maunsel

A couple of options:- Remove point 6, put a double slip at point 5. Shift the cattle dock to form part of the end unloading ramp. Place the Provender Store somewhere around the end of the siding too. A very crude amendment to your nice plan:- Overall I do like your plan - simple and unfussy with all the bits a BLT really needs. Regards Eric

Inch perfect or not this Ruston looks spot on! Eric

Thanks for the advice Peter. You're right about maintaining impetus. I think I'll go for a mixture and see what happens. Then if it's not successful I can always brush on a heavy coat of hindsight to sort it all out.................... The one thing I want are loads that go somewhere and come from somewhere. So I plan to use pallet loads which can be loaded/unloaded inside sheds. But all that will be for a new topic once I've got something to show. All this is evidence that Two Sisters Farm is certainly inspirational. There can't be much higher praise than that! Thank you Eric

Thanks for the encouragement. I've been down the narrow gauge route before in the smaller scales. But I like the industrial 2ft and less stuff from makers like Hudson, Decauville etc and in my idiosyncratic eye it never quite worked in those lesser scales. I also tried a Binnie Skip wagon in 16mm and was almost seduced by IP Engineering's Lister Rail Truck - which are lovely. But I don't have space for something like Fen End Pit. However having this industrial stuff in 1/35 to 1/32 scale just seems natural. It also has the advantage of having similar dimensions to OO. For instance I mocked up a industrial shed with 8ft high walls and it's about the same height as a two storey house in 4mm. The Kof1 now has a chassis base plate of plasticard and is going to end up a little less than the size of Class 3 shunter. I already have some of Steve Bennett's Gn15 wagons which look acceptable in 1/32 and are similar in dimensions to a 10 ton wagon in 4mm. In other words this 1/32 to 1/35 scale gives me big toys in a small space without going down the Gn15 path - which I was never really fully satisfied by. My next decision is about couplers. I've fitted Bachmann EZ mate to the stuff so far, but I'm really wondering if I should go for link & pin instead. Just for the fidelity. Peter, I think you mentioned in an earlier post that you have both? Bearing in mind I plan for a small (sub 4'x1') layout, without exhibiting, and just for bumbling around with is link and pin worth the extra fiddly fuss & botheration? Eric ps. A belated Happy Christmas to you all.

Peter, you have a lot to answer for. Not only have I been forced (much against my will................... ) to convert an old Bachmann 40ft US tank car chassis into a 1/32 scale bogie flat wagon (which is just right to carry a few of Britains loaded pallets), but the body is off the Piko Kof1 awaiting a new superstructure based on a small Battery Electric loco (think Greenbat, Wingrove & Roberts etc). I've also been sizing up a 1/35 scale Shipping Container from Italeri for use as an engine shed................ But I'll not hijack your thread................. ......Except to say it's all YOUR fault! Keep up the good work! Eric

Looking at your sketch I'm wondering if the curves are viable, as I had originally assumed we were talking about an OO layout. Maybe I'm mistaken? 16' x 8' also sounds a lot of space to me - until I start laying track................. If the fiddle yard is to be accessed via two opposing slopes (as opposed to helix) I think you may be looking at another circuit of track below the layout. However with the positioning of the fiddle yard approaches I think you made need to take some great care with the measuring out and some consideration as to the radii of the gradients (gradii/gradius?). Especially with the lower track arrangement under the existing terminus at bottom left. I'm also somewhat fearful about the accessibility of the rear of some of the boards - ie. to right & top right. It seems a long way to reach over the layout to get to. It may be helpful to measure out some of the curves with a piece of string and chalk/pencil on the floor before you go much further. Eric

Good stuff! The same technique is equally as valid and as effective when using foamcore. Just peel of one layer of paper and the foam. Eric

Or go in for one of them thar' new fangled helix thingymagigs and go round and around to your heart's content? Eric

This may or may not help - 8 ton Hibberd dimensions fig 5 at http://www.irsociety.co.uk/Archives/14/Planet.htm & second down:- http://www.elrdiesel.info/fleet-shunters-other.php But I'd imagine you've already got hold of these links? Eric

I think I may have been a tractor fan all along without actually realising it. In many ways it is the farming and agricultural side of this layout that has the greatest impression. And please take that as a compliment. Let me try to explain. Whenever I see layouts it is always from the aspect of a railway modeller. As such I am willing to overlook some of the surrounding incongruities in order to appreciate the toy trains whizzing about the layout. You know the stuff - a Optaire bus next to a Dennis F8 fire engine, or my bete noir a narrowboat moored up with its tiller tube in situ or even worse - in mid stream without a steerer or a chap on the aft deck instead of sticking out from the cabin. But in real life (that ugly and course thing outside the front door) the railway is the necessary evil, not the raisin d'etre so the life around the railway is always more important. Very few railway modellers hit upon this little secret. In my opinion Two sister's Farm has. I also understand the uneasiness of lorry based rail vehicles. After all we are used to wheel arches reflecting the wheels within them, and by nature we see a lorry not a loco. But there are many examples in the real world to confound us. Luckily! Some of my favourites are:- http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1848320 go on - think about the Britains Mk1 SWB Landy! and the Colonel's version:- http://www.hfstephens-museum.org.uk/rolling-stock/an-oddity-of-oddities And it is there that Two Sister's Farm hits two birds with one stone. Firstly there is the farm, for which the railway has been built to serve and secondly there are the assorted locos which each have their own story to tell. I'm guessing some of those lorries could tell a tale or two down at the local over a pint of Derv or two............. In other words, it's convincing. Eric

What a superb photo, and not a train in sight. It's certainly captured the scene. Eric

I have sat in the driver's seat of one of these - just the once - before I got caught - I was surprised at how low the seat was, and the driving position. Like a Formula 1 racing car, but without the oomph. the advertising or the Ecclestone dolly birds oozing out of their tailor made boiler suits......... Keep up the good work, I like the cut of your jib sir! Eric

Of Course - the Simplex reminded me of "Nocton" which had a similar cab and went from The Nocton Estates off to the Lincolnshire Coast Light Rly:- http://www.uklocos.com/ngrs/gallery4_files/nocton55.jpg Eric

Simplex! Yes. Why was I thinking Lister...............? Oh I know - someone was tempting me with:- http://www.ipengineering.co.uk/page73.html As if there wasn't enough temptation in the world already Doh! Eric

I fear that dog will be all teeth and no yap....... You're right about the canvas - very well done, and again shows the benefit of the bigger scales for stuff like this. The second Lister is also fantastic. I'm sure I've seen the same body work in real life somewhere. All I've got to do now is rummage through my collection to find out where. Did you have a prototype for the Lister? Congratulations on more fine modelling Eric