I have begun working on the redesign of this site,mentioned in previosu updates, so that it better reflects the fact that I build a lot of rolling stock but never seem to get anywhere when building layouts!
You will begin to see new pages appearing on the menu bar over the coming weeks. During the development they will all contain the box below to identify them as new pages. Initially they will be towards the bottom of the menu list, but later on I will start moving them up into more logical positions, and later still when all they new pages are complete I shall start to remove the old ones which have been duplicated.
The first new pages which I have added today cover 009 and the passenger coaches I am building in this scale.

I am also starting a redesign of the pages in this site. As I have built different layouts to the ones I had originally planned the current organization of pages no longer seems the best. I am planning to arrange the pages differently to reflect the fact that my main interest is building rolling stock with layout construction often taking a back seat to more wagon building.
The new site layout will concentrate more on the rolling stock in all the different scales I model in (currently 009, HOn30, O9, On30 and 1n20) and allow the layouts to be separate and favour those layouts that are currently being worked on regardless of scale.
I will definately do my best to avoid 'Under COnstruction' notices replacing active pages, and broken links, during this process. There may however be a short time when the same information is available on two pages as I will not delete the old pages until the new ones are complete.



It has been some time since my last update, although this time I do have progress to report

Firstly I have made the decision that the 009 micro layout (2'x6" with just one point) will be built on a foam core board not a chipboard shelf. To that end I worked out the sizes for all parts needed - main board, backscene, supports, end panels etc - and marked them out onto a 30"x20" board to minimise cutting and maintain accuracy.
I have yet to cut the parts out, but am hopeful that when I do it will all go together very quickly using a hot glue gun.

The other progress has been on my 009 rolling stock, in particular the larger wagons that I am adding to my fleet. I have made a start on the Nine Lines kits I bought - a van and an open wagon, both from the Lynton & Barnstaple. The open wagon (not shown, I will get the photo up when I have completed the main body) has holes for the bogie mounting bolts drilled right through the floor, as I want to run this wagon empty I plan to add a new floor over the main chassis to cover these.
The other wagon shown here is a Parkside Dundas OO kit for an LNER DX open container. This is only a fraction wider than many of my other kit built wagons, so I have attached it to a Peco N gauge 15' chassis for a quick and easy large 4 wheel open wagon. Still to do on this are adding headstocks and wooden sills to cover the metal one of the chassis, also removing some of the ironwork hanging down from the chassis - basically removing everything which does not look like narrow gauge brake gear.



Still not much progress other than some preparation work on two Lynton & Barnstaple 009 kits, so this time I will cover more of my plans for the year which did not get mentioned last time.

The first additional thing I plan to do is not very exciting in itself, but is required for the second, as will be explained below. This first thing is a test track, or more precisely two test tracks.
Currently I have one test track which is a loop of track for running in locomotives which has a point facing towards the centre but with no track leading from it at the moment. I plan to add a spiral track for this point with curves of 8", 7", 6", etc with half a circle at each radius and a short section of straight track between so that rail joints need not be on a curve. The logic behind this addition is to be able to test the actual minimum radius for a given locomotive to pull a given train whislt staying on the track and coupled.

The second test track will be separate from the above. This will also be a spiral - although without the outer loop - but for this the track will rise half height each half turn. Half height in this case being defined as half the height that one track will need to rise to be able to clear a second track. This height will depend on the stock I plan to use, and will also need to take account of the clearance for the thickness of the track bed for the upper track. From this set up I will be able to determine the minimum radius around which a train will run whilst gaining enough height to pass over another track in one loop.

So the reason for all this testing? Simply that I am planning, later in the year, to build a rabbit warren style layout and want to know what minimum radius/maximum gradient I can use for a large percentage of my current rolling stock without causing operational problems. I know that rabbit warren style layouts have fallen very much out of favour, but I have never built one before and as all my other planned or in progress layouts are small shunting layouts I would like at least one layout which will allow trains to run. I think that if I plan it correctly I should be able to build some operation into the layout as well without it needing to get too large. Who knows, if it works out then I may offer the layout for exhibitions - although that will be next year at the very earliest so do not hold your breath!

