rovex

Stunning modelling - and brave work on the peco pointwork will be following this with interest

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/190679584146?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649 £43 for a Hornby horse box, Am I missing something

As I was in the shed this evening tidying round I thought I would take a few shots of the fiddleyard baseboards. These are made of 12mm ply with 3inch wide strips of 12 mm ply for the edges and strapping. I've used this method before (although in that case it was 9mm ply) and found it generally quite sturdy as long as the boards are adequately braced underneath. I'm particularly pleased with the hatch (I know sad isn't it). I added the diagonal brace as it was flexing too much when opened and this seemed to have solved that problem. The last shot just shows the final gap to be filled, might be a bit more obvious if everything wasn't ply coloured. As cash is a little short at the moment (when isn't it) I'm trying to concentrate on what I can do with whats around, so any tracklaying on this ection will have to wait. However as power is now down to the shed I might start wiring that part of the station that is laid and start working out what what wires need placing where etc.

I thought ratio did a kit very similar to this?

Not much to report on the modelling front, but over the weekend I finally got power supplied to the shed. A heavily armoured cable has been laid down the garden from the mains fuse box to a separate fuse box in the shed, this has then been wired into the wiring I had already put in the shed for the security lightin, the ordinary lighting and a small ring mains with more sockets then I am ever going to need. Both the main fuse box and the shed box are protected with RCD breakers. I have also taken the opportunity to update all the wiring to the two garden ponds. The wiring in this house is a nightmare and over the past couple of months I have been slowly getting it all replaced. Is was interesting to see what fuses controled what circuits. Upstairs only had three sockets each on different fuses!!! Its amazing the place hasn't burnt down before now. Only a little bit of the old wiring still remains and this will have to wait until the kitchen is replaced. I have also been building the baseboards for the fiddle yards. I have dropped the idea of having a traverser, mainly because I have never built one before, and will be going for the traditional ladder of sidings. I think I have worked out who to allow the mainlines to access almost all the tracks of the sidings but its going to be a bit heavy in double slips. I plan to use peco code 75 for the sidings as opposed to the finescale SMP tflexitrack and handbuilt points used on the scenic boards. Have also built a flap section - another first for me, which seems to line up alright but will only really be tested once some track is laid over it. Now I have power I must start wiring the layout and get some trains moving. Rovex

Hows this for honesty http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/oo-GAUGE-TRIANG-REPAINTED-SUBURBAN-COACH-R121-223-GWR-CHOCOLATE-CREAM-/200726142540?pt=UK_Trains_Railway_Models&hash=item2ebc35de4c "IT LOOKS BETTER IN THE PHOTO THAN IT REALLY IS!"

I was going to suggest that we British didn't go in for "lynching" and the most you would get would be some very heavy tutting and rolling eyes, then I remembered we were talking about railway modellers.

Further to my earlier post these are some shots of my old layout showing how I've used some kits to make larger city centre buildings. This first one shows the Kibri factory. The sides from one kit were used to make two buildings as the back and one side of each building was either against the backscene or facing away from the viewer and so could be modelled in plain plasticcard. Otherwise the kit was built as is. I've seen this same model stretched out on some layouts to great effect, It makes a much larger factory about two foot long and about an inch and a half wide. Behind is the faller brewery kit spliced and made into a longer building. Foreground right is the Walthers gas plant, and background left is another Walthers backscene warehouse. The two corner buildings on this one started out as two faller corner hotel/chemist shops. There were anglicised by throwing away the shop fronts and building more English facades. The whole model was lifted about a 10 mm or so to give a bit more height. Tha panels in the walls were replaced with slaters embossed brick to give the effect of a brick and terracotta building so beloved of the Victorians. I also replaced the corner turrets and the roof of each kit, but these could be kept and more robust chimneys added. The centre of the building was scratchbuilt as was theatre building behind. I've got some more of these kits and intend eventually to do the same thing with them to produce a Parade of victorian shops in the same vein, possible with a central arcade. This shot shows two kits I was trying out. The shorter turreted shop is a Kibri kit, which can be built more or less as is, but with perhaps more English chimneys. The larger square building is a faller kit which is being built more or less as is, but I intent to replace the plaster effect panels between the windows with more embossed brickwork.

Kibri do a number of good industrial buildings which anglicise without much difficulty, I'll try and post some photos when I'm at home of ones I've done. I also did Fallers brewery building by splicing it down the middle and using it as a long low releif building. Some of the Kibri town centre shop buildings can anglicise quite well although you need to be careful with the ones you choose. The Faller town buildings are more difficult to anglicise and hide their European origins. I did this with one building but by the time I had finished not much of the original kit was left. Again I'll try and post some photos. The walthers buildings, particular the Cornerstone and DPM buildings will work for two and three storey shops and "Red Devil" on his Grime Street blog has done this quite well by adding pitched rooves, chimneys and plenty of soot.

