N / OO9 Two scales one gauge

Very nice weathering.

Thank you.   

Less is usually more with weathering.  It is easy to over-do it.  Unless one is trying to represent the thick coating of filth attached to a small number of wagons designated to specific traffic such as china-clay (often thickly-lagged in grey-white gunge) or the modern-day Rail Head Treatment Train which sprays high-pressure water onto the rails but in return gets a thick coating of brown grime.  

I haven't had the Weathering Roadshow at an exhibition for a couple of years now.  I did demonstrations for Hayle and Twickenham MRCs and at the latter's public open day in the town library.  Most shows which offer such a thing engage a professional with an airbrush.  Airbrush weathering can certainly look good and can be used to achieve effects difficult to replicate with powders.  Each has its place.  But lacking a professional display stand and literally getting my hands dirty did not, I feel, always get the reception which a professional stand might have done.

A little more on the cartwheels. 

I have now added a “spare” spring to one (one of the extras in the kit) and have glued them both to the wall. 

One leans at an angle, the other is supported by the spring. 

A few weeds have appeared as well. 

Some greenery now lines the mountain branch and the second of the under-sized name signs has found a home on the engine shed  
 Dafydd “Dai Steam” Williams eases the Hunslet off the branch and past Ty Gwyn (white house) Cottages on his way home. 

Looks great with that backscene Rick 👍


 

I have not been happy with the exit scenes where trains entered and left via a hole in the backscene. Therefore a bridge is being scratch-built to cover this area.  

Approximately to TT120 scale this will be used for both themes. The printed stonework is Vollmer card intended for HO scale but useful across a broader range. The coping stones are offcuts from a Metcalfe paving slabs pack using the otherwise-wasted edges around the slabs. Basic construction is foam-board and art card. The size and shape of the arch was copied from a Skaledale resin item in the “bits box” 

N-gauge trains would have run on double track so the large portal is about right for that. The 00-9 narrow gauge trains just fit through. 

The in-progress bridge is shown with trains of both scales. A proper stone portal is required among other unfinished details.

Looking good, Rick

Running two scales, you won't be able to put a bus on the bridge Rick 😂


Ed
 

Ed said

Running two scales, you won't be able to put a bus on the bridge Rick 😂


Ed
 

From “Post #291,201”, 26th January 2025, 12:39 pm

Watch this space ….. 

The weather is suggesting I don’t bother going out. Therefore more work has been done on the bridge. 

It is now butressed, the arch is formed including a capstone all cut from the same Vollmer card as the main sidewalls. 

The inside is lined with black art card and the whole lot lightly weathered in greys. The road surface is weathered in black plus grey and the margins have gained weeds. 

That Volmer card looks pretty decent Rick and, I'd guess, much easier to work with than embossed plasticard …………

I'll have a look at it over here.

Petermac said

That Volmer card looks pretty decent Rick and, I'd guess, much easier to work with than embossed plasticard …………

I'll have a look at it over here.

From “Post #291,207”, 26th January 2025, 5:02 pm

Very easy to work with and as you say far easier than plastic sheets 

They offer a good range in several scales but “size isn’t everything” so you can use what ever us the best fit for you. 

The front is lightly embossed giving just enough 3D effect. The back has a printed cutting grid and templates for bridges / tunnel mouths which I find very helpful. 

The 00-9 engine shed now has small coal and ash bunkers. It has been separated from the mountain line by a wall of rusting corrugated iron. 

The bunkers are an Ancorton N-gauge coal staithe kit suitably weathered and loaded. The corrugated iron is a Scale Model Scenery printed sheet stuck onto card and - to reduce the shiny printed appearance - it too has been weathered. 

The “bus on the bridge” shot is now possible as the Bedford OB has arrived. This is in the all-white livery of Whiteways, Waunfawr. An operator and a vehicle perfectly suited to thus theme. It’s “wine-VOW’r” for those who don’t speak Welsh! 


But it fits better in the station yard. Note also the rowing boats - a Scale Model Scenery kit - which take the place of the N-scale sunken canal boat in the 00-9 scene. 

Gwiwer said

 Note also the rowing boats - a Scale Model Scenery kit - which take the place of the N-scale sunken canal boat in the 00-9 scene. 

I'd forgotten about the N Scale canel boats, clever Rick 👍


 

Bottom gear for the bus going over the bridge Rick - a bit on the steep side ..............................

Petermac said

Bottom gear for the bus going over the bridge Rick - a bit on the steep side …………………………

From “Post #291,294”, 1st February 2025, 10:59 pm

Yes indeed but those little Bedfords screamed their way up (and down) many a steep mountain pass in North Wales.

I made a few trips. And was pleased to find there was never any crunching of the direct-mesh gearbox. Solid as, they were. Until first gear wore out!!!  

The station scene is nearly complete for the 00-9 Welsh mountain theme. 

The Bedford OB bus and the large station “running-in” sign have been subtly weathered. Compare with earlier images - both have been lightly brushed over with a 1” flat brush used for weathering other items but not cleaned. 

Ground cover of (mostly) fine cinders covers the corner, a small platform seat offers a little comfort but the solitary passenger prefers to stand and gazes in the hopeful direction of “Dai Steam” on the Hunslet. 

The bus made it over the bridge then.

peterm said

The bus made it over the bridge then.

From “Post #291,323”, 2nd February 2025, 11:16 pm

And has safely got itself to the station.  The driver may well be enjoying a cuppa tea somewhere; if there were any passengers aboard they have gone on their way.  

My experience of the real Whiteways buses was that they were very little-used but considered a lifeline for the tiny places they served and which the major operator Crosville could not be bothered with.  Much of the business they found was school traffic for which they even managed to produce a double-decker for some years.  They came alive for a few precious weeks in summer when the visitors arrived.  Most had no idea how to pronounce local place names and the drivers had some cheeky fun by refusing to speak English (in what has long been a largely Welsh-speaking area anyway) and pretending they didn't understand.  "Deiniolen" wasn't too hard; it's DINE-yo-l'n.  "Cwmpenmachno"stumped quite a few - it's "COOM-pen-MUCK-ner" not "QUIM-pen-MATCH-no" for example.  With large holiday camps and caravan parks Pwllheli, which is on the main railway line, also produced a few furrowed brows.  "POOTH-elly" is close enough to pass muster but not "PEW-lee"