“FLIGHTS OF WHIMSY”

[Northroader]

It’s been quiet for some time on here as I’ve been working elsewhere in the loft, but yesterday my two granddaughters came on a visit. They wanted to have a play up there, and this line got the most attention, maybe because it was an oval layout, and you could get more of a run than on the other lines, I think. Having the two of them they rather got in each other’s way, and the oval is live all the time, so anything placed on it will go immediately. I rather enjoyed the look at the end of their intensive “operating session”, and took a picture before I sorted it out. There’s no harm done, I tend to build everything to be pretty solid without finicky detail which can be damaged, just because that’s how I model, not especially allowing for expecting visits from those two. I hope in the future they remember fondly working on Grandads Railway, because that’s how it should be, isn’t it?

(sorry, loss of picture)

 

Edited June 26, 2023 by Northroader

[Donw]

Very sensible to be able to let them play. If one has expensive fragile items these can be best put away and some workaday items suitable for a bit of rough and tumble  put out for them to use.

 

Don

[Nearholmer]

I like it!

 

I've recently changed the "children's loco" on my layout, to meet emergent customer requirements (fancy, eh?).

 

The Harry Potter Hall is on the way to eBay, and in its place has come a rather natty little ETS Czech 0-4-0T and accompanying brake/luggage van, bought from eBay for a lot less than the HP loco will fetch. Why? Because the demand now is for a small cute engine with a cab that can accommodate a couple of crew members, and all wagons must have sliding doors to admit passengers ........ the stress of seeing metal figurines scraping in and out of my own tank engines was beginning to threaten my wellbeing, and the one old Hornby cattle wagon that had served for passenger transport up to now was getting dangerously overcrowded.

 

The ETS loco must be 20+ years old judging by the box and the way the brass-work has tarnished, and it has clearly put in a lot of miles, but is still a very good performer, which is testament to the ruggedness of the breed.

 

 

Edited November 26, 2019 by Nearholmer

[Northroader]

I would think that pretty well all of what you’re running, Kevin, would stand up to having the controller left open and the points not changed. Maybe if you regard it as collectors items, the odd paint scrape would be of concern, but I do believe having some of the rest of the family being able to enjoy your modelling hobby is a huge bonus. The opens on the Washbourne line always end up with the horses and carts inside to go for a ride. Agreed ETS is nice and durable, good running, I’ve got the 0-6-0T picked up reasonably second hand, currently it’s having the swastikas removed and reverting  to the kkStB, with some C&W items to go with it.

Edited November 26, 2019 by Northroader

[Nearholmer]

Minor derailments aren’t a worry; the prospect of a loco plunging four feet onto a concrete floor definitely is. And, when a loco has survived c65 years largely unscathed, it seems a pity to have all the paint round the cab door chipped off, and the cab roof bent.

[Northroader]

Ply “fence” round the edge, dear boy. My use of them on Englefield has been questioned, but it’s does prevent things going bump on the floor.

[Nearholmer]

Hmmmm ......... I just find them intrusive.

 

Actually, the only person who has ever shot a train off the layout is ...... well, me. And, I’ve done it more than once.
 

But that’s different.

[Northroader]

All the effort for the last month has been going on my other threads, but there is just one development to look at. There’s now a backscenes support in place. This is just a piece of hardboard supported on two  battens bolted to the rear longitudinal. It stands just 13.5” (340mm) above the baseboard, and has a piece of cartridge  paper clipped to it. I’m working on a Scottish Highland scene, doing it with acrylic paint. The first bits to go in are some birch trees, a snow fence, and some rock outcrops, and then these will be covered over with some masking medium, and overpainted with washes for a foreground and Loch Necky.

 

Thank you for your interest and contributions this year, may I wish you a happy Christmas, and best wishes for the New Year, with plenty of modelling progress.

 

 

[Donw]

3 hours ago, Northroader said:

All the effort for the last month has been going on my other threads, but there is just one development to look at. There’s now a backscenes support in place. This is just a piece of hardboard supported on two  battens bolted to the rear longitudinal. It stands just 13.5” (340mm) above the baseboard, and has a piece of cartridge  paper clipped to it. I’m working on a Scottish Highland scene, doing it with acrylic paint. The first bits to go in are some birch trees, a snow fence, and some rock outcrops, and then these will be covered over with some masking medium, and overpainted with washes for a foreground and Loch Necky.

 

Thank you for your interest and contributions this year, may I wish you a happy Christmas, and best wishes for the New Year, with plenty of modelling progress.

 

 

 

Looks promising and all good wishes to you and yours.

 

Don

Edited December 17, 2019 by Donw
typo

[Northroader]

It’s Burns Night, so I thought I’d post a view of the newly finished back scene, as it forms a suitable (I hope) setting for my “Highland Railway” models. Done on cartridge paper using p.v.a. paints.

 

(Sorry, loss of picture)

Later tonight, sip golden liquid from a small tumbler:

 

” And there’s a hand, my trusty fiere,

  And gie’s a hand o’ thine,

 And we’ll tak a right gude willy waught,

 For auld Lang syne”

 

 

 

Edited June 26, 2023 by Northroader

[Compound2632]

Very atmospheric. I do have one quibble though: surely it's the Sou' West one should be modelling to celebrate Burns?

 

 

 

[Northroader]

True, just regard him as a national champion. Doubt if I’ll ever manage to fit the G&SWR in, any excuse for a drink though.

