Mike140

Sadly not, Colin. This one is just a prototype to see if I could get them working. I assume upper quadrant would work, too... or I hope so! For some reason the signals you get in the bracket pack (pretty much two signals that you bash together) are GWR and, as far as I know, Ratio don't make an upper quadrant version. Though, the home / distant signals they make are upper quadrant... It's an odd one! It would take quite a bit of botching, but I think combining the two kits would create a convincing signal. The GWR signals match the shape of those I've found on the WHL, only on the WHL they have a metal lattice construction. Impossible in N, I reckon! Some links to signals on the WHL... http://photos.signalling.org/picture?/9175/category/777-dalmally http://photos.signalling.org/picture?/9181/category/778-crianlarich The bracket here is throwing me off. Is it just me, or does it look lower quadrant? http://photos.signalling.org/picture?/25195/category/3114-1970_june

After two trips to the tip with a Vauxhall Corsa filled to the brim and slammed to the ground, the loft is looking slightly cleaner... But, it seems that chucking bags of rubbish in to a skip doesn't scratch the modelling itch! Tired again from work, I didn't fancy another round in the loft today. So, when I got home I had a dig around in the 'drawer of later' and found a few Ratio semaphore signals and decided to put one together. You can actually get the signal up with only a single pin. You need glue for all of the other little bits. The bracket actually moved on the pin... I had to get it working... and succeeded! After a few experiments, I bent a bit of wire that came with the wire-in-tube kit I ordered last week to use as a rod. This is what I ended up with... And tested it... Success! The light from my phone makes the wire noticeable, but to the eye it is practically invisible. The bottom bends stop the bar from going too far down and pulling the signal and I've since fitted a terminal block on the underside to stop it going up too far. I'm more than happy with the result, though the bottom bends would be better bent off to the side at 90 degrees - That'll stop the rod from fouling the ladder. I don't fancy paying £25 a go for a signal - I'd need five and then one bracket, and that's only around the station area. I will probably have a few dotted around the line. Hopefully, one day it'll be operated automatically by a servo! Next challenge is a bracket signal for the branch line exiting the station. I'm already working on a way to illuminate it... and think I have it figured out! Just a bit more cleaning and I can make a start on the frame for the layout! Edit - Oh, and the plan has changed again The station is now back on the other side and has been flipped. It looks a lot better as that side is slightly smaller, it gives the station its own scene, while the longer stretch on the opposite side allows the long run through the moorland to be.. well.. longer!

Cheers, Colin. Yes as I was flooding the land I did notice that the surrounding hills do make it seem that the water level was once much higher than it is now.

Thanks, Andy. I'm familiar with Portchullin. Seen a few videos of it on YouTube and follow their thread here. Beautiful layout.

Can't help but imagine an all-out raid and officers walking out with boxes stuffed with MK1 coaches... "It's pristine maroon, sir. The good Sh.."

As someone has already pointed out - It's impossible to keep up with this thread! Cheers, Andy. Though, the renaming has lead me to a name that I do prefer over Glenfinnoch! "Glenshiel"

Thank you all! It was originally going to be just 12" but after thinking that the track bed will be raised by 4-5" I'd need some frontal space to 'drop' the land toward the front, especially after the Loch came in to existence and I like the idea of having a shoreline. The boards just about fit through the hatch of 62cm as they are. The hatch itself was another concern, a ruddy big hole in the floor! The 23" boards only cover about 1/3 of the hatch, so I brought in that extra scenic board to cover it, which can be moved out of the way when getting up and down. Before all that was in mind, it all came down to me measuring an already existing board, muttering "That'll do" and sticking with it A quick measure up on my plan tells me that I'd need only 10" to comfortably house the station at the widest point. The rest is nothing but land! Any of station areas and scenery would be much appreciated. Feel free to share anything. I hope you enjoy your trip! My head! At 6'2 I need all of the 7' I can get! I'm hoping to have a work bench or desk in the center.

Uh-oh, guys! I've just noticed that the name of this layout is very similar to that of an existing one already on here, so the renaming process begins! I think I've got it already. Glenfinnan Viaduct, the muse to this layout, sits just North of Loch Shiel, so I'll use that name. What do you all think of either Glenshiel or Invershiel? To comply with my operator's well Loch approach I've come up with my own version of the area that I'll be basing the layout on. Imagining that Loch Shiel stretches a bit further North, the WHL and the A830 swap places at a point, and the A830 wraps around the Loch, this is what I've come up with... Edit - The original map for comparison. The A830 will be reduced to a B-road on the layout, to give it a nice quiet country lane appearance. The river to the North will be named River Shiel. The river to the East will be named Callop Waters. Unfortunately, the Glenfinnan monument has done an Atlantis... Sorry! Thoughts and opinions welcome as usual!

