It's great to see you back actively modelling again Marty, it's such an inspiring layout and I'm really looking forward to the continuing saga. 

Ken.

Thanks Ken, it makes sense to keep the story going, it helps me see that I am making real progress, albeit slow, and if it entertains or helps someone else then so much the better.

This is the area that the Woollen Mill occupies and a quick mockup of one of the mill buildings and what I call, for lack knowledge, the Mill House at the top of the hill have been thrown together to see how it sits in the space I have.





In 2010 we were fortunate enough to be able to visit and get some first hand photos and a better feel for the layout and you'll see that to fit the river into the space I had there is a 90 deg bend that doesn't actually exist. I can't claim to be modelling a perfect replica, more trying to capture the feel of the place.




There is another photo, in fact several, on the web that show more of the now demolished mill buildings and from these mockups in balsa were made to help build the scene.




Some major earthworks are required to support the buildings and weir. which are all to be scratchbuilt but this view below gave me the impetus to keep working away at it.




cheers

Marty

 

That should look good Marty though you've obviously used your Modeller's License with the orientation of some of the buildings compared to their prototype placement and arrangement.

That's going to look really "busy" Marty. :thumbs

Your mock-ups are better than my finished articles ……...  Don't worry about the bend - afterall, when you scale down the prototype, all you've probably done is compress the river and brought an upstream, or downstream bend a little closer to home.

I'm looking forward to seeing how you tackle the weir.  I plan to have something similar one on Maxmill.

My only problem - I pity the poor old miller having to climb that hill at night having spent the whole day humping sacks of corn (can you say "humping" in that context nowadays ? :hmm)

I think you are doing great Marty That will look perfect once youngest all the decorations in place, like grass trees shrubs, etc.
By the way, that bendin the river iswhatI like to call, selective compression.
Keep it up!

Wayne

I've got a lot of catching up to do with Newcastle Emlyn, but it's great to do so. As I am one who only dabbles in N  hats off to this modeller!:cool:

Thanks Trevor, Peter, Wayne and Tim

Selective compression, modellers licence, etc are all good descriptors of my layout. :roll: Some bits of it are more accurate than others but the benefits of using an existing prototype is that I don't have to invent anything! Truly the world is wilder than my imagination.

Anyway, to avoid boring people stupid with building construction, which I'm planning to do regardless but in small chunks, here's another part of the hobby.

Arrived late last year is a new Bachmann Farish Hall class 4-6-0 tender engine, Norton Hall. Tender drive via a cardan shaft to the main driving wheels the detail on this RTR, before I've even added the bits from the supplied bits bag, is fantastic.





Plenty of power and runs like a dream, here she is hauling 19 wagons in to Henllan station after tackling the 1:40 climb up from the river valley.




The layout also has a Poole Farish Hall from 1991, still fully functional and part of the active roster, here's a comparison of the body detail of the two.





and to end this post…. a view from the tender end of both.





Back into the buildings next week sometime.

 

Cheers

Marty

Thanks for the pics., Marty.

Hi Marty… keep at it,looking good and gets better each time i visit your post:doublethumb

…dave

G'day, mate from West Cornwall! Looking good!:doublethumb Great to catch up with you after my reclusive boat modelling  phase! Look forward to watching the layout development!

Cheers,

John

Hi Marty
I find the biggest difference between those two locos is the bogie, the wheels and general look around there is really noticeable and a big improvement on the newer model. 
I can see myself succumbing to a RTR loco in the future, as long as it fits the period like the City class does, a River 2-4-0 would definitely break my resistance:lol:.
Thanks for posting more photos and I'm looking forward to seeing the buildings progress.
Jim

Hi Marty, great to see the layout again after not being on here for a while, got some catching up to do.

Lovely layout and its N gauge, my eyes would not cope with this but saying that when i get well again i may have a dabble, so may ask how you manage to see the work you do :thumbs

Phill

[user=1465]aberdare[/user] wrote:

Hi Marty
I find the biggest difference between those two locos is the bogie,
Jim

Yup, Maybe, sometime in the future I'll see if I can find a scrapped Hall at a swap meet to salvage the front bogie from.

Phill,
Great to see the youngest member on the forum posting up.

I must admit that N scale has become more difficult in the last couple of years as my eyes start to get a bit slow to refocus.

I don't attempt any model building now with my reading specs and the optivisor magnifier. :???:

I'm still enjoying it though.

Get well soon cobber :lol:

Those two Halls show just how far the manufacturers have moved on in the last 20 years Marty. :shock:

We clearly have something to thank China for …………….:cheers

Hi Marty,

Have you thought of getting a correct profile GWR front bogie with correct sized wheels from Nbrass Locomotives. http://www.nbrasslocos.co.uk/fitgwr.html They're about half way down the page and make a huge difference to the look of the older Poole locos.

Thank you Trevor,

I'll look into that.

…. Hmmm, some neat stuff there and the GWR bogies particularly.

Marty

The scratch built water wheel building.
The first of the mill buildings to be constructed is the one that houses the water wheels, there were 3 apparently.
Using the existing balsa wood mock up, a shell of brick textured plasticard has been applied to the outside and plain sheet plasticard roof constructed.

In the photo below the preliminary paintwork is complete on the walls and the windows are being glazed with scribed clear plastic from a shirt box lid. My craft knife is on the left for scale.





Now all of the windows are in and printed tiles from CGTextures, suitably modified in photoshop with ridge capping, have been printed out onto paper and glued to the plasticard roof.
The trick is to get the paper positioned, dry, where you want it and then flood the paper with MEK liquid solvent or equivalent. The solvent soaks through the paper, melts the plastic and then keys into the paper.
Don't touch the paper until it is dry though, the ink smudges on your finger tips. :oops: If you have to do tiny adjustments, the tip of a craft blade or suitable prodding device is recommended.
In the photo below a flood mark has been attempted, luckily it will be at least 500mm from the viewer :roll:





Turn the building around 180 degrees and construction is evident, the building butts up against the backscene and the river bank, there is no need to model the rear.







For the first time ever on NE, interior lighting is being attempted, a tiny lighting plate with a 3mm yellow LED was soldered up and tested. The 3mm Yellow LED was the smallest that the local electronics shop had when I popped in.




… and then installed with double sided sticky tape (not an easy task let me tell you!!)





A hole was cut in the polystyrene hillside for the wires and the building temporarily put in place to see what it looked like.




I'm happy with that but I think the next one won't have the balsa wood inner construction, it's a bit clunky.

cheers
Marty

Good to see this coming on, Marty.

Great work Marty. I particularly like the high water mark.