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The 56xx class of 0-6-2T tank engines were infrequent visitors to Oswestry, from what I can find only one a year would receive attention during the 1954-1959 period. These were predominantly 84E Tyseley or 84F Stourbridge Rd locomotives employed on freights and passenger workings in the Midlands. Locomotives of the Red route class had to navigate their way to the works at Oswestry via Gobowen with only a handful of sidings unrestricted for their weight category. This chart shows the entries recorded for the period 1954-1959 (excluding 1955): This trend continued right up until the closure of Oswestry Works, with 6644 being captured on camera as late as June/July 1965 (note 9F behind!): [Photo courtesy of Oswestry Family & Local History Group] I picked up a late crest Bachmann 56xx from the RMWeb Classifieds recently, this will be detailed an likely modelled as one of the later visitors to the works. I'm really looking forward to working on this class, it's always held a fascination with me since seeing the layout "Blaenavon" in Railway Modeller in the mid-1980's. 5643 is currently visiting the Bluebell Railway which was a nice surprise when I was there recently to get photos of 9017. Only problem was there was no chance to get any detail from the boiler/tank tops! 1. 5643 on shed in the evening sunshine 2. Buffer beam detail 3. Lubricators 4. R/H Sandbox linkages 5. R/H Cab Step and injectors (?) 6. Buffer detail 7. Vacuum and Steam heating pipes 8. L/H Cab Step, Sandboxes, Injectors 9. L/H Front pipework behind the bufferbeam 10. L/H Sandbox linkage and lubricators 11. Smokebox door 12. R/H front frames and sandbox 13. R/H rear pipework 14. Unknown device on R/H - any ideas? Full set here - https://www.flickr.com/photos/cambrian_al/sets/72157644247589256/ Cheers

What with Easter and a rather misguided camping trip which suffered every indignity the British weather could throw at it progress has been a bit slow and certainly not helped by DCC. Having finally found a chip that worked I got brave and downloaded a slightly better sound from the Digitrax web site - OK an 08 shunter is not ideal but until I manage to make my own sounds this will have to do - well it would if it worked! Download seemed to be fine but no sound. I seemed to remember that I had a similar problem with the other Simplex and after some research found that there was a CV that you had to change to make it use the new sound. Can I remember which one? Of course not and can't find where I got it from. Posting the problem on various sites didn't get me anywhere but then I had a cunning plan...... What I did was to download the sound scheme (BR Yorkie), from the sound depot that I had trouble with previously with the intention of comparing all the CVs to find the one I changed to make it work. That was the plan but this sound worked straight off. Unfortunately I don't know if this was a glitch in the original sound that has been put right or not. At least I now have a sound that works even if it is not the one I wanted! Incidentally, the one I am having trouble with is the BR 08 from Sound Depot - has anyone else had any trouble with this one? Having got at least a sound I pressed on with that other task I love, of fitting couplings and then the roof - what a nightmare! As it balances (and I wanted to make it removable), on four thin posts, getting it even remotely level was not easy. In the end I came up with this little jig Problem sorted! One good thing about this WDLR business is the very unadventurous paint schemes so it was quickly kitted out with a few coats of light olive via a Humbrol spray can. Really couldn't see the point of getting the airbrush out for this. Just need some detail painting, etch some number and makers plates and a jolly good weathering session and I will be there.

The garden has emerged from the soggy winter fairly well, with only a small amount of electrical bonding and track alignment needed. It has allowed me to have some fun taking pics after a spot of hedge cutting and garden tending.

I'm sure there are knowledgeable folk who can help with this one. The track plan of the station area of the layout is very simple - a passing loop, two platforms, and a goods yard on what we'll call the "up" side of the line. Trains arriving on the up loop can easily work the goods shed without a run-round move, just by backing into the yard - if necessary, leaving part of the train on the up line. To shunt from the down line, an engine would need to detach from the train, run around on the up line, and then collect wagons from the rear of the train on the down line, before propelling them into the yard. My query is, would the real railway have operated that way, blocking both the down line and up line (while running around), or would wagons for the yard simply have been forwarded on up the line until they can be sent back on an "up" train? I am presuming the station is on a cross-country route or a heavily engineered branch line. For the sake of play value, I'd much rather be able to shunt "down" trains as well as "up" ones, but I'd be interested to know how likely/unlikely it was in reality. Perhaps it depended on the schedule - if there were long intervals between trains, it wouldn't have mattered that both roads were occupied?

