Grim-up-North; Goathland, Queensbury & Bradford.

[Sasquatch]

Not really railway related but some good progress non the less is some of the recent joinery.

 

New side door is ready to go on when I find a few minutes...

 

 

...And my solution to the heat in there is this new bottom up-&-over door panel that I knocked up. It will simply replace one of the old bottom panels but will also fit snuggly over the trusty old air conditioning unit. Hopefully there will be free evenings next week to use it!

 

I got on a plane once and found my seat next to a speccy looking chap who already had his nose stuck deeply into his book. 

'" What furniture would Jesus buy".

To strike up a conversation I said 

"He was a carpenter wasn't he, surely he would have made his own".

 I don't know if I offended him in some way, but 9 hours of silence followed, and I've never been able to figure it out.

 

 

Squatch

In no way prejudice to religion or people who wear glasses BTW. Being a speccy old git myself!

 

Edited July 16, 2022 by Sasquatch

[Sasquatch]

Got some early morning snaps for ya today.

The new iPhone7 takes great pictures but in a n unsupported format on RMweb. The trick is to open them with paint on the flip-top (which I normally do to down-size the image), click on File and select save as and JEPG. I always work with images on my desktop so as not to loose them, so the save creates a second set of JEPGs on the desktop. 

No trickery , just pure sunlight!

 

 

 

Get those fans running if you're in the UK.

Stay cool,

Squatch.

[5BarVT]

You can get your iPhone to take jpegs if you want.  Go into camera settings / format and select most compatible.  That changes it to saving as a jpeg.

Paul.

[Sasquatch]

5 minutes ago, 5BarVT said:

You can get your iPhone to take jpegs if you want.  Go into camera settings / format and select most compatible.  That changes it to saving as a jpeg.

Paul.

Thanks Paul.

Sasquatch isn't at all phone savvy, I'll get frustrated with it just trying to answer the bloomin thing!

 

Regards Shaun.

[stevel]

daylight pictures always look better to my eye.

[Sasquatch]

49 minutes ago, stevel said:

daylight pictures always look better to my eye.

I'll just have to get up earlier and open the doors huh Steve! 😀

[Sasquatch]

Or I can park up the truck in front and work with the reflected light.

GNR tank working a parcels (somewhere in Yorkshire at least).

[stevel]

6 hours ago, Sasquatch said:

I'll just have to get up earlier and open the doors huh Steve! 😀

at least it's a little cooler in the early morning😉

[Sasquatch]

1 hour ago, stevel said:

at least it's a little cooler in the early morning😉

We've been having very cool nights, but the sun soon gets up. I'm done working by 11am most days cos it's too darn hot!

Although it is cool enough most evenings to get other stuff done...

 

...Like the new door panel and air-con.

Bit of a tricky task, the sprung cable had to be clamped down (bottom clamp) and two blocks clamped to the track to hold up the top 5 panels. (Top one).

 

 

Just finished. All in and working. Modeling will commence! 

 

I'll give that a coat of paint tomorrow.

 

Squatch.

Edited July 19, 2022 by Sasquatch
Wasn't making any sense.

[Sasquatch]

Much ballasting has been spread, misted and fixed 

 

 

Edited July 21, 2022 by Sasquatch
Learnt how to upload GIFs

[Sasquatch]

After mixing up a big jar of grimy track colour this afternoon I got the airbrush set up, much harder than it sounds as the compressor was in the back of my truck and the heat got to me!

 

Anyway, here's the results of two evenings work.

 

Castle junction just needs a tidy up. Track is airbrushed with watery acrylic so dries super fast in this weather and I was able to use the rust paint pen along the rail sides which shows up best on the rail chairs. 

 

Incidentally I employed a different method of fixing the ballast this time. When it had all been brushed into place and tidied using the finger method, it had a good soaking with a mister and the glue was applied with a pipet. Plenty of it too! A very tried and tested method which I've struggled to perfect.   

 

Please try to ignore the backscene...

 

 

 

Bradford had had it's ballast laid last year, unsuccessfully I dare add. The ballast magic didn't work very well in some places, so I redid those areas and flooded the whole of the terminus track with glue.

