john w Posted February 3, 2015 Share Posted February 3, 2015 really enjoyed your loftus road layout at Stafford. some really great weathered stock.the layouts detailing was excellent, and I was very impressed with the signal gantries.i was at the show with neil who owns werrington road and he like myself thought the engineering wagons looked great, infact I have been on my layout today weathering my own fleet of wagons.the Stafford show was excellent and iam now looking forward to the Doncaster show. regards. john. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium James Makin Posted February 4, 2015 Author RMweb Premium Share Posted February 4, 2015 really enjoyed your loftus road layout at Stafford. some really great weathered stock.the layouts detailing was excellent, and I was very impressed with the signal gantries.i was at the show with neil who owns werrington road and he like myself thought the engineering wagons looked great, infact I have been on my layout today weathering my own fleet of wagons.the Stafford show was excellent and iam now looking forward to the Doncaster show. regards. john. Thanks John! Pete did a terrific job on the signal gantries and we're really getting there with the weathered stock now - takes a while to get things done but starting to have some long rakes of weathered wagons forming! Got a few more OBAs in the works right now to extend that engineering train. I also picked up some orange RMC 'JGA' wagons at Warley last year so the next job is toning down these luminous coloured beauties! Hoping to share some pics of the weekend soon when I get a spare moment 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
South-East Rail Posted February 4, 2015 Share Posted February 4, 2015 Hoping to share some pics of the weekend soon when I get a spare moment Looking forward to it! Ed Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swifty11 Posted February 4, 2015 Share Posted February 4, 2015 Hia James! Pleasure to meet you on Saturday and great fun playing on the layout (even if the Hornby 60s didn't like me!!) certainly was annoyed at myself for not bringing to new toys for a play! I have some (rubbish) pictures on my iPhone and a bit of video footage, apologie I couldn't say good bye but it was a very hectic day! Thanks to all the Loftus road team for a great show and for letting me have a go 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benjamin Brady Posted February 5, 2015 Share Posted February 5, 2015 Saw your excellent layout on Saturday at Stafford, however within the group I attended someone noticed that the Elecrostars were running on battery power. So I apologise if this has already been covered (I have scanned preivious post) , but what has happened to the third rail? Benjamin Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium James Makin Posted February 5, 2015 Author RMweb Premium Share Posted February 5, 2015 Saw your excellent layout on Saturday at Stafford, however within the group I attended someone noticed that the Elecrostars were running on battery power. So I apologise if this has already been covered (I have scanned preivious post) , but what has happened to the third rail? Benjamin Haha we were worried about this and then suprised how few people commented on the lack of third rail over the weekend! We found the original third rail was too high so kept fouling on low wagons like the Dapol container twins, so we'd decided to relay this much lower, but what with extending the layout and building new scenics like the petrol station, it fell by the wayside in the rush to get the layout done for Stafford! Hopefully we'll now get a chance to re-lay this across the extended layout in time for our next show in Salisbury during May! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benjamin Brady Posted February 5, 2015 Share Posted February 5, 2015 Hi, Thanks for the reply, a good reason really to be getting rid of the 3rd rail, I look forward to seeing the layout hopefully again in the flesh with the 3rd rail reinstated. It was nice to see though that you still had the units out and excellent work with them and the layout itself. Benjamin Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
markgillum Posted February 6, 2015 Share Posted February 6, 2015 HI, Superb layout,very inspiring. Do you have any more early construction images of the layout inc baseboards,track laying, scenery etc. Keep up the excellent work. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
