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Hawthorn Dene


Les1952
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The short isolating section at the head of the fiddle yard roads is a great idea but you'll need to be careful with its length.

 

If a motorised unit/loco or dummy with lights bridges the two sections then both will still be live as the dummy unit will act as a bridge. In the track plan in post #22, the right hand car of train 3 would bridge the gap if it's fitted with lights, meaning trains 3 and 4 couldn't be isolated from each other.

 

I'd suggest making the short isolating section the length of your longest DMU.

 

Happy modelling.

 

Steven B.

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The short isolating section at the head of the fiddle yard roads is a great idea but you'll need to be careful with its length.

 

If a motorised unit/loco or dummy with lights bridges the two sections then both will still be live as the dummy unit will act as a bridge. In the track plan in post #22, the right hand car of train 3 would bridge the gap if it's fitted with lights, meaning trains 3 and 4 couldn't be isolated from each other.

 

I'd suggest making the short isolating section the length of your longest DMU.

 

Happy modelling.

 

Steven B.

 

Trevor Webster and the gang have been exhibiting "Parnhams" with this style of fiddle yard for two years or so now, and we have found that provided the short section is at least twice the length of the longest loco and tender it works well. In this case the longest loco and tender will be a pacific, so although the rule was never pilot a pacific with a pacific (except for one York-Doncaster train that saved a light-engine path) the minimum length is 2 pacifics or just over 12 inches. In practice it will be nearer 15 inches, leaving the long section as about 4 feet on the shortest road.

 

This also allows for my "rebuilt" old-Farish Class 101 which has the power in the brake car at position 2 (as will its successor if I can bring myself to carve two new-type three-car sets to make a 4-car and a power twin.)

 

There is also a section beyond the "short" to allow for clearances at the pointwork, and for the operator to see where the end of the short section is when a loco approaches it

 

post-13358-0-56223700-1335876429_thumb.jpg

 

Meanwhile posed on Gresby, the sulphate train with a J39. This has the tender swapped for a low midland-type. I've actually found a pic of a J39 with an NER tender with coal rails that swooped down at each end. The next stage is to fit appropriate handrails and see how much of the flare at the rear has to come off- too much and it won't get done (the water filler isn't getting moved for the same reason). It also needs glazing and crew, and will get separate boiler handrails at some stage, together with a renumbering to the right engine!

 

All the very best

Les

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The short isolating section at the head of the fiddle yard roads is a great idea but you'll need to be careful with its length.

 

If a motorised unit/loco or dummy with lights bridges the two sections then both will still be live as the dummy unit will act as a bridge. In the track plan in post #22, the right hand car of train 3 would bridge the gap if it's fitted with lights, meaning trains 3 and 4 couldn't be isolated from each other.

 

I'd suggest making the short isolating section the length of your longest DMU.

 

Happy modelling.

 

Steven B.

 

Hi,

 

On Parnhams (copied on Gresby) when the units/locos run onto the short section (which is switched off) they stop with one car/the engine on the short section and the other car/tender/train in the section behind - they don't tend to coast much at Fiddleyard speeds so crossing the section hasn't been a problem. As far as I can remember, there aren't any through-wired N Gauge units (I'm not sure whether this will change when the 142 comes out) but I've not had a problem with the system yet. I try to go for a 2 loco length section to allow for the fly wheels in my class 60s.

 

Hope this helps :D

 

Simon

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Hi,

 

On Parnhams (copied on Gresby) when the units/locos run onto the short section (which is switched off) they stop with one car/the engine on the short section and the other car/tender/train in the section behind - they don't tend to coast much at Fiddleyard speeds so crossing the section hasn't been a problem. As far as I can remember, there aren't any through-wired N Gauge units (I'm not sure whether this will change when the 142 comes out) but I've not had a problem with the system yet. I try to go for a 2 loco length section to allow for the fly wheels in my class 60s.

 

Hope this helps :D

 

Simon

 

Many thanks, Simon. Fiddle yard speeds will be low as to advance trains too fast ends up piling wagons around the loco when they stop in the dead "short" section. Hence my note about matching motor speeds and types.

 

The disadvantage we have on Parnhams is that the exit points are handraulic rather than trail-through. This means the operator has an incentive to send out both trains in each road one after the other, meaning that 4 consecutive freights with UM power is not uncommon. Using trailing points means no road-switching at the exit so the sequence would be 1-2-3-4-5 rather than 1-1-2-2-3 etc. The matched pair of locos (2 UMs or 2 Farish diesels etc) would be 5 trains apart in the sequence.

