Simon stewart

It's time to give the layout it's first outing, and it happens to be at the town it is based on. The Horncastle branch closed in April 1971, and to mark 50 years since the closure of the line, the Horcastle History and Heritage Society are holding an event at the Joseph Banks Centre on 14th and 15th August. More details can be found on the flyer. Horncastle End of the Line Exhibition Poster.pdf

The extension board is nearly completed, warehouse has been painted, weathered and guttering added. It was then fitted in position, and the greenery added to blend it in. 2 street lights have been temporarily added, but will need to be removed to tone down the shiny finish.

Like the look of that Ben, good excuse to build some more VEA vanwides too.

Work is progressing well on the extension board. The warehouse is built, but requires painting, and the window frames have been spray painted away from the building. The road and path in front of the warehouse has been formed using coving adhesive, which took a bit of fettling to get it to meet the height of the existing goods platform. Now to find those paint brushes!

You're right about the 25's Richard, as you say more likely to be something from IM or MR depots. Most of the pictures that I've seen of freight trains on the branch in it's final years were 31's and 08's. Currently got a pair of 31's on the workbench, awaiting respraying after having a bit of work done to them. Talking of 31's, it's about time one of better manufacturers produced a decent Brush type 2.

Here's a couple of shots of a mini running session I had before wood working commenced.

Layout is back up, tested and tweaked. Work has now started on the extra scenic board at the station end, this will help finish off the back scene, and give a bit more depth to that end of the layout

That looks pretty good clive, a lot more complicated than Horncastle. Very good for a gun fitter!

That looks pretty good clive, a lot more complicated than Horncastle. Very good for a gun fitter!

Work on rewiring the new control panel is now complete, took the easy but expensive option of using the alpha switch a control and buttons mounted on the back of the panel. The layout now needs putting back up, so testing and adjusting of the motors can be carried out.

Been oh so long since I've been on here, so time for a little update. Scenics are basically completed, except for making some young trees to add near the backscene. I'm currently replacing the old seep point motors for some cobolts, and making the adjustments to the wiring, which includes making a new control panel. Once this is completed, I'm going to make a small board to add on to the station end of the layout, to allow a better finish with a curved back scene.

Another shot of the progress.

Been making good progress over the last 2 months. Platform is finished and weathered, ballasting has been completed, with weathering now being carried out. I've ordered some cobolt motors to replace the unreliable seeps, this will also stop the blades becoming soldered and make the frog switching more reliable.

Could anyone tell what type of brake distributor was fitted to the UKF PWA pallet vans please, thanks in advance. Simon