Les1952

Alf lives in Rise Park. All the very best Les

Firstly- who we are. The Bingham MRC (BMRC) Wednesday night mob consists of five members and one occasional member. The five are- Trevor Webster, Geoff Warren, Alf Hodkin, Jim Ross, and myself, Les Richardson. Our Occasional member is my son Simon, aka Mr Simon. Early Planning and criteria. In order to be able to erect the layout in the Bingham MRC clubroom it needs to be no more than 12 feet long. It also needs to be effectively a "roundy-roundy plus", ie keeing the punters happy by having a constant procession of trains on the main line, while giving a play area independent of the main line for shinting to take place. It has been decided to make the layout as two parts, each of which can be exhibited separately, or combined to make a single L-shaped layout. The pictures below show the mock-up and give an idea of how it might work. The white area to the left was the original attempt at the Rise Park end. The piece sticking forwards is Top valley Goods Yard- which will be fed from a small fiddleyard above that of the main layout. Rise Park Station is shown mocked up near the middle of the layout. Where the main line dives under Top valley Goods there will be an abandoned junction and a deep rock cutting. The Rise Park boards are to be exhibitable separately- size 12' by 2'8". Top valley Goods is 4' by 2', and if exhibited alone will have its own (cassette?) yard. More to follow...... Les

That is what had worried me- then ringing Trevor this evening for advice brought up the name "Scalescenes". I've bought and downloaded their arches and windows sheet in dark red brick N and printed it off. There are arch segments of 4 brick high archway- I'll try those first (ignoring the fact it is actually five bricks high). I may have to print the sheet bit at different magnifications until I get the right radius but that isn't a major problem. Paper overlay on brick plasticard is mildly unusual, but if I can get it to work... Time to feed the cat. L

A new year, a bit of visible progress Still spending a lot of time waiting for glue to dry while running trains to soak test the track. Running has got to the stage where everything that runs into the yard without problems will also run out safely- the odd few that won't give a lot of trouble on other layouts and are in a queue for improvement. Progress with the bridge. The prototype has a change of brickwork at the height where the join is.. What doesn't show up in the photo is the parapet on the far side, which is complete- this side will be the one with the railings. In the background is a piece where the bank will have a brick wall included in it. The problem I have to address next is the four rows of bricks forming the arch itself- getting something I can bend to shape..... Much research still to do. Happy New Year to everyone. Les

Have now discovered there are TWO books on the Skinningrove ironworks available- the new one published by the Industrial Railway Society aslo has good contemporary pics of the ZigZag and houses round it, track plans and OS map offprints. But you knew that already, I supect. Keep on posting updates. All the very best Les

Post Christmas sillies. Some work done today finishing the painting of the rail sides and sticking a little more ceiling tile in place. This then degenerated into a Boxing Day running session, partly as I'd a couple of odd engines to test before finding their boxes and possibly offereing them for sale. View of the underside opf the board showing the SCART plug and lead- the third attempt at getting a suitable one. This one has heavy duty ribbon cable, is 0.5m long and has gold-plated plugs mounted straigt on the end of the lead- angled plugs proved difficult and the non-plated plugs and lead caused a voltage drop. Two test trains- a noisy V2 runs North with a fast train (this V2 is the double-chimney one which will stay at least for now) while the brass Erie Lackawanna SD45-2 runs the other way on a train- I said it was silly season. The SD45-2 cost an arm and a leg and at first wouldn't run through any pointwork. I eventually traced this down to the bottom of the fuel tank. this had a makers plate firmly attached which brought the bottom of the loco body to 0.5mm BELOW rail level. It now doesn't have its "Overland" plate, which is in its box. It still finds any bump in the track as the pilot is only 0.5mm clear of the rail. Time to go and sort some eBay. Les

I haven't, though the railsides on the underbridge board have been painted track grot, and the top level on this board HAS been ballasted (and most of it is still there after a good vacuuming.....) Such is life..... Merry Christmas one and both Les

