Midland Lad

So today a lovely box of goodies arrived from Ten Commandments for Tontine Street, here are some of the building sections I ordered sitting in test positions: The mouldings are going to need some cleaning up and in places have chips in them, the chips I have decided I don't mind to much, as if they are suitably treated will give the finished buildings the air of hard worked and unloved commercial buildings. So now down to the fun of painting........ On another tack I did some research into the name Tontine Street, specifically looking to see where it pops up in the UK. There are several Tontine Streets about but I have 'seized' on the one which is one street away from the existing Swansea railway station. It suits me perfectly, as I have wanted to do a Cambrian layout for a while and have been collecting Western stock to suit, you know the fare, Manors, Panniers, Collet 0-6-0's, Ivatt 2mts and standard 4-6-0 4mt...... and considering the current station in Swansea was the old GWR station well I think that sews it all up nicely. Swansea though is one of those great meeting points and the LNWR also got to Swansea via the 'Heads of the Valleys' route, so I figure I can certainly justify the odd appearance by a jinty or maybe an LNWR 0-8-0........ So Tontine Street needs its buildings painted, a little tidy up to the pelmet on the light gantry and a curtain sourcing for the modesty of the lower half and well that's suddenly about it, exhibitions here we come, now all I have got to do is get a booking or two. Cheers Simon

Well a quick update, I recently went to the Model Railway show in Manchester with a small shopping list for Ingleside (don't we all when we go to a show?). So having purchased some cork for a track bed, kadee magnets for uncoupling and some buffer stops I thought I was sorted and then as ever I started looking at the rest of the trade stands. I saw some decent mouldings for industrial buildings on the Ten Commandments stand, now this is relevant to Carter's Dock one of the two layouts I am upgrading. I had been planning on using Skytrex north light factory units to cover the flat back scene but when Skytrex hit trouble early last month it seemed I was after an alternative, hence the interest in the Ten Commandments buildings. So I set to investigating the usefulness of the Ten Commandments mouldings on Carter's Dock, to be honest they were next to useless being to deep. So I began to mentally shelve the rebuild of Carter's Dock until another option presented itself, and tonight unpacked Tontine Street to see if the Ten Commandments buildings would be of use here instead. Due to the wider space available and lack of a back scene they look like they will be successful. Having unpacked Tontine Street, I did some repairs and removed the rest of the cardboard buildings, then standing back realised that the track plan is a glorified Inglenook............ To add confusion to the quandary I see in tonight's email that Skytrex have restructured and are selling there wares again, so Carter's Dock and Tontine Street both seem to have a scenic building solution and I appear to already have an Inglenook layout. It must be the solder fumes or the impending fate of those red panda kits! So where is this blog now going? I think it is going to get a bit wider and start covering the fun and games with Carter's Dock, Tontine Street and yes Ingleside. I have decided Ingleside is to continue on as my test bed for building a layout from the ground up as the other two projects are only scenic jobs. And what does the lady have to say about all this, well she is currently in Cuba (of all places) on holiday, but did make it clear a few weeks ago that although she had purchased me a baseboard last year I was not going to get planning permission for any further baseboards in the near future ;-) So I better provide some pics of Tontine Street and Carter's Dock, Tontine Street is the one in the pics with the Ten Commandments plaster buildings on it. If you either built, owned or operated Tontine Street / Carter's Dock in the past you may wish to look away now, as they are now missing there original buildings.......

