Balloon_726

The final show of the year! and the point that gave up! With no time at all to even catch my breath were gearing up for our final show of this year.... And what better why to end the year then exhibiting at my local show, called a number of things over the years, its known locally as 'The Puffin Show' and is always very enjoyable, Its were i first started out on the exhibition scene and used to be my only public show outing... but that was a long time ago..... Now before Thornton Gate can exhibit once again a few issues have to be sorted, the main one being the broken point at the end of the loop. During our outing at the Ludlow show the tie bar snapped leaving the brass control wire to come lose, as posted at the time.... Well not having a spare available at the time, the point was forced across and locked into one set position, luckily it was rarely used and trams only really ran one way on it so, although it ment the loss of the run round loop , it was decided to struggle on. However come the end of the 2 day Crewe show the point had all but collapsed leading to shorting and derailing of rolling stock, so it had to be replaced before our next outing. Above: Old (very old) used Peco point which has to come out, next to a brand new one ready to take its place. Above: Now as the point was all but shot.. having snapped and buckled it seemed easier to simply cut it up and preserve the track around it, rather then try and dig it out as a whole unit. So with a razor saw and a pair of track cutters and pliers, it was cut up, being careful not to take down the overhead lines! Above: The track bed was then cleared back to the cork underlay the Ballast was then scraped up from around the point area with a flat head screwdriver and dumped.... Believe it or not, a few spare open wagons can be very useful on a work site as holding containers for track pins or, in this case spoil and other rubbish.... even in N gauge! Above: The new point in place, wired up, connected back into the brass control rods and freshly ballasted, because all the track was carefully weathered on Thornton Gate any new track is always going to look out of place... however this area will hopefully get re-weathered before our last show. Above: Right the only other bit of news is im working on an un-powred boat car using one of the many miscast balloon car shells I have. Above: Its very early days but the shell has been extensively cut down and is mounted on a cut down Roco crane chassis refitted with TPM BR Y25 bogies which are the nearest things I had to the brill trolly trucks, Still needs a lot of work but when done I hope to use this tram as a trailer for one of the powered members of my fleet. Well thats all for now... Will try and do one more update before the show on the 24th... And yes i know thats Warly weekend :-/ ... will make that show as a visitor on the Sunday... as Bayston Hill is luckily a one day event only... give it a few years and i'd love to do the NEC as an exhibitor! Thanks for reading.

Thornton Gate At: Crewe Model Railway Show and Miniature Railway Gala 2012 Show Repot. ​Its been a very long weekend (oct 27th / 28th) but im pleased to say Crewe has been a very enjoyable show and one of the highlights of this years exhibition bookings. so here are a few photos of the day. Above: Setting up, glad to say being in the large exhibition hall at Crewe heritage centre makes a welcome change from the small spaces ive been crammed into in the past at shows, one could tell this was looking promising from the out set! Above: Really coming into its own, Balloon 710 waits on the up road at Thornton Gate station Above: An over view of the much improved station area, On its first public showing, yellow Centenary 642 is seen stabled on the centre road. Above: Its amazing how many people keep asking about 'behind the back; of the layout.... so here it is Centenary 642 and Jubilee 761 fighting there way though mars bar wrappers and styrene cups to get back round onto the front of the layout, Action everywhere you look! Above: A view from the fleetwood end of the layout as Centenary 642 makes its way north passing a rather busy Thornton Gate yard. Above: an over shot of the new p'way compound in Thornton Gate yard, Balloon 726 had come into the yard at this point to assist the contractors with gauging trails and electrical testing. Above: Another view of Balloon 726 parked on the road crossing area with in Thronton gate yard awaiting permission to return to the mainline. Above: Leaving the sidings Balloon 726 makes an empty end of the day flying trip back to Rigby road depot. A really good weekend thanks to all that said hi, Thornton Gate makes its last appearance of 2012 on November 24th At the Puffin Rail Show, Bayston Hill, Shrewsbury, Shropshire. And Finally a video of our time at Crewe... enjoy! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUKNQhrrRvw

Thornton Gate at Crewe this weekend! Hi all, just time for the final update ahead of tomorrows 'Model Railway Show and Miniature Railway Gala' at Crewe heritage centre, this is 'the gates' first major outing so if you happen to be in Cheshire this weekend do say hi :-) Right well time for that update and a few things have changed and are getting there, including the first test run of our new tram class making it debut this weekend! Above: finally new station signs! Above: Paint still wet! 624 (it should be 642!) makes its final test run today crossing over the road into Old Thornton Gate station Above: The new tram class is the first to use the Bachmann USA PCC trolly chassis and has been wired for digital in the same way as the brills Above: With the best part of a year of shows, talks and generally being carted around the existing fleet where starting to look a bit tired, after cleaning and servicing ahead of Crewe all trams where given a quick weathering which helps hide any defects in the shells or paint work, seen here still drying! Above: 624 sits on the up line in the station area, as you can see a lot of work has been done to this area, were hoping to have the rest of the buildings in come the end of the exhibition year for us in November. Right well thats it for now, im off to bed! Crewe Heritage Centre opens its doors at 10 tomorrow (SAT 27th) and (Sun 28th)! All the best.....

As above, November for Brush Car (hopefully) want to get it as right as possible... Out of interest how is the balloon coming on? I cant wait to see one painted up by someone else, ive been watching forums regally ... waiting for the first photo of a none Thornton Gate N balloon car to appear!

Your Welcome Erm nice guess not quite... the brush car was announced earlier this year and should be ready very very soon... will post pics once plastic mastering is complete. At the same time as the brush car development we had another tram class we were working on, all being well this one should make the crewe show and be available for sale. Brush car should be ready in November... Then we have to decide what to build for 2013, Ive got a list of peoples wants, which basically is the entire Blackpool fleet, and Im really confident that we'll get there in good time

Well, thanks for reading! I try to make it as interesting as possible :-) If you ever do want some trams .... you know who to contact ;-) As for 3D printing I get asked about this a lot and yes we have looked at it and maybe very soon, however the tech still has some limitations and the cost is still way to high to be viable, so for now we'll continue with our half and half computer assisted hand build method.

Its time for an update! Hello All sorry its been over a month been very busy with other none tram things :-( Still some news to share with you all.... Wednesday just gone (3rd Oct 2012) I did my first public talk about the Thornton Gate Project. I was invited by the Association Of Shrewsbury Railway Modellers to do a talk and presentation to its members on their meeting nights which is in a class room at the Priory School in Shrewsbury... Sam came along to and filmed the event as well as taking a few photos... so give me a month and so and i'll post the talk on here for all that are interested... For now here are some photos, and to be honest i wasn't that nervous about it... which even i was surprised about! Above: View from the front of the audience which makes it look like a big empty room! .... trust me it was not! Above: Thornton gates rolling stock out on show, after the talk people were free to have a look at the models and ask questions.. I also bought down some cast model blocks which are now too warn to be used again.. just to show the casting process, if you have one of my tram kits its most likely that the shells would have come form these molds. In Other News..... I had a very random phone call from a very nice chap from Freightlinner at Crewe of all places, inviting Thornton Gate to exhibit at the Crewe Heritage Centre show on October the 27th and 28th, this is very exciting and means were adding one more exhibition to this years calendar. I'll have some kits to sell and hopefully a few surprises two, including a new tram class coming to the range... Thornton Gate will then make its last planned 2012 appearance at my local show, that being at the Bayston Hill 'Puffin rail show' just out side Shrewsbury, Shropshire on November 24th... The team are now getting ready for these shows including all the new stock and repair work required, I hope to update again with works photos before we go Crewe, If you can make it, do say hi, it was nice to meet so many people from here at Manchester earlier in the year... Anyway thanks for reading as always , Tom