Again - please carry on. I've found this thread very interesting and easy to follow unlike a lot of signalling explanations. Could Andy perhaps be persuaded to edit it together as an article in the RM Web online mag??

I recently purchased an old MTK kit of Ebay of a Sunshine stock slip coach to diagram F24. I'm not a great fan of MTK kits, for those who don't know they come with the sides and roof and solebars all folded up from one sheet of aluminium and they usually have badly fitting ends. It was described as an unknown kit but resarch before I bid allowed me to discover the coach type and for £12 I didn't think I could go far wrong. The Ebay photo suggested brass sides and so I thought perhaps the previous owner had bought replacement sides from Comet. They hadn't . But the usual aluminium had been given a brass or copper plating and the dorrs had been etched/gouged out which is unusal - well unusual to my limited knowledge of these kits. Anyway after a bit of fettling which has included a lot of filling to hide the joins between the ends and the sides, cutting away the moulded on lamp irons, fitting seperate handrails new shell vents from Comet and door hinges from plastic card, it has now received a coat of undercoat. This should help highlight those areas that still need a bit of work such as where the ends meet the roof. Not looking so bad for £12 especially when you consider the same kit from Comet is over £40. I'll let you judge for yourselves.

Not a great deal of progress since my last entry, mainly due to the fact that until I can get a trench dug gown to the garden shed to lay the electric cable, my modelling is limited to the weekends and eventhe only whilst the sun is up. However "Hayfield" of this Parish has continued to do me proud with his trackbuilding and I thought you might like to see his latest builds. The first two shots show the South end of the station and once the pointwork to the left has been laid and connected in, this end of the station is complete. I can then mark out for the platrforms and get these built, allowing me to build the steps to the main station concourse, thus setting the height at which the main station building will be fixed. This next photo gives a wider shot of progress so far and this one a close up on the two scissor crossovers which were in the middle of the station. Unprototypically these will sit on the bridge over Great Charles Street, rather than to one side and yes I know points shouldn't be on bridges but I can't help it given the space constraints. As you can see Platform 9/10 can easily accomodate an eight coach train, indeed there should be room for a nine coach train with engine, ten with the engine just sitting beyond the platform - memo to self make sure that the fiddle yard is big enough. Progress can now start on the North end

I gave up using slaters embossed sheets quite a while ago, I wasn't very happy with the embossing and felt that not only were the edges between slates not sharp enough but thickness was a problem. Over the years I've tried several methods from individual cut card slates (made from my old collection of train postcards), to sheets of slates made from card with the gaps between the slates cut by hand (both very labour intensive and likely to result in me losing the will to live before finishing the roof. I tend to use the wills slates now but of course it is almost impossible to succesfull hide the joion in the slates and so on a bigger roof were a join was unavoidable I tried to line it up with a chimney breast so at least the area of the join was minimised. Another method I've tried with I think some success is using the Greenscene sheets that are intended for planking. Theses come in a variety of plank widths and are very sharply incised. I cut them into 5mm strips and overlay them on the roof. There are still over thick - but I don't think as overthick as slaters embossed plasticard. I also take the view that often if you go for a near scale thickness it becomes very difficult to see the individual slates and I do like to see that. I think its a case of the model looking right rather than being right. Great models by the way

Nice atmospheric shot of the station frok underneath the bridge

Baseboard building continues a pace and these are few shots of progress. Holes have been cut for the streets and canal to pass under the station, although having checked google I'm going to have a cut a few more. Track laying on the Southern end of the station has also started. Cork underlay is used and this is glued down with contact adhesive, Which has also been used to secure the trackwork. I lay no claim to having built any of this. It was all made for me by "Hayfield" of this site, and a good job he's doing too. This is the first time I've used handbuilt trackwork and Code 75. My last layout was all Peco Code 100, but the complexity of the trackwork for this layout left me with no alternative. I've been very lucky to find someone who will build it for me. I can recommend his work very highly.

You must have nerves of steel. If I'd spent all that time building something as delicate as that I wouldn't be able to bring myself to pile one can on, never mind that many. I'm green with envy at all the work you've done, and don't envy you the work still to do.

