Hills of the North - The Last Great Project

[John Tomlinson]

18 hours ago, Clive Mortimore said:

I did last night but forgot to put it back on the shelf, lazy toad that I am.

 

There was a time, maybe 15 -20 years ago, that Essery Vol.1 was like gold dust. I remember paying something I shudder to think of for one in Robert Humms in Stamford. The BR Standard Wagons book by the group of four including Paul Bartlett was even scarcer, but eventually I found one of those as well. A great pity they never went beyond Volume 1.

 

All of the ones on your shelf seem to be near indispensible if you wish your wagons to be correct.

 

John.

[LNER4479]

Well, as the last few hours of AD 2021 tick by (noting that it has already finished in the upside down part of the world), I can conclude the year on an upbeat note, at least so far as HotN is concerned.

 

Despite the project being officially paused whilst Grantham gets some attention, in actual fact, over the last few weeks, some development work has quietly been going on. The cue for this was partly the dismantlement of Grantham's fiddle yard immediately prior to its appearance at the Leeds show but also the departure of the GMRC Swiss layout to its new home in Luton. A combination of the two has created some welcome  S P A C E !

 

This has given access to my stash of heavy duty chipboard, ideal for lowest level fiddle yard boards. These two sizeable chunks have been hewn out of a 8 x 4 piece and are here temporarily plonked in place so I can weigh up the 180+ degree curve that will take the trains out the back of Central station towards the true fiddle yard.

 

And now we have got to the point of no return; in other words, that new framework is permanently rawl-plugged to the (concrete) floor, meaning that the Grantham fiddle yard can no longer be set up. (it's just the front scenic section of the latter layout that is set up to be worked on at the moment).

 

And this afternoon, with the new boards permanently fixed down, a chance to try out the proposed trackplan for a first fit. The left hand board is in fact hinged against the wall so it can be lifted out of the way for access (and just in case we ever need to remove all or part of Central station for any reason ...)

 

In more detail. Three lines continue out of the back of the station as shown. Partly, this is so the station can accommodate a longer train (eg 10 coaches rather than 7) without it fouling the station throat. In which case, the loco moves forward off the end of the train and returns via the centre road between plats 3 and 4 (using the key crossover visible in the previous picture). The stock can either form a new working as it is (ie departure from plats 2 or 3), or be taken forward into the fiddle yard area for storage or remarshalling. Platform 4 being a departure platform only, stock for this platform works forward out of the fiddle yard, typically in a new formation.

 

And this is how the fiddle yard area looks. It might initially look like an impossibly modest area, given the scale of the layout. However, first of all the four sidings towards the back will all be sizeable in length (capable of holding 11-14 coach length trains, as they will extend some way off to the right), whilst the two nearest stubs of track represent where the cassette handling area will be. The inner line heading off to the left is what I'm calling the 'cassette advance' road. This leads towards platform 4 ... so a train can be fairly quickly assembled (as disassembled), 4 coaches at a time, and advanced towards plat.4. That's the theory anyway!

 

Even more excitedly (steady!), once these boards are fully in place, they form the support for the layer above, namely the WCML descending down from Shap summit towards Carlisle and Dentonholme goods yard.

 

Roll on 2022!

 

Edited April 11, 2022 by LNER4479

[LNER4479]

And, in the spirit of the moment, why not a look back over the year to see what was achieved?

 

 

Baseboards were constructed to take the main running lines from 'Grand Junction', diagonally across the chapel ...

 

 

... into the refurbished and enlarged Central station.

 

 

This enabled the running of trains from Shap and Garsdale into Central (and vice versa)

 

 

The start of what will need to be a comprehensive control system around the layout, including miniature block bell indicators.

 

 

And the start of the running lines north of Carlisle, tucked into the underside of Shap Fell(!)

 

 

Putting it all together into a first attempt running session. Very instructive(!)

 

 

In other (loco) news. Long time favourite loco from way back into my childhood, original Hornby Dublo Duchess 'City of London', these days re-wheeled and running as 46228 'Duchess of Rutland', was - much to my surprise and delight - put on indefinite loan to the layout. Belying her 60 years age (she's older than me!), she proudly strides away from a dead stand on Shap with 11 coaches in tow.

 

 

Two Jubilees - one old, one new - had some attention. Towing a correct welded 4000 gallon tender, a Bachmann 45611 has become long time Holbeck favourite 45573 'Newfoundland', symbolically 'heading the Waverley'.

 

 

And finally, a piece of pure indulgence. The pre-War Coronation Scot on Shap recreated, courtesy of the red box brigade. See it running at York (all being well).

