Middlepeak

Hi Jay, Don't want to be a spoil sport here, but I think you've hit the same problem that I'm battling with over the Friden bridge. If you think about local sources of stone to the High Peak, you've basically got limestone or millstone grit, neither of which had any significant brown colour to them. I can't think of any local sources of sandstone that would have the brown tint that you often see elsewhere. I must admit that when I built the engine house for Middlepeak I may have erred too much towards the grey and ended up with a monotone finish that I was never 100% happy with. If you look at the engine house now, or the Friden bridge for that matter, there are traces of brown in there but not enough to warrant a brown base coat on the model. I was discussing this the other day with two mates from our group, and we concluded that the only way of getting this right was possibly to visit the site and scrape away gently at the stonework, removing the muck to see what the original colour was! The coal stage is looking good though. I think your scribing is fine. Maybe worth playing around with a little more of a grey wash to modify the colour. Satisfy yourself before you start the bigger task of making the engine house! Cheers! G

A bit more stonemasonry has taken place on the bridge over the road to Youlgreave. With the parapet and capping now complete (thanks to local boy Jay for going out to take measurements for me), all that remains is to complete the voussoir stones and the remainder of the courses up to the string course. You might be able to spot that the side walls to the arch have been fashioned from Wills sheet, which is perfectly acceptable for the limited view that will result. I've yet to complete the underside of the arch, and I suspect that again no detail will be required here for the simple reason that you can't see it! Similarly the only detail that will be required on the far portal will be the parapet stonework, as the rest will face away from the viewer and the road at that point is largely hidden in trees. One thing I didn't bargain for is that because the road slopes downwards towards the bridge on both sides, it's actually very difficult to slide the completed arch in from the front. The various pieces will therefore have to be painted and weathered away from the layout and assembled on site, feeding them in from either side of the track bed. Doubtless that will require a whole weekend possession! More when it's painted .... Geraint

Jay, Sorry, forgot to acknowledge safe arrival. Looks like a workable solution. Just pondering over suspension arrangements! I have also paid my dues to the NRM, so hopefully the Gannet drawings will arrive soon. Unfortunately the hospital stay meant that I had to cancel a proposed visit to Friden, with a night at the nearby Jug & Glass. Later in the summer, maybe. G

Thanks Curlew. I'll keep an eye open for that. G

I'm afraid it is Jonathan, but testimony to the fact that some of the old techniques are as good as ever!

Apologies for the deafening silence of late, but my wife has just endured another two weeks in hospital, and the daily round of visits as a carer has taken its toll on my modelling time, and to a degree on my sanity! Back to the workshop now though, and a start has been made on the bridge over the Youlgreave road. Various close up photos have shown that the stonework is formed of various "patches" comprising stones of different sizes. I wanted to capture this on the model, so I'm working on it course by course and stone by stone, using various sizes of Evergreen strip in 40 thou thickness. The stones are then distressed with an engraving tool and cleaned off with a fibreglass brush. A long job, but quite relaxing, and I'm enjoying it, which is all that counts!!

Thanks John. I believe we are thinking along the same lines, which reassures me! Geraint

A plea for help from the depths of the Fens ....... !!!! I've been puzzling over the vexing question of how to form the roof profile for the above diesel. The ends and intermediate strengtheners give the right profile for the roof, which basically consists of three arcs - two with a tight (2.5mm) radius at the gutter line and a much shallower arc in the middle. My rolling mill will easily form the central profile, but the problem comes at the edges, where the radius is far too tight for any rollers. The only solution I can come up with is to solder the edge of the roof to a length of 4mm diameter brass rod, clamp the whole thing in a vice and then carefully shape the rounded corner around the rod, using a similar brass profile as a roller. The material is an etch in 0.3mm nickel silver, which is half-etched to provide rivet lines across the roof and full thickness beading around all four edges. Is this the best way of doing it, or can anyone suggest a more suitable alternative? Regards, Geraint

