Further progress tonight with the addition of 3 of the 4 pairs of stock rails.
Each stock rail requires a joggle for the switch blade, a number of cosmetic rail joints - each with a Colin Waite fishplate - and a set of funtional chairs where there are no rivets, followed by soldering the stock rail to the rivets.
My new brass Roger Sanders gauge is shown in the photos. This gauge makes fine tuning of the pointwork a pleasure.
Having got past the summer break and all the house and garden work I have spent the past few weeks working on the third and final roof pitch for the Roundhouse. This required a modification to the assembly jig as this roof pitch is sectioned to permit viewing of the inside of the shed.
This morning this pitch was test fitted and a few photos taken.....................
Next task - to make a jig for the Workshop roof trusses.
Edit Monday 9th.
The jig and the f
I have started to convert some of my Bachmann short firebox Jubilees to P4 in order to run them on my layout. This project had been stalled for a while as I pondered on the best way to do this, however a visit by Dave Holt, David Clarke and Steve Ridgeway in September gave me the necessary push to get on with it. My conversion replaces the wheels with an Alan Gibson 3mm axle set of drivers plus bogie and tender wheels. Replacement crankpins are Markits stainless steel products. The only other mo
I have just received a disc the some photos of the layout taken during S4N a couple of weeks ago when it was populated by locos and stock belonging to myself, Morgan Gilbert, Dave Holt, John Darch and Paul Hutfield - thanks chaps, I've never seen so many locos on shed.
John's freight on the main line looked particularly impressive as did the Gloucester passenger with Morgan's coaches.
The following photos are credited to the Scalefour Society courtesy of David Brandreth.
On Monday this week with the help of my friend Chris - builder of baseboards and designer of electrics - the lift out section Board 19 was fitted to complete the full circuit of the layout and some test trains were run to prove the electrics. On tuesday the local Scalefour Society area group had their monthly meeting and the layout was subjected to an evening of, in the main, successful running a variety of locos and rolling stock. Due to the numbers attending it was not possible to take any sui
Following completion of the track laying inside the roundhouse I have completed the four road workshop pits. During the period I am modelling only two loco turntables were in use on roads 2 and 4. Of these only road 2 was used for loco repair and then only infrequently. Road 4 - I need to cover the pit - was used to access to the large wheel lathe which was positioned at the end of road 4 in the corner of the workshop. Loco driving wheels, for turning on the lathe, were removed from locos on the
Since July, modelling time has been allocated to wiring the layout. The scenic section of the layout consists of boards numbered 1 to 9 and these are the ones I am focused on at present. This part of the layout is divided into a number of power zones - 1 and 2 the UP and DOWN main lines. Zone 5 the sidings alongside the shed; Zone 6 & 7 divide the main yard and Zone 8 the roundhouse. I have added two power buses for the cobalt point motors in the yard which are Zones 3 & 4. Just to give
The lift out board - number 19 - has now been fully wired. Power to board 19 is fed via four brass strips on the board which, when the board is in position, make contact with 4 brass sprung plungers obtained from old light bulb connectors. To enable power to still feed Board 20 when 19 is lifted out power cables have been run down the support legs, across the floor and up the support leg of board 20. To avoid the potential disaster of engines and stock being accidentally driven into the abyss a
I've had a train - Bachmann Peak D41 on Rumney Chassis plus four Bachmann MK1s performing a test run through the storage sidings. The test traversed Board 9 to Board 18 and involved a number of successful forward and reverse moves - I really must register on Youtube and take some videos.
Wiring has progressed further since my last entry with the production of 16 wiring looms for the analogue Cobalt point motors. These are positioned along the double track main line and will be operated from
Having promised some photos of recent work on the layout I managed to find time today to take a few. Time had come to cut a suitable hole in the baseboard to fit a removable pit to accommodate the wagon hoist apparatus for the 150ton Coaling Plant, so out came the drawings and after taking the appropriate measurements I marked out the outline shape and literally took the plunge using my Bosch multi-tool - what a useful piece of kit.
I then made up a removable pit which is bolted to the under
I thought it about time I added some track to the turntable pits so for the past week I have spent some time making up lengths of nickel sliver bullhead track adding M1 Exactocscale chairs and Palatine rail droppers. One length of track is then carefully positioned and fixed using Butanone. The second rail is then added using gauges.
UPDATE 13th July 2016
After adding around 1100 M1 chairs the 24 shed roads now have rail added.
Here are a few photos.
I have been at Railex all weekend helping to operate our S4 group layout Brinkley. One of the highlights of my weekend was collecting the Turntable Pit for the 60ft Cowens Sheldon turntable used in the roundhouse.
Thanks are due to Morgan Gilbert for all his hard work with the design and the CAD modelling and to Phil Hutfield for producing the turntable pit on a CNC machine out of an acrylic polymer - [brand with-held].
