Wood butchery and 'My Last Great Project'!

A strange title but my woodworking skills are such that wood is unfortunately not crafted with skillful hands into something that is aesthetically pleasing to the eye. I have to coerce, force and batter wood into something that resembles, with a fleeting glance, what my mind has created as a beautiful project that would add class to any self respecting home. 

Something that I have not talked about on this blog before is what I will whimsically call 'My Last Great Project'. Not that I don't plan to be around for a while yet but given my rate of progress on matters it will take an age to get this finished. So what is this great project? Well nothing more than a large roundy style 00 gauge layout. Roughly 12 foot by 5 foot it will be unashamedly a place on which I can watch my accumulated over the years collection of engines and rolling stock finally run on a decent length of track (cue the theme to Born Free with visions of locomotives free to stretch themselves on a lengthy track and get back to their natural habitat). No prototype, no historic accuracy, no timetable operation, no worries about the Flying Scotsman running next to a Class 66, but it will be fun and that to me is my own desire for this project. 

Whilst it sounds like it will be more like a Hornby Trakmat layout, it will, hopefully, be a little more detailed. First thing though is the baseboard. It will not be a flat sheet of ply or chipboard but it will be an open top one to allow for below track level scenery. Material is ply for lightness with soft wood corner strengtheners. In addition it will be built in four sections. Two 6 foot by 2.5 feet and two 5 foot by 3 foot but with rounded ends. That will allow it to be separated into manageable boards if it needs to be moved. Not that I am expecting to take it to exhibitions (if you recall those events pre Covid!) but I have to be realistic in that I am not going to be here for ever and if the layout can easily be dismantled it is probably far easier to dispose of and might make it more attractive to a buyer if it were to be sold. Much as it is a sobering thought you do get to a stage in life where you need to be sensible and take account of a World without your presence! Anyway, moving on from these dark thoughts, the baseboard is under construction at WMD HQ in what I laughingly call my garage or Room of Gloom! It really needs a further clear out but that can wait for the moment with this more pressing project taking precedence. 

The photo below shows progress after about a week. Doesn't look much after that time but I am taking my time and trying to think things out before committing saw to wood but even then there are still things I would do differently but hey ho! If you try to get perfection you sometimes will never finish it. So, as long as it is basically flat, solid and enables me to move onto stage two that will do! Here is what I have so far.

The one thing I will highlight is that trying to get decent timber at the moment is difficult. I eventually managed to get some ply at Wickes but to be honest it is not the straightest of materials and has need some coercion to be straight where needed. This is where being a Wood Butcher does come in handy  though - Now where's that lump hammer?????

Time to load up!

Progress is being made on this layout at a pace not normally associated with my modelling. Usually progress is measured in some form of astrological event schedule such as the return of an asteroid from its journey in deep space. However I have to see this speeding up as a positive step. The layout has a quarry face and therefore some means of loading whatever the quarry produces (yet to be finally decided upon) has to be in place. In the last post I did state that what I had constructed bore some resemblance to what Tony Beets from the Gold Rush programme might have made. I constructed this on the basis of an auger that is loaded by machine from the quarry face  feeding some overhead hoppers that would then discharge into wagons waiting underneath. From an engineering view this whole contraption would have probably never worked and condemned for safety reasons before it had even seen any material pass through it. However, this is the World of model railways so imagination, available materials and skills all trump what engineering and health and safety might do in the real World!

The hopper and auger were made from sheet plasticard, some H-beam strips and some lengths of strip and rod ending up after a few evenings work looking like this.

It took a three evenings to build this with no real plan to it other than knowing how wide and how high it had to be to allow the rolling stock under. Guess how I knew to take account of that at an early stage? Lessons learnt from previous failures!

Once built it was sprayed in Tamiya Earth and this formed the undercoat for a light coat of blue Vallejo. The idea was that the overall structure would show age and negelect. Some weathering powders followed this and again highlight the rust and aging that such a structure would show after some years. Some weathering powders were put in the hoppers as the sort of residues you would find on a working loader and hopper and fixed in place by dripping acrylic thinner over them It all ended up looking like this. 

The hopper still needs to be fixed in place on some concrete blocks and a lot more blending of the quarry floor and siding need to take place but its getting there!

'Jab Done' and a good few days!

