Maurits71

Happy Sunday. The castle is almost finished, fair play to Scale scenes as I have built his model but instead in cardboard in plastic card with a few additions based on my what I wanted to achieve. Over the last few weeks, I have done some serious running and started writing down all little issues which I faced, today I manage to spend a good few hours solving a few of them so hopefully, next session will be a bit more smooth. I was in doubt slightly, another running session of working on the scenery, scenery won this time, saved a lot of trees from my old layout. I am planting only the best ones as my standard of building is much higher as I had when I was building Highbury fields. I have a few left to do and started building the next lot already so lots to do over the next couple off weeks. Best regards Maurits

This little spot was screaming for attention so couldn't resist. Another layer of static grass. And once dried I started adding bushes and small trees, a lot of different materials are used for this spot. the hedge is still to be added but needed a bit more drying so will do this later. Regards. M.

Happy Saturday all, Peak season for me so really busy for the big boss, so very limited time to spend in my Man's cave, but consider the lack of time pleased with the progress the last couple of Months. All rock formations are sort of finished and painted, they only need a last white wash. and one of the retaining walls needs some extra black wash to make it even more old and demolised. My interception of the Olive Mount cutting gets shape, work on the other site starts soon before I can add foliage etc. It's a well known advise not to make your layout to deep, I remember this one clearly now, it's going to be funny once I start with grass. Buildings, buildings, any one fancy helping me building 126 different ones ? and last but not least, the biggest eyecatcher of my layout once finished, really proud with the outcome slowly less and less wood to see Tonight is play time video to follow Best regards, Maurits

Bit earlier as planned but working on the hills near the big bridge I realised that it would be handier to have the fascia finished first. Lukelu I had enough wood left in the garage As I wanted to avoid that I knocked the facia over at one point I decided to do the cutting as well, still work in progess but the smell of the Glue is so bad that I have to leave the room for a while to avoid getting stoned

Happy Saturday all. Have stepped away the last couple of weeks from building houses and spend a lot of time in running trains and working on a few things on the things to do list. Most things are either changing parts of the software, adjusting points, an extra dropper left and right etc. Last weekend I managed to do a 2 hour session without any failures so really pleased. In between the running sessions work continues on the scenery, the front bit is closed now and once I have tested if there are no obstructions for the trains I will cover this with plaster of parish or something similar. The Wall near the big bridge is also getting shape, done something similar as I have done with the other wall just use Sculptamold, make it a bit more wet as instructed and you have almost 3 days to put it in shape. Haven’t decided yet what I want to do with this part of , it’s actually asking for a proper City scene with lots of high buildings, so definitely something to consider Till the next update Best regards Maurits

Happy Friday all. have done quite a lot of the last 2 weeks, have put the Church a bit higher as originally planned, looks much better now. Pub is next

Managed to finish the last details this morning. Village is getting shape now

evening, very windy here today so spend most of the Saturday in the train room, next to ' playing with trains @ I have also made some progress on the church. still lots to do but we are getting there 80 cm dia

Happy Saturday all. St Mary the Virgin Church is getting there now, both North and South wings are finished and it's going to be a very impressive building. Currently I am working on the lead roof, before I start with a lot of details

Next little project the engine shed is finished . also started with St.Mary the Virgin church, not a simple job as over the last decades there have been several additions build but up for the challange in the back ground the mock up I have made last year

Happy Sunday Last few Sundays are fully dedicated to the station building based on the old Gamlingay station. although is not a one to one copy I am really pleased with the end result, have shown it to the son of one of the old workers and he told me it is exactly as in his memory, next stop is the goods shed and the old locomotive workshop

Happy New Year all. The festive period was great,no work kids and missus hapily on ipads and laptops so lots of me time Have started on both Gamlingay St Mary's church and the old Gamlingay station building, as per my usual methode I make a drawing on the computer, do a cut and build the mock up. sofar I am really pleased with the result so will start building them from plastic card and styrene. we had friend over a couple of days so a running session was mandatory, with a top of 27 trains at the same time and an average of 930 km an hour I was really impressed never achieved fhis before. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4887/46590182651_4470be47ab_b.jpg[/img]

Happy Monday all. Came home sort of completely over the p.sss so the only remedy is me time so air brush out., normally I paint rocks but when watching some youtube video's I decided to do it this time different and in all honesty it looks soo much better. looking at the pictures I need to do some more dry brushing after that it's time for some green stuff :wave: :wave:

Happy Sunday all. done a lot over the last couple of weeks. firstly , my own impression of Clayton tunnel as I felt this would be a very nice additions to Hills and Meadows. it all started with a google search, after this I did a mock up from card board , once I was happy I started with the model using slaters plastic plates and a couple of nights later, the model was sort of finished, only need to do some minor details another big job I am doing are the cliffs and rocks on this part of the layout including the concreted goods area. looked really scary but once dried it looks so much better still lots of sanding and corrections to do but it needs to be completely dry first. same for the cliffs it didn't look really well but after a couple of hours and a first try to create rocks it's much better really looking forward to tomorrow to see how it looks when it's completely dry

Don't think I want to go into a battle if Itrain is more sensible than the software I am using, looks to me that I am not able to explain properly to you that if you have 20 trains running at a scale speed of around 40k an hour that the total average of those loco's is 750 km per hour, which the statistics are showing. anyway back to modelling part 1 of the cutting, just needs drying before I can start with plaster best regards M.

