Dymented - the Serious stuff starts!

[GWR57xx]

Sorry, I mis-read your post.

Great Western Journal 98 has a list of coach destination boards.

My knowledge of geography and name places in the Welsh Marches is rather sketchy, but looking for names like Newport, Hereford and Shrewsbury doesn’t turn up many candidates.

There are a few that begin “Cardiff, Newport …” heading to Hereford and/or Shrewsbury which would have taken that route I think?

E.g. “Cardiff, Newport, Hereford, Worcester & Birmingham”

”Cardiff, Newport, Shrewsbury, Chester & Birkenhead”.

 

[Philou]

@GWR57xx Thanks for the research! I don't have a single GWR book except for a very old Ian Allan 'GWR Locomotives'. If indeed there was a named train to either Birkenhead via Shrewsbury or Birmingham via Worcester (which the latter I think unlikely unfortunately) then that's fine by me! I say the latter would be unlikely as the GWR tended to access Birmingham via Severn Tunnel/Gloucester, viz. the successful introduction of their railcar services along that route from Cardiff.

 

Today, despite being Sunday and Scorchio! I was able to a little more this morning using power tools and this afternoon it was up in the room and hand-tools outside. We now have complete underlay and trackbed in place from Ledbury tunnel (west or town end) right through to Pontrilas north-east end. I have yet to do some packing pieces under the Pontrilas station and the lead into the rise towards Hereford. I will add the underlay to the goods yard area when I've laid out some pointwork as I think there's a little bit of trimming back to do along one edge - all for tomorrow.

 

 

^ I'm quite pleased with the outcome. I have a nice sweeping curve through Pontrilas station dropping down through the road 'tunnel' and then back up the rise towards Ledbury Home End SB. There is also a generous transition between the two gradients.

 

 

^ The bottom of the two grades coincide with the spacer on the extreme bottom left: 1/200 towards the camera and 1/100 to the SB.

 

Today's starter for ten: Taking aesthetics into consideration, is better to have one sweeping curve or a series of curves? I ask because when using SCARM to draw the trackwork it can't create any curve longer than a piece of track - in my case Peco. I'm limited to 914mm. The ideal would be to know the radius of the track and you can work from there, but that means - again in my case - lengths of up to 3.0m. I just used best fit. However, in engineering terms, you would lay a continuous curve - unless there was a very good reason otherwise eg: Immovable object, no? I can now draw one continuous curve as I worked it out yesterday, but I don't know what knock-on effect it will have on all the modules that have been made. What do you think? Does it really matter? Will you see the difference once the track is laid and ballasted? etc., etc.

 

Cheers everyone and enjoy what's left of the weekend,

 

Philip

Edited September 10, 2023 by Philou
phat phingered again!

[Flying Fox 34F]

Sweeping transition curves always look best.  It’s the movement of Bogie Coaches that separate model railways from the full-size.  Most model railways have coaches jolting round curves rather than gently following them.  The only time the full size Railway has  more obvious changes of directions is through pointwork at low speed.

 

It’s just my opinion

 

Paul

[GWR57xx]

1 hour ago, Philou said:

@GWR57xx Thanks for the research! I don't have a single GWR book except for a very old Ian Allan 'GWR Locomotives'. If indeed there was a named train to either Birkenhead via Shrewsbury or Birmingham via Worcester (which the latter I think unlikely unfortunately) then that's fine by me! I say the latter would be unlikely as the GWR tended to access Birmingham via Severn Tunnel/Gloucester, viz. the successful introduction of their railcar services along that route from Cardiff.

 

 

It wouldn't be a "named train" as such, where a headboard is carried over the engine's smokebox door (e.g. "Cambrian Coast Express" or "Cheltenham Flyer").

These are just destination boards placed on carriages to inform the public of the major stations along the route.

 

 

1 hour ago, Philou said:

Today's starter for ten: Taking aesthetics into consideration, is better to have one sweeping curve or a series of curves? I ask because when using SCARM to draw the trackwork to can't create any curve longer than a piece of track - in my case Peco. I'm limited to 914mm. The ideal would be to know the radius of the track and you can work from there, but that means - again in my case - lengths of up to 3.0m. I just used best fit. However, in engineering terms, you would lay a continuous curve - unless there was a very good reason otherwise eg: Immovable object, no? I can now draw one continuous curve as I worked it out yesterday, but I don't know what knock-on effect it will have on all the modules that have been made. What do think? Does it really matter? Will you see the difference once the track is laid and ballasted? etc., etc.

 

 

I would say a single curve with transitions at each end.

 

I know nothing about SCARM, but I am surprised at the limitations you mention. Is it the free version?

 

I've used Anyrail, which also has a free version, which allows sections of any length and will also calculate transition curves for you. The free version has a limit of 50 pieces of track (but they can be any length). If you need more than 50 pieces you could break the layout up into separate files (no limit). I find it very easy to use.

 

[Philou]

Oh phooey!

 

Hello chums and chumesses,

 

Yesterday was three steps forwards and today two steps back. I got all my spacers cut out and fixed in place and cut also the next piece of gradient that contains the bulk of the station throat pointwork.

 

Having put the station section back in place, I couldn't help thinking to myself 'That's not right - the curve out leading towards Hereford is never going to get to the right place.' Indeed having measured (which I failed to do yesterday) the position of the platform relative to the wall was out by 50mm. May not sound much but when you've got a large curve to put in place - the difference can be enormous. I undid the link to the Ledbury SB and twisted the board slightly to realign it and shoved forwards and backwards a little and joy! it fitted well. The downside is that some of my spacers will need to be reset as some are no longer supporting the board and the link was no longer a link.

 

Nil desperandum! The link was recut and shaped and it's now better than before. The spacers are only held with two screws and won't take forever to slide along (the heights will not change).

 

Having attached the next piece and levelled it (before my - er - error was spotted), I laid out some pointwork to try and get the feel for what was happening in the throat. The new piece will need shaping but it's fine generally. However, because I thought I'd made the station board too wide, I trimmed it back - bad move! I now have to add some of it back! A morning of fun and games tomorrow doing all the bits and then in the afternoon the next section of curve to head off towards Hereford/Dymented. The first part of the branchline will form part of the next cut.

 

At least nothing much was destroyed so it's all heading the right way, but more haste, less speed. How true!

 

Here's a photo showing the pointwork loose-laid in place :

 

 

^ This is looking at Pontrilas (yeah, you'll have to imagine it for the moment) with the main station platforms to the left, branch line platform plus cattle pen in the far centre and run-around pointwork, goods shed siding to the right of that and two sidings to the far right. The errant too-much-cut is where the fourth point is above the signal box. It should have been a right-hander but I flipped it over for the photo as otherwise it would have looked really silly.

 

Behind the camera and to the left is the main line plus two loops heading uphill towards Hereford and to the right will be the pointwork leading to the Pontrilas engine shed (glorified tin shed basically) and on to Dymented. On the extreme left of the photo will be the end of the siding feeding the Pontrilas Chemical Works. (This how I also knew things weren't quite right as the space for it had disappeared!)

 

The SB is a bit of a novelty for me as the prototype is constructed entirely in ship-lap rather that a brickwork base with a timber first storey. Also, it sits on top of a road bridge (which is no more than a big cattle-creep) that gave access to the chemical works.

 

The good news is that the smooth transition at the top end of the station has been retained and improved.

 

Onwards and upwards!

 

More tomorrow,

 

Cheers,

 

Philip

Edited September 11, 2023 by Philou
Brain working faster than fingers!

[Philou]

Hello chaps and chapesses,

 

Another exciting update this evening - unfortunately, no. I spent some of the morning cutting out a part of the Pontrilas station yard to replace it with a differently shaped piece that I shouldn't have removed in the first instance - oh well - and then fettled the next section that contains most of the station throat. In the afternoon, I screwed the whole lot together and it all seems to fit and at grade - a couple of spacers that looked fine using the level decided that they weren't going to play nice and had to be reset. Apart from one riser that I want to add, Pontrilas station is done.

 

Late afternoon, a thunderstorm turned up and threatened to put the kybosh on any more woodwork, so I packed up and did some sketches and calculations for the next series of curves that will contain the junction leading off to Dymented and the turnout to serve the chemical works. If there's not much fettling to be done we could see an arrival in Dymented early next week (says he optimistically!).

 

No photo today as it wouldn't be too different from the one of yesterday.

 

Toodle pip,

 

Philip

[Philou]

Well! Another day gone by!

 

Hello chums and chumesses,

 

I cannot believe that it took me all morning plus part of the afternoon to cut one piece of ply 440 x 245mm on a 6.9m curve. How many times can you get things wrong? I had to construct the curve geometrically as I don't have anywhere flat or long enough to set out a curve with string (which I don't like) or a long (very long in this case) batten. I did it by offsets four times! Each time the tape holder would read the readings wrong. I had to it properly as there was the junction to the branch line to be included in the cut. Got there in the end. In an hour and half, I cut two others that were twice and three times the length and that was that for today. Tomorrow I shall cut the two last remaining curves and then it'll be a case of jiggling them around to create the best fit as it's a compound curve. Bit like using 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th radii curves in the same curve :)).

 

I shall also cut my spacers/risers and I should be good to go - hoorah!

 

No pictures today, but no doubt some tomorrow.

 

Cheers,

 

Philip

[Chimer]

Would it help to get the shape right on some old wallpaper before attacking the ply?

[Philou]

@Chimer Old wallpaper? Old wallpaper? Wassat? Hardly anyone does wallpaper over here - far too expensive. They do fibre-glass paper that is even more expensive, but it holds the crumbly plaster together ;). I didn't do any of that when we moved in as some walls I took back to the stonework and then repointed and left it on show, some was hacked back but then splatter finished and whitewashed (the real lime stuff) and the rest I left as-was and constructed new walls with metal studwork and plasterboard with insulation behind. Plaster skim and white vinyl paint finish. We use soft furnishings to add colour. Good idea though. The shape was right - I just went cross-eyed and had a brain-f@rt putting the measurements down on the ply as the one off-set was 3.5mm and the two others were 0.9mm each. I found having a very very sharp pencil and a quality straight-edge helped. It all came together as you will see below .............................

 

Hello chaps and chapesses,

 

Yes things did come together finally today. I cut out the rest of the curves and while I was at it I cut the underlay to shape as well. I made up a few spacers and it was already to go this afternoon. Setting the gradient out was a tad bothersome, but worked it out in the end. Here are some pictures .......

 

 

^ Here we are on the approach to Pontrilas from the Hereford/Dymented end with lead towards the Golden Valley branch in mid-photo and the station throat just behind.

 

 

^ This is the long climb out of Pontrilas towards Hereford waiting to be set at its gradient. The branch is immediately to the right. I shall do it once I'm happy with the mainline.

 

 

^ Here's an overview of the the curve in the landscape. I will say I'm surprised just how shallow a 1:100 gradient looks. The branch alongside will be at 1:50. I expect that it'll look too steep!

 

So I'm on the move again!

 

Cheers everyone, more tomorrow,

 

Philip

 

[Philou]

Hello chums and chumesses,

 

Not much advance today - I got waylaid by M. le Maire to go and fix some more numbers to the various parcels of woodland in the possession of the commune. That was this morning taken care of and I found it was slow going this afternoon as walking around the woods and making holes in the ground with a thingummyjig, knackered me.

 

I did spend some time rejigging the curves around as, though they looked good in the photos, they weren't going to complete the curve without colliding with the rear wall. I cut some different radii and played around until it all came together again. The underlay was cut and edges to the curves chamfered where they formed part of an embankment.

 

Tomorrow morning I have to go shopping (it's not Wednesday is it? And there certainly won't be any buttered scones for tea) so I'm limited to the afternoon that shall be mainly cutting risers and joining pieces to it can now all go together.

 

I may well terminate the trackbed here and go back to Ledbury and start towards Dymented so I can be sure that I haven't c*cked the levels up - be a pity if there was a step, wouldn't it!

 

I have two questions, a starter for ten each:

 

1) When a 10ft is created between pairs of running tracks, or main line and sidings, is the ballast laid right across near-level or is there a form of cess between the lines?

 

2) Should I make my viaducts with a 10mm ply trackbed or would thick card (in layers) be enough to support the track. I ask because card is tempting me somewhat as I could work indoors on my cutting mat. I also have 13 arches to cut out which I can do in card as well. I don't have access to a laser cutter as that would the easiest way - everything cut and indents on the surface for the brickwork - and in thin ply. The branch line viaduct will be in card in the light of all the steelwork - however, the same applies regarding the track bed proper.

 

Any thoughts?

 

Cheers, more tomorrow,

 

Philip

Edited September 15, 2023 by Philou
Nonsense phrasing

[Philou]

Hello chaps and chapesses,

 

I got the risers and joiners all cut, placed and levelled and the new curves are fixed in position - no photo as it would have looked very similar to the last one!

 

The last curve for this phase will be in place on Monday and then I can start from the Ledbury end and work my way back. Nothing will happen tomorrow as it's my daughter's 40th birthday bash - on board a boat (and I can't swim!) so not too much alcohol for me.

 

Toodle pip and enjoy the rest of the weekend,

 

Philip

 

PS: Mrs Philou is away for the week - there's a problem with her granddaughter's minder and so she's off to baby-sit. It means I'm all alone - I'm sure I'll find something to keep me busy ;))) !!

[lezz01]

My second wife and I had our wedding reception on a boat on the Thames. Nice do it's a shame that things didn't work out but that's life.

Regards Lez.

[Philou]

@lezz01 The only other time I've been for a bash on a boat was when an uncle of mine reached his 80th birthday and he'd promised his second wife that he'd take her on a cruise on the Seine in Paris. He asked if I should like to join them, with Mrs Philou, and it was left to me to organise it. Booked it and a Jaguar limousine on the night, nice night time cruise with a meal and champagne - the lot. All the buildings and the Eiffel Tower were lit (said it was specially for them).

 

Slight fly in the ointment at the end was that we'd been asked to join them, but we had to pay our half!!!! :((((. Rats!!!

[Philou]

Hello chums and chumesses,

 

No pictures again today but despite having to take Mrs Philou to the station and wait for the train that was 30mins late (it had only done 100 miles or so), I managed to sort out the top end of the climb out of Pontrilas and, the section leading from Ledbury to the viaducts has been cut out and the levels established.

 

As it was nearly beer o'clock*, I decided to pack up for today - just as well as 10mins later a big thunderstorm came by and dumped a large amount of water in a short time (no flooding or anything) and I think my ply and I would have been very wet.

 

Early start tomorrow and the Ledbury end should be well under way by the end of play (rain notwithstanding). I still haven't decided what to do regarding the construction of these viaducts!

 

Pictures tomorrow all being well.

 

Cheers,

 

Philip

 

*I don't drink much by way of beer, but I just fancied a glass today. Now I'm indoors, the fancy disappeared. Oh well, I still have a bag of crisps and I can pretend!

[Philou]

Well, off to a reasonable start today. Parts cut and assembled and we have a launch pad from Ledbury. Bromyard Road is in place - this was essential as it forms part of the foundation to the rail over bridge. It took a while to get the road in place as it's on a falling grade in two directions. It is done and once that was in place risers were installed to support the first section out of the station that comprises the main line towards Hereford and the double junction (as was) forming the Gloucester branch.

 

It's now in place and levelled, though it'll be off again tomorrow so that I can chamfer the edges as it's on an embankment. I shall cut and lay temporarily two curves, branch and mainline, where the viaducts are to go until I decide how to construct them - heavy card is still beckoning me!

 

I have some photos:

 

 

^ This the view from the end of the platforms at Ledbury. The gap, lower centre, is where the rail bridge over Bromyard Road is to go. I have some 3mm ply which I can use as a base as there's only a 125mm to span. The rest of the bridge will be in card. I've chosen card as a medium in this case as I have a nail punch that has a hollow ground point and makes decent looking rivets in card - it's long and boring to do, but the results are worth it. Further along away from the camera is the lead on the left to branch. I need to put a spacer under the limb as the branch is on a 1:50 grade and I need to pull it down.

 

 

^ This is another view showing the embankment approach towards the River Leadon and where the viaducts are to go.

 

 

^ This is the temporary end of the rising grade out of Pontrilas - where I'm aiming to arrive from today's work! The curves were adjusted as mentioned previously and the fit is far better. From the Ledbury end, I'll be starting with the branch as it's furthest away and I need to be sure that it is in place before I oversail it with the mainline and that there is sufficient headroom between the two sets of tracks. It was already 'tight' on both my 2D and 3D plans and I want the ruling grades to be 1:50 and 1:100 branch and main respectively.

 

There we have it - I'm quite happy so far :)).

 

More tomorrow.

 

Cheers,

 

Philip

 

[Philou]

Hello chums and chumesses,

 

Not much progress today as it involved cutting out long lengths of curves for the viaducts and annoyingly one of them would just not fit. However, using the second one as a template, it fitted, so I need to recut the one. I may be thwarted in my endeavours tomorrow as Mrs Philou's sister and her hubby have invited themselves round to lunch .  I don't really mind as I think they're checking up on me as I'm on my own temporarily probably on instruction from Mrs Philou! They're bringing lunch, but there are a number of essentials that I'm short and so off shopping first thing in the morning (it's Thursday but there won't be buttered scones for tea either). In the afternoon it's forecast to be wet and wet, so it's unlikely much will be done.

 

However, as a bonus, the now-redundant curve I'm going to use as a curved plank just to check that 45mm centres will allow coaching stock to pass each other, otherwise I shall need to ease out to 50mm. I seem to remember that Class 8xx stock will not go on curves of 45mm centres unless the curve is in excess of 3.0m radius. I'll let you know how I get on if I can't do any cutting.

 

More tomorrow,

 

Cheers,

 

Philip

[Philou]

Hello everyone,

 

Due to a change in plans and no rain until late this afternoon, I was able to do a little more work. New curves cut and risers all ready for fixing in place tomorrow. No pictures as there's nothing to see!

 

I seem to have the lurgy - dry stuffy nose, aching limbs, itchy throat and possibly a slight temperature. It could be a dose of man 'flu, mild real 'flu or Covid! There seems to be a lot of it about round here at the moment. Mrs Philou, despite being 225 miles away has the same symptoms - we may have picked something up on our lunch aboard boat on Sunday - my daughter was complaining of not feeling too well. No kissy kissy, but you never know. It's not enough to stop me working at the moment - in fact as my mind is on other things I feel better.

 

More tomorrow,

 

Cheers,

 

Philip

 

[Andy Hayter]

Sounds like Covid.  Hopefully a very mild dose but it does give you the excuse to not help the mayor or his adjutant out for a few days.

[Philou]

@Andy Hayter Huh, I wish I could use that as an excuse but he's gone on holidays and won't be back until Monday and No 1 is attending to his wife who has developed Alzheimer's - and deteriorated quite quickly, but is now stable. She doesn't even recognise me. That leaves who ............ ? Oh, and I have the keys to three houses to look after whilst they're on their jollies, shutters to open and close, plus cat that needs feeding twice a day :(( .

