P.C.M

Hi Dougie, I had an old 110 myself but upgraded to an SLR later on, Still wish I had taken more pics though. Totally with you on the time machine idea. How good would it be to have a Digital back in 80s. Cheers Peter.

Thanks Neil, I made the fuel point a few years ago now, the pumps are from an old Hornby shed and the roof is I think an offcut from a Faller station canopy with some old rail holding it all up. The Large logo 47 is my favourite class 47 at the moment I have another one to do but I am going to have to change the flush headcode box some how. Cheers Peter.

Hi Dave, No worries, the depot as you say already has the look of Haymarket, New sheds I think would give you what you want. As for the rest I am sure you will work it out. I think if you are planning to push the layout up against the wall you might find you have room to go wider, though doing a branch will give a bit more play value plus a couple of trains up the branch will leave room in the fiddleyard. I am not sure how old your daughter is but mine quite like playing with the cars on Llabourne and having a dive now and then but she is 14 now and hasn't had any interest for about 4 years now. So you never know you might get some room back in a few years. Cheers Peter.

Hi Larry, It's a standard Lima class 40 though I added the pipework that sits on the top of the bogie and the MW cables on each side of the bogie at the front. Though some class 40s had these removed, That might make the bogies look a bit wider but otherwise it's the standard Lima bogie. Cheers Peter.

Hi Dave, Looks like a good train room, I like your idea of doing Oban too. I thought you were going to redo the depot to get it more like Haymarket? Would it be worth making the layout wider, you could ease out the curves a bit and get more tracks in the fiddleyard, and it should give you a bit more room for the depot. Though I suppose this would limit your room for doing Oban. Cheers Peter.

Thanks Pete, The concrete area is Plaster/Cornice adhesive which is mixed with water and a bit of PVA plus some black powder paint to make it a bit grey though I stilll painted it. If I was going to do a smaller area I would use plasicard I think it would be quicker. The plaster mix has to be sanded down and I normally have to make up more to fill the lower areas which all takes a bit of time. Cheers Peter.

Thanks Bangor Blue, Lucky you, Chester and Crewe would have been great back then. I didn't actually get to the North Wales Coast until the late 80s early 90s so missed the class 40s and 25s etc. If you have any pics from back then feel free to post them on here. Best class 40 haulage I can do for you is D200. The others still in service by this time were 97s and as far as I know didn;t work any passenger trains. Cheers Peter.

Thanks Alex, Great to hear from you, yes spent a bit of time sat in the old BRUTES myself. The concrete area that is slightly lighter is the area that will be covered by a shed, the plan is to build something like the shed that used to be at Holyhead. Cheers Peter.

Thanks, The BRUTES are by Shirescenes, they are a fold up etch and go together quite well. Cheers Peter.

Hi all, About time for an update me thinks, I think I mentioned that I was getting a few bits ready to sell, the pic below shows an old Lima Western that I have sloshed a bit of paint on and is now ready for ebay. A while back I improved my BRUTES by adding some papers and on two the curtain bit that goes along the open side, I also painted one red. I am not sure if they were seen on the stations along the North Wales Coast but I am sure there would have been a few at Crewe. I have also lowered a 2Cv and dulled it down a bit. When I saw this car on the Hattons website I just had to have it. I have a vivid memory of following one through Preston in the early hours after seeing the Wonderstuff ( a band from the 80s for you young chaps, still doing a few gigs these days though) Anyway my mate nearly crashed because we were laughting so much as this thing was going round coners and roundabouts almost on two wheels it was leaning so much. I have been working on the Backscene of Llanbourne and have made up a couple of warehouses, I did get some ID backscenes but I have decided to paint the sky which I think still needs a bit more white and a touch of grey. Part of the ID backscene will be used so it's not a total waste. The gutters on the terrace houses are now done too, I just need to do the down pipes and tone down the doors a bit. Cheers Peter.

Probably a good thing, though I am sure a cold shower wont help. Damian will have to get one.lol Cheers Peter.

