thegreenhowards

I do like these aerial shots from the bridge.

Thanks Tony, The signals are just plonked for now. I’m planning to build a MSE gantry to cross the four lines at about the point where the junction signal is now. Two reasons for not building an actual prototype. Firstly, at the time I started Gresley Jn, it was designed to get the kids involved, so operational interest was paramount which is easier with a made up location. Sadly, that plan failed! Secondly, I’m not really a scenery builder, so I like to plonk RTP stuff. That’s easier when you’re not having to replicate something accurately. Having said this, my next layout will be an actual prototype - hopefully King’s Cross station. I will keep the non railway buildings to a minimum and probably have to have help, simplify or commission some of the other structures if I’m going to get it done in my lifetime! Andy

Thanks for your comments Tony and ‘ Philou’, constructive criticism is always welcome. I had to wait to reply until I returned home as, despite having lots of photos of the layout they all had trains in the way obscuring the point I want to make. You are certainly right that I squeezed in sidings where I could, and it’s likely that in some cases, I’ve made situations that are improbably with regard to the prototype. However, I don’t think it’s as bad as you suggest. This is a view looking the other way from the position where the previous photographs were taken. I hope this shows that the fans of five sidings leads into a headshunt. The running lines drop from 4 to 2 at about this point and that headshunt provides protection for the up fast as the down slow/ station access diverges from it as well as access to the fans of five sidings. I can not see that there’s anything wrong with this arrangement, but I stand to be corrected if I’ve missed anything. On the down side, the sidings are accessed directly off the down slow just before it joins the down fast. There is a headshunt for the sidings as seen terminating to the left of the tunnel mouth. Again this is the same headshunt which provides protection for the down fast as the down slow joins it. Following this discussion, I suspect I should have put the crossover from down slow to down fast (seen centre right in the photo) further back (behind the camera). Then what is currently the down slow could have been a dedicated siding access line at this point. However, it’s too late for that, so I think I will have to add a couple of trap points and accept that it’s a ‘less common’ operational feature. I attach a plan of the layout below to allow readers to make a bit more sense of the photos. On the subject of large layouts, I hope that Gresley Jn. qualifies (it's c.32ftx10ft). I’m lucky enough to have a large converted loft in which to base it. Indeed, that loft rather sold the house to me! Andy

Today we have a partially fitted pipe and steel train headed by WD 2-8-0, 90428.

Thanks for this - I think I could easily incorporate dummy blades into the point, and failing that the double slip is certainly an option which would require minimal relaying. Thanks also to St Enodoc for your comments on the other siding. Andy

Well when you see the barren industrial complex behind which still needs to be built and the whole station area is embryonic you will realise that I have other priorities!

Here we have another up train, the 0800 Newcastle-KX. This should have been much earlier in the sequence...but I forgot - sorry! Anyway, it’s the last of the four trains which inhabit the three reversible centre roads in the fiddle yard and which you will see again on their down journey later in the day. The others being The Talisman, The Tyne Tees Pullman (which being short can share a road) and The Yorkshire Pullman. The most interesting vehicle on this train is the triplet dining set from the pre war ‘Silver Jubilee’ which you can see in the video. The rest is Mark 1 with some Thompson brakes. The formation is as it was in Winter ‘55/56. Andy

Tony, Thanks for your trap point illustration. They look good and easy to achieve...that is until I look at where they’re needed on Gresley Jn.! Can I ask for some advice? I have two sets of sidings that I think need protecting. The first is this one (sidings with five coal wagons and pipe and van): I seem to have three options: 1. Fit it between the two points in the middle bottom of the photo; 2. Fit separate trap points on each siding; or 3. Relay the sidings (which probably won’t happen). The second siding is below (with the coal wagons): Should the trap point go inside the ‘gate’ (which isn’t yet built) or between the gate and the point onto the down slow? If the latter, should it face directly into the brick wall/ boiler house in the back scene as the alternative would be onto the running line which doesn’t make sense! I’m sure you will tell me that this sort of question is why I should model a prototype, but all I can say to that is ‘next time’. In the meantime I want to finish Gresley Jn as accurately as I can. Andy

I did consider that, but it didn’t look thick enough. Anyway, mystery solved in which case, it’s a remarkably good recreation.

Gilbert, In your picture I can see a signal with the distant on and the home off, whereas on the prototype shot there’s doesn’t seem to be a home. What’s going on there? Andy

Sounds interesting, I’ve never met liquid thinner. I use squadron Green or Deluxe Materials fine surface thinner, both of which are pastes. What brand do you recommend? I do use a strip of 20 thou plasticard all down the inside of the coach side to give it some strength.