Here are a few pictures to 'flesh out' the text. Been doing a bit of scenicking, Brake can and O2 building to ward off the boredom.

We got back fairly late yesterday evening from Epsom so I didn’t get chance to post any photos last night. We had a good time at the show. There were some excellent layouts on display along with a good selection of traders. The digs and food were good and we also managed to venture into the mean streets of Epsom and track down some pints of St Austell ‘Tribute’ on Saturday evening. I’m sure that our operating on Sunday was much better for it. Unfortunately the journey down on Friday was not great – pouring rain most of the way and a crawl around the M25 in rush hour – over two hours from the bottom of the M40 junction to Epsom. It never ceases to amaze me though how things that have been tested back at base can still let us down at a show and result in lots of crawling under baseboards and dilemmas about whether to go and eat or stay and fix problems on a Friday evening. I’m not going to repeat the whole fault list here, but one particularly puzzling issue was the East crossover. We always run a loco around every bit of track as soon as the layout is set up. I did this on Friday evening (including the same crossover set both normal and reversed). Just as I was taking the loco back to the fiddle yard and about to announce that everything was OK I got a short circuit on the East crossover. We decided in favour of eating but it meant that there was extra work to do on Saturday morning before the show opened. The problem was fixed using a razor saw to open out one of the isolation gaps… but this bit of track has been working and pretty much untouched since 2010. Thanks to Ian Morgan and Dave Stratton for stepping in as guest operators on Saturday. I hope that you both enjoyed yourselves. Next up is the Kidderminster 2mm gathering in June. Between now and then our plan is to replace the control panel overlay and move some buttons that are in the wrong place. The panel is getting rather untidy now with various amendments stuck on with paper labels or scribbled on in marker pen. As usual a random assortment of photos... Lower Exbury - a small layout beautifully executed. Cornwall was well represented at this show... Diesels in the Duchy. Law Junction. Definitely not small! Purgatory Peak Clutton - very Pendon-esque. Penlan The afternoon lull in the St Ruth goods yard - the Carlisle goods waiting for its loco and the pilot waiting to pounce on the GUV when it's time for the sleeping cars to depart. The buildings near the Hotel with the junction signal off for a main line departure.

The 90xx Dukedog classes were obviously synonymous with the Cambrian system and as you'd expect many of them passed through Oswestry Works over the years, in fact probably all of them did at some point! Modelling the works gives a good excuse to model a number of Dukedogs and I've been researching not just which ones frequented the works the most often, but the many varied combinations of components, such as position of smokebox lampirons, sandboxes above/below the footplate, small/long/no whistle shield, parallel or tapered buffers, fluted or fish belly rods.. the list goes on! (for an excellent and comprehensive list of variations see http://www.gwr.org.uk/no-dukedogs.html) 1954 to 1959 is the main focus of the diorama as this is the period I have found works registers for. The table below shows which 90xx's were in the works and how often: Dukedog's that stand out for me as options to model are as follows: 9005 - 3 times in the works between 1954 and 1959 - Spent her whole life on the Cambrian (allocated to MCH, ABR and OSW) - Above footplate Sandboxes - Tapered Buffers pre 1958(?) Parallel afterwards - Fluted rods - In store in Oswestry for 2 years before withdrawal in July 1959 9017 - 4 times in the works - Oswestry Works carried out minor overhaul before her departure to the Bluebell 9018 - 3 times in the works between 1954 and 1959 - Parallel Buffers & Tall Whistle Shield - Red background plates and GWR Button Motif still just about visible on the tender! - Withdrawn 1960 Finally either 9004, 9014 or 9022, to represent the class with a topfeed. Most likely Croes Newydd's 9014 as she featured on railtours Another aspect to the research has been the great fortune of having Bluebell's 9017 only 40 minutes away at Sheffield Park! I made a visit a couple of weeks ago and spent a bit of time with her getting some reference photos. It'll sound daft I know but after spending so long looking at photos, books, websites etc, actually seeing 9017 in the flesh felt like visiting an old friend! Anyway.... Here's some of the reference photos, I hope they may be of use to anyone else looking to add a little extra detail to the Bachmann Dukedog: 1. Traces of the cab spectacle windows filled in 2. Footstep on the tapered buffers 3. Steam heatpipe fittings 4. Pipework under the running plate 5. Same pipework where it enters the cab 6. Front pony detail, will be a challenge removing that unsightly coupling pocket from the Bachmann! 7. Smokebox, Handrail, Chimney details 8. Fisheye shot inside the cab