 

To whet the appetite another shot posed on Gresby.

 

post-13358-0-01793000-1335901581_thumb.jpg

 

"Cock O'the North" is handbuilt by Pro Models on a modified V2 chassis. When Farish bring out their Peppercorn A2 this will be the only survivor of my present A2 fleet. I'm not sure whether to use it on the express or the parcels yet, though it is lamped for Farndon Road's parcels train. Looking at that pic I'm going to have to re-do the tender side again- the original top lining was too low and my replacement is wonky. At least the other side is OK, though....

 

post-13358-0-64677200-1335902178_thumb.jpg

 

Same loco on Farndon Road (layout now sold)

 

All the very best

Les

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  • 2 weeks later...

Thinking continues..

 

Still doing a lot of thinking- the pair of Farish headstocks I bought some time ago are both going onto eBay, they are just not good enough. There is a nice set of pics in the current Railway Modeller of Old Foston Mills in 7mm. The Hennebique style building is what I'm looking to make for the screening house- it won't be square as it hides the two roads passing through the backscene. Empties will be propelled past the screens up the hill to the empties sidings offscene, (then let down into the back of the screens by gravity but that is also offscene). Fulls emerge from both roads of the screens and are collected by the colliery pilot, weighed and either taken down the bank to the exchenge sidings, back up the bank to Hawthorn Cokeworks to the North West, or positioned over the coal drops for landsale.

 

Meanwhile another appetite whetter-

 

post-13358-0-86198800-1336818240_thumb.jpg

 

Again posed on Gresby- the J25 part-way through upgrading. The big LNER group Standard tender has been sold on eBay and replaced by a Midland type direct from Union Mills. I've extended the coal rails round the back of the tender to make it look more North Eastern. I've yet to glaze the cab or add crew.

 

The prototype for separate handrails, a J26 that is currently without a tender at all, is currently in the workshop. I'm grinding and sanding the moulded-on handrails off when I feel i can be bothered. I have a feeling it will take some time.....

 

Also in the workshop is a Mill lane sidings GWR open-cab saddletank kit to be built as a closed-can type. I'll get that started next week, though I'm coming into my main summer work period.

 

All the best

Les

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Many thanks for the compliment, Simon, even before I've started actually building it.

 

Until Gresby makes its debut there just isn't room in the workshop to begin. Hence the unusually (for me) long planning period. Furtwangen Ost was conceived, built (less of the planned) and exhibited within a space of just over 6 months. This one is to be a 2-year build, or thereabouts.

 

I'm hoping it will make the exhibition circuit at about the time Trevor Webster retires Stamford East and Whatton Parva. Furtwangen Ost will have done 2-3 seasons by then and local punters will be tired of it.

 

Meanwhile there are hoppers to rebuild, a lot of stock from Farndon Road to dispose of, and I need to have a go at making a Hennebique screening house....

 

All the best

Les

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Here's one I photographed earlier....

 

OK so it is the wrong side of the Tyne, and a prototype photo, but it shows the sort of building I'm looking to make for the screening house. This is Eccles Colliery at Backworth in 1973. I do have better pics of these screens but not taken by me :(. I am looking for this level of dilapidation.

 

post-13358-0-07141100-1336985380_thumb.jpg

 

The loco is right for the NE- a Stephenson & Hawthorn "Thomas" class, now standing derelict in the open at Marley Hill, waiting a sugar daddy to pay for restoration.

 

All I've got to do is manage to build it.

 

Back to the marking- got to pay for it somehow.........

 

Les

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Slight realignment imminent

 

I've looked at the coal drops I have for the landsale yard- they are Lyddle End ones to be upgraded- and I've discovered they are the opposite hand to the plan. A new version incorporating this change will be made over the weekend- hopefully it will be posted on Monday.

 

Meanwhile another prototype pic, Shotton Colliery not long before it closed.

 

post-13358-0-06988800-1337370105_thumb.jpg

 

The modern additions are a little too modern for my colliery. However the general level of grot in the yard is going to be interesting to make. Behind me and on the opposite side of the road the railtops disappeared below the surface of the mud......

 

All the very best

Les

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  • 2 weeks later...

Getting going.

 

Still thinking about how I'm going to fit the landsale depot in, but not desperate as I've got a few weeks yet before the shed is completely available.

