Miss Prism Posted February 6, 2019 Share Posted February 6, 2019 Fabulous and terrifying. 3 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr Gerbil-Fritters Posted February 6, 2019 Share Posted February 6, 2019 (edited) Qualifies for the application of the Arthur C Clarke maxim: 'Any sufficiently advanced signalling technology may, at first, be indistinguishable from magic.' Edited February 6, 2019 by Dr Gerbil-Fritters 5 2 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold 5BarVT Posted February 6, 2019 RMweb Gold Share Posted February 6, 2019 I was nearly over excited with your first picture: your locking diagram is just like a 5 bar VT dog chart. But being a 4 bar frame you draw between the lines not on the lines. So as I’m not 4BarVT I’m only very excited! Really well done and I’m most impressed. Thank you for making my day. Paul. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Holt Posted February 6, 2019 Share Posted February 6, 2019 Howard, That locking arrangement looks complicated beyond comprehension to me. Well done for figuring it all out. It's amazing you only found a couple of things wrong. Think I'll just stick to loco construction! Dave. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium ianathompson Posted February 6, 2019 RMweb Premium Share Posted February 6, 2019 Just out of interest what does the blue lever do? In all the (ex GER) boxes that I worked blue was the FPL and had to be reversed to lock the points. I understand that the Midland employed an "economical point lock" whereby the lever operated both the lock and the points, although I have never been in a Midland box. I like the layout. As a Batley lad it is all vaguely familiar and I can remember the, by then disused, Midland concourse. Wasn't there a railway bookshop there in the late sixties, early seventies? If I remember correctly, my dad, who worked on the railways at Leeds, always called it Wellington station. Ian T Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
HAB Posted February 6, 2019 Share Posted February 6, 2019 (edited) 1 hour ago, ianathompson said: Just out of interest what does the blue lever do? Ian T Hello Ian, Almost all of the points had economical FPLs, however, lever 11 is indeed an FPL (on crossover 9) and was probably necessary as 9 has three facing "ends". We discussed if the lever should stand (ie lock) Normal or Reversed - different railways used different practices and some railways changed their standard from time to time. On the Midland, standing Normal seems to have been the general (but perhaps not exclusive) practice. However, in this case - being the only FPL in the frame - and given that we do not know what the reality was, we had to think about it. There is a bit of complication that 13 releases 9 and also locks 10, yet there is a situation where 13,10 and 9 all require to be reversed at the same time (as in the photo) and another parallel route requires 13,12,10 and 9 all to be reversed. It is a close thing, but on balance, it seemed that the layout is slightly easier to work if 11 locks Normal. It has the advantage that the single blue lever in Wellington box, and the solitary blue lever in junction box (working a fouling bar) both work in the same sense. Which the Relief men will like... But I would not like to be dogmatic about wheather it is "right"!!! [now is the moment when someone posts the missing documentary evidence..] Edit:- actually, the photo shows 13,12 and 33 reversed (South Sidings to South Departure) and 9,10,6,8, R (N Arrival to Plat.6). Under this situation, the first points needing to be replaced are 10 or 12, and if 11 stood reversed, then this would necessitate unlocking 11 first to avoid "Push betweens" ie having to replace one lever between 2 which are reversed - a good route to a hernia... Thanks to everyone for the kind words BTW. Best Wishes, Edited February 6, 2019 by HAB 4 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Regularity Posted February 6, 2019 RMweb Gold Share Posted February 6, 2019 3 hours ago, Dr Gerbil-Fritters said: Qualifies for the application of the Arthur C Clarke maxim: 'Any sufficiently advanced signalling technology may, at first, be indistinguishable from magic.' Considering that this is basically late Victorian technology, that’s a terrifying thought... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium ianathompson Posted February 6, 2019 RMweb Premium Share Posted February 6, 2019 1 hour ago, HAB said: "Push betweens" ie having to replace one lever between 2 which are reversed - a good route to a hernia... Thank you for your prompt reply. I had not considered that there might be multiple ends to lock/free depending upon traffic demands. Re the quote. Yes, it was a real pain in the proverbial to reach in, as was required at some boxes. Matters were not helped in the one box with mechanical points because the expertise to fettle these Victorian contraptions has now been lost by S&T. This led to some interesting incidents before I took retirement a couple of years back! Ian T Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
