TrevorP1

Thanks Larry. If there is too long a wait for the bullhead pointwork I shall do the same.

That's good to hear as I'm planning to 'bash' 'Middlesex Trading' as part of a 3D back scene for my Kings Cross Loco Yard inspired project.

That's looking excellent Larry. I'm following this with extra interest because I shall be starting on the same process myself in 2 or 3 weeks but I'm minded to wait for the bullhead points - depends how impatient I get! Please may I ask which rail joiners you are using? I think you mentioned above they are very tight which sounds a good thing to me.

The last two pictures

Not a great deal to report this weekend but I have been doing some scale sketches of platform 16/17, or at least my version of them. A bit tricky with the different levels. and the usual problem of trying to get something 'believable' into too small a space. Normal viewing for this will be across what would have been platform 15 at the real Kings Cross so it should make for an interesting aspect. At this stage all still subject to fiddling and shuffling about. Off to Cornwall on Friday so I'll pick up some track etc from KMRC while I'm there and I'll get started on that when we get home. I'm content to wait for the Peco bullhead turnouts but I will but least be able to get a section in to run something up and down. While I'm waiting I'll get on with the buildings and Gasworks Tunnel. I'm looking at 'bashing' a Walthers kit for a start on the Culross building. Seems expensive at first but when you add up all the bits and pieces it's not so bad and may even be cheaper in the long run. Thanks to Tony for the encouragement. This won't be a quick project but I can wait to get really started!

Hope you don't mind Gilbert. Smashing shot of that B1 but I couldn't resist a little play. Colour and grainy black and white.

Recent posts have reminded me that my father would call male strangers 'Jack' as a friendly greeting, which puzzled me a lot as a toddler because I always wondered how he knew their name... I have a friend from Buckinghamshire who uses 'chap' as a greeting. Closer friends are 'Will' or 'Willie' and I usually return his greeting in a like manner. Now I'm remembering my Uncle John, who was actually Robert.

In my view a salesman will want to get on first name 'friendly' terms as quickly as possible because some customers may find it harder to haggle when it comes to the price. I am well old enough to be a grumpy old man and I can grump with the best. However, I have no problem with being called mate, buddy, bud, chap, 'moosh' (a local thing) or whatever as long as the greeting is genuine. What bugs me enormously is a fake 'sir' because that's what they've been told to say. Similarly a person shortening my name to 'Trev' as a means of getting round me will have the opposite effect. My real friends can call me whatever they like as long as they have a smile on their face. To me facial expression or body language count for a lot regardless of the words spoken.

One of my favourite preserved stations Larry, following with anticipation.

Moving on, I'll bring the photos up to date with mock-ups produced in the last couple of weeks. At the 'city' end I've had to greatly reduce what was there in real life and also twist things round a little. It was at this point that I decided that I could no longer really stick to anything like the real site, also that if I put the Culross Building in anything like it's real place it would dominate the whole scene and be pretty unmanageable. So using plans found on the internet I made a mock up to 3.5mm scale and placed it as a kind of 3D backscene. Working from photos and guesswork I tried to get the essence of the suburban buildings as well. In the view with the Scammell I've gone away from Kings Cross altogether and the pub beyond the gate is the W B Yeats from Finsbury Park. Hopefully when I do this properly it will disguise the fact that I just don't have room to put a curve on the backscene. Moving round slightly is what I'd like to do with the end of, what was, Battlebridge Road. I've had to turn the retaining wall through 90 degrees to real life and I've just sketched some houses and a gasholder. I quite like this view - mostly fictional - but how on earth I'm going to do the gas holder when it comes to it I have no idea... Lastly, the Gas Works Tunnel end. Self explanatory I think with a card and foam board mock up. From the tunnel to 'Battlebridge Road' will be retaining wall and a short grassy bank. The space I have available is very restricted but in the future I hope to be able to build cassettes for either end and on high days and holidays set things up in the lounge but that is a long way in the future! My normal preference for modelling and real life is somewhere with some countryside but this is a new challenge and the area has so much to offer for a model. I have read so many books and stared for hours at hundreds of photos that I feel I know the district quite well. In reality I went there once when I was about 12 and again in the late 80's when I was in my 30's. Perhaps I will go for a look one day but I'm not sure it would be any help because so much has changed. I've settled on 1958/59 for a nominal period as there was so much variety then. Finally, many may know, but Maiden Lane comes from the original name of the first bore of what we now call Gas Works Tunnel. It seems appropriate because I can hardly refer to the place by it's 'real' name. I'm off to Cornwall in a few days time so I'm planning to pick up some of the new Peco bullhead from a certain establishment in Camboure to begin track laying. I'll have to wait for the pointwork so the plan is to also start with the background buildings and move forward.

The previous post was where things stood at the end of February. I am very lucky to have a friend whose day job is restoring wooden railway carriages. He is also a railway modeller and one day was foolish enough to admit he likes building baseboards. With a little bribery and a couple of sheets of birch ply he very quickly produced the two wonderful items in the photos. He was completely unfazed by my requirements for the gradient on platform 16 or the slight dip down under the Regents Canal in Gas works Tunnel. It will be a shame to cover his work in track etc. They are pretty light and very strong. I'm sure you could jump on them and they wouldn't budge. The boards are now in position in my den and I'll bring things up to date in the next post.

