Pugsley

Before you do too much with flushglazing the windscreens, have a look at the relationship between the bottom of the windscreens and the light clusters, I think the windscreens may be a fraction too deep on the model: http://newimages.fotopic.net/?iid=1yxurh&outx=600&noresize=1&original=1&nostamp=1 Of course, it could be that there isn't much you could do about it, and it may not bother you in the first place Are you going to go the Branchlines route for the chassis?

Cracking work Missy - I admire anyone who can do such a comprehensively nice job on something so small! B) I'm intrigued as to what is has to do with onions and Jethro Tull though

Thanks chaps B) Jo - Yes, the techniques should scale down OK, you'd probably want to go easy on the talc in N, otherwise you'll end up with far too much texture. James - Looking forward to seeing your 09. Now worries about jumping in, it just goes to show that there's more than one way of doing these things, and that different materials can be used to get the same effects. The colours are pretty much the same though, with the exception of the gunmetal.

Thanks 28ten - I'm not sure if I've got a saddle lock fitted, it's been that long since I've been near the lathe! I'm pretty sure it has though. What have you done in the way of tweaks to your lathe, out of interest? Smokebox - thanks for the additional tip.

No expert, but a humped bridge would fit in with a canal perfectly (unless the canal was running over it )

Oooh, proper engineering stuff B) I'd be interested in any tips you can impart on parting off - it's something I've had a bit of trouble with, to the point that what little things I've done so far on the lathe, I've sawn them off and then faced true again - there is definitely a better way (especially if I end up doing the same sort of thing as you are here one day!) I guess making a centre height gauge would be useful for setting the tool up, and getting it exactly on centre is critical? Edit - Seeing your pics has reminded me that I must get a quick change toolpost for mine!

There are periods of doing this kind of thing where I feel like I've spent an awful lot of time doing something, but don't really have much to show for it. I've started on the roof of the 09, with the cab roof getting the most treatment. A mix of weathering powders and hairspray was used for this - mostly Mig Europe Dust, with a little Brick Dust and Gulf War Sand chucked in for good measure. This is mixed up and applied with a brush. If it goes on too thin, add more. If it goes on too thick paint neat hairspray on, and dab gently with a cosmetic sponge - this will spread the mixture, remove it in places and also remove brushmarks. If you end up getting it where you don't want it, a wet brush will remove it. I've also reduced the fuel spill effect in front of the cab - it was looking a little too dark to me. A soft flat brush moistened with screenwash took care of that, brushing it down vertically. I've also modified the paint on the front slightly to get it a bit closer to the photo I'm working from.

There's a lot to be said about writing about the progress of something to keep you interested in it. I only wish it was having the same effect on me!

Thanks for the comments chaps B) Dan, fully aware of that, thank you....

A bit more progress has been made with the 09 - I've still not been tempted back to making track, even though I really should be getting on with it! The powders and gouache have been broken out to add further dirt and grime, and I've also made a start on the underframe.I've decided to try a different method to the one I used on my last 08, which was straight out of the Martyn Welch book. This time I've used slightly different materials - acrylic gloss black, grimy black weathering powder, Europe Dust weathering powder, talc, and a bit of gloss tan. It's worked quite well, and I think it looks just as good as the Martyn Welch method (although it is ostensibly the same, but with slightly different materials), as seen here: At this point, a bit more work has been done on the grime, and the roof has been started in the form of the exhaust. I've used a rust powder and hairspray mix on this brushed on, and then dabbed with a moist cosmetic sponge to impart a bit of texture, and disguise any brush marks. Powders are used dry on top of this base to add variety of colour and soot. Progress so far:

I've absolutely zero interest in the prototype from a modelling point of view, but those etches really do look good. They'll transform the Limby 67, no doubt about that!

Impressive B) That really is the attraction of 7mm scale for me - you can put loads of detail in, and still be able to see it reasonably well

Cheers for the tips - I think I might give them a go, as they will be 'Just Like the Real Thing' I don't want to say too much about the plans at the moment, just in case I decide that it is too daft for me to do, but it would involve taking a perfectly good kit, throwing away the bogies, and making my own...

Does that mean they're of limited use then (although closer to the real thing)? I figured I could turn the axles down from 3/16 to 4mm to suit. It's for a, slightly daft, plan that's still in the floating around my mind stages..

Thanks for the info. I found these: http://www.technobots.co.uk/acatalog/Online_Catalogue_Needle_Roller_Bearings_378.html Which look good, but I thought they seemed a little pricey.

I'd be rather interested to know where the bearings came from, please. I've found similar, but not 60p each!

Yes, it is very lightweight and very strong. Sadly it wasn't built by me. It is entirely constructed from birch ply, by someone who has far better woodworking skills than me!

