Blackmoor, Lynton & Barnstaple Railway in 009 (c 1930) -East Grinstead done , next show is Taunton

[Barry O]

@roundhouse..hope it goes well.

 

Baz

[PaulRhB]

Have fun!

[roundhouse]

What a great day we had in the carriage shed at Horsted Keynes. A good spot with plenty of space and a lot of interest in the layout.

 

The locos genrally ran well with just the occasional derailment, sometimes caused by not setting the turnouts correctly and I was probably the biggest culprit.

 

LEW which is fitted with sound was the most popular with viewers so I now must get on and fit sound in the other locos. However towards the ned of the day LEW was getting a bit lumpy occassionaly jamming and eventaully the plastic crank popped out of the centre driver. Luckily it soon went back into place but it stayed off the layout till I could look at it back home. Its now glued back in place but it took  a good few hours to stop the loco jamming. Gears where dhecked for any debris and the quatering also looked at but I believe that adding a shim of paper between the brass bearing and keeper plate on the outer driving axles has resolved this and now the loco is much more stable thant it was when first taken out of the packaging for the first time. It ran very smoothly on the High Line test circuit in the workshop.

 

We now have a few potential invites to relativley local shows to us and looking forward to day 2 at the Bluebell railway.

 

Edited July 3, 2022 by roundhouse

[David Bell]

Great to see this make its first show. Greatly enjoyed seeing Dobris at Perth last week and if anything this one is even better.

Cheers

David 

[RailWest]

It's only from looking at the exhibition photos that I've realised just how l-o-n-g the storage loops are compared with the actual trains!  Plenty of scope to have both pre- and post- 1923 versions of the same coach rakes.....:-)

[roundhouse]

18 minutes ago, RailWest said:

It's only from looking at the exhibition photos that I've realised just how l-o-n-g the storage loops are compared with the actual trains!  Plenty of scope to have both pre- and post- 1923 versions of the same coach rakes.....:-)

The fiddeyard has been designed to be used on future N scale single track branch layouts.

[roundhouse]

On 29/06/2022 at 16:30, RailWest said:

I'm puzzled that you've painted the Up Home down rod white (can't see the on on the Down Starting), as I would have expected them to be black (or at least dark grey), as you have done with the Up Starting. Have you found a photo which shows otherwise perhaps?

After seeing one of my photos taken in 2019 at Woody Bay, I may have copied this. Not saying that they have got it right especially as the line didn't have rail built signal posts before it closed as far as I can recall.

 

[RailWest]

4 hours ago, roundhouse said:

After seeing one of my photos taken in 2019 at Woody Bay, I may have copied this. Not saying that they have got it right especially as the line didn't have rail built signal posts before it closed as far as I can recall.

 

 

Oh yes it did, there were several, tho' mostly at WB :-)

 

See here for more details.....www.trainweb.org/railwest/railco/minor/lb-signals.html#register

[roundhouse]

3 hours ago, RailWest said:

Oh yes it did, there were several, tho' mostly at WB :-)

 

See here for more details.....www.trainweb.org/railwest/railco/minor/lb-signals.html#register

Ah Ok. Thanks for that.

I hadnt noticed them in old photos of Woody Bay and probably not seen photos of the one at Barnstaple town for some time.

[roundhouse]

The layout is now back home in its storage location.

Sunday was just as good if not better than the Saturday with most of the stock performing well.

Most issues were operator error including me. Occasionally the Heljan Manning and Wardles did derail but nothing like they did out of the box. Lee,  the sound fitted one did start jamming on Saturday late afternoon so that was inspected early Sunday at home.

I added paper shins between the brass bearings and the keeper plate. It then ran much better than it did out of the box as it was a, wobbly one. Far more sturdy now.

The layout is now home and ready for a few tweeks including working out why the Megapoints DCC module works fine when it'd the only thing connected to the command station but not at all when wired in with the other devices. It did have power as the led flashed as it should but did not receive the commands when sent. So a couple of toggle switches were wired up to the Megapoints servo board. The signals do require a decoder if I am to progress with automation.

 

I think that the layout is going to be seen at quite a few shows after receiving quite a few potential invites.

[Michael Bishop]

On 04/07/2022 at 16:14, roundhouse said:

The layout is now back home in its storage location.

Sunday was just as good if not better than the Saturday with most of the stock performing well.

Most issues were operator error including me. Occasionally the Heljan Manning and Wardles did derail but nothing like they did out of the box. Lee,  the sound fitted one did start jamming on Saturday late afternoon so that was inspected early Sunday at home.

I added paper shins between the brass bearings and the keeper plate. It then ran much better than it did out of the box as it was a, wobbly one. Far more sturdy now.

The layout is now home and ready for a few tweeks including working out why the Megapoints DCC module works fine when it'd the only thing connected to the command station but not at all when wired in with the other devices. It did have power as the led flashed as it should but did not receive the commands when sent. So a couple of toggle switches were wired up to the Megapoints servo board. The signals do require a decoder if I am to progress with automation.

