APOLLO

I visited Liverpool Wednesday, took the kids to the new museum on the Pier Head - must say that is one fantastic new building - a must see for anyone visiting Liverpool. The Overhead railway coach (on a replica section of overhead bridge) is there, as is the old L&M steam loco "Lion". Went by train from Wigan, and happy to see preliminary works are in progress for electrification, noticed a few over bridges being raised / rebuilt. Some station platforms have been recently lengthened also, though St Helens had a brand new station a couple of years ago. I presume the old manual boxes at St Helens, Prescott & Huyton will go, along with the semaphores. Most of the line has fairly new CWR rail also. Wonder what new trains / services we will have ? Lime St has not changed much over the years, still has it's old character, though full of DMU's & Pendolinos, the Network Rail yellow HST New Measurments Train was visiting also. It's still a very busy station. Walked to the end of the platform & took a few photo's, no hassle. Brit15

When petrol is £2+ / litre, which will be sooner than many think, then perhaps Woodhead and many other railways may be re-opened. Or then again, when petrol is £2+ / litre, which will be sooner than many think, this country will come to a complete grinding halt. Brit15

Liverpool has many memories for me, 1969 - 72 I spent 3 years commuting there from Wigan - 2 years to Lime St whilst attending Riversdale tech & then 1 year to Exchange attending Birkenhead tech, (bus, train & ship to work !!). This is a superb model, though I only remember the diesel / electric days at Lime St, the atmosphere of the place is skilfully captured & presented. Incidentally, here is a superb site, literally thousands of Liverpool Photo's, old & new. Check out the pub pages !! You can spend hours on this site. Hope it's of interest. http://www.inacityliving.piczo.com/?cr=7 Brit15

I'll wait till the "new" Hornby one is in Hattons "Bargains" list at £40 !! Brit15

My first ride behind a Western was 13 July 1965, D1000 Western Enterprise herself, then in desert sand, from Kemble to Swindon, then D1028 Western Hussar Swindon to Bath Spa. We were on holiday in the Cotswolds, and my elder brother and I wanted to "do" the Somerset & Dorset. For the record Bath Green Park to Evercreech Jcn was 80096 & 76057 returned us to Bath. D1063 Western Monitor took us to Swindon & D7001 home to Kemble - a journey never to be repeated. Living in Wigan, hydraulics were thin on the ground (like non existent), and my next memory was 15 July 1967, on Holiday near Hereford, D1011 Western Thunderer took us from Newport to Cardiff, same loco, same day took us from Bridgend to Cardiff. My last run was 27 July 1974. Reading to Paddington behind an immaculately clean 1026 Western centurion Fantastic machines with a deep, purposefull engine note, as per these 2 youtube clips Bit slippy on one engine But she gets away. Incidentally many years ago I bought a vinyl LP, Westerns, Diesel Hydraulics on the western region in 1974. An Argo record in full, glorious stereo !! I still have it, and quick google brought this up. Scroll down to the bottom of the page. http://continuo.wordpress.com/2009/06/page/2/ I have 2 Limas, one red, one green and a very old blue Trix (Vanguard I think). Westerns - they killed off steam, but you have to love em !! Brit15

How do you know if you're made it as a railway modeller? When you get home from a visit to Hattons, with a bagfull of shiny new boxes, having spent just that bit more than you should have done, after "smuggling" said boxes into the loft without "the powers that be" seeing them - Phew, MADE IT !!!!!!!!!!!!! Brit15

Talltim - I have some pics, not brilliant as taken with an ancient digital camera. I'll make a seperate layout thread soon for my loft layout and post them there. Brit15

