Lancaster Green Ayre - The Barn Owls have returned.

[jamie92208]

Evening all after a good evening at the club.   Work is continuing to progress.  I spent a few hours there on Thursday and got a basic coat of Hydrocal and Garden Fleece onto the rivenr side of board B5 (The short one). I also continued with the platform fencing for the down platform.  The fence is actually on the edge of the front set of boards and board A5 has over 4' of it and a ramped section.

 

Tony hasn't been very well for the last few weeks but felt well enough to come down tonight so I picked him up and took him in.  He enjoyed himself making buffer stops.  I'd been worrying about how the wiring over the bay platform was terminated as all the photos from the 1960's show a substantial H girder of a type that wasn't made in 1907.   Anyway I enlarged a photo that I've been kindly lent by the Cumbrian Railway Association that dates from I think 1909.   When I blew it up I discovered that I could see the said terminating post.  It turns out to be a substantial wooden one probably 12" or 14" square like the ones that support the gantries over the platforms.   It also showed that I'd got the detail of the end of the platform wrong and also where the buffers went. 

 

Anyway tonight I removed the old piece of platform and Tony spent the evening happily rebuilding it correctly whilst I found a bottle of Sleeper Grime  and painted about 3'6" of the down platform fence.   Also some planning for the coming weeks work was done.  I going to try and get the platform gantries erected before the running days at the chapel in August. 

 

All in all some good progress.

 

Jamie

[jamie92208]

Evening all after an 'interesting hour or two upgrading to Windows 10. I had another good day down at the clubrooms. Initially I didn't seem to be getting anywhere but things improved. The main task was to plant the OHLE poles on the eastern end of the platforms. These were large portal structures spanning three tracks with some large square poles and a few round ones. Paul Brearley ahs kindly made the square ones but I needed to file them to go into pre drilled holes and also put notches on the upper part where straps secure the channels of L girders for the portals.

This shows a prepared post with the base filed to 8mm's square and the two notches ready for the straps to be fitted.

This shows it in situ.

I managed to plant four of the poles and laid the others down where they will be sited.

I think it adds something to the rather bare platform scene already.

 

I then got a bit of painting done on more sections of the sea wall and tarmacked a piece of the station/horse dock area.

 

A good day. Now to spend a bit of time researching what type of fencing separated the horse dock from the platform.

 

Jamie

Edited July 23, 2022 by jamie92208

[jamie92208]

Evening all after an 'interesting hour or two upgrading to Windows 10. I had another good day down at the clubrooms. Initially I didn't seem to be getting anywhere but things improved. The main task was to plant the OHLE poles on the eastern end of the platforms. These were large portal structures spanning three tracks with some large square poles and a few round ones. Paul Brearley ahs kindly made the square ones but I needed to file them to go into pre drilled holes and also put notches on the upper part where straps secure the channels of L girders for the portals.

150730-3.jpg

This shows a prepared post with the base filed to 8mm's square and the two notches ready for the straps to be fitted.

This shows it in situ.

150730-2.jpg

I managed to plant four of the poles and laid the others down where they will be sited.

150730-1.jpg

I think it adds something to the rather bare platform scene already.

 

I then got a bit of painting done on more sections of the sea wall and tarmacked a piece of the station/horse dock area.

 

A good day. Now to spend a bit of time researching what type of fencing separated the horse dock from the platform.

 

Jamie

Last night I looked through my photos and found out that I need a different type of fencing for the bit by the horse dock but also found out that I've got the shape of the top part of that OHLE mast wrong. Nothing that can't be corrected but if the weather holds I might well be filing wood in the sun this afternoon.

 

Jamie

[jamie92208]

Evening all, a bit of work tonight preparing for a work day at the clubroom tomorrow.  I've nearly finished all the wooden posts and so got a coat of paint on them today.  Most of the posts are just creosoted but from photos it seems that the ones on the platform were painted the same colours as the columns that hold the canopy up, cream on the upper part and chocolate/maroon on the lower part.  I made a holder for them out of some foam that was lying around.

 

This is what the tops look like

 

And a group of them look like something from Easter Island.

I even got chance to try a bit of the steelwork that will be attached to them.

The brackets were on the first etch that I did about 4 years ago so I'm chuffed that they look the part.  I just wish I could find the bag with the rest of them in.

 

Anyway tomorrow beckons and hopefully more progress and some photos.

