Mike140

I too remember this from an exhibition, either Manchester or Preston. More pictures please!

Looks like aluminium is the safe bet as it was mentioned on page 1, something I could stick on my BAA's. A bit naughty running them on the WHL but that's what Rule 1 is for. They'll look great along side the 25 HAA's and class 108's I'm hoping to get the frame up in the loft tomorrow. All I really need to do is cut the 2x1 down a bit, but the miter saw I was planning on using for quickness has gone AWOL! How do you lose a miter saw?! The hard way it is then!

I can help with that. I cut the center plough out with a craft knife and glued the two outer ploughs to the sides of the coupling mount with super glue. Hope that helps.

Cheers, Scotty. That clip of '606 at 14:05 is exactly what I'm looking for in the layout. What was it hauling - I'm guess either steel or aluminium?

So much dust! Today I went up to the loft again and managed to get quite a bit done. I was pleasantly surprised as my past self had done much more last time than I'd remembered he had. This is what I went up to... Imagine a 12 road fiddle yard here! These boards are 60cm so are the exact width of what the layout will be, to give an idea. The drill came out and I managed to get the boards and frame down all around. Support beams for the frame are already in place on both sides along the outer edge. This piece will go along the wider end wall and the chimney end needs some fixing, too. I'm getting there! Now I can get around to start cleaning and filling in the odd hole in ceiling. But there's still this... Still clearing out junk! After lifting up one 8x2' length of chipboard I quickly aborted the idea of building the baseboards out if it. Much too heavy! Ply it is then.

Moo does raise the issue of security. In the loft you know your stock is safe and sound. Couldn't say I'd be happy about leaving my stock away from the house where I live.

I agree. Although in my case the heat and cold were an issue at one time they were overcome with just a bit of effort. Dust can be dealt with with good house keeping. I'd at least give it a go and see how things go from there. Definitely get some insulation in, and I'd go for some sort of climate control if the wallet permits. Sadly even the great Everard Junction fell to warping baseboards.

More planning! So I've been trying to figure out how to get an entire model railway through a trap door if it were to ever need moving. A part of me does hope to one day exhibit locally and of course having a layout capable of being broken down in to pieces provides some future proofing. The layout was always intended to be modular, and today I've broken down my plan in to baseboard pieces. (Some measurements might be slightly off in the plan) There are eighteen boards in total, including an extra one to cover the hatch that isn't shown here. The frame will be permanently fixed in the loft, with the exception of two pieces that will need to move about a bit, which the layout will simply rest on top of. The only way to get the boards up and down to/from the loft will be by sliding them on the ladder - heart wrenching stuff! I have come up with a plan to make this less painful. I'll have what I've nicknamed a "catch board" that will sit in front of the ladder and allow me to gently lever the boards on to it when pushing them up. From there I can go in to the loft and put the board in place. The baseboards will need to be over engineered to avoid any stress, bending, flexing etc etc. They'll be made up of two lengths of chipboard sheet sandwiching supports of 1 1/4" x 3/4". The underside being completely smooth to allow me to 'ski' the whole thing up and down the ladder. Luckily I already have plenty of 6' x 4' chipboard sheets to pull it off. The longest board will be 100cm long by 60cm wide, so not that big really. That does mean those two sections of frame will have to be moved out of the way when getting the boards up and down. The legs for them sit right in front of the ladder. This whole ordeal will of course be a very rare move, but all needs to be planned for! Plus, the back garden is more than large enough to house the layout for summer runnings! The one massive benefit of going through all this hassle is the fact that I could bring any one single piece downstairs to work on. Having built my first layout mostly outside in the garden, I'd much prefer doing that to thumping around the loft!

My current progress on the loft clean up for my new layout. If a large enough shed or garage were available I'd take either over the loft any day, but this is all I have for the time being. Terraced house! There had been a 00 gauge layout up there for 20+ years and had seen all of the problems pointed out so far. Freezing cold in the winter and roasting hot in the summer. The window was added maybe 10 years back when the roof tiles were replaced, as the summer months were an absolute no-go. It must have gotten to 35*C up there easily. Radiators were installed for the winter months so it was nice and toasty up there, but don't forget that heat rises so when the heating is on and your hatch is open most of the heat from the entire house will end up in your loft and sweat you out - the window was open and radiators off even in January and February to combat that! Dust is another issue. Years back, plaster board sheets were fixed to the ceiling to combat dust and provide some insulation - I think there is insulation of some sort behind that but can't remember for sure - that was effective for a time, but now they are crumbling and causing more dust! The walls are plastered, again, crumbling, more dust! I am convinced the spiders had learned how to drive the trains. I'll never forget the one time a class 40 entered one end of a tunnel only to emerge at the other end with a ruddy big house spider riding the nose. Then there was the bat that could reach Mach 2. It had its issue, but as it was all we had it did the job. I will be building my layout in modules, even the mountains will lift off in pieces, and would definitely recommend the same. The benefits far out-weigh the bit of extra wiring. As pointed out, if you can get it down through the hatch, you can take one board downstairs to work on at a time if you don't want to be locked away. Plus if baseboard warping were to occur it would be a whole lot easier to rebuild / replace one small section than an entire length. Avoid chipboard and MDF in a loft - lesson learned the hard way. MDF back scenes didn't even get through one winter. The house insurance discussion is an interesting one. Don't really fancy leaving my stock up there any more!

