watery Bottom

It looks like a tip at the moment as a lot of my old 4mm stuff is waiting for the winter months sales.

If anybody reading this is into Kadees on contact me as I have huge stocks at reasonable prices compaired to Ebay most of it is still in the orginal packing.

There also the bench work for and other 7mm project stored underneath. This a joint build with two friends for exibition. Being 36 ft long mean that we have problems finding the right space.
So Every time I install a turnout I have a major moving activity to get to the under side of some base boards. The room being 12 ft wide precludes proper curves so I'm down to 4ft radius on the main line, but I only intend to run tank loco's anyway.
Perhaps I'll take a few still photo's still this week, to show it in a better light. (7mm is a big learning curve) We also have a very nice 7mm exibition layout at our club whuch we are converting to DCC so I'm not short of places to run my stock.

Welcome to the wonderful world of 7mm, MMD

TY Rob

The Watery Bottom railway has a varied amount of stock. Loco's almost out number rolling stock ! Well not quite, but its becoming a trend !
I have Lionheart Pannier
Ixion Deisel shunter
Terrier
A Peckett
Victory
A GWR 2-4-0 tank
An early Pannier tank
A new Minera Pannier (when it arrives) It is highly unlikely that any tender engines will join the locomotive fleet due to the sharp curves.
there are about 30 odd Vans and coal wagons that need couplings.
Passenger stock is largley late Victorian survivers and will be argumented by 4 wheel passenger coaches. The layout will be a double tracked oval with supporting sidings, engine shed, Goods shed, and some industrial sidings.
it's planned to add a kick back branch gives access to a mine and two stations. This should add further operational intrest.
the Promised Pictures
The Bridge is not complete. The wiring needs completing and various structual bit need to added once the rails have been painted.


The layout is powered by a Digitrax DCS100 I'm currently using the HO setting and find this perfectly adequate for my Stock


This is Minevra Pickett - The turnouts are a mixture of Peco and Marcway


All my turnouts are are switches by DCC concepts C levers which I particulary enjoy using, and saves building a mimic panel




This is a selection of Skytrax buildings I've been quite busy on the kit building front !

Nice to see some of the wagons getting a coat of weathering too

Progress in the last couple of months has been slow due a medical condition of close family needing my full time attention.

I've been busy with quite a few things my Minevra Victory has under gone a tranformation.
Minevra produce a kit to change the appearance into the GWR version . There were two loco's no. 666, 667, which made it through to nationalisation. my current version is 666 (the beast)

Unlike 4mm in 7mm you can get a lot more in the body. So the sound system has under gone modification I added a large Dumbo twin speaker from John at youchoose, this has transformed the loco.
This was prompted following the fitting of one to a Dapol Jinty, which sounds perfect. I now have 2 Dapol Jinty's and they run superbly.

the kit consists of etched tank sides, number plates, Dome and saftey bonnet. plus some lamp irons. these have all been fitted. At £42.00 it must be one of the best kits on the market for the money.
Well done Minevra.





I've also been working on couplers. Our club has standardised on Dinghams. I've invested many hours in coupler fabrication and now have it off to a fine art. I'll produce another video shortly

some time has passed so I thought I'd show some of the developments on my O gauge layout. This layout is a shunting layout with sidings either side of the room conected by a simple oval of track.

One of the problems with O gauge is the lack of standard coupling. I spent many hours constructing Dingham couplings and fitting them to stock. While Dinghams may work for some folks they most certainly didnt work for me. while I really like the appearance of three link couplings to faf around coupling them is a pain. So I'm now in the process of fitting Spratt and Winkle couplings to the majority of my rolling stock.

This bridge was constructed from foamex sheets glued together with pipe glue. You can see that I have a mixture od peco and Marcway turnouts. I now prefer Marcway and really wish I'd fited their track as well. these are fitted without rail joiners
and then gaps filled with two part epoxy resin. the bridge is covered with embossed brick paper from a contact I have. The intention is to mount the station building which will be scratch built on the bridge. The station will be called Malago road and should appear similar to Bristol Parsons street, which has to be one of the most unelegant structures on the GWR system !





All turnouts are pwer by Colbalt turnout motors mostly IP digital but some analogue. These are now run by via a secondary bus power by 12 volt DC and is seperated from the DCC system. All turnouts are changed by DCC concepts point levers
which are a pleasure to use, I have 12 levers at present in use, with many more to be added as the layout grows.



So there we have



this is the view from the bridge most of the industial units are Skytrex resin cast or Laser cut railway buildings some have been modified, and there the remains of an L cut Locoshed used for some of the north light factory (I wasnt impressed with the L Cut structure.





The small loco shed can handle up to 12 tank loco's theres no turntable



Bedminster box features a full interior although it's due for renaming when I get the time.


The yet unnamed intermediate station on the other side of the layout features a scratch build foamex bridge and there will be a large town development. All of the track work in this section needs to be developed.

Looks great

Thanks for the update.

David

things are changing on my O gauge layout. Watery bottom is Upton Downs

I set my self of building a long retaining wall over bridge, and proper station.



the over bridge & retaining wall is build from foamex faced with embossed printed brick paper. Foamex is a lovely material to work with. Strong but easy to cut with a sharp blade.



this one shows the start of the retaining wall and station development. In O gauage even the steps up to the station building have had to be scratch built.



the retaining wall is now in place and development of the town now awaits. Although my next task will be to build some colliery buildings.

Very nice

David

I'm currently busy building a colliery.



the mainhead frame is cobbled together using Spruce sections cut on my proxxon saw. Thes have been stained with Indian Ink to age them. The Sheaves were obtained from Shapeways nd are 3D printed. The surrounding buildings will be scratch built in Foamex and covered with suitable cladding, and laser cut windows and doors.



The pits been elevated to give me moor room over the screens, as I plan to develop some type of coal loading facility. Space is at a premium in this area of the layout, but I'm determined to squeeze it all in !. Only the first two legs of the three way will be used for coal loading. BTW all my main running lines use woodlnds underlay. Sidingds are laid straight on to the plywood top. track is secured using copydex, Not a track pin in sight. I use rail joiners only on Peco track. Marcway ~I just leave a small gap and line up by eye.


you'll note I'm using Marcway turnouts in preference to Peco. I wish I'd really used smp track as well as theres a height difference meaning that each Marcway turnout need to be carefully packed up to meet the Peco rail height. I'm using DCC concepts IP digital turmout motors in conjunction with C levers, and they work like a charm. I've found the odd turnout that refuses to switch all the way normally due to the wire rod in the IP digital bending, its then simply a case of fitting a larger piano wire rod. When I go to working signals I plan to wire these through the C levers.

I'm still woking on Liberty Pit.
to be added the winding house, boiler house,scrrens, coal tubs, pit pony, and miners

last week I stuck into the colliery buildings.

The first major construction is a combined boiler room and winding house.
this a foamex shell covered with Slaters brick sheet. Dorrs and windown and other furniture are by York model making.
the little brick box in the fore ground iwill be a coal bunker.



Once these are complete I'll give the screens a try. I think the automatic coal loadig thats I had in mind might need some serrious rethinking as space is really tight.

some more progress on the pit.

the winding house & boiler room with chimney & coal bunker





last night's effort the pumping house is underway