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derekarthurnaylor

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  2. 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.
  3. derekarthurnaylor
    Hi All.
     
    Just a quickie. Single attachment showing the latest bit of stock on the Fairfied garden line.. It started off as a toy bendy bus somewhat about the same scale as the two Chad Valley rail vehicles. It was obtained from Pound Stretcher. The power chassis is the IP Engineering budget chassis I picked up at NG North. Somewhere on youtube is a 30 odd second video of it on the move..
     
    See you at York? Cheers Derek
  4. derekarthurnaylor
    Hi.
    I'm posting drawings of the penultimate pair of boxes. Marley Jcn and Thwaites Jcn. Marley Jcn as will be noted had a pretty simple layout but it did however have a couple of interesting moves on the late shift of which more anon. It had a 24 lever frame of which 8 were spares. When I first learned this box it had a crossover in the main lines with ground signals to control it.. These were removed in April 1955. As far as I can recall the crossover did not get much use. I trust the diagram will make clear the Up Goods line finishing and Down Slow line starting at Bingley as mentioned in the last posting. So what of the "interesting moves". Around teatime a down mineral train was booked onto the Down Slow line at Bingley and continued forward to Thwaites Jcn on the Down Goods line. to stand there to wait the passage of the next two passenger trains. The next train was a slow passenger from Bradford to Skiption which was booked onto the Down Slow line at Bingley to stand at Marley to wait the passage of the Morecambe Residential or Resi as it was called on the Main line.The local passenger followed this express onto the Down Main line Later in the evening a similar set of moves took place in the Up direction. A freight was booked onto the Up Slow line at Thwaites to run forward on the Up Goods to Bingley. This was followed by the Carlisle Cricklewood milk train which stood at Marley to wait the passage of the Glasgow Leeds Express. Once again the goods followed these two trains from Bingley. Thwaites Jcn was similar to the Bingley layout as regards the four running lines. It had a 24 lever frame of which 2 were spares. A couple of numbering errors re some ground signals...Number 5 should be 15 and the signal to the left of the box without a number is number 12. The Oil works siding was still in use but not really busy. Coal for the Gas Works was tripped from Keighley.and run onto the Up Slow line and reversed into the sidings. The note re the ground frame reads."Lever No. 21 must be normal in frame to get ANNETS Key out and lever No. 21.is locked in normal position until ANNETS key is returned to frame and turned". The Guard would drop off at the box to collect the key when the trip cleared 21 points and they were returned to normal. Not really much else to comment on. Cheers, Derek.
  5. derekarthurnaylor
    Hi.
    Attaching two more signal box diagrams. The first is Hirstwood. It had a 16 lever frame including one spare. I see I failed to number the ground signal controlling the setting back move through number 6 points, it should be numbered 5. The two ground signals 8 and11 had yellow aspects and could be passed for shunting purposes when in the on position. Note the odd track layout of the sidings. at number 12 points. There was a couple of works served by the yard. Scot motor cycles was one, those old enough will remember their distinctive exhaust sound. There was also a firm whose name escapes me who made transmission belts. These belts stick in my mind as there was a trip working to the yard usually just one open wagon and a brake van. At best the load would be several of the belts. Off to the left was Saltaire station and signal box not part of the R.D. roster, and of course the mill and village where I was born. 60 Titus Street, No plaque on the house. The village was no Port Sunlight or Bournville. Most of the 850 houses were terraced but were a vast improvement on the slums of Bradford. The concept of Saltaire is worth following if you are interested. If any of you have the Model Railway News for February 1966 I had an article in it regarding the Station and some background information on the village and it's founder. The mill was served on the south side by the railway and on the north side by the Leeds and Liverpool Canal. I see there is a program on Channel 4 on Saturday (tomorrow) on the Canal, though it seems it may be on the Lancashire side of it..I can remember horse drawn barges on it. There was a second mill built at a later time at the north side of the canal. It was just served by the canal. Coal for this mill was shovelled out of barges into a grill in the tow path and fell into a bucket chain which conveyed it to the boiler house. This mill is now offices and apartments. Just north of Saltaire was Shipley Glen, know as the lungs of Bradford. It had, still has a little cabled hauled tramway and I am attaching a photo of it.