 

I think that the layout is going to be seen at quite a few shows after receiving quite a few potential invites.

 

[Michael Bishop]

Seeing your creation of the lattice down starting signal a yard or two on the Lynton side of the water tower reminded me that I photographed the remains of the signal base in 1966,   gone now I presume.

 

[roundhouse]

8 hours ago, Michael Bishop said:

Seeing your creation of the lattice down starting signal a yard or two on the Lynton side of the water tower reminded me that I photographed the remains of the signal base in 1966,   gone now I presume.

 

I didnt notice if it was still there or not but next time I visit I will have a look for it.

[roundhouse]

A friend sent me this link to a video that he found on Youtube. Its a good video of the layout at its first show back in July.

 

 

[PaulRhB]

It’s looking great Ian, might want to increase the chuff rate a bit though on Lew. 

 

 

[roundhouse]

I am sure Mike commented at the Bluebell show that it wasnt quite right. I will have a look at that when I fit the second sound decoder that I have had for two years sitting on the table.

 

The layouts next show is Barrow In Furness in October.

[roundhouse]

With a bit of a lull working on the layout due to shows with other layouts, work has now recommenced in readiness for the trip to Barrow in Furness.

 

Six more Modelu figures are now being painted. Some will go into the locos whilst one is destined to join the farmers on the road bridge.

Edited September 24, 2022 by roundhouse

[GWRPhil]

Has blackmoor got any shows in the southwest coming up?

[roundhouse]

17 hours ago, GWRPhil said:

Has blackmoor got any shows in the southwest coming up?

Phil

 

Yes. Nailsea show next year.

[roundhouse]

The Modelu crew have now been added to LYN.

[roundhouse]

On Friday I commenced the second sound decoder installation, this time into 'Taw'.

 

I have to be in the right mood to do these as they are very delicate locos to start working on.

 

The first task was to remove the factory fitted wiring and decoder socket.

Then a fair amount of filing to the motor keeper plate for wire ways.

Once the Next 18 decoder socket had been wired, it was fixed in place with Blutack and the sound decoder plugged in and tested. Once that was done, the speaker was added to the cab thrn the current keeper / stay alive circuit assembled and the capacitors that go under the coal bunkers assembliand wired.

 

Luckily all the wiring worked fine first time.

 

The most laborious task is grinding the underside of the loco body to add clearance for the decoder and wiring. You have to be so careful not to grind too much otherwise you will open up the boiler next to the water side tanks.

 

The loco has also had Modelu crew added by chopping part of them off to fit around and hide the speaker.

 

All back assembled this afternoon and it has had a good test run on the High Line test circuit.

 

All other locos cleaned and ready for the trip to Barrow at the weekend.

 

Just checking through the coaches and wagons then I will set the layout up for a few extra details to be added.

Edited October 2, 2022 by roundhouse

[roundhouse]

We had the signals operating at the layouts first show but I hadn't wired up the LED in the lamps.

 

This is now being attended to with the first two now working.

 

Excuse the angle of the photo but the boards are currently sitting on end to access the wiring with a temporary connection to the command station to test them. The LEDs were tested when they were fitted to the signals but required to check the wiring via a diode and resistor that they still work.

 

There's a Nimrod flying over - some sort of time warp🙂

Edited October 3, 2022 by roundhouse

[roundhouse]

Today another two sets of loco crew arrived from Modelu. With just tomorrow left before the layout is loaded for the trip North I got straight on with priming and painting them. Using acrylics means drying time is much quicker so its possible to get them finished in time even if I dont get chance to fix them in the locos till the show.

 

Also I have decided to add the lifted track materials in the old siding with a few sleepers moved to the yard. I havent seen any photos of this but based on a photo taken in 1927 when the platform tracks had their sleepers replaced with concrete ones, they did pile the sleepers in the yard so I have based it on this. The rail and sleepers may well then have been used to extend the headshunt in September 1930 after the siding was lifted in the August of that year. It does add a bit more interest to that part of the layout.

 

There will be more foliage added along with static grass early tomorrow before the layout is packed away for loading.

Edited October 5, 2022 by roundhouse

[Barry O]

Enjoy Barrooooooow..

 

Baz

[roundhouse]

On 06/10/2022 at 06:49, Barry O said:

Enjoy Barrooooooow..

 

Baz

Thanks

 

Been planning on how we vistitsome pubs that we have not done over the years on previous visits. I didnt realise that there is one right far down on Walney island, so might do that tomorrow before we can start setting up as the new venue (as of last year) is not that far away on the island. The all day bus ticket around Barrow is just £3.60 if anyone plans on using local transport to and from the show.

 

Just been in the shed doing a bit more work on the boards and completing the painting of the loco crew. A bit more work this morning on the scenery then let it dry before boxing up the boards and loading into the car later today.

Edited October 8, 2022 by roundhouse