61656

Early evening sees one of the few through services to Birmingham. There’s a mixed bag during the day and this is the only Intercity diagram, booked for a 47/4 from Holyhead. Just behind it, in one of the few half decent photos I’ve ever managed to take, a 101 trundles through the pointwork of the station throat on an incoming service from Hooton. The operator (if they’re on the ball) will press function 9 here and we’ll hear the wheels squeal as it crosses to the left of the camera into platform 4. Meanwhile at the south end, the 47 has handed over to the booked 86 for the onward working of 1G54 to New Street. Both bays are full of units at this stage in the evening. I think this was an 86/2 turn, but I’m not sure if any of the 86/4s were booked to separate diagrams as so few had entered service by 1986. Showing just how full it is, the 3 car 304 from Oxford Road just squeezes into platform 3 on top of a 108 and a 105, making 8 coaches in total. It just fits, provided the driver is on their game. Next comes another favourite move, 4D07 from Wrexham. Booked for a DPU with a trailing load, although I can find no photographs to show that the trailing load was ever attached. I can find several photos of this very unit around Chester in 86 though. This is one of a very few moves which use the crossover into platform 2 from the west end.

I always like to get a decent running session in at some point during the week if possible. The new sidings mean I need to alter the timetable slightly - the siding allocations not the services, but this is going to mean starting at midnight. It’s currently early evening in the run through and I’m keen to get back to zero hour! There are no end of unit moves. Here we see Oxford Road and Hooton arrivals. The station area is soon to be upgraded - coping stones, weathering, debris and such before the canopies go up. As late as 19.00, units are still coming off shed. A 105, much in need of headcode box treatment, works its way from White Lane to form a Crewe service. Hot on its heels, albeit with identical timings to Crewe, is the evening Llandudno to Stoke service. This is booked to be a 47/4 throughout. One of the consequences of the new sidings for units is the lack of stock in the right place. The working timetable has the Llandudno to Shrewsbury service allocated to a 150, which is in turn allocated to a 108 in my version of reality. Sadly (!), neither is available so a 31 fills in with a short rake of coaches. 19.30 is probably my favourite time in the whole timetable. A pair of 47’s move off the fuelling point and await turns to York and Holyhead. Arriving two minutes early is 1D66, the 17.00 Euston to Holyhead, with extra BG and SLEP for the return sleeper. One of the only Holyhead services booked for 87 haulage. Coming in the other direction is 1E93 to York, booked for a 45/1 throughout. Although a 45/1 is on shed, the local foreman wants to send generator 47, 47402 back to home territory.

Of course. I’ll make the mistakes so you don’t have to!

The cover is removable. However one of the next two jobs on the list is to look at alternatives to rail cleaning. The next two big jobs are station including canopies and overhead line. This means auto couplers and less rail cleaning.

I echo that. The man’s cost me a fortune!

On the subject of fiddle yard exits, here’s a thing that’s been annoying me for a while. The 3 lines to the left exit to White Lane, whilst the right hand 2 go to Chester and beyond. The bright light through the bridge suggest that this is the border with Yorkshire, rather than the ever dismal North Wales coast. It’e quite a complicated shape beyond the bridge, but finally annoyance has outweighed the faff factor. Trains now disappear properly into the gloom.

Some photos of the new fiddle yard sidings (or the Pickle Yard as Mrs 61656 refers to it!). I think this makes 8 roads for Holyhead, 5 for Crewe and 7 for Warrington, plus one through siding between the Holyhead and Warrington yards. 21 sidings is about double what I thought I might need originally. Modelling a real-ish place takes a lot more stock than you realise. Here’s the Crewe and Warrington yards. From back to front, the first 5 roads are the Crewe sidings containing an intercity set, parcels, empty, relief and empty. The next 7 are the Warrington sidings, of which 3,4 and 5 have an exit to Crewe as well. MGR, intercity, speedlink, DMU, DMU, trans pennine and 304. Over in the Holyhead yard we have the two new Helsby/ Hooton sidings, six terminal lines and the furthest right goes off to the Warrington yard. Empty, DMU, trans-pennine, relief, freightliner, tanks, steel, empty and empty. Looking at the Holyhead exit, we also have White Lane carriage sidings. There are two 4 coach sidings, with a third that rejoins the Holyhead yard. The whole yard is currently accessed by a double slip, eventually I’d like that to be a scissors crossover to allow parallel moves.

