Matloughe

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

Good Morning All! How are you all? Have you had a good time since my last update? I can only apologise for the delay in updates this has been caused by a number of items - firstly I felt rather disheartened about the state of that signalbox kit I built so decided to have some time away - as well as I noticed the board has got an ever so slight bananna curve in it which caused me to pause for thought about it all. So I had a break away from model railways with some of the following activities: World in Flames Board game, World War 2 on the table for a weekend - the map for this is three feet by four feet with another two A3 sized play aids! I did also tidy up the garage and for the first time since 2017; the old boards for Devils Dyke have been assembled and bolted together for some work to be done on them. Currently the plan being banded about in my mind is to take it back to bare boards and refurbish them and work on a plan mirror to 'The art of Compromise' on these boards - but that is a medium length plan, you can also see my £5 bargain of a 6'x2'6" laser cut board kit and legs bought on Facebook Marketplace this also has an additional section bolted to it taking it to over 8' in length. This board will either form the basis of an O Gauge BLT or potentially an N Gauge NSE roundy-roundy but that is more long-term planning. As for this layout I have aquired several wagons for the layout: Top to Bottom Left to Right: UK Train Sim - the website is closing, and I remembered they had a custom wagon so I had to grab one before it fades forever especially as I don't have one that shape. SR (exLBSC) Guards Van - this is going to be repainted into LBSC livery with new metal wheels being provided. Bestwood - this is mentioned in the Sheffield Park freight logs so I had to grab it. GE Van - this is also in the Sheffield Park freight logs and as its another pre-grouping wagon I had to have it. At the same time I bought "Bestwood" and the SR Guards van I also bought for £2- an old Hornby R500 Platform Shelter Its not much of a looker is it... how about after a repaint: Ahh thats better, after an encounter with some specific colours it looks much better in its LB&SCR colour scheme; the camera makes the paint job look messy but at a normal distance it looks fine! Oh yes... I might've bought a new locomotive as well. #umberlicious Cheerio all!

I don't know about spoiling the bobby. I've been having a relaxing evening listening to @BlueLightning's stream and cutting out the windows of the Signalbox - is the kit a faff, yes, yes it is. Is it an 'advanced' difficulty? - Probably not, its very fiddly and I havent got it right - but equally the instructions don't say to remove the signalbox door apeture from the bodyshell its just a photo of it missing and I didn't pay attention to it so havent done it. I would probably say its easier to print onto sticker paper as the instructions suggest rather than print onto thin card as I have done here. As you can see - its together; I'm not happy with it - by missing taking out the door and now progressing beyond that stage is difficult. I think I am going to chalk this up to experience and continue this as a 'placeholder' for now the card has certainly dulled my knife blade which hasn't helped much! I am going to call it here tonight I think. Going forwards I am still waiting for my platform shelter to be delivered and my PO wagon for the layout; that will most likely be the next update as I am going to leave the signalbox here for now and return to it down the line as it were - pun intended! Its rough; i'm not happy with it. But it's part of the process. I also broke the window frame when cutting the last pane of glass! 😒 Have a good evening all! Gary

Have I started it - yes! Do I wish I hadn't - yes! Have I found my patience? - No, not yet! Only small progress was made last night; the outer shell of the building is glued together - and awaiting the addition of the cosmetic external brickwork and additional details. Sadly I havent got any glazing material for this currently - so either it waits for that or I build it unglazed - like the station shelter has no glazing. I've already made mistakes building this kit so I will plough on even if it just gets used as a 'placeholder' for a different building or a rebuilt building. Aside from the cost of the pdf kit; which was under £5 when I bought it several years ago - the greyboard card was saved from Royal Mail 'unbendable' envelopes the print was a test of the printer at work so cost nothing, and I bought some Bostick glue. So I should probably be a bit more lenient with myself on this one. Have fun everyone! Gary

