Tony Simms

The Mathieson wagons are rather nice, but the MR coke wagons are the bees knees. Wonder if I could justify a few on Brafferton...

Looking good Pete. If it's not a stupid question, how do you get the layout out of the box?

Not likely to win any Oscars:

Lovely; looks like it's going to be a cracking little layout. I could get so waylaid by narrow gauge. Very easily...

Thanks for the nice comments guys (and for the likes!). After a couple of fairly major shows, I'm more comfortable with the layout and its operation. I'll now be looking to expand the motive power and stock as well as completing the scenics.

A most enjoyable weekend in the wilds of West Yorkshire. Shipley is a lovely little show, a good handful of excellent layouts and a satisfying range of traders. Topped off with a Chilli chez Sissling on Friday and a Curry with Ed, Sue, Mick and Yvonne on Saturday night, we really did have a good time. A few pics (on camera phone; bit duff, sorry), with some video to follow: This was the first weekend that the D49 really worked. Still needs a bit more weight and some extra springing on the pony truck. Stalwart operator this weekend. Garlic Naan!! The start of the new (disused) platform is evident.

Nice idea with the ballast Pete. Will there be enough "meat" to grasp hold of at each side of the cassette? I could see my fingers slipping...

Interspersed with summer holidays, I've being trying to make some improvement in anticipation of the Shipley show on 8/9 September. One of the running issues at Nottingham was the performance of the coaches; mainly due to a hotch-potch of couplings and coupling bodges to try and get coaches closer together. To this end, I decided to make some semi-permanent couplings for the older Bach-Far coaches and utilise the Dapol NEM dummy couplings on the newer ones (as per the DMUs where this works nicely). The semi-permanent couplings are made with a strip of brass, drilled at each end. At one end I soldered a 12BA nut and at the other a 12BA washer. 12BA screws are then fitted to the end of each coach floor and the link is screwed to one screw nearly flush with the buffer beam, but loose and able to swing: The second coach then just sits over the link with its screw dropping straight through the holes in the link and washer. The whole is chemically blackened and seems fairly unobtrusive: The ends of each rake feature a B&B coupling (similar to DG) to allow auto-uncoupling of each rake:

A very nice gentleman rang the other day to invite me to the show held at Ormesby Hall. I took his details to check the date and ring back. The piece of paper (the back of a letter from my son's school) subsequently went into the recycling unactioned. Sorry!! If the nice chap, or anyone who knows him, reads this, I am interested and can make the dates in March. Could you please contact me again.

John, that looks very nice. I wouldn't be unduly worried about the loss of detail, as you say a bit of dry brushing will bring it out.

What's FGW? Fogthorpe Gas Works? Seriously Pete, good to see you getting back to the serious stuff. Keep at it. 7mm? Pah!

Hi! I too would err on the side of caution and try something smaller first. It took me nearly twenty five years as a 2mm modeller to make a start on Brafferton and even then I'm battling away some three plus years later! A layout of that size in 2mm scale is quite an undertaking for the majority of individual modellers, and Brafferton is only 6ft across with 1ft wide boards. I also gleaned a neat tip when building my circular layout; avoid even numbers of boards. In that way, there are never joints directly opposite each other in the circle and the result is substantially stronger. With hindsight, I'd probably have gone for seven boards rather than five; the curved boards are a bit awkward for handling and if yours are 8ft diameter with a 18" (?) width, they'd be right bu99ers... Indeed, good luck; I'll be following your progress with interest.

The posts are microrod and the wire is EZ Line; wind line round posts under reasonable tension/stretch and dab with superglue. I made the posts extra long, then snipped them to height once they were fully wired.

Don. Thanks for the comment, which just is the sort of thing I need; constructive criticism. It's only a train set, but it's good when that train set can look realistic. Information such as yours helps me go in the right direction. Hopefully!

Having gone as far as I might with the trackwork from a running aspect, I turn further attention to scenery. Actually I'll be getting some third party input on the trackwork from somebody substantially more qualified than me; more of that when it's happened. Now then; I have been slapping paint around to try and build up those layers of believability that might just lie beneath the surface. What? Well one of the things that impressed me about Framsden (apart from the overall scenic quality) was that a bit of white fencing had a dash of crimson red paint on it. Not realistic from a photorealism perspective perhaps, but very painterly and somewhat audacious. Anyway, it worked for me. Indeed the approach is reminiscent of Cuneo (tie-in to last post) where apparently incongruous colours are used, yet work in the context of the overall piece. [Puts thesaurus away.] I've been getting very much into using tube acrylics for scenic work of late, applied in a very broadbrush manner using a proper acrylic chisel brush. The fencing which is being planted around the layout is benefiting from much of this slapdashery. I've also repainted the post and wire fencing to make it more subtle (I hope!) To top it off, I've been fiddling around with the camera to try and get some better pictures. Here is one which shows some of the aforementioned fencing and telegraph poles which have been daubed. Full picture: The fencing to the far left is unpainted. Cropped: Click on the photos, they're a good deal bigger than the thumbnails.

Pannier - got it! Thanks Jerry!

Lovely! Look forward to seeing more as this develops.

Cool! Look forward to seeing it painted.

Found it and the one on "Autumn of Steam". Is there one on the Clapham Junction painting - it all seems a bit dark for mice.

Oh no, I'll use lead, not felt...

Thanks Jerry and Tom. Or is that Tom and Jerry? It really is nice to have the trainset up permanently; me and the boy can play trains when we want or just sit and watch them go round and round and round... Didn't know there was a mouse in the Cuneo; must have a look!

In anticipation of the North East Area Group of The 2mm Scale Association 30th Anniversary Event (hereinafter referred to as "the do"), I've been doing some scenic work to Brafferton. Last time, I mentioned that the surface of the goods dock had been removed to relay it in the same manner as the platform. Nothing has yet progressed on this, as I am now in the process of adding an extra platform, so I'll surface them en-bloc. Reading the Middleton Press book on the line, I picked up on a previously unnoticed comment about the disused second platform; this dates from the building of the line when it was to be double track right through. The second line was never laid except in passing places and the said platform would have been redundant from inception! Anyway, I've dug up a stretch of embankment at the front of the layout and will insert the platform there. The station buildings have also been neglected of late and there are still numerous jobs to do to finish them. I was particularly ashamed that they sported no chimney pots at Nottingham. So this was put right. I have also struggled to come to terms with the colouring of the stonework. You may recall that this was printed and coloured on a CAD package. It has always been a bit too yellow for me. A touch of thinned stone enamel seems to have given them a more realistic finish and the tops of the sills were coloured to match. Meanwhile the roof has gained capping stones and the glazing has finally made all watertight. Tomorrow I may be flashing on the roof: You can just see the commencement of the butchering of the scenery in the foreground. Elements seem to be coming together now to make a reasonably realistic scene: Finally, here is a shot of the layout in its permanent home. It also makes a rather attractive bedside light: