sem34090

Thinking about possible future modelling ideas, wondering what others' thoughts are, I was contemplating Beamish's Rowley Station setup as a prototype given it's effectively a 12ins to the foot scale model railway, complete with scenic breaks at each end! Not sure how operationally interesting it would be, however. Would also be relatively easy to research given it's at my place of work! Very firmly pre-grouping in feel, but still with scope for running a variety of other things. I did then also wonder whether the colliery railway and waggonway on site might also make for interesting prototypes to model - Again these are basically 12ins to the foot scale terminus to fiddleyard layouts, each with a loco shed and fairly simple track layouts. Thoughts on these ideas gratefully accepted!!

Hahahahahahaha... Well that went well! Having laid the ballast on the layout back in September, it's less than a month since I actually glued it into place. Since then, um, things have changed again. As 2023 rolled into 2024 I was preparing to settle down into another year in Tywyn, hopefully less eventful and more stable than the last. The job wasn't paying especially well, but I could just about scrape by and on the plus side I was able to enjoy living in one of my favourite places, with my closest friends! Then I applied for a job at Beamish museum. In County Durham. Well, I actually applied for about five jobs, but got interviewed for and subsequently offered a job as a "Bus & Tramway Engager" (what amounts to Bus & Tram Conductor with career progression to Driver) with better hours, better pay and (most importantly!) a better uniform than my current job was giving me. Kind of had to take that opportunity and... Yeah I think Welsh-based layout projects will have to take a back seat for the moment. And of course, I'm definitely not looking at indulging my love of the North Eastern and of industrial railways at all...

I did enquire about commissioning a run of these for the London Transport Traction Group, but unfortunately the costs weren't viable for us as we're of rather limited means! Something to think about in the future perhaps, though.

A little more progress to report, bringing the layout up to almost the same point as any of my other larger layout schemes have failed to get beyond! The rails have been painted by Emrys and I and the ballast is in place, I just need to get around to gluing it down (which I'm always slightly terrified of as it tends to b****r up the points) and that will be the scenic area's standard gauge track pretty much sorted! As we only had the one pot of paint between us, Emrys and I decided that forming up a short goods working for the purpose of moving it between us was absolutely the right way to go about doing things! Mid-way through ballasting, with continued SR influence on account of yours truly. State of play late last night, with just the sidings left to ballast. Looking more complete, not to mention tidier, by this evening! Might try and glue it in the morning but if not it'll probably be Monday before it gets done. More news soon, hopefully! Especially once the others move up this way.

Well, here we go again! Wonder if this one will actually get somewhere near to completion... I hope so, it's certainly about time!!!

It feels that it has been much too long since I last contributed to these pages, and even longer since I contributed anything of any value! Many layout ideas have come and gone, some bore fruit others died before they ever left the virtual drawing board. Throughout all of this there have been several decent baseboards in my possession. Several schemes were proposed for these, the original one being an ex-LBSCR Layout, Blackstone West, later morphing into a Met & GC Joint layout, Chalfont St Giles. There was also a layout idea titled Bermondsey (Canal Road) which seemed promising but sadly never progressed. All of these ideas had great potential but were perhaps rather too ambitious for the space I had then and even the space I have now for layout projects. Thus the latest venture has been born, following a permanent (well, permanent enough) move to Wales for myself and a less permanent move to Wales imminent for @Willsewell and @welshway, in addition to the interest of several other friends locally. All of us have some interest in actually seeing a 'proper' layout project through to fruition and with anything up to six or seven of us able to work on it at a time when others such as @Hando and @SECR 235class are around it stands a reasonable chance of actually happening! A plan was first put together several months ago, following this layout - Due to the baseboards being unable to be reconfigured to match this plan, the layout will be taking a slightly different form. The basic standard gauge track plan has been retained, albeit shortened, and a couple of weeks ago I got the track down and basic wiring sorted to allow 'one engine in steam' operation with an analogue controller. At some point a control panel will be put together to allow for more than one loco to be run in 'analogue mode', even though it is envisaged that the layout be primarily a DCC affair. If one will excuse the mess, this shows the layout as it currently stands. Track is Peco Code 100 Streamline simply because it was affordable and in stock with us already. The baseboard joint requires some further work as the boards are not mounted as originally intended, however overall most things work much as they should. More news anon, given this project does seem to actually be going somewhere, let's see if between us we can get it past the ballasting stage that most of my personal projects seem to die at!! (For those who may be concerned - The Western monstrosities pictured above are not mine, I swear! 😅 Blame @Willsewell)

Goodness me, it's all longer ago than I thought and I only found this through discussing the wider idea with some friends this evening! I would definitely say that the above makes more sense than what I had originally devised for my own project (which someday may re-emerge in some form or another). I really need to show my virtual face around here rather more than I have done of late! Too busy playing with big little trains...

More happenings...

A few little developments... Various bits I'm not too happy with, and a fairly long way to go, but she's not looking too bad. Little bit of work done on the photo plank/test track too.

The voltage drop issue seems to be intermittent so I'm wondering if I just need to get the isopropyl out and give the point blades a deep clean. Shouldn't really rely on them anyway so I'll probably add a couple of extra feeds. Last night was mostly spent adding couplings to various wagons and coaches in the hope I might actually get around to finishing a couple of them if they actually have the ability to run! List of current 009 rolling stock projects - - Crews, probably also weathering, for the two Penrhyn Hunslets and TR No.2. Thinking about Modelu but they are relatively expensive. - Glazing and roof on the ex-Corris Railway coach, lining and lettering to follow when I find a source. - New smokebox door, possibly new chimney and paint on No.2. - Glazing, roof and lettering on TR Van No.5. - Build up Meridian Kit for 1860s Condition TR Van No.5, or seek 3D Print of same. - TR Brown Marshall Coach, probably Bachmann but possibly 3D Print or Meridian if found. - Penrhyn slate wagons if anyone can actually suggest where I might find some! Merdian did them but they seem to be unavailable currently. - Attempt to print cylinders for Corris Railway No.7 and aim to at least fit slidebars, crossheads and connecting rods. Pony truck also requires work. Maybe a Bachmann Peter Sam chassis might be a better bet, but possibly with the Meridian rods substituted.

