David Holman

Definitely coming to life and it is those fine details which help.

The trick is in the fine tuning, Mick. The plasticard strip on the aluminium angle vertical is just pushed against that strip of wood. If the cassette doesn't line up exactly and anything derails going to/from the layout, I add a bit more plasticard. Ten thou is just 0.25mm, so a bit of trial and error soon gets it sorted.

Was at the Uckfield Show this morning and delighted to find, amongst the usual range of superb layouts, a small portion of East Lynn. Trevor is sadly no longer with us, but it was lovely to see even this small section. S Gauge [1:64] and pretty much completely scratch built, East Lynn was a stunning portrayal of the Great Eastern & Midland Great Northern in pre-grouping days. The small quayside section was particularly special for me, because I had the privilege of operating it, twice, around 20 years ago. It features chain shunting, where you need to use suitably sited capstans to enable the loco to position wagons in all sorts of strange corners as seen below. The wagon turntable works too, while some of the stock here is now 50+ years old. The loco [out of shot], is pulling the wagon on to the turntable, with the chain, which goes on the coupling hooks. Feel free to add your your own memories of Ken's work.

Cassettes I'd long had a feeling that my sliding/turntable fiddle yard for Northport Quay might not be completely compatible with Swillybegs and so it has proved. A slight discrepancy of height on the interface causes stock to uncouple - not good. Also, the short interface section between the train table and the layout means two joints in the space of 10cm AND on a gradient. So, what to do? After much thought, decided the best option was to remove the train table and fit a new top that could take cassettes instead. Cassettes are not a new idea, but my take on simple alignment and power may be of interest. The cassette table itself is just a piece of 6mm MDF, strengthened with a piece of softwood along each edge. Each cassette is a piece of 5.5mm plywood, with two 20mm L section aluminium angle pieces that act as the track. The angle is screwed to the plywood, though I also use double sided tape to position it initially. The clever [?] bit is that the screws project through the plywood, sticking out about 1.5mm the other side. Why? Because these screws carry the electric power, which comes via brass strip fitted at strategic points to the cassette table. Another piece of softwood is screwed to the cassette table and is used to align the cassette, as shown below. While two long pieces of brass strip could be used to span the full length of the cassette table, for economy, I use several smaller pieces, spaced to match the separate loco and train cassettes. This requires a bit of extra wiring, of course, but have found it works well in practice on a previous 0 gauge layout. Some cassettes [eg a railcar, or a short freight] are not difficult to pick up and turn round when the trains come back to the fiddle yard, so they are ready to be sent out again. Longer trains are better having separate loco and train cassettes, so just the loco has to be picked up, turned and moved to the other end. So, loco cassettes are 9" long, train cassettes are 24" and railcar [+ trailer] 18", equating to how the brass strips are spaced out. Vertical and horizontal alignment is fine tuned with pieces of plasticard. The brass strips sit on 20thou [0.5mm] plastic sheet, which ensures the aluminium angle matches the rail height on the layout. Horizontal alignment uses micro strip of various sections to ensure the cassettes line up with the rails. While am sure some of you out there would make a jig to ensure this, on the cassettes illustrated, all I've used are pieces of 2.5mm square plastic strip. There is no physical connection between a loco and train cassette - simply pushing them together and against the central strip of wood is all that is needed. Below is a sequence of photos that hopefully show how this happens. Youshould also be able to pick out the plastic strip used for fine tuning horizontal alignment, which may thicker or thinner on other cassettes, so they will need to be clearly labelled so the work properly as pairs. A bit of wiring is shown below. Notice too how the cassette table is wider than the layout. This is deliberate, so there is enough room on the table to move the trains around. Having seen a variety of complex ways for aligning and powering cassettes over the years, I wrote my version up and entered it in a competition for original ideas in Model Railway Journal and was pleasantly surprised to be awarded second prize and a Wild Swan Books voucher. This was at least ten years ago, so if anyone thinks they thought of the same thing before me, sorry, but the voucher has long since been spent!

