A Transfer Shed

In the same style as the warehouse and engine shed, this is the transfer shed for Ganderwood:

This completes the station buildings for the layout - though there is still plenty more to be done.

New Station and Warehouse

Recently completed a couple of new buildings.

First a basic station, with a wooden platform. This will serve a quarry that is to go on the long siding behind it.

This warehouse serves to hide the controller first and fore most, and the design  reflects the shape of the controller, rathe than a prototype. Both models are card built, the warehouse uses Scalescenes papers for the textures.

Blackburn Model Railway Exhibition

The exhibition was this weekend, and I went Saturday morning with my daughter. It is a small exhibition, only one hall, seventeen layouts, but still enjoyable. Some photos:

This is Bishops Bridge, an N gauge layout set around 1990 in what I still think of as the southern region.

Ecclesford Bridge was a layout targeted at the general public, and especially children. It had numerous little cameos, and the operatorts were handing out sheets of things to spot for children, and there were several buttons to push to make things happen - such as a ghost train.

Iron Street was only small, but I like these industrial scenes. Very atmosheric.

I had read about this model of Liverpool Lime Street on a modelling forum. It was the verey antithesis of Ecclesford Bridge. No pandering to the public, this was built to be accurate, not entertaining. It was impressive, but because of the location of the phototype, it was hard for us to actually see much.

 Llanfair Caereinion was the only 009 layout, and was probably my favourite of the show.

This was Oswaldsmuehle, a continental layout set in some impressive scenery, as this view of a train crossing a gorge shows.

Rolling Stock

I have had some rolling stock for a while, but it is now looking presentable - though there are still issues with the couplings.

The loco has names from Narrow Planet, and is named "Henri Moissan". It also now has an 0-4-0 chassis from N-Drive Productions. All stock is now sporting decals, and has to varyng degrees been weathered.

Here are the wagons, is grey livery with black writing:

 And the coaching stock, in red wine and cream:

Moving the railway

I have moved the railway!

Not physically moved, but I have decided to move its fictional location from Wales to Lancashire. There are a number of reasons: Welsh narrow gauge is somewhat cliched, and having recently seen Chelthwaite and Beccadale, there is a fine precedent for Lancashire. The tipping point was taking the kids to Darwen for football and Waddecar for cub camp, and realising that Lancashire has a lot of building with great character - something you can readily miss if you live in Preston.

So now it is the Ganderwood and Templehill Light Railway.

A station

Made some good progress over the last few days.

This is the station, now fitted with working lights. The station building across the bridge on the left is just a facade at the moment, but hopefully that will get finished soon. The town at the back is made up of Superquick models that I built ca. 1980, and are just temporary stand-ins for now, though replacing them is some way off in the future.

I hit a snag with the mine area, however, with a point motor failing (likely due to my poor soldering skills), so I am waiting for a replacement on that.

An Elevated Section Over The Dock

I have just finished laying track along an elevated section, and it looks pretty good, I think.

This will eventually be a dock, with more warehouses all around it (which is why the sky does not meet the ground). The above photo shows a corner of the dock, and the track heads left over a bridge, just visible below.

The warehouse is from Scalescenes, and was salvaged from earlier attempts in OO.

First 009 Society Meeting

Last night I attended my first meeting of the local branch of the 009 Society, and met, among others, the Chivers family of Chivers Finelines, Five79 and Slimrails fame, and saw some of what they are planning for the future.

Matt Chivers, whose house we met in, has a veritable layout in his garage, built by Dave Scot in the earlier nineties called Chelthwaite and Beccadale, and recently purchased from some guy in Aberystwyth with a view to renovation. He had a video of it in operation at exhibitions in 1993 and 1995.

An interesting evening.

A Redisign...

I have had a rethink about the layout plan, prompted by worries about reaching the track at the back. Instead of curving it around the back to the left of the station, I am going to brng it down, and across.

This will mean there is a "duck under", which I originally wanted to avoid as it will get tricky as I get older and it will just be awkward to work around. I will see how it goes, but replacing it with a lifting section at a later date will be an option.

