Captain Kernow

Craig - have a try with some moss as well - plenty on my lawn if you need any - naturally growing things often look good in miniature. The harbour scene is pure delight and very well observed!

That'll be my friend David Butcher, if you found his articles interesting, I'd recommend his railway career autobiography 'From Steam to Stone', published by Oakwood Press Still an active modeller, David has a huge knowledge of railways and their operations and is one of life's true gentlemen.

I do like that image, Simon, nice misty, sepia effect on the shed too! Is the working - in 1963 - a special charter over the S&MJR?

Super photo, Larry, and you're spot on in your assessment there! I know of no other railway in the 'heritage/steam' sector that has quite the pull of the WHR for me at the moment.

Nice bit of ballasting as well, Andrew!

[quote name+ =Pugsley' date='30 August 2010 - 10:33 ] Diluting it may reduce the tarnishing effect, but I guess it depends upon exactly what mechanism causes it in the first place! I've used artists Matte Medium in the past to secure ballast - it's not cheap but I was really happy with the effect. Interesting and a useful tip as well. One of the attractions of PVA for me is the slight flexibility it has compared with Klear...

Right, done that now, applied a bit of Peco 'Superlube' on the steel railheads. No prospect of any trains running for a while, I've found it a fairly effective way to keep rust at bay. Going back to the issue of the chemical constituency of PVA, although this has no doubt been well known to eminent scientists for some time, it is only recently (and via RMWeb), that I've become aware of this issue. I suspect that 'the vapours' from PVA might have been responsible for some heavy and repeat tarnishing of some N/S rail on the old DRAG TT1 test track. I've used PVA around N/S track on my own layouts, however, and have never had any tarnishing problems. Similarly, there was a six inch length of track on Callow Lane that got ballasted with dilute PVA, before I remembered that I could use 'Klear', and that hasn't suffered from any particular tarnishing or rusting attributable to PVA over the last few weeks since it was done, either. Are there certain types of PVA that are more prone to this kind of problem? I always use the usual Evostick stuff in the dark green bottles. And if you dilute the stuff, would that not lessen the problem anyway?

I was never any good at chemistry at school, and that's too long ago to worry about now anyway. In any case, I've just finished applying the dilute PVA to the rest of the trackbed!... In case of any ill effects whilst it goes off overnight, I think I'll just pop off now and oil the tops of the rails...

:lol: Be sure you do that, matey!

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!

I haven't checked against a scale drawing (although I was planning to do this for other reasons), but is there any reason to suspect that Heljan haven't got the wheelbase right?

HI, the rodding is 0.45mm brass rod from Eileens Emporium or Alan Gibson, the cranks are from Brassmasters and Model Signal Engineering, and the rodding stools are also from MSE.

I've virtually completed the point rodding on the layout now, having applied primer to the brass rodding last night and painted it today. The only parts left to fit are the rods to the cosmetic point tie bars (which themselves haven't yet been fitted) and the sections of rodding that cross the baseboard joint (these will probably be lift-out sections, as per Bleakhouse Road). This is where the rodding will emerge from underneath the signalbox:

Nice one, Robin! Thanks for posting that - will check the blog out too. What's it like going round corners?

Hi again - just noticed in your previous blog entry that you are using 'Scenics' grey ballast? Presumably that is the stuff used on the photos in this thread? I think I saw someone else refer to Woodland Scenics ballast as well? I'd just like to recommend Woodland Scenics ballast, which I use, together with Carrs ballast as well. All seem to be artificial and thus don't leave a grey dust or 'wash' if things go wrong as per your previous blog! I think the photos of the dry ballasted track with the Deltic on the previous entry are utterly superb, you clearly have a talent in this respect and I look forward to seeing how your layout develops. In case you haven't had a go at gluing that ballast on the area where the Deltic was down yet, you could have a go using Johnson's 'Klear', if you can get any. Re6/6 of this forum has also experimented with the newer Pledge 'Klear', which is the replacement for the original product, and whilst the new product doesn't seem to be suitable as a clear varnish, he found that it works well as a ballasting fixative. I normally wet the dry ballast using a very fine plant mister, spraying neat IPA from around 18" to 2' height, letting it really soak in, and then going in with a pipette filled with 'Klear' (although diluted glue with a bit of washing up liquid would work equally well). I would add that the reason I use this method and not the 'painting the PVA' method on Callow Lane, is due to the fact that I am using full depth Exactoscale track bases, where the depth of the PVA is generally not quite enough to give a convincing ballast surface, whereas this is not a problem with C&L or SMP track, with it's thinner sleeper bases. Good luck, anyway!

