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Chris Nevard

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Blog Entries posted by Chris Nevard

  1. Chris Nevard
    Today a bit of work turning flat earth into a proper baseboard ideal for show presentation. Bendy MDF is great stuff from B&Q and ideal for curvy backscenes.There is still some fascia work and panelling to add of course.
     
    The trackplan has come together, it being fed from behind and between the two key brewery buildings. Off stage there will be a sector plate which will feed 3 hidden staging siding behind the backscene. Neither of the 2 exit points will be visible from the normal viewing angle. The sector plate will also complete the run around loop. When I design track plans, I don't resort to computer programmes, they simply don't interest as well as it taking me as long to master the software as to build a whole layout, and anyway, I spend enough time in front of a computer. I use a nice bendy baton to help draw nice sweeping transitional curves using something called a pencil (Google it) and paper (Google that as well) - weird but it works for me.
     
     
    Trackwork despite initial thoughts of using Tillig ready to lay track, this has now changed to building by own using code 55 conductor rail on copper clad from that light railway industrial look - this way I get exactly what I want as with Catcott and Combwich which also feature home constructed track (not Peco as many people think). Generally speaking copper clad runs better, will be more reliable over time, and easily fixed in the event of failure.
     
     
    I might turn the two Skaledale houses in shot into brewery offices and with some suitable repainting and weathering I should be able to blend them in with other structures. To their right I quite fancy scratchbuilding building a stone and wood warehouse which could be served by a wagon turntable - though quite whether there's any point in making a working one I'm unsure.
     
     
    The slightly lower bit at the baseboard front will allow some kind of canal to be added, to add interest it probably won't be dead straight as here. But as usual, nothing is cast in stone so to speak, and none of the above may happen!
     
     
    It's sometimes great to have a break from more long term projects with this one so far being a lot of fun. Oh yes, the gauge is OO 'bodgerscale' (I hate 'finescale', it means nothing and if it does, is usually disappointing) with a scenic 3ft 6 x 2ft area on a 4ft x 2ft3 baseboard constructed from ply, stripwood, some MDF, glue and a little blood!
  2. Chris Nevard

    Photo for Friday

    By Chris Nevard,

    nevard_101129_cementQ_IMG_8485_web, originally uploaded by nevardmedia.
     
    Carrying on the theme of steam along the lines of those seen in the excellent Railway Bylines, but on Cement Quay and to remind us of dusty summery days, here's a grab of a Southern Railway built 'Black 8' No. 48660 nearing the end of its days shunting some Dogfish ballast hoppers under the number 2 loading screen.
     
    Lack of hostile responses from the diesel only brigade has confirmed that next time I chase up a show for Cement Quay it will be temporarily exhibited as a steam era layout. The La Farge signs will be removed and the red and white striped works chimney replaced with something a little more old fashioned by borrowing one from Mendip Colliery.
     

    A bigger version of the above photo can be seen HERE!
  3. Chris Nevard
    nevard_101128_cementQ_IMG_8459_web, originally uploaded by nevardmedia.
     
    A tiny ex Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway Pug is captured shunting wagons through the loading screen at Cement Quay.This little loco I picked up on Ebay just over a year ago, it has since had a repaint, a renumber to one of Radstock's shunters, a little extra detail and a dose weathering.
     
    After completing the above and being an 0-4-0 I wasn't expecting the best performance, with some sticking, wobble and jerkiness due to just 4 wheels. But, after a good run in and widening the wheels to the non-OO spec back to back of 14.7mm it runs a dream through all sorts of track from Peco to handbuilt C & L. I'm sure the widening is the key because the reduced side to to side play has improved electrical pick up. I notice too that this little loco is again part of Hornby's 2011 range. All we need now is one of the keen cottage etchers to produce a replacment cab, the plastic one looking rather too thick, just cabside overlays would do - any takers?
     
    Photo: small Canon G9 shooting RAW, taken in natural window light on a bean bag with self-timer.
  4. Chris Nevard
    nevard_101128_cementQ_IMG_8463_web, originally uploaded by nevardmedia.
     
    2-8-0 superpower as 48660 pulls a rakes of steel 16 ton mineral wagons away from the loading screen on the wharf at Cement Quay.
     
