2mm Modbury

[Joe's Garage]

Ian, I have always liked the 517 GWR class loco, such an elegant simple engine. Shame none were ever preserved, so we will have to enjoy them in miniature.
All the best and hopefully one day I will get to see Modbury in the flesh.
Julian

 

[Ian Smith]

A little more progress on the Steam Railmotor ...

Firstly, I decided to retain the recessed passenger doors. As mentioned previously, for this build I wanted to fit the original double doors (rather than a single door supplied in the kit), so this entails some modification to the etch. Therefore some modification of the doors is required, this requires new mouldings (to simulate the drop lights in each of the doors, and also to provide separate panels in each of the new doors). I elected to solder in a new piece of moulding down the middle of the existing window aperture, but before this could be done I had to form it!! With that in mind, a piece of 0.010" nickel silver strip the width of the 'droplight edge-raised moulding-droplight edge' was soldered to a stout piece of brass, then files were applied to file flats down to about 0.005" along each edge of the strip to give me a strip that had a top hat profile. Pieces were then cut from that strip and soldered in place in the existing droplight to give a pair of drop lights instead.


Doors with the added strips to simulate the edges of the pair of droplights and the central edge mouldings of the two doors. I've also removed the wide door handle moulding that was etched onto the right hand side of each door.

I intend to instate the remainder of the mouldings with small pieces of 0.005" plastic sheet once all of the soldering operations have been completed. There will also be a bit of thinning of the new central droplight/door moulding to round the corners of the droplight frames where the new inserts meet the existing droplight frame.

As previously mentioned, the doors as etched are too narrow compared to the opening into which they should fit. Becasse (on RMweb) suggested that I could narrow the opening by soldering patches into the gap and making good the panels afterwards by filing. This was originally suggested because the panel adjoining the doorway on the engine end of the coach is too narrow - I decided on a half-way house, in that I am prepared to accept the too narrow panel adjoining the doorway, but clearly a doorway too wide for the door(s) is completely impossible to accept.

Looking at various photos of the prototype it would appear that the edge of the door reveal is radiused. I therefore decided to solder pieces of 0.015" along the vertical edges of the door reveal and then carefully file them back to the face of the surrounding moulding, then round over the edge to a) narrow the door way and b) provide the rounded moulding into the door reveal.


Method employed to narrow the door reveals - the side at the top has a 0.004" backing piece soldered in place to increase the depth of the frame to allow the flat door to fit vertically behind the turn under of the side. The lower side has the 0.004" backing piece filed back to the edge of the frame, two pieces of 0.015" brass strip soldered in place down the edges of the frame and the left hand of these strips having been filed back flush with the moulding and the rounded edge of the reveal filed.


Having filed both 0.015" doorway narrowing pieces flush with the raised moulding, I couldn't resist laying the side over the modified door for effect.


The "finished" sides - both sides have had their remedial work completed to the central doorways and the modified doors soldered in place. It may also be noticed that I also took the opportunity to file away the rearward window of the engine compartment windows that I had previously added, and add a new piece of 0.004" behind which then had its central portion filed away to give me a recessed sliding window.

The next stage will be to complete preparing the sides and ends before they can be united - the door handles need to be fitted to the doors at the ends of the sides (the central doors cannot have these fitted until the plastic mouldings have been added after al soldering operations have been completed). The steps and lamp irons need to be added on the ends too.

I have also addressed a running issue with the loco chassis - it ran fine when the motor leads were connected to a battery, but limped along rather erratically when placed on the track. Clearly not being very heavy will be a major cause of this problem, which won't really be addressed until it is united with the coach body. However I did feel that some improvement would be possible anyway, so the leading driving wheels (those without the worm gear) were removed by pushing a pair of pointed tweezers between frame and wheel back to ease the axle out of the muff. Once the wheels were out, I opened up the axle holes to 1.6mm. I then bent up a couple of lengths of fine phosphor bronze wires to form some simple electrical pick-up springs which would act on the top of the stub axles (I took the opportunity to slice about 0.5mm off the length of the muff while it was out to provide clearance for the spring wires). The pick-up wires were soldered to the edge of the frames between the two axles.


The underside of the loco chassis showing the new pick-up springs. As can be seen they have had to be bent so that they avoid the pcb pads of the central frame spacer, but being soldered only in the middle there is sufficient spring in them to to their job. Also the motor end cap has been coated with araldite to offer some protection to the wires where they enter the motor, the wires are connected to pieces of 0.5mm phosphor bronze wire which in turn are soldered into holes in the side frames. Eventually, I will be running wires to these from further pick-ups on the bogie at the other end of the coach.

