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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
    • 3,310 views
SRman's Workbench Blog

The Ayjay 4 SUB kit has Arrived, and More on the 2 HAP

The Ayjay Models 4 SUB kit has arrived from Radley Models. Oddly, it came with four trailer bogies and four motor bogies. I contacted Phil Radley and he immediately offered to send out the two missing trailer bogies. I also asked if he wished the extra motor bogies returned but, as yet, he hasn't replied to that. Excellent service, as always, from Phil.   With this kit, I am using the Hornby 2 BIL motor chassis but will have to use the Ayjay resin chassis/underframes for the remaining three co
SRman

SRman

0
brightspark's Blog

76010 making the wheels go round

I was hoping by now to have had a working chassis ready for testing on the EMGS test track at ExpoEM south.   However I have not achieved that goal because; 1. The chassis is almost ready but not quite there yet. 2. The EMGS Test track is, I believe not going to be at Portsmouth. 3. It is not ExpoEM South anymore, it is the South Hants Model Railway Club Exhibition   However I will be there on the EMGS stand with the 76010 and 76009 and 76011! Yes another one! At the Tolworth Show I acqu
brightspark

brightspark

11
BRM Blog

The amazing "Tin Turtle"

Take a look at the Warley 2014 thread and you'll see that if there is one thing that unites railway modellers, it's a need to “see something moving”.   Never mind how much effort goes in to a layouts scenery, if there isn't a train operating then visitors won't hang around. Some will only pause to make their exasperation clear to everyone within a 40 foot radius before moving on.   This means that I approached the show with some trepidation. Although Owen's Bridge wasn't billed a layout in t
Phil Parker

Phil Parker

3
Up the Line - 1918

BGM 4 short

Much as I hate truncated text speak Baldwin Gas Mechanical is a bit of a mouthful so BGM it shall be. This is from the Neil Sayer kit which is although not particularly cheap is complete except for couplings so there are no nasty add ons such as wheel, motor and gearbox which slyly manage to make most kits at least as expensive as this one - a lot a no where nearly as well designed as this one as well! The have been a couple of very good blow by blow accounts of the build of this kit already so
KH1

KH1

5
ANOTHER Challenge!

Tannery Lane - week 4....

'Challenge Wednesday' went by the board this week as I was at the REC Monday to Wednesday working on 'Netherley' the 7mm layout. So... spent all day today at the bench instead! First job was to lay in the viaduct track-bed with its 'split-level'     The 'running line' is descending on the right whilst there will be a 'track remnant' on the higher level. I got the idea whilst riding the 'Brio Train' (aka the 'Docklands Light Railway').   This is the only section that will have a 'normal'
scanman

scanman

5
Barry O's Weathering Blog

A Thumper and more wagons..

Been busy doing different things as part of a reduction in my work to do pile.. First up a Bachmann Thumper - a very impressive set!     motor fitted car     Trailer car     and then for something completely different...   A Fletton Bogie Brick wagon - more dust than dirt..     and finally one of the newish Hornby LNER CCTs     Hope these are OK   Baz
Barry O

Barry O

2
Shipston-on-Stour Branch

The Dukedog joins the roster

My Warley "splurge" has joined the Shipston-on-Stour roster and has received a few modifications. The model is the GWR green 9003 which will be re-numbered 3207 when an order of brass plates arrives from Fox Transfers. This is the one that started out life at Stratford (GWR) shed.     So far I have added the packaged details that came in the box and added screw link couplers to engine and tender. The metal coal plate has gone and there is some real coal in its place. I have also added a TCS
Focalplane

Focalplane

0
deadlyduck's Blog

NEC Shows

Its great to have people still enjoying the NEC shows,theres a great article in Decembers Railway Modeller Pages 986/97 about the future of this show.Its written by the show manager Paul Jones who with a team of fantastic organisers put on this with virtually faultless precision year upon year .I have enjoyed over many years the going to n helping with it.How long it can be sustained?,hopefully for a long time.It all boils down to the clubs members n family members n friends who all help in its
deadlyduck

deadlyduck

0
Matthew Cousins' Blog

Meanwhile in the Preservationists corner

Although my layout is an LNER main line, the wayside station has a group of LBSCR preservationists using the old loco shed. Having presented the Gladstone to the LNER railway museum, they have gone on to preserve other LBSCR locos and have recently got their G class single nearly complete. They rolled it out into the sunshine - alarmingly without buffers! and had some pics taken. Thanks to Pete Wisdom for the build after taking on a part built scratch build for me and to Ian Hopkins for lining
Matthew Cousins

Matthew Cousins

0
Middleton Station and Goods Yard

A Quick Note...

