Norwood Road

[St. Simon]

Simon, I have absolutely no idea what any of those words mean, but the control panel looks good.

 

Its alright Pete, I only know vaguely what they mean! lol

 

I do like the technical content description and the breakdown of each component involved in 3rd rail track circuit,s.

I have my thought's , to what a "train describer" is, but,

feel free to describe it please.

Thanks David, a train describer is basically what it says on tin, its a display on the signallers panel that when  a train comes into a section, its head code is displayed to the signaller, this allows the signaller to track a specific train through a route, and the signaller to identify the trains in his / her area so he can route then correctly. These describers come in various forms, they can be physical displays, as I have got with LED's or LCD's on a physical panel (or a separate unit in a mechanical box sometimes) or a 'virtual' display on the computer screens at a modern signalling centre.

 

Mine are purely decorative, whats going to happen is that the fiddle yard operators at either end will select a train to go out, and set a rotary switch to an appropriate type of train (passenger, stopping passenger, freight, loco etc) and this will bring up a headcode (only one per type of train to make it simple) on the control panel and a light on the other fiddle yard, the headcode will be of some use to the signaller on the up main so he can decide to route trains on the main or send them into the turnback. But other than that, it's there to show as a public interest item.

 

You could use tri-colour led's and just wire them up as bi colour.

 

Yes, that's basically what I want to do, but the problem is finding a Red / White Tri-Colour or Bi-Colour LED with a common negative, if I have to use a two legged Bi-Colour I will, but that'll mean a lot more relays than I really want.

 

Simon

[cromptonnut]

You can view real-time maps online such as this one, London Victoria to East Croydon http://www.opentraintimes.com/maps/signalling/vtb1 that show the headcodes in a similar manner to the way described above albeit of course over a much larger area.

[St. Simon]

Hi,

 

Long time, no update I know, Cross rail and Christmas has kept me from updates, I really do apologise and feel bad for not updating you.

 

Although, actually, there wasn’t all that much done up until after Christmas day! I had two weeks off over Christmas and my goal was to build up the station building and the buildings at the back of the layout on the town board.

 

Did I complete my goal? Yes and No, I got quite a fair way through both projects and a third which I will reveal later, but I haven’t finished them fully yet.

First of all, the station building, this is based on the building at West Croydon, although it has been modified to fit the space that is available. The main body is constructed from Plasticard, whilst the shops either side of the entrance are actually part of the free Metcalfe Kit that came free with a Railway Modeller in the past couple of months.

 

 

 

A feature I’ve added to the building is Magnets in the canopy and behind the area above the front window. These areas are where the name boards for the station are located, by printing the boards on magnetic strip, I can change the name boards over to run the layout in different periods, so I’ll have one for Southern, one for London Overground and Network Southeast. The whole building is painted in Phoenix Weathered concrete, with the interior paint in Humbrol Cream with lower Black skirting and a reddy brown floor. The interior colours were taken from a couple of pictures on the internet of the inside of West Croydon Station

 

I didn’t particularly want to model the interiors of the shops on either side, so I’m going to put some ‘promotion’ flyers in the windows to hide the interior.

I’ve still got to add some posters etc to it, plus some small details as well as people. I’ve also installed a ticket machine and my ticket barriers. I only ordered my basic pack, which didn’t include enough, so there’s a gap, but I will fill it with something!

 

Next up are the houses at the rear of the layout, these are Scalescenes kits, I looked at various kits and ready to plant buildings and they weren’t quite what I wanted as well as quite expensive for the number I needed.

 

 

So far I’ve semi-built 3 of them, I’m waiting to buy Brassmasters etched windows as I decided I was never going to cut out all the windows in the kit without tearing something! Plus I wanted to ‘super-detail’ them slightly. Once I have these, I will add a plastic slate roof and guttering to hide corners etc. I will need at least two more, but I’m having issues with printers.

 

Of course, you can see that they require platforms to sit on as the slope on which they sit would mean that they would suffer from subsidence! I’ve got a little tweaking to do on the unpainted ones to ensure that they do sit level. But one is in place and I’ve started on the garden for the one of the houses. This one will be a model of my own garden (well the one in the house I rent). I’m going to enlist the help of Graham_Muz in detailing the gardens as he has produced some superb Gardens on his own Fisherton Sarum and the High Wycombe clubs ‘Hinton Parva’, and if I do all of them on my own, I could be there for a while!

 

 

‘In front’ of the gardens I’ve started the path along the embankment, in reality there is no path between the railway and gardens, but I thought it would be good to provide a little break. I’ve got to find some suitable chain-link fencing to go along this path, but I don’t want the security type which arch over at the top, if you know of a cheap source of such a fence, let me know!

 

 

 

The next major development has been on the Tram line. A couple of weekends ago, I started to build up the catenary for the town board. Its scratch built from Plastic ‘H’ Post with brass tube and wire for everything else.  It’s not 100% accurate, but I’m happy with it and I don’t want to super-detailed stuff in front to detract from the actual railway. I haven’t ‘strung’ the wires yet, I’m going to wait until the layout is fully up later on in the year to do that, so I can get one continuous line of wire as opposed to a break at the board join. I’ve made all the posts removable and I’m going to use Elastic Nylon thread as the wires so I bunch the whole catenary up into a small box for transport.

 

You also will have noticed two more buildings at the end of the board appear, these aren’t for this board, but for the ‘country board’:

 

 

I’ve decided that the area behind the railway on the other people is to be an industrial park, as I have imagined that ‘Norwood Road’ is right on the edge of Croydon, South of West Croydon station, and thus an industrial park has sprung up. The buildings are part of the Wills Modern Image range that has recently been released, I haven’t decided what the actual businesses will be let, so hence they remain unpainted. I’m also think that possibly in the future I could add a siding off the ‘Up Main’ into it, could added some interesting moves and signalling.

Seen as we are on to Signalling, I may as well show you this:

 

 

Introducing the ‘Norwood Road’ NX Signalling Panel. I constructed and wired most of this up over the Christmas period, although it still isn’t fully complete, as I have some wiring still to finish, and I’ve got to add letters and numbers to label everything. In case you’re wondering what does what, here’s a labelled diagram:

 

 

I’ve tried to make it as prototypical as possible, however it’s not fully accurate, but its best I can (or really willing to do!).

 

The panel will control only the signalling on the layout (obviously) through an Arduino (or more likely a pair of Arduinos) Micro-Processers into which I have written my own interlocking code. This is part of a project which I’m doing in college as part of my ‘Apprenticeship’ as a signalling designer, just to give you an idea of how much this has involved, here’s the folder so far:

 

 

This contains wiring diagrams and drawings for the panel and the box containing the ‘interlocking’. Currently I’m about two days away from completing constructing all the bits, and then I have 3 months in which to test it all! J

 

Also in S&T news, I've installed Back drives on to the two main line points, although these aren't 100% accurate I think it gives a feel of something that is rarely modelled. I've had to leave out the bars which connect to the switch rail as they would interfere with the operation of the point:

 

 

In other bits of news, I have also mostly ballasted the little section of ballasted tramway on the town board, I’ve still got some work to do to it such as ballasting the four foot, cleaning it all up a bit and weathering it, but it’s mostly down. I’ve finished the fence down the embankment at the front, in reality the heavy duty chain-link fence is only a relatively short bit at the top of the embankment and then its brick wall the rest of the way, but I carried the chain-link on down as I thought that it would be nice to look through the fencing to the trains and I couldn’t be bothered to cut and colour all the brick work so the wall would ‘step’ down the embankment. This has also allowed me to finish off some scenic work at the base of the embankment and fit street lamps

 

 

By now you will have spotted the new member of the fleet (or two members of the fleet I should say), first up, a Hornby Sentinel:

 

 

This will be the Tramway works loco and will be used until I get a tram (I’m still looking), I got it at the Worthing show in September after I saw Kernow was selling them cheap and a chat with a colleague in the office persuaded me. I know that the coupling rods would never actually be allowed on street running these days, but I thought it was too cute not to have!

Next is a Dapol Class 73 in GBRF:

 

 

I know there was been some issues with it (in fact they caused me to cancel my order once), but I had a renewed wanting of one, so ordered it last week. Eventually (with the help of Graham_Muz) this will be lightly weathered and renumbered 73209 ‘Alison’ (my sisters name) and will find a home on my engineering trains.

 

Finally, I’ve left the biggest news until last, Norwood Road is going to some exhibitions this year! So far, I have three shows waiting final confirmation (but firm invites):

 

·         Chinnor & Princess Risborough Gala on the 4^th & 5^th June

·         Wycrail on the 5^th November

·         The National Festival of Railway Modelling, Peterborough  on the 13^th & 14^th October

 

Obviously I have to get the layout to a presentable state by June, I feel as though that this is possible now I have the town board in the state that it is in, the only things that may not happen before June is the fully implementation of the Signalling, a lighting rig and a Tram Model.

 

I hope this update is useful and once again apologises for taking so long! Any questions, please do ask!

 

Regards,

 

Simon

Edited January 23, 2016 by St. Simon

[cromptonnut]

Noting your struggle with trams, although not a cheap solution I don't know whether any of the Linie HO scale ones may be suitably adaptable?  I have an N scale Hiroshima tram for a Croydonesque layout that may break surface one day but... well... you know what it's like.  Here's the link to the HO scale ones.

 

http://www.linie8gmbh.at/?seite=produktauswahl&kategorie=3

 

I know that Peter Clark makes an O gauge kit of a Croydon tram, I don't know if he is able to scale the etches down to OO for you? Or he may be prepared to share some of his drawings?  Worth a try.

 

http://www.peterclarkkits.com/light-rail.html

[puck]

Hi Simon

I like the point backdrives you've fitted; I'm a bit worried about the switch opening. Not been a run-through?

Puck

[Guest]

I'm a bit worried about the switch opening. Not been a run-through?

 

That bothered me when fitting that particular Tillig point. It's visually apparent on only the largest radius turnouts. The blades are one piece with no ugly hinge. The larger the radius, the greater the deflection. Simon, you may want to recalibrate the Minx Microdrive operating that point, as the servo could be putting too great a tension on the blade to keep it held over. I think I gave you the Minx manual, if not, let me know.

An update worth waiting for Simon. Excellent progress.

Edited January 24, 2016 by Pete 75C

[St. Simon]

Hi,

 

Small update in relation to a potential Tram, over the past couple of days, I've been working on this to print:

 

 

Its a Freelance design, but closely based on the Stadler Variobahn vehicles used around Croydon. For more information, please see my 3D printing thread

 

I've also brought the last building for the town scene, its a Hornby Skaledale building which I will convert to something, although not quite sure what yet. I have printed the next lot of Scalescenes buildings, I will mount these tomorrow and start building them up. I've got Graham_Muz going around on Friday to model some gardens before we travel up to Doncaster to help Dad with Loughborough Road at BRM's Festival of Railway Modelling.

 

In other news, the first phase of the interlocking is days away from being tested, the program was uploaded to the processor this evening, I just need one plug, which I typically I haven't got!

 

Simon 

[cromptonnut]

In vaguely related news ... http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/croydon-tram-crash-dramatic-moment-car-smashes-into-tram-in-south-london-leaving-four-injured-a3175666.html

[LongRail]

Simon

 

With regards to cheap chai link fencing have a look in wilkinsons at there kitchen splatter guard uses fine ss mesh although round to,fit over a frying pan you can get quite long sections out.

Being stainless steel you may have to use superglue I have used solder with brass posts the solder grips in the holes in the mesh this can be quite tough and is flixible

[St. Simon]

Hi,

 

Firstly, I’d like to apologise for not updating the thread in a while, I know that people want updates on the layout, but for me I want to show completed stuff, rather than half finished, and soon as I finish something, something else has been started!

 

But now it has come to a point where I can show you the progress, and there has been a lot of it!

 

Since the thread was last updated, the layout has been scheduled to appear at the High Wycombe & District Model Railway societies open day next Saturday (21^st May). I was going to take the layout up to the club the following weekend to start working on it, but I was invited to the open day, so work accelerated to get everything done for its ‘début’ 2 weeks earlier than planned. It’s been fully erected at the club rooms yesterday (the first time since I brought the layout from Pete) and I've worked on it over the weekend.

 

So, here’s the town board as it stands as of 16:00 this afternoon:

 

 

Since the last update, I've built all the houses from Scalescenes kits, but they have been fitted with Brass masters etched windows, Wills Slate roofs and Peco gutters, downpipes and chimneys, currently they won’t be fitted with interior lighting, but in the future I may put some in. They are not the best modelled buildings in the world, but they’ll do for a background building. The house that has strips on the roof is going to a house being refurbished and will have scaffolding around the back.

 

The gardens are all the work of Dad, at the moment, they are just based layers for the open day / Chinnor, and they were only done this morning and still need to be hoovered and some more layers adding. The garden walls are a mix of Ratio, Wills, Scalescenes and 4ground models.

 

The other building that has appeared is ‘Noble Cars’ this started off as a Hornby Skaledale insurance brokers office, but I have changed it into a Car Dealership, the name of the place is nothing to with the car manufacture, but a friend that has helped get the layouts signalling off the ground and helps Dad and I with Loughborough Road. I’ve changed the door at the side to be a roller shutter door and repainted the fire exit.

 

You’ll see I’ve installed some chain link fencing along the embankment, I ended up using the ratio security fencing, partly because I already ¾ of a pack left over from something else and it was the least expensive & quickest option (although it still cost a fair bit!). I cut the angled top of the posts off to make them less ‘Military’ like. In the end I used a second pack to finish the embankment.

 

You can’t see it very well (if at all) in the picture is that I’ve installed some traffic lights and tram signals.

 

 

Above is the other scenic board, not covered before in much detail on this thread before. Several things have changed between plans and construction since I brought the layout, most of these relate to the Tramway. First of all, I was going to have a ballasted tramway to make it a bit different to other tram layouts, but I only used standard PECO code 75 track and I’m not all that good at ballasting. So, seen as Pete did such a wonderful job on the ‘railway’ bit, I thought that I won’t detract from it, so I decided to concrete it all in and actually I think it looks much better than before.

 

The other changes have been to the corner of the layout, I had originally planned, to have the corner as a ‘pedestrianised’ square area, with a nice brick footbridge over the line. But now, I've decided to have an embankment to cover up the fiddle yard entrance a bit more, with a Southern Concrete footbridge, but I think I might change it later on.  

 

The industrial units are Wills’ new Modern building kits; these represent a single unit of ‘B. Lunder’ Precision Machining Specialists. I've got to build a second low relief end of an industrial unit, which I might do in Lego, just so that all of Pete’s layouts have some Lego in them

 

You’ll notice that the road bridge has been changed, it now is two decks rather than one, this is because I thought that single deck I built was ugly and over powering, and seen as it was warped, I decided to make it two decks. I've got some aluminium mesh to go between the two decks, which will create some nice shadows underneath I think.

 

Also, all but one signal has been installed, but not wired up yet, I'm going to wire them up to show red, with a man with a green flag stood next to them, this is until I get all the train detection sections in and then the interlocking fully integrated. The signal at the L/H end will be linked to a Heathcote control unit as that’s going to be an auto signal. I've still got some uncoupling electromagnets in the siding to wire up to a Infra-Red controlled relay board, but that shouldn't take too long.

 

Finally, an overall view:

 

 

I apologise for the lack of photos, I could only take them on the way out of the clubroom, so didn't have time to take a lot. I’ll update again next Saturday when I'm at the club, I promise (although I think I said that last time, two months ago!)

 

Simon

Edited May 15, 2016 by St. Simon

[Guest]

The industrial units are Wills’ new Modern building kits; these represent a single unit of ‘B. Lunder’ Precision Machining Specialists. I've got to build a second low relief end of an industrial unit, which I might do in Lego, just so that all of Pete’s layouts have some Lego in them

 

There was already a little Lego buried under the embankment leading up to the station road bridge Simon... a bit like putting your initials in wet concrete, I had to use some somewhere!

It looks terrific in the overall shots, Simon. Grab some close-ups if you get a chance. Well done!

[ess1uk]

Looking great

[d winpenny]

Looking good

 

David

[spiket4]

Great progress i might have to pop over to the open day.

[WCML100]

May pop down this weekend to have a look at the layout. Looking very good

[St. Simon]

Hi,

 

Thanks for the comments, as for those who are thinking of coming to the open day, please see here for more details http://www.hwdmrs.org.uk/open-day-saturday-21st-may-2016/

 

There's still quite a bit to do on the layout, mainly people, vehicles and little details. I've finished off the last of the tramway catenary supports and I've got the Tramstop ready to paint. The only two major things to do are the finishing off of the road bridge and some electrical work (not the track wiring).

 

Hopefully I'll finish the road bridge this week and the electrical work on Friday afternoon in between working on Crossrail and taking virtual journeys down to Cambourne!

 

Simon

[St. Simon]

Hi,

 

Well, another frantic weekend working on the layout ready for Chinnor on the 4th / 5th June has seen more work on the layout done.

 

This included the High Wycombe Clubs open day, for me this was a combination of running the layout and carrying out more work on it, This was the first time I had used the new DCC system on the layout, I brought the Digitrax 'Zephyr' system as an interim system until I can afford to expand it later on. I decided on the system because I've used it before and I like it, whilst the club has several extra throttles I can borrow for Chinnor. Plus, having a pair of control knobs on the throttles allows me to easily operate two trains in opposite directions by myself. 

 

The only critical piece of electrical work that I have to carry out before Chinnor is to wire up some remote switches for the points as I haven't got the flexibility to constantly go between the scenic and fiddle yard points to change them! I'll almost certainly will wire them into the individual points switches on the panel.

 

The other electrical work has been to install a 12v supply onto the layout, this is too allow me to wire up the signals to show Red at Chinnor until I get the track circuits / interlocking fully installed. I'll also put some orange men with green flags at each signal to keep people happy. The only signal that will be fully working at Chinnor is NR003, the signal at the very left hand end which will be a Auto signal controlled by an Heathcote MAS-Sequencer unit, unfortunately, I did manage to order the wrong Heathcote unit   , so it'll be next week before that is working properly!

 

The rest of the work that was carried out over the weekend was scenic. This is the overview as of about 15:00 today:

 

 

The first bit done was to get the last of the tram centenary and add the details onto the tramstop, the shelter, oyster card readers, 'next tram' displays and poster boards are 3D Printed, the seats are Ten Commandments and the Bike shed is a wills kit I think:

 

 

The next thing I wanted to add to the layout was some orange people, with Pete leaving a section of the Wimbledon line in situ left me the perfect place at which to put them. I used the details I had created from my engineering possession module for the Taunton members day last year:

 

 

An Overview of the station area, I finally finished the station building, the area still needs detailing with more people and some road markings need touching up:

 

 

The almost finished Gardens:

 

 

I built the low relief factory building this afternoon, it still needs detailing with signs and some security cameras:

 

 

I've also installed some uncoupling electromagnets in the turn back siding so I can uncouple a short loco hauled train or separate a pair of multiple unit, these will be controlled via relays using an Radio Frequency Controller so my 'shunter' doesn't have to be wired to the layout, I've left a spare button for the 'TRTS Plunger'. 

 

Finally, there has been an another addition to the fleet, a London Midland Class 350/1 Desiro, this may seem a little odd to begin with, but Southern did hire in I think 10 for a couple of years some time ago for use on Milton Keynes to East Croydon services, so it isn't impossible for it to reach West Croydon, plus I've always wanted one!

 

Finally work to get it ready for the show next weekend and hopefully I'll have a few solid days of working on it, so I'll take some more pictures.

 

As always, questions and comments welcome!

 

Simon 

[The Stationmaster]

First see the layout (as I did on Saturday) now find the thread - a different way of finding RMweb layout threads.

 

And very impressive it was too Simon although I reckon Pete must be even thinner than you if he managed to stand between the fiddle yard and the scenic section - definitely needs that bit of extra girth we talked about on saturday but a seemingly simple looking mod (although it probably still wouldn't fit me of course).

 

Some pics from Saturday  -

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Guest]

...although I reckon Pete must be even thinner than you if he managed to stand between the fiddle yard and the scenic section...

 

I wish. Simon makes me look like Oliver Hardy. When building the layout, I only had the room for a 5ft total width, hence the rather slender operating well. I do remember getting a bit stuck (for "a bit stuck" read "firmly wedged") when wiring up the microdrive control panels. I didn't really think that through, did I? Hopefully if space isn't an issue, Simon can add a couple of small track sections at each end to improve things!

[bensanchez43310]

any 171's, 455's 319's or 377's that are all southern?

Great layout btw and it looks amazing

 

Ben

[St. Simon]

any 171's, 455's 319's or 377's that are all southern?

