In A Bit Of Estate

[Bilco]

Many thanks for the kind comments, chaps - Les, I'm not sure anyone would want my quirky ideas on their layout ...

Many thanks for all the likes, folks - but beware, you are only encouraging me ...


Anyway, having finished 'Legger' Lamb, I had a look in my bodybitz box and found:


Henry Ford's overcoat

the arms from the other gentleman's jacket

3 pairs of legs - 2 from the Henry Ford kit and one from the Italeri Truck Drivers.


So ... I assembled the overcoat and cut it down to suit jacket size, assembled the couthest pair of legs and trimmed them to fit inside the overcoat, and took the right arm of the jacket and altered the angles ...




I asked Igor for a suitable head, but all he came up with was one with a hard-hat firmly in place. After a determined bit of whittling, I cut round the hat and reduced it to a dome, and added a brim of plasticard. Then I took a lump of Green Stuff and, er, stuffed it up the overcoat into the open neck, and pushed the head down into it. I managed to form a shirt collar and front with tie, and fixed the arm in place with a bit more Green Stuff, also used to form the elbow.


Finally, a paint job and we have ...




Allow me to introduce Signore Nando Di Costa of Naples, Su B Way's manager, come down to Berger Hall to see what she is doing.

Right, that's enough messing about with figures, back to work on the layout - there's lots of detail still to do, and only 3 months to Pewsey ...

[Bilco]

Gosh - 5 weeks since my last post! I was away for some of that time, but I have been working on the lights and valance for the layout - photos in due course.

I've also been working on the new loco 'Ettie' First thing I did was strip the chassis right down and wash the block and wheels on white spirit to clean all the oil and grime off. Then I trimmed the block to length and fitted a footplate and buffer beams ...



The white gear wheel on the block required a bit of force to move it round, so I popped it out of its mounting and ran a drill bit through the holes just big enough to scrape a little bit of plastic off. After pushing the gear wheel back into position it now turns freely. The motor and its mounting now fit down into the footplate ...



I've made a boiler from a plastic till-roll tube I found, which is just the right size. A short section of the tube to make the smokebox had a bit cut out of the length so that it fits inside the boiler - fortunately the walls of the tube are quite thin ...



The chimney is a 7mm scale one for 'Denis' that I found in my bits box. It's a little short and makes the whole thing front heavy, so I've asked Michael at Smallbrook if he can let me buy the chimney and a couple of other bits from the 'Katie' kit. The bits are just propped in place for the photo - lots of work still to do.

I must get the layout out of the garage soon and put on all the little bits of vegetation I've been painting ready for use. There are other things to do before Pewsey, too - ONLY 7 WEEKS!!!

[PeterH]

That looks fun. And must be a relief for you after your earlier torn-apart figures. Though they come together nicely.

[docnjoj]

I like the way you chose a big, high torque motor to run that engine. Should be smooth and slow.
otherDoc

[lesmond]

Lovely job, Bill

[Bilco]

Trial of Google Photo



OK, that didn't work!



Or that!!

[PeterH]

Bill: a link to display a photo on a forum has to end in .jpg (or .whatever). Those links you posted are the kind to send to friends and family share photos. I pasted your links into a web browser and could see your photos. Plus Google administrative content.

Free photo host sites don't want to be used to display photos on websites because the traffic (=cost) is much more than sharing photos to friends.

[Kerluk]

All the pics of your wonderful layout have been stollen by PB. What a shame !

[Bilco]

Almost a month since my last progress post here! Well, what with away days, other calls on my time, and the depradations of PB I have been getting a little work in ...

First up, the progress on 'Ettie'. To start with, the lost photos ...



The mech as bought ...



... as stripped down ...



... motor in place ...



... and a first look at how it might look.

Now we have ...



.. and ...



... all (or nearly all) the bits propped in place.