Finally, a short video of the chassis running on my short test track. The power is supplied by a home-made controller which uses a 9V PP3 battery as its power source (and the battery is quite an old one now so probably isn't delivering full beans anymore).

Thanks for looking
Ian

 

[Ian Smith]

Ian, I have always liked the 517 GWR class loco, such an elegant simple engine. Shame none were ever preserved, so we will have to enjoy them in miniature.
All the best and hopefully one day I will get to see Modbury in the flesh.
Julian

Julian, I don’t know where you are based but with a fair wind Modbury will be at the Uckfield exhibition in October.
Ian

 

[AJC]

Julian, I don’t know where you are based but with a fair wind Modbury will be at the Uckfield exhibition in October.
Ian

I can't speak for Julian, but - with that fair wind - I hope to make Uckfield so will see you there, God willing.

Adam

 

[Joe's Garage]

I am based in Weston super Mare area Ian but at the moment I am in Spain getting away from it all! Uckfield may be too far but I thought that chassis ran beautifully, no jerkiness at all. Amazing work in 2 mm.
Just hope one day the exhibitions will get back to normal.
As an aside I have always had a fascination for Abbottsbury and even in 2 mm it still would be nearly 12 feet long but seeing your modelling has really made me think. I would only need a 517 class loco plus auto coach, a steam rail motor and a few wagons.
There’s a challenge!!
I really appreciate the updates
Cheers
Julian

 

[Ian Smith]

Today has seen a little more progress with the SRM ...

Firstly, the ends were completed with the addition of steps and lamp irons. The steps were added as a filed up step-come-upstand on the end of a strip which had been heavily scored so that once soldered in place the "handle" could be waggled until it broke away at the scoring (this has the added benefit of testing the soldered joint as if the joint isn't good then the whole thing comes away!!) Additionally, the handles have been fitted to the doors on the sides (with the exception of the central passenger doors as these need the various mouldings to be added in 0.005" plasticard once all soldering operations have been completed.

With the ends and sides structurally "finished", it was time to unite the four components. This proved as tricky as it always is with butt joints, but small tack soldering operations until happy that all was square and in the right place before making good the joints is the way to go. Unfortunately, one of the side window frames broke on the vestibule end right in the top corner which made this somewhat more awkward than it needed to be as the joint could only be made good with the roof in place too.

And that brings me nicely to the other addition - the roof. First I took a slip of paper which I wrapped over the driven end so that I could determine the width of the roof. The paper was then flattened out again and measured and the width transferred to some 0.008" nickel silver. I employed the scoring with a knife and straight edge then bending and snapping method to give me a strip more than long enough for the coach roof. Once the cut edge was cleaned up with files I moved onto the "entertaining bit"! - I spent many a happy hour with various diameters of round steel bar, masking tape and a wooden burnishing stick trying to form (and reform) the 3-arc roof profile, the main central arc was easy enough with a 3/4" bar but the tighter radii above the cantrails was much more awkward. Luckily, I have been blessed with bountiful quantities of patience

Effectively, it was a case of taping the roof to the bar, trapping between steel straight edges (my bending bars), and forcing a bend with a further stout edge. Testing bend(s) against the profile of the ends then tweaking the various bends until I was happy that the roof fitted properly.

Once formed, the over-long roof was tack soldered in place at each end, scrutinised, and once happy making good the end joints then proceeding around the sides adding further tacks and finally making good joints. Once the roof was secure, a piercing saw and files were brought to bear on the over hanging ends, carefully removing material until I was happy with the amount of overhang and also the angles.

Below are a couple of photos of the results of the days endeavours :





The next phase will be to add all of the paraphernalia to the roof - rain strips, lamp tops, vents, and of course the engine compartment cover and protruding chimney. However, I first need to establish what sort of gas lighting the Steam Railmotors had when first built (single or dual pipe feed), and where the pipes ran. In the mean time, I will probably turn my attention to the underframe - I have already made the bogie for the non-driven end but the mounting for it needs to be fitted to the underframe/floor, and I also want to rig up some electrical pick-up from it too. I also need to fret out a hole in the floor for the motor end, and rig up a cantilevered pivot point for it (there is a 12BA hole in the top of my gearbox in readiness).

