Jump to content
 

87 101

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    170

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Blog Entries posted by 87 101

  1. 87 101

    Showtime !

    By 87 101,

    Currently I have Potters lane stuck in the middle of our living room whilst I try and get it ready for its next outing in two weeks. The layout has been invited to the NRM Locomotion museum at Shildon for an event being organised by the Shildon MRC. This outing will be another milestone in the devlopment of this YMR module layout as it will be used for the first time with the two new fiddle yards that im also constructing for the YMR show in september. The fiddle yards take the form of three road transversers that are 6'6" long and each road can accomidate a loco + 5 coaches or my 6 car APT. With the fiddle yards attached the layouts overall length increeses from 6' to 19'! At Shildon the layout will play host to a few visiting locos belonging to modellers from other forums that im part of. So if you are from the north east of england why not pop down to Shildon on the 5-6 June and say hi. Just look for the WCML gantry spanning the layout. B)
  2. 87 101

    5 Days to go !

    By 87 101,

    Most of you will be aware now that next weekend will be the first YMR show. As Potters lane will be one of the YMR modules lining up in front of the modelling press I thought that it would be a good opitunity to show off some of my westcoast miniatures so this week I have been building not one but four to take to Cornwall with me. Following on from my last commision I have built another N gauge station building and this is complemented with a matching N gauge signal box. Following a suggestion from another RM web member I have also had a go at building a typical WCML relay room as found at the feeder stations. Mine is based on the one at Rugby and thanks to google earth I have managed at last to get a few pics of it! So here's the line up of buildings..
     

     

     
    Here's the 00 gauge relay room outside on my garden railway..
     
     

     

     
    I still have a lot of stuff to do before the show like pat testing all the extension leads but now that I have the buildings done I can slow down a bit. I might even finish Potters Lane!!
  3. 87 101

    Its been a while !

    By 87 101,

    Its been a few weeks since I updated my blog so I thought I had better post somthing !
    The YMR show went very well. The modular layout was great fun to operate and we were realy sad when it was time to pack it all up on the sunday. Here's a video that I shot of a couple of test trains on the saturday morning..
     

     
    We ran a good selection of trains over the weekend including the odd steam special. Highlight of the show for me was meeting model rail editor Ben Jones on the saturday who realy liked the module layout concept and also commented on Potters lane. On the sunday we ran the two YMR traveling wagons down the layout. One of the wagons had traveled the uk whilst the other traveled the world the idea being that all the members could be involved in the show. The special was photographed by Ben as seen here..
     

     
     
    Last weekend Potters lane was out on its own again this time at the local show at Shildon. For the show the colour light signaling was modified so that it was controlled by the passing trains. There is a slim chance that Potters will be out again at the end of the month so watch this space for details.
  5. 87 101

    The 312 comes to life

    By 87 101,

    Ok I have managed to fit the glazing to the cab windows and finish a driving trailer. I still have things like handrails, wipers, etc to fit but at least I have somthing to take to Gateshead with me at the weekend. Must say though im quite pleased with the way the resin cabs have turned out.
     

     

     

     

     

     

     
    Yes I know the interior is wrong but it looks better than an empty shell !!
  6. 87 101

    Another update

    By 87 101,

    The Westcoast website has just been updated again with a few pics of my latest building Portishead. With this update I have put all the text into text boxes so hopfully that should cure all the problems with the pages. The other update is that my exhibition layout Potters lane is to be rebuilt before its next show in March. Potters will form part of a bigger layout that will be known as AC Lines. AC lines will be a series of modules that will feature different scenes of the 25kv network. The first new scene will be a 6' section of line with a relay room. This will be built as part of an artical I will be writing for a mag. Other scenes planned will be Hest bank crossing and Tebay viaduct. A fellow modeller is planning a section of the LTS that will also link up with the AC lines project. Going to need a big hall though !!
  7. 87 101

    Westcoast website

    By 87 101,

    Website updated again. New section added for kids toys and control panel page redone.
     
    www.westcoastminiatures.com
     
    I would like to wish everyone a merry christmas and a happy new year.
  8. 87 101

    Another website update

    By 87 101,

    Just to let everyone know I have updated the westcoast website again at the weekend. I have added a couple of workbench pages as well as a couple of more pics of Portisheads canopy.
     
    www,westcoastminiatures.com
     

  9. 87 101

    New NE Forum

    By 87 101,

    After a few technical problems I have now set up a model railway forum aimed at modellers in the north east of englend. The forum can be found at http://nerm.freeforums.org and all NE members are welcome.
  10. 87 101

    More projects !

    By 87 101,

    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.
  11. 87 101

    Website Updated

    By 87 101,

    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
  12. 87 101
    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........
  13. 87 101

    End of an era

    By 87 101,

    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.
  14. 87 101

    Bletchford Trent Valley

    By 87 101,

    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.
×
×
  • Create New...