D869

Nice job Mark.

Neatly trimmed hedge too

I'd be scared of using acrylics for the paint on/wipe off technique myself - I never seem to get them into that intermediate state of being dry but still shiftable with thinners. Enamel is very forgiving in this regard.

Maybe some acrylic brands are better than others for this?

Regards, Andy

Passenger service... an Ivatt 2MT and a single Bulleid brake springs to mind. I gather that the staff often outnumbered the passengers. Not exactly BR blue though. I wonder if there were any DMU specials down there in freight only days. A loco hauled special might be a tad long.

And... ball clay rather than china clay - same wagon design but reserved for ball clay traffic and a stripe on the hood to show the difference.

There's a catch point shown in the photo... so that'll be 2 points then

Regards, Andy

Cheers Jerry. Always good to have a catch up.

Thanks. There seemed to be a pretty good crowd in front of the layout at Wells too but glad that you managed to get a decent view.

Thanks Joseph. Glad you enjoyed it.

Looks like a warm one!

Glad it went well.

Regards, Andy

Beautifully detailed/finished work Andy. 

 

The subtle weathering gives the tanks a nice work worn finish.

 

Cheers,

 

Mark

Thanks Mark. Hope you are well.

A Murgatroyd original, excellent modelling.

Any chance of a "how I did them" article, I've got a few H/D tank bodies awaiting treatment!

 

Mike.

Mike,

Actually Murgatroyds (later BP) was the third big chlorine tank owner but their tanks did not run to Hayle as far as I know. Their 14T tanks had yet more detail differences from the ICI and Octel tanks - most notably they kept their high mounted barge boards into the 1970s (ICI stopped using these some time before WW2). They also ran bogie chlorine tanks.

Peter Fidczuk did a series of four articles in 'Railway Archive' a few years ago - one of these was specifically about Murgatroyds tanks if you want more detail on the real thing. Another one covered ICI and one Octel, and the first one covered the earlier shed-like tanks.

I didn't say much about the latest tank build because it is very similar to the Octel tanks that I built a couple of years back and described during the build. They use 3d prints for the tank and woodwork and etches for the other bits. You can still find the detail in my back catalog...

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blog/blog-722/cat-507-wagons

The other one (the sheddy one) is a one piece 3d print on top of an etched chassis.

Regards, Andy

Thanks Kris. Glad you and your son enjoyed it. Normally we have a periscope for use by vertically challenged viewers but I think we left it back at base on this occasion... sorry about that.

Regards, Andy

I have the same glasses!

I'd be having a serious talk with your optician then

Was hoping to see some pics of some of the Cornish Ale you drunk...

Just for you then Pete.

Cheers Don. It seems to be a bit of a theme in the 2mm Association. I know of a couple of folks currently interested in 16mm and a few years back one of our former area group members also did 16mm.

You are very welcome Natalie. Thanks for your kind remarks.

I think I was aware although it's a looong time since I saw one. I'm sure that we have green paint too but I suspect the result would be too unsubtle.

Nice job on the 24 Pete. Looking very neat... just needs to look a bit less clean now

Thurso, definitely!

I'm sure that your usual audience will be just as unbiased as I am.

Regards, Andy

Thanks Ian and Andy. The LEDs are series wired with suitable resistors after some experimenting to try to achieve sensible levels of lighting. The other issue is colour - most (all?) of the tiny surface mount white LEDs only come in cool white which looks pretty nasty to my eye in a model context. We've coloured these with yellow glass paint where they are supposed to represent tungsten bulbs... but not where they represent mercury street lamps.

Regards, Andy

Thanks Andy - sorry, my bad on the phrasing. I meant the latter, running the layout in night time mode.

 

I was thinking you might start off during daytime mode, then introduce the black sheet as the day goes on...a nod to the dark side

Looks very good. The nightime running should be very atmospheric. The only downside is it might make it  harder for people to see the benefits of finescale track and wheels also you excellent work.

I presume the black sheet can be left in place so you can change from light to dark and back. What about coach lighting have you got any stock prepared.

The black sheet stays put all the time so the layout's own lights provide all of the illumination for the daytime scenes. We have added some wire frames over the halogen spots to keep the cloth well clear and this seems to work fine with no worrying build-up of heat.

Lighting in the trains is still to be done. Fortunately only a subset of the stock runs at night. Unfortunately all of those coaches belong to me.

Plagiarism can always be translated as "research"! I claim no copyright on display boards - after all I came up with that after I couldn't get the departure board idea working very effectively and that was nicked from St Ruth. I'm glad I didn't have to calculate the curve on the slant that you have - a 20 degree slope on a 90 degree corner was enough for me! It does add something though, keeps folk away from the layout just enough without being a barrier and gives them extra info. On something like St Ruth with lots of prototype info to share, I'm sure you have lots of material you can play with. I look forward to seeing the finger-proofed version.

 

The night view seems very effective although I'm glad it wasn't me who had to install all those LEDs.

