Out to lumch

Since my last ramble on here I've been quite busy on the layout and the laptray. So, not necessarily in strict chronological order... 

With Narrow Planet's etchers cautiously back in operation 'Wendy' now has her nameplates

'Dolcogh' has been weathered and has crew aboard. The are very nice 3d prints which I found on evilbay. My usual Preiser crew looked daft as the size of this loco and the size of crew are well known. I painted the crew and was surprised to find that I had inadvertently made a model of Tal y Llyn ex GM, Chris Price.

Sadly, the driver can't really be seen, but I know he's in there.

I decided that I shouldn't let the stack of rolling stock kits building up on my shelf just gather dust so I made a start and put together the pair of Tom Bell kits, a cattle wagon and another of the little brake vans. Once again they went together pretty well with a bit of cleaning up. The only difference I made to previous kits was to use the PECO NEM pockets and their couplings to suit. Quite simple but not really an advance from BEMO ones.

Also on the slightly diminished, shelf of shame were a pair of Colin Ashby four wheelers which I had acquired by asking on the NGRM forum if anyone had a couple going begging. These kits, although fairly long in the tooth, go together very well and make nice not exactly FR bug boxes. I decided that when it came to finishing, I'd do one in cream and green to go with the other one but I'd do one in unpreserved green and slightly rotten. I really like the tatty one and it has a place with a few other similar grotty vehicles.

The layout has had a few bits and bobs done too, the most major thing is the relaying of some of the road surface in Underhill. It was always a bit of a rush job which I did when initially building the layout in a hurry. I ordered some embossed, printed brick paper from a bloke in Greece and eventually it arrived. It would probably make good walls but I only wanted it to use as a sort of stone sett. I also replaced the pavements with Metcalffe individual paving stones. It was a long winded job but the result is so much better.

Rock Beach now has a Fromage et Fritte van at the market which is an Oxford diecast Citroen H van. It came in a revolting shiny green colour so I dismantled it, stripped it and gave it a paint in good old, Halfords grey primer. I had intended to paint it further but realised that it was exactly the right colour as it was.

A couple of nice Eggerbahn blue clerestory coaches have joined the heritage collection, I've always liked them and now I have a pair, probably need another one to complete the train.

The restaurant car had a trip out but looked rather sad in its drab green and dust livery so I bit the bullet and dismantled it for a tart up and a repaint. Obviously based on the classic Dundas models DM40, I somehow managed to make one side shorter than it should be so it never really fitted together properly.

The interior had survived pretty well with only a shelf having come loose. I was always proud of the diners and the kitchen which is basically all made of Preiser products; I don't think my eyes would be up to it these days as there are individual cutlery pieces etc on the tables. 

I added details to the end and the roof to bring it more in line with my PECO L&B coaches and also some under floor truss rods etc.

The windows are now divided into smaller panes which is in keeping with other DM40 I have. Also replaced is the door furniture so now it has brass handrails and so on.

Something I've learned is that the detail on the roof is some of the most important as we always see the trains from above, so it gained some torpedo vents and rainstrips.

Not quite finished as it will have a brass etched 'Restaurant' sign and fleet number transfers. I think the roof could do with another coat of paint too, otherwise job done. Another useful addition to the carriage fleet.

 

I have three of the Chris Ward 'Townsend Hook' alikes and so when I saw that EDM were going to sell their 3D print in 4mm scale I had to have one. In a circuitous way it's my fault they make them at all. The EDM version is true to scale and so is slightly longer but with shorter tanks, it also isn't designed to suit any particular chassis. I may have to have a go at building one... one day.

A walk on the wild side

I've been busy doing other things lately so I haven't done much modelling in the last couple of weeks but that hasn't stopped me playing trains.

A rare outing for the IoSR restaurant carr. It has a fully detailed interior including kitchen and diners busy eating their lunch, they even have knives and forks etc, you can barely see any of this but I know it's there. 

Kitbashed from a Dundas  DM40 many years ago, it could do with a repaint into a more cheery livery but I'd have to take the roof off to remove the glazing etc etc. It's on the list...

Another small job done is the attaching of the nameplates for Wendy. Ordered before lock down, I'm pleased to see that Narrow Planet's etcher must be back in action. This means that the plates for the new Minitrains tram are not far behind too.

The other major bit of work done to the layout is the relaying of some road and pavement by the shops at Underhill. It's an area that I rushed when I initially built the layout as it needed to be ready for a show but it has always bugged me.

I ordered some textured, printed brick paper from a guy in Greece on eBay which took about a month to arrive, not a problem and the delivery date was quoted upfront. I wanted it for road surfacing even though it is brick. The print is slightly shiny but the texture is great. A subtle brush over with some weathering powder let the shine down and added some variation to the colour too.

I replaced the pavement using some more Metcalfe individual paving stones. It is a slow and fiddly process but the end result is very satisfying. They are supposedly self adhesive but I used Uhu to be on the safe side.

