LNER4479

Well, back down to earth, after the 'high' of a running session. But here's a train running? Ah, yes, well ... there was a bit of stock movement and sorting out required. Most of those moves are 'in the can' for periodic posting whilst more mundane work continues. So this is presented as the 'last train' (for now). 70054 'Dornoch Firth' has charge of the 'Waverley' through Bog Junction, en route to temporary stabling out of the way at Garsdale. No more than 10 minutes later, and the line is severed (for now!). This lift out piece has turned out not to be ideal so is to be re-worked into a more practical arrangement. With track (and some basic wiring) also now removed, the board is temporarily back in position to weigh up how best to re-work it. In the background the temporary tracks for the running session have been removed; you can see how the curve round from Upperby is heading towards the crossing of this board at the right end end. No going back now - it's in two parts! To be continued...

Hi Philip, Here are some pix of a plain crossing curving mod I did a few years ago. As you can (readily?) see, I let the existing link wires break off and re-soldered them underneath where I removed all the underneath plastic. There's also a cut through the checkrails slightly further inboard too. The arrow is highlighting an important little addition that I do these days: for the outer-most cuts, you're quite close to the rail ends and they will tend to spring back, as there's nothing much holding them in place. What I've done is to re-insert a piece of the underneath plastic previous cut away but a bit longer so that it keeps the sleepers just a bit further apart and thus holds the curve. Result. It's not an absolute perfect curve (the centre portion remains straight) but perfectly good enough for OO. This crossing and two others like it have been installed on HotN for nearly four years now and no problems whatsoever. Note, however, that the rail ends won't quite be level at the ends any more, if you're joining up to other pointwork; I usually have to cut a little bit off the inner rail ends. NB - you CAN'T modify slip points in quite the same way but the principles are much the same. I'll be back on with that and the 3-way point shortly, as I'm doing them at the moment. Graham PS - if you go back just a couple of pages on HotN (p.110, I think?) there's an example of a curved point; large Y combo with rails cut to achieve 45mm spacing.

Have I got it round my neck or wasn't the prototype U1 essentially two O2s running back to back? (mechanically speaking). In which case, a very clever choice by the manufacturer as they can reap the benefit from the development of their earlier models, commonality of parts, etc. All power to Heljan's elbows in continuing to invest in the UK OO RTR steam market.

Hi Glad you found the latest postings on modifying Peco points OK - hope it was useful? I'm modifying quite a few points at the mo, including 3-ways and slips. It is a bit scary when you see the price of them these days, but take it steady and you should be OK. I managed to dislodge a couple of link wires on a recent mod. (I 'forgot' to post about that!) but it's easy enough to solder replacement links in place. One thing I might not have mentioned - I cut my rails these days with a fine piercing saw after years of ... er ... hacking at them with a hacksaw(!) You get a much finer, cleaner cut with the piercing saw - virtually no clean up and much kinder to the surrounding (expensive!) pointwork. (I've never got on with track cutters ...)

To explain a bit further (?) This was set up as a (very) temporary arrangement, so as we could turn trains round at Upperby. The curved board is actually a rough cut of the board that will eventually be there - this will be removable so as to be able to get at Upperby yard and MPD. The nearest board is simply a Shap fiddle yard board put to use. In the fullness of time, the curve will continue round and cross over the Bog Junc tracks to align itself for the approach to Citadel station. Passenger and goods train can be accommodated - obviously, in the case of passenger trains, coming off the goods lines is a bit of a nonsense (for now); the goods train alongside however is prototypically waiting for the road at Carlisle No.13 junction. Birmingham-Glasgow passes southbound fish train on Shap bank. Three for the price of one! A goods trains departs from Central bars said fish train from entering the station, whilst an ordinary passenger train approaches Upperby. Later, the goods train is captured steadily climbing Shap.

Well, some of the recent effort was geared up to a running session today, in honour of the man from upsidedown land. Photography never easy when trying to oversee the running of a layout so I just grabbed a few shots when I could. John Nuttall aka St Enodoc, in the company of another long time Leeds MRS compatriot, Barry O. Others joined in the fray. Jonathan seemed to delight in emptying Dentonholme goods yard. Stanier Pacific's as always well to the fore. Princess Royal 46206 heads out from Central on the Birmingham-Glasgow as Duchess 46252 arrives with the Midday Scot. Here's the full roll call. I think(?) everyone enjoyed themselves, plenty of trains were run and lots of new things learnt. Onwards and upwards.

