Chris Chewter

The layouts been on hold recently, simply because I needed to cut up a load of polystyrene sheet to continue progress on the land, however I don't think cutting polystyrene with a jigsaw at 9pm goes down well, so this afternoon i managed to get enough time to slice up the polystyrene sheets that i need, much to the confusion of the next door neighbour! One of the issues is that the hill is 65ft approx. high. I say approx. because the app on my phone had an error of a whopping 20ft the last time I visited Tetbury. I took two measurements, one on the inspection chamber roughly where the station building was, and another at the top of the hill. After cutting up so much polystyrene that I looked like a snowball, I laid everything out and this is what I got. I've checked it with my scale rule, and its come out at a respectable scale 50ft, so its close enough, but it does show how the layout is really the wrong way round to view! For an adult, your in effect viewing the railway from the top of the hill, however my kids struggle to see! Those who are eagle eyed enough will spot that there are a couple of totally wrong buildings. First the Bachmann pre-fab is wrong. As a minimum, it going to get a pitched roof, however its the closest i can get without scratch building. You also might notice that the cottages on the left are totally wrong. However I need to plonk a couple of temporary buildings down to keep progress going, and change them in the future to stop the project from stagnating! I need to model the access road into the goods yard next, before I get busy with the mod-roc! Also, a hoover wouldn't go amiss, but I need to smuggle that into the railway room whilst SWMBO is out!

I recieved a surprise at the weekend. Whilst undertaking my volunteer duties at a preservation railway somewhere-in-the-South-of-England, we sent the cleaner off to get the tea. He later popped back and handed me my mug. I was quite surprised to see that my tea was served in a Tetbury mug! Whilst I was quietly excited for a moment, I was also a little disappointing about the quantity of tea that it actually held! Unfortunately its one of those slender mugs that hold less tea than a traditional mug. However I was very grateful for the tea, and dutifully dispatched the cleaner to do a bit more cleaning as punishment for the slim measure!

Spent the weekend getting more plaster sloshed all over the place! as I'm working from left to right, I decided to get on with the area known as The Rope Walk. Opposite the station is a small industrial area which originally was a lime kiln and quarry. It changed into a Rope Walk at some point. Most of the historic photos show an assortment of corrugated industrial buildings, however around the 1960's, a prefabricated house appears, apparently the one which was once resided by Stephen Randolph. I only have one photo of the pre-fab which appears in Randolphs book. The photo was also pinned up outside the Goods Shed before re-development. I'm using the Bachmann pre-fab, and turning it around so that the rear faces the layout. Its not a total match, but when I have a bit more time, it shall receive a pitched roof to make it a closer match. In the future I'll scratch build a replacement but I need to keep progress to stop the project stagnating! The big problem is that the area has been redeveloped to build a number of modern houses, so I have to use old photos of an area which was never particularly photogenic! The pre-fab photo shows the pre-fab sitting on a patch of land, with hills either side. The area I'm unsure about is masked by a great big tree. Helpful! I also found a useful photo on the Railcar.co.uk website: http://www.railcar.co.uk/images/accars/tetbury.jpg Irritatingly this suggests that the pre-fab was on a lower plateau than I've modelled. I'm not digging that about now! This is what I have as of today, taken at an angle similar to the Railcar position. Comparing the two, I don't think its a million miles off. However the biggest thing I can't live with is the gradient of the main hill. Thankfully I can cope with adding more land onto the board. Its slightly irritating but nothing that more polystyrene boards cannot solve. Bring on the polystyrene!

Looking back through the last post, i don't think the photos show how close the new toilet block is to the cattle dock. To be fair, I think there's around a metre between the two. Perhaps is just my perception that they are uncomfortably close. Never mind, on with some modelling!

