muddy water

I have tested this and in fact, track 1 to 6 can feed exit C. You can see in the photo below there is a gap at the bottom right hand side of the fiddle yard box, allowing the ‘tail’ to swing round. It is the first sector plate I have made and is a bit rough about the edges, but does function. A wax candle rubbed on the frame and bottom of the sector plate help smooth transition. Thanks for you interest. Any ideas on progressing the scenery?

The canal building contractor has left for the weekend. Hope he comes back on Monday!

The top photo looks like Sheringham station in Norfolk. You just need the road and level crossing fitted in between the two layouts. Then you can represent the North Norfolk Railway!

Well that is the hole cut out for a canal! I can now start putting in the bracing under the baseboards. I had left them out as they always go where a point motor has to go!! You can guess this project has not been fully thought out before I started, but has evolved.

Looking great! I think the seats come from Hornby mk 4 TSO stock. I cut some up to complete a class 155 to 153 conversion.

The old Hornby R071 concrete bridge can still be picked up. Some have solid sides and others open railings. A quick paint and it will look good!

More progress with ideas. A canal between the station area and the yard! Had a canal holiday near Stoke on Trent. There was a lock, just before a railway bridge to drop the canal under the line. Look quite good, so I will give it a go!

Maybe a couple of these? Being serviced during the day time after doing a hard nights out of hours work!

Nice to see a operational layout, with shunting involved. Is there going to be another board to allow the mainline to be accessed at the bottom? I have included an inglenook in my latest layout, Morley Road. They add a bit of interest and give a reason to run freight trains You have just added more photos, so I can see it is now possible, even with a class 40!

Decided to cut out a section and lower it to give different relief. The idea is that the houses gardens back on to the slope of the railway line. Give the people a good view from their bedrooms of the trains!

We are all not immune to mental health problems . As we are all not immune to physical health problems. To keep physically healthy we go to the gym and do exercise. The same is with the brain. A model railway is a great gym for your brain! You could bench press 500Kg or 5Kg equally you could make a model of Clapham Junction or a plate layers hut. Your doctor will advise you to do whatever level keeps you out of his surgery! Just go out there and do some thing that makes you sweat a bit, challenges you a bit and puts a smile on your face when you can then say I have done that!

Nice to see a real railway being run! Are the Tri-ang DMUs lengthened, or still short?

This is what I was thinking about the canal bit!

I have made an N gauge layout 6’x18”. The track is laid and has been tested. It is a sector plate to small station with parcels and also a yard with kick back sidings. It was borrowed from Andy Peters Argyll street layout before he modified the plan to its current state. What I need is inspiration for the scenic side of things. The first picture shows the sector plate (now complete) and the three sidings in front. The second one, the main area with the station at the back and the yard in front of it. I thought to raise slightly the yellow area, drop the red area down. The blue line is a canal with a lock to drop it down to go under the station approach line at the back. The black marks for a mould or view blocker to disguise the entrance to the fiddle yard. If I can avoid the classic bridge, that would be great! Possibly in front of the sector plate a industrial building for the sidings to serve. Any ideas?

https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1230562/Blue-Monday-tips-model-railways-trains Fact, our hobby does us good to stop the world falling apart! I finding modelling can help, I have been known to miss dinner time when I have found the mojo and been engrossed in a project. The other night I was in the garage working on a new project. I had been so distracted, that I came back in at 11pm having just go out to do some wood cutting at 4pm. Luckily dinner was not in the dog! Also I kept warm by the heat of a soldering iron, as there was no radiator! Do other people have similar situations?

Martyn may have seen this post about convert Mk2d BFKs . I bet you could add to it with your experiences!

I have now worked out the track for the station area at the back. Two platforms, one with a run round loop and the other a bay. The run round loop has the extension siding for the odd loco or parcels carriage. The plan is to run various lengths of DMUs, with some units splitting and leaving one behind. (Dummy one!). Parcel trains, which are loaded/unloaded in the bay. One idea is dropping a parcels van and having it continue its journey as tail traffic with a DMU! I have heard this still occurred in the early 1980s. Also diesel hauled three carriage trains. It looks ok with mk1s not to sure with mk2 air cons? The idea of through carriages I think finished in the early 1970s?

Some original Lima virgin class 87s still seem to get a better price than the blue city of London ones. Near £40 rather than £20. Out of interest how much does it cost to do a repaint with transfers?

Great layout ! Are you going to repaint the Limby Virgin class 87 to match the correct grey of the Hornby ones? I know it is cause by them used base yellow plastic with no undercoat.

The guard must have a whole bag load of refund forms! When is the new franchise going to take over?

This is the first sector plate I have made. Why do jigsaws cut straight when you want a curve and curved when you want a straight? I got there in the end to make all roads access the road nearest the edge. Track is wired, but not connected. It will, like the rest of the layout be wired on a cab, common return system. I will have to make a brass tube alignment system to positive lock the three exit tracts and provide power. As this is analogue DC, I need the tracks to be unpowered when not in use. Track has been held down with small screws until I glue down with ballast. This helps with making any changing found in the testing/playing stage. There will be copper clad sleepers on the track ends to maintain alignment.

With servos and ardunio controllers you can make anything move! The car hoist goes up and down. The car transporter lower the car off the ramp and then reloads it. The tipped truck back lifts up. All of these are on a ‘Thomas’ layout. They work by members of the public pushing buttons to active them. It was a basic layout, but has now been used by club members to experiment with different projects and has grown in its following over the years!

Hi! Any photos of your rebuilds? I am very inspired and motivated by the work you do on the carriages.

Class 47 in rail brown! Must be a freight locomotive replacement!