A little reminder of where Christleton is, as the original map is no longer included on the first page. This is an updated version of a map I've posted previously when I put the timetable together, but I've added the ultimate destinations of the lines, rather than the timetable reference. Principle services are: Loco Hauled passenger: Euston to Holyhead Intercity North Wales coast to North East trans Pennine Holyhead to Cardiff Stoke to Llandudno EMU: Christleton to Manchester Piccadilly / Oxford Road Christleton to Crewe DMU: Christleton to Hooton (Hooton was the limit of Merseyrail DC services) Christleton to Helbsy via Hooton Christleton to Wolverhampton Christleton to Manchester Vic Freight: Speedlink feeder North Wales coast to Severn Tunnel Junction Speedlink feeder North Wales coast to Arpley (Warrngton) Ballast Penmaenmawr to various North West yards Freightliner Holyhead to Trafford Park, Willesden, Saltley and Crewe Steel Mossend to Dee Marsh MGR Fiddlers Ferry to Point of Ayr Tanks Stanlow to the North East Flasks North Wales to Sellafield

When I came up with concept for the layout I’d never heard of Hooton or Helsby. I thought I’d just run loco hauled passenger trains with the odd freight and DMU. Then the timetable happened. Choosing a location even just slightly based on reality opens up a world of options you would never otherwise know about. With regular services to Hooton and Helsby, I need to add a couple more storage sidings so that they can have dedicated units allocated to them. Luckily the 300 year old window design accounted for the possibility of two additional 2 car unit sidings. The furthest existing road to the left has a 7 coach TP set in it, showing there’s plenty of room for points. The same problem exists in the Warrington sidings, so an extra bit of baseboard has been added for the Manchester EMU service to Piccadilly / Oxford Road. The peak heads up another 7 car TP set. With the fiddle yard work in progress, various bits of stock have ended up on the layout, so I took photos of those too. Not many of the fleet have been weathered, so here’s a lucky line up. The four foot needs a lot more oil in it! I would never have described myself as a 47 man, yet here we are.

A very improbable one too. I only realised recently that the MTA ballast wagons are a 2000’s build on TTA chassis. So they’re 14 years too new, as well as being air only. I think the 101s are vac only, so they could only take them loose, which is probably frowned upon!

Christleton Junction was always a place of mundane business. The every day railway just plodding on in blue and grey. And occasionally, just blue. Powering the empty steel wagons from Dee Marsh, a pair of 20’s near the end of their leg of the journey. 6S50 will be picked up by electric traction from here. The steel train arrives mid afternoon. The local spotters are in for the usual treat as an array of motive power gets ready for the rush hour. The steel flats are in the through road awaiting new traction. In the bay platforms a 105 is on the Wolverhampton service whilst a 108 covers the Hooton shuttle. Over on shed a pair of 45’s tick over to pick up trans-pennine workings, although the spotters have also noted a 47/4 looks ready to move too. A 31 is being readied to sort parcels stock, and on the far right units both electric and diesel build air pressure for the evening commuters. You have to be careful focusing on the ‘quad’ so as not to miss one of the daily highlights. 33045 brings in a vacuum braked set of mk1’s on the 1V09 from Holyhead to Crewe. Due to operator’s fancy it’s done a double lap through the fiddle yard and is unusually racing through on the Warrington lines. Frivolity over with, an 85 picks up the weight of the empty steels towards Mossend. It will be joined at Warrington by another 85 to lift the weight over the northern hills. With the Mossend steel train’s tail light still in sight, 2G66 rolls out of platform 3 towards Chester, Shrewsbury and eventually Wolverhampton. All this needs storage… from back to front: The furthest 5 roads are the ‘Crewe’ sidings: Out of sight is an intercity rake Mark 1’s form a relief set On road 3 is a parcels rake The freightliner set 33 on the semi fast mark 1’s Then come the ‘Warringtons’: HAA MGR rake TTA tank rake 85 on steel Another intercity rake 101 Dmu and the civil engineers wagons One of the trans-pennine rakes Back stage is not for the feint hearted!

