moawkwrd

If the 08 shocked you, there’s someone flogging a printed TT:120 catalogue for £20 already!

Very neatly done - I doubt mine will look half as tidy!

Honestly prefer having releases a month or so apart - better than having to face the choice or expense of what to buy all in one month! Looking forward to my late BR version and 57ft coaches. Think it’ll look great all weathered up with a few Mk1s mixed in and a 50ft brake.

Use of a pilot loco was fairly common I think, particularly at terminus stations in steam days - Loco B would essentially go off scene in your case to the nearest turntable/depot and then return later facing the other direction to hook up at the rear of your carriages now in the departure lane. My shelf layout will operate in much the same way except with diesel traction so no real need to change direction.

^That’s similar to how I did mine, except I cut out the space in the cab detail for it to fit through so from outside it looked the same as before. Even the capacitor included with the Zimo decoders was enough to help on DCC. Though must be said I get better running now on DC using a track cleaner.

I’m hoping they do release blue and grey Mk1s - perhaps when the other diesels are closer. Class 37 with Mk1s will be lovely.

My A3 has something similar that I need to investigate - the tightness of the screw changes the angle that the front bogie is held in at relative to the chassis. Too tight and it bends upwards meaning it can move laterally slightly, loosening the screw solves that but I think it’s causing me other issues as I still get occasionally derailment in R3 curves. I think I need to bend slightly upwards (or downwards depending on how you hold it) the metal from the screw hole to where the bogie spring/bolt sits so that it doesn’t bend upward when screwed in correctly (as it isn’t too tight that causes the issue). Might be worth checking?

What are people's thoughts on running this layout with just one controller? I'm thinking now that it's unlikely that I'll be running two trains at once (my scenario was that I could operate the branch line and the continuous loop at the same time - but now I'm thinking this isn't really possible as in order to shunt the sidings the train would need to use the station lines to run around etc. anyway). With the number of points I have running a train from one circuit to the other isn't straight forward either due to the arrangement of points and location of power feeds. It isn't just a seamless case of setting the controllers to the same setting, but also checking points and working out why there's no power to sections of track. It's just unnecassary I think for this layout. I'll play around tomorrow with just using one controller instead - I think it'll make life easier. I do intend to add some isolated sections though to the fiddleyard sidings so that I can hold locomotives as part of the operating sequence; this means there's no longer a branchline/mainline as such and trains can do left hand running on the right hand side. So for the passenger/parcels traffic the steps would be - Train departs from siding anticlockwise Arrives at station and loads/unloads Arrives loco first into siding with loco being isolated New loco is unisolated, and can run through the points to couple up to the rear of the train just arrived into the siding New train departs siding clockwise back to the station and loads/unloads Train runs loco first into siding and loco is isolated again Loco from either of other isolated sections can run through points to couple up to rear of the train just arrived. This can therefore repeat all day long with carriages/formations being changed as desired. The goods traffic has more steps of course; Loco leaves sidings with goods/freight train clockwise Pulls into station and uncouples Loco runs around train to recouple at the rear Pulls train back into the tunnel to access the sidings Drop off/shunt/pick up Drop off/shunt/pick up Drop off/shunt/pick up Loco reenters siding loco first ready for the train to be rearranged - whether I put another isolated section in this siding so that a different loco can couple up to run this again, or just rearrange it by hand - not sure. Not sure yet either on the number of isolated sections I want. With only the J50 and Green Class 08 currently really suiting the layout I suppose it doesn't matter too much. But when we have a green 37 and some other tank locos I guess I could justify having more to operate a longer sequence. Don't think the A3 and Coronation should count towards it but makes sense to put them in now. Could do 5 in total on the outside sidings and then maybe one each on the inside sidings. Of course there would be variation which I need to work out, such as passenger/parcels traffic using platform 2, but I think that would provide plenty of operation interspersed, all with one controller/circuit rather than trying to do it with 2 and getting frustrated with the realities of DC control. Think it only makes sense to have two seperate control circuits with twin continuous loops, not with one loop and an end to end that needs to use the loop too. I also spent half an hour on my hands and knees trying to find the spring from a faulty point earlier... always fun to then find that it was caught on your sock the entire time. 😁

Finished wiring up the switches for the isolated sections and added the track cleaner today. As noted in my other layout thread, think I’m going to pick up the modern station Gaugemaster sound scenic module for this layout. As I intend to keep it DC it’ll just add a nice bit of atmosphere to the dingy built up theme. My class 08 is currently all alone with the TTAs but I’m hoping that when I return from my holiday at the end of the month that the Class 50 can join it.

Not much progress has been made on this layout unfortunately - however I did get an early birthday present to add some lineside atmosphere to the layout. IMG_0698.mov Think I’ll be picking the modern station one up for my shelf layout. The sound is really clear.

Sounds like some PVA may have dried inside one of the fishplates on one side - this is the downfall of sectional track unfortunately, more joints means more potential points of failure. If you have some needle nose pliers, you can try tightening up the fishplates from above. But as mentioned, this is a scenario where having a multimeter makes life easier. I bought mine as a result of having the problems with my points.

