Halton Boy

Hello Everyone This is the final plan for the railway: The kick back siding will be used for engines and brake vans. These will run onto the 600mm cassettes. I have two 1000mm cassettes and two 600mm cassettes that I purchased from the Midland Railway Centre some years ago. The acrylic sheet I have purchased online. This will help the cassettes slide. I have ordered three 1200mm x 400mm baseboards and one 400mm x 400mm head shunt turntable. I will lay the cork and track myself. The main work will be building the four scenic boards. I do not know what the industry will be yet. There is only one point in the tarmac section which is the left hand board. Please can you tell me, could I use cork to represent tarmac? Would Polyfilla be better or would it crack? I do have some DAS modelling clay, but it is a large area to cover. Thank you for your help. Ken

Hi Ayjay A use paints used by plastic model makers. One shop I use is www.emodels.co.uk. I use Tamiya 180ml fine surface primer at £7.65 per tin. Wash all plastic parts with washing up liquid and luke warm water to remove the release agent. I use an old tooth brush. Dry the parts. I fix masking tape to a piece of wood with the sticky side up. You can then place the plastic parts onto the tape for spraying. Aways wear a face mask. I spray outside in the garden. An old cardboard box makes a good spray booth to keep the wind off. Spray the parts with a "very" light tack coat first. Spray the parts again just to cover the plastic colour. Always use light coats. Start spraying before you reach the part and continue spraying past the part. The Tamiya paint is not cheap, but you do not need much as you are only putting on a light primer coat. Do not use too much paint as you will hide detail on the part. I use Tamiya, Army Painter, Vallejo and AK Interactive paints and primers. You can buy coloured primers, say black primer to go under gold or silver paint. To aid with painting acrylic paint smoothly you can add acrylic thinners to the paint in the pallet. Tamiya 10ml Acrylic Paint Thinners # X-20A £2.25. You only need a very small drop each time. This works much better than thinning with water. It also helps when blending two paints, say yellow and white to get off white. When using acrylic paint, less is always best. You can add extra thin coats, but its hard to take away to much paint. These prices may look expensive but you will only use small amounts. People who play D&D buy highly detailed miniatures pre-primed with Acrylicos Vallejo primer. If you look at these you will see that there is only a very light coat of primer on them. I hope this helps Ken

Hello everyone I start my new job on Monday and will be traveling every day to the south west. Not much time for modelling. The plan now is to buy ready made baseboards and build a simple layout. I will build the two, or four, scenic sections during the weekends. Plan A: Plan B: I will ask them to fit cork top to all of the baseboards and then fit the track. The fiddle yard is a sliding traverser. In plan B the small board is a head shunt turntable. The removable scenic sections are attached to the baseboard using dowls as below. The sections are now 1200mm long: The left most baseboard will be inset track with the other baseboard having normal sleepers. In plan B the engine will go through a wall opening onto the turntable. I will not hide the fiddle yard as I will be stood there looking down the layout. I am not sure what to do with the edges of the middle board. I could make two scenic sections with just a wall and gate or a fence: The middle sections could be country side or light industrial. I do not know if it is worth doing. Does the layout need four scenic boards to make it look complete? Thank you for your help. Ken

Hello everyone I have recently designed a layout to fit in a shed. But now out of the blue I have been offered a new job which means I will be moving. I will be running the South West office that I worked in before my transfer to Oxford. The model railway now goes on the back burner, or does it? Here is a new plan: The layout is a small O gauge. Each board is 1050 x 600mm, 3'6" x 2'. I am thinking of having raised sides around the scenic boards and to view the layout looking down the tracks from the fiddle yard. The raised sides will be 300mm above the track. As it is a shunting layout any buildings will be low relief to aid uncoupling. What do you think? Ken

Hello everyone I have looked at the first photo and this is what I think is happening: The man on the left has a railway cap on and a blue shirt. It looks like he is holding a shunting pole. The man on the right is wearing a white shirt, is he the signal man. That looks like a shunting pole he is using to clear the points. There is so much rubbish on the ground you would think that they would sweep that up first. But not my job mate! I think there is a white lever by the white post with the checker plate going to the points. Thank you for uploading the photo, I could not find it on the web. There has been a development. I will post a new post soon. Ken

Hi Stuart I think I will use that same point scheme on most of my points in the factory yard. Hi David My wallet hopes they do not make one. Hi Michael The photo's may have been reversed? Well at least I know a bit more now. Thank you Ken

