Matloughe

I think I am going to have to be more (or less) flexible with my dates for any layout. I can't fit in the City Limited on the boards I have available no, I was doing some maths. I am limited by 3' 6" length boards with that in mind I believe I could accommodate a maximum of four 54' coaches plus a medium sized locomotive such as an D3/E4 etc. Something larger like a Mogul or Atlantic would result in loosing a carriage if doing a Minories layout.

Its been a quiet couple of weeks with not much to report. I am considering using the space I have available to make this layout a Minories - I have pulled out all of the old points from my previous layout and tested them over and they work perfectly. To be honest they never really got much use as I stopped modelling when I had an accident and displaced several disc's in my spine. It wasn't a fun time! I told myself I wasn't going to do it; and I resisted for quite a long time dismissing it as out of my price range. However this beauty arrived last weekend: She was reduced down to £120- and I coudn't say no as I knew I wouldn't be able to find another one at a similar price point even if I looked for a decade or more, shes brand-new and takes up a third of my micro layout's length so wont get much use there! I have popped her away until my larger layout gets further along. Watching the rods go round did make me consider perhaps I shouldn't re-use these boards and instead plump for a much larger layout where I could operate from the centre with modular boards so I can take it down and with me if we move again... My ideal plan is for a large junction station (like Horsted Keynes) on a double track loop as the 'main station' and the branch south to Sheffield Park being a terminus so I could run trains continiously on the main tracks and shuttle trains up to meet them at the junction. Its only a pipe dream however as with some quick maths I figured out the platforms for Horsted Keynes are in the region of six feet long in 4mm! Then adding on station approach pointwork etc we're looking at a minimum straight of 12 feet long by however wide I need it to be to fit in the middle - and thats without deciding on what would fit opposite Horsted Keynes on the other 12 foot long straight - then figureing out where the branch line would go. As I said pipe dream, I also have the last volumes of LB&SCR Coaches arrive (a present to myself for doing alot of overtime) and skimming through I realise I actually know very little about the LBSCR - sure I thought I knew a lot but these books are just fantastic tomes of information, I just get lost in the drawings, period photos its just fantastic. Have a great week all! Happy modelling! Kind Regards, Gary

Thank you for your kind words Jerry, the Ultra-Low Relief Warehouse came from 'Inthegreenwood' from their ebay store. It came with a full normal width platform as well - but that wouldn't fit in the space I have available so its still in the box. There are some more corbels of bricks to put on to 'finish' the ends of the model off and I need to make up or find a nice red brick colour to paint on and it'll look much better. The warehouse doesn't have a purpose as of yet - its just somewhere that accepts and dispatches goods for the layout. Its probably also the main employer for the area as well which is why the railway was built. Once I've figured out what business it trades in then I can sort out some more specialised freight stock - my partner wasn't keen on "W.C. Boggs & Son - Lavatorial Engineers" despite the hilarious laugh I got from my daughter when I explained the terms "W/C, Bog & Lavatorial" her little five year old brain twigged that I had basically said 'Toilet' three times in one sign. 😁 Much laughter ensued from her, and from us because it was infectious almost! No real news, I have given the signal cabin a second coat of red to tidy it up a bit and I have painted the levers to go inside (one red, one blue and two black) I am assuming for the starter, facing point lock, facing point and headshunt crossover. That'll do for me!!