Good Evening All! An unscheduled update as tonight is my Partner's choir night; coupled with a #2 child deciding she was tired and wanted to go to bed at 7pm resulted in commandeering the dining table for some Brighton Time! So wrapping up from last time; I have spent this months modelling budget on some items from Scale Model Scenery - some full width platform ramps as well as some platform sections to extend the overall length of the platform and finally a lovely barrow crossing. I'm not sponsored by SMS I have just found their products useful for a base to build upon. I have also in the interim painted the sleepers on the layout a mid-brown colour from the Citadel Paint range from Games Workshop. So this evening starts at the new board crossing at the end of the platform - this allows the signalman a safe route to cross the line to his signalbox which will be located on the left-hand side of this picture - at the time period involved labour was cheap and there is photographics evidence of board crossings being immaculately maintained so I didn't want a scruffy crossing. These parts have been painted and have been stuck to the board with bog-standard PVA. The platform itself is now three flat sections and two ramps but I am unsure if it is too long for the layout itself. So this is the full-length platform with the train stabled within the three flat sections with the front of the locomotive at the very nearest end of the flat section of platform before it transitions to the flat section of ramp. Also as you can see here - the different colour of the board crossing and freight platform in the background painted and in place currently. Signalbox location would be where the Citadel paint tin is currently located in this photo. In this photo the rear of the train has been drawn up level to the rear of the second flat piece of platform - showing it is (just) possible to accomodate a three-coach faux Stroudley set in the shorter platform but the locomotive does hang off the end and foul the crossing. I am leaning towards the platform being longer rather than shorter myself - but am interested to hear others opinions. Although the opinion given to me by my Partner of running a 2-coach train wasn't well recieved! 😁 I have managed to obtain a Hornby R510 Platform Shelter for the princely sum of £3! This will be painted up into LBSC Colours and act as the platform building for passengers - I might also add a small shed or some such on the platform to act as a lock-up. I couldn't bring myself to remove the decals put onto my own one by myself and my Nan all those years ago! It will give me to opportunity to practise some painting. I have also given thought to operating the layout from either end or indeed as a 'through' with a fiddlestick at each end which might be interesting. I have also printed off my Scalescenes Platform parts and am going to clad these SMS platforms with Brick Paper/Card after they are finished gluing and are firmly located in place. As for the last item on my list of updates - I have alluded to it once or twice: I need to find my patience - as it looks like I will need it! This pdf kit has been sitting on my Google Drive for quite some time awaiting printing. I just need some glazing and I can make a start on it. I've also managed to grab a Hornby Open Wagon from one of the specific Coal Merchants mentioned in the Sheffield Park freight accounts which is fantastic! My Stock of pre-grouping grows on with the GER Van arriving and a Southern Liveried LBSC Brake Van (secondhand) on their way with the platform building. Stay Safe! Gary

Oh believe me I am tempted! I have a small 80cm x 20cm board with a failed N Gauge project on it with a 40cm x 10cm fiddlestick already painted & primered - I'd just need to change the track for some H0m & sort out some sort of motive power! I'm certainly going to go away and ponder on what I could fit in that space which would be IoM related. Loving the photos on here & the FB group. Cheers, Gary

I just wanted to say, I've read this thread from beginning to end and love it! Keep up the good work; you've inspired me to nab a wagon kit and Oxford Rail Peacock - but I am still hovering on the edge of taking a dip with 00n3! Can't wait to see more. Gary

So speaking on Wagons more broadly, Information I have extrapolated previously I've fed into a spreadsheet and tweaked it - I am only showing a portion of it here but this is the broad breakdown of wagons that arrived in the given Timeperiod at Sheffield Park, just over 90% of the wagons were LBSCR owned and this is the breakdown of type. I am making some broad assumptions here that a Merchandise Wagon is a 4/5 Plank, whereas a sheet wagon would be more like an Open D with a rail fitted - these together make up the majority of all wagons arriving, with very few from other companies in these categories. Infact the only category where other companies / Private Owner wagons are more prevelant are (unsurprisingly) coal traffic. I am assuming that Coal/Coke Wagons owned by the LBSCR would be along the lines of the 7 Plank design shared with the SE&CR. (I havent quoted diagram numbers as I don't have my book with me). No Private Owner Vans arrived during this time period, with PO Wagons being exclusively for the coal trade. The most prevelant van from the other railways was from the SECR with three deliveries and one LNWR & one GER van making up all five others in that category. I have made a very crude matrix, based on the proportion percentages and a 20 wagon pool to show me how many of each type I would need as a guide to (relatively) accurately model this time period. Anyway, I hope it is of some interest and indicates where I am heading in terms of modelling direction - even only for myself. Gary

