halsey

No chance - RMW has been great and perfect for a stay at home modeller like me but this is only a winter (5 month) hobby as we go away for the summer (7) months on our canal boat. The big change has been to embrace coaches and if you remember right back to the beginning the marshalling/fiddle yard has "evolved" into a branch station with sidings and engine shed with TT so I can run short branch line traffic to the upper branch as per the original layout plan - all the other areas are the same except for minor tweaks as buildings and ideas develop I haven't ballasted any track yet (and don't intend to this year) as lots of playing going on which is testing the original work - I'm pleased to say no actual issues with the RMW design or my workmanship/electrics etc just lots of learning/playing/tweaks and most of all FUN. Great to catch up - yes I am enjoying it and glad you are still watching my mistakes! Keep well.

The Engine yard/shed makes progress 4 superquick kits now built up and my first Oxford Diecast purchases made - disappointing quality esp /wheels/tyres

very informative thanks

Almost a year to the day since my first post and it even starts to "look" like a railway!

Card models so much better with felt tipped adjustments!!

Just you might like to see progress - I must give a plug for Jerry at Freestone Models what a great outfit and great service and their arches/retaining wall kit is very good - it takes a while and still lots of finishing to do but very strong and great detail Spent some time altering some bits of last years work - relocated the controller, had a minor points rethink in marshalling yard to give me a short run around, shortened a few siding lengths to give more room for scenery esp on high level branch, sold 3 corridor coaches and bought 5 non corridor coaches - look better and closer to my interwar period thoughts. All good fun and NO major rethink on the cards now. I will further separate the docks from the branch "above" with a fence or hedge or possibly even something at 45 degrees - this is the only real poetic licence on the layout where operational priorities will always take precedence over aesthetics - you have to accept that the branch "zone" really heads off on the same level as everything else into a further area in the back LH corner of the shed which of course doesn't exist. I can live with this - the design concept has always been 3 separately modelled areas (Docks Branch and Marshalling) linked together as best they can be .................................

photos of work in progress as promised.................... LOTS to do - pillars paint/define coping etc etc .............

Hi all, Just to add my findings - there is a great guy in Greece who sells A4 sized sheets of what can only be called embossed wallpaper but very good and very reasonable just started a long retaining wall so will post photos as it progresses in due course - please bear in mind I am a newcomer (see my main post if you are interested) so no confidence destroying comments please! BFN Just realised I haven't provided a reference point so here it is ................8 SHEETS EMBOSSED BUMPY BRICK stone paper wall 21x29cm choose scale or design...........if you put this into an ebay search he will come up.

Hi - I would be very grateful if you could supply email/contact details please - I don't do Facebook (nor do I want to)! Thanks

Just to show I'm moving on and not rebuilding although I will try to move this particular "siding" a bit further away from the wall/back scene once the platform for the foreground is built ! Even good old Peco backscenes bring this to life. I'm sure I built this Superquick kit 50 years ago! Note my latest and last for now Loco great eBay buy Bachmann Fowler 2-6-4 tank used/perfect and less than £50! I have also played with better (photo) quality back scenes which were amazing but they didn't work for me - I find it very difficult to reconcile photo quality back scenes with card models and RTR stock - for me the mix doesn't work so more Peco back scenes now ordered!

It may seem obvious to you guys but why would you sprinkle dry ballast and then apply diluted glue surely there is much more control if you apply glue where you want it and then sprinkle the ballast - what am I missing???

Decided to start setting the scene and context so have ordered various backscenes to experiment with on my upper Branch line station area and the single "Countryside" track rising up to it to see if that helps me move on AND I have started on my first (for 45 years!) SuperQuick kit with, incidentally, some great glue - Deluxe Material Roket Glue - expensive but very useable. BFN, photos will follow,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Track Ballasting?????? Any input on cheap, efficient, effective - (time served) methods would be gratefully received - if there is a published article you all collectively agree with so be it but I cant find much that isn't focussed on selling products! Also tools/aids would be good to know....................... Thanks as always As has been (correctly) suggested before - should I now be moving this thread to another area in the forum???

The focus has always been ERA 3 and LMS (Midlands canal focus) as a baseline for this project - building kits will start with Superquick I bought a few of these standard items last year - it was rolling stock kits and colours I was looking for guidance on I want to start with a couple of brake wagons and then "weather" some of the very cheap Ebay items bought last year.

