Scalefour Forum

Hello Everybody. This weekend 3 & 4 December is the Christmas Model Railway Show 2016 in Manchester City Centre, organised by Manchester Model Railway Society. More details are at: http://mmrs.co.uk/exhibition/ Just a short walk from Piccadilly station, so really easy to get to by train. I will ...

A few of us visited Tony yesterday evening in preparation for the visit of the rest of the Crewe Group tomorrow but also to run a train or two. Here is a photo of Ambergate with a GWR interloper. This engine will run the through trains from Oswestry on my railway, well that's my excuse anyway. This ...

See you there, Tim.

John

Is there any progress (he says, hopefully) with the earlier pattern LNWR buffer stop with the wooden beam?

John

Hello All. Alsager Railway Association will be holding its annual exhibition over the weekend of 15 and 16 November at the Victoria Centre, Crewe CW1 2PZ More details are at: http://www.alsagerrailwayassociation.co.uk/exhibition.htm "Faringdon" will be there to fly the flag for 18.83 mm mo...

I ordered my copy of the new magazine on Monday, having found out about it on Sunday evening. It arrived in the post yesterday.

Not had time to look at it properly yet, but it does indeed look promising.

John

I like the look of these new baseboards, Jim. Very interesting. Look forward to reading more about this new project here.

John

Hello Ian. From memory - the whole layout is about 17 ft 10 inches by about 10 ft 6 inches - or thereabouts. It was planned I believe to be a snug fit inside the conservatory at Don's house. The track is quite close to the edge of the baseboard in a few places - and sheets of perspex have been screw...

Ian, This is not actually that far off topic here. I remember Don telling me some years ago that his original plan when the layout was being set up in his conservatory was to use 12 volt DC for most of the railway, but use radio control in the marshalling yard at Alpraham Sidings. A dedicated fleet ...

Time flies, as they say, and I had not realised that it is over 12 months since I posted anything on here about the railway. In that time I have been keeping busy and work has been progressing slowly on the railway in between putting time in at the work bench constructing locos and rolling stock. Fo...

I will be going today, only a short trip along the A50 for me.

John

That's an interesting list, thanks, I don't recall seeing it before. Things being equal - I would normally use tin from the enamel ranges of either Precision or Cherry. But I plan on having a "bash" at some coach lining for the first time and am looking for a non-enamel base colour that wi...

Does anyone have any suggestions on which shade of car aerosol paint would be a good match for Midland/LMS Crimon Lake? I think in the past, it was suggested that Leyland Damask Red was quite a good match. I used this to paint my K's 00 Princess longer ago than I care to remember, and I think it cam...

Thank you, Will. Our usual reporter was unable to attend the June meeting of the Crewe Group so I have been asked to put together a few words and pictures for this forum. As is customary, wives and girlfriends were invited to the June meeting of the Group which was blessed by unusually kind weather ...

Hello Paul,

Sorry for sluggish response to your post, p/m sent.

May well do some more pictures of the railway over the weekend.

John S

Some time has passed since the last report, so here goes a short update. Work has been a little slow due to the severe cold weather making it a little uncomfortable to spend too much time in the railway room. However, the new partition wall and door are now in place which keeps out some of the draft...

To follow on from my last note, a bit more news. I now have one of the NSR 10 ton Break (note the spelling!) vans as shown here. IMG_1689s4.jpg You will see that the solebars and floor are still attached to the body by 4 sprues, one at each corner. This was supplied to Mark's design by i-materialise...

Hello Jon. I'm not sure. But, as soon as I hear anything else I will put another note on here.

John S

Hello All, I thought I would put a note on here in case this is of interest. My friend and fellow member of the North Stafford Railway Study Group, Mark Smith, has been doing some work with theis new 3 D printing technology and has now produced a 4 mm scale model of the North Stafford Railway Ballas...

grovenor-2685 wrote:Its generally the fixed wheelbase that matters and all the Derby Std. 8' + 8'6" locos are longer than a black 5.

My 4F, 3F, NSR "D" and GCR Pom Pom all go round the curves ok too. John

Hello Keith, That's a good point. I'm not in any rush to push on with ballasting ... and as you may see in the photo, the C and L flexitrack is only lightly pinned down at the moment. A Black 5 with a compensated Comet chassis has been round the curves that have been relaid so far without any diffic...

As I've not posted anything since October I thought I'd add another photo and a little more news from the Central Cheshire Lines. I have not had as much time to devote to the railway as I would have liked due to combination of employment, being laid up, trying to fix another leak in the roof which t...

Well I see I couple of months have passed since I posted on here, I don't know where the time goes. Anyway, since then progress has been made even if it is not as much progress as I would have hoped for. The up line is now working and last weekend the first train made a full circuit of the railway s...

Hello All, Some progress since I posted last month. The point leading in to the dairy siding that was damaged when the boards were separated prior to departure from Don's has been taken out and the curve has been replaced as shown in the photo here. IMG_0830.jpg The new section of track is being tes...

Hello Jol, I like the signals. If you find you have accidentally made too many and have more than you need, let me know.... Terry, the boards for the railway are made in sections. Aside from the part around the lifting section, the rest of the railway came apart in to four large sections. While thes...