I spent a busy afternoon getting plasterd on Tetbury. I've been busy applying filler and Mod-Roc to see what happens. Once covered, the polyball technique does give a good result. Currently I've only laid one layer of Mod-Roc, even though the instructions indicate three layers are required. I'm not too sure whether its necessary, but I guess another layer can't hurt! Given the amount of flex from the polyballs, I'm not too sure how it would hold up to constant handling if the layout went to exhibition. Lets hope it doesn't need taking apart soon, and if it did, I suppose its nothing that a liberal soaking with PVA cannot fix! One thing that came into question was the alignment of the splash to the far corner. It just didn't seem right from memory. The Boss sent me for a scintillating training session in Bristol, so on the way home, i thought a detour to Tetbury could be accommodated. Anyway, I arrived at 5pm, and the light was fading fast, so some quick striding was required!! One thing that took me back was the fact that The Splash was dry! I decided to have an explore, and sure enough, The Spash bends after the bridge. Therefore I'll follow the alignment of the Ordnance Survey plan. I did try walking further to see how The Splash exits the Wiltshire Bridge, but it got a bit overgrown. Given that I was also wearing a suit, I thought I looked pretty peculiar, so gave it up. I was also aware that construction had started on the old goods shed to turn it into a multi purpose meeting space. As a surveyor, I'm all for recycling old buildings and finding them new uses, because if a building does not have a use, it falls into disrepair and decays to oblivion, but there has to be a better solution to mechanical ventilation than a chuffing great stainless steel vent up the side! Also the toilet extension, a necessary addition, does seem rather close to the cattle dock. I can't help but wonder if a bit more careful design could have been applied, but at least the building has a new lease of life, and can now serve a use.

Well it all revolves around using External References (XREF) and Viewports in AutoCAD. I use AutoCAD 2015, and you can easily import PDF's into Modelspace using the XREF command. You then scale the PDF in Modelspace against a known dimension, such as the length of a good shed or station building, so that the PDF is 1:1. You then create a Viewport in Paperspace of the dimensions of your baseboard, and set the scale of the Viewport. Select the Viewport, and Zoom to a Scale of 1/76XP. Don't forget the XP, otherwise CAD will think you want to do something else and it all goes a bit mental! If you have access to certain graphics programmes, you can convert some PDF's into DWG files, but you still need to scale in Modelspace, set the Viewport, and scale in Paperspace.

Well it appears to have been snowing in Tetbury over the weekend. Either that or it looks like someone has had an explosion in a nearby bean bag factory! The hill at the rear is a polystyrene core with polyballs mixed with a lot less glue over to smooth off the gradient. I've used less PVA in the mix, but getting the consistency right can be tricky. Too little and the polyballs don't bind together and it just crumble away. I now need to cover with a layer of either Mod-Roc, polyfiller, or plaster. Given that a pack of Mod-Roc arrived earlier this week, I think I'll give the former a go! Whilst waiting for the PVA to set, I've also taken the opportunity to remodelled the fiddle yard to something smaller to give me a bit more room. I just need to wire it up. Lets see what I can get up to this week!

Things have been a bit quiet on the Tetbury front at the moment. Sometimes things just don't go to plan! July tailed off, August was full of Holidays, and September has been stupidly busy at work! However the real problem is that I'm trying to avoid the horrors of scenic modelling! I then looked at the model and decided that I've come this far, I need to push through. I took a deep breath, grabbed the jigsaw and made up the raised roads. I decided to depart from my favourite way of making hills, which is squirting builders expanding foam everywhere and carving to shape, and decided to try something different. Risky but it could yield cost savings down the line! To make some of the landforms, I thought I'd give the "Morfa" technique a try. Basically you mix polystyrene balls with PVA and slop it onto the layout. Its best described here: http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/47984-morfa-getting-plastered/page-6. I've started with the embankments as a test. Unfortunately you need to consider a couple of things, which I've learnt tonight. 1/ The structure that you're slopping the mixture onto needs to be solid. Any gaps, and those pesky balls will keep escaping through any hole they can find. You end up stuffing more into the hole, and they keep on escaping! 2/ Not too much glue! I've plainly used too much and things have slumped! When dry, the far embankment may need to be adjusted, as I think its steeper in reality. However there is one major problem with using polyballs. They get EVERYWHERE! In the end, I felt like I was in some kind of polystyrene horror movie. I left the railway room a scene of polystyrene mayhem, and stinking of PVA. Ah well, tomorrow is another day, and I also have some Mod-Roc on order in case all else fails!

Another week, and a bit more work on the buildings. The engine shed is nearly complete. I'm leaving off the ladder, handrails, and guttering until the layout is progressed further. I've just noticed that the tank cover is flapping, so looks like I'm going to have to glue it down again! In the early 1960's, the chimneys on the main roof reduced from three to one plain stack. The replacement stack was also unfinished timber, so that's how I've reproduced the model here. With the help of some sanky scenic signs, the interior has been decorated. The light patch on the doors is where these were repaired in the 1960's. Now onto the cattle dock!

