sem34090

It wasn't what I was expecting to start working on, but this has happened overnight - A nice generic branch line terminus with some probably-implausible geography because it looks pretty. It's N Gauge (because for some reason the only track I have any sizeable quantity of at the moment is N gauge!) and will probably start out as something horribly BR Western Region because that's what I've got stock for at the moment. Hoping that I can possibly do something more interesting with it later on. As usual, I'd appreciate some criticism (Although I realise the various implausible bits in the plan), suggestions and also ideas about where this could be set. The locos are a Graham Farish 6400 0-6-0PT and a 3MT 2-6-2T (Both in BR Green), if that helps. Hopefully they can be replaced with more interesting, earlier, things in due course for which I would also appreciate some suggestions!

They bought it in a model shop, but I'd rather keep it a little bit quiet which one as there were a lot of very nice, unique, models that we want to buy!! I know it sounds silly, but I'm hoping I might be able to go back for a few other things. I don't know what kit it was built from I'm afraid. It's a gorgeous thing though!

I certainly think it looks slightly American or possibly colonial. I've retained the multiple working cable...

Some small scale modelling has happened! Two EMU-based projects are currently on the go. One is a BR Class 485 Driving Motor vehicle from a Radley Models Standard Stock kit - The other is rather less prototypical. For my partner's next layout, I have been asked to make a 1-Car EMU. As I had a surplus Hornby 2-BIL unit this seemed a suitable basis. DC Overhead current supply was already decided upon so I set to work cutting and shutting the BIL into what is, in SR terms, probably best described as a 1-NOL, repainted into the desired livery and with a spare pantograph added. It's had its drawgear substituted for a buckeye and air brakes swapped for Vacuum (Not sure why!). The right hand pickup has been diverted so the unit now draws current via the OLE (Improvised here with 009 track!!) to enable basic two train running on the proposed layout. It's still a long way from completion but overall I'm happy with it so far! Another interesting project may be on the horizon following my partner's acquisition of a Garstang & Knott End Railway 0-6-0T the other day...

I thought it looked quite effective! Anyway, the stock arrived this morning. Another bargain at £1 including postage! It needs a bit of work though.

The wet look was very difficult to get right - A lot of varnish smothered all over everything. I'm not happy with the lack of ballast and some of the sleepers are spaced a bit too wide and really it ought to have conductor rails. Overall we're happy with it though. I did actually get scanned by Modelu at Didcot last year but never heard anything afterwards! I'm hoping to have some actual modelling to post soon.

This weekend I started laying track for a new micro layout. Actually, it's more of a photo plank really. The stock for it is arriving on Friday.

Apologies for bumping an ancient thread, but does anyone have any information on this? 8 Years later the link is dead...

A proportion of the 1938TS fleet was officially owned by the LNER and was, on paper, divided so as to theoretically supply trains to both the Northern and Central Line extensions over LNER lines to High Barnet, Ongar and the unfinished Alexandra Palace, Finsbury Park and Edgware schemes. In reality the entire LNER-ownes fleet, I believe subject to correction, went to the Northern Line. I only know of one '38TS set to have been used on the Central, this being referred to above. Others may have appeared in departmental use as Ballast Motors and at least one complete set spent some time at White City depot as a training train. Incidentally the Driving Motors from the latter, 10297 and 11297 later went to form 483006 on the Isle of Wight and are today preserved by my beloved London Transport Traction Group at the Llanelli & Mynydd Mawr Railway in Carmarthenshire. I'm hoping we may see our favourite unit appear from RevolutioN, but we shall have to wait and see. Another odd piece of trivia (if I haven't missed something) is that the last 1938TS-derived vehicles still in service into 2020 were all former LNER-owned vehicles delivered in 1940, all of them before the Battle of Britain had started. Over 80 years in service, albeit with a substantial overhaul in the 1970s and a very substantial rebuild in the 1980s before they went to the Island.

It should, of course, be noted that if the intention is to build a layout to run a Hornby or Rapido Lion or the Hornby 'L&MR' coaches on then Bullhead track laid in the manner of the LMS in the 1920s/30s would probably be most appropriate given they represent a loco as rebuilt in the 1930s and coaches built in the 1930s. For Hornby's Rocket probably concrete sleepered Bullhead as found on most heritage railways would probably be the most accurate given that it is a model of the 1970s replica.

That was about as much as I'd worked out! Really hoping someone out there has a photo. I do think that one of these boxes, reinstated on the site, would rather suit the railway and its fleet of Pacers.

