Northroader

There would also be the possibility of passenger trains standing in the loop being divided with a portion going to the branch?

The tarp. method looks good, but just tissue paper would give quite a thin sheet which is rather delicate. I go for a bit thicker paper, which is cut to size, painted on the outer face and lettered. Then left to soak in water for some time with some washing up liquid to soften up, followed by moulding into position like the video, including the rubber bands, although I don't worry with the cling film layer. Once it's dried out, several coats of flat varnish go on to help strengthen it up. The video method won't allow for lettering, and the level cut all round the base wouldn't happen with a rectangular sheet which had been draped over an irregular load. One thing I find is the tarp. is better undersized, otherwise you don't get to see much of the wagon.

Attractive TENDER, single, WLTM unattached engine, GSOH, with a view to forming a close relationship. DOB 1866, social drinker, hobbies: meeting interesting wagons, travel. Late runners considered, but no weak performers. Applications, please, to the Washbourne Lonely Boilers Club.

Great milestone passed, just the branch then?

With all these counts of locos, coaches, and wagons, are you allowed to count the unfinished, or just the finished?

Could you set them in a mix of polyfilla and pva, so the crevices aren't so obvious? It looks a bit "drystone" to me.

Penlan, you're my man! Option four it is, (a bit like rule 1). Edit: now here's a funny thing! And it will teach me to check before opening my trap. I'm pretty sure my 7mm. wagon is coopercraft, but you can see peering round the back of the barrels that it does have a 4plank inside as well as out, unlike its 4mm. mate. I'm glad to say it is painted in Swindon Improved Wagon Red, too. (I haven't put it through the vac., yet)

Whoops, now I know where I went wrong with my coopercraft!

Hey Don, it used to be said by Dawley folk that people from Broseley had an extra wheel, is this so? As I don't want my supplies of bacon and carlsberg to be cut off, I'd best stick in a picture of a mink. It's an old Oguage white metal kit, afraid I can't remember who by. Looks like I'll have to get the red paint out. No roof rivets either.

Stu, you might be aware of this blog. If not, Wenlock is my hero for doing really good workmanship, including scenic affairs: http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blog/1131/entry-16989-fun-with-fibres-flock/

Hansom is as handsome does, me hearty.

Now that we've beaten that damned Kaiser Bill, it's time to get our boys back home to dear old Norfolk, don't you know? What better way than on the Uganda Railway, built by Britain, eh? It's the one that blighter Von Lettow Warbeck was trying to blow up, damned scoundrel. Here's some shots of a model I took on the old Kodak oojymaflip at Manchester show in '97. It's made by Mr Derek Williams, obviously a very gifted chappie. Now have a look at the scale, 10mm to a foot, and 32mm gauge, proper sizes, I'd say, good old solid look about that, what? Those tinplate fellows with garden Railways can tell you all about that. There's even a blasted elephant at the back!

Are they sending the leftover rocks back to Norway?

Do you know, Tom, I missed that one completely. You had me scrambling on the Google to find out what you meant, and yes, it is a very close relative to the American pile up Jordan linked to. Could have been a flash off the third rail, too, when she went over. Thanks for that.https://static.standard.co.uk/s3fs-public/styles/story_medium/public/thumbnails/image/2017/01/25/16/lewisham2501.jpg

I seem to remember that type of point lever used the lever to give a kick to get the mechanism, which was a sort of spring loaded knuckle, past the centre, with the treadle helping to overcome the spring. To change the point throw, you just pulled it again, and it went back, so the lever action was the same travel for both point settings. There was no point in keeping pressure on the lever or wedging it, as the spring mechanism under the boards was doing that.

She almost swooned at his macaroons..

Back on the coast, there's West Bay, Bridport, which probably would have had 14xx if Paddington hadn't took the passenger service off when they did. Just over the road from the harbour, and attractive station building.

Reacher cars?? Like your man says, "good scenic possibilities"

Dear aunty rob, When I drained the bath this morning I found this car float thingy. Could you put a recess in the LH front of your board and stick it there, with a lead onto it? Soapy Sam from Sault Sainte Superior.

What about running the private grain track into the middle track of the three over a diamond crossing?? Edit: just checked to see how far you've got with your track. This end is still in progress, n'est ce pas?

A good branch with a seaside location is St. Ives, Cornwall, which of course is still there. It didn't do 14xx, but there's no reason why it couldn't have done. 45xx were the usual branch locos, and would double head through portions for Paddington, but again you put a larger loco on for that if you want to. It's your model after all.

Hey, Jordan, I love that clip, the sheer ponderousness of the train, the whole lot happening in slow motion, and the final tangle as everything decides to topple over. I'm not getting anything spectacular as that, but I'm still getting "incidents" as I carry on test runs, between building the feed mill for Englefield, and wagons for Washbourne. Kevin's post brings this round very neatly, I was pushing a rake of wagons through the points, when one come off. I was thinking of rude words for it, and it said, "not me, gaffer, the point blades opened under me." When I built the pointwork, I thought I'd try having live frogs, with a small insulation strip at the vee, and rail gaps. This works quite well, although I needed to 'back off' the rail ends with a small file where sparking was happening. This way there's no need to have a switched feed to the crossing. (I think the young people are calling them "frog juicers" these days) Before I used to have a slider switch for the electrical feed, and had a rod through the knob giving a mechanical throw to the point simultaneously. The slider did give a positive engagement, but now I just use a plain lever which has no locking on its movement, tending to creep. It looks klunky, so the next job is better point operation.

The shed was an indicator shelter, open at the back, and needing to be close to the cylinders. The technician used a piece of kit which was capable of drawing a small graph, the horizontal axis was linked mechanically to the piston stroke, reduced down of course, the vertical axis was a measurement of the steam pressure in the cylinder. At the start of the stroke pressure high, end of stroke low, but the point the valves cut off and steam allowed to expand could be clearly seen, with any problems such as how the steam was exhausting out. The area inside the loop which was traced out related to the work being produced in the cylinder. Diagrams were taken in succession on the journey, and used in conjunction with more graphs from the dynamometer car, which was measuring the pull the engine was exerting on the train drawbar, also speed with a trace of the journey, mileposts being noted, so as gradients could also be fed in. There was usually another guy on the footplate logging the rate at which coal was going in, as coal was usually bagged for tests. Having said all that if lube oil was being looked at maybe they were interested in cylinder temperatures without producing indicator diagrams, but then why have a dynamometer car?http://www.oldengine.org/members/diesel/indicator/Indicator1.htmhttps://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pressure_volume_diagram#/media/File%3AIndicator_diagram_steam_admission.svg

(He says, wiping shortbread crumbs from round his mouth..)

I bet you can get an "app" these days for this on your "dcc" thingys? Talking of derailments and bangs, the best sound is a heavy wagon that's off the road going along before it comes to a standstill. A big thump-thump- thump as it goes over each sleeper and drops into the dips between.