Rowsley17D

Can I come too Andy? My folks still live in the Peak District!

No, I am a lot biased!

I'm with you there Michael, though it needn't be one of the big viaducts one of the smaller bridges would do, with a Midland box in the distance. Loco? It would have to be a black 5.

Jeff, Thanks for pics of the wiring. I guess that most of us have had a similar experience with our own layouts with lots of wiring dangling down all over the place. Where did you get that massive terminal block from? Interesting that we use similar colours for the same jobs except I use white for my crossings. I find cable ties very useful. With DC there're lots more wires going to various sections and I would need lots of curtain hooks. I just staple gun a tie to the underside of the board, collect the wires together and fasten the tie.

Far be it from me to teach Grandma... but is it the turnout? Is the hole the actuating wire goes through big enough? Have you tried another turnout motor?

I have the LMS version of the 8F and can confirm it's smooth running (DC). The tender lets it down though, but Comet and Brassmasters do a decent version, and then there are their detailing kits, if you want further improvements.

All very neat Jeff. I see you go for the large panel board approach. I don't know how the people who manage to get 100s of switches on a panel 6" square do it. I assume those switches are toggle switches, centre off?

Blooming 'eck Jeff, I have a couple of days away to collect long case clock case from the west country and the thread goes mad, enjoyed catching up though. Hope you'll have some pics for us today? Keep up the good work.

1 I'm only DC at the moment. 2 So long as it's not too hot, it makes me nose run! 3 April 2013 4 Nov 2014 Now stop playing those locos and get some more track down.

I'd love too. Regarding coaches, if it was anything like like the Peak line, trains could be made up of a right rag-bag, Mk1s, all three Stanier "periods" and the odd Midland was not exceptional. Time to get some orders into Comet or you could push the boat out and give Larry a commission so that he can continue to live in the style to which he has become accustomed build that outdoor loop.

Jeff, I only asked as I couldn't see a hole for the vac pipe but looking more closely there is one partly obscured by the coupling hook. With your generous radii you should be able to get your engines and tenders really close and perhaps fit the doors and fall plates, they really do make a difference, perhaps in the future eh? I bet you cannot wait to get a full circle and on with the juice.

May be he fell through that gap between engine and tender Is that one of the "old" Bachy Jubs? As to tunnels and viaducts Jeff, they are in very close proximity at Monsal Head, MR Peak line.

Jeff, I read somewhere that some folks fill overlarge gaps between rail ends with two-part epoxy.

The civil service are a bit more organised Jeff and get it out the week of retirement but then I think private organisation Capita will be seeing to your payout when it eventually comes, no doubt they are getting a bit more interest%. Hope to "review" my position regarding retirement in a couple of years when the big six oh comes round! Don't blame you for going all SMP etc if it's all on show would look strange to have one side SMP and the other Peco, then you would have to do a "Larry" and rip it all up again.

Jeff you probably know this already but... Gordon cuts his gaps beside the rail that is nearst to the viewer and so is hardly noticable. Others use a cone-shaped grinding stone moved back and forth between the rails so there is no definite gap. Others fill the gaps with Milliput before painting but this seem laborious to me. I have hardly had any problems with my current Peco hidden fiddle yard so may just stick with it in future, unless somebody wants to make me an offer on several dozen yards of the stuff, we don't all have a lump sum to fritter away on our hobby

Those curves approaching the viaduct look perfectly acceptable to me Jeff (post 1261). I see in Larry's thread you are going to go with with Marcway/SMP for your fiddleyard. Is this because it will be on show and you want all your trackwork to look the same? When I get round to my last great project I was thinking about using Peco in my FY as I want it hidden under one of the scenic boards. I also have lots of Peco from my existing layout including large radius turnouts (never got ballasted) and want to reuse it again, but now I'm having doubts.

Looking forward to it Jeff. Hope the mouth is OK. Confirmed - getting keys to new layout location house Friday next.

Great stuff Jeff. Are those some Parkside Dundas kits? I hope it won't be too long before the Bachy Midland brake van is out and then I can compare it to the numerous versions I have built, HBO,AVB, with duckets, without etc. I hope it won't show them up too much. Right no more pushing those wagons through the turnouts, get some more track down. Larry would have had a full circle by now . As to starting a thread on Layout Topics for Derwent (that's what I think I'll call my mainline station) I'll wait until I actually start to build something. As you can see it's still at the "what if" stage at the moment.

Go on Jeff, get a loco out and let's have a pic of one on what you've done so far.

I wouldn't worry too much about this Gordon. I have some fearsome gradients on my layout and my six-coupled locos can pull a seven-coach train up them although I have had to add some extra weight to them. Unless all your coaches are Larry's brass kits, the trains should fly up them at 1 in 100. You can always take the weights out of rtr coaches with your fine trackwork.

My name's not Larry the Coach

Too right Jeff, even with my biggish loft (keys handed over on 9 Nov hopefully) not many have room for a true prototype model that will satisfy us who want to watch trains go by. Mine will be a Peak Line hybrid and will (again hopefully) look "Midland" although I am struggling to find junction station track plans. The S&C ones have a web site, does anybody know of other sites for other Midland ones? Do you keep dropping in at Appleby or go via Kirkby Stephen Jeff on visits to Dad's to get a look at what your're hoping (there's that word again) to achieve?

On lunch. Thanks for the pics Jeff, seems to be coming along very nicely now that you have some of the turnouts connected by plain track. I thought while I had no useful comments to make I would just observe progress, although was away on a three-day course last week. I assume you still remember what those are? As to comments about future SWMBO holding the purse-strings, given that we met in the NRM she has slightly less interest in things railway than me. Also we are planning to have the new house garage converted to a music room for her and and have agreed that I will be spending a proportional amount on converting the loft and installing a layout - a prenuptual agreement I suppose.

Hi Jeff, will we get some more pics any time soon? I totally agree with Mike the Stationmaster and his approach to planning as to what we want our layouts to do then incorporate prototype details to make it all work. I too am in the early days of planning but don't even have access to the loft I want the layout in, but do have rough measurements. So I am not planning the nth degree as things will no doubt change once I have access. I have about 26' in length but even then as Mike says the end curves eat into the "straight bit".

Gentlemen, I hate to be a spoil-sport but it's illegal to remove sand, pebbles, stones etc from a beach.