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  • SouthernRegionSteam

    Coastguard Creek - 15 months of planning!

    By SouthernRegionSteam

    Hold on to your socks - this is going to be a lengthy one! (In fact it's so long, I've now split it into 2 separate posts - the next will be up soon...)   I think it's fair to say that you are all long overdue an update on Coastguard Creek. Due to other commitments, no real progress has been made since the last post way back in March 2021; almost 15 months ago! If anything, things went backwards for quite a while, as I kept finding more and more inspiring locations that I really wanted
    • 8 comments
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An N-Gauge shelf...

Stock Play

I was playing with some stock to check sizing issues, and to figure out where to put section breaks, and decided to start taking photos...   First up, a view of the station - with parcels vans sat by the parcels depot, and two 158s in platforms 2 and 3. I've always liked the Northern Spirit transpennine livery.   Next up, a 150 trundles out the station for a trip up the branch, whilst a Northern Spirit 4 car 156 arrives into platform 4.   The right hand end of the layout next, with a
MichaelW

MichaelW

0
Harpers Road

Track Plans Revised

After considering the helpful comments on previous posts we have revised the layout for Harpers Road so that we can include an engine shed without the need for a set of 3-way points.   Our first attempt to jiggle things around was a complete disaster in over-complication so the v2 plans were consigned to the bin. Hence the new plan is referred to as v3:     The right-hand front siding has been doubled by using an extra left-hand curved point. The two tracks will lead into the engine shed
Peter & Seth

Peter & Seth

2
Musings and wonderings (for now...)

An explanation

I suppose I should explain why I'm intent on modelling part of the Southern's 3rd-rail system, when it'd be far simpler to model something where all the motive power and consist were available off the shelf.   I think that most of us realise that we are influenced in our modelling by what we are familiar with, whether that's from childhood, adolescence or adulthood. I've been interested in railways since I was small, thanks to Dad who is Great Eastern to the bone.   When I was very young, we
Del

Del

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Tewkesbury MPD - S7

Death by a thousand cuts.

Finally started to cut metal for this challenge, well plastic if you want to be pedantic, and 1800 cuts to be precise.   I walked away from the Wigan show with various goodies from Exactoscale. So the few spare minutes over Christmas was spent cutting various chairs from sprues, fortunately I remembered on the third sprue that the keys were handed, 5 left and 5 right. So 1500 std chairs, 200 bridge chairs and 100 slide chairs later I have this to show for my efforts. I really think that Exa
Adrian

Adrian

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Cherry's Corner.

Jinty progress - braking news!

Having received a MOK Standard 4MT kit over Christmas has given added impetus to getting the Jinty finished first. I'm trying to make sure that I finish this Jinty before diving into the 4MT kit, whether my resolution holds will have to be seen.   So I've made a little progress on the bodywork, but I've been concentrating on the chassis. I'd like to get a running chassis to test out a MERG CBUS system I'm setting up. So progress to date is shown below. The detail changes from previous posti
Adrian

Adrian

5
Neil C's Micro-Layout Project Blog

Small - but important - bits of progress

After a good few weeks of inactivity (work; christmas; real life, etc) I've actually done a small amount of modelling today. The two turnouts were modified to allow proper live frog operation, and the track was cut to fit, using a shiny new pair of Xuron cutters. It might not sound much, but psychologically it feels important: for some reason I'd been putting off the point modifications for far too long, as I just couldn't get my head around them. This explanation helped a lot.   Next I need
Neil C

Neil C

0
Bw Leipzig Hbf West

A Hazy Shade Of Winter

...Simon and Garfunkel's song does come to mind when I look out the window these days!   Anyway - three additional photos from today is what I've to offer now . Today I contented myself with a short trip down to Knautkleeberg at the southern end of tram lines 3 and 13, and adjacent to Knauthain Station which is served by regional railway services to Saalfeld.         The Leipzig-Gera-Saalfeld Railway is not electrified and operated with class 642 "Desiro" DMUs. Here, RE 16546 with 64
NGT6 1315

NGT6 1315

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Fen End Pit's Blog

Plan of layout

I realized I hadn't posted a plan of the layout on the blog yet and thought folk might be interested.     This afternoon I painted most of the remaining track on upper level. Unfortunately I had run out of the ballast I used on the first part and have had some fun trying to match up the colours. Note to self, next time make sure I have enough to do the whole layout before I start.     An F5 approaches Empire Basin hauling a short parcel train. The works of National Motors and Switchgea
Fen End Pit

Fen End Pit

3
Pugsley's Workbench

Unleashing the genie

Links for later parts of the saga: 2 - What do you do in the bath? 3 - Giving the Chopper a good workout 4 - D, I, Why? 5 - Interior design 6 - Interior design - too 7 - I'll be your number one 8 - Of weeny LEDs and orange 9 - The real slim Shady 10 - His name? Number two... 11 - Mikkel made me do it ;-) 12 - Wax on. Wax off.   I have probably just made a mistake, probably quite a big mistake - I've opened the big white box of joy...   For those of you who are not aware of the
Pugsley

Pugsley

13
Ullypug's tales from the tinking table

New Year progress

Finally after foolishly painting and decorating the stairs hall and landing, oh and stairs to the loft room, I've finally found some time to finish off one or two projects. D2127 brings in some new fangled conflats to Wheal Elizabeth. Once loaded, they'll be off to Avonmouth for onward shipment to America. Funny isn't it? My friend Dave used to shunt these on the dock system at Avonmouth...
ullypug

ullypug

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An N-Gauge shelf...

