A long overdue update

Sincere apologies for the long gap since last posting. Foxbury has been to a number of exhibitions and I will do  brief run down of these in a moment. I've taken early retirement and have been rather busy on other things, where did I get the time to do it all when I was working I ask myself.

Foxbury's first exhibition outing was at my local show in Cheltenham. The next appearance was at "Larkrail" in Bath in the Summer of 2022. Although I was pleased with the general running of the layout at these shows, I was growing increasingly dissatisfied with the couplings. These were B&B's, a type I had been using since 2004. The problem was they either failed to couple smoothly enough or became uncoupled when I didn't want them to! They do require very accurate alignment and are very sensitive to the slightest imperfection in one's track laying. One of my fellow 3mm Society members was also exhibiting at Larkrail (Mike Corp with his wonderful "Heybridge Wharf"). When discussing the issue of couplings he recommended those made by DG but modifying them as per an article by Tony Briddon in the 3mm Society magazine.  Although compatible with the B&B one, the DG differs in that the coupling loop is from wire rather than an etch. The DG ones wire resulting in a lot less resistance than an etch with a resultant cusp on the edge. As soon as I was home I set about ordering some DG's from Wizard Models. With the aid of the jig supplied I was soon batch-building them. Initial trials on a rake of wagons was successful and very soon all the regular exhibition stock was converted. 

The next exhibition was the Warley Show at the NEC in late 2022. The layout, and above all, the couplings worked a treat and 2 days worth of operating went by in a flash. I can honestly say there was no unintentional uncoupling and the only time a wagon failed to couple was due to a misaligned coupling which was soon rectified. 

2022 also brought my second layout article in the Railway Modeller, the April edition to be exact and with some wonderful photos taken by Ian Manderson on behalf of the RM team. 

   

Exhibition Diary

Foxbury is due to appear at the following exhibitions in 2023:

9th & 10th September 2023. Swindon Festival of Steam The venue is the Museum of the Great Western in Swindon. 

8th October 2023. Small Trains Day at The East Anglian Railway Museum, Chappel & Wakes Colne Station, Essex. 

21st & 22nd October 2023. Uckfield Model Railway Exhibition at Uckfield Civic Centre.

Not far now.....

Progress on the layout has been steady since I last posted. It's been enjoyable to take plenty of photographs too. I must say I'm rather pleased with the way the layout has turned out. A few problems along the way but that's perfectly ok, it wouldn't be the same if it was all plain sailing would it.

I've also been building a 94XX pannier but that will be the subject of a separate post. For now here are a few more pictures of Foxbury. Most of them concentrate on the excellent figures from Modelu. So good that I have ony used these on the layout, apart from those in the carriages.

Incidentally, Foxbury will be available for exhibitions, whenever they recommence.

  

  A spot of shunting.

   

Waiting for the right away.  

Painting these figures is very satisfying, just arm yourself with some decent quality brushes and modeler's acrylics and enjoy yourself. The bicycle is from Branchlines and is a 3 part etch assembled with a resistance soldering unit. Superglue works too. 

The fireman takes his ease whilst shunting. The poses of Modelu figures are so natural and in the case of the firemen, a change from being frozen whilst swinging the shovel.

7412 waits to depart for Bourton on the Water.  

Foxbury MKII

I started the layout in March of 2020, just as Covid-19 was making it's mark on the country (and a year later it's still here).  Progress on the layout has been pretty quick, not that that's down to me being furloughed or anything, far from it as being categorized as an essential worker I was busier than ever! However, everything that would normally keep me distracted in my free time was closed (model shops, preserved railways, virtually everything was for a period last year and not wishing to watch daytime TV at weekends I got cracking on the layout. Whilst the purpose of this blog is not to show progress on the layout I thought a brief explanation might be in order.

I had already ordered the baseboards from Grainge and Hodder. One of their chaps was at the Stafford Model Show in the February of that year and I was impressed with their laser-cut baseboard kits. They do off the shelf ones as well as bespoke ones.  A link to their website is on the right of this blog, well worth having a look and I would certainly recommend them.

One of the 2 boards built and inverted to show the framework.

