TEAMYAKIMA

Apologies for not replying sooner. I regret that I'm quite basic .. I line up the rails and just glue the track down in place ... if I need to make any slight adjustments I just use super glue to glue the rails in the exact position on the sleeper base leaving one end free to allow for expansion. I hope that's clear ... I know what I mean but not sure if that explanation makes sense.

Hello again By co-incidence I had already googled them and Andy's P87 site came up , but thanks for the recommendation - I'll follow it up. Paul

I've looked at some of my photos and you're right! I hadn't given it much thought actually ......... I never thought of USA HO ..... I just wanted to try some dummy fishplates to see what effect they had and I asked a friend to pick some 4mm ones at the Alexander Palace show. The track I'm laying at the moment is industrial so I'll use that as an excuse and it's at the back of the layout .... and try to source the DW ones for the mainline ( foreground ) The only issue is sourcing DW fishplates her in the UK .... buying small items from the USA usually incurs a high (minimum charge) P&P

Have been back 'on track' today ..... trying to improve the look of PECO code 83 track/points by fitting cut down C&L 4mm cosmetic fishplates .... was it worth the effort ? Personally, I think 'yes'..... BTW the concrete sleepers are deliberately random and generally wider spaced than the wooden ones

One problem is the extreme size of this particular piece of rolling stock - all 32 axles of it! This item will define how we manage to 'hide' the entry from the fiddle yard.

Work on trackwork had been 'on hold' for nearly 5 months due to my stupidity ... damaging some track ends at the baseboard edge whilst making/fitting end plates designed to protect the track ends at the baseboard edge! Being somewhat bored with weathering freight cars, I decided to face up to my demons and get back to trackwork today ...... haven't actually laid any track today working on some baseboard issues and repairing the damaged track ends. I have not laid any China Rail tracks yet, but these posed photos show a BJ Bo-Bo diesel hauling some coal hoppers on the industrial coal/steelworks system. The train is on the through track with sidings on either side. The concrete sleepered track at the left will be the passenger platform track.

Having posted for a while .... been weathering more silver tank cars ( 30 so far ) but had the problem of a yellow one ( only one thank goodness ) ...... Out of the box ........... One end ........... The other ............ The prototypes .............

Here are a couple of flat cars with containers.. firstly a NX70 Then a NX17K

Oops ... forgot the 6 grain hoppers and 18 box cars !!

A day off work and a day's modelling ... Quite a success the work room tidied, some odd jobs and most significantly six tank cars weathered That makes the total stock weathered and ready to run once the layout is finished as follows ... 84 C64/70 coal gondolas 23 coal hoppers 13 steel gondolas 30 container flats 32 Oil tankers 3 Cabooses Just another 45 odd cars to go!

Here are some before and after weathering shots of a C70 coal gondola .. Before.... After........... And here is the inspiration ....

Went to Twickenham MRC tonight - well alright last night! I took some Chinese stock just to see how the locos cope with my projected train lengths. Took a couple to new locos inc this Bachmann freight variant DF4HD .. This photo shows part of the train I was running .... it shows 29 cars ( my short train length) although by the end of the night the loco was hauling 42 cars with no trouble. The Club's test track is approx. 5ft radius - more generous than my average 30 inch end curves (hidden) but it shows promise that the train lengths are feasible.

Hello Andy Just found this thread/blog .............. Kensington Olympia is a great subject for a model. I am a (very minor) part of Twickenham & District MRC's team building this in 7mm. We have modelled it as Addison Road station set in the 1920's. Due to the size of the project we are only building half of the station - the Northern end with the bays serving Clapham Junction. We have run a blog on MRF showing progress ever since we started - 2009 from memory. We chose this station as it allows us to prototypically run GWR, LNWR, SR and virtually anything. Just for comparison, here is the interior of our box - much easier in 7mm! Amazed at what you have achieved in N! Here is the box in situ Good luck with the project! Maybe we might one day go to an exhibition together - so people can see the same station 50/60 years apart. Please feel free to visit us any time you're in London on a Friday night and please look at our blog on MRF or visit our website www.tdmrc.org.uk and you can access our blog via the Addison Road layout page.

That would be Mark Enderby's layout ... yes am aware of Mark's layout through a specialist China Rail forum. How did the public react to Chinese layout?

I'd better get on and finish mine ASAP then!

Hello Paul I'm not sure if you mean am I using point motors? Or do you mean am I using route selection? All points for primary routes have PECO point motors - mostly clipped under the points, but there are a couple of points which are directly above the central spine which have modified PECO surface mounted motors. There are 65 primary routes in/out of the FY which will be route selected via the DCC system ... There are four scenic tracks and so there are four 'separate' fiddle yards. Three FYs of five tracks = 15 plus the completely separate industrial system which has its own three track FY = 18 tracks in total. You can see the 3 track industrial system FY at the bottom of the photo. It's slightly more complicated than that as the 3 track industrial system FY can store 5 or 6 short trains rather than 3 long trains ... it will make sense when I post more photos but that may take a week or so.

Just to show that show tracklaying has taken place and that I'm just not delusional, here is a photo taken in January .. It shows the scenic section, in particular the approach to the industrial storage sidings and the industrial passenger station This is the l/h end of the trackplan viewed from the operators side. The double track mainline and the single track regional line are just 3 inch spurs at the moment to take the track off the FY boards... Here is another photo taken a few days later. This shows the concrete sleepered industrial mainline with the two wooden sleepered loops either side.It also shows the concrete sleepered passenger platform road (with a coach on it).... Here is a photo of one of the FY approach boards .....

Richard (Ben ?) - you are the original Chinese modeller as far as I know - saw your layout somewhere like Milton Keynes from memory. I don't really classify myself as a modeller - The most I do is weather RTR stock - you built a QJ out of a Fleischmann class 50 - that's modelling! One of the reasons I want to build this project ( as quickly as possible) is that I want to do something different and I want to get it to exhibition before every show has a Chinese HO layout. The five exhibition layouts I've built in the past have been firstly in OO and then OO9 .... by then (late 1970s) I got bored with seeing the same concepts at every show ( GWR branch etc) so my next layout was in American standard gauge O, then in the mid 1980s in was in ON30 (long before Bachmann did On30), then it was ON3 with sound (long before sound was generally available). Each layout was novel for its time and now every show you go to has an American On30 layout - many with sound! So Chinese HO may be the final frontier .....I only hope I can get it on the exhibition circuit before it's a case of "Oh no! Not another Chinese HO layout!"

Military weathering powder - Russian Earth to be precise - then dullcote to fix it - several coatings to get the right effect 2-3 hours per car - 48 tank cars to weather!

Here is the inspiration for the C64, taken from the dining car over lunch .... And the tank car ...

Here are two freight cars I've worked on ... a wood load for the C64k and weathering ... just weathering on the tank car

Unfortunately back garden too small and too uneven. Have had three boards (maybe four) up at one go. The church hall is a better bet. Haven't a clue yet ... concentrating on building the thing first. This is a hugely ambitious project for one person still working a 40 hour week.

Yes, I am

Just a quick update to say that Twickenham & District MRC has a new website. It can still be found at www.tdmrc.org.uk but it's now completely revamped in a new format which will make it far easier to keep up-to-date. At this stage it seems appropriate to say a big "thank you" to ex-member Chris Chinery who laboured hard and long to set up and maintain our old site. Living in SW London (and beyond) ... why not come and see us?