Crewlisle

Aire Head, Look at Google for photos of my 00 Gauge DCC layout 'Crewlisle'. Size is 8'6 x 7'6. There is about 12 ins between the edge of the bottom baseboard & wall to give access to a built in wardrobe & airing cupboard. Forget about Scarm, Anyrail or any other track designing apps. These are normally used when using a manufacturer's 'set track'. Do what I did many years ago when starting my layout, I listed what I wanted from my train spotting days. That is a 4 platform terminus to take 6 coach expresses, steam shed, diesel shed, turntable, goods yard, connection to a double track roundy-roundy WCML with through station & small goods yard, portable catenary & reversing loop. If you have a terminus, trains leave so must have to come back! I used Peco paper point templates where I wanted them & tried flexible track between them to see if it could be done. If not, I repositioned the templates until I could get a fair curve between them. Simple but practical. To me, fiddle yards are wasted space; use cassettes instead. I use 12 on a rack under the baseboard as part of the reversing loop inside the operating well. Each is 1370mm long & hold a Class 47 + 4 coaches or 12 short wheelbase wagons. They are replenished from the stock box as required. The longest trains I run are 6 coach expresses, Midland Pullman, HST & APT. Two can be held on the reversing loop or in two separate 1800mm cassettes made from plastic cable conduit. I am the first to admit that it is not prototypical or the most detailed but was built to entertain. At exhibitions we run a minimum of 2 & sometimes as many as 4 trains/locos simultaneously. There are plenty of photos on line & it will be appearing at the NEC in November for its last exhibition as the baseboards seem to get heavier for each exhibition! Description of the layout appeared in Hornby Magazine HM84 in June 2014 & catenary (all portable & pantographs in contact with overhead wires) in Model Rail 192 in February 2014 or I can send them via PM including details of how to build the cassettes. Peter

Spikey, I agree with the above points you made, although occasionly the 'Hand of God' cannot be avoided - even on the best layouts! One thing no one has mentioned is letting children operate one part of the railway. On 'Crewlisle', my outside operator encourages children to have a go at either driving a loco from the goods yard, steam or diesel shed onto the hand operated turntable & then let them turn the loco (one handle inside operating well & one outside). Or they can take charge of a train on the continuous run, run it round & stop it in the station. My operator holds the controller with a finger hovering above the emergency stop button! It makes their day & might give them some inspiration to build their own layout. The era on 'Crewlisle' is the WCML from LMR steam locos in the 1950s, blue & green diesels, 86/87s with catenary & finishing with the APT. We run a minimum of two trains simultaneously & sometimes as many as four. I always say that it is not the most prototypical or detailed but it entertains. It will be having its final outing at the NEC in November as the baseboards seem to get heavier at each exhibition! Peter

Keith, Correct. It is so long since I had to do anything to them & they are so small & are easy to miss on ballasted/painted track. I have not had any problems probably because some Servisol or Track Magic dripped down & kept their contact surfaces clean. Also with concentrating on the contact between the blade & stock rail as detailed in my comment, it is obviously a case of 'belt & braces'! Peter