Thanks for looking,

Ian

 

[john lewsey]

Impressive

 

[Ian Smith]

Life has kind of got in the way of modelling over the last few weeks, but today I found time and inclination to make a bit more progress with the Steam Railmotor...

Todays task was to fit the motor unit into the underframe, and although no modelling had taken place in the last 2-3 weeks I had at least formed a plan on what I was going to do! The first thing I noticed was that the bogie spacing on the underframe wasn't quite right - the bogie spacing seemed to be 52'0" (104mm) whereas the diagram I had in Russell's GWR coach book showed 50'11" (as near as damn it 102mm). Unfortunately, I had already fitted the bolster for the coach bogie at the other end of the coach, so I had to make the adjustment at the motor end. Therefore a new 1mm hole was drilled 2mm inboard of the one already there.

During my deliberations, I had decided that the best way to fit the motor bogie was to provide a pivot in the top of the gear block, although this meant that some form of fixing would be required up in the roof space. My idea was to provide a cantilevered pivot point above the motor bogie, and shape it so that the supports for said structure would be hidden behind the side panels between the engine compartment window.


The first step was to tack solder a length of 1mm rod up through the newly drilled bogie pivot point so that I could ensure that the cantilevered support would be in the right place. I also made a start on the cutout as once the cantilevered support was in place it would be awkward to cut around it. (I do plan ahead sometimes!!

)


Next a piece of 0.010" nickel silver was fretted and filed to shape, having first established its dimensions so that it was a) tall enough, b) wide enough and most importantly c) the upright supports would be hidden by the side panels.


Once it was bent to shape, a 1mm hole was drilled centrally for the pivot point. Additionally, although not strictly necessary I also shaped it a bit to look a little prettier

The support was then slipped over the vertical rod, and a check made that its legs fell between the marks I had made on the underframe that delineated the area on the coach side where the panels were.


Happy, I soldered the cantilevered support in place and unsoldered and removed the sighting rod. It was then a simple task to introduce the piercing saw into the holes around the new support and remove an area of floor to accommodate the motor bogie.


With the floor removed, the motor bogie could be temporarily bolted to its cantilevered support so I could check the clearances. For the time being, I've had to pack it up a bit because the crank pins were catching on the solebars under test.


Finally, the body was dropped on!

Satisfied that everything fit, it was taken to Modbury and given a bit of a test ...

Thanks for looking,
Ian

 

[Ian Smith]

A little more progress on the SRM ...

Over the last few days I had marked and drilled holes for the gas lamps along the centreline of the roof. I had to estimate where these went from a side-on view of a suitable vehicle. In marking and drilling holes, I had also drilled a small hole where the chimney will eventually be - I will use that to locate the roof panel above the boiler eventually. The gas lamp tops themselves are some that Nick at N Brass gave me a few years ago when he and Modbury were back-to-back at an exhibition.

I have also drilled and filed a rectangular hole above the engine end driving compartment for a sliding panel in the roof. The panel and retaining strips were filed from 0.004" nickel silver and soldered in place.

Today's task has been to fit the rain strips to the roof, as is my wont I always add these from fine copper wire (probably about 0.2mm diameter although I haven't measured these). The first one I tacked in place in the centre then added solder out to either end, for the 3 subsequent ones I tacked at one end then moved along the length to the other end - the latter was probably easier! These wires were added over long, and once happy, were cut through at the end and heat applied to dislodge the excess. I will use the same method to remove a section above the engine compartment as the roof panel extends below the upper rainstrip at this point, but first I need to make the panel!

Now some photos :

The current state of the roof with the lamp tops and rain strips in place. The sliding roof panel above the driving compartment can also be seen.


Another view, hopefully showing the rain strips a little better. In reality these were flat strip, but I seriously doubted my ability to cut 4 equal width strips from thin solderable material - I did consider adding them from sticky tape but again would have to cut equal width strips and be extremely narrow and be prone to sticking itself together - that way madness lay I felt!!

The other thing I've done over the last few days is add electrical pickup from the non-driven bogie. The wheels had their blacking removed (with a fibreglass pencil), a small pad of thin PCB added on the underside of the bogie, and back-scratcher phosphor bronze wires soldered in place to bear on the backs of the tyres.

Underside of the bogie with the back-scratcher PB wires acting on the tyres.

