Plan of Attack.

After a few weeks of not working on the layout (or not as much as the past few months) it has started all over again....
I'm not sure how many people read the 'Exhibition Information' section (or have read previous posts) but i have been invited to exhibit at Superpower, along with a few other layouts (which i have wanted to see since i first heard of it) So, i have made a list of things which i would like to do before exhibiting the layout again.
Re lay harbor station track - put the new crossover in, with catchpoint. Then connect up the track thaat leads into the slate wharff.
Build Porthmadog town - Park, buildings, pub, people, etc.
Build workshop - I'm not happy with my first attempt, so going to have anothere go, this time making it out of balsa and embossed plasticard.
Rewire boards + new controll panel - It was a pain at Warely to walk from one side of the layout to another several million times to operate the trains. This will enable the layout to be operated by 1 person from 1 location.
Build bigger fiddleyard (6ft) - Simple, bigger fiddleyard that allows more stock to be kept on the tracks. Possibly with traverser.
Wire lights and accessories - things like building lights and flashing units in the workshops wern't working at Warely, i ran out of time to wire them up. So this is something i'd like to get working at Warely.
More slate wagons - 10 full, 10 empty and a few dotted about the slate sidings.
Get Earl of Merioneth running - try to get two N drive production chassis' and wire them uo to get the Earl running.
Make 'Merddin Emrys' - in 1959 condition, Cabless with red oxide tanks. With two N drive chassis to run it.
Finish B set - finish the other carriage set, possibly in green and cream livery (1970s).
Railcar with auto shuttle - Quite self explanitory. It's something to keep the viewers interested.
Build a 'cob' board' - It's something i've allways planned on doing. The Cob is something that makes the FR what it is and since the TMRs is based on the FR, it can't be called 'inspired by the FR' without a cob! Especially since the lyout is based in that area!

Tender loving care.

Since i had a hour or two spare tonight, i decided to have a go at adding pickups, reduceing the weight and inserting brass bearings to the axleboxes. Thease modifications will 1) stop the engine from stalling so often on points. 2) Make the engine pull a bit more stock 3) Allow the tender to roll better, so more stock can be pulled. Here are some photos of the modifications. I haven't added the pickups yet, i'm still trying to figure out how to. I'll soon figure something out. The edges of the Langley cast coal still needs tidying up and a realistic 'layout' in the tender.

Merry Christmas!

Well, It's that time of year again. Unfortunetely the weather isn't as white as what it was last year and the year before. Only the tips of the mountains have any reminence of snow. I'd like to take this chance to thank everyone that's read the blog and all who commented about the layout at Warely / on the blog. I've had another invertation, this time to exhibit at Superpower 2013. Hopefully i'll be able to make it. Need to re-lay the crossover at Porthmadog and fiddle with the wireing first. So, Merry Christmas everyone and a happy new year. Photo is by Andrew Thomas from last year from the BBC website.

Eastwood Town

EASTWOOD TOWN
I just thought I’d share this. When I was looking across the net for some guides on how to make some points I came across this. All of his points are handmade, over 70 of them!
I particularly like the way he's designed his layout with software then printed it out to 'full size'. Very cool.

Catch Point

I spent about a hour today making this, a 009 catch point. It's my first attempt at doing this sort of thing. I wouldn't mind trying to do the entire Porthmadog yard-mainline crossover and the point to the slate wharff like this, but I don't think I have the skills to do such a complicated piece. We'll see.
It's just been rested on top of the existing point work for now.
I bought a Tortoise point motor a few weeks ago, I didn't get much of a chance to look at it before Warely, but now I have, I'm impressed! I wonder how much it will cost to replace the failed Seep motors with Tortoise ones....

Alterations

I've finally got round to re-erecting the layout. The three 'major' changes will be done first, over the next few weeks (months?)
First off, is altering the harbours track plan to allow trains to be ran into the slate wharf. This is to allow more variety of trains to be run, 'scenic' storage areas for the stock to be displayed and finally somewhere for the gravity train to run to!
Second is a centrally mounted Controll panel, which will let the layout be operated from the front and back by one operator.
Finally, more insulating sections and track feeds to allow more things to happen at the same time.
This is a revised track plan of the harbour crossover. The red lines are track, blue spur is a catch point. I apologise for the poor quality, it was made by hand on my phone and I seem to be suffering from the shakes!!