Midland Railway in EM gauge

[Mrkirtley800]

That is very true Larry.

I don't really go or a lot of cameos. I have seen layouts at shows full of them, and in many cases I find them a bit of a turn off. Done well and they add interest.

So here are a couple which have hung over from Canal Road. I hope they don't turn you off.

The first one, a little group in which the lady in brown is the dominant character, studying the timetable. I can just imagine brown dress saying "I told you to hurry up Maud, you took so long doing your hair that we have missed the train. So we will have to wait two hours now. Really, words fail me".

The second pic shows a couple of farm hands shovelling horse manure into the farm cart. On the station is a stable block for five horses, and next to it is the midden where the horse muck and straw is stored. I would like to think that it would be free to be collected but knowing the railway companes at the time -----.

My apologies about the pics A bit out of focus. In fact not very good at all.

Derek

Edited June 19, 2016 by Mrkirtley800

[Andrew P]

Excellent pics Derek, and something completely different not a load of old ?

[kes]

Wrong. Only a Compounds outside cylinder exhaust to the atmosphere so the loco only ever gives 4 beats per driving wheel revolution whether the cylinders are fed by live steam on starting or exhaust steam from the middle cylinders receiver.

 

Regarding my mention of DCC sound, a good number of my friends happen to be self-made businessmen and I have never heard them cite age as a barrier to absorbing and learning about new technologies if deemed to be of use. In short Derek, we both might be physically barred from indulging in certain things at our age but our minds are still alert. 

Thanks coachmann,  - I had forgot that the low pressure cylinders are the only ones connected to the blast pipe!

 

Kevin

[Mrkirtley800]

My son went to the Loughborough Show on Saturday, and sent me these piccies.  Now that is what I call railway modelling, but I would be hard pushed to find room in the house for Kirkby Malham in that scale.  Olga would not be happy.

Derek

[kes]

Hi Derek - glad the controller seem to work now. I was out yesterday, so I will give you a ring this week. The picture of the the Midland Single brings back memories - I was one of those who cleaned down and painted the inside of the frames red on 673 when it was at Butterley many years ago - 1975 ish I think. I was re acquainted with it at York.

 

 

Keep up the good work. I have to sort out how to make my signals operate, so I may take a close look at your mechs.

 

 

Kevin.

 

[Mrkirtley800]

Don't expect too much. My mechs are just bits of bent wire.

Derek

[kes]

Don't expect too much. My mechs are just bits of bent wire.

Derek

The simplest are usually the best!

[Mrkirtley800]

Still playing with the railway, trying to get as near perfect operation as possible.  It is, of course, impossible, but sometimes I feel as if I am getting there, other times ---- well I wonder why I bother.

When building Kirkby Malham, I opted to do away with a central control panel.  I explained my reasoning early on in this thread, but to briefly reiterate, I needed to keep moving.  Many is the time when operating the previous layout with everything centralised, after a couple of hours sitting still, my arthritic joints would not work.  So in this railway all the point and signal controls are opposite the points and signals in question.

Now I have found a slight disadvantage.  Having to get off my chair to change points or pull off signals repeatedly, especially during shunting is tiring me out  I try to do a bit of operating every day, if only for fifteen minutes or so, but having to move continually is having it's effect, and I am sleeping like a log every night. 

The next stage in our railway has got to be some scenic treatment.  The main station area and down one side of the layout has it's basic scenery in place, although a lot of detail work is needed yet.  But the other side, Hanlith Junction, is still basic boards and track, and the section containing the bridge over the River Aire has to be worked on.

This will all be started in a couple of weeks.  My son and family are coming for a few days later this month, and it would be unforgiveable of me not to have the railway running for my grandson, Ben.  Then on 23/24 July is our club's little show at Goathland Parish Hall.   So, if any R.M.Webbers come, please make yourselves known.  I will probably be  doing what I do best, taking folks' money off them.

Just a few piccies this time, all goods trains.

The first is the stopping goods from Hunslet Lane Goods (Leeds), and here one of the 3130 class 0-6-0's is in the process of shunting it's train  The loco built about 1886 to Johnson's design was originally numbered in the 1698 class, but gained the present number 3175 in the general renumbering of engines by the Midland in 1907. Later classified as a 2F. 

