Chester Northgate reimagined

[woodenhead]

The foreign body was the tape over the headcode which had slipped and now was bleeding red light, so a bit of black tack to replace so only the red lights show.

 

Body has been off too many times today for my liking, then I had to tackle the power car which for the 108 is a real PITA - the windows grip the circuit board on them all.  Removing the body actually bends the circuit board and the motor away from the body and it looks like you are going to snap the chassis - happily so far that hasn't happened but I do not like going into these units one bit.

 

Anyway today, it played ball and the body was swapped in one take, no issues with the new one going on unlike the trailer so the unit is now done - a trip into the trailer may be required again - the other weak spot on the circuit board - the power to the LEDs is poor and now it's really flickering when the power is low.  Not for today though, had enough and I need to go shopping.

 

A video of the done unit, two hours ago it was Blue/Grey, now it is Green.

 

 

[woodenhead]

With my period now firmly entrenched in 1966-1969 around the North West of England, I have begun to look at my excess stock, identified 60 items to cull from my n gauge fleet including some ex GW and SR locos and 4 Scottish diesels.  If it is Blood and Custard it's going, if it is ex GW passenger stock, it's going and if it is BR post 1970 it's going.

 

It's all stock that has all seen use but the time has come to stop collecting and retaining stuff I won't be using anytime soon and I've plenty left with a couple of items on order too.  My OO fleet is also being culled, just down to a few GW locos and some stock for a small layout.

 

It's a dent in the stud, but I feel better for having reached this decision.

[woodenhead]

The Warship had a split gear on one of the driving wheels, I can get a replacement but for the time being I simply snipped the gear off.

 

The 22, 35, 42 and the steam engines a Black 5, a Jubilee and a Standard 5 have now all inherited chips and have been test run.

 

So with 6 old new locos on the roster, an 04, a 25 and a 108 with new green bodyshells the layout continues to step back to 67/68 with the anomaly being the class 50 bearing multiple working cables which I can live with (especially as anything blue is tops as well )

 

 

 

From a DCC perspective, all three of the diesels appear to have a nice space to insert a speaker where the cab is, in fact the 35 actually tossed out one of the cabs when I took the body off, so eager it is to be sound fitted.  At the moment I have 6 diesels to install sound in, so I will do that slowly now over the next few months and that will allow the other steam engines onto the roster to complete my stud.

 

However, I do need to return to the layout itself:

• Platforms need finishing
• Need to decide on couplings - Dapol easi-shunt or a Peco bodge, though the latter really needs electromagnets
• Lay the carriage sidings, I need somewhere for the enlarged number of coaches that will inhabit the railway
• Begin the scenics by painting and ballasting the track.

[woodenhead]

Must update my photos this weekend.

 

Mrs Woodenhead is away for the weekend, so tomorrow I plan to lift the layout off it's frames and down into the lounge for some tracklaying.

 

I want to add 6 carriage sidings to the far corner of the layout - somewhere to hold more stock and to fill the corner where I don't need to reach (often) with coaches and then my maroon stock can be blended in with the blue grey stuff.

 

I bought the point motors at Glasgow and I think I have enough track - certainly to lay the points down and get them wired in.

[woodenhead]

Mrs W being away allowed me to move the layout into the living room for working on - more space to work around the board.

 

A slow start, but laid the carriage sidings, one less than I hoped for, but a sixth track was just not going to work without affecting the flow and truncating space.  Point motors all installed though on one I might have cut too much off the peg, but I will know more when I test fire it.

 

Realised I am out of wire, so an order placed with DCC Concepts this evening for a load of bus wire and some feeder wires - this will also do when I start my OO shunting plank.

[woodenhead]

Wiring completed last week, two of my new point motors not functioning, so they've gone back to their place of manufacture - hoping to have new ones for next weekend.

 

My rare earth magnets finally arrived today from Amazon - first lot went missing in the delivery process, I think they are stuck to the side of a van somewhere.  Quick trial with some easi-shunts showed they do pull the couplings but I need to sink them into the baseboard, so a further experiment is planned for later this week so I know how to proceed on the layout proper.  Managed to fit two easishunts without losing any springs today which is a relief.

 

Brought some more stock out, maroon Mark 1s, a few Staniers plus some parcels stock - in danger of having too much stock out so resisted the rest of the maroon stuff for the time being unless I want to reduce perhaps some of the blue / grey.

[woodenhead]

Picked up a spiffing split box 40 today for 136 quid, sound decoder to be ordered from Digitrains.

 

This completes my trio of 40s, would have bought one in blue in the past but missed the boat and Ebay prices too high, but now I can mix in green this little beauty appeared.

