Two Sister's Farm

I wanted some motive power that was a bit different from the norm, something that made a change from most narrow gauge layouts with their predominantly small steam outline locos.
I had come across some pictures of a Bedford truck running on rails in New Zealand and this set me thinking. A trip to my local model shop saw me buying a 1/35 scale Italeri military kit of an Opel Blitz truck. I took it home and studied the parts. A germ of an idea was forming in my mind, could I get the truck body to fit over an Athearn switcher chassis?
A swift check with a set of dividers suggested I could with some modifications. Consisting mainly of removing parts of the internal parts of the lorry to allow for the centrally mounted motor, fly wheels, drive shafts and gear towers to fit inside.
I started with the Opel chassis and removed all the cross members, it fitted snugly against the Athearn centrally mounted motor. It was then a case of making a sub frame of plasticard to locate the two parts together. I cut an area of the load carrying body away to allow the motor, fly wheel, drive shaft and gear tower to protrude into the truck. This was covered by a box made of plasticard so it couldn't be seen.
To get the rest of the truck body to fit meant removing part of the cab floor, the seats part of the back of the cab and the bulkhead between the engine and cab.
The whole thing is held together by self tapping screws that go through the truck chassis and push against the sides of the motor. All a bit crude I know, but it works.
This was used for testing clearances as it was going to be the largest device that would be used.

Peter M

looks great thanks for sharing.
cheers Trish

The Opel Blitz ran both smoothly and slowly and was used to check clearances for the buildings I intended making.
The first of these was a large asbestos barn of a type common in the 40's and 50's where the tractors and implements were to be serviced and stored. I made it from a child's toy barn made by Britain's. It came in a dark green and reddish orange coloured loose parts and was supposed to be held together with the small self tapping screws provided. I cut the whole thing up into sections and glued them together to form the shape and size I wanted.
In fact there was enough material left over to make the rudimentary engine house as well.
When they were assembled they were both sprayed with an acrylic grey undercoat as a base coat. The engine house was painted in a humbrol light green.
The supports of the barn were hollow so I filled these with polyfiller to make them look solid. I took some photographs of similar barns to match the colours more accurately.
A bridge over the tracks was made to hide the fact that it led into the fiddle yard. The green house was started and also a small foreman's hut and a loading dock.
These early pictures will give an idea what the layout looked like at this stage.



An early photograph looking downwards towards the two road fiddle yard. In this view a little more work has been done.


Peter M

I wanted something to disguise the back corner and small bridge over the track that hides the fiddle yard. I thought a tree would do the job looking natural and not contrived. The tree is actually made from thin telephone wire. We had a new timing system put in at work ( a motor racing circuit ) and there was loads of this wire going spare. I twisted the wire round itself to make a tree shape adding extra bits for branches. The whole thing was shall we say less than rigid. So I wrapped kitchen towel round the trunk and branches then soaked it in neat PVA. After a few days it had dried out and I then coated it with a thin layer of Milliput modelling putty. While this was drying I scribed it to look a bit more like bark. When this had hardened off I painted the trunk and branches a greenish grey colour with acrylics. Then I washed several coats of a very dark grey with a little black India ink added to it over the whole thing until I thought it looked right. Then I dry brushed it with light grey and glued on a whole pack of Woodland Scenics foliage. This shows the tree in the early stages of construction.
The tractor is an MF 135 an early Britains die cast model.


This shows the tree with the trunk and main branches in a more finished state.The tree is glued to the base board with white PVA glue. The tractor on the bridge this time is a Fordson 27N, a white metal kit. The small diesel, an HO scale 0-4-0 Hornby model is in the throes of being modified to suit the bigger scale.


I have now added a few more branches made of wire and used a whole pack of Woodland Scenics material.

The bridge abutments and roadway are plywood covered with DIY filler and scribed to look like stones. They are painted with water colour paints.

