stivesnick

Hi Sandpiper I really like the idea, the station looks far more realistic than many other Scottish terminal stations that you see. If I had the time and space I would be tempted to do something similar in N. Look forward to seeing how this develops. If you don't go down the full "arch" at the front, I would have a return section of the backscene along the front of the layout, to help disguise the end of the scenic section. Nick

The last major building to be constructed is the print works - this is a scratchbuilt concrete frame building with brick infill panels and large windows. The building will go over the siding on the right hand side of the layout. The wall facing the front of the layout has been cut out and the "concrete" strips added and painted. Next step is the brick panels. Progress photos enclosed. Nick

The first bit of scenery carried out today. The apartment blocks fixed to a sub-base and concrete path and earth/grass added. My previous layout had 100s of trees, not so many on 7th Street Terminal and will be generally hidden behind the platform canopy. Need to add a little bit of clutter and some street lights but the first bit of the layout looking complete. Pictures below:

Steve Saw the layout at Burton on Trent today - it looked great and some interesting stock as well Regards Nick.

Some useful progress over the last few days. The office block / station building has been painted. Having started to paint the window frames and realising tat it would take ages, I ended up spay painting the whole building the colour of the windows and then went back to paint the stone work. It still took ages, but only one lot of ages rather than two!. Have now built the second platform canopy and painted the platforms. Canopy frame still to be painted. Not sure if natural wood or a painted finish would be best, any thoughts on this. Finally I picked up some street lights to use on the platforms at 4D models in London. They are made by the German firm of Schulcz who make a range of architectural model components. These are 1:200 scale but look OK, although I might reduce the height a bit. Photos enclosed.

My thought would be that the railway company would get the ballast for all lines in the area from the same source so they could be very similar. It is likely that the main line track would be re-newed more often should might be lighter shade. The only problem with Woodland Scenics ballast is that it is a consistent colour, so when I use it I generally mix a couple of colours together. To go back to your original question, perhaps you could use a 4:2 mix of light/dark grey on the main line and a 2:4 mix on the other routes. Worth trying it out on a few lengths of track to see how it looks. On other layout threads, there are plenty of examples of other people trying various combinations of colours for effect. Type "ballast trial" or similar into the search function to see what appears. Hope this helps. Nick

Hi Boris I think that you are going to need that headshunt and not use the mainline for shunting. If the headshunt itself extends beyond the scenic section, that is not a problem. It might also be worth while reviewing the reverse loop, you could drop the line down behind the backscene to create a continuous run to join up with the end of the fiddle yard, that would reduce the need to handle stock in the fiddle yard. In terms of operation, are you thinking about a general goods yard or one that might serve a specific industry such as coal or a local steel works? Either way, there would be several local trip freight workings to local industries. The fiddle yard would need to accommodate this. hope this helps Nick

I had intended to scratchbuild the station / railway office building, but then came across the DPM hotel kit. It was not quite what I wanted, but saves a lot of time cutting out windows. The main entrance door was removed to create a through passageway to the street. (Question: would this still have a door, even if kept open during traffic hours?) The retail type windows on the ground floor have been replaced with doors for the parcels/express office and the side windows bricked up. Photos show progress and the start of work on the canopy. This has not yet been fixed and yes, the columns will be vertical eventually! Work has also started on the entrance gates to the adjacent goods yard. Regards Nick

Went along today and really enjoyed the show. Good selection of layouts, including a couple I have not seen before. A shame that Aviemore could not make it, but understand the reasons, and hope it will be there next year. Well done to all involved. Nick

Underground transport systems, need a means of escape. Although removing the air from the tube, removes the fire risk, you still need to get people out and rescue staff and maintainers in. The discussions on how often you need an access shaft should prove interesting ( and also very expensive) - the fire service will have views on this. Second point, has anyone seen any numbers about the likely capacity of such as system? It is unlikely to match that of HS2. Nick

