Brian D

Well, that's very kind of you to say so danstercivicman. I originally planned a single line branch but how many ex-LNER/BR(E/NE) single branches are there? Very few IMHO. It really had to be a double track branch (if a little compressed) to justify locos like the A1 above. Regards, Brian.

Today, I thought I would place my longest tender loco on the layout to see how she looked, thus.... ...pretty good, I thought. So, she was pressed into service checking platform and isolated section lengths.... ...and I thought I'd see how she looked on the turntable... ...again, pretty good I thought. I eventually got back to track laying and this is the sum total of this afternoon's efforts. This is the final platform road at the rear of the layout. The Peco track lengths, one full 36 inch length and a further 12 inch length for the isolated section, were sleeper spaced and placed in position. Some loose sleepers were also cut and prunned for the locations where the rail connectors are located. Tomorrow, I will remove the track, solder the droppers to the underside of the rails and spray paint the track. On Saturday I can then glue and ballast the track in position. This bay road will accommodate a 4 car dmu or a three coach local with ease. Regards, Brian.

Hi Andy and thanks. I've been following your latest developments on my tablet in Crete. I really don't know how you do it. In the time you have progressed from Bitton to Pencarne Junction via Whittaker Street, here I am having just laid a few yards of track. Slow down mate - you put the rest of us to shame Pictures to follow (layout pictures not holiday pictures ) Regards, Brian.

Back from sunny and very hot Crete yesterday where we celebrated our 43rd wedding anniversary while there - "doesn't time fly when you are enjoying yourself" / "murderers get less" **(delete as appropriate) Seriously, the Love of my Life follows me to model railway shows and heritage railways without complaint and generally puts up with my obsession and, indeed, encouraged me to take the plunge and build Hawthorn Town all those years ago so absolutely no complaints from me. So, back to reality. I had a quick look in the shed yesterday to make sure all was well, which it is. Perhaps tomorrow a bit more track laying or shall I make a start on some buildings? I downloaded some Scalescenes house backs a few weeks ago which I'm sure will suit the layout somewhere. Regards, Brian.

Just back from foreign parts so didn't get to buy the RM until today. The layout spread looks great and like Andy, I'll have a thorough read later. You must be thrilled to have HD in print - well done Les, Regards, Brian.

Thanks Jock. We are having a great time - day 3 already. Hope you are well. Best wishes Brian.

No probs with the mojo. Just taking it steady and trying purposely not to rush (which is when I make c#ck ups)

Just a quick progress report before me and Mrs D are off on our jollies for a couple of weeks. This is the current position... If you can see through the mess you will see four points laid, two of which are fully wired back to the control panel and three platform roads completed, again only two fully wired back to "control". The rear most platform road has had the baseboard painted light grey acrylic ready for track laying when I get back. Some matte A4 photo paper arrived in this morning's post for use on the back scene. A visit to Durham is set for the end of July so further experiments with photographic back scenes will follow once I've got some more appropriate pics from the Land of the Prince Bishops. I need both colliery town and country side panoramas. I will keep in touch with RMWeb via my tablet on our travels but there will obviously be no progress here while I'm away. Regards, Brian.

Two more points had their droppers soldered on and were spray painted yesterday. Earlier this afternoon, both points were laid on pva and the ballast sprinkled over as shown below. Meanwhile, the smallest loco in the fleet was carrying out a bit of shunting at the buffer stop end of the station. This is a fantastic little model made by Dapol for Model Rail magazine. The gearing is such that it operates literally at a crawl - great for testing the electrical continuity through the live frog cross-over. Regards, Brian.

