Progress Report 80

The weather has been appalling since my last Progress Report, but despite three named storms passing through, I did manage to finish off the landscaping at Bulkeley. The weather has given me a good reason to spend a fair bit of time in the workshop and so I have been able to tick off a few items on my extended to do list - I've eventually gotten around to constructing an IP Engineering open cattle truck kit which has been sitting in my Project Box for at least five years (maybe longer), and I completed the construction of some PLR logoed station benches which I had laser cut two years ago. Now the recently painted seated figures have somewhere to sit! I also finished off the coal cart and harnessed a horse to pull it. I believe that kit is at least four years old!

So, plenty to report, even though it is still very much winter time!

Landscape

Raised bed at Bulkeley

 After changing the track layout at Bulkeley to add another siding at the rear of the station (see How I changed the track layout at Bulkeley), the siding at the front of the layout was quite precariously at the very edge of the raised bed, which meant there was little or no room for any additional detailing. I therefore decided to widen the raised bed, which entailed erecting a new retaining wall ......

..... and cladding it in sandstone blocks (see How I widened the raised bed at Bulkeley)

This provided plenty of additional space to extend the siding and put in some additional detailing. I intend to re-instate the loading bank which served the original siding for the transshipment of soft fruit from the local nurseries (see How I cast a loading bank in concrete).

After a couple of weeks (mainly due to wet weather), I cast a new trackbed for the siding, so it could be moved to align more neatly with the mainline. I used a concrete mix of one part cement to three parts sand and three parts gravel.

Once this had set, I realigned and extended the siding ......

...... fixing the track in place with screws and rawlplugs. The siding was then ballasted using my usual mix of three parts horticultural potting grit to one part cement, applied dry ....

.... and then brushed into place with an old paintbrush.

 The ballast was then doused in water using a watering can with a fine rose.

NOTE: I positioned the loading bank loosely to guide the laying of the ballast. It will be fixed into place more permanently when the ballast has dried.

Rolling stock

IP Engineering open cattle truck

For several years, I have had an IP Engineering kit for an open topped cattle truck sitting on the shelf. After buying a Tralee and Dingle open-topped cattle truck and some sheep at the Llanfair Show last autumn, I decided the time had come for the kit to be assembled (see How I constructed an IP Engineering open cattle truck).

Whilst it was in the paintshop, the Tralee and Dingle wagon was also repainted in PLR goods stock colours (Halford's grey primer with black metal work and underframes)

The two wagons have now entered service as sheep wagons. They have been given loads of 3D printed and resin cast sheep, but I am not satisfied with them (see below)

Tralee & Dingle cattle truck

As indicated above, the was a bargain, impulse buy at the Llanfair Show last year. It was originally 32mm gauge and the stall-holder felt it was therefore 10mm scale, hence he was offering it at a bargain price. I regauged it to 45mm with Bachmann 24.5mm diameter wheels. It certainly seemed to partially eclipse one of my Welshpool style wagons, but consultation with scale drawings for the T&D prototypes shows it it spot-on for 16mm scale.

I am not sure of its origins but I assume, given the quality of its finish and its whitemetal fittings, that it was constructed from a kit. As indicated above, it has been repainted in PLR good livery, given some light weathering and fitted with my wire LGB compatible hook and loop couplings.

Sheep loads

As indicated above, I bought six resin cast sheep at Llanfair from Motley Miniatures. I also bought another half dozen 3D printed sheep from DesignScanPrint3D.

These were painted and duly loaded into the two wagons.

However, it was quite rightly pointed out to me that, in reality, when sheep were transported by train, they were tightly bunched together to help prevent them from falling over and getting crushed by their compatriots. This created a financially inspired dilemma for me. I calculated that, to fill each wagon with sheep would cost in excess of £90 per wagon. Considering the two wagons cost me only £55 in total, spending nearly £200 on filling them seemed somewhat excessive.

My first solution was to create a mould in PlayDoh using the backs of the sheep I'd purchased to create impressions. However, the resulting plaster cast was not entirely successful.

So, I experimented a little more. Eventually, I came up with an arrangement and approach which was somewhat more successful (see How I cast some sheep loads in plaster)

In the meantime, a fellow modeller kindly offered to 3D print me some clusters of sheep. I needed to send him 50 photos of the tightly clustered sheep taken from a range of different angles and heights. He then stitched these photos together to form a 3D image.

From this image, he was able to print three copies ....

....which were then painted and slotted into the wagon, together with a couple of the original sheep.

I think the 3D printed sheep load looks superior, but I was interested to see what I could achieve by low-tech means.

Lineside

Platform benches

A couple of years ago I came across a post on the Garden Railway Trading Group's Facebook page offering to laser cut station benches to any design for a very modest fee.

I created a PLR monogram and sent off for a dozen. After painting and varnishing the parts, I made up a couple of seats and then promptly forgot about the rest.

After painting 50 figures recently, (see Progress Report 78 and Progress Report 80) I realised I needed somewhere for the seated figures to sit, and so dusted off the seat kits and assembled the remaining ten seats and glued passengers to most of them.

These have now been stored in a two-tier container ready for deployment during operating sessions.

Coal cart

Another project which had been languishing on the shelf was a horse drawn coal cart built from a Hobby's 'kit'.

I had largely finished it but it needed final assembly and some light weathering.

This was duly done and a few details such as the driver and coal sacks were added.

A few more details need to be added: the lettering on the nameboards and a bucket and nosebag for the horse's refreshment. See How I constructed a horse drawn coal cart for more information.

Horse harness

There were no details as to how the horse should be harnessed and so I set about doing some background research. Fortunately, Hobby's provide a well detailed plan and so after purchasing this, I tracked down a suitable horse model from Schleich ......