    Some industrial locations can suit multiple eras with just a few changes. In this shot the scene is wound back to the mid 1960's and the last days of steam on the Western Region. The 8F and the 16 ton mineral wagons look completely at home, to the extent that next time I take Cement Quay out I'm tempted to run it as a steam layout with maybe a few green diesels rather than the more usual present day scenario for a change. Just for this shot I did change the high vis jackets of Bill and Ben on the right from orange to some kind of murky blue, this could be easily addressed for real though. I'm sure the odd person will get hot under the collar about this, but hey, it's my trainset so there!
     
     

    W-i-d-e-s-c-r-e-e-n wallpaper here!
  6. Chris Nevard
    In the late summer of 1964 Ivatt Class 2 tank No. 41248 slows for Catcott Burtle with the 2pm service from Evercreech Junction to Highbridge. Note the gleaming ex-works Hawksworth brake composite passenger coach and the Southern Railway bogie parcels van for cheese, cider and another perishables.
     
    The coach is my most recent item of rolling stock, and it will of course be weathered in due course. I intend to add a yellow band above the first class section. A single Hawksworth coach and a bogie van was a typical formation for Highbridge branch passenger trains in the final few years on the former S&D.
     
    Pic: this was taken on a little Canon G9 in natural north facing window light with the camera resting on a bean bag. Exposure was 1 second at f8 which is the little Canon's smallest aperture. The backscene is not a fake one added after the photo was taken but an actual high photographic one attached to the rear of the layout and created from a panorama taken near the real location.
     
     
     

    W I D E S C R E E N computer wall paper can be found HERE!
  7. Chris Nevard
    Above, the doors opened 30 or so minutes ago....
     
    Combwich's first outing in 6 years finally took place at Wycrail in High Wycombe on Saturday 6th November at what is rapidly becoming 'the' quality one day show in the SE.
     

    Above, my first through train from Combwich to arrive at the terminus of CK's lovely Bleakhouse Road!
     
    On Friday night Combwich was crammed into a hired Ford Transit for it's 35 mile journey first thing the following day. After an easy 45 minute ride pretending to be a yob in a van from Guildford to High Wycombe, I managed with a little help from Ian Redgate who'd come all the way down from Mansfield the evening before, to get the layout set up in about 40 mins. This is surprising, because Combwich was never designed to go on the road, with baseboards varying from 5ft 3 to just 18 inches long as the layout has evolved in length and width over its 30 or so years existance.
     
    With everything looking good, the power lever was cranked on like firing up the Frankenstein Monster for the first time. Everything appeared to work as it should until I set the road running parallel to the platform, then everything went dead, deader than Nunhead Cemetery on Boxing Day, and not what one wants with just 45 minutes before the doors open! Fault finding wasn't helped by the fact that I had temporarily lost my reading glasses! After 25 mins of much cussing under the layout I tracked down (more a lucky break as the result of random prodding and shaking) a couple of wires that had crossed and the problem was resolved much to my relief. I then found my glasses hanging safely off the backscene - duh!
     

    The very first through train from Bleakhouse Road! Apologies for all the cameras that appeared to record this, we've been waiting for years for this moment!!
     
    At 10am sharp, the eager punters started to wander forth in all shapes and sizes. As you no doubt know, model railway buffs are a mixed bunch from the darn right weird to elequent and intelligent upstanding members of society who are real pleasure to chat too, and as usual I got to meet all of them. There were by all accounts a few smelly ones too, but luckely I didn't have a pleasure of meeting any of these, but Combwich is quite wide with a high backscene, so distance may have masked me from the smellier of the smelly brigade who've converted their bathrooms into somewhere to play Thomas and keep their dead mother's stuffed head.
     
    The highlight of the day and something mooted over a year in advance of the show, was to attempt run trains between Tim Maddocks' superb Bleakhouse Road and Combwich, and this we did via a bespoke cassette that could carry an entire train between fiddle yards and then allow it to continue its journey via the respective layout to its destination and then return. Much fun was had making up the oddest train formations to try to flumox the crew of the opposing layout. I imagine because of this there'll be several letters of complaint in the next issue of the Model Hornblock Journal with the usual miserable set getting hot under the collar about us having the occasional bit of fun.
     
