47758rrc

It's 1:35, my usual scale for military modelling.

The best laid plans of mice and men and all that! So the CBC got packed up over Christmas and then other things got in the way but finally got the thing out and a lot more progress done on it! So it's probably the right time to reveal exactly what the theme is. It's 7th June 1944 and Allied forces are streaming into Normandy and doing their best to link up and try and work out what forces are in the area while trying to make their way inland. Meanwhile, the Germans surprised at the initial attack, are doing everything they can to coordinate their defence. A small group of paratroops from the 82nd Airbourne, joined by 1 of the 101st misdropped, are patrolling when they come across a strange vehicle in the middle of marshy fields. They approach with caution, checking for booby traps or hiding troops but on closer inspection find an abandoned scout car, converted to run on rails. The previous users, a radio/recon team from the German Army had been rushing towards the front when the engine broke down and could not be repaired. They stayed with the vehicle until the batteries gave up and then abandoned the now useless hulk. So that is where the name comes from, the fact the vehicle is broken down and also the nickname of the 82nd Airbourne (The "All American" or AA). The vehicle is a Panhard Panzerspahwagen P204(f) armoured car adapted by the Germans for use on rails. Many of these vehicles were captured during the fall of France in 1940 and spread out within recon platoons, with relatively few converted with rail wheels. The figures were the first to have paint. There are 3 riflemen, an NCO, his assistant and a Bazooka team member. Once they were fully painted then work moved on to the vehicle itself. The vehicle has a full interior and this was painted and weathered. This was the work up to Christmas but of course, I forgot to post an update. Work over the weekend concentrated on the vehicle first. It was fully closed up and had all hatches etc added in their final positions then posed on the base to check it looked 'right'. Then it was undercoated while I moved on to the board. Using static grass of 3 lengths and some Woodland Scenics 'straw sections' I made a marshy grassland either side of the ballast and added some overgrown patches in between. With at least 3 years of neglect, the rails would not be in great condition. I then placed the figures in their final positions and fixed them to the board. There will just be a small amount of weathering to the ballast and it will be mostly finished. I got the vehicle undercoated then a start made on the camouflage but ran out of time last night. I am hoping to have this done this week but time will tell!

It was to start off with but we heated up the room before starting any fixing. Its not too bad, the room is at the top of a factory unit so it had residual heat from below anyway. The backscene will be a retaining wall with the rear of the shops on Bold Street on it behind the station. Behind the runaround loop there will be a bit more depth with buildings. There will also be 2 bridges running front to back like the real life station.

So here is the first post with construction progress. We started out with laying out the points and getting the junctions somewhere near to where they will be. As stated above we are using the new Peco Bullhead rail and points with the matching fishplates. The only exception being the crossover which is a code 75 insulfrog single slip. We then moved to the plain lines and generally laid everything out. Next came some stock to check platform lengths and the runaround loop would fit the required trains. Everything was then marked out and a start made on laying the track. We started with the crossover as it was the most complex part to get right and everything would work from it. We cut holes for point motors and dropper wires as we went (every line will have individual feeds for each board) and then glued the track down with Evo-Stick contact adhesive. Each section being weighted down until solid. Each section was then checked and the next piece lined up using traksettas and 6ft way gauges. Once all the track was down, alignment was checked once more then all of the track was cleared to ensure there was nothing to blow the loco or controller up! [Above] This is looking towards the platforms with the longest line for parcels, the next platform the primary loco-haulage platform and the others for DMUs. There is also a storage siding between 2 platforms and a loco holding siding for 2 locos next to the long platform. [Above] This is the other direction. The lines at the back are the main exit to the station and will disappear under a girder bridge off scene very similar to the original Liverpool Central. The lines at the front are the run around loop. this is similar to Southport's operation in the 1990s where a loco-hauled train enters the station, sets down, propels into the loop, runs around, propels back into the station, loads then departs. It makes it a lot more interesting than just having a release loop in the station and means the platforms can be shorter. In real life there was a turntable and sidings in this location. The final thing to do was test it all! For control we are using a Lenz Set 100 which will eventually be hooked up to a router and Procab on our mobile devices for ease of use but for now we are just using the standard handset. With the points being the new Peco Unifrog type, there is metal frogs but with no extra wiring and power is automatically wired for the whole point so we only needed to connect a couple of places to make the whole layout live! The inaugural train was chosen as 975010 "Iris". A route learning/radio test unit which is a kit built upper on a Bachmann chassis and fitted with sound. It ran faultlessly from the fiddle yard to the end of the front platform, back to the end of the runaround loop and then back down every platform. We couldn't have been happier! Next came the first loco haulage to test the operation of propelling coaches around the points. 37407 (fitted with sound) was chosen with 4 MkIIa coaches and 1 MkI FK, all fitted with Kadee couplings. Again the operation was perfectly smooth with all coaches gliding around and looking very nice with no space between them. So at the end of 7 hours work, we packed up very happy with how it all went. The next step is to copper clad all of the board joints, cut the board joints in the rails and then run the copper strip bus under the layout. Once this is done, another test will happen and once happy we can start making it look real!