It is indeed the most correct answer to the question - however I am not quite sure how to pitch a trip to the beach to the other half and kids if the beach is 6 hours away! 🤣 Especially compared to the one ten minutes away... I don't think "the wrong type of sand" will cut it. I'll PM you shortly re-wagons. I'm hoping to retrieve some Terriers from the depths of the Garage tomorrow as well as some more suitable rolling stock. I might even set up The Dyke and see what sorry state its actually in. Gary

Good Evening, I hope everyone has had a fantastic festive season, and now it has turned to a new year. I have decided (probably Ill-conceieved & hastily) that I will try and get this shelf layout vaguely in a decent order for my Birthday in May as a self-imposed deadline. I have managed to allocate one evening a week to modelling time and hopefully this will let me get some real progess achieved. In the meantime I have been doing research and looking at items I can obtain to continue making the layout. Yes, I am still making some final decisions - I have ordered some more platform ramps and sections from Scale Model Scenery as well as a board crossing; what I am going to do is make the platform ramps and assess then if I need further platform sections. I may add an extra section to make the platform longer - it depends on how it feels with the additional length of the ramps. I have also seen that Scale Model Scenery makes a blend of material I could use for ballast marked as 'coastal' - the LBSCR used shingle ballast from Eastbourne Beach for their ballast needs so this might be exactly what I need. I have been using lots of sources for Pre-Grouping traffic patterns and have found that the 'Lewes & East Grinstead Railway' by Klaus Marx very interesting - the traffic patterns at Sheffield Park's Freight Office has been most enlightening - coupled with the Southern Wagons book has made me look at obtaining/making some wagons for the layout. Some of the Dapol unpainted wagons are a close match for LBSCR wagons at a distance - I am going to look at modifying a Dapol 7 Plank with some extra strapping and a paint job it will look the part. I'm also quite happy that I have managed to obtain an Oxford Rail GER 10t van in Great Eastern Livery; apparently between November 1899 & March 1900 a GER van was the only vehicle from that railway company to visit Sheffield Park - unlike the Beer Traffic to Sheffield Park! 6 Midland Railway wagons & 3 South Eastern & Chatham Vans all containing beer. Burton Ale & Bishop Neame I wonder? Its interesting the traffic from the Midlands came in open wagons, yet similar traffic from a neighbouring railway came in vans. Nevertheless the information has given me a good spread of wagon kits & models for me to build & obtain - I am starting with the easier ones first however! Definately cannot have too many Terriers, I think that is number fifteen - but is the first modern one. I think I have the previous generation with Brighton Gold Medal winner as well - I'll have to look. I hope everyone has had a great time; and I look forwards to sharing some actual progress soon. Gary

Thats a fantastic spread of pointwork, and an equally gorgeous locomotive to be testing it all out with! I look forwards to seeing more. Kind Regards, Gary

I hope everyone has had a great christmas! In our house after a very busy day - I have two children tucked up in bed and a quiet day planned for tomorrow! For me its a cup of tea, a read of my new railway books and admiring this beauty that Father Christmas brought for me: Nothing like some Improved Engine Green on Christmas! Merry Christmas to all! Gary

