well filled baps The Sheep Chronicles. The adventures of a Sheep, the Works Forecat and the Works Apprentice, George.

[NHY 581]

Evening all. 

 

Stage one of the new lighting rig for Ewe has been assembled. 

 

The existing 'home' 9mm MDF roof has been utilised to save a couple of modelling vouchers. 

 

Old LEDs have been removed and three new strips fitted, courtesy of our good friends, Screwfix. 

 

They measure 1112mm and all three are linked needing just one mains lead to provide power. All are 'cool white' as I'm not sure the addition of the warm white to the old rig worked particularly well. 

 

Initial measuring up....well, ish. 

 

Tubes fitted...

 

 

Testing, testing.....

 

 

In situ

 

Connecting wires need tidying but the tubes will be removed first then the roof will be lined with lilac mounting card, as per backscene etc. 

 

First impressions seem positive. 

 

 

 

More to follow in due course...........

 

Rob

 

 

[NHY 581]

Afternoon all, 

 

After being rumbled over on the Accurascale 37 thread, I thoughtca bit of a diversion was in order. 

 

Now, in relation to that which I am about to outline, I blame Alex @wiggoforgold, @mullie and @Gilbert. All three have provided various amounts of inspiration for a developing interest in East Anglian branchlines and byways. 

 

As you know, Ewe is already up and running. The next layout is likely to be inspired by the Mid-Suffolk Light Railway and will be a 1950s branch line terminus. 

 

However, a long standing desire is to expand out of my usual 4ft x 16 ins footprint and produce a larger BLT. Increasingly, such a project looks to be once again, set in East Anglia. As such, I've been collecting stock in the form of 1960s green diesels and multiple units. 

 

We therefore have the following..........

 

Class 03

Class 05 ( later cab but I'm okay with that ) 

Class 08

Class 15

Class 16 ( Not really an  East Anglian regular)

Class 24

Class 30/31 ( Awaited from Accurascale)

Class 37 ( Awaited from Accurascale) 

 

Multiple units

Derby Lightweight 2 car.

Class 105 2 car. 

 

Planned are a Class 10,  a proper bending of the rules for a later Class 21 ( all in Scotland by the time I'm looking to set the trainset in) and a W&M Railbus. 

 

More than enough to keep me going. 

 

Planwise, I'll update in a bit but I have a little something from Mr Rice up my fleece......

 

Rob. 

 

[woodenhead]

I was going to suggest a railbus earlier, but I can see you've already thought of it.

 

This sounds like quite an adventure, a lot more traction variety whilst retaining all that bucolic feeling of a sleepy sheepy microcosm of a country backwater.

 

Looking forward to it.

[wiggoforgold]

Oh yes! This is going to be good!

[MrWolf]

To quote your first post on my thread, 2nd post, page 1:

 

Top stuff. Standing by.

 

 

Rob.

 

 

 

Edited October 13, 2023 by MrWolf

[NHY 581]

Morning all, 

 

Yes, the East Anglian diesel thing is still some way 'orf I'm afraid. No space.....well, some space but not so as to do that much in it. 

 

No.The next job WILL be in the now usual footprint of 4ft x 16ins or 120cm x 40cm in new money. 

 

Mid-Suffolk ( Flockfield ) or Coastal Kent ( Lambsdown). I'll only decide which, once I can lay everything out on the dining table, buildings, stock etc for the respective projects. 

 

I will apply the following principles when deciding..........

 

Planning and positivity

 

Evaluate...........the options.

 

Negotiate.........any obstacles. 

 

Improvise.........where necessary to obtain a..

 

Successful conclusion. 

 

Rob

 

 

[Tortuga]

Sounds good. Looking forward to what develops!

[durham light infantry]

I think I may have mentioned this before...

 

[St Enodoc]

3 hours ago, NHY 581 said:

Morning all, 

 

Yes, the East Anglian diesel thing is still some way 'orf I'm afraid. No space.....well, some space but not so as to do that much in it. 

