as one 'unit', although the Roxey instructions guide you to making the cab and bonnet removable from the footplate and outside frames, something that both Paul and Gordon had observed, but which I failed to spot at the time.
     
    I looked at the cab and footplate castings first. The corners of the cab were mitred, which could arguably make for a snug-fitting corner, but in reality I found that I needed to fettle the castings a bit to get the fit that I was happy with.
     
    Then came the next realisation. In the past, I have usually tried, wherever possible, to solder whitemetal castings together, and generally I've found it relatively straightforward, although not without its problems. The Roxey cab castings have some nice rivet detail on them, which I realised might get damaged when cleaning up after soldering. I decided to get some photos of all four sides, so that I could replace any rivets removed during cleaning up.
     
    In these views, the cab castings are held together with bluetack and placed on the footplate in a 'dry run':

     

     

     

     

    Having my 'record' photos, I went ahead and soldered the four cab sides together and soldered them onto the footplate. This was to make cutting out the necessary additional material to accommodate the High Level 'Quad Drive' a bit harder, but more of that in due course.
     
    Despite having successfully soldered these five components together, plus the two sides of the bonnet, it was rather stressful, as I usually use a mains iron for soldering whitemetal now, in order to deliver sufficient heat quickly. One doesn't like to linger, however, under such circumstances, and when it came to attaching the buffer beams and outside frames, I decided that there was so much whitemetal to bond, that I'd rather fall back and use epoxy glue instead.
     
    This is the assembly (taken a day after the photos shown above) with some rubber bands holding everything together, while the 5 minute epoxy set:

     
    When the glue had cured (I like to leave it several hours, at least, even with 5 minute epoxy), the loco looked like this:

     

     
    Notice that I have (purposely) removed all rivets from some parts of the cab, to aid the rubbing down and general cleaning up after soldering. I would later reinstate the rivets using Archers transfers.
     
    Before doing any further work on the body, I realised that I had to ensure that the motor and gearbox would fit correctly, which in turn would enable me to work out how much whitemetal to remove from the cab front and the footplate.
     
    These are the High Level 'Quad Drive' components (please note that I have already folded up the main motor mount):

     
    Looking at the gearbox components, I realised that I didn't really know how the various gear wheels went together. Because this was a kind of 'bespoke' product from High Level, there were no instructions, so it was at this point that I became familiar with the useful information on Paul and Gordon's respective threads. After much consideration, it started to make sense:

     

     
    More to follow.
  7. Captain Kernow
    A few years ago, I bought a whitemetal kit for a Hibberd 'Planet' 0-4-0 diesel, as produced by Roxey Mouldings. At the time, I intended to build it in P4, as (yet another) industrial loco to work into 'Callow Lane'.
     
    The kit was originally intended to be used with a Tenshodo 'Spud' motor bogie, with a wheelbase of 24.5mm.
     
    I'm no great fan of the 'Spuds' and in view of the fact that I originally wanted to build it in P4, I was pleased to hear that High Level had produced a bespoke 'Quad Driver' gearbox for this kit, originally in conjunction with Gordon Ashton (Steamraiser of this forum).
     
    I spoke to Chris Gibbon of High Level, and he kindly provided me with the requisite 'Quad Driver' gearbox and a motor.
     
    The kit then joined the pile of others in the 'to do' box and a few years passed, including latterly a couple of years when I lost my modelling mojo almost completely.
     
    Since then, I'm pleased to say that the modelling mojo has come back, in no small measure inspired by the notion of building a small, OO-SF shunting/goods-only layout, which would be small enough to have set up permanently at home. The idea for this layout was developed and eventually became 'Bethesda Sidings', a goods yard set on a fictitious ex-GW line in Mid-Wales, into which an outrageously improbably light railway ran, with running powers over the BR line. This is the 'Vale of Radnor Light Railway'.
     
    Then came the announcement of the Cameo Layout Competition, so I decided to enter 'Bethesda Sidings' in the competition.
     
    Although I have some industrial locos already, which would be suitable for use on the Vale of Radnor Light Railway traffic into and out of 'Bethesda Sidings', I've always liked building locos and I decided to give the VoRLR some dedicated motive power of it's own, and so I thought of the 'Planet' kit.
     
    Thus the decision was made to build it in OO instead of P4, and some Romford/Markits 12mm wagon wheels were obtained (actually I think I had them sitting in a cardboard box with a load of other wheels).
     
    I got the 'Planet' kit and it's gearbox kit out of the 'to do' box and opened it up:
     

     

     

    Apart from the reasonably nice whitemetal castings, I realised that I would need to build my own simple 0-4-0 chassis to carry the 'Quad Driver' gearbox, so I had a look in my box sheet brass odds and ends and found some suitable material of approx. 15 thou thickness.
     
