GeraldH

Work continues on the long delayed completion of Pewsley Station. The stonemasons have more or less finished the supporting walls and they do look very robust with their timber (ply) reinforcement. The original station building at Pewsley had a pitched roof and it has been decided to reuse this to provide facilities within the overall roof. The roofers never did a great job and as the building will be protected by the overall roof it has been decided to remove the pitched roof. To reduce passenger confusion and enhance the corporate identity of the BNR it has been decided to create some new station name boards with integrated stone (Linka) planters. The design team haven't finalised things yet, but they decided to grab the stonemasons while they were on site. The name boards are, however, likely to use steel (nails) posts with timber name boards (3mm ply).

Work is continuing on Pewsley's overall roof. It seems that the carpenters may not have got everything quite right and a few tweaks might be needed to the roof beams. The stonemasons have made good progress, although those arches don't seem very well supported!

Thank you. It was converted from a Triang suburban brake coach in the BNR's workshops. Side windows were added along with a GWR autocoach bell and the BNR's patented push pull apparatus which seems to work with all their locos :) . Here's a better image of it at the junction.

The cold weather has spurred on management to finally address the long promised overall roof at Pewsley on the extension. There was much debate as to how this should be constructed and it was decided that Linka alone would not be robust enough to withstand potential earthquakes. A composite timber and Linka construction is therefore being produced. This is the first time such an approach has been attempted and it has proved rather challenging for the carpenters and stonemasons. One wall is now slowly coming together, although there is clearly a need for more mortar on a couple of the joints!

They did make a few other improvements with additional separate wire handrails, see through spoked wheels on the trucks and a much better paint job.

It's time for Santa Specials on the Island of Ballybongle. Santa flew in and was spotted sneaking out of the grotto to buy an ice cream. He's obviously used to the cold! The clerestory rake has been dusted off for a special train to Pewsley. Congestion at the junction meant that the run run loop was not available for the preserved pannier tank and so the station pilot BNR No 5 had to help out.

Got to the end, but it then said that there were errors on the form. It didn't tell me what they were so I couldn't correct them and the submit button was greyed out :-( .

Setrack curved points can be a bit tricky. I have two of the latest generation of Hornby Curved Points on my layout and they work well. Almost nothing stalls or derails on them. Earlier generations of Hornby curved points were troublesome. The Bachmann ones are subtly different and mine did cause regular derailments (especially with Mainline locos) so this has now been replaced with the latest Peco Settrack one which is also trouble free. Zooming into your photos does raise a couple of possible issues. The jumpers that you have added to make the points non-isolating[?] look as though they could potentially interfere with the wheels? It's hard to tell from the photos, but has some of the paint got onto the inside edge of the rail head or even the tops? Locos pickup from both at certain times. I have had stalling issues in the past due to my over enthusiastic painting and ballasting track. Don't get too downhearted and stick at it, you'll get there in the end :-) .

During summer more of the services are steam hauled. The preserved Black 5 was not a regular on the branch in the past, but now that the line has been extended some of the larger locos do venture up there. The front bogie was derailing at both Globble Island and Ivygale and closer inspection revealed that the ramps for the automatic mail coach were slightly lifting the front bogie causing it to derail. The engineers managed to squeeze in some extra weight over the front bogie using some lead offcuts. They also took the opportunity to modify the bogie to accept the BNR's standard medium couplers which are a necessity with the line's sharp curves. A test run has proved successful and the loco has now returned to service after a quick touch up in the paint shop.

The new points on the Pewsley extension proved rather troublesome. Partly due to the scarcity of Peco points, a Bachmann curved point and three Hornby standard points were installed. The latest Hornby curved points have worked well at the junction and the Bachmann ones at first glance appear identical. There are, however, subtle differences in clearances which do seem to cause issues with some stock. The Bachmann curved point was causing regular derailments with finer profile wheels and was replaced some time ago. The differences between Peco and Hornby standard Settrack points are more obvious and the Hornby point connecting the engine shed has been causing issues with departing trains. This is a real problem with some Mainline locos as well as the Triang DMU with its modern Hornby wheels. The Re-railing Team got fed up with being called out every few days and the Operations Department found it increasingly difficult to work out which locos would safely negotiate the points. Due to the location of the point some electrical work was required and to reduce ground works cables were connected directly to the point before installation. Installation has now taken place and as a result there have been no more complaints about spilt beverages from passengers . Here are the gangers busy replacing the troublesome point at Pewsley. Further comparison of the Hornby and Peco points have revealed that the curved check-rail begins slightly nearer the toe of the Peco point and this seems to be making a significant difference as no derailments have taken place since installation.

I have found the Expo 70800 - Paint Stirring Tool to be very effective and much better than the various metal rods, nails, bits of wood etc. that I used previously.

I still run an upgraded Triang blue 101 on the BNR (some images of it via link above). It has new metal non-driven wheels on matchstick bearings, finer Ringfield driven wheels on the original axles (modified to fit by an Ebay seller I recall), exhausts from a Hornby 110, some buffer beam detail, better decals and passengers. It also has a blue centre coach repainted in rail blue to make a 3 car blue set. It runs very nicely alongside my Limby 101 and other Triang rolling stock.

Now that most of the trackwork on the Pewsley extension is complete, the track gang have been able to sort out some long standing issues at the junction. After the earthquake improvements were made in the goods yard, but the modified track was never ballasted. A stock of ballast had been built up in the stores (used tea leaves) and this was fixed in place (strong mix of wallpaper paste). It's vary rare to see the goods yard empty and so the opportunity was taken to photograph the branch passenger train in platform 2. This week it is being hauled by a preserved R1. This loco and a Pug called Desmond are visiting the line. The Emperor agreed to service both locos in the BNR's workshops in return for a Christmas banquet .

Various engineering works has delayed freight services and the staff in the goods yard have just finished emptying a wagon from the mainland.

I think the N2 had the Airfix X04 style motor rather than the RIngfield style one used in the 2P and 4F. An Airfix Prairie would have had a similar, if not the same, motor and the parts might be swappable. The Airfix 14XX might also be a candidate.

There is an issue with the mode of transport question. I regularly travel by car, public transport and cycle depending on the location. The questionnaire only allowed me to select one.

You can also use matchsticks to create a bearing. Drilling a small hole in the centre of the inward end of the matchstick ensures that the axle sits in the centre of the wooden bearing. I've got stock that's been running on these bearings for years without issues. There's a bit more info on my BNR layout thread.

The summer timetable means that the preserved steam locos get a bit more use. One of the three Mainline Collett Goods is seen passing through the cutting just outside Pewsley. The BNR goods service is seen passing in front of the new tree cover at the junction. Freight is generally handled by the line's diesels, so this is a fairly rare occurrence. The bogie bolster is seen loaded with timber (coffee stirrers secured with cotton) held in place by steel stanchions (panel pins).

The summer timetable has commenced and DMU services to England through the tunnel have been strengthened to 3 cars. Meanwhile further improvements and landscaping have been taking place on the Pewsley extension and the push pull service is seen awaiting departure from Platform 1.

The railway needed a coaling stage for the extension and it was decided to construct on in-house as there were plenty of material available locally. Workers assembled the base of the new coaling stage using the Linka components reinforced with diluted PVA. There was some skimping with the casting material, it was acquired for free and it is not as strong as some of the better materials. The frame of a hoist was constructed using recycled materials from the stores (candy floss stick, matchsticks, sawn off Triang coach rivet, one leg from the centre support of a takeaway pizza box & a piece of styrene tube). This required some precision joinery with a razor saw. The hoist will be able to rotate over any locos on shed greatly speeding up coaling . Workmen can be seen levelling up the hoist rotating mechanism and they are now scratching their heads trying to figure out how to rig up some form of pulley system. Rebuilt Patriots are not normally allocated to Pewsley shed, but it was decided to test things out on one of the line's largest (preserved) steam locos. Recycled steel rod (pins) and timber (rounded ends of coffee stirrers) have been used to create the cable run. Bricklayers have also been going around the system repointing the various Linka stone structures. The coaling stage hoist is now fully operational and the bucket can be raised and lowered by rotating the wheel from an old car by hand. A second bucket has had to be constructed from recycled plastic waste (an old pen, a bit of SIM card and some handrail) as the first one was too small. The smaller bucket, which was constructed in the same way, has now been put to good use in the goods yard at the junction.

Santa was recently spotted on the line and seemed to have established a grotto at Pewsley .

The Extension Team have been repairing damaged equipment to reduce the cost of the extension. The end of a tie-bar on one of the new Hornby points appeared to have snapped off. It was unclear whether this happened before or after delivery and so a repair was attempted. A blob of JB Weld epoxy was stuck onto the end of the tie bar and once it had dried, it was filed to shape. The result is not as fine as the original, but it appears to be robust enough for manual operation. JB Weld and probably many other epoxies bonds very well to polystyrene and other railway plastics and it has been used to repair many damaged or missing parts on the line. One of the platform sections for the new terminus had a damaged fixing clip and this was repaired in the same way. The clip has since been filed to shape and works well.

The BNR uses an adapted Hornby track cleaning wagon with a lead weighted hardboard sled, a bit more lead would help. The hardboard is attached to the sled with Blutac so can be easily replaced. The removed parts from the Hornby coach were then used to increase the pressure on the pad of the Triang track cleaning wagon.

There was also a fair sized goods yard at Boscombe Station.

The railway has been working on an extension to Pewsley in recent months which entailed bridging the Ivygale Gorge. Services have now commenced although some landscaping work is still required.