Robin Gristwood

Hi, I'm glad you found the spreadsheet useful. I've found that it can used for all sorts of layouts from quite simple to much more complicated ones with multiple destinations and exchanges. Its also very easy to change, and adapt to your own way of working, unlike some of the software based ones.

Hi Barnaby, As mentioned on your King Street Goods thread, this is the source of the car-cards and waybills I am using http://www.westportterminal.de/operation.html Use the zip file which gives all the resources on the tabs of the Excel spreadsheet. As the modeller is German some of the text on the spreadsheet is in German, but a quick copy and paste to Google Translate should help. If you would like a copy of the carcard and waybills files I use please let me know.

Hi Barnaby, In my thread you can see what I am using https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/uploads/monthly_06_2018/post-24137-0-97460500-1528491284.jpg I think this is the same Excel spreadsheet based database to produce and print both the car cards and the waybills. If this is something you want to know more about, please let me know.

Hi John, Have a look at pictures on the YouChoos website for this decoder https://www.youchoos.co.uk/Index-Detail.php?L1=Detail&Item=MX644 Under the photo of speaker wires attached directly to the decoder it says, " For models that do not have speaker connections, purple wires can be soldered directly to decoder socket pins (WARNING - invalidates Zimo warranty)" Probably not what you wanted to hear, but I had to do some thing like this with with the Heljan Class 128 DPU.

Hello John, I'm not familiar with using an adapter board, but what actual sound decoder have you plugged into the adapter board? I'm wondering if the adapter board has a multiple use for both sound and non-sound decoders? If so, it might be that you would have to use the speaker outputs on the actual sound decoder, just a suggestion though John.

I've just looked in my copy of "The Tollesbury Branch" which covers the Kelvedon and Tollesbury Light Railway. Two coaches were transferred from Wisbech & Upwell Tramway. The diagrams in the back of the book show both coaches as having 2'9" diameter wheels. Hope that helps?

Hello Tim, Thank you for those kind words about the layout. I hadnt seen this book before, but thanks to your information I have placed my order already

The retaining walls and bridge abutments have been completed and coloured using crayons again, but as blue engineering brick this time. The track over the coal drops has been finished and a buffer stop added at the end. A building is planned at the end, and once this is built this section will be ready for scenic treatment. The wagon fleet has seen more additions. Internal user wagons ‘leased’ for use on Docks railway (from my friend Brian) , as well as extra stock arriving for the fruit warehouse – Fruit D, 2 x BR Banana Vans (all JLTRT), and an assorted rake of fruit vans. Other stock built and painted and decaled – but most still need weathering. The 20t brake van is a Slaters kit and the Stanier brake van is the excellent Connoisseur brass kit. I treated myself to a weekend away to Missenden Abbey last October to refine my weathering skills, helped enormously by the expert tuition of Mick Bonwick. I took my Dapol Jinty and the rake of Lionheart/Dapol 14t Tank wagons to work on. I am extremely pleased with the results and I now feel much more confident in weathering the rest of the loco fleet. More updates to follow...

As promised here is another update on the progress made on the layout. In the last update i said I want to add point rodding to the layout. A plan of the points operated by the signal box was made. A test piece was built to try out the Wizard/MSE components and ballasting. Of course, there is no point having point rodding if there isn’t a signal box. The old paper version that was on the layout before has been replaced with a LNWR Type 5 laser-cut kit from Railmodel. I have had this kit for a while and finally got around to building it. Although I am happy with the finished result, it did require some extra work and parts to supplement, and in some cases replace, what was provided. Some things were too difficult to correct though, for example the laser-cut brickwork is English bond, but at a joint of two walls the bond types didn’t match (e.g. not stretcher row to stretcher row and header row to header row). Also there is no interlocking of the bricks along the edges and the missing courses needed to be filed into the edges. The brickwork was painted with red primer and then a mix of sloppy Polyfilla coloured with MIG powder was rubbed into the courses and wiped off. Once dry, the brickwork was sprayed with Dullcote and coloured pencils were used to shade some individual bricks before the whole surface was sealed with another coat of Dullcote. The woodwork was painted with weathered wood (Phoenix Precision) and then AK Worn Effects solution was airbrushed over that and allowed to dry. The top coat is Vallejo, airbrushed over the AK layer. Once the top coat is dry, it can be carefully dampened and picked away with brushes and cocktail sticks to reveal the ‘wood’ underneath. It is all too easy to go overboard with this effect, but I didn’t want the signal box to look like it was abandoned. The window frames provided are meant to be sandwiched either side of the glazing, however this makes the finished window very thick. This was only evident once they had been made up and test fitted, where the windows overlap each other when in position. So the back frame was carefully sliced away and the glazing was painted on the back to represent the inside frame instead. I decided to make the roof removable as I wanted to add some detail inside and include lighting. So, the roof was made as a separate assembly. Although nice laser cut slates were included in the kit, no ridge tiles are included or mentioned in the instructions. I made a set of ridge tiles using my Anycubic 3D printer, then painted slate grey and fitted in place. The conspicuous finials are provided in the kit as flat laser cut shapes which do not look right. I found a supplier of the correct LNWR finials in brass available from Scale Signal Supply. These look much better than the ones supplied with the kit I think. The interior has been kitted out with a lever frame and block instruments from the excellent Severn Models range and furniture from Skytrex. The signalman is another Detailed Miniatures figure. Other detail is still needed, although I have now added downpipes for the guttering and a soil-pipe for toilet using the excellent Modelu components. It needs more weathering, particularly for the roof, and it does need a nameplate or lettering of some sort of course too.

