Canal Lock Chamber, Lock Gates, etc..

Yesterday I took delivery of a set of lock chamber walls, lock gates, paddle gear, etc.

Both Jo and I are highly impressed with the detail and accuracy of the white metal pieces which make up the lock gates for a narrow lock, the paddle gear, both gate mounted and ground paddles, and even the collars for the top hinges of the gates, as well as the mooring bollards and rings. The accuracy of the ground paddle gear is extremely good, someone has done some very good research to produce these items. It is also interesting that the actual paddles and paddle gear are designed so that they can be modelled as either open or closed, by reducing excess rack length and the pole which joins the paddle with the rack gear. I am looking forward to assembling this all together to produce what will hopefully be a very accurate model of a narrow lock on Hadarford.

Keith.

Final Major Buildings Arrive

The final buildings for Hadarford arrived today.

As called by the manufacturer, Misdale House, but I will rename it to Hadarford House.

 

A pair of semi-detached rural workers cottages for the farm.

 

The signal box for the station.

 

The Gents toilet for the station.

 

The complete nearside set for the station, waiting shelter, booking hall and gents toilet. The right-hand photo is the view that will be seen, I know very plain, but that is how minor station buildings were.

 

The final set up for the station, both sides of the track, including the signal box. Should look good once actually on the layout, with all the track and scenery.

Keith.

Booking Hall Arrival Completes Main Station Buildings

The booking hall which matches the previously purchased station building arrived today.

 

This is the complete set from left to right, booking hall, station main building and ladies toilet.

This completes the station buildings on the far side of the station, I am awaiting the wooden gents toilet to arrive which will complete the buildings on the near side. The roofline of the main building has a cut-out in it to accommodate the roof of the booking hall when positioned alongside.

Keith.

Mains Supply now in the Hold.

Busy morning this morning, wiring in the new mains socket in the hold with the assistance of Jo.

This is a first small, but vital set forward to the building of Hadarford. I can now work in the hold with power tools, use a fan heater, etc.. Mind you the hardest part of the job, connecting the other end of the cable to the rear of an existing socket in the saloon, went very easily considering.

I wanted to connect to the rear of the existing socket in the saloon as seen in the photo above. On the left of the photo can be seen the trunking carrying the cable from cupboard against the bulkhead to the display cabinet. The problem I was faced with was getting the cable through the hole at the end of the display cabinet to the rear of the socket back box. From previous investigations, for what ever reason, I could not get the back box to come out from the display cabinet. I left this task to the very last, not sure why, probably because I was hoping to come up with a better solution in the meantime. Having drilled all the necessary holes, fitted the piece of trunking and threaded the cable through from the new socket to the display cabinet, I had to bite the bullet. I disconnected the shoreline and turned the Invertor off, then I removed the double socket and punched out the knockout piece at the rear of the back box, with the intention of pushing the cable through the hole in the end of the display cabinet and hoping and praying I could grab hold of it with a pair of pliers. Amazing, it actually worked. The end of the cable actually popped itself at the hole in the back box, it couldn’t have been simpler. All connected at both ends, and the mains supply restored, and Jo had a quick whizz around with the vacuum, job done!

Keith.

First Step to the Actual Building of Hadarford

A small first, but vital, step towards the building of Hadarford today.

I fitted a back box on the bulkhead in the hold ready to install a mains electricity supply in the hold. Once I have run some cable through and connected it, it will make like easier for work on the construction of Hadarford, which requires electrical supply, like drilling. It will also mean I can have a small fan heater out there to warm it up a bit during the winter. I will also need a mains supply to operate the railway, and it will be handy for vacuuming the floor as well.

Keith.

Two More Purchases

Yesterday I found this fire engine in a local charity shop.

And this Vicarage arrived today in the post. It will go very nicely beside the church/village hall.

Keith.

Version 5 Model almost finished

I have been busy painting the 5th version of the model of my model railway Hadarford today.

It is not quite complete, I still have to add some of the buildings to it, and the areas of trees, similar to what I did on version 4. In this version I have represented the rail track with the silver colour. The wider section between the station platforms is double track allowing me to have trains, in opposite directions, to pass each other. In comparison to the previous version there is a lot less rail track and it cuts out the large amount which was hidden underneath scenery. I am a bit worried that the road sections, especially along the rear of the layout crossing the canal at the canal bridge, are a bit straight, but I can vary this with the actual layout. By having only the one canal lock in this version, because there is no rail track underneath, it means the canal does not dominate the layout and I am able to create a more complex station area. I may replace these photos with ones taken outside tomorrow, but by the time I had finished today it was too dark outside to take photos.

Keith.

Version 5 Model

Version 5 of the model of Hadarford is ready for painting.

These photos are to show how the model is built up and constructed from balsa wood with the design on graph paper. It will make more sense and will be clearer once painted.

 

Keith.

Another 2 Buildings

Another 2 buildings I bought on eBay arrived this morning.

This is a ladies toilet for the railway station.

And this is a village hall.

Keith.

Hadarford Station

Some more buildings arrived this morning, 2 station buildings. However I may not use them both on the station, I will decide once I start building. I can always use one of them as a house in the village.

I am also having a rethink on the design of the layout. I am reconsidering the long underground loop of railway track, which has no benefit to the layout, in fact it complicates it by needing under-baseboard access to it, it will use a lot of track which costs a lot of money, and it takes up a lot of valuable building space at both the front and rear of the layout. Space will become available also by being able to move the rail track and canal back to towards the rear of the layout, giving me more space at the front of the layout for these new station buildings. So I am thinking of removing this loop and just having a single track passing once through the layout.

Basically the track crossing across the hold on the right will now curve immediately onto the track along the front of the layout. The hill on the right was raised up to go over the railway tracks, and I needed 2 canal locks to achieve the height to get the canal over the hidden tracks, This hill will not need to be as high, and thus I will only now have 1 canal lock, where the top lock is. By removing the 2 tracks of the loop at the rear of the layout, I will now have more space for the station at the the front of the layout, and building of the village at the rear of the layout. I should also be able to make the farm area on the left of the layout larger because removing one of the locks and the pound in between the 2 locks will shift the quayside to the right and the canal can be shortened accordingly by the length of 1 lock and the pound, and leaving at the rear of the layout earlier. I will now have to make model version No. 5, and post it on here once completed, which will make it easier to understand these changes.

Keith.

Another eBay Bargain

I have today received in the post this out of production model of a thatched pub which I was successful in bidding for on eBay. As advertised on eBay it stated as follows:-

“This listing is for a used Bachmann Scenecraft Building (Pendon Waggon and Horse Pub) the item is in good sound condition but has been painted white by my son”.

These 1st two photos are of an original before being painted by the original owners son.

These next 2 photos are from the advert and show that the paintjob in question was not particularly brilliant.

This is a close-up of a part of the building to show the challenge I was faced with.

Firstly I removed the window frames and glazing to make it easier to repaint the model and to clean up the glazing and repaint the frames which was easier than trying to do it with them in situ. Some of the glazing was not reusable so I cut out some new ones. These are the repainted window frames ready to be refitted.

Then I repainted the building, touching up the white walls, painting the doors and window openings black, and touched up the small section of roof tiling behind the tall chimney, which had white paint on it.

And finally the glazing and window frames were refitted. I actually think, and Jo agrees with me, that it now looks even better than an original one which had yellow brick work!

All this achieved in a couple of hours. I doubt I will use it as a pub though as I already have a kit for a pub to build, but I will use it as a cottage, somewhere on the layout.

It should go rather nicely along side the thatched cottage I already have.

Keith.