Houston, we have a problem

Above is how the layout should appear at expong.  Below is the first hidden sidings board (Beddgelert end) coming along nicely…

and the first of the wixroyd catches installed (as suggested by JdF of county gate).

Now the other hidden sidings has to feed the Ffridd Isaf end via a small aperture 2 and a bit inches from the edge (sorry about the shocking carpet – it lines the garage!).

 

Here’s that hidden sidings board.  Except that I noticed (it took me a while!) that the board in its current state would only allow one of the traverser roads to feed the layout!  ah.

 

Really the feed needs to be central to the hidden sidings board (where the pencil mark is below).  The problem there would be that a good foot of the Ffridd Isaf board would then not be visible.

 

So I had a good think and have decided to add a board (!) which will swing the line back 180 degrees and feed the hidden sidings in the middle. 

Luckily I had already created two four feet boards for another project so the top was taken off, sawn in half and reattached.  Then another piece of 9mm ply hanging around the garage was cut to overlap the edges (the 180 degree turn more than 2 feet width to swing around). 

A small gap between the two was filled with polyfilla (and will be sanded) and then I used my 12 and 15 inch radius tracksettas to mark out the new line.  As it happens the overhang on the other side is not required and can be cut off.

I will also now need an extra trestle and 2 extra legs(!).

However out of all this, there is some benefit, which is that the layout is now not as long.  It would have been 16 feet long and is now 14 feet but will be slightly wider by 150mm.

Holiday NG interest

The stock of rail at Launceston for their extension.

Our loco was Lilian sporting a FR-style tender giving far more room on the footplate and increasing coal capacity.

Velinheli (aka first steam loco to make it to Beddgelert on the new WHR) was without wheels in the sheds.

 

and under the road bridge was a familiar sight…

oh and Dad got us a footplate ride on the way back!

 

I mentioned the Purbeck mining museum, here is progress as I saw it.

At the L+B, Thomas cabbed ‘Axe’

and we rode the short distance to Killington Lane. 

Pecorama was fun…

They have a 7 1/4 inch gauge Linda too!

and the highlight for me was the layout ‘Catalunia’ which features a 6 minute sequence where the sun rises and later sets, the lighting changing gradually throughout with different and relevant background music.  Difficult to explain so here’s a video of part of the sequence:

New peco points

Here is a new left hand peco ‘mainline’ 009 point, pictured next to the old style (which has already been modified for DCC friendliness).  Things to note about the new points (as well as the squared off modern style sleepers):

- They are longer and have a divergent angle less than that of the old style points

- They have extended sleepers at the switch and more prototypical hinges too

- The check rails are much deeper allowing stock with deeper flanges to pass through

- The rails are broken between the frog and pivot allowing easy conversion to DCC friendliness.  There are small wires bridging the gaps if you prefer not to convert them.

- The frog has a pre-soldered dropper wire attached

- Clearances at the crossing vee look better

- The end sleeper is now two individual sleepers not one joined at a near 20 degree angle

- The method of attaching the switch blades to the tiebar is completely different and is far more prototypical.  The tiebar holes are however larger which may bring problems when using point motors of a type other than peco’s own.

Overall these points look far and away better and it’s a shame they weren’t launched a few years ago when I could have made use of them.  As it goes I may be able to incorporate one at the Waunfawr end loop point, but the change of divergent angle may make this difficult, we shall see….

Back from holiday

Not in Wales this time.  Two new narrow gauge railways were added to the list – Launceston and the L+B.  The scores fit into the new table as below…

rank		TOTAL
1	Ffestiniog	91
2	Rh Eryri (WHRC)	81
3	Talyllyn	77
4	Snowdon Mountain	62
5	Welshpool and Llanfair	62
6	Bure Valley	62
7	Llanberis Lake	61
8	Bala Lake	56
9	Fairbourne	56
10	WHR Porthmadog	56
11	Bressingham	54
12	Launceston	54
13	Kirklees	54
14	Evesham country park	53
15	Rudyard Lake	50
16	Great Orme	47
17	Corris	47
18	Llechwedd	43
19	Leighton Buzzard	43
20	Wells and Wals	42
21	Amerton	40
22	Lynton and Barnstaple	40
23	Golden Valley	31
24	North Glos	29
25	Steeple Grange	21
26	Derbys Dales	11

Also had a good news around the Purbeck mining museum, but Stephen’s photos here do that much better justice than mine:

http://fairlightworks.blogspot.com/2009/07/piece-of-purbeck.html

A project under construction, more details here http://www.pmmmg.org/

More progress from Scotland

looking good, eh?

Here this, people!

