Now I must be honest, I had wondered what you were on about - now it all makes sense! As an aside, this has started making me laugh and I can't work out why - those little furry things do look funny though.
-Peter
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Lapford station in N gauge.
- Thread starter Cowley
- Start date
-Peter
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reddragon
Established Member
The series is brilliant, even I watch it & laugh - its on Netflix. Its basically a modernised version of Tom & Jerry. Some are on youtube too
I'll be sure to give it a watch. I bet @Cowley's really pleased we're taking up his thread going on about all this - even if it is funny
-Peter
What even is that? Looks like marmite mixed with Nutella
I don't know what I need, did they still have Nestlé machines in the '80s or are they more a '50s/'60s thing.
https://www.pinterest.ca/pin/573223858801714435/ these are the Nestle machines I remember from the 80s. On a very unrelated note that page is the first time I've ever seen the word swedgers used to describe a legal product.
And without wanting to offend my honourable friend, the member for Devon, I expect he probably shouts "Geroff my land!" whenever someone comes too close...
-Peter
Exactly right! I’m thinking Farmer Palmer from Viz for this one...
Well this has taken a direction that I wasn’t really expecting.
hexagon789
Veteran Member
Thanks for the link, was actually quite an interesting readVending machines were all the rage in the 1950s/1960s. More related to what you actually asked about, this seems to have the answer to your question: https://yacf.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=64010.0
-Peter
Fair enough, though aren't we all kids at heart really?
That's the type of thing I thought of, but I did think they might be more a fifties/sixties object
They weren't new, and I don't think they made it past the end of the 80s, but I can often remember sharing a bar from one while we waited in the freezing cold waiting room at Stourbridge junction in the early 80s, with people taking it in turns to hit the timer switch on the 1 bar electric heater.Thanks for the link, was actually quite an interesting read
Fair enough, though aren't we all kids at heart really?
That's the type of thing I thought of, but I did think they might be more a fifties/sixties object
hexagon789
Veteran Member
So essentially having a Nestlé or similar machine from the 1960s would be in order really, if they lasted out the 1980s in places
reddragon
Established Member
Selecta machines lasted at my local station until a few years ago
hexagon789
Veteran Member
Ones that would have been around in the 1980s?
More railway stuff 10/04/2021...
Hello everyone.
I’ve got a few more things done on the Eggishford side of the railway. First of all a quick ballast nightmare story for you to chuckle at (alternatively, if that sounds like watching paint dry then skip this part)...
The original ballast that I bought for Lapford was quite a light colour and was very fine - can’t stand course ballast on an N gauge railway as it gives the game away straight away.
Unfortunately though I’d bought that on the recommendation of Dave in the model shop in Exeter who’s since closed, and even if he wasn’t closed he would be closed anyway due to Covid.
Enter left eBay... Only the first lot I bought was a horrible colour so I ended up hoovering it all off again before it dried...
Next I borrowed two different types from my best friend but again the colour was all wrong (I mean it looked blue and it was still too course)! This time though I left it to go hard and bought a bucket full of lime pointing home from the house we’re knocking down, I sieved it down to dust and went over the top of the ballast, pva’d it and once dry sanded the surface and toned it down with various thinned down paints.
An absolute nightmare basically but in the end it just about looks fine.
Here’s a photo showing it and the road markings which I did around the same time:
Other jobs on the go were turning these fairly awful half barrier level crossings into so semblance of the real thing, which meant chopping them about and extending them and also adding my own dangly bits of metal underneath:
Then we have the river which has started to receive a bit of varnish and also you can see the foot crossing at the end of the platform as well as a bit of point rodding which runs from the box, under the road to the points at the start of the passing loop:
I was doing this wire fence and wall by the signalbox that separates the path to the Barnstaple platform earlier:
But then I saw this angle and thought I’d post it because it shows the cant on the track as it curves into the station quite well. I’m really glad I did this now as it gives it something a bit extra...
