Toad-ish

I had a surprisingly productive Sunday model railway-wise. I think I might actually be starting to get my creative thought processes back, not just with tiny trains but with art in general. It's a really nice feeling after seemingly hitting a mental block back in January.

One thing that did take me very much by surprise though was the urge to finish the Toad-ish brake van project. A scratch built body running on a Peco N Gauge 15ft wagon chassis (NR-122) Some may remember the state it was left in last December, very much unloved and relegated to sit in the stock box till another time.

In the space of a day it went from that ghostly white shell to finished (Or as near as, I may add a little more soot weathering to the ends) Alongside being my first scratch built item of rolling stock there was something else I wanted to try here: I'd been painting wagons in Revell's Leather Brown but being so dark a shade it doesn't really show up the detail that well, even after weathering. Having used a 'silk matt' brown from the same range on a pair of Talyllyn Coaches I decided to try that here. It's a good deal lighter, and after a dark wash is applied it takes all the shine out whilst showing up the details nicely.

Having had the customary works photos on The Garden Railway the chance was taken to pose the new van with a couple of different locomotives. Size-wise the van is roughly the same dimensions as the Talyllyn's No.4 coach, adn there's certainly plans to paint the spare Meridian kit I have in the same scheme.

Posed with one of the 009 Society wagons painted in the darker Leather Brown, the difference is immediately notable. Seems all the brown stock will be getting a trip to the paint shop at some point!

Let's hope this new found creative streak continues.

Statfold Barn Model Railway Show 2024

A couple of Saturdays ago saw me heading back over to the Statfold Barn Railway for their now annual model railway exhibition, very much a delayed birthday outing from February. As always, what follows is not a blow by blow account of every layout there, just a small selection.

Firstly, I must apologise for any omissions or mix ups with the descriptions. Unfortunately Statfold didn't provide a physical show guide, it all being done with QR codes and the internet instead, so I'm trying my best to work with my not so great memory, the few images I have and a layout list from The UK Model Shop Directory. Even looking online at the official show guide only shows layout names and scales, but no operators/owners. Any corrections are duly appreciated!

Port Dinorwic (OO/OO9) Kathy Millatt - Mixed standard and narrow gauge. One thing I did really liked about this one, and something I can't say I've seen at any other show, is that the fiddle yard ends had large perspex windows to look at the other stock. It's not everyone's cup of tea being able to see behind the scenes but I quite like it, though probably not something for every layout.

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Corrish (009) George Williamson - I've been following George's progress on this layout (And more recently his Nant Gwernol layout) on his YouTube channel for some time now, so it was nice to see it in person.

Hodgemead (OO9) - Simple but very nicely sceniced narrow gauge layout. The water in particular was very nicely done.

Ashgate (OO9) - An interesting use of selective compression in this Ashover Light Railway based model. The main elements of the Ashover terminus are there (Bar the turning triangle) but even laid out like this the scene and location are easily recognisable. In particular, the backscene blends really nicely with the foreground scenics.

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Titfield (OO) - I really liked this. Instead of modelling the fictional Titfield the layout represents Monkton Combe as it appeared during filming of 'The Titfield Thunderbolt', complete with film crew. I nice touch was the working scale studio lamps, as per prototype emitting a very strong light, though this isn't too noticeable in photos. The brake van seems to have gone missing at some point on the return from Mallingford!

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Shovel Head Halt (OO) - Small and simple micro layout.

Lapping Works (00) Matt Stevens - GWR Micro layout. Spot the terrier lurking in the back!

Derwent Road (O9) Bill Flude - Leighton Buzzard inspired preserved industrial narrow gauge. Just like the prototype, what was once open space has been encroached upon by modern housing, resulting in some interesting scenery for the trains to run through.

Port William (OO9) David Wright - As always, fantastic scenery work by David. It does seem rather odd seeing it in a historically based setting rather than the fantasy world of his other layout 'Raven's Ravine'!