 

post-13358-0-44874300-1338217093_thumb.jpg

 

Meanwhile, a Dean Sidings GWR 1701 tank will keep me busy- especially as I intend to give it an overall cab. I'll put up pictures as it progresses.

 

Les

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  • 2 weeks later...

Bits arriving

 

I've devised a plan of the utmost simplicity for the Hennebique-style screening house- to do it wall by wall. What has been holding me back was windows- then I saw these.

 

post-13358-0-64626100-1339510823.jpg

 

Not totally correct but near enough, especially if the single rows are used horizontally in certain bays. Next step is to build a trial wall section.

 

Progress on the 0-6-0ST is negligible, though a new pack of handrail knobs for this and a Union Mills J26 arrived yesterday.

 

Exam marking season again, and work needing to be done on Furtwangen ost. Still I have plenty to get on with...........

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  • 4 weeks later...

Almost a month off but some progress to report...

 

I managed to find the coal drops this morning, and discovered I'd not glued the three sections together very well (whew). They are now separate and can be built in left-handed format as shown below.

 

post-13358-0-16209000-1341943476_thumb.jpg

 

Tomorrow to Wendy's to order 8 pairs of left-hand and eight pairs of right-hand medium insulfrog points for the fiddle yard. Converting them to trailing points is a job for Mr Simon before he moves out. Half are for Hawthorn Dene and the others for Rise Park & Top Valley (the Newark N-gauge lot's new layout). They'll buy another 8 pairs of each in mid August. That is the pointwork for the two fiddle yards which are identical except for RP&TV's being 2 feet longer.

 

Still on course for baseboard building to start in September.....

Edited by Les1952
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Coming along nicely Les.Not being an N gauge modeller are any Q6's J27's or WD's available

 

Hardly started..... Wendy had one set of points in stock (SL396 nedium left insulfrog code 80) so have ordered 7 more lefts and eight rights to go with it.

 

Union Mills do a D20, J25, J26 and J27 in N, together with a J39. Farish have just brought out a WD, which apparently is "on the boat". I've heard some rather poor reports of its haulage capacity, so one only of these to start with until I've had chance to see for myself.- really I'll need a pair. I also have a G5 converted from an M7, which just needs me to pluck up courage to move its dome.

 

No Q6 unfortunately- the 2mm one looks nice but building it is beyond me and the only professional builder I know (David Temple) won't touch 2mm finescale. :cry:

 

All the very best

Les

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  • 1 month later...

Back from holiday- let progress resume.

 

Two weeks in sunny Buxton rehearsing and performing "Iolanthe" then "The Sorcerer" has left me quite knackered and ready for another holiday. Gresby is still up in the workshop, but is moving out in a couple of weeks. By that time Trevor will be back from holiday as well so baseboards can commence.

 

In the meantime the end wall of the screening house is taking shape on the third attempt- all being well it will be ready to photograph by the end of the week. I've also bought a WD and after a few teething problems mostly connected with the back-to-back of the third pair of coupled wheels being too narrow, it is running well. Haulage capacity is mid-thirties of hoppers which is enough for this layout.

 

Total number of hoppers so far- 67. Here they are behind Dapol "Evening Star" - one of the locos for the Newark Group "Rise Park" layout which is also starting this month.

 

 

Hopefully the WD and one or two of the other locos can be videoed before Gresby gets put away.

 

All the very best

Les

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Les, do you have details of how that V2 chassis was modified?

 

Cheers,

Alan

 

Apart from taking off the front pony truck and b******ing up the loco to tender drawbar I suspect very little. It has a Chinese pacific bogie mounted where the pony truck pivots from but mechanically otherwise appears little different from the original V2 chassis.

 

The drawbar was a lash-up and parted company quite early on- I've replaced it with a spare Farish one which holds the tender about 1mm further back than I really want but gives no problems. The Jersey Lily I bought from the estate of a deceased Lincolm MRC member had the same hopeless drawbar, and had been converted from a 4-6-0 to a 4-4-2 without any addition to its pickups- on Parnhams it runs double-headed with a UM so the latter can push it over places where it can't find any power......

 

Haulage wise it can manage the same as my Foxhunter A1s, about 10 to 12 coaches most of the time. Fortunately anything over 8 coaches will look silly on Hawthorn Dene as the layout isn't going to be big enough for long trains to melt into the scenery.

