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derekarthurnaylor

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  1. derekarthurnaylor
    Derek Naylor here. Builder of the Aire Valley Railway. I have just turned 84 and have just been in the internet since christmas so to say the least I am still having problems with this new world. Had great fun trying to get in to this site.I did notice several mentions of the myself and the A.V.R. and before I go headlong into what happened to the A.V.R. and to me post the railway I an just checking to see if anyone would really find it interesting. If there interest perhaps the odd blog or two.
  2. derekarthurnaylor
    Hi..
    Just had a long weekend in Halifax. Among other things I paid a visit to the Kirklees Light Railway at Clayton West. It must be about 15 years since I was last there. Not a lot seems to have altered except I'm not sure if number 7 was around then. In some ways it's a one off style of line for a 15 inch gauge line. No "Express " locomotives as on the RHDR or the R and E. Am attaching some images. Badger, the little green loco hauled our train. Yours truly is seen in front of Owl. I guess it's pretty obvious it's not in steam. Also in the shot is Fox the red loco. I got permission to enter the shed to photograph Hawk which was being prepared as Thomas for the coming weekend. The two articulated locos are of particular interest to me as they are reminiscent of models I built for the AVR and Semerdale. One part of the journey that is a little bit surreal, for me anyway, is travelling through a standard gauge tunnel on a 15 inch gauge line. If you are ever in the West Riding the KLR is certainly worth a visit. It makes a change to the standard gauge Heritage lines.
    Next time I will have to get back to modelling items.
     
    Regards. Derek
  3. derekarthurnaylor
    Hi again.
     
    Back to the A.V.R. When constructing the Aire Valley stock and locos the drawings I used were very simple, not much more than basic dimensions . The early items of stock were built from card and details were drawn straight onto the card. OXO tin locos were built on the cut and fit method..All this is a bit hazy now. It is going on 60 years ago. Anyway stuff did get built to what I considered reasonable for the time..At some point I thought it might be a good idea to make "official" drawings of all the stock. These were not working drawings but drawings of the completed items. These were done on paper with pencil. There's a total of 25 drawings. Locos and passenger stock were done one to a sheet, freight stock up to four per sheet. The paper size is 8"x5" which may have been half foolscap =A5? Early Railway Modeller article drawings were done on paper and pencil but that's another story. These stock drawings have have kept very well, maybe because the were not exposed to light but they are not suitable for reproduction Then at some point I discovered what I call blue print paper. It's a good quality blue tinted tracing paper. Possibly the most interesting drawing was the one for the Gears on Aire Valley article. This was drawn double the size of the R.M. page. The scale of the drawing was 8mm to the foot except for the NTS items.. When reproduced the drawings were 4mm to the foot...I'm guessing this was not new One never knew how C.J.F. felt about you doing something like this The layout drawings, I preferred to call them surveys,a term cribbed from the Madder Valley, which I did for the Aire Valley Adventure series and the Redevelopment in reverse article were done to a scale of 2" to the foot. Big headed I know but I like to think these drawings helped to to define the articles. That's as maybe. These two surveys were taken to new height by Hero member tee bee. He is a bit of a computer whiz kid, though I use the term kid loosely. He took the 1971 drawing of the whole survey and removed the old Saltaire. and replaced it with the 1974 survey of the rebuilt Saltaire. When I first saw the new combined survey I didn't twig it and had to have it pointed out to me. I'm not sure if this drawing has had a public airing so I will attach it. Thank's Tom for this icing on the cake. Returning to the stock drawings. These have all been copied in ink on the blue print paper. These are on roughly A4 size paper and have been reduced to a total of ten drawings plus one small supplementary one. I am attaching the first two sheets.
     
    I did a blog last night on the above. I thought I had inadvertent lost it. If you get two versions of it, my apologies.
     
