West Kirby Town: narrow gauge is coming to town.

[keithpr2]

Hi Rod,

 

More videos, yes please especially if you can repeat the one with the train-cam.  More than that, I think you should be collaring Chris Simpson to do a video for the Guild: looking through the catalogue there does not appear to be anything to compare with WKT.  O.K. your scenery is not complete yet but there is already a wealth of good things there worthy of a wider audience.  And Chris can always come back to do another later ..... when you have "finished" it.  An hour-long DVD would allow you to run quite a complex sequence.

 

On the matter of Photoshop-ping there is a free manipulation program out there; go to gimp.org.  It's been getting more sophisticated over the years and probably demands a fair bit of time and effort to get into it to use it properly - I've not tried recently and it could take too much of your time away from scenery  building.  An alternative is to get a couple of photos you particularly want to show off done professionally.  There is a firm called Photo First Aid over at New Longton.  They handle all audio, photo and film media and I used them about five years ago for repairing some 40+ year old degraded colour transparencies and putting them on disc.  Their charges were very reasonable but that may have changed with their increasing client base.  Have a look at their website. 

 

Thanks for the enjoyment you give us.

 

Keith

 

[Simond]

Brief trip to Birkenhead this weekend - went to the Williamson Art Gallery (lovely ship models...) and found this were gem in the little bookshop.

 

 

ISBN is 1 872568 23 8

 

Couple of nice pix of WK

 

 

You do need a couple of 502's...

 

Best

Simon

[Dmudriver]

Hi Simon.

 

That is indeed a good book and, as you would probably expect, is in my collection!!

 

This one is also good: 

 

 

Published in 2010, it has many good pictures, of which the left page here is my favourite:

 

 

I am beginning to weaken on the subject of 503s but whether any will ever appear on WKT is a very good question,.. At the moment, highly unlikely, but if a kit or RTR should appear, who knows?  I think such a thing happening is highly unlikely given their very small geographical distribution, but, as before, who knows what might happen in future?

 

 

Rod

Edited February 10, 2016 by Dmudriver

[muddys-blues]

Morning Rod, those pics evoke some childhood memories for me, my first glimpse of the 502s was at Southport, we would arrive on a 104 or 108 DMU going to Southport pigeon show with my Dad or going to Steamport with my Grandad, and they would be stabled up in the carriage sidings, or coming and going on the Liverpool line, great memories.

 

With regards to the possibility of a kit have a word with Micharl Hughes at Express Models, they are open to suggestions for new ideas.

 

Best regards

Craig

[scouser999]

Hello Rod,

 

If you are looking at finding a kit of a class 502 you may have some luck with E-Traction kits. They only make a class 502 kit in "OO" gauge, but it may be possible to up scaling to "O" gauge if you email them. Matt Farrell produces the kit, a very approachable guy.

 

A class 503, again in "OO" gauge, is made by Judith Edge Kits.

 

I am sure you will already be aware of these kits.. but just in case you didn't.

 

cheers

 

Steve. 

[pwr]

Looks like the basis of a good model there.

 

A scaled up version would probably consist of etchings only and new castings would have to be done for the ends. I am not a fan of resin myself but needs must on this one unless you could scratch build the ends from brass

 

Paul R

[Simond]

Despite being frankly blunt & flat-ended, there were curves in all directions.

 

I think a good quality resin casting would be OK, but it would need good drawings to make the master, which probably wants to be NC milled from a chunk of something solid, and hand finished. In 7mm, lots of detail can be added so doesn't need to be cast on, which would simplify things quite a bit.

 

I have to report favourably on the JLTRT resin coaches. I guess, like anything else, there's "good" and "not so good".

 

Best

Simon

[Dmudriver]

Hi all.

 

Back again - after a fortnight in the Swiss Alps (walking in the snow, as opposed to train spotting/riding!!) and then last weekend at Doncaster with "Apethorne Junction".  So, there's been little progress on the layout but a few things "layout-oriented" to discuss.

