ianathompson

I think the colours have probably faded in my second hand copy. I certainly would not vouch for the one that "fell off" and was secured with a dab of Evo-stik! Ian T

The local spiv would obviously be a Narnian fairy. session 9 photo 92. The yard shunter returns to its favoured spot close to the, still to be built, mess room. “What’s happened to yer bike mate?” “Dunno. Those Narnian fairies must have had it away!” Ian T

The framework of the train shed is finished and has received a coat of paint. As per usual with anything constructed by the AFK it does not bear close scrutiny! If you want to see a well constructed station canopy, look in this month’s issue of Model Railway Journal. This model is in the Northern Premier League compared to that. Trying to join SM32 brass rail, even with a high Watt soldering iron is no picnic. I also rediscovered, by unsoldering one, that the longitudinal stays are made from two rails lap jointed. The painting is only half complete as this photo was taken as it dried. The shed will be turned over and painted from below and then inspected for “misses”. Once this has been done we then come to the thorny problem of glazing it. Thorny, because no two panels are either square or identical. Perhaps I could leave the glass off and claim that it was bombed out by the Luftwaffe in the war! Ian T

I am really seriously impressed by that! It makes my own gimcrack N gauge version look thrid rate. (Ground surface still awaits attention.) The photo was taken to assess what further work was needed such as repainting the face and post and filling in the top of the post.

It has been a few weeks since I last updated. Work has been proceeding on the development of Lacono Cittavecchia but it has mainly shifted to fiddly details connected with finishing the buildings off. Someone, I think it might have been Iain Rice, once commented about how long this took. The Post Office sorting office is “finished” although one or two minor details await attention. It also has no roof but as it is at the back of the layout, and not too obvious, it is unlikely to receive one. I had thought about making a sign for it but decided not to. Everyone in Lacono knows what it is and too many model railways are spoilt by unlikely signage. The provincial government’s building is visible in the trees in the background. The main station building also nears completion. This took forever to paint. It is also a long flimsy piece of plastic made from seven kit parts. Despite extensive reinforcing behind the façade one or two joints needed attention. The parts came from Kittle Hobby and were intended to make a factory. I ordered a job lot near the end of the production run, some years ago, with this role in mind. They have been out of production for years, I think. The original parts just had two windows, as can be seen next to the Booking Hall. Some were converted into doors although the Booking Hall arch required major surgery. I would not like to contemplate starting from scratch. The doors for the Booking Hall are lying on platform 2/3 awaiting fitting. This is a potentially awkward job because the façade slots out, although this unlikely to ever take place again, making open doors a delicate addition to it. Three shadow boxes have been incorporated to imply that there is something behind the façade. The lobby for the Restaurant, beside the relay cabinet, is just visible, but the one for the Parcels Office needs making. The Booking Hall is a large shadow box, again set at the rear of the layout. It is fairly basic piece of modelling thrown together from bits and pieces. The two seated passengers, from Woodland Scenics, and therefore slightly underscale at 1:48, have been toned down. In this case it simply meant attention to their hair and faces. Opinions differ but I am not a great fan of anything other than flesh on the faces. Some people go into great detail painting eyeballs etc, as Woodland Scenics tend to, but I feel that this is because they know what is there. If you look at a good painting the artist paints what can be seen, implying that there is more there than is shown. With someone standing at a distance so that they are the size of an O gauge figure I doubt that you will see any facial details. It is apparent from the photo that the shadow box does not seat very well, which will require attention. If this cannot easily be sorted out the doors on the right side of the arch will be added in the closed position. Fortunately the side is separate from the front so the box should be accessible with a bit of scrambling. Ian T

