Gresley Junction

[St Enodoc]

2 hours ago, thegreenhowards said:

Thanks.that would never have occurred to me as a priority - don’t you like my matchsticks?!

 

On a serious note, I’m aware of Southern and GW Running in board post kits but not LNER Ones. Does anyone know of a source?

 

Andy

No I don't! As a temporary solution, pending answers to your second question from Those Who Know, I'd be inclined to use cocktail sticks or similar.

[thegreenhowards]

Tonight I feature the 1615 Cambridge-KX. In 1958 this was a standard corridor six set of which there were 8 rakes. It consisted of a mix of Gresley BSK(3)s; a Thompson FK and three Mk1 TSOs and tonight it’s headed by B17, 61662.
 

This is a bit of a flight of fancy for me as it’s been renamed from Manchester United to Queens Park Rangers. The LNER didn’t have the decency to name one after the mighty ‘R’s and I had to correct that!

 

Here is the full train on the viaduct. This set has a couple of coaches added at Hitchin; a non corridor second and a BG. I assume these would have been added on the back but the CWN doesn’t say so I’m guessing.

The video shows the train heading over the viaduct.

Finally a view of the train at rest at platform 5.
 

 

[St Enodoc]

2 hours ago, thegreenhowards said:

The LNER didn’t have the decency to name one after the mighty ‘R’s and I had to correct that!

I think they stuck to the more successful teams, e.g. the one that is third in the table as of today - it'll end in tears though. It always does.

[thegreenhowards]

8 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

I think they stuck to the more successful teams, e.g. the one that is third in the table as of today - it'll end in tears though. It always does.

Doncaster Rovers...Darlington?
 

And if you want a competition in failure we’d win hands down!

 

 

[St Enodoc]

6 minutes ago, thegreenhowards said:

Doncaster Rovers...Darlington?

61630.

[thegreenhowards]

38 minutes ago, St Enodoc said:

61630.

I got that reference. I was illustrating less successful teams that were honoured with a name. 

[thegreenhowards]

Enough football banter, today is a more prestigious train, the 1735 KX- Newcastle which still had a scattering of Thompson brake vehicles and the wonderful ex Silver Jubilee triplet in 1956. Today it is headed by Grantham A3, 60064, Tagalie. 
 

 

The more switched on amongst you will be saying why has he put a double chimney/late crest loco on a 1956 train. I can only plead lack of attention to detail. My notes said Grantham A3 and this was the only one available. It was only later after I’d put the train away that I realised my mistake, so please bear with me.

 

Here is a shot of more of the train entering the station area.

 

And now moving on to the viaduct.

 

Finally here’s  the video. This shows the full rake with the slightly incongruous BG in the middle. This is as per the CWN. Apart from the Elizabethan ones, I don’t think any BGs were painted in custard and cream to match the stock.

 

 

 

Edited January 3, 2021 by thegreenhowards

[great northern]

20 minutes ago, thegreenhowards said:

I got that reference. I was illustrating less successful teams that were honoured with a name. 

But not necessarily less successful when they were named. Grimsby Town and Huddersfield for example were at the top of Division 1 in the 30s. A bias towards clubs in the LNER area would be understandable too. Lesser railways never came up with this idea.

[thegreenhowards]

3 minutes ago, great northern said:

But not necessarily less successful when they were named. Grimsby Town and Huddersfield for example were at the top of Division 1 in the 30s. A bias towards clubs in the LNER area would be understandable too. Lesser railways never came up with this idea.

I agree with those two, but Donny and Darlington never made it past the second tier. I accept they may have a special case with the LNER though! I would plead that Queens Park is pretty much on the Great Central but with my honest hat on, I can see why we were overlooked.

[john new]

Quote

 

 5 hours ago, great northern said:

......

I agree with those two, but Donny and Darlington never made it past the second tier. I accept they may have a special case with the LNER though! 

 

Definitely two teams that would have had a special relevance to the Company's engineering employees!

 

Edited January 3, 2021 by john new
Missed out the quote - duh

[thegreenhowards]

Today a new loco makes its debut on Gresley Jn. I say ‘it’ because while Pacifics are ‘she’, I’m not sure that can apply to a WD 2-8-0! Anyway, here is 90015.

