The Great Bear

Given the frustrations mentioned above I am going to explore doing the locking above by computer, with a lot simpler wiring. OK so maybe this means I am bit soft and not a "real" modeller, but lounging on the sofa with the laptop and a beer/wine to hand doing this seems much more convivial than on my feet in the shed, trying to work my way through the tangle of wires, soldering iron in hand, sweat dripping from my furrowed brow.

Well I'm just over half way through this at lever 25, but progress is slowing to a crawl. Levers 25, 26, 27 which control the double slip have a lot of other levers (up to 10!) that need to be at normal before they can be released. Of course it doesn't work first time and i have to go through desoldering then remaking and double checking each connection etc. Getting through the wiring spaghetti can only be done in short chunks without getting indigestion!

Talking of stacking photos, on my phone, a Windows phone (Nokia Lumina 925) one can get an app, Lumina Refocus which does some kind of image stacking thing in one go. The results aren't too bad, considering the ease of doing it, up to the size shown below, anyway. Photo focused on close point: All in focus: Photo focused on close point: All in focus: OK, so I am the only person I know with a Windows phone, but I'd imagine there's something similar for one of those iThingys...? Jon

I've been working on the lever frame for Begbrooke. DCC Concepts Cobalt-S levers as used before. Wiring up 46 levers and trying to interlock them is proving slow progress. The interlocking is done by looping wires through the contacts on the pcbs of the relevant other levers. Hence the the long wires on top of all the others. I've managed about a quarter so far, trying to wire things up as fully as I can, doing as much locking as I can - the plan attached. (I don't profess it to be complete or accurate, just as much as I could get my head around even with a lot of help a while back from the Stationmaster.) I may skimp on some of the steps, lock signals to the appropriate route etc and the FPLs and maybe skimp on the ground discs to simplify the rest of it. Locking table v6.2.xlsx

In case you didn't realise - it's a bit more tricky than that: if you did this, you'd have to change the lining on the cabside to go around the windows on the GWR version. Unless you covered it in grime. Also the smokebox number would need to be carefully removed and replaced with number on bufferbeam. An alternative would be to buy a BR black one remove all the lining and smokebox number add GWR to tender (noting this might be slightly different letterring) and say it was in wartime black livery. Depending on when, one could remove the nameplate too - don't know if when locos were given names this coincided with them be repainted to post war lined green. That way you get the Collett tender which I think was attached to the early modified halls from new(?)

Is the s-bend at the far end in the last photo prototypical or practical? (I guess the latter) I hope you don't mind me saying but in that photo to my eyes it jars a bit with the smooth flow of track through the station. Presumably it would impinge too much into room if the curve through the station continued or reversed much less then tightened. Or will it be hidden by scenic break? If I've orientated myself correctly at the south end there was bridge you can use, but the north end nothing so ready? Given the standard of your modelling of Hemyock, I really do look forward to seeing this develop, Jim. All the best Jon

I wonder, seeing as the model was released a couple of years ago then recalled, did anyone, public or magazine, spot the error under the smokebox and raise it with Bachmann?

After several years being mothballed under assorted pieces of carboard, wire, track and the like, traffic has finally returned to Marlingford. (The original intention of keeping it open to "play" with succombed to it being a convenient big area in middle of the room to dump stuff.) The first test train actually ran a couple of days ago, but no photographer was present, so here's today's test train. The PW needs some attention in areas, running is not smooth. The autotrailer is in a bit of a state, 3 years I made a start on the Dart Castings upgrade kit, then decided to build Begbrooke. Whether I still have the parts and the instructions I'm not sure (especially the latter). The loco isn't my work, by the way, found on Ebay - labelled as a 14xx. As the last 517 in service, 1159, worked the Woodstock branch, this was a lucky find. Not sure how accurate it is, but to my untutored eye, it looks near enough. With a TCS decoder and keep alive it runs over the setrack without stalling, albeit at times with a wobble. Nice to have the branch back in action, like finding an old friend. Nonetheless, there's still work to do on the mainline station. Not the finishing straight, but the bell's just rung. Thanks for the interest shown Jon

Great photos, Shaun. Like the unusual and ground level views; the one looking across the tracks to the platform being my favourite. Will watch out for more Jon

Can't remember where, but did read reference to B17s? Well, as that's another fine model (albeit the wrong tender for non GE ones) that's what I've assumed...

Here's something new and a bit different. One of the attractions of the line I'm basing my model on was the inter-company workings, so here's one: The train in question is the night mail from York to Swindon. Except that it isn't night. Replicating that properly may come. Probably post war it should be a B1 at the head (or the C1 be in plain black) but heck it's such a fine loco and a great model, who cares?! Model now safely back in box for safe keeping! Thanks for looking, Jon

Ah - thanks. How about the release lever in the main frame (the one I have as brown and blue)? I'm guessing the GF is locked when that lever is normal, then.