Sector plates and back scenes - or a lesson in picking flat sheet timber...

Started the morning by fitting the two sector plates and cutting the track on the right board. Everything was going so well that I decided to do a trial fit of the backscenes to see what it would look like in the end. The two right hand bits have been cut to fit round the framing, the left hand piece hasn't (so sits a lot higher, and needs the drill to keep it upright.   Having disappeared for a couple of hours, and with the heating combating the weather, I came back, and decided to have a
MichaelW

MichaelW

0
On Ravensers Bookcase

Taking Stock

It's the time of year for casting an eye over projects unfinished and unstarted, reviewing progress and considering what's been achieved, and making resolutions for the New Year.   We could start with the 2009 New Year's Resolution (buried in a transfer off the old site far below):     That one I actually kept, more or less. A few bits and pieces were bought - a couple of second had wagon kits, a 153 (but that was a carry over from the 2008 Rolling Stock Programme) , a Central 158 and a ch
Ravenser

Ravenser

0
Edinburgh Junction's Blog

Overgrown platform

The last post for the day, and its a good'n. I've spent a good 30 minutes on the layout with my glue, lichen and bush clumps, and started away sticking this and that to some parts of the platform, to see if I can achieve something that I find is hard to do - give buildings/platforms a 'good old life' and make them a lot more realistic. After that good old time spent up working on the platform, I have to say, I think every second spent doing it was well worth it. My lordz! It looks amazing!
Edinburgh Junction

Edinburgh Junction

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Fen End Pit's Blog

More quayside track

Over the festive period I got most of the track for the quayside built and wired. Point control is all manual via wire-in-tube and/or cranks. I've fitted check rails to most of the line and think I'm probably going to try some Noch cobbles for the road service.     The J65 shunts a couple of vans in the loop. This loop is just long enough to take three short wheelbase vans without fouling the three-way point which gives access to the pair of sidings.     This is an overall view of the
Fen End Pit

Fen End Pit

4
Bw Leipzig Hbf West

Welcome to the Saxon Winter Wonderland

We've been having tonnes of snow in Leipzig over night - which is why, once again, I packed my things and headed out to snap some photos . The primary plan for today was to head up the 4 line to Gohlis, Landsberger Straße. Unsurprisingly, many trams and trains I encountered today had icicles hanging from their frames and fronts!       However, I first headed for line 16 where NGT12 car 1216 "Kiev" was ploughing through the snow at Eutritzscher Zentrum.         This impressive buil
NGT6 1315

NGT6 1315

3
Copley Hill Works

Two Birds and a Boat

Two birds and a Boat.   It's a stunning lineup. Now that I have my Heljan Kestrel home for the holidays, the fun of comparing it to the two diesels before it come to pass...but a disclaimer first:     From right to left, we have Falcon (2007), Deltic (2008) and Kestrel (2009). The two birds are from the Heljan stable of model locomotives, while Bachmann is a National Railway Museum commissioned piece from Bachmann.       The Reviews     Falcon - Heljan     Base
S.A.C Martin

S.A.C Martin

4
Edinburgh Junction's Blog

Scratch building

Getting the hang of these entries for blogs.... but getting carried away lol.   This is the entry for all scratch building projects I have done on the layout.   The first one I did, were two little ramps for my footbridge behind the warehouse, which were quick and simple. No pictures im affraid, but I have just done a little lovely ramp, for my Direct Rail Services platform, which has had a gap for some kind of ramp or set of stairs, but never have got round to doing it. But I got everything
Edinburgh Junction

Edinburgh Junction

0
Edinburgh Junction's Blog

Terminus ballast is complete-ish

All of the work getting my new ballast down on the extension platforms and loco siding has payed off. Weeks and weeks of spraying down diluted pva and water (4:1 - Water:Glue), got the ballast into the position, then 1 big huge spray of the 4:1 solution with a bit of Fairy up liquid and boom! Its solid ballast! very happy with result...   Above: Looking to the platforms, with the units in awaiting passengers Above: The ScotRail mk3 sleeper is stabled in the lovely new loco stabling point
Edinburgh Junction

Edinburgh Junction

0
The Farthing layouts

Blue skies and horse traffic

It is afternoon in the Overbourne bay at Farthing station. The all third "strengthener" rests in one of the sidings, while a worker from a local cartage company is lost in thought. The coach reveals that I'm still in the process of fitting couplings to some of the stock.       The regular branch engine No. 1961 of the "850" Class shunts a horsebox to diagram N5 into the horse dock. The horse seems nervous at the prospect of travelling inside a box on wheels. Perhaps in re
Mikkel

Mikkel in Stories

22
Musings and wonderings (for now...)

From elation to despair

Well, not exactly despair, but definitely an air of 'Oh damn...' After planning everything out yesterday, with the bookcases etc, I finished off by mentioning that I was going to definitely model in OO. But I don't think it's going to work.   This is a plan of the room in Sketchup:   As you can probably work out from the dimensions, to fit a workable 4mm SR layout in that space is not impossible (Paul A. Lunn has published a plan that proves it) but it won't be the kind of layout that I
Del

Del

2
Highclere - 2mm Finescale

I hate Woodwork!

Hello.   I really admire people who can make things from wood. It really is a talent, and a talent which is still beyond me. Today I have spent ALL day trying to make a box for my control panel and I have reminded myself why I hate it! Today hasnt been a great start to the new year and hopefully one which wont continue, there has been temper tantrums, tears, and lots of moments where I just had to walk away, I just cannot do woodwork:(   Anyway, here is the result of all my efforts today, in
-missy-

-missy-

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