Progress so far: Removed the unwanted track, and have started to build up the baseboards. I have ordered a couple more points and four more point motors, and track-laying will have to wait until they arrive.

Allan Downes

I started a thread at RMweb about my engine shed, and got a complimentary comment by Allan Downes. Back in the late seventies and early eighties Allan Downes wrote occasional articles for Railway Modeller, and the models he built were the best I had seen, so that comment means a lot to me. Thanks, Allan!

Painting the backscene

I now have a backscene.

I have come to the conclusion it would be better to plaster over the hills before laying the track in those sections, and that, in turn, it would be better to put the backscene before that, so that was today's job.

I have quite a bit of depth to the baseboards, and decided all I really wanted on the backscene was sky to hide the brickwork behind. I wanted a continuous run, working out to nearly 10 m long, and the best thing to do that on that I found was lining paper, pinned to sections of wood on the garage wall. Once in place, I painted it blue with very dilute poster paint, applied with a piece of sponge, with more dilute paint in the lower half.

Some sections were better than others, with the above being one of the better, but I think it looks okay. Not sure if it looks blue in the photo...

An Engine Shed!

Nearly finished the first custom buildng for the layout, and my first scratch-built building. It still needs some vents of the roof, but it does look finished to the casual glance, so here it is:

It is built from cereal packet card, with Scalescenes paper over the top. After the success of this, I am planning a station building, transfer shed and signal box.

009 Society AGM

I went to the 009 Society AGM this afternoon. Well, I went to the associated exhibition, I skipped the actual AGM, as I had no clue about the issues or people involved. Anyway, the exhibition, while small, was good, with some excellent layouts on display.

Had an interesting discussion with the guy from Blackham Transfer about transfers for rolling stock. It was not cheap at £60 for a full sheet of A4, but part sheets are available. Seems a simple way to put light lettering on dark paintwork.

Noted the couplings on the layout at the back (Maesog I think). They used Greenwich couples for the rolling stock, but just the static part for the lococs, which makes uncoupling much easier.

A few purchases too including a guards van kit.

Finally got something moving

I am starting to feel that I am making progress. Spent an hour wiring up, including hunting dowen a short circuit, and an 009 engine has actually run (well, the chassis has). Points all switch as they should, and one even has the electrofrog wired up too.

I have also been painting my rolling stock. One Peco "James", which looks pretty good, and two Parkside Dundas coaches, which are not so good. The cream paint was too thin - possibly because the brush had just be used for the copper on the engine and still had a trace of white spirits - and will need some further work.

Only the track in the station has been laid, and the tight curve to the left will not be easy, but wiring should be simple after this. I am starting to think about scenery (things I can do in the house, rather than the garage), and am wondering if I can adapt a ScaleScenes factory to a transfer shed and engine shed.

Back in the day

I was away over Easter staying with my mother, so no chance to do any modelling, but there is a stash of Railway Modeller magazines from 1976 to 1984 to read through. It cost just 35p when  I started to read it. It is incredible how many layouts are GWR branchline termini. Of the layouts that are point-to-point terminus to fiddle-yard, it must be over 90%.

It was also fun to spot the SuperQuick kits ubiquitous across so many layouts, as was the Airfix girder bridge. And all these things are still around today exactly the same. The bridge is now markets by Dapol, the SuperQuick range has a few additions, and Railway Modeller features more colour, but they all look the same as they all look the same as they did 30 to 35 years ago.

Laying points

Not had much chance to do much until recently, with a combination of illness, being away and bad weather (the layout is in the garage). However, I have finally started to lay some track.

As the 009 track is going to be raised relative to the standard gauge, it is on short sections of wood, and I could take two of these into the house to fix the points on. I have never used electrofrogs before, or under-the-baseboard motors, and cannot claim to be that competent with a soldering iron, but it seemed to go okay.

I am using SEEP motors, with a big hole for the rod to connect to the point, securing them with drawing pins, then checking the point moves as I flick the motor by hand.  I just need to test them with power to check they work, then screw these boards to the main board.

