Peterborough North

[Mallard60022]

Photos of the artic set in their new home follow. Unfortunately the angle gives the camera the gleeful opportunity to highlight and accentuate the fact that the twins ride too high, but as usual the human eye is much more forgiving, so I can live with that.

spur 1.JPG

 

 

Hardly noticed that when viewed from normal sight lines. However I suggest a look at the bogies on the Mk1 and a bit of ride height adjustment ,using some plasticard shim or similar? A few minutes work on another visit perhaps?

P

Edited December 7, 2018 by Mallard60022

[St Enodoc]

Phil came, he saw, we conquered. A good discussion over a cuppa, then to hands on stuff with the railway. Phil got me to do some of the movements I'd been pondering in theory, and they worked, so we carried on and reached a really good conclusion as to what could be done.

 

So, no upheavals to the railway, and no track to be disturbed. I just reallocate the existing resources, which is a big plus. It should work like this:-

 

A number of long express trains which take up much fiddle yard space, and which only run twice per sequence, will be put into cassettes.

 

Rakes identified as being more intensively used will come out of cassettes, and will be permanently in the fiddle yard.

 

Loose stock presently housed in various spurs will instead be put into a chest of drawers under the baseboard, which I already have. To minimise the possibility of damage while stored, foam lined inserts will be made to hold each individual coach. I will also devise a quick and easy way of identifying individual vehicles.

 

The spurs freed up by doing this will instead house some complete short passenger rakes. Others will hold short rakes of specialised goods stock which are only required once in each sequence. These can be hand shunted onto the rear of rakes of vans and opens which will be permanently stored on layout, when that needs to be done.

 

In addition to at least two long rakes of vans and opens, fish vans will be stored on layout, as will parcels rakes. I've limited trains to a maximum of three cassettes up to now, and normally to just two, which means no more than 24 vehicles plus brake. This way something nearer to prototype lengths can be achieved. The slightest jolt can derail light four wheeled stock while handling a cassette, so hopefully that will be one irritant less.

 

There's a small alcove at the rear of the South end of the yard, which of course I couldn't resist filling with two spurs. They have been unused for years, but one now holds the artic twin five set which is used for many of the KX stoppers. We've proved by hands on testing that some necessary backing and filling to get Up trains back into these Down side suprs can be done without encroaching on the "real" part of the layout. All in all a very good day, and many thanks to Phil for coming over and for the ideas and support he has given me.

 

Photos of the artic set in their new home follow. Unfortunately the angle gives the camera the gleeful opportunity to highlight and accentuate the fact that the twins ride too high, but as usual the human eye is much more forgiving, so I can live with that.

spur 1.JPG

 

There is a second spur behind this one, which will hold another carriage set, but I haven't decided which one yet.

2 spur 2.JPG

Well done both.

[great northern]

Pleasure. Any excuse to look at Gilbert's lovely stock, stroke a couple of wagons and fondle a few coaches.

Sunshine drive on the way home and hardly any traffic chaos on the northbound A1 for a change (don't usually use most of that, going on the old road via Sutton on Trent and Tuxford.

I suspect G will have the trains sorted within a short period and that, in turn, will let him enjoy the changed operations.

Duck. 

It is the preparation of the drawers to hold the loose stock that is exercising my mind at the moment Phil. I need to get that sorted before I can do much more in the way of moving stock to and from cassettes.

[great northern]

Hardly noticed that when viewed from normal sight lines. However I suggest a look at the bogies on the Mk1 and a bit of ride height adjustment ,using some plasticard shim or similar? A few minutes work on another visit perhaps?

P

If you can sort that, I shall be very grateful Phil. It seems to be a characteristic of all MARC models rakes.

[great northern]

Pictures have been delayed tonight, as there has just been an hour of Roxy Music on BBC4. Lovely stuff.

 

We've just had a Leicester local, and a 4.4.0, and it is almost immediately followed by another in the opposite direction, with another 4.4.0, but from a different railway, and rather more rugged than elegant, perhaps?

Still very nice though, and the Claud and this Compound sum up the attraction PN has for me, both in the twilight of their existence, but still to be seen quite regularly. What wonderful variety we had, and took for granted, back then.

 

[jukebox]

I do like the way the loco fades into the gloom of the station roof in the second shot, Gilbert.  Very nice!

 

Cheers

 

Scott

[Mallard60022]

If you can sort that, I shall be very grateful Phil. It seems to be a characteristic of all MARC models rakes.

 

If you drop Mr Welleans a PM he might have had to deal with the Marc's problem and that could be easier than faffing with the Mk1 (Is that a Baccy one by the way?)

P

[Mallard60022]

It is the preparation of the drawers to hold the loose stock that is exercising my mind at the moment Phil. I need to get that sorted before I can do much more in the way of moving stock to and from cassettes.

 

You could try the soft foam fore and aft as we discussed and use that styrofam in strips as dividers but you may need to experiment with suitable glues to see if that bit works. If it is a carp idea then we could use strips of (say) ply or thin MDF as that will stick to your drawers (oh err misses) or maybe even some decent stiffer 'foam' if there is something available (there must be as it is often used in packaging and I don't mean polystyrene.

P

[great northern]

Decision time. Do I go and play golf? It is windy, and heavy showers are forecast. Or do I get on with working out this storage puzzle? While I decide, here are some photos. Smart station work has got the Compound off on its way down to East, and left the Up main free for the non stop passage of the West Riding. This, I have now discovered, was a Doncaster turn, but it still results in an A1 at the front.

WP Allen yet again, and in poor condition for a premium service. It looks little better when viewed at the south end.

i rather liked the train in Platform 6 being in view, and so left this as a panorama, rather than the normal heavier crop.

[FarrMan]

You could try the soft foam fore and aft as we discussed and use that styrofam in strips as dividers but you may need to experiment with suitable glues to see if that bit works. If it is a carp idea then we could use strips of (say) ply or thin MDF as that will stick to your drawers (oh err misses) or maybe even some decent stiffer 'foam' if there is something available (there must be as it is often used in packaging and I don't mean polystyrene.

P

Gilbert

 

You could try some foam plastic, as is used by sign writers. For the sizes that you would need, they would probably have off cuts that you could get cheep. Easily cut, drilled, filed, etc., same as timber. If they are going cheep, just check that they are not budgies, though.

 

Lloyd

[great northern]

Gilbert

 

You could try some foam plastic, as is used by sign writers. For the sizes that you would need, they would probably have off cuts that you could get cheep. Easily cut, drilled, filed, etc., same as timber. If they are going cheep, just check that they are not budgies, though.

 

Lloyd

Hi LLoyd,

 

I have a very good and cheap source of foam sheet in Nottingham, though I'm reluctant to venture into the City now that the Christmas madness is well under way. I still have some here as well, so I'm experimenting with that.

[great northern]

No enthusiasm for golf today, so a considerable amount of time was spent on the railway, and we now have one drawer which contains a box with twelve partitions and some strategically placed foam pieces within them. We even have eleven brake coaches residing within those partitions. I think this part of the cunning plan is going to work.

 

We also had a few moving trains, the first of which was the 9.42 Norwich. A very well turned out Cambridge B12 has been provided to delight our eyes.

 

Another chance to admire it comes as it passes under the bridge.

The lamp is in the right place, and almost straight.

[great northern]

9 holes golf today against our juniors. I shall probably get outdriven by 30 yards by a 14 year old. Start at 0900 so very quick pictures of the B12.

and a very big noisy blue machine.

[New Haven Neil]

That B12 is almost as lush as the Claud!

[TrevorP1]

Gilbert

 

I've been following your fiddle yard reorganisation with interest hoping to use your experience to make the best use of my very much smaller space. Two questions if I may.

 

• ​How many 'cassette roads' do you have? For instance do you find it necessary to have one 'up' and 'down' or some other layout.
• I noticed that you are using three way points in the fiddle yard. How to you find them as regards the tightness of the curve etc?

[great northern]

That B12 is almost as lush as the Claud!

Only almost? Mind you, your conversion does seem to be going well.

[great northern]

 

Gilbert

 

I've been following your fiddle yard reorganisation with interest hoping to use your experience to make the best use of my very much smaller space. Two questions if I may.

 

• ​How many 'cassette roads' do you have? For instance do you find it necessary to have one 'up' and 'down' or some other layout.
• I noticed that you are using three way points in the fiddle yard. How to you find them as regards the tightness of the curve etc?

 

 Only one cassette spur Trevor, right at the front on the "up" side. That is partly because it was an afterthought, and so there is no way of putting one in on the "down", but even if I could, I wouldn't. My longest cassettes are four feet long, and I think it would be asking for trouble to be reaching over other occupied tracks to put them in place.

 

My fiddle yard is 18 tracks wide though, so it could well be quite feasible to service both sides in a smaller space. It would also be much more useful! The three way points are fine in operation, and haven't given any problems, in fact I couldn't have got what I wanted without them.

