All modelling from SimonCox.com

Goods Shed and Ticket Office

Simon Cox — Mon, 25 Nov 2024 13:44:49 GMT

The original plans Reinier drew included a building at the front of the layout that had track going through it. He wrote in October 1992's OO9 News "In front of the warehouse is the railway building, an engine shed combined with a goods shed and even a small station.".

First Building - Sennan Cove cottage

I built a foam-board building without the track running though, based on a building at Sennan Cove in Cornwall that I gad taken photographs of. Its thick stone whitewashed walls and heavy sky blue shutters suggested all you needed to know about the cornish coastline.

But it wasn't quite what Reinier had described and whilst it fitted the vernacular of the village, it did not provide the role or focal point intended. Great looking building, but perhaps for another layout.

Brick booking office and goods hall

I then set about constructing a building that was to the exact dimensions in the plan with an enclosed goods shed line with platform going through. Details included a ticket office window with canopy and office door, good shed doors and the wall opposite the Warehouse had tall arched windows - mostly to aid in shunting when operating from the rear of the layout. This was cut from 2mm mdf from my drawing and glued together.

The building was covered in a brick wrapper. After sitting on the layout for a few months I decided that the wall next to the quay needed to be in the local Cornish stone so created a wrap in 0.5mm laser-board and etched the stonework. I was quite pleased with that.

Then a friend remarked that the stonework was a little on the large size - which it was of course and now I couldn't unsee it. So I spent an evening carving out more stones from the surface.

I got as far as creating the front canopy protecting the ticket office and cutting out the roof template, but I still wasn't entirely happy with it. So it sat on the layout for a year untouched while I focused on other parts hoping for some inspiration on how to rescue this area.

Stone Office with adjoining open canopy and platform

In the end I decided to go for a complete rebuild. This time I would halve the size of the stone building and build an open canopy covering the goods shed part where the track ran through. Inspiration for this was looking at some photographs of old buildings, including the covered station at Corris.

I realised I would have to design the roof over the goods shed as two parts to to allow it to reach across the span required and also fit against the rear wall of the booking office. The smaller canopy arch bring the supporting legs down on the good platform, whilst the larger part of the canopy is over the track-work.

In my mind this would have been cheaper to construct than a full building - light railways were always looking for ways to save operating costs and thinking through reasons for elements to exist on a model railway enhances the realism and adds background! From a visual point of view the aesthetics are much more pleasing, there is more to look at and consider. All in all I am much happier with the third version of this building and I hope that Reinier would have found it suitable.

I drew up the plans in Affinity Designer, converted then to .svg files and imported them in to LightBurn so that I could send them to my diode laser cutter. I used 2mm basswood for this for the first time, I had used 2mm MDF and a Kraftboard in the past but this model has exposed parts that would show the basswood texture - the rest being wrapped.

The basswood turned out well - though I did need to do some additional cutting to removed the pieces from the sheet – I can probably fix that with some laser setting adjustments on future items.

The building was wrapped in Cornish Stone paper from Scale Model Scenery that most of Whitesands Quay uses.

Doors and windows were drawn up and laser cut from 0.5mm Kraftplex CL board

The woodwork was painted - I have gone for a light green intending to tone it down a little as it get weathered.

The small canopy over the booking office window and office door I kept from the second building but had to create a new one as the original was too wide. I completely redrew this version based on some ironwork on the Great Northern Railway buildings - only because I found an appropriate drawing to work from. Three pieces make up each of the three canopy struts.

Classic railway canopy boarding was also drawn and laser cut to complete the structure.

Completion of the Goods Shed and Ticket Office

A lot of painting and a bit of weathering then took place until I was happy with progress ont he building. Final details were added including the Ogee gutters and drainpipes, from Modelu but I needed rainwater hoppers for the roof gullies to drain into. These I created and 3D resin printed myself.

I'm very pleased with this building now. It fits the vernacular of the village and is quirky and interesting which will give viewers a lot to look at.

Resin printed figures for Whitesands Quay

Simon Cox — Mon, 08 Jul 2024 09:36:12 GMT

I signed up for the Modelu. Patreon plan last year and pay a small amount each month and in return I receive a zip file of five or six figures on a theme for the month. These files are the .stl files for 3D printing. The downloads are only available for a short time and I missed March and Aprils this year - completely forgot to download them!

For the June release we had a pack of Sea Workers - men in oilskins, and these will be great for Whitesands Quay.. I had to look up the history of oilskins to ensure they are ok for the era I am modelling, they are, so I downloaded the files for printing.

3D printing

My Elegoo Mars 3 Pro printer has not been printing out well the last few times I used it - months ago. It put me off trying anything more for a while. After some online reading I realised that the problem was probably the FEP - the clear sheet at the bottom of the resin tank. I emptied the tank and cleaned it - the sheet was no longer clear but had an opaqueness to it. Also it was scratched in a few places and had a few odd lumps. A replacement was needed. I purchased a pack of 5 PFA Release Liner Film sheets. Replacing the sheet involved unscrewing 28 screws from the tank and plate, replacing the film and then replacing the 28 screws.

New resin

The Elegoo Water-washable Resin I have is nearly out of date and I discovered they now also produce a new version called 8K Water-washable Resin which some people are suggesting is just a marketing gimmick. It comes in three shades of grey and I chose the darkest - called space grey, just like the Apple products and about the same colour... So yes perhaps a marketing gimmick! However the combination of the 8K resin and the new FEP has produced an excellent set of prints!

I printed 40 figures from the Modelu files I had - many for the first time - in one batch costing me 18p in materials. I will still purchase Modelu figures though as their quality is better than I can print, less brittle and they have figures for sale that have not been made available as files. Having cleaned then and hardened them using UV light I set about painting.

Cleaning up the prints means cutting off the supports which are necessary to support the delicate part of the models. This resin is very brittle and I lost a few hands and feet in this process - some of which I was able to superglue back on but it is a delicate part of the process.

Figure painting techniques

I mounted 10 figures onto double sided tape on a block of wood. This tape might be a bit too strong but I am going to cut the figures off their printing support sprues anyway. I airbrushed the figures with Ammo by Mig One Shot Black primer. I then followed up using One Shot White primer only from the top. This will give a subtle shading when painted.

The first thing to paint that I do is always the flesh. This immediately brings them to life!

Then I work around the figures mixing and adding colours. There is so much detail on these figures that they are hard but a joy to paint.

I will update when I have completed these.

Whitesands Quay Customs House rocks

Simon Cox — Sun, 16 Jun 2024 01:00:00 GMT

Whilst most of the Whitesands Quay layout has been planned for many years the details don't actually get sorted out until I turn my attention to them. An example is the area behind the Customs House. It is in the curved corner on the right of the layout and will not be seen that well - but that is not an excuse for me to neglect it.

Using fir tree bark to model a rock face on Whitesands Quay

This week I had a small epiphany whilst out putting rubbish in the bins.. When I made the log store. I had to move a pile of larger trunk logs and put them next to what was to become the bin store (and had to move a couple again when I built the bin store...). These fir logs have an interesting bark on them and I could see they might make a good rock face. I have no idea what type of fir tree it was, before you ask.

I removed a chunk of the fir bark and took it inside to my modelling bench. After a bit of sawing and cutting I was able to fashion several pieces together to make a reasonably convincing rock race on the end of the section with the four back cottages. I had to cut back the foam a little, undercoated it and then I glued the pieces in.

A few more pieces were fashioned and glued to the Customs House base to fill some gaps and more pieces were added to the right hand side of the module.

I also added a different type of bark, this time from pieces that had been shed by a nearby Douglas Fir. They are much thinner and look like shale rock strata and were placed behind and to the side of the Customs House.

Small walls

I constructed a couple of small walls using 3mm foam card and Scale Model Scenery TX220-OO Old Stone Wall Texture Paper. and added one at the end of the back cottage row and one to the small bluff to the right of the Customs House.

Painting the rock faces

I redid the undercoat, as I was not terribly happy with it, using black Mig One Shot primer applied with the airbrush. I then brush painted a medium grey followed with a sponge application of light grey. Then I applied an enamel dark wash over all areas to bring out details. Lastly I worked over certain areas with a variety of AK weathering pencils to add a few highlights and a small amount of lichen.

Adding to the Whitesands Quay backscene

I like to add depth to certain views on this model and there are several gaps and alleyways between buildings leading to parts of the village further back. To provide a hint of what could be back there I have used vintage images of Cornwall. I go for the older ones so as not to date them which means they are in black and white. However with modern technologies now available I am able to colourise these4 quite quickly - though I also do a bit of retouching where needed.

This gives tantalising glimpses between the buildings in certain viewing positions.

What next on Whitesands Quay?

Good question! No idea what part I am going to work on next. There is still some work to do in this area but for now I am pleased with progress.

Stanton Coach chassis progress

Simon Cox — Tue, 23 May 2023 12:18:09 GMT

I have knocked up a 3D chassis for the Stanton Coach I am designing.

I am on about v 3 of the coach bodywork at the moment and after a lot of thought around the chassis and how to create it including from kraft board, etched parts (which I may yet still do) and the 3D print option whihch on reflection seems the simplest and obvious one! This is designed for a pair of bogies to be fitted with bolts as is common in 4mm scale 009 coach modelling.

Railway Modellers Club site

Simon Cox — Wed, 26 Apr 2023 10:17:37 GMT

What is myrm.club?

myrm.club is a new way to display your model railway layouts so that people can find them quickly. I have created a page for each of my layouts and an overall page for Simon's Narrow Gauge Model Railway Layouts.

It is a model railway showcase so will not be updated very often and I will tend to go into more detail about builds here.

