The Dart Valley

A couple of weeks ago we had a family holiday in Devon. Of course it was a great opportunity to visit Dartmoor and get some photos at Hexworthy to help with the scenery of my model. Here's the bridge over the West Dart river, taken from the upstream side. My imaginary station would be on the downstream side, on the left bank. 

Unfortunately the downstream side is heavily wooded on both banks, making photography difficult. I wanted to see the river and riverbanks; the river has a deep brown colour and is strewn with rocks and boulders. 

Later that day we took a ride on the South Devon Railway from Buckfastleigh. My imaginary line would have terminated in Buckfastleigh. It was nice to enjoy the steam train journey which follows the river Dart down to Totness, often running along the riverbank.

It's not easy to get good photographs when riding on the train or when it is in the station, and the Covid restrictions didn't help (e.g. limiting access to the platform before the train arrives and closing the footbridge). Still, the beautifully turned out pannier tank looked great.

Later in the holiday we ended up on the beach at Goodrington Sands, which is possibly one of the most interesting beaches for railway enthusiasts due to the Dartmouth Steam Railway which climbs an embankment right behind the beach huts. The periodic passage of trains - which work hard climbing the bank with a loaded train of tourists - really adds to the holiday atmosphere. 

There was also the occasional light-engine movement as locos ran around their trains, which seemed to be terminating here rather than at Paignton. Sadly no time to ride the line this time, though we have travelled on it before, the other end of the line is by the river Dart opposite to Dartmouth. 

I must point out that our family holiday was not all about trains...!

Farnham 009 Exhibition

Yesterday afternoon I visited the 009 exhibition put on by the Farnham & District Model Railway Club. Although a bit of a cross-country trek it was worth it for a good dose of 009 layouts, and of course the 009 Society sales stand which allowed me to replenish my stock of kits and projects! Here's a brief round-up of the layouts.

Somewhere in France II - Peter Capon. I'd not seen this layout before and while simple operationally the scenic work is excellent - the scenes really reminiscent of the pictures in Roy Link's book and a lot of attention has been paid to detail, such as in this scene of a ruined town with refugees and sniper. 

No trenches on this layout since the railways ran some distance back from the front, but did service the artillery, and guns are depicted under camouflage nets, with yellow flashes from the muzzles in sync with the ambient soundtrack. Note the mud and splintered tree trunk stumps. Excellent modelling of a really moving subject. 

Some detail of a loaded wagon, again as seen in Roy's book. The wooden props and duck-boards were used in the trenches.

Whimsey - David Harrington. And why not!

Coleford - John Wickes. A popular layout with great scenic work, fantastic trackwork, and real character, 

John also had his small challenge layout. 

Straight and Narrow - Farnham MRC. This is a club modular layout with each module built by different members, several were present filling the length of the hall. Just a couple of shots here showing some of the variety, from another WWI scene...

...To a setting closer to home. Trains ran through all the scenes.

Kaninchenbaul - Ian Morrison, holding up the Continental modelling scene with a rather fun double loop layout and impressive computer control. 

River Crane Mill - John Thorne. John's layouts are always delightful and I'd not seen this one before. It's a wooded scene which makes photography tricky, but here are some featuring interesting stock from John's extensive collection of locos and railcars. 

Ryedown Lane - Patrick Collins. This Colonel Stephens inspired model has a quiet, open feel that captures the atmosphere of his lines perfectly, and is a long-standing favourite of mine. 

Garreg Wen - Matthew Kean. Another atmospheric layout that is on my favourites list, not just for the understated scenic work and 19th century era, but the superbly modelled stock. 

Great to get back to a small narrow gauge show, here's hoping more exhibitions can return to something like normal in the not too distant future.

RNAD Crew Van

Encouraged by success fitting couplings to the bogie Hudson wagon, I decided to have a go at another kit that has sat in the pending pile for a while because the bogies looked challenging for couplings. This is the Narrow Planet kit for the crew van used at RNAD munitions sites, and now found on several preserved railways for permanent way duties. It's a multimedia kit with 3D printed chassis and interior and an etched brass body, but the bogies are Dundas plastic mouldings used with small modifications. Here the parts are laid out, but I've already blackened some of the smaller parts on the etch, and tackled the first bogie. 

Although the bogies are different to those in Hudson bogie open I used the same "under-set" (type 2004) Microtrains couplings. These are a little more fiddly to make than the standard 1015 type as the cover for the draft box doesn't clip into place, but requires a touch of a soldering iron to melt it into place! 

