Robatron86

The H16-44 has arrived. The very first thing I did was change the knuckles. She runs very well, needs a few running in laps. The engineering car has had it's underframe and trucks painted, Kadee boxes and knuckles added, and the plastic Walthers wheels (which require painting) replaced with Kadee metal ones. Just glasing left to do. After this it will be the flat car.

When it comes to eBay, my wife actively encourages me. The FM H16-44 I won last Friday (and arrived today!) was due to finish at 23:45. She turns to me and says "Go to bed now (22:00) and set an alarm for half past 11 and bid on it!" I think she is crazier than me!

My Walthers 6 car work set arrived today. Oh boy.... Only managed to 1 anywhere near completion, the Engineering Car. The portacabin on wheels. Underframe and trucks require painting (required on all 6 of them as they come in injection moulding brown). Glazing needed on all. The trucks are sprung using Kadee knuckle springs. They actually work too. But require building. And adding the springs...I have lost 4 so far. So far, not bad.

Thanks Mark. I will happily oblige when they arrive.

Only just caught up on the thread. The rolling stock is looking great.

It's not that long actually, plus roll it out on the 2nd day of a show as a maintenance working. Speaking of that, I found this on eBay: Six items of maintenance stock, Bunk Car, Kitchen Car, Engineering Car, Storage Car, Blacksmith Car and Work Flat. It's a bulk kit of the 6. In ATSF colours already and unbuilt. Very excited for these. I also won an auction for another H16-44. It's an Atlas Masterseries model, with decoder. A certainly more accurate model than the Bachmann one I have.

Stunning weathering Ray.

The crane has arrived, and it is a very nice bit of kit. It comes with a "key" that slots in to operate the boom.

I hope your Mum makes a full and speedy recovery mate.

I have also found a video from the Solent show on Youtube

On the workbench tonight (the coffee table) The two boxcars were nice and easy. I ordered some 50ft boxcar decals and thought "Hang on, I have 3 box cars with The Chief logo, let's add some variety". So we now have The Scout and The Grand Canyon. Simply removed the original logo (with some nail varnish remover, my own bottle, as the wife would be incensed if I used hers!). The car and caboose were purchased at the Solent show. I have no idea who made the car. It was in USAF livery, so was repainted and the trucks replaced. I spent the evening adding decals. Still requires glazing and a few washers to bring the ride height up. The caboose is a Roco model. It was in CBQ livery so again repainted. The end hand rails and brake wheels were missing so have been replaced. It will get new side hand rails when I find my pack of them. Current usable stock for the layout. I had them out to check it any had missing Kadee springs after I had read that a few people had found them going missing. None of the cars had any missing but a loco had lost one: I now have a nice range of different ATSF cars to use: The crane and tender are now in at Model Junction and my pre order has been dispatched. It looks to be a lovel model, much better than the Bachmann model, and the price difference is clear. £32 for the Bachmann and nearly £50 for the Athearn model. That' all for now.

Great video Ray. The layout looks fab.

I have also been sent the photo's taken for Continental Modeller. The layout is due to appear in the June edition.

You're up early Dan. Thank you mate, I was wondering if I had got the balance of detail and space right. Always a hard one to judge. Thank you Paul. I'll keep the fridge idea up there with the working scale gritter

It was nice to have met you. Wonderful photos and thank you for the kind words. If you are happy to send me hi res copies that would be great, I will pm you my email address. Yes as it was winding down Sunday afternoon I was able to escape. Bridport Town is a very nice layout indeed!

I'll let you all know how it goes...

Well, he will be undergoing heavy surgery anyway as I need to add a woolly hat and a coat - might as well go the whole hog and treat him to some limb re-alignment surgery

Thanks for the suggestion Jack. I was just going to break his legs and re-attach them at a different angle....

Yes, he does look a little underdressed. Out with the milliput it is! I think I have some wiggle room with his positioning so I can put his boots more inline with the post.

Opinion time if you please ladies and germs... Is this a decent representation of a lineman. Discuss.

Hope it is a good show

I hadn't seen this before (Danish railways are a bit off my radar, danish pastries on the other hand...), but I have just read the article in CM. Lovely. Well done Doc

I only have 5 loco's for the layout, but I favour 2 or 3 of them as they are star runners. I'm more guilty of buying boxcars. Last count was 25 40 footers....

That is exactly why I have steered clear of O gauge, because of the choice and the availability. An O scale version of TYS would be amazing.

Is it terminal? Can I slow it down or reduce the effects?