Off topic but what I've been doing

I know this blog is way off the topic of Model Railways but it’s what I’d been doing while house sales were going through…

During recuperation after my operation I decided to try and raise funds for Rospeath Lane as well as other future modelling projects. This was also with the intention of reducing the amount of stuff I’ve collected. So time has been spent pontificating on what wargaming figures and model railway items I could sell. Some hard decisions have been made along with making mental commitments to finish projects that I’d like to keep. More on the Model Railway front later but thought someone might be interested to see what I’ve been up to with one small Corps of Napoleonic figures.

Looking though my collection I decided to reduce the amount of 15mm Napoleonic Duchy of Warsaw (Polish) figures by selling one division (144) of painted miniatures. This would leave me with a quantity of figures to paint to complete a smaller Duchy of Warsaw Corps.

I’ve now just about completed a Division of Infantry including the artillery along with two of four cavalry regiments. Flags need to be added to the infantry stands and I may have a few infantry pompoms to repaint but feel they are coming on nicely.

1st Battalions & Skirmishers

 

2nd Battalion

The Heavy Foot Battery

2 Polish Lancer Regiments

As a reference for scale, the figures are from AB Miniatures and are classed as 18mm (large 15mm) which is as near as damn it 1/100, TT Gauge in model railway parlance.

Current state of play

Above is the complete Corps so far. Further additions that need painting are a regiment each of Chassuers and Krakus cavalry, along with a command stand with Marshal Poniatowski and ADCs. It’s just a shame that I’ve moved away from my regular gaming opponent so they may not see action for some time.

I’m starting to negotiate, with the boss, an area within our new house where I can get back to working on hobbies, so next post should be back on track…

What a funny old year that was

Well what’s been happening then? “Not A lot” modelling wise as other things got in the way during 2021. Golf took up much of my time during Spring and early summer as I wanted to enjoy playing before an operation. After the operation, to remove a tumor around my pituitary gland, I ended up with Meningitis B. This meant I spent just over 4 weeks in hospital plus about a couple of months to gain some sort of fitness without feeling knackered after walking upstairs. We then had a short break away in the caravan to help with my recuperation. After one 2 week excursion to Scotland we broke the journey home in north Cumbria. This stopover changed our life somewhat. This change was after seeing an old farm house up for sale. On the journey home and over the following couple of days we discussed and thought through the following;

•  I’ve been very lucky to recover from the operation and meningitis B with minimal side effects
• We both enjoy the Northern Lake District and have spent many holidays in the area
• We only live once
• The farm house would give more space to entertain friends, family and grandchildren
• We both like a project and the farm house would need some upgrading
• My wife is self employed and can do much of her work from home

When weighing up the pros and cons, viewings were booked for nine houses in the area which ended up with us preferring the original farm house and having our offer accepted on the day of viewing.

So we upped sticks and moved… the speed of the agreeing the sale of our two houses surprised us. After just one week of them being on the market we had accepted offers on both. Frustratingly like all who move house the actual process of moving took a while longer. The week before Christmas we eventually moved.

We now live in Cumbria, in a 300+ year old house which does not have a “Man cave”... Blimey how did that happen? 

Modelling time will be at a premium over the next few months while we settle in and decided how and where the “Man Cave” going to be.

That said, I have had a couple of invitations for Tredethy Wharf, one in Oxford and (now) one for a local show in Workington. This means I can’t delay putting Tredethy back together for too long, nor delay the completion of the Beattie Well Tank (along with the Brake Van Special and a few other wagons).

Staining more Sleepers

Progress is being made in trying to create sleepers for the three sidings at the front of the layout. I’m starting to hone the technique in staining these sleepers but I don’t think I’m there yet. I feel the colours are not quite right but it’s starting to feel I could achieve a reasonable representation of old weather worn sleepers.