Hello everyone Just a quick question now that I have been looking at gasworks. Rapido are producing a 00 gauge fireless engine. Do you think that there will be a O gauge fireless engine one day? Ken

Hello everyone I had been looking at factories and gasworks, but not dock yards. I have now found these two photo's: I think that what was used; inset lever or lever protected by bollards depended on where the lever was in relation to the position of the motor traffic and the size of the area. Bristol Harbour side is a tight space where as the image above is a larger space. I will use both. Also I will inset checker plate into the surface for each point. Thank you all for your help. Ken

Hello everyone On a real railway that was in an industrial site the track could be buried in tarmac or concrete so that lorries and forklift trucks could drive across the track. In the steam era how were the points operated? Did they have point levers next to the points? Would the point levers be a trip hazard or get damaged by lorries and forklift trucks? If they used point rodding to a ground frame, how did they run the rodding with the tarmac or concrete in place? Did they have removable point levers? On Chris Nevard's very realistic Brew House Quay layout he has large point levers by the points. I cannot find any photos of old industrial sites showing point levers in tarmac, concrete or cobble stones. Any help would be most appreciated. Ken

This is a great help everyone. Thank you Ken

Hello Ray I think the lever numbering is done in a conventual way. The Distant signal would be the first and last levers in the frame, then the running signals would be next. Home, Advanced starter, Starter and so on. I have put the low numbers starting from the goods yard in the left of the frame. The high numbers starting from the two right hand lines in the right of the frame. I am sorry but there is a mistake in the lever frame plan, of plan two. It should be this, with no 12 volt supply to lever 15: FPL lever 9 locks the points 8. So that interlock works. It is the locking of the signals that is not perfect. The interlocking does not stop me from pulling a signal for the wrong direction. So 7 instead of 12 for a train travelling to the halt. Also I could forget to put a signal lever back after the train has passed. If I put FPL lever 9 back first there would be no supply to points 8 and signals 7 and 12. I would have to work methodically putting the signal levers back, then the points and last the FPL lever. Thank you for your help. Ken

Hello everyone Ray the layout is based on Coombe Junction but it is not the same. Coombe Junction did not have a coal siding. My layout is going to be called Weston Turville Junction. I imagine there is a line from near Wendover station and a line from near Stoke Mandeville station which meet at Weston Turville Junction. The lines were never built. Michael and Jeremy what you have said is correct. Here are two new plans with the revised ideas: I think I will go with the second plan and leave the crossing gates closed to road traffic. If the relay suppling the track failed the track would remain energised. In the second plan lever 14 has been used to make up three levers for the yard. Each lever operates both points together. Lever 1 operates points 1 and 1. You are both right about the interlocking. With lever 9 in the frame you can operate signal 6 or 11. You have to remember to set the signals back to stop before pulling lever 9 which then lets you operate point 8 and signal 7 or 12. This is not ideal. With lever 3 in the frame you can operate ground signal 2 or 5. You would have to put these back before pulling lever 3 to change the points and then pulling lever 1 or 15. The brown supply line to lever 15 should not be there, see below. Here is a picture of the Colbalt levers: I notice in the image above that the levers are numbered 1-3-4-2 is this normal? If it is I could reorder the levers in the frame to give physical interlocking using strip on one or more levers. It would be possible to glue a piece of strip or solder strip to one lever so that the other lever cannot be pulled until the lever with the strip has been pulled. This does not look a very elegant solution. I do not want to go down the route of computer control as I have the analogue levers and point motors. Thank you for your help. Ken

Hello Ray This plan is very much like Coombe Junction. Passenger trains do not pass signal 15. The plan comes from the post "Signals for a single line junction" that I did earlier. In that post I was told that a trap point was not required at point 3 because that point would act as a trap because the point would be set normally to the siding. From signal 15 the line is goods only. With point 3 set to the siding it would protect the passenger train at the halt. In reality the line would be one engine in steam. I am sorry I did not make that clear. This is the complete plan. I would run a push/pull passenger train or rail car to the halt via signal 11 and back out via signal 12. I could also shunt the yard with a goods engine that did not pass signal 1. Thank you for your comments. So can I motorise O gauge level crossing gates? Will the Colbalt signal levers work well this way? I know that a lot of people would not bother, but I would rather be a signal man than a train driver. Thank you all for your help. Ken

