Lower Thames Yard

[halsey]

11 hours ago, Tallpaul69 said:

For late 50s I suggest the production 55s were too late?

The prototype would be more of your time, but I think only Bachmann have done that and no doubt they are now going for silly money on the Bay!

In new models what about Hornby's awaited Standard 2-6-0 (78xxxs)?

Cheers

Paul

 

Sorry not a fan of Hornby - probably because I was brought up with a Fleischmann DB layout with my Dad

 

Remembering I do run a speed whiskers DMU!! .................. Cos I can!

Edited March 25, 2021 by halsey

[Tallpaul69]

7 hours ago, halsey said:

 

Sorry not a fan of Hornby - probably because I was brought up with a Fleischmann DB layout with my Dad

 

Remembering I do run a speed whiskers DMU!! .................. Cos I can!

If you haven't tried any recent Hornby products, (except DMU?), give them a try?

I seem to remember you have bought items from Anthony at AGR in the past, give him a bell or email and ask him what he recommends (maybe something out of his second hand stash?).

Cheers

Paul 

[halsey]

Just now, Tallpaul69 said:

If you haven't tried any recent Hornby products, (except DMU?), give them a try?

I seem to remember you have bought items from Anthony at AGR in the past, give him a bell or email and ask him what he recommends (maybe something out of his second hand stash?).

Cheers

Paul 

 

Well remembered re AGR, all my stock is Bachmann (incl DMU)  Hornby has never been good to me.

 

J

[halsey]

On 24/03/2021 at 18:59, Tallpaul69 said:

For late 50s I suggest the production 55s were too late?

The prototype would be more of your time, but I think only Bachmann have done that and no doubt they are now going for silly money on the Bay!

In new models what about Hornby's awaited Standard 2-6-0 (78xxxs)?

Cheers

Paul

 

Hi,

Just won a fairly pricey Type 55 Prototype Bachmann 32-520 NRM Electric Blue Deltic (eBay from Ray Heard Model Railways?) - lets hope it is OK when it arrives and converts to DCC OK (it just fits my era as it is 1955 according to wiki and my birth year so cant be bad!).

J

[Tallpaul69]

So I have now got to grips with my new laptop!

All is working fine, but I have yet to get to grips with accessing from the new machine the files and the favourites on the old one. 

 

Things seem to be progressing ok with the layout builders on "Thame" so hopefully that will be delivered around the end of May. 

 

Progress is slow on the warehouse for "Wycombe End"; partly due to my deciding to extend it over the fence into the car park so as to have a road loading bay right across the right hand end of the unit. This should be a more suitable solution as the site is really too narrow for loading down the side.

The fence is towards the right of the attached photo-

 

All being well, I will be able to attach a sketch plan to my next posting.

Hope everyone is well and getting satisfaction from their modelling?

Best regards

Paul

[Tallpaul69]

11 minutes ago, halsey said:

 

Hi,

Just won a fairly pricey Type 55 Prototype Bachmann 32-520 NRM Electric Blue Deltic (eBay from Ray Heard Model Railways?) - lets hope it is OK when it arrives and converts to DCC OK (it just fits my era as it is 1955 according to wiki and my birth year so cant be bad!).

J

Well done Jules!

Now all you have to do is work out the story as to why it has shown up on your railway! (diversion?, or partial failure on a railtour and making its way back to works?)

Anyway-Enjoy!!!

Cheers

Paul

[Tallpaul69]

To show Jules (and others who may be interested) that he is not alone in running a Prototype Deltic (DP1!) model on his layout which is outside of its normal sphere of operation, here is my justification for my model!

The High Wycombe line saw a lot of football specials on their way to/from Wembley and also midlands supporters to/from the south coast:-

Thus my story is that the powers that be decided that the loads of some of the football specials warranted a trial of diesel traction, and that they wanted to see how DP1 coped with heavy loads on some of the more testing routes away from the West Coast main line.

So it was tried on a number of football specials. I have no information on how it performed except to say that my model is out of action because it has yet to be fitted with a DCC Sound chip!

If folks don't accept my story then I shall just have to fall back on Rule 1!!

 

Meanwhile, I am sketching out possible arrangements for the extended warehouse on Wycombe End:-

In my last post I explained my idea about extending the warehouse past the fence at the end of the yard. I want to keep the fence in situ in case I decide against the larger warehouse. So the warehouse has to fit over the fence. The difficulty with this is that there are a pair of open gates in the fence, so my plan to have the fence hidden inside the wall between the warehouse and the loading bay will not quite work!

