Indomitable026

I'm mean't to be working on Old Gringo's 'rails in the sand' - 'Once upon a Time in the West' project... However, concious Truro show is just around the corner in August, thoughts are turning to that list of Job's on DitD. The work is mainly on the stock, I need to chip-up a few more loco's, upgrade the speakers and add all the front end detail, such as the pipes to the 37's. I stumbled across Fitting a base reflex speaker which has been invaluable as I've now trial fitted my first one, thanks to Kevpoe for all those tips - Isn't Rmweb a very handy thing? Heres a couple of pic's of the loco in question. Evidence in the backround of my new and unstoppable interest in things stateside - It came out the blue, much to my suprise

Yes we are really looking forward to the Truro show and seeing all our friends from the West - in fact we can never find enough excuses to come down there, we love it! Craig you spelt Truro with an 'a', is that a localism or typo?

Puzzle..... Clocked a couple of china clay slurry wagons at Donny today. Rare indeed. Any ideas?

Or; The bad, The Baderer and The Baderist. BSMRG = Black Sheep Model Railway Group - I think? alternatives (and members) welcome...... Warley exhibition is November not October - better remember that when I turn up with the layout. Mind you if it was the 'clothes show live' - that could be quite interesting, and possibly better than talking to a load of smelly middle aged blokes. No offence.....

Just a quick note to say - We are still here! Black sheep modellers; John, Damian & Chris [alias good, bad and ugly - but not neccessarly in that order] are currently working full tilt on John's project 'Once upon a time in the West' (link at the bottom) - thus no postings on progress here at present. DitD next show's this year are Truro - August Warley October Next job is to 'pipe up' the 37's and maybe install DCC decoders to the tortoise point motors- if i'm fealing brave..... Thanks to Steve Fay and Richierich for your very kind and welcome comments.

She's ready and waiting.........

Here's an early picture just a ahead of DitD's first show at Stafford - 2010. At this point this was probably all of the stock we had available !!

There are two fundamental issues here; 1) There is normally too much slack in the NEM box - which is why it (rightly) gets blamed. 2) Secondly there is no consistency in the mounting height. Both conspire against the modeller and call for some home-grown bodging to get them around the right height and missing the rails. And yes I agree you can bend the dropper out of the way - there's a tool for it-, but that does not address the height mismatch issue for the coupling itself and the risk of it un-coupling. Getting rid of NEM boxes and sticking the Kaydee directly to the underside of the drawbar using non NEM couplings I'm sure would be the most consistent approach here. If I'm honest tho, the whole coupling thing is a complete compromise. 3 links look best, but with the layout 3 1/2 foot deep they are a no no. We used Alex Jackson couplings on 'New Haden Colliery' but in my view were not reliable enough in the exhibition environment. So here we have an unhappy compromise of using Kaydee's for reliablity - but not looks! I'm currently dabling in 'O' gauge for my next project and 'Lincs' couplings are looking favourite

Hi there. Are you refering to the 'droop' problem you get with NEM sockets? To combat this, I generally glue the NEM 'socket box' to the underside of the wagon. This is done with the wagon upside down and the box pressed hard against the chassis and superglue then applied. Care needs to be taken not to glue up the coupling head itself, as this type of glue tends to track along if too much is applied. Please note this does take away the side to side movement of the coupling, however with short wheelbase wagons and easy curves on the layout this has not proved an issue. Interestingly looking at this photo I think this partucular coupling is sat far too high!!!

Artizen, To give a better idea; This is a picture of the front of the layout, track height 46" and my height is 6 foot. To me this is ideal. Note the 'letter box' viewing area this creates......

What? You're not modelling the factory?...........

Craig, Rumour has it you're building OOC next! If that's the case i'll have to sell up and move down to the south west to help you build it......... I agree the traction situation is a little steady these days, although there's been a 37 past today and we had Deltic 22 twice on Saturday - so mustn't grumble.

Track height is 46 inches

Rant over...... A couple more construction shots. Here the 'letter box' facia is trial fitted.

Old Dudders Thank you very much on your kind warm comments. I too have seen the thread to which you refer and I got very bored with it. As I see it RMweb is here to promote the hobby, promote the exchange of idea's and encourage others in the hobby to have a go at building something - to get involved. We do the odd demo at shows with exactly that in mind, to try and broaden the hobby and its appeal. I am constantly reminded by Old Gringo that the bottom will fall out of the hobby in the next 10-20 years if new blood is not encouraged in, as the average modelling age is heading ever northwards. What I find very unhelpful are these 'internet pundits' who have nothing better to do than throw in something irrelervant just for the debate. As far as i'm concerned people should build what they bl++dy want and be proud to show it off - where ever they like. Spamage, Nobody ever claimed he was track laying....... Worsdell Forever This state of bliss was short lived once he had realised the length of his jobs list and how little time he had to complete it.......

This is Owd Gringo, working on the 'Newquay lines', doing what he does best........... Cheers!!!!!

Of course you can. But then I would have to get my body guard to shoot you!!!!

James Hilton has kindly agreed for me to show pictures he took at last year's DEMU show at Bretby; Thanks James.....

I've added some pictures of the removable roundhouse roof sections mentioned above. So, the narrow end is the front of the shed and the fat the back, hmmmm, perhaps that didn't need saying........ ha ha ha.....

I'm running a little short of construction pictures, however here's one showing the yard ballasted and the re-fueling 'slab' in place. In the background the shed is in various stages of construction- Some bays have no roof, some with the basic formers (black) and two have the corregated plasticard on (white). The shed roofs were interesting to make. Each bay is narrow at the front and at least twice the width at the back. The roof base and top remain the same height all the way along. This means that the pitch of the roof constantly changes from the back to the front! The two roof sections on the right hand side of the shed are removable because a baseboard joint goes right through that part of the shed.!!

I guess snow is pretty rare down there. 1987 sounds right to me.

So, I guess the question now is; are they hinged wooden doors or are they roller shutter doors? Answers on a postcard........

I think the birdie could hit Johns drink from that angle..................

Have you got any pictures of the bridge you built for this corner?

Next the messy bit. Coloured plaster mixed with water and pva is applied. Old net curtains are placed on top and then a further coat of plaster on top of that. Once dry this gives the basic ground form. Slots & holes will have to be cut out of this at a later date to allow the bridges to be positioned. Note the 'Jam' track weights......