roythebus

The 33/1s were designed from the outset to run in multiple not only with other blue square locos, but in multiple with BR standard EP stock using the standard EMU control system. When I started on BT in 1974 as far as I know there was no top-and-tailing as we know it today. Any loco on the back would have to be manned and running if it was with vacuum braked stock. There wasn't much air-braked stock around in those days. As others have said, the Scottish push-pull wasn't introduce until the early 1970s. ISTR some of the ECS workings from Old Oak to Paddington had the train engine on the back, saving a path into Paddington for a light engine, and that was in steam days. There were a few workings on the Isle of Wight in steam days with a loco on the back going either to Pier Head or Shanklin as the turnover engine on summer Saturdays.

Mac has just changed to the 64 bit OS and a lot of older things won't run on it. I've been using Templot for about 6 years on Mac. On the 32 bit OS I use wine and Wine bottler and it ran perfectly well. With the new 64 bit stuff I've had to buy something or the other but Templot now runs on it. I suggest you go to the Handbuilt Track and Templot group on here or the Templot Club website for further help. I'm not al that tech savvy!

Probably the same origin as the German Railways use of 16.25kv at 16 hz (I think) or LT's generating kit turning out ac at 30hz. Most of LT now runs on 50hz. Let's not start on voltage of the Undergound railways...

It was 190 volts here this afternoon, I had to test something. 10 days ago it was 47 volts, discovered that after I'd been out and bought a new microwave. Then found Powergen looking for a loose 110kv tail up a pole somewhere! It took them 8 hours to find and fix.

Everything looks right on this layout, the wagons, locos, scenery, the general dereliction. Well done.

There's a special group on here called Hand Built Track and Templot if you scroll down the page a bit. There' some very helpful people on there. I can recommend Templot, I've been using it on and off for about 0 years, still haven't got he hang of it, but have built 2 layouts work of point from it! Hayfield has published a "how to make points" series on that group.

It was interesting to see the Sationmaster's description of Green Card men. It was commonly assumed that "green card' drivers were fit to drive in yards and the like (through medical reasons), while red card drivers were not allowed to drive trains. Much like defective wagon ards, green card, can move to a place of repair, red card, must not go anywhere! A few years back I read an American based encylopaedia. One of the volumes had a lengthy chapter on the railroad men of the 1800s. Fro memory there were thousands of deaths on the US railroads, a vast number being caused through shunting accidents. At the time they used solid bar couplings with a removable pin which meant the shunter had to stand between to get the bar into the coupler pocket. Hence the large number of deaths. It was this that prompted the almost universal use of the buckeye coupler in the USA.

As I've said before, Frank Dyer (of Borchester fame) built the branch track for the MRC's New Annington layout. The branch station trackwork was built to 16.2mm gauge and worked perfectly with the main layout being to BRMSB. Whilst the track wouldn't accept the old Triang wheels, it took everything else except Lima cheesecutter flanges but they'd run perfectly with the flanges turned down. Frank later told me he'd built the last 2 versions of Borchester to 16.2 gauge and never had a problem.

I think the Wills 02 kits had wider trailing bogies, I've got a couple of them somewhere dating back to 1968. The patterns for them were made by Ron Parren, former chairman of The Model Railway Club.

There's a thread about MTK kits on the collectable and Vintage forum further down the page.

Did anyone bother to save an MTK 1938 tube stock etch? I had loads at one time but dumped them as they were unbuildable. They also never had a straight line anywhere on the etch.

Can most people actually build track consistently to 0.05mm all the time? Somehow I doubt it. I'm now happily mixing 00SF (EM-2mm) and DOOGAF track, havng started wiht DOOGAF and found I had to change all the wheels, so went over to the 00SF with 14.2 min BTB. I filed out the check rails on the older pointwork and now things run sweetly with no bumping. Anything that does bump is usually stock with the wheels at 14.8 BTB which I haven't pushed back in yet.

Ah yes, forgetting the changes only came i that late. Cheapskate UK as usual! Then they wonder why there's so many bridges hit. Mind you, the one at AFK is now about 10'3 so Stagecoach could get their new higher buses under it, clearly marked in metric and imperial, yet a polak lorry decided to go under it. took the roof off his cab and the trailer ended up lozenge shape.

The bridge sign does not comply with the law, it MUST be marked in imperial and metric.

Some more pictures:

More Alkham pictures...

A couple of years ago we joined our local club, the Folkestone & Hythe Model Railway Club. they have a couple of superb layouts including one called Alkham Valley. This based on the actual village of Alkham, just outside Folkestone. The layout was built by previous club official who sadly passed away, but left the layout to the club. the rolling stock, mostly handbuilt, got sold on. Herein lies the problem, the layout was built to EM and nobody in the claub had any EM stock to run on it. So the decision was taken to convert the layout to fine scale 00. I offered to build the track using Templot to do the planning, following the original track plan as close as possible. This was difficult as a lot of the original track had been lifted and nobody thought of doing a tracing of it. It took several goes to get it almost right. all the geometry on the point work changes when you change gauge! Track was built at home over a period of time and eventually to the club once space had been found to erect the layout again. Alkham never had a railway, this is a "what-if" line, built by the SECR and truncated by British Railways to a dead-end in the 1960s. A short branch leads to one of the Kentish coal mines. Moat of the buildings are models of actual buildings at Alkham. Here's a selection of pictures. first lot, track planning and building at home. Thanks to my partner Lia for providing the railway room at home!

Here's a tandem point (3-way) I built recently for Alkham Valley, the Folkestone club layout.That layout used to be EM, but the owner died and the stock got sold, so the decision was taken to convert it to 00.

Yes, from the plans I have from Frank there are similar themes in all the plans, notably the terminus station with a centre loco release road. The layouts were made with thoughtful operation in mind.

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Ha, woohoo, the image from Imgur works, here's the video, my class 24 with 38 wagons on trundles through the station. More video to follow...

https://imgur.com/a/YbQcgrw https://imgur.com/download/HK7MPDv/Model+railway

Those were my thoughts Martin, but was trying to do that late at night! You need clearance in the loop roads to pass a loco and wagon. Such tight radii would be in keeping with dock lines anyway. Anything like this is only do-able with hand-built points, they're not that difficult to make and make the layout "different" to the run-of-the-mill Peco geometry.

One thing about Frank Dyer's plans are that they are designed with prototypical moves in mind but with some challenging moves. The goods yard is only accessible from the double track "branch" from one direction, so a goods from the inner main line circuit will have to go through the station, over the double junction then reverse into the goods reception/headshunt. then the loco is the wrong end for shunting! Then I found the headshunt wasn't really long enough to deal with more than a dozen wagons, so that was extended yesterday to make it more workable. The loco depot works on, I've got to motorise the turntable yet. I got a motor from Banggood for about £7 which had a speed of 2rpm with a substantial gearbox and is very quiet in operation. Now to work out how to line up the tracks properly so it stops in the right place. I wonder if Imgur will work for downloading the video?