There are a very small number of timetabled moves which don’t match a service in the actual Working Time Table from 1986. These are used to balance the fiddle yards; although the Warrington sidings are ‘through sidings’ with links to all 3 layout entrances, they still can’t quite balance all the real moves. Hence we have a mid afternoon 4A22 (completely made up) Trafford Park to Willesden freightliner service, booked for and hauled by a 45/0 on this occasion. It’s the only ‘liner which uses the Warrington lines and this the only one where you get to appreciate it properly on the arches. A 3 car 108 is sat on the fuel road. Although I like the centre car, I may reduce it back down to 2 coaches as the additional length just highlights the shortened dimensions of the layout.

Frustrated by the 08’s performance I researched buying a replacement, but even a used one is north of £100, so I decided to strip mine down and have another look. The Hornby 08 is a fairly horrific strip down at the best of times, but mine is even worse as I’ve added additional pick ups to replace Hornby’s miserable effort. (I think all my Hornby locos have had poor pick ups - 08, 31 and 87.) With the loco apart I had a good look at the quartering and discovered that the centre wheel set was slightly out of alignment. I also found the drive axle gear was slightly out of position, leading to an occasional lump in the drive (the non circular rotation of the out of alignment centre axle forces the coupling rod to twist the wheel, the misaligned gears then loose contact and slips, I think). With both of these issues improved, the loco seems to be running much better. It can run reliably at much lower speeds than before. I suspect the quartering is still very slightly out. I need to work out some kind of jig to get all the wheels perfectly 90degrees. Doing it by eye is never going to get them perfect. With running much improved, the loco returned to full availability on shed. It stands next to fellow shunter 03162, which also needs a little bit of work on the pick ups (mainly the match truck pick ups which add too much friction and don’t always provide good contact). I have a pack of various pick up types to try to improve it with.

That’s pretty much where I am, so nice to hear it echoed back before I said it! I’ll probably fit the end hoses and pantograph (delivery of which I need to chase). I’ll also tidy the paintwork up on the roof and buffers.

It’s been a while since I got any time with the railway; holidays, house restoration and some good weather have all got in the way. The 304 project has been dominating my modelling time recently, and I’m at something of an impasse with the front ends. I’ve temporarily reassembled the unit to enjoy running it for a bit, whilst I consider what to do. Here it sits on the blocks, having come in from Oxford Road. It runs nicely so will probably stay in this state for a while. Having not operated anything for nearly a month, it took a while to clean the tracks and wheels. I really want to get away from abrasive cleaning, so that may be one of the next jobs. With services resumed, it’s 15.30 and a Penmaenmawr bound ballast train passes a mid afternoon Speedlink from Llandudno Junction to Severn Tunnel Junction. This is one the occasions when I regret not being able to fit two through lines in! With the speedlink in the middle road, the yard pilot spots a couple of vans into the brewery. This 08 is a shocking runner, I think there’s possibly a chassis fault leading the centre axle to wobble excessively. I thought it may be the quartering, but even changing the wheel sets hasn’t worked. I’d like to sort it and add a couple of trip freights to the timetable. Daytime shunting is very limited at the moment.

I'm very much a pantograph touching wires kind of person. I understand this may knock decades off my life expectancy. I'm also prepared to eternally regret putting them up before I finish anything else. With a fairly big solo layout like this, you have to prioritise or you'll just become despondent at the lack of progress. I'm also much more interested in something I can operate well, rather than something that looks perfect.