Hi! Welcome to the thread for our long-planned layout, Ranelagh Street. It is a project between myself and DavidM and a few others who are helping at our club rooms. We already have most of the stock for the layout either finished or waiting for finishing touches and the layout has been waiting to be started for at least 18 months as bare boards. The only thing holding us back was the lack of points to go with the bullhead rails. This has now been solved with the release of the Peco turnouts and so it was all hands to the pumps this weekend to get the track down. The layout is based on the site of Liverpool Central station, the story being that in the 1970s it was decided to separate the local and Intercity traffic into Liverpool with Lime Street being the long-distance hub and Central taking the local services with the exception of electrified stoppers via the WCML. While Lime Street got a full refurbishment, Central itself had to make do with a platform re-arrangement and some work in the throat area. A spur from the Wapping tunnel, absent in real life but installed when the station was originally constructed in our timeline, handles the majority of traffic. This was built linking the line from Central to Brunswick and the Wapping tunnels when these tunnels were first constructed but never properly used. The track has been brought up to passenger standards with full signalling. There was also a name change to Ranelagh Street to differentiate it from the newly completed underground station. It was connected to the electric lines to be used as a terminus whenever it was needed but most electrics still go through the underground platforms. Due to its proximity to the central post office, some parcels/mail traffic was also diverted to use Ranelagh Street to keep Lime Street clear for the premier services. Traffic consists of mainly: Local services to Manchester (via Earlestown and Warrington Central), Wigan/Preston, Warrington BQ & Chester Semi-fast services to Manchester, Preston & Chester 'Club Trains' to Barrow, Llandudno, Manchester & Southport Merseyrail services to Hunts Cross and Gateacre. Postal/Parcel services to Willesden, Shieldmuir and York With the following classes represented: 08 20 31 37 47 142 150 156 158 There will be others as well but I will wait to post images of them as they appear on the layout. The year is 1994 and 99.9% of the stock is from this era. Most loco's are renumbered as are the coaches and a lot of the other rolling stock and all will be weathered and detailed. Nothing 'out-of-the-box'! I will update this with some images of yesterday's track laying later on but hopefully, this gives you a flavour of the layout so far.

Got some more done on this last night mainly on the base. The track had been block coloured already, I added more colour, a little drybrushing and then some enamel washes (all a mix of Vallejo and Mig). I then started to ballast. This is my least favourite part of building a layout so I'm thankful it's only a few inches I've got to do here! It's a lot easier in this scale than OO but still time consuming to fill in each gap and make sure there are no holes or raised areas and then remove all of the stones from the sleepers. I was happy with how it looked though. Final stage of the night was the classic gluing of the ballast, I used a tried and tested method of spraying with water and washing up liquid to soak in and wet everything then drop in 50:50 glue:water with a dash of washing up liquid to set everything. Take off the glue as much as possible from the sleepers with kitchen roll then get the hairdryer out to start to set it quickly (I know, I'm really impatient!). I was very happy with how it turned out though... Tonight's job is the 6 figures which are all in undercoat. They need painting and details adding, hopefully will get most of this done and can show you more later. The more I do, the more I want to carry on, just wish real life wouldn't get in the way! So it's off to drop the kids at a party and get some food, then crack out the paints once they are back and worn out ;-).

I've got all the bits for this now so hopefully everything will progress fairly quickly. The track has been made up and positioned, tried a few different ways of putting it on but quite happy with how it looks now. I then glued it down and got the razor saw out, tried it in the cake box and it all fits without touching so all is good. The whole base has been sprayed in a grey base (the good old Halfords Plastic Primer) and a start made on block colouring the parts. The Figures have also been built up and primed but I'm keeping them under wraps until a bit later ;-). Sorry I didn't get any pics of the painted base but should get some tonight when I'm working on it again. I also came up with the name, all will (should...) become clearer as the build progresses.

Hi! This is my first entry into anything like this but it has caught my imagination and also allows me to do something a bit different from anything anyone has so far posted. Not going to reveal too much yet but the 'layout' will be: Non-UK Large scale (larger than O) Include a petrol driven railway vehicle Include people Set pre-BR I don't want to include too much more for fear of giving too much away but will update with images as I go. Watch this space.... EDIT: Come up with a name now!