Woody C

I have to admire your skills, abilities and talent with this Ian. The only helix I have ever been able to create is with Spirograph and even that was questionable! Would I be right in assuming that considerable time is taken up at the moment in running the nuts down all those threaded rods or have you devised a cunning way to speed up the process?

I have to say to my easily impressionable mind that does look impressive. Even the noise it makes sounds Thunderbirds! If I recall correctly this is not the first mention of Thunderbirds in your thread Ian. I believe International Rescue were a seen as a possible responder to incidents on the ski ramp part of the layout should there be accidents. You could always use the well of the helix as a base for a Thunderbirds 1 style craft which could then burst forth on rescue missions as the sliding scenic cover moved to the side. My easily impressionable mind is possibly verging on the releams of fantasy with that idea!

With this ever expanding horizon of modelling fripperies (I had to look up the meaning of that and juxtaposition so my heuristic vocabulary horizons are being expanded by your posts) you may well become known as Mr. Blue Sky Ian. That sounds like a good title for a song!

Unfortunately Mrs. W does not believe in me taking days off when there is work to be done so I am back!!!!! Actually, as an aside, Mrs. W is after a new fire surround and that does look very nice! However you appear to have other plans for your woodworking skills with this helix.so I will watch that with wonderment following every twist and turn of this project with my interest no doubt heightened with every step it takes - the project that is and not my mind!

Having played this game before I can only say my inspired, calculated and highly researched response will be wrong! However her goes! Is it something to make a Black and Decker Workmate (other manufacturers Workmates are available, etc) look useful? Either that or its the start of a fire place surround. Not sure what that has to do with model railways though.....

That would explain the rumbling thunder I heard!

Brilliant videos. I can see how the whole train ferry idea can become a layout on its own but I think that you have the best compromise with your build! I trust that you have all survived the earthquake and no damage to the layout?

Ian, your wonderful wordsmanship always makes me smile no matter how bad a day I have had! Some great progress with your project and that whole dock scene has a great atmosphere. As always looking forward to see your continued development of this fascinating project.

Sounds very impressive Ian and I guess like most of everyone's projects, what you envisage to be content with at the start morphs into bigger and more complex matters as opportunities and thoughts develop as the build progresses. I take it as you have built the layout somewhat unconventionally (depending on how you define conventional) starting at the top working downwards you won't be down at floor level on your knees or constructing some form of pit for the cassettes? Or could that be an opportunity to incorporate and develop a U-Bahn? On a totally unrelated matter that rather industrial looking gauge on the wall looks very interesting. Showing my ignorance what is it?

You have gone way beyond my plug, replug, read instructions, curse, plug in again and if lucky play capabilities with your control system but it sounds good! Knowing your past proven abilities with making things work I am sure it will all operate wonderfully. In the meantime back at Woody Ludite Towers I am still trying to understand why you need two wires to make things work! The foam board baseboards are amazing - I remember you showing me one which may well have been the one in the photo and it's lightness was incredible but it's rigidity even more so. Be a breeze going to an exhibition with a couple of those although I guess a breeze is not something you want whilst carrying them.

Got to say Ian, that looks a great plan and will be a great layout to exhibit. When I see a plan like this I always wonder why didn't I think of something like this then the reality of my limited imagination kicks in and I realise why! Looking forward to your progress.

You can never have too many layouts Ian! The problem comes with getting them finished although I suspect that you will finish this new layout long before I can bring my glacial progress on mine to a speedier progress! Do I take it the new layout will be an inside project during climatically challenging conditions in the garage this winter? As an addendum to the above I have now done what I should have done in the first place and read your new topic which clearly states the location before asking the question! As Homer Simpson would say - Doh! Anyone got a doughnut?

In some ways Ian part of it lives on in Lincolnshire! Strangely, as though by magic, said bridge and thatched cottage have now found their way to Lincolnshire where they will be located on the layout! Thank you and I still miss my annual pilgrimage to the Aladdin's Cave of model railways - the owner was magic!

Any theories I postulate on this will be completely wrong, implausible and probably involve Blitz the crime solving police dog, so I have decided to await your reveal on this Ian! However it does look a very nice piece of kit! I take it that the R and R was a good break and you are now recharged and eager to progress further with the layout?

I have complete faith in you Chris! Never doubt your own abilities and skills which you clearly have a lot of and with inspiration such as your last post shows near to you, I am sure you will produce a set of master pieces in due course!

Just pure brilliance John!

Hello Chris, That quote from you has to be one of the understatements of the year if not the decade! I am just in awe of your skills and abilities and what you are producing is as near to perfection as you can realistically get! Woody

I missed this thread before now but WOW!!! The whole concept is brilliant, the execution is superb and the results are simply stunning! When you see a layout like this you simply have to stop and just catch your breath!

