Jump to content
 

Blogs

Featured Entries

  • 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
    • 2,987 views
MikeOxon's Broad Gauge Blog

‘Thunderer’ – Part One

Now that I have built several of the pioneer engines of the broad gauge GWR, including some of the more successful of the so-called ‘Brunel’s freaks’, and have also teased out the complexities of early valve gears, I have decided it’s time to tackle one of the two most freakish of the ‘freaks’.   I do not expect this to be a ‘quick build’, as there are lots of unknowns regarding the layout of these locomotives, as well as many complex parts to be designed and fitted but, following Mikk
MikeOxon

MikeOxon in General

0
Rospeath Lane - BR(WR) Engine Shed

A slight alteration to the track plan

I’ve not been happy with the short siding at the front of the layout, it looks like bit an afterthought, which of course it has been. Unfortunately, I have no more square inches to spare of the Challenges 18.83 square feet to alter it. After remembering some layouts expanded their footprint after the previous 18.83 challenge, I wondered if I could do the same, as well as fit the whole layout in my car. In taking more measurements of the car boot, I realised I could squeeze a little more out of i
Yan

Yan in Planning

4
Barry Ten's Blog

Beyond the Pale(thorpes)? And a Mainline Collett goods.

A couple of small projects here which reflect my liking for maintaining and/or improving older models, rather than throwing them away just because there's a newer, shinier version.   I have a couple of the Accurascale Siphons, and they're wonderful models, but (to my eye) so were my Lima ones when they first appeared. There wasn't much in the way of non-passenger carrying stock available RTR back in the late 70s, so these models immediately added a bit of variety to my passenger trains
Barry Ten

Barry Ten in GWR

2
What happened next? A blog by Keith Addenbrooke

Episode10: Moving Day

With the Removal men due tomorrow to start packing everything up for us, today has been about checking everything is clean and ready.   The baseboard factory has now closed down and everything of value removed - and it looks like some moss is already starting to encroach upon the outside assembly area:       The drying / testing room has also been cleared - a very useful facility which I expect I’ll miss more than I realise:     Ever
Keith Addenbrooke

Keith Addenbrooke in 2024

3
Record Layout

Texture on the mountain

Today texture was added to the mountain, by painting on fiber impregnated, fast drying self leveling floor compound. Whilst drying i used a butter knife to score lines to try and approximate a slate face. Once dry it will be painted/stained/dry brushed to get closer to slate colours. Whilst doing it I couldn't help thinking of the classic scene in Close Encounters !!!   Of course even before fully dry I couldn't help giving it a spin (literally) with no worries about track conductivity
RJRdaydreamer

RJRdaydreamer in operation

1
Record Layout

Wiring and working

I finally got round to wiring up the layout ! It was a massive job. An on off switch on the front face and a USB cable to provide the motors 5v supply. Job done.   The original plan was to have the rotating track set on an incline, with the lowest point at the front, the logic being the train would always find the low point and remaib stationary at the front as the track moved. That plan failed, I didn't factor in friction and could never get the train to remain convincingly stable. So
RJRdaydreamer

RJRdaydreamer in operation

0
Record Layout

Mountain shaping

Last post included a foam mound masquerading as a scenic break / mountain. I wasn't 100% sure on how to make it look more like the start of a slate cliff face,  so I googled lots of pictures before bed and woke with a plan. A few extra pieces of packing foam through the saw on my lunch break and a bit of spray glue later....       I'm pretty happy with it as a startling point, with the addition of some tghisck grey floor leveling compound troweled on and shaped I think it wil
RJRdaydreamer

RJRdaydreamer in mountain

0
Sixties Snapshots - 00 scale

Oil Lamps, a little light on the subject

Engines that travel on the railway network must have lamps.   Hornby 8F fitted with Kenline ex LMS lamps   The business of fitting lamps has recently received a much needed boost with the introduction of Hornby’s New Black Five Caprotti which came with factory fitted working lamps.  I thought the working lamps rather bright and white.  I replaced my lamps with the provided spare Hornby lamp irons.  In turn I added what I think is a far more discrete black Kenline ex
Silver Sidelines

Silver Sidelines in Blog entry

10
Mallard/Blacksmith GWR rail motor build

Motor bogie

I started with the motor bogie.  It's a fold up design in nickel silver.   Getting it square was a little tricky.  Especially with the brass bearings which are very deep. Accentuating any misalignment.    I have fitted a North Yard two stage gearbox.  This uses a neoprene coupling to connect to a D13 open frame motor.   I had to reverse the motor bracket to make some space for the coupling.  The motor will encroach into the luggage space.  I can live with that and w
sjp23480

sjp23480 in Kit build

1
Record Layout

Mountain

Well perhaps more of a molehill than a mountain, with little space and everything visible all the time, creating a scenic break is a challenge. Solution, a central mountain offering a rock face on one side and a scalloped clearing on the other for a different point of interest.    This is a first draft from a piece of packaging foam salvaged from a skip on site at work.    Remembering from the first post, the loco will be staying still with the mountain and track rotating, so
MikeOxon's Broad Gauge Blog

