As suggested, a new little station has appeared by the loco shed along with a signal that has mysteriously sprung up . Must be the time of year. . As Steve has named the GW high level station Upper Mill, me and Kenny reckon the new station is called Lower Mill.
I think Steve will get back to me on that one...
A nice Marcway curved point has also appeared near the junction. I think it was one of those "I've got one of these going spare/free if you can make any use of it Steve" things.
Seeing the first train run gave us a bit of a boost and once the hidden loops were in it was time to start adding the upper station area. This will eventually be the WR station and will be the larger of the 2.
The large board will be hinged for access until the lower area is proven to be ok then it will be fastened down with a removable front retaining wall for access.
The turntable was rescued from Talacre and tried here but proved to be a little out of reach (more of which later!!)
Th
Decided to stick at 5 trusses, which I think gives a full enough look without being too crowded.
I've included an internal picture of Waverton goods shed (LNW wooden built, near Chester) as a comparison.
I think Steve likes a few lights in the buildings so some level of internal details is necessary.
Hopefully it's now time to start the "pretty" bits. Slaters stone walling and embossed slates.
I'll probably need some detaily bits from Invertrain(windows, doors, chimneys gutters etc., Du
Well, here we go. It’s been ages since the last update, and quite frankly I’ve lost track of what’s been done since the last one. I’ve attached a little gallery as a bit of a “catch-upâ€
http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php/gallery/album/7179/1299-saltney-railway-catch-up/
but far more pics are available at
http://thesaltneyrailway.fotopic.net/
Things we’ve done that come to mind (not necessarily in date order!) are..
1. New roof on the loco shed. It dated f
The goods shed at “Slugworth†(not convinced that name’ll stick) is now just about finished and in position.
I’ve built an internal crane from wooden coffee stirrers and assorted bits of brass from the scrap box, fitted gutters & downpipes, LED lights and the windows in the office.
The roof and canopy have been painted and weathered but there are still ridge tiles to fit and quite a bit more internal detail to add.
Steve’s now added the island platform to the G
When the old Talacre gauge 0 garden railway had to come down in October 2009, we were feeling a bit down. We had amassed quite a bit of stock and a lot of scenic work had been done in the sheds. We were left with a lot of very second hand track, a mixed bag of locos and stock,quite a few working signals and all the elctrics. We even salvaged most of the buildings. What we didn't have was somewhere to build a new layout.
Steve found the answer on his doorstep. A secure lockup, 27 X 17. A bit tig
We moved into our lockup in October and started with this.
After a week or so Steve had painted the floor and found a bit of carpet
and the place seemed quite homely.
As work beckoned, I missed the next 10 days or so but imagine my surprise when I came in to offer a bit of help and this lot had appeared.
The track was only placed just to see what would fit where, but it gave us an idea of what we could do. All the planning in the world won't really tell you what looks right until you
Steve’s now done his Bedford TK coal lorry and added some rather nice little coal sacks. These are made from some old material, and filled with yer actual coal.
Note the empty sacks folded and weighed down with a 5lb weight.
I’ll do some transfers for the doors (T. Watkins I think) as soon as Steve gives me some details.
As has been pointed out, our yard footbridge wasn’t quite right so Steve’s set to with fixing that. I think this arrangement should be ok once the rest
While I battled with the wiring, Steve next turned to adding more detail and atmosphere to the MPD, getting the turntable working well, making a control panel and wiring up some lights. More green lumpy stuff was applied and plenty of colour sprayed to blend it all in.
To complete the scene, a Skytrex enginemans bothy was added and blended in after Steve worked his magic on it.
Some old friends have returned to the layout recently;
My JLTRT 10001 has spent too long on the shelf at home and needed a run out and Steve’s Springside “Foxcote Manor†made a welcome return having been crocked for a while.
Also, a couple of Ex Talacre signals have been planted and are awaiting their servos to operate them.
A batch of Metcalfe stone card has been unearthed and pressed into service, on the long wall round the edge of the LM station. We’re not
Well not exactly all change, but Steve's Station (reputedly going to be called Upper Mill; doesn't sound very ex GW to me..) has already been changed before it's even reached the serious tracklaying stage.
The original wide board which spanned all 4 storage roads and the hidden lines leading to the LM station is now only half it's original width and the retaining wall will be moved back to suit.
This has now exposed the inbound and outbound lines to the LM station which run
When the track was layed into the LM station, we knew we were on the very limit of curvature for most of the locos (we reckoned some of the curves were 4' 6" radius) and this proved to be too much for some. A re-think was necessary which resulted in much alteration of the woodwork and a reduction in complexity of the trackwork. We had originally envisaged a double track into the station but this was reduced to single. Many attempts were made before a compromise was reached.
As the corner by t
Ok here's a bit of an update. I can't currently include any pictures within the text due to what must be, to Andy and the dedicated admin team, frustating problems, but the link to the gallery should give you an idea of where we are now.
Steve and Les are much faster and more regular workers on the layout and have for the most part, completed the major scenic work on the main lines and surrounding areas. I've plodded on with my little area by the LM station entrance when I can, but work and oth
After seeing nothing move for quite a while we decided to up the pace a little (which with hindsight was a little ill advised). Much sawing, drilling and er...screwing went on into the wee small hours and after a week or so we were fastening the last bits of the main line baseboards. You can see how strong the boards are as Steve had to clamber into the corner to add the last bits!
Another few days of painting tidying and track laying and our first train was trundling round. The honours went
