Shades of grey

I thought I'd better paint the boards before progressing further. It would be easier before there is (more) track and scenery added, and as it's best done outside, before the weather turns!

Loctern and Hexworthy were painted with a grey primer from Wilkinsons that proved to have a suitably dark shade and nice finish. However, that was oil based meaning it took ages to dry and brushes were a paint to wash - anyway, Wilkos is long gone. I got a water-based grey primer from B&Q which allowed me to get a couple of coats on and the boards back indoors before the moody skies looked too serious. 

Sadly, this paint turned out to be paler than expected, and much lighter than the grey I previously used - as compared below. The aim is for a neutral grey which won't distract from the scene, and I wasn't convinced the light grey would do that. It also had a chalky finish, I mean it is meant to be an undercoat, but clearly I would need a top coat.

So back to B&Q and I picked up "Princeton", a dark grey that proved to be a close match to the other layouts. It's also water-based so dried quickly, and being quite gloopy care was needed to avoid runs - there are a few, but not in obvious places. Note the card used to protect the existing scenery.

With the paint dry the latches and sockets were refitted and the pelmet and fiddle yard reassembled. It looks a lot more presentable on the outside now.

Rapido arrives in 009

Last week I completed another circuit of the sun, and was rewarded with gifts, including this lovely Kerr Stuart Sirdar by Rapido.

It is truly small but delightfully detailed. I picked the yellow not just because it is attractive, but it reminded me of the Minitrains Bagnall which was my first ready-to-run 009 model. The Rapido model is a brighter shade - it looks more yellow in the photograph, which is odd as it looks more orange in reality - although I expect it will tone down with a oily-cloth finish weathering. I'm pleased to say it runs as well as it looks too.

I also got a couple of the new Rapido wagons. I have plenty of kit-built wagons, but I couldn't resist some with witty liveries! They could work well in Loctern's shunting challenge, although I'd need to change the couplings. There's also another Peco Glyn Valley coach which will complete a short rake for Hexworthy. 

There was also a loco kit - more on that another day. I have to say that Rapido's arrival in 009 looks to be excellent, and will complement the products of Peco, Kato, Heljan and Bachmann. 

Whittlingly fiddle-yard baseboard

The next job was to add a short baseboard for a fiddle yard. In this case, the fiddle yard will have two entry tracks as it completes the run-round loop, but doesn't need to be long as trains will be a couple of 6-wheel coaches or 3-4 wagons and a tank loco. 

I didn't take many construction photos, but the sides and top were marked out and cut from the same 5mm ply as the main board, and cross-beams cut from timber. Before assembly, I remembered to set up the alignment to the main board, which used a couple of "bullet" type dowels - I had these and the catches in stock left over from a batch I bought for Hexworthy. It is easiest to clamp the ends together, then drill pilot holes through both from the back of one end - hence doing this before assembling the board. The holes were then drilled out to 7.5mm and the bullet and corresponding socket were tapped into place. 

The board is approximately 2' long by 1' wide and simply consists of a cross-beam at each end and one in the middle, with ply providing longitudinal support front and rear, and finishing off the ends.

Up top, the ends are profiled to support a shelf - on Hexworthy a shelf has proved useful for spare stock and tools. The rear panel has a cut-out to clear the turntable, and the deck has some cut-outs - hopefully, the reason for these will become clear later.

The upper deck curve was marked out with a "compass" made from a stick with a screw for a pivot and a hole for a pencil, it's 21" long. To get the deck height correct, the fixed part has 3 layers of 5mm ply (lower deck, spacer, top deck) - it seems that 44mm timber + (3x5mm) = 58mm, the 5mm ply is actually about 4.7mm! The turn-table deck sits on spacers of thinner (4mm ish) ply so it is slightly lower, this is for a cunning plan (we will see). I then marked out lines perpendicular to the curve for the track centres - there will be three tracks, but the outer two will be quite tightly curved. 

The turntable was then strengthened with some small strip wood and fixed with a 6mm bolt, a block of wood under the deck provides support to the pivot and depth to hold the bolt vertical. A strip of ply provides a lip and neatens the front of the shelf too. So far, it's looking pretty neat. 

