awoodford

Heh, it looks like I've been pipped at the post (as usual)... I have the PSMT earmarked for a future project. I've been collecting together bits, but I need to finish my current project before I start on anything else, and that'll be a while yet. I'm proposing to use a magnetic system for moving the loco. For a simple circle of track, my solution would be to lay a circle of normal track beneath the monorail track base. A weighted loco chassis or SPUD would run on the normal track, with a door-catch magnet mounted on top of the chassis, so that it is just below the monorail track base. Another magnet is attached to the underside of the free-wheeling monorail loco, so it gets dragged along by the hidden power unit underneath. See sketch below... I've mocked up the idea by attaching a magnet beneath a OO wagon, and moving another magnet along under the baseboard. It moved the wagon just fine, so I think the idea will work. I've not tried it with more heavyweight 7mm stuff though. Thanks StEnodoc for posting the photos of the points. I wondered what sort of arrangement was used, and hadn't seen any photos before. I would thoroughly recommend anyone (even if you're not into monorails) to read the 1969 Railway Magazine article and later reappraisal, at the links below... http://www.irfca.org/members/ddickens/PSMTArticle.pdf http://www.irfca.org/articles/patiala-monorail-reappraisal.html The line's bizarre history, the tracking down of the builder in later years, the rediscovery of stock and equipment in a shed 40 years after the line's abandonment, the subsequent preservation, and the mystery of the lost locos, all makes for an absolutely fascinating story. Worthy of a TV drama! All the best with the project, Stubby47. I'll be following progress. Alan.

Thanks Branwell, much appreciated. Alan.

Branwell, thank you. That's a new one, but I see what you mean. It did cross my mind to add a coffin for the funeral party, but then I thought they might get mistaken for the Buggleskelly football team (taking their own goalposts). Alan.

