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David Holman

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Blog Entries posted by David Holman

  1. David Holman

    Field Trip

    By David Holman,

    No modelling for a while [new kitchen taking up much time] but have just returned from a few days in the West of Ireland, so this is a brief account of my wife & I's travels.
    Flew into Shannon, courtesy of Mr O'Leary, and then hired a car and motored first to Galway and then west to Clifden. Was delighted to find the station buildings intact and still serving the community over 70 years since closure. Are the tracks in the car park original? If only the line was still open, am sure would make a fabulous tourist route. Foyles Hotel in town a very decent overnight stop. Next day took in the next branch, from Westport to Achill, where again was pleased to see the station buildings still in use. A long drive took us all the way to Bundoran for a couple of nights. Called in at Sligo's enormous fortress of a station to see the arrival of a Dublin train & discovered the truncated remains of the harbour branch.
    Found Bundoran an odd little town in that few businesses seem to face the fine beach & instead stare at each other across a rather austere Main Street. Fitzgeralds Hotel an exception, with a rather decent restaurant. Didn't see anything of the station, but did have a fine day touring.
    First went north, via Donegal town [fine base for touring methinks and a lovely centre]. railway museum was shut, but Finntown Railway was open. We'd rushed a bit to get there for the 1100 train, but needn't have worried. Despite being the only passengers, a crew of 4 [two in the diesel, two in the railcar] ran us up the lake and back.
  2. David Holman

    Internet searches

    By David Holman,

    Deep joy today as have at last got a copy of Neil Sprinks History of the SLNCR. And very interesting it is too.
    Many thanks to the web and especially Buffers Books, where I at last tracked down a copy in very good condition for just a tenner. Not bad considering it was published in 1980.
    However, in my internet searches on the Sligo and now getting some odd results, in that they increasingly bring up pictures and stuff that I have produced myself on this site! Most strange was finding the maps I drew of my Arigna Town branch, as a basis for the layout. Totally fictitious, but now masquerading as reality. Art imitating life or what?
    Anyway, quite Possible that the maps will be re-drawn anyway as the Rinks book is making me consider the proposal for a line south from Dromahair and through Drumkeeran. The orientation of the station will then be reversed, which will better suit my back scenes. At exhibitions, it is nice when folk think you are modelling at actual place, but when the Web starts to suggest fact to your fiction, who am I to argue...
  3. David Holman
    It was a fine weekend at the Wood Green Animal Centre, venue for the St Neots show. A different sort of hall to the usual school hall/sports centre usually favoured for model shows. Beaten earth floor for one - though it was carpeted, if a little uneven. A big space - am guessing around 200 feet long and 100 wide, so plenty of room for lots of big layouts. Star of the show was Fencehouses, a 2mm fine scale layout, bigger than many 0 gauge ones. It exploits the scenic potential of the scale, yet still manages to major of detail and quality, with lots of scratch built stock. Deservedly won both trophies and well worth seeking out at future shows.
    Arigna Town generally worked well. The few issues I put down largely to the [very] different environment from home. My workshop is dry & centrally heated, so a 6.15am start on Saturday morning meant overnight in the car [when there was a frost]. Pretty damned cold in the hall too at first, then the heating got going & it soon became quite hot & very humid. I blame the fiddle yard turntable fouling the baseboard edge on this, so have been filing the edges down a bit to try and cure this in future. Three of the steam locos operated without a crew for the whole weekend. They had come loose on the journey up there & it was not possible to refix till I got home.
    What I did have was an excellent crew on Saturday - Mike84C has driven the real thing [9Fs!] for a living, while long time friend and former Chatham Club member Ryk was in the Royal Engineers [did Falklands & South Georgia among many adventures] but is now a vicar & we know how well they go with railways! Many thanks to both.
    Doing it all again this weekend at Alexandra Palace. BRM are doing a photo shoot for a future article, so will be busy this week making sure everything is looking as good as possible.
  4. David Holman

