pharrc20

A clue would be that the tower you are referring to was originally the starting point of a line of L6 towers that ran over the top of Woodhead moor, linking both sides of what was then the Thorpe Marsh to Stalybridge line. Once the former Woodhead railway tunnels were ready after extensive work and the laying of the 400kV cables, testing and energising, the now redundant towers over the moor were taken down but were further reused on another project in the Yorkshire area. So could this tower have been altered from say a D10/30 to something more akin to a D40. This linked to a D60 and then the DT sealing end tower sat on top of the tunnel portal, where the cables descended down into the tunnels. I'd say the photo was taken to the south of Windle Edge road, just downstream of the Lower Windleden reservoir near Dunford Bridge.

I know this one...

Some years ago, probably 2018, I operated two rakes of the new hoppers on the Hazel Grove club layout Hazel Valley, when it was operating in a 1970s/80s BR Blue era for the weekend of their exhibition at the end of October. Somewhere, I will have some photos... he says. Prior to that I used to run heavily modified and stabilised resin kit Hoppers originally made by High Peak Casters from Buxton. And later on a rake of the Appleby Model Engineering resin and whitemetal kit hoppers, which were much better than the HPC resin ones. But both compared to the Hatton's/Oxford Rail one, well just no comparison on the level of detail that this model has. Apart from that my own layout will eventually feature short rakes of hoppers when it eventually gets completed. Cheers Paul

I have acquired some loads off that well known auction site some from the seller smuggler7 these are based around a dense dark grey foam cut to shale with stone glued on top. These appear for sale from time to time, and a batch has just been listed and sold it seems. There was also a resin or cast material version from another seller with a more coarse looking stone effect. I can't find the seller for these anymore. Then there is the Ten Commandments ones too. Cheers Paul

The thought had crossed my mind too. Given that Oxford Rail is wholly part of Hornby now (I hope that is factually correct?), and given that other models in the Hatton's range like the Warwell, and the two steam locomotives, maybe something has been going on in private behind the scenes that we are not privy too. Hopefully it will be a positive move that would allow the model to be further developed like enabling the final batch of I.C.I. wagons and all of the John Summers/British Steel versions to be produced. Then I can put my saws and knives away instead of carving up the models to alter them. We shall see I suppose. Cheers Paul

Well, as of now 12.30pm the following 9 models are shown in stock (more than 10): ICI003EW 3222 ICI004A 19093 ICI004BW 19033 ICI005CW 19116 ICI005DW 19058 ICI005EW 19011 ICI006A 19072 ICI006CW 19052 ICI006DW 19110 Interesting how the steam era prestine livery ones 2A, 3A, 3B and the 1973-92 era 5A and 5B along with one of the 1992-97 era models 6BW have sold out already. The wagons were rarely clean for long given their intensive service usage and soon built up a coating of limestone, brake and traffic dusting that really toned down the original grey liveries even in the steam era.

You could try an email to Hatton's on the off chance they have some spare tension lock couplings? Worth a try I guess. Cheers Paul

Yes indeed those 4 numbers and similar in the ranges 3200-3283 and 3284-3319 would have been using those numbers in the post steam/pre TOPS era with a bit of leeway maybe depending on how quickly the wagons gained their new identities of course. Cheers Paul PS not a plug but see Mr Isherwood of CCT for some nice replacement numbersets sheet BL183 will do

Yep, now that is an interesting move much welcomed indeed by many I am sure who might have missed out the first time around. No new running numbers or variations but the ones they are doing are thus: ICI002A 3284 ICI003A 3274 ICI003B 3301 ICI003EW 3222 ICI004A 19093 ICI004BW 19033 ICI005A 19041 ICI005B 19090 ICI005CW 19116 ICI005DW 19058 ICI005EW 19011 ICI006A 19072 ICI006BW 19019 ICI006CW 19052 ICI006DW 19110 So, 15 of the 20 models originally produced. I did wonder if there might be an announcement following on from the Warwell re-release yesterday. Wagons are £34 each or £35 for the ICInnnlW weathered versions. Which, in my eyes is still good value given all of the changes that have gone on in the past 5 years. Cheers Paul

