Henley-on-Thames - GWR in the 1930's

[Neal Ball]

I've been able to get a few hours on the railway today, or more to the point "playing trains".

 

It's surprising how long it takes to work out which locos and stock to use for a running session... leaving so little time for actually running the trains!

 

I did manage to run some trains and the 43xx; 61xx and Castle locos were stretching their legs.

 

Here is the 43xx running past the sheep, having just gone under Mill Lane bridge.

 

 

I still need to get a few jobs done on the 43xx.... hopefully I can get a few more hours on the railway tomorrow.

 

It's only a week to go now for the Hornby 2021 announcement.... how many full brakes and/or Collett restaurant carriages will I need? Hopefully they see sense and produce some K or H diagrams to complement the stock... Lets wait and see.

Edited April 10, 2022 by Neal Ball
edit: typo

[Neal Ball]

GWR 4-6-0 no 4073 Caerphilly Castle is seen arriving at Henley on Thames with a service from London Paddington.

 

 

 

[Neal Ball]

An unusual view!

 

I've had a busy afternoon on the railway today, so much so, there were 12 locos running and 65 photos / videos taken.

 

I spent a peaceful 1/2 hour or so, marshalling the incoming goods pick-up. I forgot to change the points, so it pulled up in Platform 2 instead of Platform 1 - the loco was trapped there!

 

I used the 45xx Prairie 2-6-2T as the shunter and it moved backwards and forwards to sort out the coal wagons. In doing so, I made sure I had too many wagons for the space available - just to make it tricky! It was great.

 

But then the 3pm from Paddington arrived and put paid to all that messing about!

 

There were locos everywhere; hence shewing todays photo of the engine shed and turntable area. I don't often take photos from this angle. On shed tonight we have 4-6-0 no 4073 Caerphilly Castle; 57xx Pannier tank no 5766 with Henley branded Toad brake van; 2 x 61xx 2-6-2T no 6109 and 6132.

 

[Neal Ball]

Turntable woes

 

I should have added last night that I have now placed an order for a Greenwood turntable.

 

It will be the 70ft GWR table:

 

 

https://greenwoodmodelrailwayproducts.co.uk/shop/oo-turntable-kits/oo-gauge-70-gwr-turntable/

 

Hopefully it will arrive in January at some point.

 

In order to get it to fit in, I will probably end up changing slightly the track layout in this area. But at least I will end up with a table where I can run the loco onto and turn it onto any track without having issues! Currently I still have to dive under the boards, pop up the other side and hopefully it will go round!

 

I have gone for the built option with full indexing. 
 

Ive no doubt it will be tricky to get it in, but the results should be worth it in the end. To be continued.....

[bgman]

If the Greenwood O Gauge items I have had are anything to go by then I don't think you'll be disappointed Neil. I will look forward to seeing the turntable as no doubt will many other followers here.

I saw this being operated on his display stand at the Taunton show a couple of years ago and it looked the business.

 

Stay safe and a Happy New Year to you and of course to all others who follow this thread.

 

G

[Neal Ball]

4 hours ago, bgman said:

If the Greenwood O Gauge items I have had are anything to go by then I don't think you'll be disappointed Neil. I will look forward to seeing the turntable as no doubt will many other followers here.

I saw this being operated on his display stand at the Taunton show a couple of years ago and it looked the business.

 

Stay safe and a Happy New Year to you and of course to all others who follow this thread.

 

G

 

Thanks for that Graham. 

 

Apparently they are falling behind with the orders at the moment as they are so busy....

 

I'm looking forward to finally getting that part of the railway finished.

 

Happy New Year.

[Neal Ball]

Things have been a bit quiet at henley on Thames in the last couple of weeks, although I have been progressing a few things - photos to follow....

 

Mill Lane Bridge:

I decided ages ago that the area around the Mill Lane bridge needed to have its depth increased. It's a nice photogenic area, but suffers as you can see the workbench below! It needed to be made larger and finally today, I have finished off part of the work. Once everything has dried, I will fix the fences in and add a couple of trees.

 

The issue:

 

 

 

The extra parcel of land was added, filled with polystyrene and covered with paper Mache:

 

 

 

With a new battery in the Static Grass applicator, I set too and covered the ground with my various Woodland Scenics static grass:

 

 

 

 

 

 

The fences need to be glued in position and trees added when the grass is dry. I will also tidy up the front lower fascia - once it's its dry the drawing pins will come out.

 

 

 

Whilst this has been going on, I have now also finished the recent Modelu figures and painted a couple more carriage roofs. 'photos to follow....

Edited April 1, 2022 by Neal Ball
photos added after server upgrade March 2022

[Nick Gough]

As Eric Morecambe said, "You can't see the join!"

