Atso

A bit of inspiration for you to get on with yours Jerry - admittedly mine (representing a vehicle of 40ish years of service) is somewhat gottier than it would have been at the turn of the last century. It predates my current method for representing teak coaches.

They're not. It got shipped over from the States. Very expensive way of doing things but worth it - hopefully they'll be available in the UK before too long.

I've been building some more turnouts and thought I'd (finally) take the advice a few people have given me to pivot the turnout blades on the tie bars. Not wishing to have to accurately drill though sixty odd stips of glass fibre board, I turned to 3D printing them on the Anycubic Photon. The prints still attached the their bases. I've used Siraya Blu resin which is much tougher (and more expensive!) than many of the other brands. It is also heat resistant enough to withstand short periods in contact with the soldering iron. The pivots are simply brass dressmaker's pins inserted into the rebate on the bottom and cut to length before soldering them to the blades. Unfortunately, the tie bars are somewhat thicker than the sleepers but I've been cutting recesses into the boards for all my turnouts anyway and so don't foresee any additional difficulties installing them.

Nice work Tom! My own most recent print has been somewhat less elaborate. Some tie bars to make up to allow turnout blades to pivot. These have been printed in Siraya Blu which is a tough (and expensive!) resin. It will withstand much more abuse than the Anycubic resins and is reasonably resistant to soldering temperatures. The pivots are brass dressmaker pins, cut to length and soldered to the blades.

I'm not great with leaving people in suspense (not that I suspect that anyone was!). A simple oscillating unit which will end up powering a virtual O gauge loco of some type. I doubt it'll ever get built but I've always wanted to have a go. By setting up various assembly constraints, I have been able to test it - sadly I can't make it into an animation. The crank is very much representational at the moment and only added for play value! Can anyone give me an idea just how wide the frames are on an O gauge locomotive (fine standards, not S7). Based on the wheel B2B of 29mm, I'm working on the assumption that 26-27mm between the outer faces is OK.

Thanks Mike. I used them neat but in very small amounts.

Nope. :-)

A belated thanks to Richard and best wishes on your own build - they are looking excellent! I think that the lockdown has begun to get to me as I've started messing around with a new idea (I really should be building more fiddle yard track!). It's just a bit of fun using CAD at the moment and isn't N gauge. Anyone want to venture a guess as to what it is?

Not wishing to crash Mike's more recent thread which link his excellent videos, I thought I'd provide an update on my modified Trice method here (crashing his older thread - sorry Mike!). My N gauge 58'6" Buffet Car model. I'm still using the same oil colours as in my previous posts but have switched to trying to create the right hue without using a tinted varnish, which was proving difficult to control. First I pick a main colour, in this case burnt umbre, and put a little onto the model using a fine tip brush. Next I take an older brush that has lost its point and spread the colour around a little. Then I add small amounts of the other colours. ...and then lightly blend these in, periodically wiping the brush onto a piece of kitchen towel to remove excess paint. I then move onto the next panel and continue. It's then a case of doing the vertical panels and toprail. The side is then left for 24-48 hours before getting a coat of gloss acrylic varnish and then repeating the process for the other side. Once both sides are done, lining, brasswork and decals are added and sealed with more acrylic gloss varnish once dry. The final stage is to give the model a coat of matt acrylic varnish.

Just a quick update to prove that track building really has recommenced! A whole three meters of additional track for the fiddle yard.

Great stuff Simon, lovely work on the brake gear! I use a 20cm by 20cm Tufnol block from Eileen's Emporium for my soldering. It'll still suffer some damage but lasts a lot longer than woods.

Thanks Matthew, Sadly there isn't a lot available for the ex-GNR coaches required, although Dave Eveleigh's twelve wheel dining first and full brake would be useful (if I can can find someone to take on all the other etches). Ultima can sort out about 85% of the LNER Gresley 61'6" stock (about 30% of the total gangway stock) and Worsley Works the 51' stuff but otherwise I'm on my own. Thankfully my Anycubic Photon will just fit a 58'6" coach within its build area so that covers quite a bit of what will be needed; I can design up some etches for the rest. The, as yet unfinished, 3D printed Buffet Car with 2mm Association buffets (MK1s filed to a more appropriate shape), bogies, wheels (N gauge) and underframe fittings.