Checking heights I've been spending yet more time waiting for glue to dry, in between spasms of Christmas shopping and carol rehearsals- earn some money for Grantham Operatic tomorrow evening by singing carols at a posh hotel's Christmas Eve dinner.... Today's music Freddy and the Dreamers, not loud enough to keep visitors away so I could get on, unfortunately. Some of the glue holding the ceiling tiles down is drying, so the bank down to the coal drops can go in. The front edge has been cut back a little here to give a bit more clearance to the running lines. First go at cutting out an arch for the underbridge- this side needs to be a little deeper as the road track under it slopes down to the front of the layout. Needs to reach down to the bottom of the expanded polystyrene- the other side is shallower, but that side has a proper parapet while this side doesn't (a reverse of the underbridge at Easington). The stuff underneath is felt-faced card, the first thing about the right size I laid hands on. Les

Side tank resolved I've had the side tank to bits again, marked what was the underside of the motor with a letter T (easy because it comes away from the chassis as soon as you take the body off) and reassembled it with the letter T upwards. It now runs the right way, so last time I "turned the motor over" I must have put it back the same way as it was before. Problem solved. A couple more bits of polystyrene glued down and a lot more waiting for things to dry. In the mean time I've been trying to sort out my 9Fs as follows- 92050 of first batch now has the centre spring conversion and the pony wheels from my weathered one and runs perfectly through all sidings. 92231 of first batch has original pony wheels and runs through the outer roads of each yard but not the middle three (reverse curve on Peco medium points too much for it) Evening Star runs perfectly through all sidings 92133 (?) weathered one without spring, now has pony wheels from 92050 and runs as 92231. I can live with that- all are useable. After New Year I'll try to get two pony spring converrsion kits, and two replacement pony wheelsets. Meanwhile a perfect runner meets a "two roads only" runner out front- both of these can be left to circulate the layout provided 92231 uses the outer fiddleyard roads. Note the wonky cab on 92050- this is the one Fred Hempsal reviewed in the NGS Journal when new- and a lot of people spotted the wonky cab.... Mr Simon is home for Christmas and naturally has a train to test- I wonder which of this pair it is....... Les

It is the green side tank that runs backwards- I'll try inverting the motor again, just in case I accidentally put it back the same way last time I did it...... What doesn't help with this one is that the body isn't actually fastened down with anything so occasionally comes loose. At least the maroon saddletank is firmly fixed. No real work done today, waiting for ballast to dry and glue to go off, so I just ran trains and watched them go by. Nice and relaxing. Les

The Industrial Railway Society Existing Locomotives books (1979 to 1989 I have readliy available) only give two 4-wheel Rolls Royce Sentinels with the MOD- numbered 242 and 244. Whether 243 was a third one that disappeared before 1979 I don't know, BTW they were built by Rolls Royce after the Sentinel takeover. There were a much greater number of Vanguards. The two Sentinels were rebuilt by Barclay in the eighties. I'm not sure when they were disposed of. All the very best Les

Slightly out of focus- Describes how I was feeling early in the week having seen Status Quo live on Sunday evening- the ears stopped ringing on Tuesday. Also slightly out of focus this-- The ballasting has now extended as far as the shed, I took this just before starting the second spasm. The shed has to sit on a base of balsa to give enough headroom to actually get a loco inside. I've not yet decided whether to wire up the shed line on this baseboard or not. There is a large heap of ash etc to go between the shed and the running line here, and I'm going to put an egg-ended boiler somewhere near as a water tower, with a very rickety platform as a coaling stage. No pit, sheds this size often didn't have them. Meanwhile sticking ceiling tiles down as risers continues- getting an dhesive that sticks expanded polystyrene to expanded polystyrene is proving a nightmare- even polystyrene cenemt only sticks it occasionally............ Time to warm hands and do some more. Les

