Tortuga

Wot? Diesels?

The opportunity for a bit more progress presented itself tonight and was duly seized with both hands. With the point and its blades in place, a trial and error approach was adopted to get the spacing of the toe end of the blades correct. Several attempts later and this was the result: This is a variation on what I aim to use on Alsop where the point blades are operated by thin wires passing from the tip of each blade, through the baseboard, to the operating mechanism underneath, with the stretcher bar keeping the blades to gauge. I want to avoid soldering the wires directly to copper strip, hence the pivot arrangement to eliminate stress between the blades and the stretcher bar. With Whaley Shunt I also need the stretcher bar to operate the point, so, apart from the operating bar being on the upper surface of the baseboard, I need a similar pivot between the blades and the stretcher bar. The “tab” at the left-hand end will take the operating wire from the solenoid point motor, but I didn’t think plain strip would be rigid enough hence the extra deep stretcher bar forming a partial T-section on the top of the operating bar. Just to show how it all looks: Set for the straight road and… …set for the diverging road. Despite careful measuring and drilling, I’ve ended up with about 1mm clearance between the blade and the stock rail, rather than the 2mm of an unmodified point. Trials involving pushing a wagon and a couple of locos over it didn’t result in any derailments, but I guess I won’t really know until I get the whole thing wired up and running properly… First I’ve got to repeat the whole exercise with the other set of blades!

Ah, see I got my pack from Wizard. It’s a set of LP4 ready assembled jobs - I guess I can remove the end link of each one and replace it?

I’m going to try three links out - I’ve already got a pack of Smiths ones - but now you lot have got me worried! On Alsop they should be fine as stock will probably remain coupled together most of the time, but I’m intending to use the same wagons on Whaley Shunt…

Last night, while T’missus and Chaos One were out at some football match and after tucking Chaos Two up in bed, I screwed up my courage and fired up the soldering iron. Since the original means of fixing the blades to the rest of the point was dodgy (at best, absent at worst), my solution was to solder fine brass (hand rail) wire into the fold of each blade to make fine wire “tails”: I also cut off the “tab” at the toe end of the blade and soldered on an ‘L’ shaped bit of handrail wire: Holes that were a tight fit for lengths of 30 Thou (0.75mm) diameter brass tube were drilled through the baseboard in the centres of the point’s blade pivot holes: Thus the wire “tail” fits inside the brass tubes to form secure pivots for the blades while the ‘L’ shape will fit into shorter lengths of 30 Thou tube and form pivots in the stretcher bar. Under the baseboard, the “tails” from the blade pivots will be bent at 90 degrees to secure the blades and I’ll solder feeds for the blades to them when I get round to doing the electrickery. I ran out of time last night to sort out the stretcher bar, but initial tests were promising! At least with these bits in place I can get the blade spacing on the stretcher bar right!

Lovely to see a post from you Tom. The teaser photo looks really good - is that winding house based on/inspired by the one that used to serve Abergynolwyn? (PS I tried joining your Facebook page to keep up with the developments of the Skarloey Railway, but wasn’t successful for some reason - nice to see an update on here though)

Interesting, though that would make sense as most of the photos of Gannets I’ve seen (from the group and from Jay) on the line are at locations between Parsley Hay and Middleton Top. I’ve not seen a photo of Mermaids on the Ashbourne line itself, but I think there’s a photo of some at Hillhead in one of the Foxline books. The only photo I’ve seen of ballast working on the Ashbourne line is this one from the W J Sutherland collection: http://sutherland.davenportstation.org.uk/aaprint/man.html#ash-62-10 which shows a train mainly of Catfish, at least three Trout and possibly one Gannet plus two ballast brakes passing through Parsley Hay en-route to Macclesfield in 1962.

Via a link from the Buxton Line and Railways of the High Peak Facebook group, I’ve found a photo showing the underbridge carrying Shawcross Yard over Randall Carr Brook. Unfortunately, not being sure of the copyright, I can’t post it here. Fortunately it has confirmed that the bridge was a stone built structure with quite a flattened arch.

