Martin S-C

Yes, but only long ago in a universe far, far away. I think you'd have to go back to the 1830s or 1840s to find spoked wheels on a passenger vehicle.

Derek, given that we, now, so long after the events, will never probably have all the facts at our disposal, that philosophy is probably the most satisfactory one. It is always the case that new information comes to light (often from Finger-Pointy-Loud-Voice-Man at exhibitions) after the model is complete. I feel that building something at a best guess basis is better than not building it at all because perfecction will never be attained.

What a monster of a layout. Amazing.

Really? Whoa. It looks great in your pic. I take it the higher buffer beam is due to fitting 14mm Maunsell style wheels? corneliuslundie - thank you for that lovely drawing of the GW 6-wheel family saloon. Something akin to that would make a nice directors saloon for the NM&GS. I may need to abuse some more cheapie plastic coaches and a 6-wheel kit underframe from somewhere. annie - those are super coaches. How I wish it were possible to churn out real world 4mm models at the pace you can make virtual stuff. I envy your chosen medium sometimes!

Very nice, lots of character. However I imagine the Big Green Engine on the left is saying something like "What are you doing on my important express track you 'orrible little Peckett?"

That's pretty high. My home baseboards are 40" to the underside of tehframe, so about 43" to the track and that seems high enough! I'm keen to see what folding legs you design for this as I am considering making something similar.

I didn't so much as complete any model related work while RMW was offline , I actually broke something in two. I discovered that Peco will sell the end handles/supports separately but the bad news is the price is £4 each. Not £4 a pair, but each handle. A pity. I bought a few but not as many as I need.

Click on the bell upper right, click on "notification settings" and turn off "a new notification when new content is posted" and also "Send me news and information". What bugs me is there is now no choice to have an E-MAIL NOTIFICATION sent to you immediately, only an e-mail once a day of activity in a thread, or a pop-up notification immediately (which is just annoying). That e-mail was one of the most helpful things on RMWeb and I cannot see that its available now. If someone has worked out a way to get it working, please share!

Choppy chop chop

Hi all *is shellshocked* Whats all this activity streams malarkey? I just want to see the followed threads again. Gah. Humbug. EDIT: I was going to remark that with the new roundy avatars my cap fits artfully against the curve but Nearholmers fits even better!

Well spotted. I am chewing over that idea as well.

Impressive Phil! My concern with that design is there is still a lot of structural parts right behind the baseboards to impinge on the sense of immersion. With such a narrow room I am reluctant to move the baseboards inwards (or chop holes in them) to allow the counterweight cords through. Right now, after more measuring around I think the original lifting flap will work, as long as I keep it to no more than 25" wide. I have that amount of height to play with. All this use of brain cells is amazing but you'd have thought that all the possible designs for lifting layout sections for access into operating wells had all been thought of years ago and there's no more scope for new ideas any more.

It is a typically impressive electro-mechanical American solution where money is no limit. I am very limited on height, about 32.5" above baseboard on top of which about 7" total of model height must be added, but after a quick measure up the 25" available to lift the board will give ample room to get under with just a small obsequious bowing of the head as you enter the holy of holies. I could probably do something with cable and a pulley but we end up with four ugly great vertical struts to carry the thing... I still think the Tower Bridge approach may work best given the small amount of space. Cutting the lifting flap in two makes each part half the weight as well as half the length (which will ease the stress forces).

Looks like a bit of a monster - about 20 foot by 12?

The M&GN B Class 4-4-2T bidding just finished. It went for £270.00. Well beyond my wallet!

Are there any more pics of it online - or a track plan anywhere?

So many good ideas. I have realised that having the lift-out section on a trolley might work because when leaving the room you could pull it out of its slot and then push it down the "aisle" of the operating well enough to easily step through (even with my portly girth). Going in you push it ahead of you, then to the left and step through. However... drat! ... what if several operators need to enter? Hm ... thinking as I type here, or typing a I think ... that won't work as not enough room in the operating well to have the moved-aside trolley and space for people to get past. Who designed this daft set-up? Tower Bridge device... interesting! That's actually a better option than the lifting-out-freely board because with one of those its sods law that I'll one day drop it. The door opens outwards already. I made sure that was part of the spec when the builders replaced the old one. The wheeled stool as Don says is a gardening one. You can get them on Amazon for about £25 though mine was an e-Bay buy for £15. Googling for "wheeled gardening stool" will get you what you want; there's various types. I'm going to fix handrails about 12" from the floor on the two sets of legs either side of the "trundle-under" so a person can pull themselves through. I tried it for height and its perfect, though as Stu says, some under-board padding will be needed. Some edits of the plan attached below where the continuous run circuit joins the end-to-end track, with points now moved outside tunnels. Also an edit of Witts End station engine shed shifting it off the lifting flap.

* spooky Twilight Zone music * EDIT: Annie, superb texturing to the interior of that 7 plank, and the outside as well but the grubby wood colour of the interior is especially well done.

His moustache would make a perfect profiling angle for the drill hall roof ridge piece. (I think the gent in the topper with the cane is striding down the platform calling out "Hey, you ruddy Bosche fellow, no smoking in the station don't ye know?")

Great photos - no backscene, no layout lighting rig (apparently) and altogether rather raw, but still great to see a small slice of the past. How different it all was then! That post with the 8 pics in it, John, I like the first one with the light reflecting off the rails and the soupy gloom. It looks like a photo taken of a real station from a tower block in the evening of a dull day! Very evocative.

More work today on the baseboard frames. Unfortunately after a long discussion we decided against the sexy lifting flap design I wanted to use - in fact due to the low headroom in the room we agreed I can't have a hinged flap at all and it will have to be a freely lifting out section that will be stored on its end inside a "cupboard" that we'll construct for it under the layout and to the left of the door. This also probably means the buildings on this board which are the Puddlebrook station building and waiting rooms, plus the Witts End engine shed will have to be removable. I'm therefore now thinking of siting the engine shed off this board completely and shifting it a few inches to the right because it would be obviously preferable for the branch engine to be left inside its shed between operating sessions. We discussed mounting the moveable section on a trolley but the operating well isn't wide enough to push it out of its recess and then squeeze by. The photo is looking east from the doorway entry. Neil is at the far end with his right hand near where Armisford Mill will be. Note that beyond the centre Nether Madder terminus frame we've raised the end U-shape of frames 4" to reduce the height of the stilts needed to support the ply station boards. The centre section of the Nether Madder/Green Soudley frames is also raised 4" partly for the same reason and partly to allow operators to scoot under more easily on my little wheeled cart. The cart is shown in the second pic.

Its a striking colourscape isn't it? An entire swathe of rural England without a single dab of green. Maybe its supposed to be south-west London a few weeks after the Martians landed.

Why is the loco driver shaking Hitler's hand?

Wow, some keen bidding going on here. I was in the game up to the 40 quid mark but threw in my cards at that point. EDIT: Ouch. The 6-wheel brake went for £158 and the 4-wheel sundries van for £93.

Any website that uses a photo of John Betjeman has to be kosher.