ian

That's the beastie.

Either scheme workd well. Me being me I'd go for the two station approach on the basis of added play value. Way back when Chris Ellis did an N scale project layout in Scale/Model Trains based on a CNW line. The basic outline was like this: Trains arrived on the layout from the FY/Ext (which was also the route to extend the layout in future if you wished) then travelled through station B to terminate at station A. The cunning bit was that you could simulate extra travel, if you wished, by belting around the oval a number of times between stops.

It is always a pleasure to escape to Altonia for a while.

Chasing Unicorns The perfect coupling is, like the unicorn, a thing of fable and legend but that doesn't stop railway modellers from going in search of it. When I was working on Minffordd, which was a continuous run exhibition job with no shunting, I decided that Tramfabriek's chopper couplings (https://tramfabriek.nl/couplings.html) would look pretty natty on the front and rear of the trains. Fast forward to the revised plans for a layout that would feature lots of shunting and the fact that the chopper could be adapted for magnetic operation meant that the decision seemed to be a no-brainer: good looks and no hand-of-god uncoupling. So I started to lay in a stock in readiness for the rash of rolling stock coming down the line. https://tramfabriek.nl/video/coupling-large.mov Having got a selection of wagons fitted with NEM pockets it was time for a play (sorry - test). The couplings come in pairs, one with a chopper and one without. So, taking two Peco bolster wagons couplings were fitted and the guinea pigs placed on a length of track and pushed together. Fail. The hook butted up to other coupling and stayed there, not lifting and not engaging. There followed a long session of trying different couplers and stock with very little resulting joy. An exchange of emails with Sven at Tramfabriek seeking guidance established that due to the design autonatic coupling was not guaranteed and that the fail-safe way was to lift the chopper with a magnet on a stick, which could also be used to uncouple. The coupling was designed to look good (which it most certainly does) and to stay coupled when running. Shunting is best done by hand rather than other means. So, once again the unicorn hunt has returned empty-handed. I shall revise my plans and go with the Greenwich couplers which are far better matched to my needs, albeit nowhere near as good to look at. By the way, if you know of anyone who is is need of 24 pairs of cute chopper couplings I know of some going spare. The works are closing for a holiday so there will be little to report for a week or so.

The Naysmyth Wilson 2-6-0 has received its heart transplant - all it needs now is DCC, stay-alive and sound. The big lump of Blu-Tac at the front is holding a securing screw in place that normally fastens to the body and the strange orange glow to the rear is some Kapton insulation tape to stop an occasional short from the back wheel getting just too close to the chassis. This bodgement is to check that it all works. The chassis needs to be fettled and reassembled properly in due course along with some of the bodywork.

I didn't strip it - I was impressed at the Vallejo's covering abilities used neat. It didn't react with the Peco paint, I scraped up the paint that hadn't hardened with my prodder. (Ooh er missus!)

Ignore my previous comment about Nine Lines kits and NEMs. The opens and cattle wagon couple happily with Peco stock with the NEM socket glued to the mounting pad. The brake van however needs tweaking. The experimental goods stock has gained some paint and looks better for it. Lettering will have to wait until the wagon numbers are finalised. The Nine Lines models are awaiting brake bits and weighting. In the background a sacrificial lamb has been subjected to some livery experiments. The body colour is Vallejo Prussian Blue, the panelling Ivory and the roof, like the goods stock, Neutral Grey. I tried various dilutions of the paint with water to try and get it to flow nto the panelling but with limited success. I think I might try the airbrush version of the paint for that. I also learnt that the blue coat needs to harden before trying to guide the ivory into corners with a cocktail stick! The blue isn't quite as light in person as it is in the photo but it does look suspiciously like BR blue. I think a darker shade is called for.

The saddle tank for the Fourdees 'Jubilee' Peckett is a hollow 3D print with three compartments. A small DCC decoder, stay alive board and capacitors are shown alongside. Not wired together but they all fit in the central section, leaving the two side channels for weight. Using the stay alive should enable me to dispense with the flywheel which will give a clear space at the top of the cab. Using the Tramfabriek replacement motor would make room for a speaker by the motor and possibly the two capacitors as well - so DCC sound is a go! Meanwhile the C&W works have started work on the first of a large batch of Nine Lines kits ready to establish how to fit the NEM coupler sockets. I should only have built one really, but you know how it is... If you fix the Peco NEM socket to the coupler mounting pad on the Nine LInes chassis it ends up too high - but only a little. Some plastic sheet between the chassis and the pocket should solve that nicely.

Okay, I have.

Having eschewed the Festiniog my newly liberated butterfly attention has alighted on a fictional 009 common carrier set in the late 1920s. Whilst the layout itself is no more than a gleam in the eye, the works has already started operations. The loco stud includes two Naysmyth Wilson locos, one a 4-4-0, the other a 2-6-0. Both are Roxey Mouldings kits of Cyprus Railways prototypes o Farish (Grafar) chassis that were purchased from the 009 Society Members' Sales Service. Both were tested on arrival to confirm they worked after which the 2-6-0 was dismantled so that it didn't! This was as a precursor to fitting a Tramfabriek replacement motor. Meanwhile two other members of the stud will comprise Fourdees 'Jubilee' Pecketts. Now, in an ideal world it would be quite fun to have DCC sound in them but given that the oomph comes from a Minitrains F&C chassis and the motor and flywheel fill the cab it might be a bit tight on space. First off the two donor locos were run in on DC. Once disgraced itself by throwing a crankpin but that was rectified and the offender told not to do it again. The next job is to scope out the available space so that a decision can be made: sound or silent!

You would have a great deal of difficulty getting a Shackleton under a bridge.

Except the ones that are coaches of course, but they are allowed under one of the sub-clauses.

Yes, code 40 flat bottom on PCB sleepers. At this rate I'll have to start a topic for it!

Thanks Ian. I hope the 009 can be persuaded to work. A combination of can motors, DCC and stay alives should be a world away from my memories of Lima and early Farish abominations.

Digit Control - you push it along with your finger.