    SLNCR Railbus

    By David Holman,

    The heat of summer is never a good time for modelling - certainly not in my workshop anyway! However did manage to make some wire 'tree skeletons' in the garden shade [a good way of spending a quiet hour or two] & since things have cooled down a bit, have been working on my Railbus 2A.
    Photos show progress thus far. The model is scratchbuilt, but using the Alphagraphix card kit as a starting point. The chassis is nickel silver, with a small Mashima motor & gearbox from Branchlines. Found one or two castings from the scrapbox to use for front springs, while the wheels [slaters] will be embellished with a slice taken from the tyres of a Corgi Classis road bus to represent the patent ones on the prototype.
    The body is all plastic, apart from the roof, which is sanded balsa. Buses and diesels are much more complex things than steam locos when it comes to modelling, because of all the subtle curves and a lack of fittings too. However, did find a suitable headlight in the scrapbox. Techniques used were those from David Jenkinson's book 'Coach Building Made Easy', plus a lot of head scratching on how to make the seats, fit the glazing, roof and rear passenger doorway.
    The little trailer is a bit of a compromise, as W irons and axles boxes of a suitable size are not readily available for some reason [!]. Thinking about it, S scale ones would probably be a best fit, but again used some spare castings - LSWR type, but very cut down. Have fitted pickups to help spread the electrical contact, not least because neither vehicle has any compensation.
    Paintwork is currently Halfords grey primer, which looks surprisingly effective in black and white, but am hoping that Ford 'Laurel Green' will be a reasonable match. Indeed, the paintshop beckons tomorrow, after which final fitting out [handrails, door handles, starting handle, drawbar & wiring] will take place, so may have further pics by next week.[attachment=:name]
  5. David Holman

    Exhibiting

    By David Holman,

    I may be wrong, but looking at the ‘My Layout’ pages, most contributors have what might be called ‘home layouts’ – in other words, non-portable ones. Well done the Wexford crew though - a nice surprise in the latest RM.
    Arigna Town was designed from the outset to be a portable, exhibition layout [as indeed have all my previous efforts] and, aside from the obvious issues of needing to be taken apart & put together again for shows, there are various other aspects, such as transport and presentation, which need to be considered. Therefore, thought it might be worth sharing my experiences of taking layouts to shows over the last 27 years. That last number is a bit scary, but it was 1987 that I first tried exhibiting, with a little EM gauge layout at the Chatham Show.
    Arigna Town is made up of 4 identical baseboards, each a nominal 120cm x 60cm. Curved and/or irregular boards may be ideal for some, particularly in portraying a specific prototype, but for me, baseboard size & shape is all about transportation and storage and this size is about the biggest I can manage on my own.
    However, when you exhibit a model, there is a lot else that needs to go with you. Legs, trestles or whatever, for it to stand on; power supply, controllers & such, your stock [which needs careful protection], plus a host of sundries including tool box and items for presentation – in particular lighting. Most exhibition halls will not be bright enough to show off all your hard work & indeed may not even be the right sort. I do my painting under normal household bulbs, so when seen under fluorescent lighting, the colours look all washed out.
    In recent years, have settled on ‘clip-spot’ type lights, set on gallows type brackets, bolted to the rear of the layout. The clip-spots [i have 8 in all] provide good light, but the gallows brackets were a pain to both store and transport – it is surprising how much room they take up. Hence, have now made some folding brackets, which will hopefully solve that problem. The gallows will also hold the layout pelmet – more of which later. Hopefully the pictures help.
    In the coming week, I will be having a trial run to see how everything fits in the car, so will let you know how I get on.
  6. David Holman
    At exhibitions, I often find myself paying as much attention to how a layout is built, as its scenic 'face'. This is because, despite many layouts and many more shows, I am still trying to find ways of making transportation & setting up simpler. My preferred favourite [not yet built I might add] would be an inflatable layout, which could be taken to shows in a carrier bag, but be able to be blown up to many times its deflated size...
    This is probably some way off [would need inflatable stock too!], so over the last three layouts have used the same set up. This is the 'Ulysses' frame, devised by Iain Rice in his Small Layouts book. My version has folding trestles, linked by pairs of longitudinal beams. The latter are around five feet long and are bolted together at their ends, which provides reasonable stability. Angle plates at one end of each beam fit into the slot at the top of the trestle.
    The photos show the layout set up in the living room [wife out shopping], so I could fit the lighting posts/pelmets and check the levels of the baseboards on the beams. Thankfully, all went well, so the last couple of days have been spent painting the rear and fascias of each board & am now starting the lettering for the pelmets.
     
