Oh! That British Bloke -

Boltorr Embankment to Bolt Tor Tunnel

Posted on March 9, 2016 by That British Bloke

I know. I really need to get on with establishing the rest of the landscape.

But occasionally just putting a couple of engines and coaches on the tracks give a preview of what will eventually be. It’s a carrot.

So currently I’m still working on the western aspect of the Boltorr to Bolt Tor tunnel transition.

The Bolt Tor tunnel portal – 2mm MDF and DAS clay chips

I’m currently building the tunnel portal. I fabricated the basic structure from 2mm MDF and have embarked on the task of applying each individual stone in order to give the maximum plausible relief.

The “stones” were formed by rolling DAS air-curing clay to about 1mm thickness onto a piece of non-stick aluminium foil. I previously screwed the foil into a concentrated ball and then carefully unfolded and levelled the sheet. I did this two or three times in order to generate a surface which could represent the texture of rough-hewn granite blocks.

Once the clay cured – this took a couple of days – I started to break the resultant sheet into small chips, trying to keep the size at around 4mm-6mm pieces. I used a pair of snips to cut more dressed stones for the arch, pillars and coping stones.

Another work in progress …

I placed the dressed stones onto a little PVA glue spread on the MDF. I haven’t worried too much about getting a smooth arch shape, concentrating how the effect looks on the model. I’ll file the edge back to the MDF when everything’s dry and set.

Then it’s a question of setting random chips of clay, however they will go, to fill in the gaps. The PVA dissolves the edges of the clay a little so placing the chips snuggly is a simple technique.

The “history” of this portal means that, hopefully, the result looks like it’s in the vernacular – rough but functional masonry. Frankly, the thought of building the Boltorr Reservoir and other masonry using this method is rather formidable. Fortunately, the history of the railway in this area means that later structures were built with good old Victorian stone masons, not a bunch of French prisoners of the Napoleonic wars, so I’ll be using textured styrene sheet.

Apart from the portal, I’ve done a little work on the embankment. There’s a drainage run-off from the tunnel which drops down the base of the embankment. It might not meet with the approval of railway civil engineers, but the tunnel pre-dates the railway by fifty years … and, of course, it’s my world, right?

I traced the course of the drain by dripping diluted PVA down the slope towards the Boltorr Brook, sprinkling a little grey and brown gritty texture to define the line. I’ll be applying some longer grass and plant fibres to give a boundary for the water and, when I get around to eventually rendering the water in the Brook, I’ll use any excess to represent the water running down the run-off.

And here it is … A pannier tank and auto-trailer combination on the embankment, having just dropped down from the high point of the Boltorr branch, through the tunnel, having emerged into the daylight.

I’m considering getting another auto-trailer so I can make up a “sandwich” train which was a common setup on the branch-lines around Plymouth.

‘Til next time … tootle-pip!

So far, so good … ignore the white of the uncured PVA … we’re getting there

Posted in Boltorr Road Halt, Modelling, Railways | Tagged auto-trailer, Bolt Tor Tunnel, Boltorr Road Halt, DAS clay, landscape, masonry, MDF, model railways, modelling, pannier tank engine, PVA glue, sandwich train | Leave a comment

I Went Down To The River …

Posted on March 5, 2016 by That British Bloke

… Studying about that good ol’ way …

The ancient Boltorr Brook is now reduced to an overflow from the Boltorr Reservoir. Consequently, at this point it’s fairly deep in the middle, but otherwise pretty lazy.

After passing over the dam and other water works it progresses under the Boltorr embankment and eventually, one assumes, well, at least in my universe, becomes a minor tributary of the Tamar.

The dry river bank – granite boulders by grey Woodland Scenics’ Talus rocks

Dartmoor streams generally cut themselves through the layer of peaty soil, sometimes exposing an underlying granite pavement, and are often bordered by an honour guard of weathered, grey boulders.

This is a characteristic I hope to render on my little bit of Devon in the United States.

At the moment I’m just trialling the application of static grass and other meadow-like features.

I was very pleased with my initial experiments on the embankment and just couldn’t stop myself seeing what could be done on the river bank.

