Hi All, Thanks for the kind comments. I have to declare myself out of the competition as I wouldn't make a start until the end of next week at the earliest. I tried putting together a freight car kit last night - least said about the end result the better, and that was a simple kit. Good job I didn't start the rare detailed one that arrived in the mail earlier in the week. Plus I well and truly fried an ESU Loksound decoder (UK sounds) Sunday when swapping out a non-sound for a sound decoder. Realistic smoke! No sound! No motor!! No decoder!!! That one has put a nice dent in this year's modeling budget (£120-odd). What are the odds there will be a third incident to round things off. I do have some soldering work on some Shinohara turnouts to do (DC power routing to DCC, I'll post when able), what could possibly go wrong with that......hmm, perhaps I'm tempting Murphy with that one. Good news is that I have 3 baseboards to play around with when I'm functional. And no 4' limitation (nearer 7' plus a 3' fiddle yard). Cheers, Nigel PS. Great emoticons here, just about sums up my modeling week from hell. Good job I can laugh about it. It's only a hobby, not a job. Onward and upward. Save
Sorry to hear of your modeling woes Nigel. maybe a break and a fresh start when you are more up for it. cheers toto
Sounds like you need to get a 7lb lump hammer and a piece of wood and knock seven bells of whatever out it, won't improve the wood but you should feel better afterwards Take it easy, time for a bit of research, and please dont break the internet Paul
We value your knowledge Nigel so even though you cant do much modelling yourself others could benifit from your advice Ian
Hi All, Thanks for all the kind comments. Things are steadily improving. I have recently put hand to iron, and done some modifications of a number of Shinohara code 100 HO turnouts to get them from being decidedly DCC antagonistic to being 100% DCC compliant. Turned out OK, so onward and upward. I will post separately. I decided to continue the plank exercise, albeit a bit longer, as it turned out #4 turnouts don't work with a couple of the locomotives I want to use. Having had a good chance to do some armchair and internet modeling (low cost), I was taken by the track plan of Highworth station, the terminus of the Highworth Light Railway that ran from Swindon to Highworth. Nice curve coming into the station and a separate platform for the milk and cattle traffic (7-8 Siphons twice a day were common in the 1920's and 1930's). Plus a much simpler track plan (not so many turnouts, an important factor when you have to build them). I'll throw that into the pot along with the original idea and see what comes out. I'll start a separate post on that one as well. Nigel
Glad to see you back on the horse so to say - just take it easy and don't fall off. Looking forward to the updates Paul
Hi Paul, Only time I got remotely close to coming off the nags was when I took an ex-steeple chaser for its morning walk. Forgot that pulling up means go faster for a racehorse. And so off we went, heading straight for the nearest 5-bar gate at a brisk gallop. Three miles later (and at least a dozen gates) and he decided that that I'd had enough exercise for the day. And he was 16 years old. A good 'un. Nigel
Hello Nigel / GP7 , Re your upgrade of Shinohara track. Are you aware of Andy Reichert's The Proto:87 Stores ( www.proto87.com ) as he sells an ingenious crossing bridge / frog assembly which s layered and makes up an AREA style cast crossing bridge, and his site has a detailed illustrated section on Shinohara upgrades. The kit is available in either standard or fine scale versions. He also has Trackworks which is an assembly jig designed to make up standard and curved point / switch either left handed, or flipped over for right handed. As an aside Andy ' s Ttackworks is similar in principle to the late Bernard Weller and Derek Cross prototype jigs for Exactoscale. Unfortunately Bernard died before production started and the new owners never implemented it. The other jig system available is Fast Tracks fro Canada. For modellers of Australia's SAR, VR or NSWGR, all of whom utilised AREA ( American Railway Engineering Association ) track standards Proto87 components allow for the construction of very accurate track. It good that you are on the mend, take care. Best wishes and regards, Echidna