Edgeworth out of storage

 

I'm having a bit of a clear out at the moment. The storage is looking fuller than I am comfortable with, so it's time to do something about it. First up, a set of baseboards that have been sitting around for over six years were found a new home via RMweb, then it was time for another layout to go. 

Edgeworth was built back in 2014. It was my first BRM project layout, and as such, extensivly written up as a series in the magazine. We then spun this off into a bookazine The BRM Guide to building your first model railway - basically the articles brought together with a load of extra material. 

After that the layout visited a couple of Warners shows, and then was boxed up and stored in the back of my storage container. It's sat there for ten years!

Anyway, I agreed with my boss, it was time for the model to find a new home, and one Sunday evening, popped an advert up on RMweb. An hour later, Terry, the Stafford show exhibition manager, grabbed the chance to take it off my hands. He'd been looking at the old articles, and considering building the model as a winter project, and I've made his life easier. 

One thing that had worried me was what the state of the layout would be after all this time. It wasn't wrapped in plastic, and in the back corner of the metal box, there wasn't any airflow.

It turns out I needn't have worried. The layout was in an excellent state. Some oxidisation on the bolts holding it in the carrying boards was the only problem. A shot of WD40 sorted the two I couldn't easily free with my fingers, and I gave them all a blast once they were accesible, just to be on the safe side. 

The only problem with all of this - I can't find the control panel! It's big enough that I'd thought I'd just put my hand on it. As it is, I need to find the thing, and then work out how to get it over to Terry. Perhaps I'll have to go to Stafford show on the Sunday after all. 

Update: I have found the control panel, and Terry doesn't need it as he plans to inflict the evil DCC on the layout!

New layout building bookazine!

Out now - The BRM guide to Building Your First Model Railway!

Officially available from all good, and some disreputable, branches of WH Smith from October 12th. It will also be sold by some model railway traders at exhibitions. Price £5.99

If you can't wait then there is mail-order now: http://www.rmweb-buyandsell.co.uk/books/the-brm-guide-to-building-your-first-model-railway.html

Inside you'll find a revised version of the guides I wrote while building Edgeworth 18 months ago along with a little bit of new material to fill in some of the gaps. The spare original supplements sold like hot cakes at exhibitions as people raced to collect the set and we quickly ran out, hence the appearance of this bookazine.

Of course, the whole point of this exercise is that since the layout was in print, a whole load of new people have entered the hobby who won't have seen them. The layout proved incredibly popular at show with several versions being built by others - something I take as a massive compliment.

To support this, we're still running a thread on RMweb to answer questions and suggestions.

Amazing electronics

Setting up Edgeworth last week, I nudged one of the buttons on the control panel before I'd plugged the layout in to the mains supply.

To my surprise, a point changed.

This means that the Capacitor Discharge Unit (CDU) has held enough charge to throw a point since the last exhibition.

In October.

It's held this charge for over 4 months. Maybe I'm being silly, but that seems pretty impressive for a device that costs less than 14 quid.

Off to Barrow Hill

This weekend, I'll be taking Edgeworth to Barrow Hill Live exhibition. It's a new venue for me but the mix of real and model trains looks interesting so if I can escape from behind the stand for a while, I hope to have a good poke around.

If you have the chance, please drop in and say hello.

More details of Barrow Hill Live

The mythical Ratio 528

One issue that has presented itself on Edgeworth is the disintegrating Hornby resin water tower. I commented on this a couple of months ago and the only good news is that a couple of applications of superglue and some internal splinting with brass wire seems to have cured the problem.

If I'm honest though, the join is a lot more visible than it should be. Exhibition repairs and less than perfect breaks don't make for a clean restoration.

Since this is the only ready-to-plonk structure on the layout, the solution is obvious - replace it with a kit.

I recalled that Ratio produced something appropriate and set out to look for a kit at exhibitions. Surely this couldn't be difficult, after all the range is widely distributed.

Sadly, no. Doncaster, Alexandra Palace, York. All were scoured without results. Eventually I began to doubt that the kit existed at all. Searches on the web didn't seem to bring back anything either. I assumed that I had been mistaken.

But no. This is not the Big Footed Loch Ness plastic kit. It really exists. Spotted on the Rural Railway stand at Sutton Coldfield exhibition at the weekend, I grabbed it and added it to the stash of projects. At least it will be finished quicker than the 1970s Hornby lifting bridge I also bought at that show. Now that is a rare kit...

Locomotive Superpower for Edgeworth

While exhibiting my beginners layout, Edgeworth last weekend (blog post about this on Sunday) we had a few invaders on the tracks.

