invercloy

Thanks, makes sense reading it again, but wasn’t sure if you meant the real motive power or yours.

Where do you have the info on the motive power from? I've done LOADS of digging into this proposal, seen the documents lodged with the Board of Trade that are now in the National Archives, but never found any firm information on the motive power. There was provision for steam or electric, and it was 3'6", but I've never seen anything on the HLR relating to motive power.

I own a copy of the Rural Transport committee documents describing those lines. There's definitely some modelling potential in there!

I am, Ken, though I VERY rarely post on here nowadays. In answer to the question, been there, done that, exhibited it, got the t shirt Although, my version went the other way - the plans were for a 3'6" gauge line, and I modelled it in 2'6" gauge using 009. My layout is the one that features in the photos in the RM article. There were several proposals for a railway line on Skye, so you needn't model the narrow gauge one when there was actually a standard gauge proposal - opposite the Kyle station and operating up to Portree. It was proposed by the Highland Railway, so if you went for that you could have the fun I've had and imagine what could have been for one of the other proposals. More info on what I got up to on my website: https://hlrco.wordpress.com Here's a teaser: image by invercloy, on Flickr

We've just launched a Narrow Planet Facebook page. https://www.facebook...027?sk=timeline Obviously we'll continue to update you with developments here, but if you want another way of seeing what we're up to please like and share our page.

Noted, Mike. There used to be a 'splash' page to do just that on a previous incarnation of the forum, but it must have disappeared when it was upgraded. I'll suggest it gets reinstated to the owners Halton Boy, I'll pass that on and see what we can do. PM me in a few days if you've not heard anything.

As a moderator of NGRM I can confirm the question was put in place to avoid excess spam attacks, there's nothing sinister behind it. Far from it, it's trying to retain a friendly, lively forum dedicated to narrow gauge modellers. I've asked Matt who runs the techy side of things to look into it. Halton Boy - is that the username you registered with on NGRM? Just in case that helps us narrow down the problem. Thanks, Tom

Heljan kindly provided the details to the 009 Society for display at the Convention, which I pulled together into the display along with the CAD images. They mentioned that the the price is APPROXIMATE, but all other mentions of price have been in the same ballpark. £185 seems perfectly reasonable to me when you consider that a Backwoods Miniatures kit (which is the most comparable in terms of quality based on the details Heljan have provided to date) costs £92 and that requires lots of soldering of bodywork and chassis and lots of time invested in it before you get it to run, let along paint, details etc. It's a bold venture by Heljan, and from the details provided so far they seem to be heading in a very good direction in my opinion.

I've just taken delivery of a tender drive unit from Union Mills for a 009 tender loco scratchbuilding project. Being a slightly different project, Colin was quite helpful in advising me on what he could offer. I posted him a cheque late last week and I received my chassis today - great service. Does anyone have any photos of their chassis after DCC conversion? I'd be interested to see any slightly different approaches to the one in the DCC fitting guide.

Little faith? Absolutely not! I'm merely asking as I didn't know if it was usual for periods of radio silence. Remember this is a new experience for us 009 modellers I've heard more info since posting my query which is reassuring.

Has anyone heard anything on this project? It's gone awfully quiet... Is this normal practice after an announcement of a model until a prototype is shown? (spot the 009 modeller who hasn't bought an RTR model for over a decade so can't remember how marketing works )

No, it's good news, welcome to the dark side!

I completely agree, Paul, the collectors market is a good draw for an L&B loco over and above a generic design. There's also the option for anyone with a Southern Railway layout to have a feeder line in the same delivery, not to mention the same scenario for any layout using the original L&B livery to represent a freelance line. To be honest, I don't 'recognise' anything that was running before the early 80s as that's when I was born, so that rules out most of railway history... I don't see why date has anything to do with it. I disagree about the 'trainset' market, look at how many 00 layouts have a narrow gauge feeder line (as per my point above), this release will probably increase that, and I have a feeling that's where a good majority of the sales could be from - 00 layouts with 009 appearing as a special add on feature to an already extant layout. Look at the success Bachmann have had with the 0n30 range, that started with one loco, RTR 009 has to start somewhere, like I said before, it's just good that Peco provided the impetus with the stock and Heljan have begun working on a loco.

There are many many more 0-6-0s, a generic 'catalogue' design would probably fit in more with what Kenton is thinking of, and to a degree he has a point in that its less line specific and therefore less limiting in terms of stock it will look 'right' with. But conversely, and arguably more importantly, a catalogue design wont be as instantly recognisable as an L&B manning wardle, and wont have the added pull of the Peco stock perfectly matching it, or a prototype running at the Festiniog or L&B (soon hopefully!). At the end of the day we're getting an RTR 009 loco, its just great that someone has finally taken the plunge.

