Gresley Junction

[Sandhole]

Just now, thegreenhowards said:

Yes, a tourist pair (Mailcoach), a Kirk BTO and then a D.307 steel twin which is similar to the tourist twin (Isinglass).

 

Thanks for the comment on the video. I’m never sure whether they’re worth the effort but I think they’re the only way to show the whole formation which, for me, is a large part of running through my sequence.

I have an unbuilt Tourist Pair than Mike/Coachbogie, got me when Phoenix were selling everything off.
Thanks to EBay I have a train of Mailcoach stock.
Runs as a football special from Norwich into Manchester London Rd.
Please keep posting the videos.
In this world of no exhibitions, they are a source of enjoyment and inspiration.
Regards,
Chris.

 

[thegreenhowards]

With all the talk of Hornby A2/3s, I thought it was worth reminding ourselves that there was life before Hornby. So here is 60513 Dante built from a DJH kit, but I bought it second hand at Warley a few years ago.

It’s on the 2245 KX-Leeds/Bradford/ Hull/ Doncaster which was a mixed parcels and passenger train with lots of BGs and loading to 14 bogies so a good test for my A2/3 which it passed with flying colours. Here is a view of most of the (rather strange) formation.

it was made up: BG, BCK, SK,BG,BCK,BSO,BG,BG,BSK,FK,CK,SK,SK,BSK. You’ll have to watch the video to check that I’ve formed it correctly. I’m not sure what provenance all the BGs were so I’ve used a mixture and I’ve thrown a Gresley and Thompson in vice Mark 1 as I’m sure this happened on these secondary expresses.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 29, 2021 by thegreenhowards

[thegreenhowards]

I didn’t get round to updating this for the last couple of days because the weather was too nice and I’ve been playing with our club 0 gauge set up in my garden. We even had a small (3 person) club session yesterday working on it and it was great to see people again.

 

Anyway today is a continuation of the A2/3 theme, this time with my Hornby version.

 

 

This has been renamed, weathered and sound fitted since its last appearance on the thread and is today on the 2245 parcels service from KX which went to a myriad of destinations include ding several north of York so I think it’s a plausible train for 60522 to be returning home on.

 

 

I assume the train stopped at Gresley Jn for some parcels humping, so here she is at platform 2.

 

And here is the video showing off the new sound chip.

 

 

 

Edited April 1, 2021 by thegreenhowards

[Sandhole]

59 minutes ago, thegreenhowards said:

I didn’t get round to updating this for the last couple of days because the weather was too nice and I’ve been playing with our club 0 gauge set up in my garden. We even had a small (3 person) club session yesterday working on it and it was great to see people again.

 

Anyway today is a continuation of the A2/3 theme, this time with my Hornby version.

 

 

This has been renamed, weathered and sound fitted since its last appearance on the thread and is today on the 2245 parcels service from KX which went to a myriad of destinations include ding several north of York so I think it’s a plausible train for 60522 to be returning home on.

 

 

I assume the train stopped at Gresley Jn for some parcels humping, so here she is at platform 2.

 

And here is the video showing off the new sound chip.

 

 

 

Nice parcels train. Like the 6 wheeled Thompson full brake.
Keep posting the videos, pleases.
Regards,
Chris.

[thegreenhowards]

Today, it’s the turn of another debutant on Gresley Jn, my newly acquired B2, 61639, Norwich City.

 

She is on the 2325 KX- Cambridge, presumably with a fair quota of drunk students.  This was a standard corridor six set.
 

 

...and here we see her leaving Gresley Jn.

 

Make the most of 61639 and this is the only time she will be seen on Gresley Jn as she is shortly to enter works and will emerge as Castle Hedingham. 
 

No video today as it’s only a short train but I promise one next time for the final train of the sequence.

 

 

Edited April 2, 2021 by thegreenhowards

[thegreenhowards]

The time at Gresley Jn is 2359 and that means it’s time for the last train of the sequence, the Night Scotsman. This is headed by Gateshead A1, 60154, Bon Accord. 