The chimney is the 'Katie' item kindly supplied by Mike at Smallbrook and cut down a little, and the dome is a cut-down 7mm scale 14xx item. More sticking little bits of plastic to other little bits of plastic produced the usual amount of shouting, but it's getting there. And I did say 'like Effie' and not an accurate representation. Maybe Sir Arthur built a second version with 'improvements' ...

Name and works plates from Narrow Planet arrived today - excellent service.

[Kerluk]

Wonderful work. I'm (we're) waiting for the next pics...

[PeterH]

Nice chunky proportions. Obviously to be a hard-working loco.

But I'm concerned you are using Imgur to host your photos. Their terms say not to do this:

"Stuff not to do
... don't use Imgur to host image libraries you link to from elsewhere, content for your website, advertising, avatars, or anything else that turns us into your content delivery network. If you do – and we will be the judge – or if you do anything illegal, in addition to any other legal rights we may have, we will ban you along with the site you're hotlinking from, delete all your images, report you to the authorities if necessary, and prevent you from viewing any images hosted on Imgur.com. We mean it."

[Bilco]

Peter - there's been a lot of dicussion about this on NGRM Online. I contacted Imgur to ask if I could use them to host my photos to post on forums and this is what they said:

"You're welcome to use Imgur to host your images, as long as they do not break our Terms of Service (http://imgur.com/tos). Imgur's Terms of Service prohibits using Imgur for a content delivery network, hotlinking adult or illegal images, torrents, image hosting for selling things and/or commercial purposes, or sites which copy Imgur's own functionality. Imgur's intended use is not as a CDN, but rather as a platform to upload, share and browse entertaining images."

And just so I know what a CDN is:

A content delivery network (CDN) is a system of distributed servers (network) that deliver webpages and other Web content to a user based on the geographic locations of the user, the origin of the webpage and a content delivery server.

A lot of people over on NGRM Online are using Imgur now.

[PeterH]

Bill,

Whatever 'host' and 'CDN' mean, Imgur's terms of service say not to 'host content for your website' and that is what you are doing here. The fact that Imgur give you suitable links doesn't mean they condone what you are doing, because we can use such links for other purposes, which don't contravene Imgur's terms. They can easily tell if you are linking from a website to a photo on Imgur.

Photobucket changed their policy because ad-blockers are killing their income, and three quarters of their costs were for hosting content for websites. I imagine that other photo hosting sites will be having the same problem. Expect them to make changes. The Wikipedia page for image sharing websites has 23 companies active and 17 defunct. It's a tough business. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_i ... g_websites

The only way to ensure that your photos will appear on a forum for the lifetime of the forum is to upload them to the forum itself. We can do that, and we pay the modest cost when TeeBee occasionally asks for funds. I think that's great: user pays, no ads and no need to worry about a third-party hosting company changing its terms or going out of business.

[Bilco]

And just to demonstrate that I have been doing some work on the layout ...

LIGHTS! CAMERA! ... action ... maybe later ...





I've made a valance to go over the layout, using the trusty foam board as seen on Wood Bros and Yawzes - I even re-used the poles from Yawzes ...



I used the LED light strips I got on t'Bay. The nifty little right-angle joiners I also got didn't work, so I had to resort to bits of wire, a soldering iron, and lots of those interesting and amusing words I learned in the RAF. The uncertain output of my ancient H&M Clipper has been tamed, thanks to the great generosity of Les - Lesmond of this Forum - who volunteered his services to make a custom electronic device. I don't know what it does or how it does it, but it does it very well. Many thanks Les!

I've also made a couple of details that I've been meaning to put in place for a long time ...



... a water supply to the loco shed, so that 'Legger' Lamb can keep the locos topped up. It's confected from a couple of split-pins, a bit of brass wire, and a short length of brass pipe ...

And not only that ...



... I've filled in the point blades with a length of planking ... well, a few off-cuts of plasticard ... and installed a Heywood point lever - purely cosmetic, and confected from lots of those pesky little bits of plasticard that I always drop into the carpet monster and have to re-make ...

Hours of fun ...

