Johndc120

The coal merchant at Shwt has ordered another wagon load. D7552 is on duty to take one up the branch and return with the empty one. You would think they’d also bring back some sand wagons or empties from the yard but these small branches were never run that efficiently

The Dapol class 122 has proved it’s worth as a special rail tour on Shwt over the weekend, I wanted to get more shots of it but we were just too busy talking to everyone. Can I say a big thank you to those who stopped by and introduced themselves, lots of lovely comments and great to chat to some wonderful people.

Sutton Locomotive works Class 25 D7552 on the sand run to Shwt this afternoon

We have a new toy to play with! with great thanks to Sutton Locomotive works they have kindly leant us a fully sound fitted class 25 for Uckfield can’t wait to see this on the layout!

We are all very excited to be exhibiting at Uckfield this weekend With the upcoming trains The Pway gang are out to check over the track, tightening bolts, hammering keys and greasing the points. The RB crane is getting a once over ready to load lots of sand wagons The coal merchant’s crew are having a quick cuppa in readiness for the delivery of more coal which will need weighing out and bagging we look forward to seeing you and please come and say hello. Any photos you take please feel free to post on here, we love to see them

A bit of engineering prior to the Uckfield show This 122 was purchased at Doncaster and immediately converted to EM gauge (warranty voided) it ran okay for a show but ever since we’ve had drive shaft issues Today was time to get it fixed to get it ready to run. The issue with the drive train is the shafts slip inside the universal joints and therefore don’t don’t drive the worm gear. This locks the wheels and stops the unit The fix I have with a oldish set of side cutters added knurling to the shaft ends where they interface with the U-joints. This provides a greater interference fit preventing the shaft slip. This is best done at both ends and then can be reassembled. This solves the issues and the drive train is now strong enough to slip the wheels Now fixed I’ve programmed the loco, this is obviously with it’s number but also reduced top speed, dimmed the headlights as they weren’t very bright on the real thing and also remapped the lighting to make it a bit more logical bright lights! better lights

If not invited back next year we may well call on your services for operating and assisting with Shwt! we had a fantastic weekend and as always good to see you! John

I think we’ll be doing the same, slowly make our way over once the Newport traffic has calmed down. Grab lunch somewhere and not be in a rush

Should be a good weekend!

Our next outing!! Looking forward to it although we’d better get the layout out and give it a test!

Good to see you today Rob and a laugh as always. As promised here’s some of my photos of the layout. First time I’ve seen it and looks brill! 👍🏼

Tonight’s work has been to copy (with some modeller’s licences) a drainage channel which takes water from a small drain above which will run alongside the farm lane into an underground culvert. The real this is on a disused section of the Penarth to Cadoxton line and it collects water from a low point in the fields above and directs it into the drainage cess on the south side This certainly inspired us to think about drainage more seriously on the layout as it’s not often modelled

Last night we made good progress with the ballasting, we managed to get the ballast in and tamped down on the platform line and also the first section of the concrete pot sleepers They make for an interesting track design and I’m glad we included them, once the ballast is glued we’ll add the tie bars which will hopefully make them look more like a track system rather than just 2 rails

I know the previous photos have disappeared so here’s the process of building the catch pit (seen in previous post) and our inspiration for doing it this way. this is the prototype I found, I’ve since forgotten where it actually was but it shows a fairly flat brick built design with drainage channels built into it and longitudinal sleepers fitted into it for attaching the chairs I started out making the overall shape using white plasticard, slots were then put in for the timbers which I just used the same turnout timbers left over from building the points on top of the plain plasticard I then attached a sheet of brick to give the detail to the gully ways Once this way stuck solid I could then build up the other areas with an extra layer of brick and this gave the illusion of gully’s or drainage channels The sleepers could then be glued in situ and the chairs attached to this to complete it. being a large flat structure it started to curve up quite quickly so this was one of the first bits to be glued onto the cork with evo stick

More ballasting tonight, this time at the platform end and around the drainage pit for the cattle dock. It looks quite different now the ballast has come up to be level with it

Continuation of track ballasting last week. The point rodding looks a bit better now it’s ballasted in correctly along with the track

I’ve used round as that is what would have been correct for GWR rodding. The U shaped square channel appeared much later on the western

Not Cheeky at all, of course I don’t mind 👍🏼

don’t get me wrong the Wills stuff is good and a great starting point for anyone who is new to it but it also creates more problems along the way. You try squeezing 3 rods of wills down this bridge which in is relatively easy to do on the prototype! you’ll run into the same problem going inside a platform face too. But for a single rod somewhere or a twin and you’re not constrained by space it’s a good representation

Thank you Paul, although I’m hastened to mention it’s not just me building the layout, it is a collaborative effort from 4 of us. However being the S&T man I did want to get this layout right, I have previously built layouts and always been let down by this side of the hobbies as there’s not a lot on the market. Then modelu started producing their rodding stools and just took things to a new level! The last layout I did was done with Wills point rodding kits, this photo shows the scale difference between them (which is obviously a manufacturing restriction on the Wills side) This is just 3 rods, just imagine what the difference would be if you were 6, 8 or 10 rods wide! After going down this route the next obvious step was to produce the cranks taken straight from the BR mechanical drawings. Following this the whole thing has spiralled to the point I now have produced FPL locks, point machines, concrete legs, an array of Western region location cases and much much more! John

To me a layout with no signalling or point rodding looks bare, that said as long as someone has a go with point rodding I’m not about to say ‘that wouldn’t go there or that’s not correct as it needs to be a few yards that way or this way!’ An attempt at it is very much appreciated and that’s good enough for people’s layouts. However I wanted mine to be as close as I can get it!!

Give it a go, it’s such a complex subject don’t expect it to be perfect but the beauty is nobody else will be able to point out what’s wrong either! To me it’s something which is very obvious it’s missing because it’s my profession. But it certainly adds something to a layout when it’s there John

More ballasting done around the bases of the point rodding rollers, cranks and other associated signaling equipment As a member of the S&T for Network Rail and working on this equipment I’ve attempted to get the rodding as close as I can to the prototype and I’m really happy with how it has come out, a big thank you to Alan Butler of Modelu without which it wouldn’t be possible. It is all very clean at the moment but once the weathering is done and a few bits of weeds it’ll look the part

Ballasting has finally commenced on Elmore, the first stretch has been the Bay platform and the V at the end of the platform including around some of the point rodding

So this is with the brickwork painted and the first bit of weathering on the surface