So the first job is to draw up some reasonably accurate plans for the warehouse and then make a scale card mock up, to see how it looks in place.

 

Best regards to you all,

Paul 

[Tallpaul69]

I understand that there might have been a breakthrough (or breakout(?)) with regard to the fence at Wycombe End!

 

I will be visiting tomorrow to see what the lads have been up to?

I hope they are making progress because I have a bet (with myself!) that they will finish the fence before the Engine Shed door is fixed at Little Muddle.

Kevin recently reported on a meeting on site with management on this subject, but management seemed unable to resolve the problems!

I am wondering if there has been another site meeting at Wycombe End? Certainly the last one seemed as unhelpful as the one at Little |Muddle, but unfortunately I was not able to see any write up of the proceeding.

 

Hopefully I will have something positive to report from Wycombe End later tomorrow.

 

Best regards

Paul 

[KNP]

12 hours ago, Tallpaul69 said:

I understand that there might have been a breakthrough (or breakout(?)) with regard to the fence at Wycombe End!

 

I will be visiting tomorrow to see what the lads have been up to?

I hope they are making progress because I have a bet (with myself!) that they will finish the fence before the Engine Shed door is fixed at Little Muddle.

Kevin recently reported on a meeting on site with management on this subject, but management seemed unable to resolve the problems!

I am wondering if there has been another site meeting at Wycombe End? Certainly the last one seemed as unhelpful as the one at Little |Muddle, but unfortunately I was not able to see any write up of the proceeding.

 

Hopefully I will have something positive to report from Wycombe End later tomorrow.

 

Best regards

Paul 

 

Meeting is still dragging on....

[Tallpaul69]

Well, I finally managed to see progress (or lack of it!) on the fence at Wycombe End!

Here is a view of the work taken from the rail side yesterday:-

 

 

The lads are not very communicative, seeming to prefer to concentrate on their work. Whether this was due to the presence of the Boss (as witnessed by his estate car on the left of the photo), who knows? Maybe it was just that they wanted to get an awkward bit of work completed before it got dark? Judging from the angle of the sun from the right, there was not much of the day left. 

 

I was quite pleased with this photo, I have not had much practice at propping up my phono on the layout, or for that matter of cropping the resultant picture. Apologies for the grotty background. The brown area is a sheet of thin plywood leaning against the railway room wall and the blue patterned area is the room wall which has a blue cloth covering fixed to a layer of insulation. Both will be less apparent when Thame occupies that side of the room.

I had planned to remove the insulation as the room seems quite warm and I would have gained three inches on the room length and 1.5 inches on the width. The fourth wall which Wycombe end sits against adjoins the garage so is not insulated but is painted pale blue which serves as a reasonable background to Wycombe End's backscene. However, working on a test area I found removing the insulation would be a difficult job, and probably involve the walls being re plastered, or at least patched, so abandoned the idea! 

 

Not having much to report from the fence, I tried to make another talking point by photos of the interior of the workshops and engine shed, but these were not successful, so I will try again on another visit.

 

I had intended earlier today to start drawing plans etc. for the warehouse, but this and that got in the way so hopefully i can make some progress tomorrow. I know there is a fair bit of today left, but I find the mornings best for measuring and drawing, so will limit myself to some research on building prototypes for the rest of today.

 

Hope you are all progressing with your models?

I know Nick Gough is way ahead of me in buildings, I have to say his goods shed looks very good, no problem with sides bending there!

Best regards

Paul 

 

 

 

 

[Tallpaul69]

The sudden announcement by our eldest son this morning that they intended to visit us tomorrow for coffee(in the garden), and that they wanted to see the railway, forced me to do the job I had been putting off, which was to have a tidy up in the railway room!

Having done that, I rewarded myself with a short test demonstration ready to do a show for them tomorrow.

It was rewarding to have several locos ticking over while one ran along the layout. Usually I am just running one loco at a time.

I also worked out how to have several locos moving at once without the need to reset any points. The aim is to have a not very prototypical, bit of fun, while demonstrating the capabilities of DCC Sound.

Hopefully the grandkids at 10 and 12 are not too old to appreciate it?