I used a mixture of sizes of Woodland Scenics’ Talus rocks. Grey seems to work well representing granite, the rock of Dartmoor, although I’ll probably add a bit of definition – lichen, moss, strata, inclusions – with weathering powders later on.

I spread some PVA glue on the banks of the river course and arranged a random selection of “boulders” bearing in mind some are going to be submerged when “water” is eventually added to the scene. I find that Elmer’s Glue-All is a useful adhesive for landscaping. It’s virtually invisible when it’s set and dilutes well for delicate work.

I then prepared the ground behind the river bank with wet-water and spread a thin layer of Noch’s Grass-glue over the area I wanted to treat.

I used the static applicator to apply a sparse layer of 6mm grass concentrating around the boulders . Then I followed it up with a more concentrated application of 2mm fibres.

I think the images show the results well, although the adhesives are still showing up white. The glues clarify and become virtually invisible as they dry.

The images show the area before I cleaned up any loose fibres lying around. I placed a couple of grass tufts in the scene, but they’re a bit too spring season like, so they’ll be replaced with some more appropriate toned back colour soon.

Cruel close-up, but it looks pretty good. The dense green tufts are going to be reeled back in for a more appropriate tone and loose strands have yet to be cleared up

Posted in Boltorr Road Halt, Modelling, Railways | Tagged Boltorr Brook, boulders, Elmer's Glue-All, granite, Grass-glue, Noch, river bank, static applicator, static grass, Woodland Scenic's Talus | Leave a comment

Static Grass – first test

Posted on March 4, 2016 by That British Bloke

You know how it is … I can’t wait …

Landscaping on the Boltorr branch is only half done – let alone the trackwork. But I couldn’t wait to try out the Magic Grass Machine.

Basically, the groundwork has been laid with Woodland’s Shaper Sheet and a skim of Plaster of Paris. This has resulted in a pretty resilient surface which I finished off with Woodland’s Earth Undercoat. This took a couple of days to really dry out in my dry, but cool basement.

Modelling Grassland and Landscape Detailing – Gordon Gravett – Wild Swan Publications, Ltd – ISBN 978 1 908763 06 8

I found that Gordon Gravett’s “Modelling Grassland …” was an inspiration and source of technique and expertise on rendering a realistic representation of grass in the model environment.

It became obvious that any realistic looking grass would have to use the static application technique.

I used a Noch GrasMaster static applicator and various manufacturers’ static grass mixes from Noch, Woodland’s Scenic, SilFlor and Scenic Express. In this case I used mixes between 2mm and 6mm long.

Application turned out to be really easy. I used Noch Grass Slime as an adhesive. This appears to be not much more than a PVA mix, although I imagine it’s formulated to be able to take a static charge.

I moistened the area of ground to be treated with “wet water“. This is merely a spray of water mixed with, literally, a drop of washing-up-liquid / dish soap to help break down surface tension and aid the application of the glue which I blended in with a large brush so that the “ground” was very thinly coated.

Static grass after first application on the embankment

I loaded up the GrasMaster with a blend of 2mm fibres, chose an appropriate grid and pushed a pin into the ground to provide an earth for the grass machine.

I connected the earth lead from the GrasMaster and switched it on. This generates a 20kV static tension which encourages the grass fibres to cross the gap and stick into the glue vertically so it really looks as if it’s standing up. I followed up with a sprinkle of 6mm fibres to represent some longer grasses.

I finished up with a (careful) blast from a heat gun to give the lie of the grass some direction from the prevailing wind from the west.

So, at my first attempt I am very pleased. I think the images speak for themselves.

C’mon. It does look like a grassy bank. The earth colour peeks through pretty convincingly too

Posted in Boltorr Road Halt, Modelling, Railways | Tagged GrasMaster, grass, landscaping, Noch, static adhesive, static grass, wet water | Leave a comment

Boltorr Beattie

Posted on February 29, 2016 by That British Bloke

L&SWR Beattie Well Tank 30585 emerging from Bolt Tor tunnel – still a long way to go

Sometimes I can’t stop myself. Here’s a L&SWR Beattie well tank 2-4-0WT emerging from Bolt Tor tunnel (in construction).

