islandbridgejct

Peter, I found your thread after reading your posts on Peterborough, which I think makes me an online stalker - sorry about that. This is a fascinating exercise in layout planning. Could I offer a variation on Gilbert's suggestion? Mr Google says the distance from Calton Hill Tunnel to the end of the overall roof is less than 280m. That's 4m in OO, so you'll have lots of lovely shed roof under which, as Gilbert says, you will see nothing (have you seen what Jim Smith Wright has done?) and you'll only need < 6m at the right for your station and curves. There'll be big gaps between the tracks going into the trainshed where the platforms are, but you won't be able to see the platforms and you won't need to model them. So forget the platforms and plant stub end fiddle tracks there instead. You can run out of Waverley, round your loop and into a fiddle siding which is actually back in Waverley, but hidden out of sight, and not poking out the front end of the station. You've plenty of room there for a 12 coach train, and you can either put a crossover at the end of your siding for engine release, or back a different engine on the train and run it back to Waverley. That eliminates the need for the fiddle yard to take up almost any space at all. If you take Gilbert's advice and have a scenic break at the bridge, you can fit all of this in the open. (In fact, you could almost do the same thing at the other end and model King's Cross the same way (210m -> 3m in OO) - but not quite: I checked and you'd need at least 14m / 45ft for that.) So if you sort it out that way, fiddle on the left, interleaved with Waverley on the right, you could put your shed on the right end wall, with a stiff gradient up to it - locos on their own should handle that, and you still have your bottom wall free for the scenic section. (You could even build Little Bytham, Grantham, or Peterborough there, but that would be getting carried away.) I'll be following with interest to see what you decide on. Best wishes. Alan

Och, where's the 'sad' button gone. I was looking forward to developments and wondering what had happened. Good luck with the next project, and do please post it here. Alan

Pondering on whether less is more. I've been struck by Tony Wright's assertion that for him, 30' is the minimum you need for a convincing ECML layout, whereas I find both Little Bytham and Peterborough North totally convincing in photo form. Grantham too is superb, and ticks all the boxes. The tentative conclusion I've come to is that more is more and less is less, but it's your ability to focus on what you have and what you want to show, and to maintain that focus through the planning and execution, that makes a layout convincing. All three layouts give me that sense of anticipation that you get before a train comes in, whether it's sliding under Crescent Bridge, thundering down the fast line, or rattling over the station throat. But I am every bit as amazed and awestruck by Tucking Mill (for instance) as I am by Peterborough. Like the man said, it's not about size. (But more is still more, even though less may well be enough.) And now I'm off to keep pondering whether to convert my attic (6m x 4m, accessed by a nasty loft ladder), my carport (7m x 6m at the bottom of the garden) or just build a portable layout up to 10m x 1.5 down the middle of the sitting room. (Domestic authorities reserve the right to veto all plans.) I think I'll just knock up another wagon prototype - haven't got one right yet. Alan

"........................................" (Sorry. I'm speechless. So perfect. So beautiful. And so staggeringly small.) Alan

Thanks for that post - I'm considering the merits of both, and of Proto-Cab battery control, at the moment, so it's interesting to hear some balanced pros and cons. I recently discovered your blog and am very much enjoying your lovely models. Wenlock, if you'd like genuine pre-Edwardian steam sound, you could try the RPSI in Belfast - No 186 is nearly 140 years old, and plenty of clips of her on the internet. Converting the sounds to DCC might be more difficult though. I presume there are some similarly ancient preserved specimens lurking on the other island? Best wishes and thanks, Alan

Interesting discussion. The Intoxicating Liquor Act 1927 provides (over here): 14.—Nothing in this Act shall be deemed to prohibit or restrict— (a) the sale at any time at a railway station of intoxicating liquor on arrival or departure of trains to passengers who have travelled or hold tickets entitling them to travel on those trains for a distance of not less than ten miles to or from such railway station, or (b) the supplying at any time of intoxicating liquor on licensed premises to any private friends of the holder of the licence bona fide entertained by him at his own expense in any part of such licensed premises other than the part in which the sale of intoxicating liquor generally takes place, or (c) the sale of intoxicating liquor in passenger vessels in pursuance of the Acts in that behalf, or (d) the sale of intoxicating liquor for consumption on a railway restaurant car in pursuance of the Acts in that behalf, or So railway refreshment rooms could serve passengers, and so could restaurant cars. I imagine there was something similar in the UK: the Irish Free State and His Majesty shared a disapprobation of the intoxicated state, though their citizens or subjects found it hard to work up the same fervour. My grandfather used to avail of his rights as a bona fide traveller, which involved driving 5 miles outside the City boundary to a pub which could then serve him outside hours, and it seems this right also existed in England: http://www.pubhistorysociety.co.uk/1872.html . A great man for the old drink driving was the grandfather, and, being a solicitor, he knew his licensing law. Judging by the link, the English interpretation was stricter; but implementation is where we always fall down. The Scots, as you know, never touch a drop, so none of this applies to them. A vessel outside territorial waters is subject to the law of the state whose flag it flies. For an Irish vessel, that means it would be totally exempt from licensing hours. An interesting aspect of the Irish laws is the number of people who travelled by train on Good Friday, a day when all pubs were closed by virtue of Section 2 of the same Act. A recent article in the Irish Railway Record Society Journal detailed a time-keeping trip from Dublin Kingsbridge to Athlone on a Good Friday, and notes that the train was well packed and that the GSR added two extra carriages at the last minute. There was much head scratching here about the number of people packing the train until I realised - a bank holiday and not a drink to be had the length and breadth of the country. Presumably the passengers repaired to the station refreshment room in Athlone, or exercised their rights as bona fide travellers in a local public house. The same restrictions applied on Christmas Day and Saint Patrick's Day, but trains would not run on those days. I hope these are of use: Irish laws are based on pre-independence UK laws which were generally the same or similar.

