Luke123

I know what you mean, but for me I don't see Lewis as the best purely because he has always been in a strong car. IMO his weakest cars were his 2009 McLaren and his 2013 Merc, but even those were still capable of winning races, so that would naturally skew statistics in his favour whereas the likes of Alonso, Vettel, Button et al. all started in a mid field car and managed to push it past its limits and to me that is a mark of a great driver. He is in the top 10, maybe even top 5, but I cant put in as number 1. I'd love to see Lewis drive a season in a Racing Point or a Williams and then show just how good he can be. I'm not saying he isn't good, just that I'd like to see how he copes with a very different type of challenge.

I am also waiting for a Hornby streamlined Duchess to be delivered (the previous version before last years retooling). The model is the NRM version of Duchess of Hamilton. The fact that this is a preserved loco may cause a few issues if it has been fitted with any modern safety equipment, but I have also recently purchased a new Duchess, 6221 'Queen Elizabeth' (this will not be getting a repaint!) so hopefully I can keep an anachronisms to a minimum! I plan on turning this into 46243 'City of Lancaster' so that it can retain its bath tub casing. The plan is that it will be working a larger service passing through to either Leeds or Manchester while on route to London or Scotland. As part of this conversion I will need to hack some of the casing from the tender. I have seen that comet sell a kit for the cut down version of the tender, so I am willing try and cut Hornby tender down myself and if it goes badly wrong I can look at replacing it with a comet kit. In terms of details, I have seen pictures showing it still carried LMS lettering on the tender, but I have not seen any pictures of the cabside number, so to me that implies that it did not carry one at this point in time. Does anyone know if this is correct or did it carry a number but it was just to grubby to make out? The clearest reference pics I could find were of a Hornby model rather than the real thing, so I don't want to take these as gospel

The easy projects are: The compound will become 40910, working from 20A (Leeds Holbeck) and will have the crest swapped for 'BRITISH RAILWAYS' The 4F will become 44337 working from 20D (Normanton) and have the crest swapped for an early crest The LYR tanks will become 50647 and 50650, both working form (25A (Wakefield), they will retain their respective crest and 'BRITISH RAILWAYS' branding The Jubilee will be a slightly more in depth project, as opposed to changing the decals on the locos above. One of the reasons why I chose this period (1948 - 1951) was the mix of stock, styles and branding (engines carrying a mix of BR and Big Four branding for instance). As a part of this, i would like to try and produce one of the experimental liveries used by BR, so for the Jubilee I would like to try and paint it in Apple Green with the appropriate lining and branding. I have found some of these locos were based in shed 20A (Leeds Holbeck), so I plan on turning the Jube into 45565 'Victoria'. While looking for reference photos I have been able to find photos of (very!) old models of 45565 in this livery, so I feel relatively confident, but if anyone has any good reference pics or information and are will to share these then please feel free!

I still don't have a usable garage, so I still don't have a railway room yet, however I have been keeping a eye out at shows and online for various locos. As i'm setting the layout in West Yorkshire, I have been using http://www.railuk.info/index.php to try and get an idea of what sorts of engines were running in the region at the start of BR, I have working on assumptions like; if a loco was based in say Leeds, then it could potentially work a trans pennine service to Manchester or Liverpool. So on that basis, i have starting building my loco fleet. At present it consists of: Fowler 4P Compound, BR lined Black with an early crest Stanier Jubilee, BR Lined green with a late crest Fowler 4F, BR plain black with a late crest 2x LYR tanks, BR lined Black, one with early crest, one with 'BRITISH RAILWAYS' on the tank sides. So the plan is to start doing some modelling to get these into an appropriate livery and renumbered to an appropriate shed for the period and region. While making the list I also looked for reference pictures online (which I'm not going to share here because I haven't reached out to the owners for permission) so that i can try to get the models close to the real thing.

