Donw

Excellent work. The stone wall is good but as others have commented there are too many vertical stones. As we have built quite a few stone walls ( Marion has a good eye for walling)  you place stones horizontally.  You just get the odd one placed vertically usually to fit in a gap too narrow for a horizontal stone. The type of stone can make a lot of difference to the shape of the stones. Yesterday I was building a stone wall inside a pond (no water yet) using Purbeck Stone which is supplied in fairly rectangular blocks. When we built an extension on the Wenlock Edge the Limestone  was irregular flattish pieces you need ed brick quoins for the corners, doors and windows. Flints are the same too round for corners.

I am not being critical of what you have done it is way better than most.  It would not be easy to work out the pattern needed on the roller.

Don 

Excellent work.

Don

superb as usual Dave. I have some kits on order but they never seem to arrive.

Don

Fascinating set of photos Mikkel

Regarding the SECR bridge at Reading it bring back memories   if you stood with your back to the bridge you used to look across Kings Meadow to the river, across the river was a terrace of houses. We moved into one in 1951 and lived there till 61 so i grew up with the sight of long freights heading to London and the sights and sounds of wagons being shunted in the yards.

For me the line down to Penzance is a visual treat I hope you both enjoyed it.

Don  

see my comment about the lighting re shadows

Don

I would have one lighting strip close to the backscene to avoid shadow showing on it.

Don

TWo very inspirational layouts there. 

Don

I use thin ply for layouts even in 7mm  but I use two diagonals underneath to brace the boards this stops any twist without them you csn twist one end wrt the other even with heavier boards

The sides are 12mmx20mm the diagonals are 20mm square  Top is 3mm.  The diagonals are halved for the joint in the middle no need for fancy woodwork just rough cut and use no nails or CT1 to fill any gaps.

Don

6 hours ago, The modeller said:

wouldnt dual gauge for em gauge and p4 work

 

I think you would have trouble with wingrails and check rails is mixing EM and P4. 

EM and broad gauge at 28mm would probably be acceptable. More concern would be the flangeways and crossings on mied gauge track.

Don

Sorry to read about your tendon Dave, must be a bu99er.  Superb job on the wood finish. I remember as a boy my Grandfather using scumbling to replicate wood grain on some french doors.  

Thinking about your Coach idea.. Peter Smiths Saltdean Layout has some lovely coaches there were articles on how he made his stock in the Gazette. I think there should be a suitable LBSCR family saloon that could run into Sherton Abbas probably family visiting.  I think Peter did his wood panelling on the computer then stuck that onto a coach body. Obviously you could paint the coach direct.

 I was sorry to miss SWAG family do I think you were there.

ATB

Don

It is all in the details isn't it. Nice touches.

Don

Worseley do etches for a T9  I think it may be to 2mm which would probably suit a Small Ben better.

Don

I too find signals an important part of the layout. I plan to have a lever frame which will work microswitches. I would have liked to build a proper interlocking frame but lack of time plus increasing arthritis means it would probably never get done. So I have written the code for an interlocking unit which will regularly poll the microswitches and if a lever has changed state will first heck that he lever is unlocked. If locked a red light will be on on the frame and any lever pulls ignored until the lever is restored. If unlocked it will send a signal to operate the turnout or signal and then check with a locking table and apply any lock and releases as approtriate. The heart of it is an Arduino Mega pretty cheap. 

I am also thinking about an automatic fiddleyard device that will send bell signals when it thinks a train should be dispatched to the terminus. A sort of modern version of Peter Denny's Automatic Crispen.

Don

Looks interesting.

Regarding track laying the best reasons for building your own turnouts is a) you enjoy it and b) it is the only way to get a real flow to trackwork.

A regards EM/P4 a lot depends on what locos and stock you want if it will all be kit built a lot of kits these days allow for P4 I believe  but if you are planning to use rtr you may find it is a lot of extra work. I admit I haven't tried P4 I went from EM to 2mFS . The main reason for going EM was the rubbishy standard of 00 in those days ( late 70s ).

