Odsock Corner at Narrow Gauge NOW 2026

Narrow Gauge NOW 2026 returns to the usual venue, Portland College near Mansfield on Saturday October 31st 2026. There are two O9 layouts booked, 'Lambert Road' by Andy Booth and 'Odsock Corner' by, er, yours truly...

As one pizza cannot possibly be enough excitement on it's own, I will also have the dioramas 'The Headshunt' and 'To The End' on display alongside, plus no doubt a few surplus models and other items for sale.

As I have a huge surplus of them, I will have packs of Owen Ryder Heywood coupler castings on sale at a very reasonable price, this is your chance to pick up a bargain!

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Do say hello if you are attending the show, for more details visit Narrow Gauge NOW 2026

Colin

Junkbox Jury - The Finale

It's nearly a year since work began on the Junkbox Jury series of models and a while since they appeared on the blog. There were a couple of loose ends that I felt needed tidying up, including one that I swore I had published here previously, but it appears that I didn't...

The first unfinished item was last seen as a flat wagon with pseudo-Hudson axleboxes and not a lot else. Combined with the A1 Models loco bonnet that ever-so-nearly ended up on the dismantled diesel they were brought together to create a generator on a flat wagon. Back in February I reached an impasse as to whether the load should be loose, sat on a couple of planks and strapped down, or should sit permanently on the wagon with some 'L' section and bolts to hold it in place... After much thought I opted for the latter.

The bonnet received an inset styrene infill at what was the cab end and this contains some familiar looking bits of Dapol railbus underframe as the controls and some sort of outlet. Holes that were once intended to house an air horn have been filled over with a fuel filler access flap from 5 thou styrene sheet, with another at the front, presumably for the water. The exhaust is brass tube in a hole drilled for that purpose back when it was going to be part of a locomotive.

The cover is removable to aid painting, when removed it reveals a crude representation of a radiator from a scrap of Evergreen siding and an indulgence in the form of an engine block rescued from a toy motorbike, just so you can see something through the holes (some careful painting required).

During all this work the wagon received a new Peco underframe, a 10 foot example cut down to fit, leaving a wheelbase of approx 16mm. Black Dog Mining-style axleboxes are fitted, using the Farish buffer heads as the centre circles. The change of underframe was prompted by the frailty of what was left of the original, it had been whittled down a little too much earlier in life and an axlebox eventually split off.

Next to be completed is the original 4w open coach that I built to a c.26mm width.

Regular readers may recall that this was replaced mid-build by a 28mm wide version when I wanted to match the width of commercial models. The first model has now been completed to the primer stage, with detailing added from Grandt Line bolt heads and Chivers (4mm scale) axleboxes added to a Peco 15ft chassis. Inside, the seats are currently only placed in position to aid future painting.

However, painting both these models will now be left to someone else, as I have opted to let them go in the near future as surplus to requirements... 

Colin

A Cunning Plan - Part 2 - Flat In/Flat Out

As indicated in the previous post, the Heywood flat wagon would spend it's time hidden behind a fence, regular readers may have guessed that the destination would be the right-angle siding on 'Odsock Corner'. In position the axleboxes are barely visible from the main viewing side and hidden behind the sheeted object from the other side. At least I have the satisfaction the axlebox detail is mostly there...

The arrival of the Heywood wagon was proceeded by the removal of the propped-up, missing axle KB Scale skip frame, which gave way easily leaving no visible glue marks or damage. The Heywood wagon is secured in place using wire wound around the axles, twisted, threaded through holes drilled in the board and held tightly in place with the insides of chocolate block connectors. A three-handed job of course! Some cast whitemetal flower pots and a twist of wire have been placed on top to break up the open space.

The skip frame has moved on to the cunning plan, part 2. It has now taken up residence at the end of the line on 'To The End', seamlessly blending into the junk pile 

Before being on 'Odsock Corner' the skip frame was resident on 'The Headshunt'. There is still a space to fill there which will be the next task...

Colin

A Cunning Plan - Part 1 - The Heywood Flat

"I have a cunning plan..." or words to that effect, muttered only to myself but possibly broadcast on the NGRM Online forum a couple of months ago. The plan directly affects both 'Odsock Corner' and 'To The End' but starts in the acquired box of Owen Ryder O9 bits with a wagon floor casting.

