MPR

7820 Dinmore Manor being loaded at Toddington for comparison.

The intended colour of the shorts was dark grey - it hasn't carried over well in the photos. Sock colour in old group photos was light grey - by my time (1979-86) it was all long trousers, dark socks (and no cap!) Thanks for the info on the "British Railways" sign - that will be useful in terms of preparing a suitable solution.

A short update - I have been away from the layout for a while. The first posters have been added to the boards - I will need decals for “British Railways” at some point. The lorry guard rail has been trial fitted in place - this was soldered up from code 70 bullhead rail. It is a little heavy in section, but doesn’t look too bad.

Lots of useful information can be found here: http://www.finney7.co.uk/gwr-rover.html

Take a piece of 40 thou styrene sheet, drill a pair of 2mm holes set at the desired spacing, then cut the sheet down the middle through hole centres? Each half can then sit on the axles, located by the semicircular cutouts.

I took advantage of a dry spell over the weekend to prime some of the next round of detailing parts, mostly grey for the poster boards, white for the signal box windows and signage. These were painted with rattle cans and allowed to dry thoroughly. Next, I made up a mixture of Humbrol enamel Matt black, lightened with a drop or two of brown 173 and a little mid grey. This was diluted slightly with enamel thinners, then carefully fed in with a fine brush, letting surface tension do most of the work to pull paint into the corners - a little overlap doesn’t matter at this stage. The parts were left for 90 minutes or so, until touch dry. I then took a couple of drops of thinner with a pipette and wetted a sheet of printer paper, moving excess thinners around until there were no glossy puddles left. Each etched part was then rubbed gently to remove the black from raised areas, stopping and checking progress every few strokes. At the end, a dry area of paper was used to finish off. Removed paint Signs after one coat of black - I will probably repeat this once more, before varnishing with Army Painter Matt varnish. Another coat of paint would help, I think, before I move on.

I have been preparing some of the etched detail components for painting - first up was this sign, which needed posts attaching. I have used 1mm x 1mm “L” angle for this. A couple of fine brass pins were soldered into the angle to give positive location into the baseboard. …and tried roughly in place.

The phosphor bronze strip was 3mm x 0.3mm and has worked very well. I cut slightly longer pieces for each contact than previously, at 20mm, then bent up the last 5mm at 30 degrees. The other end was tinned both top and bottom and then soldered into place on the sleeper strip. Tinning the top surface speeded up heat transfer and helped obtain a reasonable solder fillet all round. The cassette end sleeper was chamfered so the that the contact can ride up over the top. The whole contact was the bent down slightly to provide a little spring force. When the cassette is fully pushed in, the contact sits flat on the end sleeper. There is enough downwards pressure to hold the cassette in place. I may rework some of the rather messy solder joints later! Lastly, the rail end alignments were tweaked to ensure that stock rolled across nicely - the rails had been left slightly over length, so they were nipped with the Xuron cutters and the ends dressed with a needle file.

Seen them, bought them! (the Peter W Gray images) - the Herald Express ones have surfaced occasionally in articles over the years. I regularly search for all the likely combinations of Torre, Torquay, train, railway and station - there are surprisingly few photos of the station around! That said, I’m finding a few new ones each year. I’m always looking for more though! Regards Martin

