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It turns out it’s not just great minds that think alike!

08’s could certainly be too short for reliable track circuit operation, so that’s a plausible reason. It appears brakevans were regularly added to fully fitted MGR trains serving Denby, to allow staff to travel on the train to work some crossing gates on the line. Presumably the back cab of the loco was a long walk from the rear of the train. You can find lots of pictures by searching Flickr for “mgr brakevan”.

Wow! They look impressive. I’d make sure the beer cellar is full but it’s only ever an issue after you’ve been, not before… As for the shark, if you send me a picture of the underneath then I can advise on grinding wheel size! It may be worth waiting until you visit, as I have a possible move to kadee’s coming up. I have a cunning plan for removable ballast loads too…

There were quite a few changes from 83 to 86, notably the transition from 40’s to 45’s but also the introduction of some colour on the rolling stock. I do quite like the drab uniformity of the early 80’s, but ultimately I was drawn by the amazing variety of 1986. Having already bent the dimensions of time and space to justify an electrified junction, I want to deviate from reality as little as possible. If it couldn’t have run on Friday 12th September* at Crewe, Warrington or Chester, then it doesn’t run is my general rule. Making such a restrictive decision has actually given me a lot of enjoyment, because the research has proved really fascinating. *unless its a 15x. In which cases I’ll take my chances at the pearly gates.

Now there’s some useful information! Possibly not for 9C85, but definitely for someone about to procure 2x20s and some MGRs for a Point of Ayr to Fiddler’s Ferry diagram..

By 1986 the selection of class 40’s still working is down to just 5 for me, celebratory D200 plus the 4 x 97’s. I do plan to have one of the 97’s for ballast workings, probably the split box; it’s quite handy that one of each type got saved for departmental use. I’m hoping my reworking of the timetable will reduce the number of DMU’s I need to around 4! Good to have another North Wales coast fan onboard.

Thanks Andy! Probably best not to speculate on the actual cost of the toy trains. Particularly as a different number has been submitted to the household revenue and excise department! The security fence is Ratio. Upon opening the packet it looks like being a pain in the derry air, but is surprisingly easy to put together.

It was suggested to me that a diesel instead of an electric would be a more convincing photo…

The multi-storey car park has made a lot of progress this weekend. It’s been quite challenging to ensure that the concrete walls are tighter than most car’s turning circles, get the right feeling of oppressiveness and working on the stale urine smell. Meanwhile, the 15 year old temporary portacabin for the electric stabling point has landed. The yard lights are on, which suggests there should be at least some power for the kettle. A couple of photos of an 85 stabled in the last of the evening sun, as a driver ends his turn and chucks his trusty bag into his knackered old Escort. You’d think a well paid toplink driver would have better wheels than that, but apparently he wastes all his income on toy trains. I think the carpark needs to have the backscene painted dark grey behind it, but otherwise I’m pleased with the overall affect.

The overpriced Marathons are 4p… I’m happy with how things are coming on and I have lots of things to do to add to this section over the next few weeks. My original intention was to work left to right on basic scenery and then tackle the big jobs of signalling and overhead wires, but I’m tempted to do this section as an experimental area.

Suitably motivated by Mallaig’s post this morning I’ve made some more progress at the south end. The parcels lift tower now has a slate roof, the framework for the multi-storey is up and there are a few more BRUTES on the platform ends. An aerial view over the new development with a class 85 bringing in an early afternoon service from Euston to Holyhead. An 87 is stabled to the left, whilst a large logo 47 has detached from a trans-pennine working. A low level shot moments later as the 85 rolls into platform 3. The BRUTE here is empty, so we can only assume the call of the coast was too much.

Mid-week Peak! A class 45 in the centre road waiting to head south with empty vans for Bletchley. A 47 pauses on the blocks in platform 3.

Mid 70’s. Well. I know nothing about that then!

What year are you modelling? Surely the Peaks would have been on a mix of air con and pressure ventilated mk2s with mk1 catering and BG?

I tend to stick to the alcohol free variety, but the odd beer from the local brewery and a trans-pennine Peak do help get through a stressful day.

I think we all go through periods where we lose enthusiasm, particularly building such a large layout on your own! I usually find a break or a change in tasks gets me back on course. Track painting and ballasting are two of the most significant jobs on a layout, so inevitably bring some doubts with them. I don’t think there’s any better advice than go watch some Chadwick Parkway on youtube - certainly got me through! And if all else fails, open a beer and run some trains!