    I'd also need to make up my own flush glazing, for which I would use some nice quality 10 thou material, kindly supplied by my good friend John F (Re6/6).
     
    More to follow.
  8. Captain Kernow
    Having received my most attractive-looking 14XX from Hattons last week, I have finally got round to running it in, as per the instructions provided with the loco.
     
    I have added lubrication to the two locations under the chassis keeper plate, and also to the coupling rod bearings, as per the instructions.
     
    I did test it briefly yesterday, but it wasn't a particularly good slow speed runner 'straight from the box'.
     
    I have cut out a circle of Daler board this morning, to lay my circle of Lima set track out on, so that I can put the test circuit down in a room that I can close off from feline curiosity.
     

     

     
    I do hope that the running in process works, as initial testing on the circle of track was very disappointing, with very uneven running, at both slow and moderate speeds.
     
    I will update this blog in due course.
  9. Captain Kernow
    Having now glued all the cosmetic half chairs onto this copper-clad point, I tested it with a few locos this afternoon, to ensure that I had cut the inner chairs down sufficiently to ensure that Bachmann etc. flanges wouldn't foul them.
     
    Here is Peckett 'Plantagenet', which has RP25 wheels running over the point:

     
    Ex-LNER J72 'Charlotte', sold to the NCB, may occasionally be found on hire to the outrageously improbably light railway that will have running powers into the BR goods yard on my new layout:

     
    I also ran some locos with proprietary chassis, including a Bachmann pannier, a Hornby Peckett and my DJM/Hattons 14XX, all of which had no problem running through the points or fouling any chairs.
     
    The tandem turnout can now go into the drawer with the other completed pointwork. I may now built the remaining two A5 points that I need, but I'm being tempted by the prospect of a loco or two.
  10. Captain Kernow
    Further to my previous blog entry, I've now completed the construction of an A5 'right-hand' crossover in OO-SF for the new goods only shunting layout that I'm planning.
     
    I was going to build another two A5 points for the entry to the yard, but most fortuitously found a tandem turnout that my good friend John (Re6/6) had scratchbuilt for me a few years ago.
     
    John's tandem turnout had never originally been intended for this new goods-only shunting layout, of course. A few years ago, I had been mumbling on about re-building the middle baseboard of 'Engine Wood', to give a larger radius entry to the station loop. John was very keen on this idea, and clearly frustrated by my usual 'talk but no action' behaviour, decided to produce the necessary pointwork as a prompt and a 'prod' to get me to take some action.
     
    He built the larger radius points as a tandem turnout, which would give a better approach to the station platform loop, whilst at the same time saving space.
     
    This is the location (highlighted in blue), that the tandem turnout was intended to replace:

     
    He also very kindly built a larger radius point to match the tandem turnout, and presented them to me a few years ago.
     
    Ingrate and procrastinator that I am, I carefully put them away in a safe place, and eventually forgot that I had them (sorry John!).
     
    Since that time, things have moved on a little. I am not now going to spend any further time rebuilding any part of 'Engine Wood', because I am seriously considering putting the layout up for sale in the near future, as I am going to need the space at home for new and on-going layout projects.
     
    The tandem turnout, however, was subsequently 're-discovered', at which time I realised that it's space-saving properties would also benefit the new shunting layout, so I'm going to use it for that project instead.
     
    When John built it, he very helpfully inserted small spacer pieces of brass between the tops of the copper-clad sleepers and the bottom of the rail, which will make it easier to glue the cosmetic chairs on.
     
    I attached some temporary electrical connections to the point yesterday, and ran a variety of locos through it, just to be sure that all worked well before I started gluing the cosmetic plastic half chairs to it.
     
    My new layout scheme will feature an (off-scene) connection to an outrageously improbable light railway, so here is 'Buntie' being tested on the tandem turnout:

     
    Slightly less improbable (for me) is this 08 diesel shunter:

     
    This is more like the kind of regular motive power:

     
    A variety of other locos were also tested, and all was well. I will now start the gluing of plastic half-chairs (Exactoscale) to the point next.
     
    This is the completed pointwork for the new layout so far. A further couple of A5 points still need to be constructed.

  11. Captain Kernow
    Following on from the testing of the left-hand point that I put up on my blog a few weeks ago, I have in the meantime added cosmetic plastic chairs.
     
    What I should really have done, is put spacers between the copper clad sleepers and the underside of the rail, which I have done before, but I didn't do it in this particular case. It's somewhat easier, I find, when building the point, if the rails can be soldered direct to the sleepers, but you do pay the price later, when you come to add cosmetic half chairs, to give it a semblance of bullhead track.
     
