Warley 2010

A cut-down trip to Warley this year due to family commitments (had to leave at 2pm), but still enjoyable.  Highlights:

Pete Waterman’s NGG16 No. 109 was there (well one power bogie):



Some exquisite modelling:

 

Some cracking 7mm narrow gauge layouts – the well known Stoney Middleton, Bridport Town and Picture This…

     

and some standard gauge layouts were impressive, notably Copenhagen Fields and Barmouth bridge:

 

Unfortunately 009 was represented with just one layout ‘Bryngoch’ and a publicity stand - note this lovely Darj train though.



I did spend a few £s as you'd expect.  I finally bowed to the envitable and bought the fantsatic Eade book on Ratgoed quarry, and ordered two sets of RT models forthcoming farish 08 conversion, adding a jackshaft.  This will be for my models of Harlech and Criccieth castles.  A sample on display looked superb.  http://www.rtmodels.co.uk/

Shepton Mallet review

Firstly a suite of photos can be found here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/colin.lea/SheptonMallet#
Good exhibition once again.
Highlights for me were Pempoul, Talyllyn, Garreg Wen and Beddgelert 1910.
The arrival of a 009 society 10% discount card just befrore the show was a nice surprise!
I bought a backwoods double fairlie (for £72!), two TR coaches (don’t ask why! I just liked them), a lovely handbuilt point (which will likely adorn one of the loop points on Rhyd Ddu), a Mercian FR horse dandy wagon (which I shall build to conceal a motor and run as a gravity slate), some FR transfers, a drill stand (£10.80!), 4 books (Ian Rathbone’s newish book on painting and lining, the new Middleton Corris/Vale of Rheidol book, the Oakwood Welshpool tome and a Lynton and Barnstaple album).  I also got some more of those great 009 society stock boxes.  Oh and some 16mm details and a skip wagon. phew!  and that’s not mentioning the cheese an cider from Thatchers near Cheddar!
Dad invested in some more Kevin Trim 7mm kits which I have to say look superb – the Welshpool Earl is all nickel silver and even comes with real coal in the kit!  His plan for a diorama of British narrow gauge trains is coming together now – two Talyllyn trains, a Leek and Manifold train, an Ashover one and most of a Welshpool and Llanfair train now too.  cool.

Warley report

Warley was a great day out as expected.

We made our way towards the grand sight of K1 on a trailer as the centrepiece loco and spent quite some time (as you would expect) at the various stands. I bought a copy of the new DVD recalling a year in the life of the F&WHR in 2009 and a few other bits. It was also good to see the WHHR crew in the same area alongside the FR stand.

Bron Hebog was there as expected, but not advertised and there has been much progress since I last saw it at Porthmadog.

The Pullman obs looks magnificent in its lined out livery and K1 is now black.

The temporary wooden 'wendy house' has been duly modelled. I've made one of those too.

and I was astonished to see that the KMX tamper is being modelled, powered by a kato tram chassis - great stuff. Now that really is dedication to the prototype! It is I have to say that I'm not sure I'll ever manage to model the tamper and this is despite having modelled its home (the tamper container). Incidentally I bought a better model of said container from DAPOL and will be replacing the other on my layout asap.

The other end of the layout is coming on too, here is the 'bridge to nowhere' amongst the early scenic formers (Beddgelert desert anyone?).

Later in the day, the Englands were out in force as were Tal and Merddin on the photo charters.

I have to say that the modelling is all of a superb standard and I am sure that comparisons between with Rhyd Ddu will be made - this makes me very nervous about exhibiting indeed.

Dduallt was there too - here comes DLG around the spiral.

and, centre of attention, here is K1.

I had a look at the scenic rust from deluxe materials and agree with other posters on the web who prefer rustall. The rust looks better in 7mm, but even at that scale I feel the rust has too much texture. They had some other good products though including some incredible water.

Dinas was there and the wonder that is Little Wonder was resplendent in its livery and wowwing the crowds with its fan-assisted drain cock steam exhaust. Just a wonderful engine. I hope to post some videos of this layout soon, so I'll save more expansion until then.

We spent quite some time looking at backscenes and I have to say that the stock simple blue sky as shown below is far better in my view than a poor painted attempt. I might go with a simple sky for now before graduating to the full photo backscene.

