Captain Nick

Hi Simon. Thanks for your kind words. The track is not my work. Having it made was a retirement present to myself to get started. Ten years on, I'm still beavering away at it but I'm rather slow at getting things done.. Regards Nick

I have been upgrading my fixed rakes of coaches with Hunt's couplings and Kadees at each end. I have also modified some of my locos with both Kadees as well as to accept Spratt and Winkles as all my wagons are S&P fitted. I'm quite pleased with the result. I'm also, frustratingly, still sorting out some track running problems. This afternoon , I've started having ago at making some ratio signals which I will try to make operational using servo motors and a suitable control board. I did have some signals made a few months ago but I'm not too happy with them. Onward and upwards as they say!

I've got a new phone with a better camera for taking these type of shots!

I forgot to put any narrative with the photo I've just posted. I can see that I haven't posted anything for a year but wow, that's flown by! I have been working on the station booking office which is now complete. I still have some detaining to do though. I have also discovered online auctions and have now become the proud owner of about nine more locos. Amazingly, one or two are over twenty years old but appear not to have been out of the box since the day they were put in in China. Even the newer ones are in the same mint condition. I've just got to get them sound chipped now so I'd better start saving my pennies! I will post more photos soon but by phone camera wont save the pics for some reason. Cheers Nick

Take a bottle of quality sparkling wine, uncork and drink contents, preferably with a special partner. Having set aside the cork, take an egg cup or similar vessel from a cupboard wherein these things are stored and proceed with cork and egg cup or similar vessel to railway room. Taking down your bottle of IPA from it's storage shelf, pour some into the egg cup. Dip cork (either end) into the liquid and then rub on the rails with a moderate to light pressure. When cork becomes dirty, open another bottle of sparkling wine and repeat process. This method not only leads to cleaner rails but improves domestic harmony!

Excellent work you have done there Jonathan. It has made me very nostalgic for my youth. I note that you haven't put the wind break in but then that would spoil the marvelous view up the platform. Spot on! Best regards Nick

One more I missed

Hi Everybody. I have been busy with building the actual station of Wormdale, a station with five platforms all connected by a foot bridge. The whole thing is based on the now demolished Chinley Station. Since my last post I have commenced building the west side of platforms 3 and 4. The east side will have the two storey booking hall, reminiscent of Chinley but with a few slight modifications to the internal layout. I have also built myself a loco driven track cleaner made out of an old Lima GUV and it has proved surprisingly effective. This in turn has given me pleasure in actually running trains again. With over 110 metres of track to keep clean, I needed it. I hope you like the photos but I apologise for their quality.

More from Wormdale. I have been working on Platform 1 and 2 since my last post together their buildings, canopy, stairs and footbridge glazing. I made a rod for my back (oh my poor back!) as these platforms, already in place, are at the back of the layout so access and sighting was difficult. I have noticed quite a few mistakes because of this which I have not been able to rectify so my satisfaction level is only about 60%. It should be easier when I come to do Platforms 3 and 4 as these will be more of a show piece towards the front of the layout. I least I have learned the hard way. Anyhow, 1 and 2 are almost complete apart from filling in some holes, weathering and detailing.

I may well have a few photos in the various books that I have on Buxton's railways. Regards Nick

Thanks Al. Very slowly I'm afraid. I was just thinking that it's taken me eleven years to get this far and another 45% or so of the layout still to complete. However I think I may get the station done by next Easter with any luck. I'm just about to order the next lot of components from York Models (usual disclaimer). This will be the valence (5 metres of) and the staircase railings and banisters together with items with which to make the skylights or lanterns as they are called on the drawings..

Having now built these, I'm detailing the inside as I won't be able to access the insides easily once the canopy beams are added.

I have now built the 3 platform buildings that will be on platform 1 and 2. This has been done with the help of a template of the actual platform on the layout so as to be able to have a constant check on the measurements and layout.