That's very neat work, Jon, full marks - nice neat application of ballast, sleepers clear, and rail sides fully visible. That looks like C&L track, if so, one more tip is to cut the webs between the sleepers when you've glued the track to the baseboard, but before you apply the ballast, this then gives you the opportunity to have air gaps between the top of the ballast surface and the bottom of the rail, which is prototypical in many instances (but not all, there are equally examples of ballast reaching the underside of the bullhead rail). One other method you might like to try (if marshalling x-zillion bits of reluctant bits of ballast is apt to get one ones nerves after a while), is the equally thrilling method of painting neat PVA between the sleeper bays (easier when the webs are removed!), and applying dry ballast on top. When the glue is dry, vacuum the loose ballast off and you should be left with a very neat ballasted area. For 4mm scale, the use of 'N' gauge ballast almost always looks more scale than that which is sold as 'OO' ballast, and the above 'painting the PVA' method works equally well with that. The big advantage of the PVA painting method (IMO) is that you can carefully control exactly where the ballast goes....

I think this is pretty much in line with my presentation philosphy, which essentially revolves around the statement 'the most effective lies are those with a hint of the truth in them'....

Here's a Wrenn R1, which I detailed a few years ago. I also gave it mixed traffic lining, which they never carried in reality, but I rather liked the effect.... I also removed the moulded plastic coal from the bunker, so as to make it look half-empty, and put a curved underneath to the boiler from plasticard: It also has turned Romford driving wheels and replacement coupling rods (Alan Gibson 'Universal' ones).

I've just come back from the Three Spires show in Truro (Falmouth MRC), and we all had much fun operating 'Engine Wood'. This was a very nice show, and friendly hosts, and there were some other nice layouts present as well. It was particularly good to have the chance to have a good look at the lovely 'Treneglos' and meet 2Manyspams and his colleagues! I found myself admiring the operational discipline of the 'Treneglos' team, in terms of the fact that you only ever saw locos on their layout that would have worked the North Cornwall line. All the trains were also correctly formed. This got me thinking about my own slightly more liberal motive power rostering policy on 'Engine Wood' and my other layouts too. There's no shortage of published material about what locos worked on the S&D, both from the point of view of locomotive classes, and individual numbers too. The amount of material available in books and on the internet means it has never been easier to research the correct type and number for one's motive power choices, and indeed, I have ensured that most of my 'authentic' loco types have numbers appropriate to the S&D. However, the 'slightly more liberal motive power' policy I mentioned above, means that I sometimes use other types of loco as well, in particular the use of diesels. We all know that the S&D closed in 1966, yet it amuses me to run green diesels too, sometimes in a 'diesel-only' operating sequence, sometimes mixed in with the steam locos. My use of locos like the WD 2-8-0 is also a bit on the liberal side, and last weekend I also found myself enjoying seeing John Farmer's 45XX prairie tank working trains as well! It occurs to me, that a goodly proportion of exhibition visitors will be non-enthusiasts, who wouldn't necessarily be able to tell the difference between an authentic loco and a non-authentic one. On the other hand, there are plenty of folk who will know! On balance, I think I will keep the green diesels on the roster, because at the end of the day, it is my train set, and I think I'd prefer to run what gives me most pleasure. Now then, should I weather that Robinson 04 and fit scale couplings to that next, or what about the Super D? I wonder if I could really get away with a Class 17?!!....

Hi Kris, This is looking very good! It looks like it's designed to be transportable to exhibitions?

Neil, this is just lovely stuff, it gets better and better! I really like the street scene further up the thread! What a pity it isn't transportable.... I'd ask you to bring it to Taunton one year like a shot!

I really like these - but please tell me, did it start out life as a grey one, which has had a lot of rust added, or a bauxite one, which has had some cement grey added?

Thanks for that, Robin, I've found the Hobbycraft website, looks promising. In the meantime, I've obtained some Derwent coloured pencils from my local art shop and have done some experimentation, but this is on embossed plasticard brick, primed with Halfords grey primer. Not too sure about the results so far, so I was wondering whether you specifically went for the Faber Castell product, rather than any other type of pencil (ie. did you buy the Faber product, because that was what the shop happened to have, or did you know that this was the right product?). I'm finding the Derwent pencils a bit waxy, and I note from the Hobbycraft website, that the Faber Castell ones are not meant to be thus....