Northroader

Picking up on the radius question, some facts and figures, and problem solving. I used to enjoy seeing the Agenoria stand at GOG shows. There used to be a tiny oval at the base of the showcase, with an 0-4-0T chasing round, on its own. The radius must have been about 9". This set me thinking, and I built a pizza style circle 13" radius on a 30" square baseboard, O gauge. This showed me some of the problems, and at present the line is on ice, although I've got solutions and sometime hope to complete. Another time, another thread. Back to Washbourne, the points are made to a radius of 18", length 9.5". The picture compares them to a Peco medium radius point, radius 72", length 16". If I used these points with the same short train lengths, the overall length of the layout would go from 5'9" to 7'3". Argos says he's got 24" radius, and this can take an Ixion 0-6-0T, with gauge easing. Good idea, I've overlooked easing, everything was built to a 32mm roller gauge, but I think I'll try that. Going up from there, Marc Smith is using old Lima points, which an old GOG handbook says are around 30". I've up sized a Peco OO settrack point to O scale on the computer for my Englefield line, which also came out at 30". I can run an 0-6-0 through this. Perhaps when the much talked about Peco small radius point appears, it will be in this blockhole.(edit added, since doing this post I've come across the thread which gives 40.5" radius for the new Peco settrack point, although the length given don't look right) There are two considerations using small radius. First, loco wheelbases. Here, I'm talking scratchbuilding, commercial kits will need a lot of rebuilding to adapt them, and also we're looking at small tank engines. The bread and butter engines are all four coupled. 0-4-0T are plain sailing, and 2-4-0T and 0-4-2T just need the non- driving axle carried in a pony truck with plenty of sideplay. I make single driver tank engines as 2-2-0 with the axles rigid mounted, and a trailing pony truck. Weight is added for adhesion, and placed to keep the centre of gravity over the rigid wheelbase. 2-4-2T have pony trucks both ends with sideplay, and I have an 0-4-4T running, with a sprung trailing bogie. This needs a lot of traverse, and I've found platform clearances need a "mind the gap" situation. This just leaves 0-6-0T. This shows a chassis made for the 13" radius line. Special features are thin frame plates, short spacers, joggled frames and no pickup at leading end, thinned down faces on the bushes, and notably the side rods are in two portions overlapping on the centre crank pin. All the holes need opening out to very slack fits. So it can be done. The other problem is buffers and couplings. I've found it is best never to allow the buffer faces to get near each other by having a single long link, mounted in an oversize draw hook, which does pulling and pushing. The hook is profiled with a recess at the front and the back, so the link can engage at the rear of the hook for pushing movements. The link is long enough to just clear the rail when hanging free, and the other feature is a small cross piece at the free end. This is needed to stop the link riding through the draw hook when at an angle. Not a pretty sight!

Tell Mr Schwarzennicker "I'll be back". Yes, the 2-4-2T is a GSWR Ivatt, why don't more folks model this line? I'm afraid mine is 'standard' 32 MM. gauge, rather than mess round making another layout the right gauge, which is quite feasible now Slaters do wheels and axles.

I'm still pushing for an unrebuilt Patriot. "Unknown Warrior" could appear sometime and everybody will want one. Another 4-6-0 which would look great is an old ex LNWR Prince? For a visitor GWR Halls seemed to get everywhere, for a dash of green.

Here's a tip, Google "Terence Cuneo" and then click on "images". You can have a very happy time, and come away loaded with ideas. As is the thing with Google, some other non Cuneo stuff creeps in, but you'll find several foreign, whoops, aboriginal native thingys, included. If you've got a taste for whimsy, look out for the "mouse" railways, any takers? they're crying out to be modelled. Not me, I'm trying to do too much already! There are beautiful paintings on the Guild of Railway Artists site, - more googling and images, but to me Cuneo is the daddy.

Looking at my copy of Bradley's book for the RCTS, which is my bible for all LBSC matters, the two petrol railcars were built by Dick Kerr with frames, wheels, and body, but Daimlers supplied the power equipment, being two 35hp engines, each driving a gearbox through a clutch. It seems they weren't liked, due to vibration, fumes, and low power. Daimlers supplied skilled mechanics, who had to give frequent attention, pushing operating costs up. They had new engines with more power fitted, but were transferred to service stock around WW1. Surprisingly, they didn't go up in flames, which always seems to happen when you put a petrol engine in a rail vehicle.

