rouse2037

Hello Ian Yes, I was that proud owner of Brunswick. I took it to the Cardiff show in 2008 and spent a great weekend shunting the yard. It worked perfectly and had much interest. However, several months later the lure of larger scales and a move away from 2FS meant it went off to pastures new. It was and I'm sure still is, a great classic micro. Best wishes Roger

Interesting plan and idea though. How about a wagon repair works on an inglenook theme? Roger

Cheers pal It's all your fault you know! Roger

Cheers Mikkel - glad you liked them. I'm glad I gave it a go - I blame that Marc Smith for all his ideas and thinking! I have plans for yet another micro and will either use the bit i have left over or go and buy a new piece. I really really shouldn't start another but well, you know what it's like!?! Off to the Pontypridd show tomoz - there may be some bargain items to chuck my cash at Roger

He can't park it there - that's my space! Looks superb Chris! Cheers Roger

RAIL ROVER Cheers Mikkel for the comment. Are you going to try a lump of the insulation foam stuff? Here's a pic of Rover, sitting in his fave spot on the PW trolley. He likes sniffing the diesel fumes - don't we all Roger

Detailing has been slowly progressing with weeds and weathering to ground cover. Some tatty concrete fence posts were cemented in this morning and metal rails, already rusting and past their best, were added between them. The faded Class 22 has been trundling about on shunting duty and a local hound has decided to take up home on board the old PW wagon. Also been tweaking my Kadee's (oh err Mrs) to ensure trouble free working. Cheers Roger

Thanks Mikkel. I'd been wanting to build one for a while and now that i have, it's kept me amused for hours. Dare I say it, but it's the best layout that i have built that has felt "right"! The loft insulation foam is great stuff. It comes in a pinky orange colour. Really light in weight and indeed very easy to cut. I used a saw to cut it to the required width - i kept the length as it was. I have heard a comment that you should wear a mask as the dust it gives off is a bit nasty. I did the cutting outside anyway and used common sense! As for mess, it was just like cutting wood really and not bad at all. Certainly nowhere near as bad as polystyrene!! The surface of it did need a light sanding in places to get it smooth but on areas covered with ground cover/ballast etc that wouldn't really matter. I laid track directly onto it and used pva to hold the track in place and then ballasted in the usual way with no problem at all. Cheers Roger

SHUNTING - TIDDLY ? I have read several ideas with regard to shunting on an inglenook. Clearly there is the option of randomly shunting wagons from one siding to another, perhaps moving the wagons to end up with them in the reverse order to the order they started in etc. Then there is the tiddly wink computer or the playing card/waybill idea as featured in Model Trains International etc I decided to use the playing card option and 8 wagons. I was lucky to get a mini sized pack of playing cards in an xmas cracker. Mini layout = mini cards. I selected 8 cards, cut some plain white sticky labels to size and wrote the wagon type on each sticky and stuck 1 to each playing card. After a shuffle, 5 cards are selected and that is the order that the consist must end up in, with 3 remaining wagons "wild" and getting in the way! Each shunting session takes about 20 minutes to complete. Then the 8 cards are shuffled again and 5 new cards selected. For an extra twist, one could insist that the consist must be formed in a particular siding.. Cheers Roger

PART THE 6TH - SHUNTING Taken from The Diary of a Cambrian Spotter "Friday 18th March Bunked off school today, made 2 jam sandwiches and pinched some pop. Cycled off to the sidings at the end of Neptune Road.and saw some hectic shunting going on. A tatty 63'er had already arrived and the driver was having a fag with Dai over by the hut. I hid behind a pallet just in case. After a bit, the driver set to work shunting. There were a mix of vans and opens and Dai's dog Skip was sitting in the old PW wagon. He looked bored as he got shunted about a bit until the 5 vans had been gathered in the long siding. The driver and his mate shut the engine off and went off for dinner. I got stung by a wasp and went home.."

Thanks for looking and for your comment RR. Rightly or wrongly, I do take time to look at backscenes on pictures in rail mags and at shows. Some people say you shouldn't "notice" a good backscene... others say it's the key to a good layout... Each to their own opinion. But I have seen many a good layout look, not wrong or spoilt exactly, but just not quite right because of the way the backscene has been done. Please let me know how you get on with the EZ couplings. I agree about the wheels - they spin so freely these days! Cheers Roger

I added a small piece of foam under the axle between the axle and the underside of the wagon so that the axle rubs on it enough that the wheels won't spin too freely. A careful dab of glue will hold it place if needed. Thanks to a tip on here! Cheers Roger

