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Messages - Mark Dalrymple

#16
Layout Tours / Re: The Empire
March 11, 2024, 05:59:59 PM
Nice progress, Jeff.

A few things that spring to mind:  The Larger ITLA building might not scale well against the smaller city structures and kind of look out of proportion.  Where do you envisage this road you are talking about going?  While we are talking about roads - how do you see the city block connecting with the rest of the layout and the larger 'imagined' world?  I like to get some coloured paper and cut out road pieces and mock them up in position.  Remember - those roads can lead your eye into the various scenes and from one scene to another just as well as track can.  I consider them a core part of design.  Have you considered the flop house on a slope - with the back track side on a retaining wall next to the track and the front at the lower level?  Does it need a road, or would pedestrian access suffice?  If so you could easily add steps on the far side of the track and a pedestrian bridge crossing the track, hiding the track's disappearance into the backdrop with the aid of some carefully placed greenery.  You could also bend a one way road to the left (from where you have the tree placed on the road) and then double back on itself to cross the track.  This should gain sufficient height to cross the track with a one way road bridge.  This is what I would imaging they would do in the prototype if road access was needed.  Anyway - just thinking out loud.

Cheers, Mark.
#17
Thanks, Jerry.

Yep.  Same thing.  I used 12mm coach bolts (carriage bolts).  No doubt in England (hence New Zealand) they were known as coaches, in the USA carriages.

Cheers, Mark.
#18
Great to read a long, Jerry.

It's great that this site has reopened - but there has been very little activity.  I'm afraid I'm not at all interested in discussing the weather or what I had for breakfast - which is unfortunately where all the activity is!  I'm please you have just jumped back in.  It's very easy to procrastinate, trying to get the story just so.  I believe that threads such as this with daily or weekly updates are the future of the forum and the way to entice new members.  If there is no new daily activity no one will want to join.  I get disheartened when I post major updates and get no comments.  I need to do another...

I'm wondering whether carriage bolts are the same as coach bolts - which is what I used to join my layout sections together?  I'm guessing they are.

Keep up the updates - I'll be watching and reading along.

Cheers, Mark.
#19
Kit Building / Re: DD Luci's Tattoo
February 28, 2024, 02:38:24 PM
Great work, Jeff.

Looks terrific.

Cheers, Mark.
#20
Layout Tours / Re: Backwoods NE in Florida
February 26, 2024, 02:53:39 PM
Looking good, Cuse.

Looks like you have some nice vertical displacement in the corner there.

Cheers, Mark.
#21
Layout Tours / Re: Cypress Creek Railroad
February 26, 2024, 12:08:37 AM
Looking really great, Steve.

Looking forward to watching the details appear.

Cheers, Mark.
#22
Layout Tours / Re: Shadowlands and Tellynott
February 25, 2024, 06:54:33 PM
QuoteYou attention to detail in drawing up the plans is incredible.  The finished product is going to be awesome. 

Thanks so much, Jeff.

I just spent the weekend with the possums modelling group down in Timaru and have come back nicely motivated.  All I need now is some spare time...

Cheers, Mark.
#23
Layout Tours / Re: Shadowlands and Tellynott
February 25, 2024, 06:52:31 PM
QuoteMark, looking more closely at the track plan:  No way to turn a locomotive at Wilmot? 

Thanks, Dave.

I'll consider this issue.

Cheers, Mark.
#24
Layout Tours / Re: Shadowlands and Tellynott
February 25, 2024, 06:51:15 PM
Quotethe two profiles I have found and saved (Narrow Gauge & Shoreline Gazette NOV/DEC 1991 & MR MAR 1997).

I don't know that I have seen the NG&SG article, Cuse.  I have these on disc so will look that one out.  I, too, have the MRR issue out in my layout room as inspiration - along with some Malcolm Furlow and John Allen articles.  I agree that the layout is quite groundbreaking and really shook my modelling world.

Cheers, Mark.
#25
Kit Building / Re: DD Luci's Tattoo
February 19, 2024, 09:52:06 PM
Looking good, Jeff.

That wash has really toned down the bright brick colour.  It looks really good now.  I think the grey of the concrete blocks is excellent - at least for where I live.

Cheers, Mark.
#26
Kit Building / Re: HO SierraWest Loco Service Shops
February 18, 2024, 11:52:03 PM
Really nice, Darryl.

Cheers, Mark.
#27
Layout Tours / Re: Shadowlands and Tellynott
February 17, 2024, 12:32:50 AM
QuoteWow...what a great design.

That peninsula to the left is going to be amazing. Makes me think of Dick Patterson's HOn30 Dolly Varden, which was featured in MR many many years ago...just lots of complexity of bridges, controlled viewing angles in and out of a deep canyon and track coming and going unexpectedly popping out of tunnels.

Thanks, Cuse!

I'm pleased you like it!  There were a few trade offs that had to be made - largely because the layout grew from the original urban layout into the specific space I found at my disposal.  I agree - that peninsula should be exciting to build.  I sacrificed the width of the trackwork along the left wall in order to keep the peninsula larger.  I did the same thing in the area behind Tellynott - keeping the layout against the back wall wide at the cost of the layout width on the flip side of the back wall of Tellynott.  This was to keep the longitudinal scene under those high bridges and all the way down to the tall timber trestle nice and wide.  I am a big fan of the Dick Patterson's design you mention. I love the longways view in from the end of the layout.  The ore dock is also a big influence on my own (high wharf).  I also own the book 'Steel rails and Silver Dreams' by Darryl E. Muralt - which is a history of the Dolly Varden mines and narrow gauge railway.  One can easily see from the prototype photos why it was such a popular area to model!  So many great scenes in such a small area!  I think the wharf and smelter would have also been interesting to model and made a great scene.

Cheers, Mark.
#28
Layout Tours / Re: Shadowlands and Tellynott
February 16, 2024, 12:16:13 PM
QuoteLooks great Mark.  That will be a wonderful layout to operate.
`

Thanks, Jerry.

The trains will no doubt be a little shorter than I would like because of the 4% ruling grades, but I just couldn't get the drama I wanted with vertical displacement between tracks on a smaller grade.  For that I would have needed a significantly bigger room.  Its all about trade offs and deciding what you want most.  I've tried hard to put together something that will work and be interesting to operate and hopefully be able to keep five people busy.  I studied lots of my favourite designs, but I also wanted to design the layout myself.  I'm looking forward to winter when the weeds stop growing and getting back into the layout room for some extended periods.  Only 3 1/2 months to go...

Cheers, Mark.
#29
Dioramas / Re: Bleat - a 009 exhibition layout
February 13, 2024, 02:37:46 PM
Those sheep look really good, Mike.

What a great idea!

Cheers, Mark.
#30
Dioramas / Re: Bleat - a 009 exhibition layout
February 12, 2024, 06:28:30 PM
Yes, Dave.

I don't think Handel meant it quite like that!  I actually sang the Messiah several times in the Christchurch city choir.  Our choir master, Brian Law, died late last year.  I was reading in the newspaper article that followed his death that he had been offered a job here and decided to have a look around the country first.  He found himself amongst some beautiful scenery one day and realised he had no idea what day it was.  He decided then and there that a country in which one could lose track of the days of the week was a country he wanted to live in!

Cheers, Mark.
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