Last night I sorted through my collection of seated people, putting them into colour order.  I found I had 110 people for an initial tranche of 35 carriages.  Even so some of these are much smaller (bugs) so it is the equivalent of 30 bogie cars. That’s just 3.67 people per carriage – no where near enough.  Thus 200 extras have been ordered via ebay, giving me a new average of 10.34 per car, much better.

For sale

I have a few items on ebay at the moment:

http://shop.ebay.co.uk/colinlea009/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_from=&_ipg=&_trksid=p4340

FR cars 110,111,114 and 22/26 plus kits for the FR short bowsiders and the NWNGR/WHR Gladstone(tourist) car.

The reasons for selling are: 110 – I hate the design of this car, 111 – I would need to put in a lot of work on the driving compartment and have enough brake vehicles now with 100/102, 114 – has recently been slightly altered adding a window to the design, 22/26 is surplus to requirements, I prefer the worsley brass to langley on the bows and the gladstone’s footboards are just waiting to be knocked off regularly!

Progress from the Scottish works

Progress is excellent already on my two ex SAR ballast wagons, for further prototype info see here: http://www.whrsoc.org.uk/WHRProject/construc-stock.htm#hoppers

The pictures below are basically links to Rob's images on his blog at bronhebog.blogspot.com - check it out if you haven't already!  The bottom image shows where Rob is up to with his own wagons - aren't they superb!

Updated colours info

After considering colours and trying to avoid enamels wherever possible I have concluded that:

- Brunswick green is too dark and I will probably use humbrol acrylic RC409 (supposedly malachite green) with a little black to darken it slightly for the Col Stephens and WHR green

- the brick red ends can be created from railmatch 2404 (light rust) with a little extra red (vermillion) added

-  humbrol rc415 is apparently pullman umber but is way too dark, but I reckon with some cream added to it, we could get close.  The cream is easy – 416.

- BR crimson (railmatch) remains my paint of choice for the FR/WHR ‘mercedes’ red.

- humbrol crimson lake (403) is fine but could need a little extra brown in it.

- the maroon used for car 24 may well end up being humbrol 423 (carmine) as it is much darker than the humbrol list depicts.

all of these will be airbushed with tamiya acrylic spray thinner (50:50) used (less surface tension than water).

What happened when we spent a day painting

Monday was the first of a couple of mega spray painting days…

Prior to my visit Dad had moved things on by spraying black onto the chassis of 2040-5, 2090, 2010, 2020/1, 2115, 2100 and the combination car.  Dad had also found that the rain strips on the roof of the Romanian carriage (2060) had come loose and had replaced them with soldered phosphor bronze wire. This is obviously much stronger than the previous attempt at melting plastic strip onto the brass with mek pak.

The result of the day was:

Truss rods were finished on a number of vehicles and removed from the summer cars as there is conflicting evidence as to whether they had truss rods, certainly the drawing in Boyd shows them without.  Also they are pretty much impossible to see when running anyway.

Primer/black where appropriate: 26, 2060, 1000, 119, 120, buffet, ash corridor 25, 2 x NWNGR summer cars, 2 x Pickering brakes, No.1 NWNGR brake, 2 FR bugs plus zoo car

WHR summer car No. 24 had its seats painted natural wood and lamp tops added on.  This is a kit bash of a Vale of Rheidol coach and so does not require priming.

Ivory for the window frames was then sprayed onto: 101, 113, 119, 120, 26, 2060, combination car, 2040-5, 2090, 2010.  We only masked the roofs off for this, as the red livery will then be over painted.

On two carriages we left the ivory to be hand painted as there was very little to paint: 2020/1.

As a bit of fun the flying bench was primed and then sprayed in railmatch red.

2100 had its body sprayed with precision paints blackberry black although this will require another coat at least.

Afterwards all the chassis were taken back home and will be hand painted inside with acrylics and seated people will be added.  Also they will have their bogies and couplings added/reattached.

The new colour of 2115 may cause some trouble as the lighter brown shade chosen is very different to the normal pullman umber.  I will have to consider options here.  We also need a good paint for the the Colonel Stephens era brick red (used on ends and footboards).  At the moment it looks like humbrol brick red with some extra red added might be an option. The humbrol spray brunswick green I have looks too dark.

Roofs will be hand painted in various shades of off white, grey and black.

Prior to painting we have revised our methods and the previous method of vim cleaning is now replaced with a brush on product called Model clean from JLTRT which is well good.  Brush it on, let it dry and then wash off with water and it cleans, neutralises and degreases.

Funny moment of the day came when I was spraying with the obligatory mask on.  I was trying to talk at the same time and Dad said I was harder to understand that Emmanuel Adebayor on world cup match of the day!

All insides are now back home for red painting and for the addition of seated people.

Below are some images of the scale of the operation:

Truss rods

Have been playing around with truss rods.  My chosen method being 0.45mm wire bent and soldered into place.  The vertical supports are then made up in evergreen plastic strip.  It looks fine and is certainly pretty durable.  Above is the buffet car.  The others include a Pickering brake, two NWNGR summer cars and the Ashbury corridor 25, which are all coming along well.

