New loco

A new loco has arrived at Knell Lane and it is the first of the new "expanded period" stock. A Class 86 electric locomotive in Rail Express livery in fact so this puts it at the end of the British Rail period. The intention is for this loco to become the "flagship" of the fleet alongside the CEP. It certainly looks the part.

Helicopter

Its been a bit quiet on the model kit front but actually i have been making one more kit this year... Project #073 is the first helicopter and is an Agusta A109. I need to get this finished by the end of the year as the table i build my kits on is needed for Xmas dinner. I should get it finished, just the painting to finish off...

Knell Lane signalbox

The latest addition to Knell Lane is a signalbox (at last!) A nice PECO kit. It also has 2 people inside and some signs on the wall, just don't look too closely as you'll see they are in German. Its not an anti-Brexit protest just all i had available honest!

2017 will be the year of change

2017 will be a bit year of change for Knell Lane, not only will the layout be replaced by a brand new one (as mentioned elsewhere) i'm also going to change the era the layout operates in. Currently the era is about 1968-72 but this will change to 1968-92. This will encompass most of the British Rail era and will open up a lot more possibilities for new stock and liveries.

Now of course this will not be very "authentic" but Knell Lane is supposed to be fun not a rivet counter paradise. Anyway i bet you can't wait to see the Class 22 haul a train of coaches in Regional Railways livery!

Pullman

More new arrivals which came today. Now this is a little odd but its a Pullman coach (it was a bargain!) It may look a bit incongruous on the layout but we'll find a use for it, special ECS workings perhaps. It adds a bit of colour and variety to the coaching stock fleet too.

As we said in the previous post we loved the Railfreight tube wagon so much we bought another! Also bought today was another lorry and a signal box kit.

New arrivals

While planning continues for Project #1004 we still have #1002 and #1003 to look after too! A few weeks ago a new wagon for Knell Lane arrived. A Railfreight open wagon. I love this wagon so much i've ordered another one...

Also arriving at Knell Lane a couple of British Rail vehicles. A crew van and a flatbed lorry.

Finally for Mausstadt a new platform shelter. This replaces the station building i was trying to repurpose as it was just too big for the space available.

Project #1004

Next year i am going to remake the Knell Lane N gauge layout with a new board, a new concept and new track (the existing layout re-used the track from Eskalon and its getting a bit worn). This will be Project #1004 and will be Knell Lane 2.0. I'm thinking of moving away from loops and having a "U" shaped layout with a back scene and a terminus station. Until then the existing Knell Lane (Project #1002) is running fine. The Lima 31 looks good on the storage siding though its a shame it doesn't seem to be able to get it running well enough to use. I am thinking of removing the engine from one of the Lima 31s and using it as a "dummy" loco for double headers.