Ray H

I've had problems in the past when drilling holes through glued down foam. It tends to twist around the drill bit rather than be cut through. You may then find that it'll do the same with Copydex underneath with unwanted results. Do you have a small hole punch that you could use to separate the foam where the hole will be from the surrounding foam before drilling your holes and minimise/eliminate the risk of that happening?

Is there a Big Tease smiley?

Mike We have similar controllers on an O gauge layout. They are good. However, we find the lack of a centre stop position on the unit mounted "knob" puzzling when there is centre "stop" on the hand-helds on the wander leads. I like the signal. Is the frame around the red lens unpainted because the arm seems to narrow there which isn't a feature that I've seen before - but I'm not well travelled so I may have missed it? I hope you don't mind me adding that I think that it is just an ordinary home signal, not an outer home. Outer home signals are the furthest from the box and are followed by an inner home(s) much closer to the box. The signal has no (inner or outer) prefix if is the only home signal. All the best for the New Year to you and yours.

Wise words again Mike for which I thank you. Your Boxing Day comments were timed almost to the minute as I've just become aware of the NCE mini panel and how it might be used for on the layout. It seems to enable me (for example) to press a button to set the 11.45 Oxford to Bletchley to run round the layout whilst I carry on shunting the morning pick-up at Buckingham. This is like a second pair of hands for someone who is often the sole operator of the layout. I believe I could do similar with a computer and may yet look at that option in more detail, especially if it throws in a few b*ggeration factors. However, I'll stick with the hands-on approach for the time being. I also need to instil in my mind that I can simply pop into the garage (or wherever) and run as many or as few trains as I have time for. I've always tended to work on the basis that I need to work it all the way through in one session once I start the sequence. I've a lot of work to do to make the garage usable for the layout. This is giving me time to plan and discuss with RMwebbers what I propose to do which can't be a bad thing.

Spurred by Mike's comments above I'm slowly coming to realise that although (and with no disrespect to either Mike or Andy for their respective Dent & Bitton threads) nice long main line runs look nice, they're not necessarily what will give me satisfaction from a layout as they're not hands on enough for me. I'm sure that I'd soon tire of sitting and watching trains go by as much as I recognise that for great chunks of the operational railway that is more or less what happened all day and every day. So I've gone back to the drawing board again and concentrated initially on what I can incorporate on the branch. I have arrived at the above which is limited by the number of track parts in the version of AnyRail that I'm using. Fiddle Yard I drew the fiddle yard in for completeness for without it I wouldn't know how much depth I had for Buckingham station. I've only shown three tracks in each direction in the fiddle yard although the white space on the fiddle yard side of the backscene is enough for a further track in each direction. The shortest sidings are 6ft long, the longest just shy of 9ft. I can probably add another foot to these lengths by accepting 2ft 6" radius curves instead of the 3ft shown on the hidden sections. That should be enough to allow two trains per siding. There's also room for one or two trains on the branch fiddle yard sector plate. The diagram doesn't show the trailing crossovers at each end of the main fiddle yard that will allow trains to reverse on all the fiddle yard sidings. However, their inclusion will be more difficult with the tighter running line radius. Buckingham The sidings were trailing in the relevant direction on leaving the actual station, something I don't have room for, hence what I've shown. The siding only just fit. I don't think I can do much else other than have a (low relief) building against the backscene adjacent to the siding at the Banbury end of the station if I want an excuse to shunt wagons in and out of that siding. There's enough space for a little more development at the other end of the station and that could be improved a little more by dropping the (branch) running line radius down from 36 to 33 inches and also by adding a small triangular fillet where the baseboards join. A very gentle curve through the station with corresponding curved baseboard facia may be more pleasing than the more usual straight edge and may also open up a few more possibilities at the Padbury end of the station. It would also help to widen the access space by the garage door which is currently shown as just 15 inches. There's clearly (a lot) more to do in this area but comments would be appreciated on my thoughts so far. I'll look at the rest of the layout later.

Thanks Mike I think that was possibly something I needed to be told. The change of direction in the last plan seemed alright in my head but didn't look so good on paper. What you've said woke me up to the fact that my original idea wasn't necessarily at fault and to realise that there was less reason to be a slave to the original the minute I accepted that I wasn't going to mimic the original in its entirety. After all, there's no reason why I can't build a "what might have been" style layout incorporating those bits of the original that fit in. I've already got an idea for ensuring Buckingham will fit in the available space and Padbury is there for the tweaking. I now need to give some time to developing a junction station layout that will enhance the operational capabilities and challenges of the layout. Thanks again.

