THS92-GWR-NO

Hey Richard! How did the show go? Any photos for those of us who didn't get to see it?

Hi all! My appologies for not keeping things going, but the past 7 months has been pretty heavy in real life, so modelling has taken a backseat. There has been a lot of debate among friends in the modelling world about the yard layout. And here is one of the results, even with signalling. Signalling here has been to make platforms bi-directional, a lot inspired by what I found at Bishop's Lydeard on the West Somerset Railway last year. Signals has been categorised based on them bein for Harbour line, sheds, yard, mainline or branch-line. As for progress on the layout, this spring I realised that there was no way of getting my elevations and the viaduct to fly with rail alining. This led to the whole viaduct section being ripped. I have redone a baseboard for this, as a flat corner (non removable at the moment as I realised that one of the reasons I didn't get my mojo back was a lack of opportunity to run trains while working. This was becomming a serious problem. So, until I get it fully removable again (hate crawling on the floor after all), it is in fixed place. I found I was having an issue with my mountain too, so that is being redone, now with proper wood supports. On the stock and loco side of things, a few Hattons GWR coaches has made an appearance, as has Accurascale's Anthony Manor. There is even rumors of a Rapido GWR 15xx getting close. As always, comments are welcome.

Yeah :) And seeing as I'm not native to the UK many names that makes sence to you guys, I struggle with placing. So glad to get the hint about who could possibly be good livery candidates :)

Fair point, for me it is important to find something that will go well along a GWR scene - such as delivering to a GWR yard for a mixed freight / stopping freight. Thanks for the tip of what models would work :)

Thanks! Finding a list of companys that had them has been difficult, as I haven't found any good lists of users. Most can be found on wikipedia, but not in this case 😅

No, but something from what would be GWR territory in the 20s and 30s :)

I wonder which of these would be most fitting for a GWR based layout without invoking rule 1? 🙃

Looks awesome, next year I will be in attendance. Maybe I'll bring something too in OO or something else, just need to be able to pack it safely :)

Part four - 3D printing 6 months ago I bought a Flashforge Adventurer 3PRO. I have only barely started using it, but I wanted a canal boat for my shelf. For a first attempt I am quite happy with it. First round of painting was the hull after removing supports. This was a bit rushed, and I haven't had any primer to use ( I know, I know...) Painting is still a work in progress, both on the back scene and the models. Current status on the painting. More to come in part five.

With time since last post having been extremely busy with vacation and work travels, my modelling efforts have been severely hampered. Most of my modelling have been spent on my first diorama "Mental Health on a shelf". I inteded to use this to test some techniques before applying to the main layout. I've tried 3D printing, various painting and ballasting combinations. Tried static grass but wasn't happy with my attempt at that, and got scatter to be good (or at least okay for a first attempt) Some painting has been done, and my God that did a lot of good for my selfasteam on modelling. The diorama has given me the break and some feeling of progress, so motivation is back. The branch river scene has gotten some attention giving a it more of a feeling of direction. A retaining wall is in place, tried some scatter and static grass too. Unfortunatly I managed to glue a point solid, so been some salvagework getting it back to working order. Added some more detailing to the viaduct sectuon (my appologies for a bad photo) With more painting done With this project, I also got around to organizing my paint supplies better. Summary: Quite happy with what I've done, but plenty to do getting back on track with other parts of the main layout. Comments and thoughts as always welcome!

Or just order online ;)

Hey Richard! Really looks awesome! How was the show in Bergen?

All of a sudden I was reminded of Murder She Wrote - The Celtic Riddle :D Looks truly marvelous! :D

The new photos look great here :)

Part three At this point I had little over 2 evenings left before publishing results. I've always been a person who's been better at working under pressure. Certainly got my fair bit of this now. I had two more places that needed foam, possibly three pending on the head siding being there or not. I ended up going for the head shunt. That meant three places to fill up with foam. I used paper rolls to give me a barrier to keep it from going to far, and to give a smoother surface to work with paint and ballast. Having looked at YouTube channel "MärklinOfSweden" I'd learned a trick with using more paper to get rippling effect on water. Decided to try it out here. Using diluted PVA glue and toilet paper I made the canal. Bit of a rush, but much better than the stalemate I usually end up with. Once the foam and paint had settled I mounted it to the wall. This was the final evening, so with few hours left ballasting and painting started Again I opted for the same model of ballasting At this time I had also a goal of getting a canal boat to the scene. This had been 3D printed, but not painted yet. More about that in part four.