Sorry to bump an old thread, but does anyone have any further information on the 'box at Cynheidre? I'm involved with the present occupiers of the site, the Llanelli & Mynydd Mawr Railway, through my role as part of London Transport Traction Group management.

Thanks Annie - It's been a lot of work just to get to the starting point here, but well worth it. The first time I stepped into that thing after it arrived I would say is the happiest moment of my life so far. It will hopefully be surpassed in a couple of years, but it was certainly amazing. Nice to know I'm being thought of! xD I'll be posting more modelling here as Talyllyn stuff arrives - There should be something arriving early next week all being well. Not quite! The MHR aren't yet rid of me! Well, yes and no. They're fairly knackered, but our two are the best of the bunch mechanically. The gleaming 483007 went to Havenstreet (Deservedly) after only a few days in traffic after finishing its 3-year long overhaul. It was extremely unreliable though. Additionally, once 007 was nominally in traffic they took our 'main' unit 006 back into Ryde works to reinstate it (It had been withdrawn in November '20) and it gained a wealth of overhauled bits, not least a freshly overhauled bogie and a couple of new wheelsets. This saw it through to become the last unit in traffic. Ryde worked miracles with those things in their final year just to keep a semblance of a service going, and a fair chunk of the staff are sad to see them gone. Some haven't been able to adjust to the new stock, which is in many ways vastly over-complicated and which is itself proving pretty unreliable. I'm sure Stonebridge Park will be having to work miracles of its own over the next 20 years as they try to patch up the Bakerloo Line's 1972TS fleet in light of TfL's funding crisis. And I have no doubt we'll be waiting at the end of it all to take on one of those units. There are a few stages to our plans. The first stage is to get 483006 ready for loco-hauled service. What form this takes largely depends on how things go with Ruislip Depot's fleet of Schoma diesel locomotives. If we manage to secure L.1 or L.12 then we can probably put 006 straight into service as these locos can couple straight onto tube stock. Failing that, the L&MMR have a BR 16T Mineral wagon chassis which is pencilled in for conversion to a translator vehicle. The second phase mostly concerns our other unit, 483008. This unit needs more substantial work than 006 but is mechanically relatively sound. The main issue is that all the tyres either need turning or replacing. This unit has been chosen to be much more heavily modified than 006 (Which will hopefully be almost untouched besides regular maintenance) with one vehicle set to be equipped with traction batteries to power the 4-car formation and the other being restored to as close to 1940 condition as is reasonably possible. This will allow a fully electric train and also the ability to tell the entire history of the units through the different interiors (Half of 006 will be internally restored to NSE condition, the other half conserved in 2021 condition). Indeed - When he was last up here we briefly met up. This is, of course, not to mention that I'm still on the Medstead roster for the illuminations this year! Let's wait and see, shall we? ;) The plan is to see 006 go into NSE for the period of the 40th anniversaries of NSE, Island Line as a brand, the introduction of the 483s and the introduction of our 483s (2026 - 2030) and to then, most likely, stay in NSE until a new coat of paint is required. I have found the same, but it's little wonder as to why. Even better as a railway enthusiast! The VoR have had their new South African Garratt out a few times in the past couple of months and hearing that chime whistle across the town and up the hill is pretty nice. The Swindon whistles on the Rheidol Tanks aren't too bad either. As of now I'm currently enjoying the dubious pleasures of a bus to Carmarthen and thence another to Cynheidre to see how 006 is getting on as a home for Mr Christmas. Apparently I'm also going to be Secondman on a 'Pacer', so most of the day will be spent on buses of one form or another.

Next is the other 3ft 6ins x 1ft layout, O Gauge, which was originally intended to take on an LSWR/Southern Railway of Northern Ireland theme. The very basic scenery was rushed together in a couple of days for an exhibition, but it did prove fun to operate with the O-16.5 adding interest to operations. I wish the Baldwin was mine, but alas not. Finally, my other half's first solo foray into modelling - I haven't got any current pictures of this unfortunately. It's a basic N Gauge tailchaser and the final result is quite effective. Pity I don't have any current photos! Our next efforts will be in 009. They're going to be modelling a section of a fictional narrow gauge line they've devised as part of a universe they created for their novel, with stock and livery ideas being worked on currently. Some Standard Gauge stock is also being devised for this universe - I am particularly keen on the electric locomotives! My own plans are Talyllyn-orientated, with a scheme developing to model a scarcely-planned and never-built extension of the line up to Talyllyn itself. I haven't done much work on this yet as the LT Traction Group has been eating up much of my spare time, but I'm hoping to make inroads into it during the new year.

