Dragonfly

Thanks for that AndyB. Thankfully it's the following weekend I'll be up there, phew. That would have been disappointing, the promise of delicious cake keeping my spirits up for the previous 400 miles, for it be closed...

Good choice. GloForce do really good lights and attachments for them; I've got quite a few of their products now, they're well worth a look!

Thanks very much for posting about this place, Andy. I'm going to be in that part of the country at the end of next month so this will make for a good rest stop before heading in to Inverness. I shall report on my findings thereafter!

My only note with the green (and the br black, even), is that... Would it still have the GT3 number? Once it's got BR logos, it would maybe gain a BR number? So I'm going to be getting mine numbered 18200 at some point.

After a short break, and a long list of distracting events (ranging from a chest infection to a car crash), I've finally got enough space cleared in the garage to get to the layout, and work on phase two has begun. The focus of this bit is the house and garden. The garden itself is being enlarged a tad, so the original walls have been removed and the bottom of the hillside dug away. New walls have been put in place, and more milliput put down to form the ground level. The walls have been extended along the sides of the track too, most of the way to the tunnel. I'm hoping to disguise the "stepped" curve on the inside with greenery. Failing that, I'm thinking a hedge will replace it entirely...

Something green has appeared in my postbox...

We sure do! We now also hold a much smaller show at a local church hall in Stafford (ST17 0LH), consisting (so far) of members' layouts and a local trader. This is on Saturday 20th of May. https://www.staffordrailwaycircle.org.uk/stafford-spring-show/

Well, the journey across town for a day out went well, layout ran surprisingly nicely (after a track clean, of course). (photos taken during a lull, there was a decent footfall overall) Only a little and quiet show, a local club's open day in fact, but very enjoyable and a few people in, giving very nice feedback. A few things I noticed, such as the track leaning slightly outward on the curves at one end. So a little bit of remedial track work to do. May well invest in a curtain too... Very much a fan of a one-board layout though. One trip to the car with the table and bags, and another with the layout, I could have been gone in five minutes if I wasn't sticking around to help tidy! Right, on to phase two...

One last little addition before tomorrow's little trip down the road.

I asked it where it thought Lew (lost L&B loco) was. It didn't know. Or even seem to believe that it went to South America at all, but was instead salvaged for parts...

Ended up doing a bit more this weekend after all. So I was a little bit unsatisfied with how the sides don't line up with the front, now I've added the perspex. So the sides were carefully removed, brought forward by about an inch, and reattached. Lines up quite well now. Could do with some form of clips to hold the two together, but that's not urgent. It does render the curved corners at the top of the perspex a bit pointless (no pun intended), but doesn't look too bad. And then, well, may as well paint the outer surfaces of the sides too.

Not much so far this week. A few sheep obtained... Not sure which one will be riding the bicycle yet. A few have been placed on the layout, but not glued in place yet. Also a few figures added, along with the horse and cart from the old layout returning. And two figures repainted as Lady Dragonfly and the dog, off for a walk. So it's pretty much ready for the open day now. All stock has been tested and put in a travel box... And the layout just ready for putting in the car. Then phase two can begin.

Yes, it's in polystyrene this time, and on a plinth. Clearly not perfect given the loose handrails, but hopefully an improvement.

Thank you for identifying what they are. Yes, there are two handrails loose in the packaging, so clearly a tad damaged in transit, but should be a clean fix.

Mine arrived in yesterday's post, no working layout to test on at this point but it had to be taken out of the box for a breather. Looks absolutely stunning imo.