Jay, I've got some spare Tortoises here, which I won't use. Do you want them? G

Whilst the somewhat monotonous task of track building continues on my P4 model of Friden, I decided to pursue a bit of light relief this week and returned to the RGVJ's latest acquisition. My model of the Kalvehavebanen's B&W 3-axle diesel is a home grown affair, consisting largely of my own etchings designed from drawings sourced from the Skovbo Jernbane Arkiv and etched by PPD with their customary accuracy and efficiency. The basic body shell consists of a single folded box of 0.3mm nickel silver with intermediate partitions that slot into the sides and floor. This week's task has been to solder on the overlays to sides and ends, which are half-etched to create the panelling and door detail. I must admit that I had shyed away from this for a while, but in the end the whole job only took a couple of hours' intermittent work with the soldering iron, 145° solder and plenty of flux. The trick in the design was to have a couple of lines of 2mm square holes etched in to the carcass, which facilitated access to the soldered overlays from the inside of the body. There are one or two bits of detail yet to be added, such as door handles, windscreen wipers and number plates. I will also have to devise some method of reproducing the louvred bodyside grilles. Then it's on to the roof, which will be a major exercise in itself, but that may have to wait until I've perfected some skills with my new rolling mill!

Interesting! When you get started, it will be good to see a shot of all the components spread out on the workbench. What are the boiler fittings like? G

Great stuff Jay. I presume there will be a video camera on hand to record the first train? G

David, Thanks for comments, and I enjoyed your presentation on Nether Upton at VS4NI. I've already done a short film on Obbekaer for last year's S4um, which is still available on the S4 website and on YouTube. I suppose one option might be to pick a few exhibition managers and email them a link to that. Is there a similar situation "across the pond"? One of the other problems here is that potential invitations from Europe are likely to be much more difficult in future since we left the EU. Regards, Geraint

Dear All, Very little to report in the way of progress with either Obbekaer or Ribe Skibbroen, but I wanted to explain the reasons for that and prompt some discussion around the circumstances surrounding it. As you will have gathered, both layouts have been designed with exhibitions in mind, and in fact neither of them are of a suitable size to permit permanent erection at home. Of course we all appreciate the hole that the pandemic has left in our hobby, with no exhibitions to attend. For the moment there doesn't appear to be much of a light at the end of that tunnel. Whilst the virtual shows have helped to a certain extent to fill the gap, and Obbekaer has appeared at two such events over the last year, there's nothing to beat the sort of face to face interaction that you get at an exhibition. I'm sure we're all looking forward to the time when we can resume this part of our hobby - safely. But there is perhaps a bigger problem here, for some of us at least. In the normal run of things, invitations to exhibitions come as a result of appearances elsewhere. Take away the opportunity to showcase your efforts and the invitations dry up completely. In the case of Obbekaer, we had 5 invitations in the diary in various parts of the country, which would have given us a reasonable amount of exposure and hopefully further invites to follow. One by one these have been cancelled, such that there is now only one remaining, for 2022. Given that exhibition managers are generally planning quite a few years ahead, there would seem to be little prospect of filling the diary with new bookings, at least for 2-3 years, and then there is the problem of building up the layout's profile again, especially when you've already gone through the coverage in the modelling press some years back and there is no real prospect of a 'rerun'. This may sound like an unduly pessimistic view of the world, but in my case it has resulted in me abandoning some of the planned work on rolling stock for Obbekaer and buildings for Ribe, in favour of a new home-based P4 project, which I must say I am enjoying enormously. It does however beg the question of the future, for Obbekaer in particular, and it will sit unused in its crates for the time being, until options are clearer. So is there anyone else out there will similar feelings? Does anyone have any ideas as to how future exhibition invitations might be stimulated? There is a layout database on here, which carries Obbekaer's details, but maybe there's a bigger role for something similar, once the exhibition diary begins to fill again? Look forward to hearing people's views! Geraint

