DCB
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Blog Comments posted by DCB
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4 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:
The LNWR, for example, had a standard engine shed design with northlight roof, with the glazed part facing towards the shed entrance. Although some may see little difference between a Premier Line engine shed and a place of worship, while churches are often laid out with the "east" end facing east, I'm unconvinced that LNWR engine sheds were religiously laid out to face north!
Its only the glazing which faces north. The Northlight gazing can face more or less anywhere between North East and North West. Sometimes the glazing runs along the line of the tracks, sometimes across but the shed can equally face south as north, Its just the Railway series illustrator shows what should be south facing glazing facing north. Oddly enough there is a railway modelling norm for the viewing side to be from the South. Caused by the lack of photographs looking south which show the view from the north...
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I suspect Rev Awdrey's illustrator had as little appreciation of civil engineering requirements as he did mechanical ones. His North light roof appeared to face south.
Northlight roofs have north facing glazing so direct sunlight does not enter but good daylight does. Bit like the reverse of solar panels.
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Those tender axle journal pickups look great, far better than the draggy Hornby etc wheelback type. Are the wheels available as spares?
City of Truro's usual BR days duties were Didcot to Southampton via Newbury passenger trains, work done in earlier years by Bulldogs.
She did run on the MSWJR on a special despite being too heavy for the dotted blue route, (Blue locos at reduced speed) but most MSWJR rosters seemed to involve passenger one way and freight back for which she was not really suitable, with 1 in 65 gradients to Andoversford and through Savernake.
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Looks to be sitting too high. I have been struggling with a Dukedog with the same issue. The frames of 5' 8" locos and 6'8" locos are the same but the buffers are 6" / 2mm higher on the buffer beam locos (and the running plate 6" or 2mm lower.) The footsteps at the back of the 5' 8" locos are the same distance from the ground as the 6'8" wheel locos but shorter between top step and running plate. If you use City of Truro bits and don't trim 2mm out between top step and running plate then the loco ends up 2mm too high when tender and loco steps align.
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Looks good. Great concept, well worked out.
Can I make a couple of observations on the OP photo. The platforms are too high, Should be 3ft max and buffer centrelines are 3ft 3" so buffers shafts should be above passenger platform level and the 14XX clearly isn't. I made the same mistake 30 years ago and it really annoys me now but is really too much work to put right. At your stage slipping a sheet of 1 or 2mm ply under the track should be quite simple. Some goods platforms especially in covered goods depots were higher, to facilitate loading vans etc ,Also track was normally dead straight, laid by human eye in steam days, not laid by lazer to look like a dogs hind leg its well worth using brand new straight out of the box pristine flexi track laid with a straight edge, if it bends or kinks use it for curve and substitute a new bit.
Stations with through and terminal platforms are rare. Platforms are rare full stop south in the South West. They needed different platforms for different destinations in the Midlands as many travellers were illiterate and there were no tannoys so folk had to know where to get their train. Thats not to be Racist against northerners, southern folk were also illiterate but the wages were so bad they couldn't afford to travel. Plenty of trains terminated at two platform through stations, and 4 platforms was very large by GWR / LSWR standards.
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There is something a bit iffy about the front buffer beam on the Dapol and |Bachmann Cities. The buffers are at the bottom of the buffer beam on the City and 6" higher at the top of the beam on Bulldogs. Hardly any models of Cities or Bulldogs have this right. The only real difference between Bulldog and Arbara/City/Flower frames was the buffers were higher on teh small wheeled locos and the big wheeled ones had decorative shields to hide the top of the bogies. Hope this helps.
But it does sort of indicate your City buffer beam is also wrong compared to photos of City of Truro.
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No Polybear, I would have done the gasket myself but there too many other faults to be worth trying to fix it,
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I am just surprised the Hattons 14XX ran so badly, we have one and it is runs extremely smoothly throughout the speed range. It just a shame the rear axle isn't powered as ours doesn't like dips in the track and struggles to shift a B set from our back platform which has a nasty bit of subsidence.