Peter M

A picture showing the early stages I bought a ON30scale Bachmann Porter 0-4-2 steam engine, a Davenport gas mechanical, some wooden side tippers and some metal V tippers. The wagons although a slightly smaller scale I thought looked alright. The two locomotives however needed a bit of work. At this stage all I did was on the Davenport raise the height of the cab and extend the exhaust pipe. I also added a hand rail to the front and rear as well. I painted the cab green to look a little different. I left the kadees as I am used to them on my USA switching layout and have found them to be very reliable.
The corrugated iron is an experiment using a kind of card that is used to stop you burning your hands with hot cups of coffee served in paper cups. I painted it a mix of grey and silver acrylics then dry brushed rust colours on later. The best thing is it didn't cost a penny, as I found some discarded at work.


The Porter I removed the roof, extended the safety valve bonnet, fitted a reversing lever and hand brake wheel. The sides I increased in height and a modified Tamiya military figure is now the driver. A bit more work has been done on the layout generally. This time the Fordson 27N has been joined by a Fordson standard "N"

The long grass and vegetation soaked in PVA glue round the roots of the tree help keep it in place as it is rather heavy. A thin wire through the back scene help secure it in place as well.


The Opel Blitz rail truck in close-up. I've done a little more weathering on it. I like to do a little at a time over a period of time; it seems to work better for me that way.


The rail truck is seen pushing a flat car loaded with sacks of wheat out of the yard. The flat car is made of scribed plasticard planks to make them look like wood. It was sprayed with red undercoat then washed over with a thin black wash. When this was dry a dry brush with light grey was flicked over it. The trucks are from an old Bachmann HO scale boxcar. All my freight cars are fitted with KD's. The rail truck has a KD fitted to the front end only.

Peter M

I bought a small loco kit from Sidelines called a Wasp it is intended for GN15 really but looks fine when used as 1/32 scale. Top left hand of picture. It was sprayed with a car aerosol then given washes of dark grey acrylics to tone it down a little. It was then dry brushed with a very light grey.


This picture shows a few of my wagons, the small four wheel opens are also Sideline kits intended for GN15 but are very similar to the wagons used on farms in the fens. The V tippers and the flat car are Bachmann ON30 items.
As you can see the ground cover is being built up slowly in thin layers.

Peter M

I also bodged a freelance shunter using a Hornby 0-4-0 chassis, it runs quite well given its humble origin, with a hand held feed back controller. The body on this is also filled with lead in every little crevice. The driving wheels are now hidden behind full skirts which improves it appearance, it is not used much but kept in reserve. Both these locos are fitted with link and pin couplers which work very well with the KD's The pin being a U shaped bit of paper clip, a bit crude but it works. In the photo the loco is seen pushing a wagon past the water tower and coaling stage.

A while back in this thread I have posted the same pictures twice but with different captions.
Sorry about this, put it down to being a senior moment.

Peter M

Flushed with the success of how well the Opel Blitz performed, I started looking round for other suitable trucks to modify. A trip to my local shop yielded nothing but a look in an Italeri catalogue showed a Chevrolet short wheel base truck I thought rather attractive.
I remember as a child a local farmer delivering loads of logs with one of these.
I ordered one and when it arrived found it to be a little shorter than I thought it would be.
Undaunted I made a chassis out of plasticard to fit an Athearn switcher chassis. I found by trial and error that I needed to lengthen the body to suit the plasticard chassis. I inserted a large toolbox box between the cab and the body. I cut out bits of the body floor, cab floor and engine bulkhead to get the body to fit over the Athearn chassis. After much cutting, filling and checking, I got it to fit. I put the model on the layout and disaster.
It looked ridiculous, it sat far too high. I put it to one side and had a rethink.
The photos shows it just doesn't look right. They also show the bridge abutments and the farm road with a Fordson Major 27N tractor. The tree can be seen in its early stages before having some smaller branches then foliage added.




Peter M

The answer to my problem was a Bachmann Brill Trolley chassis. It fitted quite well and with its much smaller wheels looked right


The Chevrolet looks about right to my eye and runs remarkably well, only one truck is powered but it picks up current with all eight wheels.
An early view of the Chevy before the canvas hood was fitted, the tarpaulin covered box in the back of the truck hides the motor.

A front view of the Chevrolet and Opel trucks in the yard before starting the days work.


A view showing the tarpaulin covering the back.

Peter M

Having a few wagons and odd bits of motive power I thought I would do a bit more work on the structures. I decided to paint both the main workshop and the small engine shed a grey asbestos cement colour, as I thought it unlikely that a farm would go to the trouble of painting them. Looking at asbestos buildings locally showed they had a sort of orange coloured lichen growing on some of them, easily replicated on the model with a blob of paint. The walls were lined with balsa and some shelves put up. An Italeri kit provided a bench and many of the tools in the workshop. There are lubrication charts on the walls, these are reduced copies of the real thing. Both tractors in these pictures are actually diesels on trial and make the date the early 1960's. The earlier TVO powered tractors I have are rather delicate white metal kits. I usually have an example of both old and new at exhibitions. The two mechanics are Tamiya military figures that have had hats added to them then painted to look as if they are wearing overalls. Most working men in the 1950's wore hats.

The black tank to the left in the picture of the workshop is for the storage of TVO. Most tractors during the late forties and early fifties started on petrol and when the engine was warm changed over to TVO. It is made from odds and ends in the spares box.


The coal stage in the foreground is a basic box shape made of Tamiya battle damaged walls cut into sections and glued with MEK. The corrugated iron is actually the inner wrapper of cup holders we use at work. I found this material by accident one morning after an holder had been left out in the rain overnight and had delaminated. It was painted with several coats of grey with a little silver paint added, when dry it was touched up here and there with various rust colours. The corrugated iron sheets are held in place with wooden corner posts and rusty wire. There is some crushed real coal on the loading platform which is made of coffee stirrers. A few tools are found there, shovels, a coal hammer and a pick. The coal is carried on the footplate of the only steam locomotive the farm has in small sacks.
The Logs in the foreground are used for lighting up the Porter 0-4-0 during the summer months when she helps out the diesel fleet during busy periods.

Peter M

A picture taken in the early days from the operating side of the layout giving a view not normally seen by the public.
The small water tower is made from odds and ends in the scrap box mainly and parts of an Airfix bridge kit. The platform the tank sits on is a few more wooden coffee stirrers from work. The tank itself is from an HO scale re-fuelling facility. The box housing the controls is made of balsa. The other bits are an assortment of wire, chain and masking tape. The tape is used to make the leather bag for filling the loco's tank. It is also used to simulate the lagging on the rising main which feeds the tank. These are painted in appropriate greyish brown colours.
The main parts being painted with Humbrol oil paint in a colour I mixed myself which I call industrial green.


The bridge with the cows being driven over for afternoon milking hides the fiddle yard entrance. The cows are actually Britain's Jerseys, but a farmer friend told me they look more like Friesians, they are too big and the wrong shape for Jerseys. So I re-painted them by spraying them white then painting on black patches in a random fashion. I finished them off by painting the udders a very pale pink and touching in their eyes, noses and hoofs. The cows are clean at the rear end as it is summer. They only get really mucky in winter when they have to be kept inside.

Peter M

The foreman's hut/office is a scale model of the huts we used to have at work. It is made of strips of balsa wood with a corrugated iron roof, the same material as the coal stage sides. The door is set in the open position to show the interior detail. There is a small stool and a bench with paperwork, a mug, a clipboard hanging up, and some bread and cheese. The foreman figure is a modified Tamiya German soldier. He has obviously cycled to work on the day the photo was taken.



The cold frame itself is a mix of balsa and plasticard with the vegetables being made of milliput and painted with green acrylics. One of the panes of glass is broken, a bit hackneyed I know, but the children seem to like it.



The Davenport in as new condition is seen passing with a nominal train of sacks of wheat.
The farm grows potatoes, wheat and sugar beet and rotates the crops annually to prevent disease. It also keeps cattle, sheep and pigs the manure being used to improve the soil.



