jon_1066

A couple of thoughts (great progress by the way) if the river is like in your reference photos - muddy - why are you pouring it so thick in resin? Surely you can make up the level with a thin pour on top. That water in the photos is not exactly what you would call transparent. A muddy brown colour would hide whatever depth you use. Second is will it match the back scene? That looks pretty choppy and fast flowing in the back scene. Are you going for waves and turbulent water or something more like the sluggish muddy estuary?

It's unlikely that this sort of station would have a dedicated shunter. Being the end of a branch line the incoming pick up goods would probably just shunt the shed, reassemble it's goods train then run around and leave with it. To add a bit of excitement a passenger train could combine with the presence of the goods. You might also have a milk train or something similar. There may also be other goods trains that would use the run around. ie they would pick up full and drop off empties off scene then come to the end of the line to run around before leaving. Would a small turntable fit where the shunter's shed is currently located? If you pushed the tunnel mouth back it might? If so that would give another operation for incoming trains. It would also potentially give a reason for light engine moves - to make use of the turntable for some down the line activity.

If your fiddle yard is going to be removable why not go with cassettes? You would just need a sort of trestle contraption to put them on then store them under the layout when not in use.

There is no runaround on that plan so a loco can only shunt the sidings on one side or the other, not both. I think the only thing you realistically have space for is a 3:2:2 Inglenook.

I had a play around. I think you are firmly in toy train set here. I also think a 6 by 4 board will be heavy (it needs to be portable I understand). This combined with the small size would preclude any thought of gradients and multiple levels. With that in mind here is a suggestion. It allows a 3 carriage loco hauled train or four car DMU/EMU/HST that would have to reside on the running lines. Three sections on the roundy-roundy allows you to swap trains between the lines. Your son can blast around the outer loop whilst you shunt about on the inner. It has an inglenook shunting layout on a goods served industry, a TMD and carriage sidings. Industrial buildings and a polystyrene hill and road bridge provide a scenic break between the two sides without great additional weight. The buildings could be removable to aid storage, ditto the trees. They could be inserted into the polystyrene to reduce the height of the final board when stored. The points are a combination of set track and stream line. You will need set track spacing for the curves anyway. The station is an island platform with the rest having to be imagined off scene.

Can someone point me to the "holly cow - I thought that was a shot of the real thing button". That last shot is just amazing. Bravo!

Looking great. One quick question - have you ever tried undercoating your models before painting? eg a rattle can of grey car primer prior to putting on the humbrol?

Typo or an admission? If the latter you must have been drinking heavily for the past couple of years!

Checking for brains!

Wow, great start. Good to see you getting your mojo back. Will follow with interest.

Well if you played golf to the same standard as your layout you would be the Open champion - so don't be too hard on yourself. It would be somewhat selfish to have two world class activities on the go at the same time!

Let my children have a fiddle with your camera for about five seconds and the fingerprints all over the lens will give you that fuzzy effect. Another thing to try is turn the ISO of the camera up to the maximum. This is the reaction speed - the higher it is the more fuzzy the image will become. Great photo regardless.

An interesting question! Personally I wouldn't know a 10c from a 144 at full size let alone a model - I struggle to remember what all the codes mean for the coach types. I thought this was an expletive laden tirade at first: A difference of 1 mm doesn't sound like much but that really depends upon where the 1 mm is. If it is in the length of the coach or even the width it would be difficult to tell apart. On a flat surface a 1 mm indent is obviously going to be visible. If you don't know for sure what these coaches were built like then striving for total accuracy is pointless anyway as there is some doubt about it.

You could pop a piece of grey card in the shot to hide them. It will "wash out" with the bright light leaving you with the stuff in the middle ground. Another alternative is to take a shot without the full rake. if they are meant to be hidden by front carriages then you are not going to miss them.

Understatement of the month! I am reminded somewhat of Captain Oats. Brilliant progress on an awesome endeavour