David Holman

Fine posts everyone!

The important thing for me is to appeal to and nurture creativity in children. So many toys these days seem to have limited value beyond the first few days, or indeed hours. Even Lego focuses on kits that build just one model, rather than packs that enable multiple things to be built as primers to, in effect, scratchbuilding your own stuff from the bricks and components they offer. Yes, basic Hornby train sets can be expanded and there are loads of second hand bargains out there too, but those push along, wooden train sets and tracks that can be built and rebuilt in endless combinations are what fire the imagination, particularly for a four year old. Spent all my career in primary education, finishing up as a schools advisor and one of my favourite jobs was doing lesson observations and especially in what we call Year R, with the four and five year olds, where the children have lots of opportunities for creative play and those wooden train sets go down a treat. When you think about it, model railways, at any level, are a brilliant way to engage children's minds, not least because they expand into so many other areas, like buildings, scenery, road vehicles and so on. Back in the day, with my Year 6 class, was given a Triang Big Big Train Set. An oval of plastic track and a battery powered engine. This was pre 'national curriculum' but CDT was just becoming popular, so the class project that term became the model railway and showed to kids how to make a simple building from a fold up card 'net' and they all went on to adapt it into houses, shops and so on. With 30 in the class we soon had a whole town, which got lit up with batteries and bulbs and Lord knows what else. Wrote stories, did loads of maths, science, history and geography too - all based on an old plastic train set. So, sorry for the sermon (great question though!) but there really is nothing better than creative play for developing children's minds, while we are all still learning how therapeutic it can be ( for all ages), in these challenging times too.

In the latest Model Railway Journal [286] 'Small Suppliers Forum', there is an interesting report on some wagon kits designed by Jonathan Duffett. In a real sign of the times, they are available as a free download to print on your own 3D printer! Currently, there is a growing range of various types of iron ore hoppers, coil carriers and what MRJ quote as 'an amazing Conflat LD whose construction in etched brass or plasticard, would be the stuff of nightmares.' A picture on the website certainly confirms this. The downloads are available from www.thingiverse.com/ironmink/designs. He's done detail items such as buffers and brake gear too. Seems you have to create a Makerbot Account - they are a company that make 3D printers, but as to costs or liabilities I have not pursued this as it not in my current interests. Mr Duffet says he is looking at unusual and less modelled prototypes, for projects that are unlikely to be produced by any large, or even small scale commercial enterprise. Further information can be had by emailing jonnyduffett@icloud.com Whether he would be up to doing Irish prototypes, I have no idea, but thought it was worth sharing here as so many of our favourites appear to fit his criteria. If anyone knows more about the above, perhaps you could let us know?

Langley Clyde Puffer While nothing happened in the workshop [or indeed at all on Christmas Day], I am no good at all when it comes to just sitting around watching TV, let alone bad TV. Therefore, over Christmas, I like to have some modelling that can be done on a board, on my knees, sitting on the sofa. Hence the Langley Puffer. Well, I made a start, but it is certainly not proving easy. The large, resin cast hull is ok and the white metal castings too, but the problem is identifying them. The instructions aren't exactly clear and while there is a useful exploded diagram to help identify the numbered parts, being a ship model, rather than a railway one, there are large gaps in my knowledge, so I'm feeling very much like a beginner again. Help has come from fellow Chatham club member, Brian, who not only worked on the Puffers, but has been able to give me a large, detailed scale drawing of one. This has been invaluable in both identifying parts and other important features not included in the kit. So, over Christmas, managed to get the hull cleaned up and air bubble holes filled. The lower cabin [also a resin casting] needed extensive filing to get it to sit properly on the rear deck, while the port holes needed drilling out and the interior braced with some plywood to cure a bit of warping. The upper cabin is made up of substantial white metal castings, but goes together quite well with a bit of tweaking. It is not fixed down though [nor is the funnel], because the interior needs painting first and I can add a couple of control levers not supplied with the kit. I then glued various cleats and bollards to the deck, using cyano or 5 minute epoxy. The other mini project was the forward winch. This is a real bag of bits that another exploded diagram doesn't make entirely clear, while the instructions weren't either - at least to me anyway. One cast gear wheel is missing, but the scrap box should provide something suitable. So there we are for now - enough to show the character of this fascinating model and that it seems to fit in nicely with Northport Quay as a whole, so hopefully will prove a good choice and an interesting challenge too. For now though, it is back to the layout wiring.

Thanks - I've just had to go and check because I've made a few six wheelers over the years. Some are Alphagraphix/Tyrconnel kits, others are scratchbuilt on Alphagraphix chassis. Both of these are plastic bodies with microscopstrip paneling and whitemetal castings. There are quite a few pictures of branch trains made up of just two six wheelers, so hopefully this will look the part on NPQ.

