Jump to content
 

Blogs

Featured Entries

  • SouthernRegionSteam

    Coastguard Creek - 15 months of planning!

    By SouthernRegionSteam

    Hold on to your socks - this is going to be a lengthy one! (In fact it's so long, I've now split it into 2 separate posts - the next will be up soon...)   I think it's fair to say that you are all long overdue an update on Coastguard Creek. Due to other commitments, no real progress has been made since the last post way back in March 2021; almost 15 months ago! If anything, things went backwards for quite a while, as I kept finding more and more inspiring locations that I really wanted
    • 8 comments
    • 3,311 views
Northall

Background information for Northall

How to find back my information. Since I started building Northall diorama’s I collected a lot of information. But one way or another I wasn’t always able to find it back as soon as I wished. I hadn’t built up a system for collecting my information. Searching again takes sometimes away time for modelling. Last week I came upon a website created by another Dutch man. He has an interesting website about a fictive land somewhere in an ocean. See his website here: http://www.spocania.com/archief/
Job's Modelling

Job's Modelling

6
TheRSR

Legs!

I visited the London Festival of Model Railways held at the Alexandra Palace on Sunday 30th March and among the many fine layouts on show one in particular took my fancy. This was Sandford and Banwell, an oval Great Western line featuring a junction and modelled in P4. See these links for some pictures of the layout https://www.flickr.com/photos/richardjslipper/sets/72157651653968411/ http://www.scalefour.org/scaleforum/2014/sandfordandbanwell/ One aspect of this model was the use of plastic d
RichardS

RichardS

0
3 fields railway and Gerry's workbench

Dapol kit build

First model off the new workbench.   Well it's been a long time since I made any models, so here's the first.   A Dapol BR brake van, just one of an auction lot I bought.   First impression is how "messy" this kit is - lots of flash, bits broken off sprues and the transfers look like they are well past their use by date.       I decide not to bother pre painting or modifying the kit - just build as is.   So clean up all the parts and start glueing.   I'm using "Plastruct" plasti
altone

altone

2
Snitzl's Main Blog

Motor Bogie Design.

Here's a  little design and development work on Flexichas Motor Bogies.   Been thinking for quite some time about modelling a couple of motor bogies with Sharman type  suspension and although the idea I have in mind is new to me, I wouldn't be overly surprised  if the idea had already been done. Some years ago, scale flange wheels were fitted to all  snitzl rolling stock, which in turn made all of the fixed chassis locos unreliable due to  derailing. Presently, with the exception of tw
snitzl

snitzl in Locos

1
Petes Model workshop (or ramblings from the balcony)

LNER V1/3 2-6-2 TANK (3)

I was good yesterday I managed to keep away from my G6 build.   First job was to untack the rear bushes enlarge the frame holes and solder them to the side beams. I may have to do them the other way around, I will see how it all goes. I also added a narrow bit of etch to all the side beams as there was far to much flex in them. The pony was assembled next, the hole in the spacer was moved and then a nut added. This will have a spring wire added to give downward pressure and side contro
N15class

N15class in LNER V3

2
Up the Line - 1918

Project X Revealed

Right, after several months, I am now in a) a position to and have time to explain the mysterious project that has been alluded to in previous posts. The reason for the secrecy as partly just to get a bit of suspense going. partly that I haven't had time to describe it fully and partly because I wasn't sure that the third party involved was happy to be mentioned for his sterling contribution. Well, all matters are resolved now so here we go.   I have never been happy with my attempts at motor
KH1

KH1

1
TheRSR

Baseboard Progress for The RSR

Limited as I am for space and being confined to the garage, shed and my Railway Parlour (part of the garage) activity in the build of The RSR has been very slow during the winter. But now that there have been some tentative flashes of more benign spring weather my activity has again remerged from it’s hibernation. Any similarity to a dormouse is purely coincidental. Over the dark and cold months I have not been idle but have been doing much planning and design. So it was that after obtaining so
RichardS

RichardS

0
The EMpire Project

And its over - until the next outing...

