Fen End Pit

Thanks for all the comments. Yes I definitely need to add some mugs and a white enamel tea flask. Not sure about the fags, the household is non-smoking. I think a sparrow hawk might be more likely than a seagull. If you can spot that the tokens are the wrong shape then I think I've probably succeed in getting the level of detail right. The trouble is I'm now tempted to reprint it with the tokens of a rounded design! One question for LNERGE or anyone with signalling experience - what would have been on a shelf above the lever frame? I'm presuming that the tablet equipment meant that there wasn't a conventional block instrument in each direction so would there have been any 'boxes with bells on' or just maybe some indicators for the signals beyond view (On-wrong-off for the distant signals for example) thanks David

I managed to get the lever frame I'd printed painted (as per posting on the Anycubic photon thread) but additional furniture was required. I found a website which had photographs of the tokens for the sections either side of Clare. These showed that the token apparatus was of two different types. A Tyer number 6 and a Tyer number 9, the web also furnished pictures of each type which I tried to model up in CAD. The results came out rather well, even the details of the pile of tokens in the number 9 machine came out. Any Bobby needs a stove and a decent chair so I went to the Thingyverse and found a few other bits of furniture, I still need a desk for the train register. To be honest you really can't see much of this once the roof is on but you get enough of an idea that there is something going on. Must get around to adding the drain pipes and stove chimney, I'm not convinced by the 'H' shaped chimney in the kit. If anyone has any ideas how it should look I'd love to hear. David

I've published the STL file on thingiverse 25 lever frame Good luck printing (and probably more difficult removing the support) David

This was Anycubic's own brand grey resin, printed at .05mm layer height, 8 seconds per layer I had to generate my own support for the levers in the CAD drawing because the the Anycubic software is frankly a bit inflexible. David

I just printed out this lever frame (4mm scale) on my Anycubic Photon, thought I'd share it here. Once painted it looks pretty damn good. It took two goes to get the support structure right to stop the levers from bending. Once hidden in the box you can hardly see it, but that is hardly the point. David

At the end of the last blog I said I was going to try and 3D print a lever frame. I knew that this was probably going to be at the extreme end of what the printer could handle. The results were promising with a few issues. There seem to be a couple of issue, firstly the levers appear to have been attracted to each other by the surface tension of the resin. In most cases the bulk of the lever was actually printed correctly but as they came out of the printer the levers were stuck together. Secondly the very tops of the lever appear to have lost the plot slightly, on several of the levers there was a distinct step where half way up the handle of the lever. I can see a couple of options, I could try and add some support between the levers but I think this would be a pain remove, possibly almost impossible. The other option would be to print the levers separately and make the base with some holes to glue them into. I tried to break and re-seat the handles on the worst offending, the result wasn't too bad. I tried the frame in the box, this photograph is greatly magnified. I did a couple of other prints at the same time, the platform face includes a number of tie-bars to stop it falling down. I was able to draw these up, they are about 5mm in diameter. Finally I also printed a sack of potatoes off the Thingiverse, While all this was going on I went into the arboriculture business and finished off some trees and bushes. I have quite a thicket to plant now. David

I sprayed the box with cream (Humbrol Matt 103) and then picked out selected timbers in green (Matt 105). Meanwhile I realized that I'd made a complete mess of the station platform. I'd tried to paint it with Greenscene's textured 'tarmac' paint, I don't know if the issue was age of the paint (I'd had it for years) but the resulting mess needed to be covered with thinners and scraped off. Fortunately this process didn't completely mess up the work I'd done so far. The resulting texture, with a fresh coat of Railmatch Weathered Black looks much better. I have also started to draw out the lead-off for the point rodding runs. All I have to do now is work out which cranks need to be at what height and where 'accommodation cranks' fit in the equation. I was quite pleased with the way the platform face came out. My method of painting the laser cut brickwork worked pretty well, painting with Humbrol brick red (Matt 70) and then the mortar filled with Wilko fine surface interior filler. Finally a light wash of Vallejo grey model wash. I masked off the platform edge and painted the white line, some of the paint leeched under the tape but, when you see photographs of white lines on platforms they were definitely far from perfect. The signalbox name plate came out well, the relief is probably slightly overdone but isn't too bad at anything like a normal viewing distance. So more progress, next up is what is best described as a 'speculative' 3D print job. Let's see what the Anycubic photon makes of this. Thanks for looking. David

