Wills signal box

 A long, long time ago in the year 2018 BT, a magazine editor warned me off using the Wills signal box kit. 'Tricky'. So I went down the Dapol route. Now is my chance to find out. TBH the first impressions are good and it looks to be typical Wills fare, and possibly designed by Our Lord Rice. So either the afore mention gent had it mixed up with the Ratio box which is an absolute bitch in places, or something else. This is destined for print as well, but may either end up on the expanding round the room epic of on the much mooted Hopwood Southern. A long history entails. 

Some pre-construction painting continues...

Saturday Ramble: Getting your eye in

 The humble British standard van, and the British standard model railway scale. Fairly obvious, but to clarify: we have a kit-built Ratio van in OO, a Lima in HO, a Hornby in TT:120, and a Peco in N. This was set up to take a look at how they compare; interestingly the middle two are more or less correct to gauge, while the outer pair are not. The significant jump out to many may be the smaller two and the difference in general size. On the right the N at 2 and 1/16mm scale (1/148) and left the TT at 2.54mm scale (1:120). Nominally 2mm and 2.5mm and yet visually quite a jump. At this point any 3mm scale modellers will be screaming about treachery and I do sympathise a little, but I admit that I think the new kid on the block definitely has something about it. I'm too invested in 4mm to change, but if I was coming at it cold as a newbie I would give it serious consideration. In trainset track terms the 'ideal' 2nd radius curves roughly equates to OO gauge 1st radius and all the RTR commercial stock is designed to take these as a minimum. So in broad terms you are turning 180 degrees in a bit over 2' width.

The reasoning behind this is purely commercial, but as above, the cold newbie would find quite a bit to like about the TT. 

Goods shed

 And done. This is more or less as per the instructions with some extra structural reinforcement added. Is it good? Well taking into consideration the age of the base kit design and the material, yes. Critics will bleat on about cliches and lack of detail, but that misses the point somewhat. I drew the line at adding loads of extra detail, but that could be done and lift it quite considerably. The other is the height, but that's a whole other set of questions.

As per the last post, I am minded that it creates a vibe, and a real period feel layout could be developed using the range, the only problem being the signal box which to my eyes doesn't fit with the rest of the railway 'A' series. Well, not like the original 1960s one did. I wonder if anyone has one on a shop shelf somewhere?

Superquick time

Haven't done one of these for  a while.

If I could pinpoint a time when I shifted from trainset to railway modelling it would probably a Superquick kit; possibly even this one, the A07 goods shed. Only it isn't. At first glance you think it's the same, but the colours are slightly different; a distinct Southern green tinge rather than a GWR brown. There are also more platform bits included which I may omit for old times sake. The roof is just plonked at the moment and there is some light upgrading to do. Other than that, it's great fun and a real Saturday afternoon project.

Anyone for a complete Superquick branchline terminus layout?

Wills coal yard

 The Wills SS15 stuffed and mounted on a piece of stray MDF with lashings of coal and a few Merit bits from the very bottom of the scrapbox. Quite a bit more work than most people would want to put into it, but altogether a fun little project.

Wills coal office build

 Back to the smaller projects for a moment. This for Warners, is a gentle upgrade of a Wills coal yard kit. I've done a few of these now, so fairly straightforward. Here with the full chimney, open door and rainwater goods. The paint and a stuff and mount to do.

The delivery man

 And there we have it. 'Caol', AKA The Scottish, delivered in crate form to the RM office. You may have got the impression that I'm glad to get rid of it, and that would be more or less accurate. Not though because it was a bad idea, but more that it has been plagued by delays and supply issues from the get go which has cause no small amount of hair-pulling here. I would consider doing this again with the research knowledge gained. However, I would definitely drop the period back to transition or Blue-Sectorisation mostly to increase the operation. The green would be favourite with 26 and 27s, though the later period would be an easy entry with the Rhiw stock as a base. It's not going to happen though. Caol will appear in RM from the late Autumn in the now usual serial format.

Looking forward; there are discussions afoot about something new. Hold onto your hats, it could be a choppy trip....

A new/old Hornby Terrier

 I picked this Mk1 ex-Dapol Hornby-badged Terrier up a couple of months ago off of Marketplace from a chap down the road for the princely sum of £25. He assured me it ran; which it did... after a fashion. Visuals suggested that the wheels could be the culprit; or rather the muck on the wheels. I decided on a full strip-down and service. These models are dead easy to work on and I finished the job in under 30 minutes. The treads were fibre-brushed to a shine as were the front wiper pick-ups. The drive train was totally dried up; I guessed an age of around 20 years old and it had obviously never been touched, so motor bearings oiled, gears greased, chassis bearing faces cleaned, wheelsets back in and a drop of oil . 

A run without the body looked hopeful and with the whole thing back together and up to weight she purrs along. Do I need another Terrier? No really, but at that price she's a good spare chassis for the existing pair, or I may get around to a full detail.

Svanda at Bredgar

 

 Svanda appeared yesterday at what its essentially the final exhibition. This is due to there being nothing else in the book. Really friendly show within the Bredgar and Wormshill Light Railway site, and organised by Kerry and Kevin of Invicta Models.

The layouts are not the main attraction, sharing the attention with the main railway and a brace of other steam power on the day. This means that the audience is high on the family scale and quite transient. This means that you don't really get an exhibition 'buzz', but you do get to put the hobby in front of people who are just out for the day. We did this last year and I'll repeat my comment from then - it's clean. No piles of 'we'll get around to that later' scrap, and areas full of sleepers and rusty rail. This is Pro with a capital P. Well worth a visit and just off the M20 Jct 8.