Mike at C&M

Little and often, this describes the work on the farmhouse over the past couple of weeks. First job was to reinforce the positioning of windows. This was done with pieces of plastruct which had to be fitted in between moulded parts of the window. In order to block any light getting through, the inside of the house was painted with a similar colour to the window frames, so any holes were filled with paint, and it would not be obvious looking at the window from the outside. This procedure continues. Another way to prevent light getting through the ill-fitting windows was to put in place window sills. These are thin, wide sections of Plastruct, and these are being painted in a mid-grey colour to make them visible. More coats of paint are needed on these. Once the painting is complete, time to move on to fitting the balaconies.

To be sung to the tune of "The Gasman Cometh" by Flanders & Swann (see below) " 'Twas on the Thursday evening, the glazier came along With his Plasticweld, his window parts, and his merry Glazier song. He put a few doors and windows in, it took no time at all. But they didn't fit quite properly, the holes needed to be small. Oh it all makes work for the working man to do." Windows from a Kibri kit were measured up ahead of designing the shell of the building, and the necessary holes placed to accept these windows. However, I have now find out that I have made the holes slightly too large. The window frames are not very secure where they are fitted, and it will require some supporting by glueing some Plastruct strip to the sides of the window frames and the inside of the walls, Otherwise, any lights fitted within the house will simply shine through the gaps that currently exist, and I would also run the risk of windows falling out For anyone who does not know the song "The Gasman Cometh", it is as relevant now as it was some 60 years ago.

Germany has a famous case of an electric train being misrouted at the end of 2021. December 12th 2021 saw the annual major timetable change. Up until December 11th, EuroCity trains between Munich and Zurich ran between Buchloe and Hergatz, via the route that served more population centres, such as Kempten. These were hauled by pairs class 218 diesels between Munich and Lindau, where a Swiss Re4/4II electric took over for the onward journey to Zurich. From December 12th, the service would be taken over by Swiss ETR610 electric units which would run the whole way through between Zurich and Munich. German railways electrified the shorter route between Hergatz and Buchloe, through Memmingem, which saved time over the former route. The new service would launched with great fanfare on the day. However...... The first service northbound reached the junction at Hergatz, and the signalman routed the ETR610 unit along the former (Kempten) route. Not only did the electric run out of wires, it brought them down as it hit gantries. Rescue of the stranded unit and repairs meant the both routes were closed for most of the day, so the celebrations of the new, wonderful service has to be cancelled.

Other retailers are available, and I know that they would love to have your business. When Cavalex ask us to submit our final trade orders, we will be ordering over and above what customers have ordered from us, so we will still be in a position to accept customer orders for the 56.

Yes, I have 3. What I hadn't realised is that they are all class 1042.5s, in blutorange livery and with the old Flugelrad symbol. To get a more balanced fleet, I need to buy a 1042.0, a green liveried loco, and one in blutorange with the 'Pflatsch' logo. One of the three 1042s shown here is a prehistoric Liliput model which had it's roof modified with a Schwarz kit back in the 1980s, and is not DCC fitted, so this may be retired. In order of appearance, 1042.537, 1042.611 and 1042.619

No, because I do not own a "Taurus" locomotive However, I am sure that I will eventually place a figure of a lady wearing a dirndl on the layout.

Mine is the DCC fitted version. So simply program a different address, in this case to 633.

Over the past few weeks, I have been wrestling with a CAD program to design my farmhouse. A very early draft appears earlier in this thread. Numerous Youtube videos were watched to assist in me getting it right, and the delete key was hit on numerous occasions as I slowly made progress. A couple of weeks ago, the design was completed. Just holes for where the windows and doors will be fitted. I have loads of bits available from kits bought previously, and after measuring the ones I wanted to use with a vernier scale, the required holes were placed within the design. A friend offered to do the 3D printing. Then came the wrestling in getting the file downloaded, e-mailed to him and then for the file to be accessed by the printer! I thought these things were supposed to be easy! Today saw the 3D printed farmhouse delivered - Are you allowed to be excited by a piece of 3D printed plastic? The print will need some attention to remove some plastic tailings from the print process, and there is a small split where the print was paused which will require a little filling. But I am delighted with this. The farmhouse is something I have been pondering doing for at least 15 years. Once at home, the farmhouse was taken up into the attic to see if it fits. The print comes with an additional base over and above what I had designed in, which threatened to cause problems. In the end, a small amount of work is needed to the layout to accept this additional base to get the farmhouse and barn to sit snuggly in place.

