Wright writes.....

[robertcwp]

 

 

I'm happy to report that at least three locos and several carriages and wagons are now running on Little Bytham. 

Some of the stock has found a new home with me too, thanks to Tony.

 

Gamston Bank joins the growing list of departed layouts I used to enjoy watching at shows, although I only saw Gamston Bank twice. Other disappeared layouts include Stoke Summit - at least I can still see many of the best trains on Little Bytham, Charwelton and Tebay, amongst others.

[Tony Wright]

If you had ever seen the BBC's coming out of the pipe works of the South Durham Iron & Steel Co.s works and along the Malleable branch line at Stockton (Production was later moved a few miles to the north east at British West Hartlepool) you will have seen them loaded exactly like that. From Stockton these pipes were distributed all over the UK and exported all over the world from most large British Ports.

 

 

 It was mostly created on a modellers bench in the deepest recesses of the North East of England.

60833QueensB-Sm.jpg

 

It's a bit of a mash up (Some might say hybrid). Branchline chassis that been fully sprung with the valve gear being a mix of Branchline & Comet. The coupling rods are pro-scale. The mechanics are pretty standard nowadays, drivers being Gibsons simply pushed on with no retainer being used. Motor is a Mashima driving through a Hi-Level gearbox.

 

Don't know if anybody wants to take a guess at the origin of the loco and tender body. It's had a bit of detail added including prototypical V2 splashers. The builder is a bit of a shy and modest bairn but I think he's made a go of it. He also didn't make a bad job of that semaphore.

 

You'll have to excuse the quality of the photograph. It was shot when it was dark with only the overhead fluorescents for illumination.

 

P

 

P

 

 

Excuses accepted for the picture. However, I think Queen's boards are worth a shot without their being burnt out. 

 

Rick's work is quite outstanding. 

Edited November 6, 2016 by Tony Wright

[t-b-g]

Gamston Bank was indeed a good exhibition layout but I doubt that it would hold much interest operationally in a home situation. It was a place where my Dad used to take me trainspotting in the mid 70s, so it was a scene that I knew, although not when Gresley, Peppercorn and Thompson designs were around.

 

It is not really my place to announce details of a new project by another modeller but I will say that John's next project is also to be a model of a real place and there will be little RTR on it, so it ticks all the right boxes with me!

[CUTLER2579]

T-G-B,

 

I trust you will not be considering such a venture in Thorne in the near future as they have borrowed a very nasty Border Collie that is not scare of anything. Well maybe Mrs V.

 

Regards.

[geoff west]

Very sad to see Gamston Bank go up in flames.

I'm very pleased to be the owner of several of John's wonderful locos and carriages.

Hopefully these will be running on Hadley Green sometime in the new year.

[Tony Wright]

Another day and another most-enjoyable operating session with two mates. 45 trains run without a hitch (apart from my operating incompetence).  

 

One friend brought some locos he'd bought and tweaked, but they needed a bit more tweaking until all problems of running were (just about) solved. I made new pick-ups for one and added fibre washers to the outer driving wheel axles (on a 2-8-0) to reduce the slop. After that, lovely running, especially after I discovered that one of the live-side drivers was actually insulated. No wonder it had stuttered. He'd fitted two other metal kit-built locos with DCC decoders. Yes, I know mine's only analogue but one kept on 'tripping out' as full power was applied (a bit more than 12 Volts, to be fair). Is this to be expected? Another had a minor short (minor for analogue) where a bogie wheel was just touching the front frames on curves. I cured this by some light filing and a thin smear of expoxy. Great - super running, at full speed as well, until it came to a crossover I hadn't set correctly, and it shorted. After that, no go. Is this to be expected? Have I blown the chip? Have a blown the motor (a Portescap)? My friend is going to investigate at home.

 

This sort of thing convinces me time after time why I'll never embrace DCC. Metal kit-built locos with live chassis seem to be a complete 'no no'. I've run my own locos into that section before the crossover when it hasn't been set correctly and what happens? A short circuit. I say 'What a silly Billy' (or something more expressive), turn of the 'box, set the crossover correctly and there you go. No blown motor, and of she goes again.

