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Gresley Junction


thegreenhowards
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I’m just back from a day out in Birmingham watching the mighty QPR pick up another away win. A very satisfying day.

 

Anyway, I’m pleased to see that ‘container gate ‘ seems to have fizzled out while I was out of action so I will be leaving my illegal container where it is.

 

 

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I did some more train / layout testing yesterday. This time it was inner suburban services with the departure of N2, 69541 on the 5 car mk 1 set.

 

C96DE7E2-DD86-44A9-AB50-6C399DE234C4.jpeg.10d35848b9253bcd08a8a3e0cf3dbb6a.jpeg

 

This one behaved well but sadly I managed to delete the video so you’ll have to take my word for it!

 

As per the (Hatfield) timetable it was replaced in platform 4 a few minutes later by the next inner suburban arrival. This was headed by BRCW Type 2, D5312.

55170DAC-E077-4E91-8A8B-8550F42B7730.jpeg.440fc4b2124e3ad596f968cca8177ee0.jpeg

 

This again behaved fairly well on the run in apart from a slight twitch on the double slip approaching the platform which was caused by inadequate cleaning. After cleaning I staged  a rerun for the video.

 

Sadly things didn’t go so well when it came to the run round! The loco stalled on one of the points which seems to have lost the ability to switch frog polarity. I left it there and will be on my back under the layout tomorrow.

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1 hour ago, thegreenhowards said:

I’m just back from a day out in Birmingham watching the mighty QPR pick up another away win. A very satisfying day.

 

Anyway, I’m pleased to see that ‘container gate ‘ seems to have fizzled out while I was out of action so I will be leaving my illegal container where it is.

 

 

 

If all our Prime Minister had to worrry about was "container gate", he'd be a very happy man!!

 

John.

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The point solution was easier than I expected. I remembered problems with the frog switching in this one before so assumed that was the problem. But when I investigated I found that I’d previously replaced the seep motor frog switching with a Gaugemaster autofrog which was still working. The problem was that I was relying on rail joiners for connectivity and they weren’t conducting at the toe of the point. It just happened that the rear wheels on the loco went over the faulty rail Joiner at exactly the same point that the front wheels went onto the frog, so I misread the problem. Anyway, a squirt of wd40 contact cleaner and a wiggle with some pliers and it was all working again.

 

With that sorted I finished off running round with D5312. Today’s train is an outer suburban Cambridge line rake with Baby Deltic, D5900. A typical scene of the 1959-60 period. In terms of debugging, D5900 needed its wheels cleaning and the rake needed it’s roof boards stuck down as they were peeling off. Tacky wax to the rescue.  

BD280079-2581-4E2D-B816-68E7512B8AC8.jpeg.3b1771c1d7360275e2049acbd153cf0e.jpeg
 

This photo reminds me that I still need to bed in those new signals! The video is below and as well as D5900, shows that D5312 has run round successfully following the point engineering work.

 

 

 

 

 

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Yesterday I reopened the up line following the track realignment at the end of ‘Welwyn’ viaduct. I'm pleased with the result as, while not perfect, the lurch at the end of the viaduct is much reduced and I don’t seem to get any derailments. Here is the first train over the reopened stretch - up Presflo cement empties headed by 9F, 92185. Apologies for the wrong head code - some idiot glued the lamps in position!

 

D5DB7EB8-11EC-4B2B-A92A-00E389F259C7.jpeg.e1a72e7e9bf8e02ef36c0f17186e65d5.jpeg

 

For the video, I perched the phone rather precariously on the embankment beyond the viaduct for, what I believe is, a new view. I think it worked OK and if you can remember any of the old videos, I hope you agree the track is rather smoother.
 

 

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On 01/01/2022 at 18:58, thegreenhowards said:

Today’s train was more straightforward to get going. It only needed one coupling mismatch and a couple of undone 3links sorting and then ran perfectly. Probably helped by RTR reliability with the loco which is the excellent new Hornby model renamed and weathered by me and fitted with YouChoos’ sound project.
 

