Modelling Inspiration #1 by Andy york

RMweb showcase October 2011

A new free-t0-read format for RMweb’s best bits and more.

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Bradfield (Gloucester Square) Kylesku and The Mound How-to articles How Modelling Inspiration October 2011 Page 1

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Prototype inspiration Model railway photography Win a Dapol 121

Bits Box

Modelling Inspiration

Why pdf?

These two words which have been a strap line to the site for several years form the basis of this new pdfbased e-mag format which is an extension of RMweb featuring some of its best content and developing key features beyond what has been written in the more piecemeal fashion of the forums.

Using a pdf format for Modelling Inspiration allows readers to access the format across multiple platforms irrespective of display sizes and allows the reader to zoom in to make reading easier and to see the detail in the images. It also means an interactive index page and advertising where you can jump straight to advertisers’ content for further information.

The first edition of this e-mag collects together a series of articles to set out the stall for the type of content that the reader is likely to see in the future with an emphasis on modelling rather than products or news. The content will centre around projects featured on RMweb with occasional features to bring in new material. It is not intended to compete with or detract from existing media be that magazines or RMweb itself but to be complementary to it. Modelling Inspiration will be free-to-read and redistribution is welcomed, it’s easily printed off in its entirety or any individual articles you’d like to save for future reference in a printed format. Although it is a more distilled format the door is very much open to anyone who wants to showcase focussed and cohesive material with an aim to feature inspirational and interesting content. Hopefully MI’s readers will find this format easily digestible and worth supporting in the future. Please do get in touch if there’s any of your content you’d like to see featured in future editions or indeed recommendations of others’ work that would suit this new format.

Andy

Show preview

Post-war nationalisation

Story behind the picture

Featured layouts

RMweb people

Bradfield (Gloucester Square) The West Riding of Yorkshire in transition. John Elliot’s run down terminus oozes atmosphere and packs operational interest in.

Prototype inspiration

Models telling stories

Kylesku and The Mound Ben Alder’s West Highland layout based on the Kyle of Lochalsh route in the BR-steam era.

Model railway photography Photo of the month

HowHow-to articles Improving Peco Code 75

Thank you!

Improving Hornby 50s

Thanks to all the contributors and people involved for their material, support and pulling this first issue together, especially to the pr0of-reader who did so much behind the scenes!

DCC Sound in a pannier

Front Cover: Bradfield Gloucester Square

Weathering with Oils

Mermaid modifications Twin-silo Presflo

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Massive earthworks were required to bring the railway to Bradfield, the arches that protect the station throat stand testimony to the ingenuity and confidence of the early railway builders. They are based on the ones still standing alongside the new Forster Sq. Station. This scene illustrates what the creator, John Elliott worked to recreate. Next page

Bradfield, Gloucester Square (c1962) John Elliot (The Laird)

The town of Bradfield nestles in the foothills of the Pennines about 10 miles due west of Leeds in the West Riding of Yorkshire. It straddles the River Brad that flows in a northerly direction to join the River Aire near Shipley. Bradfield prospered with the growth of the woollen industry, thanks to the plentiful supply of water and rugged grazing land in the surrounding area. With this prosperity came the need for better and more efficient transport systems. Railways were in their infancy at this time but the wool barons of Bradfield were keen to exploit this modern, innovative technology and tried to promote a route to the town. The railway builders of the time were preoccupied with their own schemes, so eventually the Leeds and Bradfield Railway Company was formed under the leadership of none other than George Hudson, the “Railway King”, who was not one to miss an opportunity. The L&B line left Bradfield in a northerly direction following the valley to Shipley, then turned east along the Aire valley to Leeds. A new terminus station, Leeds Wellington, was constructed which the L&B shared with the recently formed Midland Railway company. Soon after completion the line was bought out by the MR who had operated it since its opening. It was not long before the MR sought powers and built a line from a triangular junction at Shipley, west along the Aire valley to Skipton and beyond, reaching Morecambe and Heysham on the west coast and leading to the construction of the Settle and Carlisle main line to the north and Scotland. Another route left Shipley north eastwards to Ilkley. The line

through Shipley northwards became the mainline leaving Bradfield at the end of a short double track branch. Railway politics of the time resulted in the Manchester and Leeds Railway building a line to Bradfield from the south to their own Exchange Station. In Bradfield the original L&B Market Street station soon proved inadequate and towards the end of the 19th century the MR built a new Station alongside Gloucester Square to replace it . As part of the redevelopment and to improve the alignment a tunnel was built immediately outside the new station. Goods facilities were moved further down the line beyond the short tunnel. The old goods yard and cattle dock were relaid to provide carriage stabling and servicing facilities. The old alignment lingered on as a freight only branch for a number of years, finally being closed by the LMS after the Grouping. The loco shed is situated along the line beyond the new goods yard. Gloucester Square station boasts three platforms and a centre siding under an overall roof. A further road on the east side of the station provides access to a small dock and also acts as headshunt for the carriage sidings. During World War II, the glazing was removed from the overall station roof as a safety precaution. In keeping with the railway’s policy of capturing revenue from the long distance traveller, the Midland Hotel is incorporated within the west side of the station building, its Victorian grandeur facing out onto Bradfield’s busy Gloucester Square.

Train Services Train services have changed little over the years and the timetable is basically the same as that developed by the MR. Local services are provided to Leeds, Ilkley and to Skipton. There is a daily return service from Carlisle. The principal trains run to London St Pancras and the West country and trains to and from the south reverse at Leeds Wellington. Recent years have seen a decline in the woollen industry and a dramatic growth of the catalogue shopping business that has resulted in a rapid rise in the parcels traffic at Bradfield since the late 1950s. As part of the British Railways Modernisation Plan, all local services have recently changed over to Diesel Multiple Unit operation. 1961 saw the first allocation of mainline diesels to Leeds Holbeck for crew training, the Sulzer Type 4s or “Peaks”. This year, 1962, has seen the full allocation along the ex-Midland lines with the intention of replacing steam, but there have been major problems with reliability and availability due to teething problems and a lack of trained fitters. Steam still has an important role for some years yet!! The Confessional So: having misled you, the reader, with my story of Bradfield with just a slight nod in the direction of real railway history, it is time to leave the world of virtual reality and enter the more hazardous realm, a topic avoided at all cost by senior managers, actual reality! My 00 gauge, 4mm scale representation of what has been described. How and why did I do it? It would be nice to explain the detailed research and planning that went into this creation but I stand here before you to confess that it was an accident that should never have happened! I suppose that if I could single anyone out to blame, it would have to be Jim SmithWright, he of P4 New Street fame. Not that Jim would be aware of this of course but all will be revealed.

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The morning rush is in full swing at Bradfield and not without its problems. A platform change sees the 8.05 Skipton departing Platform 3A this morning, looks like there are too many parcels in Platform 2 behind the Fairburn. D95 backs in to Platform 1 with stock for the 8.50 St Pancras.

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At last! We find a suitable house that is to be the final resting place! After the inevitable redecorating etc thoughts return to the important things in life and the plank has been wired up and tested, so what now. There is some space in the garage so maybe the plank could be developed. Out with the tape measure and from wall to up-and-over door I can just squeeze in the plank with 1.7m (about 5ft in old money) each side. Fire up Templot and let’s see what we can squeeze in. The result as they say is history; well not quite as I now had three bare baseboards with track and electrics that needed some legs and having got this far with the experiment I might as well finish it off and maybe even take it to an exhibition. What I needed was a suitable prototype location to inspire the topography, structures and type of trains I wanted to run.

A lazy sun tries to break through the grey skies above Bradfield’s overall roof. The dusty vans in Platform 2B have all been loaded, waiting to be shunted onto this evening’s York parcels. A MetCamm for Leeds adds to the murk as it ticks over at the end of Platform 3. Shady characters hang around the ticket barriers.

Now where to begin, at the end of course! The end of my previous layout that is. My last layout was a 7mm scale terminus built in some old stables. A house move meant this had to go, so all was dismantled and sold. A move to temporary accommodation left little room to swing a cat let alone a railway, so what to do? First decision was to change to 4mm scale. I wanted to try out some new ideas with baseboard construction, track laying and DCC but no room. I started collecting 4mm locos and stock and wanted somewhere to test them. Along came a magazine article about “a plank”, by Jim S-W, a test bed for his P4 overhead electrics. A plank it would be then. This plank turned out to be 4ft x 2ft of 1/8th ply, cross braced with an integral back scene to trial my lightweight baseboard construction. So far so good; now for some trackwork. Templot is a marvellous

tool for creating flowing track diagrams but took me an age to get to grips with. Once mastered and the creative juices start flowing it is easy to get carried away, resulting in a plan incorporating some challenging track building. So it was with my plank, the station throat as you see it today. The pointwork was constructed from copper clad sleeper and soldered construction with SMP flexitrack. Having read Ian Rice’s track construction book, I liked the idea of sprung or floating trackwork so decided to try the thin polyfoam used to insulate laminate flooring as an underlay. I used a rubber type adhesive to stick it down as I thought the PVA would not adhere, also I did not want it to solidify. The track was also stuck down with this rubber solution. It seems to work OK and gives the degree of sound insulation necessary when running on top of a thin ply box which would otherwise amplify any sound. Modelling Inspiration October 2011

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Whilst all this was going on, I had been quietly researching my ultimate, layout of a lifetime, project, London St Pancras. I came across a book called Operation Midland, this was my “Eureka!” moment; suddenly I began to understand the way the passenger railway really operated. I also became aware of the importance of a place called “Bradford Forster Square” to the passenger operations of the Midland Region of British Railways. This was the end of the line for a number of the long distance passenger services that originated and terminated here, where stock was stabled and serviced overnight to begin again the next day. This was exactly what interested me and would suit my “layout with no name”. Additionally, the old station at Forster Square had an overall roof and looked quite imposing. I only had three platform lines but length-wise it would fit. So as they say on Star Trek, “It’s Bradford, Jim; but not as we know it”. A site visit was called for, so armed with digital camera I headed north. What a shock and disappointment, only the Midland Hotel is left and all the stonework of the buildings gleaming like new, ho hum. Plenty of photos were taken of what was left and a good feel for the vernacular style of building gained. Oh, and a visit to EM North en route, so a good day out…..Enough planning and waffle, let’s get building.

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Baseboard and legs

represented by lichen dipped in PVA and then into foam scatter material, all painted with acrylics courtesy of my wife, the artist of the family.

The plank had proved successful so the two outer boards were constructed the same way. Alignment and connection between the boards is by removable pin hinges. Previous experience had shown that four-legged trestles tend to walk and are difficult to level so a threelegged stool principle was employed. Again, a fairly light structure was used, I often think that we over-engineer things. Adjustable screw feet are fitted on the two outer legs for fine adjustment.

The Builders

The PW Gang and the CM&EE Track on the two outer boards is mainly plain track with the loco release crossovers at the platform ends. Construction and laying of the track was as per the plank, with strengthening at the baseboard joints. I use the Digitrax DCC system to control the locos and accessories. Wiring for DCC is straightforward but different. The layout is split into wiring districts so that a short does not close down the whole layout. I have used components from various sources to control the layout by way of experiment and all have worked faultlessly so far. Point motors are Tortoise. The Civil Engineers Lighting rig and fascia As the layout was to be exhibited, I wanted to provide a lighting rig and fascia. This was constructed using 4mm MDF in a box configuration for strength. The whole is supported either end on 18mm square posts and centrally on a cantilevered box structure from ply. Six mains downlights are set in to the fascia, originally 50watt halogens were used but proved to be too focussed creating pools of light and dark, so I changed the bulbs for the low energy fluorescent type that produce a more diffuse and even light.

All the buildings on the layout are scratchbuilt, with the exception of the signal box, which is a Ratio kit. The same basic technique is employed where the shell is built from 40-thou plasticard with suitable embossed surface laminated on. The station was the first building to be erected to plans that I drew up from old photos, dimensions being estimated from some plans accompanying a useful feature in the Midland Record. A core of 4mm MDF was used to strengthen the walls but with hindsight this was unnecessary. As with other buildings on the layout, I used 7mm brick to represent the stonework.

