Layout progress | RS Tower - Progress of an exhibition layout.

RS Tower modules blog…

Posted on June 8, 2009 by Martyn Read

After some great feedback on our chosen method of modular railroading, both with RS Tower at Exeter and operating as a “standalone” switching layout at Gillingham, a separate sister blog for the RS Tower modules has been launched at http://rstowerfreemo.wordpress.com/

Neil Rogers will be handling updates on that side of things – expect some changes on both sites over the coming weeks as we try and make them complement each other more effectively!

It already carries some images & video from Gillingham, and some thoughts on future module design as well…

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Progress, Show Reminders & Videos…

Posted on May 22, 2009 by Martyn Read

Yes, another one of my horribly infrequent updates! The layout is up and running again – here’s a bit of proof…

That has allowed us to do a few bits more on scenery, the kinds of things that are hard to finish off when the layout is in 4′ chunks but are a relative breeze when you can work on the thing as a whole. Continue reading →

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Car cards and waybills

Posted on April 12, 2009 by Martyn Read

A while back in a thread on operation on RM-Web the use of car cards and waybills came up, and that kicked off a thought process about how best to use them on an exhibition layout. Talking to the guys in the group and whilst some of us were okay moving given cars to an industry and then routing them back using just a bit of knowledge and concentration, others of us would benefit from something a bit more formal, we also have at least one guest operator at Exeter this summer who makes a very enthusiastic switch crew but probably doesn’t know an airslide from an autorack…so here goes…

Continue reading →

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Grade crossings and module progress

Posted on January 28, 2009 by Martyn Read

We’ve just started working on grade crossing protection and signalling – images of the progress so far can be found on the fotopic site:

http://modelrailpics.fotopic.net/c735837.html

Neil Rogers is also working hard on his first two 45 degree curve modules – pics can be found at his fotopic site here: http://neil-rogers.fotopic.net/c1644146.html

Enjoy!

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Happy Christmas to you all!

Posted on December 22, 2008 by Martyn Read

I figured that I’d better do a pre-Christmas update, as i’ve yet again been patently rubbish at writing these!

So – here we go:

Continue reading →

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Post Andover photo’s – part 1

Posted on September 15, 2008 by Martyn Read

Well, the Andover show went pretty well, very few problems with the layout and it seemed very well received – many thanks to our extra operators for the weekend as well, you were a great help!

Speaking of the extra operators, Gareth shot some photo’s at the end of play on Sunday and he’s gradually getting some of them processed and online. Well worth a look!

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Just two weeks to Andover

Posted on August 24, 2008 by Martyn Read

We had a final work session this weekend in preparation for the Andover Show – click here for show details – i’ve uploaded a few photo’s from this weekend to the layout’s fotopic site to hopefully whet your appetites as well – hope to see some of you there.

Wisconsin & Southern and CP power at RS Tower

Neil Rogers also has some photo’s on his site here.

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One show down, and one to come…

Posted on July 2, 2008 by Martyn Read

So, if you’ve been paying attention to this infrequently updated blog you’ll have noticed the quick youtube bits I uploaded from the Sunday at Exeter (if you haven’t been paying attention, scroll back through the last few posts to catch up!) and you’ll have noticed one of them caught a minor derailment as the train passed.

This entry is really about “the boring stuff”, the everyday fiddling with the basics of the layout to (attempt to) get boringly reliable running. I tend to sit in the camp where ideally we should never have to think about the operation of points, motors or electrics once we have them installed.

Continue reading →

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One week’s notice…

Posted on May 24, 2008 by Martyn Read

Well, here we are again with one week to go before our second appearance at the Exe MRS show in Exeter – last year we were appearing as a very much “work in progress” – this time hopefully the look will be much more complete with at least basic scenery right across the scenic section. We’ve still got a small way to go to get to that stage but we’re not too far away. If anyone is visiting Exeter then don’t forget to stop by and say hi! 🙂

There’s a link to the Exe MRS website with full show details on our exhibitions page – link on the left hand side.

I might have been awful at updating this blog, but i’ve tried to keep the construction pics fotopic site up to date so you folk can see how we’re getting on.

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Progress, and a new challenge…

Posted on March 7, 2008 by Martyn Read

There’s lots more progress to see over on the fotopic site – but we’ve still a long way to go!

In addition our deadline just got shorter with a firm invite now to the Exe MRS show in Exeter. We attended the show last year which was not only our debut, but also debuted a new venue with lots more space and no layouts stuck in dark classrooms!

The Exe MRS have also got a new website with show details, which is clickable here.

The up side is that we’ve already done the hard work underneath to (we hope) get the layout completely working and reliable, most of the work to do is purely cosmetic.

The down-side of this of course is that we now have less than 3 months before the show, and we still have a lot of scenic work to do. Thinking positively for a second most of that scenic work is a basic ground cover and we have many, or even most of the buildings built and even in some in place, but we still have a lot of work between now and then to get the layout basically presentable, and other commitments from some of the team (apparently one of our number has to go and get married between now and the show, which I guess is a decent excuse 😉 ) will mean that getting the scenics presentable in time is a real challenge to face.

And then of course lots more work to get the layout detailed and finished up to the standard we really want it at….

Nervous? Moi?

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