great central
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Posts posted by great central
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One word: why?
Two words: Why Not??
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I think we have found the "vandal" who left the footprint alluded to in post 6 !!!
Mike.
Nah, he's just put his foot in it
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Car reg number seen earlier EB 11 GUM.
I'm easily pleased
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Then I grew up and started building Grantham...
Never admit to growing up...............................
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Spot on, that man! It is in fact a carrying case for the control panel. Thus far said item has been wrapped up in a blanket and (very gingerly) carried about. Not very conducive to the longer term aspiration and - as I keep on reminding myself - very much a 'single point failure' item. If that goes down then we're well and truly 'goosed'.
Discussion with others led to the design (in the very loosest sense!) that you see in the picture. I had a spare drawer knocking about (no idea where it came from!) so the underneath has been constructed around its dimensions - this will be used to store soldering iron (etc) so that all electrical stuff is in one place. The other aspect that might not be readily apparent is that there are a whole load of trailing cables coming out the back of the panel so these will sit on the shelf immediately below where the panel will sit in the cradle so should be out of harm's way. Being essentially a square box when packed up for transit it should slot nicely in the van; on arrival at the show, cover off, two catches unclipped and lifted straight into position.
Well that's the theory anyway! Should get to try it for real in less that three weeks' time
So far it has been nick named 'the coffin' (me) and 'the Mighty Wurlitzer' (Barry).Just goes to show that there's more than just the layout itself when it comes to exhibitions. But I guess I don't need to tell you that...
We have something similar for our Carstairs layout, it was originally designed to be run from several control panels spread around the layout, with help from a computer, which was fine for club use but not so good for shows.
Gordon H of this parish who had designed the electrics for it when first built, then built a single master panel complete with transit case, oddly enough often referred to as the 'coffin'.
The smaller panels slide into purpose built boxes in pairs.
There sure is a lot more to shows than 'just the layout'!
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Puzzle pic 2, some sort of storage and transport facility? Given the talk of electrics is it a transit 'case' for the various control panels?
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That was my thought, too. But why there?
Fitters ingenuity?
There's no spare glass available perhaps without robbing another still in service loco, but this is available from another class that's been withdrawn?
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Anyone know what that is in cabside lookout? I don't remember seeing anything like that before.
Looks like the cover from an AWS battery box?
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had been appropriated by the LMR (boo!).
Cheers,
BR(W).
BOOOOOOOO!!!!
Did they wreck everything they got their hands on???
J750 how very 'northern gritty' Much like Tetleys Mills
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Hallo Tom,
If you fancy having a go at LNER coaches then just at the moment you're better placed if you learn to solder and build brass ones. The Kirk/Mailcoach range is out of production at the moment and the present owner shows no sign of being able to get it going again. I also see that you're not ideally placed to visit his stand at a show. That being the case your only real route to acquiring kits is through Ebay or knowing someone who's selling some. If you do manage to get hold of some to start, it's worth ditching a lot of the Kirk components and replacing with better ones from MJT or Comet.
Don't know if it helps but there's some Kirk kits for sale on this very forum:
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Ah Jeff, you forget: it's perfectly feasible to crowd the inhabitants of 13 Mark 1s into a Voyager..........
In defence of the current regime, I think service frequencies are probably double or triple what they were when the peaks were in charge.
I agree that today's service frequency is far better.
As an example to visit Barry Scrapyard in a day in 1969-70 required a late evening start from Nottingham then an overnight train from Derby-Gloucester, changing for a connection at about 04.20 to Cardiff arriving around 06.00. There was a direct service back in the afternoon.
More recently 2004-5 it was possible to get from Nottingham-Cardiff in time to get 37 hauled to Fishguard and back, then do a one way to Rhymney where the 37 was stabled, back on a unit for the last Cardiff-Nottingham. All that in one day, OK a long one but given that Cardiff-Fishguard is 130 or so miles alone....................
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Not quite a Gonerby joke but an observation.
When travelling to Grantham for rehearsals in winter Gonerby is the place where gritting stops- Notts do most roads and the A1 is done by the highways agency.
All the very best
Les
Not round my bit of it they don't!
Sorry about the
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Almost reminds me of the ZZ Top "Eliminator" album cover.....
Somehow I don't think it's got the 350 Chevy up front though.
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Many thanks to you both for pointing these out.
It's probably 76034, I'll alter the caption.
As for the 2x76- it's a copy and paste error as I was captioning a batch ready to use at some future date..
David
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Hi Dave, sorry to be picky but in C3274 it won't be 76054 as the loco in the picture is multi-fitted, you can tell by the upturned handrail around the cab front. Perhaps it's 76034 which was an air brake only loco?
76054 was a vac only loco so kept the straight handrail.
J6873 there's only one loco?
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I'm amazed by all the negativity surrounding RTR stuff nowadays.
I'll repeat again my 'knowledge' of QC of Chinese manufactured toys, for that is really what our models are. They're not top end, high-spec, high cost, mass market electronics or consumer goods, they're specialist items for a limited market.
Some years ago I was working at a large toy companies' warehouse when a 40' container arrived. The QC staff sampled 3 boxes of 12 items each. The items were about the size of a OO wagon, so who knows how many toys there were in that container! Each box was deemed satisfactory, whether that was 'absolutely perfect' I can't say but the entire container load was passed as OK for sale
Apparently there were no QC people in the factory and a return ratio of anything up to 10% was deemed as satisfactory, anything more and it became a cause for investigation, whether that led to any kind of remedial action I can't say, but having QC people on the shop floor was deemed too costly. As has been said above highly skilled and knowledgeable QC people cost a lot of money, that cost has to come from somewhere, ie added to the manufacturing costs.
