Barry Ten

I??m in a bit of a quandary really - it??s clearly a really nice model, and it??s the kind of initiative I??d like to support, but since I??ve already got a Truro, do I really need another one? I suppose I could rename one of them for another City and ignore the detail differences, or just accept having two models of the same engine at different points in its career... or ... hmm... where??s my credit card?

Me too - I thought "now there??s an example of out of the box thinking with regard to wagon weighting"... and readily available under the workbench, too - simples! Re: Ratio kits - made most of them, and agree with some of the other posters that given the age of the mouldings, they are very good.

Thanks all. Just had a look at the pics of the Bachmann one and it appears to be superb! I must say I'm astonished that it will be released so quickly. I probably won't have finished this one by then, knowing me. The other loco project on my workbench (well, one of them) is an unrebuilt Patriot that I started way before the Bachmann one was announced, let alone released. It uses a Bachmann chasss, Hornby body and Comet tender. It's nearly ready for paint so maybe I'll get some pics of that up before too long. In Germany right now, though, so modelling on hold...

Very nice! I am working on a Restaurant Open First and a Restaurant Third at the moment, using the Comet sides on Airfix coach bodies. There's also been a lot of filling and spraying and sanding...

In light of recent developments, I thought it was about time I got my act together and actually did something with my own City of Truro. I finished painting it earlier this year, but (as is typical of me) it's sat on the workbench waiting for the last few bits to be done while I got sidetracked with other projects. I had never attached a coupling to the tender, and the model still lacks crew, lamp irons and brake handles on the tender, as well as a touch of weathering. I wasn't in any great hurry, though - after all, what were the chances of anyone announcing an RTR Truro? Anyway, I've added a coupling to the tender and established that, as she stands, three coaches is about her limit. She pulls three very well mind, but four induces quite a bit of slipping. There is still room for a bit more weight, and adding crew will help, but she's never going to be a haulage monster. I'm sure the RTR Truro will be a bit better in this respect, since there'll undoubtedly be more metal in the body and perhaps traction tyres. The original thread is here: http://www.rmweb.co....=+truro#p570744 and for anyone interested in owning a City before the RTR one appears, the model is built from the Branchlines kit, using the Dapol mouldings as a basis. It's a great little project which I thoroughly enjoyed.

A new one from me:

Thanks chaps. Had a brainwave last night - I hadn't switched off the main room light, so that might have been contributing to the shadows. Unfortunately when I went back up to check my brilliant theory, I found that the fluorescent tube wasn't working. Very puzzling but I will have to disassemble the lighting rig and examine it on my bench now. Went to bed in a grumpy mood!

I've added some Springside swans and cygnets to the brook, and some water for them to swim around in. I've also got around to putting in the 5 foot fluorescent lighting fixture, which is attached to an L-shaped beam running across the entire 7 foot module frontage. I'm generally pleased with the way it's brightened the scene, but I haven't eliminated shadows on the backscene from the big tree. They're softer than before, as you'd expect, but I still need to do a bit of work to make them less obtrusive. I think I can probably do so by adding background trees directly against the backscene to absorb the shadows, rather than have the big tree standing stark against the sky, as nice as that looks. I've also begun adding some details to this little crossing gate scene around the concrete bunker - note S&D warning sign (from a Roger Smith sheet), picked up at the Cardiff show - just the ticket! There's also a proper S&D sign on the gate. Ultimately I'd like to make region-specific details such as this easily removable (maybe by having them plug into receivers in the scenery) so that I can change the location as when I like.

Mikkel, absolutely - and I'm not very good at it! By the way the curved backscene is embarrassingly low-tech. The main layout backing consists of sheets of 2mm mdf joining at right angles. In order to create the curved sky I simply added a top layer of blue card and allowed it to bend in the corners. It works fine for a home layout (and the card seems to be happy being oversprayed provided it is done in light passes) but would be too flimsy for an exhibition design.

I've finished the two tracks that run through the Shillingstone module. They're lightly tacked down since I want to tweak the alignment a bit but the wiring is done and tested. Since I don't envisage ever wanting to operate two locomotives at once, I've only used on-off switches, so a train can be parked in the station while another passes. I do want to run DCC-equipped locos on the layout occasionally, though, so there's a DPDT switch to select between analog and digital. Screwed to the underside of the boards is an ancient Meccano controller which supplies 18V AC for the Gaugemaster handheld, and will also supply 9-12 V for the Tortoise motors (which are in situ, but not operational yet). I knew it'd come in handy one day! View looking down the layout. The two yard sidings will be on the right, and the board will be extended out to create a little more width. I'll only do that when I've finished work on the sky, though, as otherwise the reach-over will be unworkable. Looking the other way, with the tracks coming off the non-scenic board connecting the country scene to this one. Another view of the country scene. Once I accepted that this was going to be essence-of-Shillingstone, rather than an accurate portrayal of the real station, I started having all sorts of naughty ideas about maybe adding another siding off the rear loop, kicking back to serve a milk depot or something as at Bailey Gate. But I keep reminding myself that this all started as a test track with maybe a bit of scenery and a point or two - it wasn't ever meant to be a big, complicated layout with loads of operating scope. So I'll do my best to resist the temptation...

