NeilHB

After much faffing I’ve finally got the second end board on to divide the scenic area of the layout from the fiddle yard: Looks much better now, and will look even better later when I’ve started to paint it.

In order to answer your question of why it appeared on the Thomas Trainz list, it's based on the Rev Awdry's model Bloomer which on display in the Narrow Gauge Railway Museum at Tywyn. It transpired at the 'History of Sodor's Railways' lecture last year (at the Awdry 100 Celebrations at the Talyllyn) that the Rev had intended 'Bloomer' to be canon (around the 35min mark):

It’s always nice to find a new vantage point on the layout to take photos from, and I think I found a new favourite last night - looking down the layout from between the water tower and the rear goods siding: It’s April 1913 and WSR No.1 ‘Thorkell’ has been borrowed by the tramway. It’s seen at Ffarquhar Road resting in the loop after arriving with an early evening mixed tram. The station was looking rather tranquil at lunchtime today after the midday mixed tram had departed for the junction: A new addition has appeared on the platform in the form of a grounded NG van body (we are lead to understand that it’s from the neighbouring Mid-Sodor Railway), which is in use as a goods and parcels lockup. A ready built 422 ModelMaking van body picked up from our open day on Saturday. A couple of short videos of last nights running session featuring No.1 ‘Godred’ on the evening goods: Running round after arriving. It sounds like there’s a leaking gland going on, something for the fitters to attend to. And sometime later departing after carrying out its shunting. It really is quite therapeutic to just sit and shunt the layout, particularly with the leisurely speed of the tram locos meaning that shunting and reforming a 3-wagon goods train can take up to 40minutes at a time.

Thanks everyone for a fantastic day! So lovely to see you all again after far too long. Many thanks to our exhibitors, helpers and visitors, we couldn’t do it without you all. Looking forward to next year now 😁

What an utterly brilliant day, thanks to everyone that came! A few snaps from today - time seemed to fly by as I was busy having fun playing trains and doing a good amount of nattering. ETC No.1 ‘Godred’ arrives with a goods train, and is seen later shunting the yard: Before later being captured waiting to depart: We also had a visitor in the form of the Melyn Valley Railway’s Hudswell Clarke ‘Fair Isle’ (thanks to @Andrew Young) which is seen here arriving with a mixed tram: And then in the process of running round. So lovely to see everyone, and some lovely feedback on the layout has made all the hard work worthwhile ☺️

Looks brilliant Steve - loads of atmosphere and oozes charm.

Well I’ve got Ffarquhar Road as far as I can before the show tomorrow - really rather pleased with todays efforts: Time to dismantle it all now and pray it fits in the car 🤞🏻 Hopefully see some of you tomorrow at our open day:

After discussions with Mr Young last night, it was agreed that the sky definitely needed to be repainted! I believe the term used was vibrant 😆 I dashed out to Homebase and Hobbycraft this morning for some more suitable paint: First coat so far (Homebase ‘Turtle Dove’), but it makes a massive difference. Picked up some more acrylics as well to tackle the hills with, so they are up next. Nothing like a show looming in less than 24hrs to get me motivated!

A massive step forward with the layout today - it’s gained some colour! I’m still not quite happy with the sky, but I do like how the basic representative of the surrounding moorland landscape is starting to look on the backscene. Not bad though considering the last time I painted a backscene was nearly 20yrs ago! Still plenty to do, but I’m feeling like the layout is really starting to come together quite nicely now 😃

We really could do with a drool reaction button for when Annie posts photos of these lovely BP Singles - delightful!

One final bump - only a couple of days to go now folks!😱 Sadly Chris has had to withdraw 'Hensbarrow' from the show, hopefully he'll be able to make it to next year's open day instead. Can't wait to see you all on Saturday!

Today has seen progress on a couple of different areas. The water tower has finally been clad with stonework, and I’ve also put a first coat of paint on the tank itself: I need to sort out the door next and paint the stonework. I then started to sort out the roof for the station building: This needs painting and the ridge capping adding, plus the chimney pots too. I also popped a first coat of paint on the farmers cooperative store: Still plenty of work to do on it though. An overall view of the layout as I don’t think I’ve posted one before. And lastly in our house it was the big floofs birthday today: He’s now 10 which is a bit scary as it doesn’t seem like 5 minutes since he was a tiny 9week pup!

