ianathompson

Well, it has been another long time since the last report. This is a minor layout however so it doesn't tkake priority, rather like 3rd XI cricket. Last time out the load slipped on the way home and damaged some of the signals so these have received attention. Both the posts in the foreground had to be removed from the layout and reworked. The bracket signal's arm for No 2 platform had come off. This was the push that I finally needed to buy some reading glasses at the age of 65. It took three aborted attempts to re-affix it before, wearing glasses, I spotted that the spindle was smashed. This was repaired some time ago. The out of focus stacked arm on the right was left until the layout was due out again. The post had to be shortened as it had been smashed beyond repair. The six arm home signal protects the station approaches. This is a cruel enlargement (putting it mildly!) of an extremely crude signal. It was banged together and given a slosh of paint in the sure knowledge that it would need revisiting. Time was short and I wanted the signalling to be complete. The fiddleyard latches, at the bottom, have also been reworked. In many respects its all a bit pointless in that the signal faces the backscene and the goods yard arm (at the left) would be hidden by the granary. Don't know what the Sighting Committee would have to say about that! The second Stephen's drop flap shunt signal was installed. at the same time. This was a pain in the proverbial as the operating wire had to come out through the electrical switches. Another well planned excursion! Yes it works, as do all the arms. A revisit with the red paint, filling the hole in the top of the post and making good the devastation of the ground is next on the agenda. Note the double catch points for over runs. I am well aware that these abominations bear more than a passing resemblence to the Timpo signals of my youth. They certainly won't win any prizes in a fine modelling competition. Given that I ended my days, having left teaching, as a signalman it is essential to me that the signals do work. More attention is obviously needed but is likely to be delayed by other demands on my time. It is the cricket and croquet season after all! Ian T

There is not much to report on the AFK at the moment. Despite my wishes for a short inter session break it looks like it will become extended, as is the norm. The onset of apathy, a minor medical issue and the need to go to the Cotswolds to "mother sit" have all delayed progress. Inverness Citadel, my N gauge GNoSR layout has received some attention as work slowly continues on the AFK. Moving on to the AFK, Lacono has been hit by yet another bomb. Various improvements are underway but, as per usual the arrival of the work crews results in devastation. Point levers, floodlights, cable troughing and hiding holes in the 'ground' have been the object of attention. Hopefully at least some partial ballasting might now occur. Croquet and cricket permitting things might push on a little quicker as the summer progresses. Ian T

One point about this. The standard practice was for the top arm to refer to the left hand road. This was not necessarily the principal route. The next lowest arm refered to the next most left hand road, etc. The WNR might have differed in this. On the other hand the BoT might have insisted that standard practice was followed. The arrangement was known as "stacking" and was limited to four arms. I assume that this limit was because it would otherwise become difficult to see where the road was set for. The practice continued into modern times but was restricted to shunting signals only. I would not be surprised to find that there are still such signals in use where semaphores have survived. Ian T

A milestone indeed! It took me around ten years to complete a similar number of points, crossings, single and double slips for my own layout. I hope that they all work okay. Mine took a lot of "bedding in" but they were built in a more "rustic" style following scribbles lines on the baseboard surface! Ian T

Nice to catch up with this thread again. I was wondering where it had gone! Ian T

From my own point of view, when the ban on red zone working was introduced, the main objective was to create a paper trail. The higher manangement simply wanted to have a scape goat if as and when something went wrong. There were a number of occasions when this descended into paper filling for the sake of paper filling. The culvert near Ely North was a good example. Fill in form, cancel form, record authority number, then make TRB entry referring to authority number, then enter cancellation into TRB. All for the ganger to walk over a 10 metre long bridge. It was such a short walk that he remained on the phone rather than waste time redailing! As the visibility was about three miles in any direction previous inspections were safely carried out without any need for paperwork. Of course whenever higher management made a mistake the paper trail disappeared very quickly. (Remember the near miss with a tractor down the Norwich Road?!) Ian T

