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PaternosterRow

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  1. PaternosterRow
    Some update pics for the new Southern layout as promised. I've set this around the early 70's period - still want to use the Hornby 2 HAL and realise this was retired in 1971. I'm also a bit confused about using the Blue/Grey 411 CEP for this period as I've always laboured under the assumption that no DMU or EMU received this livery until the mid 80's and ran in complete Blue up until this time. However, I've seen a couple of pics (one on Mike Morant's site) dated around 1969 and 1971 that clearly show it running in the Blue/Grey livery - wonder if any Southern fans could enlighten me on this. There's bound to be a load of mistakes with accuracy but I'm really into atmosphere more than in getting it right. Besides, the layout is more a train set and it can be used for any city in any region - it's primary function is to play trains really.
     

    Detail shot of the scrap yard under the first two arches. It was a common site to see tower blocks going up in old run down industrial areas back in the 70's. Being from Birmingham, I remember a large scrap yard across the road from Tower Blocks in the Aston area - this was probably also the same state of affairs for parts of London at that time.
     

    Shot of the whole layout - doesn't look much from this angle but it's suprising what you can squeeze into a micro.
     

    The first batch of Class 20's delivered did work across London on freight duties so it's not beyond the realm of possibility to see them on Southern metals from time to time.
     

    The Crane is a Hornby offer - I've detailed it up slightly although it stills looks rather toy like. The jib runner is scratchbuilt from an old Lima car flat wagon - Jib runners were made from old coaching stock at that time. The Hornby Steam crane carries transfers showing it to belong to the Eastleigh depot - true enough as it's my understanding that the Southern ran the only Cowans Sheldon Steam crane at that time.
     

    The fleet waiting on the service loops behind the layout.
     

    The right hand scenic section - the flats behind the warehouse are photos sourced from the web and sized accordingly.
     

    'Mind the Gap' - even using the short connecter bars on the 411 the gap is still about 5mm wide.
     

    I've made some corridor connections - not the neatest effort but it all works fine and gets rid of that awful gap between corridor connections. This Bachmann model is superb and the interior detail is brilliant.
     

    A superb Bachmann Sealion - this is a Western Region machine. Civil equipment ended up all over the place so it wouldn't be out of place on a Southern layout (well I hope not anyway).
     

    A Midland Region sand tippler wagon - would love to know what region the van came from but can't ID it.
     

    An ex Southern Brake Van painted in Civil's Olive Green - note the air brake pipe at the side. The Southern Region was the first (I think) to have all its civils stock to go to air braking. There should be hoses fitted to the sole bars but I haven't got round to this yet.
     

    A couple of Eastern Region Grampus wagons - these are still in Engineer's Black and it took a long time for them to go over to Olive Green. Some never even made it and jumped Olive to the later Yellow and Grey livery of the 80's. Engineer wagons were a mish mash of different livieries and Codes. Note the S&W couplings - whilst not ideal they are a much better look than tension lock and they work brilliantly with the hand held magnet that is worked from under the base board.
     
    That's the lot for now - still having loads of fun running trains around. Might get the Green stuff out in a few weeks and have a go at the early 60's.
  2. PaternosterRow
    I really love photographing my layouts and my ultimate aim is to make the locos and settings as realistic as its possible in 00 Gauge.  Getting as much as possible in focus has always been a bug bear of mine.  The relationship between F-Stop, shutter speed and ISO is complex to understand and I should imagine professional photographers spend a long time to master it.  I haven't quite managed this and have always found that the higher the F-Stop then the yellower the image simply because the more depth of field (or more in focus you want) then the smaller the aperture.   In addition, my camera will only stop up to F8.  A medium aperture but one that still restricts the amount of light you need.  This always spoils the photo and no matter how long you keep open the shutter you can never get rid of the yellowing effect.   Camera's therefore love loads of light where this is concerned so I decided to cobble together my own powerful lighting rig.  It had to be on the cheap because professional lighting rigs are an astronomical cost.
     
     

    The above shot under the rig.  F8 at ISO 400.  The camera sets the shutter speed itself and I set a two second timer delay to defeat any camera shake.
     

    The 'Heath Robinson' style lighting rig.  I found an old overhead projector at my local tip and took it apart.  I put the fan and bulb assembly into a wooden box, created a reflective direction device out of hangers and mounting card and put the whole thing on top of a stand that I bought secondhand from a builder for a fiver.   It was really cheap to construct and it works quite well.  Mind you, despite the fan it gets very hot so I don't leave it on too long in case the whole thing falls apart!
     

    The rig is about as good as it gets in creating artificial sunlight.  It's either that or lug the layout down from the loft and wait for the sun to come out and you could wait a long time over here for that!   Now to get rid of those pesky shadows on the backdrop!
     

    This is my take on a smashing prototype picture in Hornby's latest mag regarding coloured light signalling on the Southern.  The picture was of a Class 33 double heading with a BR Standard 5MT out of Waterloo in 1966.
     

    A summer afternoon at Folgate Street.  Note how the light rig casts realistic shadows under the signal box gantry.
     

    Light and shade.  Notice how the focus drops away and yet this is the best my Fuji Bridge can do.  It's a lot better than my other smaller 'snap' Panasonic Lumix which has a much narrower field of focus.  The only other route is photo stacking, but this seems like a magic trick far beyond my capabilities.  I guess I'll always be an analogue fuddy duddy!
     
  3. PaternosterRow
    Some initial pictures of my latest scheme.  Like most of us modelling fanatics I haven't been idle during the lockdown period!   These are strange times indeed and I have no doubt that many of us have worried about income and job security so, with the exception of purchasing a second hand Hornby Q1, I have managed to construct the layout with materials and track I had to hand.  Folgate Street is a fictitious slice of third rail London and is an old scheme that has been revamped for the purpose.  The original station throat was constructed about 11 years ago and was made at the start of my railway modelling journey.  I was still fumbling about at this earlier stage hence the use of Code 100 and Insulfrog points.  It was a copy of a throat drawn up by the famous Cyril Freezer.  The original layout was actually once used as the basis of my 1984 model (see previous posts) and was gathering dust in a forgotten corner of my loft so I thought I'd put it to good use.
     

     
    The fabulous Hornby Q1.  This was picked up cheaply from Hattons.  It had a missing sand box and steps which have been knocked up from bits out of the spares box.   Despite a thorough wheel clean it runs intermittently and I wonder if has anything to do with the DCC decoder that it is fitted with?   I don't need it as I'm analogue and I know they'll run on DC current.  If I remove the decoder will I need a blanking plate? - any help would be greatly appreciated as it's a smashing model and it deserves to run properly.   The roof is another of my soldered wire schemes - to add a bit of interest I've used a downloadable texture from CG Textures for the roof lights.  Note the cardboard strips at the side of the track.  These have been made form thin card to replicate the wooden boards used at Southern stations to contain the third rail - they help to hide the absence of insulators and also disguised the oversized profile of Code 100 track.  
     
