Woolmer Green 1935-40

[Jesse Sim]

9 hours ago, Dylan Sanderson said:

I recognise those wagons! 

Indeed you do, it should be finished this week and I promise to give you full recognition for the doors. 

[Jesse Sim]

5 hours ago, MarkC said:

Bit late to the party, but might that track have simply settled under the weight of the locomotive? If the embankment wasn't really substantial, or perhaps it had been weakened by burrowing animals, that's a possibility?

That’s what I was thinking and that’s what I’ll be going for. I’ll keep the track level and just build the sand trap around it. 

[Jesse Sim]

Works slowed on the layout, but that doesn’t mean I’ve been twiddling my thumbs. Been getting on with some wagon projects. 
 

The star attraction that I’ve finally finished which some of you may have seen on Tony’s thread is the department train. 
 

 

For the last few days I’ve been weathering and renumbering Bachmann fish wagons. I purchased about a dozen of these about five years ago, before I had seen the light and thought wagons were all the same, oh such a rookie mistake!!! From left to right:

This one has just been weathered, although I’ve tried to make it look as if someone has tried to clean it whilst the door was open, so there’s a nice bit of much on the right where the door would have been hard up against. I also tried to do scratch marks from the door closing and opening, not sure if you can see it in the photos. Next we have weather and just one number change, no prizes on which number as Bachmann lettering seems to be too big….I’ve weathered this as if someone has come along and just cleaned the lettering. The third wagon is just a nice and grubby look. Moving along to the fourth wagon, this one I’ve re numbered into the post 37 lettering with the old larger lettering still showing. I’ve always wanted to do this and I’m glad it’s worked out. All I did was a repaint of the whole wagon, but only one coat, then the lettering and a weather. The last one, same as the others one number change and a weather. 
 

 

Back to seeing the light and that not all wagons were the one style, one of the distinctive characteristics was the different heights of vans in photos, finally I have a train that’s starting to look like that and that is the fish train. You can still see the majority of the Bachmann fish vans that haven’t been weathered yet at the back!! 

 

 
 

Now for some fruit vans which lead the scotch goods, two Bachmann fruit vans only weathered, I weathered one so you can’t read the number. Lazy? Smart? I’ll let you be the judge…

The centre wagon is a Dapol product that came with that horrible factory weathering, so a complete repaint and new lettering, a fresh weather and she’s fit for service. 
 

 

I also built a David Geen GWR fruit van, a NER fish van from Wizards, a Parkside LNER standard steel ended van and I’ve almost finished an old Roger Chivers brass bogie CCT van, they’ll be posted up next week. Really pulled my finger out this week!

[Dylan Sanderson]

16 minutes ago, Jesse Sim said:

Works slowed on the layout, but that doesn’t mean I’ve been twiddling my thumbs. Been getting on with some wagon projects. 
 

The star attraction that I’ve finally finished which some of you may have seen on Tony’s thread is the department train. 
 

 

For the last few days I’ve been weathering and renumbering Bachmann fish wagons. I purchased about a dozen of these about five years ago, before I had seen the light and thought wagons were all the same, oh such a rookie mistake!!! From left to right:

This one has just been weathered, although I’ve tried to make it look as if someone has tried to clean it whilst the door was open, so there’s a nice bit of much on the right where the door would have been hard up against. I also tried to do scratch marks from the door closing and opening, not sure if you can see it in the photos. Next we have weather and just one number change, no prizes on which number as Bachmann lettering seems to be too big….I’ve weathered this as if someone has come along and just cleaned the lettering. The third wagon is just a nice and grubby look. Moving along to the fourth wagon, this one I’ve re numbered into the post 37 lettering with the old larger lettering still showing. I’ve always wanted to do this and I’m glad it’s worked out. All I did was a repaint of the whole wagon, but only one coat, then the lettering and a weather. The last one, same as the others one number change and a weather. 
 

 

Back to seeing the light and that not all wagons were the one style, one of the distinctive characteristics was the different heights of vans in photos, finally I have a train that’s starting to look like that and that is the fish train. You can still see the majority of the Bachmann fish vans that haven’t been weathered yet at the back!! 

 

 
 

Now for some fruit vans which lead the scotch goods, two Bachmann fruit vans only weathered, I weathered one so you can’t read the number. Lazy? Smart? I’ll let you be the judge…

The centre wagon is a Dapol product that came with that horrible factory weathering, so a complete repaint and new lettering, a fresh weather and she’s fit for service. 
 

 

I also built a David Geen GWR fruit van, a NER fish van from Wizards, a Parkside LNER standard steel ended van and I’ve almost finished an old Roger Chivers brass bogie CCT van, they’ll be posted up next week. Really pulled my finger out this week!