5DA569FD-2300-4F41-9D43-03473D6E547C.jpeg.82ef7f84f11935aa94ffe571a1e2ad6a.jpeg

 

And by popular request here is the video.
 

 

One of my favourite trains, a fast fitted, with a favourite locomotive.
Love the make-up.
Regards, Chris.

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19 hours ago, thegreenhowards said:

The point solution was easier than I expected. I remembered problems with the frog switching in this one before so assumed that was the problem. But when I investigated I found that I’d previously replaced the seep motor frog switching with a Gaugemaster autofrog which was still working. The problem was that I was relying on rail joiners for connectivity and they weren’t conducting at the toe of the point. It just happened that the rear wheels on the loco went over the faulty rail Joiner at exactly the same point that the front wheels went onto the frog, so I misread the problem. Anyway, a squirt of wd40 contact cleaner and a wiggle with some pliers and it was all working again.

 

With that sorted I finished off running round with D5312. Today’s train is an outer suburban Cambridge line rake with Baby Deltic, D5900. A typical scene of the 1959-60 period. In terms of debugging, D5900 needed its wheels cleaning and the rake needed it’s roof boards stuck down as they were peeling off. Tacky wax to the rescue.  

BD280079-2581-4E2D-B816-68E7512B8AC8.jpeg.3b1771c1d7360275e2049acbd153cf0e.jpeg
 

This photo reminds me that I still need to bed in those new signals! The video is below and as well as D5900, shows that D5312 has run round successfully following the point engineering work.

 

 

 

 

 

Bet the driver was glad to arrive.
I can imagine the shed foreman at Cambridge will get rid of that poor beast as fast as possible!
I only saw one Baby Deltic. 5909 in blue at the buffer stops of KX in 1969. It was late and my Dad could not be persuaded to stop there 'till she backed out.
Regards,
Chris.

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1 hour ago, thegreenhowards said:

Yesterday I reopened the up line following the track realignment at the end of ‘Welwyn’ viaduct. I'm pleased with the result as, while not perfect, the lurch at the end of the viaduct is much reduced and I don’t seem to get any derailments. Here is the first train over the reopened stretch - up Presflo cement empties headed by 9F, 92185. Apologies for the wrong head code - some idiot glued the lamps in position!

 

D5DB7EB8-11EC-4B2B-A92A-00E389F259C7.jpeg.e1a72e7e9bf8e02ef36c0f17186e65d5.jpeg

 

For the video, I perched the phone rather precariously on the embankment beyond the viaduct for, what I believe is, a new view. I think it worked OK and if you can remember any of the old videos, I hope you agree the track is rather smoother.
 

 

'Spaceship' on fitted cements. NICE!
Regards,
Chris.

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52 minutes ago, Sandhole said:

Bet the driver was glad to arrive.
I can imagine the shed foreman at Cambridge will get rid of that poor beast as fast as possible!
I only saw one Baby Deltic. 5909 in blue at the buffer stops of KX in 1969. It was late and my Dad could not be persuaded to stop there 'till she backed out.
Regards,
Chris.

There are a lot of photos of them on these sets with the 3 cpt Gresley brakes front and rear so they can’t have been that bad. Certainly much better than the NB Type 2s (class 21). I never saw one but I rather like them and can’t wait until the recreation  they’re working on at Barrow Hill is ready.

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4 hours ago, thegreenhowards said:

There are a lot of photos of them on these sets with the 3 cpt Gresley brakes front and rear so they can’t have been that bad. Certainly much better than the NB Type 2s (class 21). I never saw one but I rather like them and can’t wait until the recreation  they’re working on at Barrow Hill is ready.

I saw 5909 again on the Styal Loop in Manchester.
She was working a Derby test train on the loop. One of those 'Wow!' and it was gone times, as it crossed an overbridge in front of me in my parents car!

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Thanks The latest rake to take out of hibernation is the Yorkshire Pullman headed by A1, 60139, Sea Eagle. This is the full mid 50s 11 car rake with Hull, Bradford and Harrogate portions.