Well, the eagle has certainly landed. Great to be able host the author of this thread today, in the company of friends old and new. We even ran a few trains. Fuller report to follow in the Hills of the North thread. I suspect one or two more posts may appear here in due course.

Hi Roger, The Peppercorn A2 was designed from the outset as a mixed traffic loco and could be diagrammed equally for freight (albeit, express, time-sensitive workings) as passenger. A quick Google around found this picture: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/496662665138577074/ Nothing mundane about a fish train - it was important, high revenue traffic! I'm sure a further dig around would find more such pictures, even going back to the early 1950s. That date (1961) is at the cusp of the diesel takeover and the start of the rundown of steam. From that date onwards, even the most prestigious of locos could be seen on freight trains. Depends on the era your project is aimed at?

To be fair (2), the Locomotion 'stock shed' is the focal point of a wider, heritage trail site that IS quite well done ... or at least, WAS ... telling the tale of the birth of the railway age in the North East. The enclosed pix are from previous years (2013 & 2016) 'high days' in the summer, when the demonstration line was operating to its full extent. The heritage trail path is alongside and takes you down nearer to Shildon village where the Hackworth house contains informative displays, including the history (and demise) of the nearby wagon works ... or at least, DID ... Sadly, some of the above is in the past tense. Due to the deteriorating condition of the coal drops (best seen to the right of 'Joem' - the arch opening should be vertical and butresses sloping - not the other way round!), the demo line has been cut back to the crossing and the Hackworth house seems to have closed for redevelopment(!) since before Covid. I THINK there's a concerted effort going on to get things brought back up to scratch for S&D200 but I don't actually know for sure (a brief internet search just now didn't reveal too much). Maybe a case of an awkward Science Museum (London) vs local council finance & politics situation ...

Agreed (that that was the question) - and a possible answer is that the manufacturer is taking into account (possibly a little TOO much?) the roller coaster nature of track towards the trainset end of the spectrum. Encounter a high spot in the track and the thing is balancing on its centre drivers with consequent risk of loss of current contact and derailment.

What is now known as 'Locomotion' was only ever planned and built as a glorified warehouse as an NRM spillover, somewhere to house additional rolling stock under cover. That it is now regarded as a museum in its own right is really down to it being a victim of its own success, undoubtedly helped by it being free entry in a part of the country with one of the lowest standards of living in the UK. Whilst I'm sure exhibits could be laid out better, I think it's a case of 'I wouldn't start from here' if it were to be re-worked as a history of the railways. Best railway museum I've ever been to in terms of 'telling the story'? Californian State Railroad museum in Sacramento. You simply couldn't do anything remotely approaching that at Locomotion.

I think it's indicative of the current state of the hobby, Tony. You'd probably get as many modellers modelling 'Southern Region 1966-67 in the Basingstoke area' in the same room as you would the entire era 2 fraternity. 30 years ago, the Big Four era would probably have warranted three separate eras; in 30 years time (probably less) '1948-1968 BR steam' will probably be just the one era. It might even become '1948-1994 British Rail'(!). Who knows? (Who cares?!)

Layout set back up again (for now). Given cancellation of Newcastle show (Grantham was due to attend), could run a special train ... Viewed from the opposite side to normal (due to the sun), a 9F hauled goods train steadily climbs Shap. Doesn't look that special, does it? But this train now runs straight down the opposite descent towards Carlisle, slowing for Carlisle No.13 junctions ... ... where it makes its way across to access the Upperby goods reception line. From there, it moves cautiously forward into the roads leading towards Crown St goods yard, but just far enough to clear the junctions at Upperby No.12 box. The yard pilot then springs into life, transferring cuts of wagons at a time into the main Upperby yard. The train thus stabled, the train loco is free to reverse out to the loco depot. And obviously gets to use the turntable (!)

Sorry Mike - if that's a question for me to ask then I don't fully understand the question? (my bad)

Yes, but ... Practicalities come into play with my Upperby roundhouse. It is in the corner of the room and will not be easily accessible. Exact positioning of a largely wheelbase loco on the 'table will not be easy, so some latitude is essential if we are not going to forever be stopping the layout to retrieve locos that have been derailed by the movement of the table, caught other locos stabled as they spin round, etc. In contrast, the lengths of the stalls will be as shorter - basically, the instruction will be to buffer up a large loco against the shed wall - so the overall footprint will actually be smaller that the real thing. An overhead camera / screen is envisaged to aid use. It's (allegedly) 90ft in HO which is 79(-ish) ft in OO so not too bad. Other turntables on the layout, that are more accessible will be to scale length.

