Matloughe

Good Morning All, Not much to report on currently. I was feeling rather fed up; I had stripped the layout of its limited scenery and it was covered in wires, tools, connectors etc To be honest I was sick of looking at it, so I reached back into my bits box and pulled out some of the wiring I removed from the N Gauge layout that sat on this board - using what I had I have wired the layout up with the power leads connected together into a temporary bus bar and wired up as 'live' - I will amend the connections to go to the isolating switches in the near future. I feel like I need one of those signs that sparks put on fuseboxes: In my 'normal' method it is wired up so that the Black 'Negative' polarity is the one that is connected to the front most rails when viewing from a normal angle - this way it blends in and is hidden by other surrounding scenery, and the Red 'Positive' polarity is the rearmost one - and as my electrical training has kicked in the positive live will be the one which goes via the isolating switch leaving a negative common return. As can be seen here Black & Blue go together as they share the 'L' letter, and Red & Brown share the 'R' letter for easy fault identifying currently. (If you'll pardon the pun), I will wire these with the correct colours when the electrical installation is finished and will revert to Black & Red in their entireity as Blue is used for point motor wiring IIRC. The point motors when they are fitted, they will all have a common return via the negative wiring to the CDU and the positive will be via switches - the run-around points will be wired up as a mirror of one another so that they fire together and will face one another when switching from the normal straight to reversed. Meanwhile Leadenhall helped with the testing to ensure I had infact wired it all up correctly - I even got the polarity correct to the controller so that forward was indeed forwards! Minor victories indeed. In other news Leadenhall went to the model railway club on Friday and had an important job testing the track on the club layout; I think it enjoyed going round & around - I certainly enjoyed seeing it pull a 5-coach train without any issues on the layout. I think I am starting to understand the appeal of being a part of the club, I took my multimeter and managed to solve a problem on one seemingly dead section of track it was a nice experience to be able to help - and to watch much longer trains trundle around a layout. I will have to look back into DCC fitting of locomotives as the club layouts a predominately wired for DCC use - although can be DC. Planning for the future; I can see the end of the major work on this layout in sight. Once the points are wired up and switches sorted I can turn it back over and work on the scenery to my hearts content. The layout has a provisional invitiation to the club exhibition next year - provided we have an exhibition, and it is ready in time. And being a part of the club means I can run my wolf pack of Terriers great & small, a few are seen above. One step at a time; one project in my head running concurrently with the scenery is potentially a replacement fiddleyard in the form of another station to form a small modular style system. Equally last year, it was looking like I was set on the path of modelling in N Gauge rather than 00 so who knows: Pre-Grouping in N Gauge... madness surely? I am after a Corrall wagon in 00 though! Or perhaps something completely different who knows! Anyway I hope you enjoyed your trip to my little Branchline terminus, and thank you for entertaining my ramblings. Have a great day! Kind Regards, Gary

Whenever I see this @Nearholmer it brings me joy. I sometimes thinkg that we stress too much on everything being perfect and exactly scaled down. I can imagine just watching the trains going round is fantastic. I really like those Terriers. Can't wait to see more!

Good Morning All, I hope all is well - some minor work has been going on underneath the BLT this weekend. I have drilled all the holes in the board surface needed for power feeds and for the three point motor arms - underneath it is looking a little like swiss cheese with the new & old holes visible but not too bad. During this process I lifted all of the track, and added the the feeds & double isolating fishplates and replaced the track carefully ensuring the power feeds were pulled back through to the underside of the board: The small CDU here has some joint tails & IC chips on the underside so I bought a set of computer CPU stand-offs and have mounted it to the underside of the board. The holes in the CDU printed circuit board were allegedly M3 - but the M3 screws I had wouldn't fit so I have reamed them out to M3.5 and fitted small washers to secure everything in place. The CDU has four screw terminals for power in & out and points out & return - it has a capacity of 4,700uF (microfarad). In all honesty - I'm not 100% sure what that means. When looking at my point motors to fit I have thee Peco PL-10E motors - the two I had in stock already are actually the low-currentl PL-10WE versions so I will wire those up together as the points controlling the headshunt & siding as they will be thrown together, leaving the standard PL-10E for the first point on the layout. I have five more holes to drill when I've settled on the location of the switches for the layout's wiring, after that its fitting the point motors and wiring it all up - I am not allowed to use the soldering iron in the house so that will have to wait for a much brighter day than the rain today! Happy Modelling Everyone! I am looking forwards to completing this electrical upgrade!! Kind Regards, Gary

