alcazar

As always, looks amazing. I click on each instalment like a kiddy on Christmas morning.

I don't think crayons are wax crayons like we used to use, they are more like artists' coloured pencils?

The ones here on the works are grey. Very dirty, but grey.

Is that system still available? Reminds me of the old Bako-Builder sets of my childhood. I would think it would be brilliant if done in 7mm scale.

Is this a set of coupling rods, or a full valve gear set, since your description leads me to think you may have the connecting rods too?

Pretty neat idea!

Interesting. The local works here in Scunny used loads of them at one time, in the days when slag was just tipped. Nowadays, it's "Foamed" in a separate process and used for roadbeds, breezeblocks etc. Most, if not all ours here, were round, rather than square at the top. Two of ours are preserved outside the current works main entrance, and what used to be a works entrance:icon_sad: Are you going to model the wire rope used to tip them?

jim s-w's method is the one I mean. If you make the bearers and cross members from two strips of decent ply, screwed and glued to spacers, which can be thicker ply, blockboard, softwood, or even hardwood if available, and use plenty of diagonal cross-bracing, I can't see it warping far. Then do as Jim says, yacht varnish, first coat thinned, sprayed/painted all over it.

If/when I get round to washing ANYTHING model-related, here in North Lincs, I'll also have to have plenty of de-ionised water to rinse it: our water is so hard that lime deposits appear even on a newly washed car windscreen if left to dry naturally.

Why not use the "strips of ply screwed and glued to spacers" method as the supports, and mdf as the base again? The method has been well documented in the modelling press.

If you Jiffy-bagged the waste back to Exactoscale, could they re-use it? And would that sort of recycling help to keep modelling companies afloat?

I wouldn't go N. I'm not detracting from any of the talented folk who CAN make N look realistic, but if OO is what you wanted, then OO is what you should build. Do otherwise and risk disappointment and costs later when you inevitably swap. Short freights would run, there are plenty of pics of them on all regions. Why not have freight delivered and collected from a restricted site: oil terminal, MoD sidings, cement etc, where only those and a few other wagons run. The main train is made up elsewhere and your locos bring and fetch to a yard not shown?

Ah, Kempenfelt, you didn't read Barrowroad's posts properly, did you? Second last line: "The detail on the wall adjacent to the shed building has been omitted because it needs to be a flush fit."

That looks amazing. I have to say that every time I see another in your series of posts, I rush to open it to see what you have done next. Any more pics of the real thing?

Looking at the pic of the frets, I can't see a hole on one side for the pivot NOT on the other? If there IS one, you take the frames off the fret, hold them together by PUSHING three of the bearings through BOTH frames at once, two from one side, one from the other, and use the existing hole to help you drill one in the other frame. The links ARE on the fret, the larger ones,top left, bottom fret, just below the buffer beam and top right, middle fret, next to the buffer beam, unless I'm very much mistaken? Personally, I WOULD go this appraoch with a short wheelbase loco, but the choice is yours. Are you sure there are no bearings in with the wire or the castings? If not, e-mail Michael Edge about it, it may be an oversight. Finally, look here: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=230415145155&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT I have no links with the seller, but it's a Metalsmiths item. If you are building in 00 you may need a new punch and anvil, see their site.

This is just lovely. More photos please. What will be the finished size of your model of Barrow Road?

Have you checked for a) dirty track, B) dirty pickups, c) dirty wheels where the pickups bear, and d) dirty wheel TREADS?

Love the photos, especially the one near Sam Farmer's lock.

Outstanding, if perhaps a little CLEAN for the period of the slide? Can we see more of the slides? Barrow Road has always fascinated me.

Errmm. ....."...late winter sun"? The grass needs to be short and/or dried up/dead, for late winter sun. Unless 60001 got transferred to Australia? LOL

Looks amazing. Is it a converted barn?

The third photo does it for me: track disappearing, we know not where, points sunk into the ground, the building with it's multitude of levels, angles etc, and the old stock and car. Just pure atmosphere. MRJ used to be excellent at publishing photos like this, I could look at them for hours. No train needed, but if one WERE to appear......... Strangely, one of my favourite "atmosphere" shots is the cover of Pink Floyd's "Animals", showing the south London freight terminal and Battersea power station at sunset.

I actually quite like that, the openness of the area round the station is more reminiscent of real life than a lot of models. Not over crowded with stock, people etc. How do your model passengers get access to the platforms? And can we see a train?

The bit that jars with me is that the end of the turntable would allow a loco to drop off it. In reality, there would be a short stub-road with a buffer stop of some sort, so that if a loco overshot, no real damage would be done.

Did any of them ever get used for waste oil etc on depots?