Progress on Yeovil

[Laurie2mil]

Thank you for your kind words, @britishcolumbian, glad you've made contact.  Will message you off-list to follow up our joint interest in Yeovil Pen Mill!

 

Laurie A

[Ian Smith]

Progress with the Pen Mill signal box seems pretty slow by my usual standard, not that I have a lack of enthusiasm, just life generally getting in the way!

 

Anyway, progress is being made and this post will show where we're at ...

 

We left the previous post with the ceiling (with gutters) and the hip roof having been formed.  The two were united, then the process of slating the roof was attended to.  I printed a grid of slate sized boxes onto a sheet of printer self adhesive label, then cut the grid up into strips of slates.  What will be the exposed lower end of each slate was cut through so that each slat looked separate when the strip was stuck to the roof.

The roof structure with the slate strips applied.  The lead flashing between the facets of the roof is in the process of being added, having first glued lengths of 0.3mm brass wire along each joint.

 

The lead flashing was prepared from more self adhesive label :

The flashing being prepared by forming the roll-over over a length of 0.3mm brass wire by pressing down each side with a pair of tweezers.

 

Once the roll-over had been formed, the length of adhesive label was cut to length and the excess at the corners trimmed of at 45 degrees.  With that done, the backing was removed and the flashing stuck in place over the brass wires on the roof corners.

 

Once complete, the whole was given an application of runny super glue to ensure that the slates and flashing were securely fixed together and to the plasticard roof underneath.  When all was fully dry, the slates were painted overall in a mid-grey colour, with odd slates picked out in a slightly darker shade, and the flashing painted in a lighter grey.  The outside of the gutters were painted in GWR Dark Stone, the soffits below the gutters painted in GWR Light Stone, and the inside of the gutters painted in Precision Paints Frame Dirt (although any generally mucky colour would have done!)

The completed roof structure.  I have since touched up the flashing in the near corner where I caught it with Dark Stone.  The eagle eyed may have noticed that I put end caps on my guttering - these are simply bits of 0.005" plastic scraps that are cut to profile once fully dry.

 

With the roof essentially finished (although I will put flashing around where the chimney stack protrudes through the bottom rows of slates once the roof is finally stuck in position), it was time to move the main structure on. The first thing was to paint the upper part of the box in the GWR Light & Dark Stone shades as appropriate :

The painters have been in, and the glaziers have also started their work.  Also evident is the small LED that I have fitted to illuminate the interior should Laurie ever want to.  The LED is a particularly small one which supposedly runs off 12v (with a suitable resistor) which I purchased from some stand or other at an exhibition a few years ago.  In order to fit it I had to drill firstly down the chimney stack then up into that hole from the locking room (forward planning would have been a godsend!!!), I elected to run the +ve lead down the corner of the room into the locking room as it was hard enough to thread the -ve lead down the small hole I had provided!

 

It was originally my intention to form the windows as I had for my Modbury signal box - with frames cut from sticky label, but trying to cut the arches for the locking room windows proved particularly challenging as the label was apt to tear or fray as I tried to cut out the shape.  I therefore decided to cut the frames from 0.005" plastic sheet which allowed very small slithers to be sliced off to correct the arc of the window frame tops.  The glazing bars were formed by scrawking the bars on a sheet of thin cobex (from the Association), then covering the grid with white ink and once dry buffing off the excess on the panes with cotton buds.

 

The frames were attached to the cobex with DLimonene which doesn't appear to have affected the transparency of the cobex at all.

 

The following 4 photos show each aspect of the box now that the glaziers have finished and all of the windows have been fitted :

The front of the box.   As can be seen it is a warm day and the bobby has opened up all of his siding windows to let in a bit of fresh air.  The reality is that my panes of glass were very marginally too narrow such that when the frames were set side by side the inner and outer frames did not overlap each other enough!

 

The locking room door end.  The door was simply formed by overlaying a fretted out 0.005" piece with the panels in on a 0.030" backing.  The door knob is less than 0.5mm diameter (with a 0.3mm shaft that is glued in a hole in the door), and was a simple turning operation with files and a mini-drill.

 

The rear of the box.  The windows in this face of the box do have their frames cut from a self adhesive label as they were the first to be fitted.  Having done the locking room window frames in 0.005" plastic sheet I elected to do the rest of the windows in the same fashion.

