TechnicArrow

Cheers both! There's now a few more uncouplers across the layout; these are simpler affairs with the thread tied directly to the paperclip, and passing over a hanger to keep it pulling straight up on the rod. All 4 are currently operated from the front of the layout; the threads are held by some random nut-and-bolt pairs I have in the spares box. These will be replaced with proper pull tags at a later date, when I've put the dock and point rods in. Next up is probably putting all the concrete and ballast down, then it's finally onto the buildings!

Inglenooks are definitely always a good start. You've got a solid base, and also a good length of scenic headshunt; one of my usual gripes is if the train has to go off the scene to clear the points, you can't see it anymore, and watching trains is what this is all about! This looks like it will be a fun layout to watch!

Here I go, neglecting this topic again... my last post was nearly a week ago! Well, with today's 7-hour "assessment day" (uugghh) out of the way, and my next (and final!) exam not for another week, I should probably give this a poke. 1. Layout Progress Let's start with what's actually been happening. Since my last post I've added a surface layer of cereal box card to the baseboard, and also PVA'd the track down (once some of the dodgy soldering was repaired). Once the track was secure I cut out the opening for the crane mechanism, and slotted it in; the fact it's currently flush with the surface is a coincidence, it will need to sit on a little packing when the final surface is brought up to track level. Still, it looks at home already. Whilst the layout is still flat and easy to work on upside down, I've been playing with uncouplers. Given the tucked-away nature of the sector plate some form of remote uncoupling was essential; I've used a card "ramp" fixed to a wire rod that rides up and down in a short section of tube to keep it in place. This rod is lifted by resting on a wide lever fixed under the board, that's operated from the front of the layout by a thread. Since the ramp is fixed to the sector plate track but the lever to the baseboard beneath I can only operate the ramp when the sector plate is in the near position, but that's the only time I need it. Oh, and the "wire rod" is an unbent paperclip, the "tube" is the empty ink tube from a cheap biro, and the lever is a few pieces of cardboard - nothing expensive here! Through playing with it rigorous shunting experiments the system seems to work well, so I'll be employing it in various other strategic locations around the layout; the ramps will be practically invisible since they'll blend in as part of the inset track. Hand-of-god uncoupling won't be eliminated entirely, but it should be possible to uncouple easily in common and awkward-to-reach places. 2. Yet More Architecture Musings This "armchair modelling" is great, isn't it! First off, thanks Steve for the collection of photos above. They're very helpful, sorry I never replied to it sooner! That's the badger I'm after here, though! Swansea North Dock, with the concrete factory set back, and the brick warehouse right at the water's edge. There was also a conveyor leading from the concrete building, just above the cantilevered section, out towards the dock - although nothing I've found shows where it went at the other end. I expect mine will still end in a corrugated-iron-clad tower of some form much like Ipswich. I found this Welsh government site has a couple of good, zoomable photos of the site - one gives an overall view, whilst the other features a wagon in front of the brick Victoria Warehouse which lets me approximate some dimensions of it. The plan is to build two versions of this building - a low-relief version behind the sector plate, and a fuller section in the foreground. Clearly there's no overhanging warehouse sections present here though, so a little more modeller's license brings Bristol's "watershed" buildings to pose as a single-storey wrap-around type extension and bridge between the two main warehouses. So, to sum up: Plenty to be getting on with here, then!

