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Hi. I'm posting the Leeds Jcn drawing, the last of the Shipley triangle boxes. A quick personal note. I was made a Train Recorder in 1945 having reached the age of 16 and able to work nights. There was a lad on each shift from Monday 0600 to 0200 Sunday morning. I am also attaching a very simple drawing of the box's down distant signals relevant to the two boxes in rear. I tried yesterday when I started this post to explain the distant signal operation in words but it became almost impossible. I hope the drawing if looked at in connection with main drawing will help. The sections between the three triangle box's and Guiseley Jcn were short and distant signals at Leeds Jcn could not be pulled off until the box in advance cleared it's distant signal. A mechanical indicator indicated when the distant signal in advance was cleared. This system applied to all four box's but only Leeds Jcn had it all directions. As the two box's covered in the simple drawing were not in my rest day roster they never got in my exercise book..Leeds Jcn had a 40 lever frame including 2 spares. There were no crossovers so no ground signals. If you can make out number 27 signal on the main post of the splitting signals from the Skipon direction, this was the down starter to Skipton. The short sections required close co-operation between all the signalmen. For instance, Guiseley Jcn would sometimes have to keep a long goods train at his down slow home signal so as not to block the Jcn to Ilkley. This could happen if Bingley Jcn was running a train in or out on the Bradford Skipton leg. The Fast and Slow lines started here all the way to Leeds The simplistic drawing also shows how trains to or from Bradford accessed the Slow line or the Ilkley Line..So what about the junction onto the Batley line? This was a GN branch from Bradford Exchange. Behind Leeds Jcn was the remains of Windhill Station Passenger traffic was long gone but there was still considerable goods traffic. The were daily trip workings between Bradford Valley goods (see first posting) and the GN yard. There was also a through working from the GN yard to Skipton. This ran onto the down goods line and the loco ran round it's train between Shipley Goods and Frizinghall It had a brake van at both ends. Strangely I cannot remember a return working. It may have worked back to Valley Yard and and been a trip working to the GN yard. The latter had it's own signal box almost opposite Guiseley Jcn. and had a Signalwoman on one shift. The line down to the yard was something like 1 in 40 and brakes had to be pinned down ay the start of the decent On approaching the yard the driver had to whistle he had the train under control otherwise the line was left set for a long sand drag. That's about it. Cheers, Derek.

Managed a quick hours modelling while wife and baby were out for a mums coffee morning. Finally made a start on the bogies. First up the design, I don't like the inside bearings design, I particularly don't like the fact that you have to send away for the p4 sub frame (without which the bearings will fall out of the guides.) nor the fact that the main bogie etch fouls the wheels. However I do like the carful design of the break bits, and the quality of etch and castings. The latter was solved by filing back the corners to provide clearance. A set of maygib wheels were fitted to filed back axles (to remove the pinpoint) I used some nickel silver wire for the springs rather than the supplied brass, Again my lack of photos is hindering me here, in that I am unsure wether to go of bogie step boards (easy) or fabricate the replacement small steps). It's early days but does feel like it's running nicely under a push test. I have also finished off the fitting of the solbar and headstocks, need to get the soldering iron out to solder up the buffer heads.

