Schubert

Errr, I've never been called a Guru before, other short names beginning with a 'G' but never a Guru! When i first visited your original layout and saw what you had completed yourself it was easy to see you already had a good level of skill, I merely 'dropped a few spanners in your works' and made a couple of suggestions to try and nudge you to develop further. At that point I didn't expect it to be the first step on a journey into prototypical locations and a gradual descent into the murky world of EM! This (break it down into smaller pieces) was one of the two main pieces of advice I would give to anyone starting scratch-building, the other would be 'look to see, and model what you see, not what you remember seeing'. I didn't think this last one applied to you as you already appeared to do that! Your viaduct is a great example of both of these points and shows what can be achieved with patience (by the bucket load!) and observation. I look forward to visiting and seeing it in the flesh once compete and in place. I may even bring something over to run if i ever get round to converting anything to EM! I do have some track, jigs and back to back gauges in EM but keep getting interested in other things instead, currently 1/35 armour and 3D printing. I'm going now before I bring this thread into disrepute with mention of non railway based activities! Cheers Al

Hi Jeff, It's been a while aint it! Following your message the other day I decided to check out this little project of yours, and what a project! It was good to hear from you and great to see that you are back building again. It's a shame I didn't get to see the previous layout before the bulldozers moved in. from the pictures it looked fantastic. The viaduct is bloomin' fantastic, a great development following your previous one. cracking job. 7000 stones was it? that is what i call dedicated. I thought I had done well after 'laying 300 stone setts and a couple of hundred stone blocks! (in model form of course) . As I am (extremely) late to the party I thought I'd chip in with three points that would have been appropriate a good few pages back... 1. Fiddle yard - I agree with you in that there i no real need for one as you are focused solely on the scenic side. however had you thought about a line that splits off the main loop and then drops down to a yard under the main boards? 2. Stone Colour - trying to match the real deal doesn't always work as the colours can be too strong (dare I mention scale effect?) The important thing is that it blends in with the rest of the layout and doesn't stand out like a sore thumb. 3. Its your layout and you can do what you damn well like! We'll just encourage you. Have a great New Year Jeff. Alan.

Nice photos with the loco in, they really give an impression of the 'openness' (if that's a word?) of the area. Too many layouts seem to have too much crammed into too small a space. There is a real impression of space, it looks prototypical. Really good modelling Jeff. Cheers Al

Looking mighty impressive Jeff. Those walls really are a work of art. Little did I realise what the end result would be when I suggested you 'have a go at scratch building something'! I will certainly be copying your static grass methods, with absolutely no shame whatsoever As for the recent doubts about your mental stability, is there any truth in the rumour that the only handle on the bunker door is on the outside? Cheers Al

I tend not to monitor the temperature in the garage, it makes it feel colder somehow! I'm busy until back end of Feb as well, house improvements to supervise in Jan and the off to photograph the Northern Lights in mid Feb Can't wait!! How about we plan a catch up late Feb? I don't have any EM stuff yet. That was a bit of a non starter I'm afraid. The cobbles look really good, I always had a problem blending the sheets together. Cheers Al

Yup , when I decided to try and interest her in horsepower I was aiming for the infernal/external combustion engine type, not the four legged variety! Think I need to take her education up a notch, she's quite good with aeroplanes, but I feel I need to work more on the steel horses. 'Little un' turned 10 in September, it only feels like yesterday I was bringing her home from the hospital, time flies as they say. A trip 'north' sounds like fun, probably best to wait until the bunker is up to operating temperature again though. The captive rodents went about three years ago, although we do get the odd 'small wild' one brought home as a present these days along with the odd sparrow! (my avatar is a bit out of date, it needs to be replaced with a pair of smallish furry killers!) Al

Hi Jeff, I don't think I've posted on KL2 up until now. Can't believe it has been four years since you moved. You were only thinking about it last time I saw you! Not sure if I'd changed jobs last time I saw you. I now work a daft 'four on - four off' shift so have at least two days a week undisturbed time at home, great for modelling, only downside is I have nowhere to put a layout. I really must come round and inspect KL2 in the flesh. From the photo's it looks outstanding. Unfortunately Erin hasn't shown any enthusiasm for model railways, however horses are a different matter! Al

Good grief... You drop in somewhere you haven't been for a while and it's all changed... Kirkby Lunside gone, replaced by Kirkby Luneside2 OO replaced with EM Flock replaced with static grass Bunker replaced by Bunker 2 Proper scale modelling under way! Ye Gods, I've missed a lot!!! This is way better than many exhibition layouts I've seen on my travels. Outstanding work Jeff.

