Wednesday 18th March 2026

Simultaneous projects this week. Stephen worked on the small Edwards building, adding a 1st floor ceiling, to allow LED lighting to be fitted. Geoff worked on the baseboard, to ensure there was a power supply for the lights.

The current interior walls and first floor are removeable for just this occasion.

L - Upper floor and R - ground floor.

A ceiling board was glued to the top of the removeable walls and an initial lighting layout was fitted to check the appearance, which was reasonable. 

However, the new first floor ceiling board was below the window heads, so instead, we will fix a ceiling into the roof for the lights, which will require plugs for dismantling.

Meanwhile, Geoff checked the baseboard for suitable power supplies. Looking for the 'General Use' 19v supply required some investigation, but eventually one was found. In the process, he labelled up all of the electrics and declared that it was 'as he had always imagined the boards should be labelled'. Obviously a future (next?) project.

Wednesday 11th March 2026

A mixed bag this week. Stephen grabbed the palette, paints and a brush, and carried on painting the checkrails in Edwards yard. Geoff decided to tackle an inexpensive radio-controlled Land Rover he'd bought online with a view to it becoming the motive power for a vehicle to collect and deliver wagons to and from the loading dock and the back yard. The car is designed as a 'sliding' street racer, but the drive didn't work. A mis-placed gear was to blame and was soon rectified. However, it was very fast and so thoughts changed to how it could be geared down. Different options were discussed and will be investigated. The secondary issue was disguising the mechanism and some existing die-cast models were reviewed. A small delivery van looked feasible, but a Commer van was the best option - big enough to take the printed circuit board intact while matching the axles/wheels width and length. Further investigations on increasing traction power to follow.

The ground between the rails needed painting as well as the checkrails. Fortunately, when being installed, these had been set slightly lower to avoid paint being rubbed off when track cleaning. A 'dusty' rust colour was chosen.

However, The new track cleaning tool obviated this need as the running rails can be cleaned separately. A quick trial confirmed the track construction and radius wasn't a problem and immediately gave Geoff the idea for a handle option. A few minutes later, it was successfully tested!

The second cleaning unit was filed to the same profile as the first and the package was complete.

We still await the development of a shunting vehicle with interest...

Wednesday 4th March 2026

With the failure of the metal blackening last week, we moved on to painting the check rails with spirit based paints assuming that acrylic paints would not adhere satisfactorily and would be easily rubbed off. We started with a base of dark brown and mixed different orange/red colours to achieve a decent rust colour. With various colours on the palette, Stephen found a dark brown base colour with a splash of 'rust' worked-in could be cajoled into something realistic. We also experimented with rust powders mixed with matt varnish (to keep materials 'non-water based'). However, it was difficult to keep track of the variations, but it was looking good.

As Geoff followed up with the new track cleaner, it was evident that it was a bit too wide and so minor adjustments were made that produced an acceptable effect. We don't think this will be too much of a nuisance when cleaning the trackwork and hope it improves the overall appearance.