Many thanks, Steve. You definitely missed out on a bundle of fun plate of dingoes kidneys with this particular D49- it spent a lot of time in the "too hard to deal with" box before surfacing while I was waiting bits for HDC. I suspect I only realised that I had a workable solution when it occurred to me that the tub of Dapol B1 bits probably had something useable lurking inside it- there's certainly enough bits of NQP B1 sitting in there.... I've now stripped one cab side down to bare metal, and it is quite grim- I suspect I'll just spray and hope. A better way of holding the body on than the present blu-tack still hasn't occurred to me, either. Mr Simon might yet have ideas when he sees it at the weekend. No doubt he'll have something caustic to say about it. I'll ignore the extra valve gear bits that a Hunt had- the rest of the loco looks OK running - and it now runs well. Lined and weatherd it will pass normal inspection on a semi-fast train. Sod's law will dictate it just gets into service and Dapol Dave will decide he has enough bits in his armoury to make one r-t-r. Little progress on the layout this week so far- a short section of the upper line has had a first ballasting, and I've begun sticking down ceiling tiles as risers where the coal drops are to be and made a rough foundation for the engine shed- I'll try to remember to put up a pic of that as it si a little better looking than anything else that is progressing. All the very best Les

Very many thanks. The idea is that for exhibition use it is a roundy-roundy mainly with the shunting as a sideline. At home what happens will depend on the mood. I've spent much of today in the workshop with a pair of trains just running round while I worked on the Hunt and one or two other items on the workbench. Having said that I made a mistake when wiring up the new temporary connections on the colliery line (so can't play with the shunting aspect at the moment)- I've wired in a direct short instead of a link. I'm not taking the boards apart again until after Christmas- Mr Simon can help me lift the colliery board onto the workbench while he is back for the holidays. In the mean time I'll ballast the part of the colliery line on the underbridge board. There are no more droppers to install on this bit and I know it works. I'm also going to have to do some more eBay trading. I've got more passenger engines than I need and not enough reliable goods power. All the very best Les

If I'm wrong Dave will no doubt correct me here, but I suspect that the economic options may well come down to- all with balance weights (orig AND rebuilt) or all without...... The N-gauge market just doesn't generate enough sales to afford both, I fear. I HOPE I'm wrong but the gut says not....... All the very best Les

Another pair of vids. two new videos to show the effect of the backscene, even though not a lot is finished. First one with the camera at track level has an RCTS special (coaches have boards apart from the pullman and loco has an RCTS headboard) behind a hymek - definitely a rule 1 train as an excuse to keep my pair of hymeks. Passing it is a train of coal fulls behind J27 65860. Moving the camera into the well for the underbridge to get the lens nearer to track level, the WD on coal empties passes the J39/3 on a short heavy oil train (heavy oil therefore no barrier wagons) Hope these work. Les

Eight days onwards.... I took the layout back to Trevor's yesterday and we put on the backscene and the raised sides and ends. The lids for the ends and the extra cross-bracing to keep it steady can wait until the spring. By that time the wiring will have been finished and the basic contours applied and coloured. Today back in the workshop- no calls and no visitors. I'd have said it was quiet but I was repelling them with Meatloaf and Status Quo at goodly volume (is there any other way to play Status Quo?) Much of the day spent on wiring up the first scart connector on the colliery board. This now has 20 of the 21 pins connected back to the tag strip behind it. Tomorrow I have to wire the same 20 pins from the second scart socket to the tag strip on the underbridge board. At that point I should be able to test that the droppers I'd already done now work through the interboard connection. Connection goes tag strip (to gather wires) to scart socket then by scart lead (plugged into both boards) to scart socket then to tag strip (to distribute the wires again. The scart sockets are a little fragile in the tab department. I wrecked the first one taking too long to solder a wire to it. Once in place under the boards they are protected- it is just soldering to them that is a bit hair raising....... The colliery board showing the backscene in place- there is a curve to fit into the corner using card. I've given it a rough coat of not-quite-white from a tester pot to seal the wood. There will be a Gaugemaster photographic backscene eventually- I'll put a piece of corrugated card next to the bottom to leave a slot for it to go into. Holes are two low ones for the wagon feed into the screens and a taller narrow one for the colliery line. The main line is in deep cutting here- no tunnel or bridge this end, I'll continue the cutting sides beyond the backscene. As the backscene is only 5 inches high (high enough for a 6-foot tall punter not to be able to see most of the fiddle yard given that the layout datum is 3'9 off the floor) it does restrict the height of the buildings a bit. If the colliery headstock doesn't materialise I'm going to just leave the site as a washery and screens handling household coal for a larger pit (Easington or Hawthorn Combined Mine) just up the line. Another view of the underbridge. I've been thinking about the brickwork for this. The general shape is the same as the Peco double-track tunnel mouth. I'm wondering if I can use this for the top of the arch both sides, cutting the parapet off one and sticking it back-to-back on the other side to make the intact side of the prototype bridge. As the things are cheap I'll look out for one and try it- a case for kitbashing to solve the difficult parts of a build. You can tell Mr Simon inherited his craft skills from his mum...... All the very best Les

