Kylestrome

Wow! Epic journey and some great photos too. I was shocked by the unhelpful response of the Hamburg station staff. I've never experienced anything like that in Germany myself. I had no idea the Helston railway existed. Preservation lines seem to pop up over night! David

The only reality about an 'exhibition layout' is that it is a model. Anything other aspect of 'realism' is entirely in the head of the observer. Ask any number of observers, each with their own expectations and ideas of realism, and you will get any number of answers to your question.

That's just a trick of the light! 😄 I usually paint floors in old, dry and dirty wood colours, but this wagon will probably get a tarpaulin covered load as it's intended for aluminium ingot transport.

An RTR Quickie Rather late in the day I’ve realised that Kinlochmore needs more open wagons. As I only have one more unmade kit left I decided to go for the quick and easy solution of ordering a Bachmann 13T Steel Open. This is the first RTR short wheelbase wagon I have bought and I was pleasantly surprised by how good it is. Compared to what was available in the eighties, which prompted my preference for making kits, it is on another level. Some of the details are metal, including door spring and safety loops, but curiously there are no brake cross rods. I’ve made these from 0.5mm wire, sheathed with electrical wire insulation, fitted into holes drilled into the backs of the brake blocks. It was necessary to widen the wheel cutouts to accommodate P4 wheels and I have also cut slots in the solid headstocks for fitting the Dingham couplings. I’ve fitted my usual lead sheet false floor, with scribed planking, to bring the weight up to 50 grams. In the photo above you can see the roll of 1mm thick lead sheet that I bought online from a roofing supplier. There's enough there to keep me going for a while ... It should be mentioned that after working with lead you should always give your hands a thorough scrubbing for reasons of safety. I don’t think I’ve ever finished a wagon this quickly (within 24hrs of receiving it) before. I will probably replace some of the lettering with something finer and then it'll get a dose of weathering. David

Airbrushes work much better if you CLEAN them a lot. 😉

Quite probably. That washer is there in order to maintain a seal between the body of the airbrush (containing the paint) and the nozzle. If this is not sealed there is the probability that paint will escape into the air cap. It then dries out and blocks the passage of air past the nozzle – effectively blocking the airbrush. David

Minehead.

Wandering Trees I've been rearranging trees again – these things move around more than Triffids ever did! All the coniferous trees have come together at this end of the layout to form something of a mini forest, which I'm now happy with. There's also been a subtle change behind the station, so subtle that I can't remember what's different ... 🤔 David

Finished Wagons The woefully wet weather, we’ve been having lately, has found me sitting at my workbench more than would be normal at this time of year. I now find, to my utmost astonishment, that I have actually finished some of the wagon building projects that have been lying around here rather too long. The first of these are the two ‘whisky’ grain hoppers that I’ve already shown in a previous post. I was never quite happy with the weathering or the advertising boards, so the bodies have been replaced and some new whisky boards cobbled up on the computer from various sources. These were printed on glossy photo paper and glued onto pieces of card of suitable thickness to maintain flatness. The card pieces are slightly undersize so that one only sees the thin edges of the printed boards. Next up is the modified Lima hopper with leaf spring suspension plus another one with the later pedestal suspension (modified Lima), which is really a couple of years too recent for the late sixties but so what? 😇 I’ve also managed to complete my van fleet with another four vehicles in various degrees of decrepitude. If the rain keeps up for another week I might be able to finish the rest of the paint shop jobs. David

Oh, what fun! I just made up an announcement for a West Highland train from Glasgow to Mallaig, which involves an awful lot of scrolling to enter the intermediate stations. 🤪 It doesn't quite have the 'ring' of a seventies live announcement, though. David

Quite apart from any railway aspects, I would say that an understanding of perspective is not one of the artist's greatest skills.

I'd just like to know how to get to get it off the chassis without breaking everything in sight!

The new cross members are a straight replacement for the kit parts. In other words, they are the same width. The main reason for making new parts is to enable a square and strongly constructed underframe.

Not if you use the correct flux! For electrical wiring you should be using resin based flux, eg. Carr's Orange Label or similar. HTH, David

Nickel Silver & Lightly Rusted?

Pure Nostalgia Like so many others, it would seem, this layout was the main inspiration for all the modelling I have done since reading about it in Railway Modeller. The strange thing is that I never saw the actual layout. 🤔 David

The worm shaft is actually rather cleverly engineered. There is a hardened steel ball that bears on one end of the shaft which allows one to adjust it for minimal end-play using the large nut. David

It is indeed. That paint took a bit of effort to get off. As I remember it, Ian's way of weathering was to paint everything black and then wipe most of off again! As it now stands, it needs a good scrub and then a coat of primer. There's life in it yet. 😉

Analogue Fun Way back in 1988 I bought a P4 converted Wrenn Class 20 off Ian Futers which he had used on his inspirational ‘Lochside’ layout. At the time, I was a dyed-in-the-wool 2mm finescale modeller so this was my first step on a very slippery slope into 4mm modelling. Almost immediately I made a start on ‘refining’ the body and then got distracted by other projects. I also made some rather radical changes to the chassis (as can be seen in the photos below), which involved modifying & disabling the original motor and fitting a Mashima motor driving through an Exactoscale reduction gearbox via a flexible drive shaft. All very hi-tech back then but it runs very smoothly even by today's standards. Having just sent my Lenz Digital controller off for a software update, I decided to dig out this only analogue loco and actually complete it after all these years! I plan to finish it as 20048 which is the only early disc code Class 20 I can find that worked on the West Highland, being in use at Fort William in 1985. David

Here’s a question for any Lenz experts out there. I have a simple terminus to fiddle yard layout where I mostly operate only ‘one engine in steam’. All the points and signals are worked mechanically/analogue and the only reason I use DCC is to enable the running of sound fitted locos. Up until recently, I have been quite happily using a Lenz Set 100 (LZV100 & LH100). I now have a few locos with more recent decoders and cannot use all their functions because I am limited to the old firmware (LZV100 = v3.5, LH100 = v3.0) which doesn’t go above F13. I have a choice. I can either have my existing set updated by Lenz to firmware version 3.6 or trade my Set 100 for a new Set 101, for a much reduced price, which will have firmware version 4.0. Bearing in mind my minimal requirements, which option makes most sense? Are there any great advantages that v4.0 has over v3.6 that would make any difference for my needs? David

Cute?!

I'd be interested to know by how much the sales of popcorn increase with every new model announcement by KR Models.

That's got to be the one of the wierdest wagons ever! Are you going to put a load on it and if so, what would be appropriate? David

I'm surprised that you are still having to to pay eBay sellers fees. German eBay is now free to private sellers!

I hope you nautical buffs don't mind a simple question from a land lubber layman. When I see pictures of cruise ships like this I think they look awfully top heavy. What stops them just falling over when the first decent sized wave comes along?