I've made some more progress on converting the Wills signalbox to match the one at Clare. This little section of a photograph of the box shows the rather nice cast iron brackets which supported the gangway. I didn't think the flat piece of plastic supplied in kit quite cut it so had a go at drawing up a model and 3D printing it. I also made up some nameboards to be attached after the box is painted. I made a couple extra just in case some didn't come out or broken as I tried to finish them. Hot off the printer the parts looked like this. and comparing the kit part and the 3D printed replacement the result looks pretty good. So I got the stairs and gangway on the box with the stairs shortened to match the lower site in the platform. To match the prototype I also had to shorten the locking room windows. The box can now be placed in the platform along with the rather decorative platform wall. Still lots to do but I'm pleased with the progress. David

So not only me with a Stour Valley dream, your Stour may be bigger but I'm guessing mine is cleaner Looks like an interesting project. David

Absolutely correct. That's what comes from writing blog entries late at night! Glad you like the blog. David

A major milestone has been the starting of buildings for my layout. The first major structure is obviously the platform which has the station building and the signalbox sitting on (or more accurately in) it. The prototype platform has had a lot of work on it since closure and there is quite a lot of subsidence along the length now. Over the length of the platform the brickwork is no longer consistent in terms of the construction, I'm working on what I think is a logical design - hopefully it is close to what was originally there. So, the main platform wall is clearly Flemish English bond, above that is a course of headers which is slightly proud of the lower courses, then a row of stretchers directly below the final large bricks which form the platform edge. To represent this I've cut the base layer and the rows immediately below the top surface separately, by inserting a slip of card behind the top courses I get the ~.5mm of relief I wanted. From left to right we have:- The slip of card which provides the relief. The top rows of bricks which will be slightly proud of the base. The structural base for the wall. The base bottom layer of Flemish bond brickwork. Sticking them together and we get the front face of a platform. The top surface of the platform was also cut in 1mm MDF and included the brickwork for the edge and holes for the buildings. Once put together the finished platform looks quite satisfying. (Currently the side and top aren't stuck together) Just to get some idea of how things will look I put in place my previously model of a GER 1865 'small' station building (based on Takeley but painted in the style of Clare) and also my shortened GER style signalbox (which is the wrong orientation for Clare). Yes, I know this is a pointless exercise but it was fun! You'll notice the hole in the platform wall in front of the signalbox which allows the point rodding and signal wires out of the box. The platform surface has the hole cut for the size of the new signalbox including a hole for the stairs down from platform level to the locking room. I never properly completed the single storey part of the station building and the roof needs a bit of a dust but even so the effect isn't too bad. All of this is rather good for the motivation as it gives a sense of progress. David

I followed up making the first side for my reversed Wills kit signalbox by drawing up and printing the opposite end. I printed this at a different orientation to the first side which meant I was able to clean off the uncured resin from both sides of the part much more easily. I took this picture of the part just after the printer had finished the job, you can see the orientation and the support structure. The part was removed from the build platform and washed in IPA. I have two tanks (plastic lunchboxes), I keep one with with fresher IPA and one with 'dirtier' IPA. When the fresher IPA gets too dirty I get rid of the old dirty stuff and the cleaner pot becomes the dirty one... I find a brush handy to clean off the uncured resin. At this stage the resin is still slightly soft which means it is easier to remove the support structure before the final curing. Curing can be achieved either using the sun (when/where it is available) or under a artificial UV light source. I use an old ice-cream container with a strip of UV-LEDs wrapped around it. Again, while this was going on I got on with some more 'proper' modelling, trying 'layering' static grass for the first time. I used some 4 and 6mm 'dead grass' and 'wild meadow' to add some extra texture to the first layer. I used paper to mask the fence and then sprayed Peco 'Layering Spray'. A hoover with a sock over the end sucks up the excess. Work was completed just in time to catch the morning DMU to Cambridge. Obviously there is lots more to do but the progress is quite pleasing. David

