The Innocent Railway

 I haven't posted a video here for a while, but within the research being carried out for a future project, this popped up. Simple enough fare, but oozing with atmosphere and just a bundle of modelling inspiration and detail.

Drovers Brook taking shape

 I'm hitting the cardboard now with the bridge all but done and most of the structures at least part built. So far I'm quite pleased with the feel of it. This doesn't bode well as this is usually the juncture at which I start to doubt if I like it or not.

I am pressing on. I should be able to get this done in fairly short order and ready for WRG in March (this for a non-exhibitable layout). There is also a side project which is top secret for the Beccles show, not to mention further talks with the Devonians about something for RM next year. I make that three to get done.

I may as well start taking proper commissions at this rate.

Shattered

Getting a few corner points in on Drovers Brook. The one to sort now is the bridge. As always this is travelling hopefully and I was to find this out quickly. There were a couple of pillars in the box; these may have been built by Mr. Hill. Anyway, as this is driven in many ways by an effort to use up as much existing in-stock bits as possible I started working around these and a couple of Wills parts. These are from the retaining arches left over from Hopwood.  Here's the thing: is this stuff degrading? And if so, what is the shelf life. These were direct from Peco, so we can assume fairly hot from the moulds and the layout build was five years ago. Now, they are literally shattering. Answers on a postcard. 

A few days ago I wrapped up a post with this: 'THB this is my happy place. Send more wagon kits for Christmas.'

Today this turned up unannounced in the post. There are some lovely people on here.

 

Little things

 I doubt that I am alone in suddenly having a workbench full of 'I'll do that in a minute' things. The odd repairs and bits of painting that won't actually take long, but interrupt the flow of the more important task at hand.

With the brake van winging its way toward landfill and the condemned 16 tonners into the Rhiw 2 stock box, things turned back to Drovers Brook. One of the workbench things that were hanging around were these two sets of stop blocks - one old school Peco for the Code 75 track at the platform release end and the newer Bullhead item which is for the coal siding. They are noticeably different, but are not interchangeable across the rail types. Painted with first 62 orange as a base and then Typus Corrosion and a wash of black. I note with some amusement that this had essentially taken three coats of paint to get them to the colour that that started out at. Hmmmm.... though there is a much more matt texture. Only one lamp needed and this and the wood blocks were touched in with brown, white and SR brown for the lens; not red. These and tie-bars repaired on Rhiw's runner wagon has dented the pile somewhat.

Airfix/Dapol brake van 3/ramble

So to continue:  The buffers are actually pretty good, better than the other major kit manufacturer's offerings. The holes in the bufferbeam mouldings were opened up a tad and the buffers and vac pipes trial fitted. 

The inner ends. Oh dear, getting worse by the  minute. The door is a separate piece and was like a surfboard. I filed the back flat so that it would sit into the recess. The witness marks are another thing altogether. Why? Just why? Why on the outside? There are faint plank marks and the handrails also on the face, so any sanding would remove these. Frankly this a complete dog's dinner and I can't see that this would be more acceptable in the late 60s than it is now.

So onto some general body mock-ups and the sides (which are pretty good were lined up and fixed. However, by the next day all was not well and the floor had resisted all my flattening and weighting and had started to curl over its length and on the diagonal, taking the solebars with it. Now a non-runner. 

At this point I took a long hard look at it, calculated the forward time to spend both finishing and correcting it. I decided that this was not worth the effort and abandoned the project. Sometimes it's better to walk away.

Thoughts: Some of the Dapol reissues work; the building kits are OK with the usual caveats. Here though it gets embarrassing. Say you were a new modeller and you hand over nine quid in Gaugemaster for one of these. This is, or should be, entry level stuff; Saturday afternoon kit building. It's a full ten star fail and thus tars every other plastic wagon kit with the same brush before the ponies are out of the gates. I've had half a century of kit building and I can't make this work without some major non-cost-effective butchery. Detailing a Tri-ang would be a better start point.