Another three-parter this evening! PART 1 - RESEARCH As I mentioned before, one of the goals with this layout is to keep it realistic, by modelling real things rather than modelling other models. To this end, I needed to find some suitable buildings to base mine off. Having lived in Swansea for the past 3 years for my degree, I'm well aware of the frankly incredible amount of railways that used to exist here. With the aid of the fantastic site http://www.swanseadocks.co.uk/, I found the ideal general inspiration for the layout: the Weaver's Mill building, the first reinforced concrete structure in Europe. When viewed from the North Dock Basin, the concrete building is set back from the quay with a shorter brick warehouse in front and to the right - perfect! Of course the track layout is nothing like what I'm using and I won't be replicating the exact buildings, but I will certainly use it as an overall guide. As I've been showing with my mock-ups, this layout will be dominated by two main structures - the square concrete Grain Silo, and the decorated-brick Warehouse. The grain silo will be based on the Scalescenes kit, but with a few minor modifications. Since the kit is based on the old structure at Water Eaton, it's quite easy to find pictures of the original to build from. My plan is to create something with elements of both Water Eaton and the Weaver Building; perhaps replace one or both of the towers with a hennebique style building, and add a precast concrete loading platform and canopy, the latter to hide the split in the building that will let it pack in the box. The conveyor from the silo is still inspired by the Ipswich structure; I have yet to find any other example of a loading tower structure, so it will have to do. The warehouse is less certain at present, hence the research! I've been looking for a structure with a column-supported overhang, but I haven't had much luck yet - certainly not in Swansea. I've tried looking elsewhere but I'm not exactly sure what to search for, so any ideas are welcome. The other area I've been researching is the time period. The main era constraint for this layout is the Coles Argus crane, which I believe was first produced in 1954. In order to portray a reasonably busy scene, as early as possible is preferred; however, the Swansea Docks site implies that the mill was still using ship freight into the 60s, and plenty of photos from the late 50s still look reasonably active, so I think I should be alright. Finally, placing this layout in the Swansea area in the late 50s is the perfect time and place for a Hattons Barclay in BR black, which I've been eyeing up as a graduation present to myself... results day is the 17th June, so we'll have to see! PART 2 - BASEBOARD Finally, some proper construction in this thread! One of many parcels received this morning contained the 22L RUB the layout will fit in, which meant I could start work on the baseboard. This is, as ever, cardboard! The structure is two sheets of corrugated cardboard sandwiching vertical bracing, with the sheets cut as usual with the corrugations running at different angles for strength. The photo above is with all the bracing fixed to the lower sheet; the square without diagonal bracing is for the crane mechanism, and at each end there are three storage pockets for wagons or other bits & bobs. These will also act as handholds to aid lifting the layout out of the box. The top surface was then glued on top of this, and then everything buried under various books and even old lecture notes (see, they do come in handy!) PART 3 - WIRING Whilst that was drying, I set about wiring up the track. First I added connections across the LH turnout to negate relying on the the point blades. I then added the pairs of connections on the left and right, as well as a connection across all 3 rear rails, just before the sector plate. There's already a little bit of redundancy here, but I plan to add a few more connections so if any one joint fails there'll still be power everywhere. For now I'm still relying on the point blades to switch the frog polarity on the Ys; I'll probably do the microswitch modification when I'm adding the wire-in-tube point control. But for now, everything works! Except where one of the solder joints on the sector plate failed, both the 04 and the Barclay-ish shunters happily trundle everywhere without issue. The electrofrogs make stutter-free crawling utterly beatiful. Let's just hope it stays this way!

It looks like you've got plenty of space available, which with the simple track plan definitely gives it a good open feel. Those tall warehouses look pretty good too. As for the setts, it depends on the track. If it's pretty straight then the Wills embossed or Metcalfe printed setts will be fine; if the track curves noticeably, hand-scribing setts will get you a more believable appearance, as the courses between and just outside the rails can follow the line of the track. As usual, the best plan is to look at the real thing to see how it's done. Whatever you choose, I'll be watching with interest!

This little layout is looking pretty good now! It's always the details like the yellow fencing, point levers and plenty of greenery that make a scene properly come to life. It's a shame the 37 died - maybe it needed towing into the repair shed! The only additions I think are necessary are one or two figures, and a little more general clutter and grubbiness. But I'm sure you've still got plans!

