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Combwich West Station , as a train from Bridgwater arrives. |
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The morning service has just departed Cannington Halt and is passing the timber yard Sidings. |
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Combwich West Level crossing |
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Combwich West Station , as a train from Bridgwater arrives. |
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The morning service has just departed Cannington Halt and is passing the timber yard Sidings. |
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Combwich West Level crossing |
A personal quickie I worked on last week for me between commercial jobs, all on a 3x1 plank. The inspiration is the Wisbech and Upwell Tramway, a mostly unfenced railway that ran next to, or actually along the road in deepest Cambridgeshire through to the 1960’s. Give it a Google.
The wonderful town buildings were a lucky secondhand find, they just had to be used, they were very much the catalyst for this speedy project. The buildings are at least at least 30 years old and once lived on a much bigger layout which has since been broken up. Sadly I have no further information to hand. If you know of the layout or the builder, please comment in the comments section.
The windmill is an Airfix/Dapol kit knocked up in the spring, in reality such a structure would have fallen out of use a good century before the railway came. The rail served shed with door is a chopped up Bachmann colliery wash-house modified with pitch roof and doors. Its use is a mystery, maybe a paintshop for pumpkins or storage for pedant’s ruck sacks. The other shed, another ready to plonk thing that had been gathering dust.
Track is PECO, ballasted with sieved grit from our local common. The cheapo quickie cobbles were created using the empty shell of a ballpoint pen pressed in to Das clay. All in all around 18 hours work, this project being more an assembly of existing bits than a true build.
It will link in to other modules in due course to allow through running. At some stage it will live in an illuminated diorama case to fit it with my other layouts. Track has been aligned so it can connect to my other layout Brew Street. I’ve Brew Street booked in to the Rochdale Expo In April 2019, so will probaby add this module.
Click on photos above and below for a bigger view...
A little customer commission I’m just finishing off. Scenic footprint just 4x1 feet (fiddle yard extra on left hand side still to be built). It depicts a Colonel Stephens-ish branch line terminus. A bit of a squeeze, but managed to get a run around loop in just long enough for two passenger carriages.
The motley selection buildings are a selection of well known kits and a grubbed up Bachmann wooden engine shed. Track is good old fashioned copper clad which allowed me to fit everything to the small footprint, not be restricted by ready made point geometry. The diorama case is Tim Horn laser kit. For the first time I tried out LED lighting, a mix of warm and cool strips. The backscene my own creation printed at the local printers.
Around 85 hours, working on and off, beginning first week of last month. I’ve wanted to build something like this for some time, having a passion for olde worlde run down middle of nowhere.
Click on the photos for bigger views you can really zoom in to!
Passing the loading gauge on Polbrook Gurney Colliery. I used code 55 rail here for that lightweight industrial look. Filing the point switch blades takes moments with such fine profile rail.
Note one of my ‘budget’ yard lamps. Bbq skewer, bent nail with a slice of plastic tube. 5 mins work. Bamboo blinds make an inexpensive source of fine bamboo otherwise, the lean-to was made from such. Scale OO 1/76.
Click on the above photo for a bigger view.
Model railway commission update:
I picked up the photo printed backscene a short while ago (from AJ Signs in Guildford).
It is intentionally over sized to allow me to trim 3 or 4 cm off the base so it looks right from just above track level. It is simply inserted in to the diorama case temporarily for this photo.
Scenic work will hide the transition from 2D to 3D. The backscene is printed on to matt laminated sticky backed plastic, which in turn will be stuck in to card to allow for curved corners.
I hope to complete this little layout very shortly. More updates soon.
Click for a bigger view....
Click on the photo to enlarge
There are many ways to weather models, here’s a Dapol (Airfix) water tower/tank kit (a bargain that can be found for around 6 or 7 ££££) after a blast of a few primers.
I usually start with the black and mist over the other shades. The yellow filler primer is fairly new to me, you can use it for lightly misting over Model trees along with the red for an early autumn look too.
Here’s the result after 2 or 3 minutes. Further work can be performed with washes and dry brushing if desired.
These paints are very toxic, so always work outside if you can and consider a breathing mask. Posh people will have a spray booth.
I have to acknowledge the late Allan Downes for this aerosol paint tip.
Some progress with a little Colonel Stephens style branch line terminus commission. Next to go in will be the backscene which is currently at the printers and some brighter than normal LED lighting which arrived a short while ago. I’ll then be able to perform the scenic work which will transform things dramatically. The little holes along the front now have inset tiny toggle switches for electric point operation. I’ll post more updates soon. Scale 1/76, this space is 4 x 1 feet.
Click on the photo for a bigger view
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Progress with my current commission. A OO Gauge (1/76) branch line terminus in a foot print of 4 x 1 feet. Exit left to fiddle yard.
