Cleethorpes 2013

After all my pre-show nerves last weekend passed too quickly. Unfortunately I wasn't able to do justice to the whole show, only managing to get a quick half hour on Sunday afternoon to have a look around. There were some excellent layouts on show. I was especially impressed by Melton Mowbray North. It is a very large N gauge layout with superb buildings and scenic detail. It was a shame I couldn't spend more time appreciating the layout.

Melton Mowbray North

Melton Mowbray North

Melton Mowbray North

Another layout I really liked was Rowntrees Sidings. I'm not really a DEMU modeller (well not yet anyway) but can fully appreciate the skill at depicting the current scene that we are all still living in rather than one that we can only depict from photographs. The guys behind the layout were also a very friendly bunch.

Rowntrees Sidings

Rowntrees Sidings

Other layouts that I've seen before but still worth a mention are Barrowfleet (with its mix of 009 and 00),

Barrowfleet

along with Peakdale (a rather nice depiction of a mainline through the Peak District in N gauge).

Peakdale

In the same room as Tredethy Wharf was Gordon's P4 Fish Dock Road, which attracted a lot of local interest.

Fish Dock Road

Along with the layouts, there was a demonstration stand where a lady making trees was very helpful in answering my questions.

My apologies for not getting photos of the other layouts on show, but as I said, this was only a frustratingly quick half hour around the show. I probably missed some worth a mention and certainly did not spend enough time appreciating what I did catch glimpses of.

Overall an excellent weekend. Tredethy Wharf performed reasonably well for its first outing, though I've come away with a 'to do list'.

Tredethy Wharf

Just a final indulgence, and as a thank you to Clive for loaning a substantial amount of stock, above is a view of his little Hunslet (which ran as sweet as a nut all weekend) about to enter the woods (stage left). Also, to all who took the time to drop by and take a look at Tredethy Wharf, and pass comments, thank you.

Pre-show nerves

Well... my first exhibition this weekend and I think I'm all set up for the show at Cleethorpes: http://www.cleethorpesmodelrailway.co.uk/events.htm The curtain has been made by my very understanding wife and I think it is the finishing touch to the presentation. I'm very apprehensive as to how my little offering will be received, as I feel it is not much of a layout with a lot to do scenically and also building appropriate rolling stock.

All set-up and ready for tomorrow

Our area group have three offerings on show:Tredethy Wharf; Fish Dock Road; and the very early stages of Swan Yard. Other layouts at the show include four N gauge (one being a German/Swiss layout); one OO; one OO/oo-9 gauge; one O gauge; plus an EM gauge. So a good spread of gauges and interests ...

 Stage left is one area that is beginning to look how I have visualised it.

If anyone following this blog is able to make it to the show please make yourselves known as it would be good to have a chat. Hope to see you there.

Foliage support structures

I'm about to set off for a weekend at Scalefour North, but have just enough time for a very quick update on Tredethy Wharf.

The left hand scenic break is progressing reasonably well, I've one more structure to make to complete the group before I lay on the foliage. Hopefully they will knit together to give the impression of how sections of the Wenford Bridge branch looked, with trees over-hanging the track creating tunnels of foliage.

Braving the cold

Today I braved the cold garage and spent most of my time working on the fiddle yard boards. I wanted to create a screen to mask the fiddle yards but, as my initial intention is to operate this layout from the front, still give me access without having to walk around to the back of the layout. My solution has been to mask off the first 12 inches and have a low front for the remaining 2' 6". I'm hoping this will help to focus the view onto the scenic boards and away from the other 50% of the layout. The other problem I've solved today is how and where to hang the control panel at the front of the layout. All things that probably should have been thought of at the initial planning stages of the layout....

At the end of the day I fetched the two scenic boards out of the house and erected the layout to see if it all looked OK.

I'm starting to feel a little happier with the layouts presentation for its first exhibition. There is still a lot to do but thankfully it has been advertised as a work in progress. I'd better get back to making trees this evening...

Why I Started a Small School

Not me but my wife...

