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Good point! So your suggesting remove the two points into the fuel point/headshunt and instead replace it with one point straight into the two fuel point sidings?

I’ve made a few slight changes on this! Everything worked fine but something just wasn’t looking quite ‘right’ to me. The fuel point sidings looked a bit of an afterthought in my opinion, and the layout generally just didn’t look ‘busy’ enough. There’s no way I can fit something like Miles Platting or Manchester Victoria into even a space like the one available to me but what I do have needs to look like more than what I had - more tacks required! So I’ve added a loop in from the hidden storage area, which adds one more track through the station. This then joins up to the branch at the other end of the layout. A new fuel point is next to this and accessed from it via a headshunt. I’ve also removed one of the three sidings but made the remaining two slightly longer. I think this looks much better, it looks like the sort of tackwork you might see in an urban/suburban run up to a large city or town, at least better than it did before? I think I’m more happy with it now!

My uncle was a fitter at Donny plant and the 50’s were indeed reasonably common around there. I’ve got one of his photos somewhere showing a 50 freshly out shopped and in use on a proving train at Doncaster station in undercoat!

Here’s mine. I’d forgotten I even had it! Mines got the correct chassis, unnamed and came from TMC in one of their little blue boxes with a brass TMC badge under the chassis. Oddly I’d even left the receipt for it in the box, seems I paid £85 for it in 2006. I don’t remember buying it though!

Double post!

While waiting around for a delivery of some more relevant rolling stock today I was having a look on eBay, as one does, and nearly fell over when I noticed how much Bachmann class 45’s with late flushed over front ends are going for now! Are people actually paying these three figure sums for these!? It occurred to me, that I might have one of those myself somewhere... Ok, so I might be pushing it a bit timeframe wise as the peaks had about gone by 1988-ish? But I did say 1990 give or take a couple of years either way didn’t I! I’d forgotten about having this 45 until today! I reckon it’ll become a prime candidate for a spot of renumbering, high intensity headlights and some ETH sockets into a 45/1 then it can join the ranks of 31’s and 47’s for the mk2’s as a late peak operated service. In other news my southern region stock that I’ve still got left consists of 3x Heljan class 33’s - 33004 late BR blue, 33116 engineers grey, 33008 ‘Eastleigh’ in green. 1x Hornby 4 VEP set in NSE. 1 Bachmann 4 CEP set in blue and grey. I think I’m going to keep ‘Eastleigh’, it’s a lovely looking loco and my excuse is for it to run now and again on a special of some sort. The rest however I can’t really justify so I might put them on eBay in the next few days or so. Unless anyone here fancies them first in which case send me a PM! Here’s a quick pic of 008 just to finish today’s update!

Great info there. I don’t suppose you can remember any example formations? I’m looking mainly at the specific types of mk1 or mk2 and it’s livery. I’ve found plenty of pics of the trains in question but it can be difficult sometimes to make out what type of coaches are in the formations.

‘‘Tis indeed! I got the twin pack of 501 & 502, plus the extra 507 when they were first released. Put them in storage almost straight afterwards and only got them out again a couple of days ago! Most of my locos actually need running in. They’ve mostly been bought new and never used. Some of the mk1’s I’ve got I’ve had since the new Bachmann ones first came out and they’ve never been out of their boxes, still having the little foam protectors and taped up inner trays. I’ve also now found all my Southern Region stock. Not sure what to do with it all now as it certainly doesn’t fit in with my new north western theme...

Also got the door to the shed a proper handle and lock. Because I’m cheap I kept this from the old shed. It works a treat still and saves me buying things like this instead of new trains to play with! Problem was, it’s designed for much thinner doors than this shed has so the spindle for handles was much too short... Easily fixed by welding two short spindles together then grinding it smooth and flat. The same issue meant the key was also too short to reach through the door to the lock so that got cut in half and an extra inch added from an old nail! Welded together, ground down and a tack used to put the keys handle back on one end. Job jobbed for the cost of a nail and some welding wire! All this was fine but when the door closed there wasn’t enough reach on the latch or lock to latch behind the door frame! A quick scrounge through the other shed I’ve got as a workshop turned up a length of old angle iron recovered from a demolished pre-fab garage roof. Chopped a lump off the end, drill some holes to bolt it to the door frame and it now all fits, works and has a sturdy latch that won’t be able to be forced open easily. Finished off with some old black hammerite. Never throw anything away!

