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There is much inner turmoil as I balance my love of accuracy with my detest of 142s and 150s. But they were definitely part of the scene and they should be there. A 120 first though…

1D03 arrives at 03.49 with the vans from Holyhead, booked for a class 47 and up to 280 tonnes of vacuum braked coaches, today a relatively light load of 4 GUVs behind a toffee apple 31. Meanwhile on shed there’s some activity around the 08 getting it ready to shunt the speedlink arrival just after 5am. One of the 25s receives a visual exam as it will take the speedlink onwards to the coast.

This somewhat depressing view from Flickr shows both 142 and 150 at Chester in early 1986. At this stage the 142s were all sheded at Newton Heath and the 150s at Derby Etches Park, but it looks like they still started to make inroads into traditional DMU territory right from the outset. Luckily Christleton suffers no such afflictions!

After an excellent running session midweek, with 2 hours needed to progress from midnight to 03.30, time once again to progress with the fiddle yards. The Holyhead yard is now complete bar a spur for White Lane siding #3. There’s no rush as I won’t run out of DMU storage anytime soon. I think I’ve got all the sidings down in the Crewe and Warrington yards. Here we see the current and hopefully final layout. The 5 roads to the left are the Crewe yard, sidings C1 to C5. C1-3 hold six coaches plus loco, C4&5 hold five plus loco. The right hand six are W1 to W6, the Warrington sidings. They can all hold a loco plus six coaches (W5&6 to the extreme right can hold a little more). W1 should have been a through road, but the geometry at the far end just won’t allow it. W2-4 are all through roads, allowing access to the Crewe end. W3 is the tightest curve on the layout at about 450mm radius. I think the timetable will be able to accommodate this. I have one further alteration to make on the lifting section, as currently lines W1&2 can’t access the Up Warrington, which the timetable requires them to do. W1 will be pretty much exclusively for the MGR - there’s a 47 and 12 tanks in there in the photo for length testing (I’m hoping an HAA is the same length as a TTA). Not long until it’s back to scenery!

Well the 101 centre car is a possibility! A 120 is another unit on the list of things I’d like to have a go at. I am determined to progress further with the scenery before I get distracted with rolling stock though!

That aligns with where my work with the WTT has got to so far. I’ve transferred all mid week freight workings into excel, but not got beyond about 11am in the passenger and parcels. So far I haven’t had an obvious turn from a 127, but late evening is probably most likely. I also have 3 supplements to work through, which make a few changes - a D585 (loco hauled up to 585 tonnes for a 47 - say 17 or 18 BGs worth) becomes a DPU! Once I’ve finalised the transfer of all services I’ll update it to the supplements. Then I need to consider the changes to services that Christleton offers. Obviously there are many services which now run round, but there is also the possibility of unit services to Manchester being an EMU. I haven’t worked out which is more likely yet, Piccadilly via Altrincham or Victoria via Newton-le-Willows. There’s also the option of diagramming some inter-regional services, such as Bristol - Edinburgh via Christleton. One genuine DMU question is the 1D30 weekday Nottingham to Llandudno. This is booked as a DMU(A), so presumably a 150. What would it have been before a sprinter? I’m guessing a faster DMU like a 120, rather than a 25 on mk1s…

A little video interlude… green class 40 40122 passing through platform 2 with empties for Penmaenmawr. A pair of 29s have just run around an oil train about to head East via Warrington, whilst a class 101 has just arrived from Helsby in platform 3.

A few pictures from tonight’s running session. Having the back scene around the whole of the layout makes a much bigger difference than I expected. A pair of 20’s get a heavy oil train moving towards Warrington, obscured by a bog cart. The local service from Helsby is creeping in - the driver knows the signal won’t clear until the tanks are clear of the junction. With the current dearth of DMU’s, a loco plus coaches is an inevitable substitution. A borrowed class 31 takes a couple of mk2s to Manchester Oxford Road. The local enthusiasts have opted for the 31, having seen the 47 waiting for the next train to the coast. Having arrived from the north east, a large logo 47 pauses for a well earned diesel top up.

In other news, there is sky. At the moment the sky prints are loosely held in place whilst I build up to be brave enough to peel back the adhesive protector.

Trust me, it would be an even bigger surprise at Christleton!

The flask trains have their own entries. Tuesdays from Sellafield to Llandudno Jct and return on Wednesdays. There are many pictures from the period of flasks in regular speedlink services, presumably when demand was above the once a week dedicated service?

So, some freight trains that I need help with consists and likely motive power (they will probably all be tanks or ballast, but we can at least try!). 6E36 Bromboro to Purfleet 6F34 Ellesmere Port to Bardon Hill Also, likely wagons / loads to be included in speedlink services: Ellesmere Port to Severn Tunnel Junction Llandudno Junction to Walton Old Junction (Warrington Arpley, so assume usual North Wales Coast consists) Dee Marsh to Walton Old Junction Thanks for any help. Some DMU questions coming soon…

Can’t disagree with any of that! 9D01 is a complete mystery as it doesn’t seem to have any move before hand to set it up - it’s a Tuesdays only so maybe it could be cripples? It starts from Llandudno Junction, as opposed to the TC ( terminal complex) or HS (holding sidings?). It calls at Chester for nearly 2 hours, then on to Crewe. I can’t find a light engine path either, although it could be the loco off the earlier speedlink. The Crewe test train has a path everyday that goes Crewe - Llandudno - Chester South - Llandudno - Crewe, also allocated to RM&EE, but unrelated as far as I can tell.

