See Combwich at Wycrail Saturday 6 Nov 2010

Templecombe's Midland 4F No. 44417 is captured running around the 1.15pm service from Evercreech Junction at Combwich. Notice the disused narrow gauge tramway embedded into the quay.

nevard_100307_combwich_IMG_6437_web, originally uploaded by nevardmedia.

*Updated, Sat 2 Oct*

All aboard the 2.15pm Service from Bleakhouse Road to Combwich! A unique Somerset and Dorset train service will operate at this years Wycrail exhibition on Saturday 6th November.

The 37th annual model railway exhibition organised by the High Wycombe and District Model Railway Society, on Saturday 6th November is being held at:

John Hampden Grammar School
Marlow Hill
High Wycombe
Bucks HP11 1SZ

Open 10am till 5pm

This year will see two well known Somerset & Dorset Joint Railway layouts come together under the same roof for the very first time! After several years of eager anticipation and discussion, the High Wycombe and District Model Railway Society have created a rare opportunity for this overdue pairing of layouts to at last become reality - but only for one day! On the day, the highlight will be the anticipated passing of passenger and goods trains between Bleakhouse Road - Tim Maddocks' (CK) fine portrayal of the Somerset Levels and Combwich - Chris Nevard's exhibition shy, but web famous, layout based on the banks of the River Parrett.

Over 20 high quality and inspirational model railway layouts will be attending, of both British and continental outline and in a wide range of scales and gauges including N, 3mm, 00, H0, EM, P4, 0 and narrow gauges.

As well as the aforementioned, layouts exhibiting are: :

Oxendale Junction,
Stony Lane Depot,
Ashcombe,
Purbeck ,
East Street Wharf,
Neham Goods,
Hayesden,
Flockburgh,
Nugatory Basin,
Wiggenhall Road Depot,
Mytchett Green Tramway,
Egypt Brewery,
Gas Lane,
Keyhaven Quay (some of you may know that one),
Schloss Adler,
Smrzovka,
Gamle Carlsberg,
Mason's Bridge yard,
Pine Bluff's & Ceda Falls,
Prospect Valley.

Full trade support will be present ranging from tools, kits, electronic components, R-T-R models to books and also includes the Hornby Hobbies roadshow, the RMweb & the Hornby Magazine stands.

A free vintage bus service is once again being operated from the Railway Station and Town Centre to John Hampden Grammar School. The bus service will depart from Wycombe Railway Station on the hour between 10:00 and 16:00. Return journeys will depart John Hampden Grammar School every hour between 10:30 and 15:30 with the final two journeys departing at 16:25 and 17:05 immediately after the show closes.

Some useful links!

• Combwich
• Wycrail
• RM Web exhibition thread
• Flockburgh

Brentford Waste Terminal

Brentford Waste Terminal, originally uploaded by nevardmedia.

An aerial view of Brentford Waste Terminal looking towards the centre of London. The waste after processing gets shipped off in the yellow containers by rail to a landfill site at Appleford, Oxfordshire. The photograph here is a montage of 6 frames.

• Follow this link for a bigger view

Rull Britannia

MJ Bladet, Summer 2010 www.mj-bladet.no/

MJ Bladet the Norwegian equivalent of the UK's Model Rail mag dropped onto the doormat.

Rather than the Norwegian content you'd expect, this issue is mainly dedicated to foreign climes, in this case us Brits. Inside there are many iconic layouts that will be familiar to regular readers of the UK press and exhibition circuit.

I'm delighted of course that my Catcott Burtle is on the cover of this issue, complete with a feature on the little trainset too - all in Norwegian of course!

I queried 'RULL BRITANNIA' thinking that heaven forbid maybe it was a spelling mistake,  it is however Norwegian humour and a play on words, 'RULL' being Norwegian for 'ROLL'.....

• MJ Bladet

Another day out with the lads

nevard_100903_spotters_lower-bas_DSC_9358_web, originally uploaded by nevardmedia.