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Looks good. Probably worth taking a lot of trouble to get the main lines dead straight through the station platform. Steam age tracks were dead straight to the human eye. The dogs hind leg stuff is a modern computer engineered thing. Our station has bad track through the platforms and it looks awful in videos and not too clever when viewed from the layout ends, Laying Peco brand new straight out of the box works well, use anything not dead straight for curves.
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Looks like it might be a good solution for 00 stock what ever the era. Just a bit concerned about a Garratt or GW 28XX starting a heavy freight...
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You don't have much overhead clearance where the frames cross. We use 2X1 framing on its side for cross pieces to maximise clearance and a 2X1 frame put on the operating well side of the upper level with the lower edge level with the bottom of the cross pieces and the top projecting above the baseboard surface to provide a lip to stop stock escaping while maximising the headroom
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The cap was primarily for radio suppression and running without a cap on DC causes the armatures to flash over which rapidly destroys the brushes.
I have about 10 Triang Transcon diesels and various X04 beasties we use on a floor layout on holiday, as well as more detailed Triang based locos / chassis and I just use a big ceramic cap across the pickups (or Brushes) A jinty would easily take a pair one in each tank. Maplin used to have goody bags of assorted ceramic caps, I just used the biggest. Highly scientific and all that. I have used Relcos with good results for 30 odd years. Weighting locos works well to in prove pick up, DCC ones are inevitably lighter than DC and I sometimes run a DC garden line in the rain with no pick up issues.
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Do a screenshot? I do screenshots of Anyrail and then resize them through Faststone image viewer, which is freeware.
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Serious jealousy creeping in. My garden railway is Scotland 1987 ish, large logo 37/4 era as we have been to Scotland Ft William Inverness etc every year since 1987.
But one thing rankles, operation, are you running wrong road? The West Highland loops were mostly laid with a straight road in and a curved road out to suit conventional left hand running. However with the coming of RETB s and spring points and the loss of signalboxes and semaphores the approaching train has to take the curved road so at the WHL stations I have observed the they run right hand road, It does not seem to apply on the Mallaig line (at Glenfinnan) . I like the way you modelled the station at the Fort. But again all my photos show the steam train in the right hand platform. I have never seen the departures but on arrival the steam engine runs round and takes the stock back to Mallaig Junction. It does not hang around as there is a service train due. Currently it is not unusual to see three trains in the two platforms. There always seems to be the sleeper stock in the siding nearest Morrisons though I never saw it in ETHEL days. Nothing happens for hours and then everything happens at once. That is a feature of north scotland railways generally, bursts of activity with very long periods of inactivity between.
I am fairly sure the K1 was green in Green Cream stock days, I remember 5MT George Stephenson as a regular but the most impressive performer was the 8F absolutely storming Glenfinnan summit a good 10 MPH faster than the slippery footed Black 5s which appear to be absolutely on their limits slipping on the climb from Glenfinnan even on dry rail. Still I must bite the bullet and get my locos fitted with RC gear so I can get some running sessions in before the summer ends.
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I found removing the tender pickups was worth 2 extra coaches up a 1 in 36 and replacing the Mazak and decoder with lead gets the haulage up to my benchmark of a weighted Hornby Hall, at least a coach better than a Bachmann Hall.
The cab and tender let the model down, the tender is more nearly an 8 foot wide 6 ton 4000 gallon Hall or Castle tender rather than an 8'6" wide 7 ton 4000 gallon County tender and the cab is noticeably too narrow to match. The cab roof also should be similar in profile to a King rather than rounded. I have a Bristol Models County on a Triang chassis and it is a much more imposing and powerful beast, the extra width of the County really makes a difference.
As regards the prototype they were not really successful, Castle power with Hall costs was the design intention, and the boiler the Std 15 was based on a project for a high pressure Castle with a sloping throatplate and shorter barrel facilitated by using a larger Stanier 8F front tubeplate, it was not an 8F boiler as it was tapered while the 8F Black 5 etc boiler family were half cone like the Pre 1909 GWR std no 1 boiler.
