ColinK

Brilliant, cheered me up sitting in the cold after a radiator valve broke last night leaving me with no heating nor hot water. I've seen a detector van on a layout before, but not the train with it. The rivet is great. Is it possible to have close ups of the other vehicles in the train?

I emailed Squires enquiring about an order which I would collect at the recent Hazel Grove exhibhition. Never got a reply to my email. Asked at the Squires stand at the show about my order, got the reply 'don't know anything about it, I only do the shows'. Very poor. However, after some internet searches, I got everything I wanted, plus lots of helpful advice from Railroom Electonics. I hadn't heard of them before, but very happy with the service.

Thanks for the update. That's quite some fiddle yard you have. Look forward to future updates.

Thanks and understood Terry. From looking at your layout pics I now know the track layout, where the platforms were etc. So its the model helping me understand what used to be there compared with what is left. A friend has lent me the Antony Damborough's excellent book. Looking forward to seeing more of your model.

Hi, some thoughts from my personal experience. One of my friends has a OO track in his garden. Just a large circle on wooden battens, no points. It runs well and its nice to sit there and watch 10 coach trains run round. Another friend had a 32mm gauge garden railway, just an oval of track, running radio controlled live steam. Great fun and a nice garden feature. I had a LGB layout in my garden for the last 10 years. I say had because I removed it last month as we were about to move house. I used LGB track laid on stone chippings. I like the large size of the LGB models and they fit in well with the plants. Control was by LGB's MTS system (effectivly DCC) using wireless controllers. I found the MTS system to be excellent with the base station in the conservatory with just two wires to the rails. All points were electric controlled by decoders hidden in buildings taking their power from the rails. I even had a reverse loop with the DCC module to control it. I had only one electrical problem in 10 years when the reverse loop modue went up in smoke due to an operator caused short circuit while 5 twin motor locos were running! Digital sound in the locos and lights in the coaches and buildings really enhanced it all. While all the LGB track and stock was expensive (far more so now) it was all very reliable and robust. My 2-10-2 tank loco and coaches took a curve too fast and all plumeted off an embankment without any damage.I have one much cheaper loco (Piko) and it has been fase economy as it is very unreliable. The layout was desgned to blend into the garden and just about everyone who saw it said it actually enhanced the garden. This meant the domestic authorites were quite happy for me to extend it. This success was really due to joining the G-Scale Society which gave me the opportunity to visit other garden railways, see what I liked (and what I didn't like) and learn from others experience. I remember visiting one member's house, it was pouring down and we were inside looking at the garden - you could't actually see the railway as it was so well blended in. My orignal track plan was terminus to reverse loop and back to the terminus. The worked fine but was very much a line you had to operate. When extended, it became a complete circle round the garden (plus the terminus and reverse loop) which meant I could sit in the garden in the evening and relax with a pint as trains circled the garden - really enjoyable. The things I disliked were, first the stock lived in the house and had to be carried outside before I could run anything, second was track cleaning - I had quite a bit of track and cleaning it took at least 30mins before I could run anything - this reduced the number of times I ran trains. Based on my experiences, I would go for large scale models (O scale or larger), a simple trackplan (continous run with a loop and a couple of sidings) and designed to blend into the garden. Either live steam or electric with DCC sound and lights. Ideally, if electric I would have radio controlled battery powered DCC locos - if that's possible. But its your railway, so its your choice. Hope ths helps.

Hi Terry, many thanks for putting your layout on RM web. I found the thread purely by chance. I've just moved to the Hest Bank area and was trying to work out what the track plan and station used to be like, your layout pics have provided all the answers. Cheers.

Hi, the Whitehaven & Corkickle plan sounds interesting. Which issue of RM was it in?

I have had quite a few dealings with Digitrains recently, by phone, internet and exhibhition. They provided me with good advice on DCC equipment and wiring and I altered my wiring diagram on their suggestions. The two station boards are now wired up following their advice and everything works well. Recently I needed to control 6 points in the fiddle yard currently under construction.I went to their stand at Wigan show, explained what I wanted to achieve and they suggested a way of doing it which was cheaper than my own idea. I bought the bits off them, hope to get installed later this week. So I am a happy Digitrans customer, but I do use other suppliers too, including Arcadia Models of Shaw.