class"66" Posted February 6, 2015 Share Posted February 6, 2015 Looking forward to another modelling update James cheers neil. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Humbolt136 Posted February 10, 2015 Share Posted February 10, 2015 Wow hat a model! The world need more models like this! The detail is absurd! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harry Lime Posted February 10, 2015 Share Posted February 10, 2015 HI, Superb layout,very inspiring. Do you have any more early construction images of the layout inc baseboards,track laying, scenery etc. Keep up the excellent work. Not sure if you have gone back to page 2 post 40, there are the details of the building of the baseboards and additional scenics are scattered (if you'll pardon the pun) throughout the rest of this topic. If you want to know any specific aspects of the layout, PM me and I'll try to answer as best I can. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Popular Post James Makin Posted March 7, 2015 Author RMweb Premium Popular Post Share Posted March 7, 2015 (edited) So it feels like a long time since the Stafford show but work and jetting off to Iceland (hard life you know) got in the way, here's some pictures of the weekend better late than never... Loftus Road by Worthing MRC by jamesmakin2002, on Flickr Being the end of January and being 'oop North, it was absolutely freezing for us soft Southerners but the trip was made and we arrived in one piece. The layout was much bigger in extended form, and with all our extra boards, stock and support stuff, we realised our usual low-top short wheelbase Transit doesn't quite cut the mustard any more! With my orange ASBO just minutes away from being fired up for an impromptu visit Northwards, we fortunately managed to fit everything in the small van and Mike's spacious Qashqai. This meant I could sit in the back and have a cheeky nap amongst the piles of Class 66 locomotives! The journey was the furthest we've taken Loftus Road, with many hours on the road leading to varied discussions including Red Kites and the new Focus RS and Civic Type R and including a stop at the amazing Beaconsfield M40 services (a roadside Dominos and Wetherspoons, what next?!) - and being texted a heads-up by the van occupants on the contents of Bescot Yard! We set up the layout and then went for an all-you-can-eat Chinese on the Friday night, the highlight being the serve-yourself Mr Whippy ice cream machine - the stuff of dreams. Anyway, back to model railways and we had the new scenic boards to show off - you've all seen the Petrol Station hogging the limelight but here's is the other end - Pete Hollman's amazing scratchbuilt Earls Court! Loftus Road by Worthing MRC by jamesmakin2002, on Flickr Pete built the structure entirely from scratch using varying plastics carefully bent and mounted to perspex - and really looking the part, making a great 'book-end' for the scenic boards. Pete's also tackled a Homebase and another set of office buildings, inspired by the setup at the real Kensington Olympia. Loftus Road by Worthing MRC by jamesmakin2002, on Flickr So it came to opening time, and it got very busy indeed! We had at least three deep at one point, that's a first for Loftus Road! Mark Stevens (left, in the grey) controls the southbound trains while Chris Sweeney (far right, in purple) commands the northbound services. Loftus Road by Worthing MRC by jamesmakin2002, on Flickr There was the odd gremlin with the DCC system on the Saturday leading to the below scene with Pete in the centre there!! Loftus Road by Worthing MRC by jamesmakin2002, on Flickr Time was spent fixing this on Saturday night, with the very accommodating Stafford Railway Circle security team allowing us to stay a tad later, and then recommending us to the fantastic Ashiana curry house - leading to the cheese-fuelled scenes below - Loftus Road on tour by jamesmakin2002, on Flickr We've been to many a curry house but the Ashiana http://www.ashianastafford.co.uk/ wasa breath of fresh air - greeted and served by a very cheeky bunch of Stafford locals there was great food, plenty of banter through the night and oodles of customer service, definitely a 5-star recommendation from us! We've already talked about eating there after a day out visiting Stafford show next year. Special note must be made of the brown drink to the top left - the "River Trent" cocktail favoured by Loftus gangmember Chris, containing Coke and Fanta if I remember correctly. And on the way back to our Premier Inn, I couldn't resist taking a photo of this! To all those who thought that the Loftus Road petrol prices were low haha! Loftus Road on tour by jamesmakin2002, on Flickr Most of us decided to go back to the Premier Inn anyway, except for Pete who ended up having a late night 'conversation' with a security guard while trying to innocently view some Honda Civics at the huge nearby car supermarket! Sunday was particularly enjoyable as the layout had settled down and running very sweetly indeed. The new 18-road fiddle yard was being fully utilised with some long rakes including the orange RMC JGA rake - both Pete and myself have double figures of these and even the heavyweight Hornby Class 60 couldn't pull the full 25+ wagon train! Loftus Road by Worthing MRC by jamesmakin2002, on Flickr Over on the North side of Loftus Road with the petrol station, this has been fully integrated into the layout and ready for a full London street scene to develop around this - quite literally, watch