Not much progress with the layout - although I have now fixed the coal drop retaining walls and deck support pillars to the base-board.
Last Saturday I helped (?) friend Dave Clarke and the regular team (Simon & Jim) with his Amlwch branch layout at the Derby show - as fiddle yard operator - I didn't trust myself to operate out front!
The normal green/blue era diesel service was was disrupted from time to time by a typical Delph Donkey formation, consisting of Fowler 2-6-2 class 3 tank
Have made a bit of progress with the coal drops, recently. The stone retaining walls and brick support pillars have been painted and are almost ready to be fixed in position. I've also added the deck to the top of the structure - hand rails still to go and also some support beams and other bits underneath the deck.
First set of photos show the parts painted in as-built condition. The pillars are brick with ashlar stone bearing pad inserts. These all look a bit garish but were later toned dow
It's been a while since the last entry, so I thought I'd just give a brief up-date. Not very much that's photogenic, but steady progress has been made with the electrics on the first board section. Most recently, I've been assembling the jumper cables and connectors which will link this board to those either side. Besides the two cables at the ends of this board (B3 in my notation), I've wired the mating plug connectors and jumpers for the adjacent boards (B2 - with the station throat pointwork
After what feels like a lifetime of back-aching effort, leaning over the board to focus my magnifying head set thingey, I have now completed fitting the cosmetic chairs to the point on the current board. Not only did thids involve cutting each chair in half to fit round the rivet, but also reguired lots of grinding of the rivet heads either side of the rails to enable a snug fit for the chair halves. On some, I didn't quite achive this, but the overall result is quite satisfying. I did consider
Philbax was asking about the Ivatt Class 2 2-6-2 tanks which appeared in some recent photos.
The Ivatt is an as yet unmodified Bachman body on a chassis based on the Comet kit, with some additional detail and the valvegear modelled in forward rather than mid gear. The chassis is compensated as an 0-6-0 using twin beams on the rear two axles and a central rocking support on the front. Drive is a 1616 Portescap on the (floating) centre axle. The trucks are sprung.
On this loco, the pony truck
Powered up the wiring of the first board using various jump leads to connect 16 V AC, a hand-held Pentroller and a second controller to swith the point motor. Ran my part finished Ivatt Cl 2, 2-6-2 tank up and down the platform road, then transferred everything to the loop road. This has a point giving access to the siding which runs along the side of the goods shed. Was able to switch the point using the second cpntroller and found that by chance, I'd wired the route indicating LED's correctly
Have started to do some of the electics under the board I currently have at home. Frighteningly slow progress and vast quantities of wire being consumed - and this is one of the more simple boards, with only one point and one AJ uncoupler (not yet started). I dread to think what the station throat board will be like!
Photos show progress to date. The tag strips will eventually carry the connections to the adjoining boards.
Dave.
After the electrifying excitement of wiring the board and actually driving a loco up and down, it's back to the coal drops, plastic and solvent. Mmm...., does smell quite nice - no, not really! Anyway, the steps up the side of the retaining wall have been made and fixed in place. Unfortunately, these are a figment of my imagination because I could not find any information about how they actually looked. Still got the capping blocks to fit atop each side wall and create some wear on the front edg
Nothing very photogenic recently but some good progress has been made.
I decided to break off from the coal drops whilst I pondered the access steps from the lower to upper levels. In the mean time, all the droppers have been soldered to the rails and these have been connected together, as dictated by the wiring diagram & schedule, by means of under-board bus rails (bare copper wire supported on brass screws) which run roughly under the track position. Later the busses will be connected
Today, a construction worker engaged in reinstating the railway at Delph station site discovered a tortoise buried beneath.......
OK, in a slight break from the coal drops (awaiting more plastic supplies), I decided to mount and connect the first point motor to the TOU on the only turnout on this board. On fitting and attaching the droppers from the switch blades to the pre-made TOU I found that the blade opening at the tips of the blades is slightly over the scale 4.5". I think I'll live wi
Having brought the coal drop board home from the workshop, I've been able to make better progress with the stone retaining walls, in comfort! The brick pillars and stone retaining wall sections in between and at the ends are now ready to be coloured (not sure if to paint or try the crayon technique being used by Barrow Road on his excellent loco shed buildings). Anyway, had a trial fit of all the bits which are on this board (the RH wing wall is on the next - station - board). Couldn't resist pl
Apologies to those who managed to find this update and request for help in the history during the recent posting problems, but here it is again. Better luck this time?
A bit more progress with the coal drops, this week.
