Tortuga

I’ll just clarify regarding the Haynes manual: my comments were not directed specifically at the Haynes Manual by Iain Rice, but at Haynes Manuals in general. My own Haynes Manual for the VW Type 2 describes, but fails to illustrate, several steps in various procedures and I’ve found myself needing to turn the page at a point where both my hands are occupied and letting go isn’t an option on more than one occasion! This link might give an idea of what I was getting at: http://messybeast.com/dragonqueen/real-haynes.htm

‘Creating Cameo Layouts’ by Iain Rice: so good, you bought two. Not sure on the Haynes Manual one though - do the photos miss out a vital step or the instructions assume you possess a third hand?

Isn’t that the term for an engine driver in the USA?

Two more Iain Rice books (that I don’t think have been mentioned): ‘Detailing & Improving Ready to Run Wagons’ and ‘Detailing & Improving Plastic Wagon Kits’, both by Irwell Press. Recently acquired both for my own “library”.

I think they look good as they are and you should leave them alone. Two United Dairies tanks await attention at Little Muddle. The older livery (seen on the left-hand tank) was gradually replaced during overhaul by a simpler livery, as displayed by the recently out-shopped wagon on the right. (From ‘Memories of Encombe Town and It’s Surroundings’ by R.S. Pecks)

Bah! Those buffer beams could be any colour under all that associated rust, muck & grime - yours are too clean!

Those wagons look really good Jay, especially the last two. I’m afraid I’m going to be hyper-critical though: The corner plates look quite red, particularly on the last three wagons; is this due to the light or are they really that colour? I’m assuming you’re going for a rusty effect, so perhaps it needs knocking back slightly and/or the rest of the metalwork needs bringing up to the same level. The large lettering seems slightly too stark. Again, it might be the light, but could the edges be softened slightly, maybe with a fibreglass pencil (as used by Martyn Welch)? Loving the J94 by the way, definitely looks the business. Odd how the additional steps at the rear weren’t painted red where they intersect the buffer beam.

No worries Jay! It was a public post so it’s not a surprise it ended up in the public domain. I was going to put it up on here anyway, but you beat me to it!

I posted it in the C&HP FB group after our bi-monthly (that’s once every two months in this case) walk yesterday! Been trying to work out what diagram it is and if the paint is original - if it it’s original paint, it could be a Derbyshire Stone PO wagon, but the buffers and stanchions say ex-LMS to me…

That’s a familiar looking photo Jay!

“I am crossing the right points, just not necessarily in the right order!”

Since it’s second radius I doubt you’d have any problems, certainly with RTR coaches. Removing (or reducing the straight) in the ‘S’ curve as you shown in your last photo would reduce the amount of overhang of the traverser when loaded, but you’d lose two tracks. I like traverser fiddle yards, but they have to be narrower than the full board width to work best. You could use a loco lift to move locos from one end of the train to the other of course. I’m in the middle of re-planning how Alsop fits in my railway room. My preference is to have traversers as the fiddle yards as they give maximum length of storage sidings, but, like you, the approaches are on curves to maximise the length of the scenic section, which puts the fiddle yard feed track close to the wall, limiting the room for a traverser to move. Cassettes would be a better solution in this case, but I don’t like the idea of moving 5 to 6 foot cassettes about, so I’m going with points arranged to provide maximum length of sidings instead. I am considering using shorter cassettes to make up the length of a couple of sidings as they will be used to turn complete (short) trains.

Are you likely to be propelling stock around the ‘S’ curve, Chris? I’d’ve thought most of your trains would be hauled into the scenic section, run around and hauled back to the fiddle yard, so there shouldn’t be any buffer locking as the buffers won’t be touching - unless you’re shunting really long trains around that 180 degree curve? Having said that I don’t know how many push-pull trains you have / are intending to run, as those will involve propelling movements in one direction through the ‘S’ curve - could those trains use different couplings that negate buffer locking?

I did wonder if that was the case when we visited. It did have that wonderful workshop “storage and restoration area” feel to it - you know, the part of the preserved railway where all the spare stock/projects awaiting restoration are shoved out of the way and the public aren’t allowed to go because of ‘Elf and Safety’? I know what you mean. I’d been looking forward to have a poke around the LNWR G2 when we visited, but all I managed to see of it was this:

I like the “story” that the sheep have escaped and are being herded back to where they should be - it gives a reason for the presence of Farmer Hoggett and his collie (surely they wouldn’t be there otherwise?)

Looks like a well ordered hobby room. Two layouts all ready for playing with operating, room for one to be worked on, all that reference material easily to hand and a nice tidy desk of doing with plenty of light for modelling duty. Nicely done sir!

Both look good Graham and well done for making the effort to redo the diagonal strapping on the LMS van - it looks so much better for it!

It’s OK Mike. I apologise for my grumpiness. On reflection, running an 8F at speed, up and down a four foot long, 150mm high board without end protection was possibly not the best decision I could’ve made! I was just so stoked to actually get something running on a layout*, I didn’t stop to consider possible consequences - still could’ve been worse! (*last time I was at this stage was before I started Secondary School**) (**1991ish)

Is there any other kind of Manchester?* Hope you enjoy Locomotion - I certainly did when we visited earlier this year - and can we have a detailed report on Beamish? I haven’t been for years either (though not as many as have passed since 1976) and we keep saying we should take the offspring: it’d be nice to know your thoughts!

Ah, I see. I was beginning to think I’d shared my bank details by mistake. I did experiment with some practice runs before shooting the video if that puts anyone’s minds at rest.

Not quite the responses I was expecting to be honest? Have I missed something blindingly obvious / done something monumentally stupid?

I’ll just leave this here. (Hope that link works!)

Cheers Rob. Forgot to mention last night; the copper clad sleepers have been removed and consigned to the bin. Replacements have, of course, been fashioned from spare sleepers - waste not, want not - glued down and pinned through the webbing with PECO track pins in drilled 0.6mm holes.

Note on the wire colours (just in case anyone wants to know) Red: positive feed to track Black: negative feed to track Blue & Orange: positive feed to point motors from passing contact switches Green: common return for point motors (and separately feed to point frogs (frogs are green) - I figure I should be able to tell the difference between the return wire and the frog feed) White: feeds to point frogs on the tandem point (frogs are… umm… white in this case?)

After changing the tip in the soldering iron, this was the result of an hours work: Thats all the feeds soldered to the point motors ready for wiring up - apart from one orange wire that obviously needed a touch more solder. Next job is to connect all the droppers to common feeds via chock blocks and see if it (hopefully) works!* *I do need to add in an additional couple of droppers for the long siding first - forgot to do that earlier.