Yep, the L2 DJ and DT drawings are rather crude and don't really resemble the actual towers. The L3 and even L66s are much worse and at best only provide a lose visual guide at best. Proper drawings and CADs must exist somewhere but I would imagine NGC and the DNOs would be very reluctant to release them. Cheers Paul

Nice one Daniel my favourite design probably because they are the first type I can remember seeing as a child growing up near to what I now know as the YV line near Stockport. Cheers Paul

Hello, well I am still here lingering on RMWeb and following the Great Image Crash of 2022, I have finally got round to uploading and replacing the photos with the same originals. Me being me, I have multiple copies backed up and some years ago I made a copy of each Blog entry as a backup too including the images, so it was easy once found and opened the Word document to suss out what images needed replacing on which blog entry. Only two Blogs don't contain any images, number 4 and number 10, so these may appear out of sequence depending on how the forum lists the Blog entries (3 now as this one doesn't contain any images either). So, what has happened since Blog 11? Well, not much, to paraphrase the delightful Mr J Clarkson, diddly squat really. The layout is in the same position (resting place?) at my former home, my parents’ house, since it was brought back there from the Poynton Model Show at the end of 2015. Apart from a brief extraction to allow the supporting legs to be removed and a quick check over now and again, the layout is as it was then. Seven years and 3 months later I am still no further forward with continuing with the layout. I had hatched a plan in late 2019 to move all the modelling material and boxed up boxes around, so that I would be able to put up two folding tables that I had acquired for this purpose from Homebase. They were selling some nice plastic tables that had adjustable height fold-up metal legs with a thick braced plastic top. I purchased two and a third followed soon after once it was announced many of the Homebase stores were to close and I managed to obtain the third one from their Sandbach branch. So, two tables up in early 2020, plans made to shuffle things around and be able to work on two boards at time to make a start on the scenery proper, like the hills, dry-stone walling, fencing, small buildings, larger quarry buildings, and general detritus that can be seen in the real landscape. Lots of recycled Celotex type material pieces stashed away to make hills and thinner, smaller sheets of polystyrene to make the lower-lying landscapes too. Oh, then that bloomin' pandemic happened and all my plans went out of the window pretty much over a few days late in March as everyone knows too well. I had little choice in where I could work or live as had to consider my elderly and health vulnerable parents, ousted from the office and expected to try and work from home with a second/third-hand laptop that took an age to do my work, and so the only viable solution was to come to Northwich and live with my partner full-time as we would both be working from home full-time as of then. I know that sounds very woe me, woe me, but that is how it was. So that was the end of that idea. I had already got the larger quarry buildings and some stock to work on with me in Northwich prior to the pandemic, so I could at least be doing something. Strangely, although I started of doing modelling most weekends in 2020, it reduced in 2021 and further in 2022 until I wasn't doing any at all related to the layout. Yet, it is said that modelling interest increased during the first few lockdowns. Oh well! So, I did lots of wagon related projects like the Hatton's I.C.I. hoppers and have amassed a good fleet of those; plus was able to fettle up a rake of older Cambrian SPA steel open wagons, and build some new ones; likewise re-built some of the Cambrian Turbot open wagons replacing the original three-piece bogies with the newer one-piece strong mouldings; converted some Bachmann MEA box wagons into the SJA steel scrap wagons using the then Stenson Models conversion kit with a repaint of the wagon bodies too. Alongside these I was doing what I could to the layout quarry buildings, but hard to do much without being able to place them on the layout to judge how they looked. As I've mentioned by 2022, I hadn't done much modelling at all and it was only the fact that the club layout I founded and have helped to build and develop over the years up to 2019, was going to be attending the final Wigan FRM model railway exhibition in October, that spurred me on to get some wagon stock redone and some locos DCC chipped to enable them to operate. I started doing that work from around June onwards, so I had enough time finish off the wagons and locos. And a similar rush to get some newer items of rolling stock ready for Smethurst Junction's visit to Macclesfield last weekend 25/26th March. But nothing of note related to stock for Speedlow. So, where do I go from here? Do I persist and hope that something, somewhere will change to allow me to finally work on the 20ft Speedlow layout? Do I keep it in store still? Or do I cut my loses and sell it on? I have given a lot of thought to developing other layouts that would be smaller and a lot more portable. I did investigate using the Hatton's baseboards system when they were first announced, but sadly we all know how that ended unfortunately. A shame as the different size options was very appealing and well-thought out, I thought. Another option that came up towards the end of 2021, was the Scale Model Scenery competition that they were starting called 'Operation Shunt-It' based around their layout-in-a-box laser-cut baseboard kits. Although I didn't enter it (I was very tempted to do so) it did give me some ideas around a small industrial shunting layout based on a real location that existed until the late 1990s and would allow a good range of shunting movements if the track plan was carefully designed. Several versions of this exist in my copy of AnyRail software. However, I have done a 1:1 plan on good old wallpaper backing paper as I just get a better feel for the flow of the trackwork seeing the Peco point templates track lines drawn on. Will I build it? - I would like to yes. Will it replace Speedlow? - no, in a way it would complement it. Will I buy the necessary SMS baseboard kits and the Really Useful Boxes - that is my intention. However, I still have the issue of storage even with the baseboard stored inside the RUB 77litre boxes. Sigh. No wonder my modelling mojo is well down. Yet I still enjoy going to model railway exhibitions, or being an exhibitor, and buying models whether for Speedlow 1980s/90s type stock or early 2000s stock for Smethurst Junction. So, if you have read all this right to the end, then well done. I might write a follow-up and post some photos of things I have done related to Speedlow stock and buildings. Cheers Paul