     
     
     

     
    A Hornby 2 HAL emerges from the right hand scenic break.  The Lyceum Theatre is a freelance structure made from Scalescenes Textures whilst the buildings on the overbridge are downloaded photographs from CG Textures.  These have been layered to give a little relief.
     

     
    The superb Heljan Class 33.  The station tower is another freelance structure loosely based on the Towers found at Cannon Street Station.  Again, I've used Scalescenes sheets to construct it.   The station roof is loosely based on the Suburban station one at the side of Kings Cross Station.
     

     
    Two tracks on a slight incline were added to the front of the original layout to add a bit of operational interest.  The signal box gantry, based on the one found at Holborne Viaduct Station over the Widened Lines incline, has been made from Plastruct girders and bits from various Dapol kits.  All the signals work apart from the one on the signal box - I think super glue seeped into the fine electrical wires and have caused a short circuit!
     
    The 5.5 foot layout is an end to end scheme with a main 5ft long fiddle yard to the right hand side.  The half station side is fed from a three foot long 'black box' section during normal operation.   I utilised a mirror at this end to lengthen the look of the station for the above photographs.   More pics to follow.
  4. PaternosterRow
    Gosh, it’s been well over a year since my last post. But it has been a crappy time and life has thrown my wife and I some right old spanners to contend with.
     
    The worst of it was when my dear old Mom passed away in mid November after an 18 month long battle with Bladder Cancer. Thankfully she was in a care home for the last 6 months so she was extremely well looked after and had little pain to put up with in the end. Marvellous places.
     
    Whilst all this went on modelling took a back seat, understandably, but I did manage to get a few hours in here and there. I’m thankful for the distraction it gave – immersing yourself in the unimportant is a great stress reliever. I really feel for those who have to juggle work and life with the needs of a very sick parent – it’s quite a strain. Watching her suffer from this dreadful disease was unbearable at times.
     
    It was around early June last year that the late Bob Barlow, another victim of this savage illness, contacted me about doing an article on my Shadow Box Roundhouse for his new magazine – Finescale Railway Modelling Review. It was just the right sort of ‘pick me up’ I needed at the time. In fact, Mom was so delighted that she insisted on showing her copy to all of the other residents when it arrived. She rallied just a little and it provided her a much welcome, although all too brief, distraction - for this alone I shall be ever grateful to Bob and the Greystar team.
     
    After her passing I threw myself back into modelling which helped enormously in the aftermath. So I thought I’d push the Shadow Box concept further and have a go at modest station scene. Here are the results.
     

     
    Waterloo Sunset. XP64 with its new livery pulls in to the station. The station scene rough covers the BR period and therefore reflects the dilapidation of these Victorian super structures at that time.
     

     

     
    The following shots are taken under the Shadow Box lighting rig. This has been simply placed over the top of the roof and uses 12 v Halogens as the light source. I wanted to create a Cathedral like atmosphere with shafts of sunlight beaming down through broken skylights.
     

     

     
    The following are shots of the construction methods used.
     

     
    The simple baseboard set up.
     

     
    The plasterboard jig for the arches.
     

     
    Once complete the arches were transfered to a board with a detailed plan of the wall and curve of the baseboard.
     

     
    Completed wire roof structure before the covering went on.
     

     
    The Mirror trick. This doubles the length of the scene - it was crucial to get this exactly square on the end of the model in order for it to work.
     

     
    Last train at Platform 5 - the magnificent Bachmann Peak. The Mirror really comes in to its own here and perfectly reflects the curving sweep of the layout. There really are only 3 coaches in this scene.
  5. PaternosterRow

    1984

    By PaternosterRow,

    I was reading 1984 a few weeks ago when I came across a blog entry by Scots Region called Victory Road - http://www.rmweb.co...._fromsearch__1. A fictitious layout of a station from the novel. This really got the modeling juices flowing and I began the usual postulating when we get an idea into our heads. I had a half completed station throat model that I'd never been happy with and started to put two and two together. I PM'd Scots Region who kindly allowed me to proceed with his original idea.
     

    The original model underneath the new overall station roof.
     

    INGSOC logo - Newspeak for English Socialism
     

    Underneath the arches - old derelict London where the Proles live.
     

    The Platform and INGSOC advertisements. These were sourced from the internet.
     

    Another shot of the platform and the INGSOC logo.
     
    With most of the work been done it was easy to knock up a bunker style roof out of 6mm ply - this was covered in PVA and given a shake of fine sand.
    I wanted to capture the feel of the novel by using a 'Big Brother' utilitarian style overlaying the remnants of old London (Air Strip One). The four big ministries from the novel are housed in pyramid type structures so I wanted to also capture a Pharonic architectural feel - this seems apt to the 1984 theme.
     
    Orwell has to be one of my favorite authors and I'm a great admirer of his plain English prose. Many of his novels contain a gritty reality - read 'The Road to Wigan Pier' for a desperate description of poverty in the North of Britain in the 1930's. He is, of course, most famous for '1984' and 'Animal Farm', both parodies of Totalitarian society's, but he was also an avid reformer. He championed the need for a welfare system, but was always aware of the hidden dangers of ideologies and religions. Most particularly the Soviet regime of 1930/40's Russia - it seems that just causes can always be twisted out of shape by zealots or a power hungry elite.
     
    There's a lot of fun to had with this scheme and I can't wait to start knocking up an armored train. If anyone has any ideas for motive power and coach types I'd be glad to hear them. The novel suggests that things started going awry shortly after the Second World War and the only R and D that went on was related to all things military. Steam would therefore be still being used in the alternative 1984 and there would be a lot of run down engines and coach stock about.
  6. PaternosterRow
    Finished!!
     
    Had a play about with the stock today, but had a few problems. The usual suspects - dirty track and wheels, bad connections etc. This is the frustrating aspect of 4mm scale - especially when you've double checked the circuits and cleaned everything about a 100 times!
    A few pics below - more tomorrow if I'm allowed - we're supposed to be going up some hill or other for a walk. Know what I'd rather be doing!!
     

     
    Managed to capture the streak through the smoke with the internal lamps, but still can't get it from the light through the roof windows. Tried more smoke and spot lights, but it just wont have it.
     

