Molinnis - Present Day Cornwall in N

[Revolution Ben]

 

Hello all,

 

A good debut for Nick's layout Molinnis at the March model railway show. Just a few electrical niggles, but broadly speaking trouble free so far!

 

As a taster, a class 67 arrives at the warehouse with a short freight.

 

 

More pics to follow.

 

Cheers

 

Ben A.

[Revolution Ben]

Hello again,

 

A few more pics now I've worked out how to resize them!

 

More activity outside the electrical good factory. This receives occasional van traffic.

 

 

A DBS 66 with a rake of CDA wagons rounds the curve by the disused dries....

 

 

Passing over the River Mol before joining the mainline at the junction.

 

 

A Kernow Dapol network rail bubble car adds some colour....

 

 

The operating team - from left to right Nick Dibben, John Ruff and Paul Churchill. All members of Northants and Cambs area group of the N Gauge Society.

 

 

Cheers

 

Ben A.

Edited March 1, 2014 by Ben A

[Revolution Ben]

All done! Toward the end there were a couple of electrical niggles largely down to poor contacts but Nick is going to add some extra power feeds to eliminate these.

 

Here a DBS 60 takes a rake of China Clay tanks over the River Mol onto the branch:

 

 

...and continues past the farm crossing:

 

 

While later another DBS 66 returns with more CDAs. Nick also has a rake of these in ECC blue livery, along with various other locos in Railfreight Sector and DMUSs in Regional Railways liveries so Molinnis can be operated in the sectorization era too.

 

 

I feel that I ought to clarify that while we NGS area group members are happy to help Nick exhibit the layout, apart from the baseboards which were built by John, our master carpenter, all the scenics and stock are entirely Nick's own work!

 

Cheers

 

Ben A.

Edited March 1, 2014 by Ben A

[Only-Me]

Great day out all, couple of niggles which I have no doubt will be fixed for the next excursion... Well done Nick.

[stivesnick]

Thanks to John, Paul+daughter and Ben for helping on the layout today.

 

The public spotted the alien and UFO, couple having a snog behind the garage and the shopping trolley. Nobody pointed out the owl box - it can be seen in the pictures on post 81.

 

Nick

[engage]

Cheers Ben,   very nice pics,     very nice layout and a very nice day out.

Considering it was the first time out the minor electrical fault (bad contact

through a couple of points on the factory branch) was not really worth a

mention.

 

Cheers

John

[stivesnick]

Some more photos from the March show - just to prove we did run passenger trains as well.

 

1) the operators "what does this switch do again?"

 

2) Passing local and cross-country trains - looks like wrong line running is in operation.

 

3) Close up of the Dapol Class 153s. At the start of the show the St Ives bay version was poorly but Paul managed to fix it, by the end the FGW one was a non-runner

 

4) Cross country train by the signal box - the signaller is about to get an unexpected visitor.

 

[Only-Me]

As you say nick, I still have no idea what all those switches do!! The discussion was who's tea was I drinking, and where do I put the bus!!

[roundhouse]

The finished layout looks very good and does capture the feel of the South West.

 

Look forward to seeing it in the flesh .

 

Ian

[engage]

Ref      #86  pic No 1,           Many more comments like that might find you carrying you own 

tackle in and out of the hall at the next exhibition Mr Stivesnick    :-)       and in any case

this bidirectional working can get very confusing as the man with a cup of coffee in the hand

will testify. 

 

Cheers

The Operators

Edited March 3, 2014 by engage

[Claude_Dreyfus]

I have been keeping an eye of this thread since it started. There are some extremely interesting techniques being put to use here that are acting as inspiration for my next project. I particularly like the housing estate; very well executed.

[stivesnick]

I have been keeping an eye of this thread since it started. There are some extremely interesting techniques being put to use here that are acting as inspiration for my next project. I particularly like the housing estate; very well executed.

Thanks Claude

 

The track plan lends itself to having a scenic feature in front of the tracks and a modern(ish) estate is something that is seldom modelled.

 

The buildings are Muswell Models resin kits, I brought them many years ago. Not sure if they are still trading, but there are not many modern house buildings available in N. I wanted kits to ensure consistency of the buildings.

 

The layout was very much trial and error - you will see from early photos that they moved around a little bit before they were finally stuck down.

 

The gardens were a case of think of something different to put in each one - so we have some sheds, a BBQ, new extension, vegetable patch and a rather overgrown garden.

