Drovers Brook track and power

Where we're at: Drovers Brook in the intermediate stage of being on the short trestles while the basic track and wiring went in. This meant I was back to having a layout in the middle of the room again, something that is not in the slightest bit convenient. In some ways there is nothing to see here, and any description could just refer to c2017 when the AoTC was under construction, as the methods and thinking are all but identical excepting the 75/Bullhead combo.

I managed to get about 85% on the plain track done with the BH the remaining bits at the far left (van siding and H/S) were done with 75 with the sleepers rejigged to match the spacing, i.e. exactly what I did with Dury's Gap. Usual simple three feeds with the points doing the isolating - the one engine in steam operation requires little else. The DPDT switches at the front (as per the AoTC) will be scenic-ed around to make them less obvious. This is very much a home beast, although it it nominally requested for the WRG show in March displayed very much in 'home operation' setting, and not on the usual high trestles with the lighting tubes.

 

Trefach in Railway Modeller

For obvious reasons the 009 layout build has only had glances here and now is revealed in a series of articles in RM beginning this month. The first on the reasoning behind the design and the baseboard. Most of this is not new for regulars here, but the expert carpentry will probably blow the minds of the general RM buying public.

Anyway, for part one, rush out and get the mag; but be quick as it seems to be popular and has already gone from the local WHS hereabouts. Just shows the excitement that one of my baseboard builds can trigger.

Moving forward, the layout is sitting stacked behind the Editor's desk in the RM office now, and as I understand is not destined to see the light of day until the SEC show in Glasgow in March although the whole thing was timed for the NEC next month, and we all know what happened to that.

 

Skip

The last piece (for the minute) for Rhiw is a skip; one of those that sits by the lineside with a mix of gash inside and seemingly has no means of being retrieved.

The root is one of a pair from the Peco Modelscene range which is stamped Leafdale Models 1988 underneath. A couple of coats of paint to dull the bright yellow plastic and then the full scrapbox treatment for the contents. This was a scrabble down to the bottom for some small bits of sheet and wood and I can proudly announce a boxed ticked. Rhiw was the first layout for a while not to have any part of a Wills Occupation Bridge kit on it... now it has.

 

Concrete hut

 

Yes more crazy old stuff. ref. the post below, a tally hut for the private siding. The cognoscenti will recognise this as not being an expensive etched brass kit, and for me points out exactly what is wrong with the hobby; we're getting so the high cost and the new have become more important than polishing what is already out there. (tap, tap). It is of course, one of these...

The very long in the tooth Hornby, nee Triang, turntable motor covering hut. The window frames aside it is a very crisp detailed moulding and with a bit of gentle alteration and paint comes out quite well. These are ubiquitous in rummage boxes at exhibitions and can be pence to purchase. Play that against the equivalent P*c* kit at about £4 and you're on a winner. In a few short moments this will be installed on Rhiw 2 where no one will see it.

Fences

Catching up.

After a week in the sun, where I actually got some modelling done, it's back to the workbench. However this is not all moving in a linear fashion and I was minded to move away from the new project for a bit and get a couple of things done on Rhiw 2. This was far from urgent, but the stuff is floating around and I was in the mood to do it.

The private siding area has always been slightly vague and needed the viewer and operator to use a deal of imagination as to where all this stuff was going and why. It needed some sort of essential physical marking to show that stock was leaving the mainline and going somewhere else. Fences and gates are great for this, so here we are. Some Maquett mesh was cut on the diagonal and thin posts added from 20thou strip, with a couple of repairs added in. Posts and gate are Ratio and from Nigel's bottomless pile of bits. The tally hut to do and some light clutter to throw around. Understand that most of this will be hidden behind the bank and is therefore a waste of effort.