Modbury

[Donw]

Superb Ian. I suspect there was some mild tutting over the clerestory. 

 

Interesting to follow your build sequence. You have fitted the door handles very early on. I might try that on some 7mm 6 wheelers I have to assemble.

 

Don

 

[Caley Jim]

6 hours ago, Donw said:

I suspect there was some mild tutting over the clerestory. 

Or words to that effect! 🤫

 

Jim 

[Ian Smith]

As a bit of a change from making and painting coaches, I've begun adding a little more life (or rather wildlife) to Modbury.

 

The catalyst for actually getting on and doing something (as I've intended to do this for quite some time) is an invite to the Manchester exhibition in December.  In filling out the documentation requesting all of the normal things like size of layout, number of sockets required, etc, at the end was a little section asking for a couple of questions for children to answer as a type of "treasure hunt" (something along the lines of “How many dogs in the main street of Dewsbury Midland?”).

 

Now, I must admit that I've never considered a target audience of children for Modbury (although we do have a series of little cameos on St. Ruth for children to find - my effort was a picnicking family whose child has got her kite stuck in one of the trees).  However, although there are some "cameos" on Modbury they are there more to breathe life into the scene rather than the "can you spot ..." kinds of things.

 

Examples of the "cameos" already in existence :

 

Couple awaiting their train for a day out in Torquay

 

Sisters patiently waiting for their train for their "new hat" shopping trip to Exeter

 

Coal merchant John Clarke discussing business with a customer

 

So back to the wildlife!!!  I intend to model some rabbits at some point but decided some bird life would be a nice touch to start with.  Now, clearly in 2mm scale something like a wren or even a blackbird would be a bit pointless, so I've elected to model something a little larger - some pheasant.  According to my ancient "Observers Book of British Birds" :

 

The pheasant would be between 4 and 6mm long in 2mm scale, so actually reasonably visible.  These little chaps (and chapess) were simply formed with a length of 0.45mm brass wire for head body and tail (left over long at each end!!), with a couple of twists of 0.3mm wire to bulk out the body and provide a leg to mount in the scenery.  Once soldered together, further 70 degree solder was used to build up a bit more mass before final bending to shape and thinning with a small needle file.

 

Unfortunately I forgot to take any construction photos, but once primed and painted the results were quite pleasing (although difficult to photo) :

 

 

It was then a simple matter of deciding where to put them - in the end I elected to put them where they would be most visible (at the front of the layout around the hedge that disguises the board joint) :

The lone male looking for something tasty in the grass

 

And on the other side of the hedge the "old married couple".  I have since touched up the male as I had inadvertently damaged his plumage with my tweezers as I forced his leg into the ground.

 

One thing I did notice a couple of weeks ago was that one of my platform trolleys had been lost in transit at one of the recent exhibitions.  The missing trolley was part of another small cameo on the down platform consisting of a couple who were taking some of their produce from their market garden to sell in Plymouth.  The original trolley had a couple of crates of greenery on it, but having to create a replacement has led to something a little more adventurous!

 

The trolley itself is one of my own etchings which was soldered/superglued up and painted.  I then made a couple of wooden boxes (I felt that wicker baskets were a little too tricky although I did try weaving some 0.1mm wire between staves a little thicker!) from 0.005" plasticard with a 0.015" bottom.  An additional pair of stacked crates was also made from small squares of 0.020" plasticard, the middle layer having its sides filed away to leave small squares at each corner to represent the upstanding corners of the lower crate.  Once painted, the voids in the side of the middle layer were dressed with a little green flock, as was the top.  The two wooden boxes have been filled with cauliflowers and cabbages - the hearts of each being small balls of pre-coloured tissue, then outer leaves of more pre-coloured tissue being added.  Once dry a few cabbages were glued in one box and cauli's in the other.

 

 

 

That's all for now.  Thank you for looking.

Ian

Edited May 28 by Ian Smith

[Donw]

Very nicely done Ian. On Pheasants you sometimes see several males all posturing to each other, sometimes a male with a few ladies or a females with some young. 

 

Don

[Compound2632]

Or dead in the road - but perhaps not at your period. Poachers worked under cover of darkness but you could have the squire with his gun and dog.

Edited May 28 by Compound2632

[Izzy]

Always nice to see your work Ian, the high quality of it gives me something to aim for, so thanks for showing it. Those pheasants are great, the poses are just right. Encounter a lot around Essex/Suffolk at certain times of the years on the quieter byways. The males are really silly birds, running in front of traffic and then dithering about, too taken with chasing the females, so very sadly you often see them as road kill when vehicles won't slow down to avoid hitting them.

 

Bob

[Ian Smith]

2 hours ago, Izzy said:

Always nice to see your work Ian, the high quality of it gives me something to aim for, so thanks for showing it.

Bob, thankyou for such a nice comment, although in reality I think it is me aiming to accomplish what you and others do!!

