Tony Teague

So here now is the long promised update on progress with Churminster Station yard. I have been trying to do justice to Geoff Taylor's excellent model of the station which I pictured in post #13 when it arrived, and then in post #19 once it had been set into the platform edge, however the station forecourt and the area to the right of the station, towards the loco shed had remained incomplete.This could be seen in the 3rd picture in my last post #23. Whilst it is probably not "finished" I have since made enough progress for me to be happy to show what it now looks like; the first picture looks down the entrance road to the station forecourt, with the loco shed yard to the left: The second shot is taken in the same direction but from the loco shed roof! Finally, I climbed one of the tall loco yard lighting gantries to take an aerial shot: The three locos in the yard when these pictures were taken were all ex-LSWR locos: No.472 - a Drummond D15 4-4-0 from a PDK kit No.499 - a Urie S15 4-6-0 from a DJH kit No.522 - a Urie H15 4-6-0, also from a DJH kit All three kits were built by Chris Phillips whom I have mentioned previously. In the background, and across the tracks shunting the goods yard is No.2473, an ex-LBSCR Billinton E4, RTR by OO Works. Whilst these images show significant progress, there are some small areas to be completed, more signage added, and perhaps some street lights to the forecourt. What the pictures also show is that there is now a further significant amount to be done to get the shed and shed yard up to the same level..... Tony Edited to give credit to the loco kit builder!

Really sorry to hear this and to be missing the layout at Warley. I hope that the miscreants are caught and punished, but I also hope that the van & contents were insured... In any event, I wish you the very best in recovering the situation as quickly as possible. Tony

Since my last update I have been working steadily through what was needed to finish off the forecourt and approach to Churminster Station; this does not sound much, but I suspect that it has already absorbed over 25 hours work, and I am still not quite there. Jobs completed include installing painting & weathering pavements, completing fences and filling in odd cracks & joins, as well as getting the colouring of the granite sets in the roadway to a more acceptable colour. I be able to show some shots of this in the next couple of days. At the same time, my good friend Mike Gascoigne who is a local artist who has kindly agreed to help me in painting the backscenes, has been completing the tricky job of decorating the areas between and behind the rows of shops and terraced houses that sit just above Churminster Station. It clearly would have been easier to paint this area before the buildings were installed - but hindsight is a great thing - and so we have, or rather Mike has, had to resort to paint sections of backscene onto card which we have then mounted and affixed to the wall at the rear. Here is a "before" picture: and after (sorry, they don't exactly match!): I am really delighted with what has been achieved, as it really seems to complete the scene and bring things to life; here is a more detailed shot of one section showing the painted buildings in between & behind those along the High Street: Tony

Tony Good to see you at the Spalding Show which I greatly enjoyed. I completely agree on choice of layouts - the scenic modelling of the lime works on "Hindlow" was really excellent, whilst it is hard to fault "The Gresley Beat" as an exhibition layout - there was always something going on, the buildings are inspirational, and there is plenty of variety in the trains modelled. I talked to a couple of the team working the Gresley Beat and they were each enthusiastic and knew all about the layout, and I'm afraid that this contrasted with Ogden Fold, where the modelling is to an equally high standard, but where very little was moving and something was amiss each of the three times I went back to have a look - trains dividing (twice), derailments (at least twice) and the "hand of god" required too frequently - which is a shame if you are going to exhibit. Overall, one of the better mid-sized shows; I will be back next year. Tony

On the 'dumbing down' theme, I cancelled my subscription to one of the 4 main railway modelling magazines a while ago because I got so fed up with reading "lists" - "10 ways to make a hedge", "10 ways to improve your RTR loco", or "10 things to do with a bag of ballast" - and they kept repeating, always looking at the same small range of topics. Worse still, they never attempted to look at anything more complex - building a loco kit for example. I believe that to some extent this may now have improved a little, but it is not what I want to be reading each month - presumably someone does. Tony

Congratulations on the 500 pages Tony! It may be that the bulk of contributions are from others, but I don't think any of us is under any illusion about who is driving - so a great achievement. Thinking about favourite layouts, I tried to consider what put them on my list, and I have to say that there is no theme whatsoever; perhaps it is like art - you just have to be "grabbed" by what you see - the "eye of the beholder"; this also means that I could not rank them within the list. Of course, I won't have seen as many layouts as you, Tony, but my short list of favourites would be (in no particular order & for multiple different reasons): Little Bytham (well obviously!) The Gresley Beat Rowlands Castle Bath Green Park Liverpool Lime Street Penmaenpool (Geoff Taylor) Fisherton Sarum (had to have a Southern one in there!) Leicester South GC I'm sure I'll think of a few more as soon as I hit "Post"! Tony

