GWR LNER fan 4472

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I have plans for a single track analogue Thomas loop to go round the room in our new house that we're hoping to move into in Febuary-March time. We'll keep our normal layout, but this will be a Thomas-themed one. My idea is to have it based on various locations from Thomas's branchline. I chose this as my basis because there's much more photos and illustrations of this than Duck's or Edward's and I didn't want to have the main line as it would mean double track and more expensive engines. So far, the locations I'm intending to model are 'the post windmill' as seen in the opening titles, Mrs Kyndley's cottage, the road over rail bridge and signal box again in the opening titles, Elsbridge river bridge and Elsbridge/Knapford station. In the books, Elsbridge is a small through station, but in the TV series it's a four-platform junction, seemingly based off Knapford station from the books. However in the TV series, Knapford is a huge canopied station. As I'm happy switching between and combining elements from the books and TV series, the station I'll model could be the TV series verision of Elsbridge or Knapford junction from the books whenever I fell like it. This limits the number of Thomas locos I can get, as only four permanently work on Thomas's branch. I already have a Hornby Percy and trucks, but when Bachmann's UK range becomes available I'll get Thomas and Annie and Clarabel, no need for an expensive Gordon or Henry. Has anyone got any idea when the Bachmann range will be out?

That's alright, I was just mentioning it generally. Even though Hornby may not have produced all the trucks, coaches etc listed in their Thomas & Friends range, it wouldn't take much imagination to use things from the normal Hornby range or indeed any other manufacturer.

Some good winding up in here... Back to the original post, may I add that in the books Duck and Oliver pull two GWR auto-coaches in GWR chocolate and cream each (Duck: Alice and Mirabel, Oliver: Isabel and Dulcie), however in the TV series, these are absent and instead they pull the normal red 'branchline coaches'. As previously posted, every engine has pulled all sorts of trains, so really it doesn't matter, but the list GNR-Gordon-4 posted is pretty accurate. Donald and Douglas in particular are known as odd-job engines, suited for pretty much any task on the Railway. Douglas shares Toad with Oliver, so it would be alright to have Douglas pulling ballast trucks (the prime freight traffic on Duck's branchline) with Toad as his brakevan. Stepney would look good with 4 or 5 empty trucks like in the story 'Train Stops Play', where a cricketer bats a ball into one of the trucks. Alternatively, later in the same story, Stepney pulls a flatbed with Caroline the car on it followed by a brakevan. D7101/Bear pulls 'the Limited' in his main story, so this would be a rake of bogie coaches. In addition, D199 pulls oil tankers in this same story. Bill and Ben work at the china clay works, so china clay wagons would be an appropriate train for them.

Probably this: https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/U54561/2019/09/21/advanced Bristol Temple Meads to Ely. Rail tour info says it was the 'Great Western Statesman' hauled by two class 47s.

I decided that this summer I'd make a foray into the world of weathering. I'd got an old Airfix standard 4MT that I'd hand painted years ago, not very well, I must say. Therefore, I thought I'd set about doing a proper job. As all my locos and stock (except one coal truck) aren't weathered, for my next layout, I'm planning to do a 1960s setting for part of it, which of course requires dirty steam engines. First, I painted over the BR lined black of the 4MT with paint brush and Humbrol 33 matt black. I then did a rough design of what parts would be weathered in coloured pencil. It actually didn't look too bad itself from a distance, but up close you could tell it was pencil. I then purchased a can of Humbrol matt black spray and dark earth spray and two pots of Humbrol weathering powder. I also got some HMRS transfers. /media/tinymce_upload/6642ecb3675e7d9c793fea4f994b863b.jpgHere's how it looked before, minus boiler stripes that I'd painted over before I decided to take photos. /media/tinymce_upload/230cbd194c215522d2cc85738ba5e20f.jpgAfter I'd hand painted it. /media/tinymce_upload/9705c1d83ed23862ddce97a0ba7d8392.jpgPencil weather prototype. /media/tinymce_upload/e816077f32b1b088fac866ee7cd37082.jpgSprayed black and transfers applied (that was trickey!) /media/tinymce_upload/d36b19d0111a25a422ed30a5d8eefdd3.jpgAnd the final product. /media/tinymce_upload/3bdb8c7cd0678ce90173570fb243eb25.jpg/media/tinymce_upload/b441f5fa68b21ce0445415f1419b27aa.jpg

Manor gets my vote too. A lined black version would be nice, thanks!

