LNER4479

And to finish another productive day ... ... a late night wiring session. Was strangely 'in the mood' for it this evening. Just really pleasant working in there, plenty of space, good lighting, everything to hand and just general peace n quiet ... aaahh And, shortly before 1am, first movements at Dentonholme, controlled through an interim mini panel. Should do for now. Now, just gotta get the loco over the lifting flap, through Caldew junctions and down to Grand Junctions. No pressure...

Tried and tested on Grantham, I have to say John ... A Peco point motor, backed up by a Gaugemaster CDU, has a fair kick to it. And with a fair dose of bad planning on my part, several of the points are sitting above battens etc, rendering direct mounting of motors underneath impossible. Anyway, I thought we were both mechanical engineers (and proud)?

So ... with Objective No.2 complete (minus wiring up!), on to Objective No.3 - start to lay out Dentonholme yard. Here we are. Cork down and painted and first bits of pointwork prepared ( the tracks underneath the 'Shaprith' boards were laid earlier in the year. Who knew that tracklaying could be so complicated?(!) One of the points being installed is having a motor attached, with attendant hole in the baseboard. Also, channels cut in the cork for point rodding. That's better. Whereas these points are easily accessible at the moment, eventually they'll need to be motorised as the north end of Carlisle station butts up against this(!) The aforementioned channels for the point rodding can be seen and the idea here is that one motor will power both points of a crossover via a mechanical linkage. Once all the roads fan out, there's room for eight roads. The coaches are standing on the West yard reception road, with the through lines to the right of them. The two lines furthest right will represent the East yard. The full yard should have capacity for some 200-250 wagons. Hours of fun shunting to be had.

It is when you give yourself a week off 😏 (and the missus goes away for a week)

Another bite-size chunk of wiring done. Can you see it?(!) Wires now extending onto the top lifting flap, meaning that ... Success! Trains can now run onto the flap from the station (and vice versa). I need to do some more tracklaying to recover ...

Well, that was a very pleasant morning's work🙂 This section of track is being laid temporary for now as this piece of board needs to come off yet to finish off the S&C running lines beneath. Hence the piecemeal bits of cork underlay. First line in. And the second. Much easier to lay once you have the first one there as a reference. As you can perhaps detect, the curvature of this length of track is much gentler, mainly 5-6 foot radius. And they're only goods running lines! Being molly-coddled. A quick check of the flap - alles gut! And with both flaps in place. All looking suitably busy. More wiring up now beckons 😟

Indeed. A mug o tea don't taste proper without a good layer on the sides.😋 Amusingly, the last one I put in the wishdosher came out looking just the same! I had to resort to hand scouring to restore some order of cleanliness

And now: your mission - should you choose to accept it - fill this gap! See you later 😉

Now, this tracklaying is all very well but it needs a source of urge if we're going to get anything to move. I need to do electrickery in bite-size chunks otherwise I get a bit overwhelmed by it. And wiring up doesn't really have the 'wow' factor visually so your gonna have to work with me on this one. Anyhow, to get us started, I've rigged up a temporary support ... for a temporary (hopefully!) controller. The permanent control panel for this operating position will be in this area but needs more structure around it before it gets installed. For now, I've connected up the basic track feeds for the 'Shaprith' station area (to the dropper wires installed when track round these parts was laid). And for a test loco it could only be ... And it goes! Quite something to see it disappearing towards Upperby to become just a black blob in the distance. Lovely n smooth n quiet - but that's the foam underlay for you. Got as far as shown. Further wiring required to get it to go across the flap(!) Some of this wiring is (hopefully!) for keeps - don't want to do it twice! This connector block has the track section feeds coming in all nice n neat at the top, allowing quick n easy temporary connections thereafter, pending permanent arrangement. I need a lie down now.

Certainly for now totally manual (ie moving the tie-bars by hand). Maybe one day in the future when everything else is done (ha!) we could add some degree of finesse ...

All 98 pages? Good grief. We need an 😲 emoji as a reaction for that. Apologies, as most must be missing their photos these days. Anyhow, good luck with your own mega project. Any details posted anywhere yet?

And so, now for a serious session of tracklaying - what a chore(!) Caldew Junc (Carlisle No.3 box), effectively a short stretch of 4-track mainline, with double crossovers both ways. It's not intended to be a scenic bit of the layout - and it's partly hidden under Shap Fell (!) - but it's still an important (crucial even!) operating position so worth taking care over. Well 'in the zone', with all the paraphernalia of tracklaying spread out. First double junction installed. This one is underneath Shap Fell, but I laid it with the board in situ (rather than remove it) to keep an eye on overall alignment; the smaller toffee hammer was deployed to get at the track pins. And repeat two further times! These were somewhat easier, being out in the open. For now, that's all I need to lay as we're heading away on the outer set of lines (where the coaches are). Note that, despite this being 'off scene ', I've maintained 45mm track centres for the pairs of running lines, with 61mm separation in between. I just like the look of it like that! I've included a single slip in the formation, to give the option of crossing between up and down lines, if required. Also of note is that all these are dead frog points and will be hand operated. I've also recycled some serviceable pointwork from my old 'Gowhole' loft layout (hence mixture of new and faded colours). That one about life being short, again ...

Just one word for that: Fabbarooneytasticmegaphantasmogorigacilicious 🤩

And now this evening's report ... Objective No.2 - connect up with Dentonholme from the north - involves quite a fair length of track to lay. However, quite a bit of that are straightforward lengths of double track. The sections beneath Shap Fell are removable (obviously?), so that at least makes the tracklaying easy 🤗 Like this. Very pleasant working conditions. Of note is that these lengths are being laid using Code 100, for robustness, given the need for removability. There we are. Tracks now in position up to the site of Caldew junctions (Carlisle No.3 box). The two trusty test coaches are standing by ... Meanwhile, I know opinions differ but FWIW, ordered this lot Sunday evening and it was here by lunchtime today. You can't say fairer than that. These points required for later in the week.

