Thornton

Hi

Finally got to the point where I could start pouring some water, it starts cloudy and dries clear. Of course there is a small leak at the back despite my best efforts. Not too much of a spill and I had taken the precaution of covering everything underneath with a plastic sheet.










Generally I am happy with the results so far. The new rock face looks ok to me with some subtle colour changes. A little repair the the fencing where my elbow caught it, then I will attempt to fix the leak and pour a second time. I am experimenting with the water for the waterfalls, having watched a few utube video's.

Back in the shed this morning as 40mph winds forcast, so the perfect excuse to stay inside.

Derek

Hi

All the water has now set and I have started blending in the grass and vegetation. I still have to add a little bit more of the water effects, to try and get more of a feeling for movement.










Time for a quick vacuum of the loose material and then I think a short running session, before returning to add trees and bushes. There is now space for a short row of cottages on the right hand side where the church used to be. I will have to hunt around for a suitable prototype.

All for now.

Derek

Hi

I'm afraid I may have spoilt the fell of the area for you now I have added some trees...






I don't plan to add anything else to this area, except a couple of houses at the back right hand corner.



It's not been going so well. The plasticard is very brittle and not at all easy to cut. I have had it for a couple of years.

I will see how it goes before deciding if it is good enough.

Derek

I have finished the houses, being at the back just about got away with them.




The obvious error, some how missed the fact there are no chimneys. I did not notice this until I had wired in the lights and fixed everything in place..


I have now moved on to fitting working lamps onto about a dozen engines that do not have them.

Before




After








This is something in the past I would have got someone else to do for me. But once I had done one it seemed simpler to do it myself. Having opened up a few engines for maintenance I have found a mess of wiring and lots of sticky tape, so I set about tidying them up with shorter wires and heatshrink. In the future I will fit my own sound and lights with a speaker of my choice, it's not so difficult with just about every engine now having some sort of provision for sound.

I am looking forward to the imminent arrival of Clan Stewart, I have had one on preorder for some time as I missed out on them last time around.

Derek

Hi

It now looks like there is some pollution in the stream, one layer I poured has gone cloudy and shrunk somewhat. It did this over a period of 3 weeks. This layer was a bit thicker than the others and I probably did not give it enough time to set before pouring the next. Now I have to move my work desk, dig it up and try again.







I was going to post a video, but filming had become impossible, owing to a nieghbour having some building works done. Everytime the camera started so did the kango hammer.

Arrival of my Clan Steward is imminent and I will wait until then to do the video.

Lots of running sessions and tweaking in the meantime.

Derek

Hi

I remember frost on the inside of the bedroom windows, what I don't remember is ever being cold. The joy of being young I suppose or a fading memory.

Well the Clan Stewart arrived on Monday and I set about invalidating the warranty. First job to fit a working light to the front, you can see the wires in the photo ready to fix to the decocer. There is absolutly no space for a speaker so the next job is to take a dremel to the coal space to make room. I will the cover the hole and add real coal. It has a basic weathering by TMC, not much more than a waft with an airbrush.




Once the sound instalation is complete I will add some extra weathering with powders to give it a less uniform appearance. Oh and add a crew and details to the front buffer beam.
A video will eventually follow.

Derek

Remains a good looking model, and going to be much improved by the detailing and filth. I was pleasantly surprised by the Brit's performance, which has the same mechanism of course. That was Hornby's first Chinese loco introduction where they really hit their stride. Regrettably, one of the best features, a correctly positioned loco to tender drawbar with a scale spacing provision, hasn't been repeated on later introductions to their range to the best of my knowledge.

Derek Goodwin said:

...I remember frost on the inside of the bedroom windows, what I don't remember is ever being cold. The joy of being young I suppose or a fading memory...

Click to expand...

Clearly you never had the benefit of a Hertfordshire education. The post war unit construction schools were all metal frame, exterior roughly 50% single glazed or quarter inch thick infill panels, the other 50% precast concrete sections about 3 inches thick, heating by convection heaters, the heat supply from a hot water system heated in a coke fired boiler room.

I shall never forget entering the assembly hall on a Monday during the winter of 63 and having to sit cross legged on a frost covered floor. I was cold all that day, as were my schoolfellows, because the hot water pipes to the convectors had all frozen solid over the weekend. Parental complaints were met with 'good for their character'.

Hi

3 Months since I posted, 6 weeks of that recovering from surprising a muscle in my back. Not much to do to the layout except run it. I get most of my pleasure from building rather than using it. A plan is hatching for a complete rebuild, the main purpose of which is to get rid of difficult access points and reduce or eliminate gradients. If a visitor comes round I can guarantee the first train to move will derail for no reason in the hardest place to reach. I think that is Rule 2.

I will start dismantling in the summer and get the main stucture in place while I can cut wood outside. I should be able to recover a good portion of the exising trackwork and all of the buildings. A few pictures of tha last operating session now follow.....























On a foot note, the foggy stream has more or less cleared on it's own.

Now all I have to do is repair the wiring my 4 year old great nephew managed to break, after he decided it was more fun to crawl around under the layout with a torch than play trains.

All for now. Derek