Sasquatch

Has anyone seen or heard from Adrian AKA Mr. Westerham Station recently??? I do hope that he's alright.

Here we are then, all the right way up too! There're all kinds of trains all over the layout. Running sessions have been interesting! Starting at the back in the up (or clockwise) loop behind Goathland, three trains are stacked up. First in line is a V3 tank engine with a rake of rather dull looking 6 wheeled old rattlers. Waiting to depart Queensbury for Castle Junction there's a double headed passenger train. Also at Queensbury we find a black five with a 5-coach rake. The engine will be uncoupled from the train and run round the triangle so that it can return to Bradford. That is only after some trains have traversed Goathland anticlockwise and we've seen a few departures from the terminus! Bringing up the rear is an item of new stock. Replicas LMS open third. A previously loved example from a well know Liverpool outfit. The roof vents look a bit too proud but it's a pretty nice carriage for under six quid. Working our way back towards the terminus we find the last train to have left with a Leeds Train. It's waiting in the loops behind the terminus next to a short perishables train. When the layout is finished two trains leaving here could run in opposite directions around the garage and eventually arrive back here in the down loops! The first coach in the rake is an older Bachmann Thompson BCK, flush glazed and detailed. Next month's modeling budget might just get spent on a fair few more packs of SE flush glazing and some more wheels! At the terminus, A1 North British is ready to depart with a Pulman service. There's another rake of Stanier steel carriages in platform 5 behind a Hughs crab which constituted a trans-Pennine train. Again, bringing up the rear there's another new (secondhand) open, this time in BR maroon which was only a fiver.😁 The lower price was probably due to the lack of couplings. For the time being I have just added Jackson wheels and swapped out one bogie with the earlier version which explains why they are both at the rear of each train. The rest of this train is made up of a pair of Dapol Staniers and a nice barely used Hornby BK. Dapol's glazing needs a lot to be desired!! Also previously enjoyed, is this GNR J13 (LNER J52). Just has to be the best 24 pounds I've ever spent. It was in mint condition externally and just needed a good service where the original factory effort had turned to a candy like substance. Once removed and a few drops of EZ lube applied it runs extremely well, so has been pressed into service as Exchanges pilot. We see it here about to place that rake of old teak stock in the neighboring platform so that the engine can be turned and watered ready for the return journey all the way back to the newly lit tunnel with the safety of the up-to-the-minute surveillance system. There's also a parcels train in platform 1. I'm wondering if the parcels trains always ended up in platform 1 because it was out of the way or due to the fact it was the shortest. The same practice was used at Brighton if I recall correctly. Squatch. Having far too much fun!!

The latest trick up my sleeve was to buy a cheap webcam and install it under the Queensbury lift off scenic sections, so that we can see what's going on under there. This involved making and adding a new mount in the tunnel so as to place the cam nearer the baseboard joint. Trains can be held here on either board in one of six loops. If one up and one down are left unoccupied for through running, that leaves holding lines for 8 short trains or 4 long ones or a combination thereof. The new access hole has proved its worth. The tricky bit was how to achieve a full screen running view on the laptop. After doing a quick internet search and downloading VLC media player and wasting the best part of yesterday afternoon on that, I tried a different program this morning. OBS studio. This is a pretty cool program and worth looking into further. The camera still didn't show up in the OBS source menu but that was only a simple case of allowing desktop apps to access the camera in settings. One last job to do is to get a USB extension cable and mount the cam USB plug next to the control panel which will allow the laptop to be removed to the house with ease and have the screen placed in a sensible position during running sessions. I don't know what's up with the programs but is anyone else having problems with image orientation? Trains later today, once the issue has been solved of upside-down images! Squatch

That last set of images seemed to cause a hell of a lot of trouble. I took them with the iPhone upside down yesterday. This morning plugged the phone into the computer, downloaded the images, cropped and resized them in paint in the normal way etc. Had to upload them one by one (because both the mouse and left click are not working) only to find they were all upside down. There's normally some auto correct that rights them. I'd opened one of the images in another program to straighten it and saved the changes. This image was the right way up however. After cursing a lot and opening each of the others in paint a second time to save it as a Jpeg (which corrected the matter) I realised what the problem was... When taking this image yesterday evening,.. I'd set the camera on the phone to take warm dramatic pictures before heading into the garage! Talk about throwing a spanner in the works!! Squatch That changes the image type!!!

