BG John

Cheapside Yard has almost enough locos for a loco shunting puzzle! They're destined for other layouts too though. Sorry about the odd chimney reflections caused by the flash. I haven't got proper layout lighting sorted yet.

It looks like the packaging problem hasn't been resolved. One has the bunker lamp bracket broken off, while the other one has both tank vents broken off, the front screw coupling is broken, and so is the front vacuum pipe. But apart from that, they look very nice.

If you've got a tame plasterer, you could have swapped a few hours of his time for the insulation board off my ceilings!

I haven't come across Zap-A-Gap before. I've just got cheap supermarket superglue, so I'll try a drop of that first. I'd noticed the locating lug.

Yodel's current delivery estimate is "On or before 6th November", but as it hasn't arrived at their Warrington depot yet, I doubt if they will get to Wales before midnight today!!!

I'll need to remove the condenser pipes on one of my Bodiams (so it will no longer be Bodiam!). Does that leave a hole in the smokebox, as there should be no sign of it having been there?

No excuse. I lived and travelled in a much smaller space, and built a layout in it!

Just got an e-mail from Hattons to say they've processed my order for two Bodiams, although they haven't been packed yet. My order confirmation in May said delivery by Royal Mail, but this one says Yodel, so it's a good thing the local Yodel driver seems pretty good!

One of the reasons for the slow progress on Cheapside Yard is that I'm having a big sort out and tidy up of all my stuff, not just the railway bits. The layout has a new home in the corner of what seems to be turning into the railway room. It's not quite finished, but I've been knocking the cupboard underneath about, and it will be used for storing modelling stuff in the drawers, and railway magazines in the cupboard. My version of Medieval wall hangings is to hide the crumbling lime plaster on the wall behind, that has a habit of crumbling all over anything placed near it. I do live on a painfully slowly evolving building site after all! I really must stick the chimney back on the Hudswell Clarke!

I've been having a short shunting session a few times a day, but it doesn't take long enough to shunt four wagons, and quite often half of them start off in the right place already! It should be much better with five wagons, so it's an incentive to get the Dinghams fitted.

That's what concerns me, especially as I'm considering using them in 4mm too if I'm happy with them!

I'm very impressed with Dingham couplings so far. I sent a Paypal payment on Sunday, and they arrived this morning. Very well presented in a specially printed envelope with what appear to be very good instructions, and nicely packed etchings and wire. Now I've just got to assemble and fit some, and hope the end result is as good as the service and presentation!

Just to prove that the latest batch are in stock and being sent to stockists, as they told me a few days ago. http://Dapol.co.uk/index.php?route=information/news&news_id=136

By chance, I've just finished watching Skyfall. Did they shoot to pieces and blow up a real one?

Sorry, you'll have to wait for the official photos, as these were just taken on a phone for my benefit. They look perfectly good to let loose on the world to me though.

If not, I'll post photos of mine when they arrive. Hattons don't know when that will be though, as I told them a lot more than they knew when I phoned to increase my order.

The Bodiams have arrived at Dapol, and I've doubled my order! They have just e-mailed me two photos and it looks very nice. It doesn't quite match the only photo close to the period I want that I've seen, but that doesn't mean it's wrong. Converting to Rolvenden looks straightforward. I've asked Dapol if I can post the photos here, and suppose I'd better wait for their reply.

I achieved my aim of playing trains on my birthday. I've been playing cards too! I made up a credit card sized card for each wagon out of a Bonio box (the hairy one has her uses!). I do a quick shuffle, shut my eyes and deal them: Then I line them up to represent the three sidings as they have fallen: Then I shunt: And soon they are in the right order (I must stick the chimney back on the loco; it was loose when I bought it!): Then I run a passenger train to celebrate!: Each shunting session is very short at the moment, as I only have four working wagons, and five are needed for a 3-2-2 inglenook. The fifth wagon just needs the buffers and couplings fitted, that were missing when I bought it, but it's not worth fitting 3-links when I hope the Dinghams will be here in a few days.

I bought my house from a plumber, who left some large buckets of grout behind, and certainly far more than would be needed for any tiling I do. So I'm hoping it may have potential for more important uses!

I've just finished reading it, having grabbed one of the copies on Amazon for a fiver (plus postage).

These? http://www.marcway.net/list2.php?col=head&name=Point+Levers

I e-mailed Dapol this morning, and got a reply in about an hour! The latest batch are currently going through customs, and should be going out to stockists on Wednesday. The blue on the decorated sample of Bodiam was too bright, and they sent a new colour swatch to the factory, but haven't seen the finished result. That's why there are no photos. Looks like I'll have to make a very quick last minute decision about buying a second one!

What make are the point levers? I was looking for something like that a while ago.

This is what makes it work. It's controlled from a Gaugemaster Combi, connected to the fiddle yard board by a 9-pin D connector on the front of the board. I've also got a Gaugemaster panel controller that I'll probably put in a box sometime, and I'll use one or other of them to control any of my various part built and planned layouts, so will standardise the connections. The extra pins allow a few extras to be added to the remote controllers if I want to: I've fitted wood blocks as stops at either end of the traverser, and the intermediate tracks are lined up by eye. When it's right back, it's lined up with the narrow gauge, and the microswitches switch power from the standard gauge to the narrow gauge. By default all the standard gauge is live, which isn't ideal as it's possible to drive a loco off the end of an unaligned track, but I'll do something about that if it's necessary. The second microswitch is needed to switch the crossing where the two gauges diverge. The scruffy wiring on the main board will all be hidden by cobbles: The baseboards are connected with a 5-pin DIN connector. There are just four wires, track common, feeds for each gauge, and one for the crossing mentioned above: The wiring under the main board. My reels of "layout wire" looked a bit thin for O gauge, and although I plan to only run locos that are low powered and will run off a 4mm scale controller, I doubled it up just in case. The wires are twisted together, and fixed to the board with self-adhesive cable tie mounts: Amazingly, it all worked first time, although there were a few errors, and lots of bad language, while I was actually doing the wiring!

It's finally working, after a few hours (and lots of bad language!) with a soldering iron. I've just sent off an order for Dingham Couplings, and hope they arrive before the last of my sanity goes, as 3-links are a pain. The layout wasn't designed for them, so I can't put the bridge across the scenic break in place as I need to couple wagons under it! I need to wear glasses to see what I'm doing, but then when I stand back to watch the action, everything is blurred! I need to do a bit of tweaking, but I can shunt standard gauge wagons around, and interrupt shunting by running a narrow gauge passenger train, although the narrow gauge track isn't all laid, and there's no platform, yet! So I can now play trains for the first time in around 20 years!