Lancaster Green Ayre - The Barn Owls have returned.

[steve4rosegrove]

Have you seen this wonderful pre-grouping 'photo?  An electric set in the station.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1418530138396005/permalink/2012014979047515/

 

Best wishes for its future,

 

Steve

[Bloodnok]

Wot - Warley almost over and  no pictures from anybody at all????

 

Oh, you want photos, do you?

 

Okay then. I first visited mid-morning on Saturday, amid technical difficulties in the fiddleyard, so not much was going on. However, there is plenty to look at even without much moving about.

 

 

 

Out comes the EMU. Unfortunately, requiring some 0-5-0 propulsion at first, it seems.

 

 

On returning to the layout later on, it had got further than half-way down the branch...

 

The scale of the project is impressive -- particularly the depth of the scene, and the different angles of track in the goods yard and around the engine shed. Too many layouts have many parallel tracks with no real divergence which have been squished in to limited depth of baseboard, this has an expansive feel that is different from a lot of other layouts.

 

 

[jamie92208]

 

Oh, you want photos, do you?

 

Okay then. I first visited mid-morning on Saturday, amid technical difficulties in the fiddleyard, so not much was going on. However, there is plenty to look at even without much moving about.

 

2017-11-25 10.50.32.jpg

 

2017-11-25 10.51.24.jpg

 

Out comes the EMU. Unfortunately, requiring some 0-5-0 propulsion at first, it seems.

 

2017-11-25 11.00.56.jpg

 

On returning to the layout later on, it had got further than half-way down the branch...

 

2017-11-25 16.03.27.jpg

The scale of the project is impressive -- particularly the depth of the scene, and the different angles of track in the goods yard and around the engine shed. Too many layouts have many parallel tracks with no real divergence which have been squished in to limited depth of baseboard, this has an expansive feel that is different from a lot of other layouts.

 

2017-11-25 16.05.22.jpg

 

 

 

Thanks very much for those and the kind comments bloodnok.   Yes Saturday was frustrating and the EMU had never run before but by Sunday afternoon was running reliably as a 3 car set for the first time ever.   We even managed to get it to reverse on the crossover beyond Skerton bridge reliably. I was very impressed with the fact that it climbed the Castle Branch gradient powered by it's two traction motors, just like the prototype.

 

As to the curves.     That was very deliberate.   I got things wrong on Long Preston where a straight through the station ran into a 6' radius curve to the fiddle yard.   Templot allowed me to have graduated curves which opens up all sorts of possibilities.   One member of the Long Preston team, Paul Brearley taught me to try and have  a lot of gentle curves and we have managed to succeed.   

 

Jamie

[jamie92208]

This morning it was back to the warehouse to finish off the pallet work.   Once I got the hang of the ratchet strap machine and where the straps went it got done quite quickly.   The tricky one was the pallet with the two trapezoid boards and the two building coffins on it.  As I mentioned yesterday one of the crate ends had collapsed and damaged Greyhound Bridge.

 

Fortunately it's brass work so should repair fairly easily.   The other board in the crate had an overhead support on it and fortunately that had come out but not broken and can be put back in place easily.

 

This is one of the pallets.

And here is the whole layout on 8 pallets.

And another photo for good luck.

 

The stock crates have now been moved from the dining room and the house is returning to normal.   Beth has now got a provisional date for her operation which clashed with the layout transport date but that has been sorted today with a phone call.  All being well the layout will be in France in early January.

 

Jamie 

Edited November 29, 2017 by jamie92208

[richard brown]

Hi everybody

I have been watching this layout for years and I have made this video with footage from the ally pally show this year Warley this year and then there is a special bit at the end where I was allowed to film from one of the locals

 

 

I hope everyone like the video

 

Richard Brown

Trains in the attic 

Edited December 2, 2017 by richard brown

[bbishop]

Thanks Richard,

 

Very evocative.

 

Bill

[jamie92208]

That's great footage Richard.   Thanks very much for posting it.   It's been a pleasure talking to you over the years as you've followed our progress.

 

Jamie

[sir douglas]

a cleaned empty space in the clubroom

4-12-2017 by Sam, on Flickr

[jamie92208]

Morning all from a snowy village. Even though the layout has been packed away for the last 4 weeks some things have been ongoing. I'm keeping busy by helping a friend on his Austrian Narrow gauge layout based on the Mariazllerbahn. My main task is to build a control panel and get his point motors working. That is ongoing and the panel is a lot neater than some of my own.

 

In the various conversations after Warley I decided to rebuild the main fiddle yard panel and replace the 3 sets of interlocking switches that control the bulk of the pointwork. These are now obsolete and spares are unobtainable 20 years after I bought them. They worked well on Long Preston but needed some relay logic to allow them to work the Green Ayre fiddle yard. I've decided to replace them with a series of DPDT switches and also to take the opportunity to fit a new panel and re position some of the power switches that are easily caught when operating. I can't do much until I get to France later this year but the switches have been bought, the plastic for the panel has been cut and the CAD work for the re-design has ben done.

 

I have also been continuing the great tidy up in my modelling room. Much stuff has either been packed to go to France, donated to charity shops or thrown out but I have decided to keep what I call a "modelling survival kit" to attempt to retain my sanity over the coming months before the move. This will include a few wagon kits, a couple of coach kits and a couple of loco kits.

 

On the loco front I now have two kits to build for Midland 1698 class 2F's.

 

The first of these is an old George Norton kit that was later sold by Fourtrack and then London Road. This came via Ebay and was being built for me by my late friend Tony Bond. He got the tender nearly finished and the loco chassis part built. It was however on his workbench when he died and the parts got a bit scattered after he died. I managed to retrieve most of it but a few things are missing such as a rear buffer beam and the instructions. If anyone has a set f instructions for one of these kits that I could copy I would be very grateful. The bits of the kit were in half a show box that was falling apart so last night I made a nice new storage/transport box for it that will fit into a stock crate. It is going to become 3140 based at Sheffield. The explanation is that there was a regular Grimesthorpe to Heysham freight working.

 

The other 2F is a Mercian models kit for the same class of loco. It is similar but different and includes dummy inside valve gear which should look good. I am going to try and build the two models alongside each other and it will be interesting to see how they both go together.

 

Jamie

[jamie92208]

I can now report that the great journey for the layout has started. About 5pm tonight it was loaded onto the artic that is heading south and set off. I set off to France tomorrow and all being well will be there to greet the layout when it arrives around lunchtime on Monday. The forklift is on standby so it's fingers crossed. Lorries aren't allowed to travel on a Sunday in France, unless carrying perishables (perish the thought of the French not getting their food). Apparently the Portuguese driver likes to get to the Tours area so I should pass him Sunday lunchtime.

 

Hopefully I will have some pictures of the unloading.

 

Jamie

[enginelane]

Hope everything goes Ok on its journey to its new home. What is it being declared as for customs?

[jamie92208]

Hope everything goes Ok on its journey to its new home. What is it being declared as for customs?

Apparently because we are still in the customs union and the single market there is no customs declaration. They presumably have a manifest/bill of lading that they've given to the driver. I was surprised how little paperwork there has been. This may be because it is being organised via a friend of Beth's who used to work for the forwarding firm. It's been quite an education learning about the these things. The storage company who run the warehouse is separate but they work closely together. Then there is the art of stacking/wrapping and strapping pallets that I've learned. I was able to use some of that knowledge when I packed the trailer yesterday. Life is a learning curve.

 

Jamie

[bbishop]

Jamie,

 

Best wishes with the move, sorry that I couldn't assist.

 

Bill

[Mike Storey]

Just seen Jamie's layout up close and personal for the first time, albeit in several bits and at very odd angles, now safely here in France. Wow! What an incredible piece of work, so many extraordinary works of art and engineering all in one place. Cannot wait to see it fully assembled (or help to make it so) and working again in the summer.

Edited January 8, 2018 by Mike Storey

[roundhouse]

Glad to hear that it's arrived safely.

[jamie92208]

Evening all from the Charente Maritime. A great day altogether. The layout finally arrived at about 12.30 on a lorry en route to Porto. It was a bit later than he said it would be so a conference was convened at the gate.

Yours truly, Mike Storey and Eric. The lorry finally appeared.

And the forklift came down from the steel fabricators and with directions from Paulo the 'Conducteur' it went to work.

Eric departed to borrow a pallet truck but in the meantime we got the first three pallets unloaded.

Once the pallet truck arrived we could move the pallets into the layout area.

The first pallet had to be unloaded by hand and the boards carried to their places.

Watching the forklift bumping up the garden was interesting to say the least especially with the trapezoid boards. I'd put diagonal strapping on these to try and make them more stable.

 

Mike then helped Mel and I to take all the boards off the pallets and the crates are now all laid out on the floor ready for putting the layout up. I seem to have forgotten to bring my download lead so can't upload any more photos so these are all courtesy of Mel Burris.

It's great to see layout in it's new home and many thanks to Mike, Mel and all the others who've helped. I'm very relieved to see it all here intact.