That's okay Andy, I am using point motors because I had two of the three in stock, I found an inexpensive CDU online and have a local hardware shop that sells the other electrical items for pennies. To use rods I would need to go and buy wood, equally I haven't seen wire coat hangers since I was a child all the coat hangers in the house are plastic and equally bicycle spokes would require buying a bicycle wheel - which probably costs more than what I've spent on the items I have. I just felt like I wanted a layout which has electric point control, the technical challenges of working it out and implementing it appeals to me - originally I was just going to move the points with the Hand of God. It does make me think about sorting out an automatic uncoupling solution as well! Ideally I would want the wiring worked out so that it is electrically interlocked requiring FPL switches to be thrown before points but that is probably a step too far for a 3-point micro. Kind Regards, Gary

I hope everyone is having a good Bank Holiday weekend? Mine started with mine & my daughters birthday on Friday; I was quite lucky and I got everything I asked for: Southern Style Vol 2: The London, Brighton & South Coast Railway - a fantastic volume I haven't had the opportunity to read as of yet which outlines the colour schemes throughout the lifespan of the LBSCR. I also have an Aluminium reproduction LBSCR sign which will adorne my railway space in the garage! I've cleared the rolling stock off of the layout and the scenery that was on there - in preparation for the electrical upgrade. 3x Peco PL10-E Point Motors 1x Peco PL9 baseplates 3x Point Motor wiring looms 5x Sets of power feeds 1x CDU 2x On-Off Switches 2x On-Off-On Momentary contact switches Insulating Fishplates 4-Pin DIN Socket All need to be fitted. Power feeds are going to be positioned in the loop adjacent to the pair of points, another feed on the straight platform road and a feed in the headshunt and siding behind an set of isolating fishplates. I am hopefully going to attack the baseboard with the drill over this weekend and hopefully work on the wiring underneath and get it sorted out and wired up hopefully. Kind Regards, Gary

If you're thinking of hiding them under a building etc - what about some hinges? You could glue them on the surface perhaps with a small shim to clear the barrel of the hinge and have the pin removeable if you decided you wanted to seperate them. Kind Regards, Gary

