87 101

Very enjoyable weekend away with Wemblesden. Met some new people and and caught up with some I have known for a while. The layout performed well and received quite a lot of positive feedback from the public. We did have a few issues with one of the main lines and an electrical short developed on one of the points in the depot on sun afternoon. Our next outing will be Stevenage in Jan so plenty of time for more improvements before then. Big thank you to organisers for the invite and I wish them well for next years show.

Hi everyone first my apoligies for the lack of updates recently since returning to full time work there just is'nt enough hours in the day. Right well since the last blog entry Bletchford is no more. I had issues with the baseboards and to cut a long story short I moved up into the loft and started again. The replacement layout is on 3 levels and will be a long term project work concentrating at the moment on the building of a new show layout. AC lines is also no more as this has also been scrapped. The layouts last outing was Hornby live back in the summer but after not getting any pics of it in the mag I lost intrest with it and it was axed !! My new show layout is Wemblesden and is my take on the WCML in north London. The layout is16'x8' and will eventualy be automated so will make showing it a lot easer. Currently awaiting my membership of MERG to be activated so I can get on and plan the layouts control electronics although im getting a bit worried as I paid the membership fee+joining fee nearly 2 weeks ago but still hav'nt herd anything back. Fingers crossed is due to christmas and not they have done a runner with my money .....

Thanks Mark. The loco needed tweeking slightly to enable it to run on my layouts as all my other AC's have fixed pans. The pan head on the 85 was angled anyway so the pan mods corrected this. The springs have been removed and put in a safe place. The corridoor lights were too bright so I gave them a thin coat of black acrylic paint to tone them down a bit. As I prefer my locos running pan first I swapped the cab interiors over so that the driver was at the right end. He also had a touch of paint to his head as he looked like a ninja in a hoodie! The loco now looks much better when running on the layout. Well done Bachmann for producing a first class AC loco. Hopfully by the time I get round to building Kidsgrove in N gauge the 85 will be in the farish range.

A few pics of the new arrival Being modified

26 looks stunning from that pic. Had an email from Hattons saying my order has been processed so hopefully mine should arrive soon.

Is it as good as all the mags are saying ?

Thanks guys for uploading all the pics I've just spent an enjoyable half an hour going through them. Good to hear that the models are on their way. I now have my fingers crossed that they will be here soon as I would love to run my pre ordered one on my layout at next months show at Shildon. Going right back to the beginning of the thread there was mention of using an 85 to build an 83. The 83's were the shortest of the early locos so its proberly easer to cut and shut a Hornby 86 shell. I realy must finish mine........

For me its about reliving my youth. Born in 68 about 3 weeks before the end of steam by the time I got intrested in railways in the mid 70's almost everything was blue. My spotting days started about 82 when a few of us used to cycle down to an overbridge on the ECML every night after school. If I had to narrow my modelling down to a couple of years it would proberly be 83-84 although I actualy model 80-88 WCML. Looking back the blue livery might have been dull but the memories definatly wern't.

Last nights running session enjoy.

Hi all first my apoilgies for not posting much recently as I have been realy busy with a few projects. As well as working on Manchester Piccadilly I have also been working on a huge 00/N gauge layout located in a very big shed up in weardale! Anyway back to Bletchford this is the name for my new home layout that replaces the Heatherburn garden railway. Bletchford as the name suggests will be a blend of Bletchley and Stafford and im hoping that I can mix the buildings and features to create a convincing WCML station in a similar way to when I built the Potters lane module a couple of years back. I might even push the boat out and start a layout thread ! Other current projects include a couple of lima 87's , my class 83 (now motorised), class 325 royal mail unit (kit of parts available hopfully in the next few months) and the 323 project. The 323 is still in the devlopment stage as I have very limited funds at present but I have done a basic cab end mold and also a mold of a pair of the aborted 323 kit brass bodysides that I aquired a couple of months ago. With the forthcoming class 85 from Bachmann next year hopfully 2012 will see an increese of uk 25kv layouts emerging onto the scene. Merry Christmas everyone.

Aa bit late in responding to this one but im struggeling with similar things. For me I think that doing models for others has made modelling a bit of a chore and my own projects have suffered. Hang in there John it will come back at some point.

The new layout will be 00 gauge and will be the garden railways replacement. After clearing out the existing layouts from the garage I have had a rethink about the plan. I want to eventualy move my workbench into the garage so to give myself more space I have moved the return loop and split the storage sidings so now I have up trains on one side wall and down trains on the other. For some reason I carn't copy and paste the img code ?

Ok here is current masterplan for the new WCML layout... The layout will be built with 3 levels. The top level is the red track and will consist of the station and depot. The blue and green lines are the up and down main lines. With this layout I want to recreate a 4 track section of the WCML. The slow lines feed into hidden storage sidings whilst the fast lines go straight through. As with my previous layouts I want to incorprate different scenic areas of the WCML rather than model one particular place. At the left will be the Linslade tunnels whilst the flyover off my Trent Valley module will be reused for the flying junction. The feeder station relay room will also be relocated here. The right hand side the railway will be on a curved viaduct with the lines to the station on a higher viaduct. With this section I want to recreate the canal scene from the old heatherburn layout ( now sadly demolished ). The main lines will then dissapear into twin tunnels. The yellow line is the bottom level. This is the return loop for out and back working from the station.

Well its offical the Heatherburn is no more. As mentioned elsewhere I am starting a new layout soon but to make way for it something has to go. Had things been different the Heatherburn would have now been finished and giving me the enjoyment of opperating my stock instead of being mothballed and overgrown for the past couple of years. The outside section is still intact and will be for a while yet but inside the garage is a different story. Thankfully I have managed to reclaim the pointwork by pouring boiling water over the points then easing them up gently once the balast had softened. I have taken pics of the distruction but I think that it would be better to remember the Heatherburn for its good bits like the canal area. So after almost 5 years its time to sign off with this project and move on to the new layout.