This month's blog looks at progress on the Dale End sawmill scene, a method for creating low relief conifers, and the latest update from The Pits. Dale End Diary Dale End is the upper terminus of the line, situated at the edge of the extensive Tweedale Forest. The main industry is a sawmill, supplying pit props, sawn timber, and wood waste to other industries down the line. This month a start was made on the scenery for this section of the layout. Here are some in-progress shots... 9 August. An awkwardly placed support post for the layout's lighting rig has been moved, allowing the viewing window to be widened a few inches, which helps make things look less cramped. The whole scene is 12 inches wide by 12 inches deep. Ground work has started, with the station platform at the back and loading area for the sawmill at the front. 11 August. A revealing view of this end of the layout. My old woodwork teacher would be, ahem, 'turning' in his grave. You can see where the original layout was extended by 9 inches in the past, and where the support pillar has now been cut out to increase the size of the window, then extra bracing added to try and restore the structural integrity. What a mess. It also shows the lighting problem in this corner, with the light-fitting being 12 inches from the end of the baseboard. The whole baseboard was constructed from 25 x 6mm pine, as an experiment to see just how lightweight it was possible to go. It is actually quite rigid (possibly due to the boxlike construction), and for a home layout such as this it seems to work fine. It probably wouldn't be robust enough for an exhibition layout though. 13 August. The 'hills' have now been sealed with grey undercoat paint, and a few early mock-ups for the sawmill have appeared. It is not based on any particular prototype. I grabbed a load of sawmill images from the Internet, and will just pick features from them that appeal to me. I have a vague idea of what I want, but the details will be sorted out as I go along. 15 August. Let there be light. I've managed to squeeze in a 10 inch, 6 Watt fluorescent tube at this end of the layout, which has sorted out the lighting problem. A start has been made on card buildings for the sawmill at the front. A mock-up for the backscene has been propped up at the back. The conifers at the left are being constructed using the methods described in my previous blog. The wooden decking on the front platform came from a Faller embossed card sheet, purchased as an invaluable investment in the 1970's. I knew it would come in useful one day! 23 August. Painting the backscene was a job I kept putting off, for fear of mucking it up, but it was starting to hold up progress, so I've eventually been forced to get on with it. It was with some trepidation that the first blob of paint was applied to the pristine surface of the expensive watercolour paper, but it seemed to work out ok and I'm happy enough with the result. It was carefully cut out around the outline and glued to the sky background. The grassy ground cover is made from a paste of scatter material mixed with dilute PVA glue and spread on like plaster, then sprinkled with chopped up plumbers hemp. Its a method I've used for years but is rather outdated now in these days of static grass. 29 August. This is how things stand to date. The buildings are gradually taking shape. The roofs, chimneys and cyclone are still in grey undercoat and need painting and weathering. Foliage needs to be added to the trees on the left. The most obvious things still missing are stacks of timber. It looks like the mass production of pit props is the prospect for the coming month... what fun. Low Relief Conifers This is something of a supplement to my previous blog on cardboard trees, and shows how the conifers behind Dale End station were constructed. Cardboard cores from rolls of toilet paper were used, which gave the trees a built-in convex shape. 1. With a bit of canny cutting, four trees can be obtained from one tube. 2. A Christmas tree like shape was cut from the card. 3. A bamboo skewer was glued to the back. This was mainly to add strength to the tree, but could also serve as a trunk if extended. 4. The tree was painted with dark green poster paint (green mixed with black). 5. Foliage pieces were glued on, starting from the bottom and working towards the top, with pieces overlapping slightly like tiles on a roof. 6. I found the foliage looked an unnatural green under the fluorescent lighting used on the layout, so it was toned down with dark green poster paint, using a 'poor man's spray gun' - paint flicked from a stiff brush by dragging a finger across the end of the bristles. News from The Pits In order to appease Health & Safety's Chief Tutting Officer, road signs have now been installed approaching the level crossings, and the fencing has been painted white. The sign on the far side of the crossing looks like a hazard in itself - if a passing pedestrian doesn't clout his head on it, the next vehicle entering the yard will probably demolish it. The 'end of shift' on the platform is still awaiting its train home. A recent visitor remarked "Oh look, a choir." Then someone else reckoned they look like mourners at a funeral. Heh. It would seem the sign on the platform and pithead gear on the backscene are not clues enough. Perhaps I should give them pickaxes and pointy hats like the seven dwarfs. Cheers, Alan.

Hi nigelb. Thanks for your feedback. Its good to know the information is of some use. Alan.

Sorry Ray. I stand rebuked for my flippant remark. I must learn to behave myself on the Internet. Yes, I do see there may be circumstances where, as my mother used to say, 'they no longer pay for the mending'. Thanks for the details on Trevithick's fate. Alan.

Thanks PGH for the fascinating information and photos. I was quite astounded to hear about the locos scrapped by preservation groups. I never realized they went in for that sort of thing before. 'Tis a wicked world indeed. Alan.

Thanks Black5. I'm intending to make a start on the Dale End sawmill scene this month, so I'll have a chance to adapt the method to conifers. At the risk of tempting fate, it looks easy enough... just more pointy profiles for the tree shapes. Alan.

cornish trains jez and col_kilgore, thanks for your comments. Feel free to use the idea. I must have picked it up myself from somewhere, though I don't remember where now. Alan.

