Handy gadget

I've had this for a while and it comes in very useful from time to time. I got mine from Cousin Jewellery UK, link below.

bench peg

Cut a hole and a slot and it makes up into this.

Very handy, a good companion with your piercing saw for cutting out your windows and doors from ply wood, also for cutting out pieces of brass etc.

Easten station building.

After a lot if working out, i think we are getting somewhere, yes, i know what i am doing now and how to build thus dam thing.

A we are not actually building Easten per-say, it is going to be infilled in brick.

Window mullions

After deciding to build Easton station on Portland, work started on working out the building.

A copy of B L Jacksons book was purchased, volume 2 Isle of Portland Railways. In there are some drawings of the station building, unfortunately there are no dimension or scale. Three afternoons were spent drawing this out to 4mm scale. The Two end gable ends were cut from 1.8mm ply.

Deciding that this wasn't thick enough they were laminated on to 1mm ply, still to be cut out.

Before going any further i needed to work out the size of the window mullions. Never having made one before, another couple of afternoons were spent drawing out a window.

A bit of experimentation, i have made one, at least now i know what size to cut the window apertures out to.

Only 4 of this size to made. This involves a lot a patience. There are 23 seperate pieces to this one window. Only 3 more to go.

and the inside.

Before i go insane, the actual window frames themselves still have to be made, then painted and glazing fitted.

Nearly 5 days to get to this point, well, i think i know what i am doing now, hopefully the next ones will be easier.

As they say, if it was easy..............

Naming a Layout

How do you name a new layout ?

This can always be a difficult one, 

where to start.

 Perhaps a name from an area you are modelling. Obviously if you are modelling a real place then the work is already done for you.

Something from your youth.

Something that reminds you of a place you visited as a child.

Pine Road came about as it was where i was born.

Exton Quay came about as it was based on Topsham Quay but because it wasn't  Topsham Quay i used the next station up the line but added the "Quay"

Parkstone Goods came about, well, its the Goods area of Parkstone station.

Which finally brings us to the point of this blog post.

The Next layout.

I have come up with a name.

What is he going on about, i here you ask?

Some of you may know that i have had a long term interest in the Railways of Portland (that's the one in Dorset)

Especially Easton on the west side of the Island.

After looking at plans and drawings of the station i felt it not possible to build an accurate representation in 9 feet.

After the building of Parkstone i vow declared that i would never  build a real place ever again. Also, considering the amount of fun that was had building Exton Quay, this is the way to go, well for me anyway.

We haven't all got a huge big room/barn/loft to build these things in 

So, the new layout will be based on the 

Isle of Portland

some aspects of Easton and the surrounding area and from here on in will be Officially and here with, be referred to as

CHURCH OPE

"OPE" from the Dorset dialect meaning

" an opening down to the waterside"

Stone buildings experiment

Another day, another experiment.

Portland stone. To the untrained eye it looks white but looking closer, it does seem to have a very pale grey/blue tint to it.

Having a bit of experimentation, i have come up with this.

A closer shot.

Looking at it in the "greyscale" range.

We get this........

this look likes any black and white photo we see in our Railway books.

I think we have sorted out our Portland stone project.

Stone buildings

Continuing the experiment.

This is what we have.

Stone buildings

I've been doing a spot of experimenting.

Using the old Peco country station building as a basis and never having built a stone building before. I was looking for a way of making "plastic stone" look more like real stone.

Products used is mainly washes from Humbrol, various weathering powders and turps ( the real stuff not the synthetic variety)

A coat of extremly thinned down primer was used in the hope of not covering up to much detail.

A coat of turps with a couple of drips of sand wash was applied followed by some weathering powders.

This is the result.

A before and after pic. Looking a tad to grey to my mind. I am trying to recreate the stone from the station building on Portland at Easton. It looks more white to me so shall continue the experimentation process a bit further.

Any coments greatly received.

LSWR 02

At last sorted out my old Lswr G6 that should have been an 02.

It now has a new chassis is looking every bit an 02.

Locos' for Exton Quay

Hi all

Thought i would get the proper camera out and try to take some decent shots of the Locomotives used on Exton Quay.

Some were previously used on Pine Road and will get used on any future layout.

All my loco's are built with Romford/Markitts wheels, 

Highlevel gearboxes (lo-loader compact+) and Mashima motors, usually 90:1 or 120:1 

Click on the image for a super blow up pic.

