Bench for RSPB Flatford

I am a volunteer for the RSPB in south Suffolk and north Essex. Usually this involves site maintenance in large woods or on fields which are breeding areas for estuarial birds. But, this year has had an unusual project; making a wildlife friendly garden at Flatford.

The Flatford garden sits alongside the National Trust property at Flatford which is world-famous as the scene of the Haywain and several other Constable paintings.

One thing a garden which will get lots of visitors needs are benches. So, wanting something a little different, I produced this bench in the RSPB workshop using off-cuts of chestnut from other parts of the garden project (the chestnut is local, felled as coppicing to maintain a wood, so about as sustainable as it gets). The shape of the bench does not dictate how you sit on it, you can choose any direction of view. Some of the ideas came from a bench made by Trannon for a museum, though with many modifications to suit outdoor use and the locally available timber.

If the bench proves successful in the garden, I'll make a few more. The 2nd version will have some changes to the seat shape, though will keep the octagonal theme.

YADCV ( Yet another DCC Coupler Video )

I've done another DCC coupler design, in a Farish class 14 diesel. This one is a commission installation for another modeller (like certain famous motor cars, if you have to ask the price, you can't afford it!)

This time the coils are within the N scale NEM coupler pockets, and the DG couplers are on the loco body. This makes maintenance very much simpler as the fragile parts are well protected and the mechanical parts are slightly modified standard aftermarket couplers. The couplers are "handed" to match the stock on the layout in question where DG loops are only fitted at one end of the stock. So, the loco has a normal loop at one end which can be lifted, and a "lifter" at the other which lifts the loop from a wagon off the loco coupler.

I'll post some drawings at some point, but a bit of video to illustrate how it all works. The loco is a Farish Class 14 diesel, with the wheels turned down and re-gauged to run on 2mm Finescale track. Chip is a CT DCX75.

Blogger's video feature seems to be broken, so I've had to put it on YouTube