C126

Thanks so much for going to this trouble. Got to start dinner now, but will read and digest properly later. Best wishes as ever.

Wonderful little essay; loved the vignette about the First Class passengers supplying the 'wall-paper'. Something which would be lost/ unknown to most. Not surprised to hear there were no 'quiet rooms' at depots for those wishing to have a doze. Thanks.

@Michael Hodgson (I feel I should start this 'dear' as thanks for your reply 🙂 ) The "Limit of layout" is literally that. I included the rest of the track layout because I thought that influenced the signals actually on the bit modelled. The twin-single-track (rationalised) junction being just beyond the end of the run-round loop (and less than a train's length plus safety margin) from the platform starting signals I thought would mean one needed a bracket signal to indicate which route to take. If not, I am most grateful, as this means the signals are more simple (and available 'R.T.R.'). Hurrah! Again, the run-round loop cross-over with its ground signals worked as a pair, etc., I feared might influence what was on the model and 'visible' in signalling terms. I know almost nothing about the subject, and hoped this context would help any contributors of advice. All of which is most welcome, I must reiterate. Thanks again to all for your help.

Just to update the diagram, thus: Hope I have incorporated the changes suggested, although I am not sure how to indicate point locks and detection bars. And I could not find a diagram in my papers of a semaphore ground signal, alas. With thanks again.

Thanks, @The Johnster , for your tales. It is good to hear 'the human side' of any work, as this is so difficult to capture in photographs. Please could you tell something of how it felt to be on constant variable shifts - 'the human toll' - coping with horrible sleep patterns, balanced perhaps with the pleasure of being up to appreciate a sunrise, etc.? Chatting to my train-crew when commuting, it amazes me as to (a) why they can not do the same work for a whole week, and (b) how they cope with waking at such varied times on days so close together. So it must have been worse, I assume, for the poor old freight guard. Thanks.

Sorry for the delay in typing this, but thank you all for your kind remarks and suggestions. I have corrected my platform no. error, typing in haste. "2" was indeed the platform required. I was invoking a 'Rule 1' for the milk traffic, having a declining dairy 'hub' on the Sussex Weald and surroundings dispatching a few tanks up to London, part of a longer (and again fictional) train to Vauxhall, for example. A stretch of credulity I know, but I hope tolerable. Sorry also for confusion in drawing the signal arms round the wrong way! Helps if one looks at a diagram first... In answer to @Jeremy Cumberland 's second post, the loco would simply be part of an arriving/ departing passenger train I assumed first, but typing this I realise I need signals for just such a light loco movement to deliver and collect the milk tanks and parcels trains. Bother. Thank you again for your thoughts and contributions. I have much to think about and new jargon to research: e.g., "facing point locks", "detection bars", "stacked signals" (I think I have seen the latter: where the 'discs' on the ground signals are arranged vertically and overlap). It is much appreciated, and always a delight to learn about a new subject. Knowing almost nothing of the subject, I was naive to assume 'Ready to Run' models of all the 'Big Four's main signal variations would be purchasable. I will need to improve my kit-building skills as well, I fear. With many good wishes to you all. Neil.

Sorry, missed this remark. The idea is that the loco-hauled train arrives in platform 2 [Previously erroneously read "1"]. Propels/reverses train into run-round loop, and then loco is un-coupled to go forward to the start of Platform 2 [Previously erroneously read "1"]. Waits for signal to be pulled off (pukka or shunting?), and, via running line and signals (c) and (a) into the head-shunt stub, reverses onto the train and propels it back into Platform 2 [Previously erroneously read "1"] ready to depart again. I hope this is procedurally correct?!

@Jeremy Cumberland Thanks for your comments. I am quite at sea with this, so all help is appreciated. (b) looks irrelevant, as you say. I had in mind some sort of 'Limit of Shunt' (not sure what this is). (c) I thought would be needed to allow a loco onto the little 'stub' of the adjoining head-shunt. As you say (if I understand correctly), I need also a ground signal to allow a movement from Platform 1 straight ahead to the run-round loop as well (and one also to go back to Platform 2?). With thanks again for your help. Neil.

@Stationmaster Big thanks for this resource. It appears from Caterham's diagram - a similar layout to my little station - one can proceed to the main line from a shunting signal being cleared, so that is one question answered. It should be a "Milk Dock" not 'siding', as well. I will get trawling the diagrams.

