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

[Neal Ball]

Thanks very much for the comments David @Pacific231G and John @checkrail

 

I am back at the computer now and will continue my coupling research.

 

In the meantime; today has been spent tidying the railway after the installation of the signals. This involved putting the stock away that has been out for the last couple of weeks or so. In doing so, I realised that I am a signal short 😞 There is no signalled route from the engine shed area, past the water tower and out onto the Up line.

 

At the real Henley, this was taken care of with a signal called "The Christmas tree". It was a single post signal, with multiple arms, pointing in both the up and down direction. I need to think how I will replicate this as a working signal....

 

 

 

I have also done some ballasting; filling up the areas around the new signals as well as those areas that I have just never got round to!

 

 

I have also finished off a few passengers and staff to go on the station

 

These are Bachmann passengers and station staff - it was only after taking the photo, I realised the fella at the back is supposed to be pushing a barrow! - He is now! - although as I left the railway room, he was still on the workbench being glued to his barrow.

 

 

At the end of the platform we have a selection of Modelu figures - the Victorians on the right of Platform 1 are new. The others are scans of Robbie and I, together with a Bachmann character, those at the end of Platform 2 are the models of Andy York @AY Mod and Phil Parker @Phil Parker. Since arriving at the railway they have been a bit nomadic as they keep falling over so are now fixed to Platform 2.

 

 

The new Modelu characters are Jem (0321); Seated lady with bag (1503) and Mama Wag (0320) - I have yet to name them for Henley and give them a back story.

 

 

The recent (new) telegraph poles can be seen in the background.

 

Further down Platforms 1 and 3 are a set of Bachmann and (possibly) Merit characters. One of the female passengers on Platform 1 was caught with a mobile 'phone.... It was promptly cut off and she is now holding her husbands arm!

 

Platform 1: There are two couples in this shot, both are attached at the arms, in the hope that I don't need to fix them down to the Platforms. I have two other couples on the workbench with their arms being glued together, who will join the other passengers at the station.

 

Platform 3: on the left is a Bachmann porter; together with Modelu and Bachmann milk churns. I did wonder whether they should be in the goods yard, or on the platform ready to get the next local train - or would they be collected by the pick-up goods / next parcels train to arrive?

 

 

I now have a couple of days painting around the house, so progress at Henley will be slow.

 

All in all, a very productive day.

Edited April 1, 2022 by Neal Ball
photos changed

[AY Mod]

3 minutes ago, Neal Ball said:

the models of Andy York @AY Mod

 

I see the hair's backdated.

[checkrail]

The thought of building a working signal like Henley's 'Christmas tree' would frighten me to death.  And it beats me how loco crews knew what they meant!

[Neal Ball]

3 minutes ago, checkrail said:

The thought of building a working signal like Henley's 'Christmas tree' would frighten me to death.  And it beats me how loco crews knew what they meant!

 

As well as signalling from the engine road onto the Up line; there were signals in both directions to/from the Carriage sidings on the Up side. From the carriage sidings, the signals allowed access into Platform 1 and 2.

[bgman]

12 minutes ago, Neal Ball said:

fAndy York @AY Mod and Phil Parker @Phil Parker. Since arriving at the railway........ they keep falling over

 

PUB ! 

[Phil Parker]

1 hour ago, AY Mod said:

 

I see the hair's backdated.

Someone's not been looking at the prototype... 

[Neal Ball]

8 hours ago, Phil Parker said:

Someone's not been looking at the prototype... 

 

I was being creative lol.

 

There must be loads of your models on RMWeb members layouts, together with @Howard Smith, yet they don’t seem to appear very often. Or at least not that I’ve seen.

[KNP]

Layout looks great.

Coming to life.

 

Perhaps AY is wearing a woolly hat?

Edited February 9, 2021 by KNP

[Neal Ball]

1 minute ago, KNP said:

Layout looks great.

Coming to life.

 

Perhaps AY is wearing a woolly hat?

Or a wig? 

[Enterprisingwestern]

On 07/02/2021 at 22:08, Neal Ball said:

Clearly it’s a huge undertaking to change all the stock... 

 

You could do it whilst converting to EM!

 

Mike.

Sombrero, capa etc.

 

 

[ChrisN]

I do like it when layouts begin to acquire people, it brings them to life.  Some put too many people on, but Henley was a busy station, still is at times, so it is not looking overcrowded yet.  Are Andy and Phil taking notes about the layout or train spotting?  

