Loxborough

Absolutely lovely modelling (as ever) but I am a little alarmed that the sheep can get out; my experience of keeping sheep is that if you left them like that they would lose no time in escaping and throwing themselves either under the first loco or, in the absence of suitable locos, down the coal drops! PS. I don't keep sheep any more!

Firstly, I would like to extend my deepest sympathy to those who have seen their work so cruelly destroyed. Desperately upsetting. On the news coverage, for what it's worth, while the mail article was the worst sort of say-the-same-thing-seventeen-times-without-providing-any-insight journalism, including a lot of photos of grim looking men of a certain age, the Guardian article did at least try to provoke people into thinking a little about the stereotypes, in what I thought was a refreshingly sympathetic way. He didn't say 'you can't be into model railways and be masculine', he said that they can be a perfectly valid and rewarding activity for people who are not cut out for running around a sports field. Very different thing. The hobby is predominantly male, and the higher end of the hobby does appeal to people who have a tendency to finding attention to detail rewarding, which is a predominantly male trait that is not (sufficiently) appreciated by society. Nothing very controversial there, but I thought it was rather nice (of the editor) to include a piece in a national newspaper, in this age of body image obsession and social media self publicity, saying that it is actually OK to stay inside and be a little nerdy. I also thought that it was nice that they got a relatively young journalist to 'come out' as a model railway guy, and included a photo of an N gauge cameo, trying to show what a model railway can look like, rather than concentrating on the destruction (I know, they could have found a better picture, but at least the effort was there). Bravo the Guardian, I think.

Keith, Awsome customer service! I am using frets S003/3 and S003/3M (though the latter is perhaps a minority activity..) If you think you could do anything for these you will at least have one customer (if you look at my Loxborough thread you wll see my problem; inability to paint decent distants) Best, George

Great work, as ever. While you are talking to Keith about transfers, I don't suppose you fancy putting a bid in for sone GNR semphores, too, do you? I seem to spend hours making a very poor job of painting distants... Best, George

Cracking layout; a great concept, beautifully detailed. Well done. George

Impressive stuff. I must say, though, that in your position I wouldn't be much looking forward to doing the springing in the middle of all that... G

Great. Most helpful, big thank you. Feedback (in terms of me actually producing a model) may be a while, but it will come... George

Beautiful job titivating the conflat. Really brings a good RTR model to the next level. Did you make up the chains yourself, or are they an off the shelf product? I ask because I am starting to make plans for the next train, and want to put a couple of containers in it. Also (hoping this doesn't turn into a hijack) do you know of any good sources for pre-war containers and conflats? All the RTR ones seem very generic (ie they are the same body painted different colours) and I just don't understand the various container designations or their respective dates. Obvious Google type searching has brought nothing up... Great work, George

I didn't say I liked the locomotive; I like the modelling... George (ducking)

Lovely stuff. Thanks for sharing. George

I have no advice to offer the signwriters, but I can say that the painters (and weatherers!) have done a fine job. Lovely lookiing wagon. George

Briliant overhead shot of the wood variations. Something to aim for... Don't worry, you have not turned me off the Cambrian kits, just managed my expectations. Forewarned is forearmed, and all that. Thanks, George

Really enjoying this thread. I agree with the others that you have got the wood interiors just right, and the contrast between the colours on the two LMS wagons speaks nicely to the point about them all weathering differently. I'm knocking out coal trucks at the moment but when that is done I will be moving on to model an express goods train, so will be looking at your recommendations for kits (I have already taken on board your comments about the earlier Cambrian kits and may be looking for an alternative source of underframes; Coopercraft perhaps?) Thanks for sharing, George

I've been coming back to this topic from time to time both to admire the great modellng, and to try to convince myself to take courage and try kit building locos... I think you have just about convinced me (though of course, as ever, I know it is going to turn out to be a lot harder than the experts make it look!). Really great modellng here, though; please keep them coming (lest I lose heart...) George

Many congratulations on the purchase; the roof ties the whole thing togather in a magniifcent way, and I think you would be wrong to be anything other than very plesaed with it. A huge step in what was already a remarkable model. Cheque book modelling? I have some sort of personal problem which means that I have to do everything myself. Result; after two years I have some partially finished (not very good) track, a half built bridge and a motivation issue. And a not inconsiderable dent in my wallet made by components and materials. Go figure! Something comment about good judgement and pursuing achievable aims might be appropriate here... Best, George

