Peter-C

You're very welcome Haha - it looks somewhat pleased, so I guess that's a good thing? -Peter

I like those! They give a slightly different view of the layout I've not really seen before. -Peter

Just looking through eBay and noticed this listing: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/353552783422?hash=item525163583e%3Ag%3A3BsAAOSwYuhg9WU2&LH_BIN=1 -Peter

Just sent you a PM. -Peter

I didn't know all that about the Rocket model - thanks for the info. The Daisy model looks to be one of the better 101 to 121 conversions I've seen, but it's not amazing. The face just sits on the front waiting to fall off! -Peter

I've noticed there are quite a few overpriced items on there. There's also another seller who's gone through and taken apart engines into their constituent parts, to then sell each bit for at least £15... -Peter

Yet another over-priced engine? I think so... https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/OO-Gauge-Triang-Stephensons-Rocket-in-L-MR-Yellow/114746830691?hash=item1ab771af63%3Ag%3AgJUAAOSwywxgYzGC&LH_BIN=1 Triang Rocket - £295.00. I'm fairly sure the new Hornby one was less than that, and was a better representation of the engine? -Peter EDIT: And to continue the Thomas theme: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Daisy-the-Diesel-Railcar-Thomas-The-Tank-Engine-Custom-Built-Model-Triang-Hornby/363342753020?hash=item5498ea6cfc%3Ag%3AOJwAAOSwjSFgZjgU&LH_BIN=1 £160 for a Class 121 made from Triang Class 101 parts (and you also get a face stuck on for good measure). TOC listed as "The Fat Controller's Railway".

Just sent a PM. -Peter

Wow - I'm just going to quickly repaint an old Mainline brakevan I've got laying around and see what I can get for it. Judging by that price I'll make quite the profit! -Peter

I've got a small number of Triang items, with their boxes: total price would probably be less than that £75 for the one engine. Madness! Goodness - no wonder the Fat Controller had so many steam engines if diesels were going for that price... -Peter

I can only assume that someone's entered the postage wrong... https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Hornby-Triang-OO-Gauge-Royal-Mail-Parcel-Van-Wagon-Train-Set-R119-Working-Doors/144002056562?hash=item2187310172:g:Qg4AAOSwF8Zgbwwd Price: £7.99 Postage: £550! So it's being posted from the UK, to the UK... I'm not sure one of those coaches is worth "insuring", whatever that means, or £550 postage unless it's been filled with lead weights! -Peter EDIT: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Vintage-Rare-R455-Tri-ang-Hornby-0-4-0-Industrial-Tank-Locomotive-25550/393235714988?hash=item5b8eacd3ac:g:XQcAAOSwj05gbIcP seems to be a bit steep too...

I've designed the final trackplan for the railway centre - here it is: This trackplan is the final version as ballasting work has started on some of the sidings. It acts as its own shunting puzzle to a certain extent, although to shunt trains into and out of all of the sidings requires running trains onto the loops which form the backbone of the layout. The main point of interest in this design is the track running behind the row of terraced houses. I've made a history for this bit of track and I'll share it here. This row of houses faces the road on the layout, which runs from the top left-hand corner of the board to the middle and through to Oldmoor Junction station. Next to the houses is a Hornby insurance offices resin building: an odd building in Oldmoor considering all of the other buildings are smaller and older. The idea behind this building being there is that the location was once occupied by a small brewery, and there was a rail connection built between the brewery and the railway centre (which was originally, in this history, a normal goods yard - hence the goods shed). The brewery exported all products via the railway and owned its own engine to transport wagons between the goods yard and the brewery site. This engine was a Ruston 48DS. The reason why the industry is a brewery in this description is because the model I've got of a Ruston 48DS is the Hornby "Queen Anne" version: because the idea for this bit of track originally came from the Leiston Works Railway's stretch of track between houses, and the engine which opened that line was a Ruston 48DS, combining the two was always going to happen and having a brewery as the location seemed perfect. The brewery line was separated from the entrance to the goods yard by a brick wall. This wall had been built by the GWR when the goods yard was constructed to provide a barrier between the terraced houses and the railway. When the brewery line was built, a new wall was put up right behind the terraced houses to provide a barrier between the railway and the houses, but the original wall wasn't removed. This created an interesting quirk of the line whereby trains running down to the brewery appeared to 'hide' between the walls as it ran along. The brewery eventually closed, and the railway closed with it. The goods yard closed some years later, and was bought by a preservation group with the goal of turning it into a railway centre/railway museum. When the preservation group purchased the site, they also gained ownership of the brewery trackbed. The way I'm planning to detail this short bit of track will make it look like it's recently been restored by the preservation group, so it won't have really weathered track and the area around it will be fairly devoid of rubbish. The line will be closed in by three walls: the two on either side and one at the end to prevent trains crashing into the insurance offices. --- The platform in the railway centre will be designed to look like a GWR halt. It's going to be mainly a cosmetic part of the layout, and won't serve much of a purpose in normal service, but there will be a semi-regular mainline passenger service (operated by a Class 153) running into the station during the Summer, so people can get there from further away than they normally would. Because there are going to be diesel engines stored and maintained in the railway centre, there will be more modern facilities for newer units but these probably wouldn't be used by a mainline service: it would be refuelled at the T&RSMD. I hope this is of some interest. -Peter