Some more ramblings from Speedlow. Whilst I have not been doing much with the layout boards I have been slowly planning and developing the quarry buildings that will be a distinctive part of the appearance firmly setting it in the limestone area of the Peak District. My original plan was to build customised versions of real buildings that I come across on my travels. But I soon realised this would be rather costly and potentially time consuming to do. Whilst I pondered what to do Christmas 2014 brought a copy of the Hornby Magazine yearbook featuring the layout they had built that included a cement works. And there was my answer - the Walthers Valley Cement kit. Plus being a plastic kit leant itself to being bashed and altered to suit. And that is what I did with that kit plus the Glacier Gravel kit as well plus another full kit plus further bits. I hope the following images show you what I have been up to. I will dig out some of the other ones using the Valley Cement kit. The buildings shown are from both kits plus the white plasticard building you see in the background is scratch built to suit the location on the layout. Cheers Paul Edited: 2nd April 2023 missing images restored.

Hi folks, you will have noticed a lack of updates on this blog. Towards the end of 2015 I had two outings with the incomplete Speedlow layout. Firstly, to my home show the Hazel Grove & District MRS show at the end of October and that was really its first proper public showing. The weekend went well and no major problems except for a dry joint on one of the point feeds that I soon got sorted out on the Saturday morning. Although the layout was only the bare boards with track and ballast laid down plus the part completed quarry buildings it was well received and I spent a lot of time explaining to the visitors what it was the layout was aiming to achieve. Following Hazel Grove I received an invite by email from Mark Henshaw aka TheLongLine inviting me to take the layout to the two day The Model Show at Poynton in December. Another good weekend and the layout was well received. Although I don't have all of the correct freight stock ready for the layout yet I was able to keep an operational interest by running substitute locomotives and wagons to try and illustrate how the layout would work. I had a good audience at Poynton by the esteemed line up of Wigan & Wirral Finescale Modellers immediately opposite the layout for the weekend and when I had a chance on Sunday afternoon I received some good comments as to how the layout had been operated and the potential once it was fully finished. So that was good to hear! Having laid the track and wired all of the boards together and some more testing done it was time to crack on with the weathering and ballasting work. To make life easier I decided to just buy a load of Humbrol spray cans and used the Matt 29 brown shade which looked well. Fortunately, the flat I lived in at the time in Bolton had a covered balcony so I could take the boards out there to be sprayed and leave them to dry off knowing they wouldn't get wet if it decided to rain. For the ballast I used two different grades; a very fine almost silt grade that I had brought some years previously and used on the Hazel Grove club layout Smethurst Junction. A slightly coarser grade would be used on the main running lines and sidings with the finer grade used in the two quarry areas. I was originally going to use Johnson's Klear to stick the ballast down with as per an article that Andy Y wrote on how to improve the appearance of the Peco code 75 track but in the end I just stuck with the tried and tested dilute PVA method of sticking the ballast down. Board 1A and 1 at the ballasting stage and being left overnight for the PVA to set. The two grades of ballast the coarser darker grey for the main running lines/sidings and head shunt and the finer lighter grey stone in the quarry area. A taste of things to come with a pair of Buxton Limby 37s showing the sprayed track work awaiting ballasting. Fresh ballast laid down and awaiting the PVA. Part way through an evenings work of applying the dilute PVA onto the ballast. At the time I was fortunate to have the use of a spare second bedroom that I could work on the layout in. But as is often the case in life things change not always for the better and it was with sadness that I took the decision to move back home and so the ballasting work was completed and the layout packed up awaiting the day when I moved home. Once I was back home I switched to working on trying to get the layout buildings planned and built so they at least would be ready for the Hazel Grove show at the end of October. I had originally considered building totally scratch-built buildings based on examples at Dove Holes and Dowlow quarries to at least have some authentic buildings on the layout. However, having received the Hornby Magazine year book at Christmas 2014 and seen the construction of the cement works layout gave me inspiration to consider the Walthers HO range of kits as a quicker alternative to making the buildings. Plus the plastic kits lend themselves very well to being adapted as was shown in the HM articles. And so it was this route I decided to take to create the quarry buildings I needed with the advantage of being able to adapt them. Cheers until next time Paul Edited: 2nd April 2023 missing images restored.

