Modeling interests

I am still too stupid (lazy...) to set up another hosting site after the demise of Photobucket but the Tich and recently completed Toad did make it to the end of a post on the CHR Weston Extension Blog. I should finish the lettering of the Toad to read Oswestry, but right after that was taken we had a loss in the family and there has been no time since.

https://ilvaporista.blogspot.com/2018/04/sorry-for-delay-in-updates.html

 

I used to be into model making to the early 1990s and still have a selection of P4 and Finescale 00 locos in a display cabinet. My attempts on an e2e layout based on fictitious LSWR branchlike terminus set in late 50s have long since been shelved excusing the pun, but as retirement becomes an option in the not too distant future, I have thoughts of resurrecting and possibly building a wall-side layout in my garage.
My dilemma is what scale to go for? RTR stock is far better than it used to be and my eyes aren't what they used to be either for finescale modelling. Downside would be that I have some loco's that would need to be re-gauged.
I'm also intrigued in the digital technology for controlling individual locos that would alleviate the need for cab control and excess switches and wiring. My experience from years ago was that I was forever fiddling with dirty track or poor pickups to get things to run how I wanted them to and I'm wondering if things are better with chip control and power to all rails? I'm also not sure if modern controllers are compatible with all types of motor. Many of mine have coreless Portescap motors.
My ageing father is an avid model engineer with Live Steam in various gauges. He has some superb Gauge 1 engines that one day could become mine but I have no experience of running whatsoever.

 

At the other end of the spectrum I always fancied N Gauge, and RTR came on Leaps and Bounds in the last Decade and have amassed lots of Early BR / ex. LNER rolling stock... Unfortunately the prices and lead times have doubled over the last few years and this has put the brakes on that aspect so am concentrating on layout planning for the future...3m x 1.5meters a continuous reverse loop double track mainline with a branch off to a colliery with the exchange sidings in the foreground.

 

I've never bothered with the likes of Photobucket etc and set up my own website to share my photos, (the link is in the sig if you're interested, but it's all 12" to the foot railways). So here are a couple of shots of my 009 layout's baseboard under construction.

 

Here's a taster of one or two of ours - I may start a new thread to document them all with photos…

G gauge double header on the Meccano trestle bridge (note that I had to lower the curtain rail when I discovered that the ceiling appears not to be level, and check measurements relative to the ceiling on one side said it should have fitted, but having battened round the room using a spirit level, it started above the curtain rail at one side and ended below it at the other - doh!):

O gauge 3-rail vintage set running on the Bassette-Lowke society exhibition track last summer. There have been a couple of additions to the freight rake since then:

A couple from the OO loft layout (we do a lot of improvising - the loco shed is a box lid with suitable paper coverings - it's crude, but Josh likes it):

Edit - a couple of the base for the Disney station diorama - we put it together Monday evening and primed it tonight:

 

Oh, and something a little different - Josh asked me to build him a pretend signal box in the garden summer house. We have a prototype simple lever frame under construction, but I've already made him a couple of items to go on the shelf above the frame (yes, they both work, and the bell box is designed to connect to a second one eventually, but with nothing plugged in the plunger rings it's own bell):

 

Ah, now those two photos take me back a bit. in an earlier post I mentioned that one of my previous model railways occupied the whole of the front bedroom, this huge layout was an end to end line designed to be operated by two people. When my friend and I got together for an operating session we ran the layout like a real railway, we had a timetable which as I recall included 4 local passenger trains, 2 express passenger trains, 2 goods trains and 1 branch line train each hour. You had to be on your toes to keep up with that number of train movements, running the local train locos round their carriages making sure your express locos were turned and ready, shunting the goods etc etc. And just to make the operation more interesting trains were exchanged between us using block & bell instruments very much like the ones in your photo, each class of train having its own bell code.

 

Whilst I have been waiting for my track to turn up, I've been playing around with a few ideas for coaches and I had a pack of white card, and an A4 sheet of plasticard, so I decided to base my coaches on something from about the 1930's based on the type of stock a narrow gauge line would have if part of the big 4, so ive gone for a bogie 5 compartment 3rd with a 1st saloon at the end, I made up a prototype from card, decided yet it looks right so remade it in plasticard for the body floor and roof, the interior is made from card I experimented with some permanent markers to try to re create wooden panelling by using yellow then red to look like a grain, then yellow as I didn't have brown, and that's how i've done inside the seating I made up some from the card, scored, and glued to make a bench seat, then coloured them dark red, it actually looks ok, the first-class I made a u shape seat, again using the same method, cut the ends so when I joined them, it looks like its a alcove type seat, and glued this against the end and under the windows as this is how I would imaging a first class compartment would look ,
ive not done any panelling on the body, except to scribe the door openings, as I don't have a suitable way to do it, so will leave them unpanelled, The brake coach, ive made a slightly more updated coach, based on the Maunsell design, with single windows to each compartment, this as far as i've got going to make the interior next, this time all 3rd, with dark green upholstery but saying that one compartment could be done as 1st class, so I might do a composite brake, with 1sr, 2nd and 3rd, I m not on any photo sharing site, yet, but when I have both painted up, and finished I will post them, as an insight, i've used 1 a4 plasticard 1mm and a a4 card to make them, then I intend to get a pair of peco N bogies to mount on them.

