Bakewell - Peak District Line BR - Layout Views

[Marcus 37]

Nice work on the Class 40 Al. Take a look on Kevin Peo's Lochnager at the work he did on the Hornby TTS class 37.

The etched windscreens will improve it a treat.

Scroll down on this link to post 657.....

 

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/25528-loch-dour/page-27

 

Hope that's of some use.

Cheers

Marcus

Edited January 4, 2016 by Marcus 37

[Jock67B]

Morning Al,

Although I am largely a steam fan, I think the work you have done on the Class 40 is exceptional. I don't think I'll change my mind, even though my Dad was being re-trained by BR on early diesels before he left the railway and moved South. In fact he did a lot of evaluation testing, but mainly on shunters from Barclay of Kilmarnock.

Hope the decorating doesn't keep you from modelling for too long!

Kind regards,

Jock.

[Andrew P]

Thanks Al, That looks very clever, and STILL way over my head but good none the less. The 40 does sound right to me, although I've only ever heard a Preserved one at Buterly, but its very nice indeed mate.

 

 

Good on yer.

[RBE]

Looks good Al. I always think its nicer to actually make a good model from something more basic than tip a perfect one straight out of a box! Never played with Sprog myself but it does look interesting.

[Alister_G]

Looks good Al. I always think its nicer to actually make a good model from something more basic than tip a perfect one straight out of a box! Never played with Sprog myself but it does look interesting.

 

Thanks Cav, high praise coming from you. You are one of the best at weathering and painting that I know of, and what's more you do it in 2mm - which is even more of a challenge!

 

Al.

[RBE]

Very kind words Al. Thanks!

[C&WR]

Happy new year to you, Al.  As I said on my thread I was a bit out of sorts over Christmas so it's nice to see someone achieving something.  Love the home-made detailing kit!

[Alister_G]

Happy new year to you, Al.  As I said on my thread I was a bit out of sorts over Christmas so it's nice to see someone achieving something.  Love the home-made detailing kit!

 

Cheers mate, and the same to you, TLC and TSC. Sorry to hear you've been suffering, but looking on your thread it looks like you've had just the impetus you need for a new project, looks great!.

 

Al.

[Alister_G]

Well never has Bakewell Station been so busy as it was this evening!

 

Having set up my laptop to run the JMRI DCC Software, I needed to add in to it all my chipped locos, which meant putting them all on the programming track in turn, setting them up with DCC addresses, and testing they all worked. For the programming track, as a temporary measure, I used the front siding on the layout, and so I needed to get all the locos within reach.

 

 

 

 

Here's some closeups of some of the stock:

 

 

 

 

As well as the TTS class 40 for Christmas, I also bought a brand new DCC fitted Midland Compound, and here it is, all shiny:

 

 

and a second hand (in all senses) WD 2-8-0:

 

 

I haven't done the weathering on this, and it's not quite how I would do it - it's all a bit red, to my mind, but I may be able to rescue it.

 

Anyway, with all these new locos, it's just as well I bought these:

 

 

Some more loco crew.

 

Let's hope they haven't heard what happened to the last lot

 

Thanks for looking,

 

Al.

[Andrew P]

That's what I like to see Al, A nice busy Yard / Shed, wait till you see what I have planned to go with West Shed, hahhah.

 

Looking very god mate.

[JCL]

Hi Al, great to see all of the photos. It looks like you're going to be pretty busy from now until next Christmas

[Alister_G]

Well, I stayed up 'til long past my normal bedtime last night, and it's all Bodgit (AndyP) and Shaun (Sasquatch)'s fault

 

I finished the decorating at about 7pm, and throughout the day I had been browsing through various threads on here, in between coats of paint, and noticed that Andy had put some ground signals on his layout which were exquisitely built for him by Shaun.

 

This prompted me to finally get off my bottom and get on with the one I left half built in November.

 

If you recall, I'd completed soldering the axle to the disc, and drilled out the lamp body, and that was where I left it when work intervened.

 

So I started last night by adding a small piece of brass offcut with two holes in it to the back of the disc. This will be the attachment point for the control wire that makes the signal work.

 

 

 

On the instructions for the kit, it suggests drilling through the disc and attaching the wire directly through it, but I thought this looked a mess, as the disc is so small and already has a number of holes in it, so I preferred my alternative approach:

 

 

 

This way, there is less visible clutter from the front.

 

Next, I built up the support for the signal, made up of two whitemetal castings, and built up and attached the etched balance weight:

 

 

 

I modified the dod by drilling a hole through the top, so I could get the light working.

 

You may remember that I bought this:

 

 

a fibre-optic kit, with which I was going to make the lighting on the signal work.

 

I took a length of the optical fibre, and cut one end square, and the other end at a 45 degree angle.

 

Then, to test it, I shone an LED torch at the square end, and lo and behold, light came out of the other end

 

 

 

You may remember that I had drilled out the lamp body with two holes, one from the bottom, and one through the front face where the light lens should be, in such a way that the two met.

 

I fed the optical fibre up into the body, until I could see the end of it in the other hole:

 

 

and sure enough, when the torch was shone through the fibre, the lamp lit:

 

 

I then assembled the support and the lamp body onto the base I'd prepared, and temporarily attached the disc:

 

 

I fed the optical fibre down through the support, and through the tube on the base that goes through the baseboard:

 

 

And that's the construction done, nearly. Obviously the axle on the disc needed cutting short, and the operating wire needed adding, and a back blinder, but first I painted all the bits so far.

 

Once all painted, I added the coloured gels to the lenses on the disc, and the operating wire, and so on, and here's the completed signal:

 

 

 

 

By now, it was 2 o'clock this morning, so I went to bed!

 

This evening I will make a start on getting the working mechanism sorted out, and connecting a yellow LED to the fibre.

 

Thanks for looking,

 

Al.

 

[Andrew P]

WOWSER Al, that looks a bit technical mate, what a cracking job, Now I'm thinking of building a Goods Yard and Depot, so I'll need about 80 or 90, are you and Shaun up for it? hahhahhaha.   :nono:    

[westerhamstation]

Hi Al, Andy has just pipped me to the post with his reply, put me down for four. Cracking job and skillfully executed, all the best Adrian

[Alister_G]

Thanks you two, much appreciated.

 

Now then... Bodgit wants 80, Adrian wants 4, and I need another 3 at least... is delivery in 2026 too early for you guys?

 

 

Al.

[georgeT]

Put me down for a dozen mate hahahaha, too fiddly for me, but watching with interest...

[Sasquatch]

Brilliant Al!! :sungum: :sungum:

 

Bet you can't wait to install it on the layout.

 

I suppose I need to get my finger out and finish the three for Goathland now.

 

Like the fiber optic approach. The grain of sand bulbs are no longer available, so you have left me with no doubt on that score.

 

Impressive loco fleet BTW.

 

Regards Shaun.

 

PS. There were two bags of Dapol figures in my xmas stocking and I'll be adding crews to the steam fleet.    

[Alister_G]

Brilliant Al!! :sungum: :sungum:

 

Bet you can't wait to install it on the layout.

 

I suppose I need to get my finger out and finish the three for Goathland now.

 

Like the fiber optic approach. The grain of sand bulbs are no longer available, so you have left me with no doubt on that score.

 

Impressive loco fleet BTW.

 

Regards Shaun.

 

PS. There were two bags of Dapol figures in my xmas stocking and I'll be adding crews to the steam fleet.    

 

Cheers mate,

 

Yep, working on the mech now.

 

Strangely, I think I'm going to scratchbuild the frame and lamp box for the next lot, like you did, it will give me more flexibility to get the fibre in the right place, and I do think these MSE ones are a bit tall.

 

Al.

[LNER4479]

Hi Al,

 

Just dropped by for a look at what you've been up to. Love the New Year photos; and the fibre-optic light for the ground signal is very effective. I haven't bothered with my signals (tut!) but it just shows what's possible. One day, maybe...

 

'Robert'

[Moggs Eye]

Brilliant work on that signal. The layout's looking excellent.

[uax6]

Al, cracking work there!

 

Can I suggest a couple of things for your next one please? Well I'm going to say them anyway!

 

Try and see if you can use the backblinder as the drive link, its big enough to allow a wire to be fixed to it.

