Hornby Locomotion - are you building a layout?

[Fair Oak Junction]

Very nice! 👌

[Fair Oak Junction]

The NRM have got back to me with a list of NER drawings they have of the Gaunless Bridge, so I'll make a trip up there at some point to have a look at them.

[Fair Oak Junction]

So Locomotion/Active as preserved and as modelled is not as it would have appeared in service, but is it close to any of the other S&DR locomotives? Black Diamond, etc?

Or is it basically a Frankenstein's monster like Lion?

[Ohmisterporter]

At least when we read, "I am building an S & D based layout" they may actually mean the Stockton and Darlington rather than the usual S &DJR of the Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway. 

[Fair Oak Junction]

Briefly going back to the stagecoach question it's very much a question six of one, half dozen of the other. I've just had my Varney kit out, and it's.....okay. I'm sure it can be made up to be a lovely model, but it is super fiddly and suffers from a general lack of detail often inherent in whitemetal. Lots of flashing, enough to make even an old Warhammer model blush! And despite the box art, the four figures are all the exact same which won't give the nicest impression when finished. However it is an accurate representation of a classic Royal Mail stagecoach. IT does also come with transfers, but given they are probably at least 40 years old there is almost no chance they would be usable sadly.

 

The Wild West stagecoach Jason linked is a decent alternative and has the huge benefit of being far easier to get hold of! It would require body modification, but being a plastic kit that shouldn't be too hard. Suitable figures would also need to be sourced, which leads to the problems of to total lack of suitable figures in OO for the 1820/30s period.

 

As it stands I may not bother using my Varney coach and just keep the unbuilt kit as a bit of history.

[BarclayA]

After locomotion 1 was announced i quickly jumped on Internet researching the S and D line to see what could made as a convincing layout. I think the Gaunless bridge would make a great layout. 

I recently got a 3d printer and have been playing about printing some chaldrons and hopefully i,ll be able to 3d print the bridge aswell.  Although the quality of the printer isn't great. 

 

 

[xm607]

I have made a start with a small layout, the photos show the first drawing, then the basic board which was cut and placed upon three cross members, this will have the track laid on it before the further supporting surround is added. The track is Z gauge rail soldered to brass pins going through 8mm square pads, these represent the stone blocks used, which give a clear path for horses to pull stock. The last photo shows the 3D print of Derwent hauling a short train of early waggons, cast in resin from my master.

 

 

 

[Fair Oak Junction]

Excellent! That trackwork is looking very effective even at this stage.

I assume the Derwent is a Newman one? How easy did you find the valve gear to make?

[xm607]

8 hours ago, Fair Oak Junction said:

Excellent! That trackwork is looking very effective even at this stage.

I assume the Derwent is a Newman one? How easy did you find the valve gear to make?

Yes it is the Newman Derwent, the gear is cobbled up with bits of etch, rod, and dress making pins, it does revolve but not freely enough for a powered loco.