In the platform road, a Hattons/Heljan Beyer-Garratt. Sneaking in to the sidings, one of the first production Hornby P1s. Sharp eyed readers will spot a far more appropriate Pannier tank in the engine shed. Only the pannier belongs to me sadly. The others were brought in by the operating monkey left in charge of making trains move.

The Garratt found clearances beside the coal stage a bit tight but managed OK. The P1, with the loco-tender connection set at it's longest setting, handled the tight curves surprisingly well for an 8 coupled machine.

Pedants might suggest that neither machine is idea for a GWR branch line but the visitors disagreed judging by the number of photos taken!

The London Festival of Railway Modelling

 

According to the blurb in the latest magazine:

The BRM Project Layout Edgeworth will also be in attendance. Edgeworth was built by BRM's Phil Parker and searialised in the Janauary, February and March issues of the magazine. Phil will be on-hand throughout the exhibition to answer any questions you have on the construction of this beginner's layout.

There's even a picture of me so I can't escape.

Looks like I better head soutwards today then. See you there!

More details here.

Preparing for Leamington Exhibition

Another weekend, another model railway exhibition. This time though, it's the local show, just down the road from me at Stoneleigh.

I'll be taking two layouts: Clayhanger Yard and Edgeworth.

This might sounds ambitious, but I'll have helpers and Edgeworth is more static exhibit than layouts. A lack of stock means I don't have anything to run on it!

Clayhanger Yard will be more impressive as I'll be giving all my stock a last run before it heads back into its storage box as the layout departs with its new owner. Maybe one day, I'll build another O gauge layout for it to work.

I'll be there to chat t anyone who'd like to drop by about all aspect of modelling.

Apart from this, there's a hall full of good stuff - Visit the L&WMRS website for more details.

Doncaster 2014

After 4 hours of a 2 hour journey up the M1, I pitched up at Doncaster Racecourse with less than an hour to go before the place was shut up for the Friday night. Fortunately, Edgeworth goes together very quickly and so with the aid of BRM's Howard Smith to hold the fascia panel up, both layout and project display were ready just before we were cast out on to the pavement.

The trip to the hotel was made more interesting by turning up at a really nice looking Holiday Inn to be told that we weren't booked in there. It seems that this happens all the time so a set of printed directions is available to guide lost travellers to the right place. Better still, the right place comes complete with not a health club as the wrong place did, but with a pub that serves mahosive deserts.

So mahosive are they that both Howard and I were defeated by our choux pastry, custard, cream and ice cream confections. Amazingly, this heart attack on a plate prompts the question, "Would you like normal or pouring cream?" when ordered. Apparently, half a pint of "normal" cream isn't enough in the cake, you need more on the side!

Holiday Inns are set up for breakfast to be served at a leisurely pace, not to the whole hotel at one go. Luckily the organisers had asked for it to be available from 7am and chatting to the staff, they took this to mean they had to start preparation for 6:30. 6:45 Saturday morning, several of us enjoyed first pickings and were not in the least surprised that 15 minutes later, a queue for food appeared. If you want to eat AND get to the show well before opening, you have to wake up pretty early.

At the show, I was shocked to discover that the numerous TV screens dotted around the venue, normally used for gee-gee spotting, were to show a short, and mercifully silent, advertising film for various BRM products including the latest BRM live for which I filmed some stuff just before Christmas. What this meant is that directly opposite me there was a giant telly with me gawping out of the screen every 10 minutes. That's at least 6 times an hour I get a reminder that I'm going bald. Yippee.

Fortunately, there were so many people in front of me that I spent the time chatting and answering questions rather than fretting about my hair. Top topic of conversation was the Peco backscene. Lots of people had either never seen one or forgotten they exist. Most were pleasantly surprised how good they can look with careful use. A couple even thought I'd painted it myself.

Time flew and soon I was due to perform in the BRM Theatre. This didn't go quite as well as hoped due to the presentation I'd put together failing to load on the laptop. Of course, I wasn't prepared for this and so had to do my best to entertain the audience by talking without pictures. They politely clapped at the end so I probably got away with it. At least the chairs were comfy which is probably what everyone wanted anyway...

Saturday dessert in the pub was HMS Doncaster. Ostensibly this is the healthy option as it includes a banana at hull underneath an ice cream and cream superstructure. The sail on this boat was, I though a wafer, except it wasn't, it was a triangle of sweet batter with sugar frosting. I scooped out the fruit along with the little cream and ice cream but left around a weeks worth of calories on the plate...

Sunday began with a quick run around pointing my camera at things, the only chance I had to do this. There was no time at all for looking round once the show opened as again, the stand was inundated by people asking questions.

