gordon s

Hope all is well with you guys that are suffering the worst of the weather at the moment. Must be horrendous being there and seeing floodwaters rise without being able to do much. I cannot imagine how stressful it must be for those close to rivers or in low lying areas. Still windy here, but thankfully dry at the moment.

Morning Mick....Thanks for your PM. Been blowing a gale most of last night, so once again internet is off/on. Bit of a race to complete a post before the line drops.... They must know us well on here. The mutter icon is the very last one on the list....

Anthony, just to make it clear, the buildings were made by Alan Downes for Great Northern, a fellow RMWebber, who was rebuilding his Peterborough layout. Not having the necesary skills to make buildings of this quality and the fact that were ideal for my layout, helped my decision to buy them when they came up for sale. I shall focus on the woodwork, trackbuilding and electrics which is more than enough for me....

Apologies, I should have said.... The layout is 4mm, 00 gauge. The lower level is all code 83 Tillig plain track from the previous layout. All the visible track is code 75 rail, SMP plain track and hand built PCB pointwork using C & L components.

Without Templot software I'm limited to screen shots, so I've separated the three levels to see if that helps...

Well we appear to have settled into our new home, but sadly for me, I can't get my head round blogs, so will resort to a good old fashioned layout topic. For those of you who are relatively new to the forum, I'll give you a quick background to my intentions and you can take it from there. I'm now into my 60's and have retired. Kids are well off my hands and I am fortunate to have a loft conversion available which was above an integral double garage. A new garage has been build in the front of the house and the old one converted to a study and utility room downstairs and my railway room upstairs. This gives me a space of 18' square with central heating and daylight courtesy of three Velux windows. Only downside is that the slope of the roof reduces the usable space to around 14' on two sides once you go above a board height of 3' or so. I grew up in North london in the 50's and my earliest memories of railways came from my Aunt and Uncle who took me to Alexandra Palace when I was probably 2-3 years old. There was a terminus at the Palace and steam hauled trains consisting of N2's and sets of Quad Arts were my first memory. At the bottom of the hill was Wood Green, a suburban station on the ECML out of Kings Cross and once I had seen an A4 thundering through Wood Green with 11 coaches in tow at a fair lick, I was hooked. Those memories will never leave me, hence my love of ECML loco's and stock. The world was a different place then and even at 10 years old, I would go off for the whole day on my own to Kings Cross, St Pancras, Euston, Paddington, Liverpool Street and occasionally over the Thames to see the Malachite Green of the Southern at Victoria and Waterloo. Shed visits were KX, Camden, Old Oak, Willesden, Stratford, Hornsey, Stewarts Lane, Feltham, Nine Elms and even as a kid, you were rarely stopped or told to get out. Heaven! OK, back to the present. Each to their own, but my passion is full length trains and stations with reasonable facilities and I am now lucky enough to have sufficient space to create something to meet that need. In the early days I experimented with Tillig track and whilst it was fine, the restrictions that RTR gave me meant I was unable to create something with flowing curves. For years I have been jealous of those who could make their own track, but felt I would never be able to do it. It was encouragement from this forum that got me over that hurdle a couple of years ago and I was really surprised that I was able to create something that worked. It was though a whole new world opened for me. Once that happened, I had also read about Templot and decided that would be the way to go for me in terms of layout design. Sadly it was a mystery to me and despite several attempts to get started I could not get my head round it, until one day with some help from Martin Wynne, it all clicked into place and I have to say it is the best piece of layout planning software I have ever used and invaluable to anyone who is building their own track. The current layout is my third attempt at building this layout. Two earlier designs ended up in the skip as a combination of issues meant insurmountable problems were encountered. The biggest problem was failure to appreciate gradients and the brief to run steam locos with 7/8 coach trains. The first layout had a 1:50 climb and trains just ground to a halt, with the combination of loco adhesion, weight of the train, curves on the climb and too fierce a gradient. Everything has now been replanned with nothing less than a 1:100 gradient. The layout starts from a 16 track traverser which has been made from ply and heavy duty runners. It does work, although I will be making some changes to the track alignment. There then follows a double circuit climb of about 150' which allows an 18" clearance for access to the traverser and stock storage. The hidden lines have all been constructed on very narrow boards so that access to all hidden areas can be easily undertaken. The layout is dcc and is split into three power districts. Each district is protected by a circuit breaker first and then each individual board has it's own isolation switch for fault finding. Once the lines emerge, they continue around a folded figure of eight which will allow continuous running, should you just want to sit back and watch trains. The final level is a large terminus with engine facilities and a goods relief road which will serve industrial units. I was fortunate enough to purchase the buildings from Great Northern's Peterborough layout. These were built by Alan Downes and are really superb. This will be an urban setting and all scenery will be tunnels, bridges, retaining walls and low relief industrial buildings. It will be set in the transition period which will allow me to run both steam or diesel, although I do adopt a run whatever I like attitude and odd locos will certainly make an appearance from time to time. The first board has been made as that had to sit over the stairwell, so this has track laid, wired and ballasted and the first pass scenic work is in place. There is still much to do but the bulk of the work on this first board has been completed. The lower levels are virtually complete and work is now starting on the folded eight. I have printed off a full size plan of about 30% of the layout and you can see how this will take shape. This project is not a five minute job and I suspect it will take 18 months or so to get up to the terminus level. I work on my own and even though I have retired it's amazing where the time goes. I'll happily post updates if people are interested....

