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Captain Kernow

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Blog Entries posted by Captain Kernow

  1. Captain Kernow
    Since completing the most recent row of cottages for Callow Lane, I've been plodding on with the Townstreet goods shed kit. These are plaster-cast kits, where the plaster takes enamel paints beautifully to create realistic stone or brickwork effects.
     
    I've always liked the idea of their kits, and built a water tower for Bleakhouse Road several years ago. The goods shed always felt 'LMS/Midland' to me, so I bought a kit at Ally Pally some years ago now, and started it fairly soon afterwards, but didn't get round to really tackling it until recently.
     
    I have replaced one or two parts of the kit, where I felt that the plaster-casting process could be improved upon with alternative materials (although it must be admitted that this is one of their earlier kits and they have improved even on this over the years). In particular, I didn't like the plaster valencing over the road entrance, so that was replaced with a plasticard equivilent. The doors were also plaster, and whilst they aren't too bad, there was no hinge detail and in any case I thought that plasticard ones might look a bit better, so I made some replacements. The kit did not provide any doors to the roadway entrance, which I felt would have been the case, so I made some up and glued these inside, with just the edges showing from the outside, as they are modelled in the open position. This also meant that the interior 'runner' detail above these doors had to be modelled.
     
    I also scratchbuilt a wooden loading platform (I did buy their interior detailing kit, but decided against using it, as the whole thing was already very heavy!), and provided some interior detailing, including a crane and various bits and pieces.
     
    The main feature that has been replaced, however, was the main shed roof, where I wasn't happy with the overly-irregular roof slates, so I built a card replacement and glued Scalescenes slate strips on it (taken from their terraced cottages kit). I perhaps ought to have replaced the slates on the road entrance canopy, with the benefit of hindsight, but these aren't too bad and I have more weathering to do on these, to match them to the main roof (I haven't yet glued the main roof on).
     
    Finally, I've fitted a couple of grain of wheat bulbs up in the roof to provide some interior illumination. Only one will be used at a time, the second one is a premanently wired-in spare.
     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

  2. Captain Kernow
    I've started work on scratchbuilding a model of a small brick farm access underbridge, which is located on the north (London) side of the Ouse Valley Viaduct. I will be assisting Rod (10800), John (Re6/6) and a couple of Rod's colleagues from the Eridge project at Scaleforum in a couple of weeks time, demonstrating on the theme of B.R. Southern Region. My contribution to all of this, besides helping run trains up and down the viaduct, (no doubt), will be to continue construction of this farm bridge, which will be incorporated in the first part of this huge project, the viaduct itself. I may also be working on one of the smaller buildings on the platform at Balcombe station, depending on time etc.
     
    After getting to a 'natural break' with Callow Lane goods shed, I started work on the farm bridge today, so that I would have something to start demonstrating on at Scaleforum.
     
    Here is the prototype:
     

     

     
    Here is the limited progress I've made so far - both elevations of the arch cut out, and the four course of edging bricks attached (Slaters brick cut into strips):

     
    I plan to have more done before we go up to Scaleforum.
  3. 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.
  4. Captain Kernow
    Following on from my previous blog entry where I had started work on a Midland Railway wooden post, lower quadrant signal for Callow Lane, I have now more or less finished the signal, bar a little bit of weathering, plus planting on the layout and connecting to an operating system. This was another MSE/Wizard Models kit, and very good they are too.
     

     
    I've also finished the painting of the water crane ensemble, again, bar a little weathering:
     

     

     

     
    Also built a Ratio loading gauge, the 'tensioning wires' (if that's what they're called?) took a bit of time, mostly using 5 amp fuse wire. This is also still to be weathered:
     

     
     
    I've also started to experiment with scribed cobbles, a la Harrap method, but that's for another posting in due course...
  5. Captain Kernow
    I concluded the previous blog entry on this subject by saying that the next job would be to fettle the Perseverance frames to fit the Hattons/DJM body. These are the frames as provided on the Perseverance etch:

     
    And separated from the fret:

     
    The 'topography' of the underside of the Hattons/DJM footplate moulding called for some initial modifications to the tops of the Perseverance frames:

     
    Further adjustments were subsequently made, particularly with regard to removing additional metal from the frames above the leading driving axle bearing holes.
     
    The small piece of brass soldered to the rear of the lower side frame was due to concerns that the cut line was too close to the etched slot, but this didn't prove to be an issue.
     
    In the meantime, the Mashima 1015 motor (which is all that would fit inside the mazak block) was given some gentle running in, prior to being fitted to the High Level gearbox:

     
    The Markits wheels were also prepared to be attached to their axles. I find these days that I have to very carefully remove a bit of metal from the centres of Markits wheels, to get them to fit on their axles. I do this using a small, 4-sided needle file, which is fortunately a snug fit inside the wheel centre. Only a very few light passes with this file are necessary to get the axle to fit and I usually do one pass at a time and offer up the axle each time, until it fits OK:

     
    I then put the High Level gearbox together. This consists of a special 'lash up', using components provided by Chris Gibbon. These are:
     
    1 x LoadHauler Compact + gearbox, but not including the small drive extension that comes with the gearbox kit
    1 x D2 DriveStretcher attached to the bottom of the LoadHauler Compact+, but with one third of the DriveStretcher removed
    1 x D1 DriveStretcher attached to the end of the modified D2 DriveStretcher
     
    The above then gave me sufficient distance to drive the leading axle and have room for the vertical part of the gearbox, plus the 1015 motor, within the space afforded inside the mazak block.
     
