Richard Mawer

That's a useful comment. Thanks. I've now found quite a few photos of tall bridges with girders. That's most likely what would have happened in reality. Thanks.

HELP NEEDED I need help - it has been said! I am struggling to know what to do scenically in one particular corner. Around the outside is the branch at high level, next in is the continuous run about 6” lower and then the base of the incline. So the branch is effectively 2 levels above the other tracks. Added to this is a pillar which is the hinge of the lifting flap and across the incline is a bracket from hardboard through which the tracks pass. Without this, the flap is unstable. There is a level crossing on the branch and I always imagined the road passing over a bridge over the continuous run, using the top of the pillar as road and then disguising the bracket as a bridge. But I haven’t nailed a design. I mocked up a normal size arched apperture, but there is a massive amount of brickwork above the top of the arch. The road also climbs from the level crossing, over the bridge in question to reach the top of the pillar. So the bridge needs a sloping top. It didn’t look protypical. Is it? I then tried a tall arch, a bit like a viaduct arch, with the sloping roadway much closer to the top of the arch. It still didn’t look right, but with less mass of brickwork I guess it is more protypical? My other thought was a short tunnel, with a grassy hill and road on top, but a railway would never tunnel through a little hill like that, they would make a cutting and a bridge. Square one! What examples of tall bridges with sloping roads do people know? Or how could I disguise the hinge pillar if I ran the road lower? Then there’s the problem of the “hole” through the hardboard bracket. Any ideas?

BUCKINGHAM WEST STATION BUILDING For quite a while now passengers at Buckingham West have been protected from the elements by Stubby47’s excellent Brunel train shed. When the board ended at the end of the shed I just imagined there was a station building beyond. I toyed with one on a backscene. Now that area is extended, it was just free entry onto the platforms! That would never do. So Buckingham now has a station building beyond the train shed. I needed something that looked suitably grand for the end of the line, but not on a scale of Paddington or Temple Meads. It also had to fit in the space. After looking at all the rtp options I turned to card kits and low and behold the ancient Superquick terminus was going to fit. To make it fit exactly I have not included the side wings or angled walkways. On the rear I cut off the concourse and canopy because I wanted it flush to the shed. As designed it’s very ostentatious. To make it less “train set” the clock tower and dormer just had to go too. Its now much simpler, I had to cover the roof with scalescenes slates because the original printed design had cut aways for those features. I think it looks slightly less Superquick, but there’s no hiding its parentage. Still, it is a reasonable addition and compliments the excellent train shed. The roof has burnt out on the photo. It is actually slate paper.

So I understand!. Better than yellow tape and dirt.....

Thanks Stu. I can make the ground whatever I want really at this stage - within reason. Its on the outskirts of a village, or in the village, quarry or ex- quarry. 1930s of course. I’ll look up Carrog.

I have a couple of questions about scenery. 1) Does anyone have any experience of the vinyl backed Readygrass grass mats that mould with heat? 2) I need a hard scenic finish in one area, flat onto the baseboard, where occasionally I will have to lean over with my hand on the surface. Any ideas what surface material would be hard wearing enough? Obviously not static grass! Varnish as water? I’d welcome the help. In the meantime, ballasting and backscenes continue.

Its looking good Scott. What make is the full brake? Rich

SHORT CIRCUIT Just as an update ballasting is continuing along with backscenes. But the last week has been spent finding a mysterious short circuit, which had suspended operations on the line. It turned out to be an isolated rail joint that had closed up somehow. I expected the cold weather to cause gaps to widen as rails contracted. Perhaps baseboards contract more. I don’t know. But the small piece of plastic between the rails had gone missing too. All very odd, but with multi controllers and complex switching, it took a long time to find. The good news is normal service is resumed. Rich

BALLASTING I can’t work out whether ballasting is tedious or thraraputic? Anyway I’ve done 1/8 of the main lines: my first attempt at double track. Reasobly happy. It all needs air brushing with sleeper grime down the middle between the rails and then in a line along the sleep ends taking in the rail sides. Having consulted “The Big Four in Colour” the rail sides seem to match the sleepers and ballast in just all pervasive crud. The rail sides only seem to be a rusty red in little used locations such as sidings, in my era.