Ok, fair warning, this turned out to be a long 'un... PART 1 - THE TRACK ARRIVES A few days ago, my morning revision session was interrupted by the postman, with a parcel that turned out to contain the following goodies... Needless to say, not much more revision happened that day! Instead, the track got set up on the "layout": The sections of track already featuring concrete between the rails are the pieces lifted from the original Alexandra Wharf diorama; being a temporary layout, they were fairly easy to liberate. A short session of wheeling wagons about was undertaken to check all the sidings and headshunts have their expected capacities; all seemed to be ok, so I went ahead and set up the mockups again, where it sat for a bit. PART 2 - BUILDING EXPERIMENTS Having the actual track revealed some errors as expected, especially around the sector plate bit where things were less than satisfactory in my book. Taking @SteveyDee68's comments from above into account, I first tried replacing the tall wall with columns: That helped, especially when I realised the column doesn't need to be right under the corner of the bridge building meaning it can overhang more of the sector plate. However it is by necessity still exposing the edge of the track, breaking the illusion. So I decided to carry on with the columns and put an extension over the front siding, imitiating the style used on Blackford Wharf: This closer view illustrates how the extra layer helps to further break up the sightline to the sector plate: Finally an end-on shot, just to get a feeling for the visual impact. It can also be seen that I've set up the unused matching-building mockup from the first set of GIFs as flat-relief buildings, at the back of the layout: There's quite a cluster there now! I still prefer this option with the lower "bridge" building though, since it seems more plausible the railway would curve it's way between the sets of warehouses rather than go underneath all of them. Finally I wasn't quite happy with the view from this end straight down the hidden siding, so I put a final office-type building in the foreground: Et voila! I can safely say I have completely hidden the sector plate, and with "soft" things rather than one massive wall. PART 3 - ALL CHANGE This bit happened as I was writing this post! I couldn't help but feel there were now too many buildings. After all, this is mostly about the trains, and as much as I like the extension-on-pillars bit it really hides them away. Furthermore the conveyor is kind of lost amongst the other buildings, and isn't coming from the grain silo anymore; the footbridge is instead, which whilst I like it, it doesn't really make sense. So rather than just writing about the problems and leaving it, I decided to make the changes... We now have a shorter over-the-rails extension, the conveyor has more space to itself, and the footbridge and office hut are gone (I think it only lasted an hour?) The loading tower needs to be made a little thicker (not to mention taller), as represented by the brick pillar from the footbridge for now. It's also no longer at the front of the layout, which means I can potentially model the very edge of the water or at least part of it. The lorry is actually doing the job of hiding the end of the track; clearly it only works from lower angles, but a vehicle keeps a more open feel than a building. Finally, the shorter extension makes it easier to get a good view down the tracks underneath, which looks pretty good to me. CONCLUSION That's certainly enough for tonight. I'm pretty happy with the way everything is going now, although I can't really start making proper buildings until I've got something to fix them to. Therefore I've finally ordered the RUB this layout's meant to fit into; once that's here I'll start on the baseboard, then I can wire up and fix down the track down, and eventually start making these buildings a reality. Oh, and I should probably carry on revising for my final exams too. Exciting times!

Useful stuff, @SteveyDee68! I'm definitely sold on the conveyor idea now, but clearly I'll have to increase the height of the tower. Notably it's half off the front of the scene, so I'm either going to have a big blank face at the front, or some form of interior detail... we'll see. Tonight in mock-up land: I've been playing with the right-hand warehouse structure. I wanted something a little older-looking than the square concrete grain silo and corrugated asbestos conveyor, so a brick-built warehouse was in order. The real challenge is building something that conceals the sector plate, but still looks realistic - a building which is obviously only a few mm thick just looks wrong. So this is what I came up with: Fancy animated GIFs! I felt this was the best way to illustrate both attempts side-by-side. The first version had both warehouses the same size; the idea is the left-hand bit is an extension built over the tracks. But viewed end-on, the tall wall over the tracks looked wrong, hence the second version with the smaller "bridge" section and a larger but shallow main warehouse. I much prefer the varied-height option, since it creates the illusion that the tracks pass under the bridges and curve away to the rear. And if you're thinking that no warehouses were ever that thin, check out this one in Trowbridge: https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.3209374,-2.2118359,3a,90y,325.54h,92.91t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s6PTKjGoIf7bdvabYLcSZIw!2e0!7i13312!8i6656 Now I can start playing with the facade architecture, using the PowerPoint technique @SteveyDee68 suggested. My plan is to take my inspiration from as many real-life buildings as possible - I don't want to fall into the trap of modelling a model, as I so often do! If you want it realistic, base it on something real...

