Paitley Bridge

[Butler Henderson]

Have an idea for a N gauge layout based on Pateley Bridge, the NER station rather thah the Nidd Valley, with an alternative reality, hence the slight change of name, that the line was kept open to serve the nearby quarry. Quarried marerial being transferred by overhead ropeway down to the railway.I have gathered a stack of Farish Railease PGAs which raises the first question of the actual date,Paul Barletts photos seem to indicate the early 1980s would be okay which fits in fine with the blue 25, 37s and 47 that I have.

 

To shunt the quarry sidings a Farish 04, in private ownership, is to be used along with one rebodied as a Hudswell Clarke diesel of the D2510-19 variety. Presumably 10 loaded PGAs would not be overtaxing for either. One or other of 37s pulling the PGAs on the branch back to Harrogate, I'm assuming double heading would not be neccessary.

 

For operating variety in additional to engineers trains there is a 5 coach Mk1 set or a 108 which will form a Dalesrail service. Would I be right in thinking that there would be no signalling and any passenger trains would run under special procedures including the clipping of points

 

Mike

[Butler Henderson]

Have been working out how the track plan could have evolved

 

[south_tyne]

Hi Mike,

 

I think this is fascinating, imagining how a trackplan would have been rationalised has the line stayed open post-steam days. It is a really interesting idea and thought process to go through. I will follow your progress with interest and particularly given the NER location!

 

David

[Butler Henderson]

Some the rationalisation has been necessary simply to get the plan to fit the available space, 3 x 3ft long boards including the fiddle yard. 3ft long on the basis I might just manage to get them down the staircase! I originally planned to keep all five lines in front of the station with that the furthest away being the one that the loading platforms on it but fitting the necessary headshunt resulted in the need for the new line crossing the river and then it seemed logical to resite the loading platforms there. The intention is that a rake of empty PGAs will arrive on the third track, the 37 run back along the second track and then couple onto a rake of full PGAs on the fourth track. The one thing that may have to overlooked is the fact that the PGAs will always be empty, or full as its going to be difficult to phyiscally load them without hand invention. One crazy thought I have had is whether some enterprising manufacturer might come up with a lcd display that fitted into wagons and gave impressions of full or empty interiors.

 

The layout is going to be dcc operated, especially as I had an Ixion Manor self destroy itself when its formed on a short circuit on an dc system and the controller did not trip out. That layout used Kato Unitrack and I am going to reuse that track, its height issue can be resolved with upturned chambered edge OO cork strips butted against it and the sprung form of the no.4 points means that the 3 points at the station headshunts and that joining the first and second tracks do not need their motors activated.

[Butler Henderson]

And this is it equated into the actual layout track form using AnyRail

 

[Butler Henderson]

Bit of a panic this evening, went to the timber yard for some 9mm ply and found that they had cut them to 900mm not 3ft (915mm) in length. Anyway a quick mock up on the boards seems to work okay albeit I have had to straighten out the river crossing, thankfully the Nidd isn't the widest of rivers.

[Butler Henderson]

Progress update: baseboards almost complete, just need alignment pegs and latches to arrive in the post. Had intended to use bolts and t-nuts but just as I was sorting them out, and realising a trip to screwfix was needed, it dawned on me that as they going to sit atop some cabinets/chest of drawers there would be no easy way if accessing the bolts.

[Butler Henderson]

Boards in situ with track loosely in place and stock tested; the incoming PGAs and 37 just fit the reception road while the station throat seems to take up a lot of space. Might be better with Peco although when I tried the headshunt points the Kato one seemed to take up less space lengthwise, albeit the tracks are further apart. Ideally it would be nice to get the river bridge closer to the station as that would allow for a longer fiddle yard and hopefully resolve the issue of empty/full PGAs as they could run into the fiddle on the quarry line as well. Annoyingly the centre board has turned out a bit wider than the others, should be resolved easilly by different thicknesses of front finishing faces (should it get that far).

[Butler Henderson]

Nice sunny morning and for once no strong westerly so it was time to destruct what some may see as ebay gold dust

 

 

 

And after being drowned in a bowl of water and attacked by a razor saw (the resin dust gets suspended in the water)

 

 

Glue and filler to follow!

