thanks chris.

can you fit the torver,woodland and broughton boards into your car or they going to stay at home ?

Assuming that I do do the lot, I'd do them each in two halves anyway so they'd definitely fit individually.
I wouldn't have to take up so much height for any of them, unlike Coniston with the ground below track level and that above, so it might prove possible to get two or, even, three of them in, depending on the other paraphernalia (legs or tables, control panels, cables, rolling stock, etc., etc.) needed.
I'd estimate that the baseboards would individually be between 1/3 and 1/2 the height of Coniston depending on what of the scenery/buildings can be made removable. Additionally, they'd be narrower so it'd be possible to stack some flat and some on edge beside them or in front of or behind the stack. In retrospect I think I did overengineer Coniston too 

It's certainly not a goer to get any of them in as well as Coniston, I do know that. Coniston is definitely a full car, to the extent of taking up the passenger footwell as well as all the luggage area with the rear seats folded down. The three baseboards stacked fit in through the tailgate aperture with about half an inch to spare, heightwise. If I needed to take much more other stuff than I did taking Coniston down to the clubhouse I'd need to put stuff on the passenger seat as well 

One might think there could have been a bit of bad planning but, of course, I never anticipated at the outset getting on so quickly with Coniston so had never considered doing the others as well.

Well it's been two weeks since I returned my crane which arrived with a banana shaped wagon. Generally it was lovely but for £150 a little quality control is called for.
No response to an email asking for an update and the phone just rings out when I try that.
I'll email again later in the week as I really want to have this model but if that doesn't elicit a response then I'll have to get PayPal involved.
Real shame.
Cheers Colin

Hi Colin,

You should have got an email through, the replacement one is already on the way to you so has hopefully arrived as I am writing this.

thanks chris.

can you fit the torver,woodland and broughton boards into your car or they going to stay at home ?

The BDAs and what look like Queen Mary brakes were often used on the Trawnsfynydd flasks. I'm not saying they never made it up the Cumbrian coast but I've not seen pictures so I'm guessing they were swapped en route from Wales to Cumbria to RNAs/HEAs and CAR brakes.

Cheers Mike

The photo taken above is most defo in Wales Mike, but I have also seen 31s on Nuke duty passing through Bristol Temple Meads without BDAs or Queen Mary’s.

I just liked this photo and the train as it’s a good selection of stock that can be reproduced in N.

Skyline2uk

A little update to show that I haven't been idle, nor just "playing trains".

I've now got the relays circuit board completed and tested ready to put into the control panel when I remake that. The relays are to drive LEDs indicating the points settings, latching type so they "remember" the settings even if the power's turned off and tripped by a tap on a point stud. One is slightly modified to give a red/green indication as to whether the reversing wye polarity is correct for the point setting. I'll be remaking the control panel because it needs tidying up anyway and because I still hope to be able to get the signals operational so I'll need places for the switches for them.

As to the signals, I've had a few thoughts, one of which involves preventing SPADs. My thought is to have the signals set to "clear" by means of a solenoid controlled by a sprung toggle switch so they can't be left on for too long. I've had a further thought that I could isolate the track in advance of a signal and make those switches double pole so that clearing a signal also feeds power to the track - i.e. forget to clear the signal and the train stops. Obviously, that'd be a PITA if I'm just testing things, running in a loco or whatever so I've ordered double throw centre off switches with the spring return on one of the directions only. thus I can operate with the signals moving and the track only being powered when clear or throw the switches the other way to just power the track. I'll have to give thought to trains approaching from the back of a signal, possibly some diodes will fix that, i.e the track is always powered for trains coming out of the section protected by the signal but only powered for trains entering if the switch is thrown to clear the signal or for testing. Should be fun.

In the meantime, I've now received the new supply of magnets and fitted all my stock where possible so, in theory, I can uncouple and work the station correctly instead of a fake roundy roundy. In practice, I need a lot of practice at stopping trains in the right place 

Now, whilst I've been waiting for bits to arrive I've revisited this question.

how are you doing with plans for modelling Broughton-in-Furness and torver chris ?

I've been waving a tape measure around and fiddling with track plans and it would appear that (with a little modeller's licence) I can fit Torver into 6' x 2'6", Woodland into 6' x 2' and Broughton into 7'4" x 2'6", including a small fiddle yard behind each. I had intended to build them with a common fiddle yard to only be put on the back of the end one furthest from Coniston, depending how many I connect up. However, doing that would mean a nasty double reverse curve between stations (certainly coming off Coniston as that's already built) and also the possibility of a train arriving at one whilst the back was still in the previous one, yuk.

However, by including a loop at the back I could send a train out of, say, Coniston and it'd run around the back of Coniston, across to the Torver Board, along the back of Torver and round into the station - then it'd go around the back of Torver, cross to the Woodland board, along the back and round into the station, etc., etc. The only downside is that all the stations would be in geographically the wrong order but I can live with that, especially in view of the next paragraph.

By doing it this way and with that above board dimensions I reckon that I can fit all four into my spare room, almost the entire Coniston Railway in one room !!!! 


I'd even have just enough room to get to the back of Coniston should there be any mishaps in the fiddle yard. Wouldn't need room behind the others because they'd be narrow enough to reach across.
To include Foxfield, however, I'd have to buy the house next door and break through the wall, I don't think I'll bother with that 

My thoughts then wandered a little further, to should I decide (or be invited) to take it to any exhibitions. With different  linking bridges between the boards they could also be set up in a square arrangement, approx. 14' square, with the operator(s) in the middle and the viewing sides to the outside;


or, even, all in a straight line, although that'd be some 28' long;


I'd also need a bigger car to get them all in 

Still, food for thought.