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. 

Déjà vu

 We've been here before, haven't we?

Once again I'm attempting the smallest possible and practical (for me) continuous loop layout in 009. Some readers may remember I quickly grew disheartened with my last attempt, Corri-Llyn, from 2024 which used the same Chris Ford inspired building structures (Bar church and bridge). 

This time though I've taken the slightly safer option of making a copy of a layout, with some slight scenic twists to make it my own rather than an exact duplicate. One micro layout I've always liked the look of is the "Second First" layout built by James Hilton and his son, It's a perfect example of fitting several small scenes on a layout without it looking cluttered. So after the realisation that the Welsh 009 buildings meant that a good chunk of the scenic work was already finished the above layout materialised, at 38x46cm it's roughly twice the size of the original whilst still being fairly compact!. The goods store is a nice addition for some variety, whilst the tin tabernacle is very much a bit of indulgence after realising that I've never actually built one 'as is', they've always been bashed about. The only major structure left to make is a small locomotive shed for the station area.

Already I'm having a lot of fun with this layout. I decided to give Duncan a good run as he hasn't been able to since his rebuild. Surprisingly, given the uneven weight distribution of the original GEM kit and the short wheelbase Arnold 0-4-0 chassis on setrack points, he glides along almost like a sewing machine! 

I have a strong suspicion he might end up calling this railway home if this performance keeps up.

Bridging the Gap

 As a continuation from last time, the bashed about bridge has a home:

The result of a scrap sheet of 12mm MDF saved from the skip at work and roughly 30 minutes with a jigsaw. For a first attempt at fitting a bridge into a cut out section of baseboard, it all went together first time. My measurement calculations and ability to cut wood on the mark must be improving!

The rest of the baseboard? Oh, that will have to wait till next time...

Bridge

I got slightly sidetracked with the Christmas shutdown projects. Once again my thoughts turned to having the smallest possible loop layout for the 009 stock to run on and after spending a good afternoon fuelled with tea and chocolate yule log I realised that, by utilising the leftover Welsh style buildings from Corrillyn, I actually had all the components to be able to make a homage to a small layout I've admired for some time. 

The only thing I didn't have was a small 'rail over' bridge. Luckily, there was a Peco N gauge set in the stash to use up...

Once again, pinching an idea from Chris Ford (This time from the December 2024 Railway Modeller) the bridge portals were transformed from humped back to straight parapet, along with a reduction in both height and width.

It's one of those projects that looks complex for the novice modeller, but is actually deceptively simple. Without going into too much depth for fear of plagiarism, the basic concept is to hack the piece into component parts and reassemble them again.

And at the end of the day, with both portals finished, interior walls added and even the top deck glued in situ. The Peco 'Glyn Valley Tramway inspired' brake van gives a good sense of just how much width and height has been cut from the sides. It is perhaps quite a wide bridge at 50mm, but this is going to be placed on a sharp 6" curve, so even with short four wheel stock a bit of wiggle room is certainly needed.

I'm really pleased with how this looks. There's a very strong urge to get at least three n gauge bridge kits and make a straightened and cut down narrow gauge viaduct. I don't need one, but it's certainly an idea to put on 'the list' for if it ever takes my fancy!

B Set Coach

I mentioned that I seemed to have several coach based projects for the festive break last year, here's the results of the first:

A very light bashing of an Airfix 'B Set' coach, using the guide by Chris Ford in his Modelling Great Western Branch Lines book. It's one of those projects I'd been wanting to have a go at for a while now for the still somewhat embryonic GWR layout, and given a good majority of this upgrade is paint job based it was a good way to ease into the Christmas break. It still needs a light wash to bring out some of the moulded details but my supplies of earth brown have exhausted themselves.

The above shows an earlier moment in the build, and reveals that I actually used a mixture of two different coaches to reach the finished bash. Browsing a local 2nd hand market stall by chance I came across the two coaches bundled together, one had a good body but was missing a bogie, the other had a complete chassis but two deep grooves on the roof that look suspiciously like someone left a soldering iron resting on it! I couldn't grumble at £5 for the pair though, it was the perfect starting point.

The body shell surprised me. Unlike ever other coach I've encountered the roof is moulded into the sides and ends. I'm assuming this practice was dropped pretty quickly by Airfix, the later GWR autocoach I have in the stash does have a separate roof piece. It does need to be said though, it makes the bodies very rigid!

