During the past few weeks I have mainly been catching up on a backlog of other projects mainly loco work in various scales before starting work on the layout as such.
Keeping to a Midland or GSWR secondary line theme a dozen yards of Code 70 fb rail, wooden sleepers and spikes arrived, followed by a session of pretend cresoting using Carr's sleeper stain before reaslising an acrylic wood stain would be more effective and economic.
The sleepers are 1.8mm stripwood rather than ply which s
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Tyrconnel kits are marketed in the Alphagraphix catalogue and as well as the E class include Cork, Bandon & South Coast Railway 4-6-0Ts and several highly individual small Irish locomotives including a Fairburn 2-2-2T and two Timoleague and Courtmacsherry Tramway locos.
The E Class 0-6-0Ts were introduced between 1891 & 1894 by Martin Atcock & built in Britain by Kitson & Sharp Stewart. Originally numbered 106-117 by the MGW, they became 551-562 under t
The last few weeks have been all about the buildings at the ‘country’ end of the layout. The general scenario is that trains appear/disappear through a hole in the sky that is masked by a combination of a garage, tree and large, Georgian house. Immediately after is a level crossing, with signal box and cottage. Behind the signal box is an end terraced house and then come a couple of low relief buildings before the goods yard is reached. At the planning stage, it was envisaged that all these buil
It is a long time since I started this and not being a regular contributor, it occurred to me that to do a blog properly is to provide an on-going commentary on the project. Beat me round the head and I get there -eventually...
Anyway, with luck I will endeavour to do something here once a fortnight or so, which should mean I can usually report on something new. So, maybe I should backtrack a little.
My SLNCR project began towards the end of 2011. I'd long been tempted to do an Irish line, h
Nothing much to physically show at this stage I looked at the pros & cons of most Burma Road stations on Waiheke Island ferry shortly after Easter http://www.waiheke.co.nz/ I basically had a 10 minute job on the Island but it took most of the day to get there and back.
I have had a play with Templot tried some of the tutorials before having a go at Ballymoe on the Mayo Line before starting serious track planning.
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All I can say is that the programme takes a bit
I have finally started work on the new layout, maybe it was because of Patricks Day :cheers:maybe it was the end of the drought, anyway apart from listening to U Tube clips of Sharon Shannon most of Sunday was spent framing and setting up baseboards, I had already set up the board for the backscene at after Christmas.
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Having got so far I threw down some ply on top of the framing to get a feel for the first stage of the layout. I looked initially at Kiltimagh compact an
Still in primer, but I think I shall keep it in grey. Had to paint the smokebox, wish I hadn't! But I needed to know what it would look like. Details next :-) but I don't think I shall take it much further, apart from DCC.,,[attachment=:name]
An interesting couple of weeks converting the office to a guest room served as a spur to get things sorted out on the Narrow Gauge layout and move most of the work shop items out to the work shop strange that .
Some interesting things turned up long lost drill sets and other tools together with odd pieces of rolling stock.
The Narrow Gauge layout originally ran across the top of a computer desk and scanner printer.
Eye level is great in theory but it was difficult to work on and you
She"s coming on I posted the pictures before undercoating so its obvious what additions and what bits I removed. The complete front running plate and the belpair firebox top and the cab roof are from a Dapol Prairie tank any white parts are made from plasticard. I did think it would be easier than it has been to do this conversion. but thats always the way!!
I had great plans to strat building baseboards and finishing various modelling projects over the holidays but ended up painting windows and making a set of doors for a shed started over a year ago.
The modelling highlight was testing out some 21mm stock over the Christmas mainly adjusting Kadee couplers and getting the AEC railcar set running.
Having gotten over that bit of excitement there was a major move in shifting the 4mm dock layout to the shed and moving the N Scale American from
The fit out of the railway room/workshop is going well with most of the trackwork complete to the G Scale storage sidings and the 21mm test track.
The 21mm test track is basically a section of double track with a crossover and a short section of track with a reverse curve to detect buffer/gangway locking locos and bogie coaches.
The curved track varies between 2'6" & 3' and the crossover is an A5 (approx 3' radius) which would generally only be used where space is tight.
T
The building work is nearly complete I fitted a pair of windows, finished most of the internal capentry and painting the walls over a long weekend last week. There is still some external work to complete but at last we are getting into longer days drier weather.
5:37 pm 3X2 treated framing in place.
8:30 pm tracks 1&2 fixed in place 3&4 roughly in position.
The Irish layout hopefully will be U shaped with the track approximatley 4' above floor level to give a partial ey
Further work has been done on the GP40X from a previous blog Mainly detail wise.
Next up was adding wipers to the cab. Athearn RTR locos (and some Genesis locos too) don't with wipers. I added some very fine Cannon ones here, which are put beside a hair so you can see how fine they are!
Comparison with an Atlas loco. It's wipers seem very chunky in comparison. Maybe these Cannon ones could be nice fine replacements for 141s and 071s?
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After a prolonged period without a computer I cracked on with a couple of projects to keep me amused. One was the building of some Accurail covered hoppers. I bought a pack of three CNW hoppers in differing colours a few weeks back and nailed a couple together.
What you get
Added detail
So some Kadee replacement trucks were acquired and fitted, weights that had sheered loose glued back in, end detail bent out and roof walkway fixed. I had to remove some of the lad
This week was mainly spent preparing and lining the walls on two sides. While there was little sign of rot or insect attack I got a nasty shock when one side of a stud broke away while I was nailing in bridging or nogs to support the bottom edge of the plaster board. Treated the area around the affected stud for borer (similar to woodworm) but otherwise very little sign of attack. My basic reasoning is that if the garage has survived for 80 years it will probably last longer than a modern buildi
After previewing the two locomotives I'm working on in my last blog, I thought it would be a good idea to take you on the journey on one of the rebuilds from start to finish. I have been into trains for a long time, but it's only recently I have looked at detailing and rebuilds. It's also coincided in me developing an interest in American railroads, and thankfully it's a match made in heaven.
I've sung enough about the detail and quality of American models in the past, but another area in w
Despite a burst of activity in May and June I have done very little on the modelling front in recent months, not sure whether or what but things were just not conductive to modelling.
When we moved to Hamilton I initially concentrated on the garden railway to get something running but had no permanent home for my Irish Models.
We initially planned to build a new hobby room/studio as the garage appeared to be in poor condition and all the rooms in the house in use.
I set up a tempora
'You can never polish a poo', was the sage advice given to me one night by a mate as we discussed the important topic 'Does make-up on women really make much of a difference?' Anyway, I shoud've listened as now I have got myself caught up with some Athearn basket cases.
These came from a consignment of horrors liberated Bracken's castle in Raheny. Some clown decided to paint up some US locos in CIE colours with a yard brush and some white tape. A right state they were. I have already given
Another day, another pretty straightforward American boxcar kit! I was keen to give the new range of Atlas Trainman kits a go to see what the quality is like. Atlas make some of the nicest stuff on the market, American or otherwise and I certainly wouldn't hesitate in buying any of their products.
The 'Trainman' line is their budget range, a bit like Hornby Railroad, only erm, better! Locos get proper all wheel drive, rolling stock is as free running as anything this side of an 1980s Lima Ma
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