Nick Gough Posted January 17, 2021 Share Posted January 17, 2021 14 minutes ago, Tallpaul69 said: Yes Nick, I hope to be able to have the Goods Shed in a more correct position than on previous plans. One thing to sort out will be where the trip freights to the North yard go. Previously thay could go to Thame, and return. Might have a couple of sidings to represent the North Yard in front of Wycombe TMD, which I am thinking rather to call "Wycombe End". Also the smaller loco shed on it might be a wagon repair shop rather than a DMU depot. That will allow me to have more wagons on the go! Cheers Paul Will it give you enough width for the four tracks between the platforms that you were struggling with before? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tallpaul69 Posted January 18, 2021 Author Share Posted January 18, 2021 23 hours ago, Nick Gough said: Will it give you enough width for the four tracks between the platforms that you were struggling with before? Hope so, will get it drawn out next week once the end to end arrives and is bedded in. On which subject, delivery is hopefully Thursday, with Friday and Saturday as back up dates, all of which look to have good weather! My current thinking is to call the layout "Wycombe End", so I might start a new thread with that as a title. Meanwhile, here is the one of the sites I am going to work up a cameo on. It will be something on a road delivery theme. One thought was for the delivery to be a large reel of cable with a non too clever fork lift driver and several helpers(or maybe helpless helpers!). The car and van are not fixed, so can be moved. Also, here is the first cut of the sidings board. The track is just positioned, not fixed down. Simon, who is making it will leave a two track gap in the upstand to allow for future connections. All ideas welcome? Best regards Paul 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Gough Posted January 18, 2021 Share Posted January 18, 2021 Nice. Looking forward to seeing some trains on these. 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tallpaul69 Posted January 20, 2021 Author Share Posted January 20, 2021 If it wasn't so serious you would just laugh! Here I am with my layout due to be delivered tomorrow, and what has just come through the door? A page and a half of guff from Central Bedfordshire Council advising us we are in a Flood area and should be prepared to leave our home!! Now we are about 300 yards from our local brook, which does occasionally flood perhaps up to 50 yards from its course, but at normal levels it runs some 3-4 feet below the surrounding grass. So I went onto the Councils website, to try to find out what the state of the brook is now. I can find pages of What to do in a flood, your responsibilities in a flood, the councils responsibilities in a flood etc. etc., but info on whether we really have an nearby flood -not a word. Meanwhile, at least our local Covid levels are decreasing, and they are due to start vaccinating our age group locally next week. Hope you are all well and also dry (from rain not thirst!) Cheers Paul 1 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Gough Posted January 20, 2021 Share Posted January 20, 2021 Sounds a bit like the letter we received this morning from the gas company to advise us that they are replacing the gas mains in our road, in the next few weeks, and will need to gain entry to our house to shut the gas off and replace the piping. The only thing is - they did all this about two weeks before Christmas. The letter is a duplicate of one we received in November! 2 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stephen Freeman Posted January 21, 2021 Share Posted January 21, 2021 9 hours ago, Nick Gough said: Sounds a bit like the letter we received this morning from the gas company to advise us that they are replacing the gas mains in our road, in the next few weeks, and will need to gain entry to our house to shut the gas off and replace the piping. The only thing is - they did all this about two weeks before Christmas. The letter is a duplicate of one we received in November! Luckily we had ours done during the summer. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Gough Posted January 21, 2021 Share Posted January 21, 2021 45 minutes ago, Stephen Freeman said: Luckily we had ours done during the summer. Fortunately, when they turned the gas off, it was only for about five or six hours and not one of the coldest days. Funnily enough when the water mains were replaced, a few years back, that was also in the middle of winter. No water, or central heating, for two-three days and having to collect water from a bowser in the road. Perhaps the utility companies just don't like us? 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tallpaul69 Posted January 21, 2021 Author Share Posted January 21, 2021 Two updates this morning:- 1)Flooding:- I have now found a useful Environment Department site that gives me water levels in our nearby brook about a mile from our house. So far this says water is about one third up on normal level towards the flood level! 