More Magnets

I recently bought these over the internet:

No, not gold bullion, but neodymium magnets! These are just 10mm x 3.5mm x 2.5mm, so quite small. However they are incredibly strong - it takes a lot of force to separate them from this cluster. The poles are on the largest faces, conveniently, as you have probably guessed I plan to use them in pairs for uncoupling.

A quick test on the workbench (below) suggest they will be plenty strong enough for this, even when placed outside the rails. In fact I plan on replacing some of the cupboard-catch magnets on Awngate with these placed under the track from below, probably under the rails, spaced apart with steel washers. Experimentation to follow!

Putting up the shed

The shed is progressing well, although for such a simple structure assembly has been quite fiddly. The sides have been chamfered where they fit together, recesses cut for the windows, a false ceiling (with access hole) and a plain back end have been cut, and the whole lot assembled. Strips of Wills brickwork have been added to the base of the walls for the plinth, again carefully chamfered at the corners, although since half of this will  be buried under floor or surrounding ground, I don't know why I bothered!

As seen in the last post the plain (inner) side of the rear side wall was scribed to represent the boarding, now the timber framework has been added from plastic strip. The window was added into the recess first, so the edges of the oversize frame are hidden (I didn't bother with the second window as it won't be seen). The brick sheet has also been doubled up to complete the plinth on the inside.

So here it is in place on the layout, which shows why I went to the trouble of finishing the inside of that wall - even once the (open) doors are in place it will be visible. Potential for interior detail in due course!

Needless to say the inside of the front wall has not had the same treatment! The near front window will be fitted after painting, the far one has been boarded up - again, why bother if it won't be visible?

Flat-Pack Shed

I've spent a happy while looking through books for inspiration for the style of the loco shed, I've settled on wooden boarding with a small brick plinth. This seems most likely for the style and age of the line, and is consistent with the good shed and the Wantage inspiration. Anyway, there is plenty of brick around on the model already! I'm still undecided on a slate or corrugated iron roof.

So to work, I had a couple of sheets of Wills wood boarding which should just do it. This stuff is 2-3mm thick so a pain to work, straight lines can be scored and snapped (with a lot of scoring) but window openings are a pain to cut out with a knife. The trick is to drill a hole or two, then pass a fretsaw blade through. As you can see my portable workbench has a special V-shaped support to help with this!

So two walls and an end are ready, the other end will be plain plastic. The back wall (top) has had it's inside scored to represent the inside of the boarding. Window openings have been recessed from behind so they are not so deeply set - I changed my mind about the windows as the curved-top ones in the last post wouldn't look right in a wooden structure, so I'll be using Wills ones.

Mocking Up

Site clearance has started at the top end of Awngate station! Two trees have been felled, bushes cleared, and the embankment near the water crane cut back, exposing some strange white spongy soil ...

I've always intended there to be an engine shed at this end of the layout to act as view-break, as well as some foreground interest. However the site is quite cramped, so to ensure the structure will fit and look right, I've used some cereal packet card to mock up the size and shape. This saves spending time building a structure only to wish I'd done it differently ...

Actually I've had three goes here! From left to right the shed has got 5mm shorter in length and 5mm wider with each iteration, and the height has varied too. In the foreground are some N-scale factory windows which I think will work well for this building.

This is the third iteration roughly in place on the layout, the railcar shows there is ample clearance to the "main" line, while the shed appears wide enough for maintenance to happen on the loco inside. From this angle the exit hole in the backscene can still be seen, but from a more normal viewing angle the shed hides it nicely. The shed is quite short, but long enough for the typical locos used on the layout, and anyway most of the building is hidden behind the "wing" that hides the end of the backscene so the length is not apparent. For that matter, I might not bother with the window to the right ...

The question now is what materials to build it from. I was thinking brick walls with a corrugated roof, for a reasonably substantial structure to match the station, a slate roof might give an older appearance. But perhaps a wooden structure with a corrugated roof, or a completely corrugated structure, would add a little variety. After all there is plenty of brickwork on the layout. I've also been looking for prototype inspiration, and considering putting a water tank on the roof for interest. Any thoughts?

