muddy water

Now you are educating me! I knew about MEA (ex HEA) and MRA auto ballasters (Bachmann). But, I have missed out on all the other M type wagons, which appear to be rebodied various other old wagons.I guess most of these are from early 2000s onwards. I try and stay with one era (80s/90s) But, find pictures online of interesting trains and end up have multiple eras!!

Great to see your progress! Are the canopy support columns 2" nails? At least they will not get snapped off!

Hi! Great ldea! Does the traverse have bracing underneath? (Photos please!) Are you using drawer runners mounted on their sides? Are you going to have a locking mechanism? Does it only work within its foot print? i.e. track 2 can not access track 1 loco siding. Will you put thin sides on the moving traverse, for protection and to move it? You could always fix a thin ply sheet underneath, to protect against accidents! Good luck, I will be watching development!

Hi! What time period are you looking at? Yards are used to assembly trains to go out and repair/ replaced ballast and track. So one train will have fresh ballast in hopper wagons.Another empty wagons to collect the old ballast and rails. Bogie bolsters for the new track sections. Cranes to remove track and replace it. So you will need a fresh ballast siding with a stock pile of ballast (virtual quarry) with an excavator to load/unload.The ballast would arrive in large bogie box wagons from the quarry. Be unloaded in to a pile till it is needed. Hopper wagons would then be loaded up for replacing ballast directly on the track at the work site. Another siding would be for all the waste material brought back from the work site to be sorted. I am guessing the new track panels would come direct from the factory and might just be held in another siding till the job is ready to be started. Most track replacement takes place over the weekend. So Friday will have all the relevant trains being assemblied. Saturday and Sunday the trains going out, then returning to load/unload.On Monday after completing the work and handing back the track for the service trains (No over running engineering work, please!!!). The yard would start sorting the waste material, replenishing ballast and sending any defective wagons away for repair. They may be some differences depending on your time period. I have not worked on the railways,so I am sure they are others who can supply more detailed information. ENJOY!

Great progress in only one day!Is it going to based on any location?

Great to see you are using your modelling skills to give this locomotive a new life! There seems like there are to many box openers waiting for their next model to be made for them! I hope you do not get rid of your modified class 156 for the fancy new one! (Though good luck to new model manufacturers)

I heard somewhere that a diluted solution of pva glue was good to paint over the plastic to give it a better surface to paint. Great use of figures, especially the bomb fitter! Nice historic figures. How did you make the gentleman’s hat? This is the parallel area of military modelling where people focus on figures rather than locomotives! (Well maybe the odd tank or two, depending on your time period)

Everyone talks about that they scratch build pantographs. That is great, but the rest of us will need dimensions and what materials they used. Can anyone post a build of what they have made. I have a number of Hornby class 86s and Lima 87s which were obtained with pantographs missing. I am after Stone Fairley and Brecknell Willis high speed types.

Everyone talks about that they scratch build pantographs. That is great, but the rest of us will need dimensions and what materials they used. Can anyone post a build of what they have made. I have a number of Hornby class 86s and Lima 87s which were obtained with pantographs missing. I am after Stone Fairley and Brecknell Willis high speed types. Thanks

Looking at the Luftwaffe set, you get a lot of fitters for a maintainance shed. Though I do not know where bombs are fitted on DMUs!

Maybe I should save them for Hitachi class 800 trains? The Africa Korps will drive Siemens class 350 EMUs. I will have to find some French troops for Alstom’s class 390! Might hold off on the British paras. Don’t need any bridges blowing up yet!

A lot of diesel and electric locomotives come without drivers. So I was looking to fill this gap with some plastic solders I had got from a bargain store. That would be a bit to large to stand on the platform, but suitably hacked about would fit in the drivers seat. They are Japanese with a peaked hat and once any rifles, mortar bombs or swords are removed, could pass for 70/80s train crew. The next stage is to paint them up and see how they turn out.

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/38524-nse-mk2a-coach-interior-seat-colours/ Check out this thread for painting the seats. Also the addition of some people will help. Even if they are modified airfix soldiers(without their rifles of course!!!)

A great source of information and detail! Even if you are not modelling Warrington!

Great idea! Will the dimensions be 2’2” x9’? It is good to know what is achievable in n gauge for curves.

Fantastic! Where did you get the pantograph from for the class 313? I think the producer of the class 313 will have to include a link to your page when he sends out the parts!

