cromptonnut

I've got a pack of the Woodland Scenics 'tree armatures' that are currently a shiny brown plastic, and I'd prefer them to be tree coloured. They don't need to be massively detailed as they will be in a large group of trees, but wondered if you could recommend a paint colour for tree bark please. Humbrol or Halfords 'rattle can' preferred options. TIA

Just received this by email from SWR. Interesting.

On the subject of military trains, this has just gone past the bottom of my garden. Perfect for if the Ludgershall branch, although this one ran Warminster-Doddington (passing Andover, where it could have gone up the branch). https://www.facebook.com/grateleytrains/videos/996139967217115

Hi Chimer So far we have a mixture of single and double track modules offered, and a junction, so I'm sure - as with most modular things - it'll be completely different this time. The prototype Ludgershall Bridge is single track in the period I'm doing it so the module is, most of my modules are single track as they were last time - but I have plans for a few doubles to add into the mix as well so hopefully we'll get a chance to test double track this time. It only took 3 years Look forward to receiving your forms. 'Nut

That looks somewhat beyond my dreadful skills - or lack of... However it seems a similar principle, although obviously with a much greater depth to the lower level. Nice work though.

Thought I'd start a thread documenting my first new module towards this project - Ludgershall Branch Bridge.

Thought I'd start a new thread to document the construction of a new module, albeit a fairly small one. Having "not modelled" for over a year due to a house move, I thought I'd restart my mojo with a small project whilst I'm finishing off lining my new shed with a small, fairly straightforward, module. Name: Ludgershall Branch Bridge. Size: 4ft x 18", single track. Anyone who has travelled up the A303 over the years will recognise the bridge where the Ludgershall branch passes over the A303 near Andover. We moved to fairly near this location and thought it would be a fairly straightforward, and fairly recognisable, module that'd be slightly different from what I've done in the past. However, the module would happily fit in any geographical location and, with the use of appropriate road vehicles, probably anything from about the 1960's onwards. I do plan to accurately represent the westbound (right in the pictures below) carriageway accurately, in being solid nose to tail traffic as is often the case when it's backed up with grockles passing Stonehenge. The Ludgershall Branch is the remaining southern section of the old MSWJR line from Andover to Swindon, now single track as far as the Defence Equipment & Support Rail & Container Terminal at MoD Ludgershall. It diverts from the Waterloo-Exeter main line just west of Andover, about half a mile south east of the location of my module. In the past the line has naturally been used for military trains to Ludgershall, although there hasn't been much traffic in recent years. There's a nice video tracing part of the line here, for those interested in the history of the line. First, the prototype inspiration, courtesy of Google Street view. Looking at it in map view, it is clear that the A303 passes under the line at an angle. However, for the purposes of modular, I imported the image into Photoshop and have rotated the whole scene so that the track goes left to right and the road is now at an angle across the board underneath it. Some quick calculations tell me that the line is at a 52 degree angle to the road, which is a fairly distinctive feature that I wanted to reproduce. The aid of Microsoft Publisher and some drawn 'boxes' gave me the measurements from each end of the board to get the right angle. Nothing very spectacular about the board construction so I won't bother with too much detail, I started with a ply and planed timer frame in the normal manner, glued and screwed. One advantage of the current hot weather, which although not much fun to work in the shed, does at least mean the glue dries very quickly. Having done some quick calculations based on some suitable vehicles, the two lanes each side, central reservation and a small verge required about 10" width for the road underneath between the bridge abutments. Lines were calculated and drawn on the surface, and spacing checked. The outside lines of the verge were then copied onto the second board which is the track bed, 4" wide track bed strip calculated, and the road space cut out leaving a complete section for the upper surface to make life easier. Angled offsets were cut in order to make the embankment between the upper "field/track" level and the road level. Risers were then glued to the lower board surface, at the module ends and where the bridge starts and ends. This is about 2 1/2" tall, in order to accommodate vehicles underneath as well as the bridge deck which will go underneath the rail surface upper level. This was then simply screwed to the risers along the ends and each side of the A different angle shows a train crossing the road. I know 59-hauled stone trains don't use the line however it was the first thing I could find Finally, a more "drivers eye" view from the road level, to compare to the Google Street View image. I've ordered some of the Wills Varigirder bridge sides to reproduce the bridge sides, and will make an attempt with Plastruct sections to detail the underside of the bridge, which again is a distinctive feature from road level. I have also downloaded some concrete slab walling from Model Railway Scenics, to match the sides of the bridge. That fun is to come soon but I want to make a start on the scenics on the upper level before the lower surface, in order to minimise the risk of gravity damage from glue etc. There will be front surfaces to the board trimmed to the end profile of the scenery, which will then all be blended in. Watch this space...

