bodmin16

Having now been welcomed into the inner sanctum I am a whole lot more enlightened, although I will declare publicly now to say that any form of bribery (or threatening to Duff me up behind the bike shed after school) will prove fruitless, for although I am in possession of some more knowledge I don't have too many specifics. What I will say however is that if it is finished to the usual brightspark standard then I will very much look forward to seeing it pushing a couple of milk tanks around on Daisy Sidings. Will it be sporting a blue Livery?

Did somebody say micro with one turnout? Not the smallest but it's in the spirit of the theme!

Suspect the lawyers could become the ultimate winners at the expense of the hobby, both from a PR stance and financially as no doubt any costs incurred will be passed on to us as the customer to protect company profits, which is completely understandable I guess. In the meantime it pushes models like this more and more out of the reach of the funds I have available. I would have loved one of these sets. Oh well back to finding bargains for rework on Ebay I guess.

How about a model for the future, containerised traffic and converted 769s delivering parcel traffic with electric warehouse/distribution centre for transfer to EVs for local delivery? Could be Amazon and Stobart for supermarket deliverys?

Quite a bit done whilst Mrs D was away in San Francisco, the layout only spent one day on the dining table. Amongst other things the layout has received a piece of hardboard on the bridge end and 3 coats of green gloss paint on the out side of the boards to smarten them up (aka hide the poor Carpentry a little), a number of wagons have gained some weight, I have been practising my painting skills on the population of Test Valley Sidings and I have been experimenting with some light weight lighting, which I will go into further once I've developed a little more. Whatever I decide needs to be compact enough the fit into the boot of my Tigra along with the rest of the layout.

So Mrs Durham is away! Shh, don't tell, it is so nice and warm in the dining room! More soon!

I did similar when I had to pay visits trackside, one day a chap said to me "I certainly saw you coming!" - hmm, I think the clue is in the name of the clothing and at least I could be sure that you drivers could see me!

Believe me I am not a poser, I have got nothing to pose about! and I certainly don't spend a fortune on clothing and am absolutely astounded by the prices charged, I always head to the bargain basement. It's comfortable and of course practical and of course if I am out and it's cold or wet I certainly don't look like a dedicated follower of fashion. If ever I stop for refreshment when out I will always sit outside and generally away from more "respectably" dressed people out for Sunday drive, after all I wouldn't want some sweaty gorilla sit close to me if I was out with the missus.

I am lucky in that there is a cycle shop just down the road from me that are absolutely brilliant in knowing which bike is good for who and if it is right for you. When I purchased my first "real" bike they pointed me in the direction of an £800 bike and eased me in with all the bits and pieces. They fitted real pedals and said come back later once you have ridden around for a few months before you try anything else, which I did, then when I wanted a second bike just a little way up the scale they suggest a couple of bikes around £1500, so I now have two very good bikes that fit both me and my needs perfectly. This shop deals in some amazing machinery up to £10s thousands, when I was looking they suggested that they could sell me any of these but why? What I have serves my needs and like high performance cars high performance bikes need more maintenance which would be surplus to what I use the bike for. When I was looking for a more general bike to hack around on to the shops and the like, they suggested that for what I wanted what they had on stock would be overkill and other stockist may have something to fit my needs. I do wonder how many people are out their on the roads with "all the gear and no idea"? And yes I am a MAMIL, however I know my place and my abilities and I say hi to everybody on the road, no matter what it is (road, electric, horse or even walking their dog), and I always stop to help anybody in trouble. I have more admiration for somebody like me who is/was unfit and is out on a machine trying to do something about it than somebody who does something that they think they are something special!

This is a quick thanks to Tractioman for starting this thread and to everybody who has contributed. I have since a period of illness mid August, been a little demotivated of late, however you guys with the chat have taken me back to basics and I have found my mojo again. So far this week I have been out 3 times albeit shorter than normal rides, but I am back out and enjoying it. And of course I am feeling mentally and physically the better for it. Thank you guys and please keep the friendly chat and encouragement up. Stay safe out there. Alan

Is that the guy that did the whole of the tdf on the chopper?

With regard to hills, they don't get easier you just get faster is what I have always been told. I am not really sure about that as if I am going up hill in a higher gear then that means it is getting easier. That said there is nothing wrong with doing hills in a lower gear, there is no shame in that. There are a number of hills that I used to dread and couldn't climb, so I imagine them in short segments and I set myself a target to things like a sign or a bush rather than the top of the hill. I find this a great way of attacking hills, makes them a little easier for me. As for bikes I don't have anything too flashy and there is nothing wrong with a £250 bike. I have a Trek Domane with rim brakes and replaced my first road bike, a Giant Defy 3, which was stolen. This is my everyday road bike which gets used in all weather's and when I commute it comes on the train with me. My other road bike is a Giant Defy 2 which has disc brakes and is a carbon fibre frame, this only gets used in good weather and is really comfortable on long rides. The 3rd bike which I bought only last year is a Trek hybrid, which is a complete contrast to the others and is heavily used in all weather's and for any off road stuff.

