RJR Models

cropped pictures

2012-01-29T18:53:00.000Z

Just a couple of pictures with the clutter of dry land removed !

Swim Platform

2012-01-28T21:46:00.000Z

This evening I have been working on the rear end off the boat. Along with fishing the boat will also be running diving charters, as such a swim platform has been fitted. It has been in my mind from the beginning.

Others items done in spare moments during the week... radio antennas

Rope anchor points ..

and a Maplin battery bubble pack converted into a box, simply by painting in white..

Handrails

2012-01-22T20:58:00.000Z

Today's efforts involved fitting hand rails around the upper deck. They are made from aluminium bar bent to shape and slotted into aluminium tube fixed into the deck.

Deck Steps

2012-01-17T21:25:00.000Z

I have been putting of the joint between the removable wheelhouse , the deck and the deck wall. It comprises of some interesting curves and needs to be removable in order to take the wheelhouse out for maintenance.

As it happens it was a lot easier than I expected, which is often the case with things we delay !

Above how it looked at the start of the evening

This second picture shows the new panel with steps attached, slotted into place. Made a GOOD fit it stays firmly in place without any fasteners.

The steps with the checker plate picked out in silver.

This last picture shows the rope lashing bar, along the inside of the deck wall, I assume both of these items have technical names ! The steps of course are mirrored on the other side.

Painted Deck

2012-01-17T07:42:00.000Z

After much thought I decided that the deck area would be painted light grey, partly to make it look a bit bigger and also to avoid having to many vivid colours. Then I realised primer with a coat of clear gloss lacquer was about the right shade. (B&Q rattle can)

Once dry the checker plate was brush painted with silver.

The next job was a bit more fiddly. The action man air tanks looked a bit plastic in their original grey, so as the picture above reveals the first step was a coat of yellow, then silver on the valve.

The yellow and silver were then finished with black and white quarters around the top..

The last job of the evening was making fish hooks and threading the rods with some fishing line. The next picture is not very clear as the light wasn't good enough to get a good close up, but you get the idea if you look close.

Painting the hull

2012-01-15T06:46:00.000Z

Normally Saturday is sailing day with Dad but with a list of places to be at and three children to be ferried to various locations too it was not meant to be. One of the plus sides of being away from the lake was some time to get some painting done. Rattle cans are the ideal pass time on a busy day as between taxi driving and household cleaning an occasional coat can be added.

I had already added a coat of red oxide primer on Friday teatime so the first ten minute job for Saturday was masking off below the water line. A first dusting of blue was followed by cleaning the living room. Not that I had been sprayinng in there! It was just one of my assigned chores. After cleaning duties it was back out onto the driveway to apply some more blue. With the hull brought inside to keep warm it was off to netball with the youngest. On returning the hull was treated to several light coats of Halfords clear lacquer, punctuated with more household tasks. The last boat job to be done was later in the day after a family get together for my nephews baptism. On returning home the hull was nice and warm in the conservatory which allowed me to apply the white vinyl line. I remember the days when every car spares shop sold vinyl go faster stripes to put on your Cortina. Not now, I finally tracked some down in a car shop. He had a couple of roles in a box in the back of the store room.

Colours

2012-01-08T17:53:00.000Z

Thoughts invited... Dad and I are sat discussing colour schemes and decided to mock up our top 3 choices.. Any thoughts ???

Gone Fishing

2012-01-08T09:34:00.000Z

This is the fun bit of modelling adding details ! Yesterday I spent a couple of hours making various deck items, there was a fair bit of looking on the tinternet for ideas to copy and merge together. As is the case with "inspired by" models the end result is an amalgamation of several realities.

First up a better rack for the rods, incorporated onto a deck box.

No Padlocks yet but they will be after the painting stage !

"I think we are going to need a bigger boat!" a sea fishing chair, with rod stirrup, I am told there are big fish at Etherow !!

It bothered me that the chair would make the idea of the deck hatches redundant as it would be in the way of them opening, so its base is a simulated hinge. So the little folk can swing it forward to open the large deck hatches. Of course in reality neither open but its the thought that counts..

The chair actually swivels so he can be posed fishing off the back or either side.

This rear view shows the deck beginning to fill a little. A double oxygen cylinder (unpainted) can just be seen by the wheel house door, giving away the little guys other hobby. There will probably be a short swim platform added at the back over the rudders to help with the diving charters..

I am quite pleased with the Radar dome the letter that Dad had in his draw were pretty much spot on for colour and size.

The shot above and below show that the white satin on the wheelhouse has had its extra coats and now looks pretty solid. I am also pleased with how the glazing has worked, it still slots in and out but is a good enough fit to stay put. No glue marks or paint on the glass!

A final rear view.

I think the next thing to tackle is tidy up the filler round the prop shafts a little and get some paint on the hull. I'm decided on red oxide below the water line but cant decide on red, blue or green above the water line. and have no thoughts on the deck colour yet.

Paint

2012-01-06T22:39:00.000Z

A little painting tonight, on the radar dome and the fishing rods...

Bits and Bobs

2012-01-05T22:27:00.000Z

Everyone has parts of modelling that they enjoy the most. For me its all about the details and bits.. So early evening today, I converted a few house hold objects into boat parts..

First up. a Furuno Radar dome was constructed from guess what..

In case you can't spot the objects, the bronze coloured top is a Nescafe coffee lid and the grey underside is the plastic top from a can of B&Q primer.

Next up 5 bamboo skewers, a bit of wire and some plastic tube makes.. Fishing rods in a rack.

The reels are from Bobs Bitz :)

PAINT

2012-01-03T21:58:00.000Z

Today's post sees the landmark of some first coats of paint being applied. First job was to slide the windows out and apply a good coat of B&Q grey primer inside and out of the wheelhouse early this morning. When dry some cardboard was slid into the window slots to protect the inside.

With the wheelhouse separated from the hull again this evening, it was back into the garage and a coat of the following applied

Satin white B&Q Polycoat to the wheelhouse.

Halford's Silver to the window frame inserts

B&Q Satin Red Polycoat to the roof.

It's not very warm in the garage, even with a fan heater on, but I find using Mrs RJR's hair dryer speeds up the drying process to at least make things dry enough to gently handle.

It was put back together for the photos, but has now been taken back apart and left to harden fully in the conservatory for a couple of days, just to make sure the painted surfaces don't stick together. When fully cured I will give it all a light rub with wet and dry and then give a second light coat of each colour.

From the photos it doesn't seem like it was worth undercoating and painting the white plastic white ! But in the flesh it looks a lot more solid than it did and the plastic is no longer see through. The second coat will of course improve it no end.

Wheelhouse update

2012-01-02T09:29:00.000Z

Although I haven't blogged for a few days, I have been cutting and sticking on the boat. She even got out on the water at Etherow Model Boat Clubs day after Boxing Day, Frostbite event.

Here are some shots taken lots nights to document progress.

The Wheelhouse is looking a little less like a flat box, the plywood rear deck is now covered with plasticard that has planks scored in and the inside of the deck walls have been plastic lined. These also have vertical ribs added and a tubular top cap along the top of the hull side.