"I don't need any more Stock, except maybe some Dogfish / Catfish for the Engineers Trains, and a Blue 56 maybe, Oh and a DMU." You may as well draw up the plans for a second fiddle yard now.... (EDIT - Uh-oh! I've just noticed I've named my layout dangerously similar to one of your own. I need to find a new name!)

Ohh on the tie bar? Got it. I was going to suggest making a loop in the wire to slide over the pip, but this didn't work for you? What about trying this? Instead of pushing and pulling, the wire rotates inside the tube. Edit - Whoops. Was looking at an N gauge point... You'd have to drill a hole through the tie bar. Double-Edit - Or looping the wire around the pip may work.

That's just genius. Guess who's going to the tip on Sunday... I was going to cut my own right-angle (or any other angle for that matter) parts from plasticard. The wire won't even go through the holes on half of the parts I got in the starter pack so that put me off throwing any more money at that system. I would need 32 levers for my entire layout, at £5.75 a pop. A five pack of these is £1.99... Drill a hole through it to stick the wire through and job done. You can even use it for your polarity switching or a route indicator. Need to know what ampage I need for DCC, though. May I ask what the "pip" in question is?

I can think of one thing but it may be a touchy subject. May be related to pork and certain religions? Not that I make a habit of standing around watching delivery drivers do their jobs while scoffing down a snack-sized pie but you never know.

Definitely. No doubt the camera distorts the sound some. The difference would probably be more noticeable in person, but like you say, little difference is certainly a plus.

Definitely. What got us so worried was the fact that the doctor literally said "There's a problem with your heart" without explaining anything and that was it. So we were obviously concerned. My mum's heart rate was only higher than usual because she walked 3/4 mile to the doctors! Plus she had the flu at the time, hence the visit, so wasn't breathing normally. Loving the trains moving. I must be tone deaf, I can't tell the difference!

Alright. After clearly trying to find middle ground and obviously failing miserably, seeing as this has now devolved in to finding anything to nitpick about, I'll say this as my last post here. I don't know where the one single bat that was ever seen in the loft in 30 years came from nor do i know where it went and it has never been seen since. It may have very well come in and gone out through the large open window in the roof, previously mentioned. We didn't disturb a roost, nest, home or anything else. There was nothing there. We checked, thoroughly. There's no need to get the bat police involved in this as well. I'd like to take the opportunity to openly apologise to all of the spiders, moths and gnats I must have disturbed over the years while simply trying to enjoy my hobby. I now see the error of my ways and accept that I'm not allowed to partake in this hobby unless I have tens of thousands of pounds to spend on a purpose built building.

I bought the little starter pack they do and found the wire scratches the inside of the tube, making tiny shavings that jam up the tube to the point I couldn't push the wire through any further. I could only get around half of the length through and then it would jam up. I like the idea of wire in tube, and will be using it on my layout, but I will be using copper tube instead.

This is what I'll be using. I'm hoping they will also aid with alignment, too.

I think what we have here is a classic case of the unstoppable force meeting the unmovable object. Advice vs Experience. On one side we have those that are clearly very knowledgeable when it comes to buildings, safety, construction etc and on the other side we have those that see any free space and decide to shove a railway in to it, and also those that have already done so with no noticeable consequences - I fit in to that category. By no means am I suggesting everyone should go and build a railway in their loft right away. All I know is that there has been one up there for 30 years and the house hasn't fallen down and the roof hasn't collapsed, and I have no other option. I don't know how the ceilings haven't come through due to the weight of all the junk I've pulled down from there recently, though. That was certainly an eye-opener. I think this whole thread can be broken down in to two points - 1. Take the advice from those here who know about construction. Get everything checked before you start building anything. After that, if you do make the decision to go up there; 2. Take the experience from those here who have done it before. There are pros and cons of using a loft for a layout. Central heating vs blood-sucking jet-propelled bats in my case. And something that I quite frankly can't believe hasn't even been touched upon amid all the chaos - Could you compromise? Could you build a layout in sections, such as shelves, and store it somewhere when it's not in use and find a space to set it up to run trains? As per my original plan for my new layout - Store it on a wall and set it up in the dining room... or even in the garden if it's nice out. No one seems to have noticed that the OP hasn't been back after stating that he's not using his loft on Page 2

The same happened to my uncle. He was having his third heart attack and waited 50 minutes. With two previous you would think a bit of urgency would be involved! Only last month my mum went for her MOT and was told there was a problem with her heart and to go for a ECG. Took me at least two hours to calm her down. She lays down only to be asked "Did you walk to the doctors by any chance?" "Yes..." She replied. "Tell that so-called doctor to go back to medical school. You're fine." Dayum! Glad everything is okay, Andy!