 

It is going to be a rule 1 session:- a mixture of steam and diesels, the diesels being of different eras, chosen for their widely differing sounds, with Mallard suddenly shrieking and bursting out of the repair shop! 

However I am sure the family won't know this is all unprototypical, although they might comment on the mix of steam and diesel?

 

I will report Monday on what they say (!)

 

Best Easter regards to you All,

Paul

[Tallpaul69]

Sunday morning's first demonstration to the family of the layout went well. 

All the locos responded correctly to their instructions, and the points all worked. The grandchildren were amused by some of the cameos. They were intrigued by Harry and Barry working on the fence and loved the food van sitting by the gates waiting to provide the lads with refreshments.

My son, who is an architect, liked the surveyor working in the middle of the tracks.

Nothing really went wrong, although there were a few problems when as a result of requests I departed from the rehearsed sequence and tried to collect and shunt some trucks!

 

First problem was trying to pick up trucks with a loco that had no couplings on it. I then managed to move a diesel shunter to connect to three fuel tankers, but then it couldn't move them!

 

So, I have one or two things to investigate and deal with.

 

My biggest problem was trying to operate the controller and talk to people at the same time.

However, I think the family enjoyed it, and I certainly did.

 

So now I need to get back to other jobs started last week. This afternoon I intend to do a bit more work on my warehouse plans.

 

I hope you all had an enjoyable Easter, and lets hope next Monday's relaxation of restrictions goes well and infections, hospitalisations and deaths continue to reduce.

Best regards

Paul  

[Tallpaul69]

Nothing done on the layout since my last posting!

However, a few things have been achieved!

 

1) Decision made on how to proceed with a class 67 that arrived with me late and damaged after ten days at the pleasure of the post office:- 

I gave the model to AGR for their advice on its future. They decided that the damage to the bodyshell could only be corrected by a new body, and that it was possible the lock up of the mechanism could be due to ingress of particles from the damaged windscreen and windscreen wiper. 

As the chap I bought it from has come up with an alternative one in the same livery, I am meeting up with him next week to effect a swap! So he will have a set of Class 67 spares to sell.

 

2) I managed today to secure one of the missing steam locos from my Thame/High Wycombe stud, namely a Hornby 72xx. There were a couple of these allocated to Oxford in the late 50s/early 60s so that is my justification. Now I have to decide on sound for it. I might get a TTS Hall decoder put in it, as I have a stock of these.

 

Now I need to track down a 64xx. This is a rule 1 model as they were concentrated in the Plymouth, South Wales and Wolverhampton areas with no allocation to the 81 group sheds!

Also,

Maybe tomorrow I will now move forward on the Wycombe End warehouse drawings, and hopefully make a start on the changes bought to my attention by Sunday's running session.

 

Best regards

Paul

[Tallpaul69]

Have realised that the justification for a 64xx, is not as much of a stretch as I first thought because I had forgotten the use of 74xx (the non push/pull freight version of the 64xx) in the area, a couple being based at Slough and one out stationed to Aylesbury for the Watlington Freights!  

 

Meanwhile, the drawings for the warehouse at Wycombe End have not progressed much beyond the floor plan stage. This is mainly because I have spend quite a lot of time unsuccessfully looking for a prototype.

I might have to resort to an earlier building based on the goods sheds in the area. Thanks to Nick, I have a lot of material on Maidenhead and High Wycombe, and one idea I am playing with is to utilise the Slough Goods Shed with its three storey storage area. However this would require a bit of adjustment as my site is too narrow and too short. The narrowness means that the loading bay has to be on the end of the shed rather than down one side!

 

More on this anon.

I had hoped soon to post the first photos of the year from the Leighton Buzzard Narrow Gauge Railway. This had been scheduled to reopen next weekend, but sadly the latest Government advice to Heritage Railways means they have decided to put off reopening until the weekend of 22nd May.

 

Still, I will keep by eyes (and ears) open, as there are sure to be some test and maintenance runs before then, if only by the petrol and diesel locos.

We do miss the sound of the whistles on open days as the trains negotiate the many road and pedestrian level crossings near to our house. Hearing them again will be a welcome sign of the return to normality (of sorts!).

 

Best regards

Paul

[Tallpaul69]

Its been a busy week at Wycombe End. New motive power has arrived (more of this anon!), and the Bucks Free Press sent a reporter to the area to  write some pieces on local industry.

