Tuesday 22 June 2021

Dutch Scale Seven Group Newsletter 22 June 2021

During last months in the Netherlands there where no model railway shows where we could promote scale seven. My modelling friends who came every Friday night to my workshop they stayed at their homes waiting for better days. In August we hope to meet each other again and talk about railway modelling. But at my home the scale seven Minehead railway is growing.

Tracks and points.

Almost all the tracks are laid and at some finished parts there are the first test runs with engines and rolling stock. All the sleepers for the tracks and points are made in my workshop weathered and stained so they look old and used. 

Signal box.

For the railway a model of the Minehead 1905 - 1938 signal box is under construction. The drawings came from the book "The Minehead Branch 1848 -1971 by Ian Coleby". The walls are CNC cut from thin ply and also the window frames are CNC cut using  thin aluminium. The wooden planking is made of plastic strips and look right.  I also need to fit the point rodding along the tracks.

A kit to build a signal box interior came from Severn Models. This kit has very fine details and fit very well in the signal box. 

Signal box interior Photo CdJ.

Minehead 1905- 1938 Signal box under construction. Photo CdJ. 

Cattle dock.

A cattle dock is build using differed materials. The base is made from plywood the stone walls formed using  Das clay. For the fences I used old rail parts, the gates are CNC cut from aluminium sheet. Models of cattle and a farmer and weathering completed this piece. 

Cattle dock. Photo CdJ.

Twin tank milk wagon.

For my milk traffic at my railway I bought the Slater's kit of the 6 wheel  GWR twin milk tank. A nice kit with a lot of details. I had to modify the space between the brake blocks to fit them on a correct position against the wheel tire. The wheels are scale seven standard. 

Frame of the 6 wheeled GWR Twin Tank Milk wagon Photo CdJ.

I mounted all the piping under the frame for a complete realistic look. Need still to finish the two milk tanks.

Almost finished frame of the Milk wagon. Photo CdJ 

Passenger train.

For a passenger train with 4 wheeled coaches I bought a Slater's GWR diagram E37 and I have a dia. E32 and K2 in stock to build pictures will follow.


Till next  Cor de Jong 




Tuesday 9 June 2020

Dutch Scale Seven Group Newsletter 9 June 2020

The building of the Minehead platform is going on. The whole lenght is all most ready covered with tiles en gravel. At the end a new station building has to be build.


View from the signal box on to the platform. The 0-6-0 Pannier 5775 is ready for leaving to Watchet. 
At the left of the picture the small locomotive depot will be with the old engine house. A small turntable is needed for the engines with a tender such as the 2-4-0 Stella  Class.


Last instructions to the driver before leaving the station. 

The tile pattern is pressed into cardboard using my CNC milling machine.

A special formed pressing tool is used for pressing the pattern into the card board. The spindle of the CNC milling machine is not turning. 

The right site of the station at the left site of the picture the yard for the cattle loading dock and goods wagons . 
At the right site of the railway the tracks for the cattle loading dock and storage for goods wagons will build.
All the track is handlaid using C&L bullhead rails and GWR 2 bolt chairs. The slepers are home made. The templates for the points are generated using the Templot track design program.


Goods yard there is still a lot of modelling work to do. 
Till next Cor

Monday 13 April 2020

Dutch Scale Seven Group Newsletter 13 April 2020

The proces of building a S7 layout at home still going on. For my Minehead railway I started to builds the platform, points and track. 
Building track is a lot of work and so also the platform with a total lengt of 4.75 meter. I follow the Minehead railplan 1900 - 1910 with the small engine depot and turntable. In the corner at the left side the engine house and a small coal loading dock. The other buildings are the station building and a warehouse. At the right side a cattle dock a road bridge and track to the fiddle yard. Some pictures of the progress to look at. 


The railplan fitted in the room.


The stone pattern for the platform siding is made of foam bord. One of the card layers is removed from one side, then I pressed the stone pattern in the foam with my CNC milling machine. After pressing the pattern I painted the foam with acrylic paint. 



