The one to go to!

Hello again,

On Saturday 24th March, I visited the London Festival of Railway Modelling (coined, at least by me, as 'The one to go to').

I arrived about 10 minutes prior to opening on the really busy shuttle bus from Wood Green. For roughly the first 4 hours, I just browsed the stalls. Then, after about 30 mins for lunch and a break, the final 2 hours were spent having a look around the layouts to get ideas for my own.

So, my acquisitions. I spent over £200 and got 2.5 locos! I say 2.5 because... You'll see!
From 'Going Loco' (a shop in Wakefield), I got 3 wagons for only £10 and, from another stall, I obtained 3 wagons for £11.50. They were: 2 box vans, 2 brake vans and a 16T Mineral wagon

The one on the left is from the show

Actually, I got 3 box vans, but one of them may need a little more than just a quick polish...

On top of this, there were some additions to my fleet of carriages. They're both BR Blue/Grey Inter-City Mk2s to go with the pdevipdevipreone  guard unboxed from 'Going Loco' for £8 and the Open for £5.50 boxed from Ellis Clark Trains.

However, the Open coach was essentially free, as I did a deal for that and a DCC Fitted Bachmann BR Green 4MT for the bargain price of £75!

If all the aforementioned rolling stock isn't enough for you to digest, 'Going Loco' also sold me a double pack of Hornby EWS Class 37s (one DCC Fitted and one Dimmy) for £85, but I negotiated - of course - and got the price down to £82.50!

Some of the layouts on display were phenomenally detailed. There were too many to put into this post, so I'll just say that World's End really was rather stunning.

All in all, it was an absolutely brilliant day and I really hope to go again next year. The extra rolling stock (of which there is rather a lot) will mean that my running sessions can get a lot more interesting too!

Happy modelling!

Life goes on, and so does the layout...

I haven't posted in over a month! Sorry! That's mainly because not much has been going on at Brunswick Junction - I've got a bad cold lately.

The shelf has been taken out of use, as it's dangerous - coupling hooks started pinging off trains etc.

On a lighter note, the ballasting has been completed on the 'straight' line, including the whole of the works siding and the station area - that's as far as the point that divides the main loop from the two locomotive sidings that run underneath the line to the shelf. On top of this (some of it literally), the blank area behind the works siding that was empty - and has been earmarked for a road bridge - has gained a nice load of Woodland Scenics fine 'Earth' and coarse 'Burnt Grass' to give the effect of being in shadow and nothing being able to grow. I've organised a shunting puzzle for today, whereby I have placed varying wagons, coaches and locos in all of my sidings and I will sort them out into rakes. That should be fun! See you next month.

Happy Modelling!

New stuff and a major advancement!

Hello there,

Sorry for the lack of posts recently - life has been very busy over the Christmas period and lots has been happening on Brunswick Junction.

A belated Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! I hope you all had a wonderful time and got some great gifts - I certainly did!

Firstly, you may remember the Class 419 and 2 HAA hoppers from the Romford Exhibition back in November. Now, they're officially mine, with 4 extra HAA hoppers creating a rake of 6! Now I have a modern era freight train to fit the layout!

Talking of the layout, the two curved points to create the two sidings on the right hand side have arrived (you may have seen these in the track plans earlier) - the track for the loop is now complete! I only have two left-hand points to acquire for the shelf (a run-around loop) and then I'll be done.

On top of that, a Bachmann nuclear flask means another modern freight train, but what do I have to haul it?

The Dapol Class 68 in DRS Livery! I have 68003 'Astute', as that is one of the trains that hauled my Anglia 'Short Set' back in May this year (having checked over this post, it's now last year!) They work well together, but I need another 68 to make it realistic!

My first proper multiple unit is the Bachmann Class 350 that I also received this Christmas. This fits the layout era perfectly, but only just about physically fits on! I am having to store it on the shelf, unless I want to put it away for a longer period of time.

Finally, I got MORE stuff from local-ish model shops recently with some Christmas money. A more detailed Gronk has always been high on my list and I have one NSE Mk1 brake just crying out for some more coaches. As a result, I got... You guessed it, a Bachmann 08 and two NSE coaches (Mk2)! On a slightly more minor note, I also got a BR Intercity Mk3 to complete my rake of Mk3s, although one is a restaurant/buffet (in a 3 coach rake???). The 08 was £50 DCC Fitted and the Mk3 was £8 from John Dutfield LLP in Chelmsford and the Mk2s were £10 each from Rochester Models Games and Railways.