2:- Layout:- Layouts seem like London Buses, nothing for ages and then two come along at once! My end to end is now down for delivery on Monday, but I have also had an email from my original builders saying that they now have sufficient points to clear the two part built layouts in front of mine and sufficient points for mine to plan start of my build by early March with an 8 week build. So I have to change plans again:- Possible revised plan:- Phase 1:- End to end (self contained) Phase 2:- Thame (self contained) Phase 3:- To be discussed with Simon when he delivers Phase 1:- Originally planed second station (High Wycombe?) but simplified and positioned in front of the End to End and round towards the Oxford end of Thame. Replace current siding board of the end to end by a slightly larger board (for Simon to make) to hold:- a) link from Thame to End to end (Wycombe End?) b) part of High Wycombe Yard (moved to up side of High Wycombe) c) London end of High Wycombe station. The rest of High Wycombe and link back to Princes Risborough end of Thame also to be discussed with Simon with a view to him producing them after Thame is delivered (by others). I will put up some sketch plans after I discuss above with Simon! Meanwhile, Stephen:- I shall be looking to confirm and order Thame signals with you early March for early May delivery? Also before than will outline some signals for High Wycombe, but these won't be required until maybe June? Final plan (fingers crossed is coming together. Best regards All, Paul 2 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Gough Posted January 21, 2021 Share Posted January 21, 2021 Good to see that things are starting to come together for you. You're not going to end up running out of space though, are you? 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stephen Freeman Posted January 21, 2021 Share Posted January 21, 2021 ready when you are 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tallpaul69 Posted January 21, 2021 Author Share Posted January 21, 2021 3 hours ago, Nick Gough said: Good to see that things are starting to come together for you. You're not going to end up running out of space though, are you? You are right, I do have to be careful, Nick! However, I decided now I know they are beyond a paper plan stage, that trying to cancel or amend the Thame build to High Wycombe was going to be problematic, costly, and long winded given the problems in obtaining points, which they now have for Thame. I came to the conclusion I didn't want the hassle! Hopefully I can get Simon to do all the rest of the work, including scenics on the additional boards, leaving me with scenic areas of Thame to do. It does mean that High Wycombe is going to be further removed from the prototype layout than I hoped for and I will have less stock holding loops. However, being realistic, there is a limit to how much layout I can operate and maintain single handed. I can compromise by using Thame station and yard as storage when I operate High Wycombe and vice versa when I operate Thame. I had been thinking of operating the two together! I think I can still make it work! Hopefully Simon can make it up from Cheltenham on Saturday, wwhich will be cold but fine. Sunday now promises us heavy snow in the morning so Monday, the next possible day for Simon, while fine could be tricky for him travelling in his van. Wish me luck for Saturday, hopefully I can share some more photos early next week. Best regards Paul 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tallpaul69 Posted January 23, 2021 Author Share Posted January 23, 2021 Good Afternoon All, Minor glitches got in the way so earliest I will see my layout delivered is Monday. I can live with that, rather have it a few days late and all A1, not earlier and me faced with problems when I try to use it! Anyway, I thought you would like to see the attached "lights out" views of the layout? The night shift are busy in the sheds! Plenty of light on intruders. No locos till the layout lands at mine! Not quite sure what the signal cabin (Centre Top of the photo) has been repurposed as, possible a mess? Hope you enjoyed the above? Cheers Paul 2 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tallpaul69 Posted January 25, 2021 Author Share Posted January 25, 2021 Well, despite the snow, the layout arrived today, and after three busy hours is installed and up and running. I am very pleased with it, it looks in the flesh as good as it did on the photos. I am too tired to take any photos tonight, but hope to get a few different views posted tomorrow, including, if it works out, my first rearrangement of one of the dierama scenes. However it is nice to see it with a few locos on it! I have decided tha I