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!

Saturday 27 December 2014

Doesnt time fly....

Well first off apologies for the lack of updates to this blog. I had intended to update this far more often than i ended up doing. Anyway whats new, well very little. Ive finished the buffer stops on Studley after starting them 4 months ago.

The main change to Studley has been the addition of another two AHM trams and also the conversion to an up to date layout. Ive just bought one of the Bachmann 150/1s in FGW colours and its kind of moved Studley round to the Bristol area. Essentially its based on the premise they actually built the LRT that they have been arguing about for years. The conversion work involved removing the third rail which took about 30 seconds. The rest of it is just the vehicles that are placed on the layout. So now its more normal to see a F/L class 66 or DBS class 66 parked up than a 50 or 73.

Ive also been building up the stock for the 90s Highbridge with the introduction of a NSE mk1 Thames rake ( i still need two more SOs) the mail rake ( I need one more royal mail guv) and the I/C rakes which ive managed to complete with a bulk purchase at warley where i bought two complete rakes of 9 coaches. The only rakes i havent started are the provincial one which will be made of blue/grey mk2s and the Wessex NSE rake which is also made up of mk2s but this time in NSE colours. The latter of these two i hope to have completed by the end of Feb with the other by the end of May. Even these two rakes will total 14 odd coaches so including the ones above ive still got 17 coahces to buy!

In terms of freight stock there are still a few gaps, mainly in the PGA, Seacow and Silver Bullet departments. Of the first rake there is one rake in exsistance that can be used but it needs work. I need around 4 more seacows and all 12 of the silver bullets. At the moment im concentrating on stuff i think might become hard to find so its mainly coaches at the moment but i hope to add a few silver bullets every month so i can have a full rake!

Anyway moving on to Llwydd and basically i havent done anything with it apart from move it and find out the signal box is removable! I hope to start work on that later on in the year.

Anyway enough for now. Hopefully it wont be 6 weeks till the next update!

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