I didn't need an operational wagon but one that would look good hidden behind a fence (more about where in another instalment), so not having the correct axleboxes wouldn't be an issue. The top of the casting had the plank lines re-scribed using a Olfa-style cutter which made for a very neat finish once painted. Owen's coupling castings add some much needed detail. However, what lies underneath is a very different story...

A scrap Farish brakevan chassis was hacked into bits to provide some running gear. Too much hacking in fact as one W-iron actually fell off and had to be surgically reattached. This prompted me to add Heywood style suspension, much modified 3D prints from the same friend as those on the brake van. These actually had no axlebox so the original was covered with styrene strip. The original W-irons hang below the cosmetic ones, but the fence will hide a lot!

Painting was the usual black-grey wash, followed by weathered wood effects on the planking and Vallejo 'Leather Brown' as the main colour, with metalwork in black-grey. Enough weathering has been applied to give a work-a-day look ready to be placed in it's new home. It is sitting on a set of Matheson 7mm diameter wheels that had developed a bit of a wobble, ideal for a non-runner!

More soon.

Colin

Heywood Brake Van - The Paintshop

I'm pleased to report that the Heywood brake van is now complete, painted and ready for service...

Now you may be thinking that we have missed a stage somewhere as last time it appeared on the blog it was still in raw materials, and you would be right, This is the missing photo of the primed model, as always the coat of primer has brought the various elements of the build together as one, I was very happy with the finish and the way the parts sit together, my careful attention to any gaps seeming to have paid off. 

Painting started with a wash of black-grey to get in all the plank lines and corners, an under-shade so to speak. Vallejo 'Flat Earth' was used as the main colour for all the woodwork, dry-brushed as far as possible to leave the shading in the recesses. The shade of the 'Flat Earth' was varied for a light second coat, lighter on the interior and darker on the exterior, just to add variety. Metalwork was finished in black-grey with a dry-brushing of gunmetal grey and the roof in a mid grey. The plate on the bodyside was painted black with the lettering dry-brushed off-white, using an improvised mask made using a hole punch and a post-it note!

After a coat of Humbrol acrylic matt varnish from an aerosol, the painting stage was complete and I am pleased that the joins in the roof have all-but disappeared, only visible if the light hits at the wrong angle! Couplings are Greenwich for use on 'Odsock Corner' and to save building a new set, these were <ahem> "borrowed" from my recently built 8-seat coach, as was the passenger. A decision will be made about that vehicle soon...

More Heywood soon...

Colin

Denton Road - O9 at Kirklees

The annual Kirklees Light Railway gala weekend has rolled around again, this year's theme is milestones, with the 60-year old 'River Mite' and 50-year old 'Northern Rock' visiting from the Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway. 

The Ratty was also represented in miniature by Daniel Winter's 'Denton Road', an O9 combination of elements from several railways. but with a strong Ratty theme to to the stock.

20 years ago I was building freelance O9 stock from bits of plastic kits and eventually evolving to scratchbuilding prototypical equipment. Daniel has embraced 3D printing to produce those components that are required over again, such as R&ER enclosed stock, but still scratchbuilds other items, including the Rivers Irt and Mite seen here with the proposed Greenly 0-8-4T single Fairlie.

There's even an Atlantic, which has prompted me to consider getting my long-stalled project out again (well, that and a visit to Rhyl during the summer...)

Not everything is unique to the layout - the Chivers Finelines open coach makes an appearance, one of the few commercial O9 items that represents true miniature railway practice. A reminder that if you wish to order one, they are only available directly from Chivers Finelines.

This was the first occasion that I have seen and had the chance to ride behind 'Northern Rock', a very impressive machine indeed, so much so that I had two rides up the hill behind her, I usually try and get an uphill ride behind all visiting locos but having ridden behind 'River Mite' before I made an exception, opting for a downhill run instead.

If you're reading this as soon as I post it, there is still a chance to see it all on Sunday 13th September!

Colin

Heywood Brake Van - The Roof

The roof of the Heywood brake van has been perhaps the most involved part of the project. The kit parts included only the main frame, I've no idea what was supplied with the kit originally for the main piece. The scrapbox revealed some 20 thou black styrene that I had already curved over a drinks can some time ago, and there was sufficient material to do the job twice, which turned out to be useful...

