Back from a break

Excuse my absence from blogging for a couple of weeks, I have been otherwise occupied.

A distraction, My 1926 Ford Model T

With the purchase finalised, and the garage tidied up so that the car will have a place to live when it is delivered. I can set to and get back to work on the layout. There is after all, an exhibition to go to in less than a month.
Where have I got to on it then?

Trees

I have been working on some trees in autumnal hues using Woodland scenics armatures and fall tones  fine leaf foliage. If the trees were to stand alone I wouldn't be happy with them but as they will be grouped together I think they will create the correct feel once dulled down with a spray like Testors "Instant weathering". I'm not after the vivid colours of a bright sunny autumn day, but the subtle tones of a cloudy day. like the picture below. Admittedly, taken whilst it was raining but you get the idea.

My preferred autumnal hues.

Encouraged by the success of my brake van project. I decided to attempt scratch building some goods wagons. Starting with a pair of bulkhead flat cars, which is a style of wagon I like.
The donor wagons for this project were the peat wagons that came with the original set that I ordered.

Busch HOf Peat wagons, the start of the project

I carefully removed the body and quite simply added a new deck and ends from Evergreen embossed styrene sheet. With a bit of strategic strapping and bracing from angle and strip. They look the part most certainly.

A couple of Bulkhead flats, a simple project.

So now I have a British outline goods train, albeit a very short one yet. I'll pair them with the Heywood Tops and see how they run.
With all this stock, I will need a stockbox to take the trains to a show well protected. To that end I decided to take the plunge and see how my theory that a fishing tackle box as a stock box would work out.
There are multitudinous designs and styles out there and in the end I plumped for this one, the Plano "Lockjaw". A very tasteful name I'm sure you'll agree.

An unfortunate name for a useful box.

The top layer of the box could hold up to 24 pieces of stock. More than enough for me for the moment. Whilst the deeper tray underneath will take myriad of tools, and even the Busch battery controller.

Things do fit rather nicely.

To cushion the delicate items of stock, I cut the protective foam cradles that the rolling stock was packed in to fit the adjustable pockets of the top layer. As you can see they fit admirably well. With plenty of room for the scratch built projects and a couple of other items I'll come to in another couple of posts. I'm most definitely very pleased with the way this project turned out.
I would expect that such a box would accommodate 009 stock and N gauge. Maybe even 09 too. These boxes are ridiculously cheap. I paid $10 (Seven quid if you're in the UK) from Menards, (A DIY chain here in the US) and this was the expensive one. You could get a basic simple one for under $4. A sound investment.

Some more HOf layout videos

To be honest there's more HOf video out there on YouTube than I thought. Here's a few more I found.
I like this first one because the Feldbahn train really does seem to have a purposeful end to end journey.

This next one became an instant favorite from the moment I watched it. Delightful detail. A very realistic atmosphere. Almost perfect for a slate mine.

This third one caught my attention because with the model being surrounded by walls on all sides, it's like the model could be stored in a drawer....

Finally, an amusing oddity. Someone has created a Draisine in HOf using a Busch Mechanism and a model of a UAZ van. Very likeable.

Some HOf layout video

I've been perusing YouTube looking for some Busch HOf videos to see what people are doing. Naturally being a German product, most of the videos are German so I can't understand a thing. I did find a couple of "How I built my layout" videos. This first one is all in one film.

This second one is the first in a series that seems to run up to seven films. All covering different aspects of the construction. The work showing the construction of the mine is enlightening. Some very interesting behind the scenes views.

Finally for tonight, a couple short films of Peter Smiths "Oresome Aggregates"

First thoughts on video.

Here we are then, a first look at, and some first thoughts on, this Busch Feldbahn set as I take a look at it. 

Apologies for the pronunciation of Gmeinder, (correct pronunciation advice much appreciated). 

You will also notice that I have issues going between English and American terminologies and mixing 3.5 and 4mm scales.  

Here we go

I did think of entitling this post with more than one "Here we go" to acknowledge my beloved Lincoln City FC's victory in the Checkatrade trophy final at Wembley stadium today but I thought better of it.

I spent Saturday exhibiting my new HO scale layout at the Granite city train show yesterday. It was a very trying affair with all kinds of problems I've never experienced before. So when we arrived home I was feeling pretty jaded. That was until I went down to the post office and opened our PO Box to find a large box from Germany there. I immediately perked up. This was the Busch Feldbahn set arrived 4 a whole days earlier than predicted! I rushed home and opened the package up

Nicely presented in the box on its arrival.

 A very nice, cleanly laid out package. The assembly instructions were printed in three languages, including English, so there were no problems in assembling things. Not that instructions were needed to put track together and wire things up.

The set sits on the approx. 19" square board made for it.

As you can see, the starter set sits very comfortably on its baseboard with plenty of room for me to expand the oval, maybe add a point and a siding, perhaps a passing loop. I'm excited to see how I can fit things on the board and develop it.

Yes, it's small

The Gmeinder locomotive is a nice looker, and yes it is quite small. Perhaps it's a tad bigger than I expected, like I said. I had no idea what the physical size of these items was.

Anyway, I'm quite impressed by the quality of the model and the detail. I'm now going to spend some time watching the train run around in circles to get a feel for it.

Show and tell

A particular fascination of mine is the Minimum Gauge Railway as developed by Sir Arthur Heywood and his 15" gauge lines at Duffield Bank and Eaton Hall. The Sand Hutton Light Railway at 18" gauge also falls into this class as does the Vitacress or Sylvaspring railway in Bere Regis, Dorset.

In the past, I've modelled these lines in Gn15 (1/2" scale an 16.5mm track) with a fair amount of success, and when I recently found some of my books on the works of Sir Arthur, the desire to model his works again was still there. But our recent house move left me with less space for a layout than before. It was then I discovered 6.5 minimum gauge or 006.5. This uses 4mm scale and Z scale track (6.5mm gauge) to model 18" gauge railways. 

A special range of locomotives, stock and track work is made by Busch under the HOf designation, f standing for Feldbahn, the German field railway system of approximately two foot gauge. 

6.5 Minimum Gauge is the name of a range of kits designed by James Hilton using these Busch mechanisms for locomotives as well as a range of kits for a varied range of rolling stock.

I have some of these kits and I'm really impressed with the way they look and I can't wait to assemble them. 

I've just placed an order for this type of Busch Feldbahn set. I look forward to receiving it, getting a feel for the size, and more importantly seeing how well it fits into the drawer!