To convey the feel for the location and to justify the rather contrived exit to the fiddle yard, some substantial earthworks were required. Tall stone-built retaining walls are the order of the day with a couple of plate girder over-bridges to convey that gritty northern work-a-day atmosphere. All are constructed from plasticard over 4mm MDF formers and embossed plasticard stonework surfaces and the whole painted and weathered with artists acrylics with a final coat of matt varnish to take away any sheen. The small areas of greenery are plumbersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; hemp stuck down on corrugated cardboard formers and pulled off when dry, brambles are Modelling Inspiration October 2011

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The overall roof design is known as a “Warren Truss” roof after the engineer who designed and patented the trusses. It was a common design especially on the MR in the late 1800s, other examples being at Ilkley and Leicester. It differs from the later “Pratt Truss” which has additional vertical bracing. I have constructed the trusses from strips of 20-thou plasticard on a paper template. The roof needed to be removable for track cleaning, repairs etc so the trusses couldn’t be fixed in position. I built the roof in situ to maintain the correct spacing of trusses so that they will slot back into the cut-outs in the wall. It is surprisingly strong now that everything is bonded together. Bradfield’s roof was originally an overall glass roof but because of wartime hostilities a lot of stations had all their glass removed and not all of it was replaced afterwards. This roof will only be glazed where it affords protection to the passengers i.e. over the platforms, a common practice on the real thing.

The glazing panels are cut out and stuck behind the structure’s apertures. This was done individually to ensure the bars line up. I used a carpet adhesive that takes 24hrs to set but remains tacky allowing time to

Bickerdyke’s Mill I just had to have a large woollen mill so typical of the area. I sought out a prototype and finally based it on a mill in Keighley. As with all of the layout’s buildings the mill is constructed from plasticard. There are 120 windows in total. I applied the glazing bars straight onto clear plastic using masking tape sliced thinly.

A porter surveys the next stack of parcels to be loaded as soft morning sunlight casts shadows around the grimy interior of the station. The Met-Camm has thankfully shut down between turns giving a brief respite from the choking diesel fumes. In the distance, consignment notes are checked before allowing the delivery driver to depart.

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adjust the position. The mill features faded lettering on the stonework typical of so many old, large structures. Having first worked out the height of the letters required, 15mm in this case, I used Microsoft Word to print out the words in a suitable font (sans serif) at a font size of 60 which looked about right. I then cut out the letters to leave a template which is cut to a convenient size and stuck to the wall with masking tape. I cut out the centres of the letters B and D as well and hold them in position with the blunt end of a pencil or other similar implement which may be at hand. It sometimes helps to dampen the paper template slightly Previous page

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with the elements. Once the wording was complete, the whole building was weathered with a sooty black wash. The Mill Housing Alongside the woollen mill is a cluster of housing on one of Bradfield’s many steeply sloped streets. The houses were constructed from 40 thou plasticard faced with 20 thou embossed sheet as a single block. The roof slates are strips of paper as is the lead flashing. Windows are again masking tape on clear glazing. As this was a light background, stone work, the lettering was done with a black permanent marker pen, just dabbing it through the template. If you want to do light letters on a dark surface you will need to use paint, dabbing it on sparingly with a small fine sponge or cloth. You do not need to get it perfect especially if you are weathering it as the letters do fade with time and parts wear away

Bickerdyke’s Woollen Mill broods over the empty carriage sidings, another monument to past glory. With trade declining fast, what gloomy future lies in store for this once impressive building and source of the town’s prosperity? The sidings share in the desolation as only a night shift is required these days.

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Locomotives and rolling stock The Sulzer Type 4s (Class45) or “Peaks” were the mainstay of the Midland main line during my formative years and I could hear them from home powering expresses south out of Leicester Midland, I could see them from my school windows and from my place of work adjacent to the line. In earlier years it would have been Jubilees but alas I was too late. It is no surprise then that the main source of traction on Bradfield is the Bachmann model of my favourite diesel. I also have available Classes 20, 25 and 40 and a couple of 08 shunters. The steam fleet is growing but currently comprises two Black Fives and a Fairburn tank. Two Class 108 DMUs and a Class 101 provide the local services. I believe that this is a fair representation of what would have appeared at Bradfield at this period in time.

Constructed alongside the Mill for the more privileged employees these tenements are based on a row still overlooking Shipley Station.

RMweb

Playing trains

It was during this phase of building that I first became aware of RMweb and soon decided to share my efforts at layout construction by starting a thread. I had also quite recklessly committed the layout to its first exhibition at the beginning of May 2011, some 6 months away, my rationale being that this would probably be the only way I would get it finished in a short space of time. I cannot emphasise enough how much the comments and encouragement from RMwebbers helped me in achieving this target. Through RMweb, I have benefited from the knowledge of others in developing my prototypically correct operational techniques, learnt a lot about signalling and begun to develop some new friendships. Exhibiting at Members’ Day was a small way of repaying my debt of gratitude to the members. Wow! That was emotional, let’s play trains.

OK, so for me this is what it is all about. The model making is fine but in the immortal words of the late David Jenkinson,”I enjoy having modelled”. Recreating a realistic environment in which to run trains in a “railwaylike” manner is what I want to do; passenger trains in particular. Again, always looking for someone to blame, this time it has to be Father Christmas and his choices over my modelling direction. He may well have understood my need for trains but he never grasped the fact that I wanted big engines with coaches. Without wishing to sound ungrateful, shunters and pickup goods sets did not hit the spot. Birthdays were no better either, it’s no wonder then that when I could afford to start buying my own train sets, I just couldn’t resist buying coaches. So with this in mind let’s get back to 1962 and deepest, darkest, Yorkshire. Modelling Inspiration October 2011

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I am quite obsessive about the reliability of the locos and so have fitted extra pickups to all wheels on the diesels and DMUs. They all have onboard digital sound systems, mostly Southwest Digital. The sound not only adds to the realism but I find that it encourages operation at a more realistic speed. I find the steam fleet more problematic in achieving smooth, reliable running and the sound systems are slightly more difficult to fit. The steam sounds are not yet as believable as the diesel sounds in my opinion, in the way that they work, but the latest chips are an improvement. Only the Fairburn is soundequipped at present. Rolling stock is mainly RTR with some kit-built and scratchbuilt parcel vans. All the stock is formed into fixed rakes, the corridor stock having some form of close coupling. At the end of the rakes and on most parcels stock I have fitted Spratt & Winkle 3mm couplings. I find these unobtrusive and reliable once set up correctly. All stock is of course suitably weathered.

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By late morning the platform is clear of parcels and the last delivery van departs whilst the Met-Camm DMU awaits its passengers for Leeds. The platform will again become a hive of activity during the afternoon as the vans return with collected parcels.

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44781 deposits stock into the carriage sidings in the gathering evening gloom. The fireman casts a jealous eye upwards towards the Ring O Bells on the bridge as they have yet to work a parcels back to Leeds. The carriage cleaners are already busy on the Paignton stock and earlier restaurant car service from London.

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Operation Saved the best for last!! In order to operate in a railwaylike manner I think it is essential to have a sequence or timetable. On Bradfield it is also essential due to the limited storage space both on scene and in the fiddle yard. The fiddle yard consists of just two roads running the full length of the layout with a storage shelf above at the station end. Behind the carriage sidings board the two tracks are on a train-length sector plate, forming the reception and departure roads. Trains are stacked two or three deep in the sidings and therefore need to be in the right order. The timetable for Bradfield is a cut-down version of the 1962 summer timetable for Bradford FS. I have developed a “working timetable” or sequence of moves to operate this on the layout. In so doing I have made some assumptions about the real life workings that may well be false but the general feeling is that they are believable and railway-like. I use a computer screen mounted on the backscene to show the sequence to public and operators. I think that this makes the moves so much more believable when a train has a time and destination. Shunting and fiddle yard moves are also displayed so that the viewer knows that something is happening even when nothing moves on the front. The basic traffic flow is this: • Through the night arrival and unloading of parcels, news and mail. • Early morning preparation and departure of principal trains to London and West Country. • Throughout the daytime DMU services to local destinations and loading of parcels. • Early evening arrival and berthing of principal trains and departure of parcels. There are just over 50 arrivals/departures and there are 103 moves to achieve this. A pictorial sequence that summarises all the moves is displayed here.

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What next?

Some weak evening sunshine illuminates Black Five 44781 standing in for a failed diesel on the 7.18 arrival from St Pancras. An unidentified Derby Type 2 sets back onto the York parcels in the centre road.

The most pressing requirement at present on Bradfield is the signalling. I have finalised the design in my head and started construction. The signals will be semaphore LMS style and hopefully operational. That’s about it really, apart from a few tweaks here and there because I want to start the next project. Acknowledgements Quite frankly there are so many that I would bore the reader and inevitably leave someone out. For inspiration though, thanks must go to all those modellers throughout the years who have been brave and kind enough to share their experience and skills with us through exhibitions, published media and of course now the internet and hopefully those yet to come. Me? I’m off to the Ring O Bells for a refresher now. Oh! Next project? – Leeds Wellington. Watch this space!

The Ring O Bells pub stands on top of the tunnel and is no doubt host to many an elaborated tale of footplate hardship and heroism from well lubricated throats. Originally built from stone, the brewery has had a go at tarting it up a bit with a coat of render. This half relief model is based on the actual pub located in the back streets of Bradford. The photographic wizardry really brings this building to life.

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EE Type 4, D325, eases the last mainline departure of the day out of Platform 1, the 10.38 Paignton. The DMU from Ilkley, running late, slips in to Platform 3.

Bradfield on show Exhibition bookings confirmed at present are: Tonbridge Nottingham Lutterworth Manchester Rochdale

18 February 2012 17 & 18 March 2012 19 May 2012 6 & 7 October 2012 3 & 4 November 2012

As soon as I saw Bradfield on RMweb I could see there was a winning formula here; a layout of achievable scope that really captured the feel of the locality with an absorbing consideration of operations. Seeing Bradfield in the flesh I was impressed with how the hand-built pointwork flows so beautifully and the smoothness of running that this gives. I’d like to thank John for pulling together a really engaging article in record time. I’m truly proud to feature this layout in our first edition.

Andy

John’s progress on Bradfield can be followed by clicking here.

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Show preview - Wigan Model Railway Exhibition - 10/11 December Before moving to its new June slot in 2012 the last large exhibition before Christmas takes place on 10th/11th December with a line up which includes 38 layouts and over 50 specialist traders and RTR retailers. The £10 admission charge includes a 40-page exhibition guide to ensure that visitors can get to know more about the layouts whilst they’re visiting the show. Aiming to reduce admission queues there is a discount available for advance booking via the website at http:// www.wiganfrm.org.uk/2011_tickets.html and an offer of four tickets for the price of three as part of the organisers’ initiative to encourage car-sharing. East Lynn & Nunstanton Accompanied children are admitted free of charge and receive a free gift to help make a family or ‘lads and Gifford Street dads’ day out before Christmas.

Images copyright and courtesy of Tony Wright and British Railway Modelling

With a show which is as large and quality driven as Wigan there will undoubtedly be people wishing to visit on both days; two-day entry tickets will be available on the door on the Saturday. The Robin Park Arena is adjacent to Wigan Athletic’s football ground but they are playing away that weekend and there is plenty of parking in close proximity on the retail park. Book it in your diary now and enjoy the show!

Layout lineline-up Abhainn an Scail/Annascaul - OOn3 Barmouth Bridge - O Burntisland 1883 - P4 Carreg Lwyd Wharf - OO9 Cripps Bottom Yard - OO Crumley & Little Wickhill - OO9 Eaton Gomery Cambrian Railway 1908 East Lynn & Nunstanton - S East Rode - TT Engdorf [Engertalbahn] - O Foston Mills - O Gardiner Junction - N Gifford Street - O

Grathwaite - OO Guisborough in Preservation - OO Hospital Gates - O Iron Street, Board Mills - EM Kepier Colliery - OO Kingsfield - OO Langholm - N LNWR Steam Shed 1901 - OO Loch Oran - N Marsh Chipping - N Millwall Goods & Arnold Lane - O New Mills - OO Murrayville Yard - HO

North of England Line - N Oldham King Street Parcels - O Otterbridge - EM Pempoul - French Metre Gauge Poole-in-Wharfedale - OO Purbeck - OO9 Purgatory Peak - On30 Rea Bridge - OO9 Striven - EM Tetfield-under-Bolt - N Torcy [Sud] - HO Untermutten - HOm

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A different era Graham Muspratt

Drummond T14 sporting an early British Railways lettering and number in Southern 'sunshine' style Modelling Inspiration October 2011

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Post-war pre-nationalisation, why do I model it?

