London cambrian

Thanks pannier tank, no problem, i'll ask next time i see graham if you want? I've got afriend doing one as well, also into LT Red, but his work is fantastic. we're hoping to have them running together next year. Hopefully, I'll leave mine clean for a few months then get someone i know to weather it, but the other mate with the pannier, is doing one of the early ones, so leaving his clean. Cheers Mark

Hi guy, i have absolutely now idea! Tbh without being too crude, i know its german, probably a kriegslok and its black with red below the running boards! You may have guessed anything beyond the isle of wight is not my forte! I wouldnt know the answer, and i doubt my friends from echills would know either because it was a visiting loco! Sorry couldnt be more help. anything on 5 inch british stuff, i'm great on but nothing foreign! Cheers, Mark

Cheers all As you say mike i probably will paint the wheels all red, certainly the centre posses, when i paint the centre wheelset, probably next week. They would certainly benefit from it. Glad you enjoyed it devondynosaur! Mark

Hi all. Now, with time on my hands, progress can seriously rebegin on the pannier tank! Right, bit of background. In 2010 we bought this fully built but almost totally unpainted pannier tank from a dealer. Really it was a bit of a catch. We had just sold our part built winson Britannia (a battle in itself!) and we always wanted a pannier, the LT connection being evident! So we purchased it, had it on a rolling road, and apart from a few niggles, all seemed well. So, into the workshop, took tanks, cab, boiler off to get at the water pumps, and fix them, they were not pumping sufficiently, making getting water in the boiler a little difficult. While it was this far down, we took the time to investigate the valve gear. We knew we'd have to reset it a bit, but what we had was perhaps a partially set gear set with eccentrics all over the place. To be honest it was a miracle it ran at all! We also wanted to do some mods to make it to the Don Ashton/Doug hewson valve gear, which improves valve events and therefore steam efficiency. It basically went down to rolling chassis, and the mods we made. We then went to air test it, what we thought was a pin on the rocker shafts sheared and it was put on the shelf, lacking enthusiasm for about 6 months. Until last week. With exams finished and the 4 coaches we said weren’t going to be built till after the pannier have been completed, the project was restarted! So, with my newly found freedom, I set to work. First job, take the motion plate had to be dropped out. Now I’m sure this is true on many other locos but basically a pannier tank to the Pansy Design is a pain in the neck. Everything has to be done in a certain order, as I have found to my cost several times! The wheels have to out to get at the bracket or even the reversing gear for that matter, because the wheels are in the way! So, down to bare frames it was. We had done some modifications to the cylinder block during the last blitz, new piston rings and countersunk bolts in the covers so this could stay in. Plus it adds strength to the frame and keeps it square when the motion bracket and frame stretcher aren’t in. The motion bracket was removed and the offending rocker was found to be only grub screwed to the shaft, no sheared pin hooray! It was also found that the previous owner had drilled for pins but never put them in, but had reassembled anyway. So, pins were made, with the holes opened out slightly, and the bracket was reassembled, both rockers being fixed. These will be Loctite-d when it comes to panting. We haven’t painted at this stage because of many potential adjustments that may be needed, but it could be done now. All the valve gear were taken to the drawings and compared for length, and we were very pleased to find this man was a pretty good machinist! Everything dead on. It was also at this point I found out the valve gear wasn’t to the published pansy Stephenson valve gear designs (which leave a little to be desired) but to the improved designs. Oh Joyous day! So everything was assembled back together, wheels dropped back in. Now, I expected everything to be a little tight when first running because many joints would be dry of all. But not this tight. And what was more the valve gear seemed to have developed a strange rear bias, meaning the mid position of the valve gear was quite far forwards. Back to the drawing, but everything seemed well. Pieces were assembled again, and yet again the bias is there. I must confess to still not knowing its cause yet, but that’s for a future post. All it means that mid gear has the expansion links are quite a way down on the die blocks, for those technically minded. However the tightness was fixed when a second set of eyes entered the workshop, and noted the centre axle was in upside down! Oil pots were pointing down. Ah well. Strip down again, and turn the axle over. The strip allowed me to confirm what I thought as well, the right hand cylinder is a little stiff, hopefully will loosen with time and steam oil. Currently I am consulting with a friend on the valve gear issue. I have a feeling it may be to do with the position of the reversing lever and the rack for it, the pansy isn’t different drawing wise to the ashton valve gear, but that to me is a likely solution, that and the lifting arm/links that we replaced. Other than that, so far things are pretty good. While this was all going on I drilled the oil wells and channels in the top of the axleboxes on the centre axle yesterday. After reassembly it was back to square one really, today I made a start on some springs over the top of the valves in the chest below the cylinders. These stop the valves dropping off the port faces when stationary, which require a heavy hand on the regulator to shut when starting otherwise. I am still pondering this, most likely a brass strip over the buckles and a small spring or more likely phosphor bronze strip to keep everything pushed down. Sorry no photos of that. The next job is I’m probably going to strip and paint. Other than that valve thing, I am otherwise happy with it. So its paint the last pair of wheels. Pain the frames, black on the outside, buffer beam red inside up to the frame stretcher and black all the way back from that. New coat of red on the buffers and beams. All the motion will mostly be left bright, there seems to be variations in prototype panniers, but because it’s more cramped than a full size one, it’ll probably be left oiled steel. The coupling rods are all distinctively red (unlike to my disappointment the tyseley pannier!) with the bearings outlined in black. In case anyone is interested, the shade of red we use is Volkswagen Gambia Red from Halfords! To other matters. The trailer is being built for the coaches, and adaption and extension of a standard Erde trailer. I haven’t any pictures, but it involves a system of using rods through all the coaches and the side of the trailer to support them, meaning they cannot go anywhere, and it should take far less time to pack away at runs! I haven’t my camera with me so I’m afraid photos will wait till it’s finished. For the benefit of Pannier tank, few shots of one of the 3 or 4 reasonable regular 08s, this one resident at the Lindsey society track in Lincolnshire, possibly the most railway like track, and one of the smallest as well! Finally a few more shots of echills wood event last weekend, thanks go to Mark Franklin for letting me use his pictures. On of a pair of black 5s that day is seen on the approach to the level crossing i think... Mike (Dinmore Manor) on the GW Hall over the station/yard level crossing. A rather nice Blue Duchess visiting, an engine that probably for springing reasons in wet weather was a little light on its feet! I beleive Mike did several laps acting as banker for it! A BR B1, an engine that my my grandfather (who built the T1 seen last post) is building, though in LNER Green. I tried to persuade him it had to be black but higher authorities said no! That very nice dean goods again, alledgedly painted in Land rover green! Finally an LNER 02, and engine i have seen plenty in 5 inch of but few in 7 1/4. And i think and German state railways Kriegslok (correct if wrong please!) Right, I will be back next week, I am away at the moment so no pannier activity till at least Monday, hope you enjoy. Thanks again if your still with me. Anyone with knowledge of valve gear, please chip in! Cheers Mark

