Boco_D1

I'm in agreement with the above post I can read the paper copy at work but not on a tablet, that's why I don't buy the digital copy. I've tried railway modeller in the past but as soon as you stop buying the digital edition you can view previous copies because according to their conditions I only rented the mag, very frustrating and I had a lot of problems with traction magazine, it wouldn't load I was being charged monthly although it was bi monthly all in all printed just made life easier. Is there any reason why the printed subscribers can't access the digital edition similar to what Railway Modeller do?

I'm loving your build and those Del Prado locos are great for these cake box challenges.

I believe by the time NSE came along the CEPs had been refurbished with the guards compartment removed from the driving trailers to one of the centre trailers, so the farish one would be wrong for your period (although they are nice models). I looked into converting my own but it's a lot of work, although I have seen it done on here in OO. You could try Electra graphics who I believe do overlays for Poole farish MK1s that you can motorise.

thank you for your kind comments, I have an idea for the fire I want to try but will have to experiment first to see if it works.

I decided the diorama needed another light for the explosion effect. I cut open the tender and added another white LED which I then tuned yellow and with that in place and wired to the circuit I glued down the loco and tender and added the next bit.. It's a hit! I sprayed a good chunk off cotton wool in roof dirt and then teased it into smaller bits. I added a few more explosions and put a piece of wire into the funnel and then added some cotton wall smoke. I still need to attach the plane to the scene but here's a few shots with the hand of god holding it off camera. So the next job is weather the Typoon and attach it to the scene... This is a temporary set up but I imagine running a wire across the scene to balance the plane on would be best.

Silverlink was ran between 1997 to 2007 so it and pendolinos spent a good 5 years side by side and you can run Virgin 86's 87's & 90's alongside Silverlink units too (this is a totally selfish post as my choice is silverlink and I want it to succeed :-p )

The one in the picture is the original car door variant, mine is a later build with a bubble canopy, the paint work is what some typhoons carried in 1944 when stationed in Europe. I see what you mean about the roundals certainly not the RAF standard of most fighters, they are ones supplied with the kit, but I have found examples of them being used by 440 squadron, some Hawker Tempest fighters carried this roundal too, why they are different is (was) a mystery to me (just read the above post after posting).

So with the circuit complete the board is glued down and the loco in place I've moved onto the scenics Ive used static grass in the front field, a variety of woodland scenic turfs on the back field, linchin and rubbererised horse hair covered in various scatters to create the bushes. The fence came from a spares box. I laid woodland scenics fine buff ballast on the road, was everything was dry I weathered the road with various life colour paints, I also toned the train down by dabbing brown paint on sponge onto the foliage. The roofs of the barn and hut where also weathered and I weathered the fence with life colours weathered wood paint. I also attacked the loco by giving it some battle damage, chopping the roof up and drilling some bullet holes in the boiler and then weathered the damage by dabbing silver and rust shades on the body with a piece of torn sponge. The loco was also weathered before its beat up treatment. The larger hole in the firebox will allow the led's to light up the cotton wall smoke when I add it. I also need a van to go behind the loco I chopped up an old peco van and added some card strips to make a crude representation of a German van. A coat of brown paint and the van is ready I'm too worried about the detail as I intented to consume the wagon in "smoke" The typhoon has also recived its decals and is awaiting a light weathering.

That's a great idea but I'm afraid what I've done is about as far as my electronics skills go.

When I saw it advertised last month I was rather sceptical about the 3D gimmick, but when I put the glasses on I was impressed, one or two of the pictures could do with a bit of refining but the ones that did work had a better 3D effect than some of the Hollywood 3D films I've seen over the years, if any criticism it would have been nice to see the original (2D) photo too. Well done guys.

Well that does allow me to breathe a sigh of relief, in that case I'll start my Christmas break and come back to this in the new year. :-p

And progress on the slowest cake box challenge in show continues. I finally got round to ballasting the track even in an area of 8 inches square it's still a job I avoided. But finally the rails have been painted the sleepers weathered and a mix of grey ballast finally glued down. I've also completed the barn. The walls exterior are made of thin card that I scored with a compass and then painted with life colours stone grey. The doors and window shutters came from my spares box and although the doors are technically inside out I thought they worked quite well. The roof is attached with a magnet so that I can hide the switch inside the barn. The build continues...

