bridgiesimon

The flat bottom stuff would be much easier to work with as you have a flat surface to attach it to the buildings etc, also the flat stuff I got has an adhesive strip on the flat side. Simon

Oldknotty, I have sent you a PM with details Best wishes Simon

Yeah, I am pleased with the lights so far, all wired in temp style as they will need to be built into the scenery as it develops layer by layer. During a conversation at the weekend, it sounds like I may have the first exhibition invite for the layout - ooer!!! Several months though to get it up to standard, maybe the motivation I need to get on with it!! Best wishes SImon

cheers guys, I appreciate your comments, with the first part of the Hobbit trilogy due out next month, this could be the right time for such a layout! I am looking forward to what new figures games workshop are going to release to coincide with the films, I am sure they will do a full range for them! Best wishes Simon

'Anyway, I have not added lights...' Not? Not? Not? how did that get in there? please read 'now' instead - D'oh!!!! Simon

Aaaaaargh, just spotted another unexpected job, the surface for the loading dock has warped and lifted badly!!! Anyway, I have not added lights in all the buildings that are complete enough to take them so far, There are also dropper wires for all the power feed and the points motors ready for wiring to a connector once I get a set and then I had better start sorting out, designing and building a storage yard and a control panel. As with Polpendra, I am planning on front operation for the layout at shows, if I am fortunate enough to get invites, as that suits its home location well. Starting with the station, this is the layout of the LED strip I have used for it - Gently lit - With the lights in the room out - Close up through one of the tstation windows - The wine store - Close up through the doors into the wine store - I am pleased so far with this, there will be a delay for more as I am out next weekend to the North Petherton Show with Polpendra, Sunday n N. Petherton village hall (Between Taunton and Bridgwater for anyone in the area!!!) Best wishes Simon

Ok, loads of time down the line but here is another of those rare updates!! I have at last got all the track down, am using Peco stuff which will be deep ballasted to hide the sleepers to make it look less like planet earth trackwork, peco points motors also fitted and the first train has run. Also I have been playing around with lighting for the buildings, that reel of LEDs is most excellent, I have chopped a number of 3 LED sections out of it, carefully removed the moulded clear stuff and soldered wires ready for mounting. I have so far fiitted strips into the station building and the small hobbit hole witht he white front and timber frame, both can be seen in post 4! Piccies of them lit to follow! I found these LEDs very easy to work with and simple to fit into the buildings, these will be wired into a feed as the layout develops and as their final position is sorted out, being a steeply sloping scene, their location is at present floating above the boards! At the recent Taunton show, I picked up a bargain little Rivarossi 0-4-0 + tender loco for £25 which will become the third loco for the layout at some point. As I mentioned, I will add a few piccies so far later today. Best wishes Simon

I understand your trepidation, that is ornate but think of the pleasure to be had when you succeed, am confident to say that, your model making is superb! This has become one of my fave topics on RM Web!! Best wishes to you Newark Simon From Bridgwater Simon

Will do, I have been chatting to a mate of mine this afternoon for advice on how to progress so will keep the info posting. Simon

Ok, here are the piccies as promised, not much development but will be getting the pointwork etc when paid so will then really be able to get on. Here is the brick fronted hobbit home, obvioiusly still needs a door etc. Now the main platform from 2 view points. Next the platform for the warehouse, slaters crazy paving, all ready to be painted. And finally the surface for the other loading dock, the small building you cna see here will be mostly buried into the hillside and is a wine and beer store complete with crate of bottles and barrels inside, yes it will be all lit up sometime soon. Now that lighting has been mentioned, a little update. While constructing the buildings, I have been fitting small grain of wheat bulbs but whn I was showing a friend of mine them, he said 'lovely buildings but I did'nt realise people still used those things, shouldnt they be in a museum?' So LEDs it is then, mega advantages I have been finding, lower voltages, cheaper, longer lasting and possibly most important in a hillside made of polystyrene, they do not get hot!! I have found the following on 'Ebay' which I will be cutting up to do all the lighting on the whole layout. Anyway I had better get on and make something. Chat later Simon

hehehe, oops, bet there are people in New Zealand a little upset about that one!!! Simon