I've been making some progress on the layout in terms of trackplans and designs over the past few days. I wasn't happy with the way things were set out with the depot and the railway centre and so I've moved them about. Here's what I've done: Essentially I've just swapped the railway centre and the T&RSMD. This allows for a sizable mainline depot and a compact yet useful railway centre. This is what the railway centre looks like now: The railway centre has retained the Metcalfe goods shed and some of the other buildings, including the small Hornby signalbox, water tower, and Metcalfe coal merchant's building. The level crossing is a Bachmann model I received as a present a few years ago: it's being used to provide an entrance to the railway centre for visitors, with the small signalbox acting as a small kiosk - like at Didcot Railway Centre, which is where I got the idea for a railway centre on my layout from. The T&RSMD is just to the top-left of the above photo: you can see the top of the scratchbuilt engine shed I made for it sometime last year too. I won't share photos of it yet as there's no track put down for it (I've been planning it all out with bits of paper shaped to look like Hornby track). It will definitely be an improvement over the original depot, as it will be able to hold somewhere between ten and fifteen engines (as opposed to the eight or nine in the old T&RSMD design). Talking of the depot, there's a question I'm hoping people on here will be able to help me with. Because of the trackplan of the depot, the engine shed I've already built fits over the sidings I've placed it over but it also stands over a set of points linking to the next siding. My question is, how common would it have been for depots/engine sheds to have had junctions/points within the shed itself, or directly outside? I expect the answer's probably going to be it never happened, but knowing the railways there'll be some random edge-case which throws everything on its head. Thanks, -Peter

It is a decent model, especially for the price. Thanks -Peter

Ah cool - sounds like a very interesting plan indeed. This is definitely a project to watch! You've got a fair bit done then. That lift idea sounds really interesting - I've heard people use them for continental layouts but never a UK model railway. -Peter

I've seen a few videos of this layout and I've just spent a while reading through this thread, and my main thought is your layout is brilliant! Banbury is a station I've been to loads of times in recent years and your model of it is an excellent recreation. That Western looks to be a nice little model too. I hope to be able to see it on the layout at some point! -Peter

Oxford is a station I've been to quite a bit and so I'm looking forward to seeing how this develops. Sounds as though you have plenty of space to design a sizeable layout in! -Peter

