railwayrod

I agree with your comment about the size of the V60 but remember that this loco is to 1:45 scale rather than our own 7mm which is 1:43.5 so the model is to a smaller scale and still looks bigger than one of our tank locos. Rod

Thanks Paul for your comment re Christmas Day Specials. These have been going for many years originally on my LGB layout which was situated in a caravan in the garden. Glad you liked them and hopefully they will go on for some years yet. Now for a picture of a visitor to Ramchester's metals. For some time now Howard, who lives on his own, and I have formed a "bubble" and have met up during the last month or so between lockdown periods. On Monday he turned up with his latest acquisition in the form of his latest loco. This is a DB class V60 diesel in era 3 livery. Here are a couple of pictures of it arriving at Ramchester. The loco is by Lenz and is fully DCC fitted with all the features you would expect from a current model even to the driver who turns to face the direction of travel. This is a fantastic model which will fill a hole in Howards stock. Rod

Firstly I would like to wish all the followers of this thread a Happy 2021 despite the latest lockdown. As regular readers will know the fiddle yard is undergoing point electrification to make operating the yard much easier for me. As a result regular services to and from Ramchester has been suspended while this heavy engineering work proceeds. However a great deal of behind the scenes activity including high level talks with Management and the Unions I am glad to say that permission was granted for the "Christmas Day Special" to run albeit in a casual truncated form. An 04 diesel was coupled to a well wagon and allowed to pass through the engineering site on the one engine in steam principle and arrived in Ramchester some what later than usual. Nevertheless it was greeted by an enthusiastic Maggie who was delighted at what was on board. Here are some pictures of the event which I hope you will enjoy. The train exits the tunnel and rounds the curve towards Ramchester. It slows as it approaches the station..... ....before negotiating the crossover and comes to a stop. Rod

Howard that station building is coming along really well and I can't wait to see it in the flesh. Keep up the good work. Rod

Hi Paul. As much as I would like to add a dairy to Ramchester space does not permit. Howard and I have spoken about adding a small industrial estate at the coal yard end but at present I just cannot face the upheaval that it might cause. It would mean altering the run round loop and a fair bit of baseboard extending (not too difficult as the benchwork is done on the L girder system) but also altering the control panel and possibly having to have more signals made. Still nothing is set in stone so all I can say is to keep following this thread and see what transpires. Rod

Firstly I hope that everyone who follows this thread had a really good Christmas despite the presence of the last minute restrictions imposed on us by BJ , Still the vaccine is gritting closer and I am pleased to say that all being well I will be in the next group to receive it. On Christmas Eve Maggie and I decided to take advantage of the fine weather and went for a 5 mile walk from home to the sea front and along the Prom, round the harbour and back via a different route. A pleasant walk on a nice day. Upon getting back home the postman had left a package on our front step which I immediately thought was something that I had ordered for Maggie as part of her Christmas present. While she was busy in the kitchen I looked at the parcel and realised that it did not come from any manufacturer but from a friend who had moved away from this area late last year. Vic Burles is a first class modeller and his scratch built locos are of the highest standard. He once built a fine S7 open wagon with full working brake gear - fantastic. When I opened the package I found to my joy and amazement a 7mm fine scale LMS tank wagon adorned with United Dairies livery. My friend has been having a clear out of some of his 7mm stock in order to concentrate on 16mm live steam and he thought of me knowing that it would fit into Ramchester very well. If you are reading this Vic many, many thanks. Here are a couple of pictures of the wagon sitting in one of Ramchester's sidings. My Christmas started with a very pleasant surprise which cheered me up no end. Rod

It is a few weeks since I posted anything so thought that I would bring you u to date with the happenings at Ramchester. I am ashamed to say that very little has been done - just enough to keep a little bit of headway until Howard and I can resume with the electrification of the fiddle yard points. The distance across the baseboards is such that I am unable to see what I am doing at that range hence waiting for the time Howard feels that it is safe enough for him to pop around. However I have been working on the control panel which is just beginning to take shape albeit at the moment consisting of bare wood. I have purchased the switches and the "chocolate bar connecters" ready to install as soon as the panel is ready - not too far away I hope. All the stock has been transferred to the station area which now looks like a very busy area with no more room for any more arrivals. In fact Sid the signalman is doing his nut wondering how to get out of this problem. Ah well happy days. Rod

Count me in. Rod

Hi Jon. Your bus looks superb - the culmination of many years of restoration I suspect. For some reason I had it in mind that your bus was a single decker not a huge double decker. Where on earth do you keep it? Not in your back garden unless you live in a mansion! Just an idea when it is finished could you get one of the model bus manufacturers to laser scan it amd produce a 7mm model. Might help to swell the coffers somewhat and give you a bonus for all your hard work. From the photograph it looks as though you have done an excellent job of restoration - well done. Rod

