Good morning,
Just a quick plug to say KoL will be appearing next Saturday at the 1 day exhibition in Tonbridge, Saturday 18 February 2017.
This will be the first time (other than a preview at the 2mmFS AGM) that the layout appears in DCC mode and since then 37414 has been sound chipped. Have been testing the fleet and big thanks to Pixie who managed to breathe life back into two of the locos
Due to work commitments I haven't been able to finish 24124, 37025 and 26040 but they are c
Evening all,
Quick update to say Kyle appeared at the Wycrail one day show yesterday.
As always, a very nice show and very friendly and helpful exhibition team.
Good to see some familiar faces for a catch up and also meet some new peeps. Received some very nice comments and overall the layout performed well.
I really do need to sit down and work my way through the list of small things such as replacing knuckle couplings on coaches, corridor connectio
Good evening,
I was having a trawl through the KoL images earlier for Chris Higgs and I happened upon a pic that I always liked but it never made it into the final cut.
It was taken on my iPhone, with me balancing dangerously on the edge of our desk in our spare room late one night with only the small directional ceiling mounted spots directed at the layout as it is stored out of use about 2m high on the wall.
I always liked this pic as the light coming in from the right threw some n
Morning all,
Yesterday was the one day show at Tonbridge with the layout operating to the paying public for the first time on dcc and with the sound chipped 37/4.
Nigel Ashton and I were flying the 2mmFS flag at the show, each with a corner slot although I think Nigel faired a tad better in his location in one of the main halls Fair play to the exhibition manager who came to check everyone an hour before doors opened and realised his floor plan had been a little ambitious given we were
Afternoon all,
An update from the Billericay show yesterday. A nice small friendly show set in 3 buildings joined by a garden...the Mayor arrived for a scheduled 30 minute visit...and ended up staying 2 hours! His driver was well impressed by the sounds from the 37’s just as he remembered them.
Overall, the layout behaved although some stock has been withdrawn to have a look at on the workbench - my once reliable 37/4 seems to suffer from cut out of the lights and sound regularly - might
Good afternoon,
This post is threefold really...
First, the inset track of CJM is stalling mojo at present so a good time to jump on the overnight sleeper bound for Scotland...
Secondly, I had been asked to provide a few photos to the 2mm Association of the track (for possible inclusion in a revised edition of a 2mm article on track) hence the need to photograph it.
Thirdly, I recently bought a Sigma 70-300mm lens with Macro for the camera so I wanted to test it out.
It was
Good evening,
Time for an update...
Work doesn't seem to be allowing any windows to do any modelling after work in the evenings at present so progress is focussed around weekend slots in between family duties.
The wiring has been simplified (how can it be complicated on a layout such as this you ask ) but in the main down to the fact that it was originally constructed 5 years ago in 300mm sections to get in my box files/suitcase, so lots of jump wires etc. A test class 47 managed to
Good evening,
A quick update on progress this week following the initial entry last week and very encouraging comments.
Decided to take on board Rich B's idea (thank you Sir) for losing the corner post to the right hand end and cantilevering the fascia to complete the corner. That corner was troubling me somewhat as it would have meant covering up a part of the dockside in addition to looking like there was a piece of back scene missing.
I sketched out the components and laser cut th
Afternoon all,
Subtle reference to the Fawlty Towers 'The Builders' episode in the title there
Little opportunities to do anymore on the FY this week so a splash of grey paint this weekend to keep things moving in the right direction whilst I work out how to resolve the electrical connections.
The fascia has been given two coats of grey paint to match the scenic section and the 2FS logos have been positioned - overall I am happy with the composition which I think highlights the slid
Update - Good evening and a quick outline of progress to date.
The layout is now running again and bar a few minor tweaks the rolling stock seems to behave itself...this evening, in between what I am about to describe below, I was running the Dapol RR 156 in and out of the station to relieve boredom from cutting plasticard...simple pleasures in life but then the layout is now doing what I originally wanted of it.
Firstly a big thank you to Andy (aka BackwaterScotland) for not only reprov
Back again...
The ice of course refers to my Gin Tonic cooler...but unfortunately the slice doesn't refer to the lemon...
Having decided to try and remove the PVA first thing this evening (the white patch became worse when I prodded it so I figured Neils method would be fruitless) I proceeded to scrap away with the scalpel...and take a slice out of my finger in the first five minutes...I wouldn't mind but I hadn't even drunk from my GinTonic yet
Anyway...PVA now removed and I took
Good evening,
It's been a while since I posted on this blog as I have been developing Thurso as an entry to the MRJ Cameo layout competition.
Back at the Tonbridge show, I was invited by Dakota Dibben, to a one day show he is organising next Sunday 9 July 2017 in Oxted. Details as below:
http://www.ukmodelshops.co.uk/other/events_detail.php?eid=15071
Hopefully there will be a few new things on show. First up, Kevin of Coastal DCC has sound chipped my 24/0 so now there are two sou
Evening all,
Viewers alerted by wiring nightmares should avert their eyes now... As per usual with my blog entries they are a mix of positive and negative experiences but it’s all about the process and how we get there, right?