     
     
  8. David Holman
    The eagle eyed amongst you may have noticed a change in the backscene on the middle board. I'm not quite sure what was wrong with it, but the view was certainly too flat, with not enough perspective to give the scene depth. The latter is a real issue with 7mm scale layouts, for if you stick to around 60-75cm baseboard depth, it leaves very little room for anything outside the railway fence. Hence a backscene of some sort is essential in my view.
    Backboards on Arigna Town are integral with the baseboards, so as I became more disgruntled with the middle view of the layout, realised something had to be done. In one of my occasional fits of enthusiasm out came the white emulsion and the whole lot was blocked out to start again. Not exactly easy with some scenery now in place, but a few days of neck and arm ache later, the new scene is in place. As before, most of the painting is with acrylics [cheap tubes sold in The Works], plus felt pens for some of the details.
    Hopefully the view looks more typical of the area being modelled & I made regular reference to my 1:50 000 map to do so. It will however necessitate a further change in that to have the Arigna mountain area behind the station, its orientation has had to be turned 180 degrees. Hence will have to re-draw the maps and indeed re-engineer the line to come from Dromahair, south through Drumkeeran and down the west side of Lough Allen.
    Before and after picture below:
  9. David Holman
    In SE England, it has been half term week, which for a consultant primary school advisor [ex headteacher to boot] like me means some welcome down time. That said, I'm semi-retired these days, so try my best not to work too hard/often anyway. So, an opportunity to get some serious modelling time in...
    However, things did not go entirely to plan - probably because I tried to do too much, in too many areas & ended up being less satisfied with my efforts than my usual 'little and often' approach. The moral of this little story is that you can have too much of a good thing and that building a model railway should definitely not be a race - even if you are working to an approximate deadline. Work quality suffers and satisfaction levels fall.
    It also reminds me of one of my modelling rules - namely 'stop while you are winning'. so many times, I have found myself trying to do one more job at the end of a session, only for it to fail, with much language unbecoming of a headteacher, though actually, as a profession, I have found we are pretty good at profanities, though never in front of the children of course. Hence I now regularly remind myself that if a particular task is not complete, then it is better to leave it for another day. Nevertheless, procrastination is the thief of time, it is said, and what certainly does work for me is to try and get in an hour or so of modelling at least 4 or 5 days a week. If not, it is very easy for a week or more to go by with nothing getting done & it then becomes ever harder to start again. The antidote should this happen, is for me, to either dig out a kit, or do a bit of research. Happily, the extensive resources of this website are a fine source of inspiration.
    Enough of this wittering! There are books to be read, websites to visit and a glass of Bordeaux awaits.
  10. David Holman

    Cultra

    By David Holman,

    Haven't done a blog for a while, but decided the trip to Cultra was worth it. Have been looking forward to it since I first got the invite over a year ago, though at times I will admit to questioning my own sanity! Nearly 1000 miles of driving, two ferry rides and four nights away - for just a one day show - certainly make you wonder. Equally, it is a chance to bring a properly broad gauge layout to its spiritual homeland, while the chance to exhibit in the truly wonderful venue that is Cultra all make it worth the effort. Am also looking forward to meeting some of the people on this website too & putting faces to names.
    As I've written before, a lot of preparation goes into any exhibition, so Arigna has been given the once over during the last couple of weeks. Tracking cleaning and dusting, plus servicing all the locos and stock. A couple of pick ups needed adjusting on the motive power, while one or two bits of scenery were freshened up as well.
    Whether everything will still be alright when I get there is another matter. By the time it gets unloaded and set up on Friday afternoon, the layout will have spent two nights and close to 500 miles in the back of my car, with the small matter of a couple of hours on the Holyhead - Dublin fast ferry as well. The BBC weather app on my phone has been checked several times daily over the last week - and so far all it has shown is that it is not exactly reliable.
    At first, Friday's crossing was looking fairly smooth, then got progressively rougher until on Tuesday it was showing 40mph gales off Holyhead. Seasickness is not something I usually suffer from, but my experience of fast ferry is that they bang and bounce across the waves, rather than roll - not exactly ideal for a car full of layout. Since then, things have improved a little, though the next problem seemed to be a full on 'soft day' in Belfast. Unloading a layout in pouring rain is not something to be enjoyed, but again [for now at least], the forecast has put the rain back till after 6pm. There are still two days for that to change, so for now, I will just have to cross everything, make sure everything is stowed properly and hope the weather and traffic gods are kind. For the latter, certainly glad I am not travelling today, or would be spending most of the day just getting out of Kent, if the traffic reports are anything to go by.
  11. David Holman