    This is the gearbox 'lash up' before I soldered a 'stabilising' bar between the main gearbox and final DriveStretcher:

     
    Some additional pieces of 2mm inside diameter tube needed to be cut to length, in order to keep the gears in the DriveStretchers on the correct side:

     
    The completed 'lash up':

     
    The gearbox under test:

     
    And in the chassis:

     
    Since taking the above photos, a number of c*ck ups (of my own making) have come to light. First of all, the whole reason for driving the leading axle was to enable me to fit single beam compensation on the rear driven axle and the pony axle. Unfortunately this wasn't possible, because I failed to allow sufficient space around the rear driven axle for the hornblocks, which inevitably intrude into the area occupied by the bottom of the main part of the LoadHauler Compact+ gearbox. The gearbox is a tad under 11 mm wide and the Perseverance OO framespacers are 11.5 mm wide, which just isn't enough room, so I decided to built the chassis rigid, albeit with some springing on the rear pony axle.
     
    Unfortunately, in building the chassis rigid, I didn't use the chassis building jig to my advantage and resulted in the axle spacing on one side being very slightly longer than the other. As such, the chassis has been dismantled since the above photos were taken and is in the process of being soldered back together with more care.
     
    In the meantime, I was beginning to have misgivings about the ability of the little 1015 motor to power the loco nice and smoothly, driving all those gearwheels in the process.
     
    The stumbling block was the horrible lump of mazak, trapped inside the loco body. Removal of the side tanks/cab moulding from the plastic footplate moulding is necessary in order to remove it in a civilised manner, but that will break one or more of the lovely conduits arranged at the bottom of and the front of the side tanks, which then run down and along the footplate. The use of the 'soldering iron blade' to cut the plastic motor cradle out (as mentioned in the first part of this blog) had resulted in the plastic of the side tank/cab moulding and that of the footplate moulding getting fused together (in an area you won't see when the loco is completed), so having removed all the visible screws, including the two in the coal bunker, I didn't want to force the issue, for fear of causing irreparable damage to the loco body.
     
    I had tried using my 12v mini drill, with appropriate burrs, to remove the mazak, but this didn't have enough 'grunt' to make a difference.
     
    At this point, my good friend John F (Re6/6) came to the rescue and offered the use of his mains Dremel, so yesterday I went round to his place and together we wrapped the loco body up and masked it off, to try to keep it as clear as possible from 'mazak dust':

     
    Well, the mains-powered Dremel certainly made a difference. One thing I hadn't anticipated (why, I don't know, because it is obvious when you think about it) is the amount of heat that the burr will make at high and sustained speed. I have John to thank entirely for bringing my attention to this and suggesting a coffee pause, to let the metal cool down, prior to the next session. This is what it looked like while we were having a break:

     
    After a bit more attention, the mazak proved no match for the Dremel and the burrs and this is what we were eventually faced with when it was all over:

     

     
    When we removed the paper wrapping the loco body, I was dismayed at the amount of 'mazak dust' that had found its way into the rest of the body, but this was easily removed in the end.
     
    One casualty, though, due to my inattention, was one of the leading steps, where the rotating Dremel caught it:

     
    I cleaned this up and made up a replacement lower step from nickel silver sheet last night:

     
    The removal of the mazak block has now given a cavity about 23mm above the footplate and 35mm in length. That should be enough room for a 1020 and a slim flywheel, all being well. Here is a 1020 on test with the gearbox 'lash-up' this afternoon:

     
    On the scale drawing, this is now the cavity that is available for a motor/gearbox combination:

     
    Next steps will be to re-assemble the chassis and re-fit the motor/gearbox, see how that runs and see if there is room for a slim flywheel.
  6. Captain Kernow
    OK, so it's back to the cobble scribing, and now I have to scribe the area on the opposite side of the siding. This is the main area where road vehicles arrive, having come down the approach road to the goods yard, and is a pretty large space, if considered purely in cobble-scribing terms...
     
    So, I was always going to depict the majority of the area has having been (rather crudely) tarmacked over, with just a small(ish) are of cobbles remaining immediately next to the track (the reasoning being that they would have wanted to keep cobbles around the track area itself, in case of needing to change a few sleepers or other PW maintenance).
     
    In some areas, the tarmac will have come adrift, and the original cobbles left showing below. This is the progress so far:
     

     

     

     
    Edit - a couple of additional views that I forgot to upload...
     
    This shows the 'edge' of the tarmac, scribed on with a curved scalpel blade (No.15), prior to the actual cobbles being scribed:

     
    This shows the overall plan. The area inside the blue line, between that and the siding, will have full cobbles, with just a few more patches of 'broken tarmac' outside of that. The peripheral edges of the white filler may disappear under scenery in due course. I will also probably make the blue line straighter and parallel with the siding for much of the remainder of it's length, where I haven't yet scribed, to represent an attempt by the railway authorities to tarmac that part of the yard in a neat-ish fashion:

  7. Captain Kernow
    I put 'Engine Wood' up for testing this morning (it is normally packed away at home), to ensure that all was well for a forthcoming session. The testing regime normally consists of running a loco up and down all roads, in all configurations, ensuring that the signals work etc.

