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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
Liphook & District MRC Blog

Midhurst Show and Anniversary Plans

As mentioned on the Midhurst Exhibition thread, the club made its annual visit to our local show...this time providing 6 of the layouts. This was intended to give an idea of the wide range of interests within the club, although this year the layouts were all individual member's models, as opposed to club offerings.   First up was Erhwald, an N gauge DCC layout built by the club's chairman, Ben. Designed specifically to fit in the back of his estate car, it demonstrates some fine scenic modelli
Claude_Dreyfus

Claude_Dreyfus

0
DonB's Bridgnorth Funicular Blog

Some History, It’s been done before, and Track and Steps being made.

Some History, It’s been done before, and Track and Steps being made.   Since my last up-date, I have been attempting to produce CAD drawings of the various buildings adjacent to the lower station at Bridgnorth. This has highlighted the gaps in my information on every one of the buildings, but at least I have established their footprints and wall dimensions, and (in general) their relative alignment to each other. I am short of details of things like size and shape of windows and doors for a
DonB

DonB

1
Marsh Lane Sidings

Now...do I go with DGs or do I go with the Dapol system?

Dilemma! Which way do I go?   I used DGs on Clive Road Sidings at a 2mm Scale Area Group meeting back in the late 80s and was impressed how well they worked. Standard N gauge couplings at that time were unreliable and inconsistent across the manufacturers. A friend advised me to look at the Kadee system, but I considered this too American in appearance. With nothing else available in N gauge at the time as far as I was aware it seemed the logical way to go.   I have made some DGs up and star
RobboPetes

RobboPetes

10
Redgate's Modelling

A dirty gathering

After doing a little more tweaking of the Crosti I'm building for Gavvy2 I took the opportunity to take a low light snap of all three locos recently received back from Roomey.     My Crosti is behind '021 with an O1 at the back. The O1 has had real coal added and the detailing pack fitted before weathering. A Paul Chetter (pauliebanger) L1 Zimo sound chip awaits, which whilst not strictly accurate is at least a Thompson 2 cylinder loco   First outing for my two new locos will be the Linc
RedgateModels

RedgateModels

4
A return to 4mm- having tried everything else!!

Old retaining walls & Old Lane

Yet another blast from the past:   I recently discovered I still had the retaining walls from the erstwhile Old Lane, which was a shunting layout which was just getting started when we were moving. It was based on a disused cutting are in Halifax on an ex LY/GNR bit of route which eventually led to the Queensbury triangle:     The layout is now landfill - but my retaining walls will now live on in my APA box layout, which may or not yet resemble the old lane cutting!     This believ
Russ (mines a pint)

Russ (mines a pint)

2
Stock for Brent 1947 GWR

Hornby Hawksworth to p4

A while back I found a photo of a gwr branded Hawksworth coach in a mixed rake dated 1949 Given the availability of the fantastic Hornby model at a low price on eBay I have snapped one up.   Now I did get a little carried away with bidding, and haven checked if the coach I bought matches the prototype photo (or for that matter of it is in the correct livery) but ho hum   The other reason for getting the model is to use it as a benchmark for producing the other coaches for the layout  
The Fatadder

The Fatadder

3
Ramblings from the Man Cave

Does It Offend You, Yeah?

A picture heavy blog post to ask a fairly simple question. If it is possible to have a poll on a blog post I can't work out how but it would be useful in this instance.   I had previously consigned myself to the replacement of the unsatisfactory toggle switches, which had only been bought because they were available in 3PDT and 4PDT flavours, with banks of linked slide switches. With the TOUs coming out as well I figured I would change these too.   Having played with the S4 Society lever fr
richbrummitt

richbrummitt

17
Petes Model workshop (or ramblings from the balcony)

MOVING THE STOCK

The bench is all ready for me to start working on, I am still a bit short of something to sit on though. But I do not want to get to comfortable there as I still need to do small jos in there for my daughters visit in March.   I have today started moving my modelling kit to the new workshop, or should I say some of it. I have decided to keep the wagons where we are, with the hope of building a few.     I did have a pleasent suprise whilst going through the cupboard. It looks like I r
N15class