The wheelhouse door has had its hinges fitted (barrel hinges made from two sizes of plastic tube) A locker built next to the door within the wind guards and roof rails for what will be the radar.

The two previous pictures are close ups of the rear door.

The roof bars are plastic tubing and what will be the radar dome is a Nescafe coffee lid.

From the front the new checker plate can be seen and also the window details with glazing

Close up of the window frames and glass (plastic) Just in case anyone was thinking I have made a rod for my own back glazing before painting... I hate fitting glazing so this time came up with a plan...

There is a 20thou rebate and the glass slide out from inside, this will allow for painting! It will also let me slide some cardboard into the window slots to spray the inside and outside different colours without too much masking :)

The build will slow down now the holidays have come to an end and "normal" life resume but watch this space.

The Big Day

2011-12-24T21:09:00.001Z

No Not Christmas that's tomorrow...... The maiden Voyage ! Dad was on hand with his camera and got carried away taking pictures, perhaps he thought we would never see it again !!!

Bobs donated wheel !

Under seat servo

Deck Covers

Ready to go

Hull Profile

Rear view

The working end

Power and steering

The Video !!!!!!!

To be honest it went as well as I had hoped, no leaks, easy to control and plenty of power without heating the motors... All in all a good result.

Motor and stability Tests

2011-12-20T22:04:00.001Z

Having added a removable roof and made a couple of deck covers it was back in the bath. The model is still around 1.4 Kg lighter than planned, which is good as there is more plastic to add. The aim is to make the construction about another 0.7Kg which will allow me to add some lead into the bottom of the hull. Stability seems pretty good as it is quite wide. As the video shows even adding all the excess ballast to one side, leaves the boat listing but stable. Although the wheelhouse is tall it is light.

Power wise the twin motors give out quite a bit of thrust, when the bow is not pressed up the to the bath, the boat takes quite a bit of holding back. Obviously a better feel for power to weight ratio will come from a test on the open water. I did find if I held the boat back on full throttle, it caused the thermal breaker to trip.

Length wise, the boat is more or less the same size as my Dads Aziz and has the same size props and similar motors. My hull however is an inch or so wider. We have also weighed the Aziz, which is how we arrived at the target weight I am working towards with my build (6.5Kg without the battery). The biggest difference is the height.

Wheel house 2

2011-12-20T08:55:00.000Z

3 extra sheets of 30thou plastikard has completed the sides of the wheelhouse...

Electrickery

2011-12-18T22:05:00.000Z

After Dads visit for dinner, we had some boat time. I had him check over the drive shafts as one was running a bit noisier than the other, turns out I had the slip collar to close to the end of the outer prop shaft .

As the picture shows the electrickery is in place. The power on / off switch is to the top right of the picture. A thermal cut out can be seen behind the battery. The receiver is velcro fastened to the underside of the cross bar just in front of the battery. Finally the two speed controllers are mounted just inboard of the motors themselves.

This evening I stripped the prop shafts down and filed flats on them so that the grub screws in the universal joints had something to secure too. On reassembly, I made sure they were well lubricated and they are both running sweetly now.

Wheel house

2011-12-16T17:00:00.001Z

I had to stay at home this morning as CSL were booked in to come and make repairs to our sofa. Never one to look a gift horse in the mouth, I cracked on with the wheelhouse that I started yesterday tea time.

The first 2 pictures were taken about 7pm yesterday. They show the lower half of the structure in position. Note the little guy now now has his own tool kit (£2 Ebay) I take help where I can get it !!

Then after some more cutting and sticking some more pictures this dinner time..

The plan is the structure will be fixed in with a removable roof and access panel in the floor.

Next I found a servo in the shed and sorted the rudder controls out, along with fitting the receiver (£12 New off Ebay) and the one speed controller I have.

After binding the receiver to the transmitter the one motor and rudders were tested and worked well.

Having never built a boat before and as this is a "make it up as you go along" design I am very concious this has to float when its finished!! So a test of levels and weights in the bath was called for. I am happy to report that the boat sits level to its intended waterline. Still a little heigh but as its not finished yet that is to be expected. In the picture below the water can just be seen sitting below the bottom pen line. The upper pen line being the deck level.

I then used my scientific method of calculating how much more weight could be added. As can be seen 1.5 litres of water at the front and 0.5 Litres at the back bring the boat to its intended water line which gives me 1.5kg and 0.5kg of model/ballast to add.

This last picture gives quite an impression of the size, as it floats in my bath tub.

While it was in the bath I hooked up the battery, the leads need to be longer for it to sit in its right place as the above picture.

Motors

2011-12-15T07:38:00.001Z

Last year when I was building 1:24 scale trains I had a figure that appeared in many of the pictures. He bacame known as "pointing man" and gained quite a following on some Railway related forums. He can be seen doing his thing in this POST. I would like to introduce you to his larger counterpart, who has of yet has not got a name. For the purpose of demonstrating scale he will probably be seen quite a few times as my boat build progress's. He is an Action Man, acquired from ebay for about £2 and stands roughly 12" (30cm) tall.

As the picture shows things have moved on since the last post. Motors, props and rudders are mounted, and the two main deck areas are cut, the front one is fixed in place. Much of the equipment has come from my Dads "spares box" and some, like the rudders, have been donated by a very generous Bob. (thanks)

On a slightly different note I attended the AGM of Etherow Model Boat Club last night. Thanks to those involved who have named a new Trophy for" the best static model or diorama" in memory of my Mum The Velda Teal Trophy. Mum had been an active member of the club, serving as the general secretary and chief landing stage gardener.

Dad also had some honours, winning the Shield for the years best kit built boat, for his Oil Rig supply ship Aziz

Peter Teal (left) receives award.

Hull setting and cradle

2011-12-03T17:43:00.001Z

In the last post, I outlined plans to build a 1:6 scale work boat. The hull was ordered and arrived on Wednesday. Its well finished including the cut top edge. Nothing was done until Friday night when my Dad came up for his tea, after which we played with various different angles and thoughts. Prior to coming up, he had weighed his Wyeforce Tug which although a different scale, is of a similar physical size and has the same motor set up I plan to use. That weighed in at 6.5Kg minus the battery. So we filled the bath and played boats

As water weighs 1Kg per 1 Litre, I took some 500ml bottles of water up to the bathroom too. My hull weighs 2.2Kg so to match the Tugs weight I would need an additional 4.3KG or 9 bottles of water and a battery. Loaded up with the battery in the centre and 9 water bottles strategically placed to balance it out, it floated beautifully in the bath. A pen mark was put on the bow and stern to mark the water line.

This morning with the water line spotted on the front and back some more work was done. The first job was to get out the laser level, I only had about an hour and a half to spare so didn't think I would get much done.

The level was placed on the sideboard and a line projected over the table. By measuring up from the table top, to the projected line, the table was levelled to create my own "surface table" note the technical use of table mats under the table legs to help this levelling process..

Next the hull was placed upside down on the table and packed up, again using mats, until the line touched the pre marked water line on the bow and stern. This laser line now represents the water line.