Prevent derailing and falling off the edge of the "world" onto the floor! lol. Since Marc took the pic, a nice rotting pile of old sleepers is now in place, angled slightly so the stock hits the PW hut and not me feet! Especially at a show when i'm too busy talking!! Cheers pal Roger

Nice looking idea/plan there Neil. For my dcc layout wiring, I use electrofrogs and isolate the V's on each point with a plastic rail joiner and give each siding a power feed. Works for me! Looking forward to your progress Cheers Roger

After fitting resistance to the axles of the wagons I have selected and now fitted with Kadee's for use on Neptune Road, I am pleased to report 99.9% uncoupling every time. As the first exhibition outing is now on the cards for June, detailing work continues. Thanks for looking Roger Picture taken by Marc Smith

Been to Hay on Wye today and picked up "Branch Lines Round Britain - in the diesel era" for a fiver. Great stuff. Also noted how dark green gorse bushes are. On Neptune Road, more weeds have sprung up. Roger

PART 5A - KADEE COUPLINGS Although I'm not a big fan of tension locks, they work - and with my super uncoupling wand are ok. Having used DG couplings on 2mm finescale stuff in the past, the idea of hands free uncoupling and delayed action shunting sounded good for Neptune Road use. I purchased No's 17, 18, 19 and 20 plus magnet and height jig. Changing over from tension lock to kadee was simple enough, using the jig was easy, fitting the magnet..yes fine. Pushing wagons by hand over the magnet, pretending to be the loco, the wagons all uncoupled fine... until... using a real loco (well, not an actual REAL loco) with kadee fitted to it and .... the same wagons refused to now uncouple. Until .... i read on RMW about adding some resistance to the wagon via the axle and then also remembering my pal Al telling me how he had done it to his stock. Great idea and it works! I tend to find No 18's work the best for me. More later Roger

Looking superb matey! Cant beat a rocky outcrop.. I didn't spot the mirror either at first! Another classic from old Sparky!!! B) Cheers Roger

I worship in the Church of The Barry Ten! Great looking building there Al More pics please! Cheers matey Roger

Thanks Al You have to view it thru Marc's viewfinder tho for it to look as good! Great to see you today. Trains and tea and mates - smashing! Roger

PART 5 - LOCO'S AND STOCK I recently purchaed a resin Class 22 Silver Fox body kit and a Bachmann Class 20 chassis to run it on. Installing a DCC chip took a few seconds and the running is quiet and very smooth. Great. Although the Class 22 body was of the disc headcode type, I wanted a tatty BR blue finish with full yellow ends - so thats what I did. Double arrows and numbers, data panel etc were added after painting and the body fitted to the chassis after some filing. The bogie side frames were removed from the 20 chassis and replaced. I didnt fit spoked wheels as i really should have done but it looks fine to me. Sorry to all those perfectionists - not really. Weathering followed and I am rather pleased. Looking forward to the Dapol release of the 22.... sometime.. So the 22 is the main loco in use, with a couple of sound fitted 24's and a 35 in the reserve pool. Stock consists mainly of grotty 12t vans, a dogfish and a few opens. Cheers Roger

Very nicely done! Roger

Yes the same. It was a great shop and Maurice is a great modeller. I have family in Bicester and a trip to Abingdon was always on. Cheers Roger

PART 4 - BALLASTING WITH AN IPOD Not actually using an Ipod to ballast with but like most, I'm not a huge fan of ballasting so listening to some music or a Rhod Gilbert podcast tends to pass the time. I tend to hold the track in place first with a few spots of neat pva left to dry over night and weighted down if needed. Next day, spread the ballast with a tea spoon and work in with a finger and paint brush to get it all in the right places but leaving out the points for later. I made sure there was no shoulder of ballast as sidings and such are often neglected and i do like the run down look - and so often reduced to cinders and dust. (sounds like life in general!). When happy (am i ever?) i give it all a light spray of water and then the fun begins. Which is the best way to apply the diluted pva?? (with the old added blob of washing up liquid) hmmm??? a syringe? drip from a paint brush? or my new method, pour quite scarily in a slightly controlled way direct from a washing up type size pva bottle that had a quarter of glue left and topped up to about three quarters full with water.Well shaken and not stirred. Yum. It does tend to flood the track and looks a mess but quickly gets soaked up by the ballast which, i meant to mention, is n gauge in size. Might need a bit of prodding with a tooth pick in places to tidy the ballast up but then leave alone for at least 24hrs. Same method used around the points but with much less pva flooding so as not to bung them up with glue. Nothing new and certainly not fancy but - it works. Cheers Roger