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Must upload a photo of the black Labrador!

Chris Engine looks gorgeous, well done! Kevin

While in some ways Christmas 2011 was a disappointment, with many promised products failing to make production in time. Hornby's new teak liveried LNER Gresley suburban and full brake coaches failed to make it to Santa's sack and arrive under my Christmas tree. One very welcome arrival was Bob Essery's new book in the "railway operation" series: Train shunting and marshalling for the modeller. I've had copies of Essery's titles on freight train operation and on railway signalling for some time, and have found these really useful reference volumes. Read more on my external blog.

Glad to see RMWeb back again, but even more glad I have an externally hosted blog and a reliable Web Host. I hate to think how much affiliate revenue Andy has lost over the last few days. While RMWeb has been down I've been writing, and the external Rede Valley blog has a number of new entries: New JMRI Release Wishlist for 2012 DCC configuration on Rede Valley Plus working timetables for Waverley and ECML have been added to the prototype research pages.

First day of my Christmas break and its snowing in deepest Northumberland. Time to take stock and consider what's to be achieved over the next couple of weeks. The loft hatch has been firmly shut for the last 3 or 4 months because of other priorities, and its time to do something about it. Starting the blog properly is part of giving myself the motivation to get things moving again. First job today was to start documenting the real locations that the rede valley line is based around, so I've added a page to the site covering Chathill Station. The basics are there and hopefully the content will increase over the next few days. read the rest at the Rede Valley website

Impossible to limit this to 3! 3 from the past: Heckmondwyke - Just awesome, country station that looks absolutely right. The inspiration for my own Chathill station (Though mine is NER rather than MR) Does the NRM still have it in storage? love to see it working again. Buckingham - and the automatic Crispin superb layout, and set me on the route to work out how to make trains run reliably and automatically, though my answer relies on DCC and computers! David Jenkinson's "little long drag" - Huge shame he never finished it. Made me want my own huge main line with scale length trains. And 3 from the present Tetleys Mills - atmosphere, atmosphere atmosphere Dewsbury Midland - fiction, but so believable. Stoke Summit & The Gresley Beat. - Two wonderful examples of my favourite ECML. Spent hours at York watching them both, so they must be good. OK I know I can't count.

Hello all After having an RMWeb account for some time I finally thought it was time to put pen to paper and document my grand scheme under construction. 10 years in the making and I've finally got some trains running, so it feels like something has at last been achieved. We moved house in 2000, and having had a fair say in the design of the new property I managed to get a roofspace with no interfering roof timbers that was big enough for a major project. Once floored out a usable space of 32' x 10'6" was available. The intention: East Coast Main line in LNER days (principally 1930's) A representation of Chathill station in Northumberland Semi scenic fiddle yard area representing Edinburgh to the north and Newcastle to the south A Viaduct (Something the size of Ribblehead in my mind's eye) but limited to about 4' in practice! A locomotive depot The standards: Already owning a fair bit of stock, it needed to be '00' Finescale, but life is too short to handbuild track, so Peco Code 75 All pointwork electrified Working signals Scale length trains. Ah yes and the dilemma, my other love the Waverley route in the 1960's. More than once in the early stages of construction I've been tempted to rip it up and start again, with a full change of emphasis, sell all the 30's stock and replace it with 60's Waverley stock. So we have hit a compromise. Chathill at the moment remains, with prototype trackplan, and will be completed with all the North Eastern Railway finery and be modelled as a 1930's set, while the viaduct section will be given a moorland setting and an ex North British flavour made as far as possible timeless, so that anything will look right running through it. So, the main line circuit is laid, and is operational, and the trackwork is complete in Chathill station, next challenge is completing the wiring in the station yard. Ah, wiring! this is where matters get complicated, having laid a good deal of track with the intention of DC control I've now switched to DCC. Wish I'd modified all the pointwork before it was laid! Isolating all those electofrogs retrospectively is a chore!