Powerhaul 70 Pey

It really is stunning work Jack having seen it in the flesh so to speak.  It was a honour for Durrington Central to host its test run.  Thanks for sharing the photos.  Hopefully it will feature again in our next running session!

The castle looks great Jim.  Looking forward to seeing it develop.

Good evening please find the link below to view today's running session with Jack Taylor on Durrington Central featuring some guest locomotives and stock from Fordley.  Thanks to Jack for bringing his collection along and for his expert driving skills.  Much appreciated!

Thanks for watching everyone.

Good morning.  Yesterday I spent some time just generally tidying up the layout due to hosting a 3 hour running session on Sunday.  I cut some boards and painted them black to get rid of bare wood and gaps.

Below are a few overall views of the layout.

Looks neater and tidier now.

I also bit the bullet and tried some road markings.  I did buy a sheet of road marking transfers but didn't like them.

Makes a hell of a difference and hopefully when I do the give way markings and put up some road signs things will look even better.

Watch out for a video from Sundays running session!

Thanks 

Peter

In my opinion probably the finest looking class 60 currently on the rail network is GBRf 60026 HELVELLYN hauling today's 6E10 Liverpool Biomass Terminal to Drax Power Station through Winwick in Cheshire.

Good evening everyone.  Tonight I had a hour or so in the garage on the layout and was joined by my son Ollie.  We were busy positioning some scenic items in certain areas of the layout.

In this area we put extra pieces of cut up plastic items on the floor by the skips  and put some items on some blue euro pallets that we painted and glued together.  This is generally a neglected industrial area of town!

Here we added a couple of blue euro pallets and some oil drums.

At the Finning Cat depot we added some workers, parts crates as a Caterpillar 775 dump truck is being prepped.

Inside the workshop the engineers are busy working away.

And that's it for tonight.  Only little jobs but makes a big difference I think.

Good evening.  Carlsberg don't do Network Rail Test Trains but Durrington Central does!!!

Great photos of the recent ballasting.  I am really looking forward to how the Bridge scene in the 1st photo progresses as it is already looking great!

1 hour ago, Afroal05 said:

 

I've just come across this, what a wonderful layout! Read the thread from start to finish over the last few days and really excited to see the future developments. The little details and the richness of the colours looks great, I've definitely felt inspired seeing the way you've turned the bare baseboards into such a wonderful world with different areas that all transition really nicely. I particularly like the two photos above!

 

Al

Hello and thanks for your very kind comments about the layout they are much appreciated.  I no longer have any bare wood on show so in that respect the layout is complete but like you say the amount of detail I can still add is immense so in that respect I am not sure it will ever be completed.  I really like those 2 photos too, especially the 2nd one as that was the last section of bare wood to be covered with scenic items and I am happy with how its starting to look.

Thanks again!

Peter

Fantastic photos!  Amazing modelling.  Well done.

1 hour ago, Jack374 said:

The 31 looks awesome Pete! I like Reggie Rail colours too but I'm too young to have seen any for real. Regarding the decoder, it could well be the speaker as Adrian says. A £5 upgraded speaker from Roads and Rails makes a world of difference, especially to TTS decoders.

 

Thanks,

Jack,

Thanks Jack I am glad you like it after all the messages I've bombarded you with regarding a Regional Railways 31 recently!  They really were a great sight when I saw them at Wigan North Western and Bryn!  Hornby have done a great job and the model is equally as stunning.

Regarding the TTS sound decoder I forgot about getting a better speaker but as I only bought it the other day I instantly thought send it back for another.

2 hours ago, lmsforever said:

I always enjoy your posts the layout is coming together really well  so keep working away.

Thanks for following and the comments really are much appreciated.

7 hours ago, Iron Horse said:

Those pictures are really lovely, you should be really pleased with that.

 

I recently bought a TTS sound decoder for my 31102 but upgraded the speaker to a Road and Rails 20x30x6mm Bass Enhanced speaker. Maybe you have done that already but I'm so pleased with the improvement so if you haven't it is definitely worth considering.

