Black Sheep

edit, as Dave posted while I was typing, so if a shop has just ordered one or two sets to review, they'll be sat waiting until a complete order can accompany them. /edit Antics are normally able to get things in quite easily, and often do manage to get stock that there will be a rush for. (Cov was my local shop before I moved) but their website shows 'available soon' which means they've put an order in, but waiting for the stock still. I know Dapol are selling from their site, but not sure how much postage is.

Where have people been aquiring the Dapol couplings and magnets from? I've tried three different model shops in various places as I've been passing through Modelzone-Reading, Antics-Coventry and a large independent shop in Wakefield, the latter having ordered some before Christmas, but not received any yet. Are Dapol still feeding things through to their stockists and I just need to be patient?

would the Kadee 309 need to be mounted between track (cutting sleepers out), rebated into the board or completely under board?

anyone know when Bachmann plan on getting the Farish ones to market? they'll need to be quick or we'll all be using Dapol ones!

Me too. I'd also like a car dealership 30's or 50's style, possibly art deco or similar to the metcalfe one, but not modernised as the metcalfe one is.

I'm looking at going down the PVA route, I've got the canal bottom a nice dark sludge, which looks correct from across the living room, however whenever I try and brush the PVA on, it starts to peel away again, as though the pva is setting while I'm spreading it should I be watering it down, or perhaps giving more than an hour or so for the brown paint to set? will have another try in the morning, if not, might have to go with varnish, but will that react with the Revel acrylic that I've used? thanks,

New one? Things you won't hear in Hornby's new year announcement.

so, those of you who have tested them, can you shunt things into a siding without them re-coupling? how clear of the magnet do you have to be for it to re-couple since stock will be sat where you left it when you come back? thanks

Having looked on Dapol's website today I'm under the impression that they will be offering them in different lengths in time Perhaps get the standard one out, bit of trouble shooting and then release close and long options.

well, the canal sides are in place and I've started painting the bottom of the canal a nice muddy brown, the next stages are: 1: finish painting the muddy brown canal bed 2: get the airbrush out and give it some thin layers of green and brown to break up the colour 3: paint the sides of the canal 4: apply thin layers of pva and wait for it to dry 5: actually lay some track anything I've missed?

the argument with pva / copydex is that pva sets solid and so may rob the cork of it's sound deadening qualities whereas copydex sets rubbery allowing a small amount of movement

I asked in a model shop about them the other day, and was handed a pack of Bachmann E-Zmate mk2 N gauge couplers to look at and told that they were a customer order so weren't for sale, but if I was interested they would be happy to order some for me. anyone know about them? they look to be similar to the Dapol offering, no idea if they fit into NEM pockets or not. are they compatible?

Best stay away from the 2mm association threads, some of them are on three links, my brother included It looks to me more like it could be hidden by paining a dotted white line across it and making it a level crossing. any in a depot or yard could be hidden in the hardstanding that's brought up to rail level.

my thoughts are, while they'll look appropriate on diesel stock, they won't look any more out of place on my Jinty or indeed black 5 (which is likely to only need to pull loco first) than the current rapidos. what I don't know is how long NEM pockets have been used with regards to fitting them to my older stock... Those magenets look as though they are twice, if not three times as long as they need to be. is it possible to cut them in half or would the magnetticness fall out

From the descriptions given is it fair to assume they work like HO Ka-dee couplers? I'd been wondering about looking for an N version for my stock... best hold off on the balasting.

The older type of road signs were used in the 50's / 60's and often seemed to be a bit of a botch potch mix of ways of signing things. I think the oncoming vehicles thing is fairly new, however I speak only from casual research of my own, not experience.

Just to update people and to let you know I've not forgotten about you all, I've started putting the banks / queysides in place on the canal section, although I got distracted by laying track, and then distracted by building scalescenes shops. My sample section of canal, painting the plywood and chucking a lot of PVA glue on it has finally gone clear and, other than a few bubbles, looks really quite good so this may well be the route I take, My main aim at the moment is to get track laid soon so that I can run something at long last, then I can form the hills etc and start doing scenics. The canal will be done at some point in amongst the track laying and the hills, although the canal bed has been painted rust colour today.

unfortunately I already have plywood down as the base, could try putting clear plastic sheet down after putting a base coat on, then a couple of washes on the sheet to kill off a little bit of the shinyness.

Thanks for posting the photo, How did you stop the water flowing over the edge of the baseboard?

Thanks Black Hat, do you have any photos that you could post please? does your canal come to the edge of the board at all?

Is that last one the Fosehill Road? spent too long in coventry The canal (and layout) is in the peak district / yorkshire dales area, I'll have a look at what canals up there looked like tomorrow.

There will indeed be photographs, my layout is being detailed in my blog (Milliedale) I've tried painting the underside of some transparent plasticard so I might go with this with a bit of blue washed over the top. However I'm fitting the quayside at the moment and other bits on the railway, just finished a scalescenes weighbridge kit, so it's steady progress sporadically across the layout at the moment.

Thank you for that valuable input David. Don't worry, I don't think I'll disappoint! the boat is to be moddled being unloaded and will be sat with deck level or slightly higher than the bank which I am under the impression is fairly realistic? Although I am welcome to correction

How would you recommend painting it?