Train spotting at Finsbury Square

[60700]

Thank you Steve for all your wonderful photos and workmanship on Finsbury Square .I have only just found this and will follow with interest as all my spotting days were done on the Spotters platform in Finsbury Park where you could see what was coming up Holloway bank in the 1950s. with Kings Cross, St Pancras and Liverpool Street so close those where the days of a happy childhood, only disappointed that I did not have a camera.

Regards Terry

[Sandhole]

Dirty, cramped, noisey!!! Everything I love about doing this hobby!!

You can smell and see the fumes coming off the Type 2 running round under the station building! OK, you can't but I can!!!

                    Great Layout,

                                Chris.

[Finsbury]

New to this thread, so whatever I say will only be a variation on a theme.

Knowing the area quite well, I look at one photo and it reminds of one building on say, Worship St, yet from another angle it reminds me of a completely different building, albeit still in the same locale. Rinse and repeat with the other structures and you indeed capture the feel of the area. All the more remarkable for being Stateside sourced kits! Utterly beguiling, compelling and beautiful.

 

Thank you for this creation and thank you for sharing it with us. It is quite special.

 

Kindest regards,

Bernie

[jazzer]

I don't know what superlatives to use to do this layout justice. On a par with Frank Dyers excellent "Borchester " I would say, and you can't get much better than that !

 

One of the most difficult things to do in modelling is to really capture the feel and atmosphere of any sizeable terminus especially an inner city one, which I suppose is why most of us stick with BLTs , but you have managed to make this one absolutely credible so well done ( and I speak us someone who mis-spent much of my youth spotting at KX and travelling on the District and Circle Lines).

 

Can you give us some idea of the size of the layout and length of platforms in terms of coaches ? Do you run any quad-art sets or are we to assume that by now they have all been replaced my the more modern BR suburban sets with less seating that everyone complained about ?

[31A]

Thanks again for all the compliments; rather embarrassing - I don't know how to reply to them all so hopefully the "thanks" button will suffice.  It's good to know that people think I've captured the atmosphere of the area, even more so as several of the street buildings are from US kits. Exceptions being the 'ox blood' Tube station frontage, which is scratch built, and the Georgian terraced row.  Really I've only thought of most of the American kit buildings as temporary space fillers; in particular I'd like the permanent buildings to be more than two storeys high.

 

To answer some of Jazzer's questions, the scenic part of the layout as seen in the pictures is 12ft 5ins long by 2ft wide.  The lines disappear 'off stage' round the curve under the bridge to a fiddle yard, which is also 'temporary' - one day I'd like to extend the layout further round the room but at the moment it is full of junk!

 

If you refer back to the track plan on the first page, Platform 1 will easily hold a Pacific and six corridor coaches.  Platform 2 will hold the same length but is very 'tight' - in the second picture in Post 180, 60156 is at the head of a six coach train but as you can see, it is stood 'well forward' to the signal, and the same length of train wouldn't quite fit in Platform 3.  In the same picture, the K3 is on a five coach train of Mk1s, and the Baby Deltic in Platform 4 is on a six coach train of mainly 51ft ex LNER suburban coaches (one is a BR 57 footer).

 

You mention Quad Arts and that formation is what I used to set the length of the run round between platforms 3 and 4; a set in 3 can be run round via 4, but the length beyond the crossover is only long enough for a tank engine or short diesel - a Brush 2 is too long!  This relates to my original idea which was for the layout to be set in the LNER 1930s period, and in fact I do have a Quad Art set made from Ian kirk kits, in LNER teak livery.  I have Kirk kits stashed away to make another set which will be in BR livery but I don't expect to make it until the layout (fiddle yard especially) is a bit more permanent as they are not trains to put on and off the layout too often!  For the moment though inner suburban trains are operated with two 5-coach sets; one is as you say, an authentic 'standard' BR set made up BS-S-S-S-BS, and the other is a 'scratch' set in the same formation but a mixture of BR and pre nationalisation coaches.  Outer suburban trains are also provided by two sets, one reasonably authentic being SLO-BS-CL-CL (Thompson)-SLO-BS (Thompson), and the other a 'scratch' set in the same formation - see post 182.  Main line sets are six coach mixtures of BR and LNER corridor coaches, apart from the 'Peterborough' which is a 5-coach BR set.

 

When I started this, I was mostly inspired by the 'Minories' idea, but realised I could expand it considerably in the space I had. Hence, I originally only envisaged a station catering for suburban traffic, but as you can see, things have moved on quite a bit from there!

 

[31A]

Did someone mention Quad Arts?  Here's a blast from the past, in more ways than one:

 

[manna]

G'Day Folks

 

Oh WOW ! you don't see them very often. Just what I could do with on my Edgware layout.

 

manna

[31A]

G'Day Folks

 

Oh WOW ! you don't see them very often. Just what I could do with on my Edgware layout.

 

manna

 

Took for ever to build; so much fun I've got it all to do again!

[danstercivicman]

It is a magnificent layout! Loving the latest pics!

[CUTLER2579]

 Well Steve,

 

I think you will have to seriously think about getting "Finsbury"  into the press as time is getting short.

 

Not for you, but for me. 71 years young  old and decrepit. 

 

Who knows I may have to come back and haunt you with "When's it going in the Railway Model magazines, then".followed by I do hope your Car starts in the morning.   

 

Kindest Regards,

Old Del  Boy      

Edited February 2, 2018 by CUTLER2579

[31A]

 

 Well Steve,

 

I think you will have to seriously think about getting "Finsbury"  into the press as time is getting short.

 

Not for you, but for me. 71 years young  old and decrepit. 

 

Who knows I may have to come back and haunt you with "When's it going in the Railway Model magazines, then".followed by I do hope your Car starts in the morning.   

 

Kindest Regards,

Old Del  Boy      

 

 

Morning Del Boy, thank you for your kind comments, and persistence!  At Easter I'm acting as a steward at the York Model Railway show, which the "Railway Modeller" team also attend, perhaps I'll be able to "have a word", you never know ...

 

PS I haven't got a car ...

 

[CUTLER2579]

Steve,

Don't feel smug about No Car!  I'll come in Winter and up your Central Heating.  

 

I know your a tough Yorkshireman and don't have Central Heating.!!  

 

I know what         well not really. 

Del Boy.

[danstercivicman]

Apart from the fact your layout is a masterpiece.... I am really interested in the idea of links and diagrams that you wrote about.  

 

My minories style layout could well incorporate this and I was wondering if you could assist?

 

I can see you have:

 

1) Cambridge Services/Expresses (Top Link?) A3's, B17 and Baby Deltics? 

 

2) Suburbans (Normal Shed) Ivatt 4MT, N2, L1, Brush Type 2?

 

3) Goods (Goods Shed) O1, K3, J's etc.   Fitted and Un-fitted goods? 

 

4) Station Pilots (? Shed)  J50, Class 15, Class 03

 

5) DMU's (? Shed)

 

I was thinking that transferring this pattern to a LMR or ex GC (not WCML) themed layout-

 

1) Semi Fast's and Expresses- Britannia, 5MT/Black Five, Jubilee and Class 45?  (Ex GC would be 5MT/Black Five and Britannia only)...later becoming Class 25 hauled

 

2) Suburban- Stanier 2-6-4t, Ivatt 2MT 2-6-0, Fairburn Std Tanks and V2 Tank

 

3) Goods- Crab, Ivatt 4MT, Std Tanks, Black Five and 8F

 

4) DMU's

 

5) Station Pilot???

 

Also you talk about locos running links then going to other links so would that mean that early part of a week you might get a certain A3 which would then not be seen on the layout for a couple of weeks? 

 

Best

 

Dan

[31A]

Hi Dan,

 

Thanks for asking!

