Ravenser

And very handsome it looked too!

Well: "Felix Pole" minerals (steel 21T wagons) were largely used for the S. Wales coal trade and therefore most never got further than the docks at Cardiff or Newport (their replacements, the MDVs, were often branded "Not to work outside S Wales and Monmouthshire") . Hornby do a 21 T steel mineral (ex Dapol) which is I think a pretty decent representation of an N32 , and their older 21T steel mineral - frequently found in secondhand trays - is based on the same wagon. With a new chassis (Parkside RCH 12' wb) you can upgrade the earlier Hornby wagon and repaint . I've done it twice. But at the current "market price" for such second hand wagons (about ??4) , plus wheels and new chassis , you're close to the price of the better ex Dapol model new And the bulk of the mineral wagons clearly were wooden PO wagons. Quite possibly from Northern collieries - eg household coal for southern England from S. Yorks or notts pits via Annesley/Wath, the GC, Woodford Halse, and Banbury routing The bulk of the LNER owned mineral fleet were 20T wooden hoppers, ex NER, and running in the North East. They didn't wander much Invest in half a dozen of the Slaters 1905 RCH mineral kits : they're often available with pre-painted sides Remember that after WW1 most wagons were "Common User" , so all companies' fleets mixed indiscriminately. That means the typical mix for vans and opens reflects the proportion of the national fleet from each Group - I think the figures were LMS 8: LNER 7 : GW 2 : SR 1 . In short , on the GW , most vans and opens would be LMS or LNER vehicles. There's a sardonic caption in the "Southern Wagons" book - "this photograph shows a common phenomenon - a Southern goods train without any Southern wagons in it" . Look at the national ratios and you realise why I have a feeling the Parkside 5 plank LNER wagon is wartime build - as far as I know the pre war LNER 6 plank is only available from ABS as a whitemetal kit , and getting hold of ABS is not easy either. His stand at Warley is the best bet , which is no help if you live outside the UK. Parkside also do the ex LNER steel High - which dates from 1945

Just to answer comments: - thanks to beast and 66540Ruby for info on the MHA. I now have to find a photo and count ribs..... I've used the 12mm disc wheels supplied in the Branchlines pack

The Mogo has seperate solebars. I think the same applies to the LMS van. I've built the 5 plank GW and it went together ok . I can't remember what I did, so it can't have been too bad . But I did use Hornby wheels as Gibson wheels are arguably a little fine unless you build your track to EM flangeways Hasving built the kit , my nomination for worst kit I've ever built isn't this one - the original unretooled Cambrian Walrus is ten lengths in front

I promised someone I'd post a few notes over the weekend on some of the bits I'd been doing to the Pacer ; it's Monday, I haven't, so here we go. I've assembled and fixed in place the rear trailing wheel assembly. Unfortunately its not absolutely spot on: I reckon the hole is about 0.35mm out to one side. I've made one attempt to drift the hole sidewards with a file , and stuck in a scrap of 40 thou plasticard into the recess above to take the thread , and drilled it out. However this doesn't seem to have eliminated the error, though I hope it did manage to reduce it. The wheels are square and in line - just very slightly off set. Remove the off set and they're about 87 degrees to the chassis.. The Hornby Pacer had a swivelling truck here originally , and the Branchlines assembly is not actually immovably tight to the chassis - it will pivot under a little pressure. I'm not sure whether this may not be deliberate. At any rate , at this point I don't think I can do a lot about it, and I'm inclined to live with it, proceed with the build and see how we go. If it proves to be an issue, I'll see if I can revisit it Meanwhile I've been removing the Black Box for the weight , and here are the shots to show the results: This shows the lower view of the chassis - the black underframe box has been taken back to solebar level and a new floor added with 30 thou plasticard. The detail on the side of the black box has been fretted out with files and knife. I've also salvaged the engine block shape marked on the bottom of the underframe box and built it up with 3 layers of 40 thou plasticard, filed to shape. This will be glued onto the new raised floor of the underframe weight box Here's the top view, showing the remaining recess for weight. I intend filling this with lead sheet, araldited in place - as lead is a much denser material than steel, this should compensate for the fact that the recess is much smaller than when it contained Hornby's steel block. And if that's not enough, the seating moulding is raised , and there should be enough room underneath it to glue another strip of lead As an aside , at a show a few weeks ago I picked up a bargain for ??4-50 : I know the first release Hornby wagon was heavily criticised when it first came out and they subsequently retooled it . I assume this wagon was so cheap not just because it was unboxed , but presumably because it must be the first version and nobody wants it? Without detailed info readily to hand (cue usual moan about state of BR wagon books ) I can't identify what may be wrong with it , so I'm inclined just to weather it and hope. Does anyone recall what the problems were supposed to be - or whether this is in fact the original version? It's just possible I might have struck lucky. I've fitted the usual long NEM Kadees I've been doing one or two other things, but they're from a completely different area of interest , so will go in a seperate post.