    I have used plastic P4 Track Company chairs (now marketed by C&L). These are cut in half and then cut down in height. Both the outer half and the inner half need to be cut down, but when using OO and RP25 flanges, the inner half chair needs to be cut down rather more than if you were doing this in P4 (which I have also done). The outer half chair, which also has the key detail, also needs to be reduced in height, but not by so much.
     
    The purpose of this test today was to ensure that typical loco flanges wouldn't foul the inner chairs, so I used a Bachmann pannier, a Hornby Peckett and some other locos that use etched chassis and RP25 profile wheels.
     
    Bachmann pannier starting the testing off (this loco will eventually get converted to P4, but I have another Bachmann pannier in OO that will eventually run over these points):

     
    Hornby Peckett:

     
    Mercian X Class Peckett 'Plantagenet':

     
    Another type of Peckett. This is a scratchbuilt model of 'Marcia' from the K&ESR, built many years ago by a friend of mine, and currently in my care:

     

     
    This photo shows just how small 'Marcia' is, compared with the Hornby W4, which itself is pretty small:

     

    Now that this testing has been satisfactorily concluded, the next steps will be to add cosmetic chairs to a copper clad 'Barry Slip' that I bought from Gordon S recently, which was surplus to his requirements, and complete the track layout design for the new OO shunting layout.
  12. Captain Kernow
    We had a good meeting at DRAG last night (Devon Riviera Area Group of the Scalefour Society), but for some, there was a 'regression' to a circle of 'O' gauge on the floor!
     
    Andrew H brought in a selection of recent 7mm RTR releases and a circuit of Peco track to run some of this stuff in, whilst the rest of us either looked on in envy, continued on working at our tables (it was a non-test track night) or stepped carefully around the circulating 7mm trains.
     
    David Brandreth in the process of clearing his heels from the line as the Heljan railbus approaches:

     
    Andrew H and Maurice Hopper discussing the merits of these new items over a cup of tea:

     
    The railbus keeps on running. A lovely model and excellent runner straight out of the box. As Andrew says of his planned small 7mm layout - 'that's the passenger stock sorted!'

     
    Maurice is checking again to make sure that this really is RTR, and not some skillfully built kit!

  13. Captain Kernow
    For a variety of reasons I've done no modelling for over two years, but yesterday I managed to arrange things so that I could at least test a scratchbuilt OO point, that I'd built prior to that. The aim is to incorporate this and other copper clad OO points that I have available in a small new OO goods yard layout in due course.
     
    It's not currently possible to put any of my existing layouts up at home for any length of time, so it would be good to have something a bit smaller, that I can run my existing OO stock on.
     
    I tested the point with a variety of locomotives, so here are two examples.
     
    Peckett 0-6-0ST 'Plantagenet' tests the point:

     
    And Barclay 0-4-0 diesel 'Buntie' does the same:

     
    Cosmetic chairs etc. will be added to the point in due course.
  14. Captain Kernow
    I managed to get the cover for the second scenic baseboard completed today, taking advantage of the fact that the model railway construction room dining room was empty, having been re-decorated over the last week.
     
    Here's the board just put up on a pair of trestles, with the framework for the cover having already been removed:
     

     
    I attached the clear plastic sheeting to the wooden frame, and trimmed it to size. Here is the frame re-fitted with the plastic sheeting now in place:

     
    I then took the cover off again, and put most of the buildings and other structures that belong on this board, in place for a little photo session:

     
    The firm of Taffson Evans has a long and proud history in my world. This was the Bristol factory, which by the 1960s no longer made railway-related items:

     
    Having not yet had any firm exhibition deadlines, and this being my first P4 layout (even though it's been under construction for over 10 years!), a lot of my P4 stock hasn't yet been fully painted or weathered.
     
    One of the features of my layouts, is the fact that I like to completely make up find reasons to run industrials on B.R. metals for 'exchange of traffic' purposes. Here we see an Andrew Barclay 0-6-0T, recently transferred from one of the Scottish coalfields to the Coalpit Heath area, bringing a train of mineral wagons in to Callow Lane, from where they will be worked onward by a B.R. loco:

  15. Captain Kernow
    Some nice, warm sunshine yesterday saw me continuing work on the baseboard covers for Callow Lane.
     