I added fascias and backscene boards to the basic ply units supplied. After laying 1/16th cork sheet the track was added. I still use 12mm gauge which is admittedly under the scale width of 14.2mm but having to re-wheel all my locos and stock was simply too big a task to contemplate, at least for this layout as I wanted to get something running. So, armed with some of the excellent flexi-track from the 3mm Society and some very nice hand-built pointwork from a fellow 3mm Society member I set to work. Membership of the society is certainly recommended in this scale for it's wide range of kits and bits plus it's excellent quarterly journal "Mixed Traffic". Again, a link to the society website is shown on the right of this blog.

     

Track down, wired up, rails painter and backscene added (from ID Backscenes). As can be seen from the control switches on the left of this shot, I will be operating from the front on this layout.  

A few months of work has brought it to this state. Ballasting done, platforms and terrain built up on a framework of stout card. The buildings plug-in to the platform to enable removal. 

The completed station area with my AC Cars Railbus in the platform. All the figures on the layout (with the exception of the railbus driver and passengers) are from the excellent Modelu range, their detail comes to life when carefully painted.  

Couldn't resist a black and white version of the same photo.

The diminutive signal box which is a scratch-built model of the one at Watlington. Someone must have pinched the point rodding etc......must get around to adding some.

The local permanent way gang's hut together with the grounded coach body which acts as a store and mess room. The prototype for the hut is from St Mary's Crossing on the Gloucester-Swindon line.

 

    

The Tetbury Railbus

I've recently completed a 3mm scale model of an AC Cars railbus. These were built by the car manufacturer at their factory at Thames Ditton. All bar one of the small batch were sent to the Western Region (the remaining one was sent to the Scottish Region). These small 4-wheel railbuses looked very much at home on the Tetbury and Cirencester branches which radiated from Kemble on the Gloucester - Swindon line. I have wanted one for a long time and when Lenny Seeney brought out a 3D printed one in 3mm scale I just had to get one! On receipt I was blown away by the quality of the bodyshell and couldn't wait to get started. A motor bogie was ordered from Halling in Austria, who's products are intended for trams but I've used several on previous projects and it was a natural choice given their smooth running qualities. 

The completed railbus.   

W79976 is seen waiting to leave Foxbury. The Tetbury destination is ready for a possible future layout depicting that line.

The Sidings returns....

I ceased blogging a few years ago but with more time on my hands I've decided to have another shot. Updates may not always be as frequent as I'd like but they'll happen. As I write this in late February we are awaiting our "roadmap" out of lockdown, something which although of necessity has hit a lot of people really hard, financially and emotionally. 

I have many interests but the main ones are railways, model railways and classic cars, particularly Morris Minors. My own moggy is called Geraldine and she joined the family in the Spring of 2020. I've always wanted one and when she appeared in an online advert I jumped quickly to secure her.

She's been well cared for by previous owners but is not in concours condition, has a few blemishes but shows her age well. Besides, I use her as much as possible and although not my daily drive she is given a nice run at least once a week, more so when lockdown ends.  

My railway interests are many and varied but chiefly GW branch lines especially those of my native Gloucestershire. The Cheltenham to Kingham line and the Tetbury branch being my main loves. 

My model railway exploits are all in 3mm scale and so far portray fictitious GW branches set in Gloucestershire but all feature elements from real stations. My first exhibition layout, Foxbury made it's debut on the circuit back in 1995 and was retired in 2004 to be replaced by Dunkton Combe. Although fictitious, the name was a cross between Monkton Combe and Dunkerton, both on the old Limpley Stoke - Camerton branch of "Titfield Thunderbolt" fame. Dunkton Combe was sold to a fellow 3mm society member and still appears at model railway exhibitions. It's predecessor, Foxbury was however consigned to the tip, once all recoverable items were removed of course!

The next layout to be completed was Chipping Compton. This layout enabled me to fulfill a boyhood dream, that of having a layout featured in Railway Modeller magazine. The article appeared in the December 2016 issue.    

   The station building on Chipping Compton          

   

This layout was also sold to a fellow 3mm society member in order for it to have a good home as my own domestic circumstances were about to change. After a short hiatus from active modelling I gained a nice workshop once more and room for a layout. This enabled me to begin construction of a small branch line terminus which would use the name of Foxbury again.