Powerhaul 70 Pey

Looking good. Following this.

Here is another view of the cutting. Below is a photo of the T junction as the terraced houses and the roads will end on each side of the board. The pub and service station will be used here. The railway line in below street level here in the tunnel.

Good evening. Not much to update as I have run out of track and metcalfe builders sheets. I found some spare paint in the cupboard from my son's bedroom so I have painted the back boards blue until I decide whether to get a back scene or not. I've done a little more ballasting by the tunnel and cutting. It is a lovely time of year and the rhodedendrons are in bloom!

A good start here and I will follow the progress.

Considering you don't like scenery Jack you have done a great job. It looks great and the signals are brilliant. Keep the updates coming.

2 buddleia plants I made this morning growing in the ballast among some railway junk. The buddleia closest to the class 60 has a mix of purple and blue crayon gratings which I thinks looks better. Whether it looks like buddleia or rosebay willowherb I am not too sure but both are found in abundance along railway lines so i am happy enough to keep making them. Other than that, not too much achieved today. Done a tiny bit more blasting, a set of dropper wires near the tunnel are wired up and painted a few more Preiser people.

Having followed this tread for some time I have taken inspiration of other modellers on here to try and make my own buddleia from some wire, green scatter and crayons! 1st one positioned at the end of the platform. I need to look at my photos of end of platforms to see what the vegetation grows like in the ballast. I am not sure if the colour is more like Rosebay Willowherb. Either way both are found in abundance by the railway! One at the end of the platform and one by the signal box.

Good afternoon. Following on from my last post here are a few photos of the tunnel and rock cutting with Freightliner 66952 working out and back with a coal working. Note the McDonald's billboard on the end terraced house. This morning I had a go at making some homemade Buddleia plants as they are seen on various parts of the railway network. I will get some photos of them soon.

Hello. Not much to report today but I did decide to fill in the largish gap that I have due to platform 2/3 in between the 2 pairs of lines coming into the station. It just needs blending in when I ballast the remaining cork but I am waiting for cable trucking at location boxes. I had a bit of a brain wave and decided to power the track with independent wires and use the disused track as a programming track. I have some nice 2 pin Deutsch plugs that I will attach to the end of the wires soldered into the underside of the track. I will also have a plug on the main bus wires. I will fit a plug to the end of my controller and then if I am running trains plug into the bus wires and if I need to program a loco disconnect from the bus wires and into programming track plug. I have also painted the rock cutting after applying some more poly filler and applied some vegetation to the top of the tunnel but this area if the layout is dark so I need the proper camera to get a decent photo.

Thunderer looks great on that rake of wagons. Great photos, especially Thunderer and the Colas 70.

Looks great so far. I am following.

Good evening. Here is a better photo of the tunnel in the cutting after some vegetation was added. The DRS 68 came out to play today. I need to do some vegetation above the tunnel next. Other jobs to do in this area are ballast in between tracks and there are some dropper wires that need attaching to the bus wires. I am really struggling to get materials to press on with certain areas of the layout. There are no metcalfe builders sheets available and I have nearly run out of track that I kept from my last layout. As the fiddle yard is 9 tracks and over 7ft long to house 6 freightliner hha coal hoppers and 2 locos I have little track left. It seems the nation have taken up railway modeling or baking during lockdown!

So much information , thank you very much for your time to do this!

Good evening. Not the best photo below I am afraid but this is the tunnel portal and rock cutting at the back of the terraced houses. It's tight but it's a compromise to fit it all in. I might do some vegetation tomorrow in this area. Below is the 1 in 75 gradient I am hoping to have. This will be where the train exits the tunnel and will head through some farm land I think. The 2 buildings you can see are the rear of the service station on the left and the white building is the pub. Remember that they are on a T junction and the roads will end off the baseboard either end.

