dale159

Thanks Rich! Thanks Ian, I am a complete scenery novice, but then I was a complete carpentry novice when I started this 7 years ago! Would anyone be interested in a bit of rolling stock workbench content? Lots of projects started and then forgotten about when it get difficult, started refurbishing a 4CEP into NSE, also got the bits for a 442 powered by a Bachmann 158 and a Silver Fox 119 to be built on a Lima 117 with Hornby running gear amongst a few other things. Dale

Once I was happy with the positioning of the lift out piece, I screwed the legs either side of it down to the floor. Need to have a bit of a clear up now and then I might think about track design again! Hopefully more later in the week. Dale

Couple of bits and bobs from the last week. Both B&Q and Wickes still out of stock of the required timber which is getting a bit annoying. Backs of the 2 curved outer corners completed - left one above still needs inside corner brace. Manage to do a bit more framework on this board enough to be able to put it in its final position and see how the piece across the door fitted. Not very well........... I came to the conclusion the problem lay here, originally I had envisaged that the corner of this board would sit right in the corner by the door frame but I went with the measurements 2x1400mm and 350mm + 1050mm. Slight rebuild in order. That's better (still held in place with clamps at this point) I decided I wasn't happy with the hinge situation either flipping right over and impeding fiddle yard space or being stowed vertically and risk smashing down onto the fiddle yard or worse still dropping down into position pinning the door shut! So I looked at alternatives. And here's what I came up with Like such - same both sides of course. The centre piece then screws to the underside of liftout piece Was a bit of a tight fit had to slacken the screws a bit to make it go in smoothly. 2 more pictures have hit 10mb upload limit!..............

Another long time between posts! I had been hoping to use lockdown to really get cracking but it has stalled a bit. All of the straight boards had their surfaces put on many months ago leaving just the 4 corners to do. My plan for these was to enlist the help of the local clubs professional carpenter to cut the curved corners from sheets of 8x4 but he has been shielding during lockdown so has only been able to do the job last weekend, In another slight change to the plan I elected not to cut the outside corner off this last board to give a little more siding space, the two that have had the outside corner this was reduced from a 900mm radius down to 750mm 3 of the 4 corners can now have the remainder of their frames built up (all 4 will receive a diagonal brace across the inside corner and some sort of curved MDF frontage - the inside timber was cut back by 6mm during the build process to allow for this. I have now used all of the screws recycled from the previous layout (1 or 2 were only fit for the bin) and unfortunately on my last 2 visits to B&Q they have been out of stock of the 2 sizes of screw I've used, there also seems to be an ongoing shortage of 4x1 timber required to complete the framework again having reused most of the biggest bits reclaimed form the old layout. Dale

Or a gap between shipping containers on such a train. Dale

When I first saw the Mk5s appear with Dellners I was under the impression this had been done to eliminate the need for staff going down on the track during all the coupling and uncoupling moves the sleeper performs, clearly I was wrong. On a DMU or EMU fitted with any kind of auto coupler does the operation of the couple or uncouple buttons in the cab not just perform the same task of mechanically opening or closing the isolating cock as appropriate? If so I'm surprised this hasn't been incorporated into the Mk5 design and could be operated from a small lockable panel in the vestibule of each coach. Dale

Good Evening. Last bit of framework I need a few bits of timber for legs for this board and one other and then we're on to MDF surfaces, quite a shopping list. Dale

Good Evening Corners.... These 2 are a mirror image of one another so I decided to make them simultaneously This one has a back on it as I have decided to use the space above the stairwell behind for a small fan of sidings. I have modified the remaining 4 pairs of legs for the corner boards. This one is still a little flimsy as it doesn't touch the wall anywhere, and I didn't have a suitable piece of timber to make a pair of legs for the end right of shot - only 1 leg! The end is also narrower than the others at 400 mm to match the bridge. With drawbridge clamped roughly in place. I think I will screw the legs of the boards either side of the drawbridge down to the floor to ensure good alignment. Dale.