Before you drill the hoizontal lamp opening, assemble the disc on it's pivot and mount in its hole on the main body. You will then be able to line it up so that it is on correctly and then insert the drill through the red lens hole on the disc, which will ensure that the light hole will come out in the right place.

 

I think you are very brave to try to light such a small thing, and have made a cracking job of it!

 

Andy G

[Alister_G]

Brilliant work on that signal. The layout's looking excellent.

 

Thanks very much, and welcome to the thread.

 

Al.

[Sasquatch]

Al, cracking work there!

 

Can I suggest a couple of things for your next one please? Well I'm going to say them anyway!

 

Try and see if you can use the backblinder as the drive link, its big enough to allow a wire to be fixed to it.

Before you drill the hoizontal lamp opening, assemble the disc on it's pivot and mount in its hole on the main body. You will then be able to line it up so that it is on correctly and then insert the drill through the red lens hole on the disc, which will ensure that the light hole will come out in the right place.

 

I think you are very brave to try to light such a small thing, and have made a cracking job of it!

 

Andy G

Lining up the hole in the disc with the light is the tricky part for two reasons. Your idea is great at solving lining up the disc with the lamp hole. The other problem is once the operating wire is attached, the disc might be off the horizontal. If the back blinder was made from plastic card it could be a push fit and allow for adjustment.

 

Better still would be to have the disc made from card, that way the drive wire can be attached to the blinder and pivot, leaving the disc as a push fit and thus adjustable!  

 

The other advantage of having a push fit is that any damage is easily repaired. It does happen. I had a derailment which broke one once!  

 

 

Al.

I gave up with the MSE parts on the NE ones because the castings were not clean enough to allow a working model to be constructed. Besides styrene is my favorite medium to work with! 

[Alister_G]

Al, cracking work there!

 

Can I suggest a couple of things for your next one please? Well I'm going to say them anyway!

 

Try and see if you can use the backblinder as the drive link, its big enough to allow a wire to be fixed to it.

Do you know, I never gave that a thought. It would be a much more sensible way of doing it.

 

One of the drawbacks of the way I've done this one is that the disc ends up a long way forward of the light hole in the lamp box, so the light doesn't show very well.

 

If i used the back-blinder it'd be much closer, and also, leads on to your next point.

 

Before you drill the hoizontal lamp opening, assemble the disc on it's pivot and mount in its hole on the main body. You will then be able to line it up so that it is on correctly and then insert the drill through the red lens hole on the disc, which will ensure that the light hole will come out in the right place.

Yes, I struggled to get it quite right this time working from the existing detail provided on the whitemetal casting. Yours sounds a better way.

 

 

Lining up the hole in the disc with the light is the tricky part for two reasons. Your idea is great at solving lining up the disc with the lamp hole. The other problem is once the operating wire is attached, the disc might be off the horizontal. If the back blinder was made from plastic card it could be a push fit and allow for adjustment.

 

Better still would be to have the disc made from card, that way the drive wire can be attached to the blinder and pivot, leaving the disc as a push fit and thus adjustable!  

 

The other advantage of having a push fit is that any damage is easily repaired. It does happen. I had a derailment which broke one once!  

 

 

Al.

I gave up with the MSE parts on the NE ones because the castings were not clean enough to allow a working model to be constructed. Besides styrene is my favorite medium to work with! 

Hi Shaun,

 

I reckon I will use brass to replace the MSE castings for the framework / support, but only for reasons of strength and the ability to solder it to the base.

 

I will build the lightbox out of styrene, as you know, it's my favourite medium too, and it will make running the optical fibre so much simpler.

 

However I will probably retain the brass bearing tube, axle and disc, and using Andy G's suggestion, run the operating wire from the back blinder. If I leave soldering up the back blinder 'til last, I can do any adjustment to ensure the disc is horizontal before I solder the back blinder to the axle.

 

Thanks to both of you for your help and suggestions, the next one should be even better!!

 

Al.

[uax6]

Can you not fashion some sort of back stop? My (full size) BR(ER) dod has very postive stops on the casting that sits behind the face, which hit the main body of the dod when on.

 

I remember back in the day when I was in short trousers, the dods on our layout were made of drawing pins pushed through bits of cardboard, operated by turning them by hand! They did look quite conviencing...

 

Andy G