Beavering away on various projects, which will appear once ready, one of which is a continuation of the 3D work - HR water columns; there is a Mikes Model of this but it is some 18mm over length, and our joint effort has resulted in a far more accurate model. Here are a couple of shots from today recording theit arrival on the layout that developed in to a more general photo session. More to follow.... A rather bedraggled Caley 0-6-0 drifts home at the end of its day's work...
My sentiments exactly chaps, I always look forward to updates on this thread and the various layout developments which ooze charm and character.
Thanks all - here is a summary of all the 3D work to date- two water tanks, two water columns, a couple of Hurley station hand carts and a footbridge, all essential Highland station furniture. The footbridge he had done before I met him but the others are a joint venture in so much as I tracked down drawings and images for him and discussed various details until we had got a satisfactory result.
Nice additions to the layout Richard. Is the drain below the water column part of the model or separate ? Cheers, Gary. ps, I hope you don't mind that I pinched your photo for our FB page....
Seperate on this one - it was the prototype print and I cut it about to get it more to my needs. It is all one on the later version - seen here. Thanks for the header pic. I have a few more to post up as well.
Work has being going on over the Xmas period- a bit of tidy up on several whimsies - a side of things I really like, and I'll look at some of these soon but here is one of them - a Stanier 2-8-4T, drawn up but never built. Mix of 8F and 2-6-4T and more or less correct apart from an extended bunker, but that would have involved more input than I was willing to do for the return - there are other more relevant jobs going on and this was a bit of relaxation...Here it is on the bench and at its current task as a banker on Highland hills...
More straying in to other times here - two HR what ifs. The first is one of PD's drawings for an enlarged Ben with 6'6" drivers and a longer wheel base, to all intents and purpose the same as some of his brother's LSWR designs, so a T9 was Highlandised and the Glen class was born....As a further whimsy I kept the watercart tender - the HR ones had gone by the end of the Second War but it makes for a variation on a theme..Looking rather run down, here it is at work and rest. The second is a rather fantastic offspring of an ex Duke of Sutherland's private loco absorbed in to HR stock and their own Scrap tank; itself a product of already withdrawn engines, combined in to a neat little harbour shunter for the proposed Scrabster branch, to serve the Orkney traffic.
Links to the origins of this thingie.... https://www.ambaile.org.uk/detail/en/25786/1/EN25786-lms-16382.htm https://www.ambaile.org.uk/detail/en/25046/1/ambaile/HR-118-'Gordon-Castle'
That was a pleasurable sideline, done alongside one I had been chewing over for some time - the Stanier Black Four that was planned for the Highland lines. Its initial build was pushed back in 1934 for the Fives and they were found to be more than adequate for the job, so the smaller engine never made the light of day. I looked over the Bachmann Stanier Mogul but getting a leading bogie under the cylinders was going to be more problematic, so the thing stalled, not for the first time. However, it dawned on me that the loco drive Black Five still used the too short original Rovex era body, so one was obtained to see if this would be an option. turned out it was, but not as simple as I had hoped because the upgraded chassis now had 6' drivers, unlike the smaller ones on the earlier version. nevertheless, I decided to make it the basis of the conversion, so the boiler was cut loose and lowered as much as I could on the footplate, and the undercut at the smokebox door incorporated, which makes a big visual difference to the looks of it, and the newer version as well. The cab was replaced by a GBL one and the drivers were spare Hornby Radials from my dormant Small Ben build on the Five's axles, but with "normal" Hornby crankpins as the Radials have a bossed one that holds the coupling rods out about 2mm from the drivers. A Bachmann Crab tender was the aft half of the loco. Here it is on its first finished visit to its new home shed, and another bit of alternative history is added to my expanding fantasy world...
Bit of a side track here - I've got involved in a sort of advisor way to a range of HR buildings and accessories in 3D and laser cut kits and a recent one has been a HR two road shed with nods to two or three actual ones. It's been built and is going to be a small diorama. Couple of trial phone shots here, showing little of the shed as D o F was a problem so the old Canon will be wielded to sort that soon. Watch this space...The locos are breathed on GBL static models.
Another shed sideline - this is getting addictive.... - is a look at the actual Thurso set up, triggered off by some left over Pop Up bits. Everything on show was there, albeit seen in a condensed form.
And the last shed build now, actually technically a rebuild as I used the sides and vents although everything else was new - an improved Helmsdale shed. The original was based around the ratio carriage shed kit as it fitted in my limited space but I have never been happy with it and finally turned my attentions to it, managing to extract some extra width and length from the site for it. It now looks a bit more like the ramshackle edifice that passed as a shed there, and I hope never to make another... One of the previous incarnation added as a comparison.
Love the stone engine shed, along with the water tower coal stage combo. Your technique for painting stone is fantastic. The two road engine shed looks great too. Great work as always. Cheers, Gary.