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Thanks Rich,

 

The back is okay today; but each day & night is different so just have to take each day as it goes. Bishops Park is/was an experimental layout which has been a stop gap between a 'train set' and my attempt at a 'real layout' it is planned for a replacement SR electric layout in the future. 

 

Thanks for the encouragement.

~ Gary

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  • 6 months later...

Thanks Rich,

 

The back is okay today; but each day & night is different so just have to take each day as it goes. Bishops Park is/was an experimental layout which has been a stop gap between a 'train set' and my attempt at a 'real layout' it is planned for a replacement SR electric layout in the future. 

 

Thanks for the encouragement.

~ Gary

Hi Gary,

Seems like an age since we did our annual westcountry yokels assault on the delights of Warley! Just starting to look at tickets for this year ( nod, nod, wink, wink etc!)

So sorry to hear about your back condition, welcome to the club buddy, I've had mine for 10+years, so a back injury is for life, not just Christmas! Hmmm, maybe a career in car window stickers beckons! 

Seems like you've given the 'Goodluck Pixie' a thorough kicking, with what happened with your work situation & now the injury just as the crowning glory.

I've loved the development of your Summer project, I've followed it since the beginning, & you've really captured the small Southern terminus beautifully.

 

It's interesting to see the signal box build, as I'm looking at the ABM range for my shed based layout 'Tresodditt', a small westcountry terminus (sound familiar?).

Anyway pal, take care of yourself, & don't forget, you are always welcome at the club on Tuesday evenings.There's always a space saved for you when we go on our pilgrimage, so hopefully we can catch up soon. 

Take care buddy

Rob

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Hello Rob,

 

Its good to hear from you :-)

I haven't done too much on the layout as of yet - I got as far as warming & tinning the new soldering iron today but thats about it - the back is absolutely atrocious at the moment and I keep banging on about it just nothing seems to be happening with it. To top it off I've been off for so long that all of my sickpay has dried up. I will be looking forwards to our Warley Trip if you'll have me once again? :-) Will give me something to look forwards to :-D

I am slowly getting back into the modelling lark, there have been other things going on recently in the family. And I have only recently set the layout back up again - I am hopefully going to take the plunge and attempt the point motors that I keep saying I am going to do. As I have enough bits & bobs to complete the locomotive release crossover at the platform and the first point leading into the layout to give 'hands free' running around hopefully :-) 

Thank you for your kind words, I look forwards to seeing "Tresodditt" if I have learnt one thing about my ABM Signalbox... its that I still have no clue how to put the roof on it!!!
All the Best,
~ Gary

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As promised some actual progress - although my back is now killing me!!!

I've fitted the lever frame to the top of the fiddleyard baseboard; for each of the six levers I have drilled three holes for each of the switch positions & the power into the lever. The CDU has been fitted to the underside of the board - and as I couldn't use the second fixing for CDU and I had to fit a strap made out of plastikard to keep the CDU attached to the underside of the board - it works I put the board the right way up and it didn't fall off which is a bonus. I have fitted the first lever to the frame with the wires soldered to the tags on the underside - I did leave the soldering iron on a little bit too long and one of the tags moved slightly - a quick re-position when the plastic was still malleable and hopefully everything still works. 

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I have started on the next board over with the first point motor however with several planned doctors appointments I will have to put the work to one side until at least thursday. Nothing exciting but nevertheless some progress :-)

All the best,
~ Gary

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All wired up & working! Although it is being run off of a standard Hornby DC Controller Auxillary output.
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Although any idea on how I can cut through the actuator through the tie bar of the point?

All the best,

~ Gary

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All wired up & working! Although it is being run off of a standard Hornby DC Controller Auxillary output.

 

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Although any idea on how I can cut through the actuator through the tie bar of the point?

 

All the best,

~ Gary

Side cutters?  Or have I misunderstood?

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Hey Gary,

It will be an absolute pleasure dragging you around Warley, if you can stand the humour in the car, then there's always a place for you buddy.

Anyway, you are the perfect compadre for me & Ian, and we cover all of the scales between us!

It's a long way from darkest Devon, but always well worth the early start.

So the seat is booked for you in the Morgie mobile, with Ray & co in convoy (if he's not stopping for you know what!).

