Sean

some great points here and we are on the same page about keeping things minimal and sparse! I wont be adding any more buildings than this and even the house was an unplanned impulse buy but it works here so im glad i grabbed it. Just about to finish off the backscene in wood rather than foam and then i have a nice photographic backscene to mount, after that im thinking a lot of greenery and a decently long counry road serving the yard and house, initially a level crossing was planned but even now im probabaly going to downgrade it to a crossing gate.

Believe it or not thats a hornby product straight out of the box! and so is the shed. getting everything around it so far except the ballast chassis as the couplings are bunching up as a result of them not moving, pretty much anything with moving couplings goes around it without any fuss whatsoever. Its actually all peco code 75 i lifted from the loft, I just used the marklin sizing as a template to make the curve and it worked out well

rather predictably I am back after a long hiatus and have been plugging away at a new project! I am finally at the stage where im happy to share it with the world. I like my micro projects, because im far more likely to actually see them through, the lack of a running loop tends to frustrate me though. Im also not a fan of ovals that are 4 to 5 feet wide as ive always seen them as a terribly bulky and sometimes hard to reach across.. so messing around in railmodeller and i came across marklin 2210 which ive apltly nicknamed radius 0 as it seems like it would be the next size down from first radius in the set track system. this gives me an overall size of around 2.5 x 3.8 feet, a very portable size! Initially this was just going to be a simple experiment oval to see what would actually run on it with some time spent on detailed scenics however during the planning phase i got carried away with several different siding ideas and thought sure lets try and squeeze in a siding, which turned into an inglenook and so on. I can just about get some 42 flats around this but any passenger stock will be out of the question. In terms of era and location it was decided fairly early on for it to be a very generic scene that could be anywhere in ireland and that neither modern nor old stock would look out of place on it, it was finally decided to focus on a 1970's or 1980's aesthetic but as i wasnt actually alive to remember either of those decades artistic license can be used somewhat and there wont be any hard of fast rules. I have enough loose coupled wagons and nowhere to put them! so without further ado! Heres my overall trackplan and despite it looking quite sparse there is actually going to be more going on than meets the eye. there will be lit signals, motorised points, block detection and even possibly some automation down the line! Lets assume there is a loco parked on the spur playing yard pilot and 3 random wagons in any of the 2 sidings but the "line" cannot have any wagons parked on it by the pilot because there are trains passing through frequently, let's also assume that there is another loco with 5 vans plus a brake van working the "line" This gives us 2 different games plus a running loop for times of boredom. the loco pulling 5 plus a brake van can be ran on a loop, it can also stop into the yard and play the inglenook game using the 3 sidings while the pilot simply waits around before he can play the inglenook game however he must shunt the brake van down onto the bottom siding in order to have enough space to shunt. once the inglenook game is complete the train leaves the yard and either goes back to doing its loop or it simply stops in the fiddle yard. When the line loco is in the fiddle yard the pilot loco will be able to shunt wagons between the yard and outer siding in a tuning fork formation but he will have to stop and goto the spur when a train comes to pass through the yard. in time id like to see if i could automate the line train to stop in the fiddle yard for 5 minutes before coming again following the pilot to be driven around by a human in the interim! IMG_2678.MOVIMG_2678.MOV

PM sent, would LOVE to acquire one or two,

I do see the auditor types hassling railway staff on a regular basis, I would generally like to avoid that approach We got the no fly zones and they mostly apply to zones around the airports and prisons and whatnot. the second rule you are quoting only applies to older drones that are over 250 grams, under 250g or the new c1 class can be flown anywhere even over "uninvolved people" but obviously such things are discouraged unless nessesary. It more becomes a question of, if im flying lawfully in a field or such a place that there is a line running through with the intention of filming the train as it passes and possibly even following it for a short distance as part of the video. Can i actually do this since realistically I am flying adjacent to the railway and not above it. that being said should the driver or someone see a drone following his train briefly, will they actually care or have to report it to someone or anything like that? Another thing which can be done with a drone nowadays is the construction of an accurate 3d model of a building from a series of photographs of said building, such an application could prove very handy for us model makers but assumedly most of these buildings would be based on the railway and overflight would be required in order to capture all of the required data and thats where you might be asking for trouble.

Over the last couple of years i have very much gotten into the hobby of flying drones. One thing ive always been interested is the idea of taking photos and videos of trains and stations and other interesting bits and bobs on the network such as container loading around the port. One of the main reasons i have not actually done this is that I dont know where I actually am or am not allowed fly in relation to this and i really dont want to be seen as a nuisance if spotted by a driver or station staff etc so its probably best to ask first. Can anyone give me relevant information in relation to this? Kind of assume it would be fine as long as im not directly flying over lines or doing otherwise silly/unsafe things but obviously im not sure without getting confirmation from someone more experienced in such matters. cheers.

Hey guys, Ordered a few packs on thursday and got the shipped notification on friday morning. according to the tracking page GLS have not yet collected the parcel, im not in a mad rush to get these but I just wanna check is this normal? Sean

Warm, probabaly

There here!!

https://www.facebook.com/groups/23934652306/?hoisted_section_header_type=recently_seen&multi_permalinks=10159741897557307 if you are on facefook then this group comes recommended, your pictures reminded me of it.

Personally derek id be handing that back under warranty

I believe its running in DC mode and you need to install a decoder. if your controller has a dc channel it will run on that but beware that the noise is caused by the motor recieving a full track voltage whilst pwm is keeping it stationary and the motors tend to get quite hot as a byproduct of running in this state which can shorten their lives significantly. Most would not recommend it.

seems to be multiple sellers with multiples of each item in stock

Didnt we have a similar sort of discussion a couple of years ago when some chinese 201's appeared on ebay? I was new at the time

forgot theres no trains in gran canaria IS THAT BETTER!!?!?! on tour with two mixers

What'er'u Sayin?

The bogies are screwed on to both coaches but i couldnt be arsed taking them off to mine to see if they interchange

running mine tomorrow but as usual the permenant way is in need of a bit of tlc before anything will be able to run MMMMMM RPSI Black and Tan run

not the best of photos but they get the job done lol had not planned on running these for a little while - now its a priority over the next few days Seems i still need a mk2d and another brake to complete the rake - when are these coming out?

Does the first class go at the loco end or the brake end?

Just you wait till I've had my dinner

F*cking bank holiday im still waiting for mine

Someone just emailed me a link to the tracking number to mess with me hurrrrrrryyyyyy upppppppp