Titanius Anglesmith

1 hour ago, Stubby47 said:

Prototype shunting question:

 

Given the track plan above, in Keith's quote of my earlier post and taking the platform loop and r/h cross over and siding only, I'm curious as to the correct shunting procedure when replacing a single wagon in the siding with one brought in in short train of loco/wagon/guards van.

 

It could be:

Train arrives in loop

Loco detatches, then goes via h/shunt to runround, then picks up wagon from siding.

Loco then goes via main to push collected wagon up to g/v, then pushes all 3 to end of h/shunt to leave new wagon and returns collect van & g/v to loop.

Loco backs off, tuns around to new van and deposits it in the siding, the collects the train in the loop and departs.

 

Or

 

Train arrives in loop.

Loco detatches, runs around and collects gv, then runs around again to leave g/v in h/shunt.

Loco then collects new van, pulls old van from siding and pushes towards g/v, then leaves new van in siding.

Loco collects old can & g/v and departs via runaround. 

 

Other sequences are available. 

 

Or does it matter? 

 

 

Why does the goods train arrive in the loop?  Normal practice would be to arrive on the platform line then run round.

19 hours ago, brossard said:

Try Evergreen, an enormous range of plastic and textured sheets.

 

https://www.hattons.co.uk/stocklist/1000554/0/evergreen_plastics/mfrnest.aspx

 

John

 

Thank you you for the link. As you say, their range is extensive!

14 hours ago, ikcdab said:

The easiest way is to lightly scribe on thin card. I use 1mm card and score it lightly. When painted, the texture is just right.

Ian

Thanks for the tip, if I can find a suitable scrap of card I’ll give this a go. 

14 hours ago, burgundy said:

Is clapboard an Americanism? I can recall houses in Sussex being described in that way over 50 years ago. 

Best wishes 

Eric

Then I submit to your greater knowledge   When I was active on the woodworking forums, all to often I would see terms such as lumber, rabbet or dado displacing their British equivalents. In the woodworking media the American voice is far more ubiquitous than the British. 

Greetings All,

It pains me to use the term clapboard, it is another invasive term used by our American cousins that is overtaking our native Weatherboard. 

Can anyone please point me towards a source for 4mm scale weatherboard sheets? I am aware of the Wills / Peco sheets. I am also aware of the Scalescenes sheets, but unfortunately I do not have access to a printer at the moment. 

Are there any other suppliers of weatherboarding papers or sheets? Or is there any merit in simply scribing some lines on blank card?

Thanks in advance

How have I missed this?  Following with interest 

On 01/02/2021 at 23:55, David41283 said:

Regards the width of Invernevis station, 

The loch is more than 2" wide on the right, and there is more than 1" space behind the station wall on the left. The whole thing is only 12" wide so the station area comfortably fits in 9" width, while appearing surprisingly spacious.

Beautiful layout, looking at the photos up thread I didn't realise how small it was! 

21 hours ago, halsey said:

I'm a real Superquick fan as I do like the 60's feel to the finished article

Me too, they remind me of my father's layout so for nostalgia's sake I have some too 

I use unbranded SG90s from eBay, and I’ve had a few fail after a very short life. I have no complaints for the price but in future I’ll try to buy better ones. I made my servo mounts easy to change so it’s no big deal if a servo does fail. 

Apparently the genuine TowerPro servos are quite reliable. 

No problem at all using a lower voltage. When I had some Dapol signals, they worked fine off a 5v PSU. The LED was just a bit dimmer, which is no bad thing. 

It was mentioned in the long-running Dapol thread that the motor is worked from a 3v(?) regulator. That means that any big more than about 3.5v is just burnt off as heat. My theory is that many of the failed signals are due to burnt out regulators. 

14 hours ago, ikcdab said:

True but last time I did this and bought a batch of 10, only two worked and 8 were dead on arrival. I have since bought from hobbyking with 100% reliability.

