Wentworth Junction

[Michael Edge]

I forgot to take my camera both days of the exhibition but did take a few with my phone.

Gorton's brand new breakdown crane parked in the up siding with a J10, J11 banker and the ash wagon on the loco siding.

The double load empties starting its descent from Silkstone tunnel behind my venerable WD 2-8-0,5 0 years old now and still running with its K's MkII motor and Romford gears. It must have done a considerable mileage now on all sorts of layouts. This train, even though it was actually 5 wagons short of the 60 it should have had, made an impressive sight on the layout.

The down (uphill!) single load of 30 wagons about to pass with an O4 on the front. This is a Bachmann one which wasn't powerful enough to get this train to the junction so it ran with another O4 (a scratchbbuilt one though) coupled on the back all the way round.

I did take a video with my phone from the same spot.

 

[St Enodoc]

1 hour ago, Michael Edge said:

Gorton's brand new breakdown crane

Bachmann? I've never worked up the courage to take mine out of its box.

[Michael Edge]

Not mine, Andy Morris bought at the show on Saturday so we ran it on Sunday.

[St Enodoc]

13 hours ago, Michael Edge said:

Not mine, Andy Morris bought at the show on Saturday so we ran it on Sunday.

Fred, how did you get it back into the box?????

[Barry O]

4 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

Fred, how did you get it back into the box?????

Very, very carefully...

 

Baz

[innocentman]

9 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

Fred, how did you get it back into the box?????

As Baz says very carefully. Took a few goes to get the jib wound back up to the correct angle

[Michael Edge]

Apart from putting it back together in the shed not much has been done with the layout since its appearance at Leeds and it's mostly too cold out there to do much now. The plan is to get most of the buildings (not that there are many of them) done over the winter before getting back to the scenic work when the weather warms up a bit, starting with the signal box.

Wentworth Junction was a fairly standard GC box, this is the side which will be seen.

Most of it is made from Plastikard but I etched all the windows and doors. I always find the steps the hardest part do make so these are from layers of etched brass laminated together. The small brackets holding the footboards round the windows are on the etch as well but I didn't think to add the decorative barge boards and had to cut these from plastikard. The slate roof is from the Wills sheets, fine as long as the building is small enough but they do need a lot of thinning down at the edges. the finials are made from square section plastikard, I'm not sure how long they will survive - I might redo them in brass when they get broken.

The other side is detailed as well even though only the operators will see it, no interior yet  but the roof and ceiling are removable to fit it later. It should really overhang down the embankment at this side but I've managed to get the baseboard a bit too wide here and I'm not going to alter the scenery now.

All ready to paint and plant now, there are a few signals still to make but I'm still not sure whether Strafford crossing should still be fully signalled or not.

[gr.king]

While you have the pristine finials to hand as masters, what about making a rubber mould so you can cast resin replacements at will, perhaps casting in a metal rod as a spine to resist future breakages?

[Michael Edge]

They are not really good enough for that, it was a quick last job to get the box finished. I can do better ones in brass but it probably means getting the 4 jaw chuck out - unless I have a collet which the square brass will fit in.

[t-b-g]

The signalbox looks really great Mike. Full of GCR character.

 

I have been working on a LD&ECR pattern box and did the finials from brass held in the chuck of a "minidrill" and "turned" with files.

 

Crude but it did the job. I drilled through the brass and soldered in a 0.45mm wire, whisc goes into the end of the roof for strength. I am not sure if it was a good idea. If the finial gets caught. instead of just the finial coming off it might damage the roof now.

 

A rare event for me but I actually finished the construction. The only remaining job os to plant it and fit a nameplate but it is a fictional location and I haven't decided on the name it will carry yet.

[Barry O]

Looking great.. and a space for some operator viewable only graffiti like on Cwmafon.

 

Baz

[Michael Edge]

33 minutes ago, t-b-g said:

The signalbox looks really great Mike. Full of GCR character.

 

I have been working on a LD&ECR pattern box and did the finials from brass held in the chuck of a "minidrill" and "turned" with files.

 

Crude but it did the job. I drilled through the brass and soldered in a 0.45mm wire, whisc goes into the end of the roof for strength. I am not sure if it was a good idea. If the finial gets caught. instead of just the finial coming off it might damage the roof now.

 

A rare event for me but I actually finished the construction. The only remaining job os to plant it and fit a nameplate but it is a fictional location and I haven't decided on the name it will carry yet.

That's how I did them but quickly and crudely with square section plastikard. I looked at your photos and immediately thought I'd left something out....but WJ box didn't have the handrail round the footboards.

[Erichill16]

42 minutes ago, Michael Edge said:

. I looked at your photos and immediately thought I'd left something out....but WJ box didn't have the handrail round the footboards.

I thought it looked as if something was missing. Wouldnt like to go out to clean the windows without those handrails, especially with my balance problem! 

[t-b-g]

49 minutes ago, Michael Edge said:

That's how I did them but quickly and crudely with square section plastikard. I looked at your photos and immediately thought I'd left something out....but WJ box didn't have the handrail round the footboards.

