Leaderboard

Despite a side track (no pun intended) with planning a US HO switching layout. Some work has progressed with the layout. Just the last Helix to cut and fit and we can really start to progress with scenery. Warley led to a couple of purchases (Kato Turnout Switches for 2 of the points, a Faller Chapel, and some tunnel portals). The first box with complete trackbed. Starting to build up the contours, little Wollastonblue thought it hilarious to scrunch up newspaper. We glued down some of the Tomix track, and we have forfeited the fiddle road underneath the station area. Mainly as the 140mm Radius Turnouts are not friendly to the loco, strange as the 140mm curves are not a problem. Little Wollastonblue wondered why I was using Mommy's heavy cupboard food. The 2nd Box now has a track bed ready to go. Finally laid out all the track bar the right hand helix. I think it looks pretty good, Mrs Wollastonblue didn't realise it would be that big! Wait til she finds out I'm planning another layout. I'm hoping to get cracking with scenic work over the next month or so. Cheers for now.

Built from a Slaters Plastikard kit, with the addition of some white metal milk churns. I can't remember who made the churns, but the Slaters kit went together beautifully! I really like non passenger brown vehicles, so I'm planning on building a number more for my GWR Edwardian branch line. I'm still busy beavering away building points for the project, I wasn't sure how much I'd enjoy it, but it's turned out to be very satisfying. Each one is taking about a week of modelling time, even when using C & L's pre formed vee's and switch blades. Although I'm in no real hurry to get them all finished, I'm glad its only a small terminus that's been planned all the same! That's all for now Dave

Finding a way to motorise the Lazy Susan was harder than I'd expected. Places like Halfords and auto repair shops no longer carry stocks of spares: their efficiency is my delay. I found toothed belts at a local lawnmower shop. The pancake-style motor came from a model railway exhibition. The spring... I had trouble finding a spring until I tried a real hardware shop where the owner said: "How many do you want?" Using a strip of Meccano did give me a certain satisfaction. Unfortunately the motor isn't beefy enough. Uppards, anyroad!

Bachmann recently gave us a revised model of their Ivatt 2-6-2 tank with a new DCC ready chassis. Other than the dome on the body no further changes were made sadly. A good friend bought one to put the new chassis under an old body I'd previously renumbered. I thought I could add a few enhancements to the spare new body by adding a new chimney and a few other tweaks. I had a 247 Developments Ivatt chimney in my spares box so cut off the old Bachmann effort and glued on the new one. New lamp irons were made from staples and handrails replaced with Alan Gibson short knobs and wire. The smoke box door dart from the same source. The undersize mechanical lubricators where also replaced with some Comet ones I happened to have. On the cab I opened up the roof ventilator making sliding shutters and runners from scrap brass sheet and Micro-strip. Again lamp irons from staples. Other than the cab roof and the smokebox area the paint is original. I removed the factory printed number with T-Cut. My friend was a passed fireman at Wellingborough 15A shed and wanted it numbered as 41328 a loco he had worked on. I used Fox decals to finish. Since these photos where taken I've airbrushed the roof and smokebox with a coat of Tamiya Nato Black and sealed it all with Valejo Satin varnish. Reassembly and tweaking of the weathering will be next and it will be reunited with it's new chassis. I've tried to find some auto-gear fittings to no avail so these will be taken off the older body. Cheers, Mark

This is my new layout, inspired by a Max Bygraves song. It started with a Lazy Susan given to me as a Christmas present. This turns on some very nice ball-bearings, so the obvious thing was to build a layout on top of it. This is made of foamboard braced with balsa. The track is a circle of Peco 009, the trestle bridge is an old Heljan/Con-cor N gauge USA kit, the scenic base is oasis blocks, the rockery is Faller Spachtelmasse and Hydrozell, the ground cover is electrostatic grass and Woodlands Scenics ground cover. The buildings are mostly Faller, the figures Preiser, except for Moriarty and Holmes who are from Mike Pett Supercast. She had her première at the Southport Show on November 12th 2016 and worked well, except for the mechanism which rotates the layout: this needs attention. Back jn business, by heck!