 

You've got a lovely sweep to the track & points on the layout buddy, keep up the good work & always keep the faith.

All I can say about the back is keep taking the tablets, it will hopefully get easier with time.

 

See you soon matey

Lord Roblington of Yellandshire, Master of royal windbreaking, Lord of all he surveys ( inside the shed ), Average modeller,  A* at tea drinking.

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  • 2 years later...

Watch this space, this layout isn't dead. After two years in a new house and lots of grafting getting the house sorted and throwing rubbish out & tidying up. The lady of the house is permitting dedicated allocated space in the garage for the layout to have a home.

 

I still have more work to do tidying & plugging gaps around the garage door and rigging up some more substantial lighting + some form of heating but my layout may well be on the move from storage at a family members house to here! Exciting times ahead. Watch this space, the Brighton Line terminus with no name will be back and will show off my E4.

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  • 5 months later...

Hello!

 

Welcome back to the 'Summer Project' - which started in 2013 is probably no longer considered a summer project I'll need to come up with a name for it. Suggestions on a postcard please! With the help of my father-in-law to be I managed to move the layout from my Grandparents house to my own house and erected it in the garage along one wall. 

 

With a quick wire-up of the connections and the first train in over two and a half years has run! Fittingly the duty fell to Bachmann E4 number B473 to re-open the line, everything ran flawlessly with a minor clean-up of the track - this was the first duty of the E4 since it was bought in 2015 and has never run on this layout beforehand.

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A view along the length of the layout (excuse the rest of the garage) after initial testing a rake of Pullmans which have also never run on the layout were pulled out and the track was checked for alignments and to ensure smooth running of the rolling stock, later on a few wagons were positioned on the layout to test if it is level (which it is) as the adjustable feet as of yet have not been fitted. Some of the collection has been slimmed down as money has been tight, and I have refocused my attention on the Grouping Era - plus a few odds & sods from the early BR era. Although little physical work has taken place - I have thought up and planned an ingenious lighting system that will clip on the back of the baseboards and make heavy use of USB powered lights & power supply. I have tested a much smaller scale version on a test boxfile and results seemed promising - I just need to secure funding to buy the barebones system as its 'expandable' I plan to run it to the furthest board first and then make my way back to the fiddleyard which is currently far better lit. Currently a 60w bulb on a 230v power lead is the lighting rig and I am anxious to eliminate all mains power on the board and keep it on the floor with the transformer box. 

Thats about it really, I am prioritising the order in which to sort items. The lighting rig has jumped up the list because its rather dark in the garage, hopefully the layout will be basking in warm white LED's over the coming months. Until next time, enjoy modelling!!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Well I've received two of the clip on lamps I wanted - unfortunately one of them has been appropriated by SWMBO for a 'temporary bedside lamp' for when the baby arrives. Hopefully it wont be too long and will have the new sproglet and tech them all about the LBSCR ;-)

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Light Level before lamp

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Lamp On

 

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Overall design of the lamp, can be powered by either 4x AA Batteries or via USB power cable. I have bought a 4-way USB extension lead of sorts and am intending to run the USB Lamps off of this system with a rechargeable power bank or a mains-powered USB charger to power the ensemble. 

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I am fairly pleased with it all - the only concern I have is with colour perception - this shot is from a 'conventional' Tungsten Filament Incancescent Lamp on the middle board and highlights the much 'warmer' feel this lamp unit has. But to be honest I'd rather have some lights rather then fumble about in the dark on the layout. 

 

Nothing spectacular for an update; all I need to do next is to get the rest of the lights set up. But at least I'll have a non-lethal light source should I cut the wrong cable under the board by mistake! Enjoy your modelling.

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  • 3 years later...

Hello All!

 

This is a thread which has re-emerged from the depths of the server no-doubt; having been around pre-Photobucket crisis and endured several Conservative Goverments; two house moves - a daughter who is now three and has come back.
Welcome to the 'Summer Project' started in 2013 to give me something to do whilst unemployed is now back whilst I am on Furlough and I have been giving the layout some attention - I cannot promise rapid progress; nor can I promise excitement or feats of daring do (unless you count my attempt at reprogramming a DCC Decoder on the 'Main'). But this layout is currently on the cusp of being refurbished.