 

First, after I got back from Switzerland, I was getting stock ready for Doncaster when I noticed one of the diffusers from my fluorescent light fittings lying on the layout!!  I don't know how it happened, but I assume it wasn't fitted properly and the storms that occurred while I was away must have shaken it loose.  However, it had also slightly bent the platform starter signals bracket and one of the signal arms, too as it fell.  Fortunately, Jon's signals are robustly built (thanks, Jon!!) and they were gently eased back into position: they work fine again.   The diffuser is now properly in place!!

 

Then, second,  this week, when I was putting stock back on the layout, after Doncaster, I noticed water on the board and on the tracks.  I traced it back to a crack in the roof boards and it was dripping off there onto the roof supports and then both running down said supports to the board and also through the roof supports onto the layout.  The temporary fix was a couple of plastic tubs under the dripping points and they worked, collecting the water nicely.  I've today applied some liquid rubber solution to every tiny pinprick of a hole on the roof that I can find: this should work, but the next few days will tell me, as (even more!!) rain is forecast.  Obviously, I'll leave the tubs there, just in case.  The leak was evidently very new as when it was collecting in the tubs, the board and the tracks dried out and there's no stains left to see.  The following pic shows the temporary remedy:

 

 

It also shows the errant diffuser (the nearer one on the right).  It had landed behind the signal but alongside the signal box and p/way hut.  I notice now that the Merseyrail timetable (the green paper) is also on the board: that normally resides on the roof supports where the tubs now are, so the wind must have been really strong and blustery.   The DMUs weren't there, fortunately - they were packed up and in the house with the rest of the stock.

 

Third, at Doncaster I bought myself a new lamp for my work desk.  Previously, I had a Maplin single tube circular lamp (with magnifying glass)  but it didn't really give enough light.  This pic shows the effect of the new one:

 

 

So far, it seems really good and I've not found any shadow on the bits of work I've done.  This is the box the light came in:

 

 

Finally, I'd been having a problem for ages whereby, when I switched the layout on - and when the fiddle yard lights and camera were also switched on - something was clicking and causing the signal servos to jump continuously,.  It would stop when I turned the FY lights and camera off.  I assumed that I was overloading a circuit as I had all my Tortoises, the signal servos, and the FY lights and camera  fed from a single 12v DC power supply.  So I've bought and fitted a new power supply which powers the signal servos and the FY lights and camera.  Much better!!  There's still one click and a jump, but that's it.  I'll try and fathom that out but the layout now starts up properly.

 

So that's the news up to now.  I never managed to get any DMU videos done before I went away so I'll wait for the next decent day when I've got time and do them then.

 

More soon.

 

Rod

[Simond]

Rod

 

sorry to hear of your trials with the leaky roof - hopefully all sorted.  I don's suppose that the diffuser had filled with water from the leak and been caused to fall due to that?

 

Re your start-up problems, my guess is that the power supply was not able to cope with the inrush currents - so probably "browned out" - like a black out but not so complete.  So adding a power supply is almost certainly the right thing to do.

 

best

Simon

[Dmudriver]

Hi Simon.

 

No, the leak had nothing to do with the diffuser - thank goodness!! Imagine how much water could have got in there!!!

 

There's still a one-click problem on switching on: I'll investigate it as and when.

 

Rod

[railwayrod]

Hi Rod.

 

Sorry to hear of your leaky roof and the problems which it has caused you. Hopefully you have got them all sorted out by now.

 

I really like your layout - it has a "main line" look with potentially lots of trains legitimately running in which should keep operators really busy. Have you got to the stage of working out a potential timetable for the station? it would be interesting to know where trains originate from and go to from West Kirby Town.

 

Rod

[Dmudriver]

Hi Rod.

 

So far, the liquid rubber repair seems to have worked, but I'll wait a few more days yet!!

 

As for the layout, I don't have a written timetable, but a sequence that stays in my head!!  The prototype services are just West Kirby to/from Liverpool (in the time I'm modelling).  It wasn't the services that attracted me to this station, but the track layout and to make things more interesting, I've added the DMU stabling point.  The major variation from reality is the assumption that there is a "cut-off" from the Liverpool side of Leasowe, crossing the Bidston - Wrexham line and joining the former Birkenhead Woodside - Chester line before Rock Ferry.   This allows a more interesting sequence of operations - shuttling DMUs/EMUs (if I ever went 3rd rail) would, in my opinion, quickly get boring!! 

 

So, the most frequent services are to/from Birkenhead Park (change for Liverpool).  This did happen in earlier years, so that's how I justify it.  These services are operated by the high density stock (the 115 and the Thumper).  There are DMU services to Wrexham (reverse at Bidston), Chester and Helsby, usually operated by the 2- and 3-car sets.  The Mark 1 stock forms services to Manchester, via Hooton, Helsby and Warrington BQ and to Birmingham, via Hooton, Chester and Crewe.  There are no runround facilities at WKT, so I have to use the 03 shunter for reversing that stock.  The preserved steam stock normally only runs at weekends and is based at New Brighton, so the service is New Brighton to/from WKT, via Bidston.   The parcels stock is used for deliveries to the mail order warehouse that took over the Cadbury's site at Moreton when that closed: there is no access to the site from the Liverpool direction, so trains come to WKT and are reversed using the 03 shunter again: in earlier times, parcels trains were routed via the old Joint Station on the Hooton - Parkgate - West Kirby line   The parcels normally run only on weekdays so that leaves paths at the weekends for the steam shuttles.  (It actually means that I take some of the stock off the layout as it gets a bit congested with it all on!!)  [i did, at one stage, have enough stock for 2 parcels trains but I couldn't fit them all on the layout so I sold off a fair number of parcels vehicles]

 

So that's where trains run to/from.  I don't look too closely at the size of the town to justify all this traffic (particularly as it's got the sea on 2 sides virtually): in my mind's eye it is a large seaside town, close to a major city so a lot of residents commute there and back - in essence a sort of seaside dormitory town.

 

There's a fair amount of siding space at the station, so there's scope for a lot of shunting, too.  It does keep operators busy, particularly as I insist on using the signalling properly and only using permitted routes.

 

Hope this helps to explain it to you.  If you've any more questions, please just ask.  I don't know if you ever get up to this part of the world, but if you do and you fancy calling in, just let me know.  I appreciate Torbay is a bit far away to "just pop in"!!!

 

Rod

[Dmudriver]

Hi all.

 

Some time ago, I promised some video action: well, it's here now!!!

 

First of all, the Thumper travels from the fiddle yard to the station, forming a Birkenhead - WKT service, and shuts down, viewed from 1) the fiddle yard, 2) the "country" section, 3) the road bridge near the Down Inner Home signal and 4) the down sidings:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qA6bVACRRKQ

 

Next, the 115 starts up prior to being given the road for a WKT - Birkenhead service, and travels to the fiddle yard, viewed from 1) the platform, 2) the "country" section and 3) the fiddle yard:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CUJTuCj7QA

 

Next, the Thumper, its duties finished for the moment, starts up and manoeuvres to the stabling point and shuts down, viewed from the platform and the fuelling point:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMgGZZMvIdw

 

Finally, the Ivatt, on the steam special, travels from the fiddle yard to the station, viewed from 1) the "country" section, 2) opposite the Down Inner Home signal and 3) the Down sidings:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lsBbvJ6WWE

 

Hope you enjoy them.

 

They do impress on me, though, that 1) the scenery needs to get done asap, and 2) stopping in the platform needs to be more gentle!!

 

Apologies for cutting off the signals in the Ivatt clips but I used the zoom on the camera and didn't adjust the tilt enough!!  The birds you can hear are part of the local jackdaw population.

 

More soon.

 

Rod

Edited February 29, 2016 by Dmudriver

[muddys-blues]

Hello Rod, that was great viewing, I especially liked the 115 snaking away as it approached over the pointwork towards the curve   out of interest where did you get the platform flower beds from ?

 

Craig.

[Michael Delamar]

Mike Edge produces a 4mm class 503, he may be persuaded to scale it up to 7mm, he does that wit a lot of his kits.

[Dmudriver]

out of interest where did you get the platform flower beds from?

 

Hi Craig.

 

From a stand at Doncaster show last year!!  I can't for the life of me remember what it was called, though!!  It was certainly a scenery specialist stand.  I've found a Trade Plan and it was stand 14 or 15 this year but I can't find a list of exhibitors to go with that.

 

 

Rod

[muddys-blues]

Hi Rod, looking at them they are possibly Ten Commandments or a similar Trader, I shall have a "Google", I think 1 or 2 for Nant y Cwm are a must on the single country platform.

 

Craig.

[Dmudriver]

Hi Craig.  It defo wasn't Ten Commandments but a smaller firm, mainly 4mm stuff but they had these too.   Whether they're for 7mm or just large 4mm models, I really can't remember.  That were certainly at Doncaster this year again, and in the same place, too.

 

Rod

[Dmudriver]

Hi all.

 

I've been making a bit more progress - on rolling stock!!  I've said before that I've too much stock to operate the layout easily, so I have to take some off.  The parcels stock consists of 3x corridor vehicles (2x JLTRT, 1x Easybuild) and 1x non-corridor: coupling and uncoupling with screw links under the corridors was extremely difficult so I looked for another way - and decided on using Kadees.  I was going to fasten them to the bodies, but on the JLTRT Mark 1s one of the screws holding the roof on is too close to the end, so I decided to fasten them to the bogies.  This is how I did it.

 

I fastened the couplings to a strip of copperclad and glued them to the bogies.  Here's what they looked like:

 

 

First, however, the bogies had to be prepared.  On the JLTRTs I filed away a slot so that the copperclad would sit level along the bogie:

 

 

The Easybuild bogie did not need any treatment and the strip just lay on top of the bogie frame.  Here's the couplings attached by Blutack to one of each, just to test the heights - perfect!!

 

 

Whilst the JLTRT ones sat easily under the buffer beam, the Easybuild didn't so I had to file down the buffer beam on the latter. Here's before and after pics:

 

    

 

Having tried them on the track, with and without bodies, to my satisfaction, I araldited the couplings to the bogies.  Here's the 4 of them drying off:

 

 

Once they were dry and the whole things reassembled, I had to make fine adjustments to the corridor connections.  Between the 2 JLTRTs, on a reverse curve the lamp irons occasionally caught inside the opposite end.  Bending them back a bit cured that.  The Easybuild corridor was not flat and that caught on the inside of the JLTRT connection.  I sorted that by soaking it in superglue and ending up with it as flat as possible to the vehicle end.

 

Here's the 3 of them, coupled up on the layout:

 

 

And here a couple of cruel closeups of the couplings.  on the left, between the JLTRTs and on the right, between JLTRT and Easybuild:

 

  

 

A bit of black paint will hide the raw copperclad, but in operation you can't see it.  The paint will also hold the screws and nuts in place.

 

Oh, I also had to reduce the length of the "tails" as, being lower than designed, they caught on the track on points.

 

So that's it: a pretty simple (though it took a while!) method of getting them on and off the layout quickly.  They also run well, too. Now I just need new screw link couplings for the outer ends.

 

More soon.

 

Rod

 

 

[spenc]

Hi

I also have kadees between my easybuild BGs what coupling do you use between loco and BG as I cannot see the hook to use screw coupling.

Thanks

Steve

[Dmudriver]

Hi Steve.

 

I've only shown the intermediate couplings.  The outer ends of the 3 coach rake will have screw link couplings, to couple to the non-corridor vehicle or the loco (I run 4 coach rakes).

 

Rod

[Simond]

I do the same - normal couplings on the ends, Kadees in the middles of rakes. I only do it on corridor stock. I use standard 0 scale couplers.

 

I have some on bogies - my Blacksmith Toplights, whereas my JLTRT Toplights have them mounted on the buffer beam. Jury's out regarding which is better, though if the JLTRT ones work out ok, I shall adopt that as a future standard.

 

HTH

Simon

[Dmudriver]

I've used Kadees on my Heljan Mark 1 rake, fitting them to the buffer beams.  This is the reason I couldn't do that on the JLTRT BGs:

 

 

The roof fixing screw is too close to the end of the coach.  At the other end, it's nowhere near as close to the end.  I decided, however, to use the same method for all 4 bogies as they'd be interchangeable.  

 

I thought there might be a difference in the "off set" (if that's the right word) on a reverse curve between bogie and buffer beam mounted couplings, but I can't see any significant difference.  Here's a comparison at virtually the same spot on the layout, from above and side:

 

   

 

And from above and behind:

 

     

 

Maybe the Heljan's are slightly better, but they are a few mms closer to the centre of the crossing:  So, I'd agree with Simon, the jury's still out as to which is best.  They both work effectively, that's the main thing!!!

 

Rod

 

 

[Dmudriver]

Hi all.

 

First off, you may have noticed that I've changed the thread title - because scenery work has been pretty well replaced by stock work.  I do spend a fair bit of time operating and I like things running properly so the slightest problem demands (and gets!!) my attention.

 

A fortnight ago, I was at the Macclesfield Show with "Apethorne Junction".  Usually I take most of my DMUs and my 3 locos to run on the layout, but this time I took my newly coupled parcels stock, too.  My experience of the Show was coloured by a couple of (thankfully, fairly minor) disasters, though. 

 

Firstly, on the Thursday night before the Show I'd checked and altered CV settings on my DMUs and loaded 8 of them into a large stock box I have.  Each item is wrapped in a single sheet of bubble wrap and is a fairly snug, but not secure, fit in a space in the box.  Unfortunately, as I lifted the box off the table, the handle broke and the box dropped onto the shed floor.  I had a quick look inside and things seemed OK so I took it into the house.  Next morning I checked again and found I had a lot of work to do - mainly bits that had fallen off, but one of the 115 vehicles had buffer beam damage, too.  The major damage was to the drive bogie of the 131: I wasn't able to do anything with it, but the lad who built it for me was also on the layout and, fortunately, he managed to fix it for me the next day.  The rest of the damage was fixable but just took a lot of time with the result I was late arriving to help with the setting up of the layout.

 

The box handle is metal and held on by nuts and bolts but, unbeknown to me, one of the nuts had worked loose and came off just as I lifted it!!!  They are both now superglued on!!

 

Secondly, my parcels stock with the newly fitted couplings had an early run out, but 2 of them didn't complete a circuit of the layout!!  I didn't see how it happened as I was operating the fiddle yard at the time, but they derailed.  The curve at the end of the layout is not much above 5' radius and I think there wasn't enough "give" in the JLTRT corridor connections on the bend: either that or the buffers were too tight (they are fixed solid, but in the retracted position) but I suspect it was the corridors.  So 2 were carried back to the box and the third made up a return single vehicle parcels train!!  They didn't run again after that!!

 

Thirdly, I had a really bad cold all weekend!!!

 

I ran the parcels vehicles again on my own layout and there were a couple of "iffy" moments on reverse curves where it looked like they might derail.  The problem was the corridor connections (again!!) - because the JLTRT ones are open, there's the opportunity for them to snag on each other.  My remedy has been to glue a cover, made from thin card, onto each one.  Problem solved, they now nicely slide across each other - pics below: first, as they were, second, with cover fitted:

 

   

 

A bit rough and ready, but as they're in the middle of the rake, they can't be seen.

 

I've also had problems with the corridor connections on the end of the rake catching the loco buffers in certain places on the layout.  Although you can't see it in the pics above, the corridor projects beyond the coach buffers and the loco buffers can slide behind it.  I've glued pieces of brass strip on before (see some earlier posts) but these have worked themselves off.  I've now superglued the bottom of the corridor connection parallel with the buffer heads and, voila, no more locking!!  In operation, the fix isn't easily visible, even though it seems to be in a close-up pic, as here:

 

 

Finally, on my layout, the inspection saloon was derailing on one particular spot where nothing else did: I traced the problem to one of the wheelsets being out of gauge - somehow they'd widened by a millimetre or so.  Having got them back to the proper back to back, it's now running fine.

 

I've actually done a bit of preparation for the scenery on my layout, so hopefully I'll get something done soon.  Watch this space!!!

 

Rod

Edited March 27, 2016 by Dmudriver

[Simond]

Rod

 

Couple of thoughts re corridor connectors.

 

Within rakes, I tend to use Kadees, and I use the corridor connectors as a "Spring buffer" to keep them tight, which makes the rake move as a single unit.

 

You might have seen my Toplight corridor connectors, I'm using the bellows, folded up from card. In your vehicles, given that the connectors are telescopic, you could use foam rubber. It might also be wise to use black plasticard for the surfaces that might rub,

 

There's a chap on WT with an MU, who tried this at my suggestion, he seemed quite pleased, hope it might help

 

Best

Simon