David41283

Hi Ben, Thanks for the comment. The Brutes are from Etched Pixels, ordered a couple of years ago at the same time as the 24/1 conversion kit. They are incredibly small etched kits with fold up castors, a false floor etc.. after a trial go with a soldering iron and all the details I decided I would simplify them somewhat, so these are a very basic representation. In the same order, I also ordered a couple of sets of etches which fold up into 2mm scale desktop PCs! I haven't found an application for these yet! Cheers David

Just for fun, Invernevis 2017! I don't have nearly enough appropriate present-day stock to pull this off properly.... 67 rests after bringing in the Caledonian Sleeper The new Colas 56 hauled BP tanks pauses at the station. Nearly - not quite the right kind of GBRF 73 for the sleeper! A DRS 37 heads the autoballasters ready for engineering works. Cheers David

Good evening everyone, With the layout set up fully I've been giving everything a really good run. A few loose wires have been secured and a few locos have been adjusted to ensure smooth running. Celebrity 26's 26001 and 007 prepare to leave. The rear coach of this service is an observation saloon. Overview of the station area Class 26 shunts vans 26040 idles in the siding. Vans are loaded in the dock A class 24/1 arrives with an oil train, while a class 27 waits to depart. 37425 leaves the station, passing the signalman's bike. 24117 heads for the goods yard with a brake van. 47643 has just arrived from Glasgow. The shunter prepares to uncouple the 47. Cheers David

Hi Shaun, It's a product called EZ Line. It's a really stretchy thin nylon thread, superb for this sort of use as it stretches when snagged rather than snapping. It is available in different colours and thicknesses. I used the thinnest (can't remember what grade sorry) and a pale green colour to represent weathered copper. I initially bought it for catenary wires on a previous layout. It is an american product, but I found it from a model aircraft supplier in the uk, who sold it to make the rigging between the wings of model bi-planes! I've done three layouts with it now and barely made any inroads into the reel I purchased. Very good stuff, sticks in place quickly with a tiny dab of CA glue. Cheers David

Good evening everyone, Here is 26001, still a little to do, but it's nearly ready for Railtour Service to Invernevis. So far I've painted in the buffer shanks, detailed the bufferbeams, added the headcode discs and headlight, repositioned the OHLE warning flashes, fitted the nameplates, added the '001' to the front and fitted a driver. Some of the washes are a little heavier than I'd like so these may be thinned down a little. With the first exhibition for this layout in just under a fortnight, I've been getting the layout ready to show. More details have been added. I thought the area in front of the station looked a little bare, so I added a small goods office next to the loading dock. I also stumbled upon some really nice castings of telegraph poles with street lights which were ideal to provide some lighting for the siding area. The lorry has been much toned down from the rather garish livery. There are a couple of people and a couple of vehicles outside the station too. Some telegraph poles have sprung up, with barely visible wires. Other general clutter has been added. I've also been working on some stock. I picked up the cl 24 very cheaply with a split gear. I've sorted the gear and this is nearly finished as 24112, which finished it's career at Inverness. So far I have plated over the nose doors and centralised the headcode discs, I've also filled in the body side steps. I also picked up this stereotypical scottish grain hopper in a bargain bin for a couple of quid. So far I've removed some of the extra bodyside ribs and made new bufferbeams from bits and pieces. More pragmatically, I've now got some curtains to hide the trestles. Having obtained prices from proper fabric shops to get these made, I decided to find a different options. In the end these are made from two cheap navy blue bed sheets from eBay and some iron-on velcro. Cheers David

Hi Simon, Thanks for the comment. I think the Dapol couplers have been a real step forward. Not only do they look considerably better than the traditional Rapido, they allow you to fit much more detail around them. For me the biggest difference is that they actually make an N Gauge terminus a realistic possibility as you can couple and uncouple so easily. Cheers David

Cheers Eddie, I use the fixed knuckle couplings between much of my stock, I find one short and one medium makes the coaches really close. With the 26, the NEM pocket protrudes a couple of mm in front of the buffer beam, which means even a short coupling sticks out further than a medium on most other locos. What I've done with my 26's is trim down the shank of the short coupler until it doesn't stick out too far, then fix it into the pocket with canopy glue. I cut quite a lot off in this case, there was very little shank left! I'll post some pictures later this week.

