goldngreen

The signal box looks particularly good, especially the roof tiles.

Good news and an impressively fast response 😃 Thanks.

It has worked out well for me. I would simplify the design of the baseboard/box in to a single construction if I did it again, rather than making the baseboards and then adding the box. If you give it a go, I hope it goes well and please post plenty of updates so we can follow the progress.

It looks like I spoke too soon!

I think that is all images restored now following the server move. Good to have RMweb back online and running fast.

Good to see you back. Shame about the images. I have replacements that I can upload.

Not yet. I will get round to it. It has rising hills in the background. It means that it is higher but it is clear that it is meant to be high because they are hills.

I suppose unwittingly that is what I was trying to achieve. This puts it in to words nicely. Thanks.

Very true. Like the magic of the vacuum flask

I replaced the backscene with the one mentioned in my response. I have finally got round to cutting an inch off the bottom as well!

My inspiration for model railway trees dates back to the 1970s. We always believed that, no matter how good the track, stock, buildings and scenery were, model railways were always let down by the trees. There did not appear to be a good way to build a realistic tree. Then I saw Pendlebury by Bert Topping in a couple of magazines of the day. There is a picture of one of his trees here on rmweb. Page down through the post. As I remember it, his methods involved blitzing (using a blender) dyed, frozen, wet, foam to make the leaf cover; this was the big difference. It was held in place using rubberized horse hair. One of the features I liked in the Pendlebury trees was the observation that many trees have trunks split quite low and progress to the canopy as two trunks. I wanted to model this in my tree. Another more recent inspiration, as for many, is Gordon Gravetts Modelling Trees Part One. I was not going to achieve these standards but inspiration is really important. Now Woodland Scenics and other manufacturers make foam based foliage for us. No messing about with dying and blitzing! My method for this tree was to use stripped 13 amp flex & solder for the trunk and Woodland Scenics foliage for the leaves. My layout is set in late summer so I need predominantly green scenery. The method was nothing special. First one end of the stripped flex was soldered to lock the strands together. Then the branches of the canopy were formed by twisting out the strands of the copper flex in to a tree shape. Each branch node was soldered to hold it in place. Once I had formed the shape I applied flux to draw in to the remaining parts of the tree shape and then applied solder to hold the whole structure firm. At this point many apply a texture but I decided the small scale meant this was not necessary. The solder had already done the job. This was then spray pained to a dull grey/brown colour. Since the model is set in late summer I applied a dense cover of Woodland Scenics mid green foliage teased out as finely as possible, using PVA to hold it in place. It was finally given a spray of Scenic Cement to firm it up. Plonked on the layout

Great prototype. I am sure the result will be impressive having followed your other postings. Good luck with it. I hope you do the footbridge.

Like two birds standing on a perch. One says to the other, "can you smell fish?"

After a long hiatus I have finally got round to another post. I often find that some of the layouts that stand out at shows are those that are well lit. I think it is particularly important in small cameo layouts. I am also struck by how much layouts of this type look similar in dimensions to home aquariums. Home aquariums always seem to be well lit. This set me thinking. So I visited my local aquarium supplier with the dimensions of my layout noted. In addition to seeing a wide variety of exotic fish, I also found an aquarium lighting unit that seemed to be a perfect fit. It is LED. It came with a transformer and a switch in the cable. When I got it home I found that the fit was even better than I had expected. I literally had to make no modifications to the layout to fit the lighting unit. It sits perfectly between the ends of the already existing frame at the top of the layout.

Thanks for posting. Good to see some n gauge content. Nice work. Look forward to seeing more.

I have one that was bought shortly after it was released, once the BR lined black version was available. It was late 70s I think, perhaps 1978 or 79. It is certainly in the 1980 catalogue. This eBay poster sale seems to suggest it was announced, if not released, in 1978. I remember having the poster! Mine is unmodified and does have copper pickups.

Crich Tramway Mmuseum is excellent. Hope you had a good day. Models are looking very good.

It looks like an operating paradise. It will be interesting to see how it progresses. I hope it goes well.

I know this was a long time ago but, having read your most recent post, I am going to start at the beginning and work my way through it. I love the way you used the door with the cut outs.

Looks like a good runner even with the 3D printed bevel gears. I love the way you have done the BEV badge.

So pleased to find this reproduction of the 1973 Grafar (Graham Farish) catalogue. The models were so basic compared to the amazing ready-to-run that we get today but in 1973 when I was still a child, making the first move in to N Gauge, this was the first I saw of what was available. It was very exciting at the time. I ended up with a 94xx pannier which, despite the original plastic chassis worked very well; it ran reliably for years and had excellent slow speed performance. I also got a Hall (Burton Agnes Hall) that unfortunately did not work well. There was a short rake of the "GW" mainline coaches as well which I still have today.

I will be following. I have done some looking around the web on the subject. A lot of the matches are for the Black Country Living Museum. I presume these are good examples? Do you have a lot of good period shots? Do you have a layout plan yet, i.e. what sort of location you would like to model? Apologies - lots of questions!

Looking excellent as ever!

Worth all of the blood sweat and tears! Thanks for posting.

Great stuff. I presume you have a mirror behind the bridge in the outdoor shot? I will look up the magazine articles. More posts please.