2FS requires way more skill and equipment than I possess! Also there is the time factor. The AFK takes up most of my modelling time and energy. This is a "second or third string" layout, built to be taken to the Cotswolds when I go to look after my mother. I do not mind scratchbuilding coach bodies onto Roco 6 wheel chassis. Similarly repainting (inappropriate) "wooden" rolling stock into pre Grouping livery is easily done. Building 0-4-4T mechanisms and converting 0-4-2Ts, in N gauge, is simply a step too far. To get the layout up and running I have used commercial diesels and steam locos from the 60s/70s. I presume that this will be of little interest to those reading this. There is a thread on this forum if any one really wants to look at it. It is a brilliant expose of how not to built a layout. Perhaps given my semi freelance approach I should rename the GNoSR into something such as the West Norfolk! What about the BAM, not the Baikal Amur Mainline, but the Banffshire, Aberdeenshire & Morayshire Railway. Just to diappoint avid Catle Aching fans even further I intend to run 70s BR blue stock at the next outing as this is how I remember the "Far North". I will now go and wash my mouth out with soap! Ian T

I don't want to derail this topic too much but neither of the suggested donors appear to be available in N gauge. Basically beggars can't be choosers. It has the wrong diameter wheels but it is the right wheel arrangement. The coaches are similar fudges, hence the commment about not looking too closely! Ian T

One of the boxes that I signed for had a notorious foot crossing where near misses were commonplace. This was "controlled" by red/green lights. We used to have an ecs scheduled to cross it in the evening rush hour immediately as a down commuter train arrived. Despite the red light people would walk onto the crossing behind the arriving train. One or two got a nasty shock as the ecs barrelled past at 70mph. I deliberately stayed away from the door and refused to warn these people. Any verbal communication would have been deliberately misconstrued as, "The signalman said it was okay." The railway suggested providing a footbridge and removing the foot crossing at the end of the platforms. The local disabiled community complained that this disadvantaged them. The railway left the dangerous foot crossing in place until some inattentive teenaged girl nearly got run over. Now there is no foot crossing and no footbridge. Passengers cross via the nearby level crossing totally under the control of the signalman. Basically Network Rail was trying to eliminate crossings as much as possible, before I retired a few years ago. The example quoted at Farnborough would give them a cast iron case, I would have thought, to close the crossing for mis-use. Lock the gates and make the college kids walk to the nearest bridge. If they complain that this is too far/inconvenient point out that they are still alive and that they themselves caused the problem. Ian T

Probably the wrong place to post but the "donor" models have arrived. This is the first tank, pulled straight from the box, along with GNS 6 wheelers, (don't look too closely!) First impressions? It runs much better than its predecessors but still has a weight problem on the drivers. I would leave the West Norfolk in peace but could not resist this view of the Great North's Edwardian Inverness electrification scheme in passing. I'll stop hi-kjakcing your thread there. Ian T

Thanks for the explanation. Tommo.

The Great North of Scotland managed to sustain a suburban operation out of Aberdeen both on the mainline and the Ballater branch. I have just ordered a couple of M7s to convert to the 0-4-4Ts used on their Invereness Citadel services (as if!). Hope that they are better than the MK I versions! Ian T

Are you sure about that, Andy? I thought that the crossing signal at Lynn (Tennyson Avenue) had been converted to one before I retired. They use LEDs however and are not traditional searchlights with the vane inside them. Does this mean that they are something other than searchlights? Ian T

It is easy to criticise teachers, and everyone can remember a bad example from their schooldays! Perhaps those who think that they could do a better job should spend a year or two in the classroom. They could then endure: largely pointless form filling, daily insolence and insubordination from rampant adolsecents, lack of support from management, a constantly shifting curriculum, invasive micro management from government agencies and stinging criticism from people who frequently have no practical eperience of the classroom. In addition the job offers poor promotion prospects, a mediocre wage (for a graduate) and, as has been noted, long unrecorded hours over and above the asdvertised hours. I suppose that I forgot to mention the times, out on Duke of Ed, for example, when I was effectively 'on duty' for 24 hours per day, 4 or 5 days in a row. To enlighten the OP of the comment, one of the reasons that I left was the managements' dislike of my insisting upon dicipline and good behaviour of the pupils that I taught. I was put through the mill becasue of it. I certainly would not recommend the so called profession to anyone and it seems, if newspaper reports are correct, that many others are now voting with their feet. I certainly did not miss it when I left. Ian T