I posted a few photos (probably including some above) on various posts over the last couple of years, but I thought it's better from now on to keep em all together in the layout's own thread. I got quite a few things from Victors quite a few years ago, mainly Weaver freight cars and a couple of Weaver locos. Kittle hobby was also a good firm years ago for Rivarossi locos and plastic building kits. A firm down in Cornwall supplied the Weaver RS3 in Route of the Rockets colour scheme - £160 back in the late 80's. I have no problems with Peco track - everything runs OK, fine scale & course scale (Atlas). One firm I can recommend is P & D Hobbies, Fraser, Michigan USA. I had gear problems with 2 of my Weaver locos, split nylon main gears. P & D stock all weaver drive train spares, ordered via the net and they arrived the following week - brilliant. http://pdhobbyshop.com/ Weaver is also a good firm, and was able also to supply spares direct. They have a very good PR department and answered my emails same day. http://www.weavermodels.com/ In 2008 when you got over $2 to £1 I ordered another RS2 direct from Weaver via the net - VERY good service from weaver - the loco cost around £170 (at $2 = £1), shipping was about £20 but it was "delivered" to Parcel Force in Liverpool where I had to go and collect it (behind Broad Green railway station) then I had to pay duty, around £30 if I remember - so at the end of the day it wasn't quite the bargain I thought it was - but she's a beaut, RI maroon livery, metal body, VERY heavy and very powerfull. Not much is advertised for American O scale in the UK these days, I suppose I was lucky to start off when I did. Tennants sometimes has a bit of secondhand in stock now & again. There's a guy in Morecambe sells American O scale, Quince Valley Designs, but i've never used them - any info / recomendations ? http://www.quincevalleydesigns.co.uk/ Everything O scale is big bucks today - shame really as it really is a good scale to work in. I have some Lima, a train of metal wheeled bogie tankers and the long flat cars in the photo's carrying the VW's (Pound shop !!) are Lima. need decks and repaint etc (another job). I keep my O scale American head on when out shopping, especially in the cheapie shops - it's amazing what you find and can adapt - you can get away with murder with a layout like mine !!! I'll take a few up to date photo's soon. Brit 15 (or should I sign off RS3 !!)

Thanks for the positive comments Guys n Gals. Size of the layout goes back to when I lived with my parents, Back in the 60's I had a 7' x 3' triang TT layout, then we moved house and I went to British OO in the 70's, I modelled Garsdale on the the Settle & Carlisle. When I bought my first house it had small rooms, but a large back garden, and I loved those big American layouts (Pikes) in the Model Railroader mags, so I decided on an outside building, a concrete sectional shed, which is still in use from 1982. We never have enough room do we !!. I also decided to pack up the OO and go American O gauge - as I said it was cheaper than tri-ang Hornby OO back then. I thought alot about HO, drew up some horrendously complicated plans incorporating Chicago La Salle st (NYC, RI) and adjacent Dearborn (SF etc), city scenery, yards, 6 track main lines etc etc - never got beyond a few sketches thankfully. I also built an OO layout based on Chesterfield Market Place in a spare bedroom in my present house in 1996, but when "my little helpers" (yes twin girls) were born in 2001 that layout also bit the dust. I'm up in the loft now with OO, in the Garage with O - out of everybody's way !! I put the heater on today and ran a few trains. Bit of maintainence needed, which I will do if / when spring arrives. I dont envisage buying any more stock, I have enough and I have tons of work to be done with what I have - though I will tweek the layout & scenery a bit here and there. You will note that I have moved the MPD to make a narrow gauge station & yards. This was done just after laying the track and was due to Bachman bringing out its narrow gauge range. All the photos (including those below) are quite a few years old. I will take some new ones as the layout has progressed a bit. (but not alot) when I have done a spring clean soon. If anyone has any questions etc please feel free to ask. Comments / suggestions are also welcome. I'm not a scale modeller, most of my stuff runs out of the box, but I have done a bit of repainting / weathering, and plan to do a bit more. The maroon RI F9 & black SP F9 are my own repaint work. Brit15

