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Regarding locos, around the time of WW1, the Wirral Railway bought 2-4-2T locos from the LNWR and one from the L&YR (a model of which is made by Bachmann).

The Wirral, though not a light railway, did share a similar early history to the Bishops Castle Railway in that half the railway was seized by creditors!

To be totally credible, your locomotive engineer needs to do the quite incredible - buy a couple of Beyer Peacock/Metropolitan Railway 4-4-0T. Everyone else did! You can keep one in more or less original condition and rebuild the other to - well, whatever you like and it still won't be as weird as the real thing!

 

Thinking of your locomotive works, any inspiration to be had from the Lambton Engine Works (which in late Victorian times was quite capable of knocking out 0-6-0 tender engines). Or one of the smaller colliery works like Beamish, which were laid out in a courtyard pattern rather like a 19th century model farm and so might look rather attractive in your chosen local vernacular - I think you said Forest of Dean? Any possibility of a half-timbered erecting shop, or am I just being silly?

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Not silly at all. I'm travelling to the forest in a couple of weeks to do some walking, railway exploring and photography and intend to take as many photos of local period architecture as I can.

 

I have a kit of the Metropolitan 4-4-0T and its quite near the top of the to-do list.

 

Malcolm - thanks for the heads up regarding P D Hancock's other interests - a bookshop it shall be!

Edited by Martin S-C
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While I await the builders to come round and do the "site visit" (such a pretentious title they use; makes it sound like I'm building HS2 or something) I've been working on weathering wagons and also had this little beauty built for me by the very talented Frank Bulkan:

https://www.facebook.com/martin.soilleuxcardwell/videos/1397976650303770/

 

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Frank has left space for a DCC decoder and speaker in the boiler/tanks so now I just have to puzzle out how to fit a decoder to a Mashima motor the size of the last knuckle bone of my little finger...

I also have to paint her, but lacking an air-gun and any spray-paint skills I wonder if there is anyone that people might recommend? I only need her painting in a base coat of my company standard yellow ochre. I will line, letter and number her, and can brush-paint the cab interior and back head myself - its the main air-brushing body colour I am unable to do.

Edited by Martin S-C
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I know it's unfashionable, but is brush-painting totally off the agenda?

 

When in-practise, I could get a dependably acceptable finish by brush, and then used to use a very light satin-coat from a good quality can. I actually found it easier to get brush painting right than to get colour on right from a can without causing disasters, and I never progressed to an airbrush for anything, other than using a cheap one for scenery.

 

I found that the thing that made most difference with brush-painting was to mix the paint really, really well, and I kept a worn-out 12V mini-drill handy, especially for stirring with. The 'bits' were made from coat hanger wire with a little triangle bent into one end

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On the question of suitable small engines for such a delightful line, something I noticed back when I was messing around with On16.5 was that many of the tank engines for On16.5 were very close to being the same size as those made for 00.  Could be a possibility for a custom bash into something that's not identified with a mainline railway company.

Edited by Annie
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Hi Martin.

I've always used rattle cans from the car spares shop. They put out a lot of paint so you just have to pull back a bit to compensate and do it in 2-3 light coats instead of trying to do it in one coat. As mentioned above practice first on something that don't matter so much till you're confident. It isn't difficult to get a good finish but there is a knack to it, it just takes a bit of practice is all. After spraying I put whatever it is I'm painting into a 14" square plant propagator and put it in the airing cupboard for 24 hrs to slow cook it to a hard finish then you can line it out and then spray with varnish. I use satin myself but it all depends what sort of finish you want.   

Regards Lez.Z. 

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I know it's unfashionable, but is brush-painting totally off the agenda?

 

When in-practise, I could get a dependably acceptable finish by brush, and then used to use a very light satin-coat from a good quality can. I actually found it easier to get brush painting right than to get colour on right from a can without causing disasters, and I never progressed to an airbrush for anything, other than using a cheap one for scenery.

