jonas

I see the Colas timber come past my house a couple of times a week! I've yet to see anything stable in the new sidings...

3 Warwells eh? I'd be interested to see that!

Thanks for all your suggestions guys - I will pass them on. Cheers!

Good morning helpful people of the forum, I have been asked by my girlfriend's Dad to try and get hold of some wheel bearing so he can replace the wheels on some very old Triang wagons he would like to run on his 00 (code 100) track. At the moment the wagons ride up over points. I picked up some Romoford 2mm bearings as he already had some replacement Hornby pin point axle wheel sets - however, the models he has have what I can only describe as an open axel box (you can see the metal axel turning from the outside). Are there any bearings out there that will fit into this hole (which looks about 4mm by eye) to allow modern wheels to be fitted? They are 2 axel hopper wagons btw. I have tried searching but to no avail, both on here and google - it seems rewheeling old coaches and locos is a lot more popular! Thanks in advance for any help you can offer - this is a bit out of my N gauge comfort zone!

Thanks for some more input! I remember going to a rail day around the same time - and riding a bubble car from Hereford station to the Bulmer's centre - I must ask my dad if we took a break van ride (as I would've only been 9!) I take it the MPV idea just wasn't feasible. I seem to recall someone trialling them on timber traffic too somewhere.

Thanks! I have been playing with some cheap oil paints I bought from the Works and it basically involved painting a black / burnt umber mix stripe down the wagon, leaving it for about 40 minutes, then using a large-ish brush with a touch of thinners to manipulate it. Not an exact science I'm afraid - I just played with it until it looked right to my eye (as usual, the effect looks harsher in the picture than it does in real life).

I recently revisited the weathering I had done on a Farish TTA (and was never happy with), and attacked it with some oil paints. Excuse the rubbish photo, it was too wet to take one outside!

Best of luck Joe, you've put together a great layout here! Don't forget to take lots of pictures if you get chance!

Thanks gents! I actually picked up some more couplings today so the rest of my steel wagons are now converted to Dapol knuckles. So maybe my mojo is back! I haven't sealed it no - I don't think any of my models have been varnished. I sometimes use neat White spirit as a fixative for powders, another tip nicked from the military modelling fraternity!

Well, I haven't posted a blog update for a while. Still no layout, so I have cut back on the stock purchases... austerity and all that! Still, I couldn't resist this Farish SPA wagon I picked up in Modelzone - unfortunately they only had one or I would've picked a couple up! I have wanted a couple since they came out. Could do with some coils to load my OCAs with now though... Experimented a bit by using some cheap oil paints I got from The Works instead of the usual acrylics to wash some grime on. Really enjoyed working with them, even if they do stink (cheap thinners) and are really messy if you aren't careful! Mig pigments dusted on to add a bit of texture around the undergubbins You may also notice the Dapol knuckle couplings - with one eye on the future layout, and having played with them on LeeM22's Hare's Run, I bit the bullet and I'm slowly converting my stock before I get too much. If nothing else, it means I can play with my trains when I visit again!

I've been following these builds on your external blog - lovely work. Looking forward to watching your next project!

I'm afraid I didn't get a lot of detail - it was more an anecdotal tale that came up in larger conversation. I will try and get some details of him next time though. Looking at the pic below, originally in Melly's post above, I can count 7 mixed VDAs/VGAs - and they are disappearing round the curve, so there could be more! Taken from the excellent railhereford Flikr page.

I was talking to a guy I know the other day who was telling me how Bulmers' used to receive VDAs back full of shards of glass and dripping wet...!

That's looking fantastic. Very consistent weathering across the whole picture - really draws it together as a scene.

That is some seriously impressive structure modelling - I'm looking forward to this layout's development!

Thanks for the kind comments. I'm glad the weathering in the rake as a whole ties them together as I have done them one by one over a few months. I do wonder if it is possible to replace the plastic handrails with wire...the seacows have much finer appearance thanks to it. The plank has been a worthwhile exercise and one I would recommend-still plenty of techniques to try out on it yet mind!

