Longhaireddavid

My one and only trip behind a steam loco was a school holiday to Devon from Streatham South London behind a Castle. As I lived deep in Southern territory I only very occasionally saw a Merchant Navy but never travelled behind one. Also, I am not a stash builder so I only ever buy what I need on my layout. This means that, unless I can run a Castle or similar I will never buy one.

Thank you. I think that I can now operate the milk service close to the optimum.

Sorry should have mentioned. 1947 - 56 ish. One train at a time - maybe 3 passenger and 2 goods per day. I would like to run a Saturday service someday (when I can afford a Castle!) when it will be only passenger with one holiday train in and out (hence the castles). All passenger at the moment will be auto t rains. - Pannier and auto trailer.

I am putting together a small 1.8mx .45m branch line based loosely on Ashburton (again you scream!). I am pondering how it would be signalled if at all. The main reason for their question so early in is because I have bought a Metcalfe GWR signal box which comes with a tablet platform so I need to know which. I attach the layout. Now, if I were to signal this it would be quite complex - 2 home starters - one double head controlling entry to the station and probably another home of a distant at the exit to the fiddle yard (which will be by tunnel. If it was to run on a tablet then I only need to build the signal box with the tablet platform. Is it likely that something a simple as this being fed by a single track line would be fully signalled?

Things have changed a little. I have been down to my local model railway shop (Orwell Model Railways in Ipswich) and, having looked at all the option, I have bought a 64XX pannier in early BR colours. As I grew up in that era, I can relate and understand more stuff. My question is - does your comment that milk weapons could only go on passenger trains apply to 1947-1956 ish?

That will need some thinking about given my lack of knowledge of British Railways. However, I am keen for anything that adds movement and "complication" so I guess that I can go ahead with my plan. I was planning to have an auto train so that would work quite well. Mind you I shocks me how much even British outline cost. I thought I would save money by giving up on US stuff but it seems not. Thanks for your help. BTW, please ignore my signature. It needs changing!

Hi there. I have been a US modeller for more years than I care to mention. However, I have got fed up with the cost of US stuff in the UK so I have decided to put my current stuff away and try a British layout. My problem with British layouts has always been a lack of knowledge. I grew up in Streatham, South London amid Southern Electrics so was never really exposed to steam and then getting into US outline all of the desielisation passed me by. I then lived out on the Liverpool Street commuter line so again missed out on diesels. I have decided to take the (Oh No!) route of GWR in the 30s with a small 1.6m x .45m shunting layout as this is currently all the space I have. I do have a serrate modelling room but my wife's mother is living in there at the moment. She is 97. So, I have created a small layout based on Ashburton (again oh no!) but a little bit simplified as my wife insists that I have houses and gardens on the layout. I did this some years back with a Maerklin layout and she has never let me forget it. Anyway, down to basics. This what I have laid out (in Anyrail). It seems to be OK but I have an issue with the Creamery. I am planning on having a daily milk train service this. Let us say that I have three milk tanks ready for collection and a goods train comes in with three empties and four other wagons. I need to run around the four other ones to get them into the Goods shed/cattle dock etc. but I think that I would have to leave the three milk wagons on the main track until I could come back and push them in, etc. I could do with some advice as to how this would work and if it is feasible. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Well, having lost my hobby room when my mother-in-law moved in (she was 97 yesterday and in poor health), I build a Marklin layout in the bedroom. I got moved out of there into a small N Scale Kato tracked round/roundy in the living room until SWMBO reclaimed that. Two years later, she has agreed to a small switching layout along from my desk. That is coming together. It is a N Scale US Outline DCC 1.8m x 350mm with an 800mm staging extension that is removable. I have an ECoS controller with an ECoS hand held. The track is Kato so all the points come with motors. I control them by ESU Switch Pilots and DCC Concepts adapters from 3 to 2 wires. I am in the process of installing an Arduino to control a signal on the exit to the staging along with the power to the staging so when a train reaches the end of the staging it automatically turns off the power and the signal goes to red. Removing the train from the track will cause the light to turn green and the power to return. All of this and more id described in my model railroad blog at Gentle Model Railroads. There is also an outline description of my Car Cards software that gives me "the next train" to build. Do check the blog out as it goes back some 10 years or so showing my up and down journey to get here.