Dear Andy, Thanks for that. I am a snail in comparison to your layout output but I'm getting there (slowly). I hope your new project(s) really satisfy your railway modelling needs...but please take it easy my friend. Best wishes, Brian

Progress on the layout has been interrupted this week by (1) the decking chap extending the decking to the shed and doing some fence work for me so I couldn't get into the shed and (2) my wife's birthday. However, a minor miracle I mean milestone today! I have now wired up all the track laid to date - this isn't much but does include two of the platform roads and a pair of points forming the buffer stop end of a run round loop. So, it is now possible that these two locos... ...when you select the appropriate switches... ...and turn the two separate controller knobs... ...move independently of one another. This was a defining moment for the layout. I needed the ability to run two trains at once, one arriving, another departing perhaps. Hence the design of a two track main line and the investment in the Morley twin track controller. It was immensely satisfying to put theory into practice, albeit very slowly, and see these two locos running together but under independent control. Back to track laying tomorrow. The plan is to lay and wire up the other two platform roads following which I will give track laying a rest and build the platforms, station building and commence the townscape. Regards, Brian.

Great and interesting stuff - now following. Regards, Brian.

As you can see from the number of "likes", I have belatedly just caught up with the rebirth of Stockrington - been busy myself getting the new layout commenced in the railway shed. It's great to see you back in the groove. I will definitely start to "follow" your thread so I don't miss anything. Best wishes, Brian.

A minor landmark this evening on the new layout. This locomotive moved up and down a short section of track! The appropriate section switch (i.e. that covering the green section on the mimic diagram), when turned to the left thus... ...controlled the loco using the left hand controller thus... ...and when turned to the right thus... ...enabled the loco to be controlled by the righthand controller thus. It was also comforting to find that when the section switch was in the vertical or neutral position, thus... ...the loco did not respond to either controller. Much punching the air followed along with statements like "Yesss. Cracked it!". As I stated when I finally got the points working, it really is so satisfying when something you think should work does turn out to do what was expected. Well chuffed. Regards, Brian.

To be honest with you Duncan, it didn't work properly first time - the points were out of sync, one was straight ahead while the other wasn't. Basically I'd wired one of the point motors the wrong way round. However, it was easily corrected. Thanks again for your comments and interest. Regards, Brian.

A bit more track has been laid this week and there is also another piece about 3 feet long which has been "sleeper spaced", wire droppers soldered to the underside of the rails and spray painted ready for laying and ballasting tomorrow. Also, today, the first serious bit of wiring (and testing thereof) between the panel and the layout has taken place. When I use the small shiny switch in the middle of the picture here... ...magically (and it was a very pleasant surprise for me to find that) these points operate in unison It's always pleasing when something you think should work actually does. I'm a happy camper today! The switch was one of these http://brimal.co.uk/index.php/online-shop?page=shop.product_details&flypage=eny_fly_brimal.tpl&product_id=952&category_id=531 The next challenge is wiring up the track sections. These are to be controlled by the 3 position rotary switches shown above surrounding the point switch. The central position (as shown) is off for both controllers. Turning to the left or the right will select one of the two controllers in the Morley unit to power the section. Or that's the plan Regards, Brian.

Good Morning Ray, Indeed, working up side down compounded the problem. Unfortunately the boards are too big and the space in the shed too small to turn them over to assist in these sorts of problems. But I now seem to have a method that has worked first time twice - whoopie-doo. So long as S*d's Law doesn't intervene. Mind you, I have a few aches and pains this morning after all that Limbo Dancing under the baseboards yesterday. Laying more straight track this afternoon hopefully. Regards, Brian.

I have spent a very frustrating afternoon trying to fix Seep point motors to the two points already laid. The problem has been literally "centred" around fixing the motors in the correct relation to the points so that the in built switch correctly changes the frog polarity. Despite using the "tool" I was still having problems getting the correct polarity on the points (using my trusty multi-meter to check). It seemed that whilst the points could be kept in the correct over centre position using 16/0.2 wire wedged between the stock rails and blades of the Peco code 75 electro-frog points, the card spacer I used to centre the point motor proved unreliable. I eventually cracked it by cutting a 10mm wide strip of plastic card, drilling a 1mm diam hole in the centre which when slip over the point operating rod was wedged between the two coils of the point motor. Things then proceeded at a decent pace with correct polarity being achieved on the meter when operating the points manually. However there was much cursing prior to the light bulb moment. Regards, Brian.

