BWsTrains

I can go one better! Likewise the superb double roundhouses at the Berlin Technology Museum, Google maps ref here. https://www.google.com.au/maps/dir/Anhalter+Bahnhof,+10963+Berlin,+Germany/German+Technology+Museum+Berlin,+Trebbiner+Straße,+Berlin-Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg,+Germany/@52.4976018,13.3734742,1079m/data=!3m2!1e3!5s0x47a8503247467569:0xfffc8c8198ecdd93!4m14!4m13!1m5!1m1!1s0x47a851cd688df0fb:0xad3dd81d184f738a!2m2!1d13.3818463!2d52.5045193!1m5!1m1!1s0x47a85032346a25bb:0x4435919b99126a78!2m2!1d13.3778846!2d52.4986982!3e3!5m1!1e4?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI0MDkxNi4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D well worth the visit, on the site of the former Anhalter Güterbahnhof yards, some 900m from the still standing massive Anhalter main station portal.

True enough! A seven generation descendant of an offsider to Henry VIII would surely aim higher. I'll need a Roller.

Hi Mikkel, Superb indeed! I suspect that "call-me-Risley" the 7th Earl of Southhampton would be wanting one so he could drive down to Upper Hembury Station to greet his incoming Guests. I must explore further.

Now to tidying up some loose ends, first to the minor #2 Control Panel which manages some significant tasks and it needed documentation before I totally forget what I've done. For a small interface, it's controlling several important aspects of operations Traverser movements Monitoring access on / off the storage area Signalling The original purpose was to mount the three key Traverser controls, Line selection, direction of travel and limit override ( the rotary switch bottom left and two other unmarked switches) To this I've added two further features: the PCB bottom at left has the two indicator LEDs fed from the Traverser access sensor some 2m away The remainder is the wiring for control of the two Dapol motorised signals The last of these is marked up on the diagram as follow: 1 PS lines in 2 Off-take to main Green indicator LED – active when PS on 3 In Line switch in (+) between PS and signals –> (see 5. Yellow LED ON = active) 4 +/- to Output – for input to each Signal 5 Yellow LED across output line to signals A/B Momentary switches for individual signals, these connect to the two yellow wires on each signal From the front Signal switching is deliberately left unmarked, to discourage unwanted little fingers from excessive play!

Those look superb!

Because of the time difference, I hope Mike @The Stationmaster will excuse me posting his PM to me (on my inquiry) before I get an "OK" from him. Definitely in the best place as it stands, on the west side. Access to the station would be along the cess path - fully adequate in those days (and until the 1970s as it happens). If I had a £ for every signal box I've visited by using a cess path I would be quite well off! The 'box is right next to the main running line with no need to cross any other line for hand exchanges of tokens or whatever is in use for the single line signalling or for ready access to token collection/set down posts. The only need to cross the line - so foot crossing required - would be to hand a token to the Drover of a departing freight train coming out of the yard. No visibility problems really - the most important thing is checking tail lamps then just keeping an eye on trains as they pass and looking out for hand-signals from the engine or the Guard - ideally sited for that. And to me it looks just right where it is..... Thanks Mike,

Lots of $hit coloured light brown around the rear end and down the back legs. I used to do research which involved sheep and I never saw a clean one in all my time out at the farm. As they spend much of their time with fleeces longer rather than shorter, the dirtier the better TBH.

Thanks for the various comments on box placement. I've taken views from the box for both situations for better clarity. and with a little photo-editing to mask the storage area - the exit to the south through the cutting The final shot providing a good view of the single slip now fully ballasted

As I reach the end of a key stage, viz. final track placement and ballasting, I've been thinking about what comes next and how much or little progress has been made. It seemed timely as the rather scary 3 year anniversary of "The Off" approaches so I dug out a few old photos which mark progress so far. Firstly a room with a space, 4400mm from wall to staircase. A framework "L" Girder in Nov 21 The majority of track in place by Oct 2023, with the station, the gifted Engine shed from @john dew and a proxy Goods shed And the latest view TBH this year feels like I've made painfully slow progress but seen in retrospect I'm feeling much more positive. Now to planning what comes next.

By strange coincidence, identical thoughts have been occupying YT as I rapidly approach 3 years in, how much done, not done etc. You beat me to posting by about 5hrs.

One thing you can be sure of, the loco didn't.

At the other end of the spectrum and veering totally 180 degrees OT, my two younger children, now with their own in tow were searching our rabbitwarren of storage for old toys of interest to occupy the new Gen., one Christmas about 5-6 yrs ago. They came across a very large storage tub of mixed LEGO kit components, 40 or so of them from space ships to trucks, giant to tiny, the lot piece by piece and not a single instruction sheet, just the odd boxes or packs and memory to guide which kits they were from. The manufacturer's website came good, providing download instructions for every kit they'd owned 30+ yrs ago and then followed a couple of intensive days of negative Entropy! First sorting by colour / size, the kits slowly came back to life. All possible because really good instructions are worth their weight in gold. First kit reassembled? "The lunar Space Station" of course. Since then one of our older grandkids has built the Apollo Saturn, all 1900 pieces of it. I hope he keeps it and the instructions for the next Gen.

