Mark Forrest

Thanks. Those are Smiths instanter couplings; I'm afraid I don't have the patience to make my own! if I was to make my own think I'd be looking for something around 0.3mm diameter (or 30 swg). Cheers

Another outcome of my recent workbench tidy up is this Parkside Tube. I built a pair of these (one fitted the other unfitted) very early in my return to modelling and they have languished on and around the workbench, being subjected to various painting/weathering experiments ever since. Other than missing brake levers and door bangs the fitted wagon was in reasonable condition and the paint finish was looking pretty good so I decided to have a go at fixing it up. I salvaged some replacement brake levers from the bits box, added new vee hangers (from a Mainly Trains wagon brake gear detailing etch) and a brass rod brake cross shaft. Replacement door bangs were from scraps of etched brass, bent to shape then melted in place. The buffers had already received attention, being fitted with some turned steel heads from 51L at some point in the past. Once the new bits were painted it was ready to join the rest of the fleet: The other one in the picture is a much more recent build, but I think these are now of a consistent standard and won't look out of place together on the layout:

Here I am at the end of a week off work, with that Sunday night - back to work tomorrow feeling. Amongst other things this week I have managed to tidy up a few projects which have been littering the workbench for some time. One of these is this little highfit. Basic ingredients are an ancient Airfix body and Parkside underframe, the following photo highlights the other bits: Buffers are from Lanarkshire Model Supplies - first ones of theirs I've used and very nice they are too, brake gear is the ABS casting for 4 shoe fitted wagons (F121)and MJT brake pipes. I suppose this represents my standard specification for wagons now, giving a nice balance of prototype fidelity while remaining robust enough to survive the rigours of exhibition life. Was just about to apply the transfers this evening (B477285, as pictured in David Larkin's BR Standard Freight Wagons) when I noticed I'd missed the metal strips between the bottom plank and the floor and the bracket on the solebar in the middle of the door. These where duly added and the paint touched in as you can see below; as soon as it's dry it'll be on with the transfers and that's one more wagon ready for action at Foundry Lane's next exhibition appearance (Worcester 12th & 13th March).

I'm no expert but the RF grey tractor appears to be 37196 which was named 16/07/85 and name removed 02/05/87 http://www.c37lg.co.uk/fleet/fleet.asp?number=37196

Nice work. Howes can supply Heljan class 58 bogie side frames, which are (from memory) similar to those on the 89.

One thing I've never been happy with about the layout are the buildings along the back scene; particularly the end on terraced houses on the right hand side of the road bridge. I've decided to replace these with an industrial building. Before starting on this though I've added some supports to prop up the retaining wall (replacing the rainwater down pipes which used to hide the joints in the plastikard); also extending the wall to include the area behind the goods shed: At the opposite end of the layout this large industrial building, which I've been building today, will be installed at the end of the sidings. I'd previously extended these sidings through into the fiddle yard, thinking this would increase operating potential, but found that this wasn't the case; so now I need to replace the bufferstops I demolished earlier in the year (with some of those nice GWR pattern ones from Mainly Trains). The next Foundry Lane related entry in the blog is here

Over Christmas and New Year I've taken a break from house renovation for a few days, so I've grabbed the opportunity to do some work on Foundry Lane, but more of that later; first a recap of the layout's last couple of exhibition appearances. First a few snaps of the layout at it's last outing to Redditch way back in September: 20073 (regauged Bachmann with Howes sound) delivers an air braked van to the yard: Failure of the resident 08 (the rivet in the coupling rods fell out!) saw an unlikely replacement on the layout: Previous to this I took the layout along to the member's day during the summer. Here's 24042 shunting in the yard: link to the next Foundry Lane blog entry

Last question first - try Paul Bartlett's site, specifically: http://gallery6801.fotopic.net/c53669.html http://gallery6801.fotopic.net/c56832.html and http://gallery6801.fotopic.net/c50309.html Cheers

Here are a couple of snaps of my Foundry Lane plank, taken at last Saturday's member's day: Cheers

Thanks guys. What, it's only 3 weeks! I'd better get a move on Phil - yes it'd be great to see that WLL slide show. I've no room to build the baseboards at the mo' but seriously tempted to make a start on some of the trackwork (two turnouts and two catch point should just about do it ) or maybe some of the buildings. Cheers & see you soon.