As the next baseboard to work on contains the station platforms I started studying photographs and plans to work out the exact size the buildings on the platforms. This includes the main station building and also the timber build signalbox. I'd already bought a Wills kit because it matches, or so I thought.... It turns out that the kit is for a building of the opposite hand to that on the platform at Clare and is not manufactured in a manner which allows you to swap the ends around. Clare Signalbox So, faced with the issue of how to reverse the kit I looked at Eileen's Emporium 'Extreme Products' section. Unfortunately, even there I couldn't find the Matter Reversing tool so I had to make one of my own. It turns out that these are complicated to make! So instead I opted to model up the signalbox end in CAD and then try to print it on my Anycubic Photon. The result wasn't too shabby, there are a number of issues but none of them insurmountable. In order to print the part I orientated it to about 75 degrees. This has the effect of limiting how much resin has to get peeled off flexible film which forms the base of the resin tank on each layer. I could have printed it almost vertically, this would probably have been better but would have taken about 4 times longer. The down side of this was that some of the detail on the underside of the part (the inside of the building) was covered with uncured resin when the part came off the machine. I did not remove the support material before final curing because I wanted the part to have the best chance not to warp at all. Again, in retrospect it might have been been best to take that risk, remove the support material while the part was still 'soft' and wash off the uncured resin in the alcohol bath before final curing. So, here is the original molded end. And here is my 3D printed, reserved, reversion. ( there are also a couple of minor changes to the bracing to match the photographs. While all this was printing I spent sometime on more traditional modelling, making the first of a load of bushes. I used some string to form the basic bush and spread PVA over the bottom 20mm to stick the fibres together, once that first layer of glue has dried I tease out the 5 or 6 large pieces of the string and then cover the lower part of each of these parts in more PVA. Once dried again I tease out the individual fibres of the string. I sprayed with Woodland Scenics 'Scenic Cement' from a tiny cosmetics spray bottle I purchased from the pharmacy in Sainsbury's (sold with the transparent bottles for taking liquids on aircraft). Once dried I coloured the bush with a quick burst of brown from the airbrush. More Scenic Cement is then sprayed on and then the bush dunked it Woodland Scenics foliage material. Another quick blast of Scenic Cement and the bushes are finished ready for planting. It is very interesting looking at the aerial photographs of the station site I have from the 1950's. Anyone who has visited the Country Park which now includes the station will be aware of the trees and dense undergrowth that forms the sides of the old cutting. The 1950's photographs show a very different picture with only small amounts of growth on the site. Batch building the bushes has been quite therapeutic. David

I wanted to make a 5-bar gate to go at the top of the track down to the disused loading dock. I drew up a 2D cutting plan and wondered about cutting it from .8mm ply and laminating multiple pieces together but in the end I thought I'd have a go at a 3D model and print on my Anycubic Photon. This was my first print using Anycubic's grey resin (the printer came with a translucent green). Printed at .05mm layer height I printed four on the build plate at a time and the job took about 1 1/4 hours. One of the 4 failed and 3 out of 4 seemed not bad for a first attempt. To give a sense of how it will look I've just positioned it at the top of the track, it still needs a gate post(s). I'm very pleased with the performance of the grey resin, the look of the part off the build-plate is so nice compared to the translucent resin. I also had some fun (?) pouring some Woodland Scenics' 'Deep Pour' water into the river. I think I got away with it but I had a bit of a disaster with leakage, I really thought I had sealed the area but the resin managed to fine some gabs and drips were rather too prolific! Fortunately the resin started to set and sealed the holes before the entire river had drained onto the floor. I'll get some pictures once it has completely set (24 hours). David

Thanks David Baseboard joints are always a necessary evil. I'm afraid I'm going to cheat and break the fence with a large bush at that point. I think I can avoid it looking too contrived. David

I wanted to make some fencing to start defining the field boundaries. The fencing I choose was concrete posts and wire. I felt the route of the fence should include the side of the old track down to the now disused loading dock, there will be a gate at the top of the track where it meets the minor road. I chose to make the posts on the laser cutter out of 1.5mm MDF. These were painted with humbrol enamel Matt 121 to give a suitable concrete colour. I found I had to blow on the posts to ensure that no paint blocked the holes the wires were going to pass through. The posts with the slightly large spacing are intended to be used as 45 degree bracing for the end of the fence runs. The first attempt I had worked ok, I drilled holes in the ground to take the posts and then spend an agonizing couple of hours trying to feed EZ-line through the holes. It was a complete pain! The end of the EZ-line would want to go anywhere except through the hole in the post. I managed it in the end but decided there had to be a better way. For the second length I tried something different. I thought it was worth trying to thread the Ez-line through the holes while the posts were still on the laser cut sprue. This worked out to be much easier as I could use tweezers and a lamp at what ever angle was easiest. The second run of fencing then took about 1/10th the time to install as the first! I'm very pleased with the results, I think once I get some long grass along the bottom of the fence and some small shrubs and bushes it should look pretty good. Thanks to Middlepeak for the EZ-line! David