I think Roy Link used to produce etched track fittings for temporary railways like this, but it may have been 7mm scale.

If you type in Northport Quay on YouTube, there are a couple of nice videos now. One is from Tolworth, the other, longer one from Aylesbury. The footage from last weekend is by Deltic Film, not Celtic by the way - though for once the spellchecker can be forgiven! Not yet available though.

Just goes to show that the further you look, the more you see! Just as interesting, is the amount of texture on that first photo - chunks missing from the timber, varying gaps between the planks. Would be fabulous in colour... With interest in cameo layouts, there is every reason to replicate this, especially in 7mm scale. Not sure I'd want to try in anything smaller, or indeed on a 20 wagon train.

Shame in a way as it was a fine looking diorama. However, needs must and the new idea you shared on Sunday will have much better operational use for the burgeoning GNR collection.

Fine work Alan. I think doing your own resin castings has lost out to 3D printing of late. Nothing wrong with the latter of course, but you don't need to know CAD to make a plasticard master, while materials to make the mould and the two part resin kit cost a lot less than a 3D printer. Add in the fact that a casting sets in well under an hour and if you want say, a rake. of wagons then taking the trouble to create masters for one side and one end has much to recommend it in terms of both time and money.

Sunday proved to be interesting in lots of ways. First thing, a chap arrived and asked if he could film the layout. Never a problem, but wasn't expecting him to stay for two hours! Things were a bit sticky to begin with but hopefully when edited may prove interesting, so look out for Celtic Film on YouTube and please post if you see it before me. One of the other layouts at the show was Cadhay Sidings. P4, but many of the crew had been part of Richard Chown's Castle Rackrent, so during the day I had regular requests to display his WLW Shannon. Good job I didn't take it home on Saturday. Below are a couple more pictures of David's GN stock, plus view of my coaster, Acla. The main mast collapsed when setting up the layout on Saturday morning so the only option was to remove it, along with the crane boom and all the rigging...

Great to have visiting locos, stock and excellent company today! Definitely a first for a corridor coach and by some margin the longest vehicle on NPQ too. The GN locos are big compared to Sligo stock, but made a great sight, especially with that Bundoran Express headcode! Many thanks!

I think your painting and colour palette aligns very much with Martyn's, Alan. However, it is one of those seminal works of reference that is always worth going back to, though several of the Humbrol colours aren't available now. A new version, using modern acrylics would be useful too.

Thanks Angus. Full testing begins later next week after NPQ's visit to the Aldershot show this weekend. All my points are 3' radius, so it will be interesting to see how stock performs. Fortunately (?), the Swilly bogie stock only has to stay on the straight bits.

Witchcraft and alchemy! Respect....

Coming on well, Patrick. Final details are what make a model and very few in my experience are completed without a bit of filler and a lot of sanding. Make haste slowly!

Indeed. Thanks for the Venom correction George. The pictures don't really show that it is now a nearly finished kit of parts, just waiting to be assembled. A truly remarkable solo project

Been there, done that. Well, almost. 61666, BR (exLNER) B17/6 4-6-0 Nottingham Forest. Twelve sixes in all with the smokebox number plate!

Good job nobody ever decided to give a loco the number pi...

NorthStar. Now there's a name you don't hear very often these days. Fine kits in their day and no doubt still compare well.

