Most of the construction work on the original layout took place back in 2006/7, and beyond pulling back up some pictures such as building constructions and trees etc, I dont really see the need for verbatim copying/posting of pages past, as they are still of course available on the old RMweb, which at the moment we are re-assured is going to be continually available as an archive.

 

I linked to the new place from there so here is the OLD Deadwater Burn thread. Isn't that 'insert link' tool just the best? B)

this pic from the first page shows how promising the station was looking ' till I went and put the windows in I have never been happy with the windows, mental note to use ready made ones in future!

Most of the construction efforts take place within the first half of the original thread, alot of the more recent stuff was cogitating about where next to go either with this layout, or a replacement.

 

A major coup in the project was getting my first handbuilt working point together, which was a big personal achievement, up to this time I had reserved the right to revert to OO and Peco track, the point is a pretty bog standard B6 built with PCB solder construction.

 

a 'progress' shot from way back when, you can see just how narrow the depth is here, whether the finished layout would get a 'depth of scene' look when finished was still very much in the balance here. As a contrast this is how that area looked when finished:

 

Trees:

we'll come back to them in another installment.

 

The Scottish end of the layout was a similar story, depth had been pared down to allow for extra fiddle yard capacity (in the 6'x1' 2007 layout challenge) One of the most frustrating things was that I had allowed for 3' cassettes to handle short passenger trains, which in the final plan never actually happened, went for freight only, and the occasional Mk1 sub that was run as a departmental 'works train' shorter cassettes of 2'6 were more than adequate.

 

Thats a good place to move onto the new plans for Deadwater Burn, which may or may not include a change of name, the layout is about 80-90% correct for the real Deadwater though some features have been moved about/invented a bit. The new plans feature a much greater departure from the prototype, to the extent that a new name might be in order, of course the general ambience will still be the NBR on the 'literal' border, and featuring essences of the Border Counties line.

 

The problems facing the layout became all too apparent at RMweb members day 2008, when problems with electrics came to the 'fore

The siding is well stocked with wagons,for visual interest as I'd lost the polarity change wire for the point, was able to process trains through the layout but not shunt.

Also the 'linkspans'(for want of a better phrase) between layout and fiddleyard cassettes had become tired and were causing many problems!

 

Alot of my new ideas for layouts had come to naught, and I was feeling quite frustrated.

by Bob-65B on Thu Jul 16, 2009 12:00 am

Is there not a golden opportunity to capitalise on how good Deadwater was and go ahead with your (earlier) expansion plans for it? It seems (to me at least) you have a good base with Deadwater that you could build on. It's such a shame given how well received it was - and clearly still is - for it not to see firther development!

This statement did either strike a chord or nerve or something, and my modelling 'moping about' had to cease!

 

One of the plans for extension, this is my favourite tho' there is a condensed 'lite' version in case our house move turns up less space. Broadly the same except that the fiddleyard is incorporated into the new scenic board rather than requiring a separate board.

 

New buildings, this is for the new forestry siding as the previous one now becomes part of the run round loop!

which has been kitbashed from the oringinal starting out point of a canal building from the skaledale canal buildings range:

 

I constantly give thought to portraying other era's - the most obvious would be 50's era steam, save for the fact that although this area is better served than some of the LMS areas of Scotland the ex-LNER tackle, J39, V3 type stuff is still on old split chassis, which are a much harder task to convert to EM than some of the more modern offerings, the Bachmann Jinty and Panniers for example regauge simply with 'drop-in' wheelsets.

 

Apart from the closure of the Waverley route a possibility would be the late 70's/early 80's with TOPS diesels and more modern wagons:

- though I'm tempted now to do this on my other layout.

 

 

 

Any questions or comments are most welcome below.