Joseph_Pestell

For me, it has to be the LNER W1 "Hush-hush" 4-6-4 in original form or the similar P2 2-8-2.

Wilton South is certainly well-documented. Don't know so much about North but I am sure there would be some info. Going back to the St Budeaux suggestions, the old Plymouth North Road was not that big a station either. But I can't remember offhand (the book is upstairs, I'm just being lazy!) which year it was rebuilt. No obvious scenic break at the west end though.

If you don't want anything GW larger than a Hall, options start to open up. Halls were used on Cardiff to Southampton trains (not sure if they ever reached Portsmouth). So quite a few Southern stations available there. Romsey (already modelled by Southampton MRC in 00 IIRC) is a lovely station with interesting features such as a two-level goods shed - still standing and used by an architectural salvage firm). I think that Halls were also used on some trains from Reading to Southampton. If you could make do with a Manor, Barnstaple Jct would be a good option (but single tracks). By the same token, if you do not need too much Southern and want the larger GW classes, West Country/BoB hauled the inter-regional trains from Bournemouth to Oxford so any of the GW mainline stations between Tilehurst and Didcot would be a possibility. I would need to check but I think that West Country also made it onto the DN&S (more usually the preserve of T9), so Newbury would also be an option. But going back to where you started (or nearly), do you really want a continuous run? Weymouth was a very interesting station and quite compact before it was rebuilt in the 60s/70s.

Looking really good. I think this will be a real crowd-puller at exhibitions.

Not much mention of trolleybus modelling! I can remember a layout that featured regularly at N&SLTC exhibitions in the 1970's. Very effective. Steering was done by an arm sticking out of the front nearside and rubbing against a ridge in the road surface or kerb as appropriate. These days one could do it more easily with Faller car system type arrangement.

Both Thame and Uxbridge were S Gauge Society projects - although I rather think they may have been housed at MRC HQ (Keen House). The "main man" at the time was a Mr Bevis IIRC.

I'm not too sure that it is a "useful" choice in the sense of being appropriate for layouts that are based on a specific location. But I still think that it will be very popular with many railway modellers as "something a bit different". Must be about 50 years ago now that the last r-t-r model of a USA tank was produced - the French version in HO by Hornby.

tiTTer

Reminds me of a trip to the KWVR many years ago. Made the mistake of going to the pub (Timothy Taylor's) first and never actually got on the train! Pub does overlook the line though.

I'm with those who think it's a pity to have another 101 when there are still so many classes not yet available.

Some great videos there. Show what a great prototype Czech railways are with very short trains. Weather was a bit foul. Coffee or hot chocolate might have been more suitable than that beer. (Only joking, nothing keeps me from Czech beers).

Just for the record guys, 3mm to the foot is a purely British type of TT giving (on 12mm track) a gauge of just 4' - even worse than the 4'1 1/2 of OO. Continental TT is approximately 2.5mm/1 ft.

Lovely layout and based on an interesting prototype by comparison with most TMD layouts. Even painted darker, I do think the Noch hedge lets things down. It does look like a moustache or perhaps a draught excluder. You could certainly do better with carpet underlay. Or if you really want to go for the "full monty" some brass etched tree bits.

So agree with you about Continental TT. 1:120 scale is just so much better than 1:148/1:160 when it comes to visible detail but allows massively more layout in an average space than 1:76/1:87. And 120 x 12mm = 1440mm, a proper track gauge. What's not to like? Huge shame that when Triang tried to launch British TT (1959?), the technology simply did not allow them to use 1:120. If they had held off for another ten years and gone for 1:120, I think that it could have been a massive success.

A bit different from Banbury! But very interesting. I was in the Czech Republic for a holiday about 10 years ago and found lots of interesting models available there in both HO and TT. Really good manufacturers who have somehow failed to build an international reputation.

I recall that David Jenkinson portrayed Eric Treacy on Garsdale Road as well. It is indeed wonderful what some (a very few!) modellers can do by way of carving figures like this, even in the smaller scales. But no matter how good the carving and subsequent moulding, they won't look right unless they are painted right. Military modellers seem to be still a step ahead of railway modellers in this field but that is partly because they are used to making static models and can paint in ways that are really a "trick of the light".

A lovely model of a very interesting station. I pass it regularly as my fiancee works close by. Never understand why everyone thinks of it as Green Park when it was Queen Square for so much longer.

Good book published recently on this line. Will see if I can find my copy and look at what details it has about later ops there. You can probably draw some inferences about the location of these sidings from the earlier trackplans.

I lived in Newbury for a while (backing onto the Lambourn Valley trackbed) and will be interested to see how this turns out - certainly an interesting station to model for someone with enough space - not too much of a problem in N. Have some of the books mentioned and happy to help if I can. In the early 70s there was a club exhibition layout that had Newbury buildings on it although the track plan was not based on Newbury. Many features of early 20c Great Western stations were standardised so you may find that many parts (doors, windows, etc) are obtainable from specialist suppliers.

I'm not that bothered about the four tracks. Would be a problem in 4mm but not in 2mm(N). But I prefer lines paired by direction rather than paired by speed.

I'm amazed that more people are not following this blog - a great layout in the making. Surprised that you don't look into some other techniques to avoid some of the repetitive stuff. I would definitely have drawn up one bay of the station canopy and got it photo-etched 18 times. And I would be asking a mate who is good with resin to do some of the houses as well. By the way, I've got a copy of that book. That photo has always appealed to me as a modeliing project.

My answer won't help much if cost is an issue. But there is a US producer of tram rail, track and points that are simply superb and really not that unreasonable a price unless you need lots. Can't remem ber the name now nor even where I cam across them on t'internet.

I've only just joined. But I have to agree that there is some amazing N Gauge work on here - rather more than we see in the NGS Journal. This model of Standedge is of special interest to me as I have looked at building a model based on Marsden. Trans-Pennine line appeals for variety of rolling stock (BR transition) as well as the scenery, canal, etc. I'm not that keen on the track layout though as I feel it does not make for the most interesting operation. As ever, I'm finding it hard to make a choice and actually get started. Just so many interesting possibilities out there.

Hoping that I can find a reason for us to go down to Southampton this weekend so I can slope off for a while to Eurotrack. I would very much like to see this layout and it looks as though there may be a few other good ones there this year.

When using a razor saw, you really want to be holding down the track with a wood block slotted to grip the rails. Certainly used to be possible to buy such blocks but not difficult to make your own.