After all that time under the layout, coupled with a two year old who insists on waking up at 5am every single morning, railway progress has been a little slow recently, hence why there has been no update for a while. However I got fed up of looking at the unfinished station buildings and thought I'd better get going again, albeit at a slightly slower rate than I'd like. There is now a roof on the shed and half the tiles have been glued. The other half is yet to be done, but after gluing tiles until 10:30pm, I decided to call it a night! Looking back through Randolphs book, I notice that the top of the water tank is wrong in the Timbetracks kit. It appears to be corrugated sheet, which is probably something you cannot easily provide as part of a timber kit. Nothing a Wills building sheet cannot solve! I've also decided to reuse the platforms from the old railway. They just need to be cut and shaped to the subtle bend of the station. I've got a sheet of Slaters brick plasticard which I'm thinking of fixing over the oversize blocks on the Ratio kit, but the lazy portion of my mind questions whether anyone would actually notice! Unfortunately modelling on the layout has to be done whilst the kids are in bed which limits my time. I tried to make a start on the landscaping yesterday, but they insisted on playing trains which is understandable. I've found that they need careful monitoring to make sure a pannier tank doesn't plummet to the floor! My eldest daughter is quite proficient, however my son only understands warp speed! Its useful to find out which parts of the track are not quite right, with a raised joint and a point motor that needs adjustment before the ballasting commences, hopefully soon!

Another two and a half hours under the baseboard, thankfully another milestone reached. This time its the point motors wired in and working. After the first took 30 mins before I worked out there was debris in the hole, I finally managed to get each down to a fine art of around five minutes each. I then decided that after two days of laying on the floor in uncomfortable positions, I didn't want to see the underside of the baseboard for a good long while! So I also put in the connections for the frog juicers. All I now need is the frog juicer boards! Thankfully, when I built the old layout, I decided that I wanted the flexibility to replace one point motor with the minimal amount of fuss, so I put a loom on with a choc block on the end. This would prevent the need to do any awkward fiddly soldering under the baseboard (Trust me, its bad enough trying to screw the SEEPS onto the boards!) You'll notice in the photo there are five connections, these SEEPS have the accessory connection which are the black and red. The green and blue are the point control, with the yellow being the common return. (Since I've been introduced to Frog Juicers, the accessory connections are somewhat redundant!) The eagle eyed may wonder why the common return isn't part of the choc block. Well that's simply because the choc blocks purchased worked in even multiples. I decided that unsoldering one cable from the common return bus would be acceptable, and today it seemed to have worked! I'm not quite finished under the board. I now need to wire between the choc blocks and the control board, but that's a relatively easy job. I also need to put in the frog juicer boards (when I've got the cash to buy them), but they are slightly lower on my list of priorities. The wiring also needs to be clipped tidily into place, and I've run out of clips, so a trip to the local DIY store seems to be in order! However after spending a total of five hours sniffing solder under the boards, I'm going to leave it at least a few days before I venture under there again!

Well without sounding too much like Victor Frankenstein, its alive! I decided that I needed the layout to be operable sooner rather than later, so put the buildings temporarily on hold whilst I got busy with the soldering iron! As a result, I've spent the last few evenings contorting myself under the layout, soldering track feeds, fitting the DCC bus. Its been tested and all sections of track work! I also had time to wire up the point by the station building with its SEEP motor and frog juicer, so very happy at the moment. Its good to see things running on the layout once again. I would post photos, but images of wiring is fairly boring stuff! Its also currently untidy until I can get it clipped up to the baseboard. I acknowledge that DCC is probably overkill for a layout where only one engine in steam normally worked. Basically, the original layout was designed to be worked by DCC, so I have the system already in my possession. It does however give me the flexibility to use lights, sound, and other effects on the locos. I need to install the remaining point motors and raise the fiddle yard up so I can give the layout a thorough test before the scenics can start, but its great to see things running once again!

Today is the 175th anniversary of the station building in Cirencester, and was a rare opportunity to look inside the old railway station on the sister branch to the Tetbury line. The station, normally locked up and inaccessible, was today temporarily opened with exhibits. Inside were all manner of artefacts, but for me the real gem was the model of Cirencester station. I think they were having some operational difficulties hence why the cattle wagons are in the car park, but most importantly they were having fun, and it was fun to watch. It kept my kids amused for a good while! Apparently they had to compress the sidings by 50m (Or 2ft in 1:76) My measurements from Google Earth suggest that the model made to scale would be 20ft approx. in length, which also demonstrates how a branch line terminus is actually fairly huge!

