Mark Forrest

Looks like you're nearly ready, unlike Fryers Lane...

I've never ridden with a mirror so possibly not qualified to comment; admittedly a mirror would be cheaper! Fair review of the Varia here: https://youtu.be/bhRVOV09yM4

Yes, in my case a Garmin 530 mounted on the handlebar (although I gather the Varia will work with other brands devices or with a phone). The device beeps when a car is detected then shows its approach as a dot (dots if several cars) on the side of the screen - not cheap but very useful. The top of the range version also has a camera but I went for the mid-range one with just light and radar.

I can't remember if it was prompted by a post on here or elsewhere but I've recently got a Garmin Varia light and radar. Fantastic bit of kit, really pleased with it. Out on a road ride yesterday we found ourselves on roads that were a bit busier than we'd ideally ride and having a display on my head unit that showed cars approaching made it a lot more tolerable (and safer). The seat post mount that comes with it was a bit rubbish, so instead it's on a neat little saddle rail mount from 76 Projects.

I've then added cork in place of the foam underlay and a couple of ply and rivet sleepers. One side glued in place ready for the rails to be soldered to the rivets. Both sides done, sleepers crudely coloured with a permanent marker; paint and cosmetic chairs to follow.

As I'm not really intending to take Fryers to many shows, I thought I might get away with just relying on the plastic sleepers to align the track across the board joint - I should have known better! After only a couple of weeks there were already signs of misalignment. Not good enough and worth putting right before going any further so, time start digging up the track bed again.

Nice ride on Long Mynd today, riding with (or should that be attempting to keep up with) Mrs F and two friends who were all on e-bikes while I was in my hardtail. The weather was perfect and we got all the way down Minton Batch without any walkers getting in the way. The final climb of the day up Cwmdale to the bridleway through the golf course even defeated the e-bikers, so I didn't feel too guilty pushing up some of that. Clocked up about 4400' of elevation gain in a 27 mile ride.

I'm running 1x13 Campy Ekar on my Escapade, 38 tooth chainring and the 9-42 cassette. Previous gravel bike (Planet X Tempest) had 1x11 SRAM Force also a 38 but with a 11-42. Found that I was spinning out a bit on road sections with the SRAM, but no such problems with the Campy. Gone for more of an "all road" build with the Escapade whereas the Tempest that came before if was a bit more off-road focused (because I'd rather take the hardtail (32t with a 11-50) for "gravel" rides that are significantly off-road).

Did my first ever audax today. Only a short one at 50km, but a good way to get a taste of what the organiser described as a "bike ride with some admin". Starting out from North Allerton through Hutton Rudby to Yarm, then back through Appleton Wiske. The control was at the excellent cafe at the prison at Kirklevington Grange. A good day out (weather could have been better); currently browsing the Audax UK calendar looking for our next one.

I'm taking the opportunity to swap the last two of the original Seep electro magnets for (what appear to be) slightly more powerful DG ones. I'm also attempting to tidy up the jumble of wires. Two short lengths of rail mounted in choc blocks will provide a busbar for the rail droppers. 3 of the 4 magnets were fitted tonight; I'd forgotten to drill the hole for the other one, but all the wiring is there ready for it. I need to find some dowel to plug the holes where the magnets were fitted previously.

After a quiet couple of weeks it feels I've made a bit more progress with the layout over the weekend. With track laying complete I've separated the new board from the original board and begun filling in some of the areas between the track. A building has popped up too. Meanwhile, on the other board, I've started wiring up the new track and positioning the uncoupling magnets.

Nice varied winter loop in the Peak District today, starting out from Parsley Hay, over to Bakewell then up to Calver before looping back to Parsley Hay via the northern section of the High Peak trail. Weather started out nice enough, but it was starting to snow by the time we reached Calver; here's Mrs F riding into a blizzard climbing Coombs Dale. A bit of railway interest, my bike on Monsal Head viaduct. Could be a reasonably quick gravel bike loop in the right conditions, but I was glad to be on the hardtail today.

