Not much has been rolling off the work bench lately (a good thing as they would crash to the floor), but here's a couple of items underway - my 158 Saltire livery, and my lovely NGS kit Cartic-4 (complete with cars inside!)
David
I will model in N gauge for life - it the ideal scale for my principle interest, that is modelling realistic urban scenes, but recently I've been thinking more about having a go in OO.
What is tempting me to play with the big trains? Well the catalyst is the Bachmann VEP, and the forthcoming CEP from Honrby. The detail on the Bachmann model is so impressive, and living in a third rail area, its something I've long been tempted to model. This is a new addition to my modelling interests - the
My 37 with sound arrived today, and after having to work out what all the functions did - why no instructions??? - its been hauling my short engineering train around a circle of track on the kitchen floor!
Its been a really interesting afternoon, learning how to use the Dynamis controller, and the sounds themselves. As both new into OO and DCC, here's a short review of each:
The loco itself is a beautiful model, very heavy (I'm used to N gauge!), solidly made, and highly detailed. Bachma
I've come up with 2 versions of a small 6ft by 1ft shunting plank (with a 3ft run off board), just so I'll have somewhere to run what will be a very small range of OO stock. At the moment, from what is available or has been announced, the stock line up will eventually become thus:
Class 37 Railfreight - Sound
Class 08 EWS - Sound
MPV
Class 31 Sound
I may possibly add something like a 121 bubble car or a 108 on NSE livery.
Rolling stock will be a couple Autoballasters, some Seacows
Still awaiting the OHLE droppers to finish the layout, but there's been an explosion of new rolling stock this month, so here are some photo updates.
Here's the lovely Farish 150. I painted the snowploughs as this was rather an odd omission not to have them pre-painted. I think this wins points over the Dapol 156 for me just down to the beautiful underframe detailing.
Farish DB class 66 hauling a rake of NGS cartics. Eventually this will become a full 8 car set, although I am going to
Ring Road went up today so I can run in some of my new stock, and inexplicably, the wiring has 'swapped' again. Now this does seem completely impossible, but the only thing I can think of is that somewhere in the terminal block there is a short, which was fooling me into swapping the wires over, and now the short has been resolved, the wires are now in need of swapping back!
A short history:
4 power feeds from the 4 track controller head into a terminal block on board one. From this term
Well, looking back at my 1600 posts on the 'old' RMweb, there wasn't actualy much I wanted to transfer - not saying nothing I wrote was of any importance, but its only the more recent bits relating to Ring Road that I want to continue. I've had a go at uploading the gallery, and started collecting a few bits here. This is a different way of using the forum, but I'm liking this blog idea!
For those new to the layout, here is an outline:
Ring Road depicts a busy four-track section of the r
Getting grumpy lately with not much modellig to do has helped make my mind up to finaly commit to building a new layout - same size as Ring Road, and in as many ways alike as different.
Planning will be ongoing for the next few months, and once finalised, I will be able, as with Ring Road, to begin building construction well before the baseboards are started, which won't be until next spring at the earliest.
So what are the plans?
A couple of screen grabs (copyright belonging to Goog
With no major (announced) N gauge locos/units on my shopping list due for some time (222 due November, and although the Dapol Pacer and 86 would be nice, I'm still not buying given my experiences), and Ring Road only needing some new facias ready for show next year, my 'what to do' list is getting rather long.
I've got ideas in play for various layouts - from the DLR to HS2, OO depots, OO model of Weymouth, and on it goes. What is certainly appealing for me at the moment is layout that is mu
A little delayed by the joys of a Postal Strike, the parts I needed to have a go at a road-railer arrived today, so I've given it a whirl.
This isn't based on any particular prototype, I was just aiming for something that 'looks' like one. The main portion is the body of a lovely excavator from DM Toys in Germany (makers of the crane I used), with the cat tracks removed and then a new lower body constructed. This is a strip of card with some spare metal mouldings (not sure where they are fr
The start of the upgrade for next year's exhibitions has started - this will include a new wooden facia, a lighting pelmet, and a re-worked storage yard that will allow me to increase from 8 to 15 trains, without the need for any baseboard extensions. I will also be adding a few tiny details - more shopping trolleys etc.