Whitesands Quay replacement row of cottages

Simon Cox — Mon, 03 Apr 2023 01:00:00 GMT

A new model of a row of cottages

The baseboard of Whitesands Quay is bigger then the original plan by Reinier Hendrickson and so I had to introduce additional features which includes a back row of buildings. This started off with a row of four cottages which I had built from a kit by Scale Model Scenery and it fitted the part well. Having recently completed the Methodist Chapel. I was more than happy with progress. Then Scale Model Scenery announced that they were going to be releasing a new kit of a row of Terraced Cottages. based loosley on those in the village of Tresillian in Cornwall. They looked perfect for the spot and the kit was about the same site footprint as the original cottages. So I placed the order.

Cottage research

Whilst waiting fo the kit to arrive I did some research and found the right hand cottage in the row was actually a workshop until it was converted only a few years ago.

Cottages at Tresillian 2011 ©Google Maps

A dig through the Francis Frith collection of images of Tresillian revealed a photo of the row of cottages in 1955. Most noticeable is that the left hand cottage was at that time a shop.

Cottages at Tresillian 1955 ©Francis Frith Collection.

I really like the shop and workshop but wanted to build the kit as it came rather than try and scratch build all the features of the original. Whilst it is Cornish it isn't anywhere near where the fictitious Whitesands Quay is located!

The build

This kit is involved but not that complex and it is really well thought out, as I have come to expect now with the SMS kits. It comes complete with rear single story extensions for the kitchens and conveniences but because this is going to be up against the backscene on Whitesands Quay, and there isn't the room I left those off the build. Also I have not made up the rear windows and doors as they will also cannot be seen.

The shell of the cottages is all 3mm mdf and is constructed around a 1st floor base with tabs that slot into the walls. io am more used to building up from a ground floor base but this makes far more sense as it gives the building a lot of strength and rigidity. I dry fitted the floor, front and back and finally then end walls and held it together with a small amount of tape, not that it needed it. I then ran Super 'Phatic glue, which is very thin and high penetrating, along the joints an a moments it was all stuck together. Internal walls were then fitted, I painted the inside with a non reflective black paint and the building was left to dry.

Windows

The windows with this kit are 16 pane sash windows and really look the part. There is a frame plus the upper and lower window and I found holding them together and touching each side with Super 'Phatic glue has them assembled and square in no time. The windows were then glazed with cellophane.

A quick rub on some wet and dry paper took of the tabs from the laser cut and the windows fitted perfectly in the openings.

I covered each rear window with an opaque sheet to diffuse any light reflecting in from the backscene.

Opaque sheeting across the rear window apertures

The doors

I did some more research on door colours for these six panelled Georgian, apparently Victorian doors were more often four panelled as was the fashion, though I did go for a lighter green for one of them. These also fitted perfectly.

The roof

There is a ceiling, with guttering, which I had painted up, and this slips over the internal walls and was glued down to the external walls. The edge protrudes as the gutter and looks great! Before this was fitted I needed to make sure everything I wanted in the upper floors rooms was complete - no going back later once the ceiling is glued down. After that comes the roof piece which is pre-marked with lines for the slates. I used UHI Stick for putting the slates on and it took no time at all.

The chimneys

in the rest of the village I have used Modelu chimney pots but thought I'd try the rolled up printed pots that come with the kit and they were fiddly but look great. I have weathered them in with some matt black paint.

Chimneys on the roof of the cottages

Summary

This is a very good kit, well made and goes together well. It could be converted easily for anything you need but for me it was released serendipitously at the right time as I am about to build up the landscape it will sit on. I really like the Cornish providence as well.

Scale Model Scenery KX080-00 Terraced Cottages.

Whitesands Quay Chapel

Simon Cox — Sat, 04 Mar 2023 24:00:00 GMT

The old cottages

Originally my extended layout design had two old single story cottages at the back between the shop and the boat builders. When I set out all the buildings on the plan and added some height to the back row I realised the flow of the buildings wasn't quite to my liking. In front of the old cottages is the very low workshop and the two new cottages. It all jarred a bit with me so I considered replacing the old cottages.

Whitesands Quay original cottages

The spirit of the Whitesands Quay fishermen

I thought about what the locals would require, and coming from the East Kent coast myself am well aware of historic local fishing industrys. The sea is bountiful but can be very cruel. I considered a Seamans Mission but Whitesands Quay isn't big enough for one. The local folk are in need of some spiritual sustenance however, other than the pub of course. The other end of the line, Moors End, has a church so I thought something along those lines but a little different would suit. I found that Cornwall has an abundance of small Chapels of different faiths. My research led me to a lovely example of a Methodist Chapel in Fraddon, south of Indian Queens. It was recently converted into a home but Google Street View gave me a couple of excellent views to work from.

Street View of Methodist Chapel at Fraddon, Cornwall

Whitesands Quay paper mock up of chapel

Drawing up the wrap

I have used commercial wrap textures on most of the Whitesands Quay buildings but for this model I wanted to try and reproduce the exact stonework. I use Affinity Designer for my drawing and all the items I cut with the laser as it is accurate and quick to use. First I drew the quoins around the doors, windows, built in 1877 round recess and the corners. Then I drew up each stone in the front elevation as near as I could get it within reason. I have not counted the stones but there is a lot. Each has a very subtle 3D effect added and then the layer has a texture layer added to it to add some subtle variance.

Once complete I printed this out in high quality on matt photo paper and cut it out.

Whitesands Quay chapel wrap

Laser cutting the walls and details

For this project I have used 1.5mm Kraftplex board. I wasn't going to use this as it has a textured surface but as I had decided to wrap it that did not matter. I drew up Front, sides, back and floor, cut them out with the laser and glued them together. The back I put in later to allow access when fitting the windows and door.

I used 0.5mm Kraftplex for the door and windows. This is a thin smooth board that I can cut down almost to 0.5mm width allowing very fine detailing on the window frames. Abouve the door is also a fine window light. All these parts were then painted with the nearest shade I had to the maroon in the images of the Methodist Chapel. I did also make a parish notice board.

Whitesands Quay chapel laser cut parts assembled

Finishing the Chapel

The wrap was carefully glued to the building wrapping the window and door appertures around and onto the inside. I then glued the door and windows in place and glazed the windows. The engraved building stone was printed out and gled behine the recess for it. I then glued a peice of board behind this as light was showing through the paper and it is meant to be stone!

The barge board is 0.5 board laser cut and painted. The roof is card with Scale Model Scenery LX410-OO Pre-Weathered Laser Cut Roof Slates..

Whitesands Quay chapel right side view

Whitesands Quay chapel left side view

Whitesands Quay chapel front view - with added parish notice board and weathering

I also added the parish notice board and some weathering to the front elevation.

And thats about it. I am very pleased with the result and it fits in well with the rest of the layout.

Creating buildings from laser-cut 2mm MDF and card

Simon Cox — Sun, 08 Aug 2021 01:00:00 GMT

Time to sit back and do some model making

Lockdown in 2020 had been an odd year. I was really busy – which is a good thing but a surprising one. Initially, I thought we would have no work, I would have a lot of time on my hands and I would be able to get on with a few projects around the house, including my 009 exhibition model railway Whitesands Quay.

As it turned out I have been so busy I have not had the time, or the inclination because I had hit a bit of an impasse with the buildings I needed. A couple of years ago I had tried constructing a building with thin foam board which seemed to be ok, but then when I applied a render to one of the end walls the whole thing twisted out of shape! I tried thicker foam board which stayed in shape but cutting out the slots for Windows and doors was difficult and inaccurate. So I stopped.

During the pandemic, I came across Petite Properties. who started creating interior kits for dolls houses and extended their range to railway modelling scales. I purchased a 4mm scale farmhouse kit for something to do but with no intention of adding this to Whitesands Quay.

The kit opened my eyes to what is possible now with laser-cut materials. It contained 2mm MDF walls and card doors, windows and other elements – all cut with a laser. The model was wrapped with scenic paper - as you can get from Scalescenes..

This gave me the idea that I could draw up the buildings I needed for Whitesands Quay, and get them laser cut in 2mm MDF. I approached Petite Properties to see if they would consider bespoke work but they were unsurprisingly politely uninterested! So I set about hunting down a company that would do this and soon found a small firm that were able to cut the parts for all seven buildings I needed for the main part of the model and importantly at a price that I thought was reasonable. I had received quotes that were somewhat laughably prohibitive. A few days later I had a parcel of bespoke laser cut 2mm MDF parts.

Diode lasers

Lasers are interesting things – usually owned by villains in James Bond movies, or fantastic hologram exhibitions. They can be quite dangerous and can be very expensive. The main type that is used in cutting the kits you now see available are CO2 lasers that have a long glass tube and cost thousands of pounds. These are big and need a large space and extractor fan systems There are also diode lasers which are a lot less powerful, a lot smaller and a lot cheaper (but still need some ventilation!).

Happily for me, one arrived as a birthday present (after some huge hints containing URLs). It is a 20w diode Neje Master 2S laser-cutter. It uses 20w but outputs about 4.5w so can happily etch and cut card easily. It is not that fast, so good for a hobbyist's requirements or prototyping but not a production line.

The software that came with my laser is ok but not geared up for what I needed so I purchased a copy of LightBurn. This allows me to control the order of cuts – cutting inside elements first is critical else things can drop and move – and build a library of material settings.

There are no exact recipes for cutting speeds and laser power, both of which can be controlled, so the first thing I did was draw up a test file that I run for each material I try to see what speed and power combination works best for each material. I had trouble with the plain white card, finding that it will not cut below a power of 50% as it reflects the beam!

I spend the next few weeks carefully drawing up windows, doors, soffits, bargeboards, and other pieces I needed for the buildings and have had a huge amount of success! This has invigorated my enthusiasm for modelling and Whitesands Quay is once again progressing.

The Front Row cottages

The Front Row cottages are a basic 2mm MDF shell with a Scale Model Scenery Old Stone photographic wrap - glued on and cut out. This is a great way to get realistic looking building textures that are going to be reasonably unique! Other people will be using the same wrap but it's never quite the same unlike a plastic building kit that is moulded and they all look similar.

