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  • 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
The Grime Street Blog

Home brewed Faller.

Having a few Faller car system spares to hand I thought I'd have a bash at building rather than converting a chassis, this was based round a AAA 1.5v battery holder as I tend to use these rather than the 3v Faller ones as it slows them down to a more reasonable speed.   So add in a switch and a reed switch and bar onboard charging you have one that'll do the same thing as a Faller, the batteries are easy to swap over and you just pop a freshly recharged battery in rather than having to charge
Red Devil

Red Devil

0
Up the Line - 1918

Realistic track

This post is possibly a bit in the way of a diversion, a diversion from the fact that although I am 'always working on that thing' (wife's words of course!), nothing terribly concrete has happened to report. One of the problems has, of course, been half term and some proper work getting in the way. So, although no layout progress was made, a couple of days away in Wales weren't wasted. Not much open on the railway front but did get the chance to lay the foundations for some research into a poss
KH1

KH1

0
Wenlock's Blog

Signal Box for Sherton Abbas part 2

Before I moved onto step and handrail construction, I decided to make a start on the roof. The roof components that the kit provides were assembled together with Liquid Poly and once dry tried on top of the signal box. To my eye the overhang on the roof looked much too wide and gave the building a strange continental appearance. Overersize roof   I measured the overhang and calculated that it worked out as a scale 18 inches all round which sounded far too much. I decided that the easiest wa
wenlock

wenlock

12
Nestor's ramblings

MGWR E Class - Part 1

Afternoon all   The loco for the Irish Project has arrived and I have began to make a small start. It is an etched-brass kit produced by Studio Scale Models. The instructions seem pretty comprehensive which considering that I've not attempted a kit before, is terribly helpful. Not one for making things easy for myself... The loco itself I've found to be quite attractive in the photos I have seen. They were small 0-6-0 tanks that worked across most of the MGWR system. After the grouping into t
nest

nest

5
TomE's N Gauge Modelling

Ropley - It's off.....It's on.....It's off.....It's on.....

Hi all.   Following on from the last entry detailing the GFB Designs IMP Servo Driver, Ropley now has it's first working Signal!   This ended up being more in-depth than I original anticipated, but only due to me deciding I wasn't very happy with the first version of the Up Starter built a while back. Specifically, the signal simply had a length of wire running through the base plate which was not particularly robust, and had no means of preventing over movement. This was rectified by using
TomE

TomE

2
S H Model Making

Wagons part 3

Hi all, A couple of wagons that I've been working on The deck is finished so on to rest of the wagon   The floor on this one is finished, on to the outside   Cheers Simon
Mr.S.corn78

Mr.S.corn78

0
Barry Ten's Blog

Toning things down

When I look at layouts at exhibitions, I often end up admiring those layouts that have a consistent, toned-down look to them, even if the individual elements aren't necessarily modelled to the hightest accuracy. For me that elusive "finescale look" is as much about that overall picture as it is the track standard, the brake gear or the chimney profiles. Sometimes the two go hand in hand, in that a layout can be superb on all fronts. When I looked at the pictures of Hemyock in the recent issues o
Barry Ten

Barry Ten

5
Fen End Pit's Blog

Ruston LAT/LBT progress with etched bits

On Friday night I started to look at the Ruston bits. The bits for the horn-guides were pretty good.     The bearing is held in a carrier which then springs in the elongated hole in the carrier. These were made up and then epoxied onto the chassis and the wheels test fitted.     We now have a chassis that rolls.     A close-up of the horn block shows the bearing end in the guide, this will get covered with a bit of plastic in the end but I wanted to make sure that the springing wa
Fen End Pit

Fen End Pit

0
Jon020's Workbench Blog

A P4 super-detailed Class 26

Dear all, I realise that I've not posted much here of late, but I have been dabbling in some projects in some of my spare time, although that's become more limited of late, although a spell off work has seen me able to get my eye back in and catch up with the write-up that I'd promised. As I've taken on the duties of the new member support officer in the scalefour society, ive tried to put more of a presence in on the scalefour forum so my write-up is over there, but I thought a link to the p
Jon020

Jon020

0
Hydraulic Heaven

Hymek First Aid

I'm hopeful that the Hymek (which you may recall had failed prior to Warley) is now on the mend.   In our previous installment, I'd got hold of some spare worm wheels from BR Lines and installed them in the loco but this had not cured the uneven running which I still thought was caused by the wormwheel skipping on the worm (hence the trashed original wormwheel)   We have AbRail coming up on Saturday, so I finally got back around to looking at the problem... with visions of needing to make ne
D869

D869

6
ANOTHER Challenge!

EMGS Challenge - Viaduct walls & an important building!

