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Coleborne Junction - Southern Steam 50's - 60's era


pitbull1845
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Excellent Scott, weather was awfull, but as always the guys from Southern Locomotives had everything organised and the Swanage engine crew were kindly indulgent of Nick and I on the footplate and made this an excellent trip for us. The trip from Swanage to Norden and back seemed to be over so quickly, always the same when your having fun. Manston was the loco. this year and a couple of photos taken a few weeks ago with Manston on the Swanage table are posted here. I had forgotten to take my camera yesterday but when Nick downloads his, we can post a couple more. Anyone with a passion for Bullied Loco's can find lots of pics. on the Southern Locomotives Ltd. web site. Better still, buy a share, and possibly take part in a future Drive and Fire day, application forms are normaly on the site.

 

Brian. ( Wireman )

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  • 2 weeks later...

Wood work now complete, apart from a little touching up of the matt black, plus, new arrival, S15, obviously fresh from workshops after heavy overhaul.

 

Brian ( wireman )

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  • 2 weeks later...

Evening,

I managed to pop along to the old peoples home Coleborne Junction tonight, it was good to catch up with the team and I was even allowed to bring a dash of colour to the layout too.

 

My Colas 56 with sound managed to stretch it's legs, something it hasn't done before.

 

Seen here giving the local spotters a nice surprise!

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Another view from the station car park, with the 56 in the bay platform.  if only I had a Big Jim figure drinking a coffee.

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It was good to see lots of train movements tonight and the experiments continue on the branch to work out movements. Hand of God worked best for me!

 

Thanks Nick, Brian and G-Man..

 

 

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Yes a very good evening indeed. Scott brought along a diesel engine called Colas the Freight engine. I am not well versed in such things but assume it is part of the Thomas the Tank Engine range although I could not find it in my Thomas books or in my Ian Allan Locomotives of the North Western Railway.  Looking very smart, it's little eyes lit up as it moved and made a splendid site ahead of its train of bright yellow Tonka ballast wagons some of which still had play sand in them. What other strange engines will appear in the future, who knows, but may there be many.

 

Brian.

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An afternoon visit to Coleborne this week. Nick has been busy constructing a new pull out shelf to the left side of the control area, as yet to be painted etc. This is going to be used as a means to identify Locos. In the storage roads and loco shed. At present the storage panel tells us when the storage roeads are occupied, but not what is occupying it. The idea here is that the sloping face will be divided into rows, one for each of the twelve storage roads, plus a row for each of the shed roads. Each loco. will have a small tile / label printed which will be placed in the storage road or shed postion where it has been stopped. Locos. off the layout in stock drawers etc. will be stored with their respective number. This is difficult to describe, but will be similar to the rack system used by air traffic controllers.

 

 

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Hopefully, this will become clearer as things progress. Mention has been made before of the puchase of a secondhand ZTC controller. To accomadate this , yet another pull out shelf is being constructed on the right hand side of the present control set up. Unfortunately, the initial frame work for this is hidden from view in this picture by Poole boys trousers. This is probably why I am not a photographer.

 

Regards Brian. (  wireman )

 

I need to know where the spell check is, mine has gone shopping after saying, "stop asking me all the time".

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Another afternoon visit to Coleborne. First a check that every one is behaving in the Tivoli queue. Then on with the sliding drawers / tray construction.

 

 

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I mentioned last week that a new tray was being built for the second hand ZTC511, and as there is no convenient baseboards legs at this point to attach the runners, Nick has built a cradle suspended from the baseboard frame.

 

 

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The metal runners were fixed to the sides, measurements taken and the wood for the shelf and sides were cut and assembled. It doesn't sound as a lot, but, together with a couple of cups of tea, took the whole afternoon. Half way back in the tray is a partition drilled to allow wires through, but with room to keep the ZTC manuals, which always seem to disappear when required, behind it. Although shown with the controller in place, painting is still to be done to match the other trays.

 

 

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Nicks ability to, " Soon knock that up mate. "    always impresses.

 

Regards. Brian. ( wireman ).

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Looking very good, I did a similar sliding tray, (BUT no where near as neat and tidy) on Pencarne Junction for my Gaugemaster Prodigy. The ZTC is a nice piece of kit, I'm glad they were saved from almost total extinction.

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Yes Andy, I agree that the ZTC is a great piece of kit but even after having my own ( Brampton Road ) updated to the 611 spec. these units have not kept  pace with their competitors over the last few years and are quite expensive to purchase new, coupling this with the seemingly never ending delays in the supply of new stock does not auger well for the future. However I hope the company continues, Graham at Taunton Controls has obviously put in a great deal of effort in his attempt to achieve this.

 

Regards Brian. ( wireman ).

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This picture is just to show an overview. The whole layout, including the Wimhill branch can be operated by the main unit or the ZTC511 slave. From these two positions, the trains to the branch have to be push pull units as although the points can be operated from here, there is no uncoupling facilities. However, there is plenty to do at Coleborne and the shed, Wimhill coming into it's own when an operator is on that side using the hand held controller. ( slave No. 2 ).

 

 

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In practice, with three operators, it really needs a fourth person to be signalman / traffic control etc.

 

I would be gratefull if anyone knows of a readily available bell system. Just simply a bell and key at Coleborne and  another at Wimhill.

 

Regards Brian. ( wireman ).

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  • 2 weeks later...

Another afternoon visit to Coleborne, all controls now fixed and working. The two pictures are of progress on the rack type loco. identity drawer. Still quite a lot to do here but all coming along well. Nick was drawing and cutting a template for the Wimhill platforms and station concourse with the intention of cutting the whole thing in one piece from a sheet of ply. Poole boy entertained a visiting enthusiast friend by playing trains and I did not do much at all.  Well,  I had cups of tea and chocky bars.

 

 

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Happy Christmas, and I hope Santa brings all your railway wishes.

 

Redards. Brian.  ( wireman )

 

 

 

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