March update

Lots of work has gone on this month and there is lots to come in April so I will go to weekly updates for a while to keep up and reduce the length of postings.

A review of work required on the line for the new season.

Some nice weather allowed me to get out and see what work needed doing on the railway.

The path bridge needs another coat of creosote plus the addition of some hand rails and some more tacks to flatten the wood out.

Birds and cats digging in the garden have covered the track with earth. A bit of cleaning up and ballasting  will happen soon.

The frost has cracked the mortar on one of the blocks which will need to be fixed.

The trestle bridge has stood up well and will only need a fresh coat of creosote.

I need to shift the track in the station about to give me room for the engine shed to fit. Laying out points and track to see what will fit

Track has been lifted ready for the revised layout.

Getting there, layout almost worked out.

Track going back down, the pointwork first.

Points down and joining track in place, Fenor and open trucks being used to check clearance and joints.

The fenor on a works train

Track all down with buildings in place to check clearances

Plenty of room around the engine shed

A view of the Fenor at the coaling stage

Posed on the trestle

On putting it all away I found that the open wagons fit snuggly into the open bogie wagon

Loco and rolling stock work

I have done some work on rolling stock to try and get as much as possible ready for use.

I finally got round to fitting the lubricator to the Mamod ready for a test run.

It was given a run on the blocks

After a false start (I cross threaded the cap and lost steam pressure out of it) the loco run.

Unfortunately the Mamod didnt run very well. The lubricator steam to work but the wheels appear to have a sticky point. Needs some more work.

The bogie wagon derailed during a test run through the new station track layout. It was down to a wheel set coming out of its bearings

To fix it the bogies were removed....

...and stripped down.

One of the bogies has a simple form of compensation with springs rubbing on two copper plates. They were cleaned up and re fitted.

All back together again. Just needs couplings

It was given a test run using the steeple cab to push it round

Its a big truck

The steeple cab easily fits inside it.

A short operating session

Once I had a bit of stock out I decided to have a bit of a play.

The steeple cab on a freight service

The freight pauses in the station to let the passenger train go

No. 1 pulls across the trestle on her first loop

A nice sunny late winter day gives some nice shadows

The garden looks a bit bare

Work on the railway.

I have started ballasting the railway using small granite chips mixed with cement. It works quite well

The hole at the end of the station area is filled to allow the platform edge to be layed.

The platform edge in place and checked for clearance

Stuck down using mastic the edge consists of a section of aerated block with slate slabs on the top

Going green

The railway is now supplied with a free 12 volts of electricity supplied by the sun as a solar panel was fitted to the shed wall.

The solar panel charges a caravan leisure battery via this charger circuit. The fused output goes into the box on the left which will house the circuitry and switches as outputs are added.

New stock and modifications

The Swift Sixteen coaches are slowly coming together with the interiors painted.

The bodies have also had their coat of green paint and a coat of black on the underframes.

Work on the cardboard flat car started and the parts were rapidly cut out

They were soon glued together into a surprisingly strong vehicle body

Its not the biggest model as comparison with this HGLW flat truck shows.

The steeple cab received an exhaust pipe and silencer. 

A coat of silver and its ready for service.

DIY Stone Walls

To finish off the back of the station platform I decided to add a stone wall. Pre cast versions are not cheap so I decided to have a go at making my own from aerated concrete block sections. A test wall was created to try out the idea.

All you need to cut the block is an old wood saw

 

Once cut out and the top edge was rounded over and the block work scribed in with a screwdriver.

Tried out on the platform and I like it.

A coat of masonry paint was added to be followed later by other colours to add some weathering.

Thats it, the next update will probably be just after Easter depending on the amount of work I get to do.

New photo albums

I am going through my photographs and adding some new photo albums. The Ffestiniog and Welsh Highlands Railways are featured in the first album, still adding pictures.

February Update

Despite the foul weather this month I have made some progress on several projects.