Thanks Jamie - I figured that most people would be bored of this by now, so keeping it short and sweet. These are the last unseen photos of Chittle I have, so there's no more from me!

The next project, now with Chittle well and truly out of the way, is an incursion into Southern Region territory, with a might-have-been line between Bagshot and Woking. The story goes something like this: The line was built in the early 1920s as an alternative to the light railway proposed between Sunningdale and Woking, via Chobham, which was never built. The line provided a direct connection from Ascot and Bracknell to Woking by branching off at Bagshot, and running through Lightwater, West End, Bisley and Knaphill before joining the main line again near St Johns. The line was electrified and the layout of the station modified in 1967, at the same time as the rest of the South-West mainline to Bournemouth was electrified. At the same time the station was remodelled to accommodate the new oil terminal, with a new station building and access built on the former goods yard. The branch line to Bisley camp was also lifted at this time. The line was closed to passengers in 1976, after the canal bridge near St Johns was weakened in a dredging accident and had to be demolished, with the line beyond West End being lifted. Oil trains continued to the local fuel distributor until 1984, and the loop was retained so that aggregates trains, now coming from the Reading direction, could continue to reverse into the terminal, as the terminal has no run-round facilities. The stone trains are routed through Bracknell, and access the line to Bagshot through the chord at South Ascot. A large expansion in the town, and the progressive nature of the Network SouthEast sector at the time lead to the station having it's passenger service reinstated in 1988. Luckily the 3rd rail equipment had been left, albeit isolated, when the passenger service ceased in the 1970s. The station was originally composed of an island platform, with the main station building, on a now mostly demolished platform, connected by a footbridge. The far platform road has been filled in, and it is in this space that the new station building has been constructed, with the rest of the platform left as a bay. One of the former main lines is extended slightly to act as a headshunt for the run-round and the other main line now forms part of the goods loop. The far platform line (which is now the bay) originally continued to Bisley Camp (hence the name Bisley Junction - Bisley village, further down the line, only had a halt. Evidence of this lines embankment can just be made out, but has mostly been obliterated by the housing development. With the expansion in the town, the oil terminal has started to receive trains again, and another local industry (office furniture) now receives bright steel in vans from the UK and coated steel from abroad. The station at West End is marked by the blue dot on the map, the Stone terminal by the purple. There is one additional station on the line, at Lightwater. Trackplan is more or less like this, and I hope the notes above help to make some sense of it: The inspiration for the layout comes from several sources, St Denys, Chessington South and Addiscombe. I've got this kind of thing planned for the terminus end of the layout: http://neillwood3163.fotopic.net/p51672801.html And that's about as far as its got, save for one try of the templot plans on the board, and a point and a bit (about 1/4 of the way through the second point :mrgreen: )

I guess it seems strange starting a blog about a layout with a post about an entirely different layout, but it highlights some of the thinking behind the new layout, and I feel it sometimes helps to have a little of the past to understand the present and the future. The old thread containing more info about the construction of the layout can be found here: http://www.rmweb.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=76&t=608 Chittle was my entry in the 2007 layout challenge, which was for layouts with a total area of less than 6 square feet. This introduced a couple of compromises, particularly in terms of shape and, of course, overall size. The biggest compromise, for me, was the inability to capture the feel of railway running through the landscape as much as I wanted. I didn't want the layout to feel crowded, so the final track plan was as simple as possible, but this did limit operation somewhat. After operating sessions on Bleakhouse Road, I decided that whatever I did next needed to have more operating potential, and more shunting to keep me occupied. Starting from scratch, and never having built a layout before, I wasn't really sure what I was doing, so there was a large element of making things up as I went along. Initially I wasn't going to use point motors, but eventually decided I wanted to. Unfortunately, I hadn't designed the layout with them in mind, so ended having to chop holes out of the polystyrene, and glue plywood into the apertures, making much more work for myself than I ever needed to do. The extruded styrene did make for a strong and lightweight base though, and I will probably use it for a layout again in the future. Having more locos than anything else (that always seems to happen!) meant that it would have to be a small depot of some description, but I wanted it to be different - not another depot layout with a Pikestuff shed, and Knightwing fuelling point. I did end up with the Knightwing fuelling point (but used the less common roof option to try and disguise that... Various avenues of research led to Peterborough stabling point (the EWS one) as a basis for the shed and fuelling point. Again, I hadn't built a structure from scratch, so didn't really know what I was doing. I figured, in the end, that as it was to be an open building, so the interior would be visible, it would be a good idea to build it like the real thing. Wills sheets were used for the base of the building, glued back-to-back to give the necessary thickness, and brick patterns on both sides. The top of the structure as then built up with Evergreen styrene girders, styrene battening, and embossed plasticard cladding on that. During construction I put lights on one building as an experiment after fiding some LEDs that looked like industrial lighting in both white and yellow. It worked, so all of the building on the layout were equipped with working lights, with the hope that it would work for taking night photos on the layout. In the end it was something that worked quite well, and it was worth the extra effort. Scenery was a mix of static grass, and Woodland Scenics foliage, along with some brambles made from rubberised horse hair. Scenic methods mostly came from the Captain Kernow Scenery Clinic Service, which was most enlightning, although I used spraymount for speed, rather than the more usual PVA. The deadline was rapidly approaching by this stage! I didn't think it would be finished in time, but to my amazement it was, although circumstances at the time helped. Even more of an amazement was it winning I still can't get over it to this day. Following this, it appeared at both the main and SWAG hosted members days, and one exhibition. It's recently gone to a new home to clear space for the incoming project. There are many lessons I've learned during the construction and operation of the layout, probably too many to mention here - although the major ones are the operational interest, and not using points of too tight a radius - A5s are probably OK for small steam locos and shorter wagons, but cause problems with a lot of modern stock. Other lessons learned will crop up in the next update about the current project. See, I said there was a point to all this

