Widdershin Gate

[enginelane]

Decided to have another go at making a small shunting layout using an old board and improved availability of track. Layout designed to reside on a shelf in the small bedroom / office / store room. Board is 5ft 3 in. 
 

Idea is that BR bring in traffic and prepare it to send up to a number of works. Part of the track though is in private owner use and BR locos not allowed. 
 

Scenery minimal as will be buildings, basically a run down piece of track that is still functioning due to the traffic generated by the unspecified works. Aim again to use as much stuff already purchased. 

 

Took opportunity  of wife away to make a start but no timescale or end date to aim for, a pick up and put down project. Will see where it goes. 

Edited November 21, 2021 by enginelane
Change of title

[enginelane]

Back of my mind Crumley rang a bell and of course it is the Hull Model Railway Club layout which if memory serves was an interesting design of being viewed as if in a box. This will little project will be renamed Widdershin Gate and if I can ever remember how to change the title of the posting will do so.

[5BarVT]

1 hour ago, enginelane said:

This will little project will be renamed Widdershin Gate and if I can ever remember how to change the title of the posting will do so.

If you edit your first post, changing the title is available too.

Paul.

[enginelane]

Thanks 

[enginelane]

Quote

 

Some progress. Laid first pieces of track with the manual point mechanisms in place.

[enginelane]

Grandson time approaches but another point installed this morning 

[enginelane]

Short showers turned into more or less constant rain yesterday so loop completed and siding added. 

[enginelane]

More opportunity to track lay. Two dead end sidings to add then test run with stock for clearances and start to wire up etc.

[enginelane]

Spent a productive hour moving wagons up and down checking clearances and a rake of 5 wagons works in the loop and sidings and enough movements into and out of the little yard to make it worth while continuing with the project  

Edited December 8, 2021 by enginelane
Spelling

[enginelane]

Mechanical linkages in place to switch the points on all tracks. Wired up one track.

Started the bridge that will hide the fiddle yard 

[enginelane]

Base coat painting and metal work built for bridge.

[enginelane]

A little more progress on the road bridge. Tracks still to be adjusted before finally being fixed down, however an annoying short circuit has appeared on the two tracks that have been wired up. Works one way with points switched but when reversed - fault! 

[eastwestdivide]

Like the choice of name - widdershins being a regional word for anticlockwise.

Is it because you're "turning the clock back" with the layout?!

[enginelane]

Interesting, I did not know that. I know it from Terry Pratchett in one of his books. It’s a little known gate. I thought it sounded northern without being specific to a location. Yes the idea of this little layout is to run some of the transition stock. I built a little lockdown layout called Kiln Lane but although small and easy to put up cannot stay up. This one will live on a shelf and be available whenever fancy a bit of shunting etc. 

[enginelane]

Traced the short circuit. I had neglected to put in an insulator rail joiner! Checking the other points! 

[5BarVT]

Join the club!

Paul.

[enginelane]

An annoying short on another point meant tracing it back to finally stripping  it from the layout. Fault traced to failure to remove the very thin wire at the frog when modifying the point for DCC. Looks like I should have gone to Specsavers. Disappointing to learn today that daughter who lives in Germany is for the second year in a row not going to make it for Christmas. 

Edited December 20, 2021 by enginelane
Text change

[enginelane]

After dinner relaid the point and it works without short circuiting so looks like that was the problem and had an engine running on all tracks without a problem. Just one more point and two sidings to lay. 16 month grandson coming tomorrow so grandad duty.

[enginelane]

1. All track has now been laid and wired up with mechanical links to the points in place. Decided in the end to simply lay  two pieces of track connected by rail joiners as the fiddle yard as will have limited number of wagons to exchange so no need to go mad building cassettes.

decided that BR locos will have restricted access and not allowed on certain tracks. The industrial Loco will have access to certain tracks to make exchange a little more complicated. Next step to add a low back scene and end panels and decide where to fit the bridge section. Before then Christmas! 

[enginelane]

Managed a covid free Xmas and New Year with the family and now spent some time thinking about the back scene. With the aim of using up items from stock then settled on Slaters Brick sheets priced 57p from Model and Craft up Dewsbury Road, Wakefield so been in there a few years! 
 

idea to produce a run of factory, industrial buildings that could be found anywhere.

 

 

[enginelane]

Made some progress on the backscene relief buildings. To go with the mill, some sort of a warehouse building followed by the backs of workshops leading onto what at the moment is a car scrap yard, corrugated iron clad store. Not sure about the rest at the moment but towards the end a truncated bridge with remains supporting pillars in between the lines suggesting a former mineral branch.

 

 

[enginelane]

Not a lot of progress this year on the layout not because I did not do anything though I did find working on the garage layout in the hot summer more comfortable than the house but because of two major incidents.

 

Firstly have taken on grand dad duties looking after grandson 2 days a week whilst daughter returned to work. Issac only 2 but very interested in trains so does like going up into grand dads railway room. Normally fine but one day granddad looked away at the wrong time and Issac over balanced and crash down he came clutching the fiddle yard. This broke out the screws that held it to the shelf support and track and fiddle yard with wagons and loco in a pile in a heap. Thankfully Issac not hurt but lots is damage to the tracks and wiring plus wagons written off.

 

then second incident, shelf that was put up 26 years a go for no reason that can be determined collapsed onto the rebuilt fiddle yard and stock  resulting the write off three locos and smashed wagons!

 

Have spent time repairing as many wagons and locos as possible and re doing the fiddle yard for a third time!
 

For the past few days have been able to run trains again and have spent a Happy Hour running and shunting trains determined by the use of dice to determine type of wagon, in or out of yard trains and number of wagons in each train. 
 

today managed to get the Peckitt steam loco working again and so have doubled the industrial locos available.

 

 

Edited December 18, 2022 by enginelane
Edit text

[enginelane]

To produce a more random pattern of traffic I use two dice. One with red and blue dots replacing the numbers, the other a normal numbered die.

Not a new idea but keeps a simple layout fresh.

 

To determine if next move is inwards or outwards colour die rolled.

     

RED = Inwards              BLUE = Outwards.

 

Number die determines number of wagons in the move. 

 

Number die rolled the number of times to indicate the type of wagon, all represent wagons that support the off scene industries. 

 

1 = 16 ton coal wagon loaded if inwards empty otherwise 

 

2 = 12 ton open wagon Red = loaded Blue = empty

 

3 = Hopper 

 

4 = Steel Wagon Red = loaded Blue = empty 

 

5 = Van 

 

6 = Special wagon of Choice.

 

Another throw of the number indicates how many wagons outward end up in the storage sidings.

 

This means although a maximum of 6 wagons an be moved at any one time there is plenty of shunting around in each move.

 

Class 25 brings in and takes out wagons.

Class 08 or industrial loco does the shunting. 

 

[enginelane]

Although the pop ups are a pain then the value of RMweb showed up today as a new thread of carrying tinplate for can and box manufacture. 
 

one of the off scene industries is a metal box company that changed over from war work. It seems I will need to acquire a couple more shock vans and wagons to carry this traffic. 

[enginelane]

Peckitt in action this morning. To the right will be the scenic break of the the road bridge and retaining walls. Still in need of some repair.

 

a crew for the loco was on the Xmas list. Not long to go to see if they made it.