spike

Please can anybody shed light on what these wooded structures are in the small cutting just outside Georgmas Junction on the far north line ??? they have been there for many years and are now well rotten ! and if any one has more detailed photos , please let me know thanks in advance Spike Taylor

RIGHT STOP IT NOW !!!! WE'VE GOT ENOUGH YELLOW / 6K05 TRAINS JUST STOP GIVING MORE IDEAS !!

Hi jim Why don't you make it a network rail access point ....

Back from china soon , I'll be round to give you a hand... Not done any modelling for about a year .. Then twice in a week before I set off east .. I'm doing some of my network rail vans ... Perfect for this job ! Cheers spike

Evening!! Spent the morning in the shed with my little lad, amazingly at the age of four he can use a Lenz LH100 hand set like its an extension of his arm!! Worrying!! Just running trains round and round in both directions to proof the track work .... Been running all tracks and sidings in both directions with a, 6 wheel Hunslet shutter, 66, 60 with 34 mea wagons and a voyager All ran well, but..... Found one fault!! So out of 34 points and motors with micro switches and hundreds of meters of wire and god knows how many track joints , I guess that's not to bad!! I'm not sure it's a big deal, but it happens to be on one of only four point motors that we've mounted under the base board! I'm sure it's not going to be anything too problematic , just need mick to have a look at it with his multi meter!! Cheers spike

Thank you nobby ..... I'm almost a regular colomist for the guardian now !! 2 written / 1 pod cast and now a film about our business ..... The only real plus to making the film is that people actually understand that there are company's outside the M25 !!! And don't believe what the yellow train junky puts on here!! I've got all the bus wires installed !!! And just to clarify ... Over the last few weeks we've been mountain biking round gisburn forest on a Monday night after work ! But what he failed to mention is that the so called " big lad" royal kick his ass on the up hill bits... And the down hill bits come to mention it!! Just needs to man up abit ..... ;-) That said, " the coke fuelled teenager " is defiantly a Jedi when up comes to designing wireing !! Hopefully we can get some more Picys on here soon! We have also done a small test on the dcc track power and apart from the track needing a good clean, it went well ! apart from the rouge tin of Dulux under coat across the tracks !!!! Also got a load of buildings and "bits" sorted out for the upper layer. Purchaced- Faller road system starter pack for the road system ( that will be two full runs each way round the out side of the building ( aprox 55 foot each way) Ratio viaduct kit - this will be modified to represent a model of the prototype at ingelton in the Yorkshire dales 2 wills midland signal box kits that have already started to look like the prototype at peak forest (love abit of kit bashing) Hornby skaledale " dent" station & waiting room - this has now been striped of the window frames and is being fully repaired from photos of the prototype, the out the box model is good but the stone work is way to bright. Built a village pub and post office in low relief for the village, and a village primary school that's a old stone building with a modern extension . Picked up a Bachmann relay box for the side of the track and loads of stuff like trees and detailing bits. Sorry I've not put any pictures on but " computer says no !" , file size is to big !! I'm sure the updates and progress will start coming more regular now we've got the wires in, just go two big trade shows to get over in the next few week than start making some big steps folward. Cheers spike

Your dog must need a wheel barrow for the size of his nuts, THERE THAT BIG ! That is probably the best model building I've ever seen!!!! Top work les, can't wait to see it in the flesh , once rob has worked his artistic magic on it , that is going to be a show stopper !! Enjoy the road trip chaps, Regards spike

Bridge looks mint !!!

Had a tidy up in the man shed!,,, still doing wires..... Losing the will to live....... Mick took some picks last night's wiring efforts, so I'm sure they will be on here soon !! I must be doing some thing wrong ... Coz I'm always the one having to climb on my hands and knees under the layout to clip up the bus wires !! I'm not sure how that's happened.... Maybe his Jedi powers are stronger than I thought!! Our friendly joiner, "dan the joiner" has taken all the 18mm plywood to work and passed them through his rip saw......, so we now have rather a lot of 138mm ripping to be installed as the support rib's for the upper level, so when topped with 12mm sheet we have the next track base running at 150mm to match the up &down ramps!! Spike :-)

Wasp nest disposed off!! We've been very quite on updates, but we've been making small progress in the back ground, still plodding along with wiring so not much to shout about..... Been a little distracted by doing a small amount of work on the new bryford station Concourse, so if any one did bother to look through the station windows at DEMU, they might of seen the new elevators and destination boards and about 40 people! Still lots more to do in there when time allows! Hope to make a push on the Springfield wiring, over the next 10 days, then start with the support ribs for the upper/ scenic level! I'm sure Picys will follow soon after!! Cheers spike