"The time has come," the walrus said "to talk of many things..." This verse from 'Through the Looking Glass' ends with reference to the likelihood of flying pigs and I'm hoping this doesn't refer to the chances of my new project reaching a fruitful state. For some time now I've been content with building dioramas but last year I began to get the urge to build something that 'worked'. Whilst I'm not particularly interested in operating it would be nice to see something move. My heart is in the West Country but my interests are many and varied so last autumn saw me all but set on building a representation of Kyle of Lochalsh in diesel days but... something was nagging at me... Kyle has been done so many times (and with good reason). Then I discovered Gilbert Barnet's Peterborough thread on here and it reawakened a long dormant liking for things 'east coast'. With only 8' X 2' to spare it would be a challenge to say the least. I looked at N gauge and bought an item of stock to 'get a feel' but it was just too small for me. To cut a long story short I began looking at Kings Cross Passenger Loco. I only saw it in diesel days but surely it would fit? Erm, well no. But the idea wouldn't go away. After much playing with rolls of paper, templates and endless pieces of cardboard I've settled on a plan which should be recognisable as KX but actually is a lot less. I wanted to include something of platform 16 and the milk dock, plus at least a representation of the Culross building which dominates the scene, plus of course Gas Works Tunnel is a convenient break at the other end. What I seem to have ended up with is, in effect, two dioramas back to back. Anyhow. To practical things.. These two snaps show things being developed on what would become the baseboards. (Apologies for the Spam Can in one of them!) The station end has changed a little since then but I'll post this lot now before I loose it!

Your work, your outlook and your focus are an inspiration Gilbert. Long may it continue!

Hello Andrew It's easy to see how that kind of catastrophic damage could occur and we have of course learned from these tragic accidents. Come to think of it a steam locomotive isn't all that safe either. Take one 'bomb' weighing 20 odd tons, full of scalding water and steam at 200psi. Put about half a ton of fire at one end. Mount this above several tons of revolving metalwork. Propel it down the railway at 80 odd mph. If the crew are incapacitated there is no way of stopping it. - (Tongue in cheek of course!)

I was talking to our carpenters today about the brake gear components we are machining for the two Bulleid coaches they are rebuilding. They are in such a poor state (the coaches not the carpenters...) that it has been necessary to replace almost every curved side upright. What struck me was the way these uprights - which support the weight of the roof and the glazing - are designed to be held to the underframe by what amounts to a couple of hundred No.10 screws and a few coach bolts. It beats me how these vehicles survive a rough shunt let alone anything more serious. Like cars, railway vehicles have come a long way.

I clicked 'like' because it is an amusing and 'classic' tale. But as a confirmed coffee drinker who cannot abide tea it actually sounds awful! Yuk! Reminds me of a tale from an ex-footplateman friend who positioned the drivers tea can under the leaking regulator gland in the cab, goodness knows that that ended up tasting like or at what point the poor driver noticed...

>>>> So until the next update.....HST anyone? It's an HST.jpg Off to Cornwall at the end of the month and I'll be seeing those go past the bottom of the garden. The up 'beds' in the dark is the best though!

All part of the fun of this hobby Gilbert

Southern PMVs got everywhere eventually, even Scotland!

I've just discovered this topic today and will keep in touch via this thread. I'm just starting on a layout (the boards are nearly finished) that will require at least a couple of N2s. This would have meant updating the Hornby/Mainline model chassis and detail wise but if this project comes off there is potentially another way... I'm in no rush but very interested and wish the project well. Just one thing in the back of my mind though and absolutely not wanting to pour cold water... If Hornby wanted to they could potentially get an updated model into production to go with the L1, Gresley and Thompson coaches.

Gilbert, I have great admiration for folk like yourself who have built a layout on which to run accurate full length trains. Thus my interest in the coaches earlier and now the fish train, an iconic part of the ECML scene. Please could you tell us a little about the make-up of the train being the B1? There are short(er) wheelbase vehicles and also the later white painted versions. Was it common for them to be mixed or were 'block' trains the norm? I have fond memories of the white Tri-ang van, branded Insulfish, which was part of my very first electric train set, so were these part of the scene also?

Is it possible to change the angle of the bridge slightly? Looks like the span might clear the tracks then but it may be my eyes! Glad the knee is on the mend. Believe me you don't want gout!!!!

Thoroughly enjoyed those coaches Gilbert. Psst! Got any more? Re which is best travel in. Give me the Gresley set on the Severn Valley and an HST with the original seating layout on the ECML. At the risk of being banned I like the HSTs, 40 years old and still going strong after upgrades. A bit like Gresley pacifics were or, dare I say it, GW castles.

Leaving aside the merits of DCC or otherwise I couldn't agree more with Tony's comments. I would also add that many operators have no idea of the railway rule book or of what scale speed or acceleration look like. Recently I've seen an operator buffer up to a coach at something like a scale 30 mph, then without stopping push said coach the length of the platform to give a PMV a good belting into a buffer stop. On another layout there was a lovely 0 gauge well tank with acceleration that would have done a Formula 1 Ferrari credit, not to mention the behaviour of the loose coupled goods train that in real life would have probably left the guard with a broken neck. These things, and Tony's observations, completely spoil the illusion. How refreshing it is when you see an engine stop short of a vehicle so that the imaginary fireman can check that all is well, buffer up, then pause while coupling up takes place. I've banged on about this before but the basics of railway rule book are not difficult to understand. Perhaps there is a magazine editor out there who might take this on?

Didn't she work at The Blue Cafe?