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Peterborough North


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i didnt realise there were sidings in front of spital bridge like that, looking good though.

 

Hi Dan,

 

There is a bit of modeller's licence involved here. I have had to compress the area between the north end of the platforms and Spital Bridge quite considerably, so if I'd left the two carriage sidings at a proportionate length they would not have held five coach trains, and that would have messed up operation considerably. For that reason the sidings finish much closer to the bridge than they did in reality.

 

Photos taken from Spital Bridge in the '50's have turned out to be very misleading, as they give the impression that the sand drag for the down slow was almost under the bridge. I've recently come across a photo taken in the opposite direction though, which shows there was quite a bit of distance in between. I suspect it has to do with the angle of shooting over the bridge, and probably the foreshortening effect of the camera lens as well.

 

The bottom line is that you can't model Peterborough North in a 25ft room to absolute fidelity. That doesn't mean you can't produce something which has the feel of the real thing.( Well, I hope not anyway). :)

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Beautiful. I look forward to seeing the signals in place..

 

There is a thread on the LNER forum with a view from the cab of a loco looking south at the North box. The thread is titled 'Views from the cab'..

 

Thanks Richard, I'll have a look at that when work allows. Should have some signals soon.... If you, or anyone else can tell me exactly what each one controlled I shall be very grateful.

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Thanks Richard, I'll have a look at that when work allows. Should have some signals soon.... If you, or anyone else can tell me exactly what each one controlled I shall be very grateful.

 

I should be able to lay my hands on locking tables and dog charts for Peterborough North..

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Oh no Gilbert!

 

I remember what happened last time I was there....

 

 

Beware Gordon,and if he starts mentioning things like are you a Man or a Mouse and who's boss in your home,its possibly leading up to words like Divorce.Then just remember his Line of Trade,otherwise he will stinging you again for his fees.

 

Seriously I do hope the backs improving and I wish both of you a very happy new year.

 

Also GN seeing the lovely Triplet Set at least I know why Whistlestop is looking a touch Balder over the last 4 months.

Kind Regards,Derek.

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Guest TomTank

Only just seen the recent updates Gilbert! Looking absolutely stunning so far, I'm liking the track/ballast weathering.

 

Inspirational once more :)

 

Tom

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Quite a lot more to report, I'm pleased to say, though no more baseboards yet. Through the efforts of Rob Davey, Neil Kinison, Tom Wright and even myself things have moved on. The "North" end of the fiddle yard, together with most of the roads has been laid, and the vast majority wired. Anyway, the photos will show what's been happening.

 

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The last two just show the extent of what is now laid, and an out of scale thumb :( On the first three you may notice some alien looking blue objects, which are in fact DCC concepts Cobalt point motors. These have proved to be a huge bonus, as they are much smaller than Tortoises and easier to install and wire. Having I hope successfully loaded this lot I won't tempt providence further, so I'll put some more on in a separate post.

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Having extolled the virtues of Brilliant Baseboards, of which there are many, unfortunately the down side of the design has now emerged. This would not have caused so much difficulty had I used Templot or similar to establish the position of all point motors before gluing down the baseboard tops, and then cut away interfering pieces of wood as recommended. The problem is though that I find fiddle yards impossible to visualise unless I lay out the points on the baseboard and juggle with them till I get what I want (or not as the case may be). That meant fixing the boards and working round obstacles if possible. In some cases it wasn't, and in any event the space to work in is so confined that it took an age to insert the motors under the baseboard. Some more photos here will illustrate the problem.

 

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You can see how difficult it is to get both hands into these "cells" in order to work. It's somewhat of a problem even when clipping on the connectors shown in the first photo, but becomes very difficult indeed when trying to put in point motors. Photo 2 illustrates how useful Cobalts have been. I doubt we could have got two tortoises into that space, and the one right up against the frame would not have been possible anyway. I decided to use the suitcase connectors as the alternative of stripping the bus bar and making a soldered joint every time while working in this confined space above one's head did not appeal, especially as I reckon there may be more than 1000 connections to make before the job is done. I don't like molten solder dripping onto my arm. Having said that there are some connections on the scenic side that have to be soldered, because we are using Tortoises that I already had on that side, and unlike Cobalts which require no soldering at all, Tortoises do. Fortunately, I have a volunteer (genuinely) for that job, in the shape of Tony Wright. I can only assume that he does not feel pain, or that he doesn't realise what he's let himself in for. :D These shots also show why I have put most point motors above board, which I would have preferred not to do, but the time taken to install above board is a fraction of that to put them underneath, and time is money, particularly when paying a professional to do the job. One or two of them would not have been possible underneath anyway, and others would have needed a complex system of remote cranks.

