lyneux

I'm not sure if it has been mentioned before, but that livery has highlighted the size of the axle boxes. They should be more 'saucer' and less 'dinner plate'! Compare with:

Wouldn't want to rock the boat by helping explain... oops!

Have they done ARC mustard yet?

The Ever Given has been impounded by the Egyptian authorities demanding $1billion compensation for blocking the canal. Could be a while...! Guy

I'll just leave this here...

Great photos.... and you got D5222 in action! Quite a rarity as most photos I've seen show it out of use. Guy

Now look what you’ve done Ed! Poked the hornets nest. We first saw painted samples back in 2018. To be fair to Ed’s comment, it doesn’t take 3 years to get the decoration right even if there are problems. the O&K hoppers are now also due in July with no mention of why they are delayed. I don’t know what problems they are having but at best it seems clear that Dapol are prioritising other projects over the 59 which is a shame for those who desperately want a whole stack of these! Guy

So just exactly how do you specify what a good weathering job looks like in words? It's so subjective. I'm sure the weathered sample they signed off probably looked superb. But it's really hard to say what is good and what is bad using words alone. Words are what contracts are written with unfortunately. Visible brush strokes though... that's terrible. I do feel sorry for them but surely this is the factory's fault not Olivia's? Guy

What do you think Olivias have done to misrepresent the Heljan product? They look like well taken nicely lit photos to me. If that’s what the product out if the box looks like, that’s what it looks like. Not much Olivias can do. Guy

Those new footbridges are super ugly. An act of architectural vandalism for most of the stations concerned. Happily Hanwell appears to have emerged relatively unscathed. Guy

If only there was some kind of society that was a gathering of like-minded people with a drawing exchange service who might be able to help.... oh wait! (Sorry Shane, couldn't resist!) Guy

Stenson Models have done some brake disc inserts to replace the missing ones on the wagon. I think they make enough of a difference to be worth fitting especially with the 'open' ends of the bogies. Guy

It depends on all kinds of things but largely era, track type, whether it’s a mainline etc. The Flat bottomed panels at Whatley quarry have 26 per 60ft. Modern CWR can be up to 30 from what I’ve read. Sizing the Salmon to a panel of Peco track would be a terrible way to scale a model! So I assume you mean it’s a fortunate side effect (for you) Phil rather than deliberate? Guy

It's a Loksound V5 anyway, so just get it reblown it if you don't like the sound. Guy

I feel like I should’ve tidied up now before revealing the interior of a messy house on Rmweb! Thanks for the encouragement everyone. Guy

No time to write up all the stock I did over Christmas and New Year so that'll have to wait for another time. Planning for the extension is moving on apace. The extension is essentially two new 6ft boards inserted front and rear of the oval to elongate it. Attached is a small sketch that shows how this will work. Two of the existing curved boards that currently just have plain track on them will get re-purposed as scenic boards along with a new straight scenic board. The curved fiddle yard board with the 'throat' point work will then get rotated 120 degrees. In the past week, I've been playing around with Templot to try and produce a track plan that 'flows' nicely. Much of the point-work at the real location uses long B or C switches at either 9.25 or 11.25 degree crossing angles. Given that I am working to the DOGA fine standard (OO gauge with 1mm flangeway gaps), trying to reproduce prototype turnouts is pointless (sorry, couldn't resist!) as for a start they will be necessarily shorter in OO by something like 3-4 sleepers than the prototype. With the additional need for compression, I have chosen to use mostly B8 geometry to represent the flat bottomed turnouts as this seems to give a reasonable compromise and hopefully retains some of the 'look' of the BV-9.25s that are used throughout at the prototype location. This is the same geometry that I used for the existing flat bottomed track which i was pretty happy with. At Whatley, most turnouts are based on a straight geometry (but not all) and I have curved some of the turnouts to fit the plan as necessary (Templot is pretty handy for this). A big thanks to Colin Craig, whose flat bottomed track templates have been very useful (as published in DEMU update a few years back). Colin, Phil Eames and other DEMU members have also been helpful in answering many of my questions on flat bottomed track on our DEMU London Area Group Friday night Zoom calls. I have really come to appreciate the value of being in a friendly society like DEMU during lockdown. Lots to learn about so many subjects and many people willing to give their time to help. Thank you everyone (you know who you are!). I printed out the template yesterday and stuck it all together. I had to push the sofa and table out of the way in the living room to lay it down on the floor. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the departure siding takes 21 PTAs + loco and the reception siding 19 PTAs + loco. That will be enough room for more or less scale length trains. The run-around is a bit shorter but can be used for shorter rakes (maybe 17 PTAs?) coming out of the quarry (as per Jo's operating notes on P1 of the thread). The front of the layout will include the stream Fordbury Water. This snakes along next to the tracks and should make for interesting foreground detail with a bit of wildlife perhaps too. I've included a straightened-out aerial shot from Bing Maps. Just laying out the plan on the floor was revelatory. The extension makes the layout feel so much bigger than it was previously. Hopefully we will be able to finally do justice to the large block trains 'moving the Mendips'! Guy EDIT 28/12/23 - Restored Photos