Tony, Thanks for your kind words. I actually built four of those 66ft Thompson sleepers. Two for Gilbert and two for me. However they didn’t make the cut for the ‘show and tell’ as they were finished in Dec 2018 (how time flies!). Mine are languishing in a box waiting for the rest of my ‘Night Scotsman’ rake to be finished, but when I get to that point in the Gresley Jn Sequence, I think I’ll have to cobble something together to give them a run. On Gresley Jn I have followed your lead and tracked down any faults when they occur, so the running is now fairly good...although nowhere near the standard of LB. Of course, my thread doesn’t show all of the video retakes! The main problems seem to occur when I haven’t used it for a while or with rakes when I bring them back from running on the club layout and a coupling has got twisted. With regard to the trap points, I’ll be honest. When I started Gresley Jn, I thought trap points were for pedants and couldn’t see the point of spending money and wasting space on something which wouldn’t achieve anything! I hadn’t really thought about it since, but I can now see the error of my ways! I’m no expert, but I think the inner circuit is OK, because the five sidings are accessed via a headshunt which provides protection and the goods yard only access terminating roads in the station - again effectively a headshunt. On the outer, the bay platform provides a similar function, but the other two sidings should be protected. I’ll see if I can glue a piece of rail in to give an impression. For me, Xmas is a family time. My modelling box went away on Dec 23rd and only came out again last night in front of the telly (Eddie the Eagle). So you did much better than me. Andy

As it's 'show and tell' time, here are some of my highlights of the year. Some of them will have already been shown on here, but as they're probably 100s of pages back, I thought it would be OK to show them again. First up we have a SE Finecast J6 following the lead given by Tony's article in Railway Modeller in Dec 2018(?). Next a BEC J17 bought off eBay and renovated. That's about it for locos as most of the year was spent on coaches. First up an ex streamlined artic pair which form part of the 1950s West Riding. These were built from Mailcoach sides, with the rest from 247, MJT and scratch. Next a number of Thompson PV coaches built from Southern Pride sides on Bachmann donors: SK with Ladies Retiring Room. Buffet Lounge. These two completed my 1957 Elizabethan rake. RSO, FO, and ...RK. Which together form the catering core of my 1410 Kings Cross-Hull/ York rake. Then a steel panelled BG from Comet sides. Now we have a couple of Mark 1 FO prototypes built from Southern Pride sides on Hornby donors. First E3083 (now resident on the Severn Valley Railway) and E3084. Moving on we have a Gresley twin SLF from Mousa sides on Hornby donors. This will form part of my Night Scotsman rake which is, as yet, unfinished. On the suburban front, I built this d.210 twin from Mousa sides with the rest made up from 247, Comet, MJT and scratch components. I then tackled Pullman Car 107 which is a wooden K type Pullman which was a stalwart of ECML services in the 1950s alongside the all steel cars. It is different from the standard Hornby offerings, so I built it by cutting and shutting an older Hornby Queen of Scots car and rebuilding the roof, finishing it off with Precision labels panels and SE Finecast flush glazing. It forms part of my Yorkshire Pullman rake as described here: https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/149386-gresley-junction/&do=findComment&comment=3771140 And finally this GCR bogied fish wagon built from a brass WSM kit. Should you be interested there are more details of all these projects on my workbench thread starting here: https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/135510-coulsdon-works/&do=findComment&comment=3421718 Not as prolific as 'Sir', but I'm quite pleased with my output for the year. Next year, I hope to build more locos as well as making more progress with the layout. Happy New Year to all Wright Writes followers. Andy

No, we should never do that! (Sorry about the lamps - it’s normally on freight and they’re superglued in place!) Andy

Sounds like an opportunity for discipline to give into much temptation!

Christmas nearly over (for me at least), so back to Gresley Jn. Here we have a class 105 DMU having arrived at Gresley Jn on a branch service. The DMU works alternately with the C12 and push pull on the branch service. It arrives in platform six on the up side, and then shunts across to Platform 1(as shown here) to await departure. I know this sort of operation happened at Hatfield on the Moorgate terminators, so I feel it has a prototypical basis. Here’s a video of the DMU in action while shunting across from platform 6. Andy

Gilbert, I’m intrigued by the Skeggy excursion as I know how you base your running pretty religiously on the 1958 timetable. Was this timetabled? If not, how does it fit into your carefully calculated sequence? Do you throw in some random extras each time you run through the day’s events? Andy

Today we have the departure of the oil tank train with J6 having had a crew change in the freight loop. It’s magically changed since it arrived as Clive M has informed me that it would only need one barrier wagon and that conflats weren’t allowed so it should be a van or an open. He also suggested that it should probably have the silver tanks further back in the train and therefore need no barrier wagon, but as this seems optional I’ve decided to leave it like this for now. Any other views would be welcome. Here’s the video. I particularly like watching trains cross this run of slips. I’m away over Christmas, so updates will be less frequent, if at all. A merry Christmas to all Gresley Jn followers. Andy