Laser-cut 2mm MDF cottages with laser-cut card doors and windows - unpainted.

Nearly finished Front Row cottages showing barge board detailing

*Roof, glazing, curtains added and window frames painted. Porches and date stone added.

Customs house*

I have enlarged WhiteSands Quay's original plan to include additional buildings and one of these is a customs house with a portico and balustrade to give Whitesands Quay a little bit of authority. Not sure the locals wanted it though.

Customs House basic 2mm MDF shell

Laser-cut card for the windows and doors

Customs House wrapped with windows and doors added

Customs house with all fitting added. Only the Chimney stacks are left to do.

Other laser-cut creations

I keep coming up with ideas of what I can create with the laser so the final layout is going to be a mix of kits and my own scratch-built creations.

Card 5 bar gate made from 3 layers of laser-cut card

K1 phone box and bench next to the Front Row cottages

A scratch-built rail-bus for the Ding Dong Moor Railway

Simon Cox — Wed, 26 Dec 2018 24:00:00 GMT

I built a new rail-bus in the style of Reinier Hendriksen

I was inspired to build a copy of one of Reinier Hendriksen’s rail-buses from his original article of April 1999 edition of the 009 news, after I read the archived material from the 500th edition. For my version, I decided to use a Kato chassis as it wouldn’t fill out the back half of the railbus, as Reinier’s Trix chassis had. The readily available Kato chassis does have an ugly lump underneath that takes away the spindly look a rail-bus typically had. It does add weight though, and only the purists will get agitated when they see it.

The main body of the railcar

I cut the balcony ends off the chassis with a razor saw back to the metal part of the chassis. Then a frame was prefabricated from U profile Evergreen styrene and tested for a good fit over the chassis. There is a very slight lip on the chassis that it can rest on. The body was then built on top of this initial frame.

Reinier used the cut-down sides from a Parkside Dundas DM68 kit to make his original rail-bus. So I used the same kit, cutting one panel off each end so that a door panel, for the driver, was at the front. The louvres above the doors and windows were cut off leaving some beading, and I used U profile Evergreen styrene to build a top section to give the rail-bus greater height.

The front and back sides were made from Evergreen car panelling with a strip added to form window framing. Once the U profile Evergreen styrene was glued to the top of each panel I assembled the body on the frame. Inside at the back, I also added two triangular corner pieces that enable to body and frame to rest on the chassis and helped strengthen the body.

Bulkhead

The front bulkhead needed triangular shapes cut out to match the two prongs on the Kato Chassis. I did consider cutting the styrene so that the body would snap onto these prongs but that would have made it really difficult to take the body off afterwards. The alternative is the cut the prons off the chassis but they do help with the friction fit of the body — and they are not that noticeable unless you find them. I could add a toolbox and oil can on the front plate to hide these.

Inside

Inside the body I used the seats from the DM68 kit, as they are slightly above the Kato motor, to provide three bench seats — one for the driver and the others are in the passenger part of the cabin with an upright dividing them. I used the seat positions that are moulded in the coach sides.

Engine and frame

At the front of the frame I cut a piece of 1mm thick styrene sheet to fit around the chassis motor block and this was then glued onto the frame.

The radiator was measured out and strip frame added. I didn’t have any really fine wire gauze to use to represent the radiator grill so left it as a blank sheet. In hindsight, I might have tried some fine corrugated styrene but the mind fills in the details. The side and top are fashioned from plain styrene and then I added a simple square of Evergreen clapboarding to represent some louvres at the side. A small slither of styrene rod was cut and glued on as a radiator cap to finish this off.

The two small headlamps on the bulkhead are 1.5mm tube cut, filed, filled and glued in place as a simple representation of headlights. Buffer beams were crafted from 1mm thick styrene sheet and attached front and back.

The roof

For the roof, I used the same technique that Reinier did — glueing two cut out sheets of 1mm styrene together and then sanding the edges to get the curved look. For the gentler front slope of the roof, the top sheet was slightly shorter and I did use some filler to get the slope before sanding. when dry and set I glued some single ply tissue on to give a canvas texture.

Detailing

Footboards were added to the frame, some gaps filled and the body and roof separately primed.

To complete the detailing I added Roxy door handles, drilled holes for the grab handles and fashioned 0.13mm wire for them.

Paint and finish

Reinier’s original article photographs are of the built but unpainted models and I couldn’t find any colour images of this particular railbus but the Dutch 009 Society website has some of the Reinier’s other railbus, the Dresnene, on Moors End so I used that as the basis for the colour scheme of Ding Dong Moor Light Railway cream and green. A seated Modelu figure was procured for the driver, gazing fitted and the roof added. As a final touch, I added No. 3 transfers on either side so that this can run with my Donegal No.4 railbus as a set.

Competition

I entered this Railbus set as Unmatched Rail-bus set in the 009 Society AGM competition and apparently it won — which was nice.

A scratch-built rail-bus for the Ding Dong Moor Railway Gallery

The cut-down sides from a Parkside Dundas DM68 kit

U profile Evergreen styrene on top of the sides and the chassis frame

The Kato chassis with the scratch built chassis frame

View showing the heightening with U section styrene

Scratch built rear panel

Sides and one end glued together with triangular corner pieces for rigidity

View from front — front panel not cemented in yet

Test fitting the chassis into the body before adding the front

View showing the underside and front fillet carved to enable a tight fit with the chassis

Scratch built front panel cut to fit the Kato chassis

Scratch built front panel cemented in place

Front view — all sides now cemented in and test fitted on chassis

Roof built from two layers of styrene and shaped

Engine housing scratch built

Engine housing added to chassis

Buffer beam added to front

Side view with roof and buffer beam in place

Running boards added to sides

First undercoat on the railbus

Driver painted up — this is a Modelu 3d printed figure

Railcar painted up in cream and green before weathering — driver is loose fitted at this point as the insides need painting

Close up of driver placed in railcar — needed a bit of leg amputation

Detailing and weathering on the bodywork

Transfers added to the sides of the railcar

Body fitted onto chassis — roof still loos at this point as more figures are needed inside

The unmatched Ding Dong Moor railcar set

The unmatched Ding Dong Moor railcar set — showing the scratch built luggage wagon

The unmatched Ding Dong Moor railcar set side on view

Unmatched Rail-bus set in the 009 Society showcase at the AGM

Halle Marchandise en bois

Simon Cox — Fri, 03 Oct 2014 01:00:00 GMT

French meter gauge goods shed

I was invited to display one of my layouts as part of the celebrations at the Froissy Dompierre Light Railway in France. a few years ago. Whilst there I picked up a plaster cast kit of a classic wooden goods shed often found on the meter gauge lines with the idea that I would build a small layout for the La Meuse locomotive. The kit is from the artisan manufacturer Colinter Productions. based in Verdun, Northern France. The kit is HO but I will be using it at 4mm to the foot so it might appear to be a little small to some people. I will claim artistic licence for any that mention it.

My French is abysmal. However, the kit was straightforward enough — the plaster casting needing only a minor clean up to remove flashing and unwanted cast residue. The roof is corrugated cardboard — this could be substituted for better looking wiggly tin or a proper tile roof but I built my version as is. One side of the roof is larger than the other — I thought this was a mistake until I found plenty of prototype photos on the web.

I have not put together a plaster kit before so experimented with PVA and ended up using Evostick Ultra which appears to have done the job. There are 4 walls and the office that go on the base so the bulk is quite simple. The roof takes a little bit of thought and almost caught me out as it is actually deeper on one side — I had to check photos of prototypes online to make sure this wasn’t a mistake. The roof trusses and beams are from the supplied strip wood and rest of lintels on the side walls.

I have applied the first paint over the black undercoat using mostly dry brushing techniques and need to consider the details for the final finish before I get this project back on the workbench.

Halle Marchandise en bois Gallery

Plaster walls glued together

Halle Marchandise en bois - roof joists

Halle Marchandise en bois - roof joists in place on the cast walls

Halle Marchandise en bois - roof on the building

Halle Marchandise en bois - end office

Halle Marchandise en bois - end entrance doors

Halle Marchandise en bois - painted and weathered

Halle Marchandise en bois - with box

Small Run Batch Deutz OO9 kit - part 2

Simon Cox — Fri, 26 Sep 2014 01:00:00 GMT

Body work for the SRB001 Freelance DEUTZ Style 0-4-0DM

In my first post about this new 009 kit of the Deutz. I got as far as adding ballast into the chassis. I then created added the cranks without the rods. This is quite a delicate operation and I needed to ensure the Locktite didn’t go into the wrong places else I would have had a seized mechanism. It didn’t but it was all a bit tight.

On the advice of the kit manufacturer, Stuart Brewer, I ran a small drill with a buffing pad up against the large flywheel/gear which turned the lay-shaft and wheels. I did some cleaning out of the threads in the screws and gears first to ensure there weren’t bits of metal caught up as there had been a lot of swarf as I filed and drilled things on the chassis. After about 5 minutes each way with the drill the mechanism was running a lot more freely.

I started the body — the footplate is a little thin so you need to be careful not to bend it in the construction. The first step was to make the bonnet up and I found the riveted strips quite tricky as they want to slide around out of place! For the bottom ones make sure you leave the tabs protruding. I didn’t at first and this caused some pain later when adding the bonnet and cab subassembly to the footplate!

The cab sides are straightforward, the portholes are delicate — leave the crosshair wire fret in the hole to help you Centre the window frames. There are two tiny strips to be added to each side of each doorway and this is quite tricky to get it spot on.

The roof has a double curve but is reasonably easy to fit if you make small adjustments and keep offering up to the cab.

I then added the crank rods having made them a loose enough fit. Next, the pickups were installed which was fiddly but works well. The phosphor bronze pickups were curved a little so that their springiness ensured there will be contact with the wheels at all times. Once done I tested the circuits with a meter to make sure there would be not shorting. Next, I added the motor and belt drive and put it on my rolling road to test. Again it was a little stiff but everything worked! I then oiled up the moving parts and set the engine on the rolling road for 30 mins running in each way.

