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Lancaster Green Ayre - The Barn Owls have returned.


jamie92208
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I managed to find the lead to download photos from the camera so here's a photo of the carpenters shop in summer together with the statutory liquid refreshment.

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Jamie

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A good evening at the club got the last board (D2) wired and even some testing done. Now we are in position to start testing pairs of boards then building bigger blocks and testing those. The plan is to ahve the whole fiddle yard (7 boards) up in the chapel in the 2nd week in August and hopefully have a semi complete fiddle yard control panel powering the point motors and possibly some of the traction feeds. I had better get my finger out.

 

 

Jamie

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Yes we are starting to get some scenic work done and started with the up platform at the west end last night.  The down platform was, I now realise installed wrongly as I hadn't realised that they moved the signal box when the new Greyhound Bridge was installed.  (This shows how after 7 years of research you can still get it wrong.)

 

The box was moved from being sunk into the platform to a point further west where it was free standing.  The paltform was obviously rebuilt and this shows in the higgledy piggledy layout of the paving slabs in the area.  The signal is shown on the plan as being just at the bottom of the ramp very close to the signal box steps.  The good thing is that the box now starddlkes and hides the baseboard joint.

 

Life's a learning curve, but some days it's steeper than others.,

 

Jamie

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In between trying to get a horse drawn tram completed by the Bank Holiday I've got the fiddle yard erected at the church for a few days.   It's giving me time to check some wiring and see how it all looks.  It was meant to be up till Saturday but the church is now needed Friday afternoon so it comes down Friday morning.   Last night we got it all set up and this evening a friend came over and helped plan a cassette system that will be bolted to the inside of the fiddle yard at the east end.  this is to accommodate all the trip workings that go out at that end.   There should be some progress tomorrow.

 

Jamie

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Well we had a good three days at the church.  Keith  and his mate Tony came over on Thursday and we got the basics of the cassette system built together with it's small approach board.   While they worked I continued connecting wires to the Fiddle Yard panel and by the end of the day I was able to test all the relays attached to the point motors and then test each point motor from the panel.  After a couple of minor adjustments everything worked.   Tonight I took two baords and two control panels to the club and a brains trust was held to try and sort out the relay matrix in the Castle Branch panel.. After an hour of testing and and a pause for thought we discovered that I had cross wired at least one set of relay contacts.  These were corrected so on Monday we'll carry on and try and get various changeover sections working.

 

Jamie

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Hi Jamie

Have you seen this view of Green Ayre? It's 1933 so a little later than your period but interesting nevertheless, You can clearly see the replacement LMS signalbox and it gives you a good perspective on the whole scene.

Jon F.

Thanks for that Jon, yes I've got that one and it's very useful. Not only has it got the original North Western Railway loco shed (White roof long narrow building) which ws used to house the royal coach, but it shows a host of other details.

 

 

Thanks

 

Jamie

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Thanks for that Jon, yes I've got that one and it's very useful. Not only has it got the original North Western Railway loco shed (White roof long narrow building) which ws used to house the royal coach, but it shows a host of other details.

 

 

Thanks

 

Jamie

 

Hello Jamie,

 

"Royal" coach at Green Ayre? = district inspection saloon?

 

OzzyO. 

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I'd forgotten about them, but that makes a lot of sense.

Yes they furnished the coach for the Midland and trheir woodyard was next to the shed so it all made sense. Apparently it cdame back every 2 years for refurbnishment.  the coach is now at Butterley and we've got a scratch built model of it on the layout and it will be shunted in and out of the shed at shows.

 

Jamie

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On Friday we finished remaking the platform end area and the horse dock woodwork and I started laying platfrom flags on more of the up p[latform. .   At Telford Jon Fitness handed over another 6 signals and tonight I planted the up home and the lovely down/castle starter brcket signal that goes at the end of the down platform.  They look great.  I also picked up my Skytrex signal box which will become Lancaster South in due course so there is plenty going on.

 

Jamie

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A good evenings work tonight and some of the scenic work is starting to pay off.  After planting two signals last week tonight we planted an overhead gantry.  This one, Gantry 19 was at the platform end just before Greyhound bridge.   The up platform was extended in 1911 and the gantry's footings were buried and so Dave cut a hole in the platform to take the northern leg.

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The gantry was planted and then the signal box (ex Long Prteston) was positioned.   The platform  end area looked like this.

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Here we are looking west.

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From further along the view is like this.

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In the foreground the start of Gantry 20 which spans 4 tracks can be seen.

It's starting to look like it should.  We also measured up for the point rodding and will make a start on that on Friday.