 

B387C7AA-E37B-474B-91FE-A6B415DE2254.jpeg.b61f0bba02dceb8ac84158ee24810d98.jpeg

 

It should have been an easy one to get running but the Bachmann A1 seems to want to spread itself over the track across slips and crossings. I checked the back to back and that needed easing out slightly. I’m sure that I’ve set this correctly in the past. Is it possible that the back to back closes up during inactivity?! Anyway that seems to have helped and the tender now stays put but I’m still having occasional derailments from the front bogie. I tried weighting it as below but that doesn’t seem to help. Other Bachmann A1s seem to be ok. Has anyone else had this problem and solved it?

 

50163716-522C-483B-87C7-0F8EE2C64318.jpeg.69fc9a2806496f1f506c7eca764bec60.jpeg

 

Here’ the video. I got it running well enough to film this. Note the lovely Fox tailboard.

 

 

 

 

 

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Yesterday I had more success. This is the 1735 KX-NCL as it was in the early to mid fifties with the ex Silver Jubilee triplet and 3 Thompson brakes as well as the inevitable mk1s.

591B7DFA-7D64-4135-9262-854A7FC85E13.jpeg.d34d0d7f100b0d941e05a7a5f613968f.jpeg

 

The coaches worked first time with no derailments. The loco was a bit jerky and I needed to change the decoder to get it running smoothly. I’d taken this whole rake to see ‘Sir’ in the Summer and the A3 blew its clip there. I replaced it with a cheap one I had spare but that was jerky. Now with a Zimo it’s super smooth.

 

Here’s the video.

 

 

 

Edited by thegreenhowards
Grammar
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The other development today is that I have the lurgy! I tested positive this morning which I suspect means I was infected at the football on Sunday. Anyway, it’s ‘just a sniffle’….at least for now and I’m confident in my jabs. The good news is that this means I won’t be able to go out and will have more time for modelling!

 

I spent some time yesterday and this morning debugging the derailments on 60139 and made some progress. It seems that (at least some of ) the derailments are due to a section of track on the gentle curve into the station we’re there is a less than perfect track joint which coincides with a baseboard joint with a slight peak. This was occasionally causing the bogie to slip one axle off unnoticed (by me!) and the bogie then derailed on the slip the other side of the station. Like other issues, I’ve known about this problem for some time but I think it’s got worse over the Summer. So I bit the bullet and having softened the ballast, I lifted the track around the baseboard joint yesterday.
 

I let it dry overnight and cleaned it up to look like this. You can see the slight ridge in the baseboard joint which has been exacerbated by some slight warping of the boards either side.

BCFBBE7F-A3EF-48F0-A75D-67F293B1F231.jpeg.78d6d24455defcbf859a9cf48801b8e4.jpeg


I then relaid it this morning using thin cereal packet card instead of cork to reduce the height marginally and putting an extra piece on the left to eliminate the height difference. Rather than go for an even curvature I have tried to keep it almost straight across the joint which reduces the tendency for axles to jump off - not quite so aesthetically pleasing but better than a derailment. 


549B5B24-FA37-42AF-99DA-ED5A26593782.jpeg.17de44830d9e9ce0883612abaedaf60a.jpeg


I have done some tests with the problematic Yorkshire Pullman rake and it seems to have improved things dramatically. I get no derailments on this stretch and can run it round at 2/3 speed with no derailments lap after lap. There are still some issues on the fiddle yard points at full speed but that’s not unexpected. 
 

So I think I can cross that problem off the list. But I will leave it unballasted for now while I test some other rakes. Then I have the problem of matching the ballast!

 

I hope this warts and all account is interesting/ useful to some people. I’m sure some of you are thinking ‘bl…y amateur’, but for those less experienced it may contain some useful lessons. In my defence this is the oldest part if the layout which I laid about 9 years ago and was my first attempt at track laying since my teenage years.

