Adap(ol)tations

There are a few things in the railway modelling scene which defy their age, and some of them are in the old Kitmaster range of injection moulded plastic kits.

Despite its longevity I reckon the footbridge kit is still up there as one of the user-friendly and adaptable you can get.

I first knew it when it was branded as part of the Airfix range, and these days it's under the Dapol banner, and we had one on our large OO gauge layout in the loft.

It was the obvious choice for me to use at the station on the 'test track' because I needed something that wasn't standard sized and could be kit-bashed to link platforms at different heights on the standard and narrow gauge.

As luck would have it I found one in a bargain bucket at the Kyle MRC show in Troon on Saturday where the Greenock club were exhibiting their small Banffshire terminus layout Inverboyndie.

The first change I made was to cut out one of the sections on the upper set of stairs, because if you mount it on a platform the deck of the bridge is so high it would give the passengers vertigo!

The second, more involved, alteration, was to insert an extra segment into the deck to stretch it to the length I needed.

This classic kit has always come with the option of a plain sheet section in the middle, which could be used as an advertising hoarding, but I've never been convinced that it looks very prototypical (although  I'm sure somebody will prove me wrong) so I prefer to have another cross-brace section.

With no spare parts available in the kit I rooted about in my diminishing stock of Evergreen strip and found some stuff that was roughly the same dimensions, and knocked up something that could be used as a master to cast pieces to be inserted between the two halves.

Being slightly impatient, and keen to get the job finished in a day, I made up some RTV rubber with a generous dosage of catalyst which meant the mould was set within a couple of hours and I could quickly cast my two copies with the last dregs of resin I have available.

With that done the first section of the bridge is complete.  Now I need to buy a second kit (probably at full price on the web) to complete the second half stretching across to the NG tracks.

Limited Clearance

There's not much to report on the narrow gauge front today.

I'm busily casting a batch of the full range of resin wagon kits for Light Railway Stores - which is going to take at least the rest of this week - and Himself is fully occupied servicing all the locos and ploughing his way through a long stretch of wheel cleaning on all the rolling stock ahead of Model Rail Scotland in a few weeks time.

In the meantime, it was my son's birthday at the weekend and among his presents were a couple of Metcalfe arched bridges which are part of the plan for the 'test track' so I've been having a little play with them to see if we can make them fit where we'd intended them to go.

OO in a confined space certainly challenges the kinematic envelope, and to position these bridges on one of the 2nd radius curves - spanning three standard gauge tracks and the narrow gauge circuit - inevitably mean's Ffestiniog-style clearances against the side walls.

There's a respectable amount of daylight when the Mark 1's pass through but the real test will be when I borrow a Mark 3 from Himself and see whether that will squeeze through...

Home For Retired Rolling Stock

Having powered up the narrow gauge test track at the weekend I soon found I exhausted the entertainment value in running a light engine around a circuit, or pushing wagons with no couplings (yet).

The obvious solution was to raid the collection of rolling stock at Himself's place which is not usually required as part of our exhibition fleet.

A number of years ago I sold off most of the redundant carriage stock (which had been replaced by improved models) to help fund the purchase of the last pair of NGG16 kits from Backwoods Miniatures as the business was wound up. 

However, I was careful to keep hold of models which will allow us to run Dduallt at its nominal date of 1988.

I only need a few items to make up a token train for the 'test track' while I build up my own stock for it.

So in the picture above you can see, from left to right:

* Our first model of bogie brake 10 shown in the all-green livery in which it was first restored to service, from the excellent Dundas kit.

* Carriage 16 in as per 1988 red livery which I scratch built in styrene donkeys years ago.  This has been replaced in the exhibition fleet by a brass Worsley body in Col. Stephens era green and red.

* Carriage 17, from the Langley brass kit. Our very first bowsider  (in fact, our first brass carriage) showing it in 1988 'Mountain Prince' livery, but with all the panelling detail which is not strictly correct.

* Bug Box 3 is from a Chris Veitch brass kit. It's a lovely wee model, but it's always been out of era for our layouts in it's all-over red livery.  (Would look lovely behind the new green Earl of Merioneth though...)

* Jerry M is a Chivers white metal kit running on an unaltered Ibertren chassis.   At the time we built it the idea was it could masquerade as Lilla for those who couldn't tell the difference. Since the arrival of the Robex print for Lilla it has been made redundant.