Pictorial update for today. Very little actually done on the layout other than running stuff and digging things out of boxes from storage. Everything is about sorted in that respect now so I should be able to start putting point motors etc in soon, followed by a spot of ballasting. For now here’s some of today’s spots from the lineside! 47475 on one of my trans-pennine services. Another passenger service using a spare freight sector 31. RFD 47 on a train of TEA tanks... ...which passes by a short speedlink hauled by 31105. Steel train with two 37’s. Mainline liveried 31407 passes on a scrap train. Finally, because everyone loves a Pacer or two! The two Pacers are elderly Hornby models, both still using their original twin motors. They both have however had the two cars wired together and had new pickup contacts installed. Both run absolutely brilliant, though they are noisy compared to more recent models! The GMPTE orange one has seen some serious use too. It’s very worn despite still running well and it’s old pickup contacts had almost completely worn through. The only thing it does still need is one of the non motored wheel sets/bogie units changing as the wheel set is very loose and the axle has worn the plastic bogie away! I’ve got the new part though and just need to swap it over. I believe this model also had a life on an exhibition layout at some stage before I bought it if it’s previous owner is anything to go by. That’d certainly explain the wear and tear on it!

Were the NSE coaches certain types only (TSO’s & brakes seemed common) or were they pretty much anything and everything that was going?

Here’s another 50 on the same working, seemingly it did happen more than I thought! 401-12 50041 1401pic-pad Manchester piccadilly 16021988 by Hugh Searle, on Flickr

Brilliant stuff guys, thanks! So it was reasonably normal to see ex NSE stock up north or even over the border then. It would certainly make sense that NSE sent spare hauled stock elsewhere when they got their new units. NSE locos, I was aware of being well traveled! There’s a pic on Flickr of an NSE 47/4 hauling a parcels train near Manchester, though the above pic of the NSE 50 stood out as unusual, I thought the class’s days up in the NW were over by then! Anyway, it’s a good excuse for me to have a couple of NSE liveried mk1’s and 2’s added in here and there!

Evening, I’m building a layout based in the Manchester area around 1990 ish and was on Flickr earlier researching passenger train formations for the trans-pennine trains. There’s actually quite a few photos around of Network South East liveried mk1’s and 2’s being used so far away from NSE territory at Manchester Victoria for example, both in full NSE rakes and mixed in with old blue/grey or Regional Railways stock. First question! Why was this? Only reason I can think was they were sent north for use as NSE no longer required hauled stock? Here’s some at Victoria. 31434 by Richard Vogel, on Flickr Secondly, another interesting pic turned up showing an NSE liveried class 50 at Manchester Piccadilly, BR Class 50 50044 'Exeter' - Manchester Piccadilly by David Burrell, on Flickr Was this normal? Or was the use of NSE class 50’s only occasional due to non available 47’s or similar? I just found it interesting to see the NSE stock so far away, but it also means I can add a few NSE coaches into my formations here and there! Of course the pic of the 50 in the area might now give me a use for the one I’ve got sat on the shelf! Thanks in advance.

Superb! Love the ohle too. I made my Woodhead route ohle from scratch on my last layout, it takes forever to do. Great vid btw!

544 started life as a Hornby Railfreight red stripe skinhead, 31105. It’s another of Bens Resprays conversions. Weathered blue, orange cantrail stripe and (isolated in reality!) eth equiptment. The wagons are indeed Kernow turbot’s! Very nice wagons they are too. Followed by Bachmann and Hornby seacows and a shark.