Hello, I read this topic a while back and have only now got round to sniping out the capacitors on my layout. I have 4 power tracks on my layout (using Select and Walkabout) - three R8206 (tan coloured buttons) and one R8241 (green buttons). When I went to snip out the capacitors, one of the R8206s didn't have one in (as with MaartinL6 above). The one had a yellow capacitor and the other blue. The R8241 was a recent purchase (last year), but the R8206s I got in the Mallard analogue set 2013 one came in the DCC Pullman set with Clan Line around 2007 and I'm not sure about the other, bought seperately I think. Anyway, our trains often take a bit of nudging to get going and often stop in the middle of the track. I thought this was just a part of model railways. The track is regularly cleaned with the Hornby track rubber and no dirt is on the rails, so I know that's not the problem, so after reading this, I thought it might be because of the extra capacitors. I snipped out the capacitors and turned the power on again. However, once the capacitors in the track were gone, every loco acted exactly the same as before, each one that usually took a bit of nudging still did and so on and now there was interference on the telly downstairs. I can't understand why, as don't all the decoders have built in capacitors, hence why the track capacitors needed to be cut out? Not sure if there is any difference, but I use a mixture of Hornby, Gaugemaster and Bachmann decoders. All the motors on my layout (all locos and one turntable) have decoders fitted. Can anyone suggest why there is interference and what I can do to sort it please? Also why my locos don't work any differently? Thanks

Very good layouts all. It's a good space you've got there m_duck, I enjoy Thomas layouts and spotting all the recognisable features. Yes, ballasting I've found to be very untidy, however good results. We're having some building work done and the breeze blocks left a lot of dust, which is actually perfect for ballast! I lay it loose between the foam underlay of the tracks and it looks quite effective in my opinion. The underlay itself is less effective however.

Currently painting some dapol Railway Workmen, one of which I've painted to look like the Fifth Doctor. I'm hoping that I'll find suitable unpainted figures for all 13/14 Doctors over the next few years... /media/tinymce_upload/8e01b55993f6a225dd00788484522b31.jpg

A BR Standard class 2 tank and tender would be lovely please. As always, good prices are desirable, but I won't get my hopes up.

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I'm also really proud because we've finally managed to get the curved platform to fit properly with the track using Hornby standard track pieces only. This should've been an easy enough task, however the loop is a mixture of 2nd and 3rd radius curves (because of the points going off to make a triangle). So going clockwise from the straight, I have R8073 right hand point, R609 3rd rad curve, R609, R610 mini straight, R607 2nd rad curve, R607. The right hand spur leads to the bay platform going on the other side of the platform to the outer loop. This is made up of R610, R609, R606 single 2nd rad curve, R605 1st rad curve, R605. This fits large bogie coaches on each side (with a rather unrealistic "mind the gap" gap).

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After quite a long break from railway modelling, I've started on the long list of plans I have for the summer. I've nailed down the 'chimney loop' and will soon add reed switches ect to avoid short circuits. The long term plan for this part of the layout is to build a mountain around the chimney block and have a small OO9 spiral. Pics to come.

