The Osney Story: 0 Gauge Cameos and Dioramas including Osney Shed

[RAY NORWOOD]

2 hours ago, rcf said:

Hi Everyone, as mentioned in the last post I have agreed to exhibit the Wharf at a local show over the bank holiday weekend. As a result I have been spending time finishing the presentation of the layout and also adding a few details and actually spending some time running the layout as it would be at  the show. 

 

The name is now on the facia/lighting board and velcro has been stuck around the boards to accomodate the screening curtain. So presentation ready. However when I had erected the layout with fiddle yard there was a slight discrepancy between the rail heights on the fiddle yard and the scenic boards, how I don't know. The result was that when propelling wagons on to the wharf, and all wagons will be propelled, some derailed. The solution was simple and just needed some packing under the rail, but a good reason for testing of the layout in operating conditions.

 

I have also been adding a few more small details to increase interest. After all, this part of the system may see the daily goods to Osney only deliver a wagon to the the wharf very occasionally and nothing might happen after that for a day or so, hardly inspired viewing, so while everyone is waiting for something to happen there will at least be something to look at. That's my theory anyway. 😁

 

Lastly I have been running in the Dapol 14xx as I had only had it out of the box to check it out, not easy when you only have about 7 feet of track. But it is now running well and the sound is very good, to my way of thinking. Oh yes, I have also been practicing using my magnetic shunters pole and learning the best technique re the coupling. It does work well but I can't guarantee there won't be bad language on the day!!

 

That's all for now , Rob

I cannot wait to see your new layout Rob. Where is this local exhibition at the bank holiday, would be Hayle by any chance. 

[rcf]

8 minutes ago, RAY NORWOOD said:

I cannot wait to see your new layout Rob. Where is this local exhibition at the bank holiday, would be Hayle by any chance. 

Hi Ray, yes it's Hayle, will you be down on holiday about then?

[RAY NORWOOD]

1 hour ago, rcf said:

Hi Ray, yes it's Hayle, will you be down on holiday about then?

Hi Rob. Yes as always I will be down there as our yearly two weeks away at mother in laws and l therfore will bring Feltham Road to Hayle show. I am looking forward to seeing you both again. 

[rcf]

22 minutes ago, RAY NORWOOD said:

Hi Rob. Yes as always I will be down there as our yearly two weeks away at mother in laws and l therfore will bring Feltham Road to Hayle show. I am looking forward to seeing you both again. 

I should have guessed you might be exhibiting, its really quite a small world we operate in, but good fun. It will be good to see you and Feltham again.

[rcf]

Just a couple of recent photos. 1426 has had some coal added and some fire irons but is still in need of a crew. These are Modelu but awaiting painting, hopefully in time for the show.

 

[Stubby47]

Looking great, Rob.

[RAY NORWOOD]

That looks fantastic. Looking forward seeing it at the Hayle show 

[rcf]

Hi All,

 

Osney Town Wharf is back home after it's first public outing at the weekend. An enjoyable two days at the Hayle Railway Modellers summer show. A few niggles, as always with a new layout, even one as small as OTW, but nothing that can't be put right, including damage to a lamp post which was positioned to close to the edge of the board.

 

Three link couplings !!! My magnetic pole worked quite well and I developed some sort of technique but it either worked first time or after 5 minutes of struggle. One kind soul did offer to step back away so that, as he put it, I could express my true feelings 😁. Hopefully no one was put off by my struggles but I think most people were sympathetic.

 

This is the first layout I have operated from the front and I must say how it improved the occasion. People were more ready to chat to you and for me it was a new experience to be able to talk without leaning over the layout. It was good to meet one or two people who had been following the build online and were able to see the layout in reality. It is always good to see the faces behind the comments and also to see familiar faces after nearly three years of not exhibiting. I also received two requests from other shows, one, sadly was too far away but the other was local, so if that is confirmed we will be on our travels again later in the year.

 

As soon as the schools are back I will have more time for modelling and after a little work on OWT to put the little niggles right I can get on with the next idea which has been on hold during the holidays.

 

Rob

Edited August 29, 2022 by rcf

[simonmcp]

The layout looks even better in the flesh. It is packed full of well observed details, the colours and textures are just right. I highly recommend a visit to a show to see it 

[fredwrekin]

 

Hi Rob

I came to the Hayle show specifically to see OTW & was not disappointed. Having followed it (& the others) on here it was great to see it in the flesh. Such great attention to detail & full of atmosphere. Looking forward to the next one.

[RAY NORWOOD]

4 hours ago, rcf said:

Hi All,

 

Osney Town Wharf is back home after it's first public outing at the weekend. An enjoyable two days at the Hayle Railway Modellers summer show. A few niggles, as always with a new layout, even one as small as OTW, but nothing that can't be put right, including damage to a lamp post which was positioned to close to the edge of the board.

 

Three link couplings !!! My magnetic pole worked quite well and I developed some sort of technique but it either worked first time or after 5 minutes of struggle. One kind soul did offer to step back away so that, as he put it, I could express my true feelings 😁. Hopefully no one was put off by my struggles but I think most people were sympathetic.