Also out of shot is our first Dundas model of quarryman's carriage 8, with the wood panelling smoothed over with filler to show it as it was in 1988 with its plywood-faced bodysides.

It's nice to see them getting a run again, anyway.

It Really IS A Test Track

I've had this weekend marked in the diary since Christmas as an opportunity to make some significant progress on the electrics on the 'test track.'

I'm pleased to report that in a full-day session yesterday Himself and I managed to install and wire up all but one of the remaining point motors on the standard gauge side, and were prevented from completing that only by the need for an unforeseen additional switch.

We got that done so efficiently that there was time to get some power into the narrow gauge circuit and sidings.

I've always used inverted commas when referring to the test track, because I fully expect it to morph into more of a home layout project in the fullness of time.

However, I would like to place on record that one of the first things I did when it was wired up was to test propel the well wagon around the circuit, as until now I have not yet been able to do any more than push it by hand along a short section of straight track.

And the test track immediately proved its worth because I discovered the bottom edge of the frames below the axle boxes on one bogie needed a little attention from the file when they fouled on the points.

Review Of The Year - Part 4

And so to the final three months of 2021 as we look back on what Himself and I got up to...

October

In the first of these review posts I remarked on how there had been little progress with my prototype for a model of the FR's infrastructure well wagon.

I decided not to wait any longer for a bespoke etched brass part for the durbar plate deck and had a go at seeing if I could cast it in resin instead. 

First, I cast copies of the small piece of brass I had in stock, then placed them side by side to make a large cast sheet which I cut and shaped into pieces to fit onto the wagon, and used them as masters for a final set of castings.

Round about this time Himself was adding more finishing details to the Dinas shunter.

And in a surprise development, he announced the purchase of another Worsley Works body kit for Vale of Ffestiniog, because he'd decided to make a model in its current two-tone green livery, which will look more at home on Bron Hebog than the original National Power livery on our first model.

November

A few weeks later, and number 9 had been painted and was posed for its first pictures on the layout.
 

By this time painting was underway on the Hudson toast rack carriages which featured prominently in the previous blog post covering the summer months.

And the building and painting of Ashbury 21 was completed, too.

December

By the year end, along with apparently the majority of 009 modellers (and a lot of OO ones, too) we were taking delivery of the exquisite Bachmann Double Fairlie models, the existence of which had only just been revealed to a shocked ready-to-run market.

Our choice of a 1960s Earl of Merioneth was completely out of keeping for either Dduallt or Bron Hebog, but the way the model railway market operates these days with limited production runs it's a case of 'you snooze, you lose', so we knew this was going to be our best opportunity to get one at a 'reasonable' price, and I've always had a fascination with this engine, having never had the chance to see it running.

My childhood memories of the FR also revolve around green engines and red carriages, so it's a nice piece of nostalgia for me.

We were intrigued to find out how the a plastic RTR model - complete with coreless motor, flywheels, DCC chip and sound would compare against our kit-built, Mashima-powered, brass Backwoods Fairlies, and filmed the trials for your entertainment.

A pretty conclusive result......so don't expect to see our Backwoods models being retired any time soon.

I rounded off the year by laying the narrow gauge side of the 'test track' project at home.

The early weeks of 2022 will, hopefully, see us getting this wired up and ready to start, ahem, 'testing' things on....

Best wishes to everyone who drops by this blog for the new modelling year. 

Review Of The Year - Part 3

Here we are into the second half of our annual review, and the pace of projects slowed down a little over the summer months, as I suspect it does for most of us.

July

We were fortunate to be able to get hold of one of the last of the batch of 009 Society Hudson toast rack kits, which we made up to represent number 42 on the WHHR.
 

In this picture it is positioned between one of our Dundas 37 / 38 pair and my original scratch built 39 which I must have made in the mid-90s.

Himself got on very fast with the RT models Baguley Drewry shunter kit prototype we obtained from RT Models, having swapped the etch brass fly cranks for some cast brass ones we had spare.

August

I was working away at my version of the toast rack to represent the FR's replica 39, which I was making using a basic resin casting for the body side and then using styrene angle and brass wire to complete.

 

Himself had the idea of using a spare Lynton and Barnstaple bogie van kit to make a freelance FR-style track cleaning wagon.

This has a sprung pad beneath it which wipes the rail heads, and the whole wagon is weighed down with lead, to the extent that it needs to have a locomotive at each end of it to be pushed around the layout.

At my house the 'test track' project had reached the track laying stage.