We use the Peco SL-36 track spacer gauge to get the accurate spacing.

From National Rail: "The failure has been traced to a faulty power supply cable which feeds off the national grid. A Network Rail specialist has made a temporary fix and some lines have been reopened. Investigations are continuing to assess the fault and to decide what the best resolution will be."

Perfect Curves are always useful anyway, and although the "single track joining" offset you picture in green isn't strictly within the standards - it's fine as far as I'm concerned. I have a similar "passing loop" in mind although it's with single to double on each of the two boards so they can fit together as a passing loop, or as part of a single/double conversion with other modules between the two. Keep us informed of your progess, and feel free to start a separate thread in this modular subforum about it. I don't see that being a particular issue, as long as the rest of it looks vaguely British. Code 75, 83 or 100 (or handbuilt) track are all perfectly acceptable. I've spent this evening drawing lines on some plywood and cutting a space to make the bridge, but it's all ground to a halt this evening as my PVA glue is 2 years out of date and a solid lump. A trip to Wickes in the morning will be in order and then I can carry on building the framework - and, of course, in this heat in the shed it'll probably dry within the hour. I'll be starting a thread about mine.

At our last meet we had one board with a coat of green paint representing fields along the line, so there's nothing wrong with that at all Looking forward to hearing about your contributions.

Last weekend I got my wallet stolen in the supermarket car park. I was just loading up my shopping when these two beautiful young ladies approached me asking if I could give them a lift home, and offered to "pay me" with a wink. Over the next 20 minutes they performed all sorts of unspeakable acts on me in the back of the car to the point where I passed out with exhaustion. When I awoke a while later, the two ladies were nowhere to be seen, and neither was my wallet. I was robbed by them again on Monday lunchtime, Tuesday afternoon, twice on Wednesday, and Thursday morning. By the way, Poundland have an offer on wallets at the moment..

May I remind everyone that Charles Horton was CEO of Connex when it ran the service covered by the "Southern" part of the franchise, and he did an equally admirable job running that.

You might be interested in this little 'local gem' I captured for the Grateley Trains facebook page from earlier in the week, the first MOD working through from Warminster MOD to Bicester MOD of a GBrF 66 with a selection of empty tank carrying wagons. Not that you need much inspiration, I'm sure https://www.facebook.com/grateleytrains/videos/985004851663960/ I also have plans for a small "filler" module based on the bridge the Ludgershall branch goes over the A303, which is a well known landmark.

forms sent Looking forward to incorporating Tidworth into the mix... looks like we'll need a couple of junctions as I might have a terminus too by then.

Absolutely. Something that might only get used once or twice a year is potentially wasteful unless it's literally plain track. However as organiser I feel certain responsibilities to make everything "function" and if that means some extra boards that aren't useful as part of my current home project then they might at some other point. For example, if my 12ft fiddle yard is erected at home then it's no use, however in 8ft mode (missing the last board) it gives me enough length to use the 'curved boards' that I am making as well to then connect to an 8ft terminus module, and all fit nicely in the shed. So that's one standalone 8ft layout module, four curved boards that might be used occasionally, and a fiddle yard that might also only be used once or twice a year. Ultimately, that works for me as a standalone layout, and the bits are individually useful in a modular concept. As long as the end(s) of any existing layout(s) - with or without converter boards - match "the standards" then even if you need to make a second set of legs, something can become modular.

