Mid-Cornwall Lines - 1950s Western Region in 00

[acg5324]

Good luck with that.....train planning is a bit of a dark art. Even with all the computer systems we used to find the odd error crept through. Usually one unit being used twice or a train being formed of a non existent inbound service. It got to the stage where they used to supply a weekend list of E&OE!

[St Enodoc]

43 minutes ago, Neal Ball said:

It will be interesting to see how you get on. The last time I tried to run a sequence with post it notes, for Henley, I had all of the situations you describe! Added to which, I also had to get extra stock out to run for one service only. I think at the time I said it needed more work and I’ve not got back to it since.

 

We too are having a new kitchen, which has seen the house in disarray. We moved out though as that was easier.... the mess is awful! We’ve been out for 3 weeks, moving back in yesterday, although the kitchen is still probably about a week away from being finished.

 

Good luck! 

Thanks Neal. Yes, some of my stock (and locos) only make one trip over the full two days as well. As I've mentioned before, the sequence is derived from the 1952 Summer service (working) timetable but with only about 60% of the trains. It runs from 0001 Friday to 2400 Saturday, after which the stock has to be repositioned and remarshalled by hand. I could have generated some fictitious moves to get everything back to its starting point but frankly there didn't seem to be any point.

 

As far as the kitchen is concerned, it's a lot more than just the kitchen. We have four rooms that share a wooden floor so we had them all done at the same time, including some repositioning of doorways and so on. It should have been done by early November but the flooring subcontractor stuffed up and had to come back to put an extra coat on the floor. That delayed a number of other things and so the job has extended from an expected two months to just over three.

 

Worth it though.

[St Enodoc]

45 minutes ago, acg5324 said:

Good luck with that.....train planning is a bit of a dark art. Even with all the computer systems we used to find the odd error crept through. Usually one unit being used twice or a train being formed of a non existent inbound service. It got to the stage where they used to supply a weekend list of E&OE!

You're right Andy. Notwithstanding the computer systems, a good planner is worth his (the ones I know are all blokes) weight in gold, whether it be in the head office planning team or out in the field sorting things out in real time following some disruption (remember George Milton? He was one of the best I've known).

[Barry O]

Planning and builders/contractors? 

 

Does not compute!

Glad to hear you should be shipshape for Christmas. 

Baz

[St Enodoc]

1 hour ago, Barry O said:

Glad to hear you should be shipshape for Christmas.

I bl00dy well hope so.

[Clive Mortimore]

2 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

 

 

As far as the kitchen is concerned, it's a lot more than just the kitchen. We have four rooms that share a wooden floor so we had them all done at the same time, including some repositioning of doorways and so on. It should have been done by early November but the flooring subcontractor stuffed up and had to come back to put an extra coat on the floor. That delayed a number of other things and so the job has extended from an expected two months to just over three.

 

Worth it though.

Mrs M is waiting for her flooring sub-contractor to get started......I can here her now ....."When are you going to get off that toy train forum?"

[woodenhead]

9 minutes ago, Clive Mortimore said:

Mrs M is waiting for her flooring sub-contractor to get started......I can here her now ....."When are you going to get off that toy train forum?"

Sub contract it, you know it makes sense

[KeithMacdonald]

3 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

Thanks Neal. Yes, some of my stock (and locos) only make one trip over the full two days as well. As I've mentioned before, the sequence is derived from the 1952 Summer service (working) timetable but with only about 60% of the trains. It runs from 0001 Friday to 2400 Saturday, after which the stock has to be repositioned and remarshalled by hand. I could have generated some fictitious moves to get everything back to its starting point but frankly there didn't seem to be any point.

 

Could there be some freight services that don't appear on the working timetable? Appearing at random times, as if by magic.

[Oldddudders]

32 minutes ago, KeithMacdonald said:

 

Could there be some freight services that don't appear on the working timetable? Appearing at random times, as if by magic.

Q paths would be favourite. "Runs as required".

