AndrueC

I agree with that and in such cases I'd try and find some way to show my appreciation. However for me personally YT is just somewhere I occasionally end up after clicking on a search result and frankly if Google took to removing it from search results to non-payers I wouldn't miss it. I detest all forms of advertising and have done for as long as I can remember. I'll pay to avoid them but that still requires me to actively want the content.

UBlock Origin continues to block them for me. I occasionally have to refresh the filter cache but that's all. I don't watch many YT videos anyway. Just the occasional one that a web search suggests.

Anyone for a game of bridge? I've been wondering what do about the land between the golf tee (not yet constructed) and the branch line loop. It's a bit of a conundrum because there are three sections of land and I don't think they should be left empty. Between the golf tee box and the outer main. Between the outer main and the inner main. Between the inner main and the branch. The section next to the golf tee box isn't problem as it connects to the backscene but other two are completely cut off and neither main line could possibly have a simple foot crossing - that's ridiculous. So instead I decided to scratch build a bridge. And because it connects the two cut off areas it has to have three exits. Backscene. Land area one. Land area two. Unfortunately unlike my previous bridge this one has to start off on top of the scenery with an arch that stands above the land whilst the second arch spans an embankment. I tried a few different designs and eventually came up with one that didn't seem too outlandish or two large. This is the story of the building of Farmer Gile's Bridge. Stage one: Creating a template for the left side. As with previous scratch builds I chose to go the eyeball route rather than use careful measurement. I'd worked out the the road bed should be about 20mm wide and knew that the vertical loading gauge had to be 40mm. Beyond that..cut trim and adjust to suit 🙂 Yes, that wagon fits under there: The next stage was to print out some stone texture and glue it on. I also added the road bed spacers and the side exit. Then add stone effect to the inner walls and add tarmac effect for the road: Then I added concrete parapets. I cut the strips out of 3mm card then scored slots so that they could be made to follow the contours then sprayed with the concrete effect spray I've used before. I've also added some strategic bushes to hide the join. It needs a the stone effect around the arches trimming and I haven't yet decided how I'm going to do the bit where the exits touch the ground but it's mostly done. Eventually there will be gates on the visible exits and the backscene will show a lane heading off into the distance. Oh and one warning. I began to run out of glue stick toward the end (do they go off? the last couple I've opened have been a bit solid and difficult to use.) so I tried sticking down the road surface with UHU. That has made the ink run a bit. Luckily it's just produced some green blotches so a bit of weathering powder and I think it will be fine. This is a bridge that cattle use so odd blotches on the road surface are to be expected 🤮 It is slightly more 'bodgy' than I'd like and might eventually be rebuilt but for now it looks okay and seems like a reasonable addition to my layout. Given my lack of artistic ability and craft skills I'm pleasantly surprised by what can be achieved with card, glue and an inkjet printer.

I agree with the OP. I also started with a Tri-ang Princess on a layout built for me and my brother by my Dad. Well two Princess' actually. A black crude one and a more detailed green one. I've tried to recreate the latter now that I've returned to modelling but sadly in N scale the closest we have is a Queen Elizabeth. Oh well. I'm modelling the modern scene anyway. Or mostly modern. Or..well frankly I buy stock that looks interesting. The QE is the only steam loco that has a permanent place on the layout. I enjoy the modelling and I occasionally run trains. Since I have a roundy-roundy realism has already taken rather a large knock. I've often wondered how much would a ticket cost to ride on a full size train with half a dozen coaches for about half a mile only to come back to where you started? And why would CargoWagon offer a service that stopped and started at the same place? However I do like to have some logic to it. I'm currently scratch building an unusual bridge - a stone 'humped back' effort that straddles two separate lines - therefore two distinct arches - and an exit half way along. That's because I can't just put sheep on an inaccessible embankment and nor do I think it likely that the land would be left wild. Not that close to a station and civilisation. I'm also making sure that all my signals and turnout motors are linked with trunking. It's also funny that the fastest loco on my layout is the QE. The second fastest is a class 122 (realistic speed is with my PowerCab control set to 5, lol) and my HST is only the third fastest. But it's my layout. It wouldn't exist if I hadn't built it and that makes me proud.

