Jub45565

I'll be relocating my tank to the shed side of the turntable, but it would be good to have it of the correct type so will keep my eyes peeled & keep asking here! Thats an interesting point about yard lamps Andrew. I may be incorrect, but I thought I had deduced that there were originally 'station' lamps in place, which seemed to be replaced by 'yard' lamps in the late 40s/early 50s. I'll try & refind a pair of photos to back this up. Cheers, Pete

Don't move discussions on my account! Half the point of putting these things online is to gain more snippets about the prototype, alongside the task of how to model them and fit them in. Neville Hill did have standard 4 tanks, but I expect not until after the LNE locos worked into Ilkley on local traffic (1954). I was aware of the first loco shed, & as you say I can also understand why it was moved! There was a small turntable associated with it which resulted in a cutout in the rear of platform one. Cheers, Pete

The Stanier 3P 2-6-2 was from the Cotswold stable too ;-) so likewise has very good castings but would require a new chassis as time and priorities allow. I have been very interested to hear the range is back and wish it every success.

Hi Ron, Glad its brought back some memories! Thanks for the info too, it all helps piece it together in the gaps the photos are yet to show me! I may be able to help with loco allocations, is there a specific timeframe in mind? The Stanier 0-4-4 tanks went just after the war, with a few Caledonian 0-4-4 tanks briefly before the Stanier 3P 2-6-2Ts took over for a while, with an Ivatt 2-6-2T towards the end. LNER locos sub shedded there until 1954 tended to be G5s with the odd J39 substitute. Plenty of D49s were seen on shed, and Skipton has 4Fs and Ivatt 2 2-6-0s calling in having been on freight workings. I do have a few useful books with a reasonable description of traffic flows and locos in use which does include pre war info too if that is of interest. I havent made any progress on this recently, but am currently sat here creating a few plug in wiring looms. I'm visiting the Portsmouth show on Saturday (looks well worth a visit!) but am basically at home for a change this weekend so might make some progress on Sunday. No promises though!

Thanks Simon, I have just had a test run with my new bogie pickup solution (as noted in post #68) and this works a treat. There is a bit of a collision issue at present between the brake hanger and the coupling rod, so that's the next area to fettle, and then I will crack on with some more detailing. The last few weeks have been pretty hectic, and the next few are similarly chaotic, but there is the potential of a small window of opportunity this weekend so hopefully I can make and document some progress! Cheers, Pete

Which replacement chassis did you use? Is it Bill Bedford, or using Gibson milled, or something? Cracking looking model though - shows what can be done from the basis of the kit...

Hi Andrew, Further to my last, the track plan is from: London, Midland and Scottish Railway Engine Sheds: The Midland Railway v. 2: Their History and Development Available from Amazon, among other places: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0906867053/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=37G1RZ5H3IY26&coliid=IIQAMVV2P7M3H Cheers, Pete

Hi Andrew, Thanks for that! Glad you will soon be underway with your build too. I am actually going to use the London Road models turntable, which looks nice but I'm going to get a bit more track sorted before starting that. Hopefully I'll be on it soon though! I have decided against the scalescenes shed, but soon need to start on at least firming up the dimensions so I get the track & pits in the right places, & get the right 'look' overall. The track plan is from an LMS engine shed book, I'll dig it out & let you know which one. Cheers, Pete

Hi Larry, Thanks for pointing this out. Presumably this hasnt affected the body dimensionally? I have currently only got 2 Portholes (a BTK and CK) but havent got round to having a proper close look at them to be honest... Cheers,