     
    This time, apart from my usual pannier test loco, I deployed 82044 on the layout for the first time. This loco, which is a combination of Bachmann body and modified Comet chassis, featured in some of my earlier blogs a couple of years ago or so, but apart from running it up and down on my test track, it had never been run on either of my OO layouts.
     
    Fortunately, it seems to have acquitted itself OK today, and thus earns itself a place in the roster...
     
    82044 arriving with a train from Bristol TM to Templecombe:

     
    Waiting for the road:

     

     
    Pannier and local NCB loco stabled in the yard:

     

     
    82044 gets the road and re-starts the train:

     
    About to pass over the footpath crossing to the west of the station:

     
    Passing over the river bridge:

     
    View over the hedgerow:

     

  8. Captain Kernow
    John (Re6/6) visited today and we had a few pleasant hours shunting some wagons around Callow Lane. I put all the completed buildings up, which give a bit more of a flavour of what I hope it will eventually look like.
     
    Bagnall ('Jinty') 47276 shunting a few wagons into the yard:

     

     
    The new cottages are almost finished, in the distance, with just the ridge tiles, chimney pots and guttering/drainpipes still to add:

     
    'Lord Salisbury' waits the road back to Frog Lane pit, a mile or so from Callow Lane:

     
    47276 sits with its train outside the Taffson Evans works:

     
    The shunters cabin:

  9. Captain Kernow
    I seem to be perpetually building card cottages for this layout.
     
    I decided a few months ago that I would need a further row of four cottages in 'half-relief' to go opposite the main goods yard and immediately in front of the backscene. The area just felt a bit too open, and I think that in real life there would have been more dwellings here.
     
    Having painted the main brick colours on the goods shed last night, I really need the enamels to thoroughly dry for a couple of days before I continue with more detailed painting and mortar etc., so I thought I would make a start with this next batch of cottages, again built using the Howard Scenics card kits as a basis.
     
    I have cut the card to size and window and door apertures out, here they are temporarily taped together, next to the previous row I built a couple of years ago:

     
    View from the front:

     
    With the retaining wall removed, this set of cottages have their own integral base. The previous set of four have a seperate base (just me being lazy at the time, really):

  10. Captain Kernow
    I got a bit tired of cobbling (or 'setting') a few days ago, and the unexpected receipt of a very kind gift of a Mainline bogie well wagon from a friend got me thinking about rolling stock again, so I dug out a number of other recent purchases, albeit this time more recent Bachmann productions.
     
    Notwithstanding the relatively unpredictable excitement of running things on TT2, I've found that completely unsprung and uncompensated short-wheelbase items do stay on the track when running on Callow Lane, so this gave me more impure thoughts. Whilst most of my stock is sprung or compensated, the thought that I could 'get away with it' by not doing so, decided me to undertake a few 'quickie' conversions by way of a distraction.
     
    Apart from the bogie well wagon, I settled on three recent Bachmann releases - an ex-LNER steel open, an ex-LNER box van and an ex-SR 'pillbox' brake van.
     
    I was a bit concerned about not compensating or springing the brake van, but the moulded detail on the underside, coupled with a decent dose of seasonal laziness and a desire not to accidentally cut right through the plastic to the top surface of the verandahs, decided me to have a go at making the longer wheelbase brake van completely rigid, too.
     
    I know that this goes against the majority of advice for building/converting stock in P4, but hey, the 'it's my trainset' rule kicked in, and so I decided to put my faith in a decent amount of weight in the vehicles instead.
     
    The alternative to leaving these vehicles rigid, by the way, would probably have been to installed Masokits springing units, but I didn't have any of these, and I just didn't fancy the extra work involved in butchering the Bill Bedford units that I did have in stock...
     
    In the end, all four vehicles turned out fine. I considered filming the high-speed push-along trails through all the sharp point work on Callow Lane (B6 and A6), but I didn't in the end, suffice to say, they all hold the road just fine.
     
    Here are some photos (sorry, but I haven't weathered any of these vehicles yet).
     
    General view of the wagons concerned:

     
    Box van:

     

     
    Box van chassis - only a little plastic behind the axle guards had to be removed to fit the wheels. These are Exactoscale 3-hole discs, the axles are running in the original plastic bearings - these wagons won't be doing a huge mileage in their time, shuttling up and down between Callow Lane and it's fiddle yard... I did add some simplified brake stretchers between the brake shoes, which were drilled 0.4mm and brass rod inserted. The brake shoes were also trimmed, with some plastic being removed with a sharp scalpel on the rear/inner face of the brake shoe, to ensure it didn't foul the flanges:

     

     
    The steel open essentially has a similar chassis to the box van, although in this case I had fitted brass pin-point bearings a while ago. This required the Gibson axles to be slightly shortened in the electric drill (done by filing the side of the pin point with the drill rotating, just enough to take off 0.5mm or so, this wouldn't have been necessary if I hadn't fitted the brass bearings). This one is so free running, it meanders off for a little perambulation if you so much as breathe on it...

