Shifting Sands on Show

The 7mm Narrow Gauge Association 40th anniversary show at Burton went very well with 'Shifting Sands' getting a good reaction and causing many conversations. There was a wide range of layouts on show including several that are set to become well known on the exhibition circuit.

I didn't manage to take any pictures myself, so I'm grateful to Andy Jagger and Andrew Young for the two below:

Courtesy Andy Jagger

Courtesy Andrew Young

The layout is now back in it's box and back in retirement, with thoughts for the future being processed...

Colin

Burton Bound

'Shifting Sands' is packed up and ready for transit to Burton upon Trent tomorrow.

I'm looking forward to meeting O9 Modeller readers at the 7mm NGA convention - please do say hello!

Colin

A Different Corner

Here's a corner of Shifting Sands you don't see very often, the "hole in the sky"!

'Flower of the Forest' was in the process of checking the clearances under the new Funland tree. Despite it being clear enough a bit of extra clearance was made by a miniature tree surgeon equipped with a pair of nail scissors!

Not long now until the layout appears at the 7mm Narrow Gauge Association exhibition in Burton upon Trent - 8th June.....

Colin

Making plans for Burton

With 'Shifting Sand's trip to the 7mm NGA exhibition at Burton-on-Trent on 8th June getting ever closer things have swung into action to ensure it is ready for action. Having extracted the layout from the storage box and noted a few jobs that need doing, the first job was an electrical "test", the newest O9 stock having a quick run around before I managed to snatch this picture on my phone...

One of the noted jobs was that a seagull had apparently attacked the chap in the blue coat...

Short bursts of work were then the order of the day over the last week or so. Having proved that everything worked, I opted to do all the required scenic works before a final clean up, track clean and re-graphite, and then and extensive test-running of all required stock, pencilled in for bank holiday Monday....

Work completed includes:

• Replacement tree and scrub behind the 'Funland' fence (top left) - the original tree snapped off at Cleethorpes last year. This may need some clearance work once test running commences, the new tree is (quite a bit) larger and overhanging more.
• Minor rework of the gorse bushes, some additional sea foam pieces and extra ground foam then more yellow paint dabbed on, plus a more orangey shade to look like older flowers.
• Extra textures in the grass using hairspray and ground foam.
• Re-attaching the seagull and a downpipe to the shed structures.
• Removing the sea from the backscene as it was becoming detached, then re-attaching with an acid-free glue stick.
• In progress at the time of the picture - curing the de-lamination of the station platform (thin card over thin ply) with PVA glue and weights.

It doesn't really look any different, but at least the niggles are being ironed out!

Colin

Cleethorpes Coast Celebrates at 70

As mentioned in my previous post 'Shifting Sands' attended the 70th anniversary weekend of the Cleethorpes Coast Light Railway over the weekend of 14th and 15th July. This turned out to be a very enjoyable weekend indeed, aided by the visiting locomotives, frequent service and other attractions.

Star attractions were of course Katie and Sian, I was lucky enough to persuade the driver of Katie to line them up for a shot at Kingsway on the Sunday morning.

Alongside 'Shifting Sands' in the Griffin Hall building were displays from the local model engineers, G scale models and two narrow gauge layouts that were great examples of small space modelling. Firstly, in 009, was 'Dolwyn', based on the Glyn Valley Tramway and featuring some superb scratchbuilt structures based on examples in the locality.

(Photo courtesy Billy Hanner)

In O-16.5 'B.A. Cookes Engineering' was a busy industrial scene featuring a little standard gauge action alongside the narrow gauge. The 7mm Narrow Gauge Association was being well promoted too.

(Photo courtesy Billy Hanner)

I will admit to lurking by 'Shifting Sands' and listening to comments from viewers, I suppose it would have been nice to have operated it but the logistics might have proved difficult, as would keeping the right balance between playing trains and family time. I did however pose for a photo....

The eagle-eyed will see that the backscene is almost at the back of the glass case, in actual fact the fiddle yard was sticking out of the back of the cabinet and the back was actually a specially installed bespoke piece of hardboard in place of the usual glass doors. Fitting it all took a bit of pre-planning and creation of some adaptor pieces, taking it all apart again only took a few minutes!

I have uploaded my pictures from the weekend to Flickr here, my thanks to Billy Hanner for the pictures of the model railway layouts as I seemingly forgot to take any.

Colin

Burton - where North meets South

The 7mm Narrow Gauge Association exhibition (and AGM) at Burton-upon-Trent is always an interesting opportunity to discover layouts that I might not see at other shows. Being centrally located there is a degree of layouts appearing that don't often come much further North (and vice versa for our friends in the South).