 

 

Edited by thegreenhowards
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Let me assure you that this thread is VERY useful to me at least as I'm struggling with the same kind of track problems.  Problems which I should have sorted when laying it at first!  BTW  I think your revised curve looks a better shape anyway.  

 

Keep it coming!

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The easiest train yet. Worked first time, no derailments, no decoder issue. The way it should be! This is Britannia, 70036, Boadicea on a down Cleethorpes service.


D3C970DF-2717-4352-8C99-91C4A8CBF4AF.jpeg.5bb43320d6b5f7d4a95a1340c1e9b31d.jpeg

 

Strictly speaking this formation changed to get rid of the a Gresley RKB shortly before the Brits arrived at Immingham. I sometimes run this with a B1 which is more prototypical, but I like the excuse to run a Brit!

 

Here is the video.

 

 

 

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18 hours ago, thegreenhowards said:

The other development today is that I have the lurgy! I tested positive this morning which I suspect means I was infected at the football on Sunday. Anyway, it’s ‘just a sniffle’….at least for now and I’m confident in my jabs. The good news is that this means I won’t be able to go out and will have more time for modelling!

 

I spent some time yesterday and this morning debugging the derailments on 60139 and made some progress. It seems that (at least some of ) the derailments are due to a section of track on the gentle curve into the station we’re there is a less than perfect track joint which coincides with a baseboard joint with a slight peak. This was occasionally causing the bogie to slip one axle off unnoticed (by me!) and the bogie then derailed on the slip the other side of the station. Like other issues, I’ve known about this problem for some time but I think it’s got worse over the Summer. So I bit the bullet and having softened the ballast, I lifted the track around the baseboard joint yesterday.
 

I let it dry overnight and cleaned it up to look like this. You can see the slight ridge in the baseboard joint which has been exacerbated by some slight warping of the boards either side.

BCFBBE7F-A3EF-48F0-A75D-67F293B1F231.jpeg.78d6d24455defcbf859a9cf48801b8e4.jpeg


I then relaid it this morning using thin cereal packet card instead of cork to reduce the height marginally and putting an extra piece on the left to eliminate the height difference. Rather than go for an even curvature I have tried to keep it almost straight across the joint which reduces the tendency for axles to jump off - not quite so aesthetically pleasing but better than a derailment. 


549B5B24-FA37-42AF-99DA-ED5A26593782.jpeg.17de44830d9e9ce0883612abaedaf60a.jpeg


I have done some tests with the problematic Yorkshire Pullman rake and it seems to have improved things dramatically. I get no derailments on this stretch and can run it round at 2/3 speed with no derailments lap after lap. There are still some issues on the fiddle yard points at full speed but that’s not unexpected. 
 

So I think I can cross that problem off the list. But I will leave it unballasted for now while I test some other rakes. Then I have the problem of matching the ballast!

 

I hope this warts and all account is interesting/ useful to some people. I’m sure some of you are thinking ‘bl…y amateur’, but for those less experienced it may contain some useful lessons. In my defence this is the oldest part if the layout which I laid about 9 years ago and was my first attempt at track laying since my teenage years.

 

 

 

My own experience is that there isn't a "for all time 100%" answer to everything running and working perfectly all the time - although obviously that's what we strive for. I've found that locos not used for a while can have "sticky" front bogies and ponies that derail, but can be cured by waggling about and adding a tiny drop of oil to the rubbing parts and also the axle holes in the frames. There isn't an intrinsic problem, just that the masses involved are so small that the least resistance sends things awry.

 

Other things can go wrong as well with age. I don't thankfully have much of a problem with baseboards, but then my layout is in a centrally heated bedroom, being only around half the length of Gresley Jn. However point motors can be erratic, sometimes having enough grunt to work, sometimes not. I'm reluctant to install a capacitor as the "thud" involved on a good day is strong enough already and I've had a few points (Peco 75) where a blade has broken from the tie bar. Point motor behaviour can change even depending on the time I'm using the layout, presumably, say on a Sunday late morning, when the Grid is loaded with everyone cooking Sunday lunch!