 

Andy, please report and let me know. Obviously, I'll put things right if it's my fault, but are chips so sensitive?  

 

 

 

 

One loco (among hundreds!) which will never be DCC is this DJH A2/3. It was the first one built independently (actually, I built two), in 1999, and Ian Rathbone painted it. It was a Stoke Summit loco and I sold it to a friend who used it on that. With Stoke sold, he has no need of it. So, a bit of bartering in the form of a kit-built Super D and a (yet to be be built) Jubilee and there you go. Why won't it be DCC? Apart from my own prejudice, it's got a D13 motor in it and a DJH 'box. Any D13 (or D11) has one brush permanently live to the motor frame. It goes beautifully, so why muck about spoiling it? It just takes this 12-car, mainly kit-built, express with ease. 

 

Edited because the first picture has been messed-up. It's posted below. 

Edited November 7, 2016 by Tony Wright

[Tony Wright]

 

The first picture in the post above appears to have been scrambled. More digital mucking around. 

 

Here's hoping this time it works. 

[Enterprisingwestern]

Another day and another most-enjoyable operating session with two mates. 45 trains run without a hitch (apart from my operating incompetence).  

 

One friend brought some locos he'd bought and tweaked, but they needed a bit more tweaking until all problems of running were (just about) solved. I made new pick-ups for one and added fibre washers to the outer driving wheel axles (on a 2-8-0) to reduce the slop. After that, lovely running, especially after I discovered that one of the live-side drivers was actually insulated. No wonder it had stuttered. He'd fitted two other metal kit-built locos with DCC decoders. Yes, I know mine's only analogue but one kept on 'tripping out' as full power was applied (a bit more than 12 Volts, to be fair). Is this to be expected? Another had a minor short (minor for analogue) where a bogie wheel was just touching the front frames on curves. I cured this by some light filing and a thin smear of expoxy. Great - super running, at full speed as well, until it came to a crossover I hadn't set correctly, and it shorted. After that, no go. Is this to be expected? Have I blown the chip? Have a blown the motor (a Portescap)? My friend is going to investigate at home.

 

This sort of thing convinces me time after time why I'll never embrace DCC. Metal kit-built locos with live chassis seem to be a complete 'no no'. I've run my own locos into that section before the crossover when it hasn't been set correctly and what happens? A short circuit. I say 'What a silly Billy' (or something more expressive), turn of the 'box, set the crossover correctly and there you go. No blown motor, and of she goes again.

 

Andy, please report and let me know. Obviously, I'll put things right if it's my fault, but are chips so sensitive?  

 

60513 01.jpg

 

60513 02.jpg

 

60513 03.jpg

 

One loco (among hundreds!) which will never be DCC is this DJH A2/3. It was the first one built independently (actually, I built two), in 1999, and Ian Rathbone painted it. It was a Stoke Summit loco and I sold it to a friend who used it on that. With Stoke sold, he has no need of it. So, a bit of bartering in the form of a kit-built Super D and a (yet to be be built) Jubilee and there you go. Why won't it be DCC? Apart from my own prejudice, it's got a D13 motor in it and a DJH 'box. Any D13 (or D11) has one brush permanently live to the motor frame. It goes beautifully, so why muck about spoiling it? It just takes this 12-car, mainly kit-built, express with ease. 

 

Edited because the first picture has been messed-up. It's posted below. 

 

DCC loco's on a correctly set up DCC layout will trip the system after a short before anything disastrous happens, within milliseconds usually, your council current layout will keep applying power until someone realises what's amiss, not usually within milliseconds regrettably for the chip.

 

Mike.

[Barry Ten]

Tony - I'd say it's highly unlikely those decoders have been damaged by a momentary short, but some of them do go into shutdown mode (also after overheating) and can take a while to come out of it. I've had decoders that seemed dead after a short come back to life the next time I tried them, and be fine afterwards.

