marsa69

The kinks add to the realism

Just dirty up the windows so you can't see through them. It was a stables after all.

I still think we should flog it and start the layout again. But in 7mm this time

Wouldn't cows be better? Human stuff might look a bit overscale?

Did you have to poop all over it?

Cattle dock needs a few organic accoutrements adding to it. If you know what I mean?

It's going to get some getting used to that computer control malarky

This is going to be fun learning to use that. Any instructions with it?

I think that was me you spoke to on Saturday From what we can gather there were nearly 1300 people attended on the Saturday compared to about 1400 total for the weekend last year so yes it did get quite busy. We did find out just how much concentration you need to keep a grip on things AND engage the public at the same time, as evidenced by the odd signalling error and incorrect route setting occasionally. Despite the mix of stock and era's no-one commented on this and in fact it seemed to go down well with the crowd as one minute we'd be shunting around the station with blue/grey DMUs then next sending through a non-stop train of 60's coal wagons to entertain the kids. What we did find was that some of the public inhabit a different dimension to normal people. At one point we both turned round from what we were doing to find that a woman had decided to use the baseboard as somewhere to seat her little girl When she was politely asked to remove the offending small person she got what can only be described as a 'mardy on'. The other two incidents of note was the woman who was about to let her child wander off with the signal box and the young boy who decided that the layout would look better with 'his' wagon on the track. This just highlights the need for us to get some kind of crowd control in place, preferably something involving wires and 20000 volts or machine gun nests!

Time for another update but from Johns trusted sidekick and not the main man himself. All boards (those requiring trackwork) are now complete and all track-laying has now been finished. This has been a major milestone because at times we thought it would never get done. The major problem we found was that the idea to go with setrack layed onto a scale plan caused no end of scratched heads when trying to make everything fit, especially at the eastern end (Pelham Bridge) part of the layout. The access to the cattle dock and bay platforms 1-4 being especially challenging. Some creative infrastructure solutions were required to make the turnouts and slips all join up without looking too out of place. As you can see in the following pictures, we feel that apart from one or two pinch points, that might not bear too close a scrutiny, the feel and overall dimensions of a somewhat complex arrangement of tracks have been achieved and maintained.

Approaching the station from what will be Pelham Bridge. Cattle dock to the left, bay platforms to the right.

Looking back to Pelham Bridge from the station

Again looking towards Pelham Bridge but this time from the bay platforms

And finally a view of the Pelham Bridge entrance to the fiddle yard. Notice the DMU stabling sidings made to fit the available space and the DCC programming siding in the top left

The last two nights has seen us crack on with the labourious task of wiring everything up on the new sections. We had originally planned on going for a test assembly of the boards in mid-December before our booked appearance at the Lincoln Show in January. However, our rapid progress in the last few weeks means that we may be able to do this in October and November to give us more time in ironing out a few bugs. The layout itself won't be complete in time but as a WiP it will be much more advanced than last years showing,

regards

Did you not get a pic of the finished cattledock trackwork? And learn to use the rotate function as well, I've got a stiff neck now

Mark

Lovely shots as always Pete

regards,

Mark

Ahhhhh, that's where our handy work got to

Hi Jon,

Depending on the era, a nice mix of semaphore and C/L signals works well

Early to late 80s, possibly early 90s at a pinch. Bolton Trinity Street and it's approaches is my inspiration and I can definitely remember plenty of semaphores in abundance with some C/L signals on the platforms and scattered here and there. like you said great days

regards,

I'll be picking Jons brains when it's time to do the signals for my East Lancs themed layout. Now do I go for colour light, semaphores or a mix of both?

Great work as usual Peter. Nice to see those new developments coming along

Thanks for all the feedback so far gentlemen tis much appreciated

Thanks Merfyn, you're a star

The Fisons train with the Mk1's was predominantly used in the Midlands/North

That's the train I'm after. I really want to know what type carriages were used to convert into the weedkilling coaches

Dozy me I forgot to add that I model in O gauge and it's a 7mm project I'm researching And it's the Northern England/Scotland train I'm researching so i think that it's ex-LMS stock.

Whilst conducting research into the same topic I found this thread. I might as well bump this one.

I'm after any info or photos of weed-killing trains in the 80s and early 90s. I'm particularly after details about what types of MK1 carriages were used,

regards,

Mark

That's another cracking photo Pete

All the best for Christmas and the New Year

I'll be watching

Don't forget the b*^"dy pics of the fiddle yard work! All our hard graft and you haven't posted it

Excellent

That's coming along nicely mate

Hope you are well Haven't heard from you in a while, hows the 7mm stuff going? haven't done any myself.

Plodding on mate, but thanks for asking. Still juggling work, college, wifes illness and my hobby but good. The layout is slowly progressing and I've made myself a member of the local club. Have you progressed Holyhead yet?