A little bit more done this week. The lane first. The central grassy bit has been done, the earth surfaces have been tidied up and then muddied up a bit. Then the cardboard wall on the right hand side has been replaced with a Javis dry stone wall. Also, I've painted the ground around the house to earth undercoat, covering up the tarmac colour it was before. And also, the perspex front shield has been put in place, tentatively a few times first, but today I've finally plucked up the courage to take the protective sheets off and see how clear it really is. I wasn't sure about it's height, but it seems ok for now. Two weeks left before it's first outing, so now just a few smaller jobs, reintroducing the sheep, people, telegraph poles, cleaning up the track and testing some train running on it! Plenty of jobs on the list for stage two, which will include weathering the house, redoing it's garden, replacing the garden hedges and walls, and adding a small halt platform across the road...

On re-examination (I doubted myself for a moment), it's not immediately clear what their stock level is, unless, as you say, it claims to be out of stock.... But, if you add an item to your basket, go to the basket, then increase the quantity, eventually it will tell you "only [n] in stock". I was sure there was a way as the only reason I bought 2 of the wagon packs was that I actually wanted 3 but they only had 2, so knew it said somewhere... but it's not immediately apparent. A bit of a roundabout way, but it does add some detail, and backs up that yes, it is logical to assume that if it's not marked as 'out of stock' it is in stock, and this way should tell you how much stock they claim to have.

The items I bought were noted as "2 in stock" when I bought them, and "out of stock" afterwards. So the stock count part of the website clearly works, but probably isn't being updated correctly.

It's very disappointing, to not get even a simple "We're sorry but this item is out of stock" (or whatever the issue is) response to my email, or a cancellation when I've requested that. No reply whatsoever... Looking at these threads it appears to be a long-term and recurring issue. Surprising that it's not been resolved over the years, given their apparently good service in other areas. Thankfully Paypal have ruled in my favour, so the money is being retrieved that way, at least.

Apparently some old issues are still happening at this shop. I ordered a few items quite a few weeks ago (that the website claimed was in stock), and have heard nothing since the initial (automated) order confirmation. I've tried phoning (answerphone says to email) and emailing a number of times, but no response whatsoever. I've had to resort to getting Paypal involved to retrieve my money.

Genesises is not the English plural. English, as a combination of a number of different roots, does often use rules from those roots (oxen rather than oxes (Germanic), theses rather than thesises (Latin)), so geneses is acceptable in English; a number of dictionary definitions specify geneses as well.

A productive couple of hours after work this evening. First up, the last verges next to the lane, all grassed and a bit of foliage. As well as this, I've had to remove the telegraph poles temporarily, but they will be back. I've also taken the front panel off, as it was obscuring the view a little bit. This was then cut to the same profile as the layout, painted black, and reattached. There is a little bit of remedial work to reattach the scenery to the inside of the panel, but this should be relatively easy to touch up. Also highlighted a similar issue on the right hand side... Once I get the end backscene (endscene?) secured better this will improve, along with a bit of painting and obscuring with plantlife. I also figured that, while the glue is still wet, may as well add a hint of colour to the verges. So a tiny amount of purple and yellow added. And all the same process has been done on the pathway above the tunnel mouth. I can afford to be a bit messier with this, as it's just a footpath. Quite happy with the results so far. We'll see how it looks when dried and tidied up...

It is a tumble dryer, but the layout isn't on it. The dryer is on the floor underneath the worktop, with a couple of inches gap. Still noisy, but no vibration issues. Keeps the place nice and warm too!

Quite amazed, this evening, to see how the test stretch looks now it's dry. Javis mid-green fine turf, then the same in coarse, followed by Woodland Scenics dark green foliage clumps glued on top. Surprisingly effective. A few spots of heather will be dropped here and there (or"heather and theather") for a bit of colour, but so far so good. So on to the next section. I've also painted the surface of the other lane, which will be more of a path than anything else, ready for similar treatment. Overall I'm impressed with how it's looking. Not being a particularly adept modeller I didn't have very high expectations, but...

Ohhh I see what you mean now, yes, totally get it. Good point, will have to think about that. Yes, the distant will certainly need replacing... Time for me to do a bit of research, I think. Thanks for pointing that out (or should that be "signalling it to me").