"Out of the way, Mick. This one's got express headlamps!"

Basically one was designed by an Inchicore man and the other by a limerick man. Hope that helps. Alan

NIce model. Some information for you about EGVs and GSVs. BREL Mk 2 and 3 coaches used by CIE / IR / IE had electric heating and lighting which was powered by an electricity generating van (EGV). Cravens coaches and some others had steam heating and 'train line' electric lighting, which was provided from a generating steam van (GSV) producing both steam and electricity. These coaches had a TL suffix. I think they could be mixed in a train with other stock provided the TL coaches were next to the GSV, but I'm not sure on that. Ordinary stock had steam heating provided from a heating and luggage van (HLV), but ligthing was provided by a dynamo beneath the floor driven from a coach axle in the time honoured manner. So the 3 principal types of van in the late 70s, early 80s, which was the time I was paying most attention, were the HLV, GSV and EGV. The Dutch vans started off as GSVs, and you'd see them with Cravens stock. They were converted to EGVs to work with 2nd hand BR Mk2b stock as the older 1950s coaching stock was withdrawn. But you probably knew all of that already. Good luck with the rest of the build. Alan

Very impressive ... but I think the signalman might need to check the tail lamps. Alan

If Gordon ever finishes his layout, you should run this on it. Quint Eastwood. Sorry, I was just feeling lucky. I'll get my coat. Alan

I particularly like the shot of the B1 with its whole train in shot under Crescent Bridge. Nice composition and a reminder that, away from the ECML, it wasn't all 11/12 coach expresses. Using a zoom lens distorts the relationship between near and far items. If it's allowed, so is photoshopping. Carry on. Alan

As a rather extreme example of this, Clements and McMahon (Locomotives of the GSR, p239) cite the example of GSR no 404: orders were received for its withdrawal in 1930, but because it had always been a class favourite, its number plates were swapped with no 409, and 409 went to its eternal reward while no 404, masquerading as 409, soldiered on until 1955. I gather something similar may have happened with the NCC's jeeps. My point being that you might go to all that trouble to model a particular loco as it was on a particular day, right down to the scratches on the rivet heads, only to discover that the loco you thought you were modelling wasn't the loco you thought it was at all, and that you were modelling a completely different loco. Well, you'd feel pretty silly if you found out Mind you, to argue against myself, the 400 class are also a good example of why you should actually take care to model a particular engine, since each member of a class of 9 seemed to have a different combination of cylinders, valve gear, running plates, external plumbing, smokebox doors, cabs and smoke deflectors, depending on who built them, when or if they were rebuilt, and which type of rebuild they got. There was no such thing as a typical engine. Alan

The site wouldn't let me click 'thanks', 'agree', 'informative' and 'craftsmanship' all at the same time, so: I agree with the sentiments about semaphores; found the explanation of your method of constructing them highly informative; and think that, with the combination of lattice posts, somersault arms, and working mechanism, your signals are works of great craftsmanship. Thanks for posting them. Alan

I like the double sided buffer stop a lot. How to prevent those b****y shunters using your siding as a through road and moving your departmental stock out of the way in the process. The close up of the building makes clear what was causing the difference in the lower brickwork in the earlier photos. It's been repointed. Presumably steam leaking out of various vehicles parked alongside over the years would have damaged the brick and necessitated a bit of mortar. About that wall on the edge of the yard, there's insufficient information to say what was there, but there's lots of lovely stuff in front of it - wooden frames and, in one picture, what looks like the lower half of the wall of a demolished building. Might I suggest a trick from your legal days? If in doubt, obfuscate - and in this case there's plenty of sh... stuff to throw in the way. Alan (Nice B17 by the way.)

About the wall. It's probably more important that the boundary wall should run outside the shed to the left, as the shed is clearly more recent and is built inside the railway's property, so I'd expect the wall to continue behind it. (I haven't contributed in ages, but I'm still following and enjoying developments.) Alan

That really is stunning work. Utterly inspirational. Alan

They're beautiful. Any chance of some larger images so I can ogle some more? Alan

Very nice. I hope the driver doesn't try leaning out of his cab though. Alan

That's more progress than I'm making, and a very fancy glass for a workbench. The contents look quite appealing too. I suppose one of the advantages of 2mm finescale is that there's more room for a little tipple. (Always a pleasure to see some progress on your magnum opus.) Alan

Thanks. I was going to ask about the logic, actually. I'd better not. I'll only scare away your regulars. I'd love to see Kilbrandon in the flesh, but very much enjoyed its appearance in BRM over the Summer. (Was it BRM? I can't remember now.) I'm wondering, when I finally get off my butt and do some modelling, whether to go for Joyce's Dubliners, Strumpet City, or The Irish RM. I'm not sure I could pull off quaintly Oirish, but I'm not enough of a pessimist to do the grinding poverty and emigration. Sorry, I'm rambling now. I like your D2. She looks about the same size as a Kerry bogie. Alan

Glad to see the electronics are Heathcote rather than Heath Robinson. I confess to being interested by the electronics, but as a bit of a beginner (well, a lot of a beginner in fact). I presume these are latching relays, releasing power to the signal controls only when the points are set. Is there a further set to cut power to the points once the signal is off, and restoring it when the signal is back on? Is the result just achieved by wiring up in a particular order, or do those circuit boards require some progamming? Alan

Oh dear. Just when I had decided not to expect the Spanish Inquisition.