drduncan

You know, I blame Gareth for making life difficult for us lesser mortals! Wonderful workmanship, old chap. drduncan

I think you tease just a little.

Will this be standard gauge (ie EM) or, glup, 'broad gauge'...

Hi Chris, So what will be the next chassis in the pipeline to follow the 64xx? A 28xx or a 43xx? Or maybe even a City or Earl? Regards drduncan

Surely its still your fault - you listened to me! D

Perhaps absolute dead scale S4 might suit? D

True, especially given the superb modelling seen on your London Road layout at the Portsmouth show on Saturday. It made me feel quite the poor relation over on Empire Mills.D

As usual you and your operators did a fantastic job at the Portsmouth show. Drduncan

P4!!! P4?!!!?? Have you gone over to the dark side? Duncan

I haven't posted for a while - this doesn't mean we haven't been doing anything we have - well I haven't but the team has. However, with an exhibition looming we have had a burst of activity that quite frankly puts our gentle summer progress to shame. The show - its all about the show after all - is the South Hants MRC's exhibition in Portsmouth on 21 November 2015 at the Admiral Lord Nelson school. It look like there will be some excellent layouts there - the sage of Fareham's beautiful 'Westcliff' which won the best of the best in show winners at Expo EM 2015 and 'Plumpton Green', which was deservedly best in show at Scaleforum a few weeks ago. I think 'Brighton East' will also be there - a wonderful piece of modelling by Dave Smith of this parish. Oh yes, and of course that brilliantly designed and executed (certainly someone will be for the chop if we fall flat on our faces) Empire Mills. Portsmouth exhibition flyer.pdf [i've just been sent the flyer (above) - Jol Wilkinson's London Road, AND Chris Lamercraft's Hemyock too...I must ask if its too late to change our minds about going!] So when the full horror of the list of things we wanted to get done between our last outing at Ally Pally and our visit to Portsmouth became clear, loud were the lamentations; hair pulled, ashes purchased to rub into sack cloth, etc etc. However, in a burst of camaraderie in adversity Gareth and I did not engage in our default method of dealing with problems - blaming each other and hoping someone else will sort it. First - well 2 weeks ago - we spent a day making the transport boards that will allow us to easily crate the layout for transport. Please don't ask how we managed to get the layout to two shows at Ally Pally without them - the whole thing is something we'd prefer to forget, lets just say it involved massive lorries and a lot of brute for and ignorance, as well as some very careful driving. While I was still basking in the reflected glory of Gareth's woodworking skills - it seems that any idiot can't saw timber in a straight line, despite my prognostications on the subject, Gareth then had to spoil the mood by mentioning 'wiring'. Now Empire Mill's wiring was best described as functional (mostly) and it certainly wasn't pretty, having been done at the rush in order to get the bare boards working for a demo at a show (Ally Pally 2 years ago or more). Yes, there does seem to be a theme here. As a DCC layout we had always intended to include DC operation as several members of the group had not yet seen the DCC light. Clearly, with just over a month to a show, now was the perfect time to do it. Well, actually it was, Gareth (superb chap) works well under pressure, so last Sunday he girded his loins (I hope he washed his hands afterwards), wrapped himself in layout wire and with all sorts of gung ho North Americanisms - lots of 'yeahs', 'hoo rahs', 'wooos' and 'hut huts' - charged into the fray, soldering iron in hand. The results are so far much prettier than what went before, especially as I was doing everything I could to get in the way: Meanwhile, I wasn't to be left out. Empire Mills has always been supported on trestles. I've always thought they were an accident waiting to happen and several more things to be left behind when heading to a show. So aided by Patrick, I made and fitted integral legs to the boards. The legs, which can be seen shyly peeking out of the corners of the top picture, fold up under the boards for transport, and thanks to an excessive number of captive nuts, should not need any bolts to be removed - I just have to make the new wing nut headed bolts so we don't need a spanner to collapse the legs... so as one thing gets crossed off the to do list so another gets added. Patrick also rashly volunteered to string the wire on the boundary fence at the front of the layout over the next few Thursday evenings at the MRC. I was delighted by this as I'd done just one strand and it had reduced me to not so silent fury. Away from the club, Ivan is producing a number of boxes to transport the large china clay dry, the lighting rig and hold the large amounts of Commonly Required Accessories & Parts (CRAP for short) that are a feature of exhibiting. He is also producing one of these boxes with a dual purpose - one of them will be a 'step up box' to make reaching across the fiddle yard much easier, an idea I borrowed, well stole actually, from the sage of Fareham. So all in all, a busy few weeks and a busy few still to come. I'll be shortly disappearing behind a pile of locos and stock to make sure they all work as they should - I'll also be frantically trying to increase the number of steam locos available too, so watch drduncan's workbench blog for updates (if I get time).

