lapford34102

Hi, Thanks for mentioning that My memory wasn't playing tricks after all. Now this might be total twaddle but weren't a couple of compartments in the brake of the 3TC's temporarily marked as First Class for a time with paper labels ? Not particularly good but this shot of a TC and Crompton at Weymouth was taken just after the full service commenced IIRC. The shots from the rest of the roll must be somewhere. Cheers Stu

Hi, No offence taken. I'd actually forgotten about the bit about effects but my defence is that it is 20 odd pages ago. The only reason I picked that background was the lighting seemed to match that of the model so I simply cut round the unit image and plonked it in the background. There's actually a 747 hidden behind it. I'm no great photographer but the one thing that to me seems to be important is getting the lighting looking natural. Anyhow glad you liked it. Cheers Stu

Hi, You're right, well certainly for the time I remember. There was an unofficial layup point on 4 that meant the Crompton didn't have too far to run back but gave a bit of leeway if the REP/TC came in a bit hot. The lead TC usually had the buckeye down so raising that was the first job of the shunter - wasn't there a lady shunter at Bomo for a time? - Crompton waved back on, ETH jumper then up for the 27 way and brake pipes. Brake test, check the Loudaphone and ready to go. Stu

Hi, Some very impressive shots on here but to lower the tone for a moment here's my effort at a bit of basic Photoshopping. Cheers Stu

Hi, Just to belatedly add to the comprehensive info about TC's etc already put on here. The Bomo electrification was done on a very tight budget that had to cover track, signalling, power supply as well as stock hence a lot of recycling. They also successfully argued that with electrification they could have very high utilisation of stock. At the start they had 15 REP's and it became quickly apparent that the theory didn't quite match the reality hence in VEP's destined for the Central Div got hijacked and became the 8 VAB. In theory it should have been able to handle a 4TC as well but I never saw it. It tended to be limited to London -Bomo peak services. It's right the 3TC were included so that an 11 car TC and loco could fit into Waterloo. What's often overlooked is that at the beginning not all trains were intended to be REP powered. Travelling on the line a lot 67-69 you were never quite sure what awaited you at Waterloo, or Bomo for that matter in the early days. It wasn't unusual to have to detrain at Bomo when London bound, walk up the platform and get on a REP/TC formation - stunning acceleration. Other trains - Two ED's pushing an 11 set - Fun, One TC Crompton and a 3TC+4TC - OK, 11 car TC with an ED in the middle, Aug 67 - never had that one explained as you could sit anywhere. Incidentally a Summer Sat train to Swanage was timetabled for a 4VEP/4TC/TC Crompton. VEP came off at Bomo. Reason - limited paths out of Waterloo. We even had a big ED (74) at Weymouth on a parcels. Only ever got pushed by a big ED once, pity. In '73 they got 4 more REP's,finally upped the 3TC's to 4 coaches and by then had more VEP's than the 20 they started with, things finally settled down. However for anyone interested in the summer/autumn of 67 Bomo saw HAP's, EPB's, and CEP's. I think there was a regular HAP turn but the others were one off's. I seem to recall some limits as the line was 750v from Brookwood (?)when the rest of the network was 650v. Cheers Stu

Hi, That's very good, at first glance you'd be forgiven for thinking it was 4mm. any chance of you sharing how you've done the weathering ? Stu

Hi, Today the sky went a strange colour - if my memory's not playing tricks I think it's called blue. This is in complete contrast to yesterday when I spent a soggy morning trekking through the Kentish rainforest ! Anyhow when I got back I had another look at the 350 and decided it was looking a bit too bland and that the photo's I'd taken barely rated a "poor". So out with the pastel chalks - if prefer these to the AFV weathering powders which I find too strong - and a bit of dry brushing to get a few highlights to relieve the black. So here's a few more which I hope show it more accurately. Stu