OK are we all sitting down........ right....... Tanfield show ( sept 10-11) will be the last outing for AC lines so if you havn't seen it this will be the layouts last show appearence as I have big changes in the pipeline !! Currently the situation is this... I have an N gauge layout that is beyond repair. The framing for the baseboards has sagged in the middle and TBH the track isn't that great so this will be scrapped. It will be replaced by a new N gauge exhibition layout in the future. The Heatherburn. This will also be disposed of as I have lost intrest in it ! One of the ply baseboards outside is rotting away + other outside issues so the time has come to call it a day. AC lines. As most will know this started out as a YMR module and as such I have a few headaches with it !! Trent valley is only part complete so not much point in going any further with it. I had considered selling the modules but I wouldn't get back what I put into them so I will be reusing all the track and buildings. This brings me on to my next issue what is the best way of reclaiming track especialy the point work ? Now before everyone starts trying to talk me out of it I have not taken the decission lightly to dispose of the layouts. What I want is a layout that I can actualy opperate at home but could go to a show if required. I have mesured the inside of the garage and relisticly I have 8' x 16' to play with. This time I will plan the layout properly so to incorprate all the features I want given the smaller space. Scenic wise the layout will be a mix of potters, heatherburn and trent valley as I intend to reuse all the structures and features from the existing layouts. A terminus with some through running would be ideal so im looking at split levels so plenty of visual intrest. Now that I have finaly made a decission im going to have a play with anyrail.

Yesterday I was at a crossroads with my railway modelling as the Heatherburn had dissapeared under 3 foot high weeds again and the N gauge empire realy needs scrapping and starting again. After spending yesterday afternoon mulling things over I have come up with a plan that will hopefully give me what im looking for. I had considered ripping out the contents of the garage and building a new indoor layout but the lack of money and the fact that most of the track including some expensive pointwork is embedded in balast has killed that idea. I also considered building a new exhibition layout and then selling AC lines with the idea that the new layout could be used at home in the garage. I have even thought about scrapping just the N gauge layout and building an N gauge exhibition layout of Kidsgrove as the 17 feet of the garage is double the size of the shed that I built my last Kidsgrove layout in. Anyway back to the plan after sitting down and chatting to Rachel last night I have decided to stick with what I have and just deal with the main problem mainly the junk in the garage so today will be a big chuck out session. As the Albert dock branch was lifted a few months back to provide track for Trent valley this area of the garage will now be the main rebuild. The dock area was accessed via an incline from the main layout that ran round the wall of the garage. What im going to do is scrap the old cut down set of drawers that the dock sat on and build a new baseboard lower down. This I will use as storage sidings for the layout although I need to replace a curved point at the junction as the current one is bust. The idea with the storage sidings is so I can run the push pull trains out of the terminus and up to the storage yard thus allowing me to opperate the Heatherburn when the weather outside is bad. I will also be looking at rebuilding Parkway station (Birmingham international) with a revised track plan so that I can run trains out and back from St Davids as this outdoor section is under cover. This will involve installing a set of crossovers at one end so that all three platforms can be accessed by the main line trains. Im also thinking of building a shuttle unit to control the branch trains between the two stations. This can then be switched in or out as required allowing trains to run to Woodham and the rebuilt Cobblers Hall station once the bridge over the pond has been replaced. Well the suns just come out so time to take the garage door off and get started........

Latest pics of Kyle station buildings... For the chimneys I have learnt a new skill of over laying air dry clay onto a foam core and then scribing in the stonework. I will be doing similar on the viaducts on Manchester Piccadilly. I have added a couple of boxes on the outside walls matching the prototype pics For the guttering I ended up carving them from 3mm foamex The only job left is the front edge of the canopy that I want to complete today

The past week I have been working on a model of Kyle station building for a customer. The building mesures 3 feet long and has been built in half relief to fit on a narrow baseboard. The model is being finished in green/cream as the station was in the late 1980's and will form the ideal backdrop for the customers fleet of class 37's. Heres a couple of pics

Just to let everyone know I have updated the westcoast website tonight. This latest update includes a few embedded video's. http://www.westcoastminiatures.com

Taken this weekend at Shildon show. Enjoy.

Hi Mike just had a look at your blog the OHLE looks realy good. Maybe you would like to post a couple of pics up on the 25kv forum ?

Im curently in the process of updating my website and have decided to add a free forum aimed at 25kv electric modellers. Currently the forum is just my own layouts and projects but it would be good if a few others were intrested in being involved. The forum can be found at http://twentyfivekvmodellers.freeforums.org and hopefully the westcoast website will be updated over the next week. The new forum also has a built in chat room facility. Other news I have been offered a set of class 83 bogie sideframes for my latest scratch building project. Currently im working on the master for the locos chassis with the intention of casting this in resin as I eventualy want to add a couple more 83's to the fleet. The chassis is being designed to accomidate the lima class 87 motor and trailing bogie as they are a close match for the 83's wheelbase.

Its been a busy couple of weeks for me with several westcoast projects lined up to do. Last week saw a LMR 15 signal box in NSE red/white dispached to its new home whilst another NSE station building project is currently taking up space on my workbench. I have a show to do at Shildon in a couple of weeks so I have been installing the OHLE on the Trent Valley module Im hopeing to have the rest of the flyover done before the show. Another project that I have just started in the past couple of days is a loco that has been on my wish list for a long time This started out as a Hornby class 86 shell and was seriously butchered to make it into a class 83. For a first attenmp im well pleased with it.