Thanks Jerry, The inspection went well, we have a guaranteed secure let for the next 12 months - our previous house was a 6-month then rolling one month jobbie so we are very relieved of the security that goes with the contract. If anything it just makes the children feel more settled than being on-guard we might be being uprooted. The layout is on 'pause' for a short while - the reason is I am actually going to do an upgrade on it. Currently there is zero wiring under the boards everything is fed from the fiddlestick for the sake of simplicity. However I have been considering for a little while that adding some dropper feeds down under the board would be a good idea, also with my little play with the freight train a couple of weeks ago I did wonder if it might be worth having an isolating section or two. So the current plan is to fit some pre-wired fishplates to specific places then effectively each section of track will be fed by an attached fishplate - I am also planing two Isolating sections one being the station headshunt and the other is the siding - when I am fitting the pre-wired fishplates I will add in some double isolating fishplates and run the power feeds via an on-off switch. So I have the ability to have two locomotives on the layout at one time (as unlikely as that is IRL). For the wiring I am planning to screw a piece of setrack under the board to act as a 'bus-bar' with all track wiring soldered onto this track as well as being wired to have a common negative, and only the positive going via switches. I will also be fitting three point motors - I have two of them in stock currently, on my favourite online market place I have found a small CDU capable of firing up to three/four points at once for the princely sum of £5 - with screw terminals to wire into. I will be wiring up the crossover to act on one on-off-on switch and the lead point on a seperate switch and I am hoping it will be up to the task of firing three Solenoids in quick succession if not I will look at getting a slightly larger module. To power this all I have also bought a 4-pin DIN surface mount socket and plug from my favourite online market place for a few pounds each - the idea is to wire up the four cables from the Gaugemaster Combi I use, to the plug for easy connection/disconnection and the wires be secured under the board and fanning out to the CDU & Bus Bar respectively as one neat package - the switches for Points & isolating sections are toggle ones but I havent decided on their location - if I want them contained in one place. Possibly on the LH Board either between the signal box and the bridge on the surface or mounted on the bottom front fascia panel - of if I want them spread out located where they ideally operate their electricals. Once this has all happened - some of the items wont be with me until near the end of the month - I will be returning to look at the scenery; you're quite right I am going to raise the bridge up currently it is 8mm too small for the minimum loading gauge restrictions in 4mm scale. So I am planning to raise it by 10-12mm in height, the footbridge itself will form part of a footpath crossing the line bridging the gap the line cut in the hillside that will form the 'scenic break' - I think some Railway-Children-esq figures by the bridge might be quite nice. Plus I want to have a go at doing some grass and break up the shades of brown that a prevelant on the layout currently. I have recently jointed my local railway club, although still very much I am finding my feet. I live in North Devon currently so am probably the only LB&SCR modeller around by a considerable margin of distance! 😁 One nice surprice that did arrive, from another online marketplace - marked with a large stylised letter 'F' was this: Hornby A1 Terrier #48, "Leadenhall" an unplanned spontaneous aquisition second-hand but like new. I wanted another Improved Engine Green Terrier to complement Dapol's #40, "Brighton" in the background I was saving to by Boxhill from Dapol but saw this at a price that was under £50 so sent the seller a message and three days later its on the layout including a bank holiday Monday in the mix! First impressions are good, there are detail differences in finishes like the lining on the buffer shanks seen here - and the extra holes in the front of the cab I dont like! But that was Hornby compromising their tooling for all versions rather than tool different cabs etc. So there we have it a mini-update of not alot happening; the next couple of updates are probably going to be more about the underside of the boards being worked on before we get back to the more interesting stuff here on the topside of the boards. As one far-off future idea that is taking hold; I am considering in the future when this layout is nearing completion - ordering another set of boards and making up another different station and some in-between sections and making my own terminus to terminus layout as self-contained modules! So that is quite exciting to consider rather than just a boring fiddlestick but that is for the future. So far this layout will miss its self-imposed completion date of my birthday (which is in two days time) but I am happy to allow that as I did have to bodily transplant it from the bannana boards to this module!! Stay Safe everyone! Kind Regards, Gary

Its been a hectic weekend; as we live in rented accomodation I've spent most of it tidying up rather than modelling! One plus side is the layout's new home has deemed to be atop the Piano in the Kitchen/Dining room - with a wayleave to use the dining table for working on it as needed. One plus side to it moving has been a different vantage point of viewing it: This is it in its entirety - no further work has been carried out (apart from tidying up) - I cropped the original to remove things like the light switch, back door etc. Quite what the A1 is doing with a Stroudley 3-set is beyond me; it looks good. But is too long to run-around in the loop. Perhaps its the different lighting from this angle casting different shadows. Anyway, after that Monday indulgence; I'll be back at it once the house inspection has been completed - I might even have an operating session! Sitting at the Piano brings my eyeline right at wheel level - perfect vantage point. Be kind, stay safe & enjoy a BLT! Gary

