Midnight-Freight

Thanks, that all makes sense. I wasn't saying I thought you were being irresponsible by leaving the loco unattended incidentally. :-)

"GBRf 66 heading north, VTEC service heading south" Looks like you may have been photobombed by a Colas 60 in this pic? Possibly a stupid question but presumably when you are held at a signal or in a loop and leave the loco to take the pics the signalman gives you an idea of how long you will be waiting and you don't find yourself legging it back to the loco because the signal has changed?

I've made a start on ballasting, starting with the 3 sidings which will be a little bit overgrown once finished. Therefore a perfect finish wasn't so critical and hopefully by the time I get to the main lines I will have perfected my technique :-) I've added a few pics showing a bit of progress. No-one is quite sure how a Railfreight liveried class 58 came to be in charge of a rake of EWS ballast wagons but strange things happen in the world of model railways...

It's been a while since my last update but now that things have progressed to the point where it gets a bit more interesting hopefully there will be something worthy of posting a bit more regularly. All the track is now wired up. As the only loco I currently own is an old Hornby class 58 I purchased a Hornby analogue controller off ebay for peanuts so I could test both the loco and the track. Initial powering up was met with a disappointing silence but with a prod and a poke of the loco it stuttered forwards before dying again. A quick clean of the wheels and things improved slightly but inevitably lead to a complete strip down and rebuild. With a half decent controller I think it could be an ok runner. At least I know the track is all good. I've also been practising track weathering and ballasting on a couple of off-cuts. I think my ballasting needs a little more practise before I start on the layout proper. I have given everything a coat of Railmatch sleeper grime and am undecided whether to do any more or leave it as is. I quite like the effect and don't want to over do it. I can however see the obvious benefits of owning an airbrush...

Liking the look of this. I'd looked at the Scalescenes diesel depot but wasn't sure how it would look, after seeing yours I may well give it a go.

Great looking layout. Really like the last set of pics, especially the convoy at the end. Did you actually run them all coupled up together? I wasn't sure how well running multiple locos together would work as I plan to do a lot of shunting around on my layout and was thinking of having a few unpowered locos to make things simpler. I am assuming you are DCC.

Ok so I retract that previous statement. After ditching the solid copper 1mm2 wire I was using for 0.75mm2 stranded this is a lot easier to work with. My technique has improved and the whole process become a bit more streamlined. I've finished wiring up the first board, (which also happens to have far more connections than the other two) and tested continuity at each join and various other points with no issues. As can be seen the wiring could do with a little tidying up but overall i'm happy with the progress.

I would just like to share with everyone how much I am not enjoying the process of soldering the droppers to the bottom of the track. I'm sure with a bit more practise the whole process will become quicker and less of a pain in the backside but by then I will have either finished or set fire to it all :-)

I'm 99.9999% certain you wouldn't even notice if you 'accidentally' gave one of those ews 37's to me... :-)

Looking great. I really want your class 58!

Just a quick update as track laying progresses nicely. Need to order some more straight lengths so can't do any more at the moment. I like how it's looking though and doesn't look anywhere near as cramped as I had feared. Once all down and i've checked it all flows how I wanted I then have the bit which i'm probably least looking forward to; drilling all the holes in the baseboard for the droppers, removing the track piece by piece, soldering the droppers to the underside of the track and then replacing. At least I can then test all the hard work with an actual train! :-)

Well in a moment of complete madness I have not only managed to stop bidding on rolling stock long enough to order some track but have started laying it as well. This is the area that will make up the TMD (if I don't change my mind about this) Unsurprisingly the design has changed slightly again. It may not be much and it's only temporarily held down with drawing pins for now but i'm pleased with it and can't wait to get on with the rest.

I thought I would add a few quick pics to show that this isn't all just a pipedream. I seem to be doing things the wrong way round and have amassed a nice little collection of rolling stock with nothing to put them on. I will endeavour to concentrate my efforts on ordering some track in the very near future so things can progress a little. So the 3 pics basically show my collection of Bachmann MFA (and one MEA) and 2 Horby MHA 'coalfish' wagons along with my sole loco. The third pic shows the detail i've added to the 58 in an effort to make it look a little less bland than the original.

