Midland Railway in EM gauge

[Mrkirtley800]

Thank you Andy, hope you are feeling more yourself. You gave us all a nasty shock, and I am sure, you weren’t too happy either.

That corner was always going to be a problem, but it took a bored Derek lying in a hospital bed last July, to think it through. It needs a lot more vegetation on the sides of the cutting really to represent gorse.

I have now got the two points working from switches and today hope to see the signal operating. But if the truth were told, I am fed up with this board, it has taken me so long to reach this stage. I will be glad when I can reassemble the railway and do some playing.

Derek

[Andrew P]

Thank you Andy, hope you are feeling more yourself. You gave us all a nasty shock, and I am sure, you weren’t too happy either.

That corner was always going to be a problem, but it took a bored Derek lying in a hospital bed last July, to think it through. It needs a lot more vegetation on the sides of the cutting really to represent gorse.

I have now got the two points working from switches and today hope to see the signal operating. But if the truth were told, I am fed up with this board, it has taken me so long to reach this stage. I will be glad when I can reassemble the railway and do some playing.

Derek

Yes thank you Derek, much better already, it was a shock, but luckily for me I knew very little of what was going on, apart from the Surgeon telling me different things that he was doing during the procedure.

 

Yes get some play time, the vegetation can wait.

Edited January 21, 2018 by Andrew P

[Mrkirtley800]

I am still plodding on with the scenic side of things, although the cold weather has limited my stay in the railway room.

We have now more or less finished board 9, with the loading bank for the transhipment of stone. Today I have been installing electro magnets in the vicinity of the stone siding, for the automatic uncoupling of the Alex Jackson couplings. The proposed working is that a goods from Kirkby Malham will stop just short of the points leading to the siding and uncouple empty mineral wagons from the rest of the train. The minerals, of course, will be at the head of the train. The engine will draw forward until clear of the points, then propel the mineral wagons into the siding. If there are loaded wagons already there, they will be couple to the empty wagons, drawn forward and attached to the train. The train will have brakes pinned down on several vehicles as well as the screw brake in the brake van. This stretch of line is level. so we do not require all the wagon brakes on. The engine will draw forward again and deposit the empty minerals in the siding ready for loading. The engine can then return to its train and when all is ready, depart.

Here are a few pics of the new installation. the stone walls stop short of the end of the board so that I can make sure they will meet the walls on the adjacent board.

I just have one more board to do, the one containing the Hanlith Junction. I have made quite a mess, what with sawdust, scenic scatter a sundry bits of rubbish, and Olga has been on at me to get the place cleaned up. She has never seen anyone as scruffy and untidy as me.

Oh dear !!!

So before the next lot of work I had better tidy the place up a bit, or there will be more complaints.

Derek

[wagonbasher]

I am still plodding on with the scenic side of things, although the cold weather has limited my stay in the railway room.

We have now more or less finished board 9, with the loading bank for the transhipment of stone. Today I have been installing electro magnets in the vicinity of the stone siding, for the automatic uncoupling of the Alex Jackson couplings. The proposed working is that a goods from Kirkby Malham will stop just short of the points leading to the siding and uncouple empty mineral wagons from the rest of the train. The minerals, of course, will be at the head of the train. The engine will draw forward until clear of the points, then propel the mineral wagons into the siding. If there are loaded wagons already there, they will be couple to the empty wagons, drawn forward and attached to the train. The train will have brakes pinned down on several vehicles as well as the screw brake in the brake van. This stretch of line is level. so we do not require all the wagon brakes on. The engine will draw forward again and deposit the empty minerals in the siding ready for loading. The engine can then return to its train and when all is ready, depart.

Here are a few pics of the new installation. the stone walls stop short of the end of the board so that I can make sure they will meet the walls on the adjacent board.

I just have one more board to do, the one containing the Hanlith Junction. I have made quite a mess, what with sawdust, scenic scatter a sundry bits of rubbish, and Olga has been on at me to get the place cleaned up. She has never seen anyone as scruffy and untidy as me.

Oh dear !!!

So before the next lot of work I had better tidy the place up a bit, or there will be more complaints.

Derek

 

Derek

 

I wish I could be as unproductive as you !!

 

Andy

[lezz01]

Hi Derek.

It's looking very very good mate.