Good Evening All! I hope everyone is doing well; I have been enjoying some modelling time. My youngest had an accident at school today and cut her head open so after she was tucked up in bed this evening I decided to do some model bits & bobs so I could hear her if she called out for me. So this evening I had two/three goals in mind. Firstly to paint this: As a replacement for the failed card one I tried making earlier in the thread; I havent given up on it but I wanted something to get on the board ASAP. You can also see my brand new cutting mat getting its outing - this was a present for valentines day and is A3 size and brilliant! Secondly, the warehouse and platform I purchased I have done some more work on: It doesn't look like it, but the platform has had its uprights and cross members painted black - I was going for a dark cresosote/oily look to the wood and because I have only done a single coat I am very pleased with the uprights - it'll look great once I've ballasted. The steps and surface of the platform have been given a coat of Umber and I will look at adding a darker wash to tone everything down. The warehouse was a bit of a pain - the back has been painted - because its laser cut wood it absolutely stank of burned wood. I also decided to paint the window frames white and using the last of the black paint I had squeezed out for the canopy of over the door - which is in a nice forest green colour. I opted for green as due to the time period I have selected I imagine Green & Red are the easiest two pigments of paint to make - and the station buildings and signal cabin have red colours. I decided to paint the signal cabin with a first coat off of the sprue before gluing the building together: This is a 'first fix' of paint, I will go back and touch it up later on once the glue has cured off properly. Using the same colour scheme as previously with the platform shelter - this is its best side currently. I still need to paint and fix the lever frame and sort out the window frames/roof/barge boards etc. The close-up camera shot high-lights more issues than is easily seen with the naked eye. I will leave you with an idea of what the future projects after the warehouse and signal cabin will be: My first order from 5&9 Models has arrived and I am certainly looking forwards to detailing the platform with a Stroudley Water Crane and the Open D will be my first Whitemetal wagon kit I've built. Have a great evening all! Kind Regards, Gary

Nice to hear someone lives in Ifield still, I used to live at the top of Hyde Drive and attended all three schools in Ifield, Ifield First when it was at Ifield Green opposite Deerswood School, then Ifield Middle before it amalgamated with Ifield First to become the Mill Primary I think, and the Old Ifield Community College - It moved campus the year after I left. I've snapped the underside of the E4 kit with the chassis: It's a very solidly built locomotive, the rear bufferbeam came off after transit but is easily replaced. If it is an E5 chassis I might pop it actually under the E5 and make up a new chassis for this E4. I wish there was an LBSCR locomotive called Ifield as that would be fantastic - I know there was a D1 named Crawley but it's not the same. Kind Regards, Gary

Yes it did; so I splurged on a couple of locos from the marketplace website, the first was described as an E6 but looking at it, the loco has an E4 body but with E5 five foot driving wheels. I also bought another locomotive slightl by accident which was described as an E5 with a Dublo R1 chassis. Both of them ran out of the box with just a little bit of help from the hand of God to get them going, there was some sparks and a nice smell of old motor. So having spoken with a friend we have established that the E4 probably started life as an E5 chassis and has had a different body or the body has been chopped about to produce an extended Smokebox E4. I'm not quite sure what do do with them as of yet, they were very reasonably priced models and fit with my current plans. I also picked up a C2X body kit unbuilt. And a resin D3 body kit to go on my M7. For the layout itself I am still in the planning stages, I am having some trouble trying to fit a reasonable looking country station on the space I have available with my current requirements/desirable items. I did have a crazy idea of doing an LBSCR Minories on the board... Primarily as I still have a complete set of pointwork from the previous Minories layout I built many years ago!! Kind Regards, Gary

Good Evening All, Welcome back to the Budget Brighton BLT... (sandwiches anyone...?) Fridays seem to be the de-facto modelling evening, everyone is asleep in the house and I can potter with quiet music on and a drink of my choice. So today I am focusing on this area, to the left of the cream coloured van - I felt that this area needed something freight related - but there are only 23mm from the backscene to the left-hand edge of the sleepers of the siding its not much. So I went shopping on my online marketplace of choice, you know the one - I am not going to say it aloud but thats the one! Whilst browsing on there I have found something suitable and it arrived this morning ready to be built this evening. Also while I was on there, I popped a silly bid on a Guards Brake Van, specifically a Hornby R.019 and surprisingly I won! I'm sure you can understand why I bought it, its a fairly good representation of an LBSC 20t Brake Van which was classified as SR Diagram 1576. There is actually a photo of van 43 on page 46 of the book 'Illustrated History of Southern Wagons volume 2' It is a little late for my timescale being built in September 1922. I tend to keep my operations somewhere between 1901-1911 but its not a strict rule - provided I run like things together. Its in good condition, runs well and I think looks great! I ordered an Ultra Low Relief Warehouse and platform kit from "In the Green Wood" and I also ordered a small carriage walk-way platfrom from 'Torri Laser' so this evening in about an hours worth of work we now have this: It looks great already! And the mismatched platform doesnt look too bad - there are several more acessories to be fitted to the warehouse. It does look quite effective for a quick place down, there is also a good amount of work still to be done. Once the glue has set I will need to apply paint before as well as getting some sort of photo behind the window openings. The platform is quite narrow - but I don't think it detracts from anything. I quite like it, its just the right height and I measured it from the wall to the front of the goods platform we're looking at a 21mm width - go me and go those two suppliers for getting everything spot on! Watch this space more things will be on their way. I also have a Wills SS29 Ground Level Signal Box to build - I am tempted to paint it in LBSCR colours prior to building. I have also been speaking to 5&9 Models to get a Stroudley Water Crane and a whitemetal Open D Wagon kit to build. Getting there slowly, I am thinking of a medium height brick wall along the end of the platform from front to back adjusting the position of the platform and warehouse leftwards to take account of the depth of the wall being added - and some red painted sleepers fixed at the correct heights for buffer stops possibly with an oil lamp on the top. Maybe I need a lamp hut as well thinking of it. Its not impossible, at Devils Dyke there were no buffer stops but to be fair the track terminated at the foot of a 30/40' hill rather than a brickwall. Stay Safe, have fun & keep modelling. Kind Regards, Gary

