Les1952

Never had a problem with Sherwood Models - I mostly buy from them at shows.  When I'm at a show for two days I go to the stand on the Saturday.  If Neil hasn't got what I want he rings Ian at the shop to find out if there is one there.  If so it will always be available on the Sunday at the show if I want it.

I'm sufficiently impressed to have placed all 6 of my DJ Models pre-orders through them....

All the very best

Les

Christmas update

The layout has now been erected in its new home!  Work should now proceed at a rate of knots...

The group discuss what to do next- which scenic bit is first.  Jim was just turning away to talk to someone out of the pic.....

Along the wall above the workbench will be a test track- analogue feed at one end and digital at the other.  May yet be dual gauge, but I'll sort that out.  We seem to have appropriated the club kettle, at least for now.

Looking along the end where the new development is taking shape.  Trevor brought the buildings for this bit in last week but I had only one picture's worth of charge on the phone.  Geoff's Station Cottages sit well here and the gardens are taking shape on the sub-base behind.   The station and Alf's arches haven't been photographed together before.

The buildings on the backscene of Top Valley Marketplace.  Some still to finish and some of the centre black has already been done.  In the background is Yeaton.

All the very best for Christmas- next update maybe December 30th.

Les

Yes that's one of the unique aspects of this hobby . Faced with defective materials most people fix it. Compare this with buying a new digital cares, electronic equipment , where it's instantly returned! Strange behaviour. Which is why Hornby gets away with it.

 

Awaiting feedback on new 4 VEP with interest to see if any lessons learned.

For Hornby read Hornby, Bachmann, Heljan,  Dapol and everyone else who has stuff made and inspected in China.  Not helped by a collector brigade who would reject a box showing signs of having been opened to check the model inside is perfect.....

Just a thought

Les

I didn't know about those two farms- I'm actually thinking of an old quarry (as far as I know never rail served) that existed where the B6275 and B6279 crossed North of Piercebridge.  I don't remember it as an active quarry but do remember it being filled with refuse- Staindrop was a reasonable bike ride out from home when I was a teenager and that was the route I would take.

A loco shed would be modelled on the one at Eppleby, which still stands, but using a location that wasn't rail served gives the opportunity for an impression to fit the space available.  No construction for at least a year.

All the very best

Les

More pondlife....

I'm still working on the pit yard area- and have done a little more since these two pics were taken this morning- notably trying to get pond 1 to look a little more like pond 2 and paint the sides of some obtrusive rails, though Humbrol doesn't want to adhere to Peco Streamline very well.....

The new and old ponds.  Fencing here needs a repair which won't be done until I stop working behind it.   Eight weeks left until the next outing at Sileby....

No.1 shunting beside the ponds.  Perhaps I should have marshalled it at the other end of the wagons......   Looking at this the hoist coming out of the Winding House old shaft house needs straightening- with that slope on it there's no way it would have worked

Other news is I've managed to fit my first hard-wired decoder!  It won't be seen on HD however as it is a OO gauge Hudswell-Clarke side tank by Agenoria.  This is a trial fit before I decide on Layout 4 (provisionally called "Seldomseen").  Layout 3 is well into planning but is Futwangen 2 at the moment......

Les

Seldomseen was a farm somewhere in the Ingleton/Staindrop area.  My granddad always reckoned it was a village and that there was another one just up the road called Neverseen.  I'm still looking for that one.......   He was a goods guard in later years but had worked when younger at Piercebridge Station.

Thanks mali, although that is not really the reason I wanted to see as it means they would be less likely to wander further afield. Still, I can always invoke Rule 1.

Try "it has been borrowed by (insert shed name here) while running in from Doncaster/Darlington after a repair" or "It failed at (shed) and has been working from there all week".   K1s were very popular with shed foremen at certain locations and one arriving would often be "failed" with a minor complaint and something else substituted for the return working.  The "failed" K1 would then magically appear on a passenger or fast freight the following morning and be long gone before the substitute reappeared with enginemen who wanted their own steed back.   This class had one of the highest levels of Friday teatime "failures" at Stratford of any LNER type.

It might explain some of the sightings at Bristol, Blackpool, Swindon and a few others reported in Trains Illustrated in the late fifties.

All the very best

Les

Just a thought on the pantograph- how about a website link (once the loco is delivered) to places where a working substitute can be sourced for those wo want it?

For example Somerfeldt, Judith Edge etc-

Total cost to Dave is some time to put the links up.

All the very best

Les

(as ever, edited for trypos)

Tubs almost done.