I think that’s about it for now. I might get around to doing some greenery next week and I’m also making a bridge for the Barnstaple end as a scenic break which I’ll post some pictures of when it’s a bit more finished.
I took this photo of Lapford earlier which reminded me of a summer Saturday. Thanks for reading folks!
Hello everyone.
I’ve got a few more things done on the Eggishford side of the railway. First of all a quick ballast nightmare story for you to chuckle at (alternatively, if that sounds like watching paint dry then skip this part)...
The original ballast that I bought for Lapford was quite a light colour and was very fine - can’t stand course ballast on an N gauge railway as it gives the game away straight away.
Unfortunately though I’d bought that on the recommendation of Dave in the model shop in Exeter who’s since closed, and even if he wasn’t closed he would be closed anyway due to Covid.
Enter left eBay... Only the first lot I bought was a horrible colour so I ended up hoovering it all off again before it dried...
Next I borrowed two different types from my best friend but again the colour was all wrong (I mean it looked blue and it was still too course)! This time though I left it to go hard and bought a bucket full of lime pointing home from the house we’re knocking down, I sieved it down to dust and went over the top of the ballast, pva’d it and once dry sanded the surface and toned it down with various thinned down paints.
An absolute nightmare basically but in the end it just about looks fine.
Here’s a photo showing it and the road markings which I did around the same time:
Other jobs on the go were turning these fairly awful half barrier level crossings into so semblance of the real thing, which meant chopping them about and extending them and also adding my own dangly bits of metal underneath:
Then we have the river which has started to receive a bit of varnish and also you can see the foot crossing at the end of the platform as well as a bit of point rodding which runs from the box, under the road to the points at the start of the passing loop:
I was doing this wire fence and wall by the signalbox that separates the path to the Barnstaple platform earlier:
But then I saw this angle and thought I’d post it because it shows the cant on the track as it curves into the station quite well. I’m really glad I did this now as it gives it something a bit extra...
I think that’s about it for now. I might get around to doing some greenery next week and I’m also making a bridge for the Barnstaple end as a scenic break which I’ll post some pictures of when it’s a bit more finished.
I took this photo of Lapford earlier which reminded me of a summer Saturday. Thanks for reading folks!
That does sound like quite the nightmare! I can definitely sympathise with you with regards to ballast: it's really difficult to get the right stuff to begin with in my experience, let alone getting the right stuff to match bits you've already done. The road markings look really nicely-done too: The way the roads slope down to the level of the railway really adds to the scene.
I think I'm going to start calling those fences underneath the barriers 'dangly bits' from now on...
Seeing the crossing barriers on the layout, and weathered too, makes them look super. Even if there are a few gaps in the scenery at the moment, that picture is really evocative of a normal 1980s railways day (I say that - it looks like photos I've seen at least).
More lovely scenery.
We were talking in another thread about the little bits which add loads to a layout, and those bits you've added certainly match that description.How did you make that? I assume some form of fishing net?
Superelevation really does add to a layout. Another nice addition is the way the road over the crossing is at an angle between the tracks because of the cant on the curves.
I love it! It's scenery like this which I really want to try and replicate on my own layout. The colours, and the greenery overall, just look superb.
-Peter
Ashley Hill
Established Member
Lapford is looking superb. Love Eggesfords Plywood Wonder signal box. Somebody told me once that it ended up at Winkleigh but I've never had it confirmed. A friend who once had a bus up there said he hadn't seen it.
Gloster
Established Member
The Signalling Atlas and Signal Box Directory, Third Edition by Peter Kay (Signalling Record Society, 2010) says it was moved to the Wembworthy Outward Bound Centre in 1989.
EDIT: A search on google finds nothing that fits the description of an Outward Bound Centre at Wembworthy, so presumably it is closed or the information was wrong.
EDIT II: Further searching has found it (I think). It is nearer to
Eggesford Station and is or was a private outdoor education centre, but it is not clear if it still operates or if the box is still there. If the box is there it is presumably behind the other buildings and not visible from the road.