The body was removed, cleaned and finished with filler where needed. Then I undercoated it with U-POL Acid 8 etch primer. The motor and pickups were removed from the chassis and Carrs blackening used. At the moment I need to redo this — possibly paint it as well to get the finish I want.

Small Run Batch Deutz OO9 kit - part 2 Gallery

Small Run Batch Deutz — phosphor bronze pickup wipers added

Small Run Batch Deutz — cranks added to axels

Small Run Batch Deutz — motor connected and pickups tested

Small Run Batch Deutz — motor mounted

Small Run Batch Deutz — fixing nuts added to footplate

Small Run Batch Deutz — cab front detailing soldered on

Small Run Batch Deutz — cab rear detailing soldered on

Small Run Batch Deutz — cab added to footplate

Small Run Batch Deutz — cab and footplate test fitted to chassis

Small Run Batch Deutz — bonnet detailed and shaped

Small Run Batch Deutz — bonnet and cab joined

Small Run Batch Deutz — bonnet and cab joined to footplate

Small Run Batch Deutz — roof added to cab

Small Run Batch Deutz — body detailing added

Small Run Batch Deutz — body undercoated

Small Run Batch Deutz — undercoated body on chassis

Small Run Batch Deutz — undercoated body on chassis from rear

Whitesands Quay first outing

Simon Cox — Sun, 14 Sep 2014 01:00:00 GMT

Work in progress gets out the house

Recently I realised that it was five years ago that I had built the baseboard framework after Richard Glover gave me the plans for Whitesands Quay. Yes, I have moved house since and yes I have a lot more room in which to model but blah blah blah excuse excuse etc. So in an effort of mightly finger pulling out I asked if I might take Whitesands Quay to an annual private show at Chailey and was given the nod.

This gave me a target to get some things done on the layout and I did the track rebuild, the cottage enhancements and finished the build stage of the La Meuse — so that is a pretty effective motivation technique! As it was I rushed a few things the night before including the cutting out of the holes to the fiddle yard — measured with perfection except that I forgot to add the height of the track and 3mm MDF it sits on so only my diminutive A class Japanese diesel would go through.

The day was mostly about chat anyway so there wasn’t much running on the layout but having the deadline has helped progress.

In the image below I had pinched one of Chris O’Donoghues boats from his in-progress Compass point — which was looking fantastic — and that has given me a few detailing ideas for later.

Whitesands Quay Chailey 2014

Small Run Batch Deutz OO9 kit

Simon Cox — Sun, 14 Sep 2014 01:00:00 GMT

SRB001 Freelance DEUTZ Style 0-4-0DM

Part of the premise for Stuart’s kits is that he will only do small runs. That’s how he wants to do it and he has gained a great deal of knowledge of his late father and the other members of the GDNGRS who manufacture kits — I am one of the few who doesn’t! So if you see one of these kits running it will probably be a rare sight but also will run really well.

The kit comprises of a nickel silver and a brass etch, and several bags of small parts. The instructions come on a small cd — I had to request a PDF from Stuart as I no longer have a functioning CD reader or one that will work with small format CDs.

So far I am enjoying building this kit. The instructions are very well thought through but you do need to have the right gear to get the best out of it and if you have never soldered a brass kit together before then this shouldn’t be your first kit to try it on! The specialist tools you will need are a 16BA tap and a good set of broaches — I have a cheap set and am now on the lookout for a much better set of broaches as the cheap plastic handles on mine keep shattering.

One of the first things I wondered was with the brass sleeve you put on the axle — this could have been 7.3mm in length thus giving the ideal back to back for the wheels though perhaps having room to adjust the wheels might be more important — just a thought as I don’t have any prior experience to call on.

The most difficult part was the construction of the cranks and the instructions do alert you to this and are clearly written to help you go through this. Soldering the three frameworks with the cranks together before you actually solder the cranks together really helps. I did that and tapped the holes for the crank pins while it was still on the fret. the instructions state you should broach the axle holes in the cranks while on the fret as well but I had no spare rod of the axle size and there isn’t room to offer up the axles in the frame so I did the broaching after the cranks were cut out of the fret.

When I first examined one of Stuart’s prototypes for this kit I was pleased with the weight he had managed to pack in. The corner ballast boxes can indeed be bulked up with lead and to achieve this I capped the bottom of each corner with some spare brass sheet cut to size and soldered in. I then filled each with lead shot and covered in epoxy glue. this has provided a good amount of weight into the frame which will give the loco a much smoother ride.

Small Run Batch Deutz OO9 kit Gallery

Small Run Batch Deutz — axels and wheels

Small Run Batch Deutz — frames and suspension

Small Run Batch Deutz — frames with suspension test fitted

Small Run Batch Deutz — setting the back to back wheel measurements to my standard of 7.31mm

Small Run Batch Deutz — completed wheel-sets

Small Run Batch Deutz — frames with suspension soldered on

Small Run Batch Deutz — using a cocktail stick to position nuts for soldering

Small Run Batch Deutz — nuts soldered onto cross bar

Small Run Batch Deutz — wheel-sets in the frames

Small Run Batch Deutz — ensure the frame and wheel-sets are square

Small Run Batch Deutz — motor mountings folded and bushes in place

Small Run Batch Deutz — a really clever jig for axle worm spacing is in the etch

Small Run Batch Deutz — drive axle and motor mounts in place

Small Run Batch Deutz — fly cranks made from folding four layers of etch and soldering

Small Run Batch Deutz — coupling rod is made from doubled etch and soldered for strength

Small Run Batch Deutz OO9 kit — carefully reaming out the fly cranks to fit the axle

Small Run Batch Deutz OO9 kit — fly crank pins soldered in place

Small Run Batch Deutz OO9 kit — fly crank pins fitted on axles

Small Run Batch Deutz OO9 kit — connecting rod on the fly crank pins

Small Run Batch Deutz OO9 kit — connecting rods on the fly cranks

Small Run Batch Deutz OO9 kit — the large pulley wheel added to the drive shaft

Small Run Batch Deutz OO9 kit — plates cut and soldered into the ballast boxes

Small Run Batch Deutz OO9 kit — ballast boxes filled with liquid lead

Small Run Batch Deutz OO9 kit — ballast boxes sealed with epoxy

And there is more...

In part two of the Small Run Batch Deutz OO9 kit build I complete the chassis and move onto the bodywork to complete this superb kit.

Whitesands Quay - Row of cottages - chimney pots

Simon Cox — Mon, 14 Jul 2014 01:00:00 GMT

Replacing the chimney pots on the row of cottages

Having built the row of cottages kit from Scalescenes I had added small pieces of styrene tube as chimney pots with the intention of painting them terra cotta. However I noticed that the chimney pots in the photos on the Scalescenes web site seem to be the white metal cast ones from Langley.

I purchased a couple of packets at the Chatham model rail show, I was there operating Pagham Harbour (009) on one of its last ever outings, and I have now painted them and stuck them on the chimney stacks and weathered them in.

While I was at it I added bird mess on the roofs as I will be perching some seagulls, Dart Castings and currently being painted, on the roof line — though I might wait till the cottages are mounted in the scenery to make sure nothing gets knocked off.

Finishing touch - chimney pots

Update

These cottages have been retired in favour of a new kit..

Whitesands Quay trackwork

Simon Cox — Sun, 13 Jul 2014 01:00:00 GMT

Hand-built track and point controls

The track work on Whitesands Quay consists of four points providing a runaround and two sidings. This provides enough scope for interesting operations and operating sequences when exhibiting the layout. I built the track the traditional way using code 65 rail on copper clad sleepers. The most difficult part was the point work especially as this was my first attempt. I had some good advice and tips from fellow members of the GDNGRS. and so tested the track and points as I built. I thought I had cracked it — a few areas of improvement were obvious but altogether I was quite pleased with the result.

Then I discovered that several of my wagons didn’t run the points. I had only tested with one Ninelines wagon and that had worked great but in retrospect, I should have used a range of stock to test. So I put the track to one side and moved house. (Not because of this!)

A while back my friend Richard Glover tried to set up one of his layouts with servos operating the points using a MERG circuit board.. He had some serious issues and didn’t use them in the end. More recently though Peco. brought out a point motoring set called Smart Switch. I thought those issues would have been solved so I purchased a set along with some new OO9 mainline flexitrack and points. It took a weekend to recreate the track work plan of Whitesands Quay and wire it all up. The servos worked perfectly and the throw and speed can be adjusted using the built-in controls. I ran a locomotive over the track and all worked without any issues. Then I tried a second loco and things went to pot.

This loco had an open frame motor and the interference from it sent the servos wild — all four switching from side to side at random. Friends have suggested screening the wires (a bit of a pain) or buying more expensive motors.

So I am back at a bit of an impasse again. I now have two sets of track work for the layout. One isn’t quite good enough for smooth operation and the other is only going to behave if I use core-less motored locos.

Whitesands Quay trackwork Gallery

Whitesands pink foam trackbed

Whitesands hand-built track-work

Whitesands Quay points — servos motors

Whitesands Quay trackwork points switches testing servos motors

And there is more...

May 2015
In the end I rebuilt the whole basboard including the trackwork. I still have this set of track spare and may attempt to use it in another project.

La Meuse - construction

Simon Cox — Sat, 12 Jul 2014 01:00:00 GMT

The Neil Sayer Models La Meuse 009 kit

This is a special kit as it was presented to me, as a surprise, by the registrar when Paula and I got married. Paula got a ring and I got a La Meuse kit to make our vows on. She isn’t stupid…

The kit is from Neil Sayer Models. and is of the 1938 La Meuse 2−6−0 used on the sugar beat narrow gauge railways in northern France. There are two remaining preserved locomotives of this class. I have seen and ridden behind the one at the Musée des Transports de Pithiviers — well worth a visit if your just South of Paris.