It's been a while since I tried any actual layout building, so decided to do a little test piece. First time I've successfully ballasted 9mm Gauge track and still been able to run trains afterwards! My only worry is that since ballasting, the sections between the two points (both 'main' and 'loop') have apparently been suffering from some amount of voltage drop. This didn't appear to be an issue before ballasting. I suspect the issue is that I didn't notice the point at the right hand end being an Electrofrog and thus didn't insulate or wire it appropriately, but were this the case I wonder how the layout has been functioning at all, no dead shorts at all, and before ballasting it all appeared to run alright? Still, the biggest success is that after ballasting the point blades still move reliably! That's an improvement on previous attempts.

I saw that earlier - it looks absolutely stunning!

Following on from my 'catching up' post on the previous page, there is one project immediately on the horizon - Despite not being finished in its own right, my converted Bachmann Rheneas is likely to very soon find itself used as a chassis donor for one of the excellent new Fourdees 3D prints for Dolgoch, the version I've chosen being the loco in her early-1950s condition. I may backdate this to an earlier condition, I'm just not sure which yet. Having also handled one of Fourdees' prints for No.4 I am amazed at the level of detail obtained in these predominantly one-piece prints. I can't wait to begin working on mine! And of course I couldn't resist popping up the line to take Dolgoch to Dolgoch.

So, it's that time of year again (this seems to have become a seasonal 'Spring Months Only' sort of service!). What's been happening? Well I ceased to be a student in April last year because quite frankly it was all going to pot and remote learning was not for me in any way, shape or form. By the goodwill of the Talyllyn Railway I was able to stay in Wales through the summer as a subsidised volunteer working to fill gaps in the Guards' roster. I got my 'Passed Assistant Guard' card in May and have since then undertaken some 85 or so guarding duties both alone and with Assistant and Trainee Guards. Some of these duties have been tenuously pre-grouping in nature (Not that the Talyllyn was ever grouped into anything) and have seen me enjoy the delights of the railway's original 1860s Van. This did take up rather a lot of my time last year so although I was getting a pretty good railway fix, not a lot of modelling has happened. That is not to say that things have been entirely dead on that front - A visit to the wonderful Narrow Gauge South show in April last year saw an awful lot of new acquisitions, a couple of which are seen here. Knowing that I would be spending the summer on the Talyllyn I decided it was about time to start accumulating some models of Talyllyn stock. A Bachmann Rheneas was purchased alongside a Narrow Planet 'Dolgochification' kit, a substantial quantity of slate wagons, coaches and brake vans (although the model of Coach No.4 'Lulu' I already had and the ex-GVT coach belongs to a friend, as does the model of Loco No.4). A 3D print for No.6 Douglas was also bought at the show. The model of No.9 Alf, in the foreground, was a later eBay purchase and much like the prototype has proven to be extremely reliable. These various little projects occupied the summer evenings but many of them are still incomplete! After services finished for the season, I went to stay with a friend through the winter and attentions turned to producing something for these various locos to run on. A little Pizza-type layout (albeit on a square 'board') has been produced and awaits further development. The Peco George England 0-4-0STT was a gift for the aforementioned friend on their birthday but I would be rather partial to one myself at some point - they're fantastic little runners. With a brief return to Talyllyn duties over the Christmas and New Year period, December saw a flurry of what may be described as 12ins/ft scale modelling both in narrow and standard gauge varieties. Work has been ongoing with keeping the London Transport Traction Group's Class 483 EMU's in a presentable state and after Christmas an unexpectedly large working party of Talyllyn Young Members cosmetically refreshed four-and-a-half of the railway's wagons over the space of a few days, some of which will be featuring in this week's photo charters. There have been a couple of other new additions to my collection over the past year, both of which are arguably appropriate for this section of the forum. The first, in November, came from a trip to Cardiff with some friends in the form of a rather nice rendition of an SER F (I think?) finished in Wainwright livery. As far as I can tell most of this loco has been constructed from card and a very nice job has been done of it. Unfortunately this also means that it's rather light so some work will be needed to get better performance out of it. The other was one of the delightful Bachmann Quarry Hunslets, Nesta in Penhryn lined black being the choice. She runs like a dream and the hope is that having such a small, reliable, 009 loco will open up some new layout possibilities. February saw a very substantial, and in some regards very distressing, change in my circumstances but in the aftermath of that I've ended up with a job and have now taken up residence in Tywyn properly which allows a decent amount of time on the Talyllyn but also means I now have a place of my own in which to hopefully build a suitably small layout. Many abortive projects over the years but perhaps now, finally, there is a chance that a layout will materialise and be seen through to some semblance of completion!! Incidentally, the space which I have pencilled in as a potential layout space is 4ft x 15ins, beside my (sadly unusable) fireplace, if anyone has any suggestions.

Having recently begun working within the retail sector, I must say it is slightly disheartening just how many copies of the Daily Mail, The Sun and the Daily Express pass over a till during the course of a shift when compared to copies of other newspapers. I see those headlines and wince. Also interesting to note the correlation between purchases of these newspapers, tobacco and National Lottery products.