ON THE MOVE

So folks. I’m sure you’re all aware that life can sometimes get in the way of our modelling. There are so many things that happen in our lives, it’s a good job we have our hobbies to help us cope. Unfortunately, moving house is one situation where it’s not that easy to keep playing trains.

I had packed it all away ages ago expecting to move in good time, and then one part of the property chain fell apart so we kept brave and held out and soon it was all back on. Then we have to wait for ages for solicitors and estate agents to do their work – why it seems to take ages, I have no idea – it just does. But wait! whats that, a date for next week. Completion.. Really. Well that’s good news. I’ll have to pack up the newest bits of stock which are still posing on the layout.

I recently had a chance to take some stock to the home of David Eccles, a member of the Norfolk Mardlers. I took some new dapol MK1 coaches and a few old Heljan MK1s too. There really is no comparison in them. The ends, the lights, the tumblehome. I could go on and on about how good they are! They’re great! I have also purchased a couple of the excellent Dapol 122 DMUs. One in Blue (well I had to really!) and one in Blue and Gray.

Well here you can see the two new DMU 122 units in the bay platform in front of a short rake of Dapol MK1s.

APOLOGIES FOR LACK OF PICTURES – THIS IS DUE TO ME REACHING THE LIMIT OF MY STORAGE CAPACITY!!

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ON THE FIDDLE (again!)

Well it’s been a while since I had done some wood work but since I was in the zone – Why not eh!

I after building the previous two sections I hadn’t really done much with them. I had ordered another piece from Tim Horn and he had kindly posted it to me even though I live so close to him I normally collect my boards once they are cut.

So I had this 2 ft x 2 ft section in my garage for what seems like months, it must have been collected way before Christmas but it has been so cold in the garage, nothing has got done there for months, until now you might have gathered!

SO . The other day we had some sunshine and I was in a train mood. The wife and boy were out and these are the times you have to use well.

I got some of the trestles out and before anybody could look at my fiddle yaucrd and say, well isn’t that a whopper! I had it out and the new section was also built.

It looks big doesn’t it. Well it needs to be. Points take up a lot of space which is why I needed the extra 2 ft space to begin with. Well. It was all quite easy today, I was only laying straight track so I got out the dremel type cutter and off we went!

After a little while, we had this – and very pleased with it all I was too! I do need to do the electrics to join this new board to the joining one but that shouldn’t take too long. If I can fit a right hand point and another line beside the two to the right I will. These will carry the longest passenger trains to enter the station and these are only short rakes of 3 coaches in any event!

Well I hope you have enjoyed looking at this. I look forward to the day when I can set it all up in one long display as planned.

IT’S GETTING THERE!

Well it’s been quite a while since I updated the blog. The last entry showed a rather white looking crane and so I thought I might need to show this in a new light. Here is the story of where we are up to now.

One of the things I needed to do was to make some of the items that carried all the chains or the rigging for the hooks etc. These were made out of plasticard and I also referred to the Peter Tatlow books on Cranes too.

So, those bits took quite a while to make and rather than trying to cut circles of plasticard I sent off for some small washers in various sizes for both parts.

It was then time to turn the crane yellow!

I ended up using Railmatch paint but due to a problem with my airbrush, I used a Railmatch rattle can. This was purchased from my local model shop Great Eastern Models.

THIS LOOKS MORE LIKE IT!

Well this was it after painting the whole thing yellow, then going over the areas which needed to be black with Humbrol matt black. This was applied by brush as I wasn’t sure how on earth I was going to mask all the sections. The black paint was then sprayed with Railmatch matt varnish and this really made all my brush marks go away. So then I needed some transfers. In the mean time, I had been talking with one of my modelling chums from the online world and they were able to offer me some ladders for the small match trucks. Given the small fragile nature of the parts, I jumped at the chance of adding some more detail. The transfers were also ordered from Railtec.

I do still need to add the stripes around the engine housing and will do this soon. Note the new handrails which were 3D printed by one of my modelling chums.

Here’s the crane, complete with its support coaches which are also featured on my blog. To see their story click here.

Well folks. This story is going to end soon and will probably have a happy ever after. I just need to add the other stripes and weather it. Oh and then theres the rigging to add! That will be one hell of a job I guess.

Take Care

Shaun

PRIME(R) SUSPECT – CRANE IN WHITE

Well I have to be honest, it looks better in the white primer than I thought it was going to. I had rubbed a lot of every section down with a fibre glass brush and clearly that effort, removing glue spots and imperfections in the surfaces of the plasticard paid off.

Well this isn’t the best picture of my layout, or the crane to be honest, but it does show the Crane base and the two bogies wagons after they had been painted in white primer.

I then realised that I needed to add the two central hand wheels on the crane base so once this was all super dry I went to my supply of etched wheels and selected 4 of the same type, being careful to file of all the bits of brass that had held them on their sprues.

So here was the crane on its base wagon later once all the primer was dry to touch and ok to move about. The other additional small wheels had been added to the base unit too. At this stage, I was really pleased with myself.

Well I guess it’s time to pay thanks to the real hero behind this project. That award goes to DANNY LITTLE, a fine modeller who has been able to cut all the original black parts out as an aid to building this model. He also very kindly built the JIB for me so I didn’t have to worry out cutting all the parts out and getting it all to be square and strong. I think it’s certainly possible that if you wanted one for your own layout, you should consider asking him if he can help. I did have to buy some bits like the wheels, the axle box covers and buffers as well as the obvious things like paint and glue and a good selection of Evergreen products would serve you well too. Once I had made a start, it really was just a case of adding details to some fairly plain shells and I guess you could add as much detail as you wish. I feel I’ve probably added enough detail now and am at the stage where I now have to consider the finishing of the model and how I can stop myself from spoiling the surface of the model with a rubbish coat of yellow paint! Oh and there’s some rigging to sort out too!