I was becoming increasingly less enthusiastic the more I looked at the latest version of Virney Road. I'd added the start of the Buckingham branch to increase the scope for shunting but that was at the expense of hiding about 50% of the min line/double track area. I had already had to compromise by curving the end of the platform and then adding even a small freight yard as I was contemplating would significantly increase the distance between the prototype and the layout. The rear garage door couldn't be opened other than by a minimum amount when the layout was in use, another downside because I couldn't leave locos circulating/running-in unless I stayed in the garage whilst they were doing so. The design was also limiting the scope for including an workbench space. It was time to take stock and think again. The above plan is a glorified U shape. The design so far shows twelve fiddle yard sidings, each a minimum of 54" long and most significantly more than that. It incorporates a continuous run (mainly for testing), albeit single track, and nothing less than 36" radius curves. It lacks the design for the two termini at present. The flat crossing to the right is in fact a single slip which allows trains to tail chase if required. The initial thinking was for a station at the top of the plan (below the fiddle yard). Trains could either run from that station direct to the lower fiddle yard or complete a few circuits before doing so or run to the terminus at the bottom (above the lower fiddle yard). The top fiddle yard comprises fixed sidings whilst the bottom fiddle yard is a removable/exchangeable cradle with four sidings that could be turned through 180º if required. Some main line (or through) trains may simply run between the two fiddle yards making a single pass around the "circle". The jury is out on several aspects of the idea at present. One is whether to add a reverse curve at top left of the "circle" so that trains can leave and then return to the top station. This would also allow trains to leave the top station and run to the top fiddle yard. Another area of thought is to have one station that majors on passenger facilities and the other that does likewise for freight (or is just a freight yard). I am a little worried whether I can disguise the "circle" enough so that it doesn't look too much like a train set. I could put the workbench on the rear wall (on the left in the plan), between the door and the "top" station - that's top as in top of the drawing. At present the idea is for a single level but that isn't cast in stone. Comments on the concept would be welcome.

George Thanks for your explanation and the good wishes. I sent a PM with an apology to Andy as soon as I'd responded to your earlier post. Here's the post - 3586 - that I'd seen with the images on Andy's Bitton thread. Andy's thread was the one I'd seen just a few minutes before seeing what Mike had managed to achieve. I didn't think to add a cross reference. I will amend the relevant post on here to clarify the situation. Season's greetings to you & yours.

George The quoted comment was very much tongue in cheek and in no way was it meant to offend Andy, you or anyone else. I was trying in a light-hearted and roundabout way to salute what Mike had achieved. Andy had recently put an image on his Bitton thread that showed two of his paintings side by side leaning against the wall at the back of his baseboard. I could see that those two paintings were completely unrelated and definitely not meant as actual backscenes in their position in the image. They were nonetheless in a position where one might expect to see a backscene, hence the comment. Those pictures were excellent demonstrations of Andy's skill with all things artistic, a skill that I for one wish I possessed even 1% of. I trust that explains the comment. I apologise if I have caused offence.

That's the best excuse I've heard in the last two seconds! Seriously, I know your eventual backscenes for Bitton will be almost as good as Mike's.

Mike You do appear to have mastered that. Perhaps you could give that bodgit bloke some guidance. Have you seen the mismatch on the back scene in some of his latest posts? Was it really he who wrote those magazine articles? Edited to Add: The comment here is a light-hearted reference to this post on Andy's Bitton thread. I apologise if my post caused offence before this edit was added.

