SprinterMan30

Fleet Update - Definitely hasn't been quiet on the Loco front either, four new Loco's have now joined the Fleet over the last three months: Hornby Class 56, 56087 in Colas Rail, so happy to finally have this one in my fleet after having it evade me countless times on a certain online auction website, (name of which I don't even want to mention in regards to this particular model). This is the DCC Ready version and it will be receiving a chip at some point in time followed by a coat of weathering Heljan's new released retooled Class 33, 33029 in WCRC Livery. Another one I am delighted to have my fleet having been after the older tooling in this livery for a while. Two very lucky finds back in April were these two 47's that have been resprayed into Locomotive Services Ltd Class 47's, 47810/D1924 'Crewe Diesel Depot' and 47805/D1935 'Roger A Hoskins' in BR Green Livery with 57 roof grills and long range fuel tanks.

Hi everyone, Still here keeping safe and well , hope you are all not missing work too much (I know I'm not). My Modelling Mojo has been coming and going over the last three months so progress on the layout has been off-on a bit, however at least with most physical model shops now reopening supplies should be easier and cheaper to get hold off. A layout update is coming very soon, but for now I have a small Fleet/Workbench Projects update to show you instead : Fresh from the workbench is one of my Bachmann Class 90's, 90044 which I rebranded and renumbered from the factory released Model of 90037 last year. As you see it has had medium weathering effects applied using a mixture of aerosol spray paints and powders. The 044 numbers on the yellow ends have also been replaced with smaller ones as the originals looked slightly oversized. For photographic purposes this photo was taken on my exhibition layout, New Mere which I finished just before I started work on Harriton, I will probably create a thread for this layout to sometime in the future although it is very much complete I was after a finiished result similiar to that of Wratting Road's example of this Loco featured on Youtube and I think it has come out looking fairly decent considering I am relatively new to weathering/airbrushing. Unfortunately it wasn't a total success due to the fact that when I rubbing on powder on the other side I managed to damage the Freightliner red triangle logo, but this is something that will be easily rectified when I get round to ordering a replacement. The other Freightliner Loco I have, 90042 in Powerhaul Livery will receive light weathering as well sometime in the future whilst plan to send my other two Class 90's to be resprayed into DB Red and EWS Liveries by Ben's Respray's as soon as funds allow it.

Hi, Three are running as 11 car sets and one is a 9 car formation, which is currently out of action at the moment awaiting a possible repaint into flowing silk colours. At some point in time I will also be buying 4 powered driving unit chassis's too as part of project to add more pulling power when running as prototypical sized formations

It's funny you should mention that as the signal box was actually inspired by Dean Park along with some other elements of the layout!

Thought I'd share some pictures of newest DMU currently in my fleet, Bachmann's new and retooled Class 158, 158773 in East Midlands Trains Livery. Although I've had the Unit since February, yesterday was it's first actual day in service on the layout following the fitting of Bachmann's bespoke 22 pin plux Decoder specifically designed for this particular model. Very happy with the Model, both in terms of detail and performance it certainly does not dissapoint!

Currently not much in terms of work to report on the layout over the last week, however here are a few shots of a running session a couple of days ago...

Hi Benjamin, The buffers were Hornby Class 66 spares and rubbing plate I cut off using a craft knife Regards, Ed

And finally a little scratchbuilding project undertaken on the workbench. I felt the layout definitely needed a modern supermarket situated in a location where in suburbs start and this resulted in the construction of a low relief Sainsbury's Supermarket constructed from plastikard, card and a plastic wills kit. It certainly has the look and feel I was after and fits into this part of the layout nicely. Interior lighting has been added in the entrance and exterior lighting above and below the main supermarket sign will be installed at a later date as well

The retaining wall/ townscene and streetscene support sections have also been completed, now this is in place, the planning of the townscence can now begin to commence. A backscene now runs behind the majority of the scenic sections of the layout In this picture we see where the road goes over the bridge off scene and turns into a T junction that goes off the direction of the suburb scene ,everything to left of this will be a market square and therefore cobblestone and pedestrianised making this the main section of roadway on the layout A view showing the signal box that will be integrated into the retaining wall when it is built Some of planned market square scene