Edited July 23, 2022 by jamie92208

[jamie92208]

Had a good work day at the clubrooms today.  No great scenic advances but I did manage to get one gantry nearly finished.  It was quite fiddly assembling all the bits in the correct order and opening out all the holes.  However after lunch this is how the middle mast of Gantry 12 looked.

This is the whole gantry

And from the other end of the platform it looks like this with gantry 11 in temporary form.

I also found the running in boards that I was given when the late David Jenkinson's layout was dismantled.   I've decided to leave the one facing the operators like this.

One of the operator facing platform seats will also say Marthwaite.

 

I was so impressed with how the gantry looked that I'm going back tonight to put the insulators and registration arms on and make a start on gantry 11.

 

 

Jamie

Edited July 23, 2022 by jamie92208

[jamie92208]

Well as mentioned above I went back to the clubroom this evening and got some more work done on the gantries.   As well as doing some preparation work for gantries 10 and 11 I fitted insulators and registration arms to gantry 12.

Here's the two arms over the up and down mains.

I also got the base of the gantry poles painted.

 

and then planted the terminal post in the bay platform.

I also managed to get the letters stuck on for the up platform running in board so it now says Lancaster.

All in all a good days work.

 

Jamie

Edited July 23, 2022 by jamie92208

[Jon Fitness]

Definitely getting the sparky look now  . all your preparation work for the OHL is coming together. Must be very satisfying.

Cheers

JF

[jamie92208]

Definitely getting the sparky look now  . all your preparation work for the OHL is coming together. Must be very satisfying.

Cheers

JF

Thanks for the comment Jon.  Yes it is very satisfying to see it.  The etched parts that I'm using on the gantries were some of the first etches that I drew back in 2010.  The fact that they fit in now is a miracle.  However putting the paint on the posts and the running in board make a huge difference to the appearance of what is rather a bare board otherwise though it will look better when there is some stock on the rails.  The whole layout is up at the chapel again for running session starting on the 18th and running to the 22nd of August.

 

Jamie

[jamie92208]

As mentioned in ER's I managed to get to the clubrooms today despite a runaway horse and trap smashing my rear bumper.   The end result is that I got another gantry (no 11) built and painted as well as doing some small scenic bits.  

These show the view along the previously bare platforms with just two of the three gantries in this stretch in place.

 

As Jon said earlier it's really getting the feel of an electrified railway (unlike the GWML) The Midland always were ahead of the game.

 

Jamie

 

PS   The only major area of overhead I've got to sort now is the bit between the platform canopies which needs a bit of though.  I've got the necessary partd I just need to sort out the order of assembly and tie it in with permanently fixing the canopies.

Edited July 23, 2022 by jamie92208

[jamie92208]

Not a lot done today but the first crate is now at the chapel ready for a week on Tuesday.  However I had a good chat with Dave about how we are going to fix the OHLE supports between the canopies.  The canopies on the platforms are in 4 sections at the moment.  There are two section of 3 bays on 4 columns at the West end, then the space for the footbridge and then 6 bays on the remaining 7 columns on either platform.  They are only attached by the 2mm threaded rods that run down through the columns.  There are 6 OHLE supports that go across to join these up and they need to be fixed on 2 on the small part and 4 on the larger set.  These will then tie all the units together into two much more rigid structures.  When the footbridge is installed it will brace the whole structure lengthways.  At the moment they are a bit wobbly and prone to damage.

 

Soldering the cross beams on will not be easy mainly because of where they have to go and because some fool went and painted some of the support girders.  The upshot of the conversation is that we are going to try and make a jig out of plywood into which the canopy units can be fixed upside down.  This should make the soldering easier and also allow me the fit the gas lights before the complete units are installed properly. 

 

To make it easier I'm now printing out the Templot pages for the area and that will be the start of a jig.  Dave and I are going to measure up tomorrow night.  If the idea works I will post some photos.  

 

Jamie

[jamie92208]

Evening all.   I had to take Beth to Bradford this afternoon, so whilst she was at Physio I nipped to the timber merchant and bought three sheets of 3mm birch ply.  It's lovely stuff and most of my buildings have it as their core.  I also laser cuts well.  I had 4 200 mm wide strips chopped off each of them and these will become the fascia board that fastens onto the end of the lighting rig.  The three remaining pieces will all come in useful. 

 

I then printed Templot templates of the station canopy area and glued them all together. 

