Sheepcroft EM - 3 link waffling

[dasatcopthorne]

Sheepcroft inspired me to build Elbow Lane.

 

Dave.

[lapford34102]

On 23/08/2023 at 18:58, dasatcopthorne said:

Sheepcroft inspired me to build Elbow Lane.

Thank you, hopefully I'll get to see it at the Faversham show next month.

A few of Tim's excerllent photo's from the show.

 

 

 

 

Thanks for looking

Stu

 

[sb67]

Nice photo's there Stu 👍

[Enterprisingwestern]

 

Looking as good as ever Stu.

 

Mike.

[Bungus the Fogeyman]

Quote

A few of Tim's excerllent photo's from the show.

Are you sure Stu? I can't tell whether 6309 is blue or green. He should stick to tram-driving!!   🤣 .................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... seriously though mate, always a pleasure to have a rummage around with a few wagons on here!

 

 

 

Quote

I just like this layout...simples...

Does this mean you're going to have a bang at something in EM next time around Chris?

 

Disgusting of Market Harborough

[lapford34102]

1 hour ago, Bungus the Fogeyman said:

I can't tell whether 6309 is blue or green.

Thanks to everyone who commented or tagged recent posts. It was good to see you at the show Dave and thanks for doing a stint on the layout.  Tim was in full Cecil B. DeSpeilberg mode getting all artistic and doing a grand job  but hopefully this one's clearer..........

 

 

Just for info Sheepcroft's next outing is at the Weymouth show in Oct, a return to the ancestral homelands for me.

https://www.weymouthmra.org.uk/

 

Cheers

Stu

 

[dasatcopthorne]

On 24/08/2023 at 22:37, lapford34102 said:

Thank you, hopefully I'll get to see it at the Faversham show next month.

A few of Tim's excerllent photo's from the show.

 

 

 

 

Thanks for looking

Stu

 

Make sure you say Hello!

 

Dave.

[Enterprisingwestern]

16 hours ago, Bungus the Fogeyman said:

Does this mean you're going to have a bang at something in EM next time around Chris?

 

As a toe in the water exercise in the perfect gauge, Sheepcroft is eminently copyable using the EMGS RTP turnouts and plain track.

 

Mike.

[lapford34102]

9 hours ago, Enterprisingwestern said:

Sheepcroft is eminently copyable using the EMGS RTP turnouts and plain track.

At Wakefield we had a good look at both the EMGS  RTP B6's and the Finetrax  A5 kits.  The A5's might well have some limitations but at £20 from the society they're an economic  (and space saving) option and you get to do some track building.

 

Stu

 

[DLT]

On 22/08/2023 at 10:56, lapford34102 said:

...plus Dave T who did a stint on Sunday....

Oh no I didn't!  I wish I had though...

Looking great,

Cheers, Dave.T

[Chris56057]

This is a superb layout and just shows what can be achieved in a small space. It has given me ideas for a future project with the imminent arrival of the new SLW 25..

 

What are the dimensions please?

Edited August 27, 2023 by Chris56057

[lapford34102]

1 hour ago, Chris56057 said:

the imminent arrival of the new SLW 25..

Thank you for the comment, I know someone else awaiting a SLW  25, sadly he's had to make do with a couple of dodgy secondhand Bachmann ones on the layout,...... :-)

15 hours ago, DLT said:

Oh no I didn't!  I wish I had though...

Looking great,

Sorry, a case of mistaken identity. I was refering to the irrepressible Mr Tailby, seen here in  Phil Eames's photoin action at the show, you can ignore the other two shady looking characters,

 

Stu

[Gilbert]

On 05/06/2017 at 10:54, lapford34102 said:

Hi,

Chris many thanks for putting those photos up.

Wayne, always good to chat.

An excellent weekend at Showcase and thanks to Tim and Paul for helping operate. The antics with the 3 links seemed to keep people entertained and it was good to talk to people, many of whom seemed to be on here.

The 08 performed impeccably all weekend, rather to my surprise, but did finally throw a crank about 15 mins before the end Sunday. 