I second this motion; Tea research is serious business. 👍

Good Evening all, I hope everyone has been well; I haven't been doing much in the way of updates recently, it has been half-term and family activities have taken preccedence somewhat. I have ordered and had a few items delivered further to making some more progress. Some Woodlands Scenic Fine Ballast has arrived - I would have started work on ballasting... however I don't have a spray mister... or pipette so thats out of the question currently. I have a Dapol unpainted 7-Plank arrive, it superficially looks similar to an LBSCR variant so it will get a repaint into the correct livery as a *close enough* for now. A lasercut footbridge kit (that forms most of tonights post) and some board crossings to replace the ones I pulled up from the previous boards and used around the coaling stage. And totally unrelated I have obtained a Coronation 009 Bugbox because - why not? I am tempted by 009 for a future project. Anyway, so the latest overview of the layout looks like this: Its quite bare, I am hoping some scenery tasks planned with liven it up and make it look more like a railway. Another side project of mine has been to refurbish those Bachmann Red Thomas coaches into something a little more suitable and they now look like this: With Mahogany coloured paintwork, and now covered roofs with tissue paper and white paint makes them look much better and again *close enough* to a Stroudley 3-Set for me. All three of these coaches were cheaper than buying a single Hornby Coach so thats good enough for me! The Footbridge came from 'Fair Price Models' on my favourite auction site - I've had some of their kits before, a fantastic 7mm Warehouse building and attached shop front was a joy to build. I plumped for this kit because the latticework of the bridge really caught my attention. Its a nice easy build, almost falls together with PVA bonding it. There is just one... slight problem I have with it... And its not the fault of the kit at all: The problem is that the Civil Engineer (thats me) didn't correctly interpret the Loading Gauge when ordering the new bridge! As a consequency the gorgeous H1 Atlantic is currently... stuck unable to leave the station. In fact the bridge is of such miniature proportions that: Not even a dimunitive A1 Terrier is able to escape! Of course this is all fine - I am going to raise the bridge up on some corregated card shims to bed it into the landscape so that it will be possible to leave the station to the outside world. I didn't bother testing the E4 as its intermediate size pretty much precludes its ability to negotiate the bridge as it stands... the only locomotive that might make it is a 'foreign' LSWR Beattie Wells tank engine. Anyway, I hope you all have a great weekend and a BLT of your own! I am hoping to do some more work on it but not sure currently. I will leave you with a panned out shot of an impatient H1 Atlantic unable to leave. Kind Regards, Gary

Something to think about is also; if this is a line absorbed by the LB&SCR - then it wont necessarily conform to the Brighton Line's standards. For example, LBSCR Stations tend to have (if there is one) their Brick goods shed adjacent to the station buildings on a bay road - like at Steyning, Hailsham & Baynards for three examples off the top of my head. I see you mentioned pre-WW1 so I am assuming the line was built in the late 1800's and was absorbed at the turn of the 1900's into the LBSCR to 'protect' its eastern territory from the encrochment by the South Eastern Railway. By that time you would be seeing LBSC features such as signalling, possibly rebuilt station buildings depending how temporary the originals were. I would look at your plans you've made and ask yourself some questions. "Who was the line built for?" "What industry exists (real or fictional) to need its own siding?" "Where do the services go to?" If I had to pick a plan. I'd probably go with your V2 plan; railways detested the extra maintaince of things like double slips etc so I would go with the two conventional points. I would swap the location of the cattle dock & goods shed like for like - the animals away from the refined Edwardian noses. I wonder if you need the gated siding at all... perhaps as a suggestion you do away with the private siding, and have a small engine shed for oustabling a Branchline engine - it did happen there were smaller sheds in some places which looked after their branch specific engine especially in the Victorian period. It might be especially useful for an ex Light-Railway as their former Headquarters. Am going to follow this to see more! Kind Regards, Gary

I'm loving the Minories layout on here - its really getting me thinking about making a version in 4mm! I can see it in my minds eye, LBSCR engines... Perhaps some of those gorgeous other pre-grouping tank engines recently announced. I always like taking a trip here, do you do a season ticket? Kind Regards, Gary

Monday Modelling Madness! So after a few hours drying I have the finished result! So looking at it - its clear that the approach I have taken with the brake coaches looks much neater than the centre all third. Still room for improvement but looks better - the precoloured plastic ends don't look too far from the colour they're supposed to be so I will leave them unpainted currently. I'm fairly impressed with my take on the Stroudley Coaches based off of the Bachmann Red Coaches. More so considering these cost £32 to buy, plus another £4 on Mahogany paint, free tissue paper and free white acrylic paint. So £36 for three coaches which are quite impressive from a normal viewing distance - the closeup here does them no favours, versus £39 for a single Hornby LBSCR Coach. Not too shabby. To finish them off I will be looking at getting some gold paint to sort out the carriage door handles in a brass colour and some toning down of the roof colour. Last shot of the three set; I will be looking at some Hunt Couplings for this set to bring the coaches slightly tighter together in formation. But I am quite pleased with them - and it fulfills my self-imposed mandate of modelling the LBSCR on a budget. Kind Regards, Gary