I've got this baseboard, which was left over from another scheme that didn't come off. It had a ply fascia strip glued to front and back, so I cut it down the middle and added new crosspieces and back longitudes. Then it was strengthened by battens underneath mainly for the join. Then after more design and drawing I wasn't happy with it, so it became thought of as a main unit which was widened, and a fiddle yard, which was shortened. I hope you aren't losing the will to live reading all this, it just me and my baseboard have become quite attached.You may say "but you're fitting a layout to a board? that's totally.... backwards" Sorree. Suffice to say the boards are conventional softwood frames, main station is 40.5" x 14.5" (1030 x 370) and fiddle yard is 28" x 12.25" (715 x 310). Station has 12mm chipboard top, fiddle yard 3.5mm hardboard top, and there's a 6mm ply strip along the front to finish it, and stop stuff dropping off. Incidentally it's not tailor made to fit anywhere, I just wanted to do a really small O layout. It was then a case of seeing what would go on the board. Two parallel lines, with a runround crossover, platform behind, and a siding in front. I considered a bay into the platform, but I think there's a balance to reach of what proportion of the baseboard is covered by track against the rest. I placed a loco and coaches on the board with a building to size it all up. This told me what was left for the points I needed. I put a Peco OO settrack point in the copier, blew it up to 175%, (4mm to 7mm), then worked out how much it needed to be shortened by to fit in, which I did on photoshop. The printouts are fitted in in the picture above. I then built the points to this drawing, using 6mm copper clad glass fibre sleeper strip and code 124 flat bottom nickel silver rail, all from Marcway of Sheffield. The rail is on the hefty side for pregroup, it was leftover from an American line I was doing. This shows the finished point work, and the main thing about it is the tight curvature. I've put in a standard Peco point with it as a comparison. I think I'd best stop here and discuss all the implications in the next post.

I'm struggling to find the mouse which Cuneo always included, it must be there somewhere. He did do several overseas, I can think of two French ones besides.

Just for the fun of it, I've knocked up a little diorama using your poster. It's on my new line, which is why there's no ballast and the platform is a bit rudimentary, also the printer decided to band the colours, on an A3 sheet, which gives you an idea of the size, I hope. You might have to change the thread to "new improved engine green is the new black", as the setting is about 30 years before yours! Then it's O gauge, which should please our mate with all that lovely tinplate. Hope you're well soon, sir!

At STJ, that's SJ with T in the middle, you'll understand, the yard pilots were all fitted with radio, and everybody got told off for using it to place bets. Perhaps RBC was the primitive form of this?

Really beautiful job, it looks great.

Here's a picture of what a real winter looks like, a Cuneo painting of the CNR. As the old folks used to say to us kids, " Yow don't know yow bin born!"

I think you can be too slavish to picking a definite place, and everything has to conform to there. Take the elements you like, and there are any number of examples on this page, and do a simple setting working all of those in, although you may have to strike a tricky balance with some of the items, and not to get too overcrowded. Just to say, I don't go much on the tin shed approach when there are such good looking older styles around!

Me. Don't worry, you'll get the track well sorted.

Haven't used it for years, but don't you put the foam around the track, it sort of stretches and envelops it, and then lay the two together? Then I used to pin the track down, which might not suit modern tastes.

Just a staff suggestion, boss, bin it and nuffin more will be said, but looking at your poster, don't you think you've got the basis of a lovely little layout encapsulated in that poster? Yard of plain track on a plank, small overbridge halfway along to define the known world, some space behind the track for a small platform, shelter like say Cooksbridge, and the poster giving the basis for a scenic backdrop, Pevensey? Terrier with push pull if you can't fix a steam car. Keep it simple, and all that. Also much better for your pocket and time and space in the present circumstances.

Here's a dimensioned sketch of the ground signal, taken from same source: No idea of what "rbc" stands for, but looking at where they're placed, they appear to apply to the two ground discs which are furthest away from the signal box, and facing away from it. Presumably the back blinder confirming the operation of the signal couldn't be seen, and some sort of repeater was fitted.? Over to you, Mike!

Lifted this out of opc book "pictorial record of SR signals" - no good duck should be without one

I'd be tempted to say "sod it", tin everything and apply a hot iron. Crude is my middle name! Good luck with the other screws.

