Plaster N gauge buildings

 

Three, very nice, N gauge (OK, scale, but you know what I mean) buildings, for a fiver. Thanks Elaine's Trains at TINGS. Apparently, they were part of a much larger collection, that mostly sold out on the Saturday. 

I'm told the manufacturer is SD Models, although they don't appear to be related to S&D Models, but I do remember hearing the name in the past. Do they still exist? 

Made of plaster, each model has been in the wars with chips and dings. I'm hoping that a little touching in with thinned paint will hide the worst damage. Being plaster though, the colours and wall textures are superb. 

To be honest, I bought these out of curiosity, and because I sometimes need to set up photographic scenes, and my N gauge building collection is minimal. These might appear in the few backgrounds in the future. 

This is one of the reasons I go to shows. You don't get bargains like this on the web!

Can Ragleth save the day?

 

I really want to take two locos to the club steam day. The Peckett has a boiler certificate, and digging through a boxfile of correspondance (Including the hate mail I've recieved while editing mags. Yes really. It's pathetic.) I found another - for my Ragleth!

This loco has been sat in its wooden box since before the pandemic, so would it work? 

First, I checked the batteries. Unsuprisingly, they were dead, so for the moment I've replaced them with dry cells. I've not given up, just that charging, if it works, will take a while, and I'm impatient. 

While under there, the reciever is changed from a Planet to a RadioLink. Not essential, but I want to try the Planet in the steamboat. I think they are more reliable. There's also a long-term plan to put all the locos on Spectrum radios, but that requires me to find the receiver that came with SeaLion. 

Anyway, the good news is that all worked well, so it was outside to try some steam. 

Another result! I even gave it a little run up and down the garden railway. Not far, as the track needs ballasting and levelling, but enough to know it will move. And move fast, it could do with a bit of a load on the back...

Of course, getting the loco out again reminded me how much I like the proportions of this model. Perhaps more 7/8th than 16mm, it's a lovely chunky little machine, thay deserves a lot more attention and love. 

Update: Here's a handy hint. 

If you take the blowdown valve out while checking the loco over, don't leave it on the garden table, or when you get to the railway, your loco will be incontinent, and there will be no steaming, but plenty of embarasment.

Warehouse Wednesday - Chapel come garage

 

This is a weird one. Spotted on the road to the Snaefell Mountain Railway sheds, a cute, and very modelable chapel. With a row of lockup garages built on the back. 

I know no more, and certainly can't explain how this happened. However, you can explore further on Streetview.

The perils of buying second-hand steam locomotives

 

My plan for the club steam day, had been to take two locos along. The Garden Rail Peckett and my Regner Willi. 

In preperation, because it hadn't run for a while, I took Willi down to the club for a quick spin. Chatting to the organiser, there was a problem. While I might be happy with my little vertical boiler machine, when I bought it second-hand, I didn't get the all-important boiler certificate. 

Not certificate, no running. Especially on public days. 

This isn't unreasonable. We've just had to cetificate all the boats for insurance purposes. On a public track therefore, proving that your chuffer isn't going to explode is fair enough. 

Of course, there's no time to get a certificate before Sunday, not helped by a pressure gauge that doesn't drop to zero. Yes, it goes up when the model is working, but you don't pass a test without a properly working gauge. 

This is a new problem, and one I'll need to attend to. Maybe there is a way to adjust these things, or I'll just have to buy a new gauge. At least access to change it is excellent!

So, if you buy a second-hand model, make sure you get a boiler certificate, or at least be aware you'll likely need to do something about it in the future. 

Anyway, I was allowed on the track during the evening. Five minutes to make a complete circuit!

Solder eating stalagmites

 

Last time I mentioned the Fantail launch, it had just passed a steam test. After this, I've been very busy, so left the remains of the Mamod fuel tablets in the burner pan, thinking they would be fine there. 

It seems not. Left to their own devices, they formed these little lumps in the pan, and spread around the outside too. I've no idea how this works, but it's a reminder to clean the pan out in future. 

Fortunatly, a bush with stiff, damp, long-handled brush, removed the muck easily enough, I managed to avoid removing the engine as this would require disconneting the couple, and I don't think disturbing the rubber tube is a good idea if it can be avoided. 