34011 "Tavistock" in the British Railways early experimental Apple Green livery

When one looks at the majority of steam era model layouts of the big four railway companies, or the subsequent British Railways regions, the majority tend to be set in either the 1930s or the 1950/60s - this also tends to be reflected by the choice of models and liveries from the major ready-to-run manufacturers. Leaving aside the arguments of the least modelled and supported of the big four or BR regions the period that seems to get overlooked in model form is the immediate post-war to nationalisation period of 1946 to 1948. The politics of the railways in this immediate post-war period were fascinating; the railway companies were just coming out of the heavy workloads and lack of investment caused by the war and many were in a pretty poor, almost dire in some cases, financial shape. The Southern Railway however was not in quite such a bad shape financially as some of the others. In reality the Government through the Railway Executive still actually had a strong element of control over all the railway companies that it obtained during the war and of course formal nationalisation was looming. Despite all the gloom services were starting to get back to pre-war levels and following a particularly harsh winter in 1947 the summer season appeared on the outside to be returning to normal.

The Southern Railway’s top link engines were now starting to appear back in the favoured lined malachite green livery rather than the austere wartime black scheme, although the use on the black of Bulleid’s yellow and green ‘Sunshine’ lettering helped to lift the livery slightly. However, many of the less glamorous classes were destined to remain in black livery for the rest of their service. By 1948 nationalisation had occurred and subtle changes to liveries were starting to take place. Interim renumbering appeared on some locos by simply putting an ‘S’ prefix in front of the Southern Railway number and there were instances of ‘British Railways’ appearing on the side of some locomotives in a variety of font styles, including the Southern ‘sunshine’ style or no ownership branding at all on the loco sides. Subsequently the new 3xxxx series numbers started to appear and sometimes these have been applied to locomotives that still retain their Southern branding. From the middle of 1948 a number of the top link locomotive classes and a small amount of rolling stock appeared in new experimental colours, such as lined apple green on Light Pacific 34011 ‘Tavistock which can be seen on Fisherton Sarum at the head of the Devon Belle. One of the railway engineers I revere is O.V.S. Bulleid. As the Chief Mechanical Engineer of the Southern Railway, he had an uncanny way of working around the previous wartime pressures and restrictions, and by 1946 he was really getting into his stride and an ever-increasing number of Light Pacific’s and coaching stock were being introduced. Experiments to improve the smoke clearance and cab visibility of his Pacific locomotives were in full swing and most versions can be seen amongst my rolling stock. Further engineering innovation (although others may call it something else) was to come with the unconventional Leader Class. There is also a family connection with the Southern Railway at that time as my grandfather was a ganger for the Southern Railway, based at Salisbury for most of this period, before he gained promotion to Sub Inspector Modelling Inspiration October 2011

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(permanent way) at Andover Junction during 1948. My father in his short trouser days used to spend many hours either stood by the railings at the London end of Platform 1 of Salisbury, watching the struggle to start the heavy London bound trains on the sharp curving and rising grade, or trying to sneak into the shed. With his Southern background my first engine given to me by Dad in my younger days was of course a Triang Hornby M7 (which in a re-wheeled, detailed and repainted form still appears on Fisherton Sarum, along with the classic smell of its original X04 motor!) Malachite Green livery appears on top link engines such as Merchant Navy 21C6 here

My grandfather, a ganger at Salibury until 1948, leans on his ballast fork

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Duchess 46236 “City of Bradford” on the main line passing Fisherton Sarum.

The Locomotive exchange trials The locomotive exchange trials took place from April through to September 1948 with Waterloo to Plymouth being one of the chosen routes and utilised during May and June 1948. I was keen to introduce some of the locos that ran on the Southern during the trials into the locomotive fleet on my Fisherton Sarum layout as it is based on Salisbury and as such was a stopping off point for the trials. To provide a little background; in the immediate aftermath of the formation of British Railways the newly formed Regions were generally allowed to continue the locomotive build programmes that had already been approved and put in place by the previous railway company up until the end of 1950. In the meantime it was decided to compare a number of engines from the previous big four in order to ‘supposedly’ consolidate designs and good practice for the future locomotive development of the new organisation after 1950. My own views on the success or otherwise of the trials may well form the topic of another post in the future. The exchanges were to trial locomotives in three categories: Express Passenger, General Purpose and Freight Locomotives. Locomotives and their crews from each region had a small number of runs on each route, the week before, to gain limited route knowledge (although generally recognised as not enough) prior to the main test runs for which dynamometer cars were attached.

Hornby have already produced a limited edition model of Bulleid West Country Class No. 34006 “Bude” with a Stanier tender and complete with the correct extra long smoke deflectors. The three Light Pacifics so fitted only did a couple of test runs on the Southern in this form which is a good enough reason to run “Bude”.

34004 'Yeovil' as back on the Southern reunited with her original style tender.

I have also matched a renumbered and named Hornby ex“Bude” and paired her with a standard 4500 gallon Bulleid tender as 34004 “Yeovil “as she ran on return from the trials.

34006 “Bude” with extended smoke deflectors and paired to a Stanier tender. Whilst this tender pairing was for when working off Southern metals, she did test runs out of Waterloo in this condition.

trial had the raves cut down at the rear to allow clearance for the water cranes at Euston Station. Once Hornby produced a version of their Duchess class in LMS lined black of the ‘Semi’ variant (i.e. a destreamlined version) I used this as the basis for “City of Bradford”. For this conversion I renamed and numbered Hornby “City of Manchester” and coupled it to a slightly modified Bachmann 2-8-0 WD tender. I have also created a model of the Rebuilt Royal Scot class locomotives No.46154 “The Hussar” that also took part in the Waterloo–Exeter trials utilising one of the recently introduced Hornby LMS lined black models suitably renamed and also fitted with a suitable WD style tender in the same way as above. Rebuilt Scot 46154 “The Hussar” fitted with WD style tender.

Ex-LNER A4 class No. 60033 “Seagull” took part in the exchanges on the Southern Region and was created by renumbering and naming a suitable Bachmann model which also involved the fitting of a replacement white metal double chimney from 247 Developments. I also modified the tender as those tenders fitted to the A4s on Modelling Inspiration October 2011

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Colour variation with oils

Some time ago, I read about water mixable oils on the ModelTrainsWeathered.com forum and have only just got round to giving them a go. I wish I’d tried them sooner! They’ve proved spectacularly useful for a number of subtle effects, which is good as subtle is by far the hardest thing to do convincingly.

of the image, at the apex of the barrel.

It’s not an entirely new technique, Mig Jimenez uses something similar for fading tanks in his FAQ book, but he uses lighter shades for this, with the precise colours dictated by the base colour of the tank. I also derived the colours to use on the wagons from the FAQ book, grey tanks respond best to blue and brown filters (which is a different technique again, and one I haven’t tried yet), so that’s the majority of what I’ve used in the examples below. I’ve used the following colours: Titanium White, Phthalo Green (blue shade), French Ultramarine, Permanent Alizarin Crimson, Cadmium Yellow Hue, Raw Umber and Ivory Black. All are from the Winsor and Newton ‘Artisan’ range of water mixable oil paints. They work just like conventional oils, but clean up with water. They dry faster than conventional oils, but still take a very long time compared to the acrylics and enamels normally used for weathering; the finish when

As part of the stock building for the next layout project, I’ve been working on some oil tanks that need to be quite subtle, as these Total tanks were kept in pretty good condition during the early 90s, with many of them being repainted in 1987/88. To this end, subtle variation in colour was going to be required to fool the eye into thinking that it’s seeing something larger than a model. I’m no scientist, but I’m going to try and explain some of the reasoning behind this now. Every surface you look at in the real world never appears as one straight colour, due to the various interactions between reflected light and surface imperfections. One of the problems with models is, because of their size, they don’t have this natural variation. In this first picture, there are sections of the tank barrel that look as if they’re pretty much one colour, if you ignore the faint rust streaking, at first glance, especially the areas either side

Pugsley

However, if you look at it at somewhere near 900% zoom, you see that it is, in fact, made up of lots of small patches of very similar colours. So, the best way to replicate it, that I could come up with, was to randomly dab on these oils and spread them around to provide the subtle variation in colour that I was after.

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dry also seems to be a lot more robust than gouache. Some of the colours cover better than others, for example the yellow is a very strong pigment, so can overpower the effect if used excessively. If I’ve managed to hold your attention so far, then before I run through how it’s done, the image below will hopefully demonstrate how effective the technique is. The treated area is that on the left-hand side, which is both slightly shinier, and bluer that that on the right. The area on the right is suffering from the normal model problem of looking like it is one colour, due to the smooth surface and lack of imperfections to change the refraction of the light. You can also see that the predominantly blue based variation has added a slightly cooler tone to the grey. The variation on the left is subtle, in fact you have to look quite closely to see it, but it does change the appearance of the model for the better. The first stage is to apply the colours as desired, randomly, over the area to be treated. I use cocktail sticks for this, but a brush can be used for larger patches if re-

quired, but lots of small patches are more desirable than larger ones. I’ve gone for a blue/green bias but other colours could be used as the dominant colour. Stage two involves scrubbing the paint patches around with a clean, dry, stiff-ish flat brush. I’ve predominantly gone from top to bottom, but side to side and around are equally valid motions. The third stage involves softening the effect, and removing most of what you’ve just put on. For this, use a softer, clean, flat brush which is moistened with the appropriate thinners. I’ve been using water with a drop of screenwash, which seems to work pretty well with these paints. Additional areas of colour can be added at this stage – in the images in the right-hand column I’ve added spots of colour and then dragged these down the barrel with the moist brush.

It’s a subtle effect, but I think it adds a lot to the model. The left hand end needs a little more to bring it up to the same as the right, this is what happens when you come back to something after a few days!

The final effect, in close-up is shown on the next page. If you want to see more examples, there is some more of my playing with these paints on my blog on the main site www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blog/8pugsleys-workbench/ Modelling Inspiration October 2011

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Model shop profile - Trains4U Trains4U is one of the largest Model Railway specialists in the east of England. Occupying an enormous 3600 square foot showroom, we offer thousands of products from over 50 manufacturers.

opposite became available, so in Summer 2008 we decided to take the plunge and move in. This allowed us scope to expand our ranges even further and display them in a way that was even more accessible and welcoming for our customers. The move allowed us to diversify further into plastic kits, much larger ranges of slot cars and scenics and provide previously unavailable services and facilities for our customers. All of our railway rolling stock and our slot cars are displayed in large glass cases for easy browsing.

Unfortunately we do not have the quantities of rolling stock that would have been seen at shows in the past, but we are adding new trains all the time, and you are welcome to test your new purchases on the line, again, subject to staff availability.

All of our products are on the ground floor with easy access for disabled customers or customers with mobility problems.

Trains4U is planning to hold running sessions for visitors to run their own stock and operate the layout – please keep checking the website for details of dates and spaces. (There will be a modest charge to cover staffing and associated costs). The layout is not DCC, though decoder fitted locomotives will run on the layout.

Trains4U’s upper floor now forms the home of former exhibition layout Runswick Leamside.

Trains4U was formed in July 2004 in response to the closure of the last Model Railway shop in Peterborough the previous year. Owned by Father and Son Steve and Gareth Helliwell, the business opened with a small stock of Hornby, Bachmann, Peco, Gaugemaster and Fleischmann products in a 900 sq ft unit in Peterborough's St' David's Square trading estate. Demand for products and services was unprecedented and we quickly diversified into N gauge, DCC and slot cars, whilst expanding our range of suppliers to provide more models, scenic materials, tools and paints. Our initial website solution soon became difficult to manage so we suspended our online service whilst our walk-in business rapidly grew and we soon filled our showroom to bursting point.

