Tales from The Room of Doom. Dipping a toe in various bucolic backwaters.
SteveyDee68
Member
Rob
Just to wish you all the very best for 2025 and looking forward - in due course - to seeing what you do next.
Steve S
Just to wish you all the very best for 2025 and looking forward - in due course - to seeing what you do next.
Steve S
NHY 581
Western Thunderer
Cheers, Jay
Hope to catch up later in the year !
Still flicking through the article in BRM. Middleton Top and your approach to it all came across very well.
Rob
michael mott
Western Thunderer
Happy New Year Rob, your work is always inspiring and entertaining, never fails to cheer me up.
Michael
Michael
NHY 581
Western Thunderer
Evening Michael,
That's very kind. Thank you. I shall do what I can to maintain standards.......
Rob
NHY 581
Western Thunderer
I shall look forward to it, Jay.
In the meantime, just for the record, I'd just like to say I'm not keen on micro layouts and I'm not keen on inglenook track plans.
Rob
NHY 581
Western Thunderer
Morning all.
So, to explain the above, we need to backtrack sightly. Work, if you can call it, continues on bringing the North Sunderland inspired cameo together. However, the ready to plant building I had in mind for the engine shed looked wrong when I tried it. It's too big and too busy for its intended location. But what to do with it ?
It was too nice to just pop back into it's box and my eyes rested on a short ( 80 cm ) IKEA floating shelf bought to go up in the Room of Doom. Plonking the shed on it and adding a point and a bit of track produced what I consider to be quite a nice usable micro project. I don't like micros and space dictated that anything more than a couple of short sidings was out of the question.
It would have very limited operation of course but as I have a few industrial locos, such a project would present an opportunity to produce a little layout upon which they could run, well, turn a wheel and be displayed/photographed.
But what if the shelf was longer ? I knew that IKEA do a 110cm long shelf, and one was picked up yesterday and here's the result.
The longer length offers the chance to provide a gentle bend to the plot and the opportunity to open up the scene a bit.
Other than the shed building ( based on Boston Lodge apparently) I envisage only a couple of small, additional buildings to preserve the open feel.
In between the above, reference was made to Visions of Steam by Cavalier and Silcock, a must have book for anyone with even a passing interest in the railways of the South Wales coalfields.
So what of the other projects ?
A new shed building is on its way for Seahorses and may well arrive later today. This is a small corrugated item that will certainly look better but may require some surgery to open up the hole into which the Y7/Sentinel/J72 will fit. That will complete the structures needed. Trackwork is in stock as are the locos and rolling stock required.
Blackwater Pier is currently on hold, but the boards are complete, the method of point actuation, peco twistlocks, is decided upon and are in stock as is all the required trackwork.
Flaxfield remains the long term project and the boards will be ordered in due course.
That's a lot to be going on with, but with no deadlines and associated time constraints, both of which lead to pressure on the individual, I can work on any of these at my leisure.
Rob
Is that a model of Mountain Ash no.8? I remember that loco in service working at Mountain Ash.
NHY 581
Western Thunderer
It is indeed, Mountain Ash No.8. It was part of the exclusive range produced by DJM for Hattons. Much maligned but this one, which was a very generous and treasured gift received at Railwells a couple of years ago, runs very nicely. I also have Modelzones limited edition of 7754 to accompany it. I have Accurascale's 7754 on order as well as their forthcoming Glendower ( due in 2026 )
Rob
No. 8 looks great. I never saw 7754 working, only dismantled in the shed.
I have always liked the idea of modelling Mountain Ash loco. A proper working steam railway which I clearly remember, the only one really. My ‘Rowan Colliery’ project is partly driven by my memories of Mountain Ash and partly by wanting to be able to run my little 00 Pecketts.
NHY 581
Western Thunderer
Morning all,
Well, the replacement engine shed for Seahorses failed to materialise yesterday. RM advised that it will arrive this morning. However, work beckons today. Hopefully, the Memsahib will be around to take in the delivery.
The opportunity was taken yesterday to try the Seahorses project on the same 110 x 26 cm shelf destined for Y Ddôl ( working title meaning The Meadow - subject to change )
I think it would work, but it's compact and would work better in its originally envisaged 120 x 30cm footprint.
Please excuse the mess.
Y Ddôl meanwhile continues to enthuse, and 7754 was dug out and posed thereon.
So, all good.
Rob
Well, the replacement engine shed for Seahorses failed to materialise yesterday. RM advised that it will arrive this morning. However, work beckons today. Hopefully, the Memsahib will be around to take in the delivery.
The opportunity was taken yesterday to try the Seahorses project on the same 110 x 26 cm shelf destined for Y Ddôl ( working title meaning The Meadow - subject to change )
I think it would work, but it's compact and would work better in its originally envisaged 120 x 30cm footprint.
Please excuse the mess.
Y Ddôl meanwhile continues to enthuse, and 7754 was dug out and posed thereon.
So, all good.
Rob
Captain Kernow
Western Thunderer
Just to say that I was looking at your article the other day as well, Jay and really liked the layout and the photographs.
JayDean
Member