 

John.

 

 

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28 minutes ago, John Tomlinson said:

 

My own experience is that there isn't a "for all time 100%" answer to everything running and working perfectly all the time - although obviously that's what we strive for. I've found that locos not used for a while can have "sticky" front bogies and ponies that derail, but can be cured by waggling about and adding a tiny drop of oil to the rubbing parts and also the axle holes in the frames. There isn't an intrinsic problem, just that the masses involved are so small that the least resistance sends things awry.

 

Other things can go wrong as well with age. I don't thankfully have much of a problem with baseboards, but then my layout is in a centrally heated bedroom, being only around half the length of Gresley Jn. However point motors can be erratic, sometimes having enough grunt to work, sometimes not. I'm reluctant to install a capacitor as the "thud" involved on a good day is strong enough already and I've had a few points (Peco 75) where a blade has broken from the tie bar. Point motor behaviour can change even depending on the time I'm using the layout, presumably, say on a Sunday late morning, when the Grid is loaded with everyone cooking Sunday lunch!

 

John.

 

 

Thanks John,

 

I’m sure you’re right. Some rakes derail on the first circuit and then are fine without me doing anything. It must just be loosening up like an old man! I have a CDU but still have a couple of points which need throwing 2 or 3 times before they work properly after a period of inactivity - in each case where two points are thrown by one switch on a crossing.

 

I don’t have the Sunday lunch problem, probably because of the CDU.

 

Andy

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Spent quite a bit of time self isolating in the loft yesterday and ran several trains. The first of these is a returning horsebox special to Newmarket (which shares a road in the fiddle yard with the Cleethorpes so naturally falls at this point). 
 

9DE17514-4F31-4B07-BC47-DD02E2D18B90.jpeg.c91be997aa872364a5c2e42815c321ec.jpeg
 

This photos reminds me that weathering my horse boxes and hiding the damage to brick paper on the viaduct ought to be brought up my list of priorities!

 

Here’s the very short video.

 

 

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As I’ve run quite a few trains recently, here’s a second one for today- 60066, Merry Hampton with the down ‘Car Sleeper Limited’, Britain’s first motor rail service. This is the 1955 - 1956 formation with the original 4 wheel extra long CCTs and Gresley 61’6” sleepers. The latter are only visible in the video.

 

2E326611-BC35-4342-93BF-952DC288F983.jpeg.1e0fd07531b11ecbde0fd6f04c9afee8.jpeg


You may well ask how the Class 26 has time traveled back to 1955/56! But if you can look past that anomaly, here’s the video.

 

 

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I’m rather pleased with myself after some work on Friday and Saturday. I decided to drag out a relief rake of Gresleys. While the CWNs give fairly fix and uniform formations for these trains (e.g. BSK, 7*SK, BSK) pictures seem to show rather more variety with a concentration of end door Gresley stock but some other stuff mixed in (Gilbert with his vast array of research might be able to add more flesh on this).

 

Anyway, I dug out a few Gresleys which hadn’t been run for a while. Several of them were Kirks and I find they’re not the most reliable of runners, particularly those with Kirk bogies so I wasn’t expecting instant success. But even judged against my low expectations it was pretty abysmal with at least one and sometime two or three derailments per lap. I wonder how I ever got these running before!  So I took the worst coach and weighted the bogies like this.

 

520384CC-166D-4AA8-ACD9-41881B504460.jpeg.cd667d31c519ca7d98aafe331bafc4c5.jpeg
 

That made a dramatic improvement - I don’t know why I hadn’t tried it before! So I treated the other Kirks in the rake to the same treatment and, combined with some back to back tweaking and wheel cleaning, they all improved as well. So I know have a nine car rake which performs very reliably.  
70F1C1C0-B5DA-49F1-8CCB-96DB7744AAF6.jpeg.660f0d961151315c60d381dc6857257c.jpeg


The complete formation is now: five Kirks, one RDEB Tourist twin and two brass sided Gresleys on Hornby donors (coaches 6&7 - these always run well). I think I only built one of the Kirks myself - the others were second hand. Whereas I built the other four coaches so they’ve had a more thorough testing as part of the build process. Does anyone else have tips on getting Kirks to run reliably?
 

