9C85 Posted May 8, 2020 Author Share Posted May 8, 2020 10 hours ago, adb968008 said: As a kid I recall many early saturday mornings at Bolton, sometime between 6am-8am to join a railtour with my father, there would always be a 40 coming round the curve from Lostock junction, it was always a very long train, 16-20 vans just like above, that slowly crawled round, stopped before heading into the city, exactly as above.. fantastic memories, but anyone know what that parcels working would be? Would it be newspaper empties, rounded up from various locations and returning to Manchester for another 'paper round'? Thanks for all the fantastic information. I know Rule #1 applies anyway, but I may use the fuelling point as an excuse to run a 56 onto the layout from time to time. I remember them being introduced on the Port Talbot-Llanwern ore trains. 56 036, the pioneer of the large logo livery, was my first 56. It also happened to be the photo in my 1979 Ian Allan Motive Power book. The double headed 56s were impressive, but the sight and sound of the triple headed 37s they replaced was like something out of a mad max film. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold adb968008 Posted May 8, 2020 RMweb Gold Share Posted May 8, 2020 (edited) On 08/05/2020 at 19:56, 9C85 said: Would it be newspaper empties, rounded up from various locations and returning to Manchester for another 'paper round'? Thanks for all the fantastic information. I know Rule #1 applies anyway, but I may use the fuelling point as an excuse to run a 56 onto the layout from time to time. I remember them being introduced on the Port Talbot-Llanwern ore trains. 56 036, the pioneer of the large logo livery, was my first 56. It also happened to be the photo in my 1979 Ian Allan Motive Power book. The double headed 56s were impressive, but the sight and sound of the triple headed 37s they replaced was like something out of a mad max film. 56’s were frequent through Manchester in the 1980’s.. Cawoods coal workings (Accurascale pfas) were at least 2-3 times a week. whilst I always saw them via Miles Platting, theres little stopping them going turning right at Victoria... dont forget Redbank stored the stock between duties for the club trains to Blackpool, Southport and Barrow... when that first started, anything at all could show up.. Railfreight 31,37,47,60... it was only when it became a long term thing that 31/4 in Blue/Regional Railways, 31/5 Dutch, & 37/4 in Mainline/Regional Railways became solid performers... hers a 47/3 on NSE stock in the early days... as for parcels, that produced some surprises too... Longsight provided the shunters... seen here at Victoria. oh and er.... these... This was my trip back from redbank, with the 31 waiting whilst 44932 reverses back into victoria.. Two regulars at Victoria for banking, pilot duties were 31232 and 31242.. they were perpetually there. fantastic theme for a layout, all the best and excited to see it develop.. a lot of great memories relating to Red Bank... I look to see it develop with interest ! Edited May 16, 2021 by adb968008 9 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
saxokid Posted May 9, 2020 Share Posted May 9, 2020 5 hours ago, adb968008 said: 56’s were frequent through Manchester in the 1980’s.. Cawoods coal workings (Accurascale pfas) were at least 2-3 times a week. whilst I always saw them via Miles Platting, theres little stopping them going turning right at Victoria... dont forget Redbank stored the stock between duties for the club trains to Blackpool, Southport and Barrow... when that first started, anything at all could show up.. Railfreight 31,37,47,60... it was only when it became a long term thing that 31/4 in Blue/Regional Railways, 31/5 Dutch, & 37/4 in Mainline/Regional Railways became solid performers... hers a 47/3 on NSE stock in the early days... as for parcels, that produced some surprises too... Longsight provided the shunters... seen here at Victoria. oh and er.... these... This was my trip back from redbank, with the 31 waiting whilst 44932 reverses back into victoria.. Two regulars at Victoria for banking, pilot duties were 31232 and 31242.. they were perpetually there. fantastic theme for a layout, all the best and excited to see it develop.. a lot of great memories relating to Red Bank... I look to see it develop with interest ! Great picture infor here... 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rivercider Posted May 9, 2020 Share Posted May 9, 2020 I'm loving the progress you are making with the carriage sidings. I did not get to that part of the country often, but here is another class 40 at Preston with empty vans for Manchester. 40002 calls at Preston. 7/3/83. cheers 8 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
9C85 Posted May 9, 2020 Author Share Posted May 9, 2020 Wow! Thank you all so much for the information and interest in the layout. I am pleased with how it's progressing and I do feel it has potential to give a lot of enjoyment. I am now trying to break it up into little tasks that can be done whilst still being able to shunt stuff around. I am focusing on the (nominally) North East end of the layout (ie the Garage Door end) as it's the first but I see when I go in. I have added the gravel road (40 grit sandpaper) to the access ramp and have ordered some embossed plasticard to build the sloping retaining wall. I have ordered Flemish Bond as this ties in with the arched retaining wall at the back of the layout. 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
caradoc Posted May 9, 2020 Share Posted May 9, 2020 15 hours ago, 9C85 said: Would it be newspaper empties, rounded up from various locations and returning to Manchester for another 'paper round'? Yes, 5M12 was the return empties off the Manchester-Scotland overnight newspaper trains and as such ran, in some form, every day of the week. When I started in Glasgow Control in 1984 the newspaper trains were second only in priority to the postals, and their performance was closely monitored and recorded. On Saturday nights (at least) there were two Down trains, 1S03 and 1S04, which had multiple portions, including one van for Kilmarnock ! 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
9C85 Posted May 9, 2020 Author Share Posted May 9, 2020 A couple of photos, just because I felt like it The 47 waits in the departure road to head to the station with a service for the North East, whilst the parcels stock waits in the yard headshunt. A mood shot from the Diesel fuelling point headshunt/layover siding, showing the under-construction access ramp down from the girder bridge. 7 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
9C85 Posted May 9, 2020 Author Share Posted May 9, 2020 (edited) 15 hours ago, adb968008 said: dont forget Redbank stored the stock between duties for the club trains At the moment, I have one Mk2 BFK which I plan to have as the centre coach of a 5-coach train, with Mk2 TSOs either side of it. I am thinking that I will run three passenger sets: A trans-pennine set (as described above); an inter-city set (Mk2 aircons plus my Mk1 buffet) and a provincial set of Mk1s. Edited May 9, 2020 by 9C85 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
9C85 Posted May 9, 2020 Author Share Posted May 9, 2020 (edited) As I mentioned previously, it is nice to be able to dip in and out of working on the layout between grandad duties. I was quite pleased with the Yard access ramp of sandpaper on a cardboard base, but when I put the girder bridge in place, I realised that I hadn't taken into account the thickness of the roadbed on the bridge. I remembered an earlier post on this thread about using polyfilla for roads so I thought I will try that on the transition between the top of the ramp and the bridge deck. At a very early stage in planning the layout, I wanted to have as little as possible running either parallel or perpendicular to the edge of the layout, so the bridges are all at jaunty angles. For a base for the filler, I was about to cut a piece of card from the shoe box I had used for the ramp when I saw one of the end pieces was already cut at an angle. I thought 'no harm in trying '... The angle to the girder bridge matched perfectly, so all I needed to do was trim to the right length I will try making the transition from ramp to bridge with filler tomorrow. Edited May 10, 2020 by 9C85 Typos 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
9C85 Posted May 10, 2020 Author Share Posted May 10, 2020 On 02/05/2020 at 14:34, Enterprisingwestern said: I can't see the corks stopping on personally, no friction fit. However, if you bend the wire up at a ninety degree angle and put the corks on from above, voila. Mike. You were right, Mike. A few of the corks have slipped off. I have had to refit the wires on a couple of turnouts (which is a pain of a job). I took the opportunity to put a 90 degree bend at the 'handle' end and cut a thin groove into the cork with a razor saw, which goes halfway into and along the on the central axis of the cork. I pushed the wire into the groove until it got to the centre, then the 90 degree 'bendy bit' digs into the cork and secures it to the wire. All seems to work well. Thanks for the tip. 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
