rovex

the track has been sprayed red to simulate the rust. I'll be painting the sleepers a more normal colur once all the track is down.

impessive work

Those who have been following my long winded efforts to build my model railway may remember that I lifted all the trackwork following a failed experiment in securing both the cork underlay and the track using spray adhesive. The warm weather saw expansion which resulted in track lifting and the cork bubbling. As the track had not been pinned the adhesive didn't prove up to the job. So reluctantly the whole lot was lifted and I decided that I had to start again. Well the starting was delayed until recently when I received the last of the major pointwork items required. All pointwork has been made by Hayfield and he has been good enough to share some of his work on his own blog. This time around I have adopted a much more old fashioned method. Cork underlay has been glued down to the baseboard using PVA glue (and copious amounts of it. The cork underlay is 4mm thick and came in a huge roll bought of a certain internet auction site. It worked out quite cheap compared to buying the usual stuff sold specifically model railways. The layout, which had been designed using Templot (when you still had to pay for it), was printed out onto slightly heavier duty printer paper and then glued on top of the cork using wall paper paste. The track abnd pointwork was then laid on top of this. Each peice of track has had drop wires soldered to it and these will then be soldered to the bus wires which will be under the layout. My previous layout have always suffered from terrible running quality and I think in part this has been caused by reliance on fishplates for electrical connectivity. I hope that with each separate piece of track having its own supply this will to some extent be ameliorated. Almost all the track at the North end of the station has now been relaid, with just a couple of bay tracks and platform 1 (or is it 12) to be laid. Next will the South end (under the Great Western Hotel) which thanksfully is somewhat simpler. Then starts the process of dusting off my old DCC controller and starting to attach power and point motors (i'm trying to buy 10 each month just after payday). My thoughts are also turning to the storage facility. I've swung between a traversr ( decided not to) a traditional fan of sidings and a casette system. Currently I'm thinking a mixture of traditional fan and casette may be the answer. My thought is to have the fast lines run into a fan of sidings where the crack expresses can be kept. The slow lines would then run into a casette system where the suburban trains and freight trains could be kept. Well enough words here are some pictures. Here is the station looking towards Paddington. From left to right we be through line (platform 12 and 11), two bays (platforms 10 and 9), through line (platform 8 and 7), two avoiding lines (up and down), through line (platform 6 and 5), two bays (platforms 4 and 3) and finally through line (platform 2 and 1). Although the station has been compressed it is still possible to get two trains onto the through platforms and the scissor crossings in the middle allow trains on the central platforms to cross each other. The bays are large enough for five or six coach trains if necessary - so you can see why I am desperate for Hornby to bring out some non-corridor Western coaching stock. a view striaght across the station throat. and now looking towards Wolverhampton (which I think I shall rename Worford for the layout). Although you can't see it in the background by the large tub of PVA glue are the four running lines (slow lines on the inside of the curve - the fast lines on the outside). The pointwork is such that any train arriving on a slow line can access any of the platforms and all four bays. Any train arriving on the fast line can access the main through platforms and the bays at platform 10 and 11. In reverse trains heading out this way can all leave by the slow lines and trains from platform 10, 11 and 5 and 6 can leave by the fast line.

Its amazing just what Dr Beeching has to answer for You have my sympathies - been there and done that. Good luck with the next one

Has Hornby's promised announcement been delayed

Perhaps they ran out of inane "King" references, or at least couldn't think up enough to last till Saturday

If this is how Hornby are going to announce new products in future can we have some suggestions as to photos for other new releases - A duck's bum for a new Mallard A thrown banana for an updated GWR railcar.

might be a bit much to hope that their next CAD teaser isd a cab side with a numberplate reading "6000"

Again that looks like the front end of a King class, from what I can see from a quick online search of available photos - course it might well look like the front end of a lot of other things too - I'm no expert.

Surprisingly the bogie currenbtly attached to my Hornby King looks rather moe substantial than the real thing :-)

I must say when I compared it with the drawings in OS Nocks book on the Stars Castles and Saints. it seemed a fiar representation of the original bogie, the bolts seemed to be in the right place, the bend on the flange and the slight indent at the top all seemed to match. It seems strange that Hornby who normally only make new engine announcements at the Christmas should suddenly come out with something mid year. Dean

So what do we think the CAD is from?

Hi I can't get access to Facebook at work - Have Hornby revealed what the CAD drawing was from? Dean

I did this build many years ago. I made the trailer car and made a start on the other one but never got beyond the body sides on that one. I was quite pleased with the outcome. I think I've still got it somewhere. Looking forward to seeing progress. Dean

I never knew the station in service, but my researches (rather grand way of saying I've read everyone elses books) suggest three entrances, one from Colmore Row and the top of Livery street into the main ticket office. the second midway down Livery Street through this doorway which led into a subway under the platforms shared with the parcels traffic and the third under Great Charles St bridge, the white arcaded remains of which can still be seen. I've often wondered what it must have looked like walking down those side streets of Colmore Row with Snow Hill at the end rising like a brick glass and cast iron cliff face at the end of the street.