 

Perhaps the easiest way for me to answer is to attach below one of the pages from my timetable spreadsheet.  I hope this has worked, as I have never attached such a document before!

 

The document shows the different links that the locos are allocated to, where they start their day, and which diagrams in the timetable they cover.  The names of the links indicate hat type of work the locos perform.  The Fx numbers indicate which Fiddle Yard road they start in (F1, F2 etc.); the equivalent document for the coaching stock sets shows this information for the coaches which indicates which engine is coupled to which coaches at the beginning.  Some of the locos start at "Loco Outlet" which is a short road in the Fiddle Yard - this is used by locos coming light engine "off shed" rather than arriving on a train, and the Station Pilots start their day in the station.

 

To take the "Express Passenger" link as an example (as it comes first!), you can see there are 11 locos in it, of which the top four in the list are allocated to diagrams - this means they get to work on the day in question - and 7 are shown as "Spare" - these are the ones which don't work today.

 

At the end of the day I prepare the next day's list by cutting and pasting the whole block of loco numbers down one row, then taking the one from the bottom and cutting and pasting it to the top.  So in this example, on the next day D205 (the English Electric Type 4) will go to the top of the list and be allocated to Diagram L08, and the others will drop down a row, so 60049 will be at the head of the "Spares" and 1 (the Prototype Deltic - I had to give it a number!) will be at the bottom of the "Spares".  

 

Since I originally listed the locos in numerical order, you can see both A4s are working in the example below, but later they will drop onto the top line of the "Spares" and then drop down a line per day, so it will be some time before they again come round to the top of the list.  For this reason, there will come a day when all four diagrams in the "Express Passenger" link are covered by A3s and no other classes of loco will be seen on those workings.  To be honest I'm not too happy with this aspect and may decide to 'shake up' the numbers so that they don't all follow each other round in numerical order.

 

This system does however mean that each loco gets used equally in turn - there's no picking and choosing of favourites, for example, and by taking the choice away from the operator, gives the impression that somebody else in a remote place has made the choice for you - for example the Motive Power Controller in Control, or the Running Foreman in the Loco Depot.

 

 

The same process applies to the other Links, and the cells containing the loco numbers are linked to other pages of the document, so on the timetable page you can see which loco works which trains during the day.

 

It may seem complicated, but it's simpler than it looks once it's up and running!  The coaching stock sets are allocated diagram numbers but they don't rotate, which makes it easier.  The DMUs aren't included in the above process either but stick to the same diagrams each day.

 

In some cases it's a bit arbitrary which locos have been allocated to which links, for example some of the locos in the "Outer Suburban" link would be equally at home in the "Inner Suburban" link, but in some cases there are restrictions which dictate this, for example Brush Type 2s can't be in the "Inner Suburban" link as they are too long to fit behind the loco release crossover between Platforms 3 and 4!  I've tried to take account of the sheds the locos were allocated to in real life using my 1959 Ian Allan Locoshed Book (for the locos which existed in 1959) so there are two K3s in the GN Main Line link and one in the GE Main Line link which reflects those locos'  home shed allocations.

 

 Loco Links-Table 1.pdf

 

 

With regards to your suggestions for your own layout idea, yes the breakdown you've suggested looks quite reasonable.  I'm not sure which part of the GC you have in mind, but I don't think Class 45s worked over it to any great extent, and you could include more ER tender engines such as B1s, V2s and O4s especially before the southern part passed to the LM, but I guess your list depends on what locos you actually own!

 

I hope the above is helpful and not too complicated, any further questions please ask!

 

Cheers,

 

Steve

[Baby Deltic]

Apart from the fact your layout is a masterpiece.... I am really interested in the idea of links and diagrams that you wrote about.  

 

My minories style layout could well incorporate this and I was wondering if you could assist?

 

I can see you have:

 

1) Cambridge Services/Expresses (Top Link?) A3's, B17 and Baby Deltics? 

