Parsons Vale Carriage sidings - 00 BR Blue layout now Sold

[37114]

22 minutes ago, rob D2 said:

Looking good. It’ll be a gutsy move to flog the lot and head off into O gauge !

Thanks Rob, I have already moved on around £800 of stock from Peafore Yard to date but needed too as I have 2 O gauge locos already and 2 more on order.

[Steadfast]

Evening Rob,

I was told a story by a driver the other day made me think of you and your layout.

When he was a Bristol shunter, one of the jobs he did was the Malago Vale Hemmings bins. Class 08 flat out watching the bins bouncing around was quite a sight to behold apparently!

Hopefully catch you and the layout later in the year

 

Jo

[37114]

7 hours ago, Steadfast said:

Evening Rob,

I was told a story by a driver the other day made me think of you and your layout.

When he was a Bristol shunter, one of the jobs he did was the Malago Vale Hemmings bins. Class 08 flat out watching the bins bouncing around was quite a sight to behold apparently!

Hopefully catch you and the layout later in the year

 

Jo

Thanks Jo, looking at pictures of the wagons it doesn't look like there was much to secure the bins on the wagons so I imagine they would bounce a bit. Having seen a photo of a Peak hauling the wagon I imagine the bins took quite some beating that day.

[37114]

My daughter had a friend for a sleepover last night, it turns out the friends brother is a fellow enthusiast and was keen to see the layout so I have obliged and set it up this morning which also allows me to do some more testing.  Last week Alan and I worked out the fixed rakes for the fiddle yard and then adjusted the couplings on some of the coaches accordingly.  There are 3 types of coupling in use:

- 3 Link at the scenic end

- Bachmann fixed bars between coaches

- Tension locks at the fiddle yard end so the Sentinel can pull the coaches into the fiddle yard. 

A list has been added to the fiddle yard of the rakes and the appropriate stock boxes organised accordingly 

 

The class 50 has been receiving some attention,  it barely ran when I acquired it and 3 of the 4 traction tyres were loose. Why Hornby felt the need to use them on such a heavy well powered loco I don't know. The fan has been disconnected as well, previous experience with Hornby class 50s is that the rotating fan is a nice idea but has a negative effect on the running qualities. A good clean and oil up and it is a lot smoother.

[37114]

A new learning today; don't leave the stock on the layout when you have new cats..... they decided to drop test my class 50. Remarkably other than a few dislodged bufferbeam pipes it survived the fall onto the floor.

[saxokid]

On ‎08‎/‎03‎/‎2020 at 13:50, 37114 said:

A new learning today; don't leave the stock on the layout when you have new cats..... they decided to drop test my class 50. Remarkably other than a few dislodged bufferbeam pipes it survived the fall onto the floor.

Yer ive had this happen too,expensive learning

[37114]

4 hours ago, saxokid said:

Yer ive had this happen too,expensive learning

 

I can't believe I didn't think about it to be honest, we had cats when I lived with my parent and had a few wagons knocked over once so used to keep the cats out of my room. I guess I was lucky as I had left the rug on the floor when I put the layout up so it probably provided some cushioning buy with the body shell coming off it did prompt me to replace an engine room window which was missing when I bought it.

[TT-Pete]

On 08/03/2020 at 13:50, 37114 said:

A new learning today; don't leave the stock on the layout when you have new cats..... they decided to drop test my class 50. Remarkably other than a few dislodged bufferbeam pipes it survived the fall onto the floor.

[37114]

6 minutes ago, TT-Pete said:

 

Aah they look lovely, similar to our 2 although one of ours has a white underframe. As part of the fiddle yard design of the 0 gauge layout I am going to work out how to make it cat proof....

[TT-Pete]

1 hour ago, 37114 said:

 

Aah they look lovely, similar to our 2 although one of ours has a white underframe. As part of the fiddle yard design of the 0 gauge layout I am going to work out how to make it cat proof....

 

Jackson Galaxy, the cat behaviourist -

 

 

- always says that with a "No" you have to give a "Yes". Myla (the one on the left) jumps up on the layout and sits there miaowing until I switch the trains on and then sits there quite happily for about 15 minutes just watching (obviously prefers tail chasers to shunting planks).  Rather than cat-proof the layout I am thinking of incorporating a perch for them somewhere so that they can sit and watch. May be the first layout with built-in scratching post... :^)

 

 

[saxokid]

20 hours ago, 37114 said:

 

I can't believe I didn't think about it to be honest, we had cats when I lived with my parent and had a few wagons knocked over once so used to keep the cats out of my room. I guess I was lucky as I had left the rug on the floor when I put the layout up so it probably provided some cushioning buy with the body shell coming off it did prompt me to replace an engine room window which was missing when I bought it.

My little cat just pops in and watches shes realy good but shes getting on so think everything is slow these days..

[turtlebah]

@37114  - I've long been an admirer of this layout.  Such a good idea for a theme and really well executed 

[37114]

9 hours ago, turtlebah said:

@37114  - I've long been an admirer of this layout.  Such a good idea for a theme and really well executed 

Thanks, very kind of you, hopefully it will get to see the light of day this year!

[saxokid]

Any new updates Graham??

[37114]

7 hours ago, saxokid said:

Any new updates Graham??

Hi, nothing really, it is boxed up ready waiting for its first show which is either July or October

 

Thanks Rob (not Graham :-) )

[saxokid]

1 hour ago, 37114 said:

Hi, nothing really, it is boxed up ready waiting for its first show which is either July or October

 

Thanks Rob (not Graham :-) )

Sounds good Rob,not good at remembering names

Cant wait for things to go kind of normal,so we can have shows exhibitions again..