 

I don't know if it's been picked up here, but on the subject of the longevity of RTR mechanisms, a number of us have been finding that the motor retention block of the Hornby T9 (and other bits, in some cases) is succumbing to mazak rot, and these are what I'd call relatively new models, in that my oldest T9 dates from about 2008. Although it could be fixable, the relevant spares aren't all easily obtainable, and in any case there's the problem of then dismantling and rebuilding an inherently fragile chassis. If I'd built that chassis from a kit, I'd not only know how I made it, but I'd have a good shot at repairing anything likely to go wrong with it. And then if you repair the broken bit, there's always the fear that there'll be more mazak rot down the line.

 

Alastair (Barry Ten)

[Tony Wright]

DCC loco's on a correctly set up DCC layout will trip the system after a short before anything disastrous happens, within milliseconds usually, your council current layout will keep applying power until someone realises what's amiss, not usually within milliseconds regrettably for the chip.

 

Mike.

Thanks Mike,

 

So, it could be the chip that's been killed. Which, if it is the case, suggests it's most unwise to run a DCC-fitted loco on an analogue system, or at least on mine. 

 

My controllers are by Helmsman, and they're designed to take anything up to O Gauge. I thus have no problems in hooking on, say, a kit-built A1 to 14/15 kit-built bogies, applying power and watch it romp away. I think they give over 2 Amps and probably a fair bit more than 12 Volts. For my use they are brilliant, but anathema to a DCC-fitted loco, if a short occurs? 

 

Since I know next to nothing about the mysteries of modern electronic technologies, nor, to be fair, want to know, then I exist in ignorance. In the same way that, though I do have a mobile phone somewhere (I think), I never carry it with me - ah, it's in the car, with a flat battery - and, thus, never use it, anything which smacks of electrickery I avoid like the plague.  

[Tony Wright]

Tony - I'd say it's highly unlikely those decoders have been damaged by a momentary short, but some of them do go into shutdown mode (also after overheating) and can take a while to come out of it. I've had decoders that seemed dead after a short come back to life the next time I tried them, and be fine afterwards.

 

I don't know if it's been picked up here, but on the subject of the longevity of RTR mechanisms, a number of us have been finding that the motor retention block of the Hornby T9 (and other bits, in some cases) is succumbing to mazak rot, and these are what I'd call relatively new models, in that my oldest T9 dates from about 2008. Although it could be fixable, the relevant spares aren't all easily obtainable, and in any case there's the problem of then dismantling and rebuilding an inherently fragile chassis. If I'd built that chassis from a kit, I'd not only know how I made it, but I'd have a good shot at repairing anything likely to go wrong with it. And then if you repair the broken bit, there's always the fear that there'll be more mazak rot down the line.

 

Alastair (Barry Ten)

Interesting.

 

Thanks Alastair. 

 

From personal experience, none of the mechanisms I've built over the last 40-odd years has ever rotted. Motors have succumbed and/or brushes have been replaced, as has the occasional crank pin. 

 

Also interestingly, I still have (or at least my brother has) the Tri-ang mechs of our youth, which all still work after over 60 years. 

 

The only time I've ever seen a loco disintegrate was when the (then) boyfriend of my sister-in-law, knowing I was interested in model railways, went up into his loft and brought down a box with a Graham Farish Black Five in. He'd had it as a youth. We opened the box and it was like Agamemnon's death mask, when it was removed. For a brief moment, we saw a complete loco until he picked it up, and the chassis just crumbled into dust. We were left with a body, driving wheels, bogie wheels and motion (and the weirdest motor in the tender) and a pile of grey powder. Most interesting!  

[t-b-g]

T-G-B,

 

I trust you will not be considering such a venture in Thorne in the near future as they have borrowed a very nasty Border Collie that is not scare of anything. Well maybe Mrs V.

 

Regards.

 

Bit too cryptic for me! No dogs at Thorne that I can see. Just the usual fish, newts and frogs! And the Mrs has never bitten me yet!