Thanks! The car was my neighbours, they have since moved away and I think he has since said goodbye to it due to an expanding family. We only have boring cars these days, my wife leases a Mazda 323 and I've got a Tigra, which is ne t to useless as I can't even get a wheel in the boot let alone a whole bike. That is my wife BTW driving my car!

What a great thread, thanks for starting. Like most I used to cycle miles as a teenager and then as cars, beers and girls came on the scene, model railways and cycling took a step back for a while. That said I returned to cycling some 6 or 7 years ago after getting bored looking at the garage wall on my exercise bike which I purchased second hand to get myself a little fitter. I was (and still am although slightly less so now) overweight and it was feared that I had gone down the path of type 2 diabetes, which subsequently turned out to be Cranial Diabetes Insipidus rather than Melitus! It is a somewhat different beast and a whole lot rarer, but that is another story. The net result that I am now (like "Slim Jim") 6 stones lighter than I was own 2 road bikes and 1 hybrid, am doing something like 4000 miles a year and as well as my physical health it has done wonders for my mental health. It is interesting to see all these wonderful and different bikes on here, the electric bikes are a great development and no doubt one day I may have to succumb but until then it is 100% me although I may not be the quickest. Attached - model railways share the garage with bikes, our cars live on the drive! Where else? I have been lucky enough to cycle over this bridge (it is flipping noisy) and finally 2 images to show the effects that cycling can contribute to (I have changed my eating habits too!)

A quick update from the Test Valley, firstly a show invite! Yep a show debut at Basingstoke in March 2022, all being well, fingers crossed, touch wood and all that, so i'd better get myself in gear and focus on finishing a few things rather than starting yet another kit. I will post more details at a later date and of course you can always check out the BNHMRS website. As for progress in recent weeks, at the left hand end the gardens are starting to grow and other detailing including dustbins etc are finding their way into the gardens and the population of modelu figures and a few cats are currently in the paintshop along with the second ofmy class 33s which I stripped backed to bare plastic again as I was far from happy with the finish. I hope i don't get them mixed up! At the right hand end the field adjacent to the yard entrance has grown some scrubgrass and some signage has appeared. I have also picked up a number of road vehicles that are going to be reworked, so they may well get thier own post at some point. The G6 chassis is now running quite nicely and the bodywork slowly coming together. A number of wagons are now progressing towards the collection of those that are finished. One thing I have to do is set up some sort of lighting, I have a temporary rig over the layout using a string of LEDs bought from a pound shop, I have 2 of these,they plug into a USB and I have some thoughts for making a lightweight structure to fit them to. It has to be small as it all has to fit into my silly little car for transport. Thanks for looking and more soon hopefully. Alan

Any chance of this layout coming south? Would love to see it in the flesh!

Not sure if I have mentioned this here, but Thames Valley Sidings has also had an invite for 2022, I never intended it for showing and like you I have got think about how to show it! One thing I have given some thought to is lighting, but I won't hijack this thread and will update mine for TVS at some point. Glad the buildings are of some use.

It's worth remembering that TV producers film lots of fill in shots, whilst these may be related to the topic of the programme they may not relate directly to the specific subject. I can imagine the director asking for a shot recording a steam loco in good light or the right angle etc - your Bachmann standard my be safe for a while yet?

Elbow Lane and Yellow Ridge Uranium Mine were my personal highlights, as well as Pontfadog - a bit too small a scale for my liking but full of admiration of the skills required.

So I have been after one of these little beauties for a while, I have been wanting this for so long - it is basically Medstead station which is a personal favourite of mine for a whole number of reasons. It arrived today and I have over the past week or so been giving some thought to Cliddesden, learning from my experiences with TVS. I am thinking about how I can erect Cliddesden again and maybe I will rent a storage unit to store some of the other associated toys to make some space. I have decided that there will be some changes, not in the track layout but with platform arrangements and other scenic items, with possible more buildings than I originally envisaged. The other thing that will definitely happen is that the existing fiddle boards will be scrapped and replaced with traversers I will need some help with these though as my woodworking skills are probably not up to building traverses. So it would seem that my enthusiasm for Cliddesden is returning and hopefully soon I will be making some progress, once TVS (for which I have received a couple of expressions of interest to exhibit at local shows) nears completion.

I use the gaugemaster version successfully.

It can be a bit fiddly, but once fixed to structure I've had no issues. I glue it to whatever I am using to make the structure of the building, e.g. Card, plasticard etc. The hut on the left was a freebie from RM iirc, I figured that the roof was too shallow to be tiled, as depicted in the kit, so I simply covered it. Of course foil is easy to rip which can be useful to make individual sheets or depict corrosion. And of course if you want to be thrify (or tight like me) it's free - nobody misses a bit from the kitchen!

My personal preference is silver foil with corrugations created by pressing into the rim of a marmite or coffee jar lid.

Wasn't sure which forum to put this in and I was tempted to come up with some witty remark or another about finescale modelling etc but decided against doing so. On a slightly serious (?) note, I think this is great for getting children involved and I can think of a few adults who would like this too! https://trainplaydevon.co.uk/

You could potentially make an approximation by using the diameter of the telegraph pole?