Walton on the hill 27E Liverpool, EM gauge.

[Michael Delamar]

The jig has come in use already, for brassmasters coupling rods on my Bachmann 08 to this J39. It is a fold chassis and even on the EM spacers it seemed a bit wide to me so once the hornblocks were in I took the spacers out and made them my own width.

 

Here's Chris Hewitt at the Southport model railway exhibition making a start on some ply and rivet points. No idea what was going on on the whiteboard behind.

 

 

[Jason T]

Was it Chris who spelt Jesus wrong ?

[andytrains]

Thats the corect spullin.

 

Jezus, Fokin, Bluddy, Chrirst!!!!!!

[Michael Delamar]

He's got on with these two since sunday afternoon, they're nearly there. Ill still have to wire them and stick the cosmetic chairs on at a later date.

 

[Michael Delamar]

Ive recently been sent this shot which is very helpful, first the signal which I thought would have been a ground signal,means more work for Steve Hewitt. Im still looking for more shots of this area, there may be other signals to model, looking the other way.

But it shows the telephone for the shed exit, pointwork for the shed and goods yard. And a tantalising glimpse of the turntable to the left of shot.

Also Im trying to pinpoint the position for Steve's bracket signal no 42, I think the wire in the top right of shot may be for that? I dont think its position on the drawing is correct.

 

Im trying to establish if 41,54 signal was a ground signal or on a post and id like a shot or info on signal 57.

 

 

Edited November 16, 2015 by Michael Delamar

[Michael Delamar]

The OS map shows the position of Steve's bracket signal 42 and the 3 arm signal. So that is that sorted however it doesnt show 41,54 and wether it was on a post or a ground signal.

 

Also we havent quite got the points in the correct position here so will redraw some of them.

 

 

 

In this shot from the 1920s the bracket signal is visible bottom right with 41,54 next to it on post.

 

However in this shot im sure I can just make out the white discs on the ground next to the bracket signal in the distance.

[TheSignalEngineer]

I suspect that the short post behind the bracket nearest the signal box is a stay post, which may account for the staywire in the earlier picture. The same arrangement is visible on both bracket signals in the aerial shot. The signal reading from the sidings is the post to the extreme right, but that looks old even at the date of that photo, so probably wouldn't have survived to your era.

[Michael Delamar]

Its definately got two lower quadrant arms on it, so that is 41,54, but as you say im not sure if it will have gone during my era. Although there was a lot of other shunt signals on posts in the area, ill upload a photo later.

 

I think the wire in the top right of shot is for Steve's signal 42, confirmed on the os map, its the signalling record society drawing that has had me on the bum steer as its not drawn in the right place it should be next to 41, 54. That is also why it is a bracket signal as i couldn't work out why it was a bracket signal and not a straight post, because its not actually next to the mainline its over the road to the coal yard.

Edited November 16, 2015 by Michael Delamar

[Michael Delamar]

Fussy.

Since finding that other shot looking towards the shed I wasnt happy how we had drawn this end of the layout, so I got Chris to draw some of it again. The point into the goods yard needed moving up and closer to the mainline and also we had drawn a curved 3 way point originally which I now realise wasn't a 3 way in real life so that has been shifted up a bit and made into 2 points. So Im happy now, that is until more information comes along later. The real line did curve in this direction but we've had to curve it a bit more which is a compromise, but as long as the track plan is correct ill be happy. They are about 4ft radius curves. Compare with the shot in post #272.

 

Chris had just started putting some sleepers down onto his piece of wood but thankfully he uses double sided tape and they easily pull off and can be stuck back down. luckily he hadnt done much more than that he hadnt started drilling the sleepers for the rivets.

 

Edited November 18, 2015 by Michael Delamar

[Michael Delamar]

Just discovered 8 photos of Walton on the RCTS site, these must have been uploaded recently as I have checked this site before.

 

Shots are mainly the shed area, I dont think revealing anything I need to know but are still interesting, one shot is marked up incorrectly as Walton on Naze. Also a line up of N5s and a J10 in the coal yard, look like they are going for scrap. Images are watermarked but I have purchased them.

 

http://www.rcts.org.uk/features/archive/search.htm?company=&subtype=&class=&location=&srch=Walton&page=0

Edited November 18, 2015 by Michael Delamar

[Michael Delamar]

Studying these shots, I wonder if anyone could help with a couple of things, the style of buffer stop in this shot and also there is a coach in the coal yard. What could it be? This shot is 1954.

 

 

Edited November 18, 2015 by Michael Delamar

[Michael Delamar]

Here is another shot of the coach, itd been there a long time as this is a 1940s shot, maybe a CLC coach?

Edited November 18, 2015 by Michael Delamar

[Michael Delamar]

Dave Franks says that the buffer is an LNER type, he has recently introduced these in his range so thats 2 ordered for the goods yard.

[MartinWales]

Got one here Mike-and they are GOOD!

[Michael Delamar]

Chris has taken the rough drawing away and traced it neater on actual tracing paper, for the rough sketches we used grease proof paper but nothing will stick to it, he has drilled the sleepers and here he is rivetting each one which involves peeling the sleeper from the double sided tape, inserting copper rivet, turn sleeper over and tap the underside on an anvil and then replacing the sleeper on the board.chris does this quite quickly, Some of the sleepers will later be trimmed as they are from the orginal drawing before it was changed.

 

Ive been working on the board these points will be on, building the walkway underpass to Walton hall park.

 

 

A short engineers train passes the shed.

 

 

[Michael Delamar]

Another archive shot discovered, on ebay this time and purchased. Date of shot 1/6/58.

 

 

[Michael Delamar]

Another request

 

This water column. What is the original and is a model of this style available?

 

[andytrains]

Looks like there should be more to it. Are those bolt coming out of the top that may have had something bolted to it?

Mikes models do cast water cranes. http://www.holtmodelrailways.com/search.php?search=mikes

[Michael Delamar]

There is also this one

 

[Michael Delamar]

More of an update tonight but in the meantime Ive found an view from 1964 just after the shed closed which shows lots of detail, a scan of a small area of a much larger photo. Theres more detail in the original scan than I can upload here but it does show the remains of the turntable which looks partly filled in, track layout, position of ash pit, signal positions etc.

 

[Michael Delamar]

Update.

 

More progress and change of mind.

 

Since last time Chris has finished the curved points and we have layed them. Chris has also laid one of the goods yard roads. Ive decided I want to model all 4 goods yard sidings so I am going to build on an add on board approx 5" x 1" then Chris will draw out the 3 way which will be over the baseboard join. This means the add on board doesnt have to be set up except at exhibitions and also gives us more shunting potential. Once the 3 way is done the second goods yard siding will be laid.

 

Also on the os map there was a odd looking siding near the subway, I always discarded this as a I didnt believe the date on the map but it shows in the 1964 arial photo. It had a tight point into a tin shed which was an engine shed for Dunlops small diesel loco which one of our club members now tells me he remembers, although he is unsure what it was, maybe a Ruston. That also gives a bit of interest to this end of the layout and will now be included on the layout.

 

Some shots of progress. The piece of track the sturgeon is sitting on hasnt been laid yet, the piece of track in the background will be the Dunlop siding.

 

The 50ft turntable has been cut out, on the arial shot it appears that the table is still in but slightly filled in, which is how it will be modelled.

 

Ive laid all the concrete sleepers. We can see the rest of the track that needs to be laid in the shed yard.

Ive decided not to use the Colin Craig flat bottom track now for a few reasons, it was only going to be a short section and in the most recent shot I found showing the 3 arm shunt signal the down line was bullhead so it must have been relaid around 1963. The track will now be relegated to a salmon wagon.

 

Mineral wagons in the newly laid goods yard siding.

 

And lastly Steve Hewitt's bracket signal has had its hole drilled out and I have temporarily placed it in to see how it looks, it will be taken back out now to protect it until its near the time to install it.

[Michael Delamar]

Some progress over the holiday.

 

Firstly we were able to set the whole layout up which meant I could build the last connecting board. The idea being to set it up as a U shape then I put the 2 ends of this new connecting board with their baseboard dowels which have already been made earlier into the baseboard that they will attach to, then place the top piece of ply for this board onto these end pieces so that they line up perfectly, glue and screw it, then take the top piece of ply away with the 2 ends screwed on then build the sides to it.

If I had just built this final board away from the layout chances are it would never have fitted.

 

The new board can be seen at the bottom of this shot. We have glued some track on it now which was drying in this shot, this curve will be hidden in the tunnel.

 

 

Chris has also built the point for the Dunlop's siding and the 3 way point for the goods yard, while it was drying he was kean to sprinkle some ballast down in some areas, sandblasting dust,it was drying in this shot, also the trackwork to the turntable and coaling stage has been laid earlier. Chris made a temporary coaling stage template, the mineral wagon is standing where the shed for Dunlop's small diesel shunter will be.

 

Edited December 30, 2015 by Michael Delamar

[Michael Edge]

We ballasted part of an old LMRS layout with used shotblasting dust, not realising until later that it was conducting electricity because of its metal content....

The ballast in this area had a tendency to glow after a while, fortunately it was only the loco/ashpit area.

[Michael Delamar]

Should be ok, its the same stuff Chris has used on Lime Street, Crown Street and other layouts.

[Michael Delamar]

The curves in the tunnel lasted about 24 hours ,when we test ran some locos on it today on the inner curve some locos such as the 9f were struggling, My B1 derailed, the front bogie touching the front steps.

So we have moved the curve closer to the tunnel exit, it was straight for about 6 inches into the tunnel originally and with no more than some string and a pencil drew out a new 4ft 6 inch curve for the outer rail all the way round.

We've decided to use copperclad this time as the 3 point gauges used when soldering the second rail gives some gauge widening which will help and we can also put in a check rail if needed. We will finish this off tomorrow. The black line around the outside was the original curve of the outer rail, its a lot smoother now, the original wasnt the same radius all the way round.

Some trains will be banked on the outer curve with 3 link couplings, on the original curve it was ok but a bit too close for comfort, especially as this curve when finished will never be able to got at as the tunnel will be built over it, the operators side will be left open so we can clean the rails.

 

 

Edited December 30, 2015 by Michael Delamar