Carlisle, Garsdale and Hest Bank in EM gauge

[MJI]

Looks good.

 

How tall are the owners? Worked out I would be looking at edge of boards😃

[Michael Edge]

The owner isn't as tall as me but he prefers the eye level view - we have however had to get some benches made for others to stand on.

[MJI]

2 hours ago, Michael Edge said:

The owner isn't as tall as me but he prefers the eye level view - we have however had to get some benches made for others to stand on.

I will he lòoking over mine in a chair as it has to go under a window.

 

 

 

[Michael Edge]

Moving round to Garsdale now

 

 

The up Condor running through Garsdale behind two Co-Bos as an EE type 4 runs light in the other direction. The very loud clicks are the signal switches, very close to the camera in this shot.

 

 

The short fitted freight seen in the last video leaves the loop. The whirring noise is from the Tortoise point motors.

[Michael Edge]

Next some from the goods lines avoiding Citadel station.

 

Trainspotting from Currock Road bridge. First a long train of bogie bolsters behind a very loud Sulzer 2 crosses over to the NE lines as a Stanier pacific runs light engine back to Upperby shed on the main line.

 

 

Next a fitted goods behind a rebuilt Patriot appears off the LNW line, the light engine still waiting at Upperby Junction's home signal.

 

 

Another very loud Sulzer runs south on the goods lines with a long tank train as the Patriot passes in the other direction.

 

 

Moving on to London Road Junction with the bolster train seen earlier. The shape of the tracks is severely distorted here (the scale section ends at St Nicholas bridge in the background), the signals and some of the buildings are authentic though. Judith was operating the camera here while I was crouching down near the control panel - I put my head up a little bit too early...

[LNER4479]

Good to see some freight traffic on the move - the life blood of the railway, after all.

[woodenhead]

No headcode on the 24, it does look odd without any white discs. 🙂

[Michael Edge]

There‘s about 200 locos on the layout, at the moment I’m just content to see the trains moving reliably.  Some do have appropriate head codes though.

[Michael Edge]

Just back from another trip to France, Yorkshire weather today a bit of a contrast to Dordogne though.

I left Hest Bank in May with baseboards for the scenic part and not much more, back this time with all the pointwork and the cork had already been laid so I could start with tracklaying. The weather was extremely hot (for October) and sunny - ideal conditions for the job.

Tony's pointwork comes neatly packed on the Templot printout so it's easy to set it all out and see how it fits together. This time we have prototypical fixed diamond crossings instead of the switch diamonds we had on the approach to Citadel. When I drew the pointwork out to scale Tony quite correctly pointed out that the crossing angles were too flat for fixed diamonds in EM but this time (I wasn't involved with the earlier stuff) I simply asked him to adjust the angles and lengths to bring it with the range for fixed. The switch diamonds work now but they were a real pain fix motors to and set up, comparison below shows the minimal difference it woould have made.

This is one of the new ones laid over the Citadel approach junctions, the very small difference in length would not have been noticeable.

To form the approach to the new section I had to rebuild one turnout into a tandem, minimum (4ft 6in) radius here but it works. There was only room for a single track connection to Hest Bank, anything else would have involved points in the tunnel between here and Garsdale, northbound trains will run wrong line here, crossing back over on the approach to Garsdale.

This is the very long sprung point which turn it back into double track through Hest Bank, it just fits in the original return loop structure (this is part of the return loop made for this end of the layout which couldn't be fitted when we added Garsdale).

Tracklaying as before, glued down with No More Nails, weighted with a variety of steel and iron lumps for a couple of hours or so, then move on, point motors fitted now. The coach is for testing purposes, no power on the track yet but a free running vehicle can be hand propelled along to check the alignment. The curve of the main lines here is about 40m radius and it wasn't easy to set out. When I originally drew the plan, tracing from OS 1:2500, this looked just about straight. When we went to Hest Bank and looked at it there was a very visible curve all the way through which we found a little worrying - but once the model track was actually laid the curve was just as apparent as it had been full size.

Looking the other way it's not so tidy! This is about four days work before I got on to the missing baseboards, I left these longer so that I could still walk round the end rather than ducking underneath all the time.

