Tallpaul69

Reminds me of my grand daughter (aged 7!) and her team. She belonged to it and trained for six months before they had enough girls to play in the Saturday morning Bedfordshire League! She is making up for lost time now, she is their top scorer!!

Correct! Although ours, being exact, is an embroidery not a photo, so the detail is not quite so sharp! The picture pleases both of us:- I like it as a steam train, my wife likes it because it is an embroidery. Ironically, because we rotate pictures and embroideries on our walls every 3 months, we have just taken this one down for spring, but tomorrow we are taking some items to be framed amongst which is an embroidery of an Eddy Stobart truck that my wife did for me some years ago, but which, because of lack of hanging space in our old house, never got framed or hung! Best regards Paul

Benbow, I am sure Kevin will tell you that he didn't instantly get everything right when he started! I don't expect to reach the standard shown, but it spurs me to keep going and see where I can get. I don't think Kevin will mind if you ask questions or raise problems you are wrestling with. A problem shared is a problem halved, or with luck solved. If readers here don't know the answer, they usually know a man (or woman) who does! So keep at it Benbow While I think of it, anyone know when "enparts" vans first bore that wording? I thought it was the 70's but just came across the term in a 1961 coach/van workings appendix, so I guess it was then, if not earlier? Thanks Cheers Paul

Agreed, That's my excuse if anyone asks! In truth, I don't have sufficient space for enough loops to run more than a token express service. In choosing which expresses to run I have to weigh several factors:- 1) Do I like the particular train sufficiently to allocate it siding space for what will only be one outing each way in a day. As It will take me 5 actual days to work through a day's timetable then it means a given train only has two outings in 5 days! 2) Do I have the stock for the train? 3) Can I get over 1) above by running the train several times to represent different trains? In the main, the variety of trains on the reliefs and the branch is enough to keep me happy. BUT:- I am inclined to run the following:- a) Cornish Riveria - my favourite! Rule 1 b) Cathedrals Express- also a favourite and in a picture on our bedroom wall. Their real life timings means I can get away with running these in opposite directions at the same time so that the sidings they use at each end of their run are occupied except for the short time they are actually running! c) Four off Mk1 sets (two in choc/cream, two in maroon) which will run on the round and round part of the layout several times portraying different un-named trains. d) The western Diesel Pullman (actually a midland set) - Rule 1!) which I can run several times to portray its several runs to Bristol and the second set's run to/from south wales. For variety I will change this for a hauled Pullman set - one of the few instances where I will take stock on and off the layout during the running of one era. Trains that I would like to run but fall foul of criteria 1) above include the Penzance Sleeper, the Torbay Express, and all the other WR named expresses from/to Paddington. Some also fall foul of criteria 2)!! Sorry, Just realised how long this supposed to be short note has got!!! Cheers Paul

Thanks to the "likers". Glad some of you found my notes interesting, just wondering if anyone will take up my challenge on Compromises and Rule 1s?? In a few days I'll post the second hours details...…. Cheers Paul