 

2) Suburbans (Normal Shed) Ivatt 4MT, N2, L1, Brush Type 2?

 

3) Goods (Goods Shed) O1, K3, J's etc.   Fitted and Un-fitted goods? 

 

4) Station Pilots (? Shed)  J50, Class 15, Class 03

 

5) DMU's (? Shed)

 

I was thinking that transferring this pattern to a LMR or ex GC (not WCML) themed layout-

 

1) Semi Fast's and Expresses- Britannia, 5MT/Black Five, Jubilee and Class 45?  (Ex GC would be 5MT/Black Five and Britannia only)...later becoming Class 25 hauled

 

2) Suburban- Stanier 2-6-4t, Ivatt 2MT 2-6-0, Fairburn Std Tanks and V2 Tank

 

3) Goods- Crab, Ivatt 4MT, Std Tanks, Black Five and 8F

 

4) DMU's

 

5) Station Pilot???

 

Also you talk about locos running links then going to other links so would that mean that early part of a week you might get a certain A3 which would then not be seen on the layout for a couple of weeks? 

 

Best

 

Dan

Hi Dan,

 

As Steve has mentioned in the previous post, Class 45's were not common on the GN because they were really LMR loco's. They were synonymous with the Midland Mainline and St Pancras. The class 46's were pretty commonplace on GN metals with Gateshead 46's working into KX regularly. On the diesel front The Cambridge Buffet Express could be hauled by Brush, NBL, BR, BRCW or EE type 2's although in the end the Brush Type 2's became the mainstay of all KX suburban loco hauled services after all of the other loco types had been moved away or withdrawn. The NBL and BRCW type 2's were very short lived on the GN, and were transferred to Scotland by 1960/1. The BR Sulzer class 24's were transfered away in the mid to late 60s leaving the Baby Deltics and Class 30/31 loco's on inner and outer suburban services until around 1968/9 by which time the Baby Deltic's were being withdrawn. Two Baby Deltic's did survive until 1971 at Finsbury Park but I doubt they would have been used much on passenger service after 1969.

 

Lloyd

[danstercivicman]

Hi Dan,

 

As Steve has mentioned in the previous post, Class 45's were not common on the GN because they were really LMR loco's. They were synonymous with the Midland Mainline and St Pancras. The class 46's were pretty commonplace on GN metals with Gateshead 46's working into KX regularly. On the diesel front The Cambridge Buffet Express could be hauled by Brush, NBL, BR, BRCW or EE type 2's although in the end the Brush Type 2's became the mainstay of all KX suburban loco hauled services after all of the other loco types had been moved away or withdrawn. The NBL and BRCW type 2's were very short lived on the GN, and were transferred to Scotland by 1960/1. The BR Sulzer class 24's were transfered away in the mid to late 60s leaving the Baby Deltics and Class 30/31 loco's on inner and outer suburban services until around 1968/9 by which time the Baby Deltic's were being withdrawn. Two Baby Deltic's did survive until 1971 at Finsbury Park but I doubt they would have been used much on passenger service after 1969.

 

Lloyd

Thank you for the information very much appreciated

[danstercivicman]

Hi Dan,

Thanks for asking!

Perhaps the easiest way for me to answer is to attach below one of the pages from my timetable spreadsheet. I hope this has worked, as I have never attached such a document before!

The document shows the different links that the locos are allocated to, where they start their day, and which diagrams in the timetable they cover. The names of the links indicate hat type of work the locos perform. The Fx numbers indicate which Fiddle Yard road they start in (F1, F2 etc.); the equivalent document for the coaching stock sets shows this information for the coaches which indicates which engine is coupled to which coaches at the beginning. Some of the locos start at "Loco Outlet" which is a short road in the Fiddle Yard - this is used by locos coming light engine "off shed" rather than arriving on a train, and the Station Pilots start their day in the station.

To take the "Express Passenger" link as an example (as it comes first!), you can see there are 11 locos in it, of which the top four in the list are allocated to diagrams - this means they get to work on the day in question - and 7 are shown as "Spare" - these are the ones which don't work today.

At the end of the day I prepare the next day's list by cutting and pasting the whole block of loco numbers down one row, then taking the one from the bottom and cutting and pasting it to the top. So in this example, on the next day D205 (the English Electric Type 4) will go to the top of the list and be allocated to Diagram L08, and the others will drop down a row, so 60049 will be at the head of the "Spares" and 1 (the Prototype Deltic - I had to give it a number!) will be at the bottom of the "Spares".

Since I originally listed the locos in numerical order, you can see both A4s are working in the example below, but later they will drop onto the top line of the "Spares" and then drop down a line per day, so it will be some time before they again come round to the top of the list. For this reason, there will come a day when all four diagrams in the "Express Passenger" link are covered by A3s and no other classes of loco will be seen on those workings. To be honest I'm not too happy with this aspect and may decide to 'shake up' the numbers so that they don't all follow each other round in numerical order.

This system does however mean that each loco gets used equally in turn - there's no picking and choosing of favourites, for example, and by taking the choice away from the operator, gives the impression that somebody else in a remote place has made the choice for you - for example the Motive Power Controller in Control, or the Running Foreman in the Loco Depot.

The same process applies to the other Links, and the cells containing the loco numbers are linked to other pages of the document, so on the timetable page you can see which loco works which trains during the day.

It may seem complicated, but it's simpler than it looks once it's up and running! The coaching stock sets are allocated diagram numbers but they don't rotate, which makes it easier. The DMUs aren't included in the above process either but stick to the same diagrams each day.

In some cases it's a bit arbitrary which locos have been allocated to which links, for example some of the locos in the "Outer Suburban" link would be equally at home in the "Inner Suburban" link, but in some cases there are restrictions which dictate this, for example Brush Type 2s can't be in the "Inner Suburban" link as they are too long to fit behind the loco release crossover between Platforms 3 and 4! I've tried to take account of the sheds the locos were allocated to in real life using my 1959 Ian Allan Locoshed Book (for the locos which existed in 1959) so there are two K3s in the GN Main Line link and one in the GE Main Line link which reflects those locos' home shed allocations.

Loco Links-Table 1.pdf

 

With regards to your suggestions for your own layout idea, yes the breakdown you've suggested looks quite reasonable. I'm not sure which part of the GC you have in mind, but I don't think Class 45s worked over it to any great extent, and you could include more ER tender engines such as B1s, V2s and O4s especially before the southern part passed to the LM, but I guess your list depends on what locos you actually own!

I hope the above is helpful and not too complicated, any further questions please ask!

Cheers,

Steve

Thank you for the reply Very informative, I will power up the computer later to go through the spreadsheet but again thank you

 

I think it shows that as opposed to having 1 each of several classes I actually need more of each class so maybe 2x 5MT, 2x Black Five and multiples of tanks. I guess that's how they allocated to sheds? In batches for servicing/standardisation?

[31A]

You're welcome, Dan!

 

What it does show, is that I've collected far too many locos over the years!

 

But as you say, loco shed allocations usually included several locos of the same class and from the point of view of my layout, if you watch the trains at any station (then or now) you are likely to see several examples of the same classes.  I also like the way my system reflects real life from a train spotters point of view in that if you see, for example, train 74 Up you are likely to see an L1 or a Baby Deltic on it but you won't know which one it will be.  Or one day it might be a BRCW Type 2 instead.

 

But the system would still work if you have a much smaller stud of locos with only one of each class.  For example if you look at the "Goods Link" (12 locos for 3 diagrams), most of the locos in that link are 'one offs', in fact quite a random bunch.  This timetable is a first shot and although it works well, it could be refined further.  I don't really have any idea where the three daily freight trains come from or go to, but the Goods Link could be divided into LM and ER with trains coming from either ER or LM yards and the locos allocated accordingly.  But that would probably mean I'd need to acquire MORE locos, to get enough LM goods locos!