Afternoon, we've just had a day out to millers dale !! Very interesting Lucas and myself were down photographing peak forest, so I stuck the bikes in the car! .... Poor lad he's only 4 and I made him pedal 4 miles !! The bridges are very impressive... Shame you can't get chee torr tunnels in as well , the bridge between the two tunnels would be more at home in Switzerland !! Cheers spike

Hi cav, good to see you yesterday at DEMU, just spent the evening going through the 64 pages of " millers dale" Must say " very interesting " project and outstanding work on the bridges ..... Loved the plastic in the oven trick, I'm going to try that one ! I'll make sure I keep following the updates Cheers spike Ps. Regards to the family :-)

Hi jaz, Sorry I missed you guys at ally pally, thanks for following the tread, as you may have worked out by the amount of postings and the time of day that there posted, that mick spends a lot more time on here than me!! And just for the record I do live close to mick, I've been building models since I was about 12 and first saw mick in the early 90,s just after newbryford was built, then 12 years later started modelling again , so went back to the local club That i was in as a lad and mick was there building a mini layout called " tontine street goods" , Got chatting to him turns out we live about quarter of a mile from each other ! Then decided to build blackmill in 2002/3 and weve been mates ever since, and Mick mrs is always taking the pi#* out of us, coz we also do a far bit of mountain biking together as well .... As for me I work for my self and have since June 2010, and I've worked in the cycling industry since I was 17, worked for GB Olympic team for 12 years and now have a few bike business's , Protool cycleworks ... Repair/ maintenance company The fell , our retailing company Beacon bikes, our own bike brand, and our umbrella company is called beacon fell ltd Www.beaconfell.com And with 4 & 5 year old and a mrs to look after... I don't get as much time as I'd like to get in the man shed away from the chaos ! Cheers spike.... Ps like the trees !!

Hi all, just to give you a small update... I've just been looking back at previous posts on Springfield junction...... And there is nothing more to report at this time on the actual layout ! Mick is away in Portugal at the mo and I've just had the best month of sales at work, since setting up our own, so between trade shows, driving lessons, half terms, customers, web shop design, and training for a big charity bike ride in a few months, the coca cola fuelled modeller and my self have not managed to get our heads together to progress the wiring any further , but I'm sure we will over the next week... Have well progressed some of the buildings, so I'll get a few Picys up soon..! Cheers spike

Quick springfield update! having been out for two hours last night and four hours this morning in the pissing rain and gale force winds, on my road bike, was inspired, by a brew stop at Hellifield station cafe, to carry on getting the boring but important job progressed , Just finished , point motor, switch, tag strip and trucking installation on the north west corner!!, Just need the wiring wizard to come back and do his thing!! Finishing packing " new bryford " tonight in ready for ally pally !! I'm not going this time :-( Spike

What the hell does SWMBO's mean ??

Morning all! Yep we're just in the middle of trade show hell.... Since Stafford we've made no progress on Springfield but I know that mick's make good head way into the track work on dead mans lane. I've been a bit busy since Stafford, had a week of sport relief with Davina mac then straight into excel arena trade show in London then half term with the kids and now just Manchester gmex ( now central) to go and then can back to some layout building !! More up dates soon, if the mood takes me I might pop over to Preston show to see if there is anything of interest !! Cheers spike

Don't encourage him!! It just means more yellow bloody trains!!!!! But in fairness if you want to build rail grinder unit that would be cool ...... Hope the rest of the show goes well ...... Spike :-)

Cheers for following with interest! Big push now on the electrics and operational systems, that will take a few weeks to get in place!

8 fish plates and about 40 track pins to go!!!!

Sunday afternoon!! not going out in the stormy weather, so Lucas ( my 3 year old son ) and myself have been putting on some stock just to check the physical length of the roads in the north yard. Working away from the wall road 1 will have no stock parked on it to allow stock to pass from the up/ down ramps at each end ( east/ west) and the south fiddle yard So we have got at the moment in road 2 full virgin pendolino and 57 thunderbird north bound ( Carlisle ) with room for one of real track models new 144 with room to spare. Same in road 3 but the south bound ( Preston) version !! In road 4 we have a nine car voyager and fastline 56 (302) and 57 thunderbird from route learner duty again all with nice spaces in-between!! After tea! We're going to put some freight trains on to keep Lucas happy !!! Spike :-)

Very good mr fisher!!

" merry new year " fellow train geeks......... Quiz ( just for fun) name the film and actor that got his wires crossed!! " merry new year" And for an extra bonus what we're they trying to get on the train???? All the best spike :-)

Cheers for following the layout development!! Normally on a Wednesday night mick and my self get a couple of hour in the man shed track laying!! But I'm off to scouse land to see the in- laws tonight, ( or is that out laws!!) anyway were hoping for a big push over Xmas as I'm off for 10 days so will get in there at some point !! Cheers spike