Part two By the time I'd come to this stage with the foam I'd been playing around with scenery and static grass on a couple test plates. So with grey paint for stone, some scatter in a bright green I decided to try static grass on the removable section. I still hadn't decided weather I wanted the buffer head siding or not. I wasn't happy with this result, the colors didn't really mix to well in my opinion. In the end I ended up with replacing this whole removable section. Track ballasting was done with three different types of ballast and stone. "Flusssteine" from Faller was used initially to fill gaps in the foam base to even it out. Next was the finer style "Talus" from Noch. Finishing off with Hornby Skale Scenic "Ballast Gneiss". I found the three in combination gave a pleasing result. Part three to follow

The most important lesson to learn when you build with foam is to make sure the elevation of the trackbed is secure. Preferably by using something solid for trackbed, adding noice canceller on top if you want it, but at least making sure the trackbed is sollid. Both on my main layout and on this shelf I made the mistanke of not making the trackbed solid and letting it get uneven. That didn't cause too much problems here on the shelf, but on my layout with rail joiners and elevations that wrecked havoc with my track. #lessonlearned

Happy to show new angles. One of the reasons I wanted to make embankments and hills with foam was to take the chocolate box feel away from my layout. Using foam letting it rise (within limits) giving some random feeling to the scenery. Not saying that straight cut isn't good too, just not what I wanted for my layout :)

Background So a year ago I got to know a fellow modeller living in Australia. Along with several others we decided to mark that modelling is our go to for stress relief and mental health. Goal was to have this ready to be revealed on monday the 10th of October - aka Mental Health Day. This was a project the six of us kept under wraps. My fellow modellers, a good group and I'm happy to have gotten to know and call friends. IG: Haraldshead & Harwick Harbour IG: SBJ - Emperor's Path IG: Mitch's Models IG: Chandler's Railway IG: Nick - Coffeepotscreations During this time we've kept each other liquid and going, as Handon in SWAT would say. Basic design decitions: The basic idea was for each of us to make a small diorama or micro layout, easy and cheap to build. An IKEA Lack shelf was the chosen base for all of us to use. For me, this would be my first micro layout / diorama (not even sure what do call it?) Size: 110x26 cm https://www.ikea.com/gb/en/p/lack-wall-shelf-white-90282180/ After spending some time deciding on a layout, I decided to make an embankment with a narrow river and a bridge. Building my main layout, GWR Division Tromsø I'd been using a lot of building foam for elevations - and this was brought on here. Initially I only had a smaller shelf to work with - so this was for a while my primary workbench for the project. The bridge was something I had from a faller bridge kit and had been looking for a chance to use. The track layout was something I wasn't sure about. Single track all the way? Double track on one side? Double track with a small head siding? Having learned something about foam behaving a bit impractical when laying track on top - I decided to use plastic wrapping to avoid a mess. I was for many months unsure about weather I wanted the head end towards the buffers or not. During this time I made a side section of foam removable while trying to make up my mind. Oliver did some test runs on the track for approval. And with this, part one is over - part two will continue tomorrow.

I've just made one myself on a Lack, going to be doing more of them :) Diorama thread link coming her now: Mental Health on a shelf

Right - todays work part two. With the revisions done to the track plan - I hope I'm closer to something realistic on signalling If I can get my hands on a double scissor then Station one will get one too...

Part 1 of today - mending my design flaws in track alignment - vertical and horisontal. I built the viaduct section using foam - thinking it was easy to get to a custom height. I missed the part about perfecting track alignment and the pains one can get there. So today I've started to remedy that. Carving out foam to fit wood supports I then fit the track end to. This will be done on all sides that is foam based. Lesson learned. On one side I had already added a base for the track as I swapped fixed curve with flexitrack. On the other, that hasn't been done - curve being fixed. Hopefully this will make allignment okay

So here is station one with a bit of the revised track. I have solved the branch-line to the correct platform, but I have made it impossible for a westbound trains to get to the single line mainline. Using a curved point here made the splitting up to branch-line better but gave me the new challenge. Here we see the alternative entrance to the shed area

Okay, making a new mock-up and posting the revised signalling here in the morning :) Really appreciate your feedback 😃

Hi all - I'm back. Private life really got in my way - and I had a serious motivation problem. Have spent the past week looking at Hornby Magazine videos - Building GCR and Topley Dale. Found a lot of my basic design flaws which has given me grief on the removable section I've built with the viaduct and the branchline. Primarily doing with track alignment as I placed track directly on foam - without a solid surface. So here is what is happening: A) I've been spending the past few days redesigning the removable section (single mainline and branchline) to make track alignment possible. B) Mainline and sidings have been getting new PECO flexitrack - now that I have a tool for cutting track easy, it's been a breeze. C) Have gotten new points (well, used track, facebook buy and sell is a gold mine) to supplement and get the right directions on the points D) Points have been replanned around station one to reflect changes mentioned further up in this thread and a few design issues when I added track to the board. E) Construction has started on a GWR Didcot coaling stage. With that - I'm back on track (pun intended ;) ) Mike - here is my answers - sorry it took so long. 1) I concur - S1S7 is removed. S5S6 controls the branchline junction - so that will need to remain as far as I see. The branchline goods for instance comes into the main station lower platform, and goes over the revised points for the double mainline heading for the harbour (H1 area) on the lower platform at station two. If a goods train from station two goes comes from the west into station one and is destined for the sidings they will need to pass S1S1 signal - so I think it needs to remain a splitting signal? 2) I imagene that the lower platform on Station one will need to be working in both directions as it serves both directions with the branchline junction., similar, if a branchline train is at that platform, the other platform will need to be unidirectional too. 3A) I was thinking M2 would protect the unidirectional access to the mainline from the shed section? 3B) Should there not be a ground signal indicating the three way split? Photos to come :)