SteamingWales

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

Slowly but surely the shed build plods along with progress over the weekend and last few nights. The first little job has been to paint all the steel work with separates/supports each brick section. Black internally and red brown externally, both will need weathering to tone them down but the appearance is much better already Vs the milky brick red previously present The internal shed walls of the boiler house have had the mucky wash treatment as well as the window panel being attached at the eastern end where the shed entrance is One thing I have put off for ages as well is the brickwork that sits in between the steel work and front of the shed. This is now being addressed so everything should fit together nicely when the time comes

Cheers. That was my thought too so easy enough to change to 6D if needed to model 7812 post Sept 1963 A little bit of research and it might be a tender switcheroo between the models of 7800 and 7812. This will backdate 7812 to circa 1960/61 and renumber 7800 to 7823 as the flush tender and wide hornplates

With the anticipation slowly building for the arrival of the Manors (for me anyway) I'm starting to look at reference images for weathering and putting together a "research pack" for Steve at Neville Grove and was wondering... What exact time period is 7812 modelled to represent. I've found images of with the flush rivet tender around 1965, but the model has the 89A Shrewsbury shed code which is pre Aug 1963 How easy will it be to renumber/rename the models? Just a simple stick a new nameplate over the original as supplied or will a bit of surgery be required? Looking at the EP on the A/S website it looks to be a one piece moulding

SEVEN!!! 👀 Hopefully one of those is a Stanier 3P 2-6-2

Looking at previous announcement dates they are always on the first Wednesday of the month so the expected date would be 1st Feb? Anyway, my big prediction is I expect to see the Mainline Hunslets/FR "Ladies" in current 2-4-0 conditions given we have had the Penrhyn and early FR 0-4-0 version already that have been popular and it is logical for the 2-4-0 to follow. Alternately some modern 009 FR stock would be useful? Can only do so much with bug boxes and bowsiders

I've been getting the hang of the ModelU guttering today and fitted the main guttering and outlets to both the workshop and boiler house. Down spouts to follow once I source the relevant plastic strip to do these I've also cleaned up and given the seaward/western entrance to the workshop it's first coat of paint

Not strictly layout related but I wanted to share it. I've been working away in Scotland this week in Dumfries and Galloway and the site was right next to the rather impressive Gatehouse and Fleet viaduct