RobAllen

Fortunately, calendar correct, just fat fingers on here!

441 photos taken yesterday. May take a while to sort out… Going to see my parents for lunch instead.

It's ironic really. My company's bank charges so much to pay cash that I would never ever accept it and would take card in preference as the fees are cheaper for me (though bank transfer is best). I think that the banking industry is just out to make extra money out of us from fees regardless. More importantly, I have put the 29th April into the family calendar with a *DO NOT DOUBLE BOOK* comment as I know my family…

There's a prototypical example from the Bridgwater branch that I learned about recently in A Pictorial Atlas of the Somerset & Dorset Joint Railway by Harman & Parkhouse (page 396). Due to the way the connection faced at Board's Siding at Cossington, the siding was served from Edington with the train shunting empties for loading by pushing them. After shunting, the fulls were then pulled back to Edington. They would then be taken on the next Up goods back up the branch, past the siding they came from for delivery to the private siding for Board's cement works at Bridgwater. I will have a Holcombe working like this.

There’s just something about that price bracket and market segment isn’t there? I’ll get an EV when my current car is life expired. As long as it has a 3+ hour range, I’ll be fine as I no longer want to spend more that that long in a car without a break.

I’m an amateur photographer. Going to Birmingham today to photograph the Christmas Market with a friend. Expecting a good day nerding out with my friend on our common hobby.

I can identify. I’m self-employed & looking for a new project at the moment. Hoping that the market will pick up in mid-Jan. Good luck. Hopefully something suitable will come your way soon.

I've been working from the starting point suggested by @Chimer in that there are fields on the far side of the baseboard with the town on my side. I also took @Harlequin idea to put three tracks in parallel as the along the main board: platform, run-around and goods. I've struggled with putting sidings into the top left due to logistics of people moving around it. Logically, the goods yard would have one entrance for the weigh bridge, so all the goods yard paraphernalia ends up clustered as it makes more sense. At least, I couldn't work out how to do a long thin yard with sidings to the left and right :) As a result, I've come up with this: This is just my first thoughts and the most obvious problem is that there's nowhere for coal, which might mean that the goods shed is in the wrong place? In terms of land height, I decided that the land would be higher towards my side of the baseboard as the station forecourt needs to be platform height as steps up outside the station from door is a little bit of a pain for luggage. Similarly, the carriage loading and cattle dock could also do with the land being higher, but the goods shed entrance needs to be a rail height so that that the waggon floor is roughly the height of the platform in the shed which is roughly the height of the bottom of a waggon. Hence we need to fall away from my side to the top, if you see what I mean. The top left gets a private siding - brewery here, but could be anything. In theory, it could be engine shed. I'll think about that. I picked a level crossing for the road to the brewery, but maybe a bridge works better as it becomes a scenic break and possibly there's a cutting behind it into the fiddle yard? Regardless, I think that planning road access has helped with my thinking, but this plan needs more work and of course, thoughts on what's good and what can be improved is very much appreciated.

For what it's worth, I have account with Vimeo, but do not pay for it. I can view However, https://vimeo.com/329435355 is a dead link.

I feel like it's at least 5 years too early in TT:120's life for that! This had never crossed my mind. Going to have a play…

Another thing that I'm thinking about is the backscene. As Holcombe is a town, the scene immediately behind the station really needs to be country town. That's going to be hard though as I'm not an artist! One idea is to have a set of very low relief buildings along the back - possibly with a wall that marks railway property. An issue with this is that if if the station building is right at the back, then what goes behind it? Maybe I need the station building further away from the backscene, but there's not much width as it is. Other options are to move the station building away from the back. e.g. Wells has the station building on "this side" (but no run-around loop) or maybe put the the station building at the end of the platform as per Bridgwater but that station also has no runaround and two platforms. Any thoughts and ideas would be appreciated. I was doing okay until I started thinking holistically. It's hard!

Hoping to receive some point motors today. Ordered my first British Finescale point today which will hopefully arrive next week. I seem to be doing things out of order!

British Finescale point ordered to play with. Is there a preferred bull head flexitrack that matches with it?

Sorry, you've lost me here.

Making mince pies before heading out to see Flying Scotsman. Got to finish my tea first though.

Had a great time at the club last night running my locos. I took my new-to-me Jinty and 4F along with a selection of my dad's old locos. With my dad's ones, I'm mainly trying to get a feel for which ones need the most attention as they are all from the '80s. All three locos in this video work well and I'm happy with my two new purchased. In particular, the DCC Jinty runs incredibly well. Definitely sold on this whole DCC thing and am happy with my decision to go DCC on my new Holcombe layout! Just need to choose a controller system to buy for it…

Now this is a good idea for every exhibition layout. From what I've read and seen, a number of operators at any given exhibition are relatively "unpracticed" with the layout that they then operating. I'm going to crib this idea for if I ever create an exhibition layout!

Which minute though?

New-to-me Jinty has arrived. It's DCC, so is intended for Holcombe, but I couldn't resist posing it on Melcombe Road. As I don't have DCC yet, I also took it up to the club last night where it ran really well.

I had an excellent Saturday in Manchester. Saw my friend's new child for the first time and then visited the show. All the layouts were fascinating. I liked Kirtley Bridge, Copper Wort and Bury, Thorn & Sons. Thanks again to the exhibitors, particularly @MarkD and possibly @Manchester765 (or whoever was operating Bury, Thorn & Sons at the time!) that were kind enough to chat to me and answer my coupling and DCC questions! I also spent quite a bit of time with Beijao and looked out for the banking operation having read about it after Warley. A very special thanks to @TEAMYAKIMA who was kind enough to spend some time with me during what must be a very busy day. He showed me around the layout and I gained an appreciation of how much effort goes into making a large exhibition layout like this and how much thought has gone into ensuring that it is compelling to the audience. This is such a good layout to pay attention to as there are so many scenes and cameos on it, plus there's lots of train movements too. Photos on Flickr - or click through on the image.

Today has got much better now that I've realised that my contact lens was inside out and I have corrected it! 🤣

The 9F just oozes power and competence. If I ever had the space to model the SDJR main line, I'd consider setting it in BR days just so I could run 9Fs on long goods trains and on the Pines Express.

I've had a quick look through my books here and can't see anything about that siding.

Good morning all. I have photos from yesterday in Manchester to sort through and I'm considering priming the Grainge & Hodder baseboards today.

Reminds me of the old adage that youth is wasted on the young. I have so many things I want to be doing, but work gets in the way!