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 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
With N Brass' range of OHLE droppers still unavailable, I've decided to make my own so that I can (finally) complete the layout. I've only done two of the seven gantries so far, but already its made a vast difference to the model - it now definately feels like part of the WCML! They've not been painted yet, waiting until they're all on then touching them up in one go.
David
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
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
I've worked up a quick concept sketch for the proposed new layout (see entry below) to get a feel of the similarities/differences to Ring Road. Very heavily influenced by Coventry, my aim with this layout would be to keep the overall style and architectural/urban elements of Ring Road, but arrange them in a different way, with the layout in a slight cutting, roads going over the top, and the station adding operational interest.
Still a year or so off even starting this dedicated exhibition l
My once in a lifetime treat arrived today, 92002 H G Wells. I cannot sufficiently describe how good this model is, it really is by far the most astonishing loco. Details include drivers and fully painted control desks!
These pictures speak for themselves - and remember, this is N gauge!
David
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
After a quick bit of livery experimentation this morning, a couple of hours of work this afternoon has resulted in this - a GC HST rake!
The HSTs were old Farish Virgin ones (they were never getting run as the prototype is obsolete), and the donor coaches are from my stalled 442 Wessex project. I decided to do a 4 coach train as my 'full length' expresses are 6 coaches (plus loco and DVT), and to get the GC rake feeling correctly 'short', 4 seemed a good length.
The HST locos had their u
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)...
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
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