Just a series of shots showing the baseboards as they start to creep along the back of the shed. The main basebaords are made from 3 inch strips of 12 mm ply, two are glued together to form L girders and two of these girders form the sides of each section. Single 3 inch strips then span between these. The track will be laid on 12 mill ply boards with 6 mm mdf stips along the sides, (just like Eastwood blog - sort of). Part of the trackbed has already had this treatment, which explains the earthquake zone along the middle of the boards where the trackbed falls 3 inch This allows an open baseboard and plenty of space under the tracks for wiring etc. Also allows me to have the road on either side of the station rise and fall. Just waiting for a bisciut router to arrive (bargain off ebay - well, will be if it works), this is going to be used to join the track beds together. Still deciding whether to model the slopes into and out of the station. Snow Hill was built on a hill (doh) which meant that both the access tracks from North and South fell away from the station. Apparently Snow Hill tunnel was quite steep and it wasn'y unknown for a train to fail to make it up the slope and have to be rescued. I don't intend modelling this, the slopes on my last layout were a bit too steep in parts, although modelling a rescue will add interest to operations.

I keep an eye on this thread just to make sure that anything I occasionally list doesn't end up on it However I've been keeping an eye on this Wills kit of the ground level signal box, listed at an ordinary price originally and now going for £10.50. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/WILLS-OO-SCALE-GROUND-LEVEL-RAILWAY-SIGNAL-BOX-KIT-/320753115390?pt=UK_Trains_Railway_Models&hash=item4aae6020fe, A quick search shows a "buy it now" at £4.50, unbelievable.... I wish I had that kind of money to waste

You don't have a local pit nearby you could blame for subsidence?

Well, the station hotel is a bit of a botch job. A search of the city archves at Birmingham Central Library provided absolutely no information whatsoever, as the railways were exempt from the usual planning laws at the time. So as I wasn't going to be able to make an accurate model I went for something that would be a fair representation. The basis for this model is a Vollmer kit which gave me the window surrounds, the rest was a matter of trial and error to work out what would work before I started. I would like to build a representation of the front of the old Great Western Arcade which as you will know stood oposite the hotel before being bombed in the last war. However again this is only going to be representational as I can only find one partial photo and a victorian sketch. However the archives may have something on this, so maybe another trip to the Brum. Thanks for the comments by the way, its always gratifying when someone who knows the building your trying to model recognises it. Rovex

With the shed half lined out, and me awaiting more plywood to finish the job (hopefully this August bank holiday weekend), I 've printed off the track plan and laid it out in the shed to make sure it fits. Bit put out when it didn't look like it did, until I realised that I had made too little allowance for the overlap between sheets. With the sheets stuck together all was well. I've been inspired by the skill shown not only in track building but in baseboard ideas and construction on the Eastwood blog on this site and will try and follow his style of construction. This will mean an open frame sub base on which the track baseboards will rest, with at least at the city end a top baseboard to carry the town centre and a possible tram circuit. This will also allow for the undulating nature of the site with the ground falling away from the station buildings abnd then rising again at the other end of the station. Should also allow me to build a very slight gradient in as the train arrive and leave the station. The plans have been laid out on a couple of sheets of ply and a couple of buildings placed on to allow me to gauge how much space is needed at the back of the layout. The boxes laid out behind the station are intended to represent the footbridges and access to the tracks Now I mustn't spend to much time day dreaming. Rovex

Sorry quite right, I did mean Northern approaches. Had it been on the Southern it would have been under the road. I haven't decided on the windows, as yet,- the originals looked to be sash windows with very little in the way of fenestration. The thickness of the transoms on the kit windows would work for the verticals but be a bit odd for the horizontals, and of course you wouldn't get the effect of a sash window. I might have a play about with one and see how it comes out.

Whilst I await the delivery of some more GWR dark stone paint to paint the girderwork on the Signal Box, I've been cracking on with the water tower for the station. The original one at Snow Hill stood on the Southern approach to the station, on the opposite side of the tracks to the South signal box and next to a typical GWR overgirder turntable (very good article in the RM last month on how to make one of these). I have only a few photos of the tank and its supporting brickwork and so once again I've kit bashed rather than try to make an accurate model. the base is from some cut down parts from a Kibri factory kit. The tank is 80" styrene, with 20 tho glued on top once the rivets have been embossed on it. The curved top is made up from three layers, one layer is 80 thou ribs and strips, overlaid with 30 thou styrene to give the curve and finally overlaid with slaters corrugated plastic card. The last shot (sorry its a bit blurry) shows the model with only the bottom row of bricks waiting to be applied before it is painted and then detailed with the usual clutter lamps signs etc. The windows have been placed in temporarily to give an idea of the what the finished article will look like. Rovex