DCB

The loco overhangs the table in many cases. I turn a Duchess on a shortened Dapol turntable around 10 inches long. 65 foot tables were common, 70's restricted to the largest depots. Finding a turntable which moves smoothly is likely to be a challenge. A lot move at set speed and jerk to a halt. Watching the prototype they start slowly pick up speed to quite a lot faster than most model,s and then slow gradually. Two or three attempts usually being necessary to line them up. The big 75 ft tables take up an awful lot of space and if used for engine shed access make getting locos from the back of the shed more trouble than it is worth. I have a scale 75 ft table which is awaiting shortening and a 12" one hand turned in the hidden sidings which has to be long enough to leave a bit of fiddle room as you can't see it clearly. If you want to save space with a turntable you can save length only at the expense of width. I would check you have sufficient width. If you do go RTR Dapol Girders on a Heljan Table would be worth considering.

I would go for something basically Set Track except the terminus station and the sidings which should be Peco Streamline to keep the width to a minimum . CJ Freezer did some brilliant ones but rather than plagiarise one of his I suggest Terminus, Continuous Run and return loop which will need a bit of thought to wire up. Couple of hidden sidings. See Pic . Just turn a blind eye to the train appearing from the back of the goods yard when using te reversing loop and it should give some some realistic operating potential and could be mad to look half decent. Edit. Is the size now 8 X 5 with an operating well?

To get your service frequency in a fictional small terminus I would suggest it has to be somewhere more than one line terminates, a small Town maybe 30 000 population where more than one pre 1923 (or 1948) company had lines and where the tracks were rationalised and one of the stations closed, leaving the other to serve two lines. That way you could have one breed of York based DMU on service A to Yorkd and a different breed of Newcastle based DMUs on service B to Newcastle. To bring it into the 2000s you could have DMUs on the Newcastle service and Heritage Steam and Heritage Diesel on the York service one now truncated to Pickering... (Thinking Pickering here) Those NSW service frequencies are very suburban by UK standards, I think you are looking at 8 coach formations on double track for the UK, and these will be HST or Electrified. The 1960's era DMUs are fun to watch and easy to create compared to 2010 era but they ran empty and infrequently on run down tracks with huge over capacity while in 2017 we have impossible colour schemes and services running on pared down infrastructure which absolutely maximise track capacity. If you do build a terminus you need either a portacabin or Bus shelter for 1970s on or a full largely derelict North Eastern Railway terminus from the 1860s which last had a lick of paint in the 1930s and lots of disused track and semaphore signals with lots or arm less out of use signals. Just thinking of it makes me depressed.. Its why I model pre 1963 or post 1985....

Are you sure this in the North East? The frequency sounds more like the London Underground. Try train A arrives at 7.50 and departs at 8.00. Train B arrives at 8.50 and departs at 9.00, Train C arrives at 9.50 and departs at 10.00, Train A arrives at 10.50 etc Bit like Barnstaple

Looks to me like Gordon had one of the big full width "Fowler" Tenders like Royal Scot took to the USA and which ran with the first two Princesses nos 6200 and 6201. Higher and wider than the Hornby 3F Tender....

DavidCBroad, on 30 Dec 2017 - 04:49, said: Colour light signal spacing is usually by distance unlike Semaphore which was usually by station or within a mile or so of a signalbox so signals seldom line up with anything like station platforms any more and splitting junction signals are usually so far back from the fouling point of the junction that they would be at the far end of the Hall in 00 at the average exhibition. Equally bizarrely at some congested places stop signals are beyond the fouling point so they can be hung from a nice gantry.

You need to decide which era you are working in. The earliest colour light signals simply replaced semaphore signals on a 1 for 1 basis, these did not have feathers and were often yellow/ green Distants and red/green Homes/ Starters etc. These would be normally kept at Red or Yellow except when a train was coming. Later systems in BR Diesel days were robotic and each signal generally had red/green/yellow lamps and were green until a train passed going Red then yellow (or yellow- yellow/yellow) finally green in sequence as the train passed further signals. Your track while unusual for the UK could well run the later type signals, just dot them around randomly as BR does, Junction signals would be in the next room if not three doors down the road at scale spacings so forget them and set up an automatic system based on Irdot or some such to change the signals from green to red when a train passes and then to yellow and back to green. Simple but expensive. I abandoned my system when I realised it was going to cost more than my car. My present system has change over microswitches for each (of a few token) two aspect signals and I just press the switch extension lever as the train approaches to turn it green and let go to return to red.