Super work as always mate, you've really got the hang of this weathering malarkey!

[St Enodoc]

9 hours ago, Jesse Sim said:

The centre wagon is a Dapol product

Make sure that one runs OK. Dapol wheels like derailing.

[Chamby]

22 minutes ago, St Enodoc said:

Make sure that one runs OK. Dapol wheels like derailing.

 

Agreed... some weight in the wagon helps, I add 10-15g to all my Dapol wagons.

[Jesse Sim]

47 minutes ago, St Enodoc said:

Make sure that one runs OK. Dapol wheels like derailing.

 

23 minutes ago, Chamby said:

 

Agreed... some weight in the wagon helps, I add 10-15g to all my Dapol wagons.

It runs fine and I have added two pieces of heavy gutter flashing stuff into it. 

[A1X]

23 hours ago, Jesse Sim said:

 

 

 

 

 

 

rookie daft question , but whos paint did you use for the 4th wagon ? its something id like to have a go at, and it looks perfect. 

[Jesse Sim]

2 hours ago, A1X said:

rookie daft question , but whos paint did you use for the 4th wagon ? its something id like to have a go at, and it looks perfect. 

It’s not a rookie question mage, we all ask questions as simple as this, it helps us build ourselves into better modellers. 
 

It’s Phoenix precision paints, or whatever it’s called, LNER bauxite or LNER red, I honestly can’t remember but you’ll know it when you see it. I got it back when I was at war key in 2019. It’s hard to get paints sent down to Australia from the UK, I need someone who likes me enough in the UK who can send them down to me as acrylic instead of oil. I know friends down here who have done the same and it’s worked. 
 

They won’t let you receive it here through the post, but you can chuck it in your carry on or luggage and walk through the terminals!!!!???? Makes sense right! 

[Chamby]

1 hour ago, Jesse Sim said:

They won’t let you receive it here through the post, but you can chuck it in your carry on or luggage and walk through the terminals!!!!???? Makes sense right! 

 

Same here, Jesse.  You can’t send solvent-based paint tinlets via the postal service, but courier services will happily deliver them... ditto with spray cans.

[Jesse Sim]

Ooooh yes, starting to look the goods. 

 

 

The crossover has the Graham Nicholas treatment, I haven’t done one of these since 2017 and if I’m honest I was slightly worried. It’s on a curve and needed to be cut down for the correct 45mm spacing. As flimsy and delicate as the bullhead track is it was easier then expected. Which is due to the wider spacing of the sleepers compared to code 100 so no filing down sleepers to allow track joiners across. Knocked it up in about 10 minutes and glued in 10 minutes after that. Pat on the back for me. 
 

 

The bridge has been sheeted on the inside and started on the outside just waiting for some much better arches to arrive from SMS so that might take a month or so. So I decided to to build the rest of it whilst it’s glued/screwed down in place. This allows me to crack on with track laying and wiring and hopefully get some testing in. Stay tuned. 

[LNERGE]

 

[Barry O]

On 15/10/2021 at 15:30, Jesse Sim said:

It’s not a rookie question mage, we all ask questions as simple as this, it helps us build ourselves into better modellers. 
 

It’s Phoenix precision paints, or whatever it’s called, LNER bauxite or LNER red, I honestly can’t remember but you’ll know it when you see it. I got it back when I was at war key in 2019. It’s hard to get paints sent down to Australia from the UK, I need someone who likes me enough in the UK who can send them down to me as acrylic instead of oil. I know friends down here who have done the same and it’s worked. 
 

They won’t let you receive it here through the post, but you can chuck it in your carry on or luggage and walk through the terminals!!!!???? Makes sense right! 

Looks like I may be bringing gallons of paint with me next time we can get to see you all!

 

Baz

[St Enodoc]

42 minutes ago, Barry O said:

Looks like I may be bringing gallons of paint with me next time we can get to see you all!

 

Baz

I've got a little list...

[Chamby]

1 hour ago, St Enodoc said:

I've got a little list...

 

Most people would keep that sort of thing private...

[Jesse Sim]

1 hour ago, Barry O said:

Looks like I may be bringing gallons of paint with me next time we can get to see you all!

 

Baz

 

1 hour ago, St Enodoc said:

I've got a little list...

Same 

[Dylan Sanderson]

13 hours ago, Jesse Sim said:

just waiting for some much better arches to arrive from SMS so that might take a month or so. 

Pretty optimistic of you, it takes longer than that to clear Aussie customs!

[Jesse Sim]

1 hour ago, Dylan Sanderson said:

Pretty optimistic of you, it takes longer than that to clear Aussie customs!

Well if you pull your finger out I might have them by March 

[Jesse Sim]

Well now haven’t I reached a milestone over the weekend. TRAINS RUNNING I REPEAT TRAINS RUNNING!!!! 
 

