97406

A little light weekend weathering went on, with a small merging of eras thanks to modeller's licence.

Thank you for the kind words. The layout is based in the 80s, so it covers the period from when just about every loco was banger blue up until the sectors emerged. Happy days they were! I’ve also been toying with the idea of some blue/green transition stock and have a few items from that era already.

I think some of the gantries on the former Manchester South Junction and Altrincham Railway are of 1931 vintage and are still in use, albeit having been re-energised twice. To 25kV then 750V DC.

A non-Banger Blue collection.

Just has a mail from Hattons, the 33s are imminent, so have ordered the weathered blue one to plug the last main gap in my fleet.

New arrivals on shed. 47704 is a resprayed Vitrains model, and will remain ex-works (just as I remember seeing them at Crewe). The 20 and a Railfreight liveried counterpart will be worked on next. I’m still undecided on whether the 50 needs a windscreen-and-nose-job or not as it captures the look well as it is.

A standard large logo 50 with pearl grey roof, due to the difficulties getting one at the moment.

I’ve stuck my name down for a 56008

A Romanian or early Donny example, banger blue or 036 is tickling my fancy.

With the rail blue solebars in this case though I'll add them if need be. Think they were provincial blue at one point as well.

They’ll be running alongside my Bachy ones. One thing I’ve noticed with the latest ones is the front windscreens are the right shape, a first for any manufacturer. They lack the raised grommets, or the subtle recess of the prototype, which have both been reproduced exquisitely by Accurascale. Shall we just say I am halting expansion of the fleet until the Accurascale one comes out. Teeside Steelmaster would be a good one to have from a later run (hint hint)

I have a large logo one on order and paid for, so looking forward to it turning up - near my birthday in November would be nice . I am definitely in the market for a late 80s central headcode example (refurbished or not), and the refurbished former split box ones if they were to follow in a later production run. Edited to add just read it’s Q2 2022, so it will be my 53 1/2th birthday pressie!

Super stuff, and so the Oxford PHVs that I bought recently will get their ICI letters

One of my earliest memories was standing on Navvi Road station with my Mum, getting electric shocks off her because of the 25kV and being scared half to death by the ICI hoppers behind a blue or green 25 or 40. The noise was immense, and those two particular classes are my favourites. I lived near Skelton Junction and often used to hear the squeal of the goods trains as they went round the curve. Quite atmospheric, especially at night.

I’ve seen worse liveries and I’ll become accustomed to said whiskery appendages, no doubt.

Thank you. I’m now up to the point where I am adding the smaller and smaller details, such as relay cabinets, and people, which will come next. I quite fancy doing a depot open day scene with it, lots of stalls and people, plus D200 and Flying Scotsman doing brake van rides. All in a form that can be removed and it then reverts back to a working depot again.

The 80s is my main modeling period. Plenty of blue, and interesting diesel/electric classes, but with a few spangly liveries thrown in for good measure,

One of the reasons for the existance of the layout is to serve as a diorama, so from this angle it appears as a normal running line. This allows me to recreate one of the nostalgic trains from way back when, the Northwich to Tunstead empties. I need some ICI letters for the hoppers as the Oxford PHVs are nearly all sold out.

Incidents of giant cats on the loose are on the rise.... https://youtu.be/tb59dEHRt5Q

The layout resides in a couple of old chests of drawers and the tops have been fashioned into lids that go over the top, but they're often left off as I nip up and tinker with the thing quite a lot. The cats seem to show little interest, but one of them has jumped onto it when I've been working on or running the layout when he wants some fuss. There is a stick with a bit of wire kept near the layout to distract him. The cat-enary is superglued to the baseboard and is designed to break away rather than bend, so in theory I can just replace any damaged sections. Time will tell!

That was the original intention. The shed was modified so it is high enough to accommodate wires, and the gantries reached over the shed lines at one point, but they made photography more difficult due to more posts to get in between the locos and the camera. There was also a concern about 12” to the foot scale hands and cats interfering with the catenary at the front of the layout, so a decision was reached to electrify just the main road in and the rearmost sidings. Here’s a couple of earlier pics with the original gantries, which were in the process of being revised in the second photo. If it ever gets integrated into a larger layout, then it will be extended to the front, so more wires may appear.

Five Forties off the bucket list.

Electrics coming off duty

Well done, it really is a thing of beauty! I may have a go at another one. I fell short of being able to get the parallel motion soldered in properly, and my diagonal bracing's based on a mirror universe example, but I just used a few blobs of glue to keep mine at a fixed height. I ended up doing similar with my Hornby 87 as the crossarm pantograph’s pan head flops to the side and it doesn’t stand the test of time in use. Pic here https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/164738-nifkins-bridge-tmd/&do=findComment&comment=4461631