Black Sheep

I've got a nice and stable laser cut board assembled but all my track bed is to be raised up above this height on embankments, retaining walls and viaducts, being only N gauge it doesn't need to take much weight. I did try 10mm ply but it's warped badly after being cut so I'm now considering 10mm foam board with a bit of plywood re-inforcing for mounting servo point motors to the underside. Has anyone done similar?

So, the plywood warped and warped badly so I'm thinking of switching to 10mm foam board with a small bit of ply glued on where it may need re-enforcing for the point motors (servos using MERG's servo mount kits. Anyone used foam board for raised track?

It's been a while, had a few issues with real life (mainly related to vehicles) to resolve but managed to find a bit of time here and there to make some progress on the layout, but nothing worth showing. One of the issues I've been looking into is the height of the sea wall, which of course makes the raised track bed sit higher, you may recall the layout sits in the eves of the loft conversion, our road slopes, when sat looking at the layout, from right to left, the roof line following the road (instead of the roof of the terrace stepping) As such, the tightest headroom is at this end, guess where I planned to put the cliffs and tunnels! 9mm plywood was sourced from my local DIY shop, track plan attached, cut to give some clearance each side of the running lines and then cut and placed in position The bridge is a KS Laser designs, based on one in Manchester, sits at a slightly different height to the scalescenes arches I was planning on using...

Where will TG be this year? At some point I'll be asked by our exhibition manager to find N gauge layouts for a show in the autumn at Colne, would you be interested?

I think that one on the left was one of my student houses, the pipe made a good step for climbing in when you'd forgotten your keys...

I'd better watch that one as my Kenwood dates from the 60's as my gran gave it to me

A bit modern of you aren't they? I was expecting the King's speech on the wireless... Merry Christmas

Now that the baseboards are assembled (no trackbed just as yet and still tweaking the plan in place, Allow me to give you a bit of background to... I'm afraid I don't know much about Milliedale-on-Sea as I'm a bit young to remember it in it's prime, used to go there from time to time for family holidays and to visit a great aunt (thankfully not a great aunt like that of the G.A. in Swallows and Amazons!) but my grandparents used to take my parents for their summer holidays. I often used to wonder what it was like in it's heyday, I used to sit on the sand and look out at the oddly truncated pier with it's pleasant, but not quite grand enough pier head, look across the bay at the spa centre and outdoor pool and look back at the double station buildings, walking past the run of large guest-houses to the cliff lift back up to the holiday park - all caravans by the 1980's but what did it used to be like? Well, to find out a bit more I've been in touch with the local history society who meet in the 'Old Cobblers' every 5th Tuesday of the month, this is what I've found out. Milliedale on Sea sits in front of Milliedale, a small market town near the sea, wedged between a section of Morcambe bay and the forrest of Bowland south of the river Lune but far enough from Blackpool and Fleetwood that the Victorians paid it some attention and with the arrival of the railway, surprisingly a branch of the Lancaster and Carlisle (later Furness before becoming part of the LNWR) built a branchline down towards Blackpool, however the funding ran out and only the section down through the headland was completed, leaving the first station (later the through platforms) and the foundations for starting a viaduct over the lower lying ground. The station was finished as two lines to be able to use it as a run-around with a long siding between in which a train could be stored either freight awaiting a road, or a trip working. It wasn't long before the Midland arrived from Manchester building the larger station building and the terminus lines, having swept around the grand curve of the viaduct It was shortly after this that Milliedale was forgotten and the whole town that had grown up around and absorbed the market town became the resort town of Milliedale on Sea. After acquiring the LNWR in the 1920's grouping, the LMS made the original station a through station to give access to the North, over time they also widened the embankment behind the town to build locomotive facilities and the marshalling yard to handle the freight that could not be handled by the goods yard by the station (the older LNWR goods siding to the north of the station having long gone) So, that's the tale of two stations covered! I would have found out more, but the local history group appear to be lightweights, talkative after a beer or two, but not for long, not sure how much I trust their account, but there's no other information other than people's holiday memories...

Are you still looking for contributors? I've nearly finished building my streamlined duchess and am embarking on the layout if an ongoing saga article would be welcome?

I think the track plan is finished! Unless anyone can see anything amis? The exit from the marshalling yard / depot needs catch points when exiting to the South (right) as a headshunt is not present. The large circle is a gasholder to give some height and distract from the curve of the viaduct. the goods yard is just above the station, the shed being on the road by the station platform. the left hand curves are hidden, as is the reverse loop. The bay platforms will be occasionally used to store coaches and the line down the middle of the station is an excursion siding designed to hold as much train as possible out of the way. The sidings across behind the Church and School are marshalling yard, again, designed to hold as many wagons as possible.