It was therefore good to meet Simon Andrews and view his 'Ramma Woods' layout, a minimum space O9 circuit sat on top of an Ikea 'Apa' box.

Laid using Shinohara track and taking advantage of their small radius points this really does fit a lot into a small area. Simon uses the smallest wagons from the Black Dog Mining range which really gives the image of a small 15" gauge railway in a forestry setting, taking inspiration from the 'Woodland Railway that once ran in Kent.

Simon is presently working on something even smaller, an O6.5 layout using PMT Technomodell track and Rokuhan Z "Shorty" chassis. This is a bogie unit but cunningly disguised as a 4w loco. The wagons are again the Black Dog tramway items and Simon demonstrated that he had managed to get working coupling and uncoupling. This will be an entry into the Dave Brewer competition at Expo NG later this year.

It was good to meet up with other O9 modellers at the show and discuss various ideas, which has been quite beneficial as I consider future projects. I also caught up with the owner of another layout from the South, David Malton's O14 'Abbey Light Railway'. As the designer of the 3D print Simplex I have recently completed it gave an opportunity to hold an impromptu gathering, only the blue locomotive here isn't a print (although a hint was made that it may now get a rebuild!).

Colin

Theakston - Fantastic in Pastic

At the recent 7mm NGA AGM at Burton-upon-Trent Roger Chivers had examples of his second O9 plastic kit on sale. It is for a Ravenglass & Eskdakle 'Theakston' stone wagon and simply requires wheels and couplings to complete.

A very pleasant 45 minutes of my time one evening put the parts together. I must admit I did struggle to get any wheels into it, I have resorted to a bit of drilling and splaying out of the axle boxes in order to fit Farish coach wheelsets (current production). Technically they are too small at 6mm diameter, but Roger has designed the kit to take the correct 8mm downwards.

The next job was to equip it with MicroTrains couplers. With Farish wheelsets fitted the base of the headstock is 6mm from rail level so only a 1mm deep section needs to be removed to put the coupler mounting height at 7mm.

You can just make out in this picture where the middle bar of the chassis frame is cut back to clear the coupler and to give it space to move backwards to function.

I then made a refinement to the top edge of the body in an attempt to reduce it's visual thickness. I have removed some material at a 45 degree angle, carefully stopping at the line of moulded rivets on the sides. This is a trick I've used in the past on items such as Airfix mineral wagon kits and once painted should trick the eye into believing the top edge is thinner.

Whilst at Burton Steve Lamb's 'Reclaim' caught my eye. A development of the Julian Andrews' 'United Brick' layout plan (now of course Howard Martin's 'Avalon Brickworks') this has provided much food for thought, and the possibility of an O9 version using materials stored in the workshop is quite apealing...

Colin

Cover Star

I arrived home this afternoon to find the latest issue of the 7mm Narrow Gauge Association's 'Narrow Lines' had dropped onto the doormat. Staring back at me from the cover was one of my A1 Models locos and 'The Headshunt' diorama...

I had been tipped of by the editor that this was going to appear, but it is very nice to come home to it on a Friday!

Colin

Mickleover, Markeaton and Magazines

An annual January trip out is to the 7mm NGA's Trent Valley open day held at the community centre in Mickleover, Derby. There was a great selection of exhibits again this year, from the West Midlands area group's modular layout to several small layout concepts. As the West Midlands group includes Allen Law of MG Models I was able to select some flat brass from his secret box of kits (who needs a trade stand?!). I also a picked up a diverse collection of odds and sods, which will no doubt make their way into future projects at some point...

I spent some time chatting with Andy Greenslade, editor of the Association's "Minimum Gauge Handbook" about various potential ideas, one of which involved the Fairbourne Railway's catering van in a diorama (don't get too excited just yet), which was followed by a ride in genuine ex-Fairbourne Railway stock at the Markeaton Park Light Railway on the way home.

On arrival home the latest issue of 'Narrow Lines' from the 7mm NGA had arrived, featuring my article on the Chivers O9 coach kit and some conversions involving Dapol railbus parts. Nothing readers of the blog haven't already seen, but vital in spreading the O9 word! There are a couple of other O9 articles to come, so watch that space....

Colin

Twixt Burton and Mansfield

The 7mm NGA's AGM and Convention at Burton was rather O9-free this year, which can only be expected really as last year we were rather spoilt by O9 layouts for the expected launch of the revised 'Going Minimum Gauge' handbook.  Although this publication has been delayed, I was able to view a proof copy and let me tell you, it will be worth that wait... I was also shown (and handed) something else of O9 interest, but more on that another time.

