LostinUSA

Kevin, A question from an aging British modelling novice trying to get started on a British outline OO layout while stuck in the USA. I'm using Little Muddle as a inspirational resource. I'm pretty clueless about how a track layout is designed and assembled. I read way back in this thread that your track is Peco code 75. You also commented that you removed spring housings from points. Am I correct in assuming the points were standard/purchased Peco products before you modified them? Or did you build your points and slips yourself to fit your layout (or have them made for you)? Best regards!

Hi Andy, When will we see more of your layout? I live in the USA so don't have access to most railway magazines. Geoff Barratt

Kevin, I found the Little Muddle discussion thread only recently and I've enjoyed it immensely. The layout has a life of its own! But I'm puzzled by your mention in some of the early pages of coating brickpapers with varnish. I have downloaded and printed brickpapers - I've even made some of my own in MS Excel - but I've found that the colours run and blur at the slightest touch of water. Do they not do so under other solvents? Like whatever the solvent/vehicle is in varnish? Or do you think that the problem might be my cheap inkjet (HP ENVY 4520) printer and/or its inks? May I also ask how you apply the varnish? Do you brush or spray?

I suggest the wagon doesn't belong in the Bachmann box and that it's really an over-painted Dapol wagon. If you look at the unpainted seven-plank wagon on the Dapol website, you will see the overall structure of the wagon is identical. One possible source for over-painted Dapol wagons is Robbies Rolling Stock (see his site) though there are probably other suppliers who do similar work. If the original maker's marks have been mechanically or chemically burred off the underside of the chassis, it's almost certainly from an over-painter. I have several similar wagons in a variety of liveries that I picked up as a group purchase on eBay. Despite the livery differences, the interiors are the same shade of brown plastic with the same indications of internal wagon structure. You can find images of Robbies wagons on the web in purple Dapol boxes with his label over the Dapol wording. A bunch of his and others wagons are also shown on a Vectis Auctions site (image below).