Midland Railway in EM gauge

[St Enodoc]

I am starting to run the layout once more after a bit of a layoff. Seems a waste to be indoors when the weather is exceptional, but after a little sun I would rather be in shade.

our pics today are to do with exchange traffic, in the form of milk vans. The early morning local from Kettlewell runs down the valley collecting milk in churns in two milk vans. These are detached at Kirkby Malham and will be 'picked' up by passenger train bound for Leeds (Wellington Road) The pics today show the milk vans being left in the milk dock, and having been loaded, are attached to a passenger train. The main subject is the train, hauled by a Kirtley 800 class 2-4-0 running over the last board to have any form of scenery to be added.

This board will come down again soon to have the signal mechs installed and scenery to be finished off.

The pics seem to be a bit dark and I have tried to lighten them up a little.

There is one carriage missing from the usual train. Unfortunately, one of the bogies fell apart, necessitating bringing my tube of evostick into play.

Derek

I like the sweep of the reverse curve in photo 3.

[Mrkirtley800]

Thank you St Enodoc. The reason for the reverse curve was to bring the main lines to the front of the baseboards, and at the same time include Hanlith Junction.. It was a tight call and only made possible by building the Junction on a curve. Good job I enjoy building pointwork.

The main fiddle yard had to be within easy reach because of my arthritic joints, curse them.

Derek

[skipepsi]

That is a proper job no doubt about it. I did worry that you wouldn't be able to carry on but you have and it is great.

[Mrkirtley800]

I have been working on my horse bus of late, although I seem to be a bit short in the mojo department just now.

The vehicle, as bought, was lacking in most details, so, as a change from railway wagons, I did a concentrated work out on the bus, fitting rails around the open deck, rails down the open side of the stairs and a kicking board on the closed side.  a repaint was followed by glazing the lower deck, and a destination board, and here it is.

The model is advertised as 1:76 scale but my model looks to be on the small side, although I don't have a drawing or any dimensions to support my thinking.

However, it looks OK parked up outside Kirkby Malham station, awaiting trippers wishing to go over to Malham and not have to walk.

When I was last in Malham many, many years ago, I seem to remember a rather nice little café just by the bridge over Malham Beck.  It may be long gone now, and I never knew the owners back in the 1960s, so whoever had it in 1908 heaven knows, but our Ephraim must have an arrangement with the tea shop proprietor, as he drops off and picks up his passengers right outside the shop .

Derek

 

[DavidB]

Very nice indeed - what with Coachmann Larry's cracking old bus photos, Rapido Jason's new Brummie bus (complete with tasty-looking moquette) and now your lovely horse-drawn model, this is all getting very enjoyable for those of us who like a bit of classy road transport every now and again!

 

David

[Mrkirtley800]

It is Whit Monday, 8 June 1908 and the Temperance Society of Leeds together with West Leeds Methodist Sunday Schools have organised an outing to Malham for their members. So at 07.55 on a beautiful sunny morning a train sets off for Kirkby Malham. It calls at Armley (Canal Road) Kirkstall and Horsforth picking up excursionists at the outer stations, and finally arriving at Kirkby Malham at 10.05.

There is now a walk of just over two miles to Malham, or some may go by horse bus, Ephraim Ainsworth has met the train and is waiting expectantly for custom. When arriving at Malham, the party will split. Those energetic souls will set off on a brisk walk, whilst the rest have another half mile walk to Malham Cove, where they will have lunch, having brought food with them.

The weather remains warm and dry, and after a healthy day out, playing cricket or rounders or just sitting by the stream, it is time to set off back to the station. the train is timed to leave at 6.00pm, and by 5.45 the leader of the outing has counted the trippers back. Two of the men from the Temperance Society are absent, but their wives have no doubt where they are.

Alfred Hurst and Bill Thomas have settled down in the coolness of the Public Bar in the Railway Hotel with their second pint of beer in front of them, and at peace with the world when Agnes and Maud, their wives (you wouldn't wish to meet Agnes and Maud in a narrow passage on a dark night) appeared. Poor Alf and Bill were marched back to the station and made to ride in the brake van. As Agnes said "you will not breathe the breath of Satan over those little children". The party arrived in Leeds by 8.15pm and our miscreants were kept in the van until all the children had left the station. Oh dear!!

 

The train is made up of 54 foot corridor carriages. I don't usually run them on Kirkby Malham so decided to give them an outing. I very much doubt that the Midland would have used them on an excursion train. Those coaches, designed by David Bain, would have been almost brand new in 1908. The coaches were built from Trevor Charlton parts, which I have described previously on this thread.

