BlueLightning

Afraid so, gutted to have to cancel, direct contact for refunds will be happening this week, in the meantime you can see the announcement here: https://www.traintimesmodelshop.co.uk/blogs/news/train-times-announces-cancellation-of-our-exclusive-rapido-trains-uk-lb-scr-e1 We've got some other bits in the works that may interest both of you though! Gary

Hi Stephen, Yes, we are very disappointed too, we had been very excited about this project. I believe you are correct about 113 being the only engine correct for 1918, it was also the only engine correct for my under construction exhibition layout, so I will also be repainting another version at some point. We will be contacting everyone this coming week to arrange return of deposits paid. Gary

Unfortunately take up on these was very low, leading us to have to cancel our involvement Gary Train Times Model Shop https://www.traintimesmodelshop.co.uk/blogs/news/train-times-announces-cancellation-of-our-exclusive-rapido-trains-uk-lb-scr-e1

Thanks Gary, Yes the layout is coming on nicely and is quite exciting, have started work on the London Road turntable kit now, will be nice to get that in! The sound is great, it was a Zimo chip supplied by YouChoos, I spoke to them at Ally Pally and knew exactly what it needed and supplied the chip, speaker, and instructions to fit it, I thought it was going to be a lot harder than it was given the size of the loco! Gary

Well I should probably update this slightly more often, I've being doing some work on the underside of the layout recently, and a bit of work on one of my terriers, meaning this happened the other day! (Make sure you have sound on) I'm very happy with how this is all going, I'd best get some couplings on my Hornby not Stroudleys! Thanks for looking, hope you enjoyed, Gary

That'd be for when my daughter has chips, quantity looks about right too 😛

Always a fun job, we used to build all our machines so that we could have them to our spec (and to save money as the school were quite tight when it came to IT) which meant a few weeks of assembling parts before the holidays and testing them, I got quite good at that and could assemble a box from scratch and have it turned on in under 10 minutes! About 15 years ago we ripped out all the switches, ran a fibre backbone and put in switches capible of 10Gb, which seemed like a lot at the time, although probably not these days given the amount of PCs schools have these days! Everything is less offensive than tension locks 🤣 and I understand why people use Kadees, As you know I use Smiths 3/Screw links at home on the 00, and then I use Spratt and Winkle at club where I am a P4 modeller (I keep telling them they should go all the way and use proper couplings since it's P4, but they don't listen 🤣)

That used to be my bread and butter, back when I was a Network Manager I loved the holidays, because we could do exactly that, then in September everyone would come back and not notice a thing (always thank your IT staff for their work, they never hear it, but they do appreciate it 😛) Mine are 16 and 13 (14 next week) they tend to stay out the way, and occasionally I can get away with paying them a fiver to clean up after I've made a mess cutting holes in baseboards and running new plug sockets, makes the job much easier 😁 Pictures look great though (well other than the giant Kadees, practical but ugly 😛) Gary

Well it's been a while since I updated here hasn't it! FIrst off, I took one of my test prints from the inspection/ash pit into club and can confirm that C&L rail fits the chiars quite nicely, so although I havent gotten around to converting them to EM or P4 yet, I will be doing so. Now, back to the layout The shed got inspection and ash pits on both lines, and I'm glad it did, as it does look good! and with that done, I turned my attention to the water tower, which as you'll remember has been represented by Oak Hill 1's old tower until recently, to make the tower to the height I wanted I decided I would try and print it, unsure if my laptop would be able to manage designing it, never mind fitting it on the printer! The laptop just about survived drawing it, and it just fit on the printer, but the test print sprayed with some brick red and placed next to the shed does look good (even if it needs a new tank, and windows) Happy with that end of the layout for now, I went and had a play with the station end and got the platforms in place, these are the Peco platform fronts faced with SE Finecast embossed bricks, behind them the bulk of the platform is ply left over from the baseboard construction, and filled with polyfiller to bring it upto hieght, I still have to do the surfaces, but I am happy with how it looks so far, the buildings are sunk in by 1-2mm so no gaps under those either! and I finally placed an order with London Road Models, so I now have the Cowans Sheldon 42' turntable which will allow me to finish the tracklaying properly! I got the full kit from them, with the vacuum formed well and motorisation kit. then finally yesterday the jigsaw came back out, and the well found it's way into the baseboard To do this I cleared out under the layout so that I didn't cover everything with sawdust, so it seemed as good a time as any to run some new plug sockets under the layout, so now there is a set of plugs where I want the controls, handy that, suppose it can't be too long until I have trains running now! Thanks for looking, hope you enjoyed, Gary

