ChrisG

There's more room for scenery than you might think. The tracks behind Cowes will be behind and under the townscape and the continuous run on the right hand side and top of the plan hidden behind a back scene. And the Mediina crossing at Newport is over an empty board.

However, serious thoughts are now in play about scrapping the whole thing and starting again with a clean slate and a "step by step" approach to building a layout and finishing each bit before starting the next. And of course learning from all the mistakes made to date. Cowes again the favourite for the initial build..... It's the modeller's perfect compact terminus and three platforms for the busy times.

Chris

I measured the floor area from a large scale map and divided it by 8 for each house. I estimated the height of the houses from my own photos showing the front doors.like most of my modelling they are impressionistic. I'm not sure what other buildings will be included. My Cowes site is very compact with hidden sidings running behind it. Most of the buildings will be very low relief, and until I've built the scenic skeleton I won't be 100% sure of what I can include. Probably only the backs of buildings adjouning the station site. 

As as you say it takes courage to attack the coaches. I will one day. The next few will be BR green. The prevalence of red is to do with stock to run on Ventnor West and Merstone.

i do have a track plan and need to get it into a format suitable for posting.

chris

I have a 1932 working timetable of the whole Island, and Andrew Britton's book "Once Upon a Line" volume 3 includes the Summer working timetable for 1965 and 1966.

I would be very interested to know if you ever manage to locate one for c1950.

Chris

Loads of foliage on the backscene as you can see, so fewer trees needed on the board. I suspect they will turn out to be low relief trees because there is not a lot of width there. I thought you'ld like the Castle!  We used your photo to position it and get the general look. Mark suggested that we should have a Union Flag flying but I explained that was too vulgar for the aristocracy in the 1950s and when I checked the rules and regs I found that it was only recently that people have been freely allowed to fly the Union Flag outside their homes, and that there were a lot of restrictions around it in the past.   Yup - roof ventilators are a nightmare!

Chris

Damn - your e-mail has reminded me that I have completely overlooked the trap points at Ventnor West.  The 08 was an expedient: I needed a test loco I could rely on whilst building the other layout. I was so impressed with the running qualities (once I had added some decent pickups) that I've remained very fond of it and it turns up all over the place, even hauling passenger trains between Newport and Cowes. It is going to be named "Vectis" one day.

Chris

Sadly the tub contained Cornish sea sand... Which has got everywhere it shouldn't have in the kitchen. The cat's away for a few days and this mouse is playing!

First time I did it I followed the instructions to the letter and found it not hard, but it took a long time and you have to be very methodical. it also resulted in a frame which was a bit too slack - too much play in the locked levers. 

Since then I have built two more. Being a bit cocky I hardly read the instructions I actually did things in the wrong order on the second and good in a bit of a mess (which I was able to sort out). By the time of the third it was almost as easy as falling off a proverbial log.

I can thoroughly endorse the product and happy to chat by e-mail in more detail if you are interested in pursuing it for your layout and knowing more about what you would be letting yourself in for!

Chris

In  a strange kind of way, I find that re-assuring! Whilst it's obviously better to get something right first time, I rarely seem to achieve it and I am glad to find I am not alone!

Can you tell me more? Do you mean the ballast was wet when you laid it? I find any form of moisture causes it to clump and also to stick on top of the sleepers which is what I aim to avoid. My ballast is ground fruit stones I believe. What type do you use? I am thinking of experimenting by increasing the ratio of washing up liquid to water to see if it will flow more freely into the ballast, without disturbing it.

Chris

I'll be looking out for this train at the weekend!   Lovely stuff......................................  Was in Padstow last Summer dreaming of such a sight.

I do like that! It really looks the part. I have a thing about level crossings and can certainly remember when lifting barriers were a disappointing novelty. My recollection of double gated crossings is that they were geared in such a way that the signalman just turned his wheel and they would move one at a time in a sort of diagonal pattern - e.g. front right, back left, front left, back right and they closed in reverse order. The gates each started slowly but accelerated through their movement crashing into and bouncing against stop blocks, with a terrific clatter. It was an evocative sound, all part of the excitement of knowing a train was on its way. There were also pedestrian "kissing" gates at the side which were left open a little longer. And always a signal box right by the gates..... I would love to be able to find room for one on my layout but it will take some adjustment of reality to fit one in.