Good evening, As Phase I of the 2014 refurb draws to a close (second coat of paint added to fascia and new lettering has been applied) I turned my thoughts to the new fiddle yard. As mentioned previously I would like to give cassettes a rest for a while and revert back to a traverser running on mini 150mm shelf runners that I acquired some place in BCN. One of the issues to be addressed was due to the track layout, for run-a-round the train needs to back the stock almost halfway into the fiddle yard so a short 'transitional ' piece was required which was worked out the other day to be about 200mm. This means the traverser can move independently without the train bridging it. Another issue was not being restricted by the travel length of the traverser meaning all roads could be used. It occurred to me a cheeky little slot could be formed in the facia allowing the traverser to slide out as and when required and also give sneak pics of the rolling stock (don't you just love to crank your neck at shows and get a preview of what's about to emerge?) With this in mind, sketches were happening during my work week as follows: Yesterday I had a brief visit to the Epson and Ewell show and suitably topped up with enthusiasm from seeing St Ruth and Diesels in the Duchy, I decided to make a mock up this afternoon. This is to test a few ideas as most of it will be laser cut at work so I wanted to flush out any immediate problems. Using a couple of sheets of 3mm foamboard I began to map out the enclosure to first get the continuity of the all important front presentation to the viewers. This will all be painted dark grey to match the recent fascia work. I also wanted to express the 'transitional' piece on the front (which also masks the join between the scenic section and FY) so have done so by introducing two 3mm shadow gaps to provide a neat solution. This will also incorporate the 2mmFS logo which I have from the first time it was exhibited. The traverser itself will have 5 roads which should be enough for say 3 fixed train formations and a couple of spare for run around etc. The ends of the roads will have a simple DPDT switch to isolate each individually - no complex sparks from me I am afraid There is also scope for one possibly two shelves built above the traverser to hold additional stock - will need to review this with the lighting positions. Having completed the mock up I can already see a few areas that need further work but overall I am happy with the results. One thing I quite like is the possible glow from the traverser slot when seen from the front. Here's a few iPhone pics with a little stock provided for scale...sorry about the light etc...its not so easy to take the layout outside as I used to do in BCN... Any comments most welcome... Pete