A while ago a friend asked me how the layout was going as I hadn’t updated this thread for ages. So I thought it best to post what progress has been made, although I’m afraid progress has been slower than I had hoped, but looking back now quite a lot has been done. All the signals from Jon Fitness have been fitted in place, initially operated by toggle switches via Megapoints board, but now the signals and Tortoise point motors are operated using the excellent DCC Concepts lever frame. I know I have taken some liberties in the colouring of some the levers, but it helps prevent ‘operator error’ enormously. Some additional background buildings have been added to fill out the scene. This one is based on Liverpool canal-side building with slight modifications to better fit the site. Although all the large buildings have so far only been built with foamcore and brick-paper, they will be replaced by more realistic versions, but they help to set the scene as well as finalise the space needed and position. Work has continued on the track. When the trackwork was built, it was done by holding the sleepers in place on the Templot printout using double sided tape and track pins to maintain the curves particularly at rail joints. Over time some sleepers have slipped along, so now each sleeper has been superglued to the paper template base, and all temporary track pins removed. Extended sleepers were added for the installation of dummy yard point levers. Non-operational yard levers are from MSE (Wizard), with dummy pivot brackets made from wire and spare Dinghams coupler parts. Once assembled and painted they have been temporarily put in place using Black Tack. As you can see I have also painted all the trackwork after small bases were positioned for the rodding bases cut from wood sleeper strip and fixed the appropriate distance apart to mount the stools on. This was a major job in masking all the surrounding areas. I used a couple of cans of Halfords Ultra Matt Brown Camouflage paint to spray the tracks from above. The rails were then airbrushed from the sides to give a different colour. More updates to follow...

Cheers Jim, Pretty obvious really I'll give it a go, thanks again

Thanks for the info Jim. Just need to find a jar tall enough to hold a Class 31 upright..!!! Robin

Hello, Great job on the paint stripping. Can you please say what you used to strip the paint and what dilution if any? I have a Heljan 31 to strip soon and would love to see it come out as well as your 33 has.

Stunning results on the Turbots Ian. A Dremel gas soldering iron is now on my Christmas list..!!

Hi Ian, Do you mean the minimum radius that the wagon will go round? The official data from Dapol says minimum radius is 2nd radius curve = 1028mm (40.5")

Hi Chris, thanks for that information, that's really useful. As I've stretched the time setting of my layout era to mid '80's to include Turbots, I think I will remove the steps on the one wagon in that case.

I have received all three of the dutch livery version. Only one (DB978702) is fitted with a white end step. At first I thought that it might have come out in the packaging for the others (like Dapol couplings do sometimes), but there was nothing there. I checked on Hattons site and looked at the pictures posted for each model and noticed that it is only DB978702 that shows the end step fitted. Just wondered if anyone knows whether these were built with steps or they were added later, and if so, does anyone know when that would be, and how many were altered?

I had an update from Hattons this afternoon that mine are being despatched today

Hi Mick, you mention a comb brush, what size and where do you get them from? Robin

I use Dinghams extensively, but not with magnets. I built a coupler height jig to check accuracy once fitted to wagons

Hi John, I had one of the later JLTRT Fruit D from eBay. The buffer centres were wider that previously, but you will be able to tell because when you offer the chassis up to the body you will see that either side of the buffer holes have been milled away to allow the buffers to fit now. I found this on YouTube, which helped enormously with the build. This is part one, there are another 2 there as well. Good luck with build. I have to say it was the first JLTRT kit I have built and it was an enjoyable build, with no real snags. Robin

Does anyone know if there is a suitable sound chip available yet for this loco? The loco is due for release in a couple of months. I have a DC version on order and would like to have a sound decoder ready to install when it arrives. I know that the model will be available with sound fitted but there is usually quite a long delay before they turn up at retailers. The specification says that it has 'provision for speaker' but no information of size or shape. I will be grateful for any help anyone can provide Robin

Great job Mick.. weathering looks really effective

As a 7mm modeller I'm more interested that the 7mm HUO will be for sale on the stand. Does this mean that they have landed in the country now and pre-orders will arrive imminently? Robin

Hi Duncan, I've also started adding the blocks to mount MSE point stools, but still along way from installing anything. But I have made up a test piece to check what everything looks like before committing to it on the layout itself. I used the MSE 'square rod in the stools and 30 thou sq microstrip under the tracks to prevent any shorting issues.