 

This is a recent eBay purchase of a Bachmann WD having decided I need more WDs. It was a bargain (£72) having been described as ‘having a distinct click’. I thought that would be a few tweaks to the valve gear and hey presto...wrong! I ended up spending about 4 hours fiddling with it. The problem turned out to be the coupling rods binding on the cranks. So I had to strip the coupling rods off and ream them out. It now runs well forward but still with a slight click in reverse. It was a satisfying job but in vfm terms I’d have been better buying less of a project!

 

This will not stay as 90015 as it was a Mexborough or Colwick engine until the late crest era and anyway it will upset my DCC loco numbering system if and when I acquire Quicksilver! So, I’ll be looking to renumber it shortly, but there are so many detail differences that could be a bit of a nightmare!

 

Gilbert has provided some useful goods info and I understand that class Fs would have been used to get coal up to London - no opportunity foregone as there was so much. So it consists of a few GM opens and vans and then half of my loaded coal train. 

 

Here’s the video should you want to admire lots of slowly trundling coal trucks.

 

 

Edited January 4, 2021 by thegreenhowards

[stewartingram]

Surely a WD "clank" scaled down to 4mm, becomes a "click"......

[thegreenhowards]

On 04/01/2021 at 10:46, stewartingram said:

Surely a WD "clank" scaled down to 4mm, becomes a "click"......

I did think about trying to get away with that but it slowed right down at the ‘click‘ which would not be quite right - momentum doesn’t scale!

 

It still has a bit of a grinding noise if you listen to the video which if I’m being generous might sound like a WD!

Edited January 5, 2021 by thegreenhowards
Typo

[thegreenhowards]

It’s now 1810 at Gresley Jn and time for the up Glasgow-KX. I’m basing this train on the Summer 1958 formation but all in Crimson/ Cream livery so probably Summer ‘57 (I don’t have the CWN for Summer ‘57 but assume it would be similar). It’s headed by 34A streak, Wild Swan.

 

 

It’s an impressive looking 12 car rake.

 

As I’ve mentioned, I’m experimenting with Hunt magnetic couplings. They seem to work fine on all Mark 1 trains of 11 coaches or less but when it gets heavier/ longer than that I seem to get occasional unscheduled uncoupling. I also have the problem of how to incorporate non NEM stock in the train. This service featured an ex Coronation dining twin as below. This normally runs in my West Riding set (hence the coach roof boards) and I’m not planning on converting all my sets over to Hunt couplings any time soon. So these will stay as hook and goalpost couplings.

 

 

The question was how to allow it to run on the Glasgow rake which is otherwise made up of loose stock with Hunt couplings. The solution I’ve adopted is to have dual coupling converter coaches like this.

 

 

The magnet doesn’t interfere with the hook and vice versa. I may run into problems with this but so far so good. Any other observations on Hunt couplings would be welcome.

 

Finally the video - this took a couple of takes as the train split in to two halfway through the station on take one!

 

 

[great northern]

1 hour ago, thegreenhowards said:

It’s now 1810 at Gresley Jn and time for the up Glasgow-KX. I’m basing this train on the Summer 1958 formation but all in Crimson/ Cream livery so probably Summer ‘57 (I don’t have the CWN for Summer ‘57 but assume it would be similar). It’s headed by 34A streak, Wild Swan.

 

 

It’s an impressive looking 12 car rake.

 

As I’ve mentioned, I’m experimenting with Hunt magnetic couplings. They seem to work fine on all Mark 1 trains of 11 coaches or less but when it gets heavier/ longer than that I seem to get occasional unscheduled uncoupling. I also have the problem of how to incorporate non NEM stock in the train. This service featured an ex Coronation dining twin as below. This normally runs in my West Riding set (hence the coach roof boards) and I’m not planning on converting all my sets over to Hunt couplings any time soon. So these will stay as hook and goalpost couplings.

 

 

The question was how to allow it to run on the Glasgow rake which is otherwise made up of loose stock with Hunt couplings. The solution I’ve adopted is to have dual coupling converter coaches like this.

 

 

The magnet doesn’t interfere with the hook and vice versa. I may run into problems with this but so far so good. Any other observations on Hunt couplings would be welcome.