Torre had its first exhibition attendance since Rail Wells 2013 at the Scalefour Society AGM last Saturday in Bristol. It was all a bit of a panic in the end, but I just about managed to fit everything in the car and set out first thing. Even with a relatively early arrival and with lots of help unloading from the Bristol Group, it still took me a couple of hours to get everything set up. Almost all the details on the layout are removed for transport, not just the buildings, and it really does extend the time to put the layout up - it will definitely need to be slicker in future. Torre setup on the trestles - these take up as much space in the car as the rest of the layout combined. I brought the drapes for the front, but ran out of time to fit them - a few people asked about the trestles and wiring, so perhaps their absence was not a bad thing. The lighting in the hall was pretty good, so the lack of layout lights did not hurt too much - in fact it was good to see it in daylight! The small size of the fiddle yards is apparent in this image. The Control panel sits on the removable shelf, the transformers are out of sight on the floor. Fortunately, the layout itself worked ok, although there was, as expected, much more talk than operation! The cassettes, however, were something of a disappointment - the hall temperature was much higher than at home, with some buckling of the rail on the 30 inch cassettes (I had cheated and soldered the rail down at both ends to save time - not a great idea!) The shorty cassettes were ok though. Also, I found that the springy copper shim electrical connectors were not stiff enough to secure the cassettes in place every time - I was able to buy some thicker phosphor bronze strip at the show and I will substitute this for the existing contacts soon. I will also need to pay much more attention to transverse and vertical rail alignment. Lastly, I will be making short extension pieces / vertical stops for the fiddle yards, it is far too unnerving to operate without them, particular as I am unsighted into the up fiddle yard now the backscene sides are in place. I had a great day at the AGM - thanks to the Bristol Group for inviting and making me feel so welcome!

The cassettes are pretty simple, really - they are based around the top surface material of the fiddle yards, in my case this is 9mm ply. The board was assembled with a double layer of ply on the layout side - the top surface was aligned with the main board. The cassette sides were from beading from The Range. The cross-section view above shows the dimensions. This example is 375mm (15 inches) long - just enough for a 14xx and trailer, I have also made 30 inch and 40 inch versions. The ply was accurately cut to width on a table saw by my local hardware shop. It was then marked in pencil on the centreline and offsets of 17mm either side (for 8’6” P4 sleepers) The ply had distorted somewhat, so I clamped two pieces together, bulge to bulge, slightly offset, in order to straighten them out for this example. The beading was tacked in place with panel pins and PVA - I pre-drilled the locations 1mm to reduce the chances of the beading splitting. The track was now laid in across the cassette and cut to just over the final length The last sleeper at each end was replaced with copper clad sleeper material, epoxied in place. The precise height and transverse position are to be set by soldering a rail joiner in place at either end of each rail. This will be done with the cassette in position in the dock. This alignment will be done with scrap rail in place - the final track can be slid into place after everything has been cleaned up. A rubbing contact provides electrical connection. When all is complete, the rails will be cut to final length and dressed with a needle file.

HMS Severn off Brixham

The usual source https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/side-by-side/#zoom=17.36112705570293&lat=50.34054&lon=-4.63735&layers=168&right=BingHyb isn’t very helpful - neither of the 25 inch maps show the goods yard. I located a few more images that might help, though. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/252004522731https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fowey_station.jpg https://thetransportlibrary.co.uk/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=160958

It’s now just over a week until the Scalefour AGM, so I took the opportunity presented by a day’s holiday to fully set Torre up from end to end for the first time in a couple of years. Support is provided by three Drapers trestles, bulky, but very sturdy. Plywood bearers are screwed to the top tubes to positively locate the main boards - the fiddle yards have much lighter timber legs. The down end is now fully wired and was tested with a couple of cassettes - the wipers need further adjustment. I ran out of time to replace all the buildings, but was able to test all the points and switches. The up end side panel of the back scene was cut to size and installed. New alignment bolts were fitted to more positively align the up fiddle yard - I will wire this to match the down side over the next couple days (and assemble a couple more cassettes)

Signed up, all gone smoothly, thanks Andy!

Brassmasters sell a detailing kit that addresses the shelf issue - I have one half-completed. The remaining issue is that the windscreens follow a semicircular arc rather than the flattened shape of the prototype. I will finish it one day as 1013 in blue - I have had it for 40 years and it has always run well (these days in P4). https://www.brassmasters.co.uk/Western.htm

For the board to board connection, I decided to use IDC connectors which may be familiar from PCs. The pin count is fairly low, as only 3 connections are required at the “down” end - 2 connections plus a common ground. The “up” side will eventually require 6 connections and a ground, so this determined the pin count. I used 16 pin sockets, but mounted them on Vero board without cutting between the pairs, so each feed has two pins for redundancy, 8 connections in total. I used a surface mount socket, soldered with cored lead-tin solder, buzzing out each connection for conduction and isolation as I went. The ribbon cable was made up at 9 inches in length. I don’t have the crimp tool, so I tightened it up in a bench vice. The vero boards will be epoxied under the baseboards and the connections made when I next dismantle the layout - I don’t like soldering upside down for obvious reasons!