This gives a link to a picture of first class it is in a mk3 hst coach , but you are using them as mk3a loco haul stock. They are similar at this point in time for your liveries. https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=flickr+mk3+coach+seat&client=safari&hl=en-gb&prmd=isvn&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&fir=y__dyEOkh5vTCM%253A%252C0wMACi7Qj4RzXM%252C_%253Baxm7fTuegx1p5M%253A%252C2zQd5yW_9QkXZM%252C_%253BIal9Pu26eqPKjM%253A%252ChStrN5j4RTMy1M%252C_%253BAJnLrZKmWucCdM%253A%252CjbOR838eT7It7M%252C_%253BPee9Kv4PLfpSOM%253A%252C2zQd5yW_9QkXZM%252C_%253BSebVv2MeaAOWRM%253A%252CCh8NcEyiqXvjtM%252C_%253BZ5doRvRXb4KVBM%253A%252C6PziXdK8xq8fsM%252C_%253BXjB73GaFwLmC0M%253A%252CBs9USeluNv6MFM%252C_%253BdqJZwTUIIoM56M%253A%252CBs9USeluNv6MFM%252C_%253BVao_pyKgBNhNdM%253A%252CBs9USeluNv6MFM%252C_&usg=__QXCV8iXOMiDpr7h_G-SAYfu3rJ4%3D&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiZ9dqG9bXbAhUoD8AKHbihBEEQ7AkIJQ&biw=414&bih=622#imgrc=cSTxSqiaqKiBXM:

Hi! Great start ! Love canal! If the track is not fixed yet, it would be better to solder the electrical connections to the bottom of the track where they are not seen. If needs be practice on some scrap track first. Protecting the platform with cling film or thin bits of card held with small bits of blue tac. Keep up in the good work!

https://www.flickr.com/photos/treflyn/7826667794/in/photolist-czsr9S-cLtb6A-pFBTsR-nuT5TE-q3J7To-Dgv5Yp-cVBHEb-pCAFzG-eW1bHC-hupURe-oc7xr8-6BHb7w-hjFU8B-JUk6YY-pzKdwM-huaijF-g2qWxY-ECvQLp-ofCiqP-fknrG8-dgWHKW-bmu95A-JUk3yS-bVowas-j9QvQ7-cFaRmA-euHymC-fe4ULu-pRxfSb-9VmbQo-66vP9Q-dm9PnR-WuwWyU-cqr2Xd-j9N2o2-gtM7Su-i4kSNY-edXKQL-6BD1xK-rcNW5W-HE4VT3-Ydp1m8-czxzzb-hHhKUk-Kb4cR7-6BHdgh-9z7XC1-ovdQua-X6Bwen-9Gj8Mn Ok I could not find the 2+2 hst, so here is a 2+1 hst instead!

https://www.flickr.com/photos/42802953@N03/16642574604/in/photolist-rmDxBs-sgFaur-exT2yg-qtWaVP-RJGdWv-9M3WTk-f5CVuR-acMJqM-52LViD-f6diiD-aLg9bM-bPkF7p-W7vfMW-qBQ5BX-nuT5TE-UKhD6b-e5tBGw-nRbFL5-FGj5vG-f5VDew-nzR1Wp-6PLhmT-bGGecn-pwXgH3-81JCL1-aVx3nF-T2gkZm-huaijF-81FtLe-k5ba4t-4qPqKQ-aCvm8Q-e5u7m3-aVt1ce-8jJTWE-7witeh-22P5hxH-sodfxu-rvCEBq-VkYhh2-UTWDL4-aEjP9H-4cbrUS-RNg258-dNt7d5-fqmNm3-9QeeXq-foCuHT-cVBHEb-dWcRe8 This is the new hst parcel service!

Hornby and Lima have been doing this for years! Not many people have two motorised power cars in their hst sets!

I think most of the new seats have been taken for a Hornby mk 4 coach!

I might be wrong on the 2+2, but they have run 2+3, when a 2+4 set had a faulty coach!

What doe it do at journey end? Have they installed a return loop at Penzance? Hope they get the wiring correct!

Just read in the prototype railway magazines that the Midland mainline might be having Mk 4 coaches with hst power cars to run services in the future. Also short hst 2+4 and 2+5 units will be used in Cornwall and Scotland. This is something you would normally see on a child’s layout or with someone who has not done their research. Is the real railways doing research through the model press to get ideas on how to run the railways?