csiedmo

Another thumbs up for these guys. Actually this thread was reassuring for me as I’m suspicious when I see items for sale in multiple quantities that are sold out elsewhere, but true to their word KGR had the items as advertised and sent them promptly. Great stuff!

Excellent work chaps! I've just cracked open the 1962 WTT and I'm astonished at the relatively bountiful passenger service Baghill enjoyed in those days. Regarding the destination blind, from a practical point of view when using a bay platform at least, it makes sense to me to have destination at the rear, else it's rather a long walk for the passenger to discover where it might be heading. Many thanks, Ed

Hello everyone, Just wondering where this station is? You'd think the destination box and train reporting number would be a big clue, but I'm still drawing a blank. Many thanks, Ed

At 2.15 is D6338 missing it’s big grille? Perhaps it’s a trick of the light but it seems very see-through.

And D6302.

The blue one is weathered. Aren't weathered examples usually a bit more? e.g. LMS brake van.

I see that the British Industrial Sand class 03 is now featuring in the 'due soon' section of the Bachmann website, despite simultaneously having its due date changed from Jan/Feb to May/Jun! The other 03s and 04s are also pushed back to Apr/May.

I'm not sure what your period of interest is, but l have in my possession the Winter 1954/55 Working Timetable. There are a number of workings in and out of the yards at Keighley, including freight from/to Keighley North (ex-MR) traveling via Keighley South (ex-GN) but not stopping at Ingrow East, plus a couple of additional short journeys between the North and South yards. Regarding Ingrow East, there is one daily stopping freight in both directions. The Up train (Keighley South to Bradford Adolphus St.) is unremarkable - there are 10 minutes in the WTT between arrival and departure. But it seems that the shunting of the Down train (Laisterdyke to Keighley South) was a bit more involved: it arrives at 9.20 and departs at 9.41 but in the meantime an Engine and Brake Van arrives from Keighley North at 9.30 and departs for Bradford Light Engine at 10.15 Great Northern Outpost Vol 3 states that after the line was closed south of Ingrow in May 1956, traffic to/from Halifax* and Bradford continued to use Keighley South by traveling via Idle, reversing at Keighley North and again at the GN Junction with the Worth Valley branch. *In the 1954/55 WTT that there is no direct scheduled traffic between Halifax and Keighley.

Thanks for the additional replies chaps. The shifting sands of track plan design have simplified the situation a bit. I have found space for a new loop around the back of the scenic part of the layout with the result that 90% of the traffic that would have used the tracks on the right, will now join up with the tracks on the left. The upshot is that I now only need to concern myself with one staging yard/reversing loop. I've stuffed in as many through sidings as I can get to fit, plus one dead end siding so that BGs can be attached/detached to/from standard rakes (see below). My plan for the remaining 10% of traffic that will use the tracks on the right is to send them up a gradient to a section above the staging yard. This section can be much narrower than the staging yard as it will be shunted in the conventional way (so no reserving loop). That should help in not hindering access for the hand of god to the staging yard - I may well hinge it on the back wall to allow even better access. As it will be the final part of the layout to be built I hash out the finer details of that in the future.

Thanks to everyone for their replies. It seems pretty clear now that the main snag with my plan is the reversing element. Just a few points to clear up that have arisen from various replies: - The size of each grid square represents 100mm - The 'back' of the staging yard is a wall, so I could only reach the back by leaning over the staging yard - The space that you can see in front of the yard (about 600mm) is the extent of the operating well. Therefore I can't really make the yard much wider than shown. - My comment about 'minimising shunting' was meant in the sense that I don't want to be spending much time splitting sets of coaches/coaches due to the roads not being long enough to accommodate a complete train. - Operationally, trains will be diesel hauled working from prototype WTTs and Carriage Diagrams. However I don't intend to represent all of the carriage sets that would be required in real life, so any set in the correct formation and of the correct region that happens to be in the storage yard will suffice. I haven't done the analysis to work out the required capacity. Instead I was aiming for as much as possible and then working within those constraints. - I don't see the issue of turning engines and brake vans. The aim of the design was to keep whole trains together so that 'fiddling' is minimised, surely that would be true even if I was running tender locos? However, there are LE movements in the WTT so there will be some amount of uncoupling and this is a good reason not to run loco-first into dead-end roads. - Regarding the "folded dumb bell on two levels", funnily enough that was my original solution, albeit with dead-end roads. I didn't favour it for a few reasons: (i) I didn't want to create more running problems by introducing gradients (ii) difficulty accessing the lower level, (iii) required stock being in the 'wrong yard', therefore duplication of a stock needed. I've a couple of alternatives. The first involves using a Nelevator. I'm a bit lukewarm about the idea due to there being a long lead time to delivery and that the business owners seem to have gone very quiet. Anyway, here's the plan for that. The position of the Nelevator is the tracks parallel to the 147.32 arrow. For those unfamiliar, the Nelevator has 20 roads split into two vertical planes. As the roads are long I would have to possibility to store multiple trains on a road and I obviously have space to add a refuge siding to the roundabout if I need to move a train that is in front of the train that I need to access. The second, I have quickly mocked up based above comments, particularly those of ITG. It is a double decker solution (as I don't see how it is possible to mesh them together on one level) so previously stated misgivings apply. On each level, the 14 north-south loops will hold a loco and 5 coaches and the 2 east-west loops are more than large enough to hold any train that I would want to run. It is a bit wider than the other plans, and brings the operating well closer to 500mm in width. I started writing this reply before I saw Keith's idea, so I haven't had chance to map that out yet. From first glance it would appear to take up more width than I have available, but could be a contender if converted to the double-decker. I shall have another play in AnyRail. Many thanks for all your help, Best wishes, Ed

