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I've been repainting stock, building wagons, constructing buildings and falling on my On30 feet this winter. This loco and coaches came in a "novelty" livery. That has been removed and repainted black and olive green, DCC has also gone in. Moving up scale to 1:48 (staying at 16.5mm gauge) I decided to look into wargaming models. There is some really good stuff at what they call 28mm, which is the hight of the figures. Later cut MDF at reasonable prices that make very impressive models. A quick couple of coats with aerosol primer and a little black paint on the windows and this station is straight out of a western movie! In the foreground is a lumber wagon, that started life in 1980 as a Hornby Freightliner flat. So far I've only bought one wagon, the tanker, mainly to give me a model to copy. The 4 wheel wagon is a 30 year old Hornby wagon with the body removed and replaced with a larger scratch built open frame. Kadee couplers were also added. The 8 wheel gondoliers started life as an American HO box car. Again the body was removed and a new one created from Correx, Plasticard strips and coffee stirrers. Being american it came with Kadee couplers so there was very little cost over the £5 I paid for the secondhand wagon. Last week, doing my weekly shop in Lidl I came across some novelty bird feeders. They were in the shape of houses, which looked impressively close to 1:50. Finescale they were not, but they did have an American model village vibe about them. I bought 3 at £7.99 each. When I got them home I removed a few features that weren't required, mainly the hook you would hang it from, and they really looked the part. I went back to lidl and bought another 5, so I have 2 of each design. I want my On30 railway to be a lot less serious than my other modelling projects and these literally cheep and cheerful "models" are certainly less serious. I've made a start on "improving" them by repainting one into light blue, but appearing from adding a chimney or two I won't be doing much to them. They may inspire further constructions in this style.

The new bridge has being redrawn to full scale and construction of the arch is under way, it should work the same way, when I join the two halves together will make up a centre pier so the two halfs can sit on while I bolt them together top and bottom and take out the pier, that e a while off. I have already started work on the arch, looking at the two section I have cut out I think I will cut off where the bottom of the section is sticking out 6 inches , will cut back to an inch , might look better when the bridge is sitting on it's pier.. Off to Cambale post as I finished the back of the house back door corner module. Tony from down under keeping on moving ahead.

Switched my weekly shop to Aldi this morning. They had bird boxes of a similar design, albeit not quite as good design, but for only a fiver. I bought 3. Plenty of fettling to be done.

I can recommend Wood-Plastic-Composite. It looks like Decking board and you can handle it like wood, but it doesn't rott and you don't need the roofing felt.

It might be easier for me to see what im soldering

Hi Mark, my towers are 3 inches square, am hopping to get away 3/8th round wood dowel ans only 4 cable stays, will chat to my engineer brother in law if I could get away with 4 cable stays, the model trains don't weigh much compared to the 1.1 trains of today and HO scale cars and trucks the cable stays just be there for show, if I added more. the real bridge the middle tower has 16 cables and other two probable more, might get a chance to cut the other two strips that make up the half of the main tower and I may cut my tower down six inches. The first pic is of the bridge I was going to build Oresund Bridge between Denmark an Sweden , you could of passed under that bridge and was going to cost a lot, the dowel especially , have worked out how to build the tower to 3 inches square and in two sections. I had a busy afternoon today finished my bus wire plug panel, worked out well. Tony from down under keeping on moving ahead

Link to the first running or 2018: The station lighting, unfortunately, packed up working late last year and Ive not been able to resolve the issue. I think the electronics unit into which everything fed into and out of, got messed up and after I tinkered, it very definitely, wasnt going to work. However, should I want lights on, Ive found out that the lights will work perfectly ok, fed from the aux output on the Elite controller - not that i ever play trains in the dark And I have decided - I am determined that I am going to have a day or 2 sorting out the track bondings and have a frustration free Summer!

Hello ! So, the last track gap in the low level parking yard is closed. Since the sun was shining a bit today, I also worked on the further construction outside. Respectively, I have eliminated the resulting damage. Unfortunately, I had installed the tarpaulin so unfavorably that the running water has washed under a pillar. Part of the superstructure of my bridge in the bend has deformed as a result. But I have a spare part, which I then painted today. I also gave the pillar a new foundation. In addition, I found that the concrete foundation of the house wall passage on the garden side has lowered by 5 millimeters. After I got angry for a while, I found out that I can now cover it wider at the top and drive four tracks out into the garden. Then I revised the plan and found "yes that works" as you can see from my sketches below. In the end, that's luckier than misfortune.

Afternoon Mark, how is the weather over in NZ , yeah going to be a night mare navigating though the three way and double slip keep the chief controller on his toes, if I every motorist them, all my points and cross overs are Insulfrog, too mush trouble with wiring up the Electrofrog, you should see the amount of wires on a three way Electrofrog, double slip cross over even worse. Be a while yet, am not in hurry will get there, all goes well tomorrow depending on the rain tomorrow will be cutting the sides of the back corner module, doesn't take long to build, got the module building down to a fine art now. What did you thing of the cable satay bridge, single tower in the middle, being looking for a bridge like this one, with a few changes look pretty good and not a lot of ply wastage, A frame tower design would be a lot of wastage. Make a start on the bridge design tonight., pics to follow, one good thing is the main tower isn't as high as the Oresund double deck between Denmark and Sweden 125 meter high and main deck 60 meters. Tony from down under keeping on moving ahead.