Lapford in N gauge.

[Ramblin Rich]

Good to catch up today Nick. You had the advantage of knowing my picture but I didn't know who to call to! Moors View really is excellent, I said as much to the owner but it is so atmospheric and positively chilly looking at it! A good idea to make it a single unit so there's no join in the scenery.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[jcredfer]

What a wonderful combination of great modelling skills and the eye of a photographic artist.  Thanks to both of you for a delightful experience.  Cold, whites and greys, in open countryside, understated, but totally felt!  Been there, like most of us and the brain says - shudder!!

 

Thanks to both of you for a reminder of colder times...   Brrr!!!.

 

Julian

 

[Cowley 47521]

10 hours ago, Ramblin Rich said:

Good to catch up today Nick. You had the advantage of knowing my picture but I didn't know who to call to! Moors View really is excellent, I said as much to the owner but it is so atmospheric and positively chilly looking at it! A good idea to make it a single unit so there's no join in the scenery.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Morning Rich, great to meet you too and it definitely was an advantage knowing what you looked like already!

I just passed that on to Paul and he said “Wow, can you thank him from me please Nick for his kind words & excellent photography on rmweb.”

 

10 hours ago, jcredfer said:

What a wonderful combination of great modelling skills and the eye of a photographic artist.  Thanks to both of you for a delightful experience.  Cold, whites and greys, in open countryside, understated, but totally felt!  Been there, like most of us and the brain says - shudder!!

 

Thanks to both of you for a reminder of colder times...   Brrr!!!.

 

Julian

 

 

Again thanks Julian. He really appreciated that.

The punters seemed to really like it and once we got into the rhythm of putting on some entertainment (for the first time in two and half years!) everything went really well I must say.

[TT100 Diesels]

Hi Cowley 47521, 

Thanks for the link to your other thread on RF, I have ploughed through it all, the first 20 ish pages were a great how I built Lapford.

 

I love your attitude to modelling, hmmm, I need an "xyz", hmmm, so I will build one then. Superb. Also, your observational modelling is spot on. Loved all the back story as well, justification of traction used and train formations etc. Really brought it to life.

 

Really top notch stuff. Take a bow.

 

Cheers

 

TT100 Diesels

[Cowley 47521]

On 11/07/2023 at 21:52, TT100 Diesels said:

Hi Cowley 47521, 

Thanks for the link to your other thread on RF, I have ploughed through it all, the first 20 ish pages were a great how I built Lapford.

 

I love your attitude to modelling, hmmm, I need an "xyz", hmmm, so I will build one then. Superb. Also, your observational modelling is spot on. Loved all the back story as well, justification of traction used and train formations etc. Really brought it to life.

 

Really top notch stuff. Take a bow.

 

Cheers

 

TT100 Diesels

 

Well that’s very nice of you and much appreciated. I’d really like to replace the photos that are missing in this thread but it feels like a mammoth amount of work to do, I’m not even sure what ones they are as it was a while ago that I posted them.

 

 I do need to give the layout a tidy up and repair a few things at some point so I’ll add a few photos then.

 

Nick

[Cowley 47521]

Update time.

 

Well I have pulled my finger out and repaired a few things on the railway over the last couple of months.

 

Honestly you really do have to keep on top of the maintenance because it starts to get a bit overwhelming if you’re not careful! I snapped a load of wires on my telegraph poles a while ago and trying to repair them got me wondering how I found the patience to do them in the first place..?

 

The loco fleet has been steadily expanding over the last few months and the most recent addition has been a GF class 25 which I think looks very at home on the layout.

 

In other news Lapford is hopefully going to be attending the Exeter model railway show in June next year for a one time only appearance and I’m slightly cr@pping myself at the thought of it but the Moors View team have all operated it and we should be able to do it justice. 😉

 

I made a couple of YouTube videos over the weekend, so if you like that kind of they’re here:

 

 

Over and out (for now).

 

Nick

[Gloucester Road]

I enjoyed watching those.

[Ramblin Rich]

1 hour ago, Cowley 47521 said:

Update time.

 

.....

In other news Lapford is hopefully going to be attending the Exeter model railway show in June next year for a one time only appearance and I’m slightly cr@pping myself at the thought of it but the Moors View team have all operated it and we should be able to do it justice. 😉

......
Over and out (for now).

 

Nick

That's great news if it goes ahead!