I saw those and was sorely tempted to try something in N. I've been collecting Farish Mark I's to put ElectraRail vinyls on for a Southern Electric/London Underground layout but not got very far yet! The MET Bo-Bo looks great, but getting Dreadnoughts to match might be difficult. Kind Regards, Gary

I think I've seen that layout in RM, it's funny as I am sitting here building a Branchlines H wagon (my first). I always look forwards to the next news post from Peel. Kind Regards, Gary

I do try, the problem is I am somewhat 'indecisive' when it comes to scales & gauges. I've tried the main ones, N, 00 & O. As well as 009, O9, O16.5 (which I have a loco and couple of wagons sitting on this board currently testing clearances) I am also very drawn to producing a 00n3 Isle of Man layout inspired by @Mike Buttell's work on his Peel Station Layout. I've seen that the ebay seller who made these boards now does one that is similar to this one but 10cm larger in depth as a single module opposed to the two I have here for what I consider to be a reasonable price; and I am considering buying another one or two to have these smaller excursions for want of a better word to better develop skills & have a small practical project to work on. O16.5 Stock towering over the 00 behind; there is no plan to change for this layout but I wanted to get a feel for if you could produce a larger narrow gauge layout in a similar footprint. The Kerr Stuart Tattoo is a Bingley Works Print on a Hornby Smokey Joe chassis, and the wagon behind is a print from T&S Models (I think) on eBay. This however is probably going to be my next locomotive I want to work on in 00, my latest aquisition a Wills LB&SCR E5. It certainly is a little, preloved but already came in an interesting shade of Improved Engine Green - its on a Hornby R1 Chassis which after a little prodding sparked, groaned and eased into life with the lovely motor smell. But it wont negotiate the Hornby Settrack points so I will need to investigate more. Kind Regards, Gary

Thanks, I think it's oil cloth from the local fabric shop as it's easily cleanable with food spills and craft etc.

It might not be 'good practice' or even remotely acceptable. However for a 'running in track' I am fortunate that in our current house we have a decent sized oval table - that just so happens to accept second radius curves and a number of straights on each side. Me and my daughter had great fun sorting the track out into its sizes and then figuring out what would fit on the table. It kind of reminded me of that feeling of getting down to eye level and just watching the train go by. Messy table picture for reference - if you're worried about the power feed - the points under the coaches have DCC clips fitted so transfer power to the rest of the circuit. Kind Regards, Gary

Thanks, I thought it was dead too; but I have a renewed interest and plan in hand. I've also received a package from Oak Hill Works today which looks great! Kind Regards, Gary