    Cheers. Derek.
    , .
  4. derekarthurnaylor
    Hi.
    Time now to go from the sublime to the ridiculous, "The Liquorice Line". Where on earth did that come from? Rewind to 1995 I was in my second year of retirement and off to Australia with my wife spend a few weeks with her Sister and Brother in law..One of the places we visited was Melaeuca Station. This was part of a Tea Tree Oil Plantation. You boarded a narrow gauge train which took you on a large continiuous circuit. The train stopped at various points and a train crew member explained the growing and processing of the oil. This excellent operation was filed away in the back of my mind for future reference. Fast forward. Over the years I have built three of the Avonside geared locos. One for the AVR in 4mm scale, one for Semerdale in 3mm and one in 7mm, the latter for the enjoyment of it as I didn't have a line to run it on. After some time I got round to thinking of the Melaeuca Station as a simple line to run the Avonside on.but I wanted to Anglicize the operation. Chewing on a pomfret cake it came to me, a liquorice plantation. Pontefract in Yorkshire was the top area in the country for growing liquorice. Sadly it;s no longer grown in this country. However as railway modellers we don't let small details like that get in the way.The layout was ultra simple. An oval with just three points, One to the engine shed, one to the carriage shed and one to the factory. The sheds were just low relief fronts with the tracks going through cut outs in a backdrop which divided the layout. The opening did have doors. There were four locos. The Avonside called "Callard". A second loco was a Bachmann Porter which was used as bought apart from adding the company logo and name "Bowser". Callard and Bowser are the makers of some excellent liquorice toffees. A third loco was a birthday present. This was the loco from the Fleischmann Magic Train set. This was called "Haribo" after the makers of super pomfret cakes. There were two further items of motive power, both utilized Gnomy toys. The lorry was converted to a railborne vehicle with a simple scratch built chassis. It's called "Spanish" which was and may still be, the colloquial name for liquorice in Yorkshire. It would do several circuits then stop behind the backdrop to be loaded with liquorice root to deliver to the factory. The fourth loco was a customised Gnomy tram fitted with a Spud unit. It was called "Bassett". Rolling stock. Two Magic Train set coaches. Three Gnomy push and go trams fitted with Triang chassis. There was also a workman's coach and a water tanker. Operation was pretty simple. Sightseeing trains, the lorry collecting liquorich root and the water tanker doing a turn round. Notwithstanding being a bit of an oddball layout it was well photographed. and I hope to attach a few of them.
    Cheers. Derek..
  5. derekarthurnaylor
    Hi.
    Bit of an odd ball posting this time, when are they not? The first three photos go back a considerable period of time. The first one is the cover of the first dedicated railway book I bought. Railways had featured in other books such as the Odhams Press publication How it Works and how it's Done. . but this was my first real railway book. As may be seen from the cover it is the script of a B.B.C. broadcast. On the title page it quotes, A dramatisation of events that occurred at a vital Cross-roads on the path to victory on a certain day in 1944 between the hours of 10am and 10pm. The 6th June springs to mind but the book was published in June so presumably the broadcast was before that. Also the forward to the book by the then Minister of War transport is dated 2nd June. So make of that what you want. There is a good selection of photos in the book if any of you would like me to attach them sometime .I was 15 at the time and had been working a year. The second photo goes back to 1962. It was taken at the Leeds Model Railway Exhibition for publication in the Yorkshire Post Paper. It's my son and myself. He was nine at the time and is due to become a Grandad in April. The Leeds Exhibition at that time was held in the Corn Exhange, and was that a dusty place..The Aire Valley did three shows there and the layout got a nice coating of dust. There was no way to dust it and in the end I thought it antiquated the layout. The third photo was taken at a show in Huddersfield organised by the Yorkshire Area of the Talyllyn Railway Preservation Society in 1964. It's my youngest daughter, now a double Grandmother, holding a model, not built by me of a Corris loco. Hovering just off scene is the builder of the model ready ready to catch it if the worst happened. It was handed back undamaged. the remaining photos all-though recent are of an older subject. It's a model I built about 1965/66 of Emmet's Nellie and train. I think this was the time when Emmet's locos and stock were popular with modeller's. I think the loco chassis is Triang. I remotored it last year. The coaches are scratch built and have an oil lamp for illumination. These are made from a grain of wheat bulb with a short length of brass tube for the oil container and a Chinese style hat on top. These and the bulb in Nellie's headlamp are the original ones. It is now in the possession of the fore mentioned daughter. It is normally kept in a display case but gets to run round the Christmas tree each year. I am also including a photo of a HIAB sea crane I built from a kit I got at the Blackpool Model Boat three years ago. Once again this is in the possession the afore mentioned daughter works for HIAB in the main office in Ellesmere. Think that's about it for now.
    Cheers. Derek.
  6. derekarthurnaylor
    Hi All,
    I see it is just over a month since my last blog. Have I been up in the loft again? yes, but nothing to do with this blog. This is possibly my penultimate blog as I have come to the end of "what I built since the Aire Valley". more on the whys and wherefores next time.
    This one is about the small 1/1200 scale WW2 warships I started to construct after parting with the last model railway, Cranly Lake.R.R. Incidentally, the new owner of the layout has posted a video on youtube which my Grand daughter took some years ago. For some reason it cuts out before the end. Anyway, the first image is an overall view of the harbour. The baseboard is half a pasting table which will convey some size of the scale of the models. The model are a mix of scratch built, kit built and two of them, HMS Prince of Wales top left in dry dock and HMS Hood just below are the Atlas models with added details. Below the Hood is the Ark Royal and below her the Berwick and Cumberland. These three are from the Airfix Sink The Bismark Kit. To the right of the Ark royal is a white metal kit model of the first British Escort Aircraft Carrier HMS Audacity. These escort carriers had the nickname of Woolworth Carriers. The vessel next to the Berwick and Cumberland is a scratch built model of HMS Suffolk. The three ships at the other side of the long jetty are the Exeter, Ajax and Achilles of the Battle of the River Plate fame and are scratch built. Below them is a plastic kit model of the USS Enterprise with her two escorting destroyers of the Fletcher class. Well over 200 of these were built in the States. These models are white metal kits.Right at the bottom are three scratch built models. HMS Rodney, HMS Warspite and HMS Renown the latter being eased out by a couple of tugs. Back at the top jetty, all scratch built are a submarine depot ship and four S class and four R class submarines. The three small vessels to the right are white metal kits of Flower class Corvettes. In the top right hand corner, all scratch built, are four half flotillas of destroyers. Left to right. Hunt class. Town class (US Four funnel ) R class and J class. Just entering the harbour is a Micro model kit of the paddle steamer Royal Eagle.See image re having to reduce the original Micro model card to get the correct scale. She is being towed in by a white metal kit tug and escorted by a white metal kit of a Castle class corvette. Finally in the bottom right hand corner some white metal MTBs and Motor Gun Boats I hope all this makes sense and the images are of interest
     
