Modelling Mike

I have to admit, I have ended up with a lot of wires under my baseboards! But it’s nothing complicated - just a lot of power feeds and the servo leads. I can definitely see the benefits of going down your route for an exhibition layout, but I’m really happy playing with my mimic panel Is Dave’s layout on RMweb? I’d be intrigued to have a look at his set up

It was inevitable, really. As soon as I had the mimic panel up and running, I was always going to want some signals to operate with it! So, over the last couple of weeks, I have been busy building and painting these for Talbothays... From left to right, we have the up home bracket signal, giving access to either platform 2 (left) or 1 (right); the down starter for platform 1 (including a shunting arm into the goods yard); the down starter for platform 2; the up starter for platform 2; and the down home. All of the above have been made using Ratio kits. The two rail-built signals were from the newish 493 kit, and are the only genuinely Southern signals. All the others were built using the older 486 kit, which although it has its flaws, it is remarkably good value for money. Being able to build a large bracket and two single arm signals with parts to spare for under a tenner can’t be sniffed at. You’ll notice that the lattice signals don’t have finials, this is because I plan on fitting them with SDJR/Southern finials from ModelU, to give them more of a Southern (and less of an LNER) feel. All the signals were finally finished this morning and I’ve spent the afternoon starting their installation. This included hooking up and programming the third servo controller, which will be dedicated to signals, and quite a bit of time threading servo leads under the boards! With holes cut in the baseboard, I’ve been able to pose the signals in their proposed positions, and I’m really pleased with how they’ve turned out. They might not be the most realistic of models, but they’re the first signals I’ve ever built from a kit, and on the whole I’m quite pleased with them. An overview of the country end of Talbothays with the rail-built platform 1 starter with its shunting arm to the left, and the shorter lattice post starter to the right. The home bracket can be seen in the distance. It is way too close to the junction, but sadly I didn’t consider the signals when laying the curve into the fiddle yard, and the track is too close to the baseboard edge to fit it further back. Besides, if I was to fit it a scale distance, it would be half way round the fiddle yard! The platform 1 starter was built from the Ratio rail-built kit. Instead of fitting the distant arm to the lower position, as per the kit, I’ve borrowed one of the subsidiary signal arms from the lattice post kit to form a shunting signal for movements into the goods yard. I had originally thought about using a ground disc, but I think this works better. Unfortunately, I didn’t include a switch for a second signal here on the mimic panel, so this signal wont be remotely operated. Instead, I’ll be able to pose it “off” by operating the mechanism under the board “digitally”...ie with my fingers. The diminutive platform 2 down starter is based on the one at the country end of Corfe Castle’s up platform. It is a scale 15ft tall, and when photographed next to its rail-built brother, it does look tiny! I cut down one of the lattice posts after gluing the two halves together, and really wish I had done it the other way around, as it was painfully fiddly. I have fashioned a platform at the top of the ladder from plastic card which now needs hand rails. Photos can be cruel - it was only looking at the above shots that I realised I hadn’t glued the ladder on squarely. I’ll fix that in the morning... The signal arm should be at cab height, if I have done my sums correctly. This is by far the most fragile of the signals I have built, and unfortunately it is right next to the door to the room. Only time will tell if it survives! I’m hoping to connect one or two of them up to the servos tomorrow and see if they work...or get ripped apart by the motors. Wish me luck!

I found this thread by chance a couple of days ago and have thoroughly enjoyed catching up with its development. I do like the flexible timeframe element - something I considered trying on a previous project myself. Purbeck is also a big draw for me! I’m not sure if I’ll be able to get to Warley this year, but if I do, I’ll definitely be looking out for Lulworth Castle there.

There are loads of those kinds of oddities on the Western. At Swindon, JIs are used in the down direction, but theatre boxes are used in the up on platforms 1-3. Bristol Parkway is even more random. In the down direction, you can now be put into any of the four platforms. On platforms 1, 3 and 4, you’ll have a route indicator showing either F, A or T (Filton, Avonmouth or Tunnel), but on platform 2, the starter is fitted with junction indicators!

It was great to see Oak Road in the flesh yesterday. It really is a stunning achievement. It really caught my eye and kept my attention for ages - the more you look at it, the more detail you see. You have captured the essence of Castle Cary and the modern GWR brilliantly. I even spotted an all too realistic “mixed bag” GWR green and FGW blue HST rake sat in the fiddle yard. Shame it didn’t get to run while I was there! Any plans to run IETs now that the 802s have entered service on the real route? Thanks for the offer of a chair after I had been stood gawping at your handywork for ages! I was meaning to say hello properly, but you got chatting to a friend and I had to run off for my train, so I’ll have to offer my congrats on here instead. Hopefully I’ll get to see the layout again soon.

Finished or not, the layout is looking superb, Mike. I’ve managed to wangle a day off from work tomorrow, so I’ll be heading down to Ford for the show. It’ll be good to get a spot of retail therapy in, but Oak Road is definitely a big draw. I’m really looking forward to seeing it in the flesh.

