David Holman

Seriously cool!

Been making buildings from mounting board for over 30 years and never had any problems from paint of any kind. Humbrol enamel tarmac was great for slates before it was discontinued, so use Precision enamel now for that. For brick and stonework I use cheap artist's acrylic - usually two or three thin coasts, but have used water colours and enamel too. Any problems with warping probably come from how many layers the model is made from. When I first started, John Ahern's book on Model Buildings was my reference and still is. He used postcards as his main material (the book was first written in the late 1940s) and stressed the importance of using an odd number of layers - three normally like plywood - to avoid warping. In 7mm scale, tend to use foamboard these days, which has three layers and holds its shape well, even with another layer of DAS. However, painting the inside with watered down PVA does the equivalent of adding another layer. So, not the paint, but how many layers. Overall, think I prefer card for buildings as plasticard can also warp, especially if you use too much solvent. It becomes brittle with age too, while card seems to age much better and if it does warp, it is more subtle and protypical.

Sounds very sensible to me!

Here's another selection of track plans - only one of which actually got built - though there is quite a story behind it... This first one was very much drawn around Peco 0n16.5 points and track and shows a small quayside station, which could almost be a precursor of Northport Quay. It was done quite a few years ago, quite probably in the last century [!]. There are a few useful view blockers employed, but the track plan looks a bit stiff and stilted now to my eyes, because the track has too many straight lines, which are also parallel to the baseboard edges. The next plan is very similar, but see how making the track flow better, significantly improves the overall feel of things. Any comparison with Iain Rice's drawing of Wantage Town in his Light Railways book is more than coincidental - only the train shed is missing. Now for something completely different. Above is Eatonswell, by some distance the largest model railway I've ever built. This comes from a time when I was very much into British Railways, 1950's East Anglia, but feel it merits inclusion because of the concepts involved and the fact that, in its original version, shown here, there are similarities to Claremorris or Athlone. Eatanswill, was the name invented by Charles Dickens for Sudbury, Suffolk in The Pickwick Papers. My model railway was 0 gauge and involved part of a high level passenger station, where four separate single lines formed a junction, plus a low level goods yard. The actual track plan is at the top, with a sketch map of the wider area below. The station building, an accurate model of Chapel & Wakes Colne, hid the exit at one end, while the Maltings did the same at the other. The four baseboards were each 3'10" long and 2'6" deep, with the mainline tracks set about 6" higher than the goods yard at the front. They were a challenge to make and a swine to move about and set up... As if this were not enough, this layout was my sole attempt to scratch the itch of an oval layout - so the front scenic section was match by storage loops the same length and the two straight bits were joined by what was [for me at least] a bit of inspiration: the 180 degree, double track curves, were actually two separate radii - one was 5'9, the other 6'3: four of each and just 7" wide. The result of all this was that these curved sections nested against each other as shown below and fitted in the same footprint as the main baseboards, so could be stored below the scenic section in the workshop. So far, so good - well mostly. I had built myself a portable layout 28' long and 13' wide, with a scenic section that fitted in my [integral garage] workshop. And it worked, I suppose, but such a massive undertaking was far too ambitious as a solo project in terms of taking it to exhibitions. For starters it needed a minimum of four operators - one for the storage loops, two for the mainline and one to shunt the goods yard. Then the was the simple fact that this 30x15 monster actually only had a 16x 2'6 scenic section - not ideal if you are an exhibition manager, trying to fit as many layouts as possible into your venue! It went to one of the Chatham Shows that we held in the No5 Covered Slip at the Historic Dockyard - a semi open space, with a very uneven floor. Not good when you have 16 baseboards to link together: some of them needed house bricks to achieve this, when beer mats are the more usual solution! It ran ok, but unsurprisingly didn't receive any further invites. I sold the curved sections [assembled, they looked like the Stargate] and instead built four new boards to create a two level fiddle yard at each end, creating a long thin layout, 32' in all. This went to a couple of shows, but still needed just as many operators and was still a nightmare to move around because of the awkward size and shape of all the boards. In the end, I bit the bullet, saved all the buildings and made a terminus-fiddle yard layout of the same name which was much easier to handle and operate, doing over a dozen shows before the Irish bug bit! Below are a couple of photos of the station & goods shed. I guess it taught me a lot about what doesn't work and the importance of reigning in your ambitions. However, the track plan could well have some merit, especially in 4mm scale or less, when baseboard size would be much more manageable for exhibitions, while as a home project, you could easily fit it into a medium sized shed or single garage.

