Chuffnell Regis

[Andy Keane]

Results are in on the club fence.

holes

planted

tensioned

result

extreme close up shows it would be better to use black line rather than clear as painting then less important

[Graham T]

That looks great Andy - definitely the technique I will use next time.  Thanks for sharing.

[MrWolf]

That looks very neat. I also have yards of the stuff to do. Good tip about black fishing line.

[Andy Keane]

9 hours ago, MrWolf said:

That looks very neat. I also have yards of the stuff to do. Good tip about black fishing line.

The key seems to be to first thread everything onto the line having pre-painted the fence poles and also shaped their bottoms to go in circular holes (they come square of course). Then anchor the lines on one straining post with superglue which you then cement into place on the board.  Crucially don't paint the line until you have planted and cemented in place the entire fence as this will stop the line sliding through the posts. Then pull gently to tension the line on the other straining posts and again cement the lines to the post with superglue so you have nice taut wires. Finally paint the fence wires which finishes the job.

[Graham T]

Thanks Andy, a useful tip about not painting the fishing line first.  I would have done that otherwise.

[Andy Keane]

5 minutes ago, Graham T said:

Thanks Andy, a useful tip about not painting the fishing line first.  I would have done that otherwise.

I did and found out the hard way, so had to cut the line out and start again!

[BroadLeaves]

14 hours ago, Graham T said:

15 hours ago, gwrrob said:

 

Have you the link please @Graham T

 

Yes of course Rob, here it is.  But strangely it's not working right now!

 

It's not the web site that's down. The whole mbrmodel.eu domain is gone. There's no DNS servers for it.

https://whois.eurid.eu/en/search/?domain=mbrmodel.eu is showing a status that implies the domain has been unregistered or the registration has lapsed.

Hope they haven't stopped trading. They made some lovely trees. https://www.modellnatur.com/ are a reseller and while I haven't checked every one, for all the ones I've looked at, the MBR products are all "temporarily out of stock". Hmm....

Edited September 1, 2022 by BroadLeaves

[Graham T]

Similarly, I hope they haven't gone under.  They make (made?) some very good stuff.

[Nick C]

Indeed. There's an email address and phone number on the last invoice I had from them, when we're recovered from Covid I'll ask Mrs C to email them in Polish and ask if they're still trading. 

[Gopher]

16 hours ago, Graham T said:

Well, it is when things go smoothly, like today.

Mama said there would be days like these 

[gwrrob]

3 hours ago, BroadLeaves said:

Hope they haven't stopped trading. They made some lovely trees. https://www.modellnatur.com/ are a reseller and while I haven't checked every one, for all the ones I've looked at, the MBR products are all "temporarily out of stock". Hmm....

 

Indeed and they want 20 sheets for postage for what they do have in stock.

[Graham T]

36 minutes ago, gwrrob said:

 

Indeed and they want 20 sheets for postage for what they do have in stock.

 

I just checked, and the last package I received from MBR cost €10 for shipping (from Poland to Austria), so 20 seems a touch steep from Modellnatur.

[Graham T]

Didn't have much time at all to spend on Chuffnell R so far today, but did get a few little bits and pieces moved on slightly.  The get up and go seems to have got up and gone though!

 

Unlike many of us perhaps, the signalman now has his heating supplies secured, at least for a while.  Next job is some weathering here, and a dab of paint to set the brickwork into the ground.

 

 

And the infamous bracket signal has been just very gently weathered with a little matt earth paint, just to take the starkness off the white.  The retaining wall is now fixed in place, and blended into the cess with some polyfilla.  I'll then add a little chinchilla dust, including over the black base of the signal.  It is just sitting in place though, the idea being that it can be removed later, either for wiring in (unlikely) or moving to CR Mk II (slightly more likely).

 

 

Last thing was to lay the small strip of lawn at the back of the station building.  This will of course be all but invisible, however...  I know it's there.  Unfortunately it didn't hide the gap between the road surface and the platform, so the polyfilla had to come out again.  Once that's dry it will get painted and the crack cocaine static grass treatment too.

 

[Graham T]

And now another from the seemingly inexhaustible Chuffnell Regis supply of numpty questions.  As I've put in the bracket signal, I'm now thinking about adding the starters for the bay and main platform.  After a very helpful post much earlier in this thread from @The Stationmaster, I know they should be two separate straight post signals, and sited to the left of the lines.  The question I have is, what height should the posts be?  And I'm assuming that the post for the signal mounted on the platform would be shorter, so that the signal arms are both at the same height above the track?