Better still, as you can see, I used 60869, the V2 with mangled valve gear to haul the train. Sorting the valve gear out proved easier than I expected. There was far too much slop in the arrangement and the rod from the cylinders to the centre drivers was wobbling and catching on the back of the slide bars. So I tightened everything up  - I moved the back plate of the slide bars in and reduced play in the various soldered linkages by moving the pins in slightly with my soldering iron and pliers.  It now runs well (fingers crossed!). Sorry that the front of the V2 is not in focus. I wanted to show as much of the train as possible clearly so moved the point of focus back. 
 

Here’s the video.

 

 

 

Edited by thegreenhowards
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11 minutes ago, thegreenhowards said:

Does anyone else have tips on getting Kirks to run reliably?

 

What you've done - weight.   Weight low down.

 

Metal bogies (ABS when you can find them, MJT otherwise) and metal undergubbins make a hell of a difference.   I haven't built a Kirk for a while, but my approach latterly was to make a new floor from Paxolin and solder everything to it, chucking the plastic bits away.

 

spacer.png

 

spacer.png

 

Not a lot wrong with them above the waterline, so to speak (I know some people don't like the roof shape.  It doesn't upset me) but you can do plenty to help both appearance and running below it.   There are probably a dozen of mine on Grantham built using this approach and we don't have any problem with them.   All of Roy Mears' sets (the Flying Scotsman, Junior Scotsman and Scarborough Flyer) are built the same way and they've also worked reliably in the time we've had the layout on the road.

 

The Kirk bogies aren't inherently bad, but apart from the weight issue, we found on the Pilmoor layout at Ormesby that after 10 or so years of running they started to disassemble themselves while in motion.  This wasn't always due to the adhesive used, there was also a problem of the plastic becoming brittle and cracking.

 

 

 

 

Edited by jwealleans
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21 minutes ago, jwealleans said:

 

What you've done - weight.   Weight low down.

 

Metal bogies (ABS when you can find them, MJT otherwise) and metal undergubbins make a hell of a difference.   I haven't built a Kirk for a while, but my approach latterly was to make a new floor from Paxolin and solder everything to it, chucking the plastic bits away.

 

spacer.png

 

spacer.png

 

Not a lot wrong with them above the waterline, so to speak (I know some people don't like the roof shape.  It doesn't upset me) but you can do plenty to help both appearance and running below it.   There are probably a dozen of mine on Grantham built using this approach and we don't have any problem with them.   All of Roy Mears' sets (the Flying Scotsman, Junior Scotsman and Scarborough Flyer) are built the same way and they've also worked reliably in the time we've had the layout on the road.

 

The Kirk bogies aren't inherently bad, but apart from the weight issue, we found on the Pilmoor layout at Ormesby that after 10 or so years of running they started to disassemble themselves while in motion.  This wasn't always due to the adhesive used, there was also a problem of the plastic becoming brittle and cracking.

 

 

 

 

Thanks Jonathan,

 

Metal bogies are a good solution and one I tend to employ on my own builds now - I use MJT as I've never come across ABS ones. I also use some metal underframe bits - particularly the battery boxes as they add good weight. It would be a large and expensive job to retrospectively replace all my old Kirks with metal bogies now, so I'd rather avoid that if possible. My solution seems to work for now but I'll have to wait to see whether the additional stress on the bogies has any unwanted side effects. I did have a couple of bogies which required re-gluing while I was adding the weight.

 

I do like the Kirk kits. As you know I've been building a lot in O gauge recently. I know they're not up to brass standards but they deliver quick results which is important for an impatient bu...r like me!

 

Of course, I'm familiar with Roy Mears' work on Grantham - very impressive rakes. You kindly put me in touch with him and I'm currently working on a pair of his laser cut plastic sides which build up in the same way as Kirks - more on Coulsdon Works in due course.

