Northroader

Agreed, the drawing shows a pipe under the lubricator feeding down into the steam header. On the model this pipe is missing, giving the appearance that the only place for the oil to go is into the chimney. It would seem pecketts bracketed the lubricator to the chimney, most of the old locos had them freestanding, which may have caused the confusion.

Good luck with that one day, I've been missing news of your doings, although TBH spiking all the track down would send me doo-ally, even if it looks much better than soldering. Best wishes for xmas and new year.

Someone ought to tell the makers that lubricators don't discharge straight up the chimney. Apart from that, yeahhh...!

Still haven't seen an actual plan of where all those shorty points are going? One word of caution, pulling wagons through them is one thing, pushing them back is another! It's nice to see the setting for all this, it was a fascinating piece of line, really antiquarian feel to it.

(Edit: younger readers will have to google "mr.chad" for the background to this)

Christmas is approaching fast, so it's seasonal to thank all the folks who've been following this thread, particularly all the contributors for bringing their thoughts and humour to the posts, which have made it far better than if I'd tried to do it all on my own. I hope you all have a merry Christmas with your friends and families, and next year brings plenty of progress with satisfying modelling. Here's the Orpheans with their best wishes:

i wouldn't crawl over her to get to you.

Lovely to see photos of the finished job, very recognisable with old photos of the real thing. As you say, now you've done some, you've got the know how and confidence for doing more, and will progress. Have to agree with previous posters in saying "well done".

You could start by using a pencil lightly with the stencil, then going over the lettering using a mapping/ draughtsman's pen. I find at this stage there's a big need to get the paint consistency right, not too runny, not too gloopy, which always seems necessary with Matt white. Don't stop there, next very light retouching with background colour then white as needed.

Happy Christmas, and hope you find all the pieces next year;

Now that's much better, a busy industrial townscape, none too clean, but much better than the rubbish dumps we've been on about. That's a reworked sketch of this photo, isn't it? The addition of the little family helps it on. Good luck with that, Sam, it would make a nice job. Edit: thinking about this job overnight, the good thing about the crossing is there's a footbridge alongside. In pregroup times the crossing would just see occasional horsedrawn traffic, bales of textile raw material or coal merchants, everybody else would be coming out of the terraced houses and hastening over the footbridge before the mill hooter went, so you're still able to use it as a screen to a fiddle siding entry. Looking at Kettlewell, the example I gave in post#180, the crossing and footbridge would go in for the road bridge. You'd need to skew the road with the terrace behind the station for more space rather than having it square on. Maybe a kickback from the goods yard under the footbridge to a mill building screening the fiddle yard, maybe a warehouse at the end of the goods yard, and a generally Pennine mill-town feel. Legislate enough space for a small 060 tender engine, and you can get any number of attractive pregroup lines for it, GNR, GCR/CLC, NER, MR, L&Y, LNWR, even the Knotty. Loads of different po wagons, passenger trains 4w or 6w, one comp, one brake third. How's that sound?

The feed mill is slowly taking shape, although I've just realised I used up all my 1mm. ply, so another trip to the aircraft modelling shop is necessary. Here's an overall view of the line with the new building adding some balance and masking the entrance to the end cassette. This brings me to a time when I want to thank all the folks who have supported the thread in the last year, particularly those contributors with their thoughts and comments. Have a very merry Christmas with family and friends, and I hope you're able to prosper in the New Year, with plenty of good modelling.

Like, stick a line and some wagons in the middle of this: Could be fun, he says, wrinkling his nose.

No, just getting out at Hay Lane, now M4 junction 16, and continuing to Bath in a diesel stagecoach.

It does sound like Krooks warehouse in Bleak House, you read about it and feel you need a bath. Even with the civilising influence of the railway, a bit too grotty, still, then again, he says, looking round the loft..

I think Bembridge had to have the length increased (!) to 25' in SR days when 02 044T were introduced, which could have limited the full turning capability. Having two trains in parallel just means one will have to be ready to leave when t'other arrives for a runaround.

This has brought me to the buffer stop end, where I need to arrange an engine release for running round. Washbourne mk.1 had the standard way of having a point, but I'm never happy with the space they soak up. One layout I had used a sector table, which I copied from a drawing in an old book by Edward Beal, which looked like a small turntable but pivoted at one end. Three snags with this, one was the loco didn't balance on a central pivot, placing a lot of weight on the nose end which made it stiff and jerky, then if the table wasn't lined up with whatever road was being shunted, you'd soon get a wagon down in the hole, then lastly I never came across an example of this in real life. One place where there was a sector table was Birmingham Snow Hill, GWR, which had one at the end of the bays at the north end of the down island platform. This one looked like a three way point cut short at the blades. That way the central road could transfer locos across and the outside roads were always ready to catch overruns. The thing I didn't like about this was that you can't use the full length of the road for a train to stand. Another way to save space is a turntable. The thing against this for me is that the diameter needed would make it become an overpowering feature on a small baseboard, as well as the loss of length just mentioned. In the end I took a leaf out of bg johns book, and went for a traverser. Back to the GWR in Brum, down through the tunnel to Moor St., where they had a nice one on the bays where the North Warwicks. trains came in. Similar to the sector plate, with three roads, which also allowed trains to stand for the full length. I got a pair of side mounted drawer runners from B&Q, and took the lengths that attach to the drawer sides and shortened them. These were screwed under the top, gauging one from the sliding edge for reference and the other to be parallel with this. Reassemble into complete units, and then place into position. They were 14" units going into a 16" board, so they just fitted nicely between the longitudes. I could then clamp two lengths of 2x1 against the longitudes to support the runners, adjusting them to get a "float" on the table. Then it was screw it all up, and lay track. The length is 12", which will just take a 0-6-0, but one thing I have to say is the scenic back support at the end has been packed out by 1/2" for more clearance. The intention is that the road can slide under a platform in front and behind into recesses. The movement is quite sweet with the ball bearing runners. "Striving for today, Forget then tomorrow's needs, Sleep, take stock, and aim."

More deliveries of rock, I see. That barge is a really fine piece of kit, we couldn't leave it accidentally in the path of that Russian aircraft carrier as it comes home??

I fancy southall shed by this time would have a heating boiler fed by oil, needing tanker supply, besides just diesel oil for the fleet.

On this shot, the fireman and driver on the left are wearing overalls of the denim type material, most post ww1 shots show traincrew like this, next guy is presumably footplate inspector, so not having a uniform, but clutching a heavy issue overcoat, and the guard? is in a heavy woollen material uniform, carrying over from Victorian standards.

I'm never too sure when the working attire became the standard cotton twill (jeans) material with the universal adoption of either boiler suits or bib and brace overalls with separate jackets. I would think around WW1? The men in the photo from 1902 are workmen, but their clothing looks more like a rough tweed sort of material. In the 50s I took my boilersuits home and mum boiled them, and they gradually went from dark navy to sky blue, so it depended on how long you had them. By then there were schemes in the works to rotate overalls which were drycleaned and stayed dark blue, but I would think pre ww2 most overalls in use did fade. Edit: just to add Klondike was an area in Swindon works, I think the yard at the west end beyond A shop, although I could be wrong about the location, presume the time it was set up was coincidental with the gold rush?

Thanks for the update, reminds me of the "right said, Fred," song: "was he in trouble, half a ton of rubble, fell right on top of his dome.." That's an epic rebuild, hope you're successful, and can get back to modelling soon.

Underneath the arch-es ..

Lets have it in the MRJ, gwan, gwan!

You were on my thread this morning and I thought, here, I haven't checked what's going on in minehead recently, so, what's going on in minehead recently? That's Cambrian, not butlins.