Constant change is here to stay

Sometimes you need to make changes in your life, step away from things which don't bring anything to the party. Make time for the positive, let yourself have a little peace. To that end I've started on a long road to get fitter and be less of a wastrel; as part of this I've left Facebook for the time being at least. I've become sick of the constant negativity and whining. Hopefully this means I'll have more time to devote to all the great things in my life including keeping this blog up to date more regularly.

 

Anyway, with that out the way here are some toy trains; I feel better already.

 

At work we had a delivery from Heljan of the balance of our first order of Manning Wardles. I brought one of each home to photograph and while I was at it give them a test run. All three did a run up and down the Underhill Branch and behaved much better than the previous version. There still seemed to be a slight issue with the pony trucks but not nearly as bad as on the original version.

This is my original one (rear) and a new Yeo. You can see that the finish is better on the new one with various subtle improvements, not least the red head and tail lamps.

The three new ones having a pose.

 

While still on the subject of work (vaguely). I took the opportunity for a short trip down memory lane with a visit to this little layout that has been in the booking hall shop display cabinet for a dozen or so years. However it wasn't new then having been built by me in 1989 or 1990. It originally was in one of those aluminium camera cases. It hasn't done badly for being nearly thirty years old, it did have a bit of a spruce up when it went in the booking hall but fundamentally it's as I built it.

The track is my first circle of Egger/Jouef track. It was purchased on the same day I found a membership form for the 009 society next to The Dovey Valley Railway at the Croydon MRC show some years previously.

 

Coming more up to date, I've been quite busy on the lap tray recently. This little red diesel runs on an Arnold Kof chassis and the bonnet and cab come from that funny little plastic Garratt.

 

It had a Bachmann Baldwin headlamp at first but that was far too big.

I'm pretty pleased with the look of it but I now need to get the chassis to run properly.

 

Later in the year I'm taking the little Welsh roundy roundy, Castell Coed, to a couple of shows so I thought I'd build a short bogie coach to go with the short brake composite that works well on it. It isn't anything very clever, just a cut down Dundas FR style coach. I trimmed the bogies and moved the mounting holes for them slightly allowing them to swivel as fully as possible and so now it is quite at home on the Minitrains set track on Castell Coed.

 

Next thing to do is paint the loco, the two coaches and the Arsenal van. I'm going to try a green and cream panelled scheme on the bogie coach which will push my painting abilities to and probably past their limits... watch this space

Primer I can do quite well...



Happy new year, where did 2018 go?

OK, I know I said I'd post more often... I meant to but I've been very busy in the, so called, real world. Anyway, back here in the world of modelling I've done a few bits and bobs.

 

First thing to mention is a nice little 3D print of a Simplex, not sure how accurate it is but it looks the part. Designed to sit on a Portram chassis, I've painted and weathered it, filled the engine cover with liquid lead but I'm buggered if I can find the spare Portram chassis I know I have somewhere... sure it will turn up.

 

I've also finished a couple of steam locos, the first being a 'Pugbash'. Shock horror! I've seen a few nice Pugbashes recently and decided to have a go as I had all the bits lurking including a brand new Fleischmann 7000 chassis, an A1 models etched brass cab and all the relevant bits of an Airfix Pug kit.

Bashing has begun.

 

First job was to make up the tank with the front and two side bits, I then removed the hand rails, the chimney etc and then sanded and filled the remains. I also shortened it by a third which left it without a water filler.

Bashing almost complete

 



I soldered the cab so that it would be structurally sound and drilled holes to fit handrails. The footplate was cut from Plasticard as was the cab roof. Chimney and tank filler were whitemetal castings, the couplers the lovely brass castings from RT models.

A waft of primer

 

The finished article - Nefertiti

 

A good Peckett green finished the job

 

It came out a bit big for my rolling stock but looks the part with the slightly large PECO skips

 

The other loco is a Narrow Planet Bagnall seen here in primer

 

Talking of Narrow Planet, I mentioned to Steve at Warley that I was after a Meridian Talyllyn brake van kit which he didn't have for sale because they were waiting for the buffer castings. Fortunately I knew that I didn't need these as I was going to build it IoSR style without them. A week later I had the kit in my clammy little hands. I last built a TR van from a Mike's Models kit about 40 years ago, being one of the very first 009 kits I ever made. I made a right mess of it and painted it gloss black all over.

 

This time I've made a bit of a better fist of it. I didn't want an exact TR van so I've left the booking office and ducket off and made the veranda open all round. As mentioned no buffers either.

The roof is Prof. Insley bog roll covered.

 

The finished article which I really like

 

With a matching coach and the finished NP Bagnall - Joe

On the layout itself I haven't done an awful lot except some basic scenic work between the quarry and the beach. I've also added a couple of inches to the front edge of the quarry board to help with future developments in that area.

One other small change has been to add about a foot more baseboard between the main beach board and the fiddle yard. This has moved the fiddle yard as far into the corner as possible and will allow a better transition from the halt area to the non scenic bit.

I've also finished sectioning the sidings, adding more isolating sections

Father Christmas was kind to me and I now have three PECO maroon GVT 4 wheelers which will get 'Stonerised' before long. He also brought me another TR coach kit to complete the little rake.

