Someone Somewhere (In Summertime)

No apologies for borrowing Simple Mind's song title, I heard it on the radio for the first time in a while on Bank Holiday Monday whilst proving to myself that painting models was preferrable to painting rooms (especially woodwork...). With the end of August now upon us it does perhaps feel that the summer is reaching the end.

Alas there is no modelling progress to report and not a great deal of railway activity to report on at all, our holiday destination of Flamborough being a narrow gauge/miniature railway desert (we "did" Scarborough last year). There is the amusement of the model village at Sewerby and land trains that operate in a railway-like fashion with platforms, passing and turning loops, from there to Bridlington.  

Sitting looking out to sea I could quite imagine something Groudle-Glen style around the headland from the lighthouse to Thornwick Bay...

Not enough to inspire any layout ideas at this stage, I'm still stuck between concepts and spaces, having concluded that Mosslanda shelves are maybe too restrictive, and having taken down a couple of floating shelves recently they do not appeal to me as the basis for anything portable. 

Maybe a trip to the Whistlestop Valley/Kirklees Light Railway gala over the weekend of 6th/7th September might provide a boost, I'm looking forward to the chance to ride behind Bure Valley no.9 'Mark Timothy' having missed out on previous trips to Norfolk.  

Also visiting is the partnership of 'Spirit of Adventure' and 'Mr Hallworth' from the Perrygrove Railway. I think I last saw 'Sprit' at Cleethorpes 30 years ago in 1995 (I had to check that calculation twice...) and I have not yet seen the newer locomotive.

Incidentally, 'Spirit' forms the basis of a new O9 resin print from Gubbin Box Models (Facebook) which allows you to add an Exmoor tank locomotive to your fleet without any of the trouble I had scratch-building 'St Edwin'!

Colin

Exmoor on the East Coast

Just before I packed away the 'Beck Bridge' diorama at its recent showing I posed my Exmoor tank 'St Edwin' on it an took this snap...

The next day I headed coastwards to Cleethorpes where the Cleethorpes Coast Light Railway was playing host to two Exmoor locomotives. The first, 'Sandy', a blue 0-6-0T from the private Wotton Light Railway was doing a very good impression of what my model would look like in reality...

The second was the familiar 0-4-0T+T 'St Egwin' from Evesham Vale, looking really at home on the seaside line.

The day culminated in a triple-headed journey over the presently closed extension to Humberston, running with the blessing of the railway inspector over a level crossing with non-functioning lights with the road closed to traffic by flagmen.

There are a few more photos in my Flickr collection. I've also just found a good video from the Saturday on Youtube.

Colin

Cornered

I've been carrying out some tests as part of planning for (potential) future projects in O9. Looking at what I have achieved in 13" x 19" in 009 I am keen to see if something similar is possible in the larger scale in a just little more space. My 009 layout 'The Old Quarry Line' uses a 4.5"radius curve and I know that most of the O9 locos struggle with this, especially longer 4-wheel ones as it throws the couplings too far out on the curves.

So I laid a 6" radius test piece, added power connections and had a play. With diesel testing out of the way I decided to see if 'St Edwin' the Exmoor 0-6-2 could cope with it...

This is probably the limit this loco should go down to, and probably not something I'd want to see in a visible part of a layout, as the swing out is noticeable. The couplings are almost at their limit here on both loco and wagon but it does show the flexibility of the MicroTrains design.

I then relaid the curve to 5.5" just to see what happened... 

Colin

Moor Steam - Exmoor in Yorkshire

The Kirklees Light Railway held their annual steam gala over the weekend of 8th/9th September, the theme for 2018 being 'Moor Steam', with four visiting locomotives built by the Exmoor Steam Railway workshop. As usual it was a pleasure to see the visiting locomotives run up the hill from Clayton West to Shelley and relax on the way back down.

It was interesting to see 'Monty' (the former 'Markeaton Lady) and 'Anne' (the ex- Longleat 'John Hayton') together, as they collectively provided a lot of the information and inspiration for my model 'St Edwin'.

I really must add a headlamp to my loco, they do seem all the rage on Exmoors...

