Fishplate

It was nice to put faces and names to the Hills of the North team today. Nice to chat as well. Great layout.

Superb piece of work 👍

I'm there Sunday, so will say hello.

Excellent George. Your Quality Controller is quite a stickler. Unfortunately, living top right in England, SWAG being bottom left is too far away. But looking forward to joining you on the RMWeb special train to Bovey Quay. Just drop departure time on here and I'll be along. Please can I have a window seat?

Nice cardie. Who is up for painting that pattern in 4mm scale ?🤔

One end done. Doubled up on the supports. A bit of tidying up to do.

Spent an hour making a template for the end steps of the Carriage cleaning platform from the drawings in Southern Nouveau book. Really useful modelling aid. Not all dimensions are given on the drawings I'm referencing, but sufficient information to work out missing ones for a model. Will either need 3 or 7 more for the two sets of steps. Depends on stability whether I need to double up with a narrow strip sandwiched between a pair (8 in total) , or just a strip strengthener on 4. Dry run of the previous nights work. End piers linking sections to add at the gaps, as well as steps and underslung beams. Then to paint and install.

Room for another dinosaur? If you've got a space in the drawing office, I can bring a calculation book, £9.99 calculator, scale rules (imperial or metric), box of railway curves, negative film and rotring pens. I do have a book of logarithmic tables somewhere, if you prefer. Happy to run the tea club and amble up past the station to get the milk and biscuits at appropriate times if what I bring in first thing runs out.

Leicester East layout used motorised wagons in their goods shed. Also operating wagon turntables IIRC.

Do you need to revise your 1st comment?🤔 🤣. Ps I can confidently say my pannier collection matches the optimum (n +1) formula. Having passed mine to the LM MPD, n = -1 👍

Psst @KNP. . . . What about the one I sent you?

Some of last night's endeavours on the Carriage cleaning platform. The scribed sections of 10ft planking don't show up very well in the picture. In other news, the tailgate on Grandaughters toy lorry was also fixed.

Your C & W Dept are doing an excellent job for your PWay Engineers. Just a case of repelling S&T boarders sneaking their cranks, rodding and cables on board. I bet the PWay ganger will be asking for some appropriate words concerning "ownership" on the sides. I do like your approach to (and speed of!) modelling.

Rob @NHY 581 was parting with a Wainwright H Class in Southern livery at the weekend. A bit of research found 1324 was allocated to Faversham MPD in 1951. Probably in BR livery by then. However 1326 was there pre 1948, so could renumber, or apply Rule 1. Anyway, a couple of PMs later, cash parted with and a very well protected H class arrived today. Thank you Rob. A couple of pics shunting some trucks down the dock at her new home.

A 'dry fit' of a short length of the deck and supports for the Carriage Cleaning platform. There will be some strips to go below the platform deck to represent the beams that hold the deck up. Plus steps to add at both ends. Quite pleased with this so far.

Jig made and 30 supports cut and subsequently cleaned up. I've taken information on sizing of components from a book titled Southern Nouveau. It covers all the concrete products of the Southern Railway. Pics of progress this afternoon, post ballasting activities. Five episodes of Desert Island Discs listened to. Roughly half each on ballasting and supports.

Have followed @Worsdell forever's recipe he kindly told me about on his Chop Yat topic (thank you!) . My effort looks very similar to his pictures. The six foot between the two tracks awaits the Carriage cleaning platform, so not ballasted yet.

Have spent some time this afternoon on gluing the ballast on my carriage sidings. The good news is it looks like your pictures, so guess (hope!) I am heading in the right direction. Will put some pics on my topic shortly. The only bit I did differently was to use warm water from the kettle rather than experiment with the microwave. Thanks again for your help.

Superb picture of the pway and 20003 @Ian Allen. Shouts 'Southern' with the concrete platform and the signal box as well. Is there a link to the layout on RMWeb please? Love the detailing of the white ends of wing, check and con rails. Could just be standing in the cess waiting to go back on.

Excellent. One of the 'wish list' items for my railway was for rail level of the main lines to be at (my!) eye level when sat on the folding chairs used in the operating well. This also gives me a view across the island platform surface, between the platform buildings, as well. Rail level of the main lines is 1100mm above floor level. The downside will be when I replace the platform mock up, then I will have to detail the underneath of the canopy as it will be on full display. Happens frequently that life bowls along and you then get that light bulb moment.

Not where I grew up. Only be useful for sitting on and keeping the chill off the nether regions. . . . . 🤣

Or, in my case, it's coming 👍. Chufferty chuff. It was at my home town shed in 1951. Probably not in SR livery by then though, but the connection is enough. Thanks Rob.

I used this technique. Worked well for me. I just took a cutting plan to a local DIY store and created my own kit. I didn't watch the entire video, but I joined my boards with coach bolts. Adjustable legs were attached similarly. The layout was always planned to be moved for domestic reasons. The boards were made to fit snugly into the original room, with some room to separate. In its new location it will be semi self supporting, so may require some diagonals now. So worth considering/planning some flexibility for the future.

So the list of things to do in the "difficult to reach" corner keeps getting longer rather than shorter. Backscene: Created a 4mm elevation of the back of my childhood home, which looked out over the railway. I might appear at some point. . . . Ballasting: I'm on my own for most of tomorrow, whilst Mrs FP goes off to village panto rehearsal, so hoping to get the ballasting done to date glued down. Carriage Cleaning Platform: Now the component parts have arrived to scratch build a platform, they need to be assembled. I'll need to create a jig to make sure the supports are all the same thickness. In the interim, I am PIC repairing my 3 year old Granddaughters little lorry. I have to live up to the sign I was given 😬:

I've used the toilet paper + glue + acrylic paint option, as shown below. I wanted to get a 'wind rippled' effect in an enclosed dock. I had bought 125ml of Delux Materials Scenic Water. I decided not to go with it, as my dock ends at the edge of the world and I wasnt confident I could achieve a proper seal. It's looking for a home if you want to try for the cost of postage @young37215. PM me if you're interested in experimenting with it. @Schooner has used resin on his layout. He may be able to give some advice and point you at the relevant pages on his topic. He got some really nice reflections. Similarly @NHY 581.