RBAGE

Have you got a link to the common crossing jig?

Bob

21 minutes ago, Phil Bullock said:

Ah …. Forgot to say …. Next outing is now confirmed, GWSR diesel gala 12-14th July.

 

We will be in the Tim Mitchell building on Winchcombe station …. And rumour is the barbecue will be outside. Heritage diesels and hot dogs … what could be better? 

We'll see how I get on. I sense a plan brewing.

Hornby magazine last month and this has a two part article on the conversion from class 110 to class 104.

I've done a conversion using the Silver Fox bits and it didn't look half bad. Made a mess of the priming before paint so haven't gone any further.

Iron Mink cab ends are very nice indeed.

3 hours ago, Mark Hamlin said:

Very much looking forward to a re-run of these guys. I was late to the party on these and subsequently have been taking my chances so far on eBay😀

How many do you want? I might be able to spare a few.

I'll drop them off if I'm ever passing. 🌍↘️🌏

On 08/03/2024 at 12:51, Phil Bullock said:

Only half of them!!! 😉

 

Yes probably more than in the Black Sea fleet… 

Seek help.

5 hours ago, Phil Bullock said:

Big dilemma tomorrow! With the layout out at the Redditch show this weekend do I keep the board in the kitchen to do more fencing or clear out so SWMBO can bake millionaire’s shortbread? 

A woman’s rather or wedded bliss?

You’re a braver man than I am to even contemplate fencing in the kitchen.

5 minutes ago, Peter Kazmierczak said:

Sorry Keith, but I don't know a Father Ted.

However,  I have a friend who lives on Craggy Island, a Mrs Doyle, who might know.

Go on.

1 hour ago, Peter Kazmierczak said:

Looking good, Phil. The houses and car in the top shot, above, do look to be slightly out of scale to me though...

Please read Father Ted reference. Then you'll understand.

September 1969. Just changed schools and ended up being reacquainted with a friend from Juniors who was and avid spotter. Neil Cowie. I hope you're still out there Fido.

My first of many sessions lineside at Croxdale, on the end of the viaduct, started soon after.

Being on the ECML were standard fare at the time. My first was D9010, The Kings Own Scottish Borderer, I remember Fido asked me to try and read the nameplate as it whipped past, just a few feet away. The Kings Coin was what I thought I saw. 

Happy days.

Most of our spotting was either Croxdale, Durham or Newcastle (on a platform ticket from Durham). The platform tickets at Durham were platform specific (North and South) so the trick was to buy one from each platform before you travelled. Then get off either right at the back or right at the front so the ticket collector at the barrier didn't see you get off.

Standing at the West end of platforms 9 and 10, at Newcastle Central Station, with a Deltic on both sides of the platform, throbbing, waiting for the off, is something never to be repeated. Absolute joy.

No wonder I have tinnitus. 

24 minutes ago, Phil Bullock said:

Redditch 2/3rd March …. Possibly GWSR diesel gala in July … that’s it so far. You around at all? 

Somerset in June. WSR Diesel Gala. That's it but you know I like an opportunity.

Phil,

Any outings planned for this year?

Bob

1 hour ago, Phil Bullock said:

 

Great thought! Either blue or Green perhaps? 

Blue, I think. It would give the impression of continuity behind the trees.

1 hour ago, Phil Bullock said:

Forestry work today … 

How about putting a screen on the other side if the hole and beyond the tracks, painted the same blue? With the trees and a blue screen to eliminate the through light, the hole will be all but invisible.

3 hours ago, Enterprisingwestern said:

 

Well, at least the dishwasher will be useful for cleaning the knife the good Lady B has deposited in Lord Phils back!

 

Mike.

It is a risk but a good idea all the same. Maybe something I might try myself, when the coast is clear.

And as for his lordship, he does seem to like life on the edge.

8 hours ago, Phil Bullock said:

Well …. Who bought the dishwasher ??? 😀

Hope she's not reading this.