 

 

[woodenhead]

Couple more bodies arrived from Bachmann this week, it is such a mulitplier having spare bodies allowing me to segue between periods.

 

Took a bit of time to get the lights working at one end on the 31, I've got some green cowling buffers to add at some point too.

 

My Dapol class 35s come with some stickers for headcodes I might look and see if they suit the other 47 and 40 I have with dominoes.

 

Whilst I've slimmed down my stock selling off Colletts, B Stock and Autocoachs, a few engines that are not Midland region I am still gathering the odd parcels vehicle when I see something I like.  The only motive power on order is one Co-Bo and a Parcels unit from Revolution.  The only thing I am waiting on really is a new Farish Peak which will have to arrive sometime and whether the next RevolutioN DMU will be of use to me.  It's quite nice having 'enough' stock.

 

Not much movement on the layout front, I've got replacement Cobalt IPs back for two duffs and I need to fit one of those, then there is the little matter of a scattering of rare earth magnets for easi-shunts and I might be ready to start playing trains again soon. 

 

Mojo took a bit of a bash recently, but there are stirrings that I want to get the boards all reconnected and trains running.

[EuroMST]

9 hours ago, woodenhead said:

Couple more bodies arrived from Bachmann this week, it is such a mulitplier having spare bodies allowing me to segue between periods.

 

Took a bit of time to get the lights working at one end on the 31, I've got some green cowling buffers to add at some point too.

 

My Dapol class 35s come with some stickers for headcodes I might look and see if they suit the other 47 and 40 I have with dominoes.

 

Whilst I've slimmed down my stock selling off Colletts, B Stock and Autocoachs, a few engines that are not Midland region I am still gathering the odd parcels vehicle when I see something I like.  The only motive power on order is one Co-Bo and a Parcels unit from Revolution.  The only thing I am waiting on really is a new Farish Peak which will have to arrive sometime and whether the next RevolutioN DMU will be of use to me.  It's quite nice having 'enough' stock.

 

Not much movement on the layout front, I've got replacement Cobalt IPs back for two duffs and I need to fit one of those, then there is the little matter of a scattering of rare earth magnets for easi-shunts and I might be ready to start playing trains again soon. 

 

Mojo took a bit of a bash recently, but there are stirrings that I want to get the boards all reconnected and trains running.

Looking forward to seeing how you get on with the rare earth magnets. I have some Dapol magnets, but they are no good on bends! I also only have ten Dapol ones and they are a bit pricey!

[woodenhead]

After an Ebay mega sale, a drop in mojo and a period of simply cannot be ar$ed, I've fitted some rare earth magnets to the coach sidings in anticipation of a transition to easi-shunts.

 

 

They work, whether I would call it reliable remains to be seen, the 04 has had one easi-shunt fitted for testing and it's hit and miss.  One siding it uncouples even when pulling over the magnets but on another it doesn't (as it should).  Coupling to a Mark 1 coach is also interesting as it appears the coupling sockets are at different heights.

 

 

So more testing, adjusting required methinks - and the layout needs a very good clean and tidy, locos need to get on the rolling road.

Edited July 24, 2022 by woodenhead

[woodenhead]

July is such a long time gone, railway has sat there waiting and waiting.

 

The railway being an L shape has dominated the roomspace so much and the corner part felt like a vast wilderness for me to fill.  It also pretty much stopped me having a second layout to house the OO stock I have left which then led me to question why I even had some OO if it was not being used.

 

The answer to resolve both quandries was to remove the corner on the existing Chester and shorten the whole layout so it fits along one wall.  During the summer I took the frames apart, moved some cupboards and reset the layout to a more Minories type approach.  Taking out the layout from in front of the window has opened out the room again, created space for the small GWR branch station I wanted and importantly removed the fiddleyard from the glare of the sun that meant a lot of the time I had the blinds down in the room to protect the stock.

 

The new plan looks like this:

 

It has the essence of Northgate with the main platforms either side of the four top tracks with two storage sidings in between.  The extra platform face still exists and I have added a small goods facility because I have wagons to use!

 

The station throat is very much a Minories approach and gone is the junction now as that was on the second board which now leans up against the wall behind the railway looking for a purpose (not for the OO layout as too wide). 

 

Train length remains 5 coaches plus a loco and the services I imagine are as before, no change in stock or location.

 

I've a spare baseboard element that will allow a small extension to the main board, but I will need to turn them around so that all the joins are at the town end of the layout where I don't need to add wiring or points and the most open elements of the boards are at the country end where all the points are.   Cobalts have just been re-centred ready for lifting and once I have stripped the board and added the extension I will be painting the board a light brown to seal it.  Then it will be on with the track laying which once the throat is laid is quite straight forward.  The interesting element is the single slip, I thought they would be more complicated to lay than I imagined, but from what I have seen there are two general power feeds and then the frogs are wires to their opposing blade motor - fingers crossed that is all it is.