I'll book a space by the barrier straight away 😉

[Cowley 47521]

10 hours ago, Ramblin Rich said:

That's great news if it goes ahead!

I'll book a space by the barrier straight away 😉

I must admit that I am slightly cacking it…

[Cowley 47521]

This week I have been mostly messing around with parcels stock…

 

I keep hitting eBay after a couple of glasses of wine and buying Big Four vans to add to my late 1960s era rake of vans. It’s something I can run on Moors View and Lapford (well that’s how I’m justifying it anyway). Here’s a couple of post weathering photos:

 

 

 

There’s all sorts in there, although I could really do with a Siphon and something LNER for the full variety.

[Calnefoxile]

16 hours ago, Cowley 47521 said:

This week I have been mostly messing around with parcels stock…

 

I keep hitting eBay after a couple of glasses of wine and buying Big Four vans to add to my late 1960s era rake of vans. It’s something I can run on Moors View and Lapford (well that’s how I’m justifying it anyway). Here’s a couple of post weathering photThere’s all sorts in there, although I could really do with a Siphon and something LNER for the full variety.

 

The Lima Syphon is actually a pretty good model although you'll need to change the Bogies for the Dapol B-Set ones, @grahame has done an article on this very subject a few times. I've done it on a few of mine and they look much better for it.

 

Cheers

 

Neal.

[Steven B]

22 hours ago, Calnefoxile said:

The Lima Syphon is actually a pretty good model although you'll need to change the Bogies for the Dapol B-Set ones

 

Using the Dapol Siphon chassis (2A-000-020) is an alternative - for around the same price as a pair of B-Set bogies you get a nicer underframe.

 

 

Steven B.

[Cowley 47521]

39 minutes ago, Steven B said:

 

Using the Dapol Siphon chassis (2A-000-020) is an alternative - for around the same price as a pair of B-Set bogies you get a nicer underframe.

 

 

Steven B.

Interesting, thanks for that. I’ve seen these for sale and was wondering about getting one. There’s plenty of cheap Siphons on eBay and you can get them unpainted so I might try and tackle this as at some point because they also ran on the Barnstaple line in BR blue days.

 

@Calnefoxile - I just tried searching that thread but no joy. Would you be able to give me a link possibly?

 

Nick

[Steven B]

Watch out for Siphons! The Dapol Siphon is the earlier outside framed version - non of these survived to received BR blue. The Lima model is the later inside frame vehicle which did.

 

Steven B

[Ramblin Rich]

Any ex-SR vans, BR GUV and CCT, outside frame Siphon G and 50ft LMS full brakes are suitable for 1970s and early 1980s. There were Siphon Gs with ETH fittings used for newspapers, usually ran down to Barnstaple on a train around 03.00 from Exeter.

There was also a set of Fruit D vans specifically kept for Exeter to Barnstaple parcels traffic labelled as such, with TDB (ie engineers) numbers. Bit strange but a distinctive feature.

 

Edit: I can see you have a Fruit D in the rake already 😁

Edited November 22, 2023 by Ramblin Rich
'cos yeah

[Calnefoxile]

On 21/11/2023 at 13:34, Cowley 47521 said:

Interesting, thanks for that. I’ve seen these for sale and was wondering about getting one. There’s plenty of cheap Siphons on eBay and you can get them unpainted so I might try and tackle this as at some point because they also ran on the Barnstaple line in BR blue days.

 

@Calnefoxile - I just tried searching that thread but no joy. Would you be able to give me a link possibly?

 

Nick

 

Nick,

 

I think it was either in an NGS Journal or one of @grahame latest tomes of wisdom, in fact I think it's in his latest one 🤔🤔 British N Gauge Railway Modelling (issue No.4) 

 

Cheers

 

Neal.

[PaulCheffus]

Hi

 

This is my conversion of the Lima Siphon to the version with the side vents.

 

 

Bogies are from the 2mm SA and the side vents were from Etched Pixels.

 

Cheers

 

Paul

Edited November 23, 2023 by PaulCheffus

[Cowley 47521]

Well folks. I have fired the starting gun this week and I’ve tentatively put Lapford on the market (the layout that is, not the actual village).

 

We need the spare room emptying and finally the large shed in the garden that I had built about eight years ago is about to become available. Being 6 foot wide though means that there’s no way I could get the layout in there and still be able to walk down both sides which I’d need to be able to do.

