I'm thinking about diesel railcars in this month's British Railway Modelling Magazine.
Ruston Quays continues with me setting up the shuttle unit to run the upper level. We've used a Guagemaster unit which is brilliant, but setting things up to deal with DMUs picking up on 4, 8 or 16 wheels is a little trickier.
Don't worry, I have a brilliant and simple solution!
I'm a big fan of the shuttle. Watching a train rattle back and forth automatically is mesmerising. I want one on all future layouts!
I've also been dabbling in 7mm scale with some modifications to Heljan's AC Railbus.
A very nice model, made even nicer with a bit of weathering, a crew, new destination blinds and some moquette on the seats. OK, so it's a bit scary attacking a 500 quid model but at the end of the day, it is only a model and with a bit of tinkering, can be personalised for the layout. Maybe I've ruined the resale value but I prefer my version.
Finally, I've been chatting to the owner of my local model shop, Classic Train and Motor Bus. He's given me an insight into what it takes to be a successful bricks'n'mortar shop in the Internet age.
Oh, and on the DVD, I'm scribing stone walls, stripping paint from wagons and shovelling coal into a real steam engine!
More on this issue over on RMweb.
2 comments:
Phil, this has really gripped my imagination and I was fully engrossed by the BRM article , read while travelling in an elderly but larger and faster multiple unit train (HST) from Waverley to Newcastle! There are two roads to the station adn fiddle yard so will Shunt control mean auto points change and a two or even three train operation 'upstairs'?
I fancy emulating your project labeit as a two gauge industrial line.
Duncan - Point operation is manual, if I want to change the track the train runs in to I need to throw the switch. This allows me to leave a railcar in one platform and have the other train shuttle in an out, then swap.
I think it would be possible to do something that changes the point every time the train reaches the end but it would need some electronics and a relay so I wasn't going to get into this in the article. Maybe MERG would be worth a look as I suspect they might have something.
Glad to hear it's inspiring ideas though. As you say, there is quite a lot that could be done with this sort of thing.
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