DCB

That is impressive, Climbing 2 feet in 10 feet would open up all sorts of possibilities for two level layouts in a small space, I'm already planning a Class 128 chassis under an Auto coach + 14XX or 2X class 128 chassis under a B set with a 45XX, that way a Branch Line Terminus in the front room can link with another in the upstairs bedroom via the stairwell. I suppose the ultimate is steel track with super neo magnets to hold the stock in place so the layout can be built upside down on the ceiling.

I was expecting a Frank Dyer "Borchester" rather than this Borcheser and Ambridge layout but think this layout is excellent in its representation of the nationalisation period. Obviously it was modern image at the time much as post 2000 is regarded by many as contemporary modern image and so the use of Victorian and 1930s style housing really strikes a chord on a way very few modern layouts achieve. The layout is of its period. Few modellers could afford large numbers of locos so with 2 H/D Castles, a Farish (?) Prairie , Farish 94XX, Gaiety Pannier and motorised Kitmaster Std 4 in LMS livery the guy had a reasonable stud, all of which would have been happy on 15" radius and with Hornby Dublo couplings would have been closer coupled than modern Bachmann and the like. The layout can be run end to end, the branch train turns hard left at the bottom of the gradient from the terminus and goes round the return loop before heading for Ambridge, It looks like it would be fun to operate, more interesting than a branch terminus with a traverser. All the locos would have coped very easily with the length of trains possible even up the steep sharply curved gradient. There is no need for extra storage if the owner did not have a lot of spare stock, and there should have been little need for spare stock as the old locos were (and remain) very reliable. Above all it looks railway like because the builder could build what he could see. I get a lot of inspiration from these old magazines, Obviously we have moved on since 1963. For instance my pre 1962 H/D castles now have glazing in the cab windows and etched name plates and my Gaiety Pannier has been pensioned off pending resurrection as a 2021 class but for railway atmosphere we have a lot to re learn from these old layouts.

The coupling loop needs to be set at the correct height. If it is correct (according to your gauge because hardly any two RTR products are the same) and still does not operate then you may need to lengthen the dropper, by substituting another coupling hook or glueing an extension or if it is a steel hook by soldering an extension. At the end of the day Tension Locks look hideous and don't couple well and are horrible to uncouple so fitting something else has to be a good idea. If I was starting again I would try standard N gauge couplers or Kadees. The acetate loops sound too high of they lift the leading wheels, I take the sprung plate off and weight the truck with lead instead

Most people are constrained by the space available. However with a clean slate.. I think the first thing to decide is what you want your trains to do. Do you want essentially a highly detailed diorama with occasional movements, is the layout just a backdrop to your rolling stock collection, do you like watching trains go by, do you want it to operate like a real railway and how much input do you want into train running. Many people have terminus to traverser layouts which involve huge amounts of fiddling with stock off scene, (which would drive me mad) others have reverse loops so trains just come back or hidden sidings where they can shunt happily (like I do). There is a definite limit to the amount of time one can spend modelling, (168 hours per week.) so for a really large layout you may have to enlist help or compromise on scenery, and there can be a real issue with the sheer amount of time small scale trains take to get round big layouts, ("Where has the 42XX on coal empties got to,") especially big spirals, so you can have 75% of the running time off scene, this is an issue with my layouts which shunting plank aficionado's may not have considered. If you buy a property then a big roomy unobstructed loft will inevitably be requisitioned for a bedroom for child/relatives/etc, as will any spare railway size bedroom, and the shed / Garage/ Stable/Barn will be filled with junk, so get something not in a flood zone with a huge Cellar. No one wants to sleep in a Cellar, the wife won't want it as an office or sewing room and by putting tracks behind or even across the steps you don't need a lifting section. All those American model railroaders can't be wrong?

It looks good to me, terrain like Moertonhampstead. Only the kick back siding jars, it will be awkward to shunt and should need quite a few wagons per day to keep the town supplied with gas. The "Signal Cabin" could well be just a ground frame as there seems to be little scope for anything but one engine in steam operation.

Bachmann Panniers vary, the older ones pull better than the DCC compatible ones. However I find the newest DCC compatible Bachmann 57XX (and 45XX) are happy enough with 4 Bachmann BR non Corridors on a 1 in 36 including a 3rd radius curve over a distance of about 20 feet.

I did much the same but did not remove the wheels from the axles but removed the inserts as described and reduced their size with sandpaper to a loose fit and then refitted them with Evostick Pipe Weld which is a strong solvent and softens the insert enough to let it sit flat. It seems to work on most Bachmann / Mainline split chassis though the B1 still runs like a three legged crustacean. Fitting pick ups between chassis and wheel backs helps with the arcing and heating which causes some of the issues with distorted plastics around the wheels.

