NO PLACE

[Les1952]

I was wrong again about the next loco-

 

 

I shouldn't ever be allowed near a model shop when the weather is wet.   I went to Sherwood Models today to see if I could source some lineside fencing (got) and cows (not got) for Croft Spa, and perhaps a mineral wagon (got) for No Place.  It started hailing quite heavily just after I got inside.  Twenty minutes later the hail was still coming down and I'd bought a Hornby J50.  Could have been worse.  At least all the SECR 0-4-4 tanks had sold.....

 

Tomorrow will involve chipping it.  I'll run it in at the club on Tuesday. They are getting used to me showing up with small engines, though as 0-6-0 tanks go the J50 is quite a bruiser.......

 

Meanwhile my take on Andy's pic in BRM (page 139 in case anyone is interested).  Andy's does show the advantages of Photoshop and a camera that cost more than the £50 I paid for mine.......

 

 

 

Les

Edited January 31, 2018 by Les1952

[Les1952]

As mentioned- the J50....

 

 

Being a Hornby tank loco they didn't exactly go out of their way to make it easy to chip..

 

My excuse for a J50 (as if I need one) is that Darlington had a few in the late fifties before deciding there was no work for them that couldn't be done just as well by either a J94 or J72.

 

Les

Edited February 1, 2018 by Les1952

[Les1952]

I've just had a complimentary copy of the Spring BRM come thudding through the door this morning.

 

8 page Article on No Place (though even having proof read it I've still managed to find a missing word reading it again....). Andy's pictures are stunning- especially a double-page spread showing part of the layout with a grotty WD several times its actual size.

 

Meanwile I've moved the sound chip from the WD with the spoilt paint job to the Lambton Cabbed one - just a little tweak to do on the speaker and it will be fine.  The grotty one runs OK as a silent engine.

 

Expecting a 1361 class shortly, and despite it really being too big, a Hattons Heljan D9555,  a loco that is too hard to resist as I rode in the real one from Burradon to Backworth.

 

 

Looking at the shed in the background (Burradon loco shed) I think I might have found the prototype for No Place wagon workshops....

 

   The Barclay 0-4-0ST is delayed to April, and the SECR Class P is in the second batch.  I'm not sure when the LSWR B4 will arrive.  The layout will be erected for a little bit of servicing and to train Tony to operate after the South Notts Show in April, ready to go to Manchester in May.

 

 

Les

Edited February 24, 2018 by Les1952

[Les1952]

Another show invite

 

Mansfield, this time next year.  Many thanks Ian.

 

Les

[Les1952]

More new kit-

 

.... and I was wrong about what would arrive first.

 

 

I had a cab ride on the prototype from Burradon to Backworth in the early seventies.

 

 

It will need a bit of grot - and the boxes on the ends can stay blindless as per the prototype.

 

Being a Heljan the couplers were a nightmare to fit- the NEM pockets at both ends are floppy and the Heljan -supplied coupler head needed filing tp get it thin enough to go in.  I notice the coupler head droops.  Still, for shunting the screens the business end is the Bachmann coupler at the other end, which needed two moulding pips cutting off and a little filing to get into the NEM pocket.

 

Les

[shedman]

Sunday working

 

Well, much of Sunday spent working.

 

Having been to Doncaster show yesterday the guy selling stock boxes wasn't there.  I've used a spare (ie nicked from something else) Really Useful Box and used spare foam to make a stock box for wagones, aka Box 3.  Already existing Box 2 will have a mix of wagons and locos in it while box 1 is just locos. 

 

revenge plated.jpgrespite plated.jpg

 

I did get a good browse through the Industrial nameplates on 247 Developments stand, and REVENGE and RESPITE now have new plates that are reasonable.  I'm probably going to leave the ones on REVENGE clean and weather RESPITE's a little.  The fact it is a little wonky is too obvious.  I also got a set of JUNO plates, which now adorn the cabside of the small Ruston diesel.  

 

roofpuddle.jpg

 

The roof of the screening house having settled into a slightly bowed shape due to my not supporting it properly I decided to make a feature of it, gloss varnishing the middle.  Algae-type grot and matt surrounds the obvious large puddle in the middle.  A little more to do before I'm 100% satisfied with it but it is getting there.

 

garden gate.jpg

 

Another eBay purchase was some fencing and garden gates in laser-cut card.  This is the little piece I used to fill in the gap at the back between the house and the start of the wall.  Since I'd only used about three inches of the fence, which claimed to have four feet of the stuff, there was rather a lot left over, so in proper preservation society fashion....

 

blue fence.jpg

 

.....the running line has now been fenced off at the platform end.  With a visiting set of Royals they might at least have repainted it.  In typical early preservation and small NCB fashion the fence doesn't extend the other side of the platform, so there is nothing to prevent anyone wandering through the shed and out on to the running lines at the left hand end of the layout.  Once upon a time trainspotters were trusted not to get themselves run over.  Note also that nowhere on the entire layout is there a high-vis jacket or vest.

 

Enough of this.  Nostalgia isn't what it used to be.....

 

Les

It's good to see these nameplates being used. I actually designed and commissioned the "R" and "W" nameplates from Errol at 247 Developments in 2006, for my layout based on Walkden Yard. I also included "Charles" . I only chose names I remembered having seen on the Walkden system, having been brought up in the area. "No Place" is a very well presented layout, and I am enjoying the thread. Hope to see the layout at Manchester Bus Garage, LYDCC. Trevor

Edited March 8, 2018 by shedman

[Les1952]

It's good to see these nameplates being used. I actually designed and commissioned the "R" and "W" nameplates from Errol at 247 Developments in 2006, for my layout based on Walkden Yard. I also included "Charles" . I only chose names I remembered having seen on the Walkden system, having been brought up in the area. "No Place" is a very well presented layout, and I am enjoying the thread. Hope to see the layout at Manchester Bus Garage, LYDCC. Trevor

 

Now I know who to blame for there being so many attractive NCB nameplates available.....

 

Seriously, many thanks.  They are very useful, especially for using on old Hornby J94s with wheel flats.

 

All the very best

Les

[Les1952]

The latest acquisition showing its size against 71515.

 

 

A second shot near the screens.

 

 

I went to visit my sister in Darlington this weekend and dropped into Newton Aycliffe show.  Nice show, enjoyed it.   Two conversations might lead to bookings in the North East next year.  Fingers crossed...

 

Les

 

[Two_sugars]

Drat! . . I missed you.

 

Aycliffe show gets better every year, . . just a pity it,s only on the one day.

 

 

John

[Les1952]

Layout Back on its Stands

 

... or rather, the layout is back on a pair of stands I've borrowed from the club.  John Cotton had finished with (for the next few months) the sets of stands he had borrowed to exhibit "Tremawn" at the South Notts show and had returned them to the clubroom.  Accordingly I've borrowed two to put under No Place until after the show in Manchester next month.  It means I don't need to buy any until late September at the earliest.

 

Not a lot of work to do on the layout beyond cleaning the track and training some additional operators.  However I still have quite a few small animals to paint and add, including a woodpecker and a couple more rats and mice in the yard, and an odd extra figure would be OK if I can find suitable ones.

 

Two more additions to stock this weekend, pictured below.

 

 

The black beast is a Bachmann lined black 8750 matchbox, bought at South Notts Show for a lot less than it was worth, and chipped yesterday.  It took me a couple of goes before I realised I should have removed the suppressor PCB to get the chip to work and to make room for it.  I ran it in at the clubroom this morning and it works perfectly.  Testing this afternoon shows it will run into and out of the screens roads in exactly the same way the Bachmann 64xx doesn't.  It will probably be used as a screens shunter and I'll almost certainly lose the BR lion and weather it a bit.  I might add nameplates just to be different, but not add NCB to the tank sides as the next OO layout when I eventually start it won't be NCB.

 

 

The red beast arrived in the post yesterday.  Apart from a few niggles chipping it and it taking a lot of time (read Dapol/DJM lot of time) to run it in at the club it is now fine and has been renamed KILDALE as this was the best of the black background industrial plates I had in stock.  As an ex-ICI loco the name is somehow appropriate.

 

 

I'm having a day completely away from singing and modelling tomorrow- I'm going to get some bus pics while the weather is decent.

 

Les

 

[Les1952]

A new batch of neodymium magnets arrived yesterday- smaller then the previous lot, which makes them a bit harder to see when glued to the coupler dropper, but more difficult to put on as they are harder to get a grip of to stop them rotating while the glue sets.

 

I've also been trying out the latest locos on shunting duties with the following results.

