Progress on Winkle’s Yard

With a day off and good weather, I decided to try to make progress with my small industrial OO layout which I have now names Winkle’s Yard.

I took the baseboard out into the garden and started to give the board’s sides some paint protection.

After doing this I was able to stick some cork to the baseboard track surface. This was stuck down with PVA glue and weighted down with lots of old paint tins.

The weather was still good so with time available to me, I decided I would try to address the issue of the back scene. I didn’t want to use a printed back scene so would paint the sky onto the plywood. I have lots of concerns about the shades of blue used on exhibition layouts and while many great layouts feature superb modelling, I wonder if some people fail to look at the colour of the sky!

I had already been to a local DIY store and purchased a selection of paint tester pots. I had a few shades of blue, but just as many shades of gray and near white. These are great for modelling and come in a great variety of colours. I sealed the plywood and left that to dry before returning after an hour to put on another layer.

I soon realised that my new brush was not giving me the finish I wanted so I raided the garage for something that would act as a paint tray and a new washing up sponge from the kitchen. Now I was able to mix the colours and apply them in a way which would be more effective.

Well, I’m fairly pleased with the paint finish and the representation of sky using a few tester pots.

I shall now spend some more time preparing stock and finalizing the track plan.

Advertisement

OOH WHAT!

Our group of merry modelers tends to concentrate on O gauge model railways, however, there are a few exceptions to this.

Last weekend we attended a show at Bury St. Edmunds with Norton Wood, a OO gauge small terminus layout with modern image 3rd rail stock.

This got my mind working…

Brace yourselves but don’t get over worried! I am not changing from O gauge to the smaller trains but I have purchased a small scenic baseboard from Tim Horn and will be producing a small industrial shunting layout.

I was inspired to to do this partly by the new Peco bullhead track and points and a desire to get something of my own onto the exhibition circuit.

Since this picture was taken, I have taken delivery of some more rolling stock and kits and things will move quite quickly I hope. I have also been fitting some 4mm Spratt and Winkle Couplings to my new wagons as I want this layout to have hands free operation.

It will probably be a DC controlled layout as I have a good controller and the layout’s size doesn’t really demand a complex DDC approach.

It won’t come as much of a surprise to many people that I want to have a grubby 1970’s BR blue look and so I’ve got my trusty 08 shunter purchased and have been getting a few more BR blue engines for the layout too.

I’m hoping to get this layout build by next summer so learning more O gauge skills may have to wait for a little while.

At the end of the day, my priority is O gauge, but this layout will be movable and available for exhibitions and that was what I really wanted at this stage of my modelling career.

Come back soon to see how things develop!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bressingham Debut Day!

The 2018 Bressingham Model Railway Day marked the first appearance of Ashwell Moor, a modern image O gauge stabling point built by Kelvin.

As it is very much a modern image layout, I was asked very kindly (instructed!) by the boss to leave all my 4 wheel coal wagons and box vans at home and was to bring the breakdown coaches and the recently weathered VAA vans and the TTA tank wagons. Well, a few other things crept into the box, like the olive green departmental mess coach and it’s 4 wheel box van…oops!

It was a lovely day, weather wise and for the event with lots of positive comments about the new layout, which incidentally, was built by Kelvin for his son, John, who was also present today operating the layout with me helping.

Here’s a few pics of Ashwell Moor featuring some of my stock. For other pictures from the day, check out Kelvin’s blog.