Les1952

Today's Videos White tram in action. Combino tram in action. Apologies for the hand-held quality of the videos. Ah well, back to the workshop. the tramway is still undergoing track cleaning- the trams run perfectly on the railway....... Les

New toys The white tram is a Waggon Union 4-axle tram, Tomix in origin, running on a Portram chassis. It tends to crab a little and has already had to have a replacement pantograph (off an Arnold Class 111 body) after losing half of one at Cotgrave- very careless of it... The big green one is a Hiroshima People Mover or 5-section Siemens Combino. Made by Hodl, it is a Bo-Bo-2 electrically. It is still mostly in the workshop to get pickups and other little problems sorted out. Sods law states it arrived the day after the Cotgrave show, of course. Videos to follow....

Many thanks, Simon. Fiddle yard speeds will be low as to advance trains too fast ends up piling wagons around the loco when they stop in the dead "short" section. Hence my note about matching motor speeds and types. The disadvantage we have on Parnhams is that the exit points are handraulic rather than trail-through. This means the operator has an incentive to send out both trains in each road one after the other, meaning that 4 consecutive freights with UM power is not uncommon. Using trailing points means no road-switching at the exit so the sequence would be 1-2-3-4-5 rather than 1-1-2-2-3 etc. The matched pair of locos (2 UMs or 2 Farish diesels etc) would be 5 trains apart in the sequence. To whet the appetite another shot posed on Gresby. "Cock O'the North" is handbuilt by Pro Models on a modified V2 chassis. When Farish bring out their Peppercorn A2 this will be the only survivor of my present A2 fleet. I'm not sure whether to use it on the express or the parcels yet, though it is lamped for Farndon Road's parcels train. Looking at that pic I'm going to have to re-do the tender side again- the original top lining was too low and my replacement is wonky. At least the other side is OK, though.... Same loco on Farndon Road (layout now sold) All the very best Les

Trevor Webster and the gang have been exhibiting "Parnhams" with this style of fiddle yard for two years or so now, and we have found that provided the short section is at least twice the length of the longest loco and tender it works well. In this case the longest loco and tender will be a pacific, so although the rule was never pilot a pacific with a pacific (except for one York-Doncaster train that saved a light-engine path) the minimum length is 2 pacifics or just over 12 inches. In practice it will be nearer 15 inches, leaving the long section as about 4 feet on the shortest road. This also allows for my "rebuilt" old-Farish Class 101 which has the power in the brake car at position 2 (as will its successor if I can bring myself to carve two new-type three-car sets to make a 4-car and a power twin.) There is also a section beyond the "short" to allow for clearances at the pointwork, and for the operator to see where the end of the short section is when a loco approaches it Meanwhile posed on Gresby, the sulphate train with a J39. This has the tender swapped for a low midland-type. I've actually found a pic of a J39 with an NER tender with coal rails that swooped down at each end. The next stage is to fit appropriate handrails and see how much of the flare at the rear has to come off- too much and it won't get done (the water filler isn't getting moved for the same reason). It also needs glazing and crew, and will get separate boiler handrails at some stage, together with a renumbering to the right engine! All the very best Les

One I don't have- I have quite a large and growing collection of books and videos- and am getting a little worried at the growing number of times I seem to appear in other peoples' pictures- the first was in the OPC Industrial Steam book in a picture at Derwenthaugh taken by E.C.Salthouse- and I hadn't even spotted he was carrying a camera on that day...... I think for variety I'm going to use the COVHOPs on the lime train, not least of all because I ordered 12 of them at Peterbrough show. I also have a rake of bogie sulphate wagons, and am looking for an excuse to run them (as empties), but need to think carefully whether they would be Northbound or Southbound. As expected I'm going to have to confine my fish train to the club layout. Some pics to follow if I can find a layout to pose them on... All the very best Les

Sunday Been to Homebase for chain to replace the cross-pieces on the trestles. Trevor's tomorrow to get the trestle tie bars strengthened and the chain installed properly. After that I should be able to work on getting the tramway track to perform perfectly with all trams before Upton Hall in June. I still need to work out why some trams run perfectly clockwise but not anticlockwise yet if the tram is then turned to run the other way it either runs perfectly both ways or neither......