I can’t deny that I’m really excited about today’s developments in the hobby room. Having built the mimic panel box on Sunday, I decided to dedicate my rest day today to wiring the panel up. The last few bits and bobs I needed (including some replacement buttons that Dave was kind enough to send me), arrived this morning, so it was full steam ahead... After securing the multipanel processor and expansion boards into place, it was time to attach the buttons. This really was the hardest part of the day, monotonously securing 30 buttons to the board with tiny screws. But once done, and a quick cuppa to recuperate, it was on to the LEDs. A simple push fit, these were much more enjoyable to add! The plugs are a very tight fit into the board, though, and I did have one oops moment when I applied a little too much pressure and bent the prongs. Luckily, they went back into shape easily and I hadn’t caused any lasting damage. Once the buttons had been wired up and the network cables fitted, I had a considerable amount of spaghetti under the panel! As you can see from the second shot, I had to move the button expansion board because the leads were on the short side. Thankfully, with the board in its new position, everything just about fitted. With power connected, and a few phase errors corrected, I had a fully functioning panel! I’ve connected all the buttons and LEDs for St Aldhelm too, despite the fact it hasn’t been built yet, simply because it saves me having to re-wire at a later date. All that’s needed is to connect the servos to the servo controllers under the baseboards in due course, and I’ll be up and running in no time. Simples! Within a couple of hours, I had gone from a collection of wires to a fully functioning panel...but would it work?! With no further ado, I plugged in the network cable, switched on the power and hey presto, it did work! What’s more, only two points were throwing the wrong way. This was simply fixed by reversing their direction on the controllers. Then it was time to play with some trains! I really am over the moon with the mimic panel, and I think it will add a great deal to the enjoyment of operating the layout, especially when it’s hooked up to the signals. To finish, here’s a short video showing the panel in action with a simple run around move at Talbothays. Enjoy! (Edited to correct wonky pic!)

I’ve been meaning to head over to your thread to see how Oak Road is doing. I had hoped to see it at the Gaugemaster event next month but it now looks like I’m working all weekend, which is a shame... As for control, it’s a peculiarly personal thing, I find. To me, controlling the points and signals from the DCC handset doesn’t appeal. I much prefer to separate train and track control, and now I have had a play with the MegaPoints kit, I know the mimic panel is the way to go for me. But it’s each to their own, as they say, and there’s no right or wrong answer in this hobby

I’m really impressed with the MegaPoints system too, even though I’ve only really played around with half of its capabilities so far. Servo control of the points has transformed their operation, and I’m sure the gentler action is kinder on my hand built points. Being able to set a route on a mimic panel and see its set correctly will transform operating sessions. I’m itching to build a signal now to try out the “bounce” feature! I like the look of your panel, but I see what you mean about the changes! As for St Aldhelm, very little has changed - I just keep tweaking it to make the station throat look right whilst making it work around the corner board and avoiding baseboard edges / braces. I spent many hours making sure I was happy with it before sending Dave the plan. Hopefully, knowing there’s a huge cost involved in cutting a new panel will make me think twice about further “enhancements”

Thanks again Lez.Z, I’ll bear that in mind. although all thoughts of loco maintenance and station buildings have been temporarily forgotten with the arrival of this last week! Dave at MegaPoints has outdone himself with the mimic panel, it has to be said. From first email to arrival of the finished panel was under two weeks, and that’s despite me sending him back to the drawing board with little changes more than once! Unfortunately, I didn’t have any time to play with it over the weekend, as I was away at a family do, but I did get to build the laser cut plywood case for it this afternoon. It all fitted together with no problems at all and the glue is now drying. I’m now champing at the bit to get it wired up and operational. You’ll notice that the diagram includes (what I hope to be) the final track plan for St Aldhelm. I took the risk of including St Aldhelm on the panel as it would be prohibitively expensive to have another one built at a later date. I think the plan will work, though, and I can’t see there being any major changes that would affect the plan. A few extra bits and pieces have been ordered, which will allow me to complete the panel despite the fact that half the layout it is designed to control is currently a pile of wood waiting to be built! I’m hoping these will arrive before my rest day on Tuesday and fingers crossed later this week I’ll have a fully working control panel for Talbothays, which I’m ridiculously excited about!

Hi Lez, thanks for the tip, much appreciated. I got a bit worried when I looked up Loctite 601 and saw bottles were selling for over £200! It looks like 601 has been replaced by 603 (around £10 a bottle...much better!), so I’ll try and get hold of that and hopefully I’ll have a smooth running O2 back on the roster soon