hey Jon the lever frames are all ex London transport,from a mixture of neasden and stanmore mostly, with I think a few from Watford. Pretty much all courtesy of ex London underground signal engineer Dave Alexander! The 08 has a reasonable amount of detail to it, I think there are several like it, I think a fibreglass moulding I don't know who by but I suspect by Dan jeavons, whoes range recently passed to miniature railway supply co. it could be someone else's moulding, there are aa few suppliers out there. Mark

Good oh. Dan Jeavons did the moulding for our body shell, though really a bit rough ours was, how was yours as a moulding? We just use ordinary car batteries in ours, we have never found any benefit from any other sort of batteries, so we just use ordinary lead acids. We found the DMR dead easy to plug in. the only work we actually had to do was to break into the hand controller feed, and put a switch in so we could flick between radio and handset, the DMR is designed for permenant Radio integration. But other than that, dead easy, other than 4QD supplying a reverse wired piece of wiring when we did a friends loco, that meant nothing worked, its all been fine. We switched to a more channel handset to put in lighting funtionality. So, not quite with you, your lighting circuits are built into your controler? we have a relay for our lights (two actually) but its nowhere near our control board? Mark

The T1 is my grandads, only driven it once or twice, hopefully convnce him to let me run it next time i'm down his. I would love a dean goods, though preferably in 5! Boxes i find surpirisingly intuitive. the good thing about GL5 is that everyone has a good experience of running and looks where they're going! so major accidents are avoided. But generally 2 people work this, it can be done but its tricky for one, remember they are a lot busier than a full size box, we probably deal with the movements of somewhere like newcastle, though without the track complications! I do have some closer ones of the 08, but they are not really close ups per say. are you after detail shots, because i have some of full size ones if you want? If not i'll post some pics from last year on the next post of the 08. Its one that gets everywhere! Hopefully part two this evening Cheers Mark

Hi all, Fun packed weekend this weekend, despite inclement weather, the GL5 AGM was held at brent house in cambridgeshire, Echills Wood railway held their Standard Gauge gala, which i wandered along to, and today has been busy. Right, deep in darkest cambridgeshire lies the Brent House Railway, a 5 inch gauge railway, double track mainline with branchline, 3 yards and a 50 lever signal box! The Yard throat and station approach with the smaller yard cabin The main Motive power depot, after the BBQ, when most of the locos had been put away The station platform roads The upper junction, where the line down to brundall gardens branches off both the up and down lines The view the other way down the slope, into the station, from the junction. I didnt get any shots of elsewhere really, i'm sorry to say Its owned by one of the co creators of GL5, which started with a 3 hour conversation about 30 years ago! Hes also the man taking pride of place in his 'signalbox' in the post on Gilling! Anyway, this weekend was the Annual General Meeting of the GL5, so its always a good excuse to have a bit of a rally! We turned up at about 12, to find a very quiet track. A locomtive shortage because of a poor forecast, meant we only had 8 engines or so, and could have done with a few more. However this provided to keep up my end of an offer i made to the owner, Brent. At the mainline rally, brent commented that he had been stuck in the signal box all day because as always noone else could run it (it takes a great amount of skill and patience to do a mainline rally manually!) And then went on to muter that it would be the same at his tracks rally for the AGM, so in my infinite sensibility i volunteered to learn his Box! All 50 levers, block instrument (A real set i beleive) and deciphering and learning which signals are where, and then remembering signalling procedure! A 2F dock tank trundels past with a pick up freight from Tidsbury yard The other end of the station, with the wagon storage bunker on the right They're not as finaescale as the gilling ones but they make for a good sight behind an engine, along with the maunsell coaches and suburban set there. Familiar to you all i hope, our engine on a freight. A pair of wagons i have been wanting to see for a while, double bolsters, one of only 4 sets including mine, i beleive in GL5. Good chat with the owner about how he made those! Again, no 18 Michael faraday runs past on a freight, video below. Finally for brents rally, the T1 descends the grade with a freight. So after, the running, the meeting was held, and we all slowly began packing away, we had only taken engine and driving truck, so not a big job fo us. I of course (typically for the hard part!) ended up as the signal man for the frantic activity of signalling all trains in to put stock away! A tricky job with trains of wagons and engines going to and fro. Anyway, our chairman manned the BBQ and the general chater on railway matters commenced! As if one day of railways wasnt enough, My grandfather invited me over to Echills wood railway with him for their 7 1/4 standard gauge weekend. Its not my usual fair, but hey run reasonable trains of wagons and rolling stock, and it was near so what the heck! Having friend sin the right places, and we also met up with Dinmore Manor (On here, not the loco!). I must say there were some very nice locos there. I only managed a few shots, but i'll put up part 2 with some more froma friend. A workstained 4F in the steaming bays A very nice Dean goods, wouldnt make a bad model in 5! My Grandfathers T1. A beast of an engine, was hardly worked that day with 10 coal wagons! A workstained Q1 which seemed to spend most of its time in the yard that i saw it! Right, thanks for looking, hope you enjoy, feel free to comment and I'll put part 2 up tomorrow, more pics, work on the trailer and finally some work on the pannier tank! Cheers all Mark

Hi Mike. Gonna look at weathering my pannier when its done. They never ran clean! Go ahead, write an article for turnout, we'd all be fascinated, and Dave Noble is always short of articles, so go ahead. We first ran our remote control last summer, had no trouble from the word go. Are you using the 4QD DMR with their controller? But the Radio control does make things sooo much better and more fun. Means you can shunt and jettison a riding truck as well. We also often have fun watching it run from a distance. Would love to see yours on the 13 mk1s at gilling, no truck! Next post coming later this evening Mark

ah yeah, its in my vids somewhere, ones i havnt put up. But i must say that 37 is certainly was fabulous! anyone who doesnt know its a superbly weathered 5 inch 37 in blue with yellow ends. But like the green 7 it also has a teally deep sound system and the two double heading up the bank had to be heard! how did you weather it? Was it using conventional smaller scale techniques? Mark

Ha no, the 5 inch is only temporary. We bought the track for doing the acton show (see earlier in the blog), its just laid down on the carpet so we can put the coaches out, and sob that we (especially he) have created a monster. We did have some sections of track and a point laid out on the floor a little shile back, and shunted back and forth 5 wagons for several nights. We called it testing! Was a little wary might be too many images and getting abit samey but obviously not! Cheers Mark

