Loxborough

Thank you, Clive, you are very kind! Next project is an ECML express which will be wholly done with Hornby RTR stock. I have got myself a full rake of the Gresley 61'6" stock and need to do something about getting them acceptable for the layout. Big question is colouring; Hornby made great strides with their Teak effect, and what they have done is great, but it still doesn't look much like any prototype photo I have seen of an LNER teak coach so, armed with some prototype photos (largely from Steve Bank's excellent website) I took my bits in my hand and set to vandalising an expensive RTR product; Frist, using Vallejo mahogany, I have darkened a number of panels to produce what Steve Banks refers to as the 'checkerboard' pattern that was the norm (I have sat the vandalised version on top of one just out of the box, for comparison); Next, to darken overall and make some of the yellow a bit redder I have the whole thing a variable waft of burnt umber; Then cleaned the widows and tried to sort out the far right end, where my finger slipped on the airbrush trigger when doing the mahogany. Up to this point, I was trying just to modify the colours, rather than weather as such. Finally generally muckied up the underparts, darkened the roof and gave the teak and the windows a wafting of general muck ; Very keen to have feedback (negative as well as positive!) because I have got another seven to do, and although I'm going to do them all slightly differently (because one thing that comes very clearly out of the prototype photos is that any one rake of these things would have wildly differeing colours and states of dirtiness), I would appreciate any little directional nudges...

I don't really have the words for this. I read all through the thread thinking 'Nice, well executed O gauge layout', started to read through it again and realised it is OO. Incredible; in the literal meaning of the word. This is not the sort of layout that inspires; it more inclines me to give up, knowing that I will never reach this standard! Brilliant work; many congratulations. George

So, this is a little project I have been wanting to do for a while now; crane on a train. Langley's aging but still delightful whitemetal model of the Ruston Bucyrus 19RB crane and the surprising amount of hardware required to move it around on the railway. In my little world this has recently been outshopped from the Ruston's plant in Lincoln, and is on its way to Bristol docks for export, thus allowing the LNER to get some GWR non common user stock back to home metals on revenue traffic. Don't know exactly where it is going, but looks a lot like a military customer... First, the buckets on a Bachmann RTR match truck; Next the running gear, which has had to be separated from the boidy of the crane to keep the thing within gauge. Shown here on a Parkside LNER lowfit. It was, at one stage, the right bauxite colour; might have been a little over weathered... Then the crane body and a couple of beam extenders on the really super Bachmann RTR Crocodile. Interestingly, the Atkins, Beard and Tourret bible of GWR wagons shows an earlier RB crane on pretty much exactly this wagon, but with runnning gear and cab on one piece, as an example of an 'exceptional out of gauge load'. I did a quick check and this wouldn't have worked on my layout. NB glazing removed for shipping. The main boom and a box of spare parts, pulleys, glazing, cables etc that will all be needed for commissioning. Again, Bachmann RTR. The whole thing in its natural environment; And finally, for those of you who like your pictures to move (it's a generation thing...);

So, as we move on down the wagon repair yard, we get to another slightly sily cameo. I'm subtitiling it "Yes... I am sure the job sheet says it's empty." Open to better suggestions... (Brake van behind is on the 'awaiting weathering' sidings; can you tell?

Seriously? Two years since I posted... Well, wonderful thing about this hobby, you can drop it when other stuff takes you life over, and it sits there waiting for you to come back... Anyway, continuing the tour of the yard, we get to a grounded coach... A very cruel close up from the end that has had to be patched up with canvas and a few wood offcuts fixed brutally into the coach body... And from the other end. Helicon focus here again doing wonders for the depth of field, even if there is some slight oddness around the adapted door... I feel a little bad about having ruined a perfectly good RTR coach (slamm prize for the first to identify the source model!) but I do like celestories, and important to have something that could realistically have been condemned already in 1937.

Firstly, lovely layout; lots of detail, without it looking cluttered. Just well observed and thought out. Bravo! On backscenes, I am with Rambling Rich; if the viewing angles are shallow then things can look very odd. But, I do find that photo backscenes, if you plan the transition into the design of the landscape (ie there is a modelled 'horizon' behind which the backscene is seen) and viewing is nearer perpendicular, can add a lot. George

Steve, I think you're probably right about Mrs Davies. Also, even seen from the back, she doesn't look like someone you would want to argue with! Seriously, though, your comment means a lot, thank you. I do enjoy the tains (and there will be more showing on here shortly) but what I really enjoy is creating the little details of the world in which they exist. Gets my imagination going, allows a bit of escapism and also ties in my teenage daughters (who are deeply uninterested in the trains themselves!). George