Hi, I have used Kaydee's on my latest 7mm narrow gauge layout with reasonable success. I'm now building a OO layount and thinking about what couplings to use, so this topic has been very helpful. I especially want 'hands free' uncoupling. I have several Heljan diesels e.g.Hymek, where the tension lock coupling sags, as does the NEM pocket the couling is in. Indeed, some already come to a halt when the drooping coupling catches on a point. Any suggestions on how I could easily and succcessfully fit these with Kaydees at the correct height?

Hi, I'm a member of the Romiley Methodist Railway Modellers and our O gauge exhibition layout, which is a shunting layout, uses Winterley couplings. These work pretty well given the amount of handling and knocks they get. A bid advantage is that you can uncouple anywhere without any magnets etc.

I'm very impressed with your layout. Looking forward to seeing it finished.

Hi Alan, I'm delighted to hear that the layout is still going strong. I look forward to seeing it at a show with all the improvements you've made. Colin

Hi David, Many thanks for your kind words. I've put a few pictures of its predecessor 'Greengate' on the RMweb. ColinK

Hi, Some kind words about my current 7mm narrow gauge layout, 'Quality Street' have encouraged me to post a few pictures of its predecessor, 'Greengate' which I sold about 3 years ago. It was my first 0-16.5 layout and used one of Carl Arendt's track plans (p45 in Creating Micro Layouts) for inspiration. It was just 4' x 2'. Motive power included a narrow gauge HST using two modified Triang dock shunters rebuilt by a friend. One of the industries served was a broken biscuit repair factory! The close up photos do show up my limited modelling skills.

Hi, Someone suggested that I put some info on one of my layouts on the Forum, so here it is! As you will see, it is not a serious model, but it is interesting to operate and has entertained people at two shows. 'Quality Street' is a less than serious modern image 7mm scale layout using 'OO' track, i.e. 0-16.5. It is essentially a slightly modified 'Inglenook' design with an extra siding and a fiddle yard. Motive power includes a DRS shunter and EWS class 68 - made long before DRS ordered some real class 68's. There is also my version of a 'Thomas the Tank' engine! In addition, there is also a short length on 18" gauge track with a buffet car! It is just about complete, all I need is a cheap 7mm cow (for the milk supply) and to add another unusual scenic feature when I find the time to make it. It has been exhibited twice so far, at Chapel-en-le-Frith in February and a The Churnet Valley Railway a couple of weeks ago where the photos were taken. It's next appearance will be at The Romiley Model Railway Exhibhition on 7th September 2013 (nb this has free admission and has layouts for visitors to drive). The operating sequence is, Just 3 empty wagons in the yard. Workers arrive by passenger train. Ingredients for the chocolate arrive by freight train. Empty stock from the passenger train departs. Empty goods train arrives, comprising 5 wagons. A pack of 8 cards, one for each type of chocolate made by the factory is shuffled. Five of these are chosen at random; these are the chocolates to be produced in this shift. The operator now has to load the 5 chocolates in the appropriate waggons by shunting them into the loading bay where the loads are added by hand. The five loaded waggons have to be shunted into the order in which the cards were drawn. Once the train has been assembled, it departs. ECS for the workers train arrives. Empty ingredients train departs. Workers train departs. It is so challenging that on one occasion we got stuck and could not make up the goods train! The visible section is 4 feet long and 14 inches wide, plus a three road fiddle yard three feet long. ColinK

I've recently finished wiring my small urban terminus layout and only just found this thread. I'm a beginner in this area, but if it helps and hopefully I've got it right. I'm using an NCE Power Pro with three handheld cabs. Following advice from Digitrains (thanks guys) I've divided the layout into five power zones, main line, branch line, goods yard etc. it is quite possible to have someone driving a train in each zone all at the same time. I've put a NCE EB1 circuit breaker in each power zone, so if there is a short in one power zone, the rest of the layout should keep running. This is important to me as I will be running sound equipped locos at exhibitions and don't want everything to stop and the locos go quiet if something/someone goes wrong. All the points are hand operated (piano wire in a grove) with the frog polarity changed by juicers. It has blown my budget, but if works reliably I'll be happy. Test running has been encouraging with everything working as advertised so far. I painted the rail sides 'rust' today. Once its dried i'll try running locos through the points the wrong way and se what happens.