Looking good! Going to be great once the embankment is finished! My failed prints look very different to yours! 😛 Gary

Fantastic idea for a livery if you ask me 😛

Not for those of us who own model shops and want to order scenics it's not, Gaugemaster tell me this new range will be fantastic, I tell them it would have been nice if they had kept the old range until it arrived 😛 I love both the Hattons Generics and Hornby Stroudley's for different reasons, so far I haven't got any Hattons ones for myself (I would have if they had done a better job at SECR livery) and I also approve of Kernow, I have friends at their Guildford store, very nice bunch of people Good plan, a single lump of coal will sort your modelling needs for years, and they'll be more than happy to let you have one (Well, the bluebell have always been nice when I've asked anyway) Very busy recently, mostly in good ways, so I can't complain, got some very exciting things in the pipeline I've got 8 on order for myself, so I approve of getting another one 🤣 I am starting to feel a bit YouTube-y again, and have even spent some time sorting the recording studio out this week, so keep an eye out, I don't think it'll be long before I return. Gary

Does that incluse the costs of converting it for disabled access though? I don't expect those lifts the Blubell use are cheap. Gary

Save those for next month when Gaugemaster have released their new rebranded Noch Scenic range Sounds like a trip to a preserved line is in order, nothing looks more like coal than coal, and smashing it up ican be theraputic 🤣 Gary

As a retailer I've heard nothing about the cranes since I got a price list from Oxford with them on last July, usually listing them on the price list means they are close, the fact it's been a year and we've had nothing else does worry me. Gary

Some of us go there quite often, and that colour you've got looks quite good to me, maybe slightly too light, but very close. Evidently, there are still sections of the shingle branch buried where they were, the line was never lifted and just sank over time, an archaeological dig a few years ago found large sections of it still in tact. Gary

There was indeed, on the Hatton's Genesis thread IIRC. My model shop offers a 3D printing service, using an AnyCubic Photon Ultra DLP printer, which can give detail levels that are very close to injection moulding. I also have an Elegoo Mars, a Mars Pro, and soon a Jupiter, meaning there is a range of printers available. Printing is charged at £3 per hour print time, there are additional fees for setting up files (if needed, a pre supported STL being sent over avoids this cost) and removing supports (again optional, most people opt to remove the supports themselves) Since you asked, and therefore I can advertise, the shop can be contacted on traintimestoo@gmail.com or by phone on 01323 722026 during our opening hours if you want to discuss it further and on the web here https://www.traintimesmodelshop.co.uk/

I would agree with Compound that the same can be said for most aspects of modelling, in this case, I knew it would fail before I printed it, I wanted to try some settings on the printer I wouldn't usually touch, and had a file that would show the results well enough even though it wasn't suitably prepared. The results of the test were that I won't be touching those settings again, the improvement I got from them was not enough to justify the extra time spent printing. So that was very much a case of learning the machine more, and improving my own skill set with the software associated with it. Gary EDIT: I should add that under the proper settings that I set the file up for I have printed many many copies of it just fine, and learning how to setup the prints didn't take long, 99% of my files don't need tweaking after initial setup.

Printing services at my shop at £3 per hour of print time (Plus postage), we don't charge cost for the resin as it is generally minimal anyway, I would imagine for a Genesis roof it would be 2 or 3 hours on the printer, so not massive costs. Not an advert, just trying to add to the costs of printing argument. and detail can be quite impressive, this axlebox is 4mm, the layer lies are invisible with the naked eye. this is a failed test print, so ignore the wobbliness of the solebar above, and the extra material on the bottom of the springs Gary

I dunno, Fusciardi's (Now called Gelato Famoso Ice Cream Parlour after a change of ownership) on the seafront wins it for me, and only a 10 second walk from Thayer's. Maybe I'll have to try both again just to be sure 😛 Gary PS. Model shop with 2 ice cream parlours within 2 minutes walk? Clearly Train Times has to be worth a visit for that alone 🤣 (Again I own the shop and may be slightly biased)

I can second this recommendation, and not just because I own the shop 😛 Gary

It's alright I'll know who to charge for any damage 🤣

I see, stealing the display models for your own pictures when I'm not in the shop 😛

Fantastic stuff, no need to be sorry about the thread-jack! Gary

If it makes you feel better, I had a 13 hour one do that to me on Monday Gary