RBAGE Posted April 9, 2020 Share Posted April 9, 2020 7 hours ago, Porcy Mane said: Well bog rolled up so I guess that makes me, Healthy, wealthy with good supplies. All good in the world round Finchale way? Ticker - tee - boo. Last day working from home today then 3 weeks on Her Majesty's Secret Service, up the shed, on 80%. Hand me those wire strippers. Anyway, we shouldn't hijack John's marvelous efforts to entertain us in our confinement, so, arrivedeci, bonny lad. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
drmditch Posted April 9, 2020 Share Posted April 9, 2020 20 hours ago, RBAGE said: I'm modelling just a few miles further South on the ECML, at Newton Hall Junction and the build is also benefiting from the confinement. Wiring is moving ahead nicely. I'm taking advantage of a closure on your line because of the accident at Beamish so will be running iron ore through NH Junction on route to Consett via Relly Mill Junction. Having tried EM, I threw the towel in, so NH Junction is in 00 gauge. If you get your current trackwork complete, I'm sure a trip to the club house would be considered as essential travel, for the sake of your well being and state of mind. Your railway sounds very interesting. Are you able to describe and/or show us any more? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RBAGE Posted April 9, 2020 Share Posted April 9, 2020 1 hour ago, drmditch said: Your railway sounds very interesting. Are you able to describe and/or show us any more? With John's permission, yes. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
johndon Posted April 9, 2020 Author Share Posted April 9, 2020 23 minutes ago, RBAGE said: With John's permission, yes. By all means, I'm interested in seeing it. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RBAGE Posted April 9, 2020 Share Posted April 9, 2020 This Newton Hall Junction. Don't know if there is copyright but source is detailed in bottom right hand corner. My mainline will run from just North of the gantry in the South to about signal number 7 in the North. That section is about 20' long. The branch to Frankland extends around the shed, incorporates Frankland Sidings and stops short of the viaduct over the River Wear. The branch was the original route into the current Durham station and was the Sunderland to Bishop Auckland Railway. Iron ore trains did run through the junction when the line line through Beamish was closed. That I know for sure. What I'm having trouble confirming is whether they came up the main line or up the Leamside line and then across the branch. I'm going for the branch as the most likely. I'll see if there are any views of the current trackwork that are not too embarrassing. I've used Peco bullhead for the scenic section. Had a bit of a grey moment and posted this in a DCC related topic. 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
johndon Posted April 13, 2020 Author Share Posted April 13, 2020 Testing, testing and more testing... It occurred to me this morning that an ideal vehicle for testing the track was my never fully completed Penbits Bogie conversion of the Bachmann Class 24. Mechanically it is complete but cosmetically, I never finished it as the SLW 24 came along. As it has no bogie sides, it is great for testing as it is much easier to see what the wheels are doing when going over point work. At the real South Pelaw Junction, the maximum permitted speed was 25mph so no need for express train speeds but I thought I'd run a couple of tests of the curved route (the most complex) of the single slip at speed so here are a couple of short videos of the 24 at speed over the formation. The track on the left hand end is deliberately dead for now to stop anything from running in to the wall. The 31 still does not always make it through without a derailment but, seeing what the 24 can do, I'm a lot more positive about the accuracy of the track than I was a couple of days ago... 7 2 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
johndon Posted April 25, 2020 Author Share Posted April 25, 2020 Another turnout completed (apart from the tie bar and a few chairs that will be fitted after testing): Not the best photo as it is against the light and the depth of field isn't great but, hopefully, if shows the flow of the track through this part of the junction: 13 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
johndon Posted April 30, 2020 Author Share Posted April 30, 2020 (edited) With the number of turnouts on the layout, it was inevitable that one would cross a baseboard joint so that had to be dealt with. I also have a personal dislike of copper clad sleepers at baseboard joins, especially where the track crosses joins at an angle and the copper clad is fitted at 90 degrees to the join rather than the track. So, at the board joins, and this applies to the plain track as well, I've drilled the sleepers out in line with the rails, inserted panel pins, laid the rails across the join and then soldered the rail to the pins as shown below. In this case, the turnout does not line up with the underlying Templot plan as I discovered I had it in slightly the wrong place and the crossing V ended up right on the baseboard join. I used to cut the rails using a cutting disk in a Dremel but this time, in an effort to make the gap as small as possible, I've used a razor saw to split the rails at the joins. The excess solder and the pins are then ground back using a Dremel allowing for half chairs to be fitted either side of the rail. This is what the finished article looks like with a first coat of paint (apologies for the quality of the photo but it was taken against the light). Not as strong, perhaps, as copper clad as the actual soldered joint is quite small but, for me, it looks a lot better and, whilst the layout is transportable, it won't be moving too often and I'll be fitting end boards to protect the track during transport so I reckon it'll be good enough to keep the rails in place and free of damage... Edited April 30, 2020 by johndon 13 5 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
