Llanbourne North Wales in the 80s.

[Gwiwer]

Big ship - and she would be very close in to you there. She was much farther off shore here simply because that's where the deep channel is.

 

Nice blue diesels as well by the way.

[coachmann]

Thought this might interest you. This was goodbye to the LMS TPO's, snapped at speed near Abergele in a parcels train in late November 1976....

[coachmann]

Thought this might interest you PCM. This was goodbye to the LMS TPO's, snapped at speed near Abergele in a parcels train in late November 1976....

[P.C.M]

Big ship - and she would be very close in to you there. She was much farther off shore here simply because that's where the deep channel is.

 

Nice blue diesels as well by the way.

 

 

Hi Rick,

Hope you are well, I am thinking of doing a meeting in March, 26th probably. If you are interested let me know.

 

We went down to Rosebud pier, it's about the closest point.

 

Cheers Peter.

[P.C.M]

Thought this might interest you PCM. This was goodbye to the LMS TPO's, snapped at speed near Abergele in a parcels train in late November 1976....

 

 

Nice one Larry,

Don't think I have seen an old LMS TPO in blue grey before. I wonder how much longer they lasted.

 

What was normal motive power for the postal train on the coast during 1986-7? I normally run a 31/4 or 47.

 

Cheers Peter.

[Grimleygrid]

Lovely! That Crompton looks the business Mr. PCM, great photo. Can just imagine seeing all those BR blue locos stabled and waiting for their next duty.

 

Think we all lose interest or motivation at times, why not just go and have a play. That should help!

 

You could always come and help me with my layout!!

 

 

[coachmann]

What was normal motive power for the postal train on the coast during 1986-7? I normally run a 31/4 or 47.

 

Class 25's were used more often than not after the 40's went. To be honest I can't remember what was used thereafter without searcing throuigh photo diaries. Class 31's replaced the 25's so maybe it was these.

[Merfyn Jones]

Class 25's were used more often than not after the 40's went. To be honest I can't remember what was used thereafter without searcing throuigh photo diaries. Class 31's replaced the 25's so maybe it was these.

 

47s if I remember, the up postal van ran in a passenger train, not sure about the down. I don't think we saw 31s on passenger till 1989 was it Larry ?

Merf.

[yellowvanman]

Hi bruv , like the latest pics ..the crompton looks great ...them new ships are a tad square and boxey..great you can see um from your local pier..cool..Ive not done any modling stuff for ages but did go and see a mates layout and stock the other day ...hes got hundreds of locos including at least 40-50 class 47s... more stuff than some model shops..

[Pennine MC]

Hi Peter, just catching up with your excellent pics. Did you get anything sorted with your 37/5? - it sounds like the known problem on these of centre-axle steer caused by having all axles driven but not sprung. It's usually only a problem in the finer gauges I think, but maybe yours has a manufacturing fault which has thrown the tolerances. If you can't sort it by enlarging the axle slot slightly (or don't want to risk damaging the bogie), you could do worse than swap out the centre wheelsets and put Gibson coach wheels onto the Bachmann axle - as they're very slightly smaller in diameter, it should reduce the tendency for it to ride up on the centre set. That's how I did my 47 in EM for Culreoch, and it was a loco transformed

[coachmann]

You are right Merfyn. Plenty of ballast, flask and other frieght workings after the 31's replaced the 25's, but the first Class 31 hauled passenger appears to have been the STORM special from Oldham to Blaenau in February 1989 followed in June by the summer-dated loco-hauled passenger workings to Blaenau.

[MRDBLUE17]

Hi Peter,

 

The TPO looks really good and for its age that Hornby 25 still looks good! Its nice to see you keep adding more variety to your fleet all the time, you never know whats going to turn up at Lanbourne these days!

 

Keep up the good work,

 

Mark

[P.C.M]

Hi all,

 

Thanks for your comments and help guys.

 

Thanks Grimley, l was planning on cleaning away the cobwebs and cleaning the track so I could have a play. But if you send me a plane ticket I will be quite happy to help with Boxenby.

 

Hi Larry & Merf, Thanks for the info on the Postal. I sometimes run a class 31 on passenger and thought I might be pushing things a bit for my time period but it's only by a few years.

 

Hey Bro, 5 weeks and counting, I sometimes think I have too many loco's then see what others have and stop worrying. Yes the new ships do look a bit box like but still impressive.

 

 

Thanks Pennine MC, I might try the slightly smaller wheels before having a go with a file as that's something I will almost certainly stuff up.

 

Thanks Mark, The Hornby class 25 is one of two I have and are both over fifteen years old, and although not up to my more recent standards still get used, 25059 has two motors and the other a new 5 pole motor both run ok.

 

Cheers Peter,

[P.C.M]

Well I did go and clean some track and have a bit of a running session, I also got out the tape measure and as Baldric would say " I have a cuning plan my lord" well something like that.

My lack of backscenes has been on my mind for a while as has making the loco shed area just a tad bigger. I want to make the loco shed longer as it will look more realistic this means the office and staff area which was going to be on the back will now have to be on the side of the loco shed and at the back so I will make the board 10cm wider and redo the backscene. While I am at it I will also move the bus depot waiting room and if I can curve the senic board round and come across the back of the station building, This will make the pics looking down the layout better, as it will hide the garage door a bit.

 

Anyway here is 45036, another old model done about 15 years ago though upgraded about 6 years ago. The old girl the last with headcode boxes has arrived with the FSO 07.55 1D32 from Manchester to Bangor I have this train booked for a class 45/1 but pretty much anything can turn up on it as it's a Summer only service. Loco's for extra services were sometimes quite scarce so anything spare could be chucked out to work the train. I know Bristol used to do this sometimes on some of their local passenger diagrams during the Summer.

 

Cheers Peter.

[47541]

Stunning pictures as usual Peter !

 

 

[P.C.M]

Thanks mate, of out to the garage tonight might even get something done.

 

CheersPeter.

[d winpenny]

very impressive

 

david

[P.C.M]

very impressive

 

david

 

 

Thanks David.

 

Cheers Peter.

[P.C.M]

Hi all,

I went out to the garage last night and made a start on where I want to extend the loco shed, it will hold 4 loco's when it's done which is still pretty small but better than a 2 loco shed.

 

Problem is do all loco sheds have full length pits? As you can see from the pics I only added one on the old part so should I hack in another one. Another problem is the new bit goes over a board join, which would mean some major hacking or I make it look like a bridging section for fitters to walk over as I have seen that in a few pics. Any ideas? Any pics of Holyhead shed would be good too.

 

Cheers Peter.

[Mark C]

Hi Scott,

The plan was to get out there last night and tonight but last night we went down to watch the Queen Elizabeth cruise down the bay, she is one big ship. Its been quite warm here today and the Garage was bit oven like this evening so I didn't bother, maybe tomorrow. Enjoy playing trains at Kevs.

 

A couple of 'Queen Elizabeth'. and one from the archives, One of my fairly new Bachmann 47s sits on shed, hopefully this year I will start building the loco shed just need to extend the track.

 

Cheers Peter.

 

Brilliant photo of the blue Bachmann 47 - what is the base model...I'm struggling to find a blue version without the riveted windscreen frames (and chassis 'wobbl')?

 

Thanks,

[DougN]

Interesting problem Pete, I know this is not really relavent but the "truck shop" at the preston Tram Depot had only pits for the first 7 meters which is about the length of an old W class tram. After that some had additional rail for tram storage/ work and that was all paved. The building dated about 1920. So it may depend on the era and equipment that was being serviced. Also when I was doing the renovation 5 of the pits were infilled with sleepers (across the pit). So that is another option. Infill the rail withsleepers so it looks like there is a pit underneath but there isn't!)

[Gwiwer]

The old Pullman Car Co. sheds at Preston Park near Brighton didn't have pits the full length IIRC. Some of the shed was paved or blocked floor from memory. I suspect many sheds would have been similar in only having pits for part of the length.

[P.C.M]

Brilliant photo of the blue Bachmann 47 - what is the base model...I'm struggling to find a blue version without the riveted windscreen frames (and chassis 'wobbl')?

 

Thanks,

 

 

Hi Mark,

I have three blue class 47s, they all started out as Bachmanns 47035 which did have the riveted windscreen and class 57 underframe tanks. And yes they all wobbled.

 

The rivets were just filed off, the tanks were modified useing Pennine MCs thread on improving the Bachmann moulding. The wobble was fixed by glueing a bit of plasticard on the chassis each side of the bogie tower as it stops the bogie moving side to side, I only needed to do one end too, so was quite pleased with how it worked. I will take a pic for you as I probably haven't explained it that well.

 

Cheers Peter.

[P.C.M]

Thanks Doug & Rick,

I found a pic of a class 40 in the shed at Llandudno junction and there's no pit, just a slightly raised walkway. I think the shed was more used for coaching stock but it's good enough for me. What I will do is leave the old bit alone but put pits in the new bit and make it look like the long one is divided by a walkway where the board join is. Most of this will be out of view anyway as there will be a shed plonked on top, well when I get around to building it.

 

Cheers Peter.

[Fairburn]

Hi Peter,

 

Love this layout.

 

In terms of shed inspection pit length details, the recent 'The Wigan Sheds Vol. 1 - Springs Branch MPD', by Chris Coates, has details of the rebuild in 1951 to the LMR depot modernisation programme and this shows up one or two details which may help.

 

The revised layout had a walkway across all roads approx. 1/3 along the length of the shed and the back half of the shed was capable of being closed off the full width with doors, the pits continued after the walkway but were also lit and interestingly weren't vented so presumably steam locos were shunted into this zone dead? The wheeldrop was also in the latter half of the shed, on road 6. I remember seeing the gantry rail for this peeping out of the shed wall when visiting with my dad to collect his wages in the early 80's (quick walk round the depot and then always time to catch a 40 whistle past on an ICI tank train [Hardendale tanks?]) all in the days before the roof was condemned, locos were banned from the confines of the shed building and the building being subsequently dropped. I've noticed a quirk with the Bachmann 4 road shed which has the pit roads lit (with dummy lights) and not the walkways - whereas all contemporary sheds of this type seem to show in pics that the walkways were lit.

 

Regarding Holyhead pics, the website of North Wales late 70's pics, www.2d53.co.uk, has a series of shed pics on the Holyhead page.

 

I've also got a book on LMR sheds somewhere which has plans for Bescot's 8-road steam shed, the fenced off shed was still standing last time a journey took me past on the M6, I'll root that out and see if the walkway strip was a regular detail.

 

Trust of help.

 

Regards

 

 

Ian

 

 

Note to self, you can't have a rear half of a shed which is trans-sected at 1/3 along the length by a walkway as that would still only be 5/6 of a shed??