Brettell Road - Back to wagons - and a correction.

[jim s-w]

Didn't pay that much chaps.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/122015450423? ... EBIDX%3AIT

I did use superglue Mike

Jim

[Philip Hall]

I will be at Wakefield on the Saturday, and will take a few if you have them please.

Philip

[Phil O]

Jim

loving the atmospheric building work, it reminds me of trudging around the dockyard in the wee small hours, with light emanating from the odd window where someone was on night shift. I also like the weather sheet, it adds some character to the loco.

Phil.

[kelly]

Didn't pay that much chaps.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/122015450423? ... EBIDX%3AIT

I did use superglue Mike

Jim

Costco is usually a good source for these I've found.

[Jol Wilkinson]

Where do you get black surgical gloves? I can see a possible use for the material in coach ganways.

Theyre available on ebay Jol. About £10 for a pack of 100 from a cursory glance (though some listings come up for latex free nitrile options).

Could be a call for 1 of us to buy a pack and distribute a few around at S4N. I expect I could cope with 10 for trialing with, or even 5. I'd be happy to do the honours, and will be there both days.

Pete,

I regrettably shan't be going up to S4N, but if you do go ahead, you could deliver ten to John Redrup at London Road Models for me.

Black gloves. Perhaps a good idea for those coupling three link stock, would look less like the HoG people complain about.

Jol

[PeteT]

Thanks for the link Jim, I had only had a cursory glance before.

Paul, Philip & Jol (via John) noted to pass some onto so far.

[jim s-w]

Work continues on buildings for Brettell Road

The big warehouse now has a roof (thanks to Mr Horn for his laser cut tiles. Just the bridges and front/backscenes to do on this board and I can call it done.

Looking the other way, I knocked up a very low relief building to go behind the pub.

Across the alley way is this small building based on a local one I found in Brierley Hill.

Work in progress on its neighbour. Again local influences but nothing specific. I don't know if I will need a small outbuilding here to fill up the space or if ill just leave it open for clutter.

The other side - I've a vague idea that this will be some sort of woodworking industry or perhaps a commercial vehicle repair shop.



If you have explored my website you might have come across this picture before, I brought this loco years ago just because I like class 27s but thoughts have turned to doing something useful with it. This loco has become a bit of a clone of Brettell road itself in a way as it started out with the simple idea of just fitting a chip and sorting out the bogies and that would do. nothing to serious but like Brettell Road it's all gone a bit wrong!

moving the bogie springs in a bit and fitting the decoder was easy enough but the roof fan looked horrible. unfortunately the hole is too big for Brian's nicely etched replacement so that ended up being a bit more of a faff than I hoped! Then there were the nose end doors. They needed adding along with the details. I renumbered it to an example I found at Saltley (Class 27s were quite regular visitors to the midlands in their early lives) and re-weathered it. Also while I remember the yellow panels were too wide so a spot of Pheonix BR loco green sorted that out.

On the mention of roof fans this is one of Brian's for the class 20. I always quite liked them. I think it stems from a pair sitting outside my bedroom window one Sunday as a kid while the down North Warwickshire line was being relayed. I quite like the idea of them working on their own so I decided to get a green one. The grill is made up of 4 parts. A plain ring that goes onto the roof first. The ring with with the bracing and then the mesh, finally the last ring goes on. Zap pink is ideal for this and make sure you get the mesh the right way up!

On the loco itself I replaced the bogie sideframes with Heljan Baby Deltic ones as first suggested by my friend Shane. I had done this on my Lima ones and, this being my first Bachmann example, I was surprised to find the supplied bogies were quite poor too. I filled the lower beam on the bogie ans sanded it smooth as I was doing one of the first batch. Buffers were from Lanarkshire models.

[Le Corbusier]

Jim,

Have you had any thoughts yet about a back scene for Brettell Road (apologies if you have already covered this).

Tim

[jim s-w]

Yes I've had thoughts but not put them anywhere yet. I'm going to use martins isometric idea for some of it. For some where you will only be able to see it from one angle I'll stick with proper perspective I think. It will be illustrated.

Cheers

Jim

[Pannier Tank]

the good old Lima GUV, fitted with new bogies and underframe details.

Hi Jim,

Did you write an article describing the Lima GUV modifications? I have an old LMS GUV from my Late Father, it would be very nice to turn this into a decent model.

Any help would be most appreciated.

