Wingman Mothergoose

Looking at the photo I think the coal drops pictured are the ones to the rear of the loco shed, and the photo is looking at the goods shed across the goods yard at the other coal drops that appear to have been removed at some point. You can see the remains of the piers that have been concreted at an angle, and the cattle dock track behind them. Still, I think that it's a fair assessment that we can assume the coal drops pictured are the same as the other set that were removed. I haven't gone true to prototype in having the rails resting on the top of the piers, instead I've had to leave one sleeper in place on each pier to keep the track in gauge, and by the time I'm finished you won't be to tell anyway(I hope!)

Either way they look great! Long term aspiration for me is to have working signals, but first I need to attempt to build an MSE NER slotted post signal kit. Looking forward to the challenger, as I've never built a soldered kit before

Hi Manna, I love your somersault signals! Are they in working order? Great photos of your layout too

I looked at the Bachmann DMUs too Martin. The price is staggering, and to think I was considering replacing my Hornby(ex Lima tooling) class 101 with the current Bachmann 101! Think I paid around £60 for my 3 car Hornby 101, and it's DCC ready too. Yes, the Bachmann is newer and the detailing is fantastic, and it has NEM pockets and is relatively close coupled, but the Hornby model is a great runner, the detailing isn't THAT bad, its flush glazed, and I'm in the process of updating it with the later Hornby bogies with NEM pockets at either end and will move onto close coupling and corridor connectors at some point too.

Amen to that! I'm also lucky in having found a woman that isn't high maintenance and takes more than a passing interest in my hobby, to the extent that she is keen to accompany me on the various field trips I've taken to the two locations that were the basis of my last two layouts. Speaking of money pits, I've owned various Alfa Romeos over the last few years, so I kind of do have a high maintenance mistress, in that these cars take a lot of looking after compared to others(although the driving experience is fantastic)....

My bad, I missed that one! Chris

I have a copy of Ken Hoole's book, which photo are you referring to? Chris

Hi Alan, The baseboard I'm using for the goods yard is the one I originally built for my fiddle yard, I am aware that the coal drop siding was level and didn't have an incline, but I'm reluctant to start cutting it up if I'm honest! That photo is in Ken Hoole's book unless I'm mistaken, and I have referred back to it several times! I could do with getting back up there soon for a proper field trip, I had both my younger sons with me last time and they get bored quickly so I couldn't explore as much as I wanted to! It's a fair way from my home in Derby too, a good 2 and a half hour drive and well over a 200 mile round trip, and that's before I factor in fuel costs. When the lockdown business is over and public transport gets back to normal I will take advantage of my railway travel passes and get up to Darlington and see about getting a bus over to Richmond so I can spend a few hours exploring and taking photos Chris

I left the hobby when I was 18 I think, and came back to it when I was in my mid 30's, albeit in N gauge. Now I've returned to OO I'd love to get into kit building, although the price of a loco kit kind of puts me off a little... Chris G

I've removed the capacitors on some of my other locos, but as the L1 was a more recent purchase I didn't think about it when I fitted the decoder. the motor is still on the noisy side, but I can live with it, and when I eventually get around to fitting sound to it that won't matter too much. I've got a couple more locos that don't run as they ought to, so I'll check if they still have the capacitors fitted or not... Chris

Hi Doug, Thank you for that, I was totally unaware of their method of construction! I have some matchsticks in my kit box that would work perfectly I think, glue them on and then weather them suitably? Ken Hoole's book is a great resource, and helped my scratch builder massively when he was researching the signalbox and loco shed for me. Chris

This morning I’ve test fitted the coal drops to the layout, and also took the time to cut out a wedge of the board on the front of the station so I can curve the goods shed siding round. I’ve duly lifted the existing siding and temporarily re laid it to show how it will look when laid. There will be another board fitted here, probably around a foot long, so I may either extend the coal drops siding to give a gentler incline, or try to include the goods agent’s house.... Chris