There's hope for you yet, Clive😉

Dave (k22009) seemed to make a reasonable fist of it ...

Back at the layout ... more excitement 😃

Meanwhile, down at the other end of the modelling evolutionary scale... From this: (and they said it couldn't be done ...)

Anyhow, you were saying ... Picked this up again a few weeks ago. Doors thickened by soldering scrap etch on the back. Side detail added; end detail prepared. Roof was just a thin piece of plasticard - no way of actually attaching it! I soldered on some tabs from scrap etch and reinforced the plasticard from below And there we have it. If I'm allowed to say, I don't think it looks too bad? According to Jenkinson, they lasted till at least the late 1950s so it's going in the 🐠 train. So there. A nice simple Parkside kit next up!

And so the current bout of wire strangling on the new Upperby running lines is complete. By way of demonstration... The Upperby operator gets control of a train from a handover length of track just before Carlisle No.13. Here, the demonstration train turns off the mainline and accesses the down goods reception line (despite it being a rake of coaches in this instance!). Independent goods lines immediately behind the train. Train comes to a stand at Upperby Junction (Carlisle No.12). Direct access in to the main Upperby goods yard was not possible, so far as I can make out, so ... Train then moves forward straight across the junctions to access the lines that eventually led to Crown Street Goods Depot. This is a somewhat simplified arrangement compared to the prototype (believe it or not) but is the only way I can figure out how to get the train into the yard. It's a single track arrangement on the model but it'll open out into a double track formation. A second loco then hauls the vehicles across into the main yard area, accessed from the so called 'third line' which on my scheme serves as the headshunt. With the train set back into the yard, the released loco can reverse out, in this case using an alternative route into the yard area. And makes its way on to the shed ... except at this point it grinds to a halt. For now. Depot wiring to follow shortly.

All done now chaps - ain't gonna change. The length of the headshunt is critical. The first associated point leads into the carriage shed - the headshunt as laid will take a smallish tender loco (a 4F was used to size up) plus 4 local coaches (57/60ft) which is practical for ECS workings to / from Citadel. (my Upperby carriage shed will be two-road, approx 6 coaches in each round. Used for stabling local sets only).

Meanwhile More work required at Carlisle No.13 to complete the installation down that end. Here's the little problem. Installation of the headshunt gets in the way of the rodding to the pointwork. And the rodding is required because some fool planned all this to be located on a bridge (meaning that point motors mounted directly underneath is not an option 🙄) One can be operated using one of those handy 'side on' Peco motors; the other works as part of a crossover so is being rodded from the other point. A rather satisfying, albeit time-consuming and fiddly, way of doing it, using the tried and trusted GEM cranks. As this is all somewhat remote from the operating position then I've set up this interim lever frame installation. It can't go there ultimately as that's where the M&C trackbed goes(!) but most of the wiring at the other end is permanent. Long loops left at this end for now pending final installation. And there we have it (for now). Carlisle No.13 pretty much as it will be. The motors for the two trap points can wait for now - their absence does not hinder immediate operations. You can see from this pic how the two points concerned are unwittingly plumb dead centre on the bridge over the M&C tracks. A close up of the rodding arrangement. And another, to prove it works! Which - dare I say it myself - it does, rather well. More soon - most of this new trackwork is now live. I'll do a demo post once it's completed.

Now then, forgive me for getting just a tad excited ... Apologies for poor lighting. Just a quick snap from 1am this morning (!) Yes - we have one quarter of a roundhouse! Set desired road ... Loco moves on to 'table Turns to line up with exit track. And moves off to pick up southbound working (or at least it will once the track beyond is connected up!) In truth, only the tracks on the turntable are energised at the moment. I'm going to wire up these six roads first as a bit of a test to try and identify any pitfalls [sic]. More soon

Last of the running photos 'in the can' whilst we anticipate resumption of further running. Fitted goods gets away from Central, passing beneath the WCML approaching Carlisle. A Fowler moment at Bog Junc. Duchess-hauled fish train coming the other way. And tackling Shap unaided. Meanwhile ... Skin n hair flying in all directions at Upperby as the electrical work tries to keep pace with the tracklaying.