An unusual opportunity arose to see the rear of County Gate...

and the front.

I had not seen CG with the automation working and although a railcar derailed whilst I was there watching, it worked fautlessly other than that. The LCD screen worked very well and kept the crowd interested while there was no train action. I understand that it won best in show and that comes as very little surprise. I wasn't sure about the whistles and horns though as it was very obvious that they were coming from speakers under the layout and not from the engines/railcars themselves. This wouldn't have mattered a few years ago, but people are used to on board sound now so it was more noticeable.

Just along from CG, this layout would not normally have interested me, but the name Briding Noora is a clever anagram of its unusual supporting legs!

This is T gauge (3mm track gauge) - quite a layout in a small space!

Pete Waterman was there signing copies of his new book and alongside the 7mm models and a video about his Leamington Spa project was this cheeky little NGG16 and the Pullman. I shook his hand and thanked him for the scheme to bring 109 to the WHR (and also to train young apprentices too).

Accucraft's 16mm garden rail offerings include an NGG16 too, but new this year was an NG15. But at something like £3500 it's a bit beyond my purse.

Worcester Road diesel depot in gauge 1 was exquisite.

and this snow scene (I forget the name) made quite an impression too.

There were also some impressive structures!

and this list of world records for railway modelling will take some beating!

Colin

Kendal

Last weekend, we popped in to the Glos Warks Railway gala. Dad had taken over part of Winchcombe Station for an art exhibition, next to an FR/WHR stand manned my our friends Mr and Mrs Ward (Dad had previously donated the exhibition stand to them) and a display of magnificient 7mm standard gauge models and kits by family friend Dave Andrews (some of the locos were built by Dad).

There was also a small display of model railways and one which stood out was that created by another family friend - Ian Kirkwood. I've known Ian for many years when I used to accompany Dad on trips and evening meetings of the local 3mm scale group, so I may be a little biased, but I'm sure most readers of this blog will agree with me anyway!

His layout is a fictitious narrow gauge railway in the Lake District - 'Kendal' in 009. It's only small, but shows how much can be included in a small space, without the resulting layout looking ridiculous. I didn't measure it, but it wasn't much more than 4 feet by less than 2 feet.

Most of the locos come from Backwoods kits - a Canopus, Hudswell Clarke diesel etc with the odd scratch built creation in the mix too. The stock runs well and looks the part in a believable and tidy livery. Carriages and wagons are borrowed from various kits - Festiniog and Blaenau, Penrhyn quarry opens, Talyllyn Limping Lulus and even a worsley skull and skibbereen coach!

The layout is very well designed to give operational interest alongside clever use of levels. The buildings are fantastic - all scratch built! Scenics are also on the money for me - the tree and grassy areas in the image below show that.

Overall, a very impressive little layout. I struggle to fault it.

Colin

Bron Hebog

From Holiday - May 09

[more images are available via the link to my holiday May 09 album in picasa web albums]

BRON HEBOG

My recent holiday to Wales was great fun for many reasons:

• My first chance to ride on a scheduled passenger train from Rhyd Ddu to Beddgelert and vice versa
• A chance to see around Boston Lodge (always fun), see special AGM trains and the boat in action on the FR
• A chance to see the Baldwin and Buffet car, plus the new museum at the WHHR
• and...a chance to see the initial part of Bron Hebog at the Port model show.

and I was not disappointed on any of these fronts (apart from missing the gravity train due to very wet weather and it running 30mins late).

Bron Hebog is the successor to Dduallt, itself a seriously good 009 model. Like Rhyd Ddu, it portrays the WHR in its modern form.

The part on show was basically of Beddgelert Station, but the whole layout is named 'Bron Hebog' to highlight the fact that the station area is just one part of a much larger model of the station, the Cwm Cloch reverse curves and Goat tunnel too.

It is of course not exactly fair to pass judgement on a half completed layout, but the parts on show were of a superb standard. Many photos were taken (a kind of industrial espionage?) which will help me immensely given the similarities of our projects.

Highlights for me were the correct scaling of the PBSSR bridge at the north end and the Goat cutting at the south end (compare that with the 7mm model of Beddgelert seen at Warley recently); the gently undulating and believable fields behind the station; the water tower and station shelters and of course, the stock.

