Dbr1295

Thanks Andy. Always appreciate your generous comments. Cheers, Les

Early morning at Wydgate station. Branch carriage waiting in the platform and 7754 coaling up ready for the first train of the day. Cheers, Les

Nice work Steve. I honestly can't see any difference in the paint. Cheers, Les

New Zealand Railways Db class with a selection of rolling stock. How about something African? Cheers, Les

Looks like there has been some pretty thorough planning going on there Andy! Looking forward to seeing how it all develops out. Keep up the good work. Cheers, Les

10 years in the future. No passenger services, 1 goods train a week and the stone train runs twice weekly. Stone train seen here behind D7044. Not long before all services cancelled, and in another 10 years the station building is a café and the old track bed a cycle way.....

That scene is unbelievably outstanding. Fantastic work. Cheers, Les

Hi Andy, Looks good. You've blended in the new scenery so well, it took me a while to work it out that was where the bridge was. Cheers, Les

Hi All, Not much happening on the layout at the moment. A couple of more wagons weathered and some more lineside fencing has been about it. I'll be thoroughly relieved when the fencing all done, it's been driving me bonkers. Anyhow, here's a bunch of pic's I took the other day. In the first few photo's can be seen the newly installed Ratio platform fencing. In the foreground of the same pictures is where the new lineside fencing is going in, just a couple more strands to do. Cheers, Les

Hi Andy, Good to see you working on Hawkinsfield again. Just had a chance to catch up with your latest posts, then have a think about them. The plan itself looks full of potential, but I'm afraid I have to agree with John & Andy P, that the position of that train turntable will cause you grief. I think you won't have enough room to operate the terminus comfortably. Your train room is about the same width as mine, approx. 9 1/2 ft, so I have given a lot of thought about how to maximize that. Unfortunately, my only conclusion so far is that we should have built the room wider! I went back and took a look at your original plan and can think of a couple of ideas (suggestions only, you don't have to take them seriously!) 1) Have Hawkinsfield as the only station on the layout on a double track main line with the storage yard along the opposite side. The branch can terminate in the storage yard so you can operate Hawkinsfield as a junction and marshal up trains for the branch. As the branch station is off scene, it can be imagined to be as big or small as you want, so you could have bigger and more frequent branch trains. 2) Revisit the idea of having the branch climbing to a terminus above the storage yard. The problem would obviously be having to have a steep climb so that the benchwork would clear the trains in the storage yard. You don't have a lot of length for a climb so this may not work, but you could utilize a large draw type arrangement for the storage yards, so that you can get away with minimal clearance above the trains and be able to slide the sidings in & out to handle / make up trains. Somewhere I have a Model Railroader with an article on building something like this. Also I remember that chap over in Cambridge with the automated GWR layout had one. These are only a couple of thoughts. I'm sure with your ability for careful planning you'll come up with a solution. Cheers, Les

Many thanks. The layout has certainly exceeded my expectations in that it ended up being much more than the "quickie" I set out to make. Being able to share progress on RM Web has, I think, given me extra impetus and additional enjoyment creating it. So, a big thanks to all those who read, like, comment and follow my ramblings as I build this thing! Cheers, Les

Hi All, Past few sessions in the train room have been spent wiring up the lineside fencing with Ezi-line. What a mission, but worth it as it looks much better now that the fencing is there. Still more to do along the front, but I might be short of posts to finish that. Also spent time painting the platform fencing, which is the Ratio product. I shall share a few photos of that once it's done and in place. Anyhow, here's a few photos to finish off the weekend. Prairie tank 4573 shunting. Pulling an empty van from out the goods yard and into the loading bay opposite the station building, for loading with milk churns. Next shot is a bit interesting. While the shutter was open I was waving a lamp around to try to reduce shadows, but I think it's given a nice impression of a blackening sky and approaching rain. The tree is still to be bedded in, as I sometimes remove it while working on the scenery in this area. Finally, photo taken later in the day with 7754 wheezing its way out of the loco shed, past the water tank and coal stage. Cheers, Les

The Db's were rather a noisy beasty and were the predominant power on the Cambridge branch during the seventies and early eighties. We used to live several miles away from the Cambridge yard, but you could hear them quite clearly as they went about shunting. Db1018 was the class leader, originally Db 1000. Note the yellow cab doors, maybe someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but I understand that these were to signify a modified exhaust in an attempt to quieten them. I do remember it had a "box" on the roof above the exhausts. Cheers, Les

Hi All, Wet weekend over here, so a productive time was spent in the train room. 2 packets of Ratio fence posts painted and platform top painted. Finally found a colour I'm happy with, Tamiya neutral grey. Gives a nice asphalt colour. Possibly could do with another coat and needs to be weathered. Here's a couple of pics with 9028 on a passenger train. And here's a pic showing practically the entire layout. Slowly getting there. Painting the platform certainly has made a big difference. Cheers, Les