A very belated thank you Jeremy! It's been awhile since my last update. That's mainly because not a lot has happened regarding the layout itself. However, I've now started to build the next batch of track, but I am currently isolating at my other half's so it will be awhile until I can get access to the layout itself. Otherwise, I've been working on four of the five carriages required for the Cambridge Buffet Express but have now gone about as far as I can go until I can get some more bits and pieces. The carriages can be found on my workbench thread (link in my signature). Otherwise, I've been busy trying to work out compromises to some of the longer passenger formations that I would like on Hadley Wood. This issue isn't only length, but trying to find a suitable compromise between the running periods so that the Down and Up services are both plausible, despite the upgrading of stock over this period. This has been a time consuming but fascinating subject to research. This has however revealed the extent of the stock building programme needed for the layout. While not surprising, finally seeing that I've identified over 40 carriages but only eight of them can be produced using RTR items out of the box, is a sobering thought...

If you're talking about the ECJS/GN type covering dia. 38, 39, 39A, 286, 287, etc, Isinglass do a drawing (No. 4/144) but it is listed in the Composite carriages section of the catalog for some reason. I only stumbled across it by accident when searching for the dia. 164K Composite for the Cambridge set. I've had little success at printing 4mm scale stuff on my printer - although I know Mike Trice has managed it on his machine (same type). Mike has also been a great help keeping me on the straight and narrow regarding getting details more or less correct on my efforts - it is his knowledge and tutoring that has really allowed me to improve on my earlier efforts and he deserves much credit here.

Thank you both. I'm please with them, but it is a bit daunting to think that there are still another hundred to go to fill Hadley Wood's fiddle yard! Good thing I always knew the layout would be a long term project!

Thank you for letting me know. I'll keep my fingers crossed that you are able to locate the artwork. If I can add a plea for some second class door numbers to be added (as used on the quad sets and a few other services until 1938ish) as well, that would be wonderful.

I've managed to get a bit more done on my N gauge Cambridge Buffet set. The Dapol Third in the centre of the set is a temporary stand in for an unstarted ex-GN 61'6 Composite.

Hello all, I've been slowly making progress on my Cambridge Buffet set. The whole set, with a Dapol Third standing in for the unstarted ex-GN 61'6" Composite (middle carriage in the set). Still plenty to do, but I'm pleased with how they are turning out.

It's been a little while since the last update, but things have been slowly moving forward. Here is the state of the Cambridge set at the moment. The set with an LNER built Third standing in for the 61'6" ex-GN Composite which hasn't been started yet. I've not yet tackled the footboards or dynamos on any of these carriages. Dia. 257 58'6" Brake Third No. 43057. Yet to be glazed and missing the 'Guard' legend as I've run out of decals. Dia. 78T 58'6" Buffet Car No. 41552. I've still got to glaze this one as well and fabricate the gas tanks. Dia. 248D Third. Glazed but awaiting final completion. Dia. 257 Brake Third. Missing the LNER and Guard lettering and awaiting corridor bellows. Overall I'm pretty pleased with how these are turning out.

Great to see the range of decals growing. I've been using the LNER ones extensively and have now run out of the small font LNER branding. I've noticed that these are currently TOS and wondered if I might make a request for the next batch? While the decals are of excellent quality, the 'GUARD' branding is about twice the size it should be. As this needs to fit within a upper door panel, this is slightly disappointing (the only thing). I wonder if it might be possible to have the artwork altered to correct this on future batches? Many thanks (sorry to be a pain).

Hi Justin, I went the other way and decided that the single 'V' hangers on each side was more important to me from a visual perspective. Horses for courses as neither is correct really.

I'm not sure that the GC vans ever got LNER fitted unframes Justin. I used the Association replacement for the Peco chassis for mine. It isn't correct either but looks closer compared to photos I have. I'm considering using the LMS fitted chassis for the other three I've got to build. Vac pipes and door handrails have been added since this photo was taken.

Thank you Tony. I'm sure it is possible to make the front steps. However, I think I'll wait until I have a bit more of a layout to ensure they won't cause any clearance issues with the pony.

Lovely K3s Tony! As you asked, here are my two. You may recall taking this picture in Pickering when 2425 was operating as a guest loco a few years back. Here is 2425 again with a ten pence pieces for scale. 4004, with early GST. One for the future, No. 91 with NER style cab and GNR tender. All of these models are based around Farish N class donor chassis with 3D printed bodies. 61879 was built for a friend and based around a V2 chassis and B1 tender drive that he supplied. Hadley Wood will eventually have somewhere between six and eight examples of this wonder class of locomotives.

Thanks guys, Progress has had to take a back burner for the last couple of days. Following the stay at home order, I relocated to my girlfriend's flat so that she wouldn't be spending three weeks on her own. Naturally modelling stuff came with me and, now that everything has been squared away, progress on the Cambridge set has resumed.