The Shankly and Gdynia Railway

[Chops]

Marvelous rake. I imagine it makes a lot of clatter on its rounds.

[IanAlan]

Thank you Chops. This one is not particularly noisy but I've got two locomotives that really do make a racket. One is Princess Elizabeth. However, I was given that second-hand more than 50 years ago, so no surprises there. It actually hardly moves at all - painful to watch and listen to. Mostly I just place it on the layout for some static photos. The other is my Liverpool steam loco and that was bought new about 6 years ago. When I got it, it was a smooth runner and not at all noisy, but sadly those days have gone. I don't know what I did to it. It was very dusty when I first took it out of its box, so I assume it was ex-display. It was a good price with three eight-wheel coaches, so I can't complain. If I had bought the coaches separately, they would have cost about the same.

Princess Elizabeth






Liverpool (Come on the Reds)!






When I got my baseboard, I put 3mm cork on the whole surface. This softens the sound. It also is a much more pleasant surface to paint on and the texture gives an attractive texture effect to the paint.

[IanAlan]

Here's a few more photos of Liverpool and Princess Elizabeth.









My dad bought me Princess Elizabeth second-hand all those years ago. The previous owner must have repainted parts of it gloss maroon and made a poor job of it. My dad wouldn't have botched the paint job. On the other hand, I should have dusted the loco before taking the photos.

[Mountain Goat]

Quite a lot of activity on your layout. It is nice.

[IanAlan]

Thank you MG. Kind words are always appreciated. I try to keep it busy. As it's a smallish layout, I've had to crowd things in. The baseboard was made to exactly fit the wall space in the loft when it's standing on its side, so the option of a landscape with wide-open spaces simply doesn't exist for me. Necessity is the mother of invention, perhaps.

As mentioned previously, all the recent photos were taken in June before the baseboard was cleared of scenic features and taken up. However, I'm pleased to announce that the board is back down, hoovered, tracked cleaned with IPA, wires reattached to the controllers and the locomotives are getting their 30 minute warm-up run without any rolling stock. It's great to have the wheels turning again. Most satisfying. I haven't put much scenery back on it yet as I'm working on the long-awaited hill that will, hopefully, make sense of all the bridges.

So here's a random selection of June photos.

[IanAlan]

Hi everyone,
Today's photos are focusing on the Gdynia end of the layout rather than the trains.

[IanAlan]

The Little Giant

[IanAlan]

Shades of Green