 

This is the first layout I have operated from the front and I must say how it improved the occasion. People were more ready to chat to you and for me it was a new experience to be able to talk without leaning over the layout. It was good to meet one or two people who had been following the build online and were able to see the layout in reality. It is always good to see the faces behind the comments and also to see familiar faces after nearly three years of not exhibiting. I also received two requests from other shows, one, sadly was too far away but the other was local, so if that is confirmed we will be on our travels again later in the year.

 

As soon as the schools are back I will have more time for modelling and after a little work on OWT to put the little niggles right I can get on with the next idea which has been on hold during the holidays.

 

Rob

Hi Rob. 

It was fantastic seeing you and your better half and your new layout was the best at the Hayle show. Keep up with the good work mate.

[rcf]

Just a quick thank you guys for your comments which are all greatly appreciated.

 

Regards Rob

[rcf]

Hi Everyone,

 

Well I can confirm that OTW will be appearing at the Cornwall Model Railway Exhibition on the 30th October at the Carn Brea Leisure Centre at Pool, Redruth. The show is organised by Cornwall 0 Gauge Group but has a wider range of scales at the show.

 

Anyone who saw the layout at Hayle and comes to Carn Brea may notice e few alterations. After the Hayle show I mentioned that there had been a few little niggles. These mainly centred on the fiddle yard and its relationship to the layout which caused the occasional derailment, which is not a good thing when exhibiting and creates a poor image of the layout. As wagons are propelled on to the layout any small misalignment caused the lighter wagons to derail on the back siding although the weightier locos were ok. The problem was that when building the layout I needed to get as much space as possible between the two sidings to provide space for the buildings and road which resulted in the sidings being at the extreme limit of the travel on the traverser. As you can probably imagine only the slightest touch on the fiddle yard could result in a very small misalignment. This did not happen often but usually when I was least expecting it. At home, and thinking about the possibility of another show I knew I would not be happy until the issue was resolved so I decided the only solution was to reduce the distance between the two sidings. This would involve swinging one siding across by as little as 5mm. The back siding was effectively inaccessible so any change had to be at the front, so biting the bullet I have taken up part of the siding and swung it across to give sufficient play on the traverser. This sounds simple but it actually involved an amazing amount of work on what was a fully modelled siding. But it is now complete and extensive testing has been done, so far successfully!

 

Perhaps I should also mention that the elaborate track layout on the fiddle yard, which included a sector plate to avoid me having to handle the stock has also gone. In operating at the show I hardly made use of the sector plate and when doing the other work I decided that it was all overly complicated and I should go back to first principles and keep everything simple. I now have parallel tracks which can be used for storage and will also mean that the fiddle yard can double up as the fiddle yard for the new layout which, hopefully, I can now find time to concentrate on.

 

Hopefully I may see some of you at Carn Brea, so until then regards to all,

 

Rob

[rcf]

Having re-read my last post I thought that my brief comment about the amount of work required in moving the front siding my be better illustrated with some before and after pictures. The first of each pair shows the position after the removal of the relevant section of track followed by the re-instated appearance. Sorry about the lighting changes but this was really down to the weather conditions outside the window.

 

I'm beginning to think I am a sad case as I actually enjoy ballasting track and converting it into something that looks as though it hasn't been used in a long time. I know many people find ballasting  a mind numbing job, well I probably would if I had more than a few feet to do, but another reason to build small 😁

 

[Stubby47]

That's now got a nice gentle swerve, which just adds to the overall atmosphere.

 

[rcf]

3 minutes ago, Stubby47 said:

That's now got a nice gentle swerve, which just adds to the overall atmosphere.

 

Thanks Stu, I agree it looks much better and was well worth the effort.

 

Rob

[2996 Victor]

Stunning work, Rob, as always! Your trackwork is an absolute delight to behold.

 

Cheers,

Mark

[CME and Bottlewasher]

On 29/09/2022 at 13:47, rcf said:

Having re-read my last post I thought that my brief comment about the amount of work required in moving the front siding my be better illustrated with some before and after pictures. The first of each pair shows the position after the removal of the relevant section of track followed by the re-instated appearance. Sorry about the lighting changes but this was really down to the weather conditions outside the window.

 

I'm beginning to think I am a sad case as I actually enjoy ballasting track and converting it into something that looks as though it hasn't been used in a long time. I know many people find ballasting  a mind numbing job, well I probably would if I had more than a few feet to do, but another reason to build small 😁

 

Just charming, very realistic.

[RAY NORWOOD]

On 29/09/2022 at 13:47, rcf said:

Having re-read my last post I thought that my brief comment about the amount of work required in moving the front siding my be better illustrated with some before and after pictures. The first of each pair shows the position after the removal of the relevant section of track followed by the re-instated appearance. Sorry about the lighting changes but this was really down to the weather conditions outside the window.