Thanks Gareth, I'll give them a try. D

Modbury is looking good! drduncan

I don't have any 2mm scale paints.... PM me to discuss if you're serious! D

In a well ordered and just society I would be able to blame Gareth. The fact that I can't is annoying me somewhat and I think that deep down he (Gareth, whose default fault assuages so many wrongs and set backs) is avoiding any blame just to vex me. But I suppose then he is to blame for something... On that happy note on to the dirty wagons that are 'fresh' - if that is the right word - from the paint shop. It's worth remembering how dirty the old railway was (and the modern one is more than a little skanky too). Even the Edwardian railways couldn't keep humble fright stock clean - it very rapidly become dirty, even in the Elysium fields of the green and pleasant lands served by the GWR (Gods knows what it was like up in the dark satanic mills of the north - black and white pictures don't do the muck justice). Soot, filth and rust soon covered wagons, and that's before we deal with 1) inconsistent paint mixes and 2) weathering through oxidation and fading. And don't forget the chalk marks that seem to adorn almost every wagon. So if your little Disney land has immaculate wagons in ex-works conditions its probably time to get out the paints and practice your dry brushing and if you have one, use of an airbrush... Here are the latest attempts to get the muck spread around: This trio are all 4 plank opens (no diagram number was ever given to these examples) This is a very faded V6 Iron Mink. It's also got the lettering in the wrong positions (deliberately on my part - can't say what the signwritter at the time thought he was doing). Don't believe me? Have a look at John Lewis' lovely little book on the Iron Minks. And an N13 loco coal wagon. Here are three different 'Minks'. 16280 is a V12 (non vacuum braked example) with twin end louvre ventilators, 16685 is a V12 vacuum fitted DC3 braked example with an offset V hanger together with twin end louvre ventilators, and 93182 is a V16 vacuum fitted DC3 braked wagon with twin end bonnet ventilators. They all started off as Coopercraft V4s - the main differences between all of these wagons is brake gear, wagons ends, and buffers. I think you can get 21 different diagrams (or subsets of diagrams) from the humble Coopercraft V4 7' 6" kit so watch this space. This lot are 5 plank O4s with a solitary O2 7 plank and O15 vacuum fitted 5 plank.

HI Mikkel, I do hope someone can be persuaded to do them - although I may be able to get some artwork done privately - I'll keep you posted. D

Masokits, just not the ones I need. D

Hi Mikkel, Thanks! The Thomas brake gear is a bit of a cheat. I measured up the handle from the drawing in GWR goods wagons (the wagon bible!), bent two up from 0.5mm brass wire and soldered them to some 0.7mm wire that was just long enough to clear the solebars and glue the lot in place (again based on the position in the drawing). I didn't bother with any of the linkages.... The brake shoes are ABS and the V hanger from the D & S w-iron etch. Now I just need someone to do a cast plate for 73697 and I can do a Thomas set up but with a DC operating handle as seen on p. 54 of GWR Goods Wagons...A cast plate for a DC1 fitted O5 (one that can be backed up with photographic evidence) would also be a help, as would any photo references for DC1 fitted O5s (I know that only those with DC1 gear were diagrammed as O5s before anyone gets too excited) with right hand GWR lettering (or cast plates apart from 10793). Duncan

Yes - I just wish my Damascean conversion could have taken place before I'd painted, lettered and weathered a dozen or so assorted cast plate, left hand GWR and right hand GWR wagons! D

Gosh Mike - have you been taking punning lessons from Gareth? As to the orange-ish iron Mink - that was deliberate - it is supposed to be faded, so was dry brushed with Vallejo Model Colour Orange Red 70910 and then white (as well as rust first, of course) plus some chassis rime extending up over the lower half of the body. I'll try to get a better picture when I'm up at the SHMRC on Thursday and post it on this blog entry. I've also got some the model air paints to play with on the next batch: I have high hopes (surely to be dashed) for the Light Red 71.086 lightly airbrushed over the base coat before dry brushing with orange red etc to get a really good sun bleached and faded look. Duncan

Oh very droll...

Hi Northroader, Thanks. I hope someone does find a sample or directions as to the paint mix - providing it matches mine! Duncan

Hi Ian, Thanks for the kind comments. The tarpaulin is from http://www.wagonsheets.co.uk/Sheets/GWR.htm they do 2mm as well as many other scales. Duncan

I blame Gareth. It all started with an innocent remark that I thought just betrayed our Yankee friend's touching ignorance of real railways: 'Aren't you going to paint your pre-1904 wagons red? 'Of course not,' I replied brimming with confidence 'Red was only in use until the mid 1890s so I don't need to.' 'Are you sure? I thought the Great Western Way said the balance of probabilities was on Red until 1904...' 'Nonsense. See.' I showed him the pages from the bible. 'Not that edition, the new one.' Ah. On reading the new edition it seemed that humble pie was in order. Gareth was quite right - the bible did now suggest that Red wagons were to be preferred on God's Wonderful Railway until the 1904 livery which saw the 24" high G W letters come into use and of course would still be seen for a few years after that date. Like the bad loser Gentleman I am to took this badly well and sulked offered him my congratulations on his new found expertise. Now I just had to repaint a load of bloody wagons... The first problem is that unaccountably no one does GWR freight stock red paint. Second, no one has a clear idea of what shade of red it actually was. Most helpful. In the end I decided to aim for a shade that was close to the lovely 7mm wagons on the GWR modelling website by mixing precision paints red oxide and GW signal red until it looked about right when compared to the web image. After I cleaned the paint off my tablet I thinned down the mixture with, er, thinners liberally dosed with bad language. And this is the result. Here they are on the drduncan patent portable workbench. The rake consists of 3 x O4 5 plank wagons, 1 4 plank (undiagrammed as it hasn't got DC1 brakes), and an Iron Mink. In the paint shops awaiting top coats and a visit from the signwriter are a couple of V5s, another Iron Mink, and some 3 and 4 plank opens. Here are a couple of close ups. First the 4 plank open: This one has been modified (quite a bit actually) from the Coopercraft original - lowered floor, square headstocks, compenstated and Thomas patent brake gear. The Iron Mink was also been modified - grease axleboxes being the main change from the kit. It has also been more heavily weathered and the livery faded. And here is the lot with a brake van on the South Hants MRC's Hope-under-Dinmore layout. The wagons still need more work on dirtying the brake gear and underframes - even for the ones that are supposed to be newly built - and chalk marks added before a final coat of matt varnish.

Peter K rings a bell. drduncan

Hi Ian, What shade of red did you use? drduncan