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Thanks! I'm using Bachmann Class 170 wheels :)

Thanks! The glazing is 1mm CNC cut acrylic - will be about the last thing to go in after the livery's painted.

Thanks Graham, much appreciated 👍

Thanks mate, much appreciated! :)

Really kind comment, many thanks! Grove Park is exactly the look and feel I'm going for with the storage yard so I'm really glad that's come through. It wasn't initially meant to be a scenic area but when I filmed some of the cab ride videos for youtube I realised it would make quite an interesting scenic project! The boards could probably hold about twice the number of lines if I squeezed them up more efficiently, but I've purposefully not done that as want to put a bit of scenic detail/access platforms between them eventually. Thanks for your comments on the EMUs as well - possibly due to the area I'm modelling, EMUs form the backbone of the fleet but I one of the reasons I chose Sevenoaks to model is that it gets a lot of loco hauled stuff as well - freight and railtours. That said I need to stop acquiring stock now and concentrate a bit more on the scenics again! Tim

Happy 'last week in April' to everyone and hope you're all keeping well! Just a brief update this evening on what's been going on with the layout. Focus has shifted back to rolling stock for a bit, and a few weeks back I took the plunge and bought some 3d printed parts from CMAC model railways, to create a Class 700. This is my second attempt at creating a 700, the first of which was using my own 3d printed parts from Shapeways a few years ago. It kind of screeched to a halt back then, as I ran out of money, and my build method was far too complicated. Fast forward a few years, and CMAC has come to the rescue with some very affordable and accurate 3d prints that frankly are far superior to my efforts! I've had the parts for 2 or 3 weeks now, and it's been nice having a new project to get stuck into. It's been making fairly steady progress and while I do have some concerns about the bogies, overall I'm pleased with how it's coming together. So far I have 3 coaches that are at final primer stage and ready for livery application and glazing. This includes the motor coach, which borrows the running gear from a Bachmann Turbostar. Here's a few shots of what's been going on over the last few weeks - comments and feedback most welcome as always! I'm building a 5 coach unit, which is dictated by the length of my platforms. This means the formation will be DMCO-PTSO-MSO-PTSO-DMCO. This is one of the PTSOs at primer stage, sitting on bogies. The bogies for the Class 700 have inside bogie frames, which are becoming more common on modern stock. The CAF Mk5 coach also uses this arrangement. Another unrelated addition to the layout was this Enviro, which I thought would make a good 'Replacement Bus Service'. Here it is sitting in the up-side carpark awaiting disgruntled passengers. One of the DMCOs with the first pantograph coach behind, sitting in the storage sidings. A new addition this week was the motor coach, which will be the centre coach of the unit. It's going to be shuttling back and forth between Platform 4 and the storage sidings, rather than going round and round, so I thought a central driving coach would be more reliable for this. This is the motor chassis with the Bachmann motor and bogies mounted. Additional custom parts were needed to allow the bogies to be mounted to the CMAC chassis piece. All three currently 'rolling' coaches sitting in the storage sidings this evening. And lastly something a bit different - I couldn't resist picking up another Dapol Class 73, as Rails currently have them on offer at a very good discount! I haven't actually chipped it yet but I'm primed and ready for the well known pick-up issues. Aside from that, the detail and paintjob are very impressive. Weathering and detailing to follow once I've made sure it doesn't need to go back! 😂 Thanks for looking, sorry this is a bit of a long winded one but hope it's of interest and comments/suggestions welcome as always! Tim

It's 2.5mm.

Hi all, I'm currently working on kit building a Class 700 for my Sevenoaks layout, using CMAC's wonderful bodyshells and chassis parts. All is going well, except I am anticipating difficulties with smooth and reliable running, due to the unique arrangement of the bogies. Class 700s, as with the new Mk5 coaches, have 'inside frame' bogies. While the parts supplied by CMAC for the frames are superb, it's proving difficult to get the wheelsets to run freely within the frames, so I'm looking around to see if there are any bearings I could use to improve the running. I'm a complete novice when it comes to wheelsets and bearings, having never actually scratch built a coach this way before. As such I'm hoping someone might have some ideas or be able to point me in the right direction! I've attached a couple of pics of the bogie frames as they come, and one in assembled form, to give an idea of the challenge! Would welcome any pointers, Tim

This is true! Rail tours give us reasons to buy all sorts of stuff :) I've managed to resist the temptation so far with these, but so much amazing stuff coming out now - I've got to suppress that FOMO! 😂

I hadn't thought to look at the accurascale thread but will take a look. Nevertheless they look like superb coaches with incredible detail! I am glad in a way that I've limited my layout to a particular location otherwise it would be impossible to resist buying a few of these! 😂

Those Accurascale Mk2s look lovely. The close coupling in particular is most impressive. I've seen a few pics and videos of the WCR ones and can't help wondering if the shade of red may be a bit bright, but it's probably the light! I have a very similar Class 33 in WCR colours :)

