Sasquatch

Yes! I quite often ponder over the size of trees (and how many there are especially round here). We have pines and firs that are over 100 feet. One which died from plight and fell was much taller than that, getting on for 160'. So, in 4mm that would make models of 40-62cm! Medford model railroad club have a huge layout in a club house at the Railroad Park with thousands of trees that represent the local area. Even in HO their trees are nowhere near true to scale. Some years back we had to drop a dead pine near the bottom of our drive. The arborist laid it perfectly up the drive and it just fell short of the top gate. We cut it in half and it took three of us to roll it using 6' bars off to the side. It sat there for over a year when my friend came and took it to mill up. Some of that lumber has been used to construct stuff in the garage! The tall fir fell across the creek and is not retrievable. If it were I'd never have to buy another piece of wood in my life! If you ever find yourself in this part of the world then the awe inspiring Califorian redwoods are a must. We drive through them every time we take the dogs to the beach and always stop for a walk in there. Makes you feel like an ant under a hedge! Regards Shaun.

This is Poubelle. Taken with my son when he was a toddler. The two of them became inseparable. Poubelle guarded, watched, slept and played with him right up until he started school. Capone the older cat (who lived up to his name) sort of fathered Poubelle who grew into the most intelligent animal I've ever come across. This gives rise to my favorite cat story. When living in Belgium I arrived home one evening to learn that one of the 6 cats and dogs we had at the time had pulled down the budgie cage. Sheila's mate Shirlock had flown off out of the door when my ex had got home. (She always blamed Trigger the Boxer but that's a whole other story). Our cottage was across the road from a farm with fields all round so my search was over rather quickly. The ex-wife exclaimed that Shirlock was long gone because this had happened at lunch time, and I was wasting my time. This was midsummer, Max was in bed before sunset and his mum was watching the box which left me to deal with all chores before dark. Poubelle was laying in the road soaking up the last rays and didn't come in when I first called so I dealt with everything else; Chickens etc. Last of all I opened the gate and indicated to the big white cat that he had to come in out of the road now! Instead, he stood up and got me to follow him up the road some way to the end of our hedge. I remember saying to him "OK this is nice just the two of us out for a little walk". Then he sat down in the middle of the road and proceeded to clean his claws like he had just made a satisfying kill or something. "That was a short walk Poubelle". I said. That's when he looked at me like I was stupid and stared pointedly into the hedge. "Shirlock"! Not only did Poubelle know where he was, he had made no effort to take him for a snack and waited in the right place to catch my attention at the right time like he knew that the bird wouldn't fly off! Shirlock was snuck back into the cage in silence hoping for that surprise element the following morning at breakfast and Poubelle received a tasty snack from the fridge!

😁 When the dogs tore up one of their old beds I was quite happy about it because they saved me a small fortune on Woodland Scenics Poly fiber. Two new beds from Costco probably worked out cheaper! We had to tear out one of the rosemary bushes last week so have a small forest worth of those too. That was probably the dogs as well. It was in the corner of their fenced in area, so they liked to mark it with pee. They're both very intelligent and I'm wondering if they'll come up with a solution for the scatter and save me even more money! Regards Shaun

It's a very busy time here in the spring, so finding modeling time isn't easy but a few evening hours have been spent in the garage doing some relaxing scenic work. I have one of those roll-around comfy office chairs, Radio Garden on the laptop which is hooked up to the HiFi and of course the new heating system. The area between the new barn and Queensbury tunnel entrance will be needing a few big trees. They will help mask the baseboard edge of Goathland on the opposite side of the rear operating well when viewed from the front one! It's a case of bigger is better here, so I had a go at a huge oak. An old mature English oak can reach heights of up to 60' with a width of 70". That equates to 240mm x 280mm in 1/76 scale! First, I cut a scrap of ply to 280mm and wrapped garden wire around it about 50 times. A rubber band was put around one end and the wires all cut at the other. After giving this a couple of good tight twists, it was clamped loop end in the vice and the elastic band removed. The twisting began! After a good few tunes from my favorite radio station (StuBru's De Tijdloze) we have something like this. The following evening I mixed up some glue, paint, baking soda and scatter, which was painted on to the trunk and all but the single strand branches at the top ends. On the third evening the single end wires were trimmed and bent upwards and some dog bed stuffing was stuck on in clumps then suitable colored foliage mix applied using Aqua-Net hairspray. With the trimming, the loop removed from the bottom and the roots bent out, the overall height is roughly 240mm or a scale 60 feet! For 3 evenings effort it didn't look quite right because I missed the step of spraying the dog bed stuffing with dark flat camo brown but it'll have to do! Last night I made a few more trees of no particular species out of rosemary, dog bed stuffing and scatter this time remembering to use the rattle-can paint. A few more will be needed before the overall effect is achieved but it's starting to take shape. 69441 has just emerged from the tunnel with the Halifax to Bradford service. Squatch. Need to finish those roots!