I've not posted in a while, so here are some hoppers on my photo plank I built a month or so ago... I have added some stock to my collection, although there are only so many pictures of dutch liveried dogfish you can really show off when they look pretty much the same. I've been purchasing each one here and there as funds allow. Anyway, I've now added loads to the hoppers, and the rake is coming along - I am aiming for 8 dogfish and 4 seacows, so 5 and 2 is over 50% finished! Loads are woodland scenics ballast, secured using Future Klear, dropped on from a tea spoon. Wagons are painted using the techniques mentioned in my other posts - mostly GW acrylics and Mig powders. The sleepers in the OCA kicking around in the background are from 2mm Society Easitrac, and look vastly superior to their Peco equivalents. On the 'proper' layout front, furniture has been moved and track has been purchased for an inglenook based layout and the plan tested on top of my bookcases - just need to get the baseboard built for it that will fit in the same spot! As for the photo plank, it does what its supposed to I guess, although I really should spray that pink foam showing at the edges another colour, and get round to adding a card backdrop. It might get some other additions too as and when required - I am to test all my techniques on it before committing any to its bigger brother...

I think I saw a DBS red example yesterday past my house heading towards the station in Hereford on an engineer's working in the Shrewsbury direction - looked like a long train of MFA type low sided opens. Can anybody clarify? First one I have seen down this way for a while.

That's really nice.

Thanks gents! I used humbrol acrylic rust colour (402, i think) to weather the rail - with a steady hand a small brush. I suppose there is nothing to stop me trying out some backscene techniques too - like I say,this is all a learning excersise!

Well, I haven't posted for a while but I did find time recently to throw together a photo plank for my N gauge stock. (Click the image for a larger version on my Flikr account) The idea was to chop up a slice of foam board, glue some track down to it and see what happened, having never done much in the way of scenic work in this scale. I'm relatively pleased with what came out. (Click the image for a larger version on my Flikr account) This over view shows its a pretty simple affair - the hardstanding is a place holder until I can put something more substantial in place. It certainly makes an improvement on taking photos of stock plonked on the garden table! Track is Peco code 55 stuck down with PVA, ballasted using Johnsons' Klear with a drop of black ink to shade it down a touch. Ballast was what I had in stock and could probably do with being finer. The other brown scatter is stuff I had lying around from my wargaming models and the static grass used for the first time (with the exception of an odd clump here and there). Not many photos as it was a bit windy out, and I had visions of it being launched into orbit taking my 08 etc. with it! All good experience gained for when I finally create a layout proper...

I have just not got round to fitting them!

Thanks gents! It looks a lot more green in the photos than in reality... Pete and Bryn - Don't worry, I will be following the 2mm wagon challenge with great interest! Its something I want to explore in the future for sure but since I rediscovered my railway modelling mojo I haven't built anything substantial. Once I can have something to play trains on I will get serious about soldering! The finescale stamdards look great though, the improvement is clear. I did chuck some chunks of metal in the cabin until it weighed about the same as the dogfish, using the scientific method of weighing it in my hands.

I spent an enjoyable afternoon at the International N Gauge Show on Saturday, and this Shark kit was one of the items I picked up. I decided to go with an olive green example as a bit of variety in my mostly dutch engineers fleet. Its missing transfers and the plough shields seen on the prototype but I am happy with progress so far. The picture is cruel - at least 4 times the size of the real thing! I also picked up a sample pack from the 2mm association, with the short length of track seen under the shark above and a 16 ton mineral wagon kit. I've spent the morning today playing with the etches and bodged it together nicely! I don't think I will be jumping on the 2mm bandwagon just yet though, despite the much better looking trackwork and finescale standards. My modelling time and budget are restricted enough and for the moment I am happy pursuing my favourite part of the happy - slapping paint onto wagons! Once my 'N' shunting plank is up and running and the urge to get things moving subsides it will definitely be a high priority for my next project.

Yeah its the same ref, weird they missed the break discs off mine. Hey ho. Etched replacements will look the biz anyway! As you know there is another wagon but I'm saving it until I do the photoplank after next weekend. If I could please have that bit of foam board that'd be mega! I have today added the vac pipes and pipe details to the cab end of my 08 - now that was interesting!