Here is the July progress report for Tweedale, which includes a method for creating dense woodland from corrugated cardboard shapes. Firstly, the Poshington-Upon-Twee scene is now declared to be finished. The station has acquired a canopy (as befits a town of such importance), plus a coal yard, some fencing and other details. Nothing special about construction, the canopy is from card and balsa, and the coal heap from a piece of 'oasis' flower-arranging foam shaped with sandpaper. The other main progress this month is at The Pits, where extra trees have been added. The sequence of photos below shows the method I use for creating dense masses of trees. The individual trees are quite low-relief so the method works best where there is a restricted viewpoint (as on Tweedale), or towards the rear of a layout near the backscene. For those who don't know, the Tweedale layout is divided into a number of micro-sized scenes viewed through windows at the front of the layout. In the scene below, a lane winds its way in from the front towards the station. I wanted some woods in the foreground at the left and right of the lane to act as view-blockers for separating this scene from those adjacent... Tree and foliage shaped pieces were cut from a corrugated cardboard box... 3d shapes were created by gluing the pieces in layers, with corrugated card seperators (about 1cm) between the layers. They were then given a base colour of dark green poster paint... The exposed corrugations at the edges of the card were filled with a paste made up from used tea leaves and dark green scatter material mixed with dilute PVA glue... Pieces of Woodland Scenic Foliage Net were used for the foliage, but they were treated first to make them less fragile. More of the green paste (as above) was made, and pieces of foliage net were dunked into the mixture, which then was worked into the net. The pieces were laid out on a plastic bag to dry... When dry, the pieces were quite stiff, and were glued to the visible side of the tree shapes, overlapping the edges of the card slightly to break up the outline... The trees were then installed on the layout. Suitable looking twigs from shrubs were added here and there between the layers to represent trunks and branches... There's not much more needs doing at The Pits. Road signs approaching the crossings would probably be a good idea! The miners' houses still need constructing, but as they will also be visible from the adjacent industrial scene, I'm waiting until I've finally decided what I'm doing with that area first... there seems little point adding details to the back of the houses if they end up hidden behind a factory. Cheers, Alan.

Thanks Don. I started off with a computer program to generate random lists for wagon movements, but prefer the low-tech card and waybill system, so far. There seem to be plenty of more or less complicated ideas around for generating traffic movements, and I've not finished trying others yet. Alan.