I finally plucked up courage to get out the static grass machine out and try it. I've not used one of these before and was a bit worried how it would go. I wasn't particularly impressed with the build of the Peco PSG-2, the handle feels a bit loose in the 'business end' and the connecting part is just a 3D printed part. They didn't even include battery which seems penny-pinching to me. I tried some Peco spring grass and some Heki summer grass. I used a mix of 2mm and 4mm lengths. I used Woodland Scenics Static-Tac which is quite a dilute white glue and stays tacky for some time. I found I could cover about 20cm x 15cm in each go. Obviously this is only a first layer and I have some Peco 'layering spray' which is intended to stick a second layer of static grass on top of a first layer. I think I need to do some preparation to mark out where the hedges and fences are going to be so that I can vary the ground texture between the pasture and the embankment side. I'm quite pleased with the way the little used track down to the old loading dock has come out. The occupation over-bridge now has grass down it as it only leads to a farm and I'm working on the theory that it wouldn't have been weeded even when the railway was in operation. So lots more to do but hopefully a good start. David

Yes the J20 was a bit of a beast. It had the same boiler as a B12 on an 0-6-0 chassis! I agree I'm probably going to have to do something with the hole in the front of the firebox, fixing it in a manner that means I can still get the motor and gearbox in and out is the problem. David

Progress has been made on various projects I thought I'd share. First up, on the small river bridge, I re-drew the 3d model for the girders and added the walk-way and handrail supports. These were threaded with brass wire and bent to shape. The result makes for a fairly unique bridge, certainly one in the 'you couldn't make this up' category. While I've been waiting for paint to dry I decided to start preparing some trees. I'd bought some tree armatures sold under the brand name 'Footpath' by Model Scenery Supplies. These seemed good value to me at £9.85 for 5 armatures about 140mm tall. As supplied they are a little squashed together in the packet, the wire is well twisted, but on the recommendation of MSS I applied a little solder to the major joints just to stop them unwrapping. The wire is quite robust but nowhere near as painful on the fingers as picture wire or brake cable. I found that a little extra winding is worthwhile at the ends of the branches, this probably took about 5-10 minutes per armature. I've added some bark (sorry I don't know the source, it was just a plastic bag in my scenics box labelled 'bark'!. I mixed whatever this was with some PVA and painted it on in a number of layers. Finally I thought I'd show a bit more progress on the Crownline J20. The tender is now fitted with a revised sprung chassis and a motor fitted to the gearbox. The loco has moved 'on jump leads' along a test track and seems to do so smoothly and without binding. I've now got to a point where the 'hot work' has been done on the boiler so stuck on a couple of the parts which I had 3D printed. I wasn't happy with the rather prominent washout plugs just being represented by a half-etched circle so I drilled these out a stuck a more detailed fitting behind the boiler cladding. I also printed the sandboxes, complete with the flange around the base, rather than use the fold up etch from the kit. I retained the etch cover on the front though. Now what else can I do to procrastinate over static grass? David

Hi Richard The texture can be made quite smooth, the secret is in the timing , catching at at the right time to smooth it down. It can be 'worked' for about 10-15 minutes and as it dries it can be smoothed nicely. Along the base of the river I worked it a bit more to get a smoother finish. Hope that helps David