Today we have the Gresley Jn gas works trip. This is based on photos I’ve seen of the Barnet gas trip with J50s. One Gresley Jn the train arrives in platform 2 and the loco uncoupled. Then the loco collects the empties from the gas works siding. ...and deposits them in the bay platform (1). Then she collects the loaded coal and, having detached the brake van, shunts it into the gas works siding. She then picks up the empties and the brake van and departs as shown on the video (a good sound chip on this loco from YouChoos). Andy

Hi Gilbert, Yes I did mean C1. Although in my defence they were GNR C2s so it’s easy to get confused! I should have read more of the green book before posting. It seems that 62885 also got a 6xxxx number although no smoke box door plate, so ignore what I said earlier. Anyway it looks like none of the Southern engines got ‘British Railways’ on the tender, so I will have to change mine to LNER. I’m inclined to go for 2881, which both Yeadon and BRDatabase show as Kings Cross through to withdrawal in April 1949. I see that green book says that only two were left in the south in 1949, but maybe it didn’t mean very early 1949! Anyway, I’ve got a good picture of it on a rake of artics in 1948 (p83 of East Coast from Kings Cross by Eric Neve) and I think I’ll try to replicate that. Andy

Yesterday I had a visit to the stunning S4 layout, Southwark Bridge. Based on a planned extension from Waterloo towards the city, set in 1912 and fully populated with scale length LSWR train sets this is a truly stunning example of railway modelling with all of the stock kit or scratch built, a working lever frame and requiring a minimum of 10 operators to work it. Today it’s back to planning for Christmas and time for another update on Gresley Junction. This time we have C2, 62822 on an up outer suburban train formed mainly of Gresley artics. I think the formation of this train is fairly typical of the pre Mark 1 era, but I don’t have any carriage workings, so it’s based on photos and none of them quite match this formation. The carriages themselves are work in progress with the leading pair being based on a Hornby pair and not very accurate while the trailing pair (in teak) are Kirk based on which the under frame needs some work. I’ve seen pictures of Ivatt Atlantics on this type of train in ‘48/49, but this particular one was Grantham based so needs renumbering. I know this was the only example which got a 6xxxx number, but I’m not sure whether any of the other received ‘British Railways’ on the tender; the pictures I’ve seen all have ‘LNER’. Can anyone help me with this? I see this train as standing in while I produce something more accurate, but I’m still rather fond of it as it shrieks ‘Great Northern’. and here's the video:

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Gilbert, That picture of #10 with the sea of semaphores is superb.

As promised we have another Pullman today. This time it’s the Yorkshire Pullman beaded by A1, 60156, Great Central. This is a Bachmann model with modifications to represent the roller bearing examples. With one exception, the train is formed of Hornby super detailed Pullman Cars. These started with quite a mix of roof colours and have all been weathered with Railmatch roof dirt which has brought the train together. I’ve left the front car with its (off-) white roof and used some powders to give a ‘few days out of works’ look. I’m not sure that this works, so I’d be grateful for your thoughts. I have made the train from a mix of 6 all-steel 1928 type Pullmans and 5 wooden bodied versions as was typical. I’ve also added corridor connectors, roof boards and a tailboard. I have a headboard somewhere but have temporarily mislaid it! The one exception to standard Hornby is the penultimate car, which is kitchen second, car 107. This had a different window arrangement from the standard Hornby offering, so I set about a Railroad Pullman to cut and shut the side. If you’re interested I’ve written this up on my workbench thread here. https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/135510-coulsdon-works/&do=findComment&comment=3748097 For those interested the complete formation I’ve decided on is: Car 79 Cynthia Agatha Car69 Car167 Ursula Car74 Loraine Iolanthe Car107 Car63 Several have been renamed using transfers or the excellent Precision labels printed replacement lower body panels. This formation would have been typical of the mid to late 50s when the wooden cars were changing over from being matchboard sided to plated aluminium. I have 2 and 3 respectively, although car 167 was never plated. Here is your daily video. Andy

I’ve now completed the Pullman Car 107. I’m quite please with the way it’s come out and I think it blends in quite well with the later super detailed cars. The main issues are the lack of working table lamps which is quite evident when running and the slightly higher ride height. Has anyone noticed this ride height difference and tackled it? There were (at least) three cars like this - 105/6/7, all ECML stalwarts. I’m going to have a go at another one, but this time using a super detailed car. Watch this space. You can see the carriage in action on my layout thread here: https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/149386-gresley-junction/&do=findComment&comment=3771140 Andy