[TrevorP1]

 Only one cassette spur Trevor, right at the front on the "up" side. That is partly because it was an afterthought, and so there is no way of putting one in on the "down", but even if I could, I wouldn't. My longest cassettes are four feet long, and I think it would be asking for trouble to be reaching over other occupied tracks to put them in place.

 

My fiddle yard is 18 tracks wide though, so it could well be quite feasible to service both sides in a smaller space. It would also be much more useful! The three way points are fine in operation, and haven't given any problems, in fact I couldn't have got what I wanted without them.

 

 

Thank you Gilbert. My tidy mind (!) said a cassette spur for each direction but I entirely take your point about reaching across. My longest cassettes will be about 40 - 42 inches, enough for four Mk1s and the reach would be a bit of a risk even though it's 'only' two feet. One spur at the front of the baseboard it will be. 

 

The timber for baseboards and cassettes is arriving tomorrow, all cut to appropriate sizes. Maybe a bit early to think about making cassettes but it was more economic to put it all in one order.

 

Useful to know about the three way points. I could see lots of opportunity for things to fall off! I'll have another play with the fiddle yard drawing.

[great northern]

We did not get drawn to play against 14 year olds. Oh no, we got an eight year old lad called Leo. I still hit the driver a long way when I get it properly, and I did that today on the 7th, really pleased with the shot, I was. Little lad was only fifteen yards short of me!  I think I may get an early bet in on his being Britain's answer to a certain Tiger.

 

Anyway, pictures. The big blue noisy thing is on its regular morning trip as far as Doncaster, and is trying to perforate eardrums at the end of Platform 3.

 

This gives rise to one of PN's occasional anomalies, as on the Up approaches the Parliamentary from Doncaster which ceased to run a full six months before Deltic appeared on the ECML.

Back to cock eyed lamps and dust.

[great northern]

Tim time today. Clicking Cobalts will be attacked, and hopefully rendered mute. There should be goodies too.

 

In 1958 we go straight from one run down New England B1 to another. 61073 stands in the bay waiting to leave for Grimsby.

 

That won't happen for a while though. In the meantime, a 9F hauled Class F goods lurches around the start of the dog's leg curve, and into the shadows under the bridge.

[great northern]

Today, all did not go well. New kit for Cobalt control didn't work as planned, so things had to be put back as they were before we started, and then, too late in the day to do anything about it, we found that another Cobalt at the other end of the fiddle yard had apparently died. We had no replacement, so I now have two inaccessible storage roads. I shall work round that, and eventually a solution will emerge, but not until next year. All was not doom and gloom though, as Tim unveiled his latest work of art. Actually, there was plenty of gloom of the daylight variety, so these were the best images we could get.

 

Tim's work on A3s and A4s had inevitably started to show up untreated A1s, so I asked him to take one away and work his magic on it. It also got a change of identity, from Bongrace to H A Ivatt, a loco that seemed to appear every time I went spotting. So, we now have 60123, an Ardsley engine, though used interchangeably with Copley Hill ehgines on the West Riding trains. This is so good that of course other A1s will eventually have to get the treatment too.

 

This is based on a photo that Tim's dad took at PN in 1958, and has detailed alterations apart from the weathering. I'll leave Tim to explain those, and take another photo of the front end when the shadows are not so bad to illustrate what he has done.

 

[jukebox]

Very nice work from the weathering master as always. 

 

I shouldn't be surprised, but each time I notice it I am: rods down at 6 o'clock really does make a difference for a loco portrait (for me, anyway).

 

Cheers

 

Scott

[thegreenhowards]

 

 

This is based on a photo that Tim's dad took at PN in 1958, and has detailed alterations apart from the weathering. I'll leave Tim to explain those, and take another photo of the front end when the shadows are not so bad to illustrate what he has done.

 

That is beautiful! Tim, I appreciate that you may not wish to give away your trade secrets, but if you ever did a loco weathering demo at a show, I'd be there.

[CUTLER2579]

Lovely work by Mr Easter as normal. He is a very talented guy in other ways as I think I am correct in saying he plays Church & Cathedral Organs to a very high standard. Not totally unlike one Mr Foster from the Dales re weathering and playing/teaching a variety of musical instruments.

Two very nice gents in my humble opinion.

 

Regards,Del minus Rodney. 

[Mallard60022]

Unhook the point linkages G? Beautiful A1 by the way.

Phil