[thegreenhowards]

Another day and another most-enjoyable operating session with two mates. 45 trains run without a hitch (apart from my operating incompetence).  

 

One friend brought some locos he'd bought and tweaked, but they needed a bit more tweaking until all problems of running were (just about) solved. I made new pick-ups for one and added fibre washers to the outer driving wheel axles (on a 2-8-0) to reduce the slop. After that, lovely running, especially after I discovered that one of the live-side drivers was actually insulated. No wonder it had stuttered. He'd fitted two other metal kit-built locos with DCC decoders. Yes, I know mine's only analogue but one kept on 'tripping out' as full power was applied (a bit more than 12 Volts, to be fair). Is this to be expected? Another had a minor short (minor for analogue) where a bogie wheel was just touching the front frames on curves. I cured this by some light filing and a thin smear of expoxy. Great - super running, at full speed as well, until it came to a crossover I hadn't set correctly, and it shorted. After that, no go. Is this to be expected? Have I blown the chip? Have a blown the motor (a Portescap)? My friend is going to investigate at home.

 

This sort of thing convinces me time after time why I'll never embrace DCC. Metal kit-built locos with live chassis seem to be a complete 'no no'. I've run my own locos into that section before the crossover when it hasn't been set correctly and what happens? A short circuit. I say 'What a silly Billy' (or something more expressive), turn of the 'box, set the crossover correctly and there you go. No blown motor, and of she goes again.

 

Andy, please report and let me know. Obviously, I'll put things right if it's my fault, but are chips so sensitive?  

 

60513 01.jpg

 

60513 02.jpg

 

60513 03.jpg

 

One loco (among hundreds!) which will never be DCC is this DJH A2/3. It was the first one built independently (actually, I built two), in 1999, and Ian Rathbone painted it. It was a Stoke Summit loco and I sold it to a friend who used it on that. With Stoke sold, he has no need of it. So, a bit of bartering in the form of a kit-built Super D and a (yet to be be built) Jubilee and there you go. Why won't it be DCC? Apart from my own prejudice, it's got a D13 motor in it and a DJH 'box. Any D13 (or D11) has one brush permanently live to the motor frame. It goes beautifully, so why muck about spoiling it? It just takes this 12-car, mainly kit-built, express with ease. 

 

Edited because the first picture has been messed-up. It's posted below.

 

Tony, many thanks for another very enjoyable day. It was a real pleasure to run through your sequence, especially shunting the pick up freight across that magnificent run of slips! I had a nightmare journey home courtesy of Southern, so couldn't face DCC investigations this evening, but will report back in a few days.

 

Cheers

 

Andy

[Mallard60022]

Tony, many thanks for another very enjoyable day. It was a real pleasure to run through your sequence, especially shunting the pick up freight across that magnificent run of slips! I had a nightmare journey home courtesy of Southern, so couldn't face DCC investigations this evening, but will report back in a few days.

 

Cheers

 

Andy

Ah, Southern. That successful and considerate TOC. They had a glowing report on a BBC T.V. programme last evening. You should never forget how 'passionate' they (and seemingly, all the other TOCs) are about you and the all the other customers. captives.

I thought the A1 was bad enough when visiting/leaving TW's, but I pity you having to use that Company; is there no other choice from London for you?

Phil

[Tony Wright]

I'm just putting the finishing touches to the Crowood book, which has evolved into more than just a description of Little Bytham's construction, I've been searching through my archive of pictures to show illustrations of actual prototype modelling or modelling following close prototype practice. 

 

These are some I've come up with. 

 

 

The old New England coaling plant on the O Gauge layout of Barrie Walls? 

 

 

The greatest layout ever built, or being built? Roy Jackson's incredible EM Retford.

 

 

Architectural modelling of the highest order; the work of Geoff Taylor on The Gresley Beat. See it Spalding over the weekend. 

 

 

Billingham signal box as built by members of the Middlesbrough Club. 

 

 

NER signalling at its finest on Eddy Ford's Black Gill in P4. 

 

 

Where else might one find better overall modelling than on Geoff Kent's EM Blakeney? 