Lovely trackwork and tracklaying. It makes mine look like a right mess!  Yours looks beautiful in the raw whereas mine only looks "acceptable" only once it has been painted.

Chris

Good luck!  I was always very fond of that old Tri-ang model as I grew up in the Southern electric heartland (Wimbledon/New Malden) and had one myself as a youngster. ......

I have a number of Smallbrook kits waiting to be built, and one to be built. With a one-piece resin chassis it will surely be difficult to drill out the axe bearings. I did see a tool which would do it advertised in one of the Model Mags a few months ago but failed to keep a note of what it was called or where to get it.

Anyway, it looks to me like you are doing an excellent job. The hardest thing I found was getting the handrails level and straight. And especially the window bars!

Chris G

How brilliant - I wanted some of their earlier versions but they said they were withdrawn as they proved unable to curry the currents demanded by modern DCC equipment. I'll get on to them - I know them well as they built and installed my baseboards!

I went to the model shop this morning and discovered that current decoders are much smaller than my old ZTC ones. I came away with a Digitrax DZ125 which will definitely go in a Terrier with very little modification. So to answer the question which sparked off this thread, yes, you can put decoders in small IOW tank locos in 4mm scale.

Chris

Ah Barry - I've just re-read the ZTC advert for the mythical "upgrade" (latest estimated date July 2013, but there have been many others) and the upgraded controller (

Ah - no doubt my decoders do NOT support that as they date from the first incarnation of ZTC.....  Like all things, DCC is obviously not the panacea it might appear to be and has its own foibles - which being digital and computerised, have a life of their own! Unlike good old mechanics and DC current which can usually be diagnosed and understood.

It does seem to default to 3. But I came back later and it worked first time, though it had defaulted to 28 speed steps instead of 128. I suspect there are some concepts I haven't understood yet. Another foible seems to be when running in DC mode (which is needed for my automated staging sidings) the loco gets stuck running in one direction and wont reverse.  I will persevere. Believe it or not I know next to nothing about DCC and need to catch up fast!

Chris

See next post for pictures of chipped Terrier.....

Funnily enough I have just been investigating the possibilities for DCC chips. I can't speak for Terriers - I don't have a Hornby/Dapol one bt I will be building one or two of those from kits and will simply make sure I can fit a chip. Regarding O2s I am sure that Kernow will issue theirs as DCC ready or whatever the terminology is.  I have an old ZTC system and from what I can see I will be able to fit non sound chips into the water tanks of Southeastern Finecast kits (the boilers are filled with lead, which is pretty necessary for the 0-4-4  wheel arrangement), and especially if I had removed the whitemetal lip on which the tank top sits. There's room in the cab and bunker for a cunningly positioned chip and small speaker, but it will be highly visible. The Wills/Finecast E1 is no problem whatsoever, oodles of room wherever you want.

Hi Freebs - I am very lucky with an early retirement so I am time-rich!

It definitely pays off to be patient! Baseboards come next obviously and I am having them built professionally as an investment in the future quality of the layout. I'm also taking my time over the decision on which control system to opt for. DC, DCC or Radio Controlled battery power. Each has a long list of pros and cons. I'm sure radio will be the default when it matures.........

Yup that looks right:-

http://pandhmodels.com/img/p/41-73-thickbox.jpg

Thank you so much!  I'm not a building construction expert and whilst I recognise the look of the building I just didn't know what it was called. Let's hope my local model shop has some in stock tomorrow.

Chris

That's terrific - really good................ I didn't spot there was a door in the brickwork under the stairs - makes sense that there would be one. No one can get into the interlocking room on my model!  How did you make your windows?

I put a picture of my finished model in my gallery but cannot work out how to link it to this comment - so you'll have to go somewhere else to look at it.

Chris