One of the nice things about building your own layouts is there is always something new to do. You can always play trains as well of course, so with with my two Irish layouts going out to shows in October & November, plus this new one on the go, I have plenty of choice! Next job on the BR layout was to get the track painted. So back to Martyn Welch's seminal 'Art of Weathering'. This has excellent suggestions for track work. The mainline sleepers are deemed to be fairly new, so have been painted with a mix of matt black and chestnut [Humbrol 186]. Later, these will be dry brushed with gunmetal [53] which gives a slight silvery effect. The private sidings, being much older & run down track are a lighter colour and will also be getting the gunmetal treatment. Martyn's suggestion for rails and chairs is to use a mix of leather [62], orange [82] and matt black for the mainline, but with gunmetal added for the sidings - along with further treatment to follow. As it is only a small layout, there is more reason to go to town with the fine details. Something that has been bugging me for a while is the ground levels on the layout. The mainline sits on 3mm cork, while the sidings are just laid on the base board. The mainline would have a cess running beside the ballast shoulder, so this becomes my datum, as it were. The problem has been deciding where the ground levels would be in the sidings - at the base of the sleeper or level with the tops, while road surfaces need to be level with the rails where there is a crossing. Ultimately, it is a bit like doing a painting - you start with the background and gradually work forwards. With a model though, you are working in three dimensions, hence the desire to get the base levels right. Another thing to think about was that this is intended to be a 'jigsaw' layout, with exchangeable sections to try and portray several different locations over time. Ultimately, decided to start with the permanent sections - the front edge, the level crossing to the yard and the area around the loco shed. These were built up with cork and card, cut to shape after first making paper formers. The same method was used to create the removable sections too. The removable sections have been cut from 3mm ply and comprise the areas in front of the back scene [mainly on the second baseboard, plus one piece to cover the join and another to hide the exit to the fiddle yard. However, NPQ at Aldershot this weekend, after which it is only a few weeks to Tolworth in November and Swillybegs first outing. Get these out of the way and I can hopefully get back to this layout again. Variety is the spice of life, after all.

Just checked my own thread 'Clogher Valley Project', now malingering on page two of the layout thread. I built a first and a third, with both having just three vents. Never picked up that the firsts had more (they were much shorter anyway) and quite possible they lost a couple when the CVR degraded them to thirds. In the course of many exhibitions, nobody ever mentioned a lack of vents, though did once get criticised for a Guinness poster that was the wrong period!

Been spending the last couple of days making up enough DGs for my narrow gauge stock and also adapting everything to enable fitting. DGs are designed to sit immediately below the bottom of wagon and coach sole bars. Unfortunately I'd previously cut notches in the latter for the tension locks, so these needed filling in. Perversely some of my loco and railcars have deeper buffer beams, requiring a different approach. However, nothing too drastic, though a bit of painting will certainly be needed. DG instructions suggest using either contact adhesive, solder, or screw/bolt to fit the couplings. Mostly, I've used the former, though brass locos have enabled solder fixing. The two pictures below show a CVR butter van, re-lettered to Swilly. In the first the coupling loop is in the normal, horizontal position, the second the loop has lifted because the electro magnet uncoupler has pulled down the iron wire tail. So far, this seems to work well. I use the former Dingham magnets, now sold by the Gauge 0 Guild, but a similar DG magnet is available from Wizard Models. On advice from Gordon Gravett, I power the magnets with 15v, rather than 12v, which gives a bit more oomph. This also means the iron tail can be kept fairly short, which helps the loop to drop back in place once the magnet is switched off. The latter is buried in the ballast by the way, with the top level with the top of the sleepers. It doesn't seem to matter if there are two loops together, which is good, because with turntables at both ends of my layout, I don't want couplings to be 'handed' as this would complicate shunting. Locomotives are a different matter, because in some cases, things like bogie or pony wheels get in the way of the iron wire 'tail'. At the moment, am leaving the coupling loop off the loco coupling, relying instead on the ones on the wagons and coaches. This seems to still work fine and if you can get away with your couplings being handed, might be the way to go for all stock. The next two pictures try to show this. Among things still to do are blackening all the couplings with gun blue [paint not a good idea] and tidying up all the buffer beams. Unlike AJs, it seems DG couplings are fairly forgiving in that the various bend angles don't need to be too precise - ideal for a bodger like me, though time will tell.

Which is exactly the excuse I use for Northport Quay. Go for early 1900s and you can add WL&WR too.

The classic railway modelling conundrum: so many ideas, but insufficient space, money, time etc... I find that going through the planning exercise helps. Usually comes to nothing, but when filed away for future reference may yet provide inspiration.

Fascinating. Many thanks Eoin. At the very least I feel a few internet searches coming on!