To mark this line on the hull would be done using a height gauge, if I had one, so I used a marker pen on a tin of stewing steak, adjusted to height with drinks mats. This was done all round with a gentle pressure on the hull to ensure it wasn't sat twisted. the laser was left on just to check as I went along.

We had decided last night how much higher than the water, the deck was going to be. This line was added after raiding the food cupboard to find a tin of sweetcorn was just right.

My Dad had pointed out the benefits of making a stand as the first job, so that was the next job. I had only planned to mark the lines but it seemed a shame to not carry on with the table set!

I used some conti-board for the uprights. By using 4 tins of baked beans to support the upright over the hull I marked 130mm up from the beans and the hull and a freehand line was drawn that could be cut with the jigsaw.

Note that I left the frame longer each side so it would sit back down on the bean cans, ensuring the straight top edge is parallel to the table. As can be seen the cut is rough and leaves a gap to the hull. I applied masking tape to the hull as a release strip. Then mixed some car body filler, spread it on the support where it contacts the hull and pressed it down, till it sat on hard on the bean cans. This was repeated for the front support and a top plate added.

Once the filler had gone nearly hard ( about 10 mins) the whole thing was turned over and the hull pulled away, the masking tape parted from the filler very well and left an impression of the hull shape on the supports.

The filler squashed out leaving it wider than the wood but was easy to knife to thickness if done before total hardness was achieved.

After peeling the tape of the hull it was then sat back on its perfect fit cradle.

This will be a steady working cradle the pre marked pen lines are now parallel to each other and the table. I will probably make a new cradle with sponge on for when the hull is painted. I am sure old hands at boat building will have much more effective, neat, quicker and accurate methods of doing all this, i admit to making it as I went along!

John

New Project

2011-11-26T15:14:00.000Z

Exciting new project breaking out..... As the winter starts to set in we anticipate missing more days out at the lake sailing and so I have took the bull by the horns and set plans in motion to build a boat of my own. This will of coarse draw on the acquired knowledge of Dad and his club friends. Although pretty confident at scratch building I have currently a very limited knowledge of floating transport!!

Now a normal person my start with a kit or a small boat, Not me. I have always liked the larger scales. So I plan to make a large scale (1:6) small boat.

Here are some pictures of the planned prototype.. It is a Westral Chief

Now when I say Scratch build, I am cheating and purchasing a hull that I have found on Ebay that matches the proportions pretty well. I have paid £45 for it from a seller called Seabreazemodelboats

Its hard to determine its size from the pictures as I don't know how tall the lady is, but the dimensions are 43" x 14"

Although the dimensions give pretty good proportions of length to beam (the prototype is is 24') I realise the shape may not be spot on. That of course fits my general modelling standards... near enough is good enough !

Models ... but boats !

2011-11-20T21:32:00.001Z

Its been a while since I did any model making, and even longer since I posted anything on this blog. I have been blogging in other forms. Just not here !

After a long summer and lots of Hospital visiting my mum passed away in October. This has resulted in my Dad and I spending more time together. It seemed a natural thing to find a way to share our mutual interest in model making. To that end I have taken a few tentative steps back into the shed and more tentative steps into the world of R/C model boats.

To start I have taken on responsibility for one of the beautiful 1:50 scale boats he has made. in order to add a little personality of my own to it, I have been working on a new payload... A shipment of Railway stock !

I am now a member of the Etherow Model Boat Club and we have spent the last few Saturdays together sailing. The other boat in the video is the one he chose to sail for the day, again built by him

Grass clumps

2011-03-13T17:17:00.000Z

You may have noticed by the lack of posts that I haven't been doing much modelling recently ! Real life has kept me pretty busy and I've been spending more time messing with my other, non railway blog RJRdaydreamer.

Last night I wandered down to the shed for a bit of modelling, during the course of the week I had picked up a packet of Noch grass clumps

Individual tufts of grass. A pair of pliers and some wood glue were all that was needed to stick them down, oh and some patience as there were 70 tufts! The first picture is an overview of where most of them ended up.

I found they looked best grouped a little.

They are very soft to the touch so are pretty good between rails as they move easily out of the way of couplers or wheel flanges.

New static page

2011-03-05T21:06:00.000Z

I have been playing with new graphics for a static page on both my blogs... it is now listed here as "RJR on the internet". It looks like this...

John

Running Trains

2011-02-28T06:38:00.000Z

I haven't had a lot of time to spend in the shed of late, but last night wandered down to see what I could inspire myself to make.. Well I got a bit sidetracked if you will excuse the pun. I don't often run trains, I'm much more into making them, but last night I had the video and a spare half hour. Here are the results.....

I think the main distraction from model making is my new found interest in "blogging" about life on my new blog RJRdaydreamer

Aircon

2011-02-20T20:03:00.003Z

Not much modelling has got done this week, the only thing that I have got done is making a batch of Air conditioning units that will populate the flat roof spaces.

They were simple to make, a few thickness's of plasti-card to make up the depth and a picture of an aircon unit printed on sticky labels and stuck on the front.

During the course of the week they will be fitted, photos to follow.

Part of the reason for reduced modelling is an increased interest in my non modelling blog.. rjrdaydreamer.. but I have plans for the coming week in the shed

John

Office block

2011-02-15T22:22:00.001Z

Over the past few days I have been working on a new structure to replace the old brick one that was a recycled model from an earlier layout. It didn't really fit the scene and I don't think it was as good a standard as I would have liked.

The new building.

John
RJR

Fusee

2011-02-10T14:38:00.002Z

Unmarked railroad crossings are often protected by the train crew throwing red flares onto the road before crossing, as per this video.. at 1:19 in

I have been trying to work out how to do this and came up with these

Fibre optic shoelaces :) about £5 of ebay for a pair (2 light units)

hole drilled in the road and the fibre optic rubber "lace" pushed up from underneath, bit of paint and a piece of wire for the flare body..

and here they are in action

John

Photo fest

2011-02-05T20:35:00.000Z

Today the main work was to transfer the ownership of a former Chessie Loco into the hands of RJR branchlines, this will now be working the estate, which will free up the UP loco's.

A glance at the photos will also reveal a couple of fences that have been erected.

John

Waiting at a crossing

2011-02-04T23:35:00.000Z

Chain link fencing

2011-02-02T21:13:00.000Z

Tonight's activity involved erecting some fencing. I've mounted it on a piece of plasticard that is scored to look like paving stones, this allows the fencing to be done on the workbench rather than at the back of the baseboards

More Painting

2011-02-02T15:51:00.001Z

Last night didn't yield massive dividends but more painting was done on the root beer end

I have also posted a new entry on my other non railway blog.

Buildings with Colour

2011-01-31T06:42:00.000Z

Thanks to all of you who ahve taken time to visit my new blog, we are back to the railway business here now
Last night I spent some time painting buildings, I found it quite a challenge to paint large structures without making them look to "bland" The tower block colour was inspired by this building See what you think.