 

It has been airbrushed also. Amazing how much paint I went through.

 

 

Lastly some trains for ya. Two NE region passenger services headed in the same direction at Goathland.       

 

Rather like that picture it's got a bit of a post war feel to it!

 

Squatch. 

[Sasquatch]

Having just done a search for something I discovered that from about page 20 onwards, most of the images have reloaded after the black out back in March. That's a bonus!

 

[Sasquatch]

All the rails have been cleaned off, the points have been made operational and running has commenced.

However, there were 5 electrical problems.

A ground wire had come loose on one of the SEEP units on Goathland. Luckily it was accessible in one of the spaces between the new storage cabinets. Fixing it involved squeezing in there with a soldering iron!

 

One of the SEEPs had fallen loose on Queensbury. My error as I'd neglected to screw it in place. It was relying on the hot glue!

 

Another wire connection on Bradford was loose on one of the relays. This only became apparent when switching to the terminus roads and took a bit of tracing. Simply had to tighten a screw terminal!

 

There's one dead section under the Abbey in the tunnel. Which I still need to get at. This will involve lifting the abbey section off, I suspect dirt.

 

The next problem is very complicated. It's a short on the triangle which only rears its head when things are set a certain way. A way in which opposes prototypical movements. So, I have documented it for further reference and am not going to try to fix it. No doubt it's a missing rail break/ isolating rail joiner. The problem is a weird one. The test locomotive started to jostle back and forth in the vicinity of Queensbury North junc. and eventually tripped the overload.

 

The last problem is heat related. We've had temperatures in the 100s all week. Yesterday it got to 108F and despite running the aircon unit all day on Thursday the garage was still quite warm, causing all the rails to expand. Some have buckled slightly on the long hidden loops behind Goathland and I've got a couple of live sections that should be dead.   

 

Buckling is evident as this train crosses the baseboard join just by the water crane!

 

Squatch.

 

Edited July 31, 2022 by Sasquatch
Numpty.

[St Enodoc]

5 hours ago, Sasquatch said:

The next problem is very complicated. It's a short on the triangle which only rears its head when things are set a certain way. A way in which opposes prototypical movements. So, I have documented it for further reference and am not going to try to fix it. No doubt it's a missing rail break/ isolating rail joiner. The problem is a weird one. The test locomotive started to jostle back and forth in the vicinity of Queensbury North junc. and eventually tripped the overload.

 

The last problem is heat related. We've had temperatures in the 100s all week. Yesterday it got to 108F and despite running the aircon unit all day on Thursday the garage was still quite warm, causing all the rails to expand. Some have buckled slightly on the long hidden loops behind Goathland and I've got a couple of live sections that should be dead.

I suspect some correlation here (I was going to say connection but that would have been too groanworthy).

[jukebox]

Nice work on the video - I do like the trains being driven at sub-HST speeds!  Keeps things plausibly realistic.  Well done!

 

S.

[Sasquatch]

17 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

I suspect some correlation here (I was going to say connection but that would have been too groanworthy).

The problem was actually quite simple; the loop that runs all the way around Bradford causes polarity reversal across the track if the crossover in front of the tunnel entrance is being used!

The train would have come to a halt if traveled another 14 inches because of the point being set the wrong way. That's the beauty of live frogs!

I've been running trains on the wrong road, as things are set up at present the castle junction acts like a fiddle yard and I'm too lazy to swap the whole train to another track and just place the engine at the other end and run it back the way it came!  

 

The biggest problem though is this...

 

Regards Shaun.

Edited July 31, 2022 by Sasquatch

[Sasquatch]

Update time.

This week was spent cleaning up after the ballasting work and checking that everything runs well. Apart from the aforementioned electrical issues there was some errant ballast in flangeways and a couple of engines that won't behave.

 

The hardest one to fix was the bad closure rail connection under the Abbey. Fixing it involved running a stanley blade along the board joint through the grass and lifting the abbey section off. I then had to do a Houdini move to get at it!