 

I've created a separate thread where I'll document our various projects (both where we are now, and ongoing work), if anyone is interested

Our Layouts

 

My interests have been two-fold: modelling military vehicles and model railways. In terms of the latter, my parents and myself moved to their current house near the end of the last Millennium. My grandfather, who bears responsibility for stirring my interest in railways, and myself managed to hi-jack a room which my Dad has since earmarked as a walk-in airing cupboard. So to the essentials...

Where I departed from my grandfather was that my interest in BR (Southern Region) grew (he still is of LMS/GWR material!), so once I got out of the 'let's just get some locomotives' phase, I started to specialise with 35028 back in 2000. I then progressed to 34041 in 2001, an N class around 2002 and 33037 in 2003, so you could say the course was set! Over the course of 20 years, and despite my Dad's continued wielding of the 'axe', it has gone through two iterations as I renewed the baseboards in about the year 2000, which are resting on top of a flat surface created by a stairwell ceiling (which was why it was put there in the first place). Called 'Warmingham', and set somewhere on the Surrey/Sussex border c1960-1961 (this justifies weathering railway buildings and running a wide variety of Southern types), it is a simple 6x4ft layout with an oval of single track with sidings/country locomotive shed, and a 2x4ft MPD/goods depot area at 90 degrees to the main running line. It includes one tunnel and two road-over bridges, one of which forms part of a retaining wall/arches scene on the MPD side. A recent project has been to put in a non-functioning semblance of point-rodding just for the hell of it. In the end, it took the best of five years of putting it off, swearing and head-scratching to finish! Signalling is also fixed, and its positioning would not stand any scrutiny from the ORR!

Since 2000, I have naturally focused on the Bulleids, interspersed with the usual Southern suspects. A few Standards and an Ivatt have also made the layout, including such interlopers as 70010 'Owen Glendower', 70052 'Firth of Tay' and 72008 'Clan Macleod'. Carriages comprise Maunsell, Bulleid, Mk. 1 and Pullman stock, although the wagon collection could do with a bit more investment! Purchases have tailed off in recent years to maybe one a year due to the sheer expense of a new locomotive and railtouring- indeed, I remember the days when one could secure one of the Hornby rebuilt light pacifics for £85, although I thought they were expensive even then! Bargain of the century was a brand new 34078 '222 Squadron' for a mere £69.50- really happy with it as it had the high-sided tender to the end. I now tend to hold back unless there's something specific that I want to secure- at the moment I have 34050 'Royal Observer Corps' on order because my grandfather was a member- normally I try to purchase things that are reduced in price.

Anyway, here's a couple of (not brilliant) photographs:



30450 'Sir Kay' on depot.



34107 'Blandford Forum' passes Warmingham LC, with point rodding WIP.

 

Since a young age i've had multiple modelling interests. My first Triang train set arrived when i was seven in 1952, not hard to guess what it was...a Princess Set with a Battery Box, the only other choice my Parents had at that time was the Jinty Set. Prior to that i had a good few Dinky Toys and i still collect them to this day. By 1956 i was into building Airfix Aircraft kits, a Stuka being my first choice from Woolworths for 2/6 and 4d for a tube of glue. I soon 'built' it and more glue was on the upper surfaces than was in the joints. I then proudly stood it with no paint on the sideboard to show it off to one and all and my Mother saw it and had a fit; yelling ''Get that Nazi Plane out of my living room'', not surprising really having been bombed by the real thing for long enough having spent the entire war living in South East Kent. I made the more sensible choice of a Spitfire next !

As the years passed i collected a lot of model railway equipment knowing that one day i would build a layout. During those years my interest in the real railways never faded and i spent as much time as i could on the Platforms at Folkestone Junction and other Kent Stations taking in the steam scene, which sadly ended locally in June 1961 and from then on it was just rows of carriages with sparks. However; i had become a young Teenager and 'Girls' became a very interesting alternative. Marriage and kids followed as years passed and it was 1971 before i finally got around to building a half reasonable layout, a Branch Line down one side of a bedroom wall. Others followed, always involving mainly Southern Region practice, my largest being an 18'x8' Loft Layout in my House in Somerset to where i had moved in 1988.

These days i am retired and living in Chiang Mai, Thailand, a place where no Model Railway supplies exist, but thankfully i have a huge collection amassed over many years and with the help of my Brother in England and the local Mail Man i am still able to get what i need and want, although naturally it takes longer to get things than just ordering from ebay or nipping down the local model shop.

I have built myself a Southern Region MPD Layout in a brick built shed in the back garden and i am currently adding a Terminus Station, something i have been doing now for three years as i keep getting diverted to jobs around the House and Garden, but as i have the rest of my life to complete it i am in no hurry....health willing.