Thanks for the reply, I'll keep watching this space. Al

Hi Robert, Any news yet on the sentinel shunter? I will probably be needing a pair of them for Stockton St John's. Al

Good luck with the move Jason, And don't forget, if you travel east or north east from Leeds for about an hour and a half you have the North York Moors, some good mountain bike tracks around Sutton Bank and the Cleveland Hills. And not forgetting you will only be an hour and a half away from Kirby Luneside!

Thanks for the info Jason, I'll give it a ty when I build my Comet class 4 chassis. Al

Very nice work so far Jason. Opening up the font of the frames under the smoke box makes a massive difference. What have you used to blacken the comet trucks? The houses look great too, I'm impressed with you dedication in making so many of them. I think by the third row I would have reached the stage of ' not another bl###y row of houses to make!' Al

Hi Jeff, How about the best of both worlds for the walls? Make your first few walls stone by stone, and then make moulds from them to speed up the process. If you build several random sections then you could assemble them jigsaw fashion to fit the locations. With regard to posting on here, can you not tether your laptop to your phone and use the 3G signal to create your own wireless hot spot? Al

Some interesting developments on here, I think it will look much better with the aqueduct and cutting instead of a pair of tunnel mouths, definately a lo less 'train set'. I must come round and investigate the secret project! With regard to Rob's post referring to 'scenic Thornaby', either Rob has never been to Thornaby or he had his tongue firmly in his cheek when he wrote it! Al

Evening chaps, I was in Leeds today and my train was running late, so popped into WH Smiths to kill a bit of time, and spotted one of those 'exclusive to WHS' magazine things. The subject was none other than the S & C. Can't remember if it was £6.99 or £9.99 Get yours now if you're interested! Al

OK that's one image I definitely don't want to keep; Thinking about steam engines...thinking about steam engines...thinking about steam engines...ARRRRGGGHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!! Might not pop round for a while...

Thanks for the lamps answer chaps, I know stationmaster said it was missing a lamp at the back, but it could have had another one where it wasn't needed. 5000 posts in a year ain't bad, I recon we'l probably hit 25000 before you're finished ! Al

Duncan - With regard to the lamps on the guards van, what should it be showing, one, two or three? i.e. I I O or O O I or O O O Cheers Al

Hello folks, Unfortuantely I lost my recordings from yesterday, but have searched the web and managed to find a suitable replacement... Al.

I am planning to lock myself away in the editing suite later tonight (OK, the den really) to chop the boring bits out of the video, then if it all goes the same as last time I'll spend the following two weeks trying to upload it to YouTube! Just been shopping this morning and managed to purchase another local wagon for the collection, a ten ton salt wagon belonging to the Tees Salt Company of Stockton. http://www.ehattons.com/52644/Bachmann_UK_33_183_10_Ton_Salt_Wagon_Tees_Salt_/StockDetail.aspx Just need to build something to run it on, a model of Stockton Quayside would be spot on ;-) Al

What's this talk of thunderbirds? Aren't red and silver painted 47's a bit out of period for you Jeff? Do you have any 'requests' for motive power for tomorrows 'railtour' ? Don't worry Jason, I've charged up the batteries for the DSLR ready for some 14mp pictures of the master at work as he changes the lie of the land with a single sweep of his mighty circular saw!

Just to chip in on the subject of wiring for DC Vs wiring for DCC: Assuming you are using hand built track, or are modifying RTR points and wiring them the same as hand built ones, then the oly difference between DC & DCC is the number of wires running back to the control panel. With DCC you tend to have a large number of droppers running back to the bus from each section, meaning only the track bus goes back to the panel. On a DC layout each of these section feeds would run back to the control panel and it's associated switch (on Stockburn Junction the main panel has 26 section switches ( there are another four panels as well, including the fiddle yards, each having its compliment of section switches)). Basically, same number of wires just a different termination point for them, and less time under the boards with an AVO at an exhibition when it suddenly goes t*ts up and the only part of the entire layout that is working is a two foot headshunt !!!

Hi Folks, yet another attempt to upload this damn video! Hope this one works!!!!!! Edit - It didn't.

Hello all, Apologies for the delay, I've had a few issues to contend with: iphone video not compatible with windows (sourced a video converter to change the format) and internet explorer 9 not working properly, (installed firefox instead) here's the first steam movement under Lune Fell, hope it was worth the wait.