Roger Sunderland

Hi all Yep there is a fair bit of confusion and a number of different products here. Just to clarify, the material we use is definitely of the closed cell type, making it rigid and much more suited to building construction. It has no paper or card on the outside, but can easily be marked up with pen or pencil. I don't know the brand name(s) just that it can be had from sign makers.

We have built all the buildings on our "Bournemouth West" layout using a product, which is called over here Foamex. This is used by sign manufacturers and unlike foamboard is solid. It comes in 2,3,4 and 5 mm sheets and can be cut with a craft knife. In my opinion, easily the best, most user friendly material there ever was for making building carcasses. Any good quality glue will fix, although not liquid plastic glue. It appears to be unaffected by solvent based glues but we use cyano glue on one surface with a spray of accelerator on the other, or you can mate the two pieces together and spray the joint. Very strong and doesn't warp.

Thanks Steve. I've a few signals to build for a new layout, it would make life a lot easier.

Steve I'm not sure if this has been covered previously, but are the 3D prints and bracket etches available to purchase from Les Green. If so how?

Just a quick update. We have dismantled the layout to tidy up some areas underneath and fix some ongoing infrastructure issues. At the same time Dave is building the transportation system. This will allow us to stack the majority of the boards on two "shelved" trolleys. Only 6 of the boards will be bolted front to front for travelling purposes, this will save a lot of time setting up and taking down. As each scenic board comes down they are being worked on to fit final details etc. The first one is the Prince of Wales road bridge board, here's a pic under the railway.

Hello Michael I do hope I didn't, inadvertedly, start this off with my earlier posts. I am building a model at home,the track plan will be similar (but not the same as) Walton, and it won't be called Walton on the Hill. My reason for doing so are, firstly that I grew up near there and spent many hours spotting around there, and secondly you have managed to come up with a track plan with the operating potential that provides everything I want. I have looked at other Merseyside locations but dismissed them either for the lack of operational potential or not having the right stock, so I'll settle for something fictitious which, hopefully, will suggest Merseyside but won't recognise ably be Walton. Do understand where you are coming from though. I am currently building an exhibition layout of Bournemouth West (see The Bournemouth West Model Railway Group thread on here). We are three and a half years in but most of the first year was spent doing the research. We got copies of the OS maps and used these to produce the track plan, as you did, searched and found building plans and collected, to date, over 300 photographs, it's a long and sometimes difficult task. Love to see Walton when it hits the exhibition circuit, never know we might end up exhibiting at the same one! Best of luck.

Thanks very much for this Michael, the photo explains a lot. The 502 is beautiful. I grew up with these, we lived next to Ainsdale station. Sadly, I've tried both e-traction and the 502 society, who commissioned it but no luck.

Hello Michael I've followed this thread with huge interest from the start, beautiful modelling. I've been trying to come up with a prototype location for a Merseyside based layout for some time now as its what I remember from my yoof! My first choice would have been Bootle Jcn but, along with other areas I can't get any models of the 502s anytime soon so have abandoned the idea Walton was another possibility as it lends itself so well to a model. I'm coming to the idea of using a condensed version of the Walton track plan, basing it on Merseyside but keeping it fictitious and vaguely familiar. I wonder if you can help here. In putting together a plan I'm struggling with the scenic break from the turntable end of the layout into a fiddle yard. I note from the plans you've put on here that either side of the main lines are two tracks. One from the coal wagon sidings, which may be a head shunt and the other which appears as the "arrival road" for the shed. A number of questions. 1. How did locos coming from Huskisson access the shed? Did they come back over the mainline crossover, then access the arrival road? 2. How have you done this on the model.ie is the arrival road truncated and doesn't enter the fiddle yard? 3. Does the head shunt from the coal sidings link with the fiddle yard or is this truncated too? 4. How are you planning to model the break between layout and fiddle yard at this end. I note the subway but there do not appear to be any bridges. How will the 4 tracks pass off scene? Sorry to pester you with this Michael, hope you can help.

Not drivel, absolutely correct. TTS decoders are yet another Hornby attempt to produce something which is cheap and therefore problematic. Their early decoders were terrible and NON NMRA compliant. Their DCC controllers have had many issues - if you read many of the threads on here. I have a huge experience of fitting sound decoders for people and have been asked, many times, to "fix "TTS decoders. To say that the only difference between these decoders and say a Zimo or ESU Sound decoder is that you "can't change much" is, quite frankly, unbelievable.

I'll throw my two penny worth in as well Tony. There are still plenty of us out there who enjoy "building things". This thread is an inspiration. I got a bit frayed with a thread on here from last year which asked people what locos they had the most of - pages and pages of boring and pointless lists of how many Hornby Nellies or Bachmann class 66s people have. These are, frankly, not railway modellers, just collectors of toy trains. Just finished an SEF J39 and looking forward to starting a Judith Edge N5. Please keep up the good work.

Tim Terrific stuff, thank you so much for these, priceless. I had not seen these photos before.

Superb, can't wait for the how to. Teddy bear fur?

Well yes it is. Our other layouts, in our group, are Horfield (GWR) and New Kensal Green (GWR) and these have already appeared at Swindon (more than once). Let's say it's a bonus for both of us. Swindon gets a new to the circuit layout, we get an early opportunity to test the layout under exhibition circumstances.

Rodney Thanks for this, sorry I've just seen it. We would very much appreciate the info for Bournemouth West. We did manage to get hold of a copy of the CWN some time ago but it's much earlier. 1960 is spot on for the period we are modelling. If you can scan them and PM me with them, even better. Look forward to seeing these. Kind regards.

A couple more

These may be (or may not) better quality

Hi Paul Our first outing is at Swindon in September this year. I'm more than happy to book it in for Wimborne 2019 if you want to.

I'm aware there's not been a lot on here recently, the reason is we have been busy "playing trains" or rather working out an operating sequence so we can all get used to it. Some things have progressed though, the fiddle yard traverser has been tweaked again and is now working well and further buildings have appeared plus more vegetation. The auto uncoupling system is working very well and three locos are now equipped with it for the station pilot and shunting duties. When our resident cameraman is able I'll try and post a video on here of it in operation. A couple of pics from last nights session. "Weymouth" brings in the Bournemouth West portion of The Royal Wessex and an M7 departs with a push pull service to Brockenhurst.

Yep it's my draw too. Up to the age of 18 I lived in Ainsdale, left in 1970. Went to school in Southport on the train, Liverpool when I started work, on the train. Went with my Dad to his Factory in Manchester, on the train. My grandparents used to visit from Carlisle, via Preston, on the train. Railway modelling is very often about re-creating memories. Whatever area I look at though, be it Southport or Liverpool those 502s, for my period anyway, are always there.

Simply some of the best modelling I've ever seen!!!

Many thanks for all the suggestions, as I said earlier this is a long burn project so I'll give each suggestion the once over before making any decisions.

Oh yes David, of great interest. I had the opportunity to meet Peter when we first started doing the research for BW, a very interesting chap, and most knowledgeable. We hope to have him take a look at the layout sometime in the not too distant future. His input would be invaluable.

Brilliant stuff Phil and the info in these logs is so useful. Thanks for this.

Peter Good to hear from you, as you were there at the start of this project. This is good news, I will pay a visit. By the way, if you'd like to see our progress we'd love to see you. You can PM me to fix a time if you like.

Have tried everywhere, but it's out of print, I'm afraid. However I never considered the library!