 

Hoping to make similar strides in the year to come.

 

 

 

Edited April 11, 2022 by LNER4479

[LNER4479]

Well, it may have been a while, whilst Grantham has taken centre stage, but ...

 

Don't get TOO excited, but part of Shap is blinking in the daylight again after the best part of a year. As well as simply being nice to see it again(!), the specific reason for putting this bit up is this:

 

In case you'd forgotten(!), this is the compex of running lines - possibly the most complex piece of the whole scheme to get right - beyond the end of the Shap Wells scene, which is top left-ish and ends where the height of '145' is indicated.

 

Ta-daa!

 

Well, sort of. The work over the last few weeks has involved rough cutting some of the baseboards to be and just trying it all out for fit. What you see here is:

- at the upper level, the WCML running off the end of the Shap Wells scene and doing a 120deg curve as it heads - and descends - towards Carlisle. The curve therefore marks the summit, although this will be non-scenic.

- at the middle level, the four track section north of Carlisle (partially hidden under Shap fell, top left), splitting into the passenger lines entering the north end of Citadel station and the goods avoiding lines, heading for Dentonholme yard, both sets of lines crossing beneath 'Shap summit'

-at the lowest level, barely discernible on the left hand side, are the S&C running lines, heading north from Garsdale and doing a 90deg, 3 foot radius turn to keep them clear of the Citadel station site.

 

From a slightly different viewpoint, in case any of the above isn't clear(!)

 

And this view might give a clearer idea of the different levels involved. One thing I'm toying with here is to make all these a series of lifting flaps to avoid endless diving under, particularly during ongoing construction. Some degree of crawl-under is going to be inevitable (eg underneath Carlisle station) but would be good to minimise it where possible.

 

This view gives also gives a clearer idea of what is likely to transpire beyond Shap summit (left hand as viewed). For operational reasons, I need somewhere for the bankers to drop off and return back down the bank - but also somewhere for the Penrith/Keswick services to turn back without descending Shap bank. I can just nicely fit in a three platform, 4-coach length station - Shaprith, perhaps?(!)

 

With the looming Easter weekend now free following the unfortuante cancellation of the York show, it might be an opportunity to push on with some of this construction now that I have undertaken suitable and sufficient cogitations. Stay tuned ... 

 

[New Haven Neil]

Crumbs, hope you passed O level woodwork.....😆

 

Great to see progress though, what a project this is.

[LNER4479]

14 hours ago, New Haven Neil said:

Crumbs, hope you passed O level woodwork.....😆

 

With flying colours. I made a sledge out of an old (mahogany) blackboard surround, complete with front runner steering.

[Enterprisingwestern]

50 minutes ago, LNER4479 said:

With flying colours. I made a sledge out of an old (mahogany) blackboard surround, complete with front runner steering.

 

It's in there somewhere!

 

Mike.

[St Enodoc]

3 hours ago, LNER4479 said:

I made a sledge

Kitmaster?

[Enterprisingwestern]

1 hour ago, St Enodoc said:

Kitmaster?

 

That's enough tobogganing on with!

 

Mike.

[LNER4479]

Plodding on ...

 

Some structure now in place for two out of the four curves at the top end of Shap - the ones that are relevant to the immediate next parts of the construction. As a reminder(?!), the top one is effectively Shap summit and takes the WCML off the Shap Wells scene; the lower one is the Carlisle goods lines north of the city heading (L to R) towards Dentonholme yard.

 

First one can be lifted out of the way ...

 

... and then the other. Thus preventing die ducking und die stooping (at least for now) to get into the main layout area.

 

Meanwhile, looking the other way, the two sets of running lines cross each other like so. The top board is shaping up to be a fusion of Shap and Penrith stations - 'Shaprith' perhaps? The idea is that the station should be able to accommodate a max 4-coach train reversing here to depict the Carlisle Penrith/Keswick services. The six parallel(-ish) lines laid out in the distance are purely as an indication for now of the spacing of the roads at Dentonholme, which will be at a lower level.

 

The running lines through this section have the potential to have a rather nice sweep to them. A little bit of alignment optimisation will be called for, methinks.

 

And after a bit of marking and cogitating, the requisite saw cut has been made in the ply to allow a first go at thinking about the trackwork at the north end of Dentonholme yard. No trains will ever routinely run through here without stopping so it will be quite in order for a goods trains to stop on these lines to allow parts to be dropped off and added from the main yard behind. From there, such parts can then form the basis of the infamous trip workings between the other yards (Upperby and Canal in my case). Should be fascinating stuff.