At the other end, a sign, loading bay numbers and yet more building colour

John

Another Blog

2011-01-29T09:02:00.000Z

For those of you that follow this blog, thankyou !!

I plan to continue posting about the railway fun here, but you may be interested to know I have started a second blog that is more about daily life and thoughts relating to it here please pop in and have a browse and if you fancy "FOLLOW" along

John

Outer Loop

2011-01-27T18:28:00.000Z

Using some Birthday present "cash" I purchased 8 lengths of peco flexi yesterday and last night laid the outer loop on the top shelf. it didn't take long but would have been a much easier job if it wasn't in the "eaves" of the shed.

Once laid and connected it was play time.................

Birthday Weekend

2011-01-24T20:50:00.000Z

On Friday after much asking what I wanted for my birthday, Mrs RJR suggested we visit the local model shop to get me something.. Well it would have been impolite to refuse.... So half an hour later I came out with a very nice Bachmann 166. It will make a nice distraction as it circles the top shelf.

I set it going and settled to some modelling

The job in hand was a new structure for the main layout.

John

Track upstairs

2011-01-18T19:10:00.000Z

Last night I laid the track for the inner circuit on the upper level. It is set back from the front edge by 1/2" You may also notice that the timber for the shelf has been given a coat or 2 of Ronseal Oak rubbing wax.

On the opposite side a small piece of track is placed where the outer loop will sit, this leaves just about 1.5" for some very basic scenery.

I'm quite pleased with how it has turned out and hope to get power to it tonight.

Top Shelf material

2011-01-15T21:42:00.000Z

Since my last post and the return to some modelling, I have been mulling over a couple of things.

1) How often to post blog entries.

2) How could I get a continuous run into the layout.

Number 1. Having not posted really for the best part of a month, coming back to it now, I have come to the conclusion that showing almost daily developments is hard to keep up for me and shows little progress in return for the readers effort to look. So I have decided this year to post perhaps weekly. Hopefully each time you look now, there will be significant changes to see.

Number 2, well I have come up with all sorts of ideas ranging from simple to extreme. What seemed the easiest, was to go out of the front of the shed from one side and loop back in on the other side. In effect closing the existing U shape design into an oval. This would mean having an outside section of track, which I could live with, but the problem was the outside section would loop around the door, creating a duck under before even getting in and also problems with door opening. In the end I discarded this idea.

I gave some thought as to why I wanted to achieve this, which I concluded was just to see trains running while I pottered. I have always come back to this desire, last time I ended up having an N gauge dogbone !

So with revised "why" I came up with a revised plan, I didn't need the continuous run to be part of the existing layout. But if I built it under what I have it is really to low to see or work on, the logical answer was to go up...

So today I have created a 6" shelf around the top of the back scene, this will have an oval of track on it. Scenery will be limited but I'm sure there will be some. The scenery will be somewhat generic though, as I still have a mix of HO, OO and even a couple of On30 items.

The price I have had to pay, is a bit more of a duck to get out of the door, although at 6'1" I had to duck to get out of a shed door anyway.

At the other end the new shelf is deep enough to still store my G scale locos at the back of it, but I may make some additional changes here. Perhaps a shelf a bit higher for one of them, and a matching one at the other end over the door, for the second.

Whilst I had the saws out, I decided to reface the fronts of the lower layout with new valances, as the original ones were tatty and didn't reach all the way to the door.

The last picture also shows the starts of a new building complex that will mask the trains going off stage and under the worktop on the right side of the shed.

Im back in the shed (but its raining in there)

2011-01-09T21:51:00.001Z

Having had a Christmas break from modelling, mainly due to the extreme cold in the shed, but partly due to a reduced mojo, I'm easing my self back into it.

The last couple of days I have been doing a bit of ballasting on the front dummy track in front of the silos and adding colour to the buildings made so far.

I am also starting some experiments with ambient sounds. The plan is to load several mp3 files onto my blackberry that can be played in the shed through a set of speakers.

In this video the sounds are of a real GP38 playing on a loop just through the speaker on the phone behind the camera.

I have also restored my laptop to its as new condition and as a consequence loaded some new video making software, this video was just a play with the "rain" effect

Merry Christmas

2010-12-23T17:14:00.002Z

Dummy track (not a track for dummies)

2010-12-08T21:24:00.000Z

It must be a record for me ... 5 days without a blog update... As well as being VERY cold in the shed (its currently -4 with the heater on !) I have also just not really in the mood for modelling. These urges come and go I guess.

Tonight I managed 45 mins before getting too cold and loosing interest.

I have added a new track at the front of the silos.

I have toyed with this idea for a while but couldn't work out how to connect it in to the existing plan, it seemed like too big an industry to not have its own spur. Then i realised it didn't need to be connected ..

The track serves 2 purposes

1) it is a scenic addition.

2) it doubles as a great camera track..

At some point I will build a custom camera truck with a low centre well and screw fixing to allow the camera to swivel.

in the mean time before evacuating the shed for warmer climes I did one test video.

John

snow

2010-12-03T14:04:00.000Z

Stopped at the end of the road on the way home this dinner time

Got to come home early as I set of at 5:45 this morning to be in Liverpool for a meeting. Not sure how cold it was when I set of but the local radio station reported -10 in central Manchester our nearest city, normally it 4 - 5degrees colder here. hen my wife did the school run at 8:30 her car was reading -11

Will be happy when its all gone !

Tug Boat Paint job

2010-12-01T21:36:00.000Z

I have not done a great deal of modelling this week, partly due to other commitments, partly due to the cold weather and this last couple of days, due to the path down to the shed being buried under 6-7" of snow.
I have been tinkering with a paint job on the river push tug, sat at the dinner table.

Photo Stacking

2010-11-27T14:34:00.000Z

I've blogged about this before, but I am still impressed by the photo stacking software available from Helicon Focus. I originally came across it on Chris Nevards blog and tried the "free" version which gives you a limited time to use the software. With my recent return to a smaller scale I found the challenge of taking photos that are all in focus hard, my compact camera has manual settings but even so I can only adjust the F stop to a maximum of F7.6

The basic principal of photo staking is to take several pictures of the same subject with as near as possible the same centre point but different focal points. The more pictures you take the more depth you can achieve.

These 2 pictures illustrate the point.. In the first the camera was focused on the loco, with the view finder square having its top left corner corner lined up with the top front of the cab.

Note how the loco is in focus but the weeds in the foreground are not. In the next picture taken straight after , I rotated the camera and selected the weeds as the centre of focus,half depressing the shutter button and keeping it depressed I rotated back so the view finder square having its top left corner corner lined up with the top front of the cab. Fully depressing the shutter then takes the picture. Note now the weeds are in focus but the loco is not.

Finally the two pictures are loaded onto the laptop and Helicon Focus is opened, import the 2 pictures and hit the "run button" this is the fascinating bit, without any help it s process's both images and picks the in focus bits to combine into one picture, giving this .....

Now much more is in focus, giving in my opinion a more realistic picture. The weeds on the right are still a bit blurred, I could have took a 3rd picture with them as the centre of focus and "stacked" the 3 of them which would have cured this.

