Along the Chapeltown loop

[northolland]

Thank westerner. You probably have seen every building on the layout somewhere else. It is all very generic: Metcalfe and Scalescenes card kits, the old Airfix / Dapol signal box and water tower - not to mention their set of rail workers that I have dotted around; a few ready to plant items. The flour mill / grain store complex are, of course. the well known Walthers combo. I realise all of this is not very original but within my constraints (time and ability), I achieve something reasonable that at least does not offend my eyes. I am in awe to some modellers who are capable of creating so much atmosphere and realism - getting everything right and building most of it from scratch.

[northolland]

I’ll start now with my explanation of the car card system. It will come in stages. I’ll do the car cards first. The waybills, the traffic flows, and how I operate the layout will come later.

 

I said earlier that I was inspired by the FREMO cards. Their system can be found here. McRuss showed a picture of a FREMO card in reply 6 above. I adapted it to make it look more British.

 

Here you see a car card of my design with its wagon. At the top is a description of the wagon. It is a ventilated van. At the top right corner is a big letter. This allows for easy identification of the wagon type. I have used the first letter of the TOPS code here. B is bogie bolster. C is covered hopper wagon. F is a flat wagon. K is a coil wagon. M is a mineral wagon. O is an open wagon. T is a tank wagon. And V is a van. This covers all goods wagons I currently have on my layout. For the brake wagons, I adopted the CA code. The reason is that the TOPS code of covered hoppers and brake wagons start with a C and I wanted to separate them out. My layout is pre-TOPS, so it is not really authentic but it does the job. If your layout is post TOPS, you can use the full three letter code.

 

The rest of the information on the card is copied from the information that is on the wagon. The wagon number is maybe the most important bit of information because that links the card to a particular wagon. It is important that all your wagons have unique numbers. This is easy to achieve for kit build wagons. You need to take care when buying RTR. RTR manufacturers are helpful in that they change the wagon number with every batch that they produce, but buying more than one wagon in one go often leaves you with a renumbering job.

 

So this is ventilated van W142689. It is XP rated, has a wheelbase of 10”0’, and is fitted with a vacuum brake. Adding all of this provides the ‘railwayness’.

 

This is a class B tank wagon 3362. You all recognize it as the Airfix / Dapol kit. It is a private owner wagon and therefore has more and different information that can be put on the card. Its wagon number is 3362. It has a vacuum brake and roller bearings and the owner is the Esso Petroleum Company Limited.

 

This SHOCVAN is also interesting because it has a ‘return empty’ remark on its side. I have positioned this on the car card in such a way that it appears when the waybill is removed from the car card’s pocket, telling the operator where the car has to go when the load has been delivered.

 

I add information about the model on the back of the car card. This mineral wagon B267707 is made from a Parkside kit. I have weighed and measured it. It does not have a NEM pocket (otherwise the box would have been ticked). Therefore I fitted a Kadee no.5.

 

This Bachmann CONFLAT required a bit of surgery to fit a Kadee no.5. As you can see, I use the big box on the back of the card for adding remarks.

 

The function of the car card is to carry a waybill with a destination to tell the operator where the car is supposed to go. So I add pockets to the front of the card where these waybills fit. Also when there is a designated load indication on the side of a wagon, as you can see here, it is added to the car card.

 

Next time, I will explain what is on a waybill and why.

Edited July 15, 2013 by northolland

[bescotbeast]

Northolland I stumbled across this thread by accident but having read it I'm glad i did find it as I've been exploring Car Cards and Way bills which i'd first come across in this thread

 

 http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/68296-car-cards-and-waybills/  ( or for the UK, Wagon labels and Train dockets?). Like Adrian who posted earlier I'm working out in my head how I'll translate this for my own English based layout whilst keeping the principle of making my layout "earn it's keep" so any pointers further explanations will be most welcome.

                                                        Simon

[Draughtsman]

@Northolland

 

 

 

I have been a lurker on RMweb for a few months and seen some wonderful modelling however it is your very interesting layout and operational description that has prompted me to sign up.

 

 

 

 

Your photographic description of a day in the life of your layout intrigued me as to how the various locations fitted together so I downloaded SCARM the layout modelling software to try and put the parts together.

 

After a bit of practice with the program I seem to have got the hang of it and a careful study of the photos enabled me to produce a track plan that fits a room 3.65m x 3.0m (12feet x 10feet) there may be inaccuracies in the length of sidings and the angle across the room is slightly out but I think I have got the arrangement right.

 

I hope it meets with your approval.

 

I look forward to further photos and hope for a description of how you use RR&Co.

 

 

EDIT 15/07/2013 Plan updated with information supplied by northolland in post30

Edited July 15, 2013 by Draughtsman

[northolland]

Thanks Draughtsman. I could not have done that. Looks really good.

 

The room size is 3.55m by 2.90m, but extends to 3.35m in the corner where Robinson Terrace is. There is a niche for a wardrobe there where I have fitted Tower Mills Sidings in.

 

Just for the sake of accuracy, Points 1 and 2 at Tower Mills combine into a 3-way point. These are the first two points if you travel from left to right on the diagram above, with the left branch going into the Flour Mill siding. You correctly made the point to the coal yard at Pennyfields into a Y-point. The first point into Pennyfields Sidings proper is also a Y-point, as is the next one going off into the Exchange Siding. And the point where Paramount is to the left and Dearne Mill is to the right is also a Y-point. At Carr Head Junction, there are catch points in the Pennyfields branch just before the point where the branch connects to the Up Slow, and there is one in the Down Slow just beyond the cross over. The point in the siding at Thorncliffe is also a catch point, although it shows as a full point on the signal diagram. But overall, you are bang on.

 

What is it that you would like to know about how I use RR&Co?

[bescotbeast]

My question is where you have a destination with more than one siding does each siding have a card holder or is it one card holder for the whole location ie Tower Mills Flour Mills and the same goes for your marshaling sidings really? I'm trying to work out as you've guessed from my question will I need a card holder made for each siding on my own layout or a general one for each location.

                                                             Thanks for any help given.

                                                                                       Simon

[northolland]

The coal empties has finaly left Astley Down Sidings at 10:46am for Wath Marshalling Yard and clunks its way slowly across the mainline to the Up Slow.

 

A few minutes later, the train gathers a little speed while passing Carr Head Junction.

 

With the Coal Empties having cleared the Up Slow, D8158 can now move forward.

 

The train is stopped at Carr Head Junction, from where it will back down into Astley Down Sidings.

 

The stopper from Cudworth has entered platform 1. It was stuck at the Up Home signal at the other end of Astley Tunnel because the goods train from Dunford Bridge, waiting in Platform 1 for the coal empties to finally depart, blocked its path.

 

In turn, the goods train from Dunford Bridge has to wait for the stopper to depart from Astley Park, before it can cross the mainline and back into Astley Down Sidings. Here the Cudworth-Sheffield Midland service is seen passing Carr Head Junction and the waiting D8158.

 

D8158 has backed down into Astley Down Sidings

 

The stack of car cards has arrived as well.

 

The English Electric type 1 has been detached from its train ……

 

…. and is parked on the No.2 line. The crew will get their tea in the mess room, while the engine is kept running, annoying everybody with its high pitched whistling sound.

 

The shunting job is pretty straightforward. D8158 has brought five wagons and a brake van into Astley Down Sidings. Three wagons have to stay behind. SHOCVAN W139556 loaded with tinplate is destined for Thorncliffe Sidings and will be brought there later today with a trip working from Astley Down Sidings. Tank wagons 3300 and 3362 loaded with diesel are for the fuel dealer situated along the steelworks branch. Van S59123 and van M509355, both loaded with cotton cloth for Dearne Mill have to remain on the No.1 line with brake van B952516, as the trip working to Pennyfields will be gathered there: the next duty for D8158.

 

The jinty has attached to the train.

 

The whole rake apart from the brake van has been pulled into the shunting lead to be pushed back into the No.3 line.

 

Having arrived in the No.3 line, SHOCVAN W139556 and tank wagons 3300 and 3362 will be uncoupled and left behind.

 

Brake van B952516 has been left on the No.1 line.

 

The two vans for Pennyfields are about to be coupled to the brake van to form the trip working.

 

D8158 is back on the train. In platform 2 is the 11.47 departure for Barnsley Exchange.