     

     
    Can you guess which is my favorite train at the moment. The Heljan Class 33 is a really beautiful model - get little runner too.
  7. PaternosterRow

    UP THE JUNCTION

    By PaternosterRow,

    It's an age since I posted anything, but that don't mean that I haven't done anything. So here goes with the latest model. It's a four by three foot micro that has been connected up to three continuous loops so that I ran run trains to my heart's content - a real train set at long last. There's also a small shunting yard at the front for various departmental wagons and freight - depending what mood I'm in. The shunting yard is all operated by Spratt & Winkle - I just use a hand held magnet under the board to avoid the old 'hands in the sky' method. Whilst it is a Southern type scheme I can run any train depending on what I fancy - I've added some third rails (lengths of code 75 glued down beside the running rail) but you can't see these from the yard level etc.
     
    I wanted to create real depth to the cameo hence the yard, the double viaduct behind and single viaduct to the very rear. The viaducts are glued together Scalescenes Bridge kits.
     

    A Lima HST going over the front viaduct - a test shot and demonstrating that I can use just about any train from the corporate era.
     

    Setting up the scheme and playing about with positions of the viaducts.
     

    A test shot to ensure the holes in the backscene can't easily be seen from the front. Scenic breaks are the bug bear of all micro layouts.
     

    I took this picture of Bordesley Viaduct way back in 1995 from the third floor of a warehouse in Digbeth (long expose using 35mm film - the bad old days of photography - modern cameras are brilliant aren't they?) and wanted to emulate a part of this sodium lit night scene.
     

    My take with a block of flats (the right hand side scenic break) lit with a single light bulb inside.
     

    The flats are a super detailed Kingsway model seen here in the set up picture.
     

    Preparing the flats - each have windows with Scalescene's curtain textures etc.
     

    The front of one of the sections - I used sand that was glued to the front with a watery mix of PVA.
     

    The flats in daylight - Hornby 2 HAL with a Bachmann Class 416 on the front viaduct. Note the detailed Lima Class 73 on the rear viaduct travelling from behind the flats.
     

    You can get a feel for the depth of the cameo in this shot.
     
    I'm finishing off the departmental wagons, cranes etc for the yard at the moment and will post update pics at a later date.
  8. PaternosterRow

    A Duchess at Carlisle

    By PaternosterRow,


    Carlisle
    The latest project.  I've been off and on with this layout over the last couple of years.  So I decided to buckle down and get on with it.  The roof is still under construction and I'm very much at the McGuyvering stage.  There's always a lot of niggles to sort.  This is a quarter of a station scheme with a mirror at the rear to double the length.  The whole layout is a mere 6.5 foot long.
     
     

    This is an original Hornby Margate version of a Duchess which has been fettled with.  The track is all Code 75 and the baseboard was made from an internal door picked up from my DIY store.  Using a door is quick and almost as cheap as making up one yourself.  It's also very straight and square as you can imagine and therefore helps when you make roof structures out of wire.
     

     
     
     
     
     

     
     
     

     
    Although the station is not an exact copy of the North End of the station I have tried to remain faithful to the roof profile.   This has been made with 1mm dia wire that has been soldered together in various jigs.
  9. PaternosterRow
    The arch infills and girder bridge are now completed.
     
    There are no station names in 1984, only Newspeak abbreviations. The station is known only as INTSEC 3/19 (Intersection of Main Line 3 and tube station 19) - you can make your own mind up as to which North London Station it represents!
     

     
    Winston stands alone on the platform and watches a B set pull in amid the smoke and steam - I must get around to giving him a pair of eyes!
     

     
    I figured that seeing how Orwell wrote this in 1948/9 BR would have already come into existence. Praries and Mark 1 coaches would have therefore been used and continued to have been used in his alternative future.
     

     

     
    The Prole area - Old London, although bombed and derelict, still exists under the concrete monoliths of Big Brother. Under the official party posters Winston could make out various prole advertisements. As long as they remained dormant, the majority of the population were allowed their cheap thrills and entertainment. Party members were strictly forbidden from attending these events, but if offered a glimpse of how the world was before INGSOC.
     

     
    Winston had met Parsons on the way in. He had a low level job at the Ministry of the Truth and was therefore Winston's colleague. He also lived on the same floor of his apartment block so it was difficult to avoid the man. Short and rotund, Parsons was full of boyish enthusiasm and was endlessly attending meetings, community hikes, demonstrations and the like. He was a leading member of the INGSOC Sports committee and cut a ridiculous figure especially when bounding about in his jogging shorts. It was Parson's sort of unquestioning devotion, along with thousands of others just like him, that the party depended on. A blind faith that was more important to its survival than the Thought Police. He and his ilk irritated Winston with their slogans and doubleplusgood mindset. Parsons had been discussing some or other droll event with a couple of members of the anti-sex league in the subway entrance. The tall blond women, with a scarlet sash wound tightly round her waist, the vile symbol of self imposed purity, reminded Winston of his own wife, another empty-headed party devotee. The memory of her chilled him and he'd been relieved when they had decided to part ten years earlier. Their type had survived the endless purges of the last 30 years until they now dominated the ranks of the outer party; any chance of a counter revolution had therefore long since vanished. Winston was dead, he'd known that the minute he'd committed his first thought crime, but Parsons and his type would thrive and the party would endure for a thousand years because of it.
     

  10. PaternosterRow
    Just a few pictures of a model of the Launch Umbilical Tower in 1/400 scale I made a few years ago.  The Saturn V is a Dragon model.  This is my tribute to those magnificent people that worked to put a man on the moon before 1970.  I still quite can't believe that there are still people who refuse to believe in this brilliant achievement.  Especially given the plethora of scientific information available on the web nowadays.  I'm really enjoying the event and there has been some great stuff on the TV showing a load of previously unseen footage of the event.
     

    A picture sourced from NASA showing the real Apollo 11 en route to Pad 39A.
     

     
    My take of the Launch Umbilical Tower as copied from the picture of the real thing behind.
     
     

    Outside shot in the garden.  The plane going over was just a lucky coincidence as I took the shot.
     
     
     
     

    All the way from Cape Killarney!  This is where I live in Southern Ireland.
     

    A night shot - the tower has been stuffed with a set of cheap LEDs run from a battery.  The light shines out of small drilled holes in the tower.
     
     
    I was a young boy in 1969 and the Apollo moonshots dominated our lives.  It was an exciting time to be alive during an era full of hope for the future.  We were a lot less introspective back then and all of us thought we'd be living on the moon by now.  What a wonderful achievement - the benefits of which we have been living off ever since.
  11. PaternosterRow
    A little project to celebrate the 50th Anniversary. I always loved the red flash double arrow logo and wish BR had adopted it for the whole of the corporate era.
     

