ColinK

Don’t know about the Mk5 sleepers, but I have been on the soon to be withdrawn TPE Mk5s and they were very poor, but the 68 pulling them sounded good.

All the new CAF units haveva hard ride, 195s, 331, 197 and the Mk5 coaches. The Avanti 221 Voyagers you found comfortable are soon to be replaced with yet more IETs with their hard seats. With strikes, lots of cancellations and uncomfortable seats, the railway really knows how to drive passengers away.

LocosnStuff can probably make you a motorised chassis to fit.

I took one of my layouts to an exhibition and forgot to take the bolts to hold the boards together, so I just used what was in my toolbox, a G-clamp. It worked and was much easier than fiddly bolts. Alignment was taken care of by metal dowels.

I’m really enjoying this topic, having had a couple of trips myself to Poland. Those works trams look like a bad kitbash.

Thanks for all ypur replies. Various bits ordered. Going to be a challenge fitting them.

With the increasing cost of RTR wagons, today I started making a Cambrian OBA wagon from my unbuilt kits stash and encountered a problem making the axle units - I suspect these pivoting units are also used on several other Cambrian long wheelbase modern wagons. The axle units come as flat mouldings. First the wheel bearings are fitted, no problem. Then it says apply solvent to where the axlebox sides bend - done that - then fold them up with the wheelsets in place. In doing that one of the axle unit sides has broken off. How do I fix it back in place bearing in mind the need to keep everything square and the bearings perfectly aglined? An alternative solution would be to replace the plastic axlebox units with metal ones - does anyone make them? I could be tempted to replace the buffers too, if any are available.

I don’t fit them, too fiddly, bufferbeam details interfere with couplings and some tend to fall off.

And here it is, a backscene made from Metcalf buildings opened out. Look carefully and you will see the sides and ends of a building.

Moving sea - that must be a first at an exhibition.

Quite a number of British locos have run in Europe, but probably not enough for Roco to make a model. Ones I can think of are classes 20, 37, 56, 86 and 87.

You can do the same with Metcalf kits. The backscene on my 00 layout comprised a Metcalf factory building modified by making the sides and ends into a building front about 5mm deep. All you need is a steel rule, sharp knife and imagination.

Number 10 is a great little loco and a real credit to everyone who helped fund and build it. If you read the book about it (available from the Corris Railway) it explains how the design was tweaked to make it more practical eg for coaling, and how some parts were made by railway volunteers to keep the cost down. Myself and five friends hired the Corris Railway for a day recently (second time we’ve done it) and we all enjoyed it, including driving number 10 - appropriate as some of our little group had financially contributed towards it.

Glad to be of help RobinC. The supplier I used was ukled.co.uk, at Kemp House. Very helpful over the phone. I think the bill was less than £500; I could have done it cheaper but I wanted quality components that would last. I’m very happy with the result. I live in a bungalow with a loft conversion and its impossible to get access to the inside of the ceiling, hence the need for a different solution for ceiling lighting.

I have a almost identical situation to you, other than I have one layout on the top level and a different one on the low level. I contacted a LED lighting supplier (edited to add UKLED, no connection but very helpful) and chatted it through with him. Went with what he recommended and I’m very happy with it. Underneath the top level I have 24volt (for more brightness) RGBW LED strips in proper LED channel with diffusers. The W part of RGBW is important - it add white to the colours the LED strip can produce. It is powered by a transformer (they call it ‘driver’) and has a remote control. As a result I can alter the colour of the lighting and the overall brightness. It works brilliantly (pun intended). While the LED strip is self-adhesive, a few dabs of Araldite will keep it in place for the long term. The supplier did recommend the L shaped connectors for the 90 degree angles in the corners which I used. These made it very difficult to fit the lighting as there is no give in them. If doing it again I would have soldered 4 wires to the end of each straight run and fitted plug-together choc bloc connectors. The only down side is that the lighting rig makes it harder to access the underside of the top baseboards. Edit to add the photo - minus layouts. Don’t know if this is relevent to you - A problem I have is that the room is lit by a single bulb in the centre, which means I am always working in my own shadow. I asked our good builder about fitting lots of LED circular lights (as often found in kitchens and bathrooms) in the ceiling. While this was technically possible, the only way he could fit them would be by either replacing the ceiling (very expensive) or fitting a lower false ceiling (cheaper but still expensive and a fair bit of mess). What I am thinking of doing is installing a narrow shelf (perhaps 150mm wide) at picture rail level (can’t be any lower because of constrains in the room) and fitting similar LED strips (I’ll probably use two strips side by side) under the shelf to light the top level of the layout.

The seeming never ending rail strikes will not have encouraged the Govt to spend money on railways, especially when buses continue to run every day.

Haven’t DCC Concepts just announced something that will do what you want.

Friden Brickworks now booked to appear at The New Mills & District Railway Modellers mini exhibition on 14th October in New Mills. It’s also booked for Narrow Gauge North on 9th March 2024.

Lunchtimes can be a bit poor for visitors. For example, at one big show with lots of large layouts, while the operators went for lunch en mass, many layouts, including one with a four track main line, just had one operator who had no idea how to run it. Lunch arrangements for exhibitors are important - just one sitting for a hot meal doesn’t work. The arrangements I find best are where there is a hot water urn tucked away somewhere for exhibitors to make drinks as often as they wanted and lunches are simply sandwiches to be eaten when convenient - but not while operating.

I’m enjoying your posts Johann, but the last two have been especially interesting. I’ve never been to New Zealand, but had several trips to Luxembourg to photograph their trains.

Would a sheet of Sundela on top of the ply work?

In 1974 when I was still at school we were on a family trip and stopped at Friden for a T and P. Quite by chance I spotted the narrow gauge railway serving the brickworks and took some photos. Fast forward 49 years and members of the Romiley Club were challenged to make dioramas for the Club's exhibition in September. I don't really do dioramas so decided to try and make a 009 micro layout instead. It was inspired by the real Friden Brickworks so I have changed the name to Fryden. Here is the finished layout, as you can see it is double sided for extra interest.

Steve Martin and Kermit the Frog https://youtu.be/5gNuj8UkyC4?si=a2HfpxKXJvFeYL2m

Is it etching grey primer that is stuck in the airbrush? That will be hard to shift.

Thanks for the plan, its given me some ideas.