esngblog

It’s been showery and grey for a couple of days, so rapid progress on the railway.

Blue point controllers were bought in and were very easy to install, including the point frog switches.  The masking tape on the wiring will be replaced by hot glue when it’s all finalised.

Point control is entirely digital.  A piece of wire and a piece of dowel on the end!

Replacing the track at the end of the world.  I guess I need to build a fiddle yard.

I found the Dremel I bought cheap somewhere (it was still sitting on the loft stairs after 9 months or so) and it was a quick job to cut in Microtrains uncouplers, using a cutting disc.  Please ignore the melted sleepers!

And the first train runs on all tracks.  Usually this takes me years to do, not days.  There is something to be said for small layouts….

I resorted to cardboard to form curved corners to the backscene.  Last job of the evening.

And today I added the photographic backscene.  Not quite straight, but the borders will be hidden by the buildings on the layout.  The backscene could do with being a little higher, but this hardly shows from a normal viewing angle.  It won’t notice that the rails seem to drop into the river – really!

I suppose that I’ll have to start ballasting now….

And now for something completely different….

Having built some rolling stock, I thought I’d move back to complete the two USA N-club modules that I’d been building.  But I just haven’t been happy with them.  It’s been a strange, shrinking, progression – first 2.8m of N-club boards, then 2.om simplified, then 1.7m cut back further.  And now….

I had bought a Tim Horn laser-cut baseboard, 3′ x 1′ size a while back.  It suddenly occurred to me that the sidings from the N-club modules would exactly fit within the board.  Add a couple of feet of ‘fiddle stick’ and we have an American shunting plank.  I decided to give it a go, keeping the LV theme, as I have all the buildings for the layout constructed.  Trouble is, the smaller the layout gets, the happier I seem to be with it!

The Tim Horn board went together very well and quickly – completely recommended for an easy but quality baseboard.  Unfortunately, he has stopped taking orders for the next 3-4 months, as the demand during lockdown has been so great.

A short, vicious, session with a saw or two extracted the board with the trackwork and wiring intact.  I’m very happy with the track layout, so I didn’t want to relay it.  You can see that there have been one or two other layouts of the sidings!

I then cut holes in the baseboard to fit point motors direct to the original track board, and allow the wiring to be reused.  It also allows the main siding area to be raised by 1/2 inch or so above the board, and I will have a water feature along the front of the board.

And the last step last night, fit the old board into the new.  Next job, point control, reconnect the point frog wiring and a backscene.

And hopefully, it will look something like this when it’s completed. The buildings will no doubt get rearranged, but this gives the overall impression.

Hopefully more next time.  My only worry is that I seem to enjoy hacking existing railways about more than building new ones!  And of course, I do still have to work out what to do with the N-club modules….

Well, here’s the end results of the last few week’s modelling.  A GWR bullion van and two LMS horseboxes.  All could be better, but all look pretty good to me.  I’ve really enjoyed building the etched bogies and chassis, and it’s wonderful how the multiple layers of etched detail give the right appearance.  I think the main bonuses are that the etched items are narrower than standard ‘N’ items, and more to scale that way, and that thin bits, like the W-irons on the horseboxes are suitable thin.

I did make a mess of some of the brake gear, but that was more detail than the original kit had anyway!

Elsewhere, the two Gresley full brakes are waiting for the roof to be painted and fitted and some touching up of paintwork.  And new buffers for one, as I broke one fitting the corridor connections.  Brass buffers look better and are stronger, even if they may not be quite the right type.

All the vehicles need numbering and lettering – simple enough if tiny for BR.  I must order some Fox transfers, I guess.  And they need couplings.  I seriously considered fitting these vehicles with DG or B&B couplings, but having tried making them, it was too much like hard work.  I can solder up a 2mm chassis, but those little couplings defeated me.  I reluctantly decided to stick with the standard ‘N’ Arnold style coupling.  Dapol knuckles look a little better, but are very expensive.  The horse boxes can easily have couplings fitted, using those in the kits or Dapol conversion kits.  The Gresley’s have NEM pockets.  I thought that the bogies for the bullion van could prove difficult, but it turns out that the NGS coupling pockets – rejected as useless for my Warwells – will work very well here.  Moral of the story, never throw anything away.

I must try and complete the Gresley’s tomorrow, then look to something new.  Perhaps one of these?  A 1991 London promotional vehicle for the then new TravelCards.  That’s what I call a real-life kit-bash!

Well, I’d hoped to show and tell a completed GWR bullion van today.  I’ve built the bogies, but when I looked at the body, there was a line of glue on the body side below the roof, where I’d reinforced the soldered joint.  It would have been obvious if I’d left if with such a slab-sided prototype, so I got the paint stripper out and took the body back to brass.  And then rubbed down the offending area.  After a coat of primer today, it looks a whole lot better.

I have made progress with the other workbench projects.  The two LMS horsebox bodies are primed, and one chassis complete.  And I went back to the Gresley full brakes to add the final details.  I confess that I left off a little bit of the pipework, especially after I found that it had broken on the sprue.  There’s now a little touching up of the paintwork needed, and these will be complete.

I’m also thinking of the next project.  I think that it might be a couple of these, though I have some more NGS and other plastic kits to build – this time of rather simpler vans.

Anyone spot the potential donor body and chassis?

I can, however, offer the usual modelling challenges.  Model of Newcastle, anyone?

And this colour picture of the quayside at Wells-next-Sea, Norfolk, in the 1930’s just oozes character and demands to be built.  The prototype used horses for shunting, but surely a tram engine could be excused?

And here’s one for the cameo modeller.  One for the high street (thank you N Gauge Forum.)  I understand that the sign was quickly replaced!

And one for the lineside. Who will be the first to ‘model’ this?? (Thanks, Paul.)

Nude sunbather mistaken for dead body near railway line in Essex

Currently on the workbench….

An ex-GWR bullion van, dating back to Churchward’s days.  In reality, it only ran from Paddington to Bristol (I think).  It lasted long enough to be repainted from crimson to maroon, and was withdrawn in the mid-1960’s.  Not my modelling area, really, but I saw this brass kit at a show, and fell for it.  It’s an early brass etch, sold by Kemp Models, and shot down from a 4mm etch.  It only has doors on one side, perhaps for obvious reasons!

The camera is, of course, cruel, and especially shows where I’ve creased the tumblehome in the thin brass.  But it was fun to build and good soldering practice.  The bogies provided were terrible, so I’ve invested in these very nice etched ones.  All on nickel-silver – that is easier to solder as it conducts less heat.  All those layers of detail will be a challenge, and some will probably go on with superglue.

Hopefully, there’ll be a completed picture soon.