One unusual aspect to the layout is that people are welcomed around the back to have a good look at the areas normally hidden from view. I seriously considered exhibiting without a curtain around the legs but decided that it would look better to have one but then invite interested visitors to come behind the layout. Quite a few took up the invitation and I think some might have thought the system I've used to attach boards together and hold them off the floor wasn't completely mad. Conveniently, the last part of the series was available fresh from the printers so I could show the diagram that explains things while people looked at the model.

Sundays are always quieter than Saturdays and this allowed me a brief break right at the end of the day to see the Luton club's "Great Train Robbery" model. It's a controversial piece, with some people determined to be offended and to let the people who built it know. This isn't something they mind, everyone is entitled to an opinion, unless offence has been taken without bothering to read either the article on the model or actually view the presentation itself.

As it is, the 5 minute show is a very dry history of the railway parts of the robbery. There's no sensation, certainly a lot less then the mainstream media have made around those events.

4:30 saw the crowds depart and we packed up the layout for the trip back down the motorway. I should have mentioned to RMweb's Andy York that when I unscrew the two fascia retaining bolts, the thing will start to fold itself up - he looked most surprised when it happened.

Anyway, an excellent weekend. I apologise for the lack of pictures during my talk. We'll sort this for next time. Thank you to everyone who stopped by to chat and ask questions, especially those who said the layout had inspired them to have a go at some modelling. This makes it all worthwhile.

My photos from the Doncaster show on Flickr - all the shots with trains are here.

Painted dog cart

Google quickly showed me that I could paint the dog cart nice bright colours. While there were quite a few in plain black, a couple were colourful with black highlights and so I thought this would look a lot prettier on Edgeworth.

An hour later, some buff paint and weathered black detail produced an eye-catching livery that still fits in with the rest of the layout. I'm glad I didn't go for a more strident colour that would demand attention at the front of the station.

Mind you, the work would have been easier if I hadn't fixed the wheels in place, dodging around the back of them to get at the springs.

Dog Cart

Detailing a model railway, as the excellent BRM Guide to building your first layout suggests, can eat your time like a fat footie fan can chomp his way through a pie at half-time. Painting figures can easily consume as many hours as slapping plaster over the landscape. As far as I'm concerned, it's a lot more fun though.

This probably explains why I'm a magpie for detail bits on second hands stalls and swapmeet tables. Not for me the gleaming locomotives proudly displayed on the counter, I'm rooting through the little boxes of bits on the floor.

Which is probably where this venerable Slaters kit for a Dog Cart (actually a 2-wheel horse drawn trap) came from. At the time it probably looked a good bet for space on the Hellingly Hospital Railway. Now, I need something that can sit in front of the station on Edgeworth and should 1930s.

While Slaters nowadays make kits of breathtaking quality, especially the larger scale items that I covet in a big way, this ancient model is a bit more basic. The parts don't have any locaton aids. The springs need to chopped up if you want the wheels in the right place relative to the sides and I had to make my own seat base as I couldn't work out which random plastic rectangle was to be used.

Despite this, it looks nice and is a heck of a lot cheaper than an etched model. The wheels have a depth that the metal versions can't match either.

It just goes to show that not all the stuff in those boxes under tables is rubbish.

Norwegian Blue water tower?

'Ello, I wish to register a complaint.

A complaint?

Yes. I wish to complain about this Great Western water tower that I installed on my layout just 2 days ago.

Oh yes, the, uh, the resin model. What's,uh...What's wrong with it?

I'll tell you what's wrong with it, my lad. 'E's dead, that's what's wrong with it!

No, no, 'e's uh,...he's resting.

Look, matey, I know a dead water tower when I see one, and I'm looking at one right now.

No no he's not dead, he's, he's restin'! Remarkable model the Great Western water tower, idn'it, ay? Beautiful  light and dark stone paint finish!

The paint finish, either light OR dark don't enter into it. It's stone dead.

Nononono, no, no! 'E's resting!

Hmmm. What I do know is that when I unpacked Edgeworth for testing, the Skaledale water tower had snapped in half. It's a bit of a mystery since as far as I can tell, nothing hit it while I packed the boards up.

Maybe the layout was swung around too violently at one point and the heavy tank top caused the stem to snap?

Anyway, at the show, I drilled out the top and bottom so I could stuff a length of brass wire in the centre and then made good the repair with some pound shop epoxy. Well, sort of made good. The stem now shows a crack and is slightly bent. Time for some filler me thinks.

Off to Doncaster

 

 

Today, I will be packing Edgeworth in the back of the car and heading north to the Festival of British Railway Modelling at Doncaster.

 

Over the weekend, I'll be standing behind both the layout and selection of other projects I've completed for British Railway Modelling and talking about them to anyone who wanders by. Please drop in and say hello. I'll be in the BRM theatre too so if you want a nice sit down for a while somewhere not too taxing, it will be dark so I won't be able to see you snoozing. Just try not to snore. 

