Richard Mawer

John, Thanks for the explanation. Extremely helpful. I'll get straight on it. Rich

Regarding increasing pulling power of the model, I understand removing the spring on the front bogie so it doesn't remove downward pressure on the front drivers. I don't fully understand the bit about washers on the drawbar. I presume this is the coupling bar between the loco and tender? Where do the washers go? To do what? Has anyone put any lead in the loco body cavity at all? Before I take it apart does anyone know if there is any space? Hollow dome? Rich

You may well be right. I am very happy to be corrected and note that the 90xx number series and GWR is far more likely to occurred. The original proposal of 32xx and GWR was almost a non starter, but maybe there is another photo out there to prove me wrong. I would actually be interested, if anyone knows of one, pls let us know. At the end of the day, the reviews show the Bachmann model to be a cracker and I look forward to receiving mine. Rich

I just wanted a Great Western one in a livery that existed!!! The likelihood of the locos appearing in green with GWR on the tender is extremely slim at best. They were "born" with shirtbuttons and then were painted in British Railways. Some were painted GWR war time black. I have ordered a BR black one (non DCC) and am repainting it green with a shirtbutton.

Hi, Does anyone know if any Dukedogs were allocated anywhere near Banbury or south of Birmingham before WWII? Rich

I'm in the process of building the second bracket signal. I have taken a leaf out of Mike's (Coach Bogie) book and fitted a single rocker arm to the rear of the bracket. However, mine is made from plastic and the spindle is yet again a track pin, superglued onto the bracket lattice. In practice, it can't be easily seen. Thanks Mike. Happy New Year to all. Rich

Dean, Thanks for reading and the comment. Unfortunately you cannot use servos like point motors and you cannot use passing contacts switches. You need some electronics to operate the servos. I use the MERG Servo4 circuit boards. These are kits you solder up yourself. Each one operates 4 servos. The switched operation is a simple on/off switch. You use a pc or a separate box of tricks made from another MERG kit to programme the board with the start position (off), end position (on), and the speed you want the servo to move from to the other. You do this for each servo and the board remembers the information. Servos are useful for operating signals, points, gates and anything that moves through an arc. The kits are only available to MERG members, but it is easy to join. Yes you do have to be careful about voltage, but that is more for the SERVO4 Board than the servo. If you read back over some of my blog entries, you will see what I mean. There is a photo of one of the boards under Time Flies. There is also a thread I started under layout topics called Ratio GWR Bracket Signals, where others have contributed useful stuff about the signals. I hope that helps. Rich

I can see I need to paint the finials and add the lamps. Oops.

Hi, The original batch were from the servo shop, on line. The last two batches have been off eBay. They are Tower Pro SG90. I suspect some for sale aren't the real deal, so I am prepared for a few duds. So far only 1. But at that price they are almost disposable. I operate them using the MERG Servo4 boards. You have to be a member to buy the kits, but well worth it: great bunch of helpful people.

So at last I have finished the first bracket signal and added the servos. Remember to take labels off the servos before using the tape. I have staggered the servos to allow non conflicting movement. I use "No more nails" tape. It's the only one I have found that sticks we'll enough. The signal is super glued to the MDF. As mentioned in a previous entry, the servo (in this case servos) goes through a 40mm hole in the baseboard and the rectangle base is flush fitted into the fibreboard top of the baseboard. Cheers Rich

I have put some photos in my blog: Buckingham West. My solution is very much Heath Robinson and heavy duty, but should work. Merry Christmas