The perils of taking a photo on a phone in poor light! They are still Dapol's red. (which is only marginally more accurate than pink!)

Still no idea what I'm going to do with this, but it looks lovely on the shelf in the study. Recently fitted with two modelu figures, painted with Games Workshop paints.

Not strictly related to this layout, but I've got my running-in and testing station set up this week. A second hand Gaugemaster LT from ebay, adapted slightly to hold a length of code 80 mounted on a bit of foam-core, upon which sits a set of DCC concepts rolling roads and a wheel cleaner. Not having had a circle of track for several years, nearly all my locos could benefit from a really good run. The built-in ammeter is useful to get an indication of any problems too. Cheers David

Hi Martyn, Yep - one of my favourite sites, not just for this project either, it's fascinating. You wonder if the likelihood of flooding was another reason for the relocation. I find it odd that one of the main given reasons for closing this station was that the railway cut the town off from the loch side, yet they replaced it with a dual carriageway! Cheers David Hi James, Yes I am, I was pencilled in for next year, but had a call this weekend due to a cancellation. I've got 5 weeks to practice my uncoupling under pressure! Cheers David

Completely agree, I thought that 50x50 shades of grey was a superbly clever bit of work.

The Maizey Day Cornishman railtour on Saturday appears to have pulled a bit of a triumph out of a potential disaster. Hoping to see 2 x DRS 37s I was keeping an eye on RTT. 37069 failed at Worcester and was abandoned there, 37059 left with 10 coaches over 2 hours late and made it to Bristol nearly 3 hours late. At Bristol a FL 66 was scrambled and added to the front of the train, which went forward with both locos working together. There is some great footage on Youtube of the train storming down through Devon making up a bit of time. I saw it pass non-stop through Plymouth with both locos working hard about 2hr 30 down. Departure from PZ was delayed until 5.20 - which then saw a remarkable run. By all accounts the train was prioritised above pretty much everything else, and given a clear run reaching Bristol in 3hrs 58mins! That must be one of the quickest runs in years! I guess this shows the modern railway can work together at times! Well done to DRS and Freightliner for arranging the 66 at Bristol, and to NR and the signallers who arranged such a good run back to get everyone home. At Bristol a DRS 66 (scrambled from where?) was waiting to see the tour home to allow the FL 66 to return to it's planned duties. While it wouldn't have been what everyone was expecting, I hope it was an enjoyable and eventful day out for those on board!

On a completely trivial note, one thing that does stick out a bit (IMHO) is that the 800's are so obviously "vinyled". You can see the light grey base coat around the doors, handrails and other gaps where the vinyls don't cover. At first glance the 802's which have been built for GWR appear to have been built dark green from the factory so don't have the unsightly edges.

Hi everyone, Thanks for all the continued interest. With work on the layout more-or-less complete for the moment, a pair of new locos arrived today. My first ebay purchase for sometime, they look to be pristine and all the detailing parts and nameplates are unused in the box. This is stretching my timescale a lot, as they were repainted in 1992 to mark the closure of Eastfield, but they will look great on the layout! The models are (correctly) the later, refurbished version, but (also correctly) supplied with headcode discs, but without the holes to fix them into, nor the appropriate lights. This is entirely accurate, as in real life the locos had dummy headcode discs fixed to the cab fronts, as the original fixings had been removed years before. The plan is: Remove the lighting and PCB. (the lights aren't right with the discs fitted) Work out a way of coupling them closer when double heading Add some weight to dummy 26007/D5300 Fit the name plates Add high-intensity headlights and headcode discs (apparently Ratio no longer produce their n gauge loco headlamps, kit no 249) Add "001" and "007" numbers on the cab fronts and correct the position of the OHE warning flashes. Light weathering. Cheers David