September

By now now the toast rack 39 carriage had reached the stage where it was almost ready to have a roof added and be sent for painting.

In order to better represent the Dinas shunter, number 9, I produced a styrene master for some alternative bonnet doors and grills which I turned into a casting.

And after a saga which went on for more than a year we finally got hold of etches to make a model of the Ashbury replica 21, which Himself soldered together in short order.

I'll bring the story up to date with a final instalment to be posted on Hogmanay.

Review Of The Year - Part 2

Picking up on our look back at the year, and a lot of what we were up to in the spring revolved around the carriage fleet.

 

April

A long-term ambition had been to get round to buying and assembling a Chris Veitch brass kit for the FR 'sentry' brake van, which makes a very distinctive model full of Victorian character.

Trying our best to keep up with the carriage works in Wales we also set making a miniature version of the Welsh Highland Heritage Railway's new Pickering brake replica.

This project had a false start because, at first, I purchased the Dundas brass kit.

Once Himself put the body together he found there were a few inaccuracies in the dimensions, but more importantly from our point of view, the design made it difficult to paint and to fit an interior.

So we put that one on ice and got hold of the alternative body kit from Worsley Works.

If you read the first part of the Review you'll have seen a picture of the early stages of my commission to scratch build a model of Carnforth buffet car 114.

This was a snap I took just before it was sent off to its new home.

May

A crucial part of the Pickering project was to find a way to depict the fake lamp pots on the roof.

I had a number of goes at scratch building one which could be copied with resin casting.

Himself got round to finishing off the paint job on the 3mm scale ex-GWR 2-8-0 tank engines he'd been building for the Engineering Consultant.

It was just as well we kept in his good books, unknown to anyone, he was about to become a very important person in the top left hand corner of Wales.

In this month I also resolved that the time had come to make a model of the WHR's diesel shunter at Dinas.

The post about my intentions resulted in an offer to try out one of the prototype body kits from RT Models....

June

The paint job on the Pickering brake was one of the more straightforward ones so we didn't have long to wait for a picture of it posed ready for service on Bron Hebog.

With the Pickering built it left the Hudson toast rack carriage as one of the obvious missing vehicles from our WHHR sets.

We managed to get hold of one of the 009 Society kits before they sold out, but I was also keen to have a second model of the FR replica 39 in its current green livery, so the only option left was to scratch build.

This was a fortunate move because it transpired that Winson Engineering wasn't capable of making an exact copy of the original carriage, and there are some fundamental differences between the 1990s version and the original carriages.

My plan was to make a master for the carriage sides in styrene and cast a copy of it - the one in the picture shows me starting to embellish it with extra details in brass and styrene.

And June was also the month when, after much planning, we began installing the baseboard for a permanent dual gauge test track, my first home layout since I was a teenager.

We came up with an 8ft x 5ft board which can be folded into a frame on the wall when the space in the study is required for something more boring, such as *spoiler alert* self-isolating from Covid-19.....

The Final Track Pin

I have completed the track laying on the narrow gauge side of the 'test track' layout.

The final section was a couple of sidings into the shed area, for which I had to raid Himself's stash of joiners for the handful I was missing.

It's strange to think that it's exactly a year since my son received his first proper 'train set' for Christmas and now I have a permanent layout in my home for the first time in more than thirty years.

Its *ahem* just for testing, of course, but I've found there are a surprising number things that require testing on a regular basis, and it's a burden I am willing to bear....

The locomotive in the pictures is the only one I have to hand to pose a couple of shots that emphasis the diminutive size of the smallest 009 locos, even though they are to the same scale as the standard gauge ones.

It was purchases a few months ago to use as a donor for its Minitrains F&C outside frame chassis.

I have a idea for a couple of locomotives for the 'test track' using the aforementioned chassis and a 3D printed body designed in the Alps - I will tease you with that and you can try and guess what I have in mind.

Big Meets Small

Tracklaying on the narrow gauge side of the 'test track' has continued apace this weekend, and already I'm getting a glimpse of the 'Blaenau Central' effect I was after.

I 've read many articles about the very creative track plans people have come up with for small spaces, but this is unashamedly a traditional oval, planned to function as a 'train set' for my youngest, partially justified by having somewhere to test the running of my NG models, which until now have always had to be dispatched to Himself for proving runs.

So on the NG side we're going to have a simple island platform with a long turnback / storage siding (at the bottom end of the picture) and at the other end a point leading off into a separate shed area alongside the standard gauge steam MPD. 

At the top right, just after the track swings past the goods yard weigh house, there is another point into a short transfer siding where the standard gauge coal wagons can discharge their load into NG wagons waiting below.

My first experience laying 009 track has been fun.

The fishplate joiners for the smaller code rail are much more fiddly to handle that the Code 100 stuff - and even I've had to squint a little at times - but I found I soon got used to it, and some test passes with the half-built Worsley bowsider on Dundas FR bogies suggests all is well so far.

Diversionary Tactics

Something that was proven during the early stages of the Covid pandemic is what marvellous therapy making model railways is to take your mind off all the worry about what might, or might not, be coming down the tracks towards us.

Perhaps its no coincidence, given the current situation with the Omicron variant, that I have decided to start some serious planning, and track laying, on the narrow gauge part of the 'test track'.

I'd held off on this until we'd made some solid progress with the electrics on the standard gauge layout.

Now that around half the point motors are fitted and wired up it seems like the right time to decide on where the two foot tracks will go.

I'm really keen to emphasise the different in size between standard and narrow gauge, which is very apparent when they're in close proximity, just like the effect you get at the headshunt at Blaenau Ffestiniog station

Pegging Out

I'm always amused by how often common household objects take on a second life as handy modelling tools.

Last night I found myself raiding the washing line to use the pegs to hold together parts of the cardboard Metcalfe Models platform kit I was making up for my son's 00 side of the 'test track'.

It wasn't just the pegs.

I later stole the brass weights from the olde worlde scales in the kitchen to help keep the strengthening pieces in position while the glue dried.

These weights are regularly employed when I am resin casting to keep the clear plastic in place on top of the open mould and give the casting a nice, smooth back.

There isn't any more narrow gauge news to pass on this weekend.

Himself became separated from his magnifying visor during the week, which he left at my house after another wiring session on the test track, so small scale fiddly work was out of the question until I was able to return it to him.

A Big Relief

Wiring and control panel work wasn't the only thing happening on the 'test track' at the weekend.

While Himself was playing around with the soldering iron I set to work on another Metcalfe kit, this time for the main building of the station.

This one required quite a degree of kit-bashing because it is not to be positioned on the main part of the layout - it's too tall - but built in half relief and placed in the gap between the edge of the layout and the wall.

Given the depth of the gap it's not so much half-relief as three-quarters-relief.

When the layout is folded away this building - and half the platform - will remain in place sitting on top of the shelf which the layout rests on.  

With the layout down you should hardly notice the gap.

Well, that's the theory, anyway.

Adapting the kit was fun but made more challenging by the way the building is made up of four blocks, and each one had to be thinned by the same amount to make sure that when they were fixed together all the roof parts still connected as they should.

The front looks quite normal, as it should, and the rear - which doesn't have the windows installed because no one will ever see it - does quite a convincing turn as an abandoned post-Beeching shell.

Since these pictures were taken it's been completed with the roof and all the trimmings and I'm pretty pleased with the result.

 

We Have Control

Most of yesterday was spent installing this beauty.

Yes, you're right, it is probably overkill for a 'test track' but I did say we were doing this properly!

Himself spent the last week building one of his by now standard control panels which we also have on Dduallt and Bron Hebog.

This one features a colour-coded track layout (in Dymo tape) which shows isolating sections, and includes triple-pole section switches for 'cab control' on the main lines, simple switches for isolating sections in sidings, centre-spring switches for point control and push button route selection for the three-way points in the depots.

Two panel mount Gaugemaster controllers will be placed in the white space on either side in due course.

Wiring this lot up, however, could take some time, especially because it's being designed to be removable, which is complicating things a lot.

The narrow gauge circuit, when it's built, will be controlled from a smaller separate panel.

Big Shed - Little Shed

The previous post was all about me building a Metcalfe loco shed kit for the 'test track' project in the modelling den.

This particular kit comes with an additional, smaller, building in a similar style which is billed as a workshop.

It occurred to me it was ripe for conversion into a wee shed for a narrow gauge loco on the 009 part of the layout - sorry - 'test track'  (almost got caught out there...).

The first decision was which of the two end walls to cut into to form the shed opening.

As printed, the workshop comes with two doors, one and the side and the other in one of the ends.

I decided that for a shed a door at the side made more sense than an end-on one, so this was where I made the cut.

The other big consideration is how to maintain the building's strength?

