Empty Clay Wagons

Just to prove I have been doing something relating to Tredethy Wharf during the last few weeks. I've posted a couple of pics below of the next batch of china clay wagons that are now ready for the paint shop.

These five clay wagons are being built using the Ratio kit with modified axle boxes and brake gear. The intention is for these wagons to be empty versions of the early unfitted British Railways Dia. 1/051. British Railways built the first 300 unfitted but quickly converted to vacuum brake but I'm hoping that a few might have remained unfitted until the early 1960s. The next batch will be the vacumm fitted versions.

December 2016 update

Another month has passed and only a small amount of progress has been made on Tredethy Wharf. My wife and I hosted this month’s (December) Area Group meeting during which one member (Gordon) ran some locos on the layout that are being offered as motive power for the February show. This small running session did bring to light a few small problems that I have since worked on and hopefully solved. A further running session (dress rehearsal) will have to be planned for late January/early February...

What else have I been up to? Well... not much, certainly not as much as I'd hoped with building rolling stock. A couple of open wagons are nearing completion while the second rake of clay wagons have, for some reason, been problematic. On most of the clay wagons the sides had started to bow inwards, this is a first for me. So I spent some time dismantling the bodies then, after a little corrective work, reassembling them, they're now starting to look better but still much to do...

For me, the Christmas break never seems to be a good time for modelling. I find time is taken up with family and friends combined with relaxing in front of the log fire (glass in hand) reading a book or two received on the 25th. Over Christmas my son and I dismantled the layout and managed to squeeze it into the car, a bit of a two man job, but it looks like it will be possible to transport it in one vehicle...phew! Unfortunately, there will be no room for a passenger. My planning regarding transporting the layout to shows has not been up to scratch, mainly because I was never confident that Tredethy would develop into an exhibitable layout.

(End of Year School Report)  Yan must have more confidence in his modelling and better planning is required for transportation if he constructs something that might be taken to shows. Also spare time organisation needs to improve to allow him more visits to the 'Man Cave' during 2017.

May I take this opportunity to thank all who find time to read this ponderous blog and hope you have had an enjoyable, relaxing Christmas. May I wish you a stress free New Year with plenty of modelling time to boot.

November update

With only 89 days left before the Lincoln Show I feel the scenery is now at a stage where I should move onto other things. I would like to do more with the scenery, especially as I've not planted any nettles yet and feel a couple of trees are required... but... I need to build, more clay wagons; more cassettes for the storage sidings; a few more open wagons as well as box vans. There is also some tidying up to do on the presentation information. So I've still plenty to do...

The above photos show the current state of play with the "test plank". The white streaks are the result of recent running sessions. They show where I've misjudged the height of the ground around the rails that caused the loco to stall or derail.

Onwards and upwards...

Just testing how things are looking

This evening, after adding a few bushes, weeds, and scenic bits at the cottage end of the layout, I thought I'd take a few pic's to see how it is starting to look when some rolling stock is added to the mix.

I'm not sure about the yellow flowers in the field, also I feel the grass texture in the field is looking a little flat but over it's begining to feel OK.

There's been heavy rain overnight

There was some heavy rain during the night but after a warm start to the day the early morning mist has cleared. Then with a blue sky and the sun beating down there are only a few puddles left...

Not sure if these capture the effect totally but, after reading an  article in one of the modelling magazines showing how to create puddles, I was dying to have a go at representing pools of water within the hard standing area. After all, Cornwall does get its fair share of rain and can get very misty and dank at times. I've spent a few Cornish holidays in a tent or caravan wearing rain coats or on the beach huddled under an umbrella. Sometimes being in the sea has been the driest place to be...

Still much to do on the scenery but hope to have the major items completed by the end of the month.

It's slowly coming together

The cottage and barn are almost finished but I've still to decide on the cottage garden. Is it to be a pretty cottage garden or more of a plain garden suitable for a working farm cottage?  At the moment I'm thinking more towards the latter.

I've also been trying to get the right finish for the hard standing around the wharf sidings. I've only seen one picture in colour of one wharf, the rest have been black and white. All pictures give the impression that the ground cover was compacted earth while the colour photo indicates a light brown colour. Getting an acceptable texture and colour has proved to be a bit tricky. After deciding on using Gordon Gravett's method for the road surface I thought I'd continue the theme and use his method for the ground cover.  I spent some time trialling different mixes of Humbrol Gloss paint, 40 (Pale Grey), 10 (Service Brown) & 6 (Tan) covered in Talcum Powder. Once I'd decided on a mix I had great difficulty in reproducing the trials on the layout. The results were awful, possibly due to the trials being on plasticard but on the layout I was applying the paint to DAS.  More trials continued using DAS as a base, but again when applied to the layout I was still not getting the correct finish. Hmmm... back to the drawing board...

So a change of tack was required, I thought about treating the hard standing like ballasting track. A little research on the web threw up Polak's ballast dust. I quickly purchased three different colours, with the view to mixing them together in different proportions to acheive the desired colour. Again, after I'd finally decided on what I thought was the correct colouring, when applying the mixture to the layout it looked different. It doesn't look too bad but not totally what I was aiming for, texture good colouring not quite right, a little too brown not enough grey I feel.

I think it is time to move on and come back to this once more scenic work has been completed. It will probably look different when all the grass, weeds, trees & bushes have been added.

How close can trees be to the track bed?

I've had more than one comment that the two skeleton trees seen in my previous post are too close to the track bed. I agree. In what might be deemed to be normal circumstances both trees are too close, but on this line there was more than one instance of trees being very close to the track bed. Maybe what makes the trees look closer than they will be when finished is they're not fixed, and one is leaning at jaunty angle towards the track.

I have a number of photos of this line and I am indebted to Chris Knowles-Thomas who took all the photographs below in July 1964.

The tree in the distance looks really close to the track bed.

I feel that the feature of trees being so close to the track bed helps to mark this line out to be a little different to most. From the start of building this "test plank" it has been my intenstion to somehow include some trees close to the track. The problem has been how many and where to place them on the layout without affecting the operation when using three link couplings....