The Kinks

I've made the pact with myself that 2026 is going to be the year I finally get round to restarting some long stalled projects. To that end, I decided to finally sort out the track work on Church Lane.

Electrically, there's nothing wrong with it, but aesthetically I was never quite happy with the run from the head shunt into the goods yard siding. The curves just looked a little... forced... for lack of a better word. 

Mercifully, this wasn't too hard of a task. Unsoldering an isolating section in the siding and removing a few track pins as far as the point, the whole lot was taken out. A 'Y' point replaces the original left hand one to help with the curving problem. In doing so the siding itself unexpectedly changed direction, now curving into the scene rather than out from it, perhaps a blessing in disguise for any potential runaway wagon! For comparison, the pencil guide marks for the original arrangement can just about be seen on the board.

Another unforeseen bonus is that the 'view blocker' goods store now has a bit more wiggle room between the main running line and siding. Whilst it wasn't too tight before, there's certainly no fear of an odd engine or coach striking it now!

Decauville

I've aways liked the little Jouef locos.

There's something really pleasing about them proportionally even if they are technically over scale for 009, and even more so for the HOe market! Performance wise though they do leave a little to be desired. Thankfully Tramfabriek make a very simple motor replacement kit, so a on a weekend where modelling time was short the conversion took place.

This isn't a step by step guide by any means (There's already a comprehensive 'how to' on the Tramfabriek website) but more just some observations as I went through the processes.

Disassembly is fairly straight forward, and reveals the fairly chunky original motor.

The trickiest part of the process I found was removing the screws that how the motor brushes in place. A combination of very little surface for a pair of pliers to grip and the screws probably never having been taken out out since being put in back at the factory a good fifty years ago!

And after removing the motor itself, to my surprise it fell apart perfectly into its component pieces!

I did wonder if this is the cause of the intermittent running, but the new motor and housing were all ready for installation. The metal pieces have been kept in the spares box as a possible source of ballast for wagons, they're quite weighty.

For completist sake, a photo of the chassis with the motor out. It's a somewhat unusual transmission of power from what would now be considered the norm. 

And then, a disaster! The worm gear from the original motor split whilst being removed. Looking closely though showed the break occurred due to an air bubble inside the plastic piece itself. Mercifully it was a very clean break and if anything it actually helped with the stage of glueing the gear onto the new motor.

The new motor installed.

And finally a quick pose as the loco spent a good half hour going round the in-progress Welsh narrow gauge layout to have a run in. It's already a vast improvement, and with some careful driving can really crawl at a much more realistic speed. There is still an occasional stutter or stop (Mainly due to the insulfrog points) but it's far less frequent than before.

Really, I think I might have to disassemble it again and give the wheel contacts a good clean, something I really should have done in the first place.

A project for another day, along with eventually constructing a new cab and matching tender.

The Challenge

Back on April 1st the annual Christmas layout challenge was announced over at the Micro Model Railway Cartel Facebook group: Build a layout with a scratchbuilt railway related working feature (E.g: A crane, wagon tipper, wagon loader)

I'll hold my hands up, that prompt is very out of my comfort zone. I'm certainly a person who enjoys just watching the trains rather than seeing them actually loading and unloading. However it was very on the fence if the contest was going ahead this year, so it's certainly worth having a try, even if just to prove to myself that this certainly isn't an area I'm comfortable with.

Since the start of the month I'd been sitting down for an hour or two a week trying to sketch out some ideas. There were some nice thoughts, but nothing was really taking my fancy. The main stumbling block being that I didn't want it to be a layout were I could only have a particular set of locos and wagons running on it. I wanted it to be able to accomadate the regular 009 stock too, which would include incorporating a passenger service somehow.

Just last week though the obvious source for inspiration was pointed out to me. I'm not too far from the route of the long gone Ashover Light Railway, where industrial and passenger traffic coexisted quite happily together for a time. So armed with the Bob Gratton book on the line, a large mug of tea and the chance to sit outside in the sunshine, I started scribbling in the sketchbook again.

Introducing "Ashcross":

Very much taking visual cues from the Ashover Butts end of the ALR on the left hand side, with an aggregate chute and exit view-blocker cottage on the right giving some not quite Butts Quarry/Fallgate vibes. Just moving my pen back and forth along the rough track plan and thinking of operational moves revealed that it probably needs an extra middle spur for ease of operation. It could be done with just two tracks leading to the fiddle yard, but the third elleviates the need to 'crane shunt' locomotives round their trains.

Comparing the above rough sketch and stock list with what there is to hand in the project stash, this is looking like quite the viable project for 2026. There's the battered remains of a GEM Baldwin in a tub, the wagons would be a good scratchbuilding exercise, the body pieces for a Glouster style coach are easily available to buy and there's plenty of embossed sheets to make the structures. The only thing that would need to be specially bought in is one 'Y' point.

It all simply boils down to the classic enemy of all modellers. Time.

We'll see where this goes.

GWR Station Build

I needed a distraction.

I was totally burnt out from work heading into the easter weekend, and being the only mandatory three day weekend in the work calendar it's always a good time for a quick one off project. To that end, a GWR station building materialised on the modelling desk.

Nothing too spectacular here. A PECO 'manyways' kits, a few ideas for embellishment from Mr Ford, and a painting guide from the online GWR modelling website.

Oh, and it's N gauge!

Will this lead anywhere? We'll see...

Holmeswell - In Publication!

Just over a week back Holmeswell graced the pages of the spring issue of The Micro Model Railway Dispatch, effectively providing a nice bookend for my entry into last year's Christmas Challenge. You can find the article, and others, HERE.

Truthfully, I don't think this is my best writing, but I think that can be attributed to forcing a deadline upon myself and being full of cold and flu whilst writing. However Ian has done a fantastic job putting this together, and I'm still impressed with how good this layout looks in photographs. I can't help noticing that much like 'The Garden Railway', Holmeswell seems to have taken up residence as the final article in the issue. Is this becoming my unintentional home in the Dispatch? (I jest, Ian!)

And if the above slice of The Dispatch has wetted your appetite, all the back issues are also available to read for free HERE.