Well, that's another year dispensed with & I'm left once again wondering where it has gone! (And I think I may have missed Summer?). Let's hope that 2009 brings us better weather, but more importantly some new modelling goodies 

It's been a while, so I thought I should perhaps publish some ramblings :

Firstly I have been busy constructing trees for the new layout (STILL Un-named!) . This has been a bit of an experiment, as on Norwood Park trees were for the main part ready made. I was never really happy with the appearance of them though, so for this layout I have decided to construct them myself using parts from the excellent Woodland Scenics range.

Parts used were Deciduous Tree Armatures (TR1123) & Fine Leaf Foliage (F1132) Light Green.

To begin with the armatures need twisting into shape. They are made from a plastic which retains it's shape once twisted. Once the basic shape of the tree is formed the armature can be painted in the desired colour if required. (I however chose not to, as I am a lazy modeller and the prospect of painting armatures for a whole wooded area does not interest me at all !). The fine leaf foliage is Sea Moss which has been painted and covered in fine light green foam. I created the branches by teasing out the Sea Moss. This is a messy process, but I think the results are worth it. All foliage is attached to the armatures with Super Glue. I chose to use the glue that comes with a brush for ease of application. Some patience is required when attaching foliage to the armatures.

Here is one of the completed trees:

Some other work has been carried out in the last couple of weeks, mainly on detailing some locos. The arrival of the new Vitrains 47 gave me an excuse to get out the detailing packs.

My first impression of the loco was that whilst it does indeed capture the look of a 47 better than any previous release, the rather steep price of £72 deserved a much better build quality. I would have been much happier with a price tag of around £50 given that there is a good hour's work required just to fit the supplied handrails, etc ! The paint finish on the examples I purchased leaves a little to be desired too, and I was particularly disappointed to find that both locos had suffered damage, albeit repairable, in transit. Some lessons here Mr Vitrains? Gripe over!....

Here are some photos of the RES liveried one, with some detailing parts still to be fitted. (I got bored and distracted with fitting sound - see clips in "The New Project" section). As can be seen, the shape of the 47 is captured well. The bufferbeam air pipes are from Shawplan, and the screwlink coupling is Heljan. Otherwise, the parts are Vitrains. Once I have finished the Intercity version I will weather the pair and post some more photos. Here are a few photos of progress so far :

All of the track is now laid and wired up, and has been for some time now. I have begun the tedious (but worth it!) task of painting the rails & ballasting, along with some scenic items springing up such as tunnels etc.

The main theme for the layout is the South West region, specifically the sort of traffic one would see running along the Dawlish sea wall. Not an HST in sight though! Atleast, not until the new Hornby version is released :-)

I have fitted speedometers to 4 of the lines, which are quite handy for speed matching locos when programming, and also enabled me to calculate (sad, I know!) that to end up where a loco starts from it needs to travel a scale 1.87 Miles. I will post a track plan as soon as I can get my scanner up and running properly, so the following description will have to do for now:

The layout is constructed over two levels, which enables three 16' x 10' double loops to run over and under each other. There is a large through station with additional bay platforms on the upper level. Under this is a 5 road storage yard, long enough for full rake HSTs to be stored. Also on the lower (but obviously visible!) level is a 3 road maintenance depot with raised roads & turntable. Around the corner is a 3 road fuelling point for locos & DMUS. Just past this is a light servicing facility, before the yard joins the branchline from the storage roads. The rest is basically either in tunnels or open mainline with the addition of a fully automated 4 track level crossing.

Presently 6 trains, 3 in each direction, is the maximum I run at any given time, which does cause some headaches sometimes trying to remember where each one is. I intend on fitting automatic signalling over the next few weeks, which should *hopefully* prevent any trains from catching each other up by means of red-aspect controlled "dead zones". Crude but effective. I will not however be installing detection zones though for rigging up to computer control. I do like the idea, but forgot to cater for this when laying the lower level of track. Retro-fitting is not an option!

There are a couple of video clips I have posted in "The new project" section, and more will follow shortly.

I will also be updating this page a lot more now things have developed, and will eventually set up a seperate website once I have some photos to post.

Thanks for reading!

Well, I thought it was about time I updated the website. I have added some new pictures to the homepage, and shifted a few to a new page 'Pictures 6'. The links section has also been updated, as has the stocklist.

Norwood Park has sadly seen very little use in the past year or so, and unfortunately it will be dismantled in the near future. (Not before some serious photo sessions though!).

However, all is not lost! I have been working hard to construct an ambitious layout in my workshop - further details of which will appear shortly. The baseboards are at an advanced stage now and track laying will be commencing soon. I will hopefully be publishing a blog detailing the construction of the layout for those of you who may be interested. The overall dimensions are 16ft x 10ft, and the layout is on two layers. For a loco to end up where it started it will have to travel around 150ft of track to get there.

Well, that's it for now.........