Finally a train moving on the new layout. I must say I’m very proud of myself, first prototype, first use of bullhead track, first time glueing track instead of pinning it down and the first time making up different track connections (bullhead to code 100). It runs beautifully, once I finish some wiring at the north end fiddleyard and finishing layout the down lines in the scenic section I’ll take a small video and upload it on YouTube with the link posted in here as well. 
 

Excuse the mess, I’d been going at the railway from 7am Saturday morning. So here goes nothing. Please excuse wrong head codes I grabbed the first loco’s I seen. 
 

The department train snaking its way onto the fast line at Woolmer Green Box (not modelled yet). Excuse the open wagon at the front easiest way to get a Kadee to couple to the O2. 
 

 

Now rolling across the viaduct towards Welwyn North portal. 
 

 

A parcels train thunders past, in charge is the modified C1 ‘4419’. There are three more bogie vans that need to be added to this take but I haven’t finished them yet. 

 

 

 

Now cleared to enter the main line, an out of gauge working, a department bucket machine thingy, hauled by an O4. Might be a little too high even for an out of gauge working but we won’t tell anyone….

 

 

 

 

 

 

[gr.king]

Well the open wagon is simply on loan to the civil engineers isn't it?

 

I have a basic diagram somewhere for a former GC trolley wagon whose deck is slung from the under-side of the bogies, but I doubt if even that would be low enough to get your steam shovel under the gauge.

[cctransuk]

11 minutes ago, gr.king said:

Well the open wagon is simply on loan to the civil engineers isn't it?

 

I have a basic diagram somewhere for a former GC trolley wagon whose deck is slung from the under-side of the bogies, but I doubt if even that would be low enough to get your steam shovel under the gauge.

 

The GWR had trolleys which could carry excavators; in fact, I would go so far as to say that they were designed specifically for that purpose.

 

Having superimposed a diagram of a Ruston Bucyrus face shovel over one of the trolley, the end profile fits the loading gauge like a hand in a glove!

 

I have modelled the combination in BR era format; the trolley is accompanied by a former ROLL wagon, adapted to support the jib and bucket.

 

CJI.

[Jesse Sim]

Another milestone reached over the weekend, the UP mainline has now reached the fiddleyard. Now to wire it up and test and then just the UP fiddleyard to wire over the Christmas break. If I get a chance I’m also going to start working on the embankments where I can to get the feel of the layout. This will also stop tools being lost into the abyss between the lower level and track bed. But mostly for it to look like a railway. 
 

 

One thing I was worried about was joining the Peco Bullhead to Code 100 track on a curve, but it actually worked easier then expected. Some filing was needed on the down lines but not the up lines, isn’t it amazing how the stars align. 
 

 

Now, for the last piece of track, the Down loop, in the pictures I have it shows a catch point. My question is do I use the cut down point shown and put a point motor in and power it? Or, use the cut down point and use it as a dummy. I’m leaning more towards the first option as it will make nice photos with the catch point turned away from the mainlines. 
 

 

I also got Thomas DCC’d, can’t have a layout without Thomas!!! 
 

 

 

[St Enodoc]

55 minutes ago, Jesse Sim said:

Now, for the last piece of track, the Down loop, in the pictures I have it shows a catch point. My question is do I use the cut down point shown and put a point motor in and power it? Or, use the cut down point and use it as a dummy. I’m leaning more towards the first option as it will make nice photos with the catch point turned away from the mainlines. 

Can't be bothered to search back for the signal box diagram but I suspect that it wasn't a worked point, just sprung, so trains going in the right direction would simply push the blades open (in fact, did it have two blades or just one?). You might be able to replicate that with a very light spring on the tiebar.

[Jesse Sim]

23 minutes ago, St Enodoc said:

Can't be bothered to search back for the signal box diagram but I suspect that it wasn't a worked point, just sprung, so trains going in the right direction would simply push the blades open (in fact, did it have two blades or just one?). You might be able to replicate that with a very light spring on the tiebar.

oooh, that’s interesting! 
 

Although looking at pictures I think it is a worked point, well I think it’s point rodding seen here next to the point. 
 

 

Here’s another shot.

 

And the Signal Box diagram. 
 

 

Edited December 20, 2021 by Jesse Sim

[St Enodoc]

15 minutes ago, Jesse Sim said:

oooh, that’s interesting! 
 

Although looking at pictures I think it is a worked point, well I think it’s point rodding seen here next to the point. 
 

 

Here’s another shot.

 

And the Signal Box diagram. 
 

 

Good. The diagram tells the story. It's worked as a crossover with the point leading from the Down Main to the Down Slow, so not a spring point after all. If you've got a spare motor I'd suggest you fit it.