That’s an interesting point and one which makes all the difference. My experience was with a large group-built EM gauge layout that was only able to be erected at exhibitions or a hired village hall. While the initial build of the layout was rapid, I feel the size of it and the fact that it couldn’t be set up between shows prevented it reaching its full potential. Add to that the hassle of arranging transport and ensuring we’d have a team of 5 or 6 operators available on a given date actually put me off exhibiting and I can fully appreciate why, given the space, many people prefer a layout that doesn’t leave home approach for larger layouts. As time has passed though I have found myself missing the exhibition experience and noted that, despite having a smaller layout permanently set up at home, I very rarely run trains at home. Some of that is to do with time; I’d rather spend my spare time at the workbench than operating, but I also wonder if some of it is to do with the social aspect of operating a layout with other people and/or in front of an audience.

I think the OAA has a similar underframe to the VCA if that helps? I managed to acquire some etched parts from Colin Craig about 5 years ago for doing a couple of OAAs (which I started but still haven't finished). I understand the etch was intended for an FPA but wasn't added to Colin's range. I think JSW used the same to improve a OAA, might be something in his P4 New Street site. Edit to add: https://p4newstreet.com/improving-the-Hornby-oaa/

End of year status report - almost there with the track laying. Some card of a suitable thickness looks like it will solve the height issue with the rear siding; I'm just waiting for the glue to dry before fixing down the final track panel. The original plan had been a low relief bridge crossing the end of the layout, to give the impression that the line once continued beyond here, but I'm thinking another building might work better. Well, that's about it for 2022, happy new year.

Track laying has crossed the board joint onto the new board and the end of this stage is within sight. One small hiccup is that the track bed for the rear siding is lower than it should be; an annoying mistake that I could have fixed if I'd spotted it sooner. I have a plan to fix it though.

I'm still optimistic that my plan to build Wolverhampton Low Level (in it's early '70s guise as a parcels depot) is paused rather than being something that I'll never get around to. Space limitations and not wanting to a build a layout that can only be used at an exhibition are the main reasons the project stalled. I've got most of the stock (although most of it has 00 or EM wheels and the layout will be P4). I'd got about halfway along the main station building - but there's a lot of detail still to add.

More track fixed down today. A suitably heavy lump to hold the track down while the glue dries.

Meanwhile, over on the workbench I've made a start on the first of the canopy support brackets for the new warehouse building.

Yes, although we're talking something in the region of 0.3mm so it's not huge, but enough to cause an issue when trying to align fishplates to join the track. The 18.83 specified for P4 is the minimum gauge. Wheels are surprisingly tolerant of wider gauge, I've test run EM stock on (plain) P4 track with no issues - as long as the track isn't so wide the wheels can fall into the 4'. I'm looking into how and why the gauge is wider on the new track, one possibility is that I have some of the track bases for gauge widened track mixed in with some of the standard stuff.

A little more progress today, I finally got around to gluing down the templates for the new track. Then made a start on laying the track. I have found that the gauge of Exactoscale fast track bases is slightly wider than the turnout I built. To get around this, the first three sleepers had their chairs trimmed off and replaced to gradually ease the gauge out to match.

The larger tank is the fuel tank, the smaller is the water tank. The water tank was fitted to locos with a steam heating boiler. Only a few 25/2 with the revised style of body had boilers (and therefore water tanks) these were D5233 - D5237. No 25/3 had boilers so they didn't need water tanks.

It's a plan that I've considered building; like so many of Iain's designs it makes good use available space and should be interesting to operate. Whether it could be built in a reasonable timescale will depend on a lot of factors. There's a tandem turnout and a double slip for a start which could be time consuming. Good luck with it, look forward to seeing progress.

On other aspects of the layout I'd taken care to avoid placing buildings and track parallel with the baseboard edges, which I think helps to make scene look bigger and be more believable. I overlooked this when putting the new building in position. Slightly shortened building and (more importantly) set at an angle so it's not parallel to the baseboard edge. Both minor changes, but in my opinion make a big difference and confirm why making a mock up is worth the effort.

After a while out in the shed, the layout is now back in the comparative warmth of the house and I've spent this evening mocking up a rail served factory/warehouse building for the extension board. I like the look of it, but don't think the proportions are quite right. Currently it's 600mm long; I'll try shortening it to around 450mm. The depth is limited by the presence of the rear siding which it does do an excellent job of hiding.