Model Railways and Railway Related Things.

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Special thanks to MG for what just came through my door . It's only the cutest little "Gandy Dancer" you're ever likely to see ... and a very cool truck for the layout ... Thanks so much for all the assistance, encouragement, not to mention ALL the wonderful bits and pieces you've shared or given to make this a very special layout ...

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Fun things. I think smaller trains are ideal for a little layout. Gandy Dancer express!

Gandy Dancer Express indeedy ! I will try not to overwork those little guys too much ... Now all I need is that mountain goat perched on the hill overlooking the sea !

Haha. Hornby make sheep. Or they used to. Goats should be available somewhere.

Lol so cute!

Just bought one from Ebay lol ... kinda cute ... the resemblance is astounding

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Haha. Nice!

Is this layout in Juliette's house a collaborative effort?

I love the scenery and the small size of everything--very impressive. The "creative side" of these kinds of things is what makes them special.

Hi Borromeo - It was MG who encouraged and rekindled what was a childhood interest in trains/vehicles/layout from when I was a child(I was also into girly things too, very much so, but also loved having my own vehicles etc, since I also had 4 brothers. I started googling train layouts etc, went onto Ebay, and chose a layout mat that really appealed, then went on to buy the matching second hand track for it. Over time, I bought vehicles, planes from WWII era, along with vintage/second hand buildings etc. I bought a handful of books on the subject, including one on creating baseboards. Having done all my home renovation myself, aside from having the bathrooms and kitchen fitted professionally, I'm pretty used to using a drill, hammer, putting up wallpaper, painting the entire house on my own. So, it wasn't long before deciding on what I wanted to do, and actually doing it.

Now, MG was ctitical to this mission lol, as without his encouragement, advice, which I collected and keep in a word document, along with some amazing trains he gave to me as Christmas gifts along with a very cool San Francisco tram(see above photos for a glimpse), some wonderful cars/trucks etc, all manner of helpful bits and pieces, including a very precious book which he himself used as a child, I may never have taken the first steps. I, in turn, gave him some train kits and parts for Christmas etc. I'd already built homemade dolls houses from scratch for therapy purposes(working with children who've experienced abuse/trauma), and had taught woodwork to children in Australia(my father was a carpenter). Anyhow, MG was truly the driving force behind this very fun project, and cannot tell you how much enjoyment it's bringing, especially now that I'm starting on the more creative elements eg creating mountains, painting scenes, building various buildings to resemble life in WWII era Llandsteffan. I'm using photos I took when there last, and will be returning possibly in March to meet up with a small group of friends. Importantly, MG invited me onto a particularly welcoming and amazing online forum(a Narrow Gaugue Railway Modelling site.). I used Aussie timber(Eucalyptus Tree timber and plywood), and tried to keep all costs to a minimum. The pieces largely have far more character being vintage, than they otherwise would have had.

Are you into trains too, Borromeo, or interested in starting out?

Just a small note of interest. The Bachmann H0 Sanfrancisco Cable Car (Tram) had to have work to enable it to go round corners as Bachmann made it to be only used on straight track... To be fair the real SF cable cars run on straight lines so it is understandable. However, running the little tram just on straight track was limiting, so easements in the design were made, the largest easement came in allowing the trailing bogie to float with a lot of lateral play. The power bogie was slightly eased but due to design and space, very little easement could be done. Hence the unpowered bogie was converted to allow for a lot of sideways play.
The result is that the tram will negotiate first radius track though it is happier on second or above, and will negotiate pointwork.

I have not really done anything as it is all Juliettes work. I am impressed by the way the four boards have been fixed together to make a solid board that can be raised and lowered at will. That is impressive.

It will be interesting to see what Llanstephan is going to end up looking like as things progress.

It's an American animal.

At least one American railroad company used a pic of a mountain goat as its trademark (on box cars etc). The Great Northwestern, which served areas of the Rocky Mountains where the animal is native.

So if you don't mind mixing in some American rolling stock with your model trains you can include mountain goats at least as images.