N Gauge wise upgraded 87 and 90 would be nice. New liveries wise Freightliner 47 green or grey.

This must be the slowest entry in the cakebox challenge as I plod along with build. I've been doing a bit more progress today... I've removed the metal "innards" of the loco which means there's now light between the wheels and frames which makes the loco more realistic, it also allows me to put the LED inside the cab, I will need to add a new cab floor, but as you can see the effect is quite effective. I've started work on the farm barn, this will hide the switch for the LED and as can be seen I've also built the crossing keepers hut. The hut is made from mount board that I've scribed and painted, I've even added some furniture inside, not that it can really be seen, but I couldn't leave it empty. Here's the finished hut sitting on the lid of a PVA glue bottle to show its size, the roof was made from the envelopes I'd previously used to size up the diorama, the advantage of using the envelope is that it has a blue grid printed on the inside, perfect for cutting the slates to size. With the hut finished I shall continue with the barn.

Thanks Andy, it certainly is a pricey kit but I'll have to keep an eye out for the £50 offering.

The track is now down and I've added the crossing but maybe a slight angle of the ballast and hedge row might do the trick.

With the back scene done I'm now concentrating on the exploding locomotive. I found a sluthe smoke generator in my spares box but it wasn't playing ball. I also wanted the power source to be kept with the diorama so I've decided just to concentrate on a light for the explosion. So I've built a self contained power battery box which I will hide under the scenery. I'm rather pleased with this, I've added lights to buildings and locos before but I've always hooked them up to the layout. This time I played around with various batteries to light up the LED and then moved on to building the box. The box itself is made with a base of mountcard with some off cuts of foamboard sandwiching the batteries, I got old loco pickup and cut them off thereded thorough a bit more mountcard and then wired up the circuit. Next job is to add the light to the loco. And hiding the box under the scene and remember to put an access door on the bottom too.

Something that didn't seem to arise is the amount of phone calls the signalman has to deal with, that scenario demonstrated could have at least three phone calls for just that first train. Although trains are now fitted with GSM-R drivers are still required to stop to talk to the signalman, so 3 phone calls 3 stops and you can see how these things build up.

I've had a similar thought where several people film their layout with a cam truck and the footage is then edited together to give the impression of a longer journey. If edited correctly it could start in one region and work its way through to another.

I really wasn't happy with the backscene so I cut some card to size (after several attempts to get it the right size) and paint a more detailed backscene. Working with the position of the track, which I had decided to realign so it comes towards the viewer, and the box art I painted a much better backscene. I've also gone with the curve in the backscene which is certainly an improvement.

You've managed to get a quite a bit in that small space and it appears to me to be deceptively larger than what it is, nice work.

I do like this and great idea by securing the second board in the lid, clearly your a chap who played a lot Tetris in your youth to get this all to fit in the cake box

Now the smoke generator is certainly a possibility as the loco is hollow inside, do the rules include the power source to be within the size limits? I'm certainly going to put lights on the loco to give a fire effect and have been wondering if the hut next to the level crossing will need to be big enough to hide batteries. As for the background, I painted at 2 in the morning, it looked okay then, in the daylight it's not so good so I will be attempting something different to improve the look.

It's a thought that has crossed my mind i just don't want the curve to take up too much space as I want as much distance as I can get between plane, train and backscene. I suppose the best way to find out is have a go.

So the typhoon is now built just waiting transfers. I have cut a circle of plastic and then painted it black where the propellor arms will be before lightly scratching the paint off with sand paper. I also found some cotton wool in the house which works very well for the exploding train. I've cut another base and angled it to slope down towards the front. The outside has been given a coat of black and the sky has been painted on the inside. I also have some very small trees by Bush and have lined them tallest to smallest to incourage the deception of depth.