I was just trying to get a sense of the scale and perspective of the landscape. You can’t really tell from this image, but I’m very pleased.

The Real Thing – 30858 – at Buckinghamshire Railway Centre

The Beattie well tank was originally designed in the 1860s and the last engines continued to work on British Railways into the 1960s. 30585 was one of the last engines based at Plymouth Friary engine shed, although mostly used on the Wadebridge branch in north Cornwall.

This example is preserved and continues to run on the Buckinghamshire Railway Centre.

This image has also indicated that I need to look at “focus stacking” to attain a decent depth of field.

Posted in Boltorr Road Halt, Modelling, Railways | Tagged Beattie 2-4-0WT, Bolt Tor Tunnel, model photography | Leave a comment

Boltorr Road | Crossing the Bolt Brook

Posted on February 27, 2016 by That British Bloke

The right hand half – southern section – of my little world of Boltorr Road Halt consists largely of a scenic vista of the railway – perched on an embankment – crossing the Bolt Brook, a small river which has been dammed by those damned Victorians a little upstream, in the service of providing drinking water to Plymouth.

Both sides of the Bolt Brook roll down to the banks. Looks like water is going to be the tricky bit.

After crossing the Brook, the track dives into the heart of Bolt Tor itself, burrowing towards the Tamar and The Three Towns, or as we know it nowadays, The ‘Muff.

The needs of Plymouth means the Brook now only functions as an overflow, so it’s pretty shallow. I’m trying to give it the look of the Plym at Cadover Bridge. Clear, stony, rocky even.

The ground surface has largely been formed from Woodland Scenic’s Shaper Sheet, supported by their Profile Board and other scraps as found. Once coated with Plaster of Paris, the surface is surprisingly resilient.

No. I couldn’t walk on it, but as long as no one takes a mallet to it, it seems solid and light enough, with minimal support.

In the first image the railway crosses the embankment, and over a yet to be imagined bridge. In the top left-hand side, the passing loop headshunt hovers over the landscape awaiting its granite retaining wall. There’s going to be another spring running by, down to a small marshy area by the brook. The retaining wall will, in part, be founded on some granite outcrops, hopefully looking as if it’s really founded in the ground there.

I suppose that anything to do with water in a model environment is going to be problematic. By its nature it’s dynamic, alive. Yet our models, dioramas or renderings are kind of fixed in time and space. But water just wants to keep moving. Basically, it has to look like water not a sheet of glass or plastic.

Looking towards south-east, site of the the rail bridge vaults the Bolt Brook. A little bit of granite pavement forms the bed of the river

So I’m still looking into possibilities. Unfortunately, the best model “water” tends to have a sticky surface and can be plagued with specks and dust. So currently, this is a work in progress.

But still, nothing, water-wise anyway, can happen until I work out what’s happening between Boltorr Reservoir Dam and the railway bridge. I can see a lot of cardboard and sticky-tape mock-ups in my near future, before finalising what’s going to be.

To be honest, I’m not really happy with the way the Brook is shaping up. I’m not finding it convincing, so it’s possible I might rip it out and start again on the water course.

However, you don’t know that until you’ve tried it, and virtually every process on this layout is a first time for me.

However, landscaping is a priority because I don’t want to commit to track laying before the major items, road bridge, Boltorr Reservoir, and Bolt Tor tunnel are finalised, even just in cardboard mock-up.

The new river bed. The edges are to be softened with boulders and marshes, reeds and general water plants. Also a bit of granite pavement to be placed in the murky depths

PS: 28.02.2016 – So I went ahead and ripped out the river bed. I replaced it with an incredibly skilled application of Shaper Sheet with a layer of Plaster of Paris to firm it up.

The banks of the Brook look hard, but they’re going to be softened with boulders, reeds and general bogginess. There also needs to be a bit of retention wall built in a couple of places.

I’ll be detailing the underwater parts of the river with rockiness and weediness, darkening the centre of the course to help suggest depth.