    Cheers. Derek
  7. derekarthurnaylor
    Hi everyone
    Thanks for your comments. Sorry to have taken a bit longer than intended getting round to this. I had been down to the Porthmadog Model Railway Show with my latest exhibit. It's called Port Maud and is not really a model railway but a model harbour with real water in which the tide ebbs and flows. The basis of the model is a garden potting tray. There is a small element of a railway in it. It's a simple cable hauled car connecting the harbour to the village. It's a total fun thing and seems to be one for the ladies. Sorry I hav'nt an image of it. It may still be on the "modelboatmayhem site. Click on to the Blackpool Show and there should be several images. A final personal note on Port Maud if I may. It's named in memory of my wife who saw the project started but passed away before it's completion.
    So, on to the AVR. I was always bemused and still am that it generated the interest it did and guess still does . I trust this does not sound bigheaded as it's not intended to. I'm assuming that if you are interested in this blog you will have read quite a bit the AVR. via the Railway Modeller. My main mentor was John Ahern's Madder valley. It was years before it's time and I really must get to Pendon before it's to late. I always thought of it as narrow gauge in all but gauge if that makes sense. There was also the late P.D.Hancock's Craig and Mertonford. Though it was a bit of a let down as the standard gauge encroached but that was Peters perogative. An old friend, Paul Towers (it was his show I was at over the weekend) while he was Editor of Model Railway News discovered a really good NG modeller,David Mander and his "Stronlochar Line. I mention this as I admired David for pressing on with 8mm gauge track when I gave up on 8mm when Triang introduced TT 12mm track.. Sadly David passed away some years ago. Locos and stock from the three of us, Peter, David and myself are with the 009 Society Heritage collection.
    Anyway if you will forgive me I will call that it for now. I'm not used to this bloging. With this somewhat odd ball introduction I will call it a day.
    Not sure how you guys would like future blogs to go. More on the AVR and what followed it sale? any thoughts?. Problems of fifties and sixties scratch building. I will try and gather my thoughts on what my be of interest.
     
    Derek
  8. derekarthurnaylor
    Hi.
    About more buildings.The last one of any note to be constructed was Danes Crossing Works at Saltaire. As mentioned in the Railway Modeller article of August 1976 the interior of the building was completed after the whole of Saltaire was remodelled. Are interiors of buildings worth doing? I suppose it's up to the builder. I had always wanted to have a go and was pleased I did.Little did I realise then that the works was to be the penultimate article about the Aire Valley. There were couple of other buildings in Saltaire I was pleased about. One was the Barclay's Bank frontage.As with most of the town it was a low relief model with lots of "gingerbread.". The other building was much more simple and in mini low relief. This was the Fire Station next to the bank. Sat behind the doors was the front of a Modelcraft card kit petrol tanker which gave the building depth. I think that just about covers the A.V.R. I dont suppose it seems much but without repeating chunks out of the various articles which I don't think is what "blogs" are about, It covers, albeit very briefly, my thinking of my ideal model railway. I started these blogs about the A.V.R. off the cuff and wondering if indeed I should. However If any one would like more information make it known in a comment.
    If it's of interest there were three things which came along and made modelling life a lot easier. Plasticard. For me it was brilliant. Locos, rolling stock, buildings.you name it. I think you all know it.s not recommended you smoke while using MEK, ok you shouldn't smoke full stop.However I can remember George Slater at his demonstration stand at a Leeds exhibition smoking throughout the show. He was a chain smoker and the cigarette never left his mouth until he used the butt to light the next. I think he lived into his nineties. Then there was dry print. My early locos and stock were were all lettered by hand using a mapping pen. Very laborious indeed but of course there wasn.'t any suitable transfers for the AVR..Some early print sheets had Roman and Gill Sands on the same sheet just the right size for my models.They were available in black and white. This meant you could lay white letters down and with care you could lay the black down just covering one edge of the white and this gave you blocked letters. The final item was connected to lettering but I will have to leave that till next time.
  9. derekarthurnaylor
    Hi again.
    Posting the last two box drawings. Keighley Station Jcn and Keighley North. Starting with Station Jcn. It had a 25 lever frame, all working, no spares. I guess the jumble of points in the center will be the first thing to catch the eye. The junction from the up main to the down branch (Oxenhope) is straight forward.. On the up branch the main route was onto the down main. .None passenger trains could also be routed into the down sidings. The sidings to the right of No 24 ground signals were the carriage sidings and moves could be routed to the down main or the down sidings. From the down sidings trains could be routed onto the up main, the down branch or the carriage sidings. The up siding, top left ran right through to Keighley North as indeed did the down sidings. The Vehicle on line switches were safety devices to protect vehicles left in either of the main platform lines during shunting operations. ;There was another box at the other end of the main line platforms, Keighley South which controlled the Bay Platform . This platform was not numbered and was just referred to as the Bay Platform.. It also acted as a head shunt for a siding to a foundry. .When the Up Morecambe Leeds/Bradford train split here an engine which had arrived from Bradford and was stabled in the Bay platform picked up the Bradford portion. As well as the Worth Valley trains on the branch the GN also ran into Keighley from Bradford and Halifax via the Queensbury Triangle. The only trains I can remember that were booked off the branch was a Summer Saturday only working to and from Morecambe. .Keighley West box was at the other end of the Branch platforms. .Further beyond that was GN Jcn box which controlled the junction to Oxenhope or Queensbury and also into the GN goods yard which was separate from the Midland yard. On to the North box. It had a 30 lever frame including three spares. The intermediate Home signals on the up and down main at Utley were along with a similar set between Hellifield South and Gargrave unique, as the four boxes were issued with a specially printed Absolute Block Regulation book governing the working of these signals as they were not normal ;intermediate block signals. The sidings beyond No 13 signal led to the engine shed which was a sub shed of Manningham. The locos shedded there were the branch passenger loco which was fitted for push pull working. A class 3 goods loco for trip working and a " jinty" as yard shunter.. As well as a quite a large goods yard on the downside ( Now Sainsbury's), there were quite a few individual works on the up and down sidings extending on the north side of the box. The GN yard served the Co-op works where among other items produced were wringing machines. Things with rollers to squeeze water out of clothes.. So many were dispatched that the GN evening goods was nicknamed the The Wringer.
    Well I think that's it for now. Sorry for the quality of the drawings throughout this little series.. Cheers for now. Derek.
     