The latest CAD ramblings. I've been playing with the canopy parts to see if construction could be made simpler by putting all the parts together and this is the result. I've ordered three of these to test out the modular design and see if it works. if it does I shall be selling a lot of unopened ratio canopy kits. The eagle eyed amogst you will have spotted that one of the arms on the support has lost its detail. I don't know why this keeps happening, but it does not look like this on the Shapeways site. We shall have to see what it looks like when it arrives. I am expecting it any day now. If this works then I shall need a canopy end piece and here it is So you can see with these two parts and a spare support canopies of any length of a tolerable GWR design can be built for reasonable outlay - lol for example Though seriously I am wondering if there is a market for these. We shall have to see what the actual products look like. Finally as a bit of fun (who am I trying to kid) this is the entrance from livery street. Still a bit of work to do on the brickwork and the crest above the door will have to be added in modelling clay. Again the rivet counters will have noticed that the inner door is not arched. I have done this because the topology of my Livery Street is a little lower than the actual one which has resulted in me stretching the door downwards to meet the proposed pavement. This made the door too tall and narrow for my liking, so I lowered the lintel by adding the inner archway. Still some brickwork to add - and my goodness that is laborious. Dean

Looking good - I really appreciate all your ard work on this

Arrived home from work today to find that the sample side all had arrived from shapeways. This was done in FUD and I must say looks a far better product than previous samples. However this is reflected in the price. I've sprayed in brick red as a primer and also to help it show better in the photos below. An exterior shot. close up of the column detail Another exterior shot and a partial interior shot. The top and bottom screens will be glazed and you can see in the last photo how I have created a recess to take some plastic glazing. This should also help to strengthen these peices. Although there are not that flimsy. The distorted look is caused by two factors - the hole the column has been planted in is a little too large (so the column is not standing upright) and the bottom barrier is somewhat distorted, but hopefully this will be resolved by the glazing and gluing them together. Cost is going to be an issue - this was about £30. A cheaper material could be used but wouldn't print. I'm not sure whether it would be possible to cast this, given the complexity and I don't think resin would be a solution. Also as Livery Street rose towards Colmore Row on the real thing the heights of the columns got progressively shorter and this may mean designing each one individually. it might be possible to design this with the screens as separate parts and then perhaps these could be cast along with the standard length columns, with the ones getting progressively shorter being 3D printed. Another thought would be to hollow the columns out to reduce the amount of material used and perhaps run plastic or brass tubing up the middle for strength. As the original columns were cast iron dressing on H girders this rather has the merit of imitating the real thing. Dean

As promised in my last entry, I have finished the design work on a section of the platform building. My idea is to create a kit of parts and to create the platofmr buildings from this "pack" of standard parts. This is the image for the first of these, what I might call "full length large windows section". All the time has been taken in adding the brickwork. it all having to be drawn in by hand - if you thought scribing individual bricks was a long haul - think again. A column with attached wall section will go either end of this piece and so on.

Thanks MIkkel, it struck me that the platform buildings lent themselves to being broken down into standard parts - bit like the old timber framed buildings do. I'll be posting a picture of the finished design work for this bit of wall probably tonight. Although it has taken an awful long time adding all the brickwork, if it can be used either as is or for producing castings. At least it will mean that the arches and such like do look then same which would have been the problem with scratchbuilding. As to materials, like you I don't know much about them, but the cheaper the material the coarser the level of detail. Shapeways wouldn't print the exterior column as it was too brittle in White plastic, but was ok in Fine Ultra Detail acrylic (and more than twice as expensive). Horsetan - I'm toying with moulding and resin - something else new to me - but I think it will work better for the wall sections, than for the columns and girders as these have relief both sides and the walls are flat on the back - or could be. If I do cast the walls I need to consider whether leaving the windows out and perhaps having these etched. At the moment the wall section includes the window frames.

The one with the little moustrache looke like he's about to drive his engine into Poland!!!

The laser prints arrived today. So I am posting a few pictures for comments. I apologise for the quality of the photos but my camera isn't up to much when it comes to close ups and the flash bleached everything, so I had to turn it off. These are probably the best of the photos. The surface is a bit rough and I managed to mismeasure the roof column so this is a bit short. I've corrected the uploaded version, so next time should get it the right size. Would appreciate knowing what people think This is screen shot of a possible wall piece - a work in progress. I am contemplating making up several different types and constructing the main station buildings from these. Still work to do including adding a brickwork texture - Is there an easy way of doing this. Does anyone have any thoughts on the best material to use. The above were printed using frosted acrylic - but its quite expensive when you consider the quanitiy I'm going to need. I was wondering about white plastic - which is considerably cheaper. All opinions welcome Dean

Last week I finally took the plunge and ordered the results of my CAD doodles. I sent for one roof pillar and enough canopy parts to make up some three sections. I decided not to buy the valance sides and having designed a roof and failed to upload it properly decided from a cost point of view that these bits could be more readily constructed from plasticard. When the items arrive I shall post the results. For the last few days I have been playing with the roof column to make a piece for the sides of the roof. Here are the preliminary results. an amended column and screen - still needs the lower part of the screen wall designing. and here a bit of a play to show what they will look like with several joined together. Dean