Stour Valley Dream - progress on P4 layout

Tell us about your layout, where you put it, how you built it, how you operate it.
Alan Turner
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Re: Stour Valley Dream - progress on P4 layout

Postby Alan Turner » Mon Jun 01, 2020 9:12 am

ralphrobertson wrote:
I took a look at Lightburn but I don't think it supports the commercial machines like my HPC laser.


Hi Dave,

It is always worth dropping these guys a line as they are very helpful and obliging. In view of the number of HPC machines around they may well be interested in adding in a driver for it - I know nothing about that machine but it has to be worth an email enquiry?

Ralph


There's a free download trial version specifically offered to people to try compatibility. https://lightburnsoftware.com/pages/tri ... re-you-buy

regards

Alan
Last edited by Alan Turner on Sun Jan 10, 2021 11:04 am, edited 1 time in total.

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barhamd
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Re: Stour Valley Dream - progress on P4 layout

Postby barhamd » Mon Dec 21, 2020 7:18 pm

It's been a few months since I posted an update on my model of Clare.

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The bulk of the work has been in the area around the cattle dock and down towards the goods yard.
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The castle mount got formed and I have made a start on the various bits of historic wall (interestingly there seems to be more present now than in my 1950's photographs). The goods shed now has windows and coping stones which makes a difference.

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I'm not sure what the purpose of the whitewashed panel was, it doesn't seem to be to aid signal sighting, one suggestion I have been given is 'the black-out'.

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The aerial photographs shows 11 wagons in the siding beyond the goods shed, I can get 10 in which doesn't seem like a bad compression to me.

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I've started with the basic landform for the river bank, still lots to do. The bridge has to be curved and compressed to fit it in so it won't be an exact model of the original but in the same style. I was surprised just how slim the centre pier is, one of my pictures allows you to count the bricks across the top and it was only 5 stretchers wide, so about 4'.

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Finally a Christmas quiz for you (and no, I don't know the answer..) What do you think this was? This was in the space just next to the cattle dock, seems to be a tank of some kind?

mysterious-thing.jpg


Wishing every one a safe Christmas

David
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barhamd
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Re: Stour Valley Dream - progress on P4 layout

Postby barhamd » Fri Jan 08, 2021 5:14 pm

I finally managed to get my Crownline J20 kit built. I think it is fair to describe the kit as 'old school', lots of bits designed around OO tolerances. I'm very pleased with how well the paint has managed to hide a multitude of sins in terms of 'cut and shut' work on the footplate and where I gave up with some of the etched parts and reached for the 3D printer (particularly the sandboxes).

aIMG_8495.jpg


I still intend to add a bit more to the weathering, I want to give it a late 1950s' burned out smokebox door and leaky pipework paint job. Certainly in most of the pictures I've got from later years it is hard to even discern the British Railways insignia on the tender side.

In the absence of any etches I had a go at 3D printing a smokebox door number and shed plate. The number didn't come out too bad but the 30A plate is just too small to read.

aIMG_8504.jpg


Relevant to the recent thread on P4 curves I can say that the minimum radius on my model of Clare is down to 39.4" and the J20, with a coupled 18'10" wheelbase (just over 75mm in 4mm scale) gets round it ok. I allowed some extra sideplay on the centre axle but nothing too excessive.

Next up will be a J17.

David
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DougN
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Re: Stour Valley Dream - progress on P4 layout

Postby DougN » Fri Jan 08, 2021 9:42 pm

David, I was most impressed with your running on YouTube. The layout is coming along very nicely the new j20 will be a nice addition. :thumb
Doug
Still not doing enough modelling

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barhamd
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Re: Stour Valley Dream - progress on P4 layout

Postby barhamd » Sat Dec 04, 2021 2:44 pm

Progress on Clare continues, most of the recent work has been around building the river bridge and Ashen road level crossing. Thanks to some assistance on RMweb I was able to get plans for an '1865' crossing keepers cottage and produce a laser cut model based on these and the few photographs I could find.

The level crossing now has its own lever frame which is includes locking. There is a lever which causes the gates to open (rather than just operate the locks and be opened manually) and the distant signal can't be pulled off until the gates have finished opening. I've also got the slotted distant signal below the platform starter signal correctly working so it is interlocked with the main lever frame. The other levers are for my 'make believe' mill siding, with a FPL and siding point - I drew the line at trying to model a working Annett key.

aIMG_8798.jpg


I had three goes at getting the river poured, my first two attempts with Woodland Scenic's Deep Pour water were a complete failure, I think I had some resin which was out of date. I still need to add more variety to the grass texture. The trees need foliage but are progressing, these are armatures from Model Scenic supplies. I have used 2 or 3 wired together to make them taller than originally supplied.

aIMG_8797.jpg


The level crossing gates were laser cut in two pieces with some fine mesh fabric stuck between the sides. The picket fencing is a 3D print. The crossing keepers cottage was also laser cut in 3mm MDF with the quions cut in thin 'oiled manilla' card.

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About 6 years ago I built a model of one of the 'Small 1865' station buildings based on the drawings from the GERS of Takeley in Essex. (though I reversed the colour of the brick to match the Suffolk style of 'red brick - yellow quions'. It is interesting to see just how diminutive the crossing keepers house was compared to the station master's accommodation. Given that the 1911 census shows Frederick and Emily Huckle with 9 surviving children living there it must have been a bit cramped. (Fred had suffered the loss of a leg in 1886)

aIMG_8796.jpg


I've now got some more track to build into the mill siding yard.

David
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petermeyer
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Re: Stour Valley Dream - progress on P4 layout

Postby petermeyer » Sat Dec 04, 2021 6:58 pm

The 2 houses look about the same size to my eye from the photo.

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Will L
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Re: Stour Valley Dream - progress on P4 layout

Postby Will L » Sun Sep 18, 2022 9:45 am

Had a visit to the Clare country park recently. Haven't been there for a very long time, living as I do now, several hours away from Suffolk. I was very pleasantly surprised at how much of the station still survives. Does make it a great choice of prototype to model.

Mark Tatlow
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Re: Stour Valley Dream - progress on P4 layout

Postby Mark Tatlow » Sun Sep 18, 2022 8:05 pm

David

i am a year too late with this info but in seeing your 3D printed numberplate made me wonder if you were aware of Railtec's 3D transfers

They are very good

https://www.railtec-models.com/3dtransfers.php
Mark Tatlow

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barhamd
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Re: Stour Valley Dream - progress on P4 layout

Postby barhamd » Mon Sep 19, 2022 8:33 pm

Glad you enjoyed the country park at Clare Will, Platform 1 is pretty good for a lunch or cup of tea.
I'd not looked at the Railtec transfers, looks like an interesting option.

I enjoyed a visit down to Colchester to meet up with the NEEAG last month to see the progress on Lavenham.

More progress has been made on my J17. The latest tasks included 'Cut-and-shutting' the footplate, making the holes for the splashers smaller and the overall length of the footplate 2mm shorter at the front. I can understand why the PDK kit had splashers the wrong size to fit OO wheels but the overall length makes no sense at all. The 3D print isn't stuck down to the footplate yet (hence the gap) but I've added the handrails.

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I'm now working on the brake gear and then I have to face the control rods for the sanding gear.

David
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