Danemouth

John, Bl**dy autocorrect strikes again! Regards, Dave

I agree with you Ian and Andy has said when it will happen, but I understand Chrome now flags the site as unsafe and a security risk and I wouldn't be surprised if other followed suit. Dave

Well here are three photos of Danemouth today. Had a point motor act up that required fixing. The baseboard has been painted with black paint as a base colour for the goods yard, the rails with Humbrol Rail Rust and Railmatch Sleeper Grime on (surprise, surprise !!!) the sleepers. The backscene needs another coat of sky emulsion but this will wait until I've sorted out the backscene board for the scenic break. I won't ballast the track until the platform is in place. So the autotrain is in the bay with 6412 and small Prairie 4507 is running around the B set in the main platform as a result of which the fiddleyard is half empty I did have an accident with the roof of the Highley Signal Box. So I've bought the Oxford Rail Signal Box which matches the station - I won't deploy that until I am ready to plant it properly, the Highley box remains as a marker Cheers, Dave

We had our old Baxi wall mounted boiler replaced by BG a couple of years ago. They had a special offer at the time - the boiler was free! However the replacement still cost us £2,500 in installation costs. Mind you the old boiler was 12kw and the new 30kw so the house heat quicker. The boiler is in the kitchen but like Reorte the gas supply was run to it in 15mm pipe which had to be replaced with 22 mm pipe which they ran around the kitchen near the ceiling - this effectively disappeared when painted. A five core cable also had to be run to it. That's not the end of the story; For the first couple of weeks afterwards the motorised valves were welding their electrical contact for some reason. We have a maintenance contract so in the end they came and replaced all of the electrics, clock, thermostats, valves etc FOC The following winter we woke on several occasions to no heating and the boiler showing a fault code. I would restart the boiler and all would be well. A couple of engineer visits couldn't identify the fault, then an engineer came along and spotted it - when installing the boiler a bypass is required from the flow to return pipes so that the pump overrun works properly. He put six inches of 15mm pipe in the right place as the installer had failed to do so and Robert's your mother's brother! Roll forward to last March and with that cold snap the outside condensate pipe froze. A kettle of lukewarm water and insulating the pipe with bubble wrap fixed that but it says something again about the original installation. When BG came to service the system a couple of weeks ago I mentioned it and he gave me some proper lagging for it. Dave

Please Mister can I have the job? :) Dave

Rick My deepest sympathy; I think that's a lovely idea and a touching personal tribute Dave

The short answer is yes. I too use a Powercab with steam locos using SWD chips. The sounds are each allocated a function number - have a look at this https://www.southwestdigital.co.uk/F%20Keys/GWR%20Grp%201.png Note two things about the Powercab: The "Option" key needs to be reprogrammed to address functions 10 and above, see Page 18/19 of the manual, the new value needs to be 122 rather than 94. Afterwards a single press of the Option key makes F10 to F19 available and another press F20 to F29. This is clearly seen on the screen, Pressing the "Momentum" key can screw some sound decoders. I opened by Powercab and put insulating tape over it to prevent accidents. http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/89097-beware-nce-and-esu-momentum-idiosyncrasies/?hl=powercab Hope this helps, Dave

I say the bunker is more than a bit full on that Prairie! Lovely atmospheric photo, Dave

Ok chaps, given Larry's prodigious workrate what's the betting that the track will be lifted and the new track laid by 1st September? :) Dave p.s.and the new buildings by 1st October? :yes:

Brilliant cartoonist - really captured the spirit of the valleys with Aberflyarf and the pub "The Golden Dap". I can still see one of his cartoons in my mind which included a sheep with a sign on its back "Ban Mint Sauce". Dave

That emporium told me that the minimum order for Railmatch is effectively £300 which is carriage free - order less than that and the carriage charges are significant making the line unprofitable. Dave