    ..
    .
  10. derekarthurnaylor
    Hi.
    Not much to report re the Glyn Valley Tramway. I went to Chirk and to the little industrial estate and made some enquires only to draw a blank. Back at the station I asked a chap who was a local if he knew where there might be any activity re the refurbishment of the G.V.T. He thought there was but couldn't say where. I wandered around a bit but without success. It was real hot so I ambled back to Chirk station car park only to find my car blocked in with a couple of lorries which were delivering some equipment for track work. The gate at the end of the car part was locked..Job stopped. The drivers and myself shunted around a bit and I managed to escape! I went down the valley to Glynceirog. Its a lovely little valley and I never fail to enjoy it. It will be a really nice train journey If ever the line gets rebuilt. I don't think I will ever see it running. I didn't look very hard mainly once again to the heat. The engine shed and the short section of track are still there along with a brand new notice stating some aims.. I took a photo of the track and attach it in all it's isolation and returned to Ellesmere.
    On the Saturday I went with my family ( four generations) for a trip on the Welshpool and Llanfair line. where both the Earl and Countess were in steam. It,a bit if a stop start go slow journey in several places due to , I guess the extreme caution at level crossings but none the less a pleasant ride. The Raven Square shed was open and I took the opportunity to take a photo of Manarch looking rather sad but having built two models of her, A.V.R. and Semerdale it was a must.
    More on modelling next time. Derek.
  11. derekarthurnaylor
    Hi all.
    A couple of postings ago (stone walls) I mentioned having a tour of the Burlington slate Quarries. I had hoped to see the slate crusher in action but it wasn't working that day. This visit was in connection with a new layout I was working on. The Little Langdale Railway. The time was to be the present. I was looking at a Heritage line which would also be used to carry crushed slate from a quarry to a seaport. It was to be situated in Cumbria, Yes, not all slate comes from Wales. Stupid I know but that's what railway modellers do..It was built to the Aire Valley scale and gauge. 4mm to the foot on 12mm gauge track. An article in the July 2006 Railway Modeller featured the construction of a couple of the locos. They were a Southwold loco in 4mm scale and the R and E loco Devon in 3,5mm scale Devon was quite a large loco and the reduction in scale equalised the sizes. As mentioned in the article there was a third steam loco. which was my interpretation of Dubs 2-4-0 metre gauge loco which worked on a shale railway in New South Wales. Along with images of the (half finished) layout there are a a couple of images of this loco outside the engine shed plus and unlettered and unlined image....So, what of the layout. The port of Langdale was more less complete as most of the images show. The company offices were inspired by but a much less ornate model of the Wantage Tramway Headquarters, but non the less quite pleasing I thought. The engine shed and signal box were ,I think, modified card kits. the overall station roof was a modified plastic kit.The low relief main road buildings were a mix of card kits and scratch built. The latter included my must have timber church. The harbour crane was a considerably modified Airfix kit. Quite ridiculous really. The overall harbour scene also shows the waste slate "bins" waiting to. be loaded into the ship. There was to be a fourth loco, a diesel to work the the slate trains but it never got built Oh dear realms of fantasy!!! A ruined abbey also appears. The cliffs below the abbey and the mock Tudor hotel were plastic vacuum formed. items I have never been able to obtain again, very frustrating. The layout got as far as the the some what complex rail road river image. It was then sold on. One of the locos. The R and E one I think was for sale on ebay and bought by a railway modeller. I apologize for the green tinge on some of the images. I have yet learn the art of altering this.
    Cheers Derek.
  12. derekarthurnaylor
    Hi.