 

The reporter bought a photographer with her and we are able to show some of his shots. So I will show you a few stories and their accompanying photos over the next few days:-

 

Her first story didn't go down very well with the site management being titled "Rural Rubbish!"

The photo says it all, but the story rubbed salt into the wound!:-

The story read:-

"One of the most important industrial sites in Wycombe End is the railway yard. This houses a wagon repair shop, a locomotive repair shop , a warehouse complex and a locomotive depot.

Unfortunately it appears that housekeeping is not the sites strong point as can be seen by the above  photo taken in the lane opposite the locomotive depot. 

 

Clearly someone could not be bothered to take a trip to the High Wycombe tidy tip, so decided these chairs, cabinet, window frames and planks would look fine blocking the emergency gates out of the depot yard.

 

Unfortunately when we asked site management for a comment, they said they would get back to us, but had not done so by the time this edition closed for press.

So we will report further when they do so."

 

Oh Dear, I can see there being another job for Harry and Barry, should they ever complete their fence repairs!

 

On the subject of the new motive power, they are a couple of Class 67s, one in EWS livery and one in DBS livery, but unfortunately I have not been able to get a clear enough shot of them to report here, so hopefully I can do so soon!

 

Best regards

Paul

[Tallpaul69]

Yesterday I promised you photos of the new locos at Wycombe End, so here they are:-

Overnight the locos have been moved to the long siding beside the single line into and out of the site. However this is not an easy location to get a full side on view of the occupants.  From one side there is a high fence and from the other care has to be taken not to get knocked over by locos going about their business. Step further back and you run the risk of colliding with wagons in the wagon repair shop sidings!

Therefore below are some views showing the ends of the locos.

Firstly we have the outer end of EWS liveried 67003.

 

 

Then we have the inner end of 67003 and the outer end of DBS liveried 67018.

 

 

Finally we have the inner end of 67018.

 

 

To round off, I thought i would cheat and show you an " helicopter" view of the siding and therefore both locos in full!

 

 

Best regards

Paul 

[Tallpaul69]

Apologies for non participation over the last week.

A number of things have got in the way.

Main one has been the need for backwards and forwards emails with my layout builders over a couple of practical difficulties. As well as a number of e mails between us there have been a number of quick sketches needing to be drawn , transmitted, and discussed.

 

The first one was came about sas a result of their decision some time ago that the layout would be best made as three 4ft x 4ft boards rather than two 6ft x 4ft boards. This meant that making one crossover between lines as originally planed would now put them over a board joint. Moving them was tricky, due to their interaction with other points. Eventually we agreed to take out the three way point that gave entrance to the goods yard and one leg of the crossover, replace it with a single point access to the goods yard and turn the crossover round so that it un prototypically runs from down line forward into the up line instead of reversing from the down line to the up line.

I can get away with this by the fiction that the tracks into the station area from the right, are two bidirectional lines from different origin points rather than a double track from a single origin point!

 

Sorry, I don't currently have a sketch suitable to illustrate this to to you!

 

The second problem related to a crossover in the fiddle yard which similarly ended up near to a board joint. The workable but not ideal solution has been to position this crossover so that one point is on one board and the other is on the next board. They are soldering extensions rail and positioning additional fixings/supports so that there is an angled end to the point rails to match the base board edge rather than a right angled as supplied.

 

Once I have a photo of this I will post it for your benefit.

 

One little job in between e mails and sketches has been to weather up the fuel point on Wycombe End a bit.

 

 

I think it still needs a bit more, and have I got the colours right, opinions welcome , please?

 

We have now both had our second jabs, they should have been this coming Saturday, but got bought forwards ten days to match with the local jab supply situation.

So another 2 weeks and we will have full protection (until the autumn boosters anyway).

Hope everyone is well and not being too eager to adopt too many new freedoms? 

 

Best regards

Paul

[Tallpaul69]

Good Afternoon All,

I hope everyone enjoyed the bank Holiday weekend even though her, it was cold and miserable!

 

The backwards and forwarding last week to iron out some of the details of "Thame" made me look again at how I was planning to integrate it with "Wycombe End" and expand the layout to include High Wycombe Station.

 

I concluded that once again, I was trying to get a quart in a pint pot, so realy could not make room for a decent rendering of high Wycombe, so would have to limit myself to one station. But at the same time the timetable possibilities for Thame and Wycombe End were ok as a stage in a plan ,but not what I wanted in terms of operation, long term.  