Dr Ben’s NWNGR Workmens car has had its roof removed so that I can fit in seating and the single partition.  This carriage needs a touch up and the roof replacing, but is otherwise finished.

and in other news, I have taken up my friend Rob Waller’s offer of a couple of his wonderful plastic creations – namely two ex SAR ballast wagons.  His blog at http://bronhebog.blogspot.com has recently been detailing the construction (scratch building) of these wagons and what beauties they are!  This is great news as they are pretty key features for the layout, given that they are mostly stabled in the Rhyd Ddu yard!  I had been hoping to convert some ex 3mm scale hoppers, but Rob’s models will ensure the models are far more realistic. 

Carry on…

Little chance to do much modelling over the weekend as the new kitchen took up most of my time.  The end is in sight for that project though!

Mostly I’m been preparing stuff for Monday’s super painting session.  Vale of Ffestiniog had unfortunately had its roof put on the wrong way around meaning the exhaust holes were in the wrong place.  After careful consideration I decided that to unsolder the roof would likely mean that the roof would not look as tidy when reaffixed and it could be potentially damaging to other bits too.  Thus I have filled the holes and will drill and square up some apertures in the correct place.

I own two Pickering brakes – the first (below in brass) was bought second hand but had to be stripped and rebuilt so frankly I may as well have bought the kit new(!).  It has now had its lamp tops added.  The small amount of superglue that is shown up by the flash on my camera will be cleaned up once dry.

The other Pickering was ‘inherited’ from the late Dr Ben Fisher and has been prepped for a repaint.  The glazing was removed and roof (in one piece) separated.  This is a great model apart from the unusual livery.

 

The two full height NWNGR Summer cars had low lamp tops added…

and long bowsider No. 20 had vents added above the doors – a very tedious job as they are so small! 6 per side.

The zoo car, bug No. 1 had its mesh soldered on.  I think this looks great.

 

and NWNGR brake No.1 had lamp tops added and truss rods (not visible in this shot) added too.

Finally car 1000 (ex FR 100) had its roof soldered on and end domed section created in filler.

 

There remain 5 sets of truss rods to add on some carriages and also some work to consider what details need adding before painting on K1, the two funkeys and 87.

Still lots to do!

Prep

I've spent time sorting out a few things ready for next monday's painting session. This has included fixing a roof on 1000 including the domed end and sorting through my carriages prioritising them. For example all the FR Victorian train cars will be left for later as we will not have time to start adding all the gold lining! The same is true of the modern FR saloons.

I also added a roof to the ex vale of rheidol van used on the whhr and one of the small fr semi opens.

Finally some further work to sort the electrics on the station board was done.

Station board update

Here are some images in as close to natural light as possible of the station board.  There remains a number of details to add, not least the water tanks plus various notices etc but the general look is now there.

The container now has electrified track into it and it’s doors back on.  There has also been a little reballasting around the platform edge that has yet to be coloured with sleeper grime.

Last night I also spent a long time measuring the backscene exactly so that I can design the backdrop to be printed…

Giving the tamper a home

Last night I fixed in the tamper shed and added track into it. This was connected to the siding and with pieces of plasticard the slight ramp up into it was built. This was then ballasted over. This just needs weathering, the container doors rehanging and an extra feed adding and then it's done. Next stop straps for the water towers. These have had their tops weathered however using weathering powders and I'm currently considering how best to seal that effect in (clear lacquer?).

I've also rescued the woodland scenics realistic water and water effects bottles from the garage ready to finish the two small streams on this board.

Finlly thought has turned to what I need to get done ahead of the 21st June spraying session and preparing the two funkeys seems top of the list.

Station board moved into study

Last night I moved the station board into the study for final detail to be added such as the water tower strapping (hence the brass wire shown) and the addition of a better container.  Ballast was dug out for the container and tonight track will be laid into it and fed.  Then the new board joins between this board and the yard board will be set up and the 4 floating rails on the yard board will be soldered to copper clad.

I have also set a date with Dad for the first all-day mega painting session which consists of me taking a day off work and creating a production line for the mass spraying of carriages as follows:

- cleaning and preparation

- grey primer

- body ivory (except roof)

- chassis matt black

- panelling red (leaving windows ivory)

[obviously this example is for the saloons and is different for other vehicles such as the Pullmans and Col Stephens stock etc]

Not all carriages will be able to be finished in one session by any means but a proportion are already at the primer stage so they may be able to be finished, whereas others will only make it to the primer stage.

Final detailing (to be finished by me at home) once the final livery is complete will include glazing, the installation of seated people and tables, couplings, vac pipes etc