I used to have the complete Scaledale station buildings set from that range many years ago; as good as it was it just never seemed to fit on my platforms or look quite right to my eyes. Evenually I sold them on for further funds for the O Gauge project (it paid for Fenchurch from Dapol) - its funny that Devil's Dyke pops up several times because my 'main' 00 layout which is currently dormant awaiting refurb/replacement was of The Dyke - compressed somewhat into 7'x1' and perhaps some liberties with the scenery as seen here: Taken in Feburary 2014 the layout sans Fiddle Yard, and again in May 2017 - about two weeks after my Daughter was born this must've been one of if not the last time the layout ran. When it comes to single line Termini the LBSCR really only has three, The Dyke & Hayling Island are the main two - with Kemp Town being the third - but arguable Kemp Town should have ben double track ideally. As I've said before - I am not striving for historical accuaracy. I am looking at this as a fun project to get up the mojo to sort out my layout of The Dyke and figure out its future. I am looking at this BLT on a Shelf probably more like a through station thats been cut back for whatever reason - so the station would be more like Fittleworth or Barcombe as an example so it was a block post at some stage - if I include the crossing at the station's headshunt end then the box would also control the level crossing as well. As an interesting aside - if you look at the track plan for Devils Dyke and compare it to the above photos as the following one below: I might have an unhealthy obsession with Devil's Dyke with two layouts in two scales bearing striking resemblences! Really fascinating photos - you're right I've looked at the trapping for the goods yard and its certainly a thing of art, almost a double slip. I havent figures out a track plan in all honesty - usually I physcially research a location and plop my station down, figure out its connections to the real world and go from there but on this shelfie I have literally nailed track to a board and plopped a train on it. I will certainly have a think on the traffic pattern - equally only table space is stopping me making this a through station I'd need another fiddlestick and thats it. Yes there is - it looks fantastic; and for shapeways its not too unreasonably priced. I was considering buying one for my N Gauge layout but have held off work on it so far - A 00 one would look very grand - the laser cut box of Drayton looks very nice as well; I've worked with lasercut wood/mdf before so I might go down that route first as its marginally cheaper. I think Devil's Dyke is the closest by far, and it was normally 'One Engine in Steam' with a special trainstaff token which was 'Brighton & The Dyke' despite the trainstaff/token's authority not actually starting until the branch diverged from the mainline. I believe its been said before The Dyke was a mixed train in the morning and then passenger shuttles to Brighton the rest of the day. Six coupled locomotives being preferred for their adhesion but four-coupled locos occasionally visited as well as a variety of railcars such as the Steam Sentinel one on trial. Hayling Island was One Engine in Steam in winter and then multiple trains at peak summer - but again had a dedicated mixed train rather than a freight only run in the mornings. Kind Regards, ~ Gary

Not at all - any & all advice is accepted. The shelf is actualy solid pinewood which has had two coats of undercoat and a black topcoat applied all over. I did have some small feet for the layout made out of offcuts of pinewood and soft batten but I am not sure where they have gone in the move currently. I will certainly keep an eye on the trueness of the board and will certainly look at bracing the underside of it to keep it in alignment. No need to apologise at all - real life overtakes at times; to be honest since my daughter was born I havent really had the time/money/inclination to do much modelling of any sort - between having a little one and working full-time, then COVID and loosing a job and getting anything that was going I am sure the past couple of years have been hard on everyone and it certainly feels like jumping out of the frying pan into the fire at times! No pictures this evening - not much has happened - I have fiddled with the length of the loop and it is effectively a double straight plus another half straight in length - this allows me to easily run-around the Bachmann set of Stroudley coaches without bashing them up. I did also do some trawling through the PC and found files for some Scalescene products that may be useful to incorporate on the layout. I also have an A Model Railway LBSCR Signalbox downloadable pdf kit based on Drayton box which will be a great start for some structures - I also have an Alphagrafix kit I could scale down potentially so thats two options straight away for some buildings. I am not sure if I want to keep the Hornby platform shelter building - if I do I am half-tempted to obtain another one and paint that up as I am not sure I want to alter the finish of the current one considering it was a gift many years ago from my Nan, plenty of time to think on that one. I have also found a Stroudley Lantern Brake Van kit from York Model Rail which is a mixed media model of MDF bodyshell & Mylar details added over the top. Doesn't have a chassis but looks like a Dapol 10' wheelbase could be adapted to fit - as the wheelbase of the real thing was 9' 9". Kind Regards, Gary

You're quite right, I could possibly find/move some track around and get another quarter straight of track into the space available - I'll have a ponder and rummage in the box this evening - I know I have the track cutters with me in my modelling toolbox. To be honest - I was just following the plan as to where the platform should/could go - but your are right there isn't any reason why I couldn't move it down closer to the proposed crosing gates and simply set back to run-around (provided the loop is long enough), potentially use the extra thin extension piece to give a much longer platform than is actually needed. I'll try and book some 'table time' to have a play and test out the platform location - it would make more sense with regards to the level crossing gates - the vague idea I had was for a light-railway so it would fit well. Something we have in common the Brighton & Highland Lines is William Stroudley - certainly a gifted engineer of his time. The fiddleyard will just be more of a fiddlestick - I will pop some track onto a piece of batten and attach/detach it as needed. I've had a look through your threads, I enjoyed seeing your work on your whitemetal locomotives. Kind Regards, Gary