Got it in one Mick. The sun has just popped up here as well and we're all still breathing, so that's a plus...

So that's what a hammer toe is for.....

Morning guys....Gets more like a hospital ward every day. Just to add to the list of casualties. There I was adding some shelves to another wardrobe yesterday, when I kicked over a box a screws. Only problem was I lost my balance and ended up standing on them. Not the thing to do in bare feet. Lifted my foot to find two screws sticking out of the sole of my foot. Jeez that hurt and I had to unscrew them to get them out. Not to be recommended.... Edit: How are the ribs these days BoD?

Wet and windy down here, so internet connection in on and off continually. Overhead line between some trees is the problem as every time the wind blows, the trees pull on the cables and break the connection.... Have a fun day. Hope you have left some beer in the South West Dave....

Morning all...Had a fun day yesterday, printing off my layout plan full size and then sticking the best part of 100 A4 sheets of paper together. First time I have seen the layout in it's eventual form, so although it was time consuming, it was actually enjoyable to see what it will look like. Sun is out this morning and the rain and wind have gone. Another wardrobe is waiting for internal shelves, so now doubt that will be on the list for today....

Morning all... After all the wind and rain last night, my internet connection is playing up once again and keeps dropping out, so don't be surprised if I'm absent for a while. Glad to hear you stayed dry last night DD. You seem to have had your fair share over the years.

Afternoon all....Sorry to hear nothing was resolved Mick. The legal system can be incredibly slow as those involved make more money from the poor b*ggers involved in the dispute. They're in a win/win position no matter what happens. I wondered where you had gone Ds. Hope you're on the mend now. Mixed blessings this morning. Internet is working but email has gone down.... One day it will all work as Mr Gates intended.

Morning all....Late on parade again. Somehow it's getting more difficult to get out of bed in the darkness of the early mornings. Sounds like you had an eventful day Mike. Annoys me when you end up out of pocket for something that is nothing to do with you. A bit like the dents in your car door when some inconsiderate parker whacks into your door without anyone seeing and then just drives off.... Good luck today, Mick. I see we did well againt SA yesterday in the 20/20. Doesn't bode well for the next few weeks.

I was talking about the real ones....

Morning all.....It's raining. That just about sums up today. You could buy one or two locos with ??45m.....Bittern and Union of South Africa could be a good starting point.

Morning all....Must be suffering the same fate as you BoD. Really had trouble getting out of bed and getting started. Been called for the drying up, so gotta go.

Must have been curry night then. We enjoyed a take away from our local emporium as well. Sounds like we may have to have the windows open for our journey to High Wycombe.....

Morning all....Come on boys, rise and shine. Particularly those going to Wycrail. We may even get back in time to see a bit of England v Australia..

Well you learn something every day. Had no idea what a Schedule 1 license was, so just been reading up about them. Thanks for the tip Dave.

.....and another one...(picture that is.)

Think we just won the lottery! A visitor to our pond a few minutes ago......Now that's really made my day.

Morning lads.....Left on my own last night to care for our two dogs whilst Guy Fawkes celebrations were going on. Thankfully it wasn't too bad and both dogs found their own little hideaway to escape the worst of the noise. I suspect Saturday will be far worse though.... Got the day to finalise the bus wiring on the layout before the 'Ampshire boys turn up in force on Saturday. Should be an enjoyable day for all. Wycrail/pub lunch and a play. What more could lads want?......Better give Sam a call.

Sorry to hear about your meeting Dave. If you can survive financially, you will be much better out of it completely. From what I read and see, corporate life is no longer a pleasure and the pressures will only increase further as time goes on. I'm sure you'll make the right decision for your circumstances.

I must lead a very boring life....Even the weather is nothing to write home about. One month on and still doing battle with BT to get my internet line anywhere near the speed it is supposed to be. In all fairness to them, it's rare for there to be a problem, so can't really complain. I have a theory it's the 150 yards of overhead cable between us and the road. The trees have all grown up and round the cables and the constant rubbing in branches may well have damaged the insulation and let water in. Next battle may well be whose responsibility the trees are and who will pay for them to be lopped to a height below the cables. Could be ours/BT or the council, as they run alongside a public footpath. Happy days....