JustinDean

Happy new year Nik! Good to see some Shallcross progress. Jay

…yet doesn’t taste particularly alcoholic. Dangerous.

Happy new year Rob! Jay

Happy New Year Rob! Somehow ended up being at a house party till 4am drinking Long Island Ice teas. I have a feeling I may regret this later. Jay

Recently I read with interest on Tony Wright’s thread the commentary about supportive/unsupportive partners when it comes to our hobbies. I’m really glad I don’t feel like I need to sneak purchases into the household; in fact Cazz finds the plethora of tiny boxes arriving in the post amusing. She also encourages me taking over the dining table over a weekend to build a kit or whatever. She usually sets up at the other end with some kind of acrylic nail kit; both of us filing, painting and glueing bits of plastic. This Xmas is the first time she’s bought me something hobby related and an excellent present it is too! A portable spray booth with extraction and lighting is going to come in very handy for painting a [cough] few [cough] wagons over the coming months in preparation for SWAG. Many of you will know about the legendary SWAG but just in case, the South West Area Group meeting in Taunton at the end of April every year (Sunday 28th 2024). It’s an incredibly friendly, informal RMWeb member orientated exhibition organised by equally friendly, informal @NHY 581 aka Rob. This will be Middleton Top’s first exhibition and the first time I’ve taken a layout anywhere since IMREX ‘91. I’m a solitary modeller so showing the last four years work off for the first time is quite exciting! In addition I’m also organising a Midlands Area Group exhibition (MAG) - I’ll be finalizing details of this across January. Enough waffle….back to the port and cheese. I hope you’re all having a merry time! Jay

Merry Christmas to you and your family Jonathon, and thanks for visiting my miniature Middleton Top on here. Jay

Looking great mate! Jay

Merry Xmas Geraint! Also looking forward to seeing Friedan progress and the Derby shindig Jay

Merry Xmas from a very windy Derbyshire! I hope you all have a great Xmas break. Jay

Merry Xmas! Hope you and yours have a good ‘un mate. Jay

Merry Xmas Kevin! Jay

Merry Xmas Rob and everyone else on here. Stafford was a thoroughly enjoyable experience and I look forward to the mighty SWAG in April. Jay

Very much looking forward to this! Jay

J94 68013 picking up tenders at Middleton Top

It’s that time of year when nuts on the line become an issue. Jay

…what have I missed? Pretty little green locos and a young lady in a big jumper. ….right, back to work. Jay

Maybe consider some of the fancy MBR trees for prominent positions then make your own for the rear of the layout? For Llanyblod I bought two big MBR trees then hacked them up to make some smaller ones. Seemed to work well. Jay

NLR tank at rest. Middleton Top 1940’s

Unidentified NLR tank at Middleton Top in the 1940’s:

Excellent post showing the layout build and best of luck today mate. Jay

Thanks Jonathon, my dads coming out of hospital today and is on the mend which is a huge relief. Jay

Last of the inset timber work is now glued in at the top of the incline. A few bits of DAS clay here and there also. I’ll be pushing some more DAS around tomorrow hopefully. Last week was a write off. Car died, recording system at work died, then my 92 year old dad had a fall and has been in hospital a few days. Superstitious folk say these things happen in threes. I hope they’re right! Anyway all three are currently being fixed and will be operational again next week. Jay

I was born left handed and forced to write right handed at the strict Catholic school I attended at an early age. Apparently left is the devils hand. The result is I’m very ambidextrous and have terrible hand writing. Going back to playing trains and @Gilbert’s post - I really hanker for a roundy round layout. I like the idea of sitting back and just letting the train do its thing without having to fiddle with anything. Jay

Sorry to read this Jonathon and I wish you and your family all the very best. As a younger chap on here it really brings into focus that you must live your best life; you never know what’s round the corner. Jay

Here you go, all scrubbed up for an SLS rail tour! Jay