Leads

It was Dave Elbourne who put me on to connecting leads back in the very late 1980s with his layout "Scotland Street Yard".

At the time, model railways layouts tended to be adorned with dangling leads to transfer power from one board to another. While these worked, they were prone to getting caught on things as the model was transported around. Snagging one during set-up could result in a few broken connections and some swift soldering iron work before operation could commence.

Dave worked for BT back in the days when quality and reliability mattered more than all-out profit. Taking his cue from this, and I suspect the easy availability of leftover free connectors, he made up all the layout connections as lead - bundles of wire with a plug on each end.

Sockets were fitted to both layout and control panel and dangling wires were no more.

OK, you could forget the leads and there were twice as many connections to be made but to my mind, the results were an awful lot tidier.

On most of our layouts, I've gone for leads. Only Flockburgh has dangling cables and that's because I used obsolete chunky plugs and sockets and couldn't get enough to make them self-contained. The result is a panel with long bundles of wire floating around that I am always terrified will snag on something.

So far we have been lucky, it can't last, so Edgeworth has leads.

Better layout lettering

Today's idea isn't new. It's not even particularly revolutionary - I mention it only because in the model railway world, there are going to be a few people who will say, "Why didn't I think of that." and then go away to copy what I've done.

Needing some letters for the Edgeworth fascia panel, I could have gone down the route of individual letters purchased from my favorite DIY store but having tried that on Clayhanger Yard, I wasn't keen on the results. They were just about OK but the vinyl stretched when I stuck them to the wood so some letters were slightly taller than others.

I've also painted my own lettering (Melbridge Dock) and used the biggest Letraset available in the local art shop sale (Hellingly). These worked but hand painting takes time and anyway, I'm not signwriter. The art shop is long gone and dry-print letters big enough for the layout probably don't exist anyway.

This time, I determined to do better than previous efforts. A quick search for local sign makers lead me to SignDepot based opposite a local branch of Sainsbury's in Warwick. After a quick phone call I was parked in said supermarket and nipped across the road to chat to the nice man in the shop.

15 minutes later I had the name cut out on a sort of super silhouette cutter complete with back and front papers. All I had to do was stick the thing to the fascia.

It's a fiddly job. Taking time to line everything up properly is well spent. Once the letters were smoothed down, the fronting sheet is gently pulled away to reveal a perfectly spaced name in suitably bold letters that will show up from a distance in an exhibition hall.

Cost - A very reasonable £18 including VAT.

Fuller details and photos will be in next months British Railway Modelling.

Great Western Emulsion

For Edgeworth's fascia panel, I've decided against my usual varnished wood finish. Instead some proper Great Western Railway colours seem appropriate.

Obviously I'm not going to use my little pots of Railmatch enamel - that would cost a fortune. Instead I took them on a trip to my local Homebase DIY store. The plan was to wander around the racks of decorating supplies to pick some suitable big pot paints.

Once I got there though, an exciting prospect appeared. There was a Dulux paint station thingy which included a scanner. The idea is that you take in a vase or some curtains and they can precisely match the paint to these object.

So, the assistant had a go. First through the glass bottom of the jar. That didn't work, the glass confuses the scanner apparently. Next, to the inside of the screw top once the paint had been shaken and deposited plenty of pigment up there.

We got results and I had some 250ml matchpots mixed up. Sadly, only emulsion is available in this size (why?) but at the price, just over 3 quid, I wasn't going to argue. Well, that will be more than enough to do the fascia and fiddle yard front.

Top be honest, I felt the scanner had got the dark stone about right but the light stone was "Rum Caramel 4" and although the colour chart looked about right, the paint in the can didn't.

Still, assured that these things can change slightly as they dry, I went away and did some test painting.

Result - Dark stone (Velvet Truffle 3) looks pretty good. Light stone - rubbish.

So, the next day I tried again. This time I had a piece of plasticard I had sprayed with the colour.

Again we scanned and the results were even more laughable than before. So, the helpful assistant and I went through by eye and picked out Soft Almond 3. This looked better in the tin and just as good on the plywood.

So, the message is: Dulux colour scanners are made chocolate teapots but the mixing area is a good place to buy reasonably priced oddball colours in emulsion.

Road bridge

I'm a bit busy at the moment working on part 3 of the layout supplement I'm in charge of, so here's a shot of Edgeworth under construction.

There's a bit of tidying up around the ballast to do and a water tower to plant on the right hand shoulder of the photographer. This end of the model looks pretty attractive to me though so I'm happy, even if there isn't space on the bridge for the model railway cliche bus to be posed on top.

You can read more in the next issue of BRM or join the discussion over on RMweb.