Ha ha! There was more room at that end than elsewhere, but yes that is as much as I can do. I couldn’t extend the engine shed or else no one could get by. The nearest corner had to be angled too.

EXPANDING BUCKINGHAM WEST Two things have bugged me at Buckingham when operating. Well far more than that, but two consistently. Platform 1 (arrival) wasn’t quite long enough. Or more’s the point, I couldn’t locate the starting signal far enough away from the buffers to accommodate the train loco, 5 coaches and the pilot. The pilot never got inside the signal. The other was that the third carriage siding was a tad short and sometimes a rake in there fouled the middle siding. It certainly fouled the horses and carriages dock. So I have extended part of that board by 9”. Platform 1 is now longer and so are 2 carriage sidings. As a bonus, the goods arrival/dep line (next to platform 1) is also longer as are two of the goods sidings. I now have room for a station building at the end of the train shed, a bit of access road and space round the goods shed. The pilot is now behind the starter.

Hi Ray It comes in quite a large tin. Its next to the vinyl we both use in pic #467. Cost about £15. Will last this layout and probably be used in DIY too -whatever that is? I went for Polycell smooth ceiling paint. Its just thick and stays roughly where you put it. It does shrink as it dries, but stays flexible. Rich

Its been a while. Belated Happy New Year. We’ve had a couple of operating sessions, but its been a slow start to the year. However, I have finished the ballast and ground cover in the yard at Brackley Road. In the yard its artex, painted (far too) light brown - looked rather orange! - then painted with sleeper grime and weathered black via my airbrush for the detail and rattle cans for overal dusting. I need to tackle the green stuff now and build the warehouse to hide the plug sockets.

Hi David Good luck with this. It sounds fascinating. I’m intrigued by the radio control. I have used MERG stuff and servos on points and signals. I’m happy with it but mine is a permenant layout. If you want speed of build, go oo, but if you want a better appearance and have the time to make track, go for a wider gauge. Rich

John Its all a figment of my imagination. It’s based on observations, logic, real timetables and even reading Peter Denny’s timetable in the back of his Peco book. There is a 2 hourly local service between Buckingham and Banbury, branch autotrains to meet the stoppers at Evenley, extra passenger trains at peak times and market days, expresses during the day, extra evening trains Friday and Saturday, 2 pick up freights (am & pm), perishables very early in the morning, mainline freights early morning and evening/night, cattle on market days, 2 loaded limestones per day and empties and a daily coal. Milk vans of churns come to the dairy after morning and evening milking times. The tanks of pasteurised milk go out to Banbury in the evening. All common sense daily life as it used to be, sorted to fit my loop capacity, stock and loco fleet. Mind you its on the 13th version of tweeks and easiest layout for reading!!! Rich

If you do, keep the gradients shallow. My mainline bank is about 1:70 and the 0-6-0s struggle with loads over 10 wagons. I have steel plates underneath the track and magnets under the locos, like the Powerplate concept. Without that there would be nothing going up except traction tyred locos. Oh yes, and curves on gradients are a nightmare!