 

In the meantime, there is job at Pennyfields that needs to be done. The three minerals that have been left there need to be dealt with. B310437K and B247055 have to be delivered at the local coal merchant at the Coal Yard. Wagon B23009 for Dearne Mill has to be parked in the exchange siding where it has to wait for Dearne Mill to be shunted later.

 

D3586 is started up again.

 

The minerals had been left at the back.

 

D3586 has moved forward to collect them.

 

Having dome that, B310437K and B247055 will be detached so that B23009 can be shunted into the exchange siding.

 

The short ensemble is backing in.

 

B23009 is uncoupled.

 

After having left B23009 in the exchange siding, D3586 has backed down all the way passed the cross over and is preparing to move forward and couple on to the two wagons destined for the coal yard.

 

Here the two minerals are being propelled forward towards their destination.

 

They are slowly being pushed passed the coal office into the siding.

 

They just need to be uncoupled now.

 

Ready for unloading.

 

The car cards being tucked away into their pockets.

Edited July 15, 2013 by northolland

[Rivercider]

This is fascinating, another thread where just clicking the 'like' button does not seem enough!

 

Do you have control over how much freight traffic is generated, or could the system randomly

send extra traffic and cause you congestion problems?

 

cheers 

[northolland]

Now I will explain what is on the waybills and why. And because there was a question about it, I will explain about the cardholders on the side of the layout as well.

 

This picture shows the various types of waybills that I use for my mineral traffic.

The left four cards show the front. The two on the right show the back of the card.

 

When you look at the one on the top right corner, it says ‘Wombwell Main Colliery’ and ‘Wombwell’. This refers to the consignor and where it is located.

 

The next line that says  ‘coal – 16 tons’ is the load. This tells me that I have to use a 16T mineral for this shipment. The card below is different here. Most of my mineral wagons are 16T but I have a few 20T and 21T wagons. Depending on the card, I have to pick the right wagon for the loading weight. The middle bottom one adds another complication in that it is ‘loco coal – 20 tons’. Ideally I have to pick a loco coal wagon for this one. I have one former private owner  mineral wagon in my fleet, which is rated 13T. I just load it up with 16 tons of coal (Don’t tell anyone).

 

In the middle of the card is information about the destination and the consignee. I have four destinations for coal on my layout and three of them are shown here. G. Pedley & Sons – Coal Merchants is located in the Coal Yard at Pennyfields. Samuel Cooke & Co is located along the steelworks branch that comes off Astley Down Sidings. This is offside so in practice wagons are delivered and collected from Astley Down Sidings. Astley MPD receives loco coal for the resident pilot. The fourth destination (not shown here) is the Dearne Mill boiler house at Pennyfields.

 

At the bottom is a big letter that indicates the type of wagon that is required for the load, just for quick reference. There is also the instruction ‘turn over after unloading’. I have added this to some traffic flows where wagons always go back to the same place after they have delivered their load. The information on the bottom third of the waybill cannot be seen when the card is in a car card pocket. To the right, you see what get when the waybil is turned over. 16T minerals are collected at Wath Marshalling Yard and the 20T/21T ones are collected at Carlton Sidings. In practice on my layout, this does not make a difference because all empties are taken away by the same train. It just adds a bit of variety.

 

Here are three waybllls that involve traffic from and to Dearne Mill. This is particularly interesting because there are three locations where wagons can be spotted. Coal has to be delivered at the boiler house. Cotton cloth is an input in the production process. Dearne Mill manufactures undergarments. Raw materials have to be delivered at the warehouse. And who would be the appropriate consignee for British (Yorkshire) made underpants?  It is loaded in XP rated wagons at the loading dock. This can be seen at the top of the card in the middle where the information about the consignor - Dearne Mill (loading dock) - and the location  - Pennyfields Sidings - can be found.

 

This shows the location of the Dearne Mill boiler house at the end of the siding.

 

A few yards in front of the boiler house is the loading dock from where the undergarments are shipped.

 

The warehouse were raw materials are received is located at the beginning of the siding.

 

Here are a few more variants of waybills. The left one refers to diesel that is made at the Esso refinery at Fawley. Samuel Cooke not only trades in coal but also in other fuels and receives a regular shipment. This is out-and-back traffic between refinery and dealer, so it has a ‘turn over after unloading instruction’ that sends the empty tank wagon back to Fawley to be loaded up again.