Morning All, Having explained in an earlier post how I intend to run my layout sessions I thought some details on one of them would be of interest. The first session covers the four hours 5am to 9am and the first two hours (one hour in real time) go like this:- 0506:- a class 9 empties arrives on the down relief from Acton headed by a 28xx. It takes a left turn into the down relief loop and draws forward to the signal. As they left Acton at 3.20 and have little shunting to do before leaving at 05.40 the crew take breakfast (frying sounds) O510:- a 57xx LE from Slough passes through on the down relief heading for Twyford. It had slowed in case the 0506:- had not cleared into the loop but on seeing clear signals speeds up to loud exhaust. 0515:- the late running (due 0500) up milk from Whitland behind a Castle thunders through the relief line whistling loudly. 0520:- the slightly late (due 0510) 0430 news and milk empties from Paddington to Westbury draws in on the down relief behind a Hall. It is allowed 5 mins to drop a GUV from the front of the train into the up siding. The driver must take care not to buffer up to the brake of the goods standing in the up loop! 0527:- a late running (due 0515) coal train hauled by a LMR 8F crawls into the up relief loop to drop a raft of wagons into the coal sidings It will leave on time at 0606 but at 0557 pulls out of the loop to wait at the up relief platform signal. 0530:- a Slough 61xx arrives on the down relief LE to collect a set of Suburban coaches from the branch siding to form the 0600 to Paddington. This engine is facing Reading (Slough engines usually faced London) because its next duty from Paddington is a fast timed passenger to Oxford! 0540 :- the down mineral pulls out of the down relief loop and clanks on its way. 0600:- the 540 Reading to Princes Risborough Parcels arrives in the up relief loop hauled by a 56xx. It drops some vans into the neck of the coal sidings then moves across to the up siding to collect the GUV left there by the 0430 Paddington to Westbury. It has to run round the GUV using the crossovers between the up and down relief lines. It then pulls forward into the branch platform recently left by the 06.00 to Paddington and runs round its train via the up relief. 0610:- another Slough 61xx arrives on the down relief LE, this one facing London. It passes onto the branch heading to power the 0730 Bourne end to Paddington. 0620:- the Princes Risborough Parcels storms away up the branch. 06.25:- the first up 3 car DMU of the day arrives from Reading on the up relief heading for Paddington. 06.30:- Class 5 from Westbury powered by a Hall arrives in the up relief loop to wait the passing of the 0650 Aberdare 0634:- the 0620 Slough to High Wycombe local 61xx hauled arrives in the branch platform and leaves up the branch at 0638. 0640:- starting noises are heard from the 3 car DMU in the down siding. No doubt the crew arrived from Slough on the High Wycombe train. 0645:- the DMU starts its manoeuvre to gain the branch platform ready for its 0658 departure to Paddington. 0650:- Class 8 from Aberdare to OOC powered by a 9F passes through the relief line 0655:- the 57xx shunter that earlier passed west towards Twyford returns through the up relief line heading for Taplow. 0658:- DMU leaves the branch platform for Paddington. So in summary:- In one hour I have handled 14 trains, 7 of which have looped or carried out multiple movements. Time for a coffee I Think! Before you all reach for your WTTs and pick me up on discrepancies, there are one or two compromises and one or two Rule 1s in the above. No prizes for spotting them!! Cheers Paul

Its my own fault Mick, I shouldn't have introduced the word "picky"!! Probably better to PM when we notice any small slip. Hope your model is progressing well? Cheers Paul

Brilliant Robin. Don't think I'll manage to keep my thread "Lower Thames Yard" going for more than a couple of years, so our thanks for seven years effort, and for the railway ANTB itself! Cheers Paul

You two be careful! If Rob (NHY581) sees these comments, he might accuse you of being picky!!! Seriously, it just shows you that we don't all notice the same things. I had not noticed the building roof, and as for cameras going off, I've got some marvelous shots on my phone of the inside of my pockets. Keep up the good work , Kevin Cheers Paul