Looking good Keith. I do admire your baseboards. The quality of your carpentry is far beyond my wood butchery skills! Also good to know you are at a point where you have proved your track plan to your own satisfaction. I think though that we have to remember that even the real railways did not always got it right with regard to track layout -- there is a prototype for everything out there and in most cases they lived with it and developed operational techniques to get round the problems which can give an interesting layout in model form. As always looking forward to seeing your layout develop. Woody

Now that does sound like my type of club and if it's in Norfolk a beautiful County where I spent my early years when my dad was stationed at RAF Watton which probably shows how long ago that was!

In the words of Britney (again) Oooops! I did it again! That is, use the wrong terminology which is something I do on a regular basis! Although to be fair as a landlubber my nautical and waterway knowledge is somewhat limited and unlikely to see me being invited into any self respecting boating type club or Henley Regatta. Just out of interest when you had upset the chap was he at the blunt end or the sharp end of his narrowboat???? Why do I get that Ooooops! I did itt again feeling after that last sentence?

I said it would look toxic! Would you swim in that? A small amount of progress with much to do and most of this unglued and just placed half finished to see what it looks like - I think we all do it at some stage. The toxic water is a piece of mounting card cut to shape and then airbrushed with black, brown and green and then literally a full jar of Tamiya gloss airbrushed on. Not sure if I have captured the look of canal water as others may see it but I am pleased. The wharf walls have been also been cut from mounting card and then an embossed brick in English Bond has been added as that appears to be the right sort of bond for a canal structure but I have cleared my inbox for responses indicating otherwise! The coping stones along the top are cut from a sheet of balsa and then using a triangular file the joints are scored. The barges themselves are also still a work in progress but coming on although I doubt any self respecting barge captain would take to the water in either of them!. However at least they have not sunk yet although knowing my modelling skills and my construction methods that is an actual possibility! I will see in the morning if I need to call for International Rescue!

Some interesting ideas Keith. As I think is the case with any layout project we always find that it would be nice if we just had a little more space! I do like the two station approach - there is a clear purpose to running trains and to some degree you can in your mind treat each station as a scenic fiddle yard to the other station if need be. The only piece of advice I can offer for what it is worth is have some point available (no pun intended) to allow for expansion - you never know what the future may hold! As I always say getting the baseboards built is always the hardest part so the rest is relatively easy now!!! Look forward to see how this comes on even if have to wait until the Spring. Woody.

Hello and thank you all for your continued interest and encouragement with my efforts. In my post of last Monday I started temporarily putting buildings together to see how the scene would look and to get things like roads and landscape positioned. One of the other kits I have had in mind for this layout is the Wills Corrugated Iron Chapel kit. Originally, I was going to carry out my usual plastic kit butchery session of coercing plastic parts with a selection of over sized tools into a shape which they did not want to take on but eventually resembling a loco shed as many others have done and done far more successfully than I ever could! Note to self - A lump hammer is not part of a model making tool kit. I however decided that to preserve the kit, I would construct as Wills intended. It was just supposed to be an initial masking tape temporary construction so that i was not distracted from getting on with the layout as a whole. However in my trade mark way I easily got distracted - again - and started to glue the kit together and before too long it was that Britney Spears moment - not that I am anything like her - of Ooops!... I did it again!. I must say it is a nice kit and goes together well. The only bit that I modified was the roof guttering mouldings where I cut back the mounting strip into something with, dare I say it with my ham fisted and lump hammer reliant skills, finesse! The picture below probably illustrates what I did far better than my words. The kit is just about finished now. It was primed in my favorite Vallejo black primer before various Vallejo paints were sprayed and brush painted. Still some weathering to do but it has had an initial wash of very dilute black paint to highlight the crevices and low points. With the distraction of building this kit over with you might expect more progress on the overall layout. However...another Ooops!.... I did it again! moment with a look at the Craftline Models barge kit I had on the layout. Then the other one appeared from the stash! These distractions, to use another Britney Spears hit, are becoming Toxic, or at least the canal wharf on the layout where these barges will eventually rest will look toxic if my model water creation skills are anything to go by! Now where is that lump hammer.......

Some highly detailed, captivating and very impressive modelling throughout this thread Mike. I think what really catches my attention as one item that shows how you really get those other details so right is how you have gone so far as to accurately model crab creels, fishing nets, crates, etc. To get over my lack of ability if I were modelling that scene I would have just modelled a tarpaulin covering everything and called it a Sunday when no work on nets was going on! Full respect for your skills! Woody