Tuesday - still doing ugly bits... Music yesterday and today by Russ Conway (good at repelling visitors), Slade (ditto) and Eliza Doolittle (NOT good at repelling visitors.........) I've got the three points that I'd started connected to their levers and working. Run out of staples for the heavy gun so the fourth point has had its operating wire threaded through a similar route. As a result there are now four levers close together to the right of the screen feed tracks. These are all tested and working and the levers labelled. The other two points will have their levers to the left of the screen feed tracks. The switches for the colliery railway sections (probably only four needed) will be mounted in a very small box nearby. . This is one of the pair on Furtwangen Ost. Wires are brought in underneath and soldered to a tag board beneath the baseboard. All of this lot is within reach of the down (Northbound) line operator. This means if only two operators are available there will be a busy one and a quieter one who can field punter questions. Four tag bards have arrived from Brimal in Hartlepool and I'm expecting the SCART sockets for the inter-board wiring very shortly. The main line has had masking tape put along its sides ready for ballasting- this next task is slightly more exciting than waiting for glue to dry. No work tomorrow, Christmas shopping. Les

First colliery points connected I've thought about it overnight and realised that since there isn't enough space to turn the wires through 90 degrees in front of the backscene a little lateral thinking is required. The solution is to take them under the backscene and run them between the tracks of the high level fiddle sidings. I've raised the track of this which runs closest to the backscene by 1.5mm and supported that with balsa. The photo shows it in all its gory detail. The power connections to the track between the points are temporary and will be re-done in a tidier manner before ballasting. The balsa under the fiddle yard track is shaped to support the curve of the Mercontrol wire. The track pins are temporary while the glue holds- the original epoxy (black) didn't stick to the PTFE so I've used an impact adhesive. I'm also adding staples at intervals, pushed in to just hold the mercontrol in place without pinching it. Messy at the moment but a lot will be under the scenery and the rest behind the backscene. The wire does operate the points firmly, tomorrow's job is adding the levers to these three and starting the others. Les

Pics as promised Music today by the Shadows and Status Quo- Tthe latter seems yesterday to have persuaded one of the hens in the run behind the workshop to lay her first egg! It didn't have a repeat effect today....... The colliery line runs- and after fettling one end so it didn't derail hoppers being pulled by the 0-4-0T or the J94, both of which have very short Rapidos, all of the locos intended for it run well. Herewith as promised a set of pictures that only really show uneven track and trains standing on the sites of bits yet to appear. The colliery fiddle yard- the loop is long enough to pass two eight-wagon trains. In practice six looks enough. The maroon 0-4-0ST is another Peco kit on Arnold chassis, retrieved from the "will it ever run?" box. Looking along the meandering line with a train of empties coming from the direction where the exchange sidings are offstage. The dead end at the shed road with the Hunslet 0-4-0T and another oddity from the box. This one is a Somerset & Dorset liveried saddletank, which looks enough like a Beyer Peacock to get a bit of treatment and possibly a better motor, though it is a runner. The Hunslet runs the opposite way to everything else with no obvious way of correcting it. The maroon 0-4-0ST shunts the site of the screens. The backscene will curve round over the sidings leaving a little over a wagon length for adding fulls to push out for collection. There will be a pair of Dapol magnets set into the track as soon as I have enough of the Mark4 screens made to work out exactly where. The Geisl austerity passes empties over the weighbridge site- the little building behind is going to be the weigh house. I made this at Leamington show a few years ago and it has been waiting a job ever since. The weigh plate will hide the third Dapol magnet. The Mercontrol bits arrived this morning and I've started to lay the wire in tube for the first point, the left hand end of the main loop (above the drops on the plan). I had left a space in the sleepers on the shed road for the PTFE tube to pass through. The next pair (shed entry and screens turnout from the running line) will be difficult as there isn't a logical path or really enough space for a 90 degree crank. Time to sit in front of the telly and think of a solution (or not). Les