Having been stored for the majority of the last five years with only occasional outing to see daylight the layout is surprisingly intact - it worked in its entirety electrically on DC; some scenery was damaged in storage but it wasn't anywhere near finished at all so that is being scraped off for returning to bare boards and track for re-working. I had to work from home for a few weeks at the outbreak of corona so I made a concerted effort to clear space in the Garage for a makeshift office - now I am on furlough that has been swept away and the layout without the FY Board is in its place instead. 

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Appropriately; the first loco to run was the last locomotive to 'close' the line.

 

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The last new item of rolling stock has had its first outing in 'service' a Hornby Southern Railway set of Railroad coaches - these are planned to have some upgrade work done on them as part of a future project.

 

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A 'Friendly Face' Stepney appeared and entertained my daughter somewhat; Stepney was the last present bought for my from my late Nan who passed away a few years ago and I don't actually think has ever been run. Bought as a "joke" present its earned its place on my layout!
 

I will work backwards through posts to try and restore some of the images that are missing - they are all saved on Google Drive so is just a case of matching them up. Whilst sorting the garage i found two point motors, some passing contact levers, point motor harnesses, wire, inter-board jumpers... so I might attempt at wiring up the cross over at the platform end of the layout to get that working from the lever frame. If only I could find my Solder and Flux... its not with the Soldering Iron!

Anyway, I hope all is well and if you survived the rambles and are interested I will post more as/when I can.

Kind Regards,

Gary

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Thowback Thursday!

 

Hello All; I am determined to make semi-regular updates on this layout as we go along and for quieter times I am going to focus on either a piece of rolling stock, a project or some modelling memories. Today as you can tell by the title its Throwback Thursday!

Today I am going to take you back to time when the layout was stored in a semi-working condition in the cold unheated garage whilst we awaitied the arrival of our newborn. During this time - the regular service on the branch was being handed by these mysterious trains without any form of locomotive - in a different shade of Green to usual and most certainly far removed from the rich brown tones of the LBSCR of the past. I am of course referring to the branch being operated by a shuttle service of 2-EPB's and a through train of a 3-CEP for London or the Coast:
spacer.pngYes, as you can see the branch train has been shunted to the former loop line whilst the through service is attending to the stations patronage's desire for travel further afield than "the junction".

 

spacer.pngIn another view the branch shuttle 2-EPB is hiding in the bay road but barely fits - plans are in place to allow full 2-coach trains to be stored in the platform as the platform is being refurbished and the road lengthened somewhat.

 

Other than that a return to normality fast ensured afterwards with the errant Southern 'Region' replaced with the familiar Railway - and a railway equipping itself with new signage for the name of the layout has been decided on and vinyl has been procured to advertise this:

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The layout has been for some time known as "Ifield Green", I grew up in Ifield West in Crawley, West Sussex and it has been a name I often band about as a layout. 
The layout itself is currently under refurbishment - I'm not trying to do things on the cheap but I am certainly shopping around in the current climate for bargains for what I need - some of the extraneous fleet that isn't going to be used or wanted is planned to be parted with to make way for further purchases so watch this space - I've got a number of small projects on the simmer just waiting for extra bits & bobs to bring them up to the boil and make some real tangible progress.

Kind Regards,

Gary

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  • 3 weeks later...

Hello Everyone!

 

I hope we're all doing well? Since my last update its been a tale of two-halves; on the plus side the layout has been assembled in its entirety in its new home: the recently cleared out Garage:
spacer.pngI even managed to repurpose some old Breakfast Bar stools I had for use to seating whilst working on/operating the layout which is fantastic.

Sadly however before I could get stuck in, disaster struck and my Furlough ended - so now although the layout is set up in the Garage - I also have a desk in there as well and have been focusing on my accounts work rather than actual physical work on the layout - the only major thing to have happened is for all of the platform to have been removed and the push-pull set finally has new bogies fitted and buffers after a mere 6 years without them!!
I have managed some theoretical work with the help of others: 

 

I have with the help of others figured out and am going to implement a signalling scheme based on what we believe is the best LBSCR practice of the time for when the line was built. This has been very interesting to say the least and has opened my eyes to sometimes what the rule-book says is gospel doesn't always translate into what physically existed. I have also been experimenting on butchering some LNWR signals virtually on Paint to see if I could get a convincing from 3 feet away LBSCR set of signals but am unconvinced currently.

