It was 20 years ago today...

Well, yesterday (ahem), that I took the first under-construction photographs of what was to become 'Cumbria'. I may not have realised it at the time but this model was pivotal in my O9 modelling journey, being a step away from the heavy kit-bashing that had gone before and my first model closely following a prototype, in this case the Ravenglass steam tram 'Flower of the Forest'. My styrene techniques had been honed on a couple of experimental models in the month previously and would develop further as the months went on.

In a turn-around that I'd struggle to achieve these days, three weeks later the construction and detail work was complete and the paintshop was on speed-dial. After spending thirteen years as 'Cumbria' a partial repaint and rebranding undertaken by James Hilton saw 'Flower of the Forest' finally emerge from the works as a reminder of many journeys behind the prototype at Cleethorpes. 

As the coming months may offer up several 20th anniversaries I am considering how to best present these on the blog, especially as the recreated Fotopic site pages of the era are already hosted on the site, for example this page for the 'Cumbria' build. I expect I will highlight the milestone events such as this and maybe casually mention the others now and then... (OK, enough with the Beatles references!)

Colin

Stirring the wagon pot

In the last 'odsock Corner update I explained how I had substituted the intended Black Dog Mining based wagon in the siding scene with my "damaged" Hudson skip-frame flat. Before I had decided on this switch I had actually altered the original model and I thought it worth recording the work here.

Inspired by the work of Steve's Narrow Gauge Adventure, the planks of the damaged flat wagon destined for the siding were actually replaced like-for-like with real wood in the form of weathered coffee-stirrers. Fixings were represented simply by pushing a compass point into the wood and then the tip of a mechanical pencil after weathering.

This gave a much better representation of weathered wood than I had managed with the original scribed and painted styrene, which to be honest I wasn't too happy with anyway...

Once I had opted not to use the wagon in the siding scene it gained some "repairs" made in the form of new planks from un-weathered coffee stirrers. In my mind I was perhaps formulating a plan that involved it retaining the Black Dog coupler blocks and being used with the Avalon Line loco (and other suitable stock).

That may not come to pass, in truth the stock that will run around the Pizza is yet to be finalised (if indeed it needs to be) and equally what couplings they will have. I've said it before but when I start wagon tinkering it isn't always a sign of a good thing... In this vein a few recent wagon kit builds have left the fleet in the last week or so as they didn't quite meet my current thinking but that was not a reflection on them as models, just my thinking...

My cloud storage reminds me daily with an 'on this day' photo selection and ironically this week threw up several images of now-sold models. I'll leave you with this one from 2021, both the loco and diorama now have new homes, and I had space to build new things and a little money to re-invest.

Colin

Rainy Day Rebuild

Regular readers may recall that nearly three years ago I completed a scratchbuilt O9 i/c locomotive built ago on an unmodified Kato 11-109 chassis (Finished Business). Following the work I did on the Simplex to better hide the Kato chassis I decided to revisit this model as well. I am rather pleased with the result as seen below.

I actually commenced work back in November, with storm Bert making the shed rather unpleasant to work on the layout I opted to stay in the house and tinker. Having separated the top of the Kato chassis from the motor unit I used a fine razor saw to remove everything outside the representation of brake gear to the end of the chassis, resulting in some pleasing daylight at each end when viewed side-on.

I also took the opportunity to correct something else that bothered me about this model, which was that the coupler units looked a bit too "industrial", so these were carefully parted from the buffer beams and everything smoothed back. New bolt heads were added to break up the otherwise featureless space. Behind the bufferbeam a new mount for the MicroTrains coupler was added in the space freed up by shortening the chassis moulding.

The bufferbeams were then carefully masked up, primed and painted red well before Christmas, but after that sat awaiting a coat of Humbrol aerosol matt varnish for some time. I was waiting on the weather to be fine/dry enough and ideally something else to varnish at the same time to make it worth getting spray booth out... I finally got around to it last week, allowing me to re-assemble everything the following morning.   

The new position of the coupling now looks like a simple mount on the buffer beam in the style of a link-and-pin coupler, MicroTrains even mould a little dimple in the top that looks like the hole the pin drops through! As the side-on view at the top of the page shows, the lack of the end parts of the Kato chassis really improves the look compared to the views when first completed.

At the time I started this I did propose to myself at least one other winter rebuild and this may still appear in due course, watch this space!

Colin

'odsock Corner - Trees, Leaves and Junk

We left 'odsock Corner' with the office building and walls in place and the next stage was to start to infill the central section of the scene. There needed to be a certain order to this to avoid having to fiddle around adding items under the trees once they were fixed in place. The eagle-eyed will notice that since they were last featured some of the items being used have changed, such is the nature of layout development.

The first notable change is that the post and rail fence that I created to go alongside the office building has been replaced by something a little more makeshift in the form of a wattle fence panel supported by three weathered offcuts of cocktail stick. 

The fence panel itself was one of a couple of items I acquired in the sell off of bits and pieces from the well-known 7mm standard/narrow gauge layout 'Brookford' a few years ago, I think it suits the location well as a makeshift but elegant solution in an estate setting.

