Markmiller2008

Hi Jim, I was at Derby yesterday and spotted this, was it you? Mark

Hi Jim, Nice to see you back on Chiltern Turf! Shame i wasn't in work otherwise i would have seen it pass the Office at Banbury. Mark

I Had an issue with what i was posted also. A couple of weeks ago i order a pack of their 39-001X NSE Translator MK1s via the website, got them two days later to find they had sent me 39-001Y Royal Mail MK1s. Very apologetic and i got a swap once id sent them back but clearly not the point. Mark

Just a quick update. Not alot has happened with the layout lately. The river/waterway has been added, i cheated a little bit with this as i used a pair of Skaledale Canal sections. The layout will come down shortly for completion of the garage works and then Saltisford Lane will take its place for some prep work ready for an exhibition in November. Heath end will then just have each board worked on seperately. Mark

The Platform will be an island platform, stock around the fiddle yards will be moved by hand. Not Entirely sure i will have to check. Mark

Looking Good Colin. Youve made good use of those baseboards then! Mark

Not the best picture but I've finished off the station bridge area with the rest of the vari girder and parapets added. Ive also put some 20thou plasticard onto the side of the steps down to the yet to be built platforms which will eventually be painted in an appropriate colour. Not alot of progress on the layout this week. I expected to do more but in the end only got round to fitting a couple of foots worth of cable trunking and the station overbridge..

Well Heath End isn't progressing that far visually at the moment. I've not had that much time to get down to the garage in the last couple of weeks with the way those weeks are in my work roster. Never the less i had some time on friday and today to progress a little further with the fiddle yards. The right hand fiddle yard now has track. Once the track had been laid i needed to pop new power feeds onto the track and then had an impromptu running session. The 2EPB stands in the yet to be built station and 33033 stands in the goods loop with two breakdown coaches. The 2EPB approaches Heath End past the Mills and Co Engineering buildings. 33033 runs over the river bridge. That's all for now. Mark

HI Kev, Looking good. I Might get myself one of those Faller Bridges for the steps for Heath End. Having seen your use, its very similar to what i need and my Dapol kit bash looks awful compared to this! Mark

Unfortunately Tuesdays extreme band of rain that occurred in this area left me with a partly flooded garage. Thankfully the mats i have down in the garage meant the water was underneath them and not causing any damage. So unfortunately my two days planned work on Heath End was curtailed to just today. Progress on the overbridge, with a Bachmann BTP office purchased from the second hand section at my local model shop and what I presume is a Dapol footbridge being bashed for the station stairs. The left hand fiddle yard has had track laid, concrete instead of wood as that's all my local shop had. Thankfully it's not going to be seen.

Looking Good, i like the platform fencing its very much different to the norm seen. Mark

The NR LNW messages i was getting stated it was a parking brake fault with the DBSO. Nice to see the 56 used to rescue it! Mark

Well on and off I've done a few bits on Heath end this week when not at work. First job was to progress the bridge area, which is the first bit of scenery id like to get done First job was to finish the other bridge sides and parapet, this also involved making a plasticard fillet to fill in the oversized cut out. Mocked up bridge ready for paint. The parapets and sides then received a white wash and some grey. And hey presto some brown also put on the river bed, although this will need more work. The left hand fiddle yard has also received the same make over that the right hand got and is now also 5 inches longer. I then decided today that some slight elevation was needed to break up the flatness. With a small stone retaining wall starting to be added. Once a layer of polyfilla has been added to seal the polystyrene the area will become a hard standing with the portakabin (Maybe Heath End Dial a Cab office and grotty car lot) Thats all for now folks.

Brilliant work on these units! Mark

Looking Good Kev. My sort of layout this! Mark

Cheers, i must be physic to know your ideas! Its totally new to me, Southern is a whole new kettle of fish so it will be interesting to see how it comes out. More progress , probably the last until next week now. The Ticket office on the bridge has been changed again to make it look better and Wills VariGirder and a Parapet have appeared. The River Bridge has been mocked up, need to do the river before i can do anything else on the bridge.

Another Productive afternoon on the layout. I emptied the contents of my box that i filled with items left over from the Loxley Road layout that never came about earlier and found a lot of use for Heath end. A Ten Commandments factory was placed on the layout, this will need a repaint before its used along with a portakabin for the front section. Amazing what ten minutes with a piece of ply and wood can create! 73129 sits on the goods loop whilst the MLV and BG are in the station platform area. Now for some advice, which looks better? Station Building on the left, random office building on the right. Or Station Building left and area to be made into a urban square.

Cheers mate, yeah I got the link thanks. It's coming along, I should have some progress on the layout soon.

Thanks Kev, i'll try that method out. Mark

After Visiting the Telford show on Saturday i came back with a lot of items to start processing Heath End a bit further. I Picked up a DCC Fitted Blue 2EPB for £74.50 from Holders Collectables at the show and this has been dismantled ready for some NSE magic to be put onto it! 73105 has had its nameplates fitted, numbers to follow as i totally forgot to get some. It will then receive a Craftsman Detailing Kit and Laserglaze, Before it then gets new IC Stripes to replace the N Gauge sized ones Hornby Printed on the loco. And Finally i decided to totally replace the right hand fiddle yard ply top with a new piece, which will be painted and then receive the boards to hide it from Joe Public when at Exhibitions.

Looking good Kev, What colour/paint did you use for the retaining walls? Looks a good shade for my new layouts retaining walls. Mark

Well i got out to the garage today and put the new piece of track in place. I put a couple of screws at the join end and soldered the track ends to these to prevent the movement, Tested with my Hornby class 73 and all seems good. Had to repair a point motor as the wires had come off two of the connections. No other progress so far as i want to try and get the layout running correctly before going any further. Mark

Its proved quite productive with the layout. I had an issue with a point motor that would only throw in one direction so this was swapped for one i had salvaged from Lochnagar with minimal fuss. Started to paint the back scene and the front of the layout in Lupin and Lapis Blue respectively. Unfortunately the track replacement is being held up by the lack of Sleeper Grime paint which my local model shop seems to be out of. I'm thinking about sorting the bridge area out next although it seems quite low for a road so that may take some thought to work out whats going there. Mark

Hi all. A new thread to showcase my new Southern Layout, its a big step for me going from Scottish to Southern but i fancied a change. Details Below. Layout Name: Heath End Scale/Gauge: 4mm 00 Size: 12ft Long by 1ft Wide Exhibition layout, or stay-at-home? Exhibition layout eventually Type end-to end? continuous run? End to End with fiddle yards at each end. Era/region/location: Late 80's Kent/London Just before christmas i was given the opportunity to buy some boards from Richard Slate of Orchard Road Fame which were a project for a customer who had pulled out of the deal. As you can see from the below pictures its pretty much a blank canvas, i have started some remedial works needed but i intend to document each step on here. Thanks Mark