Northroader

I must take issue with the notion of having a model railway set in wet and windy weather, it’s got to be bright and cheerful, and stuff Met Office records. I’ve quoted it before somewhere on a thread, possibly this one, the opening sentence from C.Hamilton Ellis’ “The Trains we loved”: “Surely it was always summer when we made our first railway journeys!” A sentiment I fully agree with.

Looking at the plan, the only moan I’d have, being an old twerp with a suspect back, is working the line single handed, as I’d be continually ducking under the bit in the middle to get from terminus A to terminus B, and back again. I hope you’re a spry young fellow for the years to come.

The “like” is for seeing the old avatar back, don’t push your luck at how unaggressive they can be. It’s funny how they enjoy running along upvc building sections to find a new hole.

It’s only a cheap switch so you may as well use all the contacts. Bit of a contrast with what you’re planning for Dolgelley!

A job for the repair crew recently, as running trains I’ve noticed that entering the platform from the fiddle yard is a smooth run, but going into the goods loop there can be a slight hiccup. Checking with a meter confirms that the feed to the frog/ crossing of the entry point only works for the platform setting, the other direction the frog goes dead. As the run continues straight into the back of the other point for the goods siding, only the length through the crossing is down, and this is about equivalent to the span of the pickup wheelbase of a loco, so taking the route at a gallop and there’s no worry, it’s just showing when crawling. I checked the point switch when I installed it, but anyway it must need changing. Luckily I have a few spare new ones, I usually get them from Squires or Eileen’s at a show. Some attention to get it ready, I file the mounting plate flat to remove the ridges from the mounting screw holes and tin it. I then solder it to a larger baseplate made from brass strip. This is done because I fit the switch into a hole through the baseboard ply, but I find the mounting screws are placed too close to the edge of the hole, so the baseplate can move them onto terra firma, and also the screw heads are moved sideways out of the way of the point rod. Next I drill through the knob of the switch slider for the point rod. The layout is wired up with a fairly hefty multi strand cable, mainly with a view to keeping voltage drop down. The terminal tags under the switch are a bit small for this, so I put some brass rod through each pair of tags, giving a side extension under the baseboard which will allow the wiring to solder up easily, and be wrapped up with insulation tape. The wire from the frog goes to the centre terminal, and then it’s a case of working out which way the switch moves to feed the right side of the point to the frog. The switch then goes into the baseboard hole, is screwed down, and gets the point rod fed through the knob. The rod was already tinned, and has a tube and washer on the point side. The travel on the slider switch is around 5.5mm, and the throw of the point is about 3.3mm, so the switch movement is a bit more than the point needs, which is the right way round. I place the point blades hard against the stock rail for the one way, the switch thrown for that direction, then solder up on the point rod. There’s a length of brass tube around 2.5mm o.d. over the point rod, with a 10BA washer on the switch knob side. I have to be careful, as the switch knob is plastic, so if I linger with the soldering iron the point rod melts into the knob, and I apply the solder at the end of the tube away from the knob. The washer helps to spread the pressure over a wider area of the knob, and stops the tube cutting into the knob. The point is reversed, and the switch moved the other way, and the tube and washer soldered up for the other end. You then get full travel on the switch to feed the frog, and the point can move the right amount. Sure enough, I’m now getting smooth working both ways through the point. Here’s a scruffy close up of the switch before it gets an overall coat of paint, and you can just make out the working gap on the left hand side of the knob. Then there’s an overall view of the point run. The point is a Peco medium radius, but I change the tie bar, as I don’t like the little plastic nib for the throw.

Good to hear you’re managing to pick up the threads of some modelling again.

I think the rusty rail and weathered pale grey sleepers looks best, the dark creosote sleepers only work with newly laid track.

Best time is late at night after dark when they’re all tucked up in bed. They’re persistent little b******s, I did four goes with the mastic before they finally admitted defeat. They’d got round a plastic window frame into the wall space. Good luck with it.

Hi Paul, just caught up with latest venture, and your pictures of the real thing do make it look a very tasty prototype. I’ll certainly try to catch up with this one at Winchester, good luck with getting into shape for that. Bob.

