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That’s really interesting Tim. I remember reading somewhere that the ends of the UJ should be at 90 degrees but never really knew why - I now know they shouldn’t be! I’ve tended to be a bit random with mine but will now go over my locos and make sure they are in line/ parallel - particularly on locos that are a little noisy. Jerry

Alan Smith has been in touch to let me know that the 4F being used on ECJ was indeed a converted Farish one and it managed eight plastic coaches on the bank which even he was surprised at. I weighed some of my coaches to see what the difference was. Brass etched coaches averaged out at around the 37g mark whereas Farish Mk1s were around 24g. A rough calculation suggested that six brass coaches equates to nine plastic RTR. When I get a chance I will try my 4F on eight RTR coaches but I’d be surprised if it manages them up the bank. We will see. Jerry

After discussions over on my Bath thread I weighed some of my coaches. As Nigel found , etched coaches averaged out at around the 37g mark whereas Farish Mk1s were around 24g. A rough calculation suggested that six brass coaches equates to nine plastic RTR. Jerry

Hi Nick, you’re right, Evercreech is faced with similar problems, albeit the other side of the Mendips. There are, however , a couple of key differences, the main one being that the rakes of coaches being used were plastic, converted RTR which are a fraction of the weight of brass ones - oh for those Farish clerestories!😊 Pulling plastic coaches up an incline with eight and ten coupled locos is a different ball game to doing it with brass coaches and a 4-4-0! Their 7Fs use Alan’s machined solid boiler which is very heavy and results in really impressive haulage. I have all the bits to build another pair although hauling a long rake of mainly plastic wagons up the bank hasn’t proved to be a problem. The 4F they were using was a Raithby one which Alan built years ago for Midsomer Norton, he has had the same issues as me with the Farish ones - very sweet runners with adequate haulage on the level. Jerry

I think the grossly overscale cast metal body is the main factor John! 😊 Jerry

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Hi John, its interesting what you say about the Jinty. It has, essentially, the same chassis as the 4F but thanks to the weight in the side tanks making it about 50% heavier than the 4F, and the lack of drag from a tender has considerably greater traction. Rather irritatingly, the best hauler up Bath bank (not including diesels) is not one of my big eight coupled freight locos but an old Farish Holden tank with a very basic chassis which was knocking around here for a while. John Greenwood has built one of the Great Western eight coupled tanks, I must kidnap it somewhen and see how that performs. Jerry

Thomas was around but Toby is currently on his way from Aus in shiny flat pack form! As usual I was too busy gassing to take pictures but one visitor I particularly liked was this Jubilee from Simon Grand which, once a loose wire was sorted, ran very nicely down to the Junction and back. Jubs were common at Bath in the late 50s and early 60s off the Midland but never, as far as I’m aware, over the S&D. I don’t know which one it’s destined to be but I rather like them with the Fowler tender. Jerry

Had my crack team on the case this morning putting a few locos through their paces before some 2mm friends came round. Cracking day. Jerry

Hi John, the Farish 4F I tried up the bank with the Diner has got a replacement tender chassis, new drawbar and tender weight bearing on the rear of the loco. It has made a significant difference on the level but still not enough for it to take the Diner up Bath bank. Like the real S&D, the inclines don’t take prisoners! As you rightly say, haulage can be improved but at the end of the day a body full of motor is always going to be lighter than one full of lead so the Raithby kit build with the motor in the tender is always going to win. To be fair to the Farish 4F it’s a lovely model and a very sweet runner and it’s haulage is adequate on the level. I’ve converted three. One has a modified Farish tender (the one I tested), one is going to get a Nigel Hunt 3500 Johnson style tender and the third has turned down tender wheels in the Farish pinpoint pickups and is heading to Australia! Jerry

Now the problem with getting more track down is that it just encourages me to want to play! Thankfully, when I popped down the workshop yesterday evening (not returning until early hours this morning) I fully resisted the temptation to just play but did carry out some useful research! 😊 With the track now reaching out to Bath Junction it was possible to assemble complete trains on the bank and see how my locos coped with the gradient bearing in mind that this was a stiff test as they would need to lift the train from a standing start, when the layout is finished they will at least have a run at it. First up was the local rakes with 54, a Johnson 0-4-4T. Happily she walked away with ease. Next came the Diner. These are brass and fairly heavy, despite having plasticard interiors, but are very free running thanks to the Association bogies. I’m still waiting for Farish to launch a comprehensive range of MR clerestories in plastic! Raithby 4F, 3863, with its heavy body and weighted tender had no problems. The Farish 4Fs whilst happy on the level simply polished the rails on the 1:70! My pair of 2P/483s just about managed albeit with a fair bit of slipping though there is room to tweak these a little to improve things. The Nigel Hunt kits that are slowly inching forward will be maximised for haulage from the off and I’m confident they will be fine. Finaly, 7F 81 was given a couple of wagons over full load unassisted which she did with ease. All in all, very pleasing Jerry

