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Hi all, I have started planning the new Camdale track and module design,, sure will be a big difference, a couple of days back I started marking out on the pergola tiles where the station complex be going, sadly had to cut back on the approach module to make way or the corner spiral approach module. I only 30ft 9 inches to play width wide, station modules wont be facing the right way to model Sydney can live with that same with the bridge, I measured the length looking at the pic of the back yard , 54 feet measures from 6 inch centre from the back of the house down to the edging of the back garden. I will have redesign the bridge for it to come off a curved section to the bridge pier, one of the 7 foot sections will have to be cut back 42 inches, going on an angle be able to fit in the main span if 13 feet close to the corner of the shed . The back of the layout won't be straight , probably be better that way with not too many straight sections, first two pics is of the temporary track plan of mainly the spiral, very happy that the spiral has worked out. The third pic is of the marking of the width of the station modules complex, this them there be no post in the way trying to hide them, the first station platform is behind the post and can hide the post s with station building, fourth pic taken with the wide angle lens of the pergola and back yard with shed . Fifth pic is the diameter of the spiral 7foot centre double track , sixth pic of have the diameter of 42 inches, the piece of cardboard is the grass is the end of the corner module, I may not actually build a full corner module, instead have a six foot by 6 inch wide bridge, to link up the spiral with the station module to complete the first circuit. A second curved section will run off the main spiral with a cross over and two points to the platforms one, two three and four, last pic of the corner module that will be an L shape , of 18 inches to 3 feet . I will be only running trains in the cooler months as it is too hot in summer, may be able to run trains in September depending on how hot it will get, no construction to mid March of if we manage to have a good cool change, I then be able to start pulling up track form the old approach module making use of some of the ply . Enjoy the latest pics and feed back is welcome. more pics on the way . Tony from hot and cloudy down under, storm predicted for the afternoon sure need that rain , keeping on moving ahead

Hi all, the final main line drawing of the new Camdale HO scale garden railway MK2 track plan, stage 2 length is 16 feet, added onto 44 feet, total lenght 60, much longer layout, more running time for the Ghan and Indian Pacific, can't wait. The weather isn't so good very humid and we have had rain good for the grass, ouch more mowing, no work on the layout till it starts to get cooler, mid March, of course if there are any cool changes will make the most of it. With stage two be two reverse loops, hope to start stage two soon after I finish the first, stage two is needed, to get the most out of the layout, all I need to do is just run one train being a lot of fun, be enough work to keep me going a long while, trains only be run in the cooler months , I will have to put the level on the pergola floor, going by the way the stays after rain it isn't on a grade, easier for the station module legs cut all the same length. Tony from hot down under keeping on moving ahead

Work is well under way on Camdale HO scale garden railway MK2 , Yesterday I decided to pull up the track on the old approach module, get a bit more done after tea , to hot 36 degrees air con is on, I have made some changes to the track plan and finished the main line, even the first stage being 44 feet long is quite large, have drawn the plan to scale . ON the track plan Left hand corner of the track plan I have drawn a curve temporary curve section till I start onstage two and three be a permanent curve section connecting the suburban track and stage one track. The whole idea is to run the Ghan train train around so it be going the right way into Alice Springs station,coming from Darwin , will be having two reverse loops coming off stage two and be a second station hopefully four tracks and three platforms Now I have a bigger shed will be making use of it , have a 8 foot long by 5 tracks maybe double deck vertical staging yard , work shops and refuelling , sand dock. Plenty of room to put a Ro-Ro port , too hot to be able to set up the bridge, weather unstable very humid storm predicted for the afternoon, so long as I can get my power walk in . Have done no more work on the ship yet, have to make a start one night this week, only have two more bulkheads to mark and cut out, on the stern section. Where the module is I can get around it on one side, get the mower out then be able to get around the other side. The planning of the new bridge is coming along , I be buying two lengths 3 meter by 19mm thick pine for the sides , bridge rail deck be joined together to make one 14 foot bridge, to make it easy to set up, other way too hard , the top arch be in one peace as well. Tony from down under keeping on moving ahead .

scratch build some bookcases from junk to go outside the book store. I'm now working on the the scenes front and centre, which can now have a different look after the relocation of the Bank and Church.