    Having messed about attaching files which I hope I am getting the hang of I thought I thought I had better get on with further etching. Nothing to do with railways I'm afraid. I mentioned the building of the SS Raven which was the the start of my second ship building period. The first was was during the war While the rest of my classmates were into building Spitfires and Hurricanes and the like I was into building British warships. The drawings for these were produced by a firm called Modelcraft. Prices of these drawings varied from sixpence for a submarine to halfacrown (two shillings and sixpence) for a battleship or aircraft carrier. I earned six shillings a week as a paper boy.Wow. Back to the Windermere vessels. The second model was the M.S. Tern, the one with the bows like a canoe. Construction was to the same principal as Raven, balsawood hull and plasticard upperworks. and then there was the stanchions..As a keen scratch builder I wanted to produce my own.I have no recollection of how I stumbled on the idea of etching them but here's method The material is 40 thou copper wire out of twin and earth electric cable. The ball shaped bit through which the horizontal rails go was wrapped with a sliver of selotape, three to a stanchion. Several at a time were put in a flat plastic container containing the etch fluid.When the required depth of etch was reached the embryo stanchions were drilled 20 thou for the rails at the unetched part. Yes I bought the drill bits by the dozen. The drilled sections were then rounded off in a home made power drilling machine .I the simplest terms the drill was a pin chuck driven by a three speed motor out of a food mixer..The bloke is nuts. The stanchion numbers on Tern was't to bad and they were all three holers .After completing Tern I had a rest from scratch building and and built the Matchbox Corvette. I built radio control into this which included the 4 inch gun traversing.. On a holiday in Scarbrough I sailed it on the lake used for the naval battles. While in the middle of the lake the R/C failed. It took ages for the wind to blow it to shore.
    Turning to Swan. This was built on the Plank and frame method but using plasticard instead of wood. But, oh those those stanchions. 128 of them and some went through to the upper deck. This was truly a task of mammoth proportions but having built the hull there was no going back. She was the last of boat building for some years. My models of Tern and Swan both of which had R/C are now on show on Pier 1 at Bowness. If these blogs about non railway stuff are getting a bit boring let me know. Finally, I am hoping attach to a couple of images of Dennis Allenden's wonderfull modelling skills. It was Dennis who brought etching to my attention. Cheers, Derek
  13. derekarthurnaylor
    Hi
    After the period of building the Windermere boats and the etching of all those stanchions a change of modelling was needed. Two things came together at this point. A spare bedroom and some passed down 009 locos and rolling stock. This culminated in the infamous episode of bashing a hole through the chimney breast which went up through bedroom to create a tunnel. I would hasten to add the fireplace in the room below was not in use. The bashing through was done when my wife was away for the day! After playing about for some weeks the basis of a station was constructed plus laying track through the tunnel. Alas this was to be the first of several layouts that were started but never finished. The stock was returned to sender and the tunnel blocked up and peace descended on the little known valley. Some time later navies descended again on this valley. I had the bright idea of creating an "indoor garden " line. This had the blessing of my wife. It was to be a very simple layout. Due to the fact I was using real plants I decided to build to a scale of 10mm to the foot. The layout was a bit complex in so much as it was a series of boxes to contain the soil and plants. These boxes were lined with garden pond plastic sheeting and the track bed cut out of 9mm exterior ply. It got, once again, half done when I realised the actual line was to simple to be of interest as a layout to run. My wife pointed out half the interest of the venture was to be tending the landscape. Well, yes, but first and foremost it was a model railway. Inevitably it was all lifted and the plants returned to their natural environment. No photos exist of either layout. The loco and stock for " garden" line was scratch built. The loco was constructed from drawings of one of the Groudle Glen locos but I'm not sure which. The scale as mentioned was 10mm to the foot but I used 16.5 mm track. Two images of this model exist and are hopefully attached. It's nice that that the little G.G.R. has been saved. I'm off to Ellesmere tomorrow The town in Shropshire that is not the port...Hope to get to Chirk and Glynceiriog to see what is happening down there.
    Regards, Derek.
  14. derekarthurnaylor
    Hi all
     