[gwrrob]

2 hours ago, Graham T said:

 

I just checked, and the last package I received from MBR cost €10 for shipping (from Poland to Austria), so 20 seems a touch steep from Modellnatur.

 

Your link @Graham T in a previous post is now working and I'm pleased to report all items are in stock and postage to the UK is indeed 10 Euros [£8.60]. I've joined the growing club of modellers on here who enjoy using their products. Look out on ANTB for some soon.

[Neal Ball]

13 minutes ago, Graham T said:

And now another from the seemingly inexhaustible Chuffnell Regis supply of numpty questions.  As I've put in the bracket signal, I'm now thinking about adding the starters for the bay and main platform.  After a very helpful post much earlier in this thread from @The Stationmaster, I know they should be two separate straight post signals, and sited to the left of the lines.  The question I have is, what height should the posts be?  And I'm assuming that the post for the signal mounted on the platform would be shorter, so that the signal arms are both at the same height above the track?

 

Main Platform and Bay.... I would go for a bracket signal - the taller post being the main platform.

 

Hope that helps.

[Graham T]

9 minutes ago, gwrrob said:

 

Your link @Graham T in a previous post is now working and I'm pleased to report all items are in stock and postage to the UK is indeed 10 Euros [£8.60]. I've joined the growing club of modellers on here who enjoy using their products. Look out on ANTB for some soon.

 

That's great news, thanks for letting me know.

[Graham T]

2 minutes ago, Neal Ball said:

 

Main Platform and Bay.... I would go for a bracket signal - the taller post being the main platform.

 

Hope that helps.

 

That was my first thought, but I got told about 100 pages back (!) that the GWR didn't use brackets unless they had to, due to cost?

[Graham T]

To be honest a bracket seems the more sensible solution to me.  Any idea what the standard height above the track was for the signal arms to be?  Also, I don't think it would have any "accoutrements", but I may well be wrong?

[Andy Keane]

I am not sure about standard height. Helston had three signal posts and the photos clearly show they were all different heights, one short just beyond the platform and box (no idea why), one normal in front of the bridge and one tall beyond the bridge (so the box could site the upper arm). No doubt some heights were more common than others but I am sure they varied from place to place. Hopefully Mike can advise on likely heights for you.

Andy

[Graham T]

Yes, I haven't been able to find a definitive answer either.  Quel surprise!  Hopefully one of our resident gurus will come up with the necessary in due course 🙂

[Graham T]

A small Prairie to finish the day, perhaps?  Seems churlish not to!

 

[Carl L]

I’m just catching up with this (working backwards until the images disappear), stunning, a great standard to aspire to.

 

It’ll no doubt be in a post that I haven’t seen, but what is your track? I like it (one of my regrets on Neptune Street is not using a more finescale product).

[Graham T]

Thanks very much Carl, glad you like it.  I try not to show the (many) dodgy parts...

 

The track is Peco Code 75 throughout, bullhead for the plain track and flat bottom for the points - I didn't have the patience to wait for bullhead points to become available!  Chuffnell Regis Mark II will stay with OO, but I will most probably use Finetrax points; not sure about the rest of the track yet.

[BWsTrains]

4 hours ago, Graham T said:

To be honest a bracket seems the more sensible solution to me.  Any idea what the standard height above the track was for the signal arms to be?  Also, I don't think it would have any "accoutrements", but I may well be wrong?

3 hours ago, Andy Keane said:

I am not sure about standard height. Helston had three signal posts and the photos clearly show they were all different heights, one short just beyond the platform and box (no idea why), one normal in front of the bridge and one tall beyond the bridge (so the box could site the upper arm). No doubt some heights were more common than others but I am sure they varied from place to place. Hopefully Mike can advise on likely heights for you.

Andy

 

 

There's a citation over on @john dew's Granby (somewhere) that's there was no such thing as a standard height for GWR signal posts, that visibility was the main criterion. I can vouch for that having looked at a lot of GWR signal photos while planning for Upper Hembury.

 

AFAIR the info cited came from @Stationmaster.

 

Edited September 1, 2022 by BWsTrains