First off. 

The Adams G6 built from an old Wills kit, now supplied by South Eastern Finecast. I had to add 3.5mm to the boiler for it to line up.

It was originally intended to fit the old Hornby Dublo chassis. SEF now do a lovely etch N/S replacement.

An Adams A12, built from an old NU-CAST kit, running on a scratch built chassis.

Another G6 but built from a Alan Gibson kit.

Probably the best loco in the world! 

Adams class 02 built from a SEF kit.

Very heavy and have had it pulling 20 wagons, come on Kernow.

What would we do without South Eastern Finecast.

An Adams B4

Look at her, aren't they an attractive looking engine.

A Adams Radial or 0415 class, simply stunning.  

They come in pairs around these parts. 3520 was my first kit built loco so is rather special to me. I will admit that i got a few things wrong but a good friend of mine put me on the straight and narrow and not looked back since

Again, another 02 from a SEF kit

It makes an occasional visit to Exton.

Drumonds " BUG" built from a Jidenco kit. 

This was a nightmare to build and get to run.

It drives on the centre axle, i thought about using a "beetle" but decided it would protrude to much into the carriage portion, good old Chris from Highlevel came to the rescue.

The only RTR loco on the layout.

A Beattie Well tank ( i can't locate a kit)

One of the original ones from Dapol sold through Kernow. It runs well but far to light for my liking. It has been heavily weathered as trying to remove the BR stuff became problematic hence the weathering 

That's it, in the "TO DO" draw is a T1, T3 another B4 and 02, a H13 Railmotor and a Class 700. What i would like is a Class 0330, as described in a previous post, its on its way. 

Adams G6 from SEF finale.

The Adams G6, its done. Another one for Exton Quay.

Ive weathered this one, the Alan Gibson G6 is clean so, thought only right to have a well used version.

That makes 8 SR engines available for use on Exton.

Adams G6 from SEF

An afternoon of lining and applying transfers.

'0330' Beattie class

I should own one of these.

https://ooworks.co.uk/

yes, ok already ordered one, due out later in the year.

00works are taking orders now so, if you would like one, i wouldn't wait to long as all other models they have produced have sold out

Beattie 0330 class, 6 were originaly built by Beyer Peacock & Co and devlivered in 1876, Two more in 1877 and 12 more in 1882. The last batch differed in a few details.

Only 9 recieved Southern Railway livery, 2 went to the EKR line. All were gone by 1932 except for 2 that resided at the back of Eastleigh shed but were broken up in 1949.

Ps

I have no connection with 00works or affiliation with them. Anything LSWR is worth getting exited over.

Adams G6 from SEF

Yes, she's Black, very shiny and probably still tacky.

I had already painted the cab interior hence the masking tape. She will be numbered 265 as she was at Exmouth in 1932. Lined out in green, that will mean 2 G6s on Exton.

Adams G6

A bit more done on the Adams G6, don't forget this is one of the ex Wills kits from South Eastern Finecast. They havn't done anything with this kit yet so it needs a bit of attention.

The cab interior has been etch primed and painted, this is the interior from an 02 kit. Also, the crew have been painted ready to fit.

I made the cab detail as a seperate item, just easier to paint the body.

The body has also been etch primed, hopefully will have time to put the Black on tomorrow.

Also the wheels for the Lswr 02 have been painted.

The roof, toolbox and shovel are for the G6. The toolbox goes on top the right hand tank.

Adams G6 from South Eastern Fincast

Its getting there. After stretching the boiler, things line up now

think it maybe getting painted black with green lining.

South Eastern Finecast Adams 02/G6

Another Adams G6.

There's a problem with the old South Eastern Finecast kits for the Adams G6. They were originally built for the old Hornby Dublo jinty chassis. (I think i may have mentioned this in a previous post) Using one of there new etch chassis, this makes the boiler and thus the splashers to shirt, the splasher doesn't line up with the wheels. Not one ti suffer this, how do we get over this?

I have cut the boiler in half from just in front of the first boiler band.

You need to add a piece of material 3.56mm in width into this section, this will also make the boiler the correct length.

I cut a length of of 0.4 brass sheet, rolled it into a ring and soldered it in place.

Tinning the inside of the brass ring first with 145° solder then soldering in with 70° solder. Im happy with that.