martin.a.ball

Really interesting. I'm working on a similar baseboard with 6mm ply beams sandwiched on 18mm softwood blocks. I hadn't considered using foam in the gaps but I can see how it would add rigidity to the beams.

Chaz and his team are at Romsey Model Rail Show today and tomorrow (March 3rd). Well worth a visit if you are in the area. This is my 2nd chance to see Dock Green and I've just spent a couple of hours watching the arrival and departures. Very entertaining chaps, great job by Roy to cheap things moving as Chaz is extremely popular and spends most of his time chatting with the crowd.

Hi Chas Thanks for the pictures on walls and bridges which is very much in my planning at the moment. You mentioned in a previous post that stringers, caps and bases are made from mount board then covered in brick. How do you avoid this looking like brick glued on white card glued on to brick. In the most recent photos of Peter's bridge the base detail looks like it has a brick course at the joint with the wall, is this scribed on later? Same question for how you formed the arch caps on the retaining wall. Martin

Hi John I'm also building the same kit and have just reached the stage of adding weight, pipes and sending to the paint shop. Excellent photos and very useful to help me finish off. Martin

as others have commented, where you see compromises what I remember most when I saw Dock Green at the Wilton show was a feeling that the railway was hemmed in by the surroundings. The sort of feeling you get with inner city sidings where space is a premium. Whilst not really part of the topic you have planned for how the layout is operated, it would be nice if you could revisit the retaining wall and bridge construction at some point in the future. Martin

First attempt at a Parkside Dundas wagon kit which was enjoyable to put together. The brake gear was fiddly but I'm guessing that gets easier with practice. Still need to add some weight, then the roof can be glued down. Also need to buy something to blacken the couplings and add the vacuum pipes. Then she'll be off to the paint shop.

Whilst I'm still figuring out how to use the traverser I was gifted, I discovered by happy coincidence that a old traverser I had built for a 4mm project was a perfect fit at the left hand end of the garage. Peco rail glued direct to the ply deck, with joints soldered to brass screws. I'll use a dremmel cutter to release the rails and then I have some brass bolts to fit to manage alignment.

@Rich Thanks for the comments. I'm very much of the same opinion, whilst I'm most likely to do pointwork and signals as wire in tube, I am intrigued by digital sound. I'm considering putting a sound chip and stay alive in the Peckett and getting a cheap controller, then as I add more locos I can upgrade if needed. Running as a guest on the garden railway isn't an issue as it is wired for both DC and DCC (Digitrax). Martin

Good friend of mine with the garden railway gifted me a traverser. It was used on his first layout, 20 plus years ago, and since then has languished in his garage. Not quite sure how this fits in the plan yet.

@Paul. I'm at a loss with google photos. The images look ok to me and a few others, but not for all. I'll try posting a few more but if it continues I'll go back to uploading images.

Managed to see Much Murkle yesterday at the Salisbury MR show. Easily the most atmospheric layout on show and you can almost hear the rural wildlife chirping away in the background. Thanks to Nick and Mick for chatting about the scenics and their constructions methods.

Finally got to see Dock Green at the Salisbury MR show yesterday with Chaz and his team doing an excellent job of keeping us public entertained. Having read large parts of this thread it was good to see features like the warehouse staircase, illuminated office, platform trollies and the cobbles. As someone starting out in 7mm it was great to chat with Chaz about kit building wagons. He reckons brass kits are a lot easier than most people think and was encouraging me to have a go. No photos I'm afraid. I'm sure others took some and there are plenty earlier in this thread.

As a guest operator at a friend's garden railway, one of the reason's I wanted to get into 7mm was to be able to bring my own stock to running sessions. So at the most recent event the Peckett got to stretch its legs with a few wagons in tow, picked up from second hand stalls at various shows. The following picture shows the entirety of my 7mm collection but we all have to start somewhere. The Peckett still requires number, shed plate, etc...

thanks Martin. I had got as far as working out the issue was the expectation of the RMweb forum software that the image would end in .jpg but hadn't considered using a different BBcode. I experimented with trying to add height="xx" and width="yy" but float doesn't appear to accept those additional parameters which is a shame as I tend to prefer smaller images as I find them easier to view in a topic. There is always a risk that google will change the format again in the future. Youtube changes on a regular basis. Martin