Whoops....

Hi Darryl, I've just made a correction to my post above - the tanks (there are two!) are above the underframe on the ARC PG006Bs. I sent you a couple of pics via private message that illustrate this. Also, I think the colour of the top of the underframe is mustard on these (at least that's what the pictures show). But my shots are from the 80s. Regarding the three wagons in the shots you posted on the previous page, they are all different build codes from the PG006B, in sequence: PG003A, PG004A and then PG0013D. The colour of the top of the underframe on your photos seem to be grey. I have looked through all my shots of these build codes and I would say that earlier on (in the 80s) the top of the underframe was predominantly mustard and it got repainted grey at some stage (90s?). I'd say that for your time period, mustard is safe. Regarding the colour of the tanks and distributers, tanks all seem to be mustard but distributors were mostly grey from new (with a red handle). I'm not 100% convinced that the photo on the Mendip Industrials thread shows a yellow distributer (it's a bit fuzzy to tell). Most close up shots I have show the distributer as grey. Any later shots with grey air tanks are probably replacements. Similarly, you will see a lot of shots of the ARC PGAs with red oxide buffers where they have been replaced (quite a nice detail that is crying out to be modelled). PGAs are a total minefield of detail differences and that is even more so with the ARC ones than any others. Of course, that's what I like about them too! The usual caveat applies: get a photo of the exact wagon that you want to model in the period you want and copy it as best you can! Guy

Hi Darryl, Again, it depends on which wagon, even within the PG006B build code! In all cases the air tank and distributer are either both above or both below. For the Yeoman PG006Bs, on 14025 to 14074 the brake equipment is above the solebar, on 14075 to 14095 it is below. On 14688 to 14703 (the ARC PG006Bs) it's below. EDIT (23:26): Correction, I have a shot showing dual air tanks both ABOVE the solebar covered by the protective plate at the handwheel end of the wagon. Regarding your query about the colour of the tops of the wagon, I think I answered that on the previous page. Guy

Are you referring to some 'out of tolerance' yellow wagons by any chance Eamon?

Hi Roy, Ok, I was struggling with Lenz and JMRI to read the decoder type so I opened up and set up my new Digikeijs DR5000 back-up DCC system that came before Christmas (purchased before Brexit lol!). A bit of fiddling and the decoder type identifies as a "Loksound V5 DCC" in the latest version of JMRI with the Digikeijs command station. There you have it! It's a V5! Guy

Hi Roy, Yes. CV8 reads 151 so it’s definitely ESU and not Zimo. Is there a way to tell which ESU chip it is just by reading CVs? Guy

It looks ‘within tolerance’ in a line up of colours from different manufacturers. This was just what I had to hand from the cabinet, from left to right: Hornby, Vi Trains, Bachmann, Heljan. Guy

That's an easy one. For the ARC wagons, ARC Mid Grey (e.g. https://www.phoenix-paints.co.uk/products/14p213). But it looks quite faded on those wagons so you might want to just colour match a grey from e.g. Tamiya or Humbrol's standard ranges. Humbrol gull grey perhaps? Guy