Making a New Start

I was tidying up under the baseboard and came across a box containing the unused bits of the buildings on the layout. There was a bit of green wall from the old version of Hogwood mill, so I added it to the office, which had to be very small on the original version - now there's room for a bit of expansion. New shingles are being added and a paint touch-up is needed round the foundations.

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Looks like there's going to be a change of personnel around the C&S with up to six new RR workers arrriving, hopefully by Christmas, thanks to a successful eBay bid. This means at least two current RR workers will re-enter civilian life, namely the Hogwood Agent (as mill foreman at the neighbouring United Mills) and the Engineer on #8 (I acquired a Woodland Scenics engineer some time ago but hadn't got round to making the change). The former engineer figure has become a local farmer visiting the mill, where he's just met a young lady - romance may be in the air!

Other new characters should be a new Agent for each depot, a Fireman for #4, (which currently has a seated Engineer by Woodland Scenics), and a couple of gereral hands to work around the engine house at Cattewater. Finally there should be a conductor to ride on platform of the Drover Caboose.
 
Snowing in N. London this morning; not going out! Made some padlocks for the ventilated boxcar - only trouble is the car needs four of them, not the usual two. Pictures hopefully over the week-end.
 
Almost complete - tanker and boxcar after a weathering session today. Still got the truss-rods to do, and a brake-wheel to add to the boxcar. Glad I did the boxcar; it makes a nice contrast with the rest of the fleet which have the normal solid doors.

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Also did a little preparatory tidying up at the oil depot at Hogwood. Somewhere I've got some plastic net (part of a bag of potatoes bought on holiday in France) which should make a decent chain-link fence across the rear of the site; there should be some in the foreground, but clearances are a bit tight and it would get in the way when rope shunting the siding, so I'll probably leave it out. [edit: having looked for it without success, I think I must have thrown the net away in the last clear-out of junk from under the baseboard]

Still got some pipework to add, the platform needs bracing, and a rack for the oil drums would be a good idea.

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Had hoped to post a picture of the new romance (see 203) but the pix aren't good enough. However I had to open up the cupboard in the eaves today, so here are a couple of pictures of the great Cattewater Canyon, instead.

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Couple of spare hours spent on the layout, tidying up a few "almost completed" projects, like the unpainted ladders, bogies and couplers on the pulp-wood car, re-numbering one of the gondolas from 235 to 23 (three digit numbers now being reserved for leased-out cars), and making a car card for the new tanker. Will probably get to finish detailing the oil terminal over the holiday, along with any other left-overs. Must try and keep away from another new project until 2011!

Meanwhile, thanks for the positive comments, Korm. Visited your website and enjoyed, once again, Will Hay trying his hand at shunting in "Oh, Mr Porter". Brilliant film, well worth another look.
 
Although I didn't start posting here until 20th January, baseboard work on the layout started almost exactly one year ago. To celebrate, here's a picture from a running session back in September.

As a bonus, I've just discovered (more by accident than by designn) how to crop the raw pictures to take out unwanted details round the edge, so have gone back and re-edited some of the more untidy examples in earlier posts.

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korm kormsen said:
did you get my answer to your PM?

anyhow, merry christmas!
Click to expand...

Korm - if you sent a PM in reply, no it hasn't arrived yet. Perhaps overnight. Anyway, many thanks for the seasonal greetings, and here's wishing you the same - and to all readers of this thread.

BTW, I found your packing case printy sheets and have made up a set of them to go in the open doorway of the (very) low relief freight house at Hogwood where they stand in front of a photo of part of the interior of a sawmill - the only wooden shed interior picture I could find. The result is a great improvement on the look before. I'll be busy tomorrow but will try and take a picture of the result as soon as I can.

Shawn, many thanks. Hope you're not too cold, in the snow. Some time to wait until the next train, I guess.
 
C&S said:
korm kormsen said:
did you get my answer to your PM?

anyhow, merry christmas!
Click to expand...

Korm - if you sent a PM in reply, no it hasn't arrived yet. ...
BTW, I found your packing case printy sheets and have made up a set of them to go in the open doorway of the (very) low relief freight house at Hogwood where they stand in front of a photo of part of the interior of a sawmill - the only wooden shed interior picture I could find.
Click to expand...
in that case i did not err, when i saw, that the message was not sent.
have you put your settings not to receive PMs from everybody?

i should have some pics with interiors of warehouses. mainly with barrels, but some with crates too, i think.
but right now im stuffed and tired after the family feed-in. when the next two days with their food battles are over, i will search for them.

ps: my daughters bought me a Newqida passenger car for christmas!!
 
Korm,

Sometimes there are problems receiving PMs because there is an ampersand in the contact name.
I'll Pm you a real email contact, in case you have further difficulties, meanwhile here's a shot of my Christmas Eve project - some of your boxes plus a shed interior that goes quite well with the outside of the building.

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C&S said:
Korm,

Sometimes there are problems receiving PMs because there is an ampersand in the contact name.
I'll Pm you a real email contact, in case you have further difficulties, meanwhile here's a shot of my Christmas Eve project - some of your boxes plus a shed interior that goes quite well with the outside of the building.

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Click to expand...

[align=center]Thats really neat job useing them boxes and the shed inside has got me conviced , spot on ,
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I did a little more work on the oil depot a few days ago. Still not quite sure what to do in the background area as I realised that if there was a fence there it would mean there was no public access to the site. There's a nondescript industry on the backscene which may or may not be part of the Frontier Oil Co property. I think a few experiments are in order - one idea might be a low-relief office made to a smaller scale so as to look further away; not sure if this would work, or not. As I say, room for experiment. Meanwhile I have made a start on some forground pipework, but the ground is still too clean at present.

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Just spent a couple of days "on holiday" in H0 scale, kitbashing a Doodlebug for Lazy River.

However I've not entirely neglected G scale, having worked on some rather drastic surgery on Farmer Tom. Becacuse he'd earlier been altered to become a train Engineer, his pose looked a bit odd out of the cab (L hand clutching his stomach, R arm bent to lean on the cab window-frame). Out of the loco he looked as if he was handing over a small bribe to somebody. Thanks to Milliput he now has one hand in his overalls pocket, the other extended to shake hands with his new lady friend (he's obviously a rather shy and formal individual). For a picture - see the next post.

As I'll need to go back into the cupboard below the baseboard in a week's time I haven't reinstated the moving section of Cattewater yard, so no through running has been possible over the holiday. I did do a bit of limited operating at the other end of the layout and found the track has goit dirtier than I expected, so a clean-up will be needed before the next formal operating day.
 
Tom and Joanne are getting acquainted. Could it be Romance??? If so I'll have to invest in a preacher figure.
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Meanwhile we had some new arrivals today from the Shetlands. Here's one of them, Jim, starting work at Cattewater Oil.
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