One of the many photos posted on the Cromford & High Peak Railway Facebook group shows one of the J94s with ‘Gannet’ DM197392 branded ‘Empty to Parsley Hay’. Does this indicate some ‘Gannets’ were held at Parsley Hay specifically for ballasting work on the C&HPR (and potentially on the Buxton to Ashbourne line as well)? If so, arguments against getting a couple printed myself are growing thin on the ground!

Ah, that makes sense. I noticed them on Jay’s first photo, but they don’t look to be present on the above shot. They seem to be absent on prototypes I’ve seen photos of. Not having seen a drawing of a Gannet, I was starting to assume they were only present on one side of the wagon!

They look really good - and really delicate! Those sides are nearly translucent! The hand wheels look very nice as well. What’s happened to the rounded bits on the chassis?

Those sleepers still haven’t been used either though the ballast heap might’ve grown a bit! Fascinating photo: I’ve not seen that one before, have you any further information?

Is that the super secret test track for running in?

I’m heading up there on the Sunday by train; be good to put another face to a name if you do go.

That photo is probably my favourite of Alsop and most likely the reason I decided to model it. I just love the “private parking spot” for the signalman’s car, his chicken coops, the random bits and pieces lying around, the stack of sleepers waiting to be used and the northbound loco just feeling the easing of the gradient as it pulls in ready for the token and crew exchange. Although it was taken in 1962, I’m going to recreate most of the elements but backdated to 1953/4. So the locos will have early emblems, the wagons won’t all have vacuum brakes (I believe the Medium is M471281 (or 4?) from a hand brake only batch built in 1935) and the signalman’s car will be an earlier model.

Looking forward to seeing an example at Stafford Show!

Ah, you see, I “misread” the original photo and thought the circular “bits” on the side of the chassis were the hopper release wheels rather than a (?) backplate, hence my comment about replacing them with etched ones! When you said you should’ve taken a photo of the wheels Jay, I assumed you meant it came with 3D printed wheelsets for some reason! I mean, I have looked at the file, but it was a while ago and I’ve slept since then…

Glad to have been of help! There’s actually three in there: one at each end, across the width of the wagon and one between them, along the length of it. Would that mean the majority of Friden’s output would have traveled southward?

I’ve decided to put kit-bashing the ancient Ratio LMS Medium Wagon on hold as Ratio’s integrated floor/solebar combo means scratch-building a new floor. Far better to get hold of a Parkside’s LMS Medium Wagon kit and substitute the spare chassis parts to produce an LMS-built Medfit as that’ll leave me with a spare 10’ wheelbase chassis for potential scratch-building… In the meantime I’ll build the Ratio kit to represent one from my Alsop research material (shown below) though I’ll be modelling it prior to its fitting of vacuum brake gear. Photo from J W Sutherland collection / Manchester Loco Society, red circle, my own addition.

Probably not an idea to consider drilling out to create an open frame then… How difficult would it be to substitute in metal wheelsets? Would that help (a smidge) with weighting? Have to say I’m seriously considering getting one or two, but the wagon kit loft insulation needs depleting first…

That would be really helpful Jay, thanks. It’ll also be nice to put a face to a name and as I can only do one day at Stafford, Sunday it is!

Watching this with interest. Initial impression is that it looks good though a shame about the open frame and the operating wheels are crying out to be replaced with etched items! How noticeable was the open frame on the real thing given the overhang of the hopper? It looks like it’s mainly in shadow, so perhaps the lack of daylight/framework might not be as obvious?

Really nice work (you can’t even see the joins!) and a nice method for dealing with the roofs/rooves (one is right, but I don’t know which!); I can’t see me needing to use it, but you never know, so I’ve squirrelled it away for now.

I’ll give it a go! (I can see my shopping list for Stafford Exhibition is going to include a couple of cheap second hand wagons to practice on!)

That’s a nifty trick. Have you tried it on wagons painted black? Just wondering if it might just be the ticket for fading PO liveries to achieve that ‘almost obliterated’ look?