froobyone

No mention of the chronograph movement in the watch. I wonder if it's an in-house movement, or maybe Valjoux 7750? Nah, more than likely a Chinese Neveright 270...

Hi all, Progress on the layout has been slow his week. I'm busy updating all of my kit instructions to CAD drawings and developing a new kit for TT. Possibly. It's the least interesting building I've done so far and as such, I'm not sure if they'll sell well. Having said that, I thought that about the truss bridge too and I sold one the moment I posted about it on FB. So we'll see. What I did manage to do was start the ballasting/painting of track. I'd remembered that I hated ballasting and therefore was really surprised to find that I hated even more than I remembered! Not only do I hate it but I don't even think it looks nice. It'll get a waft of airbrush when it's all done, sometime in 2068. I don't even want to post a pic of the ballasting, it shames me. I will though, because I've only got two other pics. Hopefully I'll have a more productive week. Oh and if you're wondering what the large syringe is for, I though heroin would help with the ballasting. It didn't, it just soaked into the ballast and starting singing Doors songs. Bye for now. Dan

Thank you. :) There's never enough space. I wanted to build Kings Cross. :D

Hi all, Just a quick post to say that the Pratt Truss Bridge I designed for my TT:120 layout is now available on eBay as a kit. It is sized for streamline track with a centre to centre dimension of 35mm. It also comes a track spacing tool. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/156161822455 I've posted the instructions so you can see how it goes together. Thank you Dan

Hi all, I am pleased to report, the track laying epoch has ended. The sidings are down, live and connected to the main lines. There will be feastings and ale to celebrate the end of this very long, dark period. As a practising atheist, miracles come few and far between to me, but today I'm pretty sure I witnessed one. On fitting the last fishplate on the last piece of track, I reached into the holy bag of fishplates to find a single one. I had, somehow, managed to buy exactly the right number of fishplates. Despite not having the faintest idea how many track pieces I was going to use. I did have one spare flexi track left, so no one's perfect. The left side will have a small shed for storing/maintaining the gronk. The right side has an extended siding to allow longer rakes through the works building. It's also where the TTA will be stored. Despite knowing that there is still a tremendous amount of work to do, I feel quite relieved that I've got this part out of the way. I'm forcibly pretending that I don't have the horror ballasting to do next. Let me enjoy the moment. "This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning." W Churchill. Now I'm going to roast an ox and drink mead. Actually it'll probably be a sausage roll and a sip of Singleton. Until next time. Dan

Hi all, Work continues on track laying and bridge building. I now have two powered running lines, plus three platform lines laid and wired. The first two counter rotating trains were run this afternoon. It was a nice feeling. Bridges have been painted, but not weathered yet. I still need to do the abutments, but I've been busy making the instructions for the bridge kit and I'm using CAD for the first time to do it. Took longer than anticipated. I've got a couple of curves to cork and lay and then move on to the sidings. That's all for now. Best Dan

Thanks Tim. :)

Final bridge iterations I promise. It's final because I wrote final in the filename. I'm sure that's how it works... I had to realign the centre holes for the ribs. I also used the last two prototypes to test two different primers and I've settled on the one I like best. Next job is the abutments. They might be challenging. I did also manage to connect the countryside section and the first train completed the circuit this afternoon. Well, eventually it did. I had to do a lot of vigorous rubbing with a track cleaner first. Obviously I immediately fell into the trap I was trying to avoid, by watching the Scotsman chuff around for twenty minutes. I should have been working, but I've built six bridges over three days and I could do with some down time. Fat chance. I'll spend the rest of the night creating CAD drawings of the bridge to make the instructions. No rest for the wicked. Best Dan

Similar story to me. On acceptance to the RAF and when asked what trade I wanted to go into, the officer almost spat his tea out when I said "Weapons Tech sir". He said "You're colour-blind! How are you going to fix the wiring in missiles?" Good point. I'd actually forgot I was colour-blind at that stage of my life. No one ever mentioned it in art. Either I was really lucky with colour choices or the teacher knew I'd never be an artist and thought they'd leave me to it. Jokes on them, I spent thirteen years as a CGI artist and worried every single day, about every single colour... Best Dan

Thanks Rob. :)

Hi Just a little progress so far this weekend. I energised 60% of the track and ran the first train today. Everything seemed to work fine with no derailments. I have yet to link up the countryside section, so as of time of writing, I haven't completed a full journey. I made the changes to the bridge design -actually, I did it twice and only got it right the third time... There is one more tweak needed before I'm 100% happy, but I'm happy with these two prototypes. They still needed painting and weathering and I also need to glue in the wooden blocks. Annoyingly, one of my riveted plates slipped before taking the below photograph. That'll teach me for using cheap rivets. That's all for now. Best Dan