must stop calling the layout "it". So from now on this is "Wycombe End". I am not going to alter the name of this thread as Wycombe End is only one part of the eventual layout. I will hold off renaming until "Thame" has been delivered (around May(?), and the plan for the third element "High Wycombe" has been finalised. Hope everyone is ok, and that those of you in the UK have not suffered due to the storms and snow? Best regards Paul 5 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tallpaul69 Posted January 26, 2021 Author Share Posted January 26, 2021 Good Afternoon Everyone, I thought you might like to know the the (fictional) history of my new layout - Wycombe End? So here we go plus a few photos including one of the signal box diagram that Simon made to go with the layout! Wycombe End is a small rail connected industrial estate somewhere in South Buckinghamshire near to High Wycombe. The yard was first developed c1960 around an existing wagon repair shop. In return for allowing development of the land around the wagon repair shop the developers built the repair business a modern workshop which was much more efficient than their old rambling workshops. Going clockwise round the layout, next to the wagon repair shop, there is a siding which holds completed wagons and also has a wagon/coach/loco washing plant. Moving along the layout we come to the old offices of the repair business which are now an office for Network Rail, several of whose vehicles are parked close by including one of their rail mountable Land Rovers. At the left hand corner of the layout there is the head shunt to the wagon repair and wash plant sidings. Next to the head shunt is a two road Locomotive workshop. This is part of a business that began when one of the partners in the repair workshop bought an ex BR steam loco. It is now a thriving business doing work for private owners of locos and also several of the privatised railway companies. As well as the two road building that undertakes lighter repair work next to it is a a single road heavy repair shop. In the centre of the layout there is a two road fueling facility but usually one road is occupied by fuel tankers as one road is sufficient for the amount of fueling necessary. Over the back fence of the site can be seen the more modern buildings constructed in more recent times but these are not rail connected. Moving to the right along the back fence of the site we come to a two road facility used for unloading and loading goods from and to rail vans, some of which arrive from the continent. Moving further round clockwise, back towards the wagon repair shop, we cross the access line to/from the site and come to a small modern building which houses a metal work shop which supports the rai and other businesses on the site. Here are two pictures of that business from different angles. The owners Range Rover is parked outside and Parcel Force are just making a delivery. You may be able to see Fred, the buildings oldest fitter who has nipped out for a craft fag, only to be caught out by the arrival of the Parcel Force van! In the top right corner of the above shot you can see some of the buildings on the fiddle yard board. More of this board and its buildings will be told in a (much!) later post. I will also tell you stories about the various businesses and their people in future postings! Finally, here is the signal box diagram, although the signal box is now a canteen for the site. Best regards Paul 5 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Gough Posted January 26, 2021 Share Posted January 26, 2021 Up and running now Paul! 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tallpaul69 Posted January 27, 2021 Author Share Posted January 27, 2021 On 26/01/2021 at 17:17, Nick Gough said: Up and running now Paul! Yes Nick, Loads to do now. Today, I have just been, for fun, randomly running locos. I have also dug out a few wagons for test purposes. Next week, I will start to do things in a more organised way, but this week I am just having some light relief from all the Covid nonsense, and having fun! So starting our trip round the layout, the wagon workshop is empty, so I will say more about it in a day or two when I have one set of wagons for it in place. I will put up some detail pics of them and also some showing the bits and pieces littered around the building. However I think more is needed , so watch this space! Before I get too many wagons on the layout I need to position magnets for the Kaydee couplings. I probably need to fit more Kaydees, as most of the stock I have fitted so far is traditional wagons. I need to have some modern ones available. Also I need to start fitting them to Locos. Which means, I probably need to stock up on the couplings themselves! Take care All, Best regards Paul 5 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Gough Posted January 28, 2021 Share Posted January 28, 2021 13 hours