Here it is- trackplan version 3.2 Third attempt at version 3, incorporating as many of the suggestions I've had so far as I can fit in or can remember... The colliery line rises steeply from crossing the road on the left to just before the points at the top of the landsale depot, which will be coal drops (Lyddle End detailed up). A colour light here would control access to the bank from the top. The line then bends round the back of the weighbridge and climbs again once past the shed road. The pithead is partly to obscure the fact that the screen roads are level rather than prototypically sloped- the line rising in front of the locoshed will help give the impression as trains are glimpsed exiting here. Screens are fed with full wagons from behind, and these are pushed forward. I'm planning to fit all the wagons on the colliery circuit with the Dapol magnetic couplers to allow them to be drawn off in ones and twos by the colliery pilot. I'm going to have to ignore the fact that the coal drops don't actually drop coal and switch wagons over while there is nobody looking ..... The ropeway loading house will have to be scratchbuilt to drop into place when the layout is assembled. The screens will also be scratchbuilt using some decent photos I have of Eccles colliery (which I know is in Northumberland...........). Others will be either scratchbuilt, Lyddle End or Farish, or heavily modified ditto. The signals on the main line- home or distant? I'm tempted to have the Southbound one (left) as a home, which would protect the entrance to the exchange sidings just offstage to the left. The Northbound a distant for the junction a mile on where the line into Dawdon Colliery turned off- or am I too far away from this by about a block section? As before, more suggestions would be helpful- it is unlikely I can start building this side of the summer- Gresby needs to go to its new home to clear the space. All the very best Les

Fiddleyard Schematic Hopefully this diagram will explain how the fiddleyard works. I've only drawn two of the roads- there will be five in each direction (a development from Trevor Webster's "Parnhams"). Nominal capacity is ten trains each way, though one long train a road here and there would reduce this. Top Valley & Rise Park is the Newark Group of Bingham MRC's project to replace Farndon Road. This and Hawthorn Dene will have similar fiddle yards for the roundy-roundies, though TV&RP will have a goods yard over one end. The diagram shows how two similar length trains would occupy one road and a long and a short could occupy another road in either order- the "short" section being two locos long. One road in each direction has a (on) - off - on biased DPDT switch to allow continuous running. Trackplan version 3 to follow, I've nearly drawn it..... Les

Hello again. Many thanks Steven for the note about the second pithead- for reasons of space I'll put it on the backscene- (and at £52 or so for the kit and I would imaging £100 to get it built I can't afford two!). I did buy two of the Farish pitheads but they are very crude by comparison. The etched one is so much better, even if it will hit me in the wallet- my right hand is getting worse despite exercise and support so building it myself is no longer an option. Thanks also, Brian, for the suggestion about the White Steps. It sounds just what is going to be needed to give some interest to the cutting at the colliery end. I wonder if they are still there- I'll look on Google Maps to see. I've been talking baseboards with Trevor Webster (why build my own when a trained cabinet maker has voulnteered to do them?...) and the slope to the beach is definitely on- dropping the baseboards to make it won't be an issue. We also looked at how to get the ropeway in, and it will probably run from a loading building at or near the centre join along just in front of the backscene on the left hand board to pass into the backscene as it sweeps round at the left-hand end. If I can work out a way to invert buckets it might be possible to make it work using Brawa parts, but I think it is more likely to consist of towers made from Brawa parts customised using Scale Link pylon etches with buckets stationary- they didn't run all the time. The loading building will need to be connected to the screens by a covered conveyor I think. Hopefully version 3 of the trackplan isn't far from gestatiing..... All the best Les

