Beaglington-On-Sea 00 gauge in 6ft by 4ft

[Alexander Court]

Hello All!
Hope the new year is treating you well,both the kids are at home, and the wife has been told she is now considered high risk and won't be allowed to go back to working in the playschool/creche, I'm the only one allowed to the shop and go as little as possible. Sid tackles the home schooling of the 5 year old who is in her first year of primary, while I try to keep the attentions of the 3 year old away from the living room which I assure you is not easy. And it hasn't stopped raining in weeks it seems so we can hardly get out of the house for a walk.
The good news is that I have a new phone with a nice new camera, the bad news is that I have at least like 8 posts with photos taken in Doris-Vision.

This post is about passengers. Sid bought me a whole load of passengers, I started by fitting them to my autocoach:



And then I started fitting them to my BR WR rake of coaches:



And here they are being fitted:


Then, Sid bought me a brakevan for like £1 on ebay, only it turned out not to have a roof. I decided I would try and replicate the roof by looking at the same type of van first:


I found some bits and bobs and glued them into place on a card roof form:


I then painted it up black, though my black paint I had at the time wasn't 100% healthy:


And then I fitted the roof and stuck it down:






And here it is on the layout:


And a nice shot of my passenger filled train:




I think they look pretty good, only problem now is that the kids keep telling me I need to put passengers into all my other passenger trains but I don't have any more passengers.

Thanks for stopping by,
Stay safe,
Alex.

[Alexander Court]

Two updates in one night? I spoiling you

Anyways, first off, I have in my collection a 'Your Model Railway Village' Mk1, it's not too bad, the roof could do with painting though and the plastic is very thin (the sunlight can shine through it on sunny summer mornings) but the biggest issue by far is the massive footsteps/footboards which have a habit of getting involved with passing trains on the innermost line. This is demonstrated by the first photo in which I have circled to show where my BR B12 got caught on the passing coach. So this has been earmarked for future remedial work, probably by using a sharp knife to trim back the step.


Next up was a little project using a double of a gwr shunters wagon that I had which I subsequently hacked about and combined with a Thomas and Friends take-along Jet Engine with battery powered lights and sounds, because I was bored. I did this back in the summer and forgot I had taken the photos of it. Here it is coupled up to Percy:




Switched on:



Then the next project I also worked on was this tipping log wagon which I may have shown or mentioned before, but these are the photos of the process:

(I cut off the previous mounting stuff and used coffee stirrers, I think, to create a more level surface to glue to. I lowered the height as the deck was set way above the chassis in order to allow it to tip on the mechanism.)



I then used match sticks to create a new side where the missing opening piece should be:


Then I trimmed and carved some more matchsticks into stanchions to keep the logs in:


Luckily my yellow paint wasn't too far off a match:



Then I decided to make sure the log load would hold firm by gluing a strip of card to the underside which would also help glue them to the deck:


I glued the next two levels on and then glued some spare scraps of string over them to look like they were bound together:




And then as part of a circus train:



Than concludes this update,
Thanks all,
Alex.

[Alexander Court]

Shrubs and Lights!

Essentially, Sid bought me some cheap trees from wish or amazon or somewhere, they are quite crumbly but I've managed to install the better of them as small trees/shrubs in a few places on the layout.





And a shot of the station.


Then a few blurry low light pics of all the lights working for once:







I'm trying to work my way through these as quick as possible to get to where I am up to now.

Thanks,
Alex

[Alexander Court]

Superquick Antiques Shop

So, as you can see by the subheading there, this is about building a Superquick Antiques shop. I wanted one because since I was a kid I've watched Bargain Hunt, Antiques Roadtrip, Antiques Roadshow, Cash in the Attic etc etc and generally like old stuff, not that I'm an expert. Handily it comes in a kit with the supermarket, which with a few interior redecorations and lighting added and an old receipt I managed to turn into a 'Centra' our local 'supermarket' of sorts. The Supermarket has a little entrance which I modelled with the doors open and this porch lit with green and yellow (The Kerry Colours, "Up the Kingdom!") Striped wallpaper, some customers conversing in the porch, and then the window display lit. HOWEVER, when I finished I realised that actually the window display was a little 2D and so that's when I started my antique shop kit:


I started by changing up the dimensionality of the window display, firstly by putting a big bit of sea glass and a smaller piece two, onto the flat part of the display to give some interesting looking sculptures or finds on sale:


Than I decided to cut out a poster from one of those free glossy handout things from sankey or someone you get in Hornby Magazine, and trimmed it down until it had an even ish border around the outside but it was rather small to work with:


Then I drew around the cut out on some sort of cereal box card which had the right colour I was looking for:


I attached the picture to the piece of card and had another done up as the frame on the front with the correct sized hole cut into it:


I added a small piece of card at the back, like those fold out stand bits you get on card school photo frames:


Here is the finished piece:


It was time to put the window display together:

As you can see I have moved the seaglass together to get a better affect from the positioning of the picture in the frame. I used some old erasers to polish up a 5cent coin to make a big copper/brass shield thing for the part of the window display by the shop door which has a sort of seperate window frame bit.
Rather fiddly was the job of fitting the interior lights for the window display:


And here it is lit up:





(I promise when the thread catches up to the new year there will be better photos!)

