An Unseasonal Chill

Earlier in the month I had spotted some ready-mixed filler at a reasonable price in the largest shop in the village and bought it to see how it faired, as snow...

It had been on my mind for a while to revisit the remains of 'Christmas Tree Halt', the 009 pizza I built very quickly last December, which had been stripped down after mould or some other irritant had appeared in the snow cover. In truth the board had actually been stripped back completely earlier in the year, the track relaid using Roco sleepers/secondhand rail and even painted and weathered with a non-winter scene in mind. After adding corrugated card around the outside and in the centre I had lost interest again...

With filler to hand I soon found myself carefully filling in around the track. Taking my time, rather than rushing as I had before. I actually filled outside and inside the rails in separate sessions, and split the work into small manageable chunks rather than trying to do it all at once, which I felt helped keep control of the filler. I also tried not to create the final finish on the first application! Between the rails an extra layer was added, a mix of the filler and PVA effectively skimmed on and cleared from rail sides. After a little cleaning up I was relieved that it still worked!

With the track embedded I added the bases of the roadway and platform from card, and created the raised central area from polystyrene, subtly different in shape to the original. New features on the Mk2 version are some rock faces made some time ago using Plaster of Paris in improvised foil moulds, and a Wills station halt shelter, left over from the 'Humberston' diorama. Don't panic about the black blobs, they mark where the trees go, marked in felt-tip pen and then wetted during scenic treatment. In the background of the picture above can be seen some early trials of snow mix using Vallejo Foundation white and the new filler.

The Wills shelter has had a few tweaks to make the parts sit a little more comfortably and give the impression of framework over the doorway. The original station sign and bench should sit to the left. Platform edging is very thin balsa, overkill maybe as it will be covered in snow, but the original build lacked relief in this area.

One of the plaster-cast rock faces. This has been blended into the polystyrene landscape using some white modelling clay that had originally been bought to bed in the track, but was not shall we say the market-leading brand and seems to shrink quite a bit, causing me to go back over the gaps a few days later. It will all get a covering of snow in due course! To hold everything together all exposed polystyrene and some of the clay was covered in strips of kitchen towel fixed in place with dilute PVA.

So far so good, the next job is going to be to create sound fixtures to plug the trees in, I'm thinking of cutting into the polystyrene to add pre-drilled wooden blocks that a dowel in the tree base can locate into.

Just in case anyone thinks this is madness in September, I'm enjoying doing it with time to spare and better conditions for things to dry out. I'm also fairly certain I can be finished in time!

Colin

Neptune at Ninety

A week away in North Yorkshire gave the opportunity to visit Scarborough's North Bay Railway in it's 90th year. Journeying from our holiday park by a combination of buses and cliff lift, we found 1931 'Neptune' operating services as it had for all that time, with only a break during hostilities. The second train was operated by 1932 'Triton' as it had done for 89 years, apparently I had missed seeing relative youngster 1933 'Poseidon' in operation by a day!

As well as celebrating it's 90th anniversary, 2021 sees the North Bay Railway with a new operator, the operating company changing hands to common ownership with the Cleethorpes Coast Light Railway. One interesting development is commitment to the line's pioneering diesel-hydraulic motive power and the sale of the new-build steam loco 'Georgina'. Director John Kerr kindly let me take a quick peek in the shed area to view 'Robin Hood' and 'Poseidon', which now looks a closer match to the original locomotives after much hard work by the Scarborough team.

Services are running daily until the end of October and are "turn up and go", no need to book and trains can be joined and left at ether end of the line.

One interesting thing that came to light after my visit was that there is a model of the North Bay Railway being documented on YouTube. I am not sure of the scale but it uses 9mm gauge track and Dapol A3 Pacifics and is quite convincing, this is just one of several videos on the channel of Harold Thompson - one to watch...

The photos from my visit to Scarborough on 19th August can be found on Flickr - Scarborough NBR.

Colin

Imposters - Spot the Difference

The two 'imposter' wagons seen in the last post are now completed and painted in grey primer. Since the last pictures I have added some simple hinge details, securing pins for the drop-doors and dummy link-and-pin coupler pockets.

Despite being to practically the same design, there are many differences in dimensions and details, in fact I'm not sure anything is actually the same!

When time permits and the mood takes me they will be painted up and finished off, but that really needs to wait until work on their potential home is underway...

Colin