Steam here!

Today working on the redvelopment, with a couple of ideas in mind. 1st off, I'm just in the process of gluing my 1st magnet on the layout using the Kadee jig. Because the card underneath is white, I'm simply used woodland scenics cinders and glue with the addition of their rusty rail pen. If look at the top of the magnet jig, you can make out the magnet showing between the two holes.

Thank you for your interest, all feedback and suggestions welcome.

My recently new storage box for Kadee couplings including the Kadee starter pack 1030.

A test run for clearences under the road bridge.

The Dairy and fuel depot. Siding lengths reflecting the amount of rolling stock available. I've still got to convert these to Kadees.

The trial and error for locations for the magnets.

A brief mock up of the future completed carriage shed. Might try some different fencing.

Some more work done on the branch line terminus, have started to nail down the track. With the mixture of express and set track. Been trial and error where to locate the magnets.

The main platform, run around loop and sidings, using streamline points. Peco set track/streamline tool. (Sorry about the quality of photos).

The Dairy and the fuel depo will remain in this corner, the track is all loose and will be adding the magnets at a later date. One thing you might have picked up on is how will I be shunting between the dairy, fuel depot and carriage shed on road 2? (Where the coach is). Road 2 will have priority in terms of which coaches are to be used 1st, freeing that road, means than I can shunt the tankers between th dairy and fuel deopt. Regarding road 2 being prioritised and not road 1. The door on the carraige units are only on one side of the building, a small compromise happy to live with.

Here you can see I've fitted the Kadee NEM 19 to the end of the Bachmann SE&CR Birdcage coach (this is a fixed rake of three). On the other end is the Hornby close coupling type used for fixed rakes.

One thing that I trouble with the previous design was lack of space (to store carriages and wagons) and positionings for structures. Having being inspired by the carriage shed at Oxenhope on the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway I decided I wanted one on my branch line, what I hadn't realised was how short the Bachmann buildings are. For me to store a rake of 3 coaches, I needed 3 units. Also when looking what was available for the oo gauge market its either this, the three road carriage shed or the Ratio GWR version.

Hello everyone and welcome back to the railway for another update and a rebuild of "Carltonholme" branch line terminus. Since the last update I turned my attention back to the branch line section as I wasn't as happy as I thought I was. (I built it without any programmes to assist me - only discovered SCARM afterwards). One of the biggest issues was the uncoupling, you may have noticed I used the Hornby R620 uncoupling ramps, sadly not as succesful as I hoped, better than the peco ones, but not perfect. Some locos happily glided over them while others got stuck. I wanted to keep the tension lock couplings the Hornby big D and the Hornby medium, so did a bit of reasearch and looked into the Brian Kirby method and sadly no avail. Looked at the Kadees and it was something I didn't want to do because I preferred to keep the tension locks. Surprisingly I have to say the Kadees are very reliable, they make the rolling stock and locos look tidier, more realistic. Another plus I will be able to uncouple in more places than I thought originally. I have started to buy packs of the NRM 19 & 20 due to having 2nd radius curves as a minimum. I've alzo purchased the Kadee starter pack Kadee 1030. Regarding the rebuild of "Carltonholme" I have exented width ways to 71.cm. One other thing that I have started to include is the use of Peco streamline points and have to say there are some differences. The points are longer, yet you can fit more track in roughly the same space. Regarding the track plan, I have been playing round on SCARM for a while and having taken ths idea of "Barnstaple" (Victoria Road). I can maximise the space. (What I lack in width, I can make up for in lentgh. The idea come from a book I purchased by "Terry Booker" - Goods Trains, Goods Sheds and Yards in the steam era. At this stage the track is loosely based to get a feel of how things will be panned out. One other thing I am considering is scratchbuilding the platform (we'll see how this goes- will be done at a much later date).

Just out of curiosity, here is how Carltonholme was originally built, simply, a single platform with a short siding next to the loco release. The coal merchant was where the bay platform is now and the track between here and Vauxwell was single line.