...and it is stock where this project is much further on than I am, helped in part because some of it has run on Dduallt in the past (Russell, Upnor, Conwy etc) but almost all of the carriages have been scratchbuilt in plastic (I think the Romanian carr is a worsley brass kit) which is an amazing achievement given I know how long it takes to create one in plastic, let alone 20 or so! The detailing is also fabulous, with internals given the same qulaity treatment as externals.

There is clearly a long way to go, but this is looking like another iconic layout.

It is understood that it will be seen again at Warley in November alongside the FR and WHR stand. Can't wait.

Colin

where in the world?

I didn't expect to find this today - right next to the National Space Centre in Leicester is the Abbey pumping station, which has a small 2ft gauge railway (not operating today - boo hiss).  A piece of Wales (well FR 2 ton slate waggon) in our backyard!

Anyway, Shepton Mallet was good fun as ever.  The exhibition had a number of excellent layouts which kept me amused.  My favourite was a toss up between Borth y gest and Tan y Bwlch, with the former just nudging it based on the smoke effects and scenics, but it was close.  See the link in yesterday's post for images.  I really fancy a gravity slate train - an arnold kof chassis in the 4th waggon (a larger 3t variety) is the trick apparently - but how to make it DCC?  It might have to have the decoder in the 5th waggon!

The 009 sales stand was good and I picked some up good bargains in the way of waggons, books (Boyd's* NG railways in Mid Wales for £10!), bogies, plastic kits and oddments.  Almost all of these have been up to standard once I got them home for a proper look, but three carriages have made their way back to ebay, as they are not up to the standards I require.  

Before the event I had made a survey of all carriages and the bogies I had in stock.  I found I was short of FR short pattern bogies by about 6 pairs.  At the 009 sales stand there were a number of unopened FR parkside bogies at a good price - I counted them up and there were, you guessed it, 6!

At the worsley stand there was more good news - the 2008 changes to FR 116 meant a new kit and I now have a one-off kit that Allen did for me - plus I picked up some Mark 2 quarryman's carriages and a NWNGR brake comp no.1.  116 has already had its pieces cut out ready for soldering to begin.

Afterwards I made my usual pilgrimage (this year only with my brother as the rest of the family were unable to make it this year) to Cheddar for mini golf, cheese, onion marmalade, firebox ale and chocolate trout (don't ask) followed by a trip to Thatcher's cider farm for a 5 litres of real cider straight from the barrel - and only £6!  Afterwards we checked out the fire ravaged pier at Weston before hitting the M5 north again.

Colin

* It was also noted today that the genius Mr Boyd had passed away.  RIP sir.

I made it...

To Shepton. Better report tomorrow, for now...check these out:

http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/colin.lea/SheptonMallet2009#

Colin

Giga post

Hi,

Lots of things have been happening, so here's a mega update. Firstly a good friend of my Dad allowed us to borrow his rolling bars and today we set about rolling the roofs of every carriage, planned carriage and loco roof I could find. I counted them later - 59 separate bits of brass! This is a massive step forward and, with the pre-cut strips from metalsmith too I have saved loads of time here.


As I alluded to in the last post, I am starting out on a project (with guidance from Rob Waller) to scratchbuild some Ffestiniog carriages from plasticard evergreen strip. Today at the Leamington model show I picked up some strips of the necessary sizes. I also found myself a compass cutter and some plastic weld (which could well be better than the mek pak I have used up to now). Game on.

So, the Leamington show then. I picked up a flyer a while ago from a local model railway shop. It had a map on the back of it, but frankly it was useless other than to tell you the approximate location - it didn't even tell you which junction on the A46 you needed (there are multiple junctions for Kenilworth/Lemaington! Looking at a road map, we headed for the National Agricultural centre (which had decent signage to it). Once in the site there was a bit of signage showing you where to park within the huge site, but we then struggled to find the entrance to the hall. A bit more thought would help here for those who are not used to the local area.

The entry price was a bit steep I thought (£5) and the secondhand stall was really disappointing - secondhand prices at close to the normal price of a kit new! Why risk second hand? Maybe that's ebay's fault - pushing up secondhand values?