[danstercivicman]

You're welcome, Dan!

 

What it does show, is that I've collected far too many locos over the years!

 

But as you say, loco shed allocations usually included several locos of the same class and from the point of view of my layout, if you watch the trains at any station (then or now) you are likely to see several examples of the same classes. I also like the way my system reflects real life from a train spotters point of view in that if you see, for example, train 74 Up you are likely to see an L1 or a Baby Deltic on it but you won't know which one it will be. Or one day it might be a BRCW Type 2 instead.

 

But the system would still work if you have a much smaller stud of locos with only one of each class. For example if you look at the "Goods Link" (12 locos for 3 diagrams), most of the locos in that link are 'one offs', in fact quite a random bunch. This timetable is a first shot and although it works well, it could be refined further. I don't really have any idea where the three daily freight trains come from or go to, but the Goods Link could be divided into LM and ER with trains coming from either ER or LM yards and the locos allocated accordingly. But that would probably mean I'd need to acquire MORE locos, to get enough LM goods locos!

Cheers

 

My loco stud is fairly large for the size of layout but given the workings it needs to be as Shunting the ecs uses either the milk loco or the station pilot... the tank that worked in before the current working normally ends up being pilot for abit as a fresh one arrives to take its stock back out.

 

Is a diagram a train working? For example the 09:45 to wherever -would that be a diagram? Or would a diagram be the 09:45 out and the 15:00 return?

 

My freight is all milk, fish/meat and banana traffic

 

I'm trying to work out a way to get an 8f into the mix but can only think of fitted freight or ballast?

 

Keep up the good work . Your layout is an inspiration

Edited March 7, 2018 by danstercivicman

[great northern]

Thanks Steve, I now feel far less guilty about all of my locos which sit around doing nothing for weeks on end. We seem to have arrived at similar conclusions and workings, but by different means.

[31A]

Hi Dan,

 

Another attachment!  Another extract from the spreadsheet, this time the Outer Suburban link section of the Loco Diagrams, which shows the trains worked by the different locos in the link, in today's workings.  Note, I have updated the document since I posted the other one yesterday so the loco numbers won't be the same; however if you compare the two you should be able to follow how they have moved down compared to yesterday's.

 

This shows the trains by train number, direction and class of train that the different engines work.  In real life the loco diagrams would show the places that the trains go from and to, but as I haven't defined where the trains actually go to once they leave Finsbury Square I haven't been able to show that information.  As these are suburban workings it's not unreasonable for the same locos to be seen in Finsbury Square more than once; however as you can see some have a harder day of it than others!

 

In this case, Diagram L23 for example (towards the bottom) is covered by L1 2-6-4T 67772 which arrives on Train 42 Up, a Parcels train, and leaves again on 52 Down, again a Parcels train.  Then, later in the day it re-appears on 97 Up Passenger, and its final working is 103 Down, light engine to shed coupled to L28 which will be a loco from the Inner Suburban link (see first picture in Post 192).

 

On the other hand, D5309 on Diagram L27 only works 48 Up and 57 Down today, both Passenger trains.

 

Outer Suburban.pdf

 

As regards your 8F, I should think it would be good for any kind of freight train or a ballast; possibly also good for a parcels although quite rare on those I would have thought, but hardly ever a passenger train (although I think occasionally Swansea-Shrewsbury!?).

 

I don't have any ballast workings at the moment but for the future would like to incorporate 'unusual' trains such as that; I'm thinking about potentially some 'as required' trains which run randomly perhaps depending on the throw of a dice, or maybe have a Sunday timetable with a simplified passenger service but including some Engineers' trains.  However one problem with that is that the Fiddle Yard roads are usually full up with the existing trains for most of the day!

