And that was that….

…. No, not this blog, although I’d more than understand you jumping to that conclusion given it’s been almost 18 months since we last posted, but it is time to say goodbye to another OTCM layout.

While I can’t replicate the drama associated with the demise of Six Quarters something very un-OTCM has happened to BWS – see our respective lofts provide a convalescence for retired OTCM exhibition layouts with Stoating Bank sitting gathering dust in mine while Six Quarters does the same in Oly’s. However for BWS, fate took a slightly different shape….

The end….

The layout made its scheduled last appearance at the Abingdon ‘Abrail’ exhibition at the start of March – which was an incredible show by the way – and rapidly moved into a component recovery phase that would have made EWS proud at Springs Branch…..

To mark the end of the show, a brake van special was run hauled by a class 24, which departed the layout at closing time with a compliment of horns:

The last train departs.

Things then immediately started feeling final as Mark and Pete managed to rip the bus wire out removing a fiddle yard!!

Once stripped of parts, the scene took on a very 1980’s look, the impact of Thatcherite Policies clearly hitting the former sidings as hard as most of the surrounding area around the prototype:

So why has BWS met such a sudden end? Well there are a couple of reasons, the most significant one being that I wanted to pinch a few bits off the layout to build into the new project, given the two are based on the same prototype. I now have a box of scenic items waiting for their second life on A Dreary Tuesday…

Secondly, the layout wasn’t without its issues! I always intended it to be a testbed for skills and ideas ahead of something larger being built, but as I’d had various ‘good ideas’ since it was conceived, certain parts of the layout were becoming disjointed. For instance:

-the mk2 cassette system didn’t fit on the fiddle yard board properly, so always felt a bit dicey. It also resulted in a couple of very short bits of track either side of the baseboard joint which wasn’t ideal for strength or alignment.

-the layout was originally designed to operate from the front, but the mk2 fiddle yards worked from the back meaning you needed people at both. Lifting a train in a cassette over the cantilever wire occasionally felt a bit sketchy!!

-the extra fiddle yard I added at the back never worked properly and just became an extra bit of wood to lump round.

Above all else though, the death knell was signed by how bloody intense to operate the layout was. I’d be fairly sure it’s more relaxing to operate some of the most complex layouts out there, you never had more than 30 seconds to take your eye off the ball! The combinations of tight curves and points also meant you never quite trusted a train to make it across the layout without derailing!

Me trying to keep an eye on proceedings. I’m probably on the verge of breaking into a sweat, or I’ve got a beer on the go to calm me down.

While I’m sure some of my regular operators would agree with the above (and moan about the couplings because and the switches…. But they do that about every layout they operate!) don’t get the idea the layout was a total disaster! There were some good bits too:

-the suspended fiddle yards worked brilliantly until I ruined them, but saving 2 sets of legs was a winner for a quick departure at the end of a show.

-it looked pretty decent, and the winter scene definitely drew people in even if they didn’t get the prototype.

-it showed me electric locos are ridiculously popular amongst exhibition visitors! The wires were only added as something a bit different for the occasional move but we ended up running far more electric trains than was ever envisioned.

-using EZ line for the OHLE was a winner for track cleaning etc, and will definitely be used again.

So there we have it, the layout probably had it’s exhibition career cut short by missing out on the shows planned for 2020 and 2021 but it did it’s job, taught me a lot both in terms of what to do and what not to do. The last couple of shows also gave me plenty of ideas for things to include in the new layout (more interactivity with the public for a start) and reminded me that hacking across the country in a van to spend the weekend playing trains, drinking beer and eating curry with your mates (while also receiving endless abuse) is good fun and worth all the stress leading up to it!

So it’s onward with the next project after a year of it being paused while I’ve been busy with a huge wave of DIY projects on the house. We are all excited by the prospect of running trains round in circles and not having to stop them every 3 feet…!!

Chris

2022 – A Quiet Year?

Before writing this, I was thinking that 2022 had been a bit dull in OTCM terms, however trying to find a few photos to illustrate this made me think that maybe that was a bit unfair.

