Flyingscotsmanfan

Thank very much Lamington. It's a shame that modelling Thomas and Friends isn't taken as serious as it should be. It's fun and very enjoyable to do, also without the TV Series there wouldn't be as many people who are my age modelling... I wouldn't be on RMweb without it

The track witing has been completed, and i works, the only thing giving me any trouble was the Doubleslip as I intially wired it up wrong.. Doh! Oh well as it is the first time I have used one I will let myself off... but just this once! I have also constructed a control panel for as can been seen here: as you can see it is run on good ols fashioned DC complete with isolating sections. The whole panel is hinged for easy access and is secured down with velcro. To finish all hat is needed are some Studs for the turnout control. The front panels have also been fitted to to the layout: As I have a deadline of June 9th for the Colne Valley Railway's Model Railway Exhibition where I will be showing Ffarquhar, I have plenty of time to decide on the colour I will paint it. Clarabel has recieved her paint and now looks more "T.V. Series accurate" . The Humbrol paint is the closest match I could get and once varnished should look the part from normal viewing distances. I have also scratch built the coal merchants coal stathies and the coaling stage for the Engines to top up their suppy: These will be weathered and real coal appied in due course... That's all for now...

Thank you Andy, who doesn't love a bit of Red Dwarf ay? Steve, as long as you ballast the track with it too and don't use track pins it will keep them. The only places PVA goes near is the frames and the scenery these days.

So the Track laying for Ffarquhar has been completed: To start with the baseboard tops were covered with cork which was stuck down with Copydex. After previously using it on two layouts I am a firm copydex convert and love it's sound reduction properties! On the cork a copy of the trackplan was stuck down. Then on top of the plan the track was stuck down again with Copydex. Sounds simple, but is slightly more complicated than that... All the track is Peco Code 75, The Turnouts are all Electrofrog which does mean there is going to be more wiring which will be worth it for the superior running it will give. To each piece of track droppers were wired as not to rely on the fishplates for electrical conductivity. The Turnouts were laid with a slip of card over the holes cut for the point motors As the layout gets put up in the living room whilst I am working on it I had to do the job over two days, this is because there are five people who live in my house and three of them are woman... woman who don't have any interest in Model Railways.. which means I can only really work on it when they are out otherwise they moan at me. I like a quiet life so here is the progress at the end of day one: The next day was spent pretty much as the first but the end results were very different: And of course once track is laid, who could resist planting some stock to get a feel for the layout? Until next time...

You are correct gentlemen. The plan is to model the engines and rolling stock as seen in the first 2 series of Thomas and Friends as I grew up watching them and inspired me to model in the first place. After I have achieved that I then will be modelling the engines and rolling stock as per The Railway Series book

So the layout is progressing very well the main woodwork on the boards has been completed with the asthetic woodwork to be completed later on in the build. Track has started to be laid and will hoefully be completed by the middle of next week. A small update on some of the rolling stock I have been working on: Season 1/2 Annie... she has a lowered bufferbeam and I have fitted handrails to her. This is the closest I can get the Bachmann model of Annie to look like the season 1/2 model due to the fact Bachmann didn't model her with the slight tumblehome that the T.V Models have. With Annie completed it was time to start working on Clarabel... Clarabel has, like Annie, had handrails fitted. One thing that has always irritated me about Bachmann's Clarabel was the fact she wasn't made with a Guard's Compartment as per the T.V model so I wanted to put that right... all that is left to do is find a paint that is as close to Bachmann's as possible and paint her newly added compartment. This brings us to the traction to pull our two lovely ladies... I have opened out Thomas's Cab and windows, eventually I will fit a Driver and Fireman. That's it for now I shall update again once track laying has been completed...

They are the American Bachmann models, but I modify them slighty, Toby for instance has has his Cab doors and windows opened up and his cowcatchers cut to make them see through. All my models get the 3 link/screw link coupling treatment too. I will go into more detail in a blog entry soon

It certainly is and the beautiful thing is that everyone else was in bed so I could put it up in the living room!

So... as the title suggests I am having a bit of a sleepless night, various things on my mind means that I need something to try and relax me... so I set up Ffarquhar and placed a rough print out of the trackplan down. There is something magical about placing the trackplan down on a fresh baseboard for the first time and this time was no different but it didn't stop there, soon I was placing Locos and Rolling stock to get a feel for the layout: I have also tested just how much I can get in the platform area and found I can fit two longer bogie coaches and still have room to go round the run around loop, so I can also run Edward, Donald, Douglas and Emily which means more operation potential... even though it isn't prototypical... Then again there is rule no. 1 Until next time...

