barrowroad

They have big smiles on their faces as well:D

I have just about recovered from a very busy but enjoyable weekend demonstrating at Scaleforum with two of my friends from the Glevum Area Group, Morgan and Paul. I took two of the boards to the demo - limited space at this years show prevented me taking any more - these being the roundhouse/workshop board and the sidings board alongside the shed. A selection of locos and rolling stock was on view together with research material. Thanks go to Morgan for demonstrating his CAD drawings of the 60ft Cowans Sheldon Turntable and the trackwork for Barrow Road on Templot. Despite a very busy weekend he even managed to fit in time to start making some adjustments to reposition the single slip on the mainline - I have decided to add and additional board at the rear of the shed to include Day's Road bridge. [ for those who have seen MRJ200 this is the bridge shown in the article]. Thanks go to Paul for for also demonstrating Craig's superb wagon chassis kit and to Craig himself for also holding the fort whilst the team took their meal breaks. Thanks to all those RMwebbers who introduced themselves and for all the kind and encouraging comments the team received at the weekend. An excellent weekend all round. Sorry I only managed these 2 photos before the show opened - we were too busy for the rest of the weekend to add any more. The demo team Morgan - left & Paul right and yours truly behind the camera:rolleyes:

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php/blog/445/entry-4748-barrow-road-ash-disposal-pits/

Hi Dave, The coal drops are looking good. What chairs have you used on it? See you at Scaleforum Robin

I have recently switched my attention to constuction of the two ash disposal pits under and adjacent to the ash plant at Barrow Road and noticed the track is not supported on the usual timber baulks. Instead, to prevent hot ash from damaging or setting fire to the timber, the Midland used 5ft cast iron panels to support the track. Using the these photos I calculated the the dimensions of these cast iron panels and then set about finding a suitable way of making a model. My initial idea was to make them from plasticard but quickly decided this would not produce a structure with sufficient strength to support the trackwork. My eventual solution was to use K&S 1/4 x 1/8 section brass which I cut using a slitting disc. The webs are formed using 70 pieces of 16thou brass strip cut 2.5mm high these being soldered into the cut channel using a RSU. Here is this result. This section is 30cm long - I need 276cm for both pits. For those interested - posted elsewhere by the society press officer - I will be demonstrating Bristol Barrow Road at this years Scaleforum at Leatherhead. The two boards containing the Roundhouse & Workshop will be on show together with research material. Please come and have a chat.

Hi John, Thanks for your kind comments. My lack of any recent blog entry is due to preparing a demonstration for next weekends Scaleforum at Leatherhead where the board containing the roundhouse and workshop will be on display along with some of my research material. Two of my friends will also be demonstrating Templot - the trackplan - and some CAD drawings of components for the 60ft Cowans Sheldon turntable along with the shed roof girders. Chris Dening of York Modelmakers is also attending the show so you could 'kill birds' should you be able to make the show. If not I am sure Chris would be interesting in quoting for 10mm scale roundhouse. The only contraint for this scale would be the size of the bed of the laser which they use, namely 900mm x 600mm. This means that your building will need careful design . Please fell free to contact me for any further information . Best wishes, Robin

After the interlude with my diesel conversions I have returned to work on the baseboards to fabricate some more inspection pits. The first selected are the four inspection/preparation pits alongside the shed, one for each siding. Two of these pits were rebuilt in around 1956 [the two nearest the shed], while the other two were new. Unlike the pits inside the shed, photos show these pits were made using concrete not brick. This view was taken in Oct 1965 & shows locos over the two new built pits. Shows one pit in position. 'Concrete apron' from 80thou plasticard. Main pit from 'reversed' laser cut base & sides as used inside the shed. I have also started the pit alongside the sand dryer although this still needs the top plasticard surface added to represent the concrete apron surrounding each pit. Here is a photo of this pit with 1420 on shed in Oct 1965 prior to travelling to Buckfastleigh. All these pits need the addition of concrete steps to complete the job. These will be fabricated form Evergreen strip which I will collect from the proprietor of Eileen's Emporium at the next Glevum group meeting.

Hi John, Looks very nice indeed. Is the photo outside the museum?

Adam & Bob, Thanks for the info - not sure what I'll do about the lights long term but for now I'll just leave them. At least I don't have to look for a broken wire after taking it loco apart.

It might get to turn through 360deg inside the roundhouse at some stage:)

Tim, I know you were concerned about this loco - good to see you have taken the plunge. I have just finished converting mine whith a set of Ultrascale drop in wheels - a very straight forward job. Decided to 'fill in' the buffer beam hole using plasticard and am pleased with the result. A few other photos are on my blog. Not be a diesel aficionado can anyone advise on whether both white lights and both red tail lights should be 'on' when travelling forwards... mine has only the right side whitle and tail on?