More advanced and sophisticated than Norfolk then! Ducks for cover. Ian T

I don't live in the area any more but I do keep "tabs" on the sides that I played for in the local leagues. Professional cricketers seem to have a different definition of "rain" compared to the local amateurs and the semi-pro leagues. A number of Bradford League games were completed, although the side that I look for in the York League were caled off. Certain leagues (such as the long defunct Dewsbury & District) were notorious for playing when it was coming down like stair rods but generally I often used to be amazed at how we played and got home to find that there was no play in the Test! Incidentally, despite the forecast there was no rain in west Norfolk and all local games reached a conclusion. Ian T

The southern end of Gasafabrikatastrato yard has acquired a hutted encampment. Its haphazard ramshackle nature, with no buildings quite in line with each other, suggests that it grew up incrementally. From left to right we have a compressor room for cement traffic, a mess room with toilet extension, behind the groundframe with the rusted roof. In the foreground we have the yard office. These items have to be squeezed into a small space and their position is very precise to allow traffic to pass on all sides. Once they have been positively located they will be left for later finishing because ballasting is the priority during the warm weather. There is little latitude in the location of the yard office. It already obscures the shunt signal from the near loop but relatively few trains depart from this nowadays. Any that do will have to check that the signal is off before pulling out. The working of the signal might also be changed. Previously, when the shunters had a good view of proceedings whilst standing in the hut, it was assumed to “go back” every time that a shunt move passed it. Now that the view is obscured it seems likely that it will simply stand “off” once it has been released by the main box and cleared by GaS groundframe. The siding to the left was originally presumed to serve both a tank farm and cement silos “across the road” via a tunnel with pipes in it. This was a little far fetched but I turned a blind eye. The development of the huts has rendered this untenable and the tank farm has been “moved” into the depths of the Danulbo quarter served by the Kapra Pordeĵo (or Goat Pen) branch. This has been made easier by the hacking of the hole into the backscene and the use of the cassette. For the time being the cement silos remain “across the road” although they too could migrate if necessary. The latest view of the T3 shows the engineers in their element! So far its SNAFU. One blade sprung from a tie bar, one tie bar jammed with ballast and glue, one signal now “black”, one traction circuit disconnected and a loose wire beneath the baseboard that cannot be identified. Just like the real thing! Isn’t ballasting fun?! The new sidings, in the distance, have subsided like a colliery branch thanks to their gimcrack construction. A strut, which has to be removable to allow access to the hidden pointwork, has been inserted causing much of the wiring damage outlined above. Addendum The ballasting has eventually been finished. Unfortunately, in a separate place at a different time, the layout’s power supply was accidentally interfered with which resulted in loss of traction and signalling power. Two days were spent sorting this out before the final ballasting could be signed off, following the usual loss of power and point blade adjustments. The next job is to build additional storage shelves but hopefully it will not be too long before I can return to finishing the station building. Ian T

No its not! Its a position light miniature shunting signal or some other gobbledegook! Its interesting how different places used different names for the aforesaid. Having worked in an ex GER area they were always (Tommy) Dodds. Dolls, dummies and dwarves were also used elsewhere. Any advance on that?! I would like to know what they were called in the ex GNoSR area, out of personal interest. This used Stephens drop flaps, as seen a couple of posts back on my N gauge layout. Edit: my mistake, they were posted here. Ian T

“Okay mate you’re good to go. Wait for the Dodd. I’ll get on the phone and ask for clearance.” The yard foreman surveys the “railway desert” that forms his kingdom. Not much to see here apart from railway infrastructure. I suppose that the cabling duct and the coupling poles, even on their stand, could cause a trip hazard, although the floodlights are supposed to combat that. Wouldn’t be the first time that I measured my length by tripping over signal wires in the dead of night! Oh, and I occasionally received a mild reprimand for the use of “Dodd”. It’s not a Dodd, it’s a miniature shunting signal, or some such mouthful. The first section of ballasting has been laid. A lot of ungummed point rods later, with stone being knocked from the inside of the rail, and the locos can actually move around the yard. Stage 2 beckons. Oh what joy! Ian T

