Czech T-Gauge Diorama

After a look on the web today to see if there is anything new going on in the T gauge community I found this interesting blog in Czech. Unfortunately he has made his little diorama and found that T isn't the thing for him at the moment, which is a shame because he's done a really nice job.

See his blog here or translated here.

A couple of pics from his blog.

LED Street lighting

I found recently on eBay someone selling 1:500 scale LED street lighting. It was direct from China so the price was super cheap. I thought I'd order some, well 30 of them, only £15 with free P+P!!! They arrived today and I have now installed 13 of them so far and I have to say I am very impressed. The only issues were that the angle of the street lights needed a bit of adjustment and they needed painting as the lamp covers are made of copper and it would look a bit weird leaving them as is. They run on 3v, so I nipped into poindland to grab whatever item used 2 AA or AAA batteries and nabbed it to get the battery housing out of it. Would've gone to Maplin but it was cheaper to walk to poundland than go all the way to Maplin just for a battery holder. After lots of soldering, its now done. Maybe at some point I'll work out how to hook it up to the USB 5v power supply already in the case and add a switch to it and maybe a variable power knob to make them a bit dimmer.

The lights as they come. Much closer to 1:400 scale than the 1:500 scale they're supposed to be.

Lights painted grey

Maybe they need dimming for exhibitions as they're not very photogenic at the moment

Pics from the Milton Keynes Exhibition and a new train added to my fleet

The layout and I attended the Milton Keynes Model Railway exhibition on the 14th of Feb. Nearly 3000 people came and it was very busy. I didn't even get a chance to see the 2nd hall. The day went well and there were plenty of people surprised and baffled by seeing T Gauge. Thank you MKMRS for inviting me. Doug Kightley, the bossman of the T Gauge forum joined me to help out and he brought down some of his Firth of Forth bridge project to show off too. The bits that he brought were very impressive.

We were in the Cafe area overlooking the main hall. Doug was busy assembling his bridge section

The view

The intended rolling stock for the day. Unfortunately the Network South East train decided to break on me and had to be replaced. The new DMU did great though.

The new DMU to my fleet. painted the day before the exhibition lol. Its a BR class 108 3d printed by shapeways . Exactly the sort of thing that used to go past my house on the Bedford to Bletchley Line.

A Section of Doug's Forth Bridge project.

And here's a video of the event, featuring Stratfield at the end :D

Painting Rusty Rails in T gauge

I've had a kick up the bum to do something to my layout as I've found out that I'm doing and exhibition in 2 weeks time apparently Aaaaahhhhhh!!!

I had started painting the rust on the rails but had only done about a third of the layout. Having this unfinished would look a bit naff, so I have to paint the rest now pronto. 

I'm using a size 0 brush with Humbrol Acrylic rust colour. The results are quite pleasing I think. The track was painted with grey and dark ink a long time ago.

The difference between unpainted and painted track.