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Richard Mawer

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Everything posted by Richard Mawer

  1. That would have been an honour.
  2. VISITOR AT BUCKINGHAM WEST J11 5317 (from the GCR at Woodford Halse) ready to leave Buckingham Yard with the 19.53 TuWSO Buckingham to Banbury Horses and Carriages.
  3. Thank you Mikkel. Coming from you thats a big compliment. Glad you liked it.
  4. EARLY MORNING Its early morning at Buckingham West. The 6.35am to Banbury waits in platform 2 behind Dean Goods 2516. Looks like the crew have wandered off to find some headlamps!
  5. Hi Neal. It’s relatively easy: it doesn’t seem to need much. Not sure why. I only seriously clean it once or twice a year as a whole. If I see a mark somewhere or a loco hesitates, it gets a going over with a track rubber. The point ladders get a rub perhaps once a month and thats it really. I expected it would need more. I think being DC and getting regular use helps. It had a month’s non-use in September and it suffered then.
  6. ASHES TO ASHES, COAL TO COAL Buckingham Loco was looking too neat and tidy. The cleaners were just too good at clearing up the ash and not dropping any coal from the stage. That’s been rectified.
  7. PASSING PASSENGERS 5108 on the 19.31 down Buckingham to Banbury stopper passes 4018 Knight of the Grand Cross on the 19.40 Birmingham to Buckingham near Charlton Junction. Note the start of packing out to form the embankment. The branch from Evenley to Brackley Road rises above. None of the passenger stock has been weathered yet. Nor have the locos. There are no lamps or crews either. Loads to do.
  8. WATER SUPPLIED TO BUCKINGHAM At last Buckingham Loco has water cranes. These are Mikes Models. And to keep loads safe we now have gauges at Evenley and Buckingham West. These are P & D Marsh. The ringed signal arms are for exits from the goods yards. I still need to ballast all the points at Buckingham. My aim is to finish the ballasting by the end of this year.
  9. STONED AT BUCKINGHAM I’m finally starting to lay the ballast at Buckingham. The hardest bit (apart from all those pesky points) is keeping the water spray off the card built platforms. The mainlines and platform faces will get normal ballast. The carriage sidings and headshunt will be done in black cinders. I don’t know what to do for the goods arrival and departure road. Views? I still have the infill in the middle of the tracks to do of course. This is just stage 1. I use a traditional approach: position it dry, then spray with water and detergent. Finally using a pipette drop dilute glue down the centre and each edge of the sleepers. But instead of pva, I used a vinyl glue watered down. This keeps some flex in the trackbed. This time I might have mixed it a bit strong. I think there will be cream coloured residue. I will have to rub it off the sleeper tops. Luckily I will be airbrushing it all with sleeper grim and weathered black when I have got all the ballast down. The station area will be heavily weathered of course.
  10. Good to hear from you. I’ll let you know what values I end up with. Rich
  11. TIMES PASSES Wow, I can't believe my last post was in September. Sorry guys. I have been away and then very busy, but we have managed to get some operating sessions in and had quite a few visitors, which is always very pleasant. The latest work has been on electrics and electronics. The Block Bell indicators at Evenley have proved to be a huge boon. An Arduino senses the power to the various bells and lights up a corresponding LED which then flashes before extinguishing. There are 3 bells there, so it gives the less experienced operator a fighting chance of knowing who is belling what. They are so effective, that we have fitted a second board which senses the bells at Buckingham West, Brackley Road and Charlton Junction, with LEDs on the respective panels. At Brackley Road, there is a repeater LED for Charlton Junction, which is behind you when you are operating Brackley Road. Charlton and Brackley Road are frequently operated by the same person and this repeater means you get an indication that Charlton has been belled without having to turn round to look. A big thanks to Mark for these electronics. The next project is some current detectors and more LEDs. One of the reoccurring themes in operating the layout is all operators (except Brackley Road) forgetting that they are controlling a train when it circling the continuous run called Charlton Junction. Either Buckingham or Evenley can be controlling an Up train for up to 20 minutes (Buckingham time). During that time they will almost certainly have been distracted doing other tasks at their stations. It is all too easy to turn the controller for the circling train off, or switch it in for another movement. At Charlton Junction the opposite problem can happen where it is easy to forget to turn off the controller once the train has gone into Banbury (and stopped in a