Cholsey & Moulsford (Change for Wallingford)

[Nick Gough]

6 hours ago, Tallpaul69 said:

Fatal mistake Nick!

You should not say NEVER, with respect to a model railway, cos you don't know what might happen in the future?

 

I thought that as soon as I had written it, Paul!

My oldest grandson keeps saying that he likes diesels despite my careful training!

[Tallpaul69]

17 hours ago, Nick Gough said:

I thought that as soon as I had written it, Paul!

My oldest grandson keeps saying that he likes diesels despite my careful training!

Trouble is with this virus situation we cant take them to preserved lines for their periodic indoctrination  education on the sights and smells of steam!

[Nick Gough]

5 hours ago, Tallpaul69 said:

Trouble is with this virus situation we cant take them to preserved lines for their periodic indoctrination  education on the sights and smells of steam!

Agreed. We gave him a Great Western Society membership for his 7th birthday, last year, but we haven't been able to take them to Didcot since February half term.

[Nick Gough]

Another baseboard ready for tracklaying:

 

This will be part of the storage sidings.

 

[Nick Gough]

One end of eight storage roads have been laid now:

 

So time to introduce the next baseboard:

Edited October 18, 2022 by Nick Gough

[Nick Gough]

Underlay down and ready to start tracklaying:

 

Which leaves this gap to fill to complete the circuit around the room:

This will need a final baseboard - just under five feet long.

Edited October 18, 2022 by Nick Gough

[Nick Gough]

MAJOR DISASTER!

 

Whilst testing the newly laid storage sidings I managed to drive a Hornby Castle and half its eleven coach train off the end of the line, through the recently illustrated gap, to fall a scale 250 feet, before colliding with the floor.

 

Fortunately the loco is an old Hornby model, in Harry Potter livery, which needs some improvement work anyway:

 

 

The front buffer beam is the only apparent casualty. This separated from the loco on contact. I have glued it back on, pending a proper repair, otherwise I will lose it:

 

Fortunately the coaches were mainly old Hornby 'Railroad' Collett's which I have awaiting cut & shut work in line with a popular RMWeb thread. Had I been testing with my more modern coach models I suspect they would not have got away so lightly.

 

On the plus side I now know:

Peco Double slips do NOT electrically isolate sidings when you change the switch blades,

I can easily fit a train of 11+ coaches in my storage sidings.

 

Oh well - every day is a learning day!

Edited October 18, 2022 by Nick Gough

[Siberian Snooper]

I would get some edging strip put around the fiddleyard PDQ, to prevent further plummeting episodes, I do this as part of the baseboard construction.

 

 

[checkrail]

14 hours ago, Nick Gough said:

MAJOR DISASTER!

Heartfelt commiserations.  I did the same thing a couple of years ago with a Grange.  Model was a write-off.  I subsequently made push-in padded barriers to go across tracks at each side of lift-out hatch at end of operations.  They work well if I remember to put them in! 

[Nick Gough]

6 hours ago, Siberian Snooper said:

I would get some edging strip put around the fiddleyard PDQ, to prevent further plummeting episodes, I do this as part of the baseboard construction.

 

 

It should just be a temporary problem.

I'm working on the baseboard to fit the gap at the moment.

Once that's in place the nearest line to a vertical drop will be about 18" away (at least until I lay the relief lines).

[Nick Gough]

3 hours ago, checkrail said:

Heartfelt commiserations.  I did the same thing a couple of years ago with a Grange.  Model was a write-off.  I subsequently made push-in padded barriers to go across tracks at each side of lift-out hatch at end of operations.  They work well if I remember to put them in! 

Sorry to hear.

Sounds like you had a bigger disaster than me!

[Siberian Snooper]

3 hours ago, Nick Gough said:

It should just be a temporary problem.

I'm working on the baseboard to fit the gap at the moment.

Once that's in place the nearest line to a vertical drop will be about 18" away (at least until I lay the relief lines).

 

It doesn't look as if you have any sort of lip on the sides either, I have known stock to be removed from the track for maintenance or for investigation of some problem and get accidentally get knocked off, since then non scenic areas always have a 20mm side added or built in and a length of 20 x 20 clamped across the end,  kit built stock tends to be less rugged than rtr and in some cases a lot more expensive, better safe than sorry.

 

 

 

 

[Nick Gough]

3 hours ago, Siberian Snooper said:

 

It doesn't look as if you have any sort of lip on the sides either, I have known stock to be removed from the track for maintenance or for investigation of some problem and get accidentally get knocked off, since then non scenic areas always have a 20mm side added or built in and a length of 20 x 20 clamped across the end,  kit built stock tends to be less rugged than rtr and in some cases a lot more expensive, better safe than sorry.

 

 

 

 

Good advice. 

[Nick Gough]

Last baseboard assembled and waiting for the glue to dry:

Edited October 18, 2022 by Nick Gough

[Nick Gough]

Hurrah!

My local model shop reopened again this week, so a quick visit this morning to pick up urgent supplies to complete the main line storage sidings:

[Nick Gough]

Very remiss of me!