 

The middle waybill sends a bogie bolster back empty from the steelworks at the end of the steelworks branch to another steelworks. This waybill is part of a traffic flow that carries steel billets from Rawmarsh near Rotherham to the Milton Steel Works near Astley Park, to be finished into coils and plate steel. Empties are only returned on demand. That is why they have a separate waybill. Because the steelworks is also offside, this traffic starts and ends at Astley Down Sidings. The destination of Rawmarsh tells me that a wagon with this waybill has to be shunted into the daily train to Masborough Sorting Sidings.

 

The waybill on the right refers to a finished product from Milton Steelworks. The waybill also tells me that the load requires a plate wagon. A wagon with this waybill needs to be shunted into the daily Dunford Bridge train because Penistone is located on the way to Woodhead Pass.

 

There was a question about how I have organized the car card pockets at the side of the layout. They contain the car cards of the wagons that are parked at certain points on the layout. I have four car cardholders. They are at Astley Down Sidings, Pennyfields Sidings, Thornciffe Siding, and Tower Mills Sidings.

 

The car cardholder at Tower Mills is the most simple. In the middle is a pocket where I put the car cards of the wagons that are being loaded and unloaded at Newton Chambers. Newton Chambers is the only destination at this siding. The cards are stacked in the order in which the wagons stand on the siding.

 

To the left are two shelves. These contain waybills. At the top are waybills that originate at Thorncliffe. At the bottom are the waybills that end at Thorncliffe. The  how and why of these two little piles will become clear when I explain about how I operate the layout with the car cards later.

 

To the right is another short shelf where I can temporarily put some car cards while I do the shunting. With hindsight, this shelf is a little too narrow and next time I would make it at least two cards wide.

 

The car cardholder at Tower Mills is exactly the same as at Thorncliffe.

 

Tower Mills has three sidings, one for the flour mill, one for the grain store, and a siding where empty wagons can be stored. To keep them apart, I use yellow separator cards.

 

Pennyfields has a cardholder with three pockets. The middle one serves the same purpose as the single pockets at Thorncliffe and Tower Mills. It contains the car cards that are being loaded / unloaded at the various destinations at Pennyfields. I have added two more pockets here for inbound traffic and outbound traffic. Thorncliffe and Tower Mills are shunted by the train engine. Pennyfields has its own pilot. This means that there are wagons in the sidings that are not being loaded or unloaded but that have been delivered by a trip freight or are waiting to be picked up. Also because Pennyfields is much busier, I have added separate pocktes for wagons / car cards that have been delivered but still need to be shunted to their ultimate destination or wagons / car cards that are waiting to be picked up.

 

I also use the yellow separators here to keep car cards apart for each destination.

The inbound pocket also contains the car cards of parked wagons so there is a separator in that pocket as well.

 

Astley Down Sidings is organized differently. Here every line that holds wagons overnight has its own pocket. The No.1 and No.2 lines are arrival / departure lines and therefore do not need pockets. The other four lines have their own designated pockets.

 

Astley Down Sidings is organized in the way I found BR organized marshaling yards, with designated lines for specific destinations or types of traffic.  So there is a line for fitted and a line for unfitted wagons and there is a line for traffic for the steelworks branch. However, I have developed the habit to use the No.4 line only for steelworks traffic. I leave the wagons from and to Tower Mills and Samuel Cooke on the No.3 and No.5 lines, depending on whether they are fitted or not.

 

I gather traffic for Tower Mills on the No.4 line when I put the trip working together. Because point 3 is a single slip, the steelworks branch can only be accessed from the No.4 line.

 

The pocket for Astley MPD holds the occasional car card for loco coal traffic.

 

I hope people find this useful. If so, I will explain how I have put traffic flows together, how I operate the layout with the car card system and how traffic is generated at a later date.

Edited July 15, 2013 by northolland

[nathan9117]

Your layout looks very nice i like how you use the cards to operate your layout and or shunting operations it makes it so much more fun to operate. once i get my layout layed i may just "nick" your card idea to give me shunting puzzles cheers.

[HillsideDepot]

Fascinating! Thank you for taking the time to explain it, there is quite a lot to pick up as I am thinking how to use it on my layout as I read and follow traffic over your system, but it is very much appreciated.

[Shadow]

Hi Northolland,

 

Really like those trees you've made that are between Dearne Mill and Paramount Factory.

 

Did you make them you self?

 

How did you do them? What did you use?

 

Dave

[northolland]

Hi Dave,

 

I made the trees myself but from stuff I bought. The frames are the usual sea moss. The leaves are 'deciduous foliage' by the Selkirk Scenery Co. The shade is dark green. I picked it up in the US.

Edited July 14, 2013 by northolland

[d winpenny]

Keep the photos coming there brilliant, and I really like the card idea

Edited July 14, 2013 by d winpenny

[Derekl]

Lovely layout and very useful way of working freight. I tried devising something like this for my currently defunct 009 effort, but did not get that far.

 

Without wishing to be negative, BSC post-dates your layout by 4 years - it was formed in 1967.

[northolland]

The trip freight to Pennyfields is on its way.

 

After having pushed button 13, the train moves past Carr Head Junction signal box and onto the Pennyfields branch.

 

In the other direction, Fairburn 42073 coasts past on its way to Astley Park. It is scheduled to stop there at 11.58am, destined for Normanton.

 

Here it is again, waiting for the Down Starter to come off.

 

It is a short train consisting of two Gresley suburbans and a Gresley corridor brake.

 

The next arrival is a DMU. It will depart for Sheffield Midland at 12.17pm.

 

The job to do at Astley Down Sidings is to put the trip working for Thorncliffe together. There are three wagons in the yard that are destined there: SHOCVAN W139556 that came in on the train from Dunford Bridge loaded with tinplate, and steel open E282123 and LOWMAC B905021. The latter two run empty to Thorncliffe to be loaded up with machinery that is being made by Newton-Chambers, the only railway client at Thorncliffe. Brake van E178510 will be attached last to guard the rear of the train.

 

LOWMAC B905021 stands at the back of the No.5 line.

 

Open wagon E282123 is standing in the rake of fitted wagons on the No. 3 line, …..

 

…… as is SHOCVAN W139556.

 

Brake van E178510 is on the No.6 line.

 

To get at the LOWMAC, the pilot has to pull out all the wagons that are standing in front of it. These are the three empty grain wagons that have been collected from Tower Mills earlier today, the loaded mineral that came in with the mineral trip from Carlton, and an empty unfitted van that was already there.

 

The Thorncliffe trip will be put together on the No.2 line. The LOWMAC has just been propelled there and will be uncoupled next. In the background, Stanier 4MT 42616 has arrived with the 1.03pm departure for Sheffield Midland.

 

The Jinty has just coupled to the rake of fitted wagons to sort the SHOCVAN and the steel open out from the other ones.

 

After the steel open has been delivered on the No.2 line, the van and the two tank wagons will be put back on the No. 3, so that the SHOCVAN can be attached to the open on the No.2. This will take five moves. The van is actually the VANWIDE that was collected with the grain wagons from Tower Mills, loaded with bags of flour on pallets. The two tank wagons came off the train from Dunford Bridge.

 

The first move has been completed; the steel open is coupled to the LOWMAC on the No.2 line.

 

Two moves later and the van and two tank wagons are back on the No.3 line. The pilot will now back down into the shunting lead again with just the SHOCVAN.

 

The three wagons that are to remain are being uncoupled now.

 

Another two moves and all three wagons for Thorncliffe are now on the No.2 line. Only the brake van remains to be collected.

 

Here it is, being propelled towards the waiting wagons.

 

The Jinty now runs round to connect to the far side of the train. The trip working will be pushed towards Thorncliffe Siding as it is connected to the Down Slow by a trailing point.

 

But before it does, the crew first takes in water.

 

The engine has coupled up and the train is now ready to depart for Thorncliffe.

 

Pushing button 20 will make the train depart.

 

The Thorncliffe trip working has arrived at its destination. The signalman at Carr Head Junction has to pull the catch point in the Down Slow to prevent loose wagons to run back into the section. He also has to lock the Down Slow Starter. This will release the token for the Thorncliffe ground frame.

 

There are three wagons in the siding that need to be collected first.

 

Van E174905 is empty and will just be stored at Astley Down Sidings, waiting for its next job, ….

 

….. as is plate wagon E239598. Open wagon P252247 is loaded with a machine for export. It will be put on a ship for the Continent at Harwich Parkeston Quay.

 

The jinty is about to back into the siding to collect the wagons standing there.

 

The point has been set and 47629 can now back into the siding.

 

The engine has coupled to empty van E174905.

 

Having moved backwards a bit more, they are about to couple on to the two other wagons.

 

All three wagons have been pulled out on to the Down Slow. After the point has been set back, they will be pushed back to collect the wagons waiting on the mainline.

 

While all this is happening, a DMU comes past on the Down Fast, heading for Astley Park and Barnsley Exchange.

 

Steel open E282123 and LOWMAC B905021 will be put in the siding first because they need to be spotted at the very back, next to the large door that is situated there. The SHOCVAN stays behind for the moment.

 

The two wagons have been spotted in the right place.

 

Now it is the turn of SHOCVAN W139556. The brake van remains on the mainline, the brakes firmly pinned down.

 

The SHOCVAN has been spotted by one of the loading doors.

 

All wagons have been exchanged and Jinty 47629 is ready to depart for Astley Down Sidings.

 

The car cards are in the pocket.

 

A DMU rushes past on the Up Fast. It is a Barnsley Exchange – Sheffield Midland service, just having departed from Astey Park at 2.03pm, it will stop at Elsecar & Hoyland, Chapeltown West, Brightside, Attercliffe Road, and Sheffield Midland.

 

The trip working from Thorncliffe runs into the No.2 line at Astley Down Sidings.

 

The engine needs to be detached and the wagons sorted into the yard.

 

The train crew will take some water first.

 

BR standard 75071 thunders through platform 2 at speed …..

 

….. with a parcels train for Huddersfield, ……

 

…… blowing its whistle before it enters Astley Tunnel.

 

In the meantime, the brake van has been detached and is being propelled into the No.6 line.

 

Empty van E174905 and unfitted plate wagon E239598 and loaded open wagon P252247 have been put in their respective places ….

 

…. and the car cards are tucked in the right pocket in the car cardholder.

Edited July 15, 2013 by northolland

[john flann]

The wagon numbers are very small and not easy to read at the best of times and worse still in poor light  or if the wagon is weathered as many of yours are.

 

Nor if other wagons in a siding obscure those behind.

 

How do you manage that?

[northolland]

Just a post to catch up with a few questions and comments. First of all, thanks for all your reactions and favourable comments. I am still astonished by Flying Pig/Simon's and Draughtsman's posts. Simon for puzzling out the signal diagrams and fitting them together and Draughtsman for drawing a layout diagram. It inspires me to continue and get the whole operating session on here with pictures. I am also happy to explain about the car card system by which I operate the freight traffic on my layout. It will come in chunks and leaps as I have to find time to do this. I hope you can bear with me on that.

 

Draughtsman asked about how I use RR&Co. This software helps me to operate the layout in the way I want it and it automatically sends trains around the layout according to a timetable that I have programmed.  If you would like me to go into the detail of it, it would help me if you can tell me a bit more about what you would like to know.

 

Bescot Beast/Simon asked about how I work the cardholders. I hope post post 34 above has answered it. If not, please let me know.

 

Rivercider asked about how I generate traffic. I'll come to that when I explain traffic flows and how I run the layout with the car card system later. I did have a congestion problem once, with Pennyfields being overrun by vans.

 

I have answered Shadow/Dave earlier, explaning how I made the trees between Dearne Mill and Paramount. I am happy to answer other questions on how I modelled things.

 

Thanks Derek for pointing out the time anomaly with BSC. I did google when the British steel industry was nationalised. I found it was 1948 but it never occurred to me that BSC was incorporated much later. If I did not have to dismantle this layout, your remark would have made me redo all the car cards, signs and diagrams with BSC on it. One of the things with a car card system is that it urges you to find out things about the firms whose traffic flows you simulate. There is more to railway history than just railways.

