Thanks Joan. It is funny that whenever you film something it rarely goes smoothly. It's why I don't often film me doing anything tricky. It does seem that lots of people have found that section useful. Stephen

I am glad it was useful David. I have since discovered that I had an old Grafar wagon among some that were donated to me. I have now changed that also but it took a lot more work to remove part of the under frame to bring the coupling up enough. I'll show it in the next video if I remember, but that of course won't be for a while. The more I look at the colours the more I like the darker one, but as others have suggested I don't have to have the whole face the same colour. Stephen

Thanks Roy. The couplings are fiddly little things. There are times when I wonder why I chose N gauge but then I see the A4 go by with 8 coaches behind it and I remember. The quarry face looks as if it will work out well. Looking forward to getting to it in due course. Stephen

Hi Paul and thanks. It will be interesting to work on the bigger area for the quarry front and I’ve had a number of useful suggestions for varying the colour across the area. It is a rule of videoing that as soon as you turn the camera on things simply don’t behave. It’s why I don’t do many demonstrations. Still it is better to show it warts and all. Even with the problems it didn’t take a lot of time to make the changes. Stephen.

Thanks Chris. I enjoyed making it, even if I managed to get things the wrong way round at one point! Stephen

Hi Allan. I'm glad you found it useful. I'll be interested to see the result of all your soldering. I will put some signals on my layout once all the structural work is done, but they won't be working ones. I am hoping to get to Warely this year but that depends on whether there are still strikes on the railway. Stephen

Hi Gary. I am pleased with how the test piece has come out and have just begun to work on High Elven. I’m looking forward to getting quarry face I. P,ace. I really like the darker grey and I was pleased with how the WWS moss weathering powder worked on it. Stephen

Thanks very much Gert. Stephen

Yes, I do too. I was very pleased how that came out, and when I make the quarry face I will show how I get that effect. Stephen

Hi Euan. I had toyed with not having access, particularly as I had never had any problem in that section of the railway, but that joiner loosening was a timely warning. The conversion kit is a little fiddly but pretty straightforward if you fit the coupling the right way around in the first place. I'm looking forward to loosing the last unbuilt part of the layout. Not long now until the last of the white foam is covered. Stephen

Hi Andy. I did think about using plaster but I will try the foam first. I like the effect I can get. I also hope that I won't have to remove it much, or hopefully at all, but I will heed your warning about its fragility. Stephen

Hi Ed. I'm glad you found the demo useful. As it happens following an earlier comment, I found an old Grafar Single Vent Box Van and I have successfully fitted the NEM pocket, but it required quite a bit of cutting of the under frame. The coupling pocket had effectively to be fitted to the underside of the body of the van, with a shim to get the right height. It all looks fine, and I will show it in the next video, but a tougher task than the PECO wagon. I've not yet tried to change one a post Bachmann Farish wagon. Stephen

Hi Ian and thanks. I think you are right that I don't need to go with only one colour, and variation across so large an area may well be a better idea. I did find it funny that my first go at it went reasonably smoothly, apart from discovering the need to fit the inner pocket in before fixing to the wagon, but turning on the camera cause the modelling gods to have fun and games with me. Stephen

Hi John and thanks. It was typical that having fitted them without a hitch on the first wagon I should fluff it up on camera. However even with the two little hitches it still showed that it doesn't take long to do. I still keeping in ming Chris' "paralysis by analysis" comment, but equally you have to guard against not planning properly. I really keen to get on with the quarry face, but it really does have to wait until High Elven is in a state where I can fix it in place. Life really isn't a respecter of the need for railway modellers to have time on their layout. It is most unreasonable of it. Stephen

Hi Phil. It does seem from all the images I've now looked at, that long abandoned quarries can take on any of the colours I have produced so far. The coupling conversion is really straightforward if you don't put the things on the wrong way round, with superglue on them, in the first place 🤭 Stephen

Hi Phil. Thanks for your comments. I will need to think about how I cut into the longer section of the quarry face. The test piece was quite small. You have given me some very useful information so thanks for that. Stephen

