Ed said

The Dapol NEM conversion kit looks very fiddly Stephen, well done 👍




Ed

 

From “Post #288,106”, 3rd July 2023, 9:01 AM

Thanks Ed.  They are a lot less fiddly, of course, if you get them the right way round in the first place, and don't have to try and deal with turning them around once they have had super glue on them.  Stephen

Refreshed after a little time away from the layout I've stared the work to be able to fit the board holding High Elven to the layout.  That includes starting work on buidling a two portal tunnel entrance, which I have this time remembered to record at a point where you can see how I am going about it.  I also repsond to a request asking how easily the Dapol NEM pocket kit could be sed on older Garfar or Lima wagons.  The results were mixed as you will see.  Finally a new loco joins the fleet.

I have completed making and painting the two portal tunnel entrance that I started in the last video.  I have now fitted it in place and that has allowed me to complet ballasting over the viaduct and into the tunnel.  Not much ballasting left to do on the layout now.  Only HIgh Elven and a short section where the line emerges at the back up to the junction for the bay platform.  I also make good on a promise to show the wagons with the converted NEM coupling pockets up on the layout which I made in the last vidoe and then promptly forgot to do.  Finally the running session is exclusively LNER with a B1 and B17 in charge of rakes of Thomspon and Gresley teaks

I have been trying to decide how to support a Bow String Bridge that links the final two stations on the branch line. Left alone with blank paper and a pen I started to doodle, and came up with an elegant support made up of two elegant curved arches. The problem was to encourage my die straight strip styrene which did not like staying bent to fit in with my design. A solution was found as you will see. I also seek views on which of two 3D printed chimney pots I should use to replace the bulk of my Metcalfe buildings chimney pots. I have overlooked them being overscale long enough and something has to be done. Finally my new Graham Farish sound fitted Standard 5 arrived last week and it, together with the sound fitted 4F that arrived earlier in the year, take the lead in the running session.

Like the bridge 👍


Ed

After a pleasent trip to Cornwall, time to get back to completing the bridge I was making in the last video.  A chance find in my local model railway shop however set off down an unexpected road, which required me to make contact with my inner painter and decorator.  I also reveal the outcome of the chimney pot poll.

Chimney pots look good Stephen 👍


Ed

Ed said

Chimney pots look good Stephen 👍


Ed

From “Post #288,731”, 23rd September 2023, 7:42 AM

They do Ed, and I’ve been surprised how much difference they make

It was 18 months ago or so that I decided to replan the final corner of the layout.  In this video, the village of High Elven and its branch terminus station gets restored to the layout as I get ever closer to completing all the major structural scenic work.  I also very nearly complete all ballasting on the layout (I found a 9" section after I finished the video that still needs doing) which is a particular joy.

Ive finally started the task of building the hillside and quarry face to link the village of High Elven with the canal basin below.  It has taken longer to work out what I wanted to do and for plaster cloth and the like to dry.  Four running sessions from previous videos have been used to show how much the layout has developed since February of this year.

At last, after completing the restoration of the upper section with the branch terminus of High Elven, and the cliff face at the front of the layout, I could complete the construction of the quarry face.  The layout is still swathed in protective covering so two more past running sessions with new music attached so that this is not all chat.  I'm pleased with the outcome which leaves me only a small section of major structural work to complete before I can get on with the scenic work around the canal and its basin.