Andrew Young

Afternoon all, time for an update. We moved into our new house in mid November and have settled in well despite the high winds dislodging some ridge tiles a couple of days after moving in! No modelling yet, but well on the way. The house is in good shape, but there's three rooms we want to decorate, not hanging around, we've redecorated two of them inside the first month. The third, and biggest, will be tackled in the new year. The first room to be tackled was our study, all finished, new bookcases and desks have been built so my railway books are all unpacked and the modelling desk is all ready to go now as of yesterday. In terms of model railway space.... We have a garage, but that'll be good for my home brewing. Being an ex-pub there's a good sized cellar, but being a wet cellar with a very low (under 5ft and I'm 6ft 3) ceiling is better suited to storing wine. This leaves the attic, which has a proper staircase leading up to it making it very suitable. Total size at 'baseboard level' is about 37ft by 14ft 6! The first 16ftish length has a good floor down, but requires insulating. Beyond that is a brick partition (with door way) and beyond that, the other 21ft although usable, needs a better floor installing, insulating, plus has water tanks, some cumbersome ceiling supports and a second partial brick purlin support in the way. Initial thoughts of using the entire space have been put on hold as looking at it, the obstacles up there would make building and operating a layout quite challenging! Lyd, the amount of work to get to that stage is quite extensive. Insulating the 16ft by 14ft 6 part at the top of the stairs is a far simpler task and would give me more than enough space to fill in the medium to long term anyway! Insulating the loft will take place as soon as January's decorating project is complete, which will in itself help spur me on to get the decorating done and shouldn't be too onerous or time consuming a job after which the embryonic layout will be retrieved from storage and progress made. I'll be back at the modelling desk in the new year building some rolling stock as an antidote to the decorating and updates should reappear. There won't be any modelling until the New Year as the festive season is filled up with seeing friends and family, eating and drinking fine food and drink and I've sneaked in a driving turn on the Talyllyn on Boxing Day. Hope you all have a fun festive season and Santa brings plenty of modelling based gifts and I'll see you all in the new year. Cheers, Andrew

Beautiful work, I'm highly envious of your metalworking skills! Cheers, Andrew

Thanks for sharing how you built your tippler, very impressive engineering. The prototype was situated only three or four miles from where I grew up. all I remember of the Gedling colliery site though was its use as the Council tip. Cheers, Andrew

That was a branch that came down into the overheads.

Was one of my CrossCountry colleagues based in Edinburgh who had the fatality today, there's now six Edinburgh based drivers off following fatalities at the moment!

Thanks for sharing the video of your layout, for me it oozes character of the lines I've only ever seen in photos and video. The top and tailed combo (with sound on) reminds me of sunny afternoons on Foxfield bank during their galas. Cheers, Andrew

The chapel looks good, I've got a 1:43 scale one from them to build and was intending on cladding it with wriggly tin, but I like your stone version and looks nicely different. Might have to get a second to have a stone one and a tin one... Cheers, Andrew

Very nice layout!! Captured the prototype very nicely. Those Dorset kits look good too. Dave, if you're building one as a MVR loco, you could always re-site the whistles onto the cab front... Cheers, Andrew

Thanks Don, think I'd describe them as 'eclectic'... Sadly there'll be lots of boxes to unpack before any modelling can be done. But currently enjoying the lull before the storm! Cheers, Andrew

Desert Island Books Thanks Don, the sale of our house has been completed and we moved out yesterday. We're homeless for about a week all being well and then into our new house. Most of our possessions are in storage, but I have brought a small selection of 'Desert Island Books' with me to my parents and explains some of the interests that inspire my modelling. It took eight weeks from accepting the offer on the house to completing the sale, the result being a few manic weeks of clearing out and packing our stuff up, so looking forward to a more restful week ahead... Before doing it all over again in the new house! We were planning on moving to a new build house on the edge of Tutbury with a reasonable sized double garage. However, an older house in the heart of Tutbury that I've always rather liked came on the market for the right price at the right time so have gone for that instead, which should cut down on time without a modelling bench from several months to several weeks. Plus, the attic in the new house is considerably bigger than the attic in the old one or the double garage I would've had.... A few ideas for an expanded Melyn Valley Railway are indeed galloping through my mind.... The books are fairly representative of my three main interests / sources of silly ideas: Light Railways, the Derwent Valley in particular because unlike many others which closed down in the 1930s, the DVLR staggered on into the 80s just about. Who knows, could ballast and milk contracts have meant that the MVR lasted long enough beyond the end of steam.....? Former Cambrian lines in Mid Wales, the Mawddwy, Kerry and the Tanat Valley in particular. Could the Cambrian have connected up with the MVR, or even opened a branch into parts of the Melyn Valley in competition? Glyn Valley Tramway, everyone has a guilty pleasure or two. At an early age, the two small green boxy carriages on the TR always fascinated me, with their distinctive smell, varnished interiors and first class seats, they were from the Glyn Valley Tramway, later I found Milner's first book on the line in Nottingham library and saw the distinctive tram locos and I was hooked. Very much the line that got away. Operationally, the GVT was more interesting than the generally one train operation of the TR and the Corris, plus the benefit of both slate and granite workings. Milner's latest book in his series is exquisite and is the period and aspects of the Tramway which interests me the most and this book has been re-read many times since it came out. Who knows where this will all lead... Cheers, Andrew

That bicycle is exquisite, I like the back story too. Your signal box looks more Great Westernised with the new roof too, something vaguely reminiscent of a contractor built box on a faraway branch line in a remote corner or the GW empire, reminds me of a photo of one of the Cornish branch lines but I can't quite put my finger on which one. So definitely effective! Plus it looks distinctively different to the out of the box Peco original.