This is the big distraction that is taking up a lot of my wife's time at the moment. She has written a book about her struggle with the schooling system 20 years ago and the circumstances that led her down the path to start a small school. The book is being published tomorrow (27th March) as an ebook. For one day only on the publication date it is being offered at the give-away price of £1.99, thereafter it will be £5.99. If it sells well a printed version will be available later this year
 
More information can be found on the following links.

http://www.troubador.co.uk/book_info.asp?bookid=2191

https://www.facebook.com/rosalyn.spencer.5

http://www.amazon.co.uk

http://rosalynspencer.co.uk/

Her next book will be 'The Small School Years'. Hopefully there will be more days of distraction where I can take over the kitchen....

Flocking fun

I am starting to have some fun creating trees, bushes and ground cover.

At the weekend I'd quickly painted a back screen. Though it's a little rough, for the moment I think it does the trick. By now I was hoping to have had the layout erected in the garage so that it could be worked on as a whole. With the cold weather continuing this is not really feasible. So the task of a back screen was brought forward to reduce the damage to any scenic items while moving the boards around. Also, as the major design fault of this layout is that I've incorporated the end back screens on the fiddle yards boards, I'm giving thoughts about adding removable ends to each scenic board as protection when transporting it around the house or to an exhibition.

Start of the Cornish Hedge and fencing

I've started to install fencing along with different lengths and colours of static grass to the meadow at the back. At the front it is hoped that the long white sausage will eventually look like a Cornish hedge. The idea is that this hedge will run all along the front, but for the moment the jury is still out on this idea.

Test tree finished

Above is my first tree for many a year, in fact only my third attempt ever. My first couple of trees where constructed about 25 years ago on a long lost OO layout and can just be seen here. I think the above is a slight improvement. Not sure where it will be installed on the layout as it was only constructed as a test piece so it might not pass muster.

All authorised by the management

My missis is being a little treasure at the moment not only is she allowing me to work in the kitchen she's also allowing me to take over the dinning table for a few evenings. Mind you she has a big distraction on at the moment which I'll mention in my next post.

Buffer stop (part 4)

Thought I'd better attempt the buffer stop before starting on the ground cover around the siding and loop. Previous posts in this series are, Part 2 which explains my choice, and  Part 3 which has photographs of a buffer stop currently at Boscarne Junction. Below is another photograph of the buffer stop at Boscarne Junction which has helped in the construction of my model.

Boscarne Junction

I've been lucky in being lent a jig for bending rail by Clive from the local Area Group. So with Clive's rail bending jig to hand, I set about  bending lengths of rail to different angles to try and acheive the correct profile.

Think I've got the correcte angles?

Once I'd formed a bend that looked correct I soldered four rails together. Then after annealing the rail I made my first attempt to create the four 'S bent' rails in one go so that they would all be the same. In the first attempt I failed at getting the second 'return' bend the correct distance from the first, but lesson learned and the second attempt with fresh rails worked out just about right. The only problem was one rail did not follow the same profile as the other three. Looking at the one at Boscarne there does seem to be a little deformity in some of the rails forming the buffer stop. So I took the view that a little difference in the rail profiles could be put down to 'wear and tear'.

All rails bent ready to construct the buffer stop

Next, using another jig made by Clive, I create the joggle for the two uprights. This was quickly followed by creating a vertical right angled bend in the two running rails. I've resorted to using nickel silver rail for the running rail as all my attempts at bending steel rail through 90 degrees, annealed or not, ended up with broken or twisted rail. Nickel Silver rail seems to be a little more pliable.

Nearly finished

The buffer stop at Dunmere and those at Wenfordbridge all had wooden buffer beams so I've created one from 2mm ply, but I'm not sure if this is the correct thickness. I might add a thicker buffer beam later. I've got to admit that this has not been a very scientific approach. I didn't take any measurements of the buffer stop at Boscarne so I've cribbed approximate dimensions off a Mike's Models GW/LSWR buffer stop. For other dimensions I've applied the rule of thumb. Not very P4 I know, but I'm hoping that as long as it looks right it will be OK

Buffer stop installed on layout

There are a few cosmetic bits to apply, such as the bolt heads on the running and buffer rails, before painting/weathering. I'll then set about bedding it in with ballast, hardstanding, other ground cover, grass and weeds. Time will tell, but it might soon start to look the part...