I've been making slow progress on the scenics over the last couple of weeks. I've covered all the polystyrene with a layer of Sculptamold and got what I hope will be a suitable base for static grassing in a future. I'd not used this stuff until I was recommended it by one of my friends, having always used modrock or other plaster bandage type things in the past. I've been very impressed as it dries quickly, forms a strong layer even when applied quite thinly and is very light. It sticks well to itself so you can mix a small quantity up at a time and work on little areas. I found mixing in an old plastic container and spreading with a plastic tool which was originally intended for removing prints from a 3D printer (but was useless for that purpose) worked well. The resulting ground has been painted with poster paint to hopefully give a reasonable base. I think the intention is to cover with a sprinkling of sieved soil (Our American friends might say 'Yard dirt') and seal the surface a little more before applying static grass. In the photograph below the right hand track is the running line and the left hand track just a siding/lay-by hence the smoking staining on the bridge being on one side only. I gave the track a spray with Railmatch' Sleeper Grime' with a sideways waft of 'rust' to paint the rails. Ballast is Woodland Scenics grey, using a mix a medium and fine grades. I tried sticking it down with both DeLuxe Materials 'Ballast Bond' which is a dilute glue and 'Ballast Magic' which is a dry powder that you add to the ballast as you apply it and then spray with water. Of the two methods I'll admit to getting on better with the 'Ballast Magic', being able to apply the ballast and move it about in a dry state and then just spray some water on with a fine sprayer seems the easiest approach. I found some tiny spray bottles with the 'liquids must be in a transparent bottle for airport security' bottles in Sainsbury's for ~75p. The cess is Woodland Scenic fine cinders which hopefully will get blended in a little when the ballast gets a light weathering later. The idea is that there used to be a track on the left hand side of the formation which has been removed, I'm trying to work out whether to ballast with the light grey or cinders. The river area is coming on. I've used Sculptamold to form a river bank and will ultimately use a two-part resin to make the water (hence the 'dam' at the back of the layout!). I'm quite happy with the shape of the land, I don't think it looks too bad, you can see the path of the disused farm track which lead down from the road over the bridge to the now disused loading siding. I'm planning on this having some overgrown hedges and grass rather than anything paved. I think I'm pleased with the way the bridge is looking, The abutments look ok with a mixture of red and blue brick. It is a bit weird actually doing scenic work on a 4mm scale layout after so long. I don't think I've modeled scenic areas like this for about 20 years. I'm getting quite excited about it turning green over the next week or so. David

Really like the way this is going. You can get an awful lot of fun out of a small space when you try! David

Thanks for the comments. The rivets are .6mm diameter and .6mm tall and I have drawn them with a rounded top. I might try making them slightly smaller but it is a balance between too big and not coming out at all. The cast girders were positioned one either side and one between the running rails of the siding - I said it was odd! David

I've made a start on the girders of the river over-bridge at the Cavendish end of the station. This bridge is still there but one of the girders has been removed. There are two distinct bridges, one with very conventional plate girders which supports the running lines and another bridge with really odd cast girders which supported the original coal siding, removed by the time I'm modelling. One of the difficulties that I'm facing is that, as is inevitable, I've had to compress the overall length of the station slightly. This means that the bridge is actually slightly shorter than it ought to be. So I'm trying to compromise and make something that looks right, rather than a slavish millimetre accurate model. I've drawn up the girders in CAD and printed them out on my new Anycubic Photon resin 3D printer. I'm really happy with the way the girders came out, the rivet detail is crisp and I think pretty convincing. Taking a look at the girders and the difference between two difference types of girder is very obvious. I can see from the photographs that I need to do a little bit more filing to do to remove the last of the facets from the layers of printing. I think I may end up reprinting the main girder with the walkway and mounts for the handrail. Still, happy with the progress. David

A fine day out yesterday at the March MRC show. Thanks to the organizers for their efforts, good lunch and excellent provision of tea. There were a good number of people through the door and we had an appreciative crowd. Getting the layout up and running gave the opportunity for a few pictures so I hope you'll forgive the indulgence of posting them here. The Simplex 40s sat by the small loco shed, I need to look at the power collection as it wasn't picking up well. This is a bit of an occupational hazard when you build layouts where you throw real sand around. The dragline operated well for most of the day, I think I'm reaching the end-of-life on one for the push buttons on the controller which releases one of the clutches. I'm not sure how many thousand presses they were rated at but we must be getting near it - still we dug a good few (scale) tons during the course of the day. The yard was constantly busy with the shedmaster (John) providing a constant stream of empty wagons needing to be filled. Unfortunately the hoped for 'driver's eye' video failed to come out, maybe next time. Next outing is probably the Mid-Essex Show in Shenfield in September. David