Similarly it would not have been double headed, but I wanted to see how I could handle a double header in my station.

Not very well as it turned out. The section breaks were in the wrong places, and it was a bit of a pain to get the engines turned and coupled together again. So double heading is out. I never intended doing any double heading when building the station, probably just as well.

We have now returned to something resembling normality at Kirkby Malham with Ephraims horse bus plying its trade among the villages, having made a tidy sum from the excursionists.

Derek

Edited June 7, 2018 by Mrkirtley800

[Mrkirtley800]

For reasons only known to itself, the 'puter did not load the piccies, so here goes.

[George Hudson]

Have to add my comments to many others, this is perfection!

 

Andrew

[Mrkirtley800]

Every time I look at photos taken around Hanlith Junction it becomes more urgent to do some sort of a back scene.

Then there is the dry stone wall that need to be built up.

Perhaps when one of my sons visits, I will have the last two boards taken down, and try and complete the basics.

Derek

Edited June 7, 2018 by Mrkirtley800

[Donw]

It is Whit Monday, 8 June 1908 and the Temperance Society of Leeds together with West Leeds Methodist Sunday Schools have organised an outing to Malham for their members. So at 07.55 on a beautiful sunny morning a train sets off for Kirkby Malham. It calls at Armley (Canal Road) Kirkstall and Horsforth picking up excursionists at the outer stations, and finally arriving at Kirkby Malham at 10.05.

There is now a walk of just over two miles to Malham, or some may go by horse bus, Ephraim Ainsworth has met the train and is waiting expectantly for custom. When arriving at Malham, the party will split. Those energetic souls will set off on a brisk walk, whilst the rest have another half mile walk to Malham Cove, where they will have lunch, having brought food with them.

The weather remains warm and dry, and after a healthy day out, playing cricket or rounders or just sitting by the stream, it is time to set off back to the station. the train is timed to leave at 6.00pm, and by 5.45 the leader of the outing has counted the trippers back. Two of the men from the Temperance Society are absent, but their wives have no doubt where they are.

Alfred Hurst and Bill Thomas have settled down in the coolness of the Public Bar in the Railway Hotel with their second pint of beer in front of them, and at peace with the world when Agnes and Maud, their wives (you wouldn't wish to meet Agnes and Maud in a narrow passage on a dark night) appeared. Poor Alf and Bill were marched back to the station and made to ride in the brake van. As Agnes said "you will not breathe the breath of Satan over those little children". The party arrived in Leeds by 8.15pm and our miscreants were kept in the van until all the children had left the station. Oh dear!!

 

The train is made up of 54 foot corridor carriages. I don't usually run them on Kirkby Malham so decided to give them an outing. I very much doubt that the Midland would have used them on an excursion train. Those coaches, designed by David Bain, would have been almost brand new in 1908. The coaches were built from Trevor Charlton parts, which I have described previously on this thread.

Similarly it would not have been double headed, but I wanted to see how I could handle a double header in my station.

Not very well as it turned out. The section breaks were in the wrong places, and it was a bit of a pain to get the engines turned and coupled together again. So double heading is out. I never intended doing any double heading when building the station, probably just as well.

We have now returned to something resembling normality at Kirkby Malham with Ephraims horse bus plying its trade among the villages, having made a tidy sum from the excursionists.

Derek

 

It is always nice to run 'extras' makes a change from the every day trains. Now I have heard a lot of rumours that the Midland was known for double heading. Mind you that is one of the things I like about DCC compared to  DC. With DC you have to work out all the train move you are going to want to do and check there are the right section breaks to handle the planned traffic. With DCC you can forget all of that and adding a pilot or a banker is much simpler. If you want to run double headers and do a quick turn around you need a Y junction you can turn them both together.

Certainly the two locos and the rake of coaches make a lovely train. It would look grand on Jeff's Kirby Lunside S&C layout.

 

Don

[Compound2632]

Very handsome anyway. I expect there were quite a few places that were ill-equipped to handle double-headed excursion traffic!

[Mrkirtley800]

It is always nice to run 'extras' makes a change from the every day trains. Now I have heard a lot of rumours that the Midland was known for double heading. Mind you that is one of the things I like about DCC compared to  DC. With DC you have to work out all the train move you are going to want to do and check there are the right section breaks to handle the planned traffic. With DCC you can forget all of that and adding a pilot or a banker is much simpler. If you want to run double headers and do a quick turn around you need a Y junction you can turn them both together.