Thanks Felix. Here's a few more... Station offices. I've been looking for that cat everywhere. Technically I was trespassing when I took this one of J15 No.7524 waiting to depart. Luckily all those officials in the Day-Glo vests weren't about that early! Here she is leaving. The signalman has been very prompt returning the starter to danger. Mr. Dapolman is going to be late for work after his long commute. Very much so now that he just missed the push-pull service. The vicar is up early too as 3F tank 47406 traverses the viaduct light engine. Honeydukes in Pottyshire is already open for breakfast, I feel a full english coming on but hold the beans. I hate beans! Regards Shaun.

You are just too kind Julian!

Of course we were late. That J15 seemed to take all day hauling that rake of old rattly 6 wheelers up there. The hiking was grand too and after wrapping the beer in wet news paper it was icy cold! A simple reward, that peak is the same height as Ben Nevis!

Work on the lift up section is ongoing. There will be a post here explaining how the electrical connections and assembly of the whole thing come together when it's finished. Don't see the point in braking that up into little chunks of information, especially if pictures of the layout are available like these... Squatch

Yes! I've earmarked a spot on the next door building under the overhang where we use to store firewood. I fear that I just might have gotten a unit too big and it might be a case of installing the big one in the house. Not such a bad idea which has many advantages such as losing the seasonal window air conditioners, saving on all the firewood work (more modeling time and less chainsaw), doing away with two ugly and costly electric baseboard heaters, we gain breaker space in the electrical panel and hopefully save on the electricity bills. The big unit is paid for and I think we can scrape the money together for a smaller unit for the garage! In the end at least one of the new units should pay for itself.

Knowledge is everything! It's very impressive just how much of it you have on your subject and it's why this thread has to be my favorite. Every last figure tells a story and it's a far cry from all the "Hornby didn't quite get the wing nuts correct on the access hatches" sort of thing. When you build a coach it's made very interesting because all the passengers have purpose which gives a real feel of the railway. The atmosphere on Traeth Mawr is going to be second to none. Regards Shaun.

Gwenyth & Gráinne, isn't it (edit) boyoh! 🤣I know Gráinne's Irish but that's the sort of jobs they did while their men were working on the railroad.

With the second arrangement that spur could come in handy doubling as a pilot stabling point. Vis. Down semi fast goods is held on the down main while the rear portion is detached and placed on the rear of another train waiting in one of the sidings. The cross over comes into its own but the pilot needs a resting point! If there's no pilot then none of that is relevant! Bradford exchange had two station pilot spurs (one each for the GNR & L&Y). I'm regretting not having found space for one having started to work the model. Also, when it comes to modeling catch points you can get away with just modeling them cosmetically from a scrap of rail etc. They don't actually need to work on model railways. Unless, you're genuinely concerned for the health and safety of the plastic figures! Also alleviates any unwanted derailments. Regards Shaun

In a big effort to get things moving I blew 4 months modeling budget on one of these... After much research and over procrastination, this one seems a little big. 18000 BTUs could handle a building twice the size of the train room but the bigger the unit the less it has to work and for those days when it gets above 90F there won't be a problem neither if we have one of those winters when it gets down below 10F. Besides there was a whopping $200 discount voucher! The lift up section is coming along nicely. The track beds with associated under bracing are in place and the cork track bed can go down. A plan has been hatched to create electrical contact across the join when the board is lowered using brass section (which has also been purchased). The 16 contacts required will be fastened down to some decent ply which I'll cut dovetail fashion. Complicated enough, it's taken all afternoon to work out! This evening I'll start cutting the wood.

After watching this Canadian guy on YouTube I can see where I've been going wrong! Soldering is a skill that I need to master before I dare tackle Queensbury's footbridge!

Quite right Julian, having learnt that the hard way I can concur! What I've been trying to get away with after filing the tips is to coat the tip with high temp solder and switching to the 20 watt setting to use Miniatronics electrical solder. Everything's held up so far. Apart from a couple of joint failures but that's most likely down to my ham fistedness and ever deteriorating eyesight!!! I do have three other cheap 30W irons, so it's not the end of the world!