 

Good to work screens- will run into and out of all sidings without stalling or derailing.  Tested ten times into each siding without a stall or derailment-

 

D9555  Heljan Class 14

Bachmann 57xx 0-6-0PT 8763 WIZARD 

DJM/Kernow O2 0-4-4T

 

Older locos passed for screens-

Bachmann 03 0-6-0DM

Heljan 05 0-6-0DE

Bachmann 08 0-6-0DE

Hornby J94s with Geisl ejector (two)

 

 

Good to work passenger services only.  Failed screens test.

 

Kernow 1361 class - stalls on dead frog by screens

Hattons Barclay KILDALE- stalls on dead frog by screens

Hornby J50, derails on reverse curve into fulls road.

 

I've also chipped the Hornby 2-6-4 tank I won at Warley.  It runs into the screens but is a bit too big for the job....

 

 

A couple of views trying out Andy Y's pic through entrances idea but from the other end.  Doesn't work so well when the camera doesn't stack the images.  I wouldn't get enough use out of a more expensive camera to justify the cost of buying one.

 

Les

Edited April 22, 2018 by Les1952

[Les1952]

Two bookings.

 

Mansfield in March 2019  and Doncaster in Feb 2020.

 

Les

[Les1952]

I've started on the wagon improvements.

 

First job is to number the ones that are anonymous- at least on the side you can see- it helps that everything runs the same way round all the time....

 

 

A selection of hoppers part way through the job- the first three digits of the running numbers need 48 hours to set before the remaining digits are added.   The Fox pack contains enough panels to do 6 21-tonners and 6 24.5 tonners both sides. There are 7 wagons to do.  That means two will be lettered for 24.5 tonners on the side you can't see.  The J50 is parked on the layout to remind me to lamp it before it goes back in the stock box..

 

 

KILDALE now has its driver, as does the 1361 class, and 51 has a replacement driver for the one that fell out.  I've got a pack of Noch drivers on order as the Bachmann drivers have seated ones and ones holding long hammers (amputated before adding to cab).  So what do you do with a pair of spare seated drivers?

 

 

Answer- find somewhere out of the way for them to sit having a smoke.... skive.... chat.

 

I've got an operator training session on Thursday morning.  Tony Forward is coming round to learn the idiosyncrasies so he can play at Manchester next month.

 

Les

 

[Barry O]

Les

 

Modelmaster do whole number transfers for the 21T hoppers, much easier and quicker .. and Judith Edge kits do an etch (available at shows they attend) which has some detailing bits for 21T hoppers (things like end stanchion metal work, door hopper actuating levers, end steps etc).

 

and as fitted

 

 

 

Baz

 

 

 

 

[Les1952]

I have had dealings with Modelmaster a few times with unsatisfactory results- waiting for stuff for over a year then getting told off for interrupting him when I phoned to ask if there was any chance of a nine-month old order actually being fulfilled (it wasn't and the refund arrived eventually rather than straight away).

 

He still hasn't acknowledged two requests to register my N-gauge Society membership with him.

 

As a result I won't touch Modelmaster with a bargepole.

 

Les

 

I keep meaning to get an etch or two from Judith Edge but am usually rushed off my feet at shows where we both attend.....

[Barry O]

Buy the Modelmaster sheets at shows - people do stock them and the time taken to put one decal rather than getting several lined up is worth biting the bullet for.

[Les1952]

Wagons all now completely numbered on one side, just to varnish over then add a few bits from various kit bits to upgrade them a bit.  Some work needed dirtying the chassis and a bit of muck on the Hornby ones wouldn't go amiss for that matter.

 

Actually I also find Fox transfers a lot easier to use than Modelmaster- the carrier film on Modelmaster decals defies my attempts to either remove it or to get it to sit flat, despite the Microsol/Microset range being to hand (I have to read the bottles to work out which one to use).  I find that Fox lettering behaves itself a lot better, a big plus given my RSI, arthritis and dyspraxia.....

 

I've been making new address lists to put on the back of the layout ready for Tony to arrive on Thursday.  When several of the available locos have no number carried it helps to have number/name/description with DCC address available in clear view of the operator.

 

I left the five big locos off the list (4MT/K1/L1/Q6/V3) and still was left with 33, none of which are bigger than an 0-6-2T.  Five are 0-6-0 diseasels, three 4 wheel diseasels, one railbus, four 4-wheeled steamers, one each 2-4-0WT, 0-4-4T and 0-6-2T, and the rest 0-6-0 tanks of various types.

 

I colour coded red the locos that would normally work the screens- and there are a mere nine of these, with odd others that stay on the track but don't like the dead frog on the Setrack Y-point.

