RMweb Gold Alister_G Posted April 26, 2020 RMweb Gold Share Posted April 26, 2020 11 minutes ago, Indomitable026 said: Well we’ve set Black Country Blues up in record time Damian, what's that building with the chimneys in the middle of the picture, behind the shunter? I don't think I've ever seen it in other photos of BCB... Al. 7 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Mick Bonwick Posted April 26, 2020 RMweb Gold Share Posted April 26, 2020 1 minute ago, Indomitable026 said: By chance I had a Lamb Madras last night too - the Mumbai Lounge did me proud. Don't let NHY 581 see this, whatever you do! 6 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post KNP Posted April 26, 2020 Popular Post Share Posted April 26, 2020 Whilst I'm looking for that extension lead. Here are a few stills that are some of my favourites 57 1 1 16 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Indomitable026 Posted April 26, 2020 Share Posted April 26, 2020 1 minute ago, Alister_G said: Damian, what's that building with the chimneys in the middle of the picture, behind the shunter? I don't think I've ever seen it in other photos of BCB... Al. Nothing - they don’t exist - just a myth and figment of Andy York’s imagination 1 1 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrators Popular Post Phil Parker Posted April 26, 2020 Administrators Popular Post Share Posted April 26, 2020 Melbridge Dock Built by Phil and Brian Parker Gauge: OO Size: 9ft by 2ft (6ft scenic section) Era: Late 50s to mid 60s Melbridge Dock started life in the early 1990s as a follow-up to our first layout The Cawood Wistow & Selby Light Railway. We learned a lot with this early model, mainly to build something small enough to be erected at home. Unless you are a wow on the exhibition circuit, you'll not get to play trains if it won't. Nor will there be the chance to really test the layout to work out all the bugs. We also knew that the whole thing would have to fit in the back of a Mk1 Ford Fiesta. All this placed significant restrictions on the model, but as it turned out, they probably made it more successful. An early decision was that we wanted to do something industrial. At the time, shows were full of country branch lines and having just built one, we fancied something different. The plan is based on a GWR station found in a magazine, but re-worked to change all the proportions. You can see that the platforms should be where the quayside is for example, and we added an extra siding. Anyway, let me take you for a tour where I'll try to answer many of the questions we used to be asked at shows. All the buildings, with the exception of a Ratio hut, are scratchbuilt. We've used Daler board card covered with Slater's Plastikard. Our warehouses are imposing because that's what real ones tend to be. Modellers used to be very keen to build tiny warehouses, but there's no need to be scared of big buildings. Mock them up with cereal packet card and then live with them for a while to see if they look right. The stone warehouse is loosely based on one found in a book on the Kennet & Avon canal, and the brick one is Gloucester Docks. Melbridge Dock dates from an era when your choice of RTR wagons was very limited, and most of those needed extensive work to bring them up to scratch. Consequently, you'll see the products of Parkside everywhere. This wagon though is a Keyser plastic kit - and it's the very first wagon I ever built. Since I didn't know about metal wheels, and couldn't afford them even if I did, it ran hopelessly. Sawn in half and poking out through the doorway, it's perfect to hide the fact the building is less than 5cm deep. A little layout needs detail, but since the space to fill isn't huge, you can afford the time to add it. Detailing is my favourite part of modelling anyway, so I went to town. Here we have a scratchbuilt hut inspired by one I spotted on Henry Hollingsworth's amazing 16mm L&B layout. The man eating his lunch actually has 4mm scale sandwiches on the paper beside him and he's feeding ducks on the water below. The harbourmaster's office is based on Weymouth and came from a plan in an old model railway magazine. Because of this, many people recognise it and enjoy it all the more because of this. The camera is a little cruel, but on the layout you don't notice the less than perfect cutting. At least I don't notice and everyone else is too polite to say anything. We both love boats, especially working boats and Clyde Puffers are our favourites. Early on we decided a Puffer was essential, so my dad scratchbuilt this one from balsa and plywood. The name is classic Neil Munro and the model based on a boat we found on the Crinan Canal. That vessel was called Auld Rekie, but later became The Vital Spark for a BBC TV series. The Puffer is a bit fragile, so is attached just before the show opens. On board are the crew from the 1970s BBC TV series, videos of which we watched many times while building the model. A few years later, Easdal joined the fleet based on another Puffer my dad had taken a trip on while on holiday. They let him steer it in a straight line (the safest way) for a while, so we were always going to have a second boat. This one has a full hull which meant I had to make a hole in the water. Don't do it kids - waterline models are much easier to use. Incidentally, the water is plaster, painted with Humbrol enamels and then given 7-8 coats of Ronseal yacht varnish. We carry some spray polish and give it a shine every morning as during the day, little fingers creep on to see if it's really wet! I can't get interested in coaches - they all look the same to my eye. However, this set are based on the real train found on the Devonport Dockyard Railway. This site was