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About this blog

The tale of creating a 1930s GWR layout

Entries in this blog

Moving on!

To all you good folks who have followed my blog so far, I have decided to move the blog to Layout Topics on RMWeb. It's where most layouts seem to be reported and dicussed. Please keep following my layout's progress and provide me with the advice I need.   The new location is http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/102581-buckingham-west/   Thanks   Rich

Richard Mawer

Richard Mawer

Taking control

Once past the milestone of trains running for the first time on Mark 2, I have returned to the storage loops. These were laid a while ago, but not wired. To recap there are 10 storage loops approached from the Down direction, a dumbell to reverse them and a return line to get them back onto the continuous run, but in the Up direction.   The entry into the loops comes off the Down continuous run. Its a straight foward ladder of electro frog points. So with a few feeds off the down bus and commo

Richard Mawer

Richard Mawer

Full circle

Its a few days less than a year since we moved house. That anniversary was my deadline for have trains running again - and I've hit it with just a few days spare. The continuous run is fully laid out, wired and running.       Not only that but I have the junction station (Evenley) in place (the two halfs never got joined on MK1), the incline to it is built, ready for track laying (that never existed on MK1), a lifting flap has been built and I now have 10 storage loops instead of 6. Ok,

Richard Mawer

Richard Mawer

Newton Purcell - all change for Evenley

I have been busy laying track inbetween working, holidays and such like. However, my mind wandered back to the fictitious location of my line. Looking at maps again, I reluctantly realised that Newton Purcell is too far south.   The line leaves the Oxford to Banbury line at Kings Sutton, swinging from south to east and then passes south of Brackley and terminates at Buckingham. There is a junction south of Brackley that sends off a branch heading north to Brackley Road.   I had planned tha

Richard Mawer

Richard Mawer

In a flap about superelevation.

Track laying is coming on a pace. I have made two more sets of superelevated curves, so that is three out of four corners of the room dealt with. The final corner, however, is partly on the lifting flap.   I wanted to use copper clad on both sides of the baseboard cut for the flap, screwed and glued to the trackbed and then solder the rails to it. That is how my club, HWDMRS, do it and the tracks match up every time. But then the tracks are on the flat.   I, of course, wanted the curve supe

Richard Mawer

Richard Mawer

Gone loopy

I have now laid the track for the hidden storage loops that represent the rest of my line to the west, joining up with the Oxford to Banbury line somewhere near Kings Sutton.       The gradient down from Newton Purcell comes in near left (yet to have the track laid). The continuous run goes off to the far left. It then goes round the room and comes in near right. The lines to and from the storage loops are off to the far right.       With the continuous run in the bottom of the shot,

Richard Mawer

Richard Mawer

Superelevation

As a boy, watching Deltics storm south out of Newark Northgate, one of the spectacles was the cant as they roared round the bend aproaching Barnby Lane Crossing. I used to love standing there and watch these beasts leaning round the bend and then straighten up to accelerate even more, up towards Grantham.   Not many model layouts seem to employ this. There are a few exceptions, mainly in O gauge. I think it always looks impressive. With many OO layouts having unprotypical sharp curves, some su

Richard Mawer

Richard Mawer

Inclined to be happy

Early in the New Year i cut out the trackbeds for the open framed sections. The continuous run has been screwed down on the level for some time now, but I've had to wait until the double junctions were in so that the start of the incline was fixed. So now I had to tackle the incline.     The start of the incline.   Because the baseboard section for the junctions and the start of the incline are one board, raising the incline route by bending the ply up means that there is a transistion

Richard Mawer

Richard Mawer

Loops, Double Junctions and Lighting

As is often the case for me, even the best planned railway exploits need some replanning.   When I came to add the curves to the exit points ladder to start the laying of the storage loops, the geometry didn't work. Something must have moved inbetween checking it all out (see last entry) and sticking the points down. Some of the curves were too sharp. I have had to change the arrangement of the points. However, whilst the alignment may not be 100% smooth, it is smooth enough and coaches run o

Richard Mawer

Richard Mawer

Permenant Way Returns

There has been quite a lot of action over the last month or two.   Firstly I added the right hand side baseboard for the fiddle yard: another flat top board. Then added the open framed section between the lifting flap and fiddle yard. The final board for now is the low level board between the fiddle yard and the L girder board. I fitted it in front of Newton Purcell. In time i will add the Buckingham West and Brackley Road boards, but I need to lay the fiddle yard, continuous run, and gradient

Richard Mawer

Richard Mawer

Dumb and Dumb(bell)...er

I could put it off no more. The second difficult bit of engineering - difficult for me anyway- had to be tackled.   For me, the enjoyment of a model railway is running it. I want to be transported back in time and to re-live what I imagine a country railway line in a corner of the GWR to have been like in the 1930's: what seems a golden era for British steam and a time modern enough to have some comforts, but still hanging onto solid principals of hard work and pride in that work being good an

Richard Mawer

Richard Mawer

Cross Country

Cross Country   As mentioned in an earlier post (NE thing goes), there was a branch off the Great Central at Culworth to the GWR station in Banbury. In the summer timetables of 1934 to 1938 there was a cross country semi-fast from Leicester Central to Reading (and back) via the Great Central London Extension, the Culworth branch (like so many other cross country trains) to the Great Western at Banbury, on to Oxford, Didcot and terminating at Reading. Unlike most cross country expresses and sem

Richard Mawer

Richard Mawer

A bridge too far?

