CazRail

Mine arrived today, and are spot on. Their performance on the layout, detail and weight is superb. Well pleased.

An unit that would fill a big gap in my fleet would be a 175, which in theory could accompany the class 180s. As far as units went, I'd say a new 153/155 would be good also.

Ordered mine today, purely an impulse buy, but too good to miss. Can't wait.

Enjoyed your latest video, thought the police chase intro was fantastic.

The old dockside in Caernarfon, where it seems the old track was simply burried in to create the car park. You can make out most of the point, thanks how the ground has consolidated and settled around the rails and timbers over the years. I've seen a photo of a 2mt loco stood on the sidings here, with the castle in the background.

The line was just built purely as a single line, so any pathway would probably need to be built on adjacent land I would think. A lot of the lineside is drainage ditches, as well the bridges(over and under) are all single track structures. This obviously means there are locations where the pathway will have to deviate away from the line, which is an 'is what it is' situation, and to be fair isn't a bad thing.

From what I understand from a statement from Rhun ap Iorwerth(the local Plaid Cymru AM) is that the Welsh Government among others are developing plans for a multi-use path to run alongside(not necessarily parallel the entire way) the line which will cater for walkers, cyclists etc. The railway itself could in theory cater for commuters and tourists. It makes sense to have a heritage railway on an island that relies heavily on the tourism industry, but nothing says a commuter service couldn't run along side the heritage.

A big step forwards for Anglesey Central Railway today as they announce that they have finally, after 6 years of negotiations with Network Rail, obtained a lease on the Gaerwen to Amlwch line. "The board of directors of Anglesey Central Railway Ltd. are pleased to announce, after 6 years of detailed discussions and lengthy negotiations with Network Rail Infrastructure Limited, we formally completed the legal due process on the 29 April 2021, and now are in a position to convey to you and state, Anglesey Central Railway Limited have a legally mandated and contracted lease for the rail corridor, designated The GLA Line north of Gaerwen, Anglesey, between Gaerwen Junction and Amlwch, for the period up to and including the 29 April 2120. We wish to express our sincere appreciation and gratitude to all members of Lein Amlwch and also to those members of the community of Ynys Môn who have given their unstinting support during this extended period of negotiation. We would also wish to place on record, and acknowledge, the support received from various elements of the commercial and industrial sectors of the community and couple with these the efforts of the Island’s political representative in the Senedd, who has been assiduous in advancing the case for the reinstatement of the operational railway." (statement from their Facebook page)

These wagons are now available to buy, got mine on it's way.

Been a quiet month or so on the layout due to different aspects of life, but a couple of purchases have been made. 66113 in DB Key Workers livery from Rainbow Railways, which was more of an impulse buy after the real one passed me at work in Penyffordd last month. And the latest one, 57307 Lady Penelope in Virgin Trains livery... This one's been a long time coming, but Im well pleased with it. It looks 'the bizz' hauling my Pendolino Both these locos, as well as my ATW 57315 have Illuminated Model's excellent headlight upgrade PCBs on their way, so looking forwards to get them sorted.

Thanks for the feedback on the paint. The turquoise arrived today and as you point out it's a tad dark. I'll have a play with some yellow later if I get a chance.

Ive recently started a re-paint of a 158 into ATW colours, and decided to gave a look around for paint. I paint in Acrylic, so Ive decided to look down the route of Vallejo. The two colours that I found are VAL966 Turquoise (Model Colour) And MA087 Dark Sea Blue. (Model Air) Not yet had delivery of these, but they seem to look good for match from what Ive seen.

Received my two packs of JSA in the week, them being my first Accurascale purchases to arrive. Everything, from the high quality packaging to the very fine detailing on the model are outstanding. Can't wait for the Mk5s to arrive!

Been working slowly bit by bit on this scene... Added a little more sculptamold, a bit more base green, and a few more details. I've also now extended the retaining wall along the up line. The top of this will basically be vegetation. Also put in a bit of an area for S&T's 'loc' cabinets. In my mind, these serve the pointwork and the signal which will be on the approach to these, controlling access to the sidings.

Some green added... Here's the access point I've decided to model in the cutting. Theres also catchpits, and out of shot, speed boards.

The latest around the tunnel mouths, I've added some brown texture paint, ballasted a little and added some more Sculptamold! This is the current state of proceedings, with some added class 60 action. And here's some action footage!

Done a little more tonight, namely fitting a new colour changing LED strip along the top of the layout, and daylight LED strip under the layout, which had improved the space greatly. Also done a little more on me tunnel. Ive used black wash on the slaters brick embossed plastic, which has really improved the look of it. I then used some Vallejo Light Sand paint to add some markings on the tunnel walls. Lastly, Ive put some Sculptamold around the track cesses and sixfoot to help blend the tunnel in, and get away from the flat baseboard. This Sculptamold also doubles as a way to hold the tunnel mouths in place, as it should simply locate into the terrain.

A little more done on the tunnel mouths... All I've done is some black dry brushed above each portal, then used a Vallejo brown wash on the whole thing. The brickwork inside next. Just some limited clearence boards and it'll look good! Heres the Pendolino entering on the up road and a 158 exiting on the down road. You can make out the cant of the track here, and how it exaggerates the tilt one the Pendolino. Starting to come together now!

Started on the single bore tunnels tonight... Going with a more freelance with these, using Wills stone wall sheets as a basis. Been made so a Pendolino will go through both portals, which im pleased about. Far from finished.

Completed the outer/up line today, which leaves me with two operational lines again. Next job is to wire it in to a bus wire, and play about with a few new ideas. For the first little running session, I opted for my Regional Railways 158 and Inter City Swallow HST, making an early 1990's appearance. And then the beginnings of the first idea Ive had, which is a tunnel of twin single bores for the east end, inspired by the Vaenol tunnels near Bangor, on the Bangor-Caernarfon line. Probably will be a scratch built portal with a retaining wall running beside the up line. This will hide a point motor for the crossover, and Im hoping to do similar for the other point in the photo (there's baseboard supports under both these points). I'm also hoping to add cant to the curves, only about 1-1.5mm lift.

Well today I received 14 lengths of flexitrack, so got on with some track laying. Ive completed the inner loop, which is the down line. I still need to finish the up line, and wire it all up to a bus wire, but I have been testing/running trains on the down line, and am very happy with the result: I've used 4th radius on the inner/down line, so the flexible track outer/up line is effectively 5th radius. This curve has been laid so I can place a representation of Mostyn signal box between the up and down lines. Overall, I'm very happy.

KMS Railtech still seem to have decent stock, I've got some flexitrack on its way to me.

So today I decided to install the inside track over one of the joints for the flip-up section. I'm using ModelTech's innovative track aligning pieces, which are very good. I soldered a 3rd radius curve onto it(excuse my lacklustre soldering skills), then cut the rails with a Dremel. I used the solder pads in the four-foot to connect between the track, and fed the cable down through the boards below. Upon testing with my new Dapol 68, I was very happy with how it's turned out... Before reaching the join: Straddling the join: Clear of the join: Now to seek more track...

This photo just demonstrates how diverse my fleet is! The Webb Coal Tank is absolutely dwarfed by the 68! Both are 'rule 1' purchases, but both will soon have a train to pull. My preferred era is, ofcourse, in the title of the thread, but I have models from different eras also. The Webb Coal Tank was bought primarily to run on my Amlwch branch layout with LNWR Hattons Genesis coaches. The 68 was purchased as I have a thing for loco-hauled push-pull sets. I currently have WSMR and ATW Mk3 sets, and have TPE Mk5 and TfW Mk4 sets on order.

The Meridian looks great!