LNER4479

3 hours ago, Tony Wright said:

I assume any catering cars in a set will be Mk.1s? 

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

Hmm ... not at all sure Tony? There'll be others on here who know better than me but I'm pretty sure that DB Cargo (EWS as was) don't themselves own any MkI passenger coaching stock. The world of charter trains on the modern railway is a pretty complex one, with potentially multiple organisations involved. And any one charter operation is often very different one from the previous or next one, stock being shunted around frequently.

Depending on the nature of the particular train involved, there may not be a catering vehicle at all (eg football excursion). Steam-hauled / heritage charters, yes; the 'premier dining' option is the bit that makes the most money ... but DB Cargo don't usually provide the stock for such trains, although they do operate some. You can read more about it here:

https://uk.dbcargo.com/rail-uk-en/industries/passenger-transport

If you're looking for something to say in a write up, then perhaps best to say nothing at all re associated catering!

The effort will be rewarded; the iron ore rake duly appears in print, suitably credited 😉

Charter train use and occasional spot hire, as I understand it, Tony.

Just to say that my comp. copy of said magazine dropped on the mat. Front cover and lead 'ROTM' feature over 10 pages. Well chuffed with that!

The photos from the August photography session have come out really well. Enjoy.

Strong billing for the York show, too. No pressure then 😨

10 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

(never the operator's fault...).

Perish the thought ...

1 hour ago, Tony Wright said:

Hornby's brilliant SR GBL luggage van. And put it into one of my express freights (the fourth vehicle), only to be told by one commentator that such vans never left the Southern Region. 

 

Really? 

 

My understanding (for what it's worth) was the such vehicles stayed largely parochial in the early BR period (as did ex-GWR types?), but as the 1950s wore on - and certainly by the 1960s - they became much more common user and were seen over the length and breadth of the country. I've seen (1960s) picture of them at Aberdeen, marshalled into fish trains (were their floors strengthened or were they suitably strong anyway? Anti-corrosive coverings?)

Evening Tony et al.

Talking of the Peter Lawson collection, I picked up the latest consignment on Monday. More tempting morsels will be on their way in due course, including some rolling stock items.

As some of the rolling stock items are of GWR origin, with the agreement of gwrrob of this parish, I have just posted some details on the Nod to Brent thread, as per the following link.

A couple of pics below, to give you an idea - but details of all items photo'd (for now) are on the above thread.

Some other GWR passenger vehicles from the Peter Lawson collection

I've come across three trailers. The other two are RTR, but this one appears to be kit built. Rather nice (to my untrained eyes)

And now some Siphons. Starting with a 'J' (even I can read!)

Siphon G. Is there an RTR equivalent of this?

Another G

And ANOTHER G - but different style of panelling?(!)

As I say, all are for sale, looking for good homes. There's one or two other items of NPCCS, if they would be of interest. Please PM me or Tony if interested. And do feel free to pass on details elsewhere. As you'll already be aware, there's various kit built locos (all in BR condition). Tony has done a sterling job in selling most of the first batch I gave him, but I've just picked up some more(!), so stand by for further details on Tony's thread in due course. Anyone planning a visit to the York show, there should be some on Tony's stand there (I'm also at the show, with Grantham)

Thanks for your forbearance.

Graham

Greetings to all in Glorious Devon, where the sun always shines (even at night time).

With the blessing of the genial host of this thread, I am posting a series of pictures which may be of interest. As one or two may be aware, with the assistance of the good Mr (Tony) Wright, I am undertaking the not inconsiderable task of finding new homes for the sizeable collection of my Dad's modelling friend, Peter Lawson. It's largely a LMS / GWR collection, with a bit of ex-GCR LNER thrown in (all in the BR era). Much of it is kit built.

Tony and I can deal with the ex-LMS and LNER stuff; however, we're beyond the limit of our competence when it comes to the former GWR stock(!) Accordingly, I'm posting the following here, in the hope that you knowledgeable types can identify the vehicles concerned and (possibly) the origin of the models, ie which kit they might have been built from. They're all for sale, at the best reasonable price, with the usual 10% to CRUK. They will have been built at some point over the previous 40 years, so some may be quite old by now. But I have no information on that aspect.

If nothing else, I hope they are of interest as models in their own right.

A Corridor third. Sides look fairly crude (thick window bars). BSL? It may have Comet bogies. As with all Peter's coaches, it's fitted with homemade hook and bar couplings, designed to run as part of a rake.