I built the chassis between 2011 and 2012 — we have moved house between so that my excuse for not cracking on with it. The kit uses a donor chassis from the Farish 08 and so the only really difficult part of building this is the motion. I must admit I did struggle a bit with this but some expert help from Neil Sayer sorted that out — Neil is a fellow GDNGRS member which is handy!

So I have just had a couple of weeks of work after a small operation on my nose and decided that I needed to crack on with the body construction. The parts for the body are superbly detailed and go together well — especially if your skills include soldering brass etches onto white-metal. Mine are not up to scratch yet but I have mastered sweat soldering so the half-etched skin over the subframe went on well. I spent some time researching pictures and video for the locomotive online and discovered that there is a coal hopper on the top of the left tank so built one of those out of styrene.

Also, I noted there were additional handles under the roof for clambering up on top of the tanks but the Pithiviers La Meuse does not have a footstep on side of the tank.

To finish off with I undercoated with U-POL Acid #8 grey prime, available from larger Halfords, which is a superb etching primer that is thin enough to keep detail. I will leave it at least several days for the primer to harden off before applying the first top coat of black. After that, there will be some difficult masking for the final peacock blue panels. To finish off I have had nameplates made up by Narrow Planet. for its special name — Peacocks.

La Meuse - construction Gallery

Neil Sayer Models La Meuse 009 from left hand side front

Neil Sayer Models La Meuse 009 from right hand side front

Neil Sayer Models La Meuse 009 from left hand side front — showing chassis a little better

Neil Sayer Models La Meuse 009 from left hand side next to Halle Marchandise en bois

Neil Sayer Models La Meuse 009 from left hand side next to Halle Marchandise en bois on hand made track

Whitesands Quay - row of cottages

Simon Cox — Fri, 11 Jul 2014 01:00:00 GMT

Using a Scalescenes card kit

Originally I had intended to construct the buildings for Whitesands Quay. using Pendon. methods but I really don’t have the hundreds of hours required to find, measure, photograph, draw, emboss, watercolour and construct suitable buildings for this layout. That way madness can occur. However I was set on that route until Scalescenes introduced a new kit — Row of cottages which I was immediately inspired by.

The kit is particularly cheap as it is a PDF download. You have to print the PDF sheets out and stick them to suitable weights of card as detailed in the kit instructions. Some of the thicker card components can be hard work to cut out and a good Stanley knife is a must have, else I used my usual scalpels for cutting.

This kit comes with several variations and although I had opted for the flint and brick finish it came with an optional rendered version for two of the four cottages which I have extended for all four as it would be appropriate for cottages next to a quay.

One of the advantages of these kits is that you only pay once for the PDF and then you can print out as many times as you want — so any mistakes and you can start again. Of course cost of a new really good photo printer needs to be considered as well as consumables (but we needed a new printer anyway…).

The key construction method is wrapping the paper layers around card walls — including an ingenuous method of creating drainpipes that also conceal the gap between the end and side walls. Detailed floors and full interiors are included — not that I think anyone will ever see them on Whitesands Quay but I know they are there.

The only think I now have left to do on the cottages is source and put some proper chimney pots on.

I am very pleased with the overall look and finish of the kit. This then left me with a small dilemma. To get the rest of the model to be balanced I really need to construct the remaining buildings using other Scalescenes kits but there are none available that suit the location.

However the methods can be replicated and that exactly what I have done for the large cottage in front of the row of cottages. I used a picture of a cottage at Sennan on the West Cornish coast at White Sands bay, where Whitesands Quay is fictitiously located, as the basis for the plans which I drew up in Adobe Illustrator then added suitable textures and printed the results out on matte photo paper.
To get the thick stone cottage wall effect with deep set windows and doors I used polyboard for the walls instead of card and you can see the resulting effect in the photos.

Whitesands Quay - row of cottages Gallery

Scalescenes row of cottages under construction

Whitesands Quay cottages from above

Whitesands Quay cottages from the end

Whitesands Quay cottages close up of upstairs windows

Whitesands Quay cottages door and window details

Whitesands Quay cottages close up of rear from end

Whitesands Quay cottages front view

Whitesands Quay cottages on the layout

Whitesands Quay cottages on the layout with the harbour cottage

Whitesands Quay harbour cottage

Loxley Barton Falls - part 1 - inspiration

Simon Cox — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 24:00:00 GMT

I decided to enter a model making competition

I had not done any model making since I was a teenager and had not been to a model railway exhibition for a very long time. ExpoNG was fantastic and was a real eye-opener. The exhibition is about the best modelling for narrow gauge railways there is — it is not your normal Thomas the tank engine rubbish that you see at most shows but real works of modelling art. In one corner the show had a small informal competition with a few entries — the Shoebox Challenge. As I don’t have much room in my house I thought that this was a splendid idea for building a small model railway, testing out ideas and being able to actually complete something in a short space of time. Paula was delighted as she was about to get some new shoes! However the following year’s exhibition competition was not for a shoebox at all but a little bit bigger challenge — build a working model railway that would fit inside a fictitious 500mm cube. I had to have a go!

I spent months and months sketching and thinking about what I wanted on post-it notes on the train, over a cup of tea. We even went on a Trains and Gardens holiday to Wales to give me some inspiration and finally, I had a plan, mostly in my head, and work started.

I sketched out the plans on 6mm MDF (in hindsight this was way too thick) and marked out the track, points buildings and features.

Loxley Barton Falls baseboard with plan sketched out

The board was cut and then the framework assembled around it to produce a 500 mm box. I didn’t have to do this but I did want to frame the layout and a box seemed to the best way to do it. Part of the plan was to allow viewing into the box from two sides thereby giving the plan a diamond share rather than a square one. This then gives a wider viewpoint when looking at the model. This meant that only two sides were to be used for the backdrop so the corner posts needed to be slightly stronger than I had first anticipated.

As you can see from the second image in the gallery the lower sides, base, uprights and lid make a strong box.

Loxley Barton Falls baseboard construction from 6mm MDF and strip wood

More to follow… (when I gather more of the build photos and remember what I did next — the old grey cells are gathering a bit of dust). For now though I do have a dedicated page for Loxley Barton Falls..

Whitesands Quay progress

Simon Cox — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 24:00:00 GMT

The baseboard structure is now mainly complete

I took a few days off to concentrate on moving the White Sands Quay project forward. This is a 4mm scale 9mm gauge railway based in Cornwall and originally from a plan by the late Reinier Hendrickson.

I wanted to build a self-contained but light exhibition display for White Sands Quay as I very much enjoy the speed with which both Loxley Barton Falls. and Withywindle Mill. can be set up and taken down. At the end of a long exhibition, the last thing you want is an hour or two of breakdown.

I have built a light wooden frame with 3mm MDF carcass in a square S shape with the smaller return being the hidden fiddle yard and stock shelves. A lightbox containing the all-important lighting rig (vital for good presentation at an exhibition) will be added to the top giving more strength.

Whilst this construction method will not take much abuse I am not expecting to be in any situations where it needs to! “Fight breaks out at Narrow Gauge Exhibition — layout destroyed” are not likely headlines. (Famous last words…) the base of the scenic is pink insulation foam and one this is fixed in place will also add to the strength and lightness of the carcass.

In the past, other layout builders have used rodding cut into the surface of the foam, which makes repairs difficult, but I have sunk a 3mm MDF track bed into the top of the foam and will excavate holes underneath so that I can attach point motors and wiring allowing plenty of access.

Brighton Model world

Simon Cox — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 24:00:00 GMT

Loxley Barton Falls will be at Brighton Model World Exhibition this year. I have just had the invite paperwork through as a late invite (something about loosing my details!). I see that there are four other 009 layouts at the show which is not bad going for a general modelling exhibition.

Brighton Model World is on the 15th -17th February at the Brighton Centre on Brighton sea front. Apparently they have model ships, life size Daleks, radio controlled things and loads of other modelling stuff as well as railways so it should be entertaining thought the longest event I will have done. Having agreed to attend when invited last year I had not realised that it was the same weekend as the Small and Delightful's Narrow Gauge South West show in Shepton Mallet - a favourite exhibition of mine - though I have not been invited to exhibit yet... (ahem..)

See you at Brighton!

Bachmann re-motoring kit

Simon Cox — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 24:00:00 GMT

I have had one of Nigel Lawton's Bachmann re-motoring kits for a long time now and one of my engines packed up recently so i set about my first bit of modelling for the first time in a few months. Why does everybody say that the winter is the time for lost of modelling? I never have any time!

Nigel's instructions are very straight forward though the soldering can get a little fiddley (for me anyway!) and in no time at all I had a replacement motor unit ready. then the problems started and to give Nigel his due he did say that removing the worm from the old motor is a potentially worrying aspect. I broke two jewellers screwdrivers getting the worm off. I do realise they were cheap ones and I now have an excuse to get some decent ones, and my thumb will heal eventually. The good thing is that I now have an old shaft which I can use as a drift the next time!

I used the full length of shaft tube provided but as I did not have any thread lock I used super glue which worked fine to start with but after a few problems with clearance in the loco body caused the motor shaft to separate from the worm shaft. I need to go find some thread lock as I can see this happening at the start of an exhibition! on this particular loco the worm is already badly chewed so I might start looking for a replacement chassis anyway as the gears on this one are a bit crunchy. If I do through this chassis away I can reuse the re-motoring kit in another one later!

Withywindle mill wins ExpoNG Pizza challenge

Simon Cox — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 24:00:00 GMT

My pizza layout, Withywindle Mill, has won the competition it was built for - the GDNGRS Pizza layout competition! It was a late decision to have a competition at this years ExpoNG so we kept it to members only. On the day there were five layouts but I know of five others that were underway but not finished in time - hopefully we will see them all one day. We needed an impartial judge for the competition so we asked Carl Arendt who runs the very popular Micro/Small layouts for model railroads website who kindly agreed.

