Sasquatch

Here's a quick sketch up of the plan as I believe the track (at least) existed in GWR days. Note the scenic sections beyond the confines of railway property are fictitious!

Use the red painted lanterns. Then it won't matter too much which lens is where and they do really look the part on an auto trailer! Just a suggestion.

After meeting Mrs. Sasquatch I found myself in Oregon and one of the benefits here is space (there’s lots of it), I wasted no time in building Dunster and wanted to exhibit it at the Rouge Valley Annual Model Railroad show back in 2008. As an immigrant with pending status I also had plenty of time. Update,11 Feb.2016: Now I've got more time seeing as we're settled in our fab new house, Dunster is to be housed in a nice cozy attic room and I find myself with more space. So I'm planning on extending the layout on to Minehead and will include Crowcombe Heathfield. I'll draw up the new plan and post corresponding links here on this post as progress is made. GWR branch lines must fall into every modeler’s category of “Just crying out to be modeled” my collection of train paraphernalia included plenty of GWR kits & bits including the Hornby Dunster station and signal box kits..Thus Dunster was conceived. I designed the layout as a test bed for such things as live frogs, working signals and a base board connection system I’d had rattling around in the old grey matter for years. The layout had originally 8 boards 3scenic, 3 fiddle yard and 2 ends. It is end to end but bent around on its self to form a roundy roundy because of space and for ease of operation (if I feel the urge to explore the vendors at shows and have to leave someone less educated in my somewhat eccentric OO engineering in charge). Two years ago I built Goathland, which uses the same fiddle yard as Dunster but with one 4 foot board extra, so the natural progression last year was to add one more 4 foot scenic board to Dunster (serial layout builder!) Mrs’ Sasquatch excelled herself once again with her beautiful scenery producing a small copse and a very convincing nursery. All signals, ground dolls etc. are lit up and fully operational, the crossing gates have been automated and there is an uncoupling system (see my blog). Buildings are wills products. Enjoy the images and questions always welcome.

Thanks for the heads up Ray. Funds haven't stretched to the O1 yet, I might just hold out for Heljans O2 (I'm not a fan of Hornby of late anyhow) as my latest purchase the class 128 may just be even better than thier Heymek! It's a pitty when paying arround 100 pounds for locomotives these days that one has come to accept that putting things right straight out of the box seems to be expected! ie: loose bits on 128, foot boards missing on thompson stock, unpainted items on A.H. Peppercorn,.... the list goes on... Great blog by the way. Shaun. P.S. If you feel like I'm whinging on your blog please remove this post!!!

Mrs. Sasquatch here....ahem... so yes, l-o-n-g... grueling hours on scenery with nightmares of what was to come on my days off. Four three weeks prior to train show. Honestly was a grumpy Mrs. Sasquatch. Only hope this year Mr. Sasquatch is content with taking one of his existing layouts.

Thanks for the encouraging comments. Once I manage to give Mrs Sasquatch a nudge in the right direction (usually a trip to a sushi restaurant, or home made roast chicken dinner with all the trimmings) she really gets stuck into it. In 2011 she did 90% of Goathlands scenics in 4 long weekends! She even goes to the local hobby store and comes back with bags full of scenics. One time she accompanied me on a trip up to Roseburg and raided the "Macs Tracks" Noch scenic section to the point where you could see $ $ signs in Macs eyes! Not sure about commisions though. More of her work on this page which also shows CGrahams layout. http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/11359-goathland-layout/page-2 My next blog will cover base board joints and will show how I did the tunnel!

The Grim Reaper would definately fit the bill. Am going to the Model Railroad Fair in Eugene next month and should find one there hopefully.

It does look a little creepy huh! Maybe because there arn't people, animals or cars?