The layout can still be viewed in its full operational glory at our annual open day in September, when the Macclesfield and District Railway modellers have agreed to fully stock and operate the layout to exhibition standard.

28-29 St. David's Square, Fengate, Peterborough, PE1 5QA

01733 895989 Open Tues-Sat, 9-5 Macclesfield and District ownership of the layout and for the layout to be housed used and operated, rather a disassembled state.

Railway Modellers retain they have generously agreed at Trains4U where it can be than stored out of use, in

32-925Z Class 150/1 Original Provincial Livery EXCLUSIVE TO Trains4U

£95.00

At present, the layout resides on our first floor mezzanine, and whilst this is not a public area of the showroom, it can be viewed on request (provided there is staff coverage to do so).

Fortunately at this time the 4000 sq ft unit directly

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Jim Smith-Wright

Modelling Class 50s in 4mm Let’s start with a quick history lesson.

In the beginning there was this! A brass and whitemetal body kit marketed by Jidenco and Brass Cast. I wonder if any actually got built? The first ready-to-run product was the Lima 50 which to be fair wasn't all that bad. Its biggest problem was its use of HO bogies but by changing them for something 4mm scale plus a fair bit of body work you could get something quite acceptable. Now we have the Hornby Class 50 – all wheel drive, centre motor, opening cab doors etc so really this is the one to currently go for. It doesn't come without a to do list though, it goes something like this:

• body-side grills, yes they open but they look dire because of it • the wheels are too small • the gap between the bogie and the body is too big • the all wheel drive is too rigid and in P4 it’s a bit of a problem • the top of the nose is the wrong shape as are the cab windows • the roof fan is crude and too small • the exhaust posts are the wrong size and in the wrong place.

into the bottom of the chassis block. You will need to file it off to reduce the ride height of the model. I was changing the wheels anyway and in P4 there are 3 options – Ultrascale, Alan Gibson and Branchlines. The latter two require you to re-use the Hornby gears and I use the Branchlines ones as standard although I have used the Gibson wheels on a couple of the fleet. In 00 gauge it might be worth seeing if someone has thrown out the Hornby class 31 wheelsets as the other wheels are the right size. However with the right sized wheels, deep flanges of the RTR 00 stuff and the lowered bogies there might be a chance the wheels will touch the chassis and cause a short. I haven't tried this so I don't know but

What to do? The body-side grilles have to go. Someone was selling resin replacements at one point but you may wish to cannibalise an old Lima shell to obtain these. As the grilles are usually pretty dirty it doesn't really matter if the colour match for the new grilles isn’t spot on to the Hornby body as you won’t tell under the weathering. The Bogies If you remove the bogies you will find a small pad cast Modelling Inspiration October 2011

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You might find that its performance in the finer scales is a bit poor. It’s because the axles are all held very rigidly in place meaning the bogies sometimes rock on the middle one. One crude but effective fix is to solder the centre bearing in place and then open it into a slot using a cutting disk in a minidrill. It does work!

Shawplan do an etch for the windscreens and the top of the nose ideally needs building up a bit. I couldn't actually decide if the top is too low or the edges too high and I am still undecided. However I decided to leave the nose as it comes and adapt the windscreens. Hornby have painted the black down to the top of the nose while looking at the real thing the yellow actually comes up to the bottom of the windscreen frames. Painting this little bit of yellow does go a long way to improving the model’s face

The face

The Roof

the original fan is. The nearest model also shows the Extreme Etches parts to correct the roof but in the end I decided to just use the fan and ring on the rest of the fleet. So there you have it! Simple steps on how to get your Hornby class 50 looking more like an English Electric class 50.

Follow Jim’s latest work @ www.p4newstreet.com

The above picture shows the original fan furthest away, the old Shawplan fan in the centre and the new Extreme Etches fan at the front. You can see just how ‘too small’ Modelling Inspiration October 2011

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Story behind the picture - Eastfield depot by Sandhills

In these times of upwardly spiralling costs within our hobby, finding first hand RTR models under £70 can be difficult, so when the opportunity to purchase not one but two Heljan Class 26s for around that price came along I couldn’t resist! Having detailed and weathered each example to the best of my ability it wasn’t long, as with nearly every loco I buy, that I decided a fitting diorama would be useful to present my growing fleet of Scottish traction. This thought was later to spawn probably the most successful photo diorama board I’ve produced to date, not for accurate representation or even precise execution of scratch building but simply because, when finished and through the lens it oozed atmosphere and evoked many memories for me of teenage days on ‘Freedom Of Scotland Rovers’ chasing elusive 37s and visiting their iconic home in a grotty suburb of Glasgow. My representation of Eastfield was basic; a 3ft by 2ft baseboard with two out of the four sides covered using a fascia of the main depot building made from balsa and plasticard. The inclusion of four of the well photographed yellow & black shutter doors set a perfect scene to photograph individual locos against. I’m not one for maths or pondering over measurements or proportional calculations, just a decent set of prototype images and a OO gauge 47 was all I needed to work out how tall, how long and how thick everything should be. Deciding on a level of weathering was easy; let’s face it, Eastfield was a grotty black hole even when the sun came out. Several coats of weathered black and sleeper grime spray paint over the freshly laid ballast were enough to portray years of contamination by diesel locomotives. Modelling clay pushed into the sleepers was painted with a thick coat of glossy black enamel and this helped to create those puddles of oily saturated ground that when visiting depots you would always try to avoid stepping in but never quite manage to dodge ! It’s hard to pick out a favourite image from this project. Many of the individual loco images turned out well and many had an air of realism about them, but for me, this collection of nose ends taken from the ballast on a dull, damp November morning puts me right back amongst the sounds and smells of thisInspiration once iconic depot. Previous page Next page Return to index Modelling October 2011 Page 27

in the UK were, and at the time of writing early 07, still are tipped firmly in the direction of diesel powered locomotives rather than steam. Because I have a wide range of interests, steam sound was important to me as my layout is operated in one of its phases in the BR steam or transition era, therefore I chose steam as the introduction to DCC sound.

DCC Sound Bachmann Pannier

Paul Marshall-Potter This article was originally written for the Railway Modeller magazine to look at how easy it was to fit a DCC sound system to a small locomotive and in 2007, was one of the first such installations of its type. I’ve been following the DCC debate for a while on-line, in face to face discussions, and of course in the printed media. From many of the discussion points I could see that DCC did not have significant amounts to offer me, and I certainly wasn’t bothered if I should fall behind, or if I’d be accused of being a Luddite, as being espoused by some of the more evangelical style preaching which I’d read or heard from DCC enthusiasts. Having always had an interest in broadcasting and live music, when I started to read in American magazines of ‘sound’ being available, my interest was significantly raised. I guess in our modeler’s book of dreams we’d want steam, sound and weather too. Well here was the possibility of getting at least one of those, all I needed was living proof that it worked and wasn’t gimmicky. The last thing I wanted to do was spend money on something that didn’t match up to my expectations. I was very fortunate that living close to Lincoln there was a local dealer, Digitrains, who specialized in DCC and had significant experience of it, a working layout to see, and for me, critically, in this leap of faith, to hear.

A visit to them left me in no doubt that sound was worth investigating further. To do this, one step that I had to consider, was going DCC and with what. I wanted a simple to use and set up system with high specification at reasonable cost. Primarily to fit and function test chips once they were installed. My brother coming over from Kansas on a business trip brought an NCE Power Cab DCC controller, as a surprise gift. So I now had my ‘control’, but nothing to run with it! The last thing I wanted to do was convert my layout over to DCC and not be able to run the majority of my locomotives, due to the cost of putting chips in them. Whilst watching a demonstration of programming chips at the shop I was taken by a rolling road they used, and I realized that this would be very useful, for testing and running in locomotives, but would also allow me to play with DCC before committing one way or another to it. The Bachmann 97xx is an cracking example of current ready to run products, for most modellers the locomotive is excellent straight from the box, and I have to admit until recently, for me, that was the case too. Like many of us I’d do a little more to it to customize it, and then it’d join my stock on the layout whirring backwards and forwards as it went around its allotted shunting and branch passenger or local freight services, a real local hero. I’d seen in much of the DCC debate the scales here Modelling Inspiration October 2011

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Having looked at DCC sound diesels it was clear that there are usually relatively easy ways of locating a speaker in the locomotive inside them without too much hassle, likewise with a tender loco the task is also relatively easy in terms of finding space. My specific interest was to get sound into a 97/57xx pannier, as I have a couple of them for a latent idea to do a Forest of Dean layout, having been inspired on many an occasion by the photographs of Ben Ashworth in particular. A little bit of research uncovered South West Digital (SWD), whose range included a 2-cylinder GWR steam sound chip, recorded on the West Somerset Railway from a Manor (SWD reference number 520GWR) so I had a chat with them to determine which chip and speaker combination would be the most appropriate for me to try. The chip which we determined to be the best to try was the ESU LokSound Micro, which was duly ordered and arrived very promptly. The loco selected is the ‘DCC ready’ version of the Bachmann pannier. This is subtly different inside to the regular model in that the boiler weight has been reduced in size to allow the easy installation of a DCC chip. The body is easily removed for access to the chassis, first take the couplings off and unscrew the body from the chassis at either end. On the top of the chassis you will see the DCC blanking plate for analogue operation, this needs to be removed, keep it safe if you need to convert it back at some time in the future. The chip comes with a comprehensive instruction leaflet, including the fitting instructions. This is a very simple installation as the loco does not have lights, externally or internally, and will be hard wired into the loco. This simply means I’ll attach it directly to the motor pickups Previous page

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and the motor terminals rather than via a multi pin DCC connector to the DCC board on the chassis. To access the loco pickups there are two screws underneath the loco - unscrew these and the keeper plate drops away which has the pickups attached to it. There is a simple rhyming verse which will help here, in attaching the wires from the chip. ‘Red and Black to the track, orange and

grey the other way’.

If they have electrical contact with the chassis or wheels then you will have big problems and potentially need to replace the chip, which in this instance costs more than the locomotive! There is a yellow capacitor which needs to be removed, this is easily done with a pair of sidecutters. You will now have your loco DCC sound chipped! At this point place it on your programming track and check the functions work. With a rolling road as I have used you can check the ‘moving’ sounds, like chuff rate for this loco or diesel throttle acceleration and deceleration, but I’d suggest leaving getting into that until a little later. Probably one of the next thoughts going through your mind is, ‘this’ll never fit in that’. Well it does, and we will now turn our attention to the body modifications required, which are very few.

So attach the red and black wires to the pickup strip, red to the right hand side and black to the left hand side. A very quick touch of a soldering iron is all it needs with one wire connected either side of the pickup strip as above. The orange and grey need attaching to the pick up terminal on the motor frame. Not a problem on this loco, but you must always make sure that the orange and grey wires only touch the motor connections.

allow the speaker to fit, I cut this out by scoring around the edge with a Stanley knife, and cutting slits with a razor saw until it would break free, the rough edges being dressed with a file. The bunker will still fit on the loco as an interference fit, but as we have removed the mounting holes, when we refit it, it will need to be fixed with PVA glue or similar which will hold it in place but allow removal if need be. At this point test fit the body. The chip will lie on top of the chassis in front of the motor. As you fit the body be careful to thread the speaker wires around the motor so they enter the cab at the bottom of the backhead by the floor. There is sufficient space to do this, even if a little bit fiddly.

The loco is available as a low and high cab variant, the type illustrated is one of the late high cab variants but the process is the same for either. We will be fitting the speaker into the locomotives coal bunker, it can be fitted into the cab, but unfortunately is visible from many normal viewpoints. By undoing the two retaining screw underneath the bunker the back of the bunker and the weight simply lifts out. To make this installation as simple as possible, we won’t get into swapping speakers, I’ll just use the chip as it comes. The weight will have to be discarded which means losing 25g of weight. My loco still pulled six Bachmann Bullied coaches afterwards with no ‘ill effects’, so don’t worry unduly about losing weight. The bunker has a floor which needs to be removed to Modelling Inspiration October 2011

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Now you can press fit the bunker and get a good idea how the speaker fits and indeed run it to see what it sounds like. At this stage the sound will be quite a full sound as in reality the speaker in not enclosed. I wanted to get a better appearance so I made a replacement bunker front out of scraps of plasticard, and left the coal door open for the wires for the speaker.

See the photo (left) showing the white bunker front and green bunker, a picture after all speaks a thousand words!

did so, using different size drills, increasing them gradually in size and eventually stopping at around 7mm diameter on each side. This prevents the hole appearing in the cab floor, and retains the original chassis mounting point too. At this point the sound had changed again to a nice ‘full’ sounding noise, with no significant bias to tone or pitch. The sound installation was now complete, a very quick and simple fit for my first DCC sound loco. I was very fortunate in that the ‘chuff’ synchronization was spot on for the loco, the loksound instructions provided with the chip give details on how to synchronize the wheel/chuff rate if you need to.

Once I had done this and fitted it, again made as an interference fit the sound changed completely, being less in volume and a considerable amount of the bass sound had gone. Clearly the sound had to escape, and I had to think of a way to do this effectively whilst keeping the speaker hidden. The first thing I did was to drill hole in the coal load in a random pepper pot type of style of 1.5 to 2mm drill size. This had an improvement releasing more bass tone to the noise, and it dawned on me that the original mounting holes for the bunker were not required and these could be opened out too. I did this in stages listening for the change in tone and volume as I

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I was very pleased with the relative simplicity of this installation, whilst not ‘plug and play’ it’s pretty close and anyone who takes a bit of care with a soldering iron will be able to manage this installation in a couple of hours at most. At this point it is just the final touches to complete. The loco and body can be reassembled and the bunker front attached with a dab of PVA as can the bunker. The speaker will be held in place by these two, and the PVA or similar can be broken easily if access is needed to the speaker or to remove the body from the chassis. The only thing that now ‘jars’ is the pepper pot coal in the bunker. It doesn’t take much effort to place coal around the holes making sure they are not blocked and the loco is ready is ready for traffic!

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So now it was installed what is it actually like? Well the running has no noticeable improvement in terms of controllability from my existing DC system, a 20 year old Hammant and Morgan walkabout. The inertia works well, certainly with my NCE Power Cab and is easy to configure, and adjust settings. The sound is, in the main, very pleasing. The volume even at maximum power is not particularly loud, I don’t have a problem with that, it’s sort of scale sound if that makes sense! The recordings are very clear and there’s no noticeable distortion of them in this particular configuration. Having heard it myself I wanted others’ opinions of it, and to this end took it to a couple of shops and also to a few friends houses for them to hear it too. The reception of it has been very positive, particularly as sound in general has previously only been fitted in larger 4mm locos. Those in the trade and at the small meeting I took it too, had not seen sound in a loco this small. Those that had seen sound in BR Class 08’s commented that it was nice to see that the speaker was hidden. I got the most reaction from my daughters, who were really taken with it, one of whom has insisted on showing Dad’s toy train to her friends. Again her friends too thought it was ‘really cool’, which I’m led to believe, translates to, its good! This is my first step into DCC, but on my layout apart from the sound, the DCC has no advantage over traditional DC control. This is because my layout is designed for one engine in steam operation, so all tracks are live anyway, and the quality of control that’s available from the walkabout, some 20 years on, is still remarkable. I can see significant advantages with DCC if you have a layout with double heading, a large MPD, or simultaneous movements. Where the ability to move a loco independently is important or combined then DCC will be a useful tool indeed. It’s certainly been an interesting conversion and experience. The biggest disadvantage at the moment is the cost, which in time may come down if the market increases. This installation with just the locomotive and the sound chip had a cost in early 2007 in the order of £140.00.

On the following comments I’m bearing in mind that the recordings are from a Manor, and therefore not a true recording of a small pannier. Within the sound files there are three whistle sounds, a single toot, and two longer whistles. Both of the longer recordings are similar, I’d have preferred to have a longer single tone whistle, and perhaps a double toot. The hisses and gurgles of safety valves and cylinder drain cocks are well captured, as is brake squeal. The brake squeal is only available within the deceleration phase and again it would be nice to have that as a separate sound file to select. I don’t know how much of the capacity of the sound files within the decoder are used, but it’d be nice to see a wider variety of sounds. If the decoder is full, of those sounds currently included, I’d be happy to lose the shovelling sound or coupling ‘clank’ in exchange for a different whistle or separate brake or flange squeal sound.

Howes Sound Decoders For all major UK classes of diesel and electrics with an extensive steam catalogue from £117.50 Remember, we can 're-blow' your existing ESU LOKSOUND decoders with our own sound recordings, (as listed below), if you are un-happy with the sound provided on them; cost is £12.95 per decoder plus £5.50 return insured carriage. This service is also available for models which are supplied with 'on-board' sound. Click the video below to see and hear a Howes Sound Bachmann Class 70 in action.

Having said that, the quality of the recordings and the decoder make this a very effective installation, and certainly something different. I wouldn’t change to DCC on the basis of this exercise, I’m fortunate in that my layout as configured works as both DCC and DC by changing the controller over. It has caught my imagination though and I have another steam loco at the moment on the ‘sound’ work bench. I like to weather my models, and this would be no exception. I had already got an idea from a good number of references as to how this loco should look, in particular ‘Steam in Dean’ from the Lightmoor Press, ISBN 0 899889 06, a stunning collection of photos from Ben Ashworth, with plenty of atmosphere of that area and era. All that was needed to complete the loco was for me to choose a replacement number, 3737, which was a loco that worked in the Forest of Dean area. Long since departed, but with sound, something of its soul had returned.

Click here to see the full range of sound decoders

Follow Paul’s latest work @ albionyard.wordpress.com Modelling Inspiration October 2011

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RMweb people - Ian Morton Ian (or to give him his forum alias, ian) has been around RMweb since our early days both as a problem solver, general wit and originator of several recent layouts including Hatton Parkway and Shake the Box which have been documented in Hornby Magazine. Knowing that Ian was setting out on a new enterprise I went over to his rural workshop north of Shrewsbury to find out a bit more about the new layout building services as it promised to be somewhat different from retail propositions and have a chat over a cup of tea. Andy: Given that the news is full of ongoing economic doom and gloom it seems a strange time to become a professional model railway builder. Ian: Earlier this year I was made redundant and there are a lot of people chasing what few vacancies there are. It was either sign on or go pro. Andy: Is there a lot of demand for layout building, after all it’s a significant spend which people seem averse to at the moment? Ian: That is a common misconception. You don’t have to be a millionaire to have a layout built for you. In fact it is far more common to have part of the layout built, for example the baseboards built with the track laid and wired. The client then does the ‘fun stuff’ with the scenery themselves. Andy: How does that approach benefit the modeller? Ian: It depends on the individual. People who live in apartments often don’t have the facilities to build baseboards. Some people can’t manage the heavy work, others don’t have the time, skill, tools or inclination to do what they regard as the ‘boring’ bits. If you have ever struggled with wiring that you don’t understand, baseboards that you can’t get square or ballasting that you just don’t want to do then you will understand the

appeal of someone else doing the work for you. Andy: Do customers go for having a complete layout built, surely that’s part of the fun? Ian: They can do, but most want to put their own individual stamp on the visible section. I do the bits that don’t really get noticed but need to be right. Andy: I can see several projects underway at the moment in here, what are you working on and what sort of customers are they? Ian: There are three layouts under construction at the moment. The first is an ‘N’ gauge layout that is designed for fun. It has a double track main line and goods yard on the Modelling Inspiration October 2011

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bottom level with a branch to a high level terminus. The high level also has a town with a Faller CarSystem layout built in. The railway is DCC controlled, including the points and uncouplers while the car system is controlled from an ordinary control panel. Whilst the client will provide the buildings I have installed lighting circuits ready for them along with street and platform lighting. The second which has just had the baseboards completed is an ‘HO’ scale Faller CarSystem layout for an academic institution. They wanted a townscape with moving vehicles that could be used to test and demonstrate systems that monitor road traffic. Unusually the baseboards are on a metal frame, rather than the usual wooden legs, to make it more robust. It measures about 10’ by 4’ at the moment but there are plans to expand it by adding more facilities and a railway in the future. Previous page

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The third is a small OO9 layout for a customer who is recovering from cancer. He is an accomplished modeller but is currently restricted as to what he can manage. My job is to provide him with a small working layout that he can then add scenery to. Andy: You seem to be doing a lot with the Faller CarSystem but it’s not that common on layouts. Ian: To most people it seems expensive, especially for something that isn’t actually part of the railway but it can add an extra dimension to a layout if it is properly planned and modelled. It certainly gets people’s attention as the vehicles seem to move around by magic. Andy: The Faller CarSystem is quite fascinating but I’ve heard there’s an art to laying the guidance system. Ian: Well, I happen to have this video demonstrating laying the Faller CarSystem guide wire for people DIY-ing.

large layout so that the owner could install the necessary feeds, breaks and buses with confidence. Andy: I notice that you have a stock of materials useful to people building their own layouts too. Ian: Yes, they are things that I tend to use and it made sense to keep a stock on hand rather than hold a job up waiting for bits to arrive and to make them available for other people to buy as well. Currently I have stocks of Lenz and TCS DCC decoders, various electrical bits like wire, switches and those hard-to-find coloured covers for small toggle switches, scenic materials, a few tools and some baseboard bits like cabinet maker’s dowels and toggle catches. fully-Andy: Are there any aspirations toward becoming a fully fledged model shop? Ian: No. I see my niche in making layouts. Model railway retail is a different matter. The various things that I do sell are listed on my web site and online selling sites. Andy: It’s a lovely location out here to work but can potential customers visit the workshop?

Andy: Do the customers give you a clear brief as to what they want? Ian: I don’t want to build something that the customer isn’t happy with so there will be a lot of discussion, guidance and advice before the first piece of wood is cut. That is all part of the service. Andy: What other services do you offer people apart from the layout building? I will act as a consultant on DCC and electrical matters. Recently I provided details of how to install DCC on a

Ian: Of course and the kettle is usually on, but I do ask that they email or telephone first. As I work on my own I can’t guarantee to be here if you just drop in. I could be at the post office, timber yard or in the en-suite! Oh, and despite not wanting to become a retailer I do have a selection of secondhand items that aren’t on the website that visitors can rummage through.

Useful links

RMweb MI special offer 5% off all goods (exc postage) during October. Use code RMW10 on website link

Ian’s website Ian’s eBay Shop Ian’s RMweb Marketplace store

Unit 8bc, Rodenhurst Business Park, Rodington, Shrewsbury, Shropshire, SY4 4QU. 0775 499 4095

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Kylesku and The Mound Kylesku is the terminus of a Scottish layout set around the latter days of steam but with a slightly different timeline than the real thing. As can be guessed from its title, it is based on Kyle of Lochalsh but modified to suit my needs. For example, the station building is loosely modelled on the one at Brora, and is some of the Townstreet stone castings which made for an easy method of construction. The original Kyle building is too large for my available space, and a mock-up of a reduced version just didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t look right. This was the trigger to go Highland Railway freelance and do a what-if but making the buildings come from the relevant area - I think it does convey a Highland atmosphere.

Ben Alder

Some of the far side sidings were brought to the viewing side to make shunting easier and the station approach has elements of the original but operations took priority over copying the real thing. As prototype operations were fairly limited I have cast my sights wider and the day to day activities include aspects of traffic at Oban and Fort William, including sleepers and Post Office van trains, and a branch service on the style of the Ballachullish line uses the bay platform. Running is adhoc, a timetable is one of the future projects, but a broad sequence is usually followed. Black 5s and Class 26s are the normal motive power but a liberal approach to visiting strangers is taken. Modelling Inspiration October 2011

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Track work is C&L OO, with Peco Code 75 pointwork with all the plastic gubbins around the tiebars removed. This tidies up the appearance of the point no end, and is an acceptable combination to my mind, as making pointwork has been a bit of a hit and miss affair as far as I have managed so far. As most of the pointwork consists of curved turnouts I felt that reliability came ahead of creativity here.