    Back again with a bit of a odd ball model. I do't know how many of you have had a look at the Cool4Cats web site. These are delightful card kits of a range of subjects all of which make into working models, automatons I think is the word. I have made several over the years and powered them with those cheap motor and gearbox items. At my last viewing of the site there still were not any railway ones. I thought I would have ago at scratch building one. This is probably my last throw at building a "complete" model railway! I think the photos will explain better than a hundred words. Everything except the drive is card. Just two thickness of card were used. 100 thou for the four sides of the box and the base and 10 for the rest. The English Village models are ten thou but the size reduced to 75% of the originals at the local photo shop.. The rolling stock and figures were produced and painted by my friend John Holroyd who was a commercial artist These were made oversize and reduced to size as required. It will be obvious the "trains" are attached to a card belt. All fantasy and fun to watch. There is a short video on Youtube if you want to see it in action
     
    That's it, Back to hibernation again. Derek.

  15. derekarthurnaylor
    Hi.
    Attaching two more box diagrams. Shipley Bradford Jcn and Shipley Bingley Jcn. The former was at the Bradford end of the Shipley triangle. ;As mentioned ;in a previous posting there were some boxes between Manningham Jcn and Shipley for which I don't have drawings. (1) Manningham Sidings.;Spare and summer only coaching stock was stored here. (2) Frizinghall. ;There was a large wool warehouse here served by rail. These two boxes had signals on the passenger lines but no points. ;(3) Shipley Goods . This had connections on all lines as freight workings into the yard had to cross the passenger lines.There was also, as seen on the Bradford Jcn diagram a through siding to the latter. .Bradford Jcn had a 36 lever frame including one spare. ;The signal gantry from the Bradford direction had ten arms. ; It will be seen a train on the up goods for the Apperley Bridge (Leeds) direction could be signalled forward on the up goods or via the passenger lines through the station. The latter move was not often used. It will be seen the line to Saltaire, Where have I seen that before? ;changed to the Down line as happens at triangle layouts. In the box were the usual wood lockers. One of the sections in the lockers was very neatly labelled.MAGAZINES. This caught new bosses out when they had a look in it. It contained detonator magazines which were used by fogmen . There was a fog post just outside the box with mini repeater signal arms. The fogman could place detonators at several signals via a lever frame which would discard old and pick up new detonators from the magazines. On to Bingley Jcn, This was the simplest of the Shipley boxes. ;It had a 20 lever frame all of which were in use. The Angle Sidings were at one time used for coal wagons The coal was destined for the gas works. The works was not served directly by rail and a horse and two wheel tipper cart conveyed the coal to the works. Latterly the sidings were used for P.W. wagons. ;The signal gantry ;with number 19, Down Bradford Home plus the three distants of other boxes was butted ;right up to the box There was a skylight in that end of the box for the signalman to check the position of the signal. One interesting daily working was the the arrival of the Bradford portion of a Morecambe train. The loco uncoupled and returned to Bradford. ;When the Leeds portion arrived it had to set back onto the Bradford portion This leg of the triangle was the sharpest curve of the three. The driver had no view whatsoever onto the Bradford portion, plus if it was a Compound it was a struggle to set back on a wet rail. There was also the problem of the buckeye couplings coupling. It must have been a short straw working for the Holbeck engine crew ..The return working of this train diagram split at Keighley but that's another story. The up home signals (3 and 5) were repeated on the gantry to assist sighting due to a road over bridge. Number 15 was a calling on signal. Under certain conditions the signalman at Bradford Jcn could accept a passenger train timed to stop at the station under Regulation 5 in which the calling on arm at Bingley Jcn was used. At the time of me working at Shipley there were no platforms on the Leeds Skipton leg of the triangle, hence the working mentioned above. With the electrification of the Airedale and Wharfdale lines in 1994 Platforms were added on this leg. The Skipton to Bradford leg was singled and the curve eased. Bingley Junction box was rescued and taken to the Worth valley for use there That's it for now. Cheers, Derek.
  16. derekarthurnaylor
    Hi Everyone.
    I see it's six weeks since I posted my "penultimate blog" and a heck of a lot has happened in that time. I have moved from the Lake District back to my roots in Shipley. I have an apartment over looking the River Aire just half a mile from Saltaire where I was born so I think I can say I have come full circle. To say the least it has been a hectic time for an 85 year old but with the assistance of my family is has happened and I'm settling down. So, on to what may be my last blog.
    On my Semerdale layout some of you may remember the development of a couple of log loading cranes on the freight only branch line from Semerwater. There was an article in the April 2001 Railway Modeller which didn't quite get into print the way I wrote it, but that's water under the bridge now. With the possibility of failing eyesight and perhaps not being able to drive I have reprised this log loading crane so it will fit into a box that fits into a canvas bag on a shopping trolley. This means I will be able to take it to shows on public transport. It has two modes in which it can be set up. One is the crane loads a narrow gauge train and the other is a canal scene on which a barge is loaded. It is in this latter mode that it will have it's first outing at the Blackpool Model Boat show. I also hope to try the train to get there even though I can still drive. Quite a few of my family are also going to Blackpool that weekend and we are all in the same B and B to make weekend of the show and Blackpool's other show, The Lights. It's second outing is the Warley show in November, In narrow gauge train mode. There will also, be NG North , just up the road from me now, and possibly York next Easter
    So what of the construction of the crane. The drive motors are the combination motors and gearboxes. The drive to make the crane swivel is a friction drive.which prevents overdrive when the crane reaches fixed stop points when the drive just slips. The whole thing runs on just two AA batteries. Some thought had to be given on how to keep sections short enough to fit in the box. There is also an odd shaped box within the main box which which contains the crane and it's "gubbins" which is the most vulnerable part of the model. There's really not a lot more that I can say about it's construction. I think the attachments will will explain better than words.
    Just a final note. I have never read a blog. When I started these blogs I was tempted to read some and see how it was done. In the end I decided to take a leaf from Frank Sinatra and do it my way!
     
    Cheers Derek.
  17. derekarthurnaylor
    Hi all.
     
    After posting the last blog I found a couple of images of a model of Emett's Nellie which I thought I had already posted but looking through my past posting I cannot find them so I'm attaching them today. If I have posted them before my apologies. Nellie is now in the hands of my daughter down in Ellesmere and. is usually kept in a show case and just comes out at Christmas as will be seen in one of the attachments. Also attaching a pic of a model Hiab sea crane. She works in the Hiab offices in Ellesmere.
     
