Beaglington-On-Sea 00 gauge in 6ft by 4ft

[Alexander Court]

4-4-0s are a troublesome design to model as the fixed wheelbase is so far back beneath the chassis, even if you can get some support from the front bogie, there is bound to be a large overhang at the front on anything but the largest radius curves. I think the early Triang variants got away with it, by dint of small bogie wheels, a long bogie link arm, and wide treads on the driving wheels, allowing the drivers to slide sideways across the railhead. They had the formula about right, they would even take first radius curves, but you had to accept the compromises in wheel profile and back to back dimensions.

It doesn't help that Hornby's D49 based version of Edward hardly even looks like him in either book or tv form, so now its a poor representation that can only run on one line of my layout. I got a Hornby thomas for Christmas too (second hand off hattons) that never worked because the holes to hold the crank pins in just wouldn't. Hornby's standard 0-6-0 chassis must be ageing or something. OR they really did cheap out on the last run of Thomas stuff, hence the issues with both my Thomas and Edward from those batches.

Alex.

[Alexander Court]

My last layout which was in 00 gauge used to have the area above the tunnel left as a painted flat wooden board for a while before I did more scenery and my cat loved to sit in that position to watch the trains go into the tunnel below. She loved it up there! She sometimes used to sit across the many tracks which made up my marshalling yard if there was a gap inbetween stored wagons. If not she would make a gap and there would be wagons everywhere!

I could not get away with realistic speeds because trains had to dive for the many tunnels on the layout for protection. She seemed to enjoy the running of trains more then I did! Haha!

Our cat knocked one of my sentinel diesels to the floor from the goods siding but luckily they are such bricks that there was no damage.

Alex.

[Alexander Court]

Is Edward tender driven?

The origional design of the loco had loco drive and that would have behaved itself better. I am wondering if one could find an old Triang/Hornby loco drive version to see if it can be used? Though the wheel flanges might be a bit deep, but it could be a potential solution.

Edward is a modified D49, but the Thomas range Edward, Gordon and James all use schools class tenders and these all received an upgrade for the final few releases where the tender came attached to the loco by a drawbar and not removable via the metal stud/peg on the tender into a drawbar on the loco. These newer ones have the quieter replacement motors for the ringfields they used to have and have 8 pin dcc decoder sockets on them.
I think part of the trouble is having platforms on such a tight curve, but the straight section isn't long enough to take a decent length train of coaches. It's currently only Edward and maybe the Class 66 that seem to be having issues with this section.

Alex.

[Alexander Court]

So, I stalled a little on uploading things but I will get back to it, I was waiting for my fingers to get a bit better. Anyways, in the meantime I've made a start on a youtube series about my layout and my upcoming layout, just a short introduction and I fear people will think I'm a bit of a dope cause I'm totally inexperienced, but here is a link to my little intro. Hope to film more over the weeks leading up to Christmas, I don't have all the flashy bells and whistles like Sam or anyone when it comes to youtube productions but I'm not really going for that "professional" youtube style haha.

https://youtu.be/IoFG9NFsqkk

That's the link, let me know what you make of it, I was a bit nervous (I have social anxiety and rarely know where to look when talking, or where to put my hands and frequently lose my train of thought, hence a few muddled round sayings in the video). Also let me know if there's anything you'd like to specifically see which I can put in other videos.

Also I recorded some sounds from my 1969 BBC Sound Effects Vol.1 for it, but when I uploaded the video I got a copyright claim from someone I've never heard of called Ian Pooley, apparently from a track called "Bay of Plenty" but I disputed it and quoted the back of the record sleeve which says:
"Copyright Note: The copying of the Sound Effects in this record onto tape for use in conjunction with a play or dubbing onto film is permitted."

So hopefully that will be sorted out.

Thanks for stopping by,
Alex.

[End2end]

Enjoyable video and sounds.
Just one caveat. The camera zooming in and out automatically made my eyes wobble a bit.
I'm not sure what causes that but I had to look away at some points whilst still listening. Mainly when chatting whilst standing above the layout.
Hope the feedbacks helpful.

Also I wouldn't worry about the copyright strike.
"Ian Pooley (born Ian Pinnekamp in 1973) is a German record producer and DJ. While incorporating samples of various musical genres, Pooley's creations are usually classified as house or tech house with Brazilian influence. ... Pooley's music career began in 1993."
I don't think he would be recording train sounds.
Thanks
End2end

[Alexander Court]

Enjoyable video and sounds.
Just one caveat. The camera zooming in and out automatically made my eyes wobble a bit.
I'm not sure what causes that but I had to look away at some points whilst still listening. Mainly when chatting whilst standing above the layout.
Hope the feedbacks helpful.

Also I wouldn't worry about the copyright strike.
"Ian Pooley (born Ian Pinnekamp in 1973) is a German record producer and DJ. While incorporating samples of various musical genres, Pooley's creations are usually classified as house or tech house with Brazilian influence. ... Pooley's music career began in 1993."
I don't think he would be recording train sounds.
Thanks
End2end

Apparently it's the Seagulls he owns by copyright? Anyhow...