Hi Tom, I'm willing to be corrected as i'm not majorly experienced with these things, but i don't think you need the upper most trap point. My understanding is that they are to protect the main running line, so the trap that you have placed to the left of the cattle dock would carry out that function. Luke

Great, i'm looking forward to going

Such sad news. The man transcended the sport and was truly one of the all time greats. RIP Niki

So, its been almost 6 months and sadly there has been no real progress. The house move went well and we have spent the first half of the year focusing on decorating, which is now complete(ish!) That means that the next big project will be the garage, which will be the home of the layout, but first we'll have to save a little bit to pay for the building work needed. I wont go into details, but the main points of the work are; extending the garage and the roof need fixing. In the interim, I plan on making an N gauge inglenook layout on an Ikea shelf I picked up while we were shopping for bit to furnish the upstairs. When I get started on the shelf layout (name pending!) I will open a new thread on here to document it. Fingers crossed I can start on the big layout in a few months time

A Merc 1-2, didn't see that coming ..... said no one ever! I really hope Ferarri and/ or Red Bull can find that bit extra and start challenging at the front again soon

I'll be honest, i'm struggling to get into this season. Over the last few years we've had a few teams fighting at the top but it feels like we've taken a step back to the days when it was only Merc in the fight and feels rather dull now

Great thanks Luke

Hi, Apologies for going slightly OT here, but which book is the best to start with? I believe Colour of magic is the first but I have heard that it's not very good and not a good way to get into the series. is this true? Thanks Luke

Hi john, Thanks for the reply, it definitely helps understand how these systems work when you can see other people's layout and how they run them! The point above is exactly why i'm interested in setting up computer control when i finally start building my layout! Luke

Hi, its a great layout! Its amazing what you can do in such a space. How does the computer control recognize when rolling stock is in a section without an engine present? Do you have to modify anything? i.e. a carriage siding or wagons waiting to be collected as part of a pick up goods Luke

Great video Brian I love watching locos shunting in and out of yards! Luke

I like the look of this years McLaren. I found the comments about not setting any performance targets this year (i.e. we will be challenging for podiums ... etc.) quite telling, perhaps Mr Brown has finally started to taste some humble pie! If he has it cant be bad, the first step to fixing a problem is to acknowledge it exists, so hopefully the team can finally start to claw themselves back to form

Great little layout, it always amazes me what people can do with such a small space One question about the houses, did your free kit come with windows and doors? mine was just the walls/ roof!

"Ferrari & Vettel have made some errors in the past 2 years, but I do not mean this as a criticism. It is what happens when you are striving to be the best." I agree. I like Vettel, but he and Ferrari made a series of silly errors last year that has now cost them dearly. Fingers crossed they can have a smoother 2019

At the moment it's currently on a 'we'll see' basis. By chance I've actually been looking for any suitable figures that could transformed into IE security squad. Now, thanks to the shape of their helmets, I find myself scouring through quite possibly every 00 scale firefighter figure imaginable! Given this is an inglenook layout, in order to break up what could easily just be a yard full of box vans, another idea I had for a nod to Vaughn was to have a very short flatbed with his car loaded onto it. Returning from repairs or avoiding the congested roads of London? You decide! To me, Vaughn seems like the kind of person who would have a private railway carriage, so you could use a 4 wheel coach (repainted into IE livery!) as his own personal stock with his car on a flatbed behind

And being guarded by a field of cows! I love the invasion, its one of my all time favorite stories, i'm looking forward to seeing the completed layout Will you be having a cameo of Vaughn or Packer 'supervising' operations?

Thanks, that's a good point. I hadn't really thought too much about actual operations, I was more focused on trying to get a rough plan finally drawn!

Apologies if i missed this in an earlier post, but where did you get your back scenes from?

Hi all, I have been following various threads for some time and in the new year I will finally be in a position to build my own layout. The rough idea is to have a continuous run so that I can watch trains going by, but with a station and good yard so that I can shunt about in the yard as and when the mood takes me. As the plan is set in the steam era, I have added some carriage sidings and a turntable/ coaling facility too, although I am not precious about these and if they have to go for space reasons then so be it. I am about to move house, so have only been able to knock up a crude plan via PowerPoint while on my lunch break rather than using actual track planning software, but once I have access to my laptop again I will try and draw it on AnyRail, so some items my move around or depending on space. Attached here is the crude mock up, if anyone could cast an eye and offer any advice/ feedback then it would be greatly appreciated Thank you in advance Luke