ago, Tallpaul69 said: Yes Nick, Loads to do now. Today, I have just been, for fun, randomly running locos. I have also dug out a few wagons for test purposes. Next week, I will start to do things in a more organised way, but this week I am just having some light relief from all the Covid nonsense, and having fun! That's what it's all about, Paul! 2 3 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tallpaul69 Posted January 28, 2021 Author Share Posted January 28, 2021 Good Afternoon All, So today, continuing our trip round Wycombe End, we have arrived at the Wagon Repair Shop. This is a modern building, dating, I am told from the mid 1960s, but I am no expert on the history of modern building construction! It has two covered roads which can hold two modern lwb or short bogie wagons on each plus another couple of wagons outside on each. Beside them is a long siding which has a small vehicle washing plant on its outer end and can hold 4/5 long wagons between that and the buffers. This siding is usually used to hold completed wagons. If you look at the photo below, you will see that today it just has one hopper wagon just outshopped in pristine EWS colours. On the other two roads there are various vans and bogie hoppers awaiting attention. Three of these await one of the shops specialities - graffiti removal, although wagons seldom come just for this, it is usually carried out as part of other works as few owners or operators can afford the lost revenue from such non essential work! Can anyone see , on the fence, in the foreground of the above photo, another curse of modern society? No prizes for guessing, just points for observation? Just in front of the shop doors can be seen the heavy lifting gear used to remove wheel sets or bogies from wagons. Beyond the workshop is the track access to the site and a siding used to hold inward/outward wagons awaiting pick up. Today there are a couple of LWB vans there, similar to the graffiti covered example in the shop sidings. Now I know the all the wagons above have variations on the conventional coupling theme. Have patience dear readers, they will be Kaydee'd in due course! Behind the shop is a two storey block of Portakabin type offices that are the administrative offices for the repair shop, We will see them in close up later in our tour. Next time, we will look at the vehicle washing plant, and at the site fence adjacent to it where repairs are taking place. This fence actually belongs to BR/Network Rail whose property lies on the other side of the fence, which is why their operatives are doing the repairs. Meanwhile test running of locos on Wycombe End continues, as does use of my Test Track to reset the operating numbers of locos, to avid the mischief caused by having several all responding to 003! Best regards Paul 5 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Gough Posted January 28, 2021 Share Posted January 28, 2021 At least it's not a shopping trolley jammed in the fence! 2 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tallpaul69 Posted January 29, 2021 Author Share Posted January 29, 2021 12 hours ago, Nick Gough said: At least it's not a shopping trolley jammed in the fence! Now there's an idea? (joking!) Think I might just remove the bag, there are some degrees of realism you can do without and anyway, it tends to date the layout too closely. I am sure Tesco bags changed over the years? I probably also need to ignore the fence, which certainly is wrong for 1960s but not sure when that type started to be used. Bit of research needed I feel. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tallpaul69 Posted January 29, 2021 Author Share Posted January 29, 2021 I thought for balance, having concentrated so far on the "Modern" aspects of Wycombe End, I should cover some steam era activities. So having collected by two BR liveried Sound fitted Dapol 43xx earlier in the week, I thought I would get one out and see what it was like. So I broke out the Black one, which is a real beauty! I am pleased to say that it went (light engine) as well as it looked, my only concern was that the "Chuff" rate seemed a little slow, although I was running it quite slowly. I didn't want to run a brand new loco into the buffers, or over wrong set points or into other stock! So I need to watch the loco from the side to relate the chuffs to the wheel position and see what is what. Trouble is she looks so good, I will find it very difficult to think of even light weathering although I know the "as delivered" look she has in reality lasted only a few days. One early thing for attention will be the "coal" yet to decide whether I will put some real coal on top of the supplied moulding, or whether I will replace it completely. Early attention will be required to lamps although currently few of my locos have any lamps. All in all a good day! Cheers to you all, Paul 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tallpaul69 