Just worked y way through your interesting thread. Although I have quite a few, including some kit-built, (plus the Irwell Press book) I had not actually realised the number of M7 variations that existed. I will have to get my M7 collection all together for a group photo! Keep it up! Tony

It is a little while since I posted an update, and although there has been a little progress with the area behind Churminster Station, I thought I would provide a bit more detail about how the layout is controlled. I have mentioned previously that DC / analogue controls are used - I like to think that I am working on the "two wire principle" - two wires to each & everything! I built the original small control panel which can be part seen at bottom centre of the first picture that I posted in #1 above, but by then it was already becoming obvious that something more substantial would be needed. My highest priority in engaging with Elite Baseboards (as before, no connection other than as a satisfied customer!) was to get the Control Panel rebuilt and developed into something more appropriate, but I found the first question that they asked me - "Where's the plan?", a little embarrassing, given that I have a background in project management - because there wasn't one! Ultimately the new panel will have a printed aluminium top, but the guys from Elite persuaded me that starting off with a paper template would be a good idea, as I was likely to change things; we are currently on version 18 which rather proves them right! The near-current Control Panel design is pictured in #7 above, but the two pictures that follow show how the work to transfer connections from the old to the new panel started out. Whilst I am pretty confident with electrics, I feel less so when it comes to electronics, and so I also asked Elite to build several diode matrices to control the entry and exit points to the various fiddle yards; these are quite substantial, in that route setting is done via a single button which may fire up to 5 point solenoids at once - and potentially a number of relays. There are six diode matrices in all, and each is surface mounted in locations close to the points that they control, but where they will not normally be visible. All are fed from a single CDU. Here is an example diode martrix- Installing these taught me an awful lot about the importance of having the right size diodes, the right gauge of cable, the right size CDU, and the right trigger voltage feeding the CDU; any one of these being wrong can render the whole system incapable. Once set up, route selection is exceedingly reliable; most teething troubles were caused by sticking / poorly installed point motors (solenoids) or faulty points. Whist I did not want the layout to be "automatic", my desire to operate the layout sole meant that it was important for trains to stop automatically when returning to the fiddle yard, and equally where a fiddle yard road held two trains, for these to move up automatically. To make this happen I have used infra-red / IRDOT detectors from Heathcote Electronics and at present there are around 70 of various types installed and operational. Teething troubles with these largely related to my installing them too close to the end of a fiddle yard road - so that the train over-ran the points, or in adjusting the sensitivity to deal with all types of loco or train. A lesson that I learned very quickly when installing the second / top layer fiddle yard above the main one beneath was the need to paint the underside of the top deck in a very dark colour to avoid upsetting all the detectors beneath! There is still some fine tuning to be done at a small number of locations, but I have found these detectors very reliable and will be using more of them in conjunction with signals - when installed. For each storage road, the Control Panel has a red "set entry" button, a track occupied LED indicator (or two for double length roads), a red "set exit" button, and finally a black "release" button; the release button over-rides the IRDOT which has caused the train to stop automatically in the correct position. This arrangement can be seen for 3 of the four fiddle yards in the picture below. At present the occupancy LED's are red, but I have found that this can be confusing with other red/green LED's used to indicate point settings elsewhere on the panel, and so when we install the final "Top" to the Panel, the occupancy LED's will be switched to blue. I hope that this will be of interest - I will revert to an update on progress in my next posting. Tony

Les Understood - but Glasgow is a long way! Do you have anything else south of the border in 2017? Best wishes Tony

Would that be Doncaster? In which case, you are currently missing from the list of layouts (as you were initially for Peterborough!). Here's hoping that you will be there! Tony

Hi Iain Just found and worked through your inspirational thread. I am particularly envious of your architectural modelling and related painting skills - something that I really want to do better at myself in the future. Will follow your new / revised developments wit interest Best wishes Tony

Thanks Edwardian A lot of the effect on the platforms was achieved using powders which I don't think will be so good here, so I shall try a bold approach to dry brushing - I think it is probably needed. Tony