A blue box GWR Class 56xx. Great little loco, although perhaps a little longer than I imagined. Quick and easy decoder insallation, that's some thing I'd like Hornby to do more of - DCC ready tank engines. Superb detail and very heavy so presumably a good hauler. Not run in yet, but checked and all seems to function correctly. Looking forward to using it 😀

@GNR-Gordon-4 Yes, it's the Railroad Tornado. We bought it at Minehead when we went to see Tornado there in 2011. Here's an overview of the town. Most of the buildings are old ones from the '70s and '80s, but there are a few newer ones such as the firestation, market hall and the supermarket. /media/tinymce_upload/3f146e8ab8592b57f45b8152780445fe.JPG

92220 Evening Star hauling the long coal train, which can be seen curving round behind. /media/tinymce_upload/cc33d4043476ef26a477548983f6d1de.JPG

4073 Caerphilly Castle overtakes the branchline goods hauled by 9400 whilst 35028 Clan Line passes in the other direction. As you can see, the branchline track is not properly nailed down yet as it needs re-aligning. /media/tinymce_upload/87293396daf3ccfc65a0b17089e8db64.JPG Speeding through the countryside, 60163 Tornado passes 4468 Mallard. Unfortunately, Tornado is missing a buffer and it is still a mystery as to when or how it broke off. /media/tinymce_upload/b35f69730a4eb1f05924eb7171f25982.JPG

Loads of great models on here, well done all. I think it's about time I shared some pictures of our railway. I've recently put up the backscenes in part of the railway behind the town so I tried a bit of photography with it. As ever, of course, it's a work in progress so any suggestions welcome. I'm particularly looking for something to do beside the line - that is between the track and the gardens/forest etc. To put our railway in context, it's based around a town square and two other villages. The trains are from all over history and all over Great Britain. The pictures you'll see are from the town area only as that's the most picturesque part, but there are two single line branches and a goods/engine yard as well.

Although not a model, I've just bought the Observer's Guide to British Steam Locomotives second hand for £15, but it was worth it. A brilliant book, ideal for quick referencing. It includes information on every type of steam loco at the formation of British Railways in 1948 and lists quantities of each class and wheel arrangement. It was published in 1955 so doesn't include withdrawral dates. Also got the more modern Railway Pocket Bible, which has "Everything you want to know about railways". Both are cracking reads and highly recomended if you haven't already got one.

Let's say I'm under 20. My only passions in life are railways and general nerdy stuff (i.e. Star Wars, Doctor Who etc.). I grew up watching and reading Thomas the Tank Engine so I guess that's one of the reasons why I love railways. I do not have any game console and I'm not on any social media unlike all my friends. I save up the money I earn from mowing neighbour's lawns and at the end of the year, or when I have enough, I buy an engine or something. Caerphilly Castle was my first purchase in this form and I suppose that's why I'm so fond of it. Unfortunatly, I'm runing out of space on my layout so I'm postponing buying rolling stock until I get my own house... ah, the dream... I'll only buy new rolling stock if there's something I'm desperate for.

I've got a GWR 101, 2 GWR pannier tanks (5700 and 9400 class) and a BR diesel 08 class (needs complete re-fit before anything else) in line for converting to DCC. All are Hornby except 9400, which is Lima. All are from the 70s/80s and could do with a good clean and lubrication. What I have done in the past is used the 4pin decoder and sometimes shortened or lengthened the wires to fit in other tank engines such as the Terrier and another 101 (both recent Hornby models but still not DCC ready).

Just converted an old class 37 (37 130 in BR blue) to DCC. A great thing about large diesels is that there's plenty of room inside to store the decoder! I still have a few tank engines to do so I'll probably try and get a 4 pin decoder for each of them.

After long last, I've finaly got my hands on three GWR Collett chocolate and cream corridor coaches - LH brake, LH composite and RH composite - and just in time as well, I bought the last stock of each in the shop! I must say they look absoloutley beautiful. Not had a chance to run them yet but I plan to have them pulled by Caerphilly Castle - I can't wait! 😆 The detail is superb and fully worth £39.99 each. Thanks once again Hornby for such magnificently detailed models!