Hoping everything goes well for you, Andy. Time to get back in that shed, where we all belong!

I see it as a prime example of a railway cutting through the scenery, as it should, and not the scenery being placed around the railway.

I won't quote the whole thing so to not take up the whole page, but that sounds exactly like what's been done in my loft. 2x2 laid across the joists and screwed in to them, 8'x2' chipboard on top of that. I believe that was done for storage purposes long before a layout was even planned to be up there because it is easily 7' from 'floor' to apex and no one fancied performing a balancing act on ceiling joists to put Christmas decorations away, so a 'floor' was put in. As far as I can tell that spreads the load more evenly. We also had a Velux window fitted. With the hatch and upstairs windows open we get great circulation in the summer, a nice cool breeze. To avoid track going wonky with the cold and heat we cut each piece of flex in to thirds once it was shaped and joined them back together with fishplates. Better to have lots of lengths of track growing and shrinking a little bit than having one long length taking all the stress. We had track buckling before we started doing that.... The "clackety-clack" also sounded good.

I had to Google it but I like it!

Okay, so I feel bad about not putting up an update yesterday! I went up to the attic but was so tired from work the day before that I did virtually nothing. I think I put up one piece of wood to stop the trap door falling back and then undid some screws and that was it... So, to make up for it, I'll tell the story of how I decided to throw the layout in to the attic and the changes it's seen before even being built... It all started with Banks Hill, a simple A-B-A shelf layout. I got bored with it as it had very limited running capabilities and wanted to build a roundy-roundy, so I could watch the trains go by. Originally I was going to get rid of the fiddle yard and end scenic breaks on Banks Hill and make a second layout of the same size and connect them up with 180* bends at each end. Both layouts were the ideal size to take downstairs, Banks Hill was actually built in the back garden, and the entire thing would sit nicely in the kitchen / dining room extension - a massive space as there was once a purpose-build bedroom down there for a disabled relative, sadly no longer with us. The plans for a station - what is now Bridge of Glenfinnoch - were drawn up and printed out. Banks Hill would sit on the opposite side. The plan allowed a decent sized fiddle yard, and Banks Hill would receive passenger trains from one line and goods from another, bypassing the station via the (up to now) derelict loop to the side of the station. The station plan allowed six coach trains to sit in both platforms and a 18-wagon coal train in the loop nicely. I started building the layout at this point, made from long shelves from B&Q at (I think) £9 a go - two for the base and one for the back scene. Then realization set in - The two layouts were an absolute pain to get down the stairs and, once down there, would take up most of the space in the most popular room in the house. The idea of having to 'build' the layout every time I wanted to run a few trains was also a turn off. So now what? Shed?! Too expensive. Attic? That'll do! That would allow me to have a much larger layout out of the way of human traffic. The plans for Glenfinnoch were drawn up. The station could be extended and widened and the fiddle yard can be much larger. The station plan saw some minor changes. I wasn't happy with the way the coaches passed over the 3-way point at one end, and the two wye points together made them twitch around all over the place. It just didn't look right. I did have pictures comparing the points but they've gone missing. I'll edit them in later if I can find them. Luckily, the extra space allowed me to change out every point for large radius, which look much better. And why not show the stock I have so far? I'm guilty of collecting trains even when not having anything to run them on... I can't stop! I have a few new-comers since the pictures were taken but they should all be in the topic somewhere. Update wise - The attic looks like a bomb has just gone off... again! 8ft long sheets of chipboard and 2x1 everywhere. After clearing the space once that space quickly disappeared once I dragged out more junk from around the edges of the attic. How the ceilings haven't come through with all that stuff up there for so long is beyond me. Anyhow, still more cleaning to do ... HI-HO HI-HO! Most importantly - The old fish tank has been replaced with a brand new 4ft-er I bought myself for my birthday!