Hello again, following on from the track-laying in Issue 7 now it was time to start wiring up the layout for DCC operations. Early on I had decided to incorporate several power districts into the design of the wiring so as to try eliminate any whole layout shorts should a loco be operated against a point for example. It happens, yes we have all seen it happen at exhibitions and often rendering the entire layout dead until the controller has been reset. So I decided to split the layout into four power districts these being; the fiddle yard; the first quarry located in front of the fiddle yard on the scenic section; the main line leading from the fiddle yard into the reception loops and beyond into the long neck and finally the second quarry area. This of course means a bit of extra wiring to put in the extra pair of feed wires leading from the power district module to each area of the boards. So most board joints will take two districts across underneath and for this I had a look around at the various types of connectors that would be reasonably heavy duty and robust and in the end settled on the four way Molex power connectors, the sort that you find inside your PC tower case supplying power to the devices like Hard Drives and CD-ROM drives. Having decided on simple red and black for the colour of my main power district feeds you will no doubt be thinking hang on the Molex connectors have two black wires, one red and one yellow... well I just made the yellow wire the honorary red wire for my layout lol. The power district feeds having got to the right part of the board then terminate in long strips of copper-clad strips - I think mine were 0 gauge sleeper sized stock. These are positioned on the underside of the board and then simply super-glued on end held down whilst the glue sets. From these bus-bars the smaller feed wires would be then added to feed the track and points as appropriate. Careful planning of the wire runs away from critical areas largely ensured that the wiring stage went pretty smoothly. Using the Peco code 75 points and wanting live frog operation meant using some form of polarity switching and I initially looked at using Peco's own PL-11 slide switches but after some trials quickly came to the conclusion that it was going to be a nightmare ensuring these would stay aligned and be reliable enough for exhibition operation. After a question on here I was directed to try some micro-switches supplied by Rapid Electronics and so after I had ordered some plus a few spares tried these. I should at this point say that the points are manually operated by roding and so linked to the micro-switch acting on the lever arm thus changing the polarity supplied to the frog. Once I had Board 1A and 1 wired up and I was happy with the action of the micro-switches then there was no excuse to try adding some power via a temporary connection to my borrowed Gaugemaster Prodigy 2 controller and see if it all worked... and it did lol! So far so good.. and yes the loco was stopped with lights on and not about to run off edge of board lol. The loco is reasonably appropriate for a Buxton layout this being 37688, which was once upon a time based at Buxton and now in use with DRS and a limited edition model was done by Bachmann some years ago for Rail Express magazine and I was given the loco for a very nice pocket friendly price by a good friend :-) So after a bit of testing and fettling of the first two board to prove the wiring and the micro-switches operation I was happy enough to continue to wire up the remaining boards. By June 2014 the wiring was pretty much complete but I had an offer to show the boards and layout at my local club open day and so I took it round to the church hall and for the first proper time had the layout up in one piece. Although only static and no power it still got people interested. One thing that was apparent was the overall height of the boards from the floor to the top of the baseboards as to me this looked on the low side. The supporting legs were designed to fold up inside the board for transportation but this might well be something I will change if I am to increase the base board height to make it easier to operate but still be at a good viewing height for the public. So having the layout up and nearly completed gave me more of an incentive to push on and complete the wiring to test it further and then go onto the ballasting stage. Cheers Paul Edited: 2nd April 2023 missing images restored.

