what are people doing on their layout right now

[class377fcc12]

I have just completed a project I have had since September in the form of a 450 from Electra vinyls. Good vinyls and overall a good project I think.

[grumbeast]

After the flood and garage Reno, I'm now doing benchwork!  My railway lives mwahahahahaha!

[Caz]

I have just completed a project I have had since September in the form of a 450 from Electra vinyls. Good vinyls and overall a good project I think.

How about some lovely pics of your work.   

[class377fcc12]

Sorry for the quality but I only had my mobile at short notice, so the pictures really don't do justice.

[smg id=18379 type=preview align=center caption="IMG 0097[1]"]

On a work in progress layout, maybe more on that later.

[Wingman mothergoose]

At the moment I'm concentrating on getting some of my locos up to standard. I've fitted tender pick ups to my Farish A4 and my friend's Farish 8F, I've treated my Farish A3 to an N Brass replacement front bogie, and it runs and looks far superior to the old bogie!
I've repaired my Jinty and got it running smoothly, and I'm not in the process of getting the kit built J50 and J52 I bought off eBay last year. These two came in plain black, no running numbers or BR crests, one had rudimentary couplings but no buffers, the other had buffers and no couplings! So now both have buffers, courtesy of N Brass, and I'm halfway through fitting Peco Elsie couplings to both, so now they will be able to shunt stock and haul the pick up goods. Jobs for tonight or tomorrow are painting buffer beams and buffers, then adding BR crests and choosing appropriate running numbers for locos shedded at Annesley or Leicester, then a spot of weathering and a sealing coat of either hairspray or matt varnish.
Next projects are 2 old Ultima MK1 suburban coach kits, and completing the re wheeling of my Minitrix LNER coaches with modern shallow flanged Farish/Bachmann coach wheels.

Chris

[sparky]

Searching in my first aid box for a plaster after losing a fight with my modelling knife whilst trimming some sleepers...ouch!

[steve836]

planting trees- 100 done about 1000 to go! [smg id=18506 type=preview align=center caption="004"][smg id=18507 type=preview align=center caption="003"][smg id=18508 type=preview align=center caption="002"]
and starting the loco facilities[smg id=18509 type=preview align=center caption="001"]
4 Metcalfe engine shed kits on order to be amalgamated to make one big shed. The Liddle End shed will stay for tank engines. Will scratch build a coaling stage like the one at Rowsley.

[mr bachmann]

not working on the layout , as its on the door and with the cold weather here I've put the door back on the bedroom , easy enough - its on rising but hindges ...

[Newportnobby]

Scenery is looking good, Steve, although I'm not sure I'd want brake fade coming down the hill to the bridge

[steve836]

Scenery is looking good, Steve, although I'm not sure I'd want brake fade coming down the hill to the bridge

I agree, I may move the road to the right to ease the slope, but in a book about a signalman at Cromford a railwayman died when he crashed his push-bike on that hill.

[sparky]

As a Welshman your hill looks quite flat to me..,..a really steep hill is only when the sheep can't cling on !

[railsquid]

I'm having a major planning epiphany... My current layout "design" (see link in footer) evolved from my original idea of a small out-and-back layout on an old desk, which grew into a proper baseboard, which became effectively a double-track oval and a stubby high-level double-track Shinkansen line, which is OK, but after messing around with it for a while it's a bit boring. Anyway I recently saw a dusty layout tucked away in a corner of the Kato HQ shop in Tokyo which implements what I believe is called a "folded dogbone", i.e. a figure-of-8 but which loops round itself on the outside, if you see what I mean, and I thought to myself, "Squiddy, that's what we're looking for". The layout in question is about the same size as the baseboard I currently have available, and it took me a while to work out how the track actually fitted together. Anyway I've been implementing a provisional version using an unspeakable mixture of Kato and Tomix track, and despite involving a relatively steep gradient on a small (243mm) radius curve, it seems to work pretty well; even the weaker British (GraFar/Dapol) motive power copes with the climb with a reasonable amount of coaches (given the space available, I define "reasonable" as "3 Mk1 coaches"). According to Scarm, that gives me almost 10m of running on a baseboard which is 1.8 x 0.9m (6' x 3'), with space to spare. As I'm planning to expand the baseboard into an L-shape, that makes the addition of another loop possible with some nice multi-level running and a mix of urban/rural scenery.

Admittedly this will be all very Rule 1, but excellent fun.

[mark37/4]

Currently waiting for a section of track to dry after gluing it down, refit the level crossing, and then takie it to a local show in under 1 hour, for the weekend


Mark

[railsquid]

Good luck with the show!

Railsquid (who partly grew up down the coast in Millom).

[scotsoft]

Anyway I recently saw a dusty layout tucked away in a corner of the Kato HQ shop in Tokyo which implements what I believe is called a "folded dogbone", i.e. a figure-of-8 but which loops round itself on the outside, if you see what I mean,

I do see what you mean exactly as I have a similar folded dogbone which is all Kato Unitrack and it works very well.
I have a couple of plain old loops going round inside of the folded dogbone and I can sit watching three trains going round varying the speed when I feel like it 

I do like the sound of what you are proposing, so I hope there will be some pictures soon 

cheers John.