As for operation I have one or two ideas that I have already been considering for automatic train control. The idea here would not be to totally take control away from the operator, but would basically be a method for running several trains on the same loop of track with electronics to slow or stop any train getting too close to the one in front. I did find a circuit to power a section of track and also control accelaration/decelaration such that the power could just be pulled from a locomotive and it would slow to a stop, and then pull away in a controlled manner when power was restored, but when checking the components needed I find it used two very old transistors (I did get the plan from a 1970's Model Railway Constructor) so I am on the look out for an updated circuit diagram. The circuit I am wanting is not a full hand held throttle, just a couple of transistors, a capacitor, and other components as needed to be able to run a locomotive at a reasonable speed. This should be able to be built quickly and cheaply enough to have one for each electrical section needed.



So far this year I had not done very much - everywhere I can work has been too cold, so I have retreated to warmer parts of the house until this cold spell is over!
I have managed, between watching the TV, to doodle lots of plans and decide what I will be concentrating on this year, so that is what thus update will be about.

I have got two small layouts planned, one on 009 and one in 09, and hope move on with these once the weather warms up. I already have all the trackwork and rolling stock needed to make a start on these.
Originally I had planned to use chipboard to construct these. However having received a hot glue gun for Christmas, and already having some foamboard, I am now thinking that I will try and use these for the baseboards. I may need to get some more foam board to complete both layouts, but other that than I should have all I need to give it a try.

To recap on the thinking behind these two layouts. Both layouts will be self contained and only 24 inches long. The reason for building two together is that I plan to make the boards with the backscene interlockings such that the two layouts can be stored fastened back to back with the scenery and trackwork protected inside.

On the rolling stock from I will be continuing with my 009 fleet, although one specific new area I will be building in is Lynton & Barnstaple stock. My thinking here is to model the L&B, under SR ownership, several years after the actual line closed down by making the assumption that it reamained more profitable for longer. By making this assumption I can the model the rolling stock which was actually used, and also add wagon that may have been built if the money had still been around in the later years. That logical will also apply to locomotives and passenger vehicles as well as the goods stock.
By building these wagons to the same standards, and with the same DG couplers, as my existing stock I will retain the ability to operate any of the stock on the same layout.
I currently have 4 kits for actual L&B wagons, and have ideas for quite a few 'might have been' wagons.

Finally, the other area in which I hope to make some progress is my 1n20 fleet. Currently this is one part finished boxcab locomotive, based on a bachman chassis, and 4 freight cars at various stages of completion using construction techniques varying from HO car conversions to scratch building. I plan to complete all this stock and then build at least 2 more so that I will have enough to justift building a layout.



Happy new year to everyone, hope you all had a good Christmas and received all the gifts that you were hoping for to add to your layouts.

During this time I have not even attempted any model building, but I now have books and kits for inspiration and to extend my fleet of goods wagons.

For Christmas I received two books, one on small narrow gauge layouts which is indeed full of inspiration for future layouts, and also Iain Rice's book on etched loco kit construction. Additionally I will also soon have a book on Spanish narrow gauge, although that is stuck on the Amazon slow boat and expected sometime during January.

Befoe Christmas I ordered myself two Lynton & Barnstaple kits from Nine Lines, an open wagon and a van, which have now arrived. Have not had chance to open the packets yet, but I plan on starting these very soon.

Whilst out and about after Christmas I visited Monk Bar Models in York and bought 2 Peco N gauge chassis for use under 009 bodies and also some SR stock brown from railmatch. The paint will be for the two kits, for which I also plan to order some Fox transfers and finish in accurate SR era livery. How does this go with my existing 009 stock? Well, it does not do so at all, but I do have a reason in mind for finishing them like this. Keep an eye on the site and early in the new year I will expalin my thinking behind this and what I am planning to do.