I had decided that the roof should be removable during the painting stages and as the frame piece really just balanced on the four pillars, I wanted some way of locating it at the final assembly stage. I opted to use some 3 x 1mm lengths of nickel silver etch fret attached to the inside of the pillars to achieve this, attached in place with superglue, 2mm on the pillar and 1mm above for the frame to locate to.

Corresponding strips of styrene on the inside edge of the roof locate it correctly fore and aft. The roof is the aforementioned styrene, which was glued to the frame with epoxy adhesive and clamped together until dry, helping to bring the material to the correct shape as it was a slightly tighter radius. When set it was trimmed to shape but the first attempt looked awful so it all came off for a fresh try with the remainder of the material. This was the result, and compared to the drawing that had kindly been provided by David John of 'Rhyd' fame, it looked wrong...

The drawing, and re-inspection of photos, revealed  that the roof frame should be wider than the sides of the vehicle, so I set about widening the roof. Had I not used the rest of the black styrene I might have started over again, but I set out to recover what was there. 40 x 60 thou styrene strips were added either side of the frame and once the glue was set they were sanded to be vertical with the vehicle sides. This reduction in width was sufficient to allow 15 x 30 thou strips to be added as extensions of the roof giving a neat overhang. The ends were treated to 15 x 20 thou strips to create a more consistent overhang once sanded gently back once the glue was dry. Milliput was used to fill all gaps and once sanded smooth the new roofline is shown below.

As an extra stage the roof has subsequently been sprayed with filler primer and smoothed out again to ensure there are no tell-tale marks for the joins. 

A good clean-up and the paintshop beckons!

Colin

Heywood Brake Van

I recently acquired a collection of Owen Ryder O9 whitemetal castings via the 7mm Narrow Gauge Association which included an almost complete set of parts for the Heywood Eaton Hall 4w brake van. The missing parts included the etched underframe and axlebox parts, the seat back and whatever was used to form the roof. 

The castings required a little fettling here and there but otherwise were not bad for something marked "1994". With the seat back made up from styrene, end rails formed from 0.7mm brass wire and holes drilled in the floor piece to accept them, the main parts are seen here ready to assemble.

But what of the running gear? I could have borrowed the etch from an un-opened Heywood wagon kit I have but that would just move the problem on. A bit of careful measurement found that an N gauge Peco 10ft wheelbase chassis would fit with a fair bit of of er, persuasion... It would need some suitable axleboxes and luckily I found some 3D prints a friend had kindly made me a few years ago for another project. They were modified to suit the Peco chassis and fixed in place with epoxy. There began a common thread in this build as I did the job twice as my original location of the parts was not quite straight. I then fixed the chassis into the cast floor and again, did this twice as things did not sit right first time. Once happy that the top of the floor was level I used Milliput to create supports for Greenwich couplers, filed flat once set. Drilling the holes turned out to be another do-it-twice job due to a useless drill bit...

As the alignment of the main body parts was not a perfect science, I decided that I would assemble the seat and both sides in one session, using slow-cure epoxy. Determined not to have to do this stage twice, I carefully checked alignment and conducted a dry run of the intended clamping operation. I really should have photographed this, it involved a set square, another square steel block and two large clamps, plus two spring clamps! The slow drying time of the adhesive allowed for minor adjustment and alignment checks and the outcome was a success.

There was a little excess adhesive but this was soon cleaned up ready for the next stages, which include the roof and deliberations on whether it should be fixed in place prior to painting. 

More soon... 

Colin

Remembering the Black Cat

It is one year since I wrote A Black Cat Crossed my Path, so on the anniversary of Mr Sooty's passing it seems appropriate to reveal something dedicated to his memory...

The nameplate is from Narrow Planet/Light Railway Stores and has been mounted in the fashion of 'Gwril' at Fairbourne, the spare plate is safely stored away.

Colin

To The End

I think I'm now at a point where I can say that 'To The End...' is now as complete as it can be. The lower edges of the board have all now been painted with grey primer/undercoat, three coats with some light sanding in-between coats and the final coat applied with a sponge roller. 