Really enjoying this thread, not least because I have a sort of intention ('sort of intention'; is that what they call 'aspiration'?) to build a model of Grantham in exactly your period, though I am still stuck on Tallington and that's not going as fast as it should as I keep having to go to work. All of which is to say that I am jealous/admiring of the fact that you have cracked on and are doing a great job of something that I have been dreaming of doing for a couple of years now. You ask about platform design; you are perhaps already aware of this superb resounce; http://www.lner.info...php?f=15&t=3429 but if not you may find it useful... Keep 'em coming, George

Fantastic; modelling of the first order. The stonework around the windows is particularly effective; I have tried various methods in the past for forming proper stone mullioned windows; it simply never occurred to me to file them in situ! Great stuff, George

Thanks all for your comments, especially Andy who, as usual, provided a full and comprehensible explanation. I second Sandside, though; end of hijack (apologies) and lets let the thread get back to the excellent modelling... G

Really looking forward to watching this develop; it has all the aspects of my favorite layouts; stations, running lines that go to somewhere from somewhere, lots of vertical as well as horizontal scenic interest and a fascinating but protoypical mix of urban and rural. Keep 'em coming! On a slight hijack, and probbaly exposing my ignorance, for Sandside, why is linking to photobucket "not the done thing"? George

They're just cracking photos, well worth the contorsions (especially as I wasn't the one being contorted!). Gauge? Really, if the sleepers are trimmed to the appropriate length and their spacing is correct, there is virtually nothing to tell whether it is OO or P4, which is one of the reasons why I was happy to go from P4 back to 00 (SF). TBH I find that it is only the wheel flanges which shout OO, if the trackwork is properly done, and that is a compromise that I am more than happy to make if it means trains diving for the ballast less frequently! (None of which alters my admiration for people who have the time/patience/skill to make P4 work) Overall, though, I am with SAC Martin; it's got to look something like a real railway, which this does. Well done! George

Quick one from the left field... I did some serious looking at modelling Grantham earlier this year (before I settled on the far simpler Tallington...) and I could have pretty much done it, including it in a 4 track (ECML) roundy roundy but there would have been no room for a fiddle yard. So what, I thought to myself. Grantham had miles of sidings around it, almost certainly more than enough to store all the stock I am ever going to have, and prototype photos show all sorts of stock, from shiny ECML joint stock to 50 year old unfitted mineral wagons lying all over the place (OK, so maybe it was a bit more organised than that, but you know what I mean). Plus a big shed. So, the operational concept would be to have the pilot busy around the place making up the trains, bring the train loco off shed and on to its train and set it on its roundy roundy way while the pilot set to getting the next train ready (or, alternatively, breaking up a train that has come off the roundy roundy and storing its various components in the sidings. So at any one time we have four running on the roundy roundy plus one (or even two?) pilots busy AND locos going to and from shed. I thought that would work rather well. Didn't do it as I just got frightened at the idea of hand building all that track (and the way I do track takes ages). All that to say, do you really need a fiddle yard? Why not a biggish station (for which you have cracking buildings) with integrated goods yard lots of sidings, and the steam shed on the other long leg of the roundy roundy? Just a thought. Planning a layout is fun. Injecting random thoughts into someone else's planning is even funner, and carries no responsibility! George

Great pictures with the new camera; clearly a good investment. Good to see images which really do this layout justice. George

Thanks for getting back about the J6; I will certainly be in touch once I get started. As for linking up, I want, in the (very) long term to do Grantham as the other half of the run round (I am blessed with a pretty big space in which to do my modelling) and had a little fantasy about a Perterborough North-Tallington-Little Bytham-Grantham link up. All we'd need then would be to persuade people to model Essendine (as I said, potential for a lovely layout), Great Ponton and Corby Glen (both pretty straight forward) and we could have a hell of a project going! George

The lovely work just goes on and on; I do enjoy this thread, particularly relevant to me as I am starting to build the next station north; Tallington (though set in 1937)... The photo of the J6 (also one of my favorites) worked particularly well, I thought. A quick question, though; I am not going to hang about waiting for an RTR J6 and was considering the London Road model; how did you find it to build? Keep up the good work, George

A beutiful layout; I keep coming back to it and drooling, particularly over the station building and the coaling stage. Why those two? Beats me... Keep on posting, George