Kelly

At ExpoEM shows I've always found him friendly and helpful. He has mentioned that he's trying to reorganise his stock to be able to know what is what better and a lot of former kits haven't been made available as whilst he knows what the etches are, the cast items are a collection of confusion to him (this in relation to the SR EMUs mainly). So it isn't all bad news.

Army Cadets paintball challenge camouflage?

A tip to avoid this in the future, use a fine mesh material (such as old tights) over the end of the nozzel and it'll prevent the fine bits getting sucked up (and probably prevent damage/clogging of the hoover). Tape it a bit loose on the end to allow it to suck a bit into the pipe, but not enough to lodge in. You could hide the missing leg with careful placement perhaps? bagage nearby obscuring the missing leg perhaps? (I know this tip as its saved me losing tiny little beads when making my jewellery on numerous occasions, finding black seed beads on a dark carpet is nigh on impossible, so sucking them into the hoover with said addition to the end then turning it off over a bowl saves wasting potentially expensive losses!)

These units are look rather good. Even though not my scale, they're great to see regardless.

I did consider Maryon Park as a name, but something about it didn't fit right for some reason. Thanks for that. I'm still uncertain if I'll manage to fit the underpath in to the plan without a lot of rejigging as it'd have to be in a different spot to where the crossing is going to be and far enough away to be believable, etc.

So yesterday was DEMU Showcase again. A great day was had. I came away with one of these: A 3'x2' board from Tim Horn (as well as a Stormtrooper wall plaque as a gift for Richard my other half). Photos from yesterday are to be found here: So a physical start to the layout has begun. I plan to pick up 2 or 3 more boards in September from Tim at Scaleforum, then it'll be a matter of concentrating on track building really. Talking of track, yesterday Natalie decided she'd rethought the left side of the plan to do away with the single slip which I'd spent a fair bit of time getting right wrong in Templot (and corrected by very helpful people on Templot Club). So this is what I had planned before Natalie's suggested changes: And Natalie's changes: As can be seen, Natalie's changes add about 2ft extra to the length of the layout. I'm unsure which to go with. Natalie's changes do have the advantage of not needing the expense or complication of building a single slip, but the extra points and extra length are a downside. Thoughts?

Those could work. Will have a discussion at some point with Natalie and see what she thinks of various suggestions. A very good reason too. Can just imagine the station announcement making a slight slip of the tongue 'The next train for Norks...' The crossing is going to be on its own module, so it can be swapped out for a module without a crossing or with a different layout of crossing etc. Factory, Ferry and Gas Works wouldn't really work for the size of the layout, perhaps if a module on its own were to be exhibited then that could be a feasible name (perhaps each module having a name?). Rectangular has the advantage of being easier and quicker to source (I'm sourcing them from Tim Horn), non-rectangular/square boards would likely increase costs/complications/delays in building. However I am thinking of having curved end boards to bring the traversers at a 90 degree angle to the layout, but that'll be a later addition I think. I have a Mondeo estate, so fitting modules in isn't such a big concern in some respects (the 3ftx2ft board I got yesterday is swallowed by the boot). Though I do have to factor in that my mobility scooter takes up perhaps 1/3rd of the boot space, though as it breaks down it can be split in terms of placement. I suspect with the back seats down 3x 3ftx2ft boards should fit in pretty easily, fitting in traversers and stock boxes might be more difficult, but we'll see when I come to that as at this stage it is more about getting it built at home really. But withough the scooter theres more than enough room for any layout boards I might desire I suspect.

Afternoon all. Hope everyone is well? if not, then speedy recovery. Hope Jock had a good send off. A day of tooing and froing today really, into town to get a few bits for tomorrow then to Richard's for the night (rather than driving from mine to Burton for DEMU Showcase, his place is closer and means Natalie is en-route to Showcase too, same will apply for GCR event in a couple of weeks time). Looking forward to another good show tomorrow, been very fortunate to be able to get to some cracking shows so far this year (Scaleforum North, LWMRS, ExpoEM and Railex being a few). Enjoy the rest of your day and the weekend all

very impressive work!

That could well work. Will look at Google Maps again and see if that comes up with something as well as business names etc. Unlikely to be many nameboards on the layout I suspect

Could work, but a bit focused on the Woolwich area to be a 'universal' type name for a layout that could feature other areas.

Just a quick update to note that I've made changes to the first post to tidy it up and make it more of an index for the thread. I'll try to keep that updated as work continues.

