RJS1977

I've often thought that Network Rail could save themselves some maintenance costs by reopening Cheadle Village Junction-Davenport, which would enable the remaining line from Northenden Junction to Hazel Grove via Cheadle Heath to close.

Mike, 2 Tone - just noticed your posts too. If you have layouts that could be exhibited, drop me a PM too. Potentially that gets me up to 6 layouts which could be the basis of something, especially if the Pembrokeshire Scale Modellers were invited too. Only trouble is the hall I was thinking of booking's now about to be knocked down and rebuilt so isn't taking bookings at the moment! Richard

Mark As previously mentioned, I did think of organising a show in Pembs but couldn't find much in the way of layouts. (If you PM me some details I'll bear you in mind if I find any more!). The only other shows I'm aware of in West Wales are Carmarthen and Aberaeron but I gather they both struggled this year.

My understanding was it's under Mersey Square shopping centre (hence the name!)

Yes, the M63 only went as far as what is now J27. The remaining eastern section of what is now the M60 has only been completed in the last 15 years or so since I left Stockport. It was very convenient that the accident with the crane made the trackbed east of Stockport available for the motorway, although it now takes best part of an hour to get from Bredbury to Stockport by road in the rush hour.....

The two bridges were to the north of the M60 ( http://goo.gl/maps/IaOw ) and the trackbed ran pretty much parallel. Apart from being severed by the motorway junction and the loss of several bridges (most notably the viaducts east of Travis Brow), a remarkable amount of the trackbed still appears to be clear - almost enough to be able to extend Metrolink from East Didsbury (but not quite!). The M60 (was the M63 when I knew it!) was built before the railway closed - the subsidence from building the motorway (allegedly) made the tunnels unsafe.

What's Clan Line doing in Stockport? ;-) The late Peter Jones had a 16mm scale model based on the Tiviot Dale buildings on the Compton Down Railway - I don't know if this building still exists anywhere.

Like the title - I have loads of 1960s/70s Blue Peter annuals!

... not to mention being useful for anyone modelling Dunkirk, 1940...

The Medway Queen Preservation Society sell modellers' plans of the MQ. Perhaps there's an opportunity here for a joint venture between Scalescenes and MQPS with the proceeds going towards the restoration project. Just a thought.

Presumably then you're not using solenoid point motors...

PS - to give you some indication of the major alterations to the panel I alluded to earlier - none of the points in the photo of the 59 were on the layout when the panel was first built!

That's funny - our book(s) are known as the "book(s) of words" too! (One listing all the wires at the terminal blocks, with the colours on each side and their purposes, the other containing the veroboard component layouts of the signalling circuits, of which this is the most recent addition: In case anyone's wondering, it controls an isolating section associated with a colour light signal approximately where the extreme left hand section switch is on the main panel. i.e. about where the 59 is here - you can just see the head and top of the ladder if you look really closely: (In actual fact, the signal itself isn't connected to the circuit board as it's positioned where you can only see the back of it anyway! So we've just used a Merit dummy one. ) [The top chip is a 74LS54 which contains 2 2-input and 2 3-input AND gates, each feeding into a 4-input NOR gate. This is a very useful chip where you have diverging routes, provided you only need a 2-aspect output, as we do here (no need for a "yellow" as we can't see it anyway). In this case the AND gates are use as follows: 1) Point set to harbour and harbour branch clear. 2) Points set to Platform 0 (bay) and Platform 0 clear. 3) Points set for Platform 1 AND Platform 1 crossover set for entry AND Platform 1 clear. 4) All 3 inputs permanently held low (0V).]

Yes, I thought Holm Lane was great too! The owner was telling me the layout was designed to fit a Zafira and since the new model came out it won't fit any more, which is one of the reasons he wants to retire it (the other being the length of time it takes to set up). Otherwise I'd have been interested in having it for Kenavon 2014 (or possibly 13 if I can get the extra room. I gather it's part of a larger layout in its home set up - hence the two spurs off one of the reversing loops that don't go anywhere. Kew Bridge wss there too - another great LT layout! Kernow Junction was running a Beattie Well Tank - does this now count as LU stock?

Bob - my apologies if I over-reacted & Dave - sorry to have brought you into this! That was intended as a tongue -in-cheek comment and sorry if that caused you any offence. Richard

A lot of the shows in the more rural parts of Wales are struggling, owing to a lack of supply of suitable layouts that don't require large amounts of expenses (I thought of organising one in Pembrokeshire but hit the same problem). It's a vicious circle - few shows, so people don't build layouts for them (or if they do, the exhibition scouts don't see them!). So there aren't enough layouts to supply the shows.... and not enough shows to justify building the layouts.... So I'd like to encourage any Welsh layout-builders out there to design their layouts for exhibition and to publish them on here at least (in the modelling press better still) to help keep these shows going!

I think the worst of the wiring's probably mine (it's a joint project) - but those wires do a lot (see my automation thread)! Unfortunately a major redesign of one end of the layout, whilst improving the layout both operationally and visually, led to a high concentration of point motor studs and indicator lights within a very small area of the panel. And the wires are longer than they need to be to so they don't pull loose when the front of the main panel is dropped. Owing to the reversing loops, most sections are switched on both rails, which also adds to the complexity... It's also fully (?) documented and the range of colours aid maintenance (at least it's not all red wires!). But the important thing is, it all works (at least most of the time!).

Here's the exterior of the main panel of my father's loft layout: And inside.... Not content with that, there is a smaller panel for train detection: And a still smaller one for the loco depot: I won't say which one of the three I built....

In some places the OS only does a new survey every 20 years!

I can see pros and cons with the price. For one signal, yes, it's very nice and good value for the price and if I only needed one signal for a layout I'd seriously consider getting one (indeed, I've just glanced up at one of the boards for my 009 layout and spotted a good place for one!). But for more than one the cost mounts up pretty quickly (as it does with all these nice wagons and coaches that are coming out these days). For example the branch terminus on my father's layout has two platforms with starter signals and a bracket home signal (i.e. 4 arms in total). Assuming a bracket signal follows at around the £50 mark, that's £100 to fit out a very simple station. Even that's possibly not too bad, but the other end of the line has 10 signal arms, and my own 00 terminus layout has around 20! So for me, personally I'll stick with my collection of slightly overscale Crescent cast metal signals. Pretty easy to motorise either using relays or servos, though I need to resume my experiments with spectacle plates. Whilst detail-wise the Dapol signal is light years ahead (especially when comparing the motion to a relay-powered signal), there's just no way I could afford to upgrade. (Still, maybe Hattons will do a bargain multipack!). None of which is to take away from what appears to be a magnificent product.

The photo is in the Middleton Press book on the Corris and VoR, headed "Post script" it is under photo 60 at the end of the Corris section, about halfway through the book. The caption says the photo was taken in 1959 but the practice continued there until the 1980s.