 

Andy

 

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3 hours ago, thegreenhowards said:

I’m rather pleased with myself after some work on Friday and Saturday. I decided to drag out a relief rake of Gresleys. While the CWNs give fairly fix and uniform formations for these trains (e.g. BSK, 7*SK, BSK) pictures seem to show rather more variety with a concentration of end door Gresley stock but some other stuff mixed in (Gilbert with his vast array of research might be able to add more flesh on this).

 

Anyway, I dug out a few Gresleys which hadn’t been run for a while. Several of them were Kirks and I find they’re not the most reliable of runners, particularly those with Kirk bogies so I wasn’t expecting instant success. But even judged against my low expectations it was pretty abysmal with at least one and sometime two or three derailments per lap. I wonder how I ever got these running before!  So I took the worst coach and weighted the bogies like this.

 

520384CC-166D-4AA8-ACD9-41881B504460.jpeg.cd667d31c519ca7d98aafe331bafc4c5.jpeg
 

That made a dramatic improvement - I don’t know why I hadn’t tried it before! So I treated the other Kirks in the rake to the same treatment and, combined with some back to back tweaking and wheel cleaning, they all improved as well. So I know have a nine car rake which performs very reliably.  
70F1C1C0-B5DA-49F1-8CCB-96DB7744AAF6.jpeg.660f0d961151315c60d381dc6857257c.jpeg


The complete formation is now: five Kirks, one RDEB Tourist twin and two brass sided Gresleys on Hornby donors (coaches 6&7 - these always run well). I think I only built one of the Kirks myself - the others were second hand. Whereas I built the other four coaches so they’ve had a more thorough testing as part of the build process. Does anyone else have tips on getting Kirks to run reliably?
 

Better still, as you can see, I used 60869, the V2 with mangled valve gear to haul the train. Sorting the valve gear out proved easier than I expected. There was far too much slop in the arrangement and the rod from the cylinders to the centre drivers was wobbling and catching on the back of the slide bars. So I tightened everything up  - I moved the back plate of the slide bars in and reduced play in the various soldered linkages by moving the pins in slightly with my soldering iron and pliers.  It now runs well (fingers crossed!). Sorry that the front of the V2 is not in focus. I wanted to show as much of the train as possible clearly so moved the point of focus back. 
 

Here’s the video.

 

 

 

 

Thanks for posting all the videos of late, very enjoyable indeed.

 

Hope the general level of activity indicates that the "lurgi" hasn't been too bad for you?

 

John.

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17 minutes ago, John Tomlinson said:

 

Thanks for posting all the videos of late, very enjoyable indeed.

 

Hope the general level of activity indicates that the "lurgi" hasn't been too bad for you?

 

John.

It takes a lot to stop me playing trains! But no, It was a mild cold for a couple of days and now I’m feeling fine. I’m rather frustrated at my government imposed ‘house arrest’ as I would have loved to go for a cycle today and don’t see what harm that could have done. But I’ll obey the rules. Only two more days now if I test negative tomorrow and Tuesday.

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Glad to hear you are feeling better, Andy, and that it wasn't a seriously bad experience. As to the coaching question, all I can add is that, based on the Summer 58 CWN, there seemed to be a general policy that the West Riding, Hull and Doncaster formations would be mainly all door stock, whereas the Newcastle and Scotland formations would have end vestibule cars. More station stops for the former, therefore more opportunity for passengers to get in and out quickly, could be the reason?

 

Most of the SO West Riding trains were made up of a combination of 8 or 10 all door seconds, three 3 compartment BSKs and two Thompson composites. That of course was in principle, I'm sure what happened in practise sometimes differed, especially if the train concerned had no provision for reserving seats. The East Coast sets generally specified 7 or 8 end door SKs, plus usually an FK, not MK1, and two four compartment brakes. If there was catering, it would be RF/SO, except when it wasn't! There were exceptions both in the Main Line and East Coast books.

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