Black Marlin

I have just read through this thread in its entirety and I'm hugely impressed at the model's scope and precision. And, remarkably, I think I may have found something on which I can shed a little helpful light: The easy way to solve this problem is to replace the propeller blades with circles of clear acetate of the same diameter. Drill a hole through the centre of each circle, affix to a Dremel, hold a paintbrush loaded with thin yellow paint to the edge as you spin the disc, and lo you will have very effective representations of turning props with perfectly-applied yellow prop-tips! I did it with a Lancaster; take a look below: 00-gauge indeed, and I would guess it will appear sometime in 2019 because MR's second project, a Southern E1 0-6-0, is suggested as likely to appear in early 2020. Regards, Gavin edited to incorporate images

The first of what will, I suspect, be many rethinks. Nothing major, and certainly no disaster, but in the image above, the crossovers between the fast and slow lines are going in the wrong direction. How can I tell? Because Girtby Sea will feature a through station, and one of the things I intend is that the fast lines will not be platform-facing. Therefore, if a stopping service that had been on the fast lines wishes to stop in the station, it needs to get on to the slow lines to do so. The crossovers will be far back from the station to give adequate deceleration and acceleration distances for trains. 'Tis an easy fix, especially because I haven't actually laid any of the track yet, although I'm sad to be losing the points-based curve that swept the up slow line away at a tangent from the fast lines. (The up slow line is the one that has the longest single bridge highlighted in yellow on the diagram above). I do have 48" & 60" tracksettas, though; I shall experiment to see what can be achieved. Work on the T-section viaduct has stalled due to a lack of UHU (the only glue made from owls?) but, counteracting that disappointment, some progress has been made with the Oykish Viaduct: everything at track level or above has been completed. Apologies for the dodgy phone-camera pics, and the fact that the bridge isn't sitting on a flat surface: Gavin

Given that new technology is new-fangled, and previous ways of working are, presumably, old-fangled, does that mean that current technology is simply fangled? "Gavin's layout uses best fangled practice to achieve reliable operation..."

Thanks for posting this. I'd been wondering about point motors - never having owned a layout that used any - and, after looking at the Cobalts, they appear to be perfect for my needs. A website to stick in the 'Girtby Sea Shopping List' folder, I think. Cheers! Gavin

After faffing around with AnyRail, I can show you a rough approximation of what I'm up to. Yellow bridges are ones I have (from top to bottom: T-section viaduct; Oykish Viaduct; trestle; and to the left the Skaledale river crossing); blue represents water; waterfalls are at the top and to the left; the black line represents a cliff-face; and the green line is a backscene. Regards, Gavin

Drawing some conclusions solely from your username, you may find the picture below of interest: it's one of the trains I intend to run on Girtby Sea. Now, if only we could persuade Hornby to release a composite coach to match the others... I also realise that after announcing Girtby as an LNER layout I have so far failed to provide a single image of any LNER locomotive or piece of rolling stock! Hopefully this goes some way to redressing the balance: C1 Atlantic with Queen of Scots: K3 with refrigerated vans: J15 with cattle train

Glacial progress continues. The first of (at least) 15 Peco bullhead points has been ordered, along with a non-scenic code-75 electrofrog example. (It will be hidden behind a backscene, although it will still comprise part of the loop, which is why it's of the same track profile. All the fiddleyard trackwork will be code 100, because it's so much cheaper!) Also in the post are some more laser-cut MDF handrails to finish off the above-track-level aspects of the Oykel-like (Oykish?) Viaduct, and a ready-to-plant Skaledale rail-over-river bridge. Depending on how the track plan develops, I may need another, but one will be sufficient for this month. I am trying to be organised about how I prepare. As stuff arrives, it gets segregated into preparatory boxes labelled with things like 'UPPER BRANCHLINE' or 'LOWER QUAYSIDE'. It is remarkably satisfying to see the boxes slowly fill. It is also a way to ensure (I hope) future satisfaction: buying everything I need slowly and well in advance means (I hope) that build progress won't be halted too often by having to wait for missing bits and pieces to arrive - a particular issue with resin items, because once the tooling required to make them wears out, it's done, and then the S/H market is your only option. In the meantime (pics to follow), I have decided that I am unsatisfied with the fairly weedy piers provided with the MDF T-section viaduct I've been building, so I am wrapping some 9mm ply offcuts in Wills Coarse Stone to make some slightly more substantial supports. The bridge is part of the climb up to the upper branchline, so please don't panic if it appears to be sloped - that's on purpose! I do sometimes wonder if I have fashioned a rod for my own back by starting with what will almost inevitably become the most scenically-complex area of the baseboard: a three-level, 7-track-containing ravine that features three tunnel mouths, five bridges and at least two major waterfalls. The end result will, I think, look spectacular, and I'm looking forward to posing trains on it, but getting to that point is likely to be slow, complicated and expensive - that's a lot of scenic features to incorporate in quite a small area! Here's hoping it all works out...

