jon_1066

The whole thing looks immense. It's difficult to comment as you appear to be trying something few would contemplate. I noticed you have repeated a typo with your parcel train numbers. I believe you should have 8 not 88 (that would be even more of a challenge)

Looking at your track plan. Would you want to move the silo/loading of the cement to the lower siding? Currently as it stands the loco has to use the silo siding as the headshunt for the run around loop - this strikes me as being "unusual" and a bit of a pain to operate. If you put the cement at the front on the first siding then the top one could be used as the run around and for access to the mineral/private siding.

I don't want to derail this amazing build thread but why can't everyone enjoy the hobby in their own way without holier than thou lectures? The hobby would be far more enjoyable if people would stop berating others on how best to approach it.

One option is to set your track height at say 100 mm. This then lets you go up or down and place roads, etc under the track. If you select all the track by double clicking on it then adjust the height of one join and then press enter it will change it all to that height.

The auto uncouping ramp wont work on a curve. You could go for kaidees but that is a lot of expense and faff for a couple of sidings so I would recommend a bent bit of plastic and do it by hand

I think there has to be a different standard of expected behaviour between a pedestrian crossing like at Elsenham and a road crossing in the middle of nowhere. If you are driving a car on a road then by default you are deemed to be a responsible adult capable of following a certain number of rules. If you are a school child trying to catch a train then a lower level of expectation should rightly apply to you. It seems clear that pedestrians should be separated as much as possible from trains - much like they are from busy roads - especially in station environments where they may be hurrying to catch a train.

The mesh is to stop cracking caused by thermal expansion/contraction of the concrete - especially from the initial curing period. The smaller the crack tolerance the more steel you need to put in. Also concrete will set under water - that's how the Romans built their docks at Ostia.

You can export the layout as a jpeg file under File\Export

He's going to model a cloud in plasticard

Did the station lose it's first section of canopy? The dirt line of the canopy is present but the canopy itself is not. You have modeled this very accurately as you show on your comparison shot, I was just wondering if anyone knew what happened to that bit of canopy and when it occured?

Looking at the shots from the previous page when you get far away the over bridge looks almost white. I would therefore go with something much more pale - your colours look much too blue to my eye PS great model!

Another little tinker with the plan: This gives you some carriage sidings as well and eases one of the the station curves. It also allows you to operate it as an out and back layout. So basic operation would be a train enters from the cassette on the Up line. It can either terminate at the station or go round a few times as you like. Once you have had enough of it it terminates in the station. Decouple the loco which then runs back around the carriages and off to the TT and then onto the shed. Meanwhile a pilot tootles out of the shed and propels the carriages towards the carriage sidings. It then swaps onto the Down line at the cross over and shunts them into the sidings. It then grabs a fresh set and pulls them into the station. It then decouples and heads off to the cross over where it swaps back to the Up line and returns to the shed Meanwhile a loco comes off shed and proceeds around the Up line to the cross over where it swaps to the Down and runs around the carriages in the station. It backs onto them then proceeds (once you've blown your whistle and waved your green flag of course). It can zoom round the circuit a few times (whilst you bring another train in on the Up line) before heading off to the cassette. Good luck with your build

What about using those sidings as a fiddle yard? If you made them cassette connections you could have a junction and bring trains on and off scene. This would let you run a variety of traffic on your layout without having to handle your stock. eg This uses Peco curved points and crossing for the junction. I have also changed your station layout since the Up and Down sharing the center tracks looks like a good opportunity for a head on smash at full speed! I have also used express points there since the shorter points could give you problems with running trains through them at main line speeds.

Agreed. There is the message and the way it is said. Unfortunately if you take a sarcastic tone then your message may well get lost as you put the other persons back up.

re the roof What did you use on the Goods Shed? I would consider doing the same since they are the two principal buildings on the layout and may look "odd" with different styles of roof slate

You've got to at least leave the provision to light it inside. All that beautiful detail will be pretty hard to see once the roof is on without an internal light.

Nice choice of camera. I would second the idea of shooting with Aperture priority (the little A on the dial). You want the highest aperture you can possibly get which equals the smallest hole (don't ask - all hobbies have their own secret codes and language - its the size of the hole in a fraction of an inch). This gives the maximum depth of field. Because of this though to get enough light in your camera then needs a long exposure. This will result in camera shake unless you can keep it still using a tripod. A good idea is use a small bean bag to position and rest the camera on the layout. This would be good for on the track type shots. Another alternative is to up the ISO. This is how quickly the detector reacts to light. Setting it to 6400 will give a more grainy look but a faster shutter speed so you may be able to get a hand held shot from an impossible to rest location. You can also take charge of the focus yourself. By switching to manual you can set where the focus is using the front ring on the lens. This is also useful if it hunts around when taking a picture. Gently depress the shutter to get it to focus then switch the lens to manual (MF/AF switch on the RHS usually) and when the picture is taken it will stop that hunting about.

Couldn't you chop the down pipe in two rather than drilling a hole? May be a little tricky lining it up but better than hacking the hell out of your model.

I went to the most bog basic comprehensive you could imagine and we played rugby union so this stuff and nonsense about it being for posh people and being kept off TV by well-to-do's is nonsense. The reason it is not on terrestrial TV is because the initial phase of Murdoch's plan for world domination was to buy up the TV rights to Rugby League. That was how his initial audience was obtained in Australia and also the pattern he started with in the UK before following up with the obviously more popular Premier League.

Well he has to start somewhere. His next one is bound to be a bit more ambitious. (I'm thinking something along the lines of a scale model of Bristol Templemeads carved out of a single block of resin.) Edit - is it just me or does he look a bit like Benedict Cumberbatch in that PPE)

My suggestion for the curlicues is to perhaps use a small cut of tube. Glue three circles together inside to give the impression of it without having the difficulty of making the free ends.

Ah crap!

I don't understand your comment on the last photo. Too much light? Is it the depth of field that spoils it for you? If so you need a smaller aperture. That will increase your depth of field - ie how much of the scene is in focus. I am not sure if your camera will let you adjust that but basically the mantra is slow speed and small aperture.

Er Unclebobkt. Why are you replying to messages from 10 months ago? Also I don't understand you comment re the white stripe on the wagons. My understanding was that a diagonal stripe showed the end with the drop down door.

Misread this as "Jeff is going to look awfully good when weathered and grassed". !