Zomboid

Ruskin Lane, Acacia Avenue... Did Eddie help you with those?

There are lots of masts between Reading and Didcot, and the substation that it'll all connect to can be seen just on the Swindon end of the triangle (power station side of the line). So its not a massive gap, though stations have obstacles like canopies and platforms which rather get in the way I imagine, and if all 4(!) sides of the triangle are being wired then that's some complicated design there, which is ultimately what drives the masts.

I wonder how much of my view of the PA is paint scheme driven. They looked pretty average when painted white with the red and blue stripes by Amtrak. The swept back E units are my favourite of EMDs efforts.

To my eyes the PA is the finest looking diesel locomotive ever built. I have a Proto 2000 model of one in ATSF warbonnet on display in my living room, which isn't something many train related things are permitted to be. E and F units aren't far behind, though.

Maybe I'm wrong, but you'd have to go back to MR days to find when the MML was anyone's crowning achievement. I was under the impression that the LMS focussed on the WCML as its main main line.Plus there's already a London Midland. And that's without mentioning that the east mids franchise doesn't get anywhere near Scotland. Now if SWT resurrected the long forgotten LSWR branding... (vaguely on topic, GWR trains at Exmouth? This kind of thing should be stamped out, that's no more a GWR destination than Peterborough).

Are the letters on the HST fashioned from metal of some sort? Looks a bit that way in the pics.

The GWR had more than one type of 4-6-0? Well I've leant something today.

Where's Royal Scot's bell? Obviously understand why it doesn't have the cow catcher, but didn't it keep the bell for it's whole life?

It's probably too late now, but I like the vegetation on the tarmac. Gives it the feel of a barely used back route.But perhaps it's supposed to represent a busier road than that...

And not one of them on a bridge. Honestly....

I tend to find I enjoy shuffling wagons around (playing the inglenook game at home with the cards and stuff, I've also invented some car spots to return wagons to after forming the train) if I'm driving, but I'd rather watch a roundy. It's having a problem to solve that I like, and having to go through the process of solving it. If I'm not involved then just seeing what comes past next is more my thing.

A 1:76 shinkansen then. Can't imagine that'll be available RTR any time soon

Actually it's the enjoyment derived which matters

I can only speak for myself, but I find the half finished, work in progress stuff more interesting. Once it's built and finished I'm not interested in "i parked this train here" stuff. But as I say, that's just me.

Modern means "now" to me. Would be so much easier if we adopted the European practise of "epochs".

Hope this gives you what you want. Looks very good to me.

If its just Al, then it's probably oxidised, and it'll just keep happening. You probably need some alloy or other which doesn't react with the air.

Obviously it's your railway, but for me it looks like you've seen a bare bit of board and shoehorned a siding onto it. I'd take a step back and ask why each siding is provided. If it were mine, which it isn't. Also I haven't seen a sand drag yet, just an oversight I assume?

Cheers. I actually quite enjoyed the ballasting. It's very clean at the moment, but Southern California seems to mostly be that way. I guess weathering is dependent on the actual weather, which isn't so severe when its sunny all the time...

I'd suggest shifting the balance so that the platforms are quite a bit longer than your FY sidings. So if you have space for 4+1 in both, make it so you have platforms for 5+1 and FY space for 3+1. Therefore for the same layout length the station feels a bit more spacious. Also no 3 car DMUs, just 2s...

More progress. So to speak. I've re-ballasted the 6 foot. Not hugely successfully, but it doesn't look too awful unless I'm looking for flaws. Also painted the railsides with some Tamiya "flat brown", with quite a pleasing effect. I suspect it would have been easier to have done the painting before the ballasting, though, since it went on much more easily on the unballasted bit (where the grade crossing will ultimately be going). That dent in the front track is from when I learned a valuable lesson about drilling the holes for wiring (I say that, but I'm not entirely sure how I'd avoid it happening again). It looks worse than it is, to be honest, everything runs over it fine, so I'll live with it. This project is more about learning than anything else.

It's not refuelling since the trains are electric, but there are a couple of stabling sidings just outside Waterloo. Would be visible from the platforms if not for the curvature.

That extra siding is there in my copy of 60 plans for small spaces. I'd want to have it, but I doubt its essential.

... And in hoovering up the excess, I also cleaned up the 6 foot (whatever that's called in the US). Damn. Think I'd laid it on a bit thick and not allowed long enough for drying. Never mind, I wanted to include some brown in it anyway...

Not much from back then inspired me, really. The Hornby track plans book from around 1990, a couple of CJF's track plans books... But then I was born in the 80s, and I didn't start going to exhibitions until the mid 90s...