Thursday 31 March 2011
Buffer stops
More about the Dyke.
Tuesday 29 March 2011
The Devil's Dyke Branch
I found this.
I've often talked about modelling the terminus; a comment which is usually met with derision as it's been done very well locally in P4 and it's only 5 points; which is one more than I usually put in... It is in many ways the model railway that we all build.
For the un-knowing the Devil's Dyke Branch ran from what is now Aldringdon station in Hove up onto the Downs to what can only be described as a steep-sided gully. Due to lack of interest, it closed before WW2. Most Brightonians only visit the area for now for dogging and golf and the site has reverted to farmland.
Monday 28 March 2011
Rhiw Passenger service
Sunday 27 March 2011
Brush 4
Saturday 26 March 2011
I never need to buy anything again.
I'd rummaged through these boxes in the last couple of weeks to find bits and pieces for Rhiw (Rhew Deri) and made a mental note to sort through it all.
I won't list all the things I found, but I sat on the bed and pondered that apart from buying 'filler' materials like plasticard and glue et al, I could spend a least a decade just modelling from what's in the boxes. The above is the built stock from Froxington , the EM chassis for a GER Y6 and a 5.5mm scale 40HP Kerr Stuart. This from one ice cream tub and one marge tub. Maybe I'll rebuild Froxington one day, or maybe I'll take the spud drives from the locos and fit them to the tram kits that I moved upteen time in a hour.
There is much to do and much to do it with. Rhiw has had more cash spent on it than any other project in recent history and quite frankly I wonder why when I have enough to do from these three boxes.
Friday 25 March 2011
Wood End
Thursday 24 March 2011
Rhiw Platform
Wednesday 23 March 2011
Names
I love it. It's just moved to the top of the to do list, is painted and awaiting glazing.
Votes?
Tuesday 22 March 2011
Rhiw Walling
Time for the retaining wall at the rear. When you start looking for photos of what you think is a very common railway aspect you find that it isn't. Softer embankments are a lot cheaper I suppose. What you do notice is that walls are at least partly sloping often with a more vertical upper part so this I the direction that I've gone in.
Materials thus far are a lever-arch file... well a defunct file with the metal ripped off and the plastic coating removed leaving me a couple of large bits of 3mm thick card.
Scraps of corregated box for the formers.
Monday 21 March 2011
The Rabbi and the Class 73
Sunday 20 March 2011
Arundel Model railway exhibition
However Garn behaved itself all day-thanks to Mike Campbell for operating for a while - and there were some lovely pieces of work scattered around the hall. There was an enormous amount of conversation taking place and exchanging of ideas which is what this particular show has become known for.
The scratch-build competition (pushed here) was won by Les Coleman with (again!) a Lister rail truck. I really wouldn't have wanted to judge this one as the standard of those who entered was pretty high - 16mm Talyllyn tea car with working shutters, lights and full of crockery? Brilliant. My paltry entry, which may pop up here soon, looked pretty pathetic by comparison.
Friday 18 March 2011
Cheap model railway scenery
Formers were added from scrap card to match the fascia board and the gaps in between filled with a little screwed up newspaper. I tend to use whatever is to hand for this and the 'inner layout' is like a snapshot of whatever I threw in the bin the day before. I'm very aware of this and muse the reaction to whoever rips the layout up at some future point of time. I seem to remember that Wood End was full of crisp packets and condom wrappers. (I'd never get that sentence past a magazine editor) so goodness only knows what Alan Martin found when he re-built the corner section. I hope he wore gloves.
The top layer is the tissue paper that you get in public toilets - well that's where I get it from. A little more difficult to get these days with the increasing use of electric driers. This is of course technically theft... well it's only going in the bin ain't it? About half a dozen sheets used here. This is cheaper and a bit less messy than any other method especially the polystyrene foam game. And for medium to large areas it is hard to beat.
The paper is torn into 1" strips and 'pasted' with watered-down cheap craft shop PVA and a pound shop brush on a shiny magazine (peels off easier). Then laid over the formers and rubbish. The first layer looks awful, but the second smooths it out and the final looks OK. When dry it's coated with matchpot emulsion to seal.
This gives a hard shell to scenic over. And while you couldn't stand on it it's firm enough to plant things in.
Occasionally the edges will lift, and have to be repaired with a little UHU, but other than that it's foolproof.
Cost.... virtually zero.
Thursday 17 March 2011
Modelling lifted railway track
This has to be almost un-noticeable otherwise it won't work. If it doesn't, I can always get a wide chisel and take the whole lot off.
Wednesday 16 March 2011
The five year (model railway) plan
This caught my eye at Eastliegh a week or two back. 'Holcombe'. Built by Tim Ticknell I believe and shown by the Burnham club. 8'x 2' of O gauge . Why is this relevant? Well, I suppose this is the target point. Not one that's un-achieved as I did it with NLW (see sidebar), but for those that remember my comments on how many layouts do we have left, it is the end of the process.
Tuesday 15 March 2011
And yet more Listers
Post-Modern Unnycoombe.
The thrust of the project was that it was to be a GWR branch terminus that wasn't too typical, but then it is in a way. The 55-65 period was chosen deliberately so that it wasn't the chocolate and cream dream world. The use of the Hymek and DMUs only reflects the period and of course, like much of the layout, have been well served by the trade of late.
I was going to talk about Stalin-esque five year plans not Modernisation plans, but that'll wait.
