jamesg

Wow, the Class 800s are very quiet (I have heard anecdotally that they are too quiet for track workers).

Wow, they're louder on electric (as a passenger, this seems to be rail noise).

I find the lack of noise is the most 'stand out' feature of the 800s, much quieter than any other DMU class.

Saw 70020 on the above working today.

I have a copy of this book, what strikes me is the excellent and consistent quality of the photographs, considering that they come from many different collections.  The author's interest in the subject matter is strong and is explained in the introduction.

There's a chapter on country stations which, along with the chapters on specific building types, which will be of interest to those looking for layout inspiration.  A model of Caterham station might not be believed.

SolveSpace is another CAD program that will let you draw text directly, though to my knowledge it won't draw a curved line of text (as in a your locomotive builder's plate).

21 minutes ago, smokebox said:

The best thing you can build with MDF is a bonfire.

There are much better ways to build a bonfire.

MDF is workable as a baseboard material if it's sealed with MDF primer and steps are taken to reduce noise.  It is heavier than plywood and more difficult (less pleasant) to work with as it gives off dust when sawn.

The Thursday 05:36 Garston to Southampton liner was usually a 70 in 2018 (three out of three occasions I saw it), have not seen it more recently than the end of April.

Just a little update on progress so far.  Rotating the POA wagon by 45 degrees and printing upside down seems to have improved the quality of the print significantly.  There is no bridging visible from the outside when printed upside down.  When printed 'right way up', there is a lot of bridging between the steel ribs on the sides.

The wider brim has reduced warping; the end nearest the camera lifted up slightly, it's not as bad as it looks in the photo.

009 narrow gauge prints are going very well and don't suffer from warping at all.  As well as the quarrymen's carriages, I drew up an approximation of Vale of Ffestiniog (not for rivet counters) for the Kato tram chassis.

It is printed in two sections; the top section is 'right way up' and the lower, light grey section is upside down.  It's pictured here with some quarrymen's carriages.

I printed a 'spare' Vale of Ffestiniog and painted that one blue.  It is pictured with the quarrymen's carriages and a Parkside Dundas model of the later, glazed type of carriage.

Meanwhile, I'm practising drawing in Solvespace.  A useful approach when designing for an existing chassis such as the Kato chassis is to draw a bounding box of the chassis and subtract it from the model to ensure a good fit.  For instance, here is the bounding box of the Kato chassis.

It happens all the time for the frieghtliner terminal there it's the only way to work it. But technically it's not off the mainline it will be on what we know as the lawley which is a goods loop alongside the up and down slow. Most trains that arrive from waterorton direction run round on that line outside the terminal as they are too big to be done inside. Then they get a double shunt from us (opposing shunt signals cleared) and they can mess about to their hearts content without disturbing us signalman too much. Tho it's a bloody pain in the arse when they are shunting and something photogenic passes the West Midlands Signalling Centre.

Have just looked at the location on a map and see what you mean!

Thank you all for these responses, the topic might be worthy of its own thread.  The Clitheroe cement depot and Plasmor depot at Heck look particularly tricky to work as the junctions are directly off the main line rather than off a goods loop.

Apologies to Jim for disrupting the thread.

That was a beautiful sunset on Wednesday.  I suppose it's nice as long as you're not driving into it?

Out of interest, is it common practice to propel a freight train off of the main line into a depot, rather than running round?  You've got a picture from a few weeks ago of an intermodal train backing into Landor Street where it appears that the locomotive is propelling.

The wrap-around yellow ends look similar to one variation of the BR livery and suit the class very well.

Thank you both for your replies.  I'll try printing the POA wagon at an angle to begin with, as that can be done without any additional materials, then try the #2090 tape.

I did look briefly at resin printers, then decided against as they seem to require a lot of cleaning and the material is not so readily available.

Here are a couple of quarrymens carriages in 009 gauge.  They print fairly well on the Wanhao printer, with no warping as long as the bed is leveled correctly.  Some sanding is required to remove the lines from the curved roof.  The couplings are a simple hook and loop made from wire which fits into two holes in the block at each end of the chassis and is secured with glue.

They were called 'zip-fastener' carriages as the men had to sit with their knees interlocked.

Following a demonstration at last year's Warley show, I purchased a basic 3D printer (Wanhao Duplicator i3 Mini), with little clue of what I was going to use it for.  Once I had gotten it to print some basic objects, I obtained copies of "Railway Wagon Plans: 1960s to the Present" by John L. Fox and "British Railways Wagons: the first half million" by Don Rowland.

The POA wagon pictured was designed in Solvespace, an easy to use parametric CAD program, then sliced and printed in one piece with supports.  This is probably the largest wagon from the book that can be printed in one piece on my printer, given the small build volume.  It came out fairly well, the only issue being that the supports are tricky to remove.  Any details such as brakes and brake hangers would only make that problem worse.