 

I am currently debating if I could/should backdate the layout to LBSCR days rather than SR days but not made a firm decision yet - I am going to trade in some stock and am thinking of getting one of those Hornby Terriers I've seen so much about just what colour scheme???

Aside from that and working in the Garage my other 'hobby' has taken over my life, I've been playing far too much Star Fleet Battles - currently I have a small campaign going with the four main Galactic powers which has been thoroughly entertaining; not to mention I've been trying to teach myself Advanced Squad Leader but that is much more of a slow burning project!

 

I'm hoping having returned to work that I can loosen the purse strings somewhat and have some actual progress next time. Until then stay safe!
~ Gary

 

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My oh my, where did the time go!

This thread was started nearly a decade ago, and the summer project has been languishing without work done on it for most of that time! Its lived in five houses/garages/sheds in that time and has sat there patiently waiting for me to do some work on it - I want to say hello to anyone who is watching/reading and apologies for the lack of updates and the thread necromancy in bringing this back up to the top of the pile again.
This project has been fun, frustrating, indecisive all at the same time - I lost a lot of enthusiasm for it when my Nan passed in 2014; she supported my hobby and was always listening to me whittle on no-matter how boring it was. I hurt my back, had lost, gained and lost several jobs since then - most notably with COVID-19 when I was very unexpectedly laid off whilst sitting in my Garage working from home adjacent to the layout a couple of chaps from work arrived and insisted I return my keys, paperwork, work laptop, printer etc while my manager called me on the phone. All exciting!
And we have moved yet again! Most recently in November 2022; and I am pleased to say that the layout now features much more in the front of my mind - I had started a layout on a shelf project to get some skills back in and aquire more stock and items to transition onto the main layout - however the shelf layout's board is rather bannana shaped so I am unsure if I will be continuing with it or if I will be transititioning back to working on this the 'summer project'.
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The layout has been for the first time in three years been assembled and is standing in its new home, a coach-house style garage protected on two sides and above by buildings - there is a nice window for some light and it is a clean(ish) space which benefitted from a massive skip chucking old stuff out when we moved house!
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Superficially its not in bad condition; the boards are sound and unwarped there is very little damage to the paintwork and buffer stops etc are still attached despite whatever conditions it was moved in. However, the polystyrene scenery has been subject to the attention of some rodents in our old garage and will have to be removed - likewise the track on the left-hand board has corroded and I suspect it is again the attention of rodents that has caused this.

With this in mind, I am planning to strip the boards back to just their wood and fixings and rub them down and apply fresh primer and topcoat to them (there is no sign of life in our new garage from rodents), the existing track etc will be removed and I will look at putting a new plan on these boards - currently I am looking at 'The Art of Compromise' but flipped with the fiddleyard on the left-hand side, the idea being to create 'the spirit' of the London, Brighton & South Coast Railway rather than model a specific location - despite how much I want a Myers style station building! So in a way this will be the ultimate end of the summer project of 2013 - but may well see the start of The Summer Project of 2023, which I will continue with on this thread.

 

So with that in mind, I will leave this thread with one last image - it is possibly my favourite image of this layout and is currently my PC wallpaper and is from happier times:

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As well as the only known video of something moving on the layout - I love the 'clickty-clack':
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https://photos.app.goo.gl/ViYtFLPRoTZY5VNj7

I have also restored older images I could find back to this thread which were lost in the photobucket debarcle.

 

Kind Regards,
Gary

 

Edited by Matloughe
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  • 2 weeks later...

Hello All!

I hope you are all well; before I go any further - I should warn anyone of a nervous disposition. This post will contain a large 'Beeching Axe' being fell on the line; its been nearly five years since the last train has run on the line and time has caught up to this branch line - but alas all is not lost, please stay with me until the very end.

So we start with the Branch looking very forlorn as in the last post, track has degraded - all structures on the line have been removed and only the memories remain and the faint echo of coaches banging over track joints on the wind of time.

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This was the worst board; it has recieved the attention of rodents chewing the dead wiring and leaving behind their "leavings" corroding the track and damaging the scenery - the track has been put in the scrap box - any attached wiring was cut off and has been put in a to be used later box.

