Claude_Dreyfus

Oh dear. What an opportunity squandered.

No trains, nor have there been for 40-odd years. View of the High Line, June 2018.

The engines are quite a long way to the left... Claremore OK

In this latest instalment, we move to the more neglected end of the layout so far. A few years ago, a member purchased a completed kit building at an exhibition. It was nice, but rather too big to fit onto the layout in the space we had available. It therefore when into storage. However it was not forgotten, and recently was resurrected. It has been modified to fit the space available; i.e. chopped in half and is now located as two half-relief buildings at the front of the layout. These have also been joined by a restaurant/cafe, which will live in the little island in the tram loop. This is still under construction, but hopefully will be complete in the next couple of weeks. The fan cobbles it is sitting on is still a little loud, and will be toned down. It has not been fitted down as yet. Up at the other end, the greenery (or should that be brownery) continues along the track. Now for the catenary to continue...

More double-decker action. Long Island DM30AC 522 stabled at Hudson Yards, just outside of Penn Central - taken from the High Line. 11 June 2018. More double-deckers to follow?

I would take the Poundland chocolate over Ferrero Rocher any day of the week. Bland and really rather disappointing when you look beneath the flash exterior (although the little plastic boxes are useful)...

Unfortunately statements like this from Chris Grayling are as helpful as the RMT-coined 'Meltdown Monday', which the BBC (amongst others) have gleefully seized upon. Talking to a couple of more 'in the know' commuters, it sounds like it could be as long as 3 months before the rosters are finally sorted out (something to do with roster cycles?). Issues around signaller familiarisation should be resolved in about a month. From a purely selfish point of view, my services have been pretty reliable. The split and join at Horsham for the London Bridge services have, as expected, resulted in delays, but all in all the service runs and is more or less on time...which given the issues elsewhere is something to be thankful for.

More activities to report on the layout... Fences along the top of the viaducts are starting to take shape. These are being constructed from the miles of scrap track we (like so many other clubs no doubt) seem to have accumulated. A few test pieces have been put together, which look pretty effective. The areas between the tracks have also been sorted out - a mixture of fine ballast and flock powders - I doubt there would be much in the way of greenery beneath the overall roof. Apologies for the quality of the next few pictures. These were taken on my phone... The bridge has finally had the front arch added. The wooden strip will support the bridge sides - likely to be either a fence or low girder. The river still needs at least a couple of layers of varnish, as well as various bits of detritus and perhaps most importantly, the wake from the barge. P.S. the huge gap in the baseboard join is because the boards were only loosely fitted together at this stage! The road bridge has a set of ancient Brawa ornamental lamps added to the ends. These work, and will be plugged in - so these should provide quite a striking addition to the layout. The walling is slowly making its way along the layout now. Along the back it will be quite plain (mainly out of sight of the viewers) - however we will be having some of the iconic arches along the front. The scratch built flats are positioned so the road between them and the wall can be fitted in place. This structure will stand a little bit away from the backscene to give some depth - and to enable our resident lighting fiend to illuminate some of the rooms! To the right of the flats will be some old warehouses, which will overlook the river.

I thought I would try our new London Bridge direct - the 06:26. All seems okay, and getting you to London Bridge before 08:00 without having to run the gauntlet of East Croydon is a huge improvement. Last night's new 18:03 was also successful, albeit a little busy due to the preceding Horsham service being canned. Sounds like not all of the drivers have been cleared for London Bridge. If the case, that is rather unfortunate of GTR. I suspect I am on the train following you into London Bridge.

I had some trepidation this morning going to the station, but my usual train was running (the departure time has not changed following the new timetable launch), and was on time. Arrival at London Bridge was a few minutes behind, but nothing too dramatic. I was fortunate, but it goes to show that not everything was screwed up. Proof of the pudding however will be tonight. Just a small point. Mick Cash is going on about 'it is our members dealing with the anger at the sharp end, not the well-paid top brass...' Well, we saw Angie Doll - the Head of Service Quality for Southern - on the platform at Three Bridges; assisting with enquiries (and clearly identified through a tabard, so not trying to hide). So at least some of the senior management are visible, as opposed to a certain Mr Cash who seems far more interested in the same old rent-a-quote. Time will tell how this reorganisation will work...but we all knew there would be teething troubles.

I love these trams. Sadly the postage may be a little steep, and I am not convinced Mrs Dreyfus would want one of these in the garden...although she is after a summer house.

