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.

Saturday, a busy day. (1)

My wife has left me to my own devices at home today, so I'm busying myself on the layout.
After a week of working on locomotives and rolling stock it was time to get back to the scenery. The first task there was to cover the ground with a base of Woodland scenics turf ground cover. it doesn't take much just painting on some dilute white glue (Woodland Scenics scenic glue) and sprinkle on the ground cover and let it dry.

Starting the earth cover. Notice I covered the track over to keep it clean

Ten minutes later the job was done.

Then while that was drying I decided to work on the roads. For this I was planning on using Liquitex texture paint.

It looks like this small jar will last a while.

 This product is taking a long time to dry. So I then turned my attention to my station platform.

Platform base. 

If you remember, the platform was constructed as a tray, here's why.

The tray was filled with white glue

This was then filled with Woodland scenics fine light grey ballast..

...covered with a weight and left to dry.

Finished item.

Looking at the final picture in this sequence I think you'll agree the final effect is quite acceptable. There's a bit more cleaning up to do, but I'm very happy with this.

The textured paint is still not dry yet, (I did slap it on fairly thick). So I need to look for another task.

Things don't always go to plan

Just to prove that things don't always go smoothly on my projects.

It's autumn/fall here in Minnesota and the trees are starting to look magnificent in all their colours, and that set me thinking about the trees on this little creation of mine. I should set the layout in the autumn to take advantage of these colours. 

Strangely, I never really appreciated autumn colours growing up in England. Now, I seem to have become attuned to the slightest variations in colour and shape, and the way the trees loose their leaves. Most modellers are content to slap orange and yellow clump foliage on tree armatures and call it good, when in reality it's so much more subtle than that. 

Leaves don't change colour all at once patches appear in spots while the majority of the tree remains green. The way the trees loose their foliage is not even either a random section of a tree can loose its leaves while the remaining foliage remains green. I felt the need to reflect all this variety in this layout.

But how to do this? Before I went searching for varying oranges, yellows and browns of leaf foliage, I thought about making my own by taking some Woodland Scenics fine leaf foliage and colouring it by soaking it in acrylics.

Before the start

I mixed up some washes of yellows, reds and browns, then mixed the red and yellow to make an orange. Initially, I thought things were going really well. But then as the paper towels started to soak up the paint, the colours began to look less and less impressive, and by the time the foliage had dried out fully, I had decided this was not an option. The yellow colour doesn't look too bad, its the best of the lot. The other colours however were a real failure.

The end result. Not what I had hoped for.

So I guess it's off to the internet to find some other colours.

A Scratch built Brake Van (part 2)

Construction of the brake van holds no secrets. It's just a plasticard box placed on a Busch chassis. There are two types of chassis available to choose from, and I chose the longer one. Even so it's still too short to attempt an accurate scratch build without chopping the chassis up. I decided that just yet, I'm not up to that. Maybe when I get more experience working on other projects, perhaps I'll feel more confident. A cut up chassis would have to be perfectly square.

It did take a couple of false starts working on the mounting of the body to the chassis before I got the chassis width right and a system of tabs to hold the body in the right location.

Tabs on the underside of the body will locate the body in the
correct location on the chassis.

Once that was sorted the construction was simplicity itself. The size is nice. Being minimum gauge  the item is small, but being 4mm scale the detail is manageable. 

The model sits comfortably in the palm of my hand

Compared with the Gn15 version, proportions differ slightly

As construction progresses I find myself referring to the Gn15 model quite often, as well as the drawings in the Stand Hutton Light Railway book. The Gn15 version is tall and thin compared to the 00 6.5 version, that is because I didn't alter the width of the original Sidelines van kit. However, when I started the scratch build I stuck to the generous SHLR loading gauge of approximately three times the track gauge.

Small items of rolling stock can be trained to perch on your finger.

So far, so good then. Details to add to the model yet include some hand rails and a brake wheel. It's also very light so a little weight would be nice. but it does go through the one point on the layout without any problems. I really should have left the roof off to put some weight inside, but how much?  Would a neodymium magnet stuck to the underside of the van acting on the steel strip in the track serve the same purpose?
Keep an eye out for part three of the project.

A Scratch built Brake Van (part 1)

Over the past week or two, it seems like Busch HOn2 things have been on sale at US online retailers. Places like Walthers and Trainz.com for example. Some things as much as half price. So I had to take advantage didn't I?
One item I bought was the "Fahrwerke" or chassis as we English would call them. Two sets of underframes and wheels. I fancy having a go scratch building some items of rolling stock and this would be a perfect start point.