 

Milk Churns:  My understanding is that they were taken in passenger trains as they needed to get to the diary quickly.  Once at the diary they would have been put in tankers and sent on an express freight.  Did Henley have its own small diary.  If so then the churns may have gone straight to the diary and these ones are being returned.

 

You probably know that the smaller churns were introduced in the 1930s so having both types is good and adds interest.

 

I do like that signal.  I am sure that as the drivers had been signed off on that route one of the test questions would hve been about that post to make sure they knew what it was all about.

 

[Neal Ball]

1 hour ago, ChrisN said:

I do like it when layouts begin to acquire people, it brings them to life.  Some put too many people on, but Henley was a busy station, still is at times, so it is not looking overcrowded yet.  Are Andy and Phil taking notes about the layout or train spotting?  

 

Milk Churns:  My understanding is that they were taken in passenger trains as they needed to get to the diary quickly.  Once at the diary they would have been put in tankers and sent on an express freight.  Did Henley have its own small diary.  If so then the churns may have gone straight to the diary and these ones are being returned.

 

You probably know that the smaller churns were introduced in the 1930s so having both types is good and adds interest.

 

I do like that signal.  I am sure that as the drivers had been signed off on that route one of the test questions would hve been about that post to make sure they knew what it was all about.

 

Thanks Chris,

 

I didn’t think about a dairy at Henley, I automatically thought about West Ealing.. I too like the variety in the churns, I didn’t know the dates when they were introduced.... I have more of the larger ones, which are Modelu, so that makes sense.

 

As for passengers, clearly I don’t want to overdo it, but need to add a lot more yet. Again I think variety is the order here, so I want to mix up the different brands. Plus it’s important to have small groups as if people are charring etc. 
 

I added a Bachmann Porter onto the goods dock as well, with the aim of doing a mini scene similar to those on Little Muddle that @KNP does so well. I’m thinking of a situation on the dock, as I like to move my vehicles around.

 

Thanks for the comments. I’m off to get the Henley on Thames Kelly directory to check out the local dairy.

[Neal Ball]

4 hours ago, Enterprisingwestern said:

 

You could do it whilst converting to EM!

 

Mike.

Sombrero, capa etc.

 

 

EM - very unlikely :-)

[Howard Smith]

On 09/02/2021 at 06:28, Neal Ball said:

 

I was being creative lol.

 

There must be loads of your models on RMWeb members layouts, together with @Howard Smith, yet they don’t seem to appear very often. Or at least not that I’ve seen.

 

A blessing, perhaps?

H

[Neal Ball]

Today has been a bonus day at Henley - bonus, as the weather was threatening rain, so my outside painting was on hold. Which was a bonus on the railway.

 

This time, my pairing of figures worked well and these are now glued together in such a way that means they can move around the platforms: 

 

Im quite keen on being able to change things easily and the ability of moving passengers on occasion I think is good. Just to ring the changes etc.

 

One person who won’t be moving though, is our drunken sailor outside the Vidler arms. He is a Modelu character:

 

The driver of the steam tractor is a GW driver from Modelu. At the moment he is just lose on the tractor, but I think he works quite well on board. I shall have to get some more for the other traction engines.

 

My attention then wandered from people (although a parcel later arrived from Gaugemaster containing new passengers), instead I started painting up a couple of horse drawn lorries. I’ve had them a while, one is from Dart, the other is Langley.

 

The idea is that one will be a coal lorry, the other a Brewery Dray. The latter is supposed to be behind a steam lorry, in a similar fashion to the Brakespear photo I posted a while ago.  
 

Both the horse drawn lorries are in white metal and whilst fiddly, are easy enough to make up. The steam lorry is a different matter. It’s a plastic kit from Knightwing and doesn’t go together very well.  I might be better off replacing the kit with a Matchbox / models of yesteryear steam lorry.

 

Or of course, just stick with the horse drawn Dray.

 

I’m pleased that both these lorries have the feature to use a Horse, or have the Horse loose, being fed etc. With the wooden Breeching laying on the ground. Apparently the breeching is the two Wooden beams that connect from the lorry to the horse.

 

I left everything to dry, before returning later to put a few parts together. To be continued.... suffice to say these are going to be quite nice lorries.

 

My attention then turned to my two Slaters Toplights. I am determined to get them running in the next couple of weeks, a month at the outside. 

There are odd bits to do on each, which should be straight forward- I’ve done 3 of the 4 corridor connectors - soldered - so I will have to solder up number 4 as well.

