Steadfast

Buildings, yeah....buildings... I'm using a couple of Bachmann Scenecraft items where I feel they are suitable, enhance the scene and help me out, rather than using them because they are there. There seem to be a lot of layouts with just RTP buildings plonked on a board. Cliché number two after a TMD to cram all my stock onto The main shed building is being scratch built from mounting card. I've chosen this for its strength, ease of marking out and cost. The side piece is one of 3 or 4 produced so far, more will be done, acting as a frame to support the roof. Not sure what type of card or paper to use for the roof yet, I need something that'll flex yet is rigid enough. The visible side of the shed will be the same shape, but in clear plastic to allow the interior to be seen. The building I'm working on at the moment is based on the right hand building here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Laira_TMD.jpg The slightly taller building, with the curve of the roof to the front, will be represented in single track form. The HST shed going off the left of the photo will form the backscene, with my switches for points and isolating sections hidden inside. The large triangular area at the front of the board will have some grounded van bodies, some small buildings and a concrete pad. A road bridge will provide the scenic break at this end James, I don't see why you couldn't build track in situ on the board, two layers of paper mache, then a couple of layers of wall paper past and A3 white paper topped off with emulsion paint has provided a solid shell, which when nicely braced inside is solid. I think Baby Laira is 4' by 2', the only weaknesses being due to me rather than materials. The fiddle yard is much stronger than the layout due to this... cheers jo

Hi Richard, Foamboard is similarly easy to dent, which is why I have covered it in paper mache and sheet of A3 paper. This gives a really tough shell, yet doesn't add much weight. I'll post about the process later on when I have a bit more time jo

Cheers James, Core fleet is 2 class 08s, 3 dummy power cars, a handful of Mk3s and a mainline loco or two, so definitely not a "look at all my trains" Yeah, I think I'd consider it for a bigger layout - it's making sure the joins and cuts are square that's the potential problem area. I've learnt the hard way about where the bracing etc needs to go - I'll pop a post up eventually highlighting what has and hasn't worked jo

Righto then, despite appearances earlier the board is still in one piece. It was worth persevering with, as its damn light! For example, I've been doing tracklaying and wiring sat on my bedroom floor with the layout on my lap. Much easier with the laptop on, music playing and a brew on the go instead of out the garage in the cold. Transportation should be easier too with the light weight construction. With the trial and error in terms of construction and coating the foam board out of the way, a future build with this material should be quicker and easier. Track is about 85% down, and my simple wiring theory is paying off - so far it actually works! All thats left to lay are the roads into the shed - compared to the track plan the road for the fuel oil delivery has been changed slightly - instead of the run round loops, the tanks will now need to be propelled in, assuming a run round off scene. This has given me an extra road to stable a DMU, barrier coaches or a shunter. I'm still amazed the wiring works... It's more organised than it looks, essentially the controller feeds the tag strip, and each half is wired up with a bus bar made from handrail wire, to give a red end and a black end. Track feeds come from one side, feeds to the switches for the point frogs etc come from the other, keeping it relatively organised Apologies for the poor res pics, they're quick phone snaps. Will get some better ones as work progresses cheers jo

It's funny, only last week I was saying what a good location to model Hinksey would be to model, as we were stood on the footbridge in the wind I'll be looking forward to seeing this develop. 20ft sounds like a fair old length, and a decent space to represent Hinksey. A quick Google Earth measurement when I got home from Oxford last week suggested needing over 40 feet to do it without compression cheers jo

Some really nice stuff there guys. I particularly like a few of Nidge's black and white 66s, and Brian's mirror shot Here's a couple of shots of some welded rail at Hinksey on Thursday (10/3/11) - the second reminds me of plasticine cheers jo

No need to presume Geoff - it was 60013 on St Pancras - Whatley empties Very nice too! DBS red always looks a bit stark against maroon coal hoppers! cheers jo

Dave, heavy rain maketh the shot! Much better than drizzle or white cloud Hope your feeling better btw jo

As promised... 60013 rounds the curve at Crofton on 6A74 Whatley - Theale, sounding and looking superb 8/3/11 60096 passing the Wilts and Berks canal near Wootton Bassett on 6B33 Theale - Robeston 8/3/11 It's rather nice having these 60s around at the moment :THUMBSUP: cheers jo

Yep, and 13 on Whatley - Theale this morning. Returns this afternoon. 60096 on Theale Murcos Pics later jo

The Whatley beast seems to be different to any of the Thomas Hill locos I can see listed on the Judith Edge site. I haven't seen any photos of any other identical shunters online, they all seem to have a rear catwalk, whereas the steps on the Whatley one lead directly into the cab jo

Thanks for the PM Guy - it really ilustrates how small the thing is! I'd like to model it in N, so motorising could be interesting, if not it'd be an interesting static model. At least the GMs are a bit easier to model with cobbled together bits of various switcher models Thanks again - plenty of food for thought jo