Some more progress last night on the farmers cooperative private siding, bringing the ground level up to just below top of the rail height: I’m looking forward to filling this corner of the layout with lots of sacks and barrels to create a nice little scene. Looks like one of the local farmers has arrived on his new steed to collect some items. I really rather like this view down the front siding, must sort out a hut for the coal merchant before he starts complaining again about the cold…

Lots of progress to report on from the last few days. Over the weekend I made a good start on the underpinnings for the platform: I also added some strengthening to the inside of the station building to prevent the sides from bowing inwards and also help to support the roof. I’ve made a small change to the front siding, and got rid of the loading bank for the farmers cooperative as I felt it didn’t look right in the end. The coal staithes have moved up towards the point, and I’ve then walled off the far end of the siding to create a private siding area for the farmers cooperative: I think this works quite nicely now, and adds a bit of interest to this end of the layout. A crack of sparrow fart start at work this morning meant that I could finish early (woohoo), so I cracked on and went a bit mad by starting to add the infill between each sleeper: It really make a big difference to how the trackwork looks: Though my back and arms are now killing me 🤪 A couple of arty shots to end with: What do you think please folks?

Happy Birthday Annie!

ETCo No.2 ‘Sigrid’ arrived back today after being away for sound fitting (thanks Paul for a great job as always!) - she’s seen her at Ffarquhar Road after a test run up the valley: ETCo No.1 ‘Godred’ has just arrived with a passenger tram. Time to play trains now 😁

A productive session at the workbench this evening whilst partaking in the zoom pub meeting of my local area group. The last three ETCo 3-plank opens are now lettered and finished: I managed to pop some numbers on the WSR Horsebox: And the WSR Milk Van too: Slow progress, but progress nonetheless.

Less than 3 weeks to go now folks! I don’t know about you lot but I’m quite looking forward to our open day this year - hope to see you all there. I can confirm that there will be a good selection of cakes available on the day, including vegan and gluten free options

At last some actual modelling has taken place, and I’ve finally (after several months!) summoned up the courage to finish off the lining on ETCo No.1: Oh and I’ve added some handrails too, though these need touching up now that the lining is done. Not enough lining left on the sheet unfortunately to tackle the lining on No.3 ‘Gerda’, but that’s probably good as my nerves and patience need time to recover! I’ve also finished painting the Elsdale Farmers Cooperative Society wagon, and now comes the fun task of lettering. Less than 3 weeks to go now before Ffarquhar Road makes its debut at our open day on the 9th April - better get my butt in gear and get cracking!

Lovely progress Steve. Looking forward to the discussions on the coaches - they look delightful!

Fantastic Tom - glad to see that Ballamoddey is now an operational layout.

Settled down on the sofa earlier to read some more of my book, clearly Tigger had other ideas!

Diversions of a Narrow Gauge Nature: A delightful acquisition has arrived after a spot of bidding on eBay! A nicely built and finished example of the Vulcan kit for the Sierra Leone Hunslet 2-6-2T No.85/W&LLR No.14. I hadn’t quite realised just how chunky it was until I posed it alongside ETCo No.1 ‘Godred’: A few bits need sorting on it, including seeing if I can remove the smokebox door to fit it round the correct way (hinges are on the wrong side), a bit of detailing and a change of couplings. I’ll probably change the livery too.

Can I ask if you’ve read the thread? There are plenty of mentions to the scale throughout, plus the section of the forum that the thread is hosted in.

A very good day manning the 7mmNGA stand at the Guild Spring Show at Kettering today with Messers Bellamy and Young. A good haul of much needed parts, materials and a couple of new projects for the layout: LNWR Van and LSWR Open Carriage Truck This will do nicely for sitting in the yard on the layout. I found a new supplier of scenic details and trees, so purchased some grass tufts: And a Silver Birch tree to go in the front left corner of the layout: I think it works rather nicely. There was a rather delightful Scale7 pre-grouping South Eastern Railway layout which was rather nice to view: ‘Oakhurst Town’ A jolly good day indeed