Hello again, in this issue I will continue describing how the Speedlow layout track was laid and finalised. Once most of the track was laid down and glued with the Copydex I could then have a bit of a play to with some stock just to get a feel of what the layout would look like. So it was out with the stock I had to hand to put them into the fiddle yard. These were taken in January 2013 Following some stock testing I quickly decided that it would be beneficial to add a second head shunt line next to the one already laid on Boards 4 and 4A in front of the fiddle yard as doing it now before the track was finalised, wired up and ballasted would make things a lot easier. So a further short left-hand point and a new yard of flexi-track was purchased from the SMTF shop. The only variation I made was to lay the track onto medium thickness black finished cardboard and thus making this line sit slightly lower than the front line. More soon after some sleep! Cheers Paul Edited: 1st April 2023 missing images restored.

Hello again, in this issue I will continue describing how the Speedlow layout came about and how I wanted to build and operate the layout. Right from the start it was always envisaged that Speedlow would be DCC operated and I tried to plan for that accordingly when it came to planning the track plan. The layout boards as previously described in Issue 5 were built for me by Black Cat Baseboards in 2011 to the design I specified. There are 4 boards each 4 foot long and two additional outer 2 foot long boards added on at each end. As I had specified that I wanted supporting legs that would fold up underneath the boards themselves, this did of course restrict the maximum length of the legs as the had to clear the angled corner that formed the wedge shape of the baseboards. To the visitor viewing the layout Board 1 would be to the left followed by 2, 3 and 4 in order. The smaller 2 foot extension board purchased at the start became Board 4A off to the right-hand side. Board 3 has a short section of the board that curves and descends towards the fiddle yard that would take up the rear portion of Board 4 and 4A, with a scenic section taking up the remaining baseboard space at the front. The line linking the main sidings and the fiddle yard and supposed link to Buxton drops away down 1 inch gradient. The 2 foot board purchased later became Board 1A off to the left of Board 1. So in all Speedlow is 20 feet long and the maximum depth across all the boards front to back is 33 inches. Once the track plan had been sorted I then started to lay down the cork bed and glued this down with Copydex. Then work could start on preparing and laying the Peco code 75 track and points making sure that holes were in place to take the point control rod that would be installed. Progress on track work was slow given that I could not take the boards to the flat I was living in at the time as there simply wasn't the room and so I just had to work on the boards when I went back home to house sit for my parents. So by January 2013 all of the main track was laid down with the Copydex. Meanwhile the code 100 track forming the fiddle yard was still being tweaked to get the best positions for the proposed 5 lines but once I had put the two 3-way points down and added the short piece of track between them it became apparent that I could in fact get 7 sidings with a mix of long, medium and short roads. More to follow soon! Cheers Paul Edited: 1st April 2023 missing images restored.

