Castle Aching

[Annie]

When I was very young and keen (around 17 I think) I hand laid the track for a Midland branchline layout using recovered rail from (pre-Triang take over) Hornby set track glued onto thick card sleepers.  I hand filed levers for a lever frame from old steel Triang rail and made most of the frame itself from 1/16th aluminium off cuts.  The points and signals (all proudly made by me from copper and soldered together) were operated by sashcord running over small brass pulleys under the baseboard and the bellcrank like operating links were all bent up from some springy hard steel wire that was a devils own job to bend properly with pliers.  And it worked!

 

I didn't belong to a model railway club then and I only had some 1950's MRNs a friend had given me to refer to as I was yet to start buying RM.  A few not very good books on railways from our local library were sometimes useful; - but anything like a thought of the internet and detailed information at the click of a mouse was total science fiction and an impossible dream.  I sometimes think about that layout as rough about the edges as it was and how I used to make things of my own devising that largely did work most of the time.  And I had fun, - lots and lots of fun with it making things, - sometimes not very expertly, - and running trains.

 

I do often wonder if kits and and out of the box solutions in exchange for money have killed off some of that inventiveness with using the materials you had to hand rather than what was ideal.  My Dad was a sheetmetal worker so there were always oddments of copper and aluminium about which came from the work he did.  I didn't discover brass as a modelling material until a year later when I built a kind of post train smash looking LNWR 2-4-2 tank engine on a sawn up Jinty chassis from an off cut I was given.

 

(Ah sigh)  I'm not sure what the point of all that was, but anyway do please carry on.

[Guy Rixon]

When I was very young and keen (around 17 I think) I hand laid the track for a Midland branchline layout using recovered rail from (pre-Triang take over) Hornby set track glued onto thick card sleepers.  I hand filed levers for a lever frame from old steel Triang rail and made most of the frame itself from 1/16th aluminium off cuts.  The points and signals (all proudly made by me from copper and soldered together) were operated by sashcord running over small brass pulleys under the baseboard and the bellcrank like operating links were all bent up from some springy hard steel wire that was a devils own job to bend properly with pliers.  And it worked!

 

I didn't belong to a model railway club then and I only had some 1950's MRNs a friend had given me to refer to as I was yet to start buying RM.  A few not very good books on railways from our local library were sometimes useful; - but anything like a thought of the internet and detailed information at the click of a mouse was total science fiction and an impossible dream.  I sometimes think about that layout as rough about the edges as it was and how I used to make things of my own devising that largely did work most of the time.  And I had fun, - lots and lots of fun with it making things, - sometimes not very expertly, - and running trains.

 

I do often wonder if kits and and out of the box solutions in exchange for money have killed off some of that inventiveness with using the materials you had to hand rather than what was ideal.  My Dad was a sheetmetal worker so there were always oddments of copper and aluminium about which came from the work he did.  I didn't discover brass as a modelling material until a year later when I built a kind of post train smash looking LNWR 2-4-2 tank engine on a sawn up Jinty chassis from an off cut I was given.

 

(Ah sigh)  I'm not sure what the point of all that was, but anyway do please carry on.

 

The joy of building from scrap, of course, is that one gets to repeat again and again until the thing is right. It costs time but not much money. Can't really do that with kits. However, many of us now have more spare money than time (not me at present!)

[TheQ]

I've got a part built MSWJR 4-4-4 which I'm looking at completing, the inside of the boiler says...... Brasso....

Edited March 7, 2018 by TheQ

[Annie]

I loved using tinplate.  Where I used to work before I retired I would claim the empty catering sized coffee tins because they would yield soooooo much beautiful tinplate for building things once they were cut open and carefully smoothed out flat.  

 

A boiler that says 'Brasso' inside.  I love it, - that's what good old fashioned scratchbuilding was all about.

[Edwardian]

Nice work Adrian. I think this system would work well for you James. I have used brass rod through plastruc tube on a layout which is fine with fairly straight runs but using this method it will enable you to group them. This will give you the semblance of a lever frame. The same wire in tube system could be used to operate the signals too. Now did I do a signalling diagram I dont think so. What you really want is a typical Signal box diagram. Will do pronto so you would then know how many switches you will need and what order to connect them up.

 

Don

 

Thanks, Don, and, you know, I had a similar thought process, "if I'm about to work out a wire -in-tube system for the turnouts, I'd best do the same for the signals and ground signals" 

 

So, yes, posting on the likely signal diagram for the station is timely.

