Martin S-C

Perhaps a movement you should use more, so as to add operational interest?

Call for the onion union.

Someone needs to tell the driver he doesn't need to keep hold of the regulator now as well.

Nice stories. My layout names are more whimsical than they are puns. I'll be planning away, or just driving the car or something else unrelated and a humorous name will pop into my head. Snarling station was born that way, and Coggles Causeway is a road in Bourne, Lincolnshire - I just saw the name as I drove by and knew instantly I had to have a railway halt named after it. Other names on my railway pay homage to John Ahern as well as some books and music bands I like, and previous railway modelling locations.

Is there a reason you list digital and analogue seperately? Do they not all power up at layout start? Or do only the digital ones do that? All mine will be lever frame operated, so all analogue, as will all signals. Only my trains will be digitally controlled.

I like your style of modelling Calvin and many of your buildings look like they'd be at home on the set of a Tolkein-inspired fantasy film. They have that strangely medieval feel. Place a few adventurers with bows and battle axes in front of them and you wouldn't blink an eye. If you'd considered it you could probably get a good job as a model-maker for a film effects company.

I like the shot of the coal train very much. It looks very businesslike. Was there not an avoiding line around the train shed for up trains as there was for down traffic?

John, how many Cobalts does the layout have? Mine will have nearly 80 and I'm wondering if I should sectionalise and fit an RC filter as well. From your experiences it sounds like I should.

I must have had a senior moment because I only just got the pun in the layout's name.

I bought a Shapeways body kit the other day so I am interested to see how you tackle all the important bits below the foot plate.

Its obviously sacrilege to grow grain other than for use in the production of whisky.

I'm looking for advice about weathering wooden lime wagons; the type with the pitched roofs and roof doors. Obviously they got covered in the usual grime from the railway but I'm ignorant of how they were loaded and unloaded and exactly how the material they carried was handled. Did these wagons carry crushed limestone or was this a processed product (quicklime?) - either loose or in bags? I'm seeking info on what they carried and how it was handled in order to get some idea of how the product would cause weathering to the vehicle. This wagon shows evidence of very heavily stained lower dorrs, and caked solebar, running and brake gear but also what seems to be a lot of material caked around the end stanchions. The lighter end planks are of interest too - two or three at the top and one four from the bottom. Could these be a result of livery? The roof is unclear due to the overexposure of the image but the upper parts of the side door does not look as stained as the lower area. I've been rummaging about online and have found a couple of short articles on the lime industry which helps me understand the basic industrial process but nothing specific about detailed railway traffic or vehicles. I could use a pointer towards a good book on the subject as well as how these particular wagons were used; what points on the railway system they would operate between. Would these serve lime kilns to take away products... or bring them? Would their cargo be loose or in bags? I'm assuming loose but would like to have confirmation. I assume these wagons did not carry unprocessed newly quarried stone; I've seen pictures of that being carried in unsheeted opens.

Ah, but your guts fight back with even worse things than are in the coffee! A poor old NCE handset has no defence.

The discussion here is similar when I first revealed my track plan. The issue of light railways and so on came up. Rather than a light railway I see the NM&GSR as an independent railway, holding out against the financial and traffic odds until the grouping. I know that James (Edwardian) sees his WNR railway as a similar concern. A few lines did survive independently until 1923 and this gives you a precedent for more substantial works, something like the M&SWJ comes to mind, or the M&GNJ. The well known Light Railway Order was quite late on in the scheme of things - the 1880s IIRC (though I don't know exactly and beg to be corrected on the exact date) and by then several independent lines were well established. While these may have had light railway features they were technically not. It is, however, first and foremost YOUR railway and you need to be the only one 100% delighted with it. I too enjoyed a lot of really good advice during my early stages but I was also confident of what it was I wanted and was aiming to achieve and felt comfortable rejecting some of the excellent advice simply because I wanted things a certain way. There is no requirement to justify your choices. This isn't a parliamentary planning committee! Its the ultimate expression of Rule No.1 and you need to bear in mind that while helpful people with more prototype knowledge than you might consider this topic for a short while, you are the one who will live with it for years. My only comment on the Difford change is that it now bears a resemblance to Milton Gate in terms of passenger facility layout. I would have stayed with three platform faces for reasons of traffic efficiency and to enjoy a different layout simply for the sake of it being different! P.S. I really like curved platforms as well.

I like that last image a lot, where the ship is starting to disappear in the distant haze.

"Never take a crate off a lorry today that you can take off tomorrow".

But not LMSR or LNER steam...? I have a soft spot for the mid 60s with a mix of green diesels and clapped out filthy steamers. If I read it on here before, I have forgotten, so apologies but - will control be DC?

Had you thought of approaching POWsides for a transfer set of this? I would imagine adding transfers to a model would be easier than adding 3D detail over a printed side/ends.

I like the improvements to both the colliery and Milton gate. Milton has a GCR theme about it now. There is ample room for another storage siding if you need one under the footbridge. Removing the small shed between Moorhaven and Difford was an inspired move as you now have a lovely long length of open rural run where your electrostatic grass skills can have free rein! I checked again the other day and my layout's main operating well is 3 feet wide throughout and this is ample for two persons of normal girth to pass comfortably. On your plan its no hardship for the colliery operator to step aside if someone needs to get by that pinch point.

I wonder. They would suit the NMR and GSR fleet as well. From the limited edition vans I've come across on e-Bay, James, about 105 seems to be the minimum livery run (the insert cards in the boxes state that the wagon is "number XXX of (run number) so many" and the lowest "so many" I've seen is about 105. Odd number but there you go. I do not know what level of up-front investment they'd need.

The 9ft wb 5-plank single sided brakes model does have potential. I had completely forgotten that Dapol had this tooling. You could do a lot with that from 1900ish to 1920.

Love the shoe shop. How many tank loco crews and seated passengers are now footless in order to provide stock for this emporium? The image of senseless butchery on so many hapless victims has a Frankensteinian horror to it! Is Cathcott Field another model or an area of Little Muddle?

Running aground probably!

Alternatively and to save you work, you could just have all your passengers be racoons. Rule 1 can be bent to encompass that. Probably.

With my railway room at 8.25m long I should be okay. Another thing to bear in mind with wireless is ease of use (no cables to foul or get in the way) vs putting down the handset and forgetting where - not an issue with a wired handset.