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PALLET LANE 1977 BR blue urban branch line


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Well having fathomed out (I think) how to work with the new forum, I thought I would post an update on Pallet Lane.

The last forum dying coincided with the layout venturing back "home" to the west country. First visit was the studios of Pecorama for photographing for an article in Railway Modeller which is expected to appear print early next year. Steve Flint and the RM team were more than welcoming and I can't wait to see the finished results.

The following day was the Taunton show, which marked the biggest show yet for Pallet Lane. I get a feel for how things during the weekend are going to go early on when setting up, and when I found one of the hinge pins missing on one of the legs, the omens weren't good. The layout behaved itself reasonably well over the weekend and was 100% reliable to the public side despite some fraught going on behind the scenes to fix the legs, running repairs to loco and wagon couplings. Other heart stoppers were a young child falling over onto one of the legs which nearly gave way, and dropping the control panel while carrying too much during close down. I had never put any thought about "What if this doesn't work?" scenarios but the show was a valuable wake up call, and all is ok now. Big thanks to my Dad for help on the Sunday and to my mate Tony Marsden (aka Bod) on the Saturday so I could have a break!

As I mentioned after Cirencester I was mulling over having a slim down of the loco fleet, and this was affirmed at Taunton when some locos were used only 3 or 4 times over the weekend. 2 of the locos have left the fold since Taunton, firstly 31270 (which was the only non Bachmann loco in the fleet) and 46045. Other than basic weathering and 3 link couplings they were otherwise untouched/modified and therefore were top of the list to move on. Other stock likely to move on are the Airfix Presflos, after seeing the Bachmann ones at Taunton. Prior to then I hadn't intended to replace them but the Bachmann ones are far superior to my detailed Airfix ones.

Anyway enough of my ramblings, hopefully there are some pics attached from Pecorama and Taunton!

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Hi Rob

 

Great to see this one carrying on in the new forum! :-) It was one I had bookmarked and followed on the old site and liked as it is the BR Blue era and is a nice compact size in an urban environment. I shall look forward to following progress.

 

Is the extension complete yet, as I see it is not in the photo shoot?

 

Regards Paul

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Hi Rob

 

Great to see this one carrying on in the new forum! :-) It was one I had bookmarked and followed on the old site and liked as it is the BR Blue era and is a nice compact size in an urban environment. I shall look forward to following progress.

 

Is the extension complete yet, as I see it is not in the photo shoot?

 

Regards Paul

 

Hi Paul,

 

The extension is still not complete, progress is a little slower than I would have liked, but its getting there scenically, I am hampered a bit by having to put whatever I am working on away each time. There is also lighting gantry, new front drapes etc to make but much as though I would have liked to it wasn't possible to have it ready for the photo shoot. I will do a follow up article on the extension for RM in the future though.

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Hi Rob, I shall look forward to your progress.

 

One little thing I did like, when I was looking back at the old thread, were your little TV sets for the shop. I think they are great, plus it brought back memories of the old BBC spinning world.

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Glad you liked the TV's, courtesy of Ashes to Ashes BBC page, and was quite fun to make up, shame it will hardly visible when the extension is finished.

 

After the success of the burnt out shop, I have been working on a little project that I started last weekend that I have been wanting to have a go at for ages - A burnt our brake van. I have used the Airfix/Dapol kit as the starting point, with everything between the verandas being scratchbuilt of plastruct. I claim no originality to the method, having seen it demonstrated step by step on another forum. They are becoming a bit of a cliche but still worth doing. I have now finished the main framing and have started adding the planks and debris, so far so good.

 

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Good to see this thread re-appear.

 

The Presflos look very smart, considering it's a 40 odd year old kit, it sets a high standard. The Bachmann boys have a high bar to get over to improve on this.

 

I think to be fair to Bachmann they are certainly on course to jump over the bar having seen the ones on the Bachmann stand at Taunton

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I think to be fair to Bachmann they are certainly on course to jump over the bar having seen the ones on the Bachmann stand at Taunton

 

I think you're right, I saw the Bachmanns at Hull and they do look superb, perhaps the best RTR wagons to date but the fact that it's not a monumental leap forward to achieve the standards they've reached is tribute to the Airfix originals.