Hi, A new loco for Drewry lane has been on the workbench for a few weeks now but six weeks of seemingly unrelenting hand to hand fighting with our new IT system (BSF Managed Service in case anyone else on here is in the same business) had left little time or inclination to get any modelling done. But it's settled down a bit and a chance to get on with this. When I sprayed the thing black it dawned on me that weathering it wasn't going to be that easy. For one thing contemporary colour photo's of black 350hp's seem almost non existent. In black black liveried shunters din't seem to get much coverage at all though I find them quite appealing and 13263 will probably be joined by a similarly liveried Drewy 204hp in time. In the event the loco was sprayed gloss black and then logo'd and numbered. It was then given a coat of semi-matt varnish. Weathering was a foul and varied concoction of matt black, dark earth and matt red plus some matt black for the exhaust and bodyside grills with some glossier mixes to represent the oily wobbly bits. I'm not sure my photography does it justice but there could be a little more tonal variation on the body but I'll wait till the weathering has really hardened off before I try any tweaks. 350's have some quite distinct weathering unique to this class which I don't think factory weathering can get close to. The latest Bachmann 350 looks, in some pictures at least, like it served at El Alamein! The layout now has two firm invitations for late this year and early next year so that will give me the incentive to get all the stock sorted out, the lighting installed and maybe even a couple of trestles to stand it on. Stu

Hi, Thanks for putting that photo up BV. Shouldn't be any more confusion now The photo though - a westbound at Basing in '67 ? Stu

Hi, That's quite correct Chris, they did exist. If you can get a copy of "The Power of the 33's" then have a look at Plate 39. Where the Heljan model is compromised is that there are two small panels under the rad grills which shouldn't be there and the roof clips which don't seem to appear before full ellow end versions. Stu Edit - the loco in the picture is D6583 in plain green so Heljan have done their homework. No-one seems quite sure how many were like this but certainly 83-85 seem certain.

Hi, Just a few more shots of the layout. 4562 rolls in with a Plate wagon 3737 shunts vans with a couple of ill-starred Pallett vans waiting to be moved to the Goos Shed road 7782 with a single coal wagon arrives. Watch this space. Stu

Thanks Gents. I was considering an EM project before I got tied up with this. Hardly unique as a project but I am pleased with how it's come together, especially as it's nearly all recycled or unused materials so it's been cheap and given me chance to try to put into practice lessons learned from earlier efforts. St Jude is at Chatham in June and I suspect this one's first outing will be Broadstairs unless there's an unexpected rush! Stu

Hi, Progress since my last post has been largely sporadic due to work, family and of course Christmas. Did manage to get the odd bit done here and there. That was until this week. What's been a serious problem for many has fortuitously given me a chunk of extra modelling time so things have moved on at frenetic pace. I know no layout is never really finished but now Drury lane has reached the stage where it could be seen in polite society. Just a few pics to show where it's got to. A couple of shots showing the layout without stock to give an overview of where it's got to. There's still a deal of tweaking to do here and there and then there's the stock to get up to par but it's now largely sorted. Comments welcome even if they're not complimentary - I might learn something Stu

No. http://www.Heljan.dk/faste_filer/modul.asp?vis=varekatalog&doo=vare&vareid=2624&gruppeid= The exhaust arrangement is correct for this loco in green livery though the clips shouldn't be there, neither should the two panels under the rad grill. There was thread on RMWeb 3 where the appropriate loco numbers were more or less sorted out, if my memory is holding up it was D6583-87 HTH Stu

Hi James, Using clay was pretty easy and a lot less troublesome than plaster for infilling. I don't know if you've looked at this http://www.rmweb.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=13683&hilit=catcott+burtle&start=250 which is how to do it properly. What I ended up with is far less elegant though it will do for me to represent old and worn ash ballasted track. track This shot shows how it turned out but it was done with flash and the colours look weird! I've now fitted the fencing along the embankment. It's probably a bit of a cheap trick to hide the baseboard/backscene join this way but I'm happier with this rather than a poor attempt to blend forground and background into one seamless view. The embankment has also now had a coat of white emulsion. This is going to be a partly overgrown chalk embankment when the weathering and greenery are added. The overbridge still has some more detail to be added on the underside. Stu

Update Jan 21 - Trying to restore some of the lost pictures. This will take a while and not sure I still have all of them so if captions don't seem to match apologies. Have decided to start a new topic about the layout rather than continue the blog which I never really felt suited my way of doing things. If anyones that interested it can be found here - http://www.rmweb.co.....log&blogid=106 Progress has been a bit sporadic of late but the scenery is starting to come together.Rather than waffle on here's a few pics showing progress. The embankment is traditional card formers, paper mache and a plaster skin. I got a rather exasperated painting the track and in the end decided I was trying to be too clever. I ended up mixing brown and black paint to a shade that was similar to what I remember track colour to be and sprayed the lot. It came out rather better than I expected though the photo's make look a bit odd. The bridge and retaining walls are also in place and it's all beginning to come together. Stu