Hi all This ones gonna be picture heavy so sorry to anyone with a slow browser! Went to Railfest on the tuesday bank holiday, took a look around, and despite the weather had a thoroughly enjoyable day. I'm guessing knows the big deal about railfest, so as per you might expect was dominated by the big names in preservation, Mallard, Tornado, Lizzie, truro, and even scotsman, just about back in loco form made it. But luckily a few more workaday forms made it, with everything from the smallest standard gauge loco, to my favourite, the last engine to run outside of preservation on the mainline in revenuse servcie, London transport's L94 (yes up until the last day on 6th june 1971, three panniers were still running over BR metals on a regular basis to the exchange sidings at West Kensington, in blatant defiance of the steam ban!) Right amongst the stars, a rather appropriate pairing was made; L94 and Sarah siddons, 2 of only 3 working LT locos in LT livery, paired together. Acuriosity of the show was the drift bogie from the bowes railway, a wagon that was used with ropes to gravity shunt wagons at several collieries right into the latter years of NCB I'd hate to be the shunter on one, his position is where one of the buffers would have been! Cheltenham, fresh out of Eastleigh works, i doubt he paint was fully dry! I also doubt it had even run a mile beofre getting to Railfest. Also i beleive the most powerful class of 4-4-0 hence its place at railfest The oldest working steam loco, Funess railway no 20, not a pleasant experience driving it must have been! The NRMs 37, My mate has one in this livery in 5'', seen in several picture of gilling. Everyone favourite new build pacific, actually the first time i've seen it since i saw it that first weekend up at the GCR when it was still in grey and running in, 2008! Almost top shed 1949, shame about the fences!they were strange those, they were there, put up for the event, but there were gaps in them so people could get down onto the ballast and round the locos, not quite sure of their function really! Palmerston, not prince, which appeared at Railfest 2004, which i also went to, and was there the day that Pen-y-darren, fell off its wheels! (one of the iron axles broke, leaving it in an embarressing state of twisted across the track, 3 wheels on my wagon!) You all know this one! Again first time i'd seen Hamilton since streamlining. Last saw it, unstreamlined at Railfest 2004! Bill Parker's Polska Prairie. It has an air pump fitted round the other side left over from its wanderings hauling suburban services in Eastern Europe A large contingent of modern stock turned up too. Sorry if my captions are more brief, not really my bag! The Mardy monster, the most powerful 0-6-0 industrial tank built for the UK, about the sdame power as a 7F classification loco! Thunderbird loco, tintin, along with virgins 2 car trainer unit were on site, demonstrating the coupler The brighton belle, and interesting project to recreate one of the three 5-BEL pullman DMUs to run on the mainline, one of the restored powercars was there. A rare tripo north for one of the javelin units, that run HS1, and may do the same fo HS2 should it ever come. The grand old 100mph lady herself, City of truro Britains (possibly the worlds) smallest standard gauge loco, gazelle made the trip from the KESR. Its original owner, in 2-2-2 guise reserved running rights all over east anglia in her, travelling over many mainline until she was purchased for the shopshire and montgomeryshire railway by Col stephens. then,when the army took the line over, she worked on till transferred to the longmoor military railway and put on display, before being donated to the KESR. As if to empahsise, theres a shot of her inside cylinder driving her 4 driving wheels (yes converted), it cant be anymore than 6'' bore! Evening star SECR Wainwright D class J69 'Buckjumper' Stephenson Long Boiler goods Terrier box hill, approproately boxed in, by the fencing which is so unneccessarily prevalent at the NRM LSWR M7 The rather depleted Main hall SECR pullman Car Topaz in a beautiful rich red-brown colour, being mooted as a future 5'' gauge project! Thje MET had 2 pullman cars, which save from a few modifications such as no gangways and a slightly narrower roof profile, were identical to SECR pullamns, like topaz, actually from the same batch (Edward wtakin being chairman of both companies might have had something to do with it!) Engine there that escaped the camera (exluding residents inside) Mallard, Scotsman, Deltic production model, Webb Coal tank, Jubilee Bahamas, Teddy (industrial, with very small cylinders!) GNR N2, LNWR Precedent, Peter Pan Puffing Billy and varying coaches, and other small locos, and several diesels, and oddities. My thoughts. I feel that the NRM is getting a bit hemmed in, tucking its stock into corners. Ideally the gret hall needs a sorting out, i couldnt photograph the aspinall 2-4-2 because there were access ladders in the way, the lighting in the station hall is appalling, and all the locos are incarcerated in wooden boards, stopping people falling off platform edges. The BoB spamcan, Winston Churchill was looking a little tired, and things were often difficuklt to appreciate properly. But its still ver yworth while going, i shall be going back soon. Even if its just for the warehouse which is crammed with thousands of interesting things, as well as many 5 inch models, designer models and paraphenalia. Railfest i felt needed to take a leaf out of Barrow Hill's book. Only the two running lines were moving. things would be better for it. Only truro was runing the shuttle. Many locos were in light steam, but, especially the coal tank, were trapped in by up to 6 dead locos ahead. if they were at the front, they'd be able to move and give the public a better show. But other wise i thoroughly enjoyed my day. I will be back soon! Right, on another note, if you can handle any more pics, finally the coaches are finished! People who missed the last post, they are now running, rolling, and have now all received their final numbers, decor, individual works plates (2 built in 1919, 2 in 1923 and one in 1912, and all the works plates correctly reflect that!) So they have gone from this; To this in 8 months. We also took the opportunity to line them up in the house, 24ft of coaches, with the locos and riding truck thats 32ft of teak coach and engine! First run out is next weekend Right, still with me? Good, you can relax, its over! Cheers Comments as usual welcome Sorry its been so image heavy, Mark