Early drafts for Christleton were mechanical. Then I saw the Bachmann 85 and the wires became part of the back story. A lot of yards and depots stayed mechanical when wired (indeed all 3 Pendolino depots were still mechanical when they were new), but any station of note was resignalled. I like the idea of a proper 70's power box. The building itself will be the same as Saltley / Trent / Warrington. In an ideal world it will be Westpac, but I suspect I'd need another room. The Colonel, head of ideas that he doesn't have to implement, has suggested a separate control and indication panel, which would be very pleasing. It will go nicely alongside my Solari split flap board (if you don't know Google is your friend, but you will lose an hour of your life).

I hadn't realised that was you. It was already book marked!

I have big plans for both. The station canopies need to go in first, which also means I need to do the kadee-isation, as auto coupling will be needed. There's also some minor fiddle yard additions so that I can have dedicated sidings for the 304, Hooton and Helsby services, as well as a longer siding for the MGR. I'm starting research on the signalling side, torn between using a proprietary system like mega points, using software (CBI) or doing a proper NX panel with basic relay interlocking. I favour the latter, but it usually takes 20 people 2 years to do a big resignalling, and I only have 2 hours every Wednesday!

The walls are lower down my list. There's a lot of details to go on yet, so I don't want to get side tracked. The absence of wires and signals bothers me more!

Definitely echo that approach. My intention is to get the layout and stock all completed to a basic standard and then go back and detail everything. The 304 is a little indulgence to break up layout building. Station, catenary and signalling are next.

I can’t decide if that’s inspiring or depressing! I knew the 304 kit from DC kits wasn’t available when I embarked on the Shapeways cabs, and I didn’t know they did just the cabs. There’s something not quite right about the DC kits version too, so it’s all a question of compromise. Now I’m this far down the road I’m not going to change horses, but maybe the next EMU build…

Right, let’s start with a massive thank you to those of you that have commented and offered advice and suggestions. The 304 project was in danger of stumbling at the final hurdle. After quite a bit of thought I reassembled it ‘as is’, but with most of the snags fixed, aside from the cab and yellow front end. This coincided with a visit from the Colonel, long term external consultant to Christleton enterprises. His advice is excellent, although he’s got quite a thirst for the local ale! The 304 slotted neatly into the timetable and ran really well on the Piccadilly / Oxford Road turns. The rewired motor runs a lot smoother, it benefited from both the inclusion of Bachmann electronics and from setting CV54 to zero (we can talk more about this if you have stuttering motors on DCC). When it’s just running about as part of the fleet you notice its imperfections a lot less. Here’s a few photos of it in service. I will do a video for those that like a tick and a ding (and a toilet flush… no idea why). If you’re of a cruel nature you can zoom in and see the front ends could stand a lot of improvement, but from a distance it’s a very pleasing representation of a 304. If you look closely you will see the cabs are glazed. The existing too large apertures have had 1mm perspex filed to fit. The thicker perspex is much better than the first attempt. The revised plan is to do a pragmatic amount of work to get them looking better, without it dragging into a lifetime’s work. The glazing is now removed and having the edges painted matt black, likewise the window apertures. I have smeared a thin later of Plasto over the cab fronts which I will sand smooth, hopefully this will reduce some of the roughness of the 3D printing. The can windows will then be refitted and I intend to mask them slightly smaller, to try to get the size and shape better. I have some 8mm masking tape which should do the job. I will then paint them flat white, with at least two coats to get an even finish. I’ll do any filling around the windows to give a smooth look. Then it will be as many coats of Railmatch yellow as needed. It’s going to take a little time, but hopefully will get an improved appearance without reprofiling the cab shape entirely.

D11-15 had doors, D16-30 had split boxes without doors. You can still tell on the split beams as their lights are closer together.

I always assumed that all split boxes had doors, I was quite surprised to find most of them didn’t. Of course they were all sealed beam by my period.