loop). There is also the problem of forgetting you have two trains on Charlton Junction when you direct one to cross the other line. The LEDs on the controllers light up when the power is turned up, irrespective of whether that power is driving a train or not. That is not much use. So Mark has come up with a Train on Line indicator for each of the controllers that lights up an LED when the controller is actually making a train move. There are loads of circuit diagrams around for these, but they all produce a voltage drop. Mark's doesn't. The red LEDs above the controllers will confirm that it is actually driving a train. At Charlton Junction another red LED will light up when there are two trains on the continuous runs (one each way) to warn of potential crossing risks. And finally......I have used good old multi pole switches in the panels to effectively "slot" the distant arms on the combined Advanced Starter/Distant signals. Until now, it was possible for the distant arm to be lowered (if the next section was cleared right through) even if the advanced starter of the box in the rear had yet to be cleared. That could never happen in reality and it annoyed a few operators (especially qualified signalmen!) as well as me. So now it is solved and the distant only comes off if both the full section ahead and the advance starter in the rear are cleared. I have one more tweak to do myself. I want to add a little bit of inertia to the platform release buttons at Buckingham West. There are push buttons at the end of platforms 1 and 2, which if pressed drive the trapped loco up the platform behind the departing train. At present they just start and stop abruptly. I am going to try and use capacitors to create a little inertia. I'll report back. I hope to have some loop/road selection indicators sorted soon (I known its on your list Mark) so we can cover over the Banbury loops early on and have the confidence that the points have actually fired to the road which has been selected. The few accidents that have happened have tended to be human errors, but one was electrical. having a display of actual settings will help both scenarios. There is still some ballasting to do, which I hope will be done before Christmas and then I can set to on scenery next year. Rich
  12. THE LAST BRIDGE The bridge on Buckingham West station approach, over Charlton Junction is now in place. Its made from Wills Vari-girder kits because of the length. The Buckingham approach is curved (why did I not see this as an issue at the start?) so the bridge is long and wide. I still need to make the abutments and fill the gaps in the top surface, but its getting there. The yard shunter tends to stand on the bridge in front of the gantry.
  13. AFTER THE CLEAN UP After removing the masking and cleaning the paint off the rail heads, I returned the stock and buildings. It’s all set to start the next day on the timetable - Tuesday - which happens to be market day at Buckingham. The details (coal spills, ash, water etc) are really needed now. So is some touching up of the paint. But I like the overall colouration. Maybe I’ll get the inclination to complete the ballasting too!
  14. MUCKY YARDS Today I was going to start painting the yards when I realised I’d forgotten the cobbles. I’d previously bought Wills cobble sheets and should have let them into the wet artex. So instead I’ve cut out the artex and foam underlay to drop the sheets in. They sat too low so I glued 2 sheets of card below them to bring them up flush. The cobbles are at the most used locations. Tonight I’ve made a mess, but before I did, I masked the point blades and all the areas which weren’t the yards. Then using a variety of rattle spray cans, I’ve blitzed the yards. I used sleeper grime (although 2 cans blocked up on me!), weathered black, dark brown, frame dirt and dark rust. Some detailing will be added such as wash between the cobbles, lime (yes I now know the dates its use ended, but hey - rule 1) around the cattle dock, loose coal around the staith and coal sidings, coal around the coaling stage and ash and cinders in piles all over the loco yard.
  15. SHRINKAGE AND MUCK I have finished chipping away the artex from the insides of the rails, check rails and crossing V’s. The artex has been scraped down to chair level. With that and the shrinkage, it is interesting to compare a photo soon after application a week ago to the latest situation. All track and points have been checked: locos and stock run everywhere. It all still works! So I then mixed acrylic paint for an undercoat. Its mainly umber with a dash of black, dash of tan and a dribble of olive. Its slightly watered down. I try not to mix it completely so there is a little variation. But it does look rather like ripe manure! The idea is to cover all the white. Next I will mask the point blades and everything I don’t want sprayed and then apply sleeper grime and weathered black liberally over the undercoat. Detail can be sorted with airbrush later.
