00 Great Western ish Roundy Round

[sjrixon]

16 minutes ago, 5BarVT said:

That makes a neat brake van siding.

Paul.

Yup.. That's what we thought. And the extra baseboard really helped, need to play trains, I mean, run in a realistic and railway like manner tomorrow to test it all.. 

[5BarVT]

Testing is very important.

:-)

Paul.

[Graham T]

I think you’ll be glad of that extra siding and the added space in the yard.

 

[sjrixon]

What to do with a bank holiday weekend? 

 

We went to the Bristol exhibition and ended up buying a Double Fairlie..

 

I've now added a 009 loop over the fiddle yard and into what will be a bottom station..

 

 

 

 

 

[5BarVT]

39 minutes ago, sjrixon said:

We went to the Bristol exhibition and ended up buying a Double Fairlie..

I've now added a 009 loop over the fiddle yard and into what will be a bottom station..

Dangerous places, exhibitions!

Paul.

[MrWolf]

27 minutes ago, 5BarVT said:

Dangerous places, exhibitions!

Paul.

 

As are swap meets and collector's toy fairs. I only go to help a friend with his stall, (honest!) but it goes a long way to explaining how I have about twenty five locos for a single track branch line.

[sjrixon]

Very dangerous... I could have spent much more.

 

Really had a cracking day, some amazing 0 gauge GWR on display. 

[RJS1977]

I see the GWR station building you bought on Tuesday has also put in an appearance!  :-)

 

Personally I would have taken the narrow gauge right down to "ground level" to make transfer of goods from standard to narrow easier, but at least you still have the option of being able to unload from narrow into standard wagons (e.g. using tippers).

 

 

[RJS1977]

PS - that point nearest the GWR van appears to be straddling a board join - is there room for a point motor or have you got a crossmember underneath?

If there's a crossmember in the way, you may want to shorten the siding with the van on it slightly so that you can fit a surface mounted motor.

[sjrixon]

Richard - The idea is to continue down to the goods yard in the background. I've already cut the lower station board to allow the track to drop down. I wanted to keep the upper station as high as I could to be clear of the fiddle yard, which set how much height I could loose over the distance. Hence it's about 4.5cm off the deck. But actually, I think the difference in height really helps the front of the layout.

 

As for the point - Motor already in. The join may look like it's there, but it's not ;)

[sjrixon]

The narrow gauge has made it to ground level and we now have a transfer siding..

 

[sjrixon]

Sometimes it's a really challenge between what I want to do and of course what the kids want to do. We spent a couple of hours last night connecting up a hand held controller onto the 009, but I had to start the wiring at somepoint!

This morning I progressed with the engine shed and also relayed the track around it as it has been temporary. I think the shed does a pretty good job of hiding the fact the headshunt is on such a curve behind it.

Really need to think about the back boards and get some colour into the layout.

 

 

[RJS1977]

As the layout's "for the kids", it might be worth replacing the (static) water tank with a Dapol working one.

 

 

[sjrixon]

Nice.. But, they are not cheap! 

[RJS1977]

Cheaper than a double Fairlie ;-)

 

Of course, it's not something that has to be done right away. The existing one can sit there until money allows or someone has them on special offer.

 

And whilst I'm usually one of the first to jump on the "Why is everything so expensive?" bandwagon, I am a sucker for moving items.

I bought one for my father a couple of years ago and it was only lack of space on my own Wallingford layout that stopped me buying another one. (I'm sometimes tempted to add one to the Club layout as well...).

[sjrixon]

Should try a yard crane connected to a servo.... 

[MrWolf]

I still fancy building a 30 ton bogie iron Mink with a Tri-ang ducking giraffe mechanism inside it.

 

Seriously, I do...

 

I think that we all like things that work to some degree. I made sure that the water crane swivels on my Ratio example and the grindstone outside the platelayers hut does actually rotate.

 

Just because.

 

 

Seen on the left here in a temporary set up called: Stuff it, let's go to the pub.

[sjrixon]

And why not! 

[sjrixon]

What is the general opinion of the older Hornby Collets? I'm pretty sure I had a restaurant car too, but I can't find it right now. 

 

I used to run these 3 as part of the centenary rake, but I've got more than enough of those now to run a full rake. So these have just been sat in a box. 

 

[RJS1977]

I think they can be made presentable with a bit of work - although I haven't got round to doing that with mine yet.

Of course, being low-detail models (and pretty bulletproof), they're ideal for layouts operated by children (who aren't going to be worried too much about overscale roof ribs or incorrect ventilators).

Of course, on a continuous run layout, you need two opposing express takes anyway....

[The Johnster]

There is a traceable evolution of Hornby Colletts, with the very earliest dating back to Triang Hornby days.  These were a compo, brake third, and restaurant car with visible clip-on roofs, very crude moulded ends, and generic B1 bogies, and a rather odd yellow interpretation of cream in the livery.  They are probably a bit too basic and crude to be worth doing anything with, but are fine for an anklebiter's layout.  The next generation had a better finish and proper Collett 7' bogies, albeit not the very detailed ones that the curent Colletts have, and ISTR a new, better, body tooling with an integral roof and better ends.  They are still available I think in the Railroad range. The latest non-railroad ones are full-fat hi-fi and very good models indeed.

 

The earlier versions can be brought up a bit with painted interiors and window 'smoking' transfers.  They have painted white handrails on the interior of the corridor side windows and it's easy to remove the glazing piece and replace it, so that you can use a piece of plastic rod as the handrail, painted brown because it was varnished wood. 

[sjrixon]

Ah yes, the odd yellow ish ones. I've got another restaurant car that matches that description somewhere, it sits high on the bogies in comparison too. 

 

Did a quick scan on ebay, there are loads of them! So probably not worth running and not worth selling either!

 

I then fell into an abys of comet coach sides.. I could cut and shut them into something else ;)

[sjrixon]

Looking at the new Siphons coming out made me want to run a little rake of my own. 

 

Somehow I've 4 Hs. There is one mainline one, but with no couplings or transfers.

 

Always happy to put the full brake on the back. 

 

 

The new ones do look nice. 😀

[Jules]

That full brake is rather nice.  What is the origin of it?

[sjrixon]

Thanks, I'm rather proud of it. It's a K40. A comet brass sides conversion of an old Airfix B set coach.