 

Jamie

 

 

Edited July 27, 2022 by jamie92208

[jamie92208]

Another day and a bit of progress.

Here's the shed when all the layout had been unloaded. 1 pallet of various odds and ends still to unwrap.

 

We spent a bit of time this afternoon , did some tidying up of pallets and wrapping etc and got the first three boards up. (B1 to B3)

A break was then needed to visit the local vineyard to purchase some liquid produce then we got the rest of the row B boards up. It's starting to look good but a few minor things have suffered in transit thankfully nothing major. Hopefully we'll get some more up tomorrow afternoon.

 

Jamie

Edited July 27, 2022 by jamie92208

[Dava]

Must be like having the greatest ever train set delivered a bit late for Christmas!

 

Dava

[jamie92208]

Must be like having the greatest ever train set delivered a bit late for Christmas!

 

Dava

It is, after so many years of only having it up for a few days at a time I still can't believe it when walk into the shed and see it. Mel and I were talking this afternoon and he asked me when it would be taken down next. I said "I don't know ".

 

Tomorrow Mike Storey is coming over again in the afternoon and we're planning to get the rest of the main line circuit up.

 

Jamie

[jamie92208]

After a morning out looking for real trains it was time to work in the shed. Mike came over and we concentrated on getting the main line circuit and Castle branch up so that they can be worked on. An hour later this was the result.

 

 

I'd forgotten to bring any locos with me so we couldn't run anything under power but did push a Union Pacific 12 wheeler round the main line circuit.

As we were packing up Mel noticed the afternoon light on the river under Greyhound Bridge. This is how it looked.

A tribute to all Sam's hard work.

 

Now It's being left till April but I'm going to be working on the Fiddle Yard Control panel at home over the next couple of months and hopefully getting some work on stock done.

 

Jamie

Edited July 27, 2022 by jamie92208

[sir douglas]

it feels odd to see pics of the layout set up but not being there to help, its the first time ive not helped put it up

[jamie92208]

I've finally managed to get the photos downloaded from my camera and can now add a few more about the move.

 

Here's what the layout looked like when Paulo opened up the trailer.

Getting the Manitou up to the tope of the shed gave a few heartaches as it had to cross a trench that's subsided a bit however Eric the farmer solved the problem in a practical way with some logs from the log pile.

I was very worried about the trapezoid boards but the two diagonal straps that I put on seemed to help.

However they were safely placed where they needed to be unpacked after Eric brought a pallet truck to help move them round as the Manitou was too high for the doorway.

Here's the whole layout laid out after the unloading had finished.

This shows the Skerton Bridge end and I thought that the Overhead masts look rather effective.

Here it is on the Wednesday afternoon after Mel Mike and I had put up the main line circuit. The two king board of A row were put up as well.

Then the test vehicle was run round. It fouled the walls on the Castle branch viaduct but ran well round the main line. I just need to see of my 4-8-4 will run!!!!

That's the last I'll see of it till April but now I've got the fiddle yard control panel at home to rewire.

 

Jamie

Edited July 27, 2022 by jamie92208

[jamie92208]

I mentioned earlier that I was planning to rebuild the fiddle yard control panel. There are several objectives.

a) My wiring is a mess and needs some drastic tidying up.

b) There are some ergonomic design problems that mean that toggle switches get caught too easily and either change points or cut power to sections. They are usually caught with the heel of the hand when outing controllers back on the panel.

c) The Interlocking switches that worked most of the points have started to become unreliable after nearly 20 years use on Long Preston and Green Ayre.

d) There was another bit of unreliability associated with the interlockers where I had had to attach some relay logic to cope with a different design of pointwork rather than straight ladders.

 

The interlockers are no longer available as parts to build up a custom design so I have taken the plunge and decided to rebuild the panel.

 

I did take the panel to France on the lorry but realised that once I started rebuilding it I wouldn't be able to run trains for a month or so. The panel therefore travelled back in the car, much to the interest of some French Customs men at St Malo.

 

I had a CAD drawing of the panel layout and have altered it so that hopefully the switches won't get caught with hands. I then produced a mirror image so that I can draw the layout onto the rear of the panel. A couple of hours work produced this. A few mistakes from working backwards and the effect of a lurgi that I've picked up but I'm happy.

I now need to drill the holes for the switches and LED's.

 

Jamie

Edited July 27, 2022 by jamie92208

[Joseph_Pestell]

That is some "shed". You could have built a bigger layout.

[jamie92208]

That is some "shed". You could have built a bigger layout.

Divorces are expensive.

 

Jamie