Hi Leon, Always nice to see a few pics, good to see the yard full of wagons. No sign of any 150s on passenger yet then. Cheers Peter.

I want to know if Damian bought that big class 50. Cheers Peter.

Superb stuff, and I used plastic for my point rodding too. eers Peter.

Top picture Larry, never get tired of seeing your pics. I did plan on doing a test train but lack of room in the fiddleyard and the fact that I sold all my old Lima MK1s means this may not happen now. I can still run loco's on test in normal passenger trains though. Cheers Peter.

Thanks Jeff, Relatively young yes, the wife thinks mentally i am about 14 though. lol To run steam on Llanbourne I would have to change a few things but I don't need to worry as it's not going to happen. One day I will build a small exhibition layout which could have a change of era

Thanks Jeff, I was born in 1968 so don't have any memories of green diesels though that time period is quite fascinating with the end of steam and the new green diesels taking over. If Llanbourne did go back in time it would have a change of location too. It would come alot closer to what was home and operate something like Bournemoth West. This would require a lot of stock so isn't going to happen, even less so now as over the last few years I have sold most of the steam stock I had. I have been working on a few things so hopefully I will post a few pics later in the week. Cheers Peter.

Thanks, and Thank your wife for me, I showed my wife a pic of an N gauge layout the other night and she wouldn't belive me when I told her it was N gauge, she has a good eye for detail too. Cheers Peter.

Thanks Mate, Good luck with your article too. Post up a pic of the rat, I bet she looks great now. Yes I did read that you are going over to the UK, and for quite a while too. Hope you have a great time and get everything on your shopping list. We are planning to go over in Sept/Oct as I have some long service leave. Let me Know when you are due back and we have to catch up it's been a while since I have seen penhayle Bay I might have a get together here at some point too. Cheers Peter.

Hi Pugsley, Thanks for that, I think it was your thread where I saw the bogie mod first. I think you raised the bogie up about 1mm too? Thanks Jon, That sounds like the go, I will file off a bit at each end of the bogie tower, I have already damaged one bogie on another class 37 trying to prise it off. I found the class 47s were not as bad but will certainly look doing that on the ones I still need to do. Your varnish job looks great, and the headcode mod looks well worth the effort. Look forwards to seeing it weathered. to agree with jon020 on that, too much dirt might be a bit much, that loco seems to be fairly well kept Cheers Peter.

Thanks Dave, Don't worry, the steamers won't be taking over. I do have a soft spot for things S&D but I don't have time or funds to do steam and diesel. The 4f and Standard will sit in a display cabinet. I actually have another old Mainline Standard 4 partly weathered too it was the first tender loco I got as a kid. The plan was to weather up a few bits and peices to put on ebay an old split box Peak and a Maroon Western are pretty much ready to go. As for the layout I have been working on the backscene and have made up a couple of wharehouses to sit along the back, though I need to paint them yet. I was asked by the boys on the BRblue forum if I could do an article for Traction, the last layout 'Slightly' was by another member of the forum and Llanbourne is due to be in the next issue, though I haven't seen the finished article yet. st admit I am quite looking forwards to seeing Llanbourne in print. Cheers Peter.

Hi Jon, Your class 37 is looking great,I am going to get around to doing one of mine this year and I am thinking of doing the bogie mod, could you tell what glue you use to stick the bogie sides back on please. I am a bit worried that when I go to clip the bogie back on the glue may not hold. Cheers Peter.

Hi Dave, Great to see you making some progress. Looking forwards to seeing it all back together. Cheers Peter.

Some nice variety there craig, I would do the Peak and 50003 I need that one for haulage. I would try and get the Crompton in too. Cheers Peter.

Hi Keith, Rick can certainly help you out with some gen on where to go. I would also have a look at the Railpage forum. look for the Victoria section. Vic sightings has some up to date info on whats going on. There is also photo location section that will help you find a few spots to try out. Cheers Peter.