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The typical Highland style wooden goods shed that graced so many stations on the line is planted on one of the sidings in the station approaches, and was built with Midwestern wood sheets of board and batten, and finished with wood stain, which does give a realistic finish. Although Kyle did not have one here- there was a small one at the far side of the platforms, and hardly ever photographed- I felt that this structure needed to be included to give that Highland feel. Until quite recently there were several of these still standing in various degrees of disrepair, but their numbers are few now.

The coal shelter, as obligingly modelled by Ratio, might seem out of place in a station such as this, and I suppose it is to an extent, but there were several of these buildings throughout Scotland, with one of them being at Nairn, which I passed by many times in the seventies during my student days, and it always fascinated me with its run down appearance and general collection of debris around it. There is still work to be done in this vein here. The cattle dock, roughly in the prototypical location, can also be seen here- another source of traffic.

Then one of the skipper- Para Handy himself- A Preiser HO figure, but it doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t look too small.

The largest vessel in the harbour is a Langley model of the West Highland â&#x20AC;&#x153;Pufferâ&#x20AC;? immortalised in the BBC Para Handy series, which drew on the novels by Neil Munro of life in the coasting trade around the turn of the twentieth century. These flat bottomed boats were the mainstay of island life for many years, often beaching themselves in order to unload at places with no harbours. It is a resin kit and can be bought as a full hull or waterline model, and needs very little work done beyond painting.

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The other fishing vessels are by Anchor Models of Skye, and are currently unavailable, but represent Scottish boats of the period. Again, resin and lost wax construction make for a robust model - I’m forever catching the masts with my sleeve and to date, no real damage has happened. First on view is the “Rival” a motor Fifie, based on the earlier sailing type and was a common sight for a long time all round the Scottish

hoovering of the seas. These earlier types are far more attractive to the eye, although working on them was another matter. The last model is a half decked sailing Fifie and dates originally from the 1860s, although they were built for years after that. Original power was a mixture of sail and oars and latterly many were motorised, but I have this one as a sail boat- a bit out of time, but it looks in keeping with its harbour companions.

The shed is accessed from the running line as per KoL and runs to a turntable where the roads radiate backwards to the shed, as the prototype, but an extra two were added to serve a Stranraer type coaling stage, as fitted by the LMS at Wick, so I felt justified in having one at my Highland shed. Let’s take a trip round the shed and see what is about. Firstly, two shots taken from the hill opposite the approach to the yard. The turntable can be seen, hewn from the solid rock, and can be a tight fitsome of my visitors find turning difficult.

Kylesku Shed coasts. The other, larger, vessel is a model of a ringnetter, a type designed for longer, further voyages than the Fifies, and many of these bigger boats followed the herring shoals around the coasts of Britain. Built c1950 onwards they lasted till the inshore fish ran out and the new generation of much larger boats began their

Like other parts of this terminus, the shed area is based roughly on that at Kyle of Lochalsh, and is recognisable as such, but a bit extra has been added to incorporate available models and to give some extra storage capacity for the level of service I tend to operate. Firstly, a general view showing the layout.

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Two of the usual inhabitants are around- these Black Fives are the mainstay of the services, although other types do turn up. These are Hornby models, and had various tweaking to improve both looks and running, but have been a blessing to LMS modellers everywhere.

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This whole shed site was done as an afterthought when I shifted the layout, firstly because I thought I had no room to fit an engine shed (the previous set-up had a straight through arrangement, and wouldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t fit at all), and I was contemplating a squashed model of Dornoch to go roughly where the shed is, but when I clicked that using a Kyle kickback layout for the track, and found a small diameter turn table, the whole thing fell into place, and I am pleased with how it worked out. It certainly has more operational and photographic potential than a branch terminus, and made Kylesku far more of an entity than it was before.

The Mound Station

There are some crews about the shed, putting the world to rights, or perhaps discussing the state of their enginessome more varied motive power can be seen in some pictures. A Caley 0-4-4T is usually the station pilot, and is visible, as is an Ivatt light 2-6-0, which is used on the Dornoch branch and is serviced here. Geography is slightly different in this parallel world, by the way, as explaining this away in real terms is beyond me! Another tank engine used on the branch is also on shed, a GW 16xx, and can also be seen sharing shunting duties at Kylesku when around.

The Mound is a station on the old Highland Railway Far North line to Wick and Thurso, and was the junction for the Dornoch Branch until it closed in 1960, and the last two Highland Railway engines worked their days out here- small 0-4-4-Ts. The actual station is in the middle of nowhere but fortunately a lot of it remains, the station building being a private home, and the waiting room and a tin shed still stand, while the platforms are kept clear of vegetation, giving an impression of Brigadoon type waiting to spring into life again one day.

An old coach is used as a mess shed and dormitory for overnight turns, and an off-duty footplateman can just be spotted behind the coach.

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The real Mound Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll start by showing some I took in 1990 on a site visit, showing the station as it was then, and still is today. This view looks north, with the main line to the left and the branch curving to the right.

And looking south, with the ramp from the main platform running down from the right.

Now, two shots of the unique station building. A beautiful location, but no habitation for miles around- it was a junction station only, with minimal traffic.

It is set in beautiful surroundings, with Loch Fleet on one side and mature trees providing a backdrop on the other. It could have been designed with modellers in mind- fairly compact and on a curve with a road bridge at one end and disappearing into trees at the other. It had only one platform handling main and branch traffic with a main loop that was to allow freight only to pass. For many years a restaurant car was attached and removed here and in the 1900s a Pullman service was briefly provided for Dornochâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;scope for modellers licence here, I think. Latterly main line steam was the usual Black Fives but the branch had its share of visitors- a BR 78XXX, Caley 0-44T and of course the GW 16XXpanniers that ended their days far from home. The branch line also ran mixed trains, with goods vehicles attached to passenger trains, which adds to operational interest. All in all, a very good station to model. It is unusual for the Highland in that the station building is built of brick, and does not really tie in with any of the generic styles of the rest of the line, which was built in fits and starts by several local companies, but always operated by the HR. The model is compact, but it is a fairly faithful representation of the prototype, and although the loop sidings and signal cabin have been moved to fit in the available space, the buildings and signals are copies of the original. My timescale is around the end of the branch era-c1960- but in this world steam didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t contract and die. I have modelled it in 4mm oo, with the track being C&L and pointwork Peco Code 75 with all the plastic protrusions around the switch blade removed, which tidies up the look of them no end. Onto the model - a Black Five entering the station with a passenger train from the north.

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And looking the other way, showing the signal cabin and the exchange sidings for the Dornoch branch.

The GW 16xx pannier brings its single coach train in. There is an inspection saloon resting in the siding where the restaurant car is usually stabled between trains and the branch service has just arrived, so a connecting train must be due in soon. This station is not the most heavily worked by any means, but there is plenty operational scope for shunting and it is something different from the average Highland one, and its compactness means that hopefully its character can be captured in a small areasomething often difficult with other places. Many HR stations sprawled over quite large areas, land being plentiful and relatively cheap, and many were built with over-optimistic ideas of their traffic potential. Previous page

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Prototype inspiration - Highley Station

Highley Station is situated on the Severn Valley Railway roughly halfway between Bridgnorth and Bewdley. Pleasant Shropshire countryside is not an area immediately associated with mining and quarrying but that is the reason for the development of the village

which sits some half a mile from the railway and some 300 feet higher up above the valley. The railway came in 1862 and the Highley Mining Company in 1874 opened a new mine in the area shown at the top of the map on the opposite bank of the River Severn. This has since become the Severn Valley Country Park after the mine's closure in 1969. Traffic from the colliery and agricultural freight became the main reason for the existence of the railway. The need for passenger services was limited with normally four services in each direction daily. Closer to Highley Station is the site of Stanley Quarry which was rail-served from Highley's yard. The connecting spur still exists crossing over Station Road, the lane which leads down from the village. The site of Stanley Quarry now forms the facility for storage and display of out of traffic stock in 'The Engine House' which opened in 2007. Passenger traffic ceased in 1962, freight in 1969. The recently formed Severn Valley Railway Company then acquired ownership and prepared the line south of Hampton Loade with services resuming in 1974. The station is still very much as it has always been with the exception of the removal of a lattice work footbridge from the south end of the station in 1973 which was recognised as a costly renovation and ongoing cost that could be managed without. Highley lacks the bustle normally found at Bridgnorth, Bewdley and Kidderminster. The station always seems quieter than the normal passing loop stations of Hampton Loade and Arley but in my opinion is all the better for it.

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Time your visit in when timetables C or D are in operation and the reward is still a quiet station with trains in alternating directions every 20 minutes or so. Gala events bring more visitors but with the possibility of seeing services turned around at Highley and frequently the scene of freight operations also. There is very limited parking at the station, the alternative is to walk from the country park about 400m up the hill from the station where there is normally ample parking. Access to the platform via the yard is over the barrow crossing so due caution is advised. Once a train has arrived you will find you are unable to access the barrow crossing due to the fact that Highley Station platform at four coach lengths is shorter than the regular trains. A track plan of the station is shown below as it is was before the replacement footbridge was installed in 2009 but far from being to scale it purely shows the general arrangement of lines and how this could then be adapted to modelling practicalities. The platform length is roughly equivalent to four Mark1 coach lengths. To the left of the plan is the line north to Hampton Loade and Bridgnorth, to the right the line south to Arley and Kidderminster. The line to Stanley Quarry is shown crossing Station Road to the right. Selective compression of the sidings should mean that the plan is achievable in around 8' in 4mm scale. Shortening the loops further but retaining the station length is possible obviously but substantial reduction would lose the flavour of this pleasant spot.

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The Severn Valley Railway can be relied upon to give the stations the right atmosphere with a wealth of paraphernalia including this finger board train indicator. A selection of boards lie vertically in the storage housing to the right of the picture with the appropriate board being pulled up into a horizontal position to indicate the stops for the next train. If you are wondering why the signal box looks so familiar it was also the basis of Ratio's GWR box and gives a good idea of the various shades to replicate in the lower level brickwork. The signal box was also produced in the Bachmann Scenecraft range for the SVR. A wider view of the box below shows the loading gauge on the siding to the rear of the box.

A closer view of the stone built station is shown below with the majority of windows having an arched stone lintel above. The doorways are set quite deeply into the walls. The waiting room block below is a little more ornate on the platform frontage with its canopy and brackets. The brick built gable end and chimneys show that some architectural continuity was respected despite economies of materials in other areas. A small timber office is adjoined to the gable end. To the north of the waiting room building an ex-GWR horse box is pressed into use for storage. The lurid tarpaulin may not be to many tastes though.

A Western Region TPO formed the visitor centre for Highley Station before the building of the Engine House. A small crane on a brick built platform is used as a goods stage for the removal of goods from the wagons to adjacent storage or vehicles proving it is not essential to have a goods shed in a small station yard. Modelling Inspiration October 2011

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telegraph poles due to the subsidence mentioned above. The small cattle dock seems to be in an awkward place but at least it was distant from the passengers.

To the south of the main station building an access gate to the properties lower down towards the river separates two small lamp huts from the unusual platform ending.

chance of freezing and subsequent damage. The home signal shown has quite a pronounced lean when viewed from the platform as have many of the signals and

Looking south towards Arley is the seemingly lightweight girder bridge over the lane. It canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t be that insubstantial however with the capacity to support weighty Pacifics throughout the railwayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 40+ years of preservation existence. There is quite a pronounced hump to the bridge as the hillside banks of the Severn on this stretch of line are prone to slippage which has resulted in some severe speed restrictions over the years. A roadside view of the bridge is shown at the head of next column. The water tower at the south of the station sees limited use but there is still a brazier at the base to reduce the

The uneven nature of the track due to subsidence can be seen above, also that the site is far from level with the right hand loop being some 12" higher most of the time than the platform road. The signal and point rodding crosses the loops and station yard underground and emerges in the cavity seen in the platform face beneath the waiting room.

