Bearwood West Yard

Nearly 5 months on and I'm still yet to find a supplier with MX-638D's. With a backlog of loco's that need chipping and having been looking even as far abroad as Australia, I can't find any. Could the chip shortage and global politics be the short term end of budget decoders?

Thanks for your compliments. I did notice a pair of Lobster's in Didcot Railway Centre by the entrance back in late October and again in mid December, so explains possibly why they are there. Any clues as to why they are going for scrap? Unless they were a short term stopgap until the tsumani of purpose built FEA-W and MLA's were ready for action.

Happy new year all! Started off the new year right by spending the weekend finishing off the ‘River’ end fiddle yard entrance board. Having finished the woodwork and pre-corked everything, I had a nice simple weekend of laying track and using the odds and s*ds of short rail I’d accumulated, with little to no rush required. On the tele in this instalment is the mandatory Christmas time viewing of Wallace and Gromit films! Using a HEA to manually test, the baseboard joins are as good as they can be for the radii and it seems to navigate all the points well on its own free will when pushed with no derailments. New years eve was spent on the electrical side, wiring all the droppers to the bus bars and running the bus wire. Not a job I would recommend doing while having ‘more than a few’ drinks but I think it’s turned out rather well. The next job will be to commission this board, setting it up with the others and fitting all the boards with the push fit terminal blocks. Then, it’ll be to make the corner pieces to enable a headshunt for the yard sidings. These will be fitted to the next fiddle yard board.

For wiring the track, I pre-cut my cable to 18” length. I mark on the cork the region where the rails will be that are to be soldered. Solder them to the rails. Align the track with the marks on the cork. Another pen mark where the sides of the wire is. Drill it out, feed the wire through and tack the track. When all the wires are fed through the top board, I fit the bus bars to the underside of the lower board, and drill a pair of 8-10mm holes in the lower board where the cables will come from. It’s as simple as that. Lots of excess cable waste (about 5-6in) but better to have too much and trim it than to have too little and have to resolder and thread the wire through two holes. For the point motors, that’ll be another thing entirely. The holes for the piano wire are pre drilled before point installation at 6mm diameter. But fitting the servo’s to the baseboard is something I’m yet to properly explore. But I’ve made the board spacing 100mm so I can get an arm in to fit them.

So that’s it for this weekend! Cork is now down and complete on the ‘river’ board as far as the main lines and their respective fiddle yard sidings are concerned - todays background noise/viewing choice being some classic TopGear. There will be more corking to do in the future though - as the scenic yard headshunt will have two fiddle yard sidings and require a headshunt for running round. Ultimately, I want to have at least one of these sidings connected to the innermost fiddle yard siding so that I can have an engineers working start from the yard and go to the yard. Anyway a round up of what this weekend has achieved: - Bridge superstructure cut, profiled and fitted. - Up and Down Main fiddle yard sidings corked. - Pointwork pinned in its approximate position. The job for next time is the track itself, in which I need to cut everything to length, space the sleepers, tack it down and solder them to the etched sleepers. It’s worth noting that none of the boards currently have track glued down. Until the return loop is complete and I can run the trains round and round, it’s impossible to properly test for track defects and areas stock doesn’t like. Once I’ve tested them all and they’re all good, I can respace the sleepers with the tool before I glue it down with PVA a board at a time. That’s all for this side of Christmas, hopefully the pictures do the corked board some justice.

It’s going to be very tight in places, the inner main to the innermost siding on the unifrog points is 90* within 1.5ft / 45cm. To minimise derailments through the curves being tight, I’m creating a rule of thumb where Engineer’s stock is on the tighter inner sidings - preferably the lighter 4-wheel wagons. It makes sense as it’ll need a lower speed to exit the siding, and also need to be a low speed to enter the reception roads as they will be a prototypical 15 mph. On the more gentle 3rd radius, there is more freedom for running. On the outer loop, this is relatively gentle all round with a minimum of 3rd and 4th rad. The outer most siding is the gentlest and the longest purely for the LWRT which with loco needs 14-15ft so I’m trying to keep this at 5th radius, also to not restrict the other lines. I’ll likely take a few pictures and upload again this evening to show what I’ve managed with all the cork down.

I had a good look at all of them when I unboxed them and moved them into a box with the Ospreys. Very nice amount of weight and detail to them. I haven’t run them yet but I have checked all the wheels spin without fault. The scenic sections of the layout are all stowed for now and likely won’t come out until I’ve completed the return loop. Which I’m hoping will be around April time.

Now that I’ve been back for a little while, I’ve been using my remaining annual leave and this weekend to continue progress on the river board. Mated up with the end scenic board, I’ve plotted the tracksetta route to the desired point locations. I spent the better part of yesterday on the manual saw, rasp and file to cut and profile the bridge superstructure and supports. These are all now screwed together, with the route corked. So far, I have corked about half of the total line. I’ve divided the width of the 2ft fiddle yard into 12 roads in pencil. I might have managed more had I not had an Indiana Jones marathon on the tv with the release of the new Dial of Destiny on Disney+! Although the main lines are to have 4 sidings each and the yard is to have a run round loop, there is the space of 2 roads to play around with so track radius has a bit more freedom in the tight space. The inside radius of the unifrog points is 2nd with the outside being 3rd. I’ve figured that as trailing points on exit from the fiddle yard these will be okay on most of my lighter rtr stock as long as I keep the nem couplings. By the end of this weekend I’m hoping to get a bit more cork down and hopefully have the entry to all 8 sidings corked. With Christmas now a week away, it’s unlikely I’ll make any further progress until New year’s weekend. In other news, Flangeway’s long awaited Salmons have landed and I’m fortunate to have secured 5 for the layout. With the existing Cambrian models, that takes me to a total of 2x YWA, 4x YSA and 4 YKA. I think it’s fair to say that as a set of wagons or split between consists, it will add to the yard’s late 2000’s atmosphere.

Now you mention it, you’re quite right! I thought possibly these would have been manufactured in the under-load position as most may model these under load. But yes, makes sense that they are die cast with the frame RSJ’s pre stressed in a ‘hogged’ position.

Excellent quick service from Footplate. Ordered on Thursday whilst on a train from Gatwick and they arrive in Dorset on Saturday! First chance I’ve had to take a look for myself… Unboxing… packaging is very good, even with paper still on the boxes. Salmon is very secure within the ice cube, which itself isn’t overkill like some packaging can be. A job well done on the Salmon and I look forward to adding it to the fleet! The only critique I would point out is that there is a slight warp in the body of the wagons, where the centre of the wagon is bowing skywards slightly from either end. Not sure if others have spotted this or had this occur. Other than that, I can’t fault the model straight out of the box. Livery and application is superb and very much fills the gap in modern RTR department rolling stock. Well done Footplate & Flangeway!

Excellent work on the Balfour Beatty FEA-B’s!! For cheap FEA-B’s, keep an eye on EBay for listings. I paid £47 on eBay for two FEA-B pairs back in March. The resin printed carriers really do look the part! To help keep costs down, I’d recommend idealising how many FEA-B sets you’d like to have and printing all the carriers for them, that way you have them all ready to go and just need to work the wagons as and when you get them. I did this with my Cambrian Ospreys, I’ve still got some 3D printed stanchions somewhere. I don’t think I’ve seen the BB version of the FEA-B’s modelled before so excellent work on these - whether they run as a set with future wagons or within other consists ‘between yards’, they will look at home on any layout! Beautiful weathering on the MXA and lovely to see the BB BDA looking lovely and crisp! A mighty fine job!

Excellent news especially for a pre-Christmas arrival. A great price per wagon too! Have just put my order in for 5 wagons, so hopefully 5 extra boxes to wrap and place under the tree.