T'was Christmas Eve and Santa's little helper was ...... Soldering and gluing of course!!! The soldering is old hat now. I need 3 Servo 4 boards from MERG to operate the points and signals on the left side board of the junction, Newton Purcell. Each time I make one, my soldering gets better and they get easier. One down. Two to go. The gluing was more frustrating. As you will have gleaned from this blog, operation is key here. I hope it will be quite scenic too, but it will not be a Pendon. Operating signals are a must. Two were made operational using servos for the right side board. The signals were bought fully made, but I extended the operating wires and added a Servo below each sub base. See previous entries. Now I need 2 bracket signals and either 3 or 4 stop signals for the left board, depending on length of clearances. I decided to make these from Ratio kits. Typical of me, I dived into a bracket signal kit. Why didn't I start simple? Even these "quick assembly" kits are really hard. The minute brackets and cranks are very fiddly to say the least, so I sought assistance from this site and eventually decided upon a real cheat. It works, but doesn't look right. On the next, I will find an improved method. A rocker assembly has been suggested and sounds like a good answer. As you will see, I simply linked the operating wire for the bracket arm diagonally from the arm, through the elevated platform and the base. 2 stacked servos will operate the wires. I did away with the twin cranks below the platform, which should be used according to the instructions. In fact I managed to make those and got the link wires right but they didn't inspire confidence for operation. The final crunch came when one of the wires came out a crank whilst I was wrestling with the arms and spindles. I also did away with the small blanking plates that should go behind the spectacle glasses on the arms. These were a nightmare. No matter type of plastic glue, solvent, cement or adhesive I used, the plastic spindle on the back of the arm, melted. Not only did the blanking plate not stay put, but the plastic spindle fused into the hole it passed through, stopping the arm from moving. Eventually I chopped the spindles off, superglued track pins in place (heads against the back if the arm), used the pin as the spindle and made new, out of scale, blankers to also take the stress of the operation. Time will tell how well they hold out. Another advantage is that the distance of the wire away from the spindle is greater so the travel in the wire is greater. This allows for greater accuracy in the Servo movement. The wires now pass over the rear of the signal. In practice the diagonal wire is not quite as obvious as it appears in the photos. I am sure many far more experienced modellers have made these kits with no issues, but my skills are rudimentary and I need the signals to work first and foremost. So will I get time over the rest of the Christmas break to build the second bracket signal or solder 2 more Servo 4's? Can I find a more acceptable operating method for the bracket arms? I'll let you know. Merry Christmas! Rich

Thank you for the advice folks. Nice work Mike. Looks good. I have now used superglue to stick a track pin onto the rear of each arm, sticking the head onto the arm. The shaft of the pin passes through the hole in the arm. I have taken inspiration from Mike and fashioned a piece of spare plastic (not brass I"m afraid) to attach to the pin behind the post and with superglue. This piece of plastic has another hole to take the operating wire. This will have the added benefit of a longer operating lever on the signal arm. As I am using servos to operate them, the greater the movement in the wire, the better. The wires will now pass to the rear of the posts, so I will have to make new holes in the plastic baseplate. To operate the bracket arm, I have completely given up on the two small cranks and linking wires. Apart from my own frustrations, I take on board the comments you folks have made. Instead, I am just taking the wire diagonally from the arm, through a hole in the platform, down to the base. This is not prototypical but should work. I like the idea of Mike"s rocker arm and will investigate that further. Do you have any photos of it? Slight change of tack, does anyone know whether P and D Marsh signals can actually be made to work? Thanks for the advice to date. Rich

Ok, is it just me or are the GWR ratio bracket signal kits almost impossible to make, or are they actually impossible to make??? The superstructure was fine, but as soon as I tried to glue the counter balance to the rear of the pivot shaft, I hit a problem. The glue (Rocket plastic glue) seemed to melt the plastic axle and create a mush in the hole through the plastic post. I ended up replacing the plastic shaft after changing the glue to revell cement and the same happened. I am one super gluing the signal arms to wire stubs, but now have issues with the wires and 90 degree brackets and operating wires!!!!! Are there any short cuts or other makes of arms that actually work, or better still, other makes of operating semaphores which I can connect servos to???? Highly frustrated, Rich mawer

Ray, you continue to be an inspiration for me to continue. I hope one day to be able to run some trains in some of scenery. All feels a long way off at present. Your blogs keeps up the impetus. Thanks Rich

Hey what a great layout! I love the vibe you've captured. I am still laying track, wiring and fixing servos to points and signals. I was actually looking for tips on Ratio signals when I came across your layout. I did smile to read your bracket signal fixed. My fist attempt was nearly in the bin yesterday. I too have had trouble with the peg on the rear of the board. The glue melts them! Anyway, love the layout. Keep posting.