The representation of the prototype’s mundane infrastructure is something that seems to escape many modellers attention yet it adds to the atmosphere. The more glamorous aspects such as long viaducts, swing bridges or tunnels, for example, receive their fair share of attention but who wants to know about point rodding, facing point locks and signal cables?! I suspect that in many cases the equipment is not represented because the layout’s owner does not have sufficient knowledge to provide it. The AFK installation at Lacono Cittavecchia uses German hardware for the points but the signalling has been converted to electric operation. Much scouring of German technical texts and articles has provided my basic knowledge although I would by no means claim to be an expert. It is unusual for a narrow gauge railway to go to the lengths of providing such equipment but the traffic levels here demand it. It is possible to find NG railways on the continent where such equipment is provided. The Swiss NG railways such as the RhatischeBahn provide examples, as do modern Italian and Spanish railways. The Porto Trinidade terminus of the Portuguese railways also operated with colour light signalling and steam power. The underneath of the signal box has now acquired a variety of signalling hardware. In theory it should be festooned with the cables needed for the “double wire” system typically used on German installations, but this might be going one step too far. There should be 27 points and derailers worked from LaC box and therefore 54 wires. The derailers were the equivalent of trap points in British systems. I will be honest and state that I am not sure whether the derailers should have balance weights but I have added them. The whole caboodle certainly looks a lot more impressive as a result! The “balance weights” were the equivalent of compensators in the British system and kept the wires in tension. There should be a lot more but many are “hidden behind the train shed wall”. That avoids making them! My knowledge of the finer details of German signalling systems is sketchy and I choose to follow Bavarian practice which varies from the more common examples. If any one more knowledgeable than myself can find fault please tell me, although you might receive a “Rule 1 applies” in response! As can be seen the hardware is a series of crude models, the only virtue of which is that they were cheap and relatively easy to knock up. The compensators were generally quite large and often grouped together, presumably for ease of maintenance. There was a smaller variety, seen below the box in the previous photo, for shorter pulls. The entire space between the main line and the siding is now occupied, as was anticipated when the initial work was done nearly twenty years ago. The location cases, or relay cabinets, work the signalling system although these are still awaiting connections to the cable trough. The clear glass cylinders will, in the fullness of time, become the two tone bells associated with the Bavarian signalling system. The next job is to finish the troughing, especially below the box, and to paint the hardware. The work beneath the box has been completed and painted. As much as anything this is to show up areas missed by the paintbrush, such as the tensioner in the foreground. I always find it difficult to get a good first covering with acrylic paints. The wiring for the points run around the wheels and enters the metal trough in the foreground. I suppose that a couple of score marks with a knife would aid in suggesting that the covers were removable for maintenance. The discovery of an unconnected electrical cable run necessitated slight alterations to the concrete troughs as can be seen when compared to the first photo. The intention is cover everything with paint then ballast it and then come back to add weathering etc. The modelling is suggestive rather than accurate with the intention of hiding the worst excesses beneath the ballast. Ian T

The easisest answer to that is award a penalty try! I totaly agree with tour sentiments about killing the ball, not that I ever did that of course (said ironically), but I fear that this is becoming thread drift! Ian T

The Union shows too many yellow cards nowadays, in my opinion. If they had refereed the games that I played in, back in the day, in the modern style they would all have been abandonned before half time! I am not advocating making head hunting etc legal, just the application of common sense. It is supposed to be a physical game! The Wigan Warrington game threw up a good example last week in the Rugby League cup. An accidental clash of heads, lots of blood, both players get stitched up and have HIA. Both pass this and return to play. No malicious intent in the incident: "get on with it." Ian T

I thought that this was the standard practice nowadays. You amaze me that they actually went on the SPT. I has assumed that they would call from the cab, on a mobile, as they sat next to the SPT. Ian T