Once they have been embedded in ballast, chairs and rail added, along with a modicum scattering of static grass applied around them, they might look OK. A little more practice and track laying will commence…

Power Districts and Staining timber

This week has been spent on two main area

1. Pondering the wiring of the layout got me thinking about Power Districts.
2. Staining sleepers prior to track laying.

Firstly on the subject of Power Districts I’ve decided to have seven. You may wonder why I’ve gone for seven on such a small layout but let me explain my thinking… I’ve only had the privilege of operating a couple of DCC layouts but one of the main issues I experienced was electrical shorts. On one layout the short brought everything to a standstill, on the other it shut big sections down that in essence stopped much of the layout functioning. My thinking is that there will be a number of locos drawing current simultaneously, not all moving but with some a sound element running e.g. quietly simmering away. With more locos on the layout there might be a greater chance of a short. The aim of the seven Districts is that in the event of a short the offending District can be quickly isolated either automatically or manually so that it will not affect other areas where locos might be live. This should keep the effect of the short on the overall operation of the layout down to a minimum. With the seven Power Districts there will be a good chance that locos will still be able to move on/off the shed or around the shed while the short is being rectified. 

Well that’s the plan…

 

Note on sound: the intention is to try and create a subtle soundscape. A soundscape that will convey the experience of viewing the engine shed from afar on a hot August day. If it ever gets to an exhibition the hope is you will have to be within a few feet to hear any sound emitting from the layout (not from the other side of the exhibition hall). Possible easier said than done me thinks…

Staining sleepers has progressed reasonably well with a good 1000 stained but I’m not getting all the results I’m after. I’ve been using a number of colour references in books by Peter Gray and Hugh Ballantyne published by Ian Allen. Colour reproduction and type of film used aside, the pictures in these books do show a generally darker shade than I would have expected.

 Above is a sample selection from three different batches of stain that I’ve concocted. I’ll be using these mainly for the Engine Shed area and possibly the main line but I’m after a different colouring for the sidings at the front.

I decided to visit our local Preservation Railway Line to gather photographic references (see below).

These are the colours I would like to achieve for the three sidings at the front of the layout: sleepers that have probably seen better days but were deemed good enough for use in lightly used sections of track and storage sidings. I’ll be trying to portray sleepers that have faded in colour to something like the above photo. I might even try to create a few splits in some of my sleepers with moss/weeds poking through.

To try to achieve something like the above I’ve ordered a few samples of stain that is used to distress furniture or wooden planking for internal walls. These stains have the exotic titles of: Mushroom, Storm Cloud, Gunstock, Tudor, and Gunpowder. Hopefully these will arrive during the week and more sleeper staining trials can continue.

Track Foundations

The original track plan had to be discarded as it was in too poor a state due to being used for constructing the baseboards. So during this last week I printed out and pasted together another full size track plan. This will be pasted to the baseboards and used to position the turnout along with laying all plain track in situ. First task was to make sure the new track plan fitted… Hmm overall the fit was not too bad but there were a couple of very minor tweaks to be made. I’m putting the slight misalignment's between the two track plans (the one used to cut the plywood and the new one) down to the difficulty in pasting all the sheets of A4 together. Also even though I’ve calibrated our two printers there seems to be a very slight twist in the printouts from them both. Only a very small difference but over such a large area it has had an effect.

 

The above photo shows state of play a few days ago with the three sidings at the front having cork underneath and the new plan glued in place ready for track laying to start. At this stage the rest of the plan was only taped in position in an effort to check the fit before cutting the cork underlay. After redrawing a couple of areas to get the track to get a better alignment, with inspection pits and the rise up the coaling stage ramp, it all fits a lot better.

I discovered that Templot has the ability to print out the cess at the track edge. This assured me that I’d cut the plywood for the mainline track bed to the correct width which should allow a small shoulder on the ballast. Phew! I’m not too concerned about the rest of the track as most of the shed area will be reasonably flat with possibly no shoulder to the ballast edge.

 

As of this morning the entire track plan is now secured in position. Due to the size of the baseboards I think most, if not all, of the turnouts will have to be built on the bench. This may cause a few minor problems with track alignment if I lay too much plain track first. So bearing this in mind I’ll have to get to grips with turnout construction pretty soon.

Two areas I need to think about soon are:

1.  How am I going to lay the track within the running shed? Is it to be embedded within the running shed floor or laid on top?
2.  Also, before I lay too much track, thought needs to be applied to cable runs for applying power to the track, as well as how many power sections to create which will help diagnose any electrical shorts that I’m bound to experience with DCC.    

 For now though I feel the need to stain some timbers…