 

In the background can also be seen some of the tracklaying to get stock out of the back of Central station into the 'rest of the world' fiddle yard area for stabling / remarshalling. The WCML running lines will be on top of some of these sidings.

 

More as soon as there is more to show.

 

Edited May 3, 2022 by LNER4479

[LNER4479]

Hmmm ... three months since last update. Things have been a bit glacial of late, with the months of June and July more or less spoken for with other activities (see Grantham thread for at least partial explanation). However, 'glacial' implies that there has been SOME progress, as follows:

 

We left it last time with basic boards cut for Shap North and Dentonholme North, the former of which has to cross the latter at a higher level. Ergo, the track on the latter needs laying before the former is fixed into place ...

 

By my standards(?), it might not seem like much tracklaying, but quite some thought and time was given to these modest three track lengths pictured, comprising the junction (throat) of the yard at its northern end, with the headshunt at the top and up / down running lines heading towards Carlisle North (Cardew) junctions below. It'll be some time methinks before these tracks are livened up and play host to real live goods trains but there they are, the visible parts suitable sprayed on the painted corked base and even with a point motor already installed (steady, now).

 

And with the upper board temporarily (for now) positioned in place, you can see why this needed to be done as so. That 4F gets about a bit.

 

Some further thought now being given to possible track layouts for the location that might be known as 'Shaprith'. Bottom centre are the signalbox diagrams for Penrith which the location at least operationally needs to replicate, trying to deduce how things were shunted at the actual location, especially any terminating Carlisle-Penrith services. As always, things are never quite as one would imagine. Not completely 'sold' on the pointwork formation shown here. Needs more sleeping on (one advantage of 'glacial' progress).

 

This picture shows quite well the relationship of this part of the layout within the overall configuration of the scheme. Top right is the final board of the Shap Wells scene, following which you can see the full 135deg curve round to bring the tracks through 'Shaprith'. I'll do a full alignment exercise to make this as sweeping a curve as possible, serendipitously curving the right way for the location (if we're associating it with Penrith). Meanwhile, you can see how these running lines, steadily descending towards Carlisle, partially overlap the rest-of-the-world fiddle yard, bottom left. There's plenty of clearance here and it will amount to four covered, dead-end roads, whilst the nearest line will form the cassette fiddling area which will be free of encumbrance from above.

 

Lot of thought going into it all at this stage, so a certain amount of glaciality is no bad thing at the present time. Not too much though - hoping to accelerate a little in the autumn, in amongst the show season.

[LNER4479]

Meanwhile, all has not been idle on the stock front ...

 

Remember this? To my horror, this picture was taken in May last year(!) Sadly, the previous posts on this build have been lost with the server crash, so there follows a resume ...

 

Starting from plain 20 thou and 40 thous plasticard, the sides are slowly built up, layer by layer, until ...

 

Ta-daa! We have not one but TWO kits (effectively) for a LMS Dia 1872 6w CCT body. Good drawing and pic to work off in the Tatlow NPCS drawings book.

 

Duly assembled.

 

For the running gear I was a bit lazy. There was talk when I posted last of Cleminson chassis ... sorry! Here we have essential a long wheel-base 4w van - fixed axle on the right; rocking axle on the left - with the middle wheelset just along for the ride. Seems to work fine on Peco track.

 

Brake gear rigged up from whatever I had to hand in the 'spares' boxes.

 

And there we have the two vehicles, the one on the left depicting those built on recovered ex-LNWR 6w coaching stock and that on the right of the more modern running gear.

 

And, to bring us bang up to date (for this was only taken a few days ago), roofed, painted and more or less ready for the road. I've not tried too hard with the paint finish as both will get a healthy dose of weathering. But I do declare these are the first true scratchbuilt 'wagons' (OK, NPCS to be accurate) that I've ever built and I rather like them.

 

Pics of North-West MR 1950s show them cropping up all over the place so definitely worth having a couple of them knocking around the layout.

 

Of course, that man's law saw to it that the recent stash of kits I'm helping to move on had two Chivers kits for just such a vehicle. I still like mine, though ...

 

[LNER4479]

Meanwhile ...

 

Wot's 'E up to now?

 

If you come along to the Taunton show, all will be revealed. I'll post more after that and there should be another chance to see at Manchester show in December.

 

[30368]

2 hours ago, LNER4479 said:

And there we have the two vehicles, the one on the left depicting those built on recovered ex-LNWR 6w coaching stock and that on the right of the more modern running gear.