 

The main issue is the bogies. They don’t run, fall off the track and are generally a pain in the wotsit. So they’ve gone! I have now replaced them with 4 BSL bogies that I’ve had for ages. The ride height is a little high at the moment, but at least they can now run round a curve, plus they are fine running through the points.

 

They should be running to Henley on the branch line local service soon(ish).

 

To be continued.....

 

 

Edited April 1, 2022 by Neal Ball
photos changed 1/4/22

[St Enodoc]

1 hour ago, Neal Ball said:

they can move around the platforms

Wow!

[Neal Ball]

1 hour ago, St Enodoc said:

Wow!

As if by magic :-)

[Neal Ball]

No work at Henley on Thames this weekend. It's a lovely sunny Saturday afternoon here in Spain, with a temperature of 24 in the shade.

 

Clearly, all very different from the weather in the UK at the moment. I have just looked at the Talyllyn webcams and see that it is currently snowing and -2 degrees.

 

Thanks to Mike aka @The Stationmasterwho posted a link to the Henley Standard newspaper, who have filmed flood waters at Henley, where the River Thames has burst it's banks: https://www.henleystandard.co.uk/video/tv/73742/henley-s-floods-filmed-from-the-air.html?cmpredirect

 

All very different to our life in Spain. Wherever you are this weekend, stay safe.

Edited April 1, 2022 by Neal Ball
photo removed 1/4/22

[Neal Ball]

I am pleased to say that my layout of Henley on Thames is appearing in its first exhibition this weekend.

 

As well as Henley there are 25 other layouts, its free, but please donate to the Cholsey Wallingford line.

 

http://www.kenavon.btck.co.uk/Exhibition 

[Neal Ball]

Saturday lunchtime project update:

 

I have received the first consignment of Kadee couplings; with another batch due to be delivered on Monday. The first delivery came from Hattons, although it seems the NEM couplings are out of stock in a few model railway shops in the UK. Therefore consignment 2, with the NEM 18 and 19 are coming from a model shop in Barcelona.

 

Kadee in the USA has plenty of stock, but it seemed silly to order from America if one of their stockists here could oblige.

 

This week I've spent quite a bit off time painting passengers for my carriages. I probably have enough for 6 or 8 carriages now. Eventually they will go into the carriages, once I have installed LED lights. 

 

It's been a nice little project to return to in between my various house decorating chores!

 

Then yesterday, I bought some more superglue (3 tubes for €1) to finish off the horse drawn lorries (Dart and Langley). I've always used araldite, but changing over to Superglue made fixing the white metal kits a lot easier. I left them overnight to harden off properly and now need to finish the painting etc. 

 

With Superglue in hand, I'm going to try and finish the steam lorry off, just to see if it can be done and added to the scene with the horse drawn dray. I think it needs a few changes to get it to look half decent!

 

To be continued, have a good weekend....

 

 

[ChrisN]

21 minutes ago, Neal Ball said:

I am pleased to say that my layout of Henley on Thames is appearing in its first exhibition this weekend.

 

As well as Henley there are 25 other layouts, its free, but please donate to the Cholsey Wallingford line.

 

http://www.kenavon.btck.co.uk/Exhibition 

 

I logged onto this earlier today and the show looks good, with everything displayed from the start.  I looked at your layout first as I wanted to see how it was being shown.

 

I shall be taking my grandson to the exhibition tomorrow afternoon, and will show him that first.  When I used to take him to Henley before he went to school we would at some point go from Henley to Twyford to train spot, so he, like me, knows Henley as it is now.  I shall be interested to see what he says when he sees your layout.

[Neal Ball]

28 minutes ago, ChrisN said:

 

I logged onto this earlier today and the show looks good, with everything displayed from the start.  I looked at your layout first as I wanted to see how it was being shown.

 

I shall be taking my grandson to the exhibition tomorrow afternoon, and will show him that first.  When I used to take him to Henley before he went to school we would at some point go from Henley to Twyford to train spot, so he, like me, knows Henley as it is now.  I shall be interested to see what he says when he sees your layout.

 

Have fun, hope he approves.

[Neal Ball]

Following the Kenavon railway society exhibition weekend in February, I have now made the video live for everyone to see. 
The video runs to just over 6 minutes and was seen by 115 people. It’s probably the longest video I have made of the railway.