Same, I upgraded my soldering iron a couple months ago to a Yihua branded model with temperature control and its miles better than my old cheapo one. It takes the same tips as Hakko etc too. Think it was £30-40. Regarding DC controllers - definitely worthwhile investing in something better than the Hornby one included with the sets. If you want a handheld one you’ll be looking at the likes of the Combi, or Model W but that requires an AC transformer so I’d go with either the Combi or Model D (non handheld) to make life simpler. You can pick either up on eBay for less £50 and still benefit from the lifetime guarantee too. On your point power issue - I’m actually experiencing something similar with my points that were painted and ballasted and since removed and cleaned and relaid - on some I have to hold the blades against the rail to maintain the power. I need to do some more cleaning I think. Could also be that the blades have bent out of shape slightly.

Ditto, no real interest in modern stuff for me. I’ve no interest in capturing what I see now on the railway. It’s too boring.

Bad timing with all the models incoming! I’ve just seen that they do a different single/twin track fiddleyard now which matches the depth of various baseboard kits of theirs. When I bought mine they only had one kind which only matches the height of one of their baseboard kits - looks like they realised that it didn’t make much sense and have now listed which ones they work with on the respective pages.

Progress this weekend - Wiring plan done and SPST switches ordered with some more wire. 5 isolated sections to hold locos should be enough - likely the 2 in the fiddleyard won't be used that often. However, as it turned out I was able to reuse much of the odd lengths from before. Could definitely be better but it works. And now in situ above my desk with the Model D close to hand. 😁 One thing that annoys me about the baseboards is that they're not the same depth. I don't understand why so I had to jack up the fiddleyard with some spare bits of wood for the time being.

One era 6 and one era 8 makes sense if they're only going with 2 to begin with, ties in the other available rolling stock assuming it comes out next year. Alternatively an era 6 and a more modern one makes sense too.

Yeah, and my aversion to all things GWR. I kid! Midlands to me is just more suitable a setting for a crammed in, built around station than the West Country. In all likelihood, it’ll end up being set everywhere and nowhere depending on what rolling stock appears in the future. I am aware that picture of the Class 50 hauling the Mk3 and Class 43 is from Penzance though. I just really liked it.

Thanks, yep that’s the aim. There might be only the slightest sliver of sky in the backscene or none at all depending on what building kits I can clobber together.

Paul made a neat timelapse of a schedule being run on Shelfie3 which is what appealed about this kind of end to end layout. Hopefully we get a DMU in the next few years.

Didn’t want to clog up the first post - So I imagine the setting to be somewhere in the midlands as a likely place for a HST and Class 50 to meet while a Class 08 trundles by. I came across these photos whilst researching the setting which I definitely intend to recreate - But this is the kind of vibe I’m aiming to capture - The plan is almost identical to Shelfie3 which Paul Marshall-Potter has documented on his excellent blog https://albionyard.com/. There’s heavy influence from Ian Futers 3 point layouts there including Victoria Park and Fisherrow. I’m not sure I can in anyway hold up to their excellent modelling but I’ll try! Total length is 190.2cm x 22.1cm Control will be DC I think, to start with at least. And the progress so far! Just spent a few hours tidying up the baseboard with some new cork covering, and then placing the track and adjusting some of the lengths. Not sure yet on the scenery options but seeing all the card kits being used with TT has given me some ideas. You can see my sketching of Vulcan Foundry from the original plan still there… one day maybe! Got a couple of shelf brackets and more cork coming tomorrow and I imagine I can get the wiring done this weekend with any luck.

Hi all, As mentioned in the track plan thread, I’ve been working on this alongside my other continuous layout to make use of the Scale Model Scenery baseboards I have and Peco track from my first attempt at a layout. Basics used are the BB017 and 2 of the BB039 kits. I have two left hand medium and one right hand small point from Peco and some flex track.

These are the plans for the two layouts I'm currently building: 1. Bretton (5ft x 2.5ft) based on the OO classic Bredon by A.C. Wood and since featured in the Peco track plan book as plan 7 in a slightly different form but with a fiddleyard area instead of being fully scenic. 2. Unnamed shelf layout (6ft 2 x 9" roughly including the fiddleyard) - this is one I've been thinking about/working on alongside the above. My first idea for a TT layout was based on Vulcan Halt which I thought I could make work using one of the Scale Model Scenery's BB017 baseboard kits with a couple of the twin track baseboards as fiddleyards on either end when operating. However that quickly ran out of steam (😁) when I realised just how much scratch building would be involved and how it was more of a diorama than a layout. However I came across Ian Futers' layouts based around just 3 points, as well as those of Paul Marshall-Potter and this plan is essentially a reversed version of his Shelfie3 layout in TT making use of the 3 Peco points and flexitrack I have leftover from the original plan. As my other layout is firmly end of steam era based, this new layout can be a home for my BR Blue Class 08, HST, upcoming Class 50 and whatever else comes.

Think that’ll work better operationally rather than needing an excuse for awkward operational moves to take place.

Would a tender loco fit on the single straight in the engine shed though in order to then make it out into those sidings? I’d be tempted to swap those sidings to the other side of that track layout, so basically swap the R6 curve off the first point into that entire arrangement with the point and have two more sidings there. Or have the points start one piece earlier so they’re horizontally aligned and can fan out more.

Might have been delivered yesterday, I sometimes forget to check the postbox. IMG_0638.mov Happy 08 running nicely over 3 points, one Hornby and two Peco. Think the Gaugemaster HF2 helps a lot. I could never get it running this nicely with DCC with the old set of pickups without the stayalive fitted.