Returning home I was fired-up enough to add the finishing touches to my sign and detail changes on 'Shifting Sands', most of which can be seen in this shot:

If you can't spot all the changes, compare it to this:

I've also been rest running locos and stock ready for the layout's appearance at the 009 Society members day in Mansfield on 29th June, including the new tram locomotive (which incidentally was admired by it's designer at Burton!):

As I suspected, this loco is a little taller than the other stock, although I do recall that the Cleethorpes example was also quite tall, and what's a 15" gauge railway without some size difference?  I couldn't resist this recreation of a typical Cleethorpes scene of years past....

I've found a few little jobs to keep me busy over the coming fortnight, mostly related to couplings and coach roofs, plus further test running!

Colin

Taking a fence, Pretenders, Mites and Burton

(aka "A General Catch-up")

Yet again time seems to have vanished into a black hole, so here's a quick summary of the pre and post Burton developments for 'Shifting Sands'.  Overall the day at the 7mm NGA's AGM went well, it was good to catch up with like-minded O9 modellers and fascinating to see the launch of the first ever plastic kit for O9 rolling stock, from Chivers Finelines.  I'll post something about that another day, I promise!

Firstly, something  visitors to Burton didn't see.... this short length of the new Peco spear fencing appeared on 'Shifting Sands' the weekend before the show, but never became permanent.  Quite simply, despite it being a detail I wanted to add, it just didn't look right.  I think that is due to two factors - firstly it is a little random, even if it is entirely in context, secondly, three panels would probably have looked better than two, in just the same way that an odd number of coaches in a train look better than even.  On a practical note it possibly wouldn't have survived long at the front edge of the board, despite some re-enforcement!

Don't take a fence...

At Burton the layout was graced by a visit from two locomotives belonging to Jordan 'Rough Shunter' Leeds, based on Ravenglass and Eskdale prototypes.  Both were built on commission by Paul Windle and painted by Ken Gibbons.  Sadly the usual 15" gauge story of coupler incompatibility made it impossible to use them in service, and 'River Mite' took objection to 9" curves.

Ratty 'Pretender' visits 'Shifting Sands' (and looks at home)

'River Mite' poses for photographs

The opportunity was taken to line the two locos up with my own Ravenglass style loco 'Cumbia'

Ratty motive power line-up

The view above reveals some of the pre-Burton work on the layout in the shed area, the eagle eyed will see that the caravan has moved back slightly, allowing the installation of a small coaling stage and a revised mix of details.

I had promised myself no further wagon tinkering before Burton, and true to my word I waited.... I did make a couple of purchases from Steve Bennett at Black Dog Mining at the show and these have allowed a couple more wagons to be created to join those assembled after Narrow Gauge North.  It's best not to ask too many questions about how many times some of my Black Dog chassis have swapped bodies and dare I say it I have had my eyes on the Black Dog chassis under some of the 'Shifting Sands' fleet... but that moment has passed (largely after remembering Steve Bennett's compliments about the generator wagon just visible in the picture of 'River Mite') and common sense now reins .  Well, most of the time anyway....

Colin
[Edited 29/06/2013]

Countdown to Burton

Blimey, it's June 1st.  That means it's only a week until 'Shifting Sands' makes it's trip to the AGM and Convention of the 7mm Narrow Gauge Association in Burton upon Trent.  We have of course done this before, as shown in Mick Thornton's photo from 2007.

Locomotives and stock are being checked over and tested, for most of them it is a good 18 months since they were last used, and I've been able to make a few planned changes to scenic details, so please do come along and play 'spot the difference'!  There's still a little to do but hopefully things are on schedule to get the layout boxed up Friday night for the trip south.

In order to soak up some inspiration an afternoon at the Sherwood Forest Railway was in order, where a warm welcome, and equally warm sunshine, were available to allow some photography and several train rides.  I do sometimes miss the immediacy of my old Fotopic websites to record days like these, photo-only content doesn't always work with blogs and Facebook uploads seem to get lost in the ether of time.  Sites such as Photobucket or Flickr don't allow the level of control over the page appearance as Fotopic did....

Colin

Little Things...

Not a lot to report from the O9 Modeller workbench of late, in fact progress has remained set at a speed below slow... I have managed to paint a batch or two of smaller scenic items, some of which have an immediate use and others may have to wait for the end of the next ice age.