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The second board was in much better overall condition - the track here was popped in a 'bits' box as it was in far better condition. I managed to get the lighting for the layout gathered together and working which helped. There is something about this photo which jarrs me, I think its the silhouette around where the track was where I hadn't painted.
I wonder if it's just me, or if modellers as a whole have these feelings when dismantling a project - and on a whole this post has just been a major downer... so far.

I work in education currently; and one of the perks of it is the 'scheduled' holiday time. And knowing it was a half-term coming up I have been planning, and purchasing some supplies.
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The fiddleyard board, has remained unloved and unpainted since 2013 when it was assembled! With some quickwork with some snips, a screwdriver and some choice language the lever frame, associated wiring and the CDU (which looks like its dead) has been removed from the board and placed in the 'bits' box to be tested & cleaned up. After a brush down of any dirt, and then another brush down it now looks like this:

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Everything now looks much nicer and cleaner; although very much a downer it looks like from small acorns strong trees grow.
Some more painting is needed, the underside of the boards and very bottom of the legs as well as behind some of the ironwork. I will also be fitting the adjustable feet I have in stock for this boards to ensure I have a level playing field to start with.

Attention is now turning with how best to use the space I have available, several plans are being sketched out especially as the boards have been returned to bare wood and has a fresh coat of paint applied!
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Some 'planning' in action, as I felt I needed a train somewhere in this post!!


Kind Regards,
Gary

 

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  • Matloughe changed the title to Ifield Green - An LBSCR Layout & Workbench

Good Afternoon All!

I hope everyone is well, and welcome back to Ifield Green - the renamed Summer Project of 2013!
No further physical work has been undertaken as of yet - but a fair amount of planning has occurred - a trackplan has been selected; I have decided to use Peco Code 75 Bullhead for the layout and use whatever is left of my Code 100 for the fiddleyard with a translator track; the layout will be wired for DCC operation with droppers on each track section - and frog polarity change switches being utilised - I am planning on using the Peco Twistlock points as they look like an ideal application for use. I am certainly looking for easy to use products to get the layout up & running in the shortest space of time before I loose momentum.
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I am planning for the run-around loop to be able to accept a train length of 3 Mark I's - the ones pictured here are approximately in the location of the station platform - I might revise this to be two & half Mark I's in length when the track arrives and I place it down to get a 'feel' for things. I am hoping to do some more work on the layout later on this week finishing up some painting etc, I am going to order some cork and copydex this week as well as some of the track for the layout. Outstanding physical job will be to cut a hole in the end board at the end of the rake of Mark I's... unless I can cheekily remove the end panels and turn them around 180 degrees bringing the existing cut out towards the front of the layout.

 

One thing I can do is planning, I have over the period of a couple of years been doing a lot of research into the choosen location of my fictional station - I know the local industries in the area; I have an implausable but not entirely impossible history for the branch line from opening to closure and have it written down into a document I am calling the 'Operational Guide' within this contains the timetables for day-to-day use as well as special trains - one area I haven't been able to settle on which is the reason why I was delving deep into the local history is freight operations. I find it fascinating looking back from a modern perspective to just over a hundred years ago where animal power on the roads was king and a trip that takes fifteen to twenty minutes by car would take an hour to hour and a half because of the lower speeds, reduced infrastructure (less roads) and lower quality of infrastructure. And its this lengthing of journey times which pushes up the price of goods, and what makes a branch line profitable as it can delivery goods far more efficiently at less cost to the end-user.
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I have been looking at two-options for freight operations, firstly as seen here is a batch of prototype car cards minus their waybills from a template I have downloaded online - I have attempted to put the railway company logos for the Great Eastern and Great Western on their respective cards. I have anglicised the terminology and made up this quick batch to get an idea of how they work and look. I'm not entirely convinced this is the correct way forwards for me; but I am going to run this small batch alongside a different batch I am making up and will see which is better.
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The white waybills at the top are my second attempt, shamelessly copied from David Hyde's youtube channel about freight operation for his layout Deresley - I have copied his basic design with these two cards the main difference here is using my board gaming experience it can inject an element of randomness with freight being made up by rolling different coloured dice, so for example there are two steam powered corn mills in the parish where my layout is to be set, so as you can see on the EA Robinson Waybill I have a black disc - by rolling a black dice I could 'generate' a number of coal wagons to be delivered - which would need to be shunted to the correct siding location, then wait to be 'unloaded' before being made up in a train to go back empty to the coal merchant - if this were an LBSCR Wagon; it could have other discs and be used for other traffic so could return to Three Bridges loaded with goods out of Ifield Green - such as Barrels and casks as a Cooper was present in the village in the correct timeline.
The GER Van has two discs which nominally are Red for General Merchandise and Green for Fresh Produce such as soft fruits and vegetables rolling a red or green dice could see this van being pulled for inclusion into a freight train into Ifield Green. I should stress this is very much an early mock-up nothing has been set in stone, and I have taken inspiration from articles in the March 1976 Railway Modeller about train control, as well as Operating Chedworth in the July 2016 RM as well as David Hyde's channel as well as other American style layouts for this operation idea.

