roythebus

So far it's of no particular area or era, I have a good enough collection of ER stuff, Southern steam and diesel, and historic stuff, so an eclectic mix! I was hoping to add a quick video but the system won't let me load 38 seconds of it, a class 24 with a 38 wagon freight train. Any ideas how I can do this?

I started building a layout about 15 years ago based on Frank Dyer (of Borchseter fame) plan. He'd done a number of plans in the late 1970s for a new layout for The Model Railway Club to replace their original 00 layout. the one the club built was New Annington. The plan I'm using is one of those not chosen for the club layout. I originally built it using a mixture of Peco code 75 and Tillig track, but was not pleased with the result. I found that by turning the layout round (I had a room over the garage 22'x16') I could make the layout a bit longer. It was about that time I discovered Templot, the track planning software and started by copying Frank's plan onto Templot, then tried to master the software. I thought I'd use DOOGAF, fine scale 00; that turned out to be a mistake as I had to alter all the wheels! I built a lot of the pointwork in my holiday home in the Ardennes one winter, I'd been stuck there 2 weeks after my car's gearbox packed up! The pointwork was brought back as hand luggage on Eurostar and it survived the journey back to Ashford and was later laid out to replace the Peco track. I got the layout working though the track was nowhere near complete. A change in domestic circumstances meant a move with a new partner who had just bought a house with an annexe that was big enough to take the layout. It was set up and made to work again. Some of the pointwork was replaced, this time with the standard 00SF, 16.2mm gauge pointwork. People say the 2 are incompatible, but it can be made to work reliably which is interesting. when Frank Dyer built the track for Dyers End in 1979, that was made to 16.2 gauge with 1mm flangeways and that worked remarkably well. The layout is wired up using traditional DC cab control with lots of relays and wires, i really can't get on with DCC, too many buttons to press and the wiring seems more complex than straight DC. So far the station boards are nearly finished, the rest of the circuit is Peco 75 laid on bare boards for testing purposes. Any way, when I find a copy of the track plan I'll post that, meanwhile here's some stills and a quick video.

Has anyone tried this in Templot using prototypical dimensions? Hanbuilt track won't take much to do and would be more relaistic and cheaper.

Surely using coned wheels on the model will assist in some small way to reduce friction on curves if you think about it logically. The wheel on the outer rail of the curve has a greater diameter next to the flange than the outer edge of the wheel on the inner rail.

Presumably there would also be spare locos required at Aldgate and Moorgate as well as Liverpool Street and Baker Street to take out the incoming trains. Did they work as light engine or on the back of service trains? Remember for every incoming train you need a loco to take it out again. there were no run' rounds easily available in the tunnel sections. We had the same situation on the Widened Lines with loco hauled suburban services. A light engine would precede the first service train and take it out, similarly there would be a light engine move following the last train out at the end of the peak. I'd suggest Brian Hardy would have a good idea of the workings.

You won't need many motor vehicles, there weren't that many around in the 1930s. still loads of horse-drawn traffic though! Now there's a challenge to motorise...

The coastline round the marshes has moved considerably in the last couple of months! Much of the Lydd Camp ranges are now under water permanently

I recently saw a copy of the RDG flange profile book, many many pages of it. B2B is about THE only standard measurement! Flane and wheel profiles all different! Want a copy of it anybody?

I've got 2 huge boxes of O rings in my bus workshop, I'll see if there's any that small. i sometimes use them in bus air brake parts.

Having worked on the footplate with Kevin Gould (no relation) of the NYMR, he worked on steam locos throughout Europe in official and unofficial capacities. He said it was quite common for the French drivers to wear goggles and of course the statutory beret when driving! As other have said mainly because of the crap quality coal they had to use! And they were French..

Seems like I'll have to find some ABS coach buffers then. the Limby buffers don't look right anyway.

Did the first batch all have oval coach style buffers? the reason I ask is that I've just bought a Limby one and the buffers don't look right! I think mine's E6003. Hornby mech but won't pull 8 coaches..

In which case there must be a local instruction permitting this to happen, or it's done with the verbal permission of the signalman.

Shunt moves onto the single line are only permitted to the limit of shunt board (rangierfahrt I think it is called). Beyond that is the block section. When I had my German branch layout, it was correctly signalled. I used the rangiersignal (shunt signal) for shunt moves beyond the platforms, similar to the UK subsidiary signal. I was complimented on the correctness of my signalling by my German train driver friend's partner who is a signalman!

The Lima silberlings were pretty good in their day and a goo price too.

I took up modelling the DB in the early 1980s after a holiday there where I met a fellow loco driver. The DB then was a very traditional railway with most trains loco-hauled, plenty of tradiional wagon load freight as well as the block trains. It was a time of great change. Over the next few years saw the re-unfication of the 2 bits of Germany and DR locos on loan to DB on S-bahn services in the Rhine-Ruhr area. I built myself a small branch terminus which done the rounds of exhibitions, and I had a great time operating it. With British stock of decent quality becoming available, my interest waned in the dB, but maybe agian one day..but it would have to be era 3 or 4.

I'm not over-interested in narrow gauge, but having discovered the meter gauge TTA in Belgium in the Ardennes, I found the google satellite views very helpful for following closed railway lines. Look for gentle curved rows of trees, hedges etc once you've found a definite location of say a station. The TTA is the last remaining bit of the metre gauge SNCV in operation. I happen to have a mobile home based about 200m from the end of the line at Lamormenil, but it's going a bit off-topic here.

Of course, me forgetting that Rugby Cement was the trade name of the stuff as well! The south coast lines were never part of my territory!

OK thanks.

Do you mean Southam cement works, a few miles from rugby or is there another place called Southerham? I was a secondman at Rugby in late 1974 and through 1975 and worked the Southam branch from Rugby via Bilton cement works, then Marton junction, run round and back to Southam. By that time there were no presflo workings out of either of the cement works that I ever saw or worked. the only traffic we worked was 16t mineral wagons loaded with coal or the return empties.

I once saw a photo by Ron Platt of a BR standard box van in a yard somewhere in Germany. That was back in the late 1960s when he showed the slide at an MRC members slide show evening. I don't quite know how the continental railways dealt with unbraked trains in those days which this would have been as they didn't use the vacuum brake!

I converted a Trix 81 to an 85 many years ago, I've probably still got it around somewhere; I done an 81 to an 86, also a Trix conversion, and a HD AL1 to an 83-ish thing, all back in the 1960s and 70s. I recently found my Trix AL1 and gave it a good run, it still works well but is a bit rough as the traction tyres have perished. all my locos appeared on the MRC's New Annington layout in the 1980s, long before other AC locos were available. then came the Hornby 86 and the Lima 87... A couple of those Trix locos I got back in the 1960s as Locobuilder kits at £4/19/6 each, a small fortune in those days. I ended up with 7 of them at one time! Somewhere unearthed recently is an unfinished AM4 made from ABS underframes, Comet suburban side and hand built ends. Anyone interested in finishing it is welcome to make an offer for it.

Would not have originally run in that livery with air tanks on the roof, they were a later mod when the 2nd pan was removed and the locos converted to dual brake.

I'd have thought it would be easier to chop up Maunsell coaches to make the Nelson? Far nearer the body shape than the Bullieds. but then the conversion kit was probably designed before the Maunsells were introduced.