Good Evening First there was 1............. .............And then there were 5 Oh and a quarter And the door bridge. Corners next where the fun starts! Dale

Good Evening. Just a quick post to say that in the last 10 days I made a start pulling the old layout apart which has freed up some space for me to make a start on the new one. I am on annual leave for a fortnight and then I'm not back at work until the Friday of the week I return so that's 20 days off! Here's the first of the new 1400 mm long boards - the ends, outer pair of cross-members, legs, corner blocks and even the screws all reused, only the sides and short centre cross-member are new wood that were already to hand, this being built around the toilet air vent will prevent the entire layout from walking like the previous one did and I am also using a different technique to mount the leg support blocks to make them a tighter fit which will also reduce movement. Seeing as B&Q has now reopened with similar measures to supermarkets I will be out for some more wood tomorrow morning. Here's something else I made last week - again from bits of wood lying around - which has certainly proved worthwhile after its first usage today A cradle to attach my circular saw to my workmate. More progress reports later in the week - I'm not going to great detail on the other main boards as they are essentially the same as before just being made longer. Dale

Good Evening, My Layout room now has a carpet in the form of some reclaimed carpet tiles and I have spent the last few days laying them, there is a small area around the door still to do as I need to change the threshold and of course with our current situation the nearby B&Q is click and collect only - and door thresholds are not available to click and collect! This evening I have started the process of dismantling the old layout starting with the never used exhibition expansion boards and the garage door lift-out piece. I've also been able to get a more accurate picture of the floor space I'll be able to use with the apex roof coming down at the front of the house, with a piece of the old layout stood up to ascertain the height I figured I had a length of 6 metres and a width of approximately 2.5m to play with. I thought about this and I agree that building the layout in sections will make it easier to work on - once while working under a layout at the local club (Layout did actually come apart but wasn't worth it for the job i was doing) sat cross legged on the floor like a schoolboy soldering above my head when there was suddenly a burning sensation above my left ankle, the blob of solder had actually landed on my sock where it cooled down and solidified, the following day I tried to melt the solder out with my own iron but it wouldn't budge so I just ended up cutting it out! Anyway, my new plan is as follows Some new boards slightly longer at 1400mm, same width at 600mm (bits of old layout to be reused on the ends of these and the legs) 200 x 270mm area top left is the air vent from the bathroom below so this board will have a piece cut out around that. I propose to build a 'drawbridge' across the door hinged at its left hand end on the diagram and likely made of 2 inch timber to keep its weight down. The tricky part will be the corners, I've yet to come up with a plan on how I'll build these, I intend to make them wide enough to accommodate 4 tracks all the way around so their dimensions are still a little bit fluid. Dale

Zoomed in as much as I can on an Android phone it looked to me like it could be the class 140 unit? Dale

Good Evening. Just a quick message to say that I moved into my new house 3 weeks ago and have spent much of my spare time since moving all of my possessions in with me. The final piece of the puzzle today - the layout. One empty Garage! Layout piled up in the new room. I am very impressed that the never before used pieces of Ply to stack the boards face to face have stood up to the move as these are only thin 5mm Ply so I was doubting that they would be strong enough for the job. In case you were wondering what the thing stood up middle right of shot is. Here it is the right way up. I'd always been looking for more space efficient ways to store my stock, especially HST, rakes of coaches and wagons. I already had 6 10 litre Really Useful Boxes each of which could hold 12 vehicles with a few foam packing pieces in between. The biggest problem was with Mk3 coaches which are slightly longer than the width of the box, then I worked out that given a 2+8 HST is less than 12 vehicles I could angle them slightly to fit them in using foam insulation board wrapped in parcel tape to fill the gaps in. 18 boxes later - the frame fitting inside the layout legs with mm to spare. Further thinking on the future of the layout - I've come to the conclusion that the chances of me actually going to an exhibition is very small as getting the appropriate time off work to prepare and attend a 2 1/2 day exhibition is quite difficult and being in this part of the Westcountry kind of limits the number of shows within a reasonable driving distance. So on that basis I have decided that I am going to start again from scratch with a new layout fixed in the room while reusing as much as possible from the existing layout. I can't start immediately as I am awaiting a delivery of carpet tiles for the room from a work colleague but with no current timescale for their arrival. Dale

Had similar a few weeks ago The 2 guys running this channel being from Leeds and Manchester both with appropriate strong local accents. Dale

Found this on Flickr earlier. https://www.flickr.com/photos/afc45014/49411396623/in/photolist-2ihjjKr-2ihmCZM-PFt7tv-2ieHBXh-2i9BjuF-2hQ1rT1-2hPSx8u-2hPFTjH-2hPApDo-2hPstXi-2hPgwRB-2hFRkX8-2hvSDid-2ifamVc-2i2mf1c-2i1iF8w-2hZ9sMi-2hNFGS6-2hG1kyW-2hoEdhX-2ho6igW-2hmZioU-2hfJM3J-2hePMRH-2h3RSia-2gukGom-2gRhXgo-2gP59uN-2gzAiQk-2gud41z-2gfunhS-2gcr5dv-2fV62um-THAfwG-2etmqxw-2epM7ML-24U5S8F-2eox7Ud-24KNnRv-24Jbsz6-T9dAfw-24yxQ8K-2dLfRCv-Symf8L-243qLcH-2ex2Bx8-2dnu1dh-ScwEYy-2cMe8mE-MhPnER I correctly identified which was the failure and which was the rescuer before reading the caption! Dale Edit - Fitters attention to RMWeb for quadruple post, I've tidied up after myself now