Thanks for the compliments, I really put in the hours last month to get to the stage of creating the G.A. CAD. I really wanted to get to a point where I could take a few screen grabs and post them, so mission accomplished there. In the mean time, I’ve gone continental and spent a fortnight in Switzerland - keeping up relations with family abroad. Very fortunate with the weather in Nidwalden, a nice 50/50 mix of sunny days and eight inch deep snow. Now for the trains… As a first time visitor to Switzerland, it was very nice to see twin deck trains, along with the narrower 1000mm gauge railways. Although not a railway holiday, a good amount of mileage was had. From a day trip to the Luzern Verkehrshaus via SBB to taking the express up to Engelberg on the narrow gauge Die Zentralbahn, along with seeing the two northern portals of the Gotthard Base Tunnel at Erstfeld and travelling on part of the Gotthard-Matterhorn Bahn, plenty of railway related things fitted in but also lots still to do for when I come back on holiday here. Would be rude not to post some railway related pictures!

Unexpected Winter 2023 update. So I wasn’t expecting to get this posted until at least another 3 weeks time due to the busy calendar but I’ve made progress worth reporting on. Bachmann 159 has received its new SWR Revised shells and despite body clips galore, the old shells finally came off. Luckily the coupling cowlings are separately fitted with screws and retaining clips, so I can spray these with rainbow railways SWR blue in the coming months with little impact to the rest of the model. Even though these are in the current NSE Grey, the new SWR shells are very at home on the existing chassis. Now for the real treat, a proper update on the MLA. I’ve made significant progress the last week and a half, and although I have a long way to go yet, I’ve decided I’m ready to lift a lid as to where I’m now at. The primary starting areas were the sides and ends. Getting these right, along with the immediate detailing such as handrails. These are assembly CAD’s with various components included and fitted digitally, so nothing is in final position yet. I’ve still lots of detail to go, though the sides and tops themselves are 99% there. It’s now onto buffers, handrails, handbrake wheels, pneumatic reservoir, steps, pipes and coupling hooks. But before these, I need to engineer the floor as this is the most complex part to date. Hopefully these pictures will be welcome to the thread and be a fitting close to BWY activity in 2023. Sorting out the new unifrog points will be a Christmas weekend job now, which I’ll likely write about in the new year. Until then, happy modelling!

November Update! This will likely be the last post for a while as I start to wind down for the inevitable Christmas rush. Silly me forgot that this weekend was my last 'alone weekend' of the year and didn't order everything in advance... Either way, here's a roundup of the current ongoings and plans. River End Fiddle Yard Pointwork: With the river board made as of October, I have a roughly 3ft x 2ft space in which to turn the main lines 90 degrees whilst featuring all of the pointwork, so each siding is at least 12ft long. Previous plans were for 5 roads per main line, and 2 sidings for the yard headshunt. Being realistic, I've scaled that back to 4 roads per main line and 2 sidings for the yard. I plotted the outer main line using Small radius turnout plans combined with the curved points and found it may be possible to just squeeze in 4 roads. The inner main line is another story, one to which I will be trying out the new Unifrog SL-U76 points from Peco, a smaller version of their SL86/87 curved points. As there are no plans for these on the Peco website, I've one currently on its way to make my own hand drawn template. Because of how sharp these may be compared to the min radius my stock will like, the plan is to only use these at the yard ends in direction of travel, so stock crosses the frogs first to avoid derailments. SWR Liveried Class 159... A Modellers Mayhem... It may be remembered I bought the new tool NSE Class 159 in excess of two years ago with the intent of respray into SWR... though these plans were halted by the house move and Kernow releasing images of their Bachmann Exclusive... Having tried to unsuccessfully flog it to go towards buying the Kernow offering, I've ran into some luck. The DCC Sound offerings have since been de-listed with 10+ shells up for grabs at £50 a pop. Putting 2 and 2 together, it would seem as though these shells are from the former sound fitted models. Whilst buying the above set of points, a trio of shells also found their way into my basket. The plan is to replace the existing NSE shells with the SWR ones, keeping those removed as spares. I've bought some SWR Blue paint from Rainbow Railways to airbrush the coupling cowling area. This will only be painted at one end, so it can be viewed as 'full fat SWR', while the standard black cowling which will remain untouched is correct for all the previous Ex-SWT with SWR branding, SWT and NSE liveries. For something I've wanted to do for a few years now, this is certainly a quick win. MLA CAD's MLA CAD's are progressing, I've wound down the physical 'on the workbench' work in favour of the 3D print method. All still a WIP, hoping to approach my 3D printing firm in Jan/Feb. It'll only be the Sides, Ends, coupling bracket, tail lamp bracket and buffers I'm looking to 3D print. Because of how light the wagons are and thin the floor will be, the next challenge is engineering the floor - adding weights and sorting out the coupling method. I'll decide on the side door once I've got the wagon spot on. That's all for now and possibly the rest of 2023.

