Modelling Martin

Hi James all the track feeds onto plastic sprews so no soldering to sleepers is necessary and all the track widths are done for you. I will post a guide to them later on. Thank you for your interest in the layout it is really spurring me on to progress on it. To be honest i actually think some engines look better travelling tender first . Hopefully i will extend the layout after these boards are done as i really want to model some of the promenade and beach if possible Kind regards, Gary

Hi James, Thanks for the complements although the baseboards took two days solid of sanding to get them to look presentable as I like the light colour of the birch and don't intend in covering it with paint. Oh yes the point kits wow where do i start. Size wise they are certainly smaller than large radius turnouts measuring approximately 27cm long. At about 8 quid each they are pretty cheap although you have to solder the vees and file the point blades (unlike the C & L i believe but these go up to £40 i believe) although this isn't really a big problem the main one is fitting the wing rails without breaking the plastic chairs. The only thing i would say is they are quite flimsy compared to the Peco ones and will need gluing down all underneath them to keep them flat. Anyway the reason i chose them was because i couldn't really be bothered to vary the thickness of packing underneath the track, they were cheaper than Peco and looked better too. To be honest i would just buy one and see how you feel making it. I can do a guide on them if anyone is interested? To be honest i kind of messed my first one up but learnt a lot from it- i think one costs £10 from marcway including postage which i don't think is too bad to see if you like them or not, Feel free to ask more questions and thank you again for the kind words, Gary

Hello all, Well the layout is finally in its home at last which demonstrated the usefulness of adjustable legs on uneven carpet! Anyway this is how the layout looks now: Rough track layout has been placed on the baseboards with buildings too (don't panic i'm not actually going to use that shed! Or water tower either). I think it will be doable in my space constraints whilst still keeping all the operational features. Here is the first 'low down' view of the signal box highlighting all the work needed to be done on it: interior, lighting to show the interior, repainting etc the list goes on and thats on a ready to plonk building too! Anyway i think the Hornby box is a copy of the Dunster one which was later moved to Minehead (don't quote me on this, i'm happy to be corrected!). Anyway next job is taking all the boards back downstairs again to get inspection pit and uncoupling holes cut out. Thanks for reading and the likes and comments so far, Gary

Hello all, Considering this is a layout thread there hasn't been much in the way of the layout apart from buying a station building. Over the past few months however i have been building the baseboards which can be seen below: As you can see they are made up out of 9mm birch ply frames and tops with the fiddleyard made out of normal 9mm ply because that is what i had left over from another project. The fiddleyard will consist of a traverser which is easy enough saying it but it took days to build annoying a few hours to screw the wood together and a weekend to align the draw runners properly as they seem to always want to hit some piece of wood when they are sliding and jam. Anyway it is running smoothly at the moment so i frantically put loads of screws into it to keep it in the right position. Baseboards are aligned with pattern makers dowels i think and bolts to squeeze the boards together. Hopefully i can now crack on with more point building to get some track down and maybe even run a train (woah lets not get too carried away here!), Kind regards, Gary

Hi Chris, Great model i presume you have used Dapol plastic locomotive kits for your restoration projects? Regards, Gary

Hi Dave, Sorry the layout isn't that advanced yet (its still in the baseboard / track laying stages). Its first exhibition will be the Blackpool and North Fylde Model Railway Club's in 2016 giving me a year to finish it. Still i'm pretty taken aback by the offer though as it would have been such an appropriate location for it to go, Kind regards, Gary

Thanks the only downside is the trains don't get much of a run although that wouldn't be much different whatever station i have on a 8' long board. By using the SMP point kits (similar to Peco medium radius points) it also saves the space too. I do aim to extend the layout in the future eastwards as there ain't much in the way of scenery on these two boards.

Yes they do although the platforms can accommodate a 4ft length train (just coaches) slightly longer than 4 mark 1 coaches just so it doesn't look too cramped as i want the platforms to look longer than they really are. Platform 1 should even be able to take a 5 coach rake although this is too long for my fiddleyard.

Thanks Andy, I to share the same interest in preserved railways, hope you found the track plan you were asking about even though its not very well detailed at all.