So today has mainly been wiring - not a lot extra is running, but the infrastructure is now in place for the running railway to expand pretty much as soon as it is laid. With one caveat to which I'll come later... So as of this morning, this shows the amount of track currently laid, and the switch for the 1 functional point temporarily poked round the turntable well. It also shows that I forgot to integrate a cup holder, but we live and learn. The location it is sat in will probably be scenery free for some time to come! On the underside, all the servo point motors have now been installed, alongside chocolate blocks to feed on their connections. Track feeds have made it on to board 2, and the 2 boards are currently linked by a flying lead DIN plug & socket. I think this is a temporary measure... All the track feeds go into earth blocks, 1 block for the 'front' rail and one for the 'rear'. Common crossing feeds go from the servo built in switch to the common crossing, although 2 of these need to cross the board joint (and indeed now do!). As well as the track feed the 'main' board (right hand, with turntable) has another set of earth blocks, and these are for the 16VAC accessories - currently just the servos. I have made a control panel - nothing fancy, just a slab of hardboard. I toyed with the idea of something more extravagant, but all the points in the yard were manually controlled anyway, so I'll save playing with a more complex arrangement for when I model somewhere that the prototype had one! Currently I have (very) roughly drawn on the control panel, but will paint the board white and overlay the track diagram more neatly later. The switches are fed with 16VAC, and steering diodes half wave rectify the feed to the servo so that a 1 wire feed (and a common return) switch them across either way as required. So there are currently 3 sections that have working track feeds now (4 including the temporary flexitrack length!). The feed from the turntable well and the first point are fully functional. The section between the 2nd and third points (with a 6 wheel fish van sat on it in the photo below) functions, and the headshunt in the far corner works too. This in itself doesnt get me very far, but all I need to do is implement my point tie bar on point 2, and then add the switch blades and tie bar on point 3, and thenthe full length will run. With the motors already in place, and the control panel, point 2 will work straight away - point 3 needs the switch feed linking between the boards though. So I'm happy with the infrastructure. The control panel will be mounted on the underside of the lid, where the track plan is currently blutacked. What I havent finalised is the board-board connection. a loose link wire connected by DINs is ok, but will mean a trailing wire if and when I move the boards around. I would prefer 2 panel mounts and a cable between, but if I did that at the rear it would mean they couldnt go back against the wall, and doing it at the front would look a bit untidy when plugged together. I dont think there will be a perfect solution, so will probably just stick with the lead option and drill a hole somewhere so the plug can locate in the frame of its own board when the 2 boards are being individually transported. Anyway, onwards with tie bar construction (as photographed/documented here when I constructed the first one, whose operation I am more than happy with.

I like the sound of the bogie bolster C - I think the Bachmann body is a good start but the chassis could definitely benefit from your mastery... Plus the coach bogies of course ;-)

Further to that I am yet to find a BR era loco with the RHS smokebox handrail, so it will be left off... it is certainly easier to retro fit than retro remove, as well as being quicker... ;-)

So here we have the current state of play - I think I have finished soldering, other than for sorting out the bogie pickup arrangement as mentioned above (but in no way yet actioned...). The boiler is not yet fixed in placed, though the fittings are fixed to it. Before fixing the boiler I am fettling the valve chest to fit, which sits covering the chassis fixing nut. Once the boiler is fixed I can then add the boiler detailing - ejector on the left hand side and push pull gear on the right. These locos were not push pull fitted when built, and had a handrail on the right hand side of the smokebox. I have got photos of 6408 after push pull fitting which still has the handrail in place, and of 41908 (ie the same loco, later in life) without the handrail. I don't have a photo of the front right of 41903 at any stage of its life to see whether the handrail was present on this loco! What is quite prominent is (what I think is) the control gear for the sanders, on the front of the tanks. It looks to have quite a prominent lid, but I am hoping that a piece of 20 thou plasticard suitably chamfered, with some very thin wire disappearing round the corner, will look the part. Plus of course there are the sanding feed tubes but I will wait until I have altered the bogie pickup arrangement before doing anything further with the chassis, which also needs the driving wheel balance weights adding.

Sweetcorn is surely the worst offender?

Plus, who is rostered for chemical toilet emptying duties?

This is an interesting photo of the TCE: http://www.geograph.org.uk/more.php?id=2242257 Unfortunately it doesnt seem to be dated, but is after the introduction of the RKB in place of the LMS 12 wheel restaurant cars, and the coach in front of the RKB is of LMS origin. Looks like it could be a D1999 third open, as the only sort (AFAIK) which didnt have a bog vestibule at both ends - I can't see one at the near end but it is a bit fuzzy to tell with 100% certainty...

Watch this space! I had a good day at Scaleforum yesterday (I'm not sure my wallet or bank manager enjoyed the experience as much, but ho hum. I can't take it with me :-O ) and saw Will L with a lovely LNER Atlantic tank, which while not split axle did transmit the bogie pickups via plungers and a rubbing pad. A trip to the Alan Gibson stand resulted in a packet of plungers, and hopefully I'll find some time to play with them. I am happy with the current arrangement in terms of running quality, but the pickup wires tethering the bogie and the need for a plug and socket to allow the bogie to be removed is something I'm not too happy with on reflection... I did make a bit of progress with some detailing on Saturday too so I really should upload some progress photos!