 A welcome trip away from WMD HQ on Monday as being of a certain age I got my Covid jab. A very slick operation by all concerned at the jab centre and my heartfelt thanks to them all.

Monday also saw the arrival of some post in the form of two MiniArt kits. I broke my New Years Resolution of no more kits but couldn't resist when an email popped up from Jadlem Models with the US bulldozer and a perusal of their site for some 1/35 Russian tankers to go with my recently finished T34 found me looking at paying about £13 or buying the T-80 light tank kit with a crew kit for £22. It was a no brainer! In effect the 1/35 MiniArt tank kit for £12! As a satisfied customer only, I will say it was good service from Jadlem - well packed and arrived in three days and no postage charge. Upon arrival at WND HQ unpacking was soon undertaken with the help of Sammy the cat who probably thought his food was in there somewhere!

Never built a MiniArt kit before but it has been started and I will update on progress and thoughts another time.

I have made progress with the narrow gauge 009 model railway. Most of the posts so far about this have been about various aspects such as baseboards, ballasting, landscaping and other such things. Today has seen a lot of progress on the scenics. Although some work has already been done a lot came together over the past few days. So here are some pictures that give a bit more of an insight into the layout. You can get a larger picture by clicking on them if you want to see more detail.

First off from the drone an aerial view showing the whole thing.

View looking down the road with a scratch built field gate, hedge and post and wire fence now installed.

Coming under the bridge the Baldwin hauling a goods train.

A bit further round the curve the crewless Baldwin (must sort that out as it looks most odd!) heads towards the quarry.

Passing the quarry the start of the loading facilities can be seen - again scratch built.

A closer look at the loading facilities and the grounded van store. All need a lot more work but gives a sense of what it will be like. I was aiming for something that if you watch Gold Rush you would think Tony Beets had constructed!

The train crosses the level crossing to head back up the cutting to continue its round and round journey!

I'll give a little more detail about some of the scenics and the structures in a later post but in the meantime I better feed that cat who looks as though he is about to open the boxes thinking his dinner is inside!

Surprising post!

Normally at WMD HQ the post comes it usually contains a mixture of bills, offers of funeral plans and other assorted junk! However something a bit different arrived the other day from a good friend and fellow modeler. It was a pack of some pencil drawings of a T34 tank and some diesel locos he had done when aged 14 or 15. I was amazed at the detail, finesse and quality of what I saw and those early creative talents have certainly translated and matured into his modelling from what I have seen of his master pieces. Take a bow Mr. Beecham for here are those drawings and just to make it clear he has given his permission for them to go on the WMD Blog as I didn't want any solicitors letters adding to the bills, offers of funeral plans and other assorted junk! As always click on the picture for a larger version and see these drawings in much better detail.

Ballasting Time!

Any railway needs firm foundations for their track and the ballast provides a lot of that. The stones that usually form the ballast are angular and when compacted lock together holding the sleepers and rail allowing the trains to pass over without deflection that could derail them. Ballast also provides drainage preventing water ponding and soaking into wooden sleepers and rotting them. Modern concrete and steel sleepers still need drainage even though they are less susceptible to deterioration from water than wood is. 

In model form ballast can take many forms. Usually crushed granite ballast is used or one of the other custom products from manufactures such as Woodland Scenics. You can even get underlay sheets such as those made by Hornby and Peco. Here at WMD and being tight fisted sand is the choice of ballast for this 009 gauge railway. Not ordinary sand but kiln dried sand. It is about the right scale for ballast in 4mm scale and it is cheap! What's more WMD HQ stores has a large bag in stock bought many years ago for about £3. 

So the material for the ballast is chosen. What happens next? Well before ballasting I should say that before laying the track I did weather it with a spray brush and picked out the spikes holding the rail to the sleepers with a rust colour so that was one job already done! Talk to many people about ballasting and they talk of problems with points. You do have to be careful but my dodge to try to minimise issues is to apply petroleum jelly to the moving parts. That way any glue used to fasten the ballast is unlikely to glue the point up and any stray ballast is therefore also unlikely to end up glued solid to the moving parts. Have a look at the phots below.

Applying the sand was done with a tea spoon (note to self; do not admit to Mrs. Woody use of kitchen utensils!) and a small soft flat brush was used to brush the sand into place. A handy tip is that when you have the ballast roughly as you want it use the spoon to tap the track or baseboard to in effect 'vibrate' the sand off the sleeper tops and into where it should be.

