Warspite

Two years and four months later... Sorry for the lack of any updates but the layout had to take a back seat due to many other demands on my time. I have dabbled with a few things on the layout in the intervening 2+ years but intend to commit more time if I can... my wife just read this and laughed! In the meantime, I've just edited those of my posts with images to replace the lost ones so that anybody reading this thread for the first time will get some idea what it is all about. Stephen

I’m looking forward to the BR 24T ironstone hopper being released as it will be ideal for my ironstone quarry layout (building of which is temporarily stalled). I was interested to see that wagon B436275 is being modelled as it was in a rake of hopper wagons I was shunting during a ‘driver experience’ day at Rocks by Rail in 2017. My wife took a lot of photographs on the day including this one of B436275. The photo shows that this particular wagon also had different axle boxes to the model although I think the Dapol model has a more common version. I have seen photographs of these wagons with both types on the same wagon! I’ve also cropped the image to show the builder’s plate and interestingly, it shows the weight as 22T although many were upgraded to 24T as being modelled by Dapol.

Thanks both for responding. I've been in touch with Paul and he's given me a number of possible solutions by changing some of the CV values. I haven't had time to try these yet but he did confirm that resetting the sound project to the default won't lose the sounds. If all else fails, I may need to look at replacing the 'gold cap' capacitors in at least one of the locos. Thanks again for your help.

Nigel Thanks for this. My knowledge an understanding anything related to DCC is very limited (and not for the sake of trying!) so I rely on people like yourself and Paul to resolve my problems. My main concern is, will going back to the original CV settings remove the sound files Paul has loaded on the decoder? I will ask Paul anyway before I do anything too disastrous. I should also say that it is actually three locos which are suffering the same problem, not two. Attached are photos of both sides the HC showing the decoder and stay-alive wiring. Stephen

Sorry if I have confused everybody here with my rather clumsy terminology. What I should have said was that both locos were fitted with MX645 decoders plus stay-alive capacitors. Paul Chetter carried out the installations on both my Ixion Manning Wardle and Ixion Hudswell Clarke locos and he fitted MX645 decoders with 'Gold Cap' 143,000uF stay alive capacitors in both. I remember running one of them down the dining room table after taking it off the track! Hope that now makes sense.

Thanks for this. These are all Zimo MX645 decoders with stay-alive on board but I'll check them for any loose wiring.

I have three Ixion O scale locos, all fitted with Zimo MX645 sound decoders including ‘stay-alive’. Due to a variety of circumstances, they haven’t been run for many months and I now find that although everything else works fine, including sound, the stay-alive is not working in any of them. The stay-alive on my two more recent Minerva locos work fine. I carried out a search on here and the only suggestion I could find was to ensure CV 394 is set to 0. I have tried this but it has no effect. Can stay-alive stop working through lack of use? I hope somebody can help. Thank you. Stephen

My guess would be BUCCLEUCH (1232/1910) which went from Glendon East Quarries to Harlaxton Quarries in 1946 and to Nassington Quarries in 1962. It was scrapped there in 1969. Eric Tonks included a photo of it in the Corby Area book (page 299) of his Ironstone series. This photo shows the water softener on the front of the saddle tank which Tonks presumes was fitted at Harlaxton. Of course, I could be completely wrong...

Mark Very sorry to read about your bad back. I've never had a slipped disc but do know how painful a back injury can be. I saw the layout for sale on that Facebook site and thought it looked an absolute beauty. If I wasn't so committed to my current ironstone project I would have been very tempted myself. I'm so pleased for you as it gives you the opportunity to get something running and you can then adapt it for your own interests. I'll be following progress ... and we will need more pictures! Stephen

I'm not sure if they still do them but Broadway Limited used to do a very nice N&W H2a coal hopper in HO. They did them in six packs and I got a pack a long time ago for a long-term N&W/Virginian coal mine project I hope to start one day. This is one of them. straight out of the box before I get round to weathering them. I believe the H2a 'triple' hoppers were the most populous N&W hoppers with 13,500 built.

Mike No need to apologise, this is such a fascinating series and it's great to see so many shortlines we've heard about over the years. I loved the story about Fey Orr. You couldn't make that up! Stephen

Thanks Barnaby. I've got to put corrugated panels to the side and roof on the second half yet together with the front, rear and the other side. But, it's coming on! Stephen

I’m building the engine shed from the Buzz Models ‘small industrial shed’ laser-cut kit. I chose to use two kits to make a double length shed. These are well designed kits and the ‘shell’ of the sheds goes together very nicely. Buzz provide sheets of corrugated styrene sheet but you need to cut these to size to represent the corrugated metal panels found on these buildings. I managed to photograph some old corrugated buildings not far from home and represented the haphazard pattern of the panels on the model. I initially tried track pins to represent the rivets holding the panels in place but these looked over scale so I used fine wire instead. Very fiddly but I thought it was worth it in the end. Having already painted the first half of the shed, I somewhat belatedly went back to my Tonks’ books and found many of the ironstone sheds had windows. I managed to add two of these on the front half without having to cut away too much of the wooden structure. I haven’t added glazing yet but I think the windows actually improve the look of the shed. Stephen

If you are still interested in the dimensions of the Minerva Peckett, I've just measured mine: Buffer to buffer: 170mm = 24' 5" Bufferbeam to bufferbeam: 150mm = 21' 5" Wheelbase: 45.5mm = 6' 6" Wheel size: 25mm = 3' 7" The wheelbase and wheel size match those you quoted for 1464. Hope this helps. Stephen

I’ve finally made some progress on the layout. I changed the track plan (again) to make things a bit more interesting and provide additional siding capacity for the small locomotive fleet. I’ve now laid and wired the track and installed the servo operated point motors. The layout consists of three scenic boards totalling 2550mm x 700mm (8’ 4” x 2’ 3½”) with a 1090mm (3’ 7”) traverser board. The ground rises towards the top right so the engine shed is at a slightly higher level than the track which comes in from under the bridge. The foreground falls to the front of the layout.