I promised an update on progress made with improving & finishing the area around Churminster Station, so as to bring it closer to the high standard of the station building itself. Well, so far all has not gone well; the platforms are in place, complete with lights and some signage has started to appear; the forecourt area has been laid with granite sets and painting of these has commenced - but what colour should granite be? My first coat in Humbrol 67 dark grey was way out and so now I am going to have to work hard to bring it back to something more sensible! Any suggestions as to the right mix of colours will be greatly appreciated! Alongside the forecourt, attention has been applied to the locoshed & yard which, like most areas, had been started but never completed; it was here that I found that I had made a pretty stupid error! I fitted a Heljan tunrtable a long while back and then laid track up to it, however I was not able to properly test it as I had not completed the wiring. A little later I started to lay some ballast nearby and took the opportunity to lay a ballast / coal / polyfiller mixture into some of the turntable loco sidings - all good so far BUT... When I came to test & program the turntable I quickly realised that it was not correctly installed. Heljan turntables (like some others) have an area where no tracks should be connected, since this is the point at which the table itself changes polarity and so is electrically dead - I had installed the turntable with this area precisely aligned with the three storage roads leading off the table....and of course, these were all very well secured under a thick ballast mix. Following the uttering of loud & copious expletives, I reached for the Dremel and cut through each of the tracks to remove the first 2 - 3 inches, before removing the turntable, rotating it about 90 degrees and re-installing it. Should I ever install a turntable again, I will have learned a difficult lesson, because the additional work involved is considerable! You live and learn, but what the last picture also highlights is the great need to weather the turntable pit as well as anglicising the deck; again, any experiences in dealing with these issues would be most welcome. Tony

Dave That sounds like a tempting offer...! If I go back to my key aim of having at least one model of every loco type that the Southern Railway had on the books at nationalisation, I reported in an earlier, separate, thread ( http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/111735-missing-southern-locomotives/ ) that I had reached the point where I only had 7 types missing, and in each case there was no obvious solution or kit available. I am continuously on the lookout for potential solutions for those seven, which are: Ex-LSWR - S11, C14 (have been waiting on CSP/Agenoria for some time on this one, but the former proprietor Roger Slade has sadly now passed away) Ex-SECR - B1, F1 (I have a very old Jidenco kit for the latter, although whether it can be made into anything good is open to question!) Ex-LB&SCR - D3X, C3, I1X So my response to your question is that there are two potential needs: (i) finding a solution to one of the above, or (ii) building an additional loco for a class that I already have but which may be under-represented in the fleet (one can NEVER have too many locos, although the better half fails somehow to grasp this point!). I'd be keen to progress something with you, and I am certain that if we bat some ideas back and forth we will come up with a plan! Best wishes Tony

Couldn't agree more - for me, it was missing the spectacle that Lime Street would have brought! Tony

Thanks Barry The ex-SECR, SR Stirling R is from a current SE Finecast kit (F193) and it has a Mashima motor with SEF gearbox. Tony

Thanks Dave, and here is a picture of No.531 hauling the pick-up goods through Stowe Magna: So far, this is the only train on the layout in which all of the wagons are weathered - another big job for the future... Tony [Edited to correct spelling]

As another one of those who had previously never built a loco in his life - although I hasten to add that I have built kits of every other kind! - I have recently taken lessons from the 'master' and can now show the first result - which is a Southern Railway Stirling R class 0-6-0. It is almost finished in that, as will be obvious, it has as yet no couplings or coupling hook. I mainly use tension lock couplings and so after further consultation I now propose to use Tony's wire method which seems very unobtrusive: Tony had some involvement in this one as it was the subject of our lessons, but in order to show that I was listening, I am now 2/3rds of the way through a 2nd build and will post pictures in due course. May I also add that, with encouragement from others, I have recently started a thread covering my own layout and would welcome visits and comments: http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/115550-churminster-stowe-magna-southern-railway/ Tony

Many congratulations Tony, and good wishes to Mo! I hope to see you this coming weekend at Peterborough. I should also soon be able to post pictures of my first completed kit built loco - built with your kind assistance as you taught me how it should be done - and of the second, built by me alone, to show that I was listening! Best wishes Tony