Hi Pete, It's a vollmer kit that I have kitbashed and changed somewhat to fit in with the location and theme of my layout Regards, Ed

The forecourt side of the building and surrounding town scene has moved forward as well with a road, cobblestone, paving added with a Premier Inn and Virgin Active Gym a stones throw away from the station. I didn't want to make the usual oversight of creating an area that looks too much like a town centre by adding a load of high street shops as most stations are fair distance from town centres. Here we have an aerial view (With my Sister's Cat making a Cameo Appearance in the background!) , road markings, street lighting, signage and more details will be added in the carpark over the coming weeks depending on how easy it is to get hold of the supplies needed

The main station building is now complete. The platform facing side of the building has been weathered and modified slightly to accommodate three sets of stairs that lead down to the platforms below. Again interior lighting will be added at a later date in time Girder Plates have now also been added and have been weathered up using Humbrol weathering powders to give the effect of rust/dust/ grime/soot built up over the years followed by a layer matt enamel spray varnish

Hi everyone, Firstly, I hope everyone is keeping safe and well in light of the Covid-19 situation over the last month, it is definitely very concerning, worrying and uncertain times we are now living through. I have been off work and "furloughed" since mid March and am currently back at my family home and have had a lot of extra time and money on my hands which has been put to good use on the layout. This can only mean one thing... Time for a long and overdue layout update (I believe the first of this year in fact!) on the layout and its progess over the last six months, this is going to be a big one and may be uploaded in the form of several posts so you may want to grab a cuppa for this one! Due to being unable to get hold of Cobolt Point Motors from Hattons since October and still not being 100% certain about the placement of some of the points and trackwork, I turned my attention away from ballasting to developing the station and the surrounding forecourt area since February, this work partly concluded last week. The island buildings and low relief buildings which will be integrated into the retaining wall are now in their positions on Platforms 1, 2 and 5, these house waiting rooms, toilets and a Pumpkin Cafe. The platforms and canopy have now been painted, weathered and detailed with figures ,seating, signage and other small details. They are now almost complete with the exception of drainpipes/guttering, platform lighting and a few other small details

Here we have the latest addition to my loco fleet, DBC Class 66, 66005, which has been resprayed into the striking Maritime One Livery. This is now one of sixteen class 66's that currently reside on my Layout, although I try to avoid Loco's in one-off celebrity Liveries I have made an exception in this case as there are quite a few Loco's in real life now in this eye-catching Livery and it's likely several at any one given time will be on allocated to WCML Maritime traffic. Looking at the Model I think it's fair to say its a decent representation of the real-life prototype. The quality of the paint application, finish, and positioning of some of the transfers in places isn't perfect and there are a few minor livery errors that need correcting, but that being said considering that I purchased this for just £68 second-hand compared to £250 for resprays being offered elsewhere this was quite a clever purchase. This Loco is definitely going to be one of my firm favorites

Workbench: Meanwhile I just finished one of a few projects I have undertaken away from home. Various Wills SS78 waiting room kits that are going to become the platform level waiting rooms, shop/cafe, and toilets have successfully kitbashed with grooves added to represent stonework along with weathering effects. Really is amazing would you can do with a few plastic kits when you use your imagination. All buildings in their finished state with the exception one that still needs windows and doors painted. The idea is that two will be joined together in their original configuration on bay platform 1 and platform 2 to create one island building with the other separate with space in between them, whilst the rest have been adapted to make one long run low relief building built into the retaining wall on platform 5 along the back when it is installed.

Scenic area on the righthand corner of the Layout - This has been one of those awkward 'I don't know what to do with this' area's of the layout for quite some time, I didn't just want to put a tunnel underneath a hill there to provide the scenic break where the fiddle yard begins and instead really wanted to do something original with the space, by chance when I was browsing through some images on google I found the perfect inspiration: the iconic section of railway line in north wales were the line is carried over the river by a bridge made to look similar in appearance to the nearby 13th century Conwy Castle. The plan is to scratch build two tunnel mouths with turrets, together with an integrated bridge that should connect this scene, the canal/river scene and the other corner scene on the other side rather nicely. Fun fact: believe it or not the castle ruins are not from skaledale, but rather a very skilled trader on Ebay who I purchased them from for probably half the price!