 

Jamie

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Went down the the clubrooms on my own tonight to try and sort the electrics out for the entrance to the Loco shed/goods yard area.  Had a good hour and a half and sorted two problems.  I discovered why I couldn't run anything onto what will be the changeover section.  I'd made a silly mistake when i gapped it and not gapped a piece of copper clad that was the wrong side of the gap.  Once that was done things got better and I actually ran a loco on the section.  Slow but steady progress.

 

Jamie

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Another evening work last night.  We started to sort out the point rodding.  I've kept all the rodding from Long Preston so it was a matter of working out where the runs are going to go to North signalbox.   Fortunately some of this shows on photos so we worked out how to get the levels right.  A strip of 6mm ply under each run then the rodding stools mounted on that brings the height of the rods to the correct level..  Meanwhile John continued working on platform paving and nearly finished the Up platform.  We've also found a photo of the station being demolished which by chance shows in detail how the gantry that we tried last week is let into the down platform ramp.  Another photo shows a structure called an awning on the plan.  This turns out to be a roof for part of the horse dock like a dutch barn but with one wall that covers the track and part of the dock platform.  We are now working at guessing it's height using a van that's parked in the dock as a reference point.   Steady progress.

 

Jamie

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Success at last.  Another quiet evening at the clubrooms trying to get my head around the working of the raly matrix that I built two years ago.   (I've slpet since then so lots of details have been forgotten.)    Anyway I started working through things steadily and first of all got the indicator LEDS's working correctly on all three panels.  (Main, Goods yard and Loco Shed) then started on the power supply to the common section.  That showed that the main panel was feeding it when the Goods yard/Loco Shed should have been and vice versa)  I then swopped round 4 feed wires and Hey presto it all worked.   Sods law meant that I didn't have a loco with me to test it but the great thing is that it does work and the three panels can now hand trains over to each other and control the correct bits of track.   It may not sound much but it's a great step forward.   As a result I've got a glass of the amber nectar from north of the border next to me while I type.  Now all I've got to do is use the same approach to sorting out the Castle Branch and then things will be working properly.   Hopefully I'll be able to bring some of the boards to Warley as our demo this year and actually run some trains.

 

Jamie

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We held the 4th Gildersome show today and I managed to get a bit of demonstrating done. I took the etches for the footbridge that will be the scenic break at the east end of the layout. (Ladies Walk). I'd separated some but not done any soldering so I got chance today, in between doing other tasks I was quite pleased. here is the first part of the footbridge assembled. I've done 2 bays for one end and one join. The effect looks quite nice.

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As you cn see I keep a tidy workbench.

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This shows the joining pieces between the bays. They were made up of a fold over piece for the centers then a wrapper that is soldered round the edges. The T girder then goes underneath. There will be a wooden walkway. There will be a short bay on the non curved end side that apans the top of the stairway. Altogether there will be 8 bays plus the two stairways. I'm pleased with the result. The other two T girders are only in to add some strength at this stage as I found the side pieces the fiddly ones to do and only got two finished.

 

I also had a go at one of the 4 stair units (upper and lower with a landing on each side. This was the result.

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I had made the stair units in a long fold up unit but found that I'd not caclulated the dimensions correctly so I'm not sure whether to solder them in as they are or split them up into individual stair units of a tread and a riser. I'll then have to put some 1'64" ply on the tops for the treads.

 

 

Jamie

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Well after all the brass work we have actually started some scenic work in the goods/loco yard area.  The baseboards are 6mm ply with a layer of 3mm under each piece of track then 3mm cork (Tiles from Wickes).  This means that to get all the sh** and cr** of the shed yard, which extends to the top of the sleepers we need to put about 10mm of fill in.  We didn't want to use plaster/tile cement/polyfilla etc due to the weight. We have now tried 6mm polystyrene ceiling tiles for the bulk then surfaced them with a layer of woodland scenics lightweight Hydrocal.  As this dried it was dressed with various pieces of ash/limestone etc to look like the photos show it.  This went well on Wednesday night but next time we'll put black poster paint in the mix.

 

Today I took advatage of the good weather and started making more crate ends for transport.  I've cut some of the last bits of Long Preston up  (The fiddle yard base) and got two sets of ends made today.  The wood is cut for another 3.   That's 8 down and another 6 to go.  However it's vital work now that signals and small buildings are starting to appear.   Also Uncle T (Supersonic) and I had a chat to decide what we are going to take to Warley for the demo stand E09.   We both want to do some solderiong so it may well be a mix and match of baseboards and backscenes that fit in the cars.

 

Meanwhile we are missing two team membersw who are in hospital.   Our electrical guru, Keith Smith has had tow serious bits of abdominal surgery.  I did offer to take my soldering iron and some flux to sort his plumbing out.   Tony Bond is also in dock with serious circulation problems in his legs.   He goes under the knife on Tuesday but meanwhile is keeping himself busy, and the nurses amused, by folding up various etches for Greyhound Bridge.   I've had to get the rivetting tool out and get some more bits rivetted to keep up with him.