When using the riding truck, loosely based on the Met railway Milk van but on a longer chassis, we have a plug in controller, which goes in the top headlight, hence if you saw the loco, the rear one doesnt light up at all! We hardly use this anymore. Its visible in the shot of me on a local passenger at gilling in the second last post. We tend to use radio, mainly cos its easier. But for tracks where it fgoes out of sight we sit behind, and drive as normal. The Milk van may get its own post or two soon, its in need of a heavy general, having suffered from near on 10 years of batterings and ridings, means the springs are going flat, the buffers are beginning to give trouble and its generally tired, 10 yrs no maintenance beyond urgent repairs. Hopefully we'll also fit it witha water tank for our pannier tank, a seperatewooden roof and scale footboards for when we arent using it, it can be a parcels/milk vanm in a train Mark

Hi all With the excitement of the last few weeks with gilling mainline rally, things at Neasden carriage and wagon outpost have calmed down! The lull in any running and with the exam season in full swing the opportunity was taken to do a bit of finishing and new things in the loco. so this post will be a bit of a workshoppy type post The project to build the full rake of coaches nears completion. My dad, the builder of the coaces has received the final eight wheels, the last few days they went onto their axles. Hes been painting the bogies, having assembled them as he built them, mainly from aluminium, and them disassembled them for painting, for the past few weeks, However while the 4th coach in the set, the Metropolitan railway dreadnought first class coach made its debut at the Mainline rally at gilling, the other one, was still lacking wheels. On friday he got them from the machinist (yes we could turn them ourselves, we have the capcity but its easier and quicker to expend the money and have them CNC machined) and fitted them to the axles, after a slight hitch where we only had 7 of the eight wheels! The axles are turned to SMEE (society of model and experimental engineers) back to back standards from 12mmsteel bar, the wheel bores are 10 and the bearing surfaces are 8mm, running in plastic bearings inside a white metal axle boxes, running in slots in the frames, supported ansd sprung with an 8 leaf working leaf srping, made from 10mm wide packing crate banding! Try getting that in a 4mm model! so we now have all five carriages rolling. In theory we could take it to a friends track tomorrow and give them their first run as a full set. But as ever the problem remains of transporting them. We take three in the trailer but the current system for securing them is awful and would have been replaced this weekend but our metal suppliers were closed for the weekend (grrrrrr mutter lazy mutter mutter) so that put paid to building the new system for the trailer that would allow us to stack and transport all 5 with space for extra gear. But the time did allow him to detail the coaches further. On the end of the vast majority of coaches of that era there exists controls for the lighting, These are a series of rods, running through or below several electrical switch boxes. They are a very prominent feature that is part of the clutter on the end of a coach, but our first coach has been running without it for nearly 10 years! So, a little while ago some research was carried out, with the aid of a London transport rolling stock engineer, (heres your credit Engineer_London!) and we found a general arrangement of these control boxes (two for heating controls and 1 larger for lighting), in relation to battery boxes and the 600 volt train line for the engines, and carriage orientation. But as with all best plans, picture evidence always contradicts so a certain amount of license has to be taken! Whatever, the boxes were cast from whitemetal into a homemade mould. The patterns were rapid prototyped, a brlliant but expensive process, and sillicon moulded around to make the moulds. Rodding is brass strip, cant remember the exact size, and the securing covers, only approximations of the full size thing because of their small scale size, were milled from more brass, and all glued together, before being nailed to the body work. The biggest problem came from positioning. There is very little spare room on the rear ends, and on the protoype some boxes replace the steps. what made it worse is the drawings for the end are not accurate copies, so a lot of jiggling was required to fit all the rodding between steps, other rods, windows, vacum pipes, tail lamps and lamp brackets! But he got it in the end. The final job were all the conduits that run from the Heating control boxes upto the top corner and diappear into a junction box. This was made fom 16th rass rodding, bent to the proper path and soldered togther, before being painted black and fitted on. These are all fairly simple jobs but it all takes time. this has been the work of nearly all week for him, though we cast the boxes a few weeks back. But considering there are 5 coaches, thats10 small boxes, 5 larger ones, 20 bits of rodding (one rod is in two parts) 10 bits of conduit, 10 securing rails, and about 30 bits of wood packing, not bad really, all of course sprayed black individually. All that now remains are lighting connectors, the 600 volt bus line (actually 12 volts coach