Having not done this for a while its not easy to know where to start. So far very little has happened regarding the layout, but progress has been made. Unfortunately, so far, it's all in my head.This is only a quick post, whilst I have 5 minutes, and I have the thoughts fresh in my head.I've spent Christmas imaging what will go where, what it will look like and trying to formulate a track plan.
Well the layout is no more. It's been Sold.Didn't take long mind. Put it up on RMWeb for Sale on Sunday evening, and Monday evening a Gentleman came along and took it away.I was sad to see it go, having been working on it for a good few years, but the promise of a larger permanent layout in the loft is certainly a big plus.Next stop is B&Q for some 2x2 and plywood to make a start on the loft.
Well it's been a long time since the last post, and that is because a lot has changed.The main thing is a house move, which put everything on hold. The bad news from this is that now the railway is in 2 pieces at the moment with nowhere for it to go.The good news is that I have inherited a large loft (20ft long) that is already fully boarded out with lighting.Hoorah!!!More to follow when time
When laying track, especially flexi-track you often get gaps where the fish plates sit. On set-track from Hornby or Peco there is space built in to the track piece which the fish plate sits in to. On flexi-track this can not be done.The picture below shows a piece of my finished track with some sleepers missing. These were removed to allow for the fishplates.To remedy this problem. Take some old
Having looked back through my posts I realised I'd missed an important part out of the layout construction. The laying of the track over a baseboard joint.This was something I had never done before and didn't how to do. As per my usual way, I started by asking questions on the forums, on what I needed and how to do it.What I learned was that I needed to remove the plastic sleepers from underneath
Well not much has happened in the past coupe of weeks. But this past weekend saw a bit more progress.I managed to purchase some plasticard for the new platform surface. 5 sheets of 40thou plasticard were cut to size using the previous platform surface as a template. These were then stuck together to make a new top.I used such thick plasticard as I wanted to give the sense of thickness to the
Having lived with the platform surface for a while, it just wasn't working. It was far to rough, with lumps, bumps and troughs dotted throughout the surface.I tried to smooth it by sanding it down, but all that was sanded was the sandpaper. I also tried to paint it with thick paint hoping the paint would fill the gaps, but this didn't work either.Having considered what to do for a while I decided
For my platform surface I decided to try 'Concrete Paint' that I picked up several months ago from the Derby Model Railway Exhibition. The paint is made by Greenscene, and comes in a little tub.The paint itself is quite thick and gluppy and trying to use it as paint in the normal way did not work well.After a bit of experimentation with different ways of applying the paint, I decided the best way
A recent purchase off of eBay is a weathered Bachmann Fairburn 2-6-4 tank engine. Even though these were never at Annesley Shed (as far as I know), they would have been seen travelling up and down the lines, were my layout is set.I couldn't resist this when I saw it. I love to see dirty weathered engines, even though this is probably a bit over the top in terms of weathered neglect, I still
Bank Holiday Monday was spent visiting the Midland Railway Centre at Butterley in Derbyshire. This weekend was their 25th anniversary since opening up to the public, so they had some special events on.Below is a selection of photographs taken on the day of various motive power.Midland Railway Engine 158 on loan from National Railway Museum47401 'North Eastern' Preserved Class 47Preserved DMU at
