Happy New Year

I've been having a few Internet connection issues and been battling through an ISP support line for the last two days but eventually it looks like I'm back on line so may I wish everybody a belated Happy New Year.

My resolution for this year?............is just to enjoy the hobby. I'm just going to try and pace myself with doing something each week, whether it is one hour or more, with the aim of enjoying what I'm doing and gradually working towards building the Tredethy Wharf layout. No pressure, no time limit, just a bit of escapism.

Onwards and upwards.............

Walls and Hedges

I'm having to spend some time this Christmas on a wargaming project. Painting some walls and making some hedges. Realising that this is all good practice for the forthcoming layout I thought I could justify posting my efforts.

My wargaming partner painstakingly carved a number of masters out of wax for these walls and from these we created moulds. The walls are then cast using plaster and painted with a number of acrylic colours before the bases are flocked. I'm practicing taking photographs with my girlfriend's camera as my camera has finally given up. The photo above is a little bleached in colour, the walls are a little warmer, but gives a reasonable impression of the finish.

The hedges are simply made from kitchen scouring pads and flocked and stuck on card bases. Wargaming structures do have to be more robust than those seen on a railway layout as they are constantly handled. Which does make me think that this is not the total method I will be using for hedges on the layout but I may use something like this as a base for hedging.

More can be seen at http://miterritorials.co.uk/

GW Pannier Tank 4666 (1)

Well there it is, my first P4 loco and it works!!!!

The Ultrascale Bachmann Class 8750 'Pannier Tank' P4 wheel conversion pack has been sitting around for far too long. But today was the day I got to grips with it and 45 minutes after starting I had my first P4 loco. Placed on a short piece of P4 track and it ran just as well as it did as a OO loco.

Following Ultrascale's own conversion instructions for the Bachmann Pannier, I found the most difficult bit was removing the pickup plug. I was then extremely ham-fisted when plugging it back in and broke the plug socket off the circuit board (I didn't swear, honest). A quick repair with the soldering iron and all was well.

I decided to trim off the brake pull rods rather than file them down. I will refit them shortly. I also have some Bill Bedford coupling rods to solder up and fit. This will be done when some Carr's 188 solder arrives. All I then need to do is apply some balance weights to the wheels followed by general detailing and weathering of the Bachmann model.

4666 along with 4694 were allocated to Wadebridge shed (72F) in early 1960 to take over the duties performed by the SR Class O2's.

Happy Christmas

Happy Christmas t0 all.

Many thanks for following this meander and leaving any comments,

it's all much appreciated.

Yan.

Groundwork

Just been thinking through how I'm going to construct the baseboards. Last time I built a baseboard for a layout it was in the days of 2" x 1" timber frame topped with chipboard. I keep reading about how important well laid track is for smooth running (which does make sense). So I figure that a flat, rigid baseboard that (hopefully) will not twist or warp has to be a basic requirement.

The above diagram is my first thought, nothing new as it's all been done before.

Cross beams constructed from plywood and softwood creating a sandwich. The track bed will be supported by risers and also fixed to the 'Back facia contour board' to create an 'L girder'. The 'Front scenic support board' will be fixed straight onto the cross beams and also to the 'Front facia contour board' again forming an 'L girder'. I am hoping that the combination of the cross beams and 'L girders' front and back with give stiffness. I may cut some circular holes in the 'Scenic support board' and cross beams to reduce a little of the weight. Polystyrene packing will be used on top of the 'Scenic support board' and 'Track support board' to form the base for scenic material.

I would like to have the Backscreen curved around the corners from the back onto the ends. At the moment I have a bit of a blank in how to do this. Using hardboard for the backscreen is a thought and curving this between the plywood 'Backscreen support board' and the 'End board'. Problem is it will be a very tight curve and until I get some hardboard I won't know if that will work. May just use some stiff card pasted onto the 'Backscreen support board' and 'End board' with a plywood former at the top to help create the curve.

If anyone has any suggestions or can see pitfalls please comment.

Unbalanced picture

I've been looking at the plan of Tredethy Wharf again and I agree with Trainspotter-USA that the layout is a little unbalanced. With buildings on the right and open country on the left the weight is on the right, never the less I think it should be OK.

The line at this point in the valley does pass though open country before entering a wooded area again. I've discounted a line side hut with some platelayers in attendance as I'm not sure there were any huts on this line. There were no signal boxes or signals on this line either. There was an interesting watering point at Pancarrow Woods further down the valley, stage right, between Helland and Boscarne. Not sure I could justify moving this further up the valley. I know it's my universe but I'm also trying to keep it reasonably close to reality. I'm struggling to find anything else to put at the left other than suggesting the line is entering a wood.

There are some interesting trees that feature in photographs on this line. I've not yet identified type of trees but my hope is that I can create a couple of them and plant them mid left to help balance the picture a little.

Tornado saves the day

I thought I must give this a mention, this is such a brilliant story. Steam comes to the rescue and proves that it is a more reliable means of traction in the current cold conditions.

The text below was posted on the SEmG forum:

"Tornado rescues Southern commuters last night at Victoria
Posted by: "rog"
Tue Dec 22, 2009 11:12 am (PST)

Hello there and hope you are all well.

We were out with Tornado yesterday as you may know on the SR Kent coast lines, we were the ONLY train around in the area almost all day !

Saw a few Javelins, parked up, and a poorly Southeastern train being doubled headed by 2 x class 73's !
We had a slow run in the morning but in the evening as there were no electric trains around we had a good sprint!

When we got back to a snowy Victoria for the dinner run at 1745 we had about 100 commuters who were stranded at Victoria and couldn't get home to Kent on SE and SR trains. They came over to platform 2 to see that we were stopping at Bromley,Swanley and Maidstone, and as we were not full and took them on free of charge. They were very grateful and many said they never even normally get a seat !

Such fun, and some very happy converts to steam, albeit not a SR one but we all had a hoot.

Merry Xmas
Rog"

The BBC have the story at, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/8428097.stm

Now that is what I call a Christmas special.......... What more an you say but fantastic.