I believe I looked at this model on a well known auction site as well and was dissuaded from bidding because of the chassis issue. I was advised that Alan Gibson may do chassis sides (LM1-209. Gladstone 0-4-2), but you would still need to source/make the spacers to keep the chassis the correct distance apart as well as looking at getting the wheelsets from somewhere. EB Models (Exclusively Brighton Models) although not selling a B1 Gladstone might be able to help with a tender chassis. I hope we'll get to see your model progress. Kind Regards, Gary

Modelling Monday!! So I work in the education sector; and today is one of those few days where there is an inset day and students aren't in - likewise I am only contracted to work term-time only! So I have a list of jobs in my head I want to do to sort the house out while I am home on my own - as well as some modelling! So first with the modelling - then the washing up while its drying/curing off! Only a quick post. So I have painted the Bachmann Red Coaches in Phoenix Mahogany (P988), exactly the same as the previous centre coach I painted before. As per LBSCR painting descriptions I have left the ends in their original coloured plastic finish which is a good approximation of the Vermillion ends. The roof of the coaches have been given a coat of cream to disguise the gloss black plastic and I have decided to do both of these coaches differently to before. So previously after the paint set; I daubed PVA on the roof of the centre coach as can be seen above - and then placed a sheet of tissue paper on and daubed more paint on to secure it down. Then I overpainted it in white acrylic to represent the White Lead of the time. With these brake coaches I have cut the tissue paper into strips - and making holes for the lantern, on the first coach I decided to lay a strip and daub glue onto the tissue paper to stick it down, then overlay the next piece and glue that down etc. The second brake coach I have done very similar aside from laying all the strips onto the roof and then glueing them down I'm hoping that by cutting it into strips and gluing them down seperately will provide a much neater finish representing stretched canvas better than my first attempt. When the glue is cured and paint is dried I will show off a couple of more photos. Kind Regards, Gary

Easter Monday Trip Freight Its early on Easter Monday, and back to business for the Cooper's of Ifield Green. Things were untidy with the interruption of Easter on the working week. At the end of last week, a shipment brought in on a GWR wagon was processed and unloaded - but a van from the GER is still awaiting unloading. The first train of the day arrives with a shipment of coal from E.A. Robinson for the Cooper's boilers to power the machinery. A1X #662, previously known as 'Martello' unclouples and pulls forwards to commence operations. Getting to work, 662 couples up to the GE Van and the GW Open and draws them forwards. Shunting the GW open into the station headshunt, adjacent to the coaling stage. 662 quickly replaces the GE Van into the correct position for unloading. Before heading back to the station throat and grabbing the Billinton Brake Van and E.A. Robinson coal wagon and propelling them back to the siding. Then replacing the Brake Van into the platform road - allowing the Guard to discuss shunt moves and requirements for the rest of the day with the station staff. While 662 uncouples and runs round again to grab the GW Open from the headshunt. Before backing down with the GW Open and making a train up; ready to leave back to Three Bridges. No real modelling today; just a quick operational session. Using some basic methods of swapping some wagons over - trying to give some flavour to the reason why I have shunted the way that I have (remember I am working on Waybills & Car Cards for this layout) and a lovely oppertunity to sing the praises of an older (rarer) locomotive. This Dapol Terrier ran flawlessly for a model from the late 80's! 10 out of 10, would shunt again! Next time I am planning to do something a little more adventurous. The siding can hold three standard size wagons - I have set it out as two places for loading/unloading and a holding spot as part of the car card/waybill system. The layout is DC Powered and fed from a single location so only one engine is permitted in steam. If running under DCC there would be the opportunity to interrupt shunting with a push-pull or even a complete passenger service that needs running around. I hope everyone has had a great Easter, and that this post hasn't been entirely boring. As an aside I have received some rather negative messages on social media which aren't warranted they were binned - but any constructive criticism is always welcome. I am looking to join a local model railway club so hopefully I can find some like-minded individuals to further the hobby with. Kind Regards, Gary (Off for a BLT for Lunch...)