Over the last few days, I've been busy putting a lid on the goods shed. It now has a roof on it! Hurrah! The tiles themselves took several hours to glue into place! Hopefully if I get time tonight, I can get a coat of paint across it. The instructions suggest gluing the tiles in strips of 6, but I decided to do it in rows. As long as you keep the glue down, it seems to work fairly well! You can also see that I've started on the canopy. Just the valance and some paint to go. You can also see I've put some crates in there and the crane has been glued into position. From constructing the station building, the chimneys take ages to glue together, so I decided that now was a good time to start the next, and last, major building. The Engine shed! The basic shell didn't take long to fit together. After the experience of the goods shed, I'm aware that the inside brickwork needs to be painted and glazing put into place before the roof goes on. So I'll probably get on and paint that up. The photo on p60 of Randolphs book suggests it was painted white as per the goods shed. As previously mentioned, trying to get colour images of the station seems to be a rarity. Thankfully colour footage does exist. The following still used with permission from B&R Videos Gloucestershire Byways shows the different brick colours used. The change in colour is also apparent in the black and white images in Randolphs book. I'll be using the same shade as I've painted the good shed to the lower portion, and using the same shade as the station buildings for the water tank extension. Looks like I better get the brushes ready!

The cattle dock has been really irritating me, so I spent a bit of time on the layout this evening. I've slewed the track to align it with the outline on the plan. I also took the opportunity to see how the Timbertracks cattle dock compared with the Ratio kit. I was surprised to find out that it was fractionally larger, however as you can see above, it fits perfectly with the outline on the plan, so I can't complain there. The realignment didn't take as long as I expected, so I spent some time running coaches along the track to try to iron out issues such as gradients in sidings that are un-perceivable to the eye. I also decided to put the pannier on the track to see how it looked. I just need a bit of time to wire it all up, I'm looking forward to seeing the wheels turn on that pannier!

I managed to get a couple of hours to finish off the track work this afternoon, a rarity in itself with a young family! All trackwork laid with the exception of the engine shed, which needs the inspection pit cut out into the baseboard. In getting the model to fit the confines of the Peco pointwork, the cattle dock doesn't work in its correct position. At the moment I've shown it too close to the Goods Shed. In fact, it needs to be put on a different alignment. I now have the Timbertracks cattle dock which I need to make up to see how big it is compared to the Ratio model. Another job on the "to do" list!

After nearly being seduced by the idea of a cheap and probably hideously unreliable sports car, I decided that I better get started on some trackwork before something unwelcome landed on the driveway! Being a surveyor, one thing I know is ordnance survey maps can be wrong. Either that or Peco streamline points are not always a match to the points used in reality. Eitherway, trying to get the pointwork to match the track plan and photographs as closely as possible is a challenge, but its coming together! I have also been busy with the station building. I particularly wanted to ensure that the old Great Western sign on the building end was replicated, and a look through the Sankey Scenics website found one. I also thought it would be worthwhile bringing the station building to life with some adverts. In all the photos I've found of the station building, its always well adorned with BR posters, and I feel its given the building some life to it. I still need to put some matt cote across the roof to take away the shine to it. I'll put that on the "to do" list! The goods shed is also coming along. Now the mortar courses have been put onto the model, I now need to put a roof on it! Anyway, looks like next week shall be the goods shed and some more track laying, although I might put the engine shed shell together to try it out for size!

After a couple of evenings kitbashing, building, taking apart, and gluing back together again, I've got a representation of the crane, but its proven to be a pain to get it to fit below the trusses. The flywheel is still a tad too high, and I need to decide whether it needs to be lowered a little more. However, when its in place, it does look right, so I might just leave it. I think I might sleep on it and decide in the morning.

Whilst looking through Randolphs book, on P67, there is a very rare glimpse into the goodshed showing the crane within. As I'm building the goodshed at the moment, it got me thinking that a crane needs to be obtained. A quick google on goodshed cranes showed that the one installed at Tetbury is a non-standard design, with a curved arm and an overhead fly wheel. After a bit of searching, I decided that the Ratio goods yard crane was the closest match. If I drop the main shaft a little, plus remove some of the gubbins on the top, I think I can get a fairly close representation. I also found the Peco LK-35 is fairly close to the yard crane at Tetbury. The exception being the jib arm which is wrong. Mikes Models make a crane with the correct jib, but I understand that its been discontinued for a very long time. I also got thinking about the lamps at Tetbury. They are fairly distinctive and finding an off the shelf product is a bit tricky. The closest off the shelf product are made by DCC Concepts. Perhaps with a little bit of cutting and some wire, I could make a fairly acceptable representation... Hopefully.