[MrWolf]

It's like building an empire without the bloodshed. 

[john dew]

Nice job Neal.......I guess the extension will cause less cropping and give you better camera angles?

 

One of my regrets is that I didnt pay enough attention to this as Granby developed.

 

Although you have added scenery, I think your extension is actually a very good example of less is more. 
 

Keep safe

 

 

[Neal Ball]

Thanks very much guys.

 

8 hours ago, Nick Gough said:

As Eric Morecambe said, "You can't see the join!"

 

I hope not... although inevitably there are a couple of tell tale marks if you look closely. 
 

Initially I put static grass only on the new section, then let it dry. After which the masking was removed and selected areas gone over again, in effort to get rid of any hard lines.

 

3 hours ago, john dew said:

Nice job Neal.......I guess the extension will cause less cropping and give you better camera angles?

 

One of my regrets is that I didnt pay enough attention to this as Granby developed.

 

Although you have added scenery, I think your extension is actually a very good example of less is more. 
 

Keep safe

 

 

Having finished, I then started to think about extending it further round. But where do you stop? Whilst a nice idea, it’s also good to be able to get in closer with the camera.

 

Im pleased with the result and will next move onto another couple of areas that haven’t been tackled yet.

 

Thanks again for the comments.

[Neal Ball]

Brexit:

Things will obviously calm down, but at the moment it’s a pain!

 

I have decided to change all the static Ratio signals for working Dapol ones. To do so, I am sending back for PX a load of models that are surplus to requirements, that came from dads model railway.

 

They were collected by UPS on 4th Jan and took 2 weeks to get to Madrid. The delivery date has so far changed once to today (Wednesday 20/1/21) at lunchtime. But given they are still in France (2 days now), I suspect they are going to be delayed again.

 

Deliveries to Spain are also taking their time.

 

Pre-Brexit, everything took a week, at the moment it’s clearly very slow.

 

In the meantime I have my Modelu figures to contend with and also more static grass.... tbc!

[St Enodoc]

2 hours ago, Neal Ball said:

Brexit:

Things will obviously calm down, but at the moment it’s a pain!

 

I have decided to change all the static Ratio signals for working Dapol ones. To do so, I am sending back for PX a load of models that are surplus to requirements, that came from dads model railway.

 

They were collected by UPS on 4th Jan and took 2 weeks to get to Madrid. The delivery date has so far changed once to today (Wednesday 20/1/21) at lunchtime. But given they are still in France (2 days now), I suspect they are going to be delayed again.

 

Deliveries to Spain are also taking their time.

 

Pre-Brexit, everything took a week, at the moment it’s clearly very slow.

 

In the meantime I have my Modelu figures to contend with and also more static grass.... tbc!

Might be more to do with Covid than Brexit, Neal. Post between the UK and here, in either direction, used to take an average of two weeks. Now it's closer to six, mostly due to lack of capacity for air freight.

Edited January 20, 2021 by St Enodoc

[Neal Ball]

28 minutes ago, St Enodoc said:

Might be more to do with Covid than Brexit, Neal. Post between the UK and here, in either direction, used to take an average of two weeks. Now it's closer to six, mostly due to lack of capacity for air freight.

 

Plus Madrid was hit quite badly by snow..... its just part of lifes rich tapestry at the moment....

 

I'm keeping an eye on Hattons stock levels and hopefully there will still be sufficient stock when the parcel arrives and then is opened etc.

[Neal Ball]

On 20/01/2021 at 07:38, Neal Ball said:

Brexit:

Things will obviously calm down, but at the moment it’s a pain!

 

I have decided to change all the static Ratio signals for working Dapol ones. To do so, I am sending back for PX a load of models that are surplus to requirements, that came from dads model railway.

 

They were collected by UPS on 4th Jan and took 2 weeks to get to Madrid. The delivery date has so far changed once to today (Wednesday 20/1/21) at lunchtime. But given they are still in France (2 days now), I suspect they are going to be delayed again.

 

Deliveries to Spain are also taking their time.

 

Pre-Brexit, everything took a week, at the moment it’s clearly very slow.

 

In the meantime I have my Modelu figures to contend with and also more static grass.... tbc!

Getting closer!

Having had 2 days in France, the parcel arrived at the UPS clearing depot around Tilbury yesterday, where the delivery day slipped to Friday (tomorrow).

 

Overnight though it’s made it to Manchester and was booked in at 5am. Having spent so long clearing the EU it’s good to see it’s getting closer.

 

Apparently the issue is that all traffic to/from the UK/EU has to be cleared at customs units within the courier company depots. The couriers are then find if it goes wrong.

 

Another issue is VAT. Some UK companies are not charging vat at point of sale, leading to the courier keying vat. They then add €15 charge to the parcel. I’m waiting for a parcel from YouChoos and will see what happens.

