Neilgue

Jeff, the viaduct looks like it will be just as impressive as the late lamented fell. when do we get to see a track plan? Cheers, Neil.

Yes, I really am from Australia. While I did add a few comments, I am mainly a lurker...

Hi Jeff, it’s really nice to see you up and at it again. I followed your old thread for a long time and effectively lost interest in rmweb when you had other things to attend to. But now you are back and all is right with the world. Who knows, I may even be inspired enough to do something myself... Cheers, Neil.

I love that there are still things to see on this thread. (Which started more than six years ago...) Cheers everyone, Neil

You might want to look at the water tower too. Or at least make sure it's empty...

I can't comment on how well this captures the 'vibe' of the fells, given that I live on the other side of the world and it's a bit difficult for me to go and see for myself. But having said that, if there are any discrepancies between the model and the real thing, someone needs to tweak reality to bring it up to scratch!

The whole OO/EM thing has always fascinated me. While EM is nearly right (still almost a whole mm too narrow), I never thought it was worth all of the trouble over fine scale OO. However, here in Melbourne, our railways are the Irish gauge 5'3". Whenever I go to Sydney, the standard gauge 4' 8.5" track look really, really narrow. Curiously, the difference in gauge is in similar proportion to OO and EM. We have some mixed gauge track at Southern Cross station in Melbourne. The whole issue of pointwork is very interesting - they have special ones which move the standard gauge trains from one outside rail to the other. A bit difficult to explain without pictures. And not really a viable scheme to use while converting stock.

I love the transformer...

Hi Jeff, I have been lurking here for ages and finally feel I have something constructive to say. The support structure looks to be made of concrete, not steel. If the columns were steel, they would probably be tubular, not square. There are a few other features which suggest concrete rather than steel. There is an excellent thread on the building of a water tower for Black Country Blues here. Not the same as yours, but there may be some points of interest for you. Pay particular attention to the way the tank is supported by the frame. There is a latticework of steel beams that direct the loads from the tank to the ground. Page 1 of the BCB thread has a good picture of a prototype tank. The tank sits on lots of little beams sitting on a few bigger beams which sit in turn on the support structure. The uniformly distributed load under the tank is directed into a small number of point loads on the support structure. Unfortunately, the BCB tank has it the wrong way around - the big beams sitting on the little ones, but it is probably only insufferable pedants like me who notice such things.... Keep up the good work, it's good to see someone actually doing something! Cheers, Neil

I didn't know Holmes played the saxophone...

Hi Dave, I hope I did not come across as being too picky. The real problem is that I work in the window industry and notice such things. Normal people would neither notice or care. Also, I wasn't sure if it was a local feature - I can think of ways it could be done, but we don't do it over here in Australia. Cheers, Neil.

Hi Dave, great work. I too bought the magazine just to see the article. A quick question. The roof lights appear to be set below the face of the roof. How does the rain water drain from the face of the glass? I assume that it wont be a problem on the model, but is that how the prototype is built? It doesn't seem right to me... Cheers, Neil

"The idea was that, to facilitate loading, the corridor would be on the platform side at Paddington no. 1 platform" Given that coaches are not turned at the end of the journey, doesn't that mean that the corridor is only on the platform side for half the time?

Sorry, but I meant to add this link too: http://www.braithwaite.co.uk/pdf/Steel_tank_brochure.pdf.

Hi Jason & Co, You need to have a look here: http://www.braithwaite.co.uk/pages/heritage.html. Things have moved on from cast iron to pressed steel panels, but the system is essentially the same. Cheers, Neil

I think you can safely say that you have passed the starting line when you get to the 100th page of posts!

I'm not sure if this is one-upmanship, but I'm sitting in a hotel in Shanghai (work trip). You certainly get around Alan!

"Here's a great detail shot of the rope pull and lifting mechanism taken from the museum website:" It's interesting to see that the wheels on the traveling section are flanged on both sides. A case of belt and braces?

When you clock the image tag, half the pictures are of models...

Hi Mike, "Aligning the various 10thou laminations continues to be difficult" Have you thought of cutting the springs as per the prototype? It would need some kind of former, but I can't see that being more difficult than the other way. Neil

Ian, I did a similar thing earlier in the year, though on a larger scale - I was there on a three week visit from Australia. My interest in model railways was rekindled after a heart attack. It's amazing how your view of the world changes when you are lying in a hospital bed. I had a great time exploring the railway and the lost industries of Kirkcaldy. (Some of the pictures can be seen earlier on this thread.) While Kirkcaldy has been the family home for at least three centuries, I only have vague memories of Industrial Kirkcaldy. I clearly remember not being too wee to see over the Bennochy Rd bridge, and I can still see Barry's factories in Forth Avenue. I too would love to build a Kirkcaldy themed layout. looking at the old 25" maps I was drawn to the area between Rosebery Tce and the junction to the harbour branch. The maps show lots of factories and sidings with what seem like impossibly small track radii. Unfortunately, I have not been able to find any pictures of that area and apart from Nairn's power station and the scrap yard in Den Rd, the buildings have all been knocked down. It's still early days yet, but I am going to have a go at adapting the track plan and make some buildings based on photos from the Canmore site. Cheers, Neil

It's probably not quite true, but my Mum used to say that folk from Thornton were a bit queer....

Given that Kirkcaldy was the Linoleum Capital of the World, it's not surprising that all of the purpose built floorcloth wagons were based there. What is surprising is that there were only five of them! I can only suppose that the special wagons were for extra wide rolls. Normal width rolls must have been able to fit in standard open wagons.

Great photos. There is as much interest in the backgrounds as in the locos themselves. Nairn's factory in the 60519 photo looks nice and new (though a bit dirty next to the rails). Does anyone know what sort of wagon is used to transport lino? It must be awkward trying to poke a roll of lino in through the side doors of a van.

Thanks for all the info. For years I had never given DMU's a second thought - I didn't really think of them as real trains. But seeing the models in the shops brought back such powerful memories that now I have to have one. And I also have an interesting new topic to research. Cheers, Neil