One down, a few more posts to go!

Train Travel

It seems to be increasing rare that I take journeys by train these days, but a trip into Sheffield yesterday (A city I will admit to be hopeless at geography-wise!) saw the chance to take a quick fifteen minute journey along the Hope Valley line in a gentle rain.

It's clearly been far too long since I was last at Grindleford station. The semaphore signal on the Sheffield side that I'd always stick around to watch go into the danger position with a satisfying clunk has gone, replaced by a light signals. Don't get me wrong, there's no denying this is a much better improvement for driver visibility, even more so given the station is on quite a tight curve for high speed standards, but there's just something slightly... cold... about it. Perhaps once its weathered in to its surroundings I might think differently.

Interesting gantry style though, it has to be said!

Looking the other way, the accompanying signal box that used to sit on the curve has also gone with the modernisation programme. I do remember seeing an advert though in a local paper for the structure being listed 'for sale'. As with a lot of large, cumbersome items, it was advertised as 'buyer collects'!

A closer look at the portal for Totley Tunnel. Modern image modellers take note at the amount of debris left over from maintenance works.

Despite the passage of time, the station cafe still stands looking over the cutting next to the tunnel.

Signage around the station has also been improved. I didn't actually realise some of the terrace cottages were known as 'Midland Cottages'. A nice little nod the the original builders of the line.

Some of the signage has even been done in the British Railways 'Midland Region' style. I always quite like these maroon totems, they blend in quite nicely with their surroundings.

Another look at the road bridge. This is quite a handy reference for painting model stone - Note the amount of green!

Probably the biggest shock though came at Dore & Totley station. This section was notorious for being a bit of a bottleneck on the Hope Valley side, rationalisation had seen a double tracked station on a junction reduced to just a single track and platform. Seeing this new build platform no doubt creates some opportunities for speeding up services in the future.

You'll have to forgive the somewhat candid phone image - It took a long time to twig exactly what was different about the place!

And after arriving into Sheffield, I had just enough time for a quick nip into the new Rails of Sheffield 'satellite store' that has recently opened in the station. Signage towards it wasn't great (Follow signs for the taxi rank if you plan to visit!) but it was a very nice, and very welcome against the inclement weather, little shop. I cursed myself slightly that I couldn't buy anything large - I could have easily fallen for the Bachmann Railway Children set they had for sale in the preowned section!

Well worth a quick visit if you're passing through.

Next week - A return to modelling!

Advent Madness 2

I was going to subtitle this post 'Faller Boogaloo', but I thought that came across as suggesting something cheap. Not the case!

I've never been one for chocolate, so I'm always looking for alternate advent calendars for December. After being gifted a Noch HO scale figure calendar in 2024 I decided I'd have another one for 2025, but there was one small snag. I couldn't remember for the life of me if the one i was gifted was the actual 2024 release or what the box artwork looked like.

So I took the easy option and ordered one from the Faller stable instead.

And here's what 23 days worth of advent looks like. Overall I'm impressed, and I think I might actually prefer this to the Noch one. There's a good variety to the figures (Compared to last year which seemed to only have three categories of either sitting people, deer or swimming people) 

More importantly though, the figures themselves are held in place with see through sticky tape. Fantastic! No chance of losing them over the course of advent, and they display really nicely in the calendar itself.

If there was one slight disappointment, it was day 24...

The text on the box promised "24 new hand painted FALLER HO miniature figures as well as a festive surprise at the end". There were a few things I was thinking it could be. A snowman? Someone on a sled/toboggan? The big jolly red man himself? Nope. Instead, day 24 was a deer.

"That's not that bad Rob, it could be classed as somewhat festive" 

Normally, I'd agree. However this was the third deer included in the calendar. It did feel like a bit of a weak ending to what had been a very fun journey. Would it be enough to put me off getting another Faller figure calendar for 2026? No, I don't think so. The positives far outweigh what in context is a very minor sour note.

These are of course HO scale, so now it's time to play the year long game of incorporating these into OO gauge scenes in interesting and non-obvious ways.

More importantly though, I now have a record of what the 2025 calendar looked like for comparison this year!