Having received a set of Ultrascale 18.83 wheels for this loco I decided to do the conversion. Thanks to all those on the Heljan thread who made the task a lot easier. I decided not to do a 'how too' photo session because this can be found on the other thread. Suffice it to say the Ultrascale conversion is easy to do provided you follow their instructions. Mine ran ok first time - highly reccomended and sorts out problems of erractic running experienced by others. I decided to fill in the hole in the buffer beam using rubbed down plasticard and then dry brushed weathered the whole loco. Here are a few photos For those of you who know about diesel lights can you advise whether both white lights should be 'on' going forward together with both red tail lights - only the right side is operating on mine at present?

Hi Tim, My first use was colouring the pit of the Brinkley turntable made by Morgan. These crayons were Berol which are no longer available. The Faber product was the best substitute for Berol. The use of crayons on mdf or card, both have relatively soft surfaces, works well however on plastics especially the hard Rowmark on the roundhouse is not very effective. I now use acrylic paint.

Back front holiday and I find a set of Ultrascale wheels for my second Bachmann Peak has arrived. I had forgotten all about the order intended for my proposed conversion of split head code 'D95' to D13 with 'corridor connection doors. This conversion was inspired by a photo purchased from Rail Photoprints of D13 passing the side of the shed on 2B93 the 10.49am local infill turn from Bath Green Park to Temple Meads. http://www.railphoto...565-RP.jpg.html I decided to take a break from the shed and spent a few pleasant hours cutting out a suitable 'hole' at both ends of the body and fabricating a set corridor doors out of layers of 30thou plasticard. Adding the wheel conversion and a spot of weathering and I have my second Peak to add to D41. 1N70 is the 10.40 Newcastle. I also have a Heljan class 14 awaiting conversion and thanks to the Captain { thanks Tim} I was prompted to place an order with Ultrascale late on wednesday [23.00 to be precise] and was most surprised to receive a package early this morning - now shall I...........

Hi Tim, Sorry for the delay in responding but I've just got back from a holiday in Canada. The best place to buy Faber Castell crayons is from Hobbycraft who have a shop at the Mall, Cribbs Causeway, near Junc 17 on the M5. I believe you can also purchase online. As to the method of application I tend to randomly colour blocks of bricks - see photos - using the colours in the order shown. You do need a sharp crayon for getting into the edges adjacent to the engineering brickwork but otherwise a reasonably pointed one will do. For the final colour and the weathering I use the crayon on it's side to lightly add colour. Hope this helps, Robin

For those of you who have seen the MRJ 200 thread you will see it contains an article about my layout. It was originally intended to include a second article on the laser cut/etched buildings but this has been held over to a forthcoming addition - hopefully MRJ 201. If this is the case it will fit in nicely with this years Scaleforum where I will be demonstrating part of the layout with other members of the Glevum Area group of the S4 Society. As promised here are some more photos of the shed and workshop with all the exterior and interior walls finished. I will add guttering and drainpipes in due course. The next major area of work on the shed will be the turntable, associated pit and the 24 turntable roads. The basis for the turntable bridge will be one of the new 4mm 60ft Cowans Sheldon kits from Metalsmiths Ltd although I am not keen on the paxolin used for the girders and other components. Etched replacements will be used. Operation of the turntable has posed a few questions. As the shed will have a roof aligning track using the 'mark 1 eyeball' is not an option. After much research I have decided to use a stepper motor system from New York Railway Supply. For those interested I recommend visiting www.nyrs.com

I certainly do - Halfords grey primer is the base coat on the exterior walls whilst their white is used on the interior. The crayons work well on the mdf but are less effective on the 'Rowmark' plastic where I have used Badger opaque airbrush acrylics. - Does anyone know whether these are still available?

The sidings wall of the workshop is the last piece of the workshop & roundhouse to be assembled and coloured so I thought I would show a series of photos to show the sequence I use for colouring. As mentioned in an earlier blog I use Faber Castell Polychromos crayons. The following sequence uses Pompian Red - 9201-191 Terracotta - 9201 - 186 Burnt Ochre - 9201 -187 Raw Umber - 9201 - 180 Brown Ochre - 9201 - 182 The weathering is added using Schwarz Black - 9201 - 199

Having completed the front elevation I had a short break before starting the wall adjacent to the sidings by assembling the end wall. With only one window this proved to be an easy task until I realised I had forgotten to chamfer the upper layer of bricks. A few passes with a craft knife later and this is the result.... followed by some paint.... Moving on to the sidings wall here are some pics of the interior elevation with the second crane girder in position... and the exterior wall ready for a coat of primer... and finally a shot of both together... now back to the colouring.

Many thanks - much appreciated. Robin

Thanks for this one, I will now see if I can work out how the tipping mechanism works. I was in Carnforth last year but unfortunately the site is no longer accessible to the public. I understand the Coaling Tower and Ash Plant have concrete cancer. I think I need to contact the owner and seek permission to view and photograph the tower. If you have any other shots of the Coaling Tower and Ash Plant I would appreciate looking at them This is the Barrow Road Coaling Tower - photo courtesy of Terry Nichols Robin

These photos are excellent.... do you have any more especially of the top section of the hoist mechanism? I have a type II coaling tower on my embryonic Barrow Road layout which I intend to make part operational but am finding photos of this area difficult to obtain. BTW when were they taken? Robin

Very nice John - keep up the good work. Robin