The Stripper

I seem to be becoming a bit more 'daring' with my modelling this year, trying a few new things that I've always wanted to but lacked the confidence for...

In October last year 'No.1' (A GEM Douglas) had a bit of a mishap and plunged a scale 350ft to the floor, shattering quite impressively but all the parts were recovered. Since then it's been sat in the bottom of an old jam jar, awaiting a date with the Dettol, something I've always meant to have a go at trying.

The results - I wish I'd had a go at this so much sooner! Pleased is an understatement! 

I'l fess up, the thing that put me off the most was the fear of somehow distorting the parts by letting it soak for too long, but this is something I needn't have worried over. Turns out there are some out there who let their models soak for days. I am told it's best to keep a closer eye on plastic kits when soaking though.

More than satisfied, ANOTHER Douglas body was dug out of the box (This one acquired second hand many moons ago) and given the same treatment.

Both disassembled kits soon put to one side with a third new in box Douglas kit. You wait for ages to get round to rebuilding one, suddenly you find yourself building three!

North West Narrow Gauge Show 2025

Last Saturday saw me taking the journey over to Rainhill for my first exhibition attendance of the year. Plenty of layouts, and a nice variety of trade support as well. A very fun couple of hours well spent.

Apologies for the picture quality, such was my rush to there I left the proper camera behind! Likewise, I totally forgot to take a note of every layout I photographed.

This layout was a great example of space saving. The run was a long U shape, but the long straight sections were probably somewhere in the region of 9" wide, only modelling up to the railway boundary.

The above layout caught me a little by surprise, as it appears to have taken heavy inspiration from Chris Ford's 'Garn'. Comparing this quick photo with those online an in Railway Modeller, it might even be the exact same layout with one siding removed and some slightly updated scenics. Unfortunately there was no operator around at the time to ask.

The engine in the middle here really caught my eye. At a glance it appears to have the footplate and side skirts from a Vari-kit, with a body seemingly made from a mixture of Jeanette and Douglas parts. Another potential idea to add to the to do list!

A very pleasing figure eight circuit on Castletown, packing in a lot in a relatively small space.

The South-West Lancs Light Railway (009) is always nice to see.

It also offered a chance at seeing Charles Insley's recently repainted Kato George England, now in the light blue livery.

Post-exhibition time saw a visit to a relative's to 'play trains' on their 009 layout for a few hours. It was also a good opportunity to get to grips with a show purchase: A Narrow Planet Bagnall side tank. I'd been after one of these for a while before they were discontinued, so to find one at a more than reasonable price on the 009 sales stand was a real treat! Needs a bit of fettling in forwards to prevent a slight swagger, but in reverse it glides like a sewing machine. Very happy.

Big thanks to the shows organisers for putting on a great day.

MK2 Station Building

Before setting out to build Church Lane almost all of the structures were complete. The one exception to the rule was the Chris Ford inspired station building.

The one I'd originally built wouldn't quite work for the layout, the entrance being on the (viewers) right hand side whereas here a left handed entrance works better visually with the 'lane' suggested beyond the buffer stop. 

Purely by chance, even though I'd planned to have another go at this particular kitbash again, everything worked out in a way that sort of pushed me into building it. A Will's tin chapel kit was picked up cheaply second hand (Complete, but marked as 'broken' - This turned out to be a simple crack in one of the side pieces), a set of Peco doors and windows was also found at the same time, most importantly though a copy of C.C.Green's 'Vale of Rheidol' book was picked up at Railex Taunton last year featuring some fantastic profile shots of the station building at Devil's Bridge during the 1950s as a reference.

A couple of quick snaps before painting shows how all the parts immediately alter the look of the building. 

For a more in depth how to, consult the book.

Side by side, it's quite nice to see a comparison of how my modelling has improved!

A coat of primer helps tie everything together nicely.

And finally, sat at the end of the line with the matching goods store and signal box in the distance. Even without ground scatters and scenics, it's already starting to look really nice.

