cromptonnut

Even plain track boards, with grass either side of the track - whether straight or curved - are perfectly useable in certain areas of the US as well as in the UK. We may not have the big canyons and river bridges or open desert areas but there are some areas of the US that look very much like areas of the UK, so they could fit for both? Road signs and buildings can identify it as one or the other, although as already pointed out removable bits can make it intercontinental. Could use them on both layouts then?

All of those look like they'd be very useful Once I get back the "application packs" back from people then I will list what we have and come up with a vague floor plan like last time and see what additional bits we need. I only have one 45 degree board and a fiddle yard option at present but am building a new layout once the shed is built and that will be designed to modular spec. Most people did single track last time but we'll see what turns up on meeting 2.

Hi Joseph, that's a very kind offer, thankyou. We'll just see what happens, maybe the sunday will be the preferred date amongst everyone else, I'm easy either way, just the organiser not the dictator

Right, well we're now a week after I should have closed the poll so now we're the end of May, it appears that 18th and 19th May are our most popular. On the survey above currently we have for both days cromptonnut, Zomboid, PaulRhB, Coxswain, BlueLightning, Temeraire, 3737, markw, plus SAT only sem34090, SUN only Joseph_Pestell, My personal preference is the Saturday, which then gives people an opportunity to prepare and/or travel Friday, then on the Sunday relax and get ready for work again - however does anyone of the "both days" list have any strong leanings towards one or the other? Also, @sem34090 and @Joseph_Pestell, is there any chance of making "the other day" if required, given all this notice? Those who have voted on other dates, again if you are able to rearrange yourselves to make yourself available on the 18th or 19th May, that may help us further. I'll let this run for one more week for people on other dates to be able to enquire about making themselves available, and we can then confirm things. I've asked the hall to confirm price and availability so we can book, and then I'll be asking for email addresses from you all so I can send out the "sign up pack". I think with 8 it's just about viable, and it looks like we may well pick up a few others on the way who have expressed interest but not voted yet. On current numbers I am looking at around £15 non refundable deposit per head to cover costs, however this will reduce if numbers increase and any excess will be returned to participants on the day with a copy of the accounts as naturally no profit will be made by myself. 'Nut

Hi Leen and Henk Our area is very flexible, and if we have to extend our area across the Noordzee then I have no objections, you are very welcome to join us. It sounds like you may need to make new legs to fit our standards but everything can be worked on in private message if necessary. We have a number of hotels around our area due to the proximity to Stonehenge (about 10 miles away) so although it'll be quite the journey for you, it is certainly very practical. It's looking like there are two dates the most popular … so hopefully in the next few days we will be able to decide on a date, and once I have confirmed that the hall is still available for us for our preferred date, we can start planning and building. 'Nut

Yep, know exactly what you mean - West Croydon has a similar arrangement.

Thanks for that Zomboid, I guess we can discount that weekend as we'd likely lose several of you so... we'll see what date happens.

I originally had plans for an 8ft diameter circle, double track at the exit but a crossover and single track on the loop but that never materialised. Not sure exactly what you're referring to as a 'reversing siding', a sketch or pictures would be handy.

Am Anything is helpful (more or less!) - I have "The Terminator", which is a 4" wide board consisting of 2 inches of track, a buffer stop and some grass, that finishes off a line. That's useful, so even a 4ft board with a small halt on a single track is an additional stop somewhere along the line for some trains, others can go straight through with no problem. Creativity is the key

Even a simple 4ft long flat, straight board is a helpful 'spacer' If everyone who brings something brings a corner or a straight board that's quite simple, it all adds length to the overall situation. My guess is that we'll need a couple of junctions too.

I suffer from the same restriction, however even if you don't start building something until December that still gives 5 months Whatever date we pick is going to not work for someone... but maybe another time it will

Right... our end of month deadline is approaching. A few of you who have expressed interest in coming along haven't yet voted. Please ensure you do select your availability asap. At the moment we are a little below my preferred number of 10, however we may pick a few up between now and then - assuming of course everyone that says they are coming does come. Hopefully if the date chosen is one that one of you cannot make, you might be able to make arrangements with almost a year's notice to be available?

It appears to just be the standard 'behind the blinds' lighting so a white/red bicolour should do it but I seem to recall these can sometimes be tricky to make work with DCC. I'll drop them an email though Mike.

I didn't know if there was a 'go to' supplier for these kinda things, or whether it was a 'raid Maplin' activity. Express Models might have been a source but as they have not updated their website CAPTCHA it is impossible to make contact with them by email.