9C85 Posted May 10, 2020 Author Share Posted May 10, 2020 OK so last night one of my old mates in Wales organised an online booze-up for four of us. I was already on the wrong side of a barbecue and several beers before we even 'met up '. Halfway through the proceedings , one of my mates asked to see 'the train set' (a term they use to wind me up, but it's all a good laugh). After the 'session', I returned to the garage to shunt stuff around but I ended up breaking one of the point control wires and two of my Keen Systems drawbars on the Mk1 stock. The moral of this story is 'Don't shunt drunk ' 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
9C85 Posted May 10, 2020 Author Share Posted May 10, 2020 (edited) After spending an hour refitting a wire in tube point control and replacing two broken Keen Systems drawbars with the Bachmann originals this afternoon, I had quite a nice shunting session, with the Kadees on the parcels stock behaving almost perfectly. I do occasionally have to use a 'shunting pole' (wooden kebab skewer) to open the couplings out fully, but only a couple of times today. As I have mentioned, I am looking at around late 70s - early 80s as the date to base the layout. My class 47 has a plated over headcode but I remember the Domino headcodes being introduced. On my model, the recess for the headcode panel is still in place so I wondered if I could make it black. I initially tried a piece of black insulation tape as the lights are quite bright. The tape blocked the light completely. I then had the either crazy or brilliant idea of 'colouring in' the panel. I thought I would want to be able to reverse my decision, so I started going at it with a pencil - nothing specialist, a standard one liberated from Screwfix . Initially I thought I must still be drunk from last night to even think it was a good idea, but the more I continued, the better (less bad? ) it got. The unmodified end... The 'coloured in' end... I am pretty happy with the result and I should be able to reverse my decision if need be, or to make it more permanent if I stop shaking enough to use a paintbrush Edited May 10, 2020 by 9C85 Typos 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
9C85 Posted May 10, 2020 Author Share Posted May 10, 2020 On 04/05/2020 at 11:23, saxokid said: Coming along treat again,i tend to use poly filla for road surfaces... I have just created the transition from the top of the ramp to the deck of the girder bridge using B&Q ready made filler from a tube. I will sand it and possibly add some fine gravel to it when it is dry. Thanks for the tip. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rivercider Posted May 10, 2020 Share Posted May 10, 2020 (edited) 4 hours ago, 9C85 said: After spending an hour refitting a wire in tube point control and replacing two broken Keen Systems drawbars with the Bachmann originals this afternoon, I had quite a nice shunting session, with the Kadees on the parcels stock behaving almost perfectly. I do occasionally have to use a 'shunting pole' (wooden kebab skewer) to open the couplings out fully, but only a couple of times today. As I have mentioned, I am looking at around late 70s - early 80s as the date to base the layout. My class 47 has a plated over headcode but I remember the Domino headcodes being introduced. On my model, the recess for the headcode panel is still in place so I wondered if I could make it black. I initially tried a piece of black insulation tape as the lights are quite bright. The tape blocked the light completely. I then had the either crazy or brilliant idea of 'colouring in' the panel. I thought I would want to be able to reverse my decision, so I started going at it with a pencil - nothing specialist, a standard one liberated from Screwfix . Initially I thought I must still be drunk from last night to even think it was a good idea, but the more I continued, the better (less bad? ) it got. I am pretty happy with the result and I should be able to reverse my decision if need be, or to make it more permanent if I stop shaking enough to use a paintbrush I don't know how common they were, but a few of the WR 47's had an odd yellowy/green headcode panel, which I am lead to believe was the colour they arrived in. Here is 47099 in May 1981. 47099 departs Bridgwater with 7B31 Exeter Riverside to Gloucester New Yard. 1/5/81. Edit - here is 47079 GJC in 1982 which shows the colour more clearly, 47079 George Jackson Churchward passing East Usk 10/2/82. cheers Edited May 10, 2020 by Rivercider 3 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rob D2 Posted May 10, 2020 Share Posted May 10, 2020 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^ always looked like greeny primer to me, nobody bothered with the yellow 2 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