 

No.The next job WILL be in the now usual footprint of 4ft x 16ins or 120cm x 40cm in new money. 

 

Mid-Suffolk ( Flockfield ) or Coastal Kent ( Lambsdown). I'll only decide which, once I can lay everything out on the dining table, buildings, stock etc for the respective projects. 

 

I will apply the following principles when deciding..........

 

Planning and positivity

 

Evaluate...........the options.

 

Negotiate.........any obstacles. 

 

Improvise.........where necessary to obtain a..

 

Successful conclusion. 

 

Rob

 

 

"Dr Finlay, it's gruesome!"

 

"Aye, Janet, an' if ye stroke it, it'll grew some more."

[Oldddudders]

2 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

"Dr Finlay, it's gruesome!"

 

"Aye, Janet, an' if ye stroke it, it'll grew some more."

"Eh, Dr Finlay, I'm afeared I have heartburn." 

 

"No, Janet, 'tis only your t*t dangling in the porage!"

[SteveyDee68]

“Dr Finlay, why are you writing that prescription with a suppository?”

”Never mind that, Janet - weer’s ma pinsul?!”

 

 

[MrWolf]

Dr Finlay, have you no been and made a call on old Mrs Jamieson? 

No, I was having some kidney problems.

Kidney problems?

Aye, I kidney be bothered....

[NHY 581]

Morning all. 

Well, spinning plates is the order of the day today......well, week actually. 

 

Flu jab first thing then the small matter of erecting seven fence posts before I can drop back onto the lighting rig later today.
Things were tidied up yesterday and tubes, wiring etc removed.  Yesterday evening,  the mounting card was glued onto the interior face and books left on top to weight things down. So that's the dining table written off for the day at least. 

If I can trim things back and replace the tubes by tomorrow evening then I'll be happy. 

Next job will be bring the layout down before doing the alterations to the ends to hold it all together. Massive bonus if that can be achieved by Tuesday evening as things need to be sorted in order to load the layout into the car on Thursday. And it needs cleaning and checking before that can happen not forgetting the fence building and work in between............busy time indeed. 

Oh........there's also a few potentially cracking games of rugby to try and dip into as well.........

 

Can I do it all ? 

 

Rob. 

[New Haven Neil]

7 hours ago, NHY 581 said:

Can I do it all ? 

 

Rob. 

 

Then there's the O Gauge 88DS layout to consider....oops!

[Donw]

7 hours ago, New Haven Neil said:

 

Then there's the O Gauge 88DS layout to consider....oops!

 

Is it a special request for Rob?

 

Don

[Fishplate]

On 13/10/2023 at 08:38, NHY 581 said:

The next job WILL be in the now usual footprint of 4ft x 16ins or 120cm x 40cm in new money. 

 

How about 2 x (4ft x 16ins) that can be worked on/ stored at home and joined at exhibitions . . . .🤔

[NHY 581]

55 minutes ago, Fishplate said:

 

How about 2 x (4ft x 16ins) that can be worked on/ stored at home and joined at exhibitions . . . .🤔

 

 

Mange Tout, John. 

 

That's doable, eminently sensible in fact..... but..............I like to have the layouts set up and playable if and when the mood takes me. I could only set up the 8ft scenic section which wouldn't be ideal as I couldn't attach the fiddle yard due to the size and geography ( location of window and door)  of the Room of Doom. Therefore such a layout couldn't be played with. Not good ( for me at least) 

 

What I'm always thinking of is compromise. We all have grandiose schemes that we want and dream about, some schemes are more grandiose than others of course.  However, the access to a readily available and usable space is really the crux of it all. There are those that frequent this chaotic  menagerie that accept the compromise in the other direction and build their dream layout which is stored and either erected in sections for working on and exhibition. 