I’m using traditional copper clad point construction here, one of the joys being that a track plan can be drawn to fit the space. Not a straight piece of track here for greater visual appeal.
Once the track is constructed, the foamcore base will be glued on to the plywood baseboard- a Tim Horn diorama case/baseboard. Laying track inside a diorama case would require the skills of a contortionist - this gets around that.
Finally finished the tiniest layout I’ve ever built. Just 14x4 inches without fiddle yard. Designed to live in a small plastic storage box. Working in such a small scale and footprint definitely sharpens up my act, the camera getting a lot closer than the eye! This was a commission, the owner supplying the baseboard with a length of track pinned down - my job was to decorate it to make it look ‘West Country’. I’ll miss this one when it goes on Monday. Could such a small layout (if it can be called that) be a new sub genre #nanolayout ? Rule: 2 square feet?
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An N gauge 'nano layout' - just awaits a photo backscene. Click to enlarge |
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Kyle of Lochalsh in February - what a lovely backscene! Click to enlarge |
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Gateshead Fuel Shed. Click to enlarge |
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Adams Radial tank - in early Bluebell Railway guise. Click to enlarge |
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Hazelbank - a Scottish Borderland beauty. Click to enlarge |
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Great Coles Wood Halt |
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Pottendorf |
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Brakevan rides today! |
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The layout is fully scenic, this end can be used as a fiddle yard. |
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Nice an tidy - just 80 x 30cm! There's scope for projects like this to be extended |
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The works train stops at the works halt to pick up Roger Sprocket - a tiresome man, who for all of his career has worked in the MOD film unit labs. His particular job is to manually check and count the number of sprocket holes that run down either side of 100 ft and 400 ft rolls 35mm motion picture film. He has a passing interest in railways, but his real passion is to hang around at bus stations wearing nothing but a dirty gabardine rain coat whilst shouting out in his irritating nasal
voice "hellllloooo layyyyydeees".
Meet Roger Sprocket and many others no doubt, at Brew Street & Fountain Colliery's first outing - Saturday 4 November, 2017 Wycrail
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Toy trains don't have to be an expensive hobby, disposable coffee stirrer are a great source of cheap timber, or possibly free if you have a naughty streak (I'll leave that bit to your imagination, I don't want a global tax avoiding coffee shop knocking on my door).
So, a couple of hours messing about with coffee stirrers, PVA glue and static grass - out pops a rather rustic works halt, all rather Tollesbury Light Railway maybe?
I might add a little fence/barrier along the nearest edge to stop those entering the 2018 Darwin Awards from exiting the train, flying across the rather narrow platform and breaking themselves on the track nearest.
Operationally this will add a little more scope between the coal and timber (pit props with Scandinian pine) workings to and from Fountain Colliery on the next module down. Looking at that train, the brake van would have to have done a lot of work, the engine being steam brake only.
Click on the photos above and below for a bigger view...
As always, click on the fuzzy photo above for a bigger view - a really big view in fact because I'm too lazy to resize the original file.
I've had this little loco sitting in a box for some time, one of the reasons being that I tend to model the former Western Region of British Railways. This delightful little engine was very much an animal of the former Great Eastern Railway which served Essex, Suffolk and Norfolk.
Brew Street's recent extension has sort of given it an East Anglian backwater feel, so ideal for such a little loco which to my eyes has a very high cute factor, rather like that of a dopey puppy with big eyes. The heavily tweeked Metcalfe Factory building in the background of the above photo with the railway running through it, is a little like the entrance to Snape Wharf in Suffolk too.
I've not weathered up a loco for a while, having been building layouts, so this made a nice little Sunday afternoon project. I also added scale couplings, a crew, real coal and some of the iron mongery used by the hard working fireman. The particular loco was a goods only engine, hence 3 links rather than the more common screw type.
The result here took around 4 hours sitting outside in the late summer/early autumn sun with a nice cold beer.
I brush weather these days, preferring the slightly more organic look it gives over airbrush, feeling that a lot of airbrushed weathering can look very similar and sterile. I've never been one to follow the pack though, preferring to make my own look rather than generic - for good or bad.
I'm very keen on interior matt emulsion match pots, if only to wind up the overly serious element of the hobby who insist on bespoke pigments hand made by 129 year old hobbits in some hidden cave in a very remote part of Wales (only available through a tiny classified ad in the MRJ). I digress, but do check out those miserable baby poo browns and manic depressive greys - do people really decorate with those? Being an old fart, I'm still a great fan Humbrol or Revell enamel - again, various dull and depressing colours and 'metal coat' for that oily sheen - a must have, learnt from the military kids. Everything is finally finished off with a spray of Tamiya Matt - another must have.
I'm taking Brew Street and Fountain Colliery (joined at the hip, East Anglia meets Forest of Dean) to Wycrail on Saturday 4th of November should anybody wish to poke some fun at me and the trainsets.