Steadfast

Hi Alex, Dunno what you mean.... Yes there'll be pits and walkways, funny you should mention it as I've been working on them the last day or two. Will pop some pics up once a bit more complete cheers jo

I'm looking forward to that too, Tom Hi Jon, I thought this might be your kind of thing. I used acetone free nail varnish remover. It has dried the Dapol plastic out, which has caused some surface cracking, which has seen lots of filler in places, though it only happens on big flat areas - details seem ok. Farish plastic is fine in the same stuff. Superstip next time for sure, I just didn't have any at the time and got impatient

I printed the data panels on mine onto thick paper/thin card, which gives and element of flex. I may have slightly shrunk them though, as it goes round corners without resorting to the paper deforming. I'll see if I can dig it out...

Nice one Jim. I gave up at one IHA...

Hi Pete, Despite its age, there is the odd area where IMO the Farish shell is a better shape. Also, for the price I paid for these, I'd rather hack them up than hack up the new Dapol ones. I'd need to buy 3 sets to give me the 3 dummies I require, and that's a lot of money... Layout progress is here: http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php/topic/20276-embankment-road-trsmd/ Current stuff is bottom of p1, into p2

Hi Joe, give it a go, especially if you can get some on buy one get one free A small layout sounds like the perfect chance to do a trial Progress on the layout has slowed a bit while I've spent some time concentrating on the stock: I've updated the blog with progress: http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php/blog/658/entry-6290-pimp-my-ride/ cheers jo

Work progresses with detailing the HST stock. With the progress on the boards and track, I needed a break and have kept work on the stock moving forwards. The first power car is just about done and ready for storing until the rest of the stock is ready for painting blue. It'll all get painted in one go for consistency's sake. The van door is 10 thou plasticard, a similar one has been made for the cab. The exhaust work mentioned previously here is complete, complete with struts inside the outlets. The chassis has been lowered - much improving how the model sits. The upper body shows some of the work involved - I've removed the cooler group on the roof, ready to fit the mesh on top, and filled the mounting lug holes on the cab door along with the guard van windows. I've found that there are some big steps along the mould join lines on Bachmann produced shells, so the next one will use a Poole Farish shell. Three different variants of mk3, all based on a trailer standard. Top is the normal TS, middle the early style disabled toilet conversion and bottom is the micro buffets recently introduced. The various windows are blanked with plasticard. The toilet windows are glued in as they provide the roof mounting pips The conversion for the interiors of the last two types. Disabled loo (with the curved door) top, micro buffet bottom. I'm more creating a representative view here, as the side windows will be tinted, but these details will be visible through the end doors, which FGW had removed at refurbishment. The trailer firsts retain end doors (as do the TGS) to the best of my knowledge as they need locking to prevent public access to the power cars. This is the end of one, fitted with a Mictrotrains coupler in the buffer beam and some wire representing the air pipes. ETH sockets will follow, along with power car air tanks - watch this space! Work has also been continuing with the various transfer artworks - last night I cracked on with the bits for the HST stock Now I am beyond the stage of doing the first power car and carriage as test conversions, it really feels like the project is moving forwards. I bought another 08 the other day to spray up in FGW green and fit with buckeyes The sprinter bodies have also been stripped and cleaned up ready for spraying That's it for now, jo

Buildings, yeah....buildings... I'm using a couple of Bachmann Scenecraft items where I feel they are suitable, enhance the scene and help me out, rather than using them because they are there. There seem to be a lot of layouts with just RTP buildings plonked on a board. Cliché number two after a TMD to cram all my stock onto The main shed building is being scratch built from mounting card. I've chosen this for its strength, ease of marking out and cost. The side piece is one of 3 or 4 produced so far, more will be done, acting as a frame to support the roof. Not sure what type of card or paper to use for the roof yet, I need something that'll flex yet is rigid enough. The visible side of the shed will be the same shape, but in clear plastic to allow the interior to be seen. The building I'm working on at the moment is based on the right hand building here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Laira_TMD.jpg The slightly taller building, with the curve of the roof to the front, will be represented in single track form. The HST shed going off the left of the photo will form the backscene, with my switches for points and isolating sections hidden inside. The large triangular area at the front of the board will have some grounded van bodies, some small buildings and a concrete pad. A road bridge will provide the scenic break at this end James, I don't see why you couldn't build track in situ on the board, two layers of paper mache, then a couple of layers of wall paper past and A3 white paper topped off with emulsion paint has provided a solid shell, which when nicely braced inside is solid. I think Baby Laira is 4' by 2', the only weaknesses being due to me rather than materials. The fiddle yard is much stronger than the layout due to this... cheers jo