The planned station has two sidings, a long one capable of holding up to 7 wagons (based on a 90mm overall length per wagon) and a shorter one capable of holding 4 or 5, this shorter siding may have a brick goods shed built, whereas the long siding will have a loading dock with end ramp as well as some sort of coal unloading facility (its all a bit fluid currently) with incoming trains being a maximum of 6 wagons + brake van will see plenty of opportunities for traffic. The way it works is there are pidgeon holes for the sidings for traffic in, traffic out and for held traffic waiting to be put in the correct location to be unloaded. Same as the fiddleyard, trains would be made up of these cards - using the dice and rules set up,for example each of my steam powered mills may want a standing order of a single coal wagon each week - but during harvest demand may go up as there is more corn to process so they may want two coal wagons per week - in winter domestic coal consumption will go up from a baseline, when I could roll extra black dice for larger trains. Thursdays was traditionally market day so cattle may need to be moved so an empty van will need to be brought in on the Wednesday to be loaded for departure Thursday and so on.
I feel once I have had the opportunity to write some basic rules and make some waybills - with experience the system will gradually change and adapt to suit my needs - I just need to feel that my model railway has a place in the world and is serving its community rather than just pulling random wagons and shunting them arbitrarily. So I will continue with my quest for freight operations!
I have bought from eBay a DJH C2X kit that needs some wheels but is otherwise complete, I also have a Finecast E3/E4/E6 not quite sure which one it is; it looks like an E4 and is numbered as an E4 but the previous owner is insistant it is an E6 so we'll see when it arrives. And I am also waiting on an old Dapol Umber Terrier I couldn't say no to in a clearance sale. So lots of things happening! And to leave on a high - please enjoy some Umber and Improved Engine Green from last weekend when me and my five year old daughter built a (temporary) model railway on the kitchen table. Wee had a long conversation about the lococomotive not being 'chocolate brown' its called Umber and how Improved Engine Green isn't actually green! it was great fun. 😁
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Stay Safe.
Gary

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I think the Wills Finecast radial was an E5, designed to use the Hornby R1 chassis. E5 was the most 'passenger' of the radials, having 5'6' drivers. The E6, like the E3, had 4'6' drivers, so more fitted for freight trains. The E4 had 5' drivers. 

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Correct the Wills kit was an E5, designed for a Hornby-Dublo R1 chassis, I've got 2 of them!

 

Still available from SE Finecast (Now owned by Squires, so at a lot of shows) and they make an etched chassis for it now, I keep meaning to buy some for mine!

 

Gary

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I've just had a look on the SE Finecast website and I am even more baffled as the loco I have bought has an extended Smokebox like Birch Grove...

But doesn't have a chunky boiler like an E5X.

When it arrives I'll be certain to take some photos of it! It's in BR Unlined Black so will be needing a repaint!

 

Gary

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Good Evening all!

 

So when I arrived home today I had a couple of deliveries waiting for me, from Golden Arrow Productions a LB&SCR D3 Resin bodykit that fits onto a short frame Hornby M7 - which is rather exciting to take a look at in the future - I was also advised that a LBSCR B4 is also available that fits on a T9 Chassis and he is considering a C2 kit but not sure what chassis that will be on. I also have my C2X kit from DJH - and the castings are fantastic; I didn't know white metal bodywork could look so good.