A pair of fine enamelled wires pass up to a further PCB pad on the top of the bogie onto which a pair of sprung phosphor bronze wipers are soldered.

Top of bogie showing the sprung phosphor bronze wipers which conduct the power to the underside of the coach - the acting part of the wipers are at the bogie pivot end to minimise their rotation and hence contact patch. A further PCB pad is located on the underside of the coach floor against which the bogie wipers rub. More fine enamelled wire is used to conduct the power inboard.

Finally, a couple of lengths of PCB sleeper strip (old type that was about 6" long) is glued against the uprights on the inside of the coach to get the power to the other end of the coach - I could have extended the enamelled wire here but I originally intended fitting a couple of bits of tube to the PCB at the driven end so that I can plug/unplug the powered bogie for maintenance. A rethink has decided that this is just adding complication so will just solder the powered bogie wires to the PCB instead!

The inside of the coach floor showing the wires coming up from the non-powered bogie to the PCB bus rails. I have temporarily unsoldered the leads at the powered end until I have built the Walchaerts motion thereon. The holes above the rear bogie wheels are a relic of a rather stupid idea I had to get power from the tops of the bogie wheels (about which I will say no more!)

Thanks for looking

Ian

 

[Ian@StEnochs]

Ian,

I used to have problems getting coach rainstrips to form a good curve without twisting in 7mm. Eventually I hit on using plastic rod or brass wire depending on roof material. It is easy to get rod to follow the curve, tack the centre and pull the ends into position, then glue oo solder in between. A rub with a file flattens the visible bit and choice of wire thickness the width. Once painted the under curved bits fill up and the strip appears rectangular in section.

Ian.

 

[Ian Smith]

A little more progress on the Steam Railmotor ...

Over the last few days, I've been trying to finish off the roof. At the end of the previous update, I had fitted some fine wire to represent the rain strips and the lamp tops had been fixed, so the first task was to cut a suitable piece of nickel silver for the engine room roof panel. I elected to cut this from 0.004", but in the end wish I had cut it from 0.008" instead - once rolled to shape and temporarily placed on the roof it didn't seem to provide quite enough relief, so I tacked a couple of strips of 0.004" along the lower edges to raise it up a bit. By marking diagonally from corner to corner, the centre was marked and a hole drilled to line up with the chimney hole previously drilled in the main roof to help when aligning and soldering the panel in place. Before fitting though I had to remove a little of the upper rain strips where the panel overlapped them.

According to the drawings I had, a strip of L angle was attached 6" up from the lower edge of the panel (possibly as a rainstrip) - I tried to fabricate a bit of angle from 0.004" but with the foot and upright being less than 0.5mm wide I gave it up as a bad job and elected to just solder a bit in 0.25mm wire 1mm inboard of the lower edge instead!

The top half of the chimney was turned on the lathe (predominantly with gravers), and was cut off with a 1.5mm diameter locating peg on its bottom (to fit into the hole in the panel/roof). The prototype has a weather proof cowl just below the copper cap of the chimney (to help keep the rain out of the engine compartment), so a piece of 0.004" was cut to be a snug fit around the chimney and shaped into the oval shape of the prototype (quite why the cowl is oval rather than round I have no idea as photos show that the chimney projected through at one end of the cowl not centrally as one might expect). Anyway, once filed to shape the cowl was soldered in place around the chimney such that there would be a slight gap between the roof panel and chimney cowl. The next stage was to complete the roof panel by drilling a 0.35mm hole where the whistle will eventually go, and also drilling then filing an oval hole above where the safety valves were attached on the boiler (oddly, although the whistle has a little weather proof cowl around it, the hole for the safety valve exhaust doesn't).

With the engine compartment cover panel done, I then lightly scribed the lamp pipe runs on the roof. The pipes were made from 0.2mm copper wire (having first rolled it between a metal ruler and flat surface to straighten it). It was then a simple matter of making the bends in the main pipe runs and tack soldering in place before making good the soldered join along the full lengths of the pipe. Further short lengths of wire were added between each lamp and the main pipe before trimming the wire (one end soldered to lamp pot, joint made with main pipe then the excess cut off). It would appear from photos that the gas feed pipes of the different lots came up through the roof in different places - No. 93 has the pipes appearing fairly centrally, but No. 61 (which I'm basing this build on) has the pipes appear above the driving vestibule at the non-engine end of the carriage. In both cases though a small cover is positioned over the place where the pipes come up through the roof, so I filed up a bit of 0.014" brass to represent these covers and positioned them over the tail ends of the wires representing the pipe runs.