Hi J. You know I'm not sure. They are a screw on type with a 1/4 inch thread I'm not familiar with. Two other brand new, chunky tips are in the soldering iron drawer, so I'm thinking of taking them down my mates and milling them on his metal lathe but I don't know if they'll be any good as soldering iron tips afterwards. Perhaps someone with better soldering skills and knowledge might advise me on that. Regards Shaun Edit: Having thought about that I wouldn't actually have to mill the actual tips! I'll give him a call right now.

Totally inspired, a whole evening was spent in the garage. Certain things needed urgent attention. The turnout accessing the turntable had lost its over center spring. With no spare available and ballast firmly affixed, the easiest fix was to replace the point motor with an old H&M unit. There's about a dozen of these in the inventory which I've used to get over problems in the past! Note also the idea of using a bit of scrap rail as a mini bus-bar to connect all the orange common wires at top left. The rail acts as a heat sink when applying many daubs of solder and sweating on the wires! The arm should be easy to hide. Last week (just when our nephew wanted to see the trains run) there was a total points failure across the whole of Bradford and Goathland. This took a while to diagnose, one of the momentary toggle switches was faulty! A case of using CDUs to avoid catastrophe here! The switch had to be replaced but first the soldering iron needed attention. This problem is infuriating. There's nothing wrong with the iron or the unit/station just that it's a Radio Shack product (which is no more.) and the tips are no longer available! A google search revealed that there are several used stations for sale on the internet but no tips. Seems like I'm not the only fella with this problem! There was an old tip floating about which cleaned up nicely, so we'll see how long that lasts. The storage cupboards have been modified by relocating the center munts to the left door. This allows 6 little plastic file drawers, used to hold stock, to fit in each of the three double cabinets. (Yes, that's a lifetime of accumulating and building trains). Next job was to install LEDs in the storage loops under the back of Queensbury. The idea here is to install a camera (or two) which will be linked to my old Laptop so that I can see what's under there. Another much needed task was to Velcro the Exchange handheld unit to the side of the baseboard. It's crashed to the floor on more than one occasion, so best sort that out before there's an expensive disaster. Spot the nice screw on tip in the soldering iron? Now for some trains. J50 sorting a parcels train on the goods departure siding. Unusually, one of Stanier's passenger tanks making a stop at Queensbury on the short viaduct with a pair of Hornby's splendid LMS crimson suburban coaches. (Bit of a mouthful). N2 about to depart Goathland with more suburban stock, only this time, more appropriately teak! And, hot on the heals of the N2, a fish train. Fairburn 42105 t the helm. . There's a new addition to this train, the 6 wheeled example from Chivers Finelines. As supplied this kit comes with fixed plastic center wheels. This one had an axle fitted with Romford wheels which I had intended to float on the axle. Like all great ideas this required some tinkering to get it to function properly. After quite a few years sitting in a stock drawer I decided to dig it out and see what could be done. Turned out to be a simple fix which involved spreading the W irons apart to remove the wheel set and open the holes in the wheels with a broach! The others in the rake are a Cambrian models LMS type... Two Parkside LNER dia.134 vans. (Nice kits)... Followed by an earlier Bachmann short type, my scratch-built dia.37 long wheelbase open louvered van, dia.23, also scratch built and a standard van. I know standard fitted vans were used to carry fish on the LNER but which types they were I'm not sure of. This one is a wartime build, so probably the wrong sort! Hope you're having a good weekend. Squatch.

Oh ye of little faith... Scrap that last...couldn't see the joke. The penny drops eventually.

Recently a mark 2 type has been developed for Bradford Exchange which uses the spring from the Ratio point control kit. The spring doesn't work over long runs so some square brass tubes have been purchased with a view to making a simpler mechanism. More on this as and when it receives attention. Regards Shaun.

Hi Graham. Going back about 6 or 7 pages the conversation turned to getting a little done each day, (How do you eat an elephant....etc.) a philosophy which I have found only works until something or someone gets in the way. Take today for instance. I'd planned the day well with a nice "to do list" of jobs, all railway related. Before breakfast there was a text asking for an urgent door to be made. Next thing I know it's dinner time and after cleaning up the workshop was too tired to pick up a 00 paint brush. Then... ...I found your wonderful and inspirational thread! (the mind boggles as to how I haven't found it before). So the evening hasn't been at all wasted!. Will try to borrow a few hours catching up on here from somewhere in due course. Keep up the good work (and the trains running). Regards Shaun.