 

I hope you enjoy it: 

 

 

I have been looking at a number of videos on YouTube recently, in my quest for fitting advice for the Kadee couplings. There is obviously a wealth of information on line.... but I can’t find that anyone has shown videos of UK carriages being retro fitted.

 

So far, I’ve been to America and seen a huge, multi level railroad and understand more about the need for the uncoupling magnets. The Grande Pacific railroad is a layout by Arthur Houston: 

 

 

Ive looked at Deresley by David Hyde and got caught up in his layout planning and operational videos. Whilst David uses Stratton and Winkle for his goods traffic, it set me thinking about the way I operate Henley: https://youtube.com/channel/UCf19i6XrVOK99d9PWJ9ZZrA 

 

I did find a couple of videos from the UK, but they deal with fitting the couplings to wagons. This one is interesting  as it’s showing fitting the couplings where there is no NEM socket: 

 

 

Overall though, it’s clear that one size doesn’t fit all.

 

 

Edited March 4, 2021 by Neal Ball

[Mikkel]

Hi Neal, I opened up your video to full screen and just sat there enjoying the GWR in all its splendour. I was especially taken by the Prairie reversing into the siding, the combination of sound and black and white worked really well I think.

 

Thanks for brightening up the morning!

 

 

[Neal Ball]

Kadee couplings:

They do what the say on the tin! 
 

In my summary of information above, I should have added that I watched a YouTube video from Charlie at Chadwick railway, which was useful. As well as getting advice from @gwrrob who has been very helpful.
 

I have a magnet set up in Platform 1, it needs to be fixed in place still, this will involve cutting out the sleepers to drop the height a little bit.

 

The first loco fitted with Kadees is Rood Ashton Hall, together with a rake of Collett carriages. They ran into the station, paused over the magnet, uncoupled and the loco was able to run round. All without me having to touch anything. 
 

With a minimum amount of fuss everything worked straight away, which i am very pleased with. I am now identifying full rakes of carriages to treat the outer carriages accordingly. At this stage, I am changing the inside couplings to the alternative close coupling supplied with the carriage. Eventually they will go over to Kadee.

 

I started out with various items bought from Hattons:

 

 

This has now been supplemented by a couple of sets from a shop in Barcelona. I realised straight away that I needed some couplings to cater for the fact that I need to increase or decrease height - but I’m jumping ahead of myself.

 

On Rood Ashton Hall, I decided to dispense with the NEM pocket and fix a #5 and “gear box” onto the tender. The Collett carriages were straight forward, simply a case of a #19 into the NEM.

 

But as can be seen, I need to change the #5 medium for a long #26 - I’ve found the different numbers confusing at first.... But I think I have finally got the hang of it....

 

 

 

The loco to Collet carriage is very tight:

 

 

 

But it doesn’t derail

 

The uncoupling works like a breeze:

 

 

With the couplings in their “off centre” position, it would be easy to shunt the train without it coupling up again.

 

As part of my starter pack, I added the height gauge (essential) and as can be seen, not every carriage will line up straight away. In the case of the Hornby clerestory and the Bachmann Sunshine carriages, the gear box needs to sit on top of the fitting to get the right height.

 

 

Its not pretty, but functional... cutting the carriage end to allow the bogie to swing properly. The clerestory has been running fault free for about a week. Yesterday I tackled the Bachmann sunshine which proved to be tricky to get right. Taking off just enough, but in the end it seemed quite drastic. But at least it’s running ok now.

 

 

 

At least with the Clerestories this replaces the toy like tension lock and from the normal viewing distance, you won’t see all of this.

 

I now have 2 rakes of Collett carriages and 3 locos.... I have also done a couple of wagons, where it was simply a case of dropping the coupling into the NEM pocket.

 

The next step is to place a large order direct with Kadee as no one else seems to carry the full stock. Within Europe it’s mainly couplings to fit direct into the NEM socket. I will also order some screws direct from them in the hope that the heads are not as proud as the ones I’ve been using. That will save some surgery!

 

Jobs for today: identify the shopping list before meeting some friends this afternoon- bars in our part of Spain have been allowed to open from last Monday  (50% of outside space only) until 6pm daily. Although already, everyone is talking about a lockdown for Easter.

 

More Kadee news to follow!

 

Photos changed 1/4/22 following the RMWeb server issues:

 

Caerphilly Castle seen alongside the Kadee height gauge:

 

 

and no 5076 Dryswllyn Castle

 

 

 

Kadee no 5

 

Edited April 1, 2022 by Neal Ball
photos changed 1/4/22