    Progress at Arigna

    By David Holman,

    The last few weeks have seen the completion of a couple of brake vans [sLNCR types] and a change of focus to the scenic side of things. A total of nine tree 'skeletons' have been made from a mixture of florists and other wire, then coated with layers of filler and PVA, before being painted, ready for 'dressing'. The process seemed to take forever, but when it came to dressing the first tree [an oak to hide the entrance to the fiddle yard], it seemed only a few minutes work with Woodlands Scenics 'matting' and a reasonable representation was in front of me. Planting took a bit longer, as it is important to fit the whole thing into the ground, but while I'm sure I'll want to go back to it, there was much encouragement in getting this first little cameo in place.
    Next to the tree is the Station Garage. Based on the Alphagraphix kit, this is in fact made almost entirely from plastic sheet. Essentially a fairly simple building, it will be all the bits and pieces that go with a garage forecourt and exterior which made of break this scene.
     
    The petrol pumps are made of plastic and clear sheet, with filler nozzles coming from suitable looking bits of whitemetal from the scrapbox, while the hose is just wire, still in its sheathing.
    The level crossing gates are also scratchbuilt and are hinged, pending some future date when I build up the courage to mechanise them. Over the crossing is a detached Georgian house. Done in half relief, the oak tree tries hard to hide this, while in front are lawns, gardens full of perennials, hedging and a rose arch over the front gate. A mixture of woodlands scenic scatter materials, lichen and fibres - work out for yourselves which is which!
    The next step will be the end terrace on the other side of the road, plus the area around the signal box. this will test my ability to follow the ideas outlined in Gordon Gravett's new book, which deals in some detail with the rough ground we find in yards, lanes & the like. Another tree will go behind the signalbox to hide the part relief of the Welfare Club. My workshop is a total mess at the moment, with tubs of scatter material, glue, sprays, filler and goodness knows what else. Scenic work certainly requires a wide range of materials.
  12. David Holman
    Scenic work on hold at the moment, for the simple reason that I have run out of materials! Woodlands ground foam is readily available, but less so static grass fibres so am hoping there will be some at the Reading 0 gauge trade show on Saturday week. For those of you not aware of this event, it is truly an Aladdin's cave of everything the modeller could need , a positive bottomless pit of 'wants'. Spending 50 grand or more [assuming you had the funds] would easily be possible. Go for RTR and professionally built stuff and 7 figures is perfectly possible.
    More important though is the wonderful range of smaller traders plying their wares & it is the one place where you can generally find everything under one roof. Just hope somebody has some fibres!
    Anyway, to get back to the variety theme, found myself staring at a collection of figures [whitemetal] that I had been putting off painting, so decided to make a start. Soon realised why I procrastinated, as really don't get excited by figure painting. Perfectly capable of making a reasonable effort, but just doesn't float my boat. So, have been trying to do the little and often in the hope of getting the job done. Mixed in a South Eastern Finecast Austin 7 as well. Lovely little kit, but again, the amount of faffing about to produce a tiny model is along the lines of the number of tools needed to wire a 3 pin plug [about 47 in my case]. Yet I will happily punch rivets and find tiling roofs curiously satisfying. So easy to see why RTR is popular and why ready painted figures are expensive...
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