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.

After two great days at the Warley show, I could return to complete the final section of rock face that links the raised area on which the Branch terminus sits, and the canal basin below.  How that has been achieved was a surprise to me because I thought it was all going to be much simpler than it turned out to be.  I didn't buy much at Warley, but I did get my sound fitted BRlined Maroon Ivatt 2MT.  A lovely little loco and just before I started using plaster bandage again I recorded a running session with the sound fitted Standard 5 in charge on the other line.  

Like it, Maggot's Folley, very good  


Ed

Ed said

Like it, Maggot's Folley, very good  


Ed

From “Post #289,136”, 1st December 2023, 3:49 pm

Thanks Ed.  It is amazing what crazed ideas come to you in the middle of the night!

Stephen

After seven years I have now completed all the major structural work on the layout.  In this video you can see the final sections being built and the finished results.  Lots more work to do yet with detailing and scenic work, including the canal basin and woodyard.  But everything now is linked together and I can just watch trains run instead of seeing white foam where hills are meant to be.  

The Christmas period saw me building an Arch Laser kit of a signal box Togo by the level crossing in place of the gatekeepers cottage. I also tackled something a bit bigger after an impulse purchase while shopping after Christmas. By newly arrived Stannier Black 5 gets to run with is younger brother the BR Standard 5 MT, and trainca, can run from Weathertop to High Elven for the first time in a long while, and jot see a bit of unbuilt layout on the way.

With all the structural work done I can start with the scenic work and try out a Woodland Scenic tree making started kit I got at the Warley Show. Yet another signal box has appeared for reasons I explain in the video, but I had so much fun building it I forgot to film any of it so you only get to the finished thing on the layout. I test out using PVA to create the water effect for the canal basin.

I have been working on the scenic work around the branch terminus, the canal and the canal basing as well as on the depot.  The Modelu signaller arrived and while painting that I also completed painting on a number of other figures which I show in the video.  The Goods Yard at High Elven has a new facility that I had never intended to have on the layout all because I came across a PECO wagon kit that I forgot I had.  The two running sessions are both of the train cam running around the layout.  Now that all the structural work is done the view from the track no longer suddenly goes into a white foam desert.

I have been working on the scenery around the canal basin.  In doing so I have had to start putting back on the layout the scrap yard.  I finally have got around to painting some PECO kits that I have had for nearly nine years.  

It's surprising how often quite small things when made up take a lot of time and effort to make them.  I have been making more wood stacks for the woodyard and timber merchants and it took a good few days to complete all the stages just for 11 stacks.  I've also been working on the scrapyard, fitting a 3D printed scrap bin from N Gauge Models and a glowing brasier to keep the workers warm.  I came across an excellent storage box on eBay for my growing fleet of wagons and I show it in the video.  Finally I let LNER rule the roost on the layout for the running session with two Streaks with a train each of Gresley coaches.