Canterbury Road (Mk2)

[Fishplate]

Anyone else get excited about a few holes in the right places in an aluminium sheet? 

 

No?? That will just be me then . . . . . 

 

 

 

 

Edited November 20, 2022 by Fishplate
Pictures reloaded 20/11/22

[MrWolf]

As tin bashing is a part of my job and my other hobbies, yes!

[Fishplate]

Excellent @MrWolf, good to know I'm not alone. First time working with Aluminium for me. Happy bunny so far. Builds confidence for the next one.

 

[Fishplate]

Progress over the weekend. The jury is out on the gold outline for the platform. . . . 

 

 

 

Edited November 20, 2022 by Fishplate
Pictures reloaded 20/11/22

[Fishplate]

Last nights progress.

 

 

 

 

Edited November 20, 2022 by Fishplate
Pictures reloaded 20/11/22

[Fishplate]

Been busy decorating. Made the mistake of ordering carpet for three bedrooms when only two were finished. "We'll keep the carpet for the third bedroom until your ready for it", they said. Then they phoned up and gave two consecutive dates. Before I knew it I had said "fine" and put them on the calendar. Then realised I'd set myself a deadline.

 

BUT! In the order of play in the new (old) house, the railway room is next for the pot of paint. Then, after the flooring has been sorted, full layout re-assembly time. So hopefully before the second anniversary of moving arrives in September.

 

In the interim, here is a picture of the Control Panel with two ECM Controllers set out roughly each side. They were recovered from my late Fathers layout. These are planned to control the inner and outer lines whilst hand-helds are available for the shunting the yards and dock.

 

 

Edited November 20, 2022 by Fishplate
Pictures reloaded 20/11/22

[Gedward]

28 minutes ago, Fishplate said:

Been busy decorating. Made the mistake of ordering carpet for three bedrooms when only two were finished. "We'll keep the carpet for the third bedroom until your ready for it", they said. Then they phoned up and gave two consecutive dates. Before I knew it I had said "fine" and put them on the calendar. Then realised I'd set myself a deadline.

 

BUT! In the order of play in the new (old) house, the railway room is next for the pot of paint. Then, after the flooring has been sorted, full layout re-assembly time. So hopefully before the second anniversary of moving arrives in September.

 

In the interim, here is a picture of the Control Panel with two ECM Controllers set out roughly each side. They were recovered from my late Fathers layout. These are planned to control the inner and outer lines whilst hand-helds are available for the shunting the yards and dock.

 

 

 

It really can be quite frustrating when life gets in the way of modelling. I'm going through pretty much the same this end. As I'm getting this house ready to put up for sale next month. So spending much time clearing out 24 years of stuff we decided not to throw, but instead keep in the loft. Then I'll need to splash a bit more paint around before the photographer arrives. Still can't believe I'm finally going to leave the big smoke after 66 years.

 

[Fishplate]

We were in our previous house for seven years. We said 'we're not emptying this loft just to fill a new one' . so had a massive sort out. Virtually nothing went in the new (old) loft. But after just 18 months we have a full loft with just a walkway through the middle 

 

Be ruthless! Easy said. Hard to do. Alternatively, add to your new house wishlist : a tiny loft hatch.

[Fishplate]

A bit more relaxed than the previous bedroom. Not really modelling, but bits and pieces that have been lying around since we moved in 19 months ago  went up on the wall yesterday. Just the door frame to prep and the new door to paint, then flooring to order.

 

The carpet gliders we bought when we moved have proved invaluable in moving heavy furniture and the layout about.

 

Flooring will be laminate of some sort where the layout goes. Easier to clean and see dropped bits on. Debating whether to have carpet for my work desk area. That will become a modelling zone following full retirement. So probably laminate as well.  

 

 

[Fishplate]

All the rotary switches were wired last night and have been tested this morning. Only one link didn't work, which was on the last run I did last night. Because I'd missed it. Had the cartoon "??" marks above my head when I put the meter lead on the (empty) connector and failed to get a reading. Took a bit of waggling to realise I wouldn't get one. . . . !  

 

As my previous pictures haven't reloaded yet, a top view of the control panel as well.

 

 

 

 

[Fishplate]

Carried on with the wiring for a few hours this weekend. Also chosen the flooring with Mrs FP for the railway room / work from home office. Very grotty carpet, inherited with purchase of new/ old house, is being replaced by laminate as a more practical surface for working over/ finding stuff I've dropped.

 

Moving out from the main control panel board (board 4) I've started removing all the temporary links (that made the main lines run for 'extended testing' without switches) and connecting through to the permanent wiring on boards 2 & 3 and testing with a meter.

 

Quite pleased that the wiring diagram I drew several years ago corresponds exactly with what I'd actually built under boards 2 & 3.

 

No pics today as wiring is just . . . . . wires .

 

 

[Fishplate]

Quite a lot of my photos have not yet reloaded following the RMWeb crash. References to board numbers in my last post won't mean a lot without a key. The plan below shows the outline of the layout in its new home, with board numbers highlighted. There is a little bit of room for expansion on the free end of board 1.