 

I think I am going to abandon the magnets I was testing for this layout, they felt too hit and miss.  Accepting this is in no way a finescale model railway, I am going to go with Dapol magnets, probably need 11 of them.  Getting the rare earth magnets to work I think is going to stress me too much and life's too short.

 

Anyway onwards and upwards, the board is ready to be stripped......

[woodenhead]

Day 1:

Board stripped and lengthened 20 cm.  Not much but enough for a good throat architecture.

 

Station buildings positioned.

[scottystitch]

With regards your magnets, I think you might get better results if you have the magnets adjacent each other rather than staggered. With the arrangement you have shown in your earlier post, I think you’ve got the arms of each opposing coupling operating at different times rather than together. 
 

Best

 

Scott. 

[woodenhead]

4 minutes ago, scottystitch said:

With regards your magnets, I think you might get better results if you have the magnets adjacent each other rather than staggered. With the arrangement you have shown in your earlier post, I think you’ve got the arms of each opposing coupling operating at different times rather than together. 
 

Best

 

Scott. 

Possibly, I tried a number of different combinations - there is a part of the layout peppered with little holes so I could try different placements.  In the end I think I might go with the Dapol magnetic brick, I want it reliable in the station because one day I want to alter the station to a part overall roof like the real station.

Edited November 5, 2022 by woodenhead

[scottystitch]

This arrangement gives me good uncoupling reliability, but I think three rows will be what I go with. 
 

I confess I don’t get good reliability with the delayed uncoupling, but it’s not something I really need with any of my layouts at present. 
 

Best

 

Scott. 

[woodenhead]

Quick test of the proposed layout.  The only snag that stands out is the slip as it’s over a baseboard strengthener.  It might be ok if the point motors fit, just the wiring to thread through.  But I have all the necessary points so it’s a case of paint the baseboard and start the laying tomorrow.

 

[woodenhead]

Small panic, but I can get around it, the platform nearest the edge is not as long as I hoped, I'm missing about 5cm against the plan, but the first platform is long enough to cover that and the main platform is 100cm as required (to hold a train and a loco at either end).

 

A reconfiguration of the station can resolve the issue, so when I begin laying I will ensure there is space for the station building to be a the back

 

 

I can build some platform across the end of the layout to bridge the gap

 

Strip back and paint later then.

Edited November 5, 2022 by woodenhead

[EuroMST]

22 hours ago, woodenhead said:

July is such a long time gone, railway has sat there waiting and waiting.

 

The railway being an L shape has dominated the roomspace so much and the corner part felt like a vast wilderness for me to fill.  It also pretty much stopped me having a second layout to house the OO stock I have left which then led me to question why I even had some OO if it was not being used.

 

The answer to resolve both quandries was to remove the corner on the existing Chester and shorten the whole layout so it fits along one wall.  During the summer I took the frames apart, moved some cupboards and reset the layout to a more Minories type approach.  Taking out the layout from in front of the window has opened out the room again, created space for the small GWR branch station I wanted and importantly removed the fiddleyard from the glare of the sun that meant a lot of the time I had the blinds down in the room to protect the stock.

 

The new plan looks like this:

 

It has the essence of Northgate with the main platforms either side of the four top tracks with two storage sidings in between.  The extra platform face still exists and I have added a small goods facility because I have wagons to use!

 

The station throat is very much a Minories approach and gone is the junction now as that was on the second board which now leans up against the wall behind the railway looking for a purpose (not for the OO layout as too wide). 

 

Train length remains 5 coaches plus a loco and the services I imagine are as before, no change in stock or location.

 

I've a spare baseboard element that will allow a small extension to the main board, but I will need to turn them around so that all the joins are at the town end of the layout where I don't need to add wiring or points and the most open elements of the boards are at the country end where all the points are.   Cobalts have just been re-centred ready for lifting and once I have stripped the board and added the extension I will be painting the board a light brown to seal it.  Then it will be on with the track laying which once the throat is laid is quite straight forward.  The interesting element is the single slip, I thought they would be more complicated to lay than I imagined, but from what I have seen there are two general power feeds and then the frogs are wires to their opposing blade motor - fingers crossed that is all it is.

 

I think I am going to abandon the magnets I was testing for this layout, they felt too hit and miss.  Accepting this is in no way a finescale model railway, I am going to go with Dapol magnets, probably need 11 of them.  Getting the rare earth magnets to work I think is going to stress me too much and life's too short.

 

Anyway onwards and upwards, the board is ready to be stripped......

Good to see you back after your three month break. I had been waiting to see how you got on with the magnets. I am going to be fitting the Dapol magnets soon during the refurb of the layout I re-homed a few months ago. I do have a curve at one of the station platforms though, so need a different solution for magnets on a curve.

 

I like the new station plan, I look forward to seeing it come together, along with more of your adventures with fitting sound to your fleet. I have just put sound in the first of my DMU fleet, and am planning to try a 47 and a 25 next, but avoiding milling of the chassis like you.

[woodenhead]

5 minutes ago, EuroMST said:

Good to see you back after your three month break. I had been waiting to see how you got on with the magnets. I am going to be fitting the Dapol magnets soon during the refurb of the layout I re-homed a few months ago. I do have a curve at one of the station platforms though, so need a different solution for magnets on a curve.

 

Magnets on curves I don't think work very well -  I thought I had mine on straights but with a curve in what was the planned coach sidings I found that the couplings were angled still unless the whole coach was on a straight and then getting the things to disengage was even harder.

[woodenhead]

 

A quick check on the boards again with motors placed and it’s all good.  Can proceed with laying the throat later

 

 

[woodenhead]

So a couple of weeks of missing mojo, which I found yesterday whilst Mrs W was throwing out a load of rubbish.

 

Station throat has been laid

 

Learnt this time to fit the point motors as each point is laid. droppers where required and tomorrow I can add the straight elements that form the rest of the station plus a set of droppers per line.

 

Then it's just add in the wiring loom and we're all set to program the points and test.

 

[woodenhead]

More progress - station laid, goods to be added later I decided the goods yard would have it's own line in and not come off the main as in the original plan.  Main platform is the length I need it to be, the other's will be fine for their purpose and all trains will enter and leave by the correct line.

 

Next up is connecting the droppers to the wire loom (reusing the old one, it's got more than enough connectors), wiring the points and getting them working before attempting to connect the frog droppers.

 

Popped on the station to see how it looks....

 

[woodenhead]

More progress - the sidings next to the station have been laid.

 

At the real Chester Northgate, the goods were handled in a big shed on left (east) of the station looking towards it and on the right (west) were cattle pens.

 

I'm not modelling the goods shed but it would have been closed at the time I am modelling as had most other large goods facilities.  I have created my own version of where the cattle pens were on the right hand side.  As per the real thing by the mid 60s they weren't being used for cattle but the area was turned over to fuelling DMUs - in my imagined version this is extended to include diesel locomotive stabling with the most western road reserved for limited goods handling.  I intend to put a platform between the tracks furthest back to represent where the cattle pens had been but with the pens themselves removed.  The space between the two lines into the station and the feed into the cattle pen area will also fit two stub tracks which I might add - to stable DMUs.

 

 

WIth the main tracklaying now complete, it's time to add the DCC bus loom and begin testing for electrical continuity along the tracks and that there are no shorts. 

 

Having got this far my trepidation with relaying the layout is finally falling away - This version is more compact, meets my requirements for trains arriving/departing on the correct line in the throat and operationally is of interest to me as a fictional trainspotter on the end of platform.

 

Trains could be running this week even....

 

Edited December 4, 2022 by woodenhead

[woodenhead]

Ok, so no trains running yet, the cold weather got the better of me and I didn't feel like doing any more work.

 

So today buoyed by the super high 2 degree outside temp and a visit to the Manchester show, I thought I know with an hour to spare I can install the last 5 point motors and get ready to add the bus loop.

 

Then I remembered, the spare point motors I intend to use are not centred.  I know I will use my Sprog to reprogram them to centre again.   Found all the bits for the sprog, then realise, I uninstalled Java at the last update as I wasn't using it, off to Java.com for an upload......Site down......no Java download for me, no point motor fixing - shoulda woulda coulda - be prepared, don't leave things till the last minute etc.

 

Then I try on Edge rather than Firefox, an lo Java.com is up.

 

Back to step 1 - centre those motors.

 

And just like that I had 5 more centred motors ready to fit on the morrow.

Edited December 10, 2022 by woodenhead

[woodenhead]

Weekend over, managed a trip to the Manchester show, an 80th meal and today I've wired up the layout, tested for power to all tracks, programmed the points and even wired the frogs.  Just two additional tracks to lay and the frogs on the single slip to complete the circuit on and we're good to test an actual locomotive on the track.

 

Having a multimeter doesn't half reduce the stress of testing and no burnt out chips.

 

Nearly there...