The Eagle has landed...

[Dr Gerbil-Fritters]

So many interests, so little time!

[Keith Addenbrooke]

Dear Dr G-F, I’ve just spent an enjoyable hour plus reading through selected pages of this thread: it’s absorbing!
 

Although I don’t have a shed (just a small outhouse / workshop to build a portable layout), I think I also have the issue of sustaining interest in projects - while circumstances sometimes play their part I can’t really pin 40 years of not completing layouts on them.  So the twists and turns all made sense.

 

I think the clue to happiness here first appeared on p26:

 

On 12/05/2016 at 18:20, Dr Gerbil-Fritters said:

 

But why do I keep looking at this?

 

...so perhaps the current plan is not such a surprise after all.  
 

I’m not personally into Irish Model Railways, but I do remember this from said 1979 annual, which I’m sure I got out from our local library more than once in the early 80’s:

 

On 10/07/2020 at 12:16, Dr Gerbil-Fritters said:

 

 

 

 

 

Lovely to see it again, and coming to life once more .

 

This next one got me though - at first I thought the shed had taken a battering, then I read where it was and got even more confused: New Brighton is about ten minutes from where I live and I was there on Friday.  Perhaps it’s not this one:

 

On 31/10/2019 at 07:02, F-UnitMad said:

Or New Brighton where the Soo Line & Minneapolis, Northfield & Southern used to cross on the flat...

 

Today it's CP Rail & the Minnesota Commercial.

 

Unfortunately, of course, it won't be, as the good Dr G-F has left the Dark Side - & I don't think his shed would've been big enough anyway! All it needs now is some spoilsport to point out that his new layout is now in the wrong section of the Forum, even if his motive power isn't. :rolleyes:

 

The thing for me is that when my mojo slopes off, I find it is American modelling that gets me started again, which is what I’ve been doing and why I began reading.  

I’ve spent today fitting 49 sets of Walthers windows to window frames as part of a Cornerstone kit I have as my half-term project (not worth a photo), but I hope it’s OK to sign up for his ride too.  Thank you for saving me from Sunday night TV!  Keith.

Edited October 26, 2020 by Keith Addenbrooke

[Dr Gerbil-Fritters]

I'm glad you enjoyed the saga so far, Keith.  There's more to come although much less dramatic than the big rebuild during the summer.

 

This afternoon I was mainly tinkering with the turntable area and now it's fully wired up I thought it would be amusing to have all four sound equipped CIE 071 locos posed at the engine sidings.  

 

 

Still some track to complete, and point motors to install.  I can operate BR Southern Region, CIE, and 'funnies' which are an odd assortment of Australian and Chinese...

[Clive Mortimore]

Yo Doc

 

Do you have any other CIE locos or DMUs?

[Dr Gerbil-Fritters]

1 hour ago, Clive Mortimore said:

Yo Doc

 

Do you have any other CIE locos or DMUs?

 

Hi Clive, I don't have any DMUs although in the longer term I'd like to bash a NIR Mk2a DEMU.

 

As well as the 4 GM 071s, I have a GM 201 which needs a Mk3 set... so far I only have the Restaurant car which will be a conversion from a Hornby Virgin trains one.

 

I'm waiting for a class 121 for my Mk3 push pull set, I've a set of Cravens with a Mk1 GSV (I am going to cut n shut a BSK into another GSV) and I am bashing a set of Mk2D SuperTrain.

 

Then there's enough freight stock for a pair of liner trains, a set of Ferts a short Tara Mines set and a cement train.

 

I've also a cunning plan to produce some fictitious bogie sundries palletised traffic vans.  A prototype was built and tested but they didn't go into production.

 

The 071s could have been a reliable off the shelf alternative to the 56 and 58... although it probably would have been uprated a bit.  In the end, a version did appear as the class 59 but I do prefer the quaint style of the 071 to the rolling bungalow that is the 59.

 

 

Edited October 31, 2020 by Dr Gerbil-Fritters

[Lacathedrale]

Hello again DGF,

 

I wonder if this my whet your appetite?

 

 

 

[F-UnitMad]

27 minutes ago, Lacathedrale said:

Hello again DGF,

 

I wonder if this my whet your appetite?

 

 

 

"Dear Santa,

This year I have been a very good boy....."

[Dr Gerbil-Fritters]

57 minutes ago, Lacathedrale said:

Hello again DGF,

 

I wonder if this my whet your appetite?

 

 

 

 

Stop it!

 

I have been enjoying this chap's videos - he also has a terrific layout under construction

 

[TT-Pete]

On 06/11/2020 at 10:12, F-UnitMad said:

"Dear Santa,

This year I have been a very good boy....."