I have attached some photgraphs which show the pit in position. Of n
After what seems ages I have now completed the first 18 sets of pointwork for the layout. By completed I mean all trackwork shown in the attached photos are now fitted with Bill Bedford slide chairs, Palatine models electrical droppers, are electrically bonded in the appropriate places and have been fully fitted with cosmetic [ around the track rivets] and functional chairs.....what a job!
The next task is to fit Brian Morgan turnout operating units..................these will be the subject
Most of the trackwork in and around the coaling and ash plants is now ready for attaching the droppers, however my next task will be to complete the approach and four sidings, with their pits, alongside the roundhouse and workshop. I'm very pleased with the progress over the past few weeks as I have got into the swing of producing lengths of track using timbertracks sleepers as exactoscale chairs. Of course the track assembly jig I borrowed from my friend Graham has helped enormously.
The Midland roundhouse roof has slatted ventilation louvres along the full length, on both sides, of each of the three roof pitches and although a number were missing during the 50/60's they still pose challenge to accurately model them.
As a trial I decided to try and model the rectangular roof ventilator situated over the machine shop in the Workshop building. I decided to use 2mm x 1.5mm 'T' section brass in which I cut 8 x 45deg slots using a piercing saw. 16 of these were made, three
Following on from my last entry here are a few pictures of the roof trusses for the Workshop.
These are assembled in a jig to give the correct spacing for the trusses.
The Machine Shop is to the left of the building whilst the four road workshop is to the right
During the 1950's only two of the loco turntables, which gave access to the workshop, remained in use - roads 2 and 4. I have made these doors operational whilst the other two are closed. Road 4 will need to be f
Those who know Barrow Road Shed will be aware of the stand out feature namely the 13 arch viaduct that bisected the shed site. This allowed excellent views of the coaling and ash plants on the north side and the yard and roundhouse on the south. There was a gate in the viaduct that led down into the yard via a flight of concrete steps.
Photo from top of coaling tower 1966.
On Saturday I went to the Wigan Show and collected a model of part of the Barrow Road viaduct - the main line brid
Having spent some time recently converting RTR models to P4 I decided I needed a change so here is a bit of scratchbuilding.
The office for the shed foreman was situated in front of the roundhouse entrance. Looking at the maps and the photographs in my collection, I noticed a discrepancy in size of the shed and realised that around 1949 the length of the building doubled. This being confirmed by an aerial photograph in my collection.
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Using photographs I produced a scale
I have now finished laying the four sidings which are alongside the roundhouse and workshop, the track over the pits laid using Exactoscale M1 chairs. I have extended the track on the engine release road - in one of the photos there is a section of this track with one length of rail positioned using pins - but this is as far as I can go with this track at the moment as the templot drawing needs adjustment to the south exit trackwork. All the new unstained trackwork is still in need of the additi
At long last I have completed building all of the various pits; those inside the roundhouse, the engine sidings, the preparation pits and the ash disposal pits, a grand total of 33 not including those inside the workshop.
The brasswork of the ash disposal pits has now been sprayed with halfords grey primer which makes it possible to photograph them without the glare from the metallic surface. I have added a number of track rivits to the surface of the brass especially near the board joints i
More progress on the trackwork this time on the engine sidings alongside the roundhouse. In addition to the two main lines there are five other lines which cross the board joint at the throat of the sidings. Track fixing across this joint, as all board joints, is by positioning ply sleepers adjacent too, and across the joint and inserting 12BA brass bolts into pre-drilled holes in the ply sleepers. I usually do this on two or more sleepers either side of the joint.
One length of rail - 120f
It has been a while since my last post this being due to a move of house last year and the consequent storage of the layout and stock. Earlier this year I took delivery of a kit of parts to build a new home for the layout.
Over the past few months with the help of friends the shed is now finished and yesterday I moved Barrow Road into it's new home appropriately christened 'The Engine Shed'. The intention is to make the layout a continuous run for the main line complete with a fiddle yea
Following completion of the Foreman's Hut my next building for Barrow Road is the Ambulance & Mutual Improvement Shed which was situated in the shed yard adjacent to the viaduct carrying Barrow Road itself.
With time during the current situation spent between house decoration and modelling this model has taken about a week to produce.
Construction uses two layers of plasticard - a 30thou base structure laminated with a 40thou layer of 2mm [ 6in] Evergreen V Groove sheet.
The Workshop at the rear of the roundhouse was accessed through the shed - across the turntable - and via four 20ft turntables one for each of the workshop repair bays.
By the 1950/60s - the period I am modelling - only two remained in situ the other two having been removed. Repair bay 2 remained in use for minor repairs whilst bay 4 contained a wheel lathe. Wheels were dropped on the hydraulic wheel drop and rolled to a small turntable at the end of the wheel drop road [ Number 14 ] and then i