 

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Thank goodness for Cobalts! As you can see they only just fit, even above board, so Tortoises would not have worked at all. These illustrate Neil Kinison's simple but elegant way of dealing with space restrictions, except for the last one which isn't simple at all, but it works.

 

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Here's how Cobalts fit (just) and the next photo shows where some of the wiring goes. These are NCE "switch its" and "switch eights", NCEs "in house" accessory decoders. They really are very simple to wire and programme, so simple in fact that even I can do it. Two wires to these, two more to the main bus bar, and one from the point frog to the point motor, and it's job done. Just to lighten the tone a bit, how about a loco and some rolling stock?

 

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Here's a Bachmann 04 which John Houlden has weathered. I though it was a very good model straight from the box, but now it looks like they did nearly all its working life I reckon it's absolutely stunning. So much so that I may have to buy another. :rolleyes:

 

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And here's a very poor photo of part of my Elizabethan set, which will be hauled by the Golden Age A4 featured a few posts ago. Being able to afford things like this, or nearly anyway, makes 47 years of work seem worthwhile.

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Gilbert - your Mk1 roof's clearly de ribbed - what colour have you been using it looks quite effective?

 

Hi David,

 

I take no credit for this, as it was recommended by Tony Wright in an article in BRM some years ago. It's a mixture of Humbrol 67 and 85. The satin in the 85 just gives it a bit of a sheen, which I like. The good thing is that you have to mix up a new batch quite often, and I can never get the proportion exactly the same, so it gives a bit of variation between coaches too.

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And here's a very poor photo of part of my Elizabethan set, which will be hauled by the Golden Age A4 featured a few posts ago. Being able to afford things like this, or nearly anyway, makes 47 years of work seem worthwhile.

 

That elizabethan rake looks the business. Southern Pride and Comet? The rake I've got at the moment are Southern pride over Bachman donors. Yours really look good...

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Dont take this the wrong way, but are you sure about using those scotchlock connectors?

 

Ive used these in the past, albeit on cars and found them to be unreliable in the extreme.

 

I agree that you can't really tell if they have cut the insulation properly, or if they have how long they will last. However, a good friend has used them on his layout, and he has had no problems and in fact recommended them. As he used to work for the Electricity Board I value his advice. Perhaps the environment of a car is somewhat less user friendly and dirtier than the underside of my baseboards? I hope so anyway, but rest assured I have not taken offence at what you have said.

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That elizabethan rake looks the business. Southern Pride and Comet? The rake I've got at the moment are Southern pride over Bachman donors. Yours really look good...

 

Yes, Southern Pride and Comet and a fair bit of scratchbuilding as well. It's a really iconic rake of coaches isn't it, and I'm really pleased with them. Pity you can only use them twice in an operating day!

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Dont take this the wrong way, but are you sure about using those scotchlock connectors?

 

Ive used these in the past, albeit on cars and found them to be unreliable in the extreme.

 

I spent about 30 years working in the connector industry with several of the world's leading maunfacturers, all of which had IDC (Insulation Displacement Connectors) in their range. As with most things, IDC connectors work well and reliably when used with the correct tools and more importantly, when using the correct wire gauge. The slot in the contact is usually designed with a narrow range of wire gauge sizes in mind and problems will occur when the user is trying to work with a wire gauge outside that range. Too small and contact will be intermittent to non existent. Too large and the contact will cut through the conductors and performance will be severely impacted.

 

IDC conectors are a good alternative to crimp or solder connectors, but care must be taken to use the right wire gauge. They are definitely not a 'one size, fits all' product. Stay with a reputable manufacturer and use the right wire gauge and if possible, the right tooling and they work well.