 

Regardless keep the pictures coming

Thanks for the info about the speaker, it's definitely worth considering in the future.  The 31s are a really nice looking model and run really well.  Thanks for the comments about the photos, it was a quick photo session after messing around with decoders!

Good evening.  My Hornby Class 31439 "North Yorkshire Moors Railway" finally arrived today from Olivias Trains.  For some reason class 31s have become 1 of my favorite locos this year.  I recently drove to Llangollen to see 31271 on hire from The A1A Locomotive Group.

Anyway, as a Wigan lad I have recollections of seeing  class 31 "Wigan Pier" as a kid at Wigan North Western Station and how smart it looked in The Regional Railways livery.

So here is my latest purchase in the photos below.  I got a Hornby TTS sound decoder and fitted it but the sound crackles and is not loud so I swapped decoders with my other class 31, 31102 and the sound is now fine so I need to return the faulty decoder and get it replaced so I can fit that one back into 31102.

The final photo above is the scenic area I have recently been working on.

I really must stop buying locos and get a new DCC controller as I am still using a Hornby Select from a Virgin Pendolino train set I got off my wife many many Christmases ago which actually got be back into this hobby!

Great photos Jack, it doesn't seem right seeing a 60 in this livery out on the mainline!

Good afternoon.  I've started to blend the vegetation together and also finished off the security fencing.  The signal box base still needs gravelling.  I've painted the semaphore signal too and I will eventually remove it from that metal base and reduce the height of it slightly.

There's something very satisfying in a DCC sound loco coming to a halt at the signal, idling then "clunk" the signal raises and off it goes!

Good afternoon.  I was going to go out and see some freight trains and do some photography but the weather wasn't great so I went in the garage to work on the layout.

So a 1st layer of 2mm static grass was applied last night and this morning I hoovered off the excess and applied some longer 6mm static grass which is currently drying.

Below are photos of 1st layer of grass applied.

When the 6mm is dry and hoovered I will apply other vegetation, security fencing and gravel the signal box base.

This is a similar signal at Plumley in Cheshire.  The signal towers above the class 70 so the height of my Hornby signal is OK.  The orientation is slightly different.  I am not sure where the Plumley signal was in relation to the Junction as the track has long gone.

Good afternoon everyone.  The ready made Metcalfe signal box has arrived and I've fitted cable troughing, point motor, orange cable piping (Capri Sun drinking straw),  put the Hornby Junction signal in place and done some more ballasting.

I am not sure if the signal is in the correct place but I am struggling for room.  If I weather the signal I think it will look a bit better.  I will probably remove it from that stand to reduce the height slightly.  The next job when the ballast is dry is to do the banking vegetation.

A quick dash into the garage to paint the modrock we did last night. 

There is a patch of ballasting to do when I have the signal box (which should come on Friday ready built which saves me a job), cable troughing, relay box and point motor in their positions.

Good progress!  It's annoying when you get your modelling mojo then run out of supplies but the platforms are looking good.

Good evening.  I had some help in the garage tonight as the modrock I ordered arrived.

I normally get a pot of polyfiller and apply a thin layer over this just to blend it together a little bit better.  Then it will be painted and begin scenics.  

6 hours ago, GWRPhil said:

The layout is looking great. It’s been great to follow its progress so far. Just caught up on 1st six pages as realised I hadn’t before. Really interesting to look back over the history and progress on the layout. Really enjoy the videos when you put them on. Looking forward to more updates. 
 

thank you

That's really kind of you GWRPhil.  Your comments are really appreciated.  I am happy with how it has evolved.  Some things I would have liked to have done differently but I just wanted to run trains on a simple track layout that would present no annoying derailment etc.  Time, money and availability of materials ( especially during covid) are 3 of the biggest problems I have encountered during its build when I began during my Furlough period last year.

1 hour ago, Andrew P said:

Well, what can I say, absolutely stunning work Pete, so thanks for putting the link in my Bute Road Thread, keep the pic and superb Videos coming.

 

BTW, Meant to say, Sorry for the hundreds of likes.

Thanks so much Andrew for taking a look, much appreciated!

Looking really good Andrew.  The painting is fantastic and blends so well.  Well done.