Lou Reed Died but life goes on!

Recently, one of my hero's and the writer of 'A perfect Day' passed away.RIP Lou Reed.
 This in itself may not mean much to you , my followers, but to me it, hopefully, means that there is light at the end of the tunnel!
A lot has to be dealt with, as some you that know me may know, and I am not going to relate here.
Cutting to the chase of this post, you may think that things have slipped lately- I agree. With a Group Meeting fast approaching- I did get the new boards for Swanage cut by the way- working away for a month and two exhibitions on the horizon I have had little time to indulge myself in blog articles.
Poole exhibition is ten days  away on Rememberance Sunday with the 3mm meeting at West Byfleet the day before.Added to this is the preparation for Warley at the end of November .Something which I am very proud to have been invited to.
With a recent job commenced, which involves office work, something I haven't done for years, and I do mean years, time has been somewhat at a premium lately.
Bear with me and I hope to have lots of news and photos from the above activities to share with you in the coming weeks.
Until then a photo from the archives.

Updates.

No pictures today- just a note to let you know that the calendar for next year-2014- has been updated.
Please click on the exhibiton link on the left.
Regular entries will be made as and when new information is available.
Please check if you intend to travel to our meetings or Exhibitions.
We have been asked to hold the 2016 Westfest, a long way away I know but these things creep up on you.
As soon as details are available they will be entered in the calendar.

A Turntable for Swanage.

This PECO 'N' Gauge turntable was found at the recent CMRC Exhibition in Bournemouth.
Scaleing at 50ft it is the perfect size for the one needed for the Group's Swanage layout.
New boards are to be built to transfer the trackwork onto.
Recently Pete Nicklen, the original builder, passed a photo album to me via the group guys that attended Westfest 2013 which will help greatly in the refurbishment of the layout, plus recreate the missing bits!

Irish Railways.

In days long ago, or so it seems, rolling stock was widened from that used on the UK network.
Now it seems that the bogies are just widened as this shot shows.
Could the model UK stock have the bogies altered to show this modification.
As I have said , I have no idea on the latest DMU fleet but in any scale would this mod be feasible?
More Pictures are on the other blog-click here.

Time Away.

 Recently some good fortune saw me doing an European Tour- well Eire, Northern Ireland, Wales as well as all around England.
Stayed at some luxurious Hotels and worked very hard!
However, the one time I remembered to carry my camera, I happened upon Great Victoria Street Station in Belfast. After explaining my interest in Trains the Station Manager let me take photos and walk around the platform area- it pays to be nice and ask politely!
So a trio of photos are shown today- please donn't ask for the technical bits like types etc.- I really have no idea of modern day stock. But, they do resemble the type of units running on UK rail network.
In the enxt few days I will publish some more with my take on how to replicate a feature of these wider gauged Multiple Units.

Static Grass.

 Well it was my birthday recently and I have been promising one of these for quite a while.
So-at the Christchutrch Model Railway Clubs exhibition I came across the Simply Southern display where they had this- sold on behalf of Basildon MRC (to boost funds I presume) at a reasonable £15. This is a little more than it would cost to make one- but now I do have one.
Purchased also was some static grass about a millimeter in length and described as 'Summer'.
Must admit my hands were itching to fire this up but family matters have precuded this but soon!
Very amiable chap on the stand- have a look at their products here-mainly OO Gauge but well worth a mention.

Signal Box innards!

Having a rare hour to kill, I thought that it was time I stuck the roof on the Signalbox.
But- no interior detail had been fitted although it isn't possible to see as the back faces those viewing.
So a piece of channel-plastic- had a dozen holes drilled in it, and some plastic rod stuck in these with MEK. Then some black plasticard to make the shelf and some offcuts to give a suggestion of instruments and an hour is up.
Just got to paint the levers and the instruments and the'box roof can be securely fitted.

Ex GWR 'B' Sets.

 Passengers waiting for their connection at St. Agnes.
The main point of the post is the lower picture which shows the two types of 'B' Set available from Worsley Works.
The far side coach is the original flat ended coach whilst the nearer one is of the Bow-end type.

Behind the Scenes.

Some pictures of Teignford. The top two are only seen from behind the layout- I sometimes wonder why detail the rear of a structure as no-one will ever see it! And ,yes, there are a couple of tell tale signs- who can spot them?

Get on yer bike!

After the ages spent assembling these things it remains to give them a coat of paint.
Acrylics were used for these as I have a number of suitable colours.
Acrylics seem to dry that much quicker so this was only a few minutes job.
The only thing that uses enamels is silver for the handlebars.
Just a mater of fixing them in position.

3MM Society Mixed Traffic October 2013.

 Mixed Traffic 193 has hit the carpet and an excellent quarterly edition it is!
Part three of Stephen Moor's refining of a BR Class 5 is followed by Andrew Comben's Cross Kitting to produce Class 54/64/74 Pannier Tanks.
Graham Shirley updates the progress at Horncastle whilst Wim Harthoorn recounts the adaptation of the Tri-ang T176 open wagon. Alan smith describes a months work creating a complete Ballast Train and the 50-something challenge shapes up.
More of Eric Brutons photos precede the What's New description of the Wizard models Servo Controller for Signal and Point operation.
Blastpipe brings proceedings to an end together with several interesting adverts.
Also included are fitting tributes to Peter Gentle and Dave Martin- two 3mm stalwarts who sadly recently passed. There has also been tributes in the Modelling Press and E-Groups to these two gentlemen- my humble condolences also go to both families.

Turntable Detail

This shows the base and support for the 50ft turntable at Swanage-

M7 on shed.

Worsley 6 wheeler.

 At last it is finished- a coat of primer and a finish in a rattle can of green paint.
I should really have filled the imperfections first but time is at a premium at the moment plus a good dose of toothache!
from what I can find this is a Maudsley lorry- scoured the photos on the net and this name is the closest I found- I will of course be proved wrong now I have given a manufacturer!

Swanage Water Tower.

This structure is one that I have a long affection for. Let me explain- Terry Jenkins has been a friend of mine for more years than I care to remember. I first met him when he ran a club in Havilland Road, Boscombe, Bournemouth. This structure was one of the models and was featured in one of the Michael Andress modelling books. It also contained plans if I remember rightly so hopefully the building of the water tower shouldn't be too problimatical.

Bullied Brake End Second Build.-2

 This really tried my camera skills- what skills? As previously said, I am trying a different method of building a bow end coach. The false end has been attached to the sides. Ensuring all is square as I went along-I may have missed a trick here as I should have checked the drawing for the end steps as the location holes are on the inside of the bow ends- not on the outside where you can see them- my mistake!!!

 This shows how the bow ends are attached- the fold out parts give some guide for the amount of bend the ends need.

Really poor this one! It does show the bow end attached with the end footsteps folded out. It was much easier this way with less burnt fingers or rude words.

Toplight Coach.

 Time to do the detailing- the corridor connections, buffers and bogie sideframes have all been fitted.
Attention then turns to the roof. Using Comet Models excellent downloads, these give the location of the roof vents etc.
The rainstrips are easy this time as the roof is plastic so it is a case of Mek being used to glue them in place.
The underframe is next to be detailed so must find all the bits for that!