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


Neal Ball
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This Friday 8th March is exactly 1 month since the removal men arrived to move us over here, that evening at 8:15 we sailed from Portsmouth to st Malo and spent three days driving down to Villamartin. At the same time our furniture and the railway were on a freight ferry from Poole to Santander with everything arriving here on the Wednesday 13th Feb.

 

Ahead of this, I wrapped the railway, having cut it in half long an original join. A length of 2x2 was screwed into the outer edge with a frame constructed to keep the two parts at the same point apart. Polystyrene was placed between the two sections to keep it all intact. 

 

It it was then wrapped in an old sheet to stop any of the electrics getting caught on anything and stood on end. The 2 sections of 2x2 acting as a base, the removal men were under instructions that it could only travel on its edge!

 

It’s seen here folded up, waiting to be set up.

 

The two sections seen with the covers off:

 

 

And here, seen apart, the station area on the floor, the throat are seen on a bench that has been left behind.

 

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Edited by Neal Ball
Sept 2023 missing images
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The idea is that the layout will be on one level only, to which end I have started to plan out the supports around the room to take the outer oval. The station area will sit inside the oval.

 

Just before leaving the railway for the evening, I couldn’t resist getting the three new Non-corridor carriages out - it almost looks as if nothing has changed! 

 

 

Edited by Neal Ball
missing photo removed - Sept 2023
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I’ve just read a topic about model railways in Spain and talk of baseboards warping: 

 

hopefully I will be ok, but it looks as if I need to include more ply bracing.

 

 

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Hope all goes back together OK and I bet you'll get it all back together and end up with a bolt left over.....

Leaving you scratching your head, wondering where did this come from!!! Is it critical!!

 

Keep posting with progress.

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Sunday is a day of rest in this part of Spain, as it’s out of season, even the shops are closed!

 

As it’s quiet day, I can’t even drill / saw wood etc. So after Sunday lunch we are sitting on our terrace with a glass of red enjoying the sunshine.

 

Yesterday saw part of the back loop installed, this will be hidden from view, going round the back of the station. (This replaces the section that went under Henley when we were in Felpham.)

 

Originally when I made the boards, I could throw it all up, move it around etc. But with the station already built, it’s a different matter. New leg sections need to be built and these are progressing to the point I only have one more to do before the station section can once again stand up!

 

Hopefully more tomorrow 

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Today’s progress: The first of the two station boards is now up!

 

Extra Wood is now in stock and the second board is progressing well.

 

More details tomorrow.....

 

Sept 2023: Missing image replaced

 

Henleyrunninginboard.jpg.e2b10b53575ce075e9bfcc3bf2bf6b78.jpg

 

 

Edited by Neal Ball
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Today’s installment: 

 

Woodwork continues apace and I now have new legs for the next section of the model. This is the section from Mill Lane bridge to the station throat.

 

It all needs levelling and the two sections joining together. Then it’s a case of connecting all the wiring up, setting up the fiddle yard, plus the lines that will around the outside of the new model. 

 

Sept 2023: I am having issues finding some photos from the server outages. Instead, here's a running board!

 

Henleyrunninginboard.jpg.328a2175c9d5d6f882aec0fd340ed3de.jpg

 

 

Edited by Neal Ball
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Progress continues on getting Henley together again. Although a Castle has made it into the station, there is no track beyond Mill Lane bridge at the moment. 

 

To be continued....

 

Sept 2023: I am having issues finding some photos from the server outages. Instead, here's a running board!

 

Henleyrunninginboard.jpg.284cf03578569ad4cd00b90a91a11ec7.jpg

Edited by Neal Ball
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I’ve just had an email from Bachmann pop into my inbox with 1st samples of the 94xx, they look lovely - rule 1 might need to apply.....

 

Sept 2023: I am having issues finding some photos from the server outages. Instead, here's a running board!

 

Henleyrunninginboard.jpg.84b9b2fa0ac279eb6dbf2543d684e87a.jpg

Edited by Neal Ball
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Plus of course this week, the extra A suffix Hornby carriages have arrived. My 4 were packed this morning at Hattons and will be flying over to Spain by DHL.

 

I had better get cracking on the electrics then!

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Hi Neal making good progress I see, a trip to Alton might be due Friday to get my second set of 4 (A's) can't make my mind up if I need them or really need them. :biggrin_mini2:

 I had to test run the first set they do look nice.