I've been looking into making a couple of changes to my layout over the past couple of days, and I'm hoping people on here might be able to help. There are two main issues really: the main station ("Oldmoor Junction") and the depot. The former is a bit big and I'm not sure if the latter should move or not. Starting with Oldmoor Junction: The station currently has five platforms (two through platforms and three bays), which I think is probably a bit over-the-top for a station which is designed to be sort-of like Oxford in terms of service patterns and passenger figures. Oxford has four platforms (two through and two bay), with two lines passing through the middle without stopping at a platform. I can't recreate these 'fast' lines, but I can do something about the bay platforms at Oldmoor Junction. Here's a plan I made in MS Paint and SCARM to show what I was thinking of doing: My plan was to remove one of the platforms (the one shown by the orange box in that diagram) and then replace it with a siding. This would give four platforms and two sidings within the station, thus allowing for some more operational interest as stock/engines/units can be held in the sidings and therefore in the station without blocking a platform and looking unrealistic (I should add here that I'm not overly fussed about realism/being prototypical on my layout, but I do like things to make some sort of sense and I'm a fan of modelling things to look like places I've been to). In the diagram, I've added points and headshunts to both sidings and the two bay platforms, to allow for an engine to run around stock it brings in; as said on the picture, I probably wouldn't add these on the real thing as the run-around loops would only allow for one or two coaches maximum to be held in them. This is an idea which I like and will probably make a reality on the layout - without the points/headshunts. Losing one platform isn't a major issue as I'd prefer to lose a platform and gain more track space over having a platform but fewer places to hold engines/stock. My current thinking with the layout is that I want to try and get as much into the space available as possible whilst still maintaining a reasonable amount of scenery space - I really enjoy the operational aspect of model railways and so having more space to operate trains in would be perfect. The second issue is that of the depot (T&RSMD). At the moment, the depot is a three-track affair at the bottom of the layout in this diagram: I was wondering the other day if the space currently used for the depot would be better-suited to some sort of freight area, with the section marked "Railway Centre" on this diagram being split in half - half for the railway centre, and half for the mainline depot. The only issue is that I'm struggling with trackplans for this sort of set-up. Ideally, there would be three or four roads for the mainline depot and similar for the railway centre side of things, but I can't work out a design which would fit that into this space. If anyone's found a trackplan which might be able to help me with this, then please let me know. I understand this is a bit vague but I'm a bit stumped when it comes to what to do! Thanks, -Peter

I said I'd share photos of my Class 09 when it arrived; here it is! It came from eBay for just under £30 including postage, which is a decent price considering that some people are selling parts of engines for that. It's been repainted into BR Green at some point and it's a good paint job; it's been done with a spray thing to remove any brush strokes. When I'd been looking at the model online I forgot conversations on here about the models not having glazing as standard so didn't think to buy any glazing pieces, which was lucky as it came with glazing pre-fitted anyway! I've tested it on my layout and it works well - a bit loud, but nothing serious. Because the paint job on it is so good I'm probably not going to repaint it as first planned and instead buy another one at some point to repaint if I really want to. Thanks all for your helpful comments on here - it's thanks to you lot I've got a lovely little engine to add to my layout. -Peter

Definitely - I can just imagine a few boilers sitting around on the floor or on flatbed wagons: one of the main things about a heritage railway for me is seeing those kind of projects in sidings so they'll be part of the layout for sure. -Peter

Haha - I never would have thought to have used that. Thanks for the info: it'll certainly come in handy if I ever buy a Bachmann 08, which is looking more likely now the fact that DCC is more possible for them. -Peter

Ah yes - apologies. What I meant to say was "I like the use of the black card behind the glazing" I agree with you on Mainline/Bachmann models with blanked-out windows not looking amazing. Thanks for explaining - I'll almost certainly use this method when I come to paint my own engine as it's probably going to be done up as one of FGWs/GWRs shunters, so it'll need those wasp stripes. Seems a pretty simple way of doing it as well. I like the way you don't try to make it perfect; having read through this forum and others like it, there tend to be few things on the real railway which are done to the exact specifications that modellers often try to reproduce models to. Oh OK - again; thanks for explaining I might look into those at some point then, as they do look to be decent models. I've got my eye on so many shunters at the moment that it's hard to keep track of which is which! -Peter

Excellent - thanks for letting me know -Peter

Ah lovely - thanks very much The packet in the photo shows "LIMA CL 09 x2" - does this mean two windows, or enough to glaze two locos? Apologies if this is obvious. -Peter

Thanks very much - I've tried to get a balance between a train set with loads of track and a model railway with a fair bit of scenery in there too. Yep: that's the plan. Mostly steam but with some diesel engines thrown in as well. -Peter