If I may hijack David's thread for a moment, you could always add what I call a "Behind the scenes" fiddle yard. This is what I did on my first N gauge layout. The lack of back scene allows more room to move when you're 'fiddling', although I would recommend having one of at least half the height of a coach... I've lost a few down that gap! It's worse than it looks in the photo!! The tape measure below is measuring from the front of the 37s - they are parked in the same position - to 4ft. You could get a decent head shunt in there to allow a loco to enter and reverse in to a shed. A TMD would be ideal in my opinion. This layout is only 8 inches wide, so you'll have 4 more inches to play with in width, that might just give you enough room for a refueling point right in the center toward the front, accessed via a head shunt from a 3-way point onto a wye (a bit further forward than the one in the photo I ran out of room) putting that road at an angle to add depth - a nice center piece - and a wash plant to the right at the end of the head shunt. If you had only locos your yard roads won't need to be as long as mine (only about 6-8 inches after the points) which would give you more scenic space on scene. This yard is 4 3/4" wide, so you'll have 7 1/4" in front of that for your scenic space - loads of space in N! An added bonus is, like mine, it can be stored on a wall out of the way but always on display and operated from the front or from the rear - better access to the fiddle yard - if you ever wanted to take it to a show. Good luck!

Great videos. The noise out of that 37! I'm even more impressed that you built the layout without a plan! If you do ever need one I can recommend AnyRail 6. The trial version is free and the only restriction is it limits you to 50 pieces of track, but that's never been a problem for me as one single piece can be stretched as long as you like. It's very easy to use.

Those pictures are stunning. Do you have any of the whole layout and a track plan? I for one would love to the see them.

Thank you, Colin. Do not worry, Steam buffs welcome! The Jacobite is VERY high up on my wish list and will definitely be making plenty of appearances. I may be a diesel guy, but even I have to hold my hands up and admit that you simply cannot beat a big old Black 5 snorting its way over the Glenfinnan Viaduct - what a sound that is! It's a journey I hope to make myself one day. I've been mucking about with couplings tonight. All of my coaches are fitted with Dapol knuckle couplings - long on one end and short on the other - bringing their gangways together to the point of contact, while still being able to navigate medium radius streamline turnout with no hassle. I've a couple of 108 DMUs (i call them the old married couple) that have always run together with a big ugly gap between each coach... The gap between the coaches of one unit. and the gap between each unit. So the knuckle couplings went on... The coaches went over a second radius streamline turnout just fine with the buffers just about making contact... but the buffers at the front of the units push just enough to lift the bogie ever so slightly. Sprung buffers in N scale please! Luckily when run over a large radius streamline turnout there is plenty of space and they run flawlessly. With the knuckles fitted the Cargowaggons run with their buffers literally touching at all times. Because they have the same mechanism as the coaches they can run over the medium radius turnout without any problems. Even without the knuckles they couple very close to each other right out of the box. That blue is driving me mad, though. It's too light!

I always thought the entire reason for the high body position was for clearance of the wheels. If they still run on set track I wonder why they can't lower it themselves. Very odd. I'm also extremely envious of your Coal Sector 37! I can't find any!!