 

 

This is one of the pair of Gateshead based A1s which spent much of the ‘50s working the Night Scotsman to and from London. They were two of the five roller bearing A1s which allowed them to run up some impressive mileages between maintenance. Mine is a DJH kit bought off eBay but I renamed it to Bon Accord and put on a representation of the roller bearings.  It’s noticeable how rarely they were photographed in this period presumably because they mainly worked after dark. However by some meteorological fluke it is still broad daylight on Gresley Jn and we can see the train in its full glory

 

 

This is the 1958 SO version of the train with three day coaches on the front and some second class Thompson sleepers towards the rear. The full formation is BSK,CK,SK,TWIN SLF, SLF, SLF, SLSTP, SLSTP, SLSTP, BG. One day I will build a second twin SLF to enable the weekday all FC version of the train to be run. The sleepers are the stars of the show. They are all kit built, mainly from Mousa sides with the Gresley SLFs being cut ‘n’ shut Kirks.

 

The twin SLF is my favourite.

 

 

The full rake has been sat in a box since I finished the last run through of the sequence almost a year ago, so it’s nice to get it out again. I do find it frustrating that my locos don’t work after they have had an idle year. I can cope with them needing a couple of circuits to loosen up or even some wheel cleaning, but 60154 had developed short circuit while sat in its box. It turned out that one pick up wire was uninsulated and was touching the frames. So I have to rip that out and replace it before I could run the train. Grrrrr!

 

Here is the video.

 

 

[thegreenhowards]

I thought I'd just do a quick summary of the most recent run through of my sequence. It's been extended since the first run through which extended to 87 trains over three months and featured 77 different engines.

 

This time I extended it to include just about every train which would have been seen through Hatfield between 1200 and midnight on a Summer weekday in the 1950s. The only exceptions were a few reliefs and the down TPO. I still have a fair bit of kit building to do for the latter! I started on October 31st, so it took just over five months to run through and featured 148 services with 108 different locos (although some of them are the same loco before and after my renumbering of it!) from 45 different classes - quite a bit of variety!

 

Here is a list of the stars of the show.

15

 

 

Gresley Jn will now be shutting for engineering works (ballasting, warehouses, station signage etc.). I will report back as I make progress and will try to run a few trains in between to show off particular favourites or progress with rolling stock.

 

If anyone has any requests, let me know.

 

Thanks for all your feedback over the last five months.

 

Andy

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[thegreenhowards]

I’ve done a short highlights video of some of the best bits of my recent run through of the sequence. All the clips I’ve chosen are of sound fitted locos. It’s only just over 2 minutes long, so crank up the volume and enjoy.

 

 

[Sandhole]

3 minutes ago, thegreenhowards said:

I’ve done a short highlights video of some of the best bits of my recent run through of the sequence. All the clips I’ve chosen are of sound fitted locos. It’s only just over 2 minutes long, so crank up the volume and enjoy.

 

 

I'm going to keep playing this.
I find it inspirational.
Regards.
Chris.

[John Tomlinson]

52 minutes ago, thegreenhowards said:

I’ve done a short highlights video of some of the best bits of my recent run through of the sequence. All the clips I’ve chosen are of sound fitted locos. It’s only just over 2 minutes long, so crank up the volume and enjoy.

 

 

Whilst I remember most of the individual sequences, the overall compilation is very well put together indeed.

 

This is the best advert for realistic DCC sound I've come across.

 

John.

[thegreenhowards]

John and Chris,

 

Thanks for your kind words. I’m glad you appreciated the sound - I certainly think it adds something to the video, particularly the Deltic and WD. I’m really looking forward to the Accurascale Deltic which is supposed to have the kind of speakers to do the ‘drone’ justice!

 

Andy

[thegreenhowards]

A bit of a gap in postings but I haven’t been completely idle! I have done some ballasting. Platform 6 and the whole loco yard area the operator side of that was unballasted as shown.

 

 

I started by paint the rails with precision track dirt and the sleepers with precision sleeper grime ( up to the third track in - the rest will be phase 2). I think it already looks better.

Then I used Legacy steam era shed ballast for the ballasting.

 

I rather like the colour of this and don’t think it will need extra painting. I’m not sure what to do with platform 6 itself. Should that be the same dark ballast or should I use a grey blend. The dark colour would be easier to blend in! 
 