Regarding the outer blades, I've extracted this from your photo to better understand your plans. B marks the location for the recommended wiring. At A where I think you intend to wire, access from beneath is highly restricted because that is the mounting area for the "V" rails as shown on p3 of the instructions is solid base. Regarding flexing of the switch blade at "B" in OO you are ~3mm from the fixed chair and from there to the top of the arc of the blade ((left end of line "C") is 30mm. At that point (again in OO) the rail gap is ~1mm so we could estimate a potential lateral movement of 0.1mm which is being restricted by the soldering at "B". I confess this point had escaped me as on regular turnouts with their longer blades there are fixed chairs either side of the wiring points. Will it be a problem? These have been available for more than two years with no reports on here of issues as of yet.

Bit of a grind to find them (p13/14 of 21 on searching "Railway") but worthwhile. Good Helstion station shots including one with an early Siphon and fascinating one of unloading a Postal Truck, no OHS there! Now Andy just needs to add the Station Railway Arch!

In my book there are five types of instructions: A string of pics (no words) designed to show the route to build some 3D item (and which often fail in their purpose). World's biggest Furniture Co anyone? Wagon / Coach Kit instructions which unless you've done this before defy understanding, + (Var 2- diagram remains unchanged after an update to kit so doesn't make sense). Well known OO Kit Cos Exploded Loco chassis kit diagrams with so many components and steps illustrated plus highly detailed text that despite their excellence and undoubted accuracy defy understanding for beginners who need them most. Typically they ignore a crucial 1st step, (1 - take two Panadol and extended rest in a darkened room) Those with only a tiny CD or hyperlink supplied - I mean, tell me who's got a CD drive on a PC these days and anyway you're trying to set up / restore so the PC's not going properly - YET! British Finescale - excellent detail and step by step diagrams of the highest order. Given this, it seems a tad churlish to ignore Wayne's hard work putting them together.

from the various photos I have of Kingsbridge in the 30s and that was a busy terminus, it was maintained in very good order indeed.

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That sounds like the Basil Fawlty line Mrs Richards "There's no sea view" Fawlty - "It's over there between the Land and the Sky! Mrs Richards "call that a sea view?" etc......

By a bizarre chance, we stayed in the same named hotel in Lauterbrunnen. The Wengernalpbahn terminus station starts there, down in the valley. We took the line up as far as the first stop Wengen for a look around and it was as dead (2-6 May 2016) as I've ever found a town, we couldn't even get lunch, everywhere was closed up (between seasons). Hence Wengen might not be as a good choice all year round!

Much of August has been about ballasting and I've reached the stage where everything but the minor sidings (creamery / tannery) are ballasted with much tidying up / repairs remaining. Along the way it occurred to me to try placing the signal box on the East (wall) side of the tracks and it makes better sense now done. Thoughts please!. The yard / station overview shows the current situation with all the yard dirt now laid and ballasted track The recycled bicycle brake cable which operates the Trap point has been carefully run along in the framing and terminates above the control panel. Old meets new.

The Station is Umeda Terminus, Osaka and the Railway is the successful Hanku Railway Company (Wikipedia has a useful topic). Admittedly a real toughy of a question, worthy of Tom Gleeson's "Hard Quiz" final round for us in Oz. How all the various private railways mesh in with JR is remarkable to see and use to get around in Japan. My first experience of Hankyu was to hop on the Local from Kyoto to Osaka paying the princely sum of Y500 (around A$5!) back in 2016. I see it's crept up to Y564 today; hmm seems they have inflation! As to the detour, you can't have too much SPAM, or so it seems.

✔ ✖✖ that should narrow it down a bit! A little clue, the hotel where I took this and the Railway share their name (not uncommon in Japan 😈)

....and now for something completely different. Synchronised swimming has nothing on this trio of departures, clearly all at same time. Love the spacing and the perfect harmony of their exit as seen here But where? Leaving which Station? which Railway?

Where can we buy their beer?

As we learnt from earlier posts there is the ~0.2mm overall height differential when joining PECO bullhead track to BF turnouts, easily fixed with a shim under the PECO side. THEN, on the other hand if you try to run PECO rail into the end of a BF Turnout base, you find strong resistance and chairs popping off before you've gone very far at all. Hence my extensions of several turnout exits on Upper Hembury were done by exploiting the excess supplied length of BF rail fed onto bare PECO extension sleepers. Not so easy when you have machined inner exit rails #, but perhaps a continuous outer rail and a rail-joined inner rail as a compromise? I built the entirety of my UH without using any short length of track between two adjacent turnouts. I just extended exit lanes to fit which makes for much smoother curves. It being hard to continue the line of a curve in any track which is so short (for me anyway) # my build experience was 75% with the original cast frog design kits.