Ages since the last update, shameful me thinks, things such as work getting in the way again!! Anyway, I have now made the platforms and fitted them, each with a different surface, the loading dock has been covered with fine sadnpaper before a wood edge and being painted. The main platofmr got a layer of separately cut out slabs added, card, befre a coat of creamish paint - it looked bloomin awful!! I decided to throw a coat of grey on it to see if I could salvage it and them rubbed it off when wet leaving a great effect. I will probably add a very thin wash of dirty brown to get between the slabs before finishing it off with some detail painting. I will add a few piccies when I have finished the platform although i have not laid the track yet. Simon

I really ought to check my topic regulraly, mega apologies for not replying. My signal has started working again, am thinking that there may have been a loose connection somewhere, thought I checked the chocolate block connections properly but with the wire Dapol use so thin, the opportunity for issues is quite high! Hope you had success with your signals, as you say, at £20 each they should eb perfect!! Simon

I have been using MBD couplings on my layout, P olpendra, for the last 3-4 years and have found them to be very reliable, easy to construct and fit and look ok as well. You can see the layout for piccies here - http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/43113-polpendra-cornish-branch-in-n-1958-62/page__p__465207&do=findComment&comment=465207 I use Seep electromagnets rather than permanent ones to stop the unintentional uncoupling. Also, it is worth including small details/vegetation/marks by the electromagnets as they are impossible to see when shunting etc - saves lots of frustrating back and forth trying to uncouple!! Best wishes and enjoy! Simon

I got to the show today and was mightily impressed with this layout, it looks fantastic and was running really well, congratulations. Simon

Now that I have an EWS 56018, I can add the following personal opinions - Wow, an impressive model and far better than the Grafar one, tyhats 3 to go to Ebay at some point then! Anyway the running is great, haulage not an issue as it pulled my 40 wagon MGR train without any issues. I have only 1 moan, what happened to the EWS beasties on the cab side? All the piccies I have seen of this machine has then on it, is it modelled on a time before they were added or is this another lisencing issue rearing its ugly head? Anyway, either way, a model I am delighted with! Way to go Dapol! Please expand the range with some more liveries - maybe 56311 In grey and 56312 in Artemis livery? Would also like to see Loadhaul and Transrail Best wishes Simon

I have been working on another hobbit hole, this time with a brick frontage. piccies to be added later. I have also been giving the track situation more thought as this will be the next job, that and the storage system! The thinking is that as I am not that good with a soldering iron, the idea of constructing my own track to high enough standard to work reliably, is not a good one. Therefore I think that I will be using peco track and burying it in deep ballast to hide most of the sleepering. The plain track is now purchased, just need to get the 3 points and then I can get it all laid and wired up. The storage system will be the same style as on Polpendra for those who may have seen it, a narrow but tall set of shelves with one access track for cassettes, piccies to add later!! The cassettes are simply strips of wood the same thickness and width with a track laid downt he centre line and soldered onto copper clad at each end. The access track is the same distance in from the back wall as the tracks on the cassettes are from the sides so that the line up simply. There a re small brass spoon shapes solderede onto the copper clad on the access track, these then sit onto the copper clad each side of the cassette to transfer power, no wires, plugs or clips required! Back to work tomorrow, shame but the positive side of it is that it gives me access to the machines again so I will aim to constuct the storage board and cassettes there with the circular saw so all will be accurate and square. All the cassettes will be the same width etc unlike if I cut them by hand!!! Anyway, this is about it for now, despite having time off, progress has not been much as the rest of the family had other ideas in mind although a trip to Pecorama was included, wet and windy but still we enjoyed it! More later Simon

Superb looking layout, I am really looking forward to being able to see this layout at the Leaminton Spa, am I right you are going to be there? Best wishes for the show. Simon

Thnaks to both of you, I appreciate your comments and am delighted that you find my work good enough to inspire you to go for it. I totally agree that there are many most excelletn layouts that some people may miss because they are 'noth the scla eI model in' I find that inspirational model making and great layout can give you ideas irrispective of scale, era, region as well as obviously looking at the real thing, possibly the most important. As I said, I spent a lot of time in the plannign stage and then have not rushed to construction, this layout was started around 15 years ago, not that it haas taken that long, just that it has been a project for a few minutes here and there rather than a more intensive process. It has been on the exhibition circuit for 3 years now and is still evolving a little at a time, replacement trees, new signal, new stock items etc to is still a very fluid project I get a lot of enjoyment out of. Best wishes for your own projects, my best piece of advice for anyone is to keep learning, nobody knows it all!! Simon

Only just read through this for the first time, very impressive! As others have mentioned, I love the weatehring on the 08s very realistic, the ones at Fowey were in one hell of a state!! Also like the debranded CDA wagons with the edging of the ECC signs still left. I will be watching with interest. best wishes Simon