Sunday 13 March 2011
Basingstoke model railway exhibition
Excellent exhibition full of lots of things to buy, but I kept a firm hand on the tiller and only bought a few bits of stuff for Rhiw. Including the below. The Signal Box had a tray of these loose for £12.50 apiece. As far as I can tell it's a Lima shunter repackaged under the Joueff name. What you get is two plastic mouldings and a pancake motor assembly. Basic ain't the word for it, but as a simple power plant and at that price it seemed daft not to give it a go. I wasn't the only one who thought the same . Christopher Payne stood beside me and muttered. 'See if you can haggle four for forty quid.' This I did. The girl looked and me like a piece of shit on her shoe and said, 'That's the price.' I tried. CP put his hand in his pocket and bought two. I wandered back and got just the one.
It runs OK - better than I thought it would. Cogs a little, but this does give a nice sound. What I have in mind is to diddle with it to turn it into a quickie industrial for Rhiw.
Anyone know what the prototype is? Assuming there is one.
Consensus so far points toward a european-ised Plymouth switcher, but does this have any basis in reality? Did the French use Plymouths in industry somewhere? According to my stats, 15 Frenchmen viewed the blog so far this morning. One of them must know.
Saturday 12 March 2011
Rhiw Profile boards
Yesterday the second profile board went on (needs tidying to match) and the 'land' formers in the shape of scraps of mounting card. I wanted to avoid a parallel track plan - parallel to the edge that is. And although its slightly cranked toward the camera, from normal viewing it doesn't show. Also in almost every other example I've dropped the front of the baseboard. the only other time I've used flat square boards was on the American HO layout - which in many ways this is remarkably similar to. Here I want a 'peering over the fence' feel. With a low pros-arch and embankment. Perhaps that should be 'peering through the letterbox'.
Friday 11 March 2011
Rhiw buffers
For the buffers at the end of the rails in the distance I have in mind the set from Barton-on-Humber with the lamp on a stick and a ladder. I'm sure I have another PECO set somewhere.
I note that RM are leading a Newhaven Harbour layout for next month. Hope I won't be dissapointed.
Thursday 10 March 2011
Wednesday 9 March 2011
Model Trains International
It was pointed out to me this morning via email that I have an article published in the current MTI; an article that I had long forgotten about, such is the gap between submitting and publication. Looking at the list (via the link) it would seem that at least one contributor has died in the intervening period, and not recently either. My article is on building the hut on Pinchingfield which is pictured on the page link to your right.
Tuesday 8 March 2011
Tens of units
What I don't want to do if I can help it is to rush out and spend twenty quid (Ha! if I had twenty quid) on a Pikestuff kit. This kit and the Knightwing porta-cabin have become to the modern layout, what the Airfix engine shed was to the layouts of the 70's... rather predictable.
However I do need an industrial unit (and indeed may need a porta-cabin).
Enter the murky waters.
For things that do basically the same thing, i.e. a tin shed with a big roof there's a hell of a lot of variety. And then of course there is period... they tend not to come with build dates on the keystones. Which is a typical design for a mid 1980s build? I dunno. Even in industrial parks where the build is simultaneous they all seem different. Take these two: The UPS on the right has a third more brickwork and long windows, it's neighbour to the immediate, left more extruded section and no windows - not from this view anyway.
What this is giving me is a sad bloke walking around taking photos of big sheds and counting brick courses (Mr. left-hand shed has thirty above an 18" plinth. Yes, yes I know. Welsh layout/plinth...'The plinth of Wales'... already been done). I'm already ahead of this now and photographing bus shelters (you want to see the variety in those!) and porta-cabins. This is a kit-free zone.
Carl Arendt
The funeral was well attended, but mourners were surprised to see that the coffin was only 8"x35" folded in half and carried on shelf brackets.
www.carendt.com/
Monday 7 March 2011
Pipe dreams
You know what happened next. Hours of timewasting mentally working out what could be done and how. The problem being that the three photos enclosed on the sheets were late period and hazy. More time wasted scouring the net, but to no avail. There's nothing. Only a continual reference to a Locomotives International book on the line which of course I don't have.
The reality is that this is a bad idea. It's wildcard put in the way of getting what I should be doing done. Which is getting Rhiw finished and possibly - just possibly - looking at broadening Garn.
Sunday 6 March 2011
Bridge scenic-ing
The painted bridge carcass was lined with dummy thin card sleepers (tights packet again). No so much sleepers, as the ridges between. This painted with matchpot emulsion to seal and solidify. Then PVA'd and covered with fine fresh coal dust, a few tea leaves and some WS green foam. This will only just be visible at no more than this angle, but I wanted to get the impression of a colliery line with the track lifted; hence the weeds and the subtle ridges where the sleepers were. Later it dawned on me that it would be easier to ballast under the bridge before it was fixed. Something I usually leave until almost last. Again a higher angle than will be possible.
I'll point out now that having point control under a bridge is a bloody stupid idea.
Friday 4 March 2011
Girder bridge
My ex, and now late, mother-in-law was diabetic and need to test sugar levels daily. I spotted the fact that the machinery for this was 5 thou plastic strip, so nearly 20 years ago I blagged a load.
Brush type 4 Class 47
There was a chap next to me at Eurotrack running one of these in this livery and I kept wondering whether I could justify one on Rhiw....err no.
After raking around for headcode clarification for Unnycoombe two days ago, the answer stares you in the face.
Thursday 3 March 2011
S gauge thoughts
First thoughts are this: S is not a layout builder's scale. There aren't too many of them. There aren't too many members either - 108 including self. The magazine is not the glossy periodical that I've been used to with the 009 Society, but then this is a numbers game - the 009 mob have tenfold the membership so that's possibly a little unfair. Is this a scale that I want to persue or am I just trying to find a middle ground between 4mm and 7mm where the pickings are richer? I like building things, but I do want to see an end result before I get wheeled off to the nursing home. I don't want to be one of those people who is always building the layout; the one that never gets finished. The jury is still out.