7mm SPA Progress

I've completed the assembly of the first of the 7mm kits I've been working on, and I think the result is quite reasonable given the fairly rough and ready nature of the mouldings.

The lack of believable brake levers led to a rummaging through the 'bits' box; parts were borrowed from the leftovers from previous kits, one side from a Grampus the other from a VGA. It goes to emphasise why you should never through anything away.

All that remains is to give it a coat of Railfreight 'flame red', and apply transfers.

Network Rail - Glasgow Central

Stock Weathering

I've been spending some spare time working on the new stock I have acquired for Widnes road lately. I try not to run anything 'out the box' for too long; so the new Class 25 has now had buffers replaced, detail parts added, and using 1500 grade wet and dry I have taken the shine off the body work.

I spent a couple of hours this afternoon weathering it and this shows the end result. A combination of Carr's weathering powders and a light airbrushing with three tones going from frame dirt and brake dust to smoke black. 

A break from 4mm - some O-gauge wagons

As last weekend was the final outing for Widnes Road for 2009, as illustrated by a new shiny Bachmann 150 Sprinter basking in the sunshine above; and with a nearly 5 month break until the next exhibition, there is a chance to get down to some proper model making.

I have always been someone who tends to hoard kits if I can pick them up for a reasonable price, even if I don't have a current project which they would suit. A case in point is the reasonable selection of 7mm modern image wagon kits I have accumulated from e-bay.

The first one onto the work bench is a resin / white metal SPA / ZDA Sea Urchin. The image above is the result of about 6 hours work filling and sanding as most parts had air bubbles or in the case of the metal parts, fairly large gaps in the castings. After a bit of  work however, I'm fairly convinced I can get a decent model from a really quite cheap purchase.

The next photo shows the rather less 'economical' purchase which has spurred me on to get back to some 7mm modelling. Having been on the look out for some more HEAs to add to the one I completed in the summer, at the Royston show on Saturday I acquired not one but five, and very tidy they are too. With a half-decent speedlink train coming together I now have the impetus to build a few more wagons, as well as getting some track laid in the garden in the Spring.

Layout and stock tweaks

Having spent two days running Widnes Road at Tolworth Showtrain, I used part of a day off to make some minor tweaks to the layout. The most time consuming was lengthening No.3 Road in the yard to enable longer locos to fit with a full rake of dogfish & sharks.

Although it doesn't look as if much has altered it still took the best part of 4 hours work to lay a short length of track, relocate the bufferstop and light, and paint and ballast the track.

A full rake of 9 wagons plus a Class 47 or 45 can now fit in the headshunt.

I purchased one of Bachmann's latest DCC Sound Class 25's from Kent Garden Railways at the show, a pretty decent model straight from the box.

One retrograde step, I think, has been the substitution of the older unsprung metal buffers with sprung plastic ones.  these seem quite crude in comparison, particularly when viewed side-on. It 's a simple step to resolve this as the plastic buffers are easily removed with a pair of pliers. The replacements are turned blackened brass Oleos.

Photos from Tolworth Showtrain

This weekend Malcolm and I spent a very enjoyable two days at the exhibition of the Hampton Court Model Railway Club. About the right size for a show with a nice balance of trade stands and exhibitors; and a decent mix of UK and continental layouts.

I was particularly impressed by a Swiss layout, Rhatia, last years Showtrain Cup winner, which I spent a fair while watching.

I have uploaded a few snaps taken of Widnes Road in action over the weekend as well as a couple of shots of Rhatia.

Hello to all the people who stopped for a chat, it was good to meet so many genuinely interested modelers. For those who were asking about the frog polarity changing power supply device; its called a 'Hex Frog Juicer', available from the people at Tam Valley Depot, and sold online by Fast Tracks (not Making Tracks as I mistakenly told someone).

Invisible progress

After a few gremlins crept into the wiring at the last exhibition I felt it was time to give the layout a re-wire; and at the same time take the opportunity to try out a new gadget from Canada; 'The Hex Frog Juicer'.

Initial trials are more than satisfactory, it does exactly what it claims, "Automatically controls the polarity of DCC power for up to 6 frogs on turnouts or crossings. If a train drives onto a frog and it is the wrong polarity, the circuit will switch to the opposite polarity."

"The Hex Frog Juicer is the ultimate expression of
running your trains and not the track."

Exhibition Dates & Places - Widnes Road

See Widnes Road at the following Exhibition Appearances:

Farnham & District MRC - 10th-11th October 2009;
Aldershot - Connaught Leisure Centre, Tongham Road, GU12 4AS

Hampton Court MRC - Tolworth Showtrain 2009
Tolworth Recreation Centre - 14th-15th November 2009;

Royston & District MRC - Sat 21st November 2009
Meridian School, Garden Walk, Royston, SG8 7JH

Provisional invites; 2010

Hoddesdon, Herts 10th July 2010

Mid Essex MRC - 18th September 2010
Shenfield High School, Oliver Road, Shenfield

Ilford & West Essex MRC - 80th Anniversary Exhibition
2nd & 3rd October 2010

Romford MRC - Sat 13th November 2010

Confirmed Appearances 2011
Warley National Model Railway Exhibition 2011
19th & 20th November 2011, NEC Birmingham

Widnes Road - Stock Update

A week before the exhibition season begins and I have made enough progress on Widnes Road that a) It looks fairly finished; and b) I can have a break from the scenery and get back to what I enjoy most; resprayed and detailing rolling stock.