Sorry to hear you've been struck down and glad you are back in circulation

One word of warning - in N you'll find point motors a near insurmountable issue. I suspect Carl designed it for hand operated Peco points I adjusted the plan slightly - as well as lengthening it by 50% , I reduced the double slip to single and added a crossover out of the centre platform - giving access onto the fuelling point and providing a decent runround loop

I started with the back ones . I didn't get much further..... . It was trying to open up the holes and get the things in somehow that went wrong. There seems to be a boss on the back of the wheels which fouls the moulding supporting the axle . I tried cutting down the moulding instead of thinning it , and wrecked the thing. At that point I gave up. Mind you this was in OO. It may be Ultrascale have designed the wheels in question for EM and simply supplied them for OO with different axles, ignoring the fact that the Back to Back is narrower - result the axle unit moulding is too wide to fit between the bosses on the back of the wheels in OO Gouing the Branchline replacement chassis route generates a replacement axle unit moulding as a discarded spare , so I can have another go

So how did you get the wheels on the Pacer? I tried and failed with an Ultrascale pack in OO . I've been driven into a Branchlines chassis instead . However I do have a second Pacer to sort out, so I still have an interest in fitting the Ultrascales somehow

I'm not convinced that the current standards for 100mph running are appropriate here. The LSWR would have been unlikely to expect more than 60 mph - even in the 1960s line limit at this location would have been not much more than 70mph. Grandfather rights would apply.... There are quite large sections of the network that are secondary main line and have line limits of well under 100mph - eg the Joint Line in Lincolnshire (60mph - but a traditional ECML diversionary route) , Doncaster/Scunthorpe/Grimsby (90 mph to Thorne and then 60-70mph, the Settle & Carlisle etc etc. I would be interested to know the line limits on the Transpennine routes - I'd be surprised if either the Hope Valley or the Standedge/Diggle route are cleared for more than 90mph, if that , and I've a strong suspicion the Calder Valley may be in the 60-75mph range. Both the Woodhead and Waverley Routes were subject to 60-70mph line limits because of curvature Given that you're talking about a line on the edge of Dartmoor, these are probably good parallels for second string main lines through that sort of terrain

Have you ever seen the platforms at Dartford? Frightening. I believe the absolute BoT minimum is 6' for side platforms and 12' for islands, though it "ought" to be twice that if possible. So you're only looking for about 16mm - and you could probably fudge it slightly anyway - 22' or 23' would not be out of the question. Another bad one , I believe, is Ingatestone on the GE - and that must be a busy commuter station