It's been a while since the last entry & there's a danger of slippage... So on with the wall covering for the viaduct. Nothing new here - 'SEFinecast' plasticard - 'English Bond' suitably painted. I do LIKE this product - the mortar courses are vertical and horizontal (unlike some I can name) and at 20 thou thick - its thick enough for me! The various apertures were suitably embellished with hand-scribed courses and again suitably painted. The 'mortar' was picked out by a VERY dilute sc
scanman

scanman

3
Lofty

ABC, 1, 2, 3....

The lack of ABC on most of my HOe loco's got me thinking... So here's a thought:   1. An isolated section at the end of every storage track, the loco will stop dead when it hits that part of the track 2. A MERG DCC stationary decoder with a 30 second pulse, connected to a relay 3. The relay switches the DCC power to the isolated section, enabling the loco to move off   This means I can select the track and when the loco arrives, it will stop dead, then when it is to move off again the trac
AllScales

AllScales

0
Lofty

Fiddling about....

As I think I've mentioned the layout will be DCC operated. I like driving locos, not the track, nor do I want to be tied down in one spot to flick switches all the time.   With DCC control you can automate reverse loops very easily, but just how easy I didn't realise at first! the initial plan was to use a reverse loop module. This switches the polarity automatically when a train drives into reverse loop. The units do work well, but are not free. In addition to this I had questions if they mi
AllScales

AllScales

0
The Cuckmere Valley Railway

A Goods Shed for Litlington

I've mentioned on several occasions that I have been using the Alan Elliott 'Cuckoo Line' book for inspiration, especially for the railway structures.   I've previously mentioned the Station building from Hailsham, and way back at the start, I thought the Goods Shed from Rotherfield would make a nice model for the layout too. As the planning stages progressed though, and with the subsequent reduction in available space, it became clear that it wouldn't fit properly, so it was back to the drawi
dseagull

dseagull

0
Neil_S_Wood's Blog

Signals and wires

I had a few signals to install and have them all in place now and fully wired. They are all DCC controlled through the ECoS.         My old ECoS had "issues" which made it unusable so I had to get another one. This one has a colour screen so happy about that.     Much of the time recently has been checking wiring had a couple of wiress come loose and needed to bolster connections. Have been doing a bit of weathering as well on some locos. Plenty still need to get done though.
Neil_S_Wood

Neil_S_Wood

4
The Legge Lane MPD Blog

The King - Progress

King James II is progressing nicely. I am taking my time - isn't that what retirement is all about? - and enjoying most of it immensely. There is something about white metal soldering that is very rewarding. A bit of brinkmanship, perhaps, with those 25 watts of heat ready to melt a tiny part. The alternative is CA glue which seems like cheating. OK, I did glue on the wheel balance weights!     The motor having been fitted and tested, I decided the next chore would be the brakes. This
Focalplane

Focalplane

0
MikeOxon's Pre-Grouping Blog

Photographing the Layout

I know that this is a model railways website but I also have no doubt that many people visit because they enjoy looking at the photos of other people's layouts. Thus, it is inevitable that photography plays an important part in communicating what we are doing. There are lots of excellent photos on this website but I thought that it might be of some interest to show some of the techniques I use when photographing my small layout.   The word 'photography' is derived from two Greek words
MikeOxon

MikeOxon in general

4
N-Gauge LMS Layout

Foster Street - Additions to the Fleet - Or not so much a screw loose, but a set of wheels