I had been toying with what to call this layout for a little while and I have finally decided to name it Ffarquhar after the station at the end of Thomas' Branch Line. The trackplan isn't as Rev. Awdry built his or how it is depicted in the books or on TV. It is a simple trackplan that will enable me to run my Thomas stock in the space I have and I'm happy with it and that is all that matters Also: The baseboards are nearly finished... Just got to attach the legs and make up the bracing and actually make the holes for the joins. After that I will concentrate on the presentation side of the wood work such as the backscene and front. The Signal Box that is in the second picture was made... but I shan't tell you anymore as it will spoil the next story...

Today I had a day off, today was also the day that the timber order for the new layout and of course not having much else to do I just had to fore up the circular saw and start cutting the timber to size... Soon I had the parts laid out on the baseboard tops: The frames are built from 4x1 as will be the two outside sets of legs, the inside set of legs will be built from 2x1. I was going to leave it at that for the day but idle hands and all that: I couldn't resist glueing and screwing the frames together! So as it currently stands I have two very nice and very square baseboards... tomorrow (as long as the parts I have ordered arrive) I shall be looking at the legs which will be of the fold up under the layout variety.

After the school boy error of forgetting to plug in the battery charger I thought that I wouldn't be able to cut the baseboard tops until the morning.. I didn't realise how quick the charger wouls charge the battery! I have managed to cut the ply to shape! As mentioned in the first entry to this blog I decided to have a curved fascia on the left hand board, with which I'm quite pleased with the way it has turned out. The right hand board is behind and has no interesting shape just a simple rectangle, the little board is going to be the small fiddle yard base which shall be operated by a cassette system. All being well I shall be ordering the timber tomorrow for the frames and legs.

Why the picture of the battery charger you ask? Well this morning I put the battery on charge for the circular saw and went to work..... or so I thought I had! I came back this afternoon to find I had neglected to plug the charger in.... The main reason for charging up the battery was so I cut the baseboard tops from 4ft in length to 3ft for this new layout... I had already marked it up as well: Ah well that is a vaulable lesson learnt.... no matter how well prepared you are there is always going to be something of your own doing to stop you!

My long term, stay at home layout, Halstead Sidings is operated on DCC which I enjoy operating and working on very much but I have no where to run my Thomas and Friends Stock on. Thomas and his Friends are all DC and I have no intention of DCCing them in the long term future. So I decided to build a small compactish layout on which to run Thomas, Percy, Toby and some of the more smaller engines on. I have set myself 4 rules: The Layout mustn't be expensive to build, The layout must be able to fit in an estate car for transport between home and the club, When at home the layout has to be able to be stored under Halstead Sidings, and be able to be put up in a small space, All trackwork must be code 75 with electrofrog turnouts With this in mind I played around with a trackplan on XtrkCAD I came up with the above. Two boards of 3 by 2 easily storable and transportable. The fiddleyard will be a separate board size to be decided, which will be operated by peco locolift cassettes. I have even planned as far as the wood work to make sure no pointwork is going to be over any any joints and such: The left hand board is going to have a curved facade to A) try something different and B) take a bit of weight off a board. I have costed the wood at a local Timber Yard and the track from a few online sources and can say that I can get this built within £150 with I think is a good sum. I am also considering what to do about turnout control... thinking Peco mounted to the points. With pay day just around the corner I might be able to order the timber, I already have the ply for the tops so thats one less cost! Until next time!

First things first the Garage had been rechristened: Secondly I took this picture last night on my phone to show someone at work... I'm rather pleased with it, shame its slightly blurred: Oh and I've also done a spot more work on the layout, I have made some hedges from this: Rubberised horse hair cut roughly into hedges shapes, sprayed with hairspray and dunked into a mix of two shades of green flock: it looks the business and I'm more than happy with it the left is the untreated horse hair on the right is the flocked stuff! until next time... who knows I might even make it three times this week!

Well as the title says it has been a while since my last blog. I would like to say that I have done lots to the layout but alas I haven't.out The layout has been set up in the garage along with my workbench, which has made my sisters all very happy, as I have moved all my modelling gear off the dining room table! The biggest job that I was putting off for ages was to use hanging basket liner. This represents wild grass on the hillside on the approach to the station. I started to trim it down with hair clippers but realised that the glue still needed a little more time to dry so that is a job for another day. I have added a name to the signal box... the name Halstead Sidings is now official. and I must say it does add some character to the box. This view shows how the hillside is coming along. I have added a tree ( the first of many) which still needs a bit of work on it to make it look realistic. I have also started to add some clumping to start building up to represent bushes. I have also finally started to work on the area behind the platform. A wall was added as well as a fence, which will have posters and notices stuck to it in due course. once these jobs are completed that will be that module of the layout "complete" though I will leave the really little details until later. Well that's all for now, hopefully it won't be too long before the next update when I should have a heater in the garage and able to do a bit more work!

I must say that does look very nice! I doubt I could ever build anything like that, I can hardly solder two piece of scrap together. Well done Gavin