     
    The pillbox brake van:

     
    With this one, there wasn't even any need to remove any plastic from the axleguards. I did pare the backs of the brake shoes back again, prior to fitting the Gibson wheels. The addition of the Bachmann brake rigging gives the brake gear a bit of welcome stability:
     
    Happily, the brake van also holds the road well, and was subjected to the same high speed push-along speed trials as the others, plus the usual 'every which way/permutation of shunting with a loco'...
     
    One thing I found was that the more recent Bachmann wagons had enough room for two layers of 'roof lead' in place of the metal weights provided. The bogie well wagon was already quite heavy, so I didn't add any weight there. I also added a bit more lead inside the body of the box van, which now weighs in at 67 grams.
  11. Captain Kernow
    Until a few years ago, I wasn't really much of a diesel buff. Pretty much preferred kettles to diesels, to be honest. After all, the S&D was a steam-only line when it was open and before that, my interests were more for the Great Western in the 1930s.
     
    However, all the diesel releases of recent (and not quite so recent) years haven't been in vain and have begun to make a bit of an impression. So much so, in fact, that Callow Lane will be my first layout to have a 100% diesel sequence, when the time comes (although the plan is to alternate the late 1960s/early (pre-TOPS) 1970s sequence with the still-favoured early 1960s mostly steam sequence.
     
    Callow Lane is a freight-only yard set in south Gloucestershire, to the north-east of the city of Bristol, just a couple of miles from the former Midland Railway marshalling yard at Westerleigh, so in a 'proper' incarnation it should feature mostly W.R. diesel hydraulic types, such as Hymeks, D63XXs, 'Teddy Bears' etc, together perhaps with an 08 and may be a Brush Type 4.
     
    However, these days I just can't leave the space-time continuum around Callow Lane alone, and a whole parade of unlikely and frankly naughty deployments of various improbable diesel types is beginning to emerge. I had a play with a few of them earlier. I'm convinced that this version of history is as valid as any other.... although I haven't been able to find much supporting photographic evidence from local photographers of the day...
     
    To start off with, things are relatively normal and as you might expect. Here's a typical W.R. diesel hydraulic at work in this former M.R. goods yard, an innocuous Class 22 runs light under the road bridge:
     

     
    A Hymek arrives with some 16t minerals - nothing to alarm the historians here...

     
    But what's this?! - a 'Sulzer' Class 25 has turned up from Westerleigh Yard with a solitary oil tanker in tow. Probably worked down with a 'go anywhere, any time' Saltley crew on it...

     

     
    And if that wasn't enough, another Saltley crew has brought this Class 20 in with a local tripper. This is normally an 08 duty.....I don't think the Bath Road crew that usually work this turn sign Class 20s, and surely the Saltley men don't know the road to Callow Lane as well?!

     
    And... just when you thought that was stretching it a bit (and I haven't told you about the Class 15 yet either, have I? ), this loco turns up to collect that Fina tank wagon!

     
    My friend at work tells me he saw a Class 27 on a Christmas parcels at Temple Meads around 1967 or 1968, so that was excuse enough to get one of these at a bargain price at my local model shop's sale about 12 months ago...

     
    You will have noticed that I've managed to keep the tablet catcher recess well hidden in these views......
     
    And finally, don't worry about the railbus...

     
    ..it isn't staying. No, that's right, it's 1967, and now that the Eastern Region has decided they don't want them anymore, so rather than scrapping them, a couple have been sent to Somerset to try to bolster traffic levels on the 4' 1½" Somerset & Dorset system on the Somerset Levels...
     
    Just had a thought, I may have to extend the layout this year... I don't think the full length Blue Pullman will fit!...
  12. Captain Kernow
    This is what almost 100 bases for point rodding stools look like before they are cut out of plasticard:

     
    And this is what they look like after they have been cut out!

     
    Here is a two-rodding stool mounted on a base:

     
    ....and with a 5p coin for size comparason:

     
    This is the jig that I'm planning to use to space the rodding stools and their bases at the correct distance from the track (9mm) and from each other (24mm - for pre-Grouping round rodding):

     
    Next up is to start drilling 1.0mm holes in the right locations in the baseboard, with the help of the jig, and to start glueing the bases and rodding stools in place.
     
    When they and the cranks and compensators are in position, but before the rodding itself is added, I shall paint them and do the track weathering and then the ballasting.
     
     
    Update 30/4/10
     
    Well, I'm becoming more and more aware of the fact that nothing else has yet been done to the point rodding since I last posted this several months ago!
     
    Until I at least get the bases and stools down, plus the cranks and compensators, I can't really start the ballasting, and I certainly won't do anything permanent about scenery until the track is fully ballasted and weathered...
     
    So, hopefully we'll see a bit of action on the point rodding front in the next few weeks...
     
     
    Update 02/6/10
     
    Well, it's certainly been 'a few weeks' since the last update, but I'm very happy to say now that work on installing the point rodding has at last commenced, with all locations marked out and drilled, and the bases and stools are now being epoxied in place. The cranks, compensators and actual rodding will then follow. Photos in due course...
     
