Barry Ten

A bit of both, I suspect, Dave! I suppose the optimum height/width is all connected with golden ratios and so on - but if it looks right, it is right!

You'll need a fair bit of headroom in any case, to be able to access the rear of your layout on occasion. I'm impressed that you managed to get to that backscene at all even as it is.

My lighting bar is about 16 inches/40 cm above the track level, Dave.

I'll measure it later, Dave - just about to go out for the afternoon.

For what it's worth the main spar of my lighting rigs has been made out a length of B&Q L-shaped wood moulding, which is very rigid and light, and just right for mounting cabinet-type tubes on. This stuff is 8 feet long but the revised gantry needs a clear span of about 9 foot, so I had to splice in another bit to make the gap. I was up in Merthyr B&Q over the weekend, though, and I notice they don't stock this stuff any more. They also didn't have bendable MDF, which they've always used to keep. I hope it's still possible to get it from the larger B&Qs as it can be frustrating to rely on a ready supply of material and then find it's not available.

From recollection your scenic area is quite a wider than 9 foot, isn't it?

That's come along spendidly, Dave - I especially like the fact that the hills are quite low. Mine had to be higher to conceal various blemishes and shadows! You've done a fine job of it.

That's true, but judging from some of the complex paint jobs they've put on some other coaches (like the Maunsells or the LNER teak stock), they could do a fuller job on the lining if they chose. I guess the economics don't merit it.

Thanks, Mikkel. You can see what an influence you (and Wenlock!) are with all this Edwardian stuff.

Today I revisited the droplights with a darker mix of red and brown, which gets them a bit closer to the shade used on the Mallard clerestory. I'll go over

the roof with a darker grey when I do the other ones.

Looking closely at the Hornby mouldings, compared to the etched coach, there's a limit to how close a match it's ever going to be as the etched one includes

some subtleties totally missing from the Hornby one, as you can probably tell from the different treatment of cream on the upper panels of the doors. Also,

of course, the sides are much thinner in general, so the glazing is not so recessed. But, if it gets it close enough that the two aren't radically different when running in a train, I'll be happy.

These are the new Hornby-Jouef models.

Rhymney Railway or GWR, what do you reckon, Dave?

I'm sure it will, Kris!

That's a very smart model, Dave - it will look charming posed in your forecourt with a suitable horse.

I've been very taken with the Parliamentary trains range, based on what I've seen at Bristol and elsewhere. It's a very bold and refreshing idea to take

a look at early railways. 

A mere "like" doesn't do justice here, but I'm running out of superlatives. I'm tempted to stick my neck out and say this might end up being the finest ever evocation of a GW branchline terminus, in any scale ... no pressure, then, Dave!

Lyon's a fantastic city, I'd love to go back.

Emmanuel Nouallier's work is amazing, and I actually saw some of it in the flesh recently, quite by accident! As part of a work trip, I was shown around a museum in Lyon dedicated to film sets and props - mainly model work, including the scaled-down sets and buildings for Fantastic Mr Fox (including the puppets) and Grand Hotel Budapest. On the upstairs floor they had a selection of miniature dioramas, mostly fantastical scenes, and yet also some of Nouallier's urban models. They look as good in reality as in the photos.

Remarkable attention to detail. It's these seemingly innocuous details that play such a large part in establishing atmosphere.

For some reason this blog entry posted twice, so Andy Y's locked the other one. Do pop over and look at Luke Piewalker's nice original series Enterprise:

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blog/257/entry-17836-a-little-something-for-the-weekend-building-the-starship-enterprise/#commentsStart

I thought it might be worth tracking the total cost, as far as I'm able.

Unfortunately I don't have a record for the Black Beetles in the power car, but at current prices two of them will come in at about 100 pounds in total.

The Southern Pride etched sides come in at about 28.

Chris Leigh cast me the bogies and ends for about 53 pounds. (I eventually ended up using Genesis ends but the cost won't have been too different).

The Markits 14mm coach wheels would cost about 34 pounds at current rates.

I obtained the centre cars for about 30 pounds each - say about the same for the dummy and power cars although you might get them cheaper.

I make that around 214 for the parts, plus 240 pounds for the donor vehicles. That comes in at roughly 450 pounds so, while a little cheaper than the Bachmann 6 car unit, it's far from a bargain! I also haven't costed paint and decals, nor sundry parts like wheel bearings etc. Of course, then you've still got to build it!

I'd have to tot up the cost of this conversion as a fair comparison, but I reckon it will come in a fair bit under 500 pounds.

I haven't tackled that yet. Options are:

1) scribe

2) mark in with ink after painting

3) ignore

Good luck! I've seen very few WR Blue Pullmans running on layouts, so it would be good to have a few more. And I'd guess that there's no chance of an RTR one now unless Hornby look at the costings for a "Railroad" level model without the frills of the Bachmann one.

Coincidentally I read Ron White's caption today, while flicking through Model Rail's 1999 issue on the Blue Pullman. I can't help but wonder why the reversed livery gets so much hate, after all elsewhere on the forum people are going bananas over the APT-E. Perhaps it was more down to lack of upkeep, than anything wrong with the concept itself? Personally I rate it as smart and modernist. BR were keen to distinguish between the BP and the corporate blue/grey stock so something had to change.

From a practical standpoint, it;s easier to do the earlier blue livery, as the window inserts can be painted separately before being inserted, whereas the reversed livery will need some filling and masking to continue the blue bands around the ends of the coaches. I'd also need to order new etches for the parlour firsts as I was originally counting on using two relatively pristine Triang examples without too much modification.

Hi Mike

I've got two in the front car already, so that might be sufficient - I'll get a better idea as I add the trailing cars. Luckily they are very free-rolling with Gibson wheels and bearings. 

There's no limit to how many motors you can have on the same address, no. Consisting is slightly different as you keep different addresses but send a command that tells all to move at the same time. In practical terms there's not much in it.

Hi Bob

If you put "blue pullman" and "snow hill" into Google, you'll come up with some cracking photos of said service, eg:

http://www.warwickshirerailways.com/gwr/gwrbsh1295.htm

I'm glad you have such excellent memories of it, it must have been quite a thing to be booked onto that train after such a long sea crossing.

I visited the Stedelijk museum a long time ago and remember being very impressed with some of Mondriaan's earlier paintings. It's great how something like that can influence our modelling.

Definitely plans in that direction, Dave. The idea is to have a few buildings already assembled to get a headstart when the actual construction starts.

My (French) wife says you wouldn't get two Tabacs so close together so that's why I'm going to add another building to the block, just to space them out a bit.