Skinnylinny

Sadly, plasticard won't cut on a laser cutter - it melts rather than burning away, and releases all sorts of noxious fumes! There do exist sheet plastics that will laser-cut, however, although I've only ever seen these in white. Nothing stopping you spraying the beading black before laminating the layers, though... I'll also need to have a look through the CAD/3D Printing forum section to figure out where to get Rowmark (the laser cuttable "not-quite-plasticard") in the UK. It all depends on the type of card - the brown stuff used to stiffen envelopes cuts well enough, but corrugated cardboard does risk catching fire. There's a CO2 fire extinguisher in the laser cutter room, and the rule is that the laser cutter may not be left unattended while cutting. Occasionally small flashes of flame can be seen, but they usually burn themselves out almost instantaneously. The extinguisher is there for a reason...

The laser cutter used was the one at the Edinburgh Hacklab where I'm a member. The details can be found on the Edinburgh Hacklab wiki here if you're interested: Edinburgh Hacklab Wiki: Laser Cutter. I've been experimenting with using the laser cutter with much thinner card to produce beading and panelling on coach models - when I get home from the model club tonight I'll try to remember to dig out my most recent test cut of a body for a North British Railway 6-wheel third (for use as a grounded coach bothy on the club's latest layout). It can certainly do some impressively accurate cutting! I've heard interesting things about the Silhouette Cutter, although I don't have access to one of these - apparently it can be set up to cut out pre-printed parts pretty accurately to give a pre-cut and pre-printed kit, if you design it. Now *that*'s impressive, and would make producing my panelled coaches much quicker. Even better, run a gold pen around the exposed white edges where you cut the panelling out for instant gold lining-out of the panelling! I can feel my wallet whimpering at the thought... And now it's definitely going to be known as the Condensed Milk Van!

Thank you for the praise! If you'd like, I'd be happy to laser-cut a set of sides for you and post them over if you'd like? The joy of laser-cut card is it's cheap and cheerful, but you can detail it up as much as you like. The sides and ends are made from two layers of laminated 1mm card to give the outside framing, and the roof was good old-fashioned cornflake-packet card. That brake van of yours looks rather nice too - the shorter length gives more of an impression of the time period than the one I've built. I'll have to consider shortening the next design.

Look out! There are trucks about! Yesterday evening was mostly spent applying pressfix transfers to wagon kits... I will admit they tend to give a better finish on a per-letter basis, with no carrier film visible, but I'm still struggling to get text alignment as good as I can get with waterslide transfers. Where a whole number comes as a pressfix, this is fine, but individual digits to make up a wagon number are a pain! A Slater's MR 10 ton van and a Ratio LNWR 10 ton coal wagon (helpfully labelled as such!), both done with pressfix transfers. The Slater's van had the running numbers as individual digits, which were annoying to line up. The running numbers on the end of the Ratio open came as one piece, but were fiddly to fit between the end stanchions. By way of comparison, here is a private owner wagon (Cambrian kit) which I lettered up with waterslide transfers (individual letters), with different fictitious owners on each side for variety. One side is a friend who is good at their metalwork, the other is named after my two flatmates who are rather a fan of a nice pint! Any private-owner wagons I build for this layout are likely to have this dodge applied as a way of increasing the fleet size without increasing the amount of stock I need to carry. Besides, if you can only see one side at a time... There has also been a little experimentation going on with producing my own wagon kits. This slatted milk van is copied from the illustrations of the Thomas the Tank Engine books, and readers may recognise it as the one Dairy the Diesel Railcar refused to pull! The model is made from a laser-cut card bodyshell, using a Dapol RTR wooden-framed chassis. I really ought to add some hinges to this from either paper or etched brass, and maybe some platework to the wooden strapping, but I think it has a bit of a crude charm as it is. I might make up another one and detail it up properly. I've been using this layout as a chance to experiment with various types of kits that I hadn't had a chance to play around with - there are a few resin ones, an etched brass brake van (nearly finished now!) and several whitemetal models in various stages of completion. Below is a resin Caledonian mineral wagon (from the Caledonian Railway Society) and two LBSCR "Open A" wagons in plastic - one from a Cambrian kit, built as intended, the other kitbashed a little to represent it in an earlier form with the tarpaulin chain. Finally, bringing up the rear, as appropriate, is a GSR brake van. Looking at its design, this looks to be a fairly recent build, with inside framing. In model form, it is a fairly crude bashing-about of a Mainline 20T NE brake van, the end veranda being made by slicing one end wall in half and gluing it to the sides of the other end! I may re-visit this design later, or draw up a new brake-van design for another laser-cut kit, but for now, this at least provides guard's accommodation for a grand total cost of £3 of parts from a second-hand stall at an exhibition. Apologies for the image-heavy post, but given that not much can happen by way of actually building the layout until I can get some help with building baseboards, I thought I'd show off a small selection of my rolling stock.