So I thought this project was dead; the Signalbox kit put me off somewhat and the bannan boards were just the kicker on the icing for me it was put away and left to gather some dust. So today at work I was thinking about the shelf project and considering ripping it up and getting rid of the shelf because I was sick of looking at it. Naturally whilst at work (I mean, should I be working at work?) I remembered I had a smaller set of boards currently housing an N Gauge trackplan also unused - its ironic as this set of boards has had O Gauge then N Gauge and now 00 Gauge on it! Suggestions for any other track gauges I could pop on the board are welcome! (I have O16.5, 00n3 & 009 sitting around) Excuse the dining table, but this is the state of play this evening - its always good when coming into the weekend there is some railway modelling on the horizon. Sitting unused & unloved I decided to remove the wiring underneath and then pull the track up and store it away - as an aside, I am not using trackpins again this was a nightmare that resulted in broken pins, sleepers and various scratches on my hands trying to remove it all! So after a quick five minutes plonking bits down and keeping the idea of the original plan from Budget Model Railways in mind, as well as asking the opinion of my five year old we are now at the place in the picture above - it looks quite good actually. After taking this photo I make some adjustments by removing the platform on the siding, as well as jiggling the position of the track slightly further back from the front to give some more clearance on the platform - after that I have screwed it all down with track screws and tested it and it works well! Not bad for boards 80cm by 20cm! The fiddlestick is perfectly able to accept the longest train possible on the layout, at 40cm long and 10cm wide. It has a small quarter straight that gets used as a 'bridge' piece and power is supplied by croc clips as you can see here. Overall the plan is somewhat more compressed having come from a board that was 120cm long and 25cm wide but it doesn't look too bad. Leaning over the platform and looking back towards my platform shelter (that I am still a little bit proud of) I wanted to test that the run-round loop headshunt is capable of accepting an E4 which it just about is possible to do so. Points are manual operated and I haven't sorted anything with couplers as of yet - as I've said before this is primarily a 'play thing' and a testbed for practicing techniques rather than going for 100% authenticity - but items bought for this project will end up of later ones as well. With some tweaking I thin it will look fairly good, it does still have some of the atmosphere I caught previously. So on that last picture I will bid you all adieu for now more work to be done in future as well as some new arrivals to be shown. I hope everyone has a great weekend! Kind Regards, Gary

Not yet, be patient - this sort of thing is a difficult process. We're all saving up to make purchases when things are back up & running. Kind Regards, Gary

Thanks for replying, I did look at your model of Fittleworth it was certainly an inspiration to me. I am aware I am (possibly) trying to fit too much into a location, and I agree a longer loop and headshunt would be ideal. I did consider cutting a hole in the end board at the headshunt end and building some sort of cantilevered extension long enough to take a train off-scene. The headshunt is currently capable of taking a C Class and two standard length wagons as it stands before the first point in the yard. I would ideally use smaller locomotives. You've certainly given me something to think about 😃 Kind Regards, Gary

I'd just like to say that; I placed my first order with LCUT yesterday for a bridge kit just before lunchtime and I was pleasantly surprised to see my Postie popping it through the letterbox this morning! First Class post, First Class service and what looks like a First Class product. Thank you, and am looking forwards to building it!