lywell Junction, The suggestions below do not directly answer your specific problem but might help others with similar questions about point blade/frog polarity. My DCC 00 gauge layout 'Crewlisle' is over 40 years old & has 32 Peco Code 100 points which were originally all Insul Frog. About 25 years ago I started to convert them to Electro Frogs to improve their reliability by replacing the plastic frog with a hand crafted brass one soldered to adjoining rails with the points still in situ. See photo. They all performed flawlessly, but eventually wore out so about 10 years ago I started replacing them with new Electro Frogs. They are fitted as they came out of the box using Peco solenoid motors via a 16V CDU, no polarity switches & operated by Peco's stud contact operation on mini track diagrams. The only polarity switch on the layout is for the live diamond crossing at the double junction which is converted from a Peco Insulfrog Short Crossing. The two points are powered by Peco PL-10 solenoid motors via the 16V CDU. One of the motors is fitted with a PL-13 switch to operate a colour light signal & the other point is fitted with a PL-10 motor + three PL-13 switches to operate the live diamond polarity & a feather on a colour light signal. All points work perfectly with just the blade contact. My secret is that when cleaning the track I also use some fine wet & dry to clean the contact surfaces of the blades, applying Servisol 10 switch cleaning lubricant in both the solenoid motors & the switches & Deluxe Materials 'Track Magic' between the switched blades & fixed rail. My motors & switches have been on the layout for about 35 years. No motors have required to be replaced; the PL-13 switches twice. By many on these forums who advocate polarity changing point motors or switches are mandatory I am considered to be a heretic & should be burnt at the stake! The point springs are strong enough for positive electrical contact providing the inner faces of the movable blades are kept clean. The number of polarity failures I have had over the last 30 years can be counted on one hand & then only to sidings. However, with Code 75 points you may require a polarity switch due to the smaller contact area between the switch blade & fixed rail. I have noticed on some Code 100 points, the electrical surface contact between the fixed & moveable rail is not always 100% so I have had to 'squeeze' them together with pliers to increase the electrical contact area. I have a total of 32 Code 100 points ranging from small radius Y points up to large radius curved points on my layout. I only started having to renew them with new Code 100 Electro Frogs about 10 years ago as they had ‘worn out! All had been renewed before the 'Uni' frog had been incorporated into Peco points.

Tony, Only just finished reading comments on the show due to problems with my laptop. Once more I visited Warley on the Sunday after a 4 hour coach trip from Plymouth. I enjoyed all the layouts & managed to buy/order the few things I wanted. I have attended every show since it started both as a visitor & exhibitor & cannot fault the organisers for putting on a wonderful show every year. Many of the comments here state that they missed some layouts/traders because there are so many. There is a simple solution to this, buy a guide in advance & on the floor plan high light the layouts/traders you 'must' see then when you have seen those, just wander round & view the rest. My interest is BR themed layouts in N, OO or O gauge but I at least look at Continental/American layouts if I have time. As for the comment of 'There not being enough OO gauge layouts'. There will be at least one next year as I will be there with my DCC OO gauge layout 'Crewlisle' for the sixth & final time as the baseboards seem to get heavier each exhibition I attend! I endeavour to run a minimum of two & sometimes as many as four trains simultaneously & also allow children (with the operator's finger on the 'stop' button!) to control a train/loco & operate the turntable. I wouldn't call it an 'iconic' layout but it entertains & for those of you who have not seen 'Crewlisle', just look on Google. As the name suggests It is based on the WCML (although there are a few 'strangers'), 2.6M x 2.3M with three interconnected levels. The time scale is from typical BR LMR WCML steam locos in the mid fifties to finishing with the APT in the early 1980s. There have also been articles in Model Rail & Hornby Magazine about the layout itself & the catenary. Peter

Kevin, Very good. No, Fearless was my last ship when I was in the Navy. I sometimes mention for a laugh when having any general conversation with people I don;t know by saying, "I starred in a James Bond film." Then adding ,"Along with about 500 others!". Fearless was in the 1976 film 'The Spy Who Loved Me'. It was only for about 2 minutes at the end of the film but the special effects team were onboard for about 4 weeks making the escape gondola & filming many takes of it coming into the landing craft dock. None of the stars came onboard; the onboard scenes with the film stars were filmed in the studio. I have other locos named after other ships & establishments I served in including the aircraft carrier HMS Hermes as Warship Class D823 & Jubilee 45687 Neptune, the submarine base on the Clyde. Peter

Thanks for all your suggestions but I think I have found the problem. I thought I would start with a simple squareness/condition check of the driving wheel axles. I removed the coupling rod wheel screws from both the front & rear sets of drivers & removed the wheel sets from the chassis. Just holding each wheel between thumb & fore finger & twisting them in opposite directions I could check if the axles were broken. The front pair were solid but I felt a small movement on the rear pair. Closer inspection showed that the nylon axle in the middle had developed a small crack along its full length. Fortunately, I had a broken Bachmann Jubilee chassis. I removed the set of rear drivers & fitted them in my defective chassis. The wobble had been reduced by about 90% to an acceptable level but as a final check I loosened the screws holding the two halves of the chassis together, placed the loco on a flat test track on the table & pushed down to make sure the two halves of the chassis were aligned correctly. I re tightened the chassis screws, not too much as they are fitted into small diameter plastic bushes & which are easily sheared. I will now go ahead & renumber it 45723 Fearless. Peter