     
    There's certainly a lot of life left in these old Lima models. I spent a lot of time trying to match the colour BR had first used - turquoise blue - and eventually found this colour. It's not a perfect match and seeing how I'm limited to using spray cans (I haven't yet plucked up the courage to go buy an air brush) it was the closest I could find. The transfers are from Railtec and are brilliant, but fell apart when I used my particular brand of matt varnish - good job I bought two sets!
     

     

     
    I wished I'd had sprayed the yellow panel - it was hand painted with Humbrol Insignia Yellow and turned out a bit lumpy. I should have removed the square headlamp and also wished I'd have gone for flush glazing. However, for only my second loco bash I'm pleased with the result.
     
    Happy Birthday XP 64.
  12. PaternosterRow
    In response to fellow RMweb members who were interested in how I made the overall wire roof the following is an article that was scheduled to appear in a future edition of FRMR. The baseboard for the model had been completed by the end of December and the roof structure by the end of January. It was around this time I emailed some pictures to the late Bob Barlow, who in response asked me to write a short article about its construction. By the time this was sent the poor man was probably starting to become very ill. It would be in bad taste, as much as a lack of respect, to send it on to another magazine but it’d also be a great shame to just bin it. So here it is. I’m sure Bob would have put his experienced editorial eye over it before it made it to print so this is it how it was submitted without any adjustments.
     
     
    An Overall Station Roof from Galvanised Wire
     
    By Mike Lynch
     

     
     
     
    After the success of my ‘House of Shadows’ layout I decided to push the concept further and use the same internal lighting technique for a small station scene. The general idea was to construct an overall arched roof on a 6 foot long curved layout and enclose it in a custom made lighting box. Most of my previous roofed dioramas have been made from 1mm diameter galvanised wire and I could see no reason why this roof couldn’t be made the same way. Being from the ‘make do and mend’ generation, I’m always looking out for ways to model on the cheap. This can be an expensive hobby and the amount of brass material required would cost way too much for what will only really be a photographic display. Bundles of galvanised wire were found at a tip some years ago so all my roof schemes have only ever cost the price of the solder and flux! Many modellers would recoil at the thought of using material like this because it is not an accurate representation of that used on the prototype. But I’m more of a ‘fine art’ rather than ‘fine scale’ modeller (if there can be any such thing) so it’s only the overall impression I’m interested in. To me, the background is incidental to the stock so as long as it looks fairly realistic that does for me.
     
    The first thing to do before undertaking any such scheme was to trawl my collection of prototype books for pictures of Victorian Overall roofs. The thing I noticed most was how the curving steel stanchions seem to disappear into the sides of the support walls instead of sitting squarely on top of their masonry columns. This means that the feet of these half circle stanchions rest much further down toward platform level. In order to create the same effect small curving flutes were made from cardboard, painted and then mounted onto the wall. This arrangement dictated the circumference of the wire arches; they would now need to be about a third of a circle in diameter instead of a half. The photorealistic wall texture, Carlisle Station Wall, is from the Smart Models range and very much lends an authentic look; the three arch bays also neatly predetermined the stanchion spacing.
     
    Station roofs, like all roofs, are made from a collection of standardised components that have been pre-made in a factory, delivered to site and erected. The same process needed to be mimicked in model form. Therefore, each of the arches had to be made exactly the same in order to achieve the duplication found in roof structures of this type. The layout needed 13 spans; 11 of these were going to be double sided with two single arch spans at the entrance and at the rear. The entrance span was going to be glass fronted so it required window bars to match the acetate texture that was going to be used. A mirror was going to be employed to double the length of the scene at the rear of the layout so the other span would need to be single in order to create the correct reflection and neatly reinforce the illusion. In total then, I’d need to make 24 single sided arches in some sort of a jig.
     
    A side elevation plan of the layout was drawn up for reference beforehand and then transferred to an old off cut of plasterboard which would be used as the master jig. The wires would need to be held in place by small grooves during soldering so these were simply scored out with the tip of a small screwdriver once the paper covering had been cut away to reveal the Gypsum underneath. Plaster board is excellent for this type of work as it’s easy to score out (try scoring curved lines in wood!), it also doesn’t absorb much heat from the soldering iron and subject metal.
     
    Once satisfied that all the measurements and lines were correct the wire was prepared. This had to be stretched by use of a vice and pair of pliers in order to straighten it out; the wire is quite soft so this also introduces a little tension and ensures that it doesn’t bend as easily when working with. It was then cleaned with some Emery paper and cut into the predetermined lengths required.
     
    During the making up process I found it best to quickly drop a little blob of solder on each of the joints first, let it cool and then go back and work it around properly. I also like to be liberal with the flux; it’s messy but it makes for a solid joint and there’s also nothing quite so satisfying than watching solder flow easily over metal. In the first test arch only the uprights between the outer and inner curving wires were soldered. This was then taken up and offered to the master plan for checking. However, the outer wires started to bend up out of shape after a few minutes and I thought that at this point the scheme would come to nothing. Going back to the prototype pictures I soon began to realise why the engineers had introduced angled locking bars between their uprights. These were introduced into the master jig and another arch was quickly soldered up; it worked and provided a powerful insight into the design of these types of structures. In fact, just to ensure against any further springing a longitudinal locking bar between the arch feet was also incorporated; these can be found in a lot of roof structures and are commonly referred to as Collars.
     
    Once these arches were complete 22 were joined together at 10mm apart with temporary wire spacers to make the 11 double arch spans required. These wires would be removed later when the spans were finally linked up with each other. The entrance and mirror arches were modified accordingly. Once washed down the spans were transferred to a master plan that had been carefully drawn out on a separate board. This plan mimicked the curving wall and its column locations exactly. At this stage another template was scored out on the plasterboard in order to make the triangular glazing sections that sit atop the arches. These were relatively quick to run off and were soldered on in situ without too much fuss.
     
    Joining all of the spans to form a cohesive whole was very straightforward. Using cardboard spacers as guides, simple lengths of wire were soldered along the outside length of the span run. It was crucial to ensure these joiners were spaced correctly in order to accommodate the acetate glazing panels that were going to be used. Where these joining bars needed to be thicker, individual lengths of wire were soldered together before being fitted. In order to ensure the curve remained true, so that the structure exactly fitted the sweep of the wall, 5mm square metal bars were soldered on the feet bottoms at both sides. These were picked up quite cheaply from a local DIY store and were easily bent to shape. Once the structure was complete it was thoroughly washed down with hot water and detergent. I did this in the bath and won’t be doing anything like that again simply for the sake of domestic harmony!
     