Hi there. Having publicised my Marklin layout over the last year or so, I thought that I would start a thread about my return to US Outline N Scale. The full story of this is now on my model railway blog at http://www.gmrblog.co.uk. If you are interested - the blog goes back to 2009 and covers my many attempts at model railways encompassing US HO, US N Scale, UK OO, UK N Gauge and OOn3. David

Unfortunately, I have had to take down the Marklin layout. However, I have a small N Scale switching (US) layout coming so check out my latest blog entry at Gentle Model Railways

My latest blog entry covers building the main station and putting lighting in. Check out Gentle Model Railways BLog

This time we are a technology free zone! The blog entry is called "First level of scenery goes in". It describes my slow advance over the white board surface. [url=https://bit.ly/2WWHATT]First Level of Scenery Goes In[/url]

If you are at all interested in programming or train dispatching software, I have just completed a blog entry which describes the software that I have written to provide a random list of trains to be run on the Pennstadt-Valdorf line. Check it out on my blog at Gentle Model Railways

More background. This is all about designing the layout and how it is supported. Check out Gentle Model Railways

My first attempt at a Marklin layout proved to be too restrictive for my wants so I have taken it down and started again. This first effort came down quite quickly, which belies all of the effort put into it. One good thing about living in a block of apartments is the large bin room in the basement. Two trips and everything was gone! Now comes the fun of building the next one. My first blog post covers the physical building of the layout. I will cover the design, etc. in a future post. Follow the construction of the New Pennstadt - Valdorf line in my model railway blog - Gentle Model Railways

I have a nice little Marklin 3 Rail/ECoS based railway in our bedroom. The full story is on my blog. The latest addition is as follows: Latest news on the Pennstadt and Valdorf line. I have had some fun getting the lights on my push-pull train sorted. Then I had some extreme difficulties sorting out an Arduino protected power supply. Gentle Model Railways

I have three of the Piko coaches. I have fitted out the driving coach with the Piko decoder so I can control the lights. The conversion set comes with a slider and some AC wheels (I am a Maerklin user). I had a bit of trouble with getting them round my R1 curves but I replaced the couplers with Maerklin Relex (all I had on hand) and now they work fine. I have used them with a V200 and currently run them with an E141. I did want to run them with my 78 steam lok but, when pushing, it was too close to the coach and rammed it off the track. (My 78 doesn't have NEM couplers). Here is a video of them in action.

We are on the flight line for the flypast. For some photos and other stuff about the Ipswich Waterfront check out my Waterfront Blog

I have two N Gauge Class 25 locos. I can barely read the number on the side with my reading glasses so at any distance distinguishing which is which is impossible. In any case, the number on the side of both locos is the same. Hence, I give my locos DCC ids by their type so both of these have IDs starting with 25, so I have 251 and 252. The simplest way I have found is to always turn the lights off when stopped. That way, I can call up 251 and put the lights on. This tells me which one is 251 simply and over a distance. If it is the wrong loco, I just call up the other. one.

Recently, I got "Hello, I amJohn, I am calling from the UK and I am not trying to sell you anything." My comment, before I hung up? "That's three lies in a row, **** off!"

Oh, Ha Ha. It isn't all tractors and sheep up here, you know - grin. David From the Ipswich Waterfront

I have had a blog about my model railroads since around 2009. As I have now stopped modelling US outline and moved to British N, I have created a new one using Wordpress. Check out my progress building Pennvale Sands in N Here

He used to leave school early on a Friday and be back for Monday morning. That's why he gave up teaching in the end!

My favourite presented was John Edmunds back in the early sixties. During the week, he was my form master at Battersea Grammar School (and my French teacher) and then at weekends he was a presenter on ITV!

See the Daily Telegraph - http://bit.ly/2DQZzko