Hi Ben, Sorry i can't help you with the kit but i aim to adapt my Hornby building too with a canopy extended down the platform albeit much shorter and the red brick on the chimneys really do stand out to me that i need to repaint them. Thanks for doing the pictures if you click the 'reply with attachments' button at the bottom right of the reply box that should allow you to click the 'choose file' button where you go through your folders to find your pictures which if you click 'open' when they are highlighted they should begin to load at the bottom of your text box. Be aware though that rmweb has a 1MB size limit so you may need to open and export them outside of rmweb to a smaller file size (KB are smaller). Once they have fully loaded you should be able to click 'add to post' to put them in. I notice some people use photobucket but i don't have a clue how to do that. I'm probably not the best person to explain this as i use OSX instead of windows so it may be slightly different for you, Feel free to PM me if you encounter any problems, Gary

Just had a look at your thread and can definitely relate to the Wills sheets; i used them on another layout for platforms sides which took a lot of patience and knife blades too as the stuff really doesn't like to be cut. The good news is i won the ebay auction for the station here (apologies for long link!) : http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/GWR-Skaledale-Model-Station-/251953504708?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2047675.l2557&nma=true&si=641pQLxnw1yar1Xy7cXPOoBCEtg%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nchttp://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/GWR-Skaledale-Model-Station-/251953504708?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2047675.l2557&nma=true&si=641pQLxnw1yar1Xy7cXPOoBCEtg%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nci must admit its strange getting a RTP building for less than the plastic kit but i suppose thats what ebay is for at the end of the day. I like your Dunster layout too although working ground signals won't be a feature on mine!! Anyway the track has been ordered from marcway so i have the looming prospects of 12 point kits to make- the joys of the hobby! Kind regards, Gary

Wow that station looks great I often think plastic has the sharper crisper edges than resin highlighted by your model there. After looking on the gaugemaster website it says you cover the plastic shell with stone / red brick sheet? I'm not a card fan so i would have to make a new plastic 'skin' for the building which seems like a lot of trouble compared to the Hornby offering which i think looks pretty good and hopefully a bit unique after the canopy and detail have been added to it, Gary

Hello everyone, I've been looking around for buildings after the excellent recommendation of the Gaugemaster kit when i found out that Hornby produced a station building based on the Dunster station I think? Anyway i personally think it represents Minehead's pretty well. I understand people's negativety towards ready to plonk buildings but i feel my modelling capabilities aren't up to a station building or signal box yet although the carriage works and engine sheds shoudn't be too difficult to build and i feel i would enjoy building them more than the complex shapes associated with the station building, Here are some pictures for reference of the Hornby building: Copyright Hattons Kind regards, Gary

Sounds great i would really appreciate that . Feel free to post them on the topic as i believe a few people may find them interesting, Thanks again, Gary

Hi Ben, Heres a picture of the area i was trying to get a photo of with the yellow shape representing the area where any photos would be much appreciated: Copyright Google Maps 2015 I think space limitations mean i can't model all the portakabins behind the shed (oh what a shame!), Gary

No pressure then! I hope I can model Minehead as true as possible. The problem at the moment is finding images of the engine shed side closest to the promenade which could prove tricky when i get round to building the shed, Thanks for all your kind comments, Gary

I think many people associate preservation with 'i can run whatever i want' which i think simply isn't the case for everyone. In this case I'm going to run rolling stock as close to the WSR as possible and make it as close as possible in the space i have available. The only exception will be the locomotives which where possible I will try and make sure they are preserved examples ( I only have one actual GWR engine at the moment!), Gary

Hi there, thank you for your opinion any advice good / bad is much appreciated. I'm afraid i've got stock from a larger layout that i have collected over the years which I really don't fancy selling and buying again in N gauge and it is all DCC Sound which i feel will play an important part in my new layout. I figured in OO i was never going to get much of a run anyway so might as well make the most of a big station. I think in the future have the option to extend the layout to the east (the turntable and beach) and west (extending the carriage sidings and a level crossing) which i will be able to assemble in full at exhibitions, Regards, Gary

