stivesnick

All

Video of the layout at TINGS last weekend shot by fellow N Gauge area group member Maurits

https://youtu.be/YJE-gQHnQs4

Regards

Nick

Oooooops

This time with photo

Interesting weekend at TINGS. The controller played up and hopefully a new one will be wired up for the next outing in Colchester in October.

Thanks to all those who stopped for a chat and for all the kind comments.

For those who are fed up with buses in the bridge photos, here is something different....

Nick

Molinnis will be at the N Gauge show in Leamington Spa this weekend. Hopefully a few new items of rolling stock will appear.

Do say hello, if you visit the show.

Nick

Jeremy

The Ian Allan British Rail Fleet Survey volume 11 : Overhead EMUs has seating plans for the driving cars

Regards

Nick

Back to AGA - and looking at the new rolling stock to be ordered.

There doesn't appear to be enough new inter-city stock, only 10 units for the 3 London - Norwich services each hour, so do we assume that the 3rd train is a stopper formed of outer suburban stock?

There is a useful increase in the number of DMU vehicles - as noted above some of these services can be heavily loaded especially on a Saturday so this is a welcome increase in capacity.

On TSGN, my understanding is that as Fenman has noted above, Kings Cross to Ely will go half-hourly until Ely N Junction is sorted out. It will be interesting to see if the proposed Liverpool  St - Cambridge fast(er) service by AGA will tempt many people away from the GN. Will there be a price war between the two operators?

Nick

Simon

An underground cable from the road would be the most likely situation. HV cables these days, tend to have red outer sheaths.

Nick

^{Hi Simon}

^{Some thoughts on modelling transformers, based on my work experience in dealing with utility companies and being lazy enough to use standard products where possible! I had intended to get one of the N Brass models, but the last time I encountered the N Brass stand, they has sold out.}

^{The N Brass transformer is intended (I think) for an OHLE supply use. A transformer to feed a building is a little different. Generally both the incoming high voltage and outgoing low voltage cables would be underground rather than from above as shown on the model. The insulators on the top should therefore be removed, unless you intend to connect the transformer to overhead power lines. ( Possible in a rural area, very unlikely in a town/city centre) The cooling pipes on the short sides need to be converted to cable boxes which are around half the length of the cooling pipes.}

^{Installation wise, the transformer would be mounted on a concrete base. Power companies don't like burying cables under concrete, so the surrounding area would be left with a gravel topping. An alternative would be to run the low voltage cables into the building within a cable duct, represented by a series of cable duct covers on the surface, the Ratio product would be ideal for this.}

^{The fences / walls around the transformer need to be at least 6 feet high with suitable notices warning etc.}

^{Hope this helps}

^Nick  

It's been a year since I posted anything on the layout.

The layout is still alive and looking forward to a trip to the N Gauge Show in September.

There was a visit from Chris Nevard this week, taking photos for a Model Rail article coming soon. The sample pictures look great, but you will have to wait to see them. The layout / backscene interface has worked well.

Nick

Hi

A good afternoon track laying has resulted in the fiddle yard tracks appearing on the layout. Have used the Peco setrack curved points to increase the length of each track. 3 tracks in each direction, to be divided into 2 or 3 sections so we can 8 trains in each direction. These points were obviously designed with a crossover in mind and we have used to extra curved sections included with the points to separate them. Has anyone come up with a scheme using other setrack sections to get a series of smooth curves into a fiddle yard?

There is a bit more work to do trackwise in creating the brickworks loading shed, where empty wagons can be changed for loaded ones.

Pictures  enclosed.

Nick

Its been 6 months since an update. Most of this time has been working on the wiring.

Some work has been going on regarding the brick kilns and station area.

First picture shows the kiln based on dimensions obtained during a chat with the archivist at the London Brick Company. The bolt in the centre is for the flue. We have one turned from wood.

The second picture shows the road bridge built from embossed plastic sheet. Start of the foamboard based platforms also visible.

Regards

Nick

Interesting idea

In early NSE days, Cambridge had some Class 101 to work to Royston and Kings Lynn before these lines were electrified. Had the line remained open, it is possible there would have been two types of passenger service, a all stations local between Cambridge and Bedford and a long distance, limited stop service that by-passed Bedford Midland (and need to reverse) - could have been loco hauled - Class 47 were used on the Kings Lynn service in NSE times.

There were a number of daily local Speedlink freight trips workings in the 1980s from Cambridge to various terminals. Traffic was grain, domestic coal, fertilizer and chemicals to the Ciba Geigy plant. Any one of these would make an interesting siding on the layout. For a time Cambridge shed was sued by the parcels sector as a depot so parcels trains would be a possibility.

As noted in other posts, plans are being developed to restore a rail link between Bedford and Cambridge. Work is ongoing to identify a route - but likely to be a new route to give higher speeds- an Oxford-Cambridge time of 75 minutes is the target.

Look forward to seeing how this idea develops.

Nick

Hi

I like the idea of taking a 1950s layout and updating it to more recent times - very much like the real railway.

A few thoughts that I hope you might find useful.

For the passenger service - the most likely situation is that the main line to London would be electrified and that the diesel hauled service would be a cross-country service. For example there were class 33 hauled trains (Mk1 stock) between Portsmouth and Bristol/Cardiff or class 47 hauled trains running further afield. Class 50s were sometimes used on these trains but were rare.