Don

Well deserved Dave. Fun and games with the new section. I had a suprise when one loco stopped at the FY entrance on my layout. I hadn't spotted it had a taller chimney than the others. Keep meaning to check with a drawing.

Don

I had rather missed most of this so I have made an interesting journey from the original to today.  I am glad that you have relaxed on the minimal scenery a little, to me that great strength of the concept was that of squeezing several scenes into the space needed for one. Most of us modellers have rather less space than we would like to attempt to model something that in real life is rather large. Modelling a single station does produce some brilliant models but loses the sense of an interconnected system going from place to place. Your scenes each capture enough of the atmosphere to identify the type of place and also the interconnection. This needs your brilliant scenic work to create an atmosphere for each scene.

I find it interesting that you also have a strong interest in operation something I share. I do like the computer. Whether done using a spreadsheet or on paper actually makes little difference it is the idea that is key. As someone who at one period designed and produced (with my team) office computer systems I realised the key was understanding the flow of the paperwork.  Typically in a business the  control of work is down to pieces of paper. Whether the random element is by shuffling cards, rolling dice,  generating  a number by computer or counting the number of birds at the bird table matters little in all cases it is how you use the number generated that matters.

Thank you for such an intresting blog.

Don

Brilliant stuff especially the Stairway to Evans

Don

I was rather lucky as I saw Laira at a show and had a chance to discuss it with John while he showed me all the bits.

Regarding bought in locos. In the US most railroads seemed quite happy to buy standard classes if they suited them. Whereas most British Railways wanted distinctive locos.

Don

On 14/10/2020 at 05:41, Mikkel said:

 

Searching for "rail" in Dickens' works seems to illustrate the co-existence of railroad and railway  in the language at the time. In the quote below from Dombey & Son (written 1846-48), the narrator speaks of railroads, then immediately afterwards describes (fictional) pubs using the term railway, and finally ends up calling it railway himself! 

 

 

It's fascinating to see how the railways gradually become a feature in Dickens' life and starts appearing in his works. An eyewitness description of the coming of the railways - although of course a fictional and privileged one.

 

 

 

I can just picture it, Chris. It has all the ingredients of an experience a child would never forget!

 

Has anyone ever done a layout showing a railway enveloped in fog?  It would be quite an easy project, except for the endless discussions about the right shade of the fog 

 

John Dornon used a stage smoke machine for his model of Laira Engine shed to have smoke and steam coming out around models. If strikes me you could use one to create a fog effect no point in a real pea souper but one of those where it drifts across in waves could be effective. You might want a bit of yellow lighting if it is meant to be smog. 

Come to think of it there may have been touches of that in some of the Little Duck End videos.

Don

You have a wondeful imagination Mikkel not to mention the superb modelling.

Re. Pea Soupers, they were partly due to the results of burning so much coal. The particles included sulpherous elements  and there was also sulfur dioxide which gave a definite tinge  of yellowish green to the fog. The last really bad one was in 1952 I think so I heard about it as a small boy from family who were in it. It lasted for 5 days and is  estimated to have caused up to 12000 deaths.

Don

I think most of the comments have already been made it is excellent work.  I have never liked seeing a view of the fiddleyard through a bridge so I shall have to take note for my next layout. It is one thing having the fidleyard butting right up at home where spce is a bit limited but this looks so much better for exhibition use. 

Hope you have been keeping well Dave.

Regards Don

I noticed that Stu.

Excellent work Mikkel. Can you swap cassettes for an easy way to change trains?

Don

Some nice modelling Ian. I remember going with me Dad to take LIA down to the station. I think it is down through third parties these days.

Don

3 hours ago, wenlock said:

Thanks Don  Will you be coming to the Cardiff show this year?

It is one week before our show at Taunton so what with the preparations before hand and being there all day both days on the doors or other duties  it would not go down well if I nip over to Cardiff the week before.

Don 

Wonderful pictures Dave of a wwonderful layout.  

Don