I agree the smoother stuff is better, I'll have to remember that when I ballast the main layout! Interesting point about paint for oil stains, I'll have to investigate that. This afternoon I've been playing with more mockups. I wasn't really happy with the road overbridge cliché, especially since it didn't really make sense if this is a dock of some form. But whilst prowling the internet for inspiration, I came across this photo of Canada Street that features a conveyor crossing the tracks to a building right on the water's edge: http://emgauge70s.co.uk/layout_canada.html. A little more digging revealed it's a near direct model of the Ipswich docks conveyor, as featured in @SteveyDee68's Blackford Wharf thread... it's funny how things go in circles sometimes! So here's the setup with a conveyor instead: The angles on this one were evil but great fun to figure out! I'm currently assuming that the water's edge is somewhere just a little forward of the scene, but that might change when I have a proper board and can experiment with things below the track level. The old footbridge is also still present, since the conveyor isn't that wide and a little extra view-blocking doesn't hurt. The pillar really helps break up the view into the sector plate area. That said I think I will make the hidden area somewhat scenic, so it isn't immediately jarring when you look at it. The view from the other side of the conveyor doesn't look too bad either, although this flat warehouse will probably be swapped for an older-looking structure. Finally I've added a short wall and gate to the left-hand end of the layout. This helps imply the track carries on further, explains the road-access to the yard, and if I use an open railing-type gate (such as this Scale Model Scenery one) it will provide interesting views into the layout. That said, when I actually build it I might keep it removable so I can replace it with the flat warehouse as per the original Alexandra Wharf, if I want a tall viewblocker for a more enclosed layout. It's all about options!

Looks promising to me - the canal should provide a good amount of scenery below track level, allowing for some good views. The inglenook with run-around loop looks like it should work well too. The overall plan heavily reminds me of this layout, which isn't a bad thing: One thing I liked about that layout is that the track over the bridge to offscene isn't parallel to the board, it's at an angle - maybe you could do something similar by swapping the first RH turnout with a Y point?

Minor update time! First - this morning I finally opened my wallet and bought all the track I'll need for this layout. So with any luck it'll be here on Wednesday, and I can start playing with it as soon as I've done my final presentation for my research project! Secondly - ballast experiments. If I'm going to be building this layout here I'd like a cheap ground cover to use, but I'm not a fan of the light colour of the beach sand I used on Arrow Paints. I've often heard modellers using ash, so I thought I should probably try it. My housemates occasionally have a fire in the back garden, which they have in an old mesh metal bin. So all I had to do was scrape the ash around inside the bin, and catch everything that sieved itself out through the mesh. Then I used the corner of Alexandra Terrace normally covered by the grain loading shed as a test area to see what it looks like around some track. Conclusion: it looks pretty good! The "open" side was smoothed with the back of a spoon whilst it was still wet, which I think looks a bit better than the "rough" side nearest the concrete. Although both look effective, so it depends what effect I'd prefer on the final scene. Clearly it could be tidied up further, especially around the sleepers. But the mixture of grain sizes, the general subtle variety colour, and the overall smoothness all look pretty good to me. Just as well I collected a big tub of it then!

Just a quick update on the Barclay-ish 0-4-0 shunter. Can you tell what's changed? It's not that easy to tell when the model is so dark, but I've modelled one of the doors as open, and finally added a cab interior. The door was fairly easy to modify with a fresh, sharp blade cutting easily through the card. Then I put together a simple control desk from some card and a few bits from the sprues box - the raised gauge display bit in the middle is in order to let it fit over the motor mount. Finally the whole unit was painted grey, the controls picked out in black, and that's all there is to it. It's not even fixed in place - I could attach it to either the chassis or the bodyshell, but it fits so snugly when everything's together there's not a lot of need. 'tis a small difference, but a driver in the doorway adds another little touch of life to the scene. And unless I put in some form of light source you'll never see the controls, but I know they're there. That's all for now!