The start of the year was actually mega productive, the C word meant thee was a lot of time in the shed working on various rolling stock projects, as well as the new fiddle yard for the layout. Much of this was documented through a series of YouTube videos which I really need to carry on with, but have been far more popular than I ever expected.

In the real world both of us have been mega busy with big trains, and various projects we are involved in – this looks set to be much the same in 2023. However in the parallel universe of baby trains, we purchased a RTR layout, on a very different theme to anything that has gone before – Cessy-en-Bois which is an absolute masterpiece.

2023 should, all being well, provide the opportunity to get this out on the exhibition circuit. The most shocking thing is that, despite having the thing in his spare room for 5 months, Oly is still yet to write a post or do a video about it!!!!

Summer also saw some great weather, which was a bit of a distraction from modelling, but the steam bans imposed by most preserved lines did provide the opportunity for a bit of diesel bashing, blended in with drinking trips.

Bottom Works Sidings was also photographed by Mike Wild from Hornby Magazine, and then featured in the magazine during the Autumn, ahead of appearing at the Great Electric Train Show in Milton Keynes, and the South Hants exhibition in Portsmouth – boy was it good to get out exhibiting again after 3 years, despite the effort involved making me question the point a few times.

Mods made to the layout shifted the primary control position to the rear, and introduced a need to stand on a box to assume the Commander in Chief position – this provides an excellent overview of the show, even if you are a bit exposed to any wind at such altitudes, which given some of the clientele at a show can be a bit dangerous!

To round the year out, and nothing to do with trains, we managed a trip to Belgium in December, where significant quantities of beer were consumed

And that’s about that for 2022 – we are still here and ticking over modelling wise, YouTube is doing well (get subscribed if you haven’t already) and the blog continues to attract attention – hopefully the same will happen in 2023, but let’s see!

All the best for the new year, and we we will see you in the new year!

Chris and Oly, or Oly and Chris (depending on which way you look at it)

D

It’s Show Time

When we put BWS away in February 2020, after the Tonbridge show, I wasn’t quite expecting it to be October 2022 before we exhibited again…..!

Still, here we are, and next weekend, the 8th and 9th October, we are out on the road once more, at Hornby Magazine’s Great Electric Train Show in Milton Keynes.

Going back to working on BWS to get the old girl exhibition ready has been a nice interlude to work on the big layout, and I’ve delivered a series of (hopeful) improvements as well as fixing a few bits of damage that had occurred.

Now obviously, with 30 months to do this, in true OTCM style everything has been massively rushed in the last 3 weeks, but where is the fun in being organised, when you can spend the run up to a show running round like a deer that’s just realised there is a lion eying it up for dinner….!?

Anyway, I’ve put together a little video showing the work that has been done:

Full details of the show can be found at https://www.keymodelworld.com/greatelectrictrainshow

If you are visiting the show feel free to stop by and say hello – it’s actually quite unusual for us both to be at a show with one of our layouts, so if you’re really unlucky you’ll get to see both of us.

For any Southerner not prepared to venture north of Watford, the layout will be out again on the 19th November in Portsmouth at the South Hants show – I’ll post details of that a bit closer to the time.

Chris

Staying Alive….

Firstly, I’m sure you’ll all enjoy the Beegees fuelled ear worm this post title has created…. Yeah, sorry about that.

A couple of years ago (I might be being kind to myself here, it’s probably more like 5) I picked up a couple of the then new Hornby 0-4-0 Sentinel shunters and repainted them to fit in with the rest of my British Steel fleet. Following a weathering session I was very pleased with how these came out.

I fitted the standard Hornby chips to these and they ran fine on the workbench. Unfortunately, the same couldn’t be said when I put them on the layout. For some reason, even though I keep the railhead clean, the weathering powder used in preparing the trackbed and blending it in did not suit a very short wheelbase 0-4-0!

I’m currently working through my collection of industrial locos and upgrading them with better quality chips, as well as fitting stay alives – the difference being remarkable. As part of this project I thought I’d dig the Sentinels out the ‘don’t know what to do with them’ draw and see if a stay alive could be squeezed in – below is how I did it!

First up, remove the cab and the long bonnet module so we can see the insides – this is going to be a squeeze so the Hornby 4 pin connector also needs to go – with this snipped off, trim the motor and pickup wires to a sensible length and strip the ends.