Order book open at C&M Models. https://cmmodels.7.ekm.shop/class-60-diesel-locomotive-621-c.asp

Direct link to C&M Models online shop page for the GBRf set: https://cmmodels.7.ekm.shop/cavalex-gbrf-farewell-twin-pack-56081-in-br-blue--56098-in-br-large-logo-18964-p.asp Link to the pages for the other class 56s: https://cmmodels.7.ekm.shop/class-56-diesel-locomotive-575-c.asp Feel free to choose the "payment on delivery" option, and we will contact you when the models are available for sending out. Our orders for all the 56s are likely to be finalised before the end of the February, so if you know you want one, it's time to get your order in.

My BR Blue electrics are crying out "Buy me! Buy me!"

The flightpath over Washington state, after she left the Everett facility is worthy of note. This piece of sky art took 2 hours 35 minutes to complete.

Finally get to runs some trains, and my Lenz 100 system decides to do strange things! The inaugural run with the X633 Draisine went without a hitch, and it continues to run whenever asked. However, nothing else wants to respond. So the DB Class 151 taking new Volkswagen cars over the Brenner Pass to Italian dealers is staged.

First job this morning was to put the front scenic island back in position. If for no other reason, it saves me having to step over it every time I walk around the attic! The 3D printed farmhouse will sit on the right hand end of the barn, in the view below. The idea of scenery in front of the curving track, and behind, was to give the view of the layout some depth, and with the contours rising to the rear, I feel I have achieved that. As things currently sit, there is a fault line worthy of the San Andreas between the two sections, but this is simply down to the front section not being properly bolted into place, and nothing to do with plate tectonics in miniature. This will resolve itself when this section is fitted as it should be. Track cleaning comes next.

At the beginning of my week's holiday, I had 2 goals: - Fully scenic the back corner of the layout. I know I won't achieve this, but progress has been made elsewhere, and once the extra trees and a few other scenic features arrive, then this area can be finished in a relatively short time. - Run some trains. Might happen tomorrow! The original intention was to static grass up to where the culvert emerges from the embankment, but I carried on to just short of where a road will cross the tracks on a level crossing. This removes the need to take off the front scenic island (not fitted in the pictures) when I progress the scenery further down the board. And that concludes the scenic work being done on my week off. I am delighted with the progress made, and happy with the look achieved. FIngers crossed, this builds up some momentum to carry on with further work. And to finish, a before and after comparison

In front of the section being worked on sits another scenic island, which has had a partially built barn on it for 10 years plus! The suggestion was made to me that a CAD designed farmhouse is what is needed to marry up with it. Courage has finally been plucked up to start....

Steady progress continues to be made. Fencing is going up, gravel paths are being laid and the positioning of trees is being decided upon. Progressing down the hill like an Icelandic lava flow, the country lane is almost fully surfaced, and the fencing contractor is working in the other direction. Three Noch chestnut trees are now glued into place. The masking tape which was used to cover the country lane yielded plenty of spare static grass pieces which are held in place by PVA glue around the tree bases. The scenic island will require removal for further work once I get some more of the chestnut trees, but for the time being, it has been put back into it's proper place. If nothing else, I can see how it looks. And I am happy with the result.

Static grassing continues, but it has been a frustrating couple of days battling with the trees. The smaller birch trees close to the backscene worked better with the technique of a removable card disk to enable the trees to be glued down after the static grass had been laid. However, unseen in the picture below is a large bare area by the base of the trunk of most of these trees. Next job will to be remove the masking tape to reveal the path of the lane. This should yield sufficient patches of static grass to fill most of the gaps at the bottom of the trunks. (And who left those fence panels sitting on the permanent way?) The scenic island has been taken out to enable it to be worked on close-up, reaching across the layout was making working on it difficult. Fixing the large chestnut trees in place is proving to be a major problem, mainly due to poor planning on the contours where the trees will stand. They continually want to lean at excessive angles, and as a result, I have had to build up small level sections for the trees to be fixed to. This will require substantial infill sections of static grass, and how I will achieve this is still being thought about. The country lane section on the 'island' has been laid, after the masking tape here was carefully lifted. Some scenic work on this is still required.