Rich: Glad to hear things have clarified in your mind. Given that this one seems to offer a similar set up to Bodmin in the initial stages , but be naturally expandable to a main line layout meeting your future ambitions, it can kill two birds with one stone . Am I right in thinking it's significantly smaller than Bodmin would have been, as well? Picking up the discussion on the old thread, if you are running low on square inches and thinking about making the bottom platform derelict anyway, then to start with the RHS sector plate or cassette fiddle need only be long enough to take whatever loco you're using on the freight. (A Dapol 22 would be extremely convenient here , but sadly out of period...). What did you have in mind? maybe a 50??? or a St Blazey 37?? Then , once the Challenge is over , you only have to build a longer replacement cassette to take a 2 car 158 : a relatively modest task. Bourne End/Marlow - operating details from Plan of the Month RM Sept 1979: 6:06 am Maindenhead/Marlow via Bourne End : bubblecr + trailer 6:27 am Maidenhead /Bourne E - 2 x 3 car . Arrives at BE just as previous train arrives back in the bay from Marlow, then departs again leaving the second train as a shuttle to Marlow The 6 car train then shuttled to/from Bourne End till 8:05 when it ran through to Paddington, leaving the branch to the other set on an hourly frequency. A similar arrangement existed in the evening. This arrangement was to allow a greater frequency in the peak than if a single train worked the whole branch , when the round trip time restricted the frequency to hourly - an issue on other "passenger siding" branches with commuter traffic I seem to have been in error about joining and splitting but in your scenario , the first 2 trains could equally well be combined as either 2 x 150 or 150+153, dividing at the station with one unit working the branch and the other returning to Plymouth as the first commuter train out .Presumably distances would be rather further than to Bourne End, and if sections of the line back to Plymouth are single (as they are on the Gunnislake line) line capacity could be a real issue And it would be perfectly reasonable for the RHTT to run 3-4 times a week in the autumn, even on such abranch