I've also fixed the backscene board in place. This is a piece of hardboard, not the most ideal of materials as it has a tendency to warp when un-framed. Unusually this piece is actually double-faced, having been salvaged from an old wardrobe, and had already been primed both sides and painted sky blue on one as part of another project. Newly cut edges were touched in with primer and everything was going well until I dropped the board and damaged a corner! Argh!! 

Luckily the damage was repaired with liquid superglue to bind the corner, then Milliput to smooth away the damage. Paint was then touched up, luckily I found the remains of the exact blue used on the front of the board. A white car primer aerosol was then used to lightly coat the front of the board as the blue was both a little too bright and a little too satin in finish. The board was then screwed in position.

The board's main function is really to protect the tree, both in storage and when on display. Of course I have nowhere to stand this on a regular basis but it will hopefully appear in public alongside 'Odsock Corner' later in the year. It isn't really much use for photography as the tree casts internal shadows on the backscene, ironically it works better without the backscene and with my white reflective sheet behind at a slight distance. The shadows on the sky can just be seen to the top left of this (cropped) trial shot.

Having said I am about finished, there may be one more addition, possibly as a removable feature. It would need a couple of blocks of wood to raise it off the rails, but would pick up on the "abandoned miniatures" theme that this scene started out with as a micro diorama...

Colin

A Scenic Sprint (To The End)

Confession time... I have not really been taking many photos of progress of the expansion of my 'To The End' diorama. I've fallen out with my bridge camera and my phone camera doesn't always get the result I'm after. Therefore there is a jump from the last post to the next image, and then we'll find that this is really the last proper "work in progress" shot... 

By this time I had added two more layers to the basic groundwork, one a layer (in some places two) of Amazon packing paper used with dilute PVA in a sort of papier mache to add a consistent surface over the card and DAS clay, then a layer of my usual paint/PVA/tile grout mix, with Woodland Scenics fine turf sieved over whilst wet. In between these layers the track was ballasted and whilst looking for materials to match the original mixture, I actually found that very mixture, result!

The concrete area was extended from the small area on the micro-diorama. I had the original Green Scene tub with this material in, but opened it to find that it had dried out. Originally this paint had some sort of powder in it, with a liquid carrier, and the dried out lumps were still powdery... could I grind it back down to a powder in a pestle and mortar, and reactivate it? Adding the powder to Hobbycraft Matt Medium I soon had a paste that resembled the original product and I could use it on the new area to extend the scene. Despite the plan being to use static grass for the new grass work, I then opted to further blend old and new by adding some hanging basket liner in around the edges of the trackwork and concrete areas to help everything blend in. 

At this early stage I was experimenting with groupings of scenic items, in an attempt to add interest to the scene, and hopefully use up some items that have been awaiting their day for a while, such as these Ravenglass & Eskdale inspired fencing panels. These were actually glued in place during the static grass work and from that point on, things just grew organically, or so it seems...

I cannot possibly describe everything in detail, but to summarise, I have:

• added further leaf litter around the track to match that on the micro diorama,
• added static grass in a mixture of colours, aiming for variation but keeping it subtle,
• created bushes/hedges from teased rubberised horsehair, with static grass fibres added a la Gravett, then foliage, and avoiding foliage matts to get a better effect,
• reinstated the fence, with a new section running into the hedge that was originally created for Odsock Corner,
• added detail/texture to the grass using MiniNatur flowers, Martin Welberg weeds and some recently acquired products.

The tree is the half-relief one completed in 2022 when attempting the Avalon Brickworks style layout. I had to remove about 2cm from it's height so it will fit in the Really Useful Box, and re-create the flare/roots at the base (then hide them in the undergrowth!)

On the micro diorama the front corner was occupied by a wheelset and a crate with a lamp inside. For the expanded scene they are joined by a bucket, keg, pallet, paving slabs and a saddletank that was originally for a model of 'Badger' but has again been painted up for some time and waiting in the wings for use in a scene. It has just been explored by a rabbit, who is looking over towards a bush from Green Stuff World from a pack I bought in a wargames shop in Bridlington on holiday last year.

More soon...

Colin

 

To The End (Revisited)

 A couple of months ago I mocked-up of a concept to expand one of my micro-dioramas 'To the End'. There is some background to this scene in Diorama Developments - To The End back in 2021, but to summarise it started life in 2016 as a 140 x 70mm scene, later expanded to 220 x 70mm. With it's home in the display cabinet no longer available I have started work to develop a larger scene. 