this space... Loftus Road by Worthing MRC by jamesmakin2002, on Flickr Eagle-eyed viewers may also notice the alien building site scene on the front - why has this not been mentioned before? Well, on the front section I'm actually scratchbuilding something entirely different (and very Kensington) so my old building site scene was borrowed from another Worthing MRC layout to fill the big empty space. Underneath is a Kibri building but clad in my scratchbuilt soldered scaffolding and mounted into polyfiller bases with lots of building site details and sandwich bags for plastic sheeting! Believe it or not, I modelled this over 10 years ago; this pre-dates my old layout Wells Green TMD! Depending on how far I get with the replacement scenics, viewers at our upcoming Salisbury show may also get to view this too, but I promise the new buildings will be even more interesting when complete! So all in all, a fantastic weekend with loads of banter, great to catchup with old faces on the exhibition circuit and meet a load of RMWebbers as well - really good fun! A massive thanks to the Stafford Railway Circle for a great show and lovely hospitality. Cheers James Edited July 13, 2016 by James Makin 29 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
d winpenny Posted March 8, 2015 Share Posted March 8, 2015 Looking brilliant, David Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
class"66" Posted March 8, 2015 Share Posted March 8, 2015 Always enjoy looking at the modern image setup Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Seagull Posted March 9, 2015 Share Posted March 9, 2015 (edited) Mr Makin - perhaps that's not my best side Edited March 9, 2015 by Pete Seagull Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
EHertsGER Posted April 10, 2015 Share Posted April 10, 2015 So good it has me longing for the UK once more after 20 years here.... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium James Makin Posted April 16, 2015 Author RMweb Premium Share Posted April 16, 2015 Hi chaps, There's not been many updates of late but we're still hard at work on the layout ready for the next outing at Salisbury on May 9th/10th. The latest toy we've been playing with is our Eurostar! It looks pretty at home on Loftus Road but it's a bit too short at the moment and we're in the process of adding lighting and detailing before it'll get a weathering to tone it down a touch! If you hadn't yet seen, the latest news is that Loftus Road is in the current BRM! I've done a piece on the petrol station project, Andy Y took a few snaps as well and they've come out nicely! Cheers, James 14 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jack374 Posted April 16, 2015 Share Posted April 16, 2015 Hi chaps, There's not been many updates of late but we're still hard at work on the layout ready for the next outing at Salisbury on May 9th/10th. The latest toy we've been playing with is our Eurostar! It looks pretty at home on Loftus Road but it's a bit too short at the moment and we're in the process of adding lighting and detailing before it'll get a weathering to tone it down a touch! 18 coaches with full interior decor, dcc sound throughout the train, fully DCC controlled pan(s) and occasional third rail flashes I take it? Great work as always, Jack. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
class"66" Posted April 17, 2015 Share Posted April 17, 2015 Congrats on getting into the mag :locomotive: Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harry Lime Posted April 17, 2015 Share Posted April 17, 2015 18 coaches with full interior decor, dcc sound throughout the train, fully DCC controlled pan(s) and occasional third rail flashes I take it? Great work as always, Jack. Blimey, 'e don't wont much do 'ee guv'nor... 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harry Lime Posted April 24, 2015 Share Posted April 24, 2015 Over the past two nights we have been encouraging some of our other club members to "have a go" at DCC. In order to do so, we found some DCC-enabled steam locomotives ("Wellington" and "City of Sheffield") - something to do with comfort zones apparently. This seemed to be fairly successful and the newly trained members were relatively happy with what they had learned. However, we realised that we may need to turn these locos around at some point. This led Mr Makin to state "we could put a turntable in!" "Where?" said Pete and me. "Where the petrol station is now", came the far too quick response from James... For avid fans of James' petrol station, watch this space... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium James Makin Posted April 24, 2015 Author RMweb Premium Share Posted April 24, 2015 Further to Chris' post above, some readers might be surprised to learn that this beauty is actually mine! With one of my dirtiest secrets revealed, I may as well come clean on my guilty pleasure - GWR steam locos! This will become 5051 'Earl Bathhurst' as per Didcot preservation condition from some time back, helping relive nostalgia from Sundays spent hanging around Oxfordshire location. It's not the first GWR steamer in my collection and it won't be the last, but normal service will resume once I've powered through the shame! 