I've been busy again today adding more Gaugemaster Autofrog modules and track feeds along the storage side of the layout. I've also got some of the class 56s running round the layout and I do believe the problematic ones are getting smoother so perhaps a good running in is what they need now. I've posted some photos of my new Accurascale 'Cawoods' PFA container wagons which arrived today in another thread but I'll include some here too. I've waited a long time for someone to manufacture these wagons, and a long time for delivery of these actual models, but it has to be said that the wait has been worthwhile. I've got some fond memories of these wagons being loaded at Gascoigne Wood. I remember it being extremely noisy as the coal fell from the conveyor into the empty container and as it slowly filled, the dust created was choking. I've not checked but wouldn't assume that the factory-fitted red air pipe 'cock' could be placed in the open position. It does look a bit odd when in train formation though ideal for the wagon at the rear of the train. The wagons are produced in sets of 3 and are all individually numbered. There are 4 different sets currently available from Accurascale with 'Cawoods' branded containers and a further 4 sets available with the later 'British Fuels' orange containers. I mostly remember the Cawoods livery but do recall seeing British Fuels containers too. Here are my 12 wagons behind coal sector 56127. A further 12 wagons are on the way so I'll just have to put up with having duplicate wagon numbers for now in order to have a decent length train.

My point motors and lever switches arrived and it took me from early afternoon until late evening to wire them all in. I now have 7 operational points at the west end of the storage yard with just the cross-over still to do. I've been able to test them and confirm they work but it got so late that I just didn't have the energy to run any trains through them. I used some offcuts of MDF and 2x2 timber to add a narrow shelf in front of the points at the east end - nothing fancy by any means - so from this position I can now manually change the points directly in front of me and remotely change the points at the west end via these Peco lever switches. How long they will last remains to be seen but for now at least they work perfectly. I might countersink those screw heads and tidy the shelf up a bit later. The only downside today is that one of the Gaugemaster point motors doesn't work and will need returning - it's solid and doesn't move. Luckily it's not required at this moment in time.

Hi Thomas, wow very nice indeed, I will have to wait for my birthday before baying any trains, but am after a second power for my Mehano ICE 3 set of 8 only have one power unit need to win the lotto to buy any sound decoders . Look forward to seeing those new trains run lightening speed look awesome. Tony from very hot down under now we are copping bad storms, yesterday a storm passed through dropping 20mm's in 20 minutes and other one today very hot and humid hate summer here, need to come to the UK for summer.

Works here too! They look really nice though more suited to your style of layout than to mine. I've really taken to the new LNER Azuma trains here in the UK - I love the shape and the LNER livery, but neither of my layouts could accommodate such modern traction and I'm trying to get away from buying models for display purposes only. Hopefully it won't be too long before we get to see and hear the Fuxing on Maximilianshafen.

I hadn't thought of that Chris. Might be worth trying the next time someone or something decides to dislodge some of them. The problem up to now has been me using unsuitable 'No More Nails' grab type adhesive which just goes soft and crumbly over time. 'Gorilla' grab adhesive appears to work much better but it does state it can be used underwater too so perhaps it should be more suited to outdoor conditions. Metres and metres of it!

Thanks Iain. I've been watching a few painting videos online and copied ideas from there. I was going to say it's more luck than anything that it's turned out the way it has but I think I could probably do it better if I were to do it again now that I understand how the paint works. So anyway, 8pm or not I've been back up in the attic and stuck down another long section of lineside ducting, this time between the main lines and the loop. I don't want to detail it too much, in fact I don't really want to spend much time doing any detailing but I think just adding a few little railway signatures helps fill in a lot of the otherwise empty spaces. I've 'broken' one of the top covers but I'm not going overboard with having covers all over the place even though I know that's generally how things are and used to be. The following photo shows part of the ducting, some newly added bushes and the relay boxes near the tunnel entrance. I'm really glad I took the plunge and painted the backscene now - it looks much better than before when it was just a blank area. Here's a similar photo but this time with 56128 hauling the TEA 100t tank wagons. I've only just taken these out of their boxes again so they've been packed away like much of the other stuff for close on 9 or 10 years! It's a good job I didn't decide to dispose of all these wagons when it seemed I'd never have a layout large enough to ever run them. The TEA's derailed on the first curve due to the bogies being very tight so I've had to go round loosening the bogie retaining screws where required to loosen them up. They're fine now.

