Copenhagen Fields & TFW’s workshop

[Tim Watson]

York Road tube station is making progress:



The available time between now and Warley is fast diminishing.

Tim

[Dave]

Just amazing Tim.

[Tim Watson]

​A mouse’s view (from the track) of York Road. That is as far as I got before Warley. Really looking forward to seeing what it looks like on the main layout.

Tim

[Mercator II]

Hope set goes good for you all, and you have a great show. Hoping I can get near CF to catch up with the layout and not stuck in a crowd. Are you front or rear of layout?

[Hatfield Shed]

The 'ripple' of the lighting reflections on the tiles is so very good, this is what large hand-built structures look like with the passage of time. Hope it's a good show enjoyed by all, and I will hope to see CF at a show next year.

[StevieG]

Yes indeed. Have a good show at Warley Tim Watson and crew.

[Mercator II]

It was brilliant to see CF yesterday,looked and operated superb. I was luck to spend sometime talking to your colleague on the front, I would of chatted with you, but was told you where working magic round the back repairing locos. York Road tube looked brilliant

[Tim Watson]

We had a good show at Warley and it was a relief to see the YR tube displayed on CF: it is underground relative to the whole layout (I suppose that is somewhat a statement of the obvious!) so I was a bit concerned that some of the viewing public might have difficulty getting up again if they got down to see it.

The view of the lit tube train running along the front of the Belle Isle part of the layout will really complete the scene and when we get that far its position, when we get that far.
.
For the Cally section of the tube, the new Revolution Trains ‘38 stock (backdated to ‘35 stock) will be a godsend.

For those wanting to see YR tube at a comfortable height it can be seen at high level when displayed as a diorama. The tuba-shaped box it travels in doubles as both the diorama and base when shown on a table, bringing it up to a very comfortable eye level view. We will be showing this at the MRC mini-exhibition on December 10th at Keen House.

We also had a preview of another super model from Rapido Trains at Warley that will look good on the layout - especially behind the Raven 4-6-2 class 2400 on trial at KX in 1923.

Finally, we have Matthew Wald’s latest lovely signal box for CF: Five Arch, which apart from the Pope-selecting chimney is scarcely visible from the front. The south end operator can see it though.

Quite a lot going on, really, and we have a good list of jobs to do on CF before its next exhibition in Buxton in July ‘24.

Tim

[jwealleans]

Good to chat on Sunday, Tim and always a joy to see the layout. These structures at the south end are just fabulous, there's no other word for them.

The 2mm Valour in full GC is also a sight to behold.

was a bit concerned that some of the viewing public might have difficulty getting up again if they got down to see it.

We were a bit concerned that one distinguished member of the operating team was having difficulty getting up after he got down below it.

The little girl in Victorian dress was just at the right height and was captivated by it.

[Tim Watson]

Following on from various discussions on the visibility of the YR tube platform, I decided to adjust both the diorama box and the platform roof itself, cutting back about 1/2” from the top of the latter.  This was achieved with a well known fine scale modelling instrument.

The station track work is now much more visible and is complimented by some pleasant curves in the infrastructure.
Next job will be to lay some temporary strip track so that we can get a train running for the MRC mini exhibition on 10th December at Keen House. 

Tim

[StevieG]

Progress of astonishingly good additions to the CF masterpiece continues Tim.

With certain specialised interests, I have to say how wonderful is the track level view inside YR station, and of course Matthew's great recreation of Five Arch Bridge 'points' (and signals) box !

[Tim Watson]

In the latest moving pictures mode.
https://youtu.be/rm04SuM50EE?feature=shared

Tim

[Tim Watson]

Had a great day at the MRC mini exhibition with YR in its first outing as a diorama. 

The standard stock also ran and looked the part. This train may get a new mechanism and act as a prototype for the gate stock which is currently at the design stage for etching.
https://youtu.be/q1Jae_lV3OI?feature=shared
Signage and posters soon.
 
Tim
​

[Hatfield Shed]

I look forward to seeing York Road when able to get to an exhibition

...This was achieved with a well known fine scale modelling instrument...

That's an electron microscope compared to the sledge hammer I used for correcting rail top on my long ago outside line. (Wooden structure into clay soil, chalk beneath. It heaved up in winter, subsided in summer, a few skillful walllops sorted it!)

[Tim Watson]

In December, the MRC usually holds a pre-Christmas mini exhibition. The York Road tube diorama was having its first outing with a working train for the show. Whilst certain features such as the toilets and occupants are popular with all ages, I thought it was appropriate that the younger members of the audience get a preview of Santa Claus and his reindeer on a flight test. Having spent far too many hours making the underground tube station I wanted something nice and simple. Osborn Models came up trumps with a nice little 3DP of Santa in his sleigh with four reindeer out front.

This had landed on the YR tube station roof and attracted many favourable comments from the audience, not least Phil Parker from BRM who was surprised to see such a model on CF.  In discussion, I indicated that I thought it was capable of improvement, especially in the motive power department; CF is, after all, 2mm FS.  Close examination reveals that the antlers and heads of the ‘reindeer’ pass a strong resemblance to a love child of a triceratops and a moose. There could be a case for an after-market bespoke antler etch if someone was very keen: I certainly didn’t fancy soldering up eight antlers from wire as an alternative. I then recollected that Preiser make some reindeer as a plastic moulding. Now these come as a very fine six pack in pairs, including four adorned with rather more plausible antlers.  The challenge with these models was that they come in pairs and two of them would have looked as if Santa had done an emergency brake application with their heads down grazing. These therefore required plastic surgery with a triangular neck re-section.

With the other pair I moved the head around on one of them to create a bit more variation. The Preiser reindeer are not too steady on their feet (maybe it’s not just carrots they have on Christmas Eve) and so some sort of location was required. A centre pole was made from metal strip and cross pieces of 0.4mm brass wire soldered in place. This replaced the chunky 3DP structure which was actually quite weak. At this stage the reindeer underwent key hole surgery with a 0.4mm tungsten carbide drill to locate the cross pieces just behind their withers. The antlers were also trimmed a bit.

After a fair bit of thinning down of the sleigh edges with a scalpel and very sharp chisel the whole assembly was given a puff of grey primer, to show any major defects.

At this point I had a serious look at reindeer liveries on-line. They are very similar to dairy shorthorn cattle with a mixture of beige, yellow ochre, umber & white. The antlers would generally be darker shades. The noses are generally pink and of course one of them (Rudolph) has a red nose. Any bridles / tackle were painted on with a fine brush. The parcel load in the sleigh was augmented with extras and some are carrying the initials of the grandchildren. The gold lining on the sleigh was re-instated using a fine line gold marker pen.

Finally, I thought that the sleigh ought to carry some aircraft recognition marks for Lapland. These are OH-JLP. Those of you that know about these things will recognise that OH is the symbol for  Finland and JLP is a shortened form of Joulopukki, Finnish for Santa Claus, or literally ‘Christmas Goat’. So now you know.

Of course you could save yourself a great deal of work by purchasing a Modelu Santa & sleigh 3DP, which came out just as I started this project, but where’s the fun in that?
I look forward to seeing the grandchildren’s faces when they see Santa Claus on CF.

Tim