Lancaster Green Ayre - The Barn Owls have returned.

[jamie92208]

Andy, Paul and Richard came over from near Ruffec today and we had an 'interesting' afternoon putting up the lighting units and the pelmet.  I am very grateful indeed for their help.   The layout certainly looks better.   We even got the lights working though as I'm still short of a power supply that's only 2/3 rds at a time. However I couldn't resist going over to the shed tonight when it was dark and seeing what it looked like.

 

This was the view from the shed door.

Then a closer shot showing the shed/junction area.

This was the other end with the lights out at that end.

I really must get the LED's working on the signals, they would show up nicely.

Then I swapped a power supply round and tried a bit of flash to show the totem on the pelmet.   Two of the units are still not lit as I made a mistake with the jumper leads. Some small leads will be made up to bridge the 2" gap.

Then I couldn't resist trying out my new zoom lens that arrived today.   I attempted an arty shot along the station platforms but all it showed me is that I need to re seat one of the awning columns and to sort the roof of the footbridge out.

It is nice to be able to play around like this without the stress of exhibiting.

 

Jamie

Edited July 29, 2022 by jamie92208

[lezz01]

Looks very nice under the lighting rig Jamie.

Regards Lez.

[Dave Hunt]

Some of those shots are really atmospheric Jamie.

 

Dave

[enginelane]

Yeap, no drooping lighting rig, not under a time restraint of getting finished before the hall closes etc. Yes i think you will enjoy many hours watching the trains run round with a glass by your side 

[jamie92208]

1 hour ago, enginelane said:

Yeap, no drooping lighting rig, not under a time restraint of getting finished before the hall closes etc. Yes i think you will enjoy many hours watching the trains run round with a glass by your side 

Certainly will Steve.   In fact I will probably be over there tonight to escape either the Voice or Dancing on Ice.   I've just got another section of lights working and reconnected all the umbilicals, and generally tidied up.

 

Jamie

[enginelane]

Sounds like a plan. Had another running session on Vimes Street and Engines still running and freight cars staying mostly on the tracks! Screwing everything rigid rather than justvrelying in the bolts i think has been a great help 

[jamie92208]

I've had another hour and a half over there this evening and decided to do some test running in the loco shed yard.   I was using 1004 my Compound which was normally a very reliable runner.  However it was running like a proper lemon with lots of starts and stops then suddenly setting off very smoothly.  I suspected some internal shorts so took it off and took a look at it.   The first thing I found was that the electrical connection between the tender and the loco was missing the plug on the loco end.  I then found that a crank pin was broken.  

 

I managed to replace the crank pin fairly easily and then started on the shorts.  I suspected they were mainly round the bogie area.   Various tweaks have been done and it ran a lot better as a bare loco chassis.   I ended up smearing araldite over the outer surfaces of both sets of bogie wheels and the inner surfaces of the guard irons.   In between I kept trying it and it was getting better with real smooth running at times.   I have now left it for the araldite to dry and will try again tomorrow when I've done some chainsaw work to build up the log pile.   Happy days.   The good thing was that all the electrics in the yard are working well though I need to do a few minor track repairs.

 

Jamie  

[lezz01]

Clear nail varnish works good as well Jamie.

regards Lez.

[Dave Hunt]

Compound bogies can be the very devil when it comes to clearances on curves. My S7 original Johnson example will quite happily go round something like a 5 ft radius without the bodywork on but once it's all together it sulks on anything under about 7 ft and, like Jamie's, I had to do a fair bit of insulating work before it gave up the odd hesitation over pointwork.

 

Dave

[jamie92208]

5 hours ago, Dave Hunt said:

Compound bogies can be the very devil when it comes to clearances on curves. My S7 original Johnson example will quite happily go round something like a 5 ft radius without the bodywork on but once it's all together it sulks on anything under about 7 ft and, like Jamie's, I had to do a fair bit of insulating work before it gave up the odd hesitation over pointwork.

 

Dave

I think the problem is that on the prototype they never went round curves as sharp as they have to on our models.  The main problem is that the bogie flanges need to either touch or go through the frames on 6' radius curves.  I had a good look at the spinner in York and there is no way that the bogie wheels could go through the frames.   I did once suggest in a letter to the GOG Gazette that kits ought to have witness marks on the inside of the frames so that the cut outs could be made to give clearance for the wheels.  I think this applies to all 4-4-0's where the centre of pivot is actually the leading coupled axle.  The bogie pivot needs at least 1/8th" sideplay to work.   Unlike one kit manufacturer that provided a fixed 8BA bolt as the bogie pivot.