Finally, the over-centre catches were added to hold the boards together. This was tricky as the 44x19mm timber forming the ends of the boards already has screws into it from the front and rear and deck ply panels, leaving little space for the screws holding the catch!

While it looks a small, simple board, getting the levels right while thinking about how the turntable needs to work made it quite a head-scratcher to make. I've come to the conclusion that "fiddle yards" are so-called because they are fiddly to make - or is that just me?

Growing Whittingly

Extending an existing layout that wasn't designed to be extended isn't easy, especially when it is a portable layout and it is fully scenic. So, I have been thinking about how best to do this for some time, but eventually it is time to take the plunge. It starts with removal of the existing low-height backscene. While this was screwed in place from the rear, the scenery had stuck to the backscene in places, and with trees and structures in the way it needed careful separation. 

The new 5mm ply backscene is longer, higher, and intended to be semi-structural in keeping the extended layout straight. That means it drops down to meet the cross-members of the extension, but, it had to sit onto the original board as the original backscene had. 

The new cross-member was attached to the end of the layout to support the deck extension, but being 44x12mm and the deck being 5mm ply, but the existing board being 55mm deep, a spacer was needed. Strips of the old 6mm MDF backscene were perfect, hence the blue. I also remembered to drill holes through the ends for wiring to be extended. 

The extension deck was then fitted with the outer cross-member from 44x24mm timber and another strip of MDF. The cross-members are also screwed to the backscene, and later, to the fascia, keeping the extension rigid. A similar process was followed for the right-hand end. 

Like the backscene board, the front facia is used to keep the board straight, and is cut from 5mm ply but with the top edge profiled to the shape of the scenery. I also cut an opening for a control panel, which was difficult to find space for without the extension. A second piece of ply was cut with a slightly smaller hole to fit behind the opening, this provides something to mount the recessed panel to as well as strengthening the fascia around the opening once glued in place.

A detail shot of the right-hand end shows the control panel opening in the fascia, the end panel fitted with 12x12mm strip wood to join in to the backscene, bracing around the top of the backscene board and end board, and the opening for the tracks. 

A view from the underside shows how the extensions have been added to the original board, and how the fascia (right) joins all together with spacer blocks to the original board's front piece (which is recessed). You can also see the cut-outs for magnets to be fitted below the track. 

The lighting pelmet is simply two pieces of ply at right angles, with timber bracing and strips at the end. The ends sit on the end board top-edge brace, which holds the end board, backscene board, and front "wing" piece together. A small piece of wood attached to this provides a mount for the lighting pelmet, with a captive nut a finger-tight bolt at each end is all that's needed to hold it in place. 

Note there are two bolt holes, allowing the pelmet to be fixed overhanging the front of the layout by a couple of inches to improve lighting at the front of the layout. Alternatively, it can be fixed further in to save width. 

So the small diorama now sits within a larger, "cameo" style baseboard. With an extra 6" at the left end and 8" at the right (the extra makes space for the control panel) it has grown from 2' 6" to about 3' 8" long - almost 50% bigger!

Next, I need to build a fiddle yard. And work out how I will add a backscene. 

Bexhill Exhibition with Hexworthy

Yesterday I took Hexworthy to the Bexhill model railway exhibition. I was assisted by "local" Stephen Fulljames of Light Railway Stores, who brought a rake of the LRS exclusive GWR wagons by Rapido. Since the other end of the line to Hexworthy meets the GWR at Buckfastleigh, these seemed quite appropriate. 

The layout performed well and Stephen got the hang of operations quickly, which gave me time to check out the rest of the show. It was good to see a heavy narrow-gauge bias in the layouts! I didn't pick up a program so I don't have names. There were a couple of nice O16.5 layouts. 

And a a slate quarry in O14. The shed doors open, wagon turntables rotate, and the wagons are hauled in and out.

A busy and highly detailed On30 logging layout, with some characterful stock.

And a 009 layout featuring a zoo... with a private siding!

Yes, that is a zebra in the "cattle van"!

There were also some nice standard gauge layouts.