Good morning Tony. I have an awful lot of the Wills Coarse Stone sheets to paint. The example on Little Bytham, the retaining wall that features in the lower right corner of the three pictures above, is about as realistic a stone effect as I've seen achieved with it. Can I ask what materials and techniques you used to get that effect? I would like, if I may, to steal it shamelessly... Regards, Gavin

I bought one not long after they first came out, plonked it on the rolling road and burned out the motor in less than two minutes at half power. It was returned, a new motor fitted and I've had no problems since. There do seem to have been a bad batch among the first releases, and some of the mechanical errors were not minor faults! That said, I am now debating with myself whether my next heavy LNER freight loco should be a pre-war O2 or a pre-war Q6...

The photos do indeed look good enough that I've been persuaded to place an order for an LNER example. Not wild about the front coupling, obviously, but such things are eminently fixable.

I used to be averse, but I have subsequently been extended to the full ode.

Great news about the PLA Janus. I assume the wagons are on the same boat? Looking forward to having it and the recently-announced Hornby PLA Peckett scuttling about on the quayside. I have a question, though: what brake van would be suitable? (Incidentally, I told someone recently that I had a few PLA models on order. Brow furrowed, they asked in all seriousness if I was modelling Palestinian railways now?)

Even more bemusingly, why is Hattons advertising a wagon as 'Busbys, East Kensington' when the wagon very clearly has West Kensington printed on the side?

Has there been any development or movement in the last... good grief, 7 months?

And so, the first of the queries. The fast lines and the slow lines ought to have slightly different colours of ballast. At the moment my inclinations are towards Woodland Scenics's medium-grade materials - pale grey for the fast lines and medium grey for the slow lines. But can anyone suggest a better alternative? The key criteria are: it'll look good (i.e. appropriate for an ER layout); it's easily obtainable (because I have hundreds of feet of this stuff to lay); and, not-unrelatedly, it doesn't require extensive modification post-purchase. The thought of painting 80' of tiny stone chippings does not appeal...! Your thoughts? GB

For those of you keen to keep an eye on 'Wright Writes's Milometer', post #24975 will be the last on page 999.

I find that interesting, because it chimes a little with my 'tastes' in research. When I was younger, nothing but the gleaming expresses would do. Now, though? Give me goods or freight any day of the week. The variety of rolling stock, the condition of the vehicles, the loads themselves all intrigue me far more than the more uniform passenger services. Is that a heresy on LB?

By way of penance... An empty loco coal train, destined therefore for the Up Slow line (i.e. heading north) on Girtby Sea (although it is here viewed on my previous layout, Starlingford). I sometimes forget that while loaded mineral trains look excellent, a balanced working requires empty wagons to head in the opposite direction!

Actually, you'd be amazed at how often I hear Churchill's dictum abused, with people assuming that 'Action' is being used as a verb. It isn't: Churchill, knowing that sometimes the soul of communication is the omission of needless words, simply dropped 'Requires' from the beginning of the sentence.

We need a 'gobsmacked' response icon...

Thumb finally pulled out: I have started what is likely to be a very 'slow burn' layout thread for what I fully intend to be my layout of a lifetime, 'Girtby Sea'. It can be found here. Regards, Gavin /end thread hijack.