After my trip to Corfe, I started to think seriously about the buildings I’ll need for Talbothays. Within the station, there’s the main station building, goods shed and waiting shelter which are all pre-preservation. There’s also the large signal box on the down platform, which has only recently been rebuilt. I’ve been in two minds about whether to build the signal box or not, and my current thoughts are to leave it out, as I think it could overpower the scene, which you could argue the prototype does to an extent. Instead, I’m thinking of retaining the old signal cabin which is part of the station building. (It’s still there, with the old lever frame still in place and is often open for visitors to have a look around. It’s well worth a visit.) All the buildings will closely resemble those found at Corfe, although inevitably compromises will need to be made and I’m not aiming for slavish copies. I have a feeling I may need to cut down the size of the station building to make sure it’s not too imposing! I have never scratch built before, so this will be quite a learning curve for me (another one!). My medium of choice will be embossed plastic and first out of the blocks is the goods shed. Instead of leaping straight in at the deep end, I’m building this from the venerable Wills Craftsman Stone Goods Shed kit. Obviously it’s not based on the Corfe Castle shed, so there are a lot of differences, but the Will’s course stone sheets are a good match of the stone used to build Corfe’s station buildings, and I’ll be kit bashing the kit to create a close match. Having only dabbled in building in plastic before, I started the build by following the instructions closely. By the end of day one, I had turned a collection of plain builders sheets in to the four walls. Immediately, you’ll notice that the windows in the end walls don’t match those at Corfe. The kit comes with a specially moulded sheet for these, with the window aperture already cut, so the high arch needed to stay. Corfe’s shed is also a slightly simpler structure, not having any buttress piers, but these have stayed too, as I think they make for a more interesting structure. By the end of day two, I had glued the walls around the floor to make the basic shell and given it all an initial coat of paint. I’m quite happy with the shade (a mix of Humbrol pale stone and dark gray, but it will need further highlights...plus I’d forgotten that the string courses hadn’t been fixed on yet! With the shed placed on the layout, I could see how much space is available for the station building. The footprint I’ve set aside looks like it may have to be extended over the dropped baseboard, in which case the building will have to be removable so the boards can be moved for any reason. The next step is to start work on the station building. I began with some sketches last night, working from the photos I took the other weekend. It’s tough getting it all to look right, and this sketch took a good 2 hours to get right. I don’t have any accurate measurements. After all, I’m not aiming for a slavish copy, but I am aiming for it to look right...ish! Looking at it with fresh eyes today, and with a scale figure and bench to hand, it looks slightly over-scale, so I may have to start again. Once I have sketched everything out, I’ll be making up some cardboard mockups of the whole building, then see if I need to reduce the footprint anywhere. I have the rest of this evening and all day tomorrow to play, so hopefully I’ll make some more progress.

Hang on a minute, where did July go?! The long hot summer keeps rolling on, but there have been developments at Talbothays. Two weeks ago, I took advantage of a Saturday off from work and finally managed to get down to the Swanage Railway for a research and photo trip. It was a gloriously sunny day, and thankfully the holiday crowds hadn’t swelled to their peak levels yet (I think they were all on Studland beach!) I had planned to take the train from London to Wareham and pick up the Southwestern Railway Summer Saturday only service to Corfe, but en route I checked the train times and spotted that the unit was running over 90 minutes late due to a passenger being taken ill onboard. Luckily I had just arrived in Bournemouth and had time to jump off as the detachment was taking place and had a rather nostalgic trip along the coast on the open top bus instead. Route 50 took me from Bournemouth station to Swanage station direct, and it has to be one of the most picturesque bus rides in the country. It takes in the Victorian splendour of Bournemouth itself, then the majestic Poole Harbour, the opulent millionaire mansions of Sandbanks, before hopping across the mouth of the harbour on the chain ferry then along the beautiful Studland peninsula before diving through the Purbeck hills and into Swanage. The only issue I had with the ride was the 25 minute hold up in the centre of Bournemouth while the large queue bought their tickets and found their seats on the by now very crowded bus! This meant we arrived in Swanage just as a train was about to leave for Corfe, leaving me just enough time to buy a ticket and jump on. Phew! A look around the station would have to wait... I hadn’t been to Swanage or the railway for about 10 years. Before that trip, it had been another 10 years before that, when I was a teenager going on regular family camping holidays in Purbeck. All the memories of sunny (and not so sunny) trips came back as the T9 hauled its rake of Southern region green carriages through the hilly terrain. I couldn’t resist poking my head out of the window just behind the loco and breathing in that sooty steamy smell. All was going well until we started to slow down for Corfe Castle. I knew something was up when we were held at the home signal for a long time. Looking ahead, the platform was empty, and it took me a while to work out what was going on. It was only when the driver had reached the signal post telephone that suddenly Southwestern Railway’s 159007 appeared around the corner into the down platform. WIth it safely at a stand, off came our signal which meant my original steed just beat me into Corfe by a matter of minutes! But i wasn’t complaining - I’d got a nice ride on an open top bus and a proper train instead of waiting around at Wareham for 2 hours! After 30120 had pootled off towards Norden, Corfe station soon settled into a gentle hum of activity and I got the trusty iPhone out and started snapping any and every detail of the station and its surroundings. I decided against taking my trusty DSLR, as I wasn’t there to take glamour snaps of trains in their surroundings. These shots were primarily for research purposes, and as my phone is synced to my iPad, it would be a lot easier to use the photos back in the hobby room without having to transfer them all. I must have taken well over 200 snaps that afternoon, and they’re all going to be useful. I don’t know when my next trip down there will be, so I don’t want anything to hold me back from making progress on the build. I concentrated on taking plenty of shots of the platforms and tracks, the point rodding and signalling runs, the station building - trackside, roadside and the...um...sides! Then I turned my attention to the goods shed, which I have decided will be my first build (more on that in a separate post). I did make it back to Swanage, this time behind resident Crompton 33111, which had unexpectedly turned up in place of 30120 which had failed at Swanage. A short walk through town and a bite to eat on the beach, then I headed back to the station to reminisce and take more photos. I ended up watching the crew finish preparing the U Class on shed, which was just about ready in time to take over from the Crompton for the last timetabled trip of the day. I couldn’t resist and hopped back on board, jumping off at Harman’s Cross for a good look around. Harman’s Cross has changed significantly since I was last there. When I visited as a teenager, it was the terminus of the preserved line, the extension to Corfe still a few years from opening. Now it’s a (surprisingly busy, still) through station with an extra platform and beautifully kept surroundings, looking for all its worth like a typical Southern Region wayside station. Not bad for a station that didn’t exist in BR days and has been built from the ground up by the preservationists. After a long and tiring day, it was back to London and the realities of the mainline railway for another week before my week of rest days which ended yesterday! After such a successful trip, It has been a bit of a bitty week, but a few bits and pieces have been achieved. Namely the basic frame of the goods shed, which I’ll post about later, has been constructed and a mimic panel has been commissioned from MegaPoints, which I’m really excited about. The final artwork was signed off this afternoon, so I should have it in the next week or two. I’ll update more soon, but for now, I’ll leave you with a collection of the prettier shots I managed to take on my trip. Enjoy! I may have been running late, but there’s always time to get a quick snap of your loco for the day! T9 30120 backs on to the train at Swanage We’re off! Hopefully I’ll be able to recreate this shot once I’ve built one or two Ratio rail-built SR signal kits 30120 again preparing to head to Norden There’s probably no other preserved station to ooze such charm even when there are no trains about. Corfe Castle makes a stunning backdrop. A quiet, late afternoon Swanage station. The long period of hot weather has really taken its toll on the surrounding vegetation! A trip to the shed viewing area found the crew frantically preparing the U Class ready to take over from the failed T9. She was ready...just! And finally a lovely shot from the bridge finds not only the U Class simmering away, but also the sorry looking T9 parked up in the sidings awaiting the fitters. Behind it sits a currently boiler-less and cab-less M7 30053 (currently undergoing overhaul, I believe) and BoB 297 Squadron...two locos I remember fondly from my childhood and would love to see back in action soon.

