GRANBY JUNCTION - Shunting Siphons for the Up Parcels with a Manor!

[john dew]

            HAPPY CHRISTMAS FROM VANCOUVER

 

 

I had intended to post a series of photos of the completed Post Office. Unfortunately when I opened my rather ancient laptop , which contains all the photos, I got the red screen of death. At least that sorted out my Xmas present.....my new all singing /dancing machine bought at Boxing Day prices will arrive on the 24th. I guess I will be spending a fair part of the holiday transferring files and trying to remember access codes.

 

Meantime I borrowed a cushion and took this shot with the ipad. Appropriately it has something of a biblical theme...albeit the old testament....the return of the prodigal

 

 

 

A Hattons/DJM 14xx performing , without hesitation, quite a complicated loco exchange with the branch BSet. Ever since I fitted a Zimo decoder and stay alive tantalums the loco has been transformed.....undoubtedly my success story of 2019

 

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the followers of this thread who patiently read and tick or comment on my weekly ramblings. When I went to the first post to edit the title I realised I had omitted to celebrate the 10th anniversary of this thread.....hard to believe its been that long.

 

The support and fellowship that I receive from RMWeb in general.....and you guys in particular adds enormously to my enjoyment of the hobby......thank you so much.

 

I wish you and your families a very happy Christmas and good health and prosperity in 2020. If you are a GWR fan like me then it needs to be a prosperous new year with all the promised new releases!

 

Best wishes

 

John

[Mikkel]

But the Pannier became angry and said: "Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me a cushion so I could celebrate with my friends. "

 

On 17/01/2013 at 03:06, john dew said:

Pannier and Shunters Truck

 

Merry christmas John! 

[Neal Ball]

Morning John,

 

Sending sunny Christmas greetings from Spain to Vancouver. Have a great Christmas and a Happy New Year.

 

Hope the new laptop is straight forward to transfer the data into.

 

Regards, Neal.

 

[amdaley]

Happy Christmas John & good Luck for the New Year

[M.I.B]

Happy Christmas John.  Thank you for all of the inspiration.

 

Hope the laptop sort out goes OK.

 

Regards from the Far East (of the GW Empire of course)

[gwrrob]

On 02/12/2019 at 17:43, john dew said:

 

Unlike the Cromwells which came with the Bachmann Warflats, I had to buy a suitable load for Hattons Warwell. I finally settled for a Comet kit from Millicast. The kit wasnt super easy to assemble but the resultant model has much better detail than the Cromwell. It is also more appropriate for my era.Comets first saw service just after D Day and were in action during the Korean War eight years later.     





I used the same securing system described in the previous post except the chains were attached to pieces of rod inserted in the buffer beam rather than the side




The shot above shows the front of the tank with the turret reversed for transport and only the casing remaining on the Machine gun. .




 

 

Hi John. I've just revisited these photos of your warwell as you know I'm ready to put chains on mine. I wasn't planning on putting them on the ends but to use the pockets moulded by Hatton's on the deck. As mine will be running without a load I wonder if this would this be OK, what do you think.

[john dew]

Hi Robin

 

I would think so. I opted for the buffer beams partly because I was worried the fixing point would look clunky with the chain under tension. With the chain not in use that issue will not arise, in fact the chain will conceal the attachment. I think it will actually look better like that.

 

Hopefully Tinker will confirm this!

 

Best wishes

 

John

[M.I.B]

Fully agree John.  

[gwrrob]

47 minutes ago, john dew said:

 

 in fact the chain will conceal the attachment. I think it will actually look better like that.

 

Hopefully Tinker will confirm this!

14 minutes ago, M.I.B said:

Fully agree John.  

 

 

Thanks chaps, happy days.

[M.I.B]

I am excellent on the theory and execution in 12":1' scale  , but the execution in OO will certainly be a challenge, and certainly won't reach the lofty quality set by John.

[brianusa]

Compliments of the Season to you John, up the road in BC!

    Brian

[john dew]

 

       HAPPY NEW YEAR FROM VANCOUVER

 

 

Thanks for the good wishes and greetings guys! I do hope that everyone had a great Christmas and that your stocking was over flowing with goodies..........due to an unfortunate duplication of wish lists mine was overflowing with paint brushes ......you can expect to see a lot more 4 mm figures inhabiting Granby in 2020

With my Christmas Greeting featuring the much improved Hattons14xx, it seemed a good idea to continue the theme for New Year with another "silk purse from a sows ear" story.
 
This time its the turn of the Oxford Dean Goods.......

The Dean Goods was an eagerly awaited new release, which like the 14xx received a rather mixed reception. Despite some well reported design defects, to a non purist, like me, the overall appearance is quite acceptable.There are in fact many rather nice details, the backhead.for example, is superb.