Anyhow we have the technology, I hope..., and I think I'm going to treat it to a sound chip.

Hopefully see some of you at Shenfield in Sept.

Cheers

Stu

I think my photos were lost in the great photo crash so I've created a new album for DEMU 2017 - it has a few photos of Sheepcroft

https://www.flickr.com/photos/103471893@N02/albums/72177720310766116/with/34701187520/

Chris H

[Gilbert]

It may have been mentioned but what are the dimensions of Sheepcroft?

Chris

[lapford34102]

4 hours ago, Gilbert said:

the dimensions of Sheepcroft?

AAh, a good question. As it's built on a bit of scrap MDF rescued (legally) from a skip any dimensions are a tad approximate but in old money the scenic board is 5ft x 11 inches. As all the point operating switches take up space behind the backscene say 10 inch scenic. It would have benefitted from having a couple of extra inches width for the scenics. Fiddle yard is just over a foot long and about 6 inches wide.

Cheers

Stu

[spenc]

Hi stu 

Nice to see your layout still up and running,hopefully I will be going to Weymouth as a spectator so will see you there.

Steve

[lapford34102]

12 hours ago, spenc said:

Nice to see your layout still up and running,hopefully I will be going to Weymouth as a spectator so will see you there.

Brilliant, one friendly face at least then :-) Looking forward to as I don't get back down that often now.

Cheers

Stu

[spenc]

Hi Stu 

Nice too have a chat with you today, your layout still looks great I was hoping to stay longer and come back to you but as I was heading to the restaurant my knee decided it didn't want me to stand any longer and the pain was unbearable so I had to ring my wife to pick me up. I think next show I goto I will take my wheels.

Steve

[lapford34102]

Oh Dear! Managed to send Exhibition Manager A the paperwork for Exhibition B….  Should never be let out without a responsible adult. . Anyhow have Ally Pally coming up in a couple of weeks, it’s show I’ve never done so it will be interesting. Sheepcroft’s fiddle yard is quite small and frankly now inadequate and could do with replacement. If I thought the layout had something of a future, it is nearly 10 years old after all, I’d do that but in the meantime settled for some minor tweaks.  I’ve added a rough but useable shelf for stock storage and added a small shelf to the front. That brings the front edge in line with the layout so it’ll be easier to do the drape plus a handy spot for the layout info.  I’m quite keen on layouts having a bit of info about them somewhere, nothing too wordy just a few key points the builder feels relevant. Sometimes it can save answering the same question repeatedly. One possible benefit of putting it where it is  is that it’s a bit easier to read being on the flat.

This left a bit of space on the front and I stumbled across  a graphic in what looked like a spoof wagon modelling magazine on a facebook group. It seemed rather appropriate to Sheepcroft so I’ve printed it off and blu-tac’d to the front. No idea who did it so hope they don’t mind.

We’re out again later in the year at Faversham and Farnham but whilst working on the front idly started mentally plotting the show’s done on a map and realising there were great swathes of the country never visited, East Anglia, the south coast and down the M4/5 corridor for example.  At a recent show had a couple of enquiries from the E Midlands area but got a rather glum look when they realised we came from the extremities of Kent and any likely expenses. I did make the point I’m prepared to negotiate. I think the current situation means as exhibitors we  could try to mitigate when it comes to costs, I did this with a show last year and  got to exhibit somewhere that would have almost certainly been off-limits cost wise.  I do though fully appreciate it may not be an option for everyone.

I’ve got my Chief Assistant, Tim, to thank(?) for this as he suggested we widen the stock era on the layout for a bit of variety. So having had a scrabble in the unused boxes have cobbled this lot together. Sort of late 70’s and into the TOPS period stock. Getting that right involved a deal of time on Mr Bartlett’s wonderful site so I hope I’ve got things right. I’ll need some more plus a change in personnel and vehicles but it would add variety.

 

Got a couple of Panniers and GW Toads somewhere………

Thanks for looking

Stu

[woodenhead]

For such a small simple layout with b%st*rd three links, it remains such a crowd pleaser.