Great layout btw and it looks amazing

 

Ben

 

Hi,

 

I'm afraid not, the limited addition that Modelzone did of the 171 is still very expensive for what is now an old tooling, currently the 319 and 455 kits from bratchell are very expensive, but I would love to make them. There's no ready to run models or kits of the Electrostars just yet, but if there were I would buy several, in fact 3 or 4, I know you can make them from Bachmann Turbostars, but I'm not that good!

 

Today more work on the layout  saw the last GPL installed along with my 3D Printed miniature route indicator, I've also done the 2 buffer stop lamps, Pete had installed Traintech ones, but these had the problem of when I hit the emergency stop button, the lights went out! So, I've installed a couple of Express Models versions.

 

Simon

[bensanchez43310]

Bachmann have made the retooled turbostar with a southern 171 coming, but if its like there emt 158 it wont be around for years

[St. Simon]

Bachmann have made the retooled turbostar with a southern 171 coming, but if its like there emt 158 it wont be around for years

 

Its not a retool I don't think, but either way its still very expensive for me at the moment!.

 

Simon

[St. Simon]

Hi,

 

I did some more electrical work on the layout, the major thing was to wire up some remote operating switches, I've temporarily wired up a circuit using the individual point switches on the control panel, this allows me to control the points at chinnor without having to rip too much out later on when I integrate the interlocking.

 

I've also had a look at the signals that Pete said he couldn't get to work when he had built the layout:

 

 

 

This is as far I have got with them, the one showing white-white is just how I want it, but I'll have a look at the other one so that it shows both red-white and white-white on Wednesday or Thursday. I'll additionally temporarily wire them in the points auxiliary relays so that they can be switched automatically using the points rather than the switches on the front (sorry Pete). Eventually these might be integrated into the interlocking.

 

 

The above shows the two Up Direction ground position light signals that are now working, the one of the Down Main controls shunt moves across the 'invisible' cross over nearer the station in real life. Like the other signals on layout, I've wired it to show red-red for the moment, it's also fitted with a 3D Printed Miniature Route Indicator, printed to my own designs, this does have an LED in it, but hasn't been wired in for the moment.

 

There's still plenty of work to be done before Chinnor next weekend!

 

Simon

Edited May 31, 2016 by St. Simon

[St. Simon]

Hi,

 

Well, Norwood Roads (and of course actually, Pete 75C’s West Croydon) had its debut show at the Chinnor & Princes Risborough Railways DB Class 66 Weekend and, well, it was an experience!

 

Unfortunately, the experience came from the venue rather than the layout, the venue was the C&PR’s relatively new, and I’m afraid to say half built, restoration shed. I say half built in that the metal shed was there and water tight (I assume), but not much else. To be honest, the organisation and information given prior to Friday was not of sort of standard, and when we heard via one of the other 2 exhibitors that they were roosting pigeons in the venue and it was a mess, I was ready to pull out there and then. After talking with my operators, we decided to give it ago on the Saturday and review at the end of the day.

 

Dad and I collected the van, loaded up on Friday, but waited until the Saturday morning to set up (because of the aforementioned pigeons), thinking it can’t be that bad. It was. When we arrived at the venue, we were greeted by the organiser (who promptly set off to get the guest 1:1 scale loco for the event) and were let into the venue. The area for the ‘show’ was a very dusty concrete pad at the end of shed which had only been poured the week before and was accessed via a crush stone floor. This included, I’m afraid to say, dog leavings which I had to shovel out the way. Amazingly a fellow exhibitor who had dropped off his layout the evening before told us that it was much worse then!

 

After we had set up the electrics via a very dodgy looking fuse box, we unloaded and started to set up. We took our time and were ready to get going by the opening of the show at 09:45. We waited, and waited and waited, the first punters finding us at around 11:00. The shed was around a ¼ of a mile walk from Chinnor station, which also meant a ¼ mile walk for teas, coffees, discounted lunch and toilet facilities. There was very little signage showing the way to the model railway exhibition, which meant that even though apparently the weekend was a great success for the railway, we probably saw at max 100 people over the weekend.

 

The layout performed enough for us to be vaguely willing to return on the Sunday, but I did take all my stock and control system back home over night, just in case.

