A layout in progress, slow progress...

Love your work, Keith.  :thumbs

just managed to read through your thread,great stuff some good ideas there too
:thumbs;-):cool:
Owen

Hi Max - things always look better in the photos than they do in the flesh, if you see what I mean…. but I suppose it's better that way round! Still feel I've a lot of catching up to do before my efforts can match other layouts on the forum, but I'm getting there… slowly…. very, very slowly.

Keith

Hi Owen

Glad you found it interesting - just had a quick look at your thread - don't get on the forum as much as I should, eats into my allowed "loft time"…. I really will have to reopen negotiations on extending my hours, trouble is that usually ends up with me getting an even longer list of things "you said you'd do, that somebody is still waiting for them to be done"….

That is some layout you're constructing, very envious of the roundhouse… wish I had more space now! Sorry to hear about your health problems and I hope everything is on the mend now. I fear a lot of us are of an age where things tend to pack up, misfire or generally go wrong - but we keep battling on…. I've got my annual cardiac MOT next month… last time I checked it was still working…. but these doctors do like to find something…..

Keith

… while I'm on…. couple of things I forgot I'd managed to do - some more signs for the Stations… finally made the sign for platform 5 at Woodside, and the "use the bridge" signs for Hooton. With some odd scraps of rail and sleepers I extended one of the loco roads from the turntable which means I can now park four tank locos on it without them being coupled together. Also I've acquired one of the excellent Bachmann Auto Trailers… price has always been a bit of a problem for me with £59ish the best around… for a single coach…. but then I saw that MRD were offering them at just under £50… so I got one. It will go with the Hattons 1400 tank when it arrives later in the year - surprisingly Birkenhead had two - 1417 and 1457 - from Nationalisation up until 1958, when they were transferred away. They were used with an auto trailer on the West Kirby branch for the odd services which just ran between Hooton and West Kirby - most services ran to/from Woodside. So once I've sussed out 1959ish to get my green coach into use I can then go back to 1955 (I've got a Bradshaws from '55)… and get the Auto Trailer going too… the West Kirby service ended in 1956.

I've been going around the layout with the Dapol track cleaner in readiness for the restart of 1961 running - I use it in vacuum cleaner mode mostly - picks up an alarming amount of fluff and debris (including the odd bit of pipework which has fallen off a loco) - it also does an excellent job of removing any ballast that isn't firmly attached to the baseboard. I load it up with the track cleaning fluid as well. Didn't find it as successful using it in track cleaning mode - found the edge of the pads would often catch in the ends of the springs of some code 75 points, and once that happens they then catch on track joints and very quickly it all goes wrong… but as a vacuum with the track cleaning fluid - brilliant. Once it has been around all the track, I can reballast all those patches which have appeared….

Keith

Hi Keith. Terrific railway, ballasting looks excellent, signals, stations, and sheds every looking realistic. And there's me, still faffing about trying to get my Puzzle Yard wiring and wire in tube sorted. Keep up the good work.   all the best Kevin

Congratulations on the header photo Keith.......well deserved:doublethumb

[user=434]John Dew[/user] wrote:

Congratulations on the header photo Keith…….well deserved:doublethumb

totally agree,:cheers
:thumbs;-):cool:
Owen

[user=1681]Silver Fox[/user] wrote:

[user=434]John Dew[/user] wrote:

Congratulations on the header photo Keith…….well deserved:doublethumb

totally agree,:cheers
:thumbs;-):cool:
Owen

Me too, well done Keith thumbs:thumbs

Ed

It's a lovely shot, Keith.  :cool:

Well deserved.  :thumbs

Afternoon All

We'll, I'm a bit speechless.. just logged in and thought for a minute mmm… that could be Hooton…then, once the grey cell had reached full power, I realised it was Hooton. Every time I log in I look at Alan's Picture of the Week, and think it'll be a wee while before my efforts are up to that standard…. me, with my 60's knowledge base and still using some of the same tools!…. and now I have this permanent smile, which presumably will wear off soon…. so many thanks from a seriously chuffed Scouser.

Alan has chosen well, as this looks like a finished section, as opposed to the rest of the layout which is nowhere near finished. I guess Hooton is about 75% there, some work on the approach road outside the station and goods depot to do, the coal yard, disc signals to add (still thinking about having them operational either by w-i-t or point motors) and I'm going to try the Wills' point rodding kits for effect - that will show more at the north end of the station, then there's the weathering of the buildings… don't suppose it will ever be actually finished.. there's always something.

Finally Dapolled all the track in the fiddle yard, collected a few dead bodies down there, so just about ready to start the '61 timetable again, which hopefully should run with no problems. Been a bit distracted this week, our hedgehogs have returned early, after the mild winter, so feeding and hogcam are back in operation, together with a new hog house which I got for my birthday from our neighbours - the 'hogs took to it no problem.

…. no, the smile is still there….

Keith

Hi Keith,

Hope you keep that smile a tad longer and well done me old Scouser mate, great layout, hopefully yet to bring miles more smiles.

Bill :)

Great photos deserve due recognition Keith.Do you have a link to the webcam?.

