what are people doing on their layout right now

[railsquid]

That's today sorted then, Squiddy. Day of rest tomorrow?

Despite being on-call today (12 hours of getting paid for potentially doing nothing more than being available, plus extra for actually having to do something, which I actually had to do, which luckily more than covers yesterday's purchases) and being woken at silly'o'clock by an earthquake, and having a baby in the house who wouldn't take an afternoon nap, and visiting the in-laws for dinner and beer, I actually got something done, admittedly most of it was making up scenery techniques as I go along as I have no idea what I'm doing until I try it, but somehow Progress Has Been Made. And still a couple of hours more of today to Do Something. 

[railsquid]

Also I now have some professionals to help me, once I get enough tea mugs organised.

[Newportnobby]

Absolute bargain - those packs are usually £6.50-£7.00 in the UK

[daveg]

Absolute bargain - those packs are usually £6.50-£7.00 in the UK

Yes, why are little people so very expensive in the UK?

Dave G

[texhorse]

What am I doing on my layout right now?  Hmmm.  Well, I'm actually working on my American layout and my British layout at the same time, installing street lamps and other lights on both.  My soldering iron has been on for the last four hours!  A bit disappointed to find that two of the street lamps have blown before installation though....

Andy

[Newportnobby]

Absolute bargain - those packs are usually £6.50-£7.00 in the UK

Yes, why are little people so very expensive in the UK?

Dave G

It's not just the little people, Dave
At a show last weekend I saw a pack of Noch 20 x N gauge cows and it was £27.95!

[texhorse]

Wow, those are expensive cows!

A tip for those wanting livestock on the layout is to look for poorly painted second hand ones!  I bought ten cows and two horses from a model shop recently which had hardly any paint on them.  A nice coat of white undercoat, then black splotches on the cows; paint the horses brown, and they look like new!

Andy

[Newportnobby]

I have lots of cows on my 'Bletchford' layout but they were purchased from Country Scenes & Trees and, from what I've seen since, they appear horribly undersize

[paulprice]

Well while my fingers have successfully been extinguished for the second time, I have almost completed the relaying of the storage yard which now gives me 5 loops in each direction. All I have to do is fit all the point motors which means more soldering.... :'(

Another job I have managed to make progress on is the repainting of a Jubilee from a horrible BR green livery into post-war lined black (I know Jubes look good in Crimson). All I have to do now is decide what name and number to apply??

I even splashed some paint on the Patriot conversion I have been working on, but it just shown I have a long, long way to go on this, maybe I should start again?

[paulprice]

Looking better already, now nearly time to start lining

Pity I could not say the same about the Patriot

Oh well it gives me even more to do 

[railsquid]

Absolute bargain - those packs are usually £6.50-£7.00 in the UK

It's amazing what you can find if you nose about in the right bargain boxes. Recently I've also found a Peco Y-point (SL 397) for about GBP2.50 - not brand-new but looks like it's been sitting in its package for a couple of decades - and some Graham Farish containers for about the same.

Anyway failed to get anything done today due to hangover and some additional paying work, which will end up in the modelling slush fund

[paulprice]

A little more lining applied to "Rodney", soon it will need a little weathering of maybe a lot?

[Dorsetmike]

Putting Peco platform edging in place, next task will be to test run some stock in and out the station to make sure it doesn't foul the platforms.

[railsquid]

Also on the todo-list for this weekend:

• re-examine a section of track where the electrical supply seems dodgy, with the help of my new multimeter 
• finish off the embedded snow meltwater drain
• miscellaneous ground-coverage work at the front of the layout
• construct the embankment at the rear of the layout which replaces the removed arched wall section in progress
• prepare the remaining bare ground for decorationin progress
• miscellaneous scenery detailingin progress

Hopefully I can get the station segment (40% of this part of the layout) largely "done". Not exhibition-standard "done" of course, just looking generally covered in scenery-like stuff.

I managed to make some progress during the week. Even on a small shelf it's amazing how much space there is which needs "filling", especially when one is not working to a particular plan. Anyway I've worked out how to use some previously purpose-less space at the front, it will make an excellent location for some railway maintenance buildings etc..

I must also keep reminding myself to not get too perfectionist, otherwise I'll never get anywhere...Provided I don't mess up the fundementals too much, I can always come back and rework stuff when I have more time and/or a better idea of what I'm doing.

[Sprintex]

After much cutting, gluing, filing, fettling, more cutting, more filing, carving lumps from thumbs, etc I have replaced the tired barely-working old Poole chassis from my Class 47 with a nice new Lifelike chassis - skew-wound 5-pole motor, twin flywheels, fine-flange wheels Finally fitted the decoder tonight and it's running quietly and smoothly


Paul