On the narrow gauge front, the wonderful Fallgate was there (images below). This was its last show at the hands of its creator and it will be for sale in the next 009 news. A price of about £1,100 (stock is included and valaued at £700 which won't be separated from the layout) was noted. A super little layout if you can afford that kind of wonga in these 'crunched' times.

Trade support was good - squires, modelex, green scene, rural railways, castle trains, classic train and motor bus, C+L finescale, books, DVDs etc etc Other layouts were generally good, Hungerford stood out.

Back at home, the wendy house has had its sills added and has been put together into a basic 'box'. This gave me the opportunity to take some shots of the layout fully erected (even including the triangular piece) and with some new features added. I have also completed the ramp at the far end of the platform and painted it.

I also trial fitted the Beddgelert end tank. The bases didn't look right and now, having looked at photos of the real thing, I find that the bases are much slimmer than they are shown to be on the CAD drawings. So, the actual as-built on the ground is very different to the plans I have - oh well. I'll have to take a saw to them (ensuring that the legs of the water ower are central on the bases and then reballast around them.

Colin

EGM review

I attended the EGM (called to elect a new sec and chair for the 009 society) in Birmingham today.

Lots of images, so for ease I have uploaded them here: http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/colin.lea/BirminghamEGM

There were some really nice layouts:

Roestok - super locos including that magnificent NG15, a K1 (not backwoods - but a golden arrow kit bashed and with custom chassises), two gorgeous class 91s (yes they're big!) and multi coloured NGG16s. Super.

Mannin Middle (nice name for a layout with a man in the middle!)- an Isle of Man layout was super too, even though I'm not really in to 3 foot gauge.

Porthladd - a lovely little Ffestiniog inspired freelance layout - the Hunslet ladies (Blanche and Linda) both had had outside frames added and a good tip was told - use 1.5mm drill bits from B+Q for the extended axles.

Pferdhugal - finally I meet with Blair - we've been chatting on the 'new railway modellers' forum for a while. A 'bell shaped' layout (not sure if that's the correct term), but basically it means you get scenery both sides, which I had not really seen before. Then there was Wood End, which was also a bell shaped layout!

Ziller Valley in HOe made good use of the considerable ready to run stock available of the Zillertalbahn and I'd love to visit the real thing some time soon!

The traders were good - Worsley Works, Parkside Dundas, 009 sales stand and a new one to me - and N gauge chassis trader who may hopefully solve a problem I have with a chassis for the Lyd2 WHR(P) polish diesel.

The 009 sales stand was a little disappointing in that a few items I had hoped would come up didn't, but I still managed to spend a fair amount on useful bits!

http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/colin.lea/BirminghamEGM

Colin

Meet Tamiya and Kyosho

Well, in a minute anyway. First we visited the Nottingham Transport Heritage Centre on Sunday, where there was a model railway exhibition. The below 009 layout called Tan y Banc was the only narrow gauge interest and was a lovely little affair. The centre is standard gauge and so doesn't get a review, although the train trip was surprisingly long and pleasant.

There was also a miniature railway that we had a very enjoyable ride on.

Anyway, I am pleased to report that all wiring (bar lighting and signals) is now complete, including point motors and board joins. DCC power is now available to the whole layout, including hidden sidings. The only wiring that needs now completing is that on the hidden sidings. Given I have yet to lay the track here that is probably unsurprising to regular Rhyd Ddu blog visitors!

So who or what are Tamiya and Kyosho - take a look here - http://listings.maplin.co.uk/Free_UK_Delivery/Tamiya_Race_Pack_Connector_11455_v2.htm

Below is an example of the pair (also used as hard disc cable connectors) I have used to carry the three connections for the point motors back to the DCC accessory decoder.

These are super little connectors, easy to use (I soldered the wires to the crimp just to be sure) and are pretty cheap too - certainly much easier to use than serial connectors!

Below is the Ffridd Isaf board...

Below is the first board after Ffridd Isaf with the loop point on....

Next is the main station board...



Then the board with all the action - the yard points and DCC accessory decoder...


Then board 1 - the square board

and finally the hidden sidings showing the choc blocks installed...

I also had time to think about the track plan for the top level of Nant Gwernol and to temporarily fix down 2 extra points...

Colin