Pre Christmas modelling now drawing to a close. Below is the control panel for Northport Quay - just two switches to work the points as a pair of cross overs. Three push to make switches will be added to work the uncoupling magnets, plus an on/off switch for the shuttle unit on the crane track. Next up the brackets for my tortoise point motors. I've been using these for over 20 years without problems, though there are a couple of issues to bear in mind. Firstly, they are expensive and secondly they need a good 10cm of baseboard framing. Hence these basic cradles, made from 4mm plywood, to turn them on their sides. The original pivot wire now turns a second pivot, which will work the below baseboard tie bars, as per on Belmullet. With track laying completed, couldn't resist posing one of my intended trains, in this case a G2 2-4-0 and two Midland 6w coaches. The workshop now shuts down for Christmas, so very best wishes to you all.

Enjoy!

For what it's worth, check out photos in my Fintonagh thread JB. I've used a mixture of 3D, low relief, 'flats', view blocker (like trees), plus side wings of the fascia - all to draw the eyes away from what you don't want them to see. On Northport Quay am using a curved backscene (hardboard) at one end to avoid a sharp corner, but the other corner will be hidden by a combination of a warehouse and a crane. For me it is all about studying different scenarios and working out what might work best. Another book well worth having is Cameo Layouts by Iain Rice, which examines the whole concept of creating well balanced scenes from start to finish and builds on some of his earlier work. For example a well balanced scene has either a high feature at each end, with low features in the middle, or vice versa. On a larger layout, there might be several of these. Options for making curved backscene include mounting board, cardboard and mdf. You can get the latter down to 2mm thick (picture framers use it), while DIY stores sell 4mm mdf that has parallel lines milled on one side to enable it to be curved down to about 15cm radius. As for backscenes, I agree with Galteemore. Subtlety is the key and while photographs can look impressive, they can also dominate, not always a good thing when you want the focus to be on the foreground. Indeed if the normal viewing angle is fairly low, then a plain sky is all you need, with maybe a suggestion of low hills on the horizon. Really not difficult to paint - though it is essential to keep colours well muted. The usual advice is to avoid black and primary colours completely, instead using washes of various browns and greens. As for sky, an even pale grey is not the worst, or hardest thing to do. Round here that's all we've had for much of the year!

How long before discarded, single use, faceless are forming scenery too?

Fine selection of stock there, John. Tend to agree with you regarding crane functions, especially in 4mm scale. Am aiming to make my (7mm) crane trundle back and forth on a short length of track, possibly using a shuttle unit, to provide a bit of movement when there is no train on scene. Back in the day, Chatham Club member Ted McIlroy built two of the Dockyard's cranes in 7mm scale (the prototypes are parked opposite our clubroom), using three RG4 motors and complex pick up arrangements to make them fully operational. Giles Flavell is the man these days - building a plethora of radio controlled road vehicles, including operating cranes that are real crowd pillars at shows.

Well, that looks rather good. Full of character and dare I say a hint of the preserved 'Bellerophon' about it. The polished brass between boiler and smokebox is a nice touch too.

Not sure which is more challenging, a beast like the 800, or the dainty D17, hiding behind. Either way, both coming on well and great to see some kit building going on.

Worked well for me. The 'stupendous' smell should real sulphorus, by the way. My Amazon tablet is a fine thing (not least very cheap and cheerful), but the spell checker has a very strange grip on reality!

I've use Woodlands Scenics ' fine ash' ballast on Arigna/Belmullet and Fintonagh. It is aimed at N gauge but works fine in 7mm scale and should do ok in 4mm scale too. When we had a multi fuel heater and back boiler for our central heating, there was a ready supply of real ash ballast, which worked well when sieved, though gave off a terrible stupendous smell when fixed with the usual on a glue mix. Chinchilla dust is very fine and would work well, but it needs painting as it is a pale beige sort of colour.