With all of the solder work complete, today I have fitted the shell vents. The exact position of these has been estimated from photo evidence, and holes for each vent were drilled before Ultima vents (available from the 2mm Association) were super-glued in place.

The photos below show the current state of play (the body is just plonked on the under frame for these photos) :







At the moment, the chimney and its cowl are just pushed into the hole in the roof - its an interference fit (in actual fact the hole is big enough to allow small screw driver access to the motor bogie retaining bolt, so I may leave the chimney as a removable feature!)

The next step will be to add the mouldings needed to the central doors to finish the conversion of the single access door to the double doors that I'm trying to represent. This can now be done in 0.005" plasticard now that all of the soldering is complete on the upper works.

Once the upper works are done, I will then move onto the undreframe (including fabricating the headstocks and buffers - I hope that N Brass will have suitable auto coach buffers at TINGS when I'm there helping out on the Association stand in a few days time), then it will be on to trying to make that flipping Walchaerts knitting that I keep putting off for as long as possible

Thanks for looking
Ian

 

[Ian Smith]

Not done too much model-wise recently, but I did get a delivery of number plates from Narrow Planet for my 517, so they have been fixed in place (with a dab of gloss varnish). I also knocked up some brake gear for it - the pull rods were fretted/filed from a couple of pieces of 0.010" etch waste sweated together, the brake hangers and shoes were similarly fretted/filed from some 0.020" phosphor bronze. The whole lot (once separated) were cobbled together to look a bit like brake gear, being built up around a couple of pads of thin double-sided PCB and 0.3mm wire. Once "sturdy" (a relative term as the whole ensemble is rather fragile), the cross shafts had pieces removed from their middles replaced with thin wire sleeving so that the two halves were electrically insulated. A quick prime and brush paint with Precision Paints Indian Red and the assembly was ready to install onto the bottom of the chassis.

The finished brake assembly prior to painting.

A crew of N Brass drivers were painted up (I chose just drivers because the fireman option is a "traditional" chap shovelling). Arms were bent a little (as one of them has his hand so far in the air and looks like he wants to ask if he can go to the toilet!), so that one has his hand resting on the cab opening and the other is reaching up to tap a gauge or something. Also a rather rudimentary backhead was cobbled up from a bit of black plasticard , a few bits of wire and a couple of slivers off the end of a bit of brass rod to represent a couple of gauges. Once painted, stuck in place with a couple of blokes standing in front of it there really is little to see.


Completed loco with brake gear, numberplate, and cab populated.




View of the rear of the engine showing what can be seen of the cab "detail"

Over the last couple of days, with Modbury's first outing for nearly 2 years coming up, I have given some thought to increasing the population of Modbury. The first of these additions is a Shire Scenes Farm Cart (although I made and painted this a few months ago). To give it a purpose, I made some sacks out of milliput, forming one so that it sort of hung over the back.

N Gauge horses are very unsatisfactory looking lumps of white metal generally, so inspired by some re-carving that Tim Watson illustrated in the Copenhagen Fields thread, I had a go myself. A small chisel was ground from a gramophone needle, and employed to re-shape a 4 legged lump of white metal into something that bore a little more resemblance to something equestrian, a longer tail being added in low melt solder and then re-carved.

The driver of the cart I had already decided to feature standing alongside the horse rather than sitting in the cart, so I took an Andrew Stadden character and performed a little re-modelling on him too - an arm was removed, bent at the elbow and re-attached. His top hat was taken off, and a cloth cap substituted. His jacket was lengthened into a longer coat, which was then carved to be open with a waistcoat underneath.

Once man and horse were painted, the horse was glued between the cart shafts, and thin strips of Rizla cigarette paper cut, painted and formed for the reins. The idea being that my little man would be holding one of the reins. Further short bits of pre-painted Rizla strip were added to link cart shafts to the horse harness.





Thanks for looking, by the way the little chap is only just over 1cm tall so please forgive the (extremely) cruel close-ups!

Ian

 

[GrahameH]

Time well spent Ian nicely done.

 

[Ian Smith]

Modbury will be attending its first exhibition in almost 2 years this weekend at the Uckfield Model Railway Exhibition.



Really looking forward to the weekend! For Edwardian GWR fans, Dave Stone will also be there with Sherton Abbas, and for 2FS fans, John Greenwood will be there with Wadebridge and Padstow too.