[Donw]

Well Annie it shows the satisfaction that can be achieved when you make things for yourself. Those old MRN's had a lot of practical advice suited to a time when little was available. I do feel we have lost a lot the incentive to make things for ourselves. In the early 60s EAMES had a small showcase of 'scale models' for sale. Detail below the footplate was skimpy and that above was limited. But they were well made and looked the part. For running trains they were good. Moreover the standard of those models was achievable by someone working at home. Today we can buy RTR models with a standard of details far above models in those days. So there is a gain in that those who lack the skills or the will to develop them can have a wide choice of detailed models but on the other hand the pleasure of building things yourself has been somewhat tempered.

I hope that James has gained a lot of satisfaction from building his own track. This is one area where the home constructor can easily surpass the standards achieved by commercial track where getting a nice flow to the trackwork is hampered by the turnouts.

 

Don

[Annie]

I very much agree Don.  To be completely honest I've looked at examples of modern RTR locomotives and I feel too scared to buy them (apart from not being able to afford them of course).  They are just too spookily realistic as if a mad scientist had roamed around an MPD armed with a shrinking ray.

 

Ah now I remember what I was on about before.  Operating signals and points with cords running over pulleys would no doubt eventually lead to being driven nuts with keeping everything in adjustment, BUT on my branchline my copper signals that were desperately doing their best to look like MR ones had the most wonderful prototypical double bounce motion due to the combination of the cords running over the pulleys and the springy steel operating bellcranks which had quite long operating arms.  My blobby hand soldered points had a lovely motion too and the spring steel bellcranks took up any excess movement and positively locked the point blades in place.  I did find out quite quickly though that glue wasn't the best to hold points together though and brass tacks and solder had to be resorted to.

[Nearholmer]

It will be clearly visible to all that, since I got into old and old-style 0, I have fallen to the sin of collecting, rather than modelling, but I still hanker after 'making'. Some of the most enjoyable/satisfying models are those I built when I had more time, and next to no money. There is something very special about making something half-decent from basic materials.

 

I'm am slightly in awe of our hosts ability to get on with scratchbuilding, while having a young family. As what is euphemistically called 'an older dad', I find that, even working only part-time as I do now, by the time offsprings are tucked into bed, and the kitchen tidied-up, I'm not fit for much more than playing trains, or e-chatting about playing trains. And, as for a few hours at the workbench at the weekend, or on a day-off ...... dream on! There always seem to be a hundred other priorities.

 

Come the glorious day, though, cereal packets and coffee stirrers will get what coming to 'em.

[uax6]

A friend uses bits of rail as the rods, held at intervals with brass screws, one each side. The cranks he makes from just plate brass. All very simple.

I have to say that the siding looks good being in flat bottom, and is a detail that you don't see often...

 

Andy g

[Edwardian]

It may seem to some that I am over-ambition in looking ahead to railway buildings at this stage, but knowing where the foundations will be is actually quite important at this stage.

 

Once the sidings are laid, for example, I can look to making the sub-surface for the yard.  It would be useful to site the crane, cattledock and goods shed.

 

Establishing the footprint of the latter is particularly important.

 

I am currently thinking of a wooden shed that sits besides, but does not span, the track.  Perhaps it is the influence of such layouts as Craig and Madder Valley?

[sem34090]

I quite like this concept:

The shed itself doesn't span the track, but I like the canopy. I refer prospective builders to Corfe Castle.

[Nearholmer]

A potentially diversionary suggestion: some very interesting railway buildings resulted from railways adopting and adapting pre-existing buildings as goods sheds.

 

A very interesting mess of buildings and wagon turntables was at Newport Pagnell, where the railway goods yard was a filled-in canal basin, complete with warehouses, the older buildings owing more to local farm-building traditions than to railway thinking.

Edited March 7, 2018 by Nearholmer

[Regularity]

Coles’ yard: a prototype cameo scene!

[Guy Rixon]

It may seem to some that I am over-ambition in looking ahead to railway buildings at this stage, but knowing where the foundations will be is actually quite important at this stage.

 

Once the sidings are laid, for example, I can look to making the sub-surface for the yard.  It would be useful to site the crane, cattledock and goods shed.

 

Establishing the footprint of the latter is particularly important.

 

I am currently thinking of a wooden shed that sits besides, but does not span, the track.  Perhaps it is the influence of such layouts as Craig and Madder Valley?

 

Would you consider one of those wooden sheds built on pilings so that there is clear air visible underneath?

[drmditch]

Re: Point (and even signalling) control :-

 

Many, many years and four house-moves ago I devised a lever-frame arrangement to a little 'temporary' branch line. In my last railway, from the re-construction of which I have taken a brief break to write this), two such lever- frames were constructed for my top-level terminus.

 

With considerable reluctance I have posted some pictures below. They make the system seem cruder than it actually is. Please excuse the bundle of wiring looped up while re-building is in process.