     
    Update 08/6/10
     
    I'm happy to report that I finally glued the last cranks, stools and compensators in position with epoxy this evening. I won't be adding the rodding itself (0.45mm brass wire) until the track has been weathered and ballasted.
     
     
    Update 24/6/10
     
    Here are a couple of photos showing the current state of affairs - just awaiting painting and the actual rodding.
     

     

  13. Captain Kernow
    A bit more progress has been made on the latest row of Howard Scenics cottages. The brick paper has been applied, the main walls glued together and a start made on the chimneys and window frames.
     
    'Bagnall' 47276 poses in front of the new row (it's evidently been borrowed from Radstock shed for a jaunt up to Westerleigh Yard):

     

     

     

  14. Captain Kernow
    There are one or two places along the backscene side of 'Callow Lane' that call for a half-relief building or two. Due to the semi-urban setting of the layout, I decided a while ago that I would put a half-relief factory or warehouse between the end of one of the retaining walls and the level crossing.
     
    The basis for this structure is the ever-useful Scalescenes range. They do a free download warehouse kit, which I am using as the basis for this structure.
     
    Because it's right next to the railway, I decided that I couldn't really put the opening doors in place, but this left a rather blank area of brickwork. The answer was to convert it to a rail-served factory, with a small wooden loading platform and a large sliding door behind that.
     
    It's all a bit basic at the moment, but the following photos give a flavour of what it will look like. Please excuse the large gaps underneath the structures shown - all have yet to be glued down! The large sliding door isn't on the building yet, because it's currently being pressed down by several heavy railway books and a Gaugemaster controller, whilst the glue holding the printed paper to the backing card sets!
     

     

     

     

     
    A bit more work has been done on the basic structure:
     

     

     
     
    I also decided that an awning over the rail loading platform would add to the appearance (apart from primer it's not yet painted nor finally fixed in position):
     

     

     
    I also decided to extend it at both ends with corrugated iron type structures, so far I've made a start at one end:
     

     

     
    28/11/10
     
    A bit more done now - the corrugated iron extensions at either end have been painted, as has the canopy over the loading platform:
     

     

     

     

     

     

  15. Captain Kernow
    Glaciers may have moved faster than my modelling efforts over the last few weeks, but this is what I've been doing. It's all a load of old cobbles, or that's the plan, at any rate.
     
    Inspired by the output from Brian Harrap, I bought a tub of this:

     
    Brian actually uses Tetrion tile grout, as it's harder than most other types and, therefore, ideal for individually scribing the cobbles on with a steel pin in a pin vice, but I couldn't find any locally, so settled for Tetrion filler instead. It seems to dry pretty hard, sands down well and lends itself to a bit of experimental cobble scribing:

     
    The area requiring permanent cobbling is the viewing side of the goods shed on Callow Lane, where the road approach crosses a siding in the yard. This clearly needs to have in-laid track, to enable road vehicles, horses and carts etc. to get to the loading bay of the goods shed. I decided that this would look good if cobbled, having been long impressed by Brian's brilliant work on layouts like Quai 87.
     
    To begin with, I grouted the area between the check rails (for some reason lost in the mists of time, these are phosphor bronze...):

     
    And that's about as far as I got for a while, in practical terms, because I had forgotten about the effect of water-based Tetrion filler on the steel running rails. They had been primed and sprayed track colour a few years ago (yes, that's how long this layout is taking me ), but it was evidently not enough, as the first attempt at laying Tetrion up to the outside edge of the running rail nearest the goods shed resulted in the tell-tale colour of rust seeping through into the white filler, as it dried.
     
    This led to me removing a whole strip of Tetrion, some 1 cm wide, cleaning up the rail, applying rust inhibitor and then more primer. After that, I filled the trench with Milliput (fine, white) filler. I then found I needed to 'top up' the ground surface with more Tetrion prior to sanding the whole lot smooth, which I finally achieved tonight.
     
    The resulting ground surface is approx 2 mm higher than the cork underlay, on which the adjacent track is laid. This will give a ground surface more or less level with the tops of the sleepers, once it's all grouted in and blended together.
     
    I also had to bring the ground surface right up to the outside walls of the removable goods shed. To do this, I laid some 2mm x 2mm plastic strip from Evergreen around the 'footprint' of the shed and grouted right up to it with the Tetrion.
     
    This is what it looked like after I removed the plastic strip this evening, ready for the goods shed to be put in place:

     

     
    And here's the goods shed temporarily in place:

     

     

     

     
    Of course, I didn't manage to get the initial application of filler right up to the precise location of the outer walls, and the above photos reflect this fact. The plan all along was then to cover the outer walls of the goods shed with cling film and then fill the resulting cracks between the ground and the base of the walls with more filler.
     
    The cling film got torn in a couple of places, I was very careful when applying the Tetrion in these places...:

     
    Here's an example of filler put into the crack between the building and the ground, waiting to harden off:

     
    This last stage with the cling film wouldn't really be necessary if the building wasn't going to be portable/removable, as I could have used scenic material such as grass fibres or other ground cover to fill the gaps, but the goods shed is very heavy (plastercast Townstreet kit), so I daren't leave it glued to the baseboards.
     
