Taz

I'm not so sure of that. It does have a 'middle' connection to the cab side but this is in the middle of a bend in the hand rail. I've cropped a couple of pictures of both Earl Cairns and Ince to show what I mean (Ince is back in her box at the moment)

BR(W), Thanks for this info. Even though I have models with both versions I had failed to notice this difference. Hopefully it should be within my ability to make the change. Cheers.

I don't have 5068 but here's 7034:

Cheers Mike, that's good to know And Coach, the splasher tops are indeed black.

Ince Castle arrived on my doorstep today Looks just as impressive as Earl Cairns. I think the double chimney is the best version yet to adorn a RTR ex GWR engine. Still not sure about the lubricator though. The pipework looks just a bit too chunky to me. I think she will be ideal for renumbering into Isambard Kingdom Brunel in 1960 contition - unless someone here knows of a reason not.

This sounds interesting. Care to share more details with the wider world?

Ince castle now in stock at Hattons: http://www.ehattons.....aspx?SID=25745

Thanks guys. I have had a quick look for the book but can't find it in stock anywhere (apart from a couple of SH dealers who are asking quite a lot for it). Alan, yours is another layout I am following and is providing lots of inspiration for me

Looks like I picked the wrong week to visit DRAG a fortnight ago. Looks good. Are you going to get the rest finished now or is this going to make you stop and play for a bit Brian.

Thanks for the kind comments guys. Hopefully I won't be moving for a long time, if ever. Worst case scenario is its half a days work to rip out the stud wall Robin, I have ben following your layout as well. Can't have too many Western layouts or Castles! Nick, I don't think it will be quite as impressive as Pendon - for a start its a fraction of the size. Fortunately some of the river valeys in the area can be quite narrow and steep. What I would like to model though, and which I haven't seen before, is the disused pillars of the previous broad gauge trestle viaduct next to the in use one.

I'm not 100% on this but I think the lining on that tender in the photo is orange and the boiler bands look like they could be orange/black/orange which would suggest the Star is actually in green.

Thanks guys. Dave, if I can get even close to the standard of your work I'll be a very happy boy Jamie, yes there will be a viaduct in the corner. Not quite as big as the full drop down baseboards but at this time I am not 100% sure on how I am going to tackle it so I gave myself more room than I need. I think a field trip out to Ivybridge to photograph a real viaduct could be on the cards soon. Cheers.

Once the room was finished the first job was to get the baseboards up. I'll freely admit that I'm not a great woodworker and struggle to cut anything in a straight line. However, although the end result might not be pretty it is strong and level, which is what counts at the end of the day. I started off by putting up 3"x1" battens up around the walls to support the baseboards. They were set at a height of 39". This was tall enough to clear the kitchen units but short enough to fit under the window sills. The baseboards themselves are made of 9mm ply. I used the ply to make a box structure, braced with 2"x2" blocks in the corners. A lip was left to slide over the wall mounted battens. In hindsight this was completely unecessary for a permanent layout and I could have saved myself lots of trouble by just building a frame out of 3"x1" with the ply only used for the top surface. The supporting legs were constructed of 2"x2" timber with adjustable feet to allow fine tuning whilst levelling the boards. I bought these years ago from Red Dog for a previous portable layout which never got beyond the baseboard stage. The first board goes up. The individual boards where bolted to each other to form the circuit. The fiddleyard boards The scenic section with the printed out templot plan stuck down. For the area where the viaduct will be I built a lower section and cut out the trackbed using the templot plan as a guide. The wooden supports for this are tempoarily in place. Once I have finalised the design of the viaduct spans I will put in something more permanent. Once this was all done I looked at designing the layout of the fiddleyard, using peco paper turnout templates. It soon became clear to me that unless I was not going to use half the width of the board the radius of the inside turnouts would drop down to 18" (2nd Radius). As I would like to use 3 links and the like I did some quick and dirty experimentation with a 2nd radius set track circle and it quickly became obvious to me that I would suffer with buffer lock on longer 4 wheel stock using 3 links. This left me with a dilema of either changing my desired coupling method or rethinking the fiddleyard. In the end I decided to rip out the fiddleyard boards and build a traverser in their place. So a trip to ScrewFix for some heavy duty drawer runners and much woodwork later and I ended up with this: It is over 9' long and will take 12 to 14 tracks, each capable of holding a 9 coach express. Not quite scale length but very satisfactory. The approach track on the inside loop will still be a quite tight 24" but this should cope with the couplings I want to use. The only remaining job then was to create the lifting section that would go next to the entry door: open closed Now that is all done I can finally move onto track laying. From starting on the garage conversion to this point has taken me a year.

