'Invicta' - a quick photo survey

It is always interesting when a 15" gauge locomotive emerges from a prolonged period of hibernation, and whilst not as exciting as some of the potential hidden delights that may exist, the unique Maxitrax 'Invicta' has recently arrived at the Sherwood Forest Railway for testing and a longer-term residency. She has been on display over the Easter weekend and was kindly rolled out of the shed by Bob Colley into better light for photography.

Built in the late 1980s for the original incarnation of the Markeaton Park railway in Derby, I saw her in the shed there in 1996 but for some reason did not take a photograph, despite other pictures being taken. Not long afterwards loco and two coaches moved to one of the Gullivers theme parks where it is not clear how much use was ever made of her over many years. 

Now nearing the end of a full restoration the paintwork is gleaming, so much so you can see my reflection in the shot below! 

The compact nature of the loco is ideally suited to the SFR and the existing rolling stock, suitable air braking equipment is fitted and we should see passenger use in due course when the railway opens it's extension and a two train service is run. I'm informed there have already been test runs along the new length of line out of the way of service trains.

There are still a few finishing touches to make, including cab front and rear windows and surrounds, and a cover for the air intake on the bonnet side. The cab is compact and emphasises how us modellers have issues getting driver figures to fit in O9 locomotive models, the seat is about a foot from the floor so your knees are going to be in the air, a posture rarely offered in model form...

Another important detail for modellers, the suspension and axle boxes. Just in case you are wondering, the wheelbase is 2ft and overall length just over 6ft. You would need a tiny chassis for an O9 model (it definitely won't fit a Kato 11-109!) but it would be a reasonable build on a SPUD or Underground Ernie chassis in 1/24th scale...

Many thanks to Bob and David Colley at the Sherwood Forest Railway - and a plug for the railway's new hot food selection on weekends and Nottinghamshire school holidays.

Colin

New Season, New Shop

Today was the first day of the season for my local 15" line, the Sherwood Forest Railway. It only seems like 5 minutes since the end of the 2018 season, but even in that short time there are notable changes, including this very smart new shop building.

If you are looking for a suitable building for a small O9 station you do a lot worse than copy this....

On an unusually sunny February day the sun was in the wrong place at the bottom of the line, I had to mess around with this picture and make it black and white to make it look anything like "normal"!

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

Alas Narrow Gauge North

Today should have been the 2015 Narrow Gauge North exhibition but alas, it wasn't meant to be as the announcement came back in November that the show was cancelled due to issues with the venue.

There is probably no such thing as an ideal exhibition venue when you have a large section devoted to large-scale live steam and it has to be said that the Benton Park School is probably not one of the finest examples of educational architecture!  However it served the show well enough and it is sad that an unenlightened attitude has deprived a local charity of a useful revenue earner.

We had been sounded out about taking 'Shifting Sands' to the show this year but I didn't ever get around to following up the potential invite...sorry... As my penance I'll be doing a days hard labour at the Sherwood Forest Railway.

As a narrow gauge modeller who doesn't have the opportunity to visit many of the specialist events (largely concentrated in the southern part of the UK) the loss of Narrow Gauge North does deprive me of an opportunity to catch up with retailers such as Black Dog Mining and Avalon Line, and have a glance over the legendary 009 Society sales stand to see if there is anything of cross-over use... add to that the chats with like-minded modellers, I'll certainly miss the trip around the Leeds ring road this year.

Luckily March is quite a busy month for exhibitions locally and I have been able to spend some of those pennies that just have to be spent at the new event held in Lincoln at the beginning of the month and at Mansfield last weekend.

Let's hope Narrow Gauge North can return in 2016 and take it's share of the expenditure.

Colin

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

Bits and Pieces

A mixture of recent workbench happenings...


The various bits to fill the Sherwood Forest-style open wagon have now been added to the wagon.  The tool box is a Black Dog/Sidelines resin casting (depending on which scale you use it in!), as are the re-railing ramps. The spanner carelessly left on top of the box, and the hammer are Duncan Models castings.  The jerry can is a Cararama moulding from the garage set used as an interior to a building on the never-completed Misterton Fen Tramway.  The wagon load is now, well, loaded, I've used 'tacky wax' to fix things in place:

Turning to the out-of-use bogies, I spent some time treating and painting the Parkside wheels to make them look less model-like.  Rather than paint them all over I opted to blacken the axles using gun blue, then spent some time flicking rust colour paints at them using a toothbrush (as per a recent article in 'British Railway Modelling').  Whilst this didn't perhaps give the build up of colour I had hoped for, the effect is actually there, just very subtle.  A spray over with the Citadel 'Purity Spray' killed any shine and I actually think they do look like used, but not abandoned too long, bogies:

Just to prove that you do see this sort of thing lying around, I took this picture of a Severn-Lamb bogie frame in the engineering yard at Lightwater Valley last week (with permission):

Finally, a quick update on 'Kestrel' as the painting process draws to a close and the glazier is on stand-by....

I've added a little dry-brushing in places to overcome the slightly less than satisfactory after-effects of the varnish spray.  I think I'll get away with it....

Bogies!