A bit more playing with AnyRail. I've relented and curved the up end of the platform at 72 inch radius. The platform is 48 inches long. The down side is that the back edge of the platform at curved end is just over 2 feet from the wall - you'll see the rectangular block against the wall at the top - that's part of an immobile brick pillar which I have to work around and is partly why the track is angled along that wall of the garage. I've managed to keep Padbury (to give more shunting opportunities) but the siding and platform have been moved to the outside of the curve to facilitate the use of a larger radius point for the siding. The curve through the platform is 36 inch radius so the gap between track and the short platform hopefully won't look too bad. The branch curve will also necessitate boards wider than 24 inches. I've now moved the backscene forward along the right hand side of the garage - the bottom of the plan - so that there is a twenty inch space behind for the main fiddle yard. This means it is a squeeze to accommodate Buckingham with the prototypical sidings on opposite sides and ends of the station. The end of the siding nearest the central operating well is 33 inches from the wall. That's really pushing things if I want to be able to get to the fiddle yard to re-form trains. I'm wondering whether to move both sidings to the Padbury end of the station with access to both off the Up platform. I could then investigate having a low relief station against the backscene. I do have aspirations towards hinging the backscene so that it folds forward over the station to facilitate easier access to the fiddle yard tracks. However, I'm really struggling to convince myself that I can comfortably reach the fiddle yard tracks nearest the wall even with the backscene folded. Alas I'm starting to think that even with 17 feet by 8 feet I can't do what I want and guess I may have to start looking at other ideas.

Many thanks. They're a little easier than I thought they might be.

Andy What radius are those curves on the main line at the far end of the shed? Are they more than 3ft?

Nice to know who our friend is!

Those backscenes don't line up! Rivet cloud counting - moi?

Operation – Freight working part 2 My thread on prototypical freight train working yielded enough information to enable me to try my hand at sketching out an idea for realistically moving model wagons around. The thread describing my idea is entitled Model Freight Train Operation. My intentions for moving the wagons around on the new layout will depend on whether anyone spots errors in my scheme that defy resolution. I shall have to wait and see. My freight movement planning has lead me to look at increasing the scope for shunting at the junction and on the branch. Otherwise I fear I shall end up with nothing more than trains tail chasing around the main line overlaid with a number of branch passenger trains and a return trip working once a day that may do little more than drop an odd wagon off at one place. For the time being and when other things permit I shall pay another visit to the track plan now that I'm reasonably happy that I might yet get a model that has enough operational interest for me to stick with and look to take even further than Wynsloe Road. It won't be a rush job and the physical work could still be a few months off.

Dent illuminated tram?

I thought he had (high) heels on his shoes!

Not quite festive but I don't recall seeing any livestock on the layout (could it be huskies?) but it may just be that I should have gone to Specsavers - other opticians are available.

I have indeed met the said man and survived to tell the tale! I presume the figure you quoted had nothing to do with waist measurements and s*u*a*e*! I do recall that he . . . . . . [insert words of your own choice, I'll say "is a splendid chap" - so that he doesn't hit me the next time I see him].

Operation – Freight working part 1 I started another thread to gain a more detailed insight into the working of freight trains. I am indebted to the contributors thereto for the information so freely given. I have an increasingly varied collection of freight rolling stock but I also have several of the same kind of vehicle. For example I have enough mineral wagons to make up a coal train and the same applies to Presflos. It is my intention to try to run at least a couple of block trains using collections such as this and I'm currently thinking that I need to allow fiddle yard storage space for such trains. The loads in the mineral wagons are removable so I can use the same train at least twice (if I can steel myself to load/unload as required)! I can treat the Presflos the same way but without the requirement to load/unload in model form! I have a lesser number of cattle and coke wagons because Banbury had a very busy livestock market alongside the LNWR station and a gas works. Both will provide additional traffic for the branch. The coke may run direct onto the branch at the junction. However, although it would possibly be more direct to run the cattle trains from the west via the GWR route to Banbury the close proximity of the market to the LNWR station in Merton Street probably meant that most livestock used the branch. This will provide me with an opportunity to change locos and brakevans at the junction and reference to the track plan shown earlier will demonstrate the challenge that this may present to the unwary! This could result in my first ever purchase of a GWR loco (or I might just use a diesel or BR standard to save the embarrassment!). The composition of other freight trains will be individual wagon (or groups of wagons) based and I am currently endeavouring to develop a way of handling this. In the meantime I shall add a requirement for one fiddle yard siding in each direction to accommodate the "main line" block trains and a further siding in the main fiddle yard and one in the branch fiddle yard for the coke & cattle trains. Technically not a freight train but one that I do intend to run (as a block) and already have stock for is a parcels train. Again, one siding needs to be allocated in the main fiddle yard for that.

Ten out of ten for originality Mr. P!

As it is Christmas time perhaps we should re-name Andy after one of the seven dwarfs . . . . . Happy 'cos that's how he's feeling after building all those points.