N15class

0
barrowroad's Blog

Bristol Barrow Road - Roundhouse - Second Roof Pitch

I have made good progress since my last posting and the second roof pitch is now finished and test fitted.   In order to fit the roof pitch on the sidings side of the roundhouse the side wall required some modification to position and fit the 22 roof trusses. This meant hand cutting a new set of 22 slots for the new roof, filling the original 13 laser cut slots and the scribing the brickwork. The new slots were carefully cut using a fretsaw, scalpel and drill - an interesting exercise.   I h
barrowroad

barrowroad

3
draconusde's Blog

A load of ballast

Well, I have begun my first attempt at ballasting and...it's going. I'm trying out the gadget from Green Scenes to help lay it, which is doing ok but not as quick and simply as the demonstrations/video's would have you believe, but then what's new. My big negative against it is the total lack of instructions, so it's a trial and effort thing, but it's getting better. Hopefully it will look ok when it's finally dry, and lightens up as it seems to have gone quite dark. Early days.   If anyone ou
draconusde

draconusde

0
Dave at Honley Tank's Blog

J10 has gone limpy on me.

Hello and sorry for the lack of posting. Age keeps interrupting my modelling progress due to minor illness that keeps me out of the workshop far more frequently than I’m happy about. It also seems to be causing me to have reduced concentration span, which, unless I realise that my concentration has diminished, leads to error, or at least less precision.   Mid-January I decided to have a shunting session on ‘Bowton’s Yard. Partly to give some running tests on the two new PMVs – still in their
Dave at Honley Tank

Dave at Honley Tank

0
paddock wood bay (in a boxfile)

play : pause : fast rewind : play...

Good evening,   A bit of a quick entry this having arrived late from my evening's commute - when the train journey from Gatwick to Victoria takes longer than the 1hr 55 flight, then that really says it all   Haven't posted for a month or so but work has been progressing on the cassettes during the week days as this can be done relatively low key in my rented digs...no need for soldering, painting or foul smelling adhesives More on the cassettes in another separate entry soon I hope.   A
bcnPete

bcnPete

17
Stock for Brent 1947 GWR

More kit built wagons

Having put the 2251 chassis to one side while I wait for new handrail knobs, and having once again failed to buy the required plywood for the baseboard, today I have been working on wagons.   Fitting bill Bedford springie bits, along with the parkside / Cambrian brake bits to a 13t sr mineral, a parkside lner 5 plank, 1 plank and van, a Bachmann po mineral and a Bachmann conflat.   The latter two wagons have received replacement underframes from Cambrian leftovers, but still need brake gea
The Fatadder

The Fatadder

4
Paternosterrow

Postcards from Cheslyn

Some Edwardian style postcards. These have been made using a free program on the internet called Be Funky. The new store shed is made from coffee stirrers and matchsticks - I used the Scalescenes free upload of the same shed as a template to stick the cut wood on. Can't say enough about the versatility of Scalescenes products - brilliant little kits to make.               This is an ordinary shot of the new store shed. It took about 4 hrs to make start to finish. The n
PaternosterRow

PaternosterRow

3
SNCF stephen's Blog

X2200 Railcar - Part 2 - the painting

It is the first blog of the new year and I am continuing work on the SNCF X2200 railcar.   I remember blogging some time ago that I really wanted to have one of these and although they are now available RTR the price tag is a little high and they have not done a modern TER livery.   So after receiving a resin shell from Kintbury Jon I have got to work with motorising it and now I have just painted the main colours. I am hoping it will look a little like this: This is X2208 seen at Chate
SNCF stephen

SNCF stephen

2
halfwit's Wondrous Wagons!

RT Models Hudson Tipper - part 4.

The chassis' now have bufferbeams, solebars and axleboxes. The bufferbeams are built up from 3 main parts, as well as seperate drawplates and coupling hooks.   The first job was to bend up the main part of the 'beam, after punching out no less than 22 rivets;     Note that there are two sets of locating slots, to suit either the OO or EM/P4 frames. At this stage I fitted the drawplates and coupling hooks whilst I could still access the inside of the 'beam for soldering the coupling hooks
halfwit

halfwit

5
Clevedon WC&PR

Sunshine in Clevedon

As it's been such a beautiful day, I couldn't resist putting a few bits of stock out on the layout and taking a few pictures. Progress since the last update has mainly comprised making the various signs and putting some (hopefully correct) 1930's film posters on the hoardings. Eventually I'd like to make up some flyposters for the Curzon cinema and Knightstone theatre but they'll do for now.   Railcar creeps over the River Yeo bridge Railcar emerges onto Lower Queens Road Hesperus and c
ullypug