Wow! Time does fly. My last entry was April!!!!! I am not sure why I haven't written anything for many months. You would be forgiven for thinking that I must have finished the layout by now, but alas no. For various personal reasons and a busy business life, there has only been a certain amount of activity. But here goes with an update. Newton Purcell, the junction station midway along my line, was finally laid and tested for smoothness of the running, but with no electrics fitted. The issue is that the storage loops are located below and this makes wiring up almost impossible. So the station is arranged over two boards and once the track was glued down, the boards were split and one by one removed and stood on their edges for wiring. These shots are of the track layout. There are the two mainlines which will have platforms. Off to the left, the line heads down grade to the continuous run and then on to Banbury (the storage loops). To the right, the line travels round to Buckingham West. There is a down bay on the far left, serving the branch line which leaves to the left on the far side and travels round to Brackley Road. In the far right, there are two private sidings. I have yet to decide what factories or facilities these will serve. Does anyone have any good ideas for some rural trackside industry for 1930's Buckinghamshire? Forward of the mainlines is a goods through road and then 3 sidings and a kick back forming the goods yard. The through line crosses the mainlines on two single slips to the right and branches off to the ironstone quarry. I have kept all points as trailing apart from the double junction to the branch. This is the right side baseboard on its side having been wired up and with the servos in place for the points. I am using the MERG Servo 4 boards to control the servos. You programme these via a pc (or you can build a dedicated box of tricks to do it). You programme the two end positions for the travel and also the speed of that travel. This gives the points a slow movement, but at a fraction of the cost of tortoise motors. It also only needs a simple on/off switch. I have yet to see how well the servos last, but of course this is meant to be a permanent layout and not go through the rigours of an exhibition layout. I have also used servos for the signals. This is the first attempt, and in situ as the up starter. I bought the signals from someone in France via ebay and whilst not immaculate, they serve my purposes. There is a version of the MERG firmware for the Servo 4 boards that allows you to programme a bounce into the signal arm and once I have the layout all up and running, I may well get that installed too. In the meantime, I have installed three of the Servo 4 boards to control 12 items. The 2 servos needed for each single slip are controlled as one, using Y leads. The left side baseboard is now being worked on. The track wiring is in place, but the droppers need to be soldered onto the rails. One Ratio bracket junction signal is part made with another waiting. I need to work out how to fix two servos to the baseplates. I also need to build three more Servo 4 boards to control this side of the station. In the meantime I have worked out the wiring diagram and made the control panel for the station. This has 45 switches: 15 for the power to the track sections, 2 to switch the panel in (for multi operator mode) or out (for single man operation), 27 point and signal levers (set out like a traditional signal box lever frame) and a spare. There is quite a lot of electrical interlocking and pre-selection going on. For example, the junction signal boards will not pull off if the road is not correctly set (although the lever can be pulled - but we can't all have everything!), and setting the right road and pulling off the signals will select the correct controller to that section. That was quite hard to work out for the branch, which can be controlled by the Up main, Down main, Buckingham West or Brackley Road, depending on the settings. On this layout, the eventual receiving station drives the train for the whole journey. There are three bell push buttons as well. I was toying with the idea of buying morse code tappers, but they are too bulky. I have also avoided block instruments. It will all be down to memory. Next steps are to make final checks to the running on the storage loops (they will become covered by Newton Purcell), complete the wiring of the left board and then reinstall the two and connect the control panel. Hopefully it will all work first time (!!!!!). Once tested (and no doubt fettled), I have the task of building the incline down to the existing continuous run. That will be fun with part of the incline being on a curve and also needing a lifting section just before the bottom double junction. I have decided I am getting no younger and ducking under a 700mm high (low) board is just asking for trouble. However, if a lifting section is also too much trouble I may resort to ducking. Simple is starting to sound attractive!!! The most annoying thing is I will also need to build a slightly simplified version of the Newton Purcell control panel so I can "play trains" on my own, sitting on the other side of the loft. Rich

