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GWR57xx

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  1. Vallejo colours
    A Nod To Brent - a friendly thread, filled with frivolity, cream teas and pasties. Longing for the happy days in the South Hams 1947.
    46 minutes ago, The Fatadder said:

    Any you can share?
    Very big fan of the Vallejo range, especially Model Air.  
    Other than a good match for roof grey, BR warning yellow and a reasonable GW brown (German cam black brown), I have struggled to find more matches.

     

    71.004 Red for the Buffer Beam's

    71.042 Brown for GWR Brown - which I've used for Robin & Ben's Clerestory Stock.

    71.047 & 71.048 (Greys) for freight.

    71.053 & 71.054 (which are greys) for roof's

    71.290 US Earth Brown for freight stock - I've used it on Bloaters & Beetles to great effect (also helps on touch ups on Hornby Chocolate & Cream Mk.1's)

    71.324 BS Dark Green - this is a recent discovery, it's actually a good paint for touch up GWR Green (well one of the shades Hornby uses)


  2. Signals
    GWR Signals and where they go?

    Right, that's have another try - fingers crossed.

     

    Subsidiary Signals are exactly what their name implies, i.e. they are subsidiary to some other sort of signal and that other sort of signal is a Stop Signal. The reason for using them is to get round the operational restrictions normally imposed by a stop signal - as will become clearer as we go into teh different types of subsidiary signal - but first we need a bit more information about stop signals. The section of line between any two successive stop signals is called a 'Signal Section' and normally only one train at a time is allowed to be in a signal section. A signal section can be a block section but signal sections also exist between each successive stop signal in Station Limits. This latter imposition can act as a considerable restraint - in say joining together portions of a train or attaching vehicles and so on. So we need a way round that if certain things are going to be possible in operating the railway and that means relaxing the governing principles - which can only be done under carefully controlled conditions (which usually turn into 'where authorised' in the words of the Rules & Regulations.

     

    Once you have a relaxation permitted the next step is ensure that it is done safely and this can be by means of special handsignals but if it is to take place on a regular and/or frequent basis a fixed signal has to be provide and this is the first of our subsidiary signals - the 'Calling On' Signal. This is a small arm (illustrated below) fixed below a stop signal and when operated it calls a movement on to what might be standing in the signal section in advance of that stop signal. The arms in the pic below are in the standard style - which the GWR adopted in the 1930s - of a red arm with a wide white horizontal band running its full length; in the earlier GWR style the arm was painted red and instead of the white band it carried the letters 'CO' painted on it in white. These signals were/are most commonly found at terminus stations and large stations where portion working or shunts onto the rear of trains took place.

     

    post-6859-0-34833800-1323185117_thumb.jpg

     

    The second type of subsidiary we will look at is the 'Shunt Ahead' Signal for which the GWR used a fairly unique style of arm - with a large cut-out figure 'S' fixed to the front of a short red painted arm - illustrated below. The purpose of this signal was to allow shunting into the forward block when the Section Signal was sited in a way which didn't allow sufficient headroom for shunts to be made into sidings. This did not mean that it controlled facing movements into sidings - it very definitely did not, but simply that it authorised a movement to pass the Section Signal and go only as far as was necessary to gain sufficient headroom to set-back into a siding. Such a movement could also be controlled by hand signals but usually the GWR installed this type of fixed signal to control such movements because doing it that way kept a much closer control of the extent to which such shunting was permitted. Signals of this pattern could still be found into the early/mid 1960s although they were officially superseded by the standard style of subsidiary arm (as illustrated above) in the 1930s.

     

    post-6859-0-36555900-1323185744_thumb.jpg

     

    The final type of Subsidiary Siganl is the 'Warning Signal' and as far as I can trace there was no special - GWR signal arm for this purpose prior ro the introduction of the standard (red/white/red) arm in the inter-war years. The Warning Signal also duplicates a handsignal and, as with the other two subsidiaries, only really became established where this method of working was likely to be used extensively or frequently, and that was kept under very tight control as it involved a significant relaxation of the safety margins included in normal block signalling arrangements. When a Signalman gives the 'Line Clear' bell signal and operates his block instrument to the 'Line Clear' position for a train to enter the section from the 'box in rear he has first to have ensured that the line is clear for 440yds in advance of his Home Signal - in other words there is a safety margin (called the Clearing Point') in advance of his Home Signal. (Before any clever clogs chips in about colour light distants we are talking about the situation well before the end of the 20th century.)

     

    When a Signalman is permitted to accept a train under the warning he doesn't need to have that 440yds Clearing Point, there could even be a train standing a few feet in advance of his Home Signal, so something is done to make a Driver aware that he might be approaching a signalbox and its Home Signal where there is no margin at all for any sort of braking error. The train is slowed, hard, and then the Warning Signal is cleared for it and the Driver procceds expecting to find the distant signal at caution and the Home at danger.

     

    Now folk might have realised that we are using exactly the same arm for three different subsidiary purpose so how does a Driver know which is which? Simples - when the arm is lowered it reveals a special rectangular lampcase with a letter in black on the white glass ground - 'C' for Calling-On'; 'S' for Shunt Ahead; or 'W' for Warning. Sometimes the same subsidiary arm can be used for two, or even all three forms. Look more closely at these three sub arms and you will see that each is pared with an electric stencil indicator - in their case the appropriate letter will be illuminated in the indicator to show what the sub has been cleared for (I'm not absolutely certain but I believe these three signals at Severn Bridge Jcn can show either 'C' or 'W').

     

    post-6859-0-59484000-1323187460_thumb.jpg

     

    Next we'll be looking at Goods Line/Siding, Backing and ground shunting signals.


  3. Tree
    Tetbury

    Towards the end of the branch, you'll probably want to split the branch.

     

    IMG_1220.JPG.8eb16efef8609f8c6cb21ead0767d8d2.JPG

     

    Spread the ends out, and trim with a pair of pliers.

     

    IMG_1221.JPG.e8422fd341c8f86ee5dc2e9582f8a6cc.JPG

     

    Go back to working up your main trunk, and repeat the branch technique wherever you want another branch, until you get to the top.

     

    IMG_1222.JPG.3515b87cca35cce127f67e95aef5347f.JPG


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