Maybe it should be called Last of the Summer Wine instead? Anyway, for once the sun shone for most of the day, and we even got some heritage power too...

http://nevardmedia.fotopic.net/c1882359.html

Reflection

The railway modelling side at Nevard Towers has been rather quiet over the last few weeks, not due to a lack of interest but quite the opposite, more due to magazine shoots and and attempt to enjoy the autumn styled summer we've been enduring.

So, the address the railway modelling aspect of this BLOG, here's a chance to see some of the best UK model making around from various clubs and highly talented individuals captured for the printed page over the last year or two. If you've seen this collection before, it's just had a major update with older images removed and new ones added.

PORTFOLIO

Evening Panorama

A couple of evenings ago this was my view of Brent Knoll seen from 'that hotel' many will have seen high up on the hill overlooking the M5 at Webbington in Somerset. Click HERE for a bigger and better experience!

If you're a frequent listener to traffic reports, this stretch over motorway between Highbridge and Weston super Mare is often at a standstill or a sea of Hungarian trucks and caravans. Given the choice, I imagine for most supping a beer with such view would win over being stuck in the car with screaming kids or moaning backseat drivers as yet another articulated lorry slows the whole motorway down as its selfish driver tries to overtake another lorry at a 0.00000000001 MPH advantage.

What's this go to do with trains? Nothing really other than it uses the technique I'll be writing about in due course for producing a photographic back drop for a model railway, and oh yes, the Highbridge branch of the beloved S&DJR used to run from left to right just beyond the hill in the distance.

Cockney Rubble

nevard_100810_moreton_66188_DSC_8939_web, originally uploaded by nevardmedia.

Until I took this snap earlier in the week it had never dawned on me that with the construction of the 2012 Olympic Village at Bow in East London that there might not be enough room for all the waste mud and rubble generated during the building process.

So now not only has the Cockney accent moved to most parts of the southeast and beyond, but now also some Cockney East End rubble - this London overspill in the wagons above being destined for the very well-spoken middle class Oxfordshire!

If you like wagon loads for some odd reason, I've posted a few more here.

Getting Soaked on a Railway Bridge

nevard_100810_didcot-nth-jct_motleycrew_DSC_8837_web, originally uploaded by nevardmedia.

A week of two back a date was chosen to catch up with some old pals for a nerdy day out snapping trains in the Thames Valley. Of course in this 'nanny state day and age' such innocent activity is often mistakingly seen akin to terrorism, so going on mass makes one less susceptible to attracting the wrong kind of attention from over zealous public and jobsworths. Above is the dangerous looking motley crew, I hasten to say before we all got a good soaking!

With hindsight we would have chosen a better day, for we all gave up just after lunchtimes due ot the rubbish wet weather. Still, the joys of digital capture allow one to record scenes in the most inclement weather!

Here are the snaps;
Mine...
http://nevardmedia.fotopic.net/c1882359_1.html
Tony's...
http://www.tony4170.fotopic.net/c1882701.html
Chris'
Coming soon....

Stone by Stone

nevard_100804_cornish-engine_IMG_7535_02_web, originally uploaded by nevardmedia.

Rather than clad the Cornish Engine currently on the workbench as part of my Mendip Colliery project (posed with a bit of CGI in the form of Priddy in Somerset very near to the caver's Mecca of Swildon's Hole in fact) in embossed stone effect sheets, I wanted a more rustic random effect. There's only one way to do this, and that is to carve each stone individually using a sharp object into a surface that will take such abuse - which in this case is Humbrol Air Clay.

Obviously the colour is way off, it being the native red colour of the clay - this will be addressed in due course with paints and weathering. Some of the clay crumbled a little - something that I'm quite pleased because it's part of the effect I'm after, and something that could not be done with embossed plastic. The random cracking is also a useful 'feature' of Air Clay, to further the rustic effect.

To date I've only done this one wall leaving the rest of the structure to be done another day - infact something which is ideal for passing time by when supposedly doing something else like watching dull TV...

Wild Grass is TALL!

nevard_100729_priddy_IMG_7522_web, originally uploaded by nevardmedia.

Many railway modellers will go to enth degree to ensure that their flanges are to the correct scale, yet they still model their landscape with grass no taller than what might be seen on a top of a golf course. I'm not quite sure why this is, I hazzard a guess it's because many of them are so flange obsessed they don't have time to look at the real world or are so short sighted due to all that flange gawping they literally cannot see it due to damaged eyesight.

