LBSC123

Looking good, will follow with interest!

A suitable O2 (and donor) has been acquired. Photos and an outline of the work required to follow!

HI @wainwright1, Best video I've found of the facilities of at the Cement Mill are in this video: http://www.eafa.org.uk/catalogue/3163 , with a lovely shot of W10 Cowes at a head of a train of wagons, although these are lettered 'Vectis', which I believe were grey and not yellow? Regarding the Cambrian kits, I was going to have a search for some suitable wagons once I've built the layout, and possibly paint them up in Vectics livery, although it's someway down the priorities list compared to bolstering my stock of Southern Railway wagons. Thanks to @IWCR for the informative comments about the Royal Daylight tankers and what they were used for!

A really special layout, in such a small space too. Well done!

I'm also loathed to digress onto another project, but since seeing the similarity between the this Bachmann Scenecraft building and an IoW station, I haven't been able to get this out of my head. Hmmmmm....

Still a few more coats of paint to go but already the backscene is moving on nicely.

Hi Ray, the backscene would be supported by the ply and so wouldn’t need any strength of its own, however I think I’ve moved away from this idea for now anyway. I actually spent yesterday fitting DCC to a Hornby Terrier and testing out my newly acquired Gaugemaster Prodigy, you’ll be pleased to hear that after a little cleaning up of the track, and coaxing the DCC autofrogs into life, the layout operated without trouble. Hi @Nearholmer, It feels like you’ve read my mind! As of today I’ve now put 3 coats of waterbased primer on the plywood backscene to fill the grain, this will be sanded back and painted with white emulsion paint, then the aforementioned method using rattle cans and an airbrush. More updates to follow on this in due course! Thanks for reading, Will

Does anyone know if it's possible to purchase the sound decoder used in these models separately from Dapol or elsewhere?

Update: the relays were ‘sticky’ and after using a wire between the two contacts to get them to ‘click’ they now work well under normal operation.

Posting in this in here rather than starting a new thread as it's related to autofrogs. Finally got around to testing my wiring on DCC today as I only just got a loco and controller sorted. I've wired these up as per the instructions, except I have put the track feed wires into my bus wires, rather than directly to the track (I've got a friend who has done this and their layout works fine). However, I've got a problem, the frogs all work for one route, and the loco runs along these smoothly, however for the other road the locomotive stops at the frog and doesn't move until one set of wheels it past it, there is also no clicking sound from these. I'm pretty stumped as to what could be the problem, I'm using a Prodigy controller and the loco in question is a Hornby Terrier with a Hornby 6 pin chip. Any advice as to what the problem could be would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Will

Spent a few more hours on the Layout yesterday. I made a start on knocking up the Will's garages into the Fishermans store that will go at the rear of the layout. I think this looks a lot better balanced now, but will mean that the backscene will be vitally important in creating an effective scene... Another possibility on this front is to purchase a sky backscene like this, and use a fencing and hedging to hide the fact that there's no ground at the bottom, I think from normal photograph angles there would be little backscene to be seen anyway from the quay, so this might work: https://www.howardscenicsupplies.co.uk/id-backscenes-id502b-blue-sky-15/ Another option is to get a photograph printed onto some 1mm foamboard like this, although I don't yet posses a suitable photograph, I'd need one with max 1inch ground and the rest sky, particularly at the right hand side of the layout, this seems like an appealing option, removing potential for bubbles under the backscene and it should give me a nice curve to fill the corner. More thought required, but for now I'll focus on the sea bed/tidal area. More soon!

Thanks for the tip off, I must admit your wagons look rather nice, so I might be tempted to get one even if it's not technically correct...

I visited Eling yesterday and saw this lovely Wooden quayside wall for modelling inspiration. Although I think I’ve done a good job in capturing the overall look of this, it is clear that the top half of this is much more sun bleached than I have modelled. So, I got out the white paint and dry brushed the top half of the quayside wall. I think it is has improved the look immensely, I need to touch up a few places but will do this alongside attaching the seaweed to the lower half of the quay.

Yep I would agree with that. I may pick up a mainline one just for variety whilst I work on improving the stock over a longer term, who knows, maybe Oxford rail will do one in their next batch...