The layouts and Carl's commentary on the Pizza layouts are on the November 15th breaking news section of his website where you can see some of the images we sent to Carl for judging.

I have also added some images on my Flickr site of the Pizza layouts.

Withywindle mill in Narrow Gauge Modeller December 2007

Simon Cox — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 24:00:00 GMT

Magazine cover with Withywindle Mill as the main image.

Update

This is of course a spoof. There were quite a few enquiries about where to get the magazine - so many that I did think about creating it for real!

Loxley Barton Falls at The Norwood Club show

Simon Cox — Sun, 11 Nov 2007 24:00:00 GMT

I was asked last year to exhibit Loxley Barton Falls at the 2007 Norbury & South London Transport Club's exhibition on the 10th and 11th November. I was put in a small alcove next to the gents (quite handy) but this wasn't far off the entrance so nobody missed the layout. I forget how many more families go to general shows than the more specialist narrow gauge shows and it was a bit noisy!

On the first day I had four tentative invites for other exhibitions next year only one of which I have been to before so the layout might get seen a bit more in 2008.

Both my locos with Bachman chassis decided to play dead so I ran the weekend with my new Crochat railcar and a mix of my Stenning Corris 0-4-2 Huges and the little Japanese L class loco which ran superbly! I even built up a rudimentary operating sequence over 5 - 8 minutes of running which I might make a little more complex for its next outing - if I can move some badly placed magnets!

Loxley Barton in Narrow Gauge World!

Simon Cox — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 01:00:00 GMT

Loxley Barton Falls features in the modelling section of Narrow Gauge World edition 53 September /October 2007 - there is a big grin on my face right now. The photos have come out much better than I dared hope and Cliff has done some close crops - so the hi resolution images were worth sending!

Apparently this has been out since mid August - I only just realised my subscription had finished earlier this year so was not aware of it being published till today...

Amberley 2007

Simon Cox — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 01:00:00 GMT

Amberley was great fun. I shared a table with Robin Winter who was showing Wee Donegal. Behind us was Richard Glover, also from the Greenwich and District Narrow Gauge Society with his new small layout Sand Point and also his own Pizza Starbottom Lane so we had a good laugh as always when members are exhibiting together. Plenty to do on the Pizza before the competition and ExpoNG.

Withywindle Mill progress

Simon Cox — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 01:00:00 GMT

Withywindle Mill is progressing though perhaps not quite as quick as I would like as the exhibition at Amberley is next month - 6 weeks away. As you can see from the image I have built some landscape - I used a technique called FRocks which uses upholstery foam ripped up and covered in diluted filler. More on the technique can be found at Mario Rapinett's FRocks site.

Hedging is foam and rubberised horsehair. At the moment it looks very dark as I have only under coated everything - I always do this in black and build the colours up on top.

Withywindle Mill - the pizza layout

Simon Cox — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 01:00:00 GMT

I am building a new layout and have decided to name it Withywindle Mill. We are having an internal competition within the GDNGRS this year to build a pizza layout (more on that later) but I have added extra pressure to myself as I intend to display it at the Amberley Railway Gala on the 14th and 15th of July.

My pizza layout is 500mm square with one loop of hand built track. In the middle is a watermill and a stream runs through from one side to the other. A set of sluice gates keep the stream backed up for powering the mill when required and an undershot watermill powers the mill itself. Working in such a confined space means that the scenic details must be top quality to keep the attention of viewers but it does also mean that a layout can be built fairly rapidly - we shall see!

After doing quite a bit of research I have decided that the mill will be based on a fuller mill for textile manufacture which will allow me to give it some history and texture rather than just being a water mill. I intend to power the wheel but lets see how far I get with that! It should not be difficult but I need a really slow motor and a set of gears.

Operationally it's not that exciting with one continuous circle of track and no points but it does allow engines to have a good run in while the operator is busily chatting to people - which is what exhibiting a partly about.

I will put some photos up of progress, as I did with Loxley Barton. in due course.

For more information on pizza layouts you must visit Carl Arendt's Small Layouts Scrapbook site.

Japanese L Type industrial locomotive

Simon Cox — Tue, 05 Dec 2006 24:00:00 GMT

Recently I purchased an unusual HOe locomotive from Japan. This stunning little locomotive has outside frames and a working couping rod and comes either as a kit or ready to run having been put together from the kit by a 70 year old craftsman in Japan. It is a HOe scale 9mm gauge. Japanese L Type industrial locomotive, HOe scale 9mm gauge at the H Back shed

Here I have the loco running on Henk Wurst’s German logging layout ’H Bach‘ and it looks right at home.

Japanese L Type industrial locomotive, HOe scale 9mm gauge outside the H Back logging plant

Currently I have no plans to run this on Loxley Barton as it is too modern, probably...

And John Jacobs had a little drive.

Warley 2006 - Pagham Harbour

Simon Cox — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 24:00:00 GMT

I spent the weekend up at the NEC with the GDNGRS exhibiting Richard Glovers Pagham Harbour. Apart from the nightmare that is getting the car into the hall to take the exhibit away on Sunday we had a great time. I really enjoy operating Pagham - it has a great sequence to follow that is really flexible. Plus the track work is so well made that you can run trains at really slow speeds. It always attracts a good crowd and has been the inspiration behind many other layouts.

The NEC was packed but there was plenty of room - Hall 1 being an enormous space that even the showpiece full size locomotive seemed a little lost. We were in a section with a lot of Dutch men and a lot of very good narrow gauge models! Overall a very good high quality show.

Hopefully we will be back there next year with a different layout.

Narrow gauge layout line up at Warley 2006 - Bryn Goch, Pagham Harbour, H Bach, Castle Rock (town module) and La Trinité sur Mer

Line up - Bryn Goch, Pagham Harbour, H Bach, Castle Rock (town module) and La Trinité sur Mer. Behind us was Chapel Pill and Somewhere in Belgium.

ExpoNG 2006 narrow gauge modelling nirvana

Simon Cox — Sun, 29 Oct 2006 01:00:00 GMT

Well yesterday was a very long day. Terry and I spent the first hour and a half holding the doors open to the hall and greeting people. There was a continuous queue for the first 45 minutes, even with four people selling tickets and no delays in queue movement, and the hall filled up really quickly. Unlike other shows when visitors look around for an hour or two maximum, a lot of people spend all day at ExpoNG as there is a lot to see and a lot of people to talk to - so the atmosphere is very special. I did not appreciate that last year as I was exhibiting and didn't really get to spend much time visiting the other layouts and traders. 2006 though was very different as I am now a member of the Greenwich and District Narrow Gauge Railway Society who organise and run Expo Narrow Gauge (ExpoNG). We arrived early evening at the hall and set up the tables and did a lot of routine chores. Saturday it was still dark when we were out putting up the direction signs and we arrived just as the first exhibitors turned up. The next few hours saw moments of frantic preparations interspersed with moments of old friends meeting up.

This year each visiting layout had a nickel silver badge to take away - I did the artwork for that and got them etched - and I was very pleased with my first time etching artwork efforts (now to try a few chassis ideas!) and I had some good feedback on the design as well. We also had proper Society polo shirts with the GDNGRS badge on so that everyone could find us easily – great idea that.

Pete Wilson’s Willesden Junction won the best of show award and it is a really huge and different layout so it deserved it. It has had two outings so far and I have not touched the controls once yet! The first was in France, I was unable to go, and at ExpoNG I was too busy – the Essex boys and Pete spent all day shunting great long WW1 trains around the marshalling yard.

I did manage to spend a bit of time this year looking around the show and it cost me a small fortune in bits and bobs I never knew I might need!

Overall the day was a great success with only a few minor teething problems and there were many beaming faces to be seen. We ended the day with a slap up meal at a hotel and started planning next year’s event.

Expo Narrow Gauge 2006 tommorow

Simon Cox — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 01:00:00 GMT

Well it's ExpoNG 2006 tomorrow which reminds me that this time last year I had taken some time off work and was busily finishing things off - a lot of things on the layout! A lot has happened in the time since winning the competition. Firstly and most importantly I was approached by the Greenwich and District Narrow Gauge Society to consider becoming a member and in November I attended my first meeting and I am very glad I did.

I really do feel that I am walking amongst giants at the Society meetings and I have learnt so much from the other members and it is great to be able to give a little bit back. If you live in the London area and would like to consider becoming a member drop me an email or pop over to the gdngrs.com website and fill in the contact form - any age at any level of modeling ability are welcome - just bring your passion for narrow gauge!.

So this year I won't be displaying anything - I have a railcar under construction but I have not had time to complete it for the ExpoNG Railcar Rumble competition - but I will be hard at work helping to make the show a success tonight in set up and tomorrow during the show.

I will be going round taking photographs of all the exhibits, and hopefully a few informal ones as well, for the websites and the society newsletter. If you see me please do stop me and have a chat!

Croydon MRS 2006 show

Simon Cox — Mon, 09 Oct 2006 01:00:00 GMT

I had a great time at the show. Loxley Barton was in one of the small rooms with the Loose Chipping's 4mm Standard Gauge layout and a trade-stand. We had a good regular flow of people throughout the weekend though Sunday was reasonably quite compared to Saturday. The food laid on for the exhibitors was very good - Sundays roast beef and vegetables was very welcome! The layout stuttered to a start on both days but by the end of the day was running extremely well - though I realise I still have plenty to do to get things to run as well as they should. Paula helped me out on Saturday and Richard Glover on Sunday which meant I was able to wander around the show to view and chat.

John and Jane Jacobs Nettlecoombe won the best of show as voted for by the public, no surprises there as it is always popular! I was informed that the tally of votes Loxley Barton received put it in 4th place which I have to say is very encouraging!

I might be getting an invite from the Norbury MRC for their Nov 2007 show, they took my details and that's it until then as I have no other exhibitions invites to to fulfil - and my feet are glad of it right now!