Bonjour, mes Amis, zees ees in ze “best possible taste” as monsieur Everett would ave said. I ave un ancien 78 rpm recording for you. Eet give ze Eduoardian atmosphere, n’est ce que pas? A bientot, Routier du Nord. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tixKopGjn5s

I’m lucky in that usually with my modelling I don’t get black dogs coming towards me, or mojos running away, but the last fortnight plus I’ve been at a standstill, just because of the heatwave. The loft has windows that open and give a cooling draught, so you can stay close to outside temperature in a hot spell, but it’s just been too hot outside as well, nudging 30C most days. Is it just me that can’t keep going? I thought Sunday afternoon typified it well, looking out at the cloud formations, just the smallest little clouds in a big blue sky, the American Midwest comes to Wiltshire. Anyway, today the temperature dropped to 24C, and after doing some gardening for the boss, I found I had enough get up and go to do some model work at last. One job is trying to organise how the trains are kept, and I need some more storage boxes. As I make most of the stuff from scratch, they don’t come with any boxes, and I keep them in made up sets, with a few pooled “spares”. I do long boxes from 3mm greyboard, which I buy in sheets from an art shop. They’re roughly 34” long, 4” x 3” section, so today I was marking out, cutting and scoring, then folding and gluing with pva. I use those useful elastic bands the postman scatters about to hold them while it dries, but I reckon the quality of the bands is going downhill.

Wartburg

Jawohl, bottoms up, mein kapitan.

Really enjoyed that tour, thanks for that.

Looking out of my loft window this afternoon, and not doing much modelling, as it’s too hot. It struck me how the cloud formations looked, big blue sky, and much smaller clouds than the lumpy great things we’re used to. Turn to your favourite pictures of a line in the American Mid West, and you’re looking at just the same background, isn’t that so?

Aaahhhhhhhh!!!!! https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-CNfKmF0FDM

You can say that again.

I think a test track lives up to the name if you make it as a reverse curve, two radii facing each other across a bit of straight. That way you can check a lot more about how your stock performs.

Enjoyable piece of video, and highly ambitious in trying to check out a variety of old models straight off, and with an inquisitive moggy and no stop blocks thrown in. The track needs a good clean, rubber/ abrasive block, and do the inside face of the railhead as well as the top surface, then long sessions on each model, clean tyre faces and pickup contact face. Check each pickup is in contact, it looked as if some here and there weren’t. The buzzing shows you’ve got a short somewhere on the loco, and refusal to move altogether an open circuit. Just plug away and persevere, you’ll gain experience as you progress. I thought your B12 rebuild has shaped up very well.

Perhaps it sounds better if you don’t abbreviate.

Even with heirarichal diagrams, you might still get confusing role reversals:

Yes, they had a session after Atock went where they tried blue, the TPO van on my mail train is done in the new blue and cream. I went for a shade halfway between midnight blue and French blue. Unfortunately the blue pigment in those days wasn’t that stable and weathered badly, so they reverted to the old colours. In more recent times, BR blue didn’t last that well, even with modern paint.

Here’s a few more pictures: Leaving the quay at Gosport to go to the first train, Placing the coffin in the train at Gosport, Taking the coffin off the train at Victoria,

There were three of them, one account says they appeared on officers specials, but seems a lot of engines just for “jollies”. The boss himself, Martin Atock, stated they were used on the Dublin Galway mail trains. I fancy these were very light trains, being run at the behest of the post office, and I wouldn’t think in those days the hours of the day they ran, late evening, would be considered convenient by travellers, they just offered limited first and second class accommodation. Anyhow, when I’m feeling exuberant I run a “mail” and make it a double header, just for the fun of it, not the thing that’s expected on a properly conducted branch line. The MGWR did have some highly useful mail/ parcels/ brake vans.Atock was interesting, born in Preston 1836, family moved to Stratford, and he trained with the GER, then worked for the WLWR 1861 - 1872 as loco chief, then to Broadstone. He rebuilt the 2-2-2t, dating from 1851, soon after, and must have had a soft spot for them as they lasted until he retired in 1900, latterly as the shunters at Dublin Broadstone, for the station and the works. Strange as he had a policy of renewing all locos after twenty years, so a lot of modellable old wrecks were swept away. Changing circumstances meant that a lot of Atocks engines were not replaced, so that some of his main 2-4-0 class lasted up to 1962. (The ex GER E4 2-4-0s worked the Mildenhall branch until 1959) Ahrons says that the MGWR loco livery was a bright emerald green (I use Humbrol no.2) and matched the shade the English Midland Railway used before it switched to red, so if you fancy painting your locos in the correct shade????

with the “fly away” cab it’s got to be a Midland engine.