Kevin and Câmilla Fisher's Model Railways
kevinf Whilst everything is on hold (And Inaccessible) during the building work I have been having a bit of a clear out on Ebay of ‘Surplus Stock’. Mostly LNER and BR MK2 Coaches.
I’m planning to use the funds to build a small ‘N’ gauge GWR layout to join the Burton Crumpnold Family. I had been thinking of having a go at an N gauge layout for a while. It all started for real when out local Oxfam shop had some GWR wagons. More on this later.
The portable ‘OO’ layout that is being built using the recycled parts of Burton Crumpnold now has a name…
It will be called ‘Burton Phoenix‘ – as it has come out of the ashes of the original Burton Crumpnold Layout.!!!
05/10/2008
Sad News – due to the building of as new extension at our house the ‘Original’ Burton Crumpnold has been ‘Decommissioned’.
The room where it has been living currently has no roof…. I have also become very dissatisfied with the quality of the track running. The layout ‘Looks’ OK but trains do like derailing at the rear (and difficult to access) area’s of the track. The longer term plan (2009 and beyond) is to build a larger layout using larger radii more gentle (Peco Streamline?) points.
All is not lost though with the original Burton layout. I am currently in the process of planning a portable layout using what was the Upper station area and a new fiddle yard.
5th October 2008 It has been an ‘interesting’ year – with little time for Burton …As can be read in the ‘What’s New’ The Last train for the original Burton Crumpnold Layout ran in September… I needed to put the layout away as the room it has been living has no roof at the moment – whilst we have an extension built above it.. In addition to this my nagging dissatisfaction with the track issues at the rear of the layout has made me decide to ‘Decommission’ the layout. (OK Keep the Buildings etc trash the track).Coming out of the ashes of Burton Crumpnold is a portable ‘End To End’ layout built from the upper station sections and a new fiddle yard. Hopefully I will be able to run this layout at exhibition (If they will have me..) Here is a ‘Last Running’ Photo of the Layout, with all buildings removed…  .. Plus a sad sight of the layout ready for the Skip…  After my experiences with curved points these were not recycled…… |
27/01/2007
Finished updating the original Website
11/02/2007
Added the ‘Scenery’ page of the website. This was also an opportunity to photograph and document the work I have been doing these past few weeks.
19/05/2007
Started work on upper start on area and scenery areas.
23/06/2007
Finished Basic upper station detailing and extra detailing (Fences etc) to main station.
01/07/2007
Improved existing scenery areas and add scenery items to hide baseboard joins etc.
Added some ‘work in progress’ pictures to the website.
11/11/2007
Updated the Loco and Passenger stock pages to include the new additions (and a couple I missed). See ‘Work in Progress’ for details of my first foray into DCC…
Lots of things have been going on – but sadly no updates. The biggest task has been to make the website work after I changed service providers – all should be OK now.
I have also dipped my toe into the land of DCC.
I bought a Pendolino DCC train set during the summer, the Pendolino was on my shopping list plans for the year and the digital train set seemed a great way to have a look at what DCC can offer.
With very minor changes to the control panel – mostly involving rewiring the ‘power feed’ plug – I managed to change the layout to DCC operation. The only issue with just using the Hornby select controller it that there is not enough ‘omph’ from the 15v supply to properly operate the points. This will just involve having a separate supply for the point CDU.
I have had a go adding DCC decoders to my DCC ready Class 121 DMU and Class 57 loco. I am also investigating upgrading my class 110 DMU to DCC – with lights. We will see if my soldering is up to the job…..
Playing with DCC – Next time use shorter wires…
Hornby Select Controller – Basic – But Fun
Other acquisitions of the past couple of months are a class 166 Turbo DMU – special offer from Rails and a surprise from Hornby in releasing the GWR liveried LBSCR ‘Terrier’. I have added all these to the stock pages with photographs etc.
The next major ‘Website’ task is to add the freight rolling stock pictures and details pages… Lets see how long these will take…
I have completed most of the scenery (for now!!) I have taken some more pictures and Updated the ‘Photographs’ pages. For a while I’m planning to enjoy ‘playing trains’ over the summer. Then it’ll be time to up date the scenery and add pictures to the freight and road vehicle stock pages.
I’ve been continuing with the scenery – particularly the upper station area which I have neglected until now. I have been also adding fencing the stations and improved the look of the ‘green’ areas of the layout. The work has been sporadic up till June but is going well now. All being well I will be done by the end of this month.
Father Christmas has come to Burton…. The Hornby Class 121 ‘Bubblecar’ DMU and GWR railcar have arrived along with the Bachmann Class 108 DMU. I will add the photographs soon.
| Been busy on Ebay this week having a bit of a stock clearout – Mostly stuff that has been ‘upgraded’ or just will not get proper use. I’m planning to use the proceeds to buy the Hornby Blue Class 121 and GWR railcars (when they arrive). |