This snap; another taken in the delightful Somerset village of Priddy high up in the Mendips shows tall summer grasses backlit by the evening sun, the height of which must be getting on for 5 or so feet tall (that's 20mm in 1/76th scale land!!). Of course, those flangists would never model anything so tall because you never see such in real life do you?

Please note; not all flangists are totally ignorant (some of them are quite decent and I even have the odd one or two as good friends), just there are enough of the other ones out there for me to have a harmless poke at as well as giving me an excuse to write some drivel to introduce the above photo.

Neolithic Priddy

nevard_100731_priddy_DSC_8757_web, originally uploaded by nevardmedia.

Over the weekend we took our tent down to Priddy high up in the Mendip Hills. On one of our walks to various watering holes we climbed past the bronze age Ashen Hill Barrows a dash under 1000 feet up a mile or so north of Priddy.

This is the result 2 RAW transfers of the same image combined, one optimised for the sky and the other for the foreground. In the old days we'd have shot in black and white and used a red filter, or if in colour used one of those dreaded Kokin graduated filters and maybe a polarzing filter to separate the blue sky from the clouds.

Cracking on with the Cornish Pump

nevard_100728_cornish-engine_IMG_7508_web, originally uploaded by nevardmedia.

This afternoon it was a nice sunny one, so I moved out into the garden under the apple tree and made a start with the Cornish Pumping Engine for 'Mendip Colliery'.

Rather than build around a resin or metal 'ready to plant' structure as before, a basic inner has been made up from 4mm foam board which is a fabulous material to quickly put together a sturdy base using PVA as an adhesive.

Stone effect will be scribed onto a layer of Air Clay rather than use embossed plastic overlays. This will allow finer stone detailing around the curved apertures and corners. The slightly uneven surface will also help to create the rustic effect I'm after. Tests earlier today with this worked rather well.

Battle of the Blue Pullmans

nevard_bluepullmn_DSC_5843c_web, originally uploaded by nevardmedia.

On Sunday 26 July 2010, Bachmann at their press day made the unexpected announcement that they hope to be producing the Blue Pullman after several years of enthusiasts hankering on internet forums and various web & magazine published 'wants lists'. For OO fans, until now unless you were a very keen scratchbuilder the only option would have been to pick up a the 45 year old Triang model which can command high rates for clean examples.

Today will no doubt throw water on Olivias Trains recent Heljan commission; but from an enthusiast's point of view competition might be good in that it will keep prices to a realistic level for the British enthusiast - should both manufacterers go ahead which I hope they do.

I wonder too if Hornby will jump on the bandwagon with a re-release of the 1960's Triang release seen above under their budget but highly regarded Railroad range?

Whatever the outcome, this is great news for the enthusiast that has been pestering manufacturers for one these attractive trains, let's just hope now that they open their wallets and buy one!

Watch the speculation unfold on these forums below....

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php/topic/19133-bachmann-announce-blue-pullman/

http://www.modelrailforum.com/forums/index.php?s=e407e1f40db710773511a27580cdd5d4&showtopic=14024

Cornish Pump Engine

nevard_100716_cornish-engine_COLOUR_web, originally uploaded by nevardmedia.

Cornish engines were steam powered beam pumping engines and mainly used to stop mines from filling up with water. Also in the early days they were sometimes used to winch miners and their bounty in and out of the pit. The design developed strangely enough in Cornwall and was exported all around the world. Click here for find out more.

To try and keep that unmodernised rustic feel with my Mendip Colliery project (formerly Coal & Steam) I've been doodling about putting together an idea based on a mirror image of the Cornish Engine that used to be at Kilmersdon Colliery near Radstock. The side here is a bit of a mystery, however the web and mining books as always have many images to get inspiration from. It's likely that I'll incorporate a nice chimney to the rear of the buildings - that has yet to be illustrated. Construction will be mixed media of foam board for the inner shell, embossed stone plastic sheet and paper. Whilst a brief precise of the contruction will be show here, it will form part of a greater feature for the printed page.