I'm quite tempted by the Signalbox; its not the Saxby Farmer design I like but I can appriciate its origin. I'd just have to repaint it from Green & Cream to the proper colour scheme. Even if I didn't use it now - it could stay in stock for later use. For signalling I am not in a rush no; I am debating using either a GW or LNWR lower quadrant signal kit - possibly either with replacement LBSCR arms or with some skillful painting to try and obscure the true outline of the signal arms. But no, no rush. Speaking of Oak Hill Works - a certain Open A has had some paintwork applied today: The paintwork is still a little wet - but it does look good. The next item on my list is HMRS Transfers! This weekend has been fun, some modelling mojo ensued as I visited a local exhibition - managed to grab the LSWR Wagon book for my collection for the princely sum of £2! One area I have managed to get lookling like in my minds eye is the very end wall of the layout: Due to the limited space at the headshunt I always invisaged a brick wall at the end of the station and the idea of a sleeper being the actual buffer stop came to my mind. The wall is corregated card, coated with brick paper from Model Brick Yard scalled to 4mm, and adjusted as needed. The cardboard was cut to be a scale 12' high - encased with brick paper and pritt stick while that was drying I cut two plastick sleepers from a shortened piece of Hornby Settrack, I cut off the webbing and the fixtures for the rail to be held in place and coated the sleeper with Buffer Beam red and when that was dry I stuck the sleepers to marks I made on the brick paper for buffer height and voila! I'm not fussed the paintwork isn't perfect; I'm not expecting it to be - I am going to get a lamp for the buffer stop for the platform road at least. Also nice to see the Marsh Umber out on display. Stay Safe Everyone! Kind Regards, Gary

It's getting painted over the course of today! The topcoat will be later on as the smell of enamel paint fumes will cause all sorts of issues in my house for those with sensitive lungs. I'll do the top coat after they've gone to bed. Gary

Depending where on Trafalgar Street your station is placed you could go for, Brighton - St Peters Brighton - Pelham Square (or Street) Brighton - London Road I do like Trafalgar but I feel like it's missing something. I quite like something with Chain Pier or Marina but they're not quite in your area of interest. Kind Regards, Gary

Thanks, Despite not being lined on signwritten I had to press it into service on a Good Friday special run on the Micro. That single extra compartment compared to a Brake Third makes all the difference. I'm also working on wagons at the same time: We have (From L to R) a 5&9 Open D in early stages of construction. A Oak Hill Works Open A largely built and doing running in. And a Cambrian Kits Open A that has been in this condition since 2015 awaiting finishing!! I have a brand-new tinnof Phoenix LBSCR Wagon Grey for these beauties. I also have a number of LBSC Ballast Wagons from Oak Hill I am working on as well which are yet to make an appearance but will do. Kind Regards, Gary

Good Evening All, I hope all is well? I've been lucky enough to be on half-term this week and next week coming; and a small exhibition to go to this weekend will be nice. I'm also aware of a parcel that arrived from HMRS for my partner who isn't a modeller... so perhaps thats my birthday present arriving 😁 I was bored and decided to attack the centre coach of my Bachmann Red Coach 3-Set; the goal is to produce a passable set of coaches consisting of two D45 Brake Thirds and a single D43 All Second/Third. I do think I should have just bought the Hornby Coaches - but all three of these cost less than a single Hornby coach so perhaps not! So these coaches are a horrid garish red colour, with a large order from Phoenix Paints I have a nice collection of lovely smelling enamel paints: I'd not long put a coat on the carriage so it still looks wet here; whilst the sides & end were drying I turned my attention to the carriage roof and put a thick coat of cream from Games Workshop on to cover the black plastic as best as possible. I also reached back into the depths of my mind and after the cream paint set decided to use some tissue paper and PVA glue to make an attempt at a stretched canvas roof: I then finished off by painting the roof with some white paint in an attempt to represent the White Lead roof of the time period; I should stress this is my first time carrying out the technique - from memory from a Model Rail/Railway Modeller article about representing a van with a torn roof showing its scribed planking underneath. I'm not 100% sure of the finish - and because its all PVA/Acrylic on the roof I can simply soak it in warm water and start again if needed. Close up it looks rough, but at 3 feet away it looks quite good. Once I am happy with the finish I have a gold paint pen I will attempt to pop the lining on the panels of the carriage. I hope everyone is doing well - and I look forwards to progressing further as/when. Kind Regards, Gary

