angell328

Ohh I fly back into the UK on the 14th, I wonder if the Mrs would like a day trip to Weston to celebrate my arrival?! Looking forward to seeing the new project, Mr Spencer mentioned that you two are conspiring together! Matt

A day spotting at Lydgate Station in the Forest of Dean Matt

My freshly painted, detailed and weathered class 25 having a shakedown run on Mr Spencer's layout Lydgate prior to the Chippenham show this weekend. Matt

Will finally get to see the layout in the flesh at the Chippenham show! I will be there with Mr Spencer operating Lydgate, be great to catch up with you again chap.

If the wiring goes to plan and I have built the points robust enough then I can see myself building all my track from now on! The freedom the get things exactly where you want and the fact you can have long flowing track with out the obvious joins of point to track is very fulfilling. Cheers for giving me the nudge in the right direction bud

Looking good Rob, it is nice when you can have a session without any issues, hopefully means all the bugs have been ironed out. After seeing your progress with the C&L points I decided to finally get mine of the shelf and have a go at them. They are rather fun and addictive once you get into it and progress has been swift. Then i noticed I had a spare board in the corner..... So I blame the following squarely on you Sir! No name as yet, but a nice bit of fun to keep me occupied whilst the garage is turned into a garage again for the Landy rebuild. (Yes the Mrs has relented and allowed me to have an indoor layout!) Matt

Best be carefull with that plan as she has just okay'd me purchasing TWO galvansied chassis for the Landy's. I have wondered if she has been a victim of the body snatchers! Hopefully she may well come down, as she has a slowly growing interest in my layout and some on here. Thin end of the wedge??!!

Easiest way I find to get the mortar highlighted is to paint the wall in the mortar colour and then dry brush the stone colour over the top. Using a few different shades of the stone colour helps break up the stark nature of the stone. Cheers Matt

Ohhhh That can be dangerous, one of my mates has all his purchases delivered to the hanger, they can then be brough into the house under the cover of darkness! Very impressed with the build quality, and the fact they will build any signal in any configuration for you. It is the little details that make the differance, the fact they colour code the tails with little heatshrink sleeves to aid wiring and as you said they are not shy about putting a good length of wire on either. More I think about the more of a bargin they seem, just need to convince the Mrs now! Matt

Very effective way of creating depth, and bloody convincing too! Like the others there was several are they aren't they moments. CR signals are little works of art, when I saw the price for all the ones I needed for Sodem I did worry for my life when my finacial advisor (Mrs) saw the bank statement, but when I opened the box I thought I had been under charged, the colour seems spot on too. Matt

Looking good Jo, shall see you at Calne in Jan, be nice to have a catch up and see what changes have happened on Embankment Road in person. Matt

The more I look at the layout the more little details jump out at me, really enjoying the build. Oh do you have the contact number for the scrap yard? That poor Series one keeps tugging at the heart strings and needs saving Matt

Looking good Rob! Reminds me of my parents old TV cabinate, I wonder if the Mrs would mind if something like this replaced the TV at home......

Hi Rob, Just had an enjoyable hour reading through the thread, all I can say is wow! Such atmosphere. As I read through I did wonder where the Landrover would be, and there she is at the bottom of the pile! I hope with the release of Oxford diecasts Series 2's that one may appear in one piece somewhere I shall be giving the garage over to the Landy myself for next few months as I finally get the new chassis under her, so I have recieved permission to have a small plank that I can construct in the house. I also got some C&L track and point kits, so reading through your build thread has given some good pointers. Looking forward to seeing you and the layout in April. Cheers Matt

Hi Gary, Loving your work! Crane build is coming on amazingly well, looking forward to seeing progress. Have you got a copy of Peter Tatlow's Railway Breakdown Cranes volume 2? If not can highly recommend it as lots of close up pictures and blueprint drawings of the 75 ton crane in steam and diesel guise, plus many other railway cranes. Cheers Matt

But what better way to test out your new glasses Steve?!

Looking good Mr B! Looking forward to seeing it in the flesh. The detail on the wood from the laser etch is amazing, nice to see you have found a home for those barrels! Going to look grand with a few of your private owner wagons in the bay. Matt

Didn't notice the area inside the roof until you pointed it out! May just be the flash making it look worse than it is, either that or paint overspray/underspray. Will confirm when I open her up again to fit the chip. Don't worry the_gog, I've been making military model kits with etch for years, I know how much the carpet monster loves to eat etch fret! I have a fair few tricks up my sleves to stop him. Hope they do to Mr B, next time you pop down can get them both on platform with some blue grey coaches, best you dig yours out!! Cheers Matt

I almost pulled a sicky at work today when the Mrs text me early. "There is a Loco shaped box on the side for you when you get in, posty has just dropped it off" Ohhhh please let it be my Western, and it was! Opening the box was like Christmas day and pass the parcel in one, so many layers of packaging, but so well executed. Full marks on the packaging Dapol, could go round the world by rugby drop kick and would still work afterwards. Also not a brake shoe or rod out of place in mine, all 4 screw heads unmarked and easy to remove. Can't find my spare 21 pin chip tonight, so will have to wait to run in tomorrow, fudge! Although I did have a go at popping the glazing out to fit the headcodes behind the glass. With some gentle levering to break the small glue dabs I was able to move the cab assembly back enough to pop the glazing unit out. Some gentle trimming of the supplied headcodes and bit of tape to hold them in, not too bad for out the box. Looking forward to giving it a run tomorrow, and maybe sound too once I've saved some pennies. It would be criminal not to after all the trouble they have gone to making space for nice big speaker!! Anyway onto the pictures! My mate has got my flash mask at mo, so apoligies for the horrible over and under exposure on some of these. Promise to get some in natural light for you guys is someone doesn't beat me to it. Dapol I love this, I also love you and hate you, love you for giving so much detail and extras, and hate you for giving me some many extras! Gonna have soo much fun putting those eyes on the roof. Love it, can't wait to run it! Cheers Matt