Picked up a copy in Barter Books in Alnwick whilst on holiday in Northumberland in July and it was just under £20 iirc. Handel Kardas' book is equally recommended. Cheers, Andrew

Been away for a few days this week driving on thd Talyllyn for an end of season finale. Whilst away, had word from the buyer of our house that they want to move in in three weeks time! Relief that all was going well was then overtaken by a slight panic as its so soon! As a result, modelling is suspended until we're in our new home and I've started packing everything up. I shan't suggest dates for when modelling will resume, but I'm hoping it won't be too long... But first, the weather in Wales was superb, some photos are up on my Flickr page. https://flic.kr/s/aHskiUWPWn Cheers, Andrew

Sometimes, there's nothing better than playing trains. Sadly not my layout, nor is it 7mm, but a visit to parents (coinciding with one from the Grandchildren so Dad's got it running) has enabled a chance to run a few trains of Dad's lifelong pursuit of building a model of Harrogate as he remembers it from his youth. Not sure what an Eastern Region Waggon & Mash Railbus is doing in the Leeds bay mind... Cheers, Andrew

True, might have to investigate rebuilding the body on the rest of the wagon.... Good thinking! Cheers, Andrew

From photos I've seen, a lot of quarry wagons, particularly granite quarry ones were 2 plank wagons like this one. Thankfully, there's a lot of local knowledge about resin casting. The most likely cause of the distortion appears to be heat, but goodness knows how as the model hasn't been left anywhere warm and sunny! Must be more temperamental than other resin kits I've had before. Resin appears to have a 'memory' once distorted and if triggered again, just resorts to the distorted shaped so the only way forward would be to permanently brace it. Trying to do that without being visible will be difficult in a two plank wagon unless it runs round permanently sheeted, however I don't particulalrly like that option, though it's the only one open to me, other than scrapping it and saving some of the bits. Needless to say, this sorry incident has sapped my modelling mojo the last couple of weeks and there's very little progress being made with the coach currently. Cheers, Andrew

Quite possibly! Thanks, Andrew

That's one option. The wagon as modelled was used for ballast and it's my intention to have a quarry line with wagons going one way loaded and the other way empty so being permanently loaded wouldn't work for my layout. It's gone back in the box to await further inspiration... Cheers, Andrew

No clamping involved, the body is a one piece resin casting to which I added detail,etches for the strapping and solebar detail, plus a drop in floor. Underneath, the axle boxes and brake gear are white metal castings which glue on. Cheers, Andrew

All it's had so far is a coat of Halfords primer. Been using the stuff for years without any side effects.

Thanks Brack, I used Dr Mike's cyro super glue for the resin parts and plastic weld for the styrene. The layout is currently in storage awaiting the house move (which is currently rapidly turning my remaining hair grey!) but there should hopefully be some developments once we're in the new place... Cheers, Andrew

There's a couple of photos in the book 'Private Owner Wagons of the Cambrian' of an old wagon abandoned in the quarry at Llanymynech disappearing into the brambles which may provide some inspiration.... Cheers, Andrew

Thanks Brack, that's the only conclusion I've been able to come to. Though with the floor sitting on an open framework, there's plenty of space for the fumes to escape rather than building up and warping the body. It's usually trapped fumes in enclosed spaces that causes warping. Cheers, Andrew

It's a relief at least that you're as stumped as I am! Andrew

Some more progress to report, plus naturally a photo from another day out.... Last weekend was the Talyllyn AGM weekend and the last gala event of the season. I spent the weekend staying clean for once in the Blockposts and enjoying some superb sunny weather. Saturday was spent at Brynglas, where thanks to the Chief Signalling Inspector coming to inspect me, I got to take this whilst he threw some tokens about. The AGM was held this year in Tywyn Cinema, with some very drinkeable Butty Bach to wash the proceedings down with. After the business was done, we settled down to some films including Railway with a Heart of Gold and Titfield Thunderbolt on the big screen, not seen either on the big screen before so very enjoyable. Though the poster for one of their forthcoming releases made me chuckle in its timing... Sunday was spent up at Abergynolwyn, first time I've worked Aber in a while, great fun, especially having coffee on tap! Back to modelling. Sadly the wagon, despite being primed and kept in a cool place has warped again. Have just about had enough of this kit now!!!! Fecking thing. On the plus side, the carriage is coming along nicely... Starting to try making the paintwork look a little faded. I was unhappy with the roof initially, but yesterday's task was adding a layer of tissue paper and I'm much happier with it now. Cheers, Andrew