1 hour ago, Phil Bullock said:

I do like the etched brass signals when they come out of the dishwasher all shiny and polished! 
 

 

This is a new up starter to Spetchley…. My good friend Viv Moss came up with a photo revealing a bracket, not home and distant on straight post as I had done it. 
 

Have also amended actuation mechanism…. Miniature servos directly under posts are too prone to failure so by extending the mechanism with legs to form a bracket with a crank at the bottom which is below the baseboard it means a bigger 9G servo can be mounted directly underneath the baseboard and linked to the crank.

 

Much easier to set up and also to change the servo if it fails … 

You dare do that?

Not exactly signalling but Castle Junction is getting there.

The check rail gap requirements for bog standard 00 gauge is a bit embarrassing. Hopefully, it won't be so obvious once the track is weathered.

As a post script, I've just clocked a photo of 5105 in September 1972 with plated doors. The Derby Sulzer site confirms it.

Don't know when the work was done but that'll do me.

6 hours ago, Enterprisingwestern said:

 

https://www.derbysulzers.com/24102.html

 

73/74 by the looks of it, concurrent with TOPS, but searching may confirm more?

 

Mike.

3 hours ago, johndon said:

I'd agree with Mike, according to what I know, they went to Glasgow works to get the doors plated over at around the same time they got their TOPS numbers.

 

Photo from late 73/early 74 here:

 

 

Thanks Mike and John.

Judging by the painted patches under the cab side windows it was quick job of renumbering.

I did see a photograph of 5111 on the Derby Sulzer site which I wasn't sure if it had been plated over.

Anyhow, shame. It'll have to go if I can't justify the change.

Thanks.

I have a question relating to the class 24s that operated the route.

Does anyone know when the first of them had the front doors plated over?

I have an SLW 24 in TOPS blue and wondered if it would be inappropriate to renumber it pre-TOPS.

26 minutes ago, Trestrol said:

It was removed from the original post when it was scrapped when Sunderland was resignalled. I saw it and knew exactly what it was having seen it on many a 1960s photo.

I recall a distance signal removed at Croxdale which I fancied. When I got up close I thought, how am I going to get this home on the bus.

1 hour ago, Trestrol said:

Ok then explain this one? This is the plate from S52 signal. This was at the south end of Monkwearmouth railway bridge Sunderland heading north. As in the attached link.

https://ro.pinterest.com/pin/42643527709384285/

Interesting. 

Must have fallen off the post.

The first attempts. Yes, I'm running before I can walk but I have to do something interesting to do while I wait for the Spring and temperatures conducive to working in the shed.

The scissor crossing immediately West of Castle Junction, between the up and down goods lines.

And Castle Junction.

Still very much a work on progress.

With my limitations with Templot, I decided to enlarge a map (National Library of Scotland) to 4mm scale equivalent, tape it into one map and transfer the formation onto paper. Rough and ready but it should work.

All timbering in place and ready for chairs and rail.

White on black, certainly in the period I'm modelling.

The East end of the station was remodelled in 1983. I think that's when the fish dock and platforms were removed,

5 hours ago, Curlew said:

Found this on the Internet man moons ago. May be useful. There appears to be a whole publication on the subject mentioned in the notes at the bottom.

25 minutes ago, Michael Hodgson said:

Are you modelling the track in cast manganese too?  😄

I believe this stuff has caused problems from time to time because its properties means it can't be craned electro-magnetically.

I started my response to the drawings of the cast components. It became quite lengthy and while referring to some reference pilot error crept in and I lost the lot. I didn’t go back to it for a while, but here I am.

considering the 92 cast components, I’m pleased that my layout will be based on the 1983 remodelled junction. 
My layout is subject to some license. If you look at the last drawing of the cast components, post 1983 something similar remained. This being beyond my capability with the risk that electrical isolation would be a challenge too far, I decided to re-align the junction so that it doesn’t exist on my model.