Of all the breeds of goat here in the UK, it is only the Angoras and the Mountain Goats (Not sure if the Angoras as practically mountain goats? Their skins and fur are more lika a hardy sheep then a goat) that are safe to be let out in the rain. All other goat breeds need shelters for the summer and need proper indoor enviroments for the hardy winter months. A goats skin is close to a humans skin, and many die due to pnemonia due to careless owners who do not know what they are doing. Surprizingly, some of the worst culprits to goat cruelty in this way are farmers who treat them like sheep. Sheep are usually much hardier to the weather. It is considered an act of cruelty to keep a goat without providing shelter.
Another thing is that goats (Especially young goats) will try eating anything. Many die as a result. They eat plastic, poisionus plants, laundry.. You name it, a goat has died trying to eat it. The most common fatality for a goat is eating poisionus plants. Goat keepers have to be come plant experts before they can keep them as there are so many plants out there that can kill them. As youngsters (As a child my parents kept goats... Toggumburgs and Sarnans), my brother and I used to walk the paddocks daily and dig up any poisionus plants that were growing through. We had many neighbours and some of them would throw weeds over for the goats when they did their gardening despite my parents asking them not to. One elderly man used to throw deadly nightshade over not knowing what it is... And when my parents caught up with him he would say "Nonsence. A goat will eat anything!" He didn't seem to get the point.
We used to be called out regularly by the RSPCA for my Mum to tend to sick or dying goats which the RSPCA had found. Most goats would have eater poisionus plants and be foming at the mouth because goats can't go sick due to having two stomaches. Others were frozen to the ground with pnemonia... No shelters. It took a lot of work to show RSPCA officers how goats should be kept as most didn't know anything about goats... Hence why they called my Mum!
Fencing must be high and have NO barbed wire. Goats climb fencing and will rip their teets open on the barbed wire. They are expert escape artists!
Finally, even the most caring people who keep goats may not have a clue and try to keep them like other cattle. At a farm park open to the public in West Wales they had kept goats there for years. Then one day several years later their goats started making a strange sneezing type noise. Now most goat owners know what this means. A goat will do it if it sees or smells something it doesn't like. For example, when my Dad was smoking, and one of the goats came up and smelt it, it would maie this noise in discust. Young goats learn how to do this from their parents. Young goats are always kept with their mums. One does not seperate them. So when the young goats strt learning how to do this noise, that is all you hear for a few days! Hahah. Funny things! They look for somethingthey don't like as an excuse to be able to do it and they think its funny!
However at this animal farm, for years they had seperated their young goat kids from their parents and placed them in pens on their own so the public could see them (Slightly cruel). So the goat kids never had the chance to learn from their parents how to make this alert noise to a danger... And each generation of goat grew up there not knowing how to communicate properly to the other due to the way they had been seperated.
Finally they must have had a goat in from elsewhere years later and all their other goats started learning fron this new goat how to make this noise, and the owners were perplexed and contacted the TV and press to try to find out what is going on! Haha. If they knew a bit more about keeping goats they would not have had this problem.
I personally think keeping any animal seperate from its mum is cruel. It seems the down thing with farmers keeping cows. They seperate the calves far too soon. Many calves die because they don't have the emotional support from caring Mums. It is like they need the mums to show them how to do things? And the Mums wail and cry for days after their calves have been seperated from them. It is cruel.

He's a handsome goat, NP, and he will be an honourary visiting American, then ... Besides, there's an American tram and at least one other American station shelter on the layout, so not a problem... Also, when I was looking for an aesthetically pleasing mountain goat for the layout, I did stumble upon Mountain Goat transport ...

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Just some kids messing about ...

MG, really enjoyed gaining some interesting and entertaining goat knowledge from your above post! I used to have mohair goat fur sent from Wales to Surrey here for my collector bear-making hobby ! Beautiful range of goat fur, and I have an array of samples in various colours, thickness and some in tipped mohair. Very special! There used to be a Nanny goat down the road from where I grew up in Annerley, Brisbane ... had heard that they will eat anything and everything, including the washing off of the clothes line! Thanks for that lesson in goats .

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Only once ever seen a real mountain goat and I smelt him a long time before I saw him. It was in North Wales. And I was looking and looking. And there he was. Typical goat! Right on top of the rock above me looking down at me! And he was a magnifiscent sight!

Yes, aren't they a magnificent sight! I stumbled upon some mountain goats in the Yorkshire Dales last year when I was on a wonderful hike, and photographed them ... and videoed them ... lovely to see them!

I cant figure out how to post still pics. But if you follow this link it will show the Great Northwestern Railroad goat symbol. In his variations.

https://binged.it/2R7i4u4

Last edited by naturalplastic on 18 Jan 2020, 7:54 pm, edited 1 time in total.