Some time since my last update - some may say 'nothing new there then' - mainly due to decorating, however some small progress made.

This is my first update since the Wakefield exhibition. Seems so long ago now, but there were some very good layouts there, and nice to see Draigh Goch for the first time. Despite the time away from the work bench between I still have the inspiration to get at least one of my layouts finished sometime soon.
Only got one thing from the club sales stand, but what I did also get were several old magazines from the club stall, including a whole year of Model Railway Constructor from 1970. Very interesting to see the standards of modelling at the time - many featured layouts having unballasted track, but others very well finished with first class scenery and buildings.
One thing which did amuse me was that the caterers provided wooden stirrers rather than spoons. Was that wise in a room full of railway modellers? I wonder how many of those were harvested off to become lineside buildings/wagon loads etc never having see a cup of coffee?

I also finally managed to complete my test track, which had been delayed due to running out of rail joiners! I have a number of new chassis which have never had a good run before, as none of my layouts have a continuous run, so I have been giving these a work out to get them well run in.
One loco that I had not been happy about was a Bachmann 0-6-0 under an 09 body kit. This did not seem to have the control needed when running back and forth on a short piece of track, however now that I have run it for longer it seems to be working as I would have expected and should certainly been up to the task of operating on a shunting layout.

The final thing I have acheived, and the main sucess of the week, is that I have completed and proven a test unit to operate points by memory wire. I had been part way through a previous unit, but decide that the size was getting out of hand - I did want to be able to mount it under complex pointwork - so I decided to start again. The unit I have now build is 1" wide and about 5" long, so will just about fit under a Peco 009 point - and it could be made a fraction smaller if needed. This unit, which I was hoiping to photograph but did not manage to do so, operates from 3v. For testing I am using 2 x 1.5V batteries, but it should be easy to generate suitable power from a 12v supply when used on a layout. In operation the points change faster than with a tortoise or similar switch machine, but still do not have the rapid movement or the noise of a twin coil point motors. Price wise I would think they would cost less than half of what the twin coil machines are retailing for, possibly less depending on the final method of construction. I really will try and get a photograph on the site, as this will very easily show far more than I can explain in words.



Over the last 2 weeks I hve been making changes to the site to address problems with the volume of images being downloaded. I have completed the majority of work on this now, and hopefully all the images on the site should be visible as normal. If anything is not showing up then please do let me know.

I have done some further work on my experiment using memory wire for point operation. I had previosly proved that the wire could change a point, but that test was basic and could only pull a point one way. What I have now done is to create an assembly from brass strip and a bolt as a pivot. This should enable me to connect up two lengths of wire and be able to fully operate a point. If this works out then it should be a lot cheaper than using a solenoid point motor and will not have the noise or rapid movement that result from using them.
I will try and get some photos loaded soon, but I was waiting until I had cured the download problems first.

I have also been working on some N gauge settrack which I paln to use for a 09/On15 layout. To remove the N gauge appearance I have removed every sleeper. I had previously done this on a short section odf straight track, but I have now manage to do it to a point. I was not certain if doinf this would leave the poit too weak, but it does seem to have worked out OK.

Finaly I have done some more work on a 009 coach which I am building using the left over parts after building a 009 from a Parkside Dundas coach kit. All that was left was were some sides and part of the floor, so I needed to rebuild some ends from scribe plasticard sheet. I plan to use a stetched N Peco gauge chassis under this.

This coming weekend will be the Wakefield model railway exhibition. This is always a good exhibition (slightly biased maybe as I was a member of the Wakefield club for several years, but let my membership lapse when I moved away in 1985) with a good standard of layouts, and also a good range of trade stands. I hope to come away from this with plenty of inspiration for future models - and also to actually get a layout completed some time soon.



