The Welcome Mat

Welcome to this Blog. Hopefully you may find it of use (i doubt it but it doesnt stop me hoping does it?). All my skills are normally self taught, and at the moment i'm a lone ranger when it comes to my layout with the occasional help from friends (normally it involves alot heckling).

I've never yet got a layout really past the electrics stage. I normally lose interest which is why i've decided to become involved in lots of things so i can vary my time between different things. All the work you see on Westleigh is my own work and all the photos you see on my fotopic sites are again my own work. I'm amazed i havent started to play with it, perhaps leaving the vast majoirty of the wiring to the end helps.

My main interest in railways is principally the early 90s. Even though i only just got into double figures in terms of age just as privitisation came in, i find it a very interesting period. My earliest memories were at Salisbury, Oxford and Bristol. So to counteract this aswell i tend to model the northwest scene during 1990 to 1994. However i also do the Wessex area during the same period and the scottish lowlands during 1988-1990.

I do have a little interest in the 1996-1998 privitisation period. I'm more aware of this period than the sectorisation period and again i wouldnt mind if it turned into this era.

I also am working on a project of Devizes station in 1963/64 just before alot of the line was rationalised and eventually closed. This however is a very very long term project and probably wont get anyway for many many years yet.

I do spend alot of time in the summer out an about doing photography particularly of civil jet aircraft. I'm certainly no David Bailey but i'm reasonably proud of most of the photos taken.

Anyway i suppose i really should get off the computer and get on with some modelling work, except work has a tendancy to get in the way!

Monday 27 October 2014

Vi ing the livery

This week ive been trying to change some of the numbers and nameplates on my vi trains fleet but it seems vi trains used a very thing paint application so it tends to eat through the paint despite trying some new suggestions. The only bonus is that it can be touched in as the paints are very close to railmatch shades but i suspect quite a few things will need to be partially resprayed.

The other thing i have to do is to begin fitting some kadees to the fleet as vi trains didnt use standard NEM pockets but they can be made to fit with a little modification but for a model produced post 2000 its very poor that it doesnt have it. 

Im still missing a few more 47s to add to the fleet but the 37s are nearly done. Id just like to get a dutch centre headcode version and an i/c mainline livery version to complete the fleet.

In terms of my freight stock im pretty much there, i just need to get the stone rake sorted and get some HEA wagons for the domestic coal rake.

Anyway back to work!
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Friday 17 October 2014

Vi for the future

having been comparing the Vi trains and Bachmann 37s and 47s ive finally come to a decision. ive decided to go down the Vi trains road. The reason for this i think is simple. Firstly theres a good range of liveries and versions, secondly while harder to get there are around £20 to £30 cheaper than the bachmann model secondhand and thirdly i dont like the rather chunky look of the bachmann model. The vi trains model looks a little finer. needless to say the change has already taken place with 6 bachmann models having been replaced by 8 vi trains models which i think is a good swap. Ive got some renumbering to do which i know is a little more difficult with vi trains models but the paints needed to dust in the areas are very close match to railmatch shades so it should be fairly straight forward.

 Anyway enough babbling for now.
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