so large that to stop workers hanging on to wagons, they built a set of coaches. This is actually the second rake, the first having outside strapping which I though looked a bit fiddly to scratchbuild, and anyway, would be out of period. All the models are made from from Plastikard with Kenline whitemetal fittings and run on Bachmann wheels. With 3-link couplings and no brakes, the real things must have been interesting travel in. A fun feature is that on the compartment coach, there was a plate beside each door listing the ranks permitted to use it. One enjoyed an electric light powered by a battery under the seat and padded seats. Needless to say, there was also a lock on the door to keep the riff-raff out. As well as the wagons, most of the locos are kitbuilt. You simply couldn't buy industrial prototypes at the time. The Y7 is a Steve Barnfield kit, built by the man himself after mine was stolen on the way back from a show along with the rest of my stockbox, toolbox and camera bag. Steve helped me with the costings for the insurance claim, so I commissioned him to build the replacement model. I asked for it unpainted as I don't like running locos I don't have a hand in. The claim later formed the subject of my first article for BRM in 1997 so, depending on how much you like my writing, something good came out of it. We have far too many locos for the layout, because I enjoy building kits, so a display case was added on top of the fiddle yard so people could have a proper look as well as extending the display by a few feet. You can see a full listing here. Sadly, this box made the display too large for the Fiesta so we started to hire a small van. This wasn't ideal as it made us a more expensive prospect for exhibition managers, but the car with its less than 957cc engine was getting a bit tired. Later on, the model fitted into a Ford Escort, VW Type 2 camper, Peugeot 306 and Berlingo perfectly. That's one benefit of small layouts, they are easier to move. We do have some RTR stock. This Mainline 03 diesel always runs the first train of the day. It's a tradition with no real reason other than superstition. All the track is built using Code 75 rail soldered to PCB sleepers - cheap and flexible. We needed tight points to fit everything on the baseboard. Cobbled track just has a checkrail added and then Plastikard infill. Wagons generally stay on even though I see @AY Mod managed to nudge them off for the photo. The wagon turntables don't work, they were enough of a pain to build as it was, and I can't think of a realistic way to pull a wagon in to the warehouse. Cable shunting is fiddly and involves too much "hand of god" and no-one makes a working horse. Even if I solved these problems, OO wagons don't move with the right amount of weight so I'd spend an age joining cables to locos only for the wagon to wobble off the turntable unrealistically. There's also the matter of where it would go, on this layout, straight into the back of the control panel. The moment I spotted this Wills Finecast crane tank, I snapped it up. The model is very tail-heavy and also highly geared. I've not built another loco that will wheelie! One of the joys of this model is that you get to consider a whole host of interesting prototypes, most of which still aren't available ready to run. I'm a bit of snob, once a model is available RTR, the kit is retired to the display case to avoid "It it Bachmann mister" questions. People have paid to see something different is my opinion so, odd-ball locos are the way to go. It's not just locos either - at Tring show, one of the first visitors spotted the Puffer and gleefully informed us that Langley made a kit. He then asked when we would replace our model with the kit and wasn't impressed when I told he we wouldn't. There is nothing wrong with the Langley model, I've built one and it's superb and well worth the price, but we were happy with our boat and see no reason to change it. The conversation moved on and it became painfully apparent that the gentleman concerned memorised the adverts in his latest model railway magazines every month and could tell you the price of everything, but probably didn't know one end of a screwdriver from another. I'm a model maker first and foremost and see RTR models as raw material. I once caused apoplexy with a visitor by sawing the coupling off a new Standard tank so I could test it on the model to see how well it would shunt. Not for the Dock you understand, but a future layout. I even offered him the unwanted coupling, but this didn't seem to calm him down... Couplings are Sprat & Winkle Mk1's operated by permanent magnets under the track. The steel chains are from the EM gauge society and a lot easier than making your own. I like the Mk1 as it's quite a discrete coupling, but reliable and robust enough not to need tweaking before the show starts. While the finescale boys are resetting their AJ's first thing in the morning, I've got a mug of tea and am heading to the second-hand stall. My scruffy open wagon is a deliberately battered Cooper Craft kit filled with interesting detail. It lives in the front siding and the challenge is to shunt that siding over the weekend without pushing the scratchbuilt trolley off the end. Magnet positions were set using wagons, but then I added a few longer wheelbase vehicles and this make operation a little more interesting. Of course, since we have to run this thing for two days, this is important. We don't bother with a timetable, just putting wagons from a randomly made up train in the correct siding. No-one really notices that there's nothing more to it than this, but we don't get bored if there is plenty of chat, and that's important. We've even invited really keen visitors around the back to have a go at quiet times during a show and they seem to enjoy it. Who needs a massive space to build a satisfying model railway? It's one of the reasons people enjoy looking at the layout. Finally, a quick look in the fiddle yard - I know you've been craning your neck over the top of the display box to have a peek. It's nothing more sophisticated than a 3-way point operated with a switch box. Originally, we used a Peco point, but the Romford wheels didn't like it very much, so courage was summoned up to build our own, and to date, it's been perfectly reliable. I hope you've enjoyed your tour of Melbridge Dock. Please feel free to ask questions. If I'm honest, it's the chatting that I enjoy more than the operating! 