Ludlow Exhibition 2012 Hi all, time for an update September the 1st Thornton Gate made its 2nd outing to the Ludlow Model Railway Exhibition. Now I dont want to get into any arguments here, nor do I wish to continue this discussion, but..... I did not enjoy this show at all, and found it appallingly organised, for legal reasons this is purely a personal opinion, and I will not name any one persons or the club that ran the exhibition. However if you are from said exhibition comity, and your reading this, I will say in 10 years of public exhibiting, I have never been so utterly disappointed and disgusted as I was on September 1st. Right now for some more positive news of the day... Above: A few changes since the last show, Thornton Gate now has a 'corporate blue' frontage (which was a bit wet still), and for this show had 2 new operators joining me. Above: Her first time on the exhibition scene, Ms Anna Fellows, one of the builders of Thornton Gate, it was so nice to have her join me out at exhibition. Above: New this time is the house which is the second building to be placed on the layout, it still requires work, gardens and surrounding sheds. Also the mainlines have now been electrified ( be it cosmetic only) with the fitting of over head wires. These however are a little high at present but even so still coursed some gauging problems with rolling stock, something i'll have to address before the next outing. Above: stock line up in the station during the exhibition. Above: Now I had made a prediction that balloon 710 (metro pink) would fail during the show as it is not well mechanically, however despite the noise it continued to run all day, what was unforeseen was the failure of 708 with pickup electrical issues due to the custom DCC wiring, so after only a few hours in operation 708 was dumped on public display at the back of Thornton Gate sidings... However it will be working again come the layouts next outing in November. Above: The only other major issue to develop after the show was a points failure, where the crossbar has split away from the brass control rodding, meaning the point is suck in position, a common issue it seems with older peco points, so it will have to be dug up and replaced, this might not get done in time for November, in which case the centre road will have to be used for up services with any terminating services having to use the yard sidings, not ideal but oh well :-/ I think the best comment of the day was from this littel kid that kept coming back with mum and dad to look at the layout over and over again, he watched the trams, then looked up at Anna who was driving at the time and said 'look a lady driver!' in astonishment of seeing a young female behind the layout! just makes me smile :-) Right well Thornton Gate is next out at the 'Puffin rail day', Bayston Hill, Shrewsbury exhibition on November 24th, this will be our last outing of 2012, it is a really good non commercial friendly show and one ive supported for years, so if you can come along, its well worth it :-) Thanks for reading, and sorry for the little rant at the start :-)

Ludlow Exhibition on Saturday 1st of September Finally got back to working on a few improvements for Thornton Gate ahead of its next public outing to Ludlow in less then 2 weeks time! Rolling stock wise, Ive started creating new ends to convert my balloon cast into a millennium car... Above: Taking a hacksaw to a balloon, and replacing with new flush ends, seen here the master for the new ends which have now been made into a mould and casted. Also in the works (be it in paper prototyping stage only) the Brush Car, im still trying to get the shape right before committing to plastic. And finally on this small update , I have began experimenting with superb Kato chassises, the size is just amazing, there really easy to cut and lengthen, as well as custom chip, Currently im still trilling a small fleet of these chassises, but looking at it all ready, the days of Bachmann Brill trolly split chassises may be numbered, as when funds allow i might move the whole fleet over to Kato units... Anyway Thornton Gate is out at the Ludlow (Shropshire) Exhibition on Saturday September the 1st, at the St johns ambulance building in the town, doors open at 10am.... Failing that, Thornton Gate will make its 3rd and last planned appearance of 2012, at the 'puffin rail day' exhibition at Bayston Hill, Shrewsbury (Shropshire) on Saturday 24th of November.. more details will following on this one nearer the time... The layout is currently in my office at work being prepped for Ludlow :-) which is quite cool .... however ive not got a lot done on it so far, as everyone else in the building has had to come down and have a look... with comments like "ohhh have you got a model railway in there?" and "dose it work and can i have a look?" still could be worse!

Update Time..... When Team Thornton Gate visited the Manchester model tram exhibition 2012. Hi all sorry its been a few weeks, but have been really busy, with work and getting Thornton Gate ready for its next public outing on September 1st.... Anyway thought id share a few photos from our trip to Manchester. Had a really good day.. made a lot of new contacts and met some forum members, Didn't taken anything of the exhibition but did of the Brush Car at heaton park tramway, were we spent a bit of time during the day. Big thanks to Paul and the staff at heaton park, for there help and for taking us for a ride on the brush car :-) . Right now for developments.... As already mentioned Thornton Gate is next going out to the Ludlow exhibition on September 1st, I'll post more details soon... Myself and Sam (my brother) are now experimenting with Kato chassises as a replacement for Bachmann bills, its early days but so far very impressed! On the modelling front , Im working on a brush car, and conversion for my balloon to a flush front 'Millennium' class and/or as a modern updated balloon, looking at doing a version of 700 in flexy pink ... which hopfully will be ready for Ludlow. My Farish 04 will also hopefully be chipped and ready allowing some shunting movements and operation in Thornton Gate yard during the show. Im also going to get the missing buildings in such as the houses, sheds and sub station which are missing, and maybe even the wires up..... photos will follow... Thanks for reading.

