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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
    • 3,303 views
kyle of lochalsh

a stay of execution?...

Good evening,   Not had a chance to do any modelling since the exhibition of 11 May 2013 so I guess the next best thing is to think, read and draw about it...   You may recall that this layout is on the list to be scrapped when we move back to the UK in a couple of months, all being well.   Whilst I have had fun making it...and then remaking it, I have to be ruthless in some of my decision making to set the example in our apartment as we have a lot of pruning to be done...plus we have far
bcnPete

bcnPete

16
Petes Model workshop (or ramblings from the balcony)

BEATTIE 0298 TANK (4)

Managed some more to my little Well tank. I am pleased with the way it is going. To me it is taking on the character of Beattie's little engine, hopefully you all will agree..   The chassis is almost finished, I just need to add some detail to the marine type big ends and nut detail to the crosshead. I have already added the sand pipes and brake gear. I also had a slight accident with the rear buffer beam. I need to reattatch it, the epoxy glue failed. I made the crankpin nuts from a 1
Hydraulic Heaven

A West Country Hero - Part 3

With a little less time pressure, I thought I'd take the time to write a catch-up installment of the account of Grenville's build.   We left things with the windscreen frames and most of the front end ironwork fitted but with a remaining question mark over the access panels on the cab sides. To finish off the ends, the lower lamp brackets were sliced off and used as a guide to drill 0.5mm holes. Into these holes were pushed some brackets cut from 5 thou N/S strip… these are probably a lot eas
D869

D869

5
Barry O's Weathering Blog

A B5, Stanier 2-6-4T and a pigeon van...

Just starting to re-work some of my weathered stock as well as finally photographing some weathered stock   First up a Millhome B5 built by late father     this will be reworked this week.   Next a Hornby Stanier 2-6-4T - about to be re-wheeled with Alan Gibson wheels     and finally a Chivers LNER Pigeon brake - somewhere I have a D&S one of these which needs weathering...  
Barry O

Barry O

0
Murder on the Tracks!

Controlling the Layout

When planning a new layout, unless it’s tiny in size, there doesn’t seem to be much of an argument to go with anything other than DCC control. To start with the basic wiring is a lot simpler – you don’t need to create lots of isolating sections to control locomotives individually.     I say the basic wiring is a lot simpler because wiring for DCC can become incredibly complicated if you want it to be! Here lies the magic of DCC – it is easily but also massively expandable. Just want to run a
iamjamie

iamjamie

0
Macs Building Blog

From Pile to Structure

Well,   I am extremely happy to report that I have been one very busy bee over the last 3 days. The modelling mojo has well and truly taken hold . The small pile of wood during the last blog has now taken on structure, that of some baseboards and a lighting stand.     This is what it started life out like. 12mm MDF 2400 * 1200 sheets rip cut on a table saw ( Thanks to bob and his lovely wife for putting up with the mdf dust and giving me a hand and a lend of their table saw ). This gave
rcmacchipilot

rcmacchipilot

3
Maxstoke

2-6-2 chassis progress

The motor is mounted by machining a support ring which is then tapped to accept the thread on the motor nose. Once soldered to the chassis the motor can be mounted. I took care to align things such that when screwed in tight the connection tags are horizontal   The balance weights are fixed in place on the wheels with epoxy   And all are now ready for painting- 1st coat is cellulose red oxide
RichardW1

RichardW1

3
Paternosterrow

Chester MRC at Blennerville

Spent a great day out yesterday at the Chester MRC's event in Blennerville, County Kerry. The group have generously donated their model of the Tralee and Dingle Light Railway to the centre. This will hopefully provide a great boost to the fledgling Irish Railway Society that have recently started up. Some pictures of what is an already well known and highly crafted layout.       John Campbell and Neil Ramsay were also in attendance with their fabulous collections of 16mm live steam and
PaternosterRow

PaternosterRow

8
The Cuckmere Valley Railway

Boot Sale Bargains

The usual Sunday morning trip round one of the local Car Boot Sales revealed some interesting bits. Firstly – an old Hornby Sheep Wagon. I believe this is nothing like the prototype, but at a solitary pound, with no broken bits (I have a spare wheelset!) , it will do as a placeholder and something in the right livery to shunt around whilst I am building kits. The books both caught my eye on the same stall (£2 the pair). The H.P White ‘Regional History of the Railways’ book has already thrown up
dseagull

dseagull

1
75A

A 30 year dream becomes reality

Stimulated by seeing the layout by Robin Whittle and the Glevum group at Scalefour North, I came home and dusted off the papers, maps, plans and photos built up over 30 years for the time when '75A' would come to life... that time, I have decided, has come! I was impressed by Chris' (??) baseboards. He took the time and trouble to describe to me the construction of the baseboards which he produced. He uses 6mm beech ply in two laminated layers to construct the edges of the board, the inner lay
NorthHighlander

NorthHighlander

5
Freshwater, Isle of Wight, in 2FS

Right back where I started from

It is over 12 months since my last posting on this blog. A quick recap of the project so far is in order.   Way back in July 2010, the 2mm Scale Association celebrated its Golden Jubilee with a special Expo in Oxford. Prior to this, a layout building challenge was issued for layouts up to 9.42 square feet to be exhibited at the Expo. I built Freshwater for this challenge. As a change from my normal use of relays to operate points, I decided to try servos for the new layout. I joined Merg to ge
Ian Morgan

Ian Morgan

5
Fen End Pit's Blog

More laser-cutting, this time it's BIG!