Hello all, I'm attempting to design a staging yard with the following attributes: - Trains should usually return to the same side of the layout from which they originated, as per real life. - Exceptionally, trains should be able return to the opposite side of the layout (could be useful to avoid having to duplicate common coach formations) - Minimal shunting effort in staging yard, so ideally roads hold complete trains. - Maximum train length 9xMk1+Loco, but 3-4xMk1+Loco more common. - Track: Peco code 55, minimum radius 12 inch. My best attempt is this "roundabout" effort below. I'm just wondering whether I could have designed it in a better way to make more efficient use of the space available? Also I'm wondering whether to flip the staging roads so the trains enter forwards rather than reverse in? It would have the advantage that the trains will effectively stop themselves at the ends of the roads. But my priority here is to avoid derailments and I'm unsure whether I'm making that situation better or worse by reversing in. Your thoughts are much appreciated. Best wishes, Ed

In the newly released Bradford Railways In Colour Volume 3, there are bunch of photos of Exchange in the final years. Of interest to your project maybe, is one of the goods warehouse just prior to demolition in '68.

I'll try to dig out the photos that I took of Mytholmroyd station in 1989 for a school project. The place was terrifying and the makeshift underpass walkway to the Up platform seemed to be genuinely dangerous.

I think you're over-estimating how visible black on grey is, especially in poor light or just on any mineral wagon that's not newly painted. Even without the black patch, white on grey is clearer than black on grey - see the stripe that points at the end door.

Thanks for the reply Aire Head. Looking at the 1962 WTT, there is a Down train to Kings Cross departing one minute after the Up train to Blackpool (It's the Blackpool train that combines). However, I have assumed that the Kings Cross train would be headed by the loco that brought it's ECS, otherwise I have to question what happens to that loco. There are no other passenger departures starting a Halifax for several hours after that. The passenger WTT seems quite thorough at accounting for LE movements (unlike the freight WTT which seems to mostly ignore them!) Best wishes, Ed

Hello all! Can anyone shed any light on any of the following operational questions about Halifax (Town) station in BR era before the 1969 redevelopment? 1. Was there any particular logic to determine which Up trains used platform 1 and which used platform 2? 2. In the 1961/2/4 WTTs there are instances of Up passenger trains from Leeds and Bradford combining at Halifax before continuing to their destination. There is no resulting LE movement given on the WTT. What would have been the shunting moves that would have formed such a train and was the resulting train indeed double headed? 3. Does anyone have information about platform use of parcels trains that terminated/originated at Halifax? 4. In photographs there is often a NPCCS vehicle in the short dock between platforms 3 and 4 at the west end. From/To what train was this attached/detached? 5. There was a short siding that branched at the west end of platform 3. Did this have a particular use? I have seen one photograph of it occupied with a coach, but was unable to ID it. 6. There was loop next to platform 1 that extended into a siding at the east end. I've never seen the siding occupied and there is no obvious purpose for the loop. Any know what that was for? 7. Pre-1954 how did locos run around their trains on the GNR platforms? 8. Any info about the Sunday fish train that terminated at Halifax in the early 50s? 9. In 1953 the 4.12pm Su Halifax-Braford via Low Moor uses E.R. stock. Where did that come from? I would imagine it to be a left over from a terminating SO service from the GNR lines, but there seems to be no obvious candidate in the WTT. 10. Any other interesting operational insights, including freight movements? Many thanks! Ed

The purpose of being here is to discuss “first world problems”. If every time someone has a model railway related issue, someone else replies that they ought to be thankful that they’ve got a roof over their head, it’s going to get pretty tedious.

Hello all, I’ve accidentally bought two more tickets than we need. Please PM me if you would like them. Thanks, Ed

Hello everyone, I see that the Farish Motorail Mk1 FK has now arrived. Looking at the photos on the Rail of Sheffield website, its not obvious to me what distinguishes it from a regular (non Motorail) Mk1 FK. Different bogies perhaps? Many thanks, Ed

No, I don’t have a date for when it received the yellow panel while in green, but probably during one of its works visits between 1962-1964. It then remained in this condition until its collision damage repair in ‘67 at which point it gained headcode boxes and BR blue with full yellow ends

Re: D6321, the latest photo I have without headcode boxes is dated June 1965. The earliest with headcode boxes is February 1967. Re: D6322, it would seem that of the members of the class that had their headcode boxes retro-fitted while in green livery only D6302 was repainted to either of the first two styles of blue. Or to put it the other way around D6300/03/14/18/22/25/27/28/32/33 didn’t have headcode boxes while in green livery. The work on D6322 itself was carried out during April/May 1967 following collision damage at one end. The “new end” is subtly non-standard.

It wasn’t a one off in terms of having exterior fit headcode boxes. It received them following a collision with D6302 which also then received them without a yellow warning panel. Other 22s to receive the same fit were D6306/D6307/D6317/D6326 but these seem to have had the yellow warning panel added at the same time or before. D6302/D6324/D6326 were later converted to have the interior fit headcode boxes.

Although not entirely disused as the Queensbury route was worked as far as City Road (goods) until 1972, making use of those lines from Laisterdyke. There are also carriage sidings in the St Dunstans loop in use at this time. I’m not sure when they disappeared. Imagine having the space to model that lot!

Yet the maroon one (374-889) seems to have gone missing completely.

Am I right in thinking that the existing version doesn't even have a decoder socket?