 

 

[danstercivicman]

Hi Dan,

 

Another attachment!  Another extract from the spreadsheet, this time the Outer Suburban link section of the Loco Diagrams, which shows the trains worked by the different locos in the link, in today's workings.  Note, I have updated the document since I posted the other one yesterday so the loco numbers won't be the same; however if you compare the two you should be able to follow how they have moved down compared to yesterday's.

 

This shows the trains by train number, direction and class of train that the different engines work.  In real life the loco diagrams would show the places that the trains go from and to, but as I haven't defined where the trains actually go to once they leave Finsbury Square I haven't been able to show that information.  As these are suburban workings it's not unreasonable for the same locos to be seen in Finsbury Square more than once; however as you can see some have a harder day of it than others!

 

In this case, Diagram L23 for example (towards the bottom) is covered by L1 2-6-4T 67772 which arrives on Train 42 Up, a Parcels train, and leaves again on 52 Down, again a Parcels train.  Then, later in the day it re-appears on 97 Up Passenger, and its final working is 103 Down, light engine to shed coupled to L28 which will be a loco from the Inner Suburban link (see first picture in Post 192).

 

On the other hand, D5309 on Diagram L27 only works 48 Up and 57 Down today, both Passenger trains.

 

Outer Suburban.pdf

 

As regards your 8F, I should think it would be good for any kind of freight train or a ballast; possibly also good for a parcels although quite rare on those I would have thought, but hardly ever a passenger train (although I think occasionally Swansea-Shrewsbury!?).

 

I don't have any ballast workings at the moment but for the future would like to incorporate 'unusual' trains such as that; I'm thinking about potentially some 'as required' trains which run randomly perhaps depending on the throw of a dice, or maybe have a Sunday timetable with a simplified passenger service but including some Engineers' trains.  However one problem with that is that the Fiddle Yard roads are usually full up with the existing trains for most of the day!

 

Thank you for the awesome reply

 

I am definitely going to incorporate more goods into any future layout! 

 

I will have some time to digest the spreadsheets this weekend

[31A]

There's been a lack of progress recently, but with the return of longer daylight (if not always better weather) I've bitten the bullet and uprooted the sign bridge carrying the Home boards, and sorted out the pull wires so that all the arms now return properly to horizontal when 'on'.  This means it's now safe to show pictures from the corner of the layout, showing the view enjoyed by the train spotters who venture as far as Bridge No. 2 which spans the lines just beyond the station throat.  However it isn't the easiest place to take photos from, so please excuse the wall paper and bookshelves in these pictures.  Warning - tension lock couplings content!

 

Here two Diesels await their next turns in the loco spur beneath the signal gantry.

 

 

For the moment, the signals on the gantry are worked by pulling the cords on this 'hurdy gurdy' next to the lever frame; obviously I soon need to pluck up courage to make some more lever frame!

 

 

A Cravens DMU, running as a two car set in the off peak, is signalled to Platform 3:

 

 

Next a Baby Deltic arrives in Platform 2; another of the same class is waiting in the spur to back down onto the other end of its train.  One of the spotters must have blagged his way into the signal box for this view!

 

 

If you can get onto the line side in that area, its's a good place to watch parallel departures.  Here D8240 takes a local passenger out of Platform 3 onto the Down Slow, overtaking 69506 leaving with ECS on the Down Fast.

 

 

Followed later by an L1 on a parcels train.  Some Ground Signals have started to appear - for the moment these are dummies to assess positioning, clearances etc. but making some working ones is another job for the future.

 

 

Back up on the bridge, another local passenger arrives behind a BR Sulzer Type 2; an N2 waits in the spur to take the train back out.

 

 

And lastly for now 60025, having been brought "quite or nearly to a stand", is signalled onto the coaches of an express waiting in Platform 2, using the Calling On arm.  The locos in the spur have changed again!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[ianblenk]

Superb!

 

IB

[great northern]

Oh dear! So the curse of the bookshelves has spread.