I cannot remember the last time I actually gave my 00 a run; hopefully that'll change somewhat. I don't want to bore anyone, but I have done a little fettling and thought I would share what adjustments to the trackplan has been made. Nothing major just tinkering. So primarily as this is using Setrack I will be using that nomenclature rather than listing the lengths in mm etc. You'll have to excuse the post-grouping stock, up until recently I didn't believe it would be possible for me to make a Layout of the LBSC in its pre-grouping guise this will be rectified in due time. Starting with the station and run-around loop, on both sides a quarter straight was added in - this has the benefit of permitting a reasonable length train to be accomodated: Three 'standard' length wagons and a slightly large Brake Van seem to be reasonably acommodated without bashing into either end running around - a shorter Brake Van would ease the need to stop precisely. As well as three of Bachman's Red Coaches from their Thomas range which are based (loosely) on LBSCR Stroudley coaches - I'd probably only run two coaches in all honesty for ease and three literally fills the platform space! But it also means I could run a small mixed train with one coach or use the Ratio coach I have been modifying for a number of years to be a passable LBSCR Push-Pull Driving Trailer. The headshunt for the station has also been extended and is a Standard and a Half Straight in length, this allows me to use either: A short locomotive such as a Terrier or 0-4-0 and two wagons, or as seen below as my latest locomotive - a larger locomotive and a single wagon: Incidentally this is my first ever 'Really useful Engine' I have ever owned and I wanted one as a different locomotive to run from the Terriers - it runs well for its age and I will be looking at making some minor cosmetic upgrades to it in the future. The idea is for the headshunt to end at a closed Level Crossing Gate - I also have an idea for a small signalbox to sit behind the coal wagon here and a wooden foot crossing - the idea is the signalbox is also the 'gate box' and that the line once continued onwards but currently does not. The single siding has had a quarter straight lengthening piece fitted and can now easily accomodate two wagons of a standard length - I havent yet had a play to see operationally how long it takes me to tie myself in knots but I am looking forwards to giving it a go, I did find some paint last night which I might have a go at painting some sleepers in a wash of brown provisionally - I have also found some PVA glue so I have the ability to fix the platforms etc in place to the boards and prime them as well. So some fiddling is definately on the cards; I just need to sort out if I want to get wider platform ramps as I have thin ones currently and if I want to replace the half-loading dock in the siding with something else or not. But currently everything is looking good. Apologies for the boring update; I'll try and not to post anything else until something actually happens next time. Wishing you all the best here, from my Budget Brighton BLT! Gary (Who else is thinking about sandwiches currently...? Just me?)

Radius is the measurement of a circule from the outer edge to the centremost point, the 'pivot' point as it were. Diameter which is what we are looking at here is the quoted size of a circle from one side to another, i.e. double the distance measured in radius. So you actually have a ten & half inch radius, or twenty-one inch diameter. But as said before normally measurements are taken from the track centre line. 🙂 Looks great, I have also had some Budget Model Railways inspiration so keep it up!