 

The door has now been rehung to open towards board 1 and give easier access to the alcove which is my space for working from home. The wall behind boards 1, 2 and 3 is a partition wall. It isn't square to the wall behind board 4. There is approx 50mm difference over the length of the layout. 

 

 

The photo below is taken in the old railway room. Board 4 and the site of the control panel is in the background, where the controller is. Boards 2 and 3 are on the left.

 

 

The  pictures of Board 1 and 2 below were taken just before the house move.

 

 

 

 

 

[Fishplate]

Well, not a lot has been happening over the last few months due to other things happening. However, I now have boards 1 and 2 erected, No 3 out of its frame and No 4 has had attention with wiring of the control panel.

 

I downloaded a picture from the Science Museum website a long time ago as it gave some interesting pictures of loaded barges at a railway served dockside that I could model. Unfortunately that picture doesn't seem to be available anymore (and my pictures of the barges I modelled disappeared in the Great RMWeb Crash). But putting the original picture reference into Google (1997-7397_DY_1022) brings just one result. On another part of RMWeb! Not often you get so few results from Google nowadays.

 

In addition to the loading of the barges, one of the other items that interested me was the 'buffer stops' on the quayside. 'Buffer stops' is in inverted commas because you can see from 1997-7397_DY_1022 on my computer that the buffers actually oversail the buffer stops, so they are more correctly glorified wheel stops.

 

However, I had decided these stops would be a feature on my quayside as they are quite unusual. In addition, as shown in the plan view above, the new room allows some space for the dock to return down the back of Board 1. The tracks previously ran up to the room wall at the old house, as shown in the post above. So there is a practical reason, to stop railway vehicles plunging off the end. And I would quite like to do some shunting. . . . . 

 

So a few pics of 'the not a buffer stop' as modelled with BH rail and timber. Awaiting a coat of paint.

 

 

 

 

[Fishplate]

Up well before cock crow this morning. Have used the time to reload pictures on the first two pages that haven't come back since the Great Crash.

[Fishplate]

I've been continuing with the reload of photos and just got to the end of page 2.

 

In addition, the four buffer/ wheel stops are completed and shunting has commenced without risk of plunging off the edge.

 

 

I have also primed the plywood in the dock with a view to painting the 'water'. I've set out eight wagons so the Grandchildren can start playing an Inglenook game. Slightly more sidings than the traditional Inglenook and the wagons have been chosen for colour contrast rather than accuracy. You'll notice some ancient vehicles. . . . .

 

Just need to get/ find some matching tiddlywinks, or coloured card. Terrier cleaned and lubricated. Runs beautifully 😀

 

 

 

[SouthernBlue80s]

On 01/05/2022 at 09:06, Fishplate said:

A bit more relaxed than the previous bedroom. Not really modelling, but bits and pieces that have been lying around since we moved in 19 months ago  went up on the wall yesterday. Just the door frame to prep and the new door to paint, then flooring to order.

 

The carpet gliders we bought when we moved have proved invaluable in moving heavy furniture and the layout about.

 

Flooring will be laminate of some sort where the layout goes. Easier to clean and see dropped bits on. Debating whether to have carpet for my work desk area. That will become a modelling zone following full retirement. So probably laminate as well.  

 

 

 

I like your destination boards. It looks like they are from Faversham. I have a soft spot for Faversham it's where I started spotting.

[Fishplate]

Hi @SouthernBlue80s, yes they are from my home town of Faversham. They were acquired by my Father after privatisation replaced the old BR boards. He intercepted them skip-bound.  Right time, right place. 

 

Back in the 1970's a friend of mine in Faversham decided to take up train spotting. However, he got bored as there were only two trains, No 50 and No 74, as example below 😁 

 

https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1237412

[Fishplate]

Nearly all the pictures reloaded onto Page 3. Couldn't find some 😪

[Fishplate]

All remaining pictures found and uploaded, so everything up-to-date.

 

I have a free day of other duties today. Railway time beckons. . . . . 

[SouthernBlue80s]

On 19/11/2022 at 09:47, Fishplate said:

Hi @SouthernBlue80s, yes they are from my home town of Faversham. They were acquired by my Father after privatisation replaced the old BR boards. He intercepted them skip-bound.  Right time, right place. 

 

Back in the 1970's a friend of mine in Faversham decided to take up train spotting. However, he got bored as there were only two trains, No 50 and No 74, as example below 😁 

 

https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1237412

 

I use to cycle to Faversham from Herne Bay many days in the summers of 1979 and 1980. There was the 33 hauled coal train down the Ramsgate line, which sometimes I missed, then the 73 used to turn up and from memory used to shuffle the coach from the newspaper train about. And the highlight was the 47 on up freight from Dover late morning...and then it was just a sea of units. Occasionaly another 73 or 33 would surface on something. So not much going on but memories loaded with atmosphere for me. I didnt have much money and options were limited, I could sometimes stretch to an East Kent Rail rover.

 

I am very pleased your Father saved those boards.

I am not supprised your friend got bored :)

[MrWolf]

I never did get into train spotting, we used to go up to Loughborough Midland station and watch the loco hauled mineral trains come up from Barrow on Soar and once we saw a breakdown train come through, but otherwise it was endless IC125s and DMUs of one sort or another.