Ray, I wasn't meaning that your layout looks like a toy train set! Far from it! I think you have combined a good looking layout with the ability to operate it and enjoy it. I am envious! Rich

Ray, as ever, full of detail and explanation. I am so pleased to have found someone who models firstly for operation. You know my views on model railways and of course each to his own - I simply could not start to produce the quality of some of the amazing modelling we all get to see these days - but to me (and I know you too), a good part of the fun is operating. It still needs to look like a railway and not a toy train set, and you hit the nail on the head for me with your layout. Keep it up. Rich

At last some more progress - on two fronts. Both baseboards for the junction station, Newton Purcell, have been built and initially installed. The construction is the same as the rest - 2x1 inch framing and cross members with 6mm MDF on top, glued and screwed, topped with insulation board made for going under laminate floors. The station is roughly a "handed" version of Grandborough Junction on Peter Denny's Buckingham Branch - why reinvent the wheel fully? you may think, but the design actually came from planning how the layout would be run and what traffic types it will have. Not unsurprisingly, as the concept behind the layout is so strongly influenced by Denny's classic, the traffic and operations led to very similar requirements and once you apply steam era rules to platforms, junctions and trackwork (ie, double junctions off double track, as few facing points as possible, trailing access to goods yards etc.) the plan looks very familiar. Due to the length of the station, and more importantly because it is above the storage loops, I have decided that for now, the boards will remain in two halves so that once the track is glued in place, I can remove them one at a time and wire them up, add the servos etc. Only when all is neatly stowed away underneath and wires taken to chocblocks will I replace them and join them together. I need to ensure that there are no hanging wires etc to snag on trains below and there is insufficient access to the undersides when in situ. I have modified all the points, most here are insulfrog. I will explain why in a future blog, but it's for control panel reasons. I know this is a compromise. Consequently, most only need the centre throw spring removed for servo control. The rest need the switch blades soldering to the running lines in the common fashion for electrofrogs. The radius of the curves has been marked out. This is tighter than I ideally want and varies from 610mm to over 900mm. I next laid out the pointwork and joined them into larger units. The holes for the servos now need to be drilled and the track glued down using PVA. The pointwork comprises 3 main sections. The up end of the station has 2 single slips forming the trailing crossover with trailing access to the yard setting back from the up line (furthest away), and trailing access into the ironstone quarry, setting back from the down line. There are also 2 small private sidings trailing onto the up line (at the top of the photo). At the down end of the station, there is the double junction off the mainlines onto the branch and access to the bay. The final area is the ladder of points in the yard and headshunt. The line nearest the mainlines through the platforms runs through and trails into the down main via a curved point at the very end. It is protected with a catch point, in the traditional (but seldom modelled in freelance layouts) manner. I have had the old Airfix 61xx apart a few times, and whilst it is running better, I can't get it to start reliably enough. I also think the rear driver axle is slightly bent. So I bit the bullet and bought a Hornby 51xx. Well we all need some therapy at times. It's a lovely runner. So is the Bachmann 45xx I also bought. This came via a list of never-used locos owned by a local collector who unfortunately died. The list was sent to my club, HWDMRS in High Wycombe. I am gradually getting the locos out and running them in after all these years in boxes. I have two Mainline 43xx's. So far I have only run one. It was bought off an auction house and so was a risk anyway. I bought my other new, so I hope it has faired better over the years. Anyway, early on, the drivers got out of alignment all of a sudden and it threw some strange shapes with the con rods! When I took it apart, the chassis was cracked as well. I bought a cheap BR version on ebay and swapped the chassis, but after a short while the drivers slipped in the same way. It transpires the glue keeping the metal stub axles connected to the plastic insulator mid way, comes adrift, so the quartering goes caput! When trying to find out what best to do, on this site, help was offered by a very kind, and helpful modelling couple: Polly and Ray. Polly is Southern 42. They offered me the Bachmann Chassis as they have built a Comet chassis for theirs and a deal was done. Duly fitted, the loco is good as gold. A big thank you to you both. Now should that lining remain on those cylinders?? Rich

And me! It would suit me down to the ground.