    Last time I had got both of the scenic baseboards to this state, with the semi-permanent backscene boards in place, the removable travel board in place at one end of each board and a removable wooden framework from 1" x 1" timber also completed. Here is a photo of one of the boards:

     
    Here is the removable wooden frame taken off, prior to the clear polythene being added:

     
    The next job was to put the removable wooden frame back on (but not bolted down), take the large sheet of clear polythene and drape it over the board and cover (the polythene came with a new mattress a little while ago):

     
    I got so focused on the next stage, that I forgot to take photos as I went along, but it essentially consisted of laying a single thickness of polythene over the framework, cutting it approximately to size with a sharp Stanley knife, and then starting to attach it to the wooden framework using a standard stapler. The staples go in pretty easily, but stay in place well. I've used this method on the covers for 'Engine Wood', which have lasted well for over 20 years so far. The excess polythene is trimmed as you go. Here is the removable cover with the polythene fitted and trimmed to size, before being put back on the baseboard:

     
    The section with the polythene is then put back on the baseboard and bolted back in place. This is what it then looks like (please note that the masking tape is temporary, I will be using Velcro to keep the corners in place in due course):

     
    The opportunity was taken to add a carrying handle at the rear of the baseboard at the same time:

     
    This is the view under the covers:

     
    By the time I had finished the first cover, I had run out of time, so the next one will be done either when there's more fine, dry weather (possibly next week!) or may alternatively be done inside.
  16. Captain Kernow
    Work has continued on the construction of removable covers for the two main scenic boards, taking advantage of the sunny weather this week so far.
     
    These covers really have to be built 'in situ' on the layout, something that I learned to my cost when my first inexpert attempts at making similar covers for Engine Wood over 20 years ago, just from measurements, ended in a rather late departure from an exhibition, as I struggled to fit the covers back on the layout.
     
    Today I've been concentrating on the board that carries the level crossing, signal box and the site of the former passenger station.
     
    A lot of 1" x 1" planed timber is used in this process, which as far as I am concerned, is a tried and tested method of building layout covers. I would have built that layout with the boards going 'back to back' for transport, and actually got as far as making and fitting the two large end plates. The layout was transported to CamRail in this state in 2008, with no scenery to speak of, but even with very little other than the bare boards and track, the dimensions of the whole thing resulted in it being virtually unmanageable for one person to move and load/unload from the car.
     
    As such, each board will now have it's own removable covers, which will either be put back in the car at a show, or stored somewhere safe in the hall, at the exhibition manager's discretion.
     
    Once the back and end pieces were in place, I could start attaching some 1" x 1" along the back and sides, for the covers to be bolted to. The frames for the covers are also 1" x 1" timber.
     
    Once the front longitudinal timber was in place, I could start measuring, cutting and attaching the three vertical and horizontal pieces:

     
    Once all three vertical and horizontal pieces were glued and screwed in place, the remaining bolt holes along the back and sides were drilled and bolts fitted.
     
    It takes a few minutes only with a power screwdriver to remove all bolts and get the covers off, and despite this taking a little more time than 'Bleakhouse Road', where the two scenic boards are bolted 'back to back' for transport, this method results in a robust layout cover that will protect the scenery and track.
     
    Here's the framework more or less completed:

     

     
    The next job with this board will be to attach the clear polythene to the frame. I plan to use Velcro on the front edges at either end of the board, where there is no vertical piece to attach the Velcro to.
  17. Captain Kernow
    Following on from my mis-judgement of the actual length of the two main baseboards, even though it was only by a few millimetres, I went up to the excellent TimberCut in Marsh Barton, Exeter yesterday, where an extremely helpful chap cut me some new pieces of 6mm birch ply for the main backscene sections, plus the permanent end pieces as well.
     
    Further work was done outside this morning.
     
    Here we see the goods shed board, with the main backscene piece, and permanent end piece attached to the board:

     
    A removable piece will be fitted to the road overbridge end, which will form part of the removable layout cover:

     
    At the opposite end of the main road overbridge is another small bridge over the single line to Coalpit Heath West Junction. This as featured in a previous blog entry, and clearances are deliberately tight. Here I've put a box van up against the plywood to measure the loading gauge:

     
    The aperture has now been cut out:

     
    View through the hole, at the site of the narrow bridge:

     
    Back at the main road overbridge end, the removable end piece has now been fitted. This is held in place with two bolts and wing nuts, but the layout cover will be attached to the top and front, in due course:

     
    I have off-set the main birch ply piece with a strip of 4mm ply, below track level. This is to ensure that the layout cover doesn't touch or damage the girder bridge when it's removed or fitted:

     
    On to the other main board, which features the level crossing, signal box and cottage backs. Here we see the permanent end piece bolted in position, with one of the Mark 1s from the Matford 'Dawlish Donkey' set up against the ply for gauge measurement:

     

     
    The double track 'hole in the sky' will be partially obscured by a 'view blocker' low relief building, and I've also been thinking about other ways to further disguise it.
     
