Peterborough North

[great northern]

1 hour ago, juke said:

'Quite effective, but I may have to do something about the unbroken  expanse of grey in the foreground. A bit of rubbish and clutter, at least?'

 

What about kerbside drains and 'man holes' in the road?

 

Syd

Ah yes, I'm getting round to that. Taken about ten years so far, but I'll get there, eventually.

[great northern]

In all the disruption caused by the faulty new equipment, I forgot that I had intended to photograph my latest goodie, which Steve@31A delivered on Thursday. Here, belatedly, it is.

 

Gresley CK to Dia 8, an early LNER diagram, with turnbuckle underframe. This is the coach I wrote about a while back, which seems to have had its first and second class accomodation altered at some time in its life, though none of the reference books say anything about it. This one is as built, two first plus coupe first, and four second. I have them recorded on locals and through trains in my period on the main line, and they may have also worked on the M&GN. I say "may", as in the Express Publications book on train formations there is constant reference to CK 2-4. The LNER had no such thing, so it seems likely that It refers to Dia 8/116. If so, there would be one, in theory at least, in all my M&GN trains bar one.

 

I really love this coach, so it will be seen a lot from now on. Many thanks to Steve for a great addition to PN.

[great northern]

Last of the plonks this evening.

However, I did manage to get a couple more images on Friday, and today I put in just enough macros to get trains made up on FY1 and through the station on both Up and Down lines, so we are OK for a while. There was a moment though earlier when I nearly said something very rude. I shut everything down when I finished operating, knowing it would result in all the macros being emptied again. However, couldn't resist powering up again a couple of minutes later, and they were all still there. So, as calmly as possible, I left it for a couple of hours, and tried again. All macros empty. Perversely, a relief, as I don't fancy ringing TMC and saying "you know that unit I said was faulty and asked for a replacement, which you have done, well, er, it wasn't faulty after all."  Rather peculiar though.

[St Enodoc]

5 hours ago, great northern said:

 I shut everything down when I finished operating, knowing it would result in all the macros being emptied again. However, couldn't resist powering up again a couple of minutes later, and they were all still there. So, as calmly as possible, I left it for a couple of hours, and tried again. All macros empty.

That really sounds like the internal battery is on its last legs.

[great northern]

We can return to Saturday morning events, and see 61142 waiting time with the Up Grimsby.

 

A couple of minutes later it is off under the bridge and on its way.

[great northern]

15 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

That really sounds like the internal battery is on its last legs.

It is becoming increasingly likely that the battery is the cause. I've talked to TMC, who have confirmed that replacing it will not put me in breach of warranty, and I've just had an e-mail from NCE, also saying battery is the most likely culprit. Timara will be here tomorrow, and we will replace it then, put in a few macros, and see what happens. One interesting thing is that NCE have now said that the battery must be inserted positive side up. That isn't in the manual,and I've not seen it mentioned before when doing previous replacements, of which there have been several over a life of getting on 25 years. Hopefully all can be sorted without a replacement unit being required.

[great northern]

Hot on the heels of the Grimsby is the Nottingham-KX, another train seen every day of the week, but with a different formation on saturday, which we will examine in more detail later. Well kept KX A3 Melton brings it in.

 

[St Enodoc]

8 hours ago, great northern said:

It is becoming increasingly likely that the battery is the cause. I've talked to TMC, who have confirmed that replacing it will not put me in breach of warranty, and I've just had an e-mail from NCE, also saying battery is the most likely culprit. Timara will be here tomorrow, and we will replace it then, put in a few macros, and see what happens. One interesting thing is that NCE have now said that the battery must be inserted positive side up. That isn't in the manual,and I've not seen it mentioned before when doing previous replacements, of which there have been several over a life of getting on 25 years. Hopefully all can be sorted without a replacement unit being required.

The positive side is the side without the insulating ring (and with the big + sign on it!). I don't think you can actually fit it the wrong way up. I'm sure you know that you need to keep the Power Pro powered up when changing the battery (it's quite safe, there's only low voltage coming into it).

 

I treat my command station, and my radio cabs, to a Christmas present of new batteries every year.

[great northern]

Off to Corby at 9.15am to pick up Timara. If you hear a very loud scream around 12pm, that will tell you that changing the battery hasn't solved the problem. Your image this morning shows the fireman's side of Melton as it runs past the water tower, brakes on.

[Stephen Freeman]

I hope you don't mind me commenting on your superb layout and signalling. I too have an interest in Peterborough North albeit in a different scale and earlier era but one thing both periods have in common is wide variety of signalling. I think you have commented before on the complexity of the bracket signals and the lack of trade support for them (Wizard only seems to do a small selection and probably less so in other scales).

 

With that in mind I got PPD to do some for me, fortunately I think I will only need a smaller selection than you have had to cope with, so just acquired some etches of some of the larger types in 2mm scale, whilst I was at it I did some in 4mm scale just in case I might need them.

 

With regard to your DCC woes, the only time I ventured into macros was using JMRI PanePro. All the macros were stored on the PC, the handset wasn't involved.

Edited April 16 by Stephen Freeman

[great northern]

Good news and bad news. The bad is that when I went to start my car to go and collect Timara, it would not start, so she had to come via Nottingham. Car is now booked in for diagnosis, but not till next Wednesday. The good news is that the problem with the Power Pro was indeed just the battery, which when checked was effectively dead, registering about .7 of a amp. New one did the trick, all macros reentered, and we turned it off and back on after an hour three times, and all was well. I really do think that is the end of that saga, but at the moment it seems that when one thing is dealt with another immediately appears. Not good for someone with an anxiety disorder. Very strange about the battery, as the unit had not been standing idle for any length of time. Just a bad one, I think.

 

Another shot of Melton tonight.

[great northern]

While waiting for the AA, and Ocado, here is your morning image, which is of Melton again, now waiting for the off.

Hopefully I may be able to get some trains run and photos taken later the morning, before a trip to the dentist!  

[great northern]

I'm not having much luck with batteries. The car problem turned out to be a near deceased 12v battery too. There were more twists in the story, but eventually I managed to get a new one fitted. While sorting all that my phone went dead too. It is a special one which plays through my hearing aids, and is a great boon. I had only put new batteries in on Saturday, the first time it failed. Checked again, as it would be just like me to put things in the wrong way round, though I know that should mean it wouldn't work at all. Close examination of new batteries I bought on Saturday showed their use by date to have expired.😦 I will sort that tomorrow, Also managed to communicate with DVLA, a near superhuman feat.

 

Enough of that, for those who like to look at the coaches, here's what is behind the A3.

Not particularly exciting, but typical of some of these Saturday formations. The front seven came from Notthingham, and the rear four were attached at Grantham. I've just noticed that one image posted twice, dunno why.

 

[great northern]

Something on the Down, at last. This is the SO Hertford North- Scarborough, portions from Hertford and Hitchin, no doubt joined together at the latter. The 1960 Grantham station survey I consult says this was worked by a KX A4, so Silver Link has the job today.

I assume that the Branch portion was brought to Hitchin by a suburban tank, and the A4 worked from there. How it got to Hitchin is a matter for surmise, light engine or on an early morning outer suburban from KX seem to be the possibilities.

[New Haven Neil]

Always liked that angle!

 

Hope your day is going a bit better......

[great northern]

9 hours ago, New Haven Neil said:

Always liked that angle!

 

Hope your day is going a bit better......

A lot better , thank you Neil. The car is fine, though I need to find out how to reset the dashboard display which was wiped out by the battery change. Played with the trains too, and admit to some trepidation when I called up the first macro. All is fine there too, and it is obvious in several small ways that the new unit has made a big difference. Somehow, I have also managed to walk over eleven miles so far today. No set backs at all.....so far.

[great northern]

More trains run, more images obtained, but not yet photoshopped. We do still have more of Silver Link though.

 

[trw1089]

The weathering on Silver Link is just perfect, with the flat dust of soot on the top, through the deep green with gloss shining through the streaks of muck washed down by the rain, to mucky dullish grey black of the running gear.  That's what fine weathering is all about to me, subtle gradations of tone, texture and colour.  I only wish I could be half as good as the magic that Timara weaves on your motive power.

[peterm1]

Yes that is superb weathering. What  shame we're so far away. I'm on Bribie Island.

 

[great northern]

Silver Link has not stopped, but is rolling slowly past the spotters, who are our early this morning. It is still only 9.15am.

and here she is again, just a little way further on.

 

That will be our last look at her though, at least until she comes through on her return journey to KX.

[great northern]

Now we have the East shuttle, and a valanced Claud to admire. Unusually this one will start from Platform 6, rather than number one bay.

off it goes for its five minute journey.

[great northern]

62613 is now approaching CVrescent Junction, and will take the chord down to East.

and we have a WD creeping along the Up slow with a Class H mixed goods bound for Hatfield.

 

[great northern]

So why is the WD on the slow? Well, 60505 has sneaked in to our only Up platform witht he stock for the 9.25 stopper to KX.

[great northern]

The 9.25 is not ready to go yet, so the WD is allowed through and back to the Up. We have a manon the bridge to record that.

and there is another one at ground level near the signal box.

 

I've just checked the WTT to see what the margin was for the 9.25, as even that would surely take precedence over a Class H.  Much to my surprise, I found that it stopped at Abbots Ripton, which was being run down for closure, before it got to Huntingdon, so there was time to get the WD into a loop without inconvenience to passengers

[great northern]

Thane of Fife is on its way, next stop Abbot's Ripton.

Then we have the 7.50 KX-Skegness, which was the only train to Skeggy which ran non stop on the main line part of the journey. I think it is a good bet therefore that this is the Butlin's express. There is no headboard, but the Top Shed B1 has been given special treatment.