Thanks very much! :)

Thanks mate! Appreciate that - more updates on the 700 coming soon :)

Hi all, hope you're all keeping well? Sorry for the lack of updates here, but I wanted to wait until there was a decent/interesting collection of things before posting! The biggest thing I think is the extension of the fiddle yard to include 3 extra sidings, and also the resurfacing and fencing to the upside/season ticket carpark. In the past few weeks and months there's also been some fleet updates and developments, more details of which are included below! :) GBRF's 73119 seen powering through platform 3, as the Networker sits waiting its next assignment! Another shot of the new addition to the fleet, GBRF's 73119 - this was a Hornby Class 73 with added weathering and detailing. I'm really pleased with how it's come out, and I love these old Hornby/Lima 73s! A wide view shot of the new fiddle yard, with the Networker/VEP/33 occupying the new lanes to the right Another view of the new yard Elsewhere work has continued on the up-side of the station, with resurfacing and fencing, as well as parking space markings, adding to the scene Work continues to get the Networker running smoothly and reliably under DCC - this has proved to be a challenge, but here's a shot of it sitting in Platform 2, with the new illuminated destination display A more atmospheric shot of the Networker, with a figure from modelU taking centre stage! And this week - the latest rolling stock project begins with these superb 3d prints from CMAC models. Lots of work ahead, but I'm hoping this will be the new 'EMU in residence' for platform 4 😂 Thanks for looking - some of you may already know we're also on Instagram now, @Sevenoaks_OO - please feel free to follow us on there for regular updates. As always comments, questions and criticism most welcome! Tim

Well weathered work horses! Are they Bachmann models?

I love that bridge! Looks like a superb layout in the making there, looking forward to seeing it develop 👍

I haven't bothered with twisted pairs for droppers but have with some of the lighting. Interesting discussion around 'cross talk', it's not really something I know much about but to be aware of!

Ha ha! Yes I totally empathise with that last point. I like to call it the 'Heathrow effect' where it started off in some semblance of order, and over time descended into complete chaos 😂 I finally bit the bullet over the weekend and ripped out everything except the droppers themselves, and have got rid of tons of excess wiring in the process. WAGOs are definitely the way to go, and I've also found those self adhesive cable tie mounts really handy for threading bus wires through. It's still a rats nest but a slightly more organised one! I did have one additional circuit providing power for both lighting and signals, but I am going to separate that into two separate circuits just to keep things more manageable and to help with problem solving.

Hi Joe, Thanks for your post and pics - that's a great method and funnily enough it's very similar to the one I've ended up using. I love Wagos and am now replacing all my choc block connectors with them! So much easier and tidier. I share your liking for screw in hooks as well, making good use of them :)

You could try contacting the TOC, although I think nowadays they are much more cautious about providing plans of public places or transport facilities for obvious reasons. For the same reason I think you generally will not find plans of railway stations uploaded to planning portals, but sometimes the footprint of the buildings may appear in block plans for neighbouring properties so it's worth doing a search for any properties nearby just in case.

I'm guessing it was a cost consideration - you wouldn't really want to waste decent bullhead track on non-scenic areas. Much easier and cheaper to get job lots of old 100 track for use in sidings and return loops etc.

I too was very interested to see Richard's results from using the chinchilla sand - it looks just as good, if not better than the WS grey blend. Interesting to see the problem you had with the cracking though - could you go over those areas with another sprinkling of ballast and a bit of diluted pva after it's dried maybe? Let's hope the manufacturers don't catch onto this, or the price might go up! 😂

I love that worn out and faded billboard sign!

Hello to all and hope you're all surviving the perils of late winter weather! Bring on Spring :) Apologies for the lack of updates - progress has been a bit slower in recent weeks and I've lost a bit of mojo after working solidly on the station area for some time. I thought it would be a good idea to move away from that and onto actual running of trains - so a couple of the locos and units that have sat sadly dormant since the move to DCC have been the networkers, and also my Dapol Class 73. The latter has been a long running challenge, and having replaced the PCB and decoder, I was about to give up on it completely when someone on Instagram pointed me towards a pickup upgrade. Well, all I can say is, after adding some wiper pickups to the bogies, it's a changed loco and runs like a dream. Really good to have it back on the layout at last! The other return to the layout is the Southeastern Class 465, which has undergone a complete chassis transplant, and is now running with a Bachmann motor and bogies from a Class 170. Even with the re-motoring, the weight of the diecast chassis on the two intermediate coaches was too much, so I ended up having to remove some chunks of the underframes to get the weight down. Finally it seems to be a reliable and consistent runner, and I'm hoping to replicate this treatment for the NSE one, when funds allow. Anyway, enough of the waffle, and here's a youtube video with a few clips from February. Hope you enjoy! :)

Absolutely stunning James. Really appreciate you sharing your techniques on here.