Just realised I haven't given an update for over a month.

My excuse is that, having completed the circuit, I've been busy playing trains testing track and some of my locos and stock.

 

Anyway, the last baseboard is in place and I now have two complete circuits of track for the Up and Down main lines:

 

So far I have completed eight storage loops:

Three loops for the Down Main, two (so far) for the Up Main, plus three bi-directional loops in the centre.

I need to sort out the wiring and switching for the bi-directional loops but the others are live.

[Moxy]

On 29/02/2020 at 17:09, RJS1977 said:

 

So I guess the important question is - is it a W4? (It's not on the Wikipedia list of Peckett locos, and its type isn't given on the heritage-railways.com database). And yes, I know, the cab windows are wrong for the Hornby version :-(

 

 

Sorry for the thread drift Nick, I know this question was asked 5 months ago, but I've only just seen it and it doesn't look as though anyone else has replied.

 

The loco isn't a W4, it's a W6 from the Gloucestershire & Warwickshire Steam Railway, currently under restoration, according to their website.  There are some other pictures of W6's (but not no. 1976) here, scroll down the page.

 

I'm not a fan of GWR usually, but I like your layout, and I'm jealous of the space you have!

 

Regards

 

Moxy

 

 

[RJS1977]

1 hour ago, Moxy said:

 

Sorry for the thread drift Nick, I know this question was asked 5 months ago, but I've only just seen it and it doesn't look as though anyone else has replied.

 

The loco isn't a W4, it's a W6 from the Gloucestershire & Warwickshire Steam Railway, currently under restoration, according to their website.  There are some other pictures of W6's (but not no. 1976) here, scroll down the page.

 

I'm not a fan of GWR usually, but I like your layout, and I'm jealous of the space you have!

 

Regards

 

Moxy

 

 

Sorry, it was W6 I meant! (Given that one has made regular appearances at Cholsey in the last few years).

[Nick Gough]

7 hours ago, Moxy said:

 

Sorry for the thread drift Nick, I know this question was asked 5 months ago, but I've only just seen it and it doesn't look as though anyone else has replied.

 

The loco isn't a W4, it's a W6 from the Gloucestershire & Warwickshire Steam Railway, currently under restoration, according to their website.  There are some other pictures of W6's (but not no. 1976) here, scroll down the page.

 

I'm not a fan of GWR usually, but I like your layout, and I'm jealous of the space you have!

 

Regards

 

Moxy

 

 

 

No problem Moxy and thanks for your comments.

 

Yes, it's a good bit of space but I could, of course, have done with a bit more!

The real thing does take up a lot of room.

[Nick Gough]

A change of direction for today.

Moving to the station area I installed the sides, and ramps, for the island platform (between the Up Main and Down Relief lines:

 

These are 18mm MDF strip. Take away 3mm for the underlay and 4mm for the depth of the track, from sleeper bottom to rail top, leaves a difference in height of 11mm. Add a platform top surface of 1mm and I should end up with a scale 3 feet above rail level. The space between the strips will allow me to 'bury' the island platform building in place.

 

Unfortunately the platforms have to cross onto the lifting flap for the doorway:

The flap hinges are inset into the top surface of the Down Main and, what will be, the up relief platforms. I plan to have short, removable platform top sections to cover the hinges, when in use. These will be taken off when the flap is raised to prevent fouling on the fixed baseboard section.

 

The gap in the island platform  is to accommodate the signal box and cutouts for the point rodding, signal wires, etc:

 

Finally the hole in the baseboard, in the middle of the platform:

is for the staircase leading down to the station subway.

In steam days this staircase was directly accessed via a large open archway at the end of the platform building - so an obvious feature of the station.

Edited October 18, 2022 by Nick Gough

[Nick Gough]

In the last couple of days I have been laying underlay next to the island platform and for part of the way in each direction:

Edited October 18, 2022 by Nick Gough

[Nick Gough]

Just used up some offcuts to do the section in the last photo, hence the odd shapes!

[Nick Gough]

The first section of the Down Relief line has been laid:

 

These points will eventually form the trailing end of a crossover from the Down Main line:

The problem, at the moment, is that I still don't have the Peco bullhead diamond crossing which should be in the Up Main line. So the rest of this crossover will have to wait for now.

 

At the real Cholsey there was a second crossover here, from Up Relief to Up Main:

Again, this will need a diamond, in the Down Relief.

 

Incidentally, the hole in the baseboard here:

 

is where the railway crosses over a road on two adjacent bridges, both on a skew.

Edited October 26, 2022 by Nick Gough
Additional information.

[Tallpaul69]

Looking Great Nick!

I am envious of you having enough room for all four tracks of the main line. My only consolation is that I have managed to plan in up and down loops to my Maidenhead relief lines. 

 

Cheers

Paul

[Nick Gough]

Thanks Paul

 

The only trouble with having this much space is the need to have enough track, points, etc., to do it properly (and, of course, the time to lay it all)!