 

Jamie

Edited March 3, 2019 by jamie92208

[Dave Hunt]

Of course, Johnson's bogie engines had 'jiggled' front frames, i. e. the front frames were separate pieces bolted on inside the main frames to give more lateral clearance for the bogies but you are right in stating that we expect much more from our models. In reality trying to get an S7 Compound round anything tighter than 7ft is pushing it, even dead slow; I'm not sure what the finescale equivalent would be but it's surely not very much under 5ft 6in I wouldn't imagine.

 

Dave

[jamie92208]

A very pleasant and moderately successful afternoon has been had in the shed.   I test ran the Compound chassis and it seemed to run a bit better.  I then decided on a more thorough approach.   First of all I separated the 3 boards that front the Loco Shed then cleaned all the track.  Things were better but the bogie was misbehaving in some area and so were the driving wheels when going the wrong way round the loco servicing loop.    Out came all the track maintenance equipment, including a roller gauge and the verniers.   Attention was made in a variety of places, minor adjustments were made and some loose pieces of rail were soldered in place.   The result, the chassis started going better.   The final adjustments were a check rail that had come adrift and was lower than it should be at one end, and another one that has dogged me for a while.   This was that bogies seemed to derail when coming forwards out of the headshunt by the horse dock after leaving the coaling stage and reversing.   That was finally traced to a point operating wire that was:-

a) very close to the rail and

b) protruding 1mm above the railhead.

A tickle with the Dremel sorted the offending wire and a small brass screw anchored the check rail at the correct height.   The chassis then ran faultlessly round the loop in both directions.  Result 1 happy bunny,

This is what a tidy layout looks like.

With a faithful H & M Duette powering it as the original Kent Panel controller has given up the ghost.

I even found some small plugs and sockets to sort out the tender power leads. 

And finally here is the plough train which failed in the station.  The leading 4F has decided to sit and whirr rather than grinding along. 

That's my next little job after the Compound.

 

No more today as I'm now on Dinner duty and the roast beef is in the oven.

 

Jamie

Edited July 29, 2022 by jamie92208

[Dave Hunt]

7 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

A very pleasant and moderately successful afternoon has been had in the shed.   I test ran the Compound chassis and it seemed to run a bit better.  I then decided on a more thorough approach.   First of all I separated the 3 boards that front the Loco Shed then cleaned all the track.  Things were better but the bogie was misbehaving in some area and so were the driving wheels when going the wrong way round the loco servicing loop.    Out came all the track maintenance equipment, including a roller gauge and the verniers.   Attention was made in a variety of places, minor adjustments were made and some loose pieces of rail were soldered in place.   The result, the chassis started going better.   The final adjustments were a check rail that had come adrift and was lower than it should be at one end, and another one that has dogged me for a while.   This was that bogies seemed to derail when coming forwards out of the headshunt by the horse dock after leaving the coaling stage and reversing.   That was finally traced to a point operating wire that was:-

a) very close to the rail and

b) protruding 1mm above the railhead.

A tickle with the Dremel sorted the offending wire and a small brass screw anchored the check rail at the correct height.   The chassis then ran faultlessly round the loop in both directions.  Result 1 happy bunny,

This is what a tidy layout looks like.

With a faithful H & M Duette powering it as the original Kent Panel controller has given up the ghost.

I even found some small plugs and sockets to sort out the tender power leads. 

And finally here is the plough train which failed in the station.  The leading 4F has decided to sit and whirr rather than grinding along.  That's my next little job after the Compound.

No more today as I'm now on Dinner duty and the roast beef is in the oven.

 

Jamie

 

I'm not surprised that the 4F has suffered if it's been dragging that mess van around with its leading wheels in the ballast for very long 

 

Dave

[Compound2632]

On 03/03/2019 at 13:46, Dave Hunt said:

Of course, Johnson's bogie engines had 'jiggled' front frames, i. e. the front frames were separate pieces bolted on inside the main frames to give more lateral clearance for the bogies but you are right in stating that we expect much more from our models. In reality trying to get an S7 Compound round anything tighter than 7ft is pushing it, even dead slow; I'm not sure what the finescale equivalent would be but it's surely not very much under 5ft 6in I wouldn't imagine.

 

Dave

 

On a Spinner, not just the inside frames but the deep outside frames too. I'm afraid that's what would put the kibosh on a RTR 00 115 Class. 

[Dave Hunt]

You are spot on Stephen. On my S7 Princess of Wales Class No. 21 I had to insulate the inside faces of the outside frames alongside the bogie with pieces of tissue paper coated in thinned  Araldite to stop occasional electrical shorting on pointwork, even on 1 in 7 crossings.

 

Dave

[jamie92208]

A lot of work has been done on the layout over the last few days to improve reliability and general testing and cleaning.   The local railway group are coming to visit tomorrow so I've been forming trains up in the fiddle yard and running them round.   It's been slow progress.  Some short sections of rail that were found to be dead have been sorted.   One was a dry joint in a frog (crossing) assembly) and the other was a track switch that I'd installed to operate the signalling system.  This left 4" of rail dead in a place where trains are just restarting.  It's been decommissioned and the rail reconnected.   One or two board joints had got slightly out of alignment and these are being fixed.

 

One problem then emerged that the point that controls the entrance to the UP fiddle yard was not moving and it's Tortoise had died on me.   I discovered that it still had power feed and spent some time trying to coax it back into life.   Eventually I had to take the motor off and dismantle it.   I eventually found three hairline cracks in the PCB where it must have got knocked in transit.   Fortunately I'd found a way of repairing these so added 3 short lengths of phosphor bronze strip to bridge the cracks.

It was re-installed and things started working well and the breakdown crane made a successful circumnavigation, once I'd got it travelling jib forwards. One more rail joint to fix then more trains to run today.  First domestic duties to perform.

 

Jamie

 

Edited July 29, 2022 by jamie92208

[lezz01]

Nice fix Jamie.

Regards Lez.

[jamie92208]

I think that it's finally coming together.   After a morning of domestic tasks I got into the shed this afternoon and after fixing another cross baseboard rail that was a tad high things started to run on the inner track.  I've now got 6 assorted trains in the 5sidings, including a light engine.  I then started on the outer (down) track and got mixed results with some locos refusing to run more than a couple of feet without a shove.   However some ran nice and free and I unpacked 996 which ran beautifully.   I returned this evening and did some running in the dark so that I could see if there any internal shorts going on inside the locos.   Surprisingly they all seemed to want to run and I soon had trains circulating. Some minor tweeks improved the exit from the yard.  One of these turned out to be the moving frog on the long outer point that had come out of it's slot.   Anyway by the time I'd finished there was a train on each track, including one of 3 Clerestories behind the Compound. 

 

I've just got to print a few photos off to put on the display board and we're ready for showtime.

 

Jamie

[Dave Hunt]

Good stuff Jamie - make sure we get some photographs of the day.

 

Dave

 

PS - I don't want to be a pain in the pinny but cranes were usually marshalled boiler first in breakdown trains. Roscoe Turner told me that they ran more stably that way as the jib tended     to stay in line rather than want to wander. As far as I can remember, there wasn't an absolute ban on running them jib first but I think that a lower speed limit pertained although I have never seen anything in official documentation about it. All the photographs I have seen of cranes marshalled into trains show them boiler first but in case any smart**s (who - me?) picks you up on it, tell them that it was OK as you were careful to run it at reduced speed.

Edited March 14, 2019 by Dave Hunt
Adding PS

[jamie92208]

Thanks for that Dave.  I turned the crane round as the bogie near the match truck kept derailing and it ran fine the other way round.  No that I have discovered and corrected more minor track problems it may well run fine the other way round.   However I will experiment in due course.

 

Jamie

[Clive Mortimore]

8 hours ago, Dave Hunt said:

Good stuff Jamie - make sure we get some photographs of the day.

 

Dave

 

PS - I don't want to be a pain in the pinny but cranes were usually marshalled boiler first in breakdown trains. Roscoe Turner told me that they ran more stably that way as the jib tended     to stay in line rather than want to wander. As far as I can remember, there wasn't an absolute ban on running them jib first but I think that a lower speed limit pertained although I have never seen anything in official documentation about it. All the photographs I have seen of cranes marshalled into trains show them boiler first but in case any smart**s (who - me?) picks you up on it, tell them that it was OK as you were careful to run it at reduced speed.

