A case of good timing

Perhaps more accurately, very lucky timing.

I was moving about bits of track on Winkford and doing a bit of refresher reading on Light Railways generally when I remembered seeing a review of a small HO tank loco recently on sale - masquerading as some kind of OO industrial. I remembered thinking it had promise and I started googling.. As I did so, I received my regular daily newsletter from Rails of Sheffield. Yep - on offer that day was the very same loco. I made a quick purchase and found that within hours they were out of stock again!

Loco arrived and I'm very pleased. Marketed by Rails as a 'Golden Valley' model, it's an Electrotren model (I believe there is a Jouef version too). Clearly a European prototype but I think it won't take much work at all to anglicise this (If I choose to do any actually). It is fitted with standard NEM coupling pockets and two small tension locks were provided to replace the Euro couplings. Size -wise this is dinky, really not much in it with the venerable old Pug. I'll get around to posting a picture of it with a wagon.

Ooh.. or maybe I'll build an HO French or Spanish backwater? :-)

Rebuilding Winkford.. planning

As much as I'm enjoying my wargames at the moment, I have a modelling itch which needs scratching. I'm enjoying the occasional play with my US HO shelf but feel the need to build something. Problem is, I really can't decide what I want to build.. a 'classic' OO GWR branch terminus like Hemyock or Blagdon..(I've never done it).. or perhaps do it in 3mm scle.. or perhaps 7mm narrow gauge.. grr.

Anyway, unable to go to the Doncaster show today, I thought I'd dig Winkford out of the loft and have look at the options for converting this to a 4mm standard gauge layout.  It's a small layout, so the choices will be limited. Also, I have three Peco 'Streamline' points, along with three lengths of flexi track. I'd like to stick to that, rather than spending any money on this.

I've boiled it down to two options now, and need to decide.. 

Option 1

The Light Railway company was bought out by a larger concern, who took up the narrow gauge tracks and laid a new standard gauge line (still to Light Railway practice). The passenger service was maintained to Winkford, and the station building preserved, although some rebuilding of the simple platform was carried out. A simple loop with one siding for the light goods and coal traffic.
Traffic would be mixed trains of one short 4 or 6 wheel coach and a couple of wagons to shunt.

This gives me the option of bashing some coaches.. and the 'feel' is really quiet and simple. The only downside is that I'd need to fettle the fiddle stick as trains would arrive from and leave to, the world offscene.

Option 2

Similar to above, however passenger services were cut, usual competition from bus companies etc making it unprofitable for the company to continue a service to Winkford. The end of the line site was still served by rail, now a small yard, with three sidings. Wagons here are sorted for drop off further back up the line. The station building was retained and converted into an office and store for the railway.

This is basically an inglenook. I reckon I can just about squeeze a full one on (need to accomodate 5,3 and 3 wagons and a loco plus three wagons on the headshunt). There's a lot more play value to this design, and it is self contained, no fiddle required.

So, I think I need to sleep on it as I'm fairly torn between the two at the moment.

The Bulldozers move in..

Work has started (inbetween painting more Landwehr) on the conversion on Winkford.

I took the layout out on the garden table , grabbed an assortment of tools and took a deep breath. Then, with a nervous chisel, the work started.

Actually, it always amazes me how quickly destroying something can happen, in contrast with the hours put in to creating it. In this case, I was trying to be fairly clinical.
The track and electrics need removing, but with a mind to laying standard gauge track. Some extra clearance would be needed too, and I think the history of the line will tell that either passenger services ceased upon the re-laying.. or that a new small timber platform was built.

Anyway - so far so good. Some more fettling to get things level once I decide upon the plan.. but this is the state of play so far..

time flies..

I just realised that it's been over a year since the last post.

Well, Winkford is still sitting on a shelf, waiting it's fate. My OO9 stock has been ebayed however, so if it stays in my hands it will no doubt see the major conversion to standard gauge. (OO or perhaps EM?)

In other modelling, nothing much has happened. I still have the notion to build another 3mm scale layout, trying out 12mm gauge track standards instead. 
I'm hoping to build another HO US outline layout, or perhaps re-jig my orginal shelf.. still playing around with plans.

However, I haven't been idle.. rather than continue to stew in my railway modelling cul-de-sac, I got busy re-acquainting myself with my one of my first hobbies and I have been busy painting up and playing with toy soldiers ..

Some Prussians here, as seen over on Scrivsland

Decision time for Winkford.. all finished?

Haven't had as much time for doing or posting lately. However, Winkford has reached a point where it is pretty much 'finished'.