More progress on the coal drops

Been busy on the layout the last few days, its surprising how long it takes to wire up points for DCC and fit point motors! I've fitted 5 Gaugemaster auto frogs to the last 5 point that I've laid, and have also laid the loco shed tracks with inspection pits. Thought I would take the opportunity to line up all of my current motive power 'on shed'. So we have a V3(Bachmann), J72(Bachmann), L1(Hornby), BR Standard 3MT tank(Bachmann), K1(Hornby), K3(Bachmann) and class 101 DMU(Hornby). The Peco turntable is too large, Richmond had a 50 foot turntable I think, and the Peco kit is a 70 foot. I'm considering getting an SEF or London Road Models turntable kit at some point, as they both do a 50 foot turntable, which would look better. I've also started building a set of coal drops for the goods yard, no NER station is complete without its coal drops! I'm using 1mm thick card and Scalescenes brick papers, and the track will be a length of Peco flexi track, but I'm not sure how to lay the track and remove sleepers so that the rails don't go out of gauge. Chris

I currently use a Gaugemaster GM661 temperature controlled soldering iron. There are no temperature markings on the control knob, just colours from yellow through to red. It apparently has a range of 200-450 degrees, but stuffed if I know where to set it for different temp solders.... Chris G

So an update on my Hornby L1 woes. I’ve bought a new motor to replace the current one as it’s really noisy and the loco is a pretty poor runner. As I was removing the decoder I noticed the suppression capacitor and decided to snip it off. Out of curiosity I left the decoder in and gave it a test run on the rolling road, it now feels like a different loco! A LOT smoother and almost no noise from the motor. Looks like I’ll be sending the motor back and saving myself £20 Chris

Today while I was out in the garage I've planned out the loco shed and goods yard. I would have liked more room to try and model the coal drops that were out the back of the loco shed, but maybe that's a good excuse to build a small extension board at some point. I've managed to lay one point and a bit of track toward the loco shed, not the fastest to do when you have to add the point motor, make a hole in the baseboard, convert the point for DCC operation and make sure the frog has a wire soldered to it before laying a point, while making sure that the tie bar won't catch on any sleepers on adjacent tracks! Chris

I’d actually just built all of the signals that I’d seen on the SRS diagram, with the intention of using them on the layout. The only reason I’m considering omitting it is because of the potential cost of having a working model of it built, and that I don’t know if it was a lattice post with slotted arms or a later upper quadrant affair. It was apparently fairly common LNER practice to have more than one route for a shunt signal, and that was my thinking when I altered the SRS diagram there is no signal 3 in the photo I posted as lever 3 was a spare lever at that time, so it must have been a later addition by the LNER or BR Chris

Paul, I don't know if the large bracket signal carrying signal 3 is a more recent addition by the LNER or even BR, but the signal box diagram I posted a the start of the thread doesn't show it, and lever 3 is shown as a spare lever! I've done a Google image search and can't find many photos of the signalling at Richmond at all. This one is in Ken Hoole's excellent book North Eastern Branchline Termini, it was taken in 1912, and shows the station approaches from signal 4, the Up main section signal. No large bucket with signal 3, but there is a balanced bracket in the middle distance that was most likely shunt arms for the platforms and goods yard Chris

Words to live by! Chris

Hi Tony, The maximum permitted speed of the Blue Pullman sets was 90mph I think. Chris

Just need to find a spring.... Motor will be replaced later this week.

Tonight I've been in the garage again, I've laid track up to the turntable, and a little stub on the far side. While laying the point I decided it was time to test out the Gaugemaster auto frogs I'd bought last month, as it was a newer style Peco point all I had to do was snip the wires underneath the closure rails and solder bridge wires for continuity so I don't have to rely on the point blades. I had literally just laid the point when I took this, so the glue is still curing This is the auto frog. The top wire goes to the frog, and the bottom wires go to the track or to the power bus, or in my case, both, as I was adding a pair of droppers next to the point I thought I'd kill two birds with one stone. Quick test with a loco and it works perfectly. just another 30 odd points to do now!! Chris

The pick up wires aren't the issue, when I bought the L1 the rear bogie was suffering from mazak rot and disintegrated when I took the loco out of its box. Replaced it with a new bogie from Peters Spares and made sure there was enough slack on the pickup wires for the bogie to swing freely Chris

I was considering omitting signal 3 and it’s associated shunt arms, as I can’t find any photos of it, and it might prove to be too expensive to have made if I want working signals(which I do) These are the signals I’ve made from Ratio kits, the arms move, but they’re all upper quadrant arms where the real Richmond has mostly NER slotted lower quadrants with a couple of upper quadrant arms. This is my current track plan, With signal 3 showing as a plain signal arm Chris