It’s designed for operation from 1 person to 4. Single handed isn’t too hard actually. It’s challenging but at a speed of 24 hrs in 17 or 18 hrs its fine. I can do a speed of 24 in 15 for the first and last few hours of each day. 24 in 15 is the fastest we’ve managed in group operations. 17 or 18 is the norm so far. The main issue is operator familiarity (or lack of) because no one gets long enough on it to get any faster. Its far from a problem. It’s nice to enjoy it without it being headlong. When we tried faster we kept having to stop the clock to catch up. That part of the evening timetable is quite relaxed so filmimg was easier, but I did stop the clock! Oh yes!!! My Father was born In Gainsborough and my Grandmother lived there. I grew up just outside Newark (in sight of ECML) and we to Gainsborough every other week. I have known that railway for about 50 years. It used to be more complicated than it is now. There were two continuous run “holding circuits”, but now only one. Kings Cross trackwork and the next station layout have been somewhat rationalised and the Moorgate lines trunkated to a simple out and back below Kings Cross. The widened lines used to run in a low cutting round the outside - a small child’s dream. The layout is my second inspiration after Denny’s Buckingham. The idea of a continuous run (not through any station) to add running time to trains (a holding circuit) is a straight lift from Gainsborough. With both layouts using bells, I had no option. It’s a largish integral garage forming part of an extension. It’s cavity walled, insulated and the old up and over door is bricked up. It holds the heat reasonably well - when I put enough in it! It’s about 18 x 13 feet. A decent railway room was one of the criteria of the move. I had spent too many years modelling on paper in an armchair : now or never. Happy New Year.

I have yet to see! The Buckingham tunnel to Evenley section at the back, will be very interesting!

A TUESDAY EVENING Buoyed by the comments, I’ve put off ballasting and videoed part of this afternoon’s session. Its a last hurrah for 2017. This one is not for the faint-hearted, 15 minutes of video to give more of a flavour of Buckingham West. It’s a solo operating session so there are no bells, but there’s some shaky camera work instead. The session starts with the 19.53 TuWSO Horses and Carriages Buckingham to Banbury seen running between Buckingham Tunnel and Evenley, through Evenley and then going over Charlton Junction. It passes the up Birmingham express. The yard shunter then reverses the coal empties into the departure line at Buckingham West. The Birmingham express is due in Buckingham West at 20.03. We see the signals clear at Buckingham and Charlton Junction before it make its way through Charlton Junction, up the bank, through Evenley (obviously from a 1930’s drone!), into Buckingham tunnel (the trains standing in the loops will be covered by scenery in due course) and finally running into Buckingham West. Its a bit of an abrupt stop! The signals are then pulled off and the crossing gates closed for the 20.15 SX Empty Coaching Stock from Buckingham West to Brackley Road via Evenley (where it takes the branch of course). This is the vintage rake used on the branch. There is another abrupt stop, this one at Brackley Road. The Horses and Carriages can still be seen around the continuous run known as Charlton Junction. Next, a 28xx comes off shed and reverses into the yard to head the 20.25 Coal Empties to Severn Tunnel Junction. However it stops off at Evenley to pick up 8 more empties, 4 from Evenley yard and 4 that came down from Brackley Road on the Fly in the afternoon. The 28 reverses the wagons into the goods loop, runs round wrong line, over the slips and into the yard. It shunts the yard and then runs back to the front. The 20.20 local from Banbury is running round Charlton Junction. It’s due in Evenley at 20.48. The coal empties are due out at 20.45. The shunt was completed with 4 minutes to spare. YouTube then finally cut the last part off the video. But it was only backing onto the rake. Sorry about all the clutter and lack of scenery etc, but it’s a work in progress.

Thanks for all the great comments guys. Happy New Year

Every train does indeed have its own identity. It’s all run to a timetable and a fastclock. There are daily variations, different locos rostered to the turns on each day and the freight wagons are allocated and shunted by colours on the sole bars referenced from charts. The wagons are reversed through the dumbbell at Banbury and have different colours on each side. They depart in an organised fashion and return as a random selection.

Just the same old iphone. Happy New Year

It’s now 17.45 and the photographer is still in Charlton cutting, but further along. A local from Banbury to Buckingham West passes by, heading for its penultimate stop at Evenley. It is passed by the down cross country express to Leicester, headed by ex-GCR Director, Marne. All this playing is fun, but I must crack on with more ballasting.

The 15.08 Banbury to Evenley Limestone empties in Charlton cutting, headed by a 72xx.

The up express from Shrewsbury (14.30 ex Banbury) headed by a Castle passes the 14.18 down Buckingham West to Wolverhampton express headed by a Star at Charlton Junction