Hello RMWeb members, time for another long overdue update! This time rather than looking at my non-existent Workbench I will write about my layout that I am slowly building and am at the point now where most of the big hurdles have been jumped. Speedlow started life as most layouts do as an idea on paper, mainly doodles in between my workload waiting for the next batch of documents to land in my in-tray. Little scraps of paper here and there, doodles of track plans based on places I knew of around the Buxton area that I had visited like Peak Forest, Great Rocks, Tunstead and the Hindlow branch. I didn't want a continuous run layout nor did I want a layout with the seemingly mandatory station on it. No in true Number Six fashion I wanted to rebel and go a different direction. Maybe not quite running across the beach in The Village (still need to do that sometime LOL!) and venting anger at the Village.... What I wanted was a layout based on the railway things that I remember the most that being the Railfreight scene around the Buxton area in the late 1980s into the early 1990s up until the end of Speedlink operations. For me this was the best time as you still had a great mix of diesel traction being used on freight services around the Buxton area with several liveries present with scope to include pairs of blue 20's right up to brand new class 60's with a good wedge of Buxton class 37/5's in between. I had modelled a good chunk of the Buxton 37/5's long ago either using the Lima 37 model or the later Bachmann 37/5 model and had re-painted and re-liveried models to suit. As you may have seen from previous issues my main modelling passion is wagons especially those that have a connection to the Buxton area and there are plenty of those to go at. Some are simply re-worked models from Hornby, Bachmann and Lima whereas others may just re-parts like the chassis to form the basis of an as yet un-modelled variety of PGA hopper wagon known to have worked from the Peak District quarries. This was my other inspiration to create a layout where these wagons could be modelled and used. And so the idea of having two quarries linked by a common exchange yard came about and thus incorporated into the doodles... And so from the doodles a rough idea for a layout track plan came about with regular revisions until I was happy. Then it was time to put the proposed track plan to the test by drawing it out onto good old wallpaper backing paper rolls. I started doing this around April 2010 and had the idea of having some custom shaped baseboards built for me. It wasn't until the October that year that I found just the person to make my boards for me and that was Colin from Black Cat Baseboards from Hull who was coincidently positioned opposite the club layout I was helping to operate. So I bit the bullet and had a chat with Colin as to my requirements and sure he would be able to make them for me and as they weren't needed urgently and could wait until the new year of 2011 I placed an order for the main 4 baseboards each 4 foot long with a maximum depth of 21 inches at one end and narrowing down from the 2 foot mid point of the 4 foot length to a 9 inch depth. This meant that the once the boards were positioned the track layout would form a natural curved alignment. This was the initial track plan idea as drawn up on the backing paper using photocopied Peco point templates As all modellers know even once a plan is drawn up and you think that is that changes often occur at the track-laying stage that don't always seem possible when it is planned on the paper version. This will become apparent later on as the layout progresses. The key to these additions is IMHO to enhance operation capability and allow flexibility not to cram in extra unnecessary sidings that clutter the layout up. In effect you have to justify each extra point and length of flexi-track. Fast-forward slightly to the stage in September 2012 when having slowly laid the cork using Copydex and acquired a good quantity of new and used Peco code 75 track from the collection of the late Graham Neve, who was one of the co-founders of Hazel Grove & District MRS back in the 1960s. I was fortunate to acquire an entire box of new wooden flexi-track along with a good quantity of short left and right hand points from Graham's model collection at a very good price indeed thus saving myself a considerable sum of money buying new track. The only new items I needed to buy were the two catch points, the asymmetric 3-way point plus the code 100 3-way points and short left and right points that would be used in the fiddle yard. I also ordered an extra 2 foot extension board from Colin to be added to the end of board 1 to permit a slight increase in the quarry track works. The start of track laying in September 2012 with Inspector Lucy keeping a beady eye on the works :-) More to follow soon! Cheers Paul Edited: 1st April 2023 missing images restored.