 

So my thoughts turned to using "Thame" as a station on the GW& GC between High Wycombe and Princes Risborough. Why this stretch of line? Mainly because in the steam era there were trains that came from Marylebone/Paddington direct or via Maidenhead, which terminated at Princes Risborough from the south, and others from Banbury, Oxford and Aylesbury in the north that terminated at High Wycombe or ran to London direct or via Maidenhead, that I want to run on my layout. Thus trains that ran at Maidenhead (Lower Thames Yard), or Thame, which I have the stock for, would have run along this stretch of line.

 

This stretch of line only had two intermediate stations, West Wycombe and Saunderton, neither of which had many similarities to Thame in terms of layout.

Looking at the OS, I noticed that south of Saunderton there was a village called Bradenham, which never had a station, and while not large in itself, was close to larger communities called Walter Ash and Naphill.

I am therefore examining the possibilities of using "Thame " as "Bradenham".

Below is an idea of the area (apologies for the poor quality of reproduction):-

 

 

I will update you further once I have carried out some Internet investigations of the area!

Best regards

Paul

 

 

[Tallpaul69]

My investigations of Bradenham continue!

One interesting fact about the village is that it is owned by the National Trust. So this will mean that the pace of development and the types of development allowed should make it ideal for my multi era modelling!

I am currently looking at two stories for the model:-

1) In the 1930s the GWR developed the small station /yard at Bradenham as a means of relieving the pressure on High Wycombe and  Princes Risborough. This is my excuse for the High Wycombe shunter extending its trips from the main yard to the west yard as far as Bradenham.

2)  The GCR around WW1 developed Bradenham as its freight railhead for High Wycombe to allow it to compete with the GWR, even though they were partners in the line!

 

Of course, it might have been that 2) above happened first , and then 1) followed on as a GWR&GC joint venture.

 

One major change of use of sidings is, I think, going to be that the two parallel sidings that in Thame would have been the oil terminal, will instead be a two road goods shed, so the effort invested in research of High Wycombe Goods Shed , and the assistance by way of photos that some of you have given me, will not be wasted. 

Luckily, I had not begun to build structures for the oil terminal, just done some research. 

 

On the theme of relieving Princes Risborough, it could have been that, instead of the coal for Chinnor Cement Works being dropped off southbound long distance freights at Princes Risborough, it could have been dropped at Bradenham so allowing me to run engines such as a J15 used for a while in c1957 on the branch freight, into my Bradenham.

It might also have been that the morning parcels from Reading via Maidenhead and High Wycombe was cut back to Bradenham and the parcels vans split up there instead of at Princes Risborough?

 

Not modelling High Wycombe will remove one of my train headaches, namely the need for a 4 car DMU to run Marylebone to High Wycombe trains. Instead I can just run the Gresley and Thompson suburbans I accumulated last year on the outer suburban trips from Marylebone to Princes Risborough and Haddenham.  

 

So, as you can see, the story is coming along nicely, and so far I have not found any real problems, but who knows what I will find just round the corner? 

 

Best regards

Paul

[Tallpaul69]

Today I have investigated the possibilities for Bradenham through large scale maps on the Old Maps site and by looking at the trains running between High Wycombe and Princes Risborough in my WTTS for the line in the period 1954-1964.

Unfortunately the maps are not in a file format acceptable here, so here is a quick description of the area:-

Bradenham village lies on a east-west alignment around and to the east of a side road off of the south-north High Wycombe-Princes Risborough A road. The railway runs parallel and to the west of the A road, with enough space between the two for a goods yard. So on my model the A road can be the divide between the scenic and the non scenic areas, with the buildings of the village around the road junction modelled.

This map hopefully shows the area better than the one I showed in a previous post?

 

 

The timetabled trains can be divided into groups:-

A) Passenger

1) the auto trains and single railcars running between High Wycombe and Aylesbury or Banbury

2) the outer suburban trains between Marylebone and Aylesbury/Haddenham/Princes Risborough.

3) the outer suburban trains between Paddington, Maidenhead and Aylesbury/Princes Risborough

4) Expresses between Paddington, Banbury and Birmingham, and the North West.

5) Expresses between Marylebone and Leicester/Nottingham etc.