Overall, an enjoyable day. I'll admit I did feel it was slightly let down by the attitudes of some of the other attendees (Very much the 'I've got a bigger/better camera' or 'don't you know who I am?' brigades) but this is very much a probably a personal thing, perhaps I was just in the wrong parts of the exhibition at the wrong times, or perhaps I should start going on Sundays during two day events, I hear they're often calmer. A shame really, as the Statfold staff and layout operators had put in a lot of effort, I do hope it went well for them.

Mindful Modelling

I had another post I was going to write this week about attending one of the many model shows happening in the UK this last weekend, honestly though, I just wasn't feeling it. Trying to think of the best way to put what I'm thinking about my experience into words. That might take a few days...

To try take my mind off of theses thoughts I returned to another project inspired by the work of Chris Ford, namely a diesel railcar in 009 adapted from a Dundas Models Welsh Highland Railway 'Bro Madog Eisteddfod' coach kit.

I always like to try put a twist on how I put these together so they don't just end up as direct copies of Chris's work (Luckily he sometimes gives a few nods to how this can be done in his writing!) In this case rather than simply taking a chunk out of the middle and cutting and shutting the coach sides, I made a few more cuts in order to rearrange them into a single centre door railcar. 

The whole body was assembled just after lunch, leading to an afternoon of raiding the spares box for parts that could be adapted into some form of controls for the railcar.

But that's another story...

Back on Track

With fascia boards attached and armed with a rough template of the station platform, I could now start to plot the locations of both the engine and carriage sheds in preparation for the last bit of track laying.

The footprint was worked out as 85mm x 60mm. There's no particular reason for this other than it was the width of the gunpowder store and the length of the Dolgoch style station building that's still yet to find a home. The length crucially offered exactly what I was wanting, which is simply a shed long enough to reasonably stable either Skarloey or Rheneas. The gunpowder store and office are in place to check the clearance for the planned for carriage shed.

Clearances checked, dimensions were then planned for the carriage shed, again using the Dolgoch style station as a basis footprint wise. Again, I only really need it to hold one whole Brown Marshall/Lancaster coach at most, so it's quite a nice size. Still slightly on the fence as to the finish for it, I'm half tempted to do a Manx Northern 'Ramsey style' carriage shed and have it made from corrugated iron just to do something visually different with what would be a set of well known arrangement of buildings.

Laying in the dummy siding for the carriage shed also presented a nice challenge: Making a fake point. Nothing too spectacular here, simply cutting a piece of flex track at a diagonal so it can curve into the powered running line, and the carefully bending and filing odd pieces of rail to shape to give a rough representation of another point blade and check rails. All the time Skarloey was on standby to check clearances on the inside of the rails, having the longest fixed wheels base of the current fleet.

And in a short amount of time, all the track for Corri-Llyn is down. Already at this early stage with no scenery it's quite relaxing just to run the odd engine round. And of course it has the added bonus of them getting to get a good run in. Everyone wins!

Packets

Like every modeller occasionally does, I unintentionally had a bit of a shopping spree the other week. Mercifully it was with the 009 Society Online Sales page so the dent was a lot smaller than and mainstream retailer.

There's a sort of unspoken idea in amongst certain modellers that if you purchase anything you HAVE to post about it online. Some would argue that this post is falling into those realms, but it's not the items I want to draw anyones attention to, it's the labels.

They're nothing particularly impressive, or even unique, but I was hit by an slight wave of nostalgia. There's something about the simple one colour logo/contents prints on the cards that just appeals to me. Perhaps it's the simplicity compared to modern standards where only a high resolution photograph of whats in the box will suffice to some.

Or perhaps it's flashbacks to my time at art college? In an environment where I didn't quite fit in, ink printing using traditional type blocks in a set (Even as late as 2012!) was one of the few things that did give me a little happiness, despite the heavy set up and clean up that came with it.

I think what it probably is though is a memory of how this is what modelling in 009 was like when I first starting making my serious attempt, and some would say I had it easy with all these kit makers. But there's something about the way the smaller cottage industries present themselves that the bigger manufacturers can never replicate. I can only really describe it as a sort of... cosiness, if that's the right word.

This is the nice thing about buying 2nd hand kits for me. Not only is it (Usually) cheaper and helping some form of model railway society, but I get to experience that feeling again. It's nice.

Oh, and yes, there is a theme linking all those kits.