Michael Edge's workbench

[t-b-g]

On 27/09/2021 at 17:15, Barry O said:

back to the problems of identifying ex Great Central Locomotives looking down through an engines shed..

 

 

and some more..

 

side on is easier

 

 

and the clean ones are with me for weathering my 3 will be receiving some extra weathering (the existing was added in a rush prior to a show with Herculaneum Dock aeons ago.. time to get it done properly!).

 

Baz

 

Of course the highly skilled operator will know the locos from the small differences. One has a top feed, one has a round top firebox, one has a Belpaire firebox with a dome between boiler bands rather than on a band. On GCR locos, the footplate width is a good clue too. Both tender and loco footplates varied and on locos, they got wider and narrower in different places.

 

There are a few locos that I have which I can recognise just from the way the coal is stacked in the tender.

 

Perhaps there should be a loco recognition course before a show and only those who pass are allowed to operate the shed.

 

You could have one of those charts like the aircraft and ship recognition ones the military use.

 

Just a few suggestions to see if any are of assistance.

 

It could be much worse. They could be GWR.

 

ps. Not to be taken seriously!

 

 

[Mol_PMB]

Yes, one might struggle to identify a GWR 30xx interloper among those. 

(I know that’s not what you meant!)

 

But does it matter which 2-8-0 goes out on which train? Surely they would have just sent the one nearest the shed door? 

[Michael Edge]

9 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

Tags on the isolating switches when they arrive?

We would have to do that if it was DCC, there will be something like this for the MDHB shed, but most of the layout is DC so it's only an embarrassment if the wrong loco comes out not a complete failure to move.

[Michael Edge]

9 minutes ago, Mol_PMB said:

Yes, one might struggle to identify a GWR 30xx interloper among those. 

(I know that’s not what you meant!)

 

But does it matter which 2-8-0 goes out on which train? Surely they would have just sent the one nearest the shed door? 

No, that doesn't matter much but we have quite a few GC 4-6-0s as well.

[t-b-g]

Could you put all the 2-8-0 types on one road and all the 4-6-0 types on another?

[Barry O]

Too much hard work...

[Dr Gerbil-Fritters]

How about an engine roster board, like the shed foreman of old would have had.

 

Or, I visited a line in the US where trains were represented on a magnetic board by little pieces with numbers on - you could do the same on a track plan of the shed?

 

[Michael Edge]

A few photos of newly installed buildings.

This group of buildings is at the side of Nelson Bridge over the Caldew, in the foreground the top of the emergency power room installed during WW2.

Close up of the art deco factory.

We couldn't get much of the cardboard box factory in, it's right by the wall. The river is looking really good.

There's more room for the old leather factory alongside Rome Street bridge over the goods lines. The rebuilt Patriot is on its way north with a fitted goods, the line diverging to the left just goes into the wall. The elevated disc signals (they do work, courtesy of Steve Hewitt) control the crossover and the entrance to the Metal Box sidings. They are elevated in order for the Rome Street bobby to see them.

One more shot of older work, along the station frontage - the Ribble bus is probably out of place here though.

[Barry O]

hope all of the locos are working OK Mike... not a cobweb to be seen!

 

Baz

[Michael Edge]

Most of the locos are working, the mould hasn't got any worse. Locos appear festooned in cobwebs when they go under tunnels and bridges but they get brushed off at that point. There's a big backlog of maintenance work though. The super power EE type 4 I described a while ago pulls the very heavy TPO train quite easily.

[Barry O]

Sounds good!

 

Baz

[Gravy Train]

Hi Mike,

just looking at the photos and it all looks fantastic, you must have put some hours into this bringing it to life, truly Awesome and a huge project.

Pete

[Chuffer Davies]

On 10/10/2021 at 16:29, Michael Edge said:

A few photos of newly installed buildings.

This group of buildings is at the side of Nelson Bridge over the Caldew, in the foreground the top of the emergency power room installed during WW2.

Close up of the art deco factory.

We couldn't get much of the cardboard box factory in, it's right by the wall. The river is looking really good.

There's more room for the old leather factory alongside Rome Street bridge over the goods lines. The rebuilt Patriot is on its way north with a fitted goods, the line diverging to the left just goes into the wall. The elevated disc signals (they do work, courtesy of Steve Hewitt) control the crossover and the entrance to the Metal Box sidings. They are elevated in order for the Rome Street bobby to see them.

One more shot of older work, along the station frontage - the Ribble bus is probably out of place here though.

Quite amazing work Michael, congratulations to all involved.

[Barry O]

a bit of weathering done today..

 

more pictures when I can get the sunlight in the right place!

 

 

 

and the kit built B

 

 

Hope they are OK?

 

Baz

[St Enodoc]

6 hours ago, Barry O said:

a bit of weathering done today..

 

more pictures when I can get the sunlight in the right place!

 

 

 

and the kit built B

 

 

Hope they are OK?

 

Baz

Sunlight? October? Leeds? You'll be lucky...

[Barry O]

6 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

Sunlight? October? Leeds? You'll be lucky...

Was very sunny yesterday and 18°C

 

Baz

[Michael Edge]

17 hours ago, Gravy Train said:

Hi Mike,

just looking at the photos and it all looks fantastic, you must have put some hours into this bringing it to life, truly Awesome and a huge project.

Pete

I haven't counted up all the hours but it's been nearly eleven years now - you put in quite a few hours on this as well even though you've never been here.

[Gravy Train]

11 years, incredible, I would say it’s probably more than 15years since the first stages of construction began but then again f I think about it, I bet it’s nearly  20 years.

[Steve Hewitt]

I delivered my first Carlisle semaphore signal via Alistaire Rolfe in June 2008.

Steve.

[Michael Edge]

I think I've just fitted the last ones now - including the banner repeater on platform 3. You'll be pleased to know that it works very well Steve. Off out now to wire up the last three semaphores, photos later.

[Michael Edge]

Some photos from yesterday

Down Royal Scot behind City of Glasgow (scratchbuilt in the early 80s) approaching platform 3.

A local train heading for the Cumbrian coast, this is one of the signals I've just replaced today with a working one.

A 3F on the empty hoppers from Currock Road coal drops heads past Bog Junction towards the NER/S&C route, 8F coming the other way from Upperby on the LNW route.

Currock Road coal drops now more or less finished, the road itself needs some more work though. The "snowy scene" backdrop is a big improvement on the black which we had to contend with on Tony Wright's last visit.

 

[Mol_PMB]

I like the working theatre box!

[Michael Edge]

Absolute Aspects did those, they all work and are interlocked with the points to show the route selected.

[Michael Edge]

This is how the points and signals are controlled.

This is Citadel North panel.

All the panels are laid out like signal box diagrams with normal position of the points shown as continuous lines - in this case straight through platforms 3 and 4. Some points are switched geographically on the panel, with the switch up the points are reversed (Tortoise point motors), holding the switch down for about 5 seconds sets them back to normal. This last position is sprung, the switch returns to the centre and no power goes to the motor - this allows for point control from more than one panel. Some of it is set by route selection switches, these operate several motors at once via relays - e.g. along the bottom there are switches to set routes from bays 7 and 8 to the main lines.

The colour lights are controlled by rotary switches marked for the different aspects with additional switches for the subsidiary aspects. The bottom left one is a little more complicated since this end of the station still had some semaphores so depending on the position of the points moving this rotary either gives you c/l aspects on platform 3 or operates semaphores on 4,7 and 8. Moving the switch away from red on platform 3 also actuates the banner repeater at the south end. There is another theatre box on the line from the north which shows which platform you are routed into.

Newly installed at the right is part of the new system to track where each loco is - the biggest disadvantage of DCC, particularly on this huge layout with more than 200 of them, is the need to know which loco is where.

To this end each loco has an identifying tag with its number on it, normally the last four digits of what's on the cabside but there are exceptions. They are also colour coded, red for pacifics, blue for mixed traffic 4-6-0s and 2-6-0s, green for diesels, black for freight and yellow for DMUs, tank and local passenger.

When you drive a train somewhere you take the tag with you and leave it on another hook wherever it finishes up - and it can be a long walk, combined with various duck unders to get to different parts of the layout. Many areas of the track are more or less invisible from the operating area, at the back of the storage yards, behind the walls of the station etc. - it's impossible to remember all these and some of the locos are so heavily weathered that the cabside numbers are effectively illegible. They might also be up to 8ft away and the diesel numbers in particular are difficult to read without binoculars...

Incidentally to comment on how well all this runs (and nobody has been here since January 2020), I've been running trains for more than a fortnight now and the sum total of derailments has been 4.

[Barry O]

Hopefully none of the locos weathered by me have unreadable cabside numbers.

 

Digitraxx use would have been better with their detection system...

 

Baz