The new Class 717 units have 2+2 seating which should improve the comfort for some passengers compared with 2+3 seats on the Class 313. This is surprising as normally the DfT would specify the total number of seats required during the peak period. Perhaps they forgot in this case. Nick

A couple of picture of rolling stock for the layout. A Intermountain wreck train set - brought several years ago but needed a layout to run on. The sleeper train - a couple of Bachmann old time passenger cars; a coach motorised with a 17m Tomix chassis, coach converted to a sleeper car, GN express car to be added to the GN transfer freight and finally a SRTC freight car for the freight depot. Regards Nick

Hi Like the track plan - its always good to consider what the station track plan would have been in the past. A couple of thoughts: I am not a signalling expert, but would the signal box be at the junction end of the platform? Would there have been some additional sidings perhaps - coal yard, general goods shed. Might be worth thinking about why the new buffer stop is located where it is - a level crossing perhaps Hope this helps Nick

All Wiring complete and few crossed wires sorted out, so time for a play important operating test session. A passenger train arrives and the station switcher removes the freight car and shunts to the freight depot. Then a freight train arrives and spends some time switching the various spurs. Photos below. A couple of lessons learnt - I identified locations for some further uncoupling magnets, although spacing will be critical to reduce risk of unintended uncoupling. Secondly with rail express agency cars on track 3, there is little space to store outgoing wagons during shunting whilst keeping the run round loop clear to switch the fruit packing plant. Regards Nick

How does the number of sets compare with the existing fleet? If push-pull mode will improve efficiency, does this mean that there are plans to run more trains on some route? Nick

All Some work on the rolling stock. A couple of interurban lines operated sleeper services. To make a typical sleeper car, I used a Bachmann old time coach and bits of microstrip to alter the window layouts. Photos enclosed. Regards Nick

The picture of the class 47 is one of those "is this real or a model" photos. If the track in the real tunnel wasn't lifted in the early 1960's long before the large logo livery was introduced I would have been taken in. Great stuff. Nick

Some general photos to show current progress on the scenic board. Lots of wires being added underneath. Regards Nick

Some more work done on the large factory. The building is not rail served but acts as the backdrop where the trains enter the fiddle yard. Photos enclosed. Nick

Jerry Atlas locomotives in N gauge are also highly rated and perhaps the largest range as well. Regards Nick

The platform canopies are progressing - Brackets from York Modelmaking - £4.00 for a pack of 10. I found that they slot nicely into 1.5mm wide plastic channel which has helped line things up. The other development is the large factory building by the entrance to the fiddle yard. Walthers modular building components. Not totally impressed by the design of the kits and how they are packaged. The wall sections don't come with the coupler sections so have many spare wall sections left over. The track is wired up. Having not run my American stock for a little while, have been trying to coax them back to life. Photos enclosed

Hi Do you know how much space you might have - the sketch is about 5 feet / 1500mm at present? As noted in #2 the crossing needs to become a double slip to make it work. If this is done, the bottom right track could become the mainline with or without a fiddle yard. This would allow trains to arrive and depart on either of the two bottom left tracks. Once the train has arrived the colliery shunting loco would back onto the train and remove the brake van. This is then shunted to the other track. The shunter then takes the wagons a few at a time to the loading point (the two short sidings) and then returns the loaded wagons onto the brake van. When all the wagons are done, the mainline loco then couples onto the train and departs. The other siding could be used as a loading dock for stores (ie pit props, machinery etc). With this sort of layout getting the siding lengths right is important, so ideally maximise the two arrival/departure tracks to take a loco, 6 wagons and a brake van. Hope this helps Nick

Although some exhibitors were understandably unable to attend yesterday, the show went ahead, so well done to all those involved. The venue, right next to March station made it easy to get to. Nick

Steve Enjoyed the article in Continental Modeller. Look forward to see the layout in the flesh sometime. Regards Nick

Agree with other comments that this was a great one day show with a good range of layouts and useful trade support I left with a number of scenic items. Chris - Had a chat with the builders of Milton Camel - about how to make the scenery look believable - so will be interested to see how it develops Nick