What a lovely NER loco, if you don't mind me asking, what's the class of the loco? Is that a NER brake van in front of it? I like the setting, it feels spacious. Credit to you.

Now the the branch line freight operations. For quite a while I’ve had some loco cards made up. Only in the last day or two, I've managed to get 1st draft on the other cards. • Wagons Available - what wagons are available, where they are, where are they going and who do they belong too. • Waybill - primarily for type of goods, seperate one fot brake van. • Train arriving card - type of train and for when it departs. • Goods out register and the goods now identified on the route. This is not the final draft, this is just to give an idea what I will be doing. Source: www.youtube.com > David Hyde > Deresley I got the ideas from David Hyde on youtube who has a model railway called "Deresley" full credit goes to him. I've simply adapted the ideas to my layout: • To keep it interesting • No 2 days are the same. • A variety of freight and passenger levels. • To enhance realism. Having now reached the stage of how I want my freight cards to look (locos will either be freight, passenger or mixed? Not sure about mixed traffic locos)? I can make more and the process will ne quicker.

An attempt at building a low relief coal stage for small locos (Currently loose on the layout). Will be placed just behind the coal tower. Going back to the coal drops making it a hybrid, with the space I've got, I've been trying a few things and am now fairly certain I've found something that I can make it work.

A view you don't normally see of the road bridge (the scenic break). I've been weathering the bridge portals to give them a more realistic feeling. Also in this photo, just between "Stepney" and the E4 and GWR no: 101, I've been working on the water crane bases and the difficult part is to the level for reasonable height. Low enough for low sided locos: "City of Truro" etc High sided locos Q1 etc:

I'm now pleased to say as well that the sand house is now complete. (Metcalfe boiler house).

Here we have what would have been the original engine shed for the MPD that has since altered. My reason for the operational side of things was because of the left hand road wasn't capable of storing two tender locos and because of this it blocked the coal tower road. So I've extended both roads and have also put in fencing at this end. I've also been working on the ash tower and placed real ash inside. I've also extended the coal drop pillers, so there more or less the length. The white gate is there to give me an idea. One problem I did have was loose buildings and they took a few attempts to get them back to how I positioned them. To solve this I made a card frame around the buildings (still have more to do). With these frames every time i pick up, buildings its easier and when I place them down I no longer have to try and reposition them. This has also been done to the ash and coal tower and to the other sheds.

Some more fence work carried out. The retaining wall sides for the turntable road and the weathered buffers.

Crossing gates are in position, with pedestrian gates also. Fencing in place for country load exiting the scene. Realistic road surface in place and level crossing surface has been painted to give a more realistic surface.

Hello everyone, its time for a layout update. Majority of it wil be focused on the MPD and a start on the freight operations on my branchline section.

The deed is done, after careful thinking and planning in relations to my layout. I can now say, I've pre-ordered all three SE&CR livery locos. I take my hat off to NRM, Rails of Sheffield & Dapol for making this a reality, its great to see more and more pre-grouping era RTR oo gauge items come to the market. I do hope this takes off and becomes a major seller, it would be great, to see a second run of the D class at some point in the near future with different running numbers and more variations. Maybe become one of Dapol's main range locos, if it sells really well. I'm looking forward to seeing more updates and seeing the end result. One thing that has caught my eye, is the connection between the loco and tender very revolutionary. Could this become a standard evolution or something similar across all manacturers at some point in the future? Only time will tell. For me even though, these were used as express locos. I'll be using them for my branchline, purely because I have a freelance layout running, locos and rolling stock from different eras, regions etc: Best of luck guys, hope it goes well.

Hi there, has anyone had any opportunitunities to measure the Dapol D class? Length of the loco in either cm or mm = buffer to buffer (from the front to the back)? Appreciate it may/may not be possible due to situation of coronavirus.