And finally .....Yeo heads for Lynton

Yeo heads off in the morning sunshine.....

Braunton Road crossing

These level crossing gates actually worked.....

Lynn simmering before the next train

Some shots of Lyn before she takes her train

Pilton yard signal box at Rainford

I managed to take some pictures of Bob exquisite 1/12 th scale model of Pilton yard box . Quite atmospheric !

More pictures from Rainford

More pictures from the show ....here's my Yeo taking a spot.

Rainford 009 society show 2015

This weekend I had the great pleasure in helping on Bob Barnards 4mm scale model of Barnstaple Town station at a 009 society exhibition in Rainford . Bobs full layout covers Pilton yard, Chelham , Woody Bay and Lynton and is an exemplary model of fine scale modelling . An article on the layout has been covered in Model Rail in the past. The form of the Layout for the Rainford show was a smaller portion of its full extent covering the needs of the exhibition whilst itself being manageable to operate by 2 people as well as manning the L&B society sales stand. We ( Bob , myself and Peter Ainley ) operated the layout from the front giving people the opportunity to chat as we operated which was itself a great way of meeting people and answering questions. Most of the day we ran Bobs stock which is an impressive line up of stock he has hand built over many years. One of the locomotives was built in 1968 and still going strong! We had chopper link couplings to operate and fully interlocking points and signals. It really was a joy to operate and , unlike some layouts I've operated over a full days show never became a chore.
So  I'll post some photos here , which show my own stock stretching their coupling rods over a few runs .
If you model the L&B then I recommend joining the L&B forum in Yahoo groups .

Coach and a Hot Tin Roof.

I'm taking time out from upgrading Lynton Station building to focus a little more on Rolling Stock. I tend to find my energy spent on one subject becomes lower after a while and I need a change of subject. I've 2 coaches that I bought on eBay some time ago. So far I've added Smoking / no smoking signs, painted the window frames and changed the bogies. Curtains have been added to one coach. Apparently only a few of the coaches had curtains. As reported in a previous blog the curtains were made by downloading images of a yellow curtain and printing these onto paper. To give the effect of use these are placed in the windows at odd spacing to give the impression that some are pushed back , others not.
These Langley coaches have a system for locking the roof in place by means of a brass T section. The models I'm upgrading here have been built without this locking system and relied on compact adhesive ( and plenty of it judging by the amount I had to scrape away). I wished to be able to access the interior again so instead of re gluing I've used plastic section to lock the roof into place. Not the most perfect , closest fit but for now this will suffice. I aim to repaint the roofing and experiment also with using tissue paper to give a better look to the metal roof. Acetylene gas pipes also need to be added as per the originals circa 1910-1912.
I've also painted up some Merten figures in subdued 1930's colours to seat in the coaches. As these are HO scale I've had to add some plastic blocks to their bums to raise them above the coach waist. Cheery lot aren't they ?

Lynton landscaping update

A little work on how the new landscaping was achieved a couple of weeks ago. I had intended to post this at that time. However.... I forgot. The pictures are not that clear but show a " mock up" of how the view might be. I've crudely laid some of my hanging basket liner on the land formation and posed a coach in the Bay. I hope to take some better pictures soon.... Anyway progress....

Station building update

After two weeks of travelling with work it's been a pleasure to get back to some modelling again. It's rained cats and dogs today so I have spent some time on the station building . I've added more details to the roof by adding the under eave bracing ( I'm sure there must be building term for this ) and the chimneys . I noticed from old photographs of the station that one of the original chimneys must have been replaced at some point. So the odd chimney is intentional and not that I had run out of my stock supplied by Narrow  Planet. Weathering of the chimneys still required and in general some more painting.
I've also detailed the outside area

beyond the parlour. There were three small windows I had to make , one for the Ladies rest room and 2 for the outside toilet and store of the station master part of the building. Making windows is definitely my least favourite job. Several hours later , many ruined attempts and eventually  3 windows were complete ! Hopefully that's the last time I have to make windows for a long time.
The photographs don't show the wooden extension that I built in a previous post , as this is still in grey primer. Anyway progress ...