The two shops together:

Daylight:


Hope you like it, will try make sure I have pics that do my work justice in future.

Thanks for stopping by,
Alex

[Alexander Court]

Just thought I'd add a few pics of the two shops finished and illuminated. Starting off with the lights off though:




As evening sets in, the lights come on:








And with a classic car parked outside it looks like the Antiques Roadtrip is in town!


Thanks,
Alex.

[Alexander Court]

A few shots from Beaglington-On-Sea (Circa.1913 to 1922) in LBSCR days.
LBSC 0-4-0 tank No.629 shunts in the brewery sidings:



Busy scenes in the station as Terrier No.45 'Merton' arrives with a through passenger train taking passengers along the line to Siddington Junction while terrier No.79 'Minories' waits for the off with a suburban service terminating at the beach station. E4 No.579 is heading the down Beaglington Belle Pullman service which will also terminate at the beach station. And lastly joining them is E2 No.100 shunting in the sidings.







Really would love to get my hands on some more terriers and the Atlantics but given the new VAT/Customs issues it'll probably be impossible.If I'm lucky I'll get some of those lit Hornby LBSCR four wheeled coaches.

Thanks for looking,

[Raboliot]

Wonderful layout. I follow your topic with a great interest.

[Bufferstop]

Does the appearance of wonderfully clear photo's indicate the gain of a new camera/phone, or just that the lady is still in lockdown schooling the kids?

[Alexander Court]

Wonderful layout. I follow your topic with a great interest.

Thanks!

Does the appearance of wonderfully clear photo's indicate the gain of a new camera/phone, or just that the lady is still in lockdown schooling the kids?

Believe it or not....it's both! These pics were taken with her iphone, and are in the crossover period where I would borrow her phone to take pics. I do have a new phone that I have been taking pics of new progress I made since January, but basically I am moving into updating the thread with stuff from November onwards now with photos from the iphone and then more from my phone.

We both share the homeschooling, now that she is home because she is in the high risk category, but now she has no wages and on our third week of waiting for her illness application to be sorted so we are 750 euro down on where our budget should be this week. Bit annoying but not much we can do. I don't get much time in the railway room now as I spend all week being the 'play school' teacher as it were to the three year old while Sid looks after teaching the 5 year old (she has an app on the iphone which does the class videos/activities and sending pics of completed work for marking).

I tried to give up beer for a month, I started on January 31st, made it through that day and the first of February, but I couldn't survive groundhog day. Ah well.

Thanks all,
Stay safe,
Alex.

[PinkNosedPenguin]

Definitely better quality photos - and the subject matter's not bad either

[Alexander Court]

Merry Christmas!!!!! (2 months late!)

So yes, we are now into the Christmas period, and this is a quick post to explain how I am starting 2021. First of all, the pictures had become extremely blurry by then and I felt I couldn't show anything but in November when I was laid off work again I managed to find enough money to buy a new Hornby Select controller with the new firmware as I really wanted to try out dcc properly and mainly to use sound on a few locos, namely Helmingham Hall. I now have the hall class sound fitted, I have my Duck sound fitted with the TTS decoder for a J36 and my terrier Merton is fitted with a decoder, along with Ben-Y-Gloe my first ever locomotive and a Bachmann Junior loco that was already fitted. I had chipped a 61XX but one of the plastic piston rods broke and the decoder never worked very well, as I found with the one I put in my Stepney and the one I put in my 14XX (After replacing the dead motor with one from the spares box that used to belong to an operating conveyor accessory.) All three have since had the decoders removed, they were all hornby 4 pin decoders that were hardwired. Either I'm rubbish at soldering or the chips are naff but they all run fine now that I have removed the decoders and resoldered the wires back to where they should be.

Not in the pictures were some gifts I got from my grandparents, a fencing (I think dapol) kit, telegraph poles and barrels and sacks. And my friend Larry got me a J36 sound decoder that I still need to find a suitable loco to put it in.

Now, onto Christmas. Me and the wifey had seperate hattons trunks sorted out (so she could surprise me, as she did with a wagon a day mystery advent calander that started on the 19th December) since the end of the summer as we anticipated the trouble Brexit would, and since has, caused with buying from the UK, so while it might seem that there is a lot here, most of it was bought for a fiver each when it comes to wagons and things (and some cheaper!) and bought over a number of months.

This is what I got in my stocking:

She had wanted me to have a Ronuk wagon like that since we saw one running in a train of wagons on the Strawberry Hill layout at the Wexford MRC exhibition in Wexford one year.
The BR lorry is very nice:


Next up is this wagon pack, a replacement for one I got as a kid many Christmases ago but had to sell when times were harder:



Next is a selection of wagons including a Denaby wagon bought under the same circumstances as the triple pack above, a Gardner wagon (local to the area I used to live), a Frost wagon and an LMS conflat wagon that has been weathered by a previous owner:


These were all unboxed and rather cheap, the Crook and Greenway wagon is a pristine version of one from the triple pack and was bought earlier in the year before I came across the wagon pack:


Now some pics of the advent wagons:




The Dublo bolster wagon there is in very good condition but had metal wheels, I removed them but the folding taps on the metal axlebox retainer bits snapped off so I need to obtain some spares to fit the plastic pair of axles I have for it.