After a very hectic 3 days Friday to Sunday, the Ally Pally show is over! And despite our fears on Saturday that we weren't putting on a good show for the public, people were extremely complimentary about Empire Mills thought the exhibition and we came away with about a couple of enquiries about magazine articles and half a dozen or so invitations to other exhibitions in the future - so we can't have been as bad as we through we were! We also managed to get a few photos taken before the public c
drduncan

drduncan

2
Barry Ten's Blog

Urie S15 - boiler details and general proportions

On with the cab roof and some of the boiler fittings. I test-fitted the Urie stovepipe chimney but it clobbered my footbridge, so pragmatism dictated that I used the other one supplied with the kit, which appears to be a representation of the U1 chimney fitted to members of the class.   I then ran into the first minor snag of the body, in that the front of the boiler should be flush with the point where the inside part of the frames drops down, but is in fact set back by about 0.5mm. This mean
Barry Ten

Barry Ten

2
rockershovel's Blog

Bachman 2-8-0 conversion

I mentioned the Bachmann 2-8-0 a little while ago. This is a very fine model and it runs as well as it looks.   However there seem to be three basic variants of US narrow gauge - 2ft gauge common carrier lines in the New England area, 3ft gauge logging lines using geared locos in the Pacific NW, and large mineral and common carrier lines using 8-coupled locos and bogie stock in the SW ( East Broad Top would fit this category, too). 20" gauge lines in the Nervada area using small four-coupled
rockershovel

rockershovel

0
Lofty

Got too carried away...

I never got around to talking about the wires bit. Never mind, some days these things happen...   Anyway, so my idea is to have two DCC buses, one for each of the two gauges. A switch will allow joining both halves. In turn in each half there will be a point bus and a track bus.   A lot of this is future proofing, just in case my layout gets too big, I want to be able to include a booster should it become necessary. At the same time I also want to be able to operate one half without the othe
AllScales

AllScales

0
Up the Line - 1918

A not so simple Simplex and something for it to pull.

To those RM Webbers I met at Nottingham and to whom I promised a return to more regular updates - my apologies! Only a week since the last one I guess but could do better. Am still avoiding the slightly more major issues that I need to get sorted before Burton in a couple of months but have made a start on some little things that I have been meaning to get down to.   One very 'little' thing is the Lawton Simplex - lovely kit to build, looks great but have never managed to get one to run proper
KH1

KH1

0
TheRSR

So what does Central Europe look like?

The trams on Bohemian Saxony primarily run through an urban environment comprising an ‘older’ town, a more modern area and an industrial zone. But around the edges we need some scenery. The future owner’s design has crammed so much into the available space that the scenic elements are not great. What scenery we can fit in is a bit ‘vertical’ – no room for rolling hills. This presents a problem in that the owner has an aversion to rocks. Careful shaping has minimised the rocks but there will be
RichardS

RichardS

0
3 fields railway and Gerry's workbench

We're going to need a bigger tank!

We're going to need a bigger tank!   Ok, nothing much done today, been busy working and fixing kitchen cupboard hinges, but here's a quick update.   I was meant to clear the garage workbench and move the fishtanks, the fish had other ideas. They decided now was a good time to give birth to a batch of babies. So the corner tank can't be moved for a few weeks now.   This means any spraying I do will have to be outside.   The rest was moved and put on shelving, the area given a bit of a c
altone

altone

3
Liddy's Blog

Nearly there

Progress. I've been stalling over how to hold down/at right spacing/move the switch blades on my attempt at a P4 point, today saw the switch blades trimmed to length, connected to a tie-bar and a start on gluing down the switch rail chairs. I'm pleased with the look of it, not prototypical, but a vast improvement on Peco and a fish van ran through the point smoothly. I will add the check rails next and then finish gluing down the chairs I left loose as I tweaked the rail to gauge. Ah, I must add
Liddy