I think pheasants an pigeons are about the same in the sense stakes, although to give them their due they didn’t evolve to have to avoid anything tearing down at them at 50+ mph!! (although pigeons may have an odd peregrine to worry about).

[nick_bastable]

7 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

 but you could have the squire with his gun and dog.

no then you need the character with a coat with poachers pockets

 

Anyway excellent if unusual modelling Ian

 

Nick

[Ian Smeeton]

At least your pheasants aren't camouflaged.

 

 

Like this one.

 

 

Can you see her now?

 

Regards

 

Ian

[yaxxbarl]

16 minutes ago, Ian Smeeton said:

At least your pheasants aren't camouflaged.

 

 

Like this one.

 

 

Can you see her now?

 

Regards

 

Ian

When he worked on the line around Manton Junction in LMS and later BR days, my Grandad Bob's stretch of line adjoined an estate around a big house at Gunthorpe, so they would keep the estate's Gamekeepers informed of any birds, usually Pheasant, nesting by the line.

 

During the season, for 'services rendered' I believe he would also receive a brace of pheasant now and then.

 

As for male Pheasants, I did hear the call of a male Pheasant once described as sounding like the Pheasant is constantly 'failing to start up his internal combustion engine' !

 

Cheers,

 

John

[Ian Smith]

Over the last few days further remedial work has been applied to Modbury.  After the Wells exhibition a couple of years ago I noticed that two of the platform oil lamps on the near Up platform had been damaged - in fact all that remained of them was the posts glued into the platform, the glazed portion and their supporting "cages" had been knocked off and lost.  At the time that I noticed this damage, I extricated the two posts and put them somewhere "safe".  Needless to say that those posts are still in that "safe place"!!!

 

When I originally turned up the posts, I made 11 all told - 5 for each platform and one for the cattle dock.  Two of the originals had never actually made it to completion so the nearer Up platform lacked a couple anyway.  With the missing pair I decided that I really ought to rectify the situation in readiness for Modbury's next outing (publicly at Loughborough in August, but I'm also taking Modbury to the Great Western Study Group AGM in Didcot at the end of the month.

 

So, first up I needed to make a couple of new posts to replace the pair that are lurking somewhere in a "safe place".  This is a reasonably easy turning operation from 2mm round brass bar with gravers in the lathe - the form being a tapered column with a small collar about 0.5mm from the top, and the lower 1mm being formed into a stepped foot (along with a mounting spigot below).  The whole visible turning being 12mm (6'0") tall.  The "supporting cage" at the top of the post is formed from an X soldered onto the 0.5mm section above the collar, the arms of the X being carefully bent around so that the glazed section could be glued on top.  Incidentally, the X is actually some 4mm scale glazing bars from some etched signal box windows.

 

The glazed portions (and their roofs) were formed from a piece of 3mm thick perspex sheet which was cut and milled to be 3mm square bar.  The facets of the glazed portion were then milled at a 10 degree angle and polished before being cut from the bar and the roof facets filed on.  A flat was filed at the roof apex and a 0.55mm hole drilled.  The vent and finial at the top of the roof were formed with another little turning (again with a graver) with a 0.5mm hole drilled down it for a piece of 0.5mm wire which in turn was filed to represent the finial.

 

Hopefully, the photos below will illustrate :

The four new lamps (two original posts turned in nickel silver, the two new ones from 2mm brass rod).  The left-most post shows the 4mm signal box glazing bars soldered on top, next to it is the roof vent and in front of that the perspex glazing (including the roof).

 

The four completed lamps ready for installation.

 

And finally, a view of the lamps in place on the layout :

One of the replacement lamps is hidden by the building in the is view.

 

Thanks you for looking.

Ian

[Siberian Snooper]

Ian,

 

No doubt now that you have made a fitted two new lamps the errant pair of posts, will now show themselves.

 

 

[Ian Smith]

" ... Two for Joy ..."

 

Being extremely pleased with myself for managing to produce something that (to me at least) looked like pheasant, I decided to see what else I could produce ...

 

The outcome is a pair of magpies !!!  Once again, the core of these is a piece of brass wire, this time a piece of 0.3mm with some much finer wire wound around to bulk out the body.  Once again, solder is used to blend in the body to the bare wire necks.  Once happy with the general shape, a bit of bending and careful filing produced a body, head and beak.  A small flat was filed on the rear of the back and a tail was added from a short narrow strip of green Rizla cigarette paper.  Once happy, the birds got a wash of white enamel all over, then a blue-black was mixed and applied to head and neck and tail - the tail being slightly bluer.  A hole drilled in a couple of fence posts at the front of the layout (near a pair of cows so that the public can be more easily directed as to where to find them), a touch of canopy glue on their mounting pegs and "Bob's your uncle!".  Incidentally, I perhaps should mention that each bird is just under 3mm long (tip of beak to end of tail).

 

Thanks for looking.

Ian

[Ian Smith]

Edwardian Modbury gets dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century!!!!

