Leaderboard

For those with lots of skill and I see amazing scratch built building and think wow !!! Sadly I am not in this league or the league below . My world is glue everywhere and I have to stick with plastic and cardboard kits ... Not everyones cup of tea but its better to have a go and do something , eh ? So here is the rather large "onion dome" church which has come together over the last week . For scale I put a train behind it !!! Now then in the real Oberaudorf on the edge of the village there is an even bigger "kloster -church" in this very yellow next to the standard gauge line . So for the German version of the layout its perfect and of course not out of place when running the Austrian stock ... It will be weathered at some point and I have taken pictures of the real thing and how the onion dome has weathered and the roof . So a tad more progress

The story My regular readers know that I like to create a background story for my diorama’s. I mostly do this before I start building and sometimes when I suggestion comes along in the comments of my blog entries, for instance adding a poster on the brick wall. G.W. Barlow & Son Ltd / Pawnbrokers & Jewellers No. 14 Queens Street - Closed shop The shop first opened in Northall as a jewellers and pawnbrokers in 1900. The shop was from the beginning situated on Queen Street and owned by Mr A Gardner. The shop, including the original shop front, is moved to No 136 High Street in 1959, due the development plans of the Northall Council. George William Barlow purchased the business in 1945 and was joined by his son Harold in 1946 on his return from service in the army during the Second World War. The shop front is largely original and as it would have looked in 1900. G.W. Barlow & Son Ltd is a truly individual family run business offering a wide range of more individual pieces with a highly professional and very personal service. X-ray screening health poster Early discovery means quicker recovery’ states this poster. It was drawn by artist T. R. Williams. Advertising posters such as this promoted mobile X-ray screening programmes to detect pulmonary tuberculosis in large groups of people.. Mobile X-ray services played a large role in public health campaigns against tuberculosis in the 1940s and 1950s. Mobile X-ray services were very successful. They were phased out in the UK in the 1960s. But I read that modern mobile X-ray units are introduced again in London. Laundry Service No.15 Queens Street The first business that was situated here was the King’s Arms The King’s Arms was possibly the Great Kings Arms mentioned in 1792 and recorded as The Kings Head in 1845. The pub closed in 1893/4. By 1913 the property was used as a clothiers and in 1928 as a greengrocers. In 1947 it became a laundry. Herbert Sing Lee started a laundry shop here in 1947. He lives above the laundry shop. Sing Lee employs two people: Lee Doon, a nephew from Liverpool, who works for Sing Lee for just five weeks, and a local woman called Lily Scott. Herbert Sing Lee is still looking for a new property to continue his business. No. 16 Queens Street Closed shop: A. Leach & Co – Ironmongers Limited By 1899 Albert Leach & Co ran their ironmongers business from number 16, to be succeeded by Harry Leach in 1901 ‘Leach & Co, ironmongers’ in a 1907 trade directory. Thomas Leach, becomes the director of the company according to the trade directory in 1954: A. Leach & Co Ironmongers Ltd. ‘No 16 Queen Street Northall (phone no.) NORthall 3262’. 1959 the same company was trading as A. Leach & Co (Northall) Ltd., Engineers Stores & Ironmongers; No.10 London Road using the same phone no. Black and white Most of the pictures I find from the late 1950’s or early 1960’s are in black and white. So I thought it would be a good idea to create also a black and white photograph for my story telling. Picture by John Lovell Redevelopment After redevelopment of the area a new office building, will house the offices of the Northall Housing Association. As usual comments, information or suggestions are welcome. Kind regards, Job

I previously explained that I ended up making a tunnel into what used to be a dining area. So, as I munch on this sandwich, I will describe what I did with it. Sized at about 8’ by 5’ I realised that I had an effective storage area of about 8’ by 2’. Again, out with the paper and pencils. The design aim was to provide storage for 6 trains of at least 20 wagons which works out at 6’ by 15” . No way I could fit in a fan of pointwork at each end of that, so my thinking moved towards a traverser. I had built a double entry double exit traverser way back; so I decided to have a go in EM. This is how it turned out. Firstly a general shot. Below and above are cupboards for general storage, the tunnel can be seen at the RH end. Three ball bearing heavy duty drawer slides support the structure, it requires surprisingly little force to move it. The locking mechanism is a spring loaded silver steel bar in linear ball bearings which engages with drilled plate. it is unlocked by a cam which is driven by a geared motor from a central heating motorised valve. Yes, its 240 V but if wiring is sheathed properly that is not a problem. The microswitch senses the unlocked state, power cannot be applied to the track until it is properly locked. I will add another locking mechanism at the other end, I get a bit of mispositioning there. The position of the traverser is detected by reed switches. These feed a relay panel so that the correct up or down feed is only fed to the right traverser lines. A repeater panel with a digital readout of the track selected and the lock status is located in the main layout room. The drive mechanism is a geared motor and a toothed rubber belt. A two speed controller allows for local or eventual remote operation, and it is interlocked so that the traverser has to be properly unlocked before it is moved. All the electronics and switching is in a pull out drawer under the traverser. Also contains a local cab controller so that trains can be shunted independently from the main layout. Finally, a view down the traverser towards the tunnel. Slightly wobbly track, it is just EM trackbase. I might ballast it all one day. I really should treat myself to a decent camera, sorry about the quality of the pics but I think they give a general impression of what is going on. Anyway, hope that is of interest. Back to a bit of styrene cutting.