A deviaton of gauge!

Hmm, I seem to have acquired an out-of-gauge wagon ...!

It is from KBScale, previously the Roy C Link range of industrial narrow gauge products in 0-14. Each time I walked past the KBScale stand at EXPO-NG I found it harder to resist, and ended up picking up a trial set of wagon and a length of track. This is the same kit that Phil Parker described on his blog a little while back.

The truth is that I have long admired the Roy Link range, I dusted off my Industrial Narrow Gauge Manual and found the invoice for it tucked inside ... from 1995! But 0-14 is very much a specialist scale, there is nothing ready-to-run, not even track, although KBScale make some track parts. As someone who has never made my own track (although I did make up some quarry track in 009 once, it was never operational), and uses commercial chassis, this would seem and odd choice of scale.

But there is something appealing about tiny industrial trains, skip wagons, internal combustion locos that look like they were made in a shed (and often were), a very purposeful and no-frills approach to railways. And while Nigel Lawton has shown that these can be modelled in 009, since I am clearly no watch-maker, and part of the point of modelling such an industrial railway is including the detail, to me 0-14 is the obvious scale.

So does this represent a change in modelling direction? No, probably not. But a new project? Well, watch this space ...

Train Set - Part 1

With my little boy's 4th birthday coming up we thought it would be nice to get him a train set; a Hornbly Thomas set has been obtained from the bay of e's. However it won't last long being laid on the floor, nor is it likely to get played with often if it is a lot of trouble to set up. Really the track needs to be laid on a board which can be got out when required, but we have no where to store a large enough board.

The plan I came up with is for a folding board that should fit under his bed; it is 5'6" by 4' and folded it is 2'9" by 4' by about 9" deep. The board has to be strong in order to hinge, but not too heavy. I decided to save weight by using a double-skinned design of 34mm x 18mm timber (sold for door jambs) covered in 3mm ply. Yes, 3mm ... it needs lots of bracing (as shown, about 10' of timber was used) but even so the total thickness of ply is half that traditionally used. (Hint, get ply from a local timber merchant, they'll cut it to size which saved me the bother, and meant I could fit it in the car!)

It's not exactly light, but for the size of board it is manageable, and both much lighter and stronger than traditional board designs. As the frame has ply top and bottom it is incredibly strong - it will not twist! The concern was that the 3mm ply may not be thick enough to be leaned on, hence the extra supporting blocks seen in the first photo. In fact I can kneel on the board so it should be fine! A 6mm top would be stronger but of course, heavier ...

The hinges are of the paste-table type from a local hardware store, attached to uprights in the corners of the board, other uprights act as stops. The outer edge of the board is faced in 5mm foamed PVC, which was free from the marketing department at work, offcuts of advertising boards! This fascia reinforces the hinges and stops. The pictures should make it clear.

The last picture shows what could be fitted onto the board. The train set came with (surprisingly) 3rd radius curves, a second radius oval can be fitted inside. The outer oval is positioned to allow a platform to fit on the outside on one side of the board, with a siding outside the oval on the other, obviously plenty of space inside for sidings. There is space for a short straight between the end curve and a length of flexi-track over the board joint, a 6' long board would allow a double-straight (or two points) either side of the joint but that would be too big to fit under the bed. At one end the fascia is raised to allow for a tunnel.

EXPO NG 2010

Once again the last Saturday of October is a highlight of the narrow-gauge modeller's year, yes it is EXPO-NG time. This year I was "helping" to man the 009 society stand with the Sussex Downs group, this consists of a showcase (well, two this year), a simple roundy-roundy track to add interest, some posters and leaflets, and a couple of us "demonstrating". I took along a few coach kits and made a start, when I went to look round Phil Savage couldn't help himself and carried on (meaning some real progress was actually made!). Here he is at work, with Paul Davies pretending not to know him.



I had been really looking forward to seeing Rae Bridge, part of Ted Polet's Craigcorrie & Dunalistair line, which was one of the inspiring layouts for me in my early days of 009. Having been extensively rebuilt in recent years the model was superb, and it was great to see Ted's work first hand, as Ted is Dutch so rarely exhibits in the UK.