Again I'd love to, but I quite like being able to put other things on the drawers as well - as is currently mocked-up there's my mirror poking over the top from behind the layout, and enough of a "shelf" along the front to put my phone, watches, and eventually a controller. I think I'll settle for more height, space for which isn't usually in short supply (badum-tish)! And your dental antics sound painful, but I'm enjoying the idea-generator side-effect Thanks for your words, Marc! Although I haven't graduated just yet; I submitted my Research Project earlier, but I've still got my Viva and a couple of exams to go. I do quite enjoy the buildings I've got set up at the moment. Height-wise the crane mechanism enforces a railtop height 40mm above the base, which leaves about 95mm for the fixed portion of the buildings. Currently the loading shed's pitched roof is too tall, but if I bring that down a bit and add a canopy along the rest of the building I can use it to conceal the joint. I'll just need to come up with a system to keep the upper portions stable; I don't have a hinging shoebox lid to rely on this time! Finally, I think this is one of the wordiest threads I've ever had - I prefer showing pictures of actual progress. Well, I'm planning to treat myself and buy fresh track at the end of the week, so hopefully there'll be things to show soon!

@SteveyDee68 I would absolutely love to cram in as much baseboard length as possible into the box. If I was really going that route I might try to make two baseboards that fit snugly together, one upside-down on top of the other - with an open enough layout and some very careful planning, it's certainly doable. Unfortunately the size of the RUB isn't the limiting factor for length here - it's the place the layout will live. By skimming the Ikea catalogue I've estimated most chests of drawers to be around 80cm wide, so layout 75cm long should be able to find a place I can set it up permanently in whichever student house I find myself in next year. And then it might as well be made to fit into an RUB, since it offers such a secure way of transporting the layout; maybe, if it's robust and good enough, to exhibitions... Whilst I could have a bigger layout that lives in storage and is got out and set up when I want to use it, I much prefer a smaller layout that I can leave the rolling stock on and just flick a switch and run without any hassle. That's the goal, at least - I've enjoyed being able to sit down and trundle the 04 about on Arrow Paints anytime I like, or at least when I've got the curtains open.

Extra switches seem to be heavily recommended when using live-frog points, so as not to rely on the pointblades to change the polarity of the frog and reduce the chance of a stray wheel shorting across the stock rail and the blades. I'm pretty confident I can knock something up for that, but I'll see how well they work without first. Thank you! The already-complete buildings definitely help give an impression of the final article. I think they're growing on me too, although I'll have to cut them horizontally and conceal the joint somehow if I want it to be able to close the lid on the RUB. And as for atmospheric photos, I have another one - this afternoon I dirtied up the Midland van a bit with a thinned-black acrylic wash. Finally I have some more rolling stock that isn't bauxite! Thanks! Yes, we all learn as we go along - I was always attracted by the ability to "pack up" a layout into a small space, but several shoebox layouts down the line I've learnt that the compromise between a good "open" scene and good structural integrity is virtually unreachable. I'm looking forward to being able to arrange this layout without having to worry about baseboard joints or lid supports. One of the watchwords I've set for this layout is reliability. A single rigid base, an RUB for a ready-made carrying box, and live-frog points for stall-free running. Whether any of this actually comes to fruition remains to be seen! And even if it does, further progress won't be quick - my final-year Research Project is due on Tuesday, followed up next month by a handful of exams. But then the summer stretches out before me...