The Track plan is not really based on Badminton, there are two trailing crossovers between the upper platform line and the main on the Badminton track plan which are missing as is the Goods shed road. The facing crossover is entirely wrong but several trailing crossovers are missing. The Signal Box diagram shows 3 single slips in the ladder not just two so lord knows why someone suggested they should be diamonds. The suggested trap points are not on the prototype either. I think this is due to the interlocking not allowing the conflicting moves involving the passenger lines which I believe would have used the first crossover beyond the platform the remainder being Goods lines, the trap being at the end of the (Up?) upper loop weirdly represented as a Headshunt in the model plan. Check out the prototype and try to understand it. The bay is for loading and unloading Horse Boxes and Carriage Trucks and I would bet a Horse was employed for shunting this bay. The Goods shed on a loop is a sensible GWR feature. you can access it from either direction. The Bay is unsuitable for passenger traffic, why would you want one? Little Somerford just down the line was the Malmesbury branch junction and had just two platforms like Badminton off loops and no branch platform or Bay. The Branch train had to stand clear of the platform when main line passenger trains arrived. I think Both Badminton and Little Somerford had 100 wagon loops. Look at the Prototype plan again and try to understand it What moves were possible and which were made. Main line freights would be looped to allow runners past and the same road used for stoppers. There just were not enough trains for this to be a problem. Little Somerford would suit your premise better, it has facing crossovers in the Malmesbury branch ladder The GWR did not waste money and certainly the Signal Box diagram does not show any of the myriad catch and Trap points some people think should be provided. They are to protect Passenger Lines as are facing point locks. Biggest issue will be scale speeds, well into the 90s for up trains like the Bristolian but no Down service, it went via Bath instead. Several Up trains slipped at Didcot while Down trains slipped at Bath so several London to Weston Down trains went via Bath and Up trains via Badminton. (Hardly anything GWR started at Bristol in Steam Days)

I am amazed the wheels have worn out. I re bogied a Lima ex LMS GUV with Hornby Dublo bogies as the original derailed every time I stopped a train a bit too quickly but I kept the Lima wheels. I used a couple of big washers to get the height right with a brass sleeve with a flange to keep it from lifting up through the bogie as a pivot and a bolt through with a light spring to allow some movement but damp out the wobbles. I have used Evostick Pipe Weld to stick bits on to Lima bogies in the past but doubt whether it would survive in a stressed environment like a bogie pivot

I too use pen and paper but there is something wring with your drawing, The points are Peco 3ft radius length (19mm) in 1 : 12 1" to 1 ft scale but set track width assuming you are drawing the track centre line. Your plan is near as anything 6" X 2" on my monitor which makes 2mm to the inch (2.1?) so 4mm track centres rather than 7mm for Streamline or 16mm long points for Set track. The main line could usefully go right to the end of the baseboard instead of the platform at the buffers, most country stations I know of the track just ended beyond the platform with a simple buffer stop. The goods shed road needs spacing away from the bay, in fact it might be easier to have the Goods shed on the Bay line or the Goods shed where the engine shed is and the Engine shed on the kick back at the bottom which otherwise would be a nightmare to shunt. Operationally how does the Industrial loco run round its wagons. Its an awkward one. I ended up with 2 X 3 way points and three parallel roads to allow my colliery loco to exchange wagons on my old bedroom layout. its not easy I might do a doodle later.

Wheels running out of round are quite normal to me, its just a case of swapping them round so the best ones are at the ends and making sure the middle ones have the axle holes offset upwards so they don't lever the chassis upwards as they turn. Even my lathe chuck runs out about 1/2 millimeter so I can't even use than to make sure they don't wobble It seems to me that since acquiring the Romford business Markits are concentrating on bespoke wheels for specific locos rather than Generic wheels like the Romfords used to do. Compared to 20XX Hornby and even 1960s Hornby Dublo the appearance of Romfords are pretty dire. The Markits wheels are quite an improvement on the Romfords, They are blackened which is brilliant as black paint does not stay put on oily silver wheels for long. Markits also produce a larger axle 3/16" I believe instead of the Romford 1/8" which means the larger wheels 22mm and up stay put and don't work loose, I think they are for rewheeling old Triang chassis from the 1960s but they work great on scratch built chassis. ! 1970s Hornby crankpins screw into Markits wheels and make converting 1970s Hornby locos an absolute doddle compared to the battles I had fitting Romfords 40 years ago. The old Romfords did not have the crankpin holes drilled and tapped until about the mid 1970s and i managed to get 1 in 4 approx drilled and tapped accurately, yet some dealers are still selling these as "New" ! If there is a real shortage of Romfords I shall have to put my spare ones on Ebay.