The other visitors were 'St Egwin' and 'Spirit of Adventure', seen here double-heading. With home fleet locomotives 'Badger', 'Hawk', 'Owl' and 'Katie' in service, plus long-term visitor 'Sian' and extra guest 'Count Louis', it was a very busy railway, so much so that I didn't get to ride behind everything! More of my pictures can be found on my Flickr site.

Colin

Exmoor on Tour

Unfortunately I have not had a chance to give my Exmoor 0-6-2T 'St Edwin' a real run since it was completed in the summer, largely as 'Shifting Sands' has remained in storage.

Happily the locomotive had the chance to have a run on Peter Leadley's 'Clee Valley Railway' at the Hull exhibition this weekend and our photographers were on hand to record the event...

With the recently rebuilt tool wagon behind acting as coupling converter, 'St Edwin' awaits departure from Castle station.

On the turntable, I have rendered this shot by my Dad into sepia tones as it hides some of the work to overcome the lighting of the original shot.

Finally, a short video of the locomotive in action.

Colin

Introducing 'St Edwin' - Exmoor in Miniature

Custom produced etched name and works plates for my Exmoor project arrived from Narrow Planet early in August, and this weekend I have finally plucked up the courage to fix them in position. I can therefore present the third Exmoor 15" gauge 'Saint'* - '[i]St Edwin[/i]'...

After fitting the plates using matt varnish I applied a little light weathering to tone down the smokebox, cylinders, cab roof and buffer beams and added a finishing touch of an oil can sat in one of the bunkers, something I noticed in pictures of 'King Arthur' at Rudyard lake.

I'm really pleased with how this project has turned out, although there are a number of compromises I feel that it really captures the Exmoor 'look'. I just need to arrange somewhere to give it a good run as 'Shifting Sands' is in storage...

Colin

*following in the footsteps of 'St Christopher' at Bressingham (ex Windmill Farm) and 'St Egwin' at Evesham Vale.

Exmoor - Paintshop Progress (Part 2)

Having set the loco aside for a few days I re-started work by tidying up a few areas that the photographs had shown up. Over the following evenings I then fitted the whistle and safety valves into place on the dome, secured the crew in the cab and fitted the cab roof , added coal to the bunkers and fitted MicroTrains couplers.

As if it were on a test run at it's builders, these photos were captured in natural light on 'The Headshunt'.

The project has now reached it's natural break point as it is now complete with all parts added that can be at this stage... To complete the loco will need it's name and worksplates, presently on order from Narrow Planet, plus a little light, appropriate weathering and maybe one or two extra details. 

For now it is resident in my display cabinet.

Colin

Exmoor - Paintshop Progress (Part 1)

By the middle of May the Exmoor build had entered the paintshop and the first coats of primer were applied using Halfords aerosol cans. I find it helpful to use red oxide on the buffer beams to avoid too many coats of red acrylic later on. 

I then masked off the smokebox, footplate edges, buffer beams etc, essentially anything that would not be body colour. I then applied Halfords Rover 'Tahiti Blue' from another aerosol. After masking was removed the result was this rather ghostly looking appearance.

The red bufferbeams, cream cab interior and various areas of black were applied by hand using acrylic paints, largely of Vallejo origin. Once a coat of Testors 'Dulcote' had been applied I started the process of assembling various sub-assemblies over the last fortnight, the cab/tank unit being securely fitted to the boiler/front end, then all the pipework was added including the regulator lever to the outside of the dome.

At this stage I gave the model a further waft of Dulcote to hide some of the glue marks and set the model aside for a few days to allow the varnish to fully harden.

To be continued...

Colin

Spirit of Exmoor

You may think that in the two months since I last showed progress on my Exmoor Steam Railway 0-6-2T build I might have finished and painted it... well one of those is true, it is complete structurally and in detail. To celebrate I photographed her on 'The Headshunt'.

