Its back....

Well the blog is back. Whats happened in the mean time, well lots and lots. When i wrote the last blog post Westleigh was still two months away from its first show which was not overley successful. It all stemmed by the fact that the fiddle yard was 2cm was too long which meant the layout wasnt sitting correctly and the joints were out of sync. What else has been going on since this show? Well ive be dablling in N gauge but im not quite sure what to do at the moment but i have plenty of ideas written down so whatever i do choose i have a basis to be begin from. Recently due to the entimely demise of Jo Thompson i had a chance re-encounter with a layout i built many years ago. This was called Studley Road and was a layout i sold to Jo years ago but its been donated back to me and im now planning to get it back onto the exhibition circuit in a few months but it does need some work. The board and the trackwork are fine but the scenic section needs some work and there is a need to do some basic re-wiring. When i know of a possible show appearance i will update this blog. Until the next time which hopefully will now be every few days.

The 3rd Rail

As some of you may know ive been collecting some SR stuff along the way with the view to building an SR layout. Now i was going to make a much smaller layout than Westleigh to run them all on. However the point was then made to me that as most SR EMUs are 4 cars they wouldnt work on a small layout, so why not convert Westleigh and then build a much smaller layout for all the 2 car North West DMUs. So its a question of using lots of IL-1 and IL-120 to change it, there being nothing else that locate the layout anywhere. There is much else to report at the moment but there will be alot of updates within the next month as ive got lots of things to do.

Summertime Modelling

The subject this week is the reduction of modelling during the summer. I spend most of the winter season locked up getting modelling projects done but the drive seems to wane around the summer months returning in the summer. After all who wants to be sat at a desk with a soldering iron sweating when you can be outside seeing the real railway network. Its when we dust down out cammeras and get out there while the sun shines (which its done alot so far). I always find this is the time when i get the impetus for the new modelling season. Ive already got a new layout plan to do and a list of projects as long as my arm. How much of it will get done i dont really know but id be amazed if a least 10% of it is done. Im also going to showcase for two days next weekend to see some of the stunning layouts that have been booked. Coppell for example is a fantastic example of modern image modelling and im planning to spend a good few hours looking at! www.demu.org.uk/showcase Enjoy

And because Westleigh is getting too big ive decided to begin a much smaller project about 7ft scenic section with a casstte fiddle yard. Its designed to go in the back of a small car and be operated by one person. Its going to be southern region but im not sure whether to have a convetional platform or have a siding and a cleaning platform. The juries still out but i have all the points so the costs of this should be less than a £100 to get to a reasonable state. Much cheaper than the £1300 of Wetbury. Richard

Wetbury Begins

Id mentioned in my previous post that im working on an N gauge project based on Westbury in the period 1990 to 1993. Ive uploaded the track plan which is 16x3 in size on 4 4x3 boards. The fiddle yards are going to be either cassettes or standard ladder yards for The east end, salisbury and frome routes. Or i might make it roundy roundy with a central operating well with seperate fiddle yards. Ive done a tot up of the track required and ive valued it at £1300 just for the scenic section, not cheap is it? Richard

Its been a while!

I suddenly thought a few minutes ago i havent updated this in a while. It turns out its nearly a year. Well so whats happened in that time . In some respects not very much accept ive built another layout. However it will look very similar to original Westleigh, why is that? Well about 6 weeks before its first show i noticed a slight hump on a board joint and it was of course, warped! So what did i do, well i rebuilt it in 6 weeks flat, three new scenic boards from scratch. Amazingly i did it with nearly 10 days to spare. Ive also changed the home board so its covered so you cant see any of the tight curves that were present on the old version. Apart from that not much else has changed really, the only other new development concerning the layout has been the control system has been upgraded to a lenz set 100 with two handsets so i now have two cabs which makes operating it alot easier. In other news my scheme to build Westbury in N is progressing well. Ive nearly got the plan sorted so i can start building the structures on the layout. Its a very long term project but its something i can do work on it when i want to so i dont get bored with modelling. I shall upload some photos to accompany this blog post tomorrow. Richard