Digging around on the PC I spent a few minutes looking through some of the better pictures of my old layout. For those that remember, it was the one I was developing when I first started on RMWeb, although by that point it only had a year or two of life left in it. For most of its existence the layout didn't have a name but towards the end it was officially Wyvant. The layout fitted into a 14 x 6 room and began as a much smaller project, only about 8 x 6 in size. This utilised the boards built by my dad for my childhood layout, and indeed much of the track was salvaged and reused on this model. I started it in 1996, the year I returned to the hobby. Over the years, I extended the layout to occupy the whole room, changing the track plan and scenery many times in the process. I didn't set out with a realistic plan in mind, and even in its final stage, the layout had many unrealistic features. Other than not planning, I also made the mistake of not establishing stable foundations for the boards. I used wooden trestles, but the room was uneven and the boards never set truly level at any point in the layout's life. Also, the joins between the boards gave more and more trouble as the chipboard surface warped. That said, I had a lot of fun with it. It was my first layout that I built on my own (my dad had always done all the "hard stuff" like woodwork, tracklaying and wiring) so there was a huge learning curve. I was overjoyed the first day I got a Peco point motor to work, and even basic DC wiring was a challenge for me. Here are some photos and comments: The level crossing scene, one of the better areas of the model. Some of the scenery here is still pretty acceptable, in my eyes, and I always thought there was a good South Wales atmosphere to this bit. The pub was eventually recycled for use on Paynestown (now sold), while some of the other buildings have found their way onto the current 4mm project. The station building, which was originally designed to span the tracks on an overbridge. I was never satisfied with this model and after suffering damage in storage it eventually went in the bin. It didn't take long to construct so was no great loss. Nowadays I wouldn't build a model without basing it on a prototype, at least to some degree. Not a bad back garden for this cottage, which after some upgrading now resides on the new layout. I think the outside toilet ended up on Paynestown. Looking over the main station complex, which was quite extensive for what was a relatively small layout. I still have the long footbridge, which took a lot of kitbashing and detailing - unfortunately I doubt I'll ever have a suitable model for it again. The background area was much less developed and never got far beyond this when the decision was taken to move house. A hint of what might have been, with a goods on the elevated section - shades of Cardiff? Back to the goods yard area, where this Metcalf goods shed now finds a home on the current project: The station throat - subject to many changes over the years. This area looked OK in photos but in reality, it was a veritable roller coaster of undulating trackage, due to warpage. Most stock stayed on, some didn't! Finally, back to the double junction which allowed the branch to join the mainline at Taffsill. Looking back on it, the layout provided a lot of pleasure and challenges, and I probably would have carried on with it for a few years had not the house move intervened. Ultimately, though, the state of the boards would eventually have caused it to be scrapped, and it was perhaps for the best that it happened when it did. It was a sad day when I took a clawhammer to the boards in 2007, but within a few hours, I was over the loss and looking forward to my next project, when I could truly start with a clean slate. I'd particularly like to thank Mikkel, as within a short while of my posting pictures of the layout on RMWeb, he kindly invited me to share some more on the GWR modelling forum. I was thrilled to be asked and very honoured to be able to show off the layout among examples of much better modelling! Hope this has been fun, a bit of a trip down memory lane, and thanks for reading.

Over the last week I knuckled down and finished laying the setts around the goods yard. Now, to be honest, setts are probably not something you'd get in the sort of sleepy, rural goods yard I have in mind here - I would expect a surface of dirt or gravel at best - but since the shed has to be removable, setts help hide the inevitable joins. In fact, the shed fits into a dedicated area of setts which is itself removable, hence the line visible under the front wheel of the GWR vehicle. The point of this is that I can substitute a smaller shed, yet still have it look bedded into the ground, whereas it would have been tricky to conceal such a join in a dirt-type surface. Again the idea is to be able to swap between companies or regions without too much hassle. The main goods siding projects through the shed and continues for a bit, where I've added a set of coal staithes for a bit of shunting variety. Now, this is again a tad unlikely as it would be cumbersome to position the wagons (other than with horse or by manual methods) without propelling them through the shed, which would require barrier wagons or for the loco to enter and pass through the building. There's been some discussion on the forum in the past as to whether this sort of thing would have been allowed, but all I can say is that you do see very heavy smoke staining on some goods shed entrances, which suggests that engines certainly poked their noses in, if nothing else. In any case, I think this is a fair compromise for the sake of extra play value given that I've only got two sidings. I haven't shown much of the right side of the module, beyond the shed, since it's tended to be a bit of a dumping ground for tools and modelling bits, but lately there's been a burst of progress. Here's the general idea of a road sweeping up and out of view, with several cottages lining the right hand side. The two at the top are scratchbuilt, while the timber framed one is the familiar Superquick model, but here given an additional layer of detailing with 3-d framing and a new roof. There's a smaller cottage planned to go to the right of this building, while the church (visible in the other shots) will also get the Superquick upgrade treatment. The shop in the foreground, meanwhile, is the Wills kit. This one suffered a bizarre gardening accident when I snipped a rail end using Xuron track cutters, only to have the offending rail shoot through the air and ram its way through the upper floor windows, neatly dislodging the glazing - which I now can't get back in to fix! The swine! I'll have to, of course, but it'll mean removing the rear wall which is a pain. Unfortunately there is a false floor between the upper and lower stories which is glued in well and proper. Why do the things we need to remove never come undone, and things we need to stay fixed on, keep coming apart? Cheers, and thanks for reading.