Vecchio

I do like the viaduct, it is a bit like those on the Semmering Bahn. Also the background behind your viaduct looks like the mountains in this area. I spent a lot of time there, my parents had a small house there, just 50m from the track in the village called Klamm am Semmering. Especially in the summer, with the windows open, you could hear the trains quite a bit. But after a few days you get used to them, and you sleep undisturbed. Also I saw the layout at Alexandra palace and we had some conversation on this forum. Second biggest viaduct of the Semmering, Wagnergraben. It is a two storey viaduct. Renovation has just started, therefore temporary cables can be seen. 150m from my parents house. Taken in October 2017. Renovation finished 2021. Railjet coming up, castle of Klamm in the background. 20171023_113117

I suppose all Faller kits - except those of stations and everything close to the railway lines as well as kits which are showing a real building - are smaller than 1:87. Which isn't a problem, as long as they somewhere further back. And I have the feeling their newer models are more scale than their old ones. I remember a 4 storey house on my first layout - it was more or less the same height than a scale 1-storey house...

I personally prefer code 100 for the fiddle yard. Much more robust than code 75. On the transition to the scenic part you need to use the adapter track SL113 to go to your code 75

Well, this was quite a long break. For the next two exhibitions I have already announced the new size, with the new fiddle yard. Means it is time to finish it... After some playing around with surface mounted solenoid switches I decided that they are all rubbish (or the springs in the peco points are too strong). So I ripped them all out and servos it is again... Thanks god somebody wanted to get rid of 4 servo decoders (DR4024 from digikeijs) and I grabbed them all for a good price. Even the company went bust, these decoders were great. So - quite some work to change that over, also I was not happy with the board connectors, so I changed all of them as well. I tested the boards all connected together and did the set-up for the decoders. As I needed two more points controlled I built in also 2 Cobalt IP point motors. Set-up of those was dead easy - means they didn't need any set-up, just an address. Set it all up in my Z21 and defined some routes. And now I am butchering my existing scenic module... Tunelmouth ripped out. IMG20240104144813 Track removed IMG20240104150012 New track glued on IMG20240114163731 The fiddle yard is twin-track, as I want to use it also for some future projects. Here only one track is used. But as you can see it goes immediately to a curved point which is the connection to the inner track, means I can use all tracks of the fiddle yard. And finally some ballast IMG20240120152300 This was the work of several weeks, it doesn't work as fast as you read this... Also it was so cold in the shed that I couldn't work in there for a long time. Now it is getting warmer again, so no excuse... Quite some more work to do.

Sad to hear that. Warley was one of my highlights every year.

A bit further with the station. Or more or less finished... As I want lights in the station I had to make a ceiling for the two rooms. Ceiling with lights in position. IMG20240107115816 As I do not trust to the self adhesive strips on the lights I fix them as well with hot-melt. IMG20240107120125 Hotmelt also keeps the wires nicely in the corners of the building. IMG20240107121005 Now we have the complete station - not complete as the drainpipes are missing - added also some Scottish posters and a timetable ( 2023, Scotrail, Glasgow to Mallaig...) For the drainpipes I will look into my scrap box, as I do not like the laser cut (square) ones... IMG20240107164203 The gable needs some treatment, the gable bricks were red, I will try to find a tissue paper which is good for this job. I am happy, it was an enjoyable build without great problems. I can recommend it to anybody who wants a small Scottish station.

Well that's exactly what I did ... If the interlocking would be on the inner layer -which would be possible - you wouldn't have the problem. The platform shelter and the signal box both have the interlocking on the inner wall.

Well - as I said earlier a base would have helped. The signal box has a floor in the first floor, which helps to get everything exactly in position. I think the building went together quite straight forward without any big hiccups. I do recommend to paint certain parts before building, especially the windows. Also the window fame areas need painting before building, as it is much easier to have a clear edge between colours. For the lines between panels (middle of the building) I used masking tape which works well. I did not like the roof, the fact that the "beams" are not covered by the roof panels is one thing, also the roof panels need to be filed to avoid a gap at the bottom end. I covered the "beams" up by using silver-grey colour tissue paper stripes which should simulate the lead flashing on the roof. Works actually very well. Now I moved on to LK-203, the Arisaig station building. Here I think the bay windows should have been done without the interlocking "teeth" in the front. I tried to sand, use filler and sand again, but even after painting I can still see the teeth. Have a look before painting IMG20240103075540 and now after painting and part assembled. IMG20240103204102 Well - the kit is somehow challenging, but I think this is part of the fun...

The station is not yet done, but a signalbox. I used the same colour scheme as with the platform shelter. Also an enjoyable build, the roof is somewhat improvable. IMG20240102173746 IMG20240102173756 In this view, with the flash on, you see there is some gap at the bottom of the roof plates. IMG20240102173237 This comes from the fact that the plates are cut 90 degrees. I did sand them to have a better fit, but obviously I didn't do enough... The roof is not yet glued on, as I am waiting for the interior kit (ordered from LCut). I also need to put some lights in.

Here we go. Black 5 repaired, still not happy, pre-ordered the new Hornby one. Fiddle yard: Done, just need to adapt the scenic moduls to fit to it... if I am quick this happens still in 2023. Shouldn't sit here but work in the shed... Chip second hand locos: OBB 1020 done, 4 more to go.... To order less.... Well, didn't happen. Two class 37, a bunch of wagons, one Belgium shunter (second hand), a Scottish DMU, a Caledonian pug (second hand), two Austrian DMUs, one Austrian shunter, three Austrian narrow gauge locos (well all three second hand...), two 7mm shunters on pre-order, one 66 and one 37 on pre order.