 

Too many engines for a 5-foot shunting plank.  Something a little bigger next time.  Crackpot is still at the thinking stage (name of layout, not owner).

 

Les

[Les1952]

Looking at some of the offerings in HO, Crackpot could well be a European layout with a totally different name.  I'm looking for an older HO tank loco comparatively cheap to hardwire a chip into - if I decide not to go HO the difference between old HO locos running analogue and the same running digital means I shouldn't lose out financially.

 

 

I've been looking at Kildale and took this photo of it.  Now, does the real AB saddletank have a section cut out of the footplate?  Kildale has- and if it isn't prototypical how come RMWeb has missed out on Flangegate? 

 

 

1361 from the same angle (Splashergate) .  Perhaps the moaners on RMWeb are just very selective as to which manufacturers they take a pop at.  Both of these run well, and for different reasons neither can work the screens- Kildale doesn't like the dead frog on the approach and sticks, and there isn't enough ground clearance below the 1361 class to get over the check rail on the entrance to the fulls road.  However there are plenty of others to work the screens.

 

 

 

Meanwhile at the second attempt a Janus has arrived.  The first one was a sound fitted refurbished loco, a factory return sold as repaired.  It lasted less than 24 hours and went back- I think Oxford had placed it in the "done" pile rather than the "to do".  This second one was secondhand on eBay with the markings already removed from the cab sides.  It has a LaisDCC chip in it, and after applying some Kapton tape to the wires to keep them out of the flywheel etc it runs very nicely.  It is definitely better one way round than the other- I think one of the pickups may be a little lightly sprung.  However it is now in the colliery fleet.

 

 

 

An after shot showing the wonky handrail sorted and the loco renumbered as Ashington No.101, though I've not got a picture of that loco where it is actually carrying the number so can't check the position on the cabside.  As a result the little Ruston & Hornsby diesel has been renumbered as 82 and will get a BR crest on the cabside as a BR Departmental from the Darlington area.  Note that the coach has had some lettering and a coat of varnish- which improves it no end.  Not enough time to add an extra running board and a vacuum brake before Manchester this weekend, but I might get another coat of grey on the roof.  At some time in the future I'll reglaze it. Knowing me, that will just mean I get glue on different windows rather than none at all.  It isn't really that noticeable on the layout since the coach spends most of its life hiding in the platform.

 

I've also been adding some more foliage.  Pics of this to follow.  Next jobs are to re-do the loco lists for the layout back and the information sheet and the "can you find" sheet for the pillar at the front.  Peter Crichton has let us know not to arrive at Manchester Museum of Transport before 4.30pm on Friday.  Two years ago we set of at 1.30pm and didn't get there until nearly 6. This time I think we'll set off just after 12.  If we are early we can always walk along to the retail park for a cuppa....

 

Les

 

 

 

 

[Les1952]

I've just discovered Railtec transfers.  How did I miss these?

 

I've a couple of wooden hopper wagons to finish so at least I now know where to get lettering for them.  Ditto some better NCB lettering for  locos.

 

 

No. 101 has lettering left over from doing stock for the late Trevor Webster's "Parnhams".  N-gauge shaded Derby-style LMS!

 

Les

[Two_sugars]

A few years ago they made me some to fit an EASINGTON  COLLIERY  wooden wagon in N gauge. . . excellent service and product.

 

 

Would fit well with Hawthorn Dene.

 

 

I don't know why I didn't mention it before.

 

 

John

[Les1952]

As promised, the extra foliage.

 

 

Self-set berries (carried over from the gardens and deposited in a by birds in a ready-made small parcel of fertiliser) growing in the fence and white stuff in the corner by the barn

 

 

More white stuff in the forgotten corner of the front field.  It is supposed to be cow parsley but is a bit too dense.  Still, another pack will make nice bushes along one of the fences on Croft Spa.

 

 

Some orangy flowery stuff and more self-set berries growing along the exposed front of the platform.  I've used more of this stuff on the left-hand end of the terrace where I noticed a gap between the bottom of the houses and the field beside it.

 

 

Mr Gardner is the sort of bloke who would have roses growing over his back porch.  I've just noticed one of the lettuces has gone absent without leave.  Mr Gardner must have eaten it.