Hi All, Compromises or Rule 1? The bad weather this week keeping me in the house and away from the railway room I decided to work on the working timetables for the layout. Doing this reminded me of the consequences of compromises we make in modelling and the implications of “Rule 1”! We all have to make compromises in our layouts, and we regularly claim “Rule 1” to cover doing what we want rather than what prototype dictates. However, it seems to me that the two can have an area of overlap. So having thrown that hand grenade into the arena, I’ll explain some of my compromises, some of my “Rule 1” decisions and a situation where I found they overlapped! Compromises. As soon as you try to realistically depict a 4 track mainline in a 12ft x 8ft space even when it is a dedicated space you are bound to make compromises. The first I made, but only after putting up several test plans on the forum for comment, (and getting plenty of comment!) was that 4 tracks didn’t work. So I settled for the relief tracks and a branch junction and ignored the main tracks. This worked because study of a working timetable revealed more variety and interest in the relief lines and branch than in the procession of expresses on the mainlines particularly in the periods I wanted to model. But I still will run some expresses such as my favourites, the Cornish Rivera Express and the Cathedrals Express (yet more compromise!) The next was to not have a station, or at least not any platforms, just the station buildings as a scenic break at one side of the layout. This was made for two reasons. Firstly, again, considerations of space, but also because it got round the problems of platform furniture changes between my chosen periods. Space considerations confirmed a decision I took a long while ago to have a maximum train length equivalent to 5 off 70ft carriages and a tender loco. Rule 1 One of the big rule 1 decisions I made was that rather than sticking strictly to my stated years for the three periods of the layout, I would flex things slightly. Thus in the early period for instance, I will use a 1960 timetable but allow rolling stock built up to late 1962 so that I could run Western Class diesels. In the middle period I will run a class 117 DMUs in the GWR centenary livery of chocolate and cream alongside the late 1992 introduced Class 166 in NSE livery. In the modern period I will run class 150s and class 143s in “Neon” livery alongside Class 166s and class 158s in gWr livery. Of these only the Class 166s are accurate for the Thames Valley lines! Compromise or “Rule 1” or a combination of both? In explaining this situation I must start by saying that one of my aims in operating this layout is to limit handling of stock and locos as far as possible to the sessions when I remove one period’s stock and locos from the layout and replace it by those of another period. I should also say that I plan to run operating sessions at approximately double time speed and for around 2 hours. So my first session might be on a Monday morning 10.00 to 12.00 and use the timetable for 1962, 4am to 8am. The next day I might run 12.00 midday to 4.00pm and so on. Probably one every couple of months I might change to another of my 3 eras. Realistically my 2 hour sessions might have a coffee break around halfway through, depending on what the timetable allows! One of the problems of running a mainline layout is that mainlines in reality use a lot of rolling stock sets and locomotives! You may have enough stock and locos, but fiddle yard capacity is another matter, even if, as I plan , there will be a lower level fiddle yard. So my compromise is to run some trains round the layout a number of times in a controlled and timetabled way (Yes, every once in a while I will just play trains!!) . I will do this either by running them on consecutive trips (for instance while I am carrying out shunting moves) or with other trains circulating between their trips. This is easy to get away with when using Mk1, 2, or 3 coaches on passenger trains and in the recent eras with block trains but more difficult to be convincing in the 60s era, when there were few block train freights and one freight was usually noticeably very different from the next, even if you intersperse other trains with a particular freight! The idea I am working on is selective shunting. Under this, freight trains have up to 3 sections of 5 wagons each and a brake van. So a train on, say, its first anticlockwise run round has two 5 wagon sections A, and B plus a brake van. On its second run round the train enters the right hand end of the up loop and halts in the loop. It then backs section B and the brake van into a siding off the loop. In a second siding off the loop is a section C and a brake van of different type to the first brake van. The train picks up this section and brake van and continues on its way. Later another train drops off a section and brake van and picks up section B and brake van, while on a later circuit the original train drops off sections A and C and a brake van, and picks up the section and brake van dropped by the second train. And so on….. Now is this compromise or “Rule 1”?? Cheers Happy modelling Paul

Kevin, Apologies for being picky, but the board walk across the tracks look a tad uneven, definitely need to keep passengers clear of them! Not that they ought to be going across there anyway but you know what they are like for taking a short cut! Keep up the good work. Cheers Paul

So finally I have found time to post something on my progress with my Lower Thames Yard layout, and I thought it time to talk about signals:- Modelling three different eras can be tricky when it comes to signals. Luckily, by application of Rule 1 I can bring forward the 1963 colour light signal scheme on the Slough to Reading main and relief lines to 1962. I can by application of the same rule keep the same colour light signals through 1992 and on to 2016! However, the High Wycombe branch is a bit trickier, as semaphores remained until the early 70s. So I came up with the idea of having swappable signals for this area. Semaphores which I can unplug and colour lights that will plug into seperate but adjacent holes. The new Dapol signals looked just what I wanted. Planning progressed fine until I heard that the Dapol signals were not as good at being taken out and put back again as was initially suggested. Dapol told one modeler that they were not actually intended for repetedly taking out and putting back! So I then looked around for someone to make custom signals that could withstand repeated taking out and putting back again. After a period of investigation I have settled on proposals put forward by Stephen Freeman. These, while a bit more expensive than the Dapols will do what I want and have the advantage of as being closer to the original signals than the Dapols. The only problem is finding close up photos of some of the signals. So currently I am getting my head round DCC signal operation with the aim of eventual computer control. I am reducing the number of operational signals by limiting working signals to those whose operation can be seen from the operating and viewing area. While semaphores can be seen to operate from back as well as front, colour lights can only be seen from the back if you are operating in subdued light conditions, which is not something I intend to do! Now I have the tricky task of drawing large scale plans to show the positioning of the signals and therefore the positions of their fixing holes. This is not easy as the track plan, while allowing most of the movements of the prototype , is actually different and the spacing of points differs from the prototype! Some of the spacings are quite tight so I need to ensure that trains, particularly overhangs of bogie coaches on curves will not strike signals particularly the junction signals. Happy modelling, Best regards Paul

He sounds like the type of guy who sends you 4 candles for fork handles???