ullypug

4
Show visits 2016

Sileby 2013

After a particularly long and frustrating INSET day I have broken up for the much needed half term holiday and what better way to celebrate than by visiting a model railway event. This is the third successive year I have visited the Sileby event and I have always enjoyed it - this year was no exception. For a relatively small location, the Syston Model Railway society always manage to pack in lots to see, and there is always some excellent layouts on show. This year the stand out layout was th
andyram

andyram

0
Hornby 142 Upgrades

Painting Detail

I have now painted the interior of one of my units.   For the seating I have used Humbrol RC404, although this isn't a match for First Great Western Blue, I think that it is close enough when viewed through a window of the unit. I have also used Tamiya X-32 (Titan Silver) on the very top edge of the seats, this is to represent the hand-rails on the top of every seat, I am hoping that this will show up when I fit internal saloon lighting.   I have painted the passenger side of the cab door pa
JZjr

JZjr

0
Grasslands Workbench

BR Class 04 Diesel Tram at Speed: Day 1

Today we answer the question: ‘How much modelling can be done in a day?’   At the Doncaster show a nice chap told me that one of Craftsman Models conversion kits includes the older style cab for an 04 shunter. So a quick purchase of a Bachmann 04 (and said conversion kit) and I was off. I decided to see how far I could get through the conversion in a weekend.     Below is a time-lapse video of the first day of the conversion, enjoy!   http://youtu.be/XuRcH2-5k1E   Visit GrasslandsMode
Grasslands

Grasslands

5
Stock for Brent 1947 GWR

2220 chassis part 2

A little more work completed   I have modified the spacers to provide clearance for the csb brackets, typically I forgot to take a photo. Im hoping that I have provided enough clearance, else some 'interesting' modifications will be needed. Typically I have now realised that I don't have any short handrail knobs available, so cant fit them...   Ideally I want to get the CSB set up tested before I make a start on adding the detail parts, so that I can ensure clearances are all ok.   So I
The Fatadder

The Fatadder

0
Stock for Brent 1947 GWR

2220 chassis part 2

A little more work completed   I have modified the spacers to provide clearance for the csb brackets, typically I forgot to take a photo. Im hoping that I have provided enough clearance, else some 'interesting' modifications will be needed. Typically I have now realised that I don't have any short handrail knobs available, so cant fit them...   Ideally I want to get the CSB set up tested before I make a start on adding the detail parts, so that I can ensure clearances are all ok.   So I
The Fatadder

The Fatadder

0
Adams442T's Blog

Can you see what it is yet? - Part the Last

Well Devondynosoar118 worked it out late yesterday it is indeed The Rocketeer!         I did get it done in time for the Birthday party presentation on Feb 9th, but it was a close run thing. It's a long time since I've worked 'til 2am three nights in a row! Still as they say, "If you can't take a joke, you shouldn't have joined!"   Next project is an NLR 4-4-0T No1 class, but I'll be doing some 4mm NLR figures too and I'll post them as I go along.
Adams442T

Adams442T

4

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  • Blog Comments

    • Neal Ball
      Autocoach upgrade

      By Neal Ball · Posted

      Maybe with the new bottle, I should have sent it back…
    • MikeOxon
      A Tender for Viper

      By MikeOxon · Posted

      Thank you Annie - I really enjoy re-creating these early engines.  It would have been impossible if the young Edward Lane had not taken a liking to them in the yard at Swindon.  By then, most of them had been superseded by later designs, such as Firefly, but he must have had a sense of 'history'.
    • The Fatadder
      Autocoach upgrade

      By The Fatadder · Posted

      If the IPA is not removing paint, a good trick is to warm it up which makes it more effective.   Though like you say after a number of uses it does loose its potency, I recently had to change mine after it got to the point where it was barely touching the paint 
    • MikeOxon
      A Tender for Viper

      By MikeOxon · Posted

      Thank you Chris - I think it's lovely too!  The Lane drawing was probably made in around 1848, ten years after this engine was delivered and after its time on the South Devon. As my final sentence suggested, I am now looking hard at 'Ajax' which had similar-looking solid wheels.
    • MikeOxon
      A Tender for Viper

      By MikeOxon · Posted

      My impression from the sketch was of a round section and I think the way they are arranged to slide through those supports works best of they were.  Round rods were often used on early engines when flat strip came later - possible driven by the availability of steel.

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