I'm just back from a couple of weeks hard holidaying, so I'm hoping to get things moving a little bit at least, over the next few weeks.   Whilst away, I used to time to read through the 2mm Association book 'Track - How it Works and How to Model It' several times. Each time, it makes more sense, but also makes me realise the extent of the job I'm taking on...   I'm now thinking that I will, despite early resistance, build a very small layout before tackling Middleton, as I want to test a fe
dharma66

dharma66

1
Sixties Snapshots - 00 scale

Laying the foundations?

How to construct the baseboard? This question seems to be asked on a regular basis. I will describe my own experiences. The woodwork in progress I have used the same basic approach for all three of my ‘big’ layouts. I would say it is my variation of the ‘L’ Girder technique. ’L’ Girder overview according to CJ Freezer I spent some time this weekend searching through old periodicals to see if I could find the original article that inspired me to use the ‘L’ Girder technique. No luck – I t
Silver Sidelines

Silver Sidelines

2
St Ruth

Warley 2014

Back home now after our outing to our local mega-show. After a few comments from other people beforehand I was a bit wary of exhibiting at Warley but really enjoyed it. For sure, the NEC is a huge venue and this brings with it extra aggravation particularly during setup and packing up and for sure it was stacked out with people on Saturday but there is stacks of space behind the layouts and the food is good, even if the queue was a bit long. It was also great to spend some time again with the ot
D869

D869

13
Up the Line - 1918

The Thomas Coupling Affair - a perplexing mystery

Having survived the crowds (and cancelled trains), involved in getting to, and getting around Warley show I have a loosely connected (honestly, I didn't mean that as a pun!), mystery.   I shall explain. As has become a tradition in these parts, our rail friendly friends came over from Hertfordshire with their little girl and her collection of small push along Thomas toys. Now, these toys have a very interesting feature which I am wondering if there is any use for in our pursuits, but I am at
KH1

KH1

3
The Legge Lane MPD Blog

The Warley Show - Minimal Impact on Legge Lane

I really enjoyed Sunday at the Warley Show (NEC). But very little of what I did (and bought) has had an impact on the progress of Legge Lane MPD. Instead I seemed to have focused on the Shipston Branch with quite a few pounds being invested in that project.   I did buy a few raw materials that will hasten completion of the turntable and some of the Warley Wagons will be just as much at home at Legge Lane as they will at Shipston.   The big impression, however, was in the field of high end
Focalplane

Focalplane

0
deadlyduck's Blog

Kernows

after the news of Kernows foray into Western Region DMU set,they are now proposing some GWR Steam Railmotor - OO Gauge 5 different 1.All at £149.99.Well they say it comes in 3s
deadlyduck

deadlyduck

1
Three Shire's Head

Rolling Stock 2 - A Knotty Trio

Next up we have representation from the North Staffordshire Railway.   The North Staffordshire has always intrigued me. It came into existence due to the railway politics of the 1830's. The planned Grand Junction Railway route through the potteries was diverted via Crewe by agreement with the Manchester & Birmingham Railway in preparation for the creation of the LNWR in 1846. In order to fill the void, funds were raised, significant funds, as the Trent and Mersey canal was bought with a vi
Argos

Argos

2
Shipston-on-Stour Branch

My First Warley

My first Warley Show was excellent. But I am now a poor man! I guess these two statements almost have to go hand in hand.   The Shipston Branch benefited enormously, with several significant additions, including a GWR Dukedog which was my impulse buy, a TCS decoder for the 57XX, new wheels and bearings for the Hornby Clerestories, Brassmasters coupling rods for the Midland 3F and various bits and bobs. The various small suppliers at the show were most helpful. Sylmaster provided many items
Focalplane

Focalplane

0
drduncan's workbench

The Locomotive shop - Dean Goods 2322 part 2

While continuing to work on the loco and tender chassis I have started compling the list of modifications that will have to be made to the body for it to represent 2322. As a reult I have been diggin around for information on the Dean Goods. The first point to note is that there were two different widths of footplate. Before 2450 they were narrow, after 2451 they were wider. Having run a ruler over the martin Finney drawings it looks like there is a scale 3 inch difference between wide and narro
drduncan

drduncan

4
kyle of lochalsh

kyle 2014 - lic o' paint, lic o' paint...

