Northroader

“first, there’s the natural way” voice at back of room “171!!”….

Thanks, Andy, looks like I have a few wagons to repaint! Very covetous of your new book.

With these two points, Don, there had to be a curve at the point blade end. The rest of the curve beyond the crossing I straightened out, so they could give a crossover. Really it should work better if the straight run was longer. “S” curves will always be a problem, “reverse” curves with a straight bit in the middle should be better, “Seasoned 0 scalers”,… and me, too, Jordan. Looking back over this thread, no layout ever gets finished, and working, Something always happens, and it looks like it’s happened again. What do I do with two tight curve points? Mmmm….

Thanks for the interest and helpful replies, I thought I’d post a picture to show what’s happening: Sorry it’s a bit dark, but you’ll see at the middle of the crossover the buffer heads don’t overlap at all. Plus the coupler hooks are way out of line. Andy’s idea of a wire across the buffers of the loco should work to cure this. The good news is the Dapol Terrier will pass through the curves, but the bad news is other six coupled locos with longer wheelbase won’t. I’ve been trying out single long link couplers to keep the buffers apart, it’s getting them to swing freely and not override or knuckle. One coupler type being used successfully on another layout (but without the curves) which should function here is a magnetic job: https://www.chris-draw.com/couplings-magnetic.html Annie’s suggestion of the LMC type coupler would work, but they’re a bit too much overscale. Either way if I splash out on couplers it doesn’t solve the sixcoupled sideplay need. Dons link into Jim Reads “Muckton” blog is good, I was aware of Jim, but hadn’t seen this particular blog. I really admire what he does, and how he can produce a good working layout from minimal expense. You’ll see that his locos are short 0-4-0s, and the rolling stock shortbody four wheelers, light railway makeup. I’m trying to do a layout in similar space, but with some bigger locos and stock. So, the conclusion to me is ditch the points, and make the curves easier. Gary, @Matloughe I think you should succeed with what you’re doing at Ifield Green, you’ve got far more length to the area, and a better space between the two points. I’m just a bit too preoccupied with making the layout ridiculously cramped, I fear.

Thanks, Andy, it’s a good suggestion, but I will still have the problem of insufficient side play on a six coupled chassis.

The last few days have seen me trying out running on the line. The big problem that’s emerged is propelling wagons through the crossover. Trains that are being pulled are alright, trains that are being pushed just derail. The line is a 7mm layout in a 4mm space, and squeezing the crossover in is turning out to be too tight. If it was just being used for runaround purposes I might have got away with it, although I’m finding some of the sixcoupled locos need more sideplay, but I also planned to use it to shunt wagons. The angle of divergence on the setrak is just too much to avoid buffer locking, and I’ve been doing several experimental coupling setups to try and avoid this, some of them being very Heath Robinson jobs. The conclusion is that I need to ditch the crossover, and revert to a layout without points when I’m modelling 7mm in such a short space, so back to a running line and a siding, with gentle curvature, out of a fiddle yard. On we go….

Sorry to hear about you house, things have gone very quiet with us the last three weeks, not a single viewer.

I think it’s just that the boiler is a very small diameter, Eric. The pictures inside the cab show how low the top of the boiler is, and it would help keeping the weight down. It certainly produced enough steam to keep the coach set rolling along. I fancy doing it in any scale and you’d struggle to fit a motor in, but still worth a try. The brakes look interesting, a two pipe vacuum system. Watching the train going along there’s a continuous banner of steam from the pipe running up the side of the chimney, which presumably is from a small vacuum ejector.

NORWEGIAN PRESERVED TRAIN VIDEO. There’s a very good video doing the rounds on RMweb, posted by both James, @Edwardian, and Fred, @sncf231e, (thank you, gentlemen) and it’s really ought to go here as well, a very well made film of a vintage train outing with a preserved loco from the Norwegian State Railway Museum. The first line in Norway was built with Robert Stephenson as engineer, and using locos built by his firm, and one of these has survived. It does look quite small, and I was trying to compare the loco weight with a LSWR Beattie 2-4-0 for goods, which it does resemble. Probably mixing metric with imperial, working order with empty, but I got the idea it’s roughly 2/3rds as big. As with Sweden, the early railways needed to be built with light section rails to keep the construction costs down. To a modeller like me the appearance of the trains back then is very attractive as a result. It’s a jaunt with early coaching stock, through larch, birch and pine woodlands on single line, and snowy ground. The padded clothing the train crew have hints at much colder operation than we’re used to. All very fascinating… The Norwegian lines were subsequently engineered by Carl Pihl, who introduced 3’6” gauge lines, and Beyer Peacock motive power. Over time the inconvenience of break of gauge led to their being upgraded to standard gauge, but it does look like a fruitful topic for research, with an eye to a model. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Abraham_Pihl

That’s really fantastic. I still remain a big fan of Enderlin, however.

And if you fancy some LBSC…. https://railsofsheffield.com/products/set-of-3-stroudley-4-wheel-suburban-oil-lit-mahogany-passenger-coaches-light-bars-fitted

Well, if you had the eastern end disappearing under an over bridge before the end of the loop, you'd be coming close to Washbourne as is. Better luck with the tracklaying, though, gauge everything as soon as it’s unpacked.

And you turn to the LHS end, and what looks like a standard gauge P.O. wagon being very friendly with a broad gauge open?

Last time I went there, a long time back, I’m afraid, I had a ride on their vintage set, and was getting out at each stop to try out a different carriage. They have some excellent craftsmen doing the restoration, and going round the Island, there’s some marvellous ancient coach bodies just rotting away in fields, given away in the 1920s for cottages and sheds. The new Wootton Station, lovely situation, all you really need for a layout, plus a short siding tacked on for some wagonry, and a nice setting for a tree background? https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=406730577546921

I suppose they wanted to get two round trips out of them, Don. I do have faint leanings towards the I.o.W., but it’s most likely it will be got at for something else. When I bought it I was looking at the price rather than the paint scheme. It must be nice having Haven Street handy.