 

Brexit / Covid / Social distancing, its all sent to try us, but at least a form of normality will arrive soon!

[Neal Ball]

Patience is a virtue!

In this rather strange world that we find ourselves in post Brexit but still full of Covid. Mail deliveries are not what they once were....

 

My parcel to Hattons, using UPS, took almost three weeks. It arrived in Widnes last Thursday and because a couple of the items were low on stock, I ordered to my trunk a few items I needed. These were despatched last Thursday using DHL. They were due today, but got held up at the Spanish DHL hub for a day before arriving at Alicante airport today. 

 

The lady from DHL called to check a few details, but didn't understand "Model Railway items" preferring "Toys"!  This parcel should now arrive tomorrow.

 

Inside I have 5 new signals, which will see all the Ratio fixed signals replaced with working Dapol ones.... There are a couple of other items in there as well. 

 

Then at @3:30pm, I had an email from the postroom advising that I had a parcel..... this one was from YouChoos sounds and included 2 x sound decoders. 

 

This order took 2 weeks to get here via Royal Mail and Correos and thankfully no issues at customs.

 

No doubt everything will calm down and deliveries will get through in a more timely fashion!

 

 

[Neal Ball]

Castle sound:

 

The only Castle class loco that isn't sound fitted is no 5076 Drysllwyn Castle (2 are Howes and 1 is Hornby TTS).

 

The decoder is a Zimo MX645R 8 pin decoder with a Rail exclusive LS50x15x14 Loudspeaker - its huge! The decoder has obviously had its spec changed since my last order as it now includes a 470uf capacitor pre-wired onto the decoder.

 

 

It was a tight squeeze, but eventually I managed to get it in 🙂

 

 

The work involved removing all of the false floor under the coal load - not made easy by the fact that I had glued coal on top, in the process glueing in the false load.

 

Two hours later! I managed to get the speaker and decoder into position.

 

Ive made a short video of the loco on the tracks which will probably get uploaded tomorrow at some point. I need to change the CV settings yet.

 

Tomorrows job will see another loco being converted to sound.... this will be interesting / a bit different.

 

Server upgrade March 2022:

Unfortunately after the changes at RMWeb and the loss of photos, I am going through adding photos back in. I have just fund that I dont have the photos showing the Castle decoder upgrade.

 

So here is a photo of the Castle instead!

 

Edited April 1, 2022 by Neal Ball
photo added

[john dew]

Hi Neal

 

Glad all your parcels finally arrived.....I am, of course, looking forward to hearing your new sound chip but I am even more interested in following your progress with installing and operating the Dapol signls.....its on my list for Granby so any comments or advice will be very much appreciated

 

Keep Safe

[Neal Ball]

1 hour ago, john dew said:

Hi Neal

 

Glad all your parcels finally arrived.....I am, of course, looking forward to hearing your new sound chip but I am even more interested in following your progress with installing and operating the Dapol signls.....its on my list for Granby so any comments or advice will be very much appreciated

 

Keep Safe

 

Thanks very much John.

I've just looked on the DHL tracking page and it still says "Customs status updated", rather than out for delivery :-( although that was last night, so plenty of time for it to be changed before the local trucks start leaving the depot. The airport is 3/4hour away from us, so there is plenty of time.

 

Also included are the new stay alive components from DCC concepts to be fitted into the Oxford Deans Goods. Its going to be a squeeze to get it all into the small tender!

 

To be continued....

[Neal Ball]

5 hours ago, Neal Ball said:

 

Thanks very much John.

I've just looked on the DHL tracking page and it still says "Customs status updated", rather than out for delivery :-( although that was last night, so plenty of time for it to be changed before the local trucks start leaving the depot. The airport is 3/4hour away from us, so there is plenty of time.

 

Also included are the new stay alive components from DCC concepts to be fitted into the Oxford Deans Goods. Its going to be a squeeze to get it all into the small tender!

 

To be continued....

I spoke too soon..... I’ve spoken to DHL this morning and the parcel is stuck in customs.

 

Despite paying for a 1 to 2 day service, the reckon the parcel won’t get released from customs until the end of this week or the beginning of next week.

 

Apparently customs at Alicante airport are snowed under at the moment. 
 

The parcel will get here when it does. I guess the answer is not to order anything from the UK at the moment. Wait until the post Brexit arrangements are sorted and hopefully COVID would be on the way to getting sorted as well.

[john dew]

8 hours ago, Neal Ball said:

 

Thanks very much John.

I've just looked on the DHL tracking page and it still says "Customs status updated", rather than out for delivery :-( although that was last night, so plenty of time for it to be changed before the local trucks start leaving the depot. The airport is 3/4hour away from us, so there is plenty of time.