 

The ladder end of the box.  The upper storey door has a basis of thin cobex (glazing bars as per other windows), with a fret of door panels and window frame of 0.005" plastic sheet.  The sign on the door is simply a piece of black painted 0.005" with edge and "writing" scratched in with a needle.

 

Having reached the limit of photo upload, I will draw this post to a close.  Thank you for looking.

Ian

 

[Ian Smith]

This post simply contains a couple of photos of Pen Mill signal box in its current state :

 

 

The next task is to complete the interior of the box (instrument shelf mainly).  The exterior still needs the safety bars fitting across the windows, and the down pipes from the guttering.

 

Thanks for looking.

Ian

[phil_sutters]

Not wishing to clog up your inspiring thread, I have rounded up what photos and spotting log pages there are in Dad's archive (there could be more log pages, but I only searched for those that were identified by photos taken on those days) and put them in an album at 

 

[Laurie2mil]

What else can I say, Ian, but - beautiful work, thank you very much.  The Pen Mill end slowly develops and gains prominence: although initially very much an opportunistic "add-on" it will provide a very different (and very attractive if I can maintain Ian and Alisdair's standards) scene and operation to balance those of the Town station at the other end, and the lines going off through the Yeo valley.

Thank you too to Phil Sutters for posting your Dad's logs and photos: I have seen some of the pictures before but some are new to me, and every new photo shows some new detail - and more is visible on the less severely cropped photos in the gallery under your own ID.  Much appreciated.

[Bulwell Hall]

On 18/08/2023 at 14:31, Ian Smith said:

This post simply contains a couple of photos of Pen Mill signal box in its current state :

 

 

The next task is to complete the interior of the box (instrument shelf mainly).  The exterior still needs the safety bars fitting across the windows, and the down pipes from the guttering.

 

Thanks for looking.

Ian

 

Very nice work indeed - it must be tiny in 2mm scale!  I have always been attracted these small, early GWR boxes and they were commonly seen along the length of the Wilts, Somerset and Weymouth lines to both Weymouth and Salisbury.  There were two small signal boxes at Maiden Newton until the 1880s and I assume - there being no photographs that I know of - that they were of this style.  There was also a small signal box at Dorchester at the Yeovil end of the down platform, until circa 1912 and again I assume that it was of this style there being no photos showing it.  These were the first signal boxes to be provided on the W,S & W and were replaced over the years as facilities were extended and enlarged. I believe that the Frome North Signal Box - formerly Frome Mineral Branch - was the last to remain and fortunately is now preserved at Didcot Railway Centre.

 

Gerry

[Ian Smith]

5 hours ago, Bulwell Hall said:

 

Very nice work indeed - it must be tiny in 2mm scale!

 

Thanks Gerry.  Yes, it is quite small - a footprint of 30mm x 24mm (1.25” x 1”).

 

These small boxes are personal favourites of mine too, I much prefer the earlier small paned windows.  This particular one being a “type 2”, which photographically seem to be quite rare (excepting the preserved one at Didcot).

Ian

[Ian Smith]

Well, "Yeovil Pen Mill (South) Signal Box" is finished (apart from adding a nameplate), although "Yeovil Pen Mill (South) Signal Box" on a single plate won't fit the space available!!  Therefore, I need to ask Laurie what he feels might be a suitable alternative - I can't remember ever seeing a signal box plate being shown that had two lines of wording (but then not many locations would have needed that anyway!!)  Anyway, for now I'm not going to do anything.

 

Anyway, the previous instalment left me with just detailing to do really.  So in short, the interior has been dealt with - an instrument shelf added behind the front windows, an armchair added with a driver/fireman sitting in it having a conversation with the "bobby" who has a cup of tea in his hand.  None of which is particularly visible even when the internal lighting is lit!!

 

The down pipes have been added - from the poor photographic evidence we have I couldn't really tell where these were so I've put one near the front right corner and one near the rear left corner.  The pipes themselves are bent up pieces of 0.5mm diameter nickel silver wire.  The fixings are from a doubled up loop of thin copper wire, the ends of which being twisted together and the whole soldered in place on the pipe, the twisted tail then fits in a suitable hole in the wall/framing of the box (having first threaded on a small patch of 0.010" plasticard to represent a wooden block fixed to the wall to which the downpipe fixing could be screwed).  Once fitted in place, the roof was offered up and any excess pipe carefully filed off so that the gap between gutter and top of pipe was minimal.