Some on sale goodies

I really want to build a Sand Hutton Light Railway Brake Van, as built by Robert Hudson Ltd. It's a great vehicle full of character. However a quick measure of the chassis proved that this wouldn't be possible without chopping up the chassis. I'm not ready to do that yet so that was a snag.
But not for long.
I remembered back to my Gn15 days when Sidelines bought out a box van. I snapped up a couple of them and converted one to be a brake van, inspired by the Sand Hutton vehicle.

Gn15 Brake Van.

I remember building this quite clearly. The whole process was a new thing to me. Cutting up parts, adding new bits. Everything worked together well and I came up with quite an interesting vehicle.
If I could do that in Gn15, then I'm sure I can do it in 00 6.5. Just take some measurements off the original model and scale them down. It's really only a box.
It can't be that difficult can it.

The shape of the land.

Quickly moving along, I've spent the week working on the landscape of this 20" square slice of England.  The layout is heavily inspired by images of the Sand Hutton Light Railway in Yorkshire. Though the line itself traverses gradients as much as 1 in 80, photographs of the line make it feel like the area is billiard table flat. I feel a small flat baseboard would look silly. As silly as a train would look traversing a mountain landscape baseboard of the same size. Delicate changes in the lie of the land are called for.
This was achieved by cutting and shaping some pieces of some pieces of expanded polystyrene foam. The roads were also added using a layer of cork.

Expanded polystyrene changes in elevation

 Next comes one of my favourite stages. The Snowscape stage. I cover pretty much the whole baseboard with lightweight spackle. It is, as the name suggests, light in weight. It doesn't shrink or crack and takes colour well. My Purespring Watercress layout lasted 13 years with the material as the base. So it's long lasting too.

It's been snowing!

As much as I love the snowscape stage, it never lasts long. For as soon as the spackle is dry it gets painted with Woodland Scenics Earth undercoat. Once that is down I feel like the layout is starting to take shape.

We have earth.

What next? Probably some ground cover. For in the natural scheme of things, the ground comes first then the roads and railways are placed into the scenery. So it should be in the model.

Perhaps, I might get distracted by some model buildings. The white rectangle in the corner. That's the floor of the tin tabernacle should I decide to put a fully detailed interior in there.

Who knows?

Back in the saddle

Now that the Narrow Gauge Convention is over, I'm all fired up with enthusiasm get this project exhibitable, ready for the show in St. Cloud, MN on November 10th. I've placed orders for another locomotive kit, a coach kit and some rolling stock. I'm even planning a scratch building project. I have a lot a projects on my plate, but I think if I can set myself an hour a night during the week and some extra time at the weekends then I should be able to get very close.

First things first, lay the track. As the model is using Z gauge track, I'm a little wary that everything needs to be perfectly flat and level with good current contact. Even though the locomotives have magnets in them to keep them firmly on the rails, clean, flat, level track will help things a lot.

The first step was adding a track bed of 1/16" cork before laying the track. 

Cork trackbed in place

A thin smear of white glue was used to fix the track in place. As thin as possible, I didn't want any glue leaking into joints or the point.

Track glued in place, weighted down as glue sets

A couple hours later, with the weights removed. Things look OK. Twenty four hours later trains run pretty darned well. I may be inclined to try and solder a few of the track joints to help the current.

Glue set, train runs.

Step one completed. The next step will be to add a few contours to the board so is it isn't totally flat.  That will probably be a task for the weekend.

Never meet your Heroes.