I now have a dilemma. I am quite pleased with the layout as a picture. I've even managed to fettle and tweak so that the odd de-railments are less frequent. (Back to back on the wheelsets provided in the kits seemed to be the root of that issue). But..


I don't enjoy playing with it. 


I don't know if it's a 'OO9' thing.. maybe I just don't like the feel of it (had a similar experience with N gauge a little while ago).. maybe the track plan is just too simple for any interesting. I'm thinking it's the former. It's all lacking a bit of weight and momentum that I've found that I prefer from model railways.


So, what to do?


One option is to tear up the track, bring the time forward a few years to when the company is bought up, and a standard gauge line laid. I could lay a small 'yard'.. basically a fork or small inglenook. Maybe hand-laying track to keep it interesting.. I think long term it'll struggle to hold interest too, but as a 'project' it has promise..


Another option is to take apart the whole thing. Salvage what I can and sell off the stock.


Or, try to sell the whole lot.. layout, stock etc. 


Not sure. Anyway, some pictures to record the current state of build..

sticky stuff.. decals

Here's something I've never done before.. making your own decals (or transfers.. ?) . I knew it was possible but never really looked into it properly, so this week I thought I'd take the plunge and give it  a go.


Two reasons..First up, I still have a hankering to play with my American HO trains at some point, and liked the idea of re-badging some of my engines for the Yellow Pine RR, my own fictitious shortline. Secondly, On Winkford I felt that the side wall of that pub really needed some advertising on it. I felt that a local brewery was apt and might help to set the scene too.



There are two choices in inkjet transfer paper, clear or white. After some rather pointless head-scratching, I ordered a sheet of White inkjet transfer paper from ebay and printed off my designs..(this took a lot longer to do than to say - I chopped my A4 sheet into 4 almost 6x4 photo paper sized bits and had to convince the printer that it was okay to print!)

At this point I needed to spray the sheet with a clear varnish to seal the ink. I had a can of 'water based' clear sealant which I hoped would do the job. A couple of light coverings left a yellowish sheen, but otherwise everything seemed okay, so I left the sheet to dry overnight.


This morning, with much trepidation, I cut out the Home Ales decal for the side of my pub and dunked it in a saucer of clean water. At this point I expected to see all the ink run and / or the decal screw up into an unusable lump.


Actually, This is the result! I am pleased. Next up, applying the Yellow Pine decals to my engines..

By the way, the Home Ales brewery in Daybrook, Nottingham, was my local brewery. I remember the smell of hops filling the air on a foggy morning. Despite local loyalties, their bitter was generally pretty bad, although preferable to Shippos (Shipstones)!

Things to come?

Some more work done lately, pictures etc to follow. However, One thing that leads to another.. I was thinking about Winkford and how I'm not much enjoying the running. I know OO9 has a reputation for bad running, but I also know that there are many who make it work. I have taken care with track laying and building the stock etc..but I'm not satisfied yet. It could well be that my preferences are narrowing and I just like bigger heavier toys!


Anyway.. I got to thinking that if I really don't get on with it, rather than destroy Winkford, I should try something different, and change the gauge! Bring the story forward a few years, with the (newly named) Clumber and Rufford Railway being taken over by the NE or Midland, or a smaller group, and the track being lifted and relaid to standard gauge. Lose the passenger facilities and possibly the runaround.


It's a ways off if I do pursue it, but by way of a mock up to see what it might look like..

filling it out

Well.. slowly but surely, things are starting to take shape/settle in. Winkford is starting to look like a place.

Rather than build new tress and green stuff..I decided to re-use some handy wargames hedgerows to screen the back of the layout and they really help to frame the picture (well, they work for me!)

After trying to build a bank on the left hand side, with the track leading through an implausiblysteep cutting, I've ripped that up and changed things so that now a crossing gate marks the end of the line. The thinking is that the line is no longer in use beyond Winkford, but the original track remains, albeit slightly overgrown. A small gatekeepers box sits there too, now disused:

On the platform, I've started to build a water tower.. just a small one to suit the station hopefully. Th iron uprights are chopped from some crossing gates:

At the front I've placed a grounded van, which again feels to have balanced the scene a little more:

Main Street has been laid in card, awaiting some treatment.. I've scratchbuilt the house at front right from plasticard.. and at the rear I have finally settled on the low relief buildings which are awaiting painting and detailing:

We're getting there! On to detailing really, which apparently is where the devil is.

groundwork..

Progress been made lately.. After my not so successful attempt o fix ballast with Klear, I reverted to the tried and tested dilute PVA.

As this railway is supposed to be a fairly lowly affair, and yards rarely sported perfectly ballasted sidings anyway, I really wanted to 'bed' in the trackbed.