 

Finally John Flann asked about the visibility of the wagon numbers. Most of them are indeed on the small side and when I wheather my wagons, I try to keep them relatively clean. In practice, I found that I did not have to look too much at the number on the wagon. There are so many different types and builds of wagons on the rails of Great Britain in 1963 (one of its attractions), even among prominent types like vans, opens, and minerals, that you can recognise the right wagon from the description at the top of the car card. Look for instance at the shunting that took place for the Thorncliffe job. Furthermore, because I put the car cards in the pockets in the order in which they stand on the track and because I put the stacks that make up a train also in the order of where the wagons appear in the train, I can match a car card with a wagon quite easily by counting through the stack. Also my baseboards are rather narrow and high up, so I am pretty close to the action if I need to check a number on a wagon. If my sight is obscured - for instance by the wall behind platform 2 in Astley Park - I pick a wagon up (I know - not prototypical, but it does not happen very often).

 

Did I leave anyone out? Finally, this blog also helps me to get to grips with my camera, the iPhoto program on my Macbook, and the suboptimal lighting conditions in my layout room, meaning that I think the quality of my pictures varies between posts. This has prompted me to exchange photos in earlier post for better ones. I hope you don't mind, as it involves a bit of cropping, retouching, and other manipulations that I can do with iPhoto. On occasion I have even retaken a picture.

Edited July 15, 2013 by northolland

[bescotbeast]

Northolland thanks for the post explaining in detail the card holders and your method of operation, I can now see what I need to do when my own layout is finished. Having watched your progression of pictures through this thread, I would say your layout and the way you operate it has to be the closest I've seen to how the real railway used to operate and has given me so many interesting ideas to explore.

                                           This thread and so many others on RMWeb are why i joined, i've learnt so many new things during the short period of time since i came across this website.

                                                                                Regards

                                                                                                          Simon

[silky_jack]

Hi There,

 

I have just joined RMWeb and so am picking my way through all the layouts I can and have just come across yours.  It's brilliant.  I love the way you are running it and the pics tell such a great story.  (I'm always a sucker for anything Steam related too)  I am now following this post with eagerness!

[Draughtsman]

For anyone looking for prototype information some books referring to the area have been mentioned in previous posts but an article that specifically covers the Chapeltown Branch and the Chapeltown Branch Extension Railway is in the magazine

 "RAILWAY ARCHIVE" issue No.4 the information takes up 41pages of 96 in this magazine and is titled

 "The Civil Engineering of the Chapeltown Branch” by Bob Essery.

It should be emphasised that this is a photographic collection showing the bridges (over 60 photos) on the route from Wincobank Junction to Barnsley during or shortly after construction.

Trains do not feature in these pictures.

 

The album from which the photos were copied is apparently inscribed with the owners name and the date 1898. As a consequence Monkspring Junction and the line to Cudworth do not exist as that section was not built until 1899.

 

In addition to the photographs there is a portion of the 1923 Ord.Sur. Map covering Wincobank Junction the start of the branch.

 

A double page spread from the “Midland Railway Distance Diagram”dated 1919 Rotherham District shows all the railways in the area from Cudworth in the North to Dore & Totley, and Killamarsh in the South. With a West to East spread from just short of Penistone to Mexborough.a double track route is shown as a single black line so there is no detail. Stations are shown as a black rectangle, Colliery branches are shown and towns are named and represented by an open+ to signify cross roads.

 

A further map extract from the OS 1905 series shows The Thorncliffe High Level Branch to the Newton Chambers Industrial Complex.

 

Another extract from the Midland Railway Distance Diagrams of 1916 covers the Barnsley, Cudworth, Wombwell area.

 

This publication has I believe been out of print for some time. An internet search will bring up the publishers page were a photo of the cover can be seen. Although this is of an engine in a different article it will help to identify the magazine.  The original published price was £7.50

[Draughtsman]

@northolland

I note you are going to prepare answers to questions about RR&co.

When In Post29 I asked for a description of how you use RR&Co. I didn’t appreciate how complex the reply might be. All I know about RR&Co. is that it is a computer program to control a model railway layout.

Questions I have concern the arrival of a mineral train from Monkspring into the up slow where it is then reversed into Astley Down Sidings Arrival 1.

Are all these movements under computer control?

Does RR&Co. control the movements of the engine to the turntable?

Having arrived in No.1. Does the computer transfer control for the layout operator to carry out shunting moves or does the operator have to intervene by throwing or pressing a switch?

Shunting completed and train ready to depart Post 10 says push button 19 will make train depart.