Hello 60091. All I've found so far for limestone traffic is covhops from the quarries near Ferryhill to ICI or British Steel. These appear to have been rakes of about 12 pulled by a WD. The only problem with using 21T hoppers for them is that the wagons used for the coal traffic were largely 21 tonners also, making the trains more boring. The roundy-roundy bit will be operated from the back. I've not yet decided where to put the control panel for this. I'm toying with having the colliery operable from front or back (two DIN plugs for hand-held), providing I can sort out changing points when running from the front- I'm not happy about using motors on these as access to them won't be easy. Points at each end of the fiddleyard will be code 80 Peco, with small wire loops from the stock rails to the point blades to keep them live all the time- that then allows the blades on the exit ends to be cut short and soldered rigid. The sections within the fiddleyard are then isolated both rail shortly beyond each point. This means the two point fans are always live to the running tracks. Within each loop are two sections (Furtwangen Ost has one section per loop on the railway). At the exit end the section is just two locos long, ie long enough to isolate a double-header or a DMU with the power car at position 2. The rest of the loop forms the other section. A train is selected simply by switching on the short section of the fiddle siding. This moves off round the layout. The one behind is advanced by switching on the long. It moves forward until its loco(s) are over the short and stops/is stopped. by switching off the short. When the train going round returns it is run into the loop and is stopped behind its partner. The only problem is that the two locos in each loop of the fiddle yard need to be reasonably well matched for speed- if a Farish diesel is crawling around the front a Union Millls in the same siding will race forwards and stop dead with its train in a heap on top of it. I have that particular T-shirt too many times.......... Hope this helps. I'll try to draw a diagram and update the colliery drawing before too long. Time for sleep- it has been a long weekend followed by a short but intensive break. Les

First Exhibition completed!!! Got to Cotgrave with no major problems other than a broken trestle, sorted with a phillips screwdriver borrowed from another exhibitor. Well received by punters (thank goodness). Plenty of kids enjoyed counting nuns and looking for Dr Who. Railway ran well all weekend apart from needing two extra screws to stop a point tubing moving sideways. Tramway not so hot- some trams ran better than others- track needs another going over. Main feeedback from a punter was to add window boxes to more of the town. Still short of operators for Upton Hall. To top off the weekend the new tram arrived on Monday. Pictures to follow but first the trestles need working at before the layout is erected again.

Proscenium (almost) done The proscenium painted and lettered. Not quite as bad as the shadow makes it appear- the left-hand end will have the NGS Member sign added and the exhibition plaques for the first two exhibitions will also go here. The worst problem was the amount of dust it picked up when drying. Final job is the curtain, and this is in hand. Next update from me will be some pics from Cotgrave Show if I get time to take them.....

N-gauge version for 2013-2014? Ever hopeful , nice NCB loco even if they only lasted to about 1954 in Coal Board service Les

Monday- name changed Mr Simon in workshop again, and I'm having a break from sorting Furtwangen Ost stock to take to Cotgrave this weekend. Second attempt at the trackplan- Changes from Version 1. I've moved the swing of the main line Southwards (left) to give more room for the slope down to the beach and widen the space for the colliery. The pithead gear is now parallel to the layout front which allows the colliery line Northwards to be straighter and for me to use Setrack for the 9 inch curve taking it offscene. I've made a first attempt at the ropeway, which will need to hit the backscene at both ends. The left hand end of this can be hidden better by curving the backscene more, but the right-hand end is more difficult. Still thinking. The colliery line now falls for a shorter distance. I need a gradient as an excuse to keep the trains shorter. I've marked the Dapol magnets at the mouth of the screens. I'm not sure about the weighbridge- I think I prefer it on the loop- it belongs there. However that might restrict my ability to add an engine shed and a landsale siding. I also need to get a plausible way of starting the ropeway- for obvious reasons it can't cross the board join in the middle. Any ideas? Les (back to stock sorting so I can test it tomorrow)

Ah- interesting to know that Get Carter was in Co.Durham- I must confess I had thought it nearer Blyth but didn't recognise where. I dion't think all the steam at Hawthorn Quarries wrer there at the same time- rather like at Fulwell further North, but it doesn't really matter- the quarries are well offstage. The problem with a ropeway is that if we are looking from the beach direction it really needs to come straight at the viewer, which is unbuildable. If it goes offstage to the right it gets in the way of the pithead- and I'm hoping to get one of those nice brass ones from Wrightscale, the contact has been made and an order placed, just waiting confirmation. I'll see if it can be fittted in going off to the left..... All the very best Les RMWeb still won't let me edit the first post and change the header......