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A nice little layout

 

Any new on more exhabtion travelings?

 

Sam

 

 

Hi Sam,

 

Definites: Trainwest April 10th 11th 2011, Cheltenham April 2012

Possible Stroud/Gloucester November 2010

 

We are expecting our 2nd Child in March, hence why most of them are far off. Hopefully will get another booking or 2 from when the layout appears in Railway Modeller.

 

Rob

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Thanks for keeping us up to speed on this Rob, it is one of my favourite 'compact' diesel era schemes on the forum, you have managed to make it appear plausible to use quite large locos in a small space.

 

I find myself in agreement that keeping fleet numbers down for exhibition appearances is a good thing on smaller layouts. I've found myself in the same boat operating my Dad's layouts and I think we might be at that stage with 'Shifting Sands' too.

 

I hope you get the chance to post some new pics of the extension soon.

 

Colin

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Thanks for keeping us up to speed on this Rob, it is one of my favourite 'compact' diesel era schemes on the forum, you have managed to make it appear plausible to use quite large locos in a small space.

 

I find myself in agreement that keeping fleet numbers down for exhibition appearances is a good thing on smaller layouts. I've found myself in the same boat operating my Dad's layouts and I think we might be at that stage with 'Shifting Sands' too.

 

I hope you get the chance to post some new pics of the extension soon.

 

Colin

 

Thanks Colin, the fleet reduction also puts some much needed dosh back into the coffers and I am hoping to move on a Bachmann 108 which isn't really suitable for Pallet Lane soon, although I do fancy replacing it with a 105 when they come out as the DMU's will see more use on the extended layout. I am working nights next week which hopefully should mean I can spend some afternoon time on the extension, I haven't made much progress for a few weeks now and need to get some momentum going again.

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I have made some more progress on the layout with more planned over the weekend. I have made the walls that surround the super market car park and bus parking area, they now need weathering. Also the road junction now has road signs and traffic lights. The sign were made up from fonts downloaded via the CBRD site ( http://www.cbrd.co.uk/media/fonts/). With that installed I couldn't resist filling the roads with vehicles, which has made me realise how much work is left to do weathering and populating them!

 

 

 

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After what feels like a mammoth modelling session, I feel I am getting there with the vehicles for the layout. All have had registration plates and tax discs added and have received weathering to various degrees. Some of the older cars on the layout such as the A40 Farina and early minis have had rust added to the bottom of the wings and doors, having looked at photos from old classic car magazines to see where they rusted. All of the HGV's and buses now have wing mirrors, and at some point the cars will follow.

 

The 2 leyland National buses have had the interior painted and have been weathered, and in the case of the one in service, the wheels have been posed to represent the bus making a gentle turn from one road to the road in front of the shop by bending the front axle into an elongated Z shape, and driver/passengers added. Unfortunately the passengers fall mostly behind window pillars and the interior paintwork is hardly visible but at least it was better than the moulded green plastic colour.

 

On the layout itself street lights have now been installed and the new walls weathered. The houses next to the burnt out shop have had front doors repainted on 2 of them, while the other 2 have had posters put in the windows to represent student houses, and include one for the s*x pistols single god save the queen, a house to let sign and a CND flag. People have been added from preiser in appropriate places. The electrical shop also has appropriate advertising and logos for its wares, while I have installed some fine mesh behind the windows as a shop like that would be prime targets for the Pallet Lane low life.

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Picked up my copy (or 5) of Railway Modeller today and have to say I am really impressed how the photos have turned out of the layout for the article aided by a bit of photo trickery on the back sceen, and will hopefully spur me on to finish the extension. One minor change that occured between writing the article and it appearing in print is that the layout is appearing at Trainwest 2011 not 2010.

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 3 months later...

I last posted an update as long ago as December on Pallet Lane which is for good reason in that life has been rather hectic with Christmas, and preparing for the arrival of baby Sam who came into the world on the 2nd March hence not much work on the layout. I am somewhat constrained for space so haven't been able to set the layout up but I have been busy on the stock for the layout.

