GWR57xx

The forest of exhaust chimney stacks was certainly a signature feature of the Churchward straight sheds. I think they might make your shed look a bit “busy” though as you have a ridge over each track, and the ridges already have roof vents over the tracks in line with the interior smoke chutes.

There would only be one sand furnace, but you could use the larger one as a boiler house?

Yes to all three questions Bob, and the pictured building looks very suitable.

I think your issue with being unable to program the decoder in the coach is because the controllers don’t see a big enough electrical “load”, which is usually provided by the motor in a loco. So not a faulty decoder. Glad you managed to sort it.

Hi Bob, I think it would be more prototypical for the new road (where 2217 is) to be used to hold wagons to be loaded with ash to be taken away, and the coal stage road (where 2213 is) to have the ash pit. Usually the fire would be dropped while the tender/bunker of the engine was being replenished for its next duty. Once it had cooled the ash would be shovelled from the pit into the waiting wagons.

A few more photos of the pits at Didcot: By the Coal Stage: Outside the Shed: Inside the Shed:

Also possibly not in the best sub-forum, as I can’t see what it has to do with the forum title?

Sounds rather complicated. How will you communicate with the items of rolling stock to activate the couplers? DCC? R/C? If you use magnetic ones presumably they’ll be electromagnets? Why do the items of rolling stock need to know their position? Is this meant to be a “hands off” fully automatic puzzle that you just watch with no input other than pressing “start”? I think I’m not quite grasping the scope or intent of your project!

The weathering looks excellent to me, in keeping with the state of the green wriggly tin and the rest of the scene.

You could ask SMS or one of the other laser cut baseboard suppliers about cutting a few bits of mdf to the exact sizes you want for cassettes.

Hi Bob, the area where you’ve placed the water tower would usually have a track for wagons to be loaded with ash from the ash pit, which would usually be on the track next to the coal stage.

Could you move the turntable to the left a bit to where the engine shed & pump house currently sit, and move the shed to where the X is? Maybe straighten the coal stage ramp a bit, and have the coal road run onto the turntable, with an ash line beside it?

Looks great, but the coal seems a bit on the damp side. Could take a while to build up steam.

Hi Andy, I don’t think that would do the job here. How will you fix it down to the supports and to the turntable top? It appears to rely on suction cups? Even if it can be firmly bolted down to both surfaces it will only cover the central circle (shown in red on my diagram). I know it quotes some huge load bearing capacity but that is only in a vertical direction (I.e. compression). When your turntable is even slightly unbalanced there will be potentially considerable turning moments in the vertical plane that the lazy Susan isn’t designed to cope with. I hope I’m wrong, but I wouldn’t want to rely on it. Best wishes, Peter

Turntable again: don’t forget to add some kind of physical stop at each end of each track to prevent the stock flying off due to centrifugal force when the turntable is rotated.

Hi Andy, I expect your turntable will be symmetrical, like: I don't know what kind of support structure G&H propose beneath the top board, but presumably it will not provide 360 degree support such as: The normal range of movement (when not turning through 180°) looks to be about +/-15° (to align the outer tracks with the central exit track): so I'd be looking to provide as much support around the central area as possible using something heavy duty like: with as many support rollers as you can, including at the outer edges e.g. I'd also be thinking of providing some kind of latch mechanism to prevent the turntable being accidentally moved beyond the 15° point, so that the operator physically has to release the latch to be able to turn the table 180°. The table will be totally unsupported at the ends beyond about +/-30° rotation and relying only on the central bearing & rollers, so the operator will have to be ready to provide any support needed for an unbalanced load. This may seem a bit belt & braces, but the worst case scenario would be thousands of pounds worth of stock taking a nose dive to the floor so I don't think it's excessive. Hope this helps.

You can’t react to your own posts (so they don’t appear), but you should be able to see the buttons against others’ posts. No idea why you’re moderated, but maybe contact @AY Mod if you don’t know either. I’ve only seen that with new members until they’ve had a few moderated posts.

Thanks - I hadn’t noticed that. Could well be.

Allegedly…

Exactoscale. But you’ll need to be a member of either Scaleforum or the EM Gauge Society. Might be worth joining just for access to the shop if you’re not already a member. I may well be wrong but I seem to remember reading that bridge chairs are always 4 bolt (even GWR). edit: They're square with two bolts in diagonally opposite corners. Anyway, I believe Exactoscale only produce 4-bolt versions.

But it’s an 87xx, so not auto-fitted. Looks more like the engine has just uncoupled and pulled forwards slightly as a prelude to running round. It must be standing in for a failed 64xx. 🙂

@18B Nice. I'd give you some "Likes" but for some reason the reaction buttons are not showing for me in your posts. I assume you're getting some from other users?

Anything happening at Malmesbury Ade? Hope all is well.

At last the rain held off for long enough to get outside to spray the wall parts with matt varnish: These were then left for a day or three to fully cure before applying the mortar courses: Another few days later and the parts have been assembled into a wall: I'll re-do the coping stones to give a little bit of overhang.

A chair yes, but no key on this side (to answer one of the OP’s questions).