It would have to 72006 on the Pines for me as well - turns out I have some McKenzie ancestry (something I didn't know during the three years I actually lived in Scotland).

Commendably neat and tidy by Barry Ten's standards...

This is my new Hornby 2P, renumbered for 40601, one of the Bath allocation (although I've yet to do the smokebox number, not having any of the right numbers in stock). There's a nice photo in one of Ivo Peters' books showing this loco in lined black with "British Railways" on the tender. The Hornby one came out of the box as 40610 so I decided to see if I could get away with just changing the last two digits. Other than weathering, adding crew and lamp irons, about all I've done to it is shorten the loco/tender drawbar. I've got another one in S&D blue to ring the changes and now I quite fancy an LMS example. Whether you can live with the Airfix-style tender-drive is a matter of taste, I suppose, but for general layout running, rather than ultra-slow shunting or start/stops, I've always found it perfectly OK and the two examples I have do run quite nicely, especially given the good pick-up arrangement on the 2P, whereby the bogie is also wired.

I used to fix my figures to a small square of acetate/clear plastikard. It was all but invisible especially if you positioned it so that the edges lined up with paving stones, etc. Nowadays I'm more inclined to use glue, but as you say it's nice to be able to move them. Have you considered that tacky stuff Woodland Scenics sell? It's specifically marketed as allowing repositioning of figures, etc.

Me too - like the 3-d sketches, too.

Very nicely done, Mikkel. It's refreshing to see this period being modelled, and your figures look superbly appropriate.

For once I've actually been looking at photos while modelling, instead of making it all up and copying other layouts! I used static grass on the inside of the fence, applied over the HBL. I'd like to make a bit more of it though...

Not much progress on the first Shillingstone module lately, largely because I've been spending my modelling time finishing a continuous run through the other boards. Although it's currently just a loop with a fiddleyard along one side, I can at least run trains again - great fun after two years of not having a proper 4mm layout. Some of the engines I've been fiddling with over the last couple of years are at last getting a chance to stretch their legs, which has been very satisfying - it's been great just watching Banbury Castle circle slowly around the room on the fish train. Most of my stock is still in boxes, so I apologise for trotting out the green Maunsell stock yet again. However I decided it was time I did a bit more scenery so last night I glued in some Ratio fence posts to demark the railway boundary. They're sold as GWR posts but I'm not going to lose any sleep over that. I put in the posts at 20mm spacing and allowed them to dry overnight. Today I began to add the wire, using the supplied filament. I know there are probably finer (and more durable) alternatives but the Ratio stuff will do for me. It's blinking fiddly though - get the swear box out! Just as you've got one secured, you try and attach the line to next post along and the last three or four come unglued. Much grrr-ing and going back and forth until you get it sort of where it ought to be. It's still not very neat or regular but this was still a bit of a breakthrough for me as I managed to get four wires on - I don't think I've ever managed more than three before. It should be more than four but I'll hide the lower part of the posts in undergrowth. I'll let it all set dry then paint it tomorrow, using pale-ish grey-brown. As mentioned in one of the comments somewhere, I've not currently got a lighting rig in place for this module, so it's being illuminated by a dangling bulb in the middle of the room - hence the shadows and general lack of sharpness. Hopefully that should improve when I install the rig, but I need to get some wood from Focus first.

Hi Penlan - I'm still trying to work out how to get the other blog to show up - it exists, as I started it after the S&D one, but like you I only see this one under my profile.

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Hi Penlan - it's based on the Gaugemaster photographic backscenes, heavily misted with white through an airbrush. I must trim those hairs!

Although most of my recent heavy duty modelling has been directed at building my S&D layout, I've still got far too many other projects on the boil, much of which revolve around my long-term interest in the GWR/WR. Here's the latest thing off the workbench, which (like my 9F) appeared on the old forum in an unfinished state. Just in time to be made completely redundant by the new Hornby model, here's a detailed and re-powered old-style Castle, numbered for 7011 Banbury Castle. It has a Comet chassis with DJH gearbox. I modified the inside piston casing to represent the correct style for 7011, reworked the cab roof profile, and added/replaced a few bits and bobs. The Dapol style Hawksworth tender has an incorrect wheel spacing but I can live with it. While it runs very well, I probably should have picked a speedier motor/gearbox combo for an express passenger engine, as even flat out it's not doing anything like a scale ton. Hence, I've allocated it to parcels/fish traffic rather than express passenger workings. You live and learn... The lining on the Hornby model is neat but heavy, but rather than repaint it I opted to tone it down with some weathering.