More N gauge accessories exploring my house

Peco Train Shed Unit, Graham Farish 'Redland' Wagon, Noch Figures, Tamiya Weathering Master E

A few more purchases to add to the stockpile. One of these days I might make enough space to actually start making parts of the railway instead of just buying things.

Anyway, here's the modern train shed unit by Peco. I saw this on ebay and thought it was pretty much what I needed, so was pleased to find it in Modelzone. The packaging tries to convince you that you should buy about a million of them to connect up and have a massive train warehouse, but as I'm working with limited space I think I'll stick with one for now.
It's 'pre-coloured,' so it says, but the colours are fairly basic and for sure I'll be repainting it myself (perhaps with the exception of the hazard-line doors, which I'll just weather). 

Next up is the Graham Farish 'Redland' Wagon. Not much to say about this, the model looks exactly like the previous one that I bought, but I just thought this one looks nice. I can't say I've ever seen a Redland wagon IRL before, but seeing as Redland is a Bristol neighbourhood near us, it seems to help add a little more Bristolianism to the collection.

And then we come to the Noch figures. I knew I'd be buying these at some point, but seeing as they're so expensive and not really needed at this point I've been putting it off. Nevertheless, I decided to get a pack.

Finding again that it would be a cheaper purchase from Modelzone than ebay, I went straight ahead and picked up these guys. They seem to be slightly vintage male commuters. 

Like it seems with all lines of items in this hobby, 00 gauge (the standard, Hornby-size railways) offers much more interesting and varied things - with Noch's 00 figures you can get everything from marching bands and police officers to builders and naked couples doing naughty things on a tiny bed. The choices in N gauge are a little more standard, but in my opinion what they lack in variety they make up for in sheer tininess. 

  

I did not hesitate to attempt a little bit of that tiny figure photography craze that existed in the art world a few years ago:

I also bought Tamiya Weathering Master set E, ready to add dry dirt to all my lovely industrial things. 

That's all for now. 

My first train: Graham Farish 150 DMU, + First Great Western Decals

British Rail Class 150 Diesel Multiple Unit

Model by Graham Farish

This is the model which was supplied with my starter train set. I have since converted it to a First Great Western local lines model with the help of Adam Warr's Railway Graphic Decals.

This will be the flagship train of the local line on my railway layout, travelling between the main town station and a small country station...

First test: Tamiya Weathering Master (Rust, Gun metal, Silver)

Okay, so I've literally just spent about 30 minutes dabbing this little fella with a makeup stick. My girlfriend thinks I've gone mad. 

Before:

After:

It's very easy to use, and for weathering nuts like me, you can't go wrong. I applied gun metal first, then silver on the highlight surfaces, then rust just about wherever I felt like it. And I think it looks awesome! My layout is sure gonna be gritty when its finished. 

An idea of scale - Oxford Land Rover on a pound

Welcome to British N Gauge. Approximately 1/148 scale. 

This is Oxford's N gauge Land Rover. Most of their N gauge models are generally 60s era, so I'm struggling to find vehicles which would work in my modern environment. A green, vintage Land Rover will always look good down a side road, me thinks.  

Planning permission approved for a circular railway network in the South West of England

This year, work begins on a new railway in Bristol, UK.
However, it is a much smaller network than you might imagine. This is a railway which is designed to fit snugly inside a coffee table, somewhere in Bristol.


This is the blog I have established to document the design, construction and running of the N-gauge layout I am creating. It will be a modern day layout, depicting somewhere around the Bristol area, with all the bells and whistles and whistle-stops that I can possibly cram in. 


Featuring:
Double track First Great Western mainline 
Single track First Great Western local line
Moving bus system
Lights
Digitalised system with advanced software and controls
Varied landscape features including tunnel, bridge, x2 stations, Bristolian buildings and farmland
Fitted inside a glass-topped coffee table 


Digital ambitions
Eventually, I hope to fully exploit the digital potential of the railway system by controlling all features with software. I hope to be able to use a small computer such as a Raspberry Pi, and perhaps even find a way to allow website visitors to log in to a server and control the railway remotely and even view live CCTV cameras on the platforms andand and....gasp...


On this Blog you will be able to see:  
Updates and stories of how the work is going
HD (and macro!) videos and photos of the railway coming together and operating
A rolling report of how much I am spending on the railway, time and money...


So, if you are interested to see how this pans out, please follow this blog. Cheers!