I have a Bachmann Jubilee chassis which is very responsive to my controllers (both DCC & H&M Duette which I use for testing) with a smooth running motor - until I place it on the track! When moving it has a slight wobble which increases as it speeds up. Any ideas how I can eliminate the wobble to avoid a new replacement chassis? I have fitted a Bachmann/Mainline Jubilee body & tender to a new DCC replacement chassis & I do not want to do it again. It is not for the faint hearted! Peter

May I suggest you go to Google & enter 'Crewlisle' where you can see how much of an 00 gauge main line layout you can get in this space using three interconnected levels by 'thinking outside the box & run six coach expresses'. Yes, it is not prototypical but it entertains & represents the WCML & suitable stock from Stanier locos in the mid 50s & finishing with the APT. It has been to the NEC five times & will be there next year for its final show as the baseboards appear to be getting much heavier at each exhibition! Using my design, the high level terminus & goods yard could be longer in the space you have available. 'Crewlisle' is a simple DCC layout with the only polarity switch on the live diamond operated by an operating arm from the relevant Peco simple solenoid motor. All my 30 Peco Electrofrog points rely on electrical contact via the point blades using basic Peco solenoid motors. The only point failures I have had over 30 years I can count on one hand & then only in sidings. Because I advocate this approach to point control with no polarity switches, many modellers think I should be burnt at the stake as a heretic! At exhibitions my three helpers run a minimum of two or as many as four trains simultaneously to entertain the paying visitors. Do what I did many yea rs ago when starting my layout based on the WCML from my train spotting days, write down what you want. In my case it was a 4 platform terminus for 6 coach expresses, steam shed & turntable, diesel shed & goods yard on the high level. The mid level continuous run is the WCML with a three platform station & OLE. The low level was the reversing loop so trains could go out & come back to the terminus. On the reversing loop on the inside of the operating well I use 1350mm long cassettes t as my fiddle yard. The cassettes are replenished from the stock boxes as required. I have 53 locos, 65 passenger/parcel coaches & 120 wagons. Before anyone rushes to condem my layout for a multitude of reasons like being unrealistic or too crowded, the late editor of Railway Modeller & author of many track plan books Cyril Freezer stopped at my layout at the Bristol Exhibition over 20 years ago & after discussing it with me for 20 minutes said, "You have a lot of railway in a small area but it does not look out of place". That was praise indeed from the man himself! So forget the digital track layout apps, think what you want on your layout, download the Peco point templates, place them where you want them then lay your track between them with a smooth flowing curve. Adjust the position of your points if necessary. Forget drawing track plans on a baseboard because in the ship building/repair business the saying goes, 'If a curve looks right, it is right' & this applies to model railways as well. Peter

I am surprised there have not been any comments about the layouts on show or from any of the exhibitors on the progress of their layouts. It is 3 months since the last comment with only 2 months to go before the exhibition! Is railway modelling falling out of popularity? Peter

Gaz, Excellent video. I lived in Market Harborough in the 1950's and often visited Rugby, Peterborough and London for train spotting trips. I could not believe the changes to the stations, sidings, etc as it is almost 50 years since I travelled the MML. As for Leicester, when did it lose its overall Victorian roof? The changes at Market Harborough are unbelievable. I always remember trainspotting from the iron bridge spanning all the tracks 200 yards north of the station when you could see everything looking south down to Little Bowden crossing (about 2 miles away), the MML reverse curves through the station, looking north to Great Bowden where there was the junction between the MML and the LNWR side of the station mostly used by the Nottingham coalfields to London coal trains via the WCML hauled by Stanier 8Fs or Standard 9Fs. Also the loco shed on the west side of the iron bridge and all the sidings between the MML and the engine shed. In addition to the MML there were the lines north to Peterborough and the LNWR/GN joint line to Melton Mowbray and beyond. To the south on the west side of the MML were platforms for the Rugby and Northampton branchlines. In the early 1950s it was fantastic to see the Beyer Garratts with 60+ empty wagons snaking though the reverse curves with the coal empties heading north. Oh happy days! Peter