 

The main advantages are:-

              Low cost - the major components can be made from materials to hand -

                                Small offcuts of plywood, 

                                Sheet material for the frame structure (I originally used PCB of which I had a quantity in stock, but the one pictured below is plastic)

                                Scrap rail for the levers

                                Small pieces of brass sheet for the angle-cranks

                                Small cheese head screws for angle pivots (with tube to make a 'stool')

                                Suitable lengths of brass or piano-wire for the rodding.             

                                        (this might be the most expensive, but originally used scrap rail

                                Small lengths of brass tube for joiners/adjusters

                                More brass rod for the 'through baseboard' cranks.

                                Cable grips for keeping everything in place

 

               Can be engineered to fit your location

              

               Fairly robust  (if crude) and easily adjusted

 

               All the 'works' are beneath the baseboard.

 

Disadvantages:-

               Well, there are quite a lot. It is crude but it has worked for me for many years.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If this whole thing is too crude (I still use Peco Code 100 track - not 'proper' construction like yours), then I apologise profusely!

Edited March 7, 2018 by drmditch

[Edwardian]

Re: Point (and even signalling) control :-

 

Many, many years and four house-moves ago I devised a lever-frame arrangement to a little 'temporary' branch line. In my last railway, from the re-construction of which I have taken a brief break to write this), two such lever- frames were constructed for my top-level terminus.

 

With considerable reluctance I have posted some pictures below. They make the system seem cruder than it actually is. Please excuse the bundle of wiring looped up while re-building is in process.

 

The main advantages are:-

              Low cost - the major components can be made from materials to hand -

                                Small offcuts of plywood, 

                                Sheet material for the frame structure (I originally used PCB of which I had a quantity in stock, but the one pictured below is plastic)

                                Scrap rail for the levers

                                Small pieces of brass sheet for the angle-cranks

                                Suitable lengths of brass or piano-wire for the rodding.             

                                        (this might be the most expensive, but originally used scrap rail

                                More brass rod for the 'through baseboard' cranks.

                                Cable grips for keeping everything in place

 

               Can be engineered to fit your location

 

I would like to see the pictures

[drmditch]

Sorry, post and editing overlapped. Detail pictures are in the edited post above.

 

There is a 'top-side' picture here:-

 

 

I can't manage many more pictures at the moment (what with the upper level being 'swung up' while tracklaying continues beneath. And I'm in the middle of bridge girder construction!

Edited March 7, 2018 by drmditch

[Compound2632]

Would you consider one of those wooden sheds built on pilings so that there is clear air visible underneath?

 

I think those were, on the whole, a post-grouping innovation. Someone will pop up now with a rural Great Eastern example from the 1880s...

[Nearholmer]

Well, staddles, which were the early form of those little columns, are an ancient means of keepin grain stores reasonably rat-free and dry, so the 1880s might be a late example!

Edited March 7, 2018 by Nearholmer

[corneliuslundie]

I too have gone for a lineside goods shed rather than a through one, based on the GWR/RR example at Bedlinog - see my Sarn thread. The one advantage of a through shed is that you can't see the lack of loading/unloading. It helps to have the shed positioned so that from a normal viewpoint one can't see that there is nothing going on.

An alternative way of controlling your points and signals would be the one used by Peter Denny on the Buckingham branch. Simple and cheap but it worked for him.

A pity those Gem lever frames will no longer be available.

Jonathan

[uax6]

One hopes that the range will be saved, as it covers not only the Mer-control stuff, but also the GEM range which includes some nice loco kits...

 

I quite fancy one of these frames when I finally get round to building my railway.....https://www.wizardmodels.ltd/shop/signals/sm2/

 

Andy G

[Edwardian]

Not for the first time I am in two minds. Foursquare little masonry, or wood.

 

I like the North Cornwall Railway example as it is quite close to the masonry examples that the North Eastern developed for its rural locations:

[Annie]

That North Cornwall goods shed is very nice and would be very much the kind of thing to be found on a small rural railway.  Then I suppose I'm a bit biased since I like North Cornwall railway architecture.  Not so keen on the GWR, but I find the Cornish absorbed lines absolutely fascinating. 

[Northroader]

Here’s a blast from the past, an Edward Beal design:

[Donw]

Not for the first time I am in two minds. Foursquare little masonry, or wood.

 

I like the North Cornwall Railway example as it is quite close to the masonry examples that the North Eastern developed for its rural locations:

 

I quite like the by the side good shed rather than the through type. You history suggested the WNR was built fairly early (1860s?) so a masonry type would seem appropriate rather than the corrugated iron Tanat valley examples.

It6 is never too early to work out the placement of the various buildings although do not be too rigid if they later seem to need moving slightly.

 

Don