 

I'm not completely flat-out, and I'm just waiting on the weather to dry up so I can take The Lump out for her bedtime walk and then bed.

 

I will say though, I haven't lost my appetite as I did myself a rather large spag bol - with good UK ingredients to beef it up (Oxo cube and Worcestershire Sauce - L&P only)! I shall take a small toddy of whisky, lemon, honey and hot water before bed. I had one when I came indoors - it was vile! It was either the whisky (cheap blended stuff from the four quarters of the globe - really) or the honey, that I don't like as a rule unless it's acacia. This honey has a rather strange taste, probably mixed flowers, but it is produced around here.

 

Keep safe everyone and mask up if needs be,

 

Philip

[Stevie]

Is there another L&P🤪

Edited September 22, 2023 by Stevie
Triger finger no text

[lezz01]

3 hours ago, Stevie said:

Is there another L&P🤪

I think he's refereeing to Lee and Perrins. So yes there is another!

Oh and BTW Marmite is better than Vegemite.

Regards Lez.

 

 

Edited September 22, 2023 by lezz01

[Philou]

@Stevie Indeed it was Lea and Perrins to which I was referring - I confess I've never heard of Lemon and Paranoia - what is that?

 

@lezz01 Big thumbs up for Marmite - though I've never tasted Vegemite - mite be OK. Have you tried Marmite on soldiers then dipped in egg? Mmmmm!

 

As they say no news is bad news. I was pooped this afternoon and the rain came but not before I managed to cut some more jigsaw puzzle ready to assemble tomorrow plus glue-blocks. You can't have too many glue-blocks! I was hoping to have the branch 'viaduct'* in place but I cocked up the height on one of the risers and I couldn't gather my thoughts. I've since worked it out so it'll be adjusted tomorrow. Pictures quite likely.

 

*The branch viaduct will be a temporary affair as I want to do it as a steel one which is a series of rectangular sections for the base and not a continuous curve as presently cut. I shall do this in card with a bit of 3mm ply as stiffener to support the track. The mainline viaduct inspired by the one at Ledbury I shall leave as curved ply, but clad it in card. It'll give me a nice base from which I can construct the arches.

 

Despite this possible Covid (I shall have to go for a test, I suppose, AND my one set neighbours have returned today with Covid anyway :(( ) progress is being made - hurrah! Might get the branch into the throat of Dymented tomorrow - yay!

 

Cheers everyone, more tomorrow,

 

Philip

[lezz01]

2 hours ago, Philou said:

 

 

@lezz01 Big thumbs up for Marmite - though I've never tasted Vegemite - mite be OK. Have you tried Marmite on soldiers then dipped in egg? Mmmmm!

 

 

Only every time we have boiled eggs mate. It's good with cheese on toast as well not to mention ham and cheese toasties. Wifey hates it! 

Regards Lez.

[Philou]

3 minutes ago, lezz01 said:

It's good with cheese on toast

 

I like a good dose of L&P on my toast before it goes back under the grill with the cheese. From what I understand, if you want a Welsh Rare-bit, it's a couple of slices of raw onion under the cheese before grilling. French cheese on toast isn't. Mrs Philou tries to persuade me that a croque-monsieur is nectar. When has cheese on toast been made with two slices of bread with a slice ham in between topped off with a mix of cream and shredded cheese and then ovened!? No cheddar, no Marmite, no L&P! ;))

[lezz01]

Yeh I don't mind the croque-monsieur myself although it would be better if they used extra mature cheddar. I used to live in the South of France for a few years back in the early 90s and the old croque-monsieur was a staple when driving down the auto route from Boulogne to Boulouris. That and the so called coffee that seemed to be made out of jet fuel, it was muck but boy did it keep you awake.

Regards Lez.