In addition to the shop area I also tidied up the edge of Station Road nearest to the railway. When I had to rip up the road and buildings to access the electrics the road and the fence never went back quite right, again a job that bugged me. I've laid a row of paving stones to tidy the road edge and renewed and painted the fence; to be honest it barely notices but I feel happier about it.

The view from past the Post Office and Parrot Inn.

I tidied up the pavement over the bridge too.

Life goes on in Underhill as if nothing had happened

Someone will always wave at a passing train

Lucy out for a run, must be a special occasion as she is quite old and fragile

One last thing, I sorted out my Minitrains Stainz too, I always wanted an LGB one of these but it would be too big for the layout.

Signals

I'm very pleased with the way Dolgoch has turned out, with some help from those who know about these things I finally got the pipework right and eventually the cylinder lubricator annoyed me enough to move it to the right place too. All there is left to do is to get a transfer of the name to add to the boiler, some crew and some weathering. I've ordered some 4mm scale people as the usual 3.5mm Preiser ones look daft on such a well known, small loco.

Having spent so long at the lap tray it felt like time to do some jobs on the layout that have been niggling for ages. First job was to reinstate the home signal which used to be just where the new brook got built. Unfortunately in removing it from the layout the mechanism got broken so my intention was to just install it as a lit up but not working unit. I carefully soldered extension wires onto the remains of the wiring, drilled a hole in the baseboard and glued the post in place. I got out a battery to test the LED but being an idiot I forgot that in the mechanism for the working signal there is a resistor to protect the LED from high voltages... like the 9v I blew up the LED with... Doh. Anyway it looks nice not lit up.

Next task was to install the wire from the signal box to work the signal and also the rodding from the box to the station king point and the yard entry point. I've had the bits for 5 or 6 years since I bought them at Warley but have never got round to it. Very fiddly little bits and bobs but worth the buggering about in the end, the rodding won't pass close inspection by anyone who knows how the real thing works but it looks good enough at usual viewing distances.

The rodding passes under the track and goes into the box under wooden walk ways.

Another small job and only a five minute job as to add a handrail to part of the steps up to the quarry from the halt, just a bent up piece of brass rod and a lick of paint. Much safer for the little chaps.

Becoming Dolgoch

I've recently bought this little chap, rather shiny and orange and with a face and a skinny chimney. Fortunately those lovely chaps at Narrow Planet supplied me with most of a Dolgochification kit. What to do? A faithful model of the Tal y Llyn loco which has always been a favourite of mine or to do something Fletcher Jennings style but more uniquely Isle of Stoner.

I contemplated a cabless loco by way of making it interesting

Once the kit arrived the die was cast as it includes a very nice replacement cab, so full cab it was.

In the instructions to the kit it says that acetone will strip the paint from the casting and I mistakenly thought that it would do the same for the plastic footplate... actually it melts the plastic. Fortunately I realised what was happening and hooked it out in time to rescue the now very floppy footplate. Some of the smaller details had melted beyond saving but nothing too vital. Lesson learnt.

First steps towards a model rather than a toy.

On test with my rake of TR based coaches, it looks at home with them. It was at this point that I decided that it should be Dolgoch. But what era?

One of the etches with the kit is for the preservation era 'greedy bars' bunker extension which I had added, but once I decided that late 1940s/early 1950s era was what I would aim for they had to go. I'm sure they'll come in handy somewhere else.

The kit comes with some excellent brass castings for the clack valves and some of the other brass work but I wanted to go deeper with the detail so have spent some happy hours poring over photos of the real thing, principally in Martin Fuller's excellent trilogy of TR and Corris loco books. A feature I always loved from the first time I saw it was the wooden shed door added to the cab so I made one out of styrene strip.

The whistle as supplied is also wrong for this era so I cut the NP one off the safety valve handles and added a more appropriate one to the side of the dome. There were also a variety of other bits of sundry plumbing which I've made a stab at, including the cylinder 'onion pot' lubricators of the front of the footplate. Like a burk, I've managed to not place them exactly symmetrically and am currently striving to not notice. 

This is the state of play before the spoiling by painting phase.

In other news, I finished off the new van in a tatty, un preserved state and it will see most service with the quarry traffic. Very happy with this vehicle and the finish.

With all this furloughed time on my hands I've also been mending things from the 'great unfinished and broken' pile and this has included both my Arnold Kof powered locos. Long story short I had 2 chassis, one had a limp the other didn't go at all. The non functioning one was a simple fix, in removing it from the n gauge body I hadn't noticed that the pickups were no longer connected to the motor... a couple of waves of the soldering iron and that was fixed. The other one was more serious and after consulting the hive mind of the NGRM forum a conclusion of a split gear was come to. By removing the gear from one of the drive axles a smooth, but powerless chassis was achieved. I swapped them over so that 'Little Red' had the 4 wheel drive chassis and the lighter green thing had the feeble one. It will just pull 5 peco skips so it is fine for now. Little red is much refreshed and has been on quarry train duties again.

Lord Stoner's inspection saloon has been out and about with its new Kato 109 chassis and is seen here with the larder car tied on, obviously a picnic is scheduled. I have two other 103s which are now up for replacement but that will be another story.