I think that's probably the best plan - assuming the L&BR and the G&SR amalgamated their facilities into one shed at Linton with a small turntable. How would they feel about other companies' engines using the turntable? I wonder if the prevalence of photos of locos running chimney-first might have something to do with the photographers rather than the railway? Even with preserved railways these days there is a marked preference for photos of engines running "the right way around". As you say, there *is* a triangular junction, a mile or two away, and just think what a mess a points failure could cause if using that for running around and turning a loco. Involving two or possibly three signalmen to just turn a loco? I think I'll end up sticking with Edwardian's suggestion of a loco depot off-site scene. The housewives of Linton are going to love me for the effect on their washing lines!

A very good point - I'll probably try and sit down to try to work out a working timetable over the weekend. I envisage most services being GSR, with only a select few of the LBSCR trains continuing through Guildford to Linton (maybe peak only?). SE&CR services would likely be limited to one boat train each way a day, and possibly one train each way a day to London in the peak time. Linton being a terminus off the "main line" means that through services wouldn't run through it. I've built in somewhat of a bottleneck in the single-track entrance tunnel (assumed due to cost-cutting during construction, though might yet decide to double-track that), although that does mean that running around can occur while the single-line section is occupied by a departing train. The morning will quite likely take a fair bit of pre-planning and smart reversing. I didn't realise the LBSCR tried to avoid running bunker-first. That's a bit of a pain. I am assuming that the GSR is happy enough with tank engines running both ways, though hadn't really thought about the tender loco, I must admit. I may have to convince the board to install a turntable just off-scene after all. Either that or lose the coal-merchant's siding at the fiddleyard end for a turntable, if I can squeeze it in.

I'll have to see if I can dig it out - it's somewhere in a box at the moment...

Indeed, and plenty of excellent names for locomotives! There is already one wagon lettered up for the Ankh-Morpork and Sto Plains Hygienic Railway... Ah, the regular question of the 00 modeller presented with pretty EM gauge models: Is the chassis built properly to EM, or to 00 with spacers on the axles...?