There is a bookshop opposite Pickering station which sells railway books for about £3 a throw, not rubbish, OS Nock British Steam Railway Locomotives that sort of thing, shelves full 20 feet long six shelves high all in good condition so lord knows how little they pay for them. Another at Grosmont NYMR is similar. Got an Immaculate "Stroudley Locomotives" Alec Swain for £4 at Newton Abbott market. Some heritage railways get donations and try to sell them at silly prices but by and large the bottom has dropped out. We enthusiasts are dropping like flies and no one wants our prized collections. No one wants middle aged magazines, even some heritage railways won't accept them. I reckon any mag newer than 1973 is essentially worthless. You either donate them, get ripped off by a dealer or waste hours putting them on Ebay.

Hornby had short Mk3s in original HST livery in early HST Days. My son has a set. They look sort of reasonable unless you have full length versions around and look a lot less ridiculous on sharp set track curves than the full size ones. MK 3s are over 12" long in 00. Mk1's and Mk2's are 10" nominal around 11" over couplings. Class 47 are almost as long as a Mk1, Class 43 rather shorter. Modern practice requires platforms at least as long as the trains using them. In steam days and on heritage railways platforms could be much shorter than the trains. In Steam days Bournemouth West terminus could take an 8 coach rake and regularly served 12 coach trains, If you have a run round loop you need an additional 18" for two medium radius points at the buffer stop end. You will need a 5ft platforms for 5 Blue Pullmans (departing) and 6ft for an arrival. I think at Bodmin a small GWR Terminus, the platform was about that long.

See my post #8 The "set track" curved point comes down to around 16" radius and the angle at the frog is wider, The modified point is less sharp at the point blades than the set track but the set track point itself can be carved down to a much smaller unit, though the set track has a long dead frog and live frogging it will be a lot of work. The modified curved point I did needed a mod to the "Inner" point blade as it became too long if the tie bar was to remain parallel to the sleepers so my fix was a standard fishplate so the blade slides in and out instead of pivoting. It has worked faultlessly for quite a while now and allowed a run round loop at the junction which no standard off the shelf point work would allow.

I habitually mix Peco Streamline flexi with Peco set track. I use peco streamline points with set track curves and carve set track to length and adjust the curves by cutting the webs on the sleeper bases but find while streamline can be curved sharply it won't stay curved and straightens out at rail joints to create awkward kinks. I use Set Track for anything under 2 ft radius. If the entire curve can be formed from one 3ft section of flexi then it might be OK but you usually need at least one join.

Just wondering if the underlying issue is the capacitor is too large for the application. We had a point fail several times on a crossover exiting the fiddle yard, rail puled out of tie bar, and I eventually realised only two points moved on that route while up to five moved on other routes, so I wired in two old broken point motor solenoids in parallel to soak up a bit of the surplus energy and no more problems (Touch wood) It may be a smaller capacitor or running the existing system at a lower voltage, daisy chain of series diodes maybe, would ease the issue. On my latest board I y use a 22 000 uf 25 volt cap on floating across a 12 volts DC aux output from an H & M to shift three points at a time, three points are energised every time. Cap cost £2.50 from a (Lower) High Street store.

Shows the advantage of a fully sprung chassis. If that was a H0 scale train would it need code 30 rail?

The second version looks brilliant. Are those Dapol Girders? I guess you have to trim the deck where the hut was located was this difficult?

A 2400mm X 300mm baseboard is easily manageable by two people but a struggle single handed, I made up such a beast for additional hidden sidings over the new year and slotted it under existing baseboards. I find the transitions from up to level (or level to down) can be much more severe than level to up (or down to level) as most current bogie stock has insufficient clearance above the front bogie wheel to allow it to rise enough for the trailing bogie wheel to stay on the track, or for its flange to remain below the rail head level. Triang had their buffer height 1mm above scale to avoid this but I have been carving away bits of Bachmann current Hornby etc chassis to allow stock to cope with my transitions. The Hornby T9 has almost no ability to cope with level to up transitions as the leading bogie wheels hit the running plate. The awkward locos going from level to down are 6 wheel and 10 wheel drive chassis without flanges on the centre wheels which derail sideways as soon as they rock on the centre axle... Unsprung 9F s and Triang Jinties with Romfords and flangeless centre drivers are worst I know of.

No wonder the French had such low speed limits, I reckon it would wriggle itself off the track at anything over 100 (Kph)

You are in good company The GWR had broad gauge locos with the names Sampson and Goliah cast in brass!