The layout has been stored away for the past couple of months since we moved house. However with exhibition appearances looming I thought I'd better dig it out and make sure it all still worked. Bea looked unimpressed as Foundry Lane arrived at its new home: It seems I've been away from the layout so long that time has marched on - a 37 takes the place of the more usual 24 or 25 and the Capri on the lane is now a Mk 3 B) The layout doesn't appear to have suffered too much from it's time in the garage, although getting it level in its new location was a bit of a challenge (uneven cottage floor boards!). A few scenic improvements are on the cards, but nothing major as renovating the house has (I'm told) to take priority. Next outing for the layout is the Derby members day on 10th July. After that it's Redditch in September (18th & 19th), followed by Worcester next March. Cheers link to the next Foundry Lane blog entry

Normally I'd be more interested in "once upon a time in the west MIDLANDS" but with layouts of the quality of these it'd be a pleasure to have a play with the third train set BTW how's your EM project?

Looking forward to helping out with DitD at Showcase; might even bring a couple of guest locos to invade again too

Having found ourselves temporarily homeless due to a two week gap between selling our house and moving in to our new house, the Mrs F and I decided we'd rent a holiday cottage for the weekend over Easter. So on Friday morning we packed up the car and set off for Presteigne (Powys) with the dog and two boxfiles full of unbuilt wagon kits to keep me occupied. The fruits of yesterday's labour was a Red Panda Lowfit. As usual I was unable to build the kit as per the instructions and have gone for an example with LNER brake gear (B450608) once again Paul Bartlett's wagon site provided the inspiration here & here. The underframe came from an elderly Parkside PC01 steel highfit and required modification to the axleguards to represent the BR type. To do this I cut some thick plasticard (about 80 thou I think) into rectangles 6mm x 3mm, then cut these in half diagonally to give triangles. I cut a vee into these and they were then glued into the gaps in the axleguards and the axleguards were reshaped slightly with a file. The following photo shows work in progress: There is still a bit of work to do (most notably the missing buffers, axleboxes and brake shoes), but the bits I need to complete this are in storage with the removal firm so it will have to wait for now. Cheers & Happy Easter

Cheers CK. Can't see P4 wheels being a problem, if things are a bit tight you can gain a bit of clearance by thinning down the linkage between the brake blocks which runs behind each W-iron.

The following notes have appeared elsewhere on the interweb, but I thought I would update it and include in my blog here. My 16T minerals serve a dual purpose; being put to work on both Foundry Lane and New Haden. I've built a few to date; but have plans to do many more and (after a bit of messing about with other bits) have settled the following as the basic spec for my EM gauge fleet: Body For standard dia 1/108 I tend to use Parkside bodies (same again for dia 1/109 too) but for rebodies I have used the Bachmann "no top flaps" body, with a false floor to hide the the doors in the floor. Specifically for New Haden are a couple of SNCF and slope sided examples - again from Parkside kits. Underframe Either Parkside 9' unfitted or Red Panda clasp brake fitted underframe (suitably shortened to a 9' wheel base). Door stops are from steel staples bent to shape then inserted into a hole on the solebars. Brakes Most are unfitted so it's ABS 2 shoe Morton brakes (F.U04) - I did try drilling out the brake lever loop but broke too many drill bits or drilled the end of my finger too many times. For clasp brake fitted (only done one of these so far and that's a riveted body) I'll probably stick to the Red Panda parts, for four shoe fitted I've used ABS parts again but can't remember the part number. Buffers Most have ABS 4 rib unfitted (F.U03) or whatever other type is appropriate to the prototype. The use of metal buffers, brakes and door stops helps prevent damage when the wagons are being handled (on New Haden the coal load needs to be tipped out in the fiddle yard). Couplings Standard spec for my Foundry Lane stock is Smiths three link or instanter; however the wagons I use on Stafford Railway Circle's New Haden run in fixed sets of three with AJ couplings on the outer ends and three links in the middle. The middle wagon, having three links at each end, suits either layout (which was fine until both layouts appeared at the same show earlier this year! A few examples: and finally this is an old Airfix with improved door hinges, as described in Pennine's "Mineral Prospecting" article in November 2001 BRM, MJT w-irons and the wrong axle boxes :oops: ....