 

The Pateley Bridge branch was built at the same time as the deviation through Goathland and conveniently the station buildings on the branch are of the same style as Goathland, just that Pateley Bridge was larger hence the need to "kit bash" the Lyddle End buildings bought years ago with this in mind.

 

Mike

[Butler Henderson]

Looking a bit less sorry now

 

Filler beckons once the glue (Unibond Repair Extreme) sets. Typically with resin buildings none were square to each other so I went for matching ridge and eaves on the platform side.

 

As for the track plan discovered that the 04 and 37 will go round Fleischmann no,1 curves which just fit on a 16" wide board so the fiddle will be enlarged down the back of the layout to allow for full and empty PGAs To be swopped over.

 

Mike

[Butler Henderson]

Track fixed down, on the fiddle yard! First time I have started a layout permanently by doing the fidldle yard first but its crucial to the layout. The Fleischmann / Bachmann / unknown cheap flex tracks are set on 1/8" basswood to raise them to the height of Kato track.



The return loop that is formed will not be used as such, it will be used as a headshunt for the 37s on PGAs shutting into and out of a loop which will be set on the right hand side behind the backscene. It will also be used by the shunters to move the PGAs between those loops and the quarry loaders, a pair of Lyddle End structures that neatly fit up to the baseboard edge.

A 6 pole changeover switch (or relay) will allow the power to be switched on the return loop and back loops while also activating as appropraite a pair of isolated sections to ensure no shorts and a pair of LEDs adajcent those isolated sections to act as a visual identification.

Fitted Dapol easi shunt couplings to 4 PGAs, one end of an O4 and both 37s and discovered the 37s seem to have their NEM mounts too high! Not just a OO problem.

Mike

[stivesnick]

Mike

 

Like the idea - it is a pity there is not more space (always the case!) to allow you to show where some of the old tracks were.

 

Regards

 

Nick

[Butler Henderson]

Update on the station building decorated in North Eastern Region colours

 

Paints used Vallejo 70820 off white, 70961 sky blue and 70884 stone grey, Revell 79 Greyish blue.

 

Mike

[Butler Henderson]

Finally got hold of a photo of the station building from the roadside and discovered that the similar single storey wing on the other end of the building that exists today was original. On the rail side a tall wall existed and I had assummed wrongly that the wing had been added after closure. Looks like a bit of scratch building will be needed to form the roof and end wall as the roadside bit will not be seen.

 

Whats also looking like scratch building in some form is the retaining wall to the riverside footpath and that between the footpath and river

 

 

Mike

[Butler Henderson]

Rethink on the track plan - kept layout as it was with some tracks removed and the sole addition being the quarry line over the river bridge.

Fiddle yard board is taking some wiring up, who says dcc is only two wires. A pair of ESU Switchpilots are powering the Fleischmann Point motors through diode matrices and selected points have latching relays in parallel to the point motors activating a 6 pole relay which reverses the power as appropriate to the reverse loop (2 poles). a further 2 poles power as appropriate isolated sections at either end of the loop so ensuring no short from an overrunning train, while the final 2 poles activate bi directional red green LEDs which light as appropriate either end of the isolates sections.

 

 

 

[Butler Henderson]

Disaster has struck! Having wired up the fiddle board I decided that the wiring was too messy and started to rewire the point motors to the switchpilots, including relocating them to more sensible position. Everything was fine when I switched it off on Wednesday, one switchpilot fully reconnected and working okay with the other to do. Powering up on Thursday saw the LED on the fully wired up switchpilot blinking wildly and as I pulled the plug the aroma of a burnt out component, which transpired to be what looks like a transistor but is labelled IC3. Decided I best check the other switchpilot but that was unresponsive, on examination the voltage regulator and a pair of ICs look very sweaty. Having bought them almost 2 years ago, along with a third, in a sale I have contacted the supplier to see if they can assist. Now looking at the third one cautiously.

[Butler Henderson]

Bachmann have agreed to replace the switchpilots albeit they are out of stock of them. Decided to bite the bullet and invest in an CML DAC20 which with its route setting capabilities should simplify things further.