Harlequin

The depot in its current form makes the scene difficult to design because of its sheer size, it will be very difficult to model those large sheds and they are of questionable value anyway because trains disappear into them and become effectively non-existent at that point. (Presumably in the prototype they remain in the shed for weeks at a time...?)

Changing it for the earlier goods yard would be more correct for the 55-70 period, would keep things out in the open and would arguably be a more interesting scene with more interesting stock on display.

I view helices as the spawn of the devil, only to be used as a last resort when there's no other workable alternative. You have plenty of room to avoid them and in fact if you did need to change levels to reach a hidden fiddle yard (not always the best idea either) then you could do it by building long gradients into the main layout itself, without needing to have dedicated helices.

4 hours ago, 34theletterbetweenB&D said:

 

Can the Sam app be programmed to start excoriating the inadequate loco to tender close coupling mechanisms which both Bach and Hornby have ill-advisedly begun to apply?

 

This is getting wildly off-topic (and it might be worth creating a specific topic if this really is a big issue) but what makes these connections inadequate? I don't think I've seen one yet. Are they copying Dapol's click-fit loco-tender connector?

Robin's plan looks good but it's squashed into the space.

Can the main board be made any wider?

What about the fillet in the corner? Could that be bigger? (Cross-posted.)

If the fillet and the main board were a bit wider then it might be possible to use one or more curved turnouts in the entry curve to make the lengths of everything longer and splay out the goods yard a bit more like Delph.

The other great thing about Delph station is the massive woollen mill building as a low-relief backscene.

21 minutes ago, The Nottingham Extension said:

How do I report the whole thread?

Report the first post in the thread by clicking the three dots in the top right corner and then clicking "Report".

Thanks.

There’s a dedicated area of the forum for layout and track planning. https://www.rmweb.co.uk/forums/forum/66-layout-track-design/
 

6 minutes ago, Andy Keane said:

Another little job I am working on are the cast iron signs for Station Road and Park an Harvey. The station Road sign will need to be free standing while the Park an Harvey will be a wall plaque, both in cast iron. I plan to 3D print these but wondered, given my earlier attempts, if anyone could advise on the correct font for Victorian era cast iron name plates for such roads?

Have you got any reference photos? Cast iron lettering was not really standardised in that period so you probably won't find a "correct" font, just something that's close enough. The lettering would have been based on some outlines in a book and then patterns made by a craftsman and adapted to meet the needs of the casting process.

BTW: You might find that the scale depth of relief of the lettering is so small that it makes it really difficult to paint the letters neatly. I know - I tried.

12 hours ago, sjrixon said:

Thanks... Did you find a replacement motor? 

 

Sounds highly probable, I've just started reading back through this thread, certainly a story with this loco! 

Yes, but it was within warranty so I got a direct replacement.

The first motors were superior but they were in a flawed body. The later ones with the body corrections have these smaller motors with a plastic cradle to make them up to the right shape to fit in the casting.

I avoid "Sam's Trains" as far as possible but he does have a video showing how to make a new cradle and fit a new motor to the Dean Goods.

This model has had a chequered history. It's a shame because it could have been so good!

22 minutes ago, sjrixon said:

Can someone help?  I've taken my Dean appart, the motor appears to be sticking. Even stripped back this far, sometimes I need to nudge the flywheel to start it running. 

 

 

Had been running fine....

Could be that one of the coils has burnt out. That happened to one of mine with similar symptoms.

I've been building up the texture of the roof with reference to a photo in Amyas Crump's book, "Great Western Architecture in colour", including adding lichen growth:

In this photo you can barely see the slate texture that I painstakingly built up in 4 stages - but it does show up better in real life. I might be able to get a better photo.

What does show up, though, is the grain of the ply crossing the slates. This is the biggest problem with this laser-cut ply kit and it shows up in other places. If I was starting again I think i might try to fill in some of the grain before assembling the parts.

The "lichen" looks OK at the near end but three-quarters of the way back there are some big bright slodges that don't look right. I'm going to have to do something about them.

"What are you looking at?"

"You didn't want to use this warm damp compost you just put here, did you?"

20 minutes ago, Captain Kernow said:

Here's a question for all of you who have cats - do any of your cats eat vegetables?

 

We've discovered that one of ours loves eating cooked courgette (cooled off, of course). He loves eating and we now use this to bulk up his food, as it has next to no calories, thus helping us keep his weight under control. The other one, however, can't stand the stuff...

 

 

No, but I'll give it a try!

You may have solved two problems at once: What to do with the annual courgette glut and how to satisfy the cats endless appetite cheaply and healthily.

12 minutes ago, DavidB-AU said:

 

It makes more sense when you understand that Bredon is a junction.

3 minutes ago, moawkwrd said:

 

Yes, as @DavidB-AU says this is following the original idea of Bredon as a junction station between a single track mainline and a branch line. I quite like the idea so wouldn't want to lose it unless it's completely compromising the layout.

Ah, I see. Fair enough - and it makes more sense with the revised FY you show above.

3 minutes ago, moawkwrd said:

 

Re the panelling and fiddleyard - I'll be repurposing most of that for the scenic break. I intend for the fiddleyard to be facing me with the scenic area facing away. I'm hoping in future I can move the layout to somewhere it can sit narrow side on so both long sides are accessible.

Sounds good.

(The station looks a lot better without that bay!)

25 minutes ago, Neil said:

 

Thanks Andy, I'm told that it can happen anywhere on my friends layout, there appears to be no pattern or common factor and that other coaching stock have no problems.

Has he got them close-coupled and are his track radii small?

16 hours ago, moawkwrd said:

 

Thank you - I had similar thoughts yesterday after my last post when thinking about the track movements that could take place.

 

Can I clarify - do you mean the original Bredon plan or one of mine?

 

If mine - I think I can use both plans like so:

 

 

Does that work better operationally do you think? Might have to adapt a couple of the short straights for it to fit but that's no issue. I think the main fiddleyard sidings are just about the same length - 4 and a bit 16.6cm straights so could accommodate 3 coaches and an engine depending on the rolling stock with effectively a dead third siding in the top left for others locos etc. Could always replace the third radius curves with extra points if I needed more.

 

 

 

I think the goods yard is too fiddly - too many short sidings with unnatural wiggles to fit them in. The "bay" siding makes the main line platform shorter than it could be.

If the goods yard were just two or three long sidings it would be much more usable and more interesting to shunt.

@Chimer is right that the double track into the tunnel on the right is weird: The inner track is really a headshunt for the goods yard but it's connected to the FY. At a small station like this, as Chris has said above, it's unlikely that a headshunt would have been provided but sometimes they were and in the model it would allow you to shunt the yard while something circulates on the main line. So you can justify it but then it seems odd to build a double track tunnel to accommodate a headshunt. You could maybe say that it was originally double track and the line has since been singled and that side retained as a headshunt...?

But I agree with Chris that it would be simpler and more typical to keep it single track all round with no headshunt.

And the facing siding bottom left niggles me for the same reasons. It's not typical in the prototype and has to be specially justified.

Obviously you need to maximise the use of the space in this plan so you could:

• Where the end curves are hidden and the tunnel mouth is reasonably within the scenic area, move the curves as close to the edges as possible to maximise the length of the station and the FY.
• Add a thin extension to the front of the baseboard(s) to give you more options. You could place a platform (with station building) for the outside loop on it or use it to widen the oval or add a siding.

BTW: How are you going to get at the FY? The photo on the first page shows panels fixed to the back and sides of the baseboards.

1 hour ago, Andy Keane said:

An interesting layout based on the Helston buildings and seen by Chris:

https://emea01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.flickr.com%2Fphotos%2F103471893%40N02%2F53621174939%2Fin%2Falbum-72177720315798867%2F&data=05|02||4ee5d3f64b4f4a43485908dc5536005a|84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa|1|0|638478937624475257|Unknown|TWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D|0|||&sdata=iUTztOfbcC%2FAuC6WPMeDIKNjilJZw%2BdfZIyS%2BLBYwDE%3D&reserved=0
 

It's somewhere in a parallel universe that happens to have the name "Helston".