Modelling the Severn Valley Railway in its preservation form can give a model full of variety with many of the railway's key rolling stock items available in RTR formats from major manufacturers over the years. Taking the project onwards many accessories are available to recreate a classic small station in detail. Add in the diesel galas and you could probably justify a wider range of stock using this as a basis than many other scenarios. Modelling Inspiration October 2011

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Modelling Inspiration October 2011

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Win a Dapol Class 121 ‘N’ gauge Bubble car! Dapol will soon be releasing an excellent model of the Pressed Steel Class 121. The real single car DMUs were predominantly found around Western Region branches from West London to Cornwall with limited usage on parts of the London Midland Region. The winner could be the first person to have one of these beauties in their hands as this is a review sample in BR blue numbered W55024 which was shipped ahead of main deliveries to retailers. To stand a chance of winning the prize you don’t even have to do any modelling but we do want to see some inspiration and creativity. On Page 48 we show you how to take pin-sharp images like the one above and we’re looking for the best image submitted using the ‘stacking’ technique. Get your camera out and have a play with your layout or an item of rolling stock and email your entry to info@rmweb.co.uk with ‘Dapol 121’ in the subject line by the 21st October, the winner will be decided by (I’d like to say a panel of experts but I’ll have to do) me and the winning entry will be illustrated in the next issue of Modelling Inspiration. Good luck! Modelling Inspiration October 2011

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Precision track design for model railways Make your handbuilt trackwork flow as it should

Standard Licence - only £46.50 User guides & tutorials plus support forum to help you get the most from Templot. Click here to visit our site Previous page

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Improving the appearance of Peco Code 75 flexible track Questions periodically arise on sleeper spacing, rail and sleeper painting in addition to ballasting. At a couple of recent demos I was playing with a short plank and talking folk through some of the materials used.

I fix the track using latex based adhesive (e.g. Copydex) or a thin line of PVA glue beneath each sleeper. The track is then laid and positioned. It will be necessary to use the sleeper spacing tool to tidy up any movement in the individual sleepers which will inevitably happen during handling, gluing and laying. This makes a significant difference to the appearance making the track look lighter weight.

Peco track is the staple diet of modellers moving on from train set track. A basic limitation of the prototypical accuracy of the track is obviously the fact that it is OO gauge and any acceptance of it as it comes or to what it can be altered to is always a question of compromise. Improvements can be made that take the basic product beyond the common lay and ballast approach.

Earth (XF-52), Buff (XF-57) and Light Grey (XF-66). Before steaming ahead in painting the sleepers take some photos showing the actual track you wish to model; you should ideally do this in different weathers and observe the difference in appearance in dry sunny, cloudy and wet weather conditions. The colour that you then choose will at least have some foundation in fact rather than just a guesstimate and it will then be appropriate to the area and conditions you are modelling. In this case the sleepers are intended to look dry and sun-bleached with some time having passed since any treatment was used.

Once the track is laid and tidied I use Tan Plastikote Suede Touch spray paint to give a base coat onto the plastic sleepers and nickel silver rails.

The first step is to turn the track over and cut away the plastic webbing between all of the sleepers. A sharp craft knife will suffice but don't go too heavy handed as too much pressure will cause the sleeper to spring away where the narrow clasp of the chairs grip the base of the rail. The sleeper spacing is then widened to a more acceptable compromise of around 7.5mm, centre to centre; PH Designs produce a useful tool if you have a lot of track to do; the whole length of track to be used has the sleeper web cut away and spaced using the tool.

The same research criterion is relevant to the colour of the rail sides and chairs. The colour will vary with traffic types and volumes and the ambient light. A little-used track in sunny conditions will look rusty orange whereas a busy track seen in dreary light on a wet day may look a very dark grey. In this case I use a mix of Tamiya acrylics Nato Brown (XF-68) and Nato Black (XF-69) to taste and with tones varying slightly on different lengths of rail.

After the base coat is dry each sleeper is painted with a mix of acrylic paints; in this case a mix of Tamiya Flat

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Once the final colours have dried and all of the track is laid it's time to consider ballasting. Rewinding to the research really look at the type of ballast that's there. The chances are the actual chippings will be smaller than the size of most of the ballast sold. If the grains in your model ballast are over 1mm in length that means each stone

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would be 3". Were they really that big? The easy solution is to then use finer ballast intended for the 2mm modeller. Rewind again and look at the colour of the real ballast. Is it uniform in colour? What colour is it? Take care to select something that looks right for your model.

The mixture is then sprayed on with a cheap plastic bottle spray or perfume atomizer, these are available from Boots for ÂŁ1.65. Give the ballast a good soaking so the varnish can penetrate and adhere to the ballast granules through to the board.

In this case I've used Green Scenes GS408 ballast which has fine grains (intended for 2mm) and a nice variation in colours (light grey in this case).

As this product is intended to form a shiny coat on hard floors there will be a sheen on the track which can be dulled down with a matt spray varnish.

There are tools that make the job of laying ballast quickly easier but I find something very therapeutic in laying the ballast. I like it to sit a little below the level of the sleeper and rail to preserve the lightness obtained earlier on with the removal of the sleeper webbing. Along the side of the laid track I'll lay some masking tape to achieve a tidy straight line at the edge or cess. The ballast is gently spread between the sleepers with a brush and tamped down with a fingertip. Ballast is laid along the edge of the track and gently brushed into the spaces between the sleeper ends. Running a fingertip over the sleeper ends moves loose ballast grains into position forming a gentle slope down to the edge of the masking tape. Run your finger along the masking tape to remove loose ballast and tidy the edge. The loose ballast is then fixed in place with a 2:1 mix of Johnson's Klear or Pledge floor wax and isopropyl alcohol (IPA) with a few drops of detergent. The picture is that of the new formulation which is readily available at supermarkets (I keep the old Klear for other, more important, varnishing!).

Once the ballast has set (normally overnight) I remove the paint on the top surface of the rail with a fine razor blade, the paint peels away leaving the clean rail head behind. It's worth checking that no ballast granules have moved and stuck to the sides of the rails; they wouldn't stick there in the real world so we'll try to make sure that is reflected. The cess at the side of the track in this case is treated with a painting of Tamiya Acrylic Flat Earth (XF-52) with a sprinkling of Treemendus Earth Powder on top. The end product looks better for the time and attention given to it. This article isn't intended to be prescriptive but to get modellers at a certain stage to think a little more about the track appearance.

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Once the wagon body is replaced I think the result is reasonable and certainly an improvement. The body, and chains, will be fixed back on after the wagon is weathered. The wagon will obviously need that weight that was removed, in this case it was cut down by 5mm off the length and placed inside the wagon and with additional weight hidden beneath the wagon's load.

Improving RTRâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;Flangeway Mermaid Having bought a Flangeway Mermaid and being pleased overall that it has a lot of positives the big negative for me was the solid panel on top of the chassis which detracted from the fineness of the rest of the model. Given the price at ÂŁ15.95 I'd have expected something a little more but having looked at it I felt comfortable that something could be done to improve it. Step 1 - Separate the wagon body from the supporting frame, maybe it should unclip but I could see glue residue down there so I slide a scalpel beneath the body.

Step 3 - Remove the weight from the chassis by drilling through the melted plastic peg in each corner of the weight.

A dry mix of ballast was placed in the weighted load area of the Mermaid. Johnsonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Klear was given isopropyl alcohol and a blob of washing up liquid as additives and sprayed straight onto the dry mix. It soaked in like a dream with virtually no disturbance of the dry ballast. A few hours later it's rock hard. Any slight sheen is taken off with subsequent matt spray varnishing.

Step 2 - Separate the tipping frame from the weighted chassis, again there was evidence of clips beneath but it didn't want to budge and I reverted to the scalpel.

Step 4 - Replace the tipping frame onto the chassis. At this point I had intended to build up the chassis frame with plastic strip but given that it will be relatively obscured most of the time and looking at a skeleton chassis on Paul Bartlett's site I thought I'd leave it at that.

The tipping frame is clipped to the chassis with two awkward clips on each side, placing pressure on these from inside moves them out sufficiently to remove the tipping frame from the chassis. Modelling Inspiration October 2011

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Butcherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Shop - Twin-silo Presflo

BR introduced a revised design of Presflo for ICI Salt. These had a pair of silos, instead of just one, and could be distinguished by duplication of the discharge pipes and valves, and a different bottom to the hopper. One batch of twenty was built within lot 3029 (a batch of 100 wagons). No separate diagram was issued and at some time during the 1960s they transferred to other traffic powder. A conversion of Bachmannâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s excellent Presflo wagon is thus explained.

with separate feeds at top and bottom. After dismantling the wagon the hopper bottom was removed with a saw and a replacement with twin discharges was knocked up from 160gsm card..

Although the wagon runs fine I decided to add some cheap weights from the change tray whilst the top was off.

When considering the job I thought I'd have to use two wagons to generate enough bits but other than the valve wheel it was achieved from what happened to be lying around. Cheap job, takes about an hour.

The starting point was the Crown Cement liveried Presflo with the correct buffer types shown left and the adapted wagon on the right in the above image. The principal difference to the twin silo version is just that, twin silos

The replacement piping was formed from 0.020inch round brass rod, the handrails from Alan Gibson .45mm wire, the small valve knobs from plastic rod cutoffs, one larger valve handle was temporarily removed from another Presflo until I find a handle that better matches that in the prototype images, and lastly brass offcuts for the notice panels. Modelling Inspiration October 2011

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The wagon was completed by formulating a greenish blue acrylic paint; Modelmasters produce a transfer sheet specifically for these comparatively rare wagons. With thanks to Paul Bartlettâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s reference page http://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/presfloslate

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Telling tales….

and its portrayal of the expansion of railways with suburbia in Art Deco world. Me? I could even hear the music before I played this video!

puts us, the viewer, precisely where (and when) he wants us to view the model from. This is clever stuff and if it is a future of modelling I am happy.

Occasionally we’re fortunate enough to see content on RMweb that weaves a story or sense of time and place around a model. Doing so expands the readers’ minds beyond what they simply see and read and helps place the reader within a developing tale. Too many models try and tell a short story within a cameo and fall into the trap of portraying a prototypically unusual cliché. Real life is about the mundane and everyday and seeing into the life of a model makes it far less ordinary as a result of portraying ordinariness. Our online medium makes it possible to do this in a way that really talks to those prepared to listen; it would take a rare brand of story-teller to do this over an exhibition barrier without unsettling or distracting the layout’s viewer. What’s refreshing about this absorption is that rulers, reality and rivets are totally unimportant; our minds fill in those details in the same way as we do in reading enthralling literature. Those who end up disappointed in the film of a book have frequently woven something around the story very different from the director’s vision. Take a look at this advert cut from a 1920s newspaper, it tells me of an age of aspiration, class division and a life of leisure far from the gritty reality of the working railway. It does however form part of a small story of growth in the railway network as told within Southernboy’s Southernboy ‘Frankland’

Frankland is certainly a railway I would travel a long way to see as and when it nears completion. Model railways don’t have to be big, clever or technical to be interesting. Maybe they have to be different to catch our eye in an age where it’s ever easier to be competent? The modellers featured on this page are potentially taking us in a direction where, through modern technology, we can be immersed into the context of a model in a way that pure scale diligence cannot. In this way I see a bright future in how modellers can potentially communicate far more than words and pictures can ever do. Mikkel’s ‘Farthing’ layouts are a collection of working dioramas that will build into a whole over time, but already they have the capacity to engage readers in a way that mile after mile of track or a detailed MPD will struggle to achieve in an information hungry mindset. Clever angles and viewpoints, the style of images and film from different ages and complementary music take us within a model and immerse us to the point that Mikkel Modelling Inspiration October 2011

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Sixty years of history which stops just short of Neil Amstrong’s famous words “ That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for (modellers)”. I’ll throw down a challenge here and see who can take this concept and portray their existing layout in a way that immerses us in that time and place. Please do get in touch with links to any such content so I can make sure it gets featured in a future edition! Stationmaster A.Woodcourt served the GWR for 27 years. Farthing was his last post. Throughout his career with the company he was known as a disciplined, meticulous but also somewhat cautious man. It therefore came as a surprise to many when, the day after his retirement, he withdrew his entire savings from the bank, boarded a ship for Brazil and disappeared into the Amazon jungle.