Hi thanks, yep own printed watersides, take a bit of time to do but worth it :-) Yeah fencing is sort of temporary, we printed it on card and glued back to back, it works but im looking at better ways of doing it...

Cheers Paul, really nice to meet you to... sure thing I can put you on the list... give me a month and i'll get back to you Tom

Yeah thanks for the photos Stewart, as promised I did credit you on the printed photo sheet (if you look very carefully at the text on the bottom of the sheet )

2012 Llandrinio Exhibition Official Update ​Had a fantasic day in Manchester on Saturday... will update with some bits from that shortly, but now as promised some photos from Thornton Gates first outing on the 14th of July at Llandrinio. Above: Set up and ready to go Above: Thornton Gate presentation signs and lableing Above: Views from the station area Above: Some of the impressive p'way road kit my brother got ready for the show. Also note the LMS brake on the back line Above: The surviving Brill trolly masquerading as an engineering tram, which failed :-( so stood at the back of the yard all day, It will be replaced soon with a proper prototype so its days are numbered. Above: Balloon 708 did venture onto the yard during the day. Above: I did get the chance to operate my own layout during the show! Below: Only to have a little incident, which i was going to cover up, but Sam insisted was photographed and shared with you.... Above: General shots of the layout and stock during the day Above: hmm our plot for the day... erm an 'N" missing in Thornton? :-P Above: And finally... Our escape , after a very successful first show. My thanks to James Postans and Sam Williamson for there help during the day. Thornton Gate is back out with its second team on September 1st at Ludlow model railway exhibition more details to follow.

Ok Paul, the plan is this ..... The Thornton Gate team (thats me , my girlfriend and brother) will be coming up to Manchester this Saturday... we'll visit the show in the morning and early afternoon... so thanks very much Mark i'll come and say hi over at Grime St :-), then were planning of coming over to the museum, would really like to have a look at the Brush Car, as its my next prototype for N gauge... And yes i'll do my best to bring a balloon or two with me :-) Thanks both very much look forward to meeting you this Saturday Tom

Ok... Show over!!! The Show was very successful so big thank you to my team.... in a few days i'll up date with some more info and photos, but for now please enjoy this short video taken on the day. http://www.youtube.com/embed/YN0Mcokmz9k

Yeah should be possible, im going up on the Saturday, hopefully be visiting Heaton Park as well, I'll ware one of my plain blue Thornton Gate id badges so anyone that wants to chat can say hello

Hi thanks very much, and yes your quite right about the Jubilee not being 100% for 762, it was one of those grin and bare it decisions.... which I hope wont distract to much from the overall layout and fleet. Im looking at creating more tram fleet classes soon and look to add Millennium, Brush car and Centenary classes to my fleet and range, and eventually variations of classes such as the arrangement of 762. Sadly im going to miss tram Sunday but hope to visit the Manchester tram exhibition next weekend, with a view of trying to get Thornton gate in the show for 2013... we'll see

Its SHOW TIME!! (well almost!) Hi all, as promised here is the final pre show update from Thornton Gate... First off, these arrived in the post and for a new exhibition its looking really good! Above: The 2012 Lllandrinio exhibition poster thats been appering in shropshire and welsh border areas for the past few months, whats scary is the they advertised Blackpool Trams on the poster! so I have had to be ready for show day.... Above: Highlighted, my entry in the show booklet, as you can see quite a number of layouts will be present as well as trade support. In all im really looking forward to the day as its going to be the first show ive done since 2008 when i had my modern image '00'... oh how things have changed! Right enough about that now to look at progress on the layout... the lighting is a bit different from the other photos, this is because the layout is now in my living room as we've getting ready to go on Saturday Above: Green and creme Balloon and Jubilee on the up line at Thronton Gate Station. Above: Another view of my green and creme Jubilee (762) returning though Thronton Gate from Fleetwood Above: over view shot of Balloons 710 and 708 side by side in the station area, in this shot 710 (in Metro pink livery is about to move into the sidings at Thornton gate. Above: Due to a busy centre road, Balloon 710 unusually has to take refuge in Thronton Gate P'way yard for its crew change and run back to Starr Gate Above: At the top of the yard is the track panel storage area, where a crew is working with a JCB to break up a redundant track panel Above: An additional p'way crew are working across from the station area, replacing track side fence panels Above: A busy centre road with Balloon 726 and Jubilee 761 occupying Above: Another view of 726 Above: Now in full ad livery, orange 761 makes its escape after shunting back into the station area it now takes to the avoiding up loop as it makes its way forward to Fleetwood. Right well that is it for now! Doors open at Llandrinio at 10AM this Saturday (14th July 2012) for Thornton Gate's first public show, hopefully it will work and we'll get there in one piece! Post show update will follow with pictures of the day! Maybe see you there? Thanks for reading :-)