Not much to report on the layout over the summer months, but some key changes and decisions have been made alongside some side projects taking part on the workbench: Point Motors - the last six months have seen me struggling with electrics involving seep point motors and trying but failing to sort out faults. Other modelers have also told me that this type of motor is very aggressive on the point mechanism itself and noisy when compared to other more expensive slow action point motors. Another thing I've noticed is that some have seized up and become very stiff even to move by hand, this could be due to the recent weather. For me this is the last straw, I have now lost all patience with them, being somebody who doesn't really like doing electrics just short of having no point motors at all I am now going to opt for Cobolt Motors instead and in order to save time and money I will only be adding these to the scenic section of the layout as I'm sick and tired of all the time spent messing about with electrics when I could be doing other things. Whilst I accept that other people have probably had more success with Seep Point Motors than I have had they have been one big headache that I could do without Trackwork/ scenery around the station area - for the third and hopefully the final time I have decided to alter the track work approaching the station, the main reason being that as demonstrated in the pictures below a back scene will eventually be added on the righthand side with a retaining wall and a raised section that will carry the town/street scenes above track level and it didn't make sense from a scenic point of view to have the bay platform, which is the shortest platform tucked away and mostly hidden from view in the background with longest platform in the foreground. The final result is that the station layout is mostly the same just the opposite way around. In order to accommodate the bay platform on the lefthand side, a small extension will be built on at a later date. A thunderbird siding is now also present to add in a bit more operational interest by having somewhere to store a loco or rolling stock

Any clues as to when the Units are going to be released? Hattons are saying on their website July/August whilst the others are saying January/February next year!

Thank you - I myself am rather chuffed with how they like too as I studied pictures of the real loco and nocticed that there were noticeable patches where Freightliner have removed/ painted over the BR Double Arrow and Depot Plaques and I felt it was worth trying to replicate and comparing the Model with the real Loco I think I have pulled it off rather nicely. Can't wait to see what it looks like when it is weathered

And here are the finished results! A coat weathering soon to follow in due course...

Being a WCML modeller it's no surprise that after Class 66's, pairs of Class 90's will handle the majority of intermodel and automotive workings on my layout and with this in my mind I've purchased four of them so far, 90042 in Freightliner Powerhaul Livery and three of the version in RFD Livery with the plan being to repaint these into loco's into earlier version's of Freightliner Livery and DBS Red and EWS/unbranded EWS Liveries as I don't really trust Bachmann to get these liveries out onto the market in less than 5 years if the length of time it has taken to release this run is anything to go by. With this mind I got to work on one of the RFD Loco's to convert it into 90044 in Freightliner triple grey to run with 90042 when it arrives within the next couple of days, not much effort was involved considering that after removing the RFD Logo's and running numbers with T-Cut, 60% of the work was already done!

Again not much to report in terms of work on the layout over the last month, but my workbench has been busy and will continue to be over the next couple of weeks with some new additions to my loco fleet. One of a few I have just finished working on has been the eagerly awaited Class 90 from Bachmann, after nearly 5 years in the making I think it's fair to say it was definitely worth the wait . The level of detail is truly stunning and I'd say Bachmann have well and truly raised the bar with this Model. My only criticism would be Bachmann's decision to fit a servo operated pantagraph, which I think adds little to the model and it is a bit gimmicky and toy like, not as unforgiveable as Hornby's opening cab doors and spinning roof fans etc , but its certainly a feature that isn't really that useful, but that aside I can't fault the Model on a anything else it's simply excellent.

More pictures of the terrain taking shape plus preparations for the Roadway and Houses...

With ideas that had been stewing in my mind for a few months now, I have quickly settled on this scene being something along the lines of the main road in/out of the town running through a 'well to do' residential area nearing the outskirts/on the outskirts of town which will blend in nicely with open countryside from the Canal onwards