More or less. It's actually a fairly constant curve (of approx 33" radius) from about half way over the flap (once the points have been cleared) until it starts to straighten out to line up with the Shap tracks. About 3 coach-lengths, I'd say. (FWIW, both flaps are about 3 foot long)

Anyhow ... Tracklaying continued across the upper lifting flap ... ... and connected up with the existing tracks at the top of Shap. Instantly, we now have a lengthy run that completes a full lap of the chapel. Objective No.1 completed. Some details. At the lifting end, I've made use of some set-track pieces, as this a minimum (for me) 3 foot radius curve. Most set-track is of course far tighter than that; however, Peco handily do an 'adapter curve' (ST-238) which is 33" radius - close enough. They sell them as a two-pack (ST-2038) so I bought two of them, to use as illustrated. In doing so, I can use my beloved sliding fishplates. Much simpler and guaranteed alignment. It gets better (worse?). The piece of trackbed between the flap and the top of Shap needs to be removable (at least for now), so as I can get the Shap boards out for exhibitions. All this degree of dismantlement has not been without its head scratching ... and there's probably more elegant solutions(!) but the above is good enough for me. Coaches seem to run through it fine as an initial trial although the real proof will be when it all gets livened up. There are some gradient changes involved! For now - on to objective No.2 ...

Seeing as my structural engineering has attracted more interest than expected, here's some further pix to explain what's going on in a bit more detail. The 'heavy lifting' is being done by the lower flap (carrying the goods avoiding lines). The upper flap is doing little more than resting on top. The hinge arrangement for the bottom flap is shown here - a butt hinge either side of the flap, fixed to short batten pieces. View with flap raised, showing how the bracing batten butts up against the aforementioned end batten. If there is a weak point, it's probably at the other end where the flap just rests on a supporting piece of 9mm ply. The end of the batten just ... er ... ends! But, for now at least, I'm using a 3/4in screw to secure the flap in position on the rest so it's all pretty secure. It's only taking the weight of a toy train! And, with luck, we'll see some of them running over it by the end of the week 😀

Will hopefully be answered by the following ... Been tackling the joint across the hinged end of the WCML board. Never one for the easy life(!), I'm having some pointwork on the lifting piece! This does serve as Shap summit (at least operationally) so the trailing crossover is partly for sending bankers back once their shoving has been done. But it also provides a run round facility at 'Shaprith', principally for any trains from Carlisle terminating at Penrith. Meanwhile, the other point is the lead into a small yard at this end. As well as having a purpose for any local goods traffic, any bankers can be held here pending a path back down the bank. I was going to have it just the other side of the gap but putting it this side will enable the roads in the yard to be that much longer - it's going to be quite cramped as it is. Tracklaying proceeds. The rails immediately either side of the gap have had their sleepers cleared ready for soldering to copper clads. Like so. Two (gapped!) sleepers per side. Now then - that hinge. Thought I was doing ever so well ... but can you spot the difference? Having soldered the rails then cut through with the slitting disc, I triumphantly gave it a try ... only to meet with resistance and hear some ominous crunching noises. Oops! The hinge was screwed directly to the baseboard top, meaning that its line of action was BELOW the rails, hence they were getting closer rather than separating when the board hinge was activated - schoolboy error! As can be seen, 9mm packing pieces have been deployed - and now it works as it should. And yes - that is the finished installation, just one sturdy hinge on one side. Might look flimsy but once t'other end is located then it all lines up OK. Certain aspects are likely to be a bit agricultural, especially 'off scene' parts. Just so long as it all works OK. Life's too short.

Like this, you mean? Might not have been too obvious from earlier photos, but the lower flap has had a batten affixed below the board to stiffen it. The upper flap has a midway support which is thus resting on the now strengthened lower board. Seems to be OK, certainly should take the weight of trains. I'm keen to avoid any intermediate legs for (relative) ease of access when flaps are down - eg to put kettle on(!)

Now then, me hearties, don't want to get you too excited, but ... The week ahead has been kept purposely clear and I intend having a working week on the layout. See if we can push things on a little? As a prelude, the two overlapping curves have been sorted out as lifting flaps ... ... thus! Objective No.1 - get the WCML linked up from the top of Shap to the new section, through 'Shaprith' and down towards Carlisle. Objective No.2 - get the WCML north of Carlisle laid up to and through Caldew junctions (behind Shap Fell) and round the curve to link up with the tracks into Dentonholme. Objective No.3 - lay the northern end of Dentonholme yard such that we can run trains into the yard from the north Objective No.4 - lay the start of Upperby yard (possibly temporarily) so as we can run trains into the yard from the south. If possible, I'll post a report each day to show how we're getting on. Stay tuned.

There, I've corrected that for you ... (great weathering job though)

On the subject of short / close-coupled stock: ex-GNR re-cycled Quint set. Former 6-wheel and 8-wheel (rigid) vehicles, mounted on Fox bogies. A mixture of Frank Davies, Bill Bedford and Danny Pinnock (D&S) etches, with Graeme King resin bogies. The formation as seen is BT(5)-T(5)-T(5)-C(2+3)-BC(2+2). Frank's etches were for the BT(5) so the BC vehicle was created by combining it with 4/5ths of a D&S Compo - the 5 third compartment sides thus released was used to make up one of the middle Thirds(!)

Of course, for the ultimate befuddlement ...

Would that be a close relative of the Glasgow & South Western Railway perchance, Clive?

Good to see some freight traffic on the move - the life blood of the railway, after all.