[37114]

Further to my post yesterday, Jerry and SImon have confirmed Larkrail is postponed to July 2021 so the layout's debut will (hopefully) be at Trainwest on 17th/18th October 2020. It is going to be a busy 2021 (by my standards) as Parsons Vale is at Cheltenham in April, Larkrail in July but I also have the  first show for my O gauge layout in April 2021 as well.

[Jonsie66]

On 08/03/2020 at 10:13, 37114 said:

My daughter had a friend for a sleepover last night, it turns out the friends brother is a fellow enthusiast and was keen to see the layout so I have obliged and set it up this morning which also allows me to do some more testing.  Last week Alan and I worked out the fixed rakes for the fiddle yard and then adjusted the couplings on some of the coaches accordingly.  There are 3 types of coupling in use:

- 3 Link at the scenic end

- Bachmann fixed bars between coaches

- Tension locks at the fiddle yard end so the Sentinel can pull the coaches into the fiddle yard. 

A list has been added to the fiddle yard of the rakes and the appropriate stock boxes organised accordingly 

 

The class 50 has been receiving some attention,  it barely ran when I acquired it and 3 of the 4 traction tyres were loose. Why Hornby felt the need to use them on such a heavy well powered loco I don't know. The fan has been disconnected as well, previous experience with Hornby class 50s is that the rotating fan is a nice idea but has a negative effect on the running qualities. A good clean and oil up and it is a lot smoother.

It is the small details light the two rubbish bags that bring this layout to life. Great work!

[37114]

5 hours ago, Jonsie66 said:

It is the small details light the two rubbish bags that bring this layout to life. Great work!

Thanks. I was really lucky building this that there were quite a few photos taken of Malago Vale which allowed me to capture the right details without going over board.

 

The layout appears in the July BRM, I was looking over the draft article last week and have to say Andy Y has done an amazing job to capture some of the details in the layout.

[Rich Papper]

A very nice write up in BRM, well done. You're right about the photography, Andy has got some fantastic angles in there.

Rich

[37114]

3 hours ago, Rich Papper said:

A very nice write up in BRM, well done. You're right about the photography, Andy has got some fantastic angles in there.

Rich

Thanks Rich, Andy has definitely done it justice. I have browsed the digital version and even the photos that didn't make the main article are great. Just need to get the layout out to some shows now, no idea what it's first one will be at the minute..

[Max Legroom]

Looks fantastic in BRM. Brilliant work!

[37114]

Not a lot to report on the layout itself but I have been trying to get my exhibition diary sorted. Basically the layout has been ready to go since the start of the year but Covid has meant the 2 shows booked for this year have been postponed.  While a lot of show organisers have postponed the 2020 shows into 2021, this has created some headaches as bookings for this layout have then clashed with my O gauge layout in 2022.

 

The latest plan for Parsons Vale is now:

10th/11th Apr 2021 Trainwest Corsham 

10th July 2021 Larkrail Bath

2nd/3rd April 2022 Cheltenham 

 

The last show means I am taking 2 different layouts of 2 different scales to 2 different shows a week apart as Peasevern Yard is at Corsham the week after which will be a new experience for me.

 

Edited July 28, 2020 by 37114
typo

[37114]

On 27/07/2020 at 19:40, 37114 said:

Not a lot to report on the layout itself but I have been trying to get my exhibition diary sorted. Basically the layout has been ready to go since the start of the year but Covid has meant the 2 shows booked for this year have been postponed.  While a lot of show organisers have postponed the 2020 shows into 2021, this has created some headaches as bookings for this layout have then clashed with my O gauge layout in 2022.

 

The latest plan for Parsons Vale is now:

10th/11th Apr 2021 Trainwest Corsham 

10th July 2021 Larkrail Bath

2nd/3rd April 2022 Cheltenham 

 

The last show means I am taking 2 different layouts of 2 different scales to 2 different shows a week apart as Peasevern Yard is at Corsham the week after which will be a new experience for me.

 

Heard last night that Trainwest 2021 is postponed to 2022 unfortunately (if not unsurprisingly) which has a knock on effect on the exhibition calendar which now looks like:

 

10th July 2021 Larkrail Bath

2nd/3rd April 2022 Cheltenham 

9th/10th Apr 2022 Trainwest Corsham 

On the plus side I hopefully won't need to unpack the car after Cheltenham!

 

[37114]

On 13/10/2020 at 06:55, 37114 said:

Heard last night that Trainwest 2021 is postponed to 2022 unfortunately (if not unsurprisingly) which has a knock on effect on the exhibition calendar which now looks like:

 

10th July 2021 Larkrail Bath

2nd/3rd April 2022 Cheltenham 

9th/10th Apr 2022 Trainwest Corsham 

On the plus side I hopefully won't need to unpack the car after Cheltenham!

 

Not a lot further to report on the layout and unfortunately the first exhibition appearance feels like it is getting further away rather than closer, current picture is:

 

2nd/3rd April 2022 Cheltenham

16th July 2022 Larkrail

 

From my contacts in BMRG it looks like with the sad passing of Geoff Endacott, due to the amount of commitment required from the oganiser (s) sadly Trainwest will not be held at least in the short term.

 

As I have committed to move into O gauge I will be selling Parsons Vale after Larkrail next year as due to Covid I built Peasevern Yard earlier than planned and storing both layouts in the garage is taking up too much room.