Looks good but I think the 2/3 platform needs to be longer to match no 1 and moving the point to the right and using a left hand instead of a right hand or even shifting it to the other side of the crossover around the red line. This would lengthen the arrival siding which acts as a head shunt for the short sidings. The spur might have survived as a CE siding especially if lengthened as it has an end loading capability. Signalling should be semaphore as the track layout has not been rationalised, lets face it there would be one track and one platform face like Barnstaple if it had. I would warp history so Grimley Ninories Lane was the terminus of the GN branch and when the Land Y line from Bogthorpe junction to Abbotoire Rd Terminus was closed the L & Y line traffic was diverted to the ex GN Ninories terminus. That way you could have several breeds of clapped out DMUs in various liveries trundling around, and services departing and arriving in pairs, 8.00 am GN and 8.05 L&Y route or else it would be one an hour at best. It would be good in DCC as you could have working smoke units as well as rattling sounds from clapped out engines. Real nostalgia.

It's a cheap butane gas blow lamp. I wear goggles and I do it outside so as not to set fire to the shed.Old Lead water pipe is good, melts beautifully. I use car wheel balance weights because I have a lot which came with my wheel balancer but to be honest I find tyres seldom need to be balanced. If you fit new tyres and don't balance them but drive carefully for 50 miles or so the tyres settle down and seldom need balancing. All Trick -Fit and the rest are doing is balancing out inequalities where the tyre isn't quite fitted properly Most of their profit is in the valve and balance they really hate it when you don't have the valve and balance. If the wheel is significantly out of balance the wheel is probably distorted and probably needs replacing, though I did find a tyre lever in a tyre on one occasion

Sounds a bit drastic to change the motor. I believe the 02 is a bit weird in that it has gear drive to both coupled axles and fairly sloppy coupling rods designed to be cosmetic rather than functional. I think they look awful. The fault sounds to me like a misshaped gear tooth or split gear or quartering trouble rather than anything wrong with the motor. If it is quartering then you really are stuffed. Split axles etc, I doubt anyone has spare wheels or axles. Generally a gutless torque free motor will give a chassis a much longer service life than a decent powerful one which is an important consideration with plastic gears product liability etc

I watched the video, the guy has a 10 amp variable voltage power supply hooked up to a modified Hornby controller (minus its overload protection) and with upgraded wires and transistor and he suggests using a car battery charger to power the controller. That is enough power to set 1 amp wire on fire and make fishplates glow red, I have had fishplates red on 12 volt 2 amp, so I would recommend you use some form of overload protection before you set something on fire. There is nothing much wrong with the controller upgrade, though its probably not as good as my much simpler diode multiplier 11 step controller, but it does need a decent power supply with a realistic overload cut out or you will get trouble.

I find the Peco medium 3ft radius code 100 are a good compromise between looks, operation and space saving, 7 coach trains will reverse over them whereas the small 2ft are a bit touchy with 7 and the long points take a lot of space so logically the code 75 should be equally good. However if you have only 6ft length you are going to have to save every possible millimeter. I would use 2ft for the run round and a medium 3ft for the approach from the fiddle yard, better still a 3 way to save some more space The run round needs to be as long as you can squeeze in on such a small layout and indeed they are generally very long on prototype stations.. Narrowing the gap between tracks, the 6ft also saves length, I come down to 44mm ish whereas the standard is 50 mm I think and it saves half an inch length here and there which can make all the difference. If you are only using Tank engines then trimming the length beyond the loco release crossover or run round points to Tank Engine length id probably worthwhile. The GWR Faringdon terminus had this feature and when 2-6-0 locos turned up they had to resort to rope shunting to run round as there was not enough room to operate the crossover points. I operate a Branch Terminus sometimes, It will just take 4 coach trains in the run round loop, an 0-6-0 tender loco just squeezes past the release crossover and trains are generally 2 coaches, however goods are usually 17 wagons or more which is great fun as the trains are too long to run round and the resulting shunts to sort things out make shunting planks look like something the average Tabby Cat could sort out

Diverging slightly off topic This is what I have been using connector strips for for well over 20 years. Route setting. This one is for a 6 road storage siding module. 1 amp Diodes are strung between the connector blocks direct the DC current from the 6 road selector switches to various combinations of the 10 point motor solenoids. Up to 4 diodes are clamped under each connector screw and the 6 wires from the switch are 10 amp car wiring loom wires clamped into the 3 amp connectors. Max amperage has to be around 5 amps supplied by a 22 000 uf Capacitor strung across the 12 volt DC H&M transformer output, however 1 amp diodes have been working for 20 plus years. I had issues with a sticking motor mis diagnosed as a failed diode which led to the whole module being hauled out and repaired Christmas day afternoon and this evening. I know its ugly, the strips are too close but 30 years ago diodes were more expensive and recovered ones came with shorter leads. Starting from scratch I would space them further apart. Connector strips are cheap. Diodes were about £ 2.99 for 100 from Ebay The UK supplier delivered in 3 days, and although this one has a 6 position rotary switch with a push button to energise my others have electric pencil, or a dead Bic biro with a wire down it and just ordinary screws in plywood with wires soldered on. I changed the capacitor for a new one (from Hardings in Cheltenham High Street) 22 000 uf for £2.50ts.