I've used the last bit of the cobblestone paving to put a strip in the middle of the tram stop, and applied some P.D.Marsh benches and a variety of seated passengers to the strip, then placed a series of Noch shrub tubs.

Next is to replace the overhead in this area then replace the section switch at the back.   After that I'll put a sheet of ply on the base to protect the wiring and the layout can stand on end in the corner for a month until Hawthorn Dene comes back from Sileby show.

getting there

Les

Progress with electrics and benching.

The electrician has been working this week and we now have a 32amp ring main on the walls, with the lighting being routed to new wall switches.  As a result we've been able to build the benches (or rather two of them) again with the third going off into the OO area as a base for the pillar drill and other such objects.

The group having a natter about the next step having put the bench back up.  It isn't a trick of the lens- the end leg does lean, mostly as a result of having some distortion due to pipework behind the bench....

More next week- the lights will have been finished so we will be able to re-erect the layout and make plans for a quick start after Christmas.

Les

Of ponds and ash

I've been continuing the slow process of repairing the ground around the modified and replaced trackwork in the pit yard.  Picture shows the pond and progress hiding where the loop was removed.  I'm thinking of having a second pondy mess in front of the pointwork, though Peco pointwork is too strong to pump like NCB track often seemed to....

I've also tried out an ash pile- not big yet as I want to see how the colour looks when the glue had set.  The "ash" is scrapings from weathering chalks, white and light grey.  Currently I think it needs more grey in the mix..

 Still plenty to do but I want to concentrate on playing trains over Christmas while Mr Simon is home- maybe a better video of the signal will happen- who knows?

All the very best

Les

At 120 locos I wouldn't call the Q6 rare (and have two of DJMs on order)

I'd certainly go for the B16 and J21, and add in a G5 for good measure.

IF Hornby are to go into N gauge can they shrink the K1 first please?

Les

To be fair to Gresley he had almost as many new locos cancelled due to the LNER not having the money to build them as he was able to have built in the later years.  The O2 was a case in point with less than half of the planned locos actually built.  Perhaps some of the O2s that were cancelled would have been used to replace GCR freight 4-6-0s.

Looking at the streamliners, the first year of the Silver Jubilee gave a cost to income ratio of 18%- i.e the costs were only 18% of the money generated- or 550% operating profit- hence they money for A4s etc was very easy to find.

Just a thought.

Les

Moved and power nearly on...

We have now moved into the new clubroom and the layout is standing on its end out of the way of the electrician.

Following a long delay the electrician has arrived to install the ring main and fix the only one of the lights that club members hadn't been able to find a tube for.  He also has to get two pairs of lamps that are currently on dodgy pull switches to work off the new wall switches by the door.

Hopefully he'll be done before too long and we can get on with the layout....

Les

Still no water in the loos yet....

Given that this was sent out to retailers at a time when couriers are ALL suffering the effects of Black Friday (and of everyone and their great aunt apparently buying more on line in one go than any of the postal services are able to cope with)- are we not expecting too much for Hornby's couriers to actually supply all of their retailers on the same day?

Having said that it sounds as if the system to communicate with said retailers that a consignment has been dispatched needs looking at (to put it mildly).

Just a thought

Les

Thinks- might exercise my bus pass early next week to see if my nearest shops have one in stock.

edited to remove some of the effects of my dyslexic fingers....

To be fair to Hattons they aren't required to find the reason for a failure but as they have commissioned the model their job is to get it back to the manufacturer with a "sort and explain" rocket attached....

All the very best

Les

My "Harry" gained a Geisl ejector and a name change to become one of Bickershaw's finest.

How about a Geisl chimney or a Lambton cab on the Austerity?  2016-7 will do......

Les

For those wanting an excuse to buy one- two examples of Radial tanks getting a long way off track.

The current Railway Mag describes four LSWR Radials being loaned to the Highland Railway during WW1 to work trains of anti-submarine mines from Kyle of Lochalsh to Digwall then to Alness and a nearby US Navy base (in trains of 11 wagons.)

In addition before the LNER took over operation the Catterick Camp railway was worked by two Beyer Peacock tank locos, one of which was an ex-LSWR Adams radial.

Apologies if this has been posted in this thread before.

Les

In this month's Railway Magazine there is an article on the Highland railway's tribulations during World War 1.

The Highland had Great Western steam railcar no.45 on hire from January 1818 to March 1924.  It was used for shuttling Admiralty personnel between Dingwall and Invergordon.

