Just a quick post, right on top of The ones that got away... but just a word of welcome to those who are finding this blog for the first time and to those who have linked to it. I was especially happy to find I'd made an entry over on James Wells' Eastmoor blog and also to see a reply to one of my posts from Ian Holmes over in Minnesota. Ian and I have mulled over many a scheme together both online and in person and I appear to have put an idea in his mind again!
So welcome to O9 Modeller....
Colin
Sunday, 12 June 2011
The ones that got away... No. 1: 'Badger'
Looking back through some old pictures the other day (when I say old I mean from the digital camera before the present one), I found a picture of an O9 loco that I started and never finished in the way intended.
This was to be a representation of the Kirklees Light Railway's 0-6-4ST 'Badger', based on the Bachmann 0-6-0 chassis with a suitably 'bodged' rear bogie. It almost worked, however I became frustrated with the model after I had to raise the cab side sheets (really should have replaced them) and add another layer to the saddle tank, which incidentally started life as half a well known brand of glue-stick:
I was also becoming concerned by the way I would treat the bottom of the firebox and disguise the fact that it was sat outside the frames rather than just between them. Maybe I should have built 'Fox' instead?!
What did eventually happen is after some dark thoughts of building it as a (hush) 009 loco to sell, the project transmogrified into an almost Frankenstein like creation that incorporated elements of Kirklees, Exmoor and Ravenglass ('Bonnie Dundee') design, mixed with a little Haldane Place magic to become... 'Pandora':
This was to be a representation of the Kirklees Light Railway's 0-6-4ST 'Badger', based on the Bachmann 0-6-0 chassis with a suitably 'bodged' rear bogie. It almost worked, however I became frustrated with the model after I had to raise the cab side sheets (really should have replaced them) and add another layer to the saddle tank, which incidentally started life as half a well known brand of glue-stick:
I was also becoming concerned by the way I would treat the bottom of the firebox and disguise the fact that it was sat outside the frames rather than just between them. Maybe I should have built 'Fox' instead?!
What did eventually happen is after some dark thoughts of building it as a (hush) 009 loco to sell, the project transmogrified into an almost Frankenstein like creation that incorporated elements of Kirklees, Exmoor and Ravenglass ('Bonnie Dundee') design, mixed with a little Haldane Place magic to become... 'Pandora':
Coming up next in this series, a contender for 'worst steam outline loco ever'....
Saturday, 4 June 2011
Further Deformation or Diluted Essence?
Last weekend I outlined how several months ago I had considered rebuilding Shifting Sands to fit into the railway room I then had planned, essentially elongating the layout into something that ran along two of the walls. The drastic cutting of the baseboard was also given some thought in a second version which really would have put a new perspective on things. Back to those 'lines of indecision':
Yet again the back of the layout and the ice cream parlour would be lost, but the twist would have been that the baseboard would be turned through 180 degrees to make the shaped edge the front of the layout. A new backscene along the present front would have depicted a holiday park, and the sea would have been visible beyond the dunes, which would be to the left of the revised layout. Again the running line would have been straightened out into the longer run. Sadly there isn't a composite sketch to show you this time as I didn't have the right view to make one from and couldn't take one as the layout is on display at 'Rails to the Sands' in Cleethorpes. I thought I had made a trackplan sketch but can't seem to locate one...
My main concern with this scene was that the layout was built to be viewed from one direction, turning it around would destroy this. Although I was open to the possibilities created there would need to be some work to change things, I was especially concerned about the platform fence blocking the view of trains in the station, however realistic this might be!
Eventually this image did make another idea form in my mind. My new workbench looks set to be located in an alcove just over 3' wide by 1' deep. The area over the workbench will be ripe for shelving that could possibly hold a micro layout. Now 3' isn't that long a run for a miniature railway, even in O9, but what if I added a fiddle yard around the corner when in use? Could the head shunt be on a similar bolt-on board?