Have moved to a layout topic here http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php/topic/5331-drewry-lane/ Stu

Hi, apologies for the poor photo but this is a shot of the Saint body I've got. When I've got the readies available the idea is to put a Comet Hall chassis underneath it but use King wheels as I doubt you'd get 6'8" ones in (As an aside I'm curious what Hornby do about this on their new Castle). Apart from new boiler fittings it's the front end that needs sorting out. The smokebox and front footplate were extended so that they dould use a B12 chassis on the original incarnation, a Hall, so they both need shortening. Chris Leigh did this mod in an article in Model Railway Constructor back in the 60's. Don't have the mag any more but maybe he still hs some photos somewhere? Stu

Hi, If Rovex will forgive me hijacking this thread for a moment have you ever seen a Hornby based Saint "conversion" Mikkel ? Stu

Hi, Firstly I assume you meant to say Star not Saint in the above. The Hornby Saint is based on their 60's vintage Hall and the body has a number of errors the most obvious being the overlong smokebox and front footplate. The body can be hacked into a reasonable representation but whether it's worth the effort given the chassis and it's tender drive I don't know. You could put the body on a new chassis such as a Comet one but if you were doing that it would probably be better starting with a spare body and getting rid of yours. Stu

Never my favourite job, a bit like patio laying I never seem to get it quite right. Tried a method new to me which was to put the glue down then add the the ballast. Used a small syringe with some thinned PVA and it seemed to work quite well. Ballast is fine Woodland scenics and looks OK. On the sidings tried the method the Chris Nevard used and filled in the gaps with modelling clay. It does seem to be a lot less messy than plaster though my application was considerably more heavy handed than the maestro's. Apologies for the useless photo's but it's cold in the garage and I simply popped out for a look and a couple of hasty shots. he track has been given and overall dusting with the airbrush and doesn't look too bad. The sidings were a disaster. I'd used a a selection of matchpots, again something suggested by Mr Nevard, and that was ok though it did seem to go on a bit thickly. Anyhow I left it and came back later to spray some darkish grey on the track and found the spray paint, Tamiya acrylic, reacted with the matchpot paint and went distinctly 'orrible. Should show a bit more patience...........! Bits of one siding do look like the finish I'm aiming for so all is not lost. Cheers Stu

Yep! I've been following this so please keep going. I must admit to struggling with aspects of the new forum and sometimes wondering whether it's worth it but that's another matter. Stu

This is not the most elegant way to do this but it works. Brass wire with a rough omega loop in it to take up any slack in the system held in place by some old cipboard joiners which had been cut in half and had a slot for the wire cut in them. They're screwed in close to the point mechanism. I looks rough but works well. Hope this gives you an idea of how things work. Stu

Hi, Although St Jude still has a couple more shows to go to I had more or less decided it was time to retire it. However it was invited back to a local show where it had been shown a couple of times before. Going back a third time seemed to me to be a bit much for the paying public so I declined but had not really considered a replacement. That was until I found all sorts of useful stuff in the builders skip at work. MDF sheeting and timber in largish quantities. I asked if I could have some and was told to take what I wanted. A 5' by 1' piece was framed up and I was away. In keeping with my eco-friendly side the track came out of a box of salvaged and unused stuff in the garage so it's becoming something of a recycling effort. The track is code 100 Peco with electrofrog points. The plan is all my own and any similarity between any trackplan, prototypical or model, is purely coincidental. I can cock things up quite well on my own thank you!. The fiddle yard (!) is off to the right. It'll be fine for an 08/04/03/Pannier/0-4-2 and a few wagons with something larger putting in the occasional appearance. While the trackplan is pure tosh the idea is based on somewhere that did exist. One important thing I do hope to get from doing this is trying out some techniques I haven't used before such as using cheap Maplins switches to both physically change the points and do the frog polarity. So far I've been impressed with this. However if it all goes runny then I haven't lost much. It'll be DCC by the way. The name is a bit of a skit on such worthies as Napier Road and Deltic Avenue though I doubt it'll be anything like those. Cheers Stu