I've now run out of ballast, so need to order some more before I can make more progress. I’m minded to buy more of the same, possibly N gauge rather than 00 for the shed itself to give more of an ash ballast look. Views welcome.

 

Andy

 

 

[John Tomlinson]

N agauge ballast might look a bit better, but IMHO it is a real pig to get to stay in place, assuming you can get it in place in the first place. If you do go that route, expect to spend time digging it away from the webbing in the rails. Then again, you may well be a lot more capable at ballasting than me!

 

John.

[Mark90]

I agree that N gauge ballast (I use Woodland Scenics fine grade) can look better. After a lot of faffing, my method with finer ballast is to carefully paint on neat PVA and then sprinkle the ballast on top. It takes a lot of time, mind, if you're doing this between sleepers. 

[thegreenhowards]

12 hours ago, Mark90 said:

I agree that N gauge ballast (I use Woodland Scenics fine grade) can look better. After a lot of faffing, my method with finer ballast is to carefully paint on neat PVA and then sprinkle the ballast on top. It takes a lot of time, mind, if you're doing this between sleepers. 

I find this little device very useful.

 

You just add the ballast in the top and pull it along the track. The ballast drops out at the right level and forms a nice shoulder. It took under an hour to do the ballasting I did yesterday including spreading and glueing and most of that was fiddly around the points which the spreader doesn’t handle very well.

 

 

[Mark90]

10 hours ago, thegreenhowards said:

I find this little device very useful.

 

You just add the ballast in the top and pull it along the track. The ballast drops out at the right level and forms a nice shoulder. It took under an hour to do the ballasting I did yesterday including spreading and glueing and most of that was fiddly around the points which the spreader doesn’t handle very well.

 

 

One of those devices is definitely on my list for my next - hopefully much larger - layout. I think the creation of the shoulder is particularly helpful! 

[thegreenhowards]

Long time no post! I have been very busy on other projects recently, so haven’t had so much time for modelling and that time I have had has been spent more on rolling stock projects than layout work, particularly as the loft gets very hot in decent summer weather. However the rain over the last 2-3 weeks has allowed me to get upstairs and sort out some longstanding projects. 

 

Firstly, I’ve managed to move the canal about 15mm from the wall to create a bit of depth and sorted out the warehouses behind. They are now glued to the wall with black painted sheets of paper behind to represent the interior. The one on the left is an interior wall which came with the kit. I think I’ll build another front and use this behind.

 

 

You may also note that I’ve done some ballast infill between the lines here. That uses DCC concepts N gauge ballast to represent fine cinders between the tracks. I’ve also finished the ballasting which I started a couple of months ago and showed on here - Platform 6 (with the C12), the loop and the run into the loco depot. I’ve just got Platform 1 (with the DMU), the loco depot itself and the goods yard to do. I can finish most of that off pretty quickly, but I want to build some inspection pits for the steam shed, so that bit will have to wait.

 

 

Andy

[thegreenhowards]

Time for a train today. This is the up Elizabethan. When I featured it in the last sequence it was before I had finished my No.9 Hornby renumbering. ‘Sir’ always ‘told me off’ for using No.13 as she didn’t feature on the Lizzie in 1957. No.9 which is my favourite did feature four times so I can get away with her.

 

 

And I’ve also recently bought a rather lovely tailboard for the train from Fox.

 

 

So I thought it was time for another short video.

 

 

 

 

[thegreenhowards]

Last weekend I attended my first model railway exhibition since Basingstoke just before lockdown in March 2020. This was the Bexhill exhibition where I was operating my friend’s layout ‘Two Bridges Up Sidings’ (https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/144317-two-bridges-up-sidings-80s90s-exhibition-layout/). It was great to get back to some normality!
 

While there I found nicely built some semaphore signals for £5 and as one of my New Years resolutions for Gresley Jn was to make some progress with the signals and I’ve completely failed to build any I thought I’d see if I could find a use for these. It’s a nice gantry which I think will work as starters for platforms 4,5&6 plus the goods loop. I.e the track with the mk 1 suburban and the next three to the right.

 

They’re a bit GWR but I think that if I paint out the red balls they’ll pass muster. Any views welcome.

