figworthy

Thanks for the detailed explanations. I'm also using Cobalts (and an identical colour scheme, but with an additional pair of wires to provide feedback on the state of the turnout), so I'm curious as to how other users get to use theirs. Adrian

A question (certainly not a criticism). Why are you wiring the frogs via a connector rather than directly to the Cobalt ? Adrian

That redirects me to a link to log into yahoo. Am I doing something wrong ? Adrian

The last (no 217) edition of MRJ has an article on "Fencehouses", which has a section of burnt grass. Adrian

Having spent months reading everyone elses layout threads, I thought I ought to start one of my own, although given my usual rate of progress, updates are likely to be a bit sporadic. Figworthy has had a slow creation. I moved into a house with the space to create a small(ish) layout 11 years ago, and shortly afterwards inherited enough OO track and more than enough rolling stock and locos to get me started. But first the house was in need of much work. Whilst that was underway, I spent much time deciding what to build. I'd also got my hands on my father's old model books, amongst which was a copy of C. J. Freezer's "Plans for Larger Layouts", the smallest of which was slightly smaller than the space I had available, so I started to look at using that (a tail chaser with a branch line). The period 1945 - 1970 looked (to me) as an interesting period to use, giving me the options of steam (big 4 and BR), and diesel. The transistion from "green" to "blue" seemed to be a good cut off as that also largely marked the end of the rural branch line. Since the stuff I inherited had a definite western slant, it seemed sensible to stick with that area (although I reserve the right to invoke rule 1). In the mean time, I started to visit the occasional exhibition to see what was possible, and what sort of "stuff" was available. I'd become aware of DCC, so decided from the start that I would use that (thus rendering all the locos I'd inherited unusable without modification). At Warley one year I came across the MERG stand and discovered CBus (which was just starting to come available), they pointed me in the direction of JMRI as a means of control. I decided early on that I would prefer to keep "signal box" and "footplate" operations separate, so loco control is being entrusted to NCE. Looking around at exhibitions and various sites online, I was drawn to the idea of building my own track (thus rendering a large stock of second hand code 100 redundant), so I got hold of a copy to Templot and started to play. It soon became apparent that the plan I was looking at using (a 10x7 plan) wouldn't easily scale up to 10x9.5 as it seemed to be based on tight curves and short points, whereas I was after something a bit more realistic looking. Much head scratching ensued, and in the end I came up with what I have started to build, two BLTs for the price of 2. Each side of the rectangle will host a terminus, but there will be a loop running right around the outside (off scene) which means that I can send a train from one terminus to the other, but not have it arrive straight away, or it can leave one terminus, allow the loco to run round, and then come back again. This has the advantage that I can have an opening section that isn't landscaped, meaning that I don't have to crawl to get into the middle. One of the termini (Figworthy) is based on the terminus in the original CJF plan, whereas the other (Nether Blagdon) is based on that of Blagdon (Somerset), but is a slightly compressed mirror image, in no way is it meant to be a reproduction, hence the name. What the history books don't tell you, is that the route was built by the West of England Railway Company (an independent company, but linked to the GWR). Being a relatively late addition, it was built in standard gauge from the outset. Their route was a little unusual as it had two ends, and connected to the rest of the world somewhere in between. Nether Blagdon was always intended to be a terminus, but Figworthy was intended as a through station. Like so many companies, their ambitions outstripped their finances (and economic reality), so eventually the route finished at Figworthy, with the ongoing route having a short life serving one of the quarries in the area (and being closed and lifted some in the 1920s). This however was not the first railway into the Figworthy area, much earlier a horse drawn plateway had been built to take stone from the quarries down to the coast, at some point this was upgraded to a narrow gauge steam hauled route, which has a connection with the standard gauge route in the station yard at Figworthy. Enough of the wittering I hear you cry, what have you built. Well work at the moment is underway on Nether Blagdon. Part of the outside loop has been laid, as has the main area of the station (the yard will follow when I've bought the components needed). Attached are some (probably not very good) pictures taken from the buffer end. Motors have been fitted and I've started to wire those back to the CBus CAN-ACC5 and CAN-ACE8C boards. Adrian

At least you stopped. I was up the River Lee once when we came across a stoppage. A boat going downstream forgot to stop when it entered a lock, and managed to turn the bottom gates inside out (I've got a picture of the aftermath somewhere). I would imagine that would be an "interesting" experience. Adrian

Last month Michael Delamar posted a picture of the real thing that (to me) looked just like a model. I think the give away was the background which was just a bit too realistic to be photoshopped in. On the 16 ton minterals thread http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/36891-16t-minerals/page__st__375 first picture on post 377. Adrian

According to http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060857/ Tinmouth is Teignmouth Adrian

Can I make a late expression of interest, and say "Yes please" ? Adrian

The Kirby Stephen layout at Warley this year had one. Adrian

I'm not sure that it was a 31. I read somewhere that BR were not happy about filming flask trains, so the close up shots were done on the Middleton Railway, the loco was a mock up to look like a main line loco, but was a temporary body on shunters. Shown in the dark you can pretty well get away with it, until someone starts to run the film frame by frame to see what it is. Adrian