Ta! Da! The sellotape is now removed from the haylofts, and I am delighted with the result. A little filling in of the grass is desired, but the buildings are free of static grass. One aspect that has definitely not worked is where the background trees are to be placed. Using Noch trees, they come with a small plastic base which can be stuck to the scenery - I had "Tacky Wax" in mind. A small circle of cardboard was cut to the size of the tree base, and by inverting a screw within this card, I could simply lift the screw/card upwards to leave a bare spot to stick down the tree within the newly laid static grass. Wrong! Even having put in something to level the place where the tree was to be planted, it wouldn't stick, and the tree base does not sit down in the grass, especially the large chestnuts at the back corner. Some thought required as to how to get around this. Happy with the progress made thus far. The project will not be able to be completely finished during my week off, as I do not have enough chestnut trees to run along the back of this area, but provision can be made for them, when I figure out how they will be fixed into place.

A week at home, and with plenty of preparatory work done over the past few weeks, my hope is to get all of the corner shown in the last post fully sceniced. The scenic island at the back had it's plaster bandage painted green, so the base colour for the static grass was in place. The whole lot was cleaned with a mini-hoover, which just succeeded in blowing plaster dust everywhere! Not something I wanted to achieve. A country lane will run across the back of this section. This will be done with a fine 'ballast' stuck down with Deluxe Materials "Ballast Bond". To allow this lane to be clear of grass, a path of masking tape was lightly stuck where needed. Alpine meadows usually feature haylofts dotted around them. Two of these will sit next to the roadway, to enable the farmer easy access to them. I was all ready to sort out lengthy grass tufts to sit next to these when I checked some pictures of the prototypes on the internet - farmers tend to cut their grasslands tight up to the haylofts, so I will need to put the static grass right up to the side of them, but avoid covering the side of the haylofts in grass. My thought was to wrap the hayloft in sellotape, put the grass down, and then remove the sellotape. Will it work? The lofts are held in place with "Tacky Wax" A couple of sections of the country lane need to be slightly wider. The entrances to the haylofts, a place for a livestock trough and a seat, plus an area for storing logs. These areas were also masked off. Behind the lane will be a rustic countryside fence with some beech trees interspersed - the prototype was seen near Brixen im Thale in the Austrian Tyrol. A rough check was done to see how this would fit. First day of the week off, and the static grassing has started on the railway side of the lane. Most of this is simply covering a large area. And what has happened with the haylofts as the static grass was laid around them? As this is written, they bear more resemblance to Cousin It from the Addams Family, but the coverage of grass up to their walls looks about right. Once the sellotape around the haylofts is cut away, I will then see if my idea has worked.

For those who prefer their catalogues in printed form, the Hornby International catalogue is now available.

That Roco "Swiss Express" Re4/4II is calling out my name. For those who want the "Swiss Express" coaches, LS Models announced these some time ago, but a likely release date for these in unknown.

The muse has struck again, after a few months away from the attic. I have decided to work on the countryside corner first, with the first task being to build a scenic 'island' that fits into the furthest corner. The first picture shows the gap where this fits (behind the VT11.5 power car), and shows as the white modroc-ed area in the later pictures. Noch beech trees have been bought to go next to a country lane that will travel across this section. Some re-contouring has been done so the lane will not run on a ridiculous slant and so the alpine haylofts can stand on relatively level ground. Plenty to do, and looking forward to getting the static grass down on this area.

I would like to repeat the original question - Does anyone know a source of Next18 blanking plates, please.

Swiss railways widely name their locomotives, and in some cases on private lines - railcars, after towns, cities and geographical areas. The first 25 SBB Class Ae6/6s were named after the Swiss cantons, and could be identified by a chrome stripe around the locomotive. The rest of the Ae6/6s and all the Re6/6s were named after Swiss cities and towns. The Bern-Lotschberg-Simplon (BLS) named their Re4/4 locomotives after towns on their network, whilst the narrow gauge Rhaetian Railway (RhB) did the same with their Ge4/4 and Ge6/6 locomotives. The picture below of "Tasch" is the village emblem photographed on the side of a Brig-Visp-Zermatt railcar in the 1980s. This railway is now part of the Matterhorn-Gotthard Bahn (MGB)