    The second box is Bingley Station..It had a 50 lever frame including 6 spares. It's not to clear in the diagram re the four tracks going north at the left end. Reading top to bottom they are- Up Goods, Up Main, Down Fast and Down Slow. if you will forgive me this will become clear in the next posting. The sidings leading off to the right beyond 45,46 and 47 ground signals led to the timber firm Magnet. Most of the timber used to to come to Hull from Sweden. At Hull it was loaded onto standard four wheel open wagons, often 30 at a time. for conveying to Bingley. .If other traffic allowed it could be reversed in to the Magnet siding .straight off the main line. .This was not a speedy move and took time to organise with the train crew . Option two was to run the train onto the Down Slow line and then set back into the Magnet yard via the down siding. This was a move that could be organised with the train crew and the Station Master and when traffic on the main lines allowed was a more speedy move. This was not a daily occurrence, thank goodness. More next time. Derek
  6. derekarthurnaylor
    Hi.
    I'm posting the Leeds Jcn drawing, the last of the Shipley triangle boxes. A quick personal note. I was made a Train Recorder in 1945 having reached the age of 16 and able to work nights. There was a lad on each shift from Monday 0600 to 0200 Sunday morning. I am also attaching a very simple drawing of the box's down distant signals relevant to the two boxes in rear. I tried yesterday when I started this post to explain the distant signal operation in words but it became almost impossible. I hope the drawing if looked at in connection with main drawing will help. The sections between the three triangle box's and Guiseley Jcn were short and distant signals at Leeds Jcn could not be pulled off until the box in advance cleared it's distant signal. A mechanical indicator indicated when the distant signal in advance was cleared. This system applied to all four box's but only Leeds Jcn had it all directions. As the two box's covered in the simple drawing were not in my rest day roster they never got in my exercise book..Leeds Jcn had a 40 lever frame including 2 spares. There were no crossovers so no ground signals. If you can make out number 27 signal on the main post of the splitting signals from the Skipon direction, this was the down starter to Skipton. The short sections required close co-operation between all the signalmen. For instance, Guiseley Jcn would sometimes have to keep a long goods train at his down slow home signal so as not to block the Jcn to Ilkley. This could happen if Bingley Jcn was running a train in or out on the Bradford Skipton leg. The Fast and Slow lines started here all the way to Leeds The simplistic drawing also shows how trains to or from Bradford accessed the Slow line or the Ilkley Line..So what about the junction onto the Batley line? This was a GN branch from Bradford Exchange. Behind Leeds Jcn was the remains of Windhill Station Passenger traffic was long gone but there was still considerable goods traffic. The were daily trip workings between Bradford Valley goods (see first posting) and the GN yard. There was also a through working from the GN yard to Skipton. This ran onto the down goods line and the loco ran round it's train between Shipley Goods and Frizinghall It had a brake van at both ends. Strangely I cannot remember a return working. It may have worked back to Valley Yard and and been a trip working to the GN yard. The latter had it's own signal box almost opposite Guiseley Jcn. and had a Signalwoman on one shift. The line down to the yard was something like 1 in 40 and brakes had to be pinned down ay the start of the decent On approaching the yard the driver had to whistle he had the train under control otherwise the line was left set for a long sand drag.
    That's about it. Cheers, Derek.
  7. 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.
  8. derekarthurnaylor
    Hi Again.