This week was spent in the woodwork shop building the framework for the lift up section. A bit complex this, there is one rising gradient at 1 in 80, one falling the same and another below falling at 1 in 50. The need to make things as light as possible has given rise to the open look of things, each rib and section of framework was carefully marked up to allow for removal of as much material as possible with 1 7/8" left all round constituting the actual frame. Unlike previous builds, this one is all screwed together without glue in case I need to make any modifications. To finish I routed all the cutouts with a 1/4 round in the trimmer. Gives it a nice finish. So far, I have cut out the track beds but not fixed them in place yet as I need to check the fit against the edge of Queensbury. Another idea was to have this section sort of dovetail into position as it is lowered. The mill town end has a 2 degree inward slant and the counterweight mechanism will be mounted also on a slant. We'll see how this pans out! Sorry, no trains. The track needs cleaning again after excessive use of the Dremel and a smoky summer using an old AC unit. I've been checking out "mini splits" online as a means to replace the unit and a much-needed heat source for the winter. Looks quite easy to install, just need to find a reliable one at a sensible price. Squatch.

All looking grand Terry. Are you far enough north to be in the tropics and if not are there seasons where you are?? I know Queensland is pretty big, (3.5 times the size of France or bigger than Alaska) so I bet you're a long way from any cities. My grandfather was stationed in Aus. during WWII as a RAF radio operator/traffic controller over the Timor sea, he always wanted to return and was waiting until I was old enough to accompany him and appreciate it. Sadly, he passed away when I was in my teens, but I've always wanted to do the trip in his honor. If that ever comes about, I'll take a detour and pay you a visit. Don't panic on the layout front, it won't be any time soon though! Regards Shaun.

Hi Chris. Thought you might have been on your hols! Last time I was in Porthmadog we did all the same stuff and climbed Moel y Gest, unforgettable as there's a hillfort on the summit! Hope you all had a great time, regards Shaun. Oh! P.S. Great job on the station entranceway😁

Yes, you are right! On the model during that particular running session the train had left Bradford and travelled through Queensbury as if it had come from Keighley, then down the long incline through the hidden loops behind Goathland. Upon terminating at the Castle junction I then reversed it through Goathland in the correct manor using the loop! It then went on to the hidden loops behind Queensbury and back the way it came only this time I had to run it wrong road because quite a few trains were backed waiting to enter Goathland!!! I'm very excited to get the whole layout finished so that all these weird running sessions can cease. Regards Shaun.

The past two weeks just flew by, we have my in-laws staying so there's not been much hobby time. Now that we have their truck and trailer packed with all the stuff they had stored here when they moved "back East", I uncovered the piece of aerobic walking equipment that had been given to me with the express purpose of making a lift up section for GUN. I began by dismantling it which was just too easy and cleaned all the parts with car-wash. Then drilled out 8 holes in the foot plates and filed these square to accept 1/4" coach bolts. (The only hard bit of work involved). The first idea was to have the layout mounted on both of the foot plates and have a counterweight mounted centrally. Having rebuilt the device this way I found the combined weight of both foot plates to be too heavy, so returned to the drawing board. The requirements are to have six feet of clearance when the section is in the raised position and to keep it all as light weight as possible. Realizing that four bolts should be adequate enough to support the section I decided to mount the counterweight on the other foot plate which then balanced things out as built which means I won't need so much counterweight. Version 2.0 was assembled off set with the layout moving upwards and the weight down below to floor level. Version 2.5, had a few adjustments but still without the six feet required. 2.6 lost two bolts off of the counterweight footplate which enabled me to stretch the frame. Finally version 3. With two lengths of local cedar, milled out to a tight fit which pokes into the aluminium raceways the top one dadoed out to create room for the cable. This is the raised position which also shows the end of Queensbury in relation to the side door and the need for a lift up section. Any other method such as a hinged section just will not work in the tight corner! That was a fun little project, something which needed attention before construction of the mill town can move forward. Hope that you found that interesting, (something different usually is!) Squatch