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Thanks Gordon, that is very reassuring. I've sourced these from Maplin and I took care to get the one they recommended for the wire I'm using. They are a snug but not too tight fit for the main bus bar, and I've taken up a recommendation to double over the 7/02 I'm using for droppers. Hopefully all will be well.

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I would agree with Gordon, and add that they seem to work well in static applications, but develop faults in moving applications like caravans and cars. If you have the right guage wire and they are well applied, then you should have no issues.

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As the real thing effectively ceased to exist 37 years ago,and even for those who do remember it memories may have dimmed a little, here are a few photos to give an idea of what it was like, and what I am going to try to recreate, in part at least.

 

All of these photos are the property of Andrew C Ingram, and are reproduced here with his very kind permission, and acknowledging his copywright. They should not be further downloaded please.

 

Let's start with the first thing you would see having come up Station Approach. These are the up side buildings from a corner of Station Road.

 

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Anyone fancy trying to reproduce those telegraph poles? For some reason I keep putting it off, but it will have to be done eventually. To the right of the bus is the Great Northern hotel. I already have Gravy Train's lovely model of that, and he is presently working on the rest. This forecourt was at that time a dead end. Looking at the way cars are parked, I wonder how anyone ever managed to turn round!

 

Next we will go to the South end of the site, looking from underneath Crescent Bridge. This photo is a little earlier than my period - that lovely bracket signal had gone by 1958 - but otherwise this is what it looked like at the time.

 

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Most of the lines on the far left are the ex Midland lines, which unfortunately cannot be included.

 

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Looking at the last photo you may have noticed the overall roof - you could hardly miss it could you? Here's a close up of the South end, again just about exactly in my period.

 

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And this is what it was like under that roof. This is taken looking North. Spital Bridge can be dimly made out in the distance, and the North end of the dogs leg curve also shows up quite well. The roof and buildings will be modelled, but not in full detail as it will be several feet long, so most detail would hardly be visible anyway. I wonder what Health and Safety would say about the positioning of the mail trolleys, and in particular that rogue mail bag so close to the edge of the Up platform?

 

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Now we are at the North end of the station, as this photo is taken from Spital Bridge. It's a bit later than my period, as the old engine sheds and yard have already been demolished and replaced by the inevitable car park. The sand drag bottom right marks the boundary of what is being modelled. On the left is the District Engineer's yard and associated buildings, of whch there are a lot more than I had previously realised. :( I only acquired these photos a few weeks ago, and nothing I'd seen before showed anything like this. Much compromise will be necessary here, as indeed will be the case with just about everything in this photo, as I just haven't the length to model accurately the full distance from the end of the platforms to the bridge. If you look back at the photos of the boards which are already down you will see for example that the carriage sidings in front of the Engineer's building finish far too close to the bridge. Just shows how huge stations are. I reckon though that we can capture the atmosphere of all this, even if it isn't dead accurate, and its such a beautifully idiosyncratic site that I reckon it deserves to be modelled. I can't see me ever having the 40 or more feet of length I would need to do it "properly". That doesn't, to me at least, mean that it can't be attempted at all. Am I going to be able to resist replicating those two carriages outside the Engineer's building? I very much doubt it.

 

Gilbert

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Boards 4 and 5 arrived on Wednesday, so here are a few photos. Please ignore the white connectors. They are still there because I belatedly realised that it is far easier,and less painful, to solder droppers to Tortoises as a bench job before final installation. The water tower is not the correct one. Like the engine shed, which is the one I built for the loft layout it is just there to show where the proper buildings will eventually go. First then, here is a view showing the continuation from board 3, and featuring a beautiful tandem turnout, which from its right hand side runs into the double slip featured in my last set of photos. I reckon it will be the most impressive piece of track work on the layout.

 

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Next is a view from a bit further back.

 

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and then from still further back. The lines are from left to right:-

 

Down goods, up slow, platform 6, bay platforms 5 and 4, down and up main, a spur which runs behind platform 2, and then the old engine shed complex.

 

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