So I've been having a ponder, and decided I ought to work out a list of the various rolling stock I have for this layout, have on order, and still need to build. So far I have: Locos: GSR Modified Wainwright C Class "Havelock Vetinari" 0-6-0 side tank "Sir Samuel Vimes" 0-6-0 heavy tank (in progress) ("Gaspode"?) Railmotor (possible kitbash?) LB&SCR A1 41 "Piccadilly" (Improved Engine Green) E4 469 "Beachy Head" (backdated Bachmann model) (Stroudley Goods Green) D1 6/231 "Wimbledon"/"Horsham" (Improved Engine Green) LSWR M7 245 sage green M7 252 pea green 700 class (awaiting backdating, to be dark green) SE&CR H class 308 (Hornby) P class (Dean Sidings resin kit - in progress) P class (Hattons, forthcoming) R1 (Hornby Dublo, repainted) Rolling stock (passenger): GSR 6-wheel coaches (repainted Bachmann "Emily" coaches) 4 x bogie coaches (repainted, some modified, Triang clerestories) 4-wheel full brake LB&SCR 3 x Stroudley coaches (modified, repainted Bachmann Thomas coaches, more to be acquired) LSWR Ratio GWR 4-wheel and Midland bogie brake coach (modified) Gramodels 42' coaches (brake 3rd, 3rd, tri-composite) (forthcoming) SE&CR Bachmann birdcage set LCDR 4-wheelers (3d printed kits)? So, my thoughts at the moment are that it would be nice to have a medium-large sized tank loco for the GSR. Something a little larger than Sir Samuel Vimes, which could lug a decent load up and down the main line. This will likely be a project as part of my learning Autodesk Fusion 360 (CAD software) and how to use the CNC milling machine at the Hackspace I'm a member of (Edinburgh Hacklab). My thoughts at the moment are either another 0-6-2t or an 0-4-4t. The SE&CR coaches I already have are the Bachmann birdcages, although I'm aware they're out of the time period here. I am considering either some 3D printed kits from Shapeways of LCDR 4-wheelers (although only a 3rd and a brake 3rd are available, and they would be a long, uncomfortable ride from ex-LC&DR metals!) or trying to find some kits for short bogie coaches. Advice here very much welcomed! My H class is very modern, with no. 308 entering service in June 1906 but my R1 is really too modern, as the ex-SER R classes didn't start being rebuilt into R1s until 1910! Ditto the P class, of which the first examples appeared in 1909. I definitely need to find some much earlier LC&DR or SER locomotives to fill in a gap here. Perhaps I should build a 1910-1915 SE&CR layout for this stock instead... Freight stock I haven't added, as I'm currently working my way through a large pile of kits for open wagons (mineral and merchandise) from various local-ish private owners and a more spread out mix of pre-grouping companies and a (very few) vans covered wagons. I've got my eye on a horsebox kit or two, and I'll need a few carriage trucks. There's one slatted-side milk van, but I'll want to come up with a design for a GSR one. Would containers for bulk shipment have made any sort of appearance at this point? I'd imagine something like a furniture moving company. Any thoughts on types of wagons that would be usefully typical? I've got some kits for the ubiquitous MR dia. 299 5-plank opens on the way, but I don't know if I've missed anything obvious.

It can be found in the "Pre-grouping - modelling and prototype" section under the title sem34090's Pre-Grouping-Workbench/screen or by clicking the link here.

Someone's got a strange idea of what constitutes a cab! Not much protection from the weather...

The Southern E-Group suggest here that all the E4s after no. 487 "Fishergate" were outshopped in IEG, numbers 463-487 having originally been painted in Goods Green. Note that in this picture,518 "Porchester" has its safety valves in front of the cab, rather than Salter types on the dome.

Ooooh, tempting, although possibly a little late for me! All I have left to do to this side is the splasher and steps (which I might cheat and simplify)! If you're going to do it in Goods Green, make sure to do two variants - plain black, and red-black-red lining! It's my upcoming D1 that I'm more worried about the lining for though... (request: if you do produce IEG lining for the Wills/South Eastern Finecast D1, can you include an un-named one please, as I have some lovely gold-leaf transfers for the names I have in mind for mine. I'm going to cheat, one side will be no. 6 "Wimbledon", (closest station to where I grew up to have a loco named after it, I don't think "Raynes Park" had a loco) while the other side will be 231 Horsham (where my parents moved shortly before my heading off to university).