Ages ago now, when I wired the frame (as photo above) for the branch line terminus up I got the operation of the FPL levers wrong, which I've just fixed - so that the lever would normally stand reversed to lock the points. I'm wondering, does the same apply to ground frame release lever or is that released by reversing the lever? Thanks Jon

In the process of trying to complete wiring up of all the points and servos for the signals, not being the brightest bear in the box, I've managed to get confused because my layout being viewed from the inside is the opposite to the real signal box and diagram. So I'm risking further confusion by re-drawing my signalling diagram: and a list of the levers below - the list simply reversed, assuming there was some rationale in real life for how it was arranged, due to rodding or something. (I'm not at all too sure about my terminology, whether correct, but makes sense to me) Hopefully this will make operation easier in due course!

Or, I have read, completely unofficially of course, if they had to often shunt without the autocoach due to clearances in the yard or whatever, they didn't connect the gear and the fireman controlled the regulator leaving the driver controlling the brake and the gong.

I think I might have used the word "sublime" before in this thread, but I'll say it again - the bridge and road are that. The moss on the side wall is a nice touch.

Thanks, Mike. I was a bit constrained on how far I could move no.39, with it being on the lifting flap as you can see here

After a year I've managed to finish building all the signals (well there is one left, but I have run out of parts) and got them placed on the layout, following a discussion with the Stationmaster in my layout signalling topic on their placement. The one on the left was built a long time ago, before I got the confidence/skill(?!) to try putting several balance arms on one side The signals just fit with the lifting flap raised! The next job is to fit the servos and wire these up and others I missed before, then back to the scenic stuff.

A popular place, that, as I'd drilled the hole for 39 to go there, as the photos show it a fair distance away from the platform end. But no reason why I can't move that a bit closer to the platform. I can't recall seeing two signals back to back in opposite directions in any photos - maybe you have, Mike? Thanks Jon

Thanks, Mike. Given that the longest train I can run/fit in the longest staging yard road as below extends right to the limit of the scenic section when stopped at 3, then it'll have to just go where I fancy it and argue it's providing protection to the crossover by signal 3, I recall something from earlier in this thread along the lines that on western ideally you had two signals protecting them. Also, the footbridge getting in the way of the view of 3 is another good reason. If I ever do try to interlock the signals, it'll make that more interesting too

I'm building and placing the last signals on the layout - at last, only a year in the making! Is there any particular distance 2 should be away from 3 & 9 - I don't have enough distance I think to get it far enough back to protect the longest train standing at 3, if that were a criteria. Thanks Jon

I've made a start on the goods yard. The goods yard at Kidlington had an unusual layout with a loop around the goods shed, to gain access to the siding beyond the shed. Later on, in the 1920s, a bacon factory was built to the south of the station and another siding added. All the sidings run across the approach to the main station building. All in all pretty silly, but part of the appeal of the location. First, the goods shed has been built, save the roof and some details. When I built the baseboards I was intending to stop at the goods yard and leave out the bacon factory siding, as the bacon factory would be in the middle of the lifting section and at the time that seemed too difficult. I'm now had a play to see if I can get this in, and avoid the goods yard being atop a cliff on two sides. The bacon factory will add some operational interest, of course. (Not that I really know much about that traffic, mind you.) My lightweight addition to the existing lifting baseboard section, not pretty but works so far The excess of insulation board for the shed floor has finally come in handy, rather than getting in the way The bacon factory I only have a couple of photos of, one in the distance and one of it being demolished so it will be a lot of supposition, this is a very rough first stab and showed I needed to narrow it a bit to get it to fit. I will make the mainline cutting shallower so the factory looks plausible next to it, but that's not an issue, my glueshell method of construction comes apart pretty easily and quite a bit hopefully can be re-used, the skin and the grass, based on experience of previous abortive work. And some more photos showing the overall station area...and the overall mess, bits piled up on the other sections... Yes the loop around the shed did run perilously close to it, that's what the photos show. Next will be fixing the track in the yard and doing the surface for that, I'm intending to put a skim of DAS over the foam.

Gilbert, what I like is that it's somethign different from a lot of the ground level photos; it's from an unusual angle, the kind of view that you'd get if you were at the station, whether as a passenger waiting or a worker perhaps in this case I guess; sure the trains are in view and make it more interesting, but the picture isn't a portrait of a loco, it's an everyday scene. And I like that you can clearly see the chaired track, the gap under the rail, the more mundane loco and CCT in foreground.

Great pictures, as usual. I really like the different point of view in the third one, the clutter on the platform helps make a scene. Jon

I've made some progress with Stationmaster's house, now located nearer its real location but in low relief, following suggestions made elsewhere. With enough bushes and trees (the green paper towels for now!) the bodge of the low relief house is reasonably concealed, especially from my favorite low level views. I've also cracked on with adding the earthworks beyond the station, on the lifting flap section. Having done that and cleared the mess, time for a train: Thanks for looking Jon