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Looking Good! Paul R

Well somewhat later than hoped here are some photos of latest progress on the road constuction. These show a general view with the pavements and drains in place. I am afraid I don't know much about the science behind drains and did not feel I wanted to research this on the Internet so these covers are just placed randomly. The gully drains are I suppose about right. I chiseled out the holes after marking round the cover with pencil. The gully drains have black permanent marker colouring to suggest a deeper hole. Once glued in more filler was used to bed in round the edges. The whol road needs repainting now. This photo shows the final position for the bus shelter. More fence to paint and instal. The kerbs are made from styrene strip, cut to length and placed indiviudually. I am quite pleased with this - just now need to finish it off! The Leyland Pickfords lorry is Corgi. Paul R

Ironically the only loco we did not have on Engelsdrecht was an EM2! There was no rtr model and the kits were over £400 in 1980! Wish I had bought one though! Paul R

On our Engelsdrecht Dutch layout we hand scratch built catenary and had pans touching the wires with no problems. A wide variety of stock was used from Lima to Marklin. All we did at the fiddle yard ends was to raise the wire height so the pans ran out without any issue. Running in similarly produced no problems. It was a gradual transition to full height so you never really noticed. The layout is sadly long gone but I still have all my stock and the Station Building. It did appear in Continental Modeller at one time. Paul R

Wow Paul R

Well not a lot happening on the layout but I have been installing drains, manhole covers and pavements! Hopefully some picture this weekend. I am using the Langley models etches. I have to repaint the road surface and the pavements and then install bus stops road signs and other street furniture. incidentally does anyone know how far in advance the warning signs for a crossing would have been in the 1950's. I am talking about the pre-modern road signs. No further progress on the B2 I regret but the wife is off to Germany on business soon and the daughter is away so I can hopefully have some quality uninterrupted modelling time! Paul R

This is looking superb! I love the double track and your sweeping pointwork Paul R

Daz ( and friends) It is a long story but basically we have a three level garden as its on a slight hill. In one corner at a raised level we have a large pond and one of the (lazy) ways to get to it is to climb on the wall from the bottom level and walk round. Well I needed to get to the filter and it was wet so I took the lazy route in a pair of slippers! I lot my fotting bhaving got on the wall - its about 3 feet high - slipped, tripped on a garden bench, went head over heals and somersaulted into the bottom garden hitting my head on the shed on the way down. Somewhere I badly grazed my knee and despite my wife cleaning it up, I must have picked up a nasty infection which went into my knee. The actual wound was not very deep - superficial really - and was healing up nicely when on Saturday it swelled up to the size of a grapefruit. I am home from hospital now but I still can't put any weight on it although I can hobble round the house. I have to keep it up most of the time with an icepack on it. Had the GP round on Friday who says I am not going back to work this week. The only regret is that it wasn't filmed. I could have got £250 from You've Been Framed. Could have paid for a Dapol 08! I am not able to do much modelling yet but hopefully by the end of the week. All for now Paul R

Thanks Rod -really helpful. Paul R

Hi Rod How are you finding the Tortoise motors. I don't have any practical experience myself having always used SEEP. Cheap to install and replace if they go wrong and they go over with a satisfying if unrealistic thump! Are the Tortoise motors better for DCC Keep up the good work Paul R

No further work done on the layout as I have been hospitalised with a knee infection. I fell of a wall 10 days ago (long story) and was OK until yesterday when my knee which was healing well, balooned up to the size of an apple. I have had to be admitted for intravenous Antibiotics. Even if I get out soon I am confined to lying on the sofa with my feet upi for at least a week. All for now Paul R

Hi Colin I think it is more of the Heljan Shapeshifting technology! Or we could be about to witness the arrival of Dr Who's tardis and this is at time space dimensional shift! Ah the 4th dimension! Paul R

Hi Daz Yes it is better than I had imagined. It's the first time I had run it -shows how little time I get. Unlike the other two Heljans I have yet to have the bogies out and instal the couplings. the pipes are very fragile and I have broken a couple from one end that I need to replace with white metal or lost wax. Overall though I good loco and short enough to make a worthwhile branch engine. Class 37's did not work over the Braintree branch that often. Class 31's were more common amongst the diesels and Heljan will shortly be releasing one and the supply of funds is somewhat low presently! I also have an RJH version stashed somewhere. All the best Paul R

