F-UnitMad

Please don't apologise Dave; as you know there are many of us in the UK that model US outline, but to 'get it right' you sometimes need some local knowledge, and being 5,000-odd miles away from one's favourite Railroad*, that can sometimes be quite hard!! This is where the Internet and Forums like this have really opened up the hobby - to be able to get first-hand info like your's, such as the 'clean bit' on diesel hoods, is just invaluable. * Edit - Never mind however many years too late, if it's a Fallen Flag!!

Dunno, but thanks for 'bumping' this thread as I've obviously missed the June pictures!! I tell you what - those F-Units are utterly superb! If N Scale had been that detailed when I was doing it 20 years ago, I would've had a much harder decision to make when it came to choosing between N & HO...

Any more progress on this awesome layout lately...??

Staying with the American theme; go to this Saturday's Trent Valley North American Modellers Show, and ask where the 'Thomas' layout is...??!!??

Funny you should put that right under the picture, as it's exactly what I thought as I scrolled down!! Other than that... fantastic!!!

At last... someone else sees what I think will show up very badly when the body is painted - that body/chassis join is going to stand out, and be very difficulty to disguise.

Very nice layouts indeed - superb scenics in particular! Bude Quay has a lovely 'open' look to it - maybe one long, single siding is the way to go!! Well done and thanks for posting.

Well the trucks arecorrect for the Santa Fe..... :D Re American layouts with DCC/bells/horns.... at the TVNAM Show in June there'll be a whole hall full of 'em... and no-body will be lynched......

It's the classic mistake. The Brummie accent is totally different to the Black Country.... but people from elsewhere still think they can do a perfect impression of either...

If they are all old Blue Box, I think they are. In fact I did this myself some time ago - I had a dummy SW7, and a motorised Baldwin S-12. I simply swapped the bodies over, and the now-dummy Baldwin went as Trade-in Fodder to my local model shop, whilst the now-motorised SW7 joined my other SW7 in service..... I may have swapped the truck side frames too - can't remember now I'm afraid!!

I love the "When it was all fields around here" photo..!!!

I had to look twice to check who had posted that.... ...must admit I'm quite surprised!!

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Love the "Two Locos, One Boxcar" thing!! Of course it's a model -the loco even has an unrealistically bright LED for a headlight... :D

What for..?? I know of this route ; there are pics around showing the caboose that usually leads the train, too, as it's quite a long shove apparently, from the main to the various industries at the end of the route. As for the Geep, well right away the number 4512 tells me it's an Ex-Milwaukee loco, and that's without seeing the original Milwaukee colors showing through the cheap black Bandit paint.... and naturally, being Ex-MILW, the term "Rustbucket" applies by default....

So we mortals might actually get to meet Sir Shortliner in person in June..??!!??

Well it was certainly worth the wait for an update..!!!! Superlatives fail me - where to start?? I'm most impressed by the undersides of the bridges - that is simply incredible stuff and makes the road-level views incredibly realistic even with unfinished scenery!!

Here's a new one.... In front of the "Just Like the Real Thing" Stand, ask loudly if they know that Dapol are bringing out an R-T-R Class 08 in O Scale for less than £200..??

I dunno what you mean..... I'm impressed by people who can really detail HO models well... after doing O Scale for a few years, HO seems so tiny..!!! However needs must, and I've been getting back into HO recently, but I'm a bit ambivalent about detailing models to within an inch of their lives... it tends to make 'em a bit fragile, I think, especially with today's plastic handrails (yuk!!)... then again having an enthusiastic but not too gentle 8-year-old accomplice doesn't help, either, so although I'm doing these old Athearn Blue Box SW1500s as Progressive Rail locos, I'm not adding much extra to them beyond the very obvious such as all-weather windows, an A/C unit on #37, and spark arrestors (scratchbuilt, slightly too big and not for Purists!!)... .. oh, and don't even ask about the 'ditch lights'....

... the sort of thing Lance Mindheim has been advocating for some time, now. I'm always intrigued by just how simple some of Lance's plans are, and his own layouts, for the space they take up - not many spurs, but they are long..!! Following his sort of advice, my loft layout under construction has what is basically an 'Inglenook' 3-spur freight branch, stretched out along 17ft.... just switching one of the spurs (6 car capacity) can take well over half-an-hour, and that's probably too quick at that - Lance would be horrified!! As nice as many complex trackplans look, I do think it's easy to fall into a trap of thinking that simpler plans lack operating potential, or would get 'boring'.

If you go right back to the 1st post on this thread you'll see this link to where the story started on RMweb3:- http://www.rmweb.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=43125 The size is given as 2.1m x 1.1m .... ...but what that is in Old Money I'm not sure, and surely given the whole 'feel' of this wonderful thread and layout, good, British Imperial should be the measurement of choice... The interference of the EU is many, many decades away.....

That'd be the tinitus the high whistle caused... Bachmann DCC/Sound 20's are a pet hate of mine...

2008... £1 = $2.... oh happy days, don't remind me.... Second P&D Hobbies - used them myself, Pat answers eMail enquirys quickly too. Tennants is my 'local' so have had a fair bit from them, too. They tend to have more 3-Rail stuff though. Quince Valley; I think Jason is a member here and attends Guildex at Telford.

Loudly tell a Trader who is trying to flog an Atlas O Scale Plymouth Switcher for a three-figure price that it is quite simply not worth that much... Better still, do it at Warley/NEC.... Oh, I did....... ..... didn't get lynched, but it's a good job looks can't kill...