Well all you N gauge modellers out there will have to line up to thank me, I started working on a Fairburn tank last year and Farish release one, so thanks to me some RTR manufacturer will release a Stanier and the Fowler 2-6-4T.   Yes today the Foster Street fleet was increased by two "really usful" large tank engines today, well they are running, but they could still do with a little more detailing, and maybe some or more weathering, and one that is waiting for its wheels if I can remember w
paulprice

paulprice

2
Show visits 2016

Sileby 2015

Another weekend and another model railway event. I stumbled on the Sileby show by accident a few years ago when I was idling my way through the show diary in the "Hornby Magazine". My first visit was very enjoyable and I have returned every year since, always enjoying my visits. Last year I was a little bit critical of the show due to the lack of 00 gauge steam layouts and the concentration of more modern based layouts. There can be no such complaints this time around. This year's event had a
andyram

andyram

0
Barry Ten's Blog

Tweaking the Bachmann Highley yard crane

The Bachmann model of the Highley yard crane is quite an attractive little model, but let down by the solid resin castings of what should be spoked wheels. The computer generated pre-production images showed the wheels as properly spoked, but by the time the model came out the decision had presumably been made to do them as rather crude solid wheels. Incidentally there isn't a lamp growing from the top of the crane!     My initial plan had been to cannibalise some replacement wheels from on
Barry Ten

Barry Ten

8
Hydraulic Heaven

Finescaling a Hall - Part 2

A quick update on this project.   The chassis is now pretty much done barring a few odds and ends like couplings and attention is now turning to the superstructure.   Again there is not much to say about the chassis build - it went together as per Nigel's comprehensive instructions... although I do prefer to get things running and tested at the earliest possible stage whereas the instructions save the installation of the worm until quite late in the day.   One part that did prove niggly th
D869

D869

6
Birch4's Blog

A new scene

Hi and welcome everyone to my blog!   I hope to post on here my modelling - completed projects and work in progress.   Anyway, to start things off, a couple of things currently on the workbench:     1. Parkside Rudd wagon - Almost finished now, just needs decals to finish, time permitting!         2. A small town scene - Just started with some old laminate flooring as a base. Some Metcalfe paving stones and cobblestones, Plastistuct, paint and Javis rough (?) grass and we are awa
birch4

birch4

0
SRman's Workbench Blog

ex-SECR 'Dance Hall' Brake Vans - almost completed

The ex-SECR brake van kits are very nearly complete now. Just a few minor paint touches to fix up and some varnish and weathering to go, and they will be finished.   I have used the Cambridge Custom Transfers sheet 2b/c to add the lettering on the two vans, although some of it was just guesswork as to where it should go as there is a distinct absence of good photos of them in BR days (non-preserved state). They have both ended up as van S55476/DS55476 but I can doctor one of those numbers late
SRman

SRman

2

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  • Blog Comments

    • MikeOxon
      10ft (3m) Driving Wheels

      By MikeOxon · Posted

      Here's a photo of the Firefly replica at Didcot  
    • Jeremy Cumberland
      10ft (3m) Driving Wheels

      By Jeremy Cumberland · Posted

      It wasn't the underslung springs so much, which are common enough, but the spring hangers look designed to be in tension, and the bar above the spring clamp appears to support the underside of the bearing, where I would expect a yoke around the top of the bearing. How's it done in Firefly?
    • MikeOxon
      10ft (3m) Driving Wheels

      By MikeOxon · Posted

      Thank you, Jeremy.  Those underslung springs were not unusual.  Early locomotives often used the boiler as a main structural member.  It led to difficulty when designing the Firefly replica, which has extra supports to meet current safety criteria.   I know that at least one early engine was rejected by Brunel because it was supplied with a single central buffer.  I suspect it took a while for these dimensions to be standardised.
    • Jeremy Cumberland
      10ft (3m) Driving Wheels

      By Jeremy Cumberland · Posted

      Impressive.   You say that the locomotive as per Lane's drawing had the footplate too high for Viper's tender, but surely it also has front buffers too high for other rolling stock. Were the front buffers not intended for use with other vehicles?   What do you reckon to the driving wheel spring and axlebox in Lane's drawing? Apart from the arrangement of the leaves, it looks as if the driving wheels are supported by the loco frame rather than the locomotive bearing down upon
    • bcnPete
      Kyle - an update...and a visit at last...

      By bcnPete · Posted

      Many thanks Mike - yes Scotland is indeed beautiful...in all weathers!   Interest in Kyle....hmmm...where do I begin!   I guess a number of reasons - I am an 1/8 Scottish so I guess part is in my DNA. A few trips up to Scotland over the years and I guess a love of the interesting small trains especially in the BR Blue era.   Kyle came about as my 2mmFS china clay layout layout was expanded too quickly so I became a bit bored with it...even though china clay seems to

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