In service the Countys were very highly regarded when new as express speeds were low and loads high so they could be used turn and turn about with Kings but as scheduled speeds rose their reputation faltered and the GW reverted to building Castles and Halls.
They developed a reputation for surging on starting which was uncomfortable for passengers and positively dangerous on goods which resulted in them being banned from freight workings at times. Completely rebuilt or new boilers with different superheaters running at reduced pressure together with double chimneys and valve gear mods tamed them to a certain extent but they were most appreciated in the North and in West Wales were they worked with some distinction but generally their performance was no better than the smaller Saint class of 30 years earlier.
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A feature of the B3 was the very short connecting rods and very long piston rods, I guess Triang Princess rods would be pretty close. The long Triang Hall rods look wrong to me.
What was it hacked from? I quite fancy building one (or two)
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K J Cook's book Swindon Steam gives an explanation of some of the variations in locos. To understand the GWR didn't treat locos as a complete unit. Locos were serviced at set intervals dependent on Mileage and records were kept. It was somewhere around 80 000 miles for a works visit. If a Boiler needed to be taken off the frames it took twice as long to overhaul as the chassis, so the chassis was overhauled, new or reconditioned parts fitted and an overhauled boiler fitted, very likely not the one it arrived with. The GW had 10% more boilers than Locos as a policy. 30 Kings 34 King boilers. Painting was done while the repair was in progress, there was no paint shop. The loco was then paired with a freshly overhauled Tender and off it went. When new cylinders were required, when they had been rebored past their limit perhaps, On an outside cylinder Churchward loco it was quicker to change the entire front end than just change the cylinders. To explain, the two cylinders were identical and together formed the smokebox saddle. They bolted together at the centre line of the loco. The main frames ended at the motion bracket which could support the front of the boiler while the cylinders were removed if suitable packing was inserted, Extension bar frames went from main frames to the buffer beam. 42XX etc engines had the slidebars closed in by sheet steel at the inside so the lack of plate frame between motion bracket and cylinders was not obvious.
The Standard boilers really were standard, there may have been variations in firebox end mounting plates but we are basically talking well over 600 Std 4 boilers which could be rotated among 600 or so locos, So a loco could get a brand new boiler at overhaul, which might do 6 or 7 years without coming off the frames, or an overhauled 30 year old one which might be in trouble by the next year. That's where the randomisation comes in. One variation of the 42XX is the sectioned one in Swindon works, later cylinders with straight frames, the footplate valance flame cut away to clear. If you work from a photo you can't go far wrong for that date, however that condition may be only valid for one year
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I turn a H/D duchess (with close coupled tender) on a cut Dapol table around 10" long (65 or 68 feet scale) It is surprising how much space those 2" diameter save and how much more spacious the MPD seems with a 65 (or 60/50 etc) ft table. My MPD design just would not work with a 75 Downside to small ones, you cannot fit as many radial roads in. I have seen a photo in a 1930s magazine of a King at Kingswear and it is amazing how close the rear tender wheel is to the end of the (65') table
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Vive la bureaucracy!
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BR Crimson Jubilee? I have never heard of a Jubilee in BR Crimson, a few Pacifics went red in the late 50s early 60s but I think the Jubilees, Scots etc were all green. One or two stayed LMS red after WW2.
Can't you get paint couriered if snail mail won't touch it?
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Great Deck, but in every Plate Girder Bridge I have seen the girders rest on the pillars which are wider than the girders, your girders overlap the supports, just a thought.
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The protruding shaft is a common Hornby problem and a sod to spot, I had the same problem on a Q1 and simply tapped the shaft across slightly
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GWR County 4-4-0 update
in Brassey's Blog
A blog by Brassey in RMweb Blogs
Posted
Looks very nice. A lot of people build their passenger platforms too high, 3ft above rails was the maximum allowed, and wonder why GWR cylinders clout them. Loading docks were frequently higher to allow level loading from wagons so around 3ft 6" so it sounds like your 38XX is bang on.