The bridge across the platforms is there partly to re-inforce the "boxed-in" and cramped feel of the station, keeping disruption to the existing town to a minimum. For a while, I was considering having a raised baseboard edge at the front to show what would have been a retaining wall there, but this would have restricted the view too much. The track plan is very carefully measured and barely fits - I don't think I could fit a station building at the end except in about 2cm-low-relief. Sadly there's no chance of this becoming a through station in the foreseeable future, as the layout fits along one wall of my bedroom (shared student flat), and where the bufferstops are is right against an external (first-floor) wall. The idea of the station building on the bridge was taken from Denmark Hill, with its beautiful Italianate brick building on huge steel girders over the tracks. Granted, Denmark Hill was a through station, but still... Plus, in this case, I'm invoking Rule 1 again (It's my train set)

I've managed to fit a ramp in, although I've had to shorten the rear siding substantially in order to get the ramp to anything below 1 in 5.5, which I think would be trying on a horse with a heavy load on a good day! I might consider having a human-powered winch near the top to give assistance in getting heavy loads up the ramp. I've not been able to figure out a nice-looking way of getting cover that far along the platform, but I'll keep thinking. I suppose I could have the retaining wall for the ramp extend to the height of the platform canopy and use that to support the canopy (with an access gate), then extend the roof a little further along, but my experiments have shown that this leaves the platform canopy looking very long and spindly, especially on an arrivals platform where one wouldn't expect people to be standing around for very long.

Oooh, an interesting thought. Electric tramways were, I believe, starting to become a thing in this period, including the Southampton Corporation Tramways, which started operating electric trams on January 22nd, 1900. There are a few more electric tramways dotted about the country, although they seem to be a lot more popular by about 1905. Electrical overhead on the main part of the layout would be a bit of a pain for re-railing and track-cleaning, so I'd prefer to avoid that making an appearance. Thoughts of moving trams would definitely provide some sort of movement to the roads, though would mean that the tram line would need to be kept clear of horses and pedestrians (for the model, at least). Perhaps if I had a little more space, but I suspect that in order to keep this layout from getting much more crowded, I might have to pass on that for now. Nothing stopping me getting an Oxford Diecast Manx Electric Railway car and repainting and reliverying it though!

A good point well made there - I thought railmotors had started to exist a little earlier. I suppose there's no reason that one couldn't use the end-loading platform/siding at a later date to avoid blocking the run-around loop as long as I provide a facing-point lock in the correct direction. I was thinking of extending the platform canopy to cover that "bay platform" anyway, so I could definitely convert it to coaching-stock goods. All I'd need is a ramp up to street level, and presumably some fencing to separate passenger and goods traffic on the platform?

I wonder if a similar trick could be used for Stroudley IEG lining (white-black-red) using BR Express Blue lining transfers (white-black-white) and a steady hand with the Sharpie? Might have to try that. Good point on the space between sidings. I'm really rather tight for width on this layout - I'll have to tweak a little and see what I can get away with - I'm already right at the minimum widths I'd be happy with for the platforms, and that front siding's getting pretty close to the front of the layout... I could squeeze a bit of space out of the road at the top, perhaps? I propose that Sir Grumpy Soandsoe has a private siding rather closer to his stately home than this station, that being a proviso of allowing the railway to build across his land (also not unknown, I think!). Alternatively, I might be able to squeeze a small end-loading ramp at the end of the goods-shed siding, or extend the front siding through the road bridge to a short ramp, although that would possibly be pushing things. Maybe a ramp up through the road bridge? I'm constantly having to fight what I imagine a station ought to look like, having been brought up on country branch-line terminus-style layouts with plenty of space!