I've already ballasted and laid trunking but am still interested in finding what else is likely to be seen alongside the track on a modern layout. I have both station areas and open countryside.

Similar deal here. Other joints on curves are nearer the start in the easement area and are fine but I got lazy on one curve and rather than make two more cuts I chose to join in almost the middle of the curve. Unfortunately mine is on a line nearest the wall and inclined using a technique that means I'd have to rip out a lot of good scenery to relay. Most of my rolling stock was okay with it but I've had issues with new stock and a few months ago I managed to improve it slightly. So I got away with mine but for sure I won't be doing that again.

That doesn't sound right. I once ran my 4-6-2 Queen Elizabeth with decoder fitted round my first layout using a 9v battery. (Sorry about the dodgy camera work).

What's the current situation? ... About 0.6A since you ask 🙂 Today I took delivery of my eagerly awaited Trans Pennine Express Mk5a coaches from RevolutioN. They are a truly gorgeous collection of coaches. Unfortunately I have yet to receive my Dapol Class 68 TPE. It's hopefully going to arrive within the next couple of weeks since the status on the Kernow order page now says 'Temporarily out of stock' rather than 'Pre-orders welcome'. But of course I had to run the coaches to test them. My initial impressions were that they ran 'okay' but were not very free running. If/when the 68 arrives I'll revisit them but I gave them a lengthy outing this afternoon (towed by my manky looking class 53 because that's all I had spare). Once that was settled in I got my class 122 running. Then I thought what with the coach lighting on the TPE it'd be interesting to get a third loco running so I set my DRS Class 68 circling pulling the also slightly poor running hoppers. I made sure that all the loco headlights were on then checked out the NCE PowerCab's current reporting. It initially hovered between .57 and .64 amps but eventually settled down a bit (coaches / hoppers running in? Locos warming up?) to .52 to .58 it seemed. I've attached a video here and you'll notice I don't have the signals on. That wouldn't make any difference to the reported current draw anyway because they have their own DC circuit and supply. I will post a video of the coaches being pulled by a cleaner, better looking 68 when I can. I'll also post some better stills for you to enjoy the sheer beauty of the TPE.

Just arrived. They look very good and are a great addition to my layout. I might have to rearrange my coach yard though as currently the building wall obscures the coach lighting. I still don't have my TPE Class 68 so I had to do a test run with my weathered class 53. I won't post a video because having such beautiful coaches pulled by a loco that has been weathered to the point where it looks like it was dragged out of a swamp is cruel. On the subject of running the loco pulled them well enough but they aren't very free running. My other coaches when pushed will continue on their own for a metre or more whereas these come to a stop within a dozen centimetres. I'll take another look when the TPE loco arrives and check the advice here. I'd like to stress it's not a problem just perhaps needs a little adjustment to avoid unduly stressing the loco. Thanks, RevolutioN!

Received my email notification from Royal Mail and Revolution now. Unfortunately I'm not in tomorrow so had to reschedule for Monday. Nothing from Kernow yet so I reckon the coaches will be first to arrive.

I've got a sound-fitted Felix on pre-order with Kernow. Although it's now showing as temporarily out of stock so I'm not sure what to make of that.

I got the dispatched notification last Friday, heard nothing since. Dapol/Kernow are still in with a chance of winning this race.

So the race is on, lol? Still no sign of my MK5a coaches so perhaps the loco will get here first after all.