Along with playing with the computer I have also been working on the foreground of this side of the layout, in an escape from my norm i have gone for something big in the foreground, it makes taking pictures harder but I want the railway to look like its "in" the scenery rather than in front of it.

tug boat

2010-11-23T22:56:00.002Z

When you have a train barge ...

you really need a Push tug.. So out with the plasti-card my Dad had emailed me a site with lots of different types HERE

John

Happy Birthday Rachel

2010-11-20T13:30:00.000Z

Rachels Birthday party

spotting cars

2010-11-18T07:56:00.000Z

New video added to YouTUBE

Ditch lights

2010-11-16T21:32:00.000Z

You may or may not have noticed that last nights weathering did not include any locos, thats because the plans include fitting ditch lights and i decided any mods would be easier to disguise with the weathering.

I ordered some Surface mount LEDs from Express models at the weekend and they arrived today. At first when i opened the packet, saw the resistors and then wondered were the LEDs were, all they had sent was a black plastic strip???

Then I realised that was the packing and it had six LEDs in it !!!!!!!! you may have missed the loose one in the last picture so I have circled it in red in the next picture

Solder that, "your having a giraffe!" But as you can see from the loco behind the story does have a "happy ending"

but I set to work, a tiny piece of PCB was found a cut made across the middle and the LED soldered on to to tinned blobs either side of the cut, at least I had somewhere to solder the wires now.

Resistor legs were used as LED connections and taken through the body to easier to handle wires behind.

Both were then connected to the common and the green decoder wires so they come on as function 1 (headlight is function 0)

As you can imagine its hard to decide which side of the LED is positive so it was a bit of trial and error.

Body back together and onto the track with some grey touch up paint

Some weathering and Hoses should hide the colour mismatch in the greys and possibly some filler to square up the lamp housings.

The big moment, switch on, you would expect them to be a bit tame given the size...............

There must be a CV even on a Hornby decoder to get function output 1 to flash, but that's a job for another day

John

Light Weather

2010-11-15T22:15:00.001Z

Not looking for a worn out falling to bits look I have applied a light base coat to my cars tonight as the start of the weathering process.

Just noticed on the last picture the left end of the roof walk needs pushing down !

John

2010-11-13T21:22:00.001Z

This afternoon I set to work on the building at the end of the downtown side of the layout. The plan was to make the straight track look like it carries on through the buildings, using a mirror. I will let you decide if it works ! I got a bit carried away a built more and more.

The mirror needed packing to get it square on to the rails.

Then I built the low relief building across the two forward tracks, with a corridor connection to hide the mirror top.

With the lines looking straight in the mirror, I can now pose a shot with one loco looking like a 2 loco pair.

Next job, reclad the end of the recycled building and start a truck loading bay

Then build the units to sit on the loading bay, I was on a roll by this point

Stuck in place

To give an overall view ...

Finally a staged shot ( I confess to use soem photo stacking software to get the depth of field in this last one)

John

Could have been a disaster

2010-11-12T21:00:00.002Z

Every now and again something unexpected goes wrong !!! In this case the PVA / Water for the ballast had found a joint in the MDF. Which caused the edges on both sides of the joint to swell.

The joint runs back to just behind the points which resulted in them lifting, all the track work was on the same level, not any more !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Luckily every thing had risen evenly which means stock can no longer unexpectedly roll out of the spurs :) everything runs well over it and its quite a gradual change.

So it staying as it is.

In general though the ballasting has gone well.

John

Town side progress

2010-11-08T07:55:00.001Z

My layout seems to be a game of two halves, to borrow a metaphor from other peoples hobby. Work has mainly concentrated on the industrial town side or the right hand side of the shed. Last night I set to with some more vinyl tiles and some ballast.

How the evening started

Having read Octobers Railroad Modeller there is and interesting article at the back about freight yards that have roadways between every other track, so I thought that would make a nice contrast to the team track on the "other side" of the shed.

This next shot shows how the underside of the tile is pared away to clear the rail chairs

Ballast added but not glued

PVA / Water added along with some weeds..

I'm not sure about the building, its recycled from a previous On30 layout on which it looked small, it may look to big / tall here?

John

Sprayed track - RMweb

2010-11-07T14:27:00.000Z

By way of a test I am seeing how the "blog this" function works for this post..

Sprayed track - RMweb

Forcast: Blue Skies Light Cloud

2010-11-03T17:57:00.001Z

Looking at the last batch of pictures I realised the back scene's were a mess, with the remnants of former hills, and a very white look. They didn't give the look of a sunnier clime.

So :
1 tub of dulux blue left over from the boys bedroom
1 tub of white poster paint
1 brush and 40mins of dabbing gives .. On the right

On the left

I think its made a significant difference, the shed certainly feels sunnier :)

While in an artistic mood I did some work on the storm drain, last night I had sprayed it all with some "porcelain" plasticote. First job tonight was to cut a piece of plastic to a scale 10' and then use it to mark out the drain sections with a pencil. Then some Humbrol "concrete" acrylic added to suit. This next picture shows the spray base coat only on the left and some acrylic brushwork on the right.

Stepping back, you will see more sections need brushwork

At some future point it will get overgrown with a trickle of water in the bottom and some junk?

Road and Storm Drain

2010-11-01T21:13:00.000Z

Progress on layout 2

Its only base colours at the moment but you get the idea?

John

Layout part B

2010-10-31T09:17:00.001Z

Its been a hectic week with one thing and another but last night I got some free time in the shed :)

Here is what I got up to .. my layout now has too sides.

The buildings are just things I had in the "recycle me" box but they give the general Idea that there will be some low relief going on along the back behind the road.

Some missed pictures from the beginning of the week..

building progress

Gloss varnish to give the water some shine

Barge with a coat of paint (I need a tug now !)

More Progress

2010-10-24T09:29:00.001+01:00

With a house full of teenagers last night, the only sensible thing to do was retreat to the shed.... Got plenty done and have realised that getting pictures of these smaller scales is considerably harder than G in the garden. But I thing I'm getting the hang of it. No list of done this, dome that Ill just let the pictures talk

Favourite picture of the evening

And finally came across this via a post on RMweb...

Enjoy your Sunday !

Kadee and magnets

2010-10-20T22:23:00.000+01:00

My Neodymium magnets arrived today, so I have spent the evening on a crash course in setting and aligning Kadee couplers, having never used them before.

After a lot of trial and even more error I finally found the best position for the magnets in relation to the couplers. I had done some internet research which had got me to the point of buying the rod magnets (3mm x 6mm) I did get to the point of wondering if I should have just bought proper Kadee magnets but as my 25 magnets only cost £2.20 getting them to work was worth the learning curve.

And here are the working positioning, 3mm holes drilled and the magnets inserted, the big problem now is spotting them in operation.

as the coupler approaches the coupler moves to the side

I have had to straighten the headshunt as with the curve I just couldn't get the couplers to work

I have set up the magnet points

At first I thought i could just have magnets at the closest point in the picture but as the headshunt only fits loco and 1 car I had to fit magnets in the far positions to be able to slit strings of cars in the spurs to bring them back out.