 

Might help that the operatives are a friendly bunch who need to talk to avert our eyes whilst they attempt to couple and uncouple stuff.

 

Much more fun that a tail chaser...

[sb67]

The stock for Sheepcroft looks fine Stu, I'll look forward to seeing it at Ally Pally. 🙂

[lapford34102]

Hi,

Firstly thanks to all those who tagged my recent post, much appreciated and makes any developments seem worthwhile so Ta :-)

15 hours ago, sb67 said:

The stock for Sheepcroft looks fine Stu, I'll look forward to seeing it at Ally Pally.

Thanks, I'll bring them along but I'd like to be able to do the figures/vehicles to match. I got very politely taken to task for the first lorry I had on display as it apparently first appeared somewhat later. 

On 03/03/2024 at 17:28, woodenhead said:

For such a small simple layout with b%st*rd three links, it remains such a crowd pleaser.

 

Might help that the operatives are a friendly bunch who need to talk to avert our eyes whilst they attempt to couple and uncouple stuff.

 

Much more fun that a tail chaser...

Wow! Thanks for that, rather neatly sums up our attitude to things.

As for the 3 links there was a very obscure study by some university's Department of Utterly Pointless Studies that came up with Hooks Law ( No, not that Hooke, it's the other one)

A = N+ 1

Where A = the number of attempts required to couple two pieces of stock and N = the number of people in front of the layout. I think experience though has shown it's a bit more complicated than that.........

To be fair to viewers thay are almost universally  understanding when things get fraught. Quite often get well meant suggestions for different systems, such as Kaydee's  though those look very out of place on a 10ft WB Van to me or Sprat+Winkle which is a fine system but needs to treated like a Faberge Egg once you've got it working. What does irk me is the very very occasional implication that somehow we've made the wrong choice, a mad choice, yes, I can live with but not wrong. At moments like that I wonder about commiting the ultimate heresy and fitting tension locks.

Thanks and say hello at Ally if you're there.

Stu

 

 

 

 

 

[Dr Gerbil-Fritters]

How do you manage 3 links?  Is there a special tool?

 

I can't manage them in 7mm...

[Clive Mortimore]

1 hour ago, lapford34102 said:

Hi,

Firstly thanks to all those who tagged my recent post, much appreciated and makes any developments seem worthwhile so Ta :-)

Thanks, I'll bring them along but I'd like to be able to do the figures/vehicles to match. I got very politely taken to task for the first lorry I had on display as it apparently first appeared somewhat later. 

Wow! Thanks for that, rather neatly sums up our attitude to things.

As for the 3 links there was a very obscure study by some university's Department of Utterly Pointless Studies that came up with Hooks Law ( No, not that Hooke, it's the other one)

A = N+ 1

Where A = the number of attempts required to couple two pieces of stock and N = the number of people in front of the layout. I think experience though has shown it's a bit more complicated than that.........

To be fair to viewers thay are almost universally  understanding when things get fraught. Quite often get well meant suggestions for different systems, such as Kaydee's  though those look very out of place on a 10ft WB Van to me or Sprat+Winkle which is a fine system but needs to treated like a Faberge Egg once you've got it working. What does irk me is the very very occasional implication that somehow we've made the wrong choice, a mad choice, yes, I can live with but not wrong. At moments like that I wonder about commiting the ultimate heresy and fitting tension locks.

Thanks and say hello at Ally if you're there.

Stu

 

 

 

 

 

Stu

 

You are more than welcome to join the LADS if you fit tension locks.

 

Yours

 

Clive

Founder of LADS, Luddites And Doubters Society. 

 

No extra C

Tension locks

Just the sound of whirring electric toy motors.

And F U N

[Enterprisingwestern]

20 hours ago, lapford34102 said:

What does irk me is the very very occasional implication that somehow we've made the wrong choice, a mad choice, yes, I can live with but not wrong.

 

Well put Stu, comments usually made by wobbly fingered, myopic OO modellers!!

Me and thee against the world!

 

Mike.