Power lines and builders' bags

Back at the Salisbury exhibition I came across a trader with some interesting 3D printed detail kits - 12A Models. I picked up a kit for a widely seen feature (in the countryside) that is rarely modelled - a pole-mounted electricity supply transformer. I thought it would look at home on Hexworthy.

The parts on a sprue give the impression they are injection moulded, but they are 3D printed, I think with a filament printer as the parts show lines. The material also proved tricky to glue, the pole halves seemed to go together with plastic solvent but other parts didn't, and even superglue seemed to struggle to grab it but worked eventually.

I thought it odd that there are four insulators, and four connections on the transformer. A google image search confirmed that 3-phase 11kV supply lines have, er, 3 wires... although the transformer outputs appear to have four outputs (3 phase plus neutral I guess). 

So I cut back the insulators to three, and on the other side of the transformer added three inlet connections. I drilled a hole, put in a short length of 1mm wire, and glued on a small spring from a Microtrains coupling as an insulator. Not that the coils showed once painted!

The transformer was then connected to the insulators with fine wire, soft steel wire sold for tree making seemed to have the right weight and be flexible but hold its shape. Gluing these in place was fiddly! These connections would lead to the 3-wire transmission pole route where the cables are overground, but this will be at the back of the layout, plus there are pole mounted transformers where input and output cables go underground. I could have added cables running down the pole, let's say they are on the back! I did add paperclip wire into the legs to help secure it.

Back to google images to help with painting. I started with grey automotive acrylic primer, which happened to be perfect for the transformer and the cross bars. The poles were painted mid brown and dry-brushed grey, and a little green. The insulators were picked out in a dark red-brown, and the wires in grey-black. 

The transformer was installed at the back of the layout, having punched a couple of holes in the scenery surface so the wire tails I added push into the polystyrene, and secured with a little matt modge podge. It's the sort of background detail that doesn't stand out or even get noticed by most, but helps make the scene feel right. 

I also got these builders' bulk bags from 12A Models, another feature of modern scenes. These are finely printed in resin, those corner hoops are very delicate. I simply sprayed them with white automotive acrylic primer, dusted with a little grey and beige weathering powder, and set some granite chippings ballast (the same as used for the track) in the top with a little matt modge podge. A few were then placed in the yard. 

I also added some to the permanent way train, including a couple with sand. 

Hexworthy will be at the Bexhill model railway exhibition this Saturday, 8th August - do say hello if you are there. 

Diesels at Swanage

 A couple of weeks ago, while staying in Swanage, I took a trip on the Swanage Railway. I've visited it before, but it was some years ago so it was nice to return, the line is in a beautiful setting. 

The service was being operated by diesels due to the ongoing heatwave, and looking at the dry grass and fields around the line, this was understandable. 

Our train was hauled by this beautifully kept Class 20, which lived up to its "Chopper" nickname, it did indeed sound like a helicopter on the climb out of Swanage. 

At Norden I took the opportunity to check out the clay mining museum. This has gathered together an adit head/tipping building, this little weighbridge hut, and some wagons or "trams" from the underground workings. There were one many such mines in the area served by narrow gauge railway networks. Clay mining still goes on, but open cast and served by lorries. 

Our return trip was on board a first-gen DMU set headed by this Class 121. These are the style of DMU I remember riding on as a child, albeit in blue/grey livery then, and I remembered they had glazed partitions to the cabs...

So, we sat at the rear with a superb view through the driver's window back along the line. 

As well as sights like Corfe Castle, we saw some burnt patches on the lineside, underlining why the diesels were being used. 

As we were staying in Swanage, it was nice to take evening strolls to the seafront and pass the station. With the day trippers gone and the trains sitting quietly in the station, which looks like the archetypal branch line terminus but overflowing with trains, it reminded me of a train set abandoned for bedtime. 

As well as the Class 20, there was a pair of Class 33s. 

The loco shed and its small turntable looked particularly atmospheric in the evening sun. The Battle of Britain class loco, parked out of use, is too large for the turntable.

However, a few evenings later the Pacific had been replaced by the U-class 2-6-0, which clearly was (or had been) in steam. I don't know if this had been used in scheduled service or for some special duty. 

The Swanage Railway is a lovely line and well worth a visit, as is Swanage and the Purbeck area.