However, there was another problem. Both connections to the battery box that powers the radio had failed. 

Coincidence? 

I'm not sure. It's odd that both would break. 

Rewiring the box didn't cure the problem either, and a frustrating hour was spend re-attaching wires and changing the reciever. No matter what I did, I couldn't get the servo, or even a fresh servo plugged into the controller, to operate. 

At this point things looked a bit hopeless, but digging in the box of spares, I found a new bettery box. I also changed the recieved from a RadioLink to a Planet, wired it all up and got a result! Lots of faffing around, but the boat was ready for the steam day. 

On the day, I ran it for 12 minutes, retrieved the model and checked it over. 1/3 of a boiler and probably 1/3 of the two solid fuel tablets I'd put in. On that basis, I think the 20 minutes I've had in the past is achievable. 

I'll be careful to clean the pan out before putting it away in the future though!

Burton Railex 2023

I love a little show, and so when I needed to head to Rollaston-on-Dove to take some photos for work, I wasn't exactly disapointed. Even though it was a Sunday, and just over an hours drive, I anticipated some interesting second-hand stall action, and a good chance, since the venue was a Scout hut, of cake. 

Well, the venue was a Scout hut, but a well posh one. Two floors, joined by stairs and a lift. Out the back, in the field used for a car park, a climbing wall, on the back of a huge outdoor stage. 

The good news was the second-hand stall, where I picked up my Dr X wagon seen on Friday. I just missed out on a boxed Hornby "Desmond" for 8 quid, but someone else was hovering up every loco in sight. Never mind. 

Layout-wise, the show punched well above its weight. Little Burton, at the top of this post, we have already featured in BRM, or I'd have booked a shoot on the spot. As it was I've taken some establishing shots for another layout, and booked an N gauge for a future shoot. 

There was also a stuning French layout whose names I can't remember, other than it was a play on the word "Marmite". Really lovely modelling, that I so wish I could photograph properly, but the overseas charms would scare the horses. 

Cake? None!

Yes, I remonstraited with the organisers about this. To be fair, this was the first show for a while, and in a new venue. I'm told this will be fixed next year - which is good, as I fancy a return visit. 

Sorry this is a bit shot. There's a video here with more of the show. 

Saturday Film Club - Airfix Wild West Adventure Train Set

Last week's look at the Airfix DR X set was popular, but the general opions was that the set everyone really wanted, was the Wild West one. 

I'll agree, this looks a lot more fun. Loads of operating action. The coaches sometimes appear on second-hand stalls, and I've been tempted, but you really need the main set to make them work. Maybe one day.

Dr X Lowmac

 

Last Saturday, I feature a video on the Airfix Dr X set, and what do I find the next day on a second-hand stall? A Dr X Lowmac!

It seemed that fate was pushing me to spend four quid on a bit of nostaligia. Somewhere in my collection are a couple of these wagons with the lorry removed and some loads stuck to the deck. I seem to remember buying them for 50p each from a huge pile in Birmingham Beatties back in the 1980s. Even my pocket money streatched that far. 

Inside, you can see the outline of a missile that would be carried in the full set. Sadly, Pack B didn't include that detail. I wonder if Pack A did? 

I assume that the phosphor-bronze clips would normally hold the missile, but if you depressed the one on the bottom, the side would open, and the missle be ejected through the door for the bad Dr's nefarious purposes.

Garden Rail - October 2023

 

40 years to build a garden railway? To be fair, Andrew Armstrong's layout, the Blackhead Light Railway, has been rebuilt several times in different locations, and there has been plenty learned along the way.

We've a fine selection of workbench features too:

• Building 'Edward' from the railway stories in G scale
• Measuring the power of a steam locomotive
• Scratchbuilding a Kerr Stuart diesel
• Fitting wagon wheels
• Building a wooden wagon kit

There's also a review of Roundhouse Engineering's latest loco – Harrogate as well as a range of laser-cut platform trolleys.

Boiler testing day

 

I'm lucky, that my work is flexible. As long as there isn't a meeting, it doesn't matter when I work, just that the jobs get done. This allowed me to be at the model boat club in the sun for boiler testing day. Tha fantail launch sparkled as she sat on the bench, waiting for her turn with the club testers. 