I had a Virgin 'Pretendolino' liveried one apart a few years back for a respray. Can't say I noticed anything untoward, certainly runs OK with some Mk2 aircons all fitted with Kadee #5s. What livery is yours? Dale

Many Thanks Rich. I've not actually moved in yet, I am actually spending Christmas day with the folks at my sister's house - she too has recently bought a shared ownership. I reckon I will be moving in mid-ish January as the house doesn't come with carpets only Lino in the kitchen and Bathrooms. Nor do I don't own an awful lot of furniture so I've been slowly acquiring bits and bobs form family and friends plus a few bargains from the local tip! I've also gained a sofa this week that was destined for Sister's but proved too large to manoeuvre between the front door and the adjacent living room door. No such problem getting it in my house straight in didn't even touch the sides! Dale

Unless there was one just out of shot behind the photographer? I have been told by a friend I shared the article with that the SAME bus had an almost identical crash in May 2012, only photo I can find is of it being towed away for repair afterwards - https://www.flickr.com/photos/stevenquyphotography/8245031973 Dale

Sorry not a bridge but instead the canopy over the entrance of the A&E department at Ipswich Hospital. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-suffolk-50855188 Fortunately no one sat there at the time so did not require the short walk inside said Hospital. Dale

Good Afternoon. So just over 12 months has passed since my last post on this thread, but don't worry you haven't missed anything! But changes are afoot. In August of 2019 I turned the ripe old age of 30 and until then I had been living at home with my Mother and her partner, who kindly allowed me to build Brixington Town in their garage, at the family home of 15 years in Exmouth. As of Yesterday I am now a homeowner, having bought myself a 50% stake in a newly built property on the outskirts of Exeter through a Shared ownership scheme. The house is a 3 bedroom townhouse over 3 floors - no prizes for guessing what comes next - on the top floor is a large room in which I intend to house my Layout measuring approximately 22ft by 8ft. This has required me to do some headscratching, this room is longer than the garage whilst being broadly the same width. Truth be told there are things on Brixington Town which I've never been happy with, primarily the brown ballast I have used - as it was free - and despite my attempts to lighten it with some grey it wasn't enough, then there are large patches of it that haven't stuck down very well. My other major bugbear was my overambitious attempt to maximise the fiddleyard capacity in the limited space which has lead to the corners being far too sharp having elected to place the scissors crossings across the ends of the layout, this has lead to numerous derailments if taken at any speed. So..... Once I've moved and settled into my new home I have decided I am going to totally redesign the Layout to take advantage of the extra space. Here is my first draft plan by no means final, I should have enough room to make a continuous curve at either end. Being as I now have a door to the side of the room rather than the up-and-over garage door to contend with I will either make some sort of drawbridge the flips up out of the way of the door or simply remove the door from the hinges and store it elsewhere! I don't know at this stage how much of the existing layout will be reusable (at least the name!) until I've fully moved in, any work on the layout will be several months away as first priority is obviously to make the house habitable, but I will continue to post updates on here when I have some. Dale

My apologies for this, post number 12346 on this thread Dale

Dale (1st post on this version of RMweb!)

Afternoon, Long time no update again, here's a couple of ideas floating in my head. I saw on someone else's Layout thread (I'm afraid I forget who's exactly) but they had used 1.5mm ply as a top surface for platforms with Peco sides, so I have ordered some. Also while at a Swapmeet in Newton Abbot this morning I saw a pair of Peco subway staircases and wondered if I could modify them to be used as the staircases from my platforms up to the Station Building and footbridge level, £3 the pair! Each individual staircase is a 19mm climb with 8 steps and I have 76mm to climb which is rather convenient multiple of 19! I think I will graft 2 staircases together leaving a landing between each pair. Something I can be getting on with indoors in the warm! Dale

Hatchet Road - Bridge under the Country end of Bristol Parkway station yesterday I suspect a vehicle tied up with the Filton Bank works, fortunately appears to have been empty at the time. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-46077533 Dash Cam captures it very well, what it might not show which I just pick up from Google maps is that the first half of the bridge is a Girder bridge but the second half is an Arch. Dale

Here's a slightly revised version having looked at the windows supplied in the kit I realised that my previous effort didn't quite match and I've added more windows upstairs above the front doors but taken some away from the fifth module on both floors for a larger parcel storage area downstairs and traincrew facilities such as toilets or a canteen upstairs. Dale