Running  perfomance, on the other hand was generally poor. Stuttering rather than smooth with limited haulage capacity and a marked reluctance to ascend the gentlest of slopes. The motor failed completely on one of my Deans. Regular readers may recall the saga of the loco shuttling back and forth across the Atlantic. Fortunately the problem was eventually resolved and the loco was able to regularly run basic schedules with a limited load.provided there were no gradients on the route.

 

Over the holidays I decided to address the haulage issue and at the same time change the decoder and add stay alive




I managed to increase the weight by about 40%........and mostly in the right places! Plumbers lead was cut to size and fitted in the Smoke Box, in front of the Motor, under the fly wheel and on the sides of the fire box. Off cuts were cut really small and jammed into the dome which was then sealed off with more lead cut and curved to shape.

The Dean will now cope with 8-10 wagons on modest gradients.....while not that impressive.....sufficient for my purposes

 

The Lenz standard decoder I originally installed had been quite acceptable for basic schedules but to ensure 100% reliability I replaced it with another Zimo MX317 plus Lifelink plus 6700 u/f Supercap.

Performance is now awesome........ the loco crawls at a scale 2mph over some very ropey track (examples above) without any hesitation
 

 

A brief glimpse of the backhead.

 

Dai Thomas clearly enjoyed his Christmas Dinner.   In front of Dai  the rather chunky water scoop handle that you can see is a replacement . The rather flimsy handle fitted by Oxford didnt survive the tender body being put back. I fiddled with a replacement handle for far too long and finally removed both columns and replaced them with a pair pillaged from an ancient non running Hornby loco.

 

I realised as I was typing this that I had no idea which side was the Brake column and which controlled the Water scoop. Someone must know the answer? 

 

The usual added detail for Granby locos:

 

Head lamp code for Branch Gooods

Modelu crew and spare lamps, Engraved plates, Fire Irons and real coal (B.C. not S. Wales though)

Heavily weathered to depict many years of hard graft

 

In other news my replacement laptop arrived and the file transfer, to my surprise and relief, was accomplished without fret. Next week I hope to conclude the account of the Scalescene Post Office Kitbash

I do hope 2020 brings you and yours Health and Happiness

John

Edited August 25, 2022 by john dew

[john dew]

Thanks for all the ticks guys. I am so pleased that you liked the Dean photos. You have no idea how delighted I am to have a (reasonably) realistic model that now performs impeccably. I have a long list of potential video subjects.....the Dean is clawing its way to the top!

 

Back to the Post Office.......Scalescene kit bash to fill an awkward shape next to the station.

I left you before Christmas with just the front propped up in situ





You may recall this was derived from the Bank Building in the low relief High Street kit







The building will back on to the railway and the side will face on to a narrow street. The bank facade would be too elaborate for these walls so, instead, I used the top half of the Broughs shop as a template


 

Coursed Ashlar provides a reasonable, although not exact. match, for the base.

The sides were made of two sheets of medium card laminated together. Some inner sheets were cut a thickness short on each side to create a glueing rebate

The sides were further strengthened with horizontal strips of thick card, of which some will serve as floor bearers

 

The first side was glued into position on the base card and acted as the reference point for joining the front  and then the second, short , side.

With three sides squared up the first floor was inserted and secured


 

As you can see the last wall, the one facing the railway, is longer than the Scalescene print out. To avoid emphasing the Ashlar mis-match I laminated the scalescene section on top of a Ashlar clad wall of the correct length. Appearance apart this 4 ply addition adds strength to the model


The corners are covered with quoins from the accessory sheets.  Lots of cutting out but they hide a multitude of sins!
 

 

 

The kit is topped with a low relief tiled roof. Given the shape of my full relief model I decided this wasnt practicable 
and opted for a flat roof.

The roof will overhang the walls supported by tiered ledges. Partly aesthetics but also to conceal assorted measurement errors!
 

 

.

The roof is clad with Scalescenes pebbledash. That may seem rather odd but I have used it as a roof cover before and it seems to work.
 

 

The exposed edges are covered with strips from the accessory sheet to match with the ledges and in effect make a third tier.

The roof was topped with walls of dressed stone plus a solitary chimney stack and plant house

 

Almost done.......here is the rear view

 

 

 

After a five year wait the GPO staff  (next to the running in board) finally have somewhere to deliver the mail.

I am not certain about the GPO's policy about advertising in 1948......but the approach to Granby Junction must be prime site. I am going to make some large bill boards for the lower level. Posters coming from Sankey.

