devondynosoar118

I would be happy to lend my copy of Railway Roundabout, there’s a good few hours of stuff on there with a nice chunk of BR western region footage. PM me your address, only cost is returning the DVD when you have enjoyed it!

Engines were usually prohibited from passing through or entering goods sheds as well. In cases where there was no capstan system or similar a barrier wagon would be used to shunt loaded wagons into the shed. A short siding with a wagon turntable to access a shed or end loading dock or both would fill a corner with the running line behind it if you were looking for a view blocker, in situations where space was tight a trailing connection to a wagon turntable was occasionally used. You wouldn’t need the turntable to be functional but it would add operational interest.

When you adjust CV’s start by writing down the pre set value, then adjust in smaller increments. Messing with the speed curve or table cannot damage the loco, it just might not run as you want it.

I like DM Glue n Glaze. Dries clear, can be put on thin, repositioning is possible and excess can be cleared with damp cotton bud.

Engineering plastic sheets are very much square, plus you will be cutting any sheet you use anyway, hopefully using a decent straight edge and a square. Some of the tea turned sheets like Slaters are not always square, but one cut usually fixes that. I have self printed buildings that are nearly 8 years old that kept their colour, I use fixative spray and a light coat of varnish before glazing to help and don’t leave them in direct sunlight, anything fades under too much sun! Another vote for Scalescenes, their stuff is superb.

The Didcot loco shed is a Loan Act shed, built with money from the govt in the 1920’s. Townstreet Models do a finished one. They do both OO and O size I believe. https://www.townstreetuk.co.uk/7mm.html Scale scenes also have a two road shed that can be printed as many times as you like for one purchase, their stuff is really good and easy to make bigger. https://scalescenes.com/railscenes/ York Modelmaking do bespoke laser work. https://yorkmodelrail.com/bespoke-services/

@bmthtrains - David I get that about 3d printing not being a magic bullet. Printed parts have limits, it can’t replace everything. I am forever reminding people that by the time they have drawn, tested and broken a 3d printed part I could often have made it by good old fashioned methods, without it subsequently breaking. I think it is part of the solution in more “niche” or smaller markets or as a way of hooking people in to the wider hobby. Once they have found the limits of a 3D printed model, they might like to try building a more traditional kit. If nobody is offering the models, then a growing home printing market is being ignored. I see kids of 15-20 making amazing stuff on home machines, they could be getting hooked into railway modelling via their printing for not much outlay once CAD is done and they don’t mind paying for a one use licence.

Local traffic was handled by B sets and auto coaches, don’t forget “stoppers” on the mainline could be a pretty motley collection of usually non corridor stock. Also mixed trains with tail traffic and “brown” non passenger coaching stock should be included in passenger workings for variety and authenticity. Livery wise you might have some stock in wartime all over brown, check the excellent sites linked by previous commentators. There were even a few old top lights about until the early 50’s.

With regards to 3D printing the initial cost of resin printers is now under £200 for a very capable machine, in other hobbies it is becoming more popular for people to sell files and finished product than just printed items. This could be a great way for small manufacturers to recover some of the CAD costs and reach more people. More Brio and mainstream trainset sales will help bring more people into the market for model railways later. I don’t care if Hornby stops making them, I don’t think most current buyers of trainsets associate them with that brand specifically.

I put line side fences on that section today. It’s the easiest board to get finished, I think it might be not far from done now.

I cheat on flesh tones, I paint them white then put a flesh toning wash on, job done. Vary the thinning of the wash or it’s tone for skin variation.

Thank you. About 5 of those years it was just stored lol.

Bloody hell, for the first time ever the whole layout minus fiddle yard is together, supported entirely on the leg units. Only took 11 years. As you can see from the thumbnail there was a degree of shock about this. All the boards. Each modular board is 3’6” long, with the two larger station boards individually sized. The classic view from above the signal box. Vs reality Side by side, I didn’t get quite the same angle, but close enough. Obviously there’s a degree of compression in play as well. I am very pleased with the flow of the landscape though. View uphill from the end of the modern Montague Road, towards the top of Hurrell Road, the reverse of the view I showed last time. Further static grass growth is visible in the foreground. View from Hurrel Rd to Motague Rd, as before but with the Lime Grove under pass bridge visible. Another repeat, fence arrived for here today. View from platform end, my view is more like you are perched on the locomotive water tower. “Drone shot” showing track re alignment and station throat. Shock My next challenge is to make it all work.