 

Andy

 

 

Edited August 18, 2021 by thegreenhowards
Adding photo

[John Tomlinson]

20 hours ago, thegreenhowards said:

Last weekend I attended my first model railway exhibition since Basingstoke just before lockdown in March 2020. This was the Bexhill exhibition where I was operating my friend’s layout ‘Two Bridges Up Sidings’ (https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/144317-two-bridges-up-sidings-80s90s-exhibition-layout/). It was great to get back to some normality!
 

While there I found nicely built some semaphore signals for £5 and as one of my New Years resolutions for Gresley Jn was to make some progress with the signals and I’ve completely failed to build any I thought I’d see if I could find a use for these. It’s a nice gantry which I think will work as starters for platforms 4,5&6 plus the goods loop. I.e the track with the mk 1 suburban and the next three to the right.

 

They’re a bit GWR but I think that if I paint out the red balls they’ll pass muster. Any views welcome.

 

Andy

 

 

 

The lattice looks as if it belongs on a proper railway to me!

 

They do look the part, you could paint out the red balls, and also if you were feeling keen add a handrail around the platform. Your installation of signals is more advanced than mine, although I've made some I find this possibly the least interesting part of modelling, so progress is quite difficult.

 

John.

[Tony Teague]

I think they're actually called finials!

But balls, finials, whatever, yes, paint them white!

Tony

[Mark90]

Yes, definitely finials! 

 

I think they’re actually a very passable approximation of GN signals that have been modernised with upper quadrants. I think with John’s suggestions of painting the finials and adding a handrail, they’ll look smashing (and what a bargain for £5!).

[thegreenhowards]

1 hour ago, Mark90 said:

Yes, definitely finials! 

 

I think they’re actually a very passable approximation of GN signals that have been modernised with upper quadrants. I think with John’s suggestions of painting the finials and adding a handrail, they’ll look smashing (and what a bargain for £5!).

Thanks to my learned friends on the terminology. I thought the spiky thing on top was the finial and didn’t include the ball below, but I stand corrected!

 

I’m glad the consensus seems to agree with my first thoughts that they were sufficiently GN for my layout.

 

There were two more single signals in the pack for £5, so even better value - how I’ve missed shows! A rail built home and a slightly broken wooden post lower quadrant home and distant. These have been donated to my club for one of our southern layouts.

 

Andy

[St Enodoc]

3 hours ago, thegreenhowards said:

Thanks to my learned friends on the terminology. I thought the spiky thing on top was the finial and didn’t include the ball below, but I stand corrected!

 

I’m glad the consensus seems to agree with my first thoughts that they were sufficiently GN for my layout.

 

There were two more single signals in the pack for £5, so even better value - how I’ve missed shows! A rail built home and a slightly broken wooden post lower quadrant home and distant. These have been donated to my club for one of our southern layouts.

 

Andy

Leave the balls red and fit lower-quadrant arms. They'll look much better...

[thegreenhowards]

It’s been ages since I posted on here. I normally leave Gresley Jn alone during the Summer as it gets too hot on the loft. But this year O gauge projects rather took over and I never got back to it. This was not helped by nicking the Powercab for the O gauge - both club and garden layouts! So when I wanted to run the layout, I had to do lots of unwiring and rewiring of controllers including the 5 amp boosters.
 

Anyway, this situation could not be allowed to continue, so I built a box to house my DCC kit in from an old Port bottle box which I varnished. All the connections are done with plugable  chocolate block connectors so the box can be moved easily from layout to layout.

 
 

I then made a shelf on Gresley Jn for the box to fit on and I think it looks quite neat. The box is held in place with Velcro.

 

 

 

Not rocket science! But it’s got me running trains again so it must be a good thing.

 

In anticipation of having friends round to ‘play trains’ again in the New Year (Omicron permitting!), I’m trying to get the short sequence running smoothly. This basically involves those trains which live on the layout rather than digging things out if cassettes. I find it easier to get this running reliably whereas stuff taken out of cassettes doesn’t always run reliably first time.

 

Here is a view of my long loaded coal headed by O2, 63983.

 

 

Having set up the moveable back scene for this shot, I also took a video.