‘Eagle’ – modelling the running gear

‘Eagle’ was one of that group of early broad gauge engines that are frequently referred to collectively as ‘Brunel’s freaks’. In some cases this epithet was rather unfair and several of these engines went on to have long lives as branch-line engines.   After I wrote about my 3D-printed model of ‘Eagle’, @Lacathedrale commented on my photograph “Will you be able to retrofit the running gear to Eagle?”.  I agree that it does looks very sparse under the frames!   My 3D-printe
MikeOxon

MikeOxon in General

9
Netherport and Basuto Quay - GWR 1908 7mm

Netherport on Tour - GWSG open day 29 June

I've decided it's time to take a stand!     Well, a table and a display stand, at the Great Western Study Group open day, in Didcot on the 29th June. I'll be bring along some of the rolling stock that has featured in this blog, and one or two 'work in progress' items. If you are within striking distance of Didcot and can make the date, please come along to see Netherport's wagons 'IRL' (as the young folks say).   For more information, and to find out what else will
magmouse

magmouse in General

13
Netherport and Basuto Quay - GWR 1908 7mm

Netherport and Basuto Quay - the backstory

Discussion of my layout plan for Basuto Quay on its dedicated thread led to the suggestion that it would be helpful if I said a bit more about the backstory to the Netherport idea, so here it is.   Branch line to Netherport Netherport is a fictional coastal town on the Dorset coast, roughly where the real-world Bridport and West Bay are located. The Netherport concept involves an alternative geography, replacing the area between, roughly, Yeovil and the coast with new towns, river
magmouse

magmouse in General

10
Record Layout

Hunslet inspired loco

As mentioned in my first post the layout base/scenery rotates and the train stands still at the front, which means the loco needs no motor.    Inspired by a Hunslet design and a picture I found online of a little engine called "Valdora" I set to work with some plastikard and the chassis from under a 00 coal wagon.   I did find running the OO wheels once re gauged to 9mm was a bit tight on such a small radius track. So I did what all good problem solvers do, I cut the chasis i
Record Layout

Ballast

The mounted 9mm crazy track was previously sprayed with RailMatch Sleeper grime and the chairs picked out in silver. So the next logical step was to apply the ballast (O gauge) its just short of a meter in circumference, so I was able to take a leisurely pace and focus on being tidy. Ballast then stuck with a standard mix of PVA, water and washing up liquid 
Record Layout

Back scene

Because Kallax units have no backs the layout will need its own. Just to make life hard for myself I wanted some curve to it, So I part sliced two 6mm MDF sheet and then glued them together, whilst clamped over a pair of concave templates. Mounted on vertical timber frames on either side, which slot into the base to allow removal.    Once everything was dry the MDF was trimmed to width on a band-saw and sanded flush. Finally the forward face was painted with Matt Emulsion which is off
46444's Blog

Oxford Diecast Citroen 2CV6 Charleston detailing. Or happy reminiscing.....

The Oxford Diecast Citroen 2CV6 has been around for a while. I have always been tempted by one but put off due to a number of flaws in the model.   As a student nurse and when newly qualified I actually owned three 'Deux Chevaux' throughout the 1990's at one time or another. My last one being a beautiful Blue Celeste Special model I sold to two spinsters from Bodmin believe it or not.   The Charleston model from Oxford Diecast represents a version available from the early 80'
46444

46444 in 46444 Blog

6
The Farthing layouts

A GWR Hydra with a parcels van

Finally managed to finish something. Too much scattered modelling recently. But my GWR Hydra is now done, a dia G11 well-wagon in ca. 1910-13 condition, using a modified kit from 247 Developments. Plus the usual horse element, of course!     Ten G11s were built in 1899 for running in passenger trains, with a 6 ton capacity. They originally had Thomas brakes, later DC brakes were fitted. The photo above shows a G11 in 1947. In 1908 another batch of ten were made. They had
Mikkel

Mikkel in Wagons

25
Kelvinbank, a Caledonian Railway project.

A CR D37 twin wagon build part 1

The CR built 200 single bolster wagons to D37 in 1892. They had semi permanent shackle couplings, so effectively 100 twin wagons. There is a photo and a copy of the St. Rollox drawing in the wagon book, always a good place to start from.   Several people have asked me to give a more detailed account of the way I make wagons and fit compensation. Many may consider this to be teaching granny but this D 37 build will serve as an illustrated example and hopefully persuade folk  that it isn
Dave John

Dave John in General

5
Ullypug's tales from the tinking table

GWR/WR Herring in P4 - part 2

Just a short update of the progress I managed to make before having my op this week. Home now with an extended sick note so hopefully will be able to do some modelling during my convalescence. The rake (or should that be shoal) of Herring are finished and awaiting a date with a rattle can. Just some holes to fill first where I’ve moved the handrails. Coupling hooks are Ambis and I’ll fit the instanter couplings once painted.
ullypug

ullypug in Wagon

2

  • Blog Statistics

    2,558
    Total Blogs
    22,029
    Total Entries
×
×
  • Create New...