simon b

The only pic I can find of platform 17.

I had a few mins earlier today playing about in the spare room, this is what I had come up with. The 31 and suburbans are sitting in hotel curve platform 16, to left of that are the tracks of platforms 14 and 15. The track leading off the board edge to the right of the 31 is the start of platform 17, but still long enough to hold a loco. If you veiw this from platform 17, the supporting wall of the suburban trainshed forms the back scene. the scenic break at the far end is obviously hotel curve tunnel itself and the covered walkway, and if we extend the culross buildings (walthers parkveiw terrace?) out to where the points are stacked closest the camera, we have a veiw blocker for trains entering or exiting the layout. That board is 2ft x 6ft but it is only using 14" of width for this setup, if you go wider platforms 11, 12, and 13 are then a possibility. points in the pic are all peco large radius. It's quite tempting to make that into a layout myself.....

Thanks for the replies gents. The haulage capacity isnt an issue for me, the loco will only be shunting 3 Bachmann guv's at most. In the ideal world I'd get a Bachmann version, but at half the price the railroad model is tempting.

Just to give you some more to think about. A compressed but convincing model of hotel curve, along with platforms 14 and 15 can be done in 6ft x 14".....

Hi all, I quite fancy getting one of the Hornby railroad (ex Lima) class 40's, but the layout it needs to go on will be laid with the new peco code 75 bullhead track. Does the model still use the Lima deep flange wheels, and will it run on peco code 75? Also how is the slow speed running of this new motor setup? Cheers.

I would say it's well before closure. The repeater signal on the wall of the passenger ramp is there, also the canopy hasn't had the section removed in the middle yet.

Having looked at the height of the buildings that are going to be next to it, I now don't think the supporting walls need any windows. By the time the pitched tile roof is on the two buildings at the front, the canopy wall itself wont be visible. Seems like the station area is turning into a brick canyon.

Agreed. I think it's going to have to be will's sheets, I've just put some will's brick retaining walls along the front of the elevated section so it will all blend in together.

More related to the going's on across from York road station, but hopefully interesting all the same.

Sure, I'll do both.

I've got a copy of that, I'll try to post it on here tonight.

york_1.png That would work well Pete, I've got the temptation to add a suburban platform or two between hotel curve and the main platforms?

I've seen a few layout's with a tube station viewed through the baseboard face, though a model of the hotel curve/maiden lane flat junction would be quite something. I did once think of building the depot from the waterloo and city line, complete with a working hoist from the main station.

Not recently but in the mid 90's, Guinness at park royal used to see long trains of vga cargo wagons come and go. Power at this time seems to have been a 37, 47, or 56. These finished in around 1997 I think, so do fit with the period I'm modeling.

So after a rummage in the scrap box I found a sheet of wills clear corrugated sheet, to me I think it sits about right on the canopy roof. The lower lower row above the valance needs painting in so only the upper row remains clear, a grey of some sort was my first thought. . Also found was a spare wall from the airfix engine shed kit, which isnt too far away from how I pictured things should look. The spacing is wrong for what I need, as in there would be 4 windows vs 3 gable ends, which looks a little odd to me. The other option is some parts from DPM, which are more like the size I need. Anyone got any thoughts on this?

Had a little time yesterday so I've started on the station roof. I was originally going to use a peco overall roof kit, but decided I wanted something different. These are the frames from 3 airfix/Dapol canopy's, stretched using bits from a 4th to make them long enough to reach across both tracks. This will have a wall to support it on both sides with large bricked up windows, no supports on the platform itself. I've not yet decided what the roof will be clad in, but thinking of wills box profile sheets to suggest it has been recovered at some point.

Started building the dmu depot tonight, this is based on the old Hornby hst depot, now sold by guagemaster. I'm very impressed how easily this kit goes together, I got to the point you see in the picture in under an hour. Looking at how visible the interior is when no units are stabled inside, I think I'm going to add a pair of peco inspection pits and various workshop clutter to bring it to life. One thing I wont be using is the doors supplied with the kit. These are a working up and over setup as built, but I 'm going to model some roller shutters and frames on this one.

Thanks Pete. It's amazing the difference a few extra inches makes!

It's update time! The reason for a lack of progress is that I just wasn't happy with the layout, the short platform length and cramped trackwork seemed to get worse the more I looked at it. Also the base board wasn't the best constructed idea, so a few weeks ago I decided to have a redesign. A new bigger, better, baseboard was constructed entirely from 12mm ply. This being a much better design than the 2x1 framing the old board had, feels much more solid too. A size comparison between old and new. The old board was 5.5ft x 16", the new is 6ft x 20". The concept of the layout has remained the same, though with a few small changes. Here is an overview of how things are now. Trains enter the layout from behind the DMU depot as they did before, though this time access to the depot is only from the fiddle yard. The building itself is an old Hornby hst depot, and each road can hold a 3 car dmu on the scenic section. The station platform itself has been lengthened, each road can now easily take a 4 car dmu and looks much more realistic than before. I can now couple dmu's together in the platform to form a peak hour service. The siding at the rear of the layout is a new addition. This serves a print works of some sort, and allows me to do a little shunting giving more operational interest to the layout. Trains of pallet vans or parcel coaches serve the loading dock here, normally hauled by 73's but anything can turn up. There is no runaround loop at the station so trains are top and tailed along the branch, which means a bit of shunting is involved. The station is still elevated above the streets below, although there are a few extra buildings going in now. The yellow looking office building will gain a few extra floors to act as a veiw blocker, this preventing a direct veiw looking along the tracks exiting the layout. And finally an over view from the other end. This new setup looks a lot more realistic to me, much less awkward than before but with more operational interest. Hope you all like the changes I've made,

I'm sure I've seen that marker before, I could be wrong but I think that one is located in the tunnels under smithfeild market.

Far from abandoned I'm pleased to say, just not had time to do a proper update. I'll post some pics of progress soon.

Hi all, I've seen a few of the old wrenn pullman coaches for sale in the blue and grey "Golden arrow" livery, I quite like the look of these for running behind my 71. Obviously being 20+yrs old they are not going to be as accurate as the latest Hornby offerings, but how bad are they? Are the body shells reasonably correct in dimensions?, window placement?, ect, or are they more like the old Hornby "shortie" coaches? Cheers, Simon.

Hi all. I'm looking for a spare Hornby 2hal DMBS bodyshell, preferably complete with glazing. Color dosent matter as it's needed for a conversion. Please get in touch if you can help. Simon.

A little early for the time I'm modeling but I couldn't resist adding a baby deltic to the fleet. I have a class 15 in green with small yellow ends somewhere at home, so I could operate the layout in a late 60's guise should it take my fancy.

I quite fancy repainting one of these into "Jean", resident shunter at the paddock wood Transfesea terminal back in the 90's. Link to a pic on flikr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/36034969@N08/8469292980 Looks like british steel blue would be a good match, the wasp stripes being white instead of yellow is quite interesting.