Good stuff Jay. I appreciate the frustration of seeing track on baseboards but no way of running anything! A similar big job awaits me at Friden! By the way, how did the competition go? G

Jonathan, A great set of photos. Thanks for sharing. I often wondered how the Midland yard at Buxton would be shunted. I suspect that any through traffic to or from the quarries at Hindlow or Briggs Sidings would have run direct via the High Sidings opposite the LNWR shed and then trip worked straight onto the Ashbourne line. Any local coal or general merchandise could have worked direct and have been subject to the sort of moves you've accurately portrayed here. These sort of shunting puzzles are fascinating - I'm having similar bouts of head scratching over the yard layout at Friden. Careful analysis of photos is beginning to have benefits! Regards, Geraint

Thanks Mark. G

I think etched it probably will be, but from my previous experience, the gestation period for such things can be quite long, including one or two test etch iterations courtesy of my good friends at PPD. First step is probably to get some design tips from other experts, starting with the acquisition of a couple of Justin Newitt's well respected creations. The Grampus detailing kit is probably the first port of call! Don't wait up for further progress on the Gannet, but I'll keep you posted! Geraint

Jonathan, I've never found a photo of a bus on this service. Do you know of any? Best wishes for your hospital visit this week. Geraint

Just going with the OS spelling Al - safest in the circumstances! Geraint

OK, I'm getting ahead of myself here, but I mentioned the Youlgreave Road bridge in the last post. A few minutes on Google Earth produced a fairly square-on view of the north side abutment, which was then scaled up on TurboCAD, printed and stuck to a piece of foam board. A useful check on clearances and yes, the North Western single decker has strayed somewhat from the Manchester - Buxton route, but will be redirected with a change of destination blind in due course! However, you get the picture....

A bit more progress today with the installation of the fourth baseboard that takes the tracks up to the Youlgreave Road bridge. This has really tested the design and assembly of the laser cut baseboards, with the long joint to board 3 proving to be the hardest to get right. The back siding serving the loading dock is now finished, complete with a Midland / LMS buffer stop from Lanarkshire Models. I cut the running rails away from the castings and Araldited the remainder to a short section of code 75 bullhead rail. Electrical isolation is provided by the Exactoscale plastic rail joint bars and the buffer beam, which is made from a trimmed down coffee stirrer. For some reason, the beam on the prototype was shortened at one end, before anyone asks! I can now move on with the track on the new board, as well as wiring it all up, which will give me somewhere to play trains at last!

A bit of a plea for assistance this time. Trawling through the mass of CHP photographs that I have in my collection (over 1500 at the last count), I have been noticing the prevalence of certain types of wagon in the daily freight working from Middleton Top to Friden. If we look at the 1960s, it seems that much of the output from the Prestwich Intake Quarry was carried in Gannet wagons (ex-LMS D1804 25T Ballast Hoppers). Source - GH collection, original photographer unknown There's a drawing from the diagram book in Essery's LMS Wagons Vol 1, but I'm after a more detailed version for modelling purposes. I have written to the NRM to see if they have anything, but I wondered if anyone else can think of another source? Better still, is there an obvious source of a 4mm model for these, apart from the Falcon Brass kit, which is currently not available? Thanks if you can help. Geraint

Jay, Sorry, the items concerned are in the loft and a bit inaccessible at the moment! It was a standard K&S brass tube. The wheels are 6mm in diameter and the axle sits in bearings soldered in to the top of the tube, with a small amount filed of the other two faces to give clearance for the wheels. On that basis I reckon the external dimension was 1/4 inch (6.3mm) Geraint

Jay, When it comes to incline rollers, I used N gauge wagon wheels mounted face to face on a short 1mm diameter axle, which was then inserted into a 'box' cut from square section brass tube. They ran well on Middlepeak for nearly 20 years! Geraint