Tullygrainey

A couple of uses for a Tunnock's chocolate wafer wrapper...

The 7th Marquess of Londonderry is largely remembered, and not fondly, for his sympathies toward Nazi Germany (not uncommon among members of his class at the time who regarded it as a defence against the spread of communism) but it's generally forgotten that as Northern Ireland's first Minister of Education, he attempted to establish secular non-denominational education across the Province. He was thwarted by opposition from the established churches and lack of support from the Prime Minister James Craig and so he resigned to concentrate on running his collieries. How might things have been different if he'd succeeded.

What size of rivet did you use Paul? The Railtec 4mm range includes 12 different sizes of rivet head diameter from scale 1/4inch to 2inches. Might a smaller size improve things?

Great to see these developmental stages. Methodical, neat, tidy and well thought through. Great work. All my layouts usually look like the dog's dinner at this stage.

Intrigued to know more about this new supplier of 7mm wheels seeking Slater's share of the market

Adjusting the sleeper spacing makes a real difference, visually. Tedious work I'd say but well worth it. Looks so much better.

Thanks John, that's very useful to know. The one and only time I tried shorting a wheel with a bit of brass wire, I cut right through the wheel boss with the piercing saw in my heavy-handed enthusiasm!

I like the look of this John. I've been contemplating trying the 'live axle' approach if only to avoid p/bronze wire pickups which can be such a pain to make and maintain. I wasn't sure how best to go about shorting out wheels. Are your spiders designed to be just an interference fit on the axle and is that enough to ensure electrical contact or do you solder them to the axle? I got some spiders not unlike yours from Scale Link but haven't tried them yet. They've got square holes and are designed for their own Markit-like wheels but I reckon the hole could be reamed out to fit a standard 1/8in axle so they could be used with Gibson wheels. How will you mount the bogie on your 4-4-0? Alan

Neat idea. Is there a piano somewhere without a lid?

Love that last shot through the doors

Very nice work. You've made a great job of blending the landscaping into the back scene. It's difficult to spot the join. Alan

Eh?

I do wonder sometimes why we do it but then... when it works, I remember why.

I started this trio of BCDR vans ages ago then lost interest in them for a while. Bar couplings, they're just about finished now. Resin bodies. Chassis made using bits from Alan Gibson kits giving one fixed and one rocking axle. Gibson wheels. W-irons fabricated from MJT etches. Springs and axle boxes are white metal castings, also from MJT.

A lot of modelling challenges arrived together on that 4-6-2T chassis David - bogies, pony trucks, six-coupled wheels, outside frames and cranks! Plenty of variables to keep the problem-solving gene exercised. I hope you've nailed them all now.

In a previous post you mentioned looking for seats for your 6 wheel coaches Paul. I got these from Slater's 4mm range recently. Enough in one packet for 12 bench seats.

I think solder before paint might be the better option. In my experience, the edge to edge nature of the joins makes it difficult to do neatly, so needing an element of fibreglass brush work to tidy up afterwards. Trying to avoid damaging an already applied paint job would make that job even harder. But.... from the evidence above, your soldering is very tidy so maybe it's not a problem. Good luck with it, whatever order you decide on.

That is frankly astonishing progress for a couple of days of work. Looking good Paul. There seems to be no end of ways to arrange the underpinnings of 6 wheel coach kits to make them get round curves without falling off. I think I've just about worked out from your photos how this one works but it seems quite complicated. I'll watch this with interest. I have 3 Bill Bedford BCDR 6 wheeler kits calling to me from the drawer.

KiIlmore's official photographer @Patrick Davey came by the other day and tried out his new wide angle lens. It was a cold day and the stationmaster has just lit fires in all the grates. In other news, a grounded van has appeared in the goods yard.

Subtle weathering but convincingly grubby. Those are perfect Patrick.

That is really delicate work Paul and as far as I can see, you're making a great job of it, modifications included. The soldering looks fine to me! Good luck with the rest of the build. I'll watch this one with interest.

A wagon for Kilmore. This is the Weighbridge Fitters' van, apparently a one-off with no number. Desmond Coakham speculated that it was built on the chassis of a ballast brake ordered to be broken up in 1908. I used plasticard for the body with some brass strapping from an Alan Gibson etch. The sides apparently differed from one another but the two photos I was able to find were both of the same side so I guessed the layout of the hidden side based on the description in Desmond Coakhams' book. (The Belfast and County Down Railway, Colourpoint, 2010) The chassis uses an MJT compensation etch to create one fixed and one rocking axle mounted on a brass floor. These will do the work of carrying the wheels behind the scene. Brake details came variously from Gibson and Brassmasters wagon chassis etches. All of this then hides behind the outside W irons typical of BCDR rolling stock. They are cosmetic in this model and are superglued to the sole bars. Along with spring units, they are pre-production 3D printed items from Enda Byrne (ckprints.ie) which I got the opportunity to try out (many thanks to Gareth Brennan, Kieran Lagan and Enda for moving this along). They're finely printed and suit this project well. I used tissue paper to texture the roof, flooding it with liquid poly to bond it to the plastic card. The skylight is also a guesstimate since the available photos don't show it well. Next, paint, transfers and weathering. Some couplings, then it's just about ready to go. There are a number of errors (should have a window in each end for one thing) which I'm not going to lose sleep over.

Ah… I’d been wondering who this new bloke Colonel was

Not a lot happening at the Kilmore goods shed today.

Excellent! I really like that last photo. A real sense of being in the landscape, standing lineside.