It has been a busy week this week. A Week off from work has been filled with all sorts of railway business, starting with a trip to the Great Central Railway’s modelling event last Saturday, then a trip to the STEAM museum in Swindon on Monday. Both really interesting days out, but I was itching to get back into the hobby room! Now that all the new rolling stock has been run in, attention has turned to fitting DCC decoders. The Prodigy Advance was fired up for the first time last week and my Realtrack Models Class 143 pacer as the first thing to run under digital power through Talbothays. Again, it won’t be a regular on the railway, but it was bought DCC fitted and ran beautifully straight out of the box - unlike the real things! It proved a great subject for learning my way around the basic functions of the new controller and I soon had its address changed and acceleration and deceleration mapped and had fun trying to stop it in the correct place in the platform loops. Budget is a key issue with my switch to DCC, and with a large collection to convert, I have had to think carefully about which models to do first. The most efficient way of going about it seemed to be bulk-packs of decoders. Having looked around at reviews and prices, I opted to buy 5x DCC Concepts 8pin nano direct plug decoders and 5x 6pin versatile (with an 8pin harness) from the same manufacturer. These will have to do until funds for further decoders materialise. Fitting the fleet has yielded a mixed bag of results. I have concentrated mainly on the resident steam fleet, with a couple of visitors being lucky enough to go digital too. Let’s start with the easy ones. By far the most successful conversion has been the Bachmann E4, not only did it have plenty of space for the 6pin decoder, but I also managed to squeeze a stay-alive unit in the space underneath without resorting to any kind of surgery, resulting in a very smooth and happy runner. Bachmann’s Standard 4 and Standard 3 tanks also allowed a stay-alive to be fitted inside the boiler space, which was a pleasant surprise. Hatton’s P Class was another easy one to convert, despite its diminutive size. I might even have been able to squeeze a stay-alive in, but that would have meant removing the metal ballast from the opposite tank, and I decided against it, seeing as its such a smooth runner anyway. For some reason, despite being a happy runner on DC, the Model Rail exclusive USA Tank stutters really badly under DCC power. I’m really not sure what the problem is, and will have to investigate further, but for now, its relegated to the shed. Strangely enough, some of the tender locos have proven to be the toughest conversions. The exception to this has been the Hornby Schools Class, with its tender-mounted plug. An 8pin nano with stay-alive had plenty of room in there! But the larger N15 King Arthur Class was a very different story, with barely any room for the nano, plugged into the oddly positioned diagonal 8-pin plug in the smoke box. Again, I’m going to have to have a look at this, as a harnessed decoder might be a better option. I’m determined to get a stay-alive in there too, somehow! Next, the Bachmann Hall. This turned out to be a very frustrating beast. Why, oh why did Bachmann think it was a good idea to put the 8pin plug under the footplate in the tiniest space possible?! I tried to fit one of the 6pin decoders with an 8pin harness, but the only space available for the decoder itself is further forward, half way along the boiler, and only if you remove the much needed weight. Needless to say, the harness wasn’t long enough to make the journey, so I’m going to have to have another go with a different decoder in future. Another loco relegated to the shed. Honourable mention should also go to the Bachmann 08 shunter, which provided a perfectly sized and shaped space for the nano decoder and the stay alive together. As for the trusty M7, well this has been a bit of a nightmare. Ok, so the model is “DCC ready”, but the plug is right at the top of the smoke box, with barely the space for a plug, let alone a decoder. Hornby suggest removing weight from the tank, other forums talk about filing down the moulded rib inside the boiler. I tried my best to fit the nano - no joy - then the tiny 6pin with the 8pin harness - still no joy. I then read about the tiny TMC DP2X-UK and ordered one from Digitrains. It arrived yesterday and I excitedly plugged it in. It’s barely larger than the blanking plug, and worked fine (although it seems to want to run forwards in reverse and vice versa - something to tinker with). But then I came to fit the body back on the chassis and...it still doesn’t fit! Now we’re talking less than a mm, but it’s really starting to frustrate me. I’m tempted to cut off the capacitor, which I understand isn’t needed under DCC, but that prospect scares me a little, so like some of the other conversions, 30051 is back on shed awaiting fitters attention... In the mean time, I now have 10 locos DCC fitted and ready to join the roster. And here they are: After all this technical business, I thought it was high time I started to do some actual modelling, so late last night I made a start on the Talbothays platform faces. I’ll need to get these in place before ballasting begins. I’m well overdue a site visit to Corfe Castle, which Talbothays is (very) loosely based on, so had to study all the photos I could find in magazines and books and quite a few online. Oddly enough, people don’t tend to take pictures of the sides of platforms, but I did find enough source material to realise this wouldn’t be as straightforward a part of the build as I thought if I’m to emulate Corfe. The platforms at Corfe are mainly tarmac, with the occasional accent, but the faces are more complicated, made up of what looks like random stone topped with three or four courses of red brick. There are also recesses at regular intervals where the point rodding runs along one of the platform edges. I’m emulating that by using Will’s random stone and plain bond brick sheets, glued to a former of 20thou plastikard. I haven’t yet decided whether to model Corfe’s new signal box, or to retain the old one within the station building, but it looks like I’ll need to make a decision soon, so that I can design the point rodding runs and work out where the recesses need to go. It’s early days yet, but here’s the first length of platform edging taking shape...