    Next step is to remove the goods shed and cling film when it's fully hardened off, sand smooth and start scribing cobbles.
     
    Oh, and there's also the other side to do yet, too...
     
     
    Captain's Log, Supplementary - 24/10/12:
     
    Here are a couple of photos of prototype cobbles or setts, taken from the back streets around Bristol TM, which I am intending to copy on Callow Lane:
     

     

  16. Captain Kernow
    I've completed most of the 'structural' work on the blue Dapol Class 22 now, with the exception of glueing the lifting rings on the bogies. Having run it this evening with some wagons, I think that I'm going to have to replace the Dapol coupling hook with a Smiths one, to standardise it with the rest of my rolling stock.
     
    After having done the basic chassis conversion using the Ultrascale wheels, as described in the earlier blog entry, I decided to put a driver in each cab and do something about the loose valences, which I glued to the body with MekPak, using some 10 thou plasticard inside the body to (i) line the valences up with the outside face of the main loco body and (ii) link the valences to each other, to provide some structural strength.
     
    I also put most of the buffer beam detailing on, but felt that the vacuum pipe supplied was a bit too thin, so fitted something a bit thicker.
     
    The cab units do come out, but mine needed a little gentle persuasion to seperate the cab unit from the main loco body (it seemed to be secured with the grey paint used on the cab units, perhaps they are inserted into the loco bodies by some automated process when the grey paint is still wet?). Anyway, the driver as seen in this photo turned out to be far too tall when inside the loco, so had to have even more of his torso ruthlessly snipped off...

     
    The valences glued in place along one side, with the 10 thou plasticard strengthening pieces apparent:

     

     
    I think that the general quality of the plastic mouldings is excellent, especially the lamp brackets and the very small handrails (other manufacturers could take a leaf out of Dapol's book when it comes to the small handrails on the front ends of diesels). The headcodes are from a Heljan Hymek:

     
    Buffer beam detail going on:

     
    The cab units were then lightly glued back into the loco bodies (having had some material removed earlier to make them an easier fit), with a small dab of MekPak, and the loco body refitted to the chassis. I then gave it a bit of a run on Callow Lane, shunting some wagons in the company of D6347 (SIlver Fox):

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

  17. Captain Kernow
    I've not had a lot of time for much modelling since late summer, but have finally got round to doing a few conversions etc. to P4. I've also built a couple of Ratio clay opens (non-hood fitted), as a kind of experiment to look at what kind of standards we want for the new DRAG layout project, although these will certainly see use on 'Callow Lane'.
     
    Here are a few photos.
     
    First up is D7042, which I bought second-hand a few years ago, and finally got round to converting a couple of weeks ago. It's had screw couplings and pipework fitted, plus the main front handrails at either end have had the two missing inner stanchions added. Weathering will follow at some stage...

     
    This Hymek is one of the 'BR blue' era locos, the layout will mainly operate in early 1960s mode, so here is D7042 with an unlikely bedfellow:

     
    Last night, I finally tested some newly-converted wagons on the layout, plus the two china clay wagons (although the two Presflos have appeared on my blog before). Apart from the two clay wagons, none of the other wagons have any compensation or springing at all... I find that provided the wagon concerned has a nice, square chassis and sufficient weight (the three opens all weigh 42g), then that is sufficient to avoid any derailments. One clay wagon is sprung, with Bill Bedford 'W' irons but solid (Lanarkshire) buffers, the other has internal rocker compensation, and sprung (Lanarkshire) buffers.
     
    The Class 20 (another one in the weathering queue) was used to haul and propel this rake at pretty high scale speeds through all the pointwork and curves. Fortunately this was accomplished without any derailments or other 'operating incidents'...

     

     
    These two Bachmann ex-LNER 'high bars' will acquire some of Dave Franks' buffers in due course:

     

     
    The buffer shanks on the china clay wagons scale down to 3mm, and with the overall buffer diameter not much more than that, the ever-helpful Mr Franks was not able to drill them out to that diameter. However, he did kindly suggest drilling them out for 2.5mm, which he duly did, and I think that the result, when fitted with sprung heads, isn't too bad:

     
    Next up for 'Callow Lane' is to produce a part-relief/part-'backscene' factory building, using the new Scalescenes 'northlight' loco shed kit as a basis...
  18. Captain Kernow
    It's been a while since the last blog entry and part of the reason for that has been my having to devote time to a fairly major DIY job at home, which is thankfully now more or less completed.
     
    The previous entry had concluded with a virtually operational chassis, which required detailing.
     
    The brake gear was indeed added at this stage:

     
    By this stage, all the work involved in modifying the Hattons/DJM body to fit the (also modified) Perseverance chassis had been done and in many ways, this now just became another routine chassis building project.
     
    The loco was then given extensive testing on the rolling road:

     
    However, even after all that testing and 'running in', I still wasn't satisfied with the running qualities and I spent a lot of what modelling time I did have, looking at pick up options.
     