No need to hide Trevor, I must admit that as both my Kernow Warship and my Dapol D6300 are sitting boxed in the "awaiting chipping" pile, I hadn't looked too closely at their couplings! So thanks for the warning and your efforts on page 5. Couplings are a huge project for me that seems always to be a can that gets kicked down the road by other "priorities"! It's something I'm planning to do a post on in "Lower Thames Yard" soon. My master plan on couplings is Kadees for ease of coupling/uncoupling anywhere on the layout, with most stock being in sets (any thing from 3 wagons upwards) with Kadees at the ends and tension locks in between. Some stock particularly wagons will be done both ends so as to cater for shunting the pick up goods. A number of Parcels will be done both ends to allow for the morning Reading to Princes Risborough train which reversed at Maidenhead with the individual vans returning to Maidenhead one by one on the branch passenger trains to be sent back to Reading and beyond on the evening Maidenhead to Reading Parcels. But I have yet to Kadee a single loco, most of which will need both ends doing. Keep up the good work Cheers Paul

Hi there:- I think this is your question? Has anyone pictures of wagons used to carry baled scrap between 1980 and 1994 such as OCAs, OAAs, OBAs and later Tiger POA wagons and POA scrap wagons? So, if it is, I will look through my books and see what I can find? Regards Paul

Hi All, Around 1960-62, apart from coal, and its associated products plus the empties therefrom, what mineral flows were there along the GW main line between Acton and Reading or along the Wycombe branch, destined for or originating from beyond the Thames Valley area, a) in block formations b) as a section comprising c1-6 wagons of a mixed freightwagons? Also in the same area and timescale, what were fitted bauxite 16T minerals used for as against unfitted grey 16T minerals? Many thanks Paul

Could be interesting! Knowing my luck, I'd start out intending to get a Blood and Custard or a Chocolate and Cream effect and end up with a Blood and Chocolate effect!! Doh!!

Hi All, It has been suggested to me that a Prusa 3D printer is a good machine for producing 4mm Wagon and coach parts. Can any one post their experiences in using this machine? Many thanks Paul

Hi Trevor, Got some examples and maybe pics for a " Hall of Shame"? Conversely, apart from the aforesaid OR wagons, who do we think has good Ready to Run NEM coupling pockets and couplings? (Think I'll quietly run away now and hope to miss the bricks and other forms of abuse!!) Cheers Paul

Hi all, And now for a complete change of topic...…….. Any of you got experience of using a 3D printer? Something I've been chewing on for quite a while, but now an opportunity to acquire one at a not too shabby price has come my way! Many thanks Paul

Hi Gibbo, TOM and co, When all the bits for this set of 4 are in place I'll be in the market for someone to make me up a set! (No use trying something this complex myself, I could never do it justice! (I know l've already prodded you elsewhere about this, Gibbo, but at that point I didn't know this thread existed!!) Cheers Paul

Hi Gibbo, Just to give you a push in the right direction with the Cartic4, I could be interested in taking the finished article off your hands? Keep me posted via PM? Cheers Paul

So what would I have seen on Stone trains between Reading and Acton in 1960-2? I was thinking of using a mixture of grey Iron Ores and grey 16t minerals with a fitted head of bauxite 16t minerals (total 15 wagons plus brake) on my Lower Thames Yard layout which is based on Maidenhead. Thanks Paul

Snow I can cope with, its the floods that would really get to me! Having said that, they are threatening we might get a bit of white stuff here in sunny Bedfordshire, so I might yet be eating my words! Better bring some modelling indoors in case although I need to spend some time writing on modelling matters on my Lower Thames Yard thread after the family weekend meant I just wrote a few lines of excuse!! If I cant get too far on the modelling, I might have to take a leaf from your book Clive and amend the tread title to allow for non modelling posts! Take care All Best regards Paul

Good Evening all, Writing this is as near to modelling as I have got this weekend as have been on Family duty! Its our eldest sons birthday today and younger son is down from the wilds of Flintshire with his family. So yesterday was 10 pin bowling, lunch at Frankies and Bennys, then chilling out watching the France/Wales rugby at eldest son's. The least said about the match the better, especially as Welsh daughter in law was not amused by it, even less so when her 5 year old daughter said she wanted France to win!! Today we hosted lunch for 9, and just managed to get cleared up for the England Ireland match, a much better affair (and not just because England won!). We have just finished loading the second wash into the dish washer and packing away the clean first load. Just enough energy left to complete these notes, acknowledge a few posts, and answer the weekend's accumulation of emails before bed. Will post something on modelling during the week. Keep smiling Paul