The railways did not rely on one source of electricity so it was unusual to have a complete failure. I had one driver arrive on a winter's evening to inform me that the station lights were out. As they were next to the box it was fairly obvious that I knew this. (Edit: The avatar photo shows this quite clearly when enlarged as it was taken in the box concerned) The driver was a well known local idiot, however. No names, no pack drill. Uax6 can more than likley guess who it was. His CSR was working okay because he told me that he would walk the length of the train to make sure that it was safe to move it. Presumably he thought that a limbo dancer had slipped through the gap between the train and the platform. He then used the CSR to balme Railtrack? Network Rail? for the lights being out. It obviously escaped his notice that the entire town was in blackness! In any case all electrically powered equipment had a back up battery supply. If power was cut at a level crossing, for instance, you acknowledged the alarm, noted the time and told Control. From memory they were good for eight hours before some one needed to attend. I also seem to remember that the signals could, if necessary, be switched to work off the OHL in emergency, although I might be going senile and have made this up! Ian T

In my experience of working your box, and others, you would be damned lucky to get a driver out of a cab to use the SPT! This was acceptable before CSR came in but once it was in....! By the time that I retired the managaement were trying to tell me that you could not stop a train at your box by using a red flag. That was how we communicated, generally, before CSR came in. There was, of course, no record of such a conversation, which could work both ways. Ian T

"You were lucky!", to quote Monty Python. Ours was left outside, even during the Winter, and was often given to us frozen solid! I must admit that I was never overly keen on drinking the stuff in the summer when it had been standing in the sun for a couple of hours. On the other side of the coin I was sent to the Parish Church school which would now be called a deprived inner city school. Most of the kid's families struggled to cope so they probably saw the milk as a good thing. Ian T

I definitely haven't measured it but it seems like that! The main problem, as always, is the transporters. They run upon highly modified Bachmann bogies (maybe Commonwealth, I can't remember). These have been inverted which gives a very tight clearance above the track. If the blade and the strock rail are slightly out of register the bogies catch and can sometimes derail or drag. The double slip, with four sets of blades in total, is a prime target for these bogies. In addition I believe that the Germanic double slips operated with two tie-bars, rather like a Peco model. I think that there were four independent tiebars on the typical British example. Either way, mine has four independent sets of blades. Trying to solder four blades to a single tiebar without causing delamination and keeping all four blades tight against the stock rails would be a game and a half! The transporters drag in other places and the last report showed a train standing further down the line waiting for further tests. So far it has not proceeded any further! A marathon day yesterday saw almost all the concrete troughing made and installed. Today it is the turn of the mechanical points equipment. Then the equipment cases will be added. It is like a 3D puzzle trying to fit all the stuff in without fouling passing vehicles and locos! Ian T

The work at Lacono continues. It is not being helped by warm weather and the cricket season! With the layout cleared of tools and bits and pieces attention has turned to providing the railway infrastructure. It is obviously better to have this in place before ballasting rather than trying to bed it in afterwards. Mass production of point levers is seen here. I have recently seen some nice 3D printed models of such items but I stick by my old low-tech methods. The results will be a crude facsimile of the prototype but they will be easily repaired or replaced if necessary. There is also more enjoyment in fabricating models than there is in purchasing them “ready to go”. I certainly will not be going down the resin printing road. Four water columns are similarly being batch built. The point levers have been fitted onto their bases. These were previously planted in the yard. As can be seen the long arms present a potential clearance problem so a test train is running past them. This was formed of two finished vehicles and a Großraumwagen, the closest things to hand that might catch. The four levers operate the double slip and there is not much room. The furthest one has had to be slightly moved. Two others underwent a similar process. When I am totally satisfied with them the levers will be removed and the weights filed in with modelling putty. Testing to destruction was carried out with one of the machine trolleys, for want of a better description. The new bulldozer is out of gauge, anyway, and will need watching if used in a session. It has currently taken to demolishing the floodlight pylons. At least it is fairly light and does not cause too much damage. The long arms of the point levers were caught by the wagon in a number of places and had to be adjusted. The double slip, seen here, was a particular pinch point because of lack of space. The point levers have been altered and the long arms cut off. They have been painted in Swedish colours, although they will be toned down later. As this is the centre of the yard a telephone box has been provided on the adjacent pylons to prevent too many delays. The clearance tests have also revealed problems with the double slip which has had to be fettled. We are talking alterations of about 0.02 mms in the vertical and horizontal directions. It is easy to understand why the prototype avoided them like the plague where was the space available to sideline them. Attention has been turned towards the cable runs for the various items of equipment. Each signal needs connecting to the box, via the relay room, and the telephones also need cables. The floodlight cabling has also been put in. Some of this work was previously done, hence the contrast between the painted troughs and the unpainted ones. Next to come will be the relay boxes and the covers for the two wire pointwork. The water crane for the yard has been roughed out although the clearances have not been checked yet. The corrugated iron roofs are also in their latest position as I consider the best arrangement for the shanty town that houses the men who work the yard. Ian T