For the first time since before Christmas, I've been able to access the workshop and trial fit the coal drop deck with the rails attached. Fortunately, the alignment with the track already fixed either end was very good, although a packing shim (.020" plasticard) wa
Have made a start on the stone retaining walls for the coal drops. These were along the back and both ends of the drops and also a section set back at an angle where the road entrance was located. The walls were of coarse stone and appear to have been a 76.2 times scaled-up model of the Wills coarse stone plastic sheets!!
So far I have cut the basic wall facing sheet along the entrance section and part done the right-hand end wall. Later this will be split into two sections, one each on the two
Here's another shot of my part finished D333 ex-LNWR coach taken from a similar angle (but a rather drunken angle and poorly lit, in my case) to the shot Coachman has put on his blog - I would have posted this as a comment or reply to Larry but can't find a way to put photos into either.
Anyway, here's my coach again for comparison. I've just noticed that although this is an ex-LNWR diagram, I've fitted standard LMS buffers (only the stocks, so far) rather than the LNWR types on Larry's example
I'm working on the point operating mechanisms for the layout just now. In the connections from the Tortoise motors to the TOU's, I'm intending to fit omega loops or Z sections to allow for any over-travel of the motor output bar (I'm using the Exactoscale conversion units). Any suggestions about suitable wire gauge and approximate dimensions to be sufficiently flexible not to wreck the TOU/switch blade actuators but still hold the switch blades hard against the stock rails?
Cheers,
Dave.
In a comment on part of my blog, Coachman mentioned making model of a digram D333 ex-LNWR non-corridor brake third. Here's my attempt at one of these (part of my fictional non-push-pull local train) which was made from a 51L Models kit, modified to represent the version with just two end windows. The model is not yet complete - lacking the glazing and buffer heads. Model was painted and numbered by Coachman - and very nice, too!
The odd contraption visible at the left-hand end is a
Have laid the track across the coal drops for the layout. The deck beams are obeche strip spaced at 20 mm centre-lines. The track uses Exactoscale functional bridge chairs fixed to the wood using Plastic Weld solvent. For added security, there are brass locating pegs at three places along the length on which the chairs plug and the last two chair positions at the base-board joint are soldered to brass panel pins for strength. Had a minor setback when after all was fixed, I noticed I'd put one of
I'm getting there! All the track in the station area except that across the coal drops is now in place. Still to do is application of cosmetic chairs on the pointwork, but I'll leave that till after wiring and trial running - so some time off, yet.
On the coal drops, the track support beams are made and I've mounted the functional supports at the cell devider pillars. These will be clad in brickwork and the three sides of the whole arrangement in coarse stone, prior to fixing the track structur
Track laying continues and I am now starting to work on the coal drops. No photos of these in full condition have come to light, so the model will be a bit generic. I know there were 6 cells with brick (with stone inserts here and there) dividing walls/support pillars but have no idea of how the track support structure looked like, so I'm basing mine on an open wooden structure with beams under the rails and angled bracing struts (as evidenced by recesses and stone bearing pads part way up the p
The snail's pace addition of track continues. The main running line has reached the (country) end of the platform and the yard tracks progress slowly. Since these photos were taken this afternoon, I've extended the coal drop road as far as the drops and the mill siding as far as the connection to the buffer stop track.
Track laying continues, but progress is quite slow. I thought plain track would be quite easy, and I suppose it is technically, but it still takes an age. Progress is not really helped by my attempt to replicate the 60 ft and 30 ft track panels used on the real thing. It appears that only the main platform road was 60 ft, all the other being 30 ft. To achieve this, all the sleeper ties on the flexi-track have to be removed and sleepers moved along to the correct spacings. I've already marked the
Have started to lay the track at long last - couldn't think of any more excuses to put it off any longer. Being my first ever layout I thought I'd dip my toe gentley in by starting with the main station throat pointwork! As can be seen, I used some mini jam jars full of "liquid lead" to hold the track down whilst the glue dried. The items were first laid dry, adjusted for position and long pins inserted at the ends of sleepers at key locations. The track was then lifted, PVA glue brushed onto th
I see Coachman has started this subject in his coach blog. Not to be outdone, here's a couple of photos of an ex-LNWR push-pull diagram M15 driving trailer with a BR conversion of an ex-LMS Period II open third and a Lees breadvan (Fowler 3MT 2-6-2 tank) in charge. By all accounts, the coaches might have done better on their own! The prototype photo is by H Casserley and the model photo by me. Can you spot which is which?
The M15 is one of a series made for me by Coachman (and without which a r
Still no actual track laid, but I am edging slowly towards it! To provide some strength to the track at board joints, and hopefully prevent rail end damage during assembly and disassembly of the layout, I'm fitting a couple pf ply sleepers where each track reaches the end of a board with brass panel pins driven into the board top rather than the usual rivets. This is now complete except for one end of one board. After that, I need to partially cover the turnout operating unit holes to just leave