Once happy with the placing of the ballast it was time to fasten it down. The long used mix of diluted PVA glue with a few drops of washing up liquid was mixed ala James Bond style (shaken but not stirred) by putting the ingredients in a jam jar, remembering to securely put the lid on and shaking for a few minutes. The drops of washing up liquid will cause a froth but the main liquid is what is needed. Using an old syringe, (having cats means that you do end up with syringes from the vets to administer various lotions and potions) the glue mix was syringed onto the ballast. It looked a right mess as the pictures show, but as with any process where you have to let things dry, it takes on a whole different look once the glue sets.

Without admitting to Mrs Woody, the glue was given an encouragement to dry from her hairdrier!

Once the glue was set the track looked like this.

I think it looks good but then I would! With a bit of cleaning trains were soon testing their newly ballasted track. 

More Bridges and Roads

 With the road in place and painted it was time to start some detailing. I find I work best by doing a small amount and coming back on several occasions to add to the overall effect. For the road I first misted a very fine earth brown along the edges where the road surface meets the verge usually referred to as the gutter. If you look at any road the gutter will be full of dust, litter, nuts, bolts and many other things that commonly get called detritus and have either washes into the gutter or been dumped. For a country road like the one modelled I have assumed the locals are proud of their area and don't drop litter so the dust and other natural materials is the only things that accumulate in the gutter. On bends you tend to see an additional accumulation of detritus. My rendition of all of this so far and still more to do, looks like this -

With the road in place the bridge structure could also be added. This is the Wills SS28 Occupation Bridge and in an earlier posting I detailed how I had to make new abutments. I have painted the railings white and then have given both the bridge griders and the railings some rust weathering which I ma pleased with.

You'll notice that track ballasting and scenic work has also taken place but more of that another time. In the meantime I will await the first 00 gauge vehicle to cross the bridge and test its strength!  

We're on a Road to Nowhere!

Roads are a strange thing. They take you to places and most of us use them everyday. Lots of songs have been written about them including that classic by Talking Heads - We're on a Road to Nowhere - Youtube video. However in model form they usually go nowhere apart from in our minds and despite using real roads every day our modelling interpretations of them can be far off the mark. The main thing is that tarmac roads are not black apart from a few days after they have been laid. They weather and organically dry out so that the oils in the binder that holds the stones together become less effective. That is in essence how potholes start with the small stones becoming loose in the surface as the binder dries out forming a depression and allowing moisture into the structure. Anyway this is a modelling blog and not a highway maintenance tutorial! 

As we use roads so much it is interesting to still see the number of model railways where the road is modelled black. Have a look at some of the roads around where you live and you will see all sorts of shades of grey tarmac and chippings. On my 009 layout I do have a road which goes to nowhere and is of shades of grey. From one of my earlier posts you'll see in the picture below that the road just went along two thirds of the layout. 

Thinking of my plans to extend in the future I decided to run the road off the end of the board across the track. Some mounting card and some filler saw the road installed and then it was time to paint it all. The original part of the road had been given a random spray of Halfords (other brands are available but it was what was in the WMD HQ stores at the time ) grey primer just to seal the surface and I never saw this as the finished road surface. The grey for the road was mixed by putting some acrylic white paint into an old ice-cream tub (raspberry ripple if you are interested and no doubt there is a website somewhere that tells you what sort of person you are by the type of ice-cream you eat but I'm not going to look....yet!) and then putting blobs of black acrylic into it. Mixing the two colours in different parts of the tub gave slightly different hues of grey as you can see from the picture. 

You will also notice from the picture above a stranger to modelling materials - Talcum Powder! Strange as it may seem talcum powder mixed into paint gives it some texture. Roads are not smooth otherwise it would be like driving on a skating rink so they have some texture to allow tires and shoes to grip. Very difficult to achieve in 4mm scale but the talcum powder gives a good impression of it. In case you are wondering I have purloined this tin from Mrs Woody who informs that talcum powder is now out of fashion these days for various reasons so I have given it a good home and the road smells fragrantly lovely! Or is it my aftershave???!!!

Anyway the painting of the road continues and this road to no where will get finished!