[jim s-w]

I haven't but I can give you the shopping list!

Bogies are MJT lms 9ft on brassmasters frames.
Buffers roof vents and vac pipes are from Lanarkshire models
New battery boxes, vac cylinders and dynamo from wizard models
V hangers are from southern pride.
Electrical box is from replica.
Handwheels from Colin craig (now stenson models)

I'll take some pictures of the underside for you.

Oh and while I remember the lower door handles are too high on the body as supplied by Lima.

HTH

Jim

(Edit for extra info)

[Philip Hall]

An alternative for the LMS bogies is the Bachmann variety which can be picked up from the spares merchants at shows. They're not bad.

Philip

[iak]

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/88430-upgrading-a-lima-lms-guv/

This might help with the LMS GUV

[Pannier Tank]

Jim,

Thank you for the shopping list, much appreciated. Some pictures of the "underside" would also be very welcome.

Philip & iak,

Thank you also for the additional information; I'll follow this up.

[jim s-w]

The last actual building for Brettell road is now finished which means I can now give you a reasonable overview of how the layout will look. There is still more to do and more clutter to add yet.

I want to add a couple of cranes to this scene too.

Here's how the area looks at night.


The courtyard for the building shown last time and below at night


A couple of overviews from the left side...



...and from the right side.

Probably should include a couple of trains really!

[garethashenden]

That looks excellent! How are the windows done? Are they etched?

[jim s-w]

Yes, all of the windows are from the brassmasters range

[jim s-w]

I spent the early part of this week visiting my friend Tim to get the extra bits of wood cut for Brettell Road. With Scaleforum looking at the end of September I needed to turn it from a plaything to something that could survive on the exhibition circuit. My list was as follows:

2 fiddleyards
Cassettes for the fiddleyards
New sides and ends for the layout itself
Fronts for the layout
Legs for the layout

The reason for the new sides and ends were that when I built Brettell Road it wasn't supposed to be taken out. I used 3mm MDF for the backscenes and it was too weak The entire construction was MDF and while this is absolutely fine for small, simply shaped boards the design of Brettell Road was a little too ambitious for the material. So the 3mm MDF has been replaced with 6mm ply instead.

Pictured above is the right hand side (as the viewer will look at it) fiddleyard. Quality control dog Earl doesn't seem all that impressed!


Laser cutters can be quite hypnotic to watch. Here is the large cutter cutting out a test piece for the layout logos.


The logo test. the scratches on the acrylic were not caused by the laser but by yours truly cleaning the dust off with something a tad too abrasive!

As always - thanks to Tim for allowing me to take over his machines for a couple of days.

[Crepello]

Didn't this start as a relaxing sideline to the Main Project? Seems to have turned into a textbook example of mission creep!

[jim s-w]

Oh yes. Like new street that originally started out as 'you can model just the wolves end in 8ft' brettell Road has likewise, gone a bit wrong!

Jim

[Paul Willis]

Oh yes. Like new street that originally started out as 'you can model just the wolves end in 8ft' brettell Road has likewise, gone a bit wrong!

Jim

But in a good way

I'm inspired and intimidated at the same time by your ability to produce superb modelling Jim. But for the avoidance of doubt, the overwhelming feeling is inspired.

I can't wait to see this at a show. Things like the illuminated name plaque look superb and tick the "innovative" box as well. It's just the sort of thing which at full size you'd find in the window of a Black Country chippie

Cheers
Flymo

[jim s-w]

Brettel road now has its final front and backscenes added. More work to do on the fronts yet but its starting to look like a proper layout!




Here is a view of the warehouse with the new backscene in the distance.
Ive decided to take some pictures of trains too. (sorry this post isn't a bit more, erm, informative!)


Railcar 22 trundles past towards Dudley


Pannier tank arrives with the sausage train.


Kirtley shuffles some ballast wagons around


Class 20 descends the bank.


Jinty waits for something to do.


Deeley takes its turn at some wagon worrying.


The railcar climbs back up the back towards Stourbridge.

[Phil O]

Cracking work Jim, are you planning to install a lighting system for the layout?

Phil.

[barhamd]

9 bells on the railcar
David

[jim s-w]

Cracking work Jim, are you planning to install a lighting system for the layout?

Phil.

I wasn't planning to as it's supposed to be dark. If I do I'm thinking blue side lights rather than lighting it from above.

The issue of lighting also has to account for operator comfort too as well.

Cheers

Jim