Three photos from around 9 o'clock this morning. Looked very smart. As if to prove I only just caught the early running train, the first picture is a little rushed.... It was noteworthy how much interest it generated, and everyone (not enthusiasts) seemed to know what it was - GWR PR machine has done a good job! Cheers

I had a slight detour on my way to work this morning, via Plymouth Station this morning to see it. It did so well over the Devon Banks I almost missed it arrive! According to RTT it left Newton Abbott 3 mins early. By my watch it was 7 mins early into Plymouth. I don't know if it had a particularly generous path, but it may well be that the fears of being under-powered are premature. I'll add some photos later. David

Last batch of photos... A few years later then the previous posts: 20132 prepares to shunt the TPO which has arrived behind 47706 Strathclyde The 20 shunts the vans into platform 2 for servicing The 20 then stables in the loading dock Another view of 20132 waiting for its next duty 47706 waits for the road back to the stabling point. 47706 again. Cheers

Here is the modified container flat in use. A couple of these ran Aberdeen - Inverness - Wick in the mid 80's. My model is a standard Farish flat with TPM headstocks at both ends and smaller wheels. 37108 arrives with the container flat marshalled between the loco and coaches. Close up of the wagon 37108 pulls up past the station building After removing the coaches 27029 releases the 37 20048 substitutes for the usual loco on a short passenger train. After uncoupling the 20 pulls forward of the coaches. 27029 removes the single fuel tank from the rear of the 20's train. and then prepares to leave with the container flat marshalled between the loco and coaches again. 27029 leaves the station. I found a photo of the prototype at last! Here for an interesting train!

Evening everyone, Here are some photos of this evenings workings at Invernevis. Class 26 shunts parcels and goods stock. Class 26 and 24/1 in the station 24117 removes a van and the buffet from an incoming train. Class 25 and 24/1 Class 25 leaves with vans on the rear of the coaches. More to follow....

Thanks - I am aware of the mixed trains, I must take some photos of them when I run them! I have seen photos of an 08 at the new station, but not at the old. I use a class 20 as my station pilot, which is well documented at both stations. I reckon this may simply be down to the fact that an 08 shunting was run-of-the-mill so didn't get snapped so much as the 20 which was more interesting! Class 20 here and here One wagon I've modelled for this layout, and not yet used, is one of the through-piped container flats which ran from Inverness in the 80's. I also have the issue that with the width of the Farish 08 the coupling rods foul my platforms, which are pleasingly close to the coaches - hence why you'll not see an 08 on my version! Cheers David

Thanks, yep - N gauge. The whole layout is 2.5m long, by 30cm wide. The scenic section is 1.3m, the fiddle yard 1.2m.

Yes, thank you Graham. Sorry for not acknowledging. Now I've sorted the legs I can fill it in and send it back! Cheers David

Good evening everyone, Over the weekend I got all four trestles built, so the layout is set up, with track level probably about 4 1/2 foot from the floor. I've also solved my uncoupling issues - after stumbling across the "Rix Pick" which is an american product designed for uncoupling their microtrains couplers, I found an equivalent available in the UK from Kadee. As they were only around £1.50 each I bought three. You just poke the specially-shaped end in between the couplers and give a small twist. With the layout set up and an uncoupler available I also ended up getting some stock out too. I just need to obtain a curtain of some description to hide the legs and it will be ready for public display! Cheers David

Hi everyone. A very practical update this evening. We have legs! I had been weighing up making my own trestles or buying some from ebay. As you can see I went for the latter option. There are loads of versions of these advertised on ebay, all in the price range of £23-£29 per pair or thereabouts. I went with the cheapest option here (they've actually gone up in price slightly since I bought last weekend.) They cost me £46.78 for 4 trestles including free delivery within 5 working days. They're very good for the money - adjustable from table height up to well over 4ft - ideal for exhibitions. These will live in the loft and be used for many projects in the future. Cheers David