So, I thought to myself that it was about time to post on here again. 9 months since the last one? Seriously? Are we sure there isn't a software issue there somewhere? Or am I just getting that old??!! Anyway... The management team in action in front of the office. On the left Mr Jeremiah Meakin, one of the foundng brothers, who never much cared for office work (but likes a nice car!). On the right, young Mr Meakin, sone of Mr Jeremiah's late brother; likes to look dapper but is content with his Austin 7. And in the centre Mrs Davies, who has done the books and manned the telephone since the old king died, and whose relationship with the late Mr Meakin we DO NOT talk about... Just a little further on we come across a delivery waiting to be unloaded. And waiting. Beacuse that's what he does (blistering pace of life in this litte piece of heaven I am creating). Driver Ahab? Truck waiting for number plate, wingmirrors etc. Beautiful model from Langley, looking a lot like it was put together by a five year old with no thumbs. Must do better next time. Ho hum... Experimenting with the camera. Helicon Focus image stacking (which I really can't recommend enough) being pushed to the limit here. I wondered whether it would be able to cope with the cars just seen through the fence, while keeping the fence in focus, and it can, clearly. And finally the helicopter shot. Next update in less than nine months... I promise!

Robert, OK, so I am feeling realy properly stupid now... I hadn't clocked that the programming track had to be wired to the P&Q; I had wired it to J&K, and had a switch which just disconnected the rest of the layout when I wanted to programme something. All rewired now, and (re)coding of CVs proceeding perfectly. Thank you so much for your rapid answer (and sorry for wasting your time with what was in fact a very stupid question!) G

I've resurrected this thread because I am having a simiar issue, and am mystified. I use a V3.6 LZV100, an LH90 and Lenz gold decoders. Everything is running fine, including quite a complicated block management system on the layout, but I want to change some CVs. So, I plonk a loco on the programming track and try to write a CV. Error02. So I try to read the address, as a test. Error 02. I try to read a few more CVs, Error 02 each time. I check the connections and the cleanliness of the programming track, no apparant issues. Loco drives up and down the programming track cheefully, so the decoder is clearly in touch with the rest of the world, but still any attempt to read or write gives Error 02. Change the loco and the same happens. (I should point out that this is a new issue because I have never previously used the LZV100 for programming on the layout; that has always been done using an old Dynamis on my workbench, which recently died altogather, causing me to have to try to do things 'properly'. And yes, I have organised myself with a siding on the layout which is isolated from the rest as a programming track. Any suggestions VERY gratefully received! Thanks, and happy Christmas all, G

So, today we will step briefly over the lines from the repair yard, to visit Mrs Appleby's cottage... There she is, waving to us! This is, err, backdrop modelling, so don't loook too closely... The house was done in a couple of hours with offcut ply for the walls, talc in the paint for render effect and wood dust for the thatch. I want to do some more thatched houses elsewhere on the layout and need to find a method that will stand up to close range photography... Anyway, notwithstanding her slightly shoddy house, Mrs Appleby seems to be pretty self sufficient, between hens, bees, veg garden... ...a little orchard some sheep... and a goat (why do people keep goats? My experience is that they go everywhere except where they are supposed to go, and eat everything except what they are supposed to eat...) There is some disagreement about Mrs Appleby's status. I think she lost her husband during the great war and, like so many women of her generation, made her own life as an independent widow. My daughter, though, insists that this is too sad, and that she is married to one of the carpenters in the wagon repair yard. Now I'm not sure about this, but if there is a Mr Appleby, and if he does have to cross the ECML to go to work every day, it might explain this slightly unorthodox arrangement... Happy and safe Christmas all.

A quiet moment, looking from a wagon repair yard over the ECML...

Absolutely lovely layout; you have captured the atmosphere of the out of the way station beautifully. And by the way, I get totally why you renumbered the coach (your post from Sept 26). One of the reasons the hobby is important to me is that I can go at my own speed, to the level of detail that I want to go to and (unlike the rest of life) there is no pressure to cut corners to get it done...

So, today we get to the MPD. Now, I would love to be showing you a grungy little engine shed, probably built as a lean to against a more substantial building, with a half falling down coal stage, a rickety rusty old water tank and a dreadful old, many times patched and repaied 0-4-0 steam shunter. Trouble is, though, that a yard on this scale would never have been able to justify the purchase, or operation, of a shunter, so we will have to rely on horse power... Which means stabling and a hay barn... The inevitable random agricultural rubbish that was once useful... I really must sort out that wagon with the flying tarpaulin; it seems to bomb just about every photo I take... And the much loved power unit itself...

Kind comments, as always, thank you. I did rather enjoy doing the wagon frame and I have plans for a couple of partly dismantled wagons, which will require me to build them from the frame up board by board. Not this week, though...

When I first started posting about the idea of building a 1930's wagon repair yard, Paul Bartlett, based on conversations with people who had worked in such places, set me the challenge of trying to depict the frugality of such an operations. Not a bolt or a board went to waste, and everything that might have been of value was recovered when a wagon was condemned, or even during repair. I have started to try to depict, initially through the way major components might have been set aside (and not just chucked in a pile)... This is just a start; I have plans for lots of grounded store wagons, spare part boxes and probably more of what you see below. If anybody has any other ideas about how this 'frugality' might be set into the model, I am all ears...

