RMweb Gold 97406 Posted October 1, 2022 RMweb Gold Share Posted October 1, 2022 Looking forward to watching your layout develop, especially the trackwork which looks like a work of art! Lovely stuff! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
David J Hayes Posted October 4, 2022 Share Posted October 4, 2022 (edited) GREAT to see the development of your Pensnett layout, "Southwich". I'm not a modeller myself, but I'm very familiar with the location as I'm from the Black Country area where it's based-on. As mentioned by "Ramblin Rich", there have been various freight articles covering the Black Country region published in TRACTION (most are mine) featuring images of my own and those of Andy Williams (BescotPlus), John Whitehouse (Flickr) and Paul Dorney (Flickr) amongst others. To the best of my knowledge, the fireclay traffic from Northumberland (Butterwell) was the last rail traffic to be handled at Pensnett. I'm pretty sure it was a LoadHaul contract and I believe the last trains ran in September 1994. Ironically, this was the same month and year Transrail launched its Enterprise wagonload venture! The HEA hoppers initially used for the fireclay workings, as seen in my mate Andy Williams picture, were not suitable for this commodity and subsequent deliveries were made using MEA wagons. The routing of the trains was via the Lickey and Worcester (run-round). You probably have chapter and verse on the traffic and trips that served Pensnett during the BR era, although I believe you are basing your layout's fictional period of operation on the EWS era, which should open up a whole host of traffic flows that could have potentially been dealt with at Pensnett had it remained open, including, perhaps, intermodal business. As for a name for your layout, should you not wish to call it Pensnett, there's a road called Dreadnought Road right next to where the terminal used to be located and an area known as Tansey Green (I think Dreadnought Road sounds quite good). I wish you well with your project. Cheers. David J. Hayes. Edited October 4, 2022 by David J Hayes 3 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
David J Hayes Posted October 5, 2022 Share Posted October 5, 2022 (edited) HELLO again, "Southwich". Shall you be exhibiting your Pensnett-based layout when it's finished? If so, I very much look forward to hopefully seeing it one day at a model railway event and perhaps even featured in the modelling section of TRACTION, accompanied with a nice selection of images taken by Andy York. It would certainly be interesting to see how Pensnett "might have been" had it survived into the rail freight privatization era. Whilst I have several articles pending use in TRACTION, my latest offering being a two-parter titled London Milk (Part One is now out in TRACTION 272), it just so happens I'm about to submit another two-part feature soon to TRACTION with the railway modeller particularly in mind, which I hope you and other modellers will find of interest if it's accepted and published (I'd rather not say where or what it's about as I don't want to give too much away just yet). As I mentioned elsewhere, I'm not a modeller myself, but even I'm tempted to model the subject matter now I've written about it, although I'm sure my long-suffering wife would have something to say about that! Cheers. David J. Hayes. Edited October 5, 2022 by David J Hayes 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Southwich Posted October 5, 2022 Author Share Posted October 5, 2022 On 01/10/2022 at 17:05, 97406 said: Looking forward to watching your layout develop, especially the trackwork which looks like a work of art! Lovely stuff! Thanks 97406 much appreciated! Let’s reserve judgment until we start testing though 😉 Kind regards, Will Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Southwich Posted October 5, 2022 Author Share Posted October 5, 2022 17 hours ago, David J Hayes said: GREAT to see the development of your Pensnett layout, "Southwich". I'm not a modeller myself, but I'm very familiar with the location as I'm from the Black Country area where it's based-on. As mentioned by "Ramblin Rich", there have been various freight articles covering the Black Country region published in TRACTION (most are mine) featuring images of my own and those of Andy Williams (BescotPlus), John Whitehouse (Flickr) and Paul Dorney (Flickr) amongst others. To the best of my knowledge, the fireclay traffic from Northumberland (Butterwell) was the last rail traffic to be handled at Pensnett. I'm pretty sure it was a LoadHaul contract and I believe the last trains ran in September 1994. Ironically, this was the same month and year Transrail launched its Enterprise wagonload venture! The HEA hoppers initially used for the fireclay workings, as seen in my mate Andy Williams picture, were not suitable for this commodity and subsequent deliveries were made using MEA wagons. The routing of the trains was via the Lickey and Worcester (run-round). You probably have chapter and verse on the traffic and trips that served Pensnett during the BR era, although I believe you are basing your layout's fictional period of operation on the EWS era, which should open up a whole host of traffic flows that could have potentially been dealt with at Pensnett had it remained open, including, perhaps, intermodal business. As for a name for your layout, should you not wish to call it Pensnett, there's a road called Dreadnought Road right next to where the terminal used to be located and an area known as Tansey Green (I think Dreadnought Road sounds quite good). I wish you well with your project. Cheers. David J. Hayes. Hi David, First of all I just wanted to thank you for your extremely kind post, it’s really nice that people have a genuine interest in my modelling! A few friends have very kindly sent me your excellent articles, they’ve been very helpful thank you! I think the operations are the key bit of interest for me in this project, to try and get something as close to the prototype as would have happened. Thanks for the info on the MEAs; I’ve identified these as a key piece of rolling stock to have - just need to get round to starting converting mine to P4! Given there isn’t too much in the way of buildings my plan is to have the layout operable in multiple eras if friends can provide suitable stock. Dreadnought Road certainly sounds good - thank you for the suggestion! My plan is to finish the trackwork and ground cover, then settle on a name once I’ve tested the track. 3 hours ago, David J Hayes said: HELLO again, "Southwich". Shall you be exhibiting your Pensnett-based layout when it's finished? If so, I very much look forward to hopefully seeing it one day at a model railway event and perhaps even featured in the modelling section of TRACTION, accompanied with a nice selection of images taken by Andy York. It would certainly be interesting to see how Pensnett "might have been" had it survived into the rail freight privatization era. Whilst I have several articles pending use in TRACTION, my latest offering being a two-parter titled London Milk (Part One is now out in TRACTION 272), it just so happens I'm about to submit another two-part feature soon to TRACTION with the railway modeller particularly in mind, which I hope you and other modellers will find of interest if it's published (please don't ask what it's about as I don't want to give too much away just yet). As I mentioned elsewhere, I'm not a modeller myself, but even I'm tempted to model the subject matter now I've written about it! Cheers. David J. Hayes. Thanks for your second post - I think it’s a long way off being exhibited but I would love to one day! Given this is a project just by myself and not a group project I think it’s going to take me a while to finish the layout and make suitable stock to a good standard (I don’t work particularly quickly or with much direction at times!). My plan is to put some videos on YouTube when I start testing the layout Looking forward to the next article! Thanks again for your excellent comments. Kind regards, Will 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
David J Hayes Posted October 5, 2022 Share Posted October 5, 2022 YOU'RE very welcome, "Southwich". Glad my comments/suggestions have been of possible use. I tip my hat to all you modellers. And thank you for your complimentary comments, too. Much appreciated. Hope you enjoy my other TRACTION articles as and when they appear. Keep up the good work. Cheers. David J. Hayes. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Southwich Posted October 7, 2022 Author Share Posted October 7, 2022 A bit more progress over the past few weeks - the “throat” of the layout is all but complete now having had the points glued down and droppers fitted. There’s one final point to be glued down which can be seen in the forth photo below. My next focus will be the four sidings at the front of the layout before gluing everything down then wiring/testing can commence! Kind regards, Will 11 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
dj_crisp Posted October 7, 2022 Share Posted October 7, 2022 Looks fantastic! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Southwich Posted October 19, 2022 Author Share Posted October 19, 2022 On 07/10/2022 at 21:11, dj_crisp said: Looks fantastic! Thanks Will! Over the past few weeks I’ve continued on with the trackbuilding and laid another 2.5 metres worth of track on the four sidings at the front of the layout. Unfortunately I’ve now run out of chairs so I’m awaiting a delivery from the S4 society before I can continue with finishing the trackwork. A few photos below: I managed to collect my fiddle yard board from Tim on Saturday so hoping to make a start preparing the layout to be married up with that this week as well. Kind regards, Will 12 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Southwich Posted October 23, 2022 Author Share Posted October 23, 2022 Continuing on with the progress on the track laying of the layout, I have laid pretty much all of the front 4 sidings - these just need to connecting to the existing sidings which have been glued down to the board. These 4 sidings are currently drying overnight so should be good to be connected tomorrow evening. As you can see from the shot below - I just have the two back most lines to go (about a metre of track) and then the fourth siding which leaves the Y point to connect up. Once these lines are laid I can then move onto wiring, as well as starting the transition to the fiddle yard. @WrattingRoad is popping to see the layout next weekend, so I’m hoping we will be able to play trains - best get busy this week! Thanks again to Martin for his help with the track base - building this off scene has really helped with the ease of laying track and not breaking my back leaning over the layout! Kind regards, Will 15 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Southwich Posted October 27, 2022 Author Share Posted October 27, 2022 Wiring has started: Not the most exciting job but hoping to have some movement over the weekend. I also got the converted vans out to see how they look in the front sidings: Hoping to have a play with some converted stock over the weekend. Fiddle yard progress planned tomorrow Kind regards, Will 13 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Southwich Posted October 31, 2022 Author Share Posted October 31, 2022 (edited) Plenty of progress the past four days that I’ve been off - the layout has gone from not having much competed with no wiring, to having the entire layout wired and all of the track laid minus the back short siding. A few photos of the work: Overall view of the layout: The front sidings and headshunt: Looming at the right hand end of the layout where the road bridge will be/where the fiddle yard transition is: Another thing I had to do this weekend was raise the back sidings by 3mm to replicate the raised track on the prototype: Out with the jigsaw to cut the boards, and then braced with CLS timber. Two shots of the fiddle yard join inspired by various layouts at Scaleforum in September: The brass sheet will be ballasted over and painted black under the bridge so this won’t be seen, but I wanted this to be as bullet proof as possible! Hopefully the check rails will assist with the stock going over the joins. Finally an overall view looking down the layout: There are a few dead spots to fix which I’ll sort over the next few days. The main next steps on the layout are sorting the fiddle yard track and the point motors. Planning on having a few days break on the layout to ensure I don’t burn myself out, but then will look at tackling these few tasks before I can test it properly. Kind regards, Will Edited October 31, 2022 by Southwich 17 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
johndon Posted October 31, 2022 Share Posted October 31, 2022 Looking good. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Enterprisingwestern Posted November 1, 2022 RMweb Gold Share Posted November 1, 2022 5 hours ago, Southwich said: Out with the jigsaw to cut the boards, and then braced with CLS timber. Crikey, are you sure that's going to be strong enough?!! Mike. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
WCML100 Posted November 1, 2022 Share Posted November 1, 2022 Some great work, and progress is fast! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Southwich Posted November 1, 2022 Author Share Posted November 1, 2022 5 hours ago, Enterprisingwestern said: Crikey, are you sure that's going to be strong enough?!! Mike. Are you suggesting I should be adding another piece of CLS to ensure it doesn’t bow? 🤣 Kind regards, Will 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Southwich Posted November 1, 2022 Author Share Posted November 1, 2022 10 hours ago, johndon said: Looking good. Thanks John! Testing now so we’ll see how the track fares - I’m sure there will need to be some fettling. 55 minutes ago, WCML100 said: Some great work, and progress is fast! Thanks! 4 days off work tends to help! Kind regards, Will 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
johndon Posted November 1, 2022 Share Posted November 1, 2022 5 minutes ago, Southwich said: Thanks John! Testing now so we’ll see how the track fares - I’m sure there will need to be some fettling. Almost certainly. I tested as much of mine as I could before fitting the tie bars to the turnouts but found quite a few adjustments were needed after they'd been fitted. Strangely, the most complex bits on mine, two single slips, both worked perfectly first go... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Southwich Posted November 1, 2022 Author Share Posted November 1, 2022 2 minutes ago, johndon said: Almost certainly. I tested as much of mine as I could before fitting the tie bars to the turnouts but found quite a few adjustments were needed after they'd been fitted. Strangely, the most complex bits on mine, two single slips, both worked perfectly first go... I’ve done some initial testing and everything seems to work well and there don’t seem to be any tight spots yet. Need to get the blades out the way of the wheels then I can test the points properly Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Southwich Posted November 1, 2022 Author Share Posted November 1, 2022 A shot of the initial testing yesterday - all three locos performed very well Kind regards, Will 8 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
WCML100 Posted November 1, 2022 Share Posted November 1, 2022 57 minutes ago, Southwich said: A shot of the initial testing yesterday - all three locos performed very well Kind regards, Will Not only am I jealous of the fantastic track work, but now the rolling stock too! Looking good 😃 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Southwich Posted November 1, 2022 Author Share Posted November 1, 2022 3 hours ago, WCML100 said: Not only am I jealous of the fantastic track work, but now the rolling stock too! Looking good 😃 Thanks! All far too clean but run nicely so once the trackwork is done properly I will ensure the stock is sorted as well. 37401 is also joining the fleet so nice to have another mid 2000s tractor to add to the roster. Kind regards, Will 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Southwich Posted November 1, 2022 Author Share Posted November 1, 2022 A few clips of 37422 moving around the yard as the first train to run: Finally the first loco to run the full length of the layout & the fiddle yard: Kind regards, Will 12 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Enterprisingwestern Posted November 1, 2022 RMweb Gold Share Posted November 1, 2022 6 hours ago, WCML100 said: Not only am I jealous of the fantastic track work, but now the rolling stock too! Looking good 😃 Being a pre TOPS type of chap, I prefer the CLS! Mike. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Southwich Posted November 1, 2022 Author Share Posted November 1, 2022 2 hours ago, Enterprisingwestern said: Being a pre TOPS type of chap, I prefer the CLS! Mike. What Class of loco is a CLS? That sounds like a pre tops diesel 🤣 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now