The Heljan 47 was a good model at the time, but it looks a bit dated now I think. They look worse when you stand a Heljan next to a Bachmann 47. I don’t know why I keep mine really! I never use them anymore. Mind you, I’ve kept a few of my old Lima 47’s and 31’s too for some reason.

Great looking layout! Must say, I’ve been thinking about getting one of those Heljan 58’s from Hattons myself and doing as you are, adding the coal sector decals. I’m a fan of the Bachmann 47 too, it’s a great looking model. Though I do still have all my old Heljan ones, can’t seem to part with them!

Today I’ve been digging out more locos etc and test running the layout. Everything seems to be working fine track-wise, just needs a few slight alignment changes in a few places to smooth out a few bits. Im not 100% decided on control yet. I’d thought about going DCC, however I’ve got lots of locos and chipping them all will be very expensive! So I might just stick to old fashioned DC? I’m also undecided about wether or not to use cork under the track. The only real advantage to it is getting a slightly raised track bed as apposed to sound deadening. I’ve never bothered with it before now but if I’m going to do this I need to decide now. The next job will be to drill holes under all the points for the point motors now I’m pretty much settled on the track plan, then the lovely task of ballasting! Here’s a few pics from today’s running. Storage area starting to get busy! 31544 ‘Keighley and Worth valley railway’ on an engineers train. I have also found a few of my locos have suffered a bit from years in storage. I think the factory grease in a few of them has dried out resulting in some rough running and squealing so I’ll have to open them up and give them a clean and a drop or two of oil. It’s only Hornby locos that seem to have done this. So far anyway. Here’s a few of the worst offenders!

Thanks Brian! It’s a shame the old shed rotted really, the layout itself was fine, although I’m fairly certain it was actually the baseboards and frames that were adding a lot of strength to the remains of the shed. When I stripped all that out the shed became very flimsy! I reckon another winters worth of windy weather would have seen it off. I’ll try to post more often with this one too!

Here’s a few extra pics of the shed itself, for anyone thinking of attempting similar. I think the hardest bit was getting the floor level. The concrete base is very old and was a hard standing for cars many years ago. The next base along to this actually had an old inspection pit in it. It’s extremely thick concrete but wasn’t exactly the most level so I had to even everything up varying the height of the brick pillars the shed sits on. This was a bit of a pain really and could have been avoided if whoever built the base bothered to level it out. I screwed up with the electrics a bit though too, when fitting the consumer unit I had to knock the knockouts through to feed the various wires into it. They wouldn’t knock out so I decided to drill them out instead. Worked a treat until I pushed too hard on the drill and the drill bit went straight through and into the bottom of one of the mcb’s completely destroying it! The lights are twin bulb LED jobbies, one 5’ and two 2’ lights. I was a bit sceptical about them at first as I like the old yellow glow of proper bulbs but these things are much brighter and eat virtually no power too. They came from eBay, as did the brown miniflow guttering and fittings. Longer term I’d like to replace the felt roofing (all bonded down and together on the top surfaces - no nails to potentially leak) with roof shingles. The felts fine for a few years at least though. I’ve also layed a layer of underfelt over the roof first, then the gritted felt, just to be sure.

For anyone interested here’s one of the vids I was watching on YouTube that provided a bit of inspiration for this! At 05:04 is 31413 on a parcels train! Though mines a tad shorter.

Those two are the tip of the iceberg as far as 31’s go! I’ve got lots! I’ve also still got all my BR blue and green stock from the old layout so I can backdate this layout should I fancy. Here’s another shot of 413. It’s a Hornby model, detailed, resprayed and weathered by Ben’s resprays off this forum. Very good job he did too!