It's officially a day for quiet reflection and I'm back from Warley after what inevitably seems to turn into a spot of retail therapy. And since I've not actually made or done anything - I've simply flashed the plastic in various directions - it seems inappropriate to muse on the fact on a workbench blog. That's for making things. I finally succumbed to an order from Hattons a week or two back . I'm now the proud owner of a Central Trains 158. It needs a decoder fitting of course, but that is one of the shortfalls in stock for the late period covered. There were also two new Skaledale buildings because they're from my home town and I knew the businesses concerned (strictly speaking Mawer & Plenty is actually Rubery's the Chemist where I used to get the meths for my Mamod traction engine, and Rubery's isn't , if you get my meaning , but I digress) . And while I was about it I had a quick hunt through the bargain list and splashed out on a Base Toys 70's lorry because it was only ??2-50 and spreading the postage across more items helps. Just the sort of thing that might come in handy one day - and then you won't be able to find one for love nor money How much stuff do we buy "because it 'll come in handy one day" even though at the moment we don't, strictly speaking, have any use for it all? I've got a cupboard full of the stuff .And a small chest of drawers. A hasty check behind me reveals an S-Kits air-con unit etch sitting on top of a card kit for a building in Barcelona (in 1:100) and one of the Maurice Bradley Bilteezi sheets which was intended for the light rail project. Which has been stalled for at least five years. The heavy rework of a Bilteezi semi detached (cut down to 3/4 relief) is still in a plastic bag in the topmost of the chest of drawers, unfinished. There were supposed to be two pairs of semis. I can't remember if the second one was started or not. If not , the sheet is presumably in the same pile, underneath the building from Barcelona . Along with the part used sheets for a firestation , started but not finished for a competition, and destined for a club project which may have been overtaken by events. The bulk of it is safe in a shoebox cluttering up the sitting room. Now I've got a bit more time - if you ignore the fact I've been out the last 2 Saturdays and will be out next Sunday and the Saturday after that , and then it's almost Christmas - I may actually get it finished and out of my life On top of that lot is two Knightwing oil tank kits. They were bought for the fuelling point on Blacklade but proved far too big so were never built. They could well come in handy one day..... Or , more realistically, I forgot to get them into the second hand stall at the last club show. A set of C+L plastic windowframes seperates them neatly from a yellow box containing a Ratio Southern bogie brake. This is meant for the parcels train on Blacklade - along with the LMS BG I've already done - since 2 x 50' vans + 31 will fit neatly into the middle platform without hanging off the end. 50' van + 57' GUV won't - though it didn't prove a real issue when I had the last operating session. I sprayed the sides BR blue when I was starting the SR PMV kit - and that's as far as it got, though I have sourced transfers .And on top of those are some blue and white ABS packets newly bought at Warley. They had axle unit castings for a BR CCT along with clasp brakes , and MJT supplied some suitable etched BR plate W-irons. Somewhere in the depths of the pile of stock are two boxes with twenty -odd year old Lima CCTs from my first modern image layout , which I'm hanging on to, with a view to upgrading for parcels use on Blacklade (tail traffic perhaps) . Though now the PMV's built, the need is less urgent. The light rail project does see occasional use as a DC test track, by the way - though the electrical connection onto the second board has broken and so it is temporarily only 3' of test track. Another job , midway down the list, that needs sorting. Which is why, when I succumbed to the siren call of the Bachmann stand at Warley and bought a medium sized black kettle, cheap, it went round the test track, to check it worked and run it in before chipping. Yes, I know I shouldn't have succumbed to a loco I don't strictly need. The idea was that it could serve as a sensible sized railtour loco on a club project (it's a preserved example) - I'd resolved I wasn't going to succumb unless and until I saw it heavily discounted : and there it was. Thank you! Which way is the cash dispenser? The fact that the project in question is a bit up in the air at present , and things could go in a direction where the kettle wouldn't be needed isn't a great objection. It was "only"??50 , and since it has a tender cab it could - I suppose - appear on Blacklade with a 2 or 3 coach steam special without looking completely stupid. And I could actually use the small number of Mk1s and Mk2s I bought when the local model shop closed down . Not to mention the BCK I bought off the Bachmann stand a while back for a tenner, or the unbuilt Kitmaster Mk1 someone in the local group gave me. Or - assuming we ever manage to build the thing - the little Eastern branch terminus the group intends building. I shall probably find the ER never had any. Anyway , it's a nice loco. And I don't strictly need it. And in its last 3 outings, the Bachmann stand has caught me 3 times in this way to the tune of ??150 in total. All of these locos might run on Blacklade - but strictly speaking they're not necessary. They're nice locos and they run well, though.... And in the top drawer, on top of the plastic bag with the unfinished semis there is now (since last night) a bag with some laser cut sheets for red pantiles, and some laser cut doors and uPVC window frames. Which I'm sure will come in very handy for- something. These are from a new firm York Modelling , and are some of the first British outline products I've seen using this technique. Its been around in the States for a little while I think. He's also done a low relief terrace kit in 4mm as laser-cut MDF. It requires you to add your own brickpaper or plasticard cladding but that's no problem. Unfortunately I've no obvious use for it at present - Blacklade's far too narrow for such luxuries . So I managed to resist it. (We don't seem to have a smiley with a halo...) I've also sourced 20 swg piano wire from Eileens - who seemed think Xurons could cut the stuff without damage to themselves. This removes the one obstacle to fitting the last few point motors, unless you could the inertia unit fitted to my drive. And it looks as if I'm going to have to paint my 150/2 myself, somehow. Anyone know any Halfords car colours that match colours in Regional Railways livery? The two major omissions were a lighting unit for the Pacer - no sign of Express Models - and a replacement underframe for the 101 , though E. Kent gave me a list , which shows this as a spare. However I risk buying other bits to make up the order. I'm trying to be good and not buy stuff I don't need, or start more projects . But I reckon I must have spent close to ??150 yesterday - excluding travel (And I'm not even mentioning the tram habit. 4 kits (etched LCC F, whitemetal LCC snowbroom, Keilkraft W Ham balcony, Streetlevel LCC M) in 4 months. I'm not committed to building Highgate Archway circa 1936. Honest. I haven't got room or time even to consider it. I keep telling myself this, at regular intervals)

Very interesting. I've got a Provincial Pacer on the go - well at least faintly started and it looks like some handrail knobs must be added to the shopping list at Warley this weekend. I am a little nervous about my ability to get everything absolutely straight though. What thickness wire did you use? The weight box is troubling me, too. I think I really need to remove it, but patching in a floor section that will survive having sheet lead araldited to it may be slightly interesting. I'm wondering if it is possible to get more sheet lead under the seating insert I was interested by the casual comment about fitting Ultrascale wheels. Normally it's a doddle but I just couldn't get anywhere with this one. In fact the trainling wheel cradle off mine (which is being fitting - or will be fitted when I make some progress - with the Branchlines chassis) is being salvaged for a second attempt at the Skipper - I fatally butched the original in a desperate attempt to get the Ultrascale wheels in somehow