I want to get the new layout finished first so we are talking about at least 10 years Seriously, I really love these railways (Ffestiniog, Talylynn, etc - apologies for my awful Welsh spelling) and fancy doing a small offering in 7mm/foot scale on 16.5mm gauge track using Bachmann or Hornby mechanisms under some Smallbrook studios or Peco loco bodies.....but not anytime soon. Absolutely not but see my reply to Andy. Regards, Brian.

Photos as promised - actually they are frames from the video I shot of the return trip Aberystwyth to Devil's Bridge. Firstly, the locomotive.. ...and finally, a head out of the window shot nearing Devil's Bridge. You can clearly see the sharp bends at the top of this fantastic little railway. Visiting these famous Welsh railways always makes me think about modelling one. Regards, Brian.

Hi Ray, I don't mean at all to be disrespectful but the "planning process" has gone on too long IMHO - time to lay some track and get on with it. You can obsess too long about the end result. It's time to "Go For It". The track plan above in post #155 looks great to me - you have a railway system with two stations and lots of operational potential. It will be so much easier and quicker to build than the previous plan (post #113?). Perhaps Mr Peco's track might be the way to go, rather than hand built stuff - quicker to get trains running possibly, although I'm still struggling. With regard to your latest plan, have you thought about a fiddle yard/scenic bit including a couple of stations/fiddle yard arrangement? I have taken the liberty of editing your last proposal thus. Obviously the original FY is shown in black and the new one in red. I have obviously run rough shod over your sidings in the lower station but hopefully you will catch my drift as it were. Indeed, a double track link between the two FYs incorporating two stations and siding facilities could be accommodated. Just my ramblings. Regards, Brian.

Thanks for that Duncan, I totally agree. Me and Mrs D have had a week away in West Wales, came back today, including a trip on the Vale of Rheidol railway . Photos to follow. Regards, Brian.

Track laying has commenced!! However, progress is slow. My favoured method of spacing out the sleepers on Mr Peco's track panels is extremely time consuming. But, I'm in no rush. Electrical testing has also shown up one or two issues with my soldering, particularly one of the point stock rail/blades bonds which didn't manifest itself until the point had been glued down, all now corrected. Pictures follow. This is the first section comprising one of the platform buffer stop end's run round points and corresponding loco stand. The section has been spray painted, allowed to dry, glued down and then ballast sprinkled over before being weighted down with various heavy stuff to hand. The masking tape has been positioned at the platform edge. This shows the same track after removal of excess ballast (vac + stocking over nozzle as standard practice) and the masking tape removed. This shows the next parallel section which, having been sprayed, is being test fitted. Various holes were drilled for the wires accurately so that tugging the wires down from beneath the base board helped to locate the track panel in the correct position. This is as far as I've got today. I've had issues centring the point motor on the lower point so have ordered one of these (aka Seep point alignment tool). Regards, Brian.

Thanks for the suggestion Ray. Being an impatient person, the paint was only touch dry when I made the sample and one or two sleepers did move slightly. If I'd left it overnight, your idea may have worked. Something to think about. Regards, Brian.

As it was a "prototype" trial, I put down two strips of masking tape at the ballast edges, brushed neat PVA in between, put down the previously sprayed track, adjusted one or two sleepers that had gone a bit awry and finally sprinkled the ballast over the sample between the masking tape, collecting the excess when the glue had dried the following day. I have read on here that it is best to glue the spaced out sleepers to the rail via the small holes on the underside of the sleepers using a fine tip glue applicator and I will do this when I get into the "production" run, doing this prior to spray painting the track. You can even do curved track this way by only gluing the sleepers to one rail, the inside rail. I am trying to avoid the usual method of laying dry ballast between the track already laid and then dripping the usual 50-50 mix PVA/water + washing up liquid mix over the ballast which I found less than satisfactory on the previous layout. Hope that helps. Regards, Brian. Brian.