 

 

Truly first class work.

 

Kind regards,

 

Richard B

[Clive Mortimore]

2 hours ago, LNER4479 said:

Meanwhile ...

 

Wot's 'E up to now?

 

If you come along to the Taunton show, all will be revealed. I'll post more after that and there should be another chance to see at Manchester show in December.

 

Period II CK and/or SO.

[Clive Mortimore]

2 hours ago, LNER4479 said:

Meanwhile, all has not been idle on the stock front ...

 

Remember this? To my horror, this picture was taken in May last year(!) Sadly, the previous posts on this build have been lost with the server crash, so there follows a resume ...

 

Starting from plain 20 thou and 40 thous plasticard, the sides are slowly built up, layer by layer, until ...

 

Ta-daa! We have not one but TWO kits (effectively) for a LMS Dia 1872 6w CCT body. Good drawing and pic to work off in the Tatlow NPCS drawings book.

 

Duly assembled.

 

For the running gear I was a bit lazy. There was talk when I posted last of Cleminson chassis ... sorry! Here we have essential a long wheel-base 4w van - fixed axle on the right; rocking axle on the left - with the middle wheelset just along for the ride. Seems to work fine on Peco track.

 

Brake gear rigged up from whatever I had to hand in the 'spares' boxes.

 

And there we have the two vehicles, the one on the left depicting those built on recovered ex-LNWR 6w coaching stock and that on the right of the more modern running gear.

 

And, to bring us bang up to date (for this was only taken a few days ago), roofed, painted and more or less ready for the road. I've not tried too hard with the paint finish as both will get a healthy dose of weathering. But I do declare these are the first true scratchbuilt 'wagons' (OK, NPCS to be accurate) that I've ever built and I rather like them.

 

Pics of North-West MR 1950s show them cropping up all over the place so definitely worth having a couple of them knocking around the layout.

 

Of course, that man's law saw to it that the recent stash of kits I'm helping to move on had two Chivers kits for just such a vehicle. I still like mine, though ...

 

Very nice.

[Barry O]

4 hours ago, LNER4479 said:

Meanwhile ...

 

Wot's 'E up to now?

 

If you come along to the Taunton show, all will be revealed. I'll post more after that and there should be another chance to see at Manchester show in December.

 

Is that a semi open first I see??

Baz

[St Enodoc]

7 hours ago, LNER4479 said:

For the running gear I was a bit lazy. There was talk when I posted last of Cleminson chassis ... sorry! Here we have essential a long wheel-base 4w van - fixed axle on the right; rocking axle on the left - with the middle wheelset just along for the ride. Seems to work fine on Peco track.

If it doesn't, you could glue the middle wheelset up solid and file the flanges flush with the treads at the bottom, rather like old Tri-ang motor bogies.

[LNER4479]

Meanwhile ...

 

The two Dia.1872s are actually part of batch of vehicles outshopped by the wagon works. In truth, last autumn's wagon build programme which has been dragging its heels somewhat. A nice round dozen, as follows:

- Old Mainline cattle wagon now re-shod on a more modern Bachmann 10ft wagon chassis. Body will forever be a bit of an abberation but it has sentimental value

- Chivers 6w LMS fish van

- Two Bachmann 'stumpy' LMS van bodies grafted together  to make one of more the correct height

- ABS LMS unfitted van

- The two Dia.1872s

- Airfix/Dapol LMS van

- LMS flat wagon with tractor load (come back to that ...)

- LMS open wagon 'sold as seen' ex-Hattons, repaired and fit for further use

- Parkside LMS cattle wagon (of correct proportions)

- Bachmann LNER steel open

- Dapol SR (or is it LMS?) van de-weathered(!) - chassis looked awful

 

All have at least one end with three-links or screw couplings, with vac pipes added for fitted vehicles plus axlebox tie bars for pusher-brake fitted wagons. 10 are new to the layout, so that's something. Taking a closer look at a few.

 

Following my eyes - at last - being opened to the paucity of anything like accurate LMS vans in the RTR field, these three represent a 'start' on what might be an extensive equipping programme over the next few years. The one on the left was previously painted in a presumed fictitious I.C.I. livery. But, if you know the model, then you might be able to spot that most of the work has gone on 'downstairs'. I've retained the 8 brakeshoes, but cut away most of the middle brake gear and replaced it with something approaching the LMS 8 shoe clasp brake arrangement. I might do that with a few others of these. I've lettered it as a Dia.1978 van, which I believe it's a reasonable approximation to.