"Having welded up the baseboards, I found I had a solid box at the front. As I had a spare engine in the garage from the old mini , I checked and found it would fit, and I've rigged up a belt drive to the casters on the legs. First tests on the A38 suggest it can manage about 35mph down hill , and if I can find space for a large enough petrol tank I can drive the layout to Warley without needing to hire a van at all. However Porlock Hill may be a problem , but I can always remove the fiddle yard and reattach it at the top .." [ Sorry, my imagination is misbehaving at the moment. Down, boy!] Which can very easily translate into doing a lot of work to finish models because you don't want them and want to sell them... Which more or less restricts you to Reading, unless you want to play about with an idea that's crossed my mind in the past, where Silchester did not die out with the Romans, Reading never happened as more than a village, and there's a large ancient county town in Berkshire between the GW and LSW main lines served by both companies If we're on the brink of the 4-CEP , it may be worth factoring into this, though whether that's compatible with 456 + 466 I don't know. But you are going to need to handle at least 8 car trains (almost 8' long) to make the Southern look sensible? It might be compatible with 50s though - the Oxford trains saw them its been done in 3mm - Bagborough.("Its a GW branch line, Jim. But not as we know it") If you're building everything yourself , the pressures to adopt a commercial gauge disappear . But I don't know what kits are available in what scales. As an aside , the best consensus of Trollope scholarship seems to be that Barchester was the terminus of a branch until the late 1850s , when the line presumably was extended - there's a summary description of a journey up to Paddington in the latter part of "The Warden" The risk is that when you start again you'll want to use a lot of things you sold off- and can't replace without a lot of time effort and money Of course you could just model the Woodhead Route in the steam/electric changeover - Bachmann 04 , DC Kits EM1 , plain Scotsman in NE wartime black...

Good to hear T gauge is still in business. The key item still needed is points , of course....

Changing scale sounds all too drastic to me , and dumping all your 4mm could be a very bad idea if you then find you can't get on with 2mm. Buying the Wessex 153 ought to be a fairly safe bet - the things are small enough and moderately priced, and so should fit any plan, no matter how compact. It's a lot easier to offer advice from the outside than to deal with a situation first hand, and these things boil down to what you are comfortable with - which is very personal. But for what it's worth, l'd try to put everything mentally on hold until you've had the interview, and not progress the board this week. That gives you plenty of time to consider alternatives for a possible Challenge layout without feeling that you've mentally committed to dropping Bodmin. Then , after you've been to Warley, I would sit down with a sheet of paper and write down a list of essentials and desiravbles, US style , covering all the different areas - operating potential , construction requirements, period, setting, scenics etc etc. Then score each of the possible options on those grounds from say 1-4. That would be Bodmin , the 2mm, and anything you come up with as a Challenge plan I'd almost be tempted to do it on the train back from Warley - though you'll probably drive... Add the lot up and you'll get a total for each choice. That may help clarify things quite a bit. I did this when I was trying to decide which concept I should go for for the last Challenge, and it did throw up a clear winner , and eliminate the "nice idea with snags" as clearly inferior Giving it till after Warley means you've more time to think things through and you can factor in any sudden inspirations from the show

I was upstairs, so I'm pretty sure of this. And it was certainly headlined "TGV Lyra" on the SNCF printed timetables and I think on the departure boards

