esngblog

Well, the vapour-free impact glue dropped through the door, and I was able to get going on the railway again.  I had already put together the roof sections for the bridges under the station.  Just a simple girder representation from plasticard, but rather satisfying to make.

I then wired up all the LED street lamps for the tunnels.  Although nominally 12V (with resistors fitted), I tried connecting all eight of them to a simple 4.5V battery pack.  This seems to work fine, and I hope that the LEDs will last longer than the railway!

The walls are brick embossed plasticard.  They’ve been given a whitewashed finish (probably dating from the blitz blackout), then weathered a bit.  Road is embossed card cobblestones.  A bit large – more like granite setts, but they look better than a flat paper finish.  Pavements are again embossed plasticard, weathered a bit with some individual stones picked out.  And in the foreground, note the gulley and manhole covers from Severn Models.  A tiny detail, but they look good, and are thin enough to sit on top of the road.

Road vehicles added.  I took the Oxford bus a lorry apart and added a driver.  Fiddly, but worth doing.

And here’s the final effect.

Last step was to fix the upper baseboard on top.  I now have no excuse for starting the trackwork!  I’ve worked out where and how to fix the point motors in place, and am also considering where to put droppers onto the track.  Using code 40 track is more tricky than Peco, as you can’t get away with the fishplates to carry current between track, and I’m aiming to pre-solder all the wires, to avoid melting the point bases.  Not easy…..

A little snow in Earlswood meant a lot of modelling time…..

I built the simple box that will represent the concourse end of the platforms.  Easy to uncouple a locomotive, too, if it’s not under an overall roof.  The boards are aligned with pattern-makers dowels.  I was expecting to make a mess of these, and was pleasantly surprised how easy it was to get correct alignment.  (Well, within 0.5mm, that can be easily packed up under the track over the joint.  I still have to fit the latches to hold the boards together.

Finally, a little furniture moving lined up my bookcases to support the railway when at home.  There was also a lot of sorting out and sweeping of the floor – sawdust seems to get everywhere!  I then knocked up some supports for the boards, to allow for the differing heights, and also provide useful storage space underneath the layout.  The right hand bookcase is one of a pair owned by my parents, and that I grew up with.  Now very useful for storing trains and railway books.  The taxi on the layout has arrived a little early….

And just to finish off, here’s a gem of a picture of the first electric train to reach Redhill – in 1932.  Note the safe working practices on the telegraph pole in the background.

Yesterday, I put together a ‘kit’ of parts for the second baseboard.  It should appear online in a day or five – not much progress will be made over the weekend with FA Cup football on TV and internet!

However, the Bartlett household was a bit like this over the last few days.  Fortunately, the ‘Old Lady’ is pretty tolerant of my purchases….

Here’s most of the haul.  Bits and pieces including cobblestones and Plastikard to get things moving again on the Minories.  Also the bits to join baseboards, so I think the next job will be to build the other boards.  Did I mention that Amazon is bringing me a couple of narrow shelve runners for the traverser…..

And did I mention this beauty.  You can keep your class 92’s!  The US switching line is a most useful test track….

Perhaps Maxine will order one of these….

One parcel included a copy of the latest Model Railway Journal (as WH Smiths, Redhill didn’t have a copy last week when I visited) and a book.  Big shout out for the Titfield Thunderbolt Bookshop.  Perhaps not the widest choice of railway books, but I rate any shop highly that includes a hand-written note with the purchase.  Full marks to Simon.

And the book was this one.  Great little volume, full of photos of those everyday items – like the signs and signposts shown – that we think will always be there, but have largely gone from the British Isles.

And I’m wondering about a new layout……

Better not, but what a model that would be!