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Don’t go getting disheartened at this stage - it’s just getting really good! Normally a trip to a model show (or someone else’s layout) would renew your enthusiasm, lockdown is a killer for boredom of the same thing. Hornby 31s are about the worst place to be looking right now. They’re a minefield of ringfields and mazak. After some ebay frustration including selling on a couple of purchasing errors, I settled for toffee apple 31102, which at least I know is the right version and should be rot free. I’ll be sound fitting it soon, so I can take some photos and you can maybe try for yourself? My desire for a 31/4 with headcode box will have to wait!

What’s the sound unit on peak 103? It sounds really good. I like that you can have a TSO-T with the Lima Mk2c’s, it’s a real headache with the the Bachmann 2a’s. I’m noting all the little details like speed boards that I plan to copy too!

It’s such a great location to model. By the mid eighties so much was 47 alternating with 47, the Coast had variety in abundance. 40135 is on my list in 97 guise, but it’s quite a long list and I really need to finish some of the jobs I’ve started before embarking on anymore! A 127 parcels unit is one of my favourite not-on-the-list-yet projects. Getting a sound unit for a hydraulic DMU should be interesting!

D200 was such an iconic loco of the mid eighties, it’s easy to forget that not everyone knows about it. 40122 (ex D200 and first of the class) was selected for special treatment by BR in 1983 and painted in green to be used for charter work as the whole class was being steadily withdrawn. It is occasionally confused with green 40106, which was famous for never making it to BR blue (see separate story!) and was also a spotters’ favourite. D200 was based at Carlisle and intend for mainly charter work, often working the S&C diagram to Leeds and back. BR at the time had loads of spare locos, just not always in the right condition or with the right ability to start. Hence D200 turned up in all sorts of places on all sorts of jobs. It was a fairly regular visitor to the Coast on both passenger and civil engineers’ trains. Due to its celebrity nature it was often fairly clean for an 80’s loco, but a week on the p-way makes anyone look rough, so there are photos of it in all kinds of states. The state of the White rimmed wheels and yellow axle box covers seem to have varied quite considerably. It’s a great reason to keep a 40 running beyond the class demise in January 85, together with a couple of departmental locos based at Crewe. Watch this space!

Well D200 has made it out of the workshops and very happy with it I am too. My first proper effort at modifying something out of the box. I think most satisfying are the different overhead warning flashes on the A end nose! Here it is grinding its way through the high ballast of platform 2 with an early morning parcels service for the coast. A short freight has just arrived in the middle road, which we’ll deal with shortly.

This is looking really great now. Such a great choice of period and location too, such a wealth of locos and liveries to choose from. Always nice to see something a bit different.

A little bit of normal service resumed tonight. I decided all the ballast and track fettling will take to long to do in a “one-er”, so I made sure the frogs and check rails were clear so I could start operating my draft timetable. I’ll do bits of snagging as I go and the mood takes me. The start of the session requires a couple of locos on shed, at least one type 4 and a type 2 or 3. A Gateshead duff and a 31 are ready for action in the quad. Both need a Gateshead wash! Over on the fuel road, resident shunters in the form of air only 08 and vac only 03 are on being readied (not too much milk in the tea mind). A large logo 47 is topping up its tanks.

Phase 1 of the ballasting is complete, meaning we can now move on to phase 2. Phase 2 is predominantly about undoing most of the work from phase 1! Joviality aside, ballast is now down across most of the scenic section, as far as the North end crossovers where I haven't yet finalised the layouts into the fiddle yards. Generally the ballasting gets better the later it was put down, but even the early stuff cleans up quite nicely. I've made a start at removing the excess and filling the gaps. First photo at the South end, with a 47 waiting at the possession marker boards. The electric stabling lines have been cleaned up, but the mainlines are still to do. The ballast is still slightly wet with new PVA in this shot. Moving to the North end we see a general overview of the station throat. This hasn't been touched since first ballasting other than a quick vacuum. At this end of the job it is more topping up than chiselling. My 7 year old son has declared the ballast too clean, and I should really get on with dirtying it, instead of sitting at my computer all day. Who am I to ignore such demands? I'm hoping to get the track run-able again fairly quickly, and then I'll try to take some photos of a typical couple of hours at Christleton, to give a feel for how the railway works.

That’s a cracking find! Seems like at least 3 people new about it at the time too. 25 259 is a possible number for one of my fleet now. I had a feeling I’d seen a photo of a 25 in late 86 on a shoppers special. Having spent ages trying to relocate it, I finally found the picture of it just leaving Llanbourne. RMWeb has a hazy border with reality sometimes!