 

I found that the thing that made most difference with brush-painting was to mix the paint really, really well, and I kept a worn-out 12V mini-drill handy, especially for stirring with. The 'bits' were made from coat hanger wire with a little triangle bent into one end

I agree. In days of yore my choice of varnish was Letracote 103. Then they changed the formulation so it was far too glossy and finally they took it off the market altogether.

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Thank you everyone, lots here to think about. I'll grab a rattle can from Halfords first and try it on an old wagon or two. With brush painting I always suffer from mixing the paint too thick, though I could go in search of a range that has something like an M&GN yellow and keep it well thinned down.

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...... Then they changed the formulation so it was far too glossy and finally they took it off the market altogether.

 

Probably because people stopped buying it!  Joined-up thinking?

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Apologies that I have been quiet on here the last few days. Had a urinary infection which was pretty bad and completely knocked me out from Friday through to yesterday. Started on antibiotics on Sunday morning and today is my first day feeling human again. I need to locate my nearest Halfords and go search for paint and I'm rather focussed on organising my 1950s stock collection which I'm taking to a friends railway over the August bank holiday and a good number of items need some TLC. Key event next is the builders site visit on the 7th to view the garage work, then await his estimate and start date. While he gets on with the 1:1 scale modelling I will probably keep plugging away at assembled kits I have bought on e-Bay, checking and fettling these and replacing any broken parts and couplings, then weathering them.

I am honestly happy to sit and fiddle with wagons all day, every day. Coaches I find rather more boring and locos too expensive to mess about with much!

I have some proofs of artwork for lettering and crests done by Fox transfers so I await a huge pile of transfer sheets from Kevin to allow me to begin relettering engines and coaches; I just need to have some coaches repainted to letter!

I've got 10 Ratio 4-wheelers to build and kitbash which will be painted in a teak finish with some given hacked about Tri-ang clerestory roofs for variation and just because I can!

 

Mikkel's extremely helpful pages on GWR.org have inspired me to attempt a W1 luggage van conversion and I have the Shirescenes sides kit to convert the Dia.T47 to a Dia.T34 which will be my first ever foray into the mystical world of brass kits.

These 10 models will provide me with 4x 2-coach sets which will be my standard passenger train, and a spare or two. Head or tail traffic added as needed; I like to shunt vans around even onto passenger trains - almost no train on my railway runs as a set from A to B and back to A again, things must be added and taken off and added again at wayside stations!

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Hi Martin,

 

Sorry to hear of your health problems but pleased that you are on the mend now. Nice to hear of your progress with stock - I understand he fascination with messing around with wagons, similarly I have very little interest in coaching stock.

 

Hope the upcoming discussion around the garage proves fruitful. It will be interesting to hear of what direction you decide to take. It looks to be a fantastic space and whilst it is going to take some work to become habitable/comfortable, for both you and your railway, it will be worth the effort when complete :) Do keep us up to date!

 

David

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I have begun thinking about signalling. I need the signalling to be the "most basic a light railway would need to function safely while meeting any BoT requirements" and to that end I have started to draw up plans for each station. First off here is Nether Madder, the principal terminus.

I have placed a home signal, a starter at the platform ends, a starter from the goods yard and a signal to control egress from the loco triangle to the platform roads. In my experience [1] will have a higher arm denoting the main platform face and a lower arm denoting the bay. [2] would be a single arm. [3], the home signal would have 3 arms, the centre one on the tallest doll for the main platform, with the left and right on equal height but lower dolls for the bay and goods yard. [4] I am unsure about. If it needs to control both arms of the triangle and control access to all three roads (main platform, bay and goods loop) then we are looking at a monster 6-arm edifice which seems complete over kill to me. I hope people could suggest something much simpler - perhaps a man on the ground waving his arm?