Pressing the pattern into the foam board with the CNC milling machine. I drawn a DXF drawing load this file into the CNC control system USB CNC this program generate a G-Code and controls the machine. It's an other how to use the CNC milling machine. 
Result after painting. 



The 2-4-0 Stella arrived at the platform with a passenger train. The Auto coach is waiting for the next run. 



Sunday time al the engines are parked at the side track waiting for the next job. 



Dean Goods 2325 arrived with a mineral train. 
Till next Cor de Jong 

Monday 3 February 2020

Dutch Scale Seven Group Newsletter 03 February 2020.

For my Minehead 1900 -1910 railway I build three one horse carriages using the kits of Parliamentary Trains. This small but lovely little road vehicles are easy to build when following the well documented and clear instructions step by step.  This road vehicles used for transporting the travelers from the station to a hotel or home. I painted the carriages black but other colors are also possible it' s your choose. Parliamentary  Trains has 3 road vehicles in their program I  build them all with a lot of pleasure. But you need a lot of patience to put all the small en fragiele parts together.

One Horse Wagonnette.


One Horse Brougham.


One Horse Station cab.



Till next,

Cor de Jong.

Monday 23 December 2019

Dutch Scale Seven Group Newsletter 23 december 2019

In the weekend of 7 and 8 December we presented the S7 layout "Tripton by the Sea " build by Ton Trip at the Modelling Exhibition in Gangelt  Germany.

The show was very busy and a lot of people visit the layout and talking with us about modelling railway models and the S7 standards.

We ran a lot of different GWR models build by Ton en Cor. After some little problems the railway was operated for two days. Also we provided shunt movements and made a realistic way of running a model railway. All the engines where equipped with DCC decoders and we had radio controlled handheld controllers so we could walk along the layout talking and operating.

Some pictures of the layout.


0-6-0 Saddle tank 2028 waiting with a goods train.

The farmer brings the milk to the station.

Travellers waiting for the next train.

Sealor went home. 

Goods train with the 6 wheeled fish wagon
Waiting for the milk train at the loading dock.

The coal trader picks his stock for the coming winter. 

Auto coach passed the viaduct. 

Auto coach with pannier engine arrived at the station. 
Till next Cor de Jong.

Sunday 27 October 2019

Dutch Scale Seven Group Newsletter 27 October 2019

The renovation and converting from finescale to scale seven and DCC of my GWR 0-6-0 5775 Pannier tank is finished.

The engine is now ready for running at my scale seven layout.
Everything is fine and the engine runs very well and smooth. I build a Tams DCC decoder in the engine.


Renovated GWR 0-6-0 Pannier tank 5775/ Photo CdJ. 



Friday 6 September 2019

Dutch Scale Seven Group Newsletter 6 September 2019



EXHIBITION NEWS.

At Saturday 30 November and Sunday 1 December 2019 there will be a modelling show in Gangelt Germany.

More information at the website


At this show we will setup the 1:43,5 scale seven layout of Ton Trip "Tripton by the Sea"  this 9 meter (30 ft ) long  layout will in operation with rolling stock build by Ton Trip and Cor de Jong both promotors of the scale seven standards of modelling.

It's the first time this beautiful layout will presented in Germany. Scale seven is not a well-known way of modelling in Germany so we promote scale seven for the German gauge 0 friends. We have a broad collection of rolling stock engines, coaches and wagons to run at the layout. There is no timetable but we run while we are talking with the interested modellers.
Train with coaches arrives in the station. Foto CdJ.
The layout is designed for a point to point operation so trains arrive in the station and after shunting they leave in the opposite direction. A push pull train with an Auto coach is typical for a GWR branch line and will regular run with a Pannier tank engine. A GWR Dean Goods serve the goods trains with different wagons for coal, parcels, livestock, fish and so on.

GWR 0-6-0 Dean Goods. Foto CdJ.
It's interesting to see and feel the English way of modelling and operation.

Cor de Jong