My initial though had been to go up to the 15" x 6" (375 x 150mm) format of 'The Headshunt' and 'Beck Bridge', but it has actually ended up a little smaller in order that it can fit into a 9 litre 'Really Useful Box', with an available height of 210mm. 

The new base is largely recycled and offcut materials, very much in the style of my 'Up-cycle' projects of a few years ago. On the underside of the board the constructional style can be seen, the corner pieces came from a pre-cut set of parts cut for a diorama board some time ago, but had to be slimmed down to suit the new board size. The extra block of timber along the top edge corresponds with a block on the surface and together are intended to provide a solid area of timber to drill to accept a wire-framed low-relief tree. 

The original diorama had not been fixed in place in the first picture and as can be seen below was shifted in location a little before the final fixing, just to give things a little more room to "breathe". Landscaping is now under way with corrugated card (cat food box) doing most of the work at this stage to create the layers. The track has been extended off the original scene and to ensure there was continuity between old and new I actually replaced the rails up to the existing cosmetic fishplates. The new track required packing to level it using some thin card.

DAS clay was used to smooth out the levels in the landscape and where possible start the blend between the old and new. I accepted that I would lose some of the existing ground cover as part of the process of blending in the new, indeed a lot of the hanging basket liner grass was trimmed right down to accept new materials on top. Having gone to great levels to create new levels in the ground, a lot of it isn't hugely apparent in the end but I am happy in the knowledge that it isn't flat! At the top of this image the area for the tree to sit in is the flat patch where the plywood is showing through.

More soon...

Colin

Trailing Behind

I haven't done a lot of modelling of late, but I have completed this Gubbin Box Models Heywood open that I bought last year. I have now put to use as a new luggage trailer for the tramcar/railcar. I had previously used a Black Dog Mining style wagon for this, but it looked wrong against the railcar on the 5" curve of 'Odsock Corner. The Heywood wagon is a little narrower and should sit a little better on the curve. 

There isn't a lot to do to these 3D prints to prepare them, other than drill out and add the handrails at either end. I did however add a pair of the Owen Ryder Heywood couplings that I acquired recently, one with the hook fixed in place and the other without hook. That end actually has a split pin hiding in the coupler casting to allow a simple wire connection to the split pin on the railcar.

The wire coupling actually bends at 90 degrees away from the camera underneath the Heywood coupler to help stop it falling out, or at least that is the theory! The print was primed and then painted in Vallejo 'Leather Brown' with the metalwork in black-grey. Washes of black-grey and brown toned the colouring down and once varnished the boltheads, couplers etc were lightly drybrushed with 'Gunmetal' to pick them out. The luggage from the old wagon was transferred over and held in place with tacky wax. Being a little smaller there wasn't room for the bicycle but I think that may turn up somewhere else soon...

Colin

'Up-cycle' Revisited?

Probably the last doodle for the wrapping paper box board for now, covering the last of the considered track arrangements. This time the evolution of my 'Upcycle' scheme from many years ago, but on a brand new board, not upcycled! Nothing too specific, a yard with assorted junk, a siding with an oil drum for fuelling locos and a nondescript hut...

Incidentally, I dry-assembled the board at the weekend, really just to check the mechanics of whether it could actually desk-sit. It can, just, but might raise more questions than answers about the ideal location of electrical connections and switches.

Colin

High Tide at Humberston

This photo appeared in my cloud storage 'memories' feed this morning, taken on Bank Holiday Monday, 5th May 2008. We were staying at the Haven site at Cleethorpes and I had caught the last CCLR train of the day to Humberston North Sea Lane to return to the caravan. To my surprise on heading through the flood gates at the top of the bank the tide was fully in and the far side of the Humber estuary was invisible, giving a surreal effect of being somewhere else completely.

(Click on the image for a larger version)

This has remained one of my favourite Cleethorpes images, in fact in 2020 a version appeared over my desk as a reminder of better days. It is still there now, a reminder of a stretch of railway that is currently out of use and the hope that it will see trains again one day.