This weekend I looked to test the turnout in situ before spraying and glueing in place. The loco ran smoothly up to the turnout and onto the frog area then kept shorting out...I swopped over wires and checked for gaps on the PCB...then it occurred to me that I had
Good afternoon,
Despite a recent flurry of activity on PWIAB, work has been progressing on trying to finish this project.
I suddenly realised that I was going about it all the wrong way I had been trying to complete the station building before tackling all the other bits and pieces and detailing but whilst not wanting to rush the second attempt at the building, it meant there was no progress on everything else...
So, I decided to reverse that, concentrate all my efforts on all the
Evening all,
Something I mentioned in my last blog update was that I wanted to replace the turnout(s) which had intermittent faults. The more troublesome being the turnout in the station having power issues as well as the odd derailment when running around. The other suffers the occaisional derailments when reversing wagons.
Mark Fielder of this parish kindly offered to help me as viewers of my blogs know my track building skills need improvement Seeing as how I took this week off for 1
Afternoon all,
Work has been plodding away on the layout of late but haven't had time to do an update so thought I would take the opportunity this b/h weekend.
I had made a mini target programme of activities for Feb/Mar/Apr and May but this has now been converted into a final 'to do' list as the exhibition is two weeks yesterday
This update concentrates on rolling stock, particularly locos which span the eras. I have been doing some research and found pics of Kyle of all locos mode
Evening all,
As per Andy’s blog update, there was a 2mmFS Supermeet in Tutbury yesterday. I have posted a few thoughts and photos from the day on the exhibition thread so here’s an update on Kyle as part of the show.
Took the day off Friday to run some tests and check my two 37’s ran ok as had just received them back from Coastal DCC - Kevin had done a great job hard wiring the lights and also introducing a stay alive to them. In trying to reduce the amount of ‘stuff’ I
Evening all,
In between work deadlines, I have been trying to finish my 24/0 conversion to a 24/1, in this case 24124. This is essentially the Farish 24 with Alan's (etched pixels) nice set of etches allowing a 24/1 or 25/0 conversion.
24/1's were a staple of Kyle and more regular than the 24/0 so it really needed doing. It didn't quite make the last show but it is now almost ready to be weathered and represent a nice grubby version using the pic I have seen of 24124 at Kyle. It may well
Good evening,
The layout is due to appear at the 2mmFS AGM tomorrow...in fact it's the first AGM I have ever managed to attend having joined the Association just before departing for BCN.
Having made the break to DCC at the end of last year, chipped a few locos, then got distracted by the senior scale, it was time to try and get it working....and this seemed a good milestone. A few extra wires to solve some dodgy track connections and things seem to be running...albeit no sound. One step
First up Happy New Year all
Resolution nr. 1 - more modelling...less thinking about doing modelling
It's been an intense period of work for me up until Christmas and likely through to Easter but having committed to the BHMRC show set for early May there is nothing like a deadline to get one focused.
I had set myself a slightly unrealistic target of getting the Fiddle Yard finished and wired over the 10 day break and although I didn't quite make it, I gave it a fair crack. The inten
Happy Easter all,
Now I have a week off work I am hoping to snuck in a little modelling.
Still need to apply the second coat of paint to the fascia and add some white text which I will try to do this week.
As Phase I draws to a conclusion, my thoughts slowly start to drift to Phase II which is to try and get the layout working again....otherwise its a photo plank and straight onto rolling stock.
This afternoon, I managed to lash up connect my Pictroller and run a few tests...it s
Good afternoon,
A little distraction this afternoon as I dug out my TPM class 26 which was started 18 months or so ago.
Although this preceeds the recently released Dapol 26, it is still a very nice model and represents the later style class 26's. It is intended for a Farish class 33 chassis and although this means the underframe detail will need some mods and I was wondering about using some of the bogie sideframes from the Dapol 26 (the Dapol chsssis won't fit...already tried that one
Evening all,
Quick update from the Mid Essex one day show held yesterday. A nice small show with a selection of quality layouts and good traders. Was a nice surprise to see Ian Futers there, having met him some years ago - bit of a modelling legend for me as his P4 Lochside layout was so instrumental when we were growing up...also was an inspiration for Kyle.
The layout performed well overall with just a loose wire in the Fiddleyard noticed prior to the start of the show.
Good evening,
Not had a chance to do any modelling since the exhibition of 11 May 2013 so I guess the next best thing is to think, read and draw about it...
You may recall that this layout is on the list to be scrapped when we move back to the UK in a couple of months, all being well.
Whilst I have had fun making it...and then remaking it, I have to be ruthless in some of my decision making to set the example in our apartment as we have a lot of pruning to be done...plus we have far
Good evening,
As Phase I of the 2014 refurb draws to a close (second coat of paint added to fascia and new lettering has been applied) I turned my thoughts to the new fiddle yard.
As mentioned previously I would like to give cassettes a rest for a while and revert back to a traverser running on mini 150mm shelf runners that I acquired some place in BCN.
One of the issues to be addressed was due to the track layout, for run-a-round the train needs to back the stock almost halfway int