The low-set coupling body can then be set under the bogie frame, after cutting and filing a rebate and drilling a hole for the screw, which needed shortening. I tried to cut down a screw with a cutting disk in my Dremel but it just bent! I realised it must be a soft metal, so I cut it down with side-cutters, which worked just fine. 

With the bogies sorted far more easily than I'd originally feared, it's on with the body, which folds up from the brass etch in two parts that join at the door recess. I opted to solder them together, though I guess epoxy would have worked. The parts slot together, so I smeared some flux along the inside edge and placed three small slices of solder onto the flux, then it just needed a touch from a tinned soldering iron until the solder flows into the join. Actually even my tiny pieces of solder were too much as some solder appeared outside the join, but was easily cleaned up. The mini clothes peg adds a little weight to the upper part but also allows me to hold it with a finger without burning myself during soldering, while the pliers are just weighting the body down.

Handrails are also bent up from etches, and I decided to solder them too. A piece of thin card was slid behind them to space them from the bodyside, and a sprung tweezer used to clamp the handrail in place. With the piece turned over flux and a tiny piece of solder were added behind, then a touch of the iron to fix. The windscreen wipers were added in a similar way. After the soldering is done the body was cleaned in Cif to remove any flux residue.

The assembled body slots neatly onto the 3D printed chassis/interior, which I'd already given a coat of primer. I've also glued strips of lead under the seats. The odd shapes of brass strip under the roof form the vents and tabs to locate the roof, it's a complex piece of origami but cleverly folds up, and I soldered it in a similar way to the other parts. It did need care to get central though, which matters for the roof to sit central on the body, and at first it was slightly skew. Fortunately it was fixed by levering the part sideways with a screwdriver while softening the solder with the iron. 

In the end it wasn't a difficult kit to put together, and after some thought (and selecting the right type) the couplings were not challenging to fit. At present the roof is loose and the body just slotted onto the chassis, which will make painting easier. 

It's an unusual but attractive little vehicle which will add interest to the permanent way train for Hexworthy, in a preservation setting. My next challenge is what colour to use? Most of my wagons are grey, but I did add yellow ends to the excavator wagons. Perhaps this could be yellow all over, like this one spotted at Amberly - though I'm not brave enough to try the stripes!

I might also tone down the weathering, and I'm really not even sure what colour the van on the right is...

However, I rather like the blue seen on this 4-wheel version, also at Amberly. Maybe blue with yellow ends? Or perhaps green with yellow ends? 

Loctern Quay featured in BRM

Loctern Quay is featured in the August issue of British Railway Modelling magazine.

My little 009 layout gets 8 pages, with lots of photographs including a double-page spread, and a little "thumbnail" on the cover.

I spent an afternoon in the garden taking a selection of photos in good light, and they have come out really well, so it is nice to see so many of them used. I think the BRM team have done a great job setting out the article. 

 

Amberley Railway Gala - a step towards normality

The Amberley Railway Gala is a regular in the calendar of the Sussex Downs 009 Group, we always provide a 009 Society stand with the showcase and demonstrations, and often layouts too. Of course last year there was no Gala, but this year the event went ahead, albeit a little different to normal, and I went along today to help with our group stand. The exhibition was smaller than previous Galas, although the large railway shed allowed plenty of space for social distances and large doors for ventilation. With our group only recently having started meeting in person again after months of Zoom meetings, it was great to have the first railway event since March last year.

Our stand had more tables than usual to allow social distancing. As well as the showcase and demo layout, Simon brought a small "pizza" layout. It looks like he is wishing it had more operational interest!

Tim also brought a small layout, "The Old Quarry", which features a passing loop and some attractive scenery. Despite very tight curves the running was excellent. 

There were a few other layouts, mostly small like this O-16.5 shunting layout, although there was a larger modular American On30 layout too. 

Outside there was steam courtesy of Polar Bear, though the other steam loco Peter is undergoing overhaul. There were no visiting locos, miniature railways or traction engines though. 

Even so, the usual Gala intensive service was operated with the larger diesels helping with passenger trains, and the smaller i/c and battery locos running demonstration goods trains. The trains seemed reasonably well patronised, although it definitely seemed quieter than previous Gala weekends. 

The usual afternoon loco parade took place, and I'm sure the volunteers enjoyed getting all the toys out as much as the socially distanced crowd enjoyed seeing them all. 

There's a great collection of NG locos at Amberley, but it is nice to see a new restoration. This little Brush battery-electric was built for ammunition factory use in 1917. It's cute and delightfully simple, though the ancient motor (which fills all the space under the seat) is not very powerful, and I can report that the cab is more cramped than it looks!

So life may not be back to normal quite yet, but it this was an encouraging step along the way. 

