ERA Exhibition, Longbridge

Springy Bits of Metal.

I've started doing a little testing. A short passenger* train waits to depart...

The reason for the testing is that after some industrial language I have fitted phosphor bronze strip contacts to the transition piece, so the cassettes are now "live"...the soldering isn't quite as bad as it looks!

As the infrastucture stuff is nearly finished, it's time to fill a few scenic gaps, firstly the gates next to the station. These were made from planked Evergreen Styrene, with posts from square section, overlapping bit in the middle black .010" styrene and the capping strips from ¼ round styrene, painted Humbrol Cockpit Green.

*the train is short, but so are the passengers; being H0 scale, they're ⅞ of the size of the rest of the figures, which are 00.

More Fiddling...

Progress with the cassette tray...here I've added the central spine, which will hopefully prevent bowing, and the cross piece for the layout end.

...and that's the tray pretty much done. I added three gluing blocks (from ply offcuts) to each side piece, also note the slight overlap at the top, to stop cassettes being pushed off the sides of the tray. I've left the rear open so cassettes can be slid, rather than lifted, in and out of use easily.

Still to do are the contacts between the transition and cassettes, plus finishing the remaining two cassettes, and I'll probably add a few corner braces to the tray.

After that, I will need a running session to spot and rectify any problems.

Divers Tasks.

I got quite a few odds and ends done today.

Something that was mildly irritating while trying to figure out the correct height for the fiddle yard deck was that the electrical cable from the controller to the layout kept flopping about and getting in the way, also the holes cut in the hardboard end panel of the APA box were sort of fraying, if that makes sense.

An easy way to sort the latter out was to apply "runny" superglue around the holes; this soaks in and cures, stopping it from all falling apart. I also cut and sanded the frayed bits for a neater appearance.

The cable was cut shorter and screwed to a disconnectable terminal block, which was then screwed to the end panel. While I was at it, I connected the other half of the terminal block to the controller, using the remainder of the cut cable, and checked to see if it (a) worked and (b) ran in the right direction. Ah well, one out of two isn't bad, just as well I hadn't put the screwdriver away.

Note the odd hole that I forgot to glue and tidy, perfection is overrated.

Another outstanding job was to add a basic interior to the Portakabin before gluing it in place. I stumbled across some free card interiors from Model Rail magazine; some tiles were added to the floors, doors to the interior walls, and a bookshelf and filing cabinet (see above) were folded up and added to the larger of the two rooms. That'll pretty much have to do, as the 'kabin is now glued in place on the layout.

A rather manky view below shows that you can only just see the interior in the gloom...better than nothing, though.

And now for the biggest job...as the cable was out of the way, I could finally measure the rail height above bench level at the end of the layout, then work out the heights needed for the end pieces under the fiddle yard deck.

I cut one of these for each end, then cut pieces of 90⁰ moulding to act as corner braces. I decided to fit the brace first, using aliphatic wood glue and tacked in place with a small amount of hot glue to avoid movement while the aliphatic sets, then added the end piece using the same technique. Finally, I used squares to (hopefully) ensure, well, squareness. All a bit Heath Robinson, but that's the way I roll.

Note the artfully* messy bench.

*yeah, right.

Some Scenic Stuff.

With less than two weeks to go until the Wealden Railway Group show at Steyning, I've been adding a few more scenic bits as time and inclination permit. 

The latest thing is a bit of Agrax Earthshade wash on the stark white fencing, and this rather natty level crossing sign, which is actually Canadian and N scale; I thought it would the sort of thing the nascent preserved railway might make up...

Another addition is a tool shed, next to the greenhouse, this was modified slightly from a privy kit that came with the Dornaplas kit that was used for the cottage in whose garden it sits...

Fiddling About.

For the last week or so, I've been working on a cassette fiddle yard for the layout, which will hopefully make operation a lot smoother and avoid unnecessary handling of rolling stock.

The cassettes will be made of 10mm L-section brass, epoxied to 4mm ply.

Each cassette is 13" long, as this comfortably fits a train of 5 vehicles and a loco.

A lot of the work has consisted of figuring out lengths, heights and general design of the connection between the cassettes and the layout.

Progress so far has reached the stage where I've made the transition section from cassettes to rail, this was done by first cutting a piece 15mm x 0.75mm approx from two pieces of brass L-section and soldering on short lengths of rail to match the Peco track. 

A jig from scrap wood and card was made and hair grips used to hold the parts in place dduring soldering:

The two soldered assemblies are shown below:

To keep all the various bits where they should be, I made a sort of apron from play, to which the transition was epoxied:

Next job is to build the tray the cassettes will sit on...

A bit more done...

The greenhouse is now "populated" with some plant pots, a pair of shears, and a watering can, all from a set by Noch. Having done this, I put the roof on and fixed the model down to its base...at least it's all less likely to get lost.

In other news, the cast resin maintenance boat got a coat of primer...this is somewhat significant as until this week, it's been too cold to spray paint (or any other sort of paint, come to that) in the garage. I may do the rest of the painting indoors, though...

Out of Hibernation.

There's been a pause in progress on the layout since autumn, largely because I had committed to taking my 0-16.5 micro to the Wealden Railway Group show at Steyning in March 2026; at the time when I decided to do this, it seemed that getting some basic scenery done and building a loco so I could run something should be achievable by then.

I put Dead Frog Basin safely on a shelf in the garage, with a vague intention to come back to it when I'd got further along with the 0-16.5. 

Later last autumn, it had got too cold to spend time in the garage as well as things like glue not drying(!), so I moved operations to a spare room indoors, though this meant I couldn't do things like spray painting or messy scenic work. 

All went well enough for some time, but after the Christmas break, when the spare room was needed for visiting family, I couldn't pick up the pace again, for a variety of reasons. I thought I could just push through it, but while I got a bit more done, I almost got to the stage where I couldn't stand the sight of the thing.

So...what to do?

One option would be to quickly run up something else, using RTR stock etc., but there wasn't really time and I could see myself hitting the same situation again.

 

Instead, I pulled Dead Frog Basin back off the shelf in the garage. I'd discounted taking it to Steyning as it had already been to the show a few years ago, but I've done a lot to it since, not least putting it back in the APA Box it was originally designed for. Having made the decision, I'm now busy adding small details and finishing off bits I hadn't got around to doing. 

With 4 weeks to go until Steyning, I suppose I'd better formulate a programme of work, so here goes, not in any particular order:

Build a replacement fiddlestick for the left hand side of the layout, as the original had been built for the right hand side, and before I put the layout back in its box. 

Finish off the Portakabin with some basic interior detail and fix it in place. 

Add a few figures, loads for rolling stock, and other things to bring the scene to life. 

Test run with the rolling stock I intend to use at Steyning. 

Sort out a few road vehicles; there are a couple of three-wheelers (bubble car and Bond Bug) as well as a lovely 3D printed BSA Bantam, but something like a flatbed Transit or small Bedford would be nice. Nothing too big, though...there isn't a huge amount of road space and the access lanes are very narrow. 

Hmmm...time to get up and get on with it!