Its the horrible grunting noises trains running on ballasted track makes on Sundela which is annoying. I made the mistake of glueing ballast to a section of track on Sundela and didn't repeat the experiment. However the sound of a train banging over a wide rail joint on a resonant surface is very satisfying especially at scale speed, not the 2mph beloved of some exhibition operators.

Its because they slow down to see if there is a train coming, many of us are aware of crossing light failures where the barriers stay up and the lights don't flash and a train comes barrelling through, hence we slow down and with humps and dips that makes the engine stalling (UK) much more likely. US parlance stalling is the engine stopping, stalling as in abrupt clutch action is pretty rare as historically most US trucks and automobiles have automatic transmissions. In Cheltenham the level crossing barriers come down as the train approaches the station, stay down while people bumble about aimlessly, stay down while the driver has an extra Yorkie bar after the doors are closed and eventually rolls casually across the crossing after wasting 5 minutes or more of peoples time. No wonder busy people dodge round the barriers. I park up and try to get a photo.

The layout looks pretty good for an exhibition layout viewed from outside but it is going to be somewhat tedious to view from inside as planned. I don't think you have any really good viewing points except near the quasi Minories platform ends. My spare bedroom layout of which my son's arrival caused the demise, had a slightly offset door and my favourite operating position was in the doorway outside the curve looking in.

A tender drive chassis wouldn't be much use for a G16. A Hornby loco drive 8F chassis, with King Arthur cylinders and valve gear should work for a bit until Mazak rot kills it..

The idea sounds good but I would use a motor rather than a solenoid. I have pictures of a 12 volt motor with a 13 amp plug earth pin clamped to the armature shaft operating a signal somewhere on this forum. The motor only turns 180 degrees but if operating a bell, if the bell was struck just before the top of the stroke then gravity would return the striker unlike a point solenoid which would usually need a pulse to return it. I was working on something similar but lets face it it could drive the neighbours totally nuts with call attention and the rest tinkling across a quiet afternoon. Mine was going to use Clock Bells of various tones from long dead clocks but push bike bells could be a god substitute.

The lubricant needs to be electrically conductive or there will be arcing or poor contact between stub axles and chassis. The arcing will heat and soften the axles which will loosen the wheels and lead to scoring and plating loss on the stub axles. The only cure I know of is to fit pickups from the chassis to the back of some driving wheels, I do one axle usually the rear and fit spacers to reduce the end float on that axle to reduce the amount the pickups have to move. I find the current finds its way along coupling rods when the wheels with pickups is out of contact with the rails and the performance while no better than freshly a cleaned chassis does not degrade anything like as quickly. One old Mainline 03 chassis with my mods replaced a failed Bachmann chassis temporarily about 20 years ago and is still grinding along happily today. Split axle pick up is a good idea but really needs steel stub axles and Brass or Bronze bushes.

The make up of a Breakdown train would vary with the nature of the job, quite often a tool van and a riding van would suffice, Th SR tool vans were purpose converted and kept in good condition and ready for instant use. Quite often the train was there to transport the equipment the gang would need to rerail wagons etc using ramps jacks and packing without the need for a crane, I have a book somewhere by a Southern chap who was a fitter and crane driver and while the crane boiler was small it did take a while to get up steam and derailments were an everyday occurrence in marshalling yards and sidings with loose coupled goods wagons which could be sorted with Jacks etc before the crane could get up steam or even be moved to the site.. Bigger derailments required a crane especially where the stock was well off the tracks upside down, lost wheels and requiring to loaded onto wagons for removal, Scheduled Crane work at weekends etc was for permanent way work, bridge replacement etc and probably in later years track panel replacement, and finally the classic heavy lift emergency work lifting locos back onto their wheels etc where two cranes from two separate depots might be required. Locos would vary but 1940s Southern had a lot of small 4-4-0s which are not well catered for RTR while most of their 4-6-0s were heavily used especially N15s as the principal express passenger locos and the S15s intensively used on fast freights, H15s, Paddleboat T14s (?) and ex LBSC N15X rebuilds were less successful and would have been more likely to be spare and available for Crane Duties but basically anything could pull a crane but if it was going any distance it really needed a tender, an Adams 4-4-0 headed for the scrapyard or an 0-4-2 tender loco would be good, as would a Diesel shunter as they were thrashed along at the best part of 30 mph in the 1940s.

Thanks. I will try to find a copy to discover how the valves were operated. The steam ports must have been a nightmare to route round the cylinders to valves below the cylinders. No wonder Gresley went for 3 cylinders on the A1s