Corbs

Looks great and perfect traction for the Tweedale and District Railway and Omnibus Company Limited.

Hurrah! The Tweedale empire expands! Will you be using proprietary track or building your own?

'Gilwell Park' did an 8MT 2-8-2T model a while ago (probably already posted this)

Whilst I've had to pause 'Sir Handel' for the time being until I can get my hands on a motor (in case I need to dig more of the bodywork out), I purchased a 3D print of the Talyllyn coach No.4 in FUD from Elsbridge Productions' Shapeways shop. https://www.shapeways.com/shops/elsbridge-model-shop It's really good! The wood grain has even come out well. This is my first 3D printed carriage and convinced me never to order anything that requires detail in WSF as it's just not worth the preparation hassle compared to FUD, which is easier to sand. Very pleased with it.

Spotted this unusual vehicle at Great Dorset Steam Fair and snapped a quick picture. Looks like a brake van body (or a faithful copy) mated to a 4-wheel trailer chassis! I particularly like the fact it has lamp brackets

Does anyone know if a re-run of 'Skarloey' is planned? It seems that most stocks have now dried up.

A new 009 BPRC project is in the works. Whilst Bachmann are working on a 'Rheneas' that will be ripe for conversion, I figured that a 'Sir Handel' was still some years off, and the whitemetal body kit is rather cheap. It seems that the coupled wheelbase is the same as Skarloey's, so I can use elements of that. These are the basic components mocked up. Now, the Skarloey chassis block has been cut down at the front and rear, and the side bits lopped off. It looks like it's fitting together ok. The smokebox needs hollowing out.

Whilst the flats are low-relief, the differing depths of the wall helps to break it up a bit. Looks great so far. May I make a suggestion? You could carry the 'sky' backboard straight across above the fiddle yard, rather than having it bend 90 degrees to follow the flats. The reason I say this is I find 'sky corners' so distracting when the foreground is so lovingly modelled, it's so strange that so many layouts have 'flat skies' so to speak, which somehow bend around corners. If the background carried on behind the flats, and you modelled part of the roofs, it would maintain the feeling of depth you have.

Managed to do a bit of modelling today after coming back from Great Dorset Steam Fair. I had ordered another Mosskito (formerly Meridian) kit for the Leek & Manifold Kitsons from Narrow Planet, which arrived next day! Great service. This is going to be made into a duplicate of TK&F No.6, the fictional SG 'Kitson' 2-6-0T I'd already knocked up, and take the number 7. I quite like the idea of having two classmates of a fictitious railway together. So many freelance lines seem to have 'one of everything', the NWR included, so I want to break the mould a bit. Here's the in-progress No.7 alongside the more-or-less (but not yet BPRC converted) No.6. Staying on the TK&F theme, a few days ago I decided to finish off the BPRC conversion on No.5, a freelance 'Dübs' pugbash. Previously I had just done a simple conversion with no on/off switch or charging port. This required removing the body every time I wanted to turn it on or off (to plug and unplug the battery). This has now been rectified. True to form, it's a bit bodgy and messy but everything on this loco is. Here's the switch (wires have now been painted black) and the charging port Here's the loco being charged also one of my Cambrian kit wagons has had wheelsets added, but needs buffers and couplings. Today I was working on a timber load, glued to a piece of card. Needs painting I think.

You are welcome, glad it is appreciated it was Dave aka Ruston taking the time to do it that convinced me it was worthwhile. Luckily at the moment I have the google chrome 'fix' plugin although doubt it will work for long.

Lots of good ideas here. Nile has done something similar with the London and Mid Western Railway and the West Midlands Railway. I'm modelling my version of the North Western Railway, also imaginary. An imaginary feature of my imaginary line is the train ferry at Arlesburgh. In this universe most goods bound for the Isle of Man come via the NWR. To avoid double handling, a train ferry service runs from Arlesburgh (IoS) where standard gauge wagons are shunted directly onto the ferry, to Douglas (IoM). At Douglas a lone SG loco is kept busy unloading the ferry and shunting the wagons into a transhipment shed alongside the IOMR station, where the loads are put on to the 3' gauge trains and vice versa. This service was carried out 1921-1940 (when the ferry was requisitioned for war service) and 1945-1970.

This is one of those layouts which I find inspiring/get an overwhelming urge to mimic it in its entirety.

Phew! Took a while but the thread has been repopulated with images following the photobucket disaster, now hosted locally on RMWeb.

Very impressive, I thought the body must have been moulded plastic!

Very cool, I do like the 'cut and shut' approach of using bits from other models.

Just did a test, it was about 30 mins to charge the battery.

Heya, Apologies for the delay in responding. As with all my models it was a bit of a bodge, I located the couplings where I wanted them and used chemical metal to set them in place. They are pretty strong now, but would be a lot of work to remove/replace. Today I got inspired to make some modifications to TK&F No.5. This loco had been converted to BPRC rather quickly, and whenever you wanted to switch it on you had to take the body off and plug in the battery. I've now fitted a switch under the footplate, hard wired the battery in, and added a charging socket under the front. Much more versatile.

Hi Dave Thanks! The battery in the loco was a small one I took out of a RC helicopter from John Lewis. It was a smaller size than the ones I got from Micron. The battery is in the cab, so it is roughly the same width as the footplate and the same height as the inside of the cab, but quite slender in terms of depth. Usually I charge the batteries on my cutting board, or on the hot plates in the kitchen (when they are turned off). The USB battery is great for this, no chords anywhere. I guess it would be useful at exhibitions etc. as well if there were not many electrical supplies. Cheers Frank! It's thanks to your information and projects that I was able to do this. I need to do a test but need to run it down first! From memory it was not horrendously long. When Bachmann release a 'Rheneas' I'm planning to convert one as well.

You can still see capstans in use at some of the special events at the BHR

Whilst this is one from the preservation era, I think it merits a mention. At Buckfastleigh on the SDR there is a small wagon turntable at the back of the works to give access to the boiler shop. Pannier No. 1369 can fit on it as well as a number of the smaller locos. http://www.southdevonrailwayassociation.org/News-and-Press-Releases/Buck-Turntable.html http://www.southdevonrailwayassociation.org/News-and-Press-Releases/1369_turned_20120320.html

Looks fantastic. I think I like the side with black frames and green cylinders the most. In fact it is your locos and rolling stock that inspired me to also do some locos in pre and post-war liveries on different sides!

I've posted this elsewhere already but thought it was worth adding to the thread. A video showing how my 009 Bachmann 'Skarloey' works, including charging and running.

Phew! That's the first post salvaged from the photobucket debacle....

Good on you for salvaging the topic after the photobucket debacle, I fear too much information will be lost due to people not willing to do what you have.