Here’s another horse-drawn vehicle for my goods depot, this time a scratchbuilt light trolley in the GWR’s “Birmingham” style. The model was built from styrene and bits in my spares box, with wheels bought in from Langley. Drawings and photos suggest that there was a bewildering amount of detail variation within this basic type. I based my model on a drawing on page 241 of P. Kelley's "Great Western Road Vehicles", which was built in several lots. Another almost identical version can be seen on page 243 of the same volume. Various photos of the trolleys in action at Hockley can be seen here, although my particular version is closer to one depicted at Slough on page 38 of "GWR Goods Services" Part 2A. The vehicles had a protective canvas cover over the driver which could be extended backwards over the load in wet weather. The canvas was held by hoops over the seat, which – unlike many other goods delivery vehicles – seem to have been permanently fitted. In typical old-world fashion, these otherwise mundane vehicles had moulded panels along the sides. I fashioned the latter from strips of Evergreen - could've done with a Silhouette cutter there! The wheels were a bit of a problem. The closest I could find were Langley’s 12mm wheels. These are 0.9 mm too small and have 11 spokes where they should have 12. In the end I compromised and used them. If I find better wheels I'll replace them. The springs are modified leftovers from Coopercraft wagon kits. The fore carriage and shafts were a nice little puzzle to build. The drawing does not clearly show the type of shafts used. The GWR used several varieties, with designs becoming simpler over the years. To cut a long story short, I chose the graceful “curvy” style of the earlier types. Main parts assembled and ready for painting. Lettering presented the usual problem when you need non-standard sizes. Photos of trolleys from the 1900s show some with serif lettering, some with sans serifs. Some have numbers at the front, others at the rear. I eventually used HMRS Hawksworth coach lettering (!), which is a compromise but not too far off for sans serif lettering. I've only just noticed the broken spoke - a fault in the casting it seems. The weather sheet fitted. Again there was variety on the prototypes. On some vehicles the sheet extended all the way down over the sides, on others it stopped short above the deck. The sheet was fashioned from a wagon tarpaulin from the Smiths range, turned over to hide the lettering. Final detailing included adding a few bits of this fine chain which I've only recently discovered. It is imported by Cambrian Models and has the great advantage of being pre-blackened. It is 33 links per inch, and can be obtained from Cambrian themselves or by internet order from H&A Models (I have no connection to either). For horse power, I chose the recently introduced "feathered" Vanner from Dart, seen here on the left together with a mate from Shirescenes for comparison. As always with figures, I prefer relaxed/calm poses - and I liked the way the Vanner was bending its head down. The bucket was fashioned from bits in the spares box. Keeping draught horses in good shape was taken very seriously, and photos show them both feeding and drinking while waiting at goods depots (eg here). So that's about it. It's been interesting to scratchbuild this vehicle and thereby learn about the design of these vehicles. Sometimes doing a small project like this can bring as much satisfaction (and challenge!) as a whole layout, I think. For a couple of other scratchbuilt GWR horse-drawn vehicles, see Jerry Clifford's lovely little vehicles, and Beachcomber Bob's dray here on RMweb.

So here it is again, I've just painted the motor and it blends in pretty well. I still might make some fill panels sometime if the small amount of daylight visible bugs me too much .... Here's the underside showing the "gearbox" I've also refreshed the couplings, a few have commented in the past that the 3 links were out of scale so I had a few links left over from the Ivor build which have been put to good use I did a test run yesterday of just the chassis on a bit of peco track and the Lenx Standard seemed to handle the motor pretty well, runs nice and smooth. Time will tell once it gets used in anger on Fourgig East as to whether a capacitor pack is going to be needed. I have one ready in any case I've just totted up how much this little chap has cost - not including paint/glue/varnish and the transfers (which I got free from a member) it's cost just over £56. The DCC decoder was also "free" having been donated by my OO gauge class 15 when I sound fitted it. A bargain in anyone's book methinks

Having browsed this excellent website for a while I've finally summoned the courage to jump in. Its odd how the seemingly plausible legend I'd contrived to justify my layout has suddenly become utterly bizarre and an obvious target for ridicule by my elders and betters. There might be comparatively few of the former as I'm no spring-chicken, but a great many of the latter as my railway modelling experience is minimal. First, that sig: - Following a period of ill-health that was useful in establishing a qualifying relationship with mortality, I had a couple of ticks left on my TDBD (things to do before the reaper) list: 1. Building a small sailing boat (1:1)and, 2) building the extensive model railway I'd always promised myself, previous layouts being enjoyable but minimal. With the sailboat done I started to browse the magazines, shops and websites that I'd denied myself during the years when I was on a nautical bent; I know myself well enough to realise that I'm easily sidelined, something I did not want to happen with shed full of half-built boat! (aside: I trust these drafts aren't being published???!!! A glance at the blog-list seems to indicate otherwise, in which case I'd best exit-red-faced and conclude the draft, privately, in Word. Being totally nonPC-savvy, this is exactly the sort of gaff I feared! ) LO Whatever. I'll take the possible early egg-on-face as a warning not to be so typically long-winded and cut to the chase. An O-gauge Brassworks 04 diesel appeared on-line at a time when I was browsing under the influence: half price - probably because it was only partially painted and unglazed - with no O-gauge layout, nor the prosepct of such, I had to buy it! Now it stares from my bench-top as a constant reminder of the consequences of such alcoholic foolhardiness. But I've become fond of it, and you never know - one day... Now I'll see if I can upload a picture of the offending item... If I've done so - and it'll be a miracle - I'll say goodnight - till I generate something that might be marginally readable ;-) Brasso

OK, took a bit of time with the rotary tool to hack away the underside of the boiler to make room for the new motor, but it's back together As you can see, the motor is pretty visible, I'm going to paint it matt black first to see how it looks, failing that some new thin false sides can be fitted to hide it above footplate level at least. Old Lenz Standard decoder has been found and pressed into service. Hopefully now a mainstay of the Fourgig East operating fleet. Just not very GWR, hey ho!