A little OT, but I was taken to task at one show for having a Japanese layout. Apparently this was unacceptable given their war record.

Seeing your various status updates recently, I was rather hoping some pictures would be forthcoming. Sounds like you had a great time; certainly you had a good variety of classic traction. I am sure any further pictures you have would be appreciated on this thread. Thanks for sharing.

The interior of an E2 Shinkansen - May 2014

Four of us from our club paid a very enjoyable visit to the show; one of my favourite exhibitions. I even managed to finally get hold of DR BR50 (something which has eluded me for quite a while) from the dreaded Chris Roberts - dreaded inasmuch as he always seems to have something I need want! Some decent layouts present - we spent quite some time looking at Braunlage. I also liked Smrzovka (nice to catch up with Ian!), Parkend, Pottendorf and Selah was extremely well executed. Gouttiers is also a layout I never tire of seeing.

66183 rushes through Pulborough with the 13:55 Horsham - Eastleigh engineers train; running about 25 minutes late. 28 April 2018

More slow scenic progress on Friedrichstrasse. We seem to be concentrating on the left side of the layout at present - buildings under construction, catenary underway and the green side of the scenery going down. The visitor is a new acquisition - well a DCC-fitted Piko Hondekop for £40.00? Rude to turn that down! I do like the buildings along the top, but they are card structures and the picture does nothing to disguise their flatness. I suspect it is not helped by the angle of the light and the fact the material is probably too glossy and smooth for buildings. They are kits, but the manufacturer's name escapes me at present. They do have a backscene behind them - it was temporarily removed for scenic work. The trees are a bit of an experiment. They are Woodland Scenics tree kits, with some tinkering. What I am trying to achieve is a wasteland type scene shown in this picture. So far, they don't look too bad, but there needs to be more work to 'bush' them out a bit - although not too much as they need to look suitably scraggly; after all, they are just giant weeds...

377126 passes Pulborough Brooks (near Coldwaltham) with a Bognor - Victoria service. 31st May 2014.

4D are only a 20 minute walk from where I work. I use them quite a lot for various bits such as microstrip and plasticard. Their trees are excellent. Well worth a visit.

That's interesting. I did see that the traffic on the route was particularly heavy...there was no more than a 15 minute gap between services; in some cases the gap was as little as 5 minutes. I only spent the Saturday there...Sunday was over the border in Lancashire and then back south.

There was a single freight train timetabled on Saturday, however it was cancelled, so no joy there. I suspect there may be an additional trip there later in the year, which may be on a week day, so I could go freight hunting in the future.

Oops. Duly amended...

This weekend Mrs Dreyfus and I ventured north. When up there, I had a few hours to kill in Todmorden. As this is the first time in 20 years I have been to the town, and in view of the various changes taking place over the next couple of years, I found a couple of suitable locations, and took some photos. First up was a nice and quiet footbridge a little to the west of the station. 150203 approaches with the 2E07 10:38 Manchester Oxford Road to Bradford Interchange. 158903 on an east-bound service. I am not 100% certain of the working, but suspect it is the 2E45 11:17 Manchester Victoria - Bradford Interchange. 158742 on the 2U26 10:26 Leeds - Manchester Victoria 156428 with the 2F81 11:20 Blackburn - Wigan Wallgate 150223 with the 2U25 11:26 Manchester Victoria - Leeds 185108 with the 1F85 09:50 Scarborough - Manchester Victoria 150139 with the 2M08 11:43 Bradford Interchange - Manchester Victoria. A passing 185 disappears east on its way to Newcastle 142007 on what I believe is the 2U28 11:26 Leeds - Manchester Victoria Moving into town, a class 150 crosses the viaduct. Not 100% certain of the unit, but it is likely to be 150115 on a Blackburn - Kirkby service Afterwards I wandered west, and spent a couple of hours sitting on the hillside watching trains passing across the two bridges over the Rochdale canal. A pair of pacers head west. An unidentified 158 heads east A pair of 185s on a Trans-Pennine service; this time next year this may well be in the hands of class 68s. Back to the footbridge towards the end of the day for a couple of final snaps. Okay, so they are all units, but for me (with my usual diet of class 377s, 455 and 700s), it makes a nice variety.

A pair of 142s cross the Rochdale canal just outside of Todmorden as they head through Calderdale towards Manchester - 21 April.

No news is, well, no news...