I see what you mean. I have a feeling there may be a lot more frowning to come from the powers that be as things progress. In my mind the 2 through roads are not a mainline as such but possibly branch off from one. (I don't know if that makes it any better)

I've just scanned through the first few pages and the last couple as i'm at work. Looks really good. Very jealous of your fleet of Class 56's, I NEED a Loadhaul liveried super detailed one in my life. Really like the Siku Liebherr excavator as well. I was considering getting one myself, looks much better quality and scale than the 1:87 one I bought off ebay which looks like a mini digger when sat beside a few MFA/MEA wagons. Keep up the good work and i'll have a proper read through later on :-)

That has crossed my mind on a few occasions but I do want something that's quite busy without looking too cramped. I think the second design works better in that respect. I guess plans are one thing but until I start playing around with real track it's hard to know if it will work as I hope. Appreciate the comments though.

That might be a good idea. I wanted maximum length sidings but realistically it will probably be sometime before I have enough rolling stock to fill all three up!

Ok guys I could do with a little input here... I've been playing around on Anyrail again and come up with a completely different plan, which I love. I think it's a much better use of the space I have with good operational possibilities. Essentially it's the same principal with the 3 sidings at the top right for wagon loading/storage. The three smaller sidings at the bottom left would incorporate a 2-3 road TMD with maybe a fuelling point. The two diagonal tracks being the main through roads with a loop to run round trains. My only concern is as it is a temporary layout which will need to be put away when not in use is the joining of the three sections. I've attached a track plan with the boards divided into 3 sections and think lining up the mix of straight and diagonal track sections might be a bit tricky. What do you guys think? I'm sure I can make it work even if I have to tweak it a little... :-)

Just got back from the toy fair at Woodgreen Animal Shelter just down the road from me. Got there a bit late and a lot of people were already starting to pack up. I could have spent hundreds if not thousands of pounds on loco's and rolling stock but limited myself to this piece of classic traction. Needs a bit of work I think to improve the overall look but had to have it on the layout somewhere.

Progress will be pretty slow for a while due to moving house and lack of funds. I downloaded the low relief arches from scalescenes to make up one of the scenic ends. I've had to chop it about to make something that will fit but it's looking quite promising. Pic to follow...

Currently I am waiting for a small delivery of ballast and paint so i can have a practise at soldering the droppers to track, weathering and finally ballasting. I have also downloaded a bridge scene from Scalescenes which I am having to chop about a bit to fit my small backscene. Mor pics to follow...

And a few pics. Apologies for the quality, they were taken on my phone in poor light. I will endeavour to take better pics from now on :-)

Ok so here is my trackplan...:

Hi, I have started a thread on another forum but thought I would add it here as well for extra hints, tips, and general comments on my progress. This is my first proper layout and so I am learning as I go so apologies for any lack of craftmanship and un-prototypical design :-) Firstly the name of the layout comes from the area I grew up in which was close to Chesterton sidings where the old St Ives-Cambridge branch line met the mainline. It was around here that my love of trains (particularly freight) started. I have previously owned the Midnight Freight Hornby set (hence the name) which I loved. The layout will be an end to end affair, approximately 12"x120" (32cmx300cm) including a main through road, a TMD with 2 roads and a re-fuelling road, a run around loop and several freight sidings with an area for loading of aggregate wagons. The era will be a bit sketchy as I like modern image and currently own a few EWS wagons but will hopefully have a few older loco's such as classes 37,56,58. The base board has been constructed using 12mm mdf which I found at work, treated with Rustins mdf sealer and fixed to a softwood frame. It needs to be portable so is in 3 main sections which can be joined together relatively quickly. I should add it is in 00 gauge and wired for DCC I will shortly post up a track plan and a few progress pics. I hope this is of interest to a few people and would welcome any feedback. Joe