    Here the aperture for the double track has been cut out:

     
    At this point it was getting rather warm and I wanted my lunch. Just before I packed everything away, I realised that I hadn't cut the aperture out for the private siding at the back, that disappears behind the end of a row of four cottages, on it's way to the chocolate factory. We went out this afternoon, so I'll do that in due course.
  18. Captain Kernow
    There is still no modelling to report from Kernow Towers, and Callow Lane remains in the same state that it got to, almost exactly two years ago.
     
    However, I find that I'm having to start work on the wooden covers for each of the two main baseboards, to ensure that they are protected over the coming months, as they may get moved around the house in connection with decorating work etc. At the moment, they've got no protection over the embryonic scenic sections, other than a lightweight dust cover.
     
    I found out to my cost many years ago, that removable covers need to be built 'in situ' on each baseboard. 'Callow Lane' has (or will have) quite a deep backscene, which would mean that to bolt both boards 'back-to-back' would make the resulting unit virtually unmanageable by one person, so each board will have backscene boards semi-permanently attached at the rear and at each fiddle yard end, with the rest being removable. Apart from the end pieces to protect each 'board joint' end, the rest of the cover will consist of 1" x 1" timber, with a clear polythene covering (as per 'Engine Wood', for those who may have seen it).
     
    The backscene boards are being built of good quality birch ply.
     
    There is the scene earlier last week, with one of the boards in the garden. I was gluing some 2" x 1" blocks to the inside of the frames, to give the screws that will hold the backscene board in place, something to grip:

     

     
    Today, I glued up the end pieces that will protect the board joints on each board. Rather than bolt each piece directly to the flat face of the board end, I glued some 4mm ply to each piece, to enable them to be slightly 'off-set' and thus hopefully protect the scenery a bit:

     
    I then put one of the main boards back up on the trestles, to measure where the recently-glued in wooden blocks were, as a prelude to drilling the screw holes in the birch ply that will form the main backscene boards along the rear of each board:

     
    It may be best not to look too closely at my wiring and I would certainly not hold my methods up as a paragon of virtue:

     
    It was at this point in the proceedings this morning, that I realised that I had blundered big time in measuring the birch ply for the rear of each main board.
    You may note the different coloured timber of the baseboard extensions. When originally constructed, each main board was only 3' 6" in length, but I realised that the layout needed to be longer, so one of my earlier blogs did feature the 1' extensions that I fitted. That is what you can see in the photo above.
     
    However, I made the serious error of assuming that each board was 4' 6" exactly when I went to get the birch ply cut to size. I should have measured it, and then measured it again, as each board is slightly longer than 4' 6".
     
    There's nothing for it, if I am to avoid having an unsightly gap at the back, other than to get new sections of birch ply cut to size, and to find a new use for the original pieces.
     
    Anyway, back to other model railway developments at Kernow Towers.
     
    I went to RailWells yesterday, and a very good show it was too. Upstairs, in the main hall, I once again encountered the Ixion/Minerva stand, selling their delightful 7mm R-T-R industrials, amongst other things. I had been very impressed with these when I saw them for the first time at RailEx in Aylesbury this year, and a plan to re-start the modelling mojo has been bubbling away ever since.
     
    Yesterday, after valiantly holding out for most of the show, I gave up the unequal struggle of resisting these 7mm delights, so I now appear to own a 7mm locomotive!:

     

     

     
    This was advised to me as the last of the red ones to be available. I've always liked red engines, so now I've got to build something in 7mm to run it on. I'm really rather enthused about the prospect!
     
    In the meantime, here it is again, next to another loco that also isn't P4:

     

     
    I would add that the purple hue of the buffer beams and side rods is a trick of the light/exposure.
  19. Captain Kernow
    Greetings all,
     
    I'm afraid that there's still no modelling to report on, but by way of an update, here are some images taken on the Harz narrow gauge system last weekend, on the occasion of a holiday in that part of Germany. We had a trip on the section of line on the Brocken (the highest mountain in northern Germany). The whole narrow gauge scene there in the Harz Mountains is quite superb.
     
    Waiting departure from Drei Annen Hohne:

     
    Old fashioned railcar forming a regular service train, waiting to cross a steam service at Drei Annen Hohne:

     
    Our loco running round at Drei Annen Hohne:

     
    Watering activity:

     
    On the way up the Brocken. These 2-10-2Ts are superb locos. The gradient is unremitting and it coped with the load of 8 coaches effortlessly:

     
    There's a conventionally laid-out crossing loop at Schierke, about 1/3 of the way up the line, but the next crossing place further up consists of a refuge siding, controlled by a manned ground frame (the line is also signalled with colour lights). The method of working here is for the train running down the mountain to run straight into the refuge siding and wait the passage of the up train, which runs by non-stop. Once the up train has cleared a certain point, the ground frame operator/signalman changes the points and authorises the down train to reverse out of the refuge siding, and proceed on down the mountain. Here we are on the up journey, passing a down train waiting in the refuge siding:

     
    By the time we had got to the top of the mountain, the weather was very different. It was very cold with a lot of snow still lying on the ground:

     
    Back down at Drei Annen Hohne, I found a vintage train in the bay platform, with this rather nice Mallett loco at the head of it:

     
    All in all, a very interesting time. The whole network is operated as a commercial operation by the company HSB (Harz Schmalspur Bahnen - Harz Narrow Gauge Railways - http://www.hsb-wr.de/startseite/ ), and the total network (consisting of three separate, but connected lines) is 140 km in length. It certainly merits a return visit!
     
