SteamingWales

No doubt with more announcments too!!!!

Which is equally as inspiring and informative as the Engine Shed

Work on the layout has been a bit all over the place currently. This is mainly down to the baseboards being incomplete so that I cannot majorly progress with track laying and some building elements requiring extra material. So I thought I would pick up on the stores building to paint the roof and add the gutters and doors ModelU gutters added to the building ☝️☝️ and 3D printed doors recieving a coat of paint 👇👇 One other job has been renumbering and re-cresting the two 4MTs that have been kicking about in the earlier layout photos. The tenders are complete and I am awaiting delivery of numbers from Railtec

The wash is pretty light. It is just a case of going over very lightly with cotton buds. They do come out a little pink but it doesn't take off the brick base or the brick highlights

Just been catching up on the thread and brilliant modelling as always Just to clarify on Cambrian Shed EVERYTHING is painted using acrylic. I fell out with enamel a few years ago and only use it on very rare occasions now. The method is as described, taken from Everard Junction on YouTube. His modelling is top drawer so mine should be too? Right? 😅😅

I can definitely see the first 2 fitting in the range. 14xx as a friend for the Manor and Siphon (and hopefully some GWR coaches in the future) The Andrew Barclays are a perfect pairing for the Chaldrons and NER 20T I don't see where the P Class would fit with everything in the current range. How often would a P Class and the SR Banana vans have met?

A pretty good list. I'll tke the K22 Full Brake and C32 All 3rd please!!!!!

Hi Fran Will you have any other production samples for other soon to arrive items i e. Siphon or Manor or is it just the 37s?

I'll take the BR Breakdown version please. Assuming this is the wagon that was mentioned earlier in the thread as being at Shrewsbury?

Half expecting it to be the Stanier 8F though

A little more work on the coal stage ramp to start today. The start of the ramp proper has been made using foamcore I've also built the support brick support for the embankment based upon various photos. Capping stones are still required but that is a job for another day I've maybe stupidly decided to start hacking into the baseboard to get the first pit installed which is on the "washout road". I will wait to add the pit to the "shed road" once I have 100% confirmed the track formation so the shed entrance, smoke troughs etc all line up properly. Although not secured to the board or track glued it does look good 😍

2023 is 40 years since Dapol was founded. Any potential for any commemorative items???

I was catching up on the Hornby TV show at my modelling desk this evening whilst having a mess around with the 74xx and some coal wagons. The conclusion is that it CAN make it up the 1:16 ish with 3 unloaded MDOs but with a load it is a bit of a struggle without giving it some welly and shot down on the descent. Testing on a 1:35 ish it had little problem with the load and no major speed difference going down. I also set up both gradients a bit more accurately with some spare timber strips to get a better visual idea and posed the scene with a 4MT for good measure 1:16 👇👇 1:35👇👇 My conclusion is the 1:16 just feels a bit too toy like in terms of gradient and speed required. Plus aesthetically the 1:35 look better and more in keeping with the overall realistic aim of the layout

Another good shout somewhat along the Dynamometer car would be the Hawksworth Inspection Saloons. There are couple about in preservation too. Bachmann seem to have done well with the LMS Saloon both in OO and N so why not the GWR equivelant

I've been doing a little more work with trackwork planning. I have a bit of a conundrum with the coal stage ramp. A bit of reading around on here and elsewhere has coal stage ramps at about 1:35. The current gradient below sits at around 1:16 so roughly twice as steep. So do I fit the whole ramp within the scenic baseboard space or extend the ramp into the fiddle yard space???

A bit off topic from the thread, but with the acceleration to Net Zero what is the future in traction terms for the Highland routes and other such as the Settle and Carlisle? Wouldn't OHLE be a no no given the landscapes that they run through, detracting from the asthetic that comes with the Highlands and Yorkshire Dales (I won't moan about that and my opinion though) so would 3rd rail be an option? Sorry I'm not a D&E person so don't know operating requirements I guess the other option for these "long distance" routes is hydrogen but I'm not aware of anything that could potentially fill that gap atm

After moving the baseboard to their final home in the spare room I set too today properly marking out where all the track and building will finally sit. The main purpose is to work out placement of the pits to cut out the holes in the baseboards Progress so far Checking locomotive clearance with the boiler house

There are a couple that spring to mind: 7816 with the GWR tender at Reading circa 1963, although I believe that would require a different tender tooling As @Phil Bullocksaid there are the bulled up CCE locos with white buffers, darts etc. Quite a few recieved the treatment at various times including 7822 but also 7802/03/12/18/23/28 off the top of my head There are 9 Manors preserved so plenty of collaboration possible between owning groups I'm no D&E expert but looking at current exclusives, for example, there is an exclusive BR Blue large logo 37 as well as two in the general release and to my eye 37402 (exclusive) and 37409 (general) look identical except for a name change. Happy to be told that 37402 is some celebrity in some way

Cheers. My wallet has breathed a sign of relief 😅I'll keep my wishlist to myself for now untilthe first batch has arrived

With the announcement of more liveries for the Class 31 and 50 could we expect to see any surprises on the Manor front too? Or is delivery too close to start announcing new things and instead I should start wishlisting for batch 2 wherever that comes about?

End of play with layout building (for now). I ran out of materials due to a slight design change and also ran out of time as I had to be back in Yorkshire. But this is where I'm at.... One side near complete and the other we won't talk about. After a big sort out I couldn't resist getting some track and locos out 😁

And so it begins.....

Some general layout news but very important all the same. It's my birthday in a couple of days so I treated myself to a Ten Commandments rolling road, which as I'm sure everyone knows is very useful when having an end to end layout. It's been put through its paces by my K1 (which is the only loco I have at my parents where the road was delivered) I haven't gone mad buying NE locomotives. I bought the K1 with my birthday money from my 18th, before seeing the light of the GWR, so is a very personal locomotive to me and hasn't been run in about 4 years having sat in storage. I will probably be renumbered it to 62005 in the future as a reminder of a trip on "The Jacobite" which 62005 hauled.

I pulled that from a Facebook post I remember seeing closer to the time when the actual magazine was published.

According to the article we should be seeing EPs quite soon based on the "samples should be here early in the New Year" sentence