 

I don't yet know if I'm going to go so far a ground signals and if I do, whether they'll function. I'd like them to (wouldn't we all?) but we'll have to see how far the budget and my eyesight stretch. If I do plant them I can see a need for them at each of the diamond shaped locations: [A] to control access to the timber yard siding, to control the engine release crossover and [C] to control engine movements across the double slip into the turning triangle.

Have I fluffed up anywhere? Can anyone see anything else needed? Please bear in mind this isn't the WCML and we are looking at only a slightly more salubrious set up than Col Stephens would approve of.

 

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Edited by Martin S-C
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Do passenger trains operate over any arm of the triangle? If not, forget signalling it at all.

 

Likewise, I wouldn’t signal any moves to or from non-passenger areas, they can all be under hand-signal control by the signalman, even goods trains embarking on a journey into a signalled section.

 

I’m reading this as a two platform terminus of a single-line, which merits a ‘home’ with two arms, and two starter arms. For variety you could have the home ‘one above the other’ and the starters side-by-side.

 

Kevin

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Thanks Kevin, no, only light engines, ECS and empty freight stock being moved to/from the stock storage sidings will negotiate the triangle. No paying passengers. The occasional schoolboy sneaked onto a footplate by kindly Norris Thyroid the cranky old fireman possibly, but that's it.

 

I quite like the idea of a signal to control goods trains leaving the yard mainly because its heading out onto the main line and not a shunty-thing.

 

Should I do without ground signals in a light railway setting? Everything shunted around would be hand-wavy control?

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I like signals for ‘running’ moves to and from goods yards too, because in the S and W at least they tended to have ringed arms, but they are a luxury unless the move is very common, and a luxury indeed on a light railway.

 

As for shunting signals, I think you do have one ‘crash waiting to happen’, which is the move to/from the top apex of the triangle. This crosses or leads to the passenger line in a way that I can imagine would upset an inspector, so probably needs some ancient form of signal worked from the ‘box. How about a tall ‘ball signal’, which doesn’t state exactly which route is set, but gives general permission to move to/from/across the passenger line, and which can’t be cleared at the same time as any of the passenger-line signals?

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Yes, I was thinking about using some curious old-fashioned signals simply because they are fun. I could use a falling ball there, or a slotted post so the arm disappears when at clear. Another option is a Brunel disc and bar, another favourite of mine. The slotted arm is easy, I am just having a bit of a think about how you'd model a falling/lifting ball signal in 4mm... it would certainly be different, and fun to have.

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Here's the first station down the line, Snarling Junction (change for trains to Wit's End). I had marked in potential ground signals (A to E) but I think I'll not bother with those, so just the homes and starters are needed I think. Note that platform 3 is bi-directional.

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[1] Up home signal. This will need to be a bracket with a lower doll to the right to control the route into the branch platform (platform 3).
[2] Down home. Likewise a lower junction doll to the left for access into platform 3.
[3] Up starter for platform 1.
[4] Down starter. A lower doll on the left to control trains leaving platform 3.
[5] Up starter to only control trains departing platform 3.
[6] Up branch home signal.
[7] Down branch starter.
 

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Edited by Martin S-C
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Having a branch riveting part-way along a platform is interesting, but has precedents, and I think that the signal giving entry to it (7) really ought to be before, not after, the turnout.

 

But, another archaic option would be to signal the place using only ‘section signals’, giving permission to enter each section ahead, perhaps sprouting from the top of a signal cabin located mid platform, with entry to the station being controlled by ‘stop and call-forward’, with no fixed signals for that purpose. This might assume an 1860 or 1870s scheme that has to scaled the attention of inspectors since 1889.

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Many years ago RM had a short little article on how to make a signal man figure lean out of a signal box window holding a green flag.  The whole thing worked very simply with a push-pull rod and yes I did make one up for the small branch line station layout I had at the time.  A fairly good way to cover quite a few locomotive movements without having to place a signal for them and quite prototypical for a small light railway.

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