One thing which I'm curious about, and shouldn't in any case affect the short term outcome, is the tree surgery in Sonning Cutting. This has the random effect of the mast planting, only in spades. Young saplings and old trees come out here and there, old trees have a few branches lopped, others left with just the main part of the trunk showing. There's no mass clear out of the whole lot. While criticising, what about the two old yard lighting poles either side of the lines in the Scours Lane area? Donkeys years old and rotten bases with it, I should think. Just detail, but someone ought to sort it.

For a change, I'm doing a post on some of the rolling stock on Englefield, starting with the two cabooses, ?cabeese, ?cabeeses.. (You say " tomayto, etc ") These are a must for a 1950s freight, forming a rolling HQ for the conductor, the guy in charge of the train. There was a cupola for a lookout over the train, and a desk for paperwork, freight car waybills, and so on. A stove kept the car warm and heated coffee and meals. Boxes underneath carried useful spares like coupler parts and air brake hoses. Beside the conductor there was very likely a brakeman. All trains were fully air braked by then, so the brakeman no longer ran along the roof screwing hand brakes down, he helped by throwing points at passing sidings, setting out cars, and protection when stopped on the mainline. The caboose was usually assigned to one person, and was well cared for as a result. Some turns could end end out well in the sticks, and so there were four benches/ bunkspace inside for the train crew to doss down. These cars were a standard CNR design, but typical of most North American designs, slightly shorter at 35' than the standard boxcars of 40'. The models were made from a drawing in the Model Railroader for Aug 84. The body is mainly .060 plastikard, with an external layer of Evergreen V groove styrene sheet, which gives a neat finish. There's a wood strip inside to help with weight. The bogies aren't very obvious, but are Walthers, diamond / arch-bar framed. These are the old type, before the cast steel types were introduced, and by the 50s were banned from movement off individual roads, but still used for internal use. The Walthers kit has frames, bolster, wheel sets, then six teeny little coil springs go in. Horribly fiddly, but once you have the knack of assembly, they are the most perfect runners you could wish for. Spot the difference fans can look out for window spacing, storm windows, doors, handbrake wheels, cupola bracing. In the 50s the cars were repainted orange, I used Humbrol flat orange with a small quantity of Matt White mixed in. I did have a Roundhouse HO car with black roof, which I thought looked smart, but the drawing said mineral red, so... The transfers are C-D-S decals, a Canadian firm, which are a treat to apply, and you'll find they also do some USA lines as well. My South African mate, currently suffering from heatwave and drought, tells me there is an Englefield in Northwest Territory, which looks like more of a geographical feature than a town. Should I model tundra, snow, and a polar bear with his head stuck in a wheelie bin? Urrrhhh.. Think I'll stick with a fictional place somewhere in Quebec or Ontario, with "Fall" scenery.

It still makes you want to go to Bognor, doesn't it? I stayed there last year, but sadly she wasn't around. Good luck, Edwardian!

LMS forever, (and why not?) Present set-up is the majority of the masts are in on Didcot Reading stretch, with random gaps here and there, say just over half the head span bracket thingys, and a bit less register arms. Wiring is still just a stretch east of Pangbourne, on the relief, I couldn't say about the main, but there is some catenary and/ or earth wire spreading out from this. Wiring also ready in the new depot at Reading. There's a good proportion of the base tubes gone in east from Reading, although I haven't been past Maidenhead to see up there. Probably well over half the base tubes in to about the Oxford road bridge east of Swindon, but no masts yet. Substation looks done at Foxhall and smaller unit at Uffington. Must get a trip in to Oxford and Newbury!

Those Dean clasp brakes are total sods to do, aren't they? Yours are looking good, fit nicely. On the home stretch now!

When you saw the structures going in, did you think Wehrmacht war surplus store, second hand Tiger tank gun barrels? Credit to NR to trying to save some money. (Question to the Stationmaster re Basildon viaduct)

Oh, I did enjoy that rant, sorry! I won't get carried away again, promise. Two points on the way home this afternoon, nothing has happened at Twyford yet, it looks terribly bare in comparison to places on either side, and then going over Basildon bridge, on HST doing a ton, "whatever was that?" There's some sort of tubular erections on the bridge. Is it the new sensitive to the environment structure? Will the inhabitants of Goring leap about clutching it to their bosoms?? Have they taken the wrapping off it ??? Call me old fashioned, but the new structures are really nice, now I've gone through them a few times. Further up, we overtook a container train, and sideways on, there's not a lot of clearance between the register arms and the top of the train, obviously there must be some.