Mechanical alignment is now in place on the second input track. Track is laid across the full length of the first cassette - I have switched to PECO bullhead fishplates on one end, which grip much more tightly. These are soldered to the copper clad sleeper strip, which has also been electrically gapped with a needle file. The wagon was rolled across the join to test it. …and then moved across and onto the up line. Electrics are next!

A little more progress… A strip of copper clad sleeper strip was epoxied down to the fiddle yard and track laid across the gap and aligned by eye. I then pretinned the copper and I slid “n” gauge fishplates on, tinning and then soldered them in turn to the copper. For now at least, the rail is free to move (and remove). I’ll secure it and gap the copper later on. I will probably also drill the rail to wire it in positively. A wagon was used to test the alignment… …and then the process was repeated on the cassette. This end of this cassette will become the reference piece to set up the other entrances and exits to the fiddle deck.

This gives some idea of the (lack of) capacity. It will just take a large prairie and two 60 foot coaches. Sitting behind are a pair of 40 inch cassettes - these will be made up at the same time but overhang too much to be useful at the current length of fiddle yard. I haven’t arranged for any end stops yet either. I’m going to try Gorilla glue for this build. Everything will need to be clamped into place to allow the adhesive to expand and cure. There will be an offset on the fascia to trap the sides of the backscene. Other parts have taken out for tidying up and finishing off. This shelf takes the control panel, it will need a thorough rub down before varnishing. I will also rub down and finish the layout bearers - these screw into the Screwfix stands. The layout packing pieces are looking rather shabby too and will benefit from sealing.

I turned my attention to the two fiddle yards this weekend; they were never finished before Torre’s last exhibition outing. At only 32 inches each they aren’t really anything like long enough, but I can put one up permanently in the room I keep Torre in - they can always be extended later. They are very simple plywood boxes. First up was a general tidy of the wood screws, so that they at least sit flat. Next, I cut fascia strips from 3mm ply, these will be rubbed down and varnished to match the layout frontage. The cassettes were made from the same plywood as the boards, with softwood strip screwed on to allow them to be picked up. I will varnish the undersides to reduce friction, similarly with the board surface. The mechanical interface with the layout has already been set up. Stub track will be laid into this at the end, before more flexi track is laid into the cassettes. I have some brass rod and tube put by for the alignment/ electrical connection.

Another option - use a DSLR and a macro lens to photograph the slide or negative. Nikon make adaptors called ES-1 and ES-2 designed to be used with a 40mm macro (DX) or 60mm (FX)

The letter forms and size on these do look better, don’t they? I do like the relief that the etched parts give, so I expect that I’ll continue with the current board for now, but I won’t glue it on too firmly…

As I am now awaiting a still, dry day to spray the poster boards, I decided to add some further parts to the pile to be painted. Most of these are from a custom etch that Narrow Planet made to my design a couple of years back, plus a customised signal box nameplate from their range. First up was the nameplate for the signal box. This was removed from the surround with a Swann Morton blade, tidied with nail scissors, then dressed around the edges with needle files.This will be sprayed acrylic white, allowed to dry and will then be flooded with black-ish enamel. The full custom etch was designed to complete the missing windows on the signal box - the five pane windows were removed and the edges were dressed all round - they need to be a snug fit in the frames. The lock room windows can stay on the etch for now, they will sit behind the brick work & it will easier to handle them as they are. The test fit of the new windows was satisfactory. The name board and other signs will each need posts making and fitting,, but are otherwise ready for paint too. Lastly, I made up a guard rail for the goods platform loading bay - it is a bit tall, but will be cut down to fit after painting.

All the poster boards have now been altered and will be cleaned and painted next.