They say you should never meet your heroes as they never meet your expectations of them. I had the pleasure of meeting one of my "heroes" over the course of the National Narrow Gauge Convention in Minneapolis. Roy C. Links Crowsnest Tramway layout.
Can a model railway be a hero? I don't see why not. You can admire the design, concept and execution of a model railway in the same way that you admire the personality, abilities and roles of a famous actor.
The first version of a Crowsnest Tramway layout first appeared in the UK magazine Railway Modeller back in the 1970's. A simple plan for a simple shunting puzzle layout. The model making and the execution immediately struck a chord with me. This was a Micro layout before micro layouts had been popularised.
Version 3 appeared in the Model Railway press in the 1980's. The same concept had been developed to produce a new track plan but still a part of the Crowsnest concept. The track plan was not as successful as the previous one, but the same attention to detail in the modelling was still there.
This version of The Crowsnest passed out of the hands of Roy and into those of his friend Mike South who took the layout with him to Canada. Sadly, Mike lost a battle with Cancer a few years ago and the layout disappeared from view, until it was discovered by its current owner Craig Parry. To simply say that it was discovered is selling the story short. For as I spent time chatting with Craig over the three days of the convention he would tell me more and more about the stories of how the layout, and further examples of Roy and Mike South's model making came into his possession. The tales he told would fill a book. With all the models that Craig has accumulated looking at his display stand was like looking at the pages of Narrow Gauge and Industrial Railway Modelling Review, the magazine that Roy created.
Craig is as passionate about the Crowsnest Tramway as I am, and it was great to talk with a kindred spirit who shares the same enthusiasm for a subject such as this,  I came away from our chats fired up with a new enthusiasm for the hobby and my modelling. In fact I even came home from the convention with a kit for a 1:32 sale locomotive, that will inevitably lead to another new layout.

The overall presentation creates a certain style.
The picture frame holds a sheet of glass to protect from dirt and fingers.

There is even detail behind the buildings where it's almost impossible to see.

Attention to detail includes features like worn steps.

So simple, yet so atmospheric.

"Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain."
There were a few problems with layout over the duration of the convention due to the age .
Here Craig is working to find electrical fault.

A quick update

As you know, this project has to sit on the back burner whilst I prepare Purespring Watercress for the National Narrow Gauge Railway convention here in Minnesota in September. That's not to say that things are idle on this project.

Far from it. I received some track recently and felt like messing around with it this morning to get some ideas for the models development. What follows are a few thoughts on what might well happen.

Hiatus.

From now on there will be a hiatus, or at best a slowing down, of work on the Drawer challenge. For I have been invited to attend the 2018 National Narrow Gauge convention in Minneapolis. With my Gn15 layout Purespring Watercress. Something I'm looking forward to immensely. The layout has been in storage for about 4 years and has just survived the house move. So I need to spend a while sprucing up the layout and making sure it works. As and when time permits I'll still be working on The drawer challenge project.

Purespring Watercress

Heywood TOPS Kit from 6point5 minimum gauge

It's been a grey old day on the prairie, and once the Royal wedding was out of the way, and with little interest in the FA Cup final. I thought I'd try to assemble the pack of Heywood TOPS wagons from 6point5 minimum gauge. I've had them a while, I just hadn't had the time, what with moving house and everything associated with that. 

So let's take a look at the experience.
The kits arrive in a very nice looking box that belies the fact this is a small cottage industry.

A very nicely designed box.

The instructions too, are clear and well designed. I'm liking everything and I haven't even seen the parts yet.

Well designed instruction sheet

Then there's the parts themselves, all nicely presented in small clear bags. The 3D parts, wheels, etched brass detail and neodymium coupler magnets. I had no idea of the physical size of the parts or even what 3D printed parts looked like.

The 3D printed parts are small.

The parts were small, but perhaps a tad larger than I was expecting. As for my first impressions of 3D printed parts. I'd never seen anything like them before. They're not clean and smooth like injection moulded plastic parts, but rough and ridged from the 3D printing process. So I set to and followed the instructions by cleaning the parts up with varying degrees of wet'n'dry paper and cleaning them off in white spirits.

So, to the assembly. There's not much you can say about putting three parts together. The underframe and deck fitted together very nicely indeed. The locating ridges doing their job perfectly. These were my first kits of this type and I had no plans to make my tops removable so they were glued in place. As I put the parts together I noticed bowing on some of the surfaces, doubtlessly down to my bad sanding to start with. 

There was however one thing I had an issue with. Now I don't know if this too was down to my sanding to clean things up or what. 

The wheels fit in the frame with a lot of play (sloppy fit, I think is the technical term). The wheels fit really well and a wheeled up frame is very free running. I was most impressed. However, because the wheels fit so loosely, when the deck is in place and the wagon sits on the track, the wheels bind against the underside of the deck, and the wagons don't run at all.

The fix I came up with was quick, simple, and invisible. I glued a strip of .25mm x 1mm strip to the top of the underframe. See the video below for a demonstration of the problem and solution. 

Strips added to the frame to raise the deck to clear the wheels.