Track laying [mostly] completed today, though the crane track is still to be done and, apart from running a couple of wagons through the points, nothing has been tested yet. I started modelling in EM gauge, progressing through 0n16.5 to 7mm standard gauge and now Irish 5'3 and 3'. Over a dozen different layouts only two have used Peco ready made track, so I ought to know what I'm doing by now, but the trouble is that several years often elapse between building my own, so some of the techniques have to be relearned! As previously mentioned, the basics are fairly simple. You make up a length of 'half track' in a jig, fix that down and then solder the second rail in place using one or more roller gauges. No 'flexitrack' here & mores the pity... Points might seem harder, but in fact you can build one in an hour or two and what's more tailor it to fit your chosen location, rather than relying set formations. This has certainly helped in the restricted space I have available. The main jobs when building a point, once you have set out the sleepers on your plan, using double sided tape, are as follows: Lay one of the 'stock' rails, then make the Vee. These are a bit more trouble with flat bottomed rail, but is essentially just a case of filing two short lengths of rail and soldering them together. Roller gauges are then used to solder the Vee in place and then the second stock rail is added The long switch blades come next and these need a fair bit of filing and shaping. I find it helps to file a small nick in the base of the rail before bending it to go next to the Vee, while alignment at this point really is critical. I use a piece of aluminium strip [about 1.8mm thick] to set the gap at what is called the 'crossing' [or frog] and also to ensure the route through this section is nice and straight. Especially on the Y points, I also find it helpful to file away the foot of the stock rails where the thin end of the blades touch, as this ensures wheels follow the route nice and smoothly. The main task today has been laying the track over the baseboard join. With only one of these on the scenic section and only two tracks involved, there is no excuse for errors here! I used my usual method of countersinking cross headed screws in the end boards, then laying the track across the join and soldering it to the screws, before cutting the rails to separate the boards. A lot of cleaning up followed, to get rid of the flux & then came the slightly tedious job of cutting the insulation gaps in all the sleepers. So, ready to start on the wiring now and then it will be a case of cross everything when it comes to testing to ensure all my stock will run on the new layout. Logic says it should be ok, but experience suggests otherwise!

Sounds fascinating - if only I knew what you were talking about!

Lovely stuff!

Sounds great to me! The concept is just that little bit different, yet eminently achievable. As I discovered with Fintonagh, you don't need a huge space to create a layout that is interesting to operate, while Iain Rice and Chris Nevard, the gurus of cameo layouts have long proved how much enjoyment can be had in modelling a small space really well. Already clear I am not alone in looking forward to seeing this one develop.

My own thoughts are these are not toys, so are being bought by grown ups. Likely as not on a budget, but not exactly pocket money. As niche items, they are not going to sell in the thousands, so the prices will inevitably be higher. You only have to look around to see how much rtr models cost now - the new Bachmann double Fairlie is well over £200, for an 009 loco, for example. Indeed, not sure that adult railway modelling has ever been cheap, although the quality of what is available these days is exponentially better than 20-30 or more years ago, which means ever greater value.

The band round the dome makes a real difference. The alternative would be either to not worry about printing the dome in situ, but print a separate one, or even use a casting. Traditional model making creates a lot of hybrids and while I can see the attraction of solving problems via CAD, sometimes there are advantages to a bit of mix and match. As for having inside cylinders, the main reason narrow gauge locos have outside ones is lack of space between the frames. Clogher Valley 0-4-2Ts had 13.5 inch diameter cylinders, so when you add on the thickness of their casing, along with the thickness of the frames and that leaves little, if any space to fit everything. Outside cylinders are not too difficult to fit, at least as long as the valve gear is hidden inside the frames.

Models, photography and especially some high quality modelling. The track work is so well laid and weathered (that ballasting is sublime!), you barely notice it is narrow gauge, while the way those wagons are snaking into the loop is really nice too. Ground cover is subtle, and it all makes for a beautifully observed scene.

Maybe the chimney and dome need to be a bit 'fatter', rather than taller? Overall, looks rather good though.

Track laying It's been a while since I did any track building - indeed, without looking up dates, it was when I started on Fintonagh. That was 21mm, code 83 flat-bottomed rail and though the principles are the same, that is not to say I am an expert and it all comes naturally! Things went ok at first - you lay one of the stock rails, then make the 'Vee'. This means filing two pieces of rail and soldering them together. I used 240 degree solder for this, so that I can use 144 solder to fix the rails to the sleepers. So far, so good, however in trying to add the other rails, I quickly discovered I'd made a right Horlicks of the roller gauge, so there was no alternative, but to turn a new one... The other pieces are the two switch blades and two check rails. The latter are very important in ensuring stock goes in the right direction! Since then, I've managed to complete a right hand point and a Y point, along with two pieces of plain track, as can be seen from the photos. The latter has a few spaces for economy & I'll be using card or plywood sleepers here, though the left hand siding is going to have some sort of inset track anyway. At the moment, track is just held down with screws. I am toying with some ideas to distress the copper clad sleepers a bit - thus far this has involved scoring longitudinal marks in the surfaces to represent cracks, but I also want to do something with some of the ends, as well as adding fixing spikes. It's nice to have got started at last.

That, is a very fine looking train.

Relying on rtr chassis certainly limits what you can do, which is a shame given the amount of skill and practice required to produce a 3D printed loco body. It might sound scary, but with excellent motor gear boxes available from the likes of High Level, Branchlines and Roxey, scratchbuilding a chassis means it is always possible to hide the motor. Worth considering having a go at making frames from plasticard, but with brass bearings, especially as ready milled coupling rod sets will be available for many varieties of wheel base. There again, a bit of freelancing can not only still be good fun, but also helps develop the skills for more advanced work later.