I wonder if anyone could spare a few minutes to advise on the (probably multiple) errors on the signals of my passenger station, thus: I am unsure what the 'shunt'(?) signals should be and where. The track layout has been 'singled', with a run-round loop above, before the bi-directional running-line diverges off the layout. E.g., can a milk train start from the siding just with the clear from the ground signal, or should it be protected by a 'pukka' semaphore like the platforms? Apologies for the crude penmanship, and probably using symbols wrongly. I intended using colour-lights, and then realised I would need more wiring and soldering... Hope it all makes sense. All advice greatly received at your convenience. Thanks for giving this your consideration.

@young37215 Quite agree. If you would like to run off a couple of dozen more in the three colours for a fair price, I would be happy to buy. 😀

Keep up the good work, Andy. Glad to see the scenic bits continuing. I am still amazed how quickly you laid the ballast. All good wishes, Neil.

I forgot to mention I was quietly pleased to see the infiltration 'north of Watford' where the layout is set by the Southern Railway, with the concrete Tool Hut.

Phwoar! I am a sucker for a Victorian Grand Hotel, the Brighton Metropole being my favourite, by Waterhouse and in brick.

Thought I would add my two-penn’orth of praise for D.E.M.U. Show-case 2023 with some photos of my favourite layout there, @sf315 ‘s ‘Hillport Goods’. All the models were to an enviably high standard I thought, but this one beat the others by a whisker (and a few of my resulting pictures are presentable), having the liveries I like best and capturing an ‘atmosphere’ I find so evocative. Thank you to the operators for letting me distract them with my photographing: I was trying to reproduce the feel of ‘peering over the wall’ one got from certain viewpoints. I hope others agreed it worth a prolonged viewing. I rather liked Bakewell Street as well, and caught the cameo of the covert photographer: I managed to arrive as the doors opened at 10.00, and did not leave till 16.15 there was so much to see and do and try to resist buying. Too shy to harangue the manufacturers’ stands – they will have heard it all before anyway - but was told Bachmann’s Bitumen tanker’s C.A.D. files are in China and the rep. had no idea when they would be for sale. Sigh. Paid my respects to the ‘Wagon God’ Mr David Larkin, and thought of a question: “Can one modify a model of a BDA to a ‘Trestle’ XVA?” “No”. The latter has an open frame beneath the trestle. Bother. I am looking forward (August?) to his first volume of four on Speedlink wagons with lots of photographs, and, if I understood correctly, there will be three more to follow on Wagon-load trucks. Prompted to explore the town for luncheon, I was delighted to find my way, past many attractive buildings, to the 1970’s ‘The Parade’ where a Saturday Market was being held, including… Indian Street Food. Hurrah! Gorged myself on veggie samosas and pakoras, and bought a jar of 'Hibiscus' mixed-peppers and jalapeno chutney (can not find a web-site, and not tried yet). With cheery Sikhs pressing bottled water on passers-by, the day could not get much better. I will book a week’s Annual Leave after in 2024, so the energy and enthusiasm are not dissipated like this year into lethargy and ennui at work. And now I know where to get lunch. Thanks again to all concerned for a wonderful day.

My un-loved brick tower is in Cato Street North: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Diepress+Ltd/@52.493342,-1.8685044,3a,75y,118.59h,98.36t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1stR2_09VXwr_DNHtVG54LnA!2e0!7i16384!8i8192!4m18!1m8!3m7!1s0x4870bb687933435d:0x53b63d91fb11656!2sCato+St+N,+Birmingham!3b1!8m2!3d52.4931739!4d-1.8685367!16s%2Fg%2F1tvm25ys!3m8!1s0x4870bb687e75700f:0xa33bb0973db57bbd!8m2!3d52.493315!4d-1.8684252!10e5!14m1!1BCgIgARICCAI!16s%2Fg%2F1tf6r6_2?entry=ttu (N.b., lovely 1950's type-face.) https://www.google.com/maps/place/Diepress+Ltd/@52.4929758,-1.8685291,3a,75y,49.83h,94.45t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s9nVkizKJdZRtlbimguFknQ!2e0!7i16384!8i8192!4m18!1m8!3m7!1s0x4870bb687933435d:0x53b63d91fb11656!2sCato+St+N,+Birmingham!3b1!8m2!3d52.4931739!4d-1.8685367!16s%2Fg%2F1tvm25ys!3m8!1s0x4870bb687e75700f:0xa33bb0973db57bbd!8m2!3d52.493315!4d-1.8684252!10e5!14m1!1BCgIgARICCAI!16s%2Fg%2F1tf6r6_2?entry=ttu It was a brewery: http://breweryhistory.com/wiki/index.php?title=City_Brewery_Ltd

Thanks, @Nearholmer ; for some reason I associate the name Leighton Buzzard with coaches (the pukka, horse-drawn variety). Was it on a coaching route? Or perhaps it was the Grand Union Canal, I see from Wikipedia. Was there much inter-regional trade to warrant the 'surplus arches'?