A little bit of fun in the railway room this evening. After running in my special edition Hornby GWR powercar, I couldn’t resist putting together a full 2+7 HST to see how it would handle. The rake is made up of green “GWR” and blue “FGW” dynamic lines liveried carriages, which is fairly prototypical of the motley HST fleet that’s left at GWR as the IETs slowly take their places, and includes a TGS and buffet car as well as two carriages labelled coach D. I’ve probably gone too far on the realism stakes on this occasion! Of course this isn’t exactly every day traffic on the St Aldhelm branch. The train was far too long for the layout and looked completely out of place trundling around the Talbothays oval, but it was good fun and great to see the powercar can happily pull a prototypical load with ease. Good to know for when I one day build my dream mainline station! Here it is, heading over the bridge wrong road through Talbothays. Enjoy!

With the major engineering, tracklaying and wiring part of the build out of the way (for now!), attention has turned to the fleet on the St Aldhelm Railway. Before introducing the fleet, I thought it would be timely to introduce my philosophy behind the collection. During my armchair modelling years, I spent a lot of money buying locos and rolling stock that could run on the layout. Mostly, I have collected RTR specimens of Southern steam, in a variety of shapes, sizes and liveries, although there is a smattering of diesel in the collection and some regional interlopers. Modelling a preserved railway has allowed me some more freedom in this regard than if I had chosen a particular time period and company to model. I know there are a lot of purists out there who don’t like preservation modelling because they consider it cheating - unprototypical even. Well, whilst I respect their point of view, I’ll point out here and now (if it hasn’t already been made clear from the thread so far) this isn’t a layout for the purist! Having said that, I want St Aldhelm to look and feel like a real heritage scene and I am aiming for a certain degree of realism, setting certain goals and restraints on my modelling. (Hence spending so much time trying to master the art of track building.) And the same goes for my fleet. Yes, there will be a certain degree of artistic licence taken with what runs, and I will follow my own interests, but all of this will be done within a framework of what would look right on a preserved railway set in the South West of England in the modern era. What runs will have a prototypical precedent behind it. So, the fleet mainly consists of steam locos from the Southern region, many examples of which can be found on preserved railways all along the south coast. They’ll sport a variety of liveries and pull a variety of trains. A lot of my collection is inspired by my visits to real tourist railways, especially the Swanage Railway but others have been bought because I like them or I have a connection in some way to them. I thought long and hard about whether I should run existing preserved examples, re-numbering my fleet where necessary, but in the end I decided against that. After all, this is a fictitious preserved branch line, so it probably makes sense my fleet is mainly fictitious too, otherwise I’d be stealing locos from other outfits! Therefore, 30053 wasn’t the only M7 to be restored to working order in preservation, and Swanage’s tank has been joined by its sister 30051 at St Aldhelm. The loco fleet is split into three collections. The “resident” fleet are those locos which call St Aldhelm home. These are joined by “visitors” either from other preserved railways or on rail tours. Bachmann’s Tornado will make the occasional star turn, as will Duke of Gloucester on a charter from the main line. The Bluebell’s SE&CR P Class 178 (the excellent Hattons model) will make the occasional appearance, as will Manston, although its tempting to say this one’s on long term loan from Swanage! Finally, there is the “modern” fleet containing my collection of South West Trains and Great Western stock. These will only get occasional forays onto St Aldhelm metals for running in or when the layout masquerades as a modern branchline. At the moment, I’m gradually working through the steam fleet, giving all of the locos a good run in on the rolling road before giving them a spin around the oval to see how they handle. A lot of them have never been run in, having been bought at a time when I had no facilities to do so. Luckily, most of them have behaved well so far, and I now have the M7, N15, E4, USA tank, 7F, P Class, Class 73 and 08 all run-in or refreshed. Sadly, I have run into a problem with my Kernow O2. It was very stiff straight out of the box, but the mechanism bedded in fairly well after an hour on the rolling road. It still struggled to pull 3 coaches through some of the point work, though, slipping and stalling as it went. Eventually, it managed to derail itself and a horrible buzzing started up. When I took it off the tracks, I found that one driving wheel had “un-quartered” itself, seizing the mechanism. On closer inspection, I found that the driving wheels are very lose on their axles and can easily be pulled out of gauge. I was able to do this without any tools and re-quarter the wheels, and it does run again, but its going to need attention before it runs again. I’m going to investigate, and see if this is a common problem or not. Although this is its first run, being two years since I bought it, it’s way out of warranty. I wonder if there’s an easy fix, or if my poor O2 will be restricted to static display? Once all the running in is complete, attention will turn to fitting DCC decoders. Then the fun of detailing and weathering will begin. And that’s another subject for another day... In the mean time, here’s a little video of my latest acquisition, Hattons’ P Class no 178, rattling through Talbothays. Usual disclaimers apply, but this really is a wonderful little loco!

