Sasquatch

The thing that stuck me about this photo is the age of some of the station staff! You might be able to get a porter 3D printed in TT120 scale. I wonder how much that job paid at 9 years old, hopefully more than a handful of After Eight mints at the end of the week! Edit: To note that even though the kid had a good job (for 1890) he was still allowed to be a child in that they let him stand next to the locomotive, down in the permanent way too!! Looking good Chris.

Yeah, like this Graham... Hard to believe I'm building a model railway at all sometimes.😁 Regards Shaun.

Hi Neil, It does look a bit like snow on the roof! (There was a frost like that on the garage this morning too). There's some wonderful photographs of The Holy Trinity Church in Queensbury on Flickr. Many show a foreboding looking scene, all frosty or foggy with tall dark looking tombstones. Just the sort of atmosphere I'm after creating. <a href="https://flickriver.com/photos/chairman8/42972664830/"> on Flickriver</a> I do hope that sharing the link from flickr (which automatically pasted that amazing photo) is allowed! Regards Shaun

Spent about 3 hours painting this yesterday. If there's time and I've got any energy left this evening I'll add some grime.

The church build is going well, I have however made a couple of alterations. One of the spare windows has been incorporated into the end wall above the vestry. Some more abutments made from strip-wood have been added. If the doors are modeled open there's an excuse to model some pews etc! The view inside would add much interest don't you agree? Squatch.

Hi Adrian. Not a bad idea but I'd rather have bells ringing on the hour with an override button for weddings etc. The sort of thing visitors would press out of curiosity! Regards Shaun.

A organ would make a good model. I doubt that it would work though. Apparently that's what happens if you fiddle with them too much! Regards Shaun.

Yeah. GN for going nuts! Not content with just sticking all those card bits on I went the whole hog and tapered all the plastic around all the windows. I swear I was doing it in my sleep!! Regards Shaun.

It's hard to know where to stop, otherwise you end up with 'bats in the belfry".😁 Regards Shaun.

Not to say that I wont do it some day! The roof will be made removeable of course. Regards Shaun.

Yeah. Praying that I don't get the notion to make an alter and all the pews! (Just because I like making miniature furniture not because you can see inside at all). Regards Shaun.

Holy carp. Now look what you've made me go and do... Regards Shaun

Feeling ambitious I have decided to have a crack at this church. It's from Petite Properties, their usual MDF construction with card embellishments, over 100 of them. Here's what you get in the bag. What I have chosen to do is clad it in plastic stone sheet so that I can give it the Sasquatch acrylic West Riding grimy stone finish. There was a pack of Plastruct O scale stone in my stores which seems suitable. The roof will be of the scribed card slate type. I might have a bash at making a spire, otherwise it'll be a straightforward build as per the instructions. The window glazing is rather impressive. First job was to carefully identify all the parts. Note, the parts circled are spares which led to some confusion! The two sets of windows arrowed differ from the more numerous sets slightly. After marking up the walls where the stone is needed, I stuck on the Plastruct with super tacky glue. Some sections were made up with bits of card and others with whole sheet before cutting out the window apertures with a scalpel. Allowance was hade for where the MDF walls join by leaving sufficient overhang. I'm still pondering over the next step. Instructions say to sandwich the glazing and paint the outer window frame first. This will definitely take away from the "All-of-a-piece" look that I aim to achieve. That leaves me with one of two options here. 1. Is to glue the inset frames into the openings and paint the whole building and hope that I can sandwich the bits with my clumsy stiff fingers later on... ...or, 2. glue the two frames together and stick the glazing on the back when it's all finished. Quite possible with the type of glue I'm using. this method seems favorable as it will give a thicker relief to the stone work and make the walls appear just that little bit thicker! Either way I know what I'll be doing for the rest of the day!! Squatch.

Hi Felix. They look even better running! I should include them in the next video, it's just a bit too cold to stand about out there. We had another 2 inches of the nasty white stuff this morning, that'll be the 10th time it has snowed this winter. We're in for an El Niño summer apparently. Whatever that involves? Got two days free but can't seem to make up my mind what to make so am in the attic having a running session ☺️ . The church finally arrived in the mail, and I should start that but when I opened the packet for a peek, found that it has nearly 200 parts and thought it looked quite a bit involved. So, I should get on with the N1 really......... Hope that you're well Regards Shaun

Little more progress. The garage door is now back to it's original configuration. Quite a tricky job to replace a panel due to the large springs that make lifting a heavy door like that possible. The steel cables are attached to the 5' springs at one end and to the bottom door guide wheel plates. If you don't clamp those cables to the track in the right place you run into trouble. How do I know this you might well ask. Another challenge yesterday was hanging the new side door I built back at the beginning of last year. What I should have done here was to have made a new frame for it. i.e. the easy way! Anyway the hard way will do and it looks miles better than the old one! Better security too!! It's a bit of a stormy day here, so it's only fitting that we have a stormy looking scene for a train! The tail end of the GNR non bogie stock leaving Goathland. 0-6-2 1763 in charge pulling away over Eller Beck plate girder bridge. Squatch.

Hi Manna, When I've finished off all these buildings it'll be next! Regards Shaun.

Hi Manna. Good question and no excuses. I kind of had trouble with the drive gear clearing the body and spent quite a bit of time sizing things up and carefully filing the parts to accommodate the chassis. The table had to be cleared of modeling stuff for a dinner party and I've just been busy with bigger jobs and lost the mojo. To get the ball rolling some structure modeling has been done but I'm not quite ready to tackle any locomotive building or rolling stock for that matter. Oh, I need a new soldering iron or some new tips at least. It would be nice to have a selection of different solders and fluxes too. The big two projects on the go at the moment are my friend's drywall on his huge house and getting the mill town started. What with mums impending visit looming on the horizon I'm feeling quite overwhelmed to tell you the truth and I'd just love to shut myself away in the garage with a soldering iron, hot glue gun, rasp etc. Wife, Mum, and friend are all Taurus's. Being a Libra I feel that these 3 bullies are upsetting my balance and harmony. Well it makes sense to me!!!!! Regards Shaun.

