rob D2

looks good ! i guess that is just like the one at burngullow ...

It's a very nice layout mate, nice blue diesels too. Don't feel bad about the situation before - the volume of stuff here is massive, I rarely have time to look beyond page 2 of layouts. Indeed mine sunk without trace quickly - not helped by the fact I can go weeks without doing much ! Keep it up

I'm not familiar with the prototype, but that's lovely modelling .

What was the purpose of the line folks ?

Looking good as ever !

What an expensive nightmare for FL, I bet DBS are feeling good about their super tugs at present...

Fair play mark. 66111 would be good as one of the few to have any extra personality. I haven't checked the loco pools recently but with DBS only doing the tanks I guess the RETB pool is even smaller now. I've got to say altering a bachy 66s number is not easy either - with the body corrugation the number eventually comes off with t cut, but so does some of the gold, needing a partial repaint. I made 2 trips to FW in 97/98 . Once on the sleeper hauled by 37409 "loch awe". The variety of 37s on the line then has tempted me to do a WHL plank for ages...

Mark, your modelling is top quality, well done. One comment re ews 66s - you know there was only ever a small batch fitted with RETB to run over these lines ? I think the numbers were in the region 66110-66118 ish. Would you be renumbering or are you happy as it stands ?

Good photo for the conditions southern man, I was out cycling in the swindon area and it was as misty as hell..

I doubt it mate, they seem to be clustered on the heaviest workings from Margam, Immingham, peak forest (?) and as photo above from warrington on the coal circuit.

excellent product , gap filling most certainly. I'd be surprised if these didn't win an award this year.... I guess i would need round post for GWR circa 1982 ?So would have to wait for those. If these are 16 V AC can you just hook up a switch from the DCC output of my prodigy or am I over simplifying the case ?

This is definately one of the best N gauge models I've ever seen... Out of interest, what's the chimney for by the station building ?

Oh dear, gaugemaster out of stock, MG sharp don't do them.... anyone know of somewhere else in UK I can get one...?

Ah thanks, red devil, that was about to be my next question ! I should get 30" x 4" out of it then !! Looks bigger than it's dimensions..

Thank you one and all, very interesting. I like the large industrial building, under construction by the red devil - thats the sort of thing I'm after - OO gauge, sorry forgot to mention. The kingsmill website also looks worth a look. Thanks again

Hi, I wonder if anyone has successfully found anykits that could be used and bashed to represent a UK city centre. On my plank I am thinking of making it look like the approaches to a large city, such as the paddington approaches in the 80s, I am struggling to find anything usable, but understand some have bashed kibri/faller/walther designs to look uk-esque. Any help appreciated, as I don't think my architectural skills are up to scratch building such things.

Don't hold your breath......My feeling is they have to wait until a batch is produced in china to get any spare chassis bits. I have had the self destruction on 2 x31s, an original blue one and the Dutch one last year. The Dutch one I sent in feb 2011, after chasing up, it returned in october 2011. They are good at fixing things.........but the time involved is a bit silly. My feeling is also that the 31, although an excellent model, makes the issue worse by the design.Specifically where the main chassis block is joined to the 'end bits' , is very thin indeed.

Ah thanks Jo.I didn't think there was anything left in Swindon other than the scrap trains, I shall look out for that as i live in Swindon now .

Does it really come from Swindon ? I didn't think the steel trains ran any more to south marston.

Where does 6B50 originate from ? That must have been freight rush hour for swindon....

Ah, I only know about that from the one picture in 'freight only' showing a class 46 and polybulks at Banbury, was there more than one train then ?

That pulybolk - surely that was in connection with the open day at aylesbury ? It's in shot next to the special DMU to quainton. Otherwise that's a really rare usage. The only other thing I can think of is spot grain traffic, there were ploybulks at banbury in 1983 connected with such traffic

I think Aylesbury would make an interesting 80s model, but how would you get round the lack of class 115s either as RTR or kit built ? Also you would need a fair bit of space as these were normally 4 car sets I think. I remember in about 1980 my dad taking me for the day from wycombe to Banbury. It was a lovely clear crisp autumn day and as we got to wycombe station to get on our all blue DMU, there was a 31 parked on the through tracks with a load of 16t wagons, shut down going nowhere.It was quite a change from my normal diet of class 50s and HSTs. Out of interest my 1;25000 OS map of the wycombe area from 1979, shows a single track branching off the mainline just to the west of frogmoor, up towards the insustry that used to be at the start of the hughenden valley (near the big arched bridge) does anyone know what that was for ? Was it furniture related ? Whilst I'm reminiscing, I also remember a school trip to the wycombe chair museum circa 82, at the top of the retaining wall west of the station.I also recall being much more interested in the racket a 47 was making with it's train of 100t tankers towards Thame - massive flange squeal as it left the through tracks.Great days !

Nice picture on railwayherald of Aylesbury station in 1982 from an unusual angle: http://www.railwayherald.com/imagelink/218195

Very nice model, of what was my local station for a few years... Will it be all modern stock or will you be running BR blue as well ?