Georgeham platform

A rather long absence has ensued since my last blog post. Another project working in the midlands meant that I have been away from home working 14 hour days for over a week. The work is great and time flies, but it leaves no time at all for anything else, including modelling.


The new Georgeham platform

So getting home yesterday was a real relief, and the chance to pick up some projects where I left them over a week ago was most welcome. The last thing I did before I left was give the Georgeham platform a coat of weathered black under the platform to mimic diesel exhaust on the stanchions. The photographs do not do the structure justice I feel, but they do give an impression of the developing Georgeham platform. I added in a variety of different colours to the concrete to give some variation, as per Chris Nevard's article in model rail. However, the lighting in the image does not allow this variation to come through. If I get time I will take a few photographs in natural sunlight.


Showing the platform surface

The platform is constructed from MJT whitemetal stanchions and plasticard for the platform. It was a quick and pleasurable project to put this together.


The platform is pretty much the length of the scenic section

With the backscene also now painted the platform is almost ready to glue down. These photographs give a taste of how the test track will look when finished. It is getting there. Track painting is due to commence any day now, so ballasting can start after that has been completed.


View into the tunnel at the Spreacombe end of the platform

Georgeham non-shunting microlayout landscaping

Backscene painted

Over the last couple of days, it being half term and all, we have been doing some detailing on our non-shunting microlayout, which is doubling as the DCC test/programming track. In addition we have got the NCE powercab up and running, ready for some decoder programming. Everything looks a little bit messy at the moment. The backscene got a coat of paint from a Delux tester paint pot. It looks about right I think, although I might blend the bottom of the backscene with a dose of white misting. However, for £1.35, this is certainly a cheap backscene and I hope pretty effective.


And a little landscaping started

We also got out a roll of plaster bandage and did the landscaping for the layout. The hill which the tunnel is set into has been landscaped, as has the front portion of the layout. At the front of the layout is drop in the topography, an attempt to replicate the lower floodplain of the River Caen. The start of the landscape was some paper mache, with the plaster bandage laid over the top.

The layout is now fully operational, with the next job to paint the track. The little platform is also finished and is ready to glue to the layout. I am not entirely happy about concrete stanchions on the base of the platform so I might tweak these,before gluing it down. Hopefully, I will put up a post of the platform later next week,but all in all progress is being made.

Class 121 DMU progress

This week I finally got the bit between my teeth to progress my class 121 DMU. The chassis was mostly finished and the solabars weathered, with the craftsman detailing kits added to each end of the DMU. Footsteps were also added to the solebars. All in all it was looking pretty good (well I think so anyway!!). Then came to soldering the pick ups, motor wires and lighting kit. It should all have been simple, but it actually two evenings of cursing to get it right!!


Working lights from Express Models - recommended!

The lighting kit is from express models and is brilliant. The instructions are crystal clear and it was soldered up in no time. I added the pick ups to the decoder socket and put in the decoder and tested - nothing. After an hour or so of testing and head scratching I realised the decoder was faulty. I replaced this - and the lights worked. I then soldered up the remaining motor pick ups. Hornby do not label the wires, and predictably, I got them back to front. Travelling forwards with red lights showing is not prototypical! This was corrected and in the end it went on the track and it all works. Result!!


The underframe weathering on the 121 DMU

This is one of the more complex detailing jobs I have undertaken, adding lights and soldering up the decoder pins, etc. It is an excellent learning curve. The chassis and solebars were weathered with a mixture of lifecolour shades. There is a little bit of finishing off on the underframe to do, but it is close to finished. The interior seats are going to get a coat of paint, and a driver needs adding. Then the body needs a bit of weathering, with some new windscreen wiper blades added and some new front windscreens. These are the next tasks, but I think I will have it finished in a week or so. It can then provide the regular passenger service on the little Georgeham layout we are currently building.

BR Blue class 37 with a VI trains chassis

This Saturday I received a very exciting parcel from Hattons, with a VI trains replacement chassis for a class 37. The locomotive being upgraded is a an old Lima large logo class 37. This locomotive is one from my teen years, when I decided I really wanted to build a modern image layout, set in the highlands of Scotland. Why there? I am not really sure, but there was certainly a strong desire to produce my first real model layout.


Upcoming class 37 detailing and repaint for an old favourite.

It was about this time I got semi-serious about modelling and saved up some money to buy some rolling stock to achieve a model layout. The Class 37 got a craftsman set of grills added and buffer beam detailing. I had a go at replacing the windscreens, and adding some glazing. Then it has sat for about 20 years, in pieces, trundling along during each house move since about the year 2000.


The old Lima shell just resting on the VI trains chassis

So at long last, this slightly nostalgic model is going to form a project. The next job is to add the Lima model to a bath of stripper, get rid of that terrible paint job and grime (powder paint), which will also hopefully dislodge all of the metal bits stuck to the body. Then after a good sand down, a whole assortment of detailing parts can be added, with working lights. I plan to finish this locomotive in a faded blue livery, but I might keep the same number, for memories sake!! This will be one of my longest projects ever. Probably started sometime around 1991 and it will be hopefully be finish in 2012, 21 years in the making I reckon!! However, maybe this is a good omen, as most modelling projects I started in my teens I never finished. In recent years I have got a lot better at finishing models. I hope this will be a super-detailed model when I am finished, with a plethora of detailing parts suitably added, but we shall see.


The basic layout for the new programming track

My son and I have also been busy starting the landscaping on our small DCC programming layout. The various components have been decided on (platform, house, tunnel, derelict signal box and agricultural building). The farm building is hopefully going to have a camera installed, so it is now going to be set behind the platform, to give a different perspective to the normal front view. We got the tunnel glued down today started sculpting some of the landscape on the floodplain at the front of the layout. Hopefully, it will not be too long before we start adding some static grass. I just need to get the track painted and the platform this week, ready for ballasting at the weekend.

Georgeham platform progress

The little country halt for Georgeham

Recently I have been focusing on building the little Georgeham DCC test track. This week I have been constructing a little platform and shelter for the layout. It is totally fictional, being based loosely on southern concrete sections, with a little shelter.


View from the Ilfracombe side

The platform stanchions are from the MJT components range, with sections of plasticard for the platforms. The shelter is constructed from some scraps of wills buildings sheets, being a planked little shelter, based on nothing or nowhere in particular. All in all very simple to build and a most enjoyable construction.


The platform shelter

Two other great results occurred this week. The first of which my class 25/3 after some further running in does not appear to still be faulty, so fingers crossed we are all ok. I think the F9 key on my EZ controller has stopped working. However, the replacement part of the NCE Powercab was sent in the post from Bromsgrove Models. Free of charge. That is fantastic customer service. Now I just have to get the NCE powercab connected and I will be away (or at least programming some decoders!!). Exciting times!!