 

With the interior detail added, the roof was permanently attached with canopy glue (used because it dries reasonably quickly but isn't as instant as superglue would be).  Once dry, the flashing around the chimney stack was added and painted in light grey.

 

One (of the many) details that we are unsure of is whether there was any sort of extension on the non-step end of the box - the large scale maps of Yeovil Pen Mill that Laurie shared with me seem to show that the box footprint was not a simple rectangle, but there was a (varying size, depending on the map) extension of some kind at the rear left corner.  I elected to offer Laurie a choice (neither of which could be right!) of a small coal bunker or a wooden lean to privy/store.  Both of which have a small peg on their bottoms which engage in a hole in the signal box base to provide a positive location.  The coal bunker I constructed as a brick extension (although because the only embossed brick plasticard I have is English Bond, I had to make the walls 1.5mm thick so that the headers on the outside face would be sensible.  I decided to give the bunker a corrugated roof.  The privy/store was constructed to be a wooden construction rather like a shed (again with a corrugated roof).  The door has 0.005" hinges fitted, and a latch handle from a bit of fine bent wire with a thumb lever from a flattened piece of the same.

 

 Finally, a few photos of the finished item ...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for looking.

Ian

[Caley Jim]

I don't think having the signal box name on two lines was completely unknown.  Camperdown Junction (Dundee) for example, although a large box, had the name boards on the end with 'Junction' below 'Camperdown' on one deep board and I'm sure I've seen photos of others.

 

Jim

[Izzy]

That’s lovely work Ian

17 hours ago, Ian Smith said:

Well, "Yeovil Pen Mill (South) Signal Box" is finished (apart from adding a nameplate), although "Yeovil Pen Mill (South) Signal Box" on a single plate won't fit the space available!!  Therefore, I need to ask Laurie what he feels might be a suitable alternative - I can't remember ever seeing a signal box plate being shown that had two lines of wording (but then not many locations would have needed that anyway!!)  Anyway, for now I'm not going to do anything.

 

Anyway, the previous instalment left me with just detailing to do really.  So in short, the interior has been dealt with - an instrument shelf added behind the front windows, an armchair added with a driver/fireman sitting in it having a conversation with the "bobby" who has a cup of tea in his hand.  None of which is particularly visible even when the internal lighting is lit!!

 

The down pipes have been added - from the poor photographic evidence we have I couldn't really tell where these were so I've put one near the front right corner and one near the rear left corner.  The pipes themselves are bent up pieces of 0.5mm diameter nickel silver wire.  The fixings are from a doubled up loop of thin copper wire, the ends of which being twisted together and the whole soldered in place on the pipe, the twisted tail then fits in a suitable hole in the wall/framing of the box (having first threaded on a small patch of 0.010" plasticard to represent a wooden block fixed to the wall to which the downpipe fixing could be screwed).  Once fitted in place, the roof was offered up and any excess pipe carefully filed off so that the gap between gutter and top of pipe was minimal.

 

With the interior detail added, the roof was permanently attached with canopy glue (used because it dries reasonably quickly but isn't as instant as superglue would be).  Once dry, the flashing around the chimney stack was added and painted in light grey.

 

One (of the many) details that we are unsure of is whether there was any sort of extension on the non-step end of the box - the large scale maps of Yeovil Pen Mill that Laurie shared with me seem to show that the box footprint was not a simple rectangle, but there was a (varying size, depending on the map) extension of some kind at the rear left corner.  I elected to offer Laurie a choice (neither of which could be right!) of a small coal bunker or a wooden lean to privy/store.  Both of which have a small peg on their bottoms which engage in a hole in the signal box base to provide a positive location.  The coal bunker I constructed as a brick extension (although because the only embossed brick plasticard I have is English Bond, I had to make the walls 1.5mm thick so that the headers on the outside face would be sensible.  I decided to give the bunker a corrugated roof.  The privy/store was constructed to be a wooden construction rather like a shed (again with a corrugated roof).  The door has 0.005" hinges fitted, and a latch handle from a bit of fine bent wire with a thumb lever from a flattened piece of the same.