Greetings Simon, and many thanks for the offer, which I may need to take up at some point. I'm keen to stay on the stretch of line the NER built rather than the former Londonderry Railway, which got a bit far from the coast North of Seaham. Going for the bit between Easington and the quarries gives me a line running closer to the coast, a cutting and maybe enough room to be able to get the slope towards the beach if my good friend Trevor Webster says he can manage it when making the baseboards- the main line will be at datum Zero so the colliery line can have the height advantage. I've already talked through with Trevor the engineering problems of having the line on embankment and they make the NCB line all but inoperable if the main line is to work as well. One thing I've not yet found out is what sort of wagons Hawthorn Quarry's traffic went out in- its sidings faced North and there was enough to keep three or four steam locos (latterly two diesels) busy- but what was the limestone actually carried in? All the very best Les Les

Name now settled. Looking in the Durham book I find one dene- Etherley Dene Drift, and two burns, Blaydon Burn and Twizell Burn. I like dene better so Hawthorn Dene Colliery it is. Geographically it would be in No.3 Area but could have a link (offstage) to Hawthorn Bank Top and then onwards to Hawthorn Cokeworks- this would also solve the stone problem as an airial ropeway is proving very difficult to fit into a plan, though I'm still working on it. The Colliery Pecket, posed on Furtwangen Ost. This came off eBay- it is a Farish J94 converted to a Peckett- and a good representation of an X2 class- it is meant to be Lord Salisbury from the Somerset Coalfield. However there was a similar loco (called No.1) at Fishburn Colliery- scrapped in 1958. I will either renumber it as No.1 as the Fishburn one transferred or add nameplates. Fortunately No.3 Area didn't have a numbering scheme, either for inherited or for new/acquired locos. The WD, posed at the same place. This also came off eBay, though I have OO-gauge Geisls converted by me. I can only find one Geisl-fitted WD in County Durham, No.1 area converted one in 1961, which then did the rounds of Boldon and Whitburn Collieries. I'll either repaint this one black and number it as 9 (a no.1 Area loco on loan) or keep it green and add a name as No.3 Area engine. The Topic name will change as soon as I can get "Edit" to work on the first post. Back to the drawing board, trackplan No.2 awaits.

Being one of those who used to annoy George Smith by renumbering and weathering Dapol locos , it is easier to get the numbers off the Dapol paint finish than the Bachmann//Farish......... " I know some people you can never satisfy ... " All the very best Les

Many thanks for the positive comment- I like Hawthorn Dene Colliery myself, though Hawthorn Burn Colliery also has a good North Eastern Ring to it- there was a Blaydon Burn Colliery and a Seaton Burn Colliery- though they were both Tyneside (one each side of the river). Must look in the Durham book to see if there were others- and to see which if any collieries had Dene in their names. Nice job for Sunday instead of falling asleep in front of the Grand Prix on the telly.... The fiddle yard will be the standard ten road yard that the Newark Group have evolved from Trevor Webster's Parnhams layout- each road is divided into long and short sections with the short being about 2 locos long. This allows two trains to be stored in each- the total length of the two being the length of the road- and the trains can be in either order and vary in length. The development from Parnhams is that the exit points are trailing only- the blades are cut short and soldered to leave a gap for trains to run out. I originally got the idea from Stephen Rabone, but Richard Deas used it on Littlewood, and my son Mr Simon has adopted it for Gresby. I do have a brace of 37s, one split headcode and one centre- they and a class 24 are on the roster.... So far for the colliery I have a WD 0-6-0ST with a Geisl ejector, and a Pecket 0-6-0ST, both on Farish J94 chassis, as front line. Hordern Collieries had a Peckett, but it was outside cylindered, and some of the local WD 0-6-0STs got Geisls, though more of these were North of the Tyne. I'll find a Durham one or give it the next blank number in the No.2 area list (I think 73 but may be wrong). Hawthorn would definitely be in No.2 Area rather than No.3 Area for a pit South of Blackhall. All the very best Les