Hi Paul. Thank you for your comments on the Sentinel. It is a lovely little loco which runs and sounds well. I will eventually have it weathered probably by Jintyman when he can fit it into his schedule which will probably be some time next year. In the meantime she can run around the layout in beautiful spotlessly clean condition. Rod

There is nothing particularly good about this lock down except that you dont go out and spend money on coffees and meals and of course you can get on with working on the layout. Ever since Dapol announced that they were to produce a Sentinel loco I have been saving my pennies to buy one. I needed a DCC sound fitted version so had to wait a little longer but today it arrived. I debated with myself which version to get and the photos below show my choice. Here she is arriving at Ramchester but don't ask me how permission was granted for her to travel along the main line! She shunts a few wagons around ..... ... before pottering along the run round loop en route to the ...... ..... coal yard where she engages in a little more shunting. The loco runs very nicely and is highly detailed - a credit to Dapol (usual disclaimer) and at less than £300 a real bargain. It would make an ideal starting pount for anyone wanting to have a go at 7mm modelling - advert over!!! This is pure unadulterated indulgence on my part as the loco is totally out of period and it is very unlikely that it would ever have got anywhere near Ramchester in real life. But what the heck a little bit of what you fancy does you good and giving it a run this afternoon gave me a huge amount of pleasure. In any case I have applied rule 1. Rod

Hello Jon. You reached the same conclusion as me and as it happens Howard has given me some cranks which will hopefully help to solve the problem. All I have to do now is to get stuck into the job as quickly as possible. By the way how is the bus getting on? Is it finished yet? I would like to see a picture of it when it is nearing completion. Rod

As requested here are some pictures of the fiddle yard where you will see the problem on one or two points. If I had access to the underside of the baseboard it would be easy to instal motors with a shaft protruding above the surface with a crank. In some cases I think that I will have to mount the motors towards the front and connect them to the points through wire in tube. There is plenty of space to do this at the front and it would make wiring easier for me. We will see what takes my fancy. The above shot shows the throat of the fiddle yard and gives an idea of the challenge. The point at the top is quite close to the wall but there might - just - be enough space for a motor with a crank to fit in parallel to the track but for me wiring it would be almost impossible. The one in front is very restricted and I think wire in tube to the front is going to be the only answer. There is no problem with the point in the bottom of the photo as the motor can be mounted easily here. Again there is no problem with the point at the bottom of the picture but the one further back is restricted. Rod

The shape of things to come? I have not posted much this week so I thought it was about time to bring readers up to date. Howard and I (more him than me) have been doing bits and bobs down in Platform 2 over the course of the last couple of weeks during which he has continued to work on my BG and today he has made a start on a bit of weathering on my banana wagons while waiting for paint to dry on the BG. I have been looking at the possibility of electrifying the point in the fiddle yard to make operation for me much easier. The problem is that access to the underside of the baseboard is virtually impossible owing to the fact that this yard is build directly over a built in line of shelves containing all my railway books. This necessitates everything being on the baseboard surface but space between the tracks is a little limited with some points so Peco point motors will not fit. I have been thinking about using servos and this seems to be a likely solution. More on this anon. You may be asking yourselves what has this got to do with the title at the head of this post. Well here is the answer. I just could not resist these even though they could not possibly have run into Ramchester other than as a test run. As Howard pointed out two of them have TOPS coding and are thus out of period but rule 1 applies here - I like them and it my layout, lol. The four new wagons. D2227 shunts them clear of the run round loop into an empty siding. These new 24 ton hoppers dwarf my 10 ton mineral wagons which is what the local coal merchant is used to. Will there be a change of period in the future? Probably not but I like these models from Accurascale and am glad I purchased them before they go off the market. Rod

Hi Peter. Thanks for your valued comments on my Ramchester layout, they were very much appreciated. Next I enjoyed the video of the 31 and the Mark 1's. They look nice on your layout. I intend to buy a rake of Mark 1's but am waiting for the Dapol/Lionheart ones to arrive before I decide which ones to buy. I have now had more practice in controlling Ramchester from my phone using both Android and iphone and on balance I am favouring the former but both work very well. Your layout is coming along fine and you have made a lot of progress over the last few weeks and I am following this with a great deal of interest. Keep us all in touch and more pictures please! Rod

Today Howard and I were joined by our friend Peter Martin who popped in to give his new Minerva loco a run and stayed for the rest of the afternoon. We had our usual drinks (tea/coffee) and choccy biscuits and had a chat and a play. Here are a few pictures of his loco. Even from this low angle the loco is dwarfed by the ex LMS suburban coaches (Ian Kirk kits - made up for me by Howard). It then sets off for the junction. As it approaches the tunnel the driver gives a toot, toot on the whistle. Class 04 diesel No D2227 makes ready to shunt the suburban coaches into the adjacent platform to form the mid day local to wherever. More soon. Rod