I left a realtively "cushy" number in my early forties, when I left teaching. 9 to 4 guaranteed, although there were a lot of other problems! Afterwards I worked in a factory on a 7-3, 3-11, 11-7 pattern before joining the railways where I worked the 'standard' 6-2, 2-10, 10-6 pattern. The question is,: what do you consider decent hours? 6-2, get out of bed at 05.00, bleary eyed, to greet the pre dawn pitch balckness and a frozen car in winter. You do get free time in the daylight, however, especially in winter, albeit that is only an hour or two. Go to bed no later than 22.00. Do not go to the pub for the evening but you can have a social life, within reason. You can also play football/cricket on this pattern, provided that you play in a local league. 2-10, look over your shoulder all morning before getting ready to leave home at 13.00. Gobble down midday meal and get indigestion. No chance of sport on this shift. You might get to the pub for a couple afterwards, back in the days when they stayed open until a nominal 23.00, but don't have too many as you are on again tomorrow. An additional problem is that you can rarely come in at 22.30 and go straight to bed. I used to regularly look at the clock as I unwound and found it going up to 03.00. I was not unusual in this from conversations that I had with colleagues. 6-2, you might get some kip in a relatively quiet job but basically freight trains run at night so think yourself lucky to get three hours interrupted sleep in a cramped chair. Go home and replay the afternoon shift problem. i.e. stumble into bed at 09.30 because your brain will not shut down. Expect to get up before 13.00 because neighbour is using lawn mower, next door's dog is barking, someone is digging road up, or other similar noise, insert as appropriate. You can play cricket/football, although you are probably not going to be at your best. Go to work half slewed. Come home even worse and wonder why you are driving on pavement etc. To the best of my knowedge there are no "ideal shifts". It is just a matter of the least disadvantageous. I retired at 61 to avoid wresting with the problem further. Ian t

I remember this incident. My dad worked on the railways in Leeds at the time. I think that S&T were working in the relay cabinet when the crash happened. The fact that the driver was in the cab and was killed was taken to show that the secondman was actually driving the train at the time. If I recall correctly he was on the SPT to the panel when the crash occured. Ian T

I hve not worked on a preserved railway but I would be a bit dubious about assuming that preserved railway practice applied to the normal railway. Preserved railways are run by enthusiasts whereas the everyday railway was/is operated by people "just doing a job", for want of a better way of putting it. Having worked as a signalman on the real thing I can assure you that the vast majority of workers are conscientious but they do not go out of their way to make work for themselves. Well he can, as I assume that you know! I did it more than once. You have to put the signal back, with the agreement of the driver if he is close enough to see it, or any others that will revert to a more restrictive aspect if he can see them, and wait for the backlock to run. This usually takes around 3 minutes for everyone to cool down and have second thoughts about the safety aspects of what they are doing. You then reset the road and pull off for the correct route. Usually, on the modern railway, TDA ring up and ask about the delay. There is little point in lying about it, although I knew a few that did. Provided that you were not doing it on a regular basis everyone was happy. The liars unfortunately regularly delayed trains and people in authority began to wonder what they were covering up, once they got a reputation. Ian T

Thanks for yout interest Jamie. I use standard OO, i.e 16.5mm, for the gauge. Technically this makes it On30 or Oe to use modern terms. It was built in the late 1970s so it has lasted longer than most of the prototypes. It originally used a second hand Tri-ang Hymek chassis. This was soon upgraded with a Roco Sik acting as a power bogie. Unfortunately this had recently started playing up, hence the remotoring. I dont want to hijack the thread so if you are interested the AFK (my layout) can be found in the footer. Alternatively the railcar, and its sisters can be found here. You will need to scroll down for it. Ian T