    On a final note, this has been a very cheap project to date; even the baseboard came off a disused hoarding found at the road side. The roof took about 30 hours to complete and, as described, was very simply and quickly put together. Researching the prototype was also very enjoyable and gave plenty of insight into the design and assembly of this type of roof construction. Some of these Victorian super structures are now over 150 years old and despite the weather, Hitler’s bombs in some cases and the appalling lack of maintenance during the BR era they remain solid and true. They are testament to the abilities of the original designers, engineers and erectors. This has made me wonder just how long my simple model will last; that’s in scale years of course!
     
     

    The Master Jig - an old off cut of plasterboard.
     

    The jig took a bit of a bashing but is still servicable should an extension be made at a later date.
     

    Once joined together the arch spans were transferred to an accurate plan of the layout drawn out on a 'making up' board.
     

    There was a fair bit of fiddling about during the making up process and the entire structure was regularly test fitted against the layout.
     

    Once the structure was complete it was offered up to the mirror. The purpose of the single arch span at the rear of the layout is now obvious. Its reflection reinforces the illusion of an unbroken series of double arch spans.
     

    An initial test shot during the covering stage and before the Light Box section was made.
     

    A shot of the completed structure under natural lighting conditions.
  13. PaternosterRow
    State of play thus far with 'The Works' - new wire roof fitted before covering. The roof is designed so that it can be removed for track cleaning and loco placing. I've tried hard with this one to get everything straight and square.
     

     
    I'm trying to achieve something like the roof at Loughborough Works. This photo is from The Railway Magazine (Nov 2012 souvenir issue) - it show the works in the late 80's building the Class 60. It's a former wagon works, but loco erecting shops and wagon works shared similar architecture. The overhead cranes, however, were much bigger in erecting shops due to the higher loads. Therefore, the running beams were much deeper and chunkier.
     

     

     

     
    For the illusion to work it's absolutely essential to get everything in line to form the perfect repetition you get with real factory roof structures. Everything is made from 1mm fencing wire which has been soldered up in jigs.
     

     
    I will be adding two cranes per run (the two would often be used in tandem to lift heavy loads) and all the other stuff you'd associate with works once the roof is covered.
  14. PaternosterRow

    A Duchess at Carlisle II

    By PaternosterRow,


    Paternosterrow Blog
    The latest pics of progress.  The roof is complete and a backscene of joined, white mounting card has been erected.  Just a small section of some platform buildings and a LCut footbridge to install.  I also need to get a printout of the real citadel building seen to the rear of the station - this will be pasted to card and placed in the correct position on the backscene.
     
     
     

     
    The above looks a bit like a painting in a way.  There is no photoshop trickery here - the photo has been merely cropped.  Taken by a Fuji Bridge, F11, 1 sec exposure, ISO 100 with a slight adjustment on the white balance to prevent washout.  I've used my homemade lighting rig cobbled together from an old overhead projector.   A mirror has been placed at the end of the roof section to make the station look much larger.
     

     
    Just under the screen - again, a cropped Fuji shot.  Note the reflection of the inside of the end screen in the distance.
     

     
    This picture was actually taken at night using a spotlight and a diffuser box powered by a LED 100 watt equivalent bulb (see pics below).  I got the spot from a man who used to be a projectionist many years ago.  The spot is as old as the hills but works brilliantly and it only cost me around £10.  I was trying to emulate streaming sunlight, but, as my wife pointed out, it just looks like someone shining a torch through the roof.  Some more thinking required.
     

     
    Another night shot - this time with my Panasonic Lumix shoot and go camera.  I used the 'Starry Night' long-exposure setting - placing my hand over the lens after about 4 seconds to prevent white out (the camera only goes down to 15 seconds exposure on this setting).  
     

     
    The cheap spot with my own version of a beam splitter taped to the front.
     

     
    The LED diffuser box.  It is just a simple cardboard box with tracing paper front taped over an ordinary bulb holder.
  15. PaternosterRow

    Perry Barr Station

    By PaternosterRow,

    I haven't been resting on my laurels since my last layout and have been ferreting away as usual. So, and having grown up in Perry Barr, I thought it was high time to have a go at a model of the station there. I've had to rely on a couple of pics by Steve Jones along with my memory of the place. I didn't fancy using any of the available catenary so had a go at making my own out of wire. The are not perfect but look credible especially with Colin Graig's superb pewter insulators.
     

     

     
    A couple of Steve Jones superb pictures of Perry Barr - this was just how I remember it having grown up during that era. I've got to order a Class 310 or 304 kit from Southern Pride as of yet. I'm inclined to go for the 304 as I've never built a kit before so think it prudent to start off with a simpler model (the 310 looks really complicated).
     

     
    My take of the scene with a modified Hornby 86 and, as yet unmodified) Lima 101. The Lima is a superb little model with its flush windows - it needs a new motor and some minor alterations.
     

    The Lima 101 - many find the all over blue with yellow ends a bit boring, but I've always loved this simple colour scheme from BR corporate period.
     

    The other end of the layout. It's eight foot long - the bridge at the Park end is a ficticious scenic break - there was one like this but it was about 2 miles from the station. I used to walk to school across Perry Hall Park every day and would often have my face pressed up against the spear fencing. Every once in a while the drivers would sound off a two tone and wave to me. Great, great days.
     

    There are 4 light weight portal type gantrys at the station and two 'H' girder types by the Park end. The portals were made from 0.75mm galvanised wire - soldered together in jigs. The uprights for these were made from the same wire - soldered together in lengths and then given a hard filing to give crisp edge to the stanchions. The portals are slightly over scale - the prototypes are only 18inches deep and mine would work out to be around 22 inches square - I don't think it's that noticable now that they are in place. The 'H' type portals were made from Brass sections.
     
    Perry Barr is not an attractive station by any means with it's concrete overbridge and steps - this was installed in the early 60's to accommodate the widenning of the A34 Birmingham to Walsall Road. However, it is one of the oldest operational stations in the world. It was originally the fourth station out of Curzon Street on the old Grand Junction Railway - the world's first 'long-distance' intercity railway (4 July 1837). This Birmingham to Manchester route opened nearly a year and a half before the London to Birmingham railway which commenced on 17 Sept 1838.
  16. PaternosterRow
    More pictures. Note Steve Jones's fabulous shot of the station in 1978 with a Class 312 bound for Walsall. I am currently working on a Southern Pride Class 304 - this seems to be the only available WCML EMU kit available at the moment. Work is slow and I am awaiting parts that did not arrive with the kit - such is life, eh?
     