    On a different note, I retire today from Network Rail.
  20. Captain Kernow
    There's been no modelling done in Kernow Towers for some weeks now, because of recent changes to our feline demographic.
     
    We've always had two cats in our household for many years, but sadly our 15 year old ginger female had to be put to sleep a few weeks ago due to deteriorating health.
     
    We decided to get a new kitten a couple of weeks ago, and in order to manage the introductions to our existing cat, the room that 'Callow Lane' is normally kept in had to be completely re-orientated, and the layout put away upstairs.
     
    Coupled with that, the recent leak in a hot water supply pipe embedded in plasterwork immediately the other side of my hobby room has required the clearing out of part of the contents of that room, in order to allow the carpet and floor to dry out.
     
    CTMK and I have also been much preoccupied in managing the introductions of the new kitten to the existing cat, a process that is both delightful and fraught.
     
    However, there is always RMWeb, and this morning, we appear to have gained a new convert...

     
    Here he is in his more normal environment..

  21. Captain Kernow
    John F (Re6/6) came over today and we spent a very convivial afternoon helping each other out. I'm preparing 'Bleakhouse Road' for it's first show in 20 months at Coventry, and John is also there demonstrating scenery, including his superb trees.
     
    John is also taking his lovely Wye Valley diorama 'Netherhope Halt', and wanted some weathered ballast wagons (ex-Tintern Quarry) to pose on it.
     
    I had been meaning to improve one of the trees on BHR for some time. I had scratchbuilt the armature back in 2000 from copper wire, soldered together and covered with masking tape, then a mixture of Polyfilla and PVA glue. The foliage was made from teasing out 'Postiche' artificial theatrical hair and adding gound foam leaves, but I had left quite a lot of gaps between foliage clumps, and I knew that John would be able to show me how to improve on that.
     
    In the end, we split the jobs and John most kindly provided some replacement foliage from his stocks of Noch, which I think are relatively recent productions. He stripped the original foliage off first and cleaned the armature back up, bent some of the branches into more realistic positions and applied new acrylic paint to the bark.
     
    John had wanted a 'quickie' weathering powder job done on some Heljan 'Dogfish' ballast hoppers, so I got my weathering powders out and literally did a quickie once-over on his six wagons.
     
    CTMK popped her camera round the door and caught us in the act...

     
    Here is the finished tree, John just has 'the touch' with scenery and anyone visiting the RMWeb event at Coventry will be able to see more of his creations at close up:

     
    We also posed the tree on 'Callow Lane', even though it won't end up there:

     
    Here are some of John's wagons posed on 'Callow Lane' (the eagle-eyed may notice that he hasn't re-wheeled them yet, just opened the OO wheels out to enable the wagons to sit on the P4 track of 'Netherhope Halt' for the show, proper conversions to follow):

     

     

     

     
    I would normally use an airbrush and also drybrushing, in conjunction with powders, to weather of these, but time wasn't really on our side.
     
    After John had gone, I put my new tree back in it's transport box, which is made of Dalerboard, with a length of brass tube glued into the base, to hold the tree upright and keep it away from the edges of the box:

     

     

     

     

     
    My preference would normally be to fix trees to the layout, but in this case, there isn't sufficient clearance when the layout is packed up for transport.
  22. Captain Kernow
    With the RMWeb event at Coventry a mere three weeks away, it was time to get 'Bleakhouse Road' and put it up for testing, so that's what I did today. The layout last appeared in public at Weston-super-Mare in January 2013, which, for various personal reasons, was the most recent exhibition I've attended with one of my own layouts.
     
    The layout was put up, but I didn't bother with the buildings and trees that aren't fixed down, this was primarily about ensuring that the layout was still in full working order and to test some of the locos that I'll be bringing.
     
    All was well, and in fact it was the first time that 82044 had run on BHR.
     
    Here is the layout put up, with one of the fiddle yards attached. It will have another fiddle yard at the opposite end at Coventry, representing the South Polden Light Railway:

     
    Here are some of the locos I may be bringing, haven't decided on the final roster yet.
     