[Kerluk]

Congratulations ! You built a wonderful layout.

[Bilco]

Whatever 'host' and 'CDN' mean, Imgur's terms of service say not to 'host content for your website' and that is what you are doing here. The fact that Imgur give you suitable links doesn't mean they condone what you are doing, because we can use such links for other purposes, which don't contravene Imgur's terms. They can easily tell if you are linking from a website to a photo on Imgur.

Another member of the NGRM Online forum posted this ...

"Someone asked for clarification about this in the following Imgur forum thread:

https://community.im...elsewhere/21348

And a reply by one of the Imgur staff members basically states that hotlinking to forums is allowed.

What imgur does not allow is hotlinking to host content for websites and blog posts.

The reply is by the Imgur staff 'brianna' (May 2016) reads:

I'd be happy to help clarify this for you. Imgur allows hotlinking on forums, but hotlinked images cannot be used as content for a website, including blog posts, avatars, site elements, and advertising. Let me know if I can help further!"

I post to several railway forums and more non-railway ones. Some host the photos for you some don't. It's convenient for me to use one host, especially if I post the same photos to several forums at the same time.

[PeterH]

Thanks for clarifying that.

Your layout continues to progress well. Though I'm wondering if the name is a play on words. In which case I'd disagree.

[chris stockdale]

I think there's more plays on words in this thread than most of us have had hot dinners.

If it was good enough for the likes of Dylan Thomas in Under Milk Wood...

Cheers,

[Bilco]

All the major components for 'Ettie' have been cobbled together, painted, lined and varnished ...



... now to assemble them into something that runs ....

On the mechanism I replaced the rather large and obvious PB-strip pickups with thin guitar string, and the thick wires leading from them to the motor with thinner layout wire ...



... the wires are taped down to the motor casing to allow the boiler to slide over everything ...



... it runs on the bench ...

The holes where the PB-strip was fixed to the frames have been filled in - hopefully, they'll be less obvious when all is assembled ...

Hours of fun ...

[docnjoj]

Now that is the way to a neat and pretty build. inspiration for me to get going with my loco.
otherDoc

[Kerluk]

As always you made a great work. Thanks for the pics.

[Grum]

It was great to meet you, the residents, and the visitors of Berger Hall at MOMING17, it was really worth the long trip. I hope it was a success for you. The layout, especially the figures, look even better "in the flesh".
Congratulations.
Graham
(Longstone)

[Bilco]

Many thanks Grum - it was great to meet you, too!

We (mai laidy waif and I) had a very pleasant time at Pewsey. Our pitch was next to the tea-and-lardy-cake counter, so there were lots of people around much of the time. It was great to be in such distinguished company at the MOMING end, and to meet so many people who have been following Berger Hall on the Forum.

The set-up went smoothly ...







... and the thing ran nicely. I ran Kaffie continuously for over 2 hours at slow speed, and it got very hot, so Ettie had a spell, and also ran well (for most of the time).

People seemed to like Berger Hall, and I got several invites to exhibitions next year. There are one or two little niggles that I'll have to sort out, but overall I was very happy.

[Bilco]

Ettie was finally assembled and got running reasonably well by lunchtime on Thursday - just in time to be packed for the trip to Pewsey!

Once assembled I was struck at the difference in size between Ettie and Kaffie - I'm sure that I built it to 1:24!



Here they are together for comparison.

Sadly, towards the end of the day I dropped Ettie - only a few inches onto the Stable Yard surface, but some bodywork repairs are needed. It did run afterwards, but developed some kangaroo tendencies later on, so I shall have to do some work on it now I'm back at home. Some interference between the 12 v DC power to the lights and the 16 v AC to the controller became apparent, too. I used an old H&M Clipper to supply the two power outputs, so I shall have to review the power source(s), too.

[lesmond]

Well done, Bill, great to see your work getting the recognition it rightly deserves.

If I ever make it across the Irish Sea to an exhibition I'll be sure to say "hello".

Les