 

Also included are the new stay alive components from DCC concepts to be fitted into the Oxford Deans Goods. Its going to be a squeeze to get it all into the small tender!

 

To be continued....

I am sorry my congratulations were a bit premsture......this must be very tiresome.....hopefully things will settle down shortly.....I guess the customs guys wont be in a good mood with all the extra work

 

It is tight fitting everything into the Dean Tender but it can be done and makes a huge difference to the running. The plastic coal has to go of course.....I seem to remember carving out one of the internal support walls.

 

Hope they arrive soon

[Neal Ball]

On 27/01/2021 at 16:51, john dew said:

I am sorry my congratulations were a bit premsture......this must be very tiresome.....hopefully things will settle down shortly.....I guess the customs guys wont be in a good mood with all the extra work

 

It is tight fitting everything into the Dean Tender but it can be done and makes a huge difference to the running. The plastic coal has to go of course.....I seem to remember carving out one of the internal support walls.

 

Hope they arrive soon

 

Thanks John.

 

Instead of being the signaller, today I have been looking at both the new sound fitted locos...

 

 

 

Drysllwyn Castle has been out stretching his legs.

 

Then work started on my Dapol GWR / AEC Parcels Railcar:

 

 

 

This sound project is from Youchoos on a Zimo MX644D decoder and a Rail Exclusive large twin speaker SP40x20x10

 

 

On the project page at Youchoos, it shows carving out a large part of the floor. Given you cant see inside, I decided to leave the speaker loose inside the railcar. 

 

 

It fits quite tightly, so shouldn't move, the speaker wires are soldered onto the loco PCB board - its tight!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Compared to the Castle this was a very quick job.

 

I then set both locos up in Railmaster using the Sprog3.

 

Very pleased with the results. Video to follow.

 

edited 1/4/22 following the server issues at RMWeb - unfortunately I dont have the "work in progress" photos to add back in.

Edited April 1, 2022 by Neal Ball

[Harlequin]

21 minutes ago, Neal Ball said:

 

Thanks John.

 

Instead of being the signaller, today I have been looking at both the new sound fitted locos...

 

 

Drysllwyn Castle has been out stretching his legs.

 

Then work started on my Dapol GWR / AEC Parcels Railcar:

 

 

This sound project is from Youchoos on a Zimo MX644D decoder and a Rail Exclusive large twin speaker SP40x20x10

 

 

On the project page at Youchoos, it shows carving out a large part of the floor. Given you cant see inside, I decided to leave the speaker loose inside the railcar. 

 

 

It fits quite tightly, so shouldn't move.

 

 

The speaker wires are soldered onto the loco PCB board - its tight!

 

 

 

Compared to the Castle this was a very quick job.

 

I then set both locos up in Railmaster using the Sprog3.

 

Very pleased with the results. Video to follow.

 

Hi Neal,

 

FYI: I found with both my Railcars (No. 12 and No.17) with MX644Ds that the sound volume gradually lowered after they had been left running for a while until it was almost silent. I believe this is due to the decoder getting too hot because it's sealed in that little space and is adjusting itself to prevent complete burnout.

 

I ended up cutting a big hole in the floor of the parcels railcar to give it some ventilation and that seems to have fixed it. That's not so easy in the passenger railcar though because it's more visible.

 

I also found that no matter how good a speaker I installed the sound is always rather muffled just because it has no good way out of the body shell. I haven't solved this one yet.

 

Edited January 27, 2021 by Harlequin

[Neal Ball]

1 minute ago, Harlequin said:

Hi Neal,

 

FYI: I found with both my Railcars (No. 12 and No.17) with MX644Ds that the sound volume gradually lowered after they had been left running for a while. I believe this is due to the decoder getting too hot because it's sealed in that little space and it then adjusting itself to prevent complete burnout.

 

I ended up cutting a big hole in the floor of the parcels railcar to give it some ventilation and that seems to have fixed it. That's not so easy in the passenger railcar though because it's more visible.

 

I also found that no matter how good a speaker I installed the sound is always rather muffled just because it has no good way out of the body shell. I haven't solved this one yet.

 

 

Thanks Phil,

 

Strangely, I've found it to be the other way round! The Castle sound seems to be muffled, whereas the Railcar sounds pretty good!

 

It will be interesting to compare your Railcar sounds with my No 17. 

[Neal Ball]

I've taken some photos of the new area surrounding Mill Lane Bridge thais afternoon. 

 

I need to fix one section of fence onto the ground and then paint up a missing section - which can't be seen in the 'photos.

 

I think it still needs a few more trees - or perhaps some bushes etc.

 

 

 

 

Edited April 1, 2022 by Neal Ball
Mill lane photos added already