LNER4479

Hope everyone's having a good festive season? We haven't had a travelogue for quite some time, so how about some images from our just-returned-from Christmas escape? Having successfully dodged a wildcat strike affecting Eurotunnel, we stayed local to our base on our first day out there, for a day of: Planes ... Trains ... ... and ... er ... Ships! Perhaps not too difficult to guess where we went? If still struggling, perhaps this one might give it away: Next - the sun comes out and the scenery delivers.

Some more from the recent photo bank. Whilst clearing Upperby of stock (for now), we get a first impression of what Upperby yard might look like. The sort of fish train (express goods) heads south, nearing the top of the southbound climb away from Carlisle (under the control of the trusty Duette!) A reminder that this part of the layout crosses over the top of the northbound lines out of Dentonholme. The train arrives at a rather congested Central. However, a route is clear through plat.2. Fixed formation (not to be shunted!) trains do not necessarily need to be berthed in the goods yard at Central ... Round the other side, in the true fiddle yard area, the core of the fish train can be seen in the cassette road, about to be stored out of the way (for now) ... hence the flexibility of running through the station.

'Where's Henry?'

I'm thinking of painting it on a backscene. That'll fool him. Mwahahaha ... 😈

It's not on the bridge, so it doesn't count. (sorry - no idea about buses. I was always more of a 'plane spotter in my younger days)

No buses to see, here. Move right along please ...

Note to self: don't include a road bridge over the railway anywhere on new layout.

Just slap him next time you see him, Gilbert - on all our behalves 👊

(Captain) Fantastic! Not tempted by 45726, then?(!) I might do that one one day just for a bet.

Nope - you were right the first time. It is indeed destined to run behind 45684. Well worked out (altho I know you know yer stuff when it comes to Jubs). According to my research, one of a relatively few WCML sloping throatplate Jubs that ran with a Stanier 3,500 gall tender in my 1950s timeframe. It's just the tender I'm building for this one. I have recently come into the possession of a full Brassmasters Jub kit (with Fowler tender) that I will tackle subsequently. This current mini project is a warm up (!)

Anyhow, wot's 'e been getting up to on 'is workbench these last couple of weeks? I'm ever so glad you've asked me that. Apparently, some people recoil in terror at the very mention of the name 'Brassmasters'. That makes it sound like a challenge to me. And I do rather like soldering things up from brass (or nickel silver) etches. Some parts are indeed insanely small. Especially when it'll either be difficult or downright impossible to see once the vehicle is on the track? Completed inner frames, at least so far as can be done before fitting wheels and affixing in position. So here we have the visible (outside) tender frames. Soldering on those rivetted strips - that was fun (not!) Rear buffer beam ... ... front dragbox Ok, so perhaps you might be getting an idea now? I won't leave you completely in suspenders on this occasion. The eagle eyed might have spotted the slightly closer wheelset spacing - this is indeed an LMS 3,500 gallon tender. It's for a Jubilee project - but which one?

A few?!!! That was a Tone tome! Others will no doubt have their preferences and dislikes but that was a great canter through a lot of what is / was out there. Personally, I always found Mashimas, married up to a two stage 'box, a satisfactory solution, although there's no denying the simplicity of dropping a Portescaps or DJH combo straight in. The original Anchoridge drive I installed in the Princess Royal I scratch built for my Dad (1987) failed after a few years. I replaced it with a Mashimas/Markits two-stage and it's run reliably ever since (run regularly for over 30 years). In fact, fairly recently, I dismantled the loco for a routine inspection and eliminated a very slight interference between the motor and the inside of the firebox. Runs even better now! Here she is, top right, in the company of other locos the day Aberdeen came to Little Bytham. Can you believe (Tony) that was six years ago? Perhaps you can as there's no sign of the point rodding yet at this end. Sadly Dad would not be able to make such a trip these days but he can still operate his layout and these locos are all regulars. My City of Nottingham (centre) is back with me for now and should be on the Shap roster at the Doncaster show.

