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And as you can see, we are always a happy bunch. Not sure what Howard had said to goad Robin into threatening him with a knife, but no doubt it was rude and gratuitous! Happy days and may we hope that they return as soon as possible for everyone’s sake

…meantime, young Robin was looking happy in his work. Not! We have got him scratchbuilding and he is putting up considerable resistance! In fairness I had tasked him with creating a carcass out of 1mm plasticard. A bit heavy going and I have now relented and let him use 0.5mm material. Better all round. He is working on a simple shed building for the P-Way area of TJ – more to come

At our last workday in February this year before the Covid-19 lockdown, a few of us got some work done on various projects. Here a happy Howard surveys all that he knows – one of TJ’s curved transition boards which is MERG controlled. Howard was resolving a glitch with the board…

And perhaps more importantly this is what it looks like inside! These are the MERG panels required to operate point motors, switches and LEDs. Beautiful knitting Howard – thank you! Need to see if it works now. Next workday later this month will be a milestone for the fiddleyard and then we can turn our attention to Twickenham…

You last saw this back in January 2018. It’s moved on a bit since then and here the control panel is all finished bar some plastic trim on the left hand side (done the same evening…

And the view looking the other way – more buildings to come, tons of clutter to come but now making so much more sense. That long siding snaking along by the flyover line simply didn’t make any sense until we saw the light!

And an end-on view clearing showing the approach to the mocking-up (!) and also one of the many astonishing reference photos that have helped us to piece this corner together

The piece de resistance! Thanks (huge thanks) to a visitor from last year’s Open Day and to some hard graft from members, we now know that this corner of Twickenham was actually the home of the P-Way department – presumably for the Windsor lines for some 80 years or so. This is an overview of our interpretation of it – or at least the initial mock-up of our interpretation Also Howard’s patent board clamp is evident! It ‘till be hidden in due course

And another general overview of he project - this photo really gives you a sense of the size of the thing! It is about 27 foot end to end...

Where DOES time go?! A long overdue update from a workday in December just gone. We had an illustrious visitor so took the opportunity to set up the layout in full to check a few things. This is an overview of the station and includes a British Railways banana parked in the area by the substation..!

I know I’ve shown this astonishing creation before, but it’s so good it’s worth another punt! Seen in situ it makes more sense especially as the embankments are partially formed with track ballasted and painted. Hopefully not long now, ‘til we get some track on top and trains can finally run from an imaginary Kingston to Twickenham as they still do to this day…

Southern Odeon style in its later, cleanest, simplest form – Twickenham West as seen from the rear (Up Kingston Line from Strawberry Hill) Since we last saw this creation, the windows have been painted and installed and if you look closely, there is actually a lever frame and instrument shelf in place

And the view looking the other way… This really highlights the current railway with the two cottages and the substation still in existence with the railway in the background (albeit in a slightly different format)

What a superb photo thanks to a local train driver! This really gives a sense of what the model will look like when viewed from London Road Bridge. Howard has done a superb job on that infernal footbridge. Trust me – it’s complicated and painstaking!!

Phew! Well although it was warm, Twickenham Junction and the Fiddleyard behaved themselves. In fact, they surpassed themselves! We managed to run trains in both directions through Twickenham and through the fiddleyard. Better still we were able to route trains through different lines on the fiddleyard. Well done Howard! The only issue we had was back-to-back dimensions being rather mean especially on Hornby models – fellow OO finescale modellers please note! Back in 2016 when the rails expanded in the warmth, we couldn’t run a thing. This turned out to be due to cross-wiring in the traction bus. Remember that DCC is AC so if two adjacent boards are cross-wired it won’t matter - unless the rail ends happen to make contact… Boy-oh-boy will it then matter! And that’s what happened… suffice it to say we have rectified the wiring faults as the wiring needs to be right for reliable running and fault diagnosis

And here’s the proof. This is a train running on DCC trundling UP through the layout having just passed underneath the Kingston UP flyover line. For those interested in EMUS, the unit is a 2-NOB (no bog in Southern EMU classification parlance) created by grafting a Tri-ang EMU cab front and roof onto a Bachmann EPB. Quite convincing, especially when it’s trundling past. Not immediately obvious what it is! Come and see more at the end of July

So we’ve been set a challenge! Come and see Twickenham and the fiddleyard running at our Open Day on 21st July. We won’t have route control on the scenic section by then, but we will have the fiddleyard stocked with trains able to provide some variety through Twickenham. So to give you an idea of the scale of the operation, here is the layout in its fullest current extent. It’s big. At our April workday, we set it all up to see whether it worked. Once we’d cleaned the track it certainly did. Very pleased

Following on with the theme of the control panel, here is the painted (Rover Brooklands green!) and varnished control panel box. Hopefully next time you see it, it will be full of electronickery and with a finished mimic panel on top…

I already have the kit I'm hoping to use (I mainly got it for the bogies but I think the chassis can be used as a 'former' for the transporter as well) but it didn't cost much anyway :-D.

I'd better do a good job on it then lol. It's the most daunting part of the project, I'm hoping to kit bash it, but failing that I'll have to scratch build it. The most complicated scratch build I've done so far is weighbridge weighing equipment!

I didn't say what year it would be finished ;-) :-D

I'm trying my luck at a cake box challenge as one of my non Northwick projects, why not look in on my 'blog' about it and tell me what you think. http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/132913-put-your-back-into-it-lads/&do=findComment&comment=3112636 Hopefully it will be in a presentable condition in time for our Library event.

I've decided to use OO9 track for the narrow gauge and the standard gauge will be represented by EM gauge track to really accentuate the difference of the different gauges. Here are a selection of pictures of a very early mockup of my proposed scene. A standard gauge track meets a narrow gauge line 'head-on' which will represent the exchange siding. At the rear of the scene is another standard gauge line which will represent a continuation of the 'main line', implying a connection with the exchange siding off scene. I hope to also include a further stretch of narrow gauge track towards the front of the scene to suggest a larger narrow gauge network.

I now have the 'baseboard' for my cakebox challenge supplied, of course, by Modelrailwayscenery.com. These pictures aren't the proposed scene, more a demonstration of how small the board for this challenge is.

The book in question was this... While I was browsing through the book, I found this page... This was a revelation for me, I'd never heard of a transporter wagon before, here was a standard gauge wagon being transported by a narrow gauge wagon. I then discovered this video on Youtube The scene I intend to recreate appears about 28 seconds into the video where a group of men push a Private owner wagon onto the transporter wagon in preparation for transportation. This scene just screams out 'Cakebox Challenge' to me.