Since the last photographs you will notice that a lot more detail has been added. Some of this is from commercially available parts, suitably modified, others are scratchbuilt. Additions include the following:

• Cylinder covers using some Dapol railbus mouldings suitably modified.
• Bolt heads on headstocks and cylinders from Plastruct hex section.
• Coal rails from Peco N-gauge coke wagon rails.
• Dome from a modified Langley 'Lyn' casting, with new safety valves (Hornby spares) and whistle by Buzz models.
• Chimney from modified Gem base and cap with brass tube in between to extend the height.
• Tank fillers from Gem castings, with handrail knobs added as handles.
• Smokebox door handle from Hobby Holidays.
• Various pieces of plumbing from brass and phosphor bronze wire, split pins and fuse wire. This includes steam pipes and ejector pipework. 

Now the weatherman promises a warm weekend, so the primer spraying forecast is good...

Colin

Keep Banging the Drum

A few weeks ago I posted a picture of an oil drum with hand pump that I had built following an example Ian Holmes had made for Gn15. I can now report that it is completed and painted/weathered.

It is sat on another recent "quick" project, a scenic wagon built on a wobbly Black Dog chassis withdrawn from active service and reunited with a basswood floor I made some time ago. New couplers are Black Dog castings I picked up at Narrow Gauge North yesterday (see sometimes I can work quickly!).

I have made a little progress with the Exmoor this week. All of the work now is that little more involved but the reward is that the detail starts to build up. Earlier this week I added beading along the edge of the cab footplate from 10x10 thou styrene strip, tops to the tanks from 10 thou sheet and a smokebox door from 20 thou styrene cut with a circle cutter.

Today I have added a few more details, including the sandpot in front of one of the tanks and mechanical lubricator in front of the other. These are constructed from various styrene sections and strips, although the sandpot lid is an Airfix mineral wagon buffer head! Both of these parts will have to remain removable until after painting so have wire re-enforcement built in to aid location and strength. Moving to the boiler I have added bands of 5 thou styrene to the barrel and hinge and strap detail to the smokebox door. It is starting to look a little more locomotive like!

Colin

A Railway Week

Many moons ago I would find that I had enough annual leave left after Christmas to have a week off in February, and I would sometimes get the idea that some great railway project might come out of it. I'll be honest, it rarely did, so in recent years I've steered clear of calling it a 'railway week'.

This year might have been slightly more productive. It started with the trip up the road to Doncaster for the 'Festival of British Railway Modelling', a slightly overwhelming event but one where this year I managed to purchase several items for future and ongoing projects - and managed to forget I would need a part for a new project that is now satisfactorily well on the way into being. To find out what it is, read on...

I've even managed a couple of trips to 15" gauge railways. Tuesday saw me head to the coast to see the latest developments on the Cleethorpes Coast Light Railway. Here the new owners are making more visible progress, Lakeside station now has a much longer through platform and the terminal bays are being inset into the platform surface to give a multi-purpose area. The 'Smallest Pub on the Planet' is having a makeover and there are improvements in the workshop too.

Friday afternoon saw a contrived trip home from the shops via the Sherwood Forest Railway, where 'Pet' has a fresh coat of paint and a new roomy, comfortable tender, the driver's head is now below cab roof height and the effect looking through the cab is very effective (the same can of course be said for no.24 above!).

After a false start on Sunday (you may have read the last post about oil drum therapy), my new project occupied a couple of afternoons and one morning during the week. Having been challenged to create something over the next few months I have dusted off an old scheme to build a model of an Exmoor Steam Railway 0-6-2T on a Bachmann chassis. This is a concept that I have had under consideration for some time but which for various reasons hasn't happened. Chiefly there was the promise of a resin kit from Avalon Line to fit their own 0-6-0 chassis, but with the chassis no longer available and the kit moving from development stasis to standstill, I decided that the time was right.

I have reached the point structurally where there is nothing much else to add - everything beyond this point will be fettling and detailing. This is a good point to have reached as I have undertaken all the work so far in my time off this week, it's back to reality next week so time will be much more limited and suited to adding smaller parts. Speaking of which, the part I didn't buy at Doncaster was a smokebox door handle, hopefully I can pick something up at the forthcoming Lincoln show.

More details of the build can be found on the Miniature Railway World forum, where a concerted effort is being made to revitalise the forum after a quiet period.

Colin