LMS29

Agree with Baz. Great to run the railway, great to see the team again and the bells worked and were needed. Tom

..... and there was me thinking Garsdale was a quiet country station!!!!

Paul, Looking good. May yet see it in the 'flesh. Tom

Had mine too.

Really enjoyed the video. Gave a good feel on how the layout will operate and the work that needs doing. Tom

Looks great! Like the culvert shot. Tom

Tony, I have sent a PM re B1 tender, Tom

Pete, Glad you have got moved. Tom

Looks good Paul. Helps to emphasise the height of the viaduct. Tom

Trees look great. RL has a point. Maybe you could consider lowering the whole canopy a bit when you have have been able to see both sides. Cheers, Tom

Paul, Looking good. When you get round to it please publish your progress, it will be of interest to folk, Tom

RL, Your sketch of the fiddle yard shows a GDS line. Does this link with one of the three sidings on the main board to the outside of the Station building? Tom

RL, Enjoyed watching the station develop. I notice you have put the platform ends back in Central. Are you doing that as a temporary measure or is there a change of plan? Tom

Graham, Just trying to get my mind round the operations involved. Are you moving the long trains from Platforms 2 or 3 into the long sidings using their loco or a station pilot? and are you storing loco with set trains or running off to the shed? Tom

Graham, I use 20 storage sidings plus 6 locos on scene to get through the modest timetable for Ilkley, I think that selective compromise is required. Which are the trains you most recall most vividly?? Tom

Work on coaches has continued and I have almost completed two more. The first a TO for the diverted Leeds-Glasgow passenger train: The second, a scratch built Barnum TO for the Saltburn Blackpool SO holiday train. Both need some more detailing when the transfers are delivered, the roof on both need attaching and a mild amount of weathering will complete. Tom PS As many people, I have had to use mail order and have been really pleased with the service received from several suppliers.

Paul, Do I feel a build coming on?? Tom

I have been working well outside my comfort zone over the last few weeks trying to make three Gresley coaches in teak finish. I had 3 Gresley Sleeping cars and bought 3 sets of etched sides from MJT. I have endeavoured to make a D 23 TK, a D34 BCKL and a D27 TO. Lots of new skills involved and a decision that I would concentrate on the coach bodies and leave the under gubbins this time. I used the process for 'painting' described by Mike Trice on an RMWeb thread for the first two coaches and experimented with a variation for the TO but finished with a matt varnish (not quite the same effect!). Still lots to learn and improvements that I can make but it has been fun. Tom

I could lift some of Barry's load by offering to run Garsdale !! Not much ballasting there more scenic to keep me busy.

If you look carefully you will find the contents of tea bags used as scenic material on both Shap and Grantham but we did go to the expense of using a fresh bag on each layout and it was Yorkshire tea.

Baz, Good to see you have a test track working and look forward to seeing all that ballasting completed. Tom

I have managed a little more progress with wagons for the 1940's. Looking at photographs, i have been interested to see wagon and vans that are sheeted. Looking more closely I note that that all sorts of sheets are being used and that the tethering is also quite random. In order to create a little more interest I have modelled four examples. The first photo of a van with sheet presumably to cover a leak in the roof and an open wagon with folded sheet, awaiting load. The second shows a couple of sheeted wagons, which I found in a photo, which may have covered a part load or just be covering an empty wagon and they were holding a fair load of water. Just a bit more variety for the two goods trains. Tom Apologies, I will try and get a better photograph next time I get the camera out!

During the 'lockdown' I have continued to build wagon kits, modify RTR wagon and doing some scratch building. As a result I now have completed six rakes of wagons. The first two are LMS good trains, one in each direction, which represent trains which are diverted up the Wharfedale line when there were diversions from the Leeds/Skipton line up the Aire Valley. Both are a mixture of wagons which are typical of the random mixture of good wagons seen in photographs of the time. There is still some work to do weathering and adding loads but it is good to see them running! I also built more WD Ammonia tank wagons, to complete the rake of 10 WD tank wagons. Transfers were the work of CCT of this parish. I now have two rakes to represent the two or three trains which passed through Ilkley on a daily basis. The clean tanker is the only RTR version of this wagon, which I quite like to leave in a pristine condition. The last pair of trains that I have assembled represent coal and coke trains which ran full from County Durham towards Lancashire and of course returned empty. I have found reference to the use of wooden LNER hopper wagons in this traffic, so I have built a number of these kits from Slaters, but could not resist building other wagons to add some variety. At this stage I have not found a relevant photograph, so feel able to take this liberty! Still work to do but the progress has been quite positive. Tom

The scenic team, are ready to go and looking forward to the challenge when RL is ready and once the current restrictions allow. Tom

I'll be watching! It is one of our jobs in the south box! Tom