CRANE UPDATE.

Well it has certainly been a while since my last update. I’m not very good at keeping this Blog up to date and current with my modelling so sorry about that!

Well this seemed to be the first stage for me. I decided that I would stick some black pieces to the kit, amend some others and cut some others out of my own plasticard – a sure fire need for this project as you’ll see through all the pics!

I decided in earnest to use the Peter Tatlow book on Cranes which had some excellent drawings and pictures.

I then went into full kit making mode and as you can see, there were lots of bits which I cut out myself to use with the kit of parts that I had purchased. There would also be other parts which I would need but more about those later.

It wasn’t too long before I had a very bare but very recognisable crane, but it needed a lot of very tiny pieces to make it into the crane I really wanted.

So, after a little dusting of primer, and more little pieces, we’re starting to get something that looks a little bit like to Cowans Sheldon Crane that I’m after!

Sorry this picture is a bit dark.

So after quite a few hours, well, many … we have something that is starting to get me going a bit, and feeling quite encouraged by my efforts. Sure there’s lots to do still but now it’s really starting to look the business. I’ve just got to remember everything I did on the Crane base to do it on the other side!

Breakdown Train Trauma!

Well my latest project, or the one I was going to have to address sooner or later is this monster. I hope one day it will have a bit more detail on it and be painted yellow to match its coaches. It will take a while to get right and to get as much detail in as I can.

I’d like to take the credit for much of this but the main kit of parts (the black bits) was sent to me by someone who has done a great job of cutting all the pieces out for me and his help and been invaluable. (Cheers! You know who you are!)

Well there’s still lots to do. I need to source other bits such as axle boxes etc. so come back again at some point to see how it’s all holding up!

On the Fiddle!

You don’t need to be that clever to realise that O gauge requires a lot of space. While I like my O gauge layout being in my garage, I am only able to have the scenic section on display as I don’t have a room in excess of 20 ft long to join it to its fiddle yard. Well to be honest up till now, I haven’t even had a fiddle yard for the layout. But hey, that’s no longer the case!

I had collected the two 2ft x 4ft baseboards some time ago from Tim Horn who doesn’t live that far away from me , but I hadn’t done much on them…Until now that its.

I have to be honest. I gave my long suffering wife some prior warning to say I needed these two boards to go up in the back part of our lounge as they wouldn’t fit in the garage, trust me, I tried!

So here (above) was the first board in the garage still while I sorted positions for the points and power feeds. It’s not pretty, but it works!

I’m sorry, I didn’t take a picture when I had finished laying tracks so these two are from roughly the same stage. that is, the first two long lines in place and one of the next tracks fixed down. I have always found a good going of PVA holds track down well with the bonus that water will always help you lift the track if needed.

The track was laid across the two boards which were bolted tightly together. The wiring was then added and only after that stage was a dremel type cutter used to cut the track across the board joins. And it all worked!

ANOTHER JOB DONE!!!

well not quite, due to the space taken up by the points, I really wanted the tracks to be a bit longer so eventually there will be another 2ft x 2ft board added on the end with just straight tracks added. This will enable me to run the longer trains into the station and goods area.

SO WHAT”S NEXT?

Something cool to go with some yellow coaches!

Stay safe

Shaun

Winkle’s Yard in Model Rail

After a long wait, Winkle’s Yard has finally made it into the page of October’s Model Rail Magazine.

I was really pleased to find it on the shelves of a nearby shop and my eyes lit up when I saw the pictures finally printed out.

I do hope some of you are able to get a copy of this to take a look. Here are a few pictures from the same photo shoot, not used in the magazine article. Please don’t take these pictures to use for your own needs. They are not mine and the copyright is held by Chris Nevard and Model Rail Magazine.

Thanks

Shaun

Winkle’s Yard – by Shaun Harvey. Photographed for Model Rail

Winkle’s Yard – by Shaun Harvey. Photographed for Model Rail

Winkle’s Yard – by Shaun Harvey. Photographed for Model Rail

More Bressingham Fun.

I had another fun day at Bressingham last Sunday. It was fairly quiet all day but I was able to play trains for quite a while as you can see…

Well, there’s a funny mix of rolling stock!

Stay safe!

Shaun

WHY ME!

Why do I have to do this next stage? That was the question going through my head as I searched for some thin masking tape. I guess the real reason I have to do this next stage is because if I don’t do it, then it won’t all be my own work and i won’t learn the lessons of this dark art.

Well I made a trip to my local model shop Great Easter Models, and their fine display of Failmatch paints. I bought 2 pots of Rail Blue, 2 pots of yellow and 2 pots of a dark grey for the roof.

So I began with the yellow ends. That couldn’t be too hard could it? Well strangely enough it was harder than the blue body sides and I’m not really too happy with them. I’m hoping some smart weathering will resolve any grief caused by yellow fever.

So onto the blue. I was quite anxious about this. But I needn’t have been as it all went quite well other than my concerns about covering up the yellow over spray from the ends. I have now completed one body and to be honest, it’s not too bad. It’s not perfect and I know what I could do again but that’s what learning is about.

This is what it looks like!

Don’t look too closely please!