Aylesbury Junction

I got hold of one of these last year. Can't wait to give it a repaint.

A full 4 car set of Q stock has been spotted undergoing trial runs at AYJ:



I originally had a couple of the old Little Bus Co resin kits bought on that auction site nearly a decade ago, hoping to get some more to complete a 4 car set. As you know the original ones were Q23 driver and Q38 trailer.
I really wanted a Q27 driver for the other end and ideally a Q35 trailer car but would have settled for any other trailer. Blow me, when after all those years a pair came up late last year and they were Q27 driver and Q35 trailer so clearly a ‘must have’ for me.

These aren’t for the faint hearted and indeed I’d never have tried to complete these a few years back but taking a deep breath, I completed 2 last year and have now almost done the other 2.
I’d had a Tenshodo WB26 motor bogie in the drawer for years. You can tell it was from the last century as the price label is £9.85 – bought for another project. This is barely adequate for the job (even with plenty of weight over the bogie) but enabled me to get some practice fitting one of these and fettling it in. When funds permit, I’ll try an Endo motor.

At the moment, the motor is under the Q35 trailer to get it more towards the middle of the train. These 4 kits have 3 different underframes. As a consequence, and due to the fact I might change the actual power bogie and its position in the train, all the cars are on accomodation bogies for now. I haven’t tried adding extra pickups as it didn’t seem worth it if I’m going to change the motor anyway.

The Q38 has a flat floor underneath so is currently on Bachmann Mk1’s. Once I have the set finally sorted these should become Q stock bogies or at least Q sideframes disguising the Mk1’s.

Because the other 3 cars have wells under the floors and because I knew the Tenshodo would struggle, the Q23 Q27 and one end of the Q35 are actually on Lima Mark 1’s. These normally come in for a lot of criticism but because of the deep wells under the floors and the fact these are very free running meant I could fettle them in quite easily. Dummy collector beams along the side, and the fact that the springs on Mk1’s are roughly where they should be on Q stock bogies mean you can’t really tell at normal viewing distance.

One lucky accident of this is that after I’d cut the couplings off the Lima bogies, the couplings on the Bachmanns under the Q38 actually hook into a slot on the Lima bogies giving a good distance between cars. This meant I just had to fashion one one-off coupling to couple the Tenshodo under the Q35 to the Lima bogie under the Q27.



The fact that the wheels are 11.5mm/12mm is quite helpful with the ‘sit’ of the cars, and the deep flanges on the pizza cutter wheels aren’t a problem on Code 100 track. The Q27/Q35 still need weathering, but it was time to have a big tidy up, so I took these pics whilst there was room to set things up.

Looking good I will have to get mine finished now!

XF

The LBC bogies were terrible! This is why I designed a new set for the Q stock upgrade. Having deemed the new bogie a success, I hope to slowly redesign all the bogies in the range so be a little more friendly to construct. The A stock is next followed by the Q38/OP/R and F stock.

Sounds a lot of work? Surely the wheel base must be too large for underground surface stock?

Does look good. What is it about the white metal bogies that people don't like I wonder?

Yes they do chip sometimes which is why I varnish them with a matt varnish. I like the weight, it reduces the risk of derailment!

I like your trees. Are they home made or kit/rtp?

Ref the trees, I find that I’m never happy with using the products of just one supplier and need to vary things, much as in nature. My trees so far have fallen into 3 categories:

a/ Really good quality specimen trees.
b/ Good quality at reasonable prices for placing close to the track.
c/ Bangs per buck for those that I need to add density to the wooded area.

a/ For really good trees I’ve been buying from Ceynix: www.ceynix.co.uk/ Jacqui attends quite few shows in the south east and also does commissions (though you have to be patient).
By and large for OO her trees are £20-£40 though she does have others cheaper and more expensive. When you think a carriage to today’s standards will probably cost at least £30 and I’ve got far too much stock, I took the decision to try and cut back on coaches and locos a couple of years ago and invest in some better trees – less is more.



Above is a selection of Ceynix trees. The one planted by the station and the 2 at the front of the polystyrene were all £20-25 each I think, and bought off the sales stands. The 2 tall elms were made to order at about £35 each. Her trees are specific species, and not just some generalised ‘suitable for model railway’ items.

b/ My 2 sources for good products at reasonable prices are Hedgerow Scenics (doesn’t have a working website – just a ‘shell’ here): www.hedgerowscenics.co.uk/ and Realistic Modelling Supplies www.realisticmodelling.com/
Both these guys attend shows in south east and maybe a bit further afield. Both actually started with military dioramas etc and have expanded into railways as well. RMS do some very good low relief trees at reasonable prices (were £4.50 and £5.50 last time I bought some).



Hedgerow Scenics (as the name implies) started off by doing reasonable hedgerows. Sorry I can’t remember the price but I recall these were sold in packs of 2 similar:



c/ Other: The 2 main sources I’ve been using are Woodland Scenics, and The Model Tree Shop www.themodeltreeshop.co.uk/ I’ve been using their bulk packs of generic trees to fill out background areas
Mostly these have to be in the background but occasionally you can use eg a Woodland Scenics tree away from the others. In this shot, the lone tree in the middle of the field is a Woodland Scenics walnut tree.



A few general snaps:
1/ In this shot the 2 tall elms are by Ceynix, most of the others are Model Tree Shop generic trees (with 1 from Heki as well I think) plus one Woodland Scenics walnut tree, and a couple of RMS low relief trees.


2/ To the left of the water tower all are RMS low relief trees. The large tree at the back is The Model Tree Shop, and the smaller one on the right is one of Ceynix smaller trees.



3/ Finally here, the edge of the field is Hedgerow Scenics hedgerows with Woodland Scenics generic trees behind and a walnut tree in the field (Yes it's the same pic as above)

Nice, all it needs now is a class 50 and 9 mk1s. ;-)