dunnyrail

Rather like the Token concept. At my latest Operating Day I had a good friend over who stayed for a few days. On the Second Day after we had had a busy Timetable Session he just wanted to be somewhat Freestyle in Operation. So I implemented a Token System using Felt Pens of different Colours. Each one representing a Logical Section of Line. We ran the system on something like a Staff and Ticket Basis, though once we had started off from the Main Station and got running different ways the Tokens came into their own. Great fun and it worked so very well. However you do need People that can follow Symple Rules like "You do not Drive the Train between here and there if you do not have the Token or the Train following you has it". Of course the Token ended up at different ends of the Sectin. In these instances a Boy from the Station was sent on his Smelly Two Stroke Motor Bike to recover the Token so that the Train could proceede.JonD

Paul,You have certainly created a superb Look and Feel of the Harz. As there would appear to be a great love for the Harz here on RM, I hope you do not mind my hijacking your thread with a few pics of my Garden Railway. The first two show my weathered LGB 2-10-2. The next two show the Train Line Mallets passing at my Magdesprung Station. Sady did not manage to see your super line at the recent Shows, but no doubt I will run into you and the layout at a Show sometime soon. JonD

Many thanks for that info, as you can tell my access into RM Webb is pretty infrequent. Garden Railway takes up most of my time with the indoor line being looked at on a Rainy Day, only then if I do not have a G Scale Project on the Bench which I do (a rather large Station Buildingh) at the moment.JonD

Well you could always set the compete thing up at my joint, I have the Selketal pretty much as it was in the 80's with a few quirks. But of course we may have a Gauging Problem getting interoperatability! Love what you are doing and looking forward to seeing it all at a Show sometime. Yes this HOm is very tempting. I still get pangs of regret at selling my Bemo when I see a HOm Swiss Layout. JonD

I finally made the jump and bought 3 at Aley Paley last Saturday. At £60 for 3 at the Dapol Stand this seamed a pretty good deal. Just hope that they are not end of line dodgy ones! I got 2 LMS IQ's and one N Gauge LQ that I am hoping to modify and mount a Somersault on for the exit to one of my Coal Mine Lines. Let us hope that my small scale skills are up to doing the mod. JonD

I am pretty convinced that the Ally I recently got was indeed Anodized. I can assure you that it does not conduct Electricity unless the Anodised Coating is removed as I have shown. This is a bit of a disaster as the Ally is very rough after removal due to the effort required to remove said Anodising. Warning to you all if you wish to make Ally Cassettes. Take a Meter with you and check out Electrical Conductivity of any Ally Angle that you wish to purchase. JonD

Not sure about that, I have seen oxidised ally, but this coating took some serious removal. Also it is evenly over all the ally. Think if it was just oxidising it would not have been so even.JonD

Disaster, the Ally that I was so pleased to get turned out, after I had built 8 new Cassettes to be a BIG PROBLEM. It is coated with something or other and was just not electrically working. Worth while taking a meter to see what sort of ally it is you are getting if constructing Casettes. I am so glad Andy never encountered this problem. I can imagine what he would have said! In the end I found it possible to Grind th coating off where needed. In the start I used a Mini Drill. But once I had worked out what to do then I used a Big Drill and Wire Brush. Had I looked at the final pic on Post 8 mire clearly, I might have noticed the difference with the Ally. Oh well Wicks next time? Oh I have managed to post the same thing twice. Any Ideas how I can loose Post #7 please? Managed to work out Editing, thought it would not work as the Edit is in light print! Pic of cleaned up Cassette. JonD

Just in case any of you who were perhaps following my drivel thought I had give up on this project. Well no, I have had a bit of a blip. Plus it is Garden Railway Season, but just of late as my DCC Massoth Central Station has had to be returned to Germany. Well with poor Weather of late and No juice in the Garden the Coal Mine Railway has been getting some time spent on it. I found that the Peco Undelay was just nor resiliant enough to keep the Sharpe Curves that I am usung in correct Radius. As many of the Locs I will be using are 2-8-0 Rods and Austerities this was a real problem. So I have rehashed the Track with Cork Underlay. All me experience should have told me to do this in the first place. Never mind. I have also been big time updating the Train Casettes. These were originally built by myself and Andy Rush for his 20ft River Project. Having got into using them a bit I realised that there were some issues with getting Power to them, I set up a Crockodile Clip System, but this was just too much faffing. So having seen a super Connecting System on a TT Underground Line at Aylesbury this Year, I decided to emulate that so far as I could. The only change I have made is not to use the Connector below the Ally Angle. Note that when buying Ally for Cassettes, you may never get the same size even from the same Stockist. Andy had used 3 differing sorts. With his method of Coupling to the Layout it may not have been too much of a problem, but for me it was a real pain. So I have managed with a bit of luck to source some more of the same that the majority of his were made of. The odd ones I have made a Link Up Section as one of the pics will show. Pics Revised Cork with 3 WD's, 2 new ones at a good price from Hattons. Old Coupling. New Coupling Updated Coupling One fiddle yard that has been revised so that the Coupling has matching Ally Angle Finally new Batch of Cassettes under Construction Today. JonD Oh sorry, the second pic is that TT Gauge Cassette Set Up. JonD

Post 7 deleted as I managed to duplicate it with a small edit!

