Half-Relief Buildings Part 2, Making a New Shop Door

 The Wills Craftsman series of kits are quite versatile, and as previously mentioned it is my intention to use the rear half of the kits I have bought as fronts to create half-relief buildings, two for the price of one so to speak. The Post Office kit is supplied with two differing window/door frames, but only one door, the red one. By cutting off the top section of a spare door, removing the glazing bars from a spare window, I now have a new door for the second shop front frame. 

I still have to decide what type of shop it is going to be. 🤔

The 2 shop fronts and one door

A spare door and window

Door cut down to take the window above it

Glazing bars in the window removed

Newly formed door in the frame

New shop door fitted, and all cottage doors and windows rearranged into their final locations

Keith

Floors, Rugs, Doors and Pavements

 These floors, rugs, doors and pavements arrived today and I will use them in and around the row of half-relief cottages.

Keith

Half-Relief Buildings Part 1, Planning Stage

 Planning the row of 9 cottages and 2 shops (on the left end) which will make up the major part of the half relief buildings to hide the return track behind them. When I opened up my first Wills kit in 2017 and scraped myself off of the floor and realised these are not easiest kits to build, but as I was to discover they are so versatile in that you can build them how you want and not necessarily how recommended. This is what I am doing with these by moving doors and windows around to suit, and by using the walls, doors, windows and roofs which would normally be the rear of the buildings to become additional fronts so with one Post Office kit I am making a Post Office and another shop yet to be decided what it will be, and from the 2 semi-detached cottage kits I am making 8 cottage fronts. There is enough of a selection of doors, and different sized windows to create what should be quite an effective terrace. The last cottage on the right will have a partial rear as it will be the end of the terrace, this will become more evident during construction. 😊

Keith

A New Hadarford

On the 1st of June my wife and I moved off of our narrowboat Hadar and into a flat in Warwick, and we sold Hadar on the 4th September, so I am embarking on building a new model railway, by coincidence to be named Hadarford. The reason for this is my wife Jo bought me this name board for Valentines Day 2018, and the original Hadarford is going to be part of another layout with a different name.

This plan is version 8 (will skip past the first 7 versions) and although not necessarily the final plan but it gives an idea of what to expect. 

As can be seen it sits astride a chimney breast in our bedroom. It will be built on 3 seperate baseboards, one each either side of the chimney breast and the third joining them together across the front of the chimney breast. one major design feature is that all 4 points are sited on the central board, and as I propose to the the Pecolectrics Smartswitch which uses ribbon cable connections this will simplifying the wiring up of the layout. Note also the row of half-relief buildings to hide the line at the rear of the layout.

These are 2 half-relief buildings I have bought for hiding the line at the back of the layout. 

I have also purchased these 4 kits to build, and the intention is, except for the Farm Cottage bottom left, to build them as half-relief buildings. The 2 sets of semi-detached cottages and the Post Office should actually give me 8 cottages and 2 shops by using the sheets of stonework that would normally be used on the rear of the building as extra fronts. Will be interesting project to build them. 

Platform side

Road side

Today these 3 buildings arrived to create the new station buildings. Not as grand as the ones on the original Hadarford, but more in keeping with a narrow gauge railway. 

Keith

Hadarford goes to New Home

 On Saturday 31st May Jo and I received the keys to a flat we are now renting. On Sunday 1st June we moved into the flat. Since then we have been moving in gradually.

Thursday 5th June, Hadarford was removed from our narrowboat and has gone to a new home. Since then we have stripped the railway room and decorated it, and we are in the process of decorating the rest of the interior with the intention of taking Hadar to brokerage to sell her. 

The room is looking very empty now. Once we have sold Hadar and fully settled in to our new home I will then look into building another layout. Only the layout has gone, I have kept all the locos and rolling stock and road vehicles and some of the smaller buildings etc.

Keith

Percy Donor Chassis

 Today a donor Bachmann N gauge 'Percy' arrived in the post, I removed the 'Percy' body from the chassis, painted the chassis, fitted it in the Bagnall saddle tank, and finally fitted the crew. 😊

New chassis painted and fitted to Melba.

All female crew onboard Melba.

Keith

Macaw B

On the 8th of March during a visit to Statfold Barn, they were running a freight train which had this Macaw B in it, and I thought it would make an interesting model to make.

 I came across this photo with a loco on it which got me thinking.

I purchased a pair of bogies, fitted some couplings, and a set of redundant brake levers then fitted the wheels.

Having put it aside for a month whilst I thought of a solution for mounting the bogies to the constructed wagon, I came up with the idea of using a pair of cup washers to act a bearings for the bogies.

I sprayed the wagon and bogies with primer paint.

I then painted it.

However, I realised after painting the bogies black that this was wrong, so repainted them in the grey.

Then I added some transfers.

It is seen here amidst the other Statfold Barn wagons.

At the end of April I purchased this Fourdees model of 'Dot' to build as a load for the Macaw B. It comes with a static chassis, but can be fitted with a Bachmann 'N' gauge 'Percy'.

I assembled it and sprayed it with primer.

Then I sprayed the body in British Railways crimson and the chassis I started to spray in satin black, but the spray can ran out, so I had to hand paint it in gloss black instead.

The assembled model looks quite promising, with couplings fitted.

The buffer beams were painted red, the footplate black, the smokebox and chimney were given a splash of matt black and pipes and fittings a coat of copper and brass paint. Real coal was added to the coal bunkers on each side.

Finally lining was applied and a set of nameplates giving it the name 'Melba'. It goes rather well with my Skarloey. 

Keith

Good Friday 'Steam Gala', Easter Monday 'Diesel Dawdle Day'

 Following Good Friday's 'Steam Gala' at Hadarford.

Easter Monday is 'Diesel Dawdle Day'.

Keith

Lift-out Bridge Repairs part 7

 April 16th last year was the last day I worked on rebuilding the large lift-out bridge on my model railway. 

  Following that my back has been constantly in pain for months so I was unable to continue with the work. 

However today I managed to reattach the tensioning chains underneath, which close up the gaps between the rail ends and the bridge itself. I still need to do some refinement regarding the length of the rails which are longer than the bridge, but it is an important big step forward after months of frustration at not being able to continue the work. I also need to repair the paper brickwork and fix the tunnel entrance at the fiddleyard end, and the scenery around both ends. 😊

End with the majority of the chain fixed

End with the tensioner which hooks onto the chain from the other end

Chain underneath the whole bridge

Keith