One of the great features of the old forum was this thread, which really should be continued here. The original post of that, now massive, thread was: Here's a couple from me to kick things off (I don't think I've posted these before): Please keep 'em coming

In a word, yes. Various ones found on fotopic, but mostly this one: http://web.ukonline.co.uk/railscans/picture/cb000310.jpg

I think you're spot on with this one! That's exactly whats happened to me (and funnily enough my second layout is using ply, rather than the foam too)

Follow these links for the other stages of this project - I've had to trim the number of entries in the index box, to the right: Part 2 - More Gronk progress Part 3 - It doesn't look much different, does it? Part 4 - End of side 1, please turn over Part 5 - Side 2 Part 6 - End of side two - approaching the end(s) Part 7 - Nearly the end(s) Part 8 - The finished article I know its in the archive, but seeing as this is still a current project, I'd better move it over here. Based on this photo: http://web.ukonline.co.uk/railscans/pic ... 000310.jpg The model started life as Dick Hardy, but I wanted to do something different with it. I started this ages ago, and it was intended for the later period on Chittle, but now I've got rid of the layout (and the rest of the stock), I'll probably put this one up for sale once finished - I still want to do it justice though. This was how far it had got previously: Renumbered, and the black window surrounds and cab door that the Hornby model came with have been painted grey, with a mix matched to the factory finish. I'd also renumbered it with Fox transfers, and changed the warning flashes to the early type (I'd originally planned to do it in 1998 condition, which wasn't much different). It needed fading, and the roof and sides need to be done separately - executive dark grey is a funny colour when faded, it goes a kind of tan colour. Departmental grey, however, just gets lighter. At this stage the roof has been faded with washes mixed up from Humbrol 110 and 34. The sides have been attacked with white gouache washes. The numbers have been removed, as the fading virtually obliterated them. I'll put them back later, probably after the first grime layer has gone on - as they're plastic, the oily dirt from the fuel doesn't stick to them. The downside of using this wash technique is the wash gathering in all the detail, and looking very wrong. Since trying this method on the 08 (after using it with some success on my blue 33) I've decided it's a technique that is better suited to smooth sided vehicles. Undeterred though, I pressed on to see what would happen once some grime had been run into the panel lines: And to be quite honest, it looked more than a bit pants. So, I decided that it all had to come off (the beauty of gouache) and that the only way to get the overall fade would be to do a spray fade. I left the gouache washes that I had already put on the yellow on both ends, as I wanted that more faded than the black. A bit of maskol to protect the glazing, the roof masked off, and it was ready to go: The gouache hasn't gone completely, but it doesn't matter as the sprayed fade will even things out. I used Vallejo off-white, heavily thinned with a little screenwash added in the mix to help the surface tension. this was sprayed at relatively high pressure, and just dusted on, and built up gradually. It's looking much better by this stage. It needs a bit more work on the battery and exhauster boxes on one side, and a bit on the solebar of the other, but that can be done with gouache. Once the dirt starts to be added: It starts to look more like it should from the photo. Numbers have been added again, but from Modelmaster this time - I'm disappointed with how yellow the Fox transfers go. The griming/highlighting needs to be finished on both sides, and then it'll be onto the underframe. I haven't yet decided what technique to use on the underframe - my variation on Martyn Welchs' method, or another idea I've been cooking up, similar to that I use for buffer grease. Hopefully I'll make a decision soon