More later

[St Enodoc]

10 hours ago, Michael Edge said:

When I drew the pointwork out to scale Tony quite correctly pointed out that the crossing angles were too flat for fixed diamonds in EM but this time (I wasn't involved with the earlier stuff) I simply asked him to adjust the angles and lengths to bring it with the range for fixed.

What were the before-and-after angles, Mike?

[Michael Edge]

My original Templot drawing had 1:7 crossings, between two B7 turnouts - I haven't seen Tony's altered plan. They do work perfectly though.

[Barry O]

I am sure that Carlisle needs one of these..

 

 

Suitably regauged with an etched chassis overlay and a working pony truck..

 

Baz

Edited October 21, 2023 by Barry O

[Michael Edge]

3 hours ago, Michael Edge said:

My original Templot drawing had 1:7 crossings, between two B7 turnouts - I haven't seen Tony's altered plan. They do work perfectly though.

Looking again that might be the altered setting, I'll check with Tony.

[Michael Edge]

Moving on to the second week in France

More baseboard construction, the plywood had been delivered to the railway room but turned out to be nearly twice as thick as what I had specified before so construction was a bit different. This stuff was really difficult to saw as well but it did make one part easier...

It's so thick it was self supporting at the narrower end so I didn't have to move any of the control panels, they are all still easily visible underneath - one did have to be undone, threaded back through its hole and fixed lower down.

Pointwork laid out to see exactly where it would fit - in the end it all moved back a bit. Designing this at home without actually being there meant a lot of work was done as I went along.

 

Finished boards with just a narrow fill in bit to join it to the scenic part, the slightly odd reverse curve shape was to clear the panel and control sockets on the right at the end of Garsdale without getting too close to the Citadel tower at the other side. It does lengthen the loops a bit as well.

View down the whole length - it's quite a big layout in itself.

Overall from the scenic break bridge

The first down train running on to the loop. Once I get a crossover which was missed off the plan up and down trains will use the track on the left with four loops for storage. The only access back to the main lines through our existing storage area is via the loco yard road which is the only one with up and down connections at the far end. This will access the main line into Citadel and both goods avoiding lines to Bog Junction.

 

[polybear]

Can I ask what supplier you used for the flexi?

Thanks

Brian

[Michael Edge]

C&L, all the plain track on the layout is from them.

[Erichill16]

6 hours ago, Barry O said:

I am sure that Carlisle needs one of these..

 

 

Suitably regauged with an etched chassis overlay and a working pony truck..

 

Baz

Put it away,it’s a Christmas present!

[St Enodoc]

9 hours ago, Michael Edge said:

My original Templot drawing had 1:7 crossings, between two B7 turnouts - I haven't seen Tony's altered plan. They do work perfectly though.

 

6 hours ago, Michael Edge said:

Looking again that might be the altered setting, I'll check with Tony.

Thanks Mike. I suspect the latter - 1:7 fixed crossings shouldn't give problems.

Edited October 21, 2023 by St Enodoc

[St Enodoc]

5 hours ago, Michael Edge said:

It's so thick it was self supporting at the narrower end so I didn't have to move any of the control panels, they are all still easily visible underneath - one did have to be undone, threaded back through its hole and fixed lower down.

I like the key tags.

[St Enodoc]

5 hours ago, Michael Edge said:

Designing this at home without actually being there meant a lot of work was done as I went along.

I find that even when I am actually there.

[Michael Edge]

14 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

I like the key tags.

This was the only way I could think of to keep track of about 200 locos on the layout, especially as they are often too far way (and the lighting isn't very good) to read the numbers - and some earlier "weathering" has obscured the cabside numbers completely. The only thing you have to remember is to take the tag with you when you move a loco from one location to another. They are also colour coded, red for express passenger, blue for mixed traffic, green for diesels and yellow for local passenger and DMUs.

[Michael Edge]

Steve delivered all the signals for Hest Bank to me at the Manchester show, very securely packed as usual.

I have to fit the down home (3 aspect colour light) to the gantry but otherwise all ready to transport to the layout next year.

Left to right: bay starter, up home, up splitting starter, down home gantry and goods starter. The down starter will be another 3 aspect c/l fitted to the footbridge at the end of the platforms.