    I am posting the second of the signal box items. This is Manningham Stn Jcn. mentioned in the last posting. A personal note first ..I first worked at this box as a Train Recorder in 1944, crikey that's 70 years ago. The R.D. relief post was a second bite at the cherry. There was a further bite when I got a permanent position at Manningham. It had a 40 lever frame of which 6 were spares. The sidings off to the top left led to the engine shed. At one time there used to be a signal box in the depot which controlled the lines in the complex. When this box was dispensed with I understand Manningham Jcn received a new lever frame (the one the subject of this posting). The original frame overlooked the passenger lines. The new frame overlooked the goods lines. Presumably the old frame continued in use until the new frame was installed. Interestingly this new (midland) frame had four and a half inch centers and it could be a squeeze to get at some levers. I never came across another frame with this spacing. It will be seen engines coming off shed to either the goods yard or the passenger station had a straight run off, Compounds could have real struggle coming off tender first in wet weather and could take all of three or four minutes to clear the East/West jcn points. Engines going on shed were usually run onto the Up Goods line and reversed through number 7 points and then into the shed roads.. Number 2 points were very heavy. Not only were they the furthest from the box. they were triple ended and also had a 60 ft facing point bar. The passenger line crossover 27 was little used and didn't have ground signals to control it, though levers 26 and 28 were spares.The Gas Works siding was never used while I knew the box. The goods lines to Shipley had Permissive block instruments which were turned to 1 when a train passed the box in the rear. If further trains entered the section before the first train cleared the instrument was turned to 2 and so on. The East and West arrival and departure lines had some interesting block or rather bell working. Each line did have it's own Absolute Block instrument but only one bell. ie. the two arrival lines had an A B Instrument but only one bell. This bell only signalled arriving trains. The departure lines were the same, the one bell just used for departing trains. So how did the one bell in each direction work. Simple. Bell signals for trains on the West lines were proceeded by the call attention signal and those on the East lines WITHOUT the call attention signal. Wow, was this interesting if a new Signalling Inspector paid a visit and better still if top management were looking around, The look on their faces. Just to finish. Passenger trains into Bradford were usually sent on the East Arrival.. The reason for this being the signalman at Bradford very rarely had to refuse a train on the East arrival, the only time he had to refuse a train was if there was a loco running on or off the station turntable..I hope this makes sense. Let me know if not, via a comment perhaps.
    Derek.
  9. derekarthurnaylor
    Hi All.
    I am hoping to publish a series of blogs which are not about models. They do however have a tenuous connection to the building of the AVR. When the 44 hour week was introduced on BR it created a bit of a problem regarding signal boxes which were open 24 hours 7 days a week. The solution was to give each signalman one day off every other week though it did not work out at every other week as Rest Days as they became known were not taken on the night shift so as not to disrupt sleep patterns. New Relief Signalmen's posts were created just to cover these rest days as opposed to general relief posts which covered holidays, sickness and vacancies. I applied for and got one of the new RD relief positions.This covered eleven boxes from Bradford Goods Yard Box through to Keighley North Box. There were some boxes on this stretch of line that were not covered by this new relief position. In the parsimonious way of management one and two shift boxes had their week rostered at 7 hours and 20 minuits a day. (=44 hours). Things changed again with the introduction of the 40 hour week but that is out of the remit of this blog. The connection with the AVR is that it developed over this period. In the full flush of getting this new post as I learned each box I copied the diagram and special instructions into a standard exercise book of the period. In further relief positions over the years I never did it again. Some considerable time later I lent the book to a fellow relief signalman (fatal) and never got it back until he passed away recently and willed it along with other memorabilia to a friend who knew it was mine and passed it over to me. . Having got all this off my chest I am hoping the drawings will be of interest to members which I will post with my comments of odd bits about each box. The quality is not of the best. They would not fit on the printer scanner so I have photographed them to upload.The first one is Bradford Goods Yard. This was the Midland (Valley) goods yard. Not a lot to note. It had a standard Midland 20 lever frame including two spares There were no block instruments between it and Manningham Station Jcn, which was off to the right. and the signalmen at both boxes had to put a collar on the signal controlling entry to the section. Under the Permissive block regulations a further train could be allowed into the section under caution.Off to the left was Trafalger Crossing and permission had to be obtained by telephone to let a train into the yard.This crossing was a yard road across all the sidings and was a disabled workers post usually shunters who had lost a limb. Sorry if this offends but that's.how it was then .For departures from the yard the yard inspector telephoned the description of the train In later years I also worked Bradford Foster Square passenger box ,sorry no diagram. I only mention this as it had 90 lever frame and lever number one when off locked number ninety and vice verser. They were both ground signals at either end of the West Carriage Sidings which were all through sidings.
    That's it for now. Cheers, Derek
    .
  10. derekarthurnaylor
    Hi All.
    I am posting pics out of the book Junction X. All I can say is they seem to be a bit of an odd ball mix. Some I would think are pre war photos. Others early to mid war with some of the captions written to suit the time of the broadcast of the drama I will leave you to make your own minds up.
    Regards Derek
  12. derekarthurnaylor
    Hi all.
     
    It seem my 84 year ears are not what they used to be. Indeed the word use was PROP which I guess makes sense as the item was about the making of the film. I have never watched any of the various dramas including the current one about the train robbers. As an ex railwayman what happened to driver Mills was unforgivable.