Longer-standing members will remember the 2006/7 Layout Challenge which started on RMWeb2 before we broke it. This produced a number of rather fine layouts including Keyhaven. It also - mostly - produced Blacklade. The basic remit of the Challenge was to produce a small layout providing a showcase for some of the high standard RTR we have enjoyed in recent years . LisaP4 defined the rules to require layout to have a maximum footprint of 6 square feet . That killed off an idea of mine to base a small layout on a version of the Timesaver shunting puzzle and mocked up to represent a version of Tyne Commission Quay transplanted to the foreshore of the Thames in the 1950s and electrified at 1500V dc. It would have required 8 square feet . In retrospect Tynesaver Wharf ("For Your Economical Fuel!") was a merciful escape - the work involved would have been far too much and I'd have been stuck with a half built layout stalled and abandoned. As opposed to a 4/5th built layout stalled, like wot I 'ave..... The scheme would have required amongst other things a DC Kits EM1 and a Judith Edge EB1 (and possibly an EF1 to boot) and a heck of a lot of inlaid track - always bad news on the work front . The EM1 kit I acquired cheap when the local model shop closed down is still sat behind me with no obvious prospect of being built. It's not merely well down the list - it's not on the list at all. As well as this still born scheme , the Challenge produced a large range of schemes which never quite made it - I think at one point there were just under 80 layout proposal threads in the subforum on RMWeb 2 and to my mind the unbuilt proposals were the saddest loss when that version of RMWeb congealed and froze. I recall Buckjumper had a proposal for a gaslit subterranean S7 affair in 1890s E.London ("Always carry a revolver east of Aldgate, Watson") illustrated by some atmospheric sketches (Sepulchre St wasn't it?). A particular mention is due to two very innovative and radical schemes to use the footprint - Kenton's "Long Thinney" and a bold circular doughnut multilevel scheme in N , whose name and builder I have forgotten (Sorry!) . Both proceeded a long way into construction before abandonment for differing reasons and both used the idea of a very narrow board to maximise length . But to return to what actually got built on my part I attach the link to the thread on RMWeb3 (itself starting as a repost of the RMWeb 2 thread - I'm sure some of this material must have been through either the Library of Alexandria or the Saxon monastery of Jarrow at some point): Blacklade - RMWeb 3 Challenge thread It is perhaps reposting the initial ideas: Quote Plan B revolves around on of the plans from Carl Arendt's micro site , which has attracted me for a while: http://www.carendt.c...lans/index.html The plan in question is under Shelf Switchers / Passenger Lines , and is called "Amalgamated Terminal 2" . It's a slight tweak of "Amalgamated Terminal" Carl has designed this around shunting passenger coaches, thinking in US terms of loco hauled passenger trains being shunted and reformed. I looked at it and thought "small terminus for DMUs" Some people may remember the long threads on RMWeb 1.5 about modern small termini and MUs: [Links deleted because dead] and there was a discussion on RMWeb 1.0 sparked by some photos of Manchester Mayfield. Cloggydog [Alan Monk] declared an unfulfilled urge to build a small Manchester terminus in the late 60s. Anyway, my concept here is to take Amalgamated Terminus 2 and lengthen it to 8' 4" : ie 2 boards each 4'2" long, 5" wide at the board joint , and 12" wide at the end. Someone who can remember things like triganometry may be able to confirm, but according to my maths (done using strips, trriangles , and fractions on the back of an envelope)that's just under 6 square feet. There are a few tweaks to the trackplan. There'll be an extra crossover between the centre platform and the front platform, giving access to what Carl Arendt marks as "Engine Ready road" and for me will be a small fueling point. And there'll be an extra fiddle yard road at the back What's marked as "Covered Concourse" becomes the back platform. The middle platform moves to between the front and middle roads We are in a largish Midlands county town , somewhere between 1989/90 and 2000/1. [in the event, I've slipped into an "early" period 1985-90 and a "late" period 2000-6: The end of the Central Trains franchise closes the latter] It isn't Derby, or Nottingham, or Leicester or Lincoln. Maybe it replaces one of them, and it resembles bits from all. It had an ex GC through station and an ex MR terminus, and now the rather battered MR station remains, served by DMUs In the early period we get 114s, 105s, 150/2 , 153, 155 and Pacers. (In other words I build the kits in the cupboard and finish the conversions) Maybe a 108 and 101 in blue/grey (I grab some new RTR). Parcels are possible (CCTs + 31). A 20 brings the fuel tank for the fueling point. Maybe a 31 and 2 coaches subs for a DMU [i bought the RTR; Hornby forstalled the 153 conversion , and I bought 2; the other conversions still await - a tentative start has been made on one Pacer: see my blog] In the later period the Modernisation Plan units disappear , and I get to run my Central Trains Turbostar and the 156 I'm promising myself. [and got] Maybe a 158 (See Steve Jones picture) [W Yorks 158 in service, and I'm finally going to order a CT 2 car set from Hattons. The photo in question was of a classic CT pairing on the Joint line - 153+158] Maybe I'll sort out the 37 conversion and use it for the fuel [ Maybe by the end of the next decade. A cheap 57 off the Bachmann stand and a discount 66 will serve in the meantime] It will be DCC ; some of the interest will be joining and splitting trains. I can just manage 150/2 + 153, and 142 + 142, or 142 + 153 , or 153 + 153 are possible It will be OO. I want to have pukka OO track, and as beginners don't start with double slips, I'm thinking of investigating Marcway. This may affect the geometry slightly: as drawn it seems to use Peco medium radius. [ I went Marcway] It will use stock I'm going to build for the club project , which will be DCC anyway, plus units intended for the home layout I haven't built. The only things I would need to buy is two Pacers. Virtually all the structures /bits can be sourced out of my cupboard. In any case there's only a few low relief flats involved. I don't need to build stock specially. So it should be a relatively quick project. 