Wayne, glad you liked it, too many photos of benchwork, wiring and track in my thread and I felt the need of some inspiration.

It is actually a picture of the Afon Teifi valley, a laser print of a photo downloaded from one of the Newcastle Emlyn Town websites (there are two town websites),  just one of the many bits and pieces accumulated over time to assist me with modelling the area as best I can.

For the benefit of Bob and the moderators the website encourages the downloading of the photos, making them freely available in pdf format. I don't believe there are any copyright issues but I can ask if you wish me too.

It would be nice if you could just clarify the copyright issue for us, please Marty. Better safe than sorry.  :wink:

Thanks.

Perry

Permission granted… and the credits applied to my previous post.

Hi Martin,

G'Day Perth!

Alessandro will be delighted if you would use some. He lives in Italy. A small credit to him and www.newcastle-emlyn.com would be appreciated.

If you have time, a note on our guest book would be nice

www.newcastle-emlyn.com/guestbook

If you have further information /photos/text/ about your project. I'd be glad to put an article about it on the website.

Somebody basing anything on Newcastle Emlyn is news here!

Cheers,

Jeremy


you wrote to me saying:

G'day from Perth, Western Australia.
I'm building a model railway in N gauge loosely based on the Newcastle Emlyn Branch and have been using your website as inspiration for the project.
I'm also recording a journal of the construction of my model layout in a not for profit, social web forum www.yourmodelrailway.com and would like your permission to use some of Alessandro Orler's July 2000 photography in your gallery 1 to illustrate some of my random posts on his forum.
If you have no objections would you reply to martin_craveprovedore.com.au
many thanks
Martin Hale

Excellent!

Thanks Marty.

Perry

Progress Update Jan 2008 - The loop is now closed

As mentioned earlier the pressure was on before Christmas to complete the circle so that my visiting nephew would be able to drive trains. I made the deadline with 2 days to spare :shock: :shock:

I wanted to complete the circle so that inexperienced drivers wouldn't run my loco's off the end of an incomplete track and into the void with predictable results.

I need not have worried, at 7 years of age, Young Nephew is a co-ordinated, precise and careful driver and goodness me….. did we have a lot of fun.

The picture below shows the Henllan Station track work developing slowly, the spur at bottom right is going to go into the milk factory and the point work on the left into the goods yard loop and sidings.
In the background you can see where the loop has been joined across the bridge infront of the River Tiefi photo. The bridge only has one of it's two tracks laid at the moment.



Here is a closer view of the bridge substructure, the plan is for a girder bridge on stone abutments. The arch is quite narrow and high at this point where the Tiefi passes through a steep sided gorge.




Actually, time to 'fess up, a fair bit of modellers license will be used as the prototype bridge actually carries road traffic and the railway bridge is further downstream and nowhere near as spectacular as I hope this will be… but it's my railway right?

Young Nephew was suitably impressed and all of my rolling stock had to come out of their storage boxes and be lined up on the workbench by type.
Engines in one row, coaches in another, milk tanks in another, cattle wagons another and so on. Once the entire range had been suitably admired we spent a very pleasant couple of hours mixing and matching and testing, testing, testing.
Everyone else in the family were sitting outside drinking champagne and taking dips in the spa…. but I reckon Young Nephew and I were happier.

Neither of my sons are real train nuts, although they will have a drive occasionally when they visit, but Young Nephew has got it bad. Pity he lives on the other side of the country.

Heres a close up of the trackwork around the station. Future work will be developing the milk factory sidings, goods loop and yard.




I've also started a thread in the lineside section for the weathering wagons project which I am looking forward to.
I've done a couple in the past but I am looking forward to learning how to do better.

A weathered SR Cattle wagon and a repainted and slightly weathered United Dairies Milk tank behind a 94xx Pannier Tank.




Aarrgghhh, horrible shiny rail and no ballast, so much fun to be had.    

Looking really good Marty. All the basics done and tested, well tested by the sound of it. All the best to come. I must say I really like the photograph of the countryside that you have there. Do you have more like that as I was wondering if you could use such gorgeous pictures in a background.