Hi All, Sorry a few days has turned into a few weeks and still no post or update :-( Im working round the clock to get Thornton Gate ready for this weekends Exhibition (14th July 2012) EEAK! Things have moved on a lot since i took the photos on here , the tram fleet is almost ready, so i'll post before this Saturday and give the info on the Exhibition again ... if any of you are in mid Wales or the West Midlands it looks like its going to be a good show ! Stand by , more following shortly! :-)

Yeah thanks very much, its taken a lot of testing to get right , The Bachmann Brill trolly is a good unit as a base but a real ###### to convert to DCC, ive got at least one blown chip as a result of a short or two in the early days :-( Cant take credit for the crane as it was built by my younger brother, who along with my girlfriend have made this project possible, He's not on this forum so i'll pass on your comments to him :-) Thanks for taking the time to read this post and share your thoughts .

Thanks very much i've PM'ed you :-)

Yeah I've had the same idea, just the cost of one of these rtr tampers..... :-/ need to sell some of my tram shell casts then maybe

Ok Its been a few weeks so time for an update! Have been really busy, have had a lot of help from my team.... (my brother and girlfriend) so here are some recent photos showing our progress. Above: No change for 726 at the moment, finishing it, a job for next week, the world around it has changed quite a bit !!!!! Above: Looking down from the station area, there will be some buildings going in the space on the right hand side. Above: The end of the yard is where the P'way department kept rail and track supplies, they also had and still do an old bus for staff transport. Above: During my 2007 visit to Thornton Gate I photographed some of the more distinctive features of the yard such as the crane, now I didn't make this model, it was my brother who build it from scratch for me mainly due to time, and be be fair he's done a really good job! Above: Bending the rules again... I thought it would be nice to link back to Thornton Gate's past when mainline wagons would have visited the yard ...So the idea of the one that got left behind! Above: Talking of wagons, im adding a few runners to the layout, the excuse being there ex-BR being used by the onsite contractor who has also bought there own shunter locomotive on site... this kind of thing has happened on other tramways, so im saying its happening here Above: Soon to gain its owners logos on its cab sides, a private industrial class 04 shunter sits by the platform in the yard ( it still needs to be chipped which is going to be fun!). Ok last one for now, the train spotters garden complete with wife on bench and class 47 cab! again not a copy in real life but the hedge and garden is prototypical to the location, I just like adding little details that would be posable and help make the layout more interesting, if for what ever reason a trams not on the move. Right i'll up date again in a few days with some work bench content, thats all for now!

Hi thanks for your comments, yes setting the layout pre upgrade at around 2007 ish , Interesting you mention the Electric loco goods train, I had wondered about creating a 'demonstration' freight at some point, for now I do have a Farish 04 and some basic Peco opens that I intend use as internal user 'contractor' rolling stock, I know this never happened at blackpool but it has on other networks such as Manchester and Birmingham, where EX BR stock had been hired in, so to add some interest and help fill Thornton Gate yard im bending the rules a bit..... As for the next round of stock builds Yellow peril and a Centenary class are high on the agenda, may also look at a conversion kit for my Balloon cast allowing it to become a millennium class, how ever at present I dont have the time :-( so a modified yellow brill tram will be standing in for 754 for the first show at least, until I can bring more stock online. As for Thornton Gate's first outing its going to be at Llandrinio village Hall, Powys, Wales, SY22 6SB on the A4393 road. This is a new and very small show but its a perfect starting ground for a new layout. Other shows will follow, and unless I get invited else where will mostly be on the Shropshire & Welsh borders exhibition circuit for this year into next (2012-2013)