Certainly the two locos and the rake of coaches make a lovely train. It would look grand on Jeff's Kirby Lunside S&C layout.

 

Don

I agree with what you say, and if I was 20 years younger I just might go over to DCC. Having said that, my station is a very minor one and the facilities that DCC offers would be largely wasted.

Derek

[Edwardian]

I have been working on my horse bus of late, although I seem to be a bit short in the mojo department just now.

The vehicle, as bought, was lacking in most details, so, as a change from railway wagons, I did a concentrated work out on the bus, fitting rails around the open deck, rails down the open side of the stairs and a kicking board on the closed side.  a repaint was followed by glazing the lower deck, and a destination board, and here it is.

The model is advertised as 1:76 scale but my model looks to be on the small side, although I don't have a drawing or any dimensions to support my thinking.

However, it looks OK parked up outside Kirkby Malham station, awaiting trippers wishing to go over to Malham and not have to walk.

When I was last in Malham many, many years ago, I seem to remember a rather nice little café just by the bridge over Malham Beck.  It may be long gone now, and I never knew the owners back in the 1960s, so whoever had it in 1908 heaven knows, but our Ephraim must have an arrangement with the tea shop proprietor, as he drops off and picks up his passengers right outside the shop .

Derek

 

A very subtle and successful re-working of the die-cast 'Days Gone' horse 'bus, if I'm not mistaken. 

 

I had one as a child.  The size of the horses and the passengers that came with it suggest it is at least 1/72nd of not a little larger, to the best of my recollection, but not too big to blend in if treated well, as you have.

 

 

For reasons only known to itself, the 'puter did not load the piccies, so here goes.

 

Absolutely superb.  A visual feast, for which many thanks.

 

The whole scene is blended perfectly.  Whether taken as a whole or in detail, it is stunning.

[Regularity]

I agree with what you say, and if I was 20 years younger I just might go over to DCC. Having said that, my station is a very minor one and the facilities that DCC offers would be largely wasted.

Derek

That's a not infrequently expressed opinion, but I think it rather misses the point.

 

To draw an analogy, just because my fridge is full, doesn't mean I can't have a packet of crisps as a snack.

 

You don't have to use all and every facility that DCC offers, and not using them is not a waste. You simply define what you want to do, and use those features.

 

I would say that for most people, the ability to fine-tune some aspects of motor performance is useful;

The better running that comes from a constant voltage of about 14v is extremely useful;

If space is available, the improvements in running that a keep-alive or stay-alive circuit plus capacitors is phenomenally useful.

 

The major benefit comes from the nature of DCC, which is that there is an on-board microprocessor which will only provide power to the motor in response to commands sent specifically for that model's identity.

This means two things: 

1. You can run a train to wherever it should have stopped, without worrying about switching on the correct sections and isolators;
2. You can run another loco up to this train, to couple on the front for double-heading, to couple on the rear for pilot work, to simply buffer up to the rear for banking, without having to faff around with (and without having to install) lots of section breaks, feeds and switches.

In short, it decouples running a train from the "control panel", which means you drive the train/engine and not the track, and you get better running. 

And this means that you can wire the layout such that you can run against signals, just as you do on the real thing. There are two ways to achieve this simply. One is to wire up the crossing vees to a "frog juicer" which flip-flops the current supply to the vee to match what is required. The other is to have dead sections at crossing vees, and install stay-alive capacitors to store enough energy to get you over those sections.

 

Everything else, lights, sounds, "consisting" (which is running engines in multiple, as opposed to tandem so not appropriate for steam!) is just extras. And entirely optional.

 

The same, simple system without the "bells and whistles" can also be achieved by using radio control with a constant supply over the rails and small batteries to keep things going across dead sections. (Or by simply using larger batteries and not powering the track at all!)

[Donw]

I agree with what you say, and if I was 20 years younger I just might go over to DCC. Having said that, my station is a very minor one and the facilities that DCC offers would be largely wasted.

Derek

 

I quite understand why you might not want to fit decoders into those lovely locos. Also I have no doubt that with your experience the section breaks you put in do the job for the operations you normally run. I do find it amusing that people show a track plan and ask how should this be wired with no mention of the traffic pattern, nor the stock they will be using. 

 

Don

[sem34090]

Stunning.

 

I am, for once, lost for words.

