JZ

Picked up 4 laBelle kits while I was in Colorado a few weeks back. Do you seal the wood before assembly?

The blue is lightened by the flash, it looks darker in natural light and more so with the body on. Thanks for the info on the partitions and the headrests. The partitions and doors I will repaint with a lighter and slightly more yellow colour. I'll probably leave the floor as it can hardly be seen from outside and less so with a few pax inside.

I use two BBs in my 8-car set. I have placed them at the outer end of the 2nd class parlour cars.. Yet to add extra pick-ups and decoders. But when it was used on DC, it had no problems power wise.

This really does capture the essance of Scotland. More photo's please.

The link to the S&D ran up behind Templecombe box. I believe the boxes were built to standard designs, so if a particular size was too small the next size up was built. With a quick count, I can think of about 40 levers.

I have used fishing line before and found no problems as it needs little tension. FYI, it is 1.25lb line. I use a fine needle for the threading and loop the line over the post a couple of times at the end when threaded and put a dob of superglue before cutting.

Thanks for all your comments. i will be pressing on. Tomorrow is a rest day, so I will do the next section.

46444, the fence posts are my own. I made up a couple of hundred when I was at my old firm. They are 1.6mm fibreglass, etched-off PCB, and CNC drilled and routed. I do wish I had either made more, or at least, not given so many away.

Thanks for all your comments. i will be pressing on. Tomorrow is a rest day, so I will do the next section.

46444, the fence posts are my own. I made up a couple of hundred when I was at my old firm. They are 1.6mm fibreglass, etched-off PCB, and CNC drilled and routed. I do wish I had either made more, or at least, not given so many away.

Hi

 

I like lights and illuminating things. It defiantely gives a different feel to a layout which has them so great work on the lamps. The only suggestion that I would make is to see if you can get hold of some 'warm white' and also known as 'golden white' LEDs. They give a much nicer and more realistic colour to them than the sometimes harsh and cold normal 'white' LEDs. Its well worth that little bit extra effort.

 

Missy

I have some of those as well. I was also thinking about using some yellow/orange ones for sodium streetlights.

I like the little loco where did you get the parts from to detail it?

The chimney was a mis-sold item on ebay, seller thought he was selling a 4F dome. Handrail knobs from the usual sources, safety valve from GKW Parts* and the buffers were, I think, Slater's. I will be getting rid of the steps and replacing with some etched ones.

*God Knows Where

I remember the odd Peak coming through Bradford-on-Avon when I was young. And they did find their way to Green Park goods after closure to passengers. So perhaps the Peak isn't so unusual.

Thanks. The main building is Heljan, the smaller one is Vollmer, which I have made an attempt to Anglicise. Some ideas, like the conecting high level bridges, are taken from my memories of the Usher's brewery in Trowbridge, other from Wadsworth in Devizes and Adnam's in Southwold. Much pipework needs to be added, but this will have to wait until the buildings are finished and fixed into position.

Weathering is looking good, Julian - as are the locos underneath, of course! Somercombe remains one of my faves on here.

Thanks. Now that the weather here is a little warmer and having a few days off work, I intend to do some more work on the layout. First priority is do finish the qork down to the end of the headshunt. This area includes the brewery, the engineering works and, in between, a timber yard. Somercombe fire station will go next to the brewery. Behind the tracks will go more industrial buildings, though probably not the ones seen in earlier pictures. I will try to get hold of one of these :-

WAREHOUSE KIT, HO SCALE

CITY CLASSICS SMALLMAN STREET WAREHOUSE KIT, HO SCALE

And this :-

CITY CLASSICS SMALLMAN STREET WAREHOUSE 2-STORY ADD-ON KIT, HO SCALE

and build them up as low relief.

They are similar to some of the buildinf that where once in Bristol docks and are also reminiscent of the Fry's factory in Keynsham.

The fictional Hymek prototype is interesting, but wouldn't it be twin engined & have 2 roof fans & cooler group grills, a bit like Beyer Peacocks version of a Western?