How are you feeling now mate getting on OK I hope.

Regards Lez.Z.

[Mrkirtley800]

Thank you Andy, my joints have slowed me down considerably. I sit at my little bench to work and enjoy it, but if I need to get up to fetch a tool for the job in hand, I have to do it very slowly, and sometimes I sit on my stool for quite a long time before I heave myself up.

I keep seeing all these promising medications to deal with arthritis pain in the newspapers, but the remedies never seem to filter down to me.

Lez, apart from joint pain, I am feeling pretty good. Certainly got over that stay in hospital last July. As I have just said, the poor old knees and hips are not happy. It may be the cold weather, and I sit in my railway room with only a small heater for hours at a time. Olga does get very cross with me, and for good reason.

Thing is, I want to get the basic scenic work done and the railway back in one piece. By the law of averages, I don’t have a right lot of time left, I will be 83 this year, and, although it may be my wish, I won’t be able to go on for ever. I have been quite lucky, my eyes are in pretty reasonable condition and my hands are steady, so making models is as enjoyable as it ever has been.

Derek

[lezz01]

Hi Derek.

Well the joint pain could be a side effect of the medication you are now on mate. Without know what you're on I can't tell you more. If you send me a PM with your current meds I can have a look in the book and let you know if any of them are likely to be giving you joint pain. It's usually a Staten though.

Regards Lez.Z.

[islandbridgejct]

Thank you Andy, my joints have slowed me down considerably. I sit at my little bench to work and enjoy it, but if I need to get up to fetch a tool for the job in hand, I have to do it very slowly, and sometimes I sit on my stool for quite a long time before I heave myself up.

I keep seeing all these promising medications to deal with arthritis pain in the newspapers, but the remedies never seem to filter down to me.

Lez, apart from joint pain, I am feeling pretty good. Certainly got over that stay in hospital last July. As I have just said, the poor old knees and hips are not happy. It may be the cold weather, and I sit in my railway room with only a small heater for hours at a time. Olga does get very cross with me, and for good reason.

Thing is, I want to get the basic scenic work done and the railway back in one piece. By the law of averages, I don’t have a right lot of time left, I will be 83 this year, and, although it may be my wish, I won’t be able to go on for ever. I have been quite lucky, my eyes are in pretty reasonable condition and my hands are steady, so making models is as enjoyable as it ever has been.

Derek

Well, my grandfather had a double bypass at 80 and went on until he was 98, so I'll be expecting you to complete the line at least as far as the junction with the S&C mainline over the next 15 years. (No pressure there, then.)

 

Best wishes,

 

Alan

[Mrkirtley800]

I wish!!

[KNP]

I am still plodding on with the scenic side of things, although the cold weather has limited my stay in the railway room.

We have now more or less finished board 9, with the loading bank for the transhipment of stone. Today I have been installing electro magnets in the vicinity of the stone siding, for the automatic uncoupling of the Alex Jackson couplings. The proposed working is that a goods from Kirkby Malham will stop just short of the points leading to the siding and uncouple empty mineral wagons from the rest of the train. The minerals, of course, will be at the head of the train. The engine will draw forward until clear of the points, then propel the mineral wagons into the siding. If there are loaded wagons already there, they will be couple to the empty wagons, drawn forward and attached to the train. The train will have brakes pinned down on several vehicles as well as the screw brake in the brake van. This stretch of line is level. so we do not require all the wagon brakes on. The engine will draw forward again and deposit the empty minerals in the siding ready for loading. The engine can then return to its train and when all is ready, depart.

Here are a few pics of the new installation. the stone walls stop short of the end of the board so that I can make sure they will meet the walls on the adjacent board.

I just have one more board to do, the one containing the Hanlith Junction. I have made quite a mess, what with sawdust, scenic scatter a sundry bits of rubbish, and Olga has been on at me to get the place cleaned up. She has never seen anyone as scruffy and untidy as me.

Oh dear !!!

So before the next lot of work I had better tidy the place up a bit, or there will be more complaints.

Derek

 

Nice feel to this board of a rural area merging with industry.

Sort of feels sleepy and where nothing appears rushed.

 

Very nice

 

Regards

[v8cpt]

Looking good Dad!

 

That old narrow loco has been thru some tough times! I recall it had a coach with it for excursions.