It lives! Finally, after 17 months of on and off progress, and a week of serious effort, a loco has completed a full lap (or two!) of the layout. And the camera was there to capture the moment... The honour of being the first ever loco to traverse the oval had to go to M7 number 30051, my first loco of the “modern” era, bought for me as a birthday present when I first got back into the hobby a little over 10 years ago. She stuttered a little when I first put her back on the tracks after 5 years or so in storage, and the motor is a little loud, but she soon settled into a steady pace and did a good 15 minutes in both directions. This week has been full on. I’ve spent every hour I could in the hobby room completing all the wiring. I’ve stripped, tinned, soldered together and screwed in so many wires, I thought the task would never end. And I didn’t exactly make things easy for myself. One section of track had to be completely re-laid through the station after I managed to pull a section of rail out of its chairs trying to fix a previous mistake. The Peco bullhead rail is great stuff, but boy is it fragile! I finally completed the last of the wiring late last night, and as the clock struck 12, I thought I’d get the M7 out to see if I could get it to do a lap before retiring to bed. Sadly, it only got half a meter before stalling on the first set of points by the door. It turned out I had wired up the microswitch incorrectly. I’d gotten the terminals the wrong way around, and the frog was being juiced from the wrong rail. Not only that, but I’d made the same mistake on all four scenic turnouts. So, first thing this afternoon, out came the soldering iron (again!) and some rather unwieldy under-the-baseboards re-soldering took place. Thankfully, it didn’t take too long to do all four turnouts, and finally the lap of honour could be completed. After the first run in for 30051, I couldn’t resist coupling up a rake of MkIs and taking a couple more videos. And soon, the newly re-vitalised Pendragon joined in too. The running session did raise one issue, though. Both locos derailed on one set of points when set in the reverse position. I thought at first I hadn’t programmed the servo properly and readjusted it to provide a more positive “lock” (more tension in the springy piano wire). It helped, but both locos still derailed every so often. It looks like the wheels want to ride up over the outer switch blade coming off the curve. Luckily, most movements will be over the point in the normal position in the up direction, but it would be good to get to the bottom of why its happening and try and fix it. Anyone have any ideas what might be going wrong? I can honestly say, it’s exciting to finally get to this point after so many months of effort. And I had forgotten how much fun it is playing with trains! (Edited to fix video links...I’ll get something right first time one day!)