     
    Anyway now am hear I will attach some more Drawings. The small one shows alterations done to some of the freight stock.
     
    All the best for Christmas and the New Year. Derek..
  13. 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.
    , .
  14. 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.
  15. 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.
  17. derekarthurnaylor
    Hi.
    More on real stone modelling. After all the personalised walls it was time to look at something a bit more challenging. At the time we were living at Keighley just a stones throw (no pun intended) from Bronte Country. In the end it came down to "Top Withens" the remote, now derelict farmstead on the moors above Haworth. Not to build it in this state but as near as possible as it was. Maudie and I did several trips to the building to measure the ground plan and try and calculate the slope of the hillside it was built on. I would mention it's a couple of miles from the nearest point where you can park. But, how did it look? In the end I put an appeal in the Dalesman Magazine. This worked and I got a good number of replies. One interesting one was from a lady whose Grandmother was born in the farmstead in 1896. Another was from a couple with the wife stood in a doorway in the photo they sent pretending to be Cathy. Most of the photos sent were of use. After completing the model I sent photos to all who replied to my appeal. While the attached images show how I went about the construction there were problems and some set backs For instance, the dark stone porch took three tries before I was happy with it, and there were quite a few other minor rebuilds.The blocks in one of the construction images were to enable square window openings to be made. The roof slates were stone slabs and this applied to the model. .I made these from semi perished stone which was easy to slice into thin slabs. That was the easy bit. Cutting them to size seemed to take for ever and I think more were wasted than used. It was a case of nibbling away with the pliers. The ridge tiles were carved from the solid, fortunately not too many of them. The mullioned windows were also a bit of fun! The scale, 1/4 inch to the foot. When we were leaving Keighley it was decided to part with the model I tried to give it the Bronte Museum. but it was declined on various grounds. Who/how would it be maintained? Was there room for it in the soon to be refurbished museum? And anyway the current thinking was it was only the area not the farmstead that Emily used in her book. OK. tell that to all the Japanese students who visit the site as part of their English studies. Somewhat subdued I went round to the Haworth T.I..C. No joy there either. In the end it went for auction. Conversation went. How much did I expect? £300. Ok, reserve of £350.. In the end bidding stopped at £315. I let it go at that. Net sum received, £259.48p. Top Withens was the only model when I kept a building log. 240 hours! So just over a pound an hour..However I like to think someone is enjoying it. After it was sold, (I wasn't at the auction) I only hoped someone hadn't bought it to give to the Bronte Museum. If I have room a little story. Returning to my car one day in Keighley I was asked by an American couple where the bus depot. was. They explained they had come by train from London to Keighley with a view to seeing Wuthering Heights. ie Top Withens . They had missed the Worth Valley train and been sent to catch a bus. I explained the situation of Top Withens, 2 miles there 2 miles back if they had a car, the bus was a no no. And they were getting on in years and it was a real hot day Their faces fell. In the end I did my bit for Anglo US relations and took them up to the Bronte Museum. It seemed, (letter attached) they really did have a nice day! Returning to the was it wasn't it Top Withens. High Sunderland Hall ( long demolished) near Halifax is the main contender. If you want to follow this up, try. w.w.w.wuthering-heights.co.uk/locations/halifax. Finally. When I finished the model Maudie insisted I read Wurthering Heights. I have to confess if I had not seen all the film and TV adaptations I could not have got through it.
    'Till next time, Derek.
  18. derekarthurnaylor
    Hi.
    Further to my posting of 17th july. This was about the attempt at a 009 layout ( tunnel through the chimney breast) and the indoor garden layout. I said I didn't have any images of these efforts apart from the one of the the garden line loco which I attached. Guess what? I have found some. Explanation. I have been down to Ellesmere again to a family get together for my Great Granddaughter's Christening. I was asked to look through my family photos for any revelant photos and found the attached images in among the family ones. The only one I will comment on is the oddball one like a starburst. This is an image taken through the "tunnel" of an approaching train. There is also another example of nameplate etching on the odd ball Fairlie.loco.
     
    I may as well mention that the Liquorice Line, after several exhibitions was rehashed into the Smokey Mountain and Soggy Bottom layout. I was a two level layout without any connection between the two levels. The mountain did smoke, it was fitted with a smoke making unit. In the end I thought the layout was beyond the pale and it was sold on to a friend for this Grandchildren. I wonder if any of you ever saw this at the one or two shows it went to? I will stick my neck out again and say I don't seem to have an photos except for the very poor image of the attached Fairlie loco so will call that it for now.