Last edited:
hexagon789
Veteran Member
Despite your trials and tribulations with the ballasting, the final result looks good. I like the nice dark colour of it.
Road markings top notch too.
It gives it that extra 'realism' factor, the canting looks spot on - just as in photos of trains leaving round the curves. It's a nice shot in its own right, because it has that flavour of realism to it, you can exactly picture a 33 coming round a curved leaning over like that irl
But it's this photo that really sums it up - talk about picture postcard material!
Looks superb.
Same here, Cowley's layout is like the one you see in magazines, think - "oh, that's a good idea" or "I'd love to recreate that" and then go off and try to even partly emulate it in a scenic sense on one's own layout.That does sound like quite the nightmare! I can definitely sympathise with you with regards to ballast: it's really difficult to get the right stuff to begin with in my experience, let alone getting the right stuff to match bits you've already done. The road markings look really nicely-done too: The way the roads slope down to the level of the railway really adds to the scene.
I think I'm going to start calling those fences underneath the barriers 'dangly bits' from now on...
Seeing the crossing barriers on the layout, and weathered too, makes them look super. Even if there are a few gaps in the scenery at the moment, that picture is really evocative of a normal 1980s railways day (I say that - it looks like photos I've seen at least).
More lovely scenery.
How did you make that? I assume some form of fishing net?
Superelevation really does add to a layout. Another nice addition is the way the road over the crossing is at an angle between the tracks because of the cant on the curves.
I love it! It's scenery like this which I really want to try and replicate on my own layout. The colours, and the greenery overall, just look superb.
-Peter
Iskra
Established Member
Excellent work! Those road markings look excellent!
When you come around to doing greenery can you give us a commentary on that please as that's something I need to learn. Do you do it straight on to your layer of cork?
When you come around to doing greenery can you give us a commentary on that please as that's something I need to learn. Do you do it straight on to your layer of cork?
reddragon
Established Member
How do you get good pictures of your layout? I find OO pics a challenge so N gauge must be quite tricky?
Thanks for your comments Peter. It was your photo of the super elevation that gave me the final kick up the backside to do it after being told by someone that you wouldn’t be able to see it in N gauge. Well clearly you can!
Re the wire fencing - that was actually an H0 Busch kit but I only used the actual wire and I made my own posts up and had to cut the wire in half length ways to get it to the right height. The good thing about that being that I’ll get twice the length out of it.
Somewhat astonished to read this!
I had no idea that it survived. You’d think it would have just been pulled down and set on fire somewhere...
Mine’s only really an approximation of it in its last few years but it was such a distinctive structure on the line that I just had to have it.
Thanks very much Hexagon. If I can do it you can do it. It’s my first attempt at anything in this scale and all things considered it hasn’t really taken that long to get to this point really.
More than happy to do that Iskra. I’ve got a little bit at the Barnstaple end to do still so I’ll explain what I’m doing as I go along and post it on here. There’s always a layer of filler on top of the cork just to get it smooth, but it’s very easy and barely needs sanding if you get it on right.
Last night I was making up some bits of removed track and the new bridge abutments for the scenic break at the Barnstaple end while we were watching Line of Duty.
I just do them on my tatty old iPhone 7. The trick is often to get down to people level, but more importantly to take the phone further back from the railway and then zoom in as it seems to give it a more substantial feel.
The difference between this:
And this basically:
I also use photos like that to see if there’s bits that need improving that you haven’t necessarily noticed with the mk1 eyeball...
Both look great, but I think what's working well with the zoom is that the loco is getting the focus and everything else is getting a very slight blur, which is an agreeable and natural look as well as hiding any imperfections. Obviously the fact that it's a more likely viewpoint for humans helps as well.Thanks for your comments Peter. It was your photo of the super elevation that gave me the final kick up the backside to do it after being told by someone that you wouldn’t be able to see it in N gauge. Well clearly you can!
Re the wire fencing - that was actually an H0 Busch kit but I only used the actual wire and I made my own posts up and had to cut the wire in half length ways to get it to the right height. The good thing about that being that I’ll get twice the length out of it.