After much dithering, I got in touch with York Models (usual disclaimer and other providers are available) to make up the component that I would need to start the platform buildings. I sent them some homemade plans with as accurate dimensions as possible. They came back with the final drawings for the components which were spot on and away we went! No 1 16mm scale Waiting Room Panel Elevation Drawing.doc

Chinley Station Overview Chinley station was re-built from a small village station on the Midland Railway’s Manchester to St Pancras line. With the opening of the then new Chinley Junction line to Sheffield through Cowburn and Totley tunnels at the beginning of the last century, a new interchange station was built. This station had 5 through platforms and one up bay platform. The similarity of design, utilizing modular timber and glazed panels set upon stone dwarf walls, could be found at other smaller stations along the line. All the stations operational management etc was carried out from the buildings on the island platforms. There were no other buildings provided lineside or on the approach to the station. The footbridge was also a public right of way across the line. Description and Construction of the Platform Buildings The station buildings were mainly built of wood on steel frames and were generally modular in construction. They were all to be found on the actual platforms. The platforms themselves were serviced by a long steel and glazed timber covered footbridge with stairs to platform level. All buildings were single story except for the booking office which was accessed directly from the footbridge. (fig 3) The buildings were provided with open fire heating and brick hearths and chimney breasts were provided internally. All the station buildings/offices etc were to be found only on the platforms. In way of the platform buildings, and extending for approximately 60% of the length of the platforms themselves (except platform 1), a cantilevered canopy was provided. The arrangement gave an uncluttered and open appearance to the platforms. The cover was edged with a 3 foot depth valence which extended above and below the canopy upper roof line. The roof of the canopy was flat and drainage was carried away by down pipes to drains within the line of the platform buildings. (Fig 2) Steel beams, supported by the buildings steel verticals in turn supported the canopy over the platform at 10.5 feet centres. The canopy utilised timbers to provide structure between the horizontal steel members and whole was boarded and felted. Skylights were provided where appropriate. The vertical steels, as well as providing support for the canopy, provided the frame for the modular panel walls which were either glazed or wood vertical boarded but mainly a combination of both. (Fig &2) Doorways were provided within passage ways at 90 degrees to the platform face and dividing the platform buildings. (fig.1) Each passageway corresponded in width to the 10.5 foot steel vertical arrangement spacing and thus providing symmetry to the overall construction. A glazed skylight was provided above each of these passageways. The open space between the platform buildings and the platform edge was a constant distance and so the buildings became narrower where the platform narrowed at each end of the station. The modular panels were faced by a 3 foot high capped masonry dwarf wall. (fig 2) This wall would seem to have been purely cosmetic in that it appeared not to be load bearing except where the lower horizontal member of the modular panel rested on the coping stone. (fig.1) The booking office (fig 3) was built of stone on the ground floor whilst the upper story would appear to have been wholly timber framed and clad and overhung the lower floor by 1.25 feet on the north and south elevations (rail sides). However two masonry/brick chimneys were incorporated into the structure. One of these was within the building (as pictured above fig 4) but the other was incorporated within the west elevation wall. The west chimney was built into part of the west elevation whilst the east chimney was set back within the structure. The upper floor was of a similar appearance to the timber waiting rooms but the outer timber framing was more robust and the windows similar, but slightly larger in dimensions. The vertical planking used for the boarding was also wider than that used in the station level buildings. The vertical joins between planks were covered with beading. (I’m sure there is an architectural term for this but I can’t find it.) (Board and batten perhaps?) Footbridge This was a steel plate girder bridge which was provided with a glazed wooden canopy (see drawings 18 & 19 and also Fig 3 ). The deck of the footbridge was timber planks laid over a steel frame. Access was provided by stairways onto each platform and the lineside at each end. Access was also provided to the Booking Office 1st Floor level. The stairs were timber covered with glazing to the side, down until the stairway passed through the platform canopy where they became open to the platform Valence This was provided to the edges of the platform canopy. (see fig 1, 2 & 3) It was 3 feet in depth with 2 rows of decorative holes, upper row whole with the lower semi circular, at the lower edge as shown whilst the upper edge was decorated by a timber moulding. The vertical boards making up the valence appear to be 5 or 6 inches wide.

