devondynosoar118

I too have enjoyed watching this very original idea develop! Videos were fun too. Having lived in a 1920's garden suburb I think you have captured the idealistic nature of the town planning very well. The public buildings you have selected fit very nicely too. If this layout doesn't get a magazine feature when finished I will eat my homburg...

Looks great. I enjoyed ring road too, it looked great in model rail. As the son of an architect I appreciated the idealistic approach to the townscape and great building models and this looks to take the concept on again. Will there be any dirt this time?

It would only been a wonk in progress on account of the missing legs.. Also the van which transports it has its engine out at the moment!

Nice locos! 4561 is my favourite Kingsbridge engine.

Total run through of all the pictures from start to present, roughly 3 weeks apart, is available right here. I have added a little gallery.

Nice. I am thinking of something similar for my passenger luggage van, a K3 as its unavailable.

I had to take a difficult decision today. Despite great patience from the exhibition manager I have reluctantly decided not to debut the layout over the May bank holiday. The reasons for this are: The station building and platform is unfinished The control system is not finished- all switching would be via hand of god method. I have 2 chipped locos, but key items of stock are still absent, despite offers of loans from Kris I feel I will not be able to do justice to the traffic in my chased time period. There is no fiddle yard. More alarmingly there are no legs! I will not get the electromagnets or couplings done in time The engine for the van to move the layout is sitting on the workshop floor! On the plus side I reviewed my list and I got about half of it done. The yard is now fully functional and I drove trains all over it today. I am sure this way I will have a much better display and a layout that I can operate more prototypically. I have been looking at computer control systems for automation as well. That I suspect is a whole new can of worms. I am a bit gutted, having never missed a deadline I have set myself before, however I can take a breath to plan developments. Perhaps Taunton in October or Truro? Thats all folks! Til next month...

I get that whooshing sound too. It happens a bit less now than when I started.

I agree that "13 amp mains cable" is poor terminology but it is also safe to assume whichever cable from the range of options this phrase covers is going to safely handle the current in a 3-5 amp system.

14 gauge AWG or BS is 1.63mm, 18 gauge is 1.02mm. 13 amp home cable is fine for the bus cables.

Building is shaping up well. RTP buildings are only a cliche if not blended into the rest of the scene.

People like this are always great to meet, they are sadly getting rarer in rural areas as migrating townies and old age drive them out of their home villages. Pics on here in digital format?

Next time have a look at the back of the shed, between Plumbase and the end warehouse, there is the site of the signal box and it's retaining wall. Go past the entrance to Morrisons onto the modern housing estate as Lime Grove for a surprise. Sucks that they knocked down the station.

I have made stuff up to 3ft high in ordinary polystyrene. Here are a few things I learned that might help you. I started by laminating the 3" sheet, like contours, joined with fast set no more nails stuff/gripfill. Add cocktail stick strengtheners between each layer. When you have the height you want push a few sharpened dowels or bamboo kebab sticks through from the top, leave to set 24hrs. After carving I cover the rocky bits with 3 thick coats of polyfiler. Tis usually sorts the naffness of finish you identify.

Yep, dented credit card again! That means no more money for layout till next month.

Looking quite good considering the awful sounding original kit! As a VW restorer I can tell you the front wings are incorrect, where the headlamp bowl bulge is should flow with the wing curve, especially at the front. On the plus side you'd have to be pretty sad to notice this... The bug paint code information you requested is here The Samba.com along with some excellent photos. It's RMweb for VW folk. Personally I would use one of these instead, (military kit)as they are pretty representative of the "standard" model produced from 1946-52. They are less good for the more luxurious export models, but standard spec bugs were exported around the world, and like all good vehicles survived for a long time. This kit could be altered in two ways to represent later models. 1. 1953-57 simply cut out the dividing bar in the rear window and remove the bumper over riders and fill in the bumper groove to produce an "oval" 2.1958-64 Cut the back window out square, following the height of the side windows and add a new air intake grill under the windows, then do the bumper mod above. The engine bay lid will be wrong but otherwise ok. I am not sure that you will get the body proportions right on the kit you are using but you are clearly enjoying the challenge! On the tyre front I would use any tyre with a solid rim that's to scale. There is a wide choice of military kits e.g. staff cars that have better tyres. On the lowering front, just do what we do on the prototype and move the axles up in the floorpan! Either chopping off the wheel spindles or from the chassis is quicker than a scratch build. Ride heigh is not bad, the bug sat plenty high up when new its just that everyone lowers them now.

Just a quick post today. Have now done 3/4 of the bus wiring for the station board. I (rashly)bought an NCE power cab yesterday as well.

Looking very good. As said by others lots of interest in a small space. For some really good tips on yards and ground cover look at Chris Nevard,s blogs on cement quay etc.

Cool pictures! More fun than looking on Google earth.

That looks very nice, the tanks seem to be on bogie well wagons. The loriot is a one off prototype I believe. NGS seem to be the only source for both of these.