Freight would be a mix of trainload (train for one customer) and wagonload Speedlink services (train for many customers).  Cement traffic could run in either trainload or wagonload services. The main Speedlink Hub in the area you are modelling was Eastleigh. From there local freight workings would serve various terminals. There was a lot of military traffic, which could be a use of the old oil siding as you already have some security fencing. Other traffic could be general goods in vans, steel or fertilizer in open wagons. Class 47 / 33 would be used on these trains.

A PW yard is a good idea - perhaps you could imagine that the line is being resignaled or electrified that would justify many PW/engineering trains. You could then retain the old signal box and have  anew box being built alongside it.

Not sure if the engine shed would have survived - more likely to have been downgraded to a fuel point with some buildings for crew accommodation.

Hope you find this useful and good luck with your modelling.

Regards

Nick

Hi Rob

I did a 1980s GE Branch in N many years ago so will be watching this with interest. I ended up building a Class 302 parcels unit for extra traffic ( they actually ran on the LTS rather than the GE)

It might be too late, but I would try to lengthen the passing loop if, perhaps by integrating any pointwork into the fiddle yard. At present it looks very short and unrealistic.

Regards

Nick

Have seen this layout at exhibitions - its a great layout, well worth checking out for its interesting operating.

Nick

Hi

Looking at your proposed steel frame building under construction in #771, it doesn't look right. My 30 years experience in the construction industry says this building is about to fall down!

There is a need for some diagonal bracing between some of the columns. They would normally be along the end walls as there would be no windows to get in the way. But the front and back will also need bracing. This usually happens in the stair core. It is also unusual for a building to be totally made out of steel. Many buildings would have had concrete lift shafts, again as a way of bracing the building. A typical lift of that era would have a shaft around 2m x 2m with a 1m x 2m opening at each landing. The lift pit would be 1.5m deep and would need to be included on the model as the ground floor slab would have been installed early on with a few pipes poking through for future services connections.

I hope this is helpful to you. I built a similar shops / office building for Horseley Fields, and the end bay of the building representing the office entrance and stairs/toilets looks different for the reasons given above.

Regards

Nick

Jesse

I would make the overlap slightly wider - say 5mm each side. After all you need space for the pigeons to roost and deposit **** all over the side walls!

As for the height, there are many such bridges where it is not possible to see over the parapet - so if you allow 2-3 feet for the structure of the bridge and then 6-7 feet above the pavement - something in the order of 8-10 feet for the girder would be about right.

Hope this helps.

Nick

An end of year update.

Yes we actually had some trains running on the layout today - thanks to some temporary wiring and Mike's trusty 60 year old controller (none of this modern rubbish). Once I work out how to download a video from my camera, there will be some pictures. The controller is generally two speed; 0 or 80mph so some impressive lap times recorded.

One thing we noticed was a modern Farish 4F was struggling to start with a load of 20 short wheel based wagons. Is this normal or controller related?

Regards

Nick

Hi

With regard to platform widths, current standards would have a minimum width of 4m for an island platform. However there is also a minimum clear width for obstructions, so you ideally have 2m each side of the subway. Of course many older stations would not meet current standards but it is unlikely that they would have gone much below 1.5m clear at the subway location.

Hope this helps.

Nick

Thanks Brian

Like many modellers, it is likely that I will end up with too much rolling stock, so will be able to have both china clay and granite traffic.

I am using Looe for the track plan, and will modify the train service to create something more interesting for exhibition use.

Regards

Nick

Thanks gentlemen for your most helpful replies.

The idea for the layout is to use the track plan at Looe as it is different from most other stations. In N Gauge I can fit the platform and goods yard in a 8 foot scenic section with minimal changes. The only possible change to the plan would be to move the town gas works nearer to the town and give it a dedicated siding. The quay area would be a second fiddle yard. I am more likely to alter the town scene to fit in with the space available. Including the gas works would mean that the station area would have a more edge of town feel about it.

The reason for the question was to help develop a suitable timetable which I would be happy to operate at an exhibition before I start building.

I am currently going through Gerry Beale's book on the line to see which aspects of operation I will keep and which I want to change. Hopefully by listing these things out, I can keep the layout more believable.

Will start a layout thread once construction starts.

Thanks again for your help

Nick

Hi

I am starting to plan a new GWR branch layout based on Looe in Cornwall. On the real railway, china clay traffic to the quay at Looe ended in the 1920s but on my layout it continues into the 1950s. I have some questions on how it would operate.

1. Would the china clay traffic be a separate train or wagons added to the daily freight?

2. How long would it take to unload the wagons at the quay?

3. Would the loco wait, pick up empties wagons from the previous day, or leave light engine and return later/next day?

Any thoughts on this welcome.

Regards

Nick

Its been a long time since the last update but the group is still here making slow progress on the wiring.

We are the Cambs and Northants group of the N Gauge Society and we meet once a month in the Offords just south of Huntingdon - all society members are welcome to attend.

Regards

Nick

This is a great layout. I especially like the way it is spaced out with long platform and sidings.

Nick

Some pictures taken at the Hoddesdon Show today.

First outing on the layout (following repairs by Paul) of FGW 150 and works units. Also some of the first Dapol 66's which have been living in the stock box for some time also saw daylight.

Man thanks to Alan to helping me out (refer picture of confused operator!)

Regards

Nick