Having relaid and remodelled some of the track at the end of 2016, I left it a few months to see if I was happy with it all. Eventually, this autumn, I decided crack on with bits of scenery (see photos) and some ballasting (50/50 water/ pva, a few drops of washing up liquid and some black poster paint to weather it a bit). The shed areas had black poster paint added later to try to reproduce the grime of such areas. There is still a lot to do, but I'm pleased with the progress so far.
An opportunist purchase from Hattons. Silver Fox body on what sounds like a newish Hornby 5 pole motor. Very smooth, quiet and romped effortlessly on 8Mk1s. I had bought an unfinished one with a Lima chassis a few months ago, but will now sell it on eBay, as this one is better than I could achieve.
Although it has transfers for the numbers and I had bought etched ones for the unfinished one, I think I'll leave it as it is, and sell the etched numbers on, as the transfers are neatly
Late in 2016, after a long period of playing trains, but not doing much with the layout, I decided to remove the little used "freight loop" and with it the diamond crossings and three way points that caused more derailments than I was happy with. By asking handyman Mark (whilst visiting to do some work in the kitchen) to put a larger fillet in one corner of the fiddle yard, a siding could be extended, and brought all the way round the layout to become the 4th circuit. This gave the opportunity f
We had the attic converted to a room about 4 years ago, to bedroom standards if we ever need to sell. Velux windows, laminate floor, radiator, fire door, loads of storage space, under the eaves. Our friendly local handyman, Mark Webber built the baseboards in two days, for the price of a couple of medium sized locos, as I had bought the baseboard material (9mm marine ply) and had it cut to size by the builders before the attic was finished (too big to come up the twisty narrow staircase once fin
Three circuits, a fiddle yard, and a small branch line terminus appeared, as did a rather unconvincing fourth track crossing from the 2nd circuit to inside the 3rd one via diamond crossings, though I found that I rarely used it.
The "Hall" mock up nameplate was made by friends at the railway I was then a volunteer at, to celebrate my half century.
A possible scenario if through trains had continued over the S and D for a bit longer, stalwarts such as a 7F mix with some diesels that could conceivably have appeared. Don't take it too literally, it's just a "what if".
Track laying soon got going, using Peco code 100 and insulfrog points, on 3mm cork (bought a massive roll off ebay for less than £25, only used about half for the whole layout).
Three continuous circuits were planned, each spitting into three in the fiddle yard at the far end of the room from the door. Due to the shape of the room, I tucked a long platform against the wall down one side, thus maximising the useful width, and enabling fairly generous curves. Track gauges being used to aim for
Having recently taken delivery of an extra Class 33 (1990s railtour condition), SDJR Jinty, and West Highland liveried MK1 (Fort Bill-Mallaig mid 80s), I posed some little cameos.