I finally managed to get an open coach version of the weathered NSE Mk2! These things are like gold dust usually on ebay and on hattons and I was lucky that it only cost me like £19, about half the cost it would be on ebay. Now I just need to buy back a model of 50045 'Achilles'.


I got this one very cheap, a BR full brake repainted into SR green, which matches the rake of three triang/triang hornby BR SR green Mk1s, and they are actually on the layout right now coupled behind my green Hornby 2mt.



I got these two for £11 each I think, not bad considering they were boxed and in rather good condition. They will go with another lima Blood and Custard MK1 and a hornby railroad one.


I also got this not-too-expensive Lima Class 20, however the drive shaft had become disengaged, in order to sort this I had to pull out the buffers to get the body off, the only problem now is that they won't go in all the way!I might just have to trim the retaining pegs down and glue the buffers/shanks into the socket to make them look correct again:


Onto the more expensive purchases, I think I paid 40 something for this,It's a railroad 'Thruster' which I had wanted before when it came out, and this was a bargain really as it came DCC fitted! It runs very well and I don't mind the low detail, it makes a nice change to run it in my BR WR era sessions. Must get a later-Hornby version of the Hymek in two tone green weathered to put on the layout someday.


Having lived in East Anglia, in Suffolk, and having to travel to Ipswich and Norwich, one was never too far away from a Class 66! I do miss going to Ipswich station and watching the diesels on their long container trains in the yard as your train passes them and then seeing the diesels ticking over in the depot or roaring through the station. So when I saw the Freightliner livery announced I knew I'd have to put money aside to get one. Unfortunately they were sold out on preorder very soon on hattons, but fortunately the NRM shop had them in stock after release and I was able to pick one up for cheaper than the folks in Widnes had it so I was very happy. Now I just need to it a class 66 sound chip for it:


Similarly of importance to someone who had lived in East Anglia was the LNER class J15. Having lived down the road from the MSLR Museum and been there when the NNR's J15 was unloaded in 2002 for the first steam season on the line since it's closure in 1952, the class left a lasting impression on me, I went to the railway nearly every weekend that year to see it and ride behind it, I even still have my tickets/season passes for 2002. Our primary school even took us there one day as a special treat when there was a time capsule being buried and our Headmistress got to drive the train. I got to step onto the footplate as well a few times over that summer and would later get to again in 2010 before I ran away to Ireland and then again I got back on the footplate when the preserved example was backdated to a Y14. In a year when I've felt further from home than ever, it was so nice to treat myself to a model of the J15, I chose '7510' as it had spent time during it's life at Ipswich. One thing I did learn though was that this model may have a space for a speaker and decoder, but I just can't get the J36 speaker and chip to fit within the tender, perhaps I'm reassembling it wrong, maybe I will have to have another go at that.



And finally, last two now, first up is this lovely wagon that my wonderful daughters picked out for me:


And these, a wagon from the Brighton area, to go with my LBSC stuff, and some coal staithes, from my sister and her partner who bought them at a preserved railway they were able to visit over the summer last year. I'd needed to get some staithes for ages to finish my yard scene so it was a great coincidence that they bought me some.


Anyways, that concludes my rolling stock updates from christmas, next post might see some actual progress!

Thanks for shtoppin by,
Alex

[PinkNosedPenguin]

Blimey that sure was a bumper Christmas Haul!!! Picture quality is much better too

[glencairn]

Such a haul. No wonder when Santa got to my house all he had left was a orange and apple plus a chocolate penny!

Glencairn

[Alexander Court]

Blimey that sure was a bumper Christmas Haul!!! Picture quality is much better too

It was but like I said I had been doing it little by little over the months, and we managed to get 75% of the kids stuff bought by the end of the summer while I was still getting wages from reopened work because we knew it was going to be a difficult period and we absolutely spoiled our girls because they really had been very well behaved for most of the pandemic and living with the new conditions we just wanted to make an extra effort.

Such a haul. No wonder when Santa got to my house all he had left was a orange and apple plus a chocolate penny!

Glencairn

My apologies! It's just a good thing that I don't like fruit!

Alex.

[Alexander Court]

So here is the first post with photos from my new phone and its camera which is very odd, its got a weird focus option that gives me an option of a zoomed out style photo which seems to curl the edges of the picture, and the other is for closer shots, but it likes to switch between the two randomly and it won't change back unless I move the camera away from what I'm trying to capture and hit the thing on the screen to change it repeatedly. Bit of a faff but its so nice to have a decent quality camera again!

So here is one of the weird outer zoom style:


And a normal focus/zoom style one:


I got the wagon very cheap on Hattons (guesses on a postcard!) preowned, mainly to decorate the end of the coal yard siding. It has 3 link couplings fitted and a load as well.


And another of the odd shots:


And some more shots of the layout:



View down to the station from the road bridge:



The warship 'Thruster' preparing to go on its first outing:



Thanks for stoppin by,
Alex