Dave777

Yep, I well remember this one - thought it was a bit ambitious myself (all those scratchbuilt buildings ), but great to see I'm being proved wrong. Excellent use of gradual curves to ease the sharp radii.

The very first post mentions 'The only computer wizardry allowed is to add steam\smoke or make your pics black and white or sepia to add to the realism', but I think that may have been relaxed a bit as the thread has gone on. Instead of a 'this is allowed and that isn't' sidetrack, I'm all for people to just carry on posting their efforts and we can make up our own minds when viewing as to how much they've 'enhanced' their modelling by adjusting the image - if you think it's been enhanced too much, simply move onto the next quality slice of modelling. It's been incredibly rich in variety of both modelling and photography, I'm all for letting it just continue growing organically and finding its own way to meander along.

Using the advanced search to look only in 'Permanent Way, Signalling & Infrastructure' under 'turntable' finds it quickly (third entry down). Searching isn't great on here, it's a recognised problem. Interestingly, I would have thought a post on how to build a working turntable would be better off in 'Hints & Tips' (particularly bearing in mind you mentioned it had 'hints /tips' yourself and your thread seems to have generated some positive responses) - you might want to ask for it to be moved into there. Having a good online 'shout' in capitals at the moderators probably isn't the best way to get them on your side though...

Thanks for the info Tel, I've had the cgtextures website in my favourites for a while now, but the key bit was 'urban based backscenes'. Sky and landscapes have been available for years, it was the more urban-based work of John's that I was interested in.

John, have you ever considered just doing straight backscenes for layouts? I mentioned a modular backscene idea on the first page, but even urban-based backscenes that weren't modular would be useful. The old Townscene ones were good but they're getting on in years now, and the Peco ones are as old as the hills (and look poor these days, partly due to over-familiarity). I know a lot of people go for photographic backscenes now, but personally they never look quite right to me. I'd be interested in some urban backscenes that had artwork to the same standard as your kits, and from a commercial perspective there's nothing on the market at the moment for this really - even the Townscenes ones aren't as widely available as they used to be. Printing might be the only issue (trying to join all those A4 sheets together), but this was one reason why I suggested the modular approach.

Yeah, I think so. Shame, I like the wraparound look better, but we're getting an up-to-date Class 28 so that's good. And what's the betting that someone will produce some wraparound windows for it sooner or later? Not exactly a drop in replacement as it will involve some hacking about, but plenty of after-market mods require that anyway.

I seem to recall the Hornby one can be butchered into something decent, but it involves serious hacking about. And don't the access roads have a bit of an odd gradient on them? There's always the old Airfix/Dapol one, but you'll need to motorise that obviously.

Don't you have to be a member to view it?

Very interesting. There was an article in the N gauge journal several years ago now about modifying settrack insulfrogs to make them live frog but I've been unable to get a copy of it. I believe that required physically removing the dead frogs and replacing them with rail (!). This seems a much better way. I've always thought 9 inch radius points in N gauge would be very useful for dockside settings and the like but the dead frogs put me off. Keep us posted with any further experiments/running results.

(can see it fine here). I like the idea of the shunter taking the wagons into the sidings (also explains my first thought - 'that headshunt looks a bit short'). Adds a neat operational interest. The only other comment I would have is that the layout is very 'straight'. I'm not sure how diagramatic it is, but the lines all follow the baseboard edge, the road is at right angles to the track, etc. Personally, I favour the 'banana' approach where the layout curves around you - this way any gaps between rolling stock is reduced as the 'compressed' side of the train is nearest to you, and exits to fiddleyards are at more of an angle, thus preventing the viewer from being able to see under the bridge and into the fiddleyard. BUT, that's just me - it's your railway

Some sort of modular backscene. So you can either purchase your sky background or paint your backscene a suitable sky/neutral colour and then purchase from scalescenes an ‘overlay’ selection of elements such as house ends, wooden fences (solid), brick walls, concrete section walls, and so on. You can already do this so a certain extent with the existing kits, but it involves purchasing each one separately or buying a whole kit and only using one part of it. A specific ‘backscene creation pack’ would be useful. At the moment people often purchase ready printed backscenes, but the ability to customise and create your own would be useful.

Extraordinary.

I've got a N gauge kit to build of this class so I've been watching this one for where to add extra detailing, etc. What logo are you applying? I noticed the early BR logo appeared to be strangely small on these locos. I got the Fox Transfers 'small' version and in N gauge it's really small!

See, I was right: http://www.rmweb.co....dpost__p__57831 (Prediction number 5 ) Modelling in N gauge I have no use for this. So I will be ordering the 'as delivered' all green version. (note to self: don't ever comment again on prices of new models... )

Just topping an old one here - looks like the grey versions have landed in the last few days and should be widely available now. Still no sign of the bauxite ones however.

Okay, many thanks for all the info, folks - I think I might go for accident damage or a missing door instead then. Seems more likely.

Fantastic response, people - excellent stuff! Yes, I had seen pictures before of that Mk I sleeper fire (somewhere on one of the links I have here there's some other photos of it and some more words, but 15 mins clicking around has failed to find it annoyingly), but it was actually the last photo on this link here that kicked off the idea (and yeah, I know it's a Mk II!): http://www.2d53.co.u...jcn/freight.htm The caption doesn't say why that coach was removed, and there's nothing obviously wrong with it that can be seen in the photo, so I was trying to think of something that would be obvious for it to be removed, hence the thought of some fire damage. Looks like I may be onto a non-starter there though, unless I employ a dollop of modeller's licence. You raised some good points about a fire onboard a passenger service Ian - would the same sort of procedure occur if the incident had happened in the movement of some empty coaching stock? Could that be a way of modelling it? Taupaulin idea might be a good alternative though, I'll keep that in mind.

Was after a different piece of rolling stock on my 70’s Challenge layout of a Mk III coach having suffered a fire on board… but just wanted to see if this was a realistic idea or not. I was thinking that I could have a Mk III with fire damage that has been taken out of a rake at a station off-stage to enable the train to continue onwards, and so now there’s a coach which needs shunting into the nearest available sidings (which would be my modelled station naturally ) for later transportation to a carriage works. I was going to model a fire having occurred in the passenger compartment itself (as opposed to, say, a stuck brake or something having caused a problem on the underframe), perhaps with a window missing and suitable fire damage around the roof area above it. Is this a likely scenario? If so, how might the Mk III have been transported to the sidings - would it just be coupled to a loco or would a brake van have been shoved on the other end? (the only reason I’m using a Mk III is because I can then employ the neat Dapol model) Thanks in advance.

Build it!

Talking of ficticious liveries or just plain 'wrongness' of vehicles on layouts, can I get away with this chap on a mid-70s layout or would they have been long gone by then? I was aiming to have it parked up next to a stationary mess coach in a backwater engineers yard. http://www.ehattons.com/StockDetail.aspx?SID=24762 We're a bit limited in N gauge as to what's available, particularly as I don't like the models with filled/solid windows (whitemetal for example). Thanks in advance.

Excellent drawings, I have to say

I need one of these but can't seem to find one? The grey is listed as a forthcoming release, but I can't see the bauxite listed on Hattons or Rails. What's occuring, do I need to look further afield?