The sleepers appeared greyer than the concrete beige, but it helps when I turn my phone brightness up! Very nice work

Have just had a little catch up on this thread. Excellent work all round with the BDA and NTC FEA-B - The sleeper carrier module CAD looks excellent! Cracking work on that 08! It will definitely look the part when shunting the Salmons. Sleepers just need a little spray of Railmatch concrete or a light grey-brown for timber and they’ll look right at home on the Salmons. Top work!

A quieter weekend this weekend in terms of modelling. Took delivery of some proper styrene sheet on Friday so work on the MLA prototype can re-commence. With the issues found from making the first wagon half alone - from the inconsistency in rib depth to getting the base to align properly with the sides, I've decided to address these head on. If I was making one or two then I probably wouldn't have worried, but as I'm making 6 there is a lot more margin for inconsistency across the fleet. So, I've dug deep into the pockets to satisfy my need for rivet counting and I've bought a year of SketchUp Go. £114 Inc VAT to turn my 2D sketches into 3D renders is pure madness, but I see it as a gateway to finishing off other projects as well. Ribs are all drawn and saved as components, I've been working on the ends this afternoon and evening but still more work is needed. I'll need 22 regular ribs and 4 thick ribs per wagon - which is timely for a single wagon let alone half a dozen. I don't want this project to drag on like the MXA's have (2 years) and the RDT is (4 years and counting). The current plan is to outsource the 3D printing of a set of ends, ribs and sides (if possible), along with some handrails. These can then be used as resin casting master components. When it comes to the sides and ends however, these are tricky as it will be easy to get an unlevel surface on the interior face of the wagon. Depending on the price quote, it may work out cost effective to 3D print all components, leaving final assembly and finishing to be completed on the workbench. Either way, I've managed to iron out the identified early stage issues and pave the way for further development. I'm also documenting each step, problem/solution implementation and milestone for my professional portfolio - having been involved in production engineering for a few months on the side of fitting, its a nice project to use as an example of heavily desired 'new product development'. All the wordy stuff out of the way, a few different angles of the end. This is by no means complete, but should hopefully give an idea of the high standard I'm trying to work to.

Agreed. I visited Eastleigh the other week and it was just Falcons, a few Lobsters and some JJA/HQA’s scattered around. Felt rather desolate without the 4 wheelers - how times change! The Salmons being the age they are, they must be approaching their life expiry soon from a structural fatigue point of view. It wouldn’t surprise me if with the introduction of FEA-W’s, that we soon started to see the decommissioning and auctioning off of the Salmons. Would like to think the Ospreys are safe for now, until new wagons with similar stanchions are made. That, or the salmon fleet gets fully overhauled into Ospreys so they are fit for another 30 years or so of traffic.

This is excellent news! Unfortunately I wasn’t able to do GETS this year, so that’s now me in the loop 😅

So far it’s only the YMA / YMO Salmons that Hornby have announced. Flangeway have gone rather quiet on the ASF front. I’m tempted to wait until someone does a YouTube review to see how the couplings are mounted - if they’re chassis mounted then it may be possible to swap out the bogies with Cambrian ASF’s. Though, I’m sure Hornby have the ASF versions in the back of their mind - or so I hope.