Well, here we go again! It's been just over a year since I "completed" Arrow Paints, by which I mean the layout was operational and scenic. Of course I went on to fiddle about with various bits of it since then, but it's been more or less the same since last April. And I've been seeing plenty of new inspiration in @SteveyDee68's various threads, as well as plenty of other places on these forums... So it's time I started a new one. This summer I will graduate Swansea, and in September I will be starting an MSc at a new university. Clearly I would like to take a model railway with me, but wherever I end up living I doubt it will have a windowsill of exactly the right dimensions to fit Arrow Paints (to be honest it's incredibly lucky that it fitted on this one; if it hadn't, who knows what would have happened to it). Furthermore, whilst portable and compact, AP is pretty slow and fiddly to set up and dismantle. My plan is to build a new layout, very similar in trackplan to AP, but on a single, rigid board that will fit in a 22L Really Useful Box (RUB), and thus also on most standard-student-room-sized chest o' drawers. After much fiddling in AnyRail and with paper templates, I've decided on the following trackplan to fit the 210x750mm internal dimensions of the RUB: Essentially a mirror-image of AP, the layout is somewhat compacted to fit the smaller space. The sector plate can accommodate a loco and two wagons, and the loop should still be *just about* big enough to pass two wagons. Although the left-hand headshunt is small, operating AP tells me it only needs to accommodate the loco for run-rounds; when moving wagons only the right-hand point is in play, so I can foul the left-hand one. The two y-points are in fact Peco SL-97s - not setrack components, but their slightly shorter length adds crucial centimeters here. More on them later. Once I was happy with the layout I drew it out on paper, and stole various buildings to see how the layout could look. Photo time! 1. Overall shot of the mocked-up layout, currently set up on my chest o' drawers. 2. View from headshunt end of the layout. As usual the working crane will make it's appearance here on the final layout. 3. View of the bridge arrangement. The supporting pillar for the footbridge acts as a viewblock to the sector plate beyond, in this case marked by the thick pencil line where the tracks stop. I feel this join will be more obvious in real life, so the composition of this area will be crucial. 4. The front siding. This will probably have a warehouse with platform as usual, maybe some more inset track. Also sporting today's purchase, a Dapol Midland 12T van, yet to be weathered. 5. Final shot looking across the yard. Try not to read too much into buildings in the above photos, I have no idea if I'll actually use those ones from the original Alexandra Wharf diorama or not. Now, back to the points. Since I'm planning to use the SL-97s, I have the option to go electrofrog - for a small layout reliant on short locos I think this is worth trying, and I'm perfectly happy to fiddle about with the switches and wires required. However, I don't think the remaining standard 168mm left-hand turnout I'm using is manufactured in a live-frog version, meaning there'd still be one common sticking point. I'm planning to buy the track soon (actually I had hoped to this morning, but the local shop didn't have what I needed, hence the Midland van!), so does anyone have any thoughts or advice?

I'm afraid that as someone from '99 who practically grew up with MSPP being a thing I'm already quite versed with it, but I'm certain it will be of help to someone. As for card mockups, yours are far better than mine ever are - they actually stand up for a start! It depends on how much effort you put into them I guess, and I'm slowly learning that more effort in the mockups means less unhappiness with the final results. But then again I find the making of the buildings is the best bit, so I don't mind replacing and redoing things occasionally! I'm planning a trip to the local model shop soon, so I should hopefully have something to show over the weekend. At the moment I'm just gathering a wide variety of ideas from all over the place, and trying to fit them all together - I'm going to have to discard some, I just have to decide which ones...

That idea to shift around architectural elements in MS PowerPoint is fantastic, and definitely one I'll be stealing at some point. I'm never quite happy with what I scratchbuild because something's always slightly off, but this might save me a lot of hassle with pencils and rulers (not that I don't enjoy that mind you). I'm looking forward to seeing what you've concocted with it. I should add that I always enjoy coming back to this thread, mainly to see what tangent you've gone on next! It also always provides plenty of inspiration, and something must have stuck because now I've been having my own thoughts... this could be dangerous!