The kick-back from the fiddle yard (on the right) would be to allow handling free operation and exchange of locos, something I wish I had incorporated on the original 'Shifting Sands'. Well it worked on paper, admittedly a scale-less sketch, but would it really work.... as with the development of 'Shifting Sands', I turned to my test track to mock-up what might be possible:
It is certainly feasible, but there would be issues with uncoupling on a 10" radius curve using MicroTrains couplers and the same issues I have on 'Shifting Sands' coupling back up after running around. It was also rather too close to the original layout in many ways, and risked moving from diluted essence to poor pastiche. As any over-the-workbench scheme would essentially be a home-use test track, I asked myself could I get away with even less? Is a loop a real necessity if a loco-swap was an alternative? I doodled again:
I have cunningly disguised the lack of a full loop by making it look like there is one, but as it crosses a road or pathway there is a gate across the far end. It is a busy day and rather than run around, locos are simply swapped over. Something similar used to exist at Lakeside station on the Cleethorpes Coast Light Railway and sometimes was operated in that way:
The eagle eyed will notice that the ice cream van makes yet another appearance in the triangle of land between the station and fiddle yard kick-back on the plan. I have no objection on this test track scheme to the kick-back being at least partially visible in the scenic area
This set-up, if built, could easily represent the other end of the Somerthorpe Miniature Railway, the much fabled 'Somerthorpe Promenade'. Alternatively, I could really shake things up and set it in a town park, farm park, stately home or abandoned standard gauge trackbed. OK, perhaps not that last one in that space....
 |
| White lines - existing edges and centre; blue line - existing backscene base; red and orange lines - proposed new baseboard edges. |
My main concern with this scene was that the layout was built to be viewed from one direction, turning it around would destroy this. Although I was open to the possibilities created there would need to be some work to change things, I was especially concerned about the platform fence blocking the view of trains in the station, however realistic this might be!
Eventually this image did make another idea form in my mind. My new workbench looks set to be located in an alcove just over 3' wide by 1' deep. The area over the workbench will be ripe for shelving that could possibly hold a micro layout. Now 3' isn't that long a run for a miniature railway, even in O9, but what if I added a fiddle yard around the corner when in use? Could the head shunt be on a similar bolt-on board?
 |
| Essence of 'Shifting Sands'? |
 |
| White lines - fixed baseboard edges; yellow lines - bolt-on boards |
 |
| Simplified over-workbench test track. |
 |
| The Cleethorpes Gate in 1995, with 'Little Giant' and 'King George V'. |
This set-up, if built, could easily represent the other end of the Somerthorpe Miniature Railway, the much fabled 'Somerthorpe Promenade'. Alternatively, I could really shake things up and set it in a town park, farm park, stately home or abandoned standard gauge trackbed. OK, perhaps not that last one in that space....
Wednesday, 1 June 2011
Secrets of the Railway Cupboard
So, as revealed in Sunday's post, the planned railway room was knocked on the head by a combination of cost and common sense. I'll admit there followed some dark days full of contemplation, soul searching, potential sales lists and listening to to The Smiths... (OK, some of that might not be true, I certainly didn't manage to find the Smiths CD). Perhaps I really felt that something had to change or give in modelling terms in order to carry on?
Whilst I'm still working on how to provide more space for layout building in the future, I at least have allocated work space (and a grand plan to use it) and I still have my storage facility. Enter the railway cupboard (though not literally as you are likely to stub your toe!). Our house is blessed with two walk-in wardrobes/closets and the one in the main bedroom has been the railway cupboard for many years. Over that time random shelves have been added and I'd got it pretty much to suit my needs. However, most of the paint and some of the plaster were falling off the wall and the gloss woodwork was going a sour cream shade. So bad in fact, that I didn't take a 'before' picture to go with this 'after' one:
As a summary of work completed, I removed a false ceiling at door frame height and all but one shelf; the middle rear shelf is original, those above and below are copies in the original architrave support/floorboard plank style; side shelves are pine on recycled brackets; the ceiling was papered (over the cracks!) and painted; the walls have been patch plastered, filled, base-coated and emulsioned; skirting and shelves primed and painted in water based satin (for speed) and the door frame primed and glossed. To finish off the floor has been covered with hardboard followed by self-adhesive vinyl planks. Despite an injection of capital from the 'modelling fund' to buy some timber and the flooring, I've made as much use of left overs and recycled material and left over paint as I can to keep costs down. Almost looks to good to put anything in there!
But I did....
To be honest there is more in there than usual, the contents of two stacking crates and everything to the left hand side on the floor is usually on or under the workbench, and will hopefully be out there again soon. In usual form 'Shifting Sands' would sit on the left in it's storage box, taking up about 28" x 11". I have made careful provision for storage of larger items in the refurbished cupboard, the lower shelf is over 4' from the floor, allowing me to store timber and perhaps one day a 4' long baseboard end-on. Unfortunately there's a long way to go before we get to that stage, and there still might not be enough floor space to make it work.
