CazRail

Are you still doing the Traws section, Nick?

Thanks mate. The rock is just cork bark cut down and glued in. Ive left them unpainted for now, im not sure if they need it. At the bottom of the rock Ive started to model it to be wet, so i need to work on that.

A poorer quality mobile phone image now, and it looks like old Ifor Hughes the driver hasnt quite got used to the new DMUs yet, seems to have applied power too soon after changing gear... Still he was happy to see the 2mt tank arriving from Amlwch to his rescue!

Had another little running session/photo shoot...

Had a play with the settings on the camera, so decided to catch the 14.12 Amlwch to Bangor service skirting the lake...

This day 60 years ago... BR Ivatt 2mt 41233 on a service to Gaerwen, stopped by driver Williams so fireman Davies could go out for a shot of the loco in the cutting...

More done last night, namely installing the second side of the rock cutting filling in behind it, as well as a hole that I'd for some reason left when I did the base layer grass months back. Then, this morning before I set off for work, I painted the filler with brown umber paint and sprinkled green scatter over it as a base layer.

Some scenic work done over the last few days... Ive growth added to the bridge. Rock cutting added to one side... The view through the cutting. Just an overall view of a 143 on it's way to Amlwch on the last train of the day.

Cheers Neil, only trouble is the £££!

So it's one month until show-time, the layout appearing at Anglesey Model and Collections Show. So here's a checklist of jobs for the next four weeks. Finish reeds along lake shore. Resolve any imperfections in land form. Finish and tidy up post and wire fences Sort wiring detect on board 4 Build fiddle yard boards Make a 'maintenance kit'

Thanks mate, yeah thought i could do a better job on the wing fences, but theyre much better now. Last night, I got the layout up on legs for first time...

Had an hour this morning so decided to finish applying decals to my Lima tank... This tanker was originally in Shell yellow with red branding. I've gone down the Liquid Chlorine route again with these wagons, so I re-sprayed into White using a Halfords aerosol, and applied my own decals. You can see holywell junction's versions above in a previous post. Another job I got round to during the week was to re-do the wing fences on the bridge. The originals, although better than nothing, were rather crude and badly painted on my part, so decided to make newer and finer ones. The posts are 1.5mm evergreen square rod, the rails are 20thou plasticard sheet cut to size, and the ballast boards are 0.75x2mm strip. They were then painted in Railmatch Sleeper Grime. On the right is the new wing fence, the old on the right. All four corners of the bridge have been similarly treated.

An overall view of the layout this morning... ...and a 150 on 2F13 Bangor - Amlwch.

Yes that's an excellent website. A lot of my motivation for the layout came from that website

Very excited by both Mk5 and class 92 announcement, looking forward!

Thank you for the logo, it'll come in very handy... I've managed to source a couple of the Lima wagons. They're fairly tatty, but they'll receive a coat of paint and new wheels and they'll be good as new! As far as I know, Amlwch received suphur from Mostyn(until 1989) and Liquid Chlorine, and despatched Ethylene Dibromide to Ellesmere Port and the occasional load of straight Bromine to mainland Europe. The tanks for the Bromine were European type, so I wonder if any HO manufacturers make something similar...

You can find some interesting things in the Welsh countryside!

Cheers mate. It needs more work though... Them tanks look great!

Put the layout together in it's entirety this morning, to check that all is well and just to have a little play. It's only the second ever time it's been together in full, board 4 didn't have anything but base layer of polystyrene land-form and the track back then! Thought up a little scenario in my head, where an EWS class 66 failed on the return of the morning tanks, with only two tanks in tow. Freightliner 66522 was on the Penmaenmawr ballast on this day, and was sent to assist the train the Llandudno Junction, before returning to it's own train... Just a little fun on a Saturday morning

Thanks for the comment. That would be very useful! I bought a Bachmann 2mt tank especially for this layout so i could operate it in 50s/60s, but as you see from the photos, this is a representation of the line where 'rule 1' is firmly applied. I kitbashed the two chlorine tanks with bits from my 'box of things' and a couple of cheap old wagons from ebay, and created the transfers myself

Earlier this evening, decided to have a play to see how the Octel tanks could have been should they have continued to use rail after 1993... Naturally by the 21st century, the brake vans and barrier wagons had been dropped from the formations. And then maybe into DB Schenker era...? And they might have lost the contract to a competitor..? Also this evening, I discovered Lima had made some tank wagons very similar to the TTA/TTB vehicles used on the Amlwch-Ellesmere Port trains. Might try to get a couple and make them into Octel tanks...

A Nova 2 set being hauled through Conwy today, after being railed and comissioned at Anglesey Aluminium.

The more common type of concrete posts have the wire running across the face of the post secured to it using eyes, almost like big split pins.

That would work. Older dropper bars actually was made of twisted wire, which ive only come across once or twice.