This week consisted mainly of finishing the interior of the goods shed plus building the weighbridge extension. I decided that whilst I could weather the interior with mixtures of green and black washes, I concluded that no one is really going to see it very clearly, so a black wash was applied to take away the starkness of the white walls. The shed doors were painted WR brown and glued into their runners. Exterior plinths were also added. These were a little bit time consuming, but worth it for the effect. The windows need to be painted and glazed before the roof goes on! With the main shed ready for the roof to be fitted, I turned my attention to the weighbridge extension. This bit is unusual as it has a solid base. The other kits suggest leaving the glazing to the very end, but if the roof goes on, and with a solid base, there is no access to glaze this part! I've had to loosely fit the roof, and shall have to paint the windows and glaze before the roof goes on. (I'll probably do the main windows at the same time.) The other oddity is that there are no internal doors between the main shed and the weighbridge. The instructions indicate that no doors exist on the real building between the main shed and the weighbridge office, but surley there would be one for the waybill store immediately above? Luckily I had a spare door from the station building kit. It'll probably never be seen, but it cuts out any excessive light through this part of the structure which could suggest that there is no intermediate floor! Technically the steps from the weighbridge office were remodelled due to the installation of a replacement weighbridge, however the steps provided were too good not to use, and anyway the brick plinth is specifically cut for this option only, so to depart from the instructions would be a bit of a pain! With the station building, I'm not too sure what the chimney pot are made out of, but its fairly hard stuff! Looks like it needs some action from the Dremel! Looks like painting windows, glazing, and roof work should keep me busy for the next week at least!

When trying to fit modelling around a young family and a busy professional life, I always feel jealous of those who have more time! Things have moved at a slower pace than I would have liked with the station building. It was also hindered by family visits and my loco firing assessment last weekend. Enough of the excuses. With only pots, glazing, guttering and noticeboards to go, its nearly complete. Unfortunately I shall have to admit defeat with the signage. Timbertacks provide some very nice hanging signs. However try as I might, I cannot paint them well enough. I've tried several techniques including dry brushing, but they all look rubbish! I've also turned my attention to the goods shed. The main building shell and roof structure has been made. Photographs of the real building from http://www.tetburyraillands.com/ show that the bricks internally are whitewashed, so I thought I'd better get this done before the roof goes on! Lets see if better progress can be made this week!

Well progress has been made but Easter has slowed things up at the moment. I've been busy painting up the station building, but I've hit a slight snag with the brick colour. For those of you who don't know the history of the station, here's a brief history of the sites development. Site is built in 1889 and comprises of the Goodshed, Engine Shed, a timber station building and signal box. The timber station building becomes dilapidated and a new brick built building is constructed in 1916. The timber signal box is dismantled and removed in 1926. The tank to the engine shed is raised, although the date of this is unrecorded. A mis-match of brick is used. This is where things get interesting. The colour of the brick used for the water tank extension, is the same or very similar to the station building and adjacent store, but this causes a slight issue regarding matching the colour, simply because existing examples of this lighter colour of brick is missing from site! In addition, I cannot find any colour photos of Tetbury station, so I have had to make do with DVD stills. I'm just awaiting a copyright request to use them on this thread. I've been experimenting with colours against the photographs of the good shed. The brick colour that I've used is basically too dark. Humbrol 70 matches the good shed nicely, but I need a lighter shade for station building. Railmatch 424 (Oddly called "Dark brick") seems to look about right, but even Railmatch 423 could work. The Good Shed - Note the use of blue brick in bands! That'll be a pain to paint! Humbrol 70 - seems to be a good match for the goods shed. Railmatch 424 - Seems to be a good match for the station building, but you'll have to take my word for it! So, the station building shall need to be repainted. Never mind, I need to exercise a bit of filler on the chimneys and awning anyway! As an aside, I was doing some of my volunteering duties and found this in the steam depts mess! Whilst the photograph doesn't declare its location, its unmistakably Tetbury!