8'4" comfortably fits in the "study" where the home layout was going to go [ Ended up as 8'6" long] I've roughed it out with stock and Peco templates on some lining paper full size. I've never tried XtraCAD, and this seemed quicker. Also I'd endorse Neil and Shortliner's comments about needing to check every quarter inch And it fits. I need to get a friend to turn it out in Templot to check the geometry 100% for handbuilt, but it drops in place and all the stock fits... The "bow-tie" shape has caused a few interesting issues with the pointwork and motorisation of same in the throat area, but works, more or less, scenically After October 2007, construction gradually slowed down, and by the beginning of 2009 it more or less ground to a halt as I became occupied on other fronts. I repeat the last posting in the old thread , dated Sat Aug 29th 2009: Quote Its been a long while since anything was posted - most of my efforts in the last few months have gone into stock.However this does mean that there are a few new items to play with and the other evening I had a running session. I went for an early period session and managed to get 8 trains on the layout, being W Yorks 158, 2 x 153s, W Yorks 155, 108 , 3 car 101, parcels (31 + 2 bogievans) , 20 + TTA .Operation was on the same principle as those puzzles they used to sell , where there were 9 positions and 8 tiles, so you had to shuffle things round using the one available space. I managed to run trains for over an hour and a quarter before getting myself boxed in to the point where I needed to take something off in the fiddle yard to make another move possible . Given the small size of the layout and the lack of frieght , the operational potential is good, even if permissive working was stretched a bit now and again. The 3 car 101 is probably a bit much. The original idea was to make up a 2 car set , but as Hornby's unit was actually allocated to TS at the right period, it seems a pity to rework it as power car+ trailer and dump the centre car. Whether such a 3 car unit would ever have run as a temporary power twin at this period is unclear, but there seems to be some evidence formations were starting to get a bit improvised and mix'n match by the mid to late 80s. It would certainly make operations simpler if I just removed the centre car on an ad hoc basis. Both of the DC Kits in the cupboard are for 2 car units (105 and 114) so once one of those is built there is an alternative anyway The running session has clarified things in terms of fleet strategy and what projects I start next. I was a little surprised to find that I already have almost everything for the early period (1985-90) and potentially plenty to spare, whereas I'm short of stock for the "late" period 2000-7. I'd assumed it was the other way round. To get a complete blue period fleet, I need to swap over the W Yorks 158 and the Central 153 (which was pressed into service to test consisting - dead easy with the PowerCab). I've already got a Provincial 150/1 on order from Trains4U - far from being an unnecessary indulgence, it can replace the 158 with something appropriate in short order. Longer term , I'm intending to buy a second RR 153 to go with my existing one, once Hornby release a RR livery in late condition with ploughs. In the medium term , however, it looks like I need to get on with reworking one of my Pacers with the Branchlines chassis pack. Neither Pacer is operable at present (no decoders/coarse wheels jam in the points) so this would get some "dead" stock into traffic. I was considering one of 3 possiblities as "next cab off the rank" - the Pacer project, detailing up a body for the Airfix 31 and building the Ratio Southern bogie brake van . However it looks like the choice is made - I already have a perfectly serviceable Hornby 31 and 2 parcels vans... Another way of freeing up space in the fiddle yard would be to fit a decoder to the old Bachmann 03 lurking in a cupboard , and sort out the pickups, couplings and a few other bits of upgrading . Again it was on the list as a "quick win" project to get some stored stock back into use and may well be prioritised Looking at the fleet list from the other evening, if I was running late period, i'd need to swap out 2 Modernisation Plan DMUs, the parcels trains, and the 20+TTA. I've a couple of Type 5s and a late green TTA recently finished,so the fuel oil is covered, but the only other DMUs currently available are a Turbostar and a 156. I had been hesitating whether to get a Central 158 from Hattons, on the grounds I didn't really need it - perhaps I do. And it does suggest I should get my finger out and finish the Bratchill 150/2 which has been stalled for an indecent length of time. Even with both I'll only have one DMU spare for the later period. If I just build everything I've already got for the earlier period, I could have 4 spare units, 5 spare locos and at least 3 spare parcels vans.... It's one thing trying to calculate what stock you can and can't run and do and don't need, but once you actually try a session everything becomes a lot easier to see Nothing has been done on the layout since. However it has seen occasional use as a programming track . You'll have spotted that a couple more items of stock have been finished (PMV , TTA) or begun (Pacer) Having recently managed to shed a couple of commitments within the club I should now have more time to sort out the long list of jobs to be done in other areas - finishing Blacklade being one. The items still outstanding are the old ones - the remaining point motors and the station walling. But with luck we may see some progress in the coming months As I've now found the Create Blogs page again, and managed to transfer this to a blog, I can update this entry to say I've given the thing another running session, and what sticks out like a sore thumb is that the points do not throw completely . If you don't check each one is fully over and snug , and push it into place where necessary derailments result . The problem is clearly the one discussed here: Strengthening Wire on Tortoises I can watch the wire bending instead of the point moving if I view it from below. So this will need sorting out when I find out where I can source piano wire - and what I use to cut it with . I'm not going to wreck the edge on Xurons- they're expensive tools. This time round the 101 was reduced to 2 car, we acquired a "swinger" in the form of the newly built PMV and I found I didn't need the second diesel loco , as the 31 could be used for the TTA and minor pilot duties . That's 7 and a half trains, but proves comfortable to operate: I managed over an hour and a half of train shuffling without getting boxed in. Part of the concept is that each unit needs to go onto the fuelling point as some stage - this gives some point or or purpose to the train shuffling moves On account as it were are two quick snaps: And yes I really do need to add the station buildings, or at least the surrounding walls which would once have supported the overall roof