Rather than post photos of my O gauge layout here and there about the forum in other peoples threads I have decided it's time to start a post to describe it. First off, MODS - is this the right place for a US themed layout thread ? I'll start off with the (complicated) track plan. I started in American O gauge around 1980. I was going to do the UK scene, and actually bought a little British O gauge, but the Lima stuff was poor, and the good stuff expensive. I allways had an interest in American railroads, and when MG Sharp in Sheffield advertised Atlas F9's at £15 each, cars at £5, I was hooked. A 22' x 12' concrete sectional garage was bought, electricity laid on, the whole shed was sealed, insulated with 2" polystyrene and 1/4" insulation board, floor sealed with diluted wood glue and I was off, The Colorado & Sawatch was born. Peco track was (and is still) used, the points having the unique ability to be easilly adjusted to accept course & fine scale wheels - I run both, still. The baseboard was 2" x 2" roughsawn frames all nailed up & covered with 1/2" chipboard & brown painted 1/2" insulation board on top. Scenery was real red sandstone, & chicken wire on wood formers covered with pink plaster laden sackcloth, sprinkled whilst wet with various coloured sands, earths, etc. Floor to mountain top scenery, a bit (ONLY a bit) like John Allens "Gorre & Daphetid". I have no uploadable photos of this early layout, I will get round to scanning old photos and add them sometime. The end came in 1993 when I got married & moved house. The layout was dismantled as was the sectional garage. What a job !! Eventually a new base was laid, garage re-erected, double glazed this time, electricity & connected to the house burglar alarm etc. The polystyrene insulation was re-used, but new 1/2" insulation sheeting installed. By 1995 I was back in business. I learned alot from my early layout, the new one is a "Walk in" design, the bridge crossing the isle is a lift up one. No scenery below board level on this layout though, storage for bikes, freezer etc (the joys of marriage !!). As you can see, most pointwork (all hand operated) is accessible from the one isle. Again the scenery was built as before, the large & heavy sandstone rock being re-used. Incidentally all my sandstone came from south Warrington, road excavated material from the laying of new gas mains !!. About this time I bought a tape "Rock Island railroad" and was converted to that road. But I don't like flat prarie scenery, however the Rock ran to Colorado Springs and Tucumcari (New Mexico) - great, mountains !!. A bit of research showed that the old Colorado Midland ran from Colorado Springs into the Rockies to Leadville etc. Also the narrow gauge Colorado Southern was in this area. My layout is based just south of Leadville (Buena Vista), SF, UP, RI have running rights on the (re-opened) Colorado Midland. The Sierra Electric is an interurban, however I have built the cars, but haven't strung wires yet. Colorado Southern narrow gauge is still "just about" running, on it's last legs. Alot of modellers Licence here !! My Atlas F9's are Santa Fe, Union Pacific & Burlington Northern, so about right for the general area. I have 2 Weaver Rock Island RS3's and have repainted a couple of F units RI maroon. Some Rivarossi steam locos run, 3 0-8-0 tender locos (need relettering to RI - yes the Rock had some similar 0-8-0's) and a couple of other Rivarossi steamers. Stock is mainly Atlas & Weaver, some intermountain kits etc. Wheel standards vary, as do couplings, but it all seems to work O Passenger stock is thin on the ground, something I need to address. Signals are not installed yet, but all the wiring is in. (it's been in since 1998 !!). The whole layout is wired & working, my mate made me 2 excellent 5amp controllers. The narrow guage has a hand held gaugemaster controller. As stated, all track is Peco bullhead (wrong for USA !!), loose ballasted with budgie grit on the main lines and black aquarium sand in the yards. No problems arise with loose ballast, my baseboards don't move - you can stand & jump on em - they don't move. Alterations etc are easy, with no damage to the track either. Lots still to do - but not in the winter months. I try to run trains every week for an hour, even in winter - keeps the tracks clean etc. Well thats enough talk for now - I'll post a couple of pix from a few years ago, and will post more soon. Brit15

I actually rarely need to clean the track, just run a few long trains with metal wheels every week, even in winter. Not done much on this layout for quite a while as during winter I'm up in the loft (insulated) where its warm. The track plan was drawn up and altered quite a bit during construction, the narrow gauge was added just before the scenery started in 2001. It all works quite well, saying I mix course (old Atlas) and scale (Weaver 2 rail) wheels on Peco bullhead track !!!! Couplings are a mix of atlas, kadee & weaver - they do the job OK. Nice to see 3 F units drawing 25 heavy cars grinding round the horseshoe curves & up 3% grades - makes the lights go dim !!. No timetables, car index, dispach operations, etc, etc, I just run trains & swap locos & stock around. I've enough on my plate with 2 x 25 car mainliners running & a narrow gauge train. Brit15

