Davexoc

Never noticed that before, but they show up in this shot....

I reckon it will be one of 014, 027, 028, or 043 Short name, no crest and a black painted roof...

Must be some pretty low grade ore for the load to be visible from that vantage point. Often only appeared to be half loaded like this one....

IIRC they had a propensity to self combust. That's worse than a bit of clag....

The Bank Holiday weekends have allowed some progress on the control panel. Eighteen toggle switches of four different varieties have been added to break up the layout power and provide more than just loops, yard and shed. Most of the extra connections will be connected using redundant capacity in the original 9-pin network, of which there are ten plus another that provides connectivity between the two main boards. Just had to add one more to make the final few feeds. There are actually four more 9-pin sockets that supply the majority of the signalling, but these are wired directly to the various switches. The back of the panel while removed with most wiring tidied up a bit, but once the panel is refitted, the outgoing connections can be shortened and loomed to suit the best cable routing between panel and layout. Front of the panel now back in place. Eight mainline zone switches on the left allowing more than one train on the line in the scenic section. Ten more at the other end to better control to and from the yard and shed. the layout can be run from the four main controls, but the handhelds allow the shed and yard to be controlled more locally, or they can be switched to the mainlines to operate from the front of the layout for visitors. Looking under the layout at the panel we have from top left; handheld terminals, 2 x CCBs for transformers, CCB for power supplies, mains power terminals, 16v AC terminals, 12v PSU for point motors, 10v PSU for lighting and second handheld terminals. Below is the connections to those eleven 9-pin leads and sockets.

There's a bridge you can knock up with all those offcuts lurking in the spares bin. Of course, you'd likely have some comments if exhibiting a hybrid structure like that.....

Went to The Buckinghamshire Railway Centre at Quainton today and thought I might have been able to see a bit more of HS2 than I did, but apart from mounds of earth, there is very little visible. Looking back towards Aylesbury I think we can ascertain where the Quainton HS2 Railhead is by the state of the rails, just beyond that second dodgey looking dip. I guess that fencing on the right is where the aggregate from Tytherington gets unloaded. Looking the other way there is just a truncated line with Stop board. The red and white poles beyond the bridge are somewhere near where HS2 should start to run alongside the EWR to Aylesbury link at some point in the future. I'm assuming that the BRC has been gifted some of the lifted track panels....

What is that destination blind showing? It looks like it could be Portsmouth Harbour....

Early days of Hull Trains.....

Could very well be, a process I got to know at a company in Belgium. The plastic is foamed by injecting nitrogen at 150 Bar into the melt, which saves at least 20% plastic. They used to make kids slides, dog kennels, pallets and 1 cubic metre pallet bins for agricultural use. One of the biggest users though was GKN-Chep, who had plastic planks made to fit to leading edges of their blue pallets, because they were more resilient than wood. The material can be made less UV susceptable, most electrical cables or conduits thus treated are often coloured orange or yellow, but I think lines of orange ductwork along the network might look a bit gaudy, and be an advertisement to the copper fairies.....

A few bits and pieces progressed this weekend. With the weather starting warm and dry I gave the backscene a coat of matt laquer to offer some protection, and while removed, I tweaked some of the scenery to add some extra texture/colour, while also hopefully sealing and securing any loose bits. All stock removed to the fiddle yard and points etc. were masked, but some track cleaning will still be required... Some of the motive power at rest on the shelf. I'm thinking of sticking a load of cheap track up there and then organising stock in eras rather than ascending classes... And finally, the control panel removed and undergoing a revamp/tidy up. I originally just wired up four zones, up main, down main, yard, and shed. I decided now is the time to divide those zones up to bring the required operational flexibility. I suppose I could have gone DCC, but being a sparky, I'm not afraid of a bit of spaghetti. Probably comes from tracing faults on class 31s, 47s and 50s. At least my wiring is clean and does't disappear into a dirty cubicle or conduit...

And finally to the Little Horwood road at the other end of Winslow. This was the extent of laid track for the Bletchley direction just over 2 weeks ago. Now preparing for S&T judging by all that ducting, which looks like plastic these days? That concludes my short tour of the Calvert to Winslow section, which seems to be progressing quite nicely.