Andy, The posts are Ratio and some scratch built. The strainers are from tooth picks. I painted the Ratio posts with greys and browns almost in a dry brush manner. I use a stiff brush which gives the wood grain effect. The posts along side the loco shed are the ones I made myself when I ran short of the ratio ones. They're made from "matchsticks" as sold for crafting in the Warehouse I think, or a $2 store. I just made exact copies of the Ratio posts using a razor saw and mitre box with a stop in it to do the grooves for the strands. This ensured that they were consistent, though I wasn't very consistent in lining up the wire in the grooves all the time. I put a couple of coats of stain on them to colour them. The problem I had, was that the wood used to make these was rubbish, splintered and broke easily, and not many were straight or even had a square section. I've now got more Ratio ones on order to finish off. If I make more I would need to use a better quality wood or plastic strip. I used Ezy-line to represent the wire strands, and this is brilliant. I found someone on Trade Me who was selling it. Glues well with super glue and is pretty hardy when you stretch it. I originally tried thin wire and cotton and these just wouldn't stick to the posts at all well. I even tried melting the wire into the posts with a soldering iron. I did a short section using wire by the over bridge, and this doesn't look too good as the wire's not taunt enough. Looking forward to seeing how the new concept works out. Enjoy the SI trip. Cheers, Les

Engine shed as seen from the field alongside.

Thanks Andy. Great day on Saturday. No worries with the help, enjoyed myself. Apart from a few hick-ups, the layout ran really well. Very impressed how smoothly it ran. The Kadees certainly got me thinking. Not sure with the current project, but maybe something in the future... Not too wet over there I hope. Cheers, Les

Following on from last Sundays pics of the auto train, here's some photos of 5819 following it with the branch goods. Cheers, Les

Sunday afternoon auto train at Wydgate. Sitting at the platform waiting for customer. 6417 is the motive power. 5819 coaling before leaving with the branch goods later this afternoon. Auto train off up the branch on its journey to Wyd Junction, passing 5819 simmering away. Finally a look across to Albert Walter the coal merchants yard where the undergrowth seems to be a bit more unkempt since our last visit. Cheers, Les

A few more pictures taken this evening. Managed to get some fencing done and sowed some grass today. Cheers, Les

For sure Andy. Will you have Stackton Magna on display?

Hello all, Latest bit of work done is the coaling stage for the small loco depot. This is based on a photo I found on the web by doing a search on GWR coal stages, I guesstimated the sizes based on the picture and made it pretty much the same but about 25% shorter. The picture only showed the trackside so the back was bit of a guess. Construction is from wooden ice block sticks cut into planks with a razor blade, and glued together with PVA. The metal strapping is from thick paper/thin card with bolt heads punched in with an old set of dividers. The whole lot was stained with dark oak and the strapping painted leather. Coal from Woodland Scenics added and weathered with black powders. I've also had to perform surgery on the platform top to narrow it by 1mm. When I fitted it I tried to make the gap between platform and stock as small as possible, I checked that there was enough clearance for all stock I was planning to run on the layout. Unfortunately I had since purchased a Dukedog, and the coupling rods on this didn't clear the platform overhang. I didn't want to undo all the work I had done with the platform edging, so the only remedy was to remove the top and slice it up the centre and remove the mm. Anyhow, here's some pics. Cheers, Les

Hi Kevin, Loving the work you've done on this layout. Regarding printing white on decals, you can get white decal paper. I've got some brought here in NZ by an American company called Hobbycal, but no doubt there will be something available in the UK. Cheers, Les

Very, very nice. Thanks for posting. Cheers, Les

Hi all, Some pictures of 5819 bringing in the daily goods train. First picture 5819 brings the train to a halt at the home signal. Signalman pulls the lever to clear (actually Les gropes awkwardly under the baseboard to move the little lever at the same time as taking the photo) and the train begins to move forward into the loop. The train passes the loco shed and draws to a halt in the loop. As you can see I have acquired one of the Hatton 58xx's. There has been a lot of negative comments about this model in the dedicated thread. And I began to get a little nervous as I waited for my one. My thoughts so far? It's a loco that I believe I require to run on the type to branch my layout is attempting to represent. I do already have the Airfix 14xx but I don't use it as it runs like a 3 legged dog. This model has some nice finely moulded details on it. Some comments have been made about the recessed number plate and lack of ashpan and yes these are noticeable. Though the number plate is no worse then printed ones on other models and with my eyes it doesn't worry me and I can easily fabricate the ashpan. Another criticism is about the oversize wheels. For my needs this doesn't matter and I can't see it. So visibly, to my in-expert eyes it looks pretty much like what I have seen in photos in books. As for running qualities, once a lubed it as per instructions and ran it up and down for near on half an hour, it does run ok, though my recent Bachmann models do run better. However, it does show up all the deficiencies in my near on 20 year old track work, which other models seem to be more forgiving with. Summing up it's a model which looks good and to my eyes looks the part. It runs OK and is a loco which I think has been missing from my stud. For $155NZ and 6 days from Liverpool to Ngahinapouri I'm not complaining. Cheers, Les Oh, and I did have to line up the sandpipes with the wheels.