Revised Trackplan Having looked at the alternatives I've made the following decisions regarding the colliery To use Peco track with 9" setrack at the ends. Because the colliery board is inaccessible from below to use GEM Mercontrol to switch the pointwork. This in turn will mean all colliery pointwork has to be on the colliery board. As I already have a supply of Code 80 medium radius points left over from an earlier layout the colliery will be laid in Code 80 Streamline, though a lot of this will be buried up to rail level. To continue the screening roads through the backscene. The landsale depot will be at a lower level than the colliery with the track extending onto the drops from the colliery. The shed building will be on the underbridge board. The track from the exchange sidings will weave across the underbridge board. This is now laid in apart from the run onto the top of the landsale drops. Hopefully I'll have the wire droppers done tomorrow and can start testing. On order at the moment are tag strips to solder the droppers to SCART sockets for the interboard connections. I'm expecting these early next week. Testing pics to follow. Les

Six Inches- not..... The Tomix 177mm radius curves arrived today and have been tested with a small oval set up. Result---- 1. The pannier goes round, as do Farish J94 and J52/J50 kits on farish chassis. 2. Hopper wagons buffer lock, as do the locos if they have to pull anything. So- solution to ends is that the curves on the colliery line will be 9" Peco Setrack. Points may yet be Tomix if I can get satisfactory joints between the two track types. The R177 curves will go on the next tramway layout whenever it is built (or on eBay.....) Time to play again...... Les

Possibly, except it has outside steampipes and the splashers look as if they've always been for a 4-4-0..... I've also resurrected another eBay purchase, a V3 2-6-2T on a minitrix chassis. With a strip down the loco is now running well, if noisily. Runs through the fiddle yard at passenger train speeds but stalls on the exit points. All the very best Les .

Update on the Hunt. So far it has shed its valve gear (rebuilt), lost a cab step (found and ready to stick back) then lost its bogie which was held on with double-sided tape! The latter is now superglued back onto its support. The piece de resistance was for the two halves of the motor to spring apart at the front as the securing screw wasn't long enough! Something tells me this loco doesn't want to be fettled. All that lot has been repaired and the tender top has been sprayed black. It is running well at last (until something else drops off). However the body is BRASS, so I've no idea of its origin at all. As tom identity it has plates for "The Middleton" which had a raved-out tender to start with and may have ended up with an NER one. There are only two other sets of plates available in N so its new identity will be 62758 THE CATTISTOCK as the only one available with the right tender. This one never got the late BR crest but could have worked Leeds-Harrogate-Stockton-Sunderland semifasts as it was a Starbeck engine. Next is to souce plates and get the number off the cab ready to start lining it out. Oh joy......... Les

First a pic and then a video..... I'm still soak testing the roundy-roundy and realising just how many crappo runners I still have. The result is I'm spending a lot of time fettling engines. First the pic. The edge of the fiddle yard showing the plastic edge strip. It may not look much but it is high enough to stop things diving onto the floor when they come off the track. The video shows a pair of test trains, the clockwise one with 92050 and the anticlockwise with the WD. Both have had surgery to improve running as follows- 92050 First batch Dapol 9F. Has done two exhibitions on Moorcock Junction (and is the one reviewed yonks ago in the N-Gauge Journal). However it has been track sensitive. It has had the free centring spring from Dapol but that didn't cure it. Has now had a pony wheelset from a weathered 9F and runs perfectly. The weathered 9F (which is the one shown on Gresby derailed) got the wheelset from 92050 and also runs perfectly- I don't know why..... WD. Its tribulations I described here on 17th November. Suffice to say one of my 3MT tanks has also shed its pony truck spring and runs better without it. I'm trying to work out why certain of my new-type Farish Mark1s don't stay coupled- eithetr to locos or each other. So far it seems that some have a banana-shaped rapido on the end and others don't. More investigation needed here.... Time flies. Les