 

I will be exhibiting Arnold Lane Wharf and Castell Coed a few times this year, the first time being at the end of February at the National Slate Museum exhibition in Llanberis. Guaranteed to be the coldest weekend of the year. I'll also be at the 009 Society AGM with the F&WHR stand and also at the Bala Lake Railway show in May.

 

 

Carriage paid

I've been really busy at work so haven't done half the things I'd like to have done on the railway front but I have sneaked a few hours, here and there.

 

I've done quite a bit of 'testing' and found that a fair proportion of my rolling stock doesn't run very well so I've been modifying it to improve matters which isn't very visual but quite satisfying.

 

Also in using the fiddle yard I've found that a couple of changes would make life easier and I've made one of the changes which has added a second short, kickback siding. This will be useful for trams and rail lorries etc.

Before

 

After

 

The other changes needed are to make section breaks in the two long sidings so that I can fit more trains with locos attached.

These two rail lorries are the full and half truckles used to transport cheese.

Previously the full truckle would not negotiate my curves but now all is well.

 

Peggy is my ROCO HF bash and after a clean and a run in is working fine

The bogie brake van never ran well on its PECO bogies as the wheels touched the floor, now it has KATO coach bogies it runs very freely.

My train of varied cattle wagons never ran anywhere as the clearances were too tight and they were poorly built but clearances are not and issue now and the chassis have been sorted out.

My little Jelly Models Badoni diesel

Even with the new improved clearances the steam tram was too tall so I moved the headlamp down and put the bell on the side of the roof and after a bit of repairing the roof all is well. I really like the tram and I'm glad that I can now run it and that the O&K tram coach makes a happy trailer for it.

I've finished the modifications to my second Bachmann Baldwin. It started life as a 778 and is now called Marina. Apart from name plates over the painted numbers it has lost its headlights and gained some coal 'greedy rails'. These are made my usual way from the etched brass slatted seats from Langley Models L&B coaches. A very hand etch is available with the seats and a pile of coach door handles. Crew from Preiser and an RT models jack finish off the mods. After that it was just some nasty weathering so it sits well with Clarice my Hummy rename.

I have a new indoors work bench. It is a bed tray from LIDL. I bought it with building a small layout on it in mind but it is just too small for what I wanted but sits happily over my lap on the sofa.

The first project to be completed on the new tray is a Meridian/Narrow Planet TR coach kit. I've used the Patented Prof Insley bog roll roof technique, which is still unpainted here.

Here the roof is painted but still unattached as glazing and passengers are needed to complete it.

A few bits and bobs

 

Having been very busy at work over the last couple of weeks I haven't found much time for railway modelling, however I had a day off yesterday and ticked off a few jobs from the never ending list. The first of which was to finish the wiring for the fiddle yard, this was relatively simple as I just needed to wire in a couple of section switches and a feed. I may add a couple more section breaks on the two sidings which are the full length of the board as nearly every train is about half the length of the board.

Fiddle yard during 'testing'

 

Clarice passing what will be the beach

The full truckle, cheese rail lorry in action. One happy result of curve easing on the new arrangement is that this peculiar thing will now happily run the length of the line.

 

 

A few weeks ago I acquired a strange plastic toy/static model of a Garratt with the vague idea of converting it for 009 use. The static wheels are to 9mm gauge but what scale the thing is supposed to be, I couldn't say. The cab doors are about the right height for a 3.5mm person to stand in them. Anyway I contemplated putting 2 of those little Japanese Tsugawa (?) chassis under it but it would require an awful lot of re building and to be totally honest I get my fill of real NG Garratts at work.

 

Taking it apart, several options are revealed. Use the cab and boiler bit for a conventional loco... use the cab and the water tank as a little i.c. loco... It's in a box at the moment and will probably stay that way for now. A last ditch idea was to paint it with rust and park it at the end of a siding - awaiting work.

 

In bits

As a little i.c.

 

You may have spotted in the above picture that there is a ghostly simplex too. This is a 3D print which will sit on a Portram chassis, I know I have one somewhere but I'm buggered if I can find it. I've filled the engine cover with liquid gravity and once the chassis is fitted there might be some room for a few little bits of lead. I'm not a big expert on Simplexes but it will look close enough for me.

 

At our recent Super Power event I invited the lovely chaps from Narrow Planet to attend and it would have been rude not to make a purchase so I bought a TR coach will I started to put together last night. Nice clean castings and some delightful cast brass buffers which I probably won't fit. It should go nicely with my little rake of 3D printed Ratty style coaches, so it will be painted in faded green and wood rather than TR red and wood. I suspect a couple more might be needed and I've always loved the TR brake van...

 



Fiddling while flux burns...

A very weak title, however I have now installed the old fiddle yard board and re arranged the track on it. I still need to do some wiring and the lighthouse board requires wiring up properly but fundamentally I have a whole train set. I feel some 'testing' is required.

 

Woodwork complete

 

The old track plan

The new track plan

 

In the relaying I've gained a long siding and lost the terrible join between the fiddle yard and the cheese factory board that is no more.

 

I think the next thing to do is to have a massive clear up of all the accumulated tools and clutter so that I can actually see what I'm up to and stop tripping over the piles of cack all over the garage.