The East Kent Railway

The sub-title of this book on The East Kent Railway by John Scott-Morgan is The Line That Ran To Nowhere. That might explain why it is one of the lesser known Colonel Stephens lines, even though it possessed the key characteristics that give those railways such character - a eclectic collection of elderly locomotives and carriages, minimal station facilities and track layouts, and short trains with few passengers running through rather empty countryside. Indeed, the cover picture on the jacket of this hardback book beautifully captures that atmosphere.

This begs the question of why the railway was built? Well, the book opens with a short description of the Kent coalfield which was the justification for the railway, yet in the end delivered relatively little. There is then a brief history of the railway, which is sufficient to give a good background and context to the book, and includes a useful map of the surprisingly convoluted route. The line evolved from Shepherdswell to meet the developing coal mines nearby in the run up to the Great War, and during that war had a very light extension to Richborough Port constructed. However, most of the mines had little output (and one never opened), so the area didn't develop, leaving the line with sparse passenger and goods traffic, but enough coal traffic to keep it going until nationalisation, and a section operating to serve the biggest mine until 1961. The book also describes the current preservation project operating that last section of the line today.

It will probably be obvious from the landscape format of the book that the focus is on photographs rather than text though, and indeed the majority of the 200 pages are dedicated to a photo each. This allows for well-sized and consistently good reproduction photos, each with a detailed and informative caption. In this way the story of the line and its locos and stock is provided. This makes a change from the typical book about a minor railway line, and there are no drawings or track plans, while the brief history does not contain details of the railway's construction or operation. However, the format works very well as an introduction to this lesser known line, and inspiration to modellers. 

So, this isn't trying to be a definitive work on the history of this fascinating railway, but rather provide a good overview through well presented and informatively captioned pictures, and it does that very well. It's an easy book to read or just flick through, enjoying the photos and learning about the quaint and minimalist railway that once ran through a quiet corner of Kent. 

A bogie wagon coupling challenge

I've struggled to get into the modelling vibe recently, and a good way to get going again is to pick a simple short project - like a wagon kit. I had in the pile of unbuilt kits a Hudson Steel Dropside Bogie Open Wagon by Dundas; these were ex RAF wagons that have ended up being used on preserved railways for ballast duties, so this would be a good addition to a permanent-way train for Hexworthy.

Now there's a reason the kit has stayed in the pile - couplings. Sometimes my choice of Microtrains couplings poses a challenge when fitting them to stock, and stock with small bogies where the couplings cannot be fitted to the body (as with this wagon) are particularly difficult as there is nowhere to accommodate the relatively large draft box.

However, when I looked closely at the kit I found these bogies have a raised outer end giving more depth, and it already had a recess for a Bemo coupling. The recess needed to be widened, carefully as only about 0.5mm of plastic was left either side of the coupling. It was also too shallow and low, so I had to cut away the upper layer forming the raised end. This meant adding a new "top" layer to the raised end covering the couplings, from 20 thou black plasticard, shaped to match I think this will be barely noticeable once painted. Another piece of plasticard across the bottom of the recess formed a box into which the couplings would slide, and a hole drilled through top and bottom allowed a shortened Microtrains screw to self-tap through for a secure and relatively neat mounting. 

This only worked because a search of the modelling cupboard turned up some "underslung" couplers (type 2004). These have a slightly slimmer draft-box which is offset lower relative to the coupling (seen right) compared to a standard 1015/1016 coupling (seen left); this allows the coupling to be mounted lower than a standard coupling while matching the knuckle height. 

I had remembered to check the back-to-back measurements of the wheelsets before assembly, which you would think isn't necessary but all the kits I have had with Dundas wheels have the back-to-backs too tight to run reliably through Peco points. The rest of the wagon fell together in the way that excellent Dundas kits generally do, the wagon floor is a fraction of a mm too short (which I ignored) but otherwise fit is faultless I've attached a piece of lead under the floor for improved running, and the bogie retaining nuts will be fixed with a spot of glue after painting.

The completed wagon, shown here after a coat of primer (I struggle to get paint to cover plastic evenly without primer) being tested on Loctern Quay. I was worried about the slightly raised ends of the bogies fouling the body on tight corners, but with them filed to the profile of the bogie ends there seems to be plenty of space for the bogies to swing over 12" radius points. The coupling fitment was worked out rather neatly, although I will admit working out how to fit them and modifying the bogies took longer than assembling the rest of the kit! 

While it looks OK in primer grey I will have to paint it properly, I just need to decide on a colour scheme for my PW train. I had thought of grey with yellow ends - as applied to the digger wagons (below) - but I am wondering about something more interesting. Blue, perhaps?