I know I'd mentioned previously about wanting to attempt a 'Cameo' style box presentation for this layout, but just looking at the above view has me thinking otherwise. I really like it, but I have to remember that both the walling and station building will be sitting a little higher when groundwork is finished.

Carry On Tracking

It's been a bit of a mixed weekend. What should have been a nice, relaxing a day out on the Saturday proved proved to be a very testing day to say the least, so yesterday I was forcing myself to slow down and spend a leisurely day laying as much track as I felt I could comfortably manage on the new layout...

Suffice to say, I surprised myself by not only laying all the required track, but also installing isolating/point switches and wiring them all along with the power feeds! Granted, I seemed to have miscalculated somewhere and I'm two isolating switches short on the layout section meaning the the 'front' line of the run round loop and the far reaches of the front siding are currently out of bounds, but I have the parts in stock so it's a very quick next weekend job.

Most importantly though, even in this state, it meant I could spend a little bit of time playing trains.

The prefect tonic to what has been a very stressful week.

Employing three (Then eventually four!) train operation, the scratchbuilt brake van, Talyllyn Coach No.4 and the Egger Bahn balcony coach were assembled into the first train and then each of the four engines took turns pulling them into the station before swapping out with another stationed in what will become the bay platform.

I actually had more fun than I thought just shuffling the same coaching stock back and forth like this for a good thirty minutes. Dare I say it, I think I'm getting some potential ideas for the annual Micro Railway Cartel Christmas Challenge. We'll see what becomes of those...

And finally, some more of the scenic elements just placed on the board to see how it's all coming together. I'm liking this. I'm liking it a lot.

Toby

I didn't particularly set out to build another engine, but here we are.

Late last year I found myself with the itch to scratch-build something. Something with planking as I find it oddly relaxing. A quick look in the parts collection revealed the complete chassis from a Vale of Rheidol brake van (The body was of course liberated for the bogie coach bash!) so the first instinct was to build either a brake or box van, but then I stumbled upon a Kato-103 chassis. It didn't take too long for my brain to put two and two together and go hunting for the July 1961 copy of Railway Modeller...

The result was No.7 (or 'Toby') unmistakably based on the standard gauge Y6/J70 locomotives of the Wisbech & Upwell tramway, a line I've always had a soft spot for. The drawing's supplied by the Rev. Awdry for the Railway Modeller article were scaled down by roughy 1/3rd, the result being an engine suitably sized to a 2'3"-2'6" narrow gauge line, certainly on the mid - larger end of the narrow gauge loading gauges.

A quick snap from before the painting stage shows the main construction off nicely. The majority of this is scribed 40thou plastic sheet with 20x40thou strip for the framing. Once again, as with the Sentinel, an off-cut of sprue was turned into a funnel with a small section of 2mm brass rod for the visible condensing gear on the roof. The 'bell' i simply a handrail knob with the locating pip removed and some handrail wire! Some might question the inclusion of dumb buffers. In all honesty, they were added to stop the ends looking too flat.

From there it was onto the painting stage, initially taking some inspiration from the Kenney/Spong Toby illustrations, whilst wanting to add some green in to match the other steam engines in the fleet...

Suffice to say, as soon as I'd finished the base colours with the brush I realised I was heading in the wrong direction! Even after a wash with Tamiya 'Tank Grey' everything was still a bit too bold and clashing. 

Leaving it a couple of weeks before coming back to it, the framing was given a quick go over with the same Revell Brown as the main bodywork and the side-plates redone in Tank Grey. Essentially, I was painting the engine using just the colour palette I use for coaching stock. The eagle eyed may also notice that I remade the side-plate covers at this point to, making them from artists card with 10x20thou strip for the hinges as on the Sentinel.

Already it was looking MUCH better.

Then, the tricky task of making up some sliding window panes from 20x40 strip and clear plastic sheet. I think they're turned out ok for a first attempt, but I'm certainly not in a hurry to try again. I tip my hat to the modellers who make droplight windows for coaches!

And finally, the one photograph that certain corners of the internet would get somewhat angry about if I didn't pose.

This was meant to be a very silly project, the slightly unfortunate outcome is I've made an engine that I actually really like!