Dave John

I do like the stark lines of the Ivatt 4. Is it a kitbuild? Point rodding I have done, but that photo reminds me I must tackle signal wires.

I wish you all the best with the project. As the other posters suggest help from a local model railway club would get the whole thing going. thinking sideways , simple and reliable would be the key. Hope it works out.

Heh, cheers John. I have just spent a nostalgic hour pottering about the net looking at pictures of clockwork toys. You know, you are right, when we were young toyboxes were full of clockwork toys. Indeed, the first "model railway" I had was clockwork, I guess that goes for quite a few folk on here. Now they seem to be a complete rarity. There are a few meccano clockwork motors out there but they are a bit bigger than you are looking for. Anyway, I had a sideways thought and googled "music box mechanisms pics" . I was surprised to find there are quite a few still being made worldwide and some are available fairly cheaply. Not only that , it reminded me that I have a couple, one day I'll find a use for them. I don't know whether that is of any use to you, but it jolted my memory and made me think about how much of toymaking is now history.

I think the smoke you see is from gas fired limekilns used to reduce Limestone to quicklime for industrial or construction use. The fixed site machinery will be powered from a grid connection, but I expect a sizeable site would also have some diesel generation as a backup, perhaps even mixed CHP these days.

Impressive. Just a wild thought, given the tiny size of early locos would any N gauge chassis be of use ?

Hmm, looks like that Iron mink will be heavy enough to batter the wonkiness out of the track..... Mind you the track looks rather neat to start with.

It is indeed a very atmospheric Photo. I note that the steel bodied mineral wagon in the foreground has the axlebox cover hanging loose. I will now just say its based on a prototype pic if any axleboxes fall off my stock......

Cheers Mikkel. The first build was 1891, thereafter in small batches till 1900. They were followed by the slightly larger D68 in 1903. The last of the D11a s were withdrawn in 1928. ( as ever, thanks to Mike Williams CR wagon book ) The kits were a pleasure to build, the design made for a straightforward paint job.

Well, there they are, painted and in service. Firstly a couple of photos in harsh artificial light, the colours may look a bit more natural in real daylight. Overall I’m happy with them, though the spring suspension system doesn’t seem to hold the track as well as I’d like. A bit of running and it might bed in a bit. I haven’t added any weight, lets wait and see if it is needed. A couple of shots of them in a train .

The actual exchange of wagon models might pose a problem. However the above posts have started me thinking, a photographic exchange of models would be easy. There are lots of pics of my wagons about on the net, I consider them all to be free in the public domain. So if anyone who is good with photoshop like software wanted to copy one and stitch it into a pic of their own layout I would be happy to see the results. I might even have a go myself .......

Och, ye can send yer pre group EM stock up here, The Caley would haul it for a few bob. Ken if its OO nae matter, what the spanish can do with Talgos we can do wi' a big hammer...... There are some pics of the Caley D11A CCTs I am currently working in Camden yard , they could have got to london via , er , Farthing. Dual brake fitted way back. Really the oddest things turn up north of the Clyde..........

Cheers Mikkel. Fun with fuse wire.

A useful week, both chassis up and running so on to the bodies. My first concern was the buffers. The whitemetal ones supplied are ok, but they are solid and they don’t have a footstep. Magnifying the best available picture of the D11a I am sure that they did have a welded on footstep. So I opted to use a L+Y buffer which is very close in shape to the CR one and solder a footstep to it. More solid than the whitemetal one, and of course it will give me working buffers. Here is one in progress. The body itself just requires handrails, door handles and lamp irons. A coat of grey primer shows the odd spot that needs a bit of fettling. Lastly I spent a happy evening making the safety chains. Well, off to the paint shop.

Hmm, but look at those spindly spokes, the mirror polished dome and the collection of hats. Great pic.

I have had a go at making CR wagon number plates on the silhouette. So far I have not been successful. The knife blade can't turn enough in a short distance to create letters that small, and overcutting just chops the whole lot to bits. It may well need a refinement of my cutting technique or a different material, I might have another go at some point. Then again there are now a lot of silhouette users amongst us ; someone might have cracked the method.

A bit of stock construction, always a joy to do . In this case a pair of CR Dia. 11A CCTS from the latest “True lines Models “ kit. Historical notes can be found in “ Caledonian Railway Wagons” by Mike Williams, many thanks to Tony Brenchley of the CRA for producing the kit. Ok, so preamble over, lets have a look at it all. A cast resin body, etches for the chassis and springs and castings in brass and whitemetal for details. The body tends to curve inwards at the top, seems resin does this. So first step make a roof that is stiff enough to correct this. A simple structure designed and cut of the silhouette forms a roof support that is strong enough to correct the body curve and support the roof itself. Roof in place, its a tight enough fit to just clip in. Body has some holes drilled and the droplight filed out. Oddly these vehicles seem to have had one glass and one wood droplight. On to the chassis . This is sprung using a system similar to thet of the Bill Bedford chassis. It goes together accurately. These wre dual braked , so a fair bit of stuff hangs off them. Basic painting and with wheels in, it runs freely and the springs do spring. I’ll be interested to see how well it runs on the layout in practice. Ok, body next.

Oh, keep quibbleing chaps , I'm learning a lot from all this detailed stuff. The thread started as "signalling for modellers who don't know much about signalling" and has ended up as a highly technical discussion amongst folk that do it for a living and know a fair bit about it. This is actually a good thing, it means the rest of us might get a decent amount of our model signalling right. Then again I am still wondering how the caley managed to signal a main line as a headshunt in a tunnel. A calling back stevens pattern tunnel signal with a purple glass? Really if anyone knows I'd be interested. Mind you if I ever sign a letter "I have the honour to be Sir, your obedient servant ", feel free to shoot me.

Aye, clingfilm. I have used it a few times for removable structures. Here are some pics. http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blog/2091/entry-18957-knock-down-columns/

Nice conversion. Glad to see you are having fun with the silhouette Mikkel.

Excellent modelmaking. Magnets ? who would have though of using them ;-)

Nice, I like things that people have actually made. That station building has a lot of character.

Evocative pictures as ever. One very small observation; the handle of the luggage trolley seems to be sticking out at a eyecatching 45 deg, it might well take someones eye out. Surely it would be fully upright against the frame to put the brakes on if it had them, or at least not present a hazard? Really the rest is very impressive.

A very useful post, nicely done. Using the silhouette to make templates from direct scans of the loco for sheet metal work really is a good idea. Marking those out by scribing would be difficult; your technique allows a bit of leeway for the real life problems of making parts to suit the tolerances of a model.

On my previous layout I had a siding on a slight incline which meant wagons needed a handbrake.They could be released to roll down as needed. I used an old H+M point motor under the board mounted upright which pushed a bit of piano wire up a brass tube to catch the axle. Two buttons, up and down, simple remote handbrake. Lots of modern ways of doing it, but it works.

Heh, a D299 is on my TTD list since there appears to be a lot of reference material now available. Many thanks compound. The van is I think slaters, I built a few of their kits back when they still did them. That train is a bit posed, 24wagons in total. The practical limit is going to be 20 given the traverser length. However I was pleased that the 498 built many moons ago from a Caley coaches kit handles it comfortably, even managing to push the whole lot backwards through pointwork.