, It's the total average off all loco's per hour combined, but do understand you don't know this as you use itrain which hasn't got this feature. but Happy Friday all. Slowly it's coming together, once I am happy with how it looks I can start using plaster, but for now it's a big mess My original plan to build something Dawlish style is binned, instead it will be a very small harbour thing people who know the Huntingdon cutting know it's quit a steep one, so justifies to do something similar hope to spend a few more hours this weekend as I can't wait to start with the scenery

Happy Saturday all. Have let the trains out a lot recently, bought a new desk top to replace my laptop and this has improved speed, performance massively. Last session the layout was able to do an average of 750 km per hour compared to the 400 recently. with an average of rains simultaneously of 22 compared to the 12/ 13 I was used to. The biggest improvement is that this computer is able to handle much more data compared to the laptop so almost all commands are followed up with a result of all points set as they are supposed to be and detection's are communicated back. so really pleased that I have taken his step. on the repair front I can report that I have fixed so far 5 loco's with 1 waiting for a few parts, still lots to go , general conclusion sofar that it's nothing with either decoders or faulty motors but all failed pcd boards so hard wiring is the solution. another thing I have started is scenery on the new part. as mentioned this part is imaginary located near the coast, so hills and even some rocks and a good nice town scene. I normally start with a rough idea what I want, polystyrene is a nice product to help, bit messy but ok if you're careful. another product I use a lot is blue underlayer, like I have done here to form where I want roads and houses to cover bigger area's I use a fleece normally used to protect plants. once I have done all and I am happy with the looks I will start using plaster to strengthen the area's but as I am not the quickest it will take a while.

Happy Saturday my friends After the joy and relief of laing down the last piece of track it was time to do all the software bits, not straight forward down to the single line and the return loop but all sorted now. This is how it looks 2nd big project which I have started is to reduce the pile of faulty loco's which was getting bigger and bigger. The first 5 are fixed one needed a new motor the other 4 I just ripped the pcb board out and hard wired the decoder. Really happy that this one is back on track, it's for one reason one of my most favourite livrei's I have. Look forward to Monday as I have ordered a refurbised super powered desk top so hopefuilly that will give enough processor capacity to run all trains together instead of the limited amount I have now. stay tuned

Something to celebrate today. a good 3.5 years after starting with Hills and Meadows, using a good 350 metres of track, around 75 points I have just finished the last bit of track laying. will try to get all points working and droppers done this weekend before the big clear up which is needed as the whole room is one big mess.

Happy Monday all. Not my layout but my neighbours who have kept this little gem a secret for everybody till last weekend. enjoy the moment Best regards Maurits

Happy Saturday all. weather looks lovely so it looks like that my original planning which was spending time in the train room is changed to a sun bed and entertaining the missus. which in all fairness isn't a bad thing to do as well ;) especially with the kids going to friends all day. anyway back to train related stuff. I have done a bit more work on the signal box, basis is more or less finished, need some painting to finish, just noticed them on the picture. will start with the inside now. will add some working lights and a full interior inside so quite a job to do. work is also started on the roof but that's a bit more straight forward.

Ian, the software I am using is called Koploper ( www.pahasoft.info ), only downside for you' it's in Dutch

Hello and a very good evening, my apologies for the lack of updates, the Missus decided that the whole house needed a re decoration which I finally finished last weekend. Not a great job down to the temperatures but hee, everytiing to keep her happy. Did a nice run on the layout yesterday, good couple of hours without any issues, so need to find motivation to finish the last addition which I mentioned earlier, need a holiday first. Did start on my impression of the Princess Risborough Signal box as I wanted a larger signal box as available, not done/ finished yet but first lines are on paper [ couple of more hours and than I can start printing, windows are already printed and they look great.

Happy Sunday small update to report, base layer is sorted including part of the track plan of the station. below, part of the reverse loop and fiddle yard https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1838/29107526138_8279dec743_b.jpg[/img track laying will be done over the next couple of weeks

Happy Sunday and Fathers day, apologies for the lack of updates. I have been busy with work and all sorts of other things so there was little time left for the layout. Despite the lack of time I have done quit a bit but mostly not visible, have looked if I could use Itrain to run my layout, the answer is yes but I needed to change so many things that I stay to the current software which to be honest is still miles ahead of Itrain. have started to do some more scenery and last week finally found the mojo to start with the last bit of the layout. Overt he last year I had various thoughts what I was going to build on this side. A big TMD was the original plan, a quarry was another but have now decided to have another station, one which looks a bit like Tormouth, although I keep it as a single branche line, the sea wall will be a bit like dawlish and there's a 2 track reverse loop. Picture shows the reverse loop, if my calculations are correct the inner loop is 240 cm long and part of the visible bit. Scenery wise as it's like the Dawlish/ Teighmouth area hills, a few big rocks and tunnels