SNCF stephen

Hello everyone. i have been working on the layout for the last year and a half. I thought I should retrieve my password and do a post about it on here. i have made significant progress on the rural side of the layout. I have created a small village with a station on the main line and also created the river. Work is taking place at the moment on bringing a larger portion of the town of Eymoutiers to life with a small section of the Vienne river banks being the subject of that part of the layout. The river valley has also had a fair chunk of scenic work undertaken on it but also needs some work on the track to make it run more reliably. This photo shows the only formation of the second branch line which I decided to remove as it was not needed and causing me some headaches in operating correctly. Other work has progressed on Limoges and I have been doing self made some laser cut kits for some of the more bespoke buildings on the layout. Notably the first one was the Capitol building which is on the southern side of Limoges. i have also done the woodwork for the upper section of this part of the layout which will house the main station buildings of Limoges. thanks for reading. As always - I welcome comments. All the best Stephen

Thanks for posting these. Sorry for such a late reply. I was hoping they would double head the service on 11 August when I was out there but they used their 63500 instead of TD740 which was disappointing. On the other hand there was a x2400 autorail that was running from Ussel up to Eymoutiers which gave a chance to photo the two classic trains (along with the service train) at Eymoutiers. It must be the busiest Eymoutiers has ever been!!!

Good evening everyone. I have been working on the layout and have an update video for you all. Progress is steady with a lot of other commitments going on but I am working hard on one corner of the layout as well as consolidating the track plan. The beauty of Kato track is that you can make changes very quickly. I have another video that goes before this one in the series so I will dig that out and post a link here. If you like my video then I would be very grateful for a like or subscribe. I post a lot of videos about French models, French prototypes and my own models that I make. enjoy. https://youtu.be/DwCf_Bd-y_o

I have been continuing to make progress on Limoges but I have a busy workbench as well which means I have to alternate my work time between the items of rolling stock I have in progress. I will post a layout update once I have some tangible updates (probably in a few weeks time). In the meantime I posted this video to youtube a few weeks ago which shows what I have on my workbench and the proposals for the layout.

I had the pleasure of visiting Longueau depot near Amiens yesterday with a couple of other fellow enthusiasts. The day was good with plenty of classic 67400s and 66000s on display along with some newer 75000s and newer autorails. I have out put together this video of the time we spent there. There will be a few other videos going up on my channel of the footage of locos in this area so please subscribe to keep informed about when these are uploaded.

Hi Jamie i probably saw you if you were on the steam trip to Eymoutiers on the 21st of August? Good post

Hello everyone. Its been a while while but I have been busy. My layout has been developed along the lines laid out in 2017 when I started this thread. I have now laid most of the track and added in the power supplies and hidden most of the wires on the urban side. I have also made Eymoutiers station a double track station on a secondary main line. I have made a youtube video of the layout. I would be hugely grateful for likes and subscriptions.

Some great photos there. Thanks for posting.

It’s a sad fact that the SNCF appear to be running these lines down. You look at how the TER is funded and the fact that they are rewarded for providing the lowest cost service and you can see why bus services are proving more popular in the country. I have also read in a number of places that the new government organisation is not pro rail. To me that reads as if they will not fund improvements to these rural lines. Unless central government steps in and recognises the value ahead of the cost I don’t see many of these lightly used lines being kept if the cost of them remaining open outweighs their current use. I hope the situation changes but we will have to wait and see.

I do intend to be at Lenham this year. Here is some progress on the Z2. I have painted it up. It still requires finishing but I wanted to show some progress. I have also had bogie frames made for the model. Finally. Have a look at this video showing off the sound decoder I have installed!

I have primered the Z2 now and done the first stage of the chassis extension. I am quite pleased with how it is looking. It will be painted in the next few weeks.

Hi Joseph Not yet. I was considering taking out an advert or something but I have not had the time to focus on marketing plus I wouldn’t know where to start.

