More on Amberleigh Halt

This week has been mainly spent playing trains in the evening after work. Working for myself means I do not get as much evening time as I used to, and modelling output has certainly declined a bit. This has also coincided with my little test track of Amberleigh being fully operational. As this is my first layout I have spent a lot of time just running stock on it. I have been building wagons for the layout for about 11 years, so it is great to finally see the rolling stock trundling about.


Class 37/0 hauls a two coach passenger service into Amberleigh Halt.

Two projects that have finished are re-weathering my engineers grey class 37/0. This was my first proper locomotive weathering. Although at the time I was happy with it, more practice on the airbrush suggested I could do better. So I had another bash and am much happier with the result now. It is now a permanant feature on Amberleigh!!

Another project that also finished was the weathering of a Mk1 BSK in regional railways livery. This had a light weathering applied to contrast with a heavy weathering on a mk1 NEA in intercity livery. This forms a fixed rake for the Amberleigh micro-layout. Currently being dragged around by the 37/0 for a bit of fun!! I will take a photo or two of this next week.


Class 47 taking a fertiliser wagon down to Torrington

Two other projects that are progressing nicely are the build of the Whale ballast wagon and the cct. The cct is almost finished and the whale is progressing nicely. Both of these should be finished around next weekend. Both wagons will be finished in engineering olive.

Wagons: a CCT, SPA and ECC wagon

Well last week saw little progress in the railway, but this week has been a different story. A very tolerant and lovely girlfriend has let me 'play trains' all sat and again today!! This has let me make progress on some of the projects I had on the go.


The SPA as built several years ago.

First up was an SPA wagon I built around 2000. I was living in Exeter at the time and it brings back some good memories. However, the buffers were plastic and the weathering was done with some powders. So I drilled out the buffer bodies and super glued in some turned brass buffer heads, much more suitable for using 3 link couplings. After this a quick scrub down in the sink was followed by some air brushing for weathering. The railfreight red has faded over the last 10 years or so, in an almost prototypical way!! The SPA build was the excellent cambrian kit and this is now ready to enter service in one of my air braked freight trains. I have a Bachmann OBA and Hornby OAA to convert, as well as some of the Cambrian OTA timber wagons. These were all prototypically used along the tarka trail in the 1980's, working wood and fertiliser loads.


Updated SPA with brass buffers and new weathering

The other main freight along along the Torrington line was ECC china clay, being mined out near Halwill (the exact name of the quarry escapes me now). So last year I purchased the ready weathered Bachmann offering and this week I started the conversion of the first to 3 link couplings. What should have been a simple task was actually a bit of a nightmare. Firstly, 2 out of the 3 screw mounts had to be cut off and filed flat at the end of the wagon. Then the coupling hook had to have its bar shortened and a new hole re-drilled. An improvised spring was made from the pin, and the ends of the pin glued into place. As I had cut off the screw mounts for 2 of the crews the wagon was secured back together with araldite. All in all a lot of effort for a simply conversion. 1 down, about 9 to go!!!!


On taking the agon apart it is evident that the mounts for the screws will have to be removed at either end of the wagon.


The two halves of the wagon body with the offending items removed with a combination of drill, knife and file. The couplings are then added.


The finished wagon with the couplings converted

The other main project I have on the go is the Parkside CCT. I will finish the construction of this today. This wagon is going into a smart engineering olive repainted livery, with a southern PMV of the same colour. Then I plan to build another two CCTs, one LMS, one southern, both in faded and battered rail blue. I want to add the masokits detailing set to these wagons, but this almost doubles the cost of the project, so I am currently undecided about whether to add this cost to each wagon. I also noticed that buffers supplied with the Parkside kit were different to the ones I was modelling from photographs I have of an engineering CCT. So these buffers were swapped for a set of whitemetal ones I had lying about (heaven knows who manufactured them). Other than this the build is per instructions and is very straight forward. I am looking forward to seeing it painted.


Nearly finished build of parkside CCT

Some limited progress

Each week I manage to put up a post or two of the weeks progress. This week has been a shocker in modelling terms, with next to no modelling. What little time I have had I have spent running some trains on Amberleigh, which has been really enjoyable. To finally having a working test track/scenic plinth/micro layout is fantastic. It is my first serious attempt and a real step forward for me. However, current or new modelling projects are non existent. I am planning to have a bash at a southern PMV, two southern CCTs and a whale wagon next weekend, part of which are finished. Until then am going to go back to running trains on Amberleigh!!


Railfreight sound DCC class 37 on an ECC train through Amberleigh

47035 and a walrus

Hopefully a better finish now on 47035

Last night I managed to finish off weathering the detailing a class 47 and the second cambrian walrus wagon. The walrus wagon has been kicking about for ages part finished and it was great to finally finish it off. The blue class 47 was an older project that I weathered by hand painting and weathering powders. At the time I was happy with it, but i think my ability to weather models has progressed and with some time to reflect I decided it was time for a second attempt.


Front end of 47035

The roof was coloured with weathered black and a series of washes of sleeper grime, matt black and frame dirt sprayed over the body. I have a photo of 47035 working in south Devon, looking pretty similar to this. I am now much happy with the end product and am not going to do any more on this loco!!.....


The finished walrus wagon

The walrus is the cambrian kit. This was weathered with rust, frame dirt and sleeper grime after the transfers were added, then sealed with aclad varnish. I am much happier with this finish than the first walrus. I still think I am going to have to make just one more of these wagons though!! A great kit and thoroughly recommended.


