Sasquatch

Thanks for the heads up Ray. Funds haven't stretched to the O1 yet, I might just hold out for Heljans O2 (I'm not a fan of Hornby of late anyhow) as my latest purchase the class 128 may just be even better than thier Heymek! 

It's a pitty when paying arround 100 pounds for locomotives these days that one has come to accept that putting things right straight out of the box seems to be expected! ie: loose bits on 128, foot boards missing on thompson stock, unpainted items on A.H. Peppercorn,.... the list goes on...

Great blog by the way.

Shaun.   

P.S.  If you feel like I'm whinging on your blog please remove this post!!!

Mrs. Sasquatch here....ahem... so yes, l-o-n-g... grueling hours on scenery with nightmares of what was to come on my days off.  Four three weeks prior to train show. Honestly was a grumpy  Mrs. Sasquatch. Only hope this year Mr. Sasquatch is content with taking one of his existing layouts.  

Thanks for the encouraging comments.

Once I manage to give Mrs Sasquatch a nudge in the right direction (usually a trip to a sushi restaurant, or home made roast chicken dinner with all the trimmings) she really gets stuck into it. In 2011 she did 90% of Goathlands scenics in 4 long weekends! She even goes to the local hobby store and comes back with bags full of scenics. One time she accompanied me on a trip up to Roseburg and raided the "Macs Tracks" Noch scenic section to the point where you could see $ $ signs in Macs eyes! Not sure about commisions though. 

More of her work on this page which also shows CGrahams layout.

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/11359-goathland-layout/page-2

My next blog will cover base board joints and will show how I did the tunnel!

The Grim Reaper would definately fit the bill. Am going to the Model Railroad Fair in Eugene next month and should find one there hopefully. 

It does look a little creepy huh! Maybe because there arn't people, animals or cars?

My WD wouldn't hardly run, something to do with the axles shorting across the pickups! A small length of insulation tape was the cure, now it'll pull 20 ply loaded coal wagons up the incline on Goathland!!

This great stuff Ray(now why didn't I think of that) A simple approach with excellent results.

Need to subscribe to your blog and find some time to go through all your old posts.

Now that's just brilliant. And a boyhood dream come true as well :-)

 

The video is great too. Were you trying to embed it?

 

 I notice you have used this url:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=DMildSGLXrc

...but I just tried a test entry on my own blog using the following url, and that seemed to embed fine:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMildSGLXrc

Wierd!

That Youtube link caused me some grief and it's still not showing as a Tube window.

Any one know why?

It should be noted how smooth the gates are even when picking up a little speed as is prototypical of wheel opperated gates! 

You've seen this option too, I guess : http://www.rmweb.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=35605

Don't know how I missed this. Its a great idea. The short falls would be fixing over a 1000 staples to all my stock and then removing any when it comes to selling anything on. What would the life of the magnets be without thier keeps. 

The uncoupling system is on my blog as of Tuesday.

I have repaired RTR bogie stock by slicing off the axle box covers and drilling out to fit plain bearings, making sure all is true before gluing the covers back on!

Prolonged use of stock with plastic bearings will eventually wear out.

A spot of lubrication helps and any dirt in there say from weathering powders, will only speed up the wear!

Will check my latest batch of Dapol wheels. I like Romfords the most but they're more costly.

Got some mainline wagons from a chap in California which need smaller Hornby couplings and metal wheels but it's so nice to have 30 year old stock that

Having already installed this on Dunster with great success I`m going to have a go on Goathland which might be a bit of a challenge due to Goathland being open frame constuction and all.

 Then there's Avon Park my shelf layout which is under constrution also! (Project scrapped)

Shaun. 

Tried a few different ways before settling on the actuator which allows for springing as the plates don't always fall back down! I used wieghts on the nails but didn't like the dangling stuff. Because the plates sit between the cut sleepers they need chamfering on all 4 sides and can still stick. Everthing is a push fit into tight holes which allows for easy adjustment.

Hi Ray

There was a very good article in one of the magazines quite a few years ago about standards with regards to all things track.

It talked about using back to back gauges, track setters, coupling height gauges and using metal wheels. I too replaced all  plastic wheels and couplings at great cost! It was well worth the effort. Dapol do good wheels (which are cheaper than Bachmann or Hornby) which I employ in brass barings along with Bachmann mini type couplings on most of my kit/scratch built stock to great effect! I've even perfected a simple Heath Robinson style uncoupling system that uses Ratio signal levers, a block of wood, cable tie and a cast plate that sits at sleeper height.

Regards Shaun.   

Thanks for the tip about the shims!

All my layouts are wired with droppers the same way except I use single core wire throughout and burnish the underside of the rail joiners.

The only thing to watch out for is if cleaning your track with denatured alcahol the liquid is so thin that it can wash the dirt down into the rail joiners and cause shorts!

Shaun

Still learning all this computer wizardry and RMweb business.

A recent question posted yesterday has brought to light some points which seem to confirm my suspicions about fish traffic being attached to passenger trains, behind the engine!!

My friend Boris who I consider an authority on all things NYMR, owns a fish crate branded

Yes, very impressive Mikkel. Quite an odd looking prototype which always makes a great model subject.

Interesting point is that all the stock apears to be GW... In that 1926 picture.

Tony, Thanks for the link I had forgotten about the 51L NER dia. F6 kit! Yes I think you're right about the van being a NER road van which were 30` overall which makes more sence, I guess one needs to be added to my list of stock to build. It shouldn't be too hard as it's not much different to the bogie van (see my gallery). 

The livery on my LNER dia.37 is copied right down to the number, from the picture in Tatlows book. It is ex-works so it is posible that the Ns were added at a later date! Further investigation has shown that most of these vans were sent north of the border. Still it's a nice model and looks great behind some non corridor stock.

Also colours varied quite a bit as paint mixing on goods stock was very much an on site job. Colour reproduction in photos is another moot point, all look great from here!

A rake of fitted stock only looks any good if there is a lot of variation in the oxides,bauxites and browns not forgetting the odd GWR grey one too!

The shade usually doesn`t matter after the grime goes on!

Although I`m finding  texture does, older models were finished with railmatch brushed straight from the jar. These however were srayed with rather thin paint. Results are very pleasing.

Great pictures, especially the 56 next to the ground signal! I recon this layout is real fun to watch those long block trains runing slow.

After reading this post Sasquatch was compound to tip out the contence of both scrap boxes and build the free seats for Dunster. Used srips of planking and punched the bolts thru from the rear !

Great!!

 This is awsome! Hard wired to boot!! Puts my wiring jobs to shame. (To quote SWMBOsquatch).

When I get the railway building built, fancy a working holiday?