Peterborough North

[great northern]

Gilbert,

 

What other goodies have you got "up there" ?

 

Stuart

 

Alright, I confess, I'm a locoholic. There are about 70 more up there I think. No blue ones though Stuart. Lots more Pacifics, some B17's, a B12, a K2, some K3's, more WD's and 9F's, C12's, a few B1's, and a few more of various types. Might even get them running soon.

[great northern]

I've recently acquired more photos from Andrew Ingram's invaluable collection, mainly to try to get more of the small detail that I regard as so important when trying to create a satisfying model. Here's a shot that has plenty of it, reproduced by kind permission of, and acknowledging Andrew's copyright.

 

 

This is taken from the North end of the Up platform, and you will see that things were about to get very noisy for the next few minutes. All of the signals shown here will be arriving shortly, and will transform the layout when they are in place.The track's all there too, save for the Midland lines on the far left. I also get brilliant detail of the station lamps from this photo, and loads of general atmosphere.

[davidw]

I wonder if you could place a camera on the model in approximatly the same place to illustrate how close the model is to the real thing?

[Guest Tom F]

Look terrific Gilbert.

 

Amazing how things just start to click together. Have you still got alot of the rolling stock boxed up, and are you nearing a point for getting the rest out?

Keep us posted

 

Tom

 

P.S I love the pic of the Deltic Prototype approaching Peterborough....lovely shot

[great northern]

I wonder if you could place a camera on the model in approximatly the same place to illustrate how close the model is to the real thing?

 

Not very close yet David, but it will show what a difference signals and detail will make in due course.

 

 

Lousy photo - you will have to take my word for it that is Deltic in the distance.

[great northern]

Look terrific Gilbert.

 

Amazing how things just start to click together. Have you still got alot of the rolling stock boxed up, and are you nearing a point for getting the rest out?

Keep us posted

 

Tom

 

P.S I love the pic of the Deltic Prototype approaching Peterborough....lovely shot

 

Blimey! Isn't this lot enough for you? Almost all coaches and goods stock are now in place, but lots of locos are still in their boxes, as no shelves have yet been built to accomodate them.

[Guest Tom F]

ah....I see your point Gilbert

 

I'd keep the other stuff boxed for now then

[gresley]

Gilbert,

 

Your yards look like my engine sheds. Chock-a-block with stuff.

 

Stuart

[davidw]

Not very close yet David, but it will show what a difference signals and detail will make in due course.

 

 

Lousy photo - you will have to take my word for it that is Deltic in the distance.

 

But it kind of gives the impression of the North end of Peterborough!

[great northern]

Thanks David, very charitable of you. Actually I was in a rush earlier, so I'll take another photo tomorrow morning and see if I can do a bit better.Getting it in focus would be a good start. Here's another Ingram photo to drool over in the meantime, what a beautiful loco. I used to see her on the Harwich- Liverpool boat train back in the mid '50's. I can feel a renamed new Hornby loco coming along shortly.....

 

I'll also have to think about how to model that incredibly dilapidated coaling stage, but fortunately the telegraph pole in the background will be off scene.

[davidw]

I'm really looking forward to the B17 too ...

 

even though they were all gone by 1960. (I model the 59 - 61 period) so just inside.

[mikemeg]

Thanks David, very charitable of you. Actually I was in a rush earlier, so I'll take another photo tomorrow morning and see if I can do a bit better.Getting it in focus would be a good start. Here's another Ingram photo to drool over in the meantime, what a beautiful loco. I used to see her on the Harwich- Liverpool boat train back in the mid '50's. I can feel a renamed new Hornby loco coming along shortly.....

 

I'll also have to think about how to model that incredibly dilapidated coaling stage, but fortunately the telegraph pole in the background will be off scene.

 

There really is nothing quite like these wonderful black and white photos of the railway scene in the 1950's and earlier; they're priceless for they can never be taken again.

 

Your layout is a wonderful representation of what was a wonderful railway place.

 

Cheers

 

Mike

[great northern]

I've had another go at the Deltic photo, taking a bit more time over it. Better I think.....not good, but better.

 

and now in glorious technicolour

[davidw]

Looks good to me!

[great northern]

Yes, not too bad when I look at it again, and if you position it so that you cut out the bookshelves and the finger it does look a bit more like the real thing. I should be able to do a lot better soon though

 

Just to put it in perspective though, here's what the professionals can achieve, though in fairness TW was using a camera which cost rather a lot more than mine. This is just a staged shot, which would never have occurred in real life, but I think it looks rather nice.

[davidw]

If it helps I didn't notice the finger. More interested in the railway. Great shed scene.A2/3 A4 L1

V2. Cool

[HerbertHopkins]

 

Just to put it in perspective though, here's what the professionals can achieve, though in fairness TW was using a camera which cost rather a lot more than mine. This is just a staged shot, which would never have occurred in real life, but I think it looks rather nice.

 

Coming along nicely Gilbert, let's hope that Mr. Wright will be in a position to take some more photos as work progresses.