Hello again. I have now received the test prints of the Z2. This will use a Tomytec chassis that can be extended using parts I have 3D printed. The trailer chassis used Bandai bogies and is unpowered. It is a low resolution print and the front lights don’t show very well on the photos. Would love some feedback. Thanks

Evening all I have put together a video of the two latest releases (well 3 technically). It can be found here: I have a load of other French N gauge videos and videos of French trains on there so please have a look at the Handel (likes and subscriptions would be hugely appreciated). I also managed to get a photo of the range so far (minus the catenary). Most of my products are available on my Shapeways shop: https://www.shapeways.com/shops/draisine160 Coming along soon is the Z2 and the FNC! Very exciting times.

Hello I am trying to find if a lighting system exists that I can buy off the shelf or can construct very simply to add directional lighting to a DCC equipped loco. At the moment I have a number of autorails that have tomytec chassis that I would like to add lighting to but designing my own system is a bit beyond me. If any systems are out there that just require soldering to the DCC decoders two spare wires the. That would be ideal. Many thanks

Thanks Andy. I have (hopefully) fixed it now.

That is superb work with the XR6000 painting. I wanted to post an update on some forthcoming models. My latest project is the XR7000 and XR8000 trailers. These are well progressed and I am awaiting what I hope will be the final test prints from Endhoverh in the coming days. The XR7000 will be released first as the XR8000 requires a little more work. The trailers sit on Bandai bogies which are readily available and do not have a frame so it means that they will be able to accommodate tighter bends on layouts.

Shameless plug from me for my own online shop that sells my 3D print creations: https://www.shapeways.com/shops/draisine160 I am intending to setup a full blog style web site soon that will have the range of full kits (including non 3D printed parts) soon. I also sell my prints in kit form on eBay but I can usually do better deals outside of eBay. If you are interested then please contact me directly.

Hello I am wanting to package my N Gauge model kits up so I can dispatch them without worry they will get broken in the post. Can anyone point me in the direction of a good packaging solution for n gauge carriages (that is essentially what I am making). I have enquired at a few polystyrene packaging companies but they have said that my runs of 50 would be too short to be viable. Many thanks in advance.

I have gone all quiet on this thread as I have been focusing on my rolling stock projects for the last few months. I am hoping to get to work on this layout in the coming months. Luckily I have acquired some research material from a junk shop in France which will enable me to make accurate representations of the station buildings and associated infrastructure in the area. I have also managed to get a loop of track running on the layout which is DC in one direction and DCC in the other. It is used for testing rolling stock and keeping my interest. The layout will feature four tracks. I have also been going into overdrive buying rolling stock for the new layout (don’t tell my wife please) with some new autorails and electric locos. I am creating rolling stock using 3D printing as well which is extremely exciting.

Evening all. It was nice to meet a lot of friendly faces today. Apologies i seemed tired, that’s a result of havin two young children keeping me awake over the last few months! I have put together a short highlight video of the day on my YouTube channel: Feel free to have a look. I have also got a range of other videos on there about various other topics (N gauge reviews, videos of real trains and previews of my model kits). More videos to come in the next few weeks. Thank you to everyone who spent time talking to me today. It was great to see so many modellers of French N Gauge.

That’s my fault!!! We are demolishing two bridges on the Midland Mainline this weekend!!! My cases are packed and ready. Looking forward to a great day tomorrow.

Also, the Mikadotrain x73500 is not bad (I have had one) but it suffers a little from having to ride on an over the counter chassis so seems a bit larger on some of the dimensions that it should be. On the other hand they are fairly easy to obtain and there are a variety of liveries. If you google trains160 there is a rather good French online shop that specialises in N gauge stock and scenery. I often look at the vast array of stock there is and put t on my birthday list.

If you look at Rang which is near to Boulogne there is a terminus for the TGV there and frequent Corail intercitie trains run through

In N Kato do the TGV in various guises including the new duplex versions. Piko do the Corail carriages and Sybic locos (which I understand are set for rerelease this year). Minitrix do the 67400 which is still in limited use on the network. They also plan to release sound versions of the 9200 later in the year in the Capitole livery but this is a bit earlier than your chosen era. Arnold also produced the cc72000 which is a great loco. As well as this they produced the x73500 autorail which would be of use to you for this era although it appears they no longer manufacture this any more. Mikadotrain have made some serious inroads into the N gauge market with the X2200 which is a lovely model. They have also done a rendition of the x2800 which suffers a little from compromises necessary for working in N scale.