For what it's worth, in the pictures you posted I wouldn't have spotted the breakline if you hadn't pointed it out as such. That said a simple solution could be a simple card lintel attached to one of the sections, painted to represent concrete/stone/brick - I don't think it'd look out of place on your excellent and unique little shed. And if this shed is an indication of what's to come, then I can't wait for more!

Thanks for your compliment! Both alignment and power is fairly simple - track power is carried between boxes by the standard fishplates, although only on rails which cross the box joints at right-angles - connecting multiple tracks at varying angles simultaneously is not fun, as I found out on Green Lane Wagon Works. The fishplates also provide alignment, although for security the sector-plate board is also held up by lollipop sticks that fit snugly into slots on the end of the box, as can be seen in this older photo: This method is also used for the short extension at the other end of the layout and actually woks rather well, provided the slots are made in a thick piece of card that won't wear down and fray too much. To keep trains running over some questionable second-hand pointwork, a mess of wires and dodgy soldering joints ensure that every rail is always powered, no matter the position of the points. A rough plan is shown below, although I'm really not sure where the connecting wires are - I just know it works! I think the controller is connected to the rails under the bridge, but it doesn't really matter. red = fishplates blue = additional connecting wires black cross = no connection Finally, a general update - there have been no changes to the layout since I last posted, and it hasn't really seen much use recently either. Turns out 3rd year Civil Engineering can get pretty involved, even when everything's online...

I'm astounded how even mid-construction, your layout and photographs have buckets of atmosphere - and that's without a loco, wagon, car or even person in sight! The shed looks like it's been there for years already, especially from the yard side, and there's such a wealth of detail that pops out the longer you look at each photo. I can't wait to see your bridge completed!

Thank you! Being a relatively small layout, I can spend time paying attention to nearly everything; not that that stops me leaving some corners unfinished! Today I managed to film, edit and upload yet another video; I'm getting quicker at this. This one mostly focuses on the new Barclay-inspired shunter, but nevertheless the crane gets a bit more action time too. Out of interest, what do you think of my videos so far? What should I try to improve on next time?

The Barclay-ish loco's had a little more attention since Tuesday. First off the windows were fitted - I considered cutting the plastic to the right size to make it flush with the cab walls, but decided against as there's 8 to do and just gluing 4 pieces to the inside of the cab is easier. Then I got the acrylics out and painted the cab roof dark grey, the indside of the cab yellowy-brown, and black on the parts of the grey chassis visible above the footplate, as well as touching up a few other corners. She seems to have lost a bit of her shine too; I was going to experiment with weathering, but I think she looks pretty good as she is for now. So here's some photos! Starting with the now-obligatory shot for any new loco, parked on the headshunt being attended to by crew: And a couple other shots from around the yard. For such a small change, it never ceases to surprise me how much of a difference adding the windows make! The only issue I have with this loco now is the couplings, but being moulded to the chassis they're a little tricky to change. Other than that she's a joy to shunt with; quieter than the old 04 mechanism and perfectly capable of managing fairly slow speeds over the pointwork, although stalls aren't uncommon. I suppose I need to make another video now!

I'm glad you said that one, as my most recent model it's the one I'm happiest with. I know it's way over the top for what you need, but as well as the templates I created a small instructions document, with all the hints and recommendations I could think of - just so they're in one place. So if anyone fancies a go at building one, or just wants some inspiration, feel free to have a look! Templates for Freelance Diesel Shunter Bodyshell.pdf

Thank you! It was fun to build and I still enjoy operating it. A short while back I filmed a video of it operating on it's home layout, Arrow Paints, but for completeness I should probably post it here too. Thank you, I'm glad you enjoyed it! I think the chain shunting works quite well, it certainly gets you as an operator much more involved with the action as both driver and shunter. I don't think I can claim originality over the pin-bollards, but they do work very well (if a little over-scale). Unfortunately there won't be much more on this layout since it's still at home, and I'm 150 miles away at University - but I've got Arrow Paints with me instead, so there's often progress over there because I'm never happy with everything! See my signature for a link to it's thread.