  16. Thanks Rich. It did feel like a bold move when I did it. More tidying, then testing with a loco. Once ok, I’ll paint the white stuff light brown. I’ll mask off the points switch rails and then spray with rattle cans of sleeper grim, dark brown and weathered black. I’m going to try Woodland scenics water stuff around the loco yard. My recent visit to the Mid Hants showed just how wet it is around loco servicing. Rich
  17. ARTEX LESSONS 1) It shrinks. It would need at least 3 applications to be rail top height. 2) Don’t leave it 6 nights before scraping the Artex from the top and inside web of the track. It had gone too hard when I went to do that to the original areas tonight. I ended up having to use a Stanley knife on the railhead. The small screwfriver I have previously used to clear out the web on the inside of the rail needed a lot of elbow grease. 3) When I previously said avoid getting Artex on the points, I should have listened to myself. Whilst I’d avoided the moving parts, getting the stuff out the crossing V’s and check rails was a nightmare. 4) 3 days drying time before clearing rail web and points is fine. The Loco Yard was dry but pliable enough to easily clear up. 5) The sides of the crossing V’s on Peco double slips come off really easily. Repair required. 6) Artex still gives the slight flex to the track (on foam) that I get using the vinyl glue on the ballast. So much better running and quieter than the rock solid PVA approach. Overall I’m still pleased, but will be relieved when locos and stock travel easily over all areas and points.
  18. Hi Neal It has shrunk, so isn’t flush with rail height anymore, but it is just above sleeper height.
  19. IN FOR A PENNY.......... I’ve added more artex to parts of the yard where I want the ground much higher up the rail sides. I’ve also taken the plunge and done the loco yard.
  20. I’m not sure if I am dreaming this or not, but I recall seeing train times expressed in 12 hour clock format ( as opposed to 24 hour clock) in some WTTs using different notation to signify am or pm. Was one written with a / between hours and minutes and the other 12 hours written with a : or - or something? Eg 6-30 meaning am and 6/30 meaning pm..... or something like that? Can anyone shed any light? Rich
  21. WEATHER UPDATE The snow at Buckingham West has partially melted. Actually the Artex shrinks as it dries. It’s now rather too low over many of the sleeper ends compared to the effect I want. So I am going to have to put another layer on between the tracks towards the ends of the sidings where the crud would be right up level to the tops of the sleepers. By way of another update, here’s a picture of the rail overbridges. The embankments have yet to be built and clearly the stream. I’ve got some Woodland scenics water in a bottle. I gues I pour that over a papier mache base? Any other ideas?
  22. SNOW AT BUCKINGHAM WEST? In August? Even though it feels flippin cold today its not snow, but the first layer of the grime of the goods yards. Because the yard had liitle stock in it, I was able to send two trains up the main and headshunt and then set to work. After the results at Evenley and Brackley Road I’ve stuck with Artex for yard cover. To start with I just spoon the stuff on and using the back of the spoon spread it about, making sure it covers the sleepers both between the rails and the sleeper ends. It doesn’t matter how thick it is between tracks because one look at old yards shows the rails almost buried at times. I drag a wide lolly stick (which fits perfectly between the rails) along the tracks to keep the artex only sleeper high between the rails. The stuff self levels to a degree, so filling up the 4’ and trying to leave gaps for the flanges is impossible. I stay well away from moving parts of points. Once dry in a day or two it still has some give and flex. Its very easy to run a small screw driver along the inside faces of each rail to peel off the excess artex and run a rail rubber over the rail head. I then test it all electrically. When happy, I will mask the point blades and spray the area with Sleeper Grime and Weathered Black to produce a basecoat of general crud. That will then be added to in certain areas.
  23. REALITY I had a brilliant day in Ropley box yesterday on the Mid Hants Line. Thanks to all involved. Rich
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