richscylla

I have been working on the wiring and I now have the buffer stops and street lights lit up! Everything that is currently fitted to the layout is wired up and working. I will be adding a couple more things to light up in the next few weeks, but I'm very pleased with how it's looking.

And as a little spoiler - this is how she's looking as of today. Still some work to be done but for an old Lima model I'm really pleased.

Part 2 of the series is up now.

I have found this one: https://www.scalemodelscenery.co.uk/ax087-oo-station-platform-help-points-pack-of-8---oo--4mm--176-6675-p.asp Trying to work out if it would be suitable for my 1995-2000 era layout.

Does anyone know when Emergency help points were first installed on the railway? Something like the below: (Obviously not my photo - but watermarked)

Sorry for the lack of updates on this thread lately. I've been busier than ever on the model railway stuff, but it's been mainly on stock modification so I've not been working too much on the layout! However, I have spent a little time back on the layout over the last few days working on the roads outside the Marshalling Yard around the back of the station. I'm pretty pleased with how it's looking, especially compared to what it was like before. I used a paper kit by Scalescenes. I cut out the pieces that I was going to use, gave them a light coat of matt varnish and then stuck them down. I then cut out the yellow and white lines and individually placed them down. The pavements were made by gluing a couple of pieces of plastikard together to get the right height, and then wrapping them in more of the Scalescenes papers. I then gave them a matt varnish to allow me to use PVA on top to blend in the bushes and grass etc. I still need to tidy a few bits up and remove the greenery that is ahead of the curb and not stuck down, but I'm generally really happy with the results! I will look to add a few more details and then call this area done. Moving on to some final touches on the marshalling yard next!

Thanks so much for that Mike - really fascinating stuff!

Thanks for the advice all!

I'm going to be passing Toton in the next few weeks on the way to Doncaster for work and I thought it wold be good to stop off and try and get some pictures/film at Toton, but not knowing the area, I was wondering where the best places to get shots are. Legally of course, don't need a trespassing charge! Thanks

When you say you planned the layout do you mean, you designed the track layout? I would LOVE to hear/read a detailed explanation about how the process was done and what led to the layout as it is. I was thinking about modelling something similar to BBHT and so it would be amazing to get your thoughts on track layout for something like this.

What is the current state of affairs when it comes to Railfreight at Avonmouth?

Hi There, I have a layout St. Michael's Hill (which has a thread on RM Web - see my signature for details) but I thought I would start a thread on my work bench projects where I'll doing detailing, servicing and re-sprays. A Little Bit of History After around 15 years away from the hobby, I recently returned to modelling trains and whilst I love the incredible new standards in RTR models I'm also shocked by the prices. It's not that I don't see that the value in a Bachmann or Dapol model with all the wonderful detailing, it's just not possible for me to be dropping £100-200 on a loco and don't get me started on coaches and wagons for £20-50. So I have gone back to when I was first into the hobby and got my Hornby and Lima locos and I'm going to try and get them running as smoothly as possible and detail them as much possible. This is the list of projects that are currently in the works and a few that I haven't yet started but I will get around to. Lima Class 33 Detailing MK1 Barrier Coaches Lima Class 47 Detailing Adding Buffer to Hornby HST Failed HST I'll update this thread but will also add videos from my YouTube channel that look at detailing. First of which is my Lima Class 33 Detailing which I posted today: I'm fairly new to all this, so I'm not an expert by any means, but I hope to learn and improve! Any tips and feedback would be great!

The search functionality is loads better. Before it was a nightmare! Good job!

Would be really interesting to do a raised Railway over Arches, each with a workshop or something in them, would be an interesting scene whilst simple on the railway front which I think is fairly important on small layouts.

I popped up to Derails yesterday and it's a really nice shop. Great to have a good chat with Dan too, a really nice guy - I picked up a few decoders and I'll certainly be trying out the mail order service soon!

I have done a full Meet the Fleet video which I have put up on YouTube:

Yep!

After starting this thread I actually saw my first Flask train in the flesh yesterday!

I totally agree with this. I'm starting to lose my patience with Northfields. A few time I've been in there now and it's just too disorganised. Witek seems a lovely guy and I understand that he's not really doing it to make as much money as possible but there are two or three times lately when I've gone in there, a little short on time (as it's 10 mins on the tube from my occasional London office and I only get an hour for lunch) and with money to spend and I've left with nothing each time. Either because he is either talking with other customers (which is obviously good customer service and not something to knock) - however in Northfields the only way to find anything is to ask Witek so I leave empty handed. The last time I was there though I think I reached my limit. I was in there and as usual had to wait about 10 minutes to be seen (which I'm happy to wait for). I saw a wagon in the small cabinet at the front which I quite wanted, and then saw a VDA loose amongst the bits and pieces everywhere. I eventually was served and was a little shocked to find that they were new wagons which would be sold boxed, not second hand but I asked a price anyway. I was told £19 per wagon, which isn't bad for new Bachmann wagons, but the way I found them I was expecting them to big second hand so was hoping for a little less of a hit. However, I liked them and for new it was a good price so I said go for it. He then said he had to find the boxes, and he had no idea where they were and could I pop by in a few days for them! I only work in London maybe once a month and I can't always make the trip so it's just not realistic. So right there he lost £38 because the place is disorganised. I'm sure he could find someone, somewhere to go through it all, catalogue it and set up an online store and he'd making a killing and could get his shop back to something that is managable and somewhere where the average customer could have a good experience. Again, I'm not trying to have a dig at Witek, he seems like a great guy and his heart is 100% in the right place, it's just for me there is no point shopping there if I can never leave with anything.

Hi Dan, Thanks for the honest message! I will pop up - I'm having a bit of railway day on Saturday, so I probably will pop in! Even if it's a small store there are a few things I'm after at the moment that are new so it's worth dropping by for me! Rich

OK - I'm on the other side of the bridge any way so it's not totally out of my way. Is there any second hand stuff?

Awesome - thanks so much for that info! Exactly what I was after!

I'm thinking of driving up to the shop from Bristol at the weekend. Can anyone tell me any more about the shop itself? Frankly is it worth a visit?

A simple question - how long have DRS been on the flasks and who was running them before? Thanks in advance. Rich

I have a nice little video of these trains running on my YouTube channel!