One of those evenings where much is planned, but in the end there was mainly just a lot of running trains! I did manage to get the White Lane sidings laid to their full length, so I can fit 4 coaches or 2 x 2car DMUs in each siding. I need one more peco point to allow another 2 car storage siding in the fiddle yard. If I can squeeze a 3 car in there then the world will be a happy place. Here’s a 25 collecting a pair of coaches from no.1 siding. The various holes in the baseboard should allow some roads and a canal to go under the railway. I could possibly get a 2 and 3 car on no. 2 siding if I curve it a little more. Back in the station it’s a 25 fest, with an early variant pulling in on a speedlink from Severn Tunnel junction yard - a new find from the working timetable. And it’s good to be running peaks again, which were the whole point of the layout originally - before I got distracted with what actually ran in 1986! Here we see a no heat peak on a summer relief service. It will hand over to some early AC traction for the journey to the Midlands. The timetable development continues apace too - although it’s staggeringly complicated. I’ve worked through from midnight to around 8am, with loco, stock and track allocations all sorted. From here I’ve worked out it will be simplest to copy every service from the WTT into excel and then do the stock and track allocations. Several services will need juggling to allow them to fit - MGRs both passing and reversing simultaneously is just never going to work with just one freight road for example. I’ve found plenty more interesting stuff too, including that the Trafford Park liner works back via Warrington, having gone out via Crewe. There’s a bit more speedlink than I thought (I was expecting just one each way), plus several “company” trains to work out. I’ll share the destinations and origins and I’m sure someone will know. There’s around 40 different freight moves over a 24 hour period - quite a lot of movements given most of them either reverse or change traction, or both. There’s also 9D01, a one way path as far as I can see, from Llandudno Jct to Derby, for an RM&EE service. It doesn’t look to be the Crewe test train as that has a class 1 path in the passenger WTT (with return timings for both 47 and 20 haulage). I think this may be the opportunity to buy an inspection saloon and a class 46 in red & blue!

What a great view. Some real inspiration for my Warrington lines exit scene. Look at the ballast colour too - did BR know nothing about airbrushing a consistent colour?

I’d not heard of the pub - but it looks like a potential model and would fit nicely with my idea to somehow incorporate the canal into the west end of the layout. Of course, you can’t model a pub without a site visit…

It is a real place… amazing more people haven’t modelled it really!

I keep meaning to draw the wider area out properly. Every now and then I refer to my Quail maps (Railway Track Maps); they are from circa 2010, so shouldn’t be too far out, but the routes are hard to follow being split across so many pages. I’m not sure if I cut the maps out if they’ll align correctly.

The Trafford Park liner is booked through to Crewe in the WTT.

There’s a couple of against the flow freightliners in the timetable, but otherwise it looks like 4 inland in the morning and 4 back to the coast in the evening. I can’t recall if any need to reverse at Christleton, but one or two will certainly change traction - which helps with a similar but not as pronounced offset of passenger movements.

Not much to report, but the fleet of 250ml paint tins are out on a typical Saturday night possession of the Down Warringtons gluing the (now 1mm) super elevated track in place. A shortage of 250s has resulted in the big boys coming out too. The new Holyhead yard alignment is shown with a full compliment of stock ready to go. You really have to like Sulzers for North Wales in 86. The Crewe yard is similarly busy, and only one Sulzer… There’s some space to the left of the Crewe sidings where I still need to lay the remaining Warrington sidings. I have some surplus stock and track to sell on a well known internet auction site with which I hope the purchase of the 5 points and 6 yards of track will be cost neutral. Meanwhile there’s been a little test of the electric stabling siding capacity. There are occasions when the timetable means that stabling 3 electric locos would be really handy. It appears that such a possibility exists, although it does mean the third loco will stable on the hand points. Not the end of the world. An 86 in stripey colours would fit nicely.

Given the price of 117s, and the fact that I can really only accommodate 2 car units, I’ll probably be happy with 108s. At some point in the future when I’m further on with the layout, I do fancy bashing some units, so a 116 and 127 from old Lima 117s are possible targets.

I’m doing midweek - possibly a Friday to justify one or two additional trains, but I think you’re right about Saturdays. Not only do they need more trains and passengers, I won’t ever be able to store them all. Plus, I do really like the mundane every day world, not the one offs. Going through the working timetable really does open your eyes to what actually happened, rather than what you think happened. It’s much better than the photographic record, because a lot of stuff simply wasn’t recorded - people had preferences such as locos over units, but also day over night. I doubt I’ll ever find a photo of the 3am DPU! The timetable also adds trains you didn’t know about. Just last night I realised there was a Holyhead to Euston sleeper (but no return, the sleeper coach came up on the 17.05 from Euston). This gives me a potential issue as I’d really like to include it, but I’m not sure if a mk3 will fit through the platforms. As I’m not really happy with the platforms (they need some adjustments for clearance- one or two places are too tight, plus the tops aren’t thick enough), a cheap Lima mk3 could be an interesting decision maker! Meanwhile I’m also considering units. Some further research shows 117s are basically hen’s teeth, so can be ignored. A 104 is a definite, plus probably another 108. I don’t really like the look of the Bachmann 101 so the jury is currently out on that one. A 120 seems like a remote possibility - probably in the same category of my long wanted 304! I really wanted a model railway with 45s on PV mk2s, but modelling a “realish” location makes it so much more than that.

I think both could be seen at Chester in 86. The 104s were regulars, but the 117s probably only on excursions.

3 out of 5 ain’t bad.