But then I might need to end up with an LB&SCR Terrier, an LSWR Terrier, a SE&CR Terrier *and* a GSR Terrier! With that many, they might start having puppies... The layout of the yard is intended to be as follows: The goods shed can only be accessed by first moving any wagons ahead of it in the long siding out of the way first, making for some interesting shunting moves. I'm thinking that this yard would work along with a larger yard a little further out of town, in a less-cramped environment. Perhaps the GSR would charge a small "convenience" premium for using the central goods facilities? I'm not sure about an end-loading dock - anything being unloaded off the end of the wagon would be likely to be farm machinery (not necessary in town) or something on wheels which could be unloaded at the larger yard? Exceptions and corrections welcomed here, of course! Well, that certainly makes me feel that I've picked a plausible location! Today's work has mostly been on the lining of my back-dated Bachmann E4. This model has had the smokebox shortened (as the loco in question would not have been superheated at the time of the model), the safety valves changed (to Salter valves on the dome) and is having a repaint into Stroudley Goods Green, with black lining (edged in red as the loco was Westinghouse fitted). I wasn't able to find any red-black-red lining, so have cheated and been using BR orange-black-orange lining transfers from Fox, coloured in with a red Sharpie permanent marker. This pen sticks to the printed orange lining, but rubs off the clear backing, giving lovely neat lining! (Apologies for the lighting, I'll try to take a better photo when I have access to my photo-posing plank and lighting!)

Thank you The locos are all hand-painted with Games Workshop paint (Regal Blue before they changed all the names, now Kantor Blue), with the lining mostly being Modelmaster transfers for the straight lining (7mm scale BR Mixed Traffic boiler band lining, sliced down the middle to give single red lines), while curves are very carefully hand-painted in bright red, then touched back in with blue or black as appropriate, a time-consuming but rewarding job. As for the coaches, they are either brush-painted Kantor blue or (in one or two cases sprayed with Humbrol Midnight Blue acrylic), then the white panels are filled in with thinned-down white acrylic, pushing it into the corners of the moulded panels with the tip of a fine paintbrush. A couple of coats usually builds up the required opacity. mmmm, I don't have a Terrier coming up for the GSR, but I am working on a chunky little shunter based on an idea from Nile of this parish...

Quite simply? I took a hacksaw to the rear end of the chassis, and cut it off a few mm from the back of the rear wheel. I'd love to give dimensions, but I lined everything up with the front splasher and marked the cut position with tape The wheels don't quite line up with the centre splasher, but keeping the sandbox on the middle splasher hides this well. I cut a slot in the running plate with a Dremel, and found the motor fits snugly inside the firebox moulding. Unfortunately the chassis block is still visible under the boiler. The coupling rods were a tricky one - originally I kept the rather chunky Hornby ones, but had to turn them upside-down as the oil pots caught on the running plate. They've since been replaced with the Mainly Trains rods (sadly no longer available, although alternatives do exist), using Romford crankpins which handily have the exact same thread as the screws Hornby used to keep their rods on. Thank you, I don't think I have access to old issues of Trains Illustrated, but I'll see if I can get hold of those issues on eBay or similar.

Thank you. The platform capacity has been designed to (just!) fit three BR Mk1 corridor coaches, though it's a very tight fit. The longest passenger train I intend to handle is a rake of the Bachmann SE&CR 60' Birdcages, which might be a little late for my period, but I choose to invoke Rule 1 on this one, as they're just so beautifully done. The LSWR train will be three 42' coaches, the LB&SCR will be Stroudley 4-wheelers, and the GSR has coaches that look suspiciously like the Tri-ang clerestory coaches (albeit with a full third and a four-wheeled full brake added to the mix). The run-around headshunt is long enough to comfortably hold an 0-6-0 tender loco (I measured mine at 20cm, and the plan allows up to 30cm, so I could possibly even get a 2-6-0 tender loco in, although that will be a squeeze. With the cramped location, a turntable on-scene wasn't considered plausible, so I'm assuming a turntable just off-scene in the next cutting area. Water will be provided at the departure end of each platform, probably from a tank mounted on the retaining wall. I've assumed that trains arrive "straight in" to the middle platform, and then shunt to the bottom platform as a departure platform. The GSR livery is a royal blue, with panels edged in black, lined red. So far I have two locomotives, a somewhat bashed-about Wainwright C class (Great British Locomotives static model fitted with a Hornby Jinty chassis), and a freelance 0-6-0 tank engine (Anglicised from an Electrotren 0-6-0t which claims to be a Kerr, Stuart design in H0 scale). Passenger stock is royal blue, with white panels above the waist: I'm working on the assumption that this is Linton (central) station, with a bigger yard a little further out where conditions are a little less cramped!