johndon Posted May 7, 2020 Author Share Posted May 7, 2020 Waiting on some parts to arrive to complete the track work on the two boards so a couple of photos for now: 13 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Southwich Posted May 7, 2020 Share Posted May 7, 2020 Looks absolutely stunning John! Top work Kind regards, Will 1 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Cram Posted May 7, 2020 Share Posted May 7, 2020 On 30/04/2020 at 09:12, johndon said: With the number of turnouts on the layout, it was inevitable that one would cross a baseboard joint so that had to be dealt with. I also have a personal dislike of copper clad sleepers at baseboard joins, especially where the track crosses joins at an angle and the copper clad is fitted at 90 degrees to the join rather than the track. So, at the board joins, and this applies to the plain track as well, I've drilled the sleepers out in line with the rails, inserted panel pins, laid the rails across the join and then soldered the rail to the pins as shown below. In this case, the turnout does not line up with the underlying Templot plan as I discovered I had it in slightly the wrong place and the crossing V ended up right on the baseboard join. I used to cut the rails using a cutting disk in a Dremel but this time, in an effort to make the gap as small as possible, I've used a razor saw to split the rails at the joins. The excess solder and the pins are then ground back using a Dremel allowing for half chairs to be fitted either side of the rail. This is what the finished article looks like with a first coat of paint (apologies for the quality of the photo but it was taken against the light). Not as strong, perhaps, as copper clad as the actual soldered joint is quite small but, for me, it looks a lot better and, whilst the layout is transportable, it won't be moving too often and I'll be fitting end boards to protect the track during transport so I reckon it'll be good enough to keep the rails in place and free of damage... I wuld have extebded the wing rails to the joint to avoid the short lengths. We've had problems with short lenghts in the past and now do everything to avoid them. 2 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
johndon Posted May 7, 2020 Author Share Posted May 7, 2020 20 minutes ago, Paul Cram said: I wuld have extebded the wing rails to the joint to avoid the short lengths. We've had problems with short lenghts in the past and now do everything to avoid them. Thanks Paul, hadn't thought of that, I'll have to see how it goes. John Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
johndon Posted May 15, 2020 Author Share Posted May 15, 2020 (edited) Having managed to order the wrong type of chairs track laying is on hold so, while waiting for their replacements to arrive, I've made a start on the scenic formers for the first board. The original plan was to use polystyrene for this but a trip to B&Q to get some is hardly essential travel so I've gone old school with carboard formers and paper mache with dilute PVA. Edited May 15, 2020 by johndon 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
saxokid Posted May 15, 2020 Share Posted May 15, 2020 On 25/04/2020 at 23:35, johndon said: Another turnout completed (apart from the tie bar and a few chairs that will be fitted after testing): Not the best photo as it is against the light and the depth of field isn't great but, hopefully, if shows the flow of the track through this part of the junction: Lovely point work here Johndon... 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post johndon Posted May 20, 2020 Author Popular Post Share Posted May 20, 2020 (edited) Alongside the railway was what would today be called a traveller camp which grew throughout the 70s, part of which can be seen in the photo below: I've made a start and, so far, have completed the two buildings and the fence at the far end. Buildings are scratch built with styrene sheet and strip painted in Tamiya acrylics and weathered with a wash followed by pastel chalk. Fence is made with spare laser cut plywood sleepers and weathered the same way as the buildings. BTW, the grass isn't the finished article, just a Noch grass mat used for effect, static grass will be going down. Edited May 20, 2020 by johndon 17 5 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Enterprisingwestern Posted May 20, 2020 RMweb Gold Share Posted May 20, 2020 Be careful they don't nick the track overnight! Mike. 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
pete55 Posted May 21, 2020 Share Posted May 21, 2020 15 hours ago, johndon said: BTW, the grass isn't the finished article, just a Noch grass mat used for effect, static grass will be going down. Nice work John......hope you've got Phil booked for the vegetation! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
johndon Posted May 21, 2020 Author Share Posted May 21, 2020 Cheers Pete, long time no see, I hope you and the family are well. I've got Phil on standby if I cock it up Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
blueeighties Posted May 21, 2020 Share Posted May 21, 2020 Some lovely work here John. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
johndon Posted May 22, 2020 Author Share Posted May 22, 2020 (edited) Try outs with static grass... Edited May 22, 2020 by johndon 11 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
johndon Posted June 11, 2020 Author Share Posted June 11, 2020 Progress has slowed a little as work has started picking up again but more static grassing has been done and I've been threading chairs on rails for the up and down branch. In the meantime, I've picked up a bargain from eBay. DCC sound fitted and with P4 wheels already fitted for little more than the RRP of the standard DCC Ready version, this beast arrived this morning: Totally inappropriate for the layout (although I may run some 'what if' trains based on the assumption that the steelworks at Consett didn't close in 1980) but as it is one of my favourite loco classes, it was too good a deal to miss out on. It is missing a horn at one end and the brakes have removed to fit the P4 wheels although they can be refitted, the only question now is do I repaint it in Metal Sector Triple Grey or in DB Schenker Red... John 5 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ianblenk Posted June 11, 2020 Share Posted June 11, 2020 4 hours ago, johndon said: Progress has slowed a little as work has started picking up again but more static grassing has been done and I've been threading chairs on rails for the up and down branch. In the meantime, I've picked up a bargain from eBay. DCC sound fitted and with P4 wheels already fitted for little more than the RRP of the standard DCC Ready version, this beast arrived this morning: Totally inappropriate for the layout (although I may run some 'what if' trains based on the assumption that the steelworks at Consett didn't close in 1980) but as it is one of my favourite loco classes, it was too good a deal to miss out on. It is missing a horn at one end and the brakes have removed to fit the P4 wheels although they can be refitted, the only question now is do I repaint it in Metal Sector Triple Grey or in DB Schenker Red... John Loadhaul! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
johndon Posted June 11, 2020 Author Share Posted June 11, 2020 34 minutes ago, ianblenk said: Loadhaul! As it happens, there is a P4 fitted 60 in Loadhaul livery on eBay now... 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
johndon Posted June 24, 2020 Author Share Posted June 24, 2020 On 11/06/2020 at 19:36, ianblenk said: Loadhaul! And now we have one... 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ianblenk Posted June 24, 2020 Share Posted June 24, 2020 3 hours ago, johndon said: And now we have one... yay! my fav livery from those days. I have a Cl 56 somewhere 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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