Martin S-C

Erm... none Maybe I ought to look into that... Neil is coming back for three more days last day of April and first two days of May so we both hope we can get the last of the carpentry finished. After that comes... track! And wiring! Then... testing! Hahaha! BTW, this weekend will be a year since I moved to Peterborough and first looked at the garage as potential for a model railway room. Those who have been following this thread from the early days will remember that when I first opened the door I was greeted with this. Happy 1st birthday to the NM&GSR project.

I will be at York on Sunday with a pal who has just returned to the UK from Australia. Where will you guys be?

Progress over the last two days. Still slow painstaking work with lots of fussy measuring, gradients, bits of board, legs, supports, blah, blah. Yesterday we did some more on the Crown Timber siding corner. The high level (+7") board was installed where the loco coaling stage will be and the board for the embankment of the north end of the river bridge was placed, with its gradient. We cut the upper board for the Armisford Mill southern section which sits at +5" and the +7" board that will support the entry line into Nether Madder (that will go to the right of the drill) but these were not fitted in place as we need to finish the lower level boards that carry the two hidden storage loops of the circuit. Before we could do that we needed to build the incline. The drill is on the coaling stage and the sanding block is in the basement of Armisford Mill. The Crown timber siding will be about where the ply upright is with the scribble on. Today we tackled the gradient for the lower level circuit on the south side of the layout and started by going back to the west side of Green Soudley. Here the circuit branches off the main line that goes into Green Soudley via a turnout set in a tunnel behind the curved engine shed (see plan - said shed will be removable for access to this turnout). The circuit track then descends from the +5" level to connect to the +2" level of the storage loops under Armisford Mill. The complexity is that above this gradient is the +8" level of the carriage sidings. The approach track for these drops to +7" where the loco turning triangle is sited. So we have a grade from +8" to +7" above a grade at +5" dropping to +2" - a double deck arrangement. The right hand end of the section concerned, looking SE. Neil suggested we use four 3.5" bolts to both support the two gradient boards and fine tune their separation. The two gradients do they commence at the same point. Here's the upper gradient in place descending from the carriage sidings at right and a coach doing a clearance test at the crest of the grades up to (right) and down from (left) of the Green Soudley entrance turnout (shown loose to the right of the coach). Same view without the coach showing the start of the gradient down to Armisford (red arrow). In the photos the nearer gradient looks steep but this is an illusion caused by the board carrying it curving towards the camera and is probably made worse by the wide angle lens. H-frames used to support the +7" loco turning triangle level (which is not a gradient) with the horizontal supports descending to carry the deck of the gradient of the circuit below it. The string guided us in placing the gradient support blocks. Taut string method in use again to determine the exact gradient. The module that carries the highest points of the structure is detachable, not intentionally so, it just happens that is how it got built. We induced the start of the gradient with the front right bolt with the middle nut further down the thread. The test clearance coach use a few pics above shows there is just room between the bolt and the saw cut for a train to pass. Location where the "summit" module lives. Summit module in place. Work has started on the deck of the lower level grade down through the H-supports. The deck of the lower level (aka circuit) grade in place (except for this end of it where the camera is). The rise is 3" from the camera to the point it is covered which is ~9 feet away. The tops of the H-supports are all level and will carry the board for the +7" Nether Madder station section, as will the ply upright on the right. Today's area of interest in red. As mentioned, the curved loco shed at Green Soudley (or maybe just its roof) will be removable with the retaining wall that conceals the track behind it attached, so that this piece will lift out/off to allow the track to be cleaned. I'm very pleased with Neil's work today. It was a real carpentry problem caused by my late changes to the design and he came up with some excellent problem-solving ideas.

I have a soft spot for garden railways having indulged in them during my 20+ years hiatus from 4mm scale. I still have my collection of LGB rolling stock, all the freight being Anglicized with my own light railway livery and some fictional PO markings. I have 4 LGB locos as well, the rest having been sold off.

...and at a price I can afford?

I acquired a Parkside LNER horse box kit the other day so I can chop it up into one of these. Thanks for the ideas.

Wow. Superb stuff, and nice clear drawings as well. I think i shall go for an experimental loco of some kind, even if it turns out I don't need a banker. I just love those early internal combustion experiments and that French battery loco really has my creative juices flowing.

Man poking out of box and waving flag is what I'd like to use on my layout so in time I hope I can advise how (not) to do it.

"Who mentioned Japanese females?!" (in Father Jack voice)

If you have the mechanical know-how you could possibly have driver figures in both cabs but who sit on seats that a lever can flip up and down into and out of sight as required. It would be possible to adjust the up position to the direction of travel as well, with a DCC gizmo, or possibly a DC directional thingamajig.

Wonderful stuff. That "St Vincent" model is apparently based on Germany's first dreadnought battleship class, the Nassaus: We were talking about alternative traction recently for a banker engine and the 19th century railways FaceBook group just had this posted: I like that you can see a vague hint of a British Railways Class 08 about it.

Now that is what I call a collar.

I would try a buff or sand or cream coloured background with dark green or brown lettering. Browns, creams, greys and greens seemed popular, possibly because very bright paint was expensive? Or uncommon? I think all the ones you are working with there are still too colourful. You could try a more old-fashioned font if you can identify such a thing! Looking at the building fronts on John Ahern's Madder Valley is inspiring because he started work in the period you are modelling so just modelled what he saw in his local high street.