 

The whole building needs weathering of course but overall I think its quite effective.


Here is the front........if you compare it with the first shot you will see its slightly different. Another John (St Enodoc) suggested extending the facade ledges/trim on to the two wings ......great idea....................thank you John!

 

 

With more asphalt laid, perhaps you can see the final shape of the scene? The grey card by the bus is the base card for the hotel. Once this is built there will only be relatively narrow glimpses of the side street and Post Office loading bay.

 

The vehicles are just plonked in position and I borrowed the Telephone Box from outside the pub at the other end of the station. This was built 25 years ago before I realised how few of the concrete  version were actually built........I guess there must have been some in Crosby just after the war because I painted it like that without even thinking. I will order two more kits and paint them all over red

I didnt actually plan this but there are really only two full on view points of the Post Office.....front and back ........fortunately the weird triangular shape is only apparent from a helicopter view.

During the last couple of weeks I have taken a break from cutting card and have been working on locos and running trains..... lots of maintenance to still to do .....never ends.

Hopefully I will start the hotel in a week or so.

Regards from Vancouver.....where we are expecting snow.

John

 

Edited August 25, 2022 by john dew
25/8/22 Photos

[M.I.B]

You make it all look so easy John.  Thank you for sharing and the tip about hiding dodgy edges with quoins is a great one.

[Neal Ball]

The post office looks great. Looking forward to seeing the hotel.

[john dew]

9 hours ago, Neal Ball said:

The post office looks great. Looking forward to seeing the hotel.

 

Thanks Neal glad you like it.

 

The Hotel is going to a bit of a challenge. Not sure how familiar you are with the kit. Its another low relief model and is perfect for that role.......very tall and imposing with lots of classic John Wiffen detail. It will, I am afraid, be rather difficult to  expand it to full relief without one seeing the join....to paraphrase Eric Morecambe.

 

Lots of patience and lots of blades required!

In other news I see Hattons expect the Dapol Express Parcels Rail Car tomorrow!

 

Best wishes

 

John

[M.I.B]

2 hours ago, john dew said:

 

In other news I see Hattons expect the Dapol Express Parcels Rail Car tomorrow!

 

 

My stock is slowly getting very outdated! 

 

Bring out a new Manor and Saint.............

[gwrrob]

2 hours ago, john dew said:

 

In other news I see Hattons expect the Dapol Express Parcels Rail Car tomorrow!

 

 

Are you getting one then John ?

[john dew]

5 hours ago, gwrrob said:

 

Are you getting one then John ?

One will be heading west shortly.

 

I guess it falls in the could have category! Certainly not must have like a mogul ( or two? ). I have no evidence they ever ran on an Express Parcel Service between Birkenhead and Birmingham....but its not entirely unfeasible.

 

I vacillated between it and the passenger car but I already have a vintage Lima version....tarted up with new wheels, pick ups and a very expensive Lenz chip and stay alive.

 

I will post some shots when it arrives.....but that will be a few weeks away

[Neal Ball]

13 hours ago, john dew said:

 

Thanks Neal glad you like it.

 

The Hotel is going to a bit of a challenge. Not sure how familiar you are with the kit. Its another low relief model and is perfect for that role.......very tall and imposing with lots of classic John Wiffen detail. It will, I am afraid, be rather difficult to  expand it to full relief without one seeing the join....to paraphrase Eric Morecambe.

 

Lots of patience and lots of blades required!

In other news I see Hattons expect the Dapol Express Parcels Rail Car tomorrow!

 

Best wishes

 

John

Morning John, Ive not done the Hotel kit, or any of those larger low relief ones. I’m sure whatever you do with it will be great and very effective.

 

My little High st representation at Henley is a lot smaller by comparison to your buildings area. All of mine sits nicely as low relief! Although at the moment the High St is dismantled while the garage is being reconfigured. 
 

The Dapol Railcars are interesting, I feel I should support Dapol and thank them with a purchase....... but I have so many Railcars already! Although the models are very nice.

 

Have a good evening - the sun is just rising over the Med here!

[7007GreatWestern]

On 01/01/2020 at 17:19, john dew said:

 

I realised as I was typing this that I had no idea which side was the Brake column and which controlled the Water scoop. Someone must know the answer? 

 

 

Hi John,

 

A (belated) Happy New Year to you and your readers.

 

First I wanted to say 'Thank You' for you recent articles about fitting 'Stay-Alive' capacitors to improve running of locos. This is something I'd love to do but question my competence to solder onto tiny circuit board pads without destroying said circuit board!

