Penrhos1920

@Roger SunderlandHow did you get the roof off? Could you see how the cab comes off?

I fancy a Marble Arch set! And definitely the Pay Clerk’s van.

I’ve actually got around to fitting a decoder into no.97. Eventually I will be fitting sound so I didn’t want to fill the smokebox with a stay alive. The only other space for the stay alive is the bunker next to the chip. But with the Bachmann decoder mount taking a third of the potential space in the bunker there just isn’t enough space. So I’ve had to cut off the metal standoffs and remove the circuit board. Now there is space for a Zimo mx622 and dcc concepts stay alive. Fitting the bunker to the footplate is a nightmare. On the L&Y tank there are screws into the bunker. I’ve put lugs in the bunker corners for nuts and bolts, but actually holding the nut in place? Well that takes tiny fingers or a specially bent piece of metal to hold it. Fortunately the nut ( 10 BA) flat is tight against the side which stops it rotating. so we’re now ready for the final trip to the paint shop when we get a few sunny days.

They're homemade. I make a box around the nut. 60 or 80 thou square polystyrene and 40 thou lid as on this roof.

Maybe not quite that much. But if I remove the outer scissors: then I have just 3 circuits: 1. outer P4 2. inner OO flat with tightest radius and switched sections for testing pickups 3. middle OO which actually goes around twice so that the long gradients can be tested. need 3/4 turn to get the length of the longest trains on an up hill climb.

Thanks for your replies so far. @DavidCBroad suggestion of switchable dead sections is something I'd not considered but it is easily added. I've drawn up a first draft of the track plan. The yellow rectangle is a bed that won't be used except when I'm on the naughty step! In the opposite corner is a 4 drawer filing cabinet which sets the height of the layout and there is grey work table which looks out of the window. The outer purple circuit is P4. Minimum radius is 1100mm compared to 1200mm on the layout. There are a pair of A7 crossovers as per the layout. The rest of the track is OO with peco medium points. Red is the lowest level, orange rises by 31mm on a gradient of 1 in 95 to the yellow level, green rises a futher 31mm to the blue level. The inner yellow circuit has minimum radius sections and switchable dead sections. Thoughts please.....

I’ve got 3 photos of 35 as GWR1387 and the 1906 photo. The post grouping photos show the H class boiler/firebox/smokebox which was fitted in 1922 so are no help in that area. But did 35 receive as convex smokebox door like 93 or keep its concave door? Likewise for the chimney and dome. Having done a little reading I now found out that I ought to be building 92 or 93 as they worked through Penrhos after 1910.

All my track is rough. but not deliberately. It just happens that way. That’s the main reason that Penrhos has changed to OO; there’s no way I could build all that track in P4 and have anything do a whole circuit without falling off.

Lighthouse steps would be interesting as they taper as you go up. So the radius reduces. Effectively each step is on a slightly smaller radius compared to the step below.

I’m going to be building a new test track as my daughter has forced me out of my current railway room and into her current bedroom. The space I have is 3m x 2.5m. I want a single P4 circuit and 1 or 2 OO circuits. I’m thinking of incorporating a pair of mock cross-overs on the P4 circuit to test buffer-locking. Ideally I’d include all the features of the layouts that the stock will run on. Penrhos has plenty of gradients and curves. Origami is flat and the track is nothing special. Are there any special features that I should have on my test track? What’s your test track look like?

DW150267 was converted in 1961 so could have been originally painted in gulf red. In 1981 it was sold to the Dean Forest Railway.

Mark 1 daughter has thrown a spanner in the works with repercussions that threaten to last a year or more. She has announced that she wants to move out of her bedroom and into My RAILWAY ROOM. The railway room is bigger than her room so we all see where she is coming from. It has a nice view of the garden, rather than the road. It has a double bed rather than her single bed (which I think is the main attraction), but she hasn’t slept on it and doesn’t know how uncomfortable it is! Anyway it’s been agreed. I’ve spent the afternoon working out how I can fit into the smaller space and everything fits except the 6’ x 5’6 test track that used to be my son’s layout. So the plan is to cut it into 2 L shaped pieces and put them on opposite walls. Then join across the window with a 6” wide piece and across the door with a lifting piece. Because it will now be above a short bookcase and filing cabinet the track will be at 56” above the floor. I think that’s ok as the board is only 18” wide at most. When the children heard that the layout would block the door if installed as is you should have heard their blue sky thinking. There was a plan for steps up and over the layout. A pulley system on the floor with skateboard to haul oneself and supplies into the room. And many other howlers. The project also involves decorating both rooms, removing sinks and changing a radiator so it’s not going to be a quickie. I dread to think how many days it will take to box up all of my stuff! Anyway I’m not doing anything until she has supplied the packing boxes so until then it’s back to bashing coaches.

The GWR built coaches specifically for not for Hastings, but for the Bournemouth service. http://penrhos.me.uk/Clerestories.shtml#E60 , also E61 as these ran as a pair. Later E63 and D28 were used on a Bournemouth service. These coaches would have lasted 20 years on that service until replaced by a pair of Toplight brake composites or a brake composite and full third. By 1925 the GWR portion was a composite, third and van third. Also in 1925 there was a 9:45 Wolverhampton to Hastings which had van third, composite, dining car and van third GWR stock and brake composite, third, brake composite SR stock. The GWR dining car may have been a H25 as per the old Hornby coach which was introduced in1924 specifically for cross country services. BUT, the GWR stock only ran as far as Eastbourne. The 1925 Cardiff to Brighton was van third, third, composite, dining car, composite, third, van third GWR stock one day and SR the other.

So disaster struck. I knocked a bottle of MEK over and it has washed my S11 and a couple of roofs. The roofs will polish up with a bit of wet and dry, but I don't think I'm capable of rescuing the S11 with all of the fiddly panels. On the plus side I've fixed my airbrush. I was thinking about how it sucks up paint from the jar utilising the Venturi Effect. If the pressure at the top of the paint bottle is lower than atmospheric pressure, paint will rise out of it. But if the nozzle pressure drop is too big that isn't possible. Therefore the nozzle must be too dirty. Over time paint has built up in the nozzles and started to block them. The solution was a little jar of IPA and Xylene (cellulose thinners). Drop a dismantled nozzle in the solution, drop the jar into the ultrasonic bath for 15 minutes and hey presto a clean nozzle. There's a disassembled nozzle in there. A cleaned nozzle, as new. I've not managed much else in the last 2 weeks as I've been listed a load of stuff on eBay. A friend on the Origami team has just bought 10 PTA tipplers for the layout. So I've pulled together all those odd items I'm never going to build or run and raised the money to buy 10 more. In fact it's going so well I'll be able to by a couple of 37s to pull them! I just need to find the right 37 in the Bachmann offerings for 1978 South Wales.

Class 309 doing a ton UP Brentwood Bank. I used to time them on their Liverpool St to Chelmsford non-stop runs. One evening we would have done Chelmsford in about 25 minutes (normally 29 in the mid-afternoon slots and 31 during rush hour). It turned out that the East Anglian that we normally followed was delayed so we had greens all the way, not the usual amber or double ambers out of Liverpool St. The driver must have known it and thought he'd put his foot down. I guess he was hoping to get to Witham where the East Anglian could pass. Unfotunately we were looped outside Ingatestone.