John

Let the ballasting Begin !

2010-10-19T06:49:00.000+01:00

I started the dreaded ballasting last night. To be fair it can be quite relaxing if you are in the right mood.

John

Team track - inlaid track

2010-10-17T14:54:00.000+01:00

I believe in US parlance a team track is a shared spur allowing local industries to load and unload rail road boxcars, see I'm even learning new phrases (more info HERE)
My front 2 lines are planned for just such a purpose, which requires some inlaid track, I've tried various methods, but decided I would go for low mess this time round. Out came the B&Q self adhesive vinyl tiles.

I also spent some more time loco improving

Remember this,

That became this

After todays work

John

New Workbench

2010-10-15T17:36:00.000+01:00

I found the bargain I had been waiting for to make my workbench from. A local DIY shop (3ways in Denton) often has bargains. Today I picked up 2 18mm tall kitchen unit sides for £3.99 each. When put together I get a 36mm worktop

So in typical builder mode I got my days work done and had an early finish. With a bit of timber to make a batten along the back wall and the side the new "worktop" when sawn to length just fell into place.

As 90% of the time I stand to model its a a nice height which will stop me getting an bad back ! I can still slot my short workbench in at layout level if I want to sit and model.

Its nice and tidy at the moment. and I have a home for my favourite G scale stock

With the worktop in place the decision of the best type of scenic break was almost made for me, it almost looked like a freeway straight away. So four lengths of timber were cut to 4" and used as bridge supports topped with a plywood road surface.

The bridge makes a nice place to watch the trains from

All in all a successfully hour in the shed

John

Wiring and track sprayed

2010-10-12T22:09:00.000+01:00

Cant say its thrilling work but the track needs power so it needs doing, I don't mind soldering and when all said and done I served my time at GEC as an Electrical/ electronic engineer so it should be fun, but its one of those has to be done jobs !!

The layout will be DCC so its pretty much a case of making sure I have power to every spur, now I know my method is not the "done thing" but it works for me, I find no pleasure in sitting under the workbench soldering droppers and bus wires. My own experiences has been that for a layout in a 8 x6' shed, any voltage drop caused by having no bus wires is negligible. So all I do is solder a pair of thin link wires to each point as this...

On link red circled rail to red circled rail and like wise on link between the blue circles, you can just about see them. This means which ever track the insufrog blades select all spurs are live. I than just have a single feed to the neck of the yard. More or less DCC with 2 wires. The main thing is it works.

Once each point has

been linked as above the whole lot got a spray with sleeper grime.

I'm pretty happy with the "artistic, sweeping curves"

In the last picture the observant that some stock has arrived, the post man delivered 3 boxcars I won on ebay..

They are bigger than I had expected, yes I know 50' in 1:87 is something I could should have worked out but there we go, the only problem I have found is the mocked up barge is 60mm too short to hold 2 cars on each track, I guess I'll make the proper one bigger.

John

Chessie System 4167

2010-10-10T20:35:00.000+01:00

Ive spent a pleasant evening exploring the contents of the bag of detailing bits that came with my Ebay Athern loco. It would seem having to add the extras (like handrails) is not unusual, this has turned out to be a good buy as looking at the wheels it has never been out of the box

Anyway here is how it looked before

After adding details like, handrails, horn, headlight lenses, number board lenses, bogie details, couplers and hoses.

It makes a big difference to the appearance, the parts were well made (stanchions and rails individual steel pieces)

Just out of interest I googled "Chessie 4167" and came up with this

A bit dirtier than mine !

Track laying

2010-10-09T22:24:00.003+01:00

I've spent time popping in and out of the shed today, tweaking and moving track around to get to a point I'm reasonably happy with.

So here we are, from the dock end

New layout

2010-10-09T08:22:00.001+01:00

Well guys I have been quiet for a bit, but that's because I have been hatching a plan :)

So here is the new shed plan

Layout space on each side connected by a 180 hidden curve under a new workbench right across the back wall.

After a massive tidy out

In this picture I have fitted a shelf for some G stock on the back, but not installed the worktop that will form the new workbench, Im waiting for a bargain :)

I am now playing with track plans for the first side (left) which will include a rail barge/float bridge

Ebay has provided the first motive power (more on the way) the purists need to look away now as Im taken with both chessie and UP liveries at the moment

With another UP GP on the way

John

New Dawn

2010-10-05T10:25:00.000+01:00

Just had one of those hectic type weeks in life, didint get a lot of modelling done and what I did do didnt get time to post an entry.

Unusually Im at hoem on a Tuesday morning at 10.00am something I ate over the weekend didnt agree so Ive been feeling sorry for myself since yesterday morning. Anyway I should be up to working this afternoon.

Update.

As the winter approaches its time to turn my thoughts to models for indoors. With Autumn truly here, the leaves from the neighbours trees play havoc with outdoor running and I cant be bothered getting cold and wet to move them till they have all fallen.

I have had to have a serious think about what I want to do in the shed. Building 2' long locos on a 2' long worktop is not ideal. so as most pictures show the locos are often constructed on the flat section in front of the n gauge layout. I have so many bits of things on the go it becomes self defeating. It was great when I was into exhibiting modules but that chapter of my modelling has come to a close.
What do I really like about railways??
Building large locos mainly, but it is nice to have a working layout on the go.
What scale ??
1:24 or G for scratch building locos but as for layouts,
N is just to small, it gives the chance to run longer trains in scenery but little modelling.
On30 is a touch big for in my small shed.
G is far to big for a working layout.
So that leaves OO or rather HO

The way forward.

I have decided to sell off the N gauge, which didnt take long with one advert on RMweb. and disband the N gauge layout. I'm trying to sell the On30 modules. and I may well strip the G scale indoor module for parts.

I am going to build a new workbench across the back of the shed where the viaduct was, which will give me nearly 6' of worktop width. The viaduct trackbed will stay under the workbench as a hidden line, the space around it used for storage. That leaves an open space down each side of the shed for a layout connected by the curve that was the viaduct.

What to model, well I have a fair bit of PECO OO track in store which will be used to build the new layout.

American standard gauge (Union Pacific) out of the box rolling stock, I've been there before, but what goes around comes around. My Paypal funds have been bolstered by the sale of the N gauge and a few Ebay items are on their way including...

How the shed looks at the moment

John

Class 20 first run video

2010-09-25T20:41:00.001+01:00

Today I gave the 20 its first test run, fortunately it worked perfectly first time. With hindsight I should probably given it a test run during earlier constructions phases, but all is well that ends well..

And the video

Light coat of weathering

2010-09-23T22:10:00.000+01:00

The handrails are now finished and painted, including those either side of the doors. I then gave it a light dusting of sleeper grime to start the weathering process.

John

Control Circuit for the 20

2010-09-23T07:59:00.001+01:00

KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) well that's the theory. So the control for the 20 is more or less the same as the 25, a motor, batteries and a switch. In fact this is a little more complicated in that the switch is DPDT with a centre off position, so this loco can go in reverse !!

A rare few shots of the underside... Note that there are a pair of holes at either end for the bogies to pivot on, for static pictures I use the external pair but this reduces the turning circle due to the front of the bogie fouls the body slightly. The inner set of pivots gives a little more clearance.

All the electricary, the connector block is for the wires from the motor bogie to go into

The wheels are obviously "under gauge" but that is disguised when its the other way up as the bogie frames are wider.

Finally I added some door handles

John

Handrails for the class 20

2010-09-21T21:40:00.001+01:00

I've been trying to decide on the best (read cheapest) way of making handrails with brackets, and finally settled on plastic rod.

Start with several short and long lengths

Then after filling a notch in the end of the long pieces a short piece is glued across to make a "T"

When dry the cross bar of the "T" is filed to be flush with the leg, at this point it doesn't look like "T" anymore (see the one on its own on the right)

After drilling holes in the body to push the hand rail holder in the rail is threaded through the ends

The hand rails on the face were much easy, just bend and fit into pre drilled holes

John

Details

2010-09-19T08:54:00.000+01:00

Slowly adding the details, glazing, wipers, dividers on side windows domino dots bits and bobs under the headcode.

John

Orange Stripe

2010-09-16T20:50:00.000+01:00

It may not seem like a big job, but it wasn't half fiddly !!

I have applied the orange line round the top, I considered painting it but chickened out. So I stopped off at my local sign makers, and cadged an off cut of orange vinyl tape, its self adhesive and just needed cutting into 1.5mm strips.

Note that Pointing Man has turned up too !!!!

John

Making buffers in plasticard

2010-09-13T21:33:00.001+01:00

When I built my 25, I struggled to come up with a way of cutting plasticard into discs. It had me stumped for days ! and then I came up with a real simple solution... 4pence tooling :)

Step One
Super glue four 1 pence pieces to a strip of styrene.

Step Two
Using a blade score straight lines round the penny, then with a pair of pliers snap the surplus off. You need to hold the penny to the card.

Step Three
Dress the edge with a file using the penny as a file guide (yes you may damage the penny !)

Step Four
A final tidy with a nail emery board. and the front edge is given a slight rad.

Finally
Flip over and solvent weld a tube on the back, this tube has an Outside diameter the same as the Inside diameter of the one the cab

Then its a push fit onto the body

John

Railfreight Logo

2010-09-12T17:51:00.001+01:00

The white sticky labels have been in the printer again this evening !

This time to make some Railfreight cab side logos.

I have also applied numbers. I had some white vinyl letters that I used on the 25 so rather than getting black ones I used a permanent marker to colour them in, before peeling them of the backing sheet!

This side has also had the white window frame added but the black needs some tidying up at the edges still.

Logo on the 20

2010-09-11T22:37:00.000+01:00

This evening I have been playing with a logo, I already had a small version for the 25 which I enlarged to the right size. I then inverted the colours so the bit I wanted was white leaving the background grey. Finally I printed it on some white paper, self adhesive labels.

These were stuck on and given a coat of satin spray varnish to seal them.

John

paint job on the 20

2010-09-11T17:08:00.001+01:00

The basic colours are now in place, but will need some rework, in particular the red which is still somewhat transparent.

Following the yellow, the next colour up was the Railmatch Grey for the sides, which like the yellow was applied from a rattle can in very thin coats "force" dried with a hair drier, then another coat applied until an even coverage was achieved. The grey went on last night.

This morning the sides were masked a the lighter grey roof was done (actually primer grey) several proto pictures show the livery as having the same grey on the sides as on the roof, but the picture I am working from HERE shows the lighter roof.

Early afternoon the red stripe was added with a brush, the black was also applied by brush, both these colours need a bit of tidying up for depth and edges, but I'm not going to push my luck to far, it really needs a chance to all harden of now.

Next job is to work on some "arrows of indecision" for on the sides.

Yellow ends

2010-09-09T21:08:00.001+01:00

First step to a new paint job... Yellow ends

I need some railfreight grey now !

Last coat of Prime (I hope)

2010-09-07T20:40:00.003+01:00

I haven't made many posts of late. I decided it wasn't that interesting to show the results of rubbing, priming, rubbing priming !!! As I have been trying to get a surface finish I was happy with. I think the other reason for all the rubbing and priming was to put off doing the next bit. I wouldn't say I had lost my modelling Mojo, more I had come to a point of the build that I couldn't work out the best way forward. The circular fan grill on the top !

The 25 I di has quite a chunky grill, the 20 proto has a fine grill with a circular frame Mmmmmm....

Then it came to me when I was cutting a piece of drain pipe today, the 50mm circular frame could be a slice of 50mm water pipe. As for the grill I started looking in my garage and found just what I needed, some plaster board jointing skrim :)

Glued on the top with a cross support made from a couple of styrene strips

Then a quick rub down and wash followed by what i hope is a final coat of primer.

Once its all dry I can now move on.. Yellow then I need to get some Railfreight grey

East Lancs Railway 55 022

2010-09-04T18:17:00.000+01:00

An afternoon at East Lancs Railway.

Its Friday !

2010-09-03T21:42:00.000+01:00

Its been a somewhat hectic week in the land of RJR. Work wise I have teamed up with a friend for a few days to collaborate on a office remodel in the centre of Manchester. Its been quite a slog. Removing the partition walls went pretty quickly but carrying the debris out to the skip was a killer, We both had other jobs to keep on top of, so a couple of evenings were spent working else where independently.

As a consequence very little modelling has been done in the shed. But on a modelling note after some phone discussions I visited a model making company in the Manchester area this morning to look at their set up and discuss doing contract work for them, when they are busy. The meeting went well and I am excited to get involved in the coming weeks. It will be nice to have the odd day modelling as a job, mixed in with my normal day to day full size construction work.

John

Class 20 outdoors

2010-08-29T21:53:00.000+01:00

The primer shows faults that need filling ans sanding, and when that's done the best way to see if you have got them all is to take it outside in natural daylight.

There wasn't something right about the louvre doors, and I realised the frame work needed to stand out more. So a bit of rework was done.

John

class 20 gets a coat of primer

2010-08-29T14:59:00.001+01:00

If you fancy a change from looking at railway blogs, try out my Dads blog, he has just started building a large scale narrow boat model here

John

ELR

2010-08-27T13:18:00.002+01:00

Just happened to be passing the ELR at the right time to see a train depart.

Sent using BlackBerry® from Orange

Class 20 update

2010-08-25T21:42:00.001+01:00

Not posted any model updates due to holidays and other commitments, but Spent an hour down the shed tonight and added to some of the previously unposted work.

John

Life imitating art ?

2010-08-24T21:44:00.001+01:00

When I first painted my Garratt Red I wasn't sure there was a prototype to match, I just liked the colour. But it would seem as of recently, the Welsh Highland Railway have a Red loco in their fleet?

Is this life imitating art ??

First up in this video collection is mine, then the WHR video

Now I am not daft enough to thing they saw my video and thought "that's a nice colour" but its nice to know that there truly is a prototype for everything. Sometimes you just have to wait for it to turn up.