    I'm at York over Easter with the canal lock.
  18. derekarthurnaylor
    Hi all.
    A nice sunny but very chilly day here in the South Lakes. Took the chance to take some images on my "Garden Line". This is the only model railway I have left and if I don't make an effort to post a blog on it it will get passed over. Don't get to expectant regarding this line. It's very simple and was in fact built for a reason other than a model railway. When we moved up here at the end of the last century (that has quite a pioneering ring about it) the front lawn was in a bit of a state. As gardening in general and lawn mowing in particular are not my forte I suggested building a low wall of oval shape on top of which a model railway could be laid. This was agreed. The final plan was for the four corners to be cultivated and the inside of the oval to be filled with Golden Gravel. See image one. The whole thing is getting a bit seen into now but will last my time out. Over the years most of the original stock including a Roundhouse Lady Anne, a rake of side tippers, some four wheel coaches and sundry other vehicles including a four wheel diesel loco have been disposed of including the railcar featured in one image..Further images of the disposed of stock only exist on video tape. The line was always a good opening gambit for cold callers. "Any trains running today?). This should cease now as our little estate is now a "No cold calling " area. So what of the existing stock. The loco has a scratch built body on a four wheeled chassis kit. Not sure who the kit supplier was. It normally runs on batteries but it can also, at the throw of a switch pick up current from the rails. The two rail freight vehicles are pure battery worked. The chassis are some simple one axle drive, and once again I don't remember the supplier. The bodies are from the Chad Valle range that Woolworth used to sell. The two coach passenger rake are Bachmann. Goods stock is a mix of scratch built and Mamod. That's about it. Oh, there's one of those cheap train sets where the loco only runs forward and has one of those irritating sound units in it! All great stuff.
  19. derekarthurnaylor
    Hi again.
    Back again after over a month. I am posting the last model railway I constructed. Cranly Lake Railroad. This was only the second 7 mm scale I had built, the other one being the Liquorice Line. I was seduced by the Bachman Shay. Also at the same time my Friend Paul Towers sent me details of a very short line in Canda. " The Portage Railway" which was only one and one eighth miles long with track gauge of 42 inches. It was a tourist line connecting two lakes and had two locos, two passenger cars, two box cars and two flat cars It was owned by a company called " The Huntsville and Lake of Bays Railway and Navigation Companies". A name nearly as long as the line it's self. I am attaching a delightful painting which help you to see what inspired various items on my layout. It might be worth seeing what is on the internet if you want further information.
    As mentioned above I was seduced by the Bachman Shay, a type of loco that never got built for the A.V.R. This Shay and my 7mm scale model of an Avonside geared loco modified a little were the main line locos with a Bachman 0-4-0 Porter and a four coupled diesel as yard shunters. I cannot recall details of the diesel or why it was numbered 5 when there were only four locos. There were no run round facilities, hence the shunting locos. there was only three points. leading to the passenger line, goods line and the engine shed. One point in the opposite direction led to the mineral loading hoppers. Shunting, while not overly complicated required some thought. For the buildings on the layout I went for balsa wood construction ..I must say it was a change from plasticard and I quite enjoyed the change. For the construction of Cranly Maid I reverted to plasticard. The freight vessel Raven was from my radio controlled days and was not sold on with the layout. Possibly the most interesting is the loading hopper. It did load the wagons though it was somewhat contrived as each shute hopper just held enough mineral to fill a wagon. As one image shows the wagons were unloaded by hand in the hidden? sidings. The Pine tree was in memory of my favourite Laurel and Hardy film- Way out West.
    The layout went to several shows but once again when when I tried to make it a permanent layout it failed and was sold on.
    Think that's it for now. Cheers Derek.
    .
  20. derekarthurnaylor
    Hi. I gather the image I attached got through Stating the obvious it was a B/W print of part of Nethertarn on the aborted line.I going to try a few more. One of interest is the one of the Clinker Block Works, a bit dark, with the American rail cars on the line above I think it may explain why the line was aborted. The image of the stamp may be of interest.
    Regards Derek.
  21. derekarthurnaylor
    Hi.
    I have been up in the loft today looking for something which I didn't find. However I did find some items of railway interest. First up is the delightful photo of the the last B.R. shunting horse, Charlie and his "workmate" whose name I do not know. The original image was a calender which I received many years ago from a friend who as we can see had exceedingly good tastes in New Year greetings. The title is Working Partners and was done by a professional photographer. Charlie died on the 28th October 1968 aged 29 years after a couple of years in a retirement home for horses in Somerset.so I must have got the calender at least two or three earlier. In the days when race horses went by rail Charlie would be often be sent to the off loading station. where his calm presence would would help to keep his throughbred brothers calm.
     
    The second set images may seem really odd. I wonder if any of you knew that a wallpaper producing firm once made rolls of paper of Emetts Nellie and friends. My Son and his wife once papered one wall of their.kitchen diner with a couple of rolls of this pattern. I was mortified when I saw it as it was then out of production and I think they had got the last couple of rolls in the shop. This would be in the mid seventies. They had only picked it because the colours were right. Crikey! Anyway when they had a change of decor they managed to strip of about four foot or so without tearing it. Each roll had a bit of a write up which they gave me. I thought this and the four foot of paper was lost but it has turned up today on my loft expedition. I am including the write up and photos of the four locos mentioned.
     
    I hope you don't think I have flipped my lid with this posting. Cheers Derek.
  22. derekarthurnaylor
    Hi.
    Back from East Grinstead. Did the full trip on the Bluebell line. Not sure that passengers starting at East Grinstead will find it easy, Sainsbury's have cut their parking time down from two hours to ninety minutes so it's a pay and display car park a little distance away. No problems for my party though with living in East Grinstead. My Grandson dropped us off at the station. It was a bonus weekend for me as it was the model railway weekend with layouts at Horsted Keynes and Sheffield Park with some nice layouts on show. While not a scenic layout the Gauge One exhibit took my eye with mainly live steam locos.. All standard gauge, no narrow gauge. A very pleasant day indeed. We also did the Spa Valley Railway another day. Shoe on the other foot we had to use a pay and display car park but I got dropped off at the station being the old man . Another pleasant day. I meant to ask some member of staff what emergency rules are put into operation should a Spa Valley vehicle derail on the section next to the Uckfield branch line and foul that line but didn't get round to it, anyone out there know? The other railway connected day out was to the Brighton Toy Museum in which toy and model railways are by far the largest exhibits.
     
