Wednesday 26th October

Worklist:
Workshop brickwork.
Crane mechanism
Gas holder base and adjacent trackwork
Water tank

A quiet session this week as we were all continuing with ongoing projects.

Stephen continued to apply plasticard brickwork to the workshop, including window arches and cills. The door arches were more tricky - what would they have been made of? In the end, he opted for 'posh' brick-clad lintols (the easy option). The damaged roof tile sheeting was removed and some corrugated plasticard sheeting trialled.

The fiddleyard now provides a nice work area at stool height, for which the knees are very grateful.

Geoff worked on the gas holder base area, as discussed the previous week. Adjacent ground was pared down and new plaster added to the holes. Different textures of dust and ash were pressed in, as an experiment, but these were almost entirely sucked away when the hoover cleaned up. The plaster will be over-painted when Stephen returns the bottles of acrylic paint.

While working in the area, Geoff noticed the water tank on the hill was not level, confirmed by spirit level. As the tank hadn't been glued down yet, it was removed and packing added both over and under the MDF base. The consequential gaps in the brickwork were filled with strip brickwork.

A discussion ensued about the route of pipework for the tank. The intake would, presumably, come from higher up the hillside i.e. off the board. The supply to the gasifier was less obvious. The equipment has been loosely re-positioned, and a quick check through the blog photos showed that there never was a pipe from the tank. Brain-cells having been disturbed, we recalled that a pipe encased with timber/insulation was discussed years before, but the connection point was unknown. Geoff will research further, and suitable valve details will be sought-out at ExpoNG, over the coming weekend.

No supply pipe from the tank. Note the new steps.

Meanwhile, Laurence quietly progressed with the manual drive mechanism for the main yard crane.

Laurence had also brought the Cottesmore interface jigs/templates, that he was to deliver to the new owner of Lansdowne Green (see last weeks post). For posterity, these were photographed in the closest appropriate locations. In both cases, new locator pins prevent them being fitted correctly.

The hole drilling / track template was placed next to the bridge, which would have been a Cottesmore interface. The track is still in the original position, but the hill profile has been modified.

The hill profile template was positioned at the end of the new platform. The track at the board joint has been moved and the hill has been cut back to form the road, but it demonstrates its original use.

Wednesday 19th October

Worklist:
Yard crane mechanism.
Finish crossing and general scenic work.
Workshop brickwork.
Play trains.

The good news was that 'The List' was found in one of the bits-boxes. However, we all carried on with what we were doing the last time.

Laurence continued to design and fabricate a manual driving mechanism (non-working) for the main yard crane.

Geoff completed the new workshop crossing by adding fine ash to the coarse material he had laid last week. He then applied 'Yard Filth' by brush, to various areas of the layout.

He then moved on to the gas holder and water tank area. A group discussion ensued when ground levels and surfacing materials were decided. He went on to paint the tank footpath and steps in a stone grey. The hollows and bare areas around the gas holder, together with a section of the track outside the workshop entrance will be treated with grades of ash, as the new crossing.

Stephen continued to apply Plasticard brickwork to the workshop building. It's far too clean and new. The gasifier building, which would be contemporary, has suffered decades of use and will be hard to match.

This continued for a while after lunch, until Stephen demonstrated a pair of bolster wagons he was building for his Gn15 layout. He then decided to have a run, with his entire collection of Gn15 stock.

Although Laurence claimed to have read the last blog post, he was unaware that the tunnel had been modified to allow his over-wide diesel through.  It's the handrails that cause the problem, but the test run was a success. However, Geoff now wants to test his Cambletown and Machrihanish loco.....

Although he wouldn't dream of it in normal circumstances, Geoff got out a Eurostar loco that he was repairing for one of his class members to have a test run too. Yes, it does go down the tunnel OK!

Laurence took his first turn in putting the layout away.

And the completed dust sheet wrapped it all up.

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News: Roy, one of the original Cottesmore Five (the one who emigrated to Scotland) had recently sold Lansdowne Green, his portion of the layout, to a modeller in Bognor. (See CLR page)

The new owner has been in touch with Laurence and intimated that new modular sections are planned. Unused for over 30 years, Geoff was still able to put his hands on them immediately, and the group were happy for Laurence to hand them over in due course. The the two-jig set comprised one for drilling board holes and track alignment, and one for the hill profile. Together they ensured everything married-up correctly. However, as the Cottesmore interfaces were removed when Worton Court was rebuilt, a reunion is unlikely.

Wednesday 12th October

Worklist:
As Laurence wasn't in attendance this week, we didn't have the worklist he prepared last week, so we just improvised.

First-up, the altered dust cover was fitted to the storage frame. A few extra strips of Velcro had been sewn in and corresponding pieces were stapled to the frame. It all worked well.

Stephen had remembered to bring the switch unit he'd made at home, for the fiddleyard. This houses two DPDT switches, with one pole for battery-powered LEDs that indicate whether the track power is being fed to the cassette tracks. The unit was fitted on the end on the board, close to the track connectors. The existing feeds were removed, lengthened and soldered to the switches, and wires run back to the connectors. Testing took longer than necessary due to a problem with the loom connector - 'clumsy-finger-syndrome', which Geoff had obviously caught from Laurence.

As the lights will normally be 'off', we think the batteries will last quite a while, but if not, we can add a DC supply through the loom with added wires.

Geoff initially set-about hoovering up the excess flock from the previous weeks work. He then decided to fill in a few more areas with flock/grass - mainly 'dead' areas close to trackwork. Even these small areas had a impact on the layouts appearance. A discussion on ballast followed. Unfortunately, there is little we can do to rectify the original oversized ballast, but added greenery, in the shape of flock and electrostatic grass added all over the track area, similar to the head-shunt, would go a long way. As would some careful painting of known dirt and oil lines along the track.

Stephen then completed work on the lighting for the gasifier building, which comprised fitting a plug to the supply lead and adjusting the dedicated power module to 12v. The bank of switches were labelled at the same time.

Geoff then moved on to building a workman's crossing to the workshop, which would enable a particularly visible track joint to be 'disguised'. Once the ballast had been removed, timbers were glued between the rails. As the other shapes were all rhombuses, edgings and chippings/ash were used.

Almost completed crossings. Note extra grass.

Geoff adding bolt holes to another crossing.

As previously reported, Laurence had tried to drive one of his diesels through the tunnel, but it had fouled the tunnel lighting. Stephen assessed the problem and after carefully prising the lighting off the tunnel wall, carved large chunks of plaster away, before re-gluing the lights. Bring the diesel for testing next week Laurence!

The walls carved away to allow the lighting to be recessed.

Lights temporarily held in place for gluing.

Stephen brought along a new wagon - the first for 20 years or more. It's a toolbox or general storage box fitted to a Peco flat wagon. It's intended to run it with the timber bolsters on the quarry line, to carry loose items.

Geoff is keen to disguise the Kadee couplings and has suggested curved buffing blocks over the knuckle. This will be an ideal opportunity to have a go.

Wednesday 5th October

Worklist:
Create a worklist!
Do something on the list!!

Yes, that's what we did. Laurence made a list of outstanding items that all three came up with. It was quite a list and by no means exhaustive. And we thought we were doing so well.

Laurence chose to carry on with the new yard crane. The crane is being altered to include a (non-working) drive/rotating mechanism comprising a large gear base and a manually operated gear box. The crane is going into the main yard, with the legs mounted high up in the hillside.

Geoff chose to continue with the flocking starting with a coat of PVA and a regular dusting of flock. This will form the base for electrostatic grass, which is awaiting development of a home-made charging unit.

Although there was quite a bit of flock on the layout already, this extra work really brought the layout along.

Stephen continued renovating the workshop building with the application of brick plastic sheet. Not his favourite wall covering as the standard English bond sheets can't cope with bonding on the corners. Brick quoins and render infill was considered, but the original building was solid brickwork, so the new one will be too.

At the end of the session, the water tower was assembled and a brief discussion took place regarding how the open tank could be covered. A number of options were discussed including timber and felt, sheet metal and timber baulks. The latter got the nod this week, but who knows what we'll end up with.

Another satisfying and productive day.

Thursday 29th September

Worklist:
Trial fitting of dust sheet.
Fit flush brackets for control panel.
Play trains.

Geoff had fitted a lid for the new power supply.

Stephen's wife Christine had made-up a dust sheet of Ripstop by cutting to size, hemming edges and sewing-on Velcro pads. Geoff and Stephen stuck and stapled the reciprocal pads on the timber frame. Extra pad positions were marked.

Stephen had finally found a packet of flush brackets that he'd had kicking around for years, if not decades (Payless 79p!) . They are prefect for fitting the control panel, as they hold and spread the weight nicely, but also project very little, which will allow them to be fitted on both sides of the layout (if required).

There was four in the pack - enough for one fitting. If we wanted an ambidextrous panel, we'd have to buy another pack.

All went well until we realised that we'd fitted the brackets on the control panel on the wrong side and installed it the wrong way around. It was 12.38. We leapt into action, and with the setting-out dimensions just lingering in our heads, the brackets were re-positioned as it struck 13.00 - lunchtime.

Wrong way around - fiddleyard to left

Right way around

Post-lunch, we got some stock out and had another running session.

Stephen's freelance 0-4-0 on a Fleischman chassis, with Peco open, scratch WD van, scratch open, Peco van and another that had been converted into a brake van. Behind, shunting to the goods shed is Stephen's freelance 0-6-0 diesel on a Bachmann HO diesel.

Laurence also had his Bachmann HO diesel. Unfortunately, the wide cab and projecting handrails means this is the only loco (so far) that can't go down the tunnel (it hits Stephen's lights). The green loco is scratchbuilt, based on the Simplex at Bressingham.

As usual, there were a few things that needed fettling - check rails, the odd board joint rail etc, but on the whole, we were pleased with the layout.

Stephen keeping the old geezer on his toes - two loco's in steam? No, apparently it's only one when they're coupled.

Geoff was kept busy at his workbench tweaking wayward Kadees.