10 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium James Makin Posted May 8, 2015 Author RMweb Premium Share Posted May 8, 2015 Just a quick note to say that we'll be at the Salisbury show this weekend - http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/98991-salisbury-south-wilts-railway-society/&do=findComment&comment=1881713 http://www.sswrs.org.uk/index.html Come and say hello! Cheers, James Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Joseph_Pestell Posted May 8, 2015 RMweb Gold Share Posted May 8, 2015 Just a quick note to say that we'll be at the Salisbury show this weekend - http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/98991-salisbury-south-wilts-railway-society/&do=findComment&comment=1881713 http://www.sswrs.org.uk/index.html Come and say hello! Cheers, James I had been hoping to go to Wilton, mainly to see Loftus Road. But probably won't be able to as a lot going on: work and elections. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Popular Post James Makin Posted May 14, 2015 Author RMweb Premium Popular Post Share Posted May 14, 2015 (edited) Here's a few snaps from our latest exhibition at Salisbury this weekend just gone - Loftus Road by Worthing MRC by jamesmakin2002, on Flickr A very enjoyable show with a friendly atmosphere, some nice layouts and superb catering! Following on from the learnings at Stafford we hired a massive long wheelbase van - a nice big Enterprise jobbie on a '15' plate, less than 400 miles on the clock! We went down on the Friday evening, set up the layout and then proceeded to check out the local chippie and enjoyed a good sausagefest. Scratchbuilt Electrostar by James Makin by jamesmakin2002, on Flickr Saturday morning and all was running very well - it paid to take the extra time aligning the boards just right, and set ourselves up for a weekend of great running with no issues. Loftus Road by Worthing MRC by jamesmakin2002, on Flickr Here we can see some of the steel wagons running underneath Pete Hollman's fantastic scratchbuilt recreation of Earls Court. As expected, I'd not got round to finishing off my slice of West London on the front board so it was substituted by my old building site - please forgive any inaccuracies as a much younger self made this over ten years ago and I've learnt a lot since! Loftus Road by Worthing MRC by jamesmakin2002, on Flickr Graffiti artists have also visited since Stafford...I wonder who that could've been..? Loftus Road by Worthing MRC by jamesmakin2002, on Flickr The fiddle yard was loaded with myself and Pete's favourite toys - we did have a good 'Duff' session going on as well! Loftus Road by Worthing MRC by jamesmakin2002, on Flickr Loftus Road by Worthing MRC by jamesmakin2002, on Flickr Come Saturday night we ventured out into the wilderness of Salisbury, and went for an all-you-can-eat curry - just prior to this we had been held up by a chap trying to hopelessly park his car, and firing off all sorts of insults we then had to queue in line next to him at the buffet! Following this we decided to head down to the station to check out the South West Trains depot, with an impressive selection of 158s and 159s stabled on the Saturday evening. Salisbury Depot May 2015 by James Makin by jamesmakin2002, on Flickr The accommodation was nice - a family-run B&B in an ancient house, great service and hospitality. I couldn't resist taking a photograph of this light switch bodgeathon - this reminds me of some of my modelling efforts! Loftus Road on tour by jamesmakin2002, on Flickr Sunday came and offered the chance for more shots of stock running on the layout - here is my 47712 Artemis approaching the station with a Virgin Cross Country service from Brighton. 47712 by James Makin by jamesmakin2002, on Flickr Loftus Road by Worthing MRC by jamesmakin2002, on Flickr Mesh OBA by James Makin by jamesmakin2002, on Flickr It was also nice to get some wagons running around - I've snapped my mesh-sided OBA and one of my battered old MFAs - MFA Wagon by James Makin by jamesmakin2002, on Flickr I tried running my 42-wagon HAA coal wagon set, using the old Hornby hoppers - these are completely ex-swapmeet and in awful condition with plastic wheels everywhere - they need a lot of rebuilding in the future! Fortunately items like the First Great Western HST have settled down and become regular reliable members of the fleet. FGW HST by James Makin by jamesmakin2002, on Flickr Overall - a really enjoyable weekend away and a big thanks to the Salisbury and South Wilts Railway Society for their hospitality throughout the show. Now on to finishing off all those scenic projects on Loftus, ready for our outings in 2016! Cheers, James Edited July 13, 2016 by James Makin 37 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now