I don't know if your modules still exist but if you fancy a trip to Hampshire in May next year ... see my signature for more details

As the East Grinstead services have now gone over to 700's (like the Horshams) on their new routes, you won't be getting 377's back as they won't be cleared to run through to wherever, so swapping them back will mean they can't go through to Bedford, Peterborough and Cambridge. That's partly due to the auto control bit through the core, and running services from places to, say, Blackfriars then running from Blackfriars to "up north" as separate 700's services rather defeats the idea of the new timetable bringing through services under Railplan 20/20. The bottom line is that the GTR franchise is far too big and complex, and you're mixing too many short commuter services and long distance services together with the complexity of straight through cross-London tube style frequency services. I'd personally love to know the statistics of how many people travel from Brighton to, say, Cambridge on a daily basis as a regular commute. I haven't seen much advantage in the new services at all really.

I've got loads of offcuts of ply from getting the shed lining wood cut; after all if I've paid for the offcuts I might as well have them. First plan I have is a 12ft long "mini Dave" of three 4ft x 12" sections, two being a single track to twin track 4ft each end and a 4ft plain twin track board for the middle. The idea being that if we have all single track modules then it's a passing loop, if we have a couple of twin track modules then they can go either end and fit a twin track into a single track module effectively. The three boards all work as individual boards that can also be spread out amongst the modules to convert single to double (in either direction) as well as a single 12ft module. I'm also going to look at a couple of single and single to double curved sections which will of course help to extend the run as ideally we would have an S shape overall with at least one junction giving a branch off to somewhere for something. I also plan to work on a small "Lyme Regis-ish" terminus as my own layout over the coming months, which will be built to Dave standards anyway and will hopefully end up as part of our final project - although I'm not quite sure yet what junction we'll need. Hopefully as modules come in we'll be able to identify gaps and maybe there will be volunteers to build extra modules. Just frustrating that the shed is so damn hot to do any more than 5 minutes of work at a time!

Have I sent you the forms yet...?

I've probably got some ready to plant buildings and vehicles that could be used if necessary. Scenery does of course help … but there are ways round everything. Nice looking boards, they look lasercut?

Forms sent Chris, you have a year so I'm sure you can manage a module. Even a 4ft long, straight single track module with a bit of scenery is helpful as few people build 'plain boards', most have a purpose ie are a station, or a junction, or a siding or whatever. You know you can do this, as long as the board is straight, flat and the track is wired and at the right height - scenery is a bonus in many ways and last time only about a quarter of what came was scenically complete. Refresh yourself with the standards thread, grab some banana sockets off of Ebay, and I reckon you could get something together in a weekend once you've got the wood cut. It's one of the reasons we've got a date 11 months in advance, to give people time to build something. Not having any DCC locos isn't really an issue, of course on a straight plain board DC and DCC wiring (ie one wire to each rail) are exactly the same anyway so this could even be used as part of your own home layout; several of the modules I'll be bringing are part of my home layout but with setrack curves in the hidden sections at home as they take up less space, and replacement curved boards with wider radius curves to the standards for use when I have a space bigger than my shed (they are simply plain track curves so it doesn't make any difference overall). I'm also looking at "Mini-Dave" for 10" wide single track boards, that are simply used for extending straight runs, and take up a lot less space. Obviously they're less stable than 18" wide boards however inbetween standard boards they'll be fine. One of those is even easier to build Perhaps you could build a module that also doubles as a photographic plank?

Thank you Zomboid for being the first to return your form. I'll hold off on "taking money" just for now until we have a few more forms back and we know that it's definitely a goer.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/headcode/14184694911