Yes thats a very good point. Modelling pre-2008 means i don't have the two 'Y' points off the upper run-around loop either which means thats 2 less points to make! Operationally though it would be nice perhaps in the future to have a turntable to stop the spotters complaining that the engine is 'tender first' on the gala days, Gary

Thank you to everyone whose shown an interest it means i'll have to get it finished sooner now and do it justice at the same time! Regards, Gary

That picture really is fascinating as I've never really seen any pictures of Minehead pre-preservation. Unfortunately my stock is from lots of different eras so I feel modelling it in its present form is the only way. That station building would fit my plans very well, I had ideas for all the other buildings but this one is ideal as I don't really want the building / canopy taking up too much space on the platform but would like it to be noticeably similar, Gary

Latest Layout starts from page 5. Hello all, Last year I went for a family Holiday to Watchet, Somerset. As you may imagine many days were spent travelling the West Somerset Railway where Minehead caught my eye. After having my room layout changed it meant my old layout had to go and was reluctantly sold to make way for a new layout which Minehead seemed to fit pretty well. So then back to the layout. The scenic section will be 8ft x 2ft which meant compacting Minehead a fair bit. Consequently it means the maximum train length will be 4 carriages as opposed to eight which I can live with as i don't fancy a 9ft fiddle yard either and I think, if done properly, the shape of the platform should give a nice sense of perspective to the layout. As a consequence to this 'compacting' it means the turntable will have to be omitted and the train will literally leave the station and go straight into the fiddleyard without much of a run but i think it is reasonable that a scenic extention can be added at a later date as the boards will be modular; the idea of modelling a beach seems quite exciting. Due to the stock I will be running it will be set in the preservation period (*ducks for cover*) but I don't see this as a reason to sacrifice authenticity or detail on the layout as I want it to be true as to Minehead is today as possible. It will all be OO gauge DCC controlled with SMP trackwork (when i get round to making 12 points during GCSE exam season!). I wanted to document my layout in a topic like this for a few reasons. Firstly I have learnt so much over the past few years from RMweb which has saved me considerable time avoiding mistakes and learning new techniques which I have really enjoyed and hope to implement into this layout. Furthermore if one person reads this and is inspired / learns something new (although I doubt it may be a while before that happens!) then it will all be worth it. Finally as part of Duke of Edinburgh Award i have to record myself doing a 'skill' activity each week which may as well be this as i really enjoy the hobby. Anyway apologies for the wall of text and so i will leave you with a trackplan and photograph to show what i am aiming for: Thank you for looking, Regards, Gary

Hello all, Its been a while but i've managed to do some more work on the layout particularly on the platforms. This afternoon I fancied a running session so took some photos with my phone: Here you can see the newly painted brickwork and weathering done to the sides of the platforms since the last update. This was quite simply done with whatever stone-looking humbrol tins I had in my tool box to which I painted some of the stones with to add variety. This was then covered in an acrylic wash to tone the colours down and merge them together. Engine shed now on this is the view from just outside it which will look better with more detail and painting to tone down those whites a bit. At one stage i had quite a few engines in the yard so managed to line up this shot of three of them. Here my Deltic can be seen on the dinning service. A recent couple of addition over christmas was the invicta CCT van which the ELR currently has in service so i thought I would have one to! The Hornby 28XX is also new and has been renumbered to 2857 (the one preserved at the severn valley railway). Although its from the GWR I really do like these engines and the locomotive did run on the ELR in the 1990s so that kind of means I can run it right? And finally a shot from the windows at the front of the carriage of the Fairburn tank as it leaves the station, Hope everyone had a good festive season, Gary

Thanks very much for the quick reply! What should i do about the section where all of the wires are running through i presume that will have to be left open? Also the speaker seems to be magnetically attracted to some electrics in this trough which i presume won't effect it? It wasn't me that fitted the chip in the first place by the way, Blue= trough with wires Red= magnetic thingy Gary

Hi all hope you could help me with this one. The sound seems rather quiet on my Howes chipped 28xx despite CV 63 being 128 which might mean the problem may lie with the speaker positioning. As you can see by the below picture what should i do to improve it? I'm not sure whether to put the weight back in because i don't want to short circuit the decoder or add more blu-tac? Any help would be much appreciated, Gary