That looks to be a nice kit of the Billard A80D. When I started in 7mm NG, forty odd years ago, such things were just pipe dreams. I was forced to scratchbuild mine, without diagrams etc, hence the inaccuracies. It used a lot of car filler and the ends were done with styrene over a mould in the cooker.... definitely when my mother was out! It has just been remotored to give it a new lease of life. Ian T

A week or more has passed since the end of the operating session. As per usual there were a number of minor issues that arose during the session which were shelved. Most of these have now been attended to. Note to self: one hasn't. I have decided, amongst other things, that Lacono should receive some attention. It is a couple of years since the rebuild took place and things have started to settle down. The 0-4-4-0T stands at Glissent with a train of SG vans. Not really visible, around the curve, the heavy Lenz wagon sits on a third transporter. The three transporters had gradually been removed from the layout over time, due to defects. These have been corrected and so the three are now available for use once more. The specification for the transporters has also been altered to provide a basic three point uspension. This seems, on trial at any rate, to reduce/remove the irritating derailments that sometimes occured with these vehicles. All the transporters have been retrofitted and the repaired ones also received new fittings. The 0-4-4-0T struggled to pull a train out of this loop, you might remember. The new fittings slightly raise the height of the girders supporting the SG wagons, thereby reducing one potential source of problems. The road surface has also been "scraped" and a piont mechanism cover removed. The loco now happily pulls this load out of the loop with no problems. Then road surface needs attention and the poinyt cover needs redoing. The train is set to go "on tour" but it is awaiting the re-instatement of the long control lead. The sockets on this have given problems and one end is currently dismantled. The work at Lacono has begun by covering the point operating mechanisms. The rod in the foreground still needs hiding. This is one of the problems in placing the operating hardware on the baseboard surface. The reason for this choice is that such things are inaccessible if placed below the boards even in "normal circumstances". These are not the "normal circumstances" of most modellers. There is another level of the model beneath here, creating other problems. The concrete base in the left foreground hides a point crossing polarity switch. It was scheduled to receive a relay cabinet but it has now been found that this cannot be placed here as it fouls the loading gauge of the adjacent sidings. The (loose) relay cabinet has been removed and I can now contemplate scratchbuilding a low level installation. The clearance testing train is in the background. It is marshalled from completed vehicles to check whether footboards or door handles catch on the new lineside fittings. The unpainted point operating lever in the right foreground has had to be modified to make sure that there is no interference. The relay cabinets might seem to be unusual fixtures on the narrow gauge but Lacono is fully signalled to cope with the traffic demands. One of the couour light shunt signals is also visible, al;though, as has been noted before, it rather dubiously provides clearnace for the running loop and the siding. It is perhaps best not to delve too deeply into the murky practices of the AFK! Part of the point wiring run protector was cut out to place the signal so a new piece has now been fitted. The points operate on the continental two wire system. The signal, and the relay box also need some concrete troughing to connect them to the signal box. The building in the background seems to have become dislodged but it too is due for some attention. There is plenty to do and I still need to work on my N gauge Scottish layout. Ian T

True enough! My mistake. I had a nagging feeling that there were other examples but I don't play cricket or football any longer so I don't go up that way nowadays! Thanks for reminding me. Ian T

Wow! A nice photo of the town station, where I used to sign for the box and use the (now long gone) bar. Not at the same time of course! More seriously though, I would be wary of indiscriminately using carr stone as a "characteristic West Norfolk" building material. Its use is confined to a very small area around Downham. It was not an ideal building material but it was all that there was locally. It is very friable and any new building in Downham that employs it tends to use it for decoration only, rather than for structural purposes. The modern practice is to leave a shallow rebated panel to be later filled with the stone. If you are going to use it make sure that the supporting quoins use the pale whitish-yellow brick, because that was now the local clay fired up, as seen on the photo. As I live in the town I get used to seeing the stuff everyday. The town markets itself, I believe, as the "Gingerbread Town" for tourist purposes, although why any tourist would wish to visit benighted Downham is beyond me. The carr stone is not generally found elsewhere, except in the closely surrounding villages. If you used Google Earth and 'landed' on Lynn or Swaffham you would be hard pushed to find one example. Knapped flint and supporting quoins, generally in a redder brick, are a more typical building material over a much wider area, including most of North Norfolk. Ian T