 

 

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Yes they do look nice Bob, I collected my 4th yesterday from the Postroom.

 

Hopefully I can collect them this morning!

 

The railway is having a lot of focus at the moment - we’ve got the builders in, so it’s my escape from their dust and mess!

 

Your layout looks great, is there a thread for it that I have missed?

 

Regards, Neal.

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Off to Alton this morning to collect the rest of them, I must get out in to the garage and clean the rest of the  track I noticed some cobwebs in the last photo. 

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9 hours ago, 81C said:

Off to Alton this morning to collect the rest of them, I must get out in to the garage and clean the rest of the  track I noticed some cobwebs in the last photo. 

 

You got away with it - I didn't notice :-)

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Building work day 3 - the dust continues!

 

I'm in the basement railway room, so out of the way. It was less noisy and dusty today and hopefully tomorrow will see them finish... the downstairs WC before they tackle the upstairs bathroom.

 

Which has all given me the excuse to get stuck into the railway. This morning started with only a few bits of track going into the main line behind the fiddle yard, before work started on "crossing the divide" - relaying track across the section where it was cut in two.

1 - Back siding - all done.

2 - Headshunt / access to back siding - done.

3 - Double slip - access to yard and platform 3 - done, although one of the point motors needs to be realigned. I suspect they both need to be changed.

4 - Platform 1 - needs to be realigned - still to do.

5 - Loco yard access point - all done, needs fixing down and point motor connecting up.

 

Once that list is complete, I can resume wiring up the station approach into the main Bus Bar.

 

Then connect all the points up, clean the track and then I can start getting some locos out.

 

Then the fiddle yard and main line, running round the layout needs to be laid and wired up....

 

Still a bit more to do!

 

Todays casualties? - Knocked the bottle of flux over :-(    & stabbed myself with the tweezers :-(

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Just collected the next set of 57ft carriages, great service from Hattons and DHL.

 

these are the A suffix carriages.

 

If anyone is talking to the transfer manufacturers about doing transfer for “London division” I would also be interested.

 

Thanks, Neal.

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Yesterday’s update! 

 

All track around the station is now complete, the wiring in this section is largely complete, which enabled a couple of trains to run.

 

the point motors all need to be wired up, as does the goods yard.

 

i had a couple of trains running before popping out to the theatre. (Local production of “The play that goes wrong”)

 

Although I cleaned the track, it clearly needs a good going over as running was not straight forward...

 

A selection of photos from yesterday with the new carriages. Once everything is set up and organised a bit more, I think I will need to sort out all those white carriage roofs! I’ve been following the comments on Little Muddle about using grey/black acrylic paints on the roofs. Maybe even mastering a spray gun for some track dirt on the bogies etc.

 

Sept 2023: I am having issues finding some photos from the server outages. Instead, here's a running board!

 

Henleyrunninginboard.jpg.1e3420e0849d1810e0e2e9bbf83f95f8.jpg

 

 

 

Edited by Neal Ball
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It's getting there....

 

But I have a short circuit that I can't find at the moment. In my infinite wisdom, I decided that the fiddle yard and outer "main line" would all be on the same circuit breaker and that's the problem. Theres a short.

 

Sunday in Spain is always a day off*, today I spent changing the terrace awning, so work on this will resume tomorrow - Tuesday.

 

*Normally a day of chilling with a beer on the terrace, listening to Johnnie Walker - last Sunday, I ran the Jacarilla 5km race! 28:15 which I was very pleased about - not a PB, but with the builders here, Ive not been running as much as I should.

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When I was working in Spain I would fly home for the weekend  and never noticed how everything closed at the weekend.   I am out on the Costa Blanca for a week with the family be walked down into Calpe to find a supermarket on Sunday only to find that they were all closed....

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That’s relatively new - although, when we first started coming over @17 years ago everything was closed Sunday and also Siesta.

 

As more malls opened, they traded 7 days a week for at least the last 10 years.

 

That changed with the new shopping centres opening, Sundays became a normal trading day. Then late last year (2018) Valencia passed a law to stop shops opening more than 20 odd Sundays a year. Certainly the big malls - La Zenia being one of them are in uproar as they are loosing trade to the other malls outside the Valencia jurisdiction.

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