Ian

 

[AJC]

Annoyed to be missing this - the opportunity to see both those layouts together more or less on my doorstep can't come round again. That said, family Golden Wedding celebrations really are one offs, so needs must. Hope it goes well!

Adam

 

[Ian Smith]

Following the Uckfield exhibition, I decided that before I reassembled Modbury in my lounge that I would take a few photos of the scenic boards from the non-viewing side, effectively from the break between the two boards. What follows are a few of the 30-odd photos I took - all with a DSLR using only f-stopping to get a half reasonable depth of field (no stacking here). For lighting, a LED tube was used (which isn't exactly the same as the normal layout lighting used at exhibitions (or for that matter at home!)) A sheet of blue card was blue-tac'd to the layout fascia to focus attention on the layout rather than the rest of my kitchen!!

I hope that you enjoy these images that are simply not possible when the layout is fully assembled.


517 Class (number 551) draws into Modbury with a pick-up goods (it is just about possible to see the 3-lamp head-code on the bunker - my lamps have short pieces of 0.3mm wire projecting from their bases which engage in the lamp sockets of my locos allowing me to alter the head-codes accordingly).


A view of the pick-up goods arriving into Modbury from a slightly more elevated position up the hillside.


A view across the yard at a quiet Modbury, hopefully showing that I have modelled even the non-viewing side of everything

. The lane along the back of the layout (to our right in this view) will one day become the A379.


A closer inspection of the buildings at Modbury, the waiting room building on the Down platform is probably my favourite of all those I've built for Modbury. The couple waiting on that platform run a small market gardening business, and have some of their produce on the trolley close by.


Another view across the yard at Modbury, this time with wagons awaiting collection in the Goods shed. The local coal merchant engages in conversation with a customer outside his dis-used van office while a couple of his employees are fille=ing a few sacks from the coal piles at the end of the long back siding.


A "Brian Monaghan view" of Modbury as 517 Class, 551, draws into the station with a Down pick-up goods.


A somewhat less elevated view of the Down pick-up goods drawing into the station. The Station Master is hopeful that an award might be forthcoming this year for the platform gardens!


Finally, a view of 551 shunting wagons in the yard. The cattle pen water troughs have been filled from the stand-pipe between the two pens, and the hose pipe has been left draped over the rail fence.

Thank you for looking, and I hope that being able to see Modbury from the "back" has been of interest.

Ian

 

[Joe's Garage]

Ian, sometimes one forgets that this wonderful layout is 2 mm. Lovely photos of a truly inspirational layout, thanks for sharing. Edwardian elegance surely.....
Julian

 

[Joe's Garage]

Hmmmmm....Abbotsbury in 2 mm still in my mind!
Julian

 

[Ian Smith]

I've done very little modelling recently, but have the following photo to share :



This shows (what hopefully looks like) a couple of brick loads for a pair of my open wagons. On the real Yealmpton Branch there was a brick works at Steer Point. My imaginary line through Modbury would have followed the course of that said branch once it reached Yealmpton and hence would also have served the brick works at Steer Point.

I have had a mind to produce some brick loads for quite some time but kept putting it off because I couldn't actually find any (clear) photos to illustrate how such a load would have been carried - was it packed with straw? Were the bricks on some form of pallet? Etc. Quite by chance, a few weeks ago someone posted a link to a video elsewhere on RMweb (the "Pre-Grouping Wagons in 4mm - the D299 appreciation thread") which showed bricks being loaded into open wagons (Play) - the loading of wagons starts about 8:40.

Although a 1920's film, I felt that the evidence that bricks were just stacked in the wagons was enough to allow me to try to create a couple of representative loads.

A piece of 0.020" plasticard was scribed with a grid of bricks (1.5mm x 0.6mm - about 9" x 4"), then that was cut up and layered to provide a bit of "interest" to the loads. Once dry, I ended up painting the whole lot a brick colour then picking out individual bricks in slightly different shades before filling the scribed grooves with a very thin wash of dark brown track colour to try to "separate" the bricks.

I should add that each load has a small patch of 0.020" steel shim glued to the underside so that the loads can be removed easily with a magnet.

Ian

 

[Osgood]

Fascinating film - thanks for sharing.
Some rough shunting at 3min20......

I was very surprised to see the 1 (2?) plank wagon with its pyramid-shaped load as well as a few wagons loaded above the top of sides: