Wentworth Junction

[Michael Edge]

That J11 isn't mine, it's a Bachmann one, no idea whether it's right or not.

[John76]

Mike,

 

This is great to see the layout coming to life with the addition of the buildings. What have you added to the top of the water tower and I can see you have also built the brick cabin. Any chance of some photos?

 

John

[Michael Edge]

5 hours ago, Michael Edge said:

That J11 isn't mine, it's a Bachmann one, no idea whether it's right or not.

Wrong again, that one is a Little Engines kit - but still not mine, we also found this one was overheight when it was inadvertently put on the colliery trip and it fouled the bridge . We do have three J11/3s running on here at the moment.

[Michael Edge]

5 hours ago, John76 said:

Mike,

 

This is great to see the layout coming to life with the addition of the buildings. What have you added to the top of the water tower and I can see you have also built the brick cabin. Any chance of some photos?

 

John

I'm not really sure what's on the top of the water tank, there aren't many photos of it - and most of the good ones have a dirty great Garratt parked in the way.....

There's a platform with a very minimal handrail partly round it, the gap where the ladder goes can be seen. There was some sort of hutch on top, presumably where the water came in, two pipes are visible underneath. All this is in a fairly distant photo showing an O4 backing down with the water tower in the distance, the filler bag is visible in this shot as well. The closer photos (with the Garratt in the way) show some wire bracing on the support structure but I can't quite work out where this goes so I've left it off.

I'll get some better photos this week with th ecamera rather than my phone.

[Barry O]

A few hours driving the layout last night to remember how it works. Great!

 

Fleets of 04s and various ex GC locos... lovely!

 

Baz

Edited November 3, 2023 by Barry O
Spullung

[Enterprisingwestern]

2 hours ago, Barry O said:

Fleetsnof 04s

 

Is that a new private operator?!!

 

Mike.

[Barry O]

2 hours ago, Enterprisingwestern said:

 

Is that a new private operator?!!

 

Mike.

Nope it's arthritic fingers.  

 

Baz

[Enterprisingwestern]

7 minutes ago, Barry O said:

Nope it's arthritic fingers.  

 

Baz

 

Ah, the prog rock group them?!!

 

Mike.

[Michael Edge]

The last bit of scenic work before the Barnsley exhibition this weekend.

I think this must have been a footpath to Strafford pit, it's still there but very jungly at the far side. Photo taken last week, it's finished now but the layout is being taken down today to get ready for the weekend.

Barnsley exhibition, 11th and 12th November at Hoyland leisure centre S74 9HX.

[John76]

Will come along and say hello. looking forward to it.

[Erichill16]

8 hours ago, John76 said:

Will come along and say hello. looking forward to it.

Thanks for the ‘plug’.

Looking forward to seeing the layout again.

We’ve got some good layout’s coming for more details seen the Barnsley exhibition thread.

 

[Michael Edge]

All crated up and ready to go now.

[John76]

Great to see the layout again this weekend and good to catch up with Mike. Lots of progress made and plenty more to do but not sure that matters when you get to watch things like this........

 

 

Keep up the good work Mike.

 

John

[Michael Edge]

Back from a successful showing in Barnsley, very favourably received by the locals and nobody told us we were doing it all wrong.

Two photos ready for the start on Saturday, the layout went up in about an hour and a half on Friday night, about the same on Saturday morning to put the stock on - amongst others there were 160 coal wagons on the layout.

It behaved itself very well, only a couple of difficulties which were quickly sorted and some expansion - the hall was very warm - we are still working out the best way to operate it. Back home, unloaded and back in the shed by 6.30pm which is probably an unbeatable record!

More photos and some video later.

[5BarVT]

Did you operate it in pre electrification mode or with EM2s and “can’t you see the wires? I can.” mantra?

Paul.

[Barry O]

1 hour ago, 5BarVT said:

Did you operate it in pre electrification mode or with EM2s and “can’t you see the wires? I can.” mantra?

Paul.

All steam with and EM1 being towed in a train. Lots and lots of 04s (of all sorts of varieties) J10, J11, N4, D10 BR standards..

 

brilliant!

 

 

Baz

 

PS there is a short section with overhead posts and wire at one end of the layout... very impressive...

[Erichill16]

19 hours ago, Michael Edge said:

 nobody told us we were doing it ALL wrong.