As I say in the video clip, I had one wagon assembled before I figured out the problem and how to solve it. I tried to disassemble the wagon, with little success other than breaking a buffer beam off. No worries, this is all a learning experience.

Next, was to add the tiny pieces of etched brass that represent the prototype locating ridges and corner strengthening plates. It was my first time gluing things this small with super glue, so that technique needs work as well. Still I was very happy with the way things went, so I make no apologies for posting couple of cliché photos of these OO6.5 TOPS resting on one of my Scratchbuilt Gn15 versions on Bachmann Thomas the Tank Engine troublesome trucks chassis.

TOPS in a TOPS

TOPS on top of a TOPS

I still have to add the end handles from brass wire, (the only thing not to come with the kit), the coupler magnets and then paint. I'll wait until I order another pack of the wagons then I'll do them all in a batch.

Overall, my first experience with 3D printed kits of any kind was positive. My experience with these from 6point5 minimum gauge just as much so, my one issue with the binding wheels aside. These are well thought out kits every single step of the way from the packaging to the kit construction. I recommend them. I will be ordering more soon.

UPDATE: I have since been informed by James Hilton, the kit designer, that indeed, It was my overzealous sanding of the top of the underframe that caused the wheels to bind on the underside of the wagon floor. Lesson learned for next time them.

Co-incidence?

After posting about the 6.5 minimum gauge Ruston Proctor, this old Pathé film was drawn to my attention. The whole film, as with all Pathé newsreels is an education in itself. A slice of times gone by, replaced by advancing technologies. Then pay extra attention from about 8 minutes and 50 seconds for a little narrow gauge industrial railway treat. Perhaps you may even find inspiration for a microlayout here.

The times they are a changin'

So sang Bob Dylan, more years ago than I care to remember. I don't even like the song, but it sprang to mind as I was considering some model making for this project. I have designs on scratchbuilding several things. A Heywood "Katie" for example, is a must. Several items of Heywood coaching stock would be nice too, as well as the Sand Hutton Light Railway 18" gauge coach and brake van.
It was then I started thinking about developments in the model making world. The last time I was making truly small railway models. (I think I have the dubious distinction of making the first scratchbuilt T gauge U.S. outline freight cars) They were made from embossed styrene sheet and other plastic bits mounted on T scale bogies. There was a lot of thinking involved to find the right embossed sheet and thicknesses of strip to get the effects I was after. It was one heck of an achievement to build and at the end of the day, I was pretty proud of myself.

Was this the worlds first scratch built T scale gondola?

The thoughts of what I achieved in T scale is spurring me on in OO6.5. The thought of making rather tiny trains has really got my model making enthusiasm going again. But in those intervening years how things have changed.
When I started working in T scale, 3D printing was in its infancy, if it even existed. Now it's the next big thing in modelling. Anyone with a computer can access 3D modelling software like Sketchup and produce their own parts for projects, and if they so desire, sell them to other modellers through companies like Shapeways. Some people even producing parts for a whole locomotive or rolling stock.
Indeed, this is what has driven OO6.5 development. Take a look at this magnificent Ruston Proctor from James Hilton at 6.5 minimum gauge. Admittedly, this kit goes a step further with the addition of etched nickel silver overlays on the body for extra detail. But the principle is the same. If you find a prototype you like that isn't available anywhere,  you can sit at your computer and make one yourself.

The Ruston Proctor from 6.5 minimum gauge. What a beauty. (photo courtesy 6.5 minimum gauge)

The Narrow planet kits look great, I have some of their Heywood TOPS wagons and I am looking forward to assembling them and trying some of the other of the models in their ever expanding range too. That Ruston Proctor in particular.
The fact a person can sit at a computer and produce models to such a high standard amazes me.
As for me. Do I want to sit at a computer messing with squares, curves, vectors and nodes or whatever to make a model? I don't think so. I have tried it. I started work on some T scale structures once.

Sketchup of a T scale gas station

Perhaps it was the learning curve or the struggle with the online instructions, but I just didn't get the same pleasure out of it as if I was measuring and cutting styrene and piecing it together. When I look at what I achieved in T scale I still glow with pride a little bit.

T scale lighthouse. A N scale flashing LED was used as a beacon

This T scale petrol station included some impossibly tiny petrol pumps.

Like I said, times are changing. I can see reasons to try my hand at Sketchup model making, my eyesight isn't what it used to be for example. But right now, for me nothing beats cutting and gluing small bits of styrene.