I couldn't resist buying a few of these at the recent Stafford exhibition and chose four of the Blue Circle liveried wagons (B873364) for my initial purchase. A photo of this prototype appears on Paul Barlett's wagon photos website: http://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/brpresflorugby/h24e65b9#h24e65b9 The painting and lettering detail on the model is excellent, the wagon carries the TOPS code (CPV) and the dates on the maintenance data panel read August 1977. It features the correct brake gear with the short brake lever for this particular wagon. I was pleased to find that EM gauge wheels fitted straight in without any modification of the W irons or brakes. I opened up the gap in the foot steps by chain drilling with a 0.5mm drill then cleaning up with a small file. Bachmann's representation of the oleo buffers fitted to this wagon are less impressive though; so I have fitted cast replacements from ABS. I also replaced the plastic brake hoses (with MJT castings) and fitted some Smiths instanter couplings. After a bit of paint, the wagon awaits its next move on the afternoon trip working back to Bescot To finish off, I just need to paint the curved top of the ladder in bauxite and maybe add a bit of cement dust.

Cheers Phil. Still plenty of room for the wagon fleet on Foundry Lane (and New Haden) and some of the vanfits might make an appearance A blue 122 is on my to do list. I'm stuck at the armchair modelling/planning stage at the moment while I wait for a house move to go through

After playing around with various old maps, planning portal and some aerial photos I seem to have established that the area I want to model be approx 2.7m long to scale. This takes in the area from Sun Street bridge to the south facing wall of the main station building. I'm considering whether it might be necessary to trim this down closer to 2.4m by reducing the gap between the bridge and the end of the station buildings. The big concern however is the width of the layout. To fit this in to scale will require a board depth of around 1.2m some four times the depth of my Foundry Lane plank! It may be possible to reduce this slightly, by reducing the depth of the buildings and platforms a little. I've sketched the layout of the station building and have approximate dimensions. Unfortunately, I've had to omit one building (a single store red brick building which stood between the main building and the bridge adjacent to the bay platform) from the plan. Main reason for leaving this out is that it would block the view of the platforms as viewing (and operating) side will be from the front aspect of the buildings. Current plan is as follows - What I aim to achieve is a layout where most of the stock spends most of its time on the scenic area rather than hidden away in the fiddle yard. So, as shown in photos from the period, there will be vans awaiting loading/unloading on every available bit of track. The bubble car was often stabled in the middle road between its peak-hour-only trips to Snow Hill. There is a comment in "Mainline to Metro" (John Boynton, Mid England Books) to say that the final train from Snow Hill (1972) was unable to run to Low Level as track rationalisation meant it would not be able to run round. A caption in "Diesels in the West Midlands & Central Wales" (Bradford Barton) states that by 1974 connection to the mainline had been severed and only access was via the Midland line at Heath Town junction. Therefore I'm assuming that all parcels trains would have been propelled into the station - unless there was a 08 on pilot duties to release the train loco from inbound trains?

Thanks. Yes, unfortunately the Kidderminster show has been cancelled I've had a couple of enquiries about future exhibition appearances but nothing confirmed yet. Cheers

Apologies Dan - still getting used to the blogs and had missed this comment. Progress will be slow to begin with - have a house move to deal with before I can make a start on the boards, but I'll update the blog as planning progresses. Cheers

Thanks. No I didn't get the book (well not yet anyway); have relied on the EMGS manual sheets so far. Might be worth a look when I come to do the bogie parcel stock for the Low Level project - cheers.

Yes - I considered using one of those myself, but was concerned it would scratch the finish too much. Useful for small areas where you can't get in with a cotton bud or really stubborn bits of paint though. Although it doesn't show very well on the photo the T-Cut works on the glazing too.

For the stock I have built for Foundry Lane I used three link couplings (eventually standardising on the Smiths products after a bit of initial experimentation/trying to do it on the cheap). However the standard coupling adopted for use on New Haden is the Alex Jackson (AJ) coupling. For anyone unfamiliar with these the Manchester Model Railway Society website has a useful page describing them. When I started to assemble a coal train for the layout I bought a set of jigs for forming the couplings from EMGS, but found that fitting them in the correct position was a little hit and miss and often resulted in burnt fingers. So before fitting the AJ's to my new fleet of sand tipplers I ordered a mounting jig from Scalefour Stores (available on-line, to non-members reference "AJJ" here) The jig was simple to assemble (although it helps if you read the instructions BEFORE starting to bend some of the parts :icon_redface: ). Photos below show it in use - this wagon is the end vehicle of a train which stays permanently coupled once on the layout so has AJ coupling at one end and three links at the other: The jigs make light work of forming and fitting the couplings and I only burnt my finger once - which is good news as I think I'll be abandoning three-links in favour of AJ's on the parcels stock for the next project.