lighting circuits) works plates, bodyside numbers, one set of vacum pipes and door handles (64 off! They'll be made by lost wax casting, by an outside contractor, he did the original 20 by hand!) I havnt been totally idle. The exam period has afforded me with the odd bit of free time and i have spent it semi constructively! For a long time now, the loco (Metroploitan railway Metrovick no 18 michael Faraday) has had front and rear headlights. however further research reveals they are actually headcodes, and marker lights rather than headlamps as such. they were a cool white with red being achieved by lenses. Rumours of green and blue lights via similar method persist! But red was only used when running light or shunting. Our loco has always carried red and whites. this however is really wrong, because it is not the end of the train. So with the advent of radio control and are ability to switch at which ends these lights appear, thoughts turned to havng the option of taking the reds out as and when required. The original basic circuit was of 5 LEDs in one circuit running of the 12 volts off the main batteries on one circuit (4in series, 1 in parallel) and four in another circuit arranged bu use of a dual LED lamp (perspex rod with LEDs fired into it so either colour can appear out the end!) so that each lamp except one can be switched from white to red, by the flick of a joystick on the controller and a radio control swithc wired to a relay. For the electrically minded of you, a circuit diagram is included, not 100% accurate but the basics of it. A relay was then into the existing circuits with the option that rather than going via the red LEDs, the current returned via an equal resistance resitor and back to the battery, leaving the reds off. The relay was controlled by a remotely operated switch on the 5th channel of the radi set (the one usually used for landing gear in model aircraft) After having rewired parts of the body shell, the lighting was tested with the loco on the rolling road, and hey presto, everything worked perfectly first time! Very pleased i was with myself that day! I then replaced all the water proof covers for the LEDs ion the body shell (scaffold tubing end covers!) it is now back in service. The next challenge was solving a problem highlighted over the past few runs. The loco is incredily free running, and will roll away down a hill, or as at gilling, heavy shunt into rolling stock parked on the down hill, annoying the shunter no end! So, fitting in a servo operted radio control parking brake is the next challenge! we still have a channel free on the radio set so. But, if you have battled your way through that,and found it interesting, then comment, leave your thoughts etc etc and await the next installment, if not all abuse kindly sent elsewhere! If off to quainton tomorrow, the Bucks railway centre, to see a m,an about a dog, but i beleive the next run is at Brent house in cambridgeshire, for the GL5 AGM on 17th june. If nothing interesting happens before then, i shall post then,but feel free toleave comments here. Thanks all Mark

Ha there are a couple about. Its been tempting i tell you to lay a track to college, Theres a big dip as the path drops to meet the road as it climbs again, but nothing a nice model of glenfinnan viaduct couldnt sort! Hopefully get another post up soon, the last few bits of the dreadnoughts are being done, and some work on the loco. Cheers Mark

Right since i got such a great response last time, a few more photos can be posted! That and a few of the best videos from the day and one for Kempenfelt Before i collapse from what is almost certainly alife threatening ailment, i shall continue! You heard all the details yesterday so few more piccies wouldnt go amiss. To satisfy john, here is a pic of his admittedly lovely sounding western, nearly twice the length of my loco! Double heading metrovicks, literally minuter before blowing a fuse on a ten coach train, possibly because mIke (the driver in front wasnt pulling his weight! One i'll put on the GL5 forum, our very own regular signal man in his new box! he shouts 'comments' from the box, but nobody takes him too seriously because depsite all his wingeing we can see the enjoyment in his face! Another couple of shots of the turnatbe well and MPD, a wide variety of motive power Finally piccies wise, a recreation of Rickmansworth pre 1960 perhaps? I'll leave you with these videos, a small selection of my vids from the day. More will be on my youtube channel, GL5mark in due course http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mn85HirARk http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PzOPiobIrJM http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyZvIvn1Mss http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opp6UmoD6Sw The last video has John's western, uip on the embankment, clearly heard from  ost places on the track, along with the 2 37s! Finally, one for you kempenfelt and dinmore manor especially. The Dave Noble 21 ton hopper http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7G2_AXeaTSA There were 5 of these at gilling this weekend, and for the occasion a quickly knocked up staithe was erected to let dave play with his hoppers and entertain the kids! Ok, i shall go and recover from my illness, and go back to exam prep tomorrow. Feel free to leave comments, its good to hear your feedback! Cheers Mark