Even if nothing came of it, nevertheless sounds like a great excuse for a layout.

Check out the car spray paint rattle cans. The Halford ones give much better finish than the model ones and some branches will do a custom version for you. JHB will like as not have the best suggestions, but remember that colour pictures of new paintwork from the 1940s might not be that reliable in terms of time and things got weathered pretty quickly too, so it is about what looks right to you.

Certainly is, the sky is really effective and a reminder that you don't always paint with brushes!

Looks like a scene that is meant to be modelled, as all the key elements are there - loop, view blockers, enough siding space to be interesting, etc. Definitely worth doing.

My latest car is a self charging hybrid and have found it a very different experience, but now more used to it am getting 50mpg from a 1.6 petrol engine. The electric motor means it is more economic around town and short runs than on the motorway - the opposite of what you'd expect. Did some research on self charging hybrids, but because they cost a lot more to buy are actually less economical in overall cost, even if you charge them at home every night. Mind you, if fuel keeps going up, who knows?

A real beauty, inside and out!

Am sure there were industrials like this around Ireland.

Don't know this stuff, but suspect it may be rather coarse - most types are at least a scale too big. Tarmac is actually very smooth and the best ways to represent it are either fine wet&dry (at least 600 grit), or talc shaken liberally on to gloss black paint, then smoothed over and vacuumed when dry.

Far too many things on the list before I do another Sligo 0-6-4T - Sprite and the pay coach, a GSWR 4-4-0, a WL&W 4-4-0 [and maybe a 2-4-0], the coaster, a steam crane, the C&VB 2-6-0T... ... but you never know!

Oops! - really should know better... MRJs 264 and 276

Not sure if this is layout or workbench territory! The painting certainly took place on the workbench, but the work is all about trying to create a busy scene on the quayside and nothing is stuck down yet. Indeed, most of the clutter will probably be focussed on the other board, with a steam powered crane taking centre stage on its own short track on this board. Anyway, have spent a fair few hours over the last few days painting the bits and pieces I ordered from Skytrex. Very nice they are too, including fish boxes, luggage and various sizes of crates, barrels and parcels, plus the all important buffer stop - though in actuality, all this does is protect the cliff face. There have been some useful articles in MRJ of late on creating & painting this sort of stuff, so have been leaning heavily on these [& Martyn Welch's bible on weathering], using artist's acrylics - mainly black, white, ochre and a little burnt sienna. There's also the weighted point lever, with the frame made from plasticard and the weight from two washers sandwiching a piece of brass. Took more time than I'd hoped that bit and one or two rude words in the process. Am still playing around with where things might go & the scene certainly needs a few figures [though no action poses!], plus maybe a road vehicle or two, all of which need to be period related. So, we have a 1950s scene here. SLNCR 'Small Tank' Enniskillen has arrived with a mixed train. The local fishmonger is looking at the morning's catch, while the donkey cart is ready to take some of it off to the village.

Like the first one. It makes for an interesting hybrid, with clear Irish elements. The small 'side tanks' on the Adam's Radials were more like square splashers and a smaller feature appeared on some 101/J15s, so only need cutting down a bit. Removing the outside cylinders seems to have worked, while 5'7" drivers are about right for a Kerry Bogie. Add a pair of stove type smokebox doors and you've suddenly got a more than plausible new Irish 4-4-0 class! Purists may not like it, but it certainly looks the part to me.

Love the Kerry Bogie, such a well balanced design, especially in original condition. Almost as pretty as an Achill Bogie, in fact - though lacking that gorgeous paint scheme.

It was always a great place to photo lovely new models, but there's now a real sense of purpose, while the scenics look every bit as impressive as the stock.

Great fun, as always.

Track cleaning in the fiddle yard? Impressive!