Next up, we need to make some space in the moulded cab interior to fit everything. Here I’ve hacked open a much wider slot than originally existed. The handbrake wheel is also sacrificed in the name of reliable running.

With space created, it’s time to deploy the new kit… a DCC Concepts Zen Micro 8 pin chip with the plug cut off and the wires cut back is perfect for the job here. This is coupled to a decent size Lais DCC stay alive (budgets and all that). Remember to pop some heat shrink around all the soldered joints!

There is just enough space within the short bonnet and under the cab floor to squeeze the stay alive and decoder sat next to each other. The wiring can then be tucked into the space previously occupied by the Hornby 4 pin plug. (yes I know the masking job I did on the motor when respraying the chassis is a bit ‘rudimentary’)

Finally, the cab floor can be clipped back into place and the loco put back together.

Fitting the new decoders and the stay alives has completely transformed the locos, and they are now smooth runners even over my dodgy (weathering powder covered) trackwork. As such they will be making an appearance at future shows…. All in all a successful side project!

Chris

A Dreary Tuesday… Part 4

The fourth update on the new layout focusses on finishing the wiring job for the fiddle yard. As this was filmed a little while ago I’ve been able to make a little further progress and am in discussions to get a custom fiddle yard control panel engraved… very fancy!

Work on the layout has slowed a bit of late. Given the intensity of the fiddle yard build it has been nice to take a step back and work on some rolling stock projects (more of that in a future post) and to enjoy the summer weather.

The next layout update should cover pointwork as I am nearing the end of construction of this, at which point wiring will commence – before long it should be possible to run trains round the whole layout!

At the same time, I need to do some work on BWS to bring it up to standards for it’s exhibition appearances this Autumn – we will be out on the road at the below events in 2022:

Great Electric Train Show, Milton Keynes, 8th and 9th October

South Hants MRC show, Portsmouth, 19th November

Chris

A Dreary Tuesday… Part 3

Work continues apace on the new layout – as I’m posting videos slightly in delay of actual progress, the latest charts the first stages of construction of the fiddle yard, while in reality I’ve just finished building points for the scenic section…. Keep up at the back!

As such, here is part 3 of the video series on building the layout:

Chris

Another New Layout: Part 2

I’ll be the first to admit it, I am running a bit behind when it comes to putting posts on here of how construction is progressing with the new layout – I can’t even blame the fact I have been busy modelling, as things have slowed down over the last few weeks due to other commitments.

Fortunately I already had a backlog of stuff I had video’d last year that just needed pulling together, so I can make it look like I’ve been consistently busy, and as such part 2 of the series of videos on constructing the new layout is done.

This one covers the construction of the baseboards, which I have done in the same way as I successfully used for BWS – ply baseboard tops glued and pinned to 9mm ply frames, this seems to result in strong yet relatively lightweight baseboards, which work for me!

With all the baseboards built I am currently working through the various ancillary parts that are also needed to make it into an exhibition layout – lighting pelmets, supports for the lighting pelmets, legs etc… I don’t actually have anywhere to set the whole layout up at home, so need to hire a hall for a morning at some point to put the whole lot together and check that what I have put together works in reality. I seem to be putting this off at the moment, either through fear or just being busy, but I look forward to the day we can do that and get a train running!

The other important update for this post is that the layout now has a name! After much pondering and indecisiveness, I’ve chosen to go with something a bit unusual, as you would expect for one of our layouts… As such, the layout will, in future, change it’s name from ‘Another New Layout’ to ‘A Dreary Tuesday…’ with a subheading of ‘….in the Dearne Valley’ – this will, I hope, convey a certain image to potential spectators before they reach the layout, while also being something a bit different to the usual layout names.

Until Next time….

Chris

Another New Layout….

Here at OTCM, layouts are like buses, and turn up at the same time – perhaps one of us working on one inspires the other to do the same thing….

And so it is that no sooner has Oly posted about his latest 4ft endeavour, I’m posting about something a little larger. I was actually first off the blocks it’s just taken me nearly a year to break cover with this project!