Another superb layout also came from the Netherlands, Henk Wust is becoming known as a master scenic modeller (previous layouts include Castle Rock) and his latest layout Punta Marina, set in an Itallian fishing village, was stunning. To be honest the trains are bit-players in Henk's layouts, for him it is the scenary that is most interesting, looking at it I could imagine being by the Med', sitting at that cafe ...



There were many other excellent layouts - I was pleased to be able to see "Sand and Gravel" built by Roy Link and exhibited by David Janes, a superb layout - but one I have been following progress on for some time now was Ryd Ddu by fellow blogger Colin Lea. This was it's first exhibition and it sounds like it was a close run thing to get it complete and working - with correct stock too - in time for the show. I watched the first train round the layout at 10.27AM. well done Colin!

One thing I did think this year is that there could have been a few more layouts. Those that were there were of the highest standard, but two or three more would have made the exhibition feel so much more. There would have been space if they were smaller layouts. I guess there were no "challenge" entries, that normally take up space. (The challenge for 2011 sounds interesting ...!) However EXPO is as much about the trade as the layouts, and trade support was excellent. All round, a great day!

I've posted my better photos from the day here.

Uckfield Model Railway Exhibition 2010

Really enjoyed the Uckfield show yesterday. It's a bit of a drive but last year's was good, and the list of layouts looked interesting, so made the trip - and it was well worth it. As someone who enjoys narrow-gauge and unusual layouts, I appreciated the 4 NG layouts (009, 0-16.5, 0n30, Sn3), but also models of Wantage, Hemyock, Hospital Gates which was influenced by the Whittingham Asylym railway, plus others of pre-group period. In fact, I don't recall a predictable 60's BR layout ...?

In addition everthing seemed to be running faultlessly (yes, even the 009 layout!) which is great to see. Good trade support too, only fault was that it was rather crowded on Saturday afternoon, so difficult to get good photo angles! Definately one of the best "local" shows. For more pictures click here.

I've always wanted a kit-car ...

I haven't been managing much modelling recently but I have just completed this car, which has slowly taken shape on the odd evenings I've got the tools out. It's a Morris 8 Tourer from the 1930's, using a Springside kit I actually picked up at EXPONG last October!

Although these days there are hoardes of excellent, cheap, scale model cars - ready-painted, nicely detailed, and ready to park on the layout - for some reason they are all post-war models, and just seemed too new for Awngate. So I was forced to use this kit, although it was an enjoyable excercise in white metal, when you think of building a kit-car you'd think of something bigger?!

For some reason I couldn't get the whitemetal hood to fit, I suspect that the kit designer forgot that the hood overlaps the body, so some serious butchery would have been required. I decided that it would be nice to model the car open, so to hide the lack of hood and rear-seat detail I made a tonneau cover from a bit of brown envelope.

I googled for some images when it came to painting, and found I had a tin of red/maroon enamel which seemed to match the red ones nicely. It's gloss paint, which I don't normally use, but here it has given the effect of a new and well-cared for car, as it would have been in the period of the model. Also the black mudguards are slighly gloss, contrasting with the matt tonneau and wheels. The finish may not be perfect, but given the vehicle is about an inch long, I'm as happy as I'll ever be!

A short break, railways included

A few weeks ago we had a short holiday at Romney Sands Holiday Park in Kent. This was great for the kids, but even better, it just happened to have a narrow gauge (well, miniature) railway running through it! This photo was taken on the site, which also had it's own station on the Romney, Hythe & Dymchurch Railway. We made use of it!

We also managed to fit in a visit to the Kent & East Sussex Railway, which is of course Standard Gauge, but was a light railway and the headquarters of the Colonel Stevens empire. Our train didn't really have the light railway feel, but the stations retain the charm and character.

All Aboard The Railcar

The final job for the railcar was to fit some passengers. Long ago I got a bulk pack of seated people, and I can't remember where they are from - possibly Preiser. Anyway a handful were selected (we don't want it to look too crowded do we?) and promptly had their legs amputated! You may recall that the floor of the railcar is in fact at seat height, to clear the chassis. Basic painting was all that was required before gluing them in.

The trouble is that this railcar has two driving ends, so at one end there is a uniformed man seated in the driving position (by the door), at the other a uniformed man is standing by the driving position. Let's just say that one is the ticket inspector ...!

So the railcar is now complete, although I may glue the roof on with a spot of PVA.