Behind the fence another change in plan sees the wagon in the siding changed to the Hudson skip frame with broken axleboxes that I created a few years ago. Until very recently it had been in place on 'The Headshunt' but it actually looks better in context here. In the photo below I was trialling the arrangement of various bits and pieces that needed to be fixed underneath the tree.

The sheeted object is a Ten Commandments casting, the pallet and oil drum Knightwing and the oil can from a Cararama set. The wooden crate and sacks piled on the wagon are Black Dog Mining castings. The paving slabs propped up against the wall are home-made from mounting card. As part of the process of placing these items I wanted to add in a layer of leaf litter around several areas under the trees, This mix of brown scatter, dried tea leaves, crushed Green Scene leaves and various other materials was applied over a layer of WWS basing glue and additionally secured from above with dilute matt medium.

With hindsight I perhaps have some over-sized material in there, the Green Scene leaves did not break down too well in a pestle and mortar, I don't run to a coffee grinder ala Mr Gravett but it would probably be better. I may revisit/refine this mixture before too long. A similar mix was applied on the road side of the wall but I actually think I got the balance about right here in terms of material size. I really must add some vegetation climbing over the wall itself at some point...

Work is now underway to add foliage to the remaining tree and after a bit of a saga I have the spray paint required to add a little colour variation to my base material for bushes and brambles so hopefully if the weather isn't too cold and the workshop not too inhospitable, some more progress will be made soon.

Colin

An Avalon Arrival

As mentioned a couple of months ago in O9 Archaeology, the revived 7mmNGA sales operation under  has recently turned up several interesting O9 items of late and it has provided an opportunity to acquire a few older commercial O9 models that are no longer in production. With a little Christmas money to spend I picked up another couple of items in early January, including another unopened Owen Ryder kit, this time the Heywood open wagon. Yes, other models are now available of this but I never got around to buying one from Howard Martin when the range was revived...

Since Howard's passing I've felt a small pang of guilt that I actually do not have anything in my collection that truly reflected the Avalon Line range so the opportunity to purchase a ALD2-9 diesel was also taken. It is actually a built and painted example very close in appearance to the one illustrated on the old Black Dog Mining website but differs in small details, including the coupler position. 

I therefore believe that this may actually have been finished by Steve Bennett. It has clearly never had a chassis fitted as the paint underneath shows no signs of wear. In fact an attempt to pose it on a motor-less Farish 08 chassis failed as it was too tight a fit! I am looking at the options to power it, the obvious low-cost way (as the source is in stock) would be to make some careful adjustments underneath to take a Kato 'core' and accept that the wheelbase won't match the axleboxes, but that it won't be too obvious.

An alternative would be to look at repowering the 08 chassis with a Tramfabriek motor but I have some qualms about having a 6-coupled chassis hidden away under there. To my surprise the 08 chassis has been propelled around the 5" curves of 'odsock Corner without any issue. However, a further alternative in the form of a Halling motor unit has been suggested by members of the NGRM Online Forum so that will also be investigated.

Colin

 

Saturday Snapshot - Progress

After all my grass-growing woes of the last month it is very satisfying to bring you this image of how far things have come in recent weeks. The walls and office building are now fixed in place and hopefully it won't be too long before the trees are too...

The weather forecast for the weekend ahead is probably telling me not to spend too much time out in the workshop but we shall see what is possible, I think hairspray dries better in cold weather than PVA, right?

There are a few new developments to come in the next few weeks and maybe one or two changes of mind, watch this space...

Colin

The Green Grass of 2025

A couple of weeks ago I expressed my frustration with my latest efforts to use hanging basket liner grass and that I had purchased a static grass applicator and started experimentation... 

After several colour tests and experience-building sessions on scraps of cork and hardboard I was ready to add some colour to the layout itself. My applicator is the WWScenics Pro Detailer which is ideal for the sort of small projects I wish to complete. Whilst there are a few areas that may benefit from a further layer, I am largely happy with the effect so far.

My initial stock of grasses also came from WWScenics and I may have picked one that was a bit on the bright side. I had it in mind to try and match the sort of colours that I achieved using hanging basket liner and one shade I chose was far too bright. A quick search of eBay found a shade from Woodland Scenics that fitted the bill so an order was placed and further experimentation took place. I wanted to be able to blend with hanging basket shades as I had successfully added a few extra areas of this as shown below, prior to applying the static grass to see how the two could co-exist.

The shades used in the end were a base layer of 2mm WWS 'Muddy' followed by a blend of  4mm Woodland Scenics 'Light green' and WWS 'Muddy'. In places another layer has been added of 6mm WWS 'Patchy' to add variety. I think the colour-blend has worked very well although the static grass is still a touch greener than the hanging basket grass, where it is still visible!

Despite appearances there is still a lot more to do to the grass, adding ground foam etc as I would usually do, plus other growth here and there to break up the texture a little more. There is also a requirement for plenty of leaf litter under the trees, creation of which is now underway.

A quick word for the team at War World Scenics for their excellent customer support after an issue (self inflicted) occurred with my applicator, thank you WWS!

Wishing all readers of O9 Modeller a Happy New Year.

Colin