bodmin16

So as promised a quick update: The track has been coloured, sprayed with grey primer and track colour sprayed sparingly which has given some variation in colour not particularly obvious in the pictures. Ballasting has started after a false start, the ballast I laid turned green. I dug this out and restarted with replacement ballast, fortunately I'd only laid a meter or so of "green" ballast. The ballast needs finishing, tidying and some dry brushing. The issue with the crossing gates appears to have been resolved with a software update, but now one of the gates has failed so some more work needed. The stations building has received some initial coats of paint and needs a few details for completion including barge boards, chimney pots and gutters etc. slightly smaller than I originally planned and now based on the station building at East Budleigh. I have also had a change of plans with the signal box which is being drastically modified. I like building wagons and a few more have appeared including this Dapol lowmac and the box van which follows my usual practice of etched w irons etc, but the Lowac is just the basic kit but will probably gained etched buffers etc. A view looking towards Alton with mock up of railway cottages and the start of the trees in the distance which will be a wooded area on raised ground. The timber hut is the free giveaway from RM with home made corrugated tin roof. And finally a picture of a train with the Provender store in the background!

I have just checked this on a different laptop and have jsut realised that the picture is upside down, yet on all other devices that i have seen this on the 33 is not the Australian version. I guess I need to update a bit since I;ve not been here since February! I have had some progress although time has been a little limited for a whole load of reasons. So perhaps over the weekend I wil post some pictures if anybody is still interested and yo haven't all wandered off. Alan

Thought I would put this here as it is a colas reference! I was at Roundham crossing (north of Oxford) this morning and I met a gentleman with his camera waiting for a couple of north bound engineering trains! however one was cancelled and they were formed into one train at Hinksey, which I suspect was then possibly delayed due to trespassers. I hope the gentleman was patient and waited though as I don't think he would have been disappointed as when I was at Aristotle Lane (south of wolvercote jn) the train went past me with one colas 66 and two colas 70s. Unfortunately I was working and could not get to my camera quick enough!

I think they went to MHR not too sure, and if I recall correctly there was some confusion over whether they should have gone to swanage railway or somewhere?

All's well that ends well by Man - the recently released remastered triple cd. Sat listening to this on my iPod in the mountains on the beautiful island of Mallorca. San Miguel is going down well too :-)

No mention of Eames of Reading yet? There was also a model shop in the Oxford Road. And was it Platform 5(?) in Wimbledon?

One ear usually is blocked............by an iPhone!

It just has to be Kate Bush for the next few days!

Triumph cars and the 1970s! During the 70s and 80s our family was almost exclusively a triumph family including 3 heralds (1 convertible), a 2.5 pi mark 1 saloon, a mark 1 2.5pi estate, my father had a Toledo 1300 (on a k plate) which was the same body style as your 1500 - I always thought the 1300 and 1500 were similar body style to the mark big saloons. And the body style that you own were known as the Toledo and dolomite. I was lucky enough in 1980 to buy a 1972 Stag which I absolutely loved and kept for 18 years. Alan

Please note I was not inferring that all was not right with regard to helmet colours, this was a genuine question of interest and I apologise if it could have been misunderstood as any form of criticism. Thanks for all the information and constant updates.

Lot of blue hats and not so many white ones? Blue ones are normally the less experienced when trackside (PTS), is it the same here or is it a construction site rather than railway at the moment?

"Nothing exciting"? Well I'm excited! Sell bourne is reasonably local to me.. I love the look of the concept and the woodwork is very nice.

We humans like to think that we can control or explain everything but we're not quite that clever yet! We come up with a theory, e.g. Global warming caused by green house gasses etc and then try to prove it. It we look hard enough we will find the evidence. We seem to be slower at disproving theories. When I was at school in the 70s talk then was of the earth cooling and ice ages coming, what happened to that theory, is not no fashionable anymore? We are having some impact but I think in the whole scheme of things there are forces far greater than ours at work! Gosh sounds like I should be off to listen to some sort of hippy band now! :-)

The issue as I understand it is that the jet stream is currently hitting the UK directly at high speed, normally at this time of year it is heading down over the bay of Biscay, which is why this winter is comparatively warm. In the Summer the jet stream heads north over the top of Scotland. The current situation has resulted in storms, which i understand to be or a similar intensity to that which we normally experience, however it is the frequency that is currently the issue. These events re not unique, in 1919 something like a third of the Somerset levels was flooded and we are currently not close to that sort of level yet. Whether you believe that the human race is responsible for changing the weather, personally I think we are bigging our selves up that we can affect our environment that much, the fact remains that our weather has changed and evolved since the our planet was formed and will continue to do so and likewise we will continue to evolve to live on our ever changing planet. Gosh that was a it deep and philosophical for a Sunday morning entry to a discussion about them Dawlish sea wall! Hats off to everybody battling the elements wherever you are!

I've been prompted to post again by responding to a post by coldgunner about the Railway Modeller kit. So here goes: Christmas was a busy one this year so not too much modelling over the holiday period however things have picked up since. I have made a mock up of the railway cottages that will go on the Alton end of the layout behind the railway and I have established that I have more room than I originally thought, I guess that this will be a great opportunity to add some detailed scenery. I have started to build the station building which is basically a clear plastic shell that will have the various walls glued over the top. I realise that the picture below shows crooked doors etc however everything is currently loosely tacked on with masking tape. The pick up goods in the platform now has a few more wagons, some semi-finished. Under the boards I have been making some mods to the wiring as I wasn't happy with some of the connectors etc that I had used. The crossing gates are still proving a little problematic and need some reprogramming however my laptop is still dead although one of my neighbours is fixing it - I don't want to pressure him as he is doing it for a favour. I have also bought some paint for the Hampshire unit so I may start on that in the not too distant future. Also there has been more testing and fettling of wiring, point work and track. Alan

There is what appears to me to be a coach from a 4CEP in use as a showroom at Garden Art on the A4 Bath road in Hungerford. At least that's what I think it is when viewed from the road, I've not been in the yard to look.

Is that layout stood up on the upstairs landing? I thought I didn't have much room, looks like going to bed in the rorz101uk household may be a bit of an obstacle course? I like the look of this layout, strikes me as something a little different.