37114

Quite a few that wore Dutch have been saved, 37003 37023 37025 37097 37099 37146 37159 (albeit as d5910) 37188 37207 37240 37254 37255 37263 37264 37294 Probably a couple I have missed to add to the above, I think only 37255 still wears dutch

Indeed, especially since things like RSJ's are fresh in my mind since the work on the house. One of the outstanding tasks on the house is insulating and fire boarding the garage ceiling which is required for building control sign off, and I also want to get my Land Rover in the garage, the upshot of which is I need to clear the layouts out of the garage while I do this, hence focus has switched to the points (no pun intended) First up I secured a suitable piece of hardboard to put the point template on, my preference being to build the points off the layout as there is better light in the house, its warmer and more importantly I can work out where the various holes need to go. I have used Hobbycraft double sided tape to secure the sleepers to the template then took a deep breadth and thread the chairs on to the first stock rail. The stock rail has been glued down and so far everything has been straightforward with care and taking my time. The missing chairs are deliberate as there will be slide chairs glued in later:

Ah so that's where it was off to, I saw it on the M4 at Swindon

Thanks Andy, I always wanted to push myself a bit with this layout, thanks to the good RMweb folk posting tips and pictures I am sure I will be fine

My points arrived today (nice prompt service from C&L/Royal Mail), and have just spent the last hour digesting the instructions. Having overcome the initial "Oh my god, what have I done!" moment of being presented with a template and hundreds of components, I am looking forward to cracking on with the first one, but need to get my hands on a suitable board and also some low melt solder. There are a couple of areas where I am going to research further, chiefly the best solution for the tie bars. By their own admission the tie bars in the kit are more cosmetic and will potentially give problems on a layout with a lot of use. The instructions recommend soldering L shaped wire to the switch rails which go down through the board to some copper clad strip, an approach that was taken by my EM colleagues on "Burntwood Lane", however in exhibition use this approach has proved to be a little fragile. Looking at the trackwork on our EM gauge Scottish layout the switch blades are soldered to a surface mounted strip of copper clad which seems stronger and more appropriate to my needs albeit a little less realistic.

Thanks for all the positive comments and suggestions so far,the points for the lower level have been ordered tonight so I am looking forward to cracking on with making them and laying the track. In the meantime I have been making some progress with the arches under the viaduct. I am going to model a scrap metal merchant as Rivercider suggested in the area in front of the viaduct so decided the area under the arches would be utilised by this business: The brick work comes with the kit while the curved windows are work in progress and will be made from plastic strip. 2 of the arches are "workshop" areas with wide doors, one of which will have a weighing plate for non ferrous/high value metals, the other for storage of reclaimed car parts. The 3rd arch will be an office. The doors are left overs that I have had in the loft for years from an old Peco Engine shed.

I think the wooden shed looks spot on by the entrance

An enjoyable day to day, my wife was working so I took the kids to Bristol for the morning, ostensibly to have a wander around the harbour, but with a little deviation into Modelmania in St George (excellent shop, Brian and Judith the proprietors are very friendly and welcoming) on the way for some supplies. Top of the shopping list were the stone arches for the upper level, as these are required to calculate the height for the wooden framework. Thankfully they had the 2 Wills packs I needed so I have made a start on the woodwork (not my strong point) and backscene. The picture below shows todays progress, the holes in the backscene are for access to underneath the points and any wiring. The arches to the left will have an office/workshop for the scrpayard, those on the right will be full depth to the backscene with some picture placed at the back of "the other side" On the right hand side of the board I had given some consideration to how I would fill the corner of the board. My initial thoughts (read dreams) were of part of the Royal Mail sorting office which was connected to Temple Mead by an overhead conveyor and would have formed an ideal scenic brake to the fiddle yard. As the plan has developed it quickly dawned on me this isn't that practical and my preference is to model part of the Redscaff building and Avon street itself, with the road going under the right hand arch in the picture below. Not 100% nailed on this as the run round loop is effectively on the crossing so will get the stock out and see how it fits. Next job is to order the point kits as I want to crack on with Track laying

Correct, although Pallet Lane is up for sale.. I managed to get this evening's DIY done early so cracked out the liquid Poly and the Wills Vari-Girders. A great product the only complaint is there is not enough flitch plates for the girder section,luckily I had some flitch plates spare from when I did Pallet Lane's bridges. The girders are also only detailed on one side but as the layout is only viewed from the front this is less of an issue As Rivercider mentioned the real Avon Street branch was only worked with 03's due to weight restrictions, but I am keen to use some of my type 2's so the bridge over the culvert is a bit more robust and uses the deep girder sides: A visit is planned on Saturday to Bristol on Saturday with the kids so I may swing by what is left of Avon Street, which has changed massively since the photos posted earlier in this thread.

Hi David, I will never say never when it comes to going into P4, I haven't built my own points before so wanted to see how I get on in 00 before throwing myself headlong into P4. I intend to lay the track on the lower yard first, so there is always the option of doing P4 on the upper level only and doing a phased conversion as the stock will invariably only be used on one not both levels.

My son and daughter still haven't grasped the concept of a smooth change in gradient. Having said that I never had much luck with gradients on layouts hence why the 2 levels on this one won't be connected!

Thanks Kenny, I might have to stretch the truth on the timescales re the scrap workings for my needs. Re the photos I think I have seen most of Andy's photos across both Flick and www.bristol-rail.co.uk. 03121 is on the to do list although probably won't be until after the layout is finished as think I will have plenty on my plate between now and next year.