    Operationally the layout considering its hasn't been let out for 6 years worked reasonably well, but was occasionally spoilt by the odd derailment due to a sloppy locking mechanism on the station throat point. Looking to the future, and with this in mind, and with some of the other points starting play up as the day went on I've decided to remove all the old Peco units and replace them with something a little more positive in action before the layout's next outing at RAILEX at the end of May 2011. After chatting to several people about this, it would appear that something called COBALT is the way to go.
     

    YUM YUM!
     
    Oh yes, before I vanish back to the real world, Wycrail is the only show so far where exhibitors were served delicious homemade cake actually served at the layout - now that has to be a first! Roll on next year!
     
     
     
     

    For a section of happy snaps from the show, CLICK HERE! Blogger Phil Parker also went to Wycrail, read his REPORT!
  8. Chris Nevard

    Cream of Tartar

    By Chris Nevard,

    nevard_101115_combwich_58086_IMG_8408_web, originally uploaded by nevardmedia.
     
    58086 on a cold but sunny snowy morning in 1957 awaits with the 11am service from Combwich to Evercreech Junction.
     
    People who know me know that I'm not one to be taken for a ride by cottage scenic manufacturers passing off household products as bespoke items for model railways, then charging 1500% over the odds for sticking it in a small clear bag and a trashy photocopy. OK rant over, the snow is cream of tartar, something that you will probably have in your larder with a sell by date of March 1993. And oh yes it vacuumed off fully after taking a few snaps is is now July once again.
    W I D S C R E E N wallpaper version here!
     
     
  9. Chris Nevard
    nevard_101109_CQ-oldquarry_DSC_9887_web, originally uploaded by nevardmedia.
     
    Bath shed's 8F 2-8-0 No. 48660 propels a short rake of 16 ton mineral wagons under the loading screen at Cement Quay Old Quarry Wharf. This shot was taken under available artificial room light rather than studio lighting and there is no computeryjiggery apart from the fake smoke effect.
     
    A lot of people new to photography these days think it's all done on the computer, sadly I'll have to disappoint them because good old photographic techniques still rule. Whilst much can be done on a computer to compensate for poor or inexperienced technique, it's still better to get it right in the first place abiding by rules that go back to the era William Fox Talbot. However, digital has allowed colour photography in a wider range of lighting situations than in the days of film, because it would be near on impossible to colour correct under today's low energy domestic lighting. And of course to add a bit of fake smoke one no longer needs to resort to cotton wool which is better left in the wife's make-up bag.
     
    Here is a BIGGER VERSION of the above photo.
  11. Chris Nevard
    nevard_101205_cementQ_DSC_0736_web, originally uploaded by nevardmedia.
     
    As a brief reminder of warmer times, under a high pressure summer sky, Ivatt 4MT 2-6-0 No. 43017 pulls away from the stone screens at Cement Quay.
     
    Tech: this shot was simply taken with a long exposure under a single ceiling light in the spare room where Cement Quay was set up for a few days.
     

    Bigger version here!
  12. Chris Nevard
    Whilst RM web was having its well-deserved Xmas break, I still kept blogging externally (I usually copy lock stock and barrel here as well).
     
    Here's my Xmas Eve post.........
     
     

    nevard111223_bachmann3F_DSC_0529_WEB, a photo by nevardmedia on Flickr.
     
    Bachmann Midland 3F weathered and renumbered as Templecombe's 43216. This loco was the 3F allocated to the former Somerset & Dorset line and was withdrawn in 1962.
     
    For photographers, this was taken on a mid-1960's Nikkor-S (Ai converted) 35mm f2.8 wide angle lens on a somewhat newer Nikon D700 digital body. 2 sec, f16, Adobe RAW/CS5 using the layout's own lighting. The only digital post production apart from basic level adjustment during the RAW conversion is the addition of fake smoke.
     
    To find out a few secrets of Brewhouse Quay, click on the above photo to take you through to another photo, then float your cursor over the image for detail notes.
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