I suppose that we were a bit spoilt though, it wasn't much of a Walk to Loughborough Central, where you could wander around the locomotive shed and watch the dinosaurs being rebuilt, or clamber over the canal bridge and go poking around in Morrison's junkyard, where the newest car we found was from 1962. I had my second big motorcycle out of there, a 1960 BSA A10, sans wheels, tank and seat for £30, but enough of the right bits to get it reregistered.

The late 80s seem so far off now!

[Fishplate]

22 minutes ago, SouthernBlue80s said:

I use to cycle to Faversham from Herne Bay many days in the summers of 1979 and 1980.

 

Through Whitstable and Seasalter @SouthernBlue80s? Tried the Thanet Way (when it had the middle suicide lane) on my bike just once in the 70's cycling to Whitstable (maybe aged 13 or 14). Turned off as soon as I could and never did it again!

 

24 minutes ago, SouthernBlue80s said:

And the highlight was the 47 on up freight from Dover late morning...and then it was just a sea of units. Occasionaly another 73 or 33 would surface on something. So not much going on but memories loaded with atmosphere for me.

 

We lived west of the station and our garden backed onto the railway, so trains passed by all the time. Used to miss them when there were engineering works on. I do remember modelling the cross country service hauled by a Class 47 with Mk1 & Mk2's (Mk2's were very exotic for Kent) which used to come from somewhere in the north (Liverpool?) to Ramsgate. I don't think that lasted very many years. Then the occasional boat train and the Up or Down Night Ferry diverted onto BTR3 (Boat Train Route 3).

 

My Dad built a roundy roundy layout that fitted in the back of the lounge. I vaguely remember running the 47 & coaches on that. The only EMU we had was Dads Hornby Dublo 4 car set (which I now have). The layout was put up for the Christmas school break and then stored in the loft the rest of the year. You couldn't run it and watch telly at the same time😁 as the TV suppressors weren't particularly efficient on some of the early stock (plus the noise from the trains was horrendous). My Tri-ang Blue Pullman used to be the Boat Train 😀.   

 

Live many miles away now. It is nice that the renewal of the long bridge and, more recently, Preston footbridge have been done 'in the style of' their predecessors. The view from Preston footbridge towards the junction is somewhat ruined by the new signal gantry though.

 

Like many, I wish I had taken a lot more notice of the current 'scene' when I was growing up, but just took it for granted. Plus I couldn't afford film (or a camera) until I was working. Then it never really occurred to me to photo the local stuff. Just holidays. I keep an eye open for photos of Faversham on t'internet on an occasional basis and I've managed to find quite a few (and keep the links).

[Fishplate]

26 minutes ago, MrWolf said:

I never did get into train spotting,

 

Me neither really @MrWolf. Although I can tell Mrs Fishplate 'That's a Class 158' just from the sound when we are near a railway. Which she alternately finds amusing or odd.

 

Living on the Southern did feel a bit like the poor man's railway. London was 52 miles (70 minutes) away on trains that didn't go any faster in the 1970's/ 1980's than they did in the 1950's/ 60's. Going on my first HST down to Cardiff with my Dad was a revelation: More than 2 miles PER MINUTE. What magic is this???

 

I still want a BR liveried HST set, but nowhere to run one. . . . . plus when I do get my curved island platform built those long Mk3 coaches have an awful lot of centre and end throw, so would have to write Mind The Gap all the way down them. 

 

ps I did point out to my friend that there were smaller set numbers on the front, but he was over trains in a day. No commitment to the cause . . . . . .  😁 

Edited November 20, 2022 by Fishplate
mis-spult werds

[MrWolf]

I think what put me off was reading through my father's old spotter's books and seeing the huge variety of locomotives, he took up trainspotting about the time King George VI died. If I'd have been around back then, it would have been a different story. 

 

 

Edited November 20, 2022 by MrWolf
Major grammatical SNAFU

[SouthernBlue80s]

Yes thats the route I took. I used to cycle along the coast to Whitstable then through the town. Along the road to Seasalter past the Sportsman. I used to see the 33 with the coal train sometimes at the bridge at Graveney and then finish at Faversham Station. I was about 13 14 at the time, I had an instamatic and took very few pictures. I only have four from those Faversham days. By 1982 I was doing London depots and stations and spent alot of time on Reading. I couldn't afford to go further. I had a green Traing 31 freight train set one Christmas and stuck the track on a board I was thankful for that but always hankered after a proper layout.

 

My four pictures of Faversham.

This is the 73 that used to do the shunt move in the morning. My most precious picture as it shows that red brake dust everything was coated in.

 

An unidentified 73 on an up working from Dover

 

I was bored at the end of the platform and the signalman saw me and invited me up to the Box and I set the points for the 47. Which was 47233 CF. Here is it passing the Box. It was really good of him to ask me into the box as it gave a young lad a good memory. I think he was a bit of enthusiast, as I remember him talking about 55007 visit on the man of Kent rail tour.

 

I think he perhaps held the train so I could get a picture.

 

 

Edited November 20, 2022 by SouthernBlue80s