The front goes on the railcar

The railcar has now had its cab front added plus the control column and the drivers seat have been added. No more will be done until a driver and some passengers have been purchased.

A second swift sixteen coach has been purchased off E-Bay

The second Swift Sixteen coach, an e-bay purchase, will be modified into a brake coach using the duckets supplied with the kit. It has had a coat of blue paint applied with a very nice finish but I am going to paint them Brunswick Green so that will soon go.

First coat of brown applied

A lighter shade of brown and black fittings complete the outside

The inside gets a coat of black

The Swift Sixteen open trucks are now complete and ready for use. They will receive letters and numbers soon as well as a load. 

Flat wagon kits ready for cutting out.

My friend Bruce from America has kindly sent me these basic flat car kits. Printed out on A4 paper they have been glued to artists mount board and will need to be cut out and then assembled. More pictures next month.

Thats it for February, hopefully the weather will improve and more work can be carried out on the line ready for the long, hot, sunny summer (I wish!) and lots of operating session.

Job list for the spring

I have been having a think about jobs to be done this spring so that I can get a summers worth of running in.

1. Re-lay the station area to get room for the engine shed. I am thinking of having an island platform and lengthen the entry paths into the station area.
2. Build the platform
3. Concrete section below the engine shed, landscape the yard area using an ash mixture of postcrete and ballast the rest using postcrete.
4. Lengthen the two block sections leading into the raised section ready for a new curved trestle bridge.
5. Lay the base for the factory area and get track down. The buildings will be built during the year.

So that is the main list and doesnt include the building and painting of new stock.

Lets hope we have a nice spring and summer with plenty of dry weather.

January Update

Another year begins and the run up to the Spring begins with some kit construction and a clearout of the workshop.

The build of the Engine Shed has continued

The completed shell was tried out on the railway to see how much room I had to site it.

No clearance...bugger... might need to revise the track layout.

Looks nice though.

The roof was added after a bit of fettling.

The hinges are glued in place on the doors

Next job is add the roof vent.

The sides and ends are glued on.

The doors go on.

Looking good.

The final roof sections are in place. Car filler is used to fill the gaps.

Ridge tiles are added

Unfortunately because of an error I made in building the smoke vent I had to add a bit more from some scrap plasticard.

The last job is to get it in the paint booth but I have to build that first.

I made a start on the Swift Sixteen kits.

The open wagon body parts

The end is glued and clamped in place.

1 body completed and ready for its wheels

The wheels are mounted on a steel axle which runs in a brass tube that is glued into the mounting turrets

On its wheels. The second kit quickly followed.

Before I started the coach kit I made a start on tidying the workshop. My work area is nice and tidy.

Still some work to be done on the rest!

The coach is a nice neat kit

The wheels fit in the same way as the trucks

The castings are good but need a bit of cleaning up

Once cleaned up and with the handle and grab rail in place the body looks great. Time for paint.

The Railcar was the last of my Christmas kits to build. Its a card kit that requires cutting out.

The sides are the first thing to be cut out

The Chief Engineer keeps an eye on progress as the windows are cut out.

Most important thing in the workshop

The windows all cut out, the other side followed after many blade changes as card really blunts blades quick.

Bracing wooden struts are glued in place

One side is ready, the other one will get its bracing next.

The rear panel is cut out along with its edge reinforcement strips

The floor components are cut out. They will be glued back to back to form a double thickness laminate

The cab sections are cut out

The body sides are glued in place

As is the front of the cab

The end panel is glued in place, just the cab to add.

The tidy up of the shed continued and I can finally get to the back of the shed

The winter bought us the first snow of the year although it was simply a light dusting I took the opportunity to get a picture or two.

No. 1 on snow clearing duty

The view from the workshop window.

Thats it for now except for one bit of late news is that I just won a second Swift Sixteen coach kit from E-Bay. It has had a coat of paint and has the brake coach duckets. More pictures in the February update.