RobboPetes

Looking good. I emailed Bachmann if they would produce the N gauge version with the boards being separate but was told they receive them how they come??? Obviously sent the email to the wrong people at Bachmann.

I got the response back from my friend. He made 2 PBAs several years ago and has no need to make any more. I might have a go myself with these as I like them and saw 7 of them at Sittingbourne in the late 80s and photographed a Cerestar-liveried one at Didcot back in the mid/late 90s. I have a 2mm or N Gauge scale drawing of them here. I am thinking of tinkering with the model in the next few weeks and will let you know the outcome. I will add you as a friend and make a note of what I've decided here so I know who to contact. It certainly looks good! Regards, Robert.

One word - superb! I admire you for your perseverance.

There are not too many layouts that have a run-round and 3 sidings but only use 2 points!!!

Nice to see a model being made of the location. Check out my blog, which is loosely based on Dallam sidings. Look forward to seeing how the layout progresses. Regards, Robert.

A useful piece of information here, as the external difference argument here has been going on since the early 80s - with no one picking up on this. Regards, Robert.

Mike I've just emailed him, so am waiting for a reply. Will let you know asap. Regards, Robert.

The wagons you need are extremely varied, and interesting to a wagon afictionado like me. As an example: The Dapol Ferrywaggon could be used to go through Par and up the Newquay branch. Again, the same can be said for the VAA,VDA/VGA types. It's good to see that Bachmann are bringing out the Traffic Services hopper! The slurry tanks are available from the N Gauge Society. You can run the clay hoods to Fowey docks (and without hoods to the Midlands and Scotland) as a vacuum-braked service. I don't know if you have a copy, but the Illustrasted History of China Clay Trains is an invaluable source to have to hand. Are you going to model the PRAs? You can also model the Bachmann PCA vee-tank cement wagons as passing traffic. The nice thing you can run train lengths from one wagon to many. Oh, and the variety of motive power is extremely varied too. I look forward to seeing what you build next for the layout. Robert.

The PBA looks great! I'm thinking of talking to a friend of mine about him considering 3D printing for his models of the PBA Cerestar starch wagons for his Corcickle layout. 3D printing is certainly the way to go. Look forward to seeing this model once you have finished it.

Yes, I meant a cross - not a triangle. Doh!

The one external difference between a class 45 and a class 46 are the battery box covers. The class 45s have a cross on them whilst the 46s are plain. With their lower gear ratio, class 46s were rumoured to be better on freights??? The class 46s only had central headcode boxes while the 45s had all the variations except discs (class 44 only). As for the central triangular grille on the bodyside, all class 46s had them whilst some 45s had them and some didn't. Only the class 45/1s had the orange ETH boxes on the bufferbeams. By 1980 most of the Peaks had the marker lights as opposed to headcode boxes. There were exceptions, you just need the photographic evidence to justify your choice if you keep the boxes. Hope this helps. Good luck! Regards, Robert

Have you had a look at the finetrax range? http://www.britishfinescale.com/product-p/finetrax-turnout-b6.htm This might make a suitable alternative to those who have a lot of stock that needs converting. I'm even thinking of using this range myself as I have many vehicles to convert - the only thing that puts me off is the standard N gauge wheelsets...

What is the location of 47342 on the Maryport-Fiddlers Ferry working? I'm interested in the Covhops in the background.

Steven's kits are very well thought out in regards to construction and look like they will go together easily. I have a number to put together but am focussing on some airbraked vehicles right now. You have made an excellent job on the tank and I like the work you are doing on the mineral wagons and van. Rob

Superb!

Superb!

What has been really taking up my time over the last few months are these: They are the basic Farish Poole-based PCAs being detailed with the TPM detailing kit. I went to attach the walkways this morning only to find out I had to make a slight adjustment to get one of them to fit into the new holes. As I adjusted one, it pinged open. This is not the first time this has happened but it now means I'm going to have to solder them together, or they might spring open once painted. Then I'd have a problem on my hands! They are at slightly different stages in construction as I am using one to learn for all the others I plan to do (up to 8 in total). I have followed the instructions, but have digressed slightly in making the upper grabrails out of fine wire - seen on the right-hand model (this is clearer if you click on the lower photo). Although the ends are missing they are complete and ready to be attached. I need to file the lower end pieces further before doing this. The next photo shows the models against an RTR model for comparison.

Although I've been working on 2 of these for the last few months, here is 1 that has a coupling on one end. Thanks to Paul Bartlett's excellent website, the model has been back-dated to the early/mid 80s style. I contacted Bachmann asking if they were going to release this particular model without nameboards, to which they replied - we only get the models as we receive them! Obviously I'm barking up the wrong tree here.Thinking about it, maybe they should release them with the boards loose in the box, thereby allowing the modeller to fit them as they see fit???

The transfers are superb at such a small scale! The light weathering on the prototype is interesting - it certainly would make it challenging.

Nicely done. I find it so easy to over-do the weathering.

Excellent work! I would be interested in the colours you use and the technique to achieve the rust patches.

An excellent layout that oozes atmosphere typical of the area. Just a thought, though - have you considered N gauge for such a small layout? I admit years ago most people would have been excused for giving this gauge a miss...but now - with the quality of the products coming through, such as the SPAs, etc. one can see the benefits of this smaller gauge. As I say - just a thought.

Excellent work - an inspiration to all. Look forward to seeing more. Rob

Thanks for the response Paul. In the article he says give it 10 minutes after applying the paint before removing the salt - which I thought was a bit too quick??? Thanks to your comment I now find it IS important to remove the salt early. I must admit I left it longer than 10 minutes and, yes, there is still some fine salt granules on the model which was hard to shift. This was fun and a good experience at an alternative method to weathering. The nice thing is all my 16-ton minerals will be weathered this way - once I get round to making them!

I recently read an article in the Hornby magazine, June 3013 edition, on salt weathering and thought it would be a good idea to have go. I asked the missus about non-perfumed hairsprays and she said she had one that she didn't like, saying I could use it. Well, what could I say? I followed the advice in the article on a wagon that will never see the light of day. I only did one side to see how it would turn out. This is the result: The hardest part was getting the salt to sit where I wanted it to once it had been put on the hairspray-soaked side. With practice I will be able to manipulate it and be happy with it. Overall, I am happy with the result and all I would need to do is to tone down and dirty the bodyside once the transfers have been added and to weather the underframe, if I was to make it into an operable model. It certainly has yielded promising results!