Your painting of foliage on the backscene is amazing. I really love it.

A few more photo's showing today's progress. Having painted the backscene I decided to glue some of the previously made bushes into place rather than having them loosely laying around the layout. I want an overgrown look along the embankment but I'll be adding bushes bit by bit seeing which ones fit where best. Some of the padding material I made the bushes from was rolled up to create a hedge along the top of the embankment adding just a bit of foliage on top so that they look rather bare. They do create a nice border between the embankment and backscene but there's quite a few more to make and fit yet. Everything you see on the embankment in the following photo has now been glued into place. The next photo shows 56127 hauling the Cawoods/British Fuels PFA container wagons. This rake has also been extended with the addition of 6 British Fuel container wagons bringing the total to 30. Also visible in the two photos is the lineside ducting which will be added shortly. Below depicts a busy scene at an apparently sunny Skew Bridge Sidings and shows just how far I've managed to get with the grass on the embankment and the trees along the backscene. There's still a fair way to go.

Last week I worked on the church. I'd had two attempts at building spire for it but wasn't;t happy with either. I redesigned the spire I'd made with the plotter cutter and created the effect of a tower up the front of the building. Again the plotter cutter was put to work to make larger arched windows to replace the one I'd cut by hand. The overall effect it much better. The Church has been relocated from the front run through the middle of the scene to the left hand side. Along with the Bank and the fountain they create a a better feel of a plaza with the trolley cars weaving through. The unintended consequence of this is that the smaller buildings that now fill the gaps left by the bank and church allow a view between them to the back scene. The trollies can be glimpsed as the pass behind the buildings. Those buildings that have been thrust front and centre need to be tarted up to fit their new found prominence. Work on the Akhmatova Book Store has already begun

Just remembered why I have nothing attached to the Baseboards. They are meant to be part of a On30 garden railway, but I've yet to build the outside bit which these will join up to. However, it has been operated outside. We set it up infront of our coffee shop during the local street fair and allowed children to run the street cars. This was in May before the people arrived.

More painting. But save time I came up with a cunning idea to reduce the amount of painting. I want a white stripe along the top of the hull and this would have taken many coasts of paint and careful masking. I decided that with would be better around if I cut strips of paper, paper those and stuck them on. The strips were tricky to cut because I don't have a guillotine, a steel rule or cutting mat with me. I had to improvise. I attached them with Pritt Stick and they look the part. Next job was glazing. Clear plastic packaging was re purposed and again stuck Pritt Stick. It will be interesting to see how this holds up long term. It was a lot easier to keep the glue off the glazing area rather than a liquid glue. Next up was construction. The prototype build of a cabin showed that I needed to make an alteration. I had cut tabs which would fold to 90º and create a surface to glue the roof to. These tabs lifted the roof half a mill higher that the walls and I didn't like the gap. I trimmed the tabs back and folded them the full 180º glueing them to the walls. This is an effective solution which doubles the width of the gluing edge. It's another feature to include in future designs. With the cabin built I trimmed back the floor (mentioned earlier). Heres and before and after photo. Now on to the final stage, assembly.