 

My layout is a lot less complex than John's, but I have had a rudimentary try at running a real 1950s WTT - except that it wasn't exactly planned. I found myself opening a lot of boxes as the WTT day "progressed" to find more 2-Sets and TKs, and as expected found the CWN demanded few FKs! And splitting Kadee-fitted, corridor-connected coaches, as required several times, proved a bit challenging - and that was without trying to put a tail lamp on the departing front portion!

[Andrew P]

3 hours ago, Oldddudders said:

Q paths would be favourite. "Runs as required".

 

My layout is a lot less complex than John's, but I have had a rudimentary try at running a real 1950s WTT - except that it wasn't exactly planned. I found myself opening a lot of boxes as the WTT day "progressed" to find more 2-Sets and TKs, and as expected found the CWN demanded few FKs! And splitting Kadee-fitted, corridor-connected coaches, as required several times, proved a bit challenging - and that was without trying to put a tail lamp on the departing front portion!

Black Tack for Tail Lamps Ian, works for me anyrate.

[St Enodoc]

11 hours ago, KeithMacdonald said:

 

Could there be some freight services that don't appear on the working timetable? Appearing at random times, as if by magic.

 

10 hours ago, Oldddudders said:

Q paths would be favourite. "Runs as required".

 

My layout is a lot less complex than John's, but I have had a rudimentary try at running a real 1950s WTT - except that it wasn't exactly planned. I found myself opening a lot of boxes as the WTT day "progressed" to find more 2-Sets and TKs, and as expected found the CWN demanded few FKs! And splitting Kadee-fitted, corridor-connected coaches, as required several times, proved a bit challenging - and that was without trying to put a tail lamp on the departing front portion!

In general terms, there were often local freight workings that didn't appear in the WTT/STT (the (G)WR used the latter term) in the form of "trip" workings. There were some of these in the Cornwall area but most if not all of the workings at the time and in the area I'm modelling were timetabled . Of course, there's nothing to stop me running extra trains as and when I feel like it but of itself that doesn't solve the conundrum of getting from Saturday night to Friday morning in a simple and sensible way.

 

Splitting and joining - yes, there'll be a fair bit of that both in the storage areas (obviously) and on the scenic area. My stock is formed in sets but each set can vary from one to eight coaches in length. Some trains, especially parcels trains, may be formed of up to six separate sets of different lengths. Within each set there is no need to uncouple, so semi-permanent couplings are fitted (well, only about 90% are fitted so far...) with DG couplers at the outer ends of each set. Tail lamps - yes, a challenge. I plan to use micromagnets embedded in the lamps and steel brackets, as I've mentioned earlier with regard to loco lamps.

 

Sets of three or more coaches will stay on the track all the time but sets of one or two will often be lifted to and from the stock shelves at Paddington and Penzance.

[Neal Ball]

20 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

Thanks Neal. Yes, some of my stock (and locos) only make one trip over the full two days as well. As I've mentioned before, the sequence is derived from the 1952 Summer service (working) timetable but with only about 60% of the trains. It runs from 0001 Friday to 2400 Saturday, after which the stock has to be repositioned and remarshalled by hand. I could have generated some fictitious moves to get everything back to its starting point but frankly there didn't seem to be any point.

 

As far as the kitchen is concerned, it's a lot more than just the kitchen. We have four rooms that share a wooden floor so we had them all done at the same time, including some repositioning of doorways and so on. It should have been done by early November but the flooring subcontractor stuffed up and had to come back to put an extra coat on the floor. That delayed a number of other things and so the job has extended from an expected two months to just over three.

 

Worth it though.

You clearly have a lot going on at the moment, good luck with it all.

[St Enodoc]

4 hours ago, Neal Ball said:

You clearly have a lot going on at the moment, good luck with it all.

Thanks Neal. It's certainly putting layout construction further down the queue but I can still make progress with the "paper railway".

[Nick C]

Bear in mind that in those days there would have been sets that did only do one working in a weekend, and wouldn't get back to their starting point - going back the following week. I've seen 26 hour long loco diagrams too...

[St Enodoc]

15 hours ago, Nick C said:

I've seen 26 hour long loco diagrams too...