On 02/04/2024 at 18:49, gwrrob said:

 

To shew my impartiality and balance, the KR Models mica is available to pre-order through retailers like Rails here. Still nothing new to see yet.

 

Any thoughts ?

 

https://railsofsheffield.com/collections/kr-models?q=mica

 

Yes. Why can they not be bothered to do a decent render of their CAD? It’s really easy and they’ve had ages to do something that would promote the model much better than this carp. It shows a lax attitude that probably permeates everything they do.

15 hours ago, DCB said:

At a distance of about 5 metres the only sound 1369 made last week as she came past at Buckfastleigh was a very slight sound like a kettle apart from a bit of groaning from the wheels.  She accelerated from a stand with four chuffs and then shut off to coast past at a fair bit faster than I can walk

A bit like this, then:

I only issue three commands here: Whistle, Lift the regulator, Close the regulator.

New lamps and lenses:

Hi all,

I've been slowly working on one of these kits with the aim of making a generic 1930s GWR station building. It's gone together really nicely and I'm coming to the end of the build with only a few minor issues to fix before detailing. (At least, I thought that was the case before I took photos to post here. The camera is a harsh critic!)

I have followed the "GWR Structure Colours" book closely to get the colour scheme right but I'm making use of the latitude that was allowed/applied in the prototype in a few places. (Roof not painted yet.)

There are some gaps to fill on the corners of the building: Given that this is a laser-cut ply kit, what sort of filler would you recommend, folks? Polyfilla? DIY wood filler? Or something more specialised?

I would like to fix a representative set of timetables and advertising posters to the walls. They will ideally fit in the poster frames supplied as part of the kit. That means they need to be thin. Who makes the best GWR 1930s posters in your experience?

I always used a tiny dot of superglue when I was fitting the Modelu self-adhesive lenses, because I didn't trust the adhesive and because half the time I'd left the adhesive on the backing anyway!

Having said that, the last batch of lamps I got from Modelu had a different type of lens. Maybe they realised those self-adhesive ones were problematic.

P.S. Great shots from inside the scene, John!

End loading banks were provided at many stations. They're just a normal part of the infrastructure so they don't get special mentions.

I don't think they had a specific purpose - they are just for general access to load/unload low trolley wagons or van or wagons that open at the end.

(End loading at Fairford is provided on a short kick-back spur from the goods loop, which angles slightly but still requires the rear corner of the signal box to be cut away to provide access!)

All drawings in "Branch Line Termini" are 4mm scale.

8 hours ago, locospotter said:

Thanks for reply YT, yes I have done the same but looks like Heljan thinks only ESU Loksound will be fitted, I just put in a Bachmann ESU Lokpilot 4 function so just get FO headcode lights and no 2 end rear lights only.

You will have to program whatever decoder you use to control the loco's functions.

On 31/03/2024 at 02:53, DCB said:

I just watched another YouTube "How to do it" DCC video, and again off goes the loco chuff chuff.  etc   Two chuffs per revolution.
Steam railway locos have with almost no exceptions,(the   double acting cylinders which give four chuffs with two cylinders, Most three cylinders give six chuffs and 4 cylinders 4 or eight chuffs.  "Aerolite" at the NRM is AFAIK the last 2 "Chuff" per rev loco left in the UK.   Is this endemic in the DCC sound files or just ignorance on the part of the modellers?

Ignorance.

And when self-proclaimed experts get basic stuff like this wrong you have to wonder what else they got wrong...

As you say, usual stuff.

Look for 4mm depot plans around 6ft 10ins long and scale up.

There must be hundreds.

Watlington isn't mentioned in the allocations table for the SRMs or the service listings for 1911 in Lewis.