Hi Dave

 

What happens when it is time to go home? Surely it would be facing the wrong way?

[Dave Hunt]

That is something that has occurred to me Clive. I think the answer is that the crane would be turned a soon as possible but until it could be it ran at reduced speed. I guess that on the way home speed wasn't as urgent! Hence Jamie can claim that it is returning from a job.  Unfortunately when I knew Roscoe Turner that was one of the things I never got around to addressing in detail - I was more interested in the details of the machinery and forgot to go into the operation as I really should have done.

 

Dave

[Dave Hunt]

Reference my last post:

You've got me thinking now Clive. It would seem that unless a crane could be turned quickly at its home station it may well have had to run jib first depending on where the job was. I suppose that where they were stationed enabled them to use turntables and that any delay caused by having to turn them may well have been compensated for by being able to run at higher speed but I have never seen or heard any detail of what was actually done. It is obviously something that needs looking into and I will have to don my thinking cap (if I can find it and dust it off) as to where to start.

 

Dave

[jamie92208]

The crane and match truck would obviously fit on a turntable so turning would be quite easy as there were turntables in all sorts of places, often quite near each other.  I can't remember whether or not the cranes could propel themselves at slow speeds.  In the model form there is a large amount of weight under the crane body and boiler assembly, all at one end of what is a bogie vehicle in model form rather than a 4-4-0 with two fixed axles and a bogie.   As you mentioned though Dave I can always run it towards Hellifield on the Up Line so it's on it's way home.   In a similar fashion the plough train usually runs on the up line.  The excuse is that it was returning from Morecambe after a summer test run from Hellifield after maintenance ready for the winter.   Modellers licence allows all sorts.  It even allows the Baldwin 2215 to have been hidden in the shed at Lancaster during WW1 and to have survived till 1923.  After all Rule 1 applies.

 

Jamie

[jamie92208]

Evening all from a rather damp and grey corner of the Charente.  However despite the weather, which reminded us all of the UK, we had a great time. In the morning I finished putting things on the layout .   It looked a lot better with the fiddle yard with trains in it and some wagons in the various yards.

This was the trains in the inner or UP yard.   The Down (outer) Yard looked like this.

Siding Down 1 is quite long so the trains in it are parked some way in front of the others.  996 looked good on the two coaches that Lez from the club and Mel Burris built for me.   The coal yard sidings had some wagons in them.  Not the correct ones but it still looked better than leaving it empty.

I even managed to find a couple of locos to go in the shed area, including 152, which I know as Bessie on the turntable.   Bessie was my mother in law and today was the anniversary of both her and my mother's deaths, so it was nice to get Bessie out of the box.  At least it isn''t a Hippo..... Bessie is a white metal kit of unknown provenance that I picked up very cheaply at the Bolton show one year.  She does go and grinds round the layout making a real racket.  One day I'll upgrade the chassis and repaint her.

 

I even managed to find 14 chairs and a couple of tables and set them out.

All 16 of us met in Nere (3 miles away) and had a very nice 3 course lunch for the princely sum of 12,Euros 50 each.  then it was back here where after a short meeting, we picked up coffee and home made cakes (Made by the domestic authorities who was elsewhere) and wandered over to the shed.   I told them a bit about the layout and it's history and surprise  surprise the trans ran better than I expected.   Richard Paul and Andy played with 736 and the 4F in the loco yard and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves.

It's a very sociable group and the group in the middle are admiring a live steam G scale loco that Richard had brought.

This is the view from the other end.

 

You can see Paul standing up through the hatch in the river helping to sort out a piece of trackwork that 736's bogie took exception to.   All in all it was a very enjoyable afternoon and about 4pm they all started to leave.  One group who had come about 50 miles to the meeting headed off to one of our local Cognac distilleries to replenish essential supplies.  

 

The next meeting that we can attend in in June and it's at John and April's home about 40 miles north west of us.   John is slowly building his own 7.25" live steam 0-4-0 and excavating a trackbed round his extensive garden to give him somewhere to run it.   

 

Jamie

 

Edited July 29, 2022 by jamie92208