Interesting stuff - I don't suppose anyone knows any more about the 4 wheeler please? It's one of those things that one day would be nice to model - along with an SW1001 or two cheers jo

Was that the 6 wheeled jobbie with similar styling to the 4 wheel Thomas Hill I photted, Martin? I've not seen any pics of it in Hanson livery, I assume the GM beast replaced it. I've never seen a pic of the SW1001 in ARC colours, so I'm guessing its around the rebrand time that the change happened. No idea where it went after, but I've got a mental image of an ARC coloured shunter at Peak Forest - am I imagining this? Not much help for you I'm afraid cheers jo

Thanks guys Scott, I'd forgotten until you said about 08032 being at Eastleigh, there are a few (at least two, the other being 08933) Mendip 08s being overhauled there. They also did the work rebuilding the Hanson switcher after it's accident. That's interesting Mark, will have to keep an eye on that B) jo

Absolutely cracking! It really conveys the grungy look of the prototype I'll have to remember this method for when I get round to my bogie tanks

The Somerset quarries of Merehead and Whatley are operated very intensively - literally Moving the Mendips as the EWS Westbury driver's shirts say The GM SW1001 bought by Yeoman in the early 80s is relatively widely known about, but the fleet is more diverse than people may realise. Just a note before I continue - the only publicly available location featured here is off the road bridge at Whatley. All the other pictures were taken either during a private guided tour or the Merehead open day in 2008 Right, first up is Hanson no.4 at Whatley, seen in 2007. This is a Thomas Hill industrial type jobbie, a Vanguard I think, but am happy to be corrected. There doesn't seem to be much about this one on the net, so any additional info would be appreciated! Of note is the fact it has swinghead buckeye couplers to allow shunting of the buckeye fitted "inner" wagons, and sounds like a beast! Next up is a No. 120 "Whatley Endeavour", a GM EMD SW1001 - this one seems to be less well known than the Yeoman one, and was acquired around 2000, second hand. It got rather more public exposure when it ran away in 2008, ending up with a somewhat more streamlined cab thanks to a tunnel. The first two shots show it pre rebuild (2007), the third post rebuild (2009). The only visible difference seems to be change to LED marker lights As well as these less common types, there are also plenty of ex BR class 08s in use with Mendip Rail. Most are in Yeoman blue, though a few retain old liveries, FGW green 08643 and BR blue 08947 spring to mind. As well as the Somerset quarries, they can also be seen at Machen in Wales and the Isle of Grain, and I have a feeling they can be seen around Acton yard. 08032 is a Yeoman stalwart, originally numbered as 33, it's now regained it's former BR number, Merehead 2008 08643 is ex FGW, still retaining the green colour scheme, seen here at the Merehead open day in 2008 08643 and 08652 stabled at Whatley, 2009 Finally, here is the Yeoman SW1001, number 44, named "Western Yeoman II" on a plate in similar style to the Westerns, in particular D1035. This loco was bought in the early 1980s, so is now 30 years old, and is still giving stirling work and led to the purchase of the class 59s, such was it's quality. Despite Aggregate Industries buying out Foster Yeoman in 2008, the Yeoman brand still lives on in 2011 I hope these are of interest to someone, and show just what's hiding in a corner of Somerset jo

I've had a couple of ideas recently that I had to see how they look in practise. Hmm, instead of the original HST livery (which I'm not a fan of) what if the much tastier Large Logo was appplied An alternative take on the Canadian National / DB Schenker 67 with a bit of the CN black and red. A bit less brash than the all over red IMO cheers jo

Hi Tom, Good to see someone else enjoying the new mk1s! The close coupling is a real star feature - and it's better than on previous releases with this feature (Dapol Cargowaggons spring to mind) where the springs were so weak that the weight of the train caused the gap to expand. The mk1s with one long and one short shank coupling will negotiate 1st rad curves btw, my test track is all 9 inch Setrack curves

60096 was today's EWS one cheers jo

Nice shots Andy - looks even better now it's a bit grubby. The unpainted metal cab air vents are a nice touch to match the handrails Now that the red one has moved up north, I finally managed to get a shot of Tata Tug 60099 in decent light the other day: Tata - DB Schenker branded 60099 passing Hall End near Wickwar with 6E41 Westerleigh - Lindsey 8/2/11 cheers jo

70003 did the Wentloog liner again today - this time the weather played ball B) Working 4O51 Wentloog - Southampton for the second time, 70003 climbs the bank at Cattybrook If it hadn't been for it running about an hour late, it would have been rather a different scene: http://joalder.fotop.../p68983744.html cheers jo

Here's 70003 crawling past Pig Lane, near Hullavington with today's 4O51 Wentloog - Southampton, the first Southampton based run too see a 70, as mentioned earlier. The reason the train was going so slowly is that it got looped at Hullavington, allowing me to get to Rodbourne just before it passed There's more shots from this week here http://joalder.fotopic.net/c1939053.html Hopefully it'll stick around so we can get it in the sun B) cheers jo