    I was also concerned that, having build the chassis 'rigid' (ie. without compensation or springing), I had compromised on the running qualities. It was evident that some kind of springing (or at least adjustment) was required for the rear pony wheels. I also wasn't satisfied with just one set of pick ups on each wheel.
     
    A fairly major problem at the same time was the fact that I had inadvertently got some flux on the 2mm steel shafts that carry the plastic gears in the High Level gearbox. I had thought that I had been sufficiently careful to avoid this and had cleaned them up at the time. The outcome of this error on my part was that the High Level gearbox 'lash up' driving the front axle more or less seized up and was really straining the motor just to move the loco along slowly (and annoyingly jerkily).
     
    As such, the whole motor/gearbox was removed and dismantled and a replacement High Level LoadHauler+ (still at 90:1 gear ratio) was installed on the rear driven axle instead.
     
    By angling the drive extender round behind the gearbox 'tower', I could still keep the motor in more or less the same position and retain the small flywheel. I made sure this time that the previous problem with the steel shafts would not recur.
     
    There was still an annoying and mysterious tight spot, which I eventually traced to one of the brake shoes being too close to the wheel, which with a slight 'wobble' that isn't uncommon with this kind of wheel, was causing the wheel to rub slightly on the brake shoe. A gentle tweak with a small pair of pliers sorted that matter out.
     
    The new motor/gearbox combination now ran nice and smoothly when directly wired to a power source. Pick ups were fitted and tweaked and still I wasn't quite happy with the way the loco ran. It was, by now, considerably better than the original Hattons/DJM chassis, but still not quite what I had hoped for. The problem seemed to be exacerbated with the loco body attached to the chassis, so I felt that more lead weight over the two driving axles might help.
     
    More lead was added to the front of the inside of the side tanks:

     
    I also added a small 'cube' of lead between the frames, located mid-way between the two driven axles and glued to a piece of copper-clad paxolin, glued to the underside of the chassis:

     

     
    The top-of-the-wheel pick-up arrangement seen in the above two photos proved to be unsatisfactory and has since been changed, whereby the pick ups on the leading driven axle have been removed and that on the rear driven axle and the pony wheels modified to act on the flange, rather than the wheel treads.
     
    The loco was run-in some more on the rolling road and then tested on the layout. Finally, finally I have got it running to my satisfaction and it 'passed the test' of running nice and slowly over all parts of the layout:

     

     
    The next jobs will be to sort out a few minor things on the loco body, such as permanently attaching the replacement nickel silver front step, removing the Hattons/DJM number plate, putting a thin piece of plasticard to bring the numberplate depression to the same level as the body and then attaching a replacement 247 Developments number plate for 1458 in its place.
     
    The chassis will then be painted and weathered and the loco body weathered.
  19. Captain Kernow
    Having had part of 'Engine Wood' set up this afternoon to start the process of fitting baseboard alignment dowels, I took the opportunity to take a few more photos of the recently weathered RTR rolling stock that I did recently:
     
    The Gresley full brake:

     

     
    A Hawksworth full brake:

     
    Bachmann Mark 1 BG:

     
    Ex-GW horsebox:

     

     

     
    Two coach Hawksworth set:

     

     

     

     

     
    Finally, another photo of the bogie bolster taken last week:

  20. Captain Kernow
    Whilst waiting to pluck up courage to go out to the shed and turn the hot air heater on - in order to spray the new Skaledale water tower red oxide - I've built one of the last remaining structures needed for the layout, a part-relief corner of a factory, to go up against the backscene. The location of this structure is shown on the layout plan below:

     
    The factory is meant to go right alongside the line from the chocolate factory, which in turn is hemmed in by the end of the row of cottages. I wanted to be able to have short trains, hauled by an industrial loco, 'peeping out' from between buildings that are taller than the train...
     
    The structure is very basic, and made from Dalerboard, covered with Scalescenes brick paper. I had one spare etched window left over from the Townstreet goods shed, so this has been incorporated in the building.

     
    The first version of it was put in place on the layout, to see what it looked like, but after thinking about it for a while, I felt that it rather over-dominated the scene, as it was just a little too tall, compared with what I originally wanted:

     

     

     
    So, I knocked up a quick mock-up of a slightly shorter structure from some scrap card, and put it in place for comparative purposes:

     
    I was happier with it being this height, so I took a sharp scalpel blade to the original:

     
    And put this back on the layout:

     
    Then I got a small industrial loco out and gave it the chance to peep out between the buildings

     

     

     
    I now need to give the building a bit of weathering, using powders, and then it's back to the water tower...
  21. Captain Kernow
    One of my little 'conceits' with Callow Lane, in terms of it's putative location, is that the link to the old Coalpit Heath area collieries was re-orientated to run directly into Callow Lane, enabling a colliery tripper to run. The Coalpit Heath pits were all closed by shortly after the second world war, but in my world, one of them - Frog Lane Colliery - was modernised after new deposits of good coal were found. The NCB is now in charge, of course, and their locos are authorised to run onto BR metals as far as Callow Lane, in order to bring loaded coal wagons out of the colliery and to collect empties. Typically, a BR loco and brake van would be diagrammed to wait at Callow Lane for the colliery trip to arrive, and to then work the wagons forward to Westerleigh Yard and beyond...
     
