New year, new layout (GWR OO 1930s)

[d74]

A photo update, as I've been busy adding some details and it was a sunny morning which is always good for close-up photos.

A waiting passenger, some crates and a sack on a trolley, all by Preiser. The figure is of an ex-German chancellor, but it's a great figure and I'm sure no-one will ever notice:


A little mini-scene that I knew I wanted to do, two passengers studying the timetable:


"Dark in here, innit?" "Who said that?"


The problem with getting old is that first your knees go, then you start losing your focus:


A close-up shot of the area near the engine shed:


And one looking from the turntable towards the station:

[sishades]

That tile in the last picture looks like a weird square UFO about to invade the planet.!

[d74]

That tile in the last picture looks like a weird square UFO about to invade the planet.!

It's an accurately modelled square cloud or "rectonimbulus".

[Geo6606]

very nice layout, got any new locos planned??

[d74]

very nice layout, got any new locos planned??

The current fleet is a Castle, a prairie and a pannier. The Castle tends to be used to run round the loop with some coaches while I'm shunting in the yard with the prairie, while the pannier comes and goes with the autocoach. I think I do need one more loco as I needed to decouple my pannier tank from its autocoach the other day to help complete some shunting manoeuvres, so when Hornby release their shirtbutton livery 14xx later in the year I'm going to get that and use it with the autocoach so the pannier is freed up to act as a second shunter.

[Geo6606]

cool, I have a 14xx and it runs ok, but it is a bit jerky. if you feel confident, you could always replace the motor with a smoother run. its something i want to do at some point

[beerandpies]

That looks excellent! For some reason, when I saw the waiting room I thought 'Swedish sauna!'

[sarah]

That tile in the last picture looks like a weird square UFO about to invade the planet.!

"We are the Borg..."

Sorry, couldn't resist...

Great pics by the way.

[d74]

A quick introduction to the layout's newest and oldest loco, an Airfix 48xx/14xx, which was rescued from a scrapyard by a friendly signa... um, bought from a model shop by an impulsive modeller:





Handsome little chap, and in excellent condition for a model that's somewhere between 27 and 33 years old. It even had its original Airfix box, with (c) 1975 on it!

[hairyhandedfool]

That tile in the last picture looks like a weird square UFO about to invade the planet.!

"We are the Borg..."

Sorry, couldn't resist...

Great pics by the way.

Resistance is futile!!!



Its the little things that make the railway come alive and that layout is well on the way to being a good 'un

[sarah]

A quick introduction to the layout's newest and oldest loco, an Airfix 48xx/14xx, which was rescued from a scrapyard by a friendly signa... um, bought from a model shop by an impulsive modeller:

Handsome little chap, and in excellent condition for a model that's somewhere between 27 and 33 years old. It even had its original Airfix box, with (c) 1975 on it!

Ah. That will be "Oliver" then?

[Geo6606]

i love the 14xx's. good buy there I think
after seeing your ratio station building I decided to prise my roof off and do it again, now looks much better as they are aligned perfectly, I just need to fill the gap between the sloped roof and the flat roof
keep up the good progress

[d74]

I added my opinion of the 14xx to the review thread:
http://www.newrailwaymodellers.co.uk/Forums/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=14881

It is stopping a bit; I think it's something to do with the wheels seizing up on curves. When it happens the rear driving wheels look like they've moved to the side, so I think somehow they're binding on the track. There are traction tyres that don't go the full width of the wheel, so I think maybe they're sometimes next to the rail rather than on it and that's stopping the wheels turning. It's a pain, as it happens on curves and the tunnel is on a curve, so I've had to retrieve it from inside a couple of times.

[sarah]

The Old Airfix 14XX had a reputation for being a bit tempermental. I think the usual problem was the Universal Joint in the drive train. It seems that the design and the technology were not quite up to the job. It seems the new Dapol and Hornby versions have a totally different drive train.

That said, I never had any problems with the one I had, oh so long ago now!

I hope you find (and are able to fix.) the problem.

[d74]

It's not too bad; after its last incident I re-railed it and ran it for five laps forwards and five backwards without a problem, so it's not unusable. I just have to live with it playing up every now and then.

I've found a site on the history of the Airfix range; the loco was first released in this livery in 1977 and is definitely in an Airfix branded box and not an Airfix/GMR box, which makes it no later than 1979. That means that it's older than my 101* that I've had since I was little!

*I've dated that to 1980 based on the box design and set having had a level crossing.