A brake third. Looks to be similar origin.

No idea(!), other than to say it appears to be a corridor third of an older style. Are those what you folks call 'American' bogies?

Nice. Another corridor third? Love those curved door handles!

Brake third. Is this one of those long 'dreadnought' coaches?

Another brake third.

AND another(!)

A composite. Looks to be the same style as 4556 above.

A brake composite, no doubt handy as a through coach?

A more modern style Composite. Collett?

Ditto?

Some more to follow.

Grantham's 70ft turntable takes about a minute to revolve 180 deg. It feels / looks about right to me. It runs off an independent power supply so you just leave it running and can be moving something else around on the shed whilst it's in operation.

This was first test, 9 years ago. It's long since been detailed and finished! And please don't play the video with the sound turned up - it really isn't THAT noisy!! (one of those where the camera microphone is picking up any sound going).

So it is! I was thinking that was the Quad set ...

So now, the exciting layout news ...

Should be first post on the next page 👉

5 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

Have you done the Cresta Run (no, nor have I)?

Forgot to bring my tea tray with me.😖

Did see the course set out though (again, for the first time)

Well, glad all this of some interest (to some).

After the sensational conditions of the previous two days, there was always a danger of Thurs 22nd being something of an anti-climax. The weather certainly turned duller. However, one of my TM colleagues wanted to do a recce to one of my other favourite places round these parts ...

Back out over THAT viaduct (again!). Destination ...

St Moritz 😎 Some of my TM colleagues don't really 'get' St. Moritz but I love it. It really is a place like no other, famous as the home of winter sports and given a memorable name drop in the classic Peter Sarstedt song 'Where do you go to my lovely?'

It's all about the location, best viewed from across the lake, railway station to the right.

Did I say lake? I haven't actually been in the month of February before, so this was the first time I've seen the lake set out for the famous 'White Turf' event. That's right - horse racing on the (frozen!) lake. The ice clearly thick enough and the temperature clearly cold enough here. Zoom in on the left hand side mid-distance, and you'll see the unmistakable course perimeter fences (quite apart from the cars, hospitality tents, etc). Only in St. Moritz.

Well, if it's good enough for horses, it's good enough for me!

Farewell for now. Due back here twice in the summer 😊

The train back had one of those lovely restaurant cars again! Time for a midday 'snack'.

Changed at Filisur for the train on to Davos, seen crossing the also spectacular Wiesen viaduct.

Further change at Davos for the onward train to Landquart. The descent down into Klosters is another favourite of mine. Not sure how the royals are going on skiing on that little snow?(!)

A final rendez-vous in Landquart with my fellow TMs. The others had been suitably underwhelmed by the nearby designer outlet village. Ah well, can't please everyone all the time.

Great little trip. Hoping to do something similar again at the same time next year. Austria was mentioned.

And now - let's focus on the layout.

5 hours ago, New Haven Neil said:

Ah, great memories.  I was about to ask if you knew the tour manager from GRJ we had when we went to Switzerland on the Glacier Express tour, then thought....that was for my 50th, and ....err.....I'm 65 in 10 days.  He'd be very lucky and very old if he's not six feet under currently, a retired Scottish railwayman.

That MIGHT just have been the legendary Stuart Sellar? He died only last year, at the age of 86. Famous within GRJ but probably far more famous for his contribution to ScotRail and the SRPS, including project managing the reintroduction of steam on the FW-Mallaig route in the 1980s

Obit here: https://www.scotsman.com/news/people/obituaries-stuart-sellar-railwayman-and-founding-member-of-the-scottish-railway-preservation-society-4343626

Mind you, there are about 400 of us TMs so apologies if the above is a case of mistaken identity ...

2 hours ago, Mark Laidlay said:

Yes, even the Hornby P2 does a good job drifting to a stop

That's not been my (admittedly very limited) experience in the past. Sounds(!) like it's improving all the time then. It was ever thus for evolving technology...

3 hours ago, BWsTrains said:

I agree re the Bernina journey but hadn't realised you could get between Tirano and Como, much simpler than our travels.

First time I did it was in 1988 - in the opposite direction. We'd stopped off at Alp Grüm for a photo session. I was just blown away by it all. I seem to recall that we all fell asleep on the train from Tirano to Milan! (was with a group of like-minded fellow railway management trainees. We 'did' most of west Europe in three weeks of non-stop travelling)

If poss., I always try to arrange the trip as per last week. For 'first timers' there really is no finer introduction to Swiss mountain scenery (IMHO). Incidentally, Varenna's not a bad spot to spend a couple of night before taking the trip onwards.