The other locos that surprised me were as follows-  Anti-submarine mines were imported from North America at Kyle of Lochalsh.   They were taken in 11-wagon trains to Dingwall, where the train reversed, then on to Alness where the train reversed again and to the US Navy sidings at Dalmore.  Here they were assembled and taken by sea to Scapa Flow.  What where used to haul these trains?  Four loaned LSWR Adams Radial 4-4-2 tanks!

Perhaps rule 1 needn't always stretch as far as we think......

All the very best

Les

Not a lot going on...

Been busy with Warley and changing the small car- the Punto needed parts costing a lot more than it is worth so it has made its last journey and been replaced.

Progress with the crossing at the top of the bank.  I've also decided that the bit I had to excavate down to board level might as well become a sludgy pond, so muddy grot and a small slice og box acetate did the trick.  This still has to be edged in with slimy looking "grass" round the edges and perhaps a clump of evil weed.....   Shows I need to get the vacuum cleaner out again before I do much more - and clean paint off the rails AGAIN before I try to run anything.

The two painters were crying out for some kind of a cart.  I spotted two of these in a box of random figures at Warley- unusual to find anything random like this at a big show.  The other will go on the new German layout.   More weeds needed at the wall bottom and the lane needs lightening a little.

Plenty to do.

Les

Still working at upgrades- intermittently.

Cruel enlargement this- but it shows the attempts at disguising the line down the middle of the tram station.

Not good enough so far- the next plan is to get or dig out some embossed pavement to make a reservation between the pillars and mount seats and shrub tubs on that.....

All the very best

les

Nice to have time today and just stand and  gawp   enthuse with no pressure to be somewhere else in the hall.  Also good to finally put a face to a name.....

Looking forward to seeing the whole layout at Grantham.

All the best.

Les

Answering a few of my own questions about Backworth No.4 I've found the relevant info spread across four different books...

I've sent Dave a more detailed PM with scans of a couple of copyright pics I can't post here.....

Backworth No.4 was converted to Gas Producer and Mechanical Stoker at Seaton Deleval by mid 1963 and ran in this condition until Backworth shed converted it back in mid 1967 retaining the air hole in the smokebox door.   It was regarded as the strongest austerity Backworth had, having been well set up by the works and well maintained at the shed.  They also had No.6 which had been converted at Ashington and wasn't as reliable.  No.6 was converted back in 1966.

The stoker projected below the frames at the back and there was a vertical plate to protect it from the swinging 3-link coupling.   This would all be difficult to produce for a ready-to-run loco, but might make a 3D printing or lost wax opportunity for someone.  There is only one stoker still in existence, apparently.  This is at Statfold Barn and not attached to a loco.

On lamp irons, Backworth removed lamp irons at some time between 1971 and 1973.  No.4 would still have had a complete set when leaving Backworth in August 1967.

Hope this lot is of use.

Les

I can (just) fit a 13-coach train in the longest road of the Southbound fiddle yard, but prefer two shorter ones.

I do have a simple rule on J26/27s

Round spectacles- definitely J26

Balance weights to wheels - definitely J27

Otherwise could be either, look at the number.

All the very best

Les

Does the tea pot make me a Tea-time Lord?

I've found another picture of the Backworth one, this time just before transfer away.  By this time (spring 1967) it had had its original chimney restored.  The IRS book on the class will give chapter and verse on its conversion, but my copy has gone into hiding.

It did, however retain its gas valve smokebox door (which wasn't really clear in the other photo).

Despite trying to thin out my showcase I've ordered a 71515 I don't really need just to clutter it up further........

All the very best

Les

BTW my pic of 71515  seems to show the tankside steps as red rather than black.....

Just to follow up the comment about cab shutters at Backworth- I've found a pic in a history (black and white) of No.4 with NATIONAL COAL BOARD on the side and a kylpoor chimney- and cab shutters.

ID for this loco is Robert Stephenson & Hawthorn 7166 of 1944, new as WD 71512.  Came to Backworth as 71512 in June 1961 from Newbattle Disposal Point. Transferred to Seaton Deleval in 9/62 and back to Backworth in 7/63.  Renumbered No.4 before 9/1964- I don't have the date to hand.  Transferred to Netherton Colliery 9/1967 following a month in Ashington works.  Scrapped Sept 1969.   I seem to remember a photo of it at Netherton with an ordinary chimney- did it regain this at Ashington works/

The other question is- did this loco also have a prominent mechanical stoker under the bunker?  The undated photo is front-end and is clear enough to show only two lamp-irons on the front buffer beam- the middle one is missing.

Hope this lot helps.   BTW the pic I put up of 71515 (post #32) shows red wheel bosses.....

Les