 

Jamie

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More progress last night.   First of all a visit to see Tony Bond who has now had his operation and appears to be on the mend. I had to assist his daughter identify which bits of brass he wanted taking in so that production of bridge parts can continue.   It's now handrail stanchions.  He's just frustrated that he can't have  a soldering iron going whilst in bed.    Then it was on to the club where John Patrick started his magic with some colouring and painted our first area of Hydrocal with a mixture of dark acrylics and dilute PVA. The effect is very good.   Meanwhile Peter, and I worked on spreading more Hydrocal and sprinkling it with various bits of small stone dust to simulate the ash strewn area in a shed yard.  Somne large pieces of limestone have been sprinkled along the edges of the tracks to simulate coal falling off overfull tenders.  When painted it looks great.  We then moved on to ballasting using more dust and ash.  All in all a good bit of progres and nice to see some colour appearing at last.  Hopefully some pictures next week.  meanwhile I need to find a source of 6mm polystyrene ceiling tiles.

 

Jamie

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2 days without rain has given me the chance to get on with one of the more mundane but essential jobs for an exhibition layout.  As scenery is starting to appear it is essentuial that boards are now safely crated when being transported.  Thus  I got on with the repetetive and boring job of finishing off the crate ends.  Anyway a big push in the last couple of week has got all 13 sets of the main ones finished.

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Here are the last 3 sets ready for putting in the shed.

The design has been arrived at using various ideas from other layouts.  The main thing is that each pair of crate ends have 2 battens on each end which are either wide or narrow spacing.  All the baords are the same length so any pair of boards can be stacked on any other pair by just turning one round until a narrow pair of battens fit into a wide pair.  This should make stacking easy in vans.

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here are one pair showing the interlocking battens.

 

The hand holds are also the result of experience and the positioning is so that hands will not come into contact with overhead wires.   As many of you will know the answer to the meaning of life is not 42 but 27.  in other words as long as one dimension of a crate is 27" or less it will fit through any door.  I learnt this the hard way with Long Preston when one crate was 34" deep and had to be dismantled to get it our of the clubrooms then put back together on the pavement.  The double row of boards on the front of Green Ayre have been designed so that the front one only has things 2" high on it and the rear one has the overhead which is about 6" high. Each board then crates with it's neighbour thus saving much moving around of boards at shows like happens with one layout I helped on.

 

 

Jamie

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The start of another few days  working on the layout at my church.   I've managed to get a few days when the church is free durin g half term so I spent yesterday and today taking boards up to church on the sack cart.   I'm not putting the whole layout up but two alrge sections with some specific objectives in mind.  Anyway after the pilates class finished I set to work to put the boards up.  

 

The friend who was going to help me cried off due to sickness so I thought I'd ahve a go at putting it up on my own.   I'd spent a lot of time designing the boards so that they were easy to put up.   Anyway I set to work about 7.40 and by 8.10 I'd got the east end up.  There was then a short pause to solder a dry joint on a relay then I put up a large section of the west end.   By 9pm I'd got 18 baords up which i felt was quite good.   

 

If I could get the pictures to upload there would be some but I'm now looking forward to three days of work.

 

Jamie

 

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The first full working day has seen some significant progress.   In the morning I erected some backscenes and then finished off the east end backscenes.  This area was originally meant to be part of the fiddle yard but as the emu's will be reversing here we decided to make it scenic so that nearly 3/4's of the layout is scenic.  

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Here you can see the end board.  The lattice footbridge will span the tracks about 2 or 3 " in front of the backscene board.  The eagle eyed viewer will see the mangled remains of the footbridge piece that I somehow managed to step on.

Then it was time to plant some signals.

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The first is the co-acting signal that will be visible both above and through Skerton Bridge. Jon Fitness has done a superb job of them. (or it would be if I cut the bridge opening out.)

Then the shunt signal that controls the exit from the coal yard but is post mounted to make it visible from the signal box.

Then a ground signal that controls movements either over the crossover or into the coal yard.   Apparently this was so and is confirmed by a former locoman.

 

I also managed to get the loco shed partly constructed.

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I've mislaid the front board so put a temporary strut in that the locos won't clear but it gives an idea of the shed's size.  I was pleased at how rigid the structure is.  In the background you'll see lot's of blue foam having been glued down in the goods yard ready for covering with hydrocal.  Thanks to Mark Calvert who came and helped, while Paul was getting on with Skerton bridge.

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This gives some idea of the view from the Castle Branch approaching the station.

Finally one for Jon Fitness.  We did get the height of the down starter correct.  here's a drivers eye view from under the canopies.

post-6824-0-59399400-1383173438.jpg

All in all a good days work.

 

Jamie

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