Some extra parts have been added to the Scooter's back-box on the advice of a former RH&DR employee (note also that the couplers are in place and light weathering applied):

The rest are currently stored in a Chinese take-away container for future use, there are a mixture of Skytrex, Knightwing, Black Dog and other parts:

Some of these are destined to add some fresh details to 'Shifting Sands' in advance of it's appearance at the 7mm Narrow Gauge Association AGM and Convention in Burton-upon-Trent on 8th June, though my plans for certain additions to the layout look set to fall by the wayside as my supply of 'round tuits' has vanished, I suspect they may have gone to the tip when I last tidied up the shed.

Others are for future projects, notably the tote bags of aggregate, the hardcore* 'Shifting Sands' followers will know that there are two of these on the layout already and we're not about to go into competition with Wickes.  As to what these future projects are depends a lot on time, energy, motivation and imagination (all in short supply), all those jobs that need doing around the house (which are abundant) and the lure of other distractions, some actually miniature railway related!  Time will tell, though if anyone can loan me a TARDIS I'd be grateful....

Colin

* Sorry, no pun intended. Honest...

The day we went to Derby

Back in January 2009 we took 'Shifting Sands' to the 7mm NGA members day in Derby.  This friendly 1-day event gave me the opportunity to take some photos of the layout at a show, not something that I usually manage to do.  Looking through various pictures of the layout to illustrate a forthcoming article for an Association publication, I almost used a couple of shots from the day. Sadly they didn't make the final cut as they didn't fit the theme of the piece they were to accompany.  A shame really, especially as I had spent a little time in Photoshop on one of them....

Overall view of the layout at the Derby 7mm NGA event.

'Jay' ready to depart from the station.

'Pandora', 'Thunderbolt' and two 4w coaches outside the sheds.

'Thunderbolt' and Photoshop.

Colin

Building an Avalon Line Enclosed Coach Kit - 3 (Acrylic Afternoons)

It's been a while since I reported on my Avalon Line coach build, to be perfectly honest it was primed using a Halfords grey primer then sat for some time awaiting a flash of inspiration.  That came from the Sherwood Forest Railway's new enclosed stock painted in dark blue.  Although I considered using a Halfords aerosol to paint the main body colour, I decided to try something I wouldn't usually do - paint a complete coach body using brushed-on acrylics.

I chose the colour 'Regal Blue' from the Games Workshop Citadel range of paints.  Four coats of this applied with a flat brush built up sufficient colour depth, with little sign of brush marks.  The solebar and roof were painted using Vallejo black (suitable toned down) and Humbrol grey respectively.

Following a coat or two of Johnsons 'Kleer' over the areas in question, lining came from Fox transfers (Royal Mail TPO lining!) and the crests an old set by SMS, I think they are Caledonian Railway examples.  Inside the interior walls are the original grey primer and the seats and floor suitable shades from the Citadel 'Foundation' range.

Following a spray with Citadel 'Purity Seal' varnish, windows were individually cut from 20thou clear styrene to fit within each window opening to give a flush glazed effect.  Each pane was touched in around the cut edges using a permanent marker pen to reduce refraction within the glazing material.

The finishing touch for the body were door handles from the 7mm Narrow Gauge Association, secured in place from behind using Araldite.  Bogies were refitted and the official photographer summoned to record the completion of the build.  I am happy that the full-acrylic paint job stands up against sprayed models with little evidence of brush marks in the underlying paint finish.

Of course, there is something missing, passengers!  For some time I had in mind using this coach for an experiment in colour and shade. I had read a theory that passengers in coaches could be painted a dark colour and simply be 'shapes' behind the windows.  Just look at the next full size bus or train to pass you at a distance and give this theory some thought....

The figures involved are a set I purchased from Aidan Campbell at a show some years ago, they were an experiment by him in resin casting, from the conversation we had I'm not sure if it is one he repeated.  All were legless below the knee.  I had previously started to paint these but I had fallen out with them as some of them looked rather odd.  Using some cheap Chinese Prieser copies I gave two of the figures new heads, and then got carried away and added the lower parts of their legs, using further oddments, and some genuine Prieser parts to complete this process.  Milliput covered the joins and hid a few bodges.

The figures were sprayed with grey primer, then given a coat of flesh colour on their faces, arms hands etc.  Once this was dry, a wash of black was applied over the entire figure, seeping into the creases and shadows.  This darkened the grey areas and avoided a solid mass of colour.

The real test is what they looked like through the coach windows...

I'll leave readers to judge for themselves on the effectiveness of this treatment.  I have the coach in my display cabinet for daily inspection, I do wonder if the upper body clothing could do with a dry brush of light colours, but we shall see, at the moment I feel that it works, certainly for fully enclosed stock.