As designed, this comes from a solid floor which the four walls are folded around and glued to, but that wasn't an option if I wanted to use it as a running shed.

So what I did was cut out most of the middle section of the floor and add strengthening right angle sections from some of the spare card in the kit which, I hope, will keep the walls straight.

As the first picture shows, it's just about the perfect size for a small NG tank engine - no Garratts in here!

Consistency Is Key

For the last couple of modelling sessions I've been working on one of the key buildings for the test track - the standard gauge steam locomotive shed.

You probably recognised it straight away as a Melcalfe kit, and it may seem strange that someone who's made something of a fetish of scratch building should be taking the easy way out.

Primarily it's because time is of the essence.

I want to get this 'test track' done before my son gets fed up of waiting or loses interest in model railways.

Also, at lot of the stock he'll be running is getting on for 40 years-old, and some of these Metcalfe kits are arguably of a higher standard of detail!

And the final reason is that I have always believed that consistency - or uniformity, if you like - is one of the most important factors in how a layout looks.

The Metcalfe range has the advantage that we can quickly (and inexpensively) populate the layout with the full range of railway structures, and create a townscape around it, and they'll blend together nicely.

So often I've seen layouts at exhibitions - mostly ones built by clubs rather than individuals - where you'll see a some stunning stock or structures placed alongside other stuff that is nowhere near the same standard, and it sticks out like a sore thumb and spoils the effect.

On the other hand you can get a layout where there's nothing particularly outstanding, but everything is of a good, consistent standard, and the whole thing looks so much better for it.

(For those wondering, the engine shed isn't finished yet, but I won't be adding the smoke stacks, because they will come perilously close to the high limit when the layout is folded away.)

Learning Curves

Due to popular demand - well, a couple of comments, anyway - I thought I would post an update on the 'test track' project.

The standard gauge part is now almost complete as far as tracklaying is concerned, but there is no juice connected to any of it yet.

Despite being to all intents and purposes a 'train set' with the design of the tracks we've tried to make it to a reasonably high standard using flexitrack and medium/long radius, electrofrog points, and despite appearances none of the curves are any tighter than set track radius 2 at any point.

It's been a great learning curve for me because it's the first time I've laid track.

We began with a day-long session with Himself as the tutor, when we got most of the station area completed, and I've been taking it on from there solo, with occasional remote assistance by phone message - remind me how many insulated joiners this point needs again??

It's been a very enjoyable, and completely absorbing, process, although I can't pretend that it's always gone right first time.

Quite often on the large curves I've stood back to admire my handiwork, or pushed a carriage along to check clearances, only to decide that I could do better and pull it up and try again.

As I have written previously, this will be a dual gauge set up, and although the narrow gauge element was included for the purposes of having a test track at home, I've not been able to resist attempting to justify its existence.

Therefore, at one end of the goods yard there is a raised siding where I intend to create a coal transhipment point from standard to narrow gauge.

Image in Peter Johnson's Vale of Rheidol book published by Pen and Sword

I envisage something which is a blend of the arrangements on the Vale of Rheidol (above) but including chutes in the style of Minffordd Yard.

Picture by Rob Fisher, on Fesitpedia.org.uk

Quite what narrow gauge rolling stock will need to be 'tested' is as yet unclear.

Adventures In The Spare Room

Many months ago I mentioned the idea of a home test track and at last it is coming to fruition.

The pretext is to provide something semi-permanent for the youngest generation to mess around with the antique collection of OO models, which have been faithfully hoarded by Himself since the family moved house and switched to narrow gauge modelling over three decades ago.

The location is my spare room / study, which occupies a rather narrow extension on the side of the house and is only five and a half foot wide.

We're also designing it to fold away into a storage frame, because I doubt I could have got 'planning permission' for something which took up half the room on a full-time basis.

Over the course of a couple of days Himself and I have knocked together an 8 x 5 baseboard using a sheet of thick ply - with some cunning slicing and dicing -and a bundle of 2 x 1 lengths.

We've yet to tackle the really difficult bit which is getting it hung on the wall!

I wouldn't normally recommend a flat baseboard ,but it is only intended as a glorified train set, rather than a layout.

Having put in all this effort, of course, I'm demanding something back and have negotiated running powers for an element of narrow gauge to be included on the track plan.

Officially this is purely for the purposes of testing rolling stock under construction at the other end of the room.

However, I would be lying if I denied I'm not a little bit excited at the prospect of having a layout of some kind in the house for the first time since I was a teenager....