Peterborough North

[great northern]

A bit of help please chaps. I'm in the process of writing yet another article about PN, and trying to avoid the formulaic stuff one sees quite often. Surely we all know about baseboards, ballasting and such like by now?  What do you like to know about a layout when you read about it in a magazine? Now here are tonight's pictures. You haven't yet seen what brought in the Edinburgh - Colchester.

You do know though what was going to take over, and here is 61643 now ready for the off.

It really is quite remarkable how much bigger the camera makes the lamps appear. I always check now before putting a loco on track, and these looked OK. I must get on with fitting the tiny ones. Isn't it amazing what a slight difference of angle can make too? The second picture seems to me to be much better, and has more life to it.

[trw1089]

Crikey, two of my favourite locos in the same post.  I do think that Velocity is the best name for an express passenger loco, but the B17 is very nice too!

 

As for layout discussions, I do like hearing about construction, but operation is the one thing I always want to know more about.  Typically in most layout articles it is only given cursory text, "we run to a sequence" or "we usually just run to a timetable", but nobody says much more about what they did to find out about the traffic patterns they are trying to emulate, how they came about the knowledge to know about the sequence, what was the working pattern of the stock they used and the like.  Whereas in this thread, you have regaled us with many great tales of your research and knowledge, and I think that this might be of interest to the greater readership through a magazine article.

 

I have learnt so much about locos, coaching stock and goods workings from this thread, it's why I enjoy it so much, so thanks again Gilbert for your regular postings and many fine pictures, long may it continue.

 

Cheers

Tony

[thegreenhowards]

Thanks Andy. Very interesting. Aren't those pre printed sides rather easy to ruin though? I understand the slightest bit of glue or solder on them is enough.

I think they would be easy to ruin and I certainly wouldn't let solder anywhere near them! I glued the door furniture on with superglue having drilled out the holes with a 0.5mm bit. It would have been easy to slip with the bit but using a hand chuck and going slowly it wasn't too hard and I'm not the most dexterous person! I got a tiny bit of superglue clouding one window, but there's always some imperfections on my coaches

 

At £7 for a pair of sides you can afford to have a disaster and not worry too much. The biggest issue for me is that the donor coach has fairly crude underframe detail, but as a layout coach I think it's OK.

 

 

Andy

[thegreenhowards]

A bit of help please chaps. I'm in the process of writing yet another article about PN, and trying to avoid the formulaic stuff one sees quite often. Surely we all know about baseboards, ballasting and such like by now?  What do you like to know about a layout when you read about it in a magazine? Now here are tonight's pictures. You haven't yet seen what brought in the Edinburgh - Colchester.

538.JPG

You do know though what was going to take over, and here is 61643 now ready for the off.

1643 1.JPG

It really is quite remarkable how much bigger the camera makes the lamps appear. I always check now before putting a loco on track, and these looked OK. I must get on with fitting the tiny ones. Isn't it amazing what a slight difference of angle can make too? The second picture seems to me to be much better, and has more life to it.

Gilbert,

 

Where PN really excels is in the research you've put in. Both into the layout and the timetable and associated rolling stock. I think you could create a fascinating and different article on how to model a prototype location going through all of the documents and source material you used, and then how you put together the fleet, and how you compromise with some of the formations using your fiddle yard and cassettes.

 

Andy

[davidw]

A bit of help please chaps. I'm in the process of writing yet another article about PN, and trying to avoid the formulaic stuff one sees quite often. Surely we all know about baseboards, ballasting and such like by now? What do you like to know about a layout when you read about it in a magazine? Now here are tonight's pictures. You haven't yet seen what brought in the Edinburgh - Colchester.

538.JPG

You do know though what was going to take over, and here is 61643 now ready for the off.

1643 1.JPG

It really is quite remarkable how much bigger the camera makes the lamps appear. I always check now before putting a loco on track, and these looked OK. I must get on with fitting the tiny ones. Isn't it amazing what a slight difference of angle can make too? The second picture seems to me to be much better, and has more life to it.

Hi Gilbert, not sure if you done it yet - something that describes time tabling. And the makeup of the trains. Origins of the coaches?

[Mallard60022]

Crikey, two of my favourite locos in the same post.  I do think that Velocity is the best name for an express passenger loco, but the B17 is very nice too!

 

As for layout discussions, I do like hearing about construction, but operation is the one thing I always want to know more about.  Typically in most layout articles it is only given cursory text, "we run to a sequence" or "we usually just run to a timetable", but nobody says much more about what they did to find out about the traffic patterns they are trying to emulate, how they came about the knowledge to know about the sequence, what was the working pattern of the stock they used and the like.  Whereas in this thread, you have regaled us with many great tales of your research and knowledge, and I think that this might be of interest to the greater readership through a magazine article.

 

I have learnt so much about locos, coaching stock and goods workings from this thread, it's why I enjoy it so much, so thanks again Gilbert for your regular postings and many fine pictures, long may it continue.

 

Cheers

Tony

Absolutely. It is a layout and most of us know quite a lot about producing that. Do the story telling Gilbert. Talk about recreating the summer days of fun and friendship with spotting as the common cause. Explain something about how you have found and still find information; that's what loads of people will like.

Perhaps some anecdotes about 'misinformation' or erroneous memories. Also do mention things you would not do again if you had the opportunity.

Let's have some fun in the mag, even mentioning the inability to pronounce Boys Rustle etc.

Look forward to reading it/them.

Phil 

[Mallard60022]

Gilbert,

 

A few months ago you were asking about building Southern Pride Mark 1 kits. I think I've identified a dodge which enables a quick route to a 'layout' Mark 1 which might interest you. The Southern pride sides have exactly the same method of attachment as the old Triang Hornby Mark 1 coaches. Therefore you can take a pair of sides from Southern Pride and a donor Triang Hornby Mark 1 (which can be picked up for £5-£10 secondhand), and simply replace the sides. If you use the pre-printed Southern Pride sides then all you have to do is add door furniture, sort out the vents on the roof, number it and add an interior. This also works with the etched brass sides in which case you'd need to paint and line as well.

 

I attach some pictures of my BSO done using this method (interior still work in progress). The ends and underframe are a bit 'clunky', but as this only cost me c.£7 for the sides with the rest coming from the spares box, I feel pretty pleased with the result.

 

Any Comments welcome.

 

Andy

 

image.jpeg

Blimey, I was about to throw away quite a lot of those Triang Hornby items (at least a dozen). Should I refrain from that?

Phil

[great northern]

Gilbert,

 

Where PN really excels is in the research you've put in. Both into the layout and the timetable and associated rolling stock. I think you could create a fascinating and different article on how to model a prototype location going through all of the documents and source material you used, and then how you put together the fleet, and how you compromise with some of the formations using your fiddle yard and cassettes.

 

Andy

 That has really given me food for thought Andy, as have the other suggestions. I've already started two separate attempts, but wasn't really happy with either. It would as you say be a different type of article, and one I'd like to write.

Blimey, I was about to throw away quite a lot of those Triang Hornby items (at least a dozen). Should I refrain from that?

Phil

Yes.

[great northern]

I'm really grateful for the suggestions everyone. They have helped enormously in getting me to realise what I'd really like to do and say, so I'll be starting afresh later. By way of thanks, as most people seem to appreciate B17s, here is a close up of Champion Lodge as it swings under Crescent Bridge.

After it had cleared the section, the pilot brought up the stock for the 7.25 to KX from the carriage sidings, and propelled it into Platform 2.

Patience is a virtue.

[Oldddudders]

I think you have had some first-rate advice so far. I, too, am less than enthralled by tales of baseboards or tracklaying, not that I pretend to have any skills in either. I come to RMweb to see models performing in their own landscape, and PN provides that in spades. The operation of a proper WTT is something you would expect me to enjoy, as a lapsed railwayman, and the attention to detail in formations from more than 50 years ago adds significantly to that. 

 

Let's be honest - very few modellers will ever have the time, skills, space or money to emulate PN. But everyone can learn from the benefits of the realism you have striven to provide, in adapting the real PN to your space, in procuring buildings that replicate what was and is there, in making sure the locos and stock look the part. An eye for detail, culled from research, applied to the model.

 

Every modest BLT in the land could and would have more atmosphere if it followed your cues. How you put them across in a readable format I know not. But the wealth of good news you have to offer is abundant.

[The Stationmaster]

 That has really given me food for thought Andy, as have the other suggestions. I've already started two separate attempts, but wasn't really happy with either. It would as you say be a different type of article, and one I'd like to write.

 

 

Something along those lines was done years ago in, I think, MRN and I fully applaud your plan as it never ceases to surprise (and sometimes amaze) me that so many railway modellers seem to have such a limited understanding of how and why railways work and what goes into making them work.

[thegreenhowards]

That has really given me food for thought Andy, as have the other suggestions. I've already started two separate attempts, but wasn't really happy with either. It would as you say be a different type of article, and one I'd like to write.

Yes.

Having thought further, one of the things that I really enjoy is your recreation of prototype photos. I suggest you could illustrate such an article with one or two of these type of pictures and explain how you sourced the vehicles to recreate the train as well as the scenery to frame it.

[rockershovel]

Another vote for concentrating on the research, rolling stock and operation

 

Some discussion about the evolution of Spital Bridge and the Engineers Depot would be good, too - comparing them with the originals, how they differ, and why

[New Haven Neil]

https://www.flickr.com/photos/blue-diesels/25104393935/in/photostream/

 

[great northern]

https://www.flickr.com/photos/blue-diesels/25104393935/in/photostream/

 

Lovely photo.

[great northern]

The new article is well on the way, but I fear I won't be able to get everything in the space I've been allotted. Should I negotiate for a second article? I felt it necessary to go into a lot of detail about the vagaries of PN, as if I didn't some people might think that I had come up with a cr** and totally unprototypical plan.

 

 Here is a picture that didn't work.

Apart from being out of focus, the front end of the loco doesn't look right, bu then it is a 30+ year old scratchbuilt effort. The next shot shows it in a better light. It is the 7.25 slow to London, by the way.

[great northern]

A break from article writing, which now seems to have spawned a sequel, by the way. As it is still only about 7.30am at PN, there are still paths available to get more coal through on its way to Ferme Park, so as soon as the London stopper has gone, another WD comes lumbering through.

Meanwhile, on the Down side the first Peterborough East - Leicester is arriving behind one of 15C's nearly new Standard 4s.

The Down main is occupied by the 7.35 Doncaster, so this is routed into the Excursion platform.

Edited September 28, 2016 by great northern

[great northern]

I've just found some images I'd completely forgotten about. This was the formation of the train behind 60533 a while back, another of those Fridays only jobs, this time from Bradford. Once again, I found that the whole thing could be correctly formed from loose stock as shown below.

Another nice eclectic mix of Gresley, Thompson and MK1 stock.

 

Tell you what, I'll throw in another shot of the Standard 4 as well.

[great northern]

Off to get blown about shortly, but at least it will be bracing.I'm not sure what I was aiming to achieve with the next image, but here it is.

And then we have the last one in this series of early morning happenings.

[St Enodoc]

Off to get blown about shortly, but at least it will be bracing.I'm not sure what I was aiming to achieve with the next image, but here it is.

5060 3.JPG

And then we have the last one in this series of early morning happenings.

pilot and 5060.JPG

Well Gilbert, whatever it was you weren't trying to achieve, I think you've done it very well.

[Mallard60022]

Off to get blown about shortly, but at least it will be bracing.I'm not sure what I was aiming to achieve with the next image, but here it is.

5060 3.JPG

And then we have the last one in this series of early morning happenings.

pilot and 5060.JPG

The posters..........lovely touch.

Phil

[31A]

An unusual visitor to Peterborough!?

[great northern]

An unusual visitor to Peterborough!?

The Standard 4 Steve? No, Leicester Midland got several of them new in 1957, and they were used on the Peterborough East trains regularly, if pictures are anything to go by.

[great northern]

8.10am now, and the Grantham buffet car train to KX comes into view.

and rolls into Platform 2 to take on more passengers.

[31A]

The Standard 4 Steve? No, Leicester Midland got several of them new in 1957, and they were used on the Peterborough East trains regularly, if pictures are anything to go by.

 

 

Well, we live and learn!  Have seen pictures of Bletchley ones at Cambridge, but don't remember seeing any pictures of Standard 4 4-6-0s at Peterborough.  Or perhaps I have, and I've forgotten, which is more likely!