That DP2 does look the part Paul R

Another update. Managed to sort the two problems out preventing full running. The main feed bus from boards 0 to 1 had broken at the connector before the interboard plugs. An easy fix. The points were more of an issue. The fault was not what I thought nor where I thought. In fact one of the wires in the interboard leads had broken inside then plug. I had changed out the CDU for a spare I had but that did not cure the problem. Sorting out the lead did! I am not sure that Din Plugs were necessarily the best form of plug and socket. I chose them because you can get 8 pin versions and the idea was to keep the number of wires across the joints to a minimum. Only one board join was planned to have two conectors the rest only one. Even where there is two I didn't need the second one! As a trade off I used a CDU for each board and the section switches and point controls are all on panels in each board - in effect signal boxes of their own. Although there are only 5 boards not including the fiddle yards there are only 3 boxes so to speak. Its very necessary to have a full wiring diagram for a layout which is essential for fault finding along with a trusty multimeter. My plan looks like this I drew it all out on A3 before I wired the layout and highlighted the wires as they went in. More videos now This shows the 04 moving along. I seem to have run into problems with paint on the inside of the point blades and had some cleaning to do. Running is far from faultless but this is the forst time in well over a year since it has had any power in it and more then 2 boards connected at a time. Next time I will post some of the steam locos All for now any comments gratefully received Paul R

Dave I noticed that too! The original video was fine before uploading to YouTube. However it did ask if I wanted to correct the shakiness to which I naturally said yes! I suspect that could be the answer. It's not easy holding a video camera in one hand an d the controller in the other! I need to get the wife to hold one or the other - now there's a dilemma. I will hopefully report on the troubleshooting later. My original theory was that the inter board connectors were faulty but that would not explain why the two point motors don't work - they are wired in tandem. It may be the CDU is faulty. That would mean there is more than one problem. Hey oh at least I didn't discover this at an exhibition Paul R

Well I have mananged to put 3 boards together only to find that the foirst board has a complete lack of power and the points to the crossing won't switch! However the Deltic has moved for the first time since I got it and it has an impressive amount of intertia due to the flywheels. I nearly drove it off the end of the layout! I have a couple of videos which are really a trial effort and aren't really up to much but they are a start http://youtu.be/6navjdhBLB0 http://youtu.be/keBbYgIW27c Paul R

Really atmospheric guys. What will you be using for the underground stock? A60 units would feel right a lonside those baby Deltics Paul R

Another update. I have been on holiday so I have had a little time to progrtess things and started work on the pavement leading up to the crossing. I have used with Wills Sheets which are a tad large for OO but slightly small for O. However they look about right. The kerb is an Evergreen strip cut to 20mm lengths. The reason the kerb does not extend to the end of the pavements is that I have to turn the corner into the goods yard and I need to bend the curve round the corner. I had thought that the orientation of the slabs would need to change but a careful study of the prototype in our high street suggests not for the short length of paving. The photo above shows the paving approaching the level crossing. I will grass some of this up using the new Noch 12mm static grass and possibly some laser cut minis flowers. More posters are needed on the fence. I particulalry like the last shot as the tall tree really adds depth to the scene. The tree is sitting in what wll become the back garden of a pub or post office. I have my eye on a prototype for the latter in a village not far from me. I know its in Sussex not Essex but the style is similar and I may change the roof from tile to slate. The van in the photo is standing where the signal box will eventually be. The wife is out at a swimming gala most of the weekend and I have sought and had agreed permission to have more boards up in the conservatory to have a bit of a run. There is evena rumour of a video if I can work out how to post in You Tube. I managed to create an account so we are on our way. Keep watching for updates over the weekend All for now Paul R

Really superb.I love the picture down the street - so atmospheric Paul R

Fantastic news Pete. That should make a great layout and it was an interesting track plan Paul

Very good quality Rod. Are these Westdale or Easy Build? Did you source the MU cables separately? Paul

Any chance of a close up of that dmu? Looks excellent Paul R

HI All Just finishing off another tree and would welcome comments. I used a trunk that was bought at a show and I have coated it with Woodland Scenics clumped foliage and then sprayed with cheap hairspray and covered in Nock Laub (leaves). The photo looks better than in real life but I am not 100% convinced its realistic enough. I need to weather down the trunk. Any thoughts Paul R

Don I think the problem with rubbing the surface down would be that it will look like a piece of worn sandpaper. My thoughts are that a light coat of a dirt type colour would take the shine off it whilst preserving the texture which is what I was after when I decided to go down this route. I have used wet and dry sheets on an earlier layout and whilst I did not have the shine to the surface thay marked very easily. The papers also lifted but I put that down to the plasticard under surface of the platform despite it being scored heavily. On the lamps yes that might be a good idea. The prototypes at Cressing were relatively short and I did consider using a square tube that would beef them up. I have an open mind on that presently but thanks for the tip Paul