 

Finally the video - this took a couple of takes as the train split in to two halfway through the station on take one!

 

 

I have found it necessary to shorten corridor connectors like the one above Andy. I worked out that they were not allowing the magnets to engage fully, which was causing things to split. I've left two "bellows", which still looks OK with the closer coupling.

[thegreenhowards]

7 minutes ago, great northern said:

I have found it necessary to shorten corridor connectors like the one above Andy. I worked out that they were not allowing the magnets to engage fully, which was causing things to split. I've left two "bellows", which still looks OK with the closer coupling.

I think I may need to do some of that, but I’m going to try the slightly longer couplings first. They’re in the post.

[thegreenhowards]

On 27/12/2020 at 08:35, jwealleans said:

Wasn't there a Hitchin service which was double headed by an L1 and B1, or had that gone by this time?

Jonathan asked the question a week or so ago about a B1/L1 double header and I promised that it would feature soon. Well today’s the day. This is the 1739 KX- Baldock double headed as far as Hitchin where the B1 came off and went forward to Peterborough with the Peterborough portion of the 1752 to Cambridge and Peterborough. Photos I’ve found of this train are both from 1957 so it may not have lasted long. The L1 was bunker first in both so that’s how I’ve portrayed it - despite it looking a bit strange. Here we have 61394 and 67772. I apologise for the L1 looking ex box. It’s my daughter’s and she won’t let me weather it!

 

 

The train itself was a standard non corridor 6 set, mainly Mark 1s with a couple of Thompsons. It had three peak strengthened added to the front - all Thompson in my case which is what the CWN shows (but the photos suggest Mark 1s).

here it is emerging from canal tunnel.

 

 

And now at rest in platform 2.

 

The video is a bit longer than normal to show the pair accelerating away from their station stop and following them round the layout. I’m particularly pleased with how the DCC ‘consisting’ worked on this pair. They worked seemelessly together. It was much easier with a pair of Bachmann RTRs than trying to match the two Atlantic’s - one Bachmann and one kit built with Portescap.

 

 

[thegreenhowards]

22 hours ago, great northern said:

I have found it necessary to shorten corridor connectors like the one above Andy. I worked out that they were not allowing the magnets to engage fully, which was causing things to split. I've left two "bellows", which still looks OK with the closer coupling.

Gilbert,

 

Do you put the corridor connectors on both ends of the coaches or just one end? I tend to put them on just one end and it doesn’t seem over-tight when I push the coaches together - one connector and one blanking plate. I do occasionally turn the coaches round (for coach roof board reasons) and if I get two corridor connectors then it does feel very tight. 
 

Also are you using the fair price models connectors or the bigger (and much more expensive) Modellers Mecca ones?
 

Andy

[thegreenhowards]

Today its the evening peak Stirling branch train. You’ve seen this train before as I assume the Stirling branch has a pretty basic service worked by just one train set - N7, 69637 and a D.210 twin art. I’ve tried to give a different angle on it this time.

 

 

 

 

There should also be a Ivatt branch train at this time. I’ve modelled the Ivatt branch on the Hatfield-Dunstable branch and looking at the CWN is appears that there were four train sets on this branch plus a quad art which worked through to Moorgate. Two of them arrived in the morning, laid over and departed again in the evening peak. I only have two branch sets to form my service with none laying over, so the 1809 to Ivatt is cancelled this evening! This is good news though as I now have an excuse to buy more trains!

 

Here’s the video of the Stirling branch train departing.

 

 

 

[great northern]

13 hours ago, thegreenhowards said:

Gilbert,

 

Do you put the corridor connectors on both ends of the coaches or just one end? I tend to put them on just one end and it doesn’t seem over-tight when I push the coaches together - one connector and one blanking plate. I do occasionally turn the coaches round (for coach roof board reasons) and if I get two corridor connectors then it does feel very tight. 
 

Also are you using the fair price models connectors or the bigger (and much more expensive) Modellers Mecca ones?
 

Andy

I have used the Modellers Mecca ones, but am now removing all of them. My major problem was that coach builders, Willets Goddard et al put long connectors on both ends of a coach. I've never been entirely happy with the appearance anyway, but those are the ones that have to be shortened if close couplings are going to meet.