Croydon MRS 2006 show 7th and 8th October

Simon Cox — Tue, 03 Oct 2006 01:00:00 GMT

Loxley Barton is booked in for the Croydon Model Railway Society annual Exhibtion on the 7th and 8th of October - this weekend coming.

I have a few chores to attend to to ensure the layout is running well including putting on some Railzip for the first time - hopefully it will cut down the amount that I need to clean the track during the day. I also need to change some couplings and sort out one particular loco that was playing up at Amberley. There are a couple of other 009 narrow gauge layouts at the exhibition so if you are in the vacinity of Croydon this weekend please do pop by and say hello!

Ruston Hornsby painted photo

Simon Cox — Mon, 02 Oct 2006 01:00:00 GMT

So there it is with the driver and curtain in the doorway you cannot see that the cab is completley full of motor! The eagle eyed will notice that I have removed the provided coupling and replaced it with a Greenwich coupling at the correct height. Apparently these kits were designed long before the Greenwich society decided on a standard coupling height.

Ruston Hornsby painted

Simon Cox — Sun, 01 Oct 2006 01:00:00 GMT

I spent some time over the weekend getting my old SimAir compressor out of storage, been meaning to do this for quite a while, and rescuing my airbrushes from the loft. I spilt a little oil from the compressor and it absolutley reeked and I got told off. Having tested everythingto make sure it was OK I mixed up some acrylics to the shade of green I wanted for the Ruston and thinned it with cellulose thinners, dropped it into the airbrush with a pipette and spent the next hour spraying and masking out. It was great fun.

A bit of hand brushing for details and the intial wethering on the loco was followed by painting the driver. I covered the lot in clear acrylic spray varnish which is hard enough to prevent the knocks chipping the paint but it is glossy so I need to run a quick matt varnish over it but I will probably wait until I have finished the weathering.

I will get a photo up soon. The engine will be on Loxley Barton this weekend at the Croydon MRC show.

Ruston Hornsby narrow gauge kit

Simon Cox — Sun, 27 Aug 2006 01:00:00 GMT

Yesterday I completed the Meridian Models MM3 kit of a Ruston Hornsby 27-32. I have not painted it yet as you can see in the photo but what a great little kit. A bit tricky in parts - soldering the roof on was tricky and getting the engine cover exactly square tested my patience! The one thing that stands out on this locomotive is the short wheelbase. It could probably go around a 10mm radius curve. The most difficult part in construction was cutting the chassis down to size and I used a cutting disk in the end.

There is a fair bit of white metal in the engine housing so I may not need to add any extra weight. I did not even contemplate putting DCC in this, not because of the diminutive size but because the Trix chassis looked to difficult to modify, though I have not actually run it yet so don't know if it even works!

I see Dave Brewer and Pete Wilson (Meridian Models) most Fridays at the Greenwich and District Narrow Gauge Railway Society meetings and will be asking then what the 27-32 in the name of the kit means exactly - could be year of design, horsepower, works design number or chest size of driver - I have no idea!

Amberley Museum Railway Steam Gala 2006 — Exhibition Report

Simon Cox — Mon, 10 Jul 2006 01:00:00 GMT

Loxley Barton Falls had its first (and only so far) invite to attend another exhibition during ExpoNG2005 from Gerry Cork of Amberley Working Museum, to their Railway Gala weekend June 8th and 9th 2006. So the past couple of weeks have been a complete panic as I got the layout ready!

The first thing I wanted to complete was a stand - at ExpoNG it was too low for proper viewing on the table top. I designed a box for it to stand on - there will be a separate article about this later on. The box completed I decided to turn my attention to the couplings. I had used Bemo type couplings for the ExpoNG competition as they were quick to put on althoughI wanted to use Greenwich couplings as they were meant to be much better and it was their show! After winning the Cubic Challenge and having met the members I actually joined the GDNGRS and of course I had no excuse not to use the Societies own couplings so built a enough sets to convert all the rolling stock I was planning to use at Amberley.

I also decided that I would need a handheld controller so that I could operate and talk to people at the same time. Leaving it to the last minute I rang Kent Panel Controls and ordered an minimum feedback Fine Control Exhibition standard hand held controller and the parts to build a transformer. The hand controller was built and arrived by post on Wednesday - so a big thanks to KPC for the really fast turnaround!

I had a look at the wiring under the layout and cannot understand how it actually worked at ExpoNG! So I stripped most of it out and rewired it all including a new lead and plug for the controller and then build the transformer - which was much easier that I thought it would be. However I did drop my electric jigsaw in my leg when I was putting it away and had to go to hospital for 4 stitches... Fortunately it was unplugged at the time! Te really bad news was that I lost three hours Thursday night which meant making up time the night before the exhibition! The wiring was all finished off Friday night and everything tested perfectly. The speeds I was getting on the controller were comparable to DCC tests I have done – very impressive. At least one visitor to the exhibition asked how I got such slow running without the use of the black arts…

We arrived at Amberley on Saturday morning and the weather was glorious. We had a table next to Annie Winter’s Lazy cottage; Andrew Neal’s book stall on the other side (that was expensive for me!!) and Meridian models were behind us with Dave Brewer spending most of his time with his clockwork train set!

Most of the time the layout performed perfectly but did require a really good clean every few hours because of smoke, soot and fumes from the nearby full size exhibits.

The atmosphere was great and I will be back at Amberley next year – if not with the layout then certainly as a visitor. Loxley Barton Falls at Amberley 2006

2 ton iron coal wagon

Simon Cox — Tue, 18 Apr 2006 01:00:00 GMT

2 ton iron coal wagon kit by A Knights Work

My Easter 2006 project was a 2 ton iron coal wagon kit by A Knights Work which I purchased a couple of months ago to test my soldering skills - or lack of them. It's all brass and does not fit together particularily well (the wagon floor seemed very undersized) but after a lot of trial and error, filing an filling I was able to make a decent enough wagon out of it. I added coal and Greenwich couplings and a very rusty paint job and now just need to add some lettering and it's done. A good holidays work - though my soldering needs a lot more practice!

009 Society leaflet from 1990

Simon Cox — Sun, 16 Apr 2006 01:00:00 GMT

Just dug up an old 009 Society leaflet I picked up from Imrex 90 - 16 years ago! I had intended to join the society at the time but life got in the way as usual and I didn't sign up for another 11 years. The society is still going strong so if you have an interest in narrow gauge railway modeling please do join - and its worldwide. Current details can be found at the 009 society website www.009society.com -click on the Join the 009 Society menu item.

Meanwhile here is scan of the old 1990 leaflet.

(Please note this is for historical interest purposes only - this is not the current leaflet and is way out of date - the addresses, prices etc are all out of date, so if you would like an up to date form please visit the 009 Society website - do not use thess images to join!)

ExpoNG site now live

Simon Cox — Mon, 20 Mar 2006 24:00:00 GMT

The Greenwich and District Narrow Gauge Railway Society have a new website for the ExpoNG exhibition - www.expong.org.

Expo Narrow Gauge is on the 29th October this year and I certainly will be going along. Hopefully I will get a proper look at the layouts on show as I only spent a quick 20 minutes going round the hall in 2005 and didn't get a chance to really chat to anyone.

Building a Narrow Gauge Water Tower Using Scaloox Blocks

Simon Cox — Sun, 19 Feb 2006 24:00:00 GMT

I was given the Scaloox starter pack for Christmas and I decided to have a go at building the water tower and coaling stage which was a good simple project to test out this new building form.

Scaloox is a modular building system with stonework courses that you glue together in whatever combination you wish. There are several different shapes of piece to work with and the shapes have been specially worked out to give maximum flexibility.

The Scaloox pieces are cast in moulds and quite brittle so you have to handle them gently. Advice from others suggests that they are not happy with too much moisture either and I found this out when building the tower as I had a bit of a disaster snapping one course of stone work off and then I had to cut out the remainder and start that course again. However the experience meant that I was more careful and now know the tolerances better.

I scratch built my own water tank to go on the top from plasticard.

Update

Scaloox is no longer being manufactured which is a big pity but I am sure there are good reasons for stopping production - perhaps there was no market for it.

Loxley Barton Falls - Picture in Railway Modeller

Simon Cox — Tue, 20 Dec 2005 24:00:00 GMT

The 2006 January edition of the Railway Modeller has a two page spread of the ExpoNG including a very good picture of Loxley Barton Falls and a small mention in the text. Available at most good newsagents.

Narrow Gauge World January and February Edition has a picture as well as a piece about the competition. I have not received my copy yet but was able to get a quick glimpse on Saturday. Available at larger newsagents.

The 009 News, magazine of the 009 Society also has a picture of Loxley Barton Falls at the ExpoNG in Swanley. This is only available to Members of the Society.

Loxley Barton Falls - Finished model photos

Simon Cox — Sat, 29 Oct 2005 01:00:00 GMT

I realised this morning that the Gallery images did not contain any of the final model as it went to ExpoNG 2005 yesterday. So this morning I did a quick photo shoot.

The image above is my favourite as it really captures the dark forbidding new industrial era of the Victorian age - just the atmosphere I was trying to capture with the model. It almost has a late Dickensian feel about it.

Loxley Barton Falls - Winner Cubic Challenge Expo Narrow Gauge 2005

Simon Cox — Sat, 29 Oct 2005 01:00:00 GMT

I genuinely cannot believe this - I won! I did not think I had a chance and when I saw the other layouts I just put the competition out of my mind as the others were so good. Looks like Loxley Barton Falls struck the right chord with the judges.

I really enjoyed today especially the great camaraderie of the other Cubic Challenge layouts - Chris O'Donoghue, David Woodstock, Annie Winter and her family, Michael Campbell (last years Shoe Box winner), Fried Lagerweij (runner up) and David Calderwood (who I did not get to speak to as he was tucked away in another part of the show).