One of the delights of the pre-grouping era has to be, for me, the huge variety of brightly-coloured rolling stock. As many southern-area pre-grouping modellers will surely be aware, Guildford in Surrey has a nice colourful mix, being the meeting point of the LB&SCR (the terminus of the Guildford-Horsham line), the SER (later amalgamated into the SE&CR) (Dorking to the East, Reading to the West), and the LSWR (who actually owned most of the track through Guildford station) (London to the North, Portsmouth to the South). I propose another, fictional pre-grouping company, the Great Southern Railway (an amalgamation of the Linton and Bagshot Railway and the Guildford and Surrey Railway) - the name change meaning that none of the Guildford and Surrey Railway loco or stock needed repainting or re-lettering. How handy! After drawing out a plausible route on an old Ordnance Survey map of the area (lots of pencilling in around contours, swearing, erasing and starting again), I've come up with roughly this route: Linton fills a gap with not much in it (as in real life, it's currently full of military ranges, though these had not been built in the 1850s-70s, the sort of time period I'm expecting these lines to have been built. Linton is a medium-sized town, which has been expanding due to a large growth in the sales of high-quality bricks (due to the excellent clay in the area) and a popular brewery just outside the town, which is served by a short branch line. The nearby "Bisley Farm School and Shaftesbury School", run by "The National Refuges for Homeless and Destitute Children" had a small branch off the line between Linton and Bagshot, allowing them to export their produce for sale at local markets, as well as the other products made by the boys learning skills in woodworking, tailoring and breadmaking (though this latter was mostly kept to Bisley, Linton and Lightwater). With the amalgamation of the L&BR and the G&SR, a chord was built in the late 1880s to allow through traffic between Bagshot and Guildford. The Great Southern Railway supplemented its income by allowing all of the other three railway companies to operate over their lines (for a fee, naturally), provided that these other companies agreed to permit the GSR to operate over selected routes. As such, the GSR's distinctive blue locomotives and coaching stock could be seen as far as Brighton, Portsmouth and, twice daily, at Reading, where they contrasted strongly with the green GWR trains speeding through. Holiday specials from Reading to Brighton were popular in the summer months, while trains to Guildford allowed the good people of Reading to visit the continent by changing onto an SE&CR service to Dover, this being considered too far to run a single GSR service. A connection to the LSWR at Woking opened up another link to London. So much for the theoretical prototype, what about the model? Linton will be a 4mm scale layout, using Peco 00 gauge bullhead track, measuring 4m x 60cm (approximately 13' x 2'). The setting will be a station in a cutting, surrounded by retaining walls, in a fairly central location, in the period 1900-1910 (with a bit of leeway for when I want to run more modern stock). The station will mostly be served by the GSR, although occasional visits will be made by locos and stock from each of the LB&SCR, SE&CR and LSWR. A bay platform allows for railmotor services and a milk van or two, while the goods yard features a coal merchant to one side with a covered goods shed alongside the platforms (accessed through a bridge under a road which crosses the station). The track plan is shown here (and yes, there are trap points to the sidings, albeit very difficult to see on this plan): And a 3D model gives a vague idea of the layout of buildings, scenery etc: More information on rolling stock etc will follow in a later post. I'd be interested to hear anyone's thoughts and advice.

Somebody say "Stepney"? What a pity that a 4mm scale RTR "Stepney" hasn't been produced since Dapol days (and no, I'm not including the Hornby Thomas one with the face!)

Ooooh, would that be the Isle of Wight Stroudleys in green? I'll have to look them up, as I only got the Steam store ones.