58 8 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post ChrisMitchell Posted April 26, 2020 Popular Post Share Posted April 26, 2020 Looks like I've missed set up. Traffic problems on the way from the bedroom..... Here's my little contribution West End West End is the terminus of an imaginary branch line situated in the North West of England in the early to mid 1970s. It was built as an entry to the D&E Challenge competition organised by the Scalefour Society and Diesel and Electric Modellers United (DEMU). As such it is constructed to P4 standards, and is my first attempt at a complete layout, though I have had a couple of false starts. The chosen location harks back to my earliest memories of British Rail – summer Saturdays spent beside the line to Blackpool North, with a profusion of summer specials accelerating away from Poulton-le-Fylde. Unfortunately I have neither the time or space to re-create such scenes, so have had to resort to a fiction which at least allows me to “play” and run a few trains. In my fictional world, the line to West End survived the cuts of the 1960s owing to the presence of several freight customers, conveniently located off stage. The layout’s name is simply a reflection of a lack of imagination on my part when asked for a name by the competition organisers. 53 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Popular Post Alister_G Posted April 26, 2020 RMweb Gold Popular Post Share Posted April 26, 2020 Ladmalow Sidings. Here's a selection of black-and-white images from the layout: Al. 53 1 8 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Mr.S.corn78 Posted April 26, 2020 RMweb Gold Share Posted April 26, 2020 28 minutes ago, 43110andyb said: It was all going so well! A wiring fault in the fiddle yard???? Which idiot wired that up???? Oh it was me!!! No problem -at first glance it all looks on good order to me!!! I thought i could here a glass clinking sound coming from one of the stock boxes. 1 6 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Jonboy Posted April 26, 2020 RMweb Gold Share Posted April 26, 2020 Problem with such a high standard of layouts being shown today is I am struggling to get to the traders stands. 4 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold NHY 581 Posted April 26, 2020 RMweb Gold Share Posted April 26, 2020 17 minutes ago, Indomitable026 said: By chance I had a Lamb Madras last night too - the Mumbai Lounge did me proud. ENJOY... 1 14 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Indomitable026 Posted April 26, 2020 Popular Post Share Posted April 26, 2020 16 minutes ago, Alister_G said: Damian, what's that building with the chimneys in the middle of the picture, behind the shunter? I don't think I've ever seen it in other photos of BCB... Al. I submit my case M’ Lord - they just don’t exist. Here’s my Evidence... 18 1 2 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Popular Post AY Mod Posted April 26, 2020 Author Moderators Popular Post Share Posted April 26, 2020 Hornby have been a great supporter of our event too with not only a donation but lending their marketing reach to the cause. I had chance to talk to Simon Kohler about what's been happening and some initiatives they are working on at present. 22 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Popular Post gwrrob Posted April 26, 2020 RMweb Gold Popular Post Share Posted April 26, 2020 Not far from where the days pasties are purchased for the event, Fogg's Deli in Station Road Brent ,is an overbridge that goes over the west of England mainline in South Devon. Here's what you might have seen in '47. 32 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Keith Addenbrooke Posted April 26, 2020 RMweb Premium Share Posted April 26, 2020 Sorry, should have asked at the desk on my way in, but I forgot to pick up a programme - does anyone know what time does the show close? There’s a lot to get through, and the show keeps growing every time I look? How long have we got - I have to nip out for half an hour. Apologies if this has been asked and answered already - I was standing too far away (2m) to hear the answer. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators AY Mod Posted April 26, 2020 Author Moderators Share Posted April 26, 2020 Thank you to Heljan too for their wonderful support for this weekend - I talked to Ben Jones earlier this week. 6 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium 2ManySpams Posted April 26, 2020 RMweb Premium Share Posted April 26, 2020 2 hours ago, Mark Forrest said: Just to top up on the full English that you had at the Lethbridge? Something to have before 11ses, which are a warm up to pasty and pie at lunchtime. 