leeadavo

Merry Christmas!

After being sat in its box in a cabinet for a few months finally had a run out today, what a lovely locomotive and set of carriages.

Very enjoyable show.

I purchased the NCB brake van from a retailer, and have seen it listed with others too.

A look over the first year of my garden line, looking at the construction and building up of the railway in phases, as well as looking the the ever growing fleet of locomotives, carriages and wagons.

A look at the final stages of building my PDF Hunslet Leanne kit, along with some Timpdon wagons; RTR Purple Moose wagon and Kit built Ffestiniog Wooden Dandy Wagon.

Rosie has now entered traffic, as part of our Winter Gala.

Plenty of kit building going on the last month. My PDF Models Leanne kit, fitted with a locoremote, has commenced running in. Today I took some newly constructed of Binnie Hudson Tipper wagons and two Resurgam Rolling Stock Hudson 4w RAFs out on some test runs.

Video review of a couple of the carriages, for a look at the lighting skip to 02:10. The first class carriage has the awful bleed down its sides, showing the shape of the seating, while the 3rd class brake doesn't, but does have the bleed through the end of the carriage.

Running on my main layout today, had issues with both of my carriages turning their lights on and off by themselves, it seems to occur over power feeds and points. Really disappointed with the lighting, I really liked the idea, especially running on DC that lighting would stay on when stopped at a station. But am really considering returning them as they do not work as they should.

I seem to be having some temperamental lights as well (I'll go into the truly awful bleed on the carriage sides on the 4 wheel 1st class carriage later). On first test after a couple of circuits my 1st class 4 wheeler (running directly behind a Hornby Terrier) lights turned off by themselves. The brake carriage behind didn't seem to have the same problems. Had a look after second time it did it and the battery did seem slightly loose so pushed it in, but it still did it again after a few loops again. After a further check inside and it still doing it, turned the carriage round and the problem did not occur in the couple of minutes I tested it for. Will give it more tests over the weekend and see if the problem persists in one direction only.

Some pictures of R40080 4 Wheel Brake/Baggage Coach in BR Livery. Lovely little model, copes well with 1st radius curves around my snowy 'Christmas Tree' layout, which while not something I'll use this carriage for (will become part of my parcels trains stock), a couple of LBSCR livered carriages with lights to run behind Stepney will look lovely under the tree next year.

Batch 3 mentioned on that page: "Please note - due to a number of factors, our Great Eastern Railway models have now been moved back to Batch 3, details of which will be provided later in 2021."

Action from todays Mince Pie Specials, which looked lovely with a light snowy covering. Frozen points meant top and tailed trains, which was fun operating and getting a matching speed on both locomotives. Also a close up look at two wagons (Ffestiniog Van 99 and Coal Waggon 166) from the excellent Nantlle Valley Wagon Works as part of my second Lee's Model Rails...

A while since I updated this thread. Landscaping, foundations and track work is now all laid out and in use, ballasting is to wait until next year, along with platform construction. Yesterday the Sefton & West Lancs ran their Santa Specials, with my Roy Wood Models Salem MkII No. 3 running as Frosty the Snowman on Santa trains, while Prince ran Victorian Christmas Trains, with the first use of my Bowaters Model Carriage 15 (with some detailing work still to be completed and a roof only with its first coat of paint in the morning). Trains ran into the evening with the help of some SLR Models battery headlamps.

For the last couple of years I've laid a circle of track around the Christmas on the wooden floor, with my wife asking if we'd have a railway around the tree again this year, I thought I'd take the opportunity to make a bit more of a feature of it. Space is limited before hitting the area were the sofa sits, so the circuit is limited to radius 1 curves, but this is not too much of an issue as I have a large range of small tank engines capable of handling the tight curves. For the front of the layout I purchase a Hornby R180 viaduct, while the rest of the buildings and track work was all spare stuff lying around. To raise the trackbed up to viaduct height from baseboard height, I opted for an embankment, formed of 1 and 2 inch Woodland Scenics Risers, with a very short bit of 3% incline to reach viaduct height. The rear of the layout had a baseboard at embankment level. A pair of sidings have been provided to allow a change of locomotive or a limited amount of shunting. Before adding the snow, scenic scatters (grasses and paths) were applied. The small hamlet the layout goes round is called Berry (named after my wives mothers family) and uses the old Hornby trackmat cottages, The Bell Inn kit and a Skaledale Chapel. The finished layout under the tree. Quite happy with it, especially as it only took four days (with a lot of that being drying time for plaster cloth, paints and scenic cement).

Thank you for your kind comments.

With my garden railway taking up much of my time during the spring and summer, the last month has seen progress in the loft, with more work on the scenic elements, with some initial ground scatter (mixture of Woodlands Scenics fine grass and blended turfs) and Ratio fences being erected. Its amazing the difference a bit of colour adds to the layout, it had laid bare and white, as per the pictures above nearly two years ago, too long. Overview, showing comparison with the first picture in this thread Burnscar Junction to Henfordbridge branch, with 30585 awaiting its next turn. Video below showing some of the progress so far.

My first attempt at a review video:

What a lovely model. Some pictures along one of the DJ Models batch and comparison of box sizes.