In the clothing trade, many manufacturers moved their factories offshore, one in particular I know of moved their manufacture to Portugal.
Put a lot of skilled people out of work here who produced goods with a very low reject rate as problems could be dealt with quickly.
Turned their factory into a massive warehouse, with a small number of skilled people here to inspect and, more often than not, repair badly manufactured goods.
This was an up market company so faults couldn't be tolerated, the price reflected this. Items that still couldn't be sold at full price ended up in the factory shop, the shop became overloaded with stock, much of it still at £100+.
That company is no longer trading.
What i'm getting at is if people expect everything to be perfect, it's gonna cost a whole lot more than it does now.
As for the K1, will I be buying one? Afraid not, the price of RTR has already left me behind, I have two kit built ones which I'm quite happy with, having built them for myself and even then I have limited use for them.
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How old is the broad marsh centre?
I was working on it around winter1972-73, I would think, pulling cables in around the Lister Gate area. It was before the glazing had gone in, like a (very cold) wind tunnel. The working day consisted of about 1hr work followed by at least 30 minutes in the Woolworths cafe next door to warm up before another hour or so working, then back to Woolies.
Opened in 1975 apparently;
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I never realised the road bridge was as old as it is, didn't realise it was there when the railway was open
I never realised the road bridge was as old as it is, didn't realise it was there when the railway was open
The road was built at the same time as the Broad Marsh Centre, the service area on the roof being accessed from that road.
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You could well be right, the train could have been reversing to Trent Lane West Junction. There was no run-round loop at Weekday Cross Junction so it would make more sense for it to be reversing when the photograph was taken. My notes make no mention (I suppose it seemed obvious at the time) and after forty years I can't remember!
I've assumed you are correct and have changed the caption accordingly. Many thanks.
Chris Turnbull
The method of working, I believe, was that trains bound for Hotchley Hill would arrive at Trent Lane Junction via Midland Station and the connection through London Road Low Level yard (from Toton?). They would run forward onto a stub of the GN Grantham line, then reverse back over Trent Lane, through London Road High Level station and into Victoria Street tunnel via Weekday Cross. They would then run forward up the GC to Ruddington and Hotchley Hill.
The return was the reverse with the loco leading into Victoria St tunnel then reversing to TLJ and then forward again through Midland and back from whence it came.
I remember standing on Midland Station one day when a pair of 20s roared over the GC line bridge. I don't know what speed limit there was at the time, but they must have been opened right out from the start at Weekday Cross, speed well into the 50s I reckon.
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Weekday Cross is a location I've always thought would make a good basis for a model. With typically Nottingham misty autumnal conditions in 1977, we are looking across The Meadows with the former Great Central striding across the area on a solid viaduct. The Great Northern line from Grantham curved in sharply from the left.
Not actually Weekday Cross but a mile or so to the east:
http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/74756-nottingham-model-railway-society/
I'm not sure we can replicate the misty conditions though.
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It's New Year's Day 1971 at Clay Cross. Just past 1.30pm and the wintery light picks out 8098+8006 heading north along the Down Goods with a loaded train of iron-ore tipplers.
Watched D8098 pottering about doing some shunting at Quorn yesterday, who in 1971 would have expected it still to be in existence?
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I can vouch for that, especially in winter months. My mother liked Nottingham shops and I loved the trains and the trolleybuses, so we used to travel there from Lincolnshire on a regular basis. Sometimes the entire city would become engulfed in this thick yellow/orange blanket (I am not sure if the fog was actually a yellow colour, or whether it was just the effect of the street lamps), so I had a good excuse to stay on the station.
I think the trolleybuses were taken out of service in the mid-60s which was almost as sad event as the demise of Victoria station.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3gOEEAxgYY
Nottingham trolley buses and half cab AECs, including a Renown, so 1965 or later. Oddly no shots of the rear engined Fleetlines or Atlanteans, perhaps the camerman didn't like 'them new fangled things with the engine at the back'?
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Looking the other way from the previous picture we spot another diverted St Pancras - Sheffield HST.
The Peaks and Class 25s have gone from Toton now, but there's Class 20s, 56s and 58s on shed, plus a pair of (probably Thornaby) Class 37s.
With Trowell Junction being out of use, due to an MGR derailment, I wonder if that was the time I stood at the side of the bridge at Trowell watching them trying to extract wagons which had reared up and got wedged under the bridge. First of all they dragged wagons away which were simply derailed, rather like you might a model to get it to a more accessible spot.
Then they started on the ones tight up under the bridge, first trying one of the relatively new 58s. it tried but couldn't shift anything, maybe due to traction control or similar? Then a pair of 20 was brought into play, hooked up to the wagon coupling with a long line, then just kept tugging at it until it moved, even snatching it at times. No finesse but it sure shifted the wagons
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There's a couple of shots of Jubilee nameplates in this video;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Puxlo1c29t4
First one around 2m 10s. It's in black and white, but given it was shot on a bright day, I would reckon the plates are black. Funny thing, I could have sworn the film was in colour! Can't say I recall seeing red backgrounds but it was over 50 years ago, I was only about 10!
Edit; Found a bit of colour film here;
http://www.annesleyfireman.com/id11.html
The 'Alberta at the Vic' one, don't be fooled by the 'sound' It's just a bit of generic loco sound (badly) edited in.
EBay madness
in Ebay Topics
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I have a Marina I've owned since 1973 in need of total restoration, one day when I've done all the train stuff..........................