But now to something more recent. Santa has been and the Peco kits are here. West Highland Station, Signal box and Platform Shelter. I start with the smallest one, to get used to Peco laser cut kits. The quality of the cuts is good, wood quality as well. Painting: I recommend painting on the fret, even if some edges have to be repainted after taken the parts off. It requires minimum 2 coats of enamel paint, as the wood takes in the colour quite a bit. Probably a thin wash of sanding filler would help. (If you do that, try it on a scrap bit before...) I use the colouring scheme of Glenfinnan, first I made some photos last year during my holiday, second you find a lot more on the internet. The Peco packaging shows a combination of a pale lime green and a darker green as well as a cream-coloured brick base. The buildings are based on Arisaig, looking at this station shows a combination of blue and cream (which is much nicer). Well, too late, Glenfinnan is cream with lime green brick base and lime green woodwork around windows and roof. What am I missing? The building has no base. A base, especially with a floor peace, holding the sides at exact position would improve the stability a lot and would make building the model much easier. What is wrong? The measurement for the windows. In the rather short instructions it says 52x25 for the main window – what you need is 51x23, otherwise you will collide with the door and the window will hang 2 mm over the inner wall. The smaller window is 14 x 7.5. I recommend to try it before gluing, there is a very narrow window between being too big (and get into trouble with the door again) or not covering the aperture. The roof could be 1mm wider to stand 0.5mm over on both sides, would look a bit better. Also at the rear it would look better (and more realistic) if the roof would stand slightly over. I suppose 0.5mm are enough. Slight gaps between outer parts are almost impossible to avoid IMG20231227095940 ... but can be healed with a bit of wood filler. IMG20231227104625 IMG20231227102758 All in all I enjoyed the build and look forward to the station (Arisaig, but with the boring colour scheme).

Yes, exactly that one. I am not calling it Brackley, as I want to avoid an army of rivet counters telling me where I made mistakes. I measured the windows ( just before the café opened), I went down to grab as many photographs as possible, and then it was drawing board and brick counting on photographs. Of course I left out the nasty extension on the back, I suppose this was added when it was a tyre shop or from the storage people. Where it stands now the slope is not steep enough, but as it is on a club layout there are many hands and many ideas, not always doing what I think would be right. To get the bridge and staircase right I bought a historic photo This is the rear view as the building looks today:

One voice for BrushType4: Phil makes not only beautiful kits but also bespoke stuff, in case you can provide a proper CAD drawing. Look here at my station building of Brackley, all windows of the main building have been cut by him. They could never be accurate like that if you build them up by styrene profiles. IMG20231013172959

Just fell over this thread - very nice what you are doing. Speaking about the Erdkeller - they were sometimes in groups, if a village has a road next to a slope there were these cellars one next to the other one. And of course they were also used for other things than potatoes, people made and stored Most (kind of cider, but sometimes not only apples but all kind of fruit) or wine. My aunt had an old farm building which had such an Erdkeller on a slope behind the budlings, it always had a fascination for me as a boy to get in there. Have a good Christmas or Frohe Weihnachten!

Tanti auguri di Buon Natale anche a te! As well as Frohe Weihnachten!

I have the feeling we are far away from parking bicycles... Let's get in a more Christmassy mood...

Sorry, but I do not agree. My sister had a bike with this kind of brake, and I could easily block the rear wheel from turning with a bit more weight on the brake. Doesn't help with the tire life... No fear, I was always very thin as a boy - not really the case nowadays...

Now readers got a nice impression of the "Wiener Zentralfriedhof" which is the biggest cemetery in Vienna. It still looks like that and it is so big that entering by car was allowed as long as I can remember.

Great start Mr Northroader. Just checked - Gösser Bier started in 1860 (there was a brewery in the area for almost 1000 years, but 1860 it started on a more industrial level. Who wants to know more - have a look here). I don't know when they got a size that they needed a railway connection or even wagons with their own brand name. The writing on the wagon looks like StlB, this company started in 1890. DO I like the wagon? Of course I do. Do I like their beer? Well it was always a bit on the bitter side, until they established a cold filtering system. Probably the beer lost a little bit of it's Styrian charm, especially after the brewery is now part of the Heineken group...

@03060 Terrible hint. Just spent £58.90...

Would do that rather with a dial gauge...

Ian, I do know that as I started using DCC in 2004. I loved my Lenz system I had at this time, but at the moment I purchased (years later) a Z21 I never took the Lenz out of its box. It works well, but with all disadvantages of a numeric input. Remember your function keys or re-map them, or write them down, remember your loco addresses or write them down and so on...

A bit expensive for a system with numeric control handsets. What about tablet and smart phone use? z21 costs much less and Z21 approximately equal. Both 3 Amps and full graphical user surface. Correction: With the Hub connected to any layout, locomotives, points and accessories can be controlled using the RailController software on a PC or using Android and Apple compatible Apps. So we need to see these apps?

Even the two Twingo's have some similarities, I still like the original one much more... It happens also at other manufacturers. I consider the VW buzz - the follow up to the iconic bus - as a Mickey Mouse car as well. I looks like it came direct from a Cars movie, but part 5 or so...

Well - taste can be different. Especially French designs - they can be awesome - and the next model is awful.... I don't see the point why designers make Mickey Mouse looking cars, just to show us that they are electric. You will find out at the next red light anyway as the electric car (well, most of them) will have more torque and whoosh away... Vecchio, driving a plug in hybrid which looks like a normal car...