RichardClayton

At long last we are getting the layout ready for its first exhibition, which will be at RAILEX NE on 28 and 29 July (http://www.railexne.com), followed by an appearance at the Newcastle exhibition in November. Today the last of the main signals was installed and persuaded to work. The eagle eyed will also spot the gradual encroachment of point rodding, which is being added along with lots of other small details. Richard C

The ore hoppers look great, and I guess there might be less pain involved than in building nine of the Dave Bradwell version (I know, I've built 8 of them!). I'm not sure I could tell the difference at normal viewing distances. The colour looks good too -- for the EM version of South Pelaw we agreed on Precision track colour for ours. By way of encouragement and inspiration, last weekend we actually had a loco running under power -- very exciting. There are some pics of this, and also of the scenic progree being made at the Washington/Ouston end on our blog http://southpelawem.blogspot.co.uk. Best wishes, Richard --

I'm sure a flyover would work. However, one of the considerations for us was being able to split Consett bound trains at SP and take them up the bank one cut at a time. There's a nice sequence of pictures showing this (as well as some other great shots of SP) here -- http://ironroad.smugmug.com/1960s-Steam-Finale/i-PBG9vB4/A This operation requires some crossovers in the fiddle yard so the train engine can collect the brake van and then head back down to SP for the next cut of wagons. The gradients imposed by flyovers in the fiddle yard were going to make this awkward, which is one of the reasons we opted for complex track work instead.

On the EM version of South Pelaw we went through several designs for the fiddle yard at the back. We wanted trains running into Stella Gill and up the bank to Consett to be able to re-appear on either the Ouston or Washington lines. After an initial idea involving flyovers, we have gone for some complicated trackwork at the Washington/Ouston end. You can see a photo of part of the arrangements on the most recent entry in our blog (http://southpelawem.blogspot.co.uk), which shows the templot for the component that allows trains to cross from the Ouston lines to exit from Stella Gill and vice versa. The other element is effectively a double crossover from the Washington lines to exit down the bank from Consett. All this complexity takes up quite a bit of space, but fortunately its a huge layout, and we still have plenty of room to store trains in the fiddle yard sidings. Incidentally, its great to see such enthusiasm for this route on here, and on the Blackgill thread. Richard --

I have just stumbled upon this thread -- Blackgill is a really inspiring model, and the photos are great. I lived on Tyneside for 12 years in the 1980s and 90s, and have been planning a model of South Pelaw on the Tyne Dock - Consett route for a long time. Porgress is slow (isn't it always), and I have been busy building a set of nine Dave Bradwell iron ore hoppers as well as 21T hopper wagons and steel carriers of various sorts. For those interested in Tyne Dock 9Fs, I've also nearly finished an EM gauge model of 92060 -- a rather painful experience involving a few bits from a Dapol kit, a Comet chassis, a Dave Alexander tender and lots of time and effort. Its been painted since this photo was taken, but the valve gear still needs finishing off along with a few more details. I have a DJH kit for the next one, and after that I will probably use the Bachmann model as a starting point. Cheers, Richard