Signalling my intentions.. So as promised I've made a couple of videos showing the operation of signals at Wallarium. Neither are prototypical. They serve two purposes: They look attractive (or at least interesting) They tell the operator how the turnouts are currently set (or at least what their motor controllers think they are set to). The first video is of Doorway Interchange. This is the more complex of the two junctions. That's because it's a double slip and has four configurations: Both lines straight ahead (green on all lights). One line crossing to the other one (green on the crossing line, red on the other one since the turnouts are set against that line). Both lines crossing (red on both lines because neither route is valid - I didn't bother to demonstrate this). The run went reasonably well apart from a stall near the end. All the turnout frogs are juiced. so probably just unused track needing a clean. The second video is of Wilf's Junction. Signalling for this simpler because it's a diamond crossing. The turnouts are wired up such that only two routes are possible: Both lines straight through (outer signals green, inner LEDs red). Both lines cross (outer signals red, inner LEDs green). Running didn't go quite so smoothly on this video. I don't run the junction in crossover very often - only when I want to run trains around both the other loops in a kind of figure of eight. I also haven't juiced the frogs yet. I also discovered after the video that a couple of the turnouts don't always move when they should. So basically I need to revisit the junction and do a bit of adjusting (*). Still - it gives me something to do this afternoon and Wilf's Junction is nowhere complete anyway. (*)Right now I have an image of my Dad looking at me with raised eyebrows 🙂.

Oops. I meant BRM subscription then, lol.

We have two or three in their 20s/30s and there's a couple of young lads come along with their dads but otherwise, yes, it's all grey hair and sarcasm.

I bet finding the pieces for the empty rail was tricky. Looking for 'a bit of reddish brown on dirty white' couldn't have been easy. Reminds of a Jigsaw I once did of Llandudno Promenade. It was great fun right up until I got to The Great Orme in the background. Looking for 'a bit of green, maybe black on dirty white' got old quite fast. And it represented about a quarter of the image.

I've never looked at any of that though. No interest frankly. When the new edition comes out I scan through it but frankly I consider the most value of my subscription is not having adverts on this website. From my perspective reading anything sequentially other than a novel is 'old fashioned'. I'd read RM a bit more thoroughly if the digital reader rendered it more like a web page but that incurs additional editorial expense that I wouldn't expect for the current subscription. This isn't a dig at RM it's just not how I want to consume 'written media'. At age 57 I didn't grow up with the World Wide Web but as a computer programmer I did watch it evolve and embraced it. I haven't read a newspaper or watched the news on TV for decades for similar reasons. I expect to be able to jump around, following links to additional information and compare and contrasting different sources. But it takes all sorts. I even know a couple of guys who subscribe to golfing magazines and that makes no sense to me. They repeat information freely available on the web and what's the point reading about how to do a physical activity? 🙂

I had that problem with my first layout and it wasn't that big. Eight locos, 8 turnout motor controllers (DCC Concept's Cobalt-SS) and eight LEDs powered from a DCCC Alpha Mimic. Inrush tripped the breaker. I moved the Alpha Mimic so that it was connected before the breaker and the problem was solved. My current layout has the turnout controllers (far more now) on a booster circuit and LEDs on their own curcuit primarily for that reason. My NCE Power Cab outputs over 13v because I upgraded the PSU. Unfortunately (?) it's also limited to 2A because my circuit breaker only offers 1, 2, 4 or 8A trips. It's not been a problem so far as the most I've seen when running four locos at the same time is .61A. That is N scale.

Golf is at some risk of the same demographic. It's noticeable that attendance at our Saturday (all ages) competitions has been declining for a couple of years now whilst it's becoming a struggle to find a place at the Wednesday Senior's comp. And volunteering likewise. I'm on our handicap committee which at three people (two men, one woman) only just meets the requirements. We struggled to find someone to take over as treasurer when the 80 year old incumbent said he'd had enough. I think a lot of hobbies need to put more effort into attracting the younger demographic. Different hobbies have different reasons for the decline though. I'd say a lot of the problems stem from youngsters preferring to stay indoors with computers. I used to play a lot of games when I was younger but I grew out of it in my 30s. Another issue golf has is time. A round of golf takes four hours, sometimes more. A lot of young adults just don't have that much free. Given a spare Saturday they'd rather spend it with their family. But..it's just life. Things evolve and change. Ebb and flow. It might matter to us if our hobby withers but people will always find something to occupy their idle time and does it really matter if it's different to what we chose?