I was also depressed to see again this unloved building near Aston station, and managed to get a few shots from the train back to New St : If anyone knows more about it, I would be grateful to hear. Riding into New St makes me wish I could stop and go and photograph all the industrial buildings one sees from the train, and which appear near demolition and replacement.

I was reminded suddenly of this thread, wandering Sutton Coldfield at DEMU Show-case 2023 in search of luncheon. Came across this lovely bit of brick-work: Here is a side elevation: There was also a Georgian building nearby: I am always on the look-out for frontages incorporating a 'vehicle arch' into a more domestic elevation. Was it a coaching inn, I wonder? All rather pretty, I hope you will agree.

May I add my thanks and best wishes to all concerned for this show, visited yester-day. Spent too much money as usual, paid my respects to Mr David Larkin, discovered the Indian street food stalls in the shopping centre for lunch, and lurked for too long around 'Hillport Goods'. I hope all enjoyed themselves and thought their attendance worthwhile. Thank you all for your hard work, and I look forward to 2024's show.

Good to see progress being made. Hope you are enjoying yourself.

Atherington Victoria station's tarmac platform is laid, and more viaduct parapets are made (if not glued in place yet). I am unsure where all the photographs of the platform's progress are, but pleased the task worked on over several weeks is better than expected. My heart-felt thanks to @simon b and @Wheatley for giving their expertise on a previous post (no. 40) about making tarmac surfaces. This is just the basic structure, with more work needed to vary the surface and add details. I hope the following description might be of use to others. Gluing the Peco platform sides in position with Copydex, I then glued cardboard strips diagonally between also with Copydex upon which the surface would rest. Taping together a long strip of newspaper the length of the platform, I laid it over the edges, and pricked out the insides of the stones on each sides, so giving a template to cut around, to transfer to the two halves cut from an A2 sheet of 1 mm. white art card. The two halves of the card surface were cut out and placed on the platform edges for 'fit', and adjustments made by trimming slivers along edges. 150-grit grade Wilko's 'sandpaper' was cut and glued to the card with P.V.A. glue and weighed down for a week to dry (sandpaper face down). The two pieces were placed again on the platform, and a 'best fit' made ready to trim and join into one strip. I ran out of the 150-grade sandpaper, and the second batch was a different colour, accounting for the paler patch to the right. I will use this to be the end of the cut-back derelict station canopy to be made and installed later, where re-surfacing had taken place. This is the excuse to reveal the passenger trains; I do not want them hidden. Shrinkage had occurred after the sandpaper was glued on, so a thin strip of card was added between the two pieces of surface, and then all was glued with more P.V.A. and weighed down with bricks for another week, with many prayers hoping it would not distort or shrink more. Yester-day I gave it four brief coats of Halford's rattle-can grey primer over half-hour intervals, after four hours gluing it in place with P.V.A. on the top edges of all the diagonal card strips. Thankfully, only one small area did not fit, which was trimmed this morning. Weighing the surface down again with as many bricks as I thought it would bear, I hoped it would dry quickly in yester-day's heat, removing the last of the weights after five hours. Waking early, I checked the whole thing had not 'deconstructed itself' over-night, to my relief and delight. This is the final result: With my Orientalist leanings, I had to have 33 025 'Sultan' as the first loco-hauled passenger train in the station. Now, while detailing the tarmac and pondering passenger positions, I must turn my thoughts to canopies, signals, the warehouse at the other end of the layout...

Thanks, @BR traction instructor , another post to get the reader dribbling. I have made a couple of chutneys recently, but they are still 'brewing', so I will not post the details until certain it is worthwhile. Simple veggie biryani for us to-night, as I am wrestling with a passenger station platform surface. I am curious about the "onion powder". Have you tried (and rejected?) the 'ready-fried onion' one can buy. I first heard of it seeing Art Malik on a cookery programme who raved about it, and now add it as a garnish, or stir through pilau rice. My beloved prefers hers without though, it being in the 'ultra-processed' category I think. Fair enough.

Mine arrived on Wednesday, and are in revenue earning service: A 73 arrives with a special delivery for the local chemical dealer's tanker. Fifteen years later, a '56' prepares to depart with a clay-slurry 'empty'. I might use Rule 1 and say this is for chalk slurry instead. I hope the photographs are of use. I am pleased with them, and had quite forgotten I had ordered the pair so long ago...

And a chocolate thread, please. 🍫