Happy New Year!

Since this is the first post of 2012, may I wish a Happy New Year to all readers. I know we are already a week in to this "Olympic" year (does anyone else think they will be bored of the Olympics before they even start?), but I have contracted my usual post-Christmas cold, leaving me with little energy for picking up the modelling of an evening. And anyway, the way I am coughing now, holding a scalpel would be dangerous! Fortunately for you the common cold is not a virus that can be spread via the internet.

Last year proved a busy one for my modelling, as I couldn't resist entering the EXPO-NG Dave Brewer Challenge, and a year ago I was hacking about a box-file and building track for the first time. The whole project took me in new directions and was great fun, and the result  Landswood Park even won the competition! While I was building that I also had an invitation for Awngate to be shown at EXPO-NG too, which as one of the biggest NG shows in the UK, was a great honour. So I also spent some time upgrading and completing some of the scenics, and finishing some stock, and of course the day of the show was rather busy! The concentrated effort to have both layouts ready resulted in a lot to report on this blog, with my busiest year yet averaging 5 posts per month.

So what will 2012 bring? Well probably not quite so much modelling activity, but Awngate is booked to appear at Narrow Gauge South at Winchester in April (another of the big NG shows!), and I have a few jobs I'd like to do by then. There is the possibility of further shows later too. I have some ideas for locos and rolling stock to build, although that will probably be as I fancy, as there is already sufficient stock to run the layout.

Landswood Park may have no further purpose as the competition that it was built for has passed, but it is a fun little layout and I have enjoyed working in 014, so more wagons may appear. And a couple of months back I took delivery of a new project:

The photo above shows the prototype for the kit, an O&K RLc1 now at the Amberley Museum, not far from me, which I think it would be entirely suitable for a farm railway.

Christmas Decorations

It is the season of goodwill and of course delightfully tacky decorations. Walking around a garden centre yesterday and looking at the range of Christmas decorations on sale, it struck me how many featured trains. Now this seems a little odd to me, after all we all know that Mary had to make do with a donkey, and I doubt the wise men came from the East by the Starlight Express. And as for Santa, Rudolph is a reinder not a steam locomotive. So why are there so many decorations of Santa riding a train, or trains running through a snowy village?

My in-laws even had a fantastic decorative tree with a Flying Scotsman running around the base, and various other famous trains working their way up the "slopes", including a Festiniog Double-Fairlie and a Snowdon Mountain Railway train. Sadly it seems to be suffering the wrong kind of snow and no longer works. Anyway here are a few typical railway-themed decorations spotted recently:







Perhaps the reason is that everyone likes a Christmas-themed train, and toy trains are associated with Christmas (at least as much as Mary Poppins and those big round tins of sweets you never seem to see the rest of the year!). I've often thought of building a proper Christmas-themed model railway as a decoration, it's been done before and 009 is an ideal scale for it, but I've built enough layouts this year so perhaps another year!

May I wish all readers a happy Christmas time, and may the new year bring many happy hours of making models!

Changing Rooms

Here is the reason for the lack of updates recently - the installation of a new kitchen:

When we bought the house we knew the kitchen needed replacing, but there were other more urgent priorities. Now nine years later we finally have a nice kitchen! I must point out that I didn't fit it myself - my DIY skills are nowhere near that good - but even so the installation has been disruptive. It is a kitchen-diner, which meant not just clearing out the kitchen units but my layout(s), bookshelves, and tools have been packed away for a few weeks. And that when the obvious storage space - the garage - was full of new kitchen, so the whole house seems to have been taken over with boxes. I've also been busy decorating the room, and laying the new laminate flooring.

While things are gradually returning to normal there are still a number of jobs I need to do (fitting curtains and blinds, planing doors, floor joiner strips...) in addition to the usual family preparations for Christmas, so it is unlikely I'll get any modelling done until the new year. Still, after several months of intense activity on two layouts it is nice to have a bit of a break ... and plan the projects to pick up in January!