No doubt most of you will be at Alley Palley for the show (count yourselves amongst the lucky ones). This week’s blog is something a little different. A scenic item that was made as a compromise to a Hogwarts Castle that would fit in with the Goathland Layout. Whitby Abbey! My attempt is more a representation of it than a true model. The pictures on the internet (Not been lucky enough to see it in the flesh/stone) fall into my category of "Just crying out to be modeled". Construction utilized some old Linka moulds I picked up in a high street toy store well over 20 years ago, the full set with 12 rubber moulds for £5!!! I cast these using two part casting plastic and built up arched windows and a side section out of which new RV rubber moulds were made then these were cast again in two part plastic over and over (a speedy process). The whole lot was hot glued together on an MDF base and spray painted. The abbey is situated on a lift off scenic plywood box that sits over the tunnel and hides the sharp curves that exit the layout to the fiddle yard. This week has seen a repaint in my preferred style of blackened stone found more in the Pennines. Credit to Mrs. Sasquatch for her wonderful scenic work and her endless patience! measurements: 17½"L x 10½"D x 8½"H Here are some more pictures as requested. This time without messing about in picasa3. The back side has not been modeled as it is hardly ever seen, so no views from the other side. Shame you don't like my stormy sky Halfwit, I'll try and take some more later but posty just knocked on the door with something new from Heljan so much too engrossed right now.

Try goolgling "Railroad Crossing Collision" It is more common than one might expect.

My WD wouldn't hardly run, something to do with the axles shorting across the pickups! A small length of insulation tape was the cure, now it'll pull 20 ply loaded coal wagons up the incline on Goathland!!

This great stuff Ray(now why didn't I think of that) A simple approach with excellent results. Need to subscribe to your blog and find some time to go through all your old posts.

Loads are just as much fun. Cut a piece of wood to fit loosly and stick a washer to it so that the load can be removed with a magnet. For coal I have a tube of black roofing glue which is spread over the top of the wood and washer then dipped into immatation coal etc. When doing more than one wagon label each piece of wood underneath. I have a tub in which go all the odds and ends, this make great scrap loads. Some pics in my gallery.

You are up early Don! We just got back from the cinema after seeing Jack And The Giant Slayer, really good movie too! Nice sunny Tshirt weather here but not for long I suspect. Is there not air conditioning installed there? Try not to get into too much mischief. Shaun.

Nice clean job!

That Youtube link caused me some grief and it's still not showing as a Tube window. Any one know why? It should be noted how smooth the gates are even when picking up a little speed as is prototypical of wheel opperated gates!

Despite only having 4-5 hours kip last night everthing managed to get done. The last 3 hours have been spent updating my blog. Shower and then watch that Africa DVD by the BBC we got at the weekend. (its 22:20 over here). Enjoy your day people!!!

About the age of 12 a piece of hard board became available to me on which a Hornby single platform station halt and crossing where mounted. Some simple scenery built up etc and for added interest the gates where operated with cotton thread, ever since I have wanted working crossing gates. One of the ideas bouncing around in the old grey cells for years was this simple system of mounting the gates on L shaped wires to be swung by the back and forth movement of a plate below the base board with grooves in it. One of the requirements on Dunster was to have the gates animated. When our DVD player broke the dreaded light bulb came on and I set about dismantling it. After about an hour the DVD drawer mechanism was up and running but much slower! The gates at Dunster are off set and move one at a time. To accomplish this, the groves in my plate would be “S” shaped with a straight and the other straight with an “S” shape. A drawing was then quickly made of angles, posts and swing from which I could work out the shape of these grooves ¼” MDF was used for the plate; the grooves being cut with a jig saw and sanded perfect (Five attempts before getting this just right). Two micro switches cut power which stops the DVD drawer. An on/off switch operates a relay which is wired as a DPDT current reverser to the drawer motor. For added realism another on/off switch is mounted in the Gaugemaster hand held unit used on the Layout. The relay is a plug in type and mounted under the signal box. Easy to replace if anything ever goes wrong with it. Dunster has attended the Rouge Valley Model Railroad Show on four occasions at which the crossing performed rather well.

Real nice kits aren't they! Don't forget to round off the corner plates on the non door end with a fine file when truely set as these where bent steel! Some propriety wheel sets when used on kits foul the brake shoes, they may need filing with a half round needle file. Watching with interest!

Really am an early riser this morning, was wide awake at 4 so got up at 4:20 and to think the clocks went forward too. We're looking at 67F today, so I'll get a lot of work done and try to get Dunster dismantled and Goathland back together and running! Must not forget to order one of Heljans new offerings. Green or blue???????? Make the most of it what ever it is you're up to today folks.