Armchair Modeller

Remember, it is only a small part of the point blade at the top that ever comes in contact with the wheels. You don't have to make the whole point blade come to a sharp point at the end. I tend to finish the blades off in situ, using a rat-tailed file to gently taper the top in both the horisontal and the vertical plane. I don't find I need joggles, as such. If you are modelling bullhead points, you do need a sharp bend in the stock rail of the diverging road - something I don't see too often in model form. Martin Wynne has posted some good stuff on this - see http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/72348-building-a-cl-curved-crossover-in-situ/&do=findComment&comment=1057014

Having built bullhead turnouts in several gauges, I find the robustness of soldered construction really does take some beating. It then makes sense to build short interconnecting sections of plain track the same way. For longer sections of plain bullhead track, Easitrac is superb for the job - just as long as you can put up with the difference in appearance to the soldered pointwork. For flat-bottomed track in 2mm scale, soldered turnout construction seems the only real option to me. For plain F/B track, Easitrac has large blobs of plastic to hold the rail in place - understandable in practical terms. With careful construction, plain soldered 2mm track looks marginally better to my eye, but this has to be weighed against the time it takes to build long sections of it. Glad you have the confidence to learn from operating St Ruth and make it even better than it already was.

This site gives some interesting insights into building elaborate buildings in plasticard http://www.stummiforum.de/viewtopic.php?f=51&t=73945 It is in German, but well illustrated with photos

You are making good progress. If you want something a bit different for the scenery on your little test track, why not consider something like a mirror image of this....... https://plus.google.com/photos/109299397625935615448/albums/5867146786603519249/5867151026486084802?banner=pwa&pid=5867151026486084802&oid=109299397625935615448 I had thought of doing something similar myself, but probably never will.

Apologies, I misunderstood the photo

Apologies for hijacking the thread, but here is a map of the route from Nottingham Victoria to Northampton. I would imagine a few people would find the route puzzling but in reality it was moderately direct. It just didn't go through any big places en-route. Based on very old maps, well out of copyright.

There are some interesting screen shots there - someone has obviously put a lot of work into reproducing the GC in all its glory. I did notice though that a lot of artistic licence has been used in the Linby scene, in particular - the GN and Midland stations were nothing like those drawn. Presumably that s just a case of concentrating all their efforts on getting the GC bit right.

Are you thinking of using concrete or wooden sleepers? Concrete sleepers on the main line and wooden on the sidings would look nice. For concrete on plain track, I would be OK with Peco. It is not too bad and can be helped by a bit of deep ballasting. For wooden sleepers, there is no contest for me - Finetrax. For pointwork, a lot depends on how you have planned the layout. Real FB pointwork should generally look longer than anything PECO produce, so I would personally scratchbuild. If you are using shorter points to fit everything in, you might as well use Peco, but disguise the "concrete" ones with a few cosmetic touches. The Finetrax points should be available sometime for bullhead. The difference between code 55 and code 40 would be almost prototypical, when you see real bullhead next to modern FB rail.

.........talking of which there are some really good pictures of the GC line on the RCTS Mystery Photographs site http://www.rcts.org.uk/features/mysteryphotos/ You can browse earlier days by clicking NEXT at the bottom of each page, or do searches for individual locations. "Bulwell" (and variations), "Hucknall", Hucknall Central", Hucknall GC", "Hucknall Town" all highlight interesting shots (not all GC), never mind Annesley, Kirkby and places further north or south.

My knowledge mainly covers the area from Bulwell up to Beighton and the Chesterfield loop. If you need any help in that part of the world, I would be only too pleased to help if I can. Nottingham railways are covered to some extent on the Nottstalgia site here http://nottstalgia.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=7892

http://www.britainfromabove.org.uk/image/epw020931?search=bulwell&ref=11 This image more or less shows the whole span of the viaduct. , with Hucknall Lane on the left. Morrisons store building is actually just north of the course of the viaduct. The main part of the car park is on the viaduct site. Very little in this shot is recognisable now, except perhaps the golf course, top right, and the course of the Robin Hood Line/NET, mid right top to bottom of the picture.

Bulwell viaduct was indeed where Morrisons now is - it started just on the Bulwell side of the railway social club on Bestwood Road and spanned the valley, ending next to the old baths/lido (now the Ken Martin Sports Centre) on the west side of Hucknall Lane. You can still see the blue brick of the base of the viaduct there, if I remember correctly. If you think it is difficult to trace there, it is far harder to imagine where it once ran further north, beyond Hucknall. Huge lengths of it have been landscaped into oblivion.

The New Basford and other photos in earlier installments show just how quickly flat-bottomed track was introduced, once it became the BR standard in 1948(?) - and not always on what we might today perceive as the most important lines either. How often do we see it modelled even in the rail blue era, never mind the late 1940s and early 1950s? More really great photos - sincere thanks again for sharing them!

Maybe you should think about what else might be different on the railway map if Millers Dale were still open. Possibilities for retention include the north to east curve at Ambergate and the Codnor Park/Pye Bridge to Ambergate line. If I remember correctly, Dr Beeching's closure proposals were rather different to what actually happened in the Peak District. Maybe the Hope Valley line was closed in favour of Woodhead, which was Dr Beeching's plan, I believe. That way, freight from Rotherham and Sheffield might easily run via Chesterfield, Clay Cross and Ambergate to avoid congestion, engineering works or whatever on the Woodhead line.

Those bridges look like they would make a fantastic diorama! Thanks again for sharing all these wonderful photos with us. They deserve to go in a publication, so we can all treasure them at will.

It could be Stockport - one of Manchester's other big clubs - playing FC United soon. Depending on how results go this evening, SCFC could be in Conference North next year.

Brilliant photos - many thanks for showing them! Just one very small query - Calverton Colliery branch bridge over A606 near Burnt Stump c1951 JVol2235 is actually the A614 - the A606 is south of Nottingham?

Not now they have retention tanks on the trains

You can't trust chicken wire these days -it might be contaminated with horse wire You seem to be making really good progress with this layout - it certainly shows the merit of not being too ambitious.

I guess there ought to be some spare space on the embankment, beyond the catch points on the goods yard loop - otherwise wagons might fall straight down the bank after they left the rails.

Could this have been something to do with the diversion works when the original timber viaduct was replaced? - just a thought

I didn't realise until I saw this shot today that Warship windscreens were hinged for additional ventilation. Nice piece of modelling!

One thing I notice is all the flat-bottomed rail in some of those shots. How many people model f/b in the steam era, or even think about using it?

Methinks the EF1s should have been used double-headed to run trains over the Woodhead route. It would have given modellers a bit more variety Was there any difference in the power supply between the Woodhead route and the NER electrification to prevent this - without modifying the locos themselves? Also, I guess the EF1s weren't equipped for operating in multiple?

Am Baile has some railway drawings, plans etc. http://www.ambaile.org.uk