Somewhat astonished to read this!
I had no idea that it survived. You’d think it would have just been pulled down and set on fire somewhere...
Mine’s only really an approximation of it in its last few years but it was such a distinctive structure on the line that I just had to have it.
Thanks very much Hexagon. If I can do it you can do it. It’s my first attempt at anything in this scale and all things considered it hasn’t really taken that long to get to this point really.
More than happy to do that Iskra. I’ve got a little bit at the Barnstaple end to do still so I’ll explain what I’m doing as I go along and post it on here. There’s always a layer of filler on top of the cork just to get it smooth, but it’s very easy and barely needs sanding if you get it on right.
Last night I was making up some bits of removed track and the new bridge abutments for the scenic break at the Barnstaple end while we were watching Line of Duty.
View attachment 94195
I just do them on my tatty old iPhone 7. The trick is often to get down to people level, but more importantly to take the phone further back from the railway and then zoom in as it seems to give it a more substantial feel.
The difference between this:
View attachment 94197
And this basically:
View attachment 94196
I also use photos like that to see if there’s bits that need improving that you haven’t necessarily noticed with the mk1 eyeball...
Yes I think you’re right about that. I quite like getting the camera into positions that you can’t actually get your head into because they give it a different perspective and more of a walking around the place feel.
reddragon
Established Member
I know when I have taken photos so that I can read wagon numbers I had to zoom in from a distance like this
Blimey that’s some detail on that!
reddragon
Established Member
OO gauge
You're very welcomeThanks for your comments Peter. It was your photo of the super elevation that gave me the final kick up the backside to do it after being told by someone that you wouldn’t be able to see it in N gauge. Well clearly you can!
Re the wire fencing - that was actually an H0 Busch kit but I only used the actual wire and I made my own posts up and had to cut the wire in half length ways to get it to the right height. The good thing about that being that I’ll get twice the length out of it.
You've made it look very convincing with the super-elevation: it can be a right pain when it goes wrong but when it works, it really works.I'll look into that kit then - there might be a couple of places on my layout which could do with some fencing like that. A clever way of getting more fencing - shame it's more of an N gauge-only trick
Both of those photos look lovely. They both capture the scene really well but the second one does a much better job of showing what it would look like to a miniature person standing there. One of the things the guy on the Budget Model Railways YouTube channel says is that getting shots of trains going around from lower down makes them look so much more realistic: normally, we just view models from above.
-Peter
reddragon
Established Member
I am going to have to try super elevation before I start ballasting to see if starting off a 20 car rake has any problems! Would make my reverse curves super cool!You're very welcome
I'll look into that kit then - there might be a couple of places on my layout which could do with some fencing like that. A clever way of getting more fencing - shame it's more of an N gauge-only trick
Both of those photos look lovely. They both capture the scene really well but the second one does a much better job of showing what it would look like to a miniature person standing there. One of the things the guy on the Budget Model Railways YouTube channel says is that getting shots of trains going around from lower down makes them look so much more realistic: normally, we just view models from above.
-Peter
I'm not sure how much of an effect super-elevation would have on a longer train: I've tried with some of my longer rakes and they seem fine. I'd expect that on a layout with more gentle curves, the super-elevation wouldn't need to be as dramatic to make an impression?
-Peter
Gloster
Established Member
The idea behind the Plywood Wonders was that they were intended to be capable of being dismantled and re-erected at another location. Several indeed were, including Eggesford, which had previously been at Ashendon Junction; some of those moved were much larger than Eggesford.
It should work fine really because the point of strain would be lower down due to the cant if you get what I mean?
I just packed mine out with plasticard until it looked about right and I’ve run some long (twelve coach) trains through it without any problems.
It would look amazing on your long sweeping curves though I must say...
That makes a lot of sense but it’s still a new bit of learning for me. I did read somewhere recently that there were other similar ones around but I don’t know where I read it.