Forunately it is only a very small section of the layout! I would imagine that it could quickly become awkward, even in O gauge, on a large installation. I would not like to contemplate the access problems to the track in HO or N. Ian T

The operating session has finally finished. There are around fifty new photos to be seen here. The file contains over 300 photos so this is some kind of record. Hopefully I can be more concise with the next session. 271. The early running down Fenditavalat goods stops at Bourrson. It is too long to fit into the loop and if it stopped short of the clearance point the rear vehicle, another SG van on a transporter, would block the road. The loop cannot be extended and was not deliberately made short to cause operational problems. Its length is determined by the turn back curve at the end of the room and the position of the doorway. The easiest solution would be to continue to Glissent but a phone call to Control must be made before this can happen. 284. The goods is let out and approaches Caladonno only to find the home at danger. “Bl**dy Narnian centaur”, think the crew, “Bet he’s fast asleep in his stable. Blow the whistle. Wake him up!”” Despite the aspersions the signal changes and the reason for the delay becomes apparent as they are put into the goods loop to let the pursuing railcar overtake. Because of its late incorporation into the layout I still tend to disregard Caladonno and view it as an overgrown siding, rather like Cadsuiane. It does provide operational flexibility despite its short length, as is evident tonight. Whatever their opinion of Urchyllu, the staciaĉefo, the crew will end up completing the crossing, as he goes off duty at 22.00. Maybe he can be bribed into staying with an apple or two! 301. Almost the last act of the day at Isuri. The CFS loco tops up with water at the AFK column to replace that dissipating as steam from the resistances. Once it has coupled onto the brake, and left, the residents should not be disturbed until 5 a.m. although the students are still going strong by the look of it! I have a number of ideas about the developments that could take place before the next operating session. We will have to see whether they come to fruition. The AFK will compete, as ever, with other railway interests whilst it is shut down. There are three other layouts needing attention, and that is not counting the one in the garden. Hopefully the "shut down" will not be so long this time, but then I express the same hope at the end of every session. Ian T

The operating session has finally finished. There are around fifty new photos to be seen here. The file contains over 300 photos so this is some kind of record. Hopefully I can be more concise with the next session. 271. The early running down Fenditavalat goods stops at Bourrson. It is too long to fit into the loop and if it stopped short of the clearance point the rear vehicle, another SG van on a transporter, would block the road. The loop cannot be extended and was not deliberately made short to cause operational problems. Its length is determined by the turn back curve at the end of the room and the position of the doorway. The easiest solution would be to continue to Glissent but a phone call to Control must be made before this can happen. 284. The goods is let out and approaches Caladonno only to find the home at danger. “Bl**dy Narnian centaur”, think the crew, “Bet he’s fast asleep in his stable. Blow the whistle. Wake him up!”” Despite the aspersions the signal changes and the reason for the delay becomes apparent as they are put into the goods loop to let the pursuing railcar overtake. Because of its late incorporation into the layout I still tend to disregard Caladonno and view it as an overgrown siding, rather like Cadsuiane. It does provide operational flexibility despite its short length, as is evident tonight. Whatever their opinion of Urchyllu, the staciaĉefo, the crew will end up completing the crossing, as he goes off duty at 22.00. Maybe he can be bribed into staying with an apple or two! 301. Almost the last act of the day at Isuri. The CFS loco tops up with water at the AFK column to replace that dissipating as steam from the resistances. Once it has coupled onto the brake, and left, the residents should not be disturbed until 5 a.m. although the students are still going strong by the look of it! I have a number of ideas about the developments that could take place before the next operating session. We will have to see whether they come to fruition. The AFK will compete, as ever, with other railway interests whilst it is shut down. There are three other layouts needing attention, and that is not counting the one in the garden. Hopefully the "shut down" will not be so long this time, but then I express the same hope at the end of every session. Ian T