Good Evening all! So when I arrived home today I had a couple of deliveries waiting for me, from Golden Arrow Productions a LB&SCR D3 Resin bodykit that fits onto a short frame Hornby M7 - which is rather exciting to take a look at in the future - I was also advised that a LBSCR B4 is also available that fits on a T9 Chassis and he is considering a C2 kit but not sure what chassis that will be on. I also have my C2X kit from DJH - and the castings are fantastic; I didn't know white metal bodywork could look so good. I have been working on the full-size layout plan; I went back to the drawing board taking inspiration from Barcombe, Fittleworth, Lavant - these secondary/tertiary routes are always interesting as they always seem to carry 'through' trains as well as the expected local services. This is the plan I am working on, the Fiddleyard entrance/exit would be on the bottom left of this plan. The 65cm marking specifies the maximum train length which relates to two Mark I's approximately. This evening I ventured out to the layout and pulled stock from the boxes to test the plan on paper and see if it translates well to the real world. Using the two Mark I coaches I had on hand, I checked the platform length and I also checked the run-around loop length they just fit in the loop with enough space for locomotives to run round. The loop on the plan would be the curved track to the right of the platform opposed to the goods yard points. Ideally I wanted the 'mainline' to continue adjacent to the headshunt but that would have shortened the loop even further so I had to do away with that plan. After testing with the Mark I's I also tested with my 59' Bulleid Multidoor coaches and the clearances were much better - this bodes well as LBSCR coaches are shorter than this so I know that they will fit nicely in the loop. Apologies for the next photo, there is only one item of pre-grouping stock on the baseboards while I am getting the feel for the size. If anyone guesses correctly what it is I'll make sure they can have Double Chocolate (Umber) Cookie in the post, provided I don't eat the cookies first!! It looks quite good actually with the bits & bobs mocking things up - I did have a good suggestion that perhaps I should flip the plan back to front so that the platform road is ar the rear of the board (taking advantage of the existing hole in the boards) with the sidings finishing in the centre foreground as for the sidings they are the maximum extent I would allow I think it encroaches a little too much on the station forecourt etc, I might straighten and shorten the siding with the coal wagons and the CCT on and make that the 'coal' and general siding. Last photo for tonight, the SECR C Class fits in the headshunt nicely - I do like the sweep of the cirve from the headshunt towards the platform road - from this end you can probably imagine the plan being mirrored with the sweep of the track coming from right to left something to sleep on. I should say this plan is drawn with Peco Code 75 Bullhead which limits the geometry of the points to right hand & left hand only with all of these being medium radius. I think I could get a little bit more space if I redrew it with the Code 100 I have used previously I might explore the option further down the line if I don't get much further than this. For operations I am considering converting to kadee couplings again for the same reason I am opting to use Peco proprietry components for the point motors etc as it will be a fast install and should work more or less out of the box. This is also a reason I am considering flipping the plan - as there shouldn't be a need to uncouple in the platform. So there we have it some work being done in the garage. More planning and less physical work, but I would rather measure multiple times and then cut the track once than have to buy more track! Kind Regards, Gary