First up however, was to finally get the tram running on both boards! This now works well, although I am running in at high speed as it helps force a path between the card r
One half of Ring Road is down today (convincing me even further I need a 'quick' single board layout to play trains on without disrupting entire dining room!), mainly to give the 350 a run in, but also a quick look at some other recent train formations:
David
I've been getting restless lately (in a modelling sense that is), as having sworn not to start a new layout until next year (after Ring Road has done a couple of exhibitions), I've had nothing new to get stuck into.
Fanciful ideas pop up, such as making a small single board layout just to run the locos round (seemed too much effort for small return due to limitations of layout size), deciding what to do with my stalled entry into OO DDC Sound, and ideas for the next large N gauge layout...bu
A few shots of some newer stock having a run in, including the Dapol 58
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-O3FRokJf2A
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RI9G6QsLF-g
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9L9bBxf7FB8
David
A happier blog entry today! I've managed to get a long shot video showing the entire length in one go:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZbdAVaWLxk
David
Still more details to add to Ring Road, but given its already had more exhibition invites than it would probably stand up to, I'm in the very early planning stages of a dedicated exhibition layout. Don't get too excited at this point, this is a long way off fruition (2011 I am aiming for), but here's a sneak peek of what will eventually become the 'public companion' to Ring Road (which will do 3 or 4 shows at the most then remain my 'home' layout only)...
Another item on the to do list is insure all my stock for travel to exhibitons, so I've been doing a bit of cataloguing today (and terrified myself with the total cost of my fleet!), and looking at my multiple units, I thought how great it was to have so many different types available in N. When I first started out, there was the Farish 101 and that was it. What a change over time though!
The workhorses of the railway network, MUs were always neglected in model form while there were the mor
The OHLE is now complete, which feels very satisfying! Hard to see in photos, but its made a real difference to the feel of the layout, and given it the level of detail it deserves.
I've also liveried up the Tomix tram. This is just the dummy - once the Kato working version is available, I will use this to replace the Modemo tram. The Modemo is lovely, but it isn't a low floor vehicle, which this one is, and does look a lot more British.
Remaining on the 'to do' list are covering a few
Well there we go - its the end of my free time this week, so this is just about done. The ground scatter needs hoovering off tomorrow morning, and there's still one building to clad in card, but apart from that, this is complete. 4 days and almost entirely left-over modelling material, the track is unpainted, the ballast rough, details light, it follows very little thought or planning, but it was fun!
I'll post some pics on Sunday with some stock movements, but this has been really enjoyable
Decided to tackle the ballast today - doing a really rough job on it, very thinly applied, not painted the rails yet, and going for a really basic look to it (this is a week of fun, and to me, all that track detail isn't fun!)
I've also finished the backscene and the car park scene, and buit the bridge. There isn't much more to do now - once the ballast is dry tomorrow, I can hoover this off, do all the remaining ground texture work, stick on the other buildings, then tackle the steps up to
I was tempted to name this layout "Left Over Street" given that almost all of it is made up of left overs from both Ring Road and Westbrook (the eagle eyed will spot more than a few items from Westbrook on this!), but settled on Jubilee Street.
Now the model is never going to win any awards, but its actually really fun just to plonk things on without any planning! An afternoon's work has brought the layout to this stage - the platform is done, as is much of the backscene - just the big space
With the weekend at hand and nothing much to do, I decided to rip up my aborted Weymouth 'plank' layout, simplified the track plan and came up with a 5 feet long micro layout.
There is still a lot of the Weymouth idea in this, but its a simple island platform station with a hidden run off, just enough to shunt some DMUs about. A couple of sidings in the front will add to the fun, and there's plenty of room for a decent station car park and road scene.
All the building shapes are just moc
As I'm having trouble uploading images at the mo, here's a quick quiz to see if anyone can guess what I am currently having a go at scratchbuilding from the 'ingredients' alone:
3x Farish Mk1 coach chassis
8x Farish class 158 bogies
2x Farish 158 air dams
2x Farish dummy class 150 couplings
1x Farish pantograph
1x pack BHE third rail shoes
1x Tomix '20m' motor chassis
1mm styrene sheet
Pictures to follow when I can upload them!
David