I agree with all Paul's comments but perhaps TimV's first paragraph comment is the most relevant because remember there are visitors at exhibitions, especially at the larger ones like the Warley Show at the NEC or Alexandra Palace in London, all with different tastes and preferences. Plus of course the many families who just want an entertaining day out. My layout 'Crewlisle' is a DCC 00 gauge layout based on the WCML between 1955 and 1985 ending with the APT. When I built it many years ago I never dreamt of it being exhibited anywhere. I just listed the features I wanted and built it to fit my second bedroom - 2.6M x 2.3M. The only problem is all the 5 baseboards are all different sizes! One is 2.6M long x 500mm wide. Using my woodworking skills I made a cradle for 3 of them; the other 2 were stand alone. Lesson 1, make your baseboards all the same size for easy transport as I have to hire a long wheelbase Transit van to take them anywhere together with all the stock (52 locos and over 160 items of carriages and wagons) and scenery. 'Crewlisle' is on three connected levels with a 4 platform terminus on the high level for 6 coach expresses together with steam shed, turntable, diesel shed and goods yard. The mid level is the continuous run WCML with OLE and a through station. The low level is the reversing loop with a cassette exchange system in the central operating well. Visitors can walk around the layout to view it from three different sides. I have lost count of the number of visitors at exhibitions who have looked at my layout and said things like, 'I was going to build a terminus to fiddle yard or a branch line to fiddle yard in this size space but you have completely changed my thinking'. The ultimate accolade was from C.J. Freezer at an exhibition many years ago. He was the editor of Railway Modeller for many years and author of many railway modelling books and track plans, who said after studying my layout for about 15 minutes said, "You have a lot of railway in a small space but it does not look out of place". If you want to see the track plan/layout Google 'Crewlisle'. There are four of us in my team - 2 operating, one having a break between operating duties and myself answering questions on 'How did you do so and so'. My two operators run a minimum of two and sometimes as many as four trains simultaneously with one in the central operating well and one on the outside who also acts as my PR man. He allows children to move locos onto the shed, operate the turntable or run a train on the main circuit with one finger hovering over the stop button just in case! Lesson 2, very few layouts allow this so it is a real family attraction. Operating a train on a layout at the exhibition makes their day. A layout does not have to be super detailed, based on a prototype or run to a timetable to get invited to the larger shows. But it does have to entertain the visitors. Send photos/track plan of your layout to the exhibition manager to ask if he is interested. After a few local shows I thought I would stick my neck out and get in touch with the Warley NEC Show. I have since exhibited there 5 times and will be returning there next year for probably my last exhibition as the base boards and stock seem to get heavier each year! Peter

My compact 2.5M x 2.3M 00 gauge DCC layout ‘Crewlisle’ is on four baseboards with three levels - high, middle & reversing loop on the low level & uses Lenz LH90 handsets & LZV100 command unit. For the track bus I use 6 amp cable with both wires twisted together & at baseboard joints I use two single pole 4mm banana plugs & sockets. The male pins are slightly tapered & sprung & when fitted in the adjoining socket it provides a tight, positive joint - no chance of loose connections as sometimes happens with double or multi pin plugs. Over the last ten years the layout has been dismantled/reassembled more times than I care to remember with no electrical problems whatsoever. All my droppers are connected to the track bus by simple 5A screwed terminals (available from any good electrical spares shop, eg B&Q). Before screwing them into position, note what sections they serve on a piece of card either by hand or on a computer & mount it behind the terminals. If there are any power supply problems it is easy to identify the offending section by removing each lead in turn. After a while I realised that if there was a short anywhere on the layout, the whole layout would automatically shut down; embarrassing if you are at the NEC with many people watching! To allow operation to continue on half of the layout when there was a short, I installed two PSX-1 units on two separate track buses – one for the high level & one for the middle level including the low level reversing loop Lenz LK-100 Reversing Module. During initial testing a loco would leave the mid level, enter the reversing loop, LK-100 module relays would ‘chatter’ & loco would come to a halt. After posing the question on RMWeb I was not given the answer but a good clue how to solve it. What was happening was that the PSX-1 & LK-100 were fighting against each other on changing track polarity. To solve the problem I reconnected the LK-100 module directly to the back of my Command Station before the power take off supply for the two PSX-1 modules. Since then I have had no problems. By today's standards, my set up is prehistoric! Why complicate things with so much technical jargon & put people off from converting to DCC? If it ain't broke, don't fix it! Peter

I applied to Tesco Credit Card for a refund of my 25% deposit of £162-49 for a 5 car APT on the 18th June under Section 75. I received my credit card bill today and noticed it was credited back to my account under 'Purchase Adjustment' on the 10th July but I would sooner have the APT! Do I have to inform the liquidators? Peter

This may sound like a naive question but could someone like Rapido or Hornby buy the APT scans off the liquidators and carry on negotiating with the Chinese manufacturer about APT tooling and eventual manufacture to modern standards, even to restrict it to a five or six car set?

Do what I did 40 years ago, list what you want then go for it! I wanted a terminus for 6 coach expresses, semaphore and colour light signals, a continuous run representing the WCML with OLE, steam shed, diesel shed, marshalling yard and a reversing loop. And all this with a pencil, tape measure and patterns for the curved platforms. Look on Google at my 00 gauge DCC layout 'Crewlisle'. It is 2.6M x 2.3M with three interconnected levels. The high level has a 4 platform terminus to handle 6 coach expresses, steam shed, diesel shed and marshalling yard. The mid level represents the WCML with OLE and the low level is a reversing loop incorporating 1.5M cassettes replacing the standard fiddle yard. Each cassette can hold a loco + 4 coaches or 10 short wheelbase wagons. Minimum radius is second radius, normally in the tunnels. I run a total of 52 BR Standard and ex-LMS locos (mixture of steam diesel and electric), 65 passenger/parcel coaches and 112 goods wagons. At exhibitions I run a minimum of two trains simultaneously and sometimes as many as four. It was built for entertainment. That is why it has appeared at the NEC five times and for my exhibition circuit swansong at the NEC next year. Anyone wanting a more detailed description, I can send them a PM via RMWeb. Peter

Tiny, To give you some idea what can be built in a layout of your size, look on Google at my 00 gauge DCC layout 'Crewlisle'. It is 2.6M x 2.3M with three interconnected levels. The high level has a 4 platform terminus to handle 6 coach expresses, steam shed, diesel shed and marshalling yard. The mid level represents the WCML with OLE and the low level is a reversing loop incorporating 1.5M cassettes replacing the standard fiddle yard. Each cassette can hold a loco + 4 coaches or 10 short wheelbase wagons. Minimum radius is second radius, normally in the tunnels. I run a total of 52 BR Standard and ex-LMS locos locos (mixture of steam diesel and electric), 65 passenger/parcel coaches and 112 goods wagons. At exhibitions I run a minimum of two trains simultaneously and sometimes as many as four. It was built for entertainment. That is why it has appeared at the NEC five times and for my exhibition circuit swansong at the NEC next year. Anyone wanting a more detailed description, I can send them a PM via RMWeb. Peter

I am surprised there are no comments about visitors likes or dislikes. Is it worth a visit?

Any further updates on layouts attending?

