60027Merlin

The loco, a Bachmann V2, was "done up" to match the kit built stuff about 7 years ago. Unfortunately I cannot give you exact detail of the parts used as they were from the infamous "scrap-box/spares trays" which often feature in articles. The parts used in these said articles never seem to be mine!! However, I had a few close up shots of 60813 and worked by eye rather than using exact measurements. I used part of the centre piece of a whitemetal chimney which by my reckoning looked the right radius and used spare etching, from memory, from a W.D. 2-10-0 kit cut to shape, once again making it up as I went along.

There are more photos in Galleries under "A4" as I couldn't get the hang of transferring them to Layouts, I then succeeded! I'll try to move them across to here. I'll take more photos hopefully next month as time is limited due to the busy gardening season!

This layout has taken a decade or two to build and it's just about there! The track diagram at the junction is based on Longniddry (with a few amendments)on the ECML in East Lothian but at the planning stage I decided that pragmatism must rule as to model it correctly or various other suitable locations would require another 20 feet of a straight length. My view is that modelling an actual location is preferable if you have a lot of space to do it justice but it's no use trying to cram everything in and spoil the effect. However I have tried to get the general atmosphere north, south, east and west of the city to give a flavour of the glory days with the glamour boys of Haymarket. As the saying goes "beauty is in the eyes of the beholder" and for me the LNER pacifics were the tops. Of course many other classes relevant to the area are to be seen. I managed to crawl into the 21st century at Christmas time when my wife gave me a digital camera for Christmas and it is only recently that I started to practise with it. I did not use any spotlights etc. taking these photos as I don't possess any! Hopefully they will get transferred across as I was half way through this and it all disappeared and I had to start again. My computer knowledge is minimal so it's all down to blind faith! Kit building is infinitely easier!