 

 B) Freight

1) the pick up freights, one each way between Banbury and OOC.

2) the pick up freights, one each way between Oxford and Taplow via Princes Risborough and Maidenhead.

3) Mainly coal, but some mixed, from the GC main line to Neasden via Princes Risborough and empties in return.

4) Fast freights from Birkenhead and Oxley to the OOC area, and returns.

 

In addition there were several parcels trains each way, and a milk to and from Dorrington.

The most interesting parcels was the early morning Reading to Princes Risborough via a reversal at Maidenhead. This did not have a return run, the engine returned to Slough c 9.30 LE from Princes Risborough, and the vans, some of which went on to Aylesbury, returned on various of the afternoon suburbans from Aylesbury to Maidenhead, thence on  a 20.10 parcels from Maidenhead to Reading.

 

I will also extend the morning trip with a fish van and a parcels van of the AEC Parcels car from its real terminal at Beconsfield as far as Bradenham!

Then there will be the non prototypical trains I have previously mentioned, to Bradenham, namely the shunter trips from High Wycombe and the Watlington Branch freight from/to Princes Risborough.

 

This line also saw a lot of sports specials from various midlands locations to and from Wembley Stadium!

So this was a mainline with a good variety of traffic, which I think will make an interesting model.

 

Best regards

Paul

 

[Tallpaul69]

Hi All,

I thought I would expand on my yesterday's listing of trains for Bradenham by adding stock and locos:-

A) Passenger Trains

1) the auto trains and single railcars running between High Wycombe and Aylesbury or Banbury - two auto coaches, a 14xx and 64xx, and a GWR AEC Railcar.

2) the outer suburban trains between Marylebone and Aylesbury/Haddenham/Princes Risborough.- A Gresley suburban set, a Thompson suburban set, and a BR suburban set, hauled by a choice of 2-6-4 tanks from a Stanier, a Fairburn, an LNER Li or a Standard. 

3) the outer suburban trains between Paddington, Maidenhead and Aylesbury/Princes Risborough.- Steam- 4 sets - A mixture of Collett and BR suburbans plus a B set hauled by  61xx tanks or a 57xx tank for the B set.

Diesel- a class 117 set plus a 121 railcar towing a matching trailer {on some trips} 

4) Expresses between Paddington, Banbury and Birmingham, and the North West.

two chocolate /cream Mk1 sets plus two Maroon (wr) Mk1 sets, hauled by a mixture of Kings and Castles with one by a Western.

5) Expresses between Marylebone and Leicester/Nottingham etc. One Gresley , one Thomson maroon corridor set and one Maroon (ER or LMR) Mk1 set hauled by a choice from an A3, a V2 or a B1 or a Class 5 (Standard or LMS).

 

 B) Freight

1) the pick up freights, one each way between Banbury and OOC. (one hauled by a Collett 22xx, one by a standard 4) 

2) the pick up freights, one each way between Oxford and Taplow via Princes Risborough and Maidenhead. (One hauled by a 61xx, one by a 56xx)

3) Mainly coal, but some mixed, from the GC main line to Neasden via Princes Risborough and empties in return. (Probably run 4 sets hauled by a mixture of 2-8-0s from 28 or 38xx, 8F, or LNER O1/O2, plus a choice from 2 WDs and 2 9Fs).  

4) Fast freights from Birkenhead and Oxley to the OOC area, and returns. If I can fit in the stock, 4 sets. Probably hauled by a Grange, a Hall, or standard 5s . There might also  be a short train behind an Ivatt or Standard Class 4 2-6-0 

 

In addition there were several parcels trains each way, and a milk to and from Dorrington. (I have yet to work out how many I can fit in and what will haul them! Could include the above class 4 2-6-0s!)

The most interesting parcels was the early morning Reading to Princes Risborough via a reversal at Maidenhead. This did not have a return run, the engine returned to Slough c 9.30 LE from Princes Risborough, and the vans, some of which went on to Aylesbury, returned on various of the afternoon suburbans from Aylesbury to Maidenhead, thence on  a 20.10 parcels from Maidenhead to Reading.

This will be hauled by a 56xx or a 61xx.

 

I will also extend the morning trip with a fish van and a parcels van of the AEC Parcels car from its real terminal at Beaconsfield as far as Bradenham!

