South Pelaw Junction

[Joseph_Pestell]

I think that I have worked out a good solution for the fiddle yards.

 

The key is for the Tyne Dock route to go down a gradient and pass below the Gateshead (Ouston Jct) route at the left hand end of the fiddle yards. This puts a Tyne Dock fiddleyard closest to the inside of the operating well, and then a double-track gradient up to meet the Consett route. Then a Consett fiddleyard at a higher level which can be linked in various ways to the Gateshead route as can a single track lead from the four sidings.

 

I would add a drawing but scanner down at office.

[johndon]

Interesting idea, certainly both loops on the left must be able to connect to the Consett line on the right as, over different periods of time, the ore trains came up from both Washington and Ouston Junction...

 

Time for more of a play in Templot

 

John

 

[Joseph_Pestell]

A schematic in WordSouth Pelaw.docx

[johndon]

Thanks for that, food for thought...

 

John

[RichardClayton]

On the EM version of South Pelaw we went through several designs for the fiddle yard at the back. We wanted trains running into Stella Gill and up the bank to Consett to be able to re-appear on either the Ouston or Washington lines. After an initial idea involving flyovers, we have gone for some complicated trackwork at the Washington/Ouston end. You can see a photo of part of the arrangements on the most recent entry in our blog (http://southpelawem.blogspot.co.uk), which shows the templot for the component that allows trains to cross from the Ouston lines to exit from Stella Gill and vice versa. The other element is effectively a double crossover from the Washington lines to exit down the bank from Consett. All this complexity takes up quite a bit of space, but fortunately its a huge layout, and we still have plenty of room to store trains in the fiddle yard sidings.

 

Incidentally, its great to see such enthusiasm for this route on here, and on the Blackgill thread. 

 

Richard

--

[Joseph_Pestell]

Hi Richard,

 

I shall look up your blog again. Some great photos there.

 

There is something about this location which is just "so right" for a layout. I thought that years ago when, as I mentioned in an earlier post, I saw it in a photo in Modern Railways. But now,  a confession. Not having known the North-East at all well, I assumed that South Pelaw was part of Pelaw. Only in the last couple of days, following this thread, have I realised that South Pelaw is near to Chester-le-Street and just down the road from where my in-laws live!

[johndon]

Great to have your input Richard, it is very much appreciated, the work you guys are doing is most impressive.

 

I'm currently reworking the fiddle yards, yet again, who'd have though it would prove to the be the hardest part of the whole design...

 

John

[Joseph_Pestell]

On the EM version of South Pelaw we went through several designs for the fiddle yard at the back. We wanted trains running into Stella Gill and up the bank to Consett to be able to re-appear on either the Ouston or Washington lines. After an initial idea involving flyovers, we have gone for some complicated trackwork at the Washington/Ouston end. You can see a photo of part of the arrangements on the most recent entry in our blog (http://southpelawem.blogspot.co.uk), which shows the templot for the component that allows trains to cross from the Ouston lines to exit from Stella Gill and vice versa. The other element is effectively a double crossover from the Washington lines to exit down the bank from Consett. All this complexity takes up quite a bit of space, but fortunately its a huge layout, and we still have plenty of room to store trains in the fiddle yard sidings.

 

Incidentally, its great to see such enthusiasm for this route on here, and on the Blackgill thread. 

 

Richard

--

 

I had not thought about coal trains into/out of Stella Gill needing to reappear on the Washington route. But fairly easy to add a link to my previous diagram at the left hand end which would allow this. I think that using the natural gradients of the site and one flyover works better than complex trackwork.

[David Todd]

Seen this thought it maybe of use,if you have not seen it already,...that is..........

 

http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/p/pelaw_second/index.shtml

[RichardClayton]

I had not thought about coal trains into/out of Stella Gill needing to reappear on the Washington route. But fairly easy to add a link to my previous diagram at the left hand end which would allow this. I think that using the natural gradients of the site and one flyover works better than complex trackwork.

 

I'm sure a flyover would work.

 

However, one of the considerations for us was being able to split Consett bound trains at SP and take them up the bank one cut at a time. There's a nice sequence of pictures showing this (as well as some other great shots of SP) here -- http://ironroad.smugmug.com/1960s-Steam-Finale/i-PBG9vB4/A This operation requires some crossovers in the fiddle yard so the train engine can collect the brake van and then head back down to SP for the next cut of wagons. The gradients imposed by flyovers in the fiddle yard were going to make this awkward, which is one of the reasons we opted for complex track work instead.

[johndon]

Almost there with the plan I think.  There are now 2 fans of loops in the fiddle yard which can be accessed from the Washington, Ouston and Consett lines albeit, like Richard, with some pretty complex track work, particularly at the Consett end of the yard.  I did give serious thought to a flyover but have decided I'd rather have the whole fiddle yard on one level.  The Stella Gill sidings can act as a fiddle yard in themselves so there will be plenty of storage space there with a run right through back to the Washington line.  This will allow me to sit back and watch 4 trains running at once.

 

 

Good to see the update on your blog Richard...

 

John

Edited February 17, 2014 by johndon

[Joseph_Pestell]

That looks good although it does not meet Richard's criterion that trains that have entered Stella Gill should be able to reappear from Ouston Jct.

[johndon]

That looks good although it does not meet Richard's criterion that trains that have entered Stella Gill should be able to reappear from Ouston Jct.

Not really an issue for the way I foresee operations but I could add a crossover between the Washington and ouston lines at the left hand side...

 

John

[pete55]

The next problem will be a familiar one.......where to build it!!

[johndon]

The next problem will be a familiar one.......where to build it!!

 

Too right, I'll be concentrating on the train formations and the few structures next...

 

John

[johndon]

As the plan is almost finalised, I've started giving some thought to the train consists and what wagons will be required for them.  Whilst a number of the wagons used will either require kits or some kit bashing/scratch building, some are available ready to run.

 

First up are some bogie bolsters which took all of 5 minutes to convert to P4 running here past the works behind a Railfreight Class 26:

 

 

And next up some Bachmann 16T minerals, purchased ready weathered from eBay.  Not converted to P4 yet but I've already done some others and it's about 5 minutes per wagon as some plastic does need to be cut away from the underframe.

 

 

John

 

[johndon]

A new one for me, my very first kit built wagon, a Cambrian Boplate E which used to carry steel from Consett.

 

Not the greatest kit but it's gone together with no problems it's fitted with brass bearings and Gibson wheels, still needs a but tidying up and the axle boxes and brake gear is still to be fitted.  It weighs next to nothing so I'm going to add some lengths of brass rod to the underside of the floor.

 

Whilst it could, undoubtedly be improved with etched brass I've decided I'm going to have to be pragmatic about my wagon fleet; given the number of wagons I'm going to need I can't possibly have them all super detailed, life is just too short...

 

 

John

 

[d winpenny]

Looking good

 

David

[johndon]

I decided to print out the Templot plan of the scenic section of the Junction and the enormity of the layout has hit home a little.  In the following pics, the 37 is about half way between the 2 bridges that will form the scenic breaks at each end:

 

 

 

John

 

[d winpenny]

Looking impressive

 

David

[johndon]

No layout of the Tyne Dock to Consett would be complete without the iconic iron ore trains which I've made a start on this week using Dave Alexanders newly released kit of the 56 Ton Iron Ore wagons.  It's a white metal, PE, resin and lost wax kit and such, is the quality of the castings, even though this is my first attempt at a white metal kit, it is pretty much building itself.  This is the result of about 10 hours work so far:

 

John

 

 

John

[johndon]

I've given the wagon a quick coat of paint so I can see if anywhere needs filling or sanding - there are a couple of places.  The right hand bogie does not seem to be sitting perfectly flat so that will attended to as well.  Underframe needs brake levers and then it is done.  There is some conjecture of what the actual colour of these wagons was, I've used Tamiya Red Brown which looks good to me and, in any event, in reality the wagons were filthy so a lot of the underlying colour is going to be lost anyway...

 

 

John

Edited April 4, 2014 by johndon

[bobster]

This is looking very good, look forward to seeing more.

 

Cheers, Bob.

[Arpster]

I'm a bit late to the party on this one but it's great to see another model of this fascinating route being built, and it's looking really good so far. You've certainly come up with an ambitious track plan!

 

With regard to the discussion on the previous page about wagon loads, Blackgill does employ both a secret track and removable loads. For the coal trains (of which there are many!) and the iron ore trains (of which there is one) there are loads which are removed with a magnet. This is a pretty quick and easy process and means that only one rake of iron ore wagons is needed. Steel plate trains also have removable loads. However, with the train of bogie bolsters with loads that are chained down it is obviously a bit more difficult to remove the loads so this is sent along the hidden track behind the embankment at the rear of the layout. In theory anyway, as at Scaleforum we couldn't get this to work because of a point being out of gauge! There are actually two hidden tracks, which allows storage and passing of trains should it be necessary.

I'm looking forward to following your progress with this. The Dave Alexander hopper certainly looks the part. I wonder if it's any lighter than the Dave Bradwell version, as even a 9F struggles to get the rake moving on Blackgill. Maybe it needs roller-bearings... As for the colour, I think the original livery was bauxite but by the time they were covered with reddish-orange iron ore dust you wouldn't be able to tell that!

All the best,

Arp

 

p.s. being interested in the more recent history of the line, I have been enjoying immensely the photos you've managed to find of the later years with diesel power. I grew up a stone's throw from Washington station, so if you ever unearth any pictures of the Washington to Ouston Junction section then I'd love to see them, as there appears to be hardly any photos of this section of line after its re-opening for the Redcar iron ore trains.

[johndon]

I'm a bit late to the party on this one but it's great to see another model of this fascinating route being built, and it's looking really good so far. You've certainly come up with an ambitious track plan!

 

With regard to the discussion on the previous page about wagon loads, Blackgill does employ both a secret track and removable loads. For the coal trains (of which there are many!) and the iron ore trains (of which there is one) there are loads which are removed with a magnet. This is a pretty quick and easy process and means that only one rake of iron ore wagons is needed. Steel plate trains also have removable loads. However, with the train of bogie bolsters with loads that are chained down it is obviously a bit more difficult to remove the loads so this is sent along the hidden track behind the embankment at the rear of the layout. In theory anyway, as at Scaleforum we couldn't get this to work because of a point being out of gauge! There are actually two hidden tracks, which allows storage and passing of trains should it be necessary.

 

I'm looking forward to following your progress with this. The Dave Alexander hopper certainly looks the part. I wonder if it's any lighter than the Dave Bradwell version, as even a 9F struggles to get the rake moving on Blackgill. Maybe it needs roller-bearings... As for the colour, I think the original livery was bauxite but by the time they were covered with reddish-orange iron ore dust you wouldn't be able to tell that!

 

All the best,

 

Arp

 

p.s. being interested in the more recent history of the line, I have been enjoying immensely the photos you've managed to find of the later years with diesel power. I grew up a stone's throw from Washington station, so if you ever unearth any pictures of the Washington to Ouston Junction section then I'd love to see them, as there appears to be hardly any photos of this section of line after its re-opening for the Redcar iron ore trains.

 

Cheers Arp,

 

The wagons are heavy, a rake of 9 probably will genuinely require double heading

 

I've not seen any photos of the Washington to South Pelaw section yet albeit, so far, I've been concentrating more on the line from South Pelaw towards Consett...

 

Cheers

 

John