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 been slowly plodding on with the storage sidings and have now completed turnout 26 out of 39. The main UP and DOWN sidings are finished as far as the track laying is concerned with a number of buffers to be added at a later date. They are not yet operational as the task of wiring and the addition of digital cobalt's is the next item on the schedule after track laying is complete. Extra sidings are to be installed at either end of the UP and DOWN sidings and the first of these, which leads
Just a quick update on the storage sidings. The total of turnouts built is now 11 with ten now fixed in position in the storage sidings and three of the sidings laid. The turnouts are all constructed using 1.6mm thick double sided copper clad sleepers whilst the sidings are K&L and C&L lengths of flexitrack board joints strengthened using copper clad sleeper strips.
Over the hot weather I have checked all the rail joints on the turnouts and board joints and where necessary I have wid
It has been a while since I updated my blog so I thought it was time to let you know what progress has been made.
I have finally completed the first batch of 15 turnouts and one double slip. These are all now fitted with Brian Morgan TOU's and are ready to be installed on the layout. I have also finished the task of making a further 8 and a double slip for our Scalefour Society area group layout Brinkley [ attending Railex next year ].
Whilst at the Manchester Show in October I decided t
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
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.
This update covers work carried out since my last entry. The lift out board has been tweaked to ensure it slots into the layout by the shed door. I have replaced the over catches with a more robust set to ensure the board locks firmly into position.
Black card strips have been laid in preparation for the final lengths of track to complete the UP and DOWN main lines.
The second pair of ' King turnouts' for access to the Up and Down Storage sidings and the Second Crossover are
Since my last entry I have had a rethink on the curved scissors crossover. It is critical to the running of the layout and being on a curve I have decided to simplify the entrance/exit of the Up and Down storage sidings by using a single crossover at each end. These will be C12 1600mm radius one will permit trains to access the down main from the UP sidings whilst the other from the DOWN sidings to the UP main.
My decision followed additional work on the working timetable and following the m
Over the past couple of weeks I have added a 2mm layer of adhesive foam to the remaining boards including the seven in the fiddle yard. My choice of a roll of 10m x 1mm 'Envoy Multi Adhesive Underlay' via Ebay has proved relatively easy to lay and economic at just shy of £18 for the roll. The adhesive layer on one side needs careful handling when peeling back the clear plastic covering sheet but once in place it grabs well and sticks. You will not remove it easily. Made of recycled rubber tyres
Board 21 now has the majority of the track laid - just a couple of 60ft lengths to go. All the track is C&L ply sleepers with functional Exactoscale 4 bolt BR/LMS chairs. I've just received an order for a pack of 500 to complete this board. You will see in the photos lengths of black card which I use under the ply sleepers.The card is 0.2mm thick and 6mm wide and has become my standard practice for track laying following a recommendation by Graham Turner - if you need to adjust any length of
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
It's been a while since I updated my blog but we haven't been idle. Chris has made two Power Boxes one for the scenic side and a Booster box for the Storage sidings. Each contain a Maplins X21M Power unit, PSX circuit breakers, a DCC Concepts 12v Power supply PSU2 and NCE Units - a 5amp command unit in the main box and a Booster in the other. They do look rather smart.
Main Power Box
Booster Box
Engine Shed Sidings now has a panel for the turnouts which controls the Fishponds banke
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
Further progress on the wiring with Boards 14 and 15 now partially complete. The immediate object is to wire the complete circuit of the double track main line. Boards 14 and 15 are storage yard boards on which the bus bars are now fixed as are the inter board 'jumper' cables. The UTP cab bus units are also now wired.
Board 14
Board 14
Board 14
Board 15
I've just started on Board 16, with just 17 to 20 to go.
Since my last entry I have made the majority of the track situated at the rear of the roundhouse. This trackwork is quite interesting as it not only links the two 20ft turntables but gives access to the workshop at 90deg to the turntables. Two spurs off turntable 4 run alongside the boiler house and were used for storage of withdrawn engines [Pugs 51218 & 51217 together with Johnson 3F 43444 are known to have been on these tracks]. Turntable 2 gives access to the water softening plant [ wago
The self adhesive tiles produced by York Modelmakers are excellent, easy to use and look the part. The last building I tiled, Sheep Pasture Engine House, had individual tiles which I cut from 5 thou plasticard. They look good but would be a daunting method to adopt for all the roofing on Barrow Road Shed so I am pleased with the results produced by YM's tiles.
Anyway here are a few photos of the Sand Dryer during the tiling process.
I have since noticed I forgot
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
A few weeks ago I received the second phase of Templot from my good friend Morgan consisting of the south exit including a single slip, Lawrence Hill Junction and some modified trackwork that goes behind the junction signal box to the shed.
In the prototype the double track lines, from the Junction, that run behind the junction signal box operated as two single lines, one to St.Philips Station and the other to the Carriage Sidings, St Philips Goods Yard and the Cattle Dock, however for the mode
Having decided to use the new Cobalt digital point motors with the Brian Morgan TOUs I thought a few photos would be in order to explain how I have decided to fix them to the underside of the baseboards.
The Cobalt motors are attached using M3 screws fixed into M3 Rivet Nuts, positioned in the baseboards using the rivetting tool shown in the photos.
The position of the 4 holes is marked using a home made jig, whilst the hole for each TOU has been cut out using the Bosch multitool.
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
Well it's been a while since I posted anything on the progress of Barrow Road. After an enjoyable day out at the members day at Taunton I returned to domestic duties and have finally managed to decorate two rooms in the house which included replacing the flooring.
I have now returned to more interesting tasks and have made some progress on the girders for the roundhouse roof. I have nearly completed the six 46ft long girders but have run out of 2mm and 2.5mm 'T' section brass so further wor
The PCB board inserted into the roof is courtesy of my S4 Glevum Group colleague Dave the groups electronics guru - thanks Dave.
As mentioned in a previous post I ran out of LEDs and sent for a pack of 3mm Protowhite [Golden Light] from Bromsgove Models. I also decided to try out one of their DCC Concepts LED/Lamp Control boards.
Two of the new LEDs have been fitted to Dave's circuit board without the 'flourescent tube' and a further LED has been fashioned into the exterior gas lamp at the
The lever frame is now painted and is ready to go into the box as is the Instrument Shelf complete with the Block Instruments and Bells.
Painting the levers was relatively straight forward although I must admit the chevrons on levers 14 & 15 - the Down Main and Up Main Detonators - took a steady hand with the black chevrons added using a 0.25 rotring pen. Levers 19,29 and 22 are also all Facing point locks and consequently are painted black [bottom] and blue [top].
Adding the r
I set up the full layout in preparation for a visit by the Glevum Group earlier this week and took the opportunity to position the box on the layout - I have since decided it is not in the correct positon - to take some photos.
In the photos the roof now has all but the final couple of layers of tiles, but these have since been added. The finials are from MSE and the two chimney stove pipes are from brass tube. Following a discussion at the meeting about the ridge of the roof and a subsequ
The sidings wall of the workshop is the last piece of the workshop & roundhouse to be assembled and coloured so I thought I would show a series of photos to show the sequence I use for colouring. As mentioned in an earlier blog I use Faber Castell Polychromos crayons. The following sequence uses
Pompian Red - 9201-191
Terracotta - 9201 - 186
Burnt Ochre - 9201 -187
Raw Umber - 9201 - 180
Brown Ochre - 9201 - 182
The weathering is added using Schwarz Black - 9201 - 199