I assume this departure depends on shunting being finished in time to use a pre-programmed slot in the programme. If that is the case what happens if shunting moves take too long and the train is not ready.

Sorry if these questions interrupt your postings. If it will make more sense to answer later please do so I will be following all your posts with interest.

[Draughtsman]

I have edited my plan in post 29 with information supplied by northolland in post 30

[westerner]

Thank westerner. You probably have seen every building on the layout somewhere else.

 

I think a slight misunderstanding. I said I'd seen the mill before as it was the one I chopped in half to make the dairy on Wencombe.

[northolland]

@Draughtsman

RR&Co has a facility called the ‘dispatcher’, which allows you to put in a timetable to run trains automatically around the layout. For instance, when the DMU is doing its bit as the Sheffield – Barnsley v.v. service, all points and signals are set, it decelerates into the platform, stops with a bit of brake squeal (it is equipped with a sound decoder), the guard's whistle sounds, doors are slammed shut, the rrrr-rrrr between guard and driver can be heard, and the DMU accelerates away again while changing gears. RR&Co also saves trains from running into each other. But it all needs to be programmed in.

 

The goods trains for Astley Down Sidings are also send/dispatched from the staging yard automatically according to the timetable I have programmed in. For instance the mineral working starts automatically but stops in front of the Carr Head Up Slow signal on the Up Slow.

 

Both Carr Head Junction and Astley South Junction have a plastic box with push buttons. This is the Astley South Junction button box. Button No. 13 simulates lever 13, which pulls off Shunting Disc 13 (see signal box diagram), but it also sets Disc 14 and points 17, and starts the train, which will then back across the mainline until it has arrived on the No.1 arrival/departure line, where it will be made to stop (The Shunting Discs are imaginary because I have not made them yet, but they are/were planned to be added later – actually there is only one signal on the layout, which moves and that is Signal 3: the Astley Down Starter). All other ones still had to be made or connected.

 

After having arrived, I uncouple the engine (big hand from the sky with little yellow Kadee uncoupling stick). I then push button 19, which simulates Shunting Disc 19 but also sets the points etc., and starts the engine which then moves back to the Up Slow; where it stops, points/signals are set back, the engine reverses and moves into the engine facility spur, stops again, point 21 is set, engine moves into engine facility, stops at water column, waits, moves on to the turntable, turntable turns the engine, engine moves off and stops again, ready for its next duty. This is all programmed into RR&Co and executed automatically.

 

In the meantime, I shunt about with the Jinty. The Astley Down Sidings plastic box has on/off switches that operate the points in the sidings. All points that are hand thrown by train staff are actually operated by these switches. All points that are under control of a signal box are thrown by RR&Co in the course of running trains automatically. My shunting will result in putting the mineral trip for Pennyfields together on the No.1line.

 

The little Dapol chap that you can see across the buffers indicates where I have to leave the wagons. Because when I push button 22, the train engine will automatically move back from the engine facility, cross the mainline and stop exactly at that spot and couple up.  Pushing button 19 again makes the train leave for Pennyfields – well actually Carr Head Junction, where another button needs to be pushed to make it enter the Pennyfields branch, where I can take over manually and start shunting again.

 

Every time when a train or engine has finished with its automatic movements, it sounds its whistle (all engine used for these services have been sound decoder equipped). If I want to, I can then dial the loco number on one of the Digitrax throttles and run the engine manually, i.e. shunt with it. I do not have to wait for timeslots. Pushing a button starts an automatic sequence and eventually will send a train back into the staging yard. As RR&Co also is programmed to save trains from running into each other, after a button is pushed a train will wait with moving off until the line ahead is clear.

 

All the automatic movements have been programmed into RR&Co. It is also required that the layout is equipped with occupancy detectors so that RR&Co knows where trains are. All points and signals etc. have to be linked to the DCC system as well. Finally, two disclaimers: just to make it clear, this level of automation is not a necessity to run a model railway with a car card system. Also, I use version 4 of RR&co, which is now ancient as they are up to version 8 now.

 

@westener

Don’t worry. I did get that you were just referring to the flour mill. I wanted to make a kind of more general apology for filling the layout with so many unimaginative buildings.

Edited July 18, 2013 by northolland