We were in the company of some serious kit too. Proper boats, with steam plants that cost several time more than my model! For these, the serious testing kit is employed. For insurance reasons, the models must be tested every year, so we don't blow anyone up while sailing, especially on a public day. 

The simple plant of the fantail gave the testers a bit of a problem. Boiler pressure is low, 20-35psi, and there isn't a normal safety valve, just a length of neopropaline pipe that should be the weak link if anything goes wrong. 

Tester Chris had looked into this, and it seems the rules are sligthly different for an "Lo" type steam plant which is how mine is categorised. We discussed it a little and decided that the best plan would be to stall the engine and see if the pipe blew off. 

A few seconds before this photo was taken, the whole thing was smothered in steam. After a few seconds at stall, the pipe blew off, and emptied the boiler of hot gas. It was quite spectacular! Of course, this leave fire under the boiler and not much water in there, so I will need to point the model at the bank and hope momentum gets it there before anything melts .

All this satisfied the test, and the model has now been certified. 

I'm quite chuffed (pun intended) with this. I've never been certified before, and take this as me having done an OK job with the construction. 

At this point, I should have taken the launch for a little sail, but when reassembling it, I hadn't been realistic about the state of the rubber coupling. 

A replacement is in order, and adding the tube to my steam engine "flight box" for bankside repairs in the future.

Clean up and first run

 

No point in getting clever, the first place to start cleaning up the engine is down at the kitchen sink. 

A good scrub with soapy water and an old toothbrush removes the fur from the mazak, and a lot of the muck from the fuel pan too. I couldn't resist a quick polish with the springy metal stuff used for really stuborn muck on pans. I know it's going to get dirty again, but I find cleaning things theraputic sometimes. 

Obviously, there will be Brasso. If it's metal, I do my best to bring it up to a reasonable shine. Again, there's no logic to this other than it looks nice. I think I hope the boiler tester will be kinder to a gleaming engine than a mucky one. 

I prefer Brasso wadding, it smells a bit less, and is very handy for all sorts of quick cleaning jobs around the workbench. 

With everything cleaned and oiled, it's outside in the sunshine with a pack of solid fuel tablets. I'd forgotten the smell of these. Nothing like and nice as meths, but certainly evocative of a time spent trying to persaude a Mamod loco to find a happy medium between stationery and Mach 1. 

Anyway, a table and a half placed in the pan, and the engine dropped on top, I'm glad of my Accucraft flame/heat proof gloves for all this, and we have lift-off!

Prepare the steam boat!

 

A new event is on the horizon. The boat and railway clubs have joined forces for a steam day, with boats on the water, and trains on the new tracks. 

I have trains, but it's a very long while since my fantail launch saw the water. But, I want to be one of the few, possibly the only one, operating in both areas.

Exhuming the launch from storage, being out of use has not been kind. All the basswork has taken on a distincly green tinge, and the mazak (I think) parts of the engine are a bit furry. 

Add to that the radio reeciever is 26mHz, there's a bit of work to do before the model is ready for a boiler test. Yes, we are now official, so it will have to submit to one of those. I'm not looking forward to this as the model doesn't have a normal safety valve, and I soft-soldered the boiler together! 

KATO at TINGS - mad, but I love it!

 

I only had time for a quite tour of The International N Gauge show this year, but still managed to book a couple of layout shoots for later this year. 

However, I found a favourite stand - the Kato Minidiorama Circus. 

It's mad. Lots of different little modules conected together. Difficult to describe, so here's some photos. 

Mad? Yes. 

Imaginative? Very. 

Do I want to have a go? Very much so!

Saturday Film Club: Dr X

I remember seeing this reviewed in an old MRC. The line that stuck in my head was something about Dr X being the "first corpulent figure". 

Part of me still wants one. I did by a couple of the lowmacs from Beatties leter when they were on sale for 50p each.

Van body, 009 couplings and water in BRM October

 

My main project in BRM is a OO (actually, sicne it has no chassis, I should claim P4 perhaps) grounded van body. Not too tricky, although I go a bit further than the "rip the chassis off and plonk" school of modelling. 

The problem is, that doing the work on the van is one thing, it still needed to be set in a scene to look good on the page, so even more work went into finishing the diorama off. 