Been having a few problems with my camera not talking to my computer so nothing has been posted for a little while. However I think it is now sorted so here we go.The first picture shows a general view of the goods yard and yes the two chaps are still chatting and drinking tea!! Next we have a photo of the station garden usually attended to by the station porter - that's why no one can find him when someone wants cases or luggage carrying! The station cat looks on with a disinterested aire as there is nothing about to attract his attention. Jinty 47361 having replenished its water supply awaits the signal to move off the siding to commence its shunting duties. Finally here is a shot of the lines only remaining LNWR signal which stand guarding the tunnel entrance. Note the repair job at the base of the post - a nice piece of modelling from Jon Fitness. More anon. Rod

When Howard first posted Ramchester on RMweb I never thought that we would or could reach 100 pages and almost 140.000 views. What a journey it has been, challenging at times but always enjoyable. It has been really nice to "meet" fellow enthusiasts within these pages and to have a few of you visiting the layout. One thing I am very grateful for is that if I had a query over something there has always been someone reading these pages who has come up with the answer. A great deal has occurred during the last 10 years of construction culminating in the layout being "Railway of the Month" in the April edition of the "Railway Modeller" an achievement of which I am very pleased and proud. Thank you to every one of you who has followed this thread and for the support over the years that you have given me. Don't forget that if you are down this end of the country and would like to see the layout do please get in touch by PM. Rod

Hi Paul. The question of lining is down to Howard but I suspect not. Rod

As promised in my last post here is a photo of the BG which Howard is completing for me. It is shown standing in Ramchester's platform 1 minus its roof. Still a fair way to go yet but at least it is on its way. We are still seeking info as to what colour the inside was painted, any information gratefully received. Rod

This afternoon Howard and I got together to further progress the layout and its stock. In a previous post I mentioned that Howard has been working on my BG and this afternoon he continued with this project. He has been busy adding the steps and footboards to the van which he made up from some parts in the original kit and a bit of scratch building. Today he painted these and touched up some of the areas that I had previously done. He also sprayed the guards cabin with grey primer so this will be ready for him to paint as soon as we can determine what colour the inside of a BG was painted. In the meantime I embarked on a locomotive maintenance programme which I have more or less neglected for quite some time. I tackled the 4F first which has an ABC gearbox meaning that the wheels are free to rotate under finger power so cleaning the wheels was a simple task. Later I lubricated the bearings on both the axle boxes and the crank pins. It was then time to give it a run and it now runs considerably smoother than before. The afternoon seemed to slip by and before we knew it it was time to pack up. I will post a picture of the BG next time all being well. Rod

This afternoon I had another visitor to Ramchester - Nick Leyman who is a local guy with interests in both 00 and 0 gauges. He is someone who Maggie got talking to in Sainsbury's and has been interested in railways for many years.He also knows several people who both Howard and I know so we had a lot to talk about. I took a couple of pictures during the day which I am posting here for you all to peruse. I hope you like them. Class O4 diesel No D2227 shunts it's train into the milage siding to clear the running lines for the departure of the afternoon goods. The train having departed the shunter and the goods shed attendant share a few quiet moments before their next duty. Sorry for the picture quality on this shot. Earlier both the lines Jinties had to pause for water ready for the task of sorting out the newly arrived goods train. If you are reading this Nick I hope you enjoyed your visit as much as Howard and I enjoyed your company. Rod

On Wednesday afternoon my friend Peter Martin joined Howard and I for another "get together". Peter is well into DCC and decided that I ought to be able to control locos on the layout via my Android phone. He plodded away and some 40 minutes later Hey Presto he had it sussed. I need to get used to doing it from my old phone but the advantages are enormous for me as now I can walk alongside the train and stop it where it needs to stop instead of standing at the control panel and viewing the trains progress through my mini monocular. He suggested that if I have problems in seeing my old phone I should purchase a cheap tablet with a bigger screen which should help. Time will tell but watch this space. Rod

Hi Amanda. While it is true that you can get more in using 4mm or even N gauge the larger scale has much more presence and heft. You can really get in close to the model and see all the detail etc and to watch say a Jinty slowly creeping up to its wagons and kissing the buffers is magic. As I indicated earlier at the end of the day it is your layout and deep down you know what you want to do. Make a start on a building or something and I am sure that as you like building things such a project will get you hooked. Even a simple lineside hut built from scratch will give you a lift and a great deal of satisfaction when finished. Go on, you owe it to yourself to have a go. Rod

During your visit Peter the release crossover appeared to have a bit of a dead spot causing locos to stop or stutter. My friend Peter Martin came down this afternoon and he diagnosed a dry solder joint. He put this right for me and now all is OK. It therefore was my track that needed attention rather than your Patriot. Rod