While this was apart last night, I decided to ballast the Abbey tunnel track. The nasty gap across the baseboard joint was plugged with plasticene which will come away easy if I ever need to take the layout apart again. I proceeded to ballast in the normal way but pressed the tiny chippings into the plasticene. Nice tidy job.

 

 

Believe it or not I can just about squeeze into the frame between the two sets of rails. Something I had the foresight to build in!

 

To demonstrate the workings of the layout in its present form here's a J39 working a passenger service into Bradford from castle Junc.

 

We join the train as it climbs the 1in100 gradient of the long loops with a Gresley twin.

 

As it emerges from Queensbury tunnel, it's on the wrong road and is seen here crossing to the correct side.

 

Pulling into Queensbury's Halifax-Keighley platform.

 

 

Lastly on the 1in5o down grade into Bradford. (Not Keighley).

 

Finally, a panoramic view of Queensbury station.

 

 

Squatch. More modeling later, that is if I've not melted or burst into flames. 

 

[jcredfer]

My daughter really likes the view of Queensbury Station.....   a compliment indeed!!   🤫

 

J

 

[ChrisN]

I do dislike people commenting on threads when all they say is, 'that looks amazing', or 'it is so realistic', and never add anything helpful, so I shall just have to think of something helpful next time.

 

That last picture, 'looks amazing' and is so realistic I wondered if it was actually real until I remembered that in the 1950s everything was in black and white.

Edited August 1, 2022 by ChrisN

[Sasquatch]

 

1 hour ago, jcredfer said:

My daughter really likes the view of Queensbury Station.....   a compliment indeed!!   🤫

 

J

 

Please tell her I'm honored and that I'm still working on it and when it's done the videos should be cool.

 

 

Edited July 31, 2022 by Sasquatch

[Sasquatch]

20 minutes ago, ChrisN said:

I do dislike people commenting on threads when all they say is, 'that looks amazing', or 'it is so realistic', and never add anything helpful, so I shall just have to think of something helpful next time.

 

That last picture, 'looks amazing' and is so realistic I wondered if it was actually real until I remembered that in the 150s everything was in black and white.

How's this...

Devoid of trains, just like most actual pictures of Queensbury station. 

 

Baseboard edges have been photoshopped out. I like to think I'm one to oblige!

 

Regards Shaun.  

[boxerbayrailway]

Amazing photo Shaun,  very atmospheric.   I find myself looking at it,

waiting for the next train to come by,  so I can catch the number !

Stay cool.  I hear the temps will drop down "a bit" this week.  I hope so,  as I might be coming that way soon.

Cheers,

Felix

 

[Sasquatch]

14 hours ago, boxerbayrailway said:

Amazing photo Shaun,  very atmospheric.   I find myself looking at it,

waiting for the next train to come by,  so I can catch the number !

Stay cool.  I hear the temps will drop down "a bit" this week.  I hope so,  as I might be coming that way soon.

Cheers,

Felix

 

Hi Felix. 

Thank you! Might be a long wait at Queensbury. Trains were quite few and far between but seemed to arrive in threes!

 

It's much cooler today, only 93F this afternoon. We had a terrifying  thunderstorm come up the valley from I5 at about 2:30 yesterday afternoon. The last bolt hit the mountain behind us about a mile away. I drove up there to check for smoke and met two fire crews on the way down. They have sophisticated lightning tracking these days so must have pinpointed the incident and dealt with anything pretty fast. Still had trouble getting to sleep though!

 

You're always welcome, I'm usually home!

 

Here are some more images from around the Queensbury Triangle.

 

The South junction.

 

Looking up the path between the station master house and the signal box.

 

View up the access path to the Halifax-Kieghley platforms.

 

From the other side of Brow Lane bridge. 

 

Looking down the goods sidings access road. The trees in the distance are actually on Goathland.

 

Hope that you're well.

Regards Shaun.

Edited August 1, 2022 by Sasquatch

[Bogie]

Great stuff!

[westerhamstation]

Hi Shaun, good to hear that you are all safe after that storm, and that no fires were started by it. A really nice set of pictures showing some interesting angles. All the best Adrian.