Hence, BRM TV includes me talking viewers through all the details to complete the scene. Which takes ten minutes, as there's a lot to cover!

I've also taken a look at the Tramfabriek 009 couplings.

For the finescale 4mm narrow gauge modeller, these could be a game-changer. They look fantastic, and work really well. OK, there is a price to pay, but visually, they are worth it IMHO. 

As well as these, I've looked at modelling water, rules, back to backs and bending card kits.

Camera out, and it's the turn of Alston. 

This small-space N aguge model was probably my fastest photo shoot yet. A late call, I took the pictures at the end of Doncaster show, in less then 3/4 of an hour. Fortuatly, it's a good-looking model with loads of interest, all of which shows on the page. 

All this in October 2023 issue of BRM

Four decades

40 years ago, I made what has unexpectedly turned out to be one of the most important decisions of my like. I left the Scouts, and joined The Leamigton & Warwick Model Railway Society. 

When my Dad and I (at 13, I was too young to go on my own) arrived at the celler, found at the top of town, we didn't really know what to expect. Initial impressions weren't great, the place was scruffy and damp, but the welcome was warm.

With the club show just over a week away, we found ourselves roped in to help out - and when it turned out that we were happy to muck in moving seats and barriers rather then just stand around paying trains on the test track, the lads warmed to us. 

From there, a shy 14 year old found himself being invited to run layouts at exhibitions, because I did this as seriously as the owners wanted. Not on a po-faced way, but running at scale speeds and, most importantly, keeping things moving. Perhaps working with adults helped, I always got on better with them than kids my own age, and they treated me as an equal.

Gradually, I travelled more, and we built our own layouts. It's always been an exhibiting club, and so being able to tell tales of the previous weekend was popular. 

I've rarely been involved with club project, prefering to do my own thing, but that doesn't mean I won't help if I can. When someone is cutting a piece of wood, the most useful person in the club is the one who hold the other end.

Over the years, the club has moved. First to the upstairs of an old egg packing shed, and now to our current location in a converted drying shed. It's a good job this last move is more recent, although over a decade ago, as that first trip, we cycled and did so for many years!

Club life has (generally) been good for me, which is why I recomend it to everyone. Turn up, help out, and don't expect to be in charge after a fortnight, and there's a lot to be enjoyed.  

Update: There was cake. 

Time for the orange

 

At least the colour choice is easy for this model. Over a white primer coat, I airbrushed (couldn't get a rattle can) on several thin layers of Humbrol orange enamel. I don't like working with gloss, but didn't have any choice. 

After a couple of  day, on went the transfers. Another day drying and it was time for varnish. 

Five minutes with a spray can of satin, it all went wrong. Acrylics and enamels don't like each other unless you leave them a very long while. I didn't, and the result looks like a coat of Hammerite. 

And so the model has headed for the bin. Yes, I could look at stripping it, but I'd still have no transfers, and its not an expensive kit. 

Bond will be back...

Painting the "dude"

 

The Bond Bug driver figure is a pretty good model. Not everyone agrees, and alternatives have popped up on eBay, along with new wheels that operate under the "3D printing good, plastic bad" theory. 

Hanging on the figure seems the trickiest job, so for the skin tones, I sat him on a cushion of Blu Tack in a paint pot. 

For the rest, I l took advatage of a big slot in his back to insert a ScaleModelScenery Professional Folding & Scoring Tool, although a cocktail stick would have worked as well, I just happened to have this handy. 

The downside of close-up photos, is you can see I really need to redo the wonky eyes...

Ask Phil: Sea Lions' radio control

David asks: I have managed to obtain a manual version of Sea Lion, and yes she is a real beauty, I am now looking at converting Sea Lion to R/C, could I impose upon you for some photos of how the R/C kit is fitted and where things like battery and receiver are located, thank you.

Well, here are some photos, but I'm not sure how much help they will be. My model is currently unsteamed, and looking at a loose lead in the cab, not plugged in fully. 

There's no sign of either reciever, or batteries, although I can see a long aerial wire under the boiler. Best guess is that both live in the tanks, although they are very thin, and I can't see an easy way to get inside them.
 

It would help if I could find my instructions - they are around somewhere, but this loco being a shef quee, nowhere near the model!

I hope these photos help a little.