There's been some activity in the garage this week. All the work desks and trestles have been cleared away from the front up-&-over doors. While that was clear I've since dressed up the surrounds with MDF and have given them a coat of primer. The desk has been tidied out and placed sort of half under Queensbury so that I can still use it. Lots of other stuff has been removed to the barn such as all the foam insulation ready for the impending Mill Towne build. Next, I shall take out the air conditioning unit and replace the bottom door panel and a new seal to prevent access to the little four-legged guys. Some eye candy. A couple of views of the two layouts. A popular view of Goathland with a GNR train heading south. Queensbury. Looking towards the Bradford line with all the rosebay willow herb and a preserved class 4MT and mixed rake. A glimpse of what could have been if the line had survived Beeching and gone on to have been preserved. No there's a thought! Squatch. (working on a video of how to cheaply motorise an EFE Tram). Happy modeling and thanks for your continued support.

Apologies. Sasquatch failed to point out that the last one in the rake is a 4 wheeled brake. A few of these came up for sale as they didn't all sell out on preorder. I added one to my rake as it bears a striking resemblance to GNR types.

Something different from me today. My trunk arrived! All the bits-n-bobs such as track joiners and SEEP motors were in it along with this Philadelphia Trans. Co. Brim Trolley. I took a bit of a gamble on this when it came up for sale as used. Don't panic, I'm not going to start another layout but for 22 quid it was worth a try. Maybe the mechanism will fit under a British outline tram like this one. As a bonus, I'd hardly call it used. Ran like a dream straight from the box. There will be trams plying their way back, back and forth through the mill town. Sure it fits. Next a review. Although I don't know why because these all sold out on preorder. When Hattons announced GNR 6 wheel coaches, I got rather excited so much so that I broke a rule and went ahead and preordered a set for myself. Hattons have really set a new standard with these fabulous models. Design-wise they shine with innovation, screw on metal foot boards with spare single option. Pop off rooves allowing easy population and the lighting units simply screw to the roof and pop back in. There's a wealth of detail including luggage racks and roof conduits. The livery has been convincingly reproduced, even Mrs. S. was impressed. Enough waffle, here's a couple of images with them behind GNR liveried N2 on a Keighley-Halifax service. About time we had a train on here don't ya think!!! Finally, for the fans of older black and white photography... Squatch. It's warmed up today so I'm off to paln the mill town in full 1/76 scale.

Lovely job Adrian and very inspiring. That's a very effective paint job, you almost had me believe that was the real thing for a second. I had to scroll back up for a closer look!😁 Regards Shaun.

The Metcalfe Mill has turned out quite well. I'm not a fan of card kits really but got inspired to dig these out after watching YouTube. One layout stood out, Metcalfe Road. A fantastic use of their kits. I added a roof to my version of the older mill which is obviously kit bashed from two kits. The roof was in a scrap box. It was a bit of an experiment in that I just tried scribing the rows of slate directly into foam board and cut the individual slates with a sharp knife. It was for a Queensbury waiting room and already painted. I simply had to cut it into 4 and do a bit of trimming and bracing. The name of the business occupying the mill is two common Yorkshire names who make a sturdy commodity needing a structure of this size for its manufacture. I'm really getting into this pastel weathering technique. The edge of the sign is picked out with white pastel also. Works well! Squatch.

Thank you Adrian. The best bit was finding the gutters. These are from packaging, the folds in the card were just right and come complete with nice wide soffit boards! It's also something that I can lay claim to about two feet of each month. What to make next is the question. I'm waiting for it to warm up just enough so that I can layout the mill town base boards, that way I can work out what goes where. The church, a Christmas gift from Mrs.S. still has not arrived, otherwise I'd be building that! Regards Shaun.

Well, this one took the best part of a week but worth it I think. I've decided to hold off on the garage until I find that space will allow and what type of garage to make. I once owned a mock Tudor house similar to this, albeit semidetached. That had a lean-to garage, but I think the model should have a Wills garage at the back of the property with modified doors! Squatch.

Hi Felix. Certainly looks pretty! Is it unusual to get snow there? The predators can be a real problem, especially with pets and live stock. 18" of snow sounds quite deep but isn't that just a dusting where you are😁 Sounds like you're in the thick of it Adrian! Those squirrels can be vicious, especially when they start throwing nuts at you. Typical limey reaction to a slight covering, everything comes to a standstill and the radio news is given over to which schools are closed. Mind you from what news I get no one's going to work anyway because they're all disgruntled about not being able to pay their credit card bills. At least the power lines can't come down and you can still have a hot cuppa and some warm toast without having to go out in it to chop kindling at 6am, to get the stove roaring before you can have a brew! Talking about vicious squirrels, this one is getting cheekier every day. Betty has gotten into more than one tussle with it. But, I've only got to say SQURREL and the dogs fly up there. Gwen hates squirrels. We awoke to another 2 inches this morning. Mrs. S. had to take her Honda in to get a problem attended to, and she was lucky enough to follow the gritter truck. Yesterday's modeling saw the mill building done albetit without a roof. The house has main entrance windows, roof dormer and a new bay window to the waiting room. I managed to order the last odds and ends needed for the junction build, just need to get it shipped. Oh, and tidy the work bench. Regards to all, Squatch.