 

 Finally, a few photos of the finished item ...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for looking.

Ian

 

That’s lovely work Ian. I admire how you’ve managed to get the windows looking just right as it’s an aspect I’ve really struggled with (quite besides the rest). 

 

Bob

[DLT]

Stunning piece of work Ian, especially as on my screen, its the size on a 7mm model!

[Sithlord75]

Just missed this year's Virtual Modelling Competition but if you take it to Aldershot...

 

Stunning piece of work Ian.  

[Ian Smith]

On 17/09/2023 at 09:51, DLT said:

Stunning piece of work Ian, especially as on my screen, its the size on a 7mm model!

Thank you.  On my screen it's the same.  The actual building has a footprint of 32mm x 24mm - I should have included a suitable coin of the realm in the photos 😆

[t-b-g]

What a lovely model.

[VRBroadgauge]

I love your work Ian.

 

I'm a building designer (architectural design draftsman) by trade. One of my pet peeves is not getting the detailing right. Modellers tend to take short cuts with structures. Not here.

 

A suitably fine structure for Laurie's fine layout.

 

[MarshLane]

Recently a lot of work has been taking place on Laurie's layout to make the hidden sidings usable.  While I can claim to have helped a bit in soldering various relays and diodes onto breadboards to aid in the control system, its is a very minor amount!  Full credit goes to Laurie for the design work (which follows the why keep it simple when complicated will suffice methodology 😂) and the final wiring up.

 

The North Mercia Area Group meeting on 5th October, had a small attendance from the regulars, but despite Laurie's best efforts the new control panel just missed the evening.  However, a manual process, allowed a small amount of rail operation to take place, and with some careful operation of two controllers, we managed to run my blue & grey Class 108, and Laurie's 1960s green 108 together, and passing on the Junction route for what is thought to have been the first time.

 

While it was only filmed on an iPhone, the attached video, shows this historic event....

 

 

Rich

 

 

Edited October 8, 2023 by MarshLane

[VRBroadgauge]

The canting of your track is just a work of art Laurie.

 

I could watch trains run through those curves all day.

[DavidMcKenzie]

Hi Rich @MarshLane,

Thanks for pointing me in the direction of this layout, some brilliant modelling and echoing the comments above, those curves look absolutely superb Laurie 👏.

All the best,

Dave 

[Laurie2mil]

Good to see Ian Smith at NMAG's Christmas meeting - especially as he brought up his beautiful Pen Mill South signal box.  Never mind the width, feel the quality!  It is small (like the real one) but perfectly formed - quite exquisite, complete with signalman and internal light.  It will be a while before it gets bedded in (have to finish the fiddle yard loops and control panels, then the rodding, then ballasting.  But here are a couple of pics of it in situ:

 

Very proud to have one of your models on Yeovil, Ian, thank you very much indeed.

[Laurie2mil]

Most of my own modelling time this year has been spent on the Fiddle Yards.

Following on from my discursive post about this (way back in March), the Yard for the Junction Lines has been done bar completing the run-round for the pair of long loop roads), and on Christmas eve I finally caught the last bug in the Junction Yard Panel and its associated wiring which allows it to talk to the tracks and main panel at Yeovil Town.  It's centre-piece is a hand-operated traintable, modified after the one Peter Denny built for Buckingham (all my best ideas come from Buckingham - and its current custodian Tony Gee).  Those who lasted through to the end of the post in March may remember that the main problem was the loft ladder which comes down in the middle of this fiddle yard, so not only does the traintable have to rotate, it also has to completely separate from its supporting baseboard and be placed out of harm's (ie. the ladder's) way.  Additionally, in order to maximise the approach track the radii and storage track lengths, it also withdraws and  elevates - its runners are sloped.  It actually works very well, somewhat to my surprise. 

 

I don't expect many will have a loft ladder where the tracks need to be, but it does strike me that a similar construction (withdrawal and small elevation) might be useful in a terminus-fiddle yard layout: where space is limited and narrow it may allow a traintable in place of a sector plate, traverser, or simple loops or sidings.  A traintable is a very efficient way of turning whole trains.  So a link to a video of it in operation just uploaded to YouTube:     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEnwIfUN_zUa   and a some stills:

 

 

 

 

 

My thanks to Andrew Hyatt for help with the design and machining the pivot.

Happy to send on more details and photos of the design and construction if anyone is interested.

 

Laurie

 

 

 

Edited January 9 by Laurie2mil
Additional Photo and acknowledgement

[Donw]

very impressive  Laurie.

 

Don

[Laurie2mil]

My thanks to Don and the others for their encouraging comments and interest.

 

To round off the saga of the Junction Fiddle Yard, a few words and pics about the control panel and operation of the Junction lines, which are effectively terminus - to - fiddle yard and operate independently from the GWR Weymouth circuit and Durston branch. 

DC, "traditional" control panels (with full route indication and simplicity of circuitry subordinate to flexibility of operation) and block bells might not be everyone's cup of tea but they are mine!  Like the main Yeovil Town (YT) control panel, the Junction Yard (JY) panel can be switched onto any of the 4 controllers at the Fiddle Yard end, and 3-colour LEDS (= 4 with red+green = yellow) show the route selected in the colour of the controller connected.  The JY is a single electrical section despite being fed by both up and down tracks; an up/down route switch and a switch for each storage road operate the points (via a diode/relay/ matrix and servos by Megapoints ) and the LEDs for the route set.  A "Control" switch puts the whole JY onto the end of the up or down track (controlled by the main Yeovil Town panel).  With an operator at each end (Junction Yard and Yeovil Town) trains are driven towards the operator.  The function of the control switch could be taken over by the signalling switches when we get to that stage in future years.

Communication between the 2 operators is modelled closely on the simple block system Peter Denny devised for Buckingham: a bell and push switch, and a knob with lights showing "normal", "line clear" & "train on line") for up and down line trains on each panel, and a much simplified list of bell codes.  The "block controls" are independent of all other electrical switching.

If there is just one operator (which will be the norm - just me most of the time), the JY panel can be effectively "switched out" (route and road switches "off" & Control set to "Yeovil Town"), the route into/out of the JY selected by duplicate switches now added to the Yeovil Town panel (relays prevent major conflicts, such as the route switches being "live" on both panels at the same time).

As well as showing the controller and route selected, the LEDs on the JY panel also indicate which YT controller has the up and down lines, and whether the JY has been electrically switched over to the  YT panel.  To mirror this, the YT panel also has LEDs which indicate whether the JY has been switched over to either the up or down line.

This all sounds rather complicated, but driving a drive a train (in either direction) just requires the JY operator to select the route (up or down), the storage road to depart from or arrive into, and the control to the YT panel - just 3 toggle switches - and if every LED along the route is lit for the colour of the controller in your hand, you're good to go.  The "block instruments" simply save shouting across the room - and, one step closer to the prototype, are a healthy reminder of how the real thing used to work.

 

So here are some examples of the control panels set for up and down trains.  First, the JY set-up showing the panel, Fiddle Yard with traintable (and the mirror and CCTV camera so you can see what's in it); the panel is showing "line clear" for an Up train departing from Road J, driven by the YT Red Controller:

 

And the same settings as seen on the YT panels:

 

JY panel showing a down train "on line" for Storage Road C, being driven by the Yellow Controller (located at the fiddle yard but plugs into the YT panel):

 

 

And to show the JY panel set for local control, this is the JY panel set for running round on Loop Road D under the fiddle yards' own Blue Controller:

 

Finally, a couple of short(ish) videos from YouTube, of the sequence at the JY end to drive up and down trains with 2 operators (using the block instruments); and from the YT end, with just a single operator (no block instruments - I'm way off an automatic Crispin!!):   

 

 

 

As ever, happy to share further details if anyone wants them!!

 

Laurie

Edited January 9 by Laurie2mil
Correction of YouTube links

[Caley Jim]

I'm getting an 'oops something went wrong' message on both these YouTube links.😕

 

Jim

[Laurie2mil]

Thanks Jim. 

Sorry about that - now corrected (they embedded this time).

 

Lauri

[Caley Jim]

Thanks, Laurie.  Much easier to follow on the videos!  I hadn't quite appreciated the expanse of your empire!

 

I take it that Syphon is a 'cripple'!  Also notice several of your locos sport WSLR livery!😁

 

Jim