Phil Bullock

Splitters….

A few observations.. Prior to the Newport stop the SW - NW Warship hauled trains ran via Maindee East and North Junctions … crew change at Pontypool Road or Hereford perhaps? D855 was at Crewe when I visited in 1969 and D862 made it to Crewe in 1971 on the NA - NLW motorail but via Brum I think. The NBLs seemed to wander further than the Swindon built locos appearing in the West Midlands, on Padd - BNS trains and also on Cotswold line trains to Worcester and Hereford in addition to West of England duties whereas the Swindon built locos wandered rather less probably due to their commitment to Waterloo - Exeter jobs until October 71. There’s also the rumour of the LM not liking the Swindon locos under their OHLE due to the exhausts being on the centre of the body line rather than offset as on the NBLs. It’s amazing how much. Interest these locos still generate….

Noooooooooooooooooo!!!! I’d be surprised if even 1 sneaks in!!!! Cash lined up for 25s 31s and 37s…. Although our Western fleet does keep growing …. But nowhere near that full fleet yet. Oil sloshers rule!!! Although we do have to run some other stuff occasionally…. My next loco purchase from our friends at Accurascale will be 57xx ….

Was it the doors themselves John? Or the fact that if you had a rake of wagons it would be difficult to load them with evenly distributed loads … doors on each side only giving access to one end of the wagon?

Gen is here… Tam Valley frog juicers

Our over wintering peacock in the garden shed is still there though..

Pretty central in Brum then. Have you spoken to Redditch they are a friendly bunch . As Phil says a good plan to go and talk to them. It’s a shame their show was 2 weeks ago, that’s always a good opportunity

Yes they worked up to Warwick on oil tanks

Was just going to post exactly the same! Saw a female road side driving home from Usk this morning

And Birmingham covers a large geographical area… a more specific location might help

Yes hoping we will have them for Winchcombe!

That will be Fringford Manor I guess.. 😉

That’s one expensive loco! Don’t go giving them ideas…

So all the points on the previous incarnation of Abbotswood had Tam Valley frog juicers. On the current layout they are only used on diamonds and reversing loops. They are solid state not relays. We are totally DCC sound … and there are zero issues with them, they do their work without any indication they are there … polarity switching instantaneous. Take a look at layout videos in signature to see them in action … but you won’t notice them! No connection with firm just a very satisfied customer

And I do suffer from occasional prop shaft failures ….

34 NBLs might be too many! Luckily we dont have that many…

Only half of them!!! 😉 Yes probably more than in the Black Sea fleet…

So have decided to do as suggested to eliminate another issue going forwards … thanks @WIMorrison

Have been playing with IP-CB and stay alive sound fitted locos this morning. This has revealed that 0.33 amps should be allowed to give a safety margin for IP-CB to be able to reset after a short. 16 sound and stay alive Warships would not allow restart on 4 amps but they were ok with 4.5 amps. Definitely a job for when SWMBO is out!!! IP-CB will support more than that once they are running but it’s the power rush in to the stay alives that pushes up the current draw. As more locos are coming with stay alives installed this is something for folks to think about with their Dcc system perhaps ….

And the PAD at Newland?

Great progress Neil. Hope we can run them at Winchcombe in July….

Very nice ! Thank you. I don’t have any notes so that is good gen

That is very true! thanks for reminding me of that. It does mean more wiring though. Will try current plan but could fall back on that if problems persist. Of course given that all junctions on at least the scenic section are protected by signals then there should be zero incidents… 😀

Absolutely. Have already supplied driving checklist for each train movement and will do the same for power district resets. You are right about the pressure but @Downendian tells me he keeps his eye on me! Thanks Neil 😉

Yep good plan!! Will just have to remember that when the accessory bus shorts to switch off the relevant track bus before resetting the accessory bus