Hi folks, slightly later than planned due to one thing and another and a break away. So a quick rundown what was recently OMWB: Set of six modified Bachmann bauxite liveried Covhops plus one unfitted grey one weathered. I have renumbered the six bauxite ones using the Cambridge Custom Transfer sheet BL35h suitable for wagons in the Tunstead to Northwich limestone pool. All the existing panels and printed markings were removed with thinners and cotton buds. I used five of the 38-500 plain bauxite models and one of the BIS 38-502 version. The BIS one will take a lot more effort to remove the markings but at the time it was the only version I was able to buy. The six bauxite wagons have had all the unwanted underframe detail removed as per Alan Monks recent article on the unfitted through vacuum piped wagons in Rail Express Modeller. I just need to finish off the brake rigging and add the push brake shoe parts using the Parkside parts. I wanted to have the seven wagons running in time at the recent Hazel Grove MRS exhibition and managed to finish them bar weathering up the six bauxite wagons. They looked good running round and being shunted on the yard on the clubs Hazel Valley layout. Quite a few punters looking and pointing at them. This photo shows the six wagons before the existing printing had been removed but the underframe mods completed. Lurking in the background on the right are a partially complete Parkside open wagon, Bachmann 27ton conversion and a Chivers 21ton coal open. Above is one of the old Ian Stoate Models ICI hopper wagons in N gauge I picked up at a model show and have undercoated. Next photo shows the sole grey Covhop alongside my Hornby Sentinel which is in the process of receiving faded ICI Mond orange, grey and white livery. Behind the ex Bachmann TTA Mobil tank body there are a pair of Bachmann HEAs awaiting repainting into Sector grey with RF Distribution logos special one off livery that a pair carried. To the right are two of my Hornby HAA to CBA covered lime hopper conversions. Final photo of the fiddle yard part of my Speedlow layout with my test DCC loco 37688 appropriate Buxton number but wrong livery lol! Along with some recently purchased Bachmann PCA Metalair tankers. These are lovely wagons. I have a small part to play in getting these produced by Bachmann following a suggestion made to them a long time ago 2008 or so I think. Oh well at least they eventually got produced. In the background are six of the old High Peak Casters kit models of the ICI hoppers I managed to find and purchase at a recent Bolton Reebok sorry Macron toy fair swapmeet. They need a lot of fettling up and work doing on them... Cheers Paul Edited: 1st April 2023 missing images restored.

Hello, welcome to my blog in which I will hopefully be able to share some of the things that I am modelling when time allows. I tend to have several projects on the boil at once and this often means I swap around doing different models as time and resources allow. My workbench at present has several different modelling projects on the go and the active ones are as follows: #Hornby Sentinel shunter - to be repainted into ICI Mond Orange, grey and white livery as per real shunters that wore this livery when working at ICI Tunstead quarry. #Bachmann Covhops - using the vacuum disk-braked bauxite version of the model I am converting these to through vac piped bauxite liveried wagons as per the recent article in Rail Express Modeller #Lima PCAs - some long-overdue repaints and renumbers for some friends. These have been stripped and repainted and need numbers, data panels etc. applying to them and new small size couplings replacing the original Lima big D couplings. Other projects in boxes include some Hornby HAA conversions to CBA lime hoppers; Hornby KFAs weathered up ready to become Greater Manchester binliner train with WildBoarModels excellent binliner containers; a pair of Bachmann HEA hoppers being repainted into a one off Railfreight General sector livery; kit wagons from Parkside and Chivers to be used as static abandoned wagons on my layout Speedlow; plus some resin and brass kits of ICI hoppers; plus a few more! My other modelling is related to my own layout that I have slowly been building for the past couple of years and is based on Railfreight operations in the Buxton area around 1989 to 1991 and will therefore feature lots of lovely private owner air-braked wagons plus lots of lovely Buxton allocated 37/5s plus visiting locos from 20s, 31s and 47s as appropriate. The layout is now at the stage where all the track has been laid and wired for DCC and tested for the first time to make sure it all worked correctly. The next stage will be to start ballasting the track then onto the scenic. So a wide variety of stuff on the go for me! Cheers Paul Edited: 1st April 2023 missing images restored.