    'Plantagenet' masquerades as a NCB loco on 'Engine Wood', but on BHR she works the South Polden Light Railway. Here she is making a semi-legal movement on the main line:

     
    As times move on and in the unlikely timeline that I have modelled, the light railway invested in more modern motive power:

     
    Pannier 4634 (Templecombe) shunts a couple of 16t mineral wagons with coal for the local coal merchant:

     
    An alternative light railway diesel is 'Buntie', a scratchbuit 0-4-0 by Brian Clarke, and based on Barclay practice:

     
    One of the two Ivatt tanks available in the run round loop:

     
    A slightly less likely but nonetheless rather pleasant Stanier 2-6-4T:

     
    The S&D on the Somerset Levels in the early 1960s wouldn't be complete without a 22XX:

     
    What if the line had survived into the 1970s?

  23. Captain Kernow
    I suppose you could say that I have a bit of 'form' when it comes to telling tall tails to support the supposed 'histories' of my first two layouts, 'Engine Wood' and 'Bleakhouse Road'. Certainly the first article in the Railway Modeller didn't give any sign that 'Engine Wood' was fictitious, and my former website enginewood.co.uk (currently temporarily off line) didn't give much away, either. At shows, both layouts have information boards describing the 'history' of each location, together with photographs purporting to have been taken at those very places (it's amazing how a farm track on the Somerset Levels can look like a disused railway, especially with a blurred cow shed masquerading as a distant PW hut!). A deliberately fuzzy photo of Shillingstone station, taken before the current preservation era, was used to portray 'Engine Wood' prior to final demolition and conversion of said site to a housing estate.
     
    I've had people turn up at shows asking exactly 'where the station was', some swore blind that they'd caught a train from there in their youth, and even the Clerk to the Parish Council of Burrowbridge asked for more information on the South Polden Light Railway, prior to updating the history of their village (to him I did admit the truth... ).
     
    All in all, virtually everyone has 'got' the joke and enjoyed the whimsy (although the Clerk to the Parish Council didn't e-mail me back afterwards...!). I must confess that I've found it interesting to watch supposedly knowledgeable enthusiasts read the 'historical accounts', see their brows furrow as they realise that this is something they didn't know about before, and then see the penny drop! I've never knowingly let anyone leave the layout at a show without admitting that it's all a pack of lies (something that I usually admit to in the exhibition guide anyway - so I wonder how many really read the full text of those right through?).
     
    So, when it came to concocting some unlikely co*k and bull story to support the premise for 'Callow Lane', the fevered imagination was once again fired up and set in motion. The idea is that this was a double track freight only line from the Midland's yards at Westerleigh to Callow Lane, then reverting to single line at Callow Lane as far as the Great Western main line, just west of Coalpit Heath. A connection to the still viable North Bristol pits near Coalpit Heath would, of course, be included for my flexible period of 1959 - 1971 (in reality these closed a few years after the second world war). Finally, a chocolate factory, like Carsons at Mangotsfield, would provide some additional traffic and a further excuse to run industrial locos on the BR line.
     
    An entry was duly made up and posted on the Enginewood website and work continued (far too slowly!!) on the layout itself.
     
    Imagine my amazement, then, when a friend very kindly gave me a copy of 'The Midland in Gloucestershire' (OPC) one day, which has track plans of virtually all MR locations in that county. I was perusing the pages for Westerleigh Yard (as you do), when I noticed that there was, in reality, a double track freight-only branch running off towards the north-west (in the direction of Coalpit Heath - not actually that far away). This real line led to a place called New Engine Yard, where it actually terminated, but not before it also made a connection with colliery lines to two of the local pits - Frog Lane and Mayshill.
     
    This was a real eye-opener, perhaps my invented justification for the layout wasn't so far fetched at all? Admittedly there was no single line running on beyond New Engine Yard towards the GW main line (the gradients would probably have been quite severe), nor was there a chocolate factory, but most of the other elements of 'Callow Lane' were already present.
     
    Sadly it proved virtually impossible to find any photos of the real New Engine Yard, and in any case, development on the layout was sufficiently advanced that there was no turning back. The model was to be fairly suburban/urban in nature, but when I finally got round to visiting the area a year or so later, I found no track of the old line from Westerleigh Yard (I think it now forms part of the access road), and the whole area is really very rural!
     