The remaining pics feature a N.E.R class C, having brought in a goods from Leyburn Junction.  Again a stopping goods, or better known as a pick up goods by modellers, it has brought in a L & Y slatted 6-wheeled milk van, which is shunted into the milk platform.  Loco is then turned and after shunting the  other wagons is then shedded until the following morning.

This loco picks up only from the tender wheels, the tender having split frames.  During the shunting, one or two little problems arose to do with point switch rails not being bonded to the nearest stock rail.  Most of the shunting has been done with engines that pick up from all 12 wheels, and any places with a short power loss don't show up.  So there is a bit of work to do yet.

Derek

[Alister_G]

Some lovely photos Derek, the views are superb.

 

Al.

[N15class]

Whenever I see your layout it gives me the inspiration to carry on with the planing and and building my own.

[Mrkirtley800]

Not done much work on Kirkby Malham of late.  My joints have been very stiff and painful, so all I have done is some desultory running of trains.

However, last week we had my youngest son and family to stay for a few days.  The weather was rather good, so they spent a lot of time on the beach.  The railway saw quite a lot of use, with 3 year old Livvie (Olivia) on the controls, 7 year old Ellie (Eleanor) operating the signals and some points while 9 year old Ben was the  fat  thin  controller.

Livvie was remarkable.in her driving.  She ran the loco from the shed and gently buffered up to the carriages, and then when the signal showed clear, gently pulled away. I think she must have watched dad operating his 0 gauge.

When the time came for a change in jobs, world war three broke out.  The piccie shows Ben, having wrested the controller from Livvie.  I still have not got round to tidying up the place.

Derek

Edited July 28, 2016 by Mrkirtley800

[skipepsi]

Your body may be letting you down at times but the modelling is still very good.

[Mrkirtley800]

Busy day at the office !!   A case of three goods trains arriving from different yards in rapid succession.  Sorry about the pics being a bit out of focus.

I am not happy with  the platform lamps.  They appear, to me, to be too tall.  They adorned Canal Road, and always looked a bit gawky.  So out came the books of photos of Midland (actually Settle to Carlisle) stations.  I found quite a few showing platform lamps up against the fencing, and it was a simple matter with the vernier calliper to compare the relative heights and come to an average figure.

So today I have taken the lamps off the platforms and cut the base off, drilled a 1mm hole in the new base and stuck 1mm rod in the hole.  The bottoms of the posts just needed painting and I am waiting for the paint to dry, something I am good at. They now work out at a scale 7' 6" from the base to the cross bar and look much more in keeping.

The lamps in the yard and along the passenger access path will still be the original height.

The lamps are Mikes Models products, bought before many on RMW were born. Blimey!!.

There is a distinct lack of telegraph poles.  The ones on Canal Road were rescued and will be installed soon.  I will NOT be stringing wires between them.

Derek

Edited July 31, 2016 by Mrkirtley800

[Barry O]

looks like we can have a real good "play" next Easter Derek if I am allowed to visit...

 

Baz

[Mrkirtley800]

You are always welcome, Barry. I just might have done some scenery around Hanlith Junction by then.

[Andrew P]

Excellent pics as always Derek, looks like you have a good team for the future as well.

[Mrkirtley800]

Not too sure about the team Andy.

I have got on with the platform lamps and the piccie shows the result. I hope you can see the difference, at least I feel better about it.

Now for the telegraph poles. For my Canal Road layout, I used Ratio plastic mouldings as a basis. The poles put up in the early years of the 20th century had multiple cross arms but carrying only two insulators. There was also an insulator at the top of the post. Could this be like a common return? I have no idea. Looking at dozens of photographs confuses me all the more.

However, I sweated blood modifying the Ratio items and include a pic of some of them rescued when Canal Road was rebuilt. My question to anyone who knows about these things is, would a small village like Kirkby Malham have enough need for all those wires, and to be as authentic as possible, should I cut some of the bars off. My station is supposed to be the rail head for upper Airedale, but in 1908 I would think there were far more cows and sheep than people, and I have never yet seen a sheep using a telephone, although I admit to having led a sheltered existence.

Anyway, does anyone have any ideas on the subject?

Derek

[Donw]

Well for a start the wires running along the railway would be the signal and telegraph wires of the railway company. These would be internal telephone systems, connections for the block instruments, track circuiting etc. The pole routes for the telephones would be running along the road sides for access reasons. Occasionally they might cross fields. Now firstly there would not be many telephones in a rural community pre WW1  the doctor maybe, the police station if there was one, the lnn (rather than the local pub). The town council a local hospital, maybe a few shops and maybe the local big wigs. 

I think the route you may be thinking about would be the railway one. Although there probably be a public telephone or two for the station although the kiosks came later.

I believe the National Telephone company used some earth return circuits so could have a single wire but the GPO opted for two wires to avoid noise problems and only used earth return for party line ringing circuits ( the two wires were used for the conversation and could be heard by both parties). The  two systems were on different poles so far as I know. 

Don

[Mrkirtley800]

Thank you for that info Don, it has given me food for thought and I may just leave the posts as they are for the time being. In the old photographs I constantly study, there seemed to be an inordinate number of wires, although many of the pics are of main lines.

Derek

[Mrkirtley800]

Don, I have read and re-read your response to my request, and it has started to fill a yawning gap in my knowledge. When I was a young lad, we were the only part of the family, on my fathers side, still in Leeds. All my dads siblings had gone to London, presumably to make their fortunes. Some went to Eastbourne, soI had plenty of journeys by rail when off to stay with relations, and later spent school holidays with them. The line from Leeds to Kings Cross was full of interest for me, but I never gave a thought to the telephone wires outside the carriage. The only interest the poles had was to estimate the speed, by counting them over a minute. In all these years I never considered to what the wires might really be for. I feel quite ashamed of myself, so thank you again for pointing me in the right direction.

It is amazing at the things we learn through RMWeb.

Derek

[Alister_G]

Hi Derek,

 

Don and I were both telephone engineers once upon a time, although not on the Railway. I can't add much to what Don has already said, except to point out that in the time you are modelling each wire you see on a telephone pole was just that - a single conductor - so each circuit would use two separate wires.

 

If you consider that each signalling block would require a telephone circuit (2 wires) and a block bell (2 more wires) and two sets of block instruments (4 more wires) in between each signal box, and then probably telephone circuits between non-adjacent signal boxes (2 more wires) and to the Stations (2 more wires) you can see how this would soon add up to a quite considerable birds nest on each pole.

 

Cheers,

 

Al

[Mrkirtley800]

Here we are again with not much having been done of late. I lost a bit of enthusiasm due to my joints being very painful. I was hoping that the warmer weather would help, but disappointingly it has not. However having gone into the railway a couple of days ago, I found an old Maygib etched brass kit for a Midland Railway class 3 goods. It is of one of the 'H' boiler rebuilds of Johnsons slim boilered jobs. To my eyes, it is an ugly beast.

Anyway, some time in the distant past I started building it and got the footplate and cab assembled although not soldered together.

A job for the winter months I think.

Done a bit of operating, although I really wanted to do something with the board at the buffer stops end, containing a bit of the village.. But could not lift it down, the joint problems again.

So, just a couple of piccies of the class M arriving with a short goods, while 'old faithful' Kirtley goods finishes a bit of shunting of a Bradford Manningham goods and prepares to depart. I have to confess, the passengers are being a bit neglected, there is a dearth of trains for them. Fact is I like doing a spot of shunting, so the timetable is all freight at the moment. No idea where all the goods are going to or coming from. For such a small station, the yard is pretty busy.

Derek

Edited August 26, 2016 by Mrkirtley800

[coachmann]

The colour of your layout has a charm I have not seen on other layouts Derek. Marthwaite comes closest.

[Barry O]

Derek, hope the joints give you a bit less pain...a squirt of WD40..

 

The freights could be going anywhere. Bradford, Ilkley, Leeds, Wakefield, York, or off to exotic places in North Eastern territory..

But passengers can wait while hard brass is earned.

 

Baz

[Mrkirtley800]

I wish it were that simple Barry. As anyone with arthritic pain will know, the cartilage wears away in the joints and the pain comes with the bones rubbing together. I have often asked the consultant if he could just squirt some silicone sealer in there. The time will come when it will be as simple as that, but unfortunately not yet.

No one to blame but me, My knees have suffered a lifetime of abuse with me leaping around playing various sports, often quite badly.

Derek