 

Despite my recent sell off of some locos it is unsurprising that the loco fleet has gained a couple of new members in the shape of a Disc fitted Bachmann Class 20 and a non boiler fitted class 25/3. However the the boiler fitted 25083 will/has been sold on as the small batch of boiler fitted later body style 25's were generally restricted to Scotland.

 

Following a trip behind 25278 in January on the NYMR I have a new found fondness of rats and aware that the Bachmann rat is far from perfect I did some digging and stumbled on the DEMU article written by Jim Smith Wright of this parish on how to improve the Rats. At this moment in time I have only played with the chassis but the pics below show the work I have carried out:

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So far both 24081 and 25057 have the new chassis with 25278 left to do.

 

The new Bachmann Presflos have all been fitted with 3 links and are due to be weathered shortly, I am very pleased with the Bachmann model and I am glad I invested in them to replace the airifx ones previously in use on the layout.

 

The lack of progress with the layout itself is unfortunately likely to continue until the summer due to a house move in May.

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Congratulations on baby Sam, I was wondering why it had gone quiet on Pallet Lane, a valid excuse me thinks ;) So what with a new baby and moving house too, I am surprised you have time to breath. :O

 

Which Presflos did you get? I acquired two Crown Cement Bulk Cement Wagons (38-261) at the Doncaster show. I was after the Blue Circle ones but by 10am on the first day they had sold out!!

 

I will be interested to see to what extent you are going to weather yours, as as from what I have seen on the Net they were pretty dirty and cement covered things - Example 1 or British Rail wagon photographs by Paul Bartlett

 

Good luck with the late nights :D

 

Paul

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Hi Paul,

 

I have got the Blue Circle version (38-270), they will be reasonably well weathered and the weathering should stand out more than it did on the grey airfix ones, I have been looking at the pics on Paul Bartletts site for ideas. I too had supply problems with the blue circle ones due to waiting for other items on my Hattons wishlist to come in which time the presflos sold out, but thankfully I got the 8 I needed from other suppliers.

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Hi Rob

 

I havent seen this topic before and I would like to say the street scenes are most impressive,I really like the burnt out and boarded up house and the bus depot pictures to create the effect that the bus depot continues past the backscene,good thinking! ;) :D

 

Regards

Lewis

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Hi Rob

 

I havent seen this topic before and I would like to say the street scenes are most impressive,I really like the burnt out and boarded up house and the bus depot pictures to create the effect that the bus depot continues past the backscene,good thinking! wink.gif biggrin.gif

 

Regards

Lewis

 

Hi Lewis,

 

Thanks for the comments, I have since added another backscene picture between the depot and the burnt out shop, next time I have the camera out I will take a piccy and stick it up.

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  • 3 months later...

Very nice layout. Do you have a trackplan?

 

Sorry for the delay in replying, I have only just noticed the recent posts.

 

Re the track plan - I don't have an electronic one, I will scan the one in from the RM article and paste it in.

 

Re the 25's - I have just finished the last class 25 this week, the mods follow Jim Smith Wright DEMU article which describes it more eloquently than I ever could, here are some pics.

 

24081, 25057 and 25278

 

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24081 - The first one I did and slightly easier as the area under the cabs doesn't require modification, although cutting out the battery boxes is harder than a 25.

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25057 - The second loco and a little bit more involved due to the detailing under the cab

 

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25278 - The last one and probably the most rewarding as the lack of boiler tanks accentuates the work that has been done

 

 

 

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On the layout itself limited progress has been made due to moving back to Wiltshire and starting my new job, although I have been working on stock. The 8 new presflos need to be weathered, especially since I have just agreed to sell the 8 Airfix ones. Also on the move is 45149, the sealed beam headlights are too late for Pallet Lane, although it will continue life on the exhibition circuit on the Bentley Model Railway Group's Gladstone Road Layout. In addition to the work on the Rats, the 47 now has wipers and the 121 finally has a number (having been anonymous since I bought it )and other interior bits painted.

 

I have a rather long list of stuff to do on the extension ready for Stroud but it will get done....

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