Sort of, the chassis is from the Oxford Diecast ergomatic tipper with modifications, the cab and body are from Road Transport Images. but the body is quite generic so has had new steps, tipping ram, pipework and will have walkway added to represent a Blue CIrcle example. The redundant Oxford tipping body has been shortened and is going on a Bedford chassis/RTI cab to make the Redscaff tipper mentioned earlier.

Thanks Rivercider, great photos and great inspiration. The scrap yard idea is definitely buiLding momentum as your pre TOPS report indicates quite short rakes of wagons so ideal for my needs. When I laid the upper level track out last night part of the reason for curving it towards the back of the layout was to give greater space on the lower level for the scrap yard.

Hi Chris, Funny you should mention Redscaff as one of the pictures in the Avon Street link in my original post has a picture of a Redscaff Bedford HA van. Might sound a daft question as I presume "red" will feature in the answer but can you remember what colour the van/signwriting was as I fancy adding it on the layout but it is hard to tell from the black and white picture what colour it should be? Thanks Rob

Thanks Rich, you are right about the EM gauge template, I have borrowed it from a club member to help orientate the track, prior to placing the order for the points. I did design the track plan in Xtracad although I do have a preference for laying the track out "for real" as I find by putting some stcok on helps visualise the plan so much more easily. Part of the brief for this layout was to make a layout that was quicker to put up/take down so that I am more likely to use it at home as well as making it more 1 day show friendly. My children are getting more interested in the model railway but Pallet Lane takes a good 30 minutes to put up so having something that is a bit more plug and play will see it get a bit more home use.

Lovely modelling Andy, when I first saw the first picture I thought it was 4mm, it looked that good. Will watch with interest.

Looking good Richard, coming together nicely.

Tonight's focus was on the upper level and marking out the track plan: The station will be to the right of the picture with the track on display forming the station throat. The track nearest the edge of the board is not connected to the rest of the layout and will have a static train displayed on it waiting at a signal near the corner of the board. The stationary train will form a backscene, an idea I picked up from Mike Anson's superb Western Road layout. The track in front will be wired up and will be used for trains terminating at the mainline station. The loco will uncouple, pull forward and run round back into the fiddle yard. The carriages will then be drawn back of scene later on the pretence of being shunted off by the station pilot. I have also cut out the hole in the baseboard for the culvert, the bottom being flush with the bottom of the baseboard frame:

Thanks, good tip re the scrap yard, will have a ponder on that, I have always been quite taken with the idea of doing a scrap yard at some point. It will also give me something to do with the various diecast vehicles that are cluttering up the modelling cupboard. I am also making a model of the Bedford tipper lorry that appears in the photos of the Avon Street link which I think belonged to a scrapper.

Good luck Andy, sounds Good luck with the new one Andy, should keep you busy!

Welcome to the story of the creation of Peafore Yard. The story starts below in March 2014 but below are some shots of the finished layout: A small step but work started on my new layout today, a day I have been looking forward too for some time but had deliberately delayed due to needing to finish an extension to our house. The layout has its first show booked for Cheltenham in April 2015 so despite there being some work still to do on the house, there is starting to be some urgency to make progress on the layout, I hasten to add the Cheltenham date has been in my diary since 2011! My current layout Pallet Lane has been on the exhibition circuit since 2007 and I have had a lot of fun over the years. Over that time my modelling skills have improved a lot and now want to try something new. On the list for this layout are: - Hand built points with manual rather than electric control - Front rather than rear operated - Cassette fiddle yard - Two levels of track - The opportunity to utilise some of my mainline passenger and NPCCS stock which wasn't suitable for Pallet Lane The inspiration for the layout came from browsing the Bristol Rail website and in particular this page on Avon Street: http://bristol-rail.co.uk/wiki/Avon_Street There were a number of things from the set of photos that attracted my attention; the part of Temple Meads in the background giving the opportunity of 2 levels of track, the Level crossing with the man with the flag (not sure if I can squeeze this in sadly) and the 03/Presflos, which I have to hand from Pallet Lane. I will be sticking with 1977 so I can reuse the stock from Pallet Lane. After a mildly heated debate with an (ex)club member one night as to whether it was right to go to the hassle of building your own points in 00 when you could go P4 I have elected to stick with 00 simply because all my stock is 00 and the cost/time of conversion circa 100 items of stock is too daunting. The conversation did get me thinking though and the name came to being for 2 reasons: - All of my layout names start with "P" - Somebody maybe convinced it's P4 not 00! Anyway enough preamble, here are some photos of the basic track plan for the lower level. The base board (4' x 2') is second hand bought from the club, the track is SMP and a freebie from an RMWeb member (thanks Gordon!): The photo above show the basic track plan. The siding on the left of the photo will be part of the cement terminal which will occupy the area from the point to the edge of the board. The siding on the far right will be a coal siding (I think). The area where the glass/spare length of track will be the high level mainlines. Looking the other way, I have deliberately curved the tracks to help lengthen the sidings and I prefer the look of curved track I am building a Leyland Cement lorry to go with my existing Scammell, the yard on this cement terminal will be much larger and more realistic than Pallet Lane. Behind the tanker will be a culvert cut into the board The stock is to test the length of the run round loop, the 37 will be the longest loco likely to be used in the yard, all of my type 4's will be used on the mainline

Hi Simon, Are the 25/3 cabs in 4mm available for sale yet please? Thanks Rob

Any bets on which loco will then be the "we must cut it up because it has no hope and is an eyesore" when 45015 goes? 50040 used to have this mantle before it went, 25244 is another one which gets plenty of similar comments although this is in much better condition than 45015.

Just looked at the list and it is a few years out of date eg 37412 has been scrapped over a year, wnxx has a more uptodate list