6 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Popular Post PMP Posted April 26, 2020 RMweb Premium Popular Post Share Posted April 26, 2020 (edited) ALBION YARD Just got here, 100 miles into the journey and the hire vans dpf has decided to work this time, so I’ve not had to call them at 0700 to have that ‘discussion’, where they tell you they’ve had problems all week with it, but it went ok yesterday. However, having hired from them before, and them knowing that I was exhibiting 170 miles away on a one day show, they allocated it to me anyway. But the traffic A46 M42 M5 has been horrendous. So we’re late. Which was nice. So, having got here it’s time to put Albion Yard up and the baseboard chassis is erected first. Going back to 2011 for a minute or two, being 54” off the ground it’s already attracting comments whilst it’s being assembled. Why’s it so high, you can’t see it... It was tested yesterday so once the chassis is up the track is tested again in DC mode and the track cleaned. The cleaning also attracts comments, depending on which is to hand first, either plasweld or mek is used for first clean on Tamiya cotton buds. Oh you can’t do that a helpful adviser will advise. That’s a pity, because, I can, I do, and, I am. Edited April 26, 2020 by PMP 33 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Popular Post Metr0Land Posted April 26, 2020 RMweb Gold Popular Post Share Posted April 26, 2020 I've managed to plonk a bit of track on the baseboards with some stock and buildings just to test the general feel of things. Time for a cuppa. 27 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Popular Post Graham_Muz Posted April 26, 2020 RMweb Gold Popular Post Share Posted April 26, 2020 Well now that I have managed to sort out the catering manager at this end (I gave a myself a good talking to) and breakfast has now finally appeared, I thought I would post about my other layout Fisherton Sartum with a couple of pictures (copyright and courtesy C Nevard) and a video. I've never not taken two layouts to the same virtual show before... Fisherton Sarum is A Southern Railway MPD layout, using Salisbury (as it has a family connection) as the inspiration, and the basis for the structures on the layout. Set in the period 1946 to 1949. It enables the exhibiting of a large and varied range of Southern locomotives and rolling stock from the period. The name comes from the fact I wanted to retain the link to Salisbury without actually calling it Salisbury. The current station at Salisbury, to differentiate it from Salisbury Milford (later closed to passengers and kept solely for goods traffic) was originally called Salisbury Fisherton as it is located on Fisherton Street, with the original pre 1901 shed called Fisherton shed. Old Sarum, of course, is the famous hill fort and Roman centre forming part of the origin of Salisbury. The key elements taken from Salisbury were as follows: Coal Stage and ramp, Turntable positioning relative to coal stage and water tower, Substantial water tower building with stores and engineman dormitories below, LSWR design style of shed albeit reduced from ten roads to four, Slightly elevated running lines and siding at the rear of the scene. The shed itself reduced in size has been transposed to the east and is accessed by a kick back arrangement rather than a fan of sidings to balance the space utilised and enables baseboards of 3ft depth to be utilised. The up and down running lines at the rear of the layout allow main line trains to pass the shed in the background. Locomotives arrive and depart the shed either from or to take over trains on the main line. Also coal, ash and other shed supply wagons are shunted within the shed too. 42 7 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Stubby47 Posted April 26, 2020 RMweb Gold Share Posted April 26, 2020 51 minutes ago, Clive Mortimore said: Sorry I am late. It was getting a parking space for the 'orses. Lionel Jefferies merges with Tommy Cooper to play trains - wonderful 4 1 5 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Popular Post Alister_G Posted April 26, 2020 RMweb Gold Popular Post Share Posted April 26, 2020 Ladmanlow Sidings. Some of the details on the layout. All the buildings, walls and structures are scratchbuilt from styrene card, strip and rod. I paint using Humbrol Acrylics, and use a palette of three Humbrol weathering powders for stock, Rust, Dark Earth and Smoke. Al 36 5 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Popular Post gwrrob Posted April 26, 2020 RMweb Gold Popular Post Share Posted April 26, 2020 I'm told on a regular basis that a pannier never offends so enjoy a Bachmann 64xx on a stopping train. 34 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium 2ManySpams Posted April 26, 2020 RMweb Premium Share Posted April 26, 2020 1 hour ago, Indomitable026 said: Well we’ve set Black Country Blues up in record time - Andy York was on hand to capture the first workings, one of which would you believe, was from St Blazey... I saw some members wearing masks earlier - you’ll need them in a bit... You had the curry again last night didn't you? Must say this was the quickest and easiest BCB setup we've ever done. 3 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium St Enodoc Posted April 26, 2020 RMweb Premium Share Posted April 26, 2020 45 minutes ago, Phil Parker said: Melbridge Dock Built by Phil and Brian Parker Gauge: OO Size: 9ft by 2ft (6ft scenic section) Era: Late 50s to mid 60s Nice to see that again PHil. 2 6 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium 2ManySpams Posted April 26, 2020 RMweb Premium Share Posted April 26, 2020 56 minutes ago, Alister_G said: Damian, what's that building with the chimneys in the middle of the picture, behind the shunter? I don't think I've ever seen it in other photos of BCB... Al. There's absolutely nothing there to see. Probably just a localised aberration on the photo. 1 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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