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Heaton Lodge Junction


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Likewise I spent a lot of time there as a kid sitting on the embankments. 

I like working with brass so I’m looking forward to building those lighting towers. I’ve about 30 close ups of them so should be able to copy the basic design.

The main challenge will be fitting the lighting banks at the top and making them work (I’m not going to use LED’s - wrong kind of light). 

 

Right, back to the fiddle yard 

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3 hours ago, HSB said:

I'm intrigued to know what will you do with the trains to Dewsbury as these obviously don't run through Healey Mills.

All trains due over the route to/from Dewsbury have either been cancelled or diverted due to an unsafe bridge over the River Calder - one way out perhaps?

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I used to cycle to Healey Mills to cop whatever was on shed. A friend of my Dad's (now retired, who shall remain nameless) was one of the train Controllers at HM, and if we went over the bridge to the yard control office, he'd print off a copy of the shed list for us on what looked like a teleprinter (This was 1979!). Often he'd escort a couple of us round if we asked nicely. On New Years' day for a couple of years running my mate (who shall also remain nameless as his father is extremely well known in railway photography) and I, used to take what I might describe as 'unescorted' shed tours..... if you get my drift. The place would be packed due to most trains not running that day, and freight in particular. Great times, but of course all that stopped, and the place deteriorated gradually to what it is today - a wasteland. I can't wait to see the model develop.

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Thanks for those memories Andrew.

I drive past what remains of it a couple times a week.. it’s back to nature now. Tragic really. 

 

In operational terms the biggest challenge will be finding a way to route trains around the model HM in the correct way since the two tracks on either side of the yard went in one direction, whereas by the time they reached Heaton Lodge they had returned to up/down/up/down. I’ll figure something out ..

This pic shows the two down lines on the right

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Quick update...

 

Although a tad boring since I’ve switched from the scenic side to the fiddle yards for the time being.

 FY for tracks 1 & 2 is just being finished and I’ve just begun wiring at one end.

I’m using scotch lok connectors to attach the droppers to the bus which saves a heck of a load of soldering.

 

The fiddle yards you see will soon be moved 40ft downwards to provide room for Healey Mills.

HM will be connected to the scenic side by 35ft radius curves super elevated by a couple of mm. Should have these 35ft radius frames by the end of this month.

Onwards and Upwards.

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This isn’t meant as a criticism  of what you are doing but just noting it’s good to know you are mortal because even with four square miles of space you have still been tempted to squeezed in that line right down the edge of the board!

 

Presumably you’ll have something to stop a Healey Mills to concrete floor moment? Possibly a whole extra board?

 

I only say this from painful experience. Mine was actually a slightly too close to the edge line with wool-jumper-snag-of-small-etched-detail-rake-of-kit builds-ending-up-on-the-floor type incident.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Next couple of months will be boring since I’m wanting to fully finish the 120ft fiddle yard by then.

Thought I’d break with tradition and paint the track as I go along..

 

Just hundreds of droppers to connect to the bus wires, thank goodness for scotchlok connectors! 

 

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Edited by HeatonLodge40
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2 hours ago, HeatonLodge40 said:

I have absolutely no idea :) 

I've actually found it quite useful to paint the surface of the fiddle yard a light colour to help see thi gs when coupling and uncoupling etc. I used a fairly light grey.

 

Jamie

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