Captain Kernow

It's a perfectly horrible word.

Just to summarise and thanks for the suggestions, this is for a 4 gate, double track level crossing, operated from the adjacent signal box. They will be servo operated, provided I can understand how to set up and wire up the things. I've never been able to understand servos, despite many patient explanations from many learned people. And finally, a polite warning - anyone who tells me, 'it's easy', will be struck off my Christmas card list!!

I'd be grateful if anyone could point me in the right direction for some metal or plastic cranks, to which I could attach linkages to operate a 4mm level crossing, all installed under the baseboard, please? Many thanks.

This is lovely. There is little to me that is more evocative of the slight mystery and unknown potential of a little used railway byway than a single, semaphore distant signal...

I didn't bother with Engine Wood, the facilities would have been less at such a small place anyway, as compared with Radstock or Midsomer Norton.

The Supreme Pannier is still considering this very question, but reliable sources inform that the decision is minded to be on the favourable side... (provided they stay in their own First Class Lounge).

Interesting to see how people's interpretations of 'micro layout' differ! This layout looks bigger that my (supposedly) 'full size' layouts! Either way, looking forward to seeing how it develops. Maximum respect on the tandem turnout, by the way, a curved right-hand one is in my future to do list!

Clearly the local Lord of the Manor has decided to invest in an Estate Railway...

In fact, Pen & Sword do other titles on the railways of South Wales and in particular the Welsh valleys, most penned by the late John Hodge. If you're into the railways of that area, then they're all worth collecting. The latest one, due for release in April I think, is the Vale of Neath, possibly the last book done by John Hodge before he sadly died recently.

Loads of inspiration, right outside in my back garden!

Actually, you need Volume 1, sorry about that.

The whole B & M system was really interesting, I think. You probably need the middle volume...

But how do they do it?! How does it know which colour to use?! Your colour version looks like it was taken on Kodachrome!

Worth getting, especially the volume that covers Aberbargoed.

Love this prototype, looking forward to the layout build. I take it you've seen the Pen & Sword series on the B & M by John Hodge?

Fantastic! How did you do that??

I well remember the basement empire and the oddly shaped baseboard that I ended up with, but I don't recall any surgery to your person, involuntary or otherwise...

Indeed, this is a good ruse, one I first employed with a High Level 74XX chassis kit. I then did the same when assembling the NuCast Partners 16XX chassis kit:

I normally check the motor and gearbox (High Level gearbox, using their template pdf, printed on acetate) off against a scale drawing, to establish which motor and gearbox combination I can get away with.

If anyone would like a very good condition box and packaging for the Hornby Peckett 'Dodo', please PM me and you can have it for the cost of the postage. Thanks.

The 22XX class were not originally seen very often at Capel Bethesda, but in later years one occasionally turned up on the local goods working:

I remember 'back in the day', when @Not Jeremy and I were students, he once visited me for a week during a university holiday. I got him a room in my student accommodation block and arranged two large desks next to each other in my own room. As I recall, we were pretty productive during that time. I was building kits for the Model Shop in Guildford, so there was a kind of time-related discipline to that. Since then, I have been involved in a few group activities, mostly involving our S4 area group. We built a very large test circuit about 12 years ago (4 P4 circuits and one OO circuit, both with running loops as well), but most of the work was done by a small number of individuals at one person's house. Now that test track is life expired (combination of poor choice of materials - MDF - and being stored in unheated sheds close to the sea), so now a small group of us is working on it's replacement (using strengthened Tim Horn boards, with 4 P4 circuits and 2 OO circuits). I am leading the track laying 'team' (me and who ever is sufficiently experienced and wishes to help!), but even so, most of the work I have done so far is building the point work on the bench at home. When it comes to my own layouts, I generally like to do most of the work myself, if not all, although I do ask for help when it comes to electrics, specifically servos...

It's a funny thing, though, because being in the same room as other like-minded people can, for some (and that includes me) constitute a temptation to indulge in chatting, socialising, tea drinking and generally putting the world to rights. At our club nights (the Devon Riviera Group of the S4 Society), every 2 weeks, there is always the opportunity to set up a table and indulge in some modelling, but I find that I get very little done, as folk are always asking what I'm doing, or I'm wandering around, talking to others or admiring what others are running on our P4/)) test circuit. In contrast, once I am ensconced in my room at home, I find that I am much more productive!

Nice to see some BR corporate blue!