This week, as not too much has happened (yet again) I am giving a recap of the motive power under construction for my 009 layout. Pictures of two of these have appeared on the site before, but for the other 3 these are the first photos I have uploaded.
Click on any photo to see a larger image

This locomotive has been shown many times on the site. It is a shortened Knightwing 00 scale body on a Kato 4 wheel N gauge chassis.
Since the last photo the side frames have been added, using the original Kato sideframes cut down and with the distance between the axleboxes reduced to match the chassis used.
Still to do is to angle the lower corners of the buffer beams and cut the beams for the couplers and add handrails from brass wire. Once done the body will be ready for final painting.

This van is a Corgi body mounted on a Kato 8 wheel short chassis.
Other than removing a pillar from inside the body no other modifications were needed. By shortening the chassis footplate by a very small amount, probably less than 1mm, it becomes a snug push fit into the body.
This now just need painting and the glazing refitting to be ready to run on the layout. As yet I have not decided on a colour scheme, but do not plan anything too extravagant as I see it representing more of a working vehicle than a company PR excersize.

This vehicle will be finished as a passenger railbus. It entailed significantly more work than the van above. Not so much on the body, which is almost unchanged, but on the chassis which had to be heavily reduced in size to be able to fit within the body.
Once the body is painted and attached to the chassis I hope to be able to refit the original wheel arches (which are not shown in the photo) by reducing their width from the inside until the fit against the chassis with the correct amount sticking out from the body.
As this vehicle is to serve the passengers I plan to paint it in a red and cream colur scheme to match the coaches I have already painted. I may also add a roof rack to disguise the hole in the roof.

This is the latest vehicle I have been working on, and is actually the only progress I have made in the last week!
The body is a Parkside Dundas coach which I reduced in length before construction (I have also started on a coach which uses the parts which were cut off - so no waste). The ends were already marked out on the rear for the windows, so cutting those out was very little effort.
The chassis was cut to fit over the Kato chassis before assembly, using the Knightwing diesel chassis as a pattern as this used the same chassis. There is not much else needed to complete this model - obviously glazing and a roof are needed, but the latter is included in the kit. I do however paln to investigate how much of an interior I can add, the motor is fairly low in the body so I should be able to add a fair representation of seats and possibly passengers.

This loco is, unusually for me, a kit built exactly as intended. The body is easily constructed (if you can master soldering that is, I did struggle a bit!) as it is only 3 parts - 2 x side/end units and a roof, and fits directly on to the Kato chassis.
Unfortunately this loco and the railcar above are currently sharing a chassis, so I will need to buy another one before they can run at the same time.
I have not yet decided how to finish this kit - with all the windows and grills it is very open and so demands a representation of an engine to give the correct profile when sen through the grills, but I have noy yet decided whether it would be better with the cab areas separated off or left as one open body.

In addition to the above I have a Peco body kit and a F&C diesel body which I have not yet started working on. For chassis I have Lifelike and Trix 0-6-0 chassis with cyclinders and valve gear, and a Farish 04. The Peco kit should work with either of the 0-6-0 chassis - not sure which will work best although the Trix has the better looking valve gear. I had intended to use the F&C body on a Kato chassis although the width could be a problem so I may investigate the 04 chassis which I know to be a good runner.



Only al little progress to report - yet again! I have 2 small layouts ready to start, both 24" x 6" making them just one square foot, but when I dug out the timber that I was going to use to create the baseboards from I found it had been stored in the damp and was no good so at the moment I am just waitin until I get round to buying some new.

The one bit of progress on my rolling stock was to dig out a Parkside Dundas 4 wheel coach kit that I have previously started. The limit of previosu progress was to paint the sides marron, however I deicded that this was not as effective as I had hoped so I started by stripping this finish. Once the paint was of and the sides washed and dried I assembled them, but without the chassis.
The original chassis for this kit create a very low slung coach, but I am planning to build it higher, more in keeping with my Colin Ashby kits. In line with this plan I intend to build a new floor and use an extended Peco N gauge 10' chassis.
For the livery I may paint this coach in a Lancashire & Yorkshire two colour livery - more details on how, and why, if I actually decide to follow this route.

