Black Sheep

I'm still deciding if its a canalised river or a purpose built canal, it's late 1940s and still in use for coal traffic coming out of a coal face canal spur.

My layout has a section of canal on it for which I need to model some water. I have a test section made which has been painted and now has a substantial amount of PVA drying in the hope of it becoming transparent but I wondered if anyone had any other cost effective ways of modeling static water? Photos would be appreciated

when there are private bidders does it not list them as private bidder1, private bidder2 etc?

so this method is similar to using point motors in that you drill the hole the same? been struggling for a way of doing rod in tube (and this might allow me to fit my point on my viaduct!) due to distance between point and back of layout. I'll have to have another play now!

Update: the motor has arrived an is on the modeling desk waiting to be fitted. Have to resist the temptation to try and fit it before work tomorrow as I don't want to rush it.

I did see a beautifully photoshopped LNER HST done in both the garter blue and the green liveries can't remember if they are on ficticious liveries or not.

I thought I better update anyone following my blog on what's been happening since it gained it's legs. track is currently laid out along the layout, the bridge plonked in place and working on track bed and aligning things. at the moment I'm toying with the option of point motors or wire in tube (the original plan) however I don't have much distance from the rear of the layout to the first set of points to be able to get the wires below board to the toggle switches to control the points, as such point motors become attractive but expensive. I've also been trying to work out a way of turning the turntable, I was going to hand crank it but have moved away from this idea towards motorisation and to that end had taken apart an old, not really working very well Lima loco for it's motor, however this turned out to be a fruitless task as there was no way it could be mated up to the mecano gearing the Peco turntable recommended - as such a fritzinghall type motor and gear box has been acquired on e-bay, just got to smuggle it home from work (delivery address) past the wife otherwise it'll end up as a christmas present in order to excuse the expenditure. hope to get the turntable deck fitted as a result which will allow me to align the track and get the main line at least running not 100% what to do about point control, but i'm sure i'll figure something.

i'm sorry to say that I personally have had issues with Dapol locos and their customer service. while working in a model shop, locos sent back most often with issues were Hornby and Dapol

Ah, junction 6 but with less of a hill for me to cycle up! can completely see central six (old goods yard now shopping centre) don't forget the rabbits warren of pedestrian subways!

you sure it's not a voyager? Farish were doing voyagers a little while ago.

Rich, Like missy I'm inspired by the posibility of waggon loads that this offers, any chance of an LMS tarp?

but you have been a few years ahead of me on it. I accept that you scratch build most things but that is your choice, besides, you actually have a plan of what you're doing.

And this is the secret reason that I have insisted on an estate as the new car - the wife has insisted on a small car - so small estate it is. my previous layout (which never got finished) had baseboards that were different sizes in order to fit between the wheel arches of a fiesta's boot.

if you didn't know, my layout is late 1940's LMS purely for wanting to run LMS stock and livery when I'd really rather be modelling early 50's in order to be showing the advent of personal motoring for the average man (brought about by cheaper and easier to run and maintain cars such as the morris minor etc) This would put me firmly into BR days, which I've now got nothing against, but at the time of starting railway modelling, I was put off by the custard/mustard colour that ready to run MK1's seemed to appear in. Recently I have developed a liking of early diesels such as Deltics, 108's and 37's and am toying with the idea of building around the time of nationalisation but pondering what would have happened had nationalisation not happened. My thoughts are the LMS twins would have developed into Deltics / 37's and livery similar to that displayed, some in crimson to match coaching stock, perhaps coming into the HST era, utilising blue and silver coronation scot style for the livery. So, is this a plausible thing to do, or just daft? suggestions welcome.

what thickness of card do you use?

You've got to beat your little bro, you've been building your layout longer!

thanks, they just clamp on with G clamps at the moment however, I just realised that I could use bolts with wing nuts to do the same job leaving me with G clamps for building stuff.

Well, it's been a long time since I updated this, including a house move which has seen the railway find a home in one of the rooms instead of what was essentially a corridor. I've also built some legs for the boards (no I wasn't waiting for the trees to grow in order to make them) Firstly an overall view of the layout with the station to the far left, goods yard infront of it and the coal siding coming down to meet the canal. can't remember if the station building had been plonked on a plank of wood to make it about platform height or not. Looking along the length, apologies for the blurry photo, was leaning over boxes of things yet to be unpacked starting of the embankment and viaduct, I've always wanted a viaduct on my railway, if I hadn't bothered then this layout would have been running months ago! The bridge for the road is a wills 00 gauge cattle culvert, but then again, the arches on the viaduct are rivaling Brunell's Maidenhead arches for span width and low height. (ironically, my recent house move was actually to Maidenhead) The white farm house building will eventually gain a pub sign, (does it look a bit cramped in there?) the road winding across in front of the pub and under the near arch, some bushes etc will blend the arches in a bit. The main line disappears into a tunnel shortly after the viaduct as the scenic break. Station end, hiding behind the goods shed is the turntable, standing about 6mm proud of the base due to it's flange, station building (sat on 10mm of ply to simulate a platform) roughly in position, signal box will most likely be mounted on the platform as it looks a little small and likely to not have a great view of things if a full train (the 5 and it's coaches do just fit although I can see the last coach finding it's way into the turntable pit at least once while backing on. I think normal trains might have to be four coaches with the occasional special resulting in the loco having to do a long run around right over the viaduct and back. not sure if that was ever common practice anywhere, but never mind and no, I don't know what a 27 is doing in the background, it's a bit big for making into a tram really. Next jobs now are: put supports in place for the incline, build up the canal banks (5mm ply wood) seal the MDF with PVA glue and build up the trackbed / entire board to the same level as the turntable although I have been toying with the idea of removing the turntable's flange and sinking it fully into the board removing the need to build up the board slightly.

Slaters plasticard or build a building and put a thin layer of DAS clay on the structure and imprint the surface with the texture desired just hoping to help

does scaling the stone down slightly not achieve a similar result? most printers have a scaling option in their settings.

Not sure if this has been mentioned, but a gas holder / gas tower or whatever you want to call them, very prominent on the skyline, I even remember them growing up in the late 80's early 90's. would be absolutely brilliant to be able to build a half / quarter relief, quarter for in a backscene corner or even a full one!

Dad's layout used to just be on a piece of chipboard without any bracing layout was a single loop, two inside sidings and a tunnel made out of a tissue box and paper mashe survived for many years being stored on end and moved about by dad.