As this layout is a long term project I wanted to give it a decent home. This meant I wanted to do a proper conversion of the garage. Fortunately my garage is double skinned and has a pitched roof. By creating a partition stud wall I was able to create a 16.5' x 11.5' train room and still be able to use the front up and over doors to access a shortened garage area where the bikes, lawnmower etc could live. The first job I had to do was add an extra window into the rear wall of the garage to allow in extra light. This was a simple job of cutting a hole into the wall and slotting in a Wickes off the shelf upvc window. The father in law busy cutting into the garage. I also took the oportunity to replace the existing door and window with upvc items. A stud wall was constructed and lined with plaster board. I also clad all the inside walls and the ceiling with plaster board. The ceiling and stud wall were well insulated, spot lights added and then the whole lot was skimmed over by a plasterer (the only job I didn't do myself). A couple of coats of white paint later and some lino on the floor and the room was finished. I has intended to document this as I went along but unfortunately my camera packed up during this stage. This is the inside of the garage before the stud wall went up This is the completed room from a similar angle. I had some old kitchen units I had kept back and they went into the room to provide storage for tools etc. The layout will live above these. This is the view taking in the new window and looking out the existing door and window This is the front of the garage through the up and over doors showing the other side of the partition wall.

Collaford is my home based OO roundy roundy layout. It's a fictional location but is based somewhere to the east of Plymouth on the ex GW main line in 1960. I have based it loosely on Ivybridge (station immediately adjacent to a viaduct) but to provide more operational interest there is a branch line leading up onto South Dartmoor. The primary reason for this lines existence is china clay traffic but there will be enough justfication for a branch autotrain. This initial sketch: developed into this Templot plan: Thanks to all who helped on my layout planning thread on RmWeb3 http://www.rmweb.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=66&t=39922 I am fortunate to have a double garage which I have converted to give me a space 16.5' x 11.5' I intend to use smp plain track with hand built turnouts using c&l plastic components. As the up line between Plymouth & Newton Abbot had been relaid in Flat bottom rail by 1960 I am also thinking about using Colin Craig components to represent this. The fiddleyard will use peco Code 100 for the simple reason that I have loads of the stuff left over from my teenage layout. With a demanding job and a young family I don't always have a lot of time to dedicate to modelling so this is going to be a long term project that will take years (decades?) to complete.

Nick, Good to see you've started and I look forward to following progress. As has already been said, you can't have enough GWR / BR(W) layouts

Richard, We sort of had a quick look at this at DRAG last week (I poped along to see what all this P4 malarky is about and brought my Castle to show). There isn't much room unmodified but it looks like the splashers are made of quite thick plastic and could probably be quite safely thinned down from the inside. John (Re6/6) might be able to give you a more P4centric answer although we only had a steel rule to hand to make our rather crude measurements. But it looked as if there was at least 5mm difference between the inside and outside edge of the splashers.

alas I don't know yet. My layout is still at the bare baseboard stage and I haven't dug out my set track 'running in' circle for it yet.

Earl Cairns beat the snow to arrive today. A few more piccies: And a few comapring the old Earl Cairns to the new: You can reaaly see the differnece in roof profile here: All in all a stunning model. Now I just need to wait for one suitable for renaming to Isambard Kingdom Brunel. The one minor downside to this is that the nameplate and splasher side appear to be one single molding, so the existing nameplates won't just 'snap' off.

If mine arrives before Xmas I'll bring it along to the 30th meet up so you can see it in the flesh and help you make a decision

Just tried to place my order but have been advised to call back tomorrow because they are having problems with the price on their computer system. Apparently the standard model will be ??145 +p&p but if it is ordered before they have the computer sorted it will charge at the higher rate. Might be worth a call once it is all sorted if you have already placed an order to make sure you get charged the lower price.

Thanks for bringing this across. This layout was one of the must sees on the old forum and I'm glad you are going to continue over here. Compliments to your dad for his outstanding modelling and yourself for the quality photos Brian.

Masterpieces in minature Two questions - Where did you source the stools and do you recommend installing before ballasting? I had always planned to ballast first with pointrodding being one of the many detailing jobs that would be carried out at a (much) later date. Cheers, Brian.

I'm sure you can justify one model that wouldn't fit your prototype location. Afterall, the rest of your collection is spot on historically speaking

I know in an earlier update you said you had a 'token' 00 member, and it is very considerate of you to allow him to play trains first