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I started BR as an apprentice in 1989 and became a member of Darlington a Model Railway Club the same year..............and I'm still on/in both! Edit- not forgetting a few name changes on the way from BR to NR -but the same job from the same depot!

Went squelch squelch

Agreed contract staff brought in for planned projects do cost money. But most off track departments local policy employing current full time staff can make a big difference working on the majority of the infrastructure.

Thursday football on hold for the time being with ankle ligament damage, the cure- a Porter from the Tyne Bank Brewery- Northern Porter 4.5%! Just the ticket!

Hi Mike, I posted these current NR standards to show that there is sometimes no need to remove more than is needed throughout the network -which I believe many times this is not the case!

In many urban areas the railway sometimes forms some of the only untouched wildlife corridors around! My issue is that there is no need to cut trees that don't need removal especially when wildlife is thriving. Thus removing the carnage of removal and the need for re-growth. Leave nature to do what it does best if possible!

In my opinion far too many trees especially away from the required felling areas are removed, creating a 'nuclear wasteland' environment. Hopefully responsible 'off track' managers will follow the laid down standards and not turn a blind eye to environmental regulations.

The Exmoor Ale in the bottom picture travels well as I have had a pint in the Pennyweight here in Darlington!!

Bus-bar fitting is well underway, the fiddle yard is being done first from either end (Simon has the South end of the fiddle and myself the North (Catesby tunnel) end. First board was fairly easy but the points matrix board which was a challenge to prep wasn't straight forward to fit a bus-bar. Most boards will have a straight bus-bar but this board required it to snake around the formidable matrix circuitry. Picture below Shows completed board tested for short circuits with a multi-meter and now requires final testing with DCC test rig connected up.

Costa-del-Darlo basking in a heatwave today and by the 8.30pm kick off the temperature was still fairly high! Home and a shower bring a Timothy Taylor beer -Ram Tam 4.1%, maybe a bit on the dark side for a warm evenings wind down but very nice all the same!

just edited as I realised I could just undo the effect and trim original to something near the size I posted- so here is the original with as near as possible trimmed to size-

Hi Mike, as we're doing a re-wire of the original DC wiring it's fairly straight forward and as we are colour coding the DCC power districts the fiddle boards at least won't be getting new plans as such yet. The piece of paper you see in the picture is one of the original board connector plans and each wire on the layout has an associated number. We can use the main existing plan book to look up wire numbering and will need to do this for the fiddle yard points as all wiring for them will remain. At some time in the future I'm sure we will re-write them but at the moment we're just using the originals.

Well the first board is now fully finished with bus-bar fitted and DCC tested.

The spotter who took this from the other direction disagrees!

Is that a lesser spotted 1940's 7 7 in Scotrail? Amazing layout and a firm favourite of mine!!

Just read the 1st post about adding effects, not a sepia (not on the list for my iPad) but a transfer effect so might have broken the rules, ooops sorry!

Just taken today on a working weekend for Charwelton- 47 407 Aycliffe heads 1O05 the 07.45 Newcastle - Poole south out of Catesby tunnel.

Here is a link to the Charwelton Facebook page as it has Dave's pic in greater detail- https://www.facebook.com/Charwelton80s/

Thanks Nick most kind- and I'm hoping there will be a fantastic pic posted soon as DaveC has a cracker taken at the same time!

Well the layouts all wrapped up and back in the store room. Here are a few pics from the working weekend- A quiet Sunday afternoon in the yard finds ex LMS corridor 3rd (now an engineers staff saloon) stabled in one of the Sidings. 47 407 'Aycliffe' heads 1O05 the 07.45 Newcastle-Poole service south after leaving Catesby tunnel. And yes we were also working between stock photo shoots!

Well the layout is up in its entirety and wiring work is progressing? First job of the day was to test all fiddle yard points after the extensive prep work! Good news was that only one didn't, due to a Broken wire on a connector!

As we have found doing reasearch for the signalling on Charwelton about the only way to find info is to wade through photos of the nearest area that your modelling, as mentioned signalling design varied between regions, not easy when your researching signalling on a line that didn't survive such as the GC with Charwelton. http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/124677-charwelton-re-signalling/

As I have finished most of my freight rolling stock I thought I would make a start on the coaching stock that will be required on Charwelton- First victim an aging Airfix BSO MK2D. So- pipes/step/ETH fittings added, corridor connection cut back to the correct length from coach end and dropped buckeye fitted. Also windows added to the corridor insert. Just need a tail lamp and it's there!

We have been collating the stock into a register and now have a departmental section, not fully populated yet but should give a flavour of some of the stock that will appear in various train formations!

RIP Eric- I'm sure him and Jocky Wilson will be having a round of darts in the heavens as we speak!