Martin S-C

A lot of Victorian and Edwardian locomotives were pretty. Once the belts got tightened from the 1920s function took precedence over form - engineers squeezing more power out of a basic recipe and leaving off the twiddly shiny bits. [Big edit to add in a new discussion rather than making it a new post]. I need to once again look very carefully at signalling. I have counted a total of 25 posts with a total of 37 arms needed for the whole layout. They are going to be operated by levers (electrical not mechanical). I would really like to incorporate "bounce" to the arms but fear the cost of doing this may be prohibitive. What options are there for operation that covers such a feature? As to models can someone better informed than I (so probably all of you) advise on what makes are available and what are recommended. While I would like scale fidelity I fear that building 25 posts from MSE kits and components will be too time consuming and too expensive although components from them for some of the extra arms may be do-able. There's things like the Ratio and Dapol products and I've heard some good things about the Dapol models. What do people recommend given my criteria: 1) Cannot be expensive. 2) Cannot be a complex finescale kit. Some finescale parts for modifying basic models is okay. 3) Must be operated. 4) May require an LED for a lamp effect. While I'd like working lamps these are a "nice to have" feature but not a "must have". 5) Most will be GW style LQ but it would be great to have a couple of odd types on the branch such as disc and crossbar which, while not historically accurate by the time of the Great War would be a fun aspect to ring the changes.

*is embarrassed* I bought it because it was a lovely model. Didn't know what it was. I thought it was freelance :)

What is a T7? The ignorant masses want to know.

Hello everyone. No news I am sorry to say. I have spent the winter and spring wargaming, taking care of my elderly lady friend whose condition is not so good now ... and fretting over lack of progress at Nether Madder. I have a strong hankering for activity again though so I think my several months bout of low mood/depression is lifting. I hope to be able to report more progress soon and with the return of the warm weather I have been out in the garage enjoying the mild temperatures, looking at boxes and piles of things and sighing a good deal. On the plus side the issues I had over the last couple of years with financial security (which was adding to my worries) have been addressed so with that fact easing my mind I plan to make some progress asap. On a completely selfish note this post also stops my own thread falling off the bottom of my "content I follow" list :)

As regards Dean bogies there are a number of types available as 3D prints from Stafford Road Model Works on Shapeways. They are intended to replace the bogies on the Hornby models but would have other uses. I have several and they look very nice with a finish sufficiently fine to work as coach underframe parts as long as you weather them. https://www.shapeways.com/shops/stafford_road_model_works

I finally got to see the layout in the flesh and very spectacular it is too. Had a brief chat with Graham during set-up on Friday afternoon and was able to push through the crowds once or twice to watch operations (as well as witness a green traders lorry wrap itself around a tree). Most layouts only have spectacular derailments but Grantham has road traffic accidents as well.

I am attending the Doncaster Show this weekend and will be helping Roger Salisbury operate his Gauge 3 layout "Chalfont" so if any RMWeb persons are there do please drop by and say hello, it will be lovely to meet you.

Officer and NCO at the front, then a 10-strong slimmed down recon squad followed up by a 24-strong heavy weapons platoon.

Sloshey, Pintey and Dram. They make a very awkward train late on a Friday night. And do not couple them up to Bolshy the Brake Van.

What sort of experiments were you doing on them?

You seem to be a very lucky fellow indeed Sir! Concerning NMGS-related news the box of Peco points arrived a couple of days ago. Some DCC Concepts 3mm foam track underlay is also en-route and I am now awaiting delivery of a round tuit so I can begin placing/aligning track. I keep going in the garage and staring at the baseboards but nothing happens. While the heater in there is very efficient its still rather chilly so isn't yet conducive to spending long in there sipping cups of tea and pondering track alignments. One of the (several) drawbacks of a model railway that isn't in the main house. Hopefully the weather will begin to warm up soon and daylight hours increase forcing me to get off my rear end and into action.

This was the one I bought. However not from this supplier. https://www.litchfieldstation.com/product/ho-scale-clean-machine-track-cleaning-car-brass-with-pad/ A friend has a very large 00 gauge railway built using Peco code 100 track. He has this wagon and it performs superbly, so I got one. I was very annoyed to find it's pad snagged against the frogs. The only difference is I use code 75. I asked him if he had swapped the supplied pads with another material and he hadn't. Quite the waste of £60. If anyone else has one of these and you can use it successfully on Peco code 75 I'd be very interested to know what you are doing!