It's been a while since behind the scenes in Milliedale on Sea, so, what's been going on? I made it to TINGS, tried to go a few years ago and do RMweb Live and TINGS in the same weekend but got muddled between the Warwickshire Agrecultural Showground at Stoneleigh and the Warwickshire Exhibition Centre Leamington so I missed it as I'd got a lift there. Spent too long on the motorway on the bike without having a break as I was trying to get home in time for bedtime and did my wrists in due to how I'd got the bike's controls set up - made me realise that this was the issue and my wrists are getting better - came away with a reasonable haul of goodies: some of which seem to have disappeared, presumably to return in late December… One of the items acquired is a streamlined duchess on a Minitrix Britania chassis, and for some reason, painted in Southern livery - I intend to strip the paint and paint it matt black with LMS lettering and have her as City of Coventry as I can't face doing the stripes twice! Princess Eliza (the streamlined duchess I've been working on for some time) is painted and awaiting stripes. I also now only have one BR liveried steam locomotive, a J94, the rest having been re-liveried to LMS but keeping their identities as I don't fancy trying to get the smoke box numbers in place! not sure what to do with the J94, it was for the shunting layout originally built to use items bought for me as gifts that were out of time period for Milliedale on Sea but I fear this may be abandoned once I get going on MoS properly - perhaps a re-paint into LMS as war surplus and station pilot? I also have an old 08 that I need to get running with the intent to make it look a bit like an early LMS diesel shunter along with an ex L&Y pug kit. Lots to build but trying to focus on building the layout itself! (keep reading for how this is going) I've detailed my encounters with Dapol's couplings previously and had decided to place magnets where I want to leave items of rolling stock but I'm now seriously considering DG couplings again, partially for the price. So, that gets us to sometime in September, what next? I've been asked by a friend who'd like to give N gauge a go to design a layout for him, it's during this time I've realised I've planned in code 55 with a few (lots) double and single slips, which aren't available in code 80, having a mild panic about some of my older locos running happily on it as I've had different responses from different people on the subject - I've got a length of code 55 flexi track to check they don't bounce along! Other than work getting in the way and spending time with my family I've been doing work around the house to get my daughter's play room finished and have now persuaded Millie that the next thing to do on the house is get the layout on it's legs so we can store things under it to clear the spare room so we can finish that off. This requires completing the excellent Tim Horn baseboard kits that I received in April. This is the fourth board being assembled While my wife was out at Disney Frozen on Ice with our daughter I've made it out into the garden and started on legs, the TH boards don't come with legs, he advises trestles from B&Q or similar, however my layout will only be sitting a few feet off the floor, more like bed height than table height due to the loft roof. The plan is to create a plywood piece that slots into the framework of the board and offers some support while popping the next board on and tightening it up. This will have softwood legs down to adjustable feet and a brace to take out any lateral wobbling. I probably should sketch the design out so I don't forget it before building it in a week or so (most likely a month or so)'s time.

good to see some progress on here, how did you stick track down and how did you keep it in place while the adhesive dried? how did you ensure alignment over baseboard joints when laying track?

well, in response to the latest update from Frankland I can conclude only one thing, When you're tired of Frankland, you're tired of life.

You new around these parts?

Big N gauge layout set in Scotland has this, can't remember it's name, been in the magazines

Do N, you can let the layout sprawl much more! I've heard a rumour that Bachman might be re-introducing 3mm to the UK which would give a best of both... So, I need to get on with this and get too far along to consider selling up and going 3mm and my attention has turned to the electronics for now: This is the MERG DCC command station: Well, it will be once I've finished attaching bits! Once this is built I'll be able to build a controller to pilot it and start playing with DCC locomotives, if I can get the Dapol couplings to work with low speed control offered by DCC then we're full steam ahead!

So, not much more to update, tweaks are slowly being made to the track plan, been re-invaded by the in-laws again and I've finally settled on control for driving the layout, but still settling on options for signaling (but likely to be MERG CBUS of some sort) I'm going to be using MERG's DCC offering and have ordered the first item, the CANCAM, once built I'll order the powersupply and CANCAB as funds and build speed allow. Will post pics when there are any!

That's precisely where I ordered from in the end Thanks

Boards still under construction but couldn't resist laying out the plans to get a feel for how things fit. Put together a quick video overview to show the most recently shared (see track plan above) stage of planning full size. https://youtu.be/ThWbfE0fXwc

Something lurks in the darkness of my loft... Just spent a couple of hours being helped by she who must be obeyed in assembling baseboards, so two down, two half built. Need to get some legs sorted out and then the next stage of planning can begin! Anyone any idea where to get adjustable feet for baseboard legs from? ta

The parchments look good to me

would love to see a pic of the info sheets when you get chance

I've only got magazines from the past 5 years or so, and with gaps as I tend to only buy if something interests me. My intent is to cut the spine off, put in a plastic wallet the pages I want to keep and sort into binders by plans, techniques & tutorials, layout inspiration etc the rest will become hills on the layout itself!

I've got trainz but don't seem able to keep to schedule or spot stations coming up to stop in time! Not got the hang of creating my own routes either

First of four baseboards from Tim Horn having the final bracing added and drying, I found the ends of the spine didn't align perfectly so had to break the bond of the last 6 inch so going to dry assemble and screw before taking apart and gluing, however, it's progress on Milliedale-on-Sea! There's also been development of the track plan.