    I'm attaching a couple of pics of the AVR I found in my files. These are of Stony Ridge This section of the layout was on a peninsular and one of the images is taken looking down the main street from the end of the peninsular. I think this really is the end of any unpublished images of the Aire Valley. Other modelling to follow next time.
     
    Regards, Derek.
  23. derekarthurnaylor
    Hi All.
    I feel a bit of an idiot as I have another correction to make (what again?).The Rocal loco, it turns out it was a tank engine. The only reason I know this is because after my last blog I dug all my bits and pieces out and there was the Railway Modeller article "Internal combustion on the Aire Valley". Well it was 47 years ago. As mentioned in the article The body was parts of the Airfix Drewery. I guess I may as well continue with the the two pairs of railcars.. No prizes for knowing who they are named after. They were very useful vehicles. In the early days Derek and Maud & providing the short haul services between Saltaire and Morehead. Later they also worked some odd days on the Stony Ridge branch though normally service on this line was provided by railcars 103 and 104 (no names) and later by the the steam railcar. The branch service was run by one or other of the railcars, there were no loco hauled passenger trains on the branch. I was rather pleased with the bogie on number 103. The system worked very well and in addition to providing 6 wheel pick up it was also created three point suspension.Over the years I converted all the four wheeled stock to three point suspension. As there is only one more loco that got into print may as well finish the loco roster off. This was number 7 Stony River. In the Steam development article in Feb 1970 I mentioned I was looking at the possibility of a Shay. Some time later I received a Letter from Dave Rhind in as South Africa asking why build another U.S. loco what is wrong with a British built geared loco. Great I thought if there was such a thing. There at the end of the letter were details of the Avonside geared loco built for the Natal Sugar Company. The Avonside locos had worm and wheel drive. So along with the two drive shafts to the bogies this was correct. It was of all metal construction. It was of course a cousin to the Heisler. It performed sterling work hauling Co-il. One of the locos that never got into print was a huge freelance model of a Mallet loco. Huge in the sense it would not fit the A.V.R. loading Gauge. I confess I know not what happened to it. The other one was my scratch built model of Monarch. This ,along with the rest of the locos and rolling stock was sold on but that's for later.
  24. derekarthurnaylor
    Hi.
    After the tragic event in Canada of the runaway oil tanker train I was reminded of the oil tanker train derailment in Summit Tunnel in 1984 on the L&Y route between Leeds/Bradford and Manchester. The cause of the the derailment was a sheared axle. Fortunately there was no train running in the opposite direction and the driver of the tanker train escaped along with the locomotive and first four wagons. It must have been really horrendous for him. However, oil escaping from a ruptured tank caught fire and there was nothing the fire service could do and the fire was left to burn it's self out. I was working at Mill Lane Junction at Bradford Interchange at the time ( and for the next ten years). The removal of the remains of the train, repair of the tunnel lining and track laying took several months and a temporary timetable was introduced. I had a friend in the fire service and he got me some official photos and a sample of fire damaged brick. The latter I mounted on a wood base which I still have. I thought I had lost the photos but they turned up when I was looking for some other items and I hope to attach them.
    Derek.
  25. derekarthurnaylor
    Hi again.
    The layout and buildings. I'm sure it would be just a bit boring to go into a lot of depth on this subject so I have selected items I hope might be of interest. I;think the clinker block works ;might be a good place to start. It's a poor man's crib on John Ahern's brick works. A couple of reasons. One, lack of space for a brick works. Two, it added another dimension to C-Oil. creating further rail traffic between the two works. Construction was a bit odd in using a complete alarm mechanism to drive it Now for £;3.99 you can get a nice compact low voltage motor and combined gear box. One drives the cable car on Port Maud . I found the prototype when I was working (as a relief signalman) at Engine Shed Jcn at Holbeck Shed. The owners were reluctant at first to let me take photographs of it ;I don't know who they thought I was.but in the end I got my pics. The Works was sited near Green Cove Halt a little way out of Saltaire. Not the best place near the local beauty spot. If any of you have the Railway Modeller, April 1968. featuring the works there's a photo of the works ;in situ on the layout. This is the only known published image of a scene on the aborted layout. The American railcars are on the high level line above the works. I'm working on attaching more images of this aborted line. If I might now digress;a bit. One day while working at Whitehall Jcn. at the north end of the Leeds triangle a freight train headed by a 9F had been stood at the home signal from Engine Shed while other traffic was worked by. On pulling off for the freight the driver opened the regulator just a little to much and it stuck open without any forward movement. It gradually dug itself into the rail. In the end the crew had to throw the fire out..I'm not sure all this time on how the 9F was rescued but four lengths of rail had to be replaced before normal traffic was resumed. Fortunately no one was injured and there were no booked passenger trains over that leg of the triangle.I was told the 9Fs were prone to this
    One other scenic feature I was quite pleased with was the trees and the crane in the Forestry in the Aire Valley article in April 1975 ;Years later I tried to purchase some more of the Khahia grass I used for my original trees, I tried garden centres and flower shops all to no avail no one had ever heard of it..The crane was eventually motorised but I don't think it loaded many logs. The village of Stony Ridge had quite a bit of industry.for a place it's size. That's about for now I'll look at Danes Crossing Works and some other bits next time.
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