 

At the club this evening Dave and Mark both appeared.  Mark did some scenic work and Dave and I started making the canopy assembly jig.  We first carefully took the 4 canopy sections off the board hen laid the paper template over the platforms and aligned it with the grid.   We then punched holes through it where the holes are drilled for the canopy support pillars.  The resulting marks were then transferred to one of the plywood offcuts and check measured against the original.  After a few minor alterations came the tricky bit.

 

We drilled the holes out 2mm and then erected the canopy sections on the plywood.  Then using a square piece of MDF as a marking guide we marked out a series of rectangles that align with the bracings on the canopies.

The marks were then made into rectangles and cut out with a jigsaw.

The same was then done with the down platform canopies.

When all 12 holes had been cut out (plus a 13th by accident.) the board was turned over and the canopies were placed into the holes upside down.

The effect was what we were hoping for and the two sets of canopies were in alignment and safely upside down.

Lastly a set of L girders that are partly finished were tried. 

The rest will now be assembled and trimmed to length.

Another good evenings work.

 

Jamie

 

Edited July 23, 2022 by jamie92208

[jamie92208]

Off to the clubrooms yesterday for anther work day. The first task is to finish off the platform canopy jig.

Yesterday I put a frame of scrap wood on the upper side of the jig which will make it rigid enough to get the OHLE cross members fitted correctly.

 

I did some research on the placing for the cross pieces yesterday and discovered a problem. There are 6 of them spaced along the 10 canopies, 2 on the west side of the footbridge and 4 on the east side. I looked at the original 1907 plans and the spacings on the west side didn't match the photos.

 

This morning I had another look in the plan book and found a drawing dated late 1910. This turned out to be a survey drawing that detailed, in pencil, the changes to the overhead, and other structures that needed to be made when the new (current) Greyhound bridge was commissioned. The new bridge was to the west of the old one and the platform ends at the west end were altered and in the case of the up platform, extended. Reading the pencil notes carefully it became apparent that the two western cross pieces were moved up by one canopy bay each which matches the photos.

 

There is also another pencilled note saying "Move signal box by 20'". These drawings really are a treasure trove and I still refer to them most weeks and learn new things from them. However I will be glad when they are safely in the Silk Mill museum in Derby in the care of the Midland Railway Society.

 

 

Jamie

Edited July 23, 2022 by jamie92208

[jamie92208]

Another day of work down at the clubroom.  I took the jig with me and marked and cut out the 6 remaining holes then trial fitted the Western sections.

It worked fine

I then started making some cross girders t join the two pieces.

Several hour of frustration later I managed to get the two cross girders into place and then carefully lifted the sub assembly through to the back room and put it in place.  I then marked out and soldered the position of the insulator pots and fitted them.  After that it was time to remove the canopies and put them safely back in the jig,

I also put the longer west end sections in place and this shows the overall effect and how the jig keeps them all in alignment.

John  also spent some time painting the platforms and they look better now.

 

A good days work.

 

Edited July 24, 2022 by jamie92208

[jamie92208]

After a busy day the layout is now all at the chapel apart from the last two boards that are in my car having come back from the clubrooms tonight along with a variety of assorted carp. Also Dave brought the columns for the footbridge that he has cast in resin. They look great.

The layout will be erected tomorrow morning and will be up till Saturday lunchtime after which it's all to be put away as I don't think the congregation would be very happy having their Sunday service in the operating space, and having to crawl under a baseboard to get in.

 

There are two main objectives for this work session.

 

1. To run trains as well as possible and to test stock so that we know that there is a layout that can be run at Wakefield in November.

 

2. To see how the scenic work that's ben done over the past few months looks and to plan the work that needs to be done before November.

 

If anyone is in the Leeds are over the next few days feel free to visit. The address is Gildersome Baptist Church, Church Street, Gildersome, LEEDS LS27 7AN. just over half a mile north of Junction 27 of the M62. Ikea is the other side of the motorway if any other halves need to be dropped off. We should be there from around 9am each morning through till about 9pm though there may be breaks for meals.

 

Jamie

[jamie92208]

Evening all from a rather damp village. Day one of the work session has gone well though with the odd hiccup or two.

 

I got up to church shortly after 9am. Thus was the view inside. the boards at the end had survived the karate class on Monday night, unharmed.

But lurking in the side room was the rest of the layout.

Dave, Supersonic arrived and at about 9.45 we made a start by carrying all the boards into the hall.

An hour later half of the layout was up with just two of us at that stage so we paused for tea.

I did however like the view along through the station area with no buildings on it. It shows off the graduated curves rather nicely.