At the opposite end of my railway room from Newton Purcell there is the door.     I have 3 sets of lines to get across the door: the main circuits on base level, the descending line from Newton Purcell to those circuits and the branch from Newton Purcell climbing up to Brackley Road. So that's 3 different levels, on curves. The easiest way would be a simple duck-under. I have set the boards reasonably high, so it wouldn't be the end of the world. However the railway room is also the house

Richard Mawer

Richard Mawer

Weekend Engineering Works

It's been a slow start in the new railway room, due to getting the new house ship shape. Christmas was very busy with all the family around. However, in the New Year, new progress has been made.   It turns out the builder is a slight railway enthusiast. His Grandfather worked on the GWR. He volunteered his services with woodworking. I took advantage and he came over and sawed up loads of timber including lots of curved sections of ply.   As followers will know, the junction station, Newton P

Richard Mawer

Richard Mawer

Buckingham West Mk2 - track plan

Following a request for a plan.   The station at the top is Newton Purcell, the junction. This is on the middle level. The main lines to the left go down grade. Those to the right go gently up grade.   The double track circuit, storage loops and dumbbell are on the lowest level. The points layout into the loops needs some work.   The yellows blobs are where the lines go into tunnels.   The double track shooting off into the centre will lead to Buckingham West: track plan to be devised. T

Richard Mawer

Richard Mawer

Buckingham West MK2 - The Phoenix rises

Nearly two months after the move to the Oxfordshire countryside, the sorting out and housely matters have got to the stage that I can start thinking of reconstructing the railway. The only part of MK1 that fully survived was Newton Purcell, the junction. It was built in two halves, but never made it back into a whole. So achieving that goal would be a milestone.   I have spent a good few evenings designing the layout on AnyRail. The junction fits nicely across the end of the new railway room (

Richard Mawer

Richard Mawer

Recycling part 3

We have been in the new house for about a month and are still sorting house things, but the railway room is becoming less crowded by the day!   In the meantime the final part of my recycling is about producing a batch of wagons.   For those of you that have followed my blog you will know that the junction station on my layout is called Newton Purcell. The real NP is south east of Banbury where there is a belt of ironstone. Accordingly I have an ironstone quarry and therefore need some priva

Richard Mawer

Richard Mawer

Recycling part 2

The house move happens on Friday and whilst we were going through the process I didn't do any work on the loft layout. Instead I turned my attention to some stock. I recycled some very old Triang wagons dating back to my first train set as a 6 year old (or maybe younger). A bright orange drop side iron sided wagon has become a GWR permanent way dept truck in black with the small logo on the left.         A standard Triang coal wagon, originally plain brown plastic has become a well used a

Richard Mawer

Richard Mawer

Recycling part 1

Over the years between layouts (almost 30!!!!) I slowly collected locos and rolling stock for my mid 1930's layout. However, I still had the wagons from my early train set. I sold all the diesels and coaches as I packed up the final layout of my youth. Some of the wagons were early Triang wagons and included a bright yellow tank wagon.   Over the years I collected a number of UD 4 wheel milk tankers in the wrong belief that they would be right for my layout. I now know they were wrong. I have

Richard Mawer

Richard Mawer

Beeching would be proud

Well the day had to come.   It has taken far longer than we expected for a short and simple chain, but we have finally exchanged contracts and the house move from High Wycombe to north Oxfordshire is finally happening. Consequently I have had to take down the layout. I packaged all the stock and the few buildings that were out over the last few weeks, but was reluctant to take saw and drill to timber until the deal was binding.   So today I have toiled in the baking heat in the loft. It is

Richard Mawer

Richard Mawer

Now with added colour

Gents,   Thanks for all the comments. As you can see, I have taken it all on board. I have added much more grey to the roofs and covered the Lake sections of the roof. This was Lifecolor roof dirt, and the solebars are black (Lifecolor weathered black).         I airbrushed the roof dirt. Last time I used the airbrush with acrylics I thinned the, M 50:50 with distiller tap water, but it was thin and didn't stick to the under frames of the wagons. I was painting frame dirt to underf

Richard Mawer

Richard Mawer

Old and Knackered

With the house move still hanging in the air, it seems pointless to do any more work on the layout. Hopefully soon I will be taking it apart to go to its new home.   So my attentions have turned to rolling stock. This entry deals with two old Triang clerestories.     The livery is plain, poor and wrong. The actual model is freelance too, but we'll overlook that. I bought the coaches to be part of a workman's train, so I decided to backdate them and distress them. Rather than spray prime t

Richard Mawer

Richard Mawer

NE-thing goes

In 1900 the Great Central Railway opened a double track branch to Banbury from their London Extension, joining at Culworth Junction. This line became the main interchange point for trains between the Great Central and the Great Western. It allowed trains from the northern cities to run to the west and south. Trains ran from such places as Sheffield, York, Edinburgh and Aberdeen, to Southampton and Bournemouth. Often these trains saw the loco and stock from different companies, such as a GCR loco

Richard Mawer

Richard Mawer

Good, Bad, Happy and Sad

A mixed bag to report today.   On a good note, I have parted with some cash, not only for the long awaited Dukedog (which still needs to be painted GWR Green with a shirtbutton), but also Star and 28xx with shirtbutton. My Bulldog has also been remotored. This is an old Ks kit which a friend of mine at the High Wycombe club (HWDMRS) finished off and painted for me. The old motor worked but was very noisy and far from smooth. I bought a new Mashima and Roxey gearbox and Stan very kindly fitted

Richard Mawer

Richard Mawer

Slow, but steady

Progress has been slow, but steady.   You will be pleased to hear I did complete the 2nd Ratio bracket signal and fitted the 2 servos in a similar fashion to the first one. Using the rocker arm behind the lattice and platform is a huge improvement, but I had to remember that the operating wire for the bracket operated in the opposite direction from the main arm, when it came to fitting the servo levers.   I also fitted servos to the remaining 3 stop signals. One is the bay starter, one the u

Richard Mawer

Richard Mawer

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