 

But I bet there was few telling you ‘summat wernt reyt’. 

[Michael Edge]

The only one was someone who said the bus on Gilroyd Lane wasn't showing the right route number....

Some of my photos with background clutter edited out.

 

 

 

 

 

[Michael Edge]

We didn't have quite enough coal wagons for the Barnsley show (only 160!) and the double empties were running with 53 instead of 60 but look what I found yesterday.

Seven coal wagons - and some of my best ones as well, weathered by the late Paul Fletcher.

I was idly wondering the other day where my Airfix class B tankers had gone and eventually found a box marked "tank wagons", inside were 10 of the Airfix ones, two TTAs and all these wagons. They must have been put in this box after the last time we exhibited Herculaneum Dock without the Overhead and not been seen since - that's more than ten years ago.

[Michael Edge]

Some video I took at Barnsley

 

 

[Enterprisingwestern]

 

Nice of Heljan to let you borrow a pre production U1, and all those other locos.

 

Mike.

Hat etc,,,,,,

[Michael Edge]

It's been a while since I posted one of these but here's today's test track photo.

The Barry 0-8-2T and EE/HL haven't moved for some time now. Next up is the latest 7mm job, a GW 72xx from a Dave  Andrews design - makes a very pleasant change from wrestling with Jidenco kits! Next along the back is one of my customer's Ebay bargains, I though this was ready to convert EM gauge but it's not quite what it seems. It's a white metal kit finished as Cambrian No.44, however it isn't - it's really GW no. 1192 which was rather different and had much smaller wheels - I don't know what to do with this. The SR Ashford 0-6-0DE is still waiting for the 3rd radiator etch and sandbox patterns, the Hornby 08 is part of the DG coupling hook experiments. Nearer the front, no progress with the 0-8-0 Sentinel and the latest EM1 is still waiting its turn in the paintshop. At the front is a B17 which is going to be 61669 "Barnsley", it's time my layouts had at least one green loco. Frames and tender are etched, the body will be a heavily modified Hornby one. The two wagons at the left are the DG coupling test wagons.

We will be at the Manchester exhibition this weekend with the kit stand if anyone wants to come and talk to us about anything - or buy a kit of course!

[Michael Edge]

When I put the layout back up after the Barnsley show I started to wonder why the kickback sidings in the fiddle yard stopped where they did so....

Both tracks extended as far as the back of the bridge, I didn't bother with the EM gauge on the inner one as this is now 30" radius and well below Carlisle's minimum. This will make the pit trip much easier to operate since all four 14 wagon sets (two full, two empty) and a few oddments (spare brake vans, pit props ec.) will now fit at this end. It also leaves a spare kickback road at the other end for something else...

This and the additional crossover at this end will make a difference to operation with Herculaneum Dock as well, goods operation and transfer to the docks should be a lot easier - when fitted to HD the top left track is the end of the MDHB lines.

One of the toggle clamps fitted to most of the baseboard joints can be seen in this photo, I've replace nearly all the bolts with these now but there are just a few left, including the joint at far left here where I had to saw through the dowels to get enough wriggle room to assemble the laout in the shed. The scenic part still has the bolts just under the trackbed where I had to add them to stop the boards from sagging apart there but it should make exhibition set up and dismantling a lot easier.

[Tortuga]

8 hours ago, Michael Edge said:

One of the toggle clamps fitted to most of the baseboard joints can be seen in this photo, I've replace nearly all the bolts with these now but there are just a few left, including the joint at far left here where I had to saw through the dowels to get enough wriggle room to assemble the laout in the shed. The scenic part still has the bolts just under the trackbed where I had to add them to stop the boards from sagging apart there but it should make exhibition set up and dismantling a lot easier.

The above paragraph has piqued my curiosity. It sounds like you originally used coach bolts and wing nuts to join boards in conjunction with pattern makers dowels, but that you no longer use the dowels: can I ask why and whether using just bolts has any noticeable effect?

[Michael Edge]

8mm bolts and nuts actually but all the boards were doweled together as well. The dowels are still in place apart from the one joint I mentioned, I had to remove those because I couldn’t pull them apart far enough inside the shed. Previous layouts have just used bolts to join them together, this does allow some adjustment if necessary.