An 08 on the blocks. Regular readers will note the evidence of recent advice re BRUTEs and trolleys.

Thanks. The photos don’t really capture the colour that well (which is to say I’m hopeless with a camera). The ballast is much darker in reality, but the parcels tower is actually quite white, rather than dirty. I’ve done quite a lot of research around the buildings in the Chester area and they seem predominantly red brick, rather than blue. I assume the local red clay is hard enough that it wasn’t worth the transport cost of blue. That said, if anyone has any local pictures I’ll happily paint accordingly! As 5barVT states, the cut back in weed killing wasn’t until the early 90’s. I think it has been not only the cut back in funding but also the restrictions on chemicals which have resulted in today’s green jungle. As the picture of Walsall shows though, away from the tracks the greenery was allowed to grow far more than previously.

I hadn’t spotted the signals previously - is there just the one ground position light?

The south end continues to progress slowly. I’ve extended the brickwork to the left up to the baseboard edge and I’ve resprayed the increasingly tatty exposed board with trusty camouflage spray. A couple of buffer stops have been added at the ends of platforms 3 and 4. I’ll get a couple of better shots of them in due course. I was surprised by the complete absence of anything remotely appropriate in kit or pre-built form, so these are the Hornby blocks, which actually look ok once the shiny black plastic is painted. I’ve been weathering the brick bridge and parcels tower, but I’m not too happy with how they’ve turned out. I think I’ll look to repaint all the brickwork to a darker red and then restart the weathering. I’m now starting to build a low relief multi-storey car park to go at the back of the overbridge. This link to Flickr (not my pic, but super evocative) showing a photo of Walsall has been my inspiration (and there’s two words you don’t often see together). After the car park I want to sort the road surface on the bridge with a pavement and street lighting. Then it’s on to the front section, with some work on the stabling point, boundary fence, S&T compound and station car park. I’ve added a couple of speed boards (included in this week’s WON for any drivers reading). The points heating and signalling location cases will wait until the signalling contract is awarded.

Peco set track all the way. Mainly because I can’t face anymore point motor wiring for a long time to come!

I've been giving my fiddle yards some thought over the last few weeks, including playing around with various Peco point templates to see what I might be able to achieve. I think the revised plan could give me the increased flexibility that I'm hoping for. The proposed new sections are shown in red. There are two key alterations: 1. There is a link from White Lane carriage sidings into the Holyhead* Fiddle Yard. This will allow a much smaller number of DMUs to run the working timetable - I'd got up to a requirement for 12 units, with no more than 4 on scene at any one time! The addition of a double slip at the entrance to the fiddle yard makes it much more flexible; there should be enough space for a 2-car set to enter the fiddle yard and set back to White Lane even with all the storage sidings full up. 2. There is also a link from the Warrington fiddle yard to the Holyhead. The way it is arranged mean that all 3 terminating sidings and 4 through sidings can reverse to come back on scene from Warrington, Holyhead or even via White Lane. This will allow the number of DMUs needed to be vastly reduced, but will also allow the offset directional flows, such as tanks and containers to run the same way through the station as required. There are another 10 points required to allow this, of which I already have 3, so it won't be happening overnight (although if I sell the numerous curved points that I no longer need that will probably fund the shortfall). It does allow me to go re-draft the timetable, which had ground to halt at 10.30am when the complexity of the stock movements required made the excel sheet too cumbersome to manipulate. If I do some re-jigging of loco and stock allocations then it should hopefully become more workable. *Calling it the Holyhead fiddle yard is confusing. It can also be Llandudno, Bangor, Chester, Shrewsbury and Wolverhampton. I would rename it Chester but that is too much effort in the excel sheet!

Nice to see you back! There’s something so evocative about your layout. It keeps me motivated to get to the stage where I can take photos like that!

Welcome back to a working forum again. For a while there I thought all my efforts were in vain! A 25/3 brings in a short van train, through the increasingly dark and depressing entrance to Christleton on the down Crewe line.

Of course, I remember now. I probably only ever used them once or twice when I was travelling to or from University in the early 90’s. In that case, they should still be ok on my relatively narrow platforms.