Proper Engine - well, according to Mr Jones....

nevard_100709_pirbright_46115_DSC_8253_web, originally uploaded by nevardmedia.

On Friday 9 July 2010, 43 years to the day after the last BR steam services ended on the former BR Southern Region, 46115 'Scots Guardsman' is captured powering along the down slow at Pirbright with the Dorset Coast Express.

Click on the pic above, then select 'all sizes' for a decent sized view.....

Going Around in Circles

090711_fleur_loco_IMG_5077_web, originally uploaded by nevardmedia.

In the overcrowded UK with our often small houses it's very rare that a whole room can be taken over to run a nice roundy-roundy model railway.

One of the problems this presents is that we are not able to run-in our latest purchases very easily, a compact end-to-end portable branchline or industrial complex not being ideal for such unless one wishes to go totally mad shuttling the loco back and forth.

The answer might be to go back to those innocent childhood years of the trainset on the carpet in the form of a circle of track to allow ones pride and joy to run around for an hour or two in either direction to get the mechanism bedded in.

The only problem you might encounter will be the cat because they don't quite hold the same esteem for the finer detail we all expect on models these days. For shortly after this snap was take, Fleur took a swipe at the little locomotive – thwack! That's one of the reason for the blanket, firstly to avoid the paint being scratched as it hits the floor, and secondly to keep the noise level down on these fangled laminate floors.

Sir Lamiel

30777 'Sir Lamiel' powers through Egham with the Swanage Belle on Saturday 3 July 2010.


Moments before and after this photo was taken the sun went behind the clouds leaving this very lucky 30 second window of opprtunity - something that steam snappers will know is very rare!
 
Click on the image to enlarge.....

Dining Room Table Mock-Up

nevard_100706_pithead-8F_IMG_7410_web, originally uploaded by nevardmedia.

A mock up on the dining room table with 'Coal & Steam' buldings so far completed. In case you think this project is further down the road that I've let on, the living room wall has been replaced with a blurry sky from the Bridport area using Photoshop to help me gauge where I'm going with this project.

Since the previous update, I've addressed the brick areas on the shaft buildings at the rear, they now blend in alot better with the stonework and look far more natural. I'll post an update of that aspect in due course.

The plan is to to feature this project in far greater detail on the printed page in due course, this will be with stage by stage illustrations backed up with my often offbeat but simple and very speedy techniques.
Want to see a bigger version of the snap above? If yes, click on it and then follow the 'all sizes' option.

Progress!

nevard_100704_pithead_IMG_7389_web, originally uploaded by nevardmedia.

Mendip/North Somerset style scratch built pit head building based around a Bachmann Scenecraft pit head - nothing like a good day taking in the sun as well as some model making to get good progress!

Model Making in the Garden

nevard_100703_pithead_IMG_7372_web, originally uploaded by nevardmedia.

I love this time of year, because I can sit under our apple tree to do some model making. The other joy is that the odd tiny bits of detritus that would need to be hoovered up end up on the lawn, these then disappear when I cut it in a day or two.

The building here is styled an amalgam of various North Somerset style pit head buildings, many of which were made up and extended from various materials - ideal for using up all those odds and ends of embossed plastic sheet.

The pit head is Bachmann Scenecraft with some of the toy like corrugated iron (well I think that's what it's supposed to be) removed with a hacksaw and then incorporated into the scratchbuilt building here.

If you want a closer view, click on the image above, then select the 'all sizes' option.....

Stone Cladding

nevard_100702_windinh-house_IMG_7350_web, originally uploaded by nevardmedia.

Stone cladding was a popular move in the 1960's and 1970's with the lower middle classes who wanted to make their semi or terrace look more 'upmarket' or individual. It's one of those ghastly fads that went hand in hand with owning a beige coloured Austin Allegro and drinking Blue Nunn.

My reason is simply that I had this Bachmann Scenecraft 44-026 Hampton Heath Colliery Winding House in brick, and a desire to make it look more in keeping with the North Somerset with its distinctive white Lias limestone.


Of course, matching up the overlays isn't the easiest of tasks, with that in mind the time factor is probably about the same as building from scratch! Clever people will spot the badly matched stones where they meet at the corners - remedy will be to add a downpipe just in the right spot to hide my botched model making!