The river is now too deep to be able to cross with stepping stones, so I might need to consider a rickety wooden- or even a clapper-bridge for intrepid Ramblers.

Now I really have to start thinking what happens between Boltorr Reservoir and the railway bridge.

Posted in Modelling, Railways | Tagged Bolt Brook, Bolt Tor, Boltorr Road Halt, landscape, Plaster of Paris, representing model water, Woodland Shaper Sheet | Leave a comment

Boltorr Manifesto

Posted on February 21, 2016 by That British Bloke

Some people just don’t get it, do they?

Of course, they’re the same people who think you knit because you can’t afford to buy a sweater, or ride a bicycle because you can’t afford a car. You walk, or catch a bus or a train because you’re a loser not because you see a greater, sustainable, more cohesive, more human connection and community. Or play with toy trains, or dolls’ houses, or collect owls.

Is it you complainin’! What’s up with you? You are, essentially, someone who suffers from a distinct lack of imagination, empathy or values. Joy, essentially.

Chris Nevard’s Combwich set in the Polden’s in Somerset, UK

In my case I’ve resurrected a passion I’ve had for many years. That is, to build a model railway.

People who build model railways have any number of aims. Just watching your trains run round in circles; squeezing as much as possible on an eight by four; running to prototype rules; whatever. Playing toy trains for all I care. Just so long as we get joy out of it.

Sure, it’s an escape from reality, from this mortal coil. But what’s wrong with that for a few minutes a day?

There’s a store near me which is BIG on Lionel trains. Lionel trains are BIG. Essentially very nice – and expensive – toy trains which run on rails and curves which could never be on a real railroad. But they are amazing, and amazingly expensive, of course. But, I would never dream of demeaning a Lionel aficionado for “playing with toy trains” because that’s their bag and besides, Lionel is magnificent.

The Spruce, Coal & Timber Railroad one sunny day

However, for me, I’m looking to build a world that through any eye is plausible, virtually indistinguishable from the real world, yet not the real world.

Yes, not the real world, because in my imagination there is another, maybe more. Who knows how the cosmos works? At every instant does another universe split off?

My aim with Boltorr Road is to explore another universe which might have been, or who knows by the very act of imagining it might actually exist in some barely comprehensible quantum.

I’ve included three images from three model railways which I aspire to. Each has had critics who, when images of the layout have been published come out with, “Well that would never happen”, or, “That loco never ran that headcode”, or, well … who cares?”

Oakley Green MPD. You could have snapped this with your Instamatic

The thing is they encapsulate the ethos of a railway so that when I look at them I think, “Yes. That’s a railway. I really think that’s the way it is, or at least, was. I believe it.”

Equally importantly, these are models which have been executed in a comparatively small space yet convey a sense of a greater reality set in their builders’ universe.

Boltorr Road Halt is a figment of my imagination. That’s not to say it could never have been, but if it had, it would look something like the world I’m building in the basement. It will look like some little station set on the edge of Dartmoor, on the Devon and Cornwall marches on some vague summer’s day between the 1950s and the 1980s and you will believe it really once was. Maybe you’ll even recall it. I already know it’s out there …

Oakley Green MPD
Spruce, Coal & Timber Railroad
Combwich

And now, the year moves on. I’ll soon be back to one of my other juvenile passions. Riding bicycles without getting cold. I can’t wait to bore you about that as well …

Posted in Modelling, Railways | Tagged a layout in a galaxy far far away, Boltorr Manifesto, Boltorr Road Halt, Chris Nevard, Combwich, Lionel, model railroads, model railways, modelling, Oakley Green MPD, playing trains, Spruce Coal and Timber Railroad, toy trains | Leave a comment

Boltorr Road – 20160218 -Terraforming

Posted on February 18, 2016 by That British Bloke

I’m in the process of getting the basics of the topography of the layout before I finally fix down the track.

First application of Shaper Sheet over an armature of plywood space-frame and Profile Boards.