Thanks all for the comprehensive replies, I'll have to get back to the layout find some means of improving the lighting and start playing around! For post-image editing, are there any good bits of software to use? Thanks, Will

I've read this thread on your lovely layout from start to finish, it's superb. I was just wondering if you might be able to tell me where you got or how you made the fishing nets in this photo? Thanks and keep up the good work. Will

The best shot I've found of them is here: https://thetransportlibrary.co.uk/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=153387&search=A1+isle+of+wight&page=3

Yes, I think I’ve read it was 5 wagons that were 5 planks or around that number. They may be supplemented by some correct end tippers when time allows. Notwithstanding the lack of end doors I think they’ll look rather good weathered alongside a Olive Green Terrier! There were also two Royal Daylight tank wagons not that dissimilar to the Oxford Rail one just released. I’m looking of modifying one of these to match, or picking up an old Mainline Royal Delight tank wagon for variety, but for now I am *trying to* focus on the layout and not stock! Enjoy your trip on the Island, I was there in August, it’s splendid!

Thanks Andy. Have a look on the photography section and reading about manual control of aperture and ISO, it seems like there are a few apps that can be purchased that enable you to get manual control of it on the IPhone. I’ll take onboard the comments about being more careful about making sure the subject Is in focus. The IPhone does have a touch screen focussing but I’ve perhaps not been as diligent on making sure this is in the right place as I should’ve been. I’ve also ordered a tripod, meaning I’ll not have to worry about holding the phone while focussing it at the same time. Thanks a lot for the advice.

Here are some examples, I think the problem I’m running into, or at least I think I’m running into, is a limited depth of field with everything outside of a small area being blurred. Thanks, I’ll have a scour through, I did have a look to see if there was a photography section, but obviously not hard enough!

Hi all, I'm after some advice for how to take good photos with my smartphone. I've got an Iphone 11, although it's generally very good for taking photos of things I've been somewhat dissatisfied with the shots I've been able to take of the layout. Any tips for how to take better photos would be greatly appreciated. Thanks. Will

Spent a few hours this morning on the layout, generally tidying things up but also making some more progress. First I touched up the paint on the quayside which had been covered in plaster and DAS, for this I used washes of black acrylic paint. I then painted over the filler with some brown paint. Although this now needs a bit of detailing and seaweed and reeds, it's not far away from being ready for the resin pour. With that done I turned my attention onto the white DAS clay which I have used to build up the ground level on the quay away from the track. I'm imagining that this would be made up of similar but smaller gravel/shingle to what was used as ballast and have given this a few washes over with black, earth and dust from the MIG track weathering set. I then picked out the rails with some 'track dirt'. Without a doubt it still needs some more weathering, which I was planning to do along with the rest of the track with an airbrush and weathering powders. Nevertheless, it looks a darn sight better than when it was stark white. I'm also awaiting delivery of the Will's 'Station Garage' to see if this can be made into a suitable fisherman's store building at the rear of the layout. If this does prove suitable I'll get another to make it into a building as shown on the previous page. I also took delivery of these rather lurid wagons from Wessex Wagons. They are models of the Portland Cement wagons that ran between Shide and The cement works on the Medina river, with a bit of modellers licence they can be justified on the layout. In time I'll re-number and weather these. I've also been looking at materials for the backscene. As I've mentioned before, I was planning on adopting something along the lines of Chris Nevard here. I'm a little stumped for what paper weight to use, I've found this stuff, which is 150gsm, would it be suitable? Thanks for reading! More soon.

Thanks @Graham_Muz I'll act accordingly when the time comes. For the name plates did you remove these or just get custom plates to cover up the old ones?

Looking good @Graham_Muz, what did you use to get the Blue Circle logo off the side of the cab?

I’ve not managed much time on the Layout of late but have recently purchased a Gaugemaster Prodigy to enable to layout to be controlled by DCC. Another arrival has also been spotted on the quay, this will become the former South Western & Isle of Wight Junction Railway contractors locomotive and later Shalfleet Harbour Railway ‘Shalfleet’ (It was a bargain, honest!).