Maybe someone had a layout based on a scene from War of the Worlds and has tried to cover it in Martian red weed.

Brake and clutch cleaner? Got it. It sounds fairly industrial and aggressive and I wonder what its main components are in case it attacks anything I don't want it to. As regards track cleaning generally I don't know yet how it will go; the main issues before was the simple amount of track and the fact that good parts of it were hard to access. I intend to overcome both issues with NMGS v.2. There are only 2 tunnels and I plan removable scenery sections above them to get at the track. I am hoping I can get away with a track rubber or isopropyl alcohol on a cloth - I have a half litre of that from when I bought an expensive track cleaning wagon that infuriatingly only ran one way over points. Its cleaning pad snagged on the frogs in the other direction.

How odd, the word got through my system okay. Maybe it was context? I think you are allowed to use certain words if you use the original well-established (inoffensive) meaning rather than anything that has arrived later via colloquial methods and is insulting or derogatory. I could have used the military version of a similar bundle of small to modest diameter timbers and said "fascine" but part of the effect would be lost. Also French of course. The problem with the 1:1 scale plan is while it looks lovely, using it for actual track laying is a pain. I have to cut it to ribbons to get through it to the baseboard so I probably won't use the technique again... if there ever is another 'again'.

I do have a proper plan to work to ... with baseboards ready built and set up with their framing placed away from all planned point motor positions. I realise that in the present company of the Most Worshipful Guild of Artful Bodgers this is tantamount to heresy and I may find myself bound to a post with a pile of faggots heaped around my lower regions to be shortly set alight by the crimson-hooded illuminati in control of the cultist masses, but I will press on and .... lay the station throat pointwork first. Besides which the station throat pointwork is below the main window so if it all goes nether regions over chest regions I will at least have a pleasant view of the hebe and hedge to enjoy as I weep uncontrollably. This announcement has been brought to you by the We-Do-Actually-Have-A-Modest-Clue-What-The-Eff-We-Are-Doing Party and proudly sponsored by the Two Large G&Ts Bureau of Motivation. Thank you and good night

I've been advised today that part of the large order of Peco pointwork is on the way - though I don't know how much. I hope in a few days I can commence track laying. I'll begin from the buffer stops of the platforms.

Hi Ian I have tried a variety of methods including both cheap and expensive track cleaning wagons, cloths dampened with methylated spirit or isopropyl alcohol, Peco track rubbers, pretty much everything. The issue was the amount of track, especially the amount inaccessible in tunnels and this was high on the list of things I was not happy with regarding the NMGS v.1 and hence why I've severely reduced the amount of hidden track in v.2 as well as simplified generally. I do not mind track cleaning, but I do mind cleaning a lot of track!

"The bells! The bells! The signal box bells!"

This is the kind of wonderful information the internet was invented for. Thank you very much Sir. Much indebted!

I think there are known errors with many of the "famous" old kits but only the most skilled and knowledgeable modellers would spot the problems. The Ratio GW iron mink is one such vehicle where the corners (of body and roof) are the wrong radius. They used the same mouldings for their GPV and I was kindly informed by a very knowledgable person on RMWeb that if I wanted to paint one as a GPV I needed to trim the end vents off. I honestly would not have known that so yes, these kits while good for their day do carry errors which most don't know about. I never try to be lazy and use Rule 1 and always make the effort but without a supportive community here I'd be committing so many howlers, even for my fictional railway companies.

I am still happily painting, adding transfers to, and weathering wagons. I set them aside and think "That looks pretty good. I'm pleased with that". Then I photograph them, crop and maybe tilt the pictures to straighten them up and upload them and think. "Gawd, that's looks rubbish, how did I miss that massive overpaint blob there?". It's quite amazing that what your brain/eye combo sees in 3D in front of you on a layout and happily dismisses is entirely different to what you see on a screen. I'm sure there's some kind of psychology of the 2D image at work here but I'll be darned if I know why. But, do please be assured that the cr*p I upload on RMWeb is really quite good if you wanna come round my house and look!

Willie Throbmuch was such a committed bird fancier that he would take a crate of pigeons on the footplate with him and release them at different stations, telephoning his missus to time them back to his house.

"'Ere, Nobby, where's tha' fookin wheels gone then?"

Your layout Chris is the only one I know that needs a frontscene to go with its backscene.