Freight Connection

Thanks Ed, There will be specials. I can manage a Black Five and some Maroon stock, a small JCB loader arrived yesterday so i'll even be able to get some coal on board. Struggling for a name at the moment but sure one will come eventually, that's the problem with modelling a fictitious place I suppose.

Trackwork.... The boards come up for working on the Electrics underneath, protectors get fitted to stop the track "Unzipping" at the edge. All joints run across the boards at 90 deg, not brave enough to try angles yet. The aluminium angles you can see locate the back scene.... Tight I know, storage rather than fiddle. Have used mirrors in the past to locate stops etc. One day the layout may be operated from this side... Thanks again to everyone for the interest shown, these hopefully give you an idea of where i'm up to Steve

Some more pics as asked for, to show where the layout is up to really.... Start of the Depot Build, a scale down of the 00 version, see George Dents Model Rail Blog for depot look i'd like... And then weathered Steve

Thank you all for the helpful comments. The Peco curved points helped to bend the mainline around the space required for a yard, they also encouraged gentle curves. Those and a Y point helped to produce a reasonable looking and flowing station throat. Ballast and rail weathering choices seemed endless, and because I wasn't modelling a specific location it took a while to decide on something. RM from Apr 13 contained a layout that described Revell 87 Earth Brown painted on followed by Greenscenes Light Grey Ballast. It does seem to hide the over scale rail a little. Ballasting up to sleeper depth might seem obvious now, but 20 years ago I wouldn't have paid that much attention to it. Electrofrogs have made such a difference, and almost all rails are soldered to droppers. The frogs also have droppers in ready for future micro switch fitment. I did toy with the idea of Code 55 and fair play to the code 40 modellers but a trial patch of the above method settled it for me. Regarding the stock, I changed out all the original Farish boxes with the modern counterparts. It was starting to look like Zanussi had the monopoly. Original underframes for now, but yes I have been looking at the KFA's and the early bird prices.. Hopefully this shows the difference. Final weathering in the future to break up the even look of it all... Many thanks - Steve

Thank you for the comments / interest. Some more pics as asked for.. Catching up with the earlier build Thin Ply fascia eventually to protect the Sundeala and MDF edges. Hoping to bring the scenery along from the left, a past mistake was probably to make lots of little scenes all over the layout and then fail to marry them up convincingly. Electrics done in sessions every so often when enough droppers through... I alternate with scenics etc if things get a bit repetitive. Peco track pins just burst through the underneath, starting to bend them in now... Too late for my poor fingers though ! Steve

Track plan as requested.. I based it loosely on a layout on here a few years ago called Westbrook. The two sidings along the lower edge will eventually become a container yard. The loop allows some out and back from the depot and warehouse etc. The platform that isn't accessible from the main line will just hold newspaper vans, ballast wagons etc... The plan was originally four parallel tracks through the station and just two platforms, but the lower platform was very narrow and on the baseboard edge. (see below) The new arrangement was a bit more pleasing on the eye, and in my mind the unusable platform will be due to track rationalisation etc. As you can see the two lines are independent of each other, but will allow HST and so on to pass freight in the station. A lot of licence is being used here, for example the modern containers in the first pics, and the yard will be Freightliner. But I have held off buying newer liveries to try and keep it mostly pre privatisation. The depot is from a project in Model Rail. The first shed has been built, the Peco shed will be replaced with a scaled down copy of the Hornby depot in the coming months. Regards - Steve

Hello to all. Have finally got round to putting my layout up on the forum. I've took inspiration from all types and gauges of layouts on here over the last few years. I originally started in the early 80s with a Farish train set and virtually completed a modest layout. What then followed was probably a common tale of biting off more than I could chew, with over ambition, poor design and poor track laying on a couple of more layouts. Everything eventually went back into boxes with a hope of restarting in the years ahead. And so here is the return. No name as yet, a fictitious northern location, mainly blue and sector liveried Poole production Diesels. This time its portable to avoid upside down soldering, its of a size that should allow me to finish it. Has reasonable playability (I Hope). And if I stick at it, will be expandable in the future. Mistakes are still being made of course, but the help and ideas on the forum have been a godsend already. With Thanks - Steve