njee20

Era 7 is (according to Google) 1971-1986. This is several years after the end of steam (in 1968). Rather it’s what I’d consider “BR blue”. All diesels/electrics. Not sure if that’s what you want, you’ve said era 7 a few times, but also mentioned steam a few times. Of course as it’s your layout you can combine era 1 locos with era 11 stock if you want. I would echo what’s been suggested around seeking inspiration from a real location (no need to slavishly copy though). Didcot could be a fantastic model. You’ve got the sidings, junction to Oxford, power station and latterly the preserved railway too. There are lots of stations with complex junctions nearby, so real doesn’t necessarily mean boring, although modern day stuff will likely be a lot more simplistic in track design.

Not sure I really see why if you're just doing 'ready to lay' formations, and paying someone else for them, so realising no cost savings.

Looks very over exposed judging by the ‘feet’ on the webbing? Looks quite thick too, and surprised you’re not finding it flexible. I can roll my base up!

Yes, I imagine they will. I’d definitely paint in and then glue it down if I was going to lay it.

What’s on the lower layer though if you’re set of the helix design? A fiddle yard? Don’t build a layout like this based on the track you have at hand.

At risk of further thread drift - get better resin, and possibly cure it less. If it's sufficiently fragile that resin pieces are shattering then FDM isn't the answer. Delicate items like brake gear will not fare overly well IMO.

There's nothing to stop you, but even a modest turnout will have to be split into parts to fit in a M2P. Sounds like a good time to buy an FDM printer!

It doesn’t really matter too much. Be ok for passenger trains, but even 1% gradients will challenge N gauge locos if you aspire to having long freights.

Where did the helices come from?! That’s a huge extra level of complexity. In N, with our often underpowered stock, it’ll heavily compromise train length too, which feels a shame when you’ve got so much space. I prefer this plan FWIW, but I’d think extremely carefully about helices.

You certainly want something with a bit of give. Whether you want to mix something like Siraya Tenacious into a ‘standard’ resin or use an ABS-like off the shelf there’s not much in it. ABS-like is still slightly more brittle than a mix (ratio dependent) but still more than good enough. If you’re modelling in anything bigger than N I’d probably FDM print the timbers though.

I was going to suggest as much. Fewer windows too. As an aside it looks like you’ve added the cab onto the end of the mk3 - it needs shortening really. Always good to see more 442s!

Fusion 360 for software. I learnt using Lars Christiensen’s tutorials, which are nothing to do with trains. Carl White’s tutorials here: https://youtube.com/@3ddrawingformodelrailways get good reviews. He starts with the basics and progresses to drawing stock.

You said era 7 LNER, but era 7 is BR diesel era, do you just mean ECML based? List out the features you want conceptually (main line running, station, junction, flying junction, yard, sidings, branch line etc etc), ideally force ranked, then you can think about the different elements and how they hang together. The world is your lobster in that space. I preferred your previous design, this one is a big change, so I think spending time thinking about what you want will be pivotal to success. Otherwise you risk just endlessly drawing ideas on paper and never progressing. To consider is also the level of effort in a layout of that size.

4' reach is massive; I'd definitely counsel against that on those loops. Particularly with a station down there; feels like it's the wrong side too, you'll just be looking at the back of the building. I don't understand the isolated island platform in the middle, it appears to solve no purpose, nor be connected to anything, but is it not a station platform? From your designs I'm assuming you don't want a typical scenic layout with a hidden fiddle yard? The symmetrical loops look a bit odd to me, and not the best use of the space, but it's your layout.

Superb, Jo! I’ve also played with printing the blue stripe, but obviously don’t get the intensity you’re getting on a home printer.

Yeah, I did manage all of that, but it wasn’t intuitive, and I could filter on scale (still with the obvious candidates as options), which was entirely different to filtering using the categories. It’s just unintuitive, and providing feedback rather than needing help. Suggestions based on your typing make no sense. If I search for a TTA tank wagon, by all means suggest other tank wagons. Suggesting Tea rooms and fish tanks because they match/nearly match my search terms is illogical.

For me it seems to return random partial matches. I just searched "Dapol MJA" (no quotation marks) and it yields this, the highlighting suggesting that I was searching for Farish items... But it looks like it's basically looking for any element of what I searched for. I tried to see if you actually have them (it's just an example FWIW, and you don't), but I can't seem to filter by wagons unless I filter on "range". Filtering on "scale" doesn't actually narrow things down. I can filter on a huge number of categories, including whether it has working fans and sprung buffers, but not actually just wagons/rolling stock. If it finds things then it's better, but the fuzzy matching is far too fuzzy. By all means if I search for Daplo, I probably wanted Dapol. But if I searched for IOA I probably didn't want every Ivatt spare you have. The suggestion that you've searched for an alternative brand is bizarre too.

You need a Cricut or similar Jeremy, save those scalpel blades (and your sanity)!

I’ve printed an N gauge turnout in resin. Printed on a Saturn 2 with a mix of Siraya Fast and Sunlu ABS-Like (because that’s what was in the printer!). I refuse to use anything water washable, I’m yet to see any advantages, and there are myriad problems, although they do seem to be improving. I normally use a blend of Tenacious for things like this, but based on this I wouldn’t bother. I must say I’m very impressed with it. Far stronger than I anticipated. I planned to thread the rails (code 40 C&L BH) before curing, but they were just too flexible, post curing they were surprisingly resilient. Thrown together with rails filed by eye because I didn’t anticipate it working that well, so ignore dodgy filing.

😁 yes, positive thoughts! It’s rather more salubrious than the vape shop, having a vivid blue frontage. And good sandwiches!

That building on the corner of Borough High Street and St Thomas Street is now a nice boulangerie, Orée, I get my lunch there a couple of times a week, and I can’t walk up the approach to the station without thinking about your layout!

Just a modicum of consistency would help! It’s no wonder the travelling public don’t trust the TOCs! Apologies, off tangent, and it could have course be a separate incident too, but it tickled me. Lucky escape for all involved it would seem.

I like how the photo of the departures board has 3 different cancelled trains, each with a different reason. Total clarity 👍🏼

Mmm, that’s odd. Afraid I’m unfamiliar with the printer, so can’t offer any specific advice.

Anycubic slicer is (/was) a lightweight version of Chitubox. I'd be holding the software responsible at this point, and be trying a proper version of Chitubox. At one point it didn't support the Photon Mono range, but I'm sure that's long passed.