Thanks for the advice Les but I have stuck them on the bases so my children can play with them. My children are 6 and 9. My daughter is 6 and she loved coming in the garage and playing with the characters, farm animals and vehicles on my old layout so even though I agree with you that the bases are unsightly I wouldn't like to secure them and then not let the kids join in. I suppose I can also change the scene if they are moveable. Maybe a subtle trim is in order though!

I like that Regional Railways 37. Brings back memories of my teens, hopping on one at Wigan that was heading to Liverpool Lime Street and I would get off at Bryn. From our house at the time you could just about see the Wigan to Liverpool line, if you looked out the window at the right time of night you could see and hear it go past! Great photos and amazing detail.

Hello Les and thanks for the comments on the figures as I though they would turn out terrible and be money down the drain. Thanks for the offer but I will pass on the N gauge figures, these are hard enough to do! I am running out of ideas for what they should wear/colour of clothes etc now. Here is a closer photo of the footy fans. I have painted all of them on that platform except for the guy with the pram. . . He is a Bachmann figure.

Good evening to everyone and thanks for the help and information following my initial question. I have searched TWPS loops on this forum but not found too much info. I have read that they are positioned 180m from a signal. I have searched through my photos and found 2 examples below. Location is Euxton with this particular TWPS on the fast line to which Euxton junction is literally around the curve in the distance. Would there be another at the next signal? Warrington Bank Quay with one in the middle of platform. Would there be another at the next signal? I am just curious as to their positioning relative to any signals, stations and junctions.

Good evening. I have painted some more Preiser people up as football fans which was pretty difficult but I am happy how they turned out. Layout wise I have no photos of progress but the track has now been extended through a tunnel which is assembled but not glued or painted yet, beyond the back of where the service station and pub will be and exit the tunnel. From here I will send the track on a up/down 1 in 75 gradient with some gentle curves. I have run a train down the gradient and it does look pretty good to have some relief on the track and some gentler curves that 4th radius set track.

Just found this layout and I am now following its progress. Looks brilliant so far, keep up the good work. Nice traction and rolling stock too!

Good evening. A little update on progress. So this is the view further down the main road after the bridge which spans the 4 tracks out of the station. As I say, managed to use all my terraced house kits here from my previous layout. It's a bit tight but had to compromise to fit it all in. Behind the row of houses on the right is a cutting which will run through a tunnel. I need to do lots here yet for example, stick the houses down, cobbled ginnels, road markings and signs etc. Where the corner shops are there will be a T junction which the tunnel will be under and I will end the road by sending it off the edge of either side of the 2ft board. Opposite the corner shops I think I am going to have my service station and a pub with beer garden and car park. In between the 2 sets of 2 tracks heading into the station there is a bit of a gap due to the wider platform ( platforms 2 & 3 ) so I was thinking of filling this with the reminents of an old siding, bits of old rail and piles of sleepers along with other railway junk!

Here are some photos I took today of location boxes whilst on daily exercise combined with seeing a few trains along the WCML at Euxton in Lancashire. The majority facing up/down the line and with some sort of barrier protection. No sign of orange piping but cables clipped to the tops of sleepers as people have mentioned. Thanks everyone.

Good start and I am following this. Good luck with trying to get track and points, it seems the nation has took to building model railways or baking! Very limited building supplies on Amazon and Hattons.

Good evening. Here is a photo of a mock up of some red brick mill buildings that I am hoping to make into a canal scene, kind of along the lines of Wigan Pier. A photo below is the line swinging right as it leaves from the station and under the road bridge. I have managed to use all my terraced house kits in this area although it was an almighty squeeze to get a terraced house either side of a road and 2 tracks! Therefore, the line is in a steep cutting which I have used Modrock and a layer of poly filler over the top. Once dried scribed out the rock formations and hopefully painted it like rock. The scene is not complete yet, still loads to do.

Many thanks for the information and replies everyone,it is much appreciated. There is certainly still orange piping around the north west, even on the WCML! Here is a photo at Wigan North Western at the end of platform 5 with a train heading north. I Suppose this will only be replaced when major engineering is taking place and not something which justifies a line closure for it to be swapped out.