Combe Martin

I'm not so concerned about how the Creamery siding terminates in that 'cavern' at the far end of the dairy because I have not got space to model all that, I've had to shorten that end of the siding considerably. I'm going to do a facade (is that the right word for it) of that end with the line disappearing into the 'black hole'.

Yes, this is what I suspected but cant find any published pictures at the moment, and i've got every book 'under the sun'

Many thanks for this, and if you have got drawings of any Bailey Gate buildings they'd be most welcome. All I can do at the moment is guess at building dimensions by looking at pictures.

Thats a great photo, better than the colour one I've seen published before and showing detail I've not seen before so many thanks for that, but I'm looking for the buffer stop at the end of that undercover milk siding, so taken from the other direction. Do you have a date for this photo though ?

This thread started by saying that the loco ran perfectly on DC, so surely 'lack of tender pickups' and 'stay alive' are a red herring. The problem has to be the decoder. As the ZTC decoders only come up on EBay very rarely now, I'd fit a Lenz Standard probably having to use a 21 to 8 pin adapter.

I bought a Bachmann 3f years ago (probably when they first came out) . From memory it had a 21 pin socket in the tender ?? I fitted it with a Bachmann 36-554 (I tried it because it was the only one I'd bought and it was spare, I had'nt been impressed with it fitted in any other Bachmann loco id tried it in) , The CV settings I used were CV2=1 , CV3=20 , CV4=0 , CV5=12 , CV29=34 , CV49=1 , CV54=1 , CV55=60 . I'm building a new layout at the moment and its one of the locos I've still got packed away, but from memory its performance was OK with these settings. I'll get it out tomorrow and give it a try again. I'm steam only, no diesels at all. Most of my other decoders are ZTC258 and ZTC 255 and a few Lenz Standard, I regard all 3 types as equal performers. In some Bachmann locos I've had to use a 21 to 8 pin adapter. Oh, and on this 36-554 decoder CV54 is 'Back EMF Low' not 'Autotune'

Some of you may have realised (from posts under other topics) that I'm building a layout of Bailey Gate, condensed/squashed a bit, but its all there. This is not the one being built by the Blandford group, of which there is no information now. Does anyone know, or know of published photos that show, what sort of buffer stops there were ... (1) at the end of the siding behind the down platform (2) at the end of the dairy siding that's near the goods yard entrance (3) at the end of the long up line siding that's before the signal box ?. For 1 & 2 , were they just an old sleeper attached to a concrete wall ? Many thanks, Peter.

Yes, well that's what I thought initially, but when I started clicking on the ordering options it insists you click on the colour box and there's black as well as red !, which is why I started studying the pictures more closely, and the colour ones didn't show the plate as red, but rather either black or dirt. Most WC's, even if they're filthy still seem to show a red plate.

Many thanks for that, its obviously had some sort of clean since September 1962. I was hoping it wasn't going to be black. If it ever was, I hope it was in its much earlier days. This photo shows it in the condition I'm doing it in, having lost its wide tender to a rebuild and acquired a narrow one. I cant bring myself to 'dirty' it like this though.

I'm trying to produce this loco by renumbering & renaming a Hornby 34091 Weymouth. I've already done a tender swop with 34088 213 Squadron (which will become 34028 Eddystone), but I'm having difficulty finding out the background colour of Calstock's nameplate. Is it red or black ? All the colour pictures I've found so far seem to show it dirty, or is that black ?? I've got loads of Southern and Somerset & Dorset picture books, but most pictures are black and white. Does anyone on here know ?

I'm definitely coming, travelling down by train on Friday morning from Ramsgate to Bristol Parkway, afternoon till 7 at the exhibition, hotel for the night, exhibition again on Saturday till about 4 then train home again. Well that's the plan anyway. Looking at the exhibitors list it looks like everything that the Alley Pally exhibition was not, that was a massive disappointment, so I plan to be there for a long time. I've been before, quite a lot of times (but not for quite a while) and always of a Friday, driving down in the morning before it opens and back in the evening, but I don't fancy the drive now (I live even further away now). I'll spend a lot of time watching Templecombe, like I did at Doncaster last year. Peter

I drop a spot of silicone lubricant on the armature (i got it from Wickes when I was replacing the house guttering), that works for me. Its magic stuff, makes all sorts of things slide together !

Many thanks for that. I presume your not referring to a 2mm model.

Has anyone on here managed to successfully motorise semaphore ground signals, and if so what mechanism did you use ?

This is creating as much froth as Kate's operation !

Ah, well many thanks for that.

MMM, the last thing I want to do is change CV's before and after wheel cleaning !

Does anyone sell it in the uk ?

Does anyone have a tip on how to clean loco driving wheels without undoing the coupling rods/valve gear and removing them from the chassis. All locos are DCC fitted.

I've just looked at their website again, there's loads of pictures of Spetisbury, but none of Bailey Gate which suggests they're concentrating on something else. Shame, especially when you consider there was a piece in the model railway press (a couple of pages including photos) about that project, and it didn't look to be condensed (squashed a bit) like mine has to be.

No, Bill Coomers books only contain rudimentary station layout diagrams with no dimensions at all.

I've been keeping an eye on their website but there hasn't been anything on there about Bailey Gate for (I would say) a couple of years at least ! It makes me wonder whether progress has stalled ?

Many thanks for the offer, but bearing in mind the below I think I've got enough for me to make something near enough to the correct length. This fits with the rough estimate I'd already made from a colour photo on Page 74 of 'On Somerset & Dorset Lines' by Robert Robotham (Ian Allen) which shows a Std Class 5 coupled to a train of a green Mk1 GUV, a maroon Stanier Bk 2nd, and then 2 maroon Mk1s in the Bailey Gate up platform. The problem with the picture is that its difficult to see exactly where the end of the train is ! So 330 feet fits. I've enlarged and printed off a piece from one of the Ordinance Survey maps (found it eventually online after much rummaging), but its exactly the same as all those I've seen in various books except for the font style used for the various descriptive words, but for example if the up platform is 330 feet then the down siding behind the down platform (where the parcels vans are stabled) is about 136 feet (this is the other length I was needing). From photos I've seen, it usually holds a maximum of 3 Southern CCT type vans or 2 bogie parcel type vans eg a Mk1 GUV plus a MK1 BG. Yes, this is a little less than my 'loco plus a mixed 4 on' mentioned above, so a down platform length of 291 feet (prorated from 330 feet for the up platform) seems about right.

I'm finally actually building my new 'less condensed' model of Bailey Gate, but I'm having difficulty finding out the lengths of the platforms. All the plans I can find in the various books are too small to work anything out. Does anyone know the lengths or know of any published information on this. All I can see is that the down platform is a little shorter than the up platform.

Further to the above, I see your using Gem wire-in-tube to connect the point to the motor. I've found this is now available from Wizard Models (he seems to buy up all the useful 'old' ranges where the originator wants to retire), and he has some in stock too. I can see you'r using brass connector blocks to connect the wire pieces, are they ones that have been cut out from nylon terminal blocks ? One more thing, do you find it necessary to use Omega Loops at either or both ends of the wire ?