Colin

Three Point Doodles - Take Two

As promised, we return to the theme of the miniature railway depot/shed scene for another plan. This time however I have flipped the plan back-to-front (the wonders of photo manipulation!) so the lead-off leaves the scene behind a building. I have not drawn it here, but the idea of revealing the interior of the front-right building was appealing. This version does need a fiddle stick off to the right to allow locos and stock to be exchanged. 

One thing I have become very conscious of is that I have a suspicion that I am under-estimating the sizes of some of these structures for the board space/height, especially to keep it in the box. Looking at these shed scenes again, the long, flat structure across the three tracks, based on the running shed at Cleethorpes, looks too 'flat' and really needs to be two structures with a step in the frontage to add some variety. These plans would definitely benefit from mock-ups as a next stage if developed further.

The last of the current batch of plans probably gets the structure sizes about right, and for the first time the loop and siding plan gets a sketch!   

This is very much in the vein of a scenic test track, the scenery is fairly stripped back to two small structures - a bus shelter and grounded wagon body, plus fencing and shrubbery. Yes it needs more fiddle yard than desirable but if it is for my own enjoyment only...

Colin

Three Point Doodles

I've found myself doodling again... several times... I'll spare you all dumping all the designs in one post, so here are the first two, based on the 'Tragbar/Chetley' plan. I realised that I may not have really done this justice in my original mock-ups, and looking carefully the rearmost, L/H point was aligned wrongly. 

The first plan on the revised template is designed to be simpler scenically than the Inglenook plans, although it shares some common elements. There are less buildings and any provision for concealed, rear operation, point controls is dealt with by a low rock face. A grounded 18" gauge wagon body (which I've possibly drawn a little too small) from 422 Modelmaking components sits behind a sleeper-edged platform. This arrangement will allow operation of a passenger train formed of couple of 4w coaches and for another locomotive to release the incoming locomotive.

In many ways I'd like to build something that stock and motive power from 'Shifting Sands' can operate on. In this sort of space the obvious idea is to model the "other" shed of the railway (the one at Shifting Sands itself cannot possibly house everything!). This plan turns things on their head, but only very slightly... The scenic area is shortened to allow a small fiddle area on the board itself, so it is truly self-contained. New style Peco loco lifts would be deployed to lift locos on and off the layout to take their turn at the sheds.

We shall return to this theme very soon...

Colin

Another Od-Job

Another day, another od-job. The old Black Dog Mining tub now has it's load of garden waste. Baking paper was again used to line the inside of the wagon and it was filled with offcuts of rubberised horsehair (from a hedge that never made it onto the layout), plus some leftover bits of sea foam that had previously been painted a darker brown. The baking paper liner was removed from the wagon before lots of hairspray was used to fix it together and left to set overnight propped up to retain the shape. 

Once set the bottom had stuck to the paper so I used this to my advantage, cutting away the sides and applying PVA to any gaps around the edge and adding scatter to complete the effect of material thrown into the wagon.

Colin

Odsock Od-Jobs

Whilst dithering in the workshop with all the "what next?" ideas I opted to get 'odsock Corner out of the box for a play and ended up doing a few odd-jobs. Firstly the Lister having a stretch on the circuit. This needs a little odd job of it's own when I have the patience, the pedal beneath the driver's right foot is absent, at least it is still in the box! 

Apologies for the iPhone photos by the way, they seem to have come out rather oddly in the background. My proper camera wasn't really playing either... 

The first job on the layout was to upgrade the light circuit for the office building to use a 9v battery and have a proper on/off switch added to the back of the layout, having previously relied on 2x AA batteries with a switch on the battery compartment, under the layout...

The light is now a little brighter with the more powerful battery, hopefully it will last a while in practice... You can now clearly see the Titfield Thunderbolt poster on the rear wall if you look closely.

A pure act of whimsey has seen the station cat part-repainted to try and match our 8-month old kitten Pebbles, who is a mix of black/white/ginger. Doing this in-situ was an interesting exercise but I think I've got it about as right as I can for now.

Finally the Black Dog Mining open wagon has received it's long intended log load, using dried garden cuttings. These were carefully superglued together to fit inside, having lined the body with baking paper first as a precaution to avoid sticking them in permanently. As it happens they are a tight enough fit to not need gluing in place.

The mine tub still needs a load of garden/forestry waste, that's a job for another day...

Colin