Hello All, Welcome to the first post in this a new blog by a new blog author, who is commencing on his first serious layout...... Scared we all should be. Before I get underway with this I think it is fair if some background to the forthcoming shenanigans is given as follows. I have been more than active in the hobby for over the last two decades even though I am only in my late thirties, having begun in N gauge, but in the last 4 years moved to 00 gauge as my 'quest' for more detail has developed. Three years ago I joined East Beds Model Railway Society, and have really enjoyed the friendships, discussions, exhibitions with both of the current club layouts (Sutton and Cheriton Bishop) as well as the construction of the new club layout. I have also been quietly amassing 00 models for several future projects, don't we all..... I have had a hankering to build my own layout for years now, again don't we all, and have a pile of 'finalised' designs ready to go for Cambrian, S&D and LTS layouts, well I'm nothing if not spreading a broad brush in my interests. Sadly though I am yet to posses that air craft hanger of a model room and instead have to make do with a one bed maisonette. Along with all of this I have also purchased two small shunting layouts off of e-bay, Carters Dock and Tontine Street (and its stock) both were exhibition and magazine featured layouts, with the aim of refurbishing them mainly with the removal of the cardboard buildings and the replacement with something nicer..... I decided to make a start on Carters Dock scenically, whilst upgrading, servicing and re-coupling Tontine Street's stock for use on Carters Dock. Things were coming along nicely on Carters Dock, and I had decided to go with Skytrex's range of industrial 'flats' to cover over the back scenes of Carters Dock as well as replacing the 3d buildings. Test flats were purchased last year and early this year and then hacked about at the club to ascertain how neatly they would cut (thank you Bern). All was good, and I set about saving my pennies to be able to place a bulk order late last month from Skytrex........ I happened to mention a few weeks ago that I was ready to purchase said buildings at the club when Mr Crispy Bacon of this parish piped up from in-hailing soldering fumes and noted that only a few days ago Skytrex was noted as going into administration on this forum........ I'm still waiting for the liquidation sale......... So a tad disheartened and with the rain steadily falling today heralding the end of the summer, I was rooting through my modelling cupboard and stock trying to motivate some inspiration...... (and no Crispy I was not inspired to assemble those red panda wagon kits for the clubs layout if you are reading this) my eyes fell firstly on the 1'x4' modular baseboard purchased by my girlfriend as a Christmas present last year (yes you did read that right and no I didn't ask her for it, she really did spot I wanted this for future layouts.........). My plans for this board had always revolved around a compact terminus for the LTS obviously by adding a few more boards for station throat and fiddle yard. My eyes then fell on a peco code 100 three way point sitting on the modelling desk (used for setting up Kadees) and by chance sitting by it was the pretty jinty in weathered SDJR livery I had purchased off of e-bay in a flight of fantasy a while back. All of this distilled in my usually empty noggin for a few mins and then my brain answered inglenook sidings. If any of you are not aware of inglenook sidings then do a quick web search. It is a two point, three tracks shunting puzzle which on a temporary basis have really enjoyed before, and even used on the clubs Sutton exhibition layout in its yards during an exhibition....... For those of you aware of inglenook sidings then you maybe groaning, but the way I see it is as follows, it is achievable, will fit into the place I live now, will be sorted by the end of this winter if I put my mind to it and will fit onto that 1'x4' rather nicely. So now to the twist, it will give a home to the solitary SDJR loco liveried loco in my stud, while forcing me to get building and modding some wagons (albeit of pre grouping) in practice for those kits Mr Bacon if you are reading, and can also act as a full scenery test bed for myself using the skills I am learning at the club. The deal was sealed when I found four lengths of code 100 peco flexi track in the back of the cupboard which I had previously used for testing before Carters Dock and Tontine Street came along. So this blog will be the story of one modellers first foray into building a layout for himself, but to a standard which will be presentable at exhibitions and comparable to EBMRS layouts, actually that is a big ask trust me! Especially using code 100 peco track...... EBMRS use C&L fine scale and hand made paintwork to 00 standards. Well if you have read this far thank you, and as a small reward please enjoy the two photos, one of the extent of the board and track before laying and the second of the pretty weathered 3F tank which is the inspiration behind the S&D theme. Regards Midland Lad

Hello Gary, It's great to see your spare time being used to produce something positive. I'm also loving the way you have managed to create a feeling of space to the track plan in the dimensions you have given yourself. I am thinking less is going to be more with this plan, it would be very easy in the space available to add to much (mainly buildings) and loose the feeling of space in the track plan. I think sticking to the building placements of Devils Dyke will be the way to go. Cheers Simon

Funnily enough I didn't notice the broken handrail on the model until I looked at the photo. ;-)

Having read through this topic from start to finish it's occurred to me that a modern image layout showing a fictional freight operator who has purchased in an amount of motive power from the US therefore using Irish models could be real possibility. Mix that in with some existing locos such as clases 66, re-engineered 20 & 37 in a fictional livery and you might have a very interesting layout........ Hmmm now I'm thinking! We could also take a look at real operations in Japan which can be of interest to this debate. The Hanku Railway (I think that is what it is called) in Osaka is actually owned by a department store...... It operates at times quadruple departures of multiple stock trains and in reality carries as many passengers around one city in one day as the whole of the current British rail network in one day.....

New to the forum and already loving this topic, so I thought I would have a go with a photo I took of one of my locos on the club layout in the middle of an exhibition.... Be kind ;-)

Having read all seven pages of this thread from start to finish.... Don't ask how long that took, lol. I think this last post sums up the situation as far as the manufacturers are concerned perfectly. Also the suggestion that individuals making the moves forward is the way this is going is the same way I seem to remember DCC started 15 or so years ago after manufacturers, like Hornby got beaten severely by their Zero1 system. Therefore I think it is down to small concerns, making kits to be fitted by individuals to progress this technology and I for one will be supporting the small concerns in making this technology to move it forward. Cheers

I have messed around with Kadees and three links for several years now and actually run both at both ends on some of my stock...... Is that a first? I have found Kadees do need to be set up very carefully and the height gauge is indispensable, once I purchased one of these and mounted it on a spare Peco code 100 three way point (so I can check the sticky down bit will clear everything) then the operation and set up of Kadees has come good. NB I find that Bachmans NEM boxes can sag from the correct height therefore filling the gap if present between the under frame / chassis with plasti card and superglue / poly cement does the trick and prevents bending of the arm in the horizontal at the rear of Bachmans NEM box which results in more reliable and positive operation. The down side is Bachman puts the major screws to release the bodies from the chassis on most of there locos right in the same spot where the void needs to be filled...... Seems to be solve one problem then need to hack away at the mass of superglue etc to service the loco.