 

5 minutes ago, Erichill16 said:

I thought it looked as if something was missing. Wouldnt like to go out to clean the windows without those handrails, especially with my balance problem! 

 

It does have handrails but they are fixed to the main body of the box.

 

I know version I would prefer if I was out there cleaning windows!

[drmditch]

1 hour ago, Michael Edge said:

That's how I did them but quickly and crudely with square section plastikard. I looked at your photos and immediately thought I'd left something out....but WJ box didn't have the handrail round the footboards.

As far as I can see/have found, the NER merely supplied foot boards and a handrail attached to the windows.

Perhaps other companies did the same. Presumably signalmen were expected to have sticky feet.

 

Many cabins (NER terminology) were fitted with an outside rail by BR days. I haven't yet worked out whether the LNER did some as well.

 

My most recent cabin is a Central Division design, of which some still survive (though now modified).

The end panels of the front windows slid open, allowing signalmen/boys to step outside.

 

Here is a poor picture showing the idea.

 

Edited December 27, 2022 by drmditch

[Michael Edge]

Window cleaning there was definitely a one handed job! Yes, I've got the handrails along the windows.

[t-b-g]

5 hours ago, drmditch said:

As far as I can see/have found, the NER merely supplied foot boards and a handrail attached to the windows.

Perhaps other companies did the same. Presumably signalmen were expected to have sticky feet.

 

Many cabins (NER terminology) were fitted with an outside rail by BR days. I haven't yet worked out whether the LNER did some as well.

 

My most recent cabin is a Central Division design, of which some still survive (though now modified).

The end panels of the front windows slid open, allowing signalmen/boys to step outside.

 

Here is a poor picture showing the idea.

 

 

I always thought that was even more of a potential hazard. Somebody had either climb over or squeeze under the handrail to get out onto the platform. 

[Bri.dolan]

10 hours ago, Michael Edge said:

Apart from putting it back together in the shed not much has been done with the layout since its appearance at Leeds and it's mostly too cold out there to do much now. The plan is to get most of the buildings (not that there are many of them) done over the winter before getting back to the scenic work when the weather warms up a bit, starting with the signal box.

Wentworth Junction was a fairly standard GC box, this is the side which will be seen.

Most of it is made from Plastikard but I etched all the windows and doors. I always find the steps the hardest part do make so these are from layers of etched brass laminated together. The small brackets holding the footboards round the windows are on the etch as well but I didn't think to add the decorative barge boards and had to cut these from plastikard. The slate roof is from the Wills sheets, fine as long as the building is small enough but they do need a lot of thinning down at the edges. the finials are made from square section plastikard, I'm not sure how long they will survive - I might redo them in brass when they get broken.

The other side is detailed as well even though only the operators will see it, no interior yet  but the roof and ceiling are removable to fit it later. It should really overhang down the embankment at this side but I've managed to get the baseboard a bit too wide here and I'm not going to alter the scenery now.

All ready to paint and plant now, there are a few signals still to make but I'm still not sure whether Strafford crossing should still be fully signalled or not.

Superb looking signal box 

Looki forward to seeing it in place on the layout 

[Wheatley]

I got a proper hair drying from my DI for being stupid enough to clean the outside of the windows at Huddersfield Jcn around 1988.  A few weeks later one of the works supervisors tested the integrity of the footboards by climbing outside and jumping up and down on them. The handrails at HJ were a bit higher up (the windows were shallower and started higher up), so bumped heads looking out of the Huddersfield end were not unknown. 

 

Superb job on the box. 

[St Enodoc]

11 hours ago, Barry O said:

Looking great.. and a space for some operator viewable only graffiti like on Cwmafon.

 

Baz

Ian F's layouts were always good for that.

[John76]

Mike

 

Signal box looks great. i had never realised that there were windows round the back. How did you do the lamp by the door, and what is the black marker for on the front and end? 

 

John

[Michael Edge]

You can see the back windows in the photos taken from the front, I don't have any of the back itself. The lamp is a brass turning on a length of wire, I'm not bothered about making it work. The black marker pen is entirely accidental - I placed it on the layout to draw round it on the baseboard....

[Gravy Train]

Lovely job on the Signal Boxes Mike

[Michael Edge]

The signal box is now being painted, sprayed all over white at the moment but I now have a choice of colours (I think). The only colour photos I have of this box show the steps, platforms and ironwork black, the rest all white - but these are from the 1970s. I have one black and white photo of the box in the same paint scheme but it's undated and I have colour photos of other boxes on the MSW (e.g Dunford East) with the steps and main corner woodwork painted green. Does anyone have any idea or proof of which colour scheme is a appropriate for the 1950s?

[Nick C]

I always thought, though I might be wrong, that the black and white scheme was part of the corporate image era, with boxes painted in regional colours before that?

 

Green and cream would fit with LNER colours, if it hadn't been repainted since nationalisation. 

Edited January 2, 2023 by Nick C