Thanks for the feedback. I did notice that, must be some annoying auto focus my phone does, maybe the light from the window was changing due to clouds causing the room to darken and thus change the depth of field or whatever its called and the phone was reacting to that? I'll try sort it out for next time. I'd love a decent digital camera and tripod to do it with but for now I'm stuck with my phone. Thanks again for your comments, I'm glad you enjoyed it despite the zooming.

Alex

[Mountain]

It looks good to me.

[Alexander Court]

It looks good to me.

Thanks!

I've been filming the first episode but alas there's still some strange zooming going on.

Also, there's a reappearance of The Purple Pug after which my brewery's strong beer is named, which drives like it's had a strong drink.

Alex.

[Ex-Pat]

let me know what you make of it, I was a bit nervous (I have social anxiety and rarely know where to look when talking, or where to put my hands and frequently lose my train of thought, hence a few muddled round sayings in the video).

That never came through at all, and I was most impressed by your presentation. At certain stages your style actually reminded me of Tony Wright's presentations (and that's a compliment, as I know he's not everybody's cup of tea, whereas I am a fan of his!).

As to content I always prefer trains that do not run too fast - I preferred the B12's speed to the others, and liked the seagull sounds.

Looking forward to further videos.

[Alexander Court]

Right, so I'm still very far behind on my layout updates but I'll try get this one done haha, so basically these photos just show that I have in-fact bothered to put up telegraph poles and that I had a nice time running some southern stock.
First up though, I finally got a cattle van:




So yes, here they are, my thin plastic erections, although I have to say a certain 4 legged friend continues to knock them down, at least it's never intentional.









Looks like The Fat Controller forgot to brake in time.


And this old pole is off of my original Tonglington Vale layout and has been on a few other projects but the last time it was used before this was on my 'Neptune's Halt' baby wipe box diorama of a run down station with a grounded coach on it, Anyways here it is being useful once again.


A few shots from the view towards the station:





And now some photos of a Southern Sesh





Meanwhile, soaring over the cliffs and out over the channel...



There, that's all for that update. Don't forget you can keep ever so slightly more up to date by visiting my youtube channel. I've a week off work so I hope to film some more videos but the eldest daughter is off sick at the moment so how much time I actually get, who knows?

Thanks again for taking the time to visit my layout thread.
Alex.

[Alexander Court]

I've been very busy today, I dismantled the layout legs and dismantled the girls bunk bed and swapped them and some furniture. Busy trying to sort all the rest of the stuff out but will have to get used to the new room arrangements. I moved the girls into the railway room because their room is an extension to the house and is always freezing and the eldest often takes I'll I the winter.
Hopefully normal service will resume soon.

[Alexander Court]

Hello Everyone! Merry Christmas!
I've been a bit busy making an xmas special video for youtube which I'll link here later if it gets sorted out properly.Not done much actual modelling as I've been busy with work, christmas and my fingertips dissolved again so that's slowed me down a bit. I'll try do up a post-xmas post if I get any models for christmas and show them off

Anyways, hope you are all keeping well, looking forward to doing some Mince Pie specials and maybe get pics of those posted up.

Take Care, Stay Safe and Be Merry!

Alex.

[Alexander Court]

Hello All, just checking in to say that I'm still alive, even if I'm more of a lurker these days. I haven't done much work on the layout as it is more or less done, I just play trains when I get a rare bit of time, and film videos of it for youtube.

I recently did a video where I made another budget Titfield Dan's House/Coach like I did a decade ago which you can find here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZnfMdJnmqc&t=39s

And I've also started doing sort of casual reviews of models as well, this is for a restaurant coach:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sZcKU2TntA&t=9s

Anyways I've got a few plans in my head for some future layout building/modelling and videos that I might get around to posting about here. Mainly I want to make a harbour terminus to be the other end of my project aldwyn line, it's not geographically or prototypically correct but it is inspired by a recently holiday to Fishgaurd/Goodwick so still kinda great western haha.
As for myself, I finally caught a very bad dose of Covid during July although I am recovered, mostly.
I'm still waiting for Hornby to produce their 88DS Ruston shunter model.

Thanks all, hope you are all well,
Alex

[Mountain]

Very nice. Quite inventive to find the coach body fits into the well wagon.

[Alexander Court]

Very nice. Quite inventive to find the coach body fits into the well wagon.

Thanks, I have a W&U coach preordered for next year anyways, need to remotor my 14XX again. TBH the whole chassis design is naff on the ex-airfix model, never had one thats worked well.

Anyways, my Christmas Special episode of Beaglington-On-Sea is now available on youtube here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xroGd2kHY_k&t=26s

And here is me and my railway looking festive.

After Christmas, when the "snow" lifts in Beaglington I'll have to get back to finishing the layout, there's ballasting to do, a place I still need to fill and I need to get people and stuff to detail it too. I'll also have to get some up to date photos.

Merry Christmas Everyone!
Alex