pirouets

There is a real name - Steve.

I thought I was being a smarty pants quoting SmL as being mysterious whilst Steve is in my signature. I note you sign off each post as Jeff as well as it being in the signature. Makes me wonder just how much of the screen is taken up with stuff we skim over unlike your Fell :-)

Jeff, I am another like the mysterious Sml who has spent time today going through most of this and enjoying how it has developed. 2 things have struck me

1. 50KG of plaster for the Fell (which looks great) is the same as one of my kids in weight - that's a lot of plaster.

2. The dry stone walls - do you listen to music as they get built or are you a silent modeller? I am impressed with the patience.

There is also a really useful point from Jason a couple of plages back about rtr having a limited range of wagons and that struck me, so I think I need to do some research and by a kit or 2 to try out other wise I will end up with the same set of wagons as a lot of other layouts.

My other question is when operating, how do you know what is where in the fiddle yard?

So tomorrow is back to work and the break is over - BOO HOO HOO. But I do feel as though progress has been made in the last week. I have a couple of final tweaks to do to the Royal Mail building but it fits well and alongside this I have built a station building. This is one part of the scalescenes medium kit. Now I do realise that the mail building kit is a red brick and the rest of the layout is a brown/red brick but my back story is this is a new addition in the early seventies providing a central distribution/sorting where as the rest of the area was built many years before.

I've also now added the back wall to the platform which helps complete the scene and gives the platform a good bit of definition. I will need to think about careful placement of things like signs/benches and lights to cover a couple of small rough spots on the surface.

I think before I try and go to much further I need to outline a list of jobs so I do not forget but painting the backscene and ballasting are probably high on that list.

Happy that Miami made it through to the playoffs as I started watching when Dan Marino was flinging things around to great effect but more importantly the pack have got through and Aaron Rodger is playing out of his skin. Thing is though I just don't see it being enough.

Who would I go for from the last 12? I think it will be the Patriots or Chiefs V Dallas in the big game with Dallas coming out on top.

Just read this through and love your self deprecating approach to modelling. Take heart as doing things just twice means you have learnt loads. I have one bit of layout that must have taken 6 or 7 attempts.

One question I either missed or its not in the text. Is the plan to build this full circle with fiddle yards in the rear or will it be a yard at either end?

Fareham is not the longest journey so may have to make a trip in October to see this.

I've got a few days before I return to work but the kids are back at school and Ali is back at work and given I am stuck in waiting for a 3/4 size table tennis top to be delivered either today or tomorrow.

A couple more tweaks on the warehouse/parcel/mail unit but have come to the end of what I can do until the scalescenes door sheets arrive as something has gone pear shaped with the order. Have emailed scalescenes and I reckon it will be here by tomorrow as this happened once before. I have added a couple of Royal Mail signs and that is the reason I want different coloured warehouse doors and windows.

I've also got some off cuts of track and done different ballasts on each of them.

I'm thinking its either the dark grey which is 2nd in from left or the light grey on the right for the lower area of the layout and the used the dark brown ballast on the left hand track for the main line. 4 out of 5 of the ballasts tried are fine ballast I used on my N gauge layouts in the past. I did try some medium ballast but I think its to coarse.

Before I start ballasting I need to fit all the infill sleepers which if I get a chance I will do later today.

I have been playing with a scalescenes low relief ware house kit toinight that will sit on the platform and act as the parcel depot building. By adding a wall to wrap it round the back scene it starts to fill the slot nicely.

Alongside this I had a pile of printed off scalescene kits and was always getting in a mess with the amount of paper, so have nicked a few A4 holders off my wife as she has a stack of them and now they are all nicely parceled up which makes things easier to find and much tidier when put away.

I've actually given the whole shed a good sort out which has helped along with setting up my old hifi speakers in the shed which means i'll have to be careful or could probably annoy the neighbours 5 or 6 doors down if I turned it up to loud but the music sounds a whole heap better now. Tonights work was accompanied by Oxygene (Jean-Michel Jarre) & Little River Band greatest hits.

So in between reading and trying to get my head round whether the SOS Junction layout thread is using this forum to develop some form of TV show or just a bunch of modellers chatting with occasional spurts of modelling but its quite an amusing read.