There is a thread in the Dapol section where one of their employees talks about examining a production sample. That was posted early December so that makes 'first quarter 2024' seem slightly more plausible. Although reading it again it doesn't indicate which scale model he was looking at.

I've just paid the remainder of my order so should get my MK5s through next week. Now all I need is for Dapol to pull their finger out and release the Class 68 TPE I have on pre-order.

Building a lineside hut. I originally intended to build a small platform at Doorway Interchange for engineers to use but after measuring and playing around I decided it just looked too large and incongruous. So instead I thought perhaps a small hut would help break up the grass and add interest. Ratio do a kit of two huts but after thinking about it I decided to have a go at scratch building again. After all a small hut is just a rectangle with a triangle on top - it hardly needed input from Christopher Wren or even Kevin McCloud 😁 Stage one was to work out a reasonable size for the main area. I settled on 25mm long by 15mm wide by 15mm high. This is approximately 4m by 2m by 2m in scale size which seems reasonable (it doesn't include the roof). Stage two was to cut out the sides and ends. I used 3mm card and for the ends made a sandwich to increase the depth to 6mm. This gives me two things: 6mm for gluing instead of 3mm. The ability to indent the door. The door was coloured brown using watercolour pencils (vertical strokes to simulate wood grain) then the outer piece stuck on top. I've even drawn a door handle on the door. I also cut out a window for one of the sides. Stage three was to stick some Redutex brick effect onto the pieces. I had originally thought about making a wooden hut. I had a (crazy?) idea to make 'planks' out of card then glue them together. I might yet do that for another shed in the future but this time around I remembered that I had some Redutex left over from the North Yard cover. Stage four was to cut out a base then glue the walls and ends in place. I used a glue stick as it's less messy, quicker to dry and allows for some adjustment. Stage five was to create support for the roof and end gables. Since it's unlikely anyone will (or even can) look inside the hut I decided that the roof supports could be full length. Rather than use Redutex for the gables (I should probably have made them one piece with the end like the support pieces) I just coloured them to vaguely match the end brickwork. Stage six was the roof. I cut out two rectangles including a notch on each for a chimney. Then I scored them lengthwise and 'hacked them a bit randomly' in a vertical direction to try and create a tile effect. Then I painted them slate colour. The final stage. I cut out a chimney, painted it brick colour with a black top and inserted it through the slot. Then I painted the corners and top of the roof and placed the shed on the layout. I might have to touch up the roof later depending how the paint dries but I think it's pretty good. Things I've learnt from this and might do differently: Include the gables in the end pieces. Attempt to add ridge tiles. Add quoins to the corners. The last two may yet get done to the shed. I'd like to make it clear to any keen followers out there that the only measurements I did were for the overall dimensions shown above. The rest of the construction was 'eyeballed' as is traditional here at Wallarium. 🙂 Oh and if you're wondering about the signals from the previous post: Doorway Interchange is now wired up and working. Wilf's Junction needs the final wires connecting. My next post will hopefully be a working demo of both.

One thing our club layout (Meacham) (DC) has for the fiddle yard is a rotary switch with a separate button. The rotary switch dictates which lane of the yard gets power and you press the switch to set the turnouts to access that lane. A lane will also have power if the turnouts are set correctly for it (power routing). It's a bit complex to understand at first but it allows you to move trains up their lane whilst also allowing incoming/outgoing trains of a different lane. Each lane also has multiple isolation sections. It's great fun to operate and also fun to watch although probably more action out front than would be prototypical :)

It's worth noting that you don't really want the EV light on as much as possible. It's a nice trick to be able to drive short distances on electric but since the battery charge comes from burning fuel in the first place and there are losses involved it's not necessarily the best way to use the battery. Really the electrical system should be thought of as 'playing second fiddle' to the ICE. It's there to help the ICE operate more efficiently rather than as a primary source of motive power. I encourage the car into EV mode (by lifting off then partially reapplying the accelerator) only if I know there is a light load or deceleration situation coming up - eg;a downhill stretch or traffic queue ahead. The rest of the time I let the ECU decide how best to use the electrical system. In summer I typically get high 60s mpg.