 

I've also finally finished the small fuel tank I bought over a year ago at Newton Aycliffe- partly visible in the top pic.  I have had to improvise a ladder for it as the one supplied has gone awol with the roof panels of the greenhouse for Mr Gardner's garden.  The greenhouse might get finished in time for the next outing at Woodthorpe in November....

 

Today to check that all locos due to work passenger actually have a magnet on their coupling dropper and vacuum the layout ready for Manchester on Friday.

 

Les

 

[Les1952]

Some pics from Manchester show (and a vid...)

 

 

USA Tank no. 36 arrived from Beamish with the coach, uncoupled and pulled forward.  Meanwhile in the background  BR 08 D3232 is on hire to the Opencast executive again.

 

 

A little later in the day it is the turn of class P no.178.  However it has drawn the coach forward from the platform for some attention- perhaps cleaning before the Royal Party get in for their ride to Beamish.

 

 

The line up of locos on shed road 1 is headed by Hudswell Clarke 0-6-0T No.7.  To the right the best view I could get of the newly installed diesel tank. 

 

More to follow.  The layout mostly ran OK.  Problems were experienced with the PowerCab, which went of off to Jeremy at Digitrains for diagnostics.  He reported he couldn't find any fault with it and it was returned but placed on a different curly lead.  It then performed faultlessly for the rest of the show.  One curly lead going for scrap, perhaps.   In the meantime I'd bought a new Cab06 throttle for the club, and this was borrowed and substituted.

 

https://youtu.be/cXjsqcvh56g

 

Meanwhile the video, already posted on the Hattons Class P thread.  I'm not sure what the preservation lot were thinking of lending the P class to shunt the screens.  Over the weekend the 1361, USA tank and O2 also had a play with the trucks at various times.

 

More pics to follow, including a new arrival.

 

Les

Edited May 22, 2018 by Les1952

[Les1952]

And a few more...

 

 

The P class has retired to the shed.

 

 

D2574 is in the lay-by siding while the crew look round the other side to see if any more bits have dropped off it.  They hadn't but the cab is distinctly loose....

 

 

Up in the far corner a small boy plays a game with his dog.  Must do something about those lines at the bottom of the foliage- I've not photographed this corner before so hadn't noticed the gaps.  Fortunately they are far enough away from the punters to escape notice.  Likewise a little shrubbery will be added to hide the funny bit in the backscene just behind the wall.

 

 

More to follow....

 

Les

 

[Les1952]

Yet more

 

Still more pics from Manchester to bore you with.  You can tell most of the punters were elsewhere on Sunday.  Two expressions of interest (and one for Hawthorn Dene).  We'll see what comes of them.

 

 

A view of the Hudswell Clarke tank parked up in the (non-operable) shed track 1.  The point to this line is to be relaid in September ready for October's appearance at Woodthorpe show as it has given up the ghost electrically.  I'll add some droppers to keep the shed sidings live, allowing locos parked on shed to annoy punters with random sounds while parked up.

 

.

 

"Savvereners" on shed- the P and the O2 both took a turn on passenger duties- together with the USA, the Beattie, the 1361, KILDALE, the two Pecketts, the Sentinel and 4 different WDs in some kind of randomised rotation.  Stops the operators getting bored, especially when they forget to follow the passenger train out with a light engine and have a shed with no spare road for the next incomer.  That bloke leaning on the box by the shed door looks as if he is about to fall over.

 

 

 

Another look towards the repair shop with a Manchester trolleybus apparently about to climb the incline over the exit bridge.  Shame it seems to be modelled overscale.....

 

Yet more to follow, including a tiny new engine and some new couplings.

 

Les

 

 

 

[Les1952]

Even more pics...

 

 

NCB 36 places a wagon of pitprops in the sidings by the screens.

 

 

Lambton WD tank No.51 is ready to depart for Beamish with the passenger train.

 

 

Now to the new addition.  This is a Fleischmann well tank split from a set and is sound fitted.  It is also a possible prototype for a future continental layout.  Yes, there is a missing cab step.  I found it this afternoon on the programming track (whew!) and the missing step, together with the one on the other side, are now held in place with a drop of superglue.

 

There are two more locos arrived/arriving, both HO and analogue.  I can't afford to buy new Continental locos and DCC-fitted used ones cost a packet, so I'm trying hard-wiring chips into a couple of suitable pre-DCC locos on the grounds that if I decide NOT to go Continental for the layout after Croft Spa I should at least get my money back when I sell them on.

 

Watch this space....

 

Les

Edited May 25, 2018 by Les1952