We are currently still discussing things, there is a poll at the top of this discussion people to put what dates are convenient, and very shortly we will be deciding whether to go ahead with a date in April or May 2019. You would of course be more than welcome to join us. It seems that there are just a few of us nutters in the south east that like the modular standards and it hasn't taken off anywhere else in the UK (other modular standards for other interests do, however). Appreciate your boards are normally 'pre grouping', however with modular meets it's more a case of "anything goes" and we overlook the fact that your Terrier is pottering about in the yard whilst a blue/grey CEP sits in the platform awaiting a Freightliner 66 on a container train to pass through. With our modular stuff, the emphasis is letting your trains stretch their wheels on a much larger expanse than they have the opportunity to at home, and to have a basic operational practice (ie stop trains crashing) I think last year we had 54ft from fiddle yard exit to the "terminator" 4 inch board with a buffer stop on them that I made. Vote away... and let's see what happens. We are just around the "viable" stage at present although we may well of course encourage others to join along the way once they see something is definitely happening.

It was a quick post from memory, I may well be wrong. The principle remains even with the arrangement the other way round.

In the rationalisation that you refer to, many locations would have lost their shunters and depots by then, so you might have - like Skegness, for example, 12 very long carriage sidings but only two useable and the rest under several feet of grass. However the fact that you have a goods yard/freight depot planned would probably have meant that there would have been at least one shunter retained but that wouldn't necessarily have been always available for passenger release. You would have been 'pre-Sprinter' back then but there would still have been a number of DMU's that didn't need running round or releasing. Very busy city termini might have "train loco becomes the loco for the next train once it's been released" principle but I am not sure that would quite work for your plan. I've always liked the 'centre road' with a 3 way point in a terminus. You just need to make sure that there's enough space between the end of the middle of the three way point and the buffer stop for your longest loco (where I've put the purple dot). In this arrangement, the loco would set back the train slightly to be free of the point uncouple, then run forward into the middle headshunt then down through the middle road,and back onto the platform to couple up to the train then push back in towards the buffer stops. It might work well for your intercity section? They are not expensive at all Peco SL-36 is the code, any model shop should stock them as they are a low value but very useful item. I agree with DavidCBroad, Minories as a layout takes a lot of beating. It has been copied by many people, and many have tried to better it, but the simplicity and flexibility are very clear once you start exploring opportunities. This page has some interesting comments and variations. https://esngblog.com/2016/12/18/minories-1-the-original-design/

Firstly, welcome I note your question re clearance, Peco make a useful track spacer gauge which allows you to set either streamline or setrack spacing. By "11 degree" do you mean the streamline or setrack points? What's the code number? I assume your two left tracks are the main lines, and the inner one goes to your TMD/goods? If that's a curved setrack point you are using, some things do struggle to go round them, depending on what you are running. If it's the TMD then that's ok but I'm not sure about the goods facility, freight trains wouldn't normally go into a terminus then reverse out into a yard. Reality often has less restraints when it comes to fitting things into spaces than our spare rooms! It's an intersting plan, and not too dissimilar to something I planned some years back. Being 1970's you would still have 'speedlink' type pickup freights and parcel services. Are there run-rounds off the map? You do seem to have rather a lot there on an 8x4 oval - have you planned the rest of the room out yet to size or just this corner of the station throat?

Well it is 26 degrees here at present but I have kept myself fairly hydrated and haven't been out in the sun that much today but thanks Google for the timely reminder... I don't find a Dioralyte advert overly offensive - in fact we have some in our first aid drawer as a stock item - and I know that there's plenty worse I could have shoved in my face, but it seemed interesting that I get 3 Warners adverts in a row then something completely irrelevant to railway modelling that I thought something might be broken.

I recall that when signed in you would see railway related adverts, but general google adverts when not signed in. Not sure why I'm signed in and seeing an advert for Dioralyte?

Does anyone have any suggestions for adding directional lighting to a Southern Pride 2-HAP kit please? I know I can get a cheap chip and set up directional lighting easily enough but not sure what options I have for the lighting itself. Has anyone done this conversion and can give me any pointers? The unit will run together with an MLV for the short lived 'blacklisting' of the units until the brake conversion was done.

I just set my password to 8 stars. Works every time.

http://www.warnersgroup.co.uk/about-warners-group/privacy-policy/ sections 4 and 5

As is the usual manner of marketing, you probably ticked - or didn't tick - a box at some point meaning you gave your consent - knowingly or otherwise - for that sort of cross-marketing within the Warners group. Having had a marketing background myself I can tell you it is very common, especially in small print and double negatives designed to confuse you (note that this is a general explanation, I have no idea what BRM may have done and when to get your consent for this. It shouldn't be a big deal. There should be a simple unsubscribe option at the bottom of most generic emails, simply respond to be removed and that should solve all your future problems. At least this would have been relevant marketing - rather than enhancing bodily parts, little tablets that enhance performance of bodily parts, Russian dating sites and all the other spam to which most of us are subjected on an annoyingly regular basis.