Paul, Many thanks for the update. This H0m Harz stuff is sooo evocative. Like you I feel another layout coming on. But with my Coal Mine Railway and Harz in the Garden do I really need another? Time will tell, but with the Space I have in my Workshop where the Coal Mine Railway sits, I could have done a good representation of either Magdesprung or Alexisbad. Hm wish I had made things more portable now. But concentrating on just one line does get things done! Love the Vids, particularly the Selketalbahn one with Mallets taken in the Bad Old Days with some Mixed Trains and my beloved sets of 2 Coaches with a Red van sandwiched between. JonD

Thanks for your comments and likes all. Re the Tippler,mit was a Staith that Hopoers used to drop their loads from into Barges. The Wagons never actually got Tipped as did happen at Goole Docks in the most spectacular way. Thanks for the Warning re Shelf Brackets. Hm upright supports could be tricky due to location and things that are stored and moved from beneath. But will look at it. However I have similar Brackets and have had in previous Houses anepd here are supporting up to 8ft of Books on 6 Shelves with never a problem. I guess I do a Solid Job on Plugging and always use good length solid screws. JonD

POST 3 Before I get started I must thank Adrian for correcting me on my Rough Map, the Canal is the Calder and Hebble Navigation. Apologies form that to all you Canal Nuts out there. Baseboards. On to business, these Boards are a real departure from my norm in these things. Back in the 70's and 80's when I was lumping my 0 Gauge Light Railway Exhibition Layout (The Southwold Light Railway) around the Country I got into Plywood Construction. This was of course for lightness and ease of movement. I had Hinged Paired Baseboards and all that sort of thing. But this new line turned out to be a big departure from that. In fact it is a Back To The Past Job with all 2 x 1 and 3 x 1 Timber with Soft-board Tops. My reasoning for this is quite simple in that I do not intend EVER to take this Layout to Shows. Whilst I appreciate the efforts that many go to in this respect, I have 'been there done that' and have no desire to do Shows in the future. Though if I ever get the urge I would need to change my Smart Car or build a Layout that would fit. Gauge 3 Perhaps. Now there would be a challenge! I had intended to use the leftover Baseboards from Andy Rush's 20ft River, however on setting these up on the Shelf Brackets and placing my Scale Plan on them it quickly became apparent that they would not do at all. So one fine Sunday they were dismantled and the Wood used to start again. One Board would use the 3 x 1 Timber to give some baseboard depth for the Smithy Brook and the Cobolt Point Switches, plus all the main Wiring Looms and Control Panel (such as it needs to be in DCC) topped with 6mm MDF and finished off with 1/2" Soft-board. Pics 1,2,3. The other Board would be made out of 2 x 1 this being topped with 9mm MDF and finished off with more 1/2" Soft-board plus some Melamine where the Country End Cassettes would be. Pics 4,5,6,7. Finally I built a Complex Flappy Job to enable a Flap Down Hinged Melamine setup to be fitted to the Healey Mills end of the Layout. Pics 8,9,10. Hopefully the pictures of this less than elegant construction will make some kind of sense. I have joined the Boards with Bolts so that they can be removed for Decoration etc, but by the time that Scenery et-all is in place they will be somewhat heavy. Pic 1 Pic 2 Pic3 Pic 4 Pic 5 Pic 6 Pic 7 Pic 8 Pic 9 Pic 10

I was thinking of when I switch off the line after such an event. The Signalman in me will always return the Levers to Normal. Thus when I return some if the Signals may still be 'Off' but the levers 'Normal'. Thus I need a way to get them to Normal. My Short Method appears to be the only way. Still no news from anyone with Cobolt Switch Experience?.. JonD