Building an Avalon Line Enclosed Coach Kit

Frustrated with watching paint dry (badly), and inspired by a trip out to the 7mm NGA members' day at Derby, I decided to scout about for a quick project to occupy my time.  My eyes fell onto an Avalon Line kit for a 12-seat enclosed coach that had been sat awaiting my attention for many years. This was one of the first sets of parts that Steve Bennett had cast from masters that I had designed for Howard Martin at Avalon Line.

Having been sat in my cupboard all that time the sides and floor of the kit had taken on a banana-like shape, so theses were immersed in hot water and then flattened between a glass worktop protector and glass drinks coasters, held flat by that good old standby of Lima loco weights (every ex-OO modeller of a certain age has a stash of these!).  All flash was removed using a sharp craft knife and parts cleaned up using nothing more than pound shop emery boards.

The chassis was assembled first:

Araldite Rapid epoxy adhesive was used, the footwells were set into the chassis frame dry and the adhesive carefully delivered to the joints using a cocktail stick.  The seats were then added on top - this was just possible from one mix of the glue!

The sides and ends of the body were assembled in a slightly different way, due to an unintended tumblehome in the sides I opted to use superglue to attach these to the ends (so as to straighten the bow and set quickly), then re-enforced the joins with Araldite from inside.

So far this build has been as per the intended sequence, I'll be showing a few tweaks I've made in a future post.

O9 on show at Burton

Visiting the annual convention and AGM of the 7mm Narrow Gauge Association today I was struck by the number of O9 items on show.  In fact, I'd go as far as saying that I haven't seen that much O9 in one place before...

Layout wise the flag was flown by one minimum gauge "classic" and a relative newcomer.  Rather than his usual 'Big Cat Mine' in Gn15, Steve Bennett of Sidelines/Black Dog Mining fame had brought 'Black Cat no. 2' along with him, it is the same concept but just that little bit smaller. This of course demonstrated items from the Black Dog Mining and Avalon Lines Ranges:

In the smaller of the two halls Christopher Payne was demonstrating his O9 layout 'Brink Valley Tramway', a minimum space layout, just under 3ft x 8 1/2" - in fact the size of three sheets of A4 paper to suit a the rules of a competition it was built for.  The original simple run-off has now been replaced with a much larger set of hidden sidings which Christopher has indicated might be used for a larger project in the future:

Not O9, but next to the Brink Valley was Brian Cameron's 'Bottom Road, Summerhill Estate', built to the same competition guidelines but in O-16.5.  This used many items of rolling stock from the Black Dog and Avalon Lines ranges and it was easy to imagine a version built to the smaller gauge:

In terms of trade, despite Howard Martin's absence with the Avalon Line stand (due to a family commitment), there was again more O9 on show and sale than before, with several new products on display.  Firstly, as caster of the Avalon Lines range, Steve Bennett had the two new open coaches on sale.  These are 12 and 16 seaters in modular form, from masters that I produced myself last year.  These come complete with bogies and wheels:

Steve also had a new version of the Black Dog 'Mite' for sale with the chassis re-designed to fit the Kato 'Tram' chassis.

Allen Law of Minimum Gauge Models was displaying all sorts of new products for the O9 and Gn15 modeller in etched brass.  I had seen his Heywood stock at the Trent Valley members day of the Association back in January, but the range has now increased to include other subjects.  One that took my eye was this Basset-Lowke 4w coach, with some Fairbourne additions such as arm rest rails:

Allen is rather keen on the Fairbourne and has even made a model of the canteen car and generator wagon that used to sit at Barmouth Ferry!

Other new models include a 4w diesel to fit a Kato chassis, which looks very like an enlarged 'Redgauntlet' from Romney, and a representation of the Romney "Scooter", also to fit the Kato chassis.  I have purchased one of these and hopefully later in the year I'll get the chance to build it up, which will be a challenge to my ham-fisted brass soldering skills:

Also on display were these rapid-prototype models of Ravenglass 20 seat coaches designed by Jamie McBride.  I have some reservations about the surface finish from this process at the present time but like all technology it will get better over time and hopefully cheaper too:

One thing that struck both myself and other observers was the size of these coaches - is 'big' O9 the next thing, are we going to see layouts based on Ravenglass and Romney practices with near scale length trains?  I know at least one person who thinks so, he has bought a few of the items mentioned above and has promised  to keep me up to speed....

After today's show I am confident that O9 is about to become a more popular branch of 7mm scale narrow gauge models.  One or two traders have let some details slip on other new items that are on the way in the future and it certainly looks bright!