 

 

And, equally good stuff on Tony Gee's Tickhill & Wadworth in EM. 

 

 

Without too much in the way of space or fiscal restrictions, anything is possible. Part of Pete Waterman's superb layout in O Gauge. 

 

 

If you want to make everything by yourself, mostly out of scratch, then model a pre-Grouping layout in the 19th Century in Scale Seven; as Geoff Stenner has done. 

 

 

Some might consider Pendon the greatest layout of all time. 

 

The difficulty has been more what to leave out than what to leave in!

 

 

 

 

[Barry Ten]

Retford, Pendon etc are indeed great layouts - but let's not forget that there are some equally ambitious and accomplished layouts elsewhere!

 

Just off the top of my head: the vast Tehachapi layout being built by the San Diego model railroaders:

 

http://www.lamesaclub.com/

 

I've visited it a couple of times and it is truly stupendous, being not only built to relatively "finescale" HO standards - not P87, but fully handlaid, with realistic track profiles - but also prototypically accurate, while allowing for necessary compression to cover the enormous climb over the mountains between Bakersfield and Mojave. Being American it won't be to everyone's cup of tea, but it's a very big and complex project by any standards.

 

Long-time readers of Model Railroader will be aware of Tony Koester's almost equally ambitious Nickle Plate Third Subdivision layout, which has a mainline run several scale miles long, and includes dead-on accurate depictions of a number of the towns along the way:

 

http://mrv.trains.com/layouts/layout-visits/2014/11/mrvp-layout-visit-tony-koesters-nickel-plate-road-in-ho-scale

 

It's historically precise, being modelled in a very specific timeframe, and the structures, bridges etc are all very painstakingly based on their respective prototypes. Again, not everyone's cup of tea but surely a remarkable achievement nonetheless, and it's the second "epic" layout he's built.

 

Alastair (Barry Ten)

[jwealleans]

Oh, a potentially rich seam, this.  We all have our especial favourites which touch all the right buttons.  I rate 'Blakeney' as probably my favourite of the layouts I've seen, but then I find I have to hesitate between that and 'Bramblewick'.  

[gr.king]

Sign up here for the campaign to get Tickhill and Wadworth back out on the circuit...

 

And before Tony Gee has to point out the practical problem, we must curb our enthusiasm as I know that availability of suitable locos and rolling stock is now a problem.

[Clearwater]

I'm slightly surprised Liverpool Lime Street has been omitted - think it was at Warley a couple of years ago. I thought that was pretty incredible even without some of the additions trailled on its thread

 

David

[Clive Mortimore]

Tony, many thanks for another very enjoyable day. It was a real pleasure to run through your sequence, especially shunting the pick up freight across that magnificent run of slips! I had a nightmare journey home courtesy of Southern, so couldn't face DCC investigations this evening, but will report back in a few days.

 

Cheers

 

Andy

Southern came in to a conversion I was having yesterday. We were talking about the TESCO bank robbery, and my friend said that when he worked on the till at Nat West all his friends at the Victoria branch were off sick because of the trauma of it being raided frequently. Victoria having his multiple transport links was good for a getaway.  We did conclude that at the moment it wasn't thanks to Southern.

[t-b-g]

Sign up here for the campaign to get Tickhill and Wadworth back out on the circuit...

 

And before Tony Gee has to point out the practical problem, we must curb our enthusiasm as I know that availability of suitable locos and rolling stock is now a problem.

 

Many thanks for the kind words!

 

In theory, it would be possible for me to borrow the original Tickhill & Wadworth stock from Malcolm Crawley's family and put the layout out again. About 40% of it was mine anyway and as some of the locos have passed to me now, we could probably manage with what we have.

 

But it is most unlikely to happen, at least while I have the layout.

 

The main factor is that out of the group of people who took the layout out with me, several are no longer with us and those that are have lost their enthusiasm for the work involved in preparing, transporting and exhibiting such a layout. That includes me to some extent. I have just spent the whole day trying to find all the bits that we need to take "Church Warsop" out this weekend. So many bits get used on other layouts that they get spread all over the place and it has been an all day job and I still need to find some more bits, set it up, clean and test it, service the stock and locos and pack it up.