It’s no secret that BWS was intended to be a test bed for a larger layout, and it’s small size was always going to be very restrictive for a layout trying to depict heavy industry. It still makes me a bit uneasy seeing Mainline locos hauling 5 wagon trains across the layout. Sometimes I wake up at 3AM in a cold sweat thinking about it.…

Hopefully then, it’s no surprise that I’m marching on with something larger. Don’t worry though, BWS is still around and should be appearing at a few shows and in a magazine this year.

Before I got going, as ever a specification was drawn up of what I wanted to recreate:

Same setting as BWS – the winter scenery and dark industrial colours seem to compliment BR blue well, and the OHLE was the biggest talking point on the layout, so carrying that on was a must.

Roundy Roundy – The layout needed to accommodate something that could be interpreted as a scale length train. 30 wagon MGR’s were never going to fit in the space available but 18 should give the impression of a full train without dominating the scene.

Double track with independent shunting – The trackplan needed to accommodate the ability to shunt without interrupting on mainline operations to perform run rounds, but also allow for multiple trains to run to keep public interest at a show.

Cameo presentation – The display should be much the same as BWS, although it would be rear operated, with presentation high on the agenda just across a much wider viewing window.

Rather than putting together a series of blog posts to describe construction, I’ve decided to do updates in video form, so to kick things off, here is part 1, covering the background behind the layout:

Next time out, we will look at baseboards, which I built in March 2021 and am only just editing together!!

Oh and a name, well I haven’t got there completely yet, but something a little different is on the cards…. I’ve got 2 ideas on the same theme, and need to make a decision and stop being indecisive…. More on that next time too!

Chris

Enterprise in 4mm

Sorry it’s been a while, it has not been through a lack of desire but I’ve just had other shit to do. Work has been horrific and COVID for everybody has turned a screw in one way or another. My shituation is no better or worse than a million battles we’ve all had to get through, but hey, we made it right?

Since I jury rigged Six Quarters into the loft, in the sort of way she will never come back out, but she can live a life of exile that won’t make me feel guilty for ripping her apart, I have been thinking how to replace her.

I had a long diversion into OO gauge 1950s Bristol, which left everlasting scars, but after the normal merry-go-round of my layout plans I’ve settled upon, by way of 80s France, late in 90s Britain. When EWS had a fleet of diesels and electrics on their arse and embodied the hope of the new century into the ‘Enterprise Network’. A version of BR’s Speedlink for the 21st Century with the 66s landing on our shores like a Norman invasion.

As you know we’ve modelled stuff well outside of our own timespan and things long lost to progress. 99/00 Britain is slap bang in the middle of my memory and OTCM’s ‘Britain’. Modelling your collective memories into a wooden box is a lot more involved than perhaps understanding someone else’s memories and translating nostalgia. Or maybe I’m over thinking it?

But I look to Portchullin and my friend Mark, who has modelled himself as a child on a 1974 holiday, with his actual family on the layout. Is this a richer modelling experience I wonder?

So I find myself wanting to modelling a slice of my past, how I remember it. However it’s worse, or richer depending on your view, as this period is what slingshotted me into a railway career that I am now sixteen years deep. A period so transformative for myself and for the railway in general. So am I modelling a railway I remember or a railway I wished still existed or one that is both? I know, I know it all sounds like an existential crisis.

99/00 is when I truly fell in love with three things, Blink 182, Jessica D and Lima diesels.

So come 2022, I’m in a decent job, I’m apparently a ‘top’ earner, I should be able to live all my teenage dreams. But the trouble is I’ve seen Blink 182 and they weren’t all that, Jessica had 3 kids and lives in badly fitting leggings and I cannot afford Lima Diesels. There’s two reasons, I either had low expectations or the world’s gone mad.

As girls eat pickled eggs in their lingerie on OnlyFans to earn £200 and Bachmann announce £300 Diesels I cannot help hark back to the days Hattons sold ViTrains 47s for £37.

I’m not advocating the continuation of exploiting poorer countries so we can enjoy a hobby at a bargain price, we are just running out of the ability to do our hobby either expensively or cheaply and this can only end badly.

