Jon Fitness

Bits of the platform and concrete station nameboard posts survive in the garden centre . JF

Lost my mojo under a load of modelling jobs for other people last year. Once I had decided to knock the commissions on the head for a bit (all of 2011 to be precise) I was OK. It will be back.. Jon F.

60011 just rumbled through Chester T&T with a shed on 6L41. On its way to Hooton, change ends then back to Crewe BH. Should get a pic on the way back.. JF

A beautiful frame Sir! Looking forward to seeing the instruments! Jon F.

First and Last Well… this is the first blog entry of 2011 and will also be the last, as for various reasons I will shortly be starting a Saltney thread. Steve has got stuck in with the upper level station details and is using all sorts of bits and pieces of printed brickwork and ex Talacre structures to see what works. Some may stay in place and some may be swapped for better bits. An old ex Talacre signalbox has been put on a gantry over the tracks (due to the usual space constraints) and awaits steps, walkways and bog extention. The view up and down the high level station area is starting to get “something†about it now. Steve’s also hand painted a “Beecham’s Pills†advert on the end of the houses by the GW Junction. A visiting retired Ex Chester loco driver just mentioned about the surviving house end Beechams adverts by Shotton Station and Steve obliged! I’ve now finished the ballasting at Astley Bridge and am now cracking on with an L&Y style canopy. The framework is from 80 thou square plastic strip and the etched brass valance is from D&S. I think it was etched for “Inkerman Street†and was left over as there was only 4 bits available! The rest was the nearest match I could find which was Slaters MR valance (plastic!) The stanchions and brackets are L&Y style whitemetal ones from Skytrex. There’s still loads to do on it but I’ve done a couple of “trial fittings†to see how its going to look. Don’t worry, the pegs won’t be a permanent fixture!

Cheers, I'll be re-opening this thread when I do the signals for Astley Bridge on the Saltney layout JF

Well, here we go. It’s been ages since the last update, and quite frankly I’ve lost track of what’s been done since the last one. I’ve attached a little gallery as a bit of a “catch-up†http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php/gallery/album/7179/1299-saltney-railway-catch-up/ but far more pics are available at http://thesaltneyrailway.fotopic.net/ Things we’ve done that come to mind (not necessarily in date order!) are.. 1. New roof on the loco shed. It dated from Talacre days and was a bit …flat. Smoke hoods will be fitted once a simple way of making so many of them has been found. 2. The L&Y signal cabin has been installed at Astley Bridge. 3. Extra lead off the turntable. Needed more space for Steve’s expanding loco collection… 4. Saltney Ferry station has a covered footbridge. Sort of LNW style, fitted with lights and a nice little feature entrance. 5. LNW style coal hole on the loco shed head-shunt. A large cast concrete buffer stop by it is a test piece for Steve’s (pat pending) method of representing a weathered concrete surface. 6. 80% of signals are now servo operated, all new ones fitted will be servo’d. 7. All of Astley Bridge’s track is now ballasted. 8. Major backscene project is now underway up at Upper Mill station and the approaches to it. 9. An ex Talacre signalbox is now on a gantry over the tracks at Upper Mill 10. In build at the moment is an L&Y style canopy and wooden platform buildings for Astley Bridge (no pics yet, sorry). We’ve also gained a few locos and had lots of visiting ones out to stretch their wheels. I was thinking of stopping the blog and going over to a thread as I found the format very clunky and awkward to use, and a bit weird to view as well. Since the format has been tidied up and is now in a list form, I’ll carry on a bit longer and give it a chance.

Jim Jones Revue, "Burning down your House"....... Played loud, very loud...Just the job while I'm bashing the rust off my bus chassis...B)

Just a quick re-opening of this thread. I'm building a batch of 12 GW lower quads at the moment. As my interest lies more in the upper quad department, and I'd completed 3 of them, I decided I needed a break from them and to do a quick U/Q to lift the spirits! I've wanted to do an LMS BFB (broad flanged beam) bracket for the layout for a while, but wasn't able to find a "H" beam of the right proportions ( a scale 9" X 9" roughly). I bit the bullet and soldered one up from 3 pieces of K&S ¼"strip. It's a tad overscale but I think it looks a reasonable representation of the BFB stem. The signal will be almost against the backscene when on the layout so I could run the wire for the lights down the back of the beam and the support brackets were soldered up from some brass angle I've had in stock for a while.Lamp staging is wooden coffee stirrers. I found some nice thin ones on a market coffee stall. (yes I had a coffee!) BFB posts were introduced by the LMS as a replacement for the lattice stem. They were certainly cheaper to make and maintain but were rather flimsy and needed a lot of guying. Once the larger tubular posts were introduced during WW2 no more BFB's were used. The model shows the same flimsyness but I won't be fitting guy wires (too many ham fisted track cleaners!) Oh well, back to the lower quads! !

Two fish in a tank.... one says to the other, "Who's driving this thing?....."

Thanks all!. I've learned a lot from contributions while doing this thread and if it's helped a few people to get started building signals, then job well done. Cheers. Jon F

Well, that's this fellow finished now. It was painted in the same way as I described earlier in the thread, just with more white on the post. I think I've managed to hide 95% of the wiring and after a little scare when the distant lamp failed to light up after I sprayed it which was traced to a dry joint on the back of the LED (phew!) it I think the wiring is OK. That, I think, is just about that for this thread as I'm now off to build 14 Gas Works Railway signals and we all know the arms go the wrong way on those.... I'll start a new thread when I get some interesting new etched bits from Pete Harvey (Did someone mention gantries??) See you in a couple of months..... JF