it’s a fair cop! 😊 Jerry

Track is now fixed all the way down to Bath Junction, including a degree of superelevation inspired by Laurie Adams Yeovil Town. I followed Laurie’s advice and used thin strips of paper under the outside edge of the sleepers, building up to a maximum of four layers giving about .4mm - not very much but visually very effective when I rolled a coach round. The Mk4 in the background is from my HST set and, being the longest vehicle I have was used to check clearances at the end of the bridge. Next up is the bridge over the GWR mainline. I will lay some proper track but the bridge will be a simple card affair. In fact not a lot of it will be visible as the Bellots road bridge, a very attractive Brunel stone structure, is immediately in front of it. The track will end in a mirror. Finally, the view up Bath bank. What should be about a mile is compressed into around five feet so other than the co-op siding and the entrance to Devonshire tunnel, it’s little more than an impression - well at the moment it’s little more than bare ply but I’m excited by it!! The Midland will run out of sight on the lower level on the right before diving under the S&D to some storage sidings. Jerry

An evening off from cardboard bashing to spend a few hours on the layout. With bridge number 1installed I made the last few tweaks to the track bed of Bath bank which, like the prototype, starts climbing immediately after the junction, albeit at 1:70 rather than the 1:50 it should be! I made up the required Easitrac panels and couldn’t resist laying them in place. I made the decision when I lifted the track to sort out the hump, that I wouldn’t be putting Mays siding to the brickworks back in when I relaid it. My Bath bank is severely compressed and it was all just too busy, particularly with the point having to come off in the middle of the bridge over the GWR. It’s a shame but I think it will look a lot better for it. Hoping to get the track glued down and wired by the weekend. Jerry

Hi Stephen, yes, having to push wagons across the turntable probably wasn’t unique but certainly wasn’t common and is the reason I had to ensure that both ends of my turntable lined up, both ways - they do, but it took a lot of fiddling! Jerry

Thanks for the link Steve, I'd not twigged the significance of the colour difference before either. Interesting to note that the turntable appears to have two additional radial stabling roads jerry.

I'm not 100% certain but I believe that north east section of the shed was the original. The workshop which forms the third apex at the front of the north shed was the original coal stage. Jerry

Photos, few as they are, show it to be stone. Jerry

For all his genius he was sadly no business man, at one point ending up in debtors prison. As Chris said, Simon Winchester’s biography is a cracking read. Jerry

As Steve rightly said, it’s the roof in our models that is most visible so I have started giving that some thought. In my 1920s period things were a lot tidier than in the 1960s but still far from straightforward. Much of this stems from the fact that the shed was altered and extended so much in its early years, starting as a much shorter two road shed, subsequently lengthened, a new shorter shed erected alongside making it an unequal four road shed which was then lengthened to arrive at the great barn of a building we are familiar with. Upper picture is 1947, note all the white paint to aid movement during the blackout. Lower picture, 1920, pretty much how I want to model the shed scene. I’d love some more info on the transshipment shed on the far right - I just about have room for it! The clerestory on the south building looks to be uniform all the way along and fairly narrow fitting comfortably within the chimney vents. That on the north is in two distinct halves; the front being similar to the south building, the rear being much wider and wrapping around the chimney vents. The ends of the clerestorys look to have been hipped although they were altered/rebuilt over time. By the 60s pretty much all the wooden chimney vents had gone being replaced by a selection of hatches. early 1920s, hipped end immediately post war, squared end The south roof was slate with no skylights, the north had full length skylights. 1935, testing the new turntable. As well as being a good view of the roof/vents, this also clearly shows the two tone paint scheme of the shed. I’m still debating whether I replicate this in a very grubby, faded form or go with the grey/brown/sooty colour it was in later years. It’s another case of what is right doesn’t necessarily look right. Apologies for this wordy post but it’s as much for my own benefit to gather my thoughts, having spent hours staring at old photos, as it is for anyone interested in my progress. I’m now pretty clear on what I want to include on the roof, just need to work out how! Jerry

Made a start on what Steve called the ‘interesting stone bits at the end’ this evening - more guesstimating as I have very little to go on. Jerry

I will indeed be demoing alongside the Wharf and will have the Colonels latest acquisition for the NSLR, Nancy, an ex SECR 0 class. Jerry

Theres always somebody Dave! Thats not the two words I was thinking of Jim 🤨 Its a relative thing Stephen! Those who lived up the hill a bit from Green Park, in Queen Square for example probably saw addresses by the river as tenements - almost certainly why the Midland and LMS wanted to be more associated with the latter address when they arrived in Bath in the late 1860s. Some would say thats Bath all over John! Jerry

I put the interior framing in this evening, well as much as I’m going to anyway. The shed is at the back of the layout, at a slightly lower level with the previously described coal stage and sand furnace acting as effective view blockers so very little of this is likely to be visible under normal circumstances though being able to catch a glimpse of that forest of timbers inside the entrance on the odd occasion I poke a phone camera in there to take a snap will be satisfying. The cardboard troughs to the right of the shed are the inspection pits - crude but effective. I’ve only added steps at the door end, the rest will be lost in the gloom. Jerry