So one thing that did occur to me was whether 'Shifting Samds' could be rebuilt in a format that took up less storage floorspace? This would actually be a return to the very early days of the design when the idea was that almost everything over fence/figure height would be removable for storage and the board stored in under 6" depth. I produced another of my composite doodles to see how it might look with a few of the bulkier buildings removed:
The ice cream van makes another appearance (I do actually have the model in store), along with a camper van, also from Oxford Diecast. The removeable backscene would be reduced in height to the line just visible sketched behind the vehicles. A new, lighter weight, storage box would be made to complete the transformation. Something does appeal to me about the simplicity of this arrangement, but echoing back to my previous posting, would it again be tinkering and diluting a proven concept?
Whilst I'm still working on how to provide more space for layout building in the future, I at least have allocated work space (and a grand plan to use it) and I still have my storage facility. Enter the railway cupboard (though not literally as you are likely to stub your toe!). Our house is blessed with two walk-in wardrobes/closets and the one in the main bedroom has been the railway cupboard for many years. Over that time random shelves have been added and I'd got it pretty much to suit my needs. However, most of the paint and some of the plaster were falling off the wall and the gloss woodwork was going a sour cream shade. So bad in fact, that I didn't take a 'before' picture to go with this 'after' one:
 |
| Refurbished Railway Cupboard. |
But I did....
 |
| Rather full! |
So one thing that did occur to me was whether 'Shifting Samds' could be rebuilt in a format that took up less storage floorspace? This would actually be a return to the very early days of the design when the idea was that almost everything over fence/figure height would be removable for storage and the board stored in under 6" depth. I produced another of my composite doodles to see how it might look with a few of the bulkier buildings removed:
 |
| A less visually bulky, reduced height 'Shifting Sands' |
Sunday, 29 May 2011
The Deformation of Shifting Sands?
This is the first of at least a few posts where I hope to update readers of the current progress of railway related issues chez Peake, from the practicalities of railway modelling in the family home to dealing with ongoing building and decorating work. Plus, some of my present random thoughts on layout design may be included.
As many readers may know, we are presently having a lot of work done on the house (or doing it ourselves) and this has caused railway modelling to fall to the wayside for both practical and time reasons. Practical in that a lot of things have to be moved around and stored in places they wouldn't usually be found, and time wise... well someone has to do the painting and other work!
One thing I had hoped to gain through the various works underway was a proper 'railway room' of my own. My workbench has sat in the corner of the bedroom for several years and a separate work area and layout building space was planned. This would have been created by splitting the bedroom in two with a new (very short) corridor serving the new rooms:
Alas, several factors have seen that this won't be happening. Firstly, the railway room got smaller as the plans went on, it would have been 5' 6" x 7' 3" in the final version, as to cut the costs I had decided to retain the chimney breast in the main room, hence needed more space in there. This would really have left the railway room too small to be practical, despite the attractive 7' 3" wall to build a layout against. There was a factor here as 'Shifting Sands' is 2' deep and needs operating space around it at home. It just wouldn't have fit. But what if it could have been straightened out and incorporated into a home layout?
At 18" wide this would have still intruded into the room some way, the lower sketch shows how the board could have been tapered to be less intrusive. Cutting up the layout in this way would have been tricky to say the least but I pushed on with the thinking, drawing up this illustration to prove to myself it was possible, I saved this as the 'lines of indecision'!:
Finally I had an artistic moment and created a composite image or how the layout could look with the backscene moved and the line straightened off, I think I might have left the old line crossing the road in typical re-aligned miniature railway fashion. The ice cream parlour is replaced by an Oxford Diecast ice cream van, so no worries about the supply of the cold stuff on those blustery Lincolnshire days...:
Fans of 'Shifting Sands' will be pleased to hear that this isn't happening, indeed, despite other ideas to rebuild the layout (of which more anon.) I think things will remain as they are on the layout's return home, sometimes a concept works best first time and subsequent tinkering can dilute and ruin a layout's design and impact.
