LongRail

I would have thought using gaffer tape so close to the edge of the scenic work ie near to the troughing route was a bit risky and could lead to cracking when the layout is moved around.

Personally would cut by hand saw more as it gives you far control. I have recently purchased a piercing saw and it’s brilliant

Link reports video as private

P clips

Mick, just seen there is a book out covering train testing written by an on board testing technician it’s called yellow trains ten years of testing and has around 200 photos, is this on your Christmas list?

Jim Some good ideas in there liking the way you are mocking it al up before jumping in to quickly. With a shallower angle for the town board you can step the buildings down a little at a time to keep them vertical and adjust the pavement to suit the door positions. You could try and mock this up with thin foamboard to adjust the building levels and then use a thick card for the pavement level if that makes sense

Glad you explained about the signalmen pose great modelling by the way

Andy looking good nice to see the layout as a whole

Nice Christmas scene at the end

Mick, where is all the yellow stuff

Love the comment about reducing the length of the fiddle yards by 25 ft most people would love 25ft fiddle yards just shows how large this layout is really looking forward to seeing it when it comes out into the daylight

Peter only an hour you could have stayed longer and helped with the track laying he has a lot to do you know

Alignment of track connecting to the points does not look very straight needs to be a smooth transition

Have now finished Prometheus, photos showing the detail at the end of the coach in place and photos of 89001 which has been complected from a Silverfox kit using a Hornby range class 47 chassis. 89001 has drivers cabs which are 3D printed. The pantograph uses the base from a standard Hornby pantograph which has been filled to reduce the bulk and a new brass top arm made. The contact shoe is a "Sommerfeldt" ref 981 "HO Contact Shoe"

Cup of tea and a sandwich for me

The mug in the previous 2 photos really gives an idea of scale, awesome

New addition to the Departmental Fleet. This is a 2 axle Van (ADC21055) this was often used with Text Car 1 and provided secure storage for spare instrumentation, racking and tables which were used in temporary test coach installations. It was also used as a comparison vehicle to those under test. The cables along the outside provided a connection as part of the testing. This was a converted from a Bachmann VGA van with replacement taper light suspension fitted as per the original. I drew up the new suspension in 3D and then printed it out for fitting to the model. I have included photos showing the suspension components and that on the Bachmann model.

Merfyn, Its OK I finally found it

Escort Combi Van is now finished (well apart from adding the rear windscreen wiper). After it was pointed out that the tailgate was incorrect I adding an additional roof section in place which moved the rear tailgate back into the correct position and angle. Unfortunately the rear window was too long with the increased angle so this was cut off using a piercing saw and anew tailgate formed from plasticard. It became a bit like Frankenstein monster made from many parts but I am pleased with the overall result. The seat fabric and door panels on the real vehicle were photographed and printed out as transfers applied to the model.

Merfyn, The railway motors thread seems to have disappeared any ideas?

Escort Combi Van is now finished (well apart from adding the rear windscreen wiper). After it was pointed out that the tailgate was incorrect I adding an additional roof section in place which moved the rear tailgate back into the correct position and angle. Unfortunately the rear window was too long with the increased angle so this was cut off using a piercing saw and anew tailgate formed from plasticard. It became a bit like Frankenstein monster made from many parts but I am pleased with the overall result. The seat fabric and door panels on the real vehicle were photographed and printed out as transfers applied to the model.

Matt, probably a bit late but the "orange tubes" as you refer to them would only run to a single piece of equipment they would not be used as part of a cable route, where a cable route crosses from one side to another then under-track crossings (UTX) are used these are well below track level and have access chambers (manholes) either side. the problem with orange pipes is that if they are damaged by a tamper running through the area and they were part of of a cable route it would cause all sorts of problems, whereas with a single piece of equipment it is easily fixed

Peter, Sorry to be picky but a train set comes in a box this is clearly a model railway in so many ways

That’s very nice

Following on from the Escort Combi build ,I have swapped the XR3i wheels with those from mk3 Cortina which have hub cabs and are more in keeping with the BR spec vehicle. I noticed the oxford cortina is a GT and decided to customise it with spare parts from the XR3i, used photos from google for the interior colours. Surprisingly the Oxford Mk3 interior detail is very good even down to the correct steering wheel, left the front seats black as if they had been purchased from a breakers.