I took DAS modelling clay to build up the ground levels, and spent some time pressing it in all around the tracks, using a small old brush to tamp in between sleepers here and there. Once dry, this has been painted a mucky old grey colour.

I picked up some 'ash' scenic powder stuff at the Doncaster show (If I had a fire, I could have used actual ash.. and I suspect this is exactly what this is!) Anyway, a liberal coat of pva was applied, and the ash teaspooned over it. I found I really needed to pile it on to get good coverage.

Left it for a day and hoovered up the surplus.

A little filling in going on now, but after my initial fears that I had wrecked it all, I think it's starting to take shape.

In addition, I've put the platform in place, moving the station building along , which I feel balances the scene a little more.

The back corner and left hand side were bothering me, but I've resolved to have a grassy bank on both sides, rising up to a small wooden footbridge over the track in the corner. I know it's fairly improbable, but I'm hoping it will help to frame the scene too.

As I move along with various jobs, I'm puzzling over what to do with the area in front of the yard. At the moment I'm thing perhaps the edge of some allotments, or simply a fence, to break up the open space.

Paper and Pigs

Pigs? Well.. it's funny how your brain can just miss the most obvious things. Winkford is supposed to be pretty local - Notts, Lincs 'ish'... but unless I move it quite a few miles Westwards into Derbyshire, I don't think there's going to be much use for those lovely W&L sheep wagons!

So, cattle van built, as we certainly have cows around here, and it occurred to me that there might be justification for the smaller wagon to be used for transporting piggies.

I've moved the loading ramp to the side of the goods shed now and off the headshunt too.

Paper? The little space front right of the layout, where the trains emerge and cross the road, was intended to be an allotment or similar low-level feature. But the balance didn't seem quite right, so I'm using paper mock-ups to see how a house would look, and to play around with the shape and dimensions before I commit to building it properly.

to work..

I'm trying to hold back on doing too much scenically until I'm happy that the trackwork is ok and painted and ballasted.. but it's hard! I am varying the jobs a bit however to keep things interesting.

So, this week I have taken the goods shed down a bit in height, it now sits on a brick plinth (which needs painting), and has had an initial wash of 'sepia'. I think I'll hold back on the weathering on this layout too.. so a drybrushing to highlight the woodwork may suffice. The roof has had it's base coat too.



Next up, I've been cracking on with building the stock and fitting Greenwich couplings.
Here are three opens for coal and/or general goods: (I noticed I'd moved the brake shoe on one of them -since fixed)

I do like these Welshpool&Llanfair wagons.. just that bit more substantial than many other types, without going all the way over to big bogie wagons (I originally thought of using ex-WD types, such as found on the Ashover railway).

Finally I've been doing a bit of planning and fussing around the structures, just using card and balsa for now to get a sense of proportion etc. There will be a small brick-walled yard at the back of the pub and another wall with a gate at the entrance to the yard (at the front of the layout by the road). Over on the front right I did picture a small allotment, but I'm contemplating a two-storey building instead.



I've also 'scratched up' a platform in balsa, using a paper template to get it in place around the gentle curves there.



Next up, I need to start 'testing the track and the couplings and work out where I'm going to plac magnets (and to an extent 'how' !!) .. and I need to lay some track on my 'fiddlestick'.

Winkford

So.. six months on.. what's new?

Dreary has been temporarily dismantled as part of a general 'tidy up'. I decided that what I was trying to portray in the space I was using wasn't working. I may come back to it, or start again, but for now it's all safely packed away.

I can't have nothing on the go can I? So.. welcome to 'Winkford'.. a OO9 layout.

So far boards built and track laid and wired up.

The railway will hopefully portray a fictitious light railway built 'locally' (Notts, Derbys, Lincs area) and set around the mid 1930s.

I've decided to stick to broadly Welshpool and Llanfair type stock for consistency. I already have a a couple of Hunslets and ordered some kits from Ninelines.
Hopefully the pictures give an idea of what is planned..(at the moment.. some things may move around a little.. I'm not sure of the placing of the station building yet)

First, the layout as it is today, on my bookshelf. It is 4ft x x1ft:


Next some visual notes which hopefully give an idea of what is planned:


This Wills kit will serve as the main station building when I've finished hacking at it:


A scratchbuilt ramp for loading sheep / cattle (along with Ninelines W&L sheep wagon):




A view of a train entering the station as it crosses Main Road. The yard office and coal siding in front:


A higher view of the train on the ungated crossing on Main Road. (Two Skaledale buildings here):


This Skaledale pub looks a lot like one or two I've known locally, including the 'Worlds End' in Lambley:


A view up Main Road as the train crosses - a photo temporarily in place of where a low relief building will be placed: