Thunderbolt

I'm not normally one for going out of my way to see specific engines, but in the words of The Mikado "I've got a little list" of ones that I'd like to see if fortune ever sees me passing by. It's quite fun this way, you never know which one you're going to visit next. With that in mind, yesterday saw me taking a day trip to Liverpool, and despite it also being my first time using Lime Street Station I was more interested in taking a slight detour down to the Museum of Liverpool on the dockside...

"Oh, Sam! What a little beauty!"

I just had go out of my way to see Lion. I must have first been introduced to her through a repeat BBC2 screening of The Titfield Thunderbolt some time around 1998/99, and she's remained a firm favourite of mine ever since. There's just something so pleasing about her appearance, which is slightly odd as if you look at all the individual components (Wheels taller than a boiler, wood clad boiler, that massively tall funnel and overly large copper cap to name a few) on paper they shouldn't compliment each other, but somehow they do.

Looking down from the balcony of the Liverpool Overhead Railway exhibit (Another fantastic reason to visit this place, so many oral recollections to listen to besides physical relics!) she did appear to be quite dusty, but given the tender end is essentially squeezed into a glass panelled bunker I imagine it's not the easiest exhibit to clean. 

And finally, in true modern internet fashion, did it really happen unless I include a photo of myself with the old lady? You'll have to forgive the slightly wonky angle, my photographer is still in training!

Another one off the list, but certainly one I wouldn't mind visiting again.

Going Retro

 Well, not quite, but almost.

This is one of those silly projects I've had written down for many, many years and finally had a go at back in May. It was nothing particularly challenging or unique, but it's something that to me seemed like it would be a lot of fun.

Long, long ago in a far away place known as 2004, and having just had a ride behind narrow gauge locomotive Linda in Phenryn black (The only engine I think looks good in black!) a much younger Rob was in the shop at Portmadoc's Harbour Station choosing what would be the very first scenery kits to build for the train set. My choices at the time ended up being the Wills Weighbridge Hut and a Peco Water Tower. Honestly, not a bad selection when looking back.

I certainly built them up, as I remember both the weighbridge sitting at the side of the tracks and leaving the 'arm' on the water tower loose so I could swing it out to 'top up' and engine, but both sadly vanished with subsequent train set rebuilds and eventually packing all the OO trains away into the attic.

I'd always thought about having another go at both kits, partly for old times sake but also to see how far I've come modelling wise. Saving the water tower for another day, the weighbridge was tackled:

Very basic construction, but a few tiny embellishments help to make it look just that little bit different from all the other Wills weighbridge huts out there. Extra window bars were added by pinching an idea from one of Mr Ford's books with a similarly replaced door handle, bargeboards were taken from a Peco doors and windows pack, finials cut and shaped from 40thou square strip, the missing angled piece for the back of the canopy was cut Wills corrugated iron sheet, and for a bit of extra variety a redundant chimney stack from a Wills platelayers hut was fixed to the back (The hole for the metal smoke stack in the roof tiles being filled in).

The real challenge for me though was the painting. I'll admit I shy away from bricks: I've never quite been able to get them right. But a while back I saw a video demonstrating how to 'paint' bricks by applying a mortar colour all over and then rubbing a terracotta artists pencil over the top when dry. Having tried it, I really like it. Adding a dark wash over the top to randomly run in the mortar courses helps add some variety whilst also blending all the faces together. Perhaps next time I might try picking out odd bricks in darker colours (I did pick odd ones out here, but the wash seems to have blended them in a little too well!)

A tiny amount of drybrushing on the door, window, canopy, bargeboards and sign finished off the structure nicely. Something interesting I noted whilst building: The sign is moulded onto the building end, but the roof ridge has a flat top along the top of it for a sign. A change of opinion late in the design stage?

Going back to 2004 a Hornby GWR 'Dunster' signal box followed sooner after, perhaps another one for the 'to do again' list!

Face Paint

This last week saw some colour being applied to the fascia boards of the new layout. Two reasons for this: Firstly, the grey tones were getting at me again so a bit of colour would certainly make it more enticing when looking at weekend modelling projects. Secondly, whilst painting I retroactively realised that if I was soon to start putting down a fair amount of watered down PVA on mdf I'd rather put some for of seal on it, no matter how small. It have even proved unnecessary, but I'd rather play it safe than sorry.

Having a look in the paint box to see what colours I had in stock, the following options were found from the now defunct Wilkos tester pot range (I need to find a new supply, but I doubt I'll find 75ml pots like these for £1 a go now!) From left to right, back to from we have: Treetops, Elf, Botanical Garden, Dark Ivy & Urban Jungle.

Whilst I do have supplies for a traditional grey/black fascia option, I want to have a try at something different. Pale greens seem to be becoming more and more common on layouts I've seen at exhibitions recently, so a micro layout such as this provides a perfect opportunity to give it a try.

I started out painting one of the faces in Treetops but quickly realised that even this mix of grey/green was a bit too luminous in person. Switching to Botanical Garden provided a much more pleasing result. Still enough green in it to provide a bit of colour whilst not being too overpowering to 'wash out' the look of the eventual scenery.

Ground Frame Hut MK2

Many, many months after saying I was going to have another go, I finally got round to bashing another Will's ground level signal box kit, using the guide by Chris Ford with a few more alterations than my last attempt.

Rather than used the supplied slate roof pieces, or making a felt and batten style roof like last time, for this attempt I had a try at a wriggly tin roof to match the other buildings for a potential light railway style layout. The wills wriggly tin sheet is a little on the thick side, but a nice work around is the corrugated glazing (SSMP224), the corrugations are slightly more spaced out, but it does mean you can get an instant thin wavy edge when cut. One other downside it that being thinner and bendier solvent didn't seem to take to it too well, relying more one superglues to hold it in place.

At the same time, a small lamp hut was assembled, again gaining a new roof rather than the one supplied with the kit which has a rather large vent. A small latch and padlock were added with 10x20thou strip and a square of 20x40thou to add something different visually.

I guess there's no point in trying to resist now. A layout in homage to 'Making Narrow Gauge Railways in Small Spaces' is very much on the cards in the future...

Platform One

Continuing with the Corri-Llyn layout, it was time to get the base layer in for the platform. There was a little unexpected encounter with this.

When I'd initally started measuring out the layout I'd used the ever reliable Glyn Valley Tram to measure out clearances, holding a pencil up to the side of the body, measuring the overhang and using this as a guide for a platform edge. Having cut a rough template out and positioned it on the layout with Skarloey and two Talyllyn coaches showed just how much wider the Beyer Peacock is. 'Mind the Gap' springs to mind!

At this early stage though this wasn't much of an issue. A few minutes work setting the compass to a slightly larger radius and another platform base was created.

Looking far more comfortable alongside narrower rolling stock, a top layer of 40thou card was laid on top to make the platform flush with the fascia boards.

Platform edging stones were then roughly cut to 4mm squarish sizes from 1mm card. Again the Glyn Valley tram, this time joined by a Jouef Decauville, show the difference in loading gauges.

And then the whole lot was given an all over coat of Tamiya 'Tank Grey', with the edge stones also getting a light dry-brushing of Revell light grey to highlight some of the edges. The platform surface itself will eventually be covered with a cinder/ash mix, hence the rather rough painting, but before that can happen I must get round to finishing off the station building. It's like one big jigsaw puzzle slowly coming together.