Didn't need them. The soft blast from the Kylchap double exhaust caused smoke to beat down over the cab windows. The first so equipped (Humorist?) way back in the '30s I believe had full size Peppercorn A1 like deflectors.

I have read a number of engine-man's reminiscences over the years as well as the writings of O.S.Nock and others re locomotive performance. One curious discrepancy is that of the Robinson 2-8-0s. These are described as very sluggish slow locos which would pull a house down, stronger than a Stanier 8F by most writers, especially the GWR 3000 series. However some writers report 04's running fast on the GC line on the Windcutters when 01 class were not available, and the original GC vacuum brake locos were used for running excursion passenger trains. I am aware the GE section engine men had trouble with the Robinson A5 tanks which disliked being driven with short cut offs and wide open regulator so I am wondering if the supposed sluggishness was just bad driving. The references to high speed refer to using small regulator openings and wide cut off which would give plenty of port opening to exhaust. Was this the key to getting the best out of these locos? The mechanically similar Jersey Lilly 4-4-2s were noted for their speed. Does anyone have any ideas?

Combining point operation with DCC track power sounds like a bad idea. Separating the two systems with isolator switches would be a good start, but for any but the tiniest layout division of track supply into manageable chunks of say 9 points , and up/ down lines has to be a good idea.

I always find the bargains are at the end of the Swap Meets in any case, by which time the back doors are open and traders and hangers on walk unchecked between car park and sale. As for Charity Shops, Ox rip off seem to check the new list price online, and I find books are a lot more reasonable at Swap Meets. One branch had a book for £12. I refused to pay and waited for the price to go down, after three weeks I noticed I already had a copy....

I think consistency and craftsmanship is the key to a good model. Wheels which are not concentric will spoil anything other than "Far Twittering and Oysterperch" clones. Main line tracks which are not laid straight and level or in a beautiful even curve on Steam era layouts but twist and turn like a US short line or modern BR tracks break the spell. Too many otherwise good layouts are spoiled by trains with widely differing buffer heights and cant rail heights where in the prototype these dimensions are generally constants. One Plastic Triang Coach in a Tinplate Horrnby Dublo train shatters the illusion, or mixing different manufacturers models of the same locos seldom works. Layouts laid out for operation with no good viewpoints and layouts laid out for appearance which you can't operate sensibly. But an ability for trains to actually run without stopping, falling off the rails or constantly uncoupling has to be the most important thing surely

Putting plastic waste in the bin is the obvious answer. Whether Landfilled or incinerated it does not find its way into the oceans that way. I was involved in the recycling scheme for Cotswold District Council. Waste was carefully sorted into multi coloured bins by terribly nice middle class environmentally aware people and instead of one bin lorry three different ones were deployed and a high percentage of the recyclables were contaminated and went to Landfill. I am sure I have thrown several grams of sleepers and N/S rail away over the years, but I have a very big pile awaiting reuse which will never be used. As for waste packaging I just use second hand jiffy bags and cardboard when I sell items and I have not bought anything new and boxed since about 2010. In fact my latest Baseboard frame came from a skip (It was an internal door in a previous life). I think when I am dead and gone my Hornby Dublo locos might take a few centuries to decompose.. Logically the biggest threat facing the world is over population so equally logically a cataclysmic depopulating nuclear war would be good for the environment. Better people than I are working hard on project cataclysm so I will stick to building a layout

The loco overhangs the table in many cases. I turn a Duchess on a shortened Dapol turntable around 10 inches long. 65 foot tables were common, 70's restricted to the largest depots. Finding a turntable which moves smoothly is likely to be a challenge. A lot move at set speed and jerk to a halt. Watching the prototype they start slowly pick up speed to quite a lot faster than most model,s and then slow gradually. Two or three attempts usually being necessary to line them up. The big 75 ft tables take up an awful lot of space and if used for engine shed access make getting locos from the back of the shed more trouble than it is worth. I have a scale 75 ft table which is awaiting shortening and a 12" one hand turned in the hidden sidings which has to be long enough to leave a bit of fiddle room as you can't see it clearly. If you want to save space with a turntable you can save length only at the expense of width. I would check you have sufficient width. If you do go RTR Dapol Girders on a Heljan Table would be worth considering.

I would go for something basically Set Track except the terminus station and the sidings which should be Peco Streamline to keep the width to a minimum . CJ Freezer did some brilliant ones but rather than plagiarise one of his I suggest Terminus, Continuous Run and return loop which will need a bit of thought to wire up. Couple of hidden sidings. See Pic . Just turn a blind eye to the train appearing from the back of the goods yard when using te reversing loop and it should give some some realistic operating potential and could be mad to look half decent. Edit. Is the size now 8 X 5 with an operating well?