Hi Bill

The smile had gone by this morning… I had a dentist appointment, and me and dentistry have a hate-hate relationship. Simon is brilliant, how he puts upwith me I've no idea, and with those magic words "nothing to do Keith" the smile started to return. Trust that swimming pool isn't holding up progress with the important things in life over there… I'm looking forward to an update on Burbage Road. Smile fully restored now.

Keith

[user=1033]Spurno[/user] wrote:

Great photos deserve due recognition Keith.Do you have a link to the webcam?.

Hi Alan

Sincere thanks, I guess it's just me, can't really see anything special in it, because it is my layout and I see it every day, well most days when I'm allowed… and the layout definitely looks better on the screen than it seems to look in the flesh… is that the same for everyone?

As to your question, remember it took me a while to get a photo in a post, and getting a web address included was a major triumph… and now I've done this quote thing too…. but a link to the webcam… I need a few more details (of explanation) please… one of your excellent "how to do it" posts.

I dont think I'm even a novice at this forum thing yet… just a former computer nerd some thirty odd years out of date. All I know is that there is, I think, a camera above this computer screen, which is in the kitchen… the layout is in the loft…  I've used my digital version of a point and click camera to take movies of Woodside at various times of the day when all five plaforms are in use, just for reference, but wouldn't even consider putting them up on the forum - upload speed from our satellite based broadband are so low it would take an eternity. I've seen references to a webcam in other posts, but not even dared to click on anything.. just in case I do some irreparable damage to something. In my day we could often get a system working again with a well placed thump on the case… nowadays such a thump would leave everything on the floor, probably in more pieces than it used to be, and no chance of working ever again.

Please be patient with me, I'll get there in the end… but like the layout, progress will, of necessity, be rather slow.

Cofion

Keith

In your own time.No rush.

… so that'll be dead slow then Alan, I'm good at that!

Keith

Hi Keith

Just had a look at your (Buddleia) trees. Good work, coming along well. I would certainly agree the stalks forming the trunk of the trees (as picked) tend to be a bit thin without the addition of some bulking out as per your idea of wrapping them in some kitchen towel. PS I'm glad I'm not the only one who has more of whatever stuck to fingers than on the item being constructed!!

Looking at your other layout photos, it seems I have an awful long way to get anywhere near the standard of your layout. I congratulate you. I particularly like the threatrebox signal on the entry road - what a price tho! I don't really have the right place to fit one of them, although I would have the location - it just wouldn't be seen from anywhere I could operate from - it would be such as waste.

Right back to the drawing board……hopefully I'll be posting some more in a couple of weeks when there's something to show (just not had the time to get back in there).

Cheers
Dave

Hi Dave

Yes, paint, glue whatever I'm working with, usually ends up with more of it on me than anything else, apart from perhaps the floor…. Your kind comments on the layout are much appreciated, but I fear we all seem to suffer from seeing other layouts as better than our own - I reckon it is down to the photos - certainly in all the photos I've taken, the layout looks far better than it appears in real life - possibly because they are taken from unusual angles… not sure… but certainly your scenic work is in a different league to my meagre efforts…. and there are plenty of places where my layout consists of just track and nowt else.

A confession… that expensive signal, how can I put it, I can't see it easily (and neither can anyone else) where it is… but for me the signalling is most important… and I know the drivers can see it! Occasionally, I stretch round, just to check all is well…… I'm thinking perhaps I should fit a mirror somewhere. The layout will only be finished when ALL the signalling is in and operational… and that includes those promised discs in Hooton…. so that'll be a good few years away!! The "railway" part has to be right, down to gradent posts where the gradient changes, apporopriate speed restriction signs and so on. I'm am a total anorak….

Looking forward to an update on your layout, as you can see I'm into lights on platforms and buildings and in the yards…. but if it's OK with you, I'll leave all the computery stuff to you.

Cofion

Keith 

Right, some progress to report… with part time neighbour Paul due up for the whole of next week, last week I decided to wait to start the timetable - the idea being that between us we should (there's that word again) be able to manage the first hours of the morning without needing to stop the clock…. well that's the theory.

With that in mind,  I decided to extend the warehouse behind the goods shed, by butchering another Metcalfe Warehouse kit. Hopefully this will then link to the Small Factory kit, I bought that a while back, (so it must be in one of the boxes under the layout), with the platform section alongside the back track from the yard.

Must admit I'm a bit of a fan of Metcalf kits - with a bit of weathering they do give you a fairly decent result in not a lot of time, and importantly not a lot of money, and just putting them together is quite satisfying. As space is limited, with the track getting ever nearer to the back wall I can only accomodate a three storey building, so I set about removing a storey:



..you can see I've cleared my workspace, sort of. Extra scrap card strips behind to help with the join, and put together that join will disappear when it gets the weathering treatment…





I'm not fitting the windows until I've got the formation of the building sorted, as I may need to butcher some of the window sections to fit the modified building. Then, I started thinking about the actual design of this next section, and for a few seconds I almost started to plan the thing… just in time I scribbled a note and got on with it… this is as near as I ever get to a plan….



… the lower one is the final design!! The connecting section, in the centre, has to be botched up out of the offcuts, and some brick paper….



…the windows don't line up, but it is right behind the goods shed, so shouldn't be too noticeable, and again the joins will improve with weathering.

At that point we got dragged back into the windfarm saga again… this time in Welsh…. so a temporary halt to proceedings…. more soon -ish.

Keith