gz3xzf Posted February 6, 2019 Share Posted February 6, 2019 6 hours ago, HAB said: The lever frame for Wellington box is now complete (mechanically) and has passed all the testing I have so far thrown at it. There were a couple of quite important locks missed, but as it happens, they could be provided very easily without dismantling the whole thing. When I first looked at this job, I said I thought it would be fairly straightforward... well, it much of it was, but there are some quite difficult locks as I mentioned in a previous post. In truth, the finished job has quite a lot of metalwork in it:- ........ Howard That is beautiful, your tenacity and patience has to be commended, having looked at the locking frames in a number of boxes (including Exeter West) they look hard enough to get working in 12" to the foot let alone in miniature. Well done and keep up the good work. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
calvin Streeting Posted February 6, 2019 Share Posted February 6, 2019 7 hours ago, HAB said: The lever frame for Wellington box is now complete (mechanically) and has passed all the testing I have so far thrown at it. There were a couple of quite important locks missed, but as it happens, they could be provided very easily without dismantling the whole thing. When I first looked at this job, I said I thought it would be fairly straightforward... well, it much of it was, but there are some quite difficult locks as I mentioned in a previous post. In truth, the finished job has quite a lot of metalwork in it:- Part of the complexity comes from the number of possible routes - for example, in this shot, there are 22 out of the total of 53 levers reversed - these represent 4 separate routes, and in the middle, is a continuous run of 8 levers reversed, and they are involved in 3 of the 4 routes. Some of the metal work needs to be a bit ingenious to acheive all of this and here are close-ups of just three of these - in total, there are 15 "loose pieces" (the swinging bits) to provide all the conditional locks. So just the electrical bits to do, then the Laird has a few jobs to do before we can get the thing in service - experience with the City Junction frame has shown just how important some proper locking is to the running of the job! Best wishes, ooo isn't that a beautiful thing i hope its on show and not hidden in a box 1 2 8 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
d winpenny Posted February 6, 2019 Share Posted February 6, 2019 What an absolute masterpiece David 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
leopardml2341 Posted February 8, 2019 Share Posted February 8, 2019 That little lot should finally allow me to get the hang of 9 & 10 points, various contributors to this thread will know of my exasperation in this area 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leander Posted February 9, 2019 Share Posted February 9, 2019 (edited) On 04/02/2019 at 22:59, TheLaird said: 43039 waits patiently at the LCW Home signal. It will shortly get the subsidiary allowing it to back on to the empty stock in platform four. This will then form 1M46 departing 13.53 to Morecambe and Carnforth. Shes going into shops in four weeks' time to be fitted with additional pick-ups on the tender wheels. With a Stayalive it doesn't give too many problems but this is a 'belt and braces' measure. She also should be getting a bit of help on the Morecambe/Carnforth workings with a Standard Mogul and its Ivatt predecessor in the pipeline, and a couple more Black 5s should be entering service soon. Watch this space! We had another operating session today, with 15 operators present. I think a good time was had by all. P.S. We've decided subsequent to today's (Sat 9/3/19) operating session that she doesn't need additional pick-ups because the Stayalive does such a good job in keeping her on the move. Edited March 9, 2019 by Leander Update 11 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post TheLaird Posted March 7, 2019 Author Popular Post Share Posted March 7, 2019 45110 in the South Carriage Sidings. It has collected a BG and is waiting to takeover the Bradford - St Pancras, departing Leeds 2215hrs. 23 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post TheLaird Posted March 7, 2019 Author Popular Post Share Posted March 7, 2019 A panoramic view towards the station. A Fairburn Tank is waiting in P6 having brought in the Bradford - Bristol, it will work back with a St Pancras - Bradford due in at 2214hrs. Note the realistically poor alignment of the trackwork along with the subsidence. These telephoto shots really show it up!! 48 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Enterprisingwestern Posted March 7, 2019 RMweb Gold Share Posted March 7, 2019 That lever frame frightens and impresses me in equal amounts! Think I'll stick to a mimic panel. Mike. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post HAB Posted March 8, 2019 Popular Post Share Posted March 8, 2019 Excellent photo from the Laird! I think your track is a lot better alingned than the real thing would have been! 16 hours ago, Enterprisingwestern said: That lever frame frightens and impresses me in equal amounts! Think I'll stick to a mimic panel. Mike. Not sure the locking would be any easier for a mimic Mike and of course, it is the locking, not the frame which adds the value:- we already have a bank of unlocked switches as you can see in the photo, and they are pretty hard work especialy when the Timetable/Control are putting you under a lot of pressure to run four trains at once! To me, the 'lectrical stuff on these mechanical frames is the most difficult bit - here is the first stage for the Wellington frame... Just the electric locks to fit and wire, then we can play trains... Luckily there are only 10 of them on this frame, but 30-odd at Junction! Best Wishes, 6 14 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
calvin Streeting Posted March 8, 2019 Share Posted March 8, 2019 once again a thing of beauty Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Titanius Anglesmith Posted March 8, 2019 Share Posted March 8, 2019 29 minutes ago, HAB said: Just the electric locks to fit and wire, then we can play trains... Luckily there are only 10 of them on this frame, but 30-odd at Junction! Best Wishes, That frame really is a work of art, very impressive!! If I may be so bold to ask, how do you intend to make the electric locks? When I eventually build my layout I intend to signal it from a frame, but cheat by locking it electrically (à la Westinghouse L Style). I trained on mechanically-locked frames many moons ago, but since then all I've touched is relay-interlocking and solid state....... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post TheLaird Posted March 8, 2019 Author Popular Post Share Posted March 8, 2019 The 1M10 Bradford - St Pancras starts its journey south from Leeds City. This train is more about parcels than passengers, even with its class 1 description. It left Bradford with 3 x BGs attached and the Black Five has added another from Leeds. Three more BGs will be attached at Sheffield and another three at Derby, although one will be detached there for Bristol. At Leicester four BGs will be detached and forwarded to Marylebone in the early hours. 28 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold lezz01 Posted March 8, 2019 RMweb Gold Share Posted March 8, 2019 That locking table is a thing of beauty. Regards Lez.Z. 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leander Posted March 9, 2019 Share Posted March 9, 2019 (edited) On 08/03/2019 at 18:06, TheLaird said: The 1M10 Bradford - St Pancras starts its journey south from Leeds City. This train is more about parcels than passengers, even with its class 1 description. It left Bradford with 3 x BGs attached and the Black Five has added another from Leeds. Three more BGs will be attached at Sheffield and another three at Derby, although one will be detached there for Bristol. At Leicester four BGs will be detached and forwarded to Marylebone in the early hours. The loco is a Hornby Black 5, converted to EM gauge and fitted with Gibson wheels. It's been highly detailed and modified by Tim Easter and is now fitted with a Locoman Superior Steam Loco Sounds sound chip, Stayalive and Sugarcube speaker, by Barry Oliver of Active Weathering. We were pleased to welcome Tim to today's running session and very much hope he enjoyed his visit. An excellent day was had as we operated the timetable from about 10.00pm to 5.00am (layout time). Very few DMUs are running at that time of night as it's mostly parcels and sleeping car trains out and about. And no... we didn't turn out the light in case anyone was wondering! Edited March 11, 2019 by Leander Corrections and additional information. 13 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
leopardml2341 Posted March 10, 2019 Share Posted March 10, 2019 13 hours ago, Leander said: ....... An excellent day was had as we operated the timetable from about 10.00pm to 5.00am (layout time). Very few DMUs are running at that time of night as it's mostly parcels and sleeping car trains out and about. And no... we didn't turn out the light in case anyone was wondering! Didn't have to for me, I was working in the dark most of the time anyway...... 1 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Holt Posted March 10, 2019 Share Posted March 10, 2019 Personal opinion only, but I do think Britannias looked better with the high sided tender. Lovely looking model in the last photo. Dave. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
dj_crisp Posted March 10, 2019 Share Posted March 10, 2019 Your lever frame is a true work of art.... way beyond me! Please keep up the great updates Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now