DIY problem solved as have created another environment for that purpose - nothing to do with the Railway Shed! Eyesight problem (for close work) solved (did I mention that)- purchased off the shelf +4.0 glasses which seem to do the trick £2.50! N Gauge ruled OUT not tactile enough. Am thinking I might spend this winter with a greater focus on playing and building a few kits and models - I have been reminded that after last years big build that the budget is tight so no grand plans! Advice please on kits and paints and particularly colours for first stock purchase - do bear in mind I have absolutely none of these items at present so what are the basics I will need to get started. This does feel like the right way to go - so many of you talk about the pleasure of doing something whilst the trains are going round and round so I'll give it a go! J

Good point - probably the second definition "more of a builder than an operator" - I will definitely "play" before taking all apart - I'm working on removing one of the other pressures in my list at present so I don't need the railway shed to double up as DIY space as that will help my thinking Really not sure about N so will investigate much more. Thanks!

Hi all, Now back from a summer cruising around the canals and backwaters of the UK great fun - the low points were saying a sad goodbye to our eldest dog (far left in picture) , finding a dead body and falling and cracking 2 ribs high points everything else especially the weather in August and early Sept! I am feeling/concluding that I am possibly more of a builder than a modeller and seriously considering having a go with N gauge as this winters project - any/all comments will be received with thanks and interest to help me decide. Will be away for a couple of weeks over the next month but then back and looking to dedicate serious time again. Why these thoughts................. Another build to get stuck into More space to play with Possibly concerned re cost differential across the two scales and availability of "stuff" Eyesight is also a concern I could do away with my across the doorway bridge which I don't get on well with I wouldn't need to model my high level branch which is a bit difficult to access I could liberate an area of my shed for other non railway DIY activities Comments awaited with interest and I hope my regular contributors are all well and have had a good summer. J

The front (which will probably be made to look like a wall with arches) comes completely away with the removal of the locating pins (cut down large nails!) in the centre of the required brown corner blocks. There is nothing in the "tunnel" other than 2 lengths of straight track "set track" spaced with a join at either end and the corners have been filled in with an edging so the inevitable derailments stay in the track space.

Hi all, I just thought you might like to see some clean and tidy photos - with all track laid, hinged bridge done and working well, all wiring sorted and cork trimmed to suit future ballasting plans - I might paint a universal grey before my spring/summer plans kick in but I don't feel the need and there might not be time. What the photos have highlighted to me is that I do need to make up all the sleeper gaps before I do anything else! This has been great to develop thus far and I DEFINATELY couldn't have done it without RMW and some very specific personalities - thanks chaps!

Thanks EJ All good stuff and many thanks for this input - that was where my mind was focussing - I was also thinking of this as the basecoat for the cork and track edges so "solvent based" again seems to make sense - off to B&Q tomorrow then as its pensioner discount (sorry "Diamond Club") Wednesday! Re DoH we all have to indulge our loves sometime.................... KR

Hi all, Some more advice please........... I'm intending to "colour wash" everything grey to give a base to ballasting/modelling and I am getting the sense that this is normal practice but what should I use - primer/undercoat - oil based water based????? This was always planned to be the last job before my summer break and seems a good place to halt - but I don't want to get it wrong. All help/advice gratefully received as always. Many thanks

I'm certainly not going to use ramps! I am very happy with my "hand of god" tool and I think I will almost certainly end up removing "considered" hooks to make this easier - but not this side of the summer! BFN

Thanks both - food for thought and perhaps not one to be taken in haste as on many of my wagons it would be a case of drilling out rivets - so no return! KR

OK understood - do I assume from the "flavour" of your reply that it is a good workable generally adopted idea then - if so do you always take hooks from the same end of the wagon and again assuming that is right does it matter which end??

An UNCOUPLING question................ Have I read something somewhere advising taking some of the "hooks" off rolling stock to make uncoupling easier? Is this a good idea? I have one loco with no hooks just the bar and that certainly is easier in use but how does it work with wagons and do you take all hooks off at the same end throughout your stock? If this is all good how do you do physically it? Cut, dismantle?- do they come in two bits?? I look forward to your various replies.......................