 

Regards

 

Nick

[Revolution Ben]

Hi all,

 

In response to the comments about Nick's housing estate, here is another shot illustrating it. I did not upload this one originally because of the poor composition, but in the context of the discussion I thought it might be helpful.

 

 

I've always been a big fan of Andrew Gardner's excellent Muswell Models range and several of the buildings on Horseley Fields are his - including the station. I do hope they are still available.

 

Cheers

 

Ben A.

[jcmjcm]

I've always been a big fan of Andrew Gardner's excellent Muswell Models range and several of the buildings on Horseley Fields are his - including the station. I do hope they are still available.

Cheers

Ben A.

These and several other Muswell Models buildings now appear to be available from Peedie Models

http://www.peediemodels.com/proddetail.php?prod=PMM85015

 

No connection with this business.

[Claude_Dreyfus]

They do look very good and I too hope they are still available.

[The_Cuckoo]

It seems like no time at all when this thread started, its hard ot believe that was in 2012! I've really enjoyed following the progress. Excellent work chaps.  

[GF10K]

Mollinis looks great, Nick. Well done.

 

Look forward to seeing it at Warrington.

 

Geoff

[stivesnick]

Molinnis is at small local show next Saturday in SW London.

 

Holy Cross Church Hall, Motspur Park - 11.00-4.30. Exhibition is in support of charities that mum is involved in so could not refuse really!

 

From memory there is very limited parking on site, so best come by train to Motspur Park station (SWT Waterloo to Chessington / Epsom) which is only a few minutes walk away. Could also park at Tesco Shannon Corner on the A3, again a few minutes walk away.

 

A few additional trees added and a few more details have gone in. Plans to lengthen the fiddle yard are on hold until the new Peco setrack curved points come out. I did look at moving the existing points but this would only give me an extra CDA or 2, the curved points would allow trains up to 20 CDAs!

[stivesnick]

Having sorted out problems with transfer of pictures from camera to computer, here is a quick update.

 

The show at Motspur Park went very well, and the layout behaved itself once I sorted out a short caused by the boards being too close together.

 

A couple of photos:

 

 

Now that Civic Duties have finished, time for some modelling. First up is a Tomix bus. Although the front window is large and modern looking, the side window supports are rather heavy. So these have been cut away. The drivers side looks better than the door side. Green is original bus, red is modified. Need to think about painting decals etc.

 

 

Second project; the Regional Railways Class 150 has been to the Electra Graphics paint shop and emerged in FGW livery. First step was to paint around the doors as suggested. Bit difficult when the new livery is a changing colour. I used Humbrol 222 which was about right. To apply the new livery I tried doing it in sections and in 1 go. The sections were slightly easier. There was still a gap around the doors but hopefully the finished article is not too bad. Need to add varnish coat - would a matt finish be best?

 

 

[stivesnick]

Molinnis will be at the Ramsey (Cambs) show next Sunday. The venue is the Ramsey Rural Museum which has a large collection of old farm and household equipment - well worth a look if you are modelling a rural location in times past.

 

As for Molinnis, hope to have some new rolling stock for the layout.

 

Hope to see some of you there.

 

Nick

[Only-Me]

Hi Nick, good luck in Ramsey ive been missing all our outings recently but hopefully everything will settle down come September... The cl150 looks excellent...

[stivesnick]

Thanks Paul

 

The dummy RR Class 153 will be next into the paint shop. A class 150 + 153  would be a good summer branch line train.

 

Nick

[Revolution Ben]

Hi Nick

 

I'll see if I can make it next Sunday.  Molinnis is well worth coming to see!

 

cheers

 

Ben

[stivesnick]

Due to possible high winds and rain tomorrow, the show at the Ramsey Rural Museum has been cancelled. Some of the exhibits are located outside under canvas and the risk of damage was considered too high.

 

Was advised of the cancellation by the organiser this morning.

[stivesnick]

Some extra tracks have been added to the fiddle yard. A long siding, around 40 inches, in the "St Blazey" end and a shorter, suitable for a 3 car DMU at the Newquay end.

 

Picture shows the long siding with the new 1990s wagonload train. The first two wagons are repainted continental wagons for scrap traffic, the rest of the train are Bachmann items; Class 37, 3 x Tullis Russell hoppers and a Speedlink VGA.