The main reason the railway room won't be happening is slippage in the renovation budget. A couple of other jobs have come in over and above what I had predicted (hoped) they would and this has led to me to reconsider this project, despite some additional funding being available from the 'modelling fund'. However, plans are afoot to create a new, custom work area once redecoration is complete, and in the mean time I have made some progress elsewhere which improves life for the little folk. More next time....
As many readers may know, we are presently having a lot of work done on the house (or doing it ourselves) and this has caused railway modelling to fall to the wayside for both practical and time reasons. Practical in that a lot of things have to be moved around and stored in places they wouldn't usually be found, and time wise... well someone has to do the painting and other work!
One thing I had hoped to gain through the various works underway was a proper 'railway room' of my own. My workbench has sat in the corner of the bedroom for several years and a separate work area and layout building space was planned. This would have been created by splitting the bedroom in two with a new (very short) corridor serving the new rooms:
 |
| Railway room ('Study') to the right. |
 |
| Shifting Sands extended (to fit 7' 6" x 6' 6" room) - lower sketch is later thinking. |
 |
| White lines - existing edges and centre; blue line - existing backscene base; red lines - new baseboard edges. |
 |
| What might have been - the deformation of Shifting Sands. |
The main reason the railway room won't be happening is slippage in the renovation budget. A couple of other jobs have come in over and above what I had predicted (hoped) they would and this has led to me to reconsider this project, despite some additional funding being available from the 'modelling fund'. However, plans are afoot to create a new, custom work area once redecoration is complete, and in the mean time I have made some progress elsewhere which improves life for the little folk. More next time....
Monday, 23 May 2011
Alan Keef K12 in O9
This isn't the entry I had planned to write this week, that will have to wait for a few days when I can easily access the scanner to help illustrate it....
As an alternative, and hinted at a few weeks ago, I thought a look at the O9 Alan Keef K12 I built last year might fit the bill. This was intended for my industrial micro layout (pre Misterton Fen Tramway) and was built reasonably to scale, being made just a few mm longer and wider than scale in order to fit the Bachmann Plymouth chassis.
Bodywork was marked out on 30 thou styrene and cut to form a basic 'kit' of parts:
This is thinner than I often use and in many respects this was an experimental model. The nature of the real loco is that it was difficult to build a separate chassis/underfame unit so this was integral with the bodywork. Much use was made of re-enforcement behind all joints and to keep the bodywork square:
Just in case you were wondering, the springs were wound by hand from fuse wire around plastic rod... at this stage to loco did stall for a while but I eventually had a work-in and finished off the detail, soldering up an exhaust pipe and adding bolt heads on the plain cab side:
I really was intending on keeping this loco but with the change in emphasis and era for the micro layout it was eventually put into primer and placed for sale. I had the rather odd experience of posting it to the other side of the world from the rather grand, old style Post Office in Filey, whilst we were on holiday! Before it went a trip to 'Shifting Sands' was made for the benefit of the photographer:
So there we are, most of the industrial stuff is done, hopefully before the end of the week I can write (and illustrate) the next two blog posts I have planned....
Colin
As an alternative, and hinted at a few weeks ago, I thought a look at the O9 Alan Keef K12 I built last year might fit the bill. This was intended for my industrial micro layout (pre Misterton Fen Tramway) and was built reasonably to scale, being made just a few mm longer and wider than scale in order to fit the Bachmann Plymouth chassis.
Bodywork was marked out on 30 thou styrene and cut to form a basic 'kit' of parts:
This is thinner than I often use and in many respects this was an experimental model. The nature of the real loco is that it was difficult to build a separate chassis/underfame unit so this was integral with the bodywork. Much use was made of re-enforcement behind all joints and to keep the bodywork square:
Just in case you were wondering, the springs were wound by hand from fuse wire around plastic rod... at this stage to loco did stall for a while but I eventually had a work-in and finished off the detail, soldering up an exhaust pipe and adding bolt heads on the plain cab side:
I really was intending on keeping this loco but with the change in emphasis and era for the micro layout it was eventually put into primer and placed for sale. I had the rather odd experience of posting it to the other side of the world from the rather grand, old style Post Office in Filey, whilst we were on holiday! Before it went a trip to 'Shifting Sands' was made for the benefit of the photographer:
So there we are, most of the industrial stuff is done, hopefully before the end of the week I can write (and illustrate) the next two blog posts I have planned....
Colin
Saturday, 7 May 2011
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!
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!
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