'Tis ok to introduce a cat to a household with dogs but it rarely works the other way. Imagine; "putting the managing director back on the shop floor" sort of deal!

Cats. Personally, I don't know how anybody could live without one. Over the course of 30 years I've had 15 in total. All very different and full of life. Each has their own story some of which are worthy of the time to share. Currently we have two. Both gay males! Merlin the black (dominant one) is much older and the most well behaved of all 15. He's a very handsome guy that we found at the cat relocation center. He'd been in there far too long; the black ones always seem to be the last choice for adoption. Merlin's also quite a soldier having to deal with bad asthma caused by wildfire smoke and his partner Skatoosh, the speckled orange one. Skatoosh is the complete opposite and who's behavior takes quite a lot of putting up with. I would hazard a guess to say that as a kitten he was deprived of food. I've seen this in people, always stealing and begging even though they have a fat gut. Growing up starving will influence one's behavior for the rest of their life! We cannot teach this cat to say off of the kitchen tops he knows to check for the skat-mat before getting up there and will take anything. We have found chewed up avocados, bananas, leftovers and kitchen towels that have a hint of the smell of food on them. He'll eat almost anything, is quite fond of bananas and will kill for the water from the tuna fish can! He's at the bedroom door crying to be fed bang on 5am every morning too. Despite his naughtiness Skatoosh has one of the strongest, loveable characters you could ever imagine and is an absorbent of all things stressful. I only have to look at him sometimes and the worries dissolve away like magic! Merlin declined to be photographed on the grounds that he only does videos these days! There's more cat stories if you want to read more I could tell you about Poubelle (which is French for trash). Or Capone, Poubelle's mentor.

It's going to be interesting seeing how you go about building the "not quite round after all" roundhouse. Not saying that it isn't possible, just looks very challenging. Fascinating stuff as always Graham, you've done an excellent job on the point work, there's something about bending turnouts that's very satisfying and it gives a very convincing look to the layout. Regards Shaun.

Unfortunately things never go as planned. Other things had to take precedence over the modeling as usual. All I managed was to make some railings for the staircase landings and fix the stair cases in place on Queensbury. One other thing which will be of enormous help is that I managed to get all the images of Queensbury and Bradford Exchange off of the old laptop! Just wondering what my son's reaction will be the, first time he sees what I've built. The last time he saw the garage it was an uninviting, spider invested racoon toilet! Today's plan after a call to England and a quick mushroom hunt with the dogs, is to make new (temporary) kitchen tops and get to work on more Queensbury scenic stuff. We'll see how this plan pans out. Squatch

Sorry for the lack of updates folks. I have been very busy on a new project this week. Getting my son a ticket to visit for 3 months! He'll be bringing his tech and we plan to make layout videos together amongst other things. I should be able to get a full weekend of modeling in now! Squatch

Happy for you mate! Having done the same thing, twice, I know it’s a good feeling being back in possession of your tools (and modeling stuff.) When I came to the states I had just two duffel bags of gear. Look at me now! Onwards and upwards mate! J54 is the dogs do-dahs. If the back looks like it’s sticking up like a bitch on heat, it’s possible to place a 12mm long bit of plastic under that rear axle! At least the couplings on my 8 or 9 Hornby 060s now line up with all my stock! Regards Shaun

That’s not very clear… After typing the post on the laptop the text is submitted then I reopen the post in edit mode on the phone to add the images! Saves quite a lot of time by the end of the week too😃

You beat me to it! I have gotten into the habit of typing the text up on the laptop which not only is preferable to that tiny touchscreen on the phone but easier to use and generally preferable as I like to improve my spelling rather than let my stupid phone try to out smart me😄 Having had a mild rant about it, I do like it’s camera and find it quicker to just edit the image on it. Only drawback is that AI can’t decide which way up my images should be. Thus the lengthy delay as all four had to be edited on the phone which then (strangely) corrects the issue!! How’s the weather down there BTW?

