For the few folks that have asked about progress on the model railway, here's a little movie that frankly flatters to deceive regards how much has really been done over the last year.

Progress has indeed been slow but things are at least moving along. The initial first few weeks were absorbed by building a 2.5 x 1.0 metre table on which the layout sits. A couple of mirror-image baseboards were added with rounded corners - a reasonable radius at the back to allow for a backdrop to be wrapped around the corner, and a smaller one at the front to avoid nasty scratches on the torso - partly for myself, but also because grandkids would be mooching around occasionally.

All the track is now laid and wired, and the main running area has been ballasted and painted / toned. The base layer around the Shed area has been painted and at some point I'll likely fill that with a mixture of ballast and coal powder. Four sections of retaining wall have been built, and I've used low-relief Bachmann Scenecraft terrace houses at the back. I'm also in the process of building a factory from a Scale Model Scenery laser-cut kit. A North Light style shed has been built using a 3 to 2 road modified resin kit from TownStreet Models - it needed a bit of filing / fitting here and there but the result is just superb. A coaling stage has also been built from a laser-cut kit.

The two platforms were both cut from solid pieces of pine using a template crafted from sellotaped computer paper which was then marked up and cut using an electric jigsaw. 1mm card was laid on top of that and painted grey with a white edge. The edges of the platform were covered in brick-paper. A barrow-crossing was also made from 1mm card, scored for 6" planks and painted. Decorating the platform with people, fences, and all the other accoutrements is yet to be done, but there are station buildings out of sight on both platforms.

There's no greenery or 'fine finishing' on the layout yet - that, and the roadway down to the cattle dock are future projects. I have a sunken turntable kit yet to be built, but the plastic well has been installed, painted oily black at the base and lined with brick paper. Completion is another project for the future, and will require me reacquainting myself with soldering skills!

The three units of traction currently gracing the layout are a Johnson 3F 0-6-0 tender (43615), a Fairburn 2-6-4Tank (42140), and a 2-car Met Camm DMU - all supplied by Grimy Times Model Railways in Warrington. Around 90% of the rolling stock is secondhand, with wagons etc often sourced from eBay. I'm waiting on the pre-ordered Sutton Locomotive Works class 24/1 which, hopefully, will arrive in the next few months. The line is very much Midland Railway, and the likely station name is Edenbridge depicting somewhere perhaps near Carlisle - however, the jury is still out on that one.

I'm no expert on video files, so hopefully it will download easily enough for viewing. All a bit of a learning experience - so not much different to the model railway then.

iPhone13 Mini video, processed in iMovie.
29th January 2024

Tags:   OO gauge Model Railway Townstreet Models Scale Model Scenery Bachmann Scenecraft 2024 Grimy Times Model Railways Modelling

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Work on the model railway has been moving forward well this last few weeks and, after ordering timber between Christmas and New Year, the 'O' Level woodworking skills were put to good use during a relatively mild week in early January. As a result.....
- Wooden support built and painted ✅
- 2.5m x 1.0m baseboard fitted ✅
- Digitrains DCS52 DCC controller purchased ✅
- All track now laid and tested ✅
- Point motors fitted to fiddle yard ✅

Next steps will see work start on the scenery and railway infrastructure - including loco shed and yard, station, retaining wall backdrop, and street. There will also be a road down to a cattle dock. Weathering and ballasting the track is also on the agenda but the latter will probably be deferred until the platforms are built. A number of the structures will initially be kits rather than scratch-built (resin, laser-cut MDF, etc); and some will be pre-fabricated / pre-painted. It will be nice to start spending time at baseboard height rather than crawling under it trailing wires and testing connections - for such a simple layout I've been surprised by just how much wiring has been needed.

The video above was captured on the phone around 3 weeks ago when the initial circuit was complete but before track laying had started in earnest in the shed yard. Without the SLW class 24/1 (which is still on the production line) I ended up acquiring a Johnson LMS 3F 0-6-0 tender loco - which would just about still be running in the very early 1960s, the era I'm modelling.

Special thanks to Steve and Allan at 'Grimy Times' in Warrington, who have been very generous with their advice on the different stages to date. Top chaps!

Apologies for the tardy presence on Flickr recently but I'll be catching up, at least for a while, over the next few days.

iPhone SE
24th January 2023

Tags:   Model Railway OO gauge Johnson 3F 1:76 scale 2023 Goods Freight Grimy Times Bachmann Steam Locomotive 43615 0-6-0 LMS London Midland & Scottish

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