A few weeks ago I was passed a quantity of Avalon Line coach bogies from a member of the NGRM Online forum and wondering what to do with them, I decided to have a play and see if I could produce 'spare' bogies that could sit in/outside a workshop or in a miniature railway yard.  Ironically these bogies are actually to my design, although I had only intended them as a demonstration piece they were deemed good enough to cast.  They aren't perfect by any means, but they do the job...

I created two bogies with wheels and two without, where I cut out each axlebox out with a razor saw and files, which was, er, fun....  Despite the apparent expense, I've used Parkside wheels as the metal axles look a lot more like the real thing than ones with 'PECO N' written on them.  No actual cost as they were in the spares box.  Two of the bogies were given a representation of a brake cylinder.  Each bogie has a locating pin on top made from Knightwing or Dapol oddments.

Work on 'Kestrel' was hit by a slight painting setback yesterday, when my comments I made elsewhere about using Citadel aerosol varnish came back to haunt me (basically I sprayed in too humid an atmosphere and got little white marks on parts of the paintwork).  Whilst that is well on the way to being resolved, coupled with a down-heartening soldering session yesterday became a bit of a grim day.

So this morning I decided on a 'quick win' to boost morale.  The bogie frames and some parts destined as a load for the SFR Hudson framed wagon were primed a few days ago so I decided to have a quick session with the acrylics and add some colour to them:

The eagle eyed may notice that I have moved the brake cylinders, this was based on a little personal observation at the Sherwood Forest Railway.  These have been given a coat of Citadel varnish with no ill effect, it was much warmer in the workshop which seems to have done the trick.... They need some light weathering before use but are well on the way.  Of course what I haven't remembered to do is prepare and paint the wheelsets!

Colin

Hudson Hacking - Part 2

The workbench has been a relatively quiet place of late, however, a few projects are starting to come to fruition and some progress made.  The Hudson wagon chassis destined to become a model based on the Sherwood Forest Railway's open wagon has been completed, since it last appeared as a chassis only, it has progressed through this:

to this:

and completed with weathering:

On it's right is a wagon assembled from various Black Dog Mining parts, a 5ft chassis formerly under one of my scratchbuilt bodies, the cut-down chequerplate top previously on the Hudson frame and a coupler unit from the spares box.  The coupler has been modified to fit in the slot for my usual MicroTrains coupler, this wagon is perhaps intended for static display, however a swift coupler change can be facilitated if required!

The eagle eyes may notice something in the background... more on that another time.

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.

Hudson Hacking

It looks as if the Somerthorpe Miniature Railway's PW department has relented, as another wagon build has emerged on the workbench.  This again uses parts recycled from a previous, slightly unsatisfactory build...

This RCL Hudson frame is the one used previously under a cut-down Black Dog Mining flat top.  It didn't run to well , I had put this down to replacement wheelsets, but I have subsequently discovered that during the build (itself something of a bodge) I hadn't aligned the axle box mouldlings properly, hence a wobbly ride.  Removing the axle box mouldings in one piece was a no-go, so a slightly more innovative solution was called for....

I'll be modelling this, the PW wagon of the Sherwood Forest Railway, one of a few 15" gauge wagons I can say that I have travelled in:

This real-life Hudson-bash actually has the axleboxes mounted on some angle iron behind the main frames with with the axles shortened for 15" gauge, I'm assured it was like that when they bought it from Tal-y-Cafn.

Model wise this has allowed something of a cheat, please look away now if you are a time served O14 modeller...

Yes, that is a much butchered Peco chassis living under there!  I was inspired to work this way after the success of the Peco/Black Dog adaptor under the 'Loco Coal' wagon, where I see the frame as a 'veneer' over the Peco chassis.  I this case I also slimmed down the recovered RCL axleboxes and glued them over the Peco axleguards, shorn of their N gauge detail.  Once the glue was set the axleguards were cut and filed to the same shape as the axleboxes, completing the illusion.  From normal viewing angles the deception is not visible, and the fact that the wheels are too small isn't noticeable.

Progress with the other two wagons has reached the varnishing stage, whilst some loads are being assembled from the spares box:

The ones that got away... No. 2: 'Pioneer'

Another of those locos that got started but unlike a Mastermind question, never finished.  This loco was born out of a desire to build a small pleasure railway loco for a box file layout that would use some 4 wheeled coaches I had built.  Rather than re-invent the wheel, I opted to model what is possibly one of the oddest ' steam outline' locos to ever grace 15" rails, the 1947 machine built by Ken Rosewell of Bristol, 'Pioneer':

Now in case you think I am making this up, here is a YouTube video of the loco in action at Pixieland near Bude, Cornwall, courtesy of Nick Tozer: Pixieland Miniature Railway - 1993.  The original machine had a somewhat hazy history, but was eventually sold to Pixieland by the Trago Mills shopping chain.  After replacement by an Exmoor Steam Railway 0-4-2T loco 'Dennis', the loco was grounded, eventually being re-united with it's wheels by the Sherwood Forest Railway when it moved there late in 2007.  As can be seen, at some point (pre move) the body was rebuilt to a loose 'diesel outline'.  The loco is very much in need of an overhaul and is seen here on a rare outing on a passenger service in Nottinghamshire:

Coming next in the series... well, I'll have to find it first...!