In addition to cladding the building with some stone effect sheets I had left over from Old Quarry Wharf's edge, I also decided to hide the rather clumsy slates with some corrugated effect sheeting.

This project is more 'because it can be done' and it could be useful to those who already own such buildings and want to have a bash at elevating their ready-to-plant buildings to something better than the Jones' next door.

A Day with Alan Downes

nevard_100615_downes-box_DSC_7983_web, originally uploaded by nevardmedia.

A couple of weeks ago I had the privilege of visiting the legendary model maker Alan Downes at his country seat in the wilds of Lincolnshire to photograph his latest top secret creation. Whilst I cannot tell you any more about that, I do have to say that Alan is great company with many tales to tell of his modelling career which frequently brushed with the rich, famous and even royalty - many of who had and have model railways.

One of the funniest stories was of a visit to a trading estate in Slough to visit some chap called 'Anderson' who was planning a TV series with puppets and space ships, Alan dismissing the chap as barking mad and thought no more about it. A year or two later his daughter was watching Thunderbirds on TV and the coin dropped.....

Being a professional model maker, Alan has many short cuts to allow speedy progress of large structures in record time, he also dismisses fine detail, he says that you simply so not need it if you get everything else right. I bet very few admirers of his work ever notice that none of his windows are open, or that they have no curtains because everything else is so 'right'.

What has all this got to do with the signal box above? Well, just as I finished repacking the car for my departure south, Alan appeared with the signal box and said "this is for you, do something useful with it". The model is O gauge and as a 4mm scale modellier I have yet to move in this direction until I have alittle more space, so for the time in an attempt to 'do something useful' I set this shot up in the garden with a bit of OO track close to the camera to fool perspective and create this little scenario. I have to say I rather like O gauge.......mmmmm...

Impatient Crossing Keeper

Bath's 'Black 8' No. 48660 is captured here powering through Catcott Burtle in the late summer of 1963 with a perishables train made up mainly ex LNER stock.

Note the photographer's Austin A35 Countryman parked on the concrete bridge which crosses over the remains of the old Glastonbury Canal.

The crossing keeper it would appear was rather impatient  to put the signal back at danger even though the rear of the train had yet to pass it.

Click on the image to enlarge!

Stanier 8F 2-8-0

Right  - click to enlarge...

 

Tuesday afternoon was an ideal one to sit in the garden and head towards a completion of the Hornby 8F that's been on the workbench for a couple of weeks.

In the end I decided to abandon the Brassmasters detail kit, delivery for me was going to take far too long from ordering, and on top of the fact that they claim only to check email once a week and don't take online payments.

I firmly believe that colouring is by far the most important aspect for creating realism, and the great thing about that is that you just need nothing clever, just a bit of spare time, paint and maybe some weathering powders.

To get the result here, the new scratchbuilt brass steps were blasted with a bit of Halfords matt black, and then HMRS Pressfix tranfers were applied to the engine represent 48660 which was shedded at Bath Green Park in the early 1960's.

Next; a quick blast of Railmatch matt varnish to protect the tranfers and to make a key for the weathering. This is very very simple; in one of the cat bowls I mixed up some Cuprinol satin black, water, a splat of washing up liquid and a dash of Carrs' rust coloured weathering powder. Now the scary bit, the fowl mix was sploshed all over the engine and then dabbed off with kitchen tissue. A large dry decorator's brush was then used to work the remaining paint into the groves and recesses, this being done until the mixture dries which takes about 2 minutes on a hot summer's day.


Carrs rusty and pale grey coloured powders were further rubbed on with a stiff brush and then again sealed with another dusting of Railmatch Aerosol Matt Varnish. Bingo.

There's is still scope for further weathering like lime streaks and so on, but now I have a good smeared Christmas Pudding type of base after seeing and touching real working steam in Poland back in the aerly 1990's first hand. Often people aim for a 'Barry Scrapyard' effect which is wrong for a working but dirty engine which should be oily and sticky rather than dusty and arrid.

Next to add:

• More localised weathering
• New pony truck wheels
• Firebox number plate