Somewhere SW of London. Somewhen before today

'The self-adhesive backscenes fitted last week had not adhered to the wood so were encouraged with some wallpaper paste today'

I have a similar problem with the backscenes in Wombat Creek. Not with dampness,  though. Here it is temperature. With 30+ degrees the self-adhesive backscenes start to create bubbles. They disappear once the temperature drops.

Today’s session at the club was - for once - a dry one with no external precipitation leaking in and no condensation dripping from the beams.
 
All the recent pointwork and adjusted tracks were ballasted including the loco sidings.  The back-board behind those sidings has been formed from foam-board and fitted.
 
The first sections of a new front fascia have been fitted - thick white card with thin green card overlaid because thick green card is not currently available. 
 
The effect of varnishing some stock can be seen. As can the weathering of almost all items. The “Presflo” was only done yesterday. The class 12 shunter has now come home for treatment.

Good shots, Rick.

 

Another dry day in the club room!  
 


Progress has been made. The new fascia is complete. The black panelling around the fiddle yard is complete. The first of the rebuilt brick piers for the girder bridge is mostly complete.
 


The concrete footbridge leading over the railway beyond the halt is - or rather should have been - complete. Test fitting showed a problem. Bogie rolling stock entering the yard fouls it by 1mm. Annoyingly it’s the bridge which will have to be cut down as track and backscene are non-negotiable. 
 


The class 12 shunter has been weathered. Two 2-Bil units coupled show the difference between varnished green and faded blue liveries.

Great photos,  Rick.

Like you, I had a too close fit. I had to cut a few mm of the awning at the Comedy Theatre.

Cheers,
Claus

I'm a bit late on parade again Rick but have just read through your last few posts and pictures.  It's looking really, really good and could be the real thing.

One or two observations from an currently armchair modeller - what was the Presflo carrying ?  I thought they were normally cement wagons but I could be wrong…..  Your weathering shows black spillage - what is that please ?

The 16 ton mineral wagon parked in the siding near the house end looks brilliant - how did you do the rust effect ?

Has the Class 08 been working in the clay dries ?  The engine area has a nice oily weathering but the cab side and streak just in front of the tool box are distinctly white ………………………….    Otherwise, it's been excellently weathered.  

If that's your clubhouse roof, I can perfectly understand the problems you face with condensation/heat and cold etc.  That's an almost impossible roof to work under.  Is there no way it could be damp proofed/insulated ?  Surely not too expensive to do something with it …………………

Petermac said

I'm a bit late on parade again Rick but have just read through your last few posts and pictures.  It's looking really, really good and could be the real thing.

One or two observations from an currently armchair modeller - what was the Presflo carrying ?  I thought they were normally cement wagons but I could be wrong…..  Your weathering shows black spillage - what is that please ?

The 16 ton mineral wagon parked in the siding near the house end looks brilliant - how did you do the rust effect ?

Has the Class 08 been working in the clay dries ?  The engine area has a nice oily weathering but the cab side and streak just in front of the tool box are distinctly white ………………………….    Otherwise, it's been excellently weathered.  

If that's your clubhouse roof, I can perfectly understand the problems you face with condensation/heat and cold etc.  That's an almost impossible roof to work under.  Is there no way it could be damp proofed/insulated ?  Surely not too expensive to do something with it …………………

From “Post #293,301”, 15th March 2026, 12:13 pm

Hi Peter,

Addressing your points one at a time …..

Presflo wagons are best-known as cement carriers but also carried slate powder which is pale grey though weathers to a darker shade.  As mine are branded "Delafila" they relate to the powdered slate traffic from Delabole Quarry on the North Cornwall line.  I used several Flickr images of real wagons when weathering the one in question; despite mostly being cement wagons some were absolutely filthy - and black!

The 16t wagons are in bauxite base colour to which I have added random washes of Railmatch "Rust" applied in patches and mixed with varied but tiny amounts of black weathering powder.  That dries to a "no two quite the same" effect for the patches.  When dry I then brushed over a mix of brown and rust powders and detailed those with a little grey and black.  A quick squirt of hair spray both fixes the powders and gives a less even appearance than just-brushed as it can dry in micro-spots.

The "08" is in fact an SR class 12 shunter but that's a perfectly excusable error.  08 was the classification given to most of the 4,192 locomotives built for BR with the small number of SR-based ones with higher-speed gearing as class 09 and the other small number of class 10 being fitted with Lister-Blackstone power units not English Electric.  Class 08/09/10 wore BR numbers from D3000 and with the earlier ones carrying their originally-intended numbers in the 13000-series

An earlier design by the LMS built from 1934 was adopted by the LNER and later BR numbered in the 12000-series although from 12048 onwards rather than 12000.  120 were built for the UK.  125 near-identical ones also went to the Netherlands (500-, 600- and 700-classes, ) and 16 to Australia (10 Victorian Railways F-class and 6 for the State Electricity Commission's lines),  The earlier numbers were accounted for by batches numbered in the LMS' own series and by some built for export.  Those which worked in BR days were all class 11.  A subsequent batch of similar locomotives built for the SR with Bulleid design wheels and the SR standard higher maximum speed of 27.5mph were 15211 - 15236 which were class 12.  The 13000 series was expected to overspill into the 14000-series (as noted 4,192 were ultimately built but only a few hundred carried their 13xxx numbers before the D3xxx series was adopted).  Again a few earlier locos carried lower numbers in the 152xx series all based on the original 1936 LMS design.

