dibateg

Wagon rarities - In O gauge, the Parkside wooden framed, wooden ended van was really the only LNE example available in recent years. I spotted ( from a distance ) this rare 2nd hand Freightman example of a Diag. 102 corrugated end van. The colour is a bit brown rather than bauxite, but it adds to the variety in colours.... At some stage I'll give it a revamp as there are no rollers for the door! 

Hi Paul - After I have done the first tight bend, the large radius is formed by firmly holding the wire against the dowel at the start of the curve with one hand and then pulling it round the dowel with the other. The dowel needs to be a good size smaller than the smoke box as the wire will spring back of course. Avoid square nose pliers at all cost as they will mark the wire.

Cheers

Tony

I am making slow but sure progress with the scenery... I've formed the path that runs from Vernon Road to Brooklyn Road around the back of the station. A removable section of ply has been made up- with the white card on top is for the council house. This will allow access to that remote part of the layout.  The road base has been made out of hardboard, that will have a surface added on top. I just need to weather and finish the bridge and then the banks to the wing walls can be finished off.

In O gauge there was a woeful lack of fitted five plank opens until Dapol brought out their version. I built a number from ABS kits and hybrid kits made from Parkside components. One also, has to be quite determined to build up a variety of vans and at least I managed to obtain a few Freightman kits, which are no longer available. The late Frank Titman appears to have got the appearance of the LMS van right with it's tall sides, seen here alongside a Slaters BR plywood van.

I had a very busy workbench at one time with commission builds as well as my own

I must get a picture of the van train to see if it meets with approval!

I'm enjoying the year in review Tony.

Regards

Tony

Happy Xmas everyone -

I had a lovely Xmas present in the form of the buildings for Basford North, made for me by Peter Leyland. They are absolutely superb and now the scene of the layout is set, it becomes instantly recognisable as the GN Derbyshire extension. As Tony W says, many layouts are a re collaboration of skills, I'm not sure I would have the time or skills to create these buildings. Basford North was unique in that it was the only stone built station on the line, all the others were brick. I now have to crack on with the scenic work to do them justice. I had a 1962 Morris traveller just like that a good few years ago, I wish I still had it now.

Thanks for posting the LNER pictures Tony - I wonder how many hours it took to get your stock back on. I remember it used to take hours when setting up Stoke..

Great to see Roy there, I still remember him telling me - 'I'm going to build a model of Retford... '

Tony

Scenic work has commence around the Vernon Road bridge. Geoff T has kindly brought along his skills to help out. It is a big transition for me - from purely loco building...

An O1 rumbles over the bridge with a loaded coal train on it's way to Colwick yard. the bridge is in undercoat and yes, they are yellow bricks in the arch...

Yes - definitely keep the engineers train Tony - another vote! It adds character and interest.

Mine is probably wrong too, but at least the maroon 6 wheeler is copied from a colour photo...

Regards

Tony

I'm also working up the kit that Geoff Taylor designed and laser cut for me in MDF for the Northern road bridge over Vernon Road. Here it is post closure. It was demolished a year or two later.

It is straight - the camera lens has distorted it a bit... I chose not to stand on the swivel chair to get more height!

Thanks Richard - 

Progress grinds along, I've made the mock up for the good shed. This has had to be reduced by half to fit reasonably in the space. I'll also might leave off the weighbridge office on the other end as it will just look to crowded around the loading dock.

I think I would have thanked them profusely!

Thanks Byron -

I suspect the reds were original and that the blues were used later on in repairs.

Well, by happy accident, I got closer to the appearance I wanted with the Park Lane bridge abutment. I plastered on too much dark brick colour and they looked awful. So I tried some fine sandpaper to rectify the situation, and it is actually getting towards the look I want. It now needs toning down with some dark grime... Work in progress...

With some weathering on the abutments the bridge is now starting to look the part, the next stage will be interesting as the wooden parapet appears to have been painted white... I'm working on the pilaster caps, experimenting with DAS clay at the moment.

In the meantime I've been working on the platform faces ( York Modelmaking ), they came from a design by Paul Scott. The main platforms should be in stone, but I wanted to do them in brick.

I've also been working on the topography around the Vernon Road bridge. The area is temporarily functioning as my painting station. It feels like there is a long way to go...

I've now added the wooden ( brass ) parapet, the base colour to the brickwork will need toning down.

The original brick colour is quite light, it looks like there have been a lot of repairs and the original arches were bricked up a few years ago. The deck was replaced around 1964.

I've been exploiting the good weather while it lasted - garden, outside jobs and out on the mountain bike for some great rides exploring the remoter parts of mid Wales. Now the weather has turned, it is back to the railway and I'm concentrating on the Park Lane bridge. This was a wrought iron structure with a wooden parapet that was declared weak during the war and blocked off for road traffic. It was not replaced until the mid '60s shortly before the line closed. They did a good job, its about the only structure still in place in that location.

The main beams are made from sheet brass with 3mm brass 'T' section obtained from Barry at Metalsmith. Yes, I didn't have any sheet quite long enough.. It should be covered in rivets really, but it is set back on the layout and there is only so much time available.

Here they are temporarily in place, I just need to decide on the deck structure. It will look better with the parapets and pilaster caps.

90437 passes underneath with empty minerals. I run trains from time to time, and curiously after 6 months or so of being down, it does show up the odd dry joint or unconnected section of rail. But they are gradually being eliminated.

The platform faces are next and then..... the ballasting...

I've been away from the railway for a bit as we opened up the garden under the NGS scheme for charity. 

I was just doing odd jobs here and there. There was a warm day where I could open up all the windows and dig out the Sparmax spray gun and spray the track. That went pretty well, once I started using the right thinners... I tried using a piece of hardboard to get the wet paint off the rail tops, but it made an awful mess. So I made up a scraper from some scrap N/S rail to do it after it had dried. That took a few days... well nearly a week... A steel scraper did too much damage to the rail head.

On 21/07/2021 at 18:25, Roger Sunderland said:

Tony

You may remember Horfield, an exhibition layout set on the outskirts of Bristol, now, sadly, retired from the circuit. Steve Knight, who helped build and exhibit the layout, with his father Chris, now runs a very fine model shop in Poole, Model Railway Solutions. I recently told him I was looking to build a B1 using a Comet chassis. A couple of hours later he came up with the following

The loco was purchased for Horfield to haul a heavy inter regional goods, 61063 was a Leicester engine. I am assured that it was built by one Tony Geary.

The body and tender body are Bachmann, the loco and tender chassis are Comet, all powered by a Portescap motor.

After some years in store it needed a bit of TLC but is now running beautifully on my layout. I have to say I was amazed by the weight. Every spare millimetre was filled with lead, so much so I had to remove a small amount to fit a decoder. Needless to say it romps away with a 10 coach train

I've been away from the computer for a bit - but I still have my old list and indeed, I had a trio - 61063, 61078 and 61206... I recall even installing a lead crew in one and that lead lined cab roof would be good protection from any nuclear incidents... Its heart warming to see them still in action and being enjoyed.

Regards

Tony

I'm trying to imagine Tony shopping.....................................

no........................... cant do it..