I've had a similar experience with cheap SG90s fom ebay, though my failure rate isn't quite so dramatic as yours.  I didn't expect much better for the price I paid but it is quite inconvenient having to change out servos that fail in service after a short life.  Next time maybe I'll try hobbyking

7 hours ago, Chimer said:

provides a route for the "facing" move between the two main lines which is generally considered to be a no-no as (amongst other things) it can lead to head-on collisions. 

This doesn’t really apply in the Network  Southeast era. By then the two separate points would be preferred over the slip. 

1 hour ago, Philou said:

Another thought - I was thinking of positive latching for the sector plate so that it stops opposite the exit tracks. Is the old-fashioned ball-bearing latch still a thing? Cupboard doors used to have them - long before the closure mechanism was incorporated in the hinge a la IKEA type.

 

 

 

I used ball catches like that on my traverser, there’s a very brief description here:

I also used the ball catches to transfer power so that only the appropriate road is energised at any time. That’s not really a concern though if you’re using DCC. 

I have a 5-road fiddle traverser that connects to a double-track main line (up and down).  On the fixed support frame under the traverser I have mounted two brass ball catches such as these:

(random photo pinched from Google)

The two ball catches are wired to the up and down lines respectively.  The ball catches engage with a row of striker plates on a batten attached to the underside of the traverser deck.  The striker plates are then wired to their respective traverser roads (and all common/return rails are wired together separately).  On the striker plates I drilled and countersunk a new smaller engagement hole in the "tab" part so as to make better and more accurate contact than the gaping hole they come with.   The ball catches and striker plates are arranged so that when a traverser road is aligned with the Up road it is connected via the Up ball catch, and likewise the Down road.  The ball catches also provide the indexing of the traverser.

1 hour ago, Harlequin said:

The goods train would run directly into the goods loop or possibly into the platform if it was empty. The signalling should allow either type of arrival so that goods trains can arrive and be dealt with when there are passenger trains in the station or vice versa.

@The Stationmaster has often said that this would be very untypical for a small station, and the signalling would often allow trains to arrive only on the platform road. In that plan above, signalling the goods loop for arrivals would over-complicate the signalling, especially with those shed and turntable connections which would have to be worked from the ‘box instead of being hand points. Im no expert on the GWR (or SR) though so happy to be corrected. 

Edit- ... but I also acknowledge that prototypical practice doesn’t always make for fun model railway operation...

8 hours ago, Pacific231G said:

On the tube line I use most often they're at White City, North Acton and Northolt, so you can run a more intensive service in the centre without overloading the outer termini which, in the case of the Central Line's West Ruislip "branch" only has a single island platform.  

West Ruislip was originally planned as having three platforms but for whatever reason the third platform was never built.  The platform track however was laid and is used as a siding.  Evidence of the missing platform can be seen in the staff bridge at the London-end.  The metal stairs on that side end at platform height, and there's three or four concrete steps at the foot to make up the gap.

A similar thinning of the service happens at the east end with trains reversing at Loughton and Debden on the Epping branch, and at Newbury Park and Hainault on the loop.

At my local goods yard there was a brewery alongside one of the sidings. The brewery stores building had doors at wagon floor height just like the OP’s photo. As far as I can tell the siding wasn’t private as it was never fenced off from the rest of the yard.

Incidentally the stores building still exists, now a glaziers. The goods yard of course is long gone, now the station car park. 

14 minutes ago, Ian_H said:

Excellent .... although I'm not too sure what is meant by "SH duties"?

Just a guess, steam heating? 

1 hour ago, AyJay said:

1. As suggested, use motors. But were they available in the 50's and what about the three signals?  I am ignoring the ground signals

Maybe I’m misreading that, but are you thinking about rodding for the signals? Signals were usually operated by wire. 

That Venetian red looks very..... brown?   Or is it a trick of the camera? Either way it contrasts nicely with the cream!

Thanks all for the replies, most informative

19 hours ago, ianLMS said:

There is mention here of the colours for a midland water crane and some reference to possibly being a grey colour on some parts, although its probably just very dirty.

 