Liddy

0
Barry Ten's Blog

Urie S15 - first set of brakes

These pictures could form the basis of one of those "spot the difference" competitions in a newspaper...   Here's another thrilling angle on the S15, but with one crucial change compared to last night's installment:     The brakes are all on! It won't win any neatest soldering awards, but it should all look fine once painted; I tend to notice when brakes are missing from an engine but I don't spend too much time looking at them once they're in place; they just become part of the mass of d
Barry Ten

Barry Ten

0
Lofty

Delays and wires everywhere

I realise it's been a while since the last post, however planning continues unabated.   There's been a bit of a snag however (well actually two). The first is that planning permission for the loft conversion is now around 6 weeks behind schedule. This is due to me not noticing that the architect had dropped the plans through the letterbox and the crisis in Greece making the Euro drop...   Anyway, hopefully everything will sort itself out in due course...   Meanwhile I've acquired some new
AllScales

AllScales

0
backofanenvelope's blog

virtualNER

As I am away from home and not able to get hands on tools and wood thought I would do a bit of a virtual mock up and rough one at that. This is the western end board and the larger of the two. I am going to do a card mockup too as I am not sure where I will cut the ply to make the contours for the road under the bridge and the coal yard below the station. Much cheaper to make a mess on card and given my clumsiness probably for the best.   Having done research I am going to have a short bay pla
backofanenvelope

backofanenvelope

2
Sixties Snapshots - 00 scale

Light relief? - Fettling Bachmann’s Waterless Gas Holder.

It is 1987 and I have been given six months holiday on full pay in the West Midlands. As part of my education I had a trip up the Waterless Gas Holder at Swan Village Sandwell. 1987 View from the waterless gas holder Swan Village Sandwell – scan of a copy of a copy The view was amazing. I was even allowed a peek inside. The more common column or spirally guided holders rise or fall to accommodate changes in the volume of gas stored. Volume change in a waterless gas holder is achieved using a
Silver Sidelines

Silver Sidelines

12
Wenlock's Blog

Signals for Sherton Abbas part 3 The bouncing arms!

Once the construction of the signals had been completed, I needed to install them on the layout. At a recent local show I had seen Derek Mundy demonstrate working signals that had a rather nice "bounce action" to the semaphore arms when they were returned to danger. They were controlled by a module from G F controls and powered by miniature servos. I was really impressed with the setup so decided to use this method of operation for my signalling. I placed an order with Geoff and Frank at G F con
wenlock

wenlock

12
3 fields railway and Gerry's workbench

Getting the Workbench(es) together

Getting the Workbench(es) together   Ok, I admit it, I'm a messy person, you'll see in the photos.   Apologies for the poor photos at this stage, they were taken on an old iphone just for my use. I promise when we get to modelling and layout progression they will be better (If SWMBO will let me buy a camera)   To do this ongoing project I need some workspace, I'm in a small house now (compared to where I was) so space is an issue.   I have an office/computer room/computer workshop:  
altone

altone

0
MikeOxon's Pre-Grouping Blog

Visualisation

I've been spending some time thinking about scenery and how to make my simple scenes more appropriate for 19th-century England.   As I have described in earlier posts, my layout started life as a 'kiddie' layout, to interest my then small son. Many of the buildings are from very old kits and include several Faller buildings which, while very nicely detailed, have decidedly non-English appearance. For example, this is the workshop associated with the quarry on the narrow-gauge (009) sec
MikeOxon

MikeOxon in general

5
petertg's Blog

Assessing the "earthquake" damage

In my last post I said that my layout had suffered something comparable to an earthquake. Yesterday I managed to have it lifted off the floor and placed on its trestles and set about assessing the damage. One street lamp damaged, the station platform illumination does not come on, one station building had lost a chimney pot, some of the columns supporting the ramp up to the bridge had broken away from their bases, two under floor point motors had become disengaged from the track and one track jo
petertg

petertg

2

  • Blog Statistics

    2,576
    Total Blogs
    22,153
    Total Entries
×
×
  • Create New...