 

It is much more fun to walk down to the shed, open the door, flick a switch on and play trains!

 

Tickhill & Wadworth still exists, stored in my garage, which won't be doing it a lot of good. Negotiations are in hand for it to go to a new home, where it will have a new lease of life.

 

In truth, it was an enjoyable project but although it was possible to operate it just like the real place, it was the sort of place where not too much happened. I always found that a weekend operating it a couple of times a year was enough and even when I cleared the garage to get it set up, I never bothered as it would never sustain operational interest for me as a home layout.

 

I guess that I am spoiled now. I have what is possibly the best layout that I have ever operated at my place, along with friends who come around twice a week to drink tea, talk trains and operate. It has certainly changed my hobby completely and my exhibition involvement, while I would never want it to stop completely, will be very much reduced from now on.

 

I had pretty much decided that I wouldn't build any new layouts as I have plenty to keep me busy but I couldn't resist just one more, which is ready for work to start any time now.

[thegreenhowards]

Ah, Southern. That successful and considerate TOC. They had a glowing report on a BBC T.V. programme last evening. You should never forget how 'passionate' they (and seemingly, all the other TOCs) are about you and the all the other customers. captives.

I thought the A1 was bad enough when visiting/leaving TW's, but I pity you having to use that Company; is there no other choice from London for you?

Phil

Not only do I have to use them to get to Tony's; I also have to commute with them daily - woe is me! Ironically I missed Panorama because I was stuck on a Southern train! However SWMBO recorded it for me, so I had a chance to shout at the TV screen later. What a piece of gutter journalism - how low can the BBC stoop?

[Tony Wright]

Retford, Pendon etc are indeed great layouts - but let's not forget that there are some equally ambitious and accomplished layouts elsewhere!

 

Just off the top of my head: the vast Tehachapi layout being built by the San Diego model railroaders:

 

http://www.lamesaclub.com/

 

I've visited it a couple of times and it is truly stupendous, being not only built to relatively "finescale" HO standards - not P87, but fully handlaid, with realistic track profiles - but also prototypically accurate, while allowing for necessary compression to cover the enormous climb over the mountains between Bakersfield and Mojave. Being American it won't be to everyone's cup of tea, but it's a very big and complex project by any standards.

 

Long-time readers of Model Railroader will be aware of Tony Koester's almost equally ambitious Nickle Plate Third Subdivision layout, which has a mainline run several scale miles long, and includes dead-on accurate depictions of a number of the towns along the way:

 

http://mrv.trains.com/layouts/layout-visits/2014/11/mrvp-layout-visit-tony-koesters-nickel-plate-road-in-ho-scale

 

It's historically precise, being modelled in a very specific timeframe, and the structures, bridges etc are all very painstakingly based on their respective prototypes. Again, not everyone's cup of tea but surely a remarkable achievement nonetheless, and it's the second "epic" layout he's built.

 

Alastair (Barry Ten)

Alastair,

 

Unfortunately, I have to restrict my selection to the layouts I've photographed. 

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

[Tony Wright]

Oh, a potentially rich seam, this.  We all have our especial favourites which touch all the right buttons.  I rate 'Blakeney' as probably my favourite of the layouts I've seen, but then I find I have to hesitate between that and 'Bramblewick'.  

Jonathan,

 

I have photographs of Bramblewick but they're all B&W or transparency. Everything for publication seems to have to be digital these days and I'm hard against time parameters. 

[Tony Wright]

I'm slightly surprised Liverpool Lime Street has been omitted - think it was at Warley a couple of years ago. I thought that was pretty incredible even without some of the additions trailled on its thread

 

David

David, 

 

As with my replies to others, I have so few pictures of LLS and those I have were right at the beginning of the layout's exhibition life. The shots of the layouts I'm including are of those substantially finished, other than those of LB - which show its construction at every stage.