An alternative I tried was printing the wagon upside down with support inside the wagon.  There was a lot of warping around the top corners with this method, possibly due to poor build plate adhesion.  The unsupported rim at the top of the wagon came out much better.  I don't know what to do about that at the moment.  I've been using a brim of about 5-6mm with smaller items to improve adhesion, though the small build volume of the printer limits the brim to 3mm with the POA wagon.

A photograph of the POA wagon, currently lacking couplings and buffers (they wouldn't fit in the build volume).  This version was printed right way up; the bottom of the rim around the top is rough where the printer has had to bridge the gaps between the supports.

The drawing exported from Solvespace.

The printer is currently working on a 009 scale quarrymen's carriage from the Ffestiniog railway, which is more suited to this printer's capabilities than OO scale models of modern rolling stock.

It was a special treat for drivers and operational staff who worked tirelessly through the season keeping the train running

The diagram near me starts at 22:37 and finishes 13:18 the next day Monday to Friday (with a revised schedule at weekends), so it's a mammoth effort!

Here's a picture from yesterday morning (train started on Friday) of 56078 and 56302.  It's probably the last train of the season, which has seen a variety of 56's, 66's and for a short time a Class 70/8.

Just wondering if the reason for 50050 being added to the North Wales RHTT is known?

There's a version of the 'computer monitor' (you'll know what I mean when you see it) departure boards available online at http://iris2.rail.co.uk/tiger/ .  They very likely take data from the same source.

There are occasional movements of rolling stock on the Cotswold Line, going to or from Long Marston.  These are usually multiple units, tankers going for cleaning, or other rolling stock in long term storage.  This is 6Z35 Long Marston to Cardiff Docks on 6th January 2017.

Edit: 50008 'Thunderer' has visited Long Marston with a railvac at least twice.

It's being shown to users as they log in, but this link should get you there: https://www.flickr.com/lookingahead/ .

Can't say this is going to affect me too much unless the photographers I follow choose to leave, as I tend to look at the most current photographs.

However, spam on the site has been getting worse and there's no guarantee that the current raft of changes will be the last for a while.

Edit: just to add, I feel for people who have spent a lot of time entering photographs and captions into Flickr, to the benefit of others, only to have their work undone in a few months.

I recall a similar problem with a long wheelbase van derailing on Hornby points.  Adding thickness to the outside of the check rail with a thin strip of plastic card, fixed with Uhu glue, forced the flange to contact the check rail (something that's not supposed to happen on the real thing).  Also easy to roll back the change if it doesn't work.

Andy G's beaten me to it!

66104 (DB red) and 56302 (Colas orange) worked Monday's 22:37 Gloucester Horton Road to Cheltenham Lansdown Loop RHTT via Craven Arms, Oxford & Kings Norton.  It was previously worked by 56096 and 56105.  The 66 and 56 made for a colourful train, as neither has had the chance to get too dirty yet.

Information seen online suggests that 56105 was taken out for tyre turning at St Philips Marsh.  It worked 0Z56 today from Bristol St Philips Marsh to Crewe Basford Hall.

Thank you for continuing to post updates and photographs following your move to GBRf.

Here's a picture of your train before Abbotswood.

(I was on the right side of the fence).

The only similarity was the pointy front, with the swept back windscreen, but then the class 43 (as in the HSTs) rather set the style for high speed front ends thereafter. There is a family resemblance between the 90 and the 91, though.

 

Jim

I was thinking about the service branding, and the average rail traveller is unlikely to notice many differences.  Another pair of similar classes, at least in passenger perception, are the Class 390 and Class 221.

I personally think class 43, APT-P and the class 89. The windscreens and the fronts all look similar

They do look quite alike.

Classes 43 and 91, the British Rail InterCity diesel and electric locomotives.  Though not very similar in the size of each fleet; there were 197 Class 43s produced, compared to 31 Class 91s.

43153, 43040 and four coaches are going for refurbishment.  They moved from Laira to Doncaster yesterday; here they are at Abbotswood (Worcester), which was more dull than Doncaster in this photo.

Crossovers made with Hornby small radius points can be improved by cutting some rail from the diverging track, bringing the two parallel tracks closer together.  A mini grinder is the best tool for cutting rail.  An advantage of using the small radius points is that the length of the track formation is reduced, useful if you don't have a lot of space to store the layout.  Ebay is a good place to find bundles of track, if you're patient you can find Hornby points for just a few pounds each when purchased in bundles.

As well as weathering the sleeprs, painting the rail sides with a rust colour will make any code 100 rail look smaller and close to scale.  I've always used a brush so masking isn't required.

The Coventry to Leamington line between Kenilworth and Leamington was double track, singled in 1972.  There remains a passing loop at Kenilworth but this is not in the new station.  As far as I can tell, the stretch from Kenilworth to Gibbet Hill on the outskirts of Coventry has always been single track.

Milverton station (Leamington) was closed in 1965 as part of the Beeching Axe, with the stretch between Leamington and Kenilworth being singled in 1972.

Part of the line was redoubled in 2007 and there's talk of electrifying the route, though who knows whether that will happen.  More about the line in this Wikipedia article.