Hi Steve, I use a small amount of copper grease when sliding the fishplate on to the flexitrack to help prevent oxidation of the joint. Not something you have to do and there maybe people who disagree with this but something I like to do. regards Deano

The first job was to give some of the shiny surfaces a quick prime. The boats only needed an external coat and not all the cereal boxes required the attention of the aerosol, just the bits that will end up visible. The next stage was to start construction. The deck is a tight fit and pops in. Close inspection showed that one of the fold down flaps was fouling the sides and required a small trim of the corners, just visible here. The lower deck attaches to the main deck to create a well effect. The cabin will sit in the front of this well. Making 6 of these meant taking before and after photo's a real breeze. I often forget to take photos during construction. On this build, I could snap an important stage while making the next kit. I designed the cab to be unnecessarily complicated. I should have made it rectilinear, with simple 90º angles. But I made the back a couple of millimetres wider than the front which was a pain to design and tricky to construct. Once the glue had set hard I needed to trim off the base which was protruding out on both sides. This was a design error, but proved to be handy as it was a lot easier to glue than two edges meeting on a flush corner. I may start to design glue and then trim into my structures in the future to make assembly easier. The roof was a very simple square. I decided to add some offcuts of card to build up the gluing edges. Rather than my usual Deluxe Materials Roket Card Glue I used a Pritt Glue Stick. This allowed me to slide the offcuts around to get the edges aligned before the glue set. I did have to leave them a few hours to make sure they had stuck properly. The roofs only took a couple of minutes to Roket glue together. With the main four elements of one boat complete, today I'll repeat the process for the others. I have 5 boat hulls, but I've made 6 kits. One is a reserve. I'm away on holiday this week and don't have access to the paper-plotter so thought an extra was wise precaution.

Good Morning Everyone, Today my Ruston R3707 was delivered as you know I have been wanting one since they were announced by Hornby. They have been a huge success Hornby and many other shops sold out I was lucky enough to find one in Hattons. I have taken a photo of it next to my Flying Scotsman so you can see how small they are. Sadly I can’t take a video as my layout is not up and running as it’s have a winter refurb but I made a short test track up in my living room and it’s working well very pleased with my purchase. Deano

I've most likely been here before but I've just spent an enjoyable evening looking back over some of my old videos of the Selby Garden Railway. It was also somewhat emotional being reminded of the many hours I spent out in the garden with our little dog Charlie. I swear he used to enjoy seeing the railway developing! How quickly time passes us by. I find it hard to believe that I still have the majority of the stock seen in those old videos, much of it waiting to join in the fun on Skew Bridge, and that it's almost all a decade or more old now. Those models have certainly stood the test of time and of the ones I've had the pleasure in getting back out recently all that's been required is a tiny drop of oil on the bearings to turn the clock back those ten years. As much as I enjoyed the old Selby Garden Railway layout I have to admit that I much prefer Worsley Dale and I think the videos show just how much more appealing the new layout is. The breeze block elevated sections of the SGR looked exactly that and were difficult to disguise but while the ground level track section on Worsley Dale has proved more difficult to maintain it really does show off an outdoor model railway to its full potential. As for the elevated sections well I'm much happier with the current viaducts as opposed to the old plywood based one. It might have taken me ten years to get here but I feel the journey has been worthwhile. So with Xmas almost upon us and the start of a new decade just around the corner I would just like to wish everyone a very Merry Xmas and all the best for the coming New Year! I hope we can continue to share our experiences in this absorbing hobby for many years to come.

A short 60 second video of 60048 and MGR wagons through the new landscape

Hi Griff, great to see you pop in, I have moved to a smaller place, sadly it isn't as wide as I had it, so have to lose a module and rebuild the approach module which will be a corner module, have being doing some plan scratching and coming along, measured the new pergola not as big as what we had,. House is still facing north south but I have to have the station complex facing east west to keep the station under cover . I be starting a new thread , here is a couple of pics of the pergola area where the station complex be going, the layout will go down the fence line, haven't measured the length of the layout as yet,, the layout will follow the fence line, will be screwing in shelving brackets , hope the bridge be where it is flat. The grass is coming back slowly, tomorrow I be working on the fitting the weather station to the fence, and pulling down the wooden work bench , shouted my self a new work bench, the shed is 3m x 3m ,much bigger the one I had at the old address. Merry Christmas Griff . Tony from hot down under keeping on moving ahead.

Some of my neighbors managed to blow the bridge off the anchorage at one end by rocket fire on New Year's Eve ... 😎😢 Will probably shorten the bridge by one segment and make a railway embankment from concrete, Styrodur and gravel. I haven't really made any progress in the house, but I hope the motivation will come back slowly.