An hour later we were finished but there is a pesky pillar in the way and we can't quite attach the castle branch fiddle yard. Tomorrow a temporary bridge will be made.

I just have a feeling that the rest of the congregation might object if I removed the pillar!

Sam (Sir Douglas) then arrived just as we had finished. We then plugged everything in and started switching on. A flash and a bang from the Fiddle yard control panel told us that a rectifier had blown and taken a transformer and fuse with it. Investigations showed that two 15 way plugs had been put on the wrong sockets. Murphy's law in operation. Tomorrow I'm going to swap some pins around so that it can't happen. We then decided that we wouldn't put the building, backscenes and lighting rig on until we had done the electrical and running testing and repairs. So after lunch we started testing. We couldn't use one end of the fiddle yard due to the blown transformer so started on the main line.

 

After much track cleaning we got my Kirtley 0-6-0 along the up main and into the bay platform but it wouldn't go the who length of the bay. I eventually discovered that the droppers under the bay had been forgotten so got those wired before setting off to but a new transformer. After tea I installed the new transformer and tested the bay which worked once I had gapped the end that has the buffer stops on it. Then started testing the fiddle yard and even managed to drive locos round most of the up and down main thought there is still some snagging to do .

This is what it looks like at the moment and the two little black dots are the two locos.

And just to encourage Flavio to complete his course of occupational therapy here is a rather forlorn looking Yard Office mock up waiting for the real thing to be completed.

A whisky is now being consumed.

 

 

 

Jamie

Edited July 24, 2022 by jamie92208

[Jon Fitness]

A whisky is now being consumed.

 

 

 

Jamie

Sounds like it was much needed and very deserved!

Looking good though. How are the signals surviving?!

JF

[jamie92208]

Sounds like it was much needed and very deserved!

Looking good though. How are the signals surviving?!

JF

 

They're surviving fine apart from a finial and the ground signal we talked about.  I'm leaving energising them till another time though.

 

Jamie

[Jock67B]

Jamie,

That really is a true labour of love! Do you envisage completion (if we ever achieve that fully) by the time the Wakefield show comes around, or it still going to be a 'work in progress'? Either way, it will be fascinating to see - I'm still hopeful of images of that beautiful brass 2P at work when it is finished!

Keep up the good work, but don't burn yourself out,

Kind regards,

Jock.

[sir douglas]

it was quite satisfying just spending most of the day track cleaning. it was also useful because you can spot most of the little things that need fixing as you go round to do later

[enginelane]

 

Jamie,

That really is a true labour of love! Do you envisage completion (if we ever achieve that fully) by the time the Wakefield show comes around, or it still going to be a 'work in progress'? Either way, it will be fascinating to see - I'm still hopeful of images of that beautiful brass 2P at work when it is finished!

Keep up the good work, but don't burn yourself out,

Kind regards,

Jock.

I hope so! It's on the floor plan!

[jamie92208]

Jamie,

That really is a true labour of love! Do you envisage completion (if we ever achieve that fully) by the time the Wakefield show comes around, or it still going to be a 'work in progress'? Either way, it will be fascinating to see - I'm still hopeful of images of that beautiful brass 2P at work when it is finished!

Keep up the good work, but don't burn yourself out,

Kind regards,

Jock.

Hi Jock, thanks for the kind comments.  Yes it is still a work in progress but progressing quite fast.   We've actually had trains running in both directions today. Hopefully thre will be some pictures or even some video tonight.

 

Don't worry Steve.

 

 

Jamie

[jamie92208]

Evening all from a rather dark and damp village.  We have had another good day though progress does seem rather slow at times as three of us were sharing one soldering iron.   Various people arrived.  Keith Robinson of Kirby Stephen came over in the morning and our first half hour was spent discussing how to mount the pelmet for the lighting rig.  This will ne 8" deep and painted in Midland red and curve right round the front of the layout.  Approximately 16 metres long in 3mm ply.  It will be in 5' sections that bolt together and will be secured onto the end of the square section ally that supports the lights.   We came up with a solution so now I need to see my fabricator to get some brackets made.

 

Then we progressed slowly in fixing running problems, mainly in the fiddle yard.   Sam arrived again and did a great job cleaning track.  Chris Stevens also came and spent time trying to get points to work in the coal yard that had been ballasted rather liberally.  That work will need to continue tomorrow.

Melvyn Price then arrived. He's making a coal merchants office and stables that will be on the front of the layout.  He brought the main structure which is in mounting board at the moment.