I'd been looking for a suitable industrial building to form a back-drop to my rebuilt scalefour empire and also provide a source of rail traffic. Those with very long memories may remember my attempt to model Mistley maltings (or at least part of it) more years ago than I care to think. I didn't want anything quite that big this time so spent a good few hours on Google searching for 'East Anglia Mill' and similar terms. I end up finding Ebridge Mill near North Walsham. There is an excellent web
Fen End Pit

Fen End Pit

4
The GC and Met in OO

More work on the B5...

Well, what do you think?     Still masses to do obviously but to my mind it does now start to look like a B5 rather than a generic loco.   I've paired it up with a Triang L1/ 2P tender, which I'm going to hack up in the same fashion I did an identical Airfix tender for one of my J11s.   On the loco itself I've added a spectacle plate in slivers of plastic sheet- not quite finished yet- and I removed the cab roof, straightened it out a little and then re-instated it. It looks a lot b
James Harrison

James Harrison

4
Legomanbiffo's sound Blog

Song 2

Ding-ding diddle-ing ding ding, ding ding ding ding. I had my head shaved. By a Jumbo jet. It wasn't easy. But nothing is-eh. The first verse of a tune you've all heard countless times on the telly; the classic Song 2 by Blur, all of two minutes long if I recall. And Blur is this week's tenuous connection to my life over the past few weeks! There's a bit of activity to report as a result.   Firstly, more raw materials have been obtained after another private session at the ELR. The origin
legomanbiffo

legomanbiffo

0
Dave at Honley Tank's Blog

SILLY!

Silly of me to have posted some pictures without information yesterday, so here’s the words to explain the pictures.   The top two show the beginnings of one of the LNER PMVs, based on a Parkside kit. As is my wont, they were not built as the designer of the kit intended. Almost all my more recent rolling stock builds ride on Bill Bedford sprung ‘W’ irons, have a removable underframe built onto a new floor and underframe and body have a single, central screw fixing using a ballast weight as th
The Farthing layouts

Cranes for the depot

I spent an enjoyable morning installing my two shed cranes in the goods depot. As previously mentioned, the cranes are copied from the ones used at Paddington Goods, although similar types seem to have been used in other large goods depots in the 1900s. I have not been able to find any technical specifications, but I doubt if they were able to handle anything heavier than light goods in vans and wagons.       The cranes were scratchbuilt using plastikard and various oth
Mikkel

Mikkel

24
shanks522's Blog

Building someone else's layout

Hello all,   Well its a been a while since i posted in my blog so i thought i'd share something i've been building today.   My brother Stuart has recently sold his N gauge layout and a fair bit of stock as he is heading towards married life and with two layout's in two scales it wouldn't have gone down to well with SWMBO, however he started to venture into DCC a while ago and didn't wish to loose his controller or the few DCC loco's he had. Whilst he was going through items to sell on we c
shanks522

shanks522

1
On Ravensers Bookcase

Set 3 - Grouping Non-Gangwayed

Despite having two sets of coaches on the go already , I seem to have drifted into starting a third. Admittedly the LNWR set is almost done - just a bit of weathering still to do , and the new project is supposed to be a quick win....   When, early this year, I decided to use various steam era kits and bits I had accumulated to operate a steam period on Blacklade I quickly found I was very short of brake coaches. As money was tight at the time , I looked for the cheapest options to plug the ga
Ravenser

Ravenser

0
Dave at Honley Tank's Blog

I'm not dead! Second time round

I posted this the other day but forgot to include information about the included pictures. Today I have added that information to the original words. Here is the lot!   Winter weather, minor ill health for both Margaret & myself, - (old age really!) and lack of modelling confidence is the reason for not having posted on here for about three months. Age is not as wonderful as we believe when younger; it’s certainly interfering with my modelling skills and my length of concentration span and
Building a 2mm Clayton

Bogies and power

After a short delay (2 months!) I have finally managed to test fit the bogies and try the motor for size and position.   I am using a Tomytec TM-10 chassis as the donor, it cost about £20 inc. postage from Japan via ebay. I was going to try and build motor bogies based on Alex Duckworth's own design but decided after sourcing small motors I might not be successful. Lots of web searching I thought I'd try the Tomytec chassis, the bogies are about 3mm short but I don't think they will look to
shed64a

shed64a

1
The GC and Met in OO

The B5- turning the corner....

There is always a point with a project, I find, where whatever I am working on goes from being 'a lump of stuff' to 'a recogniseable x/y/z'.   I think I reached this point with the B5 last night when I added the chimney and dome.   I firstly went through another bout of 'fill, sand and smooth' on the boiler to eradicate the angular appearance, then I added a few layers of 0.5mm plastic sheet to the smokebox to bring it up to full length. I thought I had drawn it to size, then the print tu
James Harrison

James Harrison

0
Layout - Fisherton Sarum

Talking Stock #25 Marsh got one Atlantic 4-4-2 tank right with the I3

Douglas Earie-Marsh will probably be best known for the popular and graceful H1 and H2 Atlantic express engines, although these were essentially Ivatt designs from the Great Northern with whom March previously worked. His fist design of Atlantic tanks the I1 and I2 classes were not at all successful performers. The I3 tanks however changed that and quickly gained an excellent reputation especially with respect to fuel economy. When used on the ‘Sunny South Special’ between Brighton and Rugby,
Graham_Muz

Graham_Muz

3

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