My scenario is that when the remaining Hymeks were cancelled- I understand that there were originally to have been 300- they decided to enter the diesel electric market and therefore use existing body parts.

Ooh sounds interesting!

 

Are the A1 grills much cop? I always throught the Lima ones were excellent on the 73 - and what let it down were the underscale pizza cutter wheels and the rubbish horn and MU cables.

After speaking to MG Sharp about the grills, I got the impression that A1 made them and sent them out as and when they felt like it. The horns look much better if they are removed and the mounting block filed down. I am happy with the grills after weathering them on the first one. But it was the ubdersize pizza-cutter wheel and the poor pick-up that finally got me round to fitting the class 20 chassis.

A stretched Hymek ? Thats sounds fascinating.

 

I guess you are going to stick a couple of Hymek cabs on either end of the Falcon bodyshell ? - wow !!!

 

Looking forward to seeing piccies

I am doing a cut and shut on the Hymek bodies.

Be warned though that the A1 air horns arnt in stock at Howes as ive tryed to get them for my 73s as well!

A to-the-point email from MG sharp stated that the manufacturer does the range in his spare time!

 

A1 also do roof grills, and the Fan grills as well which should all be availiable from MG sharp, if you can find somewhere that does the A1 class 73 air horns let me know as im also in need of some!!

 

Livery wise cant really help you on that part sadly, but maybe someone who models the BR green era could?

 

Will you be redoing the underframe as well?

 

NL

I may do the underframes, but I may just carefully weather it like merlin46 has done here.

Cross-country services from Pompey always were a nightmare, I seem to recall, being well-overloaded at peaks periods like this. Good luck, Julian!

There were no 'juice' services running due to freezing rain on the conductor rails. We took as many as we could safely board onwards towards Pompey. Today just loads of people travelling. Later problems caused by lowlife scum in the Highbridge area stealing cable . XC services terminating at BTM. Took around 200 to Weston in a 150. Once passengers were aware of the root cause of the problem, they appreciated that we were doing our best to get them home. I felt really sorry for those travelling on to Devon and Cornwall, as well as our own and XC staff that had to get home to London and the midlands for a finish.

I certainly will keep up the updates. I think that on the layout threads , it would be nice if the latest posts were at the top. That is the reason that I personally like the blog format.

As I said, the brewery is a big building, but where it is located it won't cause problems when operating or viewing, but I do want it to act as a scenic break when others are viewing. It's not in it's final position yet and could be changed for the Metcalfe brewery.

Don't worry about the Dalek on the rooftop. It's that three-legged b*gg*r from War of the Worlds lurking in the background you should be bothered about!

Once again I am impressed with your work on Somercombe! The coal looks a whole heap (sorry!) better than anyone's plastic could do, and your painstaking methods of preparing and screening it is typical of why your layout looks so good. I do wonder, though, if pouring coaldust all over the track and road in the vicinity of the coal merchant would add realism? Such places, whatever the product, e.g. flour, cement, bricks, roadstone, always take on a hue of what is handled!

 

Well done also for embracing the blog idea from Day 1. Not every RMWebber has managed the transition at all!

 

By the way, I dropped JZJr a pair of Code 75 points in the post the other week - did the striking postmen ever actually deliver it?

 

Ian Dudley

I have put together a Dapol mineral wagon kit modelled with the door open to go behind the merchant's building, once in place I will dust the area with the finest coal dust I can filter.

great stuff JZ, that coal looks much better, did you seal it all up with PVA?

NO. just brush the PVA down and sprinkled the coal over it. As the layout is not portable, I didn't see the need to seal it. I did vacuum up the excess after 24hrs.

Very important signals (although the LMS didn't think so) and a pain in the neck for the modeller. Are these static Jz ?

 

Great stuff, and what era is your layout ?

The ground signals are static. My eyesight and patience aren't up to making them work. The main signals will be working. I think I will be finishing off the scenic work in the station area before installing to save any accidents.

As for period, around 1960-66, but subject to a little time warping on occasion.