Thanks very much Josh. Stephen

Hi Mark. I am not going to be specific as to the nature of the rock. It doesn't really matter and I am sure to choose a rock that it is impossible to tunnel through, or which would not support the weight of the railway, or is not found in the UK. As to colour I have been given some very good links by various subscribers particularly of long abandoned quarries. Nature has a very clever way of reclaiming and in the process producing a wide range of colours. The coupling conversion is really straightforward, you just need to pay attention when you put the pocket in the jig. A pocket with superglue on it can be a sticky little devil to deal with when you need to turn it through 180 degrees! Stephen

HI Dave. I did originally think I would use the tunnels for accessing any problem but when I tested how far I could reach from the front edge it really wasn't that far. The main area of droop on the board, unsurprisingly, is in the middle at the front. So I want to put two props along the front and I can fix where they will beonce I can be quite sure where all the wires go underneath. Changing the couplings really is quite easy, if you get the coupling around the right way in the first place. I will have a go with the sprung fixed coupling at some point. Stephen

@Elvenhome Sorry, I didn't explain that very well. I was thinking of removeable pieces at each end which included the tunnel portals I.e. the back for rock face either side of the mouth. Also you could have a batten that is sitting or fixed to supports either side of the middle bit to spread the weight of the upper level.

Hi Andrew. The quarry isn't served by a railway because it has been disused for about 120 years. The canal was built to take away the rock early in the 19th century. Unfortunately two directors skipped with all the money and the quarrying stopped. The Railways then arrived driving a tunnel through the hill and thereby saving High Elven from further quarrying. The sawmills moved in, the last remnant of which you can still see. Plus I've stuck all my track down and I really don't want to make changes to it now. The idea for the quarry face was given to me by a subscriber two videos ago to solve a problem I was having working out how to join the upper board to the canal basin. It's a brilliant idea that has helped me enormously. Stephen

Hi Keith. I must confess I haven't got as a far as thinking about what might be at the base. I do intend to put greenery at some points on the face, but I have been directed to a number of useful images of long abandoned quarries and interestingly few have much greenery over much of the face, but one or two were very affected by moss. The Dapol conversion kit is, I think, aimed more towards the old style couplings used on older wagons such as Grafar or minitrix. The image in the instruction is of a coupling with its little spring which looks just like the coupling on the only Grafar wagon that I have. I think that may well get converted soon. I know a lot of people really like the Hunt couplings, and if you are going to keep your rakes of wagons together I suspect that is good choice. I am really keen to be able to do some shunting at High Elven and therefore I want to use the Dapol 'easi-shunt' couplings. Stephen

Hi Keith Following replying to you I had a go at replacing the coupling on my Grafar wagon (it is the 10ft 12T Single Vent Van in BR brown). I have successfully fitted the new NEM sockets, but I had to cut quite a bit of the under frame away. The pocket couldn't be sat on the under frame because it was too low to fit with other wagons. I could fit the pocket with the thickest shim directly to the body of the van by cutting away a section of the under frame between the buffers. It all looks fine but a bigger job than with the PECO wagons. Stephen

Hi Stephen, thank you for your help, I think I will convert the Peco Wagons first and then graduate to the other makes. regards Keith

Hi Graham. The conversion kit is a standard NEM pocket. I happened to have to hand some Standard size Elite Hunt couplings that I haven't fitted yet. They do fit, but I found they droop quite a bit when the wagon isn't coupled to anything. It may be that the standard size is really meant for locos and larger wagons than my little box vans. I also fitted one of the ordinary range of Hunt Coupling but this time the smaller size (NEM Close) and that was much better for smaller wagons. So the issue will be to get the right size of coupling. As for Lima, I haven't tried to fit one yet. I think I have an old Lima wagon somewhere. I have tried an old Grafar (pre Bachmann) wagon and it could be done but needed quite a bit of surgery. I gave up on an old Minitrix. It needed too much surgery which was difficult to do without damaging the body of the wagon. I'll show the Grafar wagon in the next video. If I manage to find the Lima and do it I'll show that also. Stephen

@@Elvenhome thank you your video and reply has influenced me to give it a try…Graham

Thanks Stephen. I suspect I will go with the darker colour, but it's amazing how much difference there can be when you have a larger area with a colour. We shall see. I am keen to get the PVA in for the water for the canal, but that will be among the last things to be done. It does look quite authentic as it is so I am hopeful it will look really good once it's done. Stephen