    Fabulous shot taken by Steve Jones in 1978.
     

    Class 86 'Planet' in early Executive livery pulls an eight coach train - made up of 7 Lima MK3s and 1 Bachmann MK1 full brake. The Class 86/87 pulled these rakes whilst BR awaited the arrival of the Class 90. It was usual to see 9 MK3s with accompanying MK1 Brake, but I figured 8 was a fair compromise for an 00 gauge layout.
     

    The brilliant Lima Class 101 - this little DMU must be Lima's finest hour with its flush glazed windows. Great little runner too.
     

    Class 86 pulling an early Freightliner train. The Freightliner containers are from Scalescenes and look quite good for a humble card kit.
     

    A ViTrains Class 37. Great runner but growls a bit (just like the real thing).
     

    No WCML scheme would be complete without a 'Hoover'. This is an upgraded Lima Class 50 - I should have renumbered it, but liked the D400 preTOPS number. A new motor has been installed for more power - now to try and resolve the pick up issue - any advice on this would be most welcome.
  17. PaternosterRow
    Believe it or not, but this plastic Lobster has a direct connection with the real place. Along with the station there was four shops sharing the blue brick building on the overbridge. There was a clothes shop to the left, the station (a simple entrance with small ticket office), a shoe shop (if I remember right), a newsagent and a chip shop. The 'chippie' was called the 'Shell Bar' and had a small eating area that was festooned with fishing nets and lobster baskets etc. Plastic fish and Lobsters hung from the walls and climbed out of baskets. Don't forget, this was the seventies and all this seemed like the height of sophistication back then! It was our version of McDonalds and occasionally, after a shopping trip to the Bull Ring or Walsall market via the train, Mom would take both me and my small sister for a meal before returning home. A rare treat as my Dad was a real meat/fish and two veg man and banned rubbish like this from the house. I can still taste the greasy chips (fried in proper lard), the Fleur De Lys Chicken and Mushroom pie and small bottle of Coke (YUM). The place closed in the late seventies and Mom asked the owner for a momento of the place - the plastic lobster. Mom unfortunately passed away 3 years ago and when we cleared out the house I came accross the Lobster - wrapped in newspaper in a box in the attic! She'd kept it all those years, but what was more amazing is that she'd packed it and brought with her when they both retired here to Ireland. How's that for the past catching up with the future?
     

    The Lima Class 31 (one of my favorites). I've upscaled the cardboard cut out building of the Poly at the rear. This is nearer the size in the Steve Jone's original picture of the station.
     

    Class 20 pairing - should really be pulling freight although they did pull the occasional passenger train (mainly to Wales so never at Perry Barr).
     

    I like this shot - shows off the faded weathering technique I tried to pull off when doing the Class 20 project a couple of years ago.
     

    Tail end of a HST125 going through the station. Very much doubt the 125 ever came this way, but I love this Lima HST. I put a new brushless motor in the Power Car and it pulls seven Lima MK1 and dummy with ease (it doesn't half squeel when taking 2nd radius curves as the wheels try to grip) - it's just nice to see it run.
     

    Front shot of the full set approaching the station. A full seven car plus power and dummy set is a little under nine feet long - you'd need to build a mightly long platform to accommodate it!
  18. PaternosterRow
    Winston Smith arrived this morning courtesy of Gaugemaster. I've trawled the net looking for a suitable figure, but could only find one from the Preiser Mechanics set. Although you can tell that H0 figures are slightly underscale for 4mm, Preiser still have the best range of rendered figures. They are so well painted and detailed that I personally can't resist them.
     

     
    Winston looks lost under the claustrophobic concrete roof. I've also bought some East German guards (which have yet to arrive), the German POW set and the Refugee set (these will need painting) - all from the Preiser Range.
     

     
    A shot of the whole model with all of the concrete structures in place. Just the arch infills, roadway and pavement to do plus the backscene and old shop fronts under the bridge.
     

     
    This is a shot of my Dapol Prarie. It is just a plastic kit, but it is well detailed and I'm going to build a few more I think - any suggestions as to which I should buy will be well received. I've an old Lima Shunter that's going to be converted to an armoured train - I absolutely refuse to mess about with any of my other stock.
  19. PaternosterRow

    BILSTON STEEL WORKS

    By PaternosterRow,


    BILSTON
    Some months ago I came across a fantastic website - www.britishsteelbilston.com - about the Bilston Steel works in Wolverhampton, West Midlands.  This has been put together by Mr Andrew Simpson who worked there and is well worth a visit - there are some fantastic photos including a section on the Work's locomotives.  In fact, I contacted Andrew and he put me in touch with a Mr Roger Deans, a chief fitter at Bilston, who has provided me with information and a lot of stories about his time there.  I was so taken with Bilston itself, and is a place I clearly remember from my childhood cycling adventures down the canals, that I decided to recreate a small shunting layout based on a typical British steelworks. 
     

     
    Bilston in its early 70s heyday - a clear shot of how close you could get to a Blast Furnace from the canals in those pre H&S days!  The furnace was called Elisabeth (with an s not a z) in honour of the owner's daughter and not the Queen as often suggested.  She was first lit in 1954 and closed down in 1977.  Her weekly output was about 5000 tons.  
     

     
    Canal boats would often float past even on the most busiest of days at the Steelworks.
     

     
    My take on part of a steelworks.  Note the mirror underneath the building at the end of the canal.  Like all micro layout creators I am obsessed with successful scenic breaks!  Apart from the obvious join line across the canal I think the trick works rather well.
     

     
    The Engineering Shop at Bilston.  Notice the uneven buckling of the corrugated panels - that is how they actually look in real life on all industrial buildings.  I'd like to claim that I have successfully emulated this in my own model but can't as it was entirely accidental. I guess when you use the correct thickness of foil you get the same effect!  The colour match is also a lucky guess and came from a discarded paint can found at my local tip.
     

     
    The above picture is actually from Shelton Bar Steelworks in Stoke on Trent.  I was so taken with the scene that I wanted to recreate it on the layout.
     
     

     
    May take on the Shelton Bar building over the canal.
     

     
    I love these wagons from Golden Valley Hobbies.  They are being hauled by a freelance version of a Hunslet 0-4-0.  Based on the cheap Hornby mechanism I have used bits and pieces from an old Dapol Shunter kit and a second hand Bagnell.  The Dapol 16T mineral is permanently attached and its wheels have been given extra pickups that feed the Hornby motor via small connect wires - whilst not a brilliant crawl type runner it works really well on the layout.
     

     
    Plan view of the layout - it has a fiddle yard to the right and is connected via a link to my Floodgate Street layout to the Left. I've done this for space considerations and also to allow FGS to share the new fiddle yard.  
     

