Hello, well I am still here lingering on RMWeb and following the Great Image Crash of 2022, I have finally got round to uploading and replacing the photos with the same originals. Me being me, I have multiple copies backed up and some years ago I made a copy of each Blog entry as a backup too including the images, so it was easy once found and opened the Word document to suss out what images needed replacing on which blog entry. Only two Blogs don't contain any images, number 4 and number 10, so
Some more ramblings from Speedlow. Whilst I have not been doing much with the layout boards I have been slowly planning and developing the quarry buildings that will be a distinctive part of the appearance firmly setting it in the limestone area of the Peak District. My original plan was to build customised versions of real buildings that I come across on my travels. But I soon realised this would be rather costly and potentially time consuming to do. Whilst I pondered what to do Christmas 2014
Hi folks, you will have noticed a lack of updates on this blog. Towards the end of 2015 I had two outings with the incomplete Speedlow layout. Firstly, to my home show the Hazel Grove & District MRS show at the end of October and that was really its first proper public showing. The weekend went well and no major problems except for a dry joint on one of the point feeds that I soon got sorted out on the Saturday morning. Although the layout was only the bare boards with track and ballast laid
Hello again, following on from the track-laying in Issue 7 now it was time to start wiring up the layout for DCC operations. Early on I had decided to incorporate several power districts into the design of the wiring so as to try eliminate any whole layout shorts should a loco be operated against a point for example. It happens, yes we have all seen it happen at exhibitions and often rendering the entire layout dead until the controller has been reset. So I decided to split the layout into four
Hello again, in this issue I will continue describing how the Speedlow layout track was laid and finalised.
Once most of the track was laid down and glued with the Copydex I could then have a bit of a play to with some stock just to get a feel of what the layout would look like. So it was out with the stock I had to hand to put them into the fiddle yard.
These were taken in January 2013
Following some stock testing I quickly decide
Hello again, in this issue I will continue describing how the Speedlow layout came about and how I wanted to build and operate the layout.
Right from the start it was always envisaged that Speedlow would be DCC operated and I tried to plan for that accordingly when it came to planning the track plan. The layout boards as previously described in Issue 5 were built for me by Black Cat Baseboards in 2011 to the design I specified. There are 4 boards each 4 foot long and two additional o
Hello RMWeb members, time for another long overdue update!
This time rather than looking at my non-existent Workbench I will write about my layout that I am slowly building and am at the point now where most of the big hurdles have been jumped.
Speedlow started life as most layouts do as an idea on paper, mainly doodles in between my workload waiting for the next batch of documents to land in my in-tray. Little scraps of paper here and there, doodles of track plans based
Hi folks, slightly later than planned due to one thing and another and a break away.
So a quick rundown what was recently OMWB:
Set of six modified Bachmann bauxite liveried Covhops plus one unfitted grey one weathered. I have renumbered the six bauxite ones using the Cambridge Custom Transfer sheet BL35h suitable for wagons in the Tunstead to Northwich limestone pool. All the existing panels and printed markings were removed with thinners and cotton buds. I used five of
Hello, welcome to my blog in which I will hopefully be able to share some of the things that I am modelling when time allows.
I tend to have several projects on the boil at once and this often means I swap around doing different models as time and resources allow. My workbench at present has several different modelling projects on the go and the active ones are as follows:
#Hornby Sentinel shunter - to be repainted into ICI Mond Orange, grey and white livery as per real shunters
Hi All, following on from Issue 2 and the photo of the six bauxite Covhops that I was in the middle of converting and renumbering I have now taken a photo of the six as below. Just need to get some of the Parkside parts or have a look at home in Stockport to see if I have any filed away somewhere that I can use. I have weathered up the underframes and just need to do the same for the bodywork to make them all lime stained as per the real wagons.
A closer look at the CCT t
Another long overdue update and to be honest not a great deal has happened with the layout itself it remains in store at home. I did get round to removing the legs and intended to rework these to make them longer by adding extention pieces to raise the overall height of the layout nearer to the 40 inch mark. Just need to make that trip to the local wood shop...
I have been fortunate to have inherited an old kitchen table to use as a workbench that my partner wants me to use. This has allowed
Hi folks, I know it has been a while since my last issue but life and work got in the way.
Quick update on the Bachmann Covhops I now have my rake of 12 wagons thanks to the timely re-release by Bachmann of their models and my 40th birthday money which allowed me to purchase the extra 6 from local model railway shops SMTF and Arcadia. These will be converted with new transfers as per the first batch of six using the remainder of the CCT sheet. I made a trip down to Somerset just after my bir