Hi, thought I’d post up a new thread for my new layout in progress. I’ve been a member on here for a while, though I don’t post much! Some of you might remember my old layout which was built in a shed and based on the Woodhead route, using scratchbuilt catenary and Heljan class 76’s? Well sadly that layout is now long gone. Last year I found the shed it was built in was actually quite terminally rotten and was beyond help so the layout was dismantled and the shed pulled down. So far this year I’ve built a new shed, this one having some ‘improvements’ over the old one and now I’m at the stage of actually building the new layout. At long last! So, a little about the shed itself. It’s a 16’ x 8’ garden building really rather than a shed but it’s built from 3’’ x 2’’ framework, the floor is 3’’ x 2’’ joists with 25mm planed planks for floor boards. All the walls are the same 25mm planed boarding but with special tongue and groove edges to stop water ingress. The roof is again, 3’’ x 2’’ framework and 25mm planed planks. One major floor of the old shed was the weak roof which sagged, this time it will never sag! Though it is incredibly heavy which was a bit of a pig when trying to lift it into place! Another floor to the old was the very poor damp proof abilities around its bottom edge. Rain would literally bounce up off the concrete base and get in under the bottom outer planks and framework, which is why it ended up rotting after 15 years. This time I’ve lifted the entire shed up off the ground on top of some brick pillars concreted down to the old (sound) base. On top of all of these brick pillars I’ve attached 3’’ x 2’’ bearers which the sheds floor joists sit on top of. There’s also a big overlap on the bottom side planks so any water drips off and can’t get up to the flooring. All the wood used to construct this shed is heavy duty pressure treated timber. Inside, all the walls and roof have been insulated with home insulation boards then panelled in with 5mm ply before being given a whitewash in white emulsion to brighten it up and look nicer than the bare wood. I’ve also installed a fresh air vent at each end of the shed to prevent any still air or condensation issues. Power and lighting is all installed and the layouts baseboards are all finished. Onto the layout then... I’ve done nothing revolutionary with the baseboards! It’s all standard 2’’ x 1’’ planed timber frames with 9mm ply on top. Legs/supports are thicker 2’’ x 2’’ or 3’’ x 2’’ timber for added support. Easy and strong, plus it’s all screwed to the sheds walls and floor too so it’s not going anywhere! Underneath I’ve used any spare wood to build storage shelves for locos and stock etc. The original plan was to have a change from modelling the Woodhead route and even BR blue era by going for Southern NSE era using some of the lovely new EMU models available. I even went as far as building up a small fleet of EMU’s and class 33’s (and an NSE Hornby 50!). However, things change! I’ve since been watching some old footage on YouTube from Miles Platting and around the Manchester area taken in the late 80’s early 90’s which actually took me back to when I was much younger and used to go out spotting with my uncle in the North of the country. That was decision made for me! There is a lot going for it interest wise, with class 31’s (my favourite!), 37’s, 47’, 56’s etc etc all possible and lots of freight traffic. Passenger services using a mix of older 1st gen units and the new 2nd gen stuff in their new bright liveries and traditional loco hauled Regional Railways and Intercity services. I’ve gone for loosely basing this in 1990 give or take a couple of years either side so I can run the older BR blue liveried stock alongside the Railfreight and sectorisation liveries just as I remember seeing it. Unfortunately this has left me with a now surplus collection of southern region stock! Oh well! To bring things up to date then, shed - done. Baseboards - done. Tracklaying - I’ve literally just finished this. I’d sketched out a few ideas, made a list of what I wanted and what I’d like if possible but in my opinion you can’t beat a bare baseboard then get some track out and start positioning things to see what works. Firstly, the track. Again, nothing revolutionary! I was in the position where I had a very large quantity of ‘as new’ Peco code 100 points and flexi track so, despite better stuff being available, it made sense to stick with code 100 and save some cash. Though I still had to buy a few more new points in the end. My basic plan is a two track mainline through the entire scenic section with a single track branch diverging at one end, a half relief station at the other end. A small diesel fuel point accessed from the branch junction (roughly in the middle of the scenic section) and a large radius curve round to a tunnel/bridge at the opposite end to the station. On this curve is a loop with a headshunt and access to a two siding industrial site, one siding will be inside a large warehouse style structure. This should allow a bit of shunting by letting a short freight train into the loop which can then reverse to drop/pickup wagons in the warehouse or siding alongside. Unusually for me, I actually got this design and track layed very quickly! It usually takes me ages to come up with something I like but not this time. It just kind of worked! So I’m now at the point of track down, basic power (DC) on and able to run the whole layout bar a few sidings that need extra feeds. It’s very basic at the moment but it means I can see how things work or don’t and get stuff running which is always good fun. Now you’ve read the boring bit here’s a few pics! This is an overall view inside the shed at the layout. Storage loops on the non scenic side. Now with a few trains! 56 hauled MGR train. 47 with some mk2’s. 31 on the fuel road. 31413 on a parcels train. Lots still to do but it’s finally getting there!