The warm weather is not conducive to railway modelling, especially when one has outdoor sporting interests! As is often the case enthusiasm wanes once an operating session has ended and progress upon “finishing” Lacono is desultory. Other railway interests are also rearing their heads as well! Eventually a decision was made to clear all the tools and detritus surrounding the station to carry out checks before proceeding further. I was very wary of receiving allegedly “maintained” equipment from technicians against my signature when I worked on the real thing. It saved my bacon more than once! Much to my relief and surprise all the signals were working, despite one or two heads being accidentally knocked. The Karushnastrato crossing received a tidying prior to the intended ballasting. The only problem is that an electrical bond has been broken and the entire north end of the station, beyond the first point is now dead. I know which rail it is and it will only take a couple of minutes with an iron to fix it. Nothing disastrous, just a little niggle. Having argued with the diamonds in the access road the 0-6-2T is totally spooked by the new wagon turntable. Reminds me of my dad’s golden retriever back in the day, “Not going near that dad, it’s scary!” Well it is not actually new but it has received a brick well to support it on the right side in the photo, where the ground falls away to the loop. This was not an intended feature but it adds a little character. The pony truck refused to pass until the retaining walls were cut down. The turntable has also received a new road leading off at right angles. The land to the left will be brought up to rail level. The station entrance hall has, at long last, been provided. In effect it is a large “shadow box”. I nicked the floor tiles idea from seeing photos of an Irish station refurbishment, but it was a long time ago and I cannot remember where. Anyway they are a little different. The smart businessman waits at one of the two ticket windows, only one of which, inevitably, is open. The doors for the platform access lie on the platform awaiting attention. If you look closely you will see that one of them is in place on a trial fitting. A backscene has been pencilled in to finish the scene. The modelling is crude but acceptable given its semi hidden position. “C minus, Could do better.” It is probably not too noticeable but the Post Office has finally been painted, although the stone work still needs picking out. It looks a lot better than the currently unpainted station buildings. There is still work to be done, however, not least because I am out of “glass”. The waiting shelter for the trolleybuses has been knocked out of place and the tarmac needs repainting. The trolleybuses might even receive booms, having found the mangled remains that I made for their underscale predecessors. The signal has been straightened up with the help of a large Watt iron. It was previously looking like it had enjoyed a good night out! I would like to add ‘backs’ covering the wiring but I am not holding my breath. Other projects are on the go. The signalbox relay room has been sketched in and the signal box bashed about yet again. You will notice that the access door opens onto a void! The original intention was to provide a walkway over the roof of the relay room. I have never been keen on this door, however. The ‘box’ floor is all that remains of a generic Kittle Models kit. I would like to know the prototype inspiration because the low ‘dado’ front is atypical for British practice, although ideal for a continental installation. The front was cantilevered out with a home made extension. The door, however, is much too small, weighing in at about 5 feet tall. The latest plan is to add a toilet here and rework the extension. A new door frame is in place. The door will be made to open for use in the summer or remain firmly closed during the winter. A top landing will be provided outside the door and I do wonder about the long flight of stairs and whether there should be an intermediate landing. On the other hand one of the ex GCR boxes that I worked had a fairly long ladder so it will probably stay as mocked up. Future intentions include ballasting, finishing the station building and train shed. Whether these come to pass will have to wait and see. Ian T