So the last entry was almost 3 moths ago and what's happened at Buckingham West? The unfortunate answer is not enough. In short it's been too cold in the loft and too busy generally. However I have purchased a Dapol track cleaner and have serviced the 61xx, a 43xx and one of the Dean Goods. Unfortunately the 61xx is still not a good runner and so I have ordered a new Hornby 51xx. I have also bought a Bachmann 4575 from a collector. It had never been run, but after some lubrication it has performed beautifully. Good slow running and reliability will be essential for this layout. With cleaner track and serviced locos, the ghost in the machine has been mostly banished, but the poor running 61xx is still prone to making the odd twitch on the points. I have bought some small suppression capacitors and will try one across the tracks. However, replacing the dodgy loco will be the biggest help. I managed to build the right hand side half on the Newton Purcell baseboard in February, but it created an issue. If I added the left side rigidly then how would I get the wiring done and fix the servos and servo4 boards? The access is so limited and the board will be 16 feet long. So I decided to keep the two boards separate until the track is glued, wired and the servos fixed. I have therefore planned the wiring in some detail. This is quite hard as the signalling will select the controllers on a cab control basis. It is even more complicated as I need to have the option of remote controlling the main signals and points from Buckingham West for one man operation. I have been through the principles in an earlier entry. I have now built the left half and both halves are in situ. The storage and return loops are below. You can just see the City and some clerestories disappearing below on the way to Banbury and all points North. Newton Purcell will be a country junction between the double track branch from Buckingham West to the main from Oxford to Banbury, and the single track branch to Brackley Road. As such it will have two main platforms, a bay and a goods yard. This will be accessed in traditional fashion by trailing points only and that to the up line will be via a trailing single slip across the down line. Another trailing single slip will access an ironstone quarry which will be off scene. Ironstone was found around Adderbury so we can extend reality a little. There will also be two private sindings. These will serve a timber yard and something else. I'm not sure what though. I need another rural industry for the area that would deserve a small private siding. This is the Airfix Castle with an assorted rake on the low level mainline towards Banbury. It will have tunnels or bridges at each end of this run. Newton Purcell will be on the higher level. So now the fun can start arranging the track and pointwork. Once the right arrangement has been found I will mark around it all, drill the holes for the point control (servos) and frog power droppers. I will then glue the track in place and take the baseboards off, one at once so I can wire them and fit the servos. When all is tested and tidy so it won't snag the trains below, I will put the boards back, connect them together and complete the wiring. This should be quite enjoyable, but it will then leave the last major hurdle of creating the incline from the double junctions to Newton Purcell! Roll on Spring and Summer! Rich

I have no idea. I pointed out that at best 3205 could have had about a year in that combination or may not ever have been like that, and that to me it would make more sense to stick to early number series and shirtbutton, or later numbers and later livery. I directed them to the work you put up here about the variations. They say they have done more research. I understand they normally copy a photo so they know they have it right, but I don't know any more. I am impressed they listened in the first place.

I wrote to Bachmann about the short, if existant, period that 3205 would / could have had a GWR livery. They did some more research and decided to alter the number to the later series. I got a nice reply, which I have to say impressed me. I am glad it has now been made public. It still doesn't help me as I model mid 1930's, but I am glad the anomoly has been removed and this lovely model will have a wider appeal and be accurate.

Ok. Thanks. Yes I did get lost on the bogie wheels.