cheers paul, yeah the guys at gilling rigged up a coal drop for the 5 21 ton hoppers which were there. I didnt get any vids/pics, but there is a vid on youtube when the first hopper was demonstrated at lindsey last summer. Gutted over AGM. Its gonna be a good one, brent has promised to arrange some good weather! But if your ###### something else, well i suppose you'll be allowed off! The western is an impressive beast, its twice the length of our electric, but what was even more impressive was the pair of 37s that were there at the weekedn. both are using really good deep sound systems and when they were double headed their throty rumle was really something else. I'll se i fi have a vid of them, post up a bit later. Alright all, may post part 2 later. Mark

hi all. Typically, during exam periods I am laid up ill so I'll put in this response. Indeed most people don't have that many in 00, this is the result of anything upto 30 yrs work, for the older wagons, and about 40 members who were there. thanks for your responses, its fairly easy to get involved, we always need shunters, signallers and organisers, so join up, get our magazine, come along to a rally. you don't have to have wagons or an engine really, if you just wanna watch or get involved in the operating side of things. cheers Paul, good luck with the exams too, maybe see you at the AGM at brents in 4 weeks? this was my first mainline rally, missed last august and had only just started really last May. I'll try make it to the august one. Hey John, good to see you on here. I mostly missed your beast of a western but I'll try and put up a part two, with a best of the videos and and a few more shots, your western makes it into a few! Anyway, cheers guys. Mark