Then there will be the non prototypical trains I have previously mentioned, to Bradenham, namely the shunter trips (94xx) from High Wycombe and the Watlington Branch freight from/to Princes Risborough. (J15 or Ivatt 2-6-2 hauled)

 

This will leave me with a mix of Standard, exLMS and SR express locos to run excursions , football specials and the summer Margate to Birkenhead express.

 

I hope the above gives you a flavour of the trains to be run in the 1960s era version of this model. This may have to be trimmed once I get to fitting the stock into the available sidings! Most likely trains will have to make more trips round the circuit than I would ideally like, but this may work with judicious locomotive changes!

 

More to Follow!!Best regards

Paul

 

 

[Tallpaul69]

So I thought today I would move things forward 30 years from yesterday's posting for Bradenham by adding stock and locos for the 1990s version of the layout.

Oh, No, I hear you scream, not the dreaded toothpaste livery! Sorry, but i happen to like the NSE livery as a bright contract to the boring sameness of BR Blue!

So here we go:-

A) Passenger Trains

1) the auto trains that earlier ran between High Wycombe and Aylesbury or Banbury are now no more! The remaining few High Wycombe to Banbury runs are in the hands of a Class 121 Bubble car.

2/3) the outer suburban trains between Marylebone and Aylesbury/Haddenham/Princes Risborough are  much reduced so I shall use a mix of classes 101,108 and 117 DMUs. and with the Maidenhead to High Wycombe line closed, I will use DMUs for the few Paddington to Princes Risborough  trips - a class 117 set plus a 121 railcar towing a matching trailer {on some trips} 

4) Expresses between Paddington, Banbury and Birmingham, are no more, but as we have decided that the Thame branch survived for its whole length some of the Paddington to Oxford semi fasts in the hands of Class 50s with Mk1 or Mk2 stock will come this way!

5) Expresses between Marylebone and Leicester/Nottingham etc. are also no more!

B) Freight

1) the pick up freights, one each way between Banbury and OOC have ceased to run. 

2) the pick up freights, one each way between Oxford and Taplow via Princes Risborough and Maidenhead have also gone.

3) There is still some coal, such as a short trip from Didcot to Aylesbury behind 37s, and the Thame petroleum tanks are hanging on (just!) with 47 haulage.  

4) With the GW line cut at Birmingham, there are no fast freights from Birkenhead and Oxley to the OOC area, but there will be motor car trains from Cowley to the east coast ports, maybe behind 6os and some engineers or WD runs behind a variety of locos.  

 

In addition there were still some parcels trains each way,  with class 31, 37 or 47 haulage. In addition there might be class 20 weedkiller trains!

 

The early morning Reading to Princes Risborough parcels survived but cut back to High Wycombe and running via , so I will run this to Bradenham, but probably with only 1 or 2 vans!

 

I will also retain the extend the morning trip with a fish van and a parcels van of the a Parcels DMU (Now a class 128) from Beaconsfield as far as Bradenham!

I am debating whether a class 08 shunter might make a trip to Bradenham, from High Wycombe plus the surviving few coal wagons on the Watlington Branch freight from/to Princes Risborough, maybe with a class 31?. 

This will leave me with a mix of Diesels run excursions and football specials.

 

So this is a flavour of the 1992(ish) trains to be run in this version of this model.

Unlike the  1960s, this will not have to be trimmed once I get to fitting the stock into the available sidings!

 

More of this next time!

Best regards

Paul

 

 

[rob D2]

The problem you have with the 90 trains is the class 115 , 4 car, dmu was the signature unit up till about 92. It’s a bit like snowdonia without snowdon .

 

on the plus side , don’t forget the loco hauled once daily Banbury train ran until 1992 , so Some NSE mk2s and a 47 would be just fine. The last one ran with a “ Dutch “ 47 in Feb 92. Passengers must have been hypothermic !

Edited May 10, 2021 by rob D2

[Tallpaul69]

It is true that ideally there should be 4 car DMUs for the early 90s trains out of Marylebone, but the probability of anyone producing 115s ready to run, any time soon, is pretty low, so for home consumption (the layout is not going to be exhibited), I can live with the  inaccuracy! 

 

One possibility is to use TCs without the T, by changing the toilet windows for normal ones.

[rob D2]

You can also run a 56 on aggregates ( mount sorrel - Aylesbury ) , and of course, the bin liner was the main freight , but making that might be painful as the containers are not available RTR