 

Anyway, enough complaining about the venue (although I hope you can see why)

 

The layout performed well and looked good (even if I do say so myself), the main problem we had was the tight fiddle yard curves lead to derailing of freight stock due to some shorter couplings and longer buffers than the stock that the layout was originally intended for. However, after a little bit of problem solving, we figured out which stock with which couplings go into which roads. We did have an issue with my NSE 4-VEP, but we think that could be a back to back problem, so I’ll have a look at that.

 

Even we did sort of fixing these issues and all the units ran fantastically, we have decided to relay the ends of the fiddle yards with curved points to help ease the curves, in addition we might motorise them and then add some ‘width’ to the layout so we could operate in the centre well.

 

The other problem was the scenic point motors, I had wired these up to work as pairs from the individual point rotary switches on the control panel, the problem with the Minx Microdrives is that you can’t call the points to one position or the other, with one turn of the switch telling the point to move to the opposite position that it is in when you turn it. This means that when wired up so one switch operates two ends of a cross over, if one end fails to fire, then the points get out of sync and you have to press the manual operating switch on the control unit.

 

The crossover between the Down Main (the outer circuit) and Turnback worked almost every change, but the point on the Up Main (the inner circuit) failed to fire most of the time, but it occasionally fired correctly. I also discovered that when wiring up the ground signals through the auxiliary relays on the point controllers, two them were stuck in the middle position, so neither contacts were made. Thus I will look at suitable replacements for these.

 

Other than those issues, I was pleased with the how the layout performed, we also managed on the Sunday to get most of the Tramline working, this meant scrapping away from filler and paint which I hadn’t cleaned off the rails. The next job on this is to wire up a less temporary solution to control.

Other than above, the things still to do on the layout are:

 

1)      Finish installing the signalling and interlocking, to be started in the next couple of weeks

2)      Finish off some scenery, mostly small details, the gardens and the bridge decks

3)      Fit more stock with sound, we all found that just having two sound locos wasn’t enough!

 

So, to pictures:

 

GBRF Class 73 No. 73206 ‘Lisa’ stands in the head shunt waiting to back down onto a ballast train:

 

 

 

The Croydon Tramlink’s maintenance & thunderbird Sentinel shunter (formally a Wabtec machine) stands on the tram only section of the Orts Road branch during testing:

 

 

A Network Rail MPV stands on the Down Main waiting to shunt bang road into the turn back using signal NR102:

 

 

The MPV now stands in the turnback:

 

 

 

 

The MPV is overtaking by London Midland Class 350/1 No. 350101, on hire to Southern, forming a Victoria to Sutton Service, deputising for a failed Electrostar:

 

 

A Look out watches along the Up main whilst a First Great Western Class 150/1 stands in the turnback waiting to form a Norwood Road to Reading via Redhill service:

 

 

A P-Way technician passes on his wisdom to the new apprentice:

 

 

The Stobart Rail P-Way team are hard at work removing the last of the former freight loop closed 20 years previously whilst GBRF Class 73 No. 73206 passes:

 

 

EWS Class 66/0 No. 66135 passes ‘Orts Road Junction’ with a diverted freight from Acton to Redhill:

 

 

The Station area:

 

 

An Overview of the layout from the town end:

 

 

EWS Class 67 No. 67012 ‘A Shropshire Lad’, still wearing defunct Wrexham & Shropshire Livery, gets the position light on NR002 to shunt from the Turnback to the head shunt:

 

 

Class 350 No. 350101 comes to a stand in the turnback having completed a Milton Keynes to Norwood Road service:

 

 

The Orts Road Tramstop:

 

 

A Grimy EWS Class 66 stands in the turnback:

 

 

A Connex Class 205 ‘Thumper’ gets ready to form a service to London Bridge:

 

 

The Class 67 rests in the headshunt:

 

 

A S&T technician peers into a Location case:

 

 

Southerns ‘Heritage’ 4-VEP EMU is stabled in the turnback:

 

 

Old and New; A Class 350/1 on hire to Southern waits beside Southerns Heritage 4-CEP to shunt into the platforms at Norwood Road:

 

 

A GBRF Class 73 departs for Norwood Junction from the turnback with a loaded Ballast train:

 

 

I hope you like the pictures and any comments or questions, please ask!

 

Simon