Garden railway in 16mm: Wilmington Light Railway

[Greengiant]

One year later, July 2023!

Progress with the garden railway has been somewhat sporadic, with a number of other things getting in the way.

I am pleased to say my PVC Foamex buildings survived last summer's heat very well.



Unfortunately the signal box steps did not fair so well, not helped by the antics of a certain fox!



Who?

Me?



Who produced rather a lot of cubs, ten in total!



Martin

 

[Greengiant]

Over the winter months 0f 2023, as a break from work and to keep things moving with the line, I made a start on painting 30+ wagons that I had built and had sat in primer for a few years.

It was something that I could pick up and put down at will, whether I had 10 mins spare or a few hours, which will explain the various stages each item is at.





These days I work mainly in acrylics for the basic painting. A recent game changer for me is the discovery of Wet Pallets and brush soap.

The wet pallet is, as the name suggests, a pallet that is permanently wet (damp). I found out about these while following various military modelling forums and pages. It is basically a small (Mine is about A5 in size) container with a sealable lid. Contained within is a sponge base layer, on top of which is a permeable replaceable sheet that holds the acrylic paint, these sheets can be washed a number of times before they need replacing. The container is filled with water to the top of sponge, this keeps the permeable sheet damp and dramatically reduces the speed with which acrylic on the pallet dries out. I used to waste a lot of acrylic because it dried out on the pallet before I could use it all.
With the lid sealed on, the acrylic can last up to 1-2 weeks staying workable, very useful when you have created various weathering mixes.

This is my Redgrass Wet Pallet.



Something else I learnt about was da Vinci brush cleaning soap, this helps with cleaning the brushes and keeps the tips in good condition. For many years I have used mild hand soap, some of my sable brushes are over 40 years old from my early art school years, but this brush soap works even better and should well last me out!



Martin

 

[Greengiant]

In early summer of 2024, I did actually get some track laying done, but it was 1:1 scale with an odd gauge of 22 inches.

It all started when my daughter said it would look good if there was a short length of track in front of the cabin, then it would look like an old station. After sharing that conversation with my friend Ken, a few days later he turned up with a delivery of some sleepers, short lengths of rail, fishplates, a wagon and some ballast.

Some sleepers and rail, there are longer lengths behind the sleepers that you can just make out.



And a wagon which has been standing on a bank of the zig zag of Ken's own 2 foot gauge railway for as long as I can remember.



I wasted no time in getting the sleepers and ballast laid.



Followed shortly after by rail and the wagon. I was short of rail fixings, but sourced the bolts and plates off Amazon, being bright zinc I need to weather them down at some point.



I have managed to sell the idea to my wife as a sort of art installation, luckily some of her friends who have visited liked it, so that is an approval gained for me!

Ken was always puzzled by the provenance of the wagon and where it originated. He cannot even remember getting it, other than as a one of many job lots he bought years ago, but being 22 inch gauge would not run on his own line, so was just dumped on the bank and engulfed by nature for many years.

It is only recently the mystery has been solved as to provenance. Ken found out it is from the Purbeck ball clay mines, having seen some at the Purbeck Mineral & Mining Museum while visiting the Swanage Railway.

Here is a photo of one.



Martin