I have attached some photo's of my 'Warren Park Depot', a Southern Region Oasis in Northern Thailand............

 

Like many, my first experience of model railways was with a Triang train set when I was 5. I had the goods set with the Jinty. At school there was a Railway Society that built a OO gauge railway, partly in a shed, but running outside, and it was being involved with that project, and perhaps more so the other people involved, that I learned so much from (including getting involved with the real thing at the Bluebell).

There was a lengthy gap in the modelling due to young family, low income, and the need to renovate the near derelict house we lived in. When the opportunity presented itself I got out the boxed up models and started again in the loft of the present house - OO gauge, as before.

My interest has always been drawn to light railways, both standard and narrow gauge, and anything that is slightly out of the ordinary, like the railways of the Isle of Man, and Isle of Wight, and so the layout started off by representing a standard gauge light railway, but quickly grew as there was so much cheap second hand stuff in the local model shops (remember what they were?) that I couldn't resist the badly made or damaged remains of white metal kits crying out for preserving, or the aluminium coach bodies needing fitting out. The light railway grew into an "Island Railway" that owed more to The Isle of Sodor than Wight with pacifics and 4-6-0s. Eventually it just didn't seem convincing enough for me anymore so a complete change took place.

Now it's 7mm scale narrow gauge. The old Triang Nellies, Connies, and the dockshunter still live on, but underneath new bodies. (The Jinty got rebuilt in the 1980s into a light railway loco with a Drummond style cab, stovepipe chimney, new wheels and motor, and survives as such). The new layout is in a decent sized shed/workshop and I've tried to avoid the temptation to fill every bit of space with either track or buildings. To add to the operational interest the main station portrays the halfway point on the railway, but trains have to reverse there - they arrive on one line, reverse, and leave on the other so it increases the running round and shunting movements. There is also a working stone hopper that loads wagons, whilst at the other station there is a china clay "dry" where wagons get loaded with barrels containing the clay. Again this is mechanised. The main station area still needs backscenes as you'll see in the photos. As I still can't resist adding locos and stock, I now group them into different time periods ranging from the 1900s to the 1950s (and preservation) - different locos and stock, and different services and operate accordingly. Stock is either scatchbuilt, kitbuilt and/or heavily customised, like the anglicised Bachmann Porter loco. Here's a selection of photos if you are interested.

 

Very nice photos and an impressive layout. Now that I'm back from my railway holiday I really must get back to work on my 009 layout, and I will once I've sorted out the last two sets of video footage and put it on my website.

 

Thanks for your kind comments - there is a lot that is obviously unfinished, and the photos are just a few of many more - some of which showed up some quite poor workmanship, but I'm keeping those to myself! It's taken about 11 years to get to this point, and there are other, more important, things in life that require my attention, but this is a nice bit of escapism that has helped my sanity many times.

I hope you find time to make progress on yours! (layout, that is, not sanity!)

Steve B

 

At the moment my railways exist in my mind and in boxes in the loft Work has meant a lot of moving over the last few years but hopefully within a couple of years things might be a bit more stable.

When I was a child my grandfather had two railways and my dream is to combine the elements I loved about it. My dad and uncles were split on whether they preferred running or shunting, so the layouts were designed for both. The first layout had a low/high level station. Low level was a terminus, with various sidings, mpd, etc etc, and then high level was a through station on the circuit. To get from low to high level there was stiff climb out of the station to reach the up line, to reach the down line you ‘went across country’. It took up all the garage although to give you some idea of the size, he could fit his car (a princess) into between the circuit. They also built an extension on the back of the garage to give them more space.

He also had a z gauge layout in a coffee table which he later adapted to be a fairground railway on the 00 layout. This was on the second layout which was a more conventional circuit but four track mainline, with stations with fast lines, bay platforms and a large fairground and steel mill (they travelled in Europe and bought a lot of the stuff on holiday).

He also had a 7 1/4 inch railway round the garden with a battery loco, a couple of carriages and a hand trolley. God knows how many miles myself and my cousins raked up on it. He also built over a number of years a steam loco based on a Hunslet quarry loco. While we have the battery loco, carriages and steam engine, the trolley went when they sold the house after they went into care and it is my one regret when the family get together to run the locos that we don’t have it. Although I think I am being a little bit greedy because frankly I was super lucky as a child to have so much stuff to play with.

 

My 009 layout progresses, slowly. baseboard construction is now finished and said baseboard has had a basic undercoat of paint.

 

Track, and other things, are starting to arrive. Due to low stock levels I've had to order the points from several suppliers.

 

A busy afternoon tracklaying. The layout is progressing nicely.

 

Looking good!

 

my little layout is taking shape ive given up on the L shape and now its just a single board, with two loops and two sidings, a raised track and ive made a cutting just painted the board , using acrylic paint going to get some trees make a factory building set up, with a small halt, ( for railbus) and a small through station photos to follow as soon as I can work out how to get them posted on here , its an industrial layout so looks suitably grubby