barrowroad

That sounds painful Dave. Get well soon and take it easy over Christmas. Another great model loco you are most welcome to bring it down and stretch it's legs.

Looks fantastic, excellent modelling. Robin

Good to see you're back with another superb model Peter. All the best, Robin

Cracking model John.

Excellent work John especially like the guttering. Robin

Looks fantastic - excellent progress John.

Phil, I was planning to use Modelu products but will looking at these before making a final decision. Robin

Yes it is. There's a long story behind this turntable which I won't go into except to say it was originally on the Glevum S4 Group layout 'Brinkley'.

Hi Mike, I look forward to seeing your coaches running on the layout. Hi Dave, From right to left - Loco release road; Storage siding - Derby TPO and 2BGs; The Centre Road is for incoming locos and will have a B7L linking it to the next road - unfinished - which is for loco storage. The next road is for incoming locos/storage. Finally the far left will accommodate 4/5 coaches for the Gloucester local. That's the plan for now but it may be subject to tweaks. Robin

I have been slowly plodding on with the storage sidings and have now completed turnout 26 out of 39. The main UP and DOWN sidings are finished as far as the track laying is concerned with a number of buffers to be added at a later date. They are not yet operational as the task of wiring and the addition of digital cobalt's is the next item on the schedule after track laying is complete. Extra sidings are to be installed at either end of the UP and DOWN sidings and the first of these, which leads to the turntable, is nearly finished. This will enable trains arriving in the UP [ the north ] sidings to have their loco detached and turned ready for a return journey. The following photos show progress over the past month.

You're talking about the wheels of course

Donegal in the south - I don't think so!

Dave, The morning is the best time to work o the shed in this hot weather. I have the windows and doors open to get a flow of air through the building. It's too hot to work in the afternoon unless you like working in a sauna although this afternoon wasn't to bad and I added two more roads of flexi-track. I shall need another 25m soon.

Hi Tim, Ah but there will be some as the sidings develop:-)

Hi John, Chris has finished the two power boxes and they are now both operational which means I now have power to the shed yard and can run locos! All the yard turnouts are now operational, including the three way tandem and I can run a loco through the two double slips. All the turnouts operated by analogue cobalts still need to be wired into their switches so the yard and the main line are yet to be linked but things are looking good. Oh well better get back to building a few more turnouts :-).

Just a quick update on the storage sidings. The total of turnouts built is now 11 with ten now fixed in position in the storage sidings and three of the sidings laid. The turnouts are all constructed using 1.6mm thick double sided copper clad sleepers whilst the sidings are K&L and C&L lengths of flexitrack board joints strengthened using copper clad sleeper strips. Over the hot weather I have checked all the rail joints on the turnouts and board joints and where necessary I have widened the gap using a very thin file - a very useful tool obtained some years ago from Eileens. Here are some photos of the progress made so far. Once all the turnouts are in position I will fit digital cobalts and wire them in to two separate accessory buses. EDIT;- Two more turnouts added since my last post. EDIT:- Further progress as of this afternoon 24th July 2018. I have completed laying metre lengths of C&L Flexi track in the UP storage sidings. I have run out of the Evostick Timebond Adjustable glue I am using to fix this track and am having difficulty finding a replacement tube as B&Q don't have any local to me. I also need to order some more track and copper clad.

Hi Dave, Loco turntable on road 2 gives access into the workshop and was used infrequently during the 1950s. Loco turntable 4 gives access to the two sidings adjacent to the boiler house and this was used to store withdrawn locos. I have photos of two Pugs 51217 and 51218 on these sidings together with another of 3F 43444. Both are designed to be operated and I hope to do this at some point - not a high priority though. Robin

Hi, Thanks for your kind comment. My technique for the brickwork is detailed in earlier posts on pages 15 to 17 of this blog and involves using a selection of crayons to colour individual bricks at random after first spraying the mdf with grey primer. I intend to have the turntable operational and have a stepper motor to install once the turntable bridge is made.

Hi John, It was a pleasant change to model some buildings however it was back to track making and laying today with 5 turnouts sorted in the storage sidings. Indeed it would Pinehill - you'll just have to imagine it in the model.

Very nice Geraint I particularly like the Tjalk. They are really lovely models - I've built one for myself. Robin

Thanks for all the kind comments. I just started them again Dave. I managed eight before I ran out of copper clad and had to wait 2 weeks for C&L to deliver a fresh pack.

By way of a change I have spent some time assembling the two kits of laser cut parts for the boiler house and the stores at the rear of the shed these being the last of the buildings provided by York Modelmaking back in 2010. Both buildings are made from 2mm laser cut mdf with hard plastic [Rowmark] for the window frames and brick details which I glue to the mdf. Each building was given a coat of grey primer and coloured using Faber polychromos crayons. The tiles are also from York and are self adhesive strips. Both buildings have extra detailing added. First the boiler house at the rear of the workshop. The stores at the rear of the roundhouse.

Hi, Thanks for the reply. I managed to speak to Phil late this morning and he said my order should be despatched by early next week.

Are you able to tell me what is Phil's average turn around time for website orders? Mine has been showing processing for two weeks and I have not been able to get an answer on the phone

Has Gravy Train posted anything recently?