 

what the forum needs is a "drool" button...

[Dr Gerbil-Fritters]

I've been working on the station... here's a progress shot, and a hint of where the Eagle has landed this month.

 

 

Perhaps I should rename the thread der Adler ist gelandet...

[rockershovel]

On 17/09/2020 at 12:54, Dr Gerbil-Fritters said:

Small bits of progress this week, I'm still waiting for a couple of turnouts to finish the small yard and access to the engine sidings.  In the meantime, I tweaked the poor old Dapol turntable to within an inch of its life.  It looks better, I think.  It's still nothing like a Southern Railway table, that would be the Peco well type.  But can't fit one of those as there is no clearance.

 

 

I have no idea why my Wrenn 4MT tank is sitting up like a drag racer... doesn't matter, these days it's only ever used as a mobile weight...

 

I've also been bodging about with mechanical point control.  I hadn't factored in the springiness of the wire so 'pushing' is proving somewhat problematic. 

 

 

I suppose I could always resort to surface mounted point motors if this doesn't work.  I was always going to use point motors for the branch junction, as it's too far from the cockpit to control mechanically.

 

Question is, which ones?  The Cobalt SS are permanently out of stock, the Peco and Gaugemaster ones seem a bit on the large size.  

 

I hope I’m not missing something important here, but a layout with purpose built benchwork, with fairly narrow baseboards at shoulder height seems ideal for under-board point motors? 

[Dr Gerbil-Fritters]

2 hours ago, rockershovel said:

 

I hope I’m not missing something important here, but a layout with purpose built benchwork, with fairly narrow baseboards at shoulder height seems ideal for under-board point motors? 

 

Theres not enough clearance under the top deck for under-board point motors.

[Regularity]

This may be late in the day, but it just occurred to me that by replacing one turnout with a single slip, and adding two more turnouts (reusing the displaced one) and a diamond crossover, it becomes possible to have a continuous circuit of double track, for the combined purposes of making the junction look busier and allowing for watching the trains go by.

[St Enodoc]

2 hours ago, Regularity said:

This may be late in the day, but it just occurred to me that by replacing one turnout with a single slip, and adding two more turnouts (reusing the displaced one) and a diamond crossover, it becomes possible to have a continuous circuit of double track, for the combined purposes of making the junction look busier and allowing for watching the trains go by.

At the cost of steeper gradients though Simon.

[Regularity]

2 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

At the cost of steeper gradients though Simon.

On the original, the track was all at datum by that stage.

[St Enodoc]

2 minutes ago, Regularity said:

On the original, the track was all at datum by that stage.

Interesting. Were I building a layout like that, I'd try to get the gradient as shallow as possible between Victoria and the tunnel mouth bottom left. You could then achieve the continuous run by making the reverse loop rise from East Croydon to the junction for Reigate (Redhill?), so it would be at the same level as the country end of Clapham Junction.

[Regularity]

5 minutes ago, St Enodoc said:

Interesting. Were I building a layout like that, I'd try to get the gradient as shallow as possible between Victoria and the tunnel mouth bottom left.

Well, yes. But the point is, he did it the way he did it, not the way you would have done it...

[Dr Gerbil-Fritters]

Here's the problem on my version... about 1.5" in height plus no room this side of the junction for a double junction...

 

 

My grade is 2%.

[CKPR]

On 28/07/2020 at 14:10, F-UnitMad said:

 

Agreed. Take something like the much-vaunted Franklin & Sth Manchester by George Sellios.

Large? Yes.

Detailed? (to within an inch of it's life!) Undoubtedly.

 

Realistic? Erm, no. Not to my mind, anyway.....

 

I dunno, it looks like a realistic model of Ankh Morpork to me.

[Regularity]

You might manage a single connection from the return loop, across a diamond, and back to the down main. 
not ideal, but maybe it would only be used for testing?

[Dr Gerbil-Fritters]

I've done some work on the station.

 

[St Enodoc]

1 hour ago, Regularity said:

Well, yes. But the point is, he did it the way he did it, not the way you would have done it...

Well, yes. But the point is, he didn't have a continuous run either.

[long island jack]

Are you sure your not Michael Palin, where next China!!!

[Dr Gerbil-Fritters]

2 hours ago, long island jack said:

Are you sure your not Michael Palin, where next China!!!

 

Been there, done that, see page 8. 

 

[Talltim]

On 06/11/2020 at 09:44, Lacathedrale said:

Hello again DGF,

 

I wonder if this my whet your appetite?

 

 

 

Was kinda disapointed that this wasn't diesel. It prbably wouldn't sound right tho

https://www.steamworkshop.co.uk/portfolio/5-class-52/