[great northern]

Coming along nicely Gilbert, let's hope that Mr. Wright will be in a position to take some more photos as work progresses.

 

Yes, it will be a good test won't it? Will his basic instincts take over when he hears that there are buildings and signals in place? We can only hope that they will. For the time being, it's back to trying to get point motors into near impossible places. It will be interesting to see how much we can get done today. My bet is not a lot.

 

Coming along nicely Gilbert, let's hope that Mr. Wright will be in a position to take some more photos as work progresses.

 

Yes, it will be a good test won't it? Will his basic instincts take over when he hears that there are buildings and signals in place? We can only hope that they will. For the time being, it's back to trying to get point motors into near impossible places. It will be interesting to see how much we can get done today. My bet is not a lot.

[M.I.B]

............. This is just a staged shot, which would never have occurred in real life, but I think it looks rather nice.

 

I am learning that my once "set" opinions and perspectives are not as solid as I believed, thanks to the power of the interweb and the ability to share information.

 

See my post on UK prototype about A4s hauling freight. Some nice photos on there courtesy of another RM webber.

 

Pleas keep up the good work - this layout is truly inspirational.

[great northern]

I said we'd get loads done yesterday, didn't I? Fortunately Tom is much more clever than I am, apart from being young and slim and able to get into places my back wouldn't let me even dream about. So, he just looked at some of the places which I had marked down as "impossible" and said "There must be a simple but elegant solution to this". And after a few minutes , out came the brass channel and tube, and in a ridiculously short time, to me anyway, he had manufactured some very simple and elegant widgets which allowed him to mount Tortoises under board but offset. The first two slide:-

 

[great northern]

At which point I hit "add reply" instead of preview..... and the third one rocks:-

 

 

and I don't know why this one is out of focus, as it was taken in auto mode as were the others. Anyway, you can see how it works. Now, many of you will wonder what all the fuss is about, but me, I couldn't work this out in a million years, let alone then manufacture it and get it to work, so it's rocket science to me. The result is that over half of the job was done yesterday with all Tortoises mounted under board. One more day should see the whole lot done,, then a hundred or two more droppers and some more accessory decoders will see it operational. After that, just a few more loco spurs to do. Of course I am also now looking at the other end of the fiddle yard and wondering if I shall be able to live with all those Cobalts above board. That will have to wait though, as the other pressing job is to work out the exact platform heights. It's clear from all the photos I have that they are well below what would now be regarded as acceptable, but then they were built in 1850. Today though thinking is even harder than usual as I have a lousy cold, so it can wait.

[CUTLER2579]

Gilbert,

This is coming along very nicely and as you say young Tom is a very clever chappy.As for his Dad's photo it took a second look before I realised it was a model,I was so taken with the roofline of the Hotel in the background.

Kind Regards,Derek (Grantham)

[S.A.C Martin]

That looks terrific Gilbert, although I am very certain that the combination of those four locomotive classes did occur in real life, albeit at 56C and not Peterborough...

 

All the same, terrific atmosphere!

[great northern]

That looks terrific Gilbert, although I am very certain that the combination of those four locomotive classes did occur in real life, albeit at 56C and not Peterborough...

 

All the same, terrific atmosphere!

 

No problem with seeing all four classes at Peterborough, as Grantham had some L1's which were used on local trains, but they would have been serviced a mile up the line at New England, not outside the original 1850 engine shed at the North end of the station. Still a nice photo though.

 

Later today signals arrive, and will be installed at least temporarily. That is another big step forward I'll take some photos later, but it may be Thurday before I can post them.

[Markeg]

Hi Gilbert,

 

Looks good and is coming along.

 

I have been in the UK recently for 4 weeks and was able to see plenty of UK layouts, including Gresley Beat, which was top of my list. But I do like eastern region layouts and have a few BR A4's and several other classes. I was inspired by a layout in an early Model Rail (about 1998) called Safton which had LNER and a changeover to BR eastern. While in the UK we had limited access to internet, but most of the time we were downloading photos and adding titles to them so we wouldn't forget where it was, so couldn't follow your progress.

 

I have 2 Hornby B17's on order and the Blue A4 Sparrow Hawk with sound which I may change to Sir Nigel Gresley which I saw at the North Yorkshire Moors Rly gala earlier in May. TW certainly takes some good photos. The D16's are a very nice looking loco, I'm hoping for the Director, especially a D10 and will name and number it "Walter Burgh Gair" 5433 in LNER lined black and one in BR lined Black 62654.

 

Enough of my rambling. I have one question, it may have been asked and answered previously. In the picture with the Cobalt point motors you can see a micro switch in front, what brand are these and where can you get them from? I have seen these on TW's layout too. Haven't seen these in OZ, but then I haven't been to any exhibitions here for a while because they tend to be the same and was planning to visit Bristol exhibition which was excellent. Not much english exhibition modelling these days with so much aussie RTR available here in OZ.

 

thanks Gilbert for the update

 

Look forward to seeing more as you progress

 

Mark (Gair)