Never having written any kind of 'blog' before, I am uncertain as to how much background or explanation I should give, but I feel the need to return briefly to the history of how the layout developed; I "completed" the area around Stowe Magna station more than 10 years ago, and the high level shopping street above Churminster station within a year or two thereafter. I think I had got bored with trackwork & wiring, but when I say "completed", what I mean is that I had spent a lot of time building card kits by Metcalfe and many other more obscure providers, and laying out the townscapes that have not really changed much since. Stowe Magna: Churminster High Street: After that, business pressures meant that for a long period I had very little time to work on the railway, so that as I approached retirement I would open the door to the railway room, look around, get depressed by how much there was to be done, walk out and close the door - I think it is called railway modellers block! Until then, almost everything had been undertaken by me personally - trackwork, wiring, controls, woodwork, scenery, buildings from card kits, wagons & coaches from plastic kits - all except loco building as mentioned above, where I felt I neither had the time nor the skill, but I realised that what I had started was so big that unless I now got some help, I was likely to give up and scrap the whole thing, which was going nowhere. The first person I spoke to said, without asking me anything about what I wanted, that I simply needed to convert everything to DCC and all would be well. We did not speak again, and I found this depressing since, whilst I needed help, I still wanted to do things my way. I continued my search and eventually came upon John Freer and Giles Walburn of Elite Baseboards ( http://www.elitebaseboards.net/ )(no connection other than as a satisfied customer!) who listened carefully, made sensitive and constructive suggestions, and as a result have worked with me periodically since then to move things along in my chosen direction. I will cover more of what has been done with Elite in a later post, but I found that getting others involved was highly motivating and since then, around 15 months ago, I have turned to others for specialist help, whilst continuing to undertake the majority of the work myself. One area where I particularly wanted to improve things related to buildings; whilst I felt that I had built numerous card kits as well as they could be built I really wanted to do better - and so I decided to commission one "iconic" Southern Railway building - Churminster Station, and this was built for me by Geoff Taylor of Dewsbury Midland / Gresley Beat fame ( http://www.gtbuildingsmodels.co.uk/ ). This is a truly exquisite model based upon scale plans for the LSWR station at Honiton; I had actually asked for a blend of Axminster & Honiton - both designed by Tite, but when it came to naming the town and station I felt that "Honxminster" did not sound right! Churminster Station: I did, of course, realise that installing such a building might show up some of what had gone before, but was determined to raise my own standards and I am now dealing with the unenviable task of bring the station forecourt and surroundings up to the level of Geoff's building! I will bring you some work in progress pictures in my next post. Tony

"The main thing is that it doesn't matter if you've got the world's most realistic model railway, or a set track, roundy roundy train set, as long as you're having fun, that's really all that matters and judging by your layout, you seem to be having loads of it." -- I couldn't agree more! Tony

Hi Scoobyra Just worked through your thread, and I have to say that your attention to detail leaves me standing! I guess some of us just get used to accepting compromises, whereas you are determined to deal wit them all. My own standards have improved massively since I started, but even the thought of going back and re-doing things I started a few years ago leaves me cold! Keep it up! best wishes Tony

Well since you have asked... Here are two images taken from 'AnyRail' which Elite Baseboards used to map the trackwork ahead of building the control panel; the plans are not 100% up to date, especially in the area of Churminster station and yard, but they will give you a good idea when read in conjunction with the Control Panel illustations in post #7 above. The first shows the main and lower levels with Stowe Magna station & yard along the bottom: Churminster station and yard is on the diagonal and everything above the line that runs through it is or will be hidden. The second image shows the top level and how it connects but I have removed the main fiddle yard (which sits below the top one) in this image to avoid confusion: I think you'll agree that there is plenty of room for operational variety! By the way, I have not said, and no-one has asked, but the layout is conventional DC analogue controlled. Tony

Now that's what I call a Lifetime Project! --- Thanks for your comments Dave - as it happens I am a long term follower of your thread and I believe that I have one of your loco builds on the layout - an SR Q No.531 built from a Wills kit - and very fine she is too! I will take a picture of her in action and post it soon. Best wishes Tony

OK so here is the best I have in terms of a track plan - it is actually from the Control Panel design (by Elite Baseboards) and shows 1st the Churminster and then the Stowe Magna layouts. The red & blue arrows / labels to the centre of the left side of the Churminster plan and to the top of the Stowe Magna plan lead to the main Up & Down fiddle yards. The pale blue box at the top right of the Churminster plan indicates the two lines leading to & from the lower fiddle yard / reverse loop, whilst the bright pink box near the top of the Stowe Magna plan indicates the two lines leading to & from the top fiddle yard / reverse loop. Because the reverse loops are laid in opposite directions, they can be used to form a figure of 8 continuous run and you will see 6 switches at the top left of the Churminster plan, labelled "Continuous Running" which over-ride the IRDOT detectors which would otherwise stop trains automatically on those lines. Between them, these settings allow continuous running either around the main Up & Down lines or alternately through the figure of 8. To the bottom right of the Churminster plan are the push buttons (red & black) that operate the lower yard, whilst the blue lights are track occupancy indicators; the red buttons are used to select routes via two diode matrices (entry & exit) whilst the black buttons release the trains which are otherwise halted automatically by IRDOT detectors beneath each track. The panels for the two other yards are not shown but sit between the two panels illustrated. I hope this helps, but suspect that it may raise as many questions as it answers...! Tony