Dragonfly

This week's work so far: One thing has been painting the trackside walls from their default Cotswold stone colour to a darker slate colour, using the same Woodlands Scenics Slate Grey I've used on the house and garden paths. In addition, I've started planting some growth along the tracksides, to blend between trackbed and walls. In the other direction, another stone wall has been built, replacing the three-bar fence, and similar overgrowth added to the left-hand side of the trackbed. The right-hand side will wait for now, as the plan is to add a small halt here. Finally, a birds-eye view of the layout overall, at it currently stands. The road looks a little shiny and reflective from this angle, so may have to matt down that a little... But overall progress is slowly being made. The area in the red boxes is what I've done so far, so still plenty more to work on.

So is my bank account! So don't mind waiting until next year, though I'm very glad there's going to be another batch. Hopefully something 1990s for my Trainload Petroleum class 60 to pull!

A little bit more progress. The lawns have had some flowering bushes added, the shed and outhouse have had initial painting done (but more to be done), the garden has sprouted some veggies, and the house has been painted into a more slate colour. It's possibly a tad too dark now, so further tweaking may be beeded.

...and then a few months passed, with no further progress... Life decided that the chest infection and car crash wasn't enough, so added in a breakup and a house move to the mix, among other things, which put everything on hold for a few months. I've begun my other layout during this time, but this one wemt to the storage lockup. But with a couple more appearances booked for the layout in the near future, it's about time I got on with some gardening... It's also now named "Cwm Hir" as a reference to the street name of it's builder's home in South Wales. Firstly some stones put down to form the "yard" and paths, around the house and across the garden. Bedded in with some Milliput, with the house in place. Then the garden areas painted with their respective undercoats of brown or green. Before scatters applied to both areas. It won't appear quite so vivid once the glue dries, and a bit more weathering down, but it's starting to take shape.

I'd seen them but have been umming and arring, wondering about the quality. So now I know they're good, will get some ordered myself. Thanks!

My backup coal livery one has arrived in the last couple of days, so as promised I've dug out a few (only 24 this time) MGR wagons for a more full effect. Very happy with the decision to leave the nameplates and shed plates for the customer to attach (with the handy jig). A bit daunting for me, but this one will be left unnamed (and likely renumbered to another Toton example) anyway. Very nice work Cavalex!

I ended up giving up on one of my pre orders, as it would seem that at least one of the retailers didn't get them. But although the one I wanted had sold out by then, managed to get a very similar one from Rails.

Well, mine arrived on Wednesday, and now stretching it's legs on one of Stafford's layouts. Spectacular work from Kernow, as ever!

070 arriving at one of Stafford's layouts for a test run, looking very nice and running very smoothly!

Well, the one I had on pre-order from Rails has arrived, 070 in blue. Very pleased with it, looks stunning (as much as anything can in that colour) and has a good weight to it. Thankfully tonight is club night so it may well get a test run! Now just awaiting the Trainload Coal 023, coming to me via KMS Railtech. Now just awaiting the Trainload Coal 074, also from Rails. Will certainly be digging out the MGR hoppers to run them with!

Well, mine was due to arrive yesterday, but Royal Mail sent it to the wrong delivery office. So maybe tomorrow, maybe later... I wouldn't mind, but the other delivery office is only four miles away from the correct one! And so the anticipation grows!

I did this. Can verify they're 36 different numbers. 😁

That looks wonderful, @okirkby, and I for one would certainly be interested in purchasing one. As for the power conundrum, what you've described is exactly what I'd be doing, removing the drive from one (or two) of the 11-105 units (I've got a few to spare).

Looks amazing Matt. Placing an order for one shortly. Do you know if the designer has any plans for a centre coach? A 3-car would be really something.

Not made masses of progress on the layout itself in the last couple of weeks; it's all been spent developing the lighting setup on the Arduino. More on that soon. But tonight I pinned the track down, stuck a couple of wires in, and had a play to see what did/didn't work. First, a couple of photos of a typical train in the station area. It just about fits... And yes, thanks to the tiny central couplings and short wheelbases, this runs around the layout like a dream. The Baldwin 10-12-D... not so much. Didn't expect it would, but still. Now, I already know that the Quarry Hunslets work lovely, as do their slate wagons. But what about the Mainline Hunslet? Yes... ...but its coaches didn't fare so well. The cab overhangs too far. On to the 3D prints. I haven't fitted these with 009 couplings yet, so can't really test well. But anything on an 11-105 bogie chassis should be fine, due to the tiny bogies. But the 11-109... looks a bit tight to me. Too much overhang. Thankfully, most of the few diesels I have on Kato chassis are on the 11-105s. But that's enough to know I can run a little bit of variety, though I knew a lot of things would be ruled out. Now, back to making some progress...