Follow Southernboy’s latest here Follow Mikkel’s latest here Previous page

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Model Railway Photography Basics and Beyond.

Unless there is anything unique or essential within an image it doesn’t do the contributor or reader any favours in displaying a poorly lit, out of focus or poorly composed illustration of their hard work. The digital revolution in cameras that has changed photography, largely over the last ten years, is a blessing and a curse. The blessing comes in post camera acquisition costs in that the number of pictures we take at any one time is largely irrelevant, we can just fire away without worrying how many shots are left on the roll to plan against how many more shots we’re likely to need that day. Our results are near instantaneous too with the ability to review the image taken giving the golden opportunity to potentially take a better shot to replace the duds. We no longer need a darkroom to have control of the images quality after shooting and nor do we need to wait for the chemist to lose our snaps.

One of the key foundations at the start of RMweb over six years ago was the integrated capability to upload images to the site for inclusion within discussions and narrative. This fact and the mix of contributors were the prime reasons for the rapid growth of the site. Imagery is immensely important in communicating to the reader about layouts and projects. Our hobby relies on producing tangible and visible output and the medium to display that to others is via images in addition to explanatory text. It would be a hard task to undertake to improve contributors’ narrative but I think it’s possible to improve the average standard of images used on the site. This article is aimed very much at modellers who want to learn to improve their pictures. Photography is a wonderful and wide subject for many but our use of the skills within the context of modelling and railways is a very narrow channel of interest. We are fortunate in having competent and professional photographers in our midst who create jaw-dropping images and it is that inspiration we can choose to learn from and improve our portrayal of our work.

Our curse comes from the simplicity of taking point and shoot shots without considering the basics of photography. The manufacturers of mass market cameras extol the virtues of simplicity rather than complexity to appeal to the majority of buyers who seek effortless satisfaction. As it is so easy to fire off basic photos we generally think less about the factors that determine whether a picture is good, bad or mostly indifferent. After a decade of mass market digital cameras we now have a generation who haven’t had to think about the basics; and that is where we shall start. The basics Film and digital cameras on a basic level need the same ingredients to produce a good image; image quality, light and interest. Those three factors can be controlled, considered and composed so we’ll look at how to make the best of them in the context of model photography. The following works on the basis that your camera is one that isn’t just point and shoot with no control over anything at all. The good news is though you don’t need to splash out on a new, expensive camera to make some improvements. Modelling Inspiration October 2011

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Image quality

Don’t move! Taking still pictures of moving models will almost certainly result in failure. Stop the model world and give yourself a chance of success. The only real exception to this is when taking dynamic or panning images to illustrate movement within a still frame. Put the camera down. Down on something solid I mean, be it a tripod, the layout or some other support. Handholding the camera for the sort of images we want to get to is pretty much a no-no. Don’t get sucked into anything expensive, simple mini tripods cost a few quid on eBay and the like, use some polystyrene beads in a polythene sandwich bag as a bean bag or an offcut of an anti-slip mat from the car boot. Hands off the camera! Using the shutter button will cause fractional movement at very least to the camera which will lead to blurring or even affect what’s in the shot. Many cameras have self-timers; learn how to use that feature on your camera and you’ll get an instant improvement. What is ISO? ISO isn’t really a photography term as it stands for International Organisation of Standards which apply standards for all manner of things. In this case it referred to how much films reacted to light and standardised film speeds. Many digital cameras will have the capability to change the ISO setting within the camera, although its technical definition is now largely defunct. The lower the ISO number the sharper the detail will be. High ISO settings are useful for low-light and fast moving situations, the latter as previously explained is not something we want to do before we can master the basics.

It’s important to stay focussed. Virtually all compact cameras will autofocus on what it believes the main subject to be as part of their drive for ease of use. Sometimes they struggle to do this in poor light when they can’t define edges of objects particularly well. Some cameras will allow you to select different parts of the display as the focal point, find out what yours can do and think how that can be used. Previous page

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Up close and personal. We’ll need to get in close to our miniature world to capture detail but lenses can often only focus down to certain distances. Compact cameras often have a macro setting which means that the camera and lens will focus on things which are much closer. See if your camera has this capability and practice using it.

Where is the light coming from? The best way to look at

In summary don’t take pictures of moving trains, fix the position of your camera, select the lowest ISO setting possible and use the self-timer.

Eyes wide shut. A camera lens is like the pupil in your eyes, in dim light the pupil will dilate to capture as much light as it can and will contract when faced with bright light. In the context of your camera when the lens aperture is wide open it will struggle to keep much of your chosen subject matter in focus, when the aperture is a smaller opening more of your picture will be in focus. Traditional cameras relied upon the ability to change the size to which the lens is open (via shutters around the perimeter of the interior of the lens) to improve the amount of the picture that was in focus (depth-of-field). The quantification of this opening was referred to as f-stops; the lower the number the poorer the depth-of-field. Although our eyes only have an incredibly short depth of field we can re-focus them to objects far and near within hundredths of a second which makes us perceive that more of the world is in focus at any one time than our eyes can actually achieve. Therefore we look at a two dimensional image on a screen or page and perceive it to be more realistic if it’s virtually all in focus.

Light

Flashing is an offence. In model photography we need to work with the light that is available or which can be provided. Using a camera’s inbuilt flash is rarely compatible with taking close up shots as it will bleach out the foreground with too much light whilst leaving the furthest parts in darkness as the flash doesn’t light that far. Most digital cameras will allow you to turn off the flash; find out how to do it. You’ll also be more popular at exhibitions if you find out how to turn it off! Where do I find this ‘light’ stuff? The best quality light for making models look like the real thing is outdoors, it comes in all sorts of brightness and colours but I appreciate that not all of us can take the layout outside so we’ll have to make use of what’s around.

Comes in different colours. Our eyes readily adjust to the intensity and tone of light and with our brains compensate for the variations; cameras struggle to do this as they see the intensity and tone as it is. Different forms of lighting will give different colour casts to pictures, the old domestic incandescent light bulb will give an orange bias to a picture, fluorescent lighting will give a blue-green tone. Some cameras will try to compensate for this with varying degrees of success. Find out if you can adjust the white balance or change the settings for differing light types on your camera. White balancing means you can ‘tell’ your camera what is white and it will compensate the other colours. Look at your model through the display and see how it changes the colours and find out which looks most natural.

the impact of the light is to look through the viewfinder or display to see what the camera sees. Can you move the model or the light source so it is better lit? You don’t need anything fancy, even a hand-held lamp can help you see the difference the position of light can make. If you have any form of lamp with a daylight bulb then try this.

Your compact camera may allow you to choose what’s known as ‘aperture priority’; this will mean you can get more of your picture in focus. If your camera allows you to set the aperture with f-stops aim for the highest number you can with your camera; f8 is better than f2.8! Think of it this way; your camera will pick one point to focus on, the narrower the aperture the more will be in focus in front of and behind that focal point. Modelling Inspiration October 2011

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A little later we will go massively beyond this but it’s important to understand and be comfortable with the above before moving on.

Speed isn’t everything. Model photography is the complete opposite of taking photos of the real railway with moving trains where a fast shutter speed is necessary to freeze the world in sharp detail. If we’ve got all of the basics right in the preceding paragraphs the speed is irrelevant but to achieve the greatest depth of field the shutter speed needs to be as long as is needed which is the main reason for making sure your camera stays absolutely still. In summary ; turn the flash off, find out how to make best use of the light available, use the smallest aperture you can and a slow speed. Interest Although what may be considered interesting is subjective it’s worth taking time to think whether the image communicates anything that will interest the potential audience. In modelling terms a snap of a Bachmann 66 which has just been taken out of a box and placed on a piece of set-track without anything being done is not interesting to the majority of people. It just tells us that the photographer owns it, a fact which is pretty irrelevant to everyone else in the world. Now, if that same modeller carries out a modification or weathers the model and wants to show it they are then illustrating their skills for approval or further advice. For that to work the photo needs to be of sufficiently good quality to show what has been achieved. If it isn’t, there’s just no point. I suppose we could consider that to be the technical side of illustrating something; if we want to show our wider skills in whole layouts, for example, it is worth considering the composition of images. Look at the scene through your camera’s display, can you see everything you want to show and can you exclude what you don’t want to be seen?

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Solely using shots from 3 foot away and 3 foot above layouts was a staple diet of most layout articles within the hobby for years (they were easy to take); they may be fine as a general illustration to show the overall layout but it doesn’t place the viewer in a position he can identify with if he were part of that world. Sadly few of us can afford to look at the real railway from a helicopter passing viewpoints at 250’. Thankfully the last decade has seen more imagination in imagery. Placing the camera into the viewpoints found within layouts can give more of a feel for the railway environment from a more familiar perspective. Compact cameras are a lot more practical in this context than a huge digital SLR camera! Obviously you can’t just go plonking your camera down at track level on someone else’s layout unless they agree, so it’s worth practicing how to use your camera on your own layout (or even workbench with objects) in that position, using all of the techniques previously mentioned so that you can get comfortable in doing so for when chances arise. I find model photography a fascinating off-shoot from the hobby which helps complement the attention to detail shown by skilled modellers and the thought they put into constructing that small world. You could be the best modeller in the world but unless you can get good photographs of your work no-one would ever know!

Get greater depth of field in your photos - for free! Taking photos of the real thing will generally give a greater depth of field than a photo taken of a model. Greater depth of field in an image of a model makes us perceive it as being more realistic. The limitations of the camera have been discussed but this can be overcome through the use of ’stacking’ software which is used to blend several images with different focal points together. You’ll need to take a set of images to work with.

• Keep the exposure constant, ideally through manually setting the shutter speed and aperture on the camera. • Keep the camera’s position fixed, the technique will not work if the camera is moved relative to the subject. • Focus on a range of points from the nearest point you want in focus through to the farthest. You will of course need some software to perform its magic. I have used a product called CombineZP for several years, which is available free of charge, which was primarily designed for macro and microscopic photography where the depth of field is even more limited than our field of interest. The same functionality is available in Adobe Photoshop and Helicon Focus (which has a free 30-day trial). CombineZP takes longer to perform the calculations but appears to balance and sharpen the images as part of its processing. When you have installed and launched the software there is a

Download CombineZP here http://www.hadleyweb.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/CZP/files.htm

menu bar at the top of the screen. Click on ‘New’ and you will be prompted to select the images you wish to ‘stack’. The software will open a pop-up box which shows the images being loaded. When this is complete use the drop down menu to the right of the ‘New’ button to select ‘Align and Balance Used Frames (Through)’. The pop-up box will then show you that the software is slightly re-aligning the images as there will be a few pixels movement no matter how careful you were to keep the camera still. When this is complete the main window will re-open showing the first image in the stack. Head for the drop down menu and select ‘All Methods’ and go and make a cup of tea whilst CombineZP carries out its calculations. When complete the main window will open up again hopefully with an image where the main subject matter is pin-sharp. If it works first time you’re lucky as it may need a little practice and the following may help.

• If there are blurred areas between in-focus areas you didn’t capture an image in your range that was in focus there. • If there are areas of aberration the camera may well have moved more than the software can compensate for. • Combine ZP creates a larger canvas and mirrors the edge of the image. This is used as spare ground in the alignment process and can be cropped out.

Click here to enter the forum to ask any questions relating to this article or submit your own images for advice in correcting basic problems.

If you are happy with your image you can click on the ‘Save’ button. The main images in the Bradfield (Gloucester Square) article, the Dapol 121 competition page and Jon Grant’s ‘Picture of the month’ on the last page of this edition of MI were created using this technique. Give it a go yourself; it’s very rewarding when it woks well and you also stand a chance of winning the Dapol 121 on Page 42.

Modelling Inspiration October 2011

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Pic pick

Modelling Inspiration

Jon Grant - Sweethome Alabama Modelling Inspiration October 2011

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