That's the new stuff, now for the advancement. Writing this on 6th January, I have laid down the cork for the loop and works siding (the 3 middle and 2 outer sidings are still to be corked, but I hope to do them tomorrow). The ballast (Woodland Scenics Medium Grey  ballast, Christmas) has been laid in the works siding and so has some scatter (Gaugemaster Medium Green? Grass - £1.95 from Roneo Models, bought a while ago and Woodland Scenics Coarse Burnt Grass and Fine Earth - £3.50 each from Roneo Models, bought today) and foliage (Woodland Scenics Clump-Foliage - £7 from Roneo Models, bought a while ago).

Thanks for taking time to read this rather long post (I shall now write longer, more infrequent posts), how are your railways getting on? Let me know!

Happy Modelling!

Brunswick Junction's Weekly Update 2: Week Beginning 4th December 2017

Sorry, I haven't got round to posting on here recently. That's mainly because I haven't got much to report about!

I have only got round to doing two things. Firstly, I have filmed a running session with all available stock (probably not to go on YouTube). As well as this, the Christmas decorations are up downstairs now, so I have realised that I want a space to relax from Christmas. Therefore, I've decided to remove the decorations on the railway. Bah Humbug. :-P

Happy Modelling!

Christmas is coming...

Yes, the month of Christmas is upon us. Just for fun, I have made some small (temporary) additions to the layout. These include: 'Merry Christmas' Train headboards, Carriage messages stating 'Merry Christmas' and signs for the station building and newspaper stand - you guessed it, they say 'Merry Christmas' too! Below are a few examples of them:

Although it can be annoying with lots of presents to buy and cards to write, at least we can all look forward to more trains coming to our layouts!

Happy modelling!

Brunswick Junction's Weekly Update 1: Week Beginning 27th November 2017

Hello there and welcome to a new section, my weekly update. I have decided to start this because it gives me a motivation to post regularly!

This week, I have been preparing for Christmas. I hope to give the layout a Christmas-y feel for December - getting all the headboards etc ready for Friday. Since it's been another week, not much else has been going on, but I was able to get something done during the weekend. I haven't made any card kits before, so decided to attempt to make a free one from Scalescenes. As you can see, it didn't go very well...

Practice makes perfect right? Anyway, I've also made rough track plans with scenery. (I only have the free version of Anyrail, so cannot have the table and shelf on one plan!)

Ignore the siding in the top left, the point ordered is going to be moved elsewhere.

The same, but for the shelf - very simple trackwork. I have added a run-around loop as well.

That's it for this week, the next update will be on Wednesday - some other jobs will be separate posts too!

Happy modelling!

Hornby Class 50 Review

I've finally got round to doing my review of the Hornby Class 50. I acquired 50045 'Achilles', a Network SouthEast example (R2350), at the Romford Model Railway Exhibition. It is DCC Fitted and a weathered edition, but second-hand, so I was able to snap it up for £70.

Packaging
The 'Hoover' comes in the slightly older Hornby packaging, so polystyrene with a piece of plastic on the front of the loco. I feel like this is more reassuring than their new 'ice block' style, while still being about as light. However, the two sections of polystyrene can fall apart quite easily.

Model/Detail
The modelling of the Class 50 is absolutely outstanding. As the loco is second-hand, I believe the detailing pack has been added - pipes and all make it look amazing! A great addition is the moving fan on top, which rotates at a realistic scale speed when the train is moving. There are also sprung buffers and opening cab doors for anyone that's interested. I have seen a Network SouthEast Class 50 in real life and the livery looks absolutely exquisite. Weathering makes the loco look like it has been in service lots as well.

Performance
The performance of this loco is amazing. When going extremely slowly, - even over points - it maintains a constant speed. Just watch my 80s/90s running session video! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXdP5GATGAw . On top of this, the traction is great, so it's amazing on gradients too!

Summary
This is my best loco - and for a good reason! It's absolutely amazing and has loads of weight to it. Well done Hornby!