Videos

2010-08-22T18:43:00.000+01:00

As promised here are some videos of the passing trains !

Freight..

Passenger..

Adrenalin Quarry Zip wire

2010-08-22T17:14:00.000+01:00

Ruth and Jake on a very big zip wire In Cornwall

Trains and Planes

2010-08-20T09:42:00.001+01:00

We decided to let the train take the strain, after all we are in an apartment almost on the station platform.

The outbound journey from Lostwithiel to Truro went well if a little crowded on a pair of 153's. Coming back was a different matter, the plan was Truro to Par where it was "all change" to pick up the Newquay to London HST for one stop. Problem the HST had failed on the single track line from ,Newquay, but they got it going and it did arrive an hour late.

For evening we drove to Fowey regatta to see the red arrows display in the rain, that due to rain and mist became a single "fly by"

Sent using BlackBerry® from Orange

Lostwithiel

2010-08-17T17:32:00.001+01:00

Early this morning we had visits from sheds in both freightliner and EWS liveries. With the apartments being right next to lostwithiel station on the mainline there is also a fair amount of passanger traffic during the day time.

Pictures show the apartments which have been reworked from former Brunel designed rolling stock buildings. From both the track and river sides the roof vents can be seen.

Also a picture of a couple of afternoon visitors.

Sent using BlackBerry® from Orange

Beach

2010-08-16T17:08:00.001+01:00

Sitting on the beach, eldest R and Mrs RJR taking in the sun.
Sent using BlackBerry® from Orange

St Ives

2010-08-16T15:55:00.003+01:00

Sitting on the beach at St. Ives, enjoying the sunshine and watching the occasional train pull into the station. It would seem this holiday features quite a few trains. The apartment we are staying in is the former IKB carriage works in Loswithial. This morning we were woken by a class 66 passing light loco through the station, which is about 30' from the bedroom window !

Then a 57 pulling the cornish riviera sleeper train. The pictures are taken from our loft bedroom.

Later the 66 made a pass with a rake of clay wagons, but the video won't upload to YouTube mobile.

New loco - class 20

2010-08-10T22:06:00.000+01:00

Yesterday evening (Monday) I started on a new loco a class 20 5 hours in this is where I am up to..

Class 25 and Garrett

2010-07-28T17:31:00.002+01:00

Last nights running session,

John

Black and white pictures of 25 196

2010-07-24T11:58:00.001+01:00

After making the last post I wondered if converting a couple of the pictures to greyscale (black and white) would make them look any better ??

John

Buffer beam details

2010-07-24T11:13:00.001+01:00

After collecting lots of odds and ends of various sizes of wire and rubber tube, along with some sprue offcuts and plasticard scraps I finally got round to making some buffer beam details.

After a coat of black paint with orange picked out for the MU cables and some silver on the ends they dont look too bad ?

John

Coach in blue and class 25 face details

2010-07-23T12:14:00.000+01:00

Numbers and face details. Windscreen wipers and lamp brackets, overhead warning signs and blue star coupling compatibility logos. Along with a coat of BR blue the first 2 compartments of the coach have some glazing now too.

John

Stavros S Niarchos

2010-07-15T21:48:00.000+01:00

My blog entry on the 6th of this month told of how my eldest daughter set sail from Newcastle as part of the crew of a Tall Ship. After 12 days of travelling, which included a stops in Holland and Ipswich and several days in the middle of the North Sea, she has now returned.

Yesterday (Wednesday) we drove down to London to collect her, The ship sailed up the River Thames and under Tower Bridge which was quite a sight, especially as they had the youth crew climb up into the rigging. Once under Tower Bridge they moored against HMS Belfast for the night. As parents we had a tour of the ship which was accessed from HMS Belfast, then we left them for the evening for their final evening which included some shore leave, then a last night sleeping on board.

Joanne and I stayed down the river in Greenwich so made use of the VERY fast Clipper water bus service.

Some sections of the ride were faster than other and the drivers had an unusual style of not slowing for stops until the last minute then slamming into reverse, a bit white knuckle :)

details in grey

2010-07-12T06:41:00.000+01:00

I love a good coat of primer, everything just starts to look that bit more solid..

Details have started being added now, which generally means raiding the scrap box for anything that looks even slightly like a bit on a prototype photo.

The wire grab handles from the previous blog entry are on too, along with a battery box.

Handles and Hinges

2010-07-08T22:07:00.000+01:00

The best bit of any model is adding the details , well its the bit I like best anyway.

Last night I added the starts of the hinges, today they have been shaped a bit and some notches filed in to make them a little more hinge like.

I have also made some door handles that need a little more shaping, and the door stops.

Finally I have bent up some welding wire to make the grab handles

John

2010-07-06T07:44:00.000+01:00

Most blog posts here are railway related but now and again you get an insight into life at the Teals !

On Sunday we took our eldest daughter Rachel (16) to Newcastle where she boarded the tall ship Stavros S Niarchos for a 12 day all expenses paid adventure as part of a 48 strong youth crew. She had been chosen as the departing Head Girl from her Secondary school, along with Chris the Head Boy, to represent the School.

http://sailing-ships.oktett.net/753.html

Each year HSBC bank sponsor 48 youth from around the country to join the tall ships crew on a "voyage of discovery" After an afternoons training on Sunday the ship set sail for Holland on Monday morning and during the coming 12 days will make its way down to London. We will be going to watch it sail up the Thames under Tower Bridge a week tomorrow. Clicking on the link below will give a real time map position for the ship.

Ship Tracking

John

RJR Models

cropped pictures

Swim Platform

Handrails

Deck Steps

Painted Deck

Painting the hull

Colours

Gone Fishing

Paint

Bits and Bobs

PAINT

Wheelhouse update

The Big Day

Motor and stability Tests

Wheel house 2

Electrickery

Wheel house

Motors

Hull setting and cradle

New Project

Models ... but boats !

Grass clumps

New static page

Running Trains

Aircon

Office block

Fusee

Photo fest

Waiting at a crossing

Chain link fencing

More Painting

Buildings with Colour

Another Blog

Outer Loop

Birthday Weekend

Top Shelf Video

Track upstairs

Top Shelf material

Im back in the shed (but its raining in there)

Merry Christmas

Dummy track (not a track for dummies)

snow

Tug Boat Paint job

Photo Stacking

tug boat

Happy Birthday Rachel

spotting cars

Ditch lights

Light Weather

Could have been a disaster

Town side progress

Sprayed track - RMweb

Forcast: Blue Skies Light Cloud

Road and Storm Drain

Layout part B

More Progress

Kadee and magnets

Let the ballasting Begin !

Team track - inlaid track

New Workbench

Wiring and track sprayed

Chessie System 4167

Track laying

New layout

New Dawn

Class 20 first run video

Light coat of weathering

Control Circuit for the 20

Handrails for the class 20

Details

Orange Stripe

Making buffers in plasticard

Railfreight Logo

Logo on the 20

paint job on the 20

Yellow ends

Last coat of Prime (I hope)

East Lancs Railway 55 022

Its Friday !