 

In actual fact, I’ve been wanting to start a couple of new railway projects for a while though now so I’m more than happy to see this go to a good home and me make a fresh start (I will obviously be keeping all of my rolling stock, vehicles etc). 
 

Hopefully I’ll be getting together with the lads on Monday for an operating session so I’ll post some photos. We’ve had to cancel me going to the Exeter show in June though unfortunately as we’ve made the mother of all cock-ups and ended up double booking myself to go to Ireland that weekend. Most embarrassing!

 

Nick

[Cowley 47521]

Morning everyone.

 

I’ve made what might be a final little video here:

 

[Cowley 47521]

Well we have achieved a sale (for an undisclosed amount that hopefully we’re all happy with) to a group from Okehampton called the Exeter Junction model railway club:

Exeter junction model railway club
07703 310436

 

A couple of the guys came out last week and are really looking forward to taking it on. I’m obviously really pleased as they’re local to me and they’re planning on taking it out on the circuit at some point which was exactly what I was hoping to achieve. It also means that I can still see it now and again hopefully so it’s all worked out really well.

 

 I made a little video earlier explaining things:

 

 

[Flying Pig]

The 'For Sale' video popped up on my Youtube feed this morning for some reason. I hadn't been paying attention to this thread and it's always a bit of an 'oh no' moment when a layout you like is put up for sale.  Glad to hear it had a good outcome.

[Cowley 47521]

On 26/04/2024 at 08:38, Flying Pig said:

The 'For Sale' video popped up on my Youtube feed this morning for some reason. I hadn't been paying attention to this thread and it's always a bit of an 'oh no' moment when a layout you like is put up for sale.  Glad to hear it had a good outcome.

Thanks for that. 👍

 

Yes it’s now set up in its new home. I must say that it’s quite a stressful experience moving a layout that was never really designed to be moved. However it did actually go very smoothly all things considered and once we’d got everything levelled* and all the wiring connected the only thing that wouldn’t play was one of the station lamps on Eggesford.

 

*The room at my house that the railway was in had quite a slope to the floor being an old house and all that. So when we set it up in their industrial unit I couldn’t work out why despite taking that into account and getting the whole thing level one of the wheels was off the ground. Turns out that their flop had even more of a slope than mine did!

[Flying Pig]

21 minutes ago, Cowley 47521 said:

Thanks for that. 👍

 

Yes it’s now set up in its new home. I must say that it’s quite a stressful experience moving a layout that was never really designed to be moved. However it did actually go very smoothly all things considered and once we’d got everything levelled* and all the wiring connected the only thing that wouldn’t play was one of the station lamps on Eggesford.

 

*The room at my house that the railway was in had quite a slope to the floor being an old house and all that. So when we set it up in their industrial unit I couldn’t work out why despite taking that into account and getting the whole thing level one of the wheels was off the ground. Turns out that their flop had even more of a slope than mine did!

 

I was once part of a very rapidly aborted scheme to build a layout in a cellar that had a floor with a profile like the Alps. That wasn't the reason we gave up, though: several sessions of scrubbing the walls that just generated more and more brick dust suggested it wasn't an ideal location for a layout.

[Cowley 47521]

2 hours ago, Flying Pig said:

 

I was once part of a very rapidly aborted scheme to build a layout in a cellar that had a floor with a profile like the Alps. That wasn't the reason we gave up, though: several sessions of scrubbing the walls that just generated more and more brick dust suggested it wasn't an ideal location for a layout.

Oh that doesn’t sound too good. 😄

 

In other news, I’m currently building a new cabin for Mrs C to move her pottery shenanigans into, thus releasing the 14 foot by 6 foot shed (that she’s currently using) for my future railway projects. The ideas so far being:

 

1) A section of the Waterloo - Exeter route in N gauge set in the 1980s, possibly featuring a disused Seaton Junction type arrangement. I’ve got most of the stock for this and a lot of ideas in my head.

 

2) An 0 gauge Scottish West Highland style garden layout with a terminus also in the shed (on a higher level than the N gauge) in conjunction with my friend Paul (who owns Moors View). We’ve already acquired our first loco and a couple of wagons for this project:

 

There’s a fairly substantial amount of groundwork’s that need doing first, but the plans are starting to come together bit

by bit and we’ve got a decent area of garden to work with, along with the use of a digger. 😉