saxokid Posted May 11, 2020 Share Posted May 11, 2020 18 hours ago, 9C85 said: I have just created the transition from the top of the ramp to the deck of the girder bridge using B&Q ready made filler from a tube. I will sand it and possibly add some fine gravel to it when it is dry. Thanks for the tip. Lots of nice new updates here 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
9C85 Posted May 11, 2020 Author Share Posted May 11, 2020 OK, some advice needed. Has anyone ever weathered their track just using an aerosol 'rattle'can , as opposed to an airbrush? I am itching to get my trackwork dirty so I can progress with the layout. I know I should probably wait until I get an airbrush ( birthday next month) but I have half a can of railmatch sleeper grime lying around and I would do the 'test on an inconspicuous area first' thing. To me, it doesn't look that bad? Although I am probably slightly high from the fumes in my garage. Anyone done the same and now regret it? Cheers Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rob D2 Posted May 11, 2020 Share Posted May 11, 2020 I used to weather whole areas with that. But to get even coverage it ends up looking a bit like a cross between a muddy field and a mainline rather than sidings. if it’s the enamel spray , I’d get a mask pronto that stuff is strong 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rob D2 Posted May 11, 2020 Share Posted May 11, 2020 (edited) Where I use it now, is as a wash from the bottle version, Edited May 11, 2020 by rob D2 2 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
9C85 Posted May 11, 2020 Author Share Posted May 11, 2020 6 minutes ago, rob D2 said: Where I use it now, is as a wash from the bottle version, That looks pretty much bang on. The rattle can is back on the shelf 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
9C85 Posted May 11, 2020 Author Share Posted May 11, 2020 Today's shot. A view from the bridge, taken from the new 'polyfilla road ' at the the top of the access ramp. The 47 waits to back out into the yard headshunt, draw forward into the reception siding, then propel its stock into the arrival/departure road before heading to the station with a parcels service for Yorkshire and the North East 6 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
saxokid Posted May 12, 2020 Share Posted May 12, 2020 4 hours ago, 9C85 said: Today's shot. A view from the bridge, taken from the new 'polyfilla road ' at the the top of the access ramp. The 47 waits to back out into the yard headshunt, draw forward into the reception siding, then propel its stock into the arrival/departure road before heading to the station with a parcels service for Yorkshire and the North East Your polly filla road looks good... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
9C85 Posted May 12, 2020 Author Share Posted May 12, 2020 (edited) 11 hours ago, saxokid said: Your polly filla road looks good... I should clarify that the polyfilla is only used on the corner transition between the top of the ramp (which is sandpaper) and the deck of the girder bridge, which is laser-cut MDF. I gave it another layer of filler and some sanding this morning. It currently looks like a bit of poorly laid concrete, which was not intentional, but I will settle for it. I will try to blend the three surfaces together a bit better at the weathering stage Edited May 12, 2020 by 9C85 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rob D2 Posted May 12, 2020 Share Posted May 12, 2020 Hippo toys bridge ? I got one too - he extended mine 5cm to fit the board 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crisis Rail Posted May 12, 2020 Share Posted May 12, 2020 (edited) 16 hours ago, 9C85 said: OK, some advice needed. Has anyone ever weathered their track just using an aerosol 'rattle'can , as opposed to an airbrush? I am itching to get my trackwork dirty so I can progress with the layout. I know I should probably wait until I get an airbrush ( birthday next month) but I have half a can of railmatch sleeper grime lying around and I would do the 'test on an inconspicuous area first' thing. To me, it doesn't look that bad? Although I am probably slightly high from the fumes in my garage. Anyone done the same and now regret it? Cheers Your "bottle" version does look good Use RM Aeros all the time - always have - try mixing with different shades ie: Light to Dark Greys with Frame Dirt - I use natural Real Brick - Plaster - Crushed Slate to give texture and break up when still wet on Caerbannog although my ballasting method is very different to yours. Edited May 12, 2020 by Crisis Rail Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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