Hello all! I hope everyone is well, and I would like to say welcome to my latest project that has broken cover. This one has been about two years in the back of my mind rumbling about not quite going away but not seemingly coming to anything. So I had to move house in 2017 when my Daughter was 5 months old, and since then my old layout based on The Dyke (once called my summer project) was put into storage and effectively nothing has been done with it since that time, in November just gone we had to move again into hopefully a much more long-term house and The Dyke was pulled from storage glanced at, and it standing in the new Garage awaiting the time for me to look at doing a refurbishment/replacement. The boards are sound its just pretty much everything else, the track has corroded (Nickel-Silver) and the scenery and wiring had been chewed up - so will need replacing. Anyway during lockdown; I watched a lot of Budget Model Railways as a way to de-stress and try to get some mojo going for modelling and one of the vast number of layouts produced was the model railway for absolute beginners a very interesting six-part series, I'd recommend anyone to watch it even just to see how someone else plans a model railway and their thought processes. I have also watched @BlueLightning's brilliant livestreams on a semi-regular basis as I have a similar interest in pre-grouping model railways. In August 2021 i bought from Wickes a shelf kit, measuring 1185mm x 190mm and after primering it and rummaging around my box of bits and pieces I followed the Budget Model Railways ideas and produced this plan: Its a very basic three-point plan, a station with run around loop and a single siding off of it as well as a headshunt & fiddle stick. Now I went through a number of permutations of this by positioning different platform arrangements and shifting the tracks this way or that way by a couple of inches to try and get the most out of the space as seen here: But nothing seemed to be quite right - as an aside the Hornby shelter was a gift to me from my Nan when I got my first Hornby Trainset in 1994/95 The Highlander which is interesting as The Hornby Railways Collectors Guide seems to imply that this set was only released the year I was born and the year after... yet I distinctly remember it as a christmas gift when I was about five or six... because I got the 1998 GWR Freight set a year or two later on. Anyway I digress, the plan wasn't working, it was boring to operate the scenery just didn't seem like it was going to work out - I lost interest in it and the track was removed and an inglenook was placed down instead but I couldn't get that running on a regular basis so I switched to an O Gauge ultra micro and that was recycled into an N Gauge station latterly on different boards and this shelf was stored behind the sofa forgotten about until moving day last month. It was brought to the new house alongside my small trunk of 'clean' non garage, non storage box items to the new house whilst the bulk of my collection and layout is stored in the new garage. My better half has been sick of me moaning at her I don't have a layout and I'm bored, and itching to do a new project - she effectively told me to get on with something, although perhaps not in those terms! So after watching a livestream or two and chatting with some friends I have had the urge to have another go; i've resurrected the shelf and watched the whole Budget Model Railways series again to see what I had missed and it was after an episode or two startingly obvious what I had gotten wrong, it was the exit off of scene. In the photos above, the exit is the long headshunt shown behind the carriage. Whereas compared to the photo below: Excuse the background clutter - the living room still looks like a warehouse after the move! It doesn't help I had to extract this from under a small pile of boxes and wargame counters! The exit off scene should be here, bottom left with the line running down off the shot - that way the siding to be shunted is facing the opposite way and requires the skilful use of the loop and headshunt to sort everything out properly. This was a first mock-up to be tested and I was quite pleased with it - where I had flipped the plan around for ease I had acually removed some of the interest and made it boring to operate! The other thing I decided upon after watching the video series Budget Model Railways show that they way they do it is to not have everything on one board, so following that the fiddleyard/fiddlestick will be moved onto a small seperate board. Yes I can fit everything on one board here, provided I want a loco and a single carriage or a loco, wagon and guards van. By moving the fiddlestick off of the shelf it has allowed me to insert small lengthening straights into the loop and platform road, as well as lengthening the headshunt to take a loco slightly larger than a Terrier as well as a wagon and lengthing the siding so it can accept two wagons easily. None of that is shown here, but may be shown in a future post. It does also mean I can devote almost the entire shelf length & width to scenery rather than a slightly odd break for the fiddleyard where there is no scenery. Some disclaimers; this is intended to be a layout I can just get on and have a play with, practice some skills run some trains. To this end I am literally just raiding what is in my boxes I have to hand in the house - its Code 100 Hornby track yes, not great but it'll do the job. Yes I am lazy, I am using the Hornby DCC clips for the point to back feed power to the siding and only supplying power to the fiddlestick. Yes I've used trackscrews - because I had them to hand. I'm not going to be claiming that I am making a scale model of somewhere - I do think sometimes in the hobby we take ourselves too seriously and procrastinate about getting everything 'right' without actually achieving anything. So this is here to have a little bit of fun for me, I was inspired to get on and do something so I shall. Realistically I probably wont get much further before the New Year as I have no ballast or extra scenery items; but I will have somewhere to test my present that will be under the tree on Christmas morning. 😁 Despite it being slapped together as track on a bare board, with platforms and a building roughly in place - I'll leave you with this photo of the wrong engine paired with the wrong carriage... But I think it has some actual atmosphere and I was very pleased how it looked when this photo was revealed to me on my phone: It just looked 'right' in my eyes. I hope you all have a fantastically festive season to be merry and bright. And may Father Christmas bring you something from your wishlists. Take Care! Gary