The other area of progress, where I have been quite succesful, is a test in using memory wire for point control. I bought the wire from rapid electronics (who sell it as smart wire) and built a simple test rig using 80mm of wire to pull on a Peco 009 point. When conected to a battery the wire contracted with plenty of force to change the point, and whilst doing so quickly it was still slow enough to avoid the rapid movement and noise associated with twin coil point motors. Rather than use the method of one wire, permanetly energised to move the point one way, and a spring to return it I have used the method of having two wires, one to move the point each way. When using points with over centre springs this means that the wire does not have to be left energised other than whilst the point is actually changing.
The way I have set up my test, i.e. using wire leading directly away from the tibar, could be used as is when space was not limited, although where there is more complex pointwork and therefore less free space I think a unit with a crank should be possible which will more or less fit under the one point.




Assorted bits and pieces done since my last update.

I have started building a 009 railcar. This will be a 4 wheel unit, using Parkside Dundas coach sides and a Kato chassis.
As yet I have only started cutting the sides to the required length, so there is plenty more to do on this one. Unfortunately I have had to use more than half the original coach side for each side of the railcar, so can not consider making 2 identical railcars from the one coach, however what is left will be enough to asseble into a shorter coach.

I have done some testing for sizing on my planned 09 layout using Peco N gauge setrack point. I was unsure if using the points without extra track between them would leave the siding too close, but testing proves that although close it is possible. Hopefully this will look OK in a lightly used, but tight for space, estate railway setting.

Also for this layout I tried removing every other sleeper from a length of track to try and get the look I was after. This seemed to go OK, with the track still having more that enough strength that it should not casue poor running. The next experiment will be to acheive the same effect with the points!

Whilst on with this layout I bought the second point that I needed and was able to assemble the whole layout trackplan on a temporary board - the advantages of biulding a layout entirely with setrack!

I started fitting the new Kato chassis to the Knightwing body, leaving the original chassis for Classix van. Unfortunately, as I had already cut the first chassis down before completing the chassis, I now find that it will not fit between the ends of the chassis. The difference is however only about 1.5mm, so it should be an easy matter to cut the chassis down slightly to get a good fit.

Finally I managed a bit more track laying on my circular test track. I have almost the full loop down now, but I need some more rail joiners before I can complete this.
I plan to use this board to test out point operation using memory wire/smart wire.



Another limited report again this time. I seem to have had so may other tasks to do recently that model building was pushed to the side, although I have used some of this time to plan future projects.

On the 009 passenger railbus I am building from a Classix van I have completed the preparation of the body and stripped the paint. I was keen to get this done as I have another 009 rail van plus an 09 loco which are also at this stage, so I plan to get these three primed together.

I have also started a test track. It had been some time since I have been able to do more than run a loco back and forth on a piece of track, and none of the layouts I am building allow contiuos running, so many of the chassis I have bought for 009 projects have never yet been run in.
In addition to a loop of track I also plan to add a spiral in the centre, which will enable me to test the minimum reliable operating radius for any mixture of locomotive and rolling stock.

Having just bought another Kato 4 wheel chassis - which is already spoken for - I have been giving some though to building a railcar which could sit one. I had originally thought of using an Eggerbach western style coach, but am now thinking of using part of a Parkside Dundas bogie coach to create a longer railcar. I will need to do something of a mockup to ensure that what I have planned does not look over long for a 4 wheel chassis. Watch this space!

I have also been giving some though to using memory wire/smart wire for point control. All uses of this wire I had previosuly seen used a single wire and a spring, so that the wire would need to be permanently energised to hold the point one way with the spring used to pull it the other way when the current was cut off. I plan to investigate the use of two wires, on the pull the point each way. Combining this with a Peco point with its built in over centre spring will, if it works out, mean that the wire will not need to be kept live. Again, watch this space!