Any suggestions for what I can do with these? I have rakes of MK.1 coaches in both Intercity and Regional Railways but am really struggling to find evidence of them in use! MK.2s seem to be the preferred mode of transport. I can always restrict them to rail tours. I do wonder why they released MK.1s in these liveries instead of MK.2s... and why I bought them! Then I found THIS at 10:25 Edit - Just found a video of an excursion train on the line to Kyle of Lochalsh made up exclusively of MK1 Intercity coaches. They're saved! I need the buffet car, though! There's also an interesting rake of blue/grey's with an inspection saloon on the end that was used as an observation car. I've managed to replicate the train with the inspection saloon

It does seem to go either way after a quick look on Google maps. We need to throw canals in to the mix just to spice it up a bit! Loch Oich, for example, is fed by River Garry coming down from Loch Garry which is fed from Loch Quoich - which has a huge dam at one end. Might model this on the West side of the layout, in front of the fiddle yard if reach allows. Loch Oich also seems to be drained in both directions by rivers and canals - North via River Oich and the Caledonian Canal in to Loch Ness (draining North still beyond that) and South via the Caledonian Canal (a river before it was a canal?) in to Ceann Loch and on to Loch Lochy - what a name! I could tell which way the water was flowing by the lock gates on the canals. And zooming in shows plenty of little streams feeding the Loch. So it all seems determined by just how high up the land the Loch is. If it's the highest Loch in the land it'll most likely be fed only by streams and drained by rivers. If it's mid-land it'll be both fed and drained by rivers and also have streams feeding it. I like the idea of having it fed in to by both rivers and streams and then drained by that dam. If it proves too awkward to reach over I'll just assume the Loch is drained by a river on the West end somewhere.

Thanks again. Topic edited accordingly! I've just realized that water level is now a factor due to the loch, so my deep valley is no more! :cry:The deep valley was supposed to drop down below regular baseboard level, ergo below water level. Ah well. I'll bump up the track height to five inches and that should give me a decent valley down to water level.

Thank you. Noted! Would the viaduct remain as Glenfinnoch? And I never thought of the river flowing AWAY from the loch. Hmm...

Cheers, Dave. Any suggestions for prototypical trains would be very much appreciated. The period will be anything from the 1970's right up to the mid 90's. The BAAs signify my greatest weakness I'm afraid - I have such a wide range when it comes to stock preference. I like everything from early diesels right up to modern day DMUs. I am made up with the BAAs and how many different options they allow you. Great little models. ! Early warning for everyone - Be prepared to see a Northern Rail 142 on this line. It will happen ! Despite all the complaints they get I absolutely adore them. However for the most part I will be trying to stick to prototypical trains when it comes to photos or videos of the layout and try to run trains from the same period, but when the camera stops rolling it's anything goes! This was the image that caused the Cargowaggon impulse buy and I regret nothing! Saw the picture and they were here two days later. I have an older 37 in Intercity with a burned out motor, so that's getting ripped out to make it free-rolling, that I think would look the part double-headed with the CW's. Can anyone identify the tankers at the back? I thought they were Silver Bullets but I'm not quite certain. Slight difference in liveries but ah well. While I'm here I may as well share another version of the same picture that I keep uploading! I came to the sudden realization that the operating well would make a pretty convincing loch if I filled it with water. So, entirely fictional of course, the line now encircles Loch Finnoch! I was scratching my head for a while trying to come up with a reason for a railway line to do a full 180 for seemingly no reason. There we go! So now almost the entire inner edge of the layout will be shoreline. It also gives the various rivers and streams something to run in to. Theoretically the lines now head in these direction. Main line (top left) - North. Branch line (top left) - West. Main line (bottom left) - South. A few tweaks here and there. I made a mock-up of the sharp curve that was in the lower right corner and was not happy at all, much too tight! So the line has been adjusted slightly on the approach to ease out that curve. It looks much better I think. A tunnel now separates the viaduct on this curve and Glenfinnoch viaduct. Had to have a tunnel somewhere! This will turn the steep hill in to one enormous mountainside reaching from the bottom of the lowest valley all the way up to the mountain top. It's going to be big! Glenfinnoch viaduct will start out straight (anti-clockwise) and then begin to curve around about 2/3 of the way through. The stone viaduct in the bottom left and the steel viaduct over the river are now perfectly straight. That river will be very shallow but have a very severe decline in to the loch. Very fast flowing. There are now more Skyrim references. For those not familiar I should show why I'm so intent on adding these cameos from a video game... This is Scotland... This is Skyrim... The game is packed with hidden little things for the player to find, anything from Star Wars to mammoths frozen in ice. Of course cameos and hidden secrets make model railways much more interesting too, so why not combine them? And thanks again for another great photo of the Glen Ogle viaduct. I'm glad it has some use nowadays and was not simply left to rot. That must be some bike ride! I took a little digital drive down the road using Google street view. I need to do it for real! Finally, some attic progress pictures... (Inhale ............ Exhale) Well at least these give you some idea of the space I'll have.