 

This has had to be squashed a bit came up with this design.  It looks nice where it is and brings a bit of life to that part of the baseboard.

 

After tea I went back up on my own and started debugging the east end of the fiddle yard.  Two problems were traced to relays that had no volts.  Those were down to a wire that had come out, easily corrected, and a corroded pin in a connector, also easily sorted.   I then did some more work on the control panel and now all the controllers work in the same sense as the ones at the front of the layout. 

 

I even put a train together to cope with a Yorkshire summer.

Various other tweaks were made and a goods train plodded round the down main and ventured onto the castle Branch, all progress and I ran a 2 coach passenger train went round the Up main with only two short dead sections that will be worked on tomorrow.

 

I brought a few mock up and part built buildings out and the loco shed area makes a nice backdrop.

 

 

Now I'm listening to 'The Highwaymen' and eating some nice ripe Stilton washed down with a modicum of "The Singleton of Ord".   Looking forward to more progress tomorrow.

 

 

Jamie

 

 

Edited July 23, 2022 by jamie92208

[jamie92208]

Evening all after another long days work.   It has been a  mixed day.   Keith, Dave and Sam arrived and continued with track and point fettling.   I concentrated on trying to rewire the rlays that control the single slip at the junction with the castle Branch.  After lunch I was able to get the Up Main running and in the afternoon we actually ran one visiting  loco right round the track without any human intervention for the first time.   The signalling system bhaved itself and the loco handled the changeover between controllers well.  All the fiddle yard was working apart from a 3' section in one siding and much of the down main was in use but not the crucual part over the single slip.

 

This evening I went back up on my own and tried to complete the rewiring on an almost innaccessible set of relays under the board.  It was very frustrating and by 9.30 I'd had enough and went to pick Beth up.   Hoepfully I will have som inspiration in the morning.   However it ahs been nice to see a lot of trains running today, including 736 a lovely 3P that Tony built for me.

 

Jamie

[supersonic]

The Highway Men eh? Michael and a boat if I recall.  So, you do have some musical appreciation then - very old record tho'

 

We had fun, and not a little frustation chasing faults.   My Kirtley ran just fine but showed up a problem in the hand over sections - as it is wired on the American system - heyho - no problem tho'.  It just amazes me how many railends get damaged and need remedial action.

 

Endeavouring to model 'muck' is not as easy as one would imagine.  Real muck does not look 'reet' so we are slowly adding to the effect - ha.

Edited August 21, 2015 by supersonic

[jamie92208]

Evening all from a rather dark and quiet village.   Today I set off to the chapel with a heavy heart expecting a day of further frustration but lo and behold things got sorted though the rats nest of wires around the relay needs some tidying Up.  By mid morning I had full use of both main lines and was able to access the Castle Branch.  Some serious snagging then took place helped by a friend called Lee.  His 2 year old daughter had a drive of 736 on the passenger test train and then Lee drove while I wielded various tools to de snag baseboard joints and points. 

 

After lunch Chris Stevens arrived and we started some serious test running sending trains in an out of the fiddle yard by every possible route.

Here's 736 with it's train.  It took about a minute to circle the main line loop, including obeying the 15 mph limit over greyhound bridge.

Some church friends came with their 3 year old grandson and he was duly installed running a 4F up and down the Down main in the station area between Skerton Bridge and his grandparents who were standing by greyhound bridge.   I didn't even need to watch him as he stopped at the signals and the station and his mum was the furthest limit.  It made a great scene and it's lovely having kids driving trains.

 

Anyway Chris and I continued snagging and I assembled a 14 wagon cattle train and we put that on the down main pulled by Ray Clasper's lovely scratchbuilt Baldwin.

 

Before the rivet counters strike , I know they were all withdrawn by 1916 but we have heard rumours that one was kept at green Ayre as a pet and that's our story and we're sticking to it.  At teatime when we switched off we realised that for over two hours the hall had been filled with the sounds of moving trains.  After tea I managed to clear most of the remaining electrical snags and even got  a loco onto the cassette branch.

Jock, I'm sorry that we couldn't magic up a 2P but hope that the 3P will do as a substitute. I also thought you might like this wagon that you might like this picture.

I even managed to do two short videos.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdsQl-hITEg

736 does a complete circuit.

 

and the cattle train.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lrb983RnTDY

 

All in all a brilliant day.  Still lots to do but we now have the ability to run trains.  More work in the morning hen time to dismantle it and turn the hall back into a church again.

 

Jamie

 

 

Edited July 23, 2022 by jamie92208