Good God - I really haven't been around here much, have I? The past year has been quite something, and since I last posted here I've built a couple of layouts, including one on a pre-grouping theme, exhibited them, and then had my attentions fully diverted into 12"/' scale 'modelling'. So, where to start... Well since my last post in this thread I've moved to Wales as the result of a failure to get my first choice of university place and can honestly say it's been the best failure ever to happen in my life. I'm now very happily settled up here, have found love, and neither of us wants to move back into England if we can help it. We're both now very happily involved in the Talyllyn Railway and are currently volunteering on at least a monthly basis. I can honestly say that my favourite place to be is in the Guard's seat on a Talyllyn Train, especially coming back down the Fathew valley in the early evening sun. In the background to all this there has been my primary non-academic focus of the past year - The London Transport Traction Group. Originally mooted as sort-of a joke back in April last year, this has now grown to become a preservation group which very soon will own four ex-London Transport 1938 Tube Stock (Well, BR Class 483) vehicles. It's been quite the journey, with a lot of administrative work and a couple of false hopes for where to base our vehicles, but we finally managed to get them a home at the Llanelli & Mynydd Mawr Railway in Carmarthenshire. A long way from any of their homes, be that London or their most recent home on the Isle of Wight. Since 483006 (LT 10297/11297) arrived at the end of October we've begun work and it's so satisfying to finally feel like we're doing actual work rather than just sending emails. It's been hard work for me, and entailed a lot of travelling from here back to the South and over to the Isle of Wight, but it's been worth it and I'm bl**dy proud of what we've achieved. Hopefully after our AGM in January I won't be managing the whole thing almost single-handedly!!! Jobs to date have mostly been getting the outside of vehicle 226 (11297) protected and free of graffiti which was applied to it in February and the vehicle is now looking pretty good considering it's just in primer at the moment. This weekend it's being used as the railway's Santa's Grotto for their Christmas event. It's very satisfying to see the unit looking red again, and even more satisfying to discover that the auxiliary batteries still contained charge some 7 months after they'd last been charged, enabling us to put the lights on. Unfortunately a faulty diode meant that the inverter was trying to run off these batteries when it shouldn't, so they drained fairly quickly. They still have charge but we are not going to be cutting them in again until they're charged. These photos show some of the recent progress: So, to modelling matters... The lockdown at the beginning of this year proved to be rather productive on the modelling front, with layouts in three scales developing between both my partner and I. I've mostly concentrated on 00 and O whilst they've concentrated on N, though the pannier above is mine and the IEG terrier was a joint purchase. The LSWR one was a wonderful Christmas present!! Our 00 efforts have been documented elsewhere on RMweb, but to summarise we built the terminus of a fictional Northumbrian railway - the Endar, Norven & Lindisfarne. The nominal period for this 3ft 6ins x 1ft layout was 1914-1920, though I confess it was never nailed down. Someday it will be finished, but for now it is in storage with my parents.

And we started work the next day!

Looking good and making me more convinced that I need to actually do some modelling again - Recent activities have been mostly 12ins/ft scale.

I am rather fond of the streamlined B17s - @483006Terry picked one up for a ridiculously low price at the Mid Suffolk last weekend.