2-6-2s derail? Only if they're poorly designed or running track that's a tad on the lumpy side, I've never had issues with 2-6-2's. The new Peco points are much smoother and hardly cause stock to 'crash' through them, in fact I can propel (with a 4-4-0T) a rake of 10+ unweighted Parkside Dundas wagons with no issue. The new track is a big improvement in terms of running, so much so that I've ripped up the only two 12" radius points I had and replaced them with the new ones. Again, as it's your opinion I don't think you can say the prototype is 'wrong', but rather 'not what you would have chosen'.

What a refreshing layout thread! It's really made me think about how much I spend on things and what alternative materials I could use to achieve the same results. Definitely worthy of exhibiting all round the country to inspire others. Don't worry about 5 wagons or point operation, it really ought to inspire lots of people to get building. Thanks for one of the most enjoyable threads I've ever read on any version of RMweb!

Thanks Tony, I wouldn't call it little though, it's the biggest layout I've built at 7'x11' in a curved L shape If you're trying to resist narrow gauge then I strongly advise you not to visit http://ngrm-online.com and don't take a look at some of the cracking layouts on there! Thanks Pete, It's not too bad. I can lift it in and out of the loft quite easily, all the rocks are only a very thin skin so don't actually add to the weight that much in the end. This is the first multi-board layout I have built, so I think I could save plenty of weight next time by building lighter boards.

Thanks Dave, I've not been on RMweb for ages so had forgotten about my blog to be honest, as you know I tend to update NGRM more often. I'll try and keep track of progress on here a little better, though.

Wow! I've not updated this for a while... Well, Isle Ornsay's first exhibition came and went, I learnt a few things to improve re. operation, particularly replacement of two 12" radius Peco points. I will be swapping these for the newer 'mainline' ones which will necessitate the realignment of two sidings, but it will be worth it in the long run to improve reliability of operation. Photos of stock made by myself, Mick Thornton and Ted Polet in operation on the layout at Narrow Gauge South at Sparsholt this year. Isle Ornsay has at least two exhibition appearances next year, the 009 Society Beds and Bucks Members Day in January, and Narrow Gauge South West in February. For both of those there are a few things that were realised after exhibiting at Sparsholt that I'd like to alter, mainly the two 12" radius Peco points on the quay which will be replaced with 'Mainline' ones. This will entail partial realignment of both sidings on the quay. I've also decided to do away with the tippler as being primarily for marble it's unlikely that much of the output of the quarry would need a tippler, therefore the realignment of the sidings isn't an issue. Other changes are more minor and mainly focus on DCC control or providing operators with more information on addresses of various locos, I'm thinking of producing a photographic stock list with the address of locos shown, along with a track diagram with the addresses of points. Here's a recap of how things stand at the moment: There are a couple of bits of plaster casting to do then that task is finished. I'd also like to make progress scenically, so adding of roofs to all the buildings will be a marked improvement. Another thing I'd like to sort before NGSW is a lighting rig using LED strips, mainly to enable me to add a splash of colour to the layout, particularly the rocks. All the buildings use a foamboard shell which will either be clad in a very thin skim of filler to represent whitewash (or stone if it's carved), or plasticard sheet. The roofs will be built up using strips of card, but they obviously need a strong base with a few cross members to support them to avoid any sag. What I've been doing this evening is adding those cross members from foamboard. Because a few of the buildings are to have curved corrugated roofs I added a few cross members for them to help keep a smooth curve. Those that sit against the backscene are designed for the apex of the roof to sit about 10mm away from the backscene. This means that the roof will drop away right before the backscene, and thereby hide the join which can often look clumsy, and also hopefully help create a slight illusion of greater depth. Loco Shed Customs House Croft and Post Office Goods Shed Fishery Harbour Street Ice House The station building already has the cross members added. As you'll notice I've crudely chamfered a few of them where the square edges of the foamboard projected beyond the walls of the building. Hoping to get some basic roofs on them in the next few days. A few have complex dormer windows (especially the Customs House) which could take a while to add.

That is an impressive looking beast! Nos 11 and 12 were purposeful looking, but elegant locos. I've often wondered how easy it would be to capture the flavour of it in a large 009 loco.

It's worked well so far at both 009 Society meetings where there have been quite a few of us milling around it, and also at a private exhibition. I don't really see why it would be any harder to get in close to than a straight layout to be honest. Anyway, it's a bit late now. Thanks, will do

So, how long until the narrow gauge expands and takes over?