The results of this have been i) the fitting of a Howes of Oxford Sound decoder in one of the Class 33's. I'm very pleased with it, I reckon its a match for my much loved South-West Digital decoder fitted locos. ii) The partial respray of my last 'out the box' loco, 37 057 "Viking" into Eastfield Machine 37 035.

Whilst not finished, I still need to plate over the nose doors and remove the sealed beam headlight and aerials, with the fitting of Heljan ploughs (from a 47) it looks the part. The respray was needed to remove all traces of the nameplate and Tinsley Rose. I will eventually lightly weather it to match 47 597.

Widnes Road - Exhibition Ready

With two weeks to go to the Sudbury Model Railway Exhibition; I have been adding the finishing touches to the latest section of Widnes Road. This new element, although only adding just over a foot to the scenic section, adds a rear part to the depot scene, as well as allowing more depth to allow a for realistic backscene to be incorporated. The road overbridge has been improved with new supporting pillars which make it look a much more believable structure. A further low-relief depot building has been added to the far right-hand end of the layout, as shown in the close up picture above; I still need to add the far bridge abutment and add much more to the backscene.

Depot Progress (Widnes Road)

Progress lately has focused on improving the appearance of the main depot building, with the fabrication of a new depot floor with recessed tracks, an inspection pit and full length inspection walkway.

Exhibition Time Again

Although it seems only weeks ago that the British summertime finally decided it would happen, far sooner than I ever allow for the autumn Model Railway Exhibition season is rolling into view again.

As with every year I get half way through August and realise that the dozen or so jobs I had determined to do when I unloaded Widnes Road from the last exhibition of last years season remain at best half finished. In fact as with last year; after the last exhibition in the spring, I took a large saw to Widnes Road, to enable an extension to be fitted.

To be fair, I've made pretty good progress, the woodwork was finished very early on, as was the trackwork and wiring, but then; as usual I got distracted by another project, this time the continuous run around the railway room.

So to spur me on here is a list of the tasks still to be completed by the first weekend of October:

1. Rebuild the main depot building from a dead-end to a through 2-road shed (largely complete, just need to make and fit three new roller shutter doors)
2. Lay new hardstanding with inset trackwork throughout the depot building area;
3. Construct low-relief depot building to form backscene to new extended depot area
4. Construct low-relief wagon repair shed for foreground of extended board.
5. Refit all small depot detailing parts;
6. Paint and fit new electric sub-station;
7. Fit OHLE to extended tracks;
8. Re-fit signal and buffer warning light;
9. Make new backscene for scenic board extension;
10. Fully test layout and clean all stock.
    

55 days to go...

The next two upcoming Exhibitions at which Widnes Road is appearing are:

Sudbury MRC - 3rd October 2009
St. Peters, Market Hill, Sudbury

Farnham & District MRC - 10th-11th October 2009;
Aldershot - Connaught Leisure Centre, Tongham Road, GU12 4AS:

Singen Hbf - Signal Box

With the added incentive of new rolling stock to photograph, I managed to get around to painting the signal box for Singen Hbf; as well as finishing off the main station building with the latest DBAG and S-Bahn signage. I'm pretty pleased with the results. The new rolling stock is a Fleischmann OBB Hercules; and a Trix SBB Mak Diesel. Next to be built is the town square, complete with fountain; then finish off the fuelling point.

Here are some photos of the finished signal box:



















And some more photos of the new locos, and the updated main station building:

Singen Hbf - New Arrival

While in Berlin this week I picked up one of the latest Fleischmann driving trailers; so here are a couple of photos showing it being tested on my Singen Hbf layout. It's a huge improvement in detail levels from the old design which is starting to get a bit long in the tooth. It's inbuilt lighting is also DCC friendly, but at 95 Euro is certainly isn't cheap.

Below; I have included photos both taken last week at Koln of the two different prototypes on which the two Fleischmann models are based for reference. In my opinion probably one of the best pieces of contemporary rolling stock available in N-gauge.

European travels and fresh inspiration

I've just got back from two weeks of traveling around Europe, reaching Prague via Belgium and Germany; lots of updates to come over the next week or two.

The light at the end of the tunnel

A major milestone was reached today on the new layout; the structural woodworking has been completed. Now the trackplan can be laid out using the Tillig HO track templates and any minor adjustments made to allow for point motor locations etc.