    No matter, I was really rather pleased that things had turned out that way. More recently, I've had another pleasant little surprise. Motive power for the colliery trips from the revitalised Frog Lane pit to Callow Lane would be mostly in the hands of 'Lord Salisbury' (Mercian kit), which I argued would have been kept on up there had the colliery survived, and not sent to Norton Hill on the S&D. A diesel was also called for, however, to supplement the steam loco, so at the most recent RailEx in Aylesbury this May, I treated myself to a Judith Edge Ruston 88DS kit, a prototype I'd always wanted to have a model of. The plan was (and still is) to make this up in a suitable NCB livery, and run it into Callow Lane with 16t minerals etc. I didn't really worry that the chances of there having been such a loco working in the collieries of that area were really quite small (or so I thought)...
     
    Then, a week later I was helping Simon Castens of The Titfield Thunderbolt bookshop set his stand up on the Friday night, as usual. Whilst Simon was sorting out which books to put where, I noticed a slim little paperback volume entitled 'The Ruston' by David Hall (published by The Moseley Railway Trust). Whilst leafing casually through that, I found, guess what - a photo of Ruston 88DS (works number 242869 of 1946) working at the real colliery (caption calls it 'Coalpit Heath Colliery) in 1947! Unbelievable! So, no further justification for the diesel needed (well, just some convincing 'Sectional Appendix instructions' to let it onto BR metals and a convincing reason not to send a 'Jinty' or 350hp diesel shunter into the colliery... )
     

  24. Captain Kernow
    An elderly retired friend of mine here in the village has long wanted to have a layout based on the LBSCR in Sussex, with the option to run it in either SR or BR (S) periods. He's not yet in a position to put baseboards etc. up at home yet, but for some time he's been accumulating RTR locos and rolling stock. Two locos that he's always wanted, though, were a Brighton Atlantic ('Beachy Head') and a 'K' Class mogul, both of which have specific family associations for him in the past.
     
    Of course, at the time, neither were available RTR, not even in terms of a planned future release (although the Atlantic has since been announced by Bachmann).
     
    Consequently he has commissioned a friend of mine to build both for him from kits. I helped him source the kits and other bits, such as wheels, gears and motors, and we sent them off to be built.
     
    I may have already posted a photo or two of the completed 'Beachy Head' on here, can't remember, but here's a view of the completed loco, which was to have been delivered to me at Scaleforum last September. As it turned out, I couldn't go for family reasons, but Re6/6 kindly brought it back to Devon and I immediately took it round to my friends house. The Bachmann one had only been announced about a month prior to that!

     
    The Atlantic was a DJH kit and was reportedly pretty straightforward to build. My friend was absolutely delighted with the result.
     
    The ACE kit for the 'K' Class mogul was a different story, however. This was a 7mm kit reduced to 4mm, and the friend who built it said that it was an absolute pig to put together. Most of the parts didn't fit properly, and the kit hadn't really 'translated' down to 4mm well, including problems with fold lines not really working etc. In the end, many of the parts were so comprehensively fettled to get them to fit, that one might as well have scratchbuilt a lot of parts (which the builder said he found easier to do, in some situations). The build took quite a long time, as it was fitted in around other jobs and the builder found that after a certain amount of time he got so exasperated with the problems, that he put the job aside for a few days and did something else!
     
    Eventually, however, the 'K' Class mogul was finished, and it was a real pleasure to travel up to Salisbury to rendezvous with my friend to pick the loco up. John F (Re6/6) also came along and we made a nice day out of it. Before I took the mogul round to my friends place in the village, I posed it on 'Callow Lane' and took a few photos:

     

     

     
    The deal is that I will add smokebox door number plates and coal in the tender, which will be done in due course. The locos will not be weathered, because my friend likes his engine pristine, which is his privilege.
  25. Captain Kernow
    I've managed to get one or two useful little model railway-related jobs sorted today.
     
    First of all, I received a new hand-held controller from Stapleton Electronics, in Canada, in the post this morning. It works off 12 - 18v AC and has very good slow-speed control, with optional 'intertia' settings:

     
    I've tried it out on various locos on Callow Lane and I'm very happy with it.
     
    The reason I ordered the Stapleton controller, though, was due to my trusty AMR hand-held unit developing a fault, which I couldn't initially find...

     
    The AMR unit is one of their slow-speed units, and is sadly no longer available, like all AMR products. Today, however, I had time to take the thing completely apart, only to find that I still couldn't see anything obviously wrong. I had previously tested the four electrical feeds contained within the white cable flex you can see in the photo, but the way it suddenly kept cutting out, depending on which position I was holding it, led me to unsolder the wires from the electronic gubbins inside and strip a section of the white covering away. Sure enough, I found that the red and black wires had frayed where the cable tie holds the white cable in place inside the plastic box. The damaged sections of wire were cut away and the whole thing re-soldered together, and it now works fine again:

     
    Whilst all this has been going on, I've been running a Bachmann 4F in on my circle of Lima set track taped to the floor tiles, and fortunately our cats have kept their distance too:

     

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