The end of the walrus wagon

Today I am wiring up my second fiddle yard and hope to finish the build on a CCT wagon. I am going to start a series of whale wagons and then just spend sometime running some trains on Amberleigh. I have decided to wait a few months before starting Watergate Halt. I am going to have a think about exactly about what I want from the layout and start constructing some buildings for the layout, before really getting stuck into the project.

Engineers grey class 33/1

Class 33/1 in engineers grey trundles past Amberleigh halt

Last week I was working close to home in Cornwall and with half term this week, modelling has been confined to snatches of time in between doing other things. I have managed to finish weathering my class 33/1 in engineers grey. This is a heljan bargain from hattons. The weathering is really quite light, with a mixture of life colour acrylic sleeper grime, frame dirt, roof dirt and matt black. I think it works quite well but is relatively subtle.

The windows were masked with maskol, but with taking off the maskol I ripped off a windscreen wiper. I have had to nick one from a class 33/2, and now need some spares. This aside, this has been a lovely little project and I am pretty happy with the result. This locomotive is in a livery right at the end of the time period I model (with no roof pods though), in early 1991. It is one of a number of class 33's and and 31's I hope to run on the this layout and watergate halt, when it gets constructed. These were the mainstay of locomotive hauled trains on the tarka line in the 1980s, with the odd class 50, 47 and 37 thrown in for good measure.


It is hauling a short engineers train. Note the missing windscreen wiper, damaged during removing the maskol!!

On other tasks I have still nearly finished the walrus wagon and a class 47 is nearing completion. I have attached the second fiddle yard to Amberleigh and it now nearly functions as a though running station, except the wiring up of one of the fiddle yard points seems to be wrong!! I am going to get this sorted out this week in the evenings and then have a weekend doing some proper modelling. Looking forward to finishing off some projects and starting the build of a SR CCT in br blue and Whale wagon, two kits that have been sat waiting since xmas!!


Hopefully the light weathering job can be seen to good effect in this shot

MEA mk1 and a grampus finished

Today I planned to add the second fiddle yard to Amberleigh and also a finish a a number of projects that have been waiting around for a while. Well everything takes twice as long as you think it is going to. I did not get the second fiddle yard even started today, but I did manage to finish a grampus wagon and the weathering of a mk1 NEW full break in intercity livery.



With the mk1 I took the carriage apart, including removing the windows, and gave the underframe a wash of frame dirt. I painted a dilute black wash over the door frames of the coach and wiped off any excess with a paper towel. I then put the coach back together, except for the windows and did some weathering of the coach underframe with frame dirt, roof dirt and weathered black from an air brush. The result is a pretty grubbed up mk1!!! The grampus is just a simple parkside kit, weathered with acrylic life colour paints and finished with modelmaster decals. On both these models I used the new johnsons klear varnish, available from Relish Models. The results are very pleasing and it is extremely easy to use, not requiring any thinning before spraying.



I made a little progress on the class 33/1 today, giving the underframe a first spray and finishing the detailing of the buffer beams. I need to add a little bit of colour to the buffer beam pipes, and then hopefully I can finish this off in the next few days. I have also put the decals on the walrus wagon. I need to add some handwheels to the walrus, then this should also be finished this week. Hopefully I will get another update of some more finished projects in a few days.

bits and pieces

More trees added to hide the terrible break in backscene!!

Another week flies by. This has been a very slow week of modelling, but a fantastic family get together this weekend is a good excuse! Most progress was made on the heljan class 33/1, with the buffer beams removed and detailed it is nearly ready for spraying. I also have the time to finish the walrus and grampus in the next few days and have the 33/1 and a blue 03 lined up for the weekend. With my girlfriend away/working all weekend I am hoping it will be a mighty productive week of modelling!!!

I also did some general tidying up of Amberleigh the weekend before last. I gave the tunnel portals a wash of sleeper grime and added some conifer trees in front of the horrendous joins in backscene. I also finally got round to painting the steps black. It is true about rushing things. All the little niggly bits of this scenic test track are the bits rushed or things done when really I was probably just a little too tired.

Another task I have to accomplish is the fitting of the second fiddle yard to Amberleigh. To finish this I have to buy a second telescopic trestle. I decided on buying these from screw fix. At £25 they provide a trestle that will last a lifetime, are sturdy and just the job for someone like me, i.e. limited woodworking skills, limited time and small interchangeable layouts.

With a lot of computer work going on this weekend I read several online internet forums on what people think we need in rtr form from the big manufacturers, i.e. hornby and bachmann. I found in interesting the difference of opinion and also the debate on what we should pay, what is realistic, etc. My own opinion is that prices are only going to go up (which personally I do not mind, if this addresses environmental and workers rights issues in other countries) and I am modest about what I need/can afford.

But if I could have my own wishlist, it would be very simple. How about a class 121, class 120, class 101 and class 119 up to modern standards. I know DMU biased, but it is such a glaring gap in the market and the 108 and 105 are so good, surely it lets the manufacturers know there is a market out there which will buy these products. I know I am biased, in dmu/diesels and the southwest, but that is what I would like to see. Bachmann please take notice!!!!

Lastly, I fixed my air brush last week, after a quick call to the airbrush company for advice and I am mighty relieved. I should also add that the advice/time taken to discuss the problem by the air brush company was second to none and I would heartily recommend them to anyone thinking of/buying an air brush. A small offending blob of paint has not been removed and spraying is resumed!!!


A more general view of the nearly finished Amberleigh Halt