[thegreenhowards]

4 hours ago, great northern said:

I have used the Modellers Mecca ones, but am now removing all of them. My major problem was that coach builders, Willets Goddard et al put long connectors on both ends of a coach. I've never been entirely happy with the appearance anyway, but those are the ones that have to be shortened if close couplings are going to meet.

That’s also where I’m having the difficulties. On Bachmann close coupling Mark 1s, one concertina connector is enough to close the gap. But on kit built coaches with fixed couplings I have always used two connectors - one on each coach,  to bridge the gap. This is where the Hunt close couplings are causing problems. I will try the longer ones when they arrive and if that fails I may have to resort to drastic surgery.

 

By the way the fair price models connectors are excellent vfm at £4.20 for 12. No connection etc.....

 

Andy

[31A]

3 hours ago, thegreenhowards said:

That’s also where I’m having the difficulties. On Bachmann close coupling Mark 1s, one concertina connector is enough to close the gap. But on kit built coaches with fixed couplings I have always used two connectors - one on each coach,  to bridge the gap. This is where the Hunt close couplings are causing problems. I will try the longer ones when they arrive and if that fails I may have to resort to drastic surgery.

 

By the way the fair price models connectors are excellent vfm at £4.20 for 12. No connection etc.....

 

Andy

 

On coaches that I've modified myself (e.g. Bachmann Mk1s and Hornby Gresleys), and the coaches I've built for Gilbert from kits, I've used the MJT Gangways from Dart Castings:

 

https://www.dartcastings.co.uk/mjt/2820.php

 

The benefit of using these is that they look like real gangways when the coach is uncoupled, so that the model is a decent model of the coach in its own right, as well as working well when the coaches are coupled.  They come with the bellows marked out on a piece of black paper but I usually replace that with a bellows made from some thinner black paper that I've had for years; about the same thickness as ordinary printer paper.  It makes them slightly more flexible, but the paper they come with works well too.  The only other modification I make is to bend the lamp irons back slightly to reduce the risk of them catching on curves.  Having done so they don't cause any problems in running and trains can be propelled through sharp radii with no bother.

 

 

 

[thegreenhowards]

35 minutes ago, 31A said:

 

On coaches that I've modified myself (e.g. Bachmann Mk1s and Hornby Gresleys), and the coaches I've built for Gilbert from kits, I've used the MJT Gangways from Dart Castings:

 

https://www.dartcastings.co.uk/mjt/2820.php

 

The benefit of using these is that they look like real gangways when the coach is uncoupled, so that the model is a decent model of the coach in its own right, as well as working well when the coaches are coupled.  They come with the bellows marked out on a piece of black paper but I usually replace that with a bellows made from some thinner black paper that I've had for years; about the same thickness as ordinary printer paper.  It makes them slightly more flexible, but the paper they come with works well too.  The only other modification I make is to bend the lamp irons back slightly to reduce the risk of them catching on curves.  Having done so they don't cause any problems in running and trains can be propelled through sharp radii with no bother.

 

 

 

Steve,

 

I agree they look good when not in use but at 6 times the price, I’d need a lot of arm twisting to use them everywhere. I do have a set I picked up second hand which I may try on some end coaches. 
 

I appreciate that when finishing off an expensive kit built coach the cost is less of an issue so probably worth it.

 

Thanks for sharing the photos .

 

Andy 

[St Enodoc]

5 hours ago, thegreenhowards said:

By the way the fair price models connectors are excellent vfm at £4.20 for 12. No connection etc.....

If there's no connection how do they work?????

[31A]

2 hours ago, thegreenhowards said:

Steve,

 

I agree they look good when not in use but at 6 times the price, I’d need a lot of arm twisting to use them everywhere. I do have a set I picked up second hand which I may try on some end coaches. 
 

I appreciate that when finishing off an expensive kit built coach the cost is less of an issue so probably worth it.

 

Thanks for sharing the photos .

 

Andy 

 

Hi Andy,

 

Didn't realise you were planning on doing lots!  You've got a lot more coaches than I have.  I tend to pick them up one at a time when I'm doing a coach.  Perhaps you could copy the design, making the end plates from black Plastikard or even card?  Point being, I have found the design works very well whilst also looking realistic.