So, the gentle amble around the layout has been a little more gentle than I had anticipated, but hey ho, it was ever thus... Today we get to the joiners' shop. Firstly by day... and then at twilight... Which, if anyone can be bothered to zoom, shows some of the detail inside. I have to say I was pleasantly surprised to see how well the Gaugemaster backscene cooperated in reduced light (it really was quite reduced, too; 4 seconds at f8.0). I thought the sky came out rather nicely as twilight looking east... Next going down the yard we get to the wood store (well, it would be next to the joiners' shop, wouldn't it?) I have to hold my hand up to a little modeler's licence here; unless anyone is able to tell me differently, I don't think that plywood was much used in wagons as early as 1937 but, hey, I liked the way the 'ply' stacked, it's my trainset and I'm going to go down pleading rule 1... And finally for this post, the paint store. I have no idea what an NER brake van would have been doing getting condemned this far down the ECML (we are in principle between Peterborough and Grantham) but it's the second time I have used the Slater's model as a grounded van/store, and I have to confess to having a little thing for them... I must get hold of some fire buckets and post them somewhere near the paint store. Or the flammable goods store, as we would probably call it today. All suggestions welcome...

So, turned out to be exactly as 34C suggested (electrical connection between engine and tender) but with a slight twist... On taking a closer look at the connections I realised that, for reasons which I really can't explain, I clearly decided at some point in the past that the thing would run better if I took out the peg on the tender to which the engine coupling bar attached. Defeats me why I should have done that, but the result is that all the draw load has been going through the wires, and the electrical connections have been dragging a 30 wagon train around the layout. Not entirely surprising they were getting a bit ropey... Ho hum... Anyway, all sorted, thanks for all constructive and helpful comments, and here it is once again functioning...

I haven't tried on DC; I don't even have a DC controller any more! Really useful suggestion about the electrical connections, thank you. I am not at home right now but I will have a fiddle with the wires over the weekend and see what that gives. Thanks, G

I happily scratchbuild working signals and wagons but am still very uninitiated in the mysteries of what goes on inside locos, so I was hoping for a bit of support... I have a Bachmann Robinson O4 that has run well for a while (couple of years, but overall probably not more than 40 hours of actual running, mostly owing 30 odd coal wagons) and it has started finding life very difficult when I ask it to go forwards. Going very slowly, stuttering, stopping altogether and not setting off unless given a little shove. The randomly runs fine for a few metres and starts to find it all very hard again. Runs absolutely normally tender first. Wheels (tyres and backs) and track are spotless, I have had the body off and lubricated the gearbox, which appears to be in OK condition, doesn't have noticeable play in any of the bearings and, although I don't rerally know what I am looking for, I wouldn't have said that the gears themselves are especially worn (there is certainly no jumping going on). I have uncoupled the driving wheels (so they turn independently of the other wheels) and this doesn't change anything. I have reset the decoder (Lenz Gold) and nothing improves. Any ideas about what might be going on, and what I can do about it? Thanks, George

So, we continue our gentle amble through the yard. Starting with a private owner mineral wagon in to have its old grease axelboxes replaced with oil ones, and to have a few planks renewed... The crane is the rather nice Langley Models Ransom & Rapier, though the driver, who comes with the crane kit, looks a little too much like something out of the planet of the apes for my liking, and may have to be replaced in due course... Next a helicopter shot of the same operation. While we are in the helicopter, an LMS 5 plank in for a total subframe rebuild;

So, I said I would post some more images... Before we get to the work in progress, we will take a gentle stroll around the bits of the layout that are pretty much built. Firstly, an over the wall look at the smithy in Meakin Brothers' yard... And a detailed look inside the smithy; God knows why I went to the trouble of detailing the interior there. There's a whole lot of detail (including a forge) that you can't see from anywhere!! A helicopter shot of a couple of old tanks kept at the side of the smithy just in case (not sure the oil leakages would be very well looked on nowadays...) A, elevation shot of the smithy (can't get the camera any lower than that as there are lamp posts in the way...) And finally, for some reason my favorite, a peek through the gate... Now, time to get out into the sun and do some gardening!

So, I have been slowly developing a layout for a little while now (umm, like 8 years) and bits of it have appeared here under various guises. After a serious refurbishment of the railway room (longer, more light, less dust, to be brief) I have got the mojo properly back and thought the time has come to unify all under a single thread. In broad terms a 4 track 1930s ECML OO roundy-roundy with a station on each straight section. Somewhere around Grantham-Peterborough. Slightly lacking in originality, but I've gone too far now to start adding in wierdness... First side has a station and a wagon repair yard (previously on here as 'Meakin Brothers'). The station, to be named Loxborough, is fairly small local one that doesn't even have a platform for the up fast; On the other straight leg we have a more important station, Fenton St Michael's, which is a mainline station and a branch terminus (think Tallington); I'll come back and post more details later, but here's a little teaser from Meakin Bros yard; (I've just noticed the incomplete wagon that has slipped into the rake, rather soiling the image... must do better next time...)

And the colour version (though somehow I can't get away from the idea that the 1930's happened in monochrome…)

Once upon a time in the East...