Thanks Nigel. I think you are assuming a much more mathematical process than was actually the case - I think the job was done rather more freehand with some trial and error and then the info panels were done by tracing the curve from the ply and (I assume) scanning it in. I still think we could use some way to keep the finger (or frequently, big camera lens) pokers back a bit from the goods yard.

Regards, Andy

quality looks very good,  I intend to use ardunios to control lighting on my own home layout   can I have more details of the street / station lamps please

Thanks Nick. I'll pass on your request to Andrew (street lamps) and John (platform lamps). Both use surface mount LEDs as the light source but they are better placed to tell you about how the lamps are put together.

Looks good Andy - glad the show went well.

 

Is the intention to always run the show in this setting or was it a trial? Just curious.

Thanks Pete. Not sure whether you mean the whole show... in which case this is their second year at the college... which brings with it the usual likes and dislikes in terms of exhibits being spread around several rooms. If you mean the night time running on St Ruth, then yes it's something that we intend to continue. I think the reaction from the audience was positive but this is the first time that we've had a serious go at it so we have plenty of rough edges to sort out.

Regards, Andy

Thanks Don.

Is that a traditional toobeewan softwood frame that I see before me?

Regards, Andy

Cheers Don.

I agree that the cosmetic appearance is neither here nor there. It's the stability that I'm most concerned about.

I'm by no means an expert on ply, nor do I know a good ply seller from a bad one but it seems to me that if I go to a timber merchant who sells a number of different kinds of ply and is up front about the different grades and the composition of the various options then I stand a better chance of getting something that will stand the test of time.

I've already spoken to a local timber merchant (Avon Timber in Coventry). They told me that I probably didn't need birch ply but they also said that it would be less likely to splinter when cut than hardwood faced ply. It's about 37 quid for an 8 by 4 sheet of Grade BB/BB 6.5mm ply which doesn't seem hugely expensive to me. I haven't worked out how much I need yet though.

Regards, Andy

When doing my layout design I did wonder whether somewhere like Modbury would have had stabling.  In the end decided that any moving of wagons would probably be done by the UP pick-up goods, and any slight shuffling of wagons afterwards would have been done by the station staff with pinch bars.  Would such a station have had its own GWR flat waggon (horse drawn) for delivery/pick up of goods?  I have no idea!  I really must properly read the GWR Goods books I have to see if any clues can be found therein!

I had a quick shufty at the maps in the old OPC Kingsbridge branch book. The 'original' layout at Kingsbridge shows a 'garage' near the goods yard approach road. 'Garage' seems unlikely to be an original 1890s feature so this may have been a stable. It was swept away by the construction of a later siding.

On the Gara Bridge map there is a unlabeled rectangle at the back of the goods yard but looking at photos this seems to be a rather ramshackle building with very low eaves which may have predated the railway. There doesn't seem to be anything else likely on the map.

An interesting study Mikkel.

It's probably worth thinking about the way that stables work in general when trying to understand this stuff... which is probably not massively different today because the Mk1 horse is still with us although more nowadays for leisure purposes.

Ventilation is important in stables, not just for the obvious reasons but also to reduce the risk of transmitting respiratory disease between the occupants.

They also need somewhere to store feed, bedding and tack.. plus some place to put the manure which may or may not have been shipped out quickly.

There needs to be space (probably outdoors) to get the horses ready for work and for the farrier to do his job.

As you have observed, busy urban depots are very different from rural spots. Apart from fitting more into a smaller space I suspect that there was a lot more 'just in time' activity in terms of feed supply and waste removal.

Regards, Andy

Glad you had a good time Pete. I'm sure you will get over any gremlins with a bit of testing and troubleshooting time.

Regards, Andy

Good luck at the show Pete. Does your recent appointment of a chief operator free you up for additional nattering then?

Watch out for the bad throat and jaw ache. Nattering all day can be quite taxing.

I'll wait until I get around to that horse worked tramway layout... for which I also need working 2mm scale horses so it may be a while yet.

Hayle Wharves have long been on my personal map of interesting places in Cornwall. I'm sure you'll make a great job of it.

 

Presumably you will have to build a fair bit of inlaid track?

 

David

Thanks David. I certainly have my work cut out!

There was certainly some inlaid track where the lines coincided with the roadway along the back of the wharf. Much of the rest of it was buried by wind blown sand whenever I visited, so that will be another thing to replicate. Then there will be track buried under big piles of coal.

There were also small sections of granite sleeper blocks (even in 2012) surrounded by what I can best describe as brickwork 'setts'. I guess that these date back to the Hayle Railway. The 1950s aerial photos show some of these blocks with rails still in place although the turnout geometry is err... primitive so I doubt whether they were in use.

So plenty of variety for trackwork 'finishes'. I'm not too worried about the sleeper positions on the Templot plan because I reckon that most of them will be invisible for one reason or another.

I can't seem to find the option in Templot for granite block sleepering

Regards, Andy