[Mrkirtley800]

Hello Regularity, yes, I agree with most of what you say, but since Iam now in my ninth decade I really don’t want to be bothered with disturbing my locomotives. Had I decided on DCC I would have wanted to fit all my locos, and that would have been quite a major endeavour, since when they were built, DCC was not even a twinkle in the inventors eye. So perhaps at least some would need quite extensive working.

They all work well with their present arrangements, some better than others but I am working on that, so really I am happy with things as they stand.

When I started on the conversion from Canal Road to Kirkby Malham, I had a good idea of the traffic patterns I intended to introduce and this has not varied from day one. The only thing I have not done is to write down my timetable. This job was left to the winter months when my railway room would be cold. It hasn’t worked out like that, I have spent more time than I had anticipated on the hardware of the model, and really only just got everything going. Even now scenery, in the form of dry stone walls, needs work, and since I am not able to stand for more than a couple of minutes, it means bringing each board in turn on to my bench so that I can sit down to work.

I can tell you, it is very frustrating.

Derek

[Mrkirtley800]

A very subtle and successful re-working of the die-cast 'Days Gone' horse 'bus, if I'm not mistaken. 

 

I had one as a child.  The size of the horses and the passengers that came with it suggest it is at least 1/72nd of not a little larger, to the best of my recollection, but not too big to blend in if treated well, as you have.

 

 

 

 

Absolutely superb.  A visual feast, for which many thanks.

 

Yesi the horse bus is from the ‘Days Gone By’ range. It is a useful source of old road vehicles and very reasonably priced.

Derek

 

The whole scene is blended perfectly.  Whether taken as a whole or in detail, it is stunning.

[Regularity]

Hi Derek,

 

I was not trying to persuade you: in your circumstances, I wouldn’t be changing, either!

 

My point was that tempus fugit aside, even a “very minor” station would benefit from the better running and simpler control of DCC, and the “extra facilities” would be irrelevant rather than wasted.

 

Keep up the good work!

[Mrkirtley800]

Yes, once again, I can only agree with what you are saying Regularity, the better the operational possibilities the more interesting the modelling becomes.

Derek

[Barry O]

Derek,

I have fitted dc chips to a Jidenco MR inside framed 2-4-0, a Ks spinner and a Ks kirtley outside frame 0-6-0 without too many horrors so dcc can work with most MR locos.

Baz

[coachmann]

I would have loved to have seen YouTube videos of your MR locos with DCC sound. But I respect and understand your position Derek. I wouldn't have taken that route had a pal down the road not done it first. He spent several weeks re-wiring his 40 year old colliery circuit and fitting several colliery locos with sound and when I heard them at work it was a case of, 'Wow....gotta have it'.  So I build layouts around sound, operation and Kadees, but not necessarily in that order....

[lmsforever]

The Midland was the finest company and you have captured it so well I look forward to seeing your next post keep em coming please.

[Mrkirtley800]

I would have loved to have seen YouTube videos of your MR locos with DCC sound. But I respect and understand your position Derek. I wouldn't have taken that route had a pal down the road not done it first. He spent several weeks re-wiring his 40 year old colliery circuit and fitting several colliery locos with sound and when I heard them at work it was a case of, 'Wow....gotta have it'.  So I build layouts around sound, operation and Kadees, but not necessarily in that order....

Having seen your vids Larry, I am sorely tempted, but if I started I would want to convert all my locos and I guess some would be a bit difficult. If only DCC had arrived in the 1970s

Derek

[Mrkirtley800]

It was my birthday last Monday (presents to the Post Office, Kirkby Malham please).  Few trains ran last week, but one goods arrived at Kirkby Malham  behind a Kirtley 0-6-0.  My old faithful as you might say. 

After an hours shunting and sorting wagons into the required sidings, it set off to Trafalgar Street yard (Bradford).

Only got two pics, the first exiting the yard, under the Mastiles Lane bridge.

The second taken as the train passed over Hanlith Junction.  It will pick up wagons at Winterburn before Rylstone South Junction.  Embsay East follows when our goods joins the Skipton to Ilkley line and then runs non stop to Bradford, via Menston, Guiseley amd Esholt.

That old Kirtley started life as a Ks kit, and came as a birthday present from Olga in 1966.  It has had a new, and better, motor and gearbox, and replacement wheels and axles, but the bodywork is virtually unchanged from its original condition.  Painted by Coachman Larry.

I really must do something about a backscene and build up those stone walls.

Derek

I see the 'puter is playing tricks again, and mixed up the pics.

Edited July 2, 2018 by Mrkirtley800