Canopy is complete for the station building. Just got to finish painting it.

Another vote for play sand or washed builders sand. I use sieved grey builders sand and play sand on my N layout, parts of which are 10 years old now, no corrosion, lifting or shifting has occurred. If you use PVA etc like normal ballast it never gets loose or falls off. You can also dye the PVA mix with inks to weather and tint the finish. The picture below shows track ballasted with building sand and the cess laid with play sand. I dried both fully in a low temp oven, then sieved and bagged the stuff for later use.

As it grows more DCC dependant you could have one board or section that can be fully isolated from the rest to use those DC models on or re chassis the unconvertable ones.

I finally got a couple of hours to play with the scenic board and both my grass machines. I have the WWS large one and their detail one, since they had a sale in summer. Here is the back corner of the board in 2011, basic ground cover done. I always intended a strong mix of texture on the line side to reflect wartime manpower shortages. I started by making a “shaggy embankment” mix, made of 1mm,2mm, 4mm and a few 6mm yellows to reflect autumn colours, there are 4 different shades and mixes in there, with regular changes of mix to add variety. I put this over a layer of thin high tack PVA. Here is the same bank from the bridge reverse angle, after the first round of grassing. I could have done with pulling the stalks of yellow up vertically a bit more as plants tend to grow straight toward the light, in this case it should be a bit more vertical but not visible from viewing distance. A shot of the finished line side. Some tidying with a small paint brush is still needed along the track. Spotters view from the bridge , now at the end of Hurrell Road. The parapet here can be seen in this Google Streetview shot. My photo would be looking down hill from the left bridge parapet. The railway goes left to right in this picture, the cutting having been filled in in the late 70’s, A view from the top of the hill, now the end of Hurrell Road. The main field grass is 1mm and 2mm in a variety of colours. I am waiting for some 2mm yellow/tan to arrive to do more scenic shading and add the dead layer visible in October to December. The same view today. Looking down the hill from across the bridge in the first photo. We are under the small stand of trees next to the original track which winds down the hill to the farm. The really observant amongst you may spot the frilly standard lamp that formed part of the stage set for Squeezebelly Lane, it’s lurking in the back of a couple of these shots.

Very evocative introduction!

I have bought 4 controllers second hand, 3 analogue, one digital, all worked fine. Hattons have good customer service and you hear very few complaints about their second hand stuff.

Princess Royal lasted until 1962 as well. My father in law scavenged the tip for pit props to put in the Rayburn as a lad! You could see the pit head from their house.

The site is still just empty, they did nothing with it. It was all a little dubious. At least the pictures can help people reproduce it in miniature. I have the plans as well, I will put those up somewhere too. I am considering getting them made into a 3D printable model file as well.

Having joined the 21st Century a bit more this month, with the heady speeds of fibre broadband arriving at home and a wireless printer scanner to go with it, I decided it was time to scan my only set of pictures. Some context- The station building was demolished some years ago over a weekend in slightly dubious circumstances, the site is still just empty (very annoying.) A friend happened to be passing and took these shots from inside the fence with permission. They show a lot of detail useful to modellers. There is a degree of colour loss in these, they are scans of 10 year old digital prints! I have also included one of my dad’s beautiful sketch drawings, he made extensive notes on the back to aid me in building from his plans. The annotated part helps locate the canopy brackets and down pipes.

I would echo the above- get hands on with your choices first, it makes a big difference being able to try before you buy and everyone has their personal favourite handset or functions. Like anything technical it’s YOU that has to operate and work it out so unless the system and it’s supporting community makes sense to you, it doesn’t matter what potential is there.

I just found a picture showing the end of the platform beyond the canopy was gravel not flagstones, so that will need a bit more tweaking. Thanks all for the kind comments, keeping me motivated. I am working on the legs for the boards so I can get them all out and put together.