Latest News

1 September 2025 - Templot CARROT track

I have added my first attempt at Templot CARROT track here: Track 

2 June 2025 - Templot COT track

I have started experimenting with Templot COT track. See Track 

18 October 2023 - 15 November Second mould, and baseboard

See my second mould and baseboard here 

16 October 2023 - In position

The concrete baseboard is in position, temporarily. See here.

5 October 2023 - Concrete baseboards

Progress with my latest experiment is described here.

18 August 2020 - Track

I have created a new page for track here

9 August 2020 - New Site

This site has been migrated from the old site as required by Google.

21 June 2020

Updated References

3 June 2020 - Branksome Viaduct

Work has started on Branksome Viaduct leading to Bournemouth West

27 May 2020 - Latest progress

All Change, ready for felt.

11 May 2020 - More progress

All Change to my plastic baseboards.

1 April 2020 - Back Room - New plan (no joke)

I have come up with a new plan for my Back Room.

8 May 2017

I have started a new page for my SR/BR U Class 2-6-0

4 December 2016 - Heljan Fans

I finally managed to get my Heljan fans working with my sound decoders on the Class 33 and Class 47.

29 November 2016 - EngineDriver

See Control

25 November 2016 - Black Friday Fires

I just bought 2 more Amazon Fires in the Black Friday sales at just £29.99 each. These are my preferred wireless throttles running Engine Driver. That gives me 5 altogether, as well as my 3 iPODs running WiThrottle. See Control and Swanage in 3mm.

Locomotives - 14 January 2016

Following  the acquisition of D1047 Western Lord I have moved my locos on to 4 digit addressing and updated my list here.

Slaters MR/LMS Kirtley 0-6-0 Goods in Scale 7 - 5 November 2015

I volunteered to build this kit in Scale 7 for HMRS to run on Dewsbury Goods. Work has started as described here.

Triangular Junction - 19 October 2015

I have been making the most of the good weather to lay more of the track as seen here Triangular Junction.

Back Room - 14 October 2015

I am planning to develop the back room as described here

Control reorganisation - 13-18 September 2015

Over the last few days I have moved the material in Control into a better organised structure below it. Hopefully this will make it easier to read.

Yet another Project - 29 August 2015

I few years ago I inherited my Dad's O gauge LNER collection. Most of his kits are complete although showing signs of wear. We tried fitting decoders to run on my garden line with limited success. The locos were not built with DCC in mind and tend to suffer intermittent shorts. I have blown a few decoders trying to remedy this. Recently I decided that most of Dad's locos were worth refurbishment and I have started work on his J71. However his collection does not match my O gauge prototypes and his lineside equipment is not suitable for use in the garden. I had been pondering whether to build a small indoor layout.

I have also been pondering Scale 7 and I have recently had reason to investigate further. I could do with at least a Scale 7 test track at home.

The thought occurred to me that maybe I could combine these requirements and build an LNER layout in scale 7 indoors. I could refurbish Dad's locos to scale 7 rather than O gauge and make use of his lineside equipment. I have started to design a layout to that end to fit in my conservatory, which gives me 9 metres. The design will be a challenge because I have J71 and J72 shunting engines. I am working on the following solution.

A single track branch runs through a bridge from a cassette into a terminus of sorts. The track continues under a bridge to a quay which is another cassette. There are a couple of sorting sidings at the terminus for the quay traffic and the J71 and J72 are used to work the quay line. The terminus has a small goods yard for local traffic. I think this will justify Dad's rolling stock and will be able to use some of his buildings and road vehicles.

Here is the current state of my design. The goods yard needs to be added off the headshunt on the opposite side to the sorting sidings.

At this stage I don't know whether this project will progress or not.

Coaches - 8 August 2015

I have added a list of the passenger trains I am planning to build under Coaches.

Locomotives - 6 August 2015

I have added a list of my O gauge locomotives under Locomotives.

Ballasted - 14 July 2015

The track in the 14 June view is now ballasted.

... and looking the other way:

Compare this with the view on 12 August 2014. The single track branch leg of the triangular junction crosses the down main via the diamond crossing to the up main. The down relief will run in front of the crossing to join the branch. A crossover beyond the crossing will also allow down relief trains to join the down main.

My next job is to complete this leg of the triangular junction so that trains can run out and back, at least on the up main.

Tracklaying - 14 June 2015

I will try this as a way of highlighting my latest news instead of keeping a separate blog. The following material has come from my old blog. The idea is to integrate the latest news into the body of my web site as it gets older. At least now everything is in one place.

Here is my latest attempt at track laying on to Ecosheet.

I have used two layers of laminate flooring underlay. This material is like an inert foam. I have stuck one layer to the Ecosheet with Copydex. The other layer is stuck to the underside of the paper track template with Copydex and then stuck to the bottom layer again with Copydex.

Ballast is layed dry and then my usual 50/50 mix of outdoor varnish and white spirit dribbled on with a pipette.

This has introduced a degree of flexibility between track and Ecosheet. Let's hope it works.

New Bridge - 12 August 2014

I have been making the most of the good weather by building my new footbridge over the railway. I bought the bridge itself on the web and laid the foundations and brick supports for the paving slabs myself, very slowly!

The down main is laid temporarily so that I now have two track running. I now need to do more work on the junction and the wiring. I am planning to install the boosters for the main circuits in the top step to protect them from the weather and to minimise the length of the busses between the boosters and the track.

I am also planning a control panel for the junction beside the steps. This panel will be portable between outside and the conservatory so that I can keep warm even if the trains can't.

New Approach - 8 May 2013 - moved to Point Control