I'm back in the room, the railway room that is. Having spent June and July travelling through France Spain and of course, Buxton. August has seen me and management decorating our loft conversion wherein Wormdale lies. Wormdale has not been part of this process I hasten to add. However, the decorating is at the touch-up stage and so I am about to embark on building Wormdale's station which is to be based on the second incarnation of Chinley. I completed the platforms and the footbridge (glazing still to do) three years ago. For those not familiar with the now demolished Chinley station , I have put together a short description together with photos obtained from the internet and so apologies for any copyright infringements but are reproduced here only for illustrative purposes :- 2_(a)_4mm_scale_Waiting_Room_Panel_Elevation_Drawing.docx.docx

Here are some not very good photos which only go to highlight areas that need some attention but do give some idea of the rodding runs. These runs do not stand up to close attention but when standing at the normal viewing distance do give a reasonable idea of the line side clutter that was evident back in the day which is something I quite miss these days.

As an update to the goings on in Wormdale, I have completed the introduction of the point rodding to the west of the station which constitutes the greater area of the lay-out. I have taken the last month recuperating in a sanatorium. On the eastern approach to the station, the off-scene signal box was burnt down in 1956 and the Derby S&T department decided that the subsequent re-built signal box would operate electric points on a semi experimental basis, Signals continue to be line operated. (....and that dear reader, is why I'm not fitting rodding to that part of Wormdale. Dummy point motors will be affixed in the near future!) I have also fitted the first of the three track panels that make up the station freight avoiding line. This is now in place and electrically wired up and tested. This has resulted in the control panel finally in its planned final resting place underneath this panel. Everything is looking much tidier for the first time in nine years!!

Hi Jonathan I started out by using a combination of Brassmaster's Wizard Models and Model-U components but it proved too fiddly for my arthritic fingers so I tried the Will components and did a trial run. It is slightly overscale It isn't as neat as I would have liked it but as long as you don't look too closely then it fits the the criteria of showing the various paraphernalia that abounded trackside back in the fifties if only in a cosmetic way. Its not an exhibition (ha! Ha!) layout and only friends get to see it and non of them are 'rivet counters', although one is a consulting engineer and has his own layout. I have had a look at the DCC stuff but I had already bought loads of the Wills rodding and my layout is already operational. I have just spent hours seemingly achieving very little on a hard to reach area of the layout. Methinks I should have contemplated doing this before the ballasting but I am where I am. As this is quite a complicated junction etc, I'm wondering if anyone on here would know when electrically operated points started being used on the railway and did they sometimes mix them with rod operated ones? I hope so as working on these rodding runs is doing my head in! Time for some wine!

I'm still at it! Slowly perhaps but I'm putting in point rodding at the moment.

Hi Alister The freight yard to the left of the road as you come into Buxton was still in occasional use into the sixties as was the branch line in to Grinlow quarry which ran down the middle of the lane in front of a row of houses in Ladmanlow where an old school friend lived at the time. Nick

I was losing hope a little at times so it was a case of biting the bullet and having a go at things I hadn't attempted before. I guess many modelers go through the doldrums at times and we all have strengths in areas of the hobby and weaknesses in others which is why RMWeb is so good as a go-to forum for help, advice and encouragement.

I see that it is over a year since I last posted anything about Wormdale. How time flies, however, I have been busy on the layout. Not much actual modelling has taken place but I have got to grips with my long running (no pun etc etc) track issues. Some has been relaid and rail joint problems have been more or less eliminated. Also curves in the off-scene parts have been eased. I have also weathered about sixty wagons together with fitting them with S&P couplings. I have also got rid of the 2 metre long cassettes and in their place, laid a simple fiddle yard. So now I have actual trains made up which has made my enjoyment of the layout so much better. Having find a jolly good chap to undertake the work, I have also had more of my loco fleet fitted with Stay-Alives' so I'm a happy bunny right now. I will endeavor to post some photos later this week. Happy modeling!

I have used this company who did my back scene of 6m long from my own artwork (a series of joined up JPEGs to make a panorama.) http://www.supersizeprint.co.uk. They offer a good service but other companies are available. The finished article was like a roll of wallpaper. If you want it removable then you could easily mount it on a suitable material. Regards Nick