Mega apologies for not replying, very bad form on my part!! Thank you for your kind comments though! I knew that I wanted to be careful how I presented the layout, the original plan from Iain Rice, in one of his books, had a water meadown at the front, so the scenery dropping away but I remember standing on a hill looking down into the valley above Llangollen to photograph a train passing and thinking how great the view was, I then chose to go the other way so you, the viewer, are almost looking down throguht he trees etc at the station nestled in the valley. Ok, the scenic work on Polpendra started off with layers of 1" polystyrene sheeting acquired form our local DIY place, Wickes I think, which was shaped with a saw/knife/hoover and lots of getting shouted at by my wife for the mess but worth it. I prefer polystyrene as it gives a solid foundation and then when it comes to planting trees, telegraph poles etc, you have something to fix them into. After this, a layout of boring common plaster was added and sanded smooth when dry with a watered down coating of green paint to colour it all greenish. The green stuff is the fine woodland scenics scatters but ensuring that I use several different shades keeping attention on where in the real world you have different colours of grass, think about slopes, drainage, shade and the time of year you are modelling. I am very aware of how large fields can be and from seeing other layout with lots of tiny fields, it looks totally wrong so at an early point in time I realised that it would need to be doen more carefiully, hence the corner of a field and the rough area into the woodland. The walling is from Javis, carefully glued down and the gaps between sections filled before painting. The trees of Polpendra are all ready to plant, lazy but they are better than I think I could do! There are trees from Bachmann, Graham Avis (4D models) among others and although pricey, I bought in spall batches so the woodland has developed over the years. With the ever expanding range of Oxford diecast vehicles in N, the roads and car parks are more busy than they should really but each time a new model is released I cannot resist then have difficulties choosing which to put out! The layout also has a Dapol signal fitted now, which worked really well for the first half of a recent show then stopped workign, must try and get it sorted! Anyway, any other info or specific questions i would be delighted in trying to answer, quicker this time!! By the way, I have a few shows booked which I will add as they arrive, the next is a small show in North Petherton on November 18th in the community centre. Best wishes Simon

I like the idea of an underground mines layout for Moria! Another quick update, I have been playing around with my El-Cheapo grass static fly swat thingy machine um er thingy!! Am really pleased with the results on this small test piece, this will be a small diorama with a couple of wargs ridden by orcs, nothing to do with this layout. This is around 2mm long grass so ideal for around the pathways and gardens, I need to order in some longer stuff to try for the hillsides and the rougher parts of the layout. The other little project I am working on is the tunnel mouth, I started with a card shape then glued it to the polystyrene and added plaster to shape the blocks before painting it - Dark grey the several shades of progressively lighter grey brybrushed on. Best wishes Simon

Thanks to all of you for your kind words, I appreciate it. Yes I will be adding more piccies as the layout develops, now that I have the scanic board built, the development will be rather quicker than just 1 update a year! I wanted to build this layout for several reasons, Lord of the Rings was my favourite book when younger, I have read it numerous times and was rather concerned when they decided to make the films. I think LOTR is the best trilogy ever produced and have watched them on numerous occasions as well! At around this time the games workshop started their massive range of LOTR miniatures which is what really got me thinking but then iI came across the range of halflings form a company called 'Of Flame and Fire' who trade through ebay, I love their miniatures because the are not only very well modelled but he are almost characitures so give a whole new depth of fun to the project. The design lends a lot to a layout by Chris Nevard called Cement Quay, it was one of the few layouts I saw that had a fully curved backscene but totally open one end - http://www.flickr.com/photos/nevardmedia/3918740659/in/set-72157612040179807 This style would suit my plan really well so has been incorporated! Simon

Funny you should mention the silver mine 'Hayfield', I was thinking for a while of doing a Dwarf mining scene to add under the layout, maybe it will get doen sometime? Best wishes Simon

A few additional piccies for your comments/enjoyment/disgust etc... Some of the new characters ready to move into Hobbiton End The second locomotive is on the way again it is Dwarf driven. Stockwise, although no passenger stock has been constructed, I have started with the goods stock, SDR wagons from Dundas kits and a pair of scratchbuilt wagons for the bales of pipeweed. I have even found some toadstools to paint up for possible use although some are way too large for the layout so will not be used, they are the same height as the hobbits! Best wishes Simon