Having been in that situation - if you want a twin walkway or other conversion and have bits in stock , it can be worth it. I reworked a new Railroad TTA - it happened to have the livery I needed and with a new data panel, etched walkway and reworked chassis the result was good. Cost ??3-50, as opposed to ??8 . By the time youve hacked the ends out for a bitumen tank (say) and resprayed the thing, the benefits of going Bachmann are starting to erode

However with a new Parkside 12' chassis and a repaint you can get an ex GW N32 Felix Pole mineral . Not sure its worth it in view of a rather finer rendition being available in the main range with a reasonable chassis , but I've done it with a cheap second hand one lying around (the SC and Cory versions are potentially accurate liveries) Whether a pseudo ex LNER 12 clasp brake underframe has any real use I don't know

Rather neat. Rarely can a van so small have had so many lights and so much lettering...

And how much will it pull? I have a NuCast one on a Tenshodo and "itself, reliably " would be a good start..... This will be a useful loco for the LNER modeller but it may be necessary to pay attention to the grills - there were quite a lot of variations as extra ventilation was added to successive batches for the benefit of the crew

First requirement with Kadees is the height gauge. Mine came in the bumper trial pack but they are available sepeerately from MG Sharp. We would need mo0re details to comment on specifics - are these in NEM pockets (remember some vehicles especially from Bachmann have the pockets at the wrong height, so need to be replaced) or fit your own?

Jim: This sounds like good news - i'll investigate further