I read that poem out at the funeral of my travel buddy in June this year. He was five years older than me but he should have retired a lot sooner than he did - he wasn't short of cash. Almost exactly a year previously, we were on an epic North American coast-to-coast trip together. He wasn't a well man but was determined to make the trip. Carpe diem - and do at least a little bit of railway modelling each day

Thanks 🙂 If there's one aspect of the hobby I love almost more than anything else, it's poring over a trackplan / signalling for a prototype location, working out all the possible routes through the junctions and how it might have been operated - and then trying to distill that down into model form to catch the essence of the place. Very few locations can be modelled exactly (Carlisle in France being a notable exception!) so it's about choosing which lines, sidings, pointwork to ditch, what to compress, etc whilst replicating the prototype operability. Signalling will be predominantly semaphore - certainly, Carlisle No.12 & 13 boxes (Upperby) will be all semaphore. The only place where colour light made serious inroads in my timeframe will be the Carlisle No.5 (station approach from the south and the south end of the station) - the lovely LNWR signals were replaced there in the early 1950s. Carlisle No.4 (north end of the station) was a mixture, still quite a few semaphores there in the 1950s. The immediate work ahead looks like this: - Construct baseboards and lay goods lines from Upperby, through Bog Junction and connect up with existing goods lines through Dentonholme (that, inter alia, requires completion of Upperby junction - or certainly the goods side of it, laid for keeps with point motors affixed). It also includes the double track, plain crossing arrangement at Bog Junction. - Install Bog Junction lever frame and associated relays, with wiring to activate frog switching through the plain crossing. Until that's done, the layout is out of action, as the double track, plain crossing crosses the running lines out of Central - Remove temporary Upperby control panels, install M&C trackbed (rising up out of Central) and construct permanent Upperby control panel - Thence lots of wiring up point motors and associated relay panels! - Complete installation of Upperby turntable (roundhouse) tracks, lay rest of MPD and goods yard (more wiring!) - Complete tracklaying at Dentonholme goods yard and install Dentonholme control panel That little lot should keep me busy for at least the next 12 months!(!) Sempahores will be added as and when. Their operation will be built into the control system (including interlocking) but their actual installation can follow on behind (hopefully not TOO much so!) All of the above 'subject to' (God willing and all that) Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some holes to dig for point motors. Or is that some baseboard structure for the goods lines ... ?

Meanwhile the cogitating (prevarication even, maybe?) is at an end - saw has been applied to wood! So, in the end, it's quite an insignificant looking piece of wood. The further piece of wood round the bend will be removable for access. And with some tracks temporarily plonked in position? Doesn't look too bad. The divergence is established beneath the WCML bridge, meaning that there's room for the central support columns. But that's a bit in the future just yet.

Looks even scarier when placed in position! Some further work this afternoon to make the join between the top single slip and the curved point beyond (45mm track centres). You can begin to see the full effect of the junction here and the five lines involved - goods reception sandwiched between goods lines and WCML. Despite the apparent convoluted nature of it all, the 'flow' of the goods lines is maintained through the junction. These lines will continue on to the 180 deg. curve round to Bog Junc. The unpainted points (four) have been removed again and are now in the spray treatment area ...

The bridges will be straight, Mike. But I can't guarantee the authenticity of other aspects of the alignment, being as the whole thing is approached on a 3 & half foot radius curve! I'm hoping that things will be reasonably convincing from the St. Nicholas bridge towards the station, although the M&C lines are going to have to appear from under it 🤨

Still cogitating. Now added mock ups of the WCML trackbed (furthest away) and Crown Street goods (nearest) as a further check before taking saw to wood. The check is really to make sure that the bridges of these two upper lines cross the lower goods lines at a sensible angle - start curving the goods lines round too soon and the bridges become elongated and implausibly skewed. (the third bridge, carrying the M&C route into the station is the furthest away of all, so is least affected, hence why not mocked up above) Also shown, just as strips of card for now (slightly to the right of centre) is the approximate position of the St Nicholas bridge. Its alignment is horribly distorted by the nature of the (non-prototypical) 180 Deg curve; however, I'd like to include it nonetheless (and not for reasons of vanity or anything like that!) Anyhow ... In the meantime ... Thought I'd tackle something more straightforward: OK - tongue slightly in cheek there! With delivery on Thursday of the THIRD single slip required for this formation, I'm up to my usual tricks here. This is the heart of Upperby Junction (as I understand Carlisle No.12 box was called) and only a small part of it had been loosely done prior to the recent running session. Out of necessity, it's on a curve (the real one wasn't) and there's more to it than this. However, get this bit right and the rest fits around it to a greater or lesser extent. You can see the curving effect here. On the left is the 'straight ahead' route from the down goods reception towards the Crown Street goods lines; on the right is the down goods line. And from the other direction, we're now looking across the junction, ie points set to come across from Upperby to Citadel and vice versa. There's a lot of patient - and rather boring(!) - work in the months ahead. Quite apart from getting the pointwork modified and laid such that stock will run across it reliably, there's the little matter of point motor installation/wiring (all points will be paired up to work as crossovers), frog switching and 'black section' switching. I may be gone some time ...