More steady progress over the bank holiday. I only got about two hours in the hobby room on Friday, as I decided to get some chores done, but I had an early finish at work today and, despite the glorious weather, I couldn’t resist getting on with things in the hobby room. I started with a small setback. Luckily, it happened at the beginning of the session on Friday, and I managed to fix it straight away! I also had a funny feeling it would happen eventually... I borrowed/stole the tiebar set up from John (checkrail) who described the build on his (excellent) Stoke Courtney layout thread. It was a very fiddly build process and although it looks good, I was never 100% happy with it. The brass pins I used were not great quality, and they weakened considerably after being bent to shape. A few have snapped during the building process of the other three turnouts and I was certain that in time, they would break in use. Sure enough, without much pressure at all, one of the pins broke on the turnout near the bridge today. Typical it would happen just after I had glued it to the baseboard! I’ve been reading St Enodoc’s progress on his current (very impressive) project and noted that he, like many others, has adopted the “sliding sleeper” on his hand-built turnouts. I even watched a couple of YouTube videos last night describing the process, and I must admit I had been tempted to adopt it myself, but told myself I’d see how it went with the current set up. Well, today’s oops moment kind of forced my hand, and seeing as it was the pin that broke, not the soldered joint, it would have been next to impossible to fix it in situ. Out came the craft knife to cut away a gap in the cork large enough to retrieve the errant tiebar, and the soldering iron and desoldering tape to clean up the blades. Then in went a piece of copper clad strip, just long enough to slide under the stock rails, with a hole for the actuator bar. Holding the new tiebar in place with some shims, it was a matter of moments before it was firmly soldered to the blades, and it already feels ten times more robust. It doesn’t look as effective, but it feels like it will do the job for a long time to come. It will also be easy to fix if the joint does break again. With the new tiebar in place, it was time to think about installing the servo. I had hoped to attach the servo mount directly to the track bed, but this didn’t allow for enough throw, as the track bed is on 5mm ply here, not 12mm as in the fiddle yard. So instead, I have found an off-cut of 12mm ply (I knew it would come in handy!) and mounted the servo to this. Hey presto, the servo can now move the point through the whole motion. Saturday morning saw me improve things further with the new tiebar arrangement. In the fiddleyard, the piano wire pokes out of the top of the actuator hole at the extreme end of the throw, not far enough to foul the stock, but far enough to look ugly. Although it works fine in the yard, I’d rather a tidier look on the scenic side. So I set about adding tube for the actuator to slide up and down in out of sight. I had to drill out the hole, then soldered a 5mm piece of brass tube flush(ish) with the top of the tiebar. This was all great fun with the tiebar already soldered in place! I’ve ended up with a fairly decent end result, and after testing out the servo, the rod now doesn’t protude above the tiebar at all. Much better! Today’s early finish gave me plenty of time to work on odd jobs this afternoon. First up, I cobbled together the microswitch set up for frog polarity switching. This is another borrowed/stolen idea, this time directly from Dave Fenton on the MegaPoints website. It’s a brilliantly simple idea, and my first installation looks like it’ll be a success. I’m using Expo microswitches which are mounted on an offcut of wood so that when the servo arm swings around in one direction, it activates the microswitch, switching the frog polarity too. I was intrigued to see whether it would all work, so temporarily plugged the servo into the multipanel and hey presto, with the press of a button, my first ever hand-built turnout was being thrown by a £1.50 servo! The rest of today’s session saw the last of the power feeds soldered to the track, the last of the uncoupling magnets installed and most of the track glued into its final position. Tomorrow’s plan is to glue the rest of the track down and then cut through the tracks at the board joints and start attaching it all to the power bus. With a fair wind and not too many distractions, I’m in real danger of actually getting a train running through Talbothays by the weekend!

After the shenanigans of last weekend, I’ve had a much more positive and productive week in the hobby room. Some nice late starts at work, coupled with an injury which has kept me out of the gym has allowed me to spend a good hour or two on the layout most mornings this week, with loads of odd jobs completed. First bit of good news followed a delivery from Hornby on Monday. With every spare parts dealer having sold out of the King Arthur class gear set, I took a punt and ordered the part for a Castle Class...and it was a winning bet! The larger of the two cogs in the bag was an exact replacement for my broken part, and after a change of oil, I had Pendragon’s wheels turning again. No video of the action (it was only the chassis on a rolling road!), but I was very excited that one of my star locos will be one of the first to run through Talbothays. Another delivery allowed me to address the turnout I managed to break last week. I bought a solder sucker and some de-soldering tape. Having never used either before, I wasn’t quite sure what I was doing and tried the tape first. Within seconds, I had removed the offending blob of solder from the running rail and re-soldered the feed wire into place. The tape really is brilliant, and has already saved me from disaster again this week! Feeling much more positive about things, more short burst sessions have seen me crack on with wiring up the scenic tracks through Talbothays. Once again, the dropped boards have proven to be tricky, as the track feeds need to find their way from the raised track bed to below the baseboard. I had heard about the problem that polystyrene can cause if it comes into contact with electrical wiring (the two materials react with each other over time and cause the wires’ coating to break down), and as the WS risers I have used are made of expanded polystyrene, I decided to play it safe and create some trunking for the wire runs using plastic tubing. Not only will this stop any potential short circuits, it also looks a lot tidier! After this morning’s session, the tracks over the dropped section are all wired and soldered to the copperclad sleepers at baseboard edges. The tracks through the platforms have had wires soldered to them, and I have also installed two of the three uncoupling magnets. I have managed to swap to a later shift at work tomorrow, and with no other plans in place, it looks like I’ll get to make further progress in the morning. Hopefully I’ll be able to get all the tracks laid and wired ready to start work under the boards. Next week sees a well earned week of rest days, and my aim is to spend at least three days of it working on the layout. With the rate of progress this week, that should, all being well, see me being able to power up the oval and finally move some trains. I know I’ve said this before (remember when I promised myself I’d have trains running by the summer...last year?!) but I really do feel like I’m nearly there this time.