Thanks for the complements Gentlemen! I have 4 Ospreys and 1 Salmon. One of the Ospreys has a tight bogie which will require rework to return to traffic. I'm very interested in the Flangeway ASF bogied Salmons but I've heard nothing on their thread since they said about shipping at some point this year. I have capacity for another 2 Ospreys and 3 Salmons in the box. In other news, the long anticipated Layout Update is live on 'the tube'. It can be found here: Anyone would have thought I'd forgotten how to use Youtube at this point, but I did have to take a moment with Wondershare Filmora to remember how to use it! So to that end, I quote Clarkson for this feat of genuis...

Another weekend, another set of tasks completed! With family out for the day, I had a few hours of free-reign over the lounge. Primary task of today was to get set up and film the ‘summer’ layout update for YouTube that never got filmed! I think we are closer to Christmas than we are summer now! All 5 boards were set up, including the in-progress ‘river board’ - turning a straight 16’ into a 16 x 6’ 8” L. This made a nice change and gave a real feel to the type of atmosphere the layout would eventually have. I got everything filmed as planned, plus a few extras. The secondary objective was to test out the Trainsporters boxes, seeing how they compared to traditional manufacturers box storage. Thanks to my earlier butchery of the foam to enable storage of larger consists in a single box, I managed to set up the full 13 wagon rake of Dapol HIA’s in around a minute and a half from opening the box. This is a far cry from their own boxes, which would take around that per wagon. So a big thumbs up from me to Trainsporters! With time allowing, it would have been rude not to have had a play with the layout. 59206 with its Biffo Sound and EM1 speaker was chosen for todays “Neighbour annoying thrash” on the HIA’s, simulating a train restarting from the signal protecting the yard exit… With that all out the way, it was just nice to have the layout set up and to have some real stock on it properly, rather than odd wagons I had around. It made a change to have my lesser seen stock out as well, from the Ospreys and Salmon to the MXA’s all making their layout debut. A handful of Falcons and a single autoballaster set joined them to make the yard feel critical but not overpower the scenic majesty of the yard. Overall, I’m very happy with how the layout and yard is turning out. In the planning stage I thought the ambition was too great for the ‘less is more’ approach I’m trying to appease, despite the chaotic nature of an important marshalling yard. But now, I am full of excitement for what comes next. Having never built a layout of such size and complexity, I hope there are other modellers too who are in awe and marvel at their own creations and not just me! I will get today’s footage edited tomorrow I suspect, and then continue tinkering with the MLA prototype. But for now, it’s time to get the rum flowing as England take on South Africa in the RWC Semi-Final 😊

MLA Prototype 1 is progressing… rather differently than I had planned. With thanks to my recent stock of styrene sheet bought on eBay actually turning out to be a different plastic, I’ve resorted to using some of my clear sheet stock. I got the ribs plastic welded to the side panel of the wagon yesterday only to fall off with the slightest touch. Although I didn’t spend too much on the sheets I bought, it seems a waste and is mildly frustrating given how single A4 sheets can fetch £4 when I paid that a few years ago for 5 sheets. . Anyway! All the fabricated Evergreen extruded strips stuck together so todays work was a bit quicker. One side and an end have been fabricated, while the floor has also been fitted. Height testing with a Dapol Falcon, I’ve used some more strips of styrene on the bogies to determine the space between the bogie top and the floor of the box. So now, all that is left to do is decide how I’m going to mount the bogies to the chassis and work out a mechanism for a Nem socket. With the inconsistency in the rib end chamfer, I’m going to have a go at resin casting these. Though, I may end up opting to get various components 3D printed, outsourced sadly as my own 3D printer is having reservoir problems. With that out of the way, let’s have a look at pictures. The clear plastic sadly doesn’t do it as much justice as white plasticard would, but does give off a skeletal-like appearance.

Very nice curve there, particularly like how you’ve tested the stock from the MJA’s to the MK3’s. The point blades being the sharpest part of the radii won’t look too bad with the shorter stock. I think a rake of Coalfish could pass and it would be unnoticeable from a distance that the curve sharpens slightly. Either way, it all looks very impressive!