Hi Richard, Foamboard is similarly easy to dent, which is why I have covered it in paper mache and sheet of A3 paper. This gives a really tough shell, yet doesn't add much weight. I'll post about the process later on when I have a bit more time jo

Cheers James, Core fleet is 2 class 08s, 3 dummy power cars, a handful of Mk3s and a mainline loco or two, so definitely not a "look at all my trains" Yeah, I think I'd consider it for a bigger layout - it's making sure the joins and cuts are square that's the potential problem area. I've learnt the hard way about where the bracing etc needs to go - I'll pop a post up eventually highlighting what has and hasn't worked jo

Righto then, despite appearances earlier the board is still in one piece. It was worth persevering with, as its damn light! For example, I've been doing tracklaying and wiring sat on my bedroom floor with the layout on my lap. Much easier with the laptop on, music playing and a brew on the go instead of out the garage in the cold. Transportation should be easier too with the light weight construction. With the trial and error in terms of construction and coating the foam board out of the way, a future build with this material should be quicker and easier. Track is about 85% down, and my simple wiring theory is paying off - so far it actually works! All thats left to lay are the roads into the shed - compared to the track plan the road for the fuel oil delivery has been changed slightly - instead of the run round loops, the tanks will now need to be propelled in, assuming a run round off scene. This has given me an extra road to stable a DMU, barrier coaches or a shunter. I'm still amazed the wiring works... It's more organised than it looks, essentially the controller feeds the tag strip, and each half is wired up with a bus bar made from handrail wire, to give a red end and a black end. Track feeds come from one side, feeds to the switches for the point frogs etc come from the other, keeping it relatively organised Apologies for the poor res pics, they're quick phone snaps. Will get some better ones as work progresses cheers jo

It's funny, only last week I was saying what a good location to model Hinksey would be to model, as we were stood on the footbridge in the wind I'll be looking forward to seeing this develop. 20ft sounds like a fair old length, and a decent space to represent Hinksey. A quick Google Earth measurement when I got home from Oxford last week suggested needing over 40 feet to do it without compression cheers jo

Some really nice stuff there guys. I particularly like a few of Nidge's black and white 66s, and Brian's mirror shot Here's a couple of shots of some welded rail at Hinksey on Thursday (10/3/11) - the second reminds me of plasticine cheers jo

No need to presume Geoff - it was 60013 on St Pancras - Whatley empties Very nice too! DBS red always looks a bit stark against maroon coal hoppers! cheers jo

Dave, heavy rain maketh the shot! Much better than drizzle or white cloud Hope your feeling better btw jo

As promised... 60013 rounds the curve at Crofton on 6A74 Whatley - Theale, sounding and looking superb 8/3/11 60096 passing the Wilts and Berks canal near Wootton Bassett on 6B33 Theale - Robeston 8/3/11 It's rather nice having these 60s around at the moment :THUMBSUP: cheers jo

Yep, and 13 on Whatley - Theale this morning. Returns this afternoon. 60096 on Theale Murcos Pics later jo

The Whatley beast seems to be different to any of the Thomas Hill locos I can see listed on the Judith Edge site. I haven't seen any photos of any other identical shunters online, they all seem to have a rear catwalk, whereas the steps on the Whatley one lead directly into the cab jo

Thanks for the PM Guy - it really ilustrates how small the thing is! I'd like to model it in N, so motorising could be interesting, if not it'd be an interesting static model. At least the GMs are a bit easier to model with cobbled together bits of various switcher models Thanks again - plenty of food for thought jo

Interesting stuff - I don't suppose anyone knows any more about the 4 wheeler please? It's one of those things that one day would be nice to model - along with an SW1001 or two cheers jo

Was that the 6 wheeled jobbie with similar styling to the 4 wheel Thomas Hill I photted, Martin? I've not seen any pics of it in Hanson livery, I assume the GM beast replaced it. I've never seen a pic of the SW1001 in ARC colours, so I'm guessing its around the rebrand time that the change happened. No idea where it went after, but I've got a mental image of an ARC coloured shunter at Peak Forest - am I imagining this? Not much help for you I'm afraid cheers jo

Thanks guys Scott, I'd forgotten until you said about 08032 being at Eastleigh, there are a few (at least two, the other being 08933) Mendip 08s being overhauled there. They also did the work rebuilding the Hanson switcher after it's accident. That's interesting Mark, will have to keep an eye on that B) jo

Absolutely cracking! It really conveys the grungy look of the prototype I'll have to remember this method for when I get round to my bogie tanks