I got back in the shed myself today and add the new area for the station building along with the extra couple of inches of track. The good news is I got it right as I can now fit in the parcels rake plus a loco with clearence in to the siding next to it.

I've added a simple brick wall to stop any plastic people who get added at a later date from falling over the edge. That will also be added down the back edge of the platform once the surface has been laid.

In terms of station building I am wondering whether to use this GWR scalescenes kit that comes with a goods shed and simply build the front half whilst using the free low relief warehouse as as the parcels building. i'm not back to work till the 9th so we will see how progress goes before then.

So end of year is here and I think I have got past my rip it up and start all over again problem. I was constructing a small station round the 3 sidings on the lower level but it just looked wrong and cramped, so a simple piece of destruction solved the problem. By just leaving a single platform I can run parcels and the DMU leaving me the other 2 sidings to shunt in and out of.

In the picture below my thinking is I will put a small 1/2 width station building in at the end of the tracks which will be extended by a couple of inches and instead of a big warehouse, put a 1 or 2 story building at the back platform edge against the backscene.

As you look down this picture you can see the sidings and it gives back the old idea of being able to drop cement wagons off to be unloaded.

So next step is going to be finish the platform and then 2 jobs need starting

- Paint the backscene

- Ballasting

Same as Kris above really. Get Dinfield sidings ballasted and some scenic work done and as of last night I may be at a point I am comfortable to start ballasthe work.

Outside of that who knows if the golf clubs will get picked up again but if not I will have a bit more time.

Gordon, which will cause more mayhem on Boxing Day, 3 kids or 5 dogs? You could always ask the kids about what you've made - either they will be in awe of your skills or it will be an out of the mouths of babes moment, so its whether you take the risk.

Also, don't forget if needed, find a driving range and use golf balls to express your feelings as they don't argue back when you whack em.

Wishing you well.

Can I just say damn you Loftus Road, Damn you to heck - you have made me question the layout I am building.

Actually I have known for a little while my design was not coming up to the picture in my head but seen the your layout helped. The standard of the buildings across the layout is excellent and I found myself drifting back to the layout a couple of times. I don't think i'm going to start ripping things up yet but it helps picture maybe whatever comes next.

Have to say I think you layout has a problem - To many people wanted to look at it :-) In fact I would say if you put this next to Copenhagen Fields H&S may need to do a crowd risk assessment.

Seriously though it was nice to see how the pictures I have looked at as this thread developed came together as the complete layout and it seemed to run very smoothly. Also one of your operators did stand out and if there was a best dressed award, I think wearing his pin stripe jacket would get that - maybe crew uniform going forwards.

Be interesting to see how it evolves over the next 16 months as I normally try and get to Ally Paly and agree its a great venue.

Thanks Tim. I did find the review myself on your site and have pulled a few album suggestions as a result, though tonight is The London Howlin Wolf sessions.

Wow, its been a year since I started on this. Not a lot has happened over the last few months even though Golf & I have come to an amicable seperation and I have not played since april which you would think would give me a reasonable amount of time, however the hifi and simply listening to music has been enjoyed quite a bit over the last few months instead.

Anyway tonight I did finally finish off the work on the slips and wire up the section switches in the platform area and for once, it seemed to work 1st time. Yeah!!! Now that is all done next job is to finish of the trackside walling on the top level and paint the backscene whilst thinking about the buildings that will fill up the space.

Who knows, there may actually be some progress coming up.

Tim, I noticed you saw Space Elevator at Cambridge. I have their album, but how were they live? I could have gone to Bunkfest at Wallingford on Friday to see them but needed to play Dad taxi.

First of all Mr York, please report yourself to the moderators and find a dark hole to contemplate the error of your ways. I can't get that damn song out of my head now and its way worse that last nights episode.

So whilst not overly impressed with episode 1 I am prepared to see how this evolves. I seem to remember Top Gear back in the 2002 had a shaky restart, a presenter was replaced by I think for the 2nd series by James May, etc. Also what will the final viewing figure in 7 days time be once iplayer, etc is factored in as I suspect the 5.3 for the final show with Mr Clarkson includes all of that. I watched it at 11 last night.