This 3rd blog installment describes how the Tweedale layout is currently operated. Some people relax with crosswords or sodukos, I like to solve shunting puzzles. I endeavour to fit in at least one 20-30 minute running session each day where possible. I find the regular operating sessions help to maintain my interest. Tweedale was designed to work for its living and has been operated ever since the track was laid and wired, but that's not to say it's run in a prototypical manner. I treat the layout as a kind of board game, and part of the enjoyment is from devising new sets of rules or constraints for the 'game'. Furthermore it's run in a more casual US style than British, allowing such suspicious practices as pushing trains between stations, loading and unloading wagons on the main line, and carrying passengers in the brake van. Rolling Stock Somewhere on the Internet I came across an article that claimed the ideal number of wagons for a shunting layout is about 70 percent of the total siding capacity. With fewer wagons, shunting can become too easy, with more it can get frustratingly bogged down. It seemed a reasonable assertion, so based on that I worked out I'd need 11 wagons for Tweedale. I then had to determine what proportion of each type of wagon I would need for the kind of traffic I had in mind. This was the resulting wish list... 4 open wagons 4 box vans 1 cattle wagon 1 tank wagon 1 brake van The stock was gradually built up by rummaging through secondhand boxes at shows (the cattle wagon was the hardest to find). I've retained the hook and bar couplings for now, even though they are rather obtrusive. They work well enough using Roger Nicholls 'Yorkshire Kadee' uncoupling system, which just involves removing the hook from one end of the wagon, and inserting tufts of plumber's hemp between the rails at uncoupling spots. Uncouplers at The Pits, with a spare untrimmed one on the platform. The tufts are held together with glue and cotton and are a snug fit (not glued) into holes drilled between the sleepers, where they can be adjusted by moving up or down slightly. Card and Waybill System The currently preferred operating scheme makes use of what Americans call a 'car card and waybill' system. I don't know what the correct British term for a car card is, so I'll just call it a wagon-card. Each wagon has its own wagon-card, labeled with wagon type and a description. The card is kept in a card box (provided at each each station) where the wagon is located, and is moved along from place to place as the wagon moves. It looks rather like a pre-digital library card with a pocket (if you remember those), in which a waybill can be placed. The waybill, from a shuffled pack of about 40 assorted waybills, gives details of a shipment - its origin, destination, load, and type of wagon required. As Tweedale is a self contained system all wagon movements start with an order from the shipper for an empty wagon. Each waybill covers two journeys, the first for the empty wagon being delivered to the shipper, and second for the loaded wagon from the shipper to the customer. It is placed in the pocket of the wagon-card such that only the current journey is displayed. Card boxes for Grimley and Slaghill. The tab separates cards for wagons that have been delivered, from those that are to be picked up. Also shown is an example of a wagon-card and a waybill. Typical Operating Session The session consists of two parts, preparation and running the trains, which aren't necessarily done together. The session might be prepared before breakfast, but the trains not actually run until later in the evening. To prepare the session the operator, as 'goods agent', first goes through all the cards in the boxes, turning over waybills for wagons that have been loaded, to show the final destination for the goods, and removing waybills from wagons that have reached their final destination and been unloaded. New waybills can then be assigned to empty wagon-cards. A 6-sided die is thrown to determine how many new waybills are to be picked from the shuffled pack. For each of these selected waybills, a search of card boxes is made to find an empty wagon-card of the required type, and the waybill is placed in the pocket. If there are not enough empty wagons of the required type available, or siding space at the destination is likely to be full, the waybill is placed in an 'outstanding orders' box, and gets priority in the following session. Actual physical wagon loads are also added or removed where appropriate. For the second part, the operator takes on the role of train crew, and looks through the waybills in the card boxes to determine the best strategy for moving wagons to their destinations. The challenge is to try and do this with the minimum number of trips between stations, with the minimum number of light-engine moves between stations, and without 'reprimands'. Reprimands are for such things as having to reshunt wagons due to insufficient forward planning or lack of concentration, not clearing the main line in time for a through passenger train, and so on. It sometimes helps to list the moves on a scrap of paper first. It's satisfying to get to the end of a session without reprimands, but doesn't happen very often! The simplest session would involve just one trip from Grimley to Dale End and back, picking up and dropping off wagons en-route, but this is seldom achievable due to inbuilt complications on the layout... The headshunt at Slaghill and the sector plate each have a restricted capacity of a loco plus 2 wagons Wagons can be spotted on the main line in places, but they have to wait until no more train movements are expected along that section of track during the session. The sidings at Dale End face a different direction to elsewhere, so rope-shunting at Slaghill is needed to put the engine at the correct end of the train. That is a space-hungry manoeuvre requiring empty siding space at Slaghill, which needs to be considered beforehand. As there is no fiddle yard, all stock is stored on the layout. Empties are generally left where they are until assigned to another job, but might have to be shunted elsewhere if they are in the way. Rope shunting at Slaghill. The railway's only loco, a Bachmann 04 shunter, has pulled the wagon down from Dale End. A rope is used to haul it into the siding, so that the loco can then reverse back and couple onto the other end for the onward journey to Grimley. Passenger Trains A rudimentary passenger service is provided, using the brake van, and runs from one end of the layout to the other with stops at each station. The passenger trains have waybills in the shuffled pack the same as for goods, but they are given absolute priority and there is a time element involved. If the session includes a passenger run, then a kitchen timer is set to go off at some random time during the session. Normal shunting can still take place, but the operator also has the pressure of watching the clock. By the time the alarm goes off, the main line must be clear of wagons from one end to the other, and the loco must be ready to depart with the passenger train. A passenger train arrives at The Pits with a removable load of miners. Less-than-wagon-load goods Occasionally a van for small loads travels from one end of the line to the other and back. During each session it is moved to the next station along. It takes about a week to do the return journey... not the most efficient delivery service, and it ties up a van for a week, causing a shortage elsewhere. Wildcards The pack of waybills also contains 'wildcards', like the Chance cards in Monopoly, designed to disrupt normal operation. For example a card may pop up specifying that the last wagon assigned a waybill has developed a fault and must not be moved. That can cause more or less of an obstruction depending where it happens to be located. Another card may report that the loco has blown a gasket and can only haul a maximum of 2 wagons at any time... a limitation that can turn shunting into a bit of a nightmare. Conclusion Perhaps surprisingly for such a simple layout, I still enjoy running it after a year of regular operation. Some of that I put down to the fact that its a system (if that's not too grandiose a word for it) rather than a single-station layout. I find there's something more satisfying about running trains from one station to another rather than just to a fiddle yard. Also the rules are constantly changing and evolving, which keeps the interest alive. The more I learn about prototypical practices, the more they get incorporated into Tweedale, and I'm always on the lookout for new ideas that would enhance the layout's operations. Probably the greatest help in retaining my operating interest though is that the layout is set up all of the time, and ready to run at the flick of a switch. I'm sure it would soon lose its appeal if it had to be unpacked and repacked whenever I wanted to use it. Cheers, Alan.