Well the track painting is almost finished but not without "moments if interest". Blackboard paint applied the the baseboard - should make it easier in the goods yard. Painted the sleepers with sleeper grime and then gave the rails two coats of Humbrol rail rust. Tried the layout having first cleaned the track top. Oh dear! a couple of dead sections - I've never had problems with dry joints before until this layout - put that right. So I decide that the sleepers need another coat of sleeper grime and the jar promptly runs out. I go to L & B to collect a couple of panniers that were having sound fitted - but they were out of sleeper grime. So I go to Lendons and they are also out of it - ended up ordering it from Gaugemaster where the postage costs almost as much as the two jars - waiting for it. I will post some pictures once the paint has arrived and I've applied the final coat, A thorough retest is then indicated after which I will start work on the scenic break bridge. Regards, Dave

Excuse me Mister, there's been an earthquake in Kings Moreton :yes: :) Dave

Not forgetting it goes over the Glenfinnan Viaduct so north of Fort William? Dave

Sorry Rick, that's not for me - I hate peanut butter for a start! As a boy the American childrens programs imported by ITV had children constantly eating peanut butter sandwiches. So I got my mother to buy a jar - turned out to be ghastly stuff. And as for ruining good bacon with bananas and syrup - Oh Dear! When I very occasionally have a cooked breakfast make it bacon, sausages, fried eggs, mushrooms and buttered toast! Oh, and forget this hash brown nonsense :) Dave p.s. As a dessert I do like a banana split - don't see very often anymore.

Sorry Chaps & Chapess' I can't even stand the smell of Gin, now if we're talking single malts that's something completely different, Dave p.s. I can't stand the stuff, why the hell am a reading a thread about it?

Does this mean you are giving up either 0 or 00 Andy? Whilst doodling don't forget Pencarne and Glen Roy - two of my favourites Look after yourself, Dave

Larry, Could you post a photo of a pair of notches carve in plain track please? A picture is worth a thousand words! Many thanks, Dave

Ian, It's funny you should mention Porthcawl - that's a station I like especially the three platforms. I tried it in an earlier incarnation of Danemouth but ended up with far too much track and something that looked very like an overgrown train set. I can remember Porthcawl, I must have been about 7 or 8. We changed onto the branch train at Pyle - three autocoaches with I think a small prairie in the middle. My love of operation will doubtless mean that Danemouth will rival Clapham Junction in its service frequency :yes: Regards, Dave

Actually John I can have the best of all worlds by using the headshunt road as: A Headshunt, The road to the offstage turntable or An extra fiddleyard track as the mood takes me. The third option naturally makes an alteration on laying out the tracks on the traverser as the very front track will need to line up with both running line and headshunt. The existing points operated fiddleyard has a maximum train length of just under 80 cms whereas the traverser will increase this to 100 cms which makes a three coach train possible and also allows some vans to be added to the current improbably short goods train I envisage only one or two goods trains day. However, I do see NPCS stock such as GUV and Syphons on the rear of the B Set and the short siding at the end of the run around loop beyond the release crossover will have a short dock to accommodate these vehicles. So there's a little more shunting! Regards, Dave

Ray, The running line is 30 cm from the back, Cheers, Dave

No problem Simon, Whilst cassettes are not for me I find the discussion interesting and others reading the thread may find information useful to them. Regards, Dave

Thanks Ray, TPH & Simon, I did consider cassettes momentarily. With my luck the chances of a train ending up on the floor of the garage (concrete albeit carpeted) is extremely high. The only exception to this will be the Peco Loco lift, the off scene "turntable" on the headshunt. When the traverser is built the two tracks at its front will line up with the headshunt and running line, the other tracks will be further apart to allow for easier stock handling. For me that is the simplest solution - but as a result of the last three posts I did recheck that cassettes were not a better solution for Danemouth. Again thanks for all your suggestions, The baseboard has now been painted with blackboard paint and sleeper grime has been applied - next step is rust to the sides of the rails. Regards, Dave

Larry, I hope you don't mind me asking you a question about the fencing around the station. I will be putting the same type of fencing on Danemouth and had been wondering what colour to paint it - black certainly agrees with my childhood memories around Cardiff, but looking at some other layouts some modellers seem to paint it BR(W) cream. Any thoughts on this, or can you point me at suitable resources please? And the way that 47xx clanked it sounds as if it's due for a major overhaul - lovely sound! Thanks, Dave

Andy, Forgot to ask, the shed is frequently referred to as TOPS - what does that stand for please? Cheers, Dave