Hello all. The time has come (the walrus said) to talk of many things: of track and trains and scenery; of timetables and Beeching... Well, not quite, but we may as well get started. I'm Gavin, and I have finally reached a stage where I can begin my layout of a lifetime. I have a 40' x 20' space to put it in, I have an awful lot of stock ready and waiting (the majority of which appeared on a previous layout that appeared desultorily on RMWeb, called 'Starlingford'), and I have a clear(ish) idea of the trackplan. It will be a 4-track mainline with a pair of branchlines - one rising 4" or so; the other dropping fully 8" to a quayside (that will itself be a fully independent 'dogbone' loop), which means that the mean track level will be 11" above sea level (so as to give sufficient clearance for ships 'passing' under bridges). Baseboard construction will be open-frame in 9mm ply with the main ribs spaced 15" apart. Track will be Peco bullhead throughout, wired for DC but using busses (which ought to make conversion to DCC at a later point, should I ever choose to go down that route, far more straightforward). Points, slips etc will use electrofrogs (or, rather, live unifrogs). As I've never done any of this before, expect to see pleas for advice/help! I intend to box a bit clever with eras. Although it will most often appear in an LNER 1930s/40s guise, I intend to make it possible to post-date it to BR days through some cunning switching of stock and vehicles. The pace of building will be slow. I have time and space but not much by way of disposable income; a slow-and-steady accumulation of bits 'n' pieces leading to flurries of progress is likely to be the way in which this works. My passion is the scenic side of things; my dread is the electrickery. I expect, by the time I'm done with the (hundreds? thousands?) of dropper wires the layout will require, to be able to feign a degree of competence, but I'm starting from square 1! In the meantime, and in order to get this thread moving in the way it ought, here are some pics of initial forays into developing the permanent way. The layout requires at least 8 bridges of various types, ranging from small stream-crossers to an almighty 4-track monstrosity to take the mainlines through 90 degrees on a 4'-radius curve (the inspiration for the biggun, incidentally, is Newcastle's King Edward VII bridge, albeit radically bent). Fortunately I really like building bridges and have made a good start. I now have 3 bridges in various stages of completion. The first is a twin-track trestle bridge for the lower branchline. It's (nominally) based on the one at Portmadoc and, while it requires 9 stone piers to complete it, enough exists to give you a reasonable idea of what the end result will be: The second is the viaduct that will carry the Up Slow line across the same body of water as the lower trestle bridge. This time my inspiration was the Oykel Viaduct at Invershin. As you can see, there is still some painting and construction work to be done (handrails are missing on one side; I have yet to work out the drop of the land beneath the stone arches, with the implications that has for the necessity for piers) but, again, the basic structure is there: Finally, I have a T-section girder viaduct for the upper branchline to cross the feeder river that creates the water feature the aforementioned bridges will cross. This is the only one (so far) to have been available as a complete kit in its own right, being made of laser-cut 3mm MDF. It's also slightly different in that the track on it is standard Peco Code 75; I wanted the closer sleeper spacing for the bridge span. Unfortunately I don't have a picture of it to hand, but I'll get one put up at some point. So that's the current state of play: a long-term build of a layout of a lifetime, featuring dramatic scenery and scale-length trains. I hope you enjoy the journey with me. Regards, Gavin

Coming from my neck of the woods, I would be asking "Tyrone - after the county?" Sky is a very old name indeed - an abbreviation of the old Germanic 'Schuyler' (which I've seen rendered as 'Skylar', though only by Americans). Chantelle is almost as old but didn't often crop up in the UK (though it's worth noting that Chaucer, in his Nun's Priest's Tale, features Chanticleer, whose name is derived from the same source). Wellington as a forename is a surprisingly recent development - I'm struggling to find anyone bearing it before the 20th century. Chardonnay and Brooklyn, though... not my cup of tea. (My mother once taught a girl called Dakota Armor. You'd wonder what on earth - or, indeed, if - her parents were thinking...) Regards, Gavin P.S. I'm glad you were born when you were too - I am always immensely grateful when you share your reminiscences of ECML mainline steam, as it's a recollection of a firsthand experience I shall never have.

I remember really enjoying the film, but on reflection I think that's because I went to see it on a first date that ended spectacularly well... The books are the thing, though. They're unutterably brilliant.

Oh, that's wildly unfair. There was nothing incompetent whatsoever about the decision to use King's Cross as a focal point in those stories. It was one of the cleverest things in the books, in terms of its thematic foreshadowings.