 

My view, adopted a long time ago now, is  make do with what I have. I firmly believe that it's better to build something than nothing at all so working in a smaller space and accepting the compromise means you CAN build a usable layout. 

 

I've mentioned before ( probably ) the Room of Doom is nominally 8ft x 8ft, your typical box room in a 3 bed semi. 

I could plonk a decent BLT to fiddle yard layout around two walls, leaving space for a nicely sized Desk of Doing.........but going along in the manner that I do, allows me to contain three small layouts in the same space. 

 

 

 

A case in point.....which I learnt from...note the opening post re railway room.......

 

Two years later, I'd abandoned that idea and built, finished and exhibited Sheep Lane which had a scenic section of just just over half the length and under half the width of Gurney Slade ..........and the rest, as they say,  is history.........

 

 

Anyone can build the type of layout I do. 

 

It's Winter. Look again at those spaces you have, however small they may appear to be. It takes just one loco, a few wagons and a couple of buildings.

 

Embrace the constraints placed upon you and make it work. 

 

Build yourself a layout. 

 

Rob

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 15, 2023 by NHY 581

[Bungus the Fogeyman]

On the subject of the Mid Suffolk Railway (which we werent) and DLIs literary teasings, can I move very slightly north in a couple of cases and chuck these literararary gems at you The unfinished lines is especially interesting viz a viz the Middy and its intended empire. Boy , did they have big ideas! I've pinched a potential 'might have been' layout from it!!  Might be of interest to you for 'future reference'...........

 

You're welcome

 

Disgusting of Market Harborough

[NHY 581]

15 hours ago, Bungus the Fogeyman said:

On the subject of the Mid Suffolk Railway (which we werent) and DLIs literary teasings, can I move very slightly north in a couple of cases and chuck these literararary gems at you The unfinished lines is especially interesting viz a viz the Middy and its intended empire. Boy , did they have big ideas! I've pinched a potential 'might have been' layout from it!!  Might be of interest to you for 'future reference'...........

 

You're welcome

 

Disgusting of Market Harborough

 

I can see what you're doing here. Naughty Bungo. 

 

The Wissington Railway intrigues me, if only for the sheer junglesque unkemptness of it all at times. 

Pretty certain they tried a J70 or two on on it but they kept falling over so they weren't deemed to be a success. 

 

Rob

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 16, 2023 by NHY 581

[NHY 581]

In other news, this morning.......

 

The fence has proved troublesome but we are now making some progress. This has reduced the available time to resolve the lighting issue on Ewe.....

 

But, card has been glued on, tubes refitted and wired. The light provided is deemed satisfactory. 

 

 

 

However, given the ever collapsing time frame, I'll compromising on the modifications to the existing layout to retain the lights in place. There'll also be no modifications made to the fiddle yard before the show. Efforts therefore will be centred on making things once more presentable. 

 

Throughout all of this, the Works Forecat has remained calm.....

 

 

Rob. 

 

 

[2ManySpams]

Was it just me looking for a fence on the layout? Oh, then I remembered the real fence in the real garden. Carry on.

[NHY 581]

17 minutes ago, 2ManySpams said:

Was it just me looking for a fence on the layout? Oh, then I remembered the real fence in the real garden. Carry on.

 

Do keep up at the back, Spams Minor.....

 

 

[Winslow Boy]

1 hour ago, NHY 581 said:

 

Do keep up at the back, Spams Minor.....

 

 

Please Sir what was it you said about fences. Its just with all the things happening I seem to have lost track.

[2ManySpams]

11 minutes ago, Winslow Boy said:

Please Sir what was it you said about fences. Its just with all the things happening I seem to have lost track.

 

No, he's not lost any track. Marbles yes, track no.

[Winslow Boy]

5 minutes ago, 2ManySpams said:

 

No, he's not lost any track. Marbles yes, track no.

So he's on track, but with fewer marbles. Ok but what about the fence. Asking for a friend that's all.