I had one of those days up in the hobby room yesterday. After 11 straight days at work, I was struggling to get myself motivated, but then after getting some chores around the house done, finally got up there in the evening. Things had started to go wrong midweek. I had placed an order for some much needed bits and pieces with a well known model retailer. It turned up on Tuesday, well ahead of when I needed it only to open the box to find...someone else’s order! Somehow my packing slip had ended up in a different box with none of the items I needed in it. Luckily, the retailer has been good about it, the items have been returned and a new box of goodies is enroute, but it has yet to get to me, and I couldn’t do what I wanted to do, i.e. try and put Pendragon together again. So, attention returned to the layout itself. With the track through the station laid out, it was time to solder some dropper wires and add copperclad sleepers over the baseboard joints. It all went fairly smoothly, then I got to the joint near the bridge, made up the sleepers, glued them in place then thought I’d better check the clearances over the bridge again. Good job I did - as of course it had moved, and I had to quickly joggle the sleepers over before the glue went off. Before soldering any more, I needed to work out where the uncoupling magnets needed to go in the platforms. I had thought about using a mix of electromagnets and permanent magnets around the station, and had bought two of each to fit. But looking at how it can all work, I’ve decided it will be far simpler to just fit permanent “under the track” Kadee magnets (two more were in the errant order) and position them so that they’ll only uncouple a loco if it stops further along the platform to normal. Carriage rakes will be permanently coupled together using Bachmann’s pipe couplers, with Kadees at each end, so as long as I mark the magnets I should be able to avoid unscheduled divisions. Out came the MkIs again, and a couple of locos and I think I’ve worked out where they need to be. Getting tired by now, I should have quit while I was ahead, but decided to tackle the turnout near the bridge. I needed to re-attach the dropper wires so that they all run to the back of the layout - and be less visible. I managed to detach them, no problem, and reattach one with only minor issues (I can live with the melted sleeper, as it melted under the track and won’t be visible once the ballast goes down). But the less said about the frog dropper the better. First it didn’t want to come off, then it didn’t want to go on again. When it finally did, I found that not only had the solder managed to flow onto the inside face of the running rail, but I had also managed to melt two of the chairs, which had turned themselves into formless blobs of plastic. Ugh. With a huff of frustration, out came the modelling knife to remove them...and I don’t need to tell you what happened next. No trip to A&E needed, but a nasty gash to my thumb stopped play for the evening. So, having laid out all the track last time around and started to feel happy with progress, I end this weekend with a broken turnout, a broken thumb and track everywhere again! I should have listened to my gut and not bothered yesterday, but then again I did make some progress. I’ve ordered a solder sucker and solder removal tape, so hopefully I can fix the turnout without too much of a mission and with a week of rest days coming up after the bank holiday, hopefully I can start to move forwards again.

Has it really been a year since the demise of Penhayle Bay? I always thought it was a sad note that one of my favourite layouts on RMweb was being decommissioned just as my own efforts were finally getting off the ground. During what I call my “armchair years” of modelling when I couldn’t build a layout for various reasons, PB was one of the most inspirational layouts for me, and kept the creative juices flowing. I was often a mostly silent lurker, thoroughly enjoying the pictures and videos you posted. Sad though it is the layout no longer exists as it did, it’s great to know it lives on with the rescued sections, and even better - its online life. With all the negative press social media and the internet have been getting of late, it’s good to remember the positives it brings. Looking forward to seeing what’s next, Rick!

Hi Gary, I have literally just this minute ordered a Castle Class gear set from Hornby. I’ve no idea if it’s the correct one, but it looks identical and for the price of a couple of cups of coffee, I thought it was worth a shot. Thanks for the offer, that’s very kind of you. I’m not sure if they are the same cog, but if the Castle Class one doesn’t work, I’ll get back to you! Mike

Hi Vecchio, Although my soldering skills still leave a lot to be desired, they are improving, and after reading a few how-to guides over the last couple of days, I’m feeling less daunted by the task now. It’s one of those jobs that strikes fear into the uninitiated modeller, but like most tasks, it’s more a case of fear of the unknown. As for Pendragon, I did note the small decoder space - not as small as some other spaces, it has to be said, but not helped by the odd, jaunty angle of the socket. To be honest, with the drive train woes, I didn’t get as far as measuring the available space. As the spare part seems to be out of stock/production everywhere, I won’t be having to worry about it for a while...

Hi Alan, I explained how the whole layout will work back in post 12. If you’re looking at the most recent track diagram I posted, it only shows Talbothays, which is essentially phase 1 of construction, and therefore the fiddleyard won’t make much sense. What I am building is essentially an end to end layout with a sneaky roundy-roundy built in. I took the decision early on to build Talbothays first, as I thought at the time it would be an easier build and get me up and running quicker (don’t laugh at the back there!). When St Aldhelm (i.e. phase 2) is built, the fiddleyard will represent Combe Hardy station and the line’s loco and stock storage area, both of which will remain unmodelled for now, sadly. Combe Hardy is a mainline station where the preservationists have re-instated a disused platform. There are no run around facilities there, only a spur where a loco can couple up to the rear of an up train to take it back to St Aldhelm. My intention is to get Talbothays up and running, and make a start on scenics before even contemplating building St Aldhelm. Therefore I have built in a loop at the back of the fiddleyard which will mimic a platform line and loop so that locos can run around as they will at St Aldhelm. So, a typical operating sequence for a round trip from Combe Hardy to St Aldhelm will go like this: The train will leave one of the fan of sidings towards Talbothays, pause in the platform then head back to the rearmost line in the fiddleyard. The loco will uncouple and use the loop to run around its train, then proceed back to Talbothays, before returning to the fan of sidings. A second loco will then couple up to the train and repeat the sequence, releasing the first loco which will shunt into the spur. I hope that clears things up a bit!

I had completely forgotten about Peters Spares. Thanks for jogging my memory, Lez! I’ll take a look at them now... EDIT: What a treasure trove Peter’s Spares is. A few minutes of searching and there are two replacement parts I could order. Only issue is they’re out of stock, but hopefully not for long and it looks like Pendragon won’t be consigned to the cripple siding after all!