The lowered 37 looks so much better. Very well done. How well does it run? Wouldn't the lower body catch on the wheels as the bogies turn? It's a shame the lights blew. I personally have taped off the connections to the lights on one end of every loco I own as I cannot bare the tail lights being on when the loco is coupled to a train. It really makes me wonder why they don't simply fit a switch to the newer models for the tail lights. They have done in the past.

Added to the inspiration folder! I am in love with that backdrop. After changing the plan the other night the viaduct has moved down slightly away from the tighter curve, so would actually look more like this than Glenfinnan, possibly a bit longer. Thanks for sharing this with me! Edit - Is this the one on a closed line? I remember watching a video that showed either this, or something similar, and thinking what a shame a viaduct like this is not longer in use. On a side note. I've just worked out that either of the two longest roads in the fiddle yard allow the rake of HAA's above to be extended to 30 wagons! There are 18 in the rake so far. Another train of similar length can take up the other road.

Ah I see! Hmm.. There won't be any cliffs around that area so I'll have to rethink this one. Thanks for the info!

Confession time! I usually tend to spend more time browsing model railway shop websites than I do actually getting anything done. Combine that with the mind set of running four goods trains to every one passenger train, with four passenger trains in each direction per day, meaning I need a lot of goods trains! Right from the get-go I wanted to run plenty of goods trains through the layout to add as much variety as possible, important when you're only seeing one train move at any given time. When it comes to passenger trains, we're talking about something along the lines of - Class 37 and five blue and grey coaches. Rinse and repeat! It's surprising how quickly little projects get added to the To Do list. Almost everything that touches the rails needs something doing to it. Brand-new out of the box this morning, Cargo Waggon's. I was surprised at how light these are and they just sound amazing! Heavy weathering added to the list! Where do I even begin here? Top to bottom... The hoppers need a coupling overhaul to close the gaps. The sprung Rapido's push the wagons apart, causing the train as a whole to be way longer than It should be. If this rake were to be compressed - pushing the couplings together - I could add two more wagons to the rake and it would still be the same length! The vans are pretty much good to go. I've converted the two end vans to Easi-Shunt couplings. I'll be looking to add more VBA's to this rake. The tankers need de-branding and repainting. They are ICI Methanol and I am after a rake of plain black tankers. I could have just bought the black ones to begin with, but where's the fun in that?! SPA wagons arrived last week and BAA's arrived this morning with the CW's. - Quick question. Would these two rakes be realistic if combined in to one? I did try looking up images of steel coil trains but only saw one kind in bulk - I love the diversity in these two rakes. I must have spent at least a hour messing about with the loads in the SPA's and the BAA's just keep on giving. Loaded. Unloaded. Cradles. No cradles. Stanchions. No stanchions. It's like a 6-for-1 deal! There is a slight issue. This... Goes on this... Add three steel coils. Times that by five. Then add the slightest of bumps. What do you get? This... And I have six of them! I'm already trying to come up with a way of securing the load but still have it removable. Add it to the list!

I completely forgot to show the change to the plan!! After the attic visit tonight I decided to reposition the station area to the other side of the layout, as this side is under a window and it's my preferred place to sit so would make the ideal control area when I'm actually running the trains. This is where I hope to have all the servos positioned with tube-in-wire connecting them to the turnouts around the station and fiddle yard. Until the layout is ready for automated control, I'll be operating the turnouts manually using the tube-in-wire. I think this change has made a big difference for the better. It all seems to flow better and I like the way the trains will almost immediately traverse the main viaduct after leaving the station. The passing goods loop looks better at the back, too. The biggest impact by far is in the fiddle yard. This slight change has now allowed me to add three more through lines to the fiddle yard, allowing all of the trains to run through continuously if I waned them to, instead of the DMU's journey ending in a dead end siding. This will also allow me to send shorter trains down the branch line. Edit - Tinkering with the plan again to show land heights. Bright green is around track level, darker green is below track level, grey representing steeper mountains. The steep hill to the right was a tricky one as that will be made up of three different heights. I mentioned there would be some Skyrim references on the layout. So far there are four, can you find them?? I'm particularly proud of my fiddle yard throat! It doesn't matter if the lines are too close beyond the straights as no two trains will ever pass. This is mirrored at the other end.

Thank you. I can't find anything online but I will keep an eye out for it! Another two hours of cleaning up and planning baseboard tonight. I should point out that there are already boards in the attic from an older railway, the frame only needs adjusting to get the size I'm after, but as soon as that is done the layout should fly up! I found a bag with a few old trees in and bunched them together. I like the result! They were from a 00 scale layout, but it seems certain trees are completely immune to the effects of scale! I reckon they would look the part in small bunches on the higher ground with a few smaller trees around them.