Thanks John. I wanted the layout to look reasonable, but without spending a lot of time on fine detail. It is being built as a stopgap while in the planning stage of a larger permanent layout, which is why I'm keen to get it finished fairly quickly. It will then serve as somewhere to run trains while the larger layout is under construction. Alan.

Simon Dunkley, Neil, thanks for your comments. I also do serious, but for this project almost anything goes, and I'm just following whims and fancies as they come along. Very liberating it is too, but in danger of getting completely out of hand. Alan.

This 2nd blog installment describes the Tweedale layout in a bit more detail, with a tour of each station in turn. As might be guessed from the name, the railway supposedly serves an area known as Tweedale, but apart from that it has no particular history or geographical location, it just is. My interest is in shunting puzzles and the layout was designed with that in mind. A number of industrial supply chains have been set up as a foundation for the layout operation, best explained in a tour of the line. Here's the track plan again for reference... The rightmost scene (scene 4) represents the top end of the line and is called Dale End - an unimaginitive name but gives it a sense of place. This section was added as an afterthought on a 9 inch extension to the original layout, and is the smallest of the scenes. It is also rather dark, being beyond the original extent of the flourescent lighting tubes. The scenic work has not yet commenced, and is likely to be quite a challenge in such a small space. The intention is that there will be a sawmill, with a forest of conifers rising up a hillside at the back to hide the corner in the sky. The sawmill is the main industry here but the area also generates some livestock traffic. An ethanol plant, utilising waste wood from the mill gives an excuse to bring a tank wagon up here occasionally. Next down the line we come to The Pits, the rural area in scene 2. A lane winds down into the scene from the front, which turned out to be a bad design decision - the higher ground at the front tends to block the rest of the scene beyond, unless you are standing very close. That will have to be dealt with in due course. The siding behind the station serves a mine, represented on the backscene. Due to the complicated geology hereabouts almost anything of a mineral nature could come out of that hole in the ground. A cattle dock and a store for the local farmers' cooperative are also provided here. The scene still needs some work - the miners' houses need constructing, and there will be more trees in the foreground to act as view-blockers to the adjacent scenes. Those two stations provide Tweedale's source of raw materials - timber, minerals and agricultural produce. Continuing on, we come to what will eventually be the heavy-industrial town of Slaghill, the upper level of scene 1. Again scenic work has not started on this section. This is where minerals from the mine are processed. I envisage a complicated mishmash of chemical, steel, gas and cement works, mainly on the backscene, but with selected bits protruding into the 3D space. The line next passes through the quaint old town of Poshington-Upon-Twee, in scene 3. With its old houses and narrow streets, it is home to most of the consuming population of Tweedale. It was supposed to represent a 'superior' sort of place, like Harrogate or Beverley. Unfortunately the retaining walls and housebacks rather let down the image, so the minster was added to the backscene by way of compensation. This is the most complete scene so far, and just needs a few more details around the station area. Wagons for the town are parked on the main line, which adds a bit of spice to operations. I could probably have squeezed a goods siding in at the front, from the sector plate, but the lighting would have placed the rolling stock in deep shadow. Lastly we come to Grimley, the lower level of scene 1. This is the manufacturing centre, turning the processed materials from Slaghill into the useless commodities demanded by the public of Poshington. Here I envisage a shanty town of artisans' workshops and factories. Slaghill and Grimley will likely merge into one industrial mess, but in my mind I'll treat them as completely seperate towns. Livestock from Upper Tweedale also makes its one way journey down here, to an abattoir and pie factory. The pies go on to Poshington. Offal gets sent to the chemical works at Slaghill to be turned into cosmetics. Toxic waste from the chemical works gets taken to The Pits to be dumped into disused mine shafts, where no doubt it gets into the local watertable to be absorbed by the next generation of livestock. So it goes round. As can be seen, prototypical realism comes quite a way down the list of priorities. I guess its not to everyone's taste, but it suits me just fine, and provides plenty of operating potential despite its simple design. Cheers, Alan.