I've just had a look on the SE Finecast website and I am even more baffled as the loco I have bought has an extended Smokebox like Birch Grove... But doesn't have a chunky boiler like an E5X. When it arrives I'll be certain to take some photos of it! It's in BR Unlined Black so will be needing a repaint! Gary

Good Afternoon All! I hope everyone is well, and welcome back to Ifield Green - the renamed Summer Project of 2013! No further physical work has been undertaken as of yet - but a fair amount of planning has occurred - a trackplan has been selected; I have decided to use Peco Code 75 Bullhead for the layout and use whatever is left of my Code 100 for the fiddleyard with a translator track; the layout will be wired for DCC operation with droppers on each track section - and frog polarity change switches being utilised - I am planning on using the Peco Twistlock points as they look like an ideal application for use. I am certainly looking for easy to use products to get the layout up & running in the shortest space of time before I loose momentum. I am planning for the run-around loop to be able to accept a train length of 3 Mark I's - the ones pictured here are approximately in the location of the station platform - I might revise this to be two & half Mark I's in length when the track arrives and I place it down to get a 'feel' for things. I am hoping to do some more work on the layout later on this week finishing up some painting etc, I am going to order some cork and copydex this week as well as some of the track for the layout. Outstanding physical job will be to cut a hole in the end board at the end of the rake of Mark I's... unless I can cheekily remove the end panels and turn them around 180 degrees bringing the existing cut out towards the front of the layout. One thing I can do is planning, I have over the period of a couple of years been doing a lot of research into the choosen location of my fictional station - I know the local industries in the area; I have an implausable but not entirely impossible history for the branch line from opening to closure and have it written down into a document I am calling the 'Operational Guide' within this contains the timetables for day-to-day use as well as special trains - one area I haven't been able to settle on which is the reason why I was delving deep into the local history is freight operations. I find it fascinating looking back from a modern perspective to just over a hundred years ago where animal power on the roads was king and a trip that takes fifteen to twenty minutes by car would take an hour to hour and a half because of the lower speeds, reduced infrastructure (less roads) and lower quality of infrastructure. And its this lengthing of journey times which pushes up the price of goods, and what makes a branch line profitable as it can delivery goods far more efficiently at less cost to the end-user. I have been looking at two-options for freight operations, firstly as seen here is a batch of prototype car cards minus their waybills from a template I have downloaded online - I have attempted to put the railway company logos for the Great Eastern and Great Western on their respective cards. I have anglicised the terminology and made up this quick batch to get an idea of how they work and look. I'm not entirely convinced this is the correct way forwards for me; but I am going to run this small batch alongside a different batch I am making up and will see which is better. The white waybills at the top are my second attempt, shamelessly copied from David Hyde's youtube channel about freight operation for his layout Deresley - I have copied his basic design with these two cards the main difference here is using my board gaming experience it can inject an element of randomness with freight being made up by rolling different coloured dice, so for example there are two steam powered corn mills in the parish where my layout is to be set, so as you can see on the EA Robinson Waybill I have a black disc - by rolling a black dice I could 'generate' a number of coal wagons to be delivered - which would need to be shunted to the correct siding location, then wait to be 'unloaded' before being made up in a train to go back empty to the coal merchant - if this were an LBSCR Wagon; it could have other discs and be used for other traffic so could return to Three Bridges loaded with goods out of Ifield Green - such as Barrels and casks as a Cooper was present in the village in the correct timeline. The GER Van has two discs which nominally are Red for General Merchandise and Green for Fresh Produce such as soft fruits and vegetables rolling a red or green dice could see this van being pulled for inclusion into a freight train into Ifield Green. I should stress this is very much an early mock-up nothing has been set in stone, and I have taken inspiration from articles in the March 1976 Railway Modeller about train control, as well as Operating Chedworth in the July 2016 RM as well as David Hyde's channel as well as other American style layouts for this operation idea. The planned station has two sidings, a long one capable of holding up to 7 wagons (based on a 90mm overall length per wagon) and a shorter one capable of holding 4 or 5, this shorter siding may have a brick goods shed built, whereas the long siding will have a loading dock with end ramp as well as some sort of coal unloading facility (its all a bit fluid currently) with incoming trains being a maximum of 6 wagons + brake van will see plenty of opportunities for traffic. The way it works is there are pidgeon holes for the sidings for traffic in, traffic out and for held traffic waiting to be put in the correct location to be unloaded. Same as the fiddleyard, trains would be made up of these cards - using the dice and rules set up,for example each of my steam powered mills may want a standing order of a single coal wagon each week - but during harvest demand may go up as there is more corn to process so they may want two coal wagons per week - in winter domestic coal consumption will go up from a baseline, when I could roll extra black dice for larger trains. Thursdays was traditionally market day so cattle may need to be moved so an empty van will need to be brought in on the Wednesday to be loaded for departure Thursday and so on. I feel once I have had the opportunity to write some basic rules and make some waybills - with experience the system will gradually change and adapt to suit my needs - I just need to feel that my model railway has a place in the world and is serving its community rather than just pulling random wagons and shunting them arbitrarily. So I will continue with my quest for freight operations! I have bought from eBay a DJH C2X kit that needs some wheels but is otherwise complete, I also have a Finecast E3/E4/E6 not quite sure which one it is; it looks like an E4 and is numbered as an E4 but the previous owner is insistant it is an E6 so we'll see when it arrives. And I am also waiting on an old Dapol Umber Terrier I couldn't say no to in a clearance sale. So lots of things happening! And to leave on a high - please enjoy some Umber and Improved Engine Green from last weekend when me and my five year old daughter built a (temporary) model railway on the kitchen table. Wee had a long conversation about the lococomotive not being 'chocolate brown' its called Umber and how Improved Engine Green isn't actually green! it was great fun. 😁 Stay Safe. Gary

I've managed to grab an unbuilt DJH C2X kit, and a Finecast LBSCR E4/E6 from ebay for £70 & £60 respectively. I was winning an LBSC E1 for £51 but it was swiped from me with two seconds to go!! Frustrating but it is what it is.

I can't make it to Tonbridge sadly, do you have a website I could browse and exchange some silver for kits on? Gary