Posted January 30, 2021 Author Share Posted January 30, 2021 (edited) Hello All on another wet day! I have found a problem with a Hornby class 66 which runs poorly on Wycombe End in contrast to a Hornby class 59 which runs superbly! Doing further tests I have decided that the problem with the 66 lies mainly with two 3 way points . At both of them it stalls part way through the point. I have checked the wheels for cleanliness, and they look ok, certainly no worse than the 59 I was comparing it with! As the 3 ways are back to back with a couple of feet of plain track between them, the direction in which the point is approached seems not to have any bearing on the problem. Also it seems not to matter whether the points are set for straight ahead or to either the left or right turn of the track. None of my other locos that I have tested on the layout, steam or diesel, have problems at these points. However, I have a number of locos both steam and diesel to test on the layout, so I will report further once more testing is done. I must take some more photos of Wycombe end so that in my next posting we can resume our trip round the layout. Cheers for now Paul Edited January 30, 2021 by Tallpaul69 Spelling!! 1 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tallpaul69 Posted February 1, 2021 Author Share Posted February 1, 2021 Well now!, that's a turn up? A Manor from Accurascale! lI am not sure a tender loco is the best choice for your first steam loco, but this will be interesting? What do Dapol do now? Meanwhile, at Wycombe End, our two resident site agents Barry and Harry, are coming to the end of their mammoth refencing of the site perimeter job! Not sure how they are going to get on today? they have the fence panels and some stone to pack round the uprights, but how about some cement? We will see how they are getting on tomorrow! Cheers All Paul 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tallpaul69 Posted February 3, 2021 Author Share Posted February 3, 2021 Good Afternoon everyone, First the really good news! My wife and I have appointments for our first Covid 19 jabs on Saturday! Other News:- I am delaying the next episode of the exploits of Barry and Harry with the fence, partly because they are not making very good progress, and secondly because I wanted to share with you my first video of the layout which stars 6324 my black sound fitted Dapol Mogul:- However, it escaped my notice that the video file was larger than RMWeb's 10Mb limit, so I will have to take a few shorter videos for the trip round the layout and 6324's exploits on it! Then, when you see her going, I hope you will agree with me that straight out of the box 6324 looks and sounds great. You will probably think that the sound and motion needs some adjustment, so please tell me what you think, but I am loath to tinker with it yet! One reason, Barry and Harry are not progressing well with the fence is that someone has yet to locate the cement mixer (and some cement bags!). They also got called away because a certain apprentice signalman forgot to correctly set the three way point in the middle of the yard, and so a (full) fuel tanker being shunted to the fuel tanks became derailed! This was of cause a real emergency as it blocked the whole of the yard rail network, never mind the risk of fuel oil spilling. And as the rail mounted crane is also away (packed in a box that I am not sure where it is!), the tanker had to be manhandled back to the rails! So more of their story on another day. Take care, Paul 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tallpaul69 Posted February 4, 2021 Author Share Posted February 4, 2021 Good Afternoon friends, As I am still struggling to get a video under 10mb to show here, and am also thinking about how I might edit (shorten) the ones I have taken so far, I thought we could pick up the saga of the fence...... The management (as usual!) are not supporting the workers as well as they might!. Still no sign of the cement mixer. There has however, been a development (of sorts!):- Joe has turned up with his flatbed to pick up the scrap fencing. He is not best pleased to see a length of the old fence still in position and has gone off to make his views plain to the management, So I expect Joe is in the offices trying to speak to someone........ He could be some time ......... Meanwhile, wonder what that reel of cable to the left of the gates is for? No doubt, all will be revealed in the fullness of time? I do hear a rumour that with the lads working so long by the gates, they have arranged for the local mobile food van to visit, as it is a long way across the tracks to the site canteen (known as the Old Signal Box!). Perhaps, during tomorrow's visit to Wycombe End, we will catch a glimpse of the van! Cheers for now, Paul 5 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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