     
    More pics to follow about construction etc.
  20. PaternosterRow
    A few more pictures of the junction in action.  My track laying leaves much to be desired in some of the shots.  This all looked perfect when first laid, but there are a few wobbles here and there that are more apparent in the close up shots.  It all works and I've had no running problems and yet it shows just how much attention must be paid to laying perfect, level track during the construction of long line layouts.
     

    A Hornby Class 20 combo hauls a short engineering train through the junction and down the branch.
     

    A Lima Class 101 passes on the other line.  This little loco is a superb runner for an old model and it has to represent Lima's finest hour with its flush glazed windows.  The motor is original so the model hadn't been used much before I picked it up cheap on eBay.  With a bit of weathering and detailing I think it has come up quite well.  One of my favorites anyway.
     

    The superb Bachmann Class 25 hauling a short Freightliner.  The factory weathering really makes this loco for me.
     

    A Lima HST set.  It's a real pleasure to see this run around and around now.  I gave it a new motor replacement during detailing and it goes like a rocket.  It seems ironic that these older models have no problem running through Code 75 track and points.  However, I did have to take down the flanges on the 'Pizza Cutter' wheels first.
  21. PaternosterRow
    I haven't posted in an age and, in fact, haven't even visited RMWeb for quite a while.  What a great new format and I'm really interested in becoming a Gold Member - currently in negotiations with the financial controller about the monthly fee! 
     
    The new layout, High Trees Junction, is nearly complete so here is a few initial test pics.  This layout forms part of a roundy roundy scheme in my loft.  My previous layout, Perry Barr Station, is on the opposite side.  I just wanted to get my trains running for a change so have turned away from micro layout building for a while.  After a previous country type layout some years ago, Cheslyn, I vowed never to go down the country route again.  However, the thought of building a huge suburban theme really put me off after many hours of drawing up several schemes.  It would just take too long to construct the required amount of buildings to populate it.   To my surprise I enjoyed building this one.  High Trees Junction is a simple enough scheme and soon became an essay in forced perspective.  Having grown up in Birmingham, like most city folk, I fell in love with the English countryside.  Whilst I am surrounded by natural beauty here in Ireland I do miss those English Church Spires.  It always seemed to me that you could always spot two, even three, Spires from high vantage points in Britain so it seemed essential to include two in this layout.
     

    The signal box is Scalescenes and the signals are from Ratio.  I really enjoyed making up these.
     
     

    I wanted to have a lead in curve although it is not based on a prototypical radius.  I think the radius is generous enough to make it look convincing.  The brambles are all made from rubberised horse hair and flock.
     

    There's always a Church Spire to be spotted somewhere in English countryside views.  The small church is probably around 1/200 scale is merely a downloaded photograph that has been made up into a 3D model from card.
     

    The fabulous Lima 101 waits on signal from an imagined Branch connection to the main.
     

     

    The entire layout.  All of the trees were handmade from seafoam and flock.  It was a large task, but once a production line was set up it didn't take too long.  I bought the seafoam from a Spanish modelling supplies company for a reasonable price and the flock from the UK.  All the trees came in for around £150.

    The village scene.  This hides the entrance point to the left.  The church (approx N scale) is freelance from mounting card.  The pub is Scalescenes and the house from Superquick.
     

     

    These two shots are from the same viewpoint at different angles.  The illusion of distant hills is busted once viewed from above.
     
    That's it for now.  More pictures at a later date.
  22. PaternosterRow

    Cheslyn - 1914

    By PaternosterRow,

    The history of our railways is what really interests me. Its organic nature, one that has seen it evolve from private ownership to state and back to the half and half measure the system is subject to today, is a fascinating subject to study. The fact that Great Britain gave birth to the railway and, in doing so, has consequently had to make to do and mend with a very old system is testament to the pragmatic nature and engineering skill of the British. After all, who’d have thought it possible to run the fastest diesel engines in the world on a Victorian infrastructure? I somehow wanted to tell a small part of this story, something I wasn’t sure was possible with railway modelling until I joined RMweb and found the Farthing Layouts. Mikkel has a real talent for presentation and story telling and his Edwardian gems are a detailed study in GWR style and traction of the time. However, my layout is a bit of a cliché, a sort of ‘what if’ and ‘somewhere on the Western Region’ scheme and is anything but accurate. It relies heavily on RTR, Scalescenes and Will’s kits. As previously stated in an earlier blog, the layout was also heavily influenced by Geoff’s Penhydd, which I happen to think is the perfect model of a branch line in decline. But in defence this is my first foray into anything considered near fine scale hence the use of Code 75 and Spratt and Winkle couplings, but apart from a bit of weathering and the addition of figures to the locos that’s as far as it goes. So please expect an awful lot of inaccuracies etc. It just goes to show that there’s a lot of mileage in this hobby and so, so much to learn, but that’s all part of the fun. So here goes.
     
    Cheslyn on the Eve of the Great War.
     

     
    Lord and Lady Harlesham can be seen on the platform just beyond the footplate of the Dean Single. Harlesham is about to board the early train en route to London and Parliament to sign the ratification of the Royal Prerogative to declare War on Germany. His father, Lord Harlesham Senior, a director of GWR, had had the station built in 1889 at his own expense. The original intention was to build a simple spur from the preceding station, Tarnworth, to service his Fertilising plant situated near Cheslyn; however, The Board of Trade would only grant the scheme under the stipulation that a passenger station be also built to service the village of Cheslyn. An odd decision given that Tarnworth was a much more suitable terminus, possessing a much larger goods yard with stabling sheds and a turntable. Cheslyn never did receive much passenger traffic as a consequence, but despite this it survived the Beeching closures operating long after Tarnworth ceased to exist. This was no doubt due to the powerful lobby of the Harlesham family who enjoyed the use of the extension to service their business interests for almost ninety years.
     
    The figures on the footplate are from the Dapol range and the platform figures are Preiser.
     
     
     

     
    Billy and Mildred Cosgrove are waiting for the train to pull out. Corporal Cosgrove is on his way to the front to join his unit and can’t wait to get off. His wife, Mildred, was a dear, but for someone of twenty she had a very old head. Consequently, she had a tendency to nag a little too much, especially in public. A GWR man seconded to the Royal Engineers, he would be staffing the light railway network responsible for supplying the front line. This meant he would not see any real action and would be largely safe. This was much to his chagrin, of course, as most enlisted men wanted to be very much in the thick of things at the beginning. He and his ilk had to put up with much ribbing from ordinary riflemen and had to grin and bear being called a ‘rear unit Walla’ on more than one occasion.
     