Hello All! I hope you are all well; before I go any further - I should warn anyone of a nervous disposition. This post will contain a large 'Beeching Axe' being fell on the line; its been nearly five years since the last train has run on the line and time has caught up to this branch line - but alas all is not lost, please stay with me until the very end. So we start with the Branch looking very forlorn as in the last post, track has degraded - all structures on the line have been removed and only the memories remain and the faint echo of coaches banging over track joints on the wind of time. This was the worst board; it has recieved the attention of rodents chewing the dead wiring and leaving behind their "leavings" corroding the track and damaging the scenery - the track has been put in the scrap box - any attached wiring was cut off and has been put in a to be used later box. The second board was in much better overall condition - the track here was popped in a 'bits' box as it was in far better condition. I managed to get the lighting for the layout gathered together and working which helped. There is something about this photo which jarrs me, I think its the silhouette around where the track was where I hadn't painted. I wonder if it's just me, or if modellers as a whole have these feelings when dismantling a project - and on a whole this post has just been a major downer... so far. I work in education currently; and one of the perks of it is the 'scheduled' holiday time. And knowing it was a half-term coming up I have been planning, and purchasing some supplies. The fiddleyard board, has remained unloved and unpainted since 2013 when it was assembled! With some quickwork with some snips, a screwdriver and some choice language the lever frame, associated wiring and the CDU (which looks like its dead) has been removed from the board and placed in the 'bits' box to be tested & cleaned up. After a brush down of any dirt, and then another brush down it now looks like this: Everything now looks much nicer and cleaner; although very much a downer it looks like from small acorns strong trees grow. Some more painting is needed, the underside of the boards and very bottom of the legs as well as behind some of the ironwork. I will also be fitting the adjustable feet I have in stock for this boards to ensure I have a level playing field to start with. Attention is now turning with how best to use the space I have available, several plans are being sketched out especially as the boards have been returned to bare wood and has a fresh coat of paint applied! Some 'planning' in action, as I felt I needed a train somewhere in this post!! Kind Regards, Gary

I really like what this layout is going to become, Ffarquar is a great plan and the addition of the passing station and docks will certainly add to operating interest and just allow for more scenery. I too like the idea of 'point to point' workings, and getting a sense of where the model is in the real/fictional world it inhabits. Keep it up - I've subscribed to see more as it happens. Kind Regards, Gary

My oh my, where did the time go! This thread was started nearly a decade ago, and the summer project has been languishing without work done on it for most of that time! Its lived in five houses/garages/sheds in that time and has sat there patiently waiting for me to do some work on it - I want to say hello to anyone who is watching/reading and apologies for the lack of updates and the thread necromancy in bringing this back up to the top of the pile again. This project has been fun, frustrating, indecisive all at the same time - I lost a lot of enthusiasm for it when my Nan passed in 2014; she supported my hobby and was always listening to me whittle on no-matter how boring it was. I hurt my back, had lost, gained and lost several jobs since then - most notably with COVID-19 when I was very unexpectedly laid off whilst sitting in my Garage working from home adjacent to the layout a couple of chaps from work arrived and insisted I return my keys, paperwork, work laptop, printer etc while my manager called me on the phone. All exciting! And we have moved yet again! Most recently in November 2022; and I am pleased to say that the layout now features much more in the front of my mind - I had started a layout on a shelf project to get some skills back in and aquire more stock and items to transition onto the main layout - however the shelf layout's board is rather bannana shaped so I am unsure if I will be continuing with it or if I will be transititioning back to working on this the 'summer project'. The layout has been for the first time in three years been assembled and is standing in its new home, a coach-house style garage protected on two sides and above by buildings - there is a nice window for some light and it is a clean(ish) space which benefitted from a massive skip chucking old stuff out when we moved house! Superficially its not in bad condition; the boards are sound and unwarped there is very little damage to the paintwork and buffer stops etc are still attached despite whatever conditions it was moved in. However, the polystyrene scenery has been subject to the attention of some rodents in our old garage and will have to be removed - likewise the track on the left-hand board has corroded and I suspect it is again the attention of rodents that has caused this. With this in mind, I am planning to strip the boards back to just their wood and fixings and rub them down and apply fresh primer and topcoat to them (there is no sign of life in our new garage from rodents), the existing track etc will be removed and I will look at putting a new plan on these boards - currently I am looking at 'The Art of Compromise' but flipped with the fiddleyard on the left-hand side, the idea being to create 'the spirit' of the London, Brighton & South Coast Railway rather than model a specific location - despite how much I want a Myers style station building! So in a way this will be the ultimate end of the summer project of 2013 - but may well see the start of The Summer Project of 2023, which I will continue with on this thread. So with that in mind, I will leave this thread with one last image - it is possibly my favourite image of this layout and is currently my PC wallpaper and is from happier times: As well as the only known video of something moving on the layout - I love the 'clickty-clack': https://photos.app.goo.gl/ViYtFLPRoTZY5VNj7 I have also restored older images I could find back to this thread which were lost in the photobucket debarcle. Kind Regards, Gary