I've been trying to think of a suitable name for the layout and have been hitting a bit of a wall. I could just go with Woolwich Dockyard, though none of the station or the dock area are modelled, but are suggested to be off scene. I could call it after one or other of the nearby roads too. So a few examples: Victoria Way (this is the name of the road that goes over the bridge at the crossover end at charlton Junction) Lord Warwick St ( this is a road parallel to the woolwich dockyard area) Woodland Terrance (a road I used to live on in the area) Charlton Lane (the name one of the crossings) Sand Street (the name of a former crossing) The problem with the above is they all put it in the Woolwich Dockyard/Charlton area for the layout name, which isn't a problem as such, but if I want to make use of the genericness of the plan to suggest areas like Kidbrooke, etc then it'd feel wrong. Thoughts? suggestions?

Sent off for a selection of different sized Chinese ones to do my own tests with. Could prove interesting.

So with some assistance from the Templot club forum, a few tweaks have occured to the plan. Still needs more work. I've overlaid the 3ftx2ft boards so I can see how they'll line up. The 2ftx2ft board for the level crossing is so it can be taken out or replaced with a gated one easier at a later stage. I'm still considering dropping the level of one board to recreate this: Maybe a second 2ftx2ft board future down. WIll have to be given some thought I guess. Its a nice feature I'd like to incorporate, but Im wary of compressing too much and trying to cram too much in. woolwich_dockyardch_2016_06_01_2226_56.box

Thanks for the information. The Barnehurst is one I recall seeing often. So a model of it may appear at some point, as well as Charlton one and swap them around at times perhaps (the plan is the layout could represent the Kidbrooke area with a bit of alteration of scenery/buildings (which would be removable), so it'd be feasible to build models of both. A 71 would be nice, but it'll be bofore my initial era to start with. I'll probably wait and see what the Hornby/DJH ones end up looking like and seeing if I can afford them nearer the time.

Mor Afternoon all. Muggy and grey day here in Coventry, though no rain atm. The days essentials have been accomplish, namely a cuppa and a shower (not together). Need to wake up a bit more to drive Natalie back home later on. Hope everyone is ok? if not, speedy recovery, etc. Looking forward to the weekend and it is DEMU Showcase, always a good (if cramped) show.

Sadly this somewhat mirrors modern society in terms of consumer electronics, white goods, computers and mobile phones. They're virtually throw away items now sadly, so the days of self repairing a vast number of items is a thing of the past. Perhaps model railways are going the same way with how manufacturing is handled in China. It doesn't sadly help the OP though. Perhaps theres a market for making a small etch for such parts?

Indeed. The gentle sweeping curves did look good, but would sadly be counter to plans for modular boards that can be swapped around. Head has won on this occasion though really. I think I'm 99% happy with the revised plan, and hopefully will collect the first 3ftx2ft board from Tim Horn at the weekend (DEMU Showcase) and make a start from there.

So, had a chance to have a play with Templot again. Have come up with the following revised plan. First the original: Then the revised: It is fairly similar to the previous plan aside from: A single slip added on the left side Straightened out Crossover straight rather than on a transition curve The reason for changing it to a straighter plan, is for one of modularness (is that a word?). Whilst it looked nice having a sweeping curved plan, if I wanted to have different modules, etc then it'd be a lot harder to get them to line up properly I'm thinking. The crossover changes are to make it easier for me to build! Any thoughts and suggestions as always welcome.

All this talk of level crossings has been good reading I'm planning to base the one for my layout on this one, which requires a box and full length barriers with skirts, which counts the peco/ratio types out really, so suspect scratch building is in my future.

My father recently encountered this, when Oracle offered him redundancy he took it 2 years before retirement would normally commence for him, iirc he said he took some of the redundancy payment to make the contributions up for the 2 years. The biggest issue has been my mum having him under her feet as she comments when I phone them every now and again.

Afternoon all. Hope everyone is well? if not speedy recovery as usual. A grey, miserable day it has been here in Coventry. Not done a great deal today, other than popping out to get essentials (tea bags) earlier.

No real updates as yet for a number of reasons. But I have since joined the Scalefour Society, and will hopefully be getting the first of the baseboards from Tim Horn next week at DEMU showcase. Still need to sit down with Templot and redraw the plans to their final design, but what with injuring my wrist a few weeks back and general health issues meaning I've just been too exhausted to concentrate most of the time.

Afternoon all. Hope everyone is well? if not speedy recovery. I'm feeling the effects of a busy weekend, and am thus taking the day as a very restful one. Yesterday at Railex was very good though, and worth the energy expended in going.