On other though I have been having (I did say I had been having more time to think than to do!) was for a small layout, or more specifically two layouts. The layouts were not a new thought as I had been planning them for a while, one 009 and one 09. What was new is the plan to build both, even though separate layouts, together and to the same depth and backscene height. Doing this means that, if I contruct them with it in mind, they will later fit together with one upside down and reversed, which will protect the scenery whilst they are being stored.
This is not a new idea as such, many people plan sectional layouts this way, it was just the idea to use the same principle on layouts which were small enough to not need a baseboard joint.



I have had a bit of a break from updating this blog over the school holidays. During this time I have not managed much modelling, although I have made some progress.

I sent off an order tp Parksaide Dundas for two 009 kits, a coach and 2 single bolster wagon, plus an A1 models body kit for the Bachmann chassis.
I have already started the PD kits - the coach body is assembled but awaiting the chassis, and one of the single bolster wagons is complete awaiting couplers.

One thing worth noting about the coach kit (DM04a, a reissue of an earlier freelance coach kit), which is the reason that I bought it, is that if you have any of the now out of production Colin Ashby coach kits then this coach is almost exactly the same size and will look right in the same train.

I also visited the Skipton model railway exhibition over the bank holiday weekend, and whilst there bought the newly released A1 boxcab body kit to fit the Kato 4 wheel chassis. So I now have two brass body kits to build. I guess my next task will be to but some more chassis! I will also have to decide whether to assemble the kits using glue or solder.

I have also made progress on three of the locomotives, all in different scales, that I am building.
On my 009 diesel I have done more work to complete the chassis by adding the side frames with axleboxes. I have created these by cutting down parts from the original knightwing kit.
On my 1n20 boxcab I have also added the sideframes to the chassis, although on this one there are no axlebox details as yet. I am still undecided as to whether to add axlebox castings (possible 0 scale tender axleboxes) or to add hinged plates to represent covers over recessed axleboxes.
On my I have trimmed and added the font coupler link casting to clear the DG couplers I am using. This now completes the kit, so it is ready for painting.

Finally in 009, I have raised the height of one of my wagons. When checking the wagon I realised that the couplers were far too low. Looking at the chassis on this wagon I decided that even with the DGs mounted directly on the underside of the chassis, rather that on the packing that I usually need to add, they would still be too low. I could have built some cranked shaft couplers, like I needed to do for a Snailbeach hopper wagon which also had a low chassis, but decided to try another method first.
I knew that I had a set of larger than normal 009 wheels, from a previous kit, and tried these in place of the supplied wheels which were almost identical in size to Peco N gauge wheels. With the replacement wheels the couplers were almost spot on, but due to the limited clearance the wheels would no longer turn as they were now touching the underside of the chassis. I cure this by cutting out parts of the chassis above each wheel - this means that the wagon will now need to be run with a permanent load but that is not a bad trade off to have so easily fixed the coupler height problem.



A small amount of progress in each of a number of different areas this week.

009

I have now completed the roof on the industrial building. This was more complicated than first appeared due to the need to cut the roofing material to the correct angles first. The difficulty mainly being holding parts in place and then being able to mark off where to cut - too few hands and not enought room to hold all the peices at the same time! I did eventually get that parts marked after using carboard templates, and once done it all went togther quite well. Next step will be to design the platform and then paint the building.

Other progress in 009;
The rail van now has chassis mounts at both ends. These mounts were deliberately added 'too high up' in the body, such that I can then adjust them to the ideal height by adding packing and adjusting by eye with the chassis in place
I have also added coupler mounting pads to the chassis on three more vehicles; a coach, a van and an open hopper wagon. Once the end beams have been trimmed DG couplers can be fitted to these and I will have 3 more pieces of operable rolling stock.
I have started work on a Peco locomotive body kit I bought some time ago.