Whilst we’re talking about the Eastern Idaho RR, I thought I would share one of the photos I took at Ashton ID in January 2018. At the time, there was a regular EIRR local turn from Idaho Falls to Ashton mainly serving grain elevators. The grain cars at Ashton were switched by this ‘Shuttle Wagon’. We followed the old Teton Valley Branch Railroad from Ashton to Victor via Tetonia and Driggs. Sadly, the Teton Valley line closed about 30 years ago but many of the grain elevators are still in use.

I cannot believe I first saw Poynton Sneer at the RM Web Members’ Day at Taunton in April 2012 – that’s nine years ago! As my wife took some photos of the layouts, I asked her last night if she remembered the show and she said: “Oh yes, that’s where we saw that really nice, lovely, small layout. It was called ‘Sneer and Point’ wasn’t it? No, wait a bit, ‘Point and Sneer, no ‘Poynton Sneer’.” When I told her Marc had sold it, she said: “You could have bought that. It would have saved you all those hours you've wasted not making anything! In fact, you could have two ‘Poynton Sneers’ in the space you’ve got.” I did not respond … Instead, I’ve posted one of her photos from that day in Taunton.

Hi Marc Good to see you and Poynton Steer on here again. It was always one of my favourite layouts and I was lucky to see you exhibiting it. Small it may be, but packed full of detail and beautifully made. It was an inspiration for me and many others. Hope it's gone to a good home. Stephen

Of course, I meant to say "I included a cubby hole underneath the SmartFrogs to keep my uncoupling pen and the Sig-na Trak stylus. Just stops me losing them!" Not "using" them.

Thanks for the tip on FOAMEX. I forgot to say that I included a cubby hole underneath the SmartFrogs to keep my uncoupling pen and the Sig-na Trak stylus. Just stops me losing them!

Thanks for your good wishes. It’s certainly been a difficult 14 months and as I’ve had to shield, I’ve been virtually housebound since coming out of hospital. It’s ironic that when I’ve had the time to work on the layout, I lost my mojo to do any physical modelling and consequently made very little progress. It seemed much easier to make adjustments to my track plan on the PC or just do other things. I am thrilled about the new room but my loss of mojo coincided with a need to tidy up the house and garage and my wife’s cunning plan to move most things railway related to the new room, now named ‘The Doghouse’ for reasons I cannot imagine! I now have a railway room full of old layouts, stock boxes and railway magazines and books and I haven’t had any appetite to sort it all out yet. However, I still have the layout’s original location in our shared study and I have designed it with the flexibility to move it to the new railway room when I can and then extend it . Although I’ve hardly posted on here, I’ve been following your layout updates and saw what you had decided on point control. I had already invested in the Peco SmartSwitch system with everything operated by the Sig-na Trak. I got mine sometime after you when I read how you could set up a ‘display’ for each loco. The trouble is I spent a lot of time deciding how to operate the servos – above baseboard, below baseboard etc. – until I was satisfied that I had adopted the best method. A lot of trial and error and that’s with only four remotely controlled turnouts! I’ve now started to lay track and you’ve given me the incentive to start putting more updates on here. It’s good to hear you’ve had both jabs; I’ve had my first and getting my second one soon. You too, take care and keep safe.

Hi Barnaby - I haven't posted much on here for a long time but my ironstone layout is making slow (actually very slow) progress. You may recall from that layout (and my previous 'Minimum Space' layout) that I have used both 3mm and 5mm Daler Rowney foamboard. I use 3mm for buildings and 5mm for boards, including the traverser I made some time ago and posted on here. I've uploaded some of the pictures here again in case you can't find them. I've also recently made a tray for my DCC box, with a lift out panel for the Peco Smartfrogs. This panel will be covered and the whole of the front of the layout will be hidden by a black foamboard fascia.

As Baggies1961 mentioned me, I thought you might be interested in a couple of photos from the layout. I don't have a track plan but I've included an overhead composite photo (the hidden sidings are on the right), There are quite a few other photos on the layout thread (link below). The layout measured 9' 4" by 1' 9" so may be a bit wider than you want but it will give you an idea what can be done in a small space. Stephen

I was shocked and saddened to hear the news of Chris’s passing. I was privileged to meet Chris a number of times at different shows over the years and he was always willing to provide advice and encouragement. I was fortunate to be able to buy one of the last remaining Ixion Manning Wardle’s and it gave me the impetus to get into industrial O scale modelling. His modelling was an inspiration to many of us. My condolences to Chris’s family and friends and to Chris B.

Chris Looks excellent. Really looking forward to this and if it's as good as all the previous Minerva models, it will be superb! Stephen