    Here we see a view circa 1960, with 8701 and brake van sitting in the old platform, whilst RSH 'Thunderbolt' from Frog Lane arrives with some 16 tonners:

     

     

     

     

     
    We now fast-forward to circa 1970, and we see the same workings taking place, only now we have D7042 waiting for the colliery tripper, with the colliery's new Sentinel arriving with the wagons:

     

     

     

     
    And now, in a bizarre twist of fate, we see the same scene, in the unlikely event that Sentinel locos have taken over the world...

     

     

     
    I would point out that neither Sentinel is yet converted to P4, alas, and the red one isn't even mine, it was the result of a successful 'proxy shopping' trip on behalf of Re6/6!
  22. Captain Kernow
    In the previous blog entry, I described the construction of a card 'very low relief' factory fascia, to go immediately in front of the backscene. There were a number of unresolved issues with this, not least the fact that the 'northlight' appearance end-on to the viewer, somehow didn't satisfy, as it would only really be convincing if viewed directly 'head on' from 90 degrees.
     
    There was also the question of how to merge the road ('Callow Lane') into the backscene, once it had crossed the private siding into the chocolate factory, that runs behind the row of four cottages.
     
    Following various discussions with friends, I have now modified the factory structure, and constructed some additional 'very low relief backscene components' to complete the scene.
     
    To begin with, I replaced the 'northlight' ends with a similation of a simple, sloping roof on the computer, using 'Paint' (just about as advanced as I can get in that regard!). This was what it would look like:

     
    I decided that changing the 'northlights' was a good move, but somehow the length of the factory unit dominated the scene, and there was still the issue of how to merge the lane into the backscene. In the end, I concocted another 'Paint' simulation, showing a set of factory gates immediately across the private siding. I also shortened the factory unit by one 'window bay' length, which I felt gave a more interesting visual appearance:

     
    Having now finished the alterations to the main factory structure, and built the new factory gates and some lengths of brick wall (again using Scalescenes brick paper for the walls), I had a play around with the positioning of the left-hand rear factory building (the one that is behind the end of the row of cottages as you view the scene in these photos), to see whether it looked better closer to the gates or a bit further away. I've now boiled this down to three options...!
     
    Option 'A'
     

     

     

     
    Option 'B'
     

     

     
     
    Option 'C'
     

     

     

     
     
    Some more general views of this part of the layout (not all the final structures are in place in these photos):

     

     

     
    The plasticard structure in this view is part of a disused platform, where only the rear wall remains, the visible section will be filled in with scenery and general overgrowth, where the old platform has been gradually dug away over the years, leaving little left:

     
    This looks like one of the scratchbuilt nickel silver buffer stops you could buy, ready assembled, from Puffers in Kenton years ago. I bought the last three remaining ones he had in OO at the time, and used them on 'Engine Wood' and 'Bleakhouse Road'. This P4 one came to me courtesy of that fine fellow, Re6/6. I've now soldered it to some copper clad sleepers, which have been 'distressed' and cosmetic chairs added:

     
    This is a Lanarkshire Models Midland Railway buffer stop kit from Dave Franks, and very nice it is too. I've cut some thin copper clad sleepers from some 0.6mm sheet (the end of this siding is laid using C&L flexitrack, which has thinner sleepers than the P4 Track Co stuff in the other view), and soldered the assembled buffer stop to them. Cosmetic chairs have still to be added. Assembly was pretty straightforward using low-melt solder from Carrs. I don't now have a dedicated low-temperature iron, but use a mains variable temperature Antex one. Even at the lowest setting, I still didn't trust the whitemetal not to simply melt when the iron touched the castings (they are essentially cast sections of Code 75 rail!), so I brought the iron up to temperature (lowest setting), turned it off again, and then used it to solder the pieces together. I'd personally recommend soldering these buffer stops, but you can use glue:

  23. Captain Kernow
    The doors and sash windows of the latest row of cottages have now been done (albeit door handles and letter boxes still to be done), which provided another excuse to put them on the layout for some photos and play trains for a few moments:
     

     
    The windows weren't so easy to see against a light background, so I placed a cutting mat behind them (they will have a back wall and darkened interiors when they are finished, like the adjacent row):

     

     

     

  24. Captain Kernow
    Having used Johnsons 'Klear' (original formula) for fixing virtually all of the ballast on Callow Lane, I've been having mild doubts about it's suitability in the long term to hold everything in place.
     
    Whenever I've done any work in the vicinity of any ballast, I've often found bits of ballast coming loose, and the overall impression I've got is that the body of ballast is slightly brittle and fragile.
     
    I'm keen that I don't get ballast coming loose for a pastime, when the layout starts to get moved around to and from shows, so I've taken the plunge and am currently about half-way through depositing diluted PVA (together with the obligatory drop of washing up liquid) on all the sections ballasted with 'Klear'.
     
    The bits that have dried out from yesterday already seem firmer, so I'm happy at the moment that this is the right way to go. The good thing is that with the ballast already held in place by the 'Klear', the depositing of dilute PVA doesn't displace any of it!
  25. 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... )
     

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