 

I'm beginning to think I am a sad case as I actually enjoy ballasting track and converting it into something that looks as though it hasn't been used in a long time. I know many people find ballasting  a mind numbing job, well I probably would if I had more than a few feet to do, but another reason to build small 😁

 

Hi Rob. You have done a fantastic job. Yes that looks better with the little curve.

[sb67]

That just looks superb! 👍

[rcf]

Hi All,

 

Now that OTW is ready for its next show I have begun to think about the next project, Osney Town Junction, or maybe Osney Wharfside, or some name yet to be decided. Although I never model actual locations I try and ensure that what I build has some relationship to real situations. I don't want to build something which I am going to look at some time in the future and think, 'that would never have been built that way in real life', or have someone point it out at a show or on this site.

 

At the back of my mind is an idea that is unlikely to happen, although it is often pressed by my wife, and that is to link the two layouts by means of another fiddle yard. The overall length would be about 15 feet and I have nowhere that size to erect it, so it is just an idea but one that provides a context for the new project, as follows.

 

On the new layout the siding off the branch line, in my head, serves the two sidings on the wharf. My original idea was a combination of bits of Hemyock in Devon, ie the siding off the branch together with the simple halt from Coombe Junction on the Liskeard/Looe branch in Cornwall. Thinking about this made me realise that the station will be the end of the branch and would never have been built as a halt. Coombe Junction is a combination of very particular circumstances which cannot really be utilized on my idea which leads me to the inevitable conclusion that if I go down this route a bigger station building would be needed. The assumption is that the loop and a small goods facility are the other side of the bridge because of the nature of the valley at this point, but a larger station building requires more space, even an extremely small one!  So I have been hunting for a possible example which is small enough to fit the space available and there isn't one that I can find unless anyone can point me in the direction of a likely candidate. It therefore comes down to compromise and if you look at the stations on the Hemyock branch they are all to the same overall design and quite small but not really small enough and this is where the compromise comes in, by taking a few feet off the overall length and depth, I think a solution is possible and would look acceptable in this context. All this ramble comes down to the fact that I have done a card mockup as shown in the photos. Putting my thoughts down has also helped me get my head around the issues which were causing me to have second thoughts about the layout, so I hope this hasn't bored you to death but putting it down has cleared my head a bit 😀 😀 How can such a small layout cause so much thought, I hear you cry, but as my old boss used to say, repeatedly, get it right first time!!

 

Rob 

 

 

 

 

As

Edited October 7, 2022 by rcf

[Siberian Snooper]

How about a move down the line to Looe, single line terminus,  with the run round loop, beyond the station,  whether you would want two bridges as view blockers, is another matter.

 

 

[rcf]

20 hours ago, Siberian Snooper said:

How about a move down the line to Looe, single line terminus,  with the run round loop, beyond the station,  whether you would want two bridges as view blockers, is another matter.

 

 

Yes, thanks for that. I have thought about Looe in the past but not got any further. Its certainly something to mull over as the loop is further down from the station in much the same way the loop is before the station platform at Hemyock. As you say though there is a shortage of likely view blockers. Anyway food for thought.

 

Regards Rob

[rcf]

Hi all,

We had a good day out at the Cornwall Model Railway Show on Sunday, lots of interest and many familiar faces to chat to. I'm always surprised how many people end up counting the cats on the layout, not just the children either! Probably because there isn't a lot of movement, train wise.

 

It's also surprising how news spreads regarding the new layout as I was asked to take it to an exhibition in May next year and I had to explain that it is mostly in my head at the moment rather than in any physical being and I don't want to have any deadlines to work to and just want to potter along in the usual way. As mentioned earlier the new layout is intended to provide an outlet for my limited coaching stock to compliment OTW and I never thought of exhibiting the result as it will probably be very simple, but then that seems to be an issue with all my layouts 😁.

 

While there hasn't been a lot of physical evidence on the layout, there has been quite a bit of progress, the track is down, some ballasted and it is wired up and locos have been seen progressing down the branch. The other major modelling effort has been work on the stream. You may remember there was an issue regarding the number of straight lines which would be on the layout and in one of those eureka moments I thought, streams are seldom straight, why not make the stream meander. Easier said than done as the intention was to use the old track bed as the stream bed which was bounded by the old cork tiles which I had used to raise the ground level to sleeper height. These were well stuck down but after some effort, which involved some bad language regarding why it had been necessary to glue them down so well, the stream bed now meanders in a natural sort of way. When I get a minute I will post some photos to illustrate what has been done.

 

Hopefully more soon, Rob

[rcf]

I did say I would post some pics of the new stream bed, so here are a couple,

 

 

 

 

You can also see the beginnings of the platform base in the background and the sharp eyed amongst you may have noticed a view through the bridge which seems to suggest further track beyond. Yes, I have been experimenting with mirrors to see whether the grey backscene is better when viewed through the bridge openings or whether it looks better with a mirror. At the moment the jury is out but views and ideas are always welcome.

 

Rob

 

 

Edited November 8, 2022 by rcf
Deletion of duplicate photo