     
    Regards Derek.
  19. derekarthurnaylor
    Hi.
    I guess it's about time to look at further layouts I have constructed. After the Windermere boats and the two layouts that came to nothing I came up with the Idea for Semerdale. I'm not sure how the idea for the layout came about ..As mentioned in the Railway Modeller article of May 1998 I was looking for a few "tweaks" in the scale/gauge. Also, for what ever reason I built it as an exhibition layout and as mentioned in the above article I am more of a constructor than an operator. Most of the photos of the layout have appeared in the above article and two other articles in the Railway Modeller. See " Log Loading in 009" April 2001 and "Additions to Semerdale". March 2002. Somewhere in the production of the log loading article things did not come out as I had written them and it finished somewhat abruptly..If you didn't understand it ,neither did I. But, that's water under the bridge. My late wife Maudie took charge of the log loading operation and would invite children to come round the back and have a go. After all the (understandable) do not touch notices parents were pleasantly surprised at this chance of a hands on approach invite to their children. Back to photos. If you haven't seen it yet,Semmerdale is featured on the wwwngrail.co.uk site which is a virtual narrow gauge exhibition Click on to Hall 1. In real life the layout did 22 exhibitions between 1997 and 2001. Somewhere around the latter year I decided it was time for the line to find a permanent home. This home was built into the garage and was eight feet square. The enevitable happened and when half the track for the other terminal was laid it didn't gel and it was sold on as seen. Both Maudie and myself had enjoyed it at exhibitions. I quite enjoyed the building of the layout and stock. in particular the two bogie locos Semerdale and Semerwater. They ran very well as indeed did the two four wheelers and the railcars. Loco number 1 DAN was the test build to see if the scale/gauge would work. You may notice a likeness in DAN to the AVR loco number 2 Anne. I made my own couplings which were a little over scale. They were single ended with a hinged loop at one end and fixed hook at the other. At the hook end there was a hinged latch which prevented recoupling after passing over an uncoupling magnet. Big headed I know but these worked very well along with the sweet running of all four locos. Think that's it for now. Couple of photos attached which I don't think have been published.
    Cheers. Derek.
  20. 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
  22. 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.
  23. 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.
  24. derekarthurnaylor
    Hi.
    Having looked at the image of the home made drilling machine I posted in my last blog again I'm not sure if does show things very well. While I realise no one is going to construct such a machine in this day and age when small pillar drills and hand held mini drills are available i am attaching a simplified drawing which I hope will help to explain it..I say this in jest but then we had to scratch build machines to scratch build models. It beat using a pin chuck in the hand to drill brass frames..Will catch up on Windermere boats next time..
    Cheers..Derek.
  25. derekarthurnaylor
    Hi.
    I have been delving into my photo bits and pieces. With luck attached below is a photo of the panel and diagram of Mill Lane Jcn signal box which I retired from just over 19 years ago. It controls Bradford Interchange Station which replaced Bradford Exchange some years ago. The old Exchange box went along with the old station The ten dead end platforms of the old station were reduced to four in the new one. The ten old platforms were divided equally, Five G.N., five L.and Y. The old box had two frames with a signalman on each frame except on the quiet night shift. There was no rail connection between the two halves until Mill Lane Jcn. Since I retired there has been a track remodelling to allow trains from both the Leeds and Halifax directions to enter the station at the same time. There was and still is a 15 minute service between Leeds and Halifax most of the day. As each train runs in and out of the station it will be the seen the signalman is on the go most of his shift. Across town the old Foster Square Station closed and was rebuilt with it's platforms being halved from six to three, how many cities can that have happened to? As I have wandered off railway modelling and indeed modelling in general I must mention that I outlived British Rail. I started work as a telegraph messenger at Foster Square Station in 1943.and I retired two weeks after the end of B.R. in 1994. There cannot be many of us that did that. Any more out there?.
    In my last posting I mentioned my home made "power" drill. I have also found a photo of this. It's not too brilliant but I think it shows It's salient points. I cannot take credit for it being my idea. If I recall correct, P.D.Hancock had an article in the M.R.News or the Modeller but I cannot remember what kind of motor powered it. More modelling next time Derek.
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