Next, the two-into-one Bachmann bash. It does produce something that is about the right height but I don't think I'll be repeating the exercise. The probably improbable application of a tarpaulin hides the worst of my cutting and shutting. The Bachmann numbering has been retained, making it a Dia.1891.

The ABS w/m van I quite like and I now have a few similar kits in stock (together with a couple of Cambrians), all of which will make up to subtlely different variations of LMS vans. This one is a Dia.1676, with wooden end. Not sure how many of them would have been around in the mid-1950s but, hey.

 

The 6w fish van ... which is actually a long wheelbase 4w van as the middle two 'wheels' have their bottom sections cut away so just glide above the rail, as I think the picture shows only too well. (Wot he said above: 'you could glue the middle wheelset up solid and file the flanges flush with the treads at the bottom')

I didn't have any BR 'FISH' lettering so that's from an LNER sheet!! (shhh!); heavy weathering should hide the worst of it. The idea here is to build up a right mixed bag of a fish train, to represent the WCML fish train(s) from Aberdeen. Plenty of pictures, particularly in the Perth area, of this train with just about any type of van you can think of on it. Should be a lot of fun!

 

Finally, a little favourite of mine. Not least because this is from a - don't all feint at once - Jidenco kit(!!) I know I built it but - hey! - I don't think it looks too bad? Runs lovely - the penny on the track is to stop it running away on a 1-in-125 gradient(!) It seems to be a reasonable depiction of an LMS Dia.1986 low-sided wagon so it is lettered as such. The two tractor load is as pictured in numerous prototype photos showing how such loads were transported (although the odd chain n shackle here and there wouldn't go amiss). I'm hoping this might take its place in the early-BR banked goods train in the Shap sequence. Cruel close-up highlights where the paintbrush has 'missed' in a few places; again, weathering should sort that out.

 

Wagons are fun, aren't they?

Edited September 4, 2022 by LNER4479

[BoD]

3 hours ago, LNER4479 said:

probably improbable

I hope you haven’t copyrighted that.

I can see it being very useful.

[LNER4479]

Well, the good news is that Shap has made it to the Taunton show ... now the bad news.

 

Traffic around Bristol on the M5 was horrendous. No doubt the locals would say it's always like that. We thought we'd allowed for it, with SatNavs predicting delays but still forecasting arrival time of 2.30-3.0pm. In the event, got there at 5.0pm (against an earliest entry time of 3.30), so we were hour & half late starting set up. And unloaded van in the rain to add insult to injury.

 

And then this happened:

 

The Wealleans turned assistant wire stranglers...

 

... under the direction of the master of electricity. Yes - guess who forgot to include two vital inter-board connector cables as he loaded up the van 300 miles earlier.

 

You'll note fiddle yard devoid of trains at this stage. We eventually knocked off at 10pm with about 75% of the stock out but at least the layout functioning as it is supposed to.

 

Going to be a busy couple of hours in the morning ...

[Chris M]

The M5 was bad yesterday. Took us over 5 hours from Birmingham to Taunton. We set up and checked the electrics last night and then went for food and drink. Stock set up will be this morning for us as well. Looks like we will all be busy. Looking forward to seeing Hills of the North again.

 

The journey back has to be better.

[Barry O]

19 hours ago, LNER4479 said:

Well, the good news is that Shap has made it to the Taunton show ... now the bad news.

 

Traffic around Bristol on the M5 was horrendous. No doubt the locals would say it's always like that. We thought we'd allowed for it, with SatNavs predicting delays but still forecasting arrival time of 2.30-3.0pm. In the event, got there at 5.0pm (against an earliest entry time of 3.30), so we were hour & half late starting set up. And unloaded van in the rain to add insult to injury.

 

And then this happened:

 

The Wealleans turned assistant wire stranglers...

 

... under the direction of the master of electricity. Yes - guess who forgot to include two vital inter-board connector cables as he loaded up the van 300 miles earlier.

 

You'll note fiddle yard devoid of trains at this stage. We eventually knocked off at 10pm with about 75% of the stock out but at least the layout functioning as it is supposed to.

 

Going to be a busy couple of hours in the morning ...

I didn't realise that Mr and Mrs Wealleans were experts in wire strangling.....

 

Hope you had a good day today!

 

Bsz

[chris p bacon]

6 minutes ago, Barry O said:

I didn't realise that Mr and Mrs Wealleans were experts in wire strangling.....

I bet they didn't either....

[Chris M]

It seemed to be working well when I saw it this afternoon.