Hi all, No layout progress today as I've been spending a little bit of time designing a Pratt truss bridge for the scenic section. There will be two of them with a pillar in the middle. Despite my best efforts to get the width right, I didn't get the width right... No drama. Easy enough to rectify. I was originally hoping to get all the parts on one sheet, but I'm not happy with the overall depth of the structure underneath. So I think it'll end up being one and a half boards and I'll have a much beefier underframe. With all that being said, I'm fairly pleased with how the first prototype came out and whilst it does increase the burn time considerably, I also think it was worth the extra to engrave the rivets and plates. Hopefully I'll get the redesign done tomorrow and have a second prototype for the weekend. That's all for now. Best Dan

Hi all, or at least the three people who read my build updates. o/ Work has continued. The last parts of the outer loop are now laid and connected. The southern tracks are a little sharper in the bends due to not wanting the tracks to look too symmetrical. All of the curve will be in a tunnel so I'm not too bothered about how it will look. The tunnel mouth will be where the track goes straight for a little bit. I don't know why I went to the trouble of canting it, considering it won't be visible... I haven't yet decided what will be used for the scenic break on this side of the layout. I'm leaning towards a bridge, but we'll see. My mini scroll saw arrived in a timely fashion and so I was able to cut the wood out for the embankment. I managed to bend three blades... It also created a great deal more dust than anticipated. I was wearing a mask throughout, but I was also vacuuming bits on the opposite side of the boards. The next board will be cut outside and that'll be dependant on weather. Despite there being no power to the track, it was still a breakthrough moment to "hand of god" a short rake around the whole thing. It runs to just under 1.2km at full scale. Still a fair amount of corking/track laying to do. The roads through the station and the siding etc for the BR workshop. I still have to commit to the track clearance with the platforms, as the 08 will not run through smoothly due to the rods sticking out. I suspect the A1 might have the same issue. I may temporarily add power to the front sections and run them both through a few times. That's all for now. Best Dan

I thought I'd chime in as I'm building a TT layout. I've eagerly been waiting for today and due to a Red Arrow using my house as an orbit point for about twenty minutes, I arrived at the announcement nice and early. *takes deep breath and gathers coherent thoughts* HST Train Set. +1 Should have started with this. Instead I had to start with an A1 and Pullmans. Maybe it would have sparked an interest in railways that the original Hornby HST did to me in 1979. Not sure how many young modellers know the difference between and A1 and an A3. Luckily, I do. It's the colour isn't it? :P J50 +1 Not for me, but it opens up lots of smaller builds. A great first step for a new modeller and still has a appeal to the more seasoned. Container wagons. +1 Something for the Sheds when they get here. I've personally got nothing against Sheds, apart from the fact that they've took all the fun out of it. You can stick your robust 98% availability for traffic. You'll never get stories of sitting behind a failed Class 40 in December 1982 and slowly freezing to death until a duff comes to rescue your partly frozen corpses. OK, I know sheds don't haul Hull Daily Mail sponsored Christmas trips to London, but it's my hill and I'll die on it! Kitchen Pullmans. FO. I've got enough Pullmans! More Oil Wagons. Hornby have been surreptitiously taken over by "big oil" and they are forcing a new narrative. Oil is good mkay? Signals. These look really really good -for a train set. I'd have literally sh*t a kitten if I'd have had these as a nine year old. However, I'm 54 and currently have no RTR way of signalling my layout. As others with a great deal more knowledge than I have pointed out, these signals only are good for two regions. Neither of which I'm modelling. I don't know why I'm bothered, it's not like Woodburn could ever expect to be even remotely prototypical, but there's things that you do that you don't know are wrong and things you do knowing that there are wrong. I'm not at the "knowing they are wrong" stage yet. Green Gronk. Worst colour ever invented by eyes. Stop it. Trains are blue. Thoughts concluded. Best Dan

Interesting to read of your issues. My own 8 pin TXS went nuclear for no readily apparent reason. As I was shoehorning it into a TT:120 gronk, I had put it down to a PICNIC issue (problem in chair, not in chip). Having seen this I'm now wondering if I'm not as terrible a human being as I'd previously thought. I'd originally thought, due to my colour blindness, I'd just got my wires crossed. It didn't help that I was also adding lights front and back... Not that I'd been able to claim on warranty anyway, I'd removed the chip plug. Hope you get yours sorted. Best Dan