[Mrkirtley800]

Chris, this is another one. The original Eggerbahn is still with us as is the carriage, somewhere. This is one I bought cheaply at the only table top railway sale that I have attended. It was cheap because it was damaged, and I wanted one to alter so that it looked more like it had been built in Britain. Also I repainted it.

I might have been in trouble from the household authorities if I had messed about with the original.

Now working on the last scenic board, so hope it will be complete when you come to visit next time.

[Mrkirtley800]

A few pics  of the real Kirkby Malham.

aha cannot get t5he thing to load.  Will try again later

Edited March 21, 2018 by Mrkirtley800

[Andrew P]

Lovely work as always Derek, keep it going, you need a purpose in life, this is just ONE of yours, Enjoy.

[Mrkirtley800]

Now to try again.  These are a few piccies of the area I am trying to depict.  Most of Airedale is fairly flat, with a few rolling hills but not of any height to speak of.

The first is the road into Kirkby Malham from the Skipton direction.  Mature trees and luscious grass..

The second is coming out of the village on the far side.  The area to the right is where I imagined the station to be, although I think it could be quite wet, the river flows down the far right, and not very far below the land surface.

Only a couple of miles further on and we come to Malham and nearing the head of the dale.  We are now in Craven Fault country, and less than a mile north of Malham is Malham Cove.  The third pic is of the Cove showing it's best face, the last pic taken from the top and looking down about 280 feet, and a lot of people braver than me.

The road gradients are fearsome around here, climbing up alongside the Cove.

When you get right up to it, the infant River Aire bubbles out of the bottom, actually referred to as Malham Beck.  Further downstream, Gordale Beck joins it and forms the River Aire proper.

Away to the east of Malham is Gordale Scar, another pretty impressive limestone formation, and downstream is Janets Foss, a beautiful little waterfall.

Some way north of the Cove is Malham Tarn, a large peaceful lake.  The beck flows out of the tarn and down a rocky ravine where it disappears underground before reappearing at the Cove.  So typical of limestone country. In very wet weather, it has been known to form a waterfall over the lip of the Cove.

All these photos were taken over 30 years ago, and I hope the area is still as it was then, and no giant housing estates have sprung up in the area.

Derek

Edited March 22, 2018 by Mrkirtley800

[lezz01]

Hi Derek.

It's good to see you posting again mate. How are things going? Is that an extinct waterfall by any chance?

Regards Lez.Z.

[teaky]

Hi Derek.

It's good to see you posting again mate. How are things going? Is that an extinct waterfall by any chance?

Regards Lez.Z.

Almost but not quite extinct, Lez: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-york-north-yorkshire-35026529

 

When the ground was frozen during the last ice age it was a waterfall all the time.

 

I have always thought of this as one of the most attractive parts of the UK since I went there on a coach trip in my early teens.  This was back in the day when you could walk a route including a climb alongside the waterfall at Gordale Scar, up onto the top and around to Malham Cove.  (Rightly discouraged these days to limit erosion.)  A hot summers day when a drink of ice cold water at the foot of Malham Cove was welcome.  These days there's the excellent beer in the pub too.

 

Thanks for posting those pictures Derek.

[Mrkirtley800]

I am not too bad, thanks Lezz. The poor old joints are still giving problems but I have been able to keep on with the last scenic board. What has restricted me has been the low temperatures in our railway, even with my convector heater churning out the heat, so I have only been working on the layout for an hour, or so, each day. Weather is getting warmer, so will be able to do a bit more.

I hope to post some more pics today.

Derek

[Mrkirtley800]

Hello teaky, my first experience of this area was when our class at school in Leeds was taken on a trip, back in 1948. We had two really superb male teachers who wanted us lads to see the country. So in the March of that year, we went. It was a cold, wet day but for a group of thirteen year olds, it was a revelation. We went on the walk you described, and it’s a wonder none of the group fell over Malham Cove as we arrived at the top. I still have a photo of the group, wet and bedraggled, taken at the foot of Gordale Scar.

For years afterwards, I made the trip to Malham, at least once a year, first on my bike, then on my trusty Lambretta and finally by car.

It is only relatively recently that I haven’t been able to go. It is absolutely wonderful country.