 

No, I've not got baulk road track with overhead electrification!  However, we do now have available some fancy electronics!

 

But first a bit of background.  While Modbury has now been to several exhibitions, one problem does regularly recur - the fiddle yard operator (at the Newton Abbot end) gets involved in talking to the punters and as a result the trains stop moving.  Obviously, with Modbury having a total length of only 10' it is not impossible for the main operator (at the control panel at the Plymouth end) to go to the other end of the layout and service himself as it were, however at busy periods (usually the very time that the fiddle yard operator gets involved in such conversations), trying to get from one end of the layout to the other and back again is problematic.

 

So to the solution (hopefully).  My good friend and fellow Midland Area Group member, John Russell, being and electronics guru has devised and developed a couple of boxes of electronics to allow end-to-end communication.  At Tuesday nights meeting he kindly demonstrated said gubbins, and sent me away with the bits and bobs to complete the project.

 

Firstly, a pair of identical circuit boards (this one is the "slave" for the Newton Abbot end).  After making up the box for the "master" and following a conversation with John I removed the rotary switch on the slave as it is currently surplus to requirements for that end.  The "master" also has a pair of power leads coming off the socket to allow connection to a 12v power supply.

 

A couple of small boxes into which I had to fit the electronics gubbins were also supplied, as was a cable to connect the two circuit boards together and allow them to talk to each other.

 

After an hour or two drilling and filing, I had holes in the relevant places to match the rotary switch (only on the "master"), the display and the button on the circuit board.  I also found it necessary to drill some holes above the buzzer to help let the noise out!

 

With the two boxes connected and power supplied to the "master" box, the rotary switch can be turned clockwise to select 0, 1, 2, ...8, or 9, or anti-clockwise to select P(assenger), F(reight), or E(mpty road).  As the knob is rotated (on the "master") the selections are shown on the display in red, when the display shows the required selection the button can be pressed which will instigate communication between the two boxes, causing the "slave" box to illuminate it's display with the selection from the "master" (also in red) and sound a buzzer to alert the fiddle yard operator that he needs to do something.  Once the fiddle yard operator has set up the request, he can press the button on his box which will change the displays on both boxes to green and sound a buzzer on the "master" to let the control operator know that everything is ready.

 

The knob on the "master" has been rotated anti-clockwise to request a P(assenger) train to be made ready at the other end, the button has been pressed causing the request to show up (in red) on the "slave" and sound the buzzer at that end.

 

The fiddle yard operator has made a passenger train ready and has pressed the button which has sounded a buzzer on the "master" (control panel) end and set both displays too green.

 

The next phase will be to dream up what the 0 - 9 indications might be used to request, eg. 0 - Cattle Train, 1 - Stream Railmotor, 2 - Pick-up Goods, etc.  Although I think for our next outing at Loughborough in August I might just stick to using the P, F, and E indications to see how effective the concept is.

 

Thanks for looking,

Ian

[drduncan]

If the Newton Abbott FY operator is being distracted by conversations perhaps a ‘call attention’ bell is needed too? Lest they miss the change of message on the indicator….

Duncan

[Ian Smith]

5 minutes ago, drduncan said:

If the Newton Abbott FY operator is being distracted by conversations perhaps a ‘call attention’ bell is needed too? Lest they miss the change of message on the indicator….

Duncan

Hopefully we can facilitate that by repeated pressing button on master box as each time button pressed the buzzer sounds on the slave.

[Caley Jim]

Could the buzzer not make a 'ding' sound and then you could use proper bell codes?  🙂

 

Jim

[drduncan]

21 minutes ago, Caley Jim said:

Could the buzzer not make a 'ding' sound and then you could use proper bell codes?  🙂

 

Jim

Yes!

[Worsdell forever]

The numbers could be used for all sorts of communications, 

 

1. I need a brew.

2. Caution - rucksack.

3. Make sure there's a biscuit with it.

4. Warning - rivet counter. 

5. Maybe a bit of cake.

6. This one's grandad drove flying Scotsman.

 

And so on... 

 

 

Looks a brilliant bit of kit. 

[VRBroadgauge]

You could save yourself some time and effort and just use a broom handle - one poke for attention and two pokes for hurry up.

[Caley Jim]

Why just the handle? More weight in the whole broom! 

 

Jim

[VRBroadgauge]

12 hours ago, Caley Jim said:

Why just the handle? More weight in the whole broom! 

 

Jim

But you need more space to get a proper swing...

[drduncan]

18 hours ago, VRBroadgauge said:

But you need more space to get a proper swing...

Is t that one of the advantages of 2mm scale?

D

[VRBroadgauge]

13 hours ago, drduncan said:

Is t that one of the advantages of 2mm scale?

D

We're just more precise.

[Penrhos1920]

On 07/07/2024 at 02:30, VRBroadgauge said:

You could save yourself some time and effort and just use a broom handle - one poke for attention and two pokes for hurry up.

Or a cattle prod