Her's one little area that needed sorting out. The ramp at the end of the Halifax Keighley platform! The fix required raising the ground level up to meet the bottom of the ramp! A slab of foam was fashioned with a rasp and hot glued down. Mold-a-Scene filler left to dry overnight and ground cover paint applied this morning. When that dried I matched in the ground cover, had to jimmy-rig the ramp a bit to match the Ratio fence ramp and filled the gap. Now, any passengers alighting for Brow Lane wont have to risk breaking a leg when taking the short cut down the path there!

True to a point! I did build Dunster one year while living there! Too much spare time on my hands to be honest! Trying to reach across to the unfinished Queensbury goods yard to work on that right now. Should have done that before the barn scene! Never mind, just get on with it huh!

That's a truly wonderful story! Before I joined RMweb we lived next to a lake. The wildlife there was staggering, everything from bug swarming to bears! We watched a pair of ospreys build a nest one year, watched them fishing to feed the young ones. Seen the Mrs. pull a dirty great gopher snake out of some netting where it had got tangled, had a pigmy owl spend a day watch us from the small tree just of the side deck and had a baby racoon orphan come to the back sliding door each evening to be fed. It learnt to feed itself in September when the fruit on trees ripened. It was a rental and sadly the owner sold it before I could raise the funds to buy the place. Had a garage the size of this one too! (Now that I've learnt how to retrieve files from the old, busted laptop I'll try and find some lake life images for you). As for Barney, I think I'll leave him be as it took as much patients I could muster making and painting such a small model. It is the smallest thing that I've scratch built and took some damage and disfigurement trying to place him in that window opening! Regards Shaun.

Don’t recall ever seeing a barn owl but maybe just a fleeting glimpse. Like most owls, the one in Shaun’s barn didn’t lurk there for long and I’m not sure that it’s even a barn owl. Did you see the size of it? At about 7 mm my plasticine effort on two Peco track pins is roughly a scale 5 inches too tall. Luckily, it’s at the front of the layout so can get away with that by putting it down to using the scale depth of field. Like the way I make and use HO buildings at the back! I was just going to call him Barney😄

Me thinks that the barn scene is finished. A few tufts of long grass, a sprinkling of rosebay willow herb and… …that owl! Thought that I’d throw in this image too.

And the latest batch of brambles. With a base of darker spray paint and light green third covering. Used more hairspray too. I’ll have to send the Mrs. out for more now😙

While paint was drying I got into running a few trains. In no particular order…🙄 at various locations around the layout

These look better. (On the other side of the wall). I stuck some dark underbrush clumps in the centers, giving the impression of that open interior They’re greener too. I’m just about to have another attempt with a couple of improvements and if the rain holds off will go ahead with few square feet!

Agree! Will try adding some of the foliage with different glue!

Ok then. Brambles! After firing up the hot glue gun working one stop at a time, I laid down strips of the glue onto glass then stuck in clumps of rubberized horse hair. The strips were removed from the glass with a Stanley blade and using track pins I put them onto a foam scrap and gave them a quick blast of Red primer. Using Aquanet hairspray added a little bit of mixed yellow scatter to represent last years dead leaves, more hairspray and the green scatter mix. Hot glue on the underside of the bush to plant on the layout. Before I do a huge production style batch I’d like to know what you all think? Two more images here… My attempt at an ash tree being attacked by the ivy. And, a long shot from the other side of the layout

Got a bit more done on the N1 as well. Squatch

Yes! Brilliant idea. My wife said 3 sheep. Two fat ones and a schawny one! (Get it?) Yep that too. I've been working on getting them to look right and think they would be best modeled in their Autumn state! Trouble is it won't fit in with the rest of the late spring scene.

Very scenic Stray. Talking of scenics I got busy on some myself today. Shaun’s barn from Mossy Bottom fits in just right behind the Halifax-Keighley platform. Trying to make it look quite overgrown.