Hello everyone Here is the other part of the layout that also uses Dapol signals. Point 3 acts as a trap for passenger trains that pass signal 15. When lever 3 is in the frame ground signals 2 and 5 can be operated. When lever 3 is pulled then goods signals 1 and 15 can be operated. A goods train that has come from the direction of signals 6 and 7 and wants to reverse into the coal siding, would require point lever 3 and signal lever 15 pulled. It would then travel past signal 1 and stop. Signal lever 15 would be put back. Point lever 3 would be put back and ground signal 2 would be pulled allowing the train to reverse into the coal siding. All signals are by Dapol. I think this should work. Has anyone used Colbalt signal box levers in this way? Thank you for your help. Ken

Hello every one I am now building my O gauge layout based on my friends, late husbands layout. I have some Colbalt signal levers and Colbalt analogue point motors. I am going to have a form of signal interlocking using the switches on the levers. The 12volt supply goes to lever 14 which operates the crossing gates. When this lever is in the frame there is a 12volt supply to lever 9 the FPL. When lever 14 is pulled there is no supply to the signals or point in this area. When in the frame lever 9 supplies signals 6 and 11only for route 6. When lever 9 is pulled the 12volt supply is switched to signals 7, 12 and point 8. These can then be used to set route 7. I am not sure if it is possible to operate the crossing gates with servo motors. The crossings that I have found online are Peco LK-750 level crossing gates and Skytrex 7/237 level crossing gates. If it is not easy to motorise the crossing gates I could wire in an LED next to the signal lever frame to indicate that the crossing gates are closed to trains. It might be possible to then shut the gates by hand. The rest of the layout would operate as normal with signals 6 and 7 stopping train movements past those signals. It would be up to the driver (me) to not run past the signals and hit the gates. I could supply the lever frame via a micro switch on hand operated crossing gates, but this would be a part that could fail. What do you think of this interlocking plan? Is it easy to motorise O gauge level crossings? Thank you for your help. Ken

Thank you for telling me that. Regards Ken

Hello everyone Thank you all for your help. This is the plan: I like this plan. It is simple but interesting. The warehouse/goods yard would not need to be so complex. I could build it up as money allowed. June is happy with her layout. And I can make her a signal box diagram now. Thank you again for all your help. Ken

Hello everyone Have I got this correct now? I hope this is correct, please let me know. Thank you for your help. Ken

Hello everyone I have re made the plan inline with your advice. I am not sure where signal 1 should go. Another quick question. Would the warehouse points be operated from a ground frame as below, or by point levers by each point? Thank you for your help. Ken

Hello everyone I like June's railway plan, so I have made a plan that is based on hers. I did not like yard B so I have moved it. I have added a kick back siding to the warehouse area. This is my plan: Please could you tell me if I have got the signalling correct. Thank you for your help. Ken

Thank you Michael I will ask June if that is where she got the name from. Ken

Hello everyone Thank you Chris. Lever 12 would normally be set pulled in the frame, which would set the trap points. Here is a layout plan which shows the shunting of the coal yard: Can an engine take a full coal wagon from Union Mills to line A. Then back into the coal siding and pick up the empty coal wagon. The engine would reverse the wagons over point 12 and leave the empty wagon between point 12 and 10. The engine would back the full coal wagon into the coal yard. Then shunt the empty coal wagon to Union Mills. Does that sound correct? Thank you for your help. Ken

Hello everyone We have a name for the junction, Union Junction, and the warehouses Union Mills. I do not know why. I promised June that I would make a framed signal box diagram for her to put on the wall. Here is the latest plan: The layout is 00 gauge and the signal box is quite small. The idea is to place the signals correctly and produce a signal box diagram that is correct. Passenger trains from line A run into the halt at C. They then run out to line B. Passenger trains from line B run into the halt at C. They then run out to line A. There is a railcar for this. Goods trains run from line A to Union Mills. They also shunt the yard via point 12. Goods trains run from line B to Union Mills. They shunt the Mills then travel to line A. Line A connects to the main line. Line B is a branch terminus. I am not sure if the diagram is correct. Thank you for your help. Ken

Hello everyone I have re drawn the plan: On the layout the crossing gates are made of brass, but I think they are left open for the railway. Lever 22 should be brown. I have put in the lever frame. It looks like the numbering is wrong. There is a big gap between 4 and 14. Do I need to add a lever for each trap point? I like the idea of gluing bent rail to the sleepers to model a trap point. I think I am getting confused as I used Coombe Junction to work out where to put the signals. As far as I know this not Coombe Junction. The layout does not have a name. It looks a bit like it. I should number everything as per the plan and forget about Coombe Junction. Thank you for help. Ken

Hello everyone This is a lot of useful information. I will study what you have said. Thank you for your help. Ken