I’m using Woodland Scenics’ Shaper Sheet for the surface. It’s a very interesting material being a thick aluminium foil with a bonded textile surface on one side. Basically, I cut out a suitable shaped piece and scrunch it up then carefully smooth it out to the degree of the ground it’s supposed to represent. The surface is fairly resilient but will be reinforced by a layer of fabric and plaster on top and expanded foam underneath if required.

In this case, I’ve kept the surface to the left of the blue line fairly smooth because it’s supposed to be an artificial embankment supporting the track. Land to the right is “natural” Dartmoor.

In the case of Boltorr Road the land is rolling down on the west side of Dartmoor, so the ground can be pretty rugged looking. I’m hoping that some horizontal folds can be made to represent strata of the underlying granite. But I’m not talking the north face of the Eiger here, just ancient, weathered outcrops.

The image shows the position of the southern exit tunnel and terrain running down to a small river. The void to the left of the track has to accommodate a small reservoir dam and run-offs. This is actually quite hard to envisage in the limited space there, so I’ll be making a cardboard mock-up before finalising the groundwork between the dam and rail tracks. I want to avoid the impression everything has been shoe-horned in.

I’m going to have to follow a similar procedure for the tunnel mouth, a card mock-up before building a portal and blending it into the steep face of Bolt Tor. The cardboard tube is a found item which I hope will form a basis for the bore through the Tor.

The blue line is laundry bluing dribbled down the hill to find a natural course for a drain or spring running through the tunnel then down the slope to the river. I suspect this might be an issue for anyone who knows anything about civil engineering, so I’m open to confining the spring to a culvert.

To the left of the line the track eases out of the tunnel cutting and onto the embankment and bridge across the river to Boltorr Road Halt itself.

The current state of the game. I’m considering how to get a small reservoir dam behind the embankment where the trees are. The run-off will form the basis of the stream

Posted in Modelling, Railways | Tagged Boltorr Road Halt, bridge, Dartmoor, embankment, granite, landscape, model railroads, model railways, modelling, Profile Boards, reservoir dam, river, Shaper Sheets, tunnel, Woodland Scenics | Leave a comment

Boltorr Road – 20160215 – Getting the lie of the land

Posted on February 15, 2016 by That British Bloke

Before there were railways … in fact before humans imposed their mark on the Earth there was The Landscape, formed by billions of years of geology and evolution and then whatever scars we mere mortals could impose on its surface.

Starting on the lie of the land – the topography of Boltorr Road Halt – starting to be developed from the southern tunnel exit

Now, railway modellers get their satisfaction at many different levels.

I’m a member of several model railway discussion groups whose members ambitions vary from those who get great satisfaction from layouts that, to me, seem one step up from a toy train set, to those that are detailed to the highest degree and level of realism and authenticity.

I’m not going to disparage any one of them. Everyone is entitled to their own model of the world of railways.

However, my bugbear is the layout set on an 8ft x 4ft slab of plywood, composite or MDF.

I’m very happy, pleased even, that lots of people like to see their collection run around on this two dimensional world. I have no trouble appreciating the fun in that.

However, I’m seeking a world that seems plausible and authentic, not necessarily to those rivet counters and historical record buffs who delight in trivia. I actually don’t care that a particular engine might not have worked on a particular line with a particular rake of rolling stock – and, by the way, those signals are wrong too … But it has to look plausible. It could have happened. And in my quantum, hyper-dimensional world, it actually has to look like it did.

From the northern road bridge scenic cut with the profile yet to be cut

Ideally, I might have started from a representation of a 3D portion of the world and carved cuttings, tunnels and embankments like the original railway civil engineers.

Instead, I laid out a horizontal plane just wide enough to take a track bed, and have tried to work the landscape around it in a manner that looks realistic. That means there has to be a way for the land to be represented below the plane of the track, as well as above it.

My first working representation of Boltorr Road Halt. As I work my way through trying to represent the ups and downs and features of this tiny part of the Devon & Cornwall marches I’ve become aware of the constraints topography imposes on the perception of the model

My other preoccupation has been to devise scenic breaks around the edge of the layout. That is to develop, what are in fact, optical illusions to disguise the boundaries of the baseboard and give the impression of the locality, and indeed, the world stretching out beyond this 8ft x 2 ft fragment of my universe.