The original numbering system also had to avoid clashes with existing and planned steam locomotives; from the earliest days of BR it was intended that all shunters be numbered in a series starting 10000, electric locos 20000 (hence the ex-LNER electric locos becoming 26000 / 27000 series), ex-SR steam locos 30000, ex-LMS steam locos 40000 and 50000, ex-LNER steam locos 60000 and with ex-GWR locos retaining their original numbers largely because of the cost of replacing all those brass number plates! BR Standard locos then took the 70000 (tender engines), 80000 (tank engines) and 90000 (2-8-0 and 2-10-0 large engines).  Many smaller diesel shunter designs carried their original 10000-series numbers at first before being renumbered into the D2000-series.

Again the weathering is a personal touch and represents what ever the viewer chooses to see.  Water-spill from the radiator cap can account for the white just as much as cement or clay dust.  Or is it simply faded paintwork?  Colour images of class 12 at work are not common but taking the widespread class 08 as an example there is a huge range of images to refer to and everything from ex-works to so-filthy-you-can't-see-the-paint.

The clubroom ….. it's not ours.  We rent it.  We have a lot of space which is the envy of other clubs at the cost of poor facilities.  We don't need to unpack and pack up every time as it's not shared space (some clubs meet in Scout Halls or Community Centres for example) so we can just walk in any time, get on with our projects or simply play trains.  Any time, any day.  Club "nights" are officially Wednesdays and Sundays but with no heating it's too cold for evening activities in winter so most who attend do so in the afternoons.  There is someone in there most days of the week.  We are very slowly addressing the environmental issues.  Hot running water would be nice (we only have a kettle for now) and a weather-tight roof is also on the agenda but is the landlord's task not ours.  Lean on them too hard and they might put the rent up beyond what we can afford.  Condensation drips from the steel beams which we manage by covering everything in plastic drop sheets when it's not being worked on.  Insulation would be nice but will only get wet until the asbestos panels are waterproofed.  And getting anyone to work on asbestos panels these days …….. just doesn't happen.  

Just re-reading Petermac's post above if it is the grey 16t wagon being asked about - the one being fussed by the 4WD shunter - then that was bought pre-weathered by airbrush from "Dirty Boy Weathering" at the Carn Brea Show of dim and distant recollection.  

To that I added the internal weathering which is "soot black" powder fixed with hair spray and the coal load secured with PVA.  I have also over-brushed the original weathering with black powders as the air-brushed paint tends to turn shiny over time.  Possibly the sealant not the paint itself.  

The brick supports for the “iron bridge”. 

Not my finest piece of scratch building but some sins will be obscured when the scene is built 

Scalescenes brick-print over foam-board and weathered with grey, brown, rust, green and white powders 

They look OK Rick.

The houses are ready to add into the scene. Two resin buildings have been glued together, fitted with an assortment of nets / curtains at the front, have had internal floors / walls added so you can’t see right through an empty space inside. And of course weathering has then been applied. 

I’m not sure when I can get these onto the layout as my usual Wednesday slot is booked for other things for a few weeks. I’ll try to get to the club room another day. One advantage of having our own space is that we can come and go at any time. 

The above post has appeared three times.  When I hit the "Submit" button I received an error message advising hte site had too many users connected.  I therefore had no way to know if it had been kept and posted at all.  Perhaps someone with access to the controls could remove the two duplicates?   Barchester

Gwiwer said

The above post has appeared three times.  When I hit the "Submit" button I received an error message advising hte site had too many users connected.  I therefore had no way to know if it had been kept and posted at all.  Perhaps someone with access to the controls could remove the two duplicates?   Barchester

From “Post #293,330”, 22nd March 2026, 3:46 pm

Sorted Rick. Unfortunately sometimes it hangs and yes, you have no idea if it HAS posted or not. No idea why. Hopefully break may get a chance to investigate but he's extremely busy these days. I just wait for a bit and then refresh the page to see if it DID post  🤔

Cheers

Matt

A busy and productive afternoon today in a cool but dry club room with a handful of other members all doing their thing. 
 
The final piece of backscene has been fitted behind the girder bridge and loco sidings.  
 
The girder bridge itself has taken steps forward with the fitting of the third support, the second half of the road deck and the fixing of the side girders. 
 
As a consequence of having a signalbox with steps on the opposite side to the now-reused original that item and the station entry stairs from the road bridge will exchange places. 
 
More boundary fencing has been fixed, the two houses have also been fixed in place, the coal bunkers likewise and the “first draft” road surface is down. 
 
In the yard a D600-series “Warship” readies the empty milk tanks for return to Cornwall. Whilst on the main line (and a few years later in reality!) the Bournemouth line electrification is presaged as the class 74 leads a test trip with the 4TC unit. A Standard tank loiters under the road on the sidings. 

Some nice details in there Rick - all looking very realistic.  

That BR lorry at the coal bay needs a bit of dirtying …………..

Petermac said

Some nice details in there Rick - all looking very realistic.  

That BR lorry at the coal bay needs a bit of dirtying …………..

From “Post #293,347”, 28th March 2026, 9:45 pm

I agree with you. The general weathering and grottiness really makes for a convincing scene. I think Rick has left me behind with his knack for detailing.

I like all those pic's but my favourite is the one with the Warship. Just something about it.

I find them very atmospheric, great stuff    

Petermac said

Some nice details in there Rick - all looking very realistic.  

That BR lorry at the coal bay needs a bit of dirtying …………..

From “Post #293,347”, 28th March 2026, 10:45 am

Somewhere in one of the storage boxes is the dirty one with the sacks already loaded.  Watch this space.