..... and set about making a harness for it.

For more information see How I harnessed a horse to pull my coal cart.

Workshop

Reorganisation

Although I finished the workshop last Autumn (see How I constructed my workshop), I have steadily been organising and reorganising the way stuff is stored inside it ever since - see Progress Report 78 and Progress Report 79.

The most recent innovation has been to erect a wide shelf under the workbench, ......

........ buying a couple of large plastic storage containers to store large tools and large offcuts of wood and to place the smaller storage containers holding things needed for running sessions (ie figures, station detailing bits and loco transmitters) near the door.

The weather is beginning to improve and spring is in the air. I am beginning to scan the weather forecasts for two successive days of decent dry weather when I might be able to set up the railway for the coming season and have a decent full operating session. After all, I now have a couple more goods wagons waiting to enter service and some new trackwork to test.

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Progress Report 69

In the past month there have been a few developments on the railway and I have undertaken several
maintenance jobs.

In terms of landscaping and the permanent way, I needed to repair and remodel the stream where it runs between the mill siding and the main line and some ballasting has been done at Bickerton Station. Rolling stock has increased by one - an open wagon with drop sides, On the lineside front, I have been constructing a Refreshment Room for the forecourt of Beeston Market Station and some PLR monogrammed benches for platforms. Operationally, because the track by the stream has been out of action for a while during, it has not been possible to run a full operating session - however, I did take the opportunity to test-run an LGB Otto battery conversion for a customer and have run various trains on an informal basis for test running.

Landscaping and Permanent Way

Revamping the stream

Because the stream had been losing water, I wrongly assumed that burrowing by mice beneath the trackbed beside the stream had been responsible. Removing the trackbed and the concrete and rock foundations to the stream to expose the plastic liner of the stream revealed it to be in good condition.

It then tracked the 'leakage' to the sump cover (an inverted plastic dustbin lid), which had become clogged with dead leaves and soil.

As I had wanted to remodel this part of the stream to include a mill race, my efforts were not in vain. The stream has now been widened, the site for the water mill has been incorporated and the track relaid.

My next task is to construct the mill building and sluice gates controlling water flow to the wheel.

After remedying dips in the trackwork on the approach to Bickerton Station (see Progress Report 68), the station area has now been reballasted.

Although this was only done a couple of weeks ago, the wet weather has already encouraged the moss to start growing through.

The pointwork and station area now need to be weathered as has been done at Beeston Market Station (see How I ballasted Beeston Market station - Stage 3).

Rolling Stock

After realising that the coaling stage I had made for Beeston Market was too wide for some locos (see How I made a coaling stage), I decided that an open wagon and a plank would act as a suitable alternative.

However, the way I have constructed my open wagons from my own resin castings (see How I made wagons from my own resin castings) means that it is not easy to drop the sides of the wagons without a rebuild. I then happened to see a drop-sided open wagon for sale on eBay for a reasonable price and it has now joined the stock roster.

Once it has been weathered and loaded with coal, it will form part of regular goods services - though will probably spend most of its life shuttling between the coal yard and the engine shed at Beeston Market.

Lineside

Refreshment Room

As you will have noticed from Progress Report 68, I am beginning to improve the detailing at Beeston Market Station by adding railway related buildings and structures such as the water tower and water crane. I have now also made a start on detailing the forecourt for the station. Eventually, this will be cobbled, have pavements (sidewalks), fencing and maybe even a couple of street lamps. Beside the station at the real Beeston Market and Tarporley mainline railway station, there used to be a couple of refreshment rooms. These appear to have been timber buildings which also offered additional services - groceries in one case and antiques in the other.

As space is limited on the approach to my station, I could only manage to model one of these buidings - and even then it has had to be cut-down in size.

At present, the building has no roof or interior, but hopefully this will be remedied before the next progress report.

PLR Station seats

After seeing a posting on one the Facebook Groups which I subscribe to (https://www.facebook.com/groups/814561258654535/), I contacted the postee and ordered some bespoke platform seats from him, after sending an image of a Peckforton Light Railway monogram which I had mocked-up in a Draw package.

The laser-cut pieces have duly arrived and I am in the process of making up the dozen seats. These will eventually be deployed around the railway.

Operations

Operations have been somewhat restricted since the previous post because of the major engineering works beside the stream. However, some informal operating sessions have taken place. One was to give a thorough test-run to an LGB Otto loco which had been converted to battery power and radio control for a fellow modeller.

The model was in the process of modification from its ToyTrain origins to a half-cab loco more appropriate for a UK based railway - it was still awaiting a chimney and a driver at this point.

After the stream had been remodelled (see above), I felt it needed to be thoroughly tested and so a few trains were run and filmed as they passed by the stream. Normally, I do not film from the side of the stream where the mill will be located as the background would be the brick walls of the house and the leanto. I decided to experiment with 'green screen' editing in my video editing program (VideoStudio) and so erected some blue plastic which had been used to wrap a mattress recently delivered.

Although not perfect; the breeze sometimes caught the plastic and flapped it around; I am pleased with the potential this offers for substituting more suitable backgrounds for some of the shots on my railway. The green-screened shots are the first two on this video.

By the way, any colour can be selected by my editing package for the matte screening - I opted for blue because hardly anything on my railway is blue - I could just as easily have chosen orange or yellow.

Conclusion

There is always plenty to do on a garden railway and mine is no exception. I am not sure I will ever reach the stage where I can say "It's finished!" - there will always be another maintenance job or enhancement which is on the todo list. I suppose it would be good, when the weather is fine, not to have to make the decision, shall I finish off those jobs, or shall I run some trains today? But somehow, I suspect that not having the choice will make life a lot less interesting.