Afternoon all,   Subtle reference to the Fawlty Towers 'The Builders' episode in the title there   Little opportunities to do anymore on the FY this week so a splash of grey paint this weekend to keep things moving in the right direction whilst I work out how to resolve the electrical connections.   The fascia has been given two coats of grey paint to match the scenic section and the 2FS logos have been positioned - overall I am happy with the composition which I think highlights the slid
bcnPete

bcnPete

17
voyager220004's Blog

Dent Head

As I mentioned in my first post, this layout has been in the planning stage for a couple of months. Baseboards have been made in an egg box construction using 9mm ply, which my local timber merchant kindly cut to the required sizes for me.   Before construction on the baseboards started a track plan was drawn out on the back of a roll of wallpaper cut to the required length of the layout. The plan was changed a couple of times until I was happy with it.   All of the track bed has been put in
voyager220004

voyager220004

5
Building Buckden

Assistive technology and a signal box quandry

I popped to Modelmania in Bristol today (my local shop, and well worth a visit!) for the first time in AGES today, and as usual picked up mostly what I went to get (loco crew, this month's Railway Modeller) but also got drawn in to an impulse purchase of a Cooper Craft Any Name Signal Box kit (No. 2008) because, well, it was ONLY £2.50 and I thought it was neat!   If you haven't seen it, the kit is made up of 4 sprues of plastic letters and a blank nameplate blank apart from SIGNAL BOX at one
Ivatt46403

Ivatt46403

2
SRman's Workbench Blog

Bachmann Class 40 Bogie Frame Repairs

When visiting Peter Mantle's (PCM) Llanbourne layout for the monthly BRMA meeting yesterday, I took along two locomotives that were recently reblown with legomanbiffo sounds. One, 37 698, behaved perfectly (although I noted that I have at some stage lost the horns at one end, probably when transporting it to an exhibition). The other, class 40 D211, disgraced itself by dropping the bogie frame at one end. I was still able to run it and show off the sounds but it looked rather odd - like one end
SRman

SRman

1
MikeOxon's Pre-Grouping Blog

A new 'Old Engine' - GWR 184 - part 5

I feel it is time for an update on progress with my model of GWR No.184. After a rather static period, when I did little actual modelling but thought quite a lot about the details of this engine, I have at last been cutting metal.   In fact, apart from the fact that it is now made of brass, I have made few changes to my initial paper template. My method of construction followed that used on my first scratch-built model (GWR 'Queen'-class - described in Railway Modeller July 2014). In s
MikeOxon

MikeOxon in general

16

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    • 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
    • Yan
      Post Scaleforum 2024

      By Yan · Posted

      Thank you for leaving the comments and thoughts guys, much appreciated.   Both Butley Mills and Ditchling Green are with new owners that are currently refurbishing them. Even the modelling skill and composition still shine through, so they were both well worth seeing in the flesh. One of Iain Rice's layouts I'd like to get the opportunity to see is Trerice.
    • BarryP
      Post Scaleforum 2024

      By BarryP · Posted

      It's good to see so many positive reviews of a model railway exhibition. I did dabble in S4/P4 way back and Iain Rice's writings were inspirational. I saw Butley Mills when it was first shown at Scaleforum in 1987 and I loved it. Gordon Gravett's models are fabulous and I would love to see them in the flesh, as it were. I did visit two shows specifically to see the magnificent "Pempoul" layout that the Gravetts built, that was the finest I've ever seen. I'm dabbling in "O" Gauge and an opportuni
    • Keith Addenbrooke
      Post Scaleforum 2024

      By Keith Addenbrooke · Posted

      Good to see it was a positive experience - and really nice to see a couple of photos of Ditchling Green (I didn’t realise it was still around).  Always struck me as a lovely layout: an early example perhaps of the ‘less is (so much) more’ approach to railway modelling that is now widely appreciated.  Keep up the good work, Keith.
    • Mikkel
      Post Scaleforum 2024

      By Mikkel · Posted

      The layout and info display looks very good. Thanks for posting photos of the other layouts, always a gift for those of us abroad - especially when they are this good.   Imposter syndrome is common I think, it can hold us back but on the hand I'll take that over bragging anytime.  

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