    On the other hand Mildred knew her beloved husband could be given to pride and foolishness. She was constantly assuring him that his role was just a vital to the war effort as any other service. She is making him promise that he’ll keep his head down and do nothing rash and also that he’ll write at least once a week despite his protestations. He was trying to assure her that there was no need for all the fussing because the war would be over by Christmas. Billy was duly relieved when he heard the boarding whistle.
     
    Billy is from the Airfix WWI set and has had to be remodelled using an arm from a Dapol figure which doesn’t quite fit (more about this in another photo). Mildred is from the Preiser Edwardian set. Usually, putting a HO and OO figure together doesn’t look quite right, but in this case, they match quite well I think.
     
     
     

     
    Millie Fenner, the flower seller, can be seen touting her wares to passengers; a common sight on Edwardian platforms. Another nicely rendered Preiser figure – they are so well made and painted you can see the features of her face and she looks quite convincing.
     
     
     

     
    I like this picture but it is let down by the Billy figure. His new right arm is slightly out of scale but there’s a good reason for this. I had to cut the original arm off as it was waving a signal flag and replace it with a suitable one from another figure from the same kit. The super glue would not work on the springy plastic so I had to use a bit of wire to join the new arm up with body. Unfortunately, the arm sprang off into the air whilst fixing and after about half an hour of searching on my hands and knees I gave up. Another arm was hastily cut from a Dapol station figure and fixed into place. I just finished painting the figure when I felt a stabbing pain in my big toe. I’m given to wearing sandals around the house so thought I’d stubbed it up against the chair leg. However, under closer inspection, I found the original arm sticking out of my sock including the piece of wire which had buried itself into my skin! Patience really is a virtue and looking at the picture now I wished I had carefully extracted the old arm and used it instead of throwing it out of the window in a fit of temper.
     
     
     

     
     
    George Harne (driver) and Fred Legg (fireman) are taking on much needed fuel and water. The coaling stage was cobbled together from matchsticks and coffee stirrers. There’s no substitute for using real materials in a scene like this as they show up well in model form. Real coal was also used and fixed in place with matt varnish which I prefer to use rather than watered down PVA.
     
     
     

     
    Say what you like about RTR, but I love the rivet detail on the Hornby Pannier and look at the crisp lining on the Hornby Clerestories behind. This is another favourite pic as it gives a sense of real depth.
     
     

     
     
    I’m always open to criticism and advice as I’m keen to learn exactly how railways actually functioned. The next instalment will be set around the time of WWII some thirty years on so any tips, comments would be really welcome in the meantime.
  23. PaternosterRow
    The Express Models welding unit has finally gone in and, apart from eagerly awaiting some goodies from Ehattons, the layout is more or less complete.
     

     

     

     

     

     

     
    The building could be slotted into a larger layout if need be but that's for another time. At the moment I'm having a bit of fun modifying a SuperQuick Ash Plant for a small shed scene.
  24. PaternosterRow
    The roof covering is complete. Just waiting for some lights to arrive in the post now. There's still a load to do - the gable roof caps and the top capping over the ridge spines (which are channels for the wires for the lights etc). Then it's on to the interior overhead cranes and elevated offices along the back gable end wall. After that it's the locos and all the rest of the stuff needed to complete a realistic works setting.
     

     

     

     

     
    This is the effect I'm after - a shot of Horwich Works in 1949 with a brand new Ivatt Class 4 Mogul coming out of the erecting shop on the traverser (the picture is from the October 2012 issue of British Railways Illustrated). My model traverser is much bigger in order to take a diesel or a steam engine with tender.
     

     
    The outer roof covering is just masking tape that has been painted black and matt varnished - this gives the impression of an asphalt covering. In this last pic you can see the ridge spine channels that'll take the electric wires for the interior lights. I've ordered some pendant lights from Express models who have also made up a bespoke dimmer switch that will allow me to play about with the light levels for photographic purposes.
  25. PaternosterRow
    At last the Southern Pride Class 304 has been finished. The layout would have been incomplete without it, but building it has tried my patience and I'd think twice before having a go as such a large kit again. The instructions were clear and the kit itself is very well made, but you really need prior experience and I rather think I jumped into the deep end with this.
     

     

    The lead driving vehicle was the last car built and it has turned out much neater than the driving brake car (see below). I learnt an awful lot between each build!
     

     
    It's been a hard slog as these kits are not for the faint hearted. It arrived at the end of March, but progress has been interrupted by some house decorating - I was only supposed to paint one room, but ended up doing three plus the hallway! Then my boss had a bit of a windfall and some badly needed maintenance work was carried out at the holiday cottage complex where I work part time. All this took about 5 weeks so I couldn't devote the time I wanted to on the model.
     
    When the kit first arrived I was dumbfounded by the amount of stuff inside and was convinced that I wouldn't be able to complete it having never built a kit like this before. I decided to make the driving brake vehicle first - it was a near disaster and I ended up making rather a hash of it. However, I learnt a lot from those initial mistakes and the each car got a little easier thereafter.
     

    How not to do it! The first vehicle of the 4 car set was a right hash up and it was pulled back from absolute disaster several times. I really hate Humbrol warning yellow - it comes out lumpy even when spraying. The trouble is that I can't get quality paints over here and have to make do with what is available. On the other driving vehicle I used an acrylic car spray - it's not quite warning yellow, but it looks a hell of lot better than the Humbrol!
     

    The lead driving vehicle - much better work this time.
     

    Out of the box - the 4 car set at several stages of construction.
     

    The hinges being soldered onto the brass sides. There was a fret that contained the handles but I had no idea how you would go about soldering these on without making a real mess (seems like you need three pairs of hands or some sort of tool that I don't have). Therefore, I decided to make my own out of wire and solder these from the back.
     

    A finished side. It looks rather neat when first complete - that's when the real fun starts when you have to rebend it to shape afterward and glue it onto to base.
     

    You really have to go at the solder blobs at the back of the brass side with a sanding drum. This makes the brass flaten out and you have to really try and bring it back to the original shape afterwards.
     
    There was a load of fettling getting everything to fit correctly, but it has turned out fairly okay. The only modification I made was the full running board on each car. I distinctly remember these as a kid and they are a reminder of an earlier age regarding coaching stock. I also chose to use acetate for the windows which was glued on with some PVA to the inside face as, try as I might, I couldn't get the roof to fit using the clear resin window bars that came with the kit.
     
    The model isn't motorised yet. I might try and persuade Southern Pride to sell me the Driving Brake again - I'll make a better job of it next time around and also fit some Black Beetle units at the same time.
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