Naturally there is a mixture of positive and negative comments to my original post; unfortunately most appear to be negative. Yes, there were quite a number of variations to choose from the DJModels APT; I chose the 5 car version to fit my existing Hornby APT cassette on 'Crewlisle'. It did run as a test train of 5 cars as I have seen a photo. The two comments I do disagree with is that it would be too expensive and was only running for a short period of time 36 years ago. The example I quote to refute these arguments is the Midland Blue Pullman which first ran 59 years ago from 1960 until 1966 when the WCML electrification from Euston to Manchester/Liverpool was completed. Bachmann introduced their 6 car model in 2014 and I paid just under £200 with a rrp of £270 (I think) for the first run which quickly sold out. It was so popular that they did a re-run a few years later. An 00 gauge 5 car APT-P might be worth considering with modern motors, DCC onboard, lights and similar carriage connections to the Blue Pullman (plus of course the tilt mechanism).

With the demise of DJModels Ltd and its crowdfunding scheme for an 00 gauge APT, could this help to bring Hornby's 1980s APT back to production? The APT was scanned at Crewe Heritage Centre last summer so I would think any discrepancy in the scan and production of usable CADs would be complete. In DJM's last newsletter at the end of March this year, a number of discrepancies had been rectified and everything appeared to be progressing well towards tooling. On the 7th May I received this reply from Dave to my query about progress: Although its proceeding quite slowly, i would hope something tangible would be ready for production later this year. Production and shipping should take 4 months so i would think we could have something before Chinese New Year 2020, if not before then. Would it be commercially viable to buy the progress so far off the liquidators and get the DJM selected Chinese manufacturers to manufacure it?

I lived in Market Harborough in the 1950's & spent many happy years there trainspotting with regular visits to Rugby, Peterborough, London, together with visits to Derby & Crewe including their works. Has anybody any photos of the removal of the ex LNWR line to Rugby, the ex Joint LNWR/GN Joint line to Melton Mowbray, ex LNWR sidings & loco shed in the 1960's/70's or a book covering this period? I would also like to see photos of the removal of the station platforms, reverse curves & installation of the new alignment, the connection at the South end & under the Great Bowden road bridge. Can anyone direct me to a relevant website(s)? Thanks. Peter

Art, My compact 2.5M x 2.3M 00 gauge DCC layout ‘Crewlisle’ is on four baseboards with three levels - high, middle & reversing loop on the low level & uses Lenz LH90 handsets & LZV100 command unit. For the track bus I use 6 amp cable & at baseboard joints I use two single pole 4mm banana plugs & sockets. The male pins are slightly tapered & sprung & when fitted in the adjoining socket it provides a tight, positive joint - no chance of loose connections as sometimes happens with double or multi pin plugs. Over the last ten years the layout has been dismantled/reassembled more times than I care to remember with no electrical problems whatsoever. After a while I realised that if there was a short anywhere on the layout, the whole layout would automatically shut down; embarrassing if you are at the NEC with many people watching! To allow operation to continue on half of the layout when there was a short, I installed two PSX-1 units on two separate track buses – one for the high level & one for the middle level including the low level reversing loop Lenz LK-100 Reversing Module. During initial testing a loco would leave the mid level, enter the reversing loop, LK-100 module relays would ‘chatter’ & loco would come to a halt. After posing the question on RMWeb I was not given the answer but a good clue how to solve it. What was happening was that the PSX-1 & LK-100 were fighting against each other on changing track polarity. To solve the problem I reconnected the LK-100 module directly to the back of my Command Station before the power take off supply for the two PSX-1 modules. Since then I have had no problems. Peter

I was unable to attend this year but I was surprised at the lack of comments (both good or bad) about this years exhibition. Bristol is acknowledged as one of the top West Country shows. By this time last year there had been 51 comments but this year it is only 16. Someone who went to Ally Pally this year also noticed there were quite a few layouts 'missing'. Is this a 'sign of the times' for railway modelling in general?

It appears that there is more interest in catenary than I thought with 36 downloads of my attachments. My philosophy has always been, 'If you have an AC electric loco, raise the pantograph & let it touch the catenary wire'. The attachments are modified from my article which appeared in Model Rail 5 years ago (before Peco OLE was introduced). All the catenary is portable. Not to scale but looks good from normal viewing distance. CATENARY - BRM.doc Catenary Masts.pdf pdfCatenary Wires.