Weds 21st continued ...

All too soon, our onward train was scrambling up that last curve into the station. Note the lake, still in view from this lofty vantage point.

Alp Grüm isn't the summit; the railway climbs still further until it reaches the amazing lago Bianco and the absolute summit at Ospizio Bernina (7392ft a.s.l.), Europe's highest open railway pass (ie not in a tunnel). More fabulous conditions.

Looking back to Ospizio station (left). There's a lake under all that lot somewhere. In the summer, it's a glorious Alpine blue colour.

On the descent out of the pass, the line zig-zags close to the Morteratsch glacier. That's the second glacier you see on the run. Here's the fun fact - on the more famous 'Glacier Express', you don't actually see any glaciers!! (the latter train takes its name from the Rhone Glacier - which the modern train bypasses courtesy of the 1982 Furka base tunnel).

Our train was headed for St Moritz; however, we were booked into a hotel at Chur. So, two quick changes of train (but all well within Swiss stride) at Pontresina and Samedan took us onwards over ...

The Albula pass. Almost an anti-climax, after the wonders of the Bernina route, but this is all part of the UNESCO listing, owing in no small part to how the railway spirals its way up (or, in our case down) the pass. It's almost impossible to photograph from the train but I always try! We're about to embark on a clockwise, descending spiral in the mountainside (to the right), which will bring us out on the railway line below.

Rather easier to photo (provided you're ready for it) is one of the last of the notable structures (in this direction) - the iconic Landwasser viaduct. Inspiration behind 'Team Grantham's 2019 GMRC heat layout (desperately trying to keep the link with Grantham going!). Note that opening the large panoramic windows to best capture the scene is de rigeur on these trains! 

See the blue vehicle second to last?

That's the rather splendid restaurant car! Time for a cuppa to reflect on all that wonderful Alpine scenery and amazing railway engineering.

22 hours ago, APOLLO said:

Model locomotive sound doesn't hack it for me, especially steam

22 hours ago, 4630 said:

I just don’t find models fitted with sound - be it steam, diesel or electric locomotives - sufficiently convincing.

I wouldn't normally get involved in such a discussion, as I am resolutely in the Dinosaur Control camp. However, I'm asking for a friend ...

Irrespective of pitch / tone considerations, two fundamentals need to be met for steam sound to even start to be realistic:

1) The 'chuff' to accelerate in time with the loco (not go up in discontinuous steps), with the correct chuffs to the revolution (4 per rev for a 2/4 cyl. loco; and 6 per rev for a 3 cyl. loco)

2) The 'chuffs' to stop altogether when the locomotive is slowing to a stand. This should NOT require the input of the operator(!) - the system should sense the load on the motor (or equivalent) and adjust the sound accordingly.

Are there any steam sound systems out there that achieve both of these? I might have heard No.1 but not - to date - No.2.

As I say - asking for a friend.

(FWIW, we do have two sound diseasels on Shap - that work on DC - and it's reasonably acceptable)

On 28/02/2024 at 20:58, 92220 said:

I’ve continued and I am building it gradually, but I’m half thinking that I’m heading down a pointless path and I should just start again with thicker copperclad, matched to the thicker flexible track and ply sleepers.  I’ve just got hold of some older 4mm copperclad timbering which is nominally 1.06 mm, and it is appreciably thicker than the new batch I have been using, and matches the rest of the layout.  In that lot also came some brass 3 bolt chairs, so I might discard this effort and start again.  

 

 

 

There is I, hope, some method to the madness of laying one rail all the way through the 2 diamonds to begin with. It was about creating a smooth gentle curve through both diamonds. I was planning to gauge everything off this before removing it and then laying the individual pieces for that side again, gauged from the opposite rail.  Anyway, the jury remains out.

 

Iain

 

 

It's beautiful work (as always) but, heartbreaking though it might sound, the correct decision in a situation like this is almost always to start again. Two associated thoughts:

1) If this is a pivotal piece of track, critical to the smooth operation of the shed, is it going to end up as an Achilles heel if you plough on?

2) If the layout is 'here to stay' then it's worth investing in it's future

It'll all make much more sense this morning now you've slept on it. And it'll take you less time to get to the same point (no pun intended) second time around.