Thats going to be a cracking layout when its finished Marty.

cheers Brian

Thanks Bob, really enjoying building the layout and sharing it on the forum. Helps with the motivation.
The plan has always been to use a photographic backdrop. Unfortunately I don't have any photographs suitable…. yet.
Having read up on what photographs are suitable, there are a whole bunch of things that have to be worked out to get the scale, perspective, colour, light and period right, I'm a little sceptical that I can get what I need without travelling to Wales and taking them myself.
Not because I'm a great photographer, because I'm not but more because the process of getting the right photos could be quite time consuming and I feel that any well meaning volunteers will get annoyed with the project very quickly.
When the time comes I'll document the process in the backscenes topic.

If the worst comes to worst I can always paint the backscene, but then I'm a better photographer than I am a landscape painter.

It might be cheaper to fly MikeC over to Perth for a holiday and painting contract    

What about e-mailing the counciils involved and see what freebies they have got in the way of photographs. Bound to have some stuff because of their advertising.

Marty, I'd not had time to catch up on your layout since mid-November, so I've just spent a very pleasant 15 mins. doing so :!:  :!:

Compliments on your progress, as always your benchwork is first class and things seem to be progressing nicely.

Funny you should comment on the driving expertise of your young nephew. My eldest grandson is 9 and he's also a natural, in fact he spends time "teaching" his 41/2 year old brother how to drive. Soon they'll be better than me :!:  :!:
The route setting studs and LEDs are the new craze and every piece of track has to be gone over so that they can be "tested".
Good fun to see it coming together, awaiting your backscene thread with interest :!:

Great strides forward on the layout, Marty!  It's also good to remind ourselves, when we sometimes tend to get bogged down in the detail of modelling, that if a child can have fun then it's all worth while :!:   Good luck in the image search for the backdrops.

Good to see your layout again Marty. I'm almost at the backscene stage and will watch what you do with interest. Keep it coming. :)

Les

Thanks for the encouragement all, it really does help.

Bob - Good thought about the local councils, I'll give them a go. I've got two contacts in Newcastle Emlyn already and when the time comes I'll ask for their help too.

Jeff - I always wanted a good model railway when I was a youngster and couldn't have one. Part of the desire for building this one is to give the Nephew the chance.

Tim - Should have seen his face when he saw the layout and even after several hours he didn't want to leave.

Les - It will be a while before I get to the backscenes, don't hold your breath.

Henllan Station - Cab Control and Block section diagram

The acknowledged drawback of DC control is the wiring required to allow multiple engine operation on a layout.

Trying to get my head around how to wire up the Henllan station layout to allow for up to 4 contollers to be used has kept me thinking over the last couple of days. A bit of planning now to avoid the "DOH" moments later on.

I think the diagram is fairly clear for anyone with an interest in such things. I haven't bothered drawing in all the track feeders from the other rotary switches as many are already soldered in place and those yet to come aren't difficult.



If anybody can see anything I've done wrong or could do better I'd be glad to hear.
cheers

Marty-agree with what Brian said,its going to be a lovely layout. Our plan was to use photos for a backscene,look forward to seeing yours :D

Thanks Vinnies,
I've seen some photographic backscenes used on layouts in the model railway magazines and they look superb.
I've never been much of a painter but am a pretty good hand with photoshop so…. the hardest bit is going to be getting the original photos.

What a treat it would've been, seeing your layout giving so much pleasure to another. Good on you Marty.

 Mike

A 90' Elm in N gauge - or at least I hope it will be

Unable to use the power drill late at night a while ago I started this "special project".

Inspired by MikeC's trees and the various articles and links I've read and determined NOT to use commercial trees that never really cut the mustard in my mind, I made a start.

This is as far as I've got so far… 



Elm's do get to 85' to 95' in height but this one doesn't really look that big…

Let's give it some perspective.




Hooley Dooley… I'm not going need too many of these babies.

Marty, I like the tree and I will say it again, I Like The Tree!

Are you sure it's N gauge? :shock:  :shock:  :shock:  :shock:  :shock:

Wayne

I Still Like The Tree, No Font Intended! :roll:  :roll:  :roll:

   
Wayne
When I finished twisting it up and put it on the layout I thought I was going to need a chainsaw :shock:    
But some research has photos of record height Elms currently in existance so I thought why not.
It will be a great talking point.