Hello again. Having had a good look on Google Earth the Coast Line goes into cutting just North-East of Easington for about the distance I require, and there are two overbridges (all the better to hide the ends). The sea here is labelled as "Shippersea Bay". There is just north of this point a viaduct where a stream comes down into the sea- is this Hawthorn Dene? That gives me two possible appropriate better names for the layout- "Hawthorn Dene Colliery" or "Shippersea Colliery", though the latter might imply staithes, which I'm not going to build. Fillpoke Lane area is a non-runner, sadly, as the local topography is completely wrong- the Coast Line is on embankment and too open to hide the layout ends. Any ideas as to which is the better name? All the very best Les

Many thanks for the comment- it did help being able to work on it every day for several weeks. Things have been a little busier elsewhere recently- I'm on stage all this week (a pirate in Pirates of Penzance at Grantham). Also I've kept out of the workshop quite a bit in the last 2 or 3 weeks to give Mr Simon a fighting chjance to work on Gresby without his dad in the way..... Final (hopefully) coat of green on the front of the proscenium tomorrow- the sides and top can wait until after the first show- then the lettering is ready to apply in one go. After which I can get onto seriously planning the next one- and find a better name for it than Fillpoke Colliery. Must get on.....

Latest Toy York show saw a visit to Conti-kits stand looking for small diesels with NEM pockets. Didn't find any- still could do with a spare- but I did find this- an RS1 railcar by Bemo. It needs a valance and I may need to source some buffers. I've had to rebuild the corner of the wall behind the shed to give a little more clearance as it is bigger than anything I'd originally thought to use. Meanwhile repainting the proscenium goes ahead. The lettering has arrived for it- this will only need 24 hours to harden when the pros is ready for it. Only ten days to the first show- eek.

Greetings. Very many thanks gents for the suggestions. The idea of the chalet park (not caravans) was that one of the Tyneside councils opened a holiday park at Crimdon for boys from distressed backgrounds, with the original buildings being old Northern General bus bodies, which I thought mioght be interesting (though it aquired prefabs later, some of which looked a bit like the Ten Commandments model)- a couple of bus bodies plus a prefab and a Nissen hut was what I had in mind. Almost certainly going for early rather than mid to late sixties- I first visited Seaham Harbour in 1963, just able to see Milo and Mars, the ex-NER saddletanks, though sadly by then they were out of service. No station and no pointwork at all on the BR line- its function is to supply a succession of trains while the real playing is on the colliery line. Trains would be a pair of expresses with A3 or A1 haulage (I have a pair of professionally made Foxhunter A1s which need some work), a pair of parcels with A3, V2, B1 or A2/2 (Cock O'the North needs work also!), two locals in each direction with DMU, Fairburn or G5, then a through freight each way, a Northbound steel plate Hartlepool to Sunderland with return empties, a dolomite train of Covhops, and full and empty coal trains - a total of somewhere between seven and ten trains in each direction, depending on length. WDs on the Covhops, a Tyne Dock O1 (which is another loco needing a job) on one of the steel trains, and plenty of J25, J26 and J27s. Were there any fish trains along this line? Moving North into the Easington area also gives the possibility of an offstage link to the top of Hawthorn bank for stone disposal and to take coal to Hawthorn Cokeworks- that gives a bit more room to fit a landsale depot towards the left-hand end. The ropeway is also an attractive idea but would need to pass to the curve of the backscene to go offstage- I'll have to think about how this can be managed. Plenty to think about- I'll work up a second version of the trackplan over the next few days- and see if I can find a suitable name for the area between Easington and Dawdon. All the very best Les

Many thanks, Jack. I'll try to keep ideas on here in case I have some really stupid ones that need shooting down.... Just North of Easington Colliery, before you get to Hawthorn Quarries, there is a cutting through higher ground, which would suit, except the line is curving the wrong way at that point. Again there was never a colliery at this point but an older pit "could" have been there. A new pit would have too big a screening house for my purpose. Ownership would probably been Horden Collieries which I can cope with as far as the locos I have for the pit line. However i would lose the holiday chalets as they aren't suitable for that part of the coast- waste dumped onto the beach, but could possibly make a waste tip in front of the railway a second feature - the first feature being the colliery headstocks..... York show today. Time to get ready to go.

Note the trackplan evolved from its earlier provisional name of Crimdon Colliery. Minimum radius on main line 10.5" setrack, on colliery 192mm continental setrack.