Revolution Mike B

They need to stop dithering then and get it moving! I don’t have the cash to invest in tooling otherwise I’d have done it 4 years ago when I tried to get it off the ground

Cheers Ian, and likewise, seems a long time ago now....Taunton to be exact!

About 20, but all different!

Well the OHLE is starting to take shape. I finished off the drawing earlier this evening.... ...and then printed it out... ...to say it’s tiny is an understatement! I'm not sure how long they’ll last but I’ll have spares of everything just in case. Right, on with the next one...

The bus was done by Michael Lomax, they’re £125 I believe. I’m actually auctioning one off (or I will be when I can get to it) on the Oak Road Facebook page to raise money for Meningitis Now.

Cheers Simon....maybe right in the middle of the main junction....hahaha

And here’s the test print. It needs tweaking slightly but it’s almost there.

I started drawing up the Furrer+Frey OHLE this evening - there’s quite a few different types of gantry, mast and boom configurations but having looked in to it in greater detail, it all looks fairly modular. This will really make a difference to the overall appearance of the layout so I’m looking forward to seeing how they print.

Unfortunately, needs must due to it not looking very GWR. Rest assured, it will look equally as impressive.

In between unpacking the container, decorating rooms and trying to do the day job, I’ve started work on transforming Neely in the Fens, to (West) Neelbury in the West Country (or possibly Berkshire). The first bit to get Buick’d was the sidings to the front of the station, followed by the main line.. Unfortunately, the station just wasn’t going to work for the new location, and the paper surface had bubbled, so there’s was only one thing for it.......take it up! This didn’t go too well as the structure was made of MDF covered in filler (or similar), so up that came too! I’ll use the old platform as a template and make a new one with brick facings, and a building similar to Didcot. The main building doesn’t look like it will be so easy to remove as the base forms most of the car park. I’ll tackle that when the time comes.

Might need you on standby to make running repairs to signals!!

I’ve just had confirmation that Oak Road will be attending Ally Pally next year. That’ll be the second ‘Big’ show in a row! Unfortunately, the layout is all packed up in storage for the foreseeable future so I won’t be doing much work on it but hopefully that’ll change in the New Year.

Lovely job there Ian

I'd be a little concerned that the red paint is already chipped off

So here’s a few ideas going forward. Newbury was originally a good location to base everything on but by using Westbury, I have an advantage of mixing the diagrams up a bit so that I can use my 158s and 159s due to the lack of 165/6s in N Gauge. It also means I can run some ex EWS freight stock, along with some Colas stuff. This can be overcome by combining the two and just creating West Neelbury and throwing the rule book out of the window! At present, all lines are bi- directional which isn’t really needed for what I need to do, so therefore I’m going to revert the main running lines to single direction. The track disappears through holes in the backs scene at each end so I’ll make some bridges to sit in front of these - it’ll just tidy things up a bit. I’m also going to lose the bridge (even though it’s a nice feature) because it’s very ‘Fen like’ and I need to make everything look more Western than Eastern. The station island platform canopy will be made to look like Westbury and I’ll put up the newer style OHLE without the wires with maybe a couple of bases minus the portals and gantries to denote the fact that they’re still being installed. Other than that, it’ll just be enhancing the scenery and bringing everything to Berkshire / Wiltshire. I have a year until GETS 22.....

I did a little bit of work on Neelbury (which may become West Neelbury - I’ll explain later) this evening which involves hand painting the rail sides on the sidings and adding some toning to the ballast and greenery. It’s been a long time since I’ve done anything in N Gauge and I’m struggling to see it.... I also had a little go at the mainline but this needs to be done in stages... This could take a while!

I’ll more than likely add the masts and portals but without wires as per the original Neely, and also the real Newbury at the time period I’m going to model - they didn’t have the wires up, only the infrastructure.

And.....we’re off!!

Yesterday while at Aldershot Model Railway Show, I decided to have a moment of madness and buy Terry Metcalfe’s old Neely layout from some chaps at Scunthorpe Club. I’ve long been an admirer of the layout and often wondered what had happened to it, so here it is... As some of you may know, I model (almost present day) GWR in 4mm, and for my sins, that’s what most of my N Gauge stock is too, so after hatching a cunning plan, Neely will become Neelbury (on the Berks and Hants), and with a few subtle changes, we’ll see some nice HSTs & 800s a-la Oak Road style looking right at home. The OLE portals are removable which means I have a choice, leave them off, or continue to use them....and here’s the clever bit. By modelling the newer style portal, and imagining this as Newbury(ish), I actually don’t need to have physical wires because at the time, only the gantries and portals were in situ. The fiddle yard needs some attention to make it more useable and I may look to narrow the whole thing and remove the well in the middle. Just one thing......we got it home and realised it’s too big for where it was going!

I’m keen to keep Terry’s original layout name so it will more than likely become Neelbury. You can expect a few changes too but nothing major.

Reviving an old thread - I’ve just become the new owner of this layout having bought it from Geoff Buttler today. I’m really grateful to be able to keep it going but expect a few changes....mainly in location and a slightly different name! Here it is at the Aldershot show earlier today .....not that I needed any more projects!

Well the Oak Road crew managed another successful mission at GETS, even with the layout not wanting to work after set up on Friday. Two points decided to work when they felt like it and we had one and two thirds signals all weekend - stressed was an understatement and how Ian and Rhys didn’t hit me with something heavy is a miracle. Despite the issues, the trains stayed on the tracks and everything ran very well (unless we couldn’t remember what routes we’d set) and by all accounts, the public loved it. We didn’t run to any specific plan, we just ran trains, and lots of them at that...probably every thirty seconds or so, and from what I’ve heard, we were the only people constantly sending something round. We had modern trains, 80s and 90s trains, and even borrowed trains.....by way of 21 Cavalex PGA wagons, which looked and sounded great trundling around behind a pair of DRS Tractors. We had a bus on a bridge, complete with working destination display (which I’m going to raffle off) and the trainset came third in the Hornby Magazine layout of the year award!! Dave was due to come with us but his health dictated his need to give it a miss this time around, which in hindsight, was probably the right thing to do. Ian and Rhys deserve a big round of applause for keeping things moving, as does James from DCC Train Automation for the remote support, and helping get the layout routes setup despite being very much under the weather. It was a good show and good to get back out again. Next stop, Ally Pally, but until then, I’ve got some wiring to remove, some boxes to add, some scenery to finish, and then there’s this bloody box I keep falling over with a load of PGAs in it...........

Bloody good model and excellent value for money, despite a few minor mistakes

I tried this and failed miserably! Do you paint the lens or the aperture? And what paint did you use?

BING BING BONG!!!