Hello, I've been a member here for a while I just don't post all that often! I thought I'd get a thread up for my new project now I've restarted work on it. Basically the story here is, I have a shed layout based on the Woodhead route in OO. Trouble is, like many people I like lots of different things and, as much as I like the MSW theme I wanted something to run my collection of sectorisation era stock. So this smaller layout idea came up. The basic idea was not to damage or dismantle the original layout but make use of the space above its fiddle yard area. I built a baseboard (10mm ply, 2x1 frames) then mounted it on the wall of the shed but using hinges. This allows the new layout to hinge up allowing for track cleaning etc if needed on the old layout below it! So far so good! Then I built a small fiddle yard plank for one end which is fully removable by simply unbolting it from the main board. I got as far as laying some track and generally having a play until I got something that worked. That was well over a year ago! Shortly after this I decided it would be a good idea to poke some rusty areas on one of my classic cars, another hobby of mine... Always a stupid idea! This then became a full on restoration which has gotten a bit out of hand and caused no end of trouble so model making took a back seat. The car is now well on track again and looking good so recently I've decided to restart this new layout, but starting fresh. I've cleared the boards and built another larger fiddle yard board to make things work easier. One issue I've run into however was when I stopped work on the layout over a year ago I didn't bother finishing the supports which has allowed the frame of the big scenic section to sag in the middle! To correct this I've supported it in the middle temporarily and sat some heavy weights on each end to bend it back straight again over time. Once it's straight I'll finish the missing supports. I should have done this before laying it all up but didn't think about it! So with a fresh start I've decided to slightly change my intended prototype. I live on the south coast and one day was looking through some old photos of 3rd rail EMU's, I'd not really payed them much attention when they were running as it was just the usual thing down here. Of course all that changed when the classic slam door units were taken away. I decided there and then that was what I wanted. With that in mind I've come up with a plan which allows for a station, small diesel fuel point/maintenance area and a small area for freight interest. It all fits in (just!), though more room would have been nice. Track was layed and I dug out an old Gaugemaster controller to use to test run everything and see how well things worked. This turned out to have been damaged somehow so I took it to Gaugemasters shop for repair since I'm not too far away. It was repaired for free, which I was impressed with and while I was there I picked up a Heljan 33! That pretty much brings things up to date. I've run the layout a fair bit and it does seem to work pretty well for what I want so I'll start wiring things up more permanently next and sort the track ends at baseboard joints permanently while I'm at it. If you're still with me here's a few pics of what I've got. IMG_0563 by Dan Clark, on Flickr A pair of Heljan Cromptons sitting in the diesel fuel area. I know these models aren't everyone's cup of tea but I like them! IMG_0562 by Dan Clark, on Flickr IMG_0561 by Dan Clark, on Flickr The siding with the three vans will become a large warehouse type industrial building. Trains can come into the area, loco runs around and reverses the train in. Length wise those three vans are about the max! IMG_0559 by Dan Clark, on Flickr IMG_0555 by Dan Clark, on Flickr This pic shows the track plan of the scenic area. IMG_0558 by Dan Clark, on Flickr Fiddle yard entrance. The cast iron wagon data plates are being used to weigh down the boards to straighten them out! Seems to work well! Since these pics were taken I've added a headshunt to the fuel point area, just to make things better operationally. Still loads to do but it's a start! I've still not decided on control. It's on analogue dc at the moment for test running but I'm tempted by DCC longer term?