Some more vehicles to add to your list are the former stock of Island Line which, as you will probably all know, was converted 1938 Tube Stock. Unit 483002 (LT 10221+11142. 11142 was numbered 225 on the Island, formerly part of unit 005) Withdrawn from traffic in 2008, subsequently stored at Ryde. Removed to C. F. Booth's Scrapyard, Rotherham, in April 2021. Currently available for purchase from a private seller at £32,000 per vehicle. Unit 483004 (LT 10205+11205) Withdrawn from traffic in 2019, Entered static preservation in May 2021 and restoration has commenced. One vehicle is to be restored to London Transport condition, the other to Island Line condition. To be used as seating accommodation for the cafe at Hollier's Farm, on the Isle of Wight. Unit 483007 (LT 10291+11291) Withdrawn from traffic January 3rd 2021. Entered static (for now) preservation in May 2021. No restoration work is required, with this unit having been subject to a full overhaul at Ryde Works during the period 2017-December 2020. It is on display and open to the public in the Isle of Wight Steam Railway's 'Train Story' museum. Unit 483009 (LT 10229+11229) Withdrawn from traffic in 2015, subsequently used as depot shunter until December 2020. Vehicle 129 (10229) was moved to C. F. Booth's Scrapyard, but earlier this month was moved to the East Somerset Railway where a cosmetic restoration of its remains will be undertaken, using the proceeds from the sale of vehicles from unit 002. Vehicle 229 (11229) never made it to C. F. Booth and has remained at Reid Freight's yard since April. Units 483006 + 483006 (LT 10297+11297 & 10255+11255) These units have the most complex tale attached to them of any of the surviving units, and I am personally involved in arranging for their preservation. Unit 483008 was withdrawn from traffic in December 2020 and was moved to Sandown sidings from Ryde in May 2021. Unit 483006 was originally withdrawn in November 2020, but was repaired and reinstated following a bogie swap in December. I am unsure whether it has actually been withdrawn yet, but it ran the final class 483-operated service on January 3rd 2021, with the Island Line closing for upgrade works on January 4th. It remains stored at Ryde. Both are to be donated to the London Transport Traction Group, an organisation specifically set up for the preservation of Class 483 units. The original plan for these units was to see them moved to the Epping Ongar Railway, where it is still hoped they may eventually run in service. This plan fell through in January once the group had secured both units, with the EOR citing a lack of space as one of its primary concerns. Efforts were then made to negotiate with Transport for London for storage space at Highgate Depot. Negotiations progressed positively, but slowly. Faced with a pressing need to secure a home for the units by the middle of August, approaches were made to many heritage railways, with only one having returned a positive response to date, another having asked for further information. It is unknown, even to the LT Traction Group, when SWR will be removing the units from Island Line, with the period being loosely set as any time between next week and October.

Seems that someone at Hornby saw this and thought it was a good idea;

A very thought-provoking post!

This is something I have increasingly come to realise, though obviously as nobody likes to feel discriminated against it can be hard to accept it as 'fair', even though it is often justified.

I, personally, agree for the most part. But ultimately that majority will still turn to whomever offers them the best deal. If the necessary re-balancing is so clearly seen to be making them into the enemy, then they're never going to get behind it. I speak as a young man who, until relatively recently, was in an educational environment that seemed to be celebrating anyone other than myself in the name of diversity and redressing the balance of things. Despite being, certainly financially, the worst off person in that setting I was made to feel as if everyone else was suffering because of my existence. It was presumed, on the grounds of my racial, gender and sexual characteristics that I should have nothing to complain about and thus help, which I now realise I should have received (And which others who were perceived as 'disadvantaged' received), was not exactly forthcoming. I also went through something of an identity crisis and at one point genuinely believed that I didn't have a valid identity that anyone was allowed to say nice things about. It's petty, but it was enough to really drag me down to not-quite-the-bottom. I realise that this has left me with a decidedly skewed view of such matters, and one which I have subsequently realised has only a limited relation to the world at large. I do feel, however, that more could be done to bring about positive change without evoking such a response as I described above. I scared myself with how far I was beginning to get drawn in by "The Right" as ultimately that was seemingly the only voice that was speaking to people like me rather than simply blaming all of the world's problems on us and deeming my concerns invalid. Thankfully, now that I am out of that environment and have a very supportive partner who's offered some insight into life from the other side, as it were, I'm beginning to unpack where my thoughts originated and am getting over myself somewhat.

I suppose, as ever, I am sad that those whose politics I would traditionally align with have done so much to demonise, disillusion and if not simply ignore that large "White Male" group as their idea of the root of all problems. Is it at all surprising that the traditional white, male, working class, Labour Party support base has increasingly abandoned left wing politics that were either largely ignoring their concerns or even demonising them? That's not to suggest that there aren't many other factors, but ultimately the Tories were able to prey on that by appealing to that large group and winning votes. If the centre left and left hadn't abandoned that huge group in favour of pursuing minority votes then perhaps there's a chance that Boris, and maybe even Brexit, may not have happened, although the latter is something that I have conflicting opinions on. Please note that this isn't a criticism of minority groups, but is instead a criticism of the way majority groups have been dealt with. It wouldn't exactly be the first time that people who appear to consider themselves ignored and silenced, whether that's true or not (Indeed I rather think that on the whole it's not particularly true, with notable exceptions) they will turn towards the politics, or ideology, that is actually addressing them. I'm sure we can all think of other examples besides the most recent ones.

I stand by my word that you shall get your wagons, and can only apologise that I've taken so long.