Loxley Barton Falls will be in Narrow Gauge World, a fine publication and I won a years subscription, 009 News and we have been asked to exhibit at the Amberley Gala next summer. Gosh!

Perhaps, just maybe Paula will let me build something a little bit bigger now...!

Loxley Barton Falls - Showing at ExpoNG today

Simon Cox — Sat, 29 Oct 2005 01:00:00 GMT

Only 8 and a half hours before the public get to see Loxley Barton Falls. It's 2am and I am not frantically getting everything ready having spent the evening finishing the layout, adding figures and finishing off the rolling stock. This is my first ever showing at an exhibition and ExpoNG is the premier narrow gauge model railway exhibition in Europe - so no pressure there then. Having seen the standard of work at last years ExpoNG competition I resigned myself months ago to the knowledge that there was no way Loxley Barton Falls could win the competition - this is the first layout I have ever made in 009 and there are soooo many mistakes! Hopefully it will be an enjoyable event. Hopefully no kids poke fingers into the layout and destroy everything (oh look a train - poke - snap. My eternal nightmare...)

Hopefully I won't get befriended by weirdos who want to tell me about how the particular variant of Walschart valve gear was not invented in the time period of the layout (sod off weirdy...).

I had better get some sleep!

Loxley Barton Falls - Locomotive No. 07

Simon Cox — Tue, 11 Oct 2005 01:00:00 GMT

Hunslet 2-6-2

Locomotive No. 07 is a Parkside Dundas kit built by me in the early 1990's. This is kit DL01 Welshpool & Llanfair Light Railway Hunslet 2-6-2 Tank Loco No.14 which was rescued from Sierra Leone. I have modelled the kit as a freelance Hunslet and this is a very good runner.

Loxley Barton Falls - Waterfall and stream detailing added

Simon Cox — Sun, 09 Oct 2005 01:00:00 GMT

Today I filled in the waterfall and stream. I had already added the base water using a Woodland Scenics 'Realistic Water product and on top of that I added strands of Deluxe Products' Scenic Fibre glued in place for the main drop of the waterfall and where the stream runs around rocks. Once the glue holding the scenic fibre had set I heated up the Deluxe Products' Scenic Water thermoplastic water product and poured it down the waterfall and along the stream using a brush to position the flow. Once this had set I added Woodland Scenics' Water Effects to build up the white water parts of the stream and falls.

I also used these techniques to add a several flows of water from the leaking lock gates.

Loxley Barton Falls - Locomotive No. 06

Simon Cox — Sun, 02 Oct 2005 01:00:00 GMT

Southwold Sharpie

Locomotive No. 6 is partially constructed with the chassis complete and most of the body work in place. This is a Golden Arrow Productions Kit NL2 - Southwold Railway 2-4-0T / 2-4-2T. I have constructed this as a 2-4-0T running on a chopped Grafar chassis - possibly a 2-6-0.

It's a great looking locomotive and was one of the 'lost' locomotives I recently found having been in storage for many years. I am not sure if this is a runner yet - could be - but I will be checking the clearances around Loxley Barton as it may well get round the bridge curve and that would be great!

Loxley Barton Falls - Lock Gate in place

Simon Cox — Sun, 02 Oct 2005 01:00:00 GMT

This weekend I have finished painting the lock gates. There is a base coat of black followed by dry brush burnt umber and then a light grey with a hint of burnt umber. The metal parts were picked out with a little rust detail and then the lock gates were finally super glued into place. I have not attached the hand rails for the top of the gates yet and I will either leave them off or cut them down a bit.

After I have finished adding the water into the stream I intend to add the effect of water spraying out of the gates as if they did not quite fit perfectly. I got some great shots of the way this works from a walk along the two path of the Wey navigation earlier this year.

Loxley Barton Falls - Locomotive No. 05

Simon Cox — Thu, 29 Sep 2005 01:00:00 GMT

Roco diesel

Classic Roco 060 diesel dark green with black roof. This engine was purchased in 1985 at a small model shop in Faversham. This was the first engine to test the Loxley Barton Falls track and it only just made the sharp curve. No.5 is a very reliable engine and an excellent runner.

Loxley Barton Falls - Locomotive No. 04

Simon Cox — Thu, 29 Sep 2005 01:00:00 GMT

Locomotive number 04 is a GEM Baldwin kit on a Grafar chassis.

I started to build this before I had finished Locomotive No. 03, about 1980 but it was never finished. this engine was rediscovered during a clear out in 2005 although I had known it was somewhere because many of the detailing pieces were in my bits box. This engine, like its sister No.3 will not fit on the tight curve running into Loxley Barton Falls and so will remain unfinished until another project arises.

Loxley Barton Falls progress photo gallery

Simon Cox — Tue, 27 Sep 2005 01:00:00 GMT

Loxley Barton Falls is a 009 gauge railway layout built for the Cubic Challenge competition held at the 2005 ExpoNG Narrow Gauge Railway Exhibition in Swanley, Kent, UK on October 29th. The rules state that the layout must fit into an imaginary 500mm cube - no part, other than lighting and controllers, is allowed outside of this area.

The photos that follow were taken during the the development of the Loxley Barton Falls layout. Construction started in April 2005.

Loxley Barton Falls - Locomotive No. 03

Simon Cox — Mon, 22 Aug 2005 01:00:00 GMT

Baldwin Locomotive No. 03

Locomotive number 03 is a GEM Baldwin kit on a Grafar chassis. I built this in about 1980 and it runs well but the pony truck is a little troublesome over some point work. I added a copper strip over the motor to look like a firebox - needs to be a different colour.

These days the Baldwin outline look a little utilitarian to me so this will not be run often.

Loxley Barton Falls - Locomotive No. 02

Simon Cox — Sat, 20 Aug 2005 01:00:00 GMT

Ffestiniog double Fairlie

Not one to shirk a challenge I purchased this Langley kit of a Ffestiniog Double Fairlie. In the end I could not build the running gear and a friend (Michael Halliwell) put it together for me. This used to run very well but has not moved for some years. Needs a good overhaul, a repaint and some new parts.

Loxley Barton Falls - Locomotive No. 01

Simon Cox — Sat, 20 Aug 2005 01:00:00 GMT

Ffestiniog Prince.

I think this is a Gem Kit. I bought it in the Portmadoc Station of the Ffestiniog Railway in about 1976 (they don't sell any kits these days - pity). The chassis is an Arnold 040 and has not run for years. Needs some tender loving care and a rebuild.

Loxley Barton Falls - A new 009 layout

Simon Cox — Sat, 20 Aug 2005 01:00:00 GMT

In October 2004 I visited the EXPONG exhibition in Swanley held by the Greenwich and District Narrow Gauge Railway Society (GDNGRS). The show is purely for narrow gauge model railways of all gauges and there were some excellent layouts there, many I had not seen before. Tucked away in a separate room down the corridor from the main exhibition was the entries for a challenge that the GDNGRS has set. This was the shoe box Challenge where an operating layout had to fit inside of a shoe/boot box and very creative the entries were as well.

As I do not have enough space at home to build a full layout this seemed like an excellent challenge for 2005 so as soon as I got home I started to plot in my head what I would like to do. Several months later the GDNGRS released a statement that the 2005 competition would be slightly different. It is called the Cubic Challenge and the layout must fit into a 500mm cubic space. That's not very big but bigger than most shoe boxes!

In March 2005 I started in earnest to build a new 009 gauge entry for the Cubic Challenge Competition and I am diarising the progress here.

All modelling from SimonCox.com

Goods Shed and Ticket Office

Table of Contents

First Building - Sennan Cove cottage

Brick booking office and goods hall

Stone Office with adjoining open canopy and platform

Completion of the Goods Shed and Ticket Office

Resin printed figures for Whitesands Quay

3D printing

New resin

Figure painting techniques

Whitesands Quay Customs House rocks

Using fir tree bark to model a rock face on Whitesands Quay

Small walls

Painting the rock faces

Adding to the Whitesands Quay backscene

What next on Whitesands Quay?

Stanton Coach chassis progress

Railway Modellers Club site

What is myrm.club?

Whitesands Quay replacement row of cottages

A new model of a row of cottages

Cottage research

The build

Windows

The doors

The roof

The chimneys

Summary

Whitesands Quay Chapel

The old cottages

The spirit of the Whitesands Quay fishermen

Drawing up the wrap

Laser cutting the walls and details

Finishing the Chapel

Creating buildings from laser-cut 2mm MDF and card

Time to sit back and do some model making

Diode lasers

The Front Row cottages

Customs house*

Other laser-cut creations

A scratch-built rail-bus for the Ding Dong Moor Railway

I built a new rail-bus in the style of Reinier Hendriksen

The main body of the railcar

Bulkhead

Inside

Engine and frame

The roof

Detailing

Paint and finish

Competition

A scratch-built rail-bus for the Ding Dong Moor Railway Gallery

Halle Marchandise en bois

French meter gauge goods shed

Halle Marchandise en bois Gallery

Small Run Batch Deutz OO9 kit - part 2

Body work for the SRB001 Freelance DEUTZ Style 0-4-0DM

Small Run Batch Deutz OO9 kit - part 2 Gallery

Whitesands Quay first outing

Work in progress gets out the house

Small Run Batch Deutz OO9 kit

SRB001 Freelance DEUTZ Style 0-4-0DM

Small Run Batch Deutz OO9 kit Gallery

And there is more...

Whitesands Quay - Row of cottages - chimney pots

Replacing the chimney pots on the row of cottages

Update

Whitesands Quay trackwork

Hand-built track and point controls

Whitesands Quay trackwork Gallery

And there is more...

La Meuse - construction

The Neil Sayer Models La Meuse 009 kit

La Meuse - construction Gallery

Whitesands Quay - row of cottages

Using a Scalescenes card kit

Whitesands Quay - row of cottages Gallery

Loxley Barton Falls - part 1 - inspiration

I decided to enter a model making competition

Whitesands Quay progress