Concept. There were quite a few Collieries that connected with the Aire and Calder Canal, perhaps the Best Known being Brittish Oak at Crigglestone famous for its surviving Jinty. Then there was Hartley Bank which I believe only crossed the Canal on its way from the interchange at Horbury and Ossett Station. Then we move down the scale to the sundry minor lines, some being Horse Drawn and that from Old Flockton Collieries to Horbury Bridge being built to the unusual Gauge of 3ft 9in plus having an 0-4-0 Manning Wardle Tank to boot. This line was in fact very closely connected with the original line from British Oak which both managed to reach the Area in the vicinity of the current Mining Museum at Claphouse. As this lines Staithes was near my old House near Horbury Bridge I felt a close affinity with it and even managed to walk part of the lone when I lived there. There is a surprising amount of the line still in place as it trundles up the valley following the Smithy Brook. The Pit was at Flockton Lane End which was reached via the Tramway and I believe an Short Incline. So on this stuff imagineering can be created. For my Colliery Railway I imagined that after closure of the original line in around the end of the 19th Century more Coal Reserves were discovered in the Area. This is quite likely the sort of thing that may occurred around the 1st World War. So we have extensive Reserves of Coal that need to be moved for the National Effort. Enter the L and Y Railway with a short Branch that sets off up the Smithy Brook Valley (for want of a bette name) to Grange Moor plus the extensive developing Mines of Lower Denby and Flat Top (could not resist using that name as it is that of a favourite Pub in the Area of Thornhill Edge). In fact my Grandfathers Family had connections with the Area as well. Hopefully you can make this all out from my scruffy hand drawn map of the the Area. Pretty fanciful I know, but as I say I have connections and needed a possible excuse. My line will be a Small Junction for Coal Trains to set out their Trainloads of Empties for both Dennby and Flat Top. Returning with Loaded Mineral Trains. The Branch to Grange will be served by an L&Y 2-4-2t on Push Pull. Plus a 4f Worked Trip from Royston for the Branch Goods which will serve the Mining Supply Depot at the Junction. Coal Drags will be Austerity (Wakefield Pacifics!) from Healey Mills and GC Rod Hauled from Wath. Fiddle Yards at each end will be Cassettes. Next up will be my Scruffy Baseboard Construction.

Having ploughed through all 22 interesting pages of this thread, I was surprised that no one had asked the question that I will now. I am thinking about using some on my 00 Coal Mine Layout (it is the Small Junction for the Mine). I have already got my Cobolt Point Motors up and running with many thanks to this Forum. Now I need to think about connecting the 3 Signals that I need to my 3 Cobolt Switches that I have allocate for them. I assume that I will need to use the Momentary Contacts from the Harness. However "The Momentary switch makes contact at the end of throw." According to the Cobolt Instructions I am wondering if anyone has wired one up to try. I have not got any of the Dapol Signals as yet so am looking for a solution afore I divi up. As for the Power Off argument and never being sure that they will be at a noticeable point when powering up again. I intend to have the wires via a Terminal Tag near the Panel. If any are wrong I will just short out the Operating Wires as if pushing a Momentary Contact Switch to return the Signals to their Correct Orientation. Normally Danger. Simples really. If only everything in life were that simple! JonD

Introduction. Many of you will remember the sad post some 2 years ago nearly about the sad demise of Andy Rush. As I assisted his daughter in clearing his extensive Model Railway Collection, I was given some of the said collection. My idea was to create a small Colliery Railway based in the Horbury Bridge, near Ossett Area. I had in fact discussed this idea with Andy but had never got anywhere with it. The collection had been sat in a Box in the loft these near 2 years and the purchase last year of a Bachmann L&Y 2-4-2t in BR Livery and a Hornby Austerity were with a view to starting this project. 2 of the Boards from Andy Rush's sadly never completed 20ft River Project were also to hand as a basis for my own line. I kept on getting asked by sundry friends when the Coal Mine Railway would be started, I even had an outline on the floor of my workshop which had been laid out using Peco Points as a start of the line. What had really got me going on this project was a 2 part article in Model Railroader for August and September 2013. Coincidently the 1st Article being the month of Andrews demise. The fit to my workshop was remarkable, plus it even had a Coal Mine too. Coincidences like this are a little bit on the scary side, but I decided to not be worried and get on with the plans. Fast forward to this Year and an impending visit by one of my friends that had been enquiring of the project. Just a week ago today I decided to get on with the Boards and after 2 wet Days on Monday and Tuesday plus Wednesday as well the basis of the layout was up and running. In my next post I will get on with the real nuts n bolts of this project. JonD

Paul, like your Fifi on the RHB. Makes me wish I never sold my RHB Layout.mbut needed to downsize a bit before a move. You exhibition concepts are interesting. Couple of questions. What did you use to create the Drawings? Also as I am pretty new to RM Webb, is posting Pictures now as easy as G Central? JonD