I was made aware of an amusing case of a farmer denying access to his land for railway workers, before my retirement. There was a farm, somewhere between Norwich and Ely, that had an occupation crossing. This was protected by miniature red/green lights. The crossing was provided back in the mists of time, when the railway was built, to allow access to the fields separated from the main farm by the railway. The S&T had always travelled to this crossing over the farm access roads, with the approval of the farmer, of course. In the fullness of time the farm was sold to one of the large agri-businesses. The manager wrote to the local S&T offices barring the signal engineers from accessing his private land. This was not too long ago so, in the modern style, the acquiescent idiots in the office did not contest this decision. I would have thought that 150 plus years of use would have provided sufficient precedent, but there we go. The S&T boys were angry but bided their time. The red/green lights needed an annual inspection for the crossing to remain in use. S&T could not now access them by farm road, and in any case they could not see whether they were working/aligned properly by looking at them from the road. They therefore failed their annual inspection. Now the fun began! The local S&T Inspector took them out, removed the gates and replaced them with fencing, and dug up the crossing. An Engineer's train was arranged, pronto, to remove the material to prevent any piecemeal repairs reinstating the crossing materials. I was told that, as well, they inserted paving slabs, on end, to prevent any four wheel drive vehicles from getting onto the line! They were definitely unhappy! Then the harvest season came. Agribusiness manager suddenly realised that he could not harvest adjacent fields by using the now non-existent crossing. The massive modern machinery was required to detour a few miles along narrow lanes to continue the job it had started. Inconvenient, expensive and time wasting. Cue consternation. Of course when he requested re-instatement of the crossing S&T advised him that it had been removed as "unsafe". A new crossing would require a Safety Case analysis as well as brand new equipment. I believe that by the time that all of this was completed that the manager faced a bill of around £300,000, if not more. It was also stipulated, in a legally binding document, that the crossing would be accessed by railway maintenance staff over the farm's roads. Okay, it might be a drift from the current areas of discussion but I thought that it might provide some light relief for some-one! Ian T

I an certainly no LBSC expert, so I might well be displaying my ignorance, but here goes! Would the preGrouping platform be as high as your modelled section? Most preGrouping platforms seem to have been much lower than modern practice, hence the footboards on the stock. There might, of course, have been differences between termini and wayside stations where the platforms tended to be lower. Ian T

That might be the case on preserved railways, which is what I assume your photo shows. I retired half a dozen years ago but I don't believe that Network Rail have changed their policies. Maintenance was a little hit and miss and there were plenty of places where draughts and rain got in. A couple of the boxes saw long freights running past at 60 or 70mph and they certainly rocked and swayed when that happened. I used to wonder how long they would remain before collapsing. One box, in particular, was notorious for the frame having shifted. A workman designated to install some new windows here turned up to do the job on a cold December morning. He had the window out all shift! It was only when he had removed it that he realised that it was not an oblong but a parallelogram around 3 or 4 inches "out of square". As I remember parallelogram was not the word used to describe it during the frantic phone calls that followed! Interestingly enough all the boxes that I signed for were GER wooden boxes (as in the avatar photo) except for one. This was a GCR design moved to the area in the 1920s following a junction replacement and a resiting of the box. It was far colder than the GER designs! I don't know whether this was generally the case with these designs or whther this was a one off. Hope that this is of some general interest. Ian T

Thanks for that. I had a set as a kid but I had forgotten who made them. My latest N gauge signals are similar in terms of crudity but I had attributed them to Timpo rather than Crescent. Ian T

Best of luck with the rebuild Johnster. I had a similar set of problems with part of my large layout. The attempts to improve matters were not entirely successful but at least stock no longer derails on the warped baseboard edges. Ian T