There is a steady advancement of ballasting in a Westward direction. Some of my earlier efforts are not quite where they need to be, so there’s a few hours on the chisel to look forward to. Recent progress is slower (net quicker) but really getting quite pleasing. In unphotographed news, the BFK has its first coat of intercity light grey, whilst the class 40 has been stripped for converting to D200. The wheel rims have been given a coat of white, although they were quite dirty by 86, so the white will be followed by brake dust brown and grey. The nose ends have been prised off, incorrect lamp irons removed and new ones added. New handrails need to be added before priming.

I suspect there are high flying hedge fund managers, secretly prowling RMweb, just waiting for their moment. The PVA millionaires. Like the honesty of an Instagram influencer posting a no make-up photo, there’s nothing so brutal as a ballast still soaking with glue picture of your trackwork. Still, progress is progress. The dry mainlines to the left give a hint of what could be...

Brilliant! How did you find that before the hat had even hit the floor? Some great bits of reality to reproduce - watch this space!

My 2021 plan / rule is to finish fitting everything I currently have with sound, then only buy from local traders in person (hopefully). My core fleet now has enough variety that I’ll be happy with whatever I find next. I am looking for suggestions for good shops near good pubs. Chester Model Shop is absolutely premier league based on these criteria! My base requirement for a cheerful and friendly owner seems to rule out a surprising number of shops where being cheerful and friendly would appear to be the best sales tactic...

Wouldn’t a small carriage repair shop add to operating potential? You could shunt coaches in and out of the rakes to take for repair - and add to the task by making the carriage shop siding face the opposite way to the main sidings, so you need a run round or a second shunter (03 and match truck). You can then justify almost any piece of rolling stock appear for specialist repair, either alone or as a rake.

All your 25s look great, and it’s hard to tell which is the Hornby. I think Rats are definitely another appealing element of North Wales in the 80s. I’m hoping that the Heljan model might mean I can pick up some Bachmann’s cheap(er)! I’ve been trying to find evidence of 25s on passenger workings in North Wales as late as 86. Derbysulzers has a handful of passenger workings, but nothing to North Wales. Obviously rule 1 applies, but it’s always nice to have a prototype.

I do really like your retaining wall. It gives the layout such an authentic feel to it. If I scroll back through 19 pages do I get the information on how you did it? In terms of stock I deliberately planned for more track than I thought I would fill based on one of the standard equations of railway modelling that you will always buy more stock than you need. I think once you get to the point of saturation is when you need to introduce a schedule for your running sessions.

The ballasting extends a little further... The first patch has fully dried, there were a few bare patches and probably too much left on sleepers to scrap off. The next section through the main platforms looks like I’ve done a better job, but not easy to tell with the glue still wet. I’m slowly building enough confidence to think about the main station throat!

I know of a large terminal station that had several tracks in the approaches. All were bi-directional except one. At the resignalling the signallers asked for all to be bi-directional as having just one road uni-directional was a pain in rear. It was 9.15am on the first Monday following commissioning that they encountered the Mexican stand off. By 9.30am the bi-directional facility was barred out of use and remains so to this day. I thought I had side stepped this particular land mine by having 4 fiddle yard roads that are through roads. However as my platforms are all bi-directional, your advice still stands!

I make that about 14 roads, which sounds massive until you list out the stock / services. I’m guessing you need 2 less than the theoretical maximum number of trains, because at least 2 sets are always on the layout? Obviously my main reason for asking was trying to work out if my own yard will be big enough (currently 14 but 18 is possible)! Plageurism is flattery apparently. I can see one extra road you can create by storing the 142 about 600mm further right! I also spy a TV gameshow type question “in which hobby might a grown man reasonably require a hammer, digital vernier, 2” paint brush and clothes pegs?”...

How much storage do you have at the moment? It seems pretty endless given the variety in your photos. I can’t imagine running out of space given a loco plus coaches costs the same as a luxury saloon car.

We’re all friends together in this. So long as the trains work then the wiring is perfect.

Thanks. That’s pretty much the plan. Looking at it now I think I should have got the sleeper tops slightly cleaner before gluing, but hopefully it will scrape off without too much tedium! Colouring the ballast will take some planning, as there are lots of places locos regularly stop and drip oil which need to be darker. I need to study some prototype photos to see if electrics drop as much as diesels.

Thanks. I don’t often photo the South end of the station, mainly because of the old fireplace that needs hiding!

Once I’d put the ballast down I realised how odd the hand point looked! As you say, lever to follow. Ballast is woodland scenics pale grey fine. I wanted something small and pale - photos from the period and area show almost white ballast and unbelievably clean in most areas.

And then there was ballast... As a new entrant to ballasting, there’s a limit to the number of videos you can watch and articles you can read, at some point the rock has to hit the hard place. Is it the right colour, is it the right size, will it stick, are the individual stones the right way up? I guess we have to wait about 48 hours to see. So far, I’m cautiously happy with it. It makes a very big change from the dark brown baseboard I’m used to!