 

All the very best

Les

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Apart from taking off the front pony truck and b******ing up the loco to tender drawbar I suspect very little. It has a Chinese pacific bogie mounted where the pony truck pivots from but mechanically otherwise appears little different from the original V2 chassis.

 

Sorry, I maybe should have been more specific - the driving wheel spacing looks different on your model than the V2 - in particular the rear driver looks like it may have been moved inboard towards the centre drivers. The gap between these two on a standard V2 is larger than that in your snap. Also looks like the rear brake blocks are way back which would back this up.

 

Would be very interested to know how this was done - I have a scrap V2 stashed for precisely this purpose, and I was assuming I'd have to just live with the wheel spacing which would be incorrect for the A2.

 

Cheers,

Alan

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Sorry, I maybe should have been more specific - the driving wheel spacing looks different on your model than the V2 - in particular the rear driver looks like it may have been moved inboard towards the centre drivers. The gap between these two on a standard V2 is larger than that in your snap. Also looks like the rear brake blocks are way back which would back this up.

 

Would be very interested to know how this was done - I have a scrap V2 stashed for precisely this purpose, and I was assuming I'd have to just live with the wheel spacing which would be incorrect for the A2.

 

Cheers,

Alan

 

I've just put the A2/2 wheel-to-wheel against one of my V2s- the rear drivers do seem to have been moved forwards by about a millimetre, but I've not had it apart to investigate. OTOH the rods are plain section rather than the original fluted.

 

post-13358-0-03778100-1345058892_thumb.jpg

 

I hope the picture helps.

 

All the very best

Les

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  • 2 weeks later...

A little more progress.

 

Not much to report other than the first end of the screening house is well on the way to completion and the second one has been started. The wall will never make the N-Gauge Society's modelling competition (and the second one certainly won't) but when added to the other three walls and given a roof and weathering it should look OK from normal viewing distance.

 

post-13358-0-69195300-1345984883_thumb.jpg

 

It still needs touching up and a window sill adding, together with the boarding at the eaves.

 

I've booked myself a trip up to the North East next Thursday to get some pics of Hawthorn Dene and the railway viaduct and cutting. This should help me refine the plans a little. I'm waiting to hear when the pithead kit will be available- both the Farish ones have now gone.

 

Plenty to do

 

Les

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Field Trip Report Part 1

 

 

Coo, wasn't it wet yesterday and this morning. A 7am start from Newark saw me arrive in Easington just after the rain had finished. I didn't get as far as the viaduct over Hawthorn Dene, the ground was waterlogged even on the higher ground.

 

post-13358-0-63778200-1346355588_thumb.jpg

 

This is the cutting where the railway runs alongside the site of Easington Colliery. Track bends in the right direction for the layout and there are two useful bridges- the one I'm standing on and the one in the distance.

 

post-13358-0-34511500-1346355600_thumb.jpg

 

Above the second bridge is a farm, the name of which doesn't occur on Google Maps. I'll have to get an OS map for this bit.

 

post-13358-0-40229600-1346355623_thumb.jpg

 

Now a poser. This erection looks like it might be hiding a shaft or something nasty, but I don't know what it is. The rise behind can't be the site of the levelled pit heap, I'm sure, as I understood the stone was tipped onto the beach.

 

post-13358-0-47569200-1346355637_thumb.jpg

 

Having left Newark in decent weather the only protection I had with me was an umbrella. The guy on the horse thought I was mad. I think the coastline on the left in the far mist is the bit leading to Hartlepool, probably the bit just South of Blackhall..

 

More pics tomorrow.

Les

Edited by Les1952
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Could it be a bird watching thing?

 

it didn't have any ladders at the sides. Another angle of it

 

post-13358-0-86843400-1346381339_thumb.jpg

 

It is also nearer the top of the path than I thought- I never got up to that point, turning off to the bridge. This is from Google Earth.

 

post-13358-0-36863100-1346381311.jpg

 

 

 

Looking at it, it might be where the shaft was.

 

Les

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Morning Les I probably am wrong but I don't think that is the old shaft.From what I remember it was closer to the end of the A streets and Office street.I would say if you are still up there grab one of the old fellas and ask.You know what the locals are like they will talk the hind legs of a donkey!!.I have looked at Old Maps I think that is nearer to the old washery.Thing is the colliery was alterd a lot in the mid to late 8o's.Well it was the N.C.B "it's going to close lets throw a few million at it".I'm originally from Seaham but as it was the next Pit Village I went to school wth a lot of them plus my job took me regularly to Easington

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