Thanks for your kind words Jerry. I have often felt a little lost when I have done a project before; I have to say only having 1,600cm² of space overall has caused me to focus much more on the small picture. Going forwards, I have my eye on a Bachmann Scenecraft Withyham small signal cabin (44-182) but it's the Green & Cream version so it would need a repaint - I'm just not sure if it would be too big for the space available where the small cabin I have currently is. I am looking at a starting signal for the layout, I have an idea to 'bash' a signal from a Ratio GWR home signal and attempt to make it operational... Or I could attempt the MSE signal kit - but I'm not convinced of my skills to build an MSE kit to be honest. On the other board which hasn't had any scenery done to it, I am thinking of making a hillside and putting a footbridge crossing the line to be the scenic break. Naturally I just need to sort out any buildings beforehand to make sure I have enough space for contours. A brick wall will be behind the buffer stops at the platform end - I have some N Scenics laser cut walking which might be good as I thought it over scale for N, and some station fencing is needed - Scale Model scenery have what I am looking for. So lots of little bits, small projects to amuse myself with. I've also got a makeover for my red Stroudley coaches planned with some new paint on the sides and a textured and painted roof to improve their looks... If I can figure out how to remove the glazing from the bodysides! Some wagons are in the pipeline and of course the overhaul of my eBay acquisitions! Kind Regards, Gary

Slightly un-related,.but still related. In the early days of the Underground when the Metropolitan was a Railway and not a Line, and the District was the Metropolitan District Railway... Both companies maintained their own booking offices at Circle Line stations, and they sold tickets to maximise the journey time on their own trains rather than the easiest way for the passenger! Imagine wanting to go from Kings Cross to Baker Street. It's only three stops going anti-clockwise on the Outer Rail. But if you went to the District ticket office by mistake your journey would be clock-wise around almost the entire Circle line!!! Of course later they pooled ticketing on the Circle so these practices died out but they did exist for a long time.

Good Evening all, Welcome back, its half-term here and I managed to kick off today with some time at the table where I grabbed some time to take a couple of photos and more importantly I managed to do some modelling! So we kick today off with the 'other' bargain Hornby Terrier I purchased. K&ESR "Rolvenden" sitting it what has become the customary position waiting to take the local back out towards Three Bridges - perhaps she has been borrowed for a proving run after being sold by the LBSCR - who knows. The sunlight shining in encouraged me to tidy the table somewhat and I decided to move the position of the micro - something I realise is a strength of the micro to be able to get nice photos its much easier to shift an 80cm x 20cm set of boards than a 8' x 4' table!!! So spinning the layout around to take advantage of the dappled sunlight coming in through the window (a rarity sometimes in Devon) I grabbed some shots of the normall unseen 'blank' end of the layout: A 'passenger-eye view' of the station as #40 'Brighton' arrives back from Three Bridges with the 'local' the locomotive has been hastily borrowed as its facing the wrong way around and will not easily be able to take on coal at the coaling stage. From a slightly more elevated view from an adjoining property it can be seen that #40 has pushed back her coaches and is pulling forwards to the headshunt to run-round. The Improved Engine Green livery looks glorious in this image. Meanwhile behind the previous freight service for the Cooper workshop is in position and awaiting unloading. And then we move onto the only bit of modelling currently undertaken - I wish I had done it sooner as it would have made the previous two photos much better to look at: I painted the Cooper's Workshop, using a blend of Brown & Red paints from The Works to produce the brick colour. I added blue and a drop of black to the brick colour for the brick arches and ventilators in an attempt to produce blue engineers bricks and a metallic looking ventilator (which has been coated with PVA to add a small amount of sheen). The sliding warehouse door has had a second coat of green and the door has been picked out in the remnants of the engineers brick blue for a small amount of contrast. The small coaling stage was also painted in the leftovers of the paint - but will be heavily weathered with some dark washes and coal to tone it down. I just need something to go behind the big windows to disguise the inside and the warehouse is near completion. Thank you all for the time you've taken to read this; all comments and constructive suggestions are welcome. I'm planning a trip to a local model emporium with the view to getting some ballast material and a couple of other scenic items. Kind Regards, Gary

Just a question, Further down the line, are you planning on making these available to purchase through a third party, like CW Railways? So you have plans to do any more stock after what you have here? I only ask as our niche modelling preference has been rocked with the news at Radley Models and I am sure it's not only me but others feel a little unsure of the future of modelling our favourite network. Kind Regards, Gary