Just realised how to get a sense of scale for what you are building. its n gauge, scale 1:148 and you have (or will have 220 coaches). You have enough to make your own single full size coach and then some.

Mr Ashley I salute you and at the same time say your nuts, fabulously nuts :-)

Out of interest a couple of questions

When will the 1st train run a full distance?

How long to complete the track build alone?

Are you the reason Bachman & Peco never announce profit warnings?

Hmm, not sure I recognise the picture above now a s a little change happened and instead of siding a station has appeared.

I'd been mulling this for a while and was reading a copy of Railway Modeller with an article about a smaller station in York and that led to the thought of changing the area so it can serve passangers and parcels. The parcels building is being built out of one of the scalescenes kit and I am still mulling over the station building. Who knows, maybe time for a scratch build

I am thinking the main services will be DMU but who knows, that classic of a 31 with 3 surburban coaches may put in a show.

It does leave me with one other change to make as these 3 lines have a single slip feeding them, so if I want to be able to push back parcels coaches or vans that will need to be swapped to a double slip. I think then 1 siding will be for parcels/coaches or anything pushed back from the station whilst the other will be a siding for an industry of some description - who knows the cement siding may move there. In the mean time as well as building the platforms it will also mean a wiring change so that if I have a loco trapped by the coaches, to pull those out with a shunter I will need 3 new isolation switches. Best I start strectching now for the back contortions needed.

Are you sure you won't get part way through and come up with a new idea which means starting again? Sorry, someone had to say it. Hope the golfs going well.

Have continued to happily use the place since the change and always prefer to go there than shop online and I think Paul is carrying on where Bob left off. Also helps that this place in not to far from work so it gets me out of the office every now and again for lunch time.

Before I say anything, where's my coat - ah there it is. Right.

That fiddle yard layout reminds me of a layout that was called Striven/Striving, can't remember which name but it was lovely flowing track with industries either side for freight to be dropped off at whilst mainline expresses plow through. You don't fancy starting again to build something like that do you as I think you are ready now with your woodwork to do buildings as well

Coat on :-)

On a more serious note may I pose a proper question. Will it be wired to hold multiple trains in the fiddle yard so some lines may hold 2 or even 3 things?

I swear given my earlier post I will never mention the weather again - promise, and suspect my course will be closed this weekend. If your interested there is a place in Thame with an indoor golf system you can hire if the itch really needs scratching. Your right about printing costs these days. It may have taken over from a coke in the pub or an apple device as greatest profit margin thing to buy on the planet.

However I do like the way it has turned out for you. In a post some way back you did mention being able to sit there with some wine watching trains go round and I can picture you where the trestle is in the last picture admiring your world. Question is did you leave room for a comfy chair to do that in :-)

So i've been thinking (and before anyone asks, no that was not a new years resolution). I was looking at some pictures of Exeter Central cement sidings which then lead me to this picture on a thread - http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/70626-goods-yards-and-freight-handling/page-2&do=findComment&comment=1054701

The plan of Bristol Laurence Hill freight got me thinking that a better way to use the sidings would be as marked on the picture below rather than the 3 sidings on the right being parcels with the cement at the other end of the layout. On the cement side I am wondering as the final picture of the linked thread shows in that post is the inner of the 2 sidings for delivery of cement sacks, etc and the longer outer siding for the cement wagons and that I may have to ease the track out slightly towards the baseboard edge to have room for the cement plant

It also means that any shunting is a simpler move and that still leaves the inside siding at the curved end of the layout as a potential 3 option such as scrap.

Also now the final 2 pieces of the back scene are in I think this end of the layout has turned out well and just needs a bit more careful thought as to the buildings that wrap round the edges against space for any vehicles.

Nothing major over the last few weeks but have nearly got the backscene boards in now which do frame the scene. There are 2 end pieces still to fit (see second picture) which hopefully will be done tomorrow. The idea behind the 2nd picture being a stepped end is the piece that can be seen will have a low relief building along the sides that will be the main element of the goods/parcel area.