Thanks Mark. A few other things I've used are: Y points are great space savers - nothing but in the first p!an The fewer straight lines the better, but keep curves gentle Going diagonally across the baseboards is better than parallel to the sides If you put a frame around the scenic area, you can hide an exit at the front edge with it, as per the first plan and Fintonagh itself Layouts do not have to be big to be interesting. Iain Rice's rule that a train needs to be able to travel three times it's own length on a layout to look 'right' is at the heart of all my plans. However, the 'through' layout plans didn't get built because they need a fiddle yard at each end, which means half the total space is non scenic. Would work better as part of a continuous run. End to end layouts are not ideal at exhibitions - they need extra operators and (because trains spent less time on scene) more stock and bigger fiddle yard to keep things interesting.

Haven't posted here in a while, but recently came across various track plans I drew while thinking about Fintonagh. Don't know about anyone else, but I find myself doodling lots of these, which can often be very useful, if only in exorcising the idea of starting yet another layout. Perhaps these plans might inspire somebody to build something similar - even it is a case of 'certainly wouldn't do it that way!' First up, an idea for a through station. I was trying to incorporate a bit of CVR roadside tramway and the annotations alongside are typical of the thought processes I go through, aiming to justify the plan's existence, alongside the sort [and amount] of stock needed. Here's another through line, but simpler this time, not least in there is no passing loop. The two sidings could only be shunted by trains going right to left. Next is a similar idea, but with the two sidings going off in opposite directions, means trains could shunt in either direction - though only one siding at a time. Notice how various view blockers hide where the tracks exit the scenic section. As a roadside tramway, over bridges, let alone tunnels were absent on the CVR. I even dabbled with a circular layout, which could have made an interesting exhibition concept, though as the left hand sketch shows, storing all the boards would have been problematic as indeed would setting it up at home. In the end, I devised the terminus scheme that became Fintonagh. The CVR never had a branch line, but Fintonagh is supposed to be a small town somewhere between Fintona and Armagh [hence the name]. There is a semblance of street running as the line exits to the left, while a kickback siding to the front exits to a standard gauge transfer siding. The rest of the track plan is fairly conventional, while the annotations provide insight into the planning process, most of which has actually worked out in practice.

Have wandered back to more specific workbench stuff, after what seemed like too much painting and ground work over the last few weeks. That's the joy of layout building for you - if you get fed up with one strand, there's always something else to do! One thing that had been on the 'to do' list for a while was remote control of the starter signal. I could have gone along the electronic route, with maybe a servo or a solenoid, but it seemed easier to just make it mechanical and looking through my materials boxes, I found there were enough angle cranks and wire in tube to make that happen. As can be seen from the picture, the wire in tube uses two cranks, one to make a right angled turn to go parallel to the track and the other to go vertically up to the signal actuator arm. Only a very small amount of movement is required, so I made a simple knob from a small bolt, by drilling into it so the wire in tube fitted inside. The actual wire itself comes out of the top of the knob and is bent over and soldered in place. [More than] a few rude words got uttered while I was working how long the wire in each bit of tube needed to be, but got there in the end and [fingers crossed] it all works nicely and without the rather small control panel getting too crowded. I also put an order in to Skytrex on Sunday for some all important scenic bits and pieces so was pleased to find a package arriving from the postman this morning. A mixture of boxes, crate, barrels and parcels - some in cast white metal, others in resin. Spent a happy hour trying out some of them on the layout and then gave these a scrub in warm water & washing up liquid before an overall spray of primer. I also ordered a set of white metal buffers, which, after drilling the beam to cope with the wider gauge has been posed on the siding, awaiting painting and bedding in.

Depends whether is for an Irish project or elsewhere, I suppose. Early loco names often focused on speed and strength, or something from mythology, so for Ireland check out some of those early kings and chieftains. Another oft used option was to name locos after directors and their families, or indeed loco landmarks, towns etc. Pretty much anything goes therefore as long as it is not something with a modern spelling!

Always thought that Swiss and Austrian layouts were very 'train set' in concept, with far too much track. Then I went there and realised that it can actually be like that in places! There has been a school of thought that we tend to model what we saw in our formative years - a nostalgia kick I guess. Still there, but I sense a growing urge to do something different. After all a loop and two sidings is not the same if it depicts a much earlier era, or a light railway, industrial scene, etc. The major manufacturers are starting to feed this, to some extent, but unless you build your own stuff, you are still very much limited by what they provide.