Where, Nick? I've got all the carriage workings, courtesy of Xpress Publishing and Robert Carroll's BR Coaching Stock e-forum, but engine workings are like rocking horse droppings. I've had to make mine up, based on a) a tiny number of extracts from specific workings that I've found in various places and b) making the best use of the fleet of locos I've got. Any reliable prototype workings/diagrams would be more than welcome.

[Nick C]

2 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

Where, Nick? I've got all the carriage workings, courtesy of Xpress Publishing and Robert Carroll's BR Coaching Stock e-forum, but engine workings are like rocking horse droppings. I've had to make mine up, based on a) a tiny number of extracts from specific workings that I've found in various places and b) making the best use of the fleet of locos I've got. Any reliable prototype workings/diagrams would be more than welcome.

Southern Region I'm afraid - the SEMG (Southern email group) have got a whole load. They can be pretty hard to follow, there's some that end in a different place to where they start, and others that follow on from each other differently on different days.

 

As an example, Nine Elms duty 4 - off shed 2.0am, finish 3.52 am (though it does return to shed in the middle, 11.30am - 2.19pm). Duty 72, leave Fratton Loco 5.20am, arrive Nine Elms 6.15am (via Eastleigh loco, twice). Conversely four diagrams just do a single run Waterloo -> Exeter Central (or vice versa)

[St Enodoc]

5 hours ago, Nick C said:

Southern Region I'm afraid - the SEMG (Southern email group) have got a whole load. They can be pretty hard to follow, there's some that end in a different place to where they start, and others that follow on from each other differently on different days.

 

As an example, Nine Elms duty 4 - off shed 2.0am, finish 3.52 am (though it does return to shed in the middle, 11.30am - 2.19pm). Duty 72, leave Fratton Loco 5.20am, arrive Nine Elms 6.15am (via Eastleigh loco, twice). Conversely four diagrams just do a single run Waterloo -> Exeter Central (or vice versa)

Ah yes, the Southern workings seem to be much better-documented. I'll keep looking but for now I'll stick with what I have. I should have added that of course a key source is photos - if I see a picture of a loco on a train that I run then I try to replicate the class if not the actual loco.

[St Enodoc]

My Christmas holidays have started, meaning that I won't have to go anywhere near an airport for two whole weeks!

 

I did some more work over the weekend on the expanded sequence, including the starting position for each train. I think this is pretty close now, so I went out to the railway room this afternoon to move some trains around from where they'd finished up at the end of the last running session. I moved all the sets that already have their set numbers marked to their starting positions. I also attached their locos, where possible, and placed some other locos in their starting position too, even though the sets for their trains haven't been numbered and set out yet.

 

While I was doing this I found one or two more foul fouling point markers, which was a little annoying as I thought I'd checked them all. I'll have to do so again and move the offending ones.

 

Then I can number some more sets and place them either on the layout or on the storage shelves according to where they need to be at the start of the sequence. That will give me an opportunity to tidy up the storage shelves too.

 

The overall aim is to have the expanded sequence ready to use in four weeks' time for our first running session of the New Year, when we will again be joined by guest operator Barry O of this parish.

[Barry O]

Let the chaos begin!!!

Baz

[Oldddudders]

4 minutes ago, Barry O said:

Let the chaos begin!!!

Baz

Chaos? You engineers never tolerate chaos, surely?

[Barry O]

It happens to be the case with a certain year group who all studied Engineering in Leeds at the same time...

 

Baz

[Oldddudders]

32 minutes ago, Barry O said:

It happens to be the case with a certain year group who all studied Engineering in Leeds at the same time...

 

Baz

Ah - the younger generation!

[St Enodoc]

37 minutes ago, Barry O said:

It happens to be the case with a certain year group who all studied Engineering in Leeds at the same time...

 

Baz

...one of whom claims to be a CONTROL Engineer!

 

I ask yer!

[St Enodoc]

9 minutes ago, Oldddudders said:

Ah - the younger generation!

OK Boomer...

[Oldddudders]

5 minutes ago, St Enodoc said:

OK Boomer...

Yup, 71 and counting.....