I have been working on the full-size layout plan; I went back to the drawing board taking inspiration from Barcombe, Fittleworth, Lavant - these secondary/tertiary routes are always interesting as they always seem to carry 'through' trains as well as the expected local services.
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This is the plan I am working on, the Fiddleyard entrance/exit would be on the bottom left of this plan. The 65cm marking specifies the maximum train length which relates to two Mark I's approximately. This evening I ventured out to the layout and pulled stock from the boxes to test the plan on paper and see if it translates well to the real world. Using the two Mark I coaches I had on hand, I checked the platform length and I also checked the run-around loop length they just fit in the loop with enough space for locomotives to run round. The loop on the plan would be the curved track to the right of the platform opposed to the goods yard points. Ideally I wanted the 'mainline' to continue adjacent to the headshunt but that would have shortened the loop even further so I had to do away with that plan. After testing with the Mark I's I also tested with my 59' Bulleid Multidoor coaches and the clearances were much better - this bodes well as LBSCR coaches are shorter than this so I know that they will fit nicely in the loop.
Apologies for the next photo, there is only one item of pre-grouping stock on the baseboards while I am getting the feel for the size. If anyone guesses correctly what it is I'll make sure they can have Double Chocolate (Umber) Cookie in the post, provided I don't eat the cookies first!!
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It looks quite good actually with the bits & bobs mocking things up - I did have a good suggestion that perhaps I should flip the plan back to front so that the platform road is ar the rear of the board (taking advantage of the existing hole in the boards) with the sidings finishing in the centre foreground as for the sidings they are the maximum extent I would allow I think it encroaches a little too much on the station forecourt etc, I might straighten and shorten the siding with the coal wagons and the CCT on and make that the 'coal' and general siding.
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Last photo for tonight, the SECR C Class fits in the headshunt nicely - I do like the sweep of the cirve from the headshunt towards the platform road - from this end you can probably imagine the plan being mirrored with the sweep of the track coming from right to left something to sleep on. I should say this plan is drawn with Peco Code 75 Bullhead which limits the geometry of the points to right hand & left hand only with all of these being medium radius. I think I could get a little bit more space if I redrew it with the Code 100 I have used previously I might explore the option further down the line if I don't get much further than this.
For operations I am considering converting to kadee couplings again for the same reason I am opting to use Peco proprietry components for the point motors etc as it will be a fast install and should work more or less out of the box. This is also a reason I am considering flipping the plan - as there shouldn't be a need to uncouple in the platform. So there we have it some work being done in the garage. More planning and less physical work, but I would rather measure multiple times and then cut the track once than have to buy more track!

Kind Regards,
Gary

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Having built a model of Fittleworth https://www.scalefour.org/layouts/fittleworth.html which had cassette fiddle yards at each end, with reduced space I am thinking of operating with a single fiddle yard at the non-platform end, which also allows a separate headshunt.  I would strongly recommend you reverse your plan so that it works in a similar way. At the moment with a headshunt that only just takes a tender loco, and the rear siding's turnout is only a couple of wagons away from the headshunt turnout, you will only be able to move one or two wagons at a time, making shunting of a long train a nightmare.  With your fiddle yard effectively at the other end you can run longer strings of wagons in and out of the yard, and you could incorporate a separate headshunt which would allow you to shuttle passenger trains in and out whilst still shunting the yard.

I have very very crudely sketched out how it might work.  Obviously the curved bit needs to be straightened out, but you can move the key point at the entrance to the station further out to increase the length of train the run-round loop can handle.  If you retain the bridge at the end of the platform, it can suggest that the line extends further, and perhaps a second fiddle yard could be added if you find the extra space, or take it to an exhibition.

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There are plenty of prototype examples where running round the passenger train is done away from the platform.

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Thanks for replying, I did look at your model of Fittleworth it was certainly an inspiration to me.

I am aware I am (possibly) trying to fit too much into a location, and I agree a longer loop and headshunt would be ideal. I did consider cutting a hole in the end board at the headshunt end and building some sort of cantilevered extension long enough to take a train off-scene.

The headshunt is currently capable of taking a C Class and two standard length wagons as it stands before the first point in the yard. I would ideally use smaller locomotives.

 

You've certainly given me something to think about 😃

 

Kind Regards,

Gary

Edited by Matloughe
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