Immitation is the sincerest form of flattery?

Two more replacements to complete the work at the north end, Tony. However, the signal you feature (south end of the excursion platform) already exists and is with me for re-working for operation with servos. We were pondering as to whether those distants were fixed or not. Your picture indeed useful in figuring out how it all worked!

A bit of an amalgam following latest visit today - forgot to take any pix last time(!) Ivatt 4MT rolls down the grade through Millers Dale with a parcels train. So, what's new, you may ask? Well, the previous visit(s) pictured more or less completed the scenery structure work in the Chee Dale area, so attention has now turned to the Millers Dale scene, across the famous viaducts and beyond. This pic might explain better? Behind the farthest viaduct has to be a backscene, with parts removable to get at the hidden tracks below for maintenance / cleaning ... and the odd disaster recovery(!). The piece of unpainted hardboard is permanent fixed, as is the tunnel mouth former beyond, but the piece of backscene between IS removable. As is this rather oddly shaped piece! It covers the access gap bottom left in the previous picture. The whole backscene geometry becomes a bit of a nonsense at this point - in reality, there's a gaping river canyon beyond the bridge(!) so this structure needs a skim of plaster then painting blue to match the sky colour. Hopefully it'll blend in a little bit more than this pic might suggest. Paul, meanwhile, was uncharacteristically wielding a soldrin' iron ... (!)

Mini hiatus, due to Warley (nice to say 'hi' to a some followers of this thread🙂); however, there's been a bit of progress notwithstanding ... From this ... ... to this. The fixed section of the removed board back in place. For keeps (legs affixed to the floor with rawl-plugged brackets). M&C and WCML bridge mock-ups temporarily plonked to show how this section of board is so key to the ongoing development of the 'Upperby onwards' phase of construction. The third bridge, taking the tracks into Crown Street goods depot will be immediately before the end of the board. The other section is a simple removable flap, both as the last piece to be dropped in when removing the boards top left, and also to allow easy access into the Upperby area. Talking of which ... Removable flap propped up against legs bottom right. This now allows space to begin setting out the all-important curve of the independent (avoiding) goods lines, linking the Upperby complex to Bog Junc. In use here is my trusty 3 foot radius double track template. There's a lot to cogitate over so I left it like this overnight. There's gradients involved (fancy that!) but most mind-focussing of all is the fact that where I'm standing is where the tail lift of the Luton van goes when loading up for an exhibition!! Everything else works better the further towards me this curve is positioned. No-one ever said this was gonna be easy ...

Peascliffe and Gonerby tunnels at the north end of Grantham have approx 1 foot of lining each. I was going to put some form of lightweight strip for the trains to pass through but didn't bother in the end. This is my pic, from the time of build. I've checked a couple of your images, Tony - but you've consistently 'blacked' the tunnel mouth entrances when editing the photos. The above image is untouched, so shows the tunnels as they actually appear from this viewpoint. Reasonably effective?

Oi! Nowt wrong with a Black 5 (or three) Glad you had a good day today. Did you manage to see your visitors from around the box mountain? 😆

My take on the great(?) exhibitor (demonstrator) and expenses debate. I go to Warley (any other exhibition for that matter) as a punter. I pay my own transport costs (say £50 for tank of fuel). I pay £20(?) to park my car. I pay £25 to get in, queue with all the other punters and am in the great stampede to get in at opening time. Do I rush to the trade stands to snap up the 'bargains' or do I go to my target layout and try and get pole position at the barriers before the crowds build up? There are some fellow modellers behind the barriers I'd like to catch up with - I might get to talk to them or I may find they're too busy. Oh - and if I wish to stay overnight to make the most of my time at the show (and avoid the long, tiring drive home), I need to pay for my own hotel room. I go to Warley as an exhibitor. My tank of fuel is paid for. I have a car park pass to park my car. I get in for free. I can browse the trade stands prior to show opening. I can go and check out my favourite layout on the Sunday morning before show starts or in quiet time (eg last hour Saturday), quite often going back stage to have a look at the layout's secrets - I might even be able to chat with the layout owner during Sat evening social time. And my overnight accommodation is paid for. Quite frankly I consider it a privilege to have been invited to be a demonstrator at this year's Warley show and I only hope those punters who paused at my stand benefitted in some way. I even made some progress on a few modelling projects during quiet times. What's not to like?