A scene on the Spruce Coal & Timber Railroad. Where does the model end and the world begin?

At the moment, I’m thinking that the northern – left – exit from the first inklings of Boltorr will be under a road bridge, the boundary Dartmoor stone walls curving around and descending, with the lane behind the vestiges of the station to a level from where the platform can be accessed.

The southern tunnel exit still waiting to acquire a plausible topography

To the south – right, towards Plymouth “in reality”, the track has to disappear into a tunnel, ostensibly under Bolt Tor, but it has to look as if it’s been carved into something solid, like granite, not just a papier-maché lump.

The up stream entrance of the river/stream which flows across the landscape from east to west is causing me some thought, although more and more, I’m thinking of making it a Dartmoor dam, something like Burrator with the distant horizon visible over its ramparts.

But who knows? I feel a bit like Slartibartfast draughting the Norwegian fjords. Fun tho’, isn’t it?

Posted in Modelling, Railways | Tagged Boltorr Road Halt, landscape, model railroads, model railways, modelling, Norwegian fjords, scenary, the world the universe and everything | Leave a comment

Boltorr Road – 20160212 – Going DCC

Posted on February 12, 2016 by That British Bloke

The major difference from the time of my first faltering steps in railway modelling has been the introduction of DCC – Digital Command Control.

A DCC decoder chip usually fitted inside the model locomotive

When I first started the most common type of train control was 12vDC transmitted directly through the two rails which constitute the track and picked up by the wheels on the locomotive and onwards to the motor. Other means were still around at that time, and indeed still are for some enthusiasts. Some older British outline models used 12vDC with a third rail or studs running between the rails, and there were some other more proprietary systems like Märklin which used centre studs and 16vAC.

There are a number of issues with 2-rail. Firstly, all the locomotives on the layout potentially receive the same feed so if you want just one to move, or move more independently you have to be able to isolate sections the track so that your feed only reaches the locomotive you want to control. There are also issues with feeds through points/switches and if you want to have a reverse loop or triangle on your line. But, of course, visually it is the most realistic.

In practice though, it meant that any model railway which constituted much more than a circle and a siding required sectioning and switching in a manner very similar to a real railway, so there was much to be said for it.

Boltorr Rd’s NCE Power Pro / ProCab r combination

The DCC model train control we’re familiar with today was developed in the 1980s and acquired a common world standard in the early 1990s.

In a nutshell, the entire track-work on the layout receives a constant AC supply, generally around 16v, over which digital signals are overlaid and then sensed and interpreted by a decoder circuit installed in each engine. Each chip is allocated a unique address number and only acts on commands transmitted to that address from the handset, or cab. Decoder equipped Cobalt IP Digital points motors can also be controlled from the cab. The cab also supports macros and consists – running two or more locomotives together as a single unit. There is still a need for some current switching at pointwork, and loops still require a polarity switch, although this can be automated in DCC.

Below is a schematic for Boltorr Road showing the basic connections.

The system is divided into two linked regions, the power bus feeds the locomotives and the accessory bus the points motors. There is a circuit breaker to protect against short circuits and overloads

Next jobs; fit decoder chips to locomotives and programme the crossover motors so they digitally interlock; start on terraforming landscape

Posted in Modelling, Railways, Techie | Tagged Boltorr Road DCC schematic, Boltorr Road Halt, Cobalt IP Digital points motors, DCC, decoder addresses, Digital Command Control, NCE Power Pro, NCE ProCab r, points motors | Leave a comment

Oh! That British Bloke

Boltorr Embankment to Bolt Tor Tunnel

I Went Down To The River …

Static Grass – first test

Boltorr Beattie

Boltorr Road | Crossing the Bolt Brook

Boltorr Manifesto

Boltorr Road – 20160218 -Terraforming

Boltorr Road – 20160215 – Getting the lie of the land

Boltorr Road – 20160212 – Going DCC

What I Have Wrote

Older Stuff What I Did Write

Other Blogs What Have Been Written

That Bloke’s Stuff