As we know these price increases have done nothing but shove up the 2nd/3rd/4th/5th/6th hand market. Even a toy fair is like having your pants pulled down. The worst is all the detailing suppliers, A1, Craftsman, Westwood (with the exception of Shawplan) have all gone to the wall or stopped completely and who’s going to cut up a £100 Lima 37? Certainly no one wondering between hunger or heating.

Bugger the cost of living crisis, we’ve got a cost of modelling crisis. It’s going to see the not so well off, the not so retired, forced out the hobby. When the monthly budget is eaten away by everything else, who can afford to do this hobby? People say this may hark back to the days of yore when people ‘modelled’, no it won’t, people are no longer conditioned to compromise, or using the most basic of tools. Hell most would not be able to hold a scapel without cutting off their own eyelids.

They’ll be no modelling, they’ll be shaking the box like a salt and pepper grinder. Who’ll want to see or buy compromise when only the very best is available, whatever the cost?

In that vein I’ve started a layout that’s a magnet for expensive models. It’s full of ‘modern’ diesels and electrics, wagons that cost more than a lorry load of baby formula. But I’m doing it Poundland style. It’s going to take me months to buy stuff second hand to do it, I’m going to beg, I’m going to borrow. Most of these pictures are stuff I’ve ‘borrowed’ from Chris. It’s the layout I’ve always wanted, it’s my teenage dream, however it’s an iPad on a Nokia 3310 budget.

Google defines ‘Enterprise’ as “a project or undertaking, especially a bold or complex one.”. Making model trains and an exhibition layout within a cost accessible to all, the term Enterprise seems apt.

An old Lima 60 with Appleby interior and A1 grilles curves round into the FY remembering the halcyon days of Lima being able to shit out a model every day and a few etched bits brought with your pocket money lifting them to a whole new level.

Mainline class 56047 brings in a selection of Chris’ wagons into the yard

This class 08 now has the pride of working on all of my layouts, being repainted more than a graffitied wall, here it sits waiting to test the points and the sector plate

This 47 has had more lives than trigger’s broom, the chassis I got as part of a GFYE 47 when I left my first job. Hellfire.

Westhill Wagon works cant 3D pieces. Leaning into the new world of model trains.

A break from normal service …

On a blog that’s largely dedicated to representing the railway in a way thats so filthy it leaves you wanting to have a shower afterwards, writing something about cleaning track feels a bit odd. As we all know though, cleanliness is next to godliness when it comes to track and the wheels so – noting that a liberal coating of weathering powder over everything increases the amount of dirt our trains pick up (who knew….) – it was time to come up with a way of keeping things clean.

Before anyone starts getting uneasy, don’t worry, we will get to the weathering bit later….

Starting point for this exercise was a Mainline LMS brake van and the Lanarkshire Model Supplies track cleaner kit, which is a nifty bit of apparatus designed for the LMS brake van, and can be purchased Here

In summary, you solder up an etched box, fit it under/in the model and then drop a hefty roller into the box which drags on the track and, when fitted with a cleaning cloth, cleans it. So to get cracking the box was soldered up:

You then need to cut a big hole in the under frame and floor of the brake van to accommodate, before screwing the unit in – that is about that, in its most simplistic form.

I decided to go a bit further and fit some better buffers and new handrails to improve the look of the model. Reference photos showed these vehicles as having low level brake pipes though so I chose not to add these, as with the rest of my vacuum brake stock with similar characteristics. After removing the paint we had something looking like this:

The model was then given a coat of Phoenix BR Bauxite, and lettered using various bits of Modelmaster sheets to represent one of the vehicles constructed by BR in the early 50’s to the LMS design.

Finally, the model was weathered using my usual mix of Tamiya brown/Matt black and NATO Black to fit in with the rest of the fleet. A bit of rust on some of the steelwork seemed to be the norm from prototype photos so this was represented on the end plates and guards duckets.

I aim to use this to run every couple of hours during a show just to make sure things keep moving – I don’t see it as replacing the pre exhibition track cleaning ritual, more topping up and ensuring cleanliness through the day. Hopefully it’ll blend in while doing this job and impact less on the scene than a giant cleaning cloth coming down from out of space!

For anyone interested, I’ve pulled together a quick video showing how the model was put together in a bit more detail:

Chris