How do all. Well, I'll take abreak from my constant schedul or revising to bring you the news of the weekend just gone Twice a year, Ryedale Society of model engineers and The Lindsey Model society (Yes the LMS!) Organise a Main line rally at the Ryedale track at Gilling (Village of Gilling East, look up 54.184772,-1.061845 in google maps). Its a double track mainline with three yards, an MPD and rolling stock storage bunker, semi automated signalling system as well as two manual signal boxes. I woul;dnt say its the perfect place fo railway operations but it does a damn good job! A large amount of stock lives at Gilling, including a rake of 13 BR Mark 1 coaches, detailed down to the nth degree. That and ahost of Ryedale members wagons. But when a mainline rally is on, it gets very crowded despite its size, and we had 200 plus wagons there, and probably around 30 coaches with 10 parcels vehicles. So alot of stock. Around 15-20 steam engines, and 10 diesel or electric locos, The railway is all run to a timetable, with each move planned a head, starting about 8 am with a bunker pilot duty, trip workings, the local passenger, Parcels, milk, the Down Paletine express, and then varying trains of Fish, Mineral, Oil train, Pick up goods, Fitted vans, semi fitted freight, bulk steel, etc etc. The only thing we are short of are permenant way trains, mainly because we lack the stock! The odd mishap or cancellation happens because of loco failure, of which there were quite a few this weekend, but trip freights and special movements are organised as traffic demands, and yard pilot duties are changed regularly with trains departing from one yard, terminating in another and running light loco back to the shed, often with the pilot at change of shift. I think minimumm motive power required is 4 train engines and 5 pilots (1 for each yard and 2 spare as up and down line pilot/spares)but a lot more are often in steam waiting to come on or off shift. My Weekend It was touch and go whether we would go or not, but glad we did cos we had a great time. Its my first time there, done loads of other GL5 stuff but never the rally. The weather nearly put us off, me and my dad were both tired on the friday night, and bad weather would not be kind to our coaches so we were in two minds. So, having hitched up the trailer, loco, someone elses wagon, (a very nice NE drop door wooden hopper), riding truck and the 4th coach, completed the day before in the boot, we set off on the 3 hr journey up north. We got there, meeting friend from previous events there, pitched tent and sidled off down the pub to talk all things railway. Returned from Pub about 11;30, went to check our duty roster (you are given a charge sheet of all the duties we would be handling that day) Anyway, started talking to a couple of guys and ended up not going to bed till 1:30! First day dawned, got up to see people getting engines ready for their first turns at 7:30am! So, unloaded engine and took a proper read of my charge sheet for the day. 3 duties, but in the end we ended up doing 4 because a friend was double booked. He was meant to be in both the up and down yards at the same time. So as we had that duty before him, we just carried on and covered his. )its very unusual to do so many, most people are booked for only 2 maybe 3) we left the yard at 20 to 12, for PA4, down yard and station pilot duty. A duty that involves frantic rushing around then sitting idel for long periods, running onto the mainline occasionally and being quick on your feet, especially with the signalman shouting abuse at you! (all light hearted of course!) We were on for an hour and a half, covering the next pilot as well before being rushed over to the up yard to form the 14;25 up local, double headed with another electric. It was on this run that we blew a fuse on the bank with 10 coaches on, so, as a failed loco, rescued by the standby pilot. this put our final run in jeopardy but a leant fuse meant we could fulfill it, taking it cautiously with our 4 coaches, the teak glistening in the sunlight. Myself taking the teaks out, the dribving truck looking truly in place, not a hugely common thing Sunday dawned dry but overcast. Our turns were not till 2pm, so we could relax abit. Our second turn would be a local around 4pm, but as its the last day and ecveryone packs up, i went to the duty foremna, alan and put myself forward for cover duties. A duty duly arrived in the shape of covering the up local passenger with 3 mark 1s and some fish vans, for a failed class 20. With that turn completed, retrurn to shed, and get some tea! However around lunch was again called after one engine didnt show and thother failed, but that turn was covered buy a better suited loco. So, back to standby. Then, talking and eating cake in the clubhouse, Foreman comes in, 'can you cover a pilot turn?' of course, i can, so 13:43 off shed, over to the down yard to fill a by now familiar station pilot turn! All the time when on station pilot turn, also acting as shunter, organiser and all round dogsbody to the signalman! Anyway, the coaches got a run, with our friend other metropolitan electric, in an afternoon local, a great sight with the engine whirring its way up the banks. All too soon it was over, we packed the coaches uinto the trailer and beat a hasty retreat home, just before 5, stopping to collect some bits for my next wagons, and saying our goodbyes, and 'see you at the AGM at Brenthouse' 121 wagons just in this one yard at one point, more round the track and wagons that never came out, stayed in the bunker! Amongst my favourite wagons there, as well as various extraordinary loads, plate glass, foundry castings, ships propellors , a diving bell, several cars, cable drums, a tunel gauging vehicle, and other assorted oddballs! All in all a very enjoyable but very tiring weekend, i do have a few things iwould change or note, but i wont bore you here! Its not perfect, it does fall down in one or two places and as any club you get the odd character, and difference of opinion but its hugely enjoyable and definitely something i'll do again, hopefully in August! If any one wishes to come and watch, the public are more than welcome to come and watch. The next event is August bank holiday if your in the area. Say hello to me, follow what the organisers ask, unlike some people we encountered and got all officious, but most of all come, watch and enjoy! Sorry its so long, but a long weekend deserves a write up! If your still with me, Cheers all Mark

Hi again, didnt make it into blog, late by abouit an hour but this is fresh out the shops

Hi all. Your in luck, double helping of my crazy antics. Thanks for all your comments on previous posts, keeps me putting them up! The reason for the title is that there are three greystones runs a year, so if i go, there'll be plenty more this year! With the gilling mainline rally this weekend, i'm off tomorrow evening to go camp in a field, get up at 8am and run trains in the wet! Lots of fun. Heres a few more photos, this time from the camera, rather than my camera phone (really quite impressed with it then!) Theres also a few videos, some from coate water and the best of the ones from greystones. theres about 30 of them so i'll string them togther and post them on here via youtube later in the year. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAky1MhII80 http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=MRW8leWhWAA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdEc05E6Knc&feature=relmfu http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RMZEVEBjMU&feature=relmfu http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZ7KstOtyaI The 1361 tank shunting the yard at the far end of the track, actually where most of the action takes place The other 02, this one i put on a milk train on day two, looked very good going round! The yard got very full and hectic on occasions, we had about the limit of what was feasible on the track. 65 wagons was the count on the sunday afternoon! The 02s going smokeox to smoke box was a sight to see! the rods would variously run in and out of sync with each other as they struggled on the banks occasionally! Galloping gertie! the highland loch on the teak coaches, an especially good pairing in the sunlight! But at the same time, an odd one, coming dfrom different ends of the isles (london and highlands!) Line ups in the station Right, hope you enjoy, Will get photos of gilling up next week, with maybe a sneak peek on Saturday night! Cheers Mark