The Davenport when purchased was fitted with the DCC gubbins. This has now been removed and a blanking chip put in and this has transformed its running for the better.
When this photograph was taken only very slight modifications had been done. The cab height had been increased to clear a standing 1/32 scale figure. The control cluster in the cab was raised and a couple of handrails added and the model lightly weathered. Since then a few more changes have been made. An air cleaner and fuel filler have been added to the bonnet top. In the cab a reversing lever and brake wheel have been added, these can't really be seen but I know they are there! It has also had a bit more weathering added to give a work stained appearance.

Peter M

A couple of pictures of the other Bachmann ON30 model I have. The Porter 0-4-2 steam loco it's the only steam engine on the roster. I must confess to being an unashamed internal combustion engine fan.
The Porter has been modified very slightly. It has had the cab removed and the cab sides built up a little. A reversing lever, a hand brake wheel and a bonnet for the safety valve have also been added. The driver is an ex- German soldier.
In the second picture the locomotive has been lightly weathered. I usually apply weathering a little at a time, adding a bit more is easier than removing it if you have overdone it.
I must admit this does not run as well as the Davenport although they have the same motor. It has improved the more it has run.

The farm estate Two Sisters' is very loosely based on one that had some twenty odd miles of main line and ten miles of sidings all of it two feet gauge. It had a connection with the GER and a facility for loading the crops (mainly potatoes) into Lorries as well.
They had an assortment of Simplex locos really and ex First World War rolling stock.
I felt the need to build something that could be used to haul these main line trains to the railhead or road interchange.
That is how the yellow beast came about. It is totally freelance and is supposed to have a Gardner four cylinder diesel engine which drives a small generator which in turn powers the rear bogie which has two traction motors. The front bogie is un-powered and is purely for load carrying and braking. All this is fiction of course.
The device is seen here with a side tipper used for transporting lime out to the fields to improve the soil.



Peter M

The model runs on another Athearn switcher chassis, this time with the rear drive shaft disconnected to give a bit more room in the cab area. The body has bits of its original donor loco, a Baldwin S12 with the cab removed and doors and handles on the bonnet sides added. The cab like the tractors of that time is open to the elements. The driver is a converted army figure with his tin helmet filed to look like his hair.
The beast is seen here with a wooden side tipper on its way to the piggery to collect the material from mucking out the sties. A single track ran through the area to facilitate this.



A view showing the greenhouse as seen in Summer with the tomato plants being tended by a man with a white apron. They are made of a cocktail stick representing the cane supporting the plant. The actual plant being thin wire covered in pva glue then dipped a mix of green flock material. When it had all dried a dab of bright red paint was applied to replicate the tomatoes.
To the left in the foreground is a scratch built short wheelbase bogie wagon with a load bales of straw for bedding in the pig pens.
The second shot gives a different view, to give some idea of the greenhouses construction. A bit more ground cover and a farmer figure have been added since these pictures were taken.



Peter M

Thank you Brian, I am glad you are enjoying the saga.

I feel I ought to come clean about the photographs. As a general rule if the photo is of good quality with a high number of pixels, my good friend and fellow operator Andy Knott took it. If the picture is of poorer quality and a lower number of pixels, I took it using my wife's compact camera. There I feel better now having confessed.



The guy cleaning windows has obviously wandered off for a cup of tea and a chat with the mechanics in the workshop.
The trailer wheel is in to have a puncture repaired and is a left over part from the Opel Blitz kit.
The jerry cans and large oil drum are from a Tamiya military kit as are the sacks. The sight gauge and valve on the tank are from the spares box. The fine light coloured ground cover
is a material we use at work for dealing with oil spills.



We get a glimpse into the engine shed with its work bench and a tool box plus some parts being worked on. A vice and more tools have been added since this was picture was taken. The floor of the engine house is scribed Milliput painted a dirty black as are the sides of the rails in the shed. A set of fire irons lean against the front of the shed next to an oil drum of rubbish complete with brush and shovel. A group of oil drums containing lubricating oil sit on a balsa wood stand.
Next to the engine house is a low relief barn made of balsa painted with watered down Indian ink. It has a rusty corrugated iron roof and a brick base from yet another Tamiya war damaged building!
The Davenport and the Opel truck are patiently waiting for their next job.

Peter M