This is my O gauge (1/4" scale) model railroad. Still lots to do, signals, lights, stock weathering etc. I've been building it since 1980, moved house in 1993 and this layout dates from then. American O gauge was cheap back then !! Brit15

It wasn't all grotty. My brother and I were on the 10.17 Leeds to Glasgow on 5 August 1967. A gleaming Jubilee, 45562 "Alberta" on the front. If you have the Marsden Ral "Leeds" DVD this train, and me leaning out of the 4th coach, are on it ! Alberta came off at Carlisle, and an unrecorded Brittania took the train on to Glasgow. My last trip behind a BR steam loco was on 25/11/67, Preston - Manchester, Black 5 44816, filthy loco & a cold wet and misty day I wrote in my notebook. Brit15

My layout is set around 1960-63, but I run the odd steam + blue /grey set occasionally just for nostalgia. BTW the layout "January 68" really depicts this year. There is a you tube vid, and it featured a while ago in the Hornby mag. I remember the end of steam in Lancashire quite well. Springs Branch closed to steam in late 67, as with many other local sheds, only a few in Manchester / Liverpool / Preston areas at the end, sheds shutting almost weekly in 68. I was at Carnforth, Rose Grove & Lostock Hall on the last week in Aug 68, a Lancashire runabout rover ticket. Wonderful & sad week. It was not all gloom and despair by any means. Many new diesels replaced steam, lots of new / repainted stock & stations also. I remember a Liverpool Exchange to Preston express (Glasgow) had a Clean Black 5 and full blue / Grey rake one day in late '67. Yes, there was lots of tat and decay around as well. Some places had tat and new (you name it) side by side for many a year!! The West Riding also had lots to offer till around October 1967. Lots of steam there with blue / grey also (and B1's on Grey/Blue Pullmans Bradford-Leeds). They had a bit more variety at the end than us in Lancashire, WD's, B1's, Stanier tanks etc. Wonderfull "era" - and no excuse for not modelling it for nearly everything is availiable RTR. Brit15

No Bachy Blue & Grey ones ? Yes, there was at least one - I saw it at the side of Lower Ince station Wigan back in the late 60's or early 70's, on the Central Wagon co's carriage scrap line. I remember it had fairly new looking paint as well. Brit15

Foxline Scenes from the past no 24 "Railways of the High Peak Buxton - engines & men" (ISBN 1-870119-38-x) Page 24 has photos of nos 168 & another of 2361, both LNWR 0-6-2 locos, at Buxton around 1921 & 1900 respectivley. Page 26 & 27 has several photos of 1635 being recovered after plunging over the edge at the end of the turntable road around 1900. The book doesn't say wether these locos where allocated to Buxton, or just visiting however. Brit15

Twas meant to be a joke - however point noted. I hope they don't drop one of the the stereotyped boring locos (again) whilst unloading !! Brit15

They have the means !!

Be carefull, guard them well or the scousers will have the wheels off em !! (I go to Liverpool one a year to visit my Hubcaps) Brit15

Rolling Stones - Have you seen your mother baby, standing in the shadows, drinking a bottle of Youngs Chocolate Stout. Brit15

Coachman, many thanks for posting those photos - just what I need. Brit15

Thanks for all the info folks - didn't know about these - £8 each at Hattons - just ordered 4, and hope to bash 2 to a reasonable push-pull set. Anyone any photo's / links to appropriate photos ? Brit15

Thanks Jim & Baby Deltic for the airbrush weathering tips. Brit15

Commuting ? - In the 70's, for 6 months I caught a bus, (into town) then a train (Wigan Wallgate to Liverpool Exchange) then a ship (mersey ferry to Birkenhead). AND allways got a seat !! Loved every minute !! Brit15

I like the weathering effect on your buildings, do you very lightly airbrush them with dilute track colour ? Superb urban modelling - inspirational - thanks for posting the pix. brit15