The same is true of aircraft for the first 15 to 20 years after heavier than air flight began. Looking at some of the WWI scouts (fighters) and especially the bombers, they are incredible machines. And pre-dreadnought battleships and cruisers have a special beauty - that whole era from HMS Warrior in 1860 until the all big gun recipe was finally realised in 1906 is a fascinating period of technological development and gave rise to some very weird designs. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMS_Hagen#/media/File:S.M._küstenpanzerschiff_Hagen.jpg

Many thanks. I have that article scanned, a really useful collection of information. I have since checked out the Roden models and they are beautiful too. I am thinking the American FWD lorry and the Vauxhall ambulance might make useful additions. They are pretty pricey though.

They are addictive little blighters aren't they?

Thanks for the info about the Bugatti, Cam. Yes, the racing number is a raised pattern on the plastic moulding so that will need rubbing off. I see two options; that I add headlights, running boards and other items like a windscreen to make it look like a sporty road-legal car or second I paint it as a racing car and depict it in a cameo where it is on show, perhaps outside a garage or something like that. I prefer the first option though. It and the Bentley will be the last two I build and it may be that private cars being so rare in 1919, maybe the other 8 on the layout will be enough. BTW, if anyone modelling pre-grouping wants some, I found more on e-Bay. https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2060353.m570.l1313.TR11.TRC1.A0.H0.Xharbutts+replicars.TRS0&_nkw=harbutts+replicars&_sacat=0

Fantastic news on the weight loss and beating diabetes, Tom. That's so good to hear. I love that photograph of the Cwm Prysor crossing keepers house. The palette of colours in that view are serene. The sky runs from gold to lilac and the golden light is taken up by the foreground grasses. Magical.

That plaster finish - I have seen wedding cakes worse than that!

A search under "Harbutts Replicars" brings up someone selling 3 for £18 with free postage so worth a go if anyone is interested for a pre-grouping railway. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Vintage-Harbutts-Plasticine-Ltd-3-x-Replicars-Miniature-Model-Motor-Car/254195545423?hash=item3b2f3c354f:g:YDsAAOSwE9hcrfac&frcectupt=true On the Aire Valley I suspect Derek Naylor used the Harbutts models which appear to be the originals. It looks like the same moulds got re-used for several decades in different guises. Thanks for all the info everyone, groups like this that share knowledge make life so much more pleasant and interesting!

Yes, the hansom struck me as a quirky thing too. At first I didn't realise it was steered from the back of the roof hansom style. I wonder if any survive? I would need to find some old car info online with measurements and check them against the models. For me though, finding any pre-WWI motor vehicles is manna from heaven so if they are not 100% correct I am not going to complain. Gift horses and all that. I think the only ones that would look weird in 1919 are the Hansom, the 1899 Renault and of course the '26 Bugatti. The '27 Bentley could pass as a hand-built pre-war sports car or tourer and I plan to try fitting a hood onto it to see if that helps hide its origins. The Renault might have an excuse behind it as the favoured old transport of a local toff. Digging about a bit on e-Bay I came across this seller in Australia who has some of the vehicles from the same injection moulded range but labelled as "R&L 1970s Kellogg" or "R&L 1970s Old Timers" suggesting cereal packet toys. There are several different ones in the range including a Melbourne cable tram, an American tow truck, the 1837 GWR broad gauge engine "North Star", a 1792 royal state coach and an 1883 McLaren steam tractor. On these the scale is variable with the North Star being very tiny in scale with the road vehicles. Possibly there was a company that injection moulded these toys and then sold them to various companies for marketing. The seller is a dealer in ephemera so his prices are pretty eye-watering plus postage from Australia so not cheap. https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/m.html?item=292880813423&_ssn=gumboot&rt=nc

A very random encounter on e-Bay netted me these 10 plastic cars. They were given away in the 1980s (I think) with Jet petrol as a promotional gimmick. I came across them quite by accident and bought a set and they turned out to be almost exactly 4mm scale. Looking at the seats inside them possibly they are a tiny bit smaller but they are perfect for my railway. I have collected a good number of horse-drawn vehicles as well as some period commercial vehicles but lacked any passenger cars. These should be enough. There is a 1926 Bugatti and a 1927 Bentley among them but these are not so far off in style and type and should fit in. I included a couple of Andrew Stadden figures in the pics for scale.

Very nice Annie, I have not seen that photo before. Transverse ribbing to the roof and a different pattern to the footsteps. There also appear to be tie-bars on the bogies - one of which is bent? And we get a glimpse of the brake gear which is enough for me to add some dummy parts. I have added no brake gear below the body as I have no source of images or drawings for it, but this gives me something to add. The toplight ventilators are also much more bulbous than the model suggests. Thanks very much.

Looking more carefully at the Banana/Kit-Kat van (only on my screen, I don't have a model in my hands) the corner bracing facing inwards from the end uprights and those facing inwards from the door posts do not seem to line up - so even some plastic section X bracing would need some chopping about of the original moulding to make it function correctly. I'm going to bid on one or two anyway and follow the well-trodden path of many before me and see what I can make of them. The thing with many of these bashes is that once you've used a replacement kit underframe and spent hours fettling the unrealistic body into something passable it would probably have been less effort to just buy a kit anyway. I suppose bashing things about is a different facet of the hobby from kit building and gives a different sense of achievement. And if I can grab a couple of these vans for under a fiver, maybe cheaper too.

What date was that? I want to go there and bask in the glory of your friendship