Winslow, first looking to the west. Some Pandrol bit of kit sat down by the lines, which by the looks of it mean there are some ballast deliveries due.... Looking at the station and from this angle, those platforms don't look very long! Closer, I know there is room for expansion, but they still look a bit short for anything more than 2 or 3 cars...

The NTCT sat just east of Verney Junction, with a solar powered CCTV guardian watching over it....

Looking in the other direction towards Verney Junction we see the new bridge that as far as I can tell is for farm access. The crossing at Verney appears to have been barricaded now. Getting in closed reveals the robotic track moving team taking a rest. Then from the other side of the bridge we can see under and beyond towards Winslow, with the bridge over Claydon Brook, also not apparent when I took the shot, the working end of the NTCT. The new school and houses of Winslow are visible in the distance.

Sandhill Road bridge looking westwards. This is where we come across the first signs of track laying, just LWR on the ground at the moment. Yet another green bridge, with the Steeple Claydon one visible just around the corner.

The view from up there at the moment is quite good, until all the planting gets going. Looking back towards Calvert and we see just how much bigger the bridge by Rose Hill Farm is. Beyond that in the haze is the leap over HS2 and then the next obstacle, the Calvert - Gawcott road bridge... Closer view. And in the other direction, one of the many footpath crossing points. Plenty of these green bridges along the line now erected.

Now we come to the newly deviated Queen Catherine Road. This was where the level crossing and Steeple Claydon station once were, but have now become a pair of dead ends. This is the new road leading to the bridge and on towards East Claydon. This about the only good bit of tarmac in the area. Warning to any intrepid cyclists, you need full suspension, big fat tyres, and an extensive puncture repair kit to explore the area at the moment.... A view of the bridge from the lower stub of the old Queen Catherine Road. They have used the landscape quite well here by swinging the road westwards just after the church, which is on higher ground, which must have reduced the amount of earthworks required. A wider view with the old road just before the LC to the right of that big tree.

On to Rose Hill Farm where there used to be a bridge over the line just east of LNE junction. I guess the new one is much wider to allow more lines under for not only EWR, but the Aylesbury chord and access to the HS2 infrastructure depot. There used to be a bit of a hump here, now gone with the traffic light signs denoting where the trackbed was... The new bridge under construction. There's a substantial mobile crane on the other side behind that concrete pump. They were still working, as a cement mixer had just gone back to the batching plant at Calvert.

Just to show how big that embankment is, now and then at LNE junction..... I wonder if they planned to dig it back up, or has the recent rain shown up a possible drainage problem??? That is the same tree, but from somewhat different view points A more distant shot, with the setting sun making things a bit hazy, so not particularly clear...

A few shots at the site Calvert station showing the old GCR alignment, and the PFW station. And the new EWR bridge over HS2 in the northerly direction.

Slightly OT really, but looking towards Aylesbury we have this view, Calvert platform now consigned to history.... This is a bit of a beast, don't know if this will be where the waste transfer will cross HS2, as the unloading terminal will be on the wrong side of it. The house on the corner is another HS2 casualty

I had the opportunity today to take a circuitous route home and grab some photos around the various works west of Swanbourne, just to see how things are progressing. I'll bunch them together in locations and put up a series of posts starting from Calvert station, or at least what is left of it.... Firstly, the current state of the EWR over HS2 bridge. The eastern embankment to the bridge Wider angle looking up the old GCR trackbed

I think Mike has pretty well covered this above. An 'A' exam would require oil sampling along with a few other functional checks on top of those listed. Oil was sent to the lab for condition checking, various elements indicating wear or degradation, but we could do basic checks for fuel dilution in The Factory. Tyre shifting was another check, white paint lines across wheel to tyre which were applied if there was suspicion of movement. This used to be done on external faces for locos, but internal for passenger stock, which was done so as to not alarm the passengers. Or that's what we were told.....

A rather hastily grabbed instamatic shot.....