Derek

[Edwardian]

I am still working on the penultimate scenic board.  It has taken much longer than expected, although  I have not spent much time with the layout because of the cold weather.  My heating arrangement is not really adequate.

Anyway, the groundwork was done using old newspapers.  My stock of plaster bandage has run out, and although TMD are only a few miles from me, my joints won't allow me to walk around the shop or stand to look at the stock.

So,  we have the contours done in paper and PVA which took a long time to dry.

The narrow gauge tramway is Peco  set in plaster.  The hedges are from rubberised horsehair, and the ground cover a mixture of scatter material from heaven knows where.  In my exhibition going days, I would try to get a couple of packets of scenic material at each show.  Eventually, I had amassed a large collection  of scatters, which when applied carefully to the ground gave a mottled appearance. and not a uniform colour throughout.

Sadly my collection of scenics are very much depleted, and I may not have sufficient to finish off the final board.  However that is in the future.

So, the board in question is nearly finished.  I require some scrub land on the hillside near the loading dock, and some dry stone walling flanking the main lines.

The farm track leads to the field above Hanlith Force, and forms a convenient exit for the tramway.  The main point into the siding and the trap point, I intended to work together using a long lever underneath the board, but now for simplicity I have used two separate point switches positioned next to each other.  This is on going and I am just awaiting some 1mm nickel rod, obtained for me by a friend.

The signal will also be worked by rods, but requires me to make a lever frame.

Still plenty to do.

Derek

 

A great corner scene.  Very natural and un-contrived.

[Mrkirtley800]

I have been going on at snails pace since Christmas, but finally board 10 is nearly finished.

I still have a fair bit of work but I am going to put the whole thing together for a bit of playtime.  Board 10 will be taken down again later, possibly in the warmer weather. 

So what needs to be done?

The signals need to be worked on and made operational.  The bracket guarding the actual junction in the up direction came from my Grassington layout of 1965.  I probably made it about 1967, and to fit the present layout just required to be shortened.  It is possibly incorrect, I think the doll for the main line should be longer (higher?) than for the branch.  Anyway it is now in place, good job I never throw anything away, much to Olga's disapproval.  The other signals were also on other layouts and have been rescued from a terrible fate, tarted up and hey presto!.

I also require a fair bit of dry stone walling.  I have started it but run out of stones, also rescued from previous situations.  My dry stone walling is purely impressionist.  If walls were built like mine in reality, they would fall down at the first puff of wind, or if a passing cow happened to lean on them, the whole lot would collapse.

The signal box is really incorrect.  The one in place is a 10' by 10' box, can't remember the coding for them, but they were old boxes and were largely phased out by 1908, the period I am trying to present.  So, perhaps in the future, it will be replaced by a more appropriate structure.

The bridge is really the end of the scenic section, but I decided to go to the end of the board.  A problem I have is to dump any crippled stock, tools or bits of material on any flat surface, so I have continued with the scenic so that the end of board 10 doesn't become to resemble a tip.

As soon as my friend comes to our house, I will get him to help put the thing back in place.  Before the arthritis struck, I could manhandle the board by myself, now I require help in most tasks involving lifting.

Here are a few pics of board 10 waiting to be lifted into place.  when the walls are built I can start to grow the vegetation and trees.  Unfortunately the headroom for any trees is limited.  When this area was part of the fiddle yard for Canal Road, I put a stock storage on the wall, and the clearance now is only a few inches, so any trees will have to be stunted and a  backscene will require some careful installation.

Derek

[Andrew P]

Who needs Locos?  That looks superb Derek, more of the same / or similar, anytime please.

Edited March 24, 2018 by Andrew P

[Worsdell forever]

At least extending beyond the bridge means you can add the signal off the branch, proving that the Midland did have signals and facing points...

 

 

Who needs Locos?  That looks superb Derek, more of the same / or similar, anytime please.

 

Derek needs some more nice light green ones...

[aberdare]

Lovely work Derek,

 

It's good to see that you are up and about doing some more work to the layout, I really like the flow of the track and especially that curved crossing, it's all looking very good and it will be good to see it complete.

 

Keep well

 

Jim

[Compound2632]

At least extending beyond the bridge means you can add the signal off the branch, proving that the Midland did have signals and facing points...

 

On a Midland layout you're less likely to poke your eye out bending over to look at some detail, than on a North Eastern layout.