Exhibition in Preston

Saturday I took my daughter to Preston Model Railway Exhibition, which was very good. Some great layouts, though only one in 009 (and I got no decent pictures of that one). Had a quick chat with one of the operators about couplings, and on the basis of that have ordered some Greenwich ones from Parkside Dundas.

A few images (dictated mostly by what I got a decent photo of with my phone):

Colyer Street was a small 00 gauge that had a great atmosphere too it (though a bit high for my daughter to see properly).

Herculaneum Dock was perhaps my favourite of the show because the subject matter is so interesting; the Liverpool Overhead Railway over the goods yard and dock.

Hospital Gates was an O gauge layout, apparently based on the short line serving Wittingham Asylum.

Maidwell, an LMS layout in 00; I really liked how it let the landscape dominate the scene. A large layout, but not much track, lets the rural nature of the line emerge.

Gresley Beat was the complete opposite - track everywhere.

First rolling stock

Yesterday I had to take the day off work to look after my ill son, so tok the opportunity to do more work in the garage. The infrastructure is pretty much done, but the boards the track will be on still needs to be put it. The short stretch of standard gauge has been pinned into place though.

In the evening I built a coach, my first peice of rolling stock for 009. It was from a Parkside Dundas kit, and went together pretty well, though somewhat fiddly getting the seats in, and putting the bolt on the bogies. I did not try to put on the handrails, and the vacuum pipes will go on after painting.

The wheels are not as free-running as I would have hoped; I might put a bit of graphite from a 2B pencil into the axle holes to see if that helps, but it looks good apart from that. I had not appreciated just how small narrow gauge stock is, I might have to revise my plan accordingly. The run-round loop would be enormous. I have a second coach which I will put together tonight probably, then paint them together. Still trying to decide on a livery.

I am still waiting for my fist loco kit to arrive, ordered from Modelfair Monday last week.

Tidying the Garage...

With the layout in the garage, it is too cold to do much. I have tidied up the garage, to get it ready though. Also bought a piece of track. During the week I bought a Graham Farish annioer tank on ebay, and I wanted to test that it ran okay - it does. I am awaiting delivery of a Peco "James" kit and two Parkside Dundas coaches.

I also printed out some turn-out templates from the Peco site to see how the track will look, amd have kind of finalised the plan:

Introduction

This blog chronicles my experiences in the world of 009 railway modelling.

As a kid, in the late seventies and early eighties I had a 00 scale railway that eventually filled my bedroom. When I went to college, everything was packed away in a cupboard and the room redecorated. Then a few years ago I thought about resurrecting it, made a couple of abortive attempts at a layout before we decided we had to move house and it all got packed away again, and the room redecorated. Then a third layout in the garage of the new house was started.

Although I have bought a fair bit of new track, all the 00 rolling stock is 30 or more years old. Some runs fine okay, but it is showing its age. As I find I have a bit more disposable income now, I want to upgrade the rolling stock, and suddenly now seems the right time to make the break to 009.

It is something that I had thought about as a teenager, but had too much invested in 00 at the time, and was not happy about kit-building. Now I am finally taking the plunge.

Welcome to the Glan-y-môr and Templehill Light Railway!

Glan-y-môr is Welsh for "by the sea" (and should be pronounced "glan uh mawr" I believe), and Templehill takes its name for a Thief mod I created a few years ago. The "G&T" seems to have a nice ring to it!

The plan is to have an urban area with a station at the front, and a spur to a dockside to the left. The "mainline" will curve around behind the town (to a radius of about 14"; hopefully that is going to work), into a large rural area down the right side, the loop back and to the station. There will also be a standard gauge section running from the other side of the platform into a tunnel; basically a single line plus siding to transfer shed. The station and dock areas will be on existing baseboards.

Rolling Stock

There is a chicken-and-egg problem with getting started. I cannot lay track until I know what gradients and curves are going to work with the rolling stock, but how can I test the rolling stock without track?

Anyway, I have ordered a Peco "James" 0-6-0 locomotive, to go on a Graham Farish chassis I got from ebay, as well as two Festiniog style coaches from Parkside Dundas.