Thanks joppyuk1 and andyram for your comments. Best, Alan.

Welcome to the Tweedale Layout Blog. Good Intentions Tweedale has been under construction for just over a year now, but work on it has been slowing down noticeably of late. When I set out I was hoping to get the whole thing finished in a year - hopelessly optimistic in hindsight, but I suppose a useful measure of my 'production rate' for planning future projects. What was needed, I figured, was a boost in motivation. So I've created this blog, with the pressure of a regular monthly progress report, in the hopes that it will give me an incentive to get on. Overview Tweedale is essentially a freelance OO shunting layout on a 4 x 3 feet L-shaped baseboard. I call it a multi-micro layout. Although it's larger than a traditional micro layout, it acts as a sort of container for several connected micro-sized elements. It has 5 ridiculously small stations on 2 levels connected by a zigzag line, all crammed into an area of 7 square feet. Here is the track plan... This is a view of the whole layout in its current state... As can be seen, the front of the layout is divided into windows (currently card mockups but will ultimately be of ply with picture frame surrounds). The windows give some seperation between stations, which are in reality only inches apart, and also help to focus attention on the area being operated at any one time without distraction from adjacent areas... the idea being that while shunting one station, you don't notice that the train may be intruding into the next station along the line. The windows also provide restricted viewpoints for the scenes, which has allowed me to experiment with visual trickery such as forced perspective and so on. Currently the layout is fully operational, but still requires a fair bit doing scenically. The rolling stock, all from secondhand boxes at shows, also needs tidying up. More details and close up photos in the next installment. Alan.

Looks like an interesting project. Does the line still see much use? The tracks look pretty rusty and neglected in the lower photo. Alan.

Hi Quentin, I've had this same problem with Peco track. I used one of those fibre glass pens to remove the stain, and it hasn't returned. Perhaps some kind of metal polish would remove it - not tried it, but it would probably be kinder than the abrasive pen. I've seen in American forums that the use of metal polish on track is quite widespread (but not Brasso, which leaves a film apparently). Also there's a method called 'gleaming', which involves going over track with a stainless steel washer to smooth out any scratches after using abrasives. Alan.

The topic here has just brought something to mind. A scale drawing of the little Lively Polly type loco was published in a model railway magazine, probably around the late 90's - early 2000's. I think it might have been in Model Railway Enthusiast or Model Rail, but I can't be certain. It definately wasn't RM or MRJ, and I don't think it was BRM, but it could have been one of the other lesser magazines of the time. I remember buying the magazine specifically for the drawing - I thought I might be able to adapt a Tenshodo SPUD to power it in 4mm - change wheels and add cosmetic coupling rods etc. That idea was scuppered when I accidently threw out the magazine with a load of old ones during a clearout. I've just been doing a web search, trying to track it down, but without success so far. Any one else remember that article? Alan.

I believe the Corringham Light Railway had an 0-4-0 Kitson similar to the LOR one. Searches in that area might glean some useful information. Alan.