[Donw]

That is a really lovelly backscene. I suppose the mountains are a little high for Glen Trool in Galloway but look fine for the Highlands. If Burns didn't go there  the worse for him.

 

Don

[Northroader]

 

Psstt, Don, don’t look now, but...

 

Edited June 26, 2023 by Northroader

[Compound2632]

13 minutes ago, Northroader said:

True, just regard him as a national champion. 

 

Indeed, although the popular conception of Scottishness - particularly the image of the Highlander

 

 

is largely due to the North British Railway's favourite tourist attraction:

 

 

Although I do think the Midland's use of the image of a hairy Highlander approving of its cheap fares is a degree of stereotyping that wouldn't get past the Advertising Standards Authority these days.

 

[Northroader]

Aye...

 

Edited June 26, 2023 by Northroader

[Donw]

5 hours ago, Northroader said:

Psstt, Don, don’t look now, but...

 

I think there may be a bit of exaggeration in that painting. Merrick is pretty high at 843m  but is described as an easy hill walk from Glen Trool. Not that we walked there from Glen Trool and I will admit it was at least 45 years ago when we visited. The mountains may have shrunk in memory. I do remember seeing Mountain goats though and will never forget being in a caravan just behind Auchenmalg Beach when a storm force 12 came through. In those day we had a Robin three wheeler lightweight fibreglass body, the trip back to camp from Kircudbright with the storm approaching had been somwhat lively. 

 

Don

 

Don

[Northroader]

Never seen the south western hills, I agree they do look a bit on the high side. I’ve done a tiny bit of Munro-ing, and they look good for that.

[rockershovel]

I’m intrigued that “lavatory cars” is an advertising point....

 

[Compound2632]

11 minutes ago, rockershovel said:

I’m intrigued that “lavatory cars” is an advertising point....

 

 

I'm not certain but I suspect that poster dates from the 1890s. Dining carriages were introduced on the Midland Scotch expresses in 1893, enabling the overall journey time to be reduced by the omission of the 25 minute luncheon stop at Normanton. This seems to have been in response to the LNWR's new stock for the 2pm Scottish Express, which as well as including dining saloons that set the "Wolverton Diner" style for the remainder of the company's existence, was the first proper corridor train allowing passengers to move between their compartments and the dining saloons, and, of course, the lavatories. The new Midland dining carriages did not have gangway connections to the rest of the train (only between the pair of dining carriages, for service use), establishing the Midland tradition that dining passengers travelled all the way in the dining carriage. At the same time, many of the existing Midland Scotch Joint Stock carriages had one compartment converted to a pair of lavatories, providing facilities for the compartments on either side. By doing this, the Midland managed to keep its amenities competitive with those of the LNWR without the 30% increase in train weight per passenger of a full corridor train. On a long journey - over eight hours, with over two hours between some stops - access to a lavatory was certainly a selling point. 

 

The Midland succumbed, introducing corridor carriages on its Scotch Expresses in 1899, and big engines to pull them - the Belpaires and, in 1902, the Smith-Johnson Compounds. By 1905-7, the Midland was well on the way to becoming a fully corridor line as far as its principal expresses were concerned, lagging a few years behind the LNWR.

[rockershovel]

On 26/11/2019 at 15:03, Nearholmer said:

Minor derailments aren’t a worry; the prospect of a loco plunging four feet onto a concrete floor definitely is. And, when a loco has survived c65 years largely unscathed, it seems a pity to have all the paint round the cab door chipped off, and the cab roof bent.

 

Go Lionel! The ability to survive a header from the layout to the floor seems to be a positive advertising point, judging by US forums... 

[Northroader]

Some time ago I showed how I cooked up the locos and carriages for this job, so I’d best finish off with how the wagonry was done. First of all, the goods brake van was done in the same way, being shrunk down to size on a computer spreadsheet. I’m afraid the printer head was playing up, so the print is too poor to show now, but here’s the van. It’s done in plastikard, with Evergreen vee groove sides, placed on a long wheelbase 00 chassis.

 

I found that if I tried to do the same thing on open wagons, I couldn’t get the finished result on a shrink spreadsheet looking right, so I went to plan B, taking the body dimensions from IoMR and W&L examples, which are roughly the right equivalent size. I used a body length of 12’, width just under 6’, and side height of around 2’6” or so. These were made from 2mm ply, as when the sides are done like this, they’re less susceptible to bowing, and put on ordinary 00 wagon underframes. One has a commercially made set of barrels done in resin castings, the other has another scheme I’m trying out, a wagon sheet done from cooking foil.  One other comment to make on opens is that trying to do private owner wagons doesn’t come out looking right on a narrow gauge version.

 

 

To finish off, there’s a sheep wagon, and here I just took the proportions of the opens to a cross section of the brake van, then eyeballed the body from a photograph. This is another plastikard job, and on a standard wagon chassis.

 

These all have magnetic couplers, with a magnet at one end, and a plain steel disc at the other. One thing I’ve found is to make sure the couplings are able to swing freely, any stiffness and you get a derailment. To finish off, here’s a picture of the complete goods train heading past a heathery brae towards Loch Necky.

(Sorry, loss of picture)

 

Edited June 26, 2023 by Northroader

[Nearholmer]

I’m now completely convinced of the reality of this railway!

[ian]

Private owner narrow gauge wagons don't look right?

 

[Northroader]

Well, it didn’t come off when I tried it, that one looks really nice.