 

In answer to your question, the brake column is on the fireman's side of the tender, the water scoop column is behind the driver. Why?  Well the standard procedure when starting a loco from rest is that the fireman unwinds the handbrake simultaneously with the Driver releasing the vacuum brake handle. I suppose it's a bit like a 'hill start' on a car where your right foot presses the accelerator at the same time as you hand releases the handbrake......only two people are required on a steam loco! One problem with using a cranked handle to apply/release a brake is that if you forget whether the brake is on it's hard to tell just by looking!!! One the preserved locos I worked on, a small length of chain attached at one end to the tender bulkhead was wrapped by the fireman over the handle when the brake was 'ON', and then removed from the handle as the handbrake was released. This is a really helpful visual reminder used on preserved railways, I'm not sure if it was also used by GWR/BR(W).

 

For the record the water scoop column is a dummy on most preserved locos for obvious reasons.

 

Best Regards,

 

Andy.

[john dew]

9 hours ago, 7007GreatWestern said:

 

Hi John,

 

A (belated) Happy New Year to you and your readers.

 

First I wanted to say 'Thank You' for you recent articles about fitting 'Stay-Alive' capacitors to improve running of locos. This is something I'd love to do but question my competence to solder onto tiny circuit board pads without destroying said circuit board!

 

 

Best Regards,

 

Andy.

 

Hi Andy

 

Good to hear from you. Hope you are well.

 

Thanks for answering my question so fully about the brake /water scoop columns. It now makes perfect sense.

 

Regarding stay alives. You only need to solder one wire to the ground pad on the chip ( the existing blue wire provides the +ve) but I found the expensive way that even with quite a large pad on a Zimo that it was too much for me.

 

Fortunately Youchoos ( super helpful.....no connection) from whom I buy both the Zimo decoders and stay alive components charge only a nominal fee for soldering the additional wire to the ground solder pad.

 

Soldering the two wires to the lifelink and supercap is straightforward. I have done 5 now without a hitch.

 

The difference is amazing....poor runners like the 14xx and the Dean can now perform complex operations eg loco exchanges/shunting. Reliable runners like the panniers now require zero supervision.

 

The only downside is I am building up a surplus of replaced Lenz decoders!

 

Best Wishes

 

John

[jamespetts]

Excellent work! I shall look forward to any videos of the Dean Goods (or, indeed, any interesting automatic running!).

[john dew]

Winter wonderland for the last few days!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cleared  the drive yesterday and again just now

 

Not sure I am winning......the snow shovel snapped and its still snowing.

 

Back to Granby shortly

 

I guess I dont need to sign this off with a local weather report!

 

Cheers

 

John

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 25, 2022 by john dew
25/8/22 Photos

[john dew]

                                                                                     FOUR BRIDGES and a CANAL

 

 

Last week, apart from snow clearing, I spent most of my modelling time on maintenance. Resurrecting Signals and Lamposts that have fallen by the wayside, glueing back chimneys, replacing head lamps and fire irons........and so on........all fascinating stuff but not particularly photogenic......so for a change of pace I spent a morning taking shots of Richard's Wharf.**


To set the scene here is a wide angle rather fuzzy shot of the duck under at the entrance to the room.
 

The Post Office and Hotel site featured in last weeks post can just be seen on the right

The tunnel mouth leading on to Bridge #1 conceals the entrance to hidden twin track storage sidings for the low level branch line.
 

 

All 4 bridges can be seen in this next shot ....although you will have to peer under the arch of the Viaduct (#3) to catch a glimpse of Bridge #4
 

 

 

 

Hmm another lamp post to add to the list




Close up of the downstream lock






The Girder bridge (#2) connects the branch to the upper level via two more hidden sidings which store long coal trains

The upstream lock is quite difficult to photograph so it is rarely seen. You will need to peer under the arches again












To get a better view point I dismantled the tripod, crawled under the canal and re -assembled everything on the other side

 

Most of  the lock is directly under Bridge #4...........seen here with a bit of the branch autotrain

 

There is only a 3" or 4"  gap between the upper and lower fascia boards3-4..........the camera had to be almost poked between the two. I am quite surprised there was enough light.





Definitely keyhole photography with the cropping tool working over time.


Hope you enjoyed these shots........more to come.


John



** Richard's Wharf is named after "Wheeltapper" late of this parish. Richard was an absolute expert on canals.....he lived for a while on a narrow boat and during the last months of his life he took a great interest in this canal build. He sent me all manner of photographs and helpful advice......I literally could not have built it without him. I like to think he was rather pleased when I asked him if I could use his name. Most days I go to the train room, I duck under and am reminded of a kind,charming gentleman and one of those internet friendships that will always be cherished.

Edited August 25, 2022 by john dew
25/8/22 Photos