Hi All, following on from Issue 2 and the photo of the six bauxite Covhops that I was in the middle of converting and renumbering I have now taken a photo of the six as below. Just need to get some of the Parkside parts or have a look at home in Stockport to see if I have any filed away somewhere that I can use. I have weathered up the underframes and just need to do the same for the bodywork to make them all lime stained as per the real wagons. A closer look at the CCT transfers they certainly look the part Lurking in another box is this pair of lovely Buxton allocated 37/5s 37677 in Railfreight Red Stripe livery along with 37682 in Railfreight Construction. These are Lima bodyshells mounted on Hornby Railroad 37 chassis to allow an upgrade from the old Lima pancake motors and as the HR 37 is DCC ready I have chipped them both. I just need to weather the chassis and bogies and put some Kadee couplings on and then these will be ready. I know they don't stand up to the more modern Bachmann 37s but it seemed a shame to waste the Lima bodyshells when I had gone to all the trouble of repainting and renumbering them all those years ago. I have three more the same just need to get some chips for them and they will soon be up and running Aside from doing more work on my Speedlow layout I need to try and get on with some of my wagon projects so I will have at least something to run on the layout. Cheers Paul Edited: 1st April 2023 missing images restored.

Thanks to Andy and all of the Macclesfield MRG members for their hospitality from the Smethurst Junction gang from Hazel Grove. Myself, Ste, Andy, Paul, Alf and our newest helper, Jamie. Cheers Paul

I will be there too helping the lads from Hazel Grove & District MRS with their Smethurst Junction layout set in the early 2000s years. I have some stock to take with me. Looking forward to seeing Mostyn again too and enjoying the exhibition. Cheers Paul

Yep, I believe that the original ZBA teedoff ZB near to here Green Ln https://maps.app.goo.gl/vjTXoUVt5dw7hyT79 Note the lone DT tower in the middle of the ZB line. This is thought to be where the original tee to ZBA started. Later, YYJ was built from Tilbury alongside ZB and ran towards Barking at least. At this point the original ZBA was recoded as YYJ and the short link from ZB taken out. I know the ZB line tower in the GE image is now a DT but quite possible it was originally a DJX and just rebuilt as a DT through tower. So, YYJ using L2s continues towards Barking but in the area around Lakeside has again been altered where the current ZBA and ZR lines come up from West Thurrock. Have a look at the position of the final L2 D30 alongside the A13 road heading west towards Lakeside A13 https://maps.app.goo.gl/Cqs6SAvKib4PNxpa9 The next tower is an L6 D2 then an L8 DT. For quite a while YYJ just stopped on this DT tower if you look back here from Arterial Road West Thurrock A1306 https://maps.app.goo.gl/hSnDPi9pFTcVpeXj6 See how it is later linked up to what is now coded ZBA. So many changes around here with L8s replacing L2s and the line codes changing too. Plus all the tower alterations around the marshes where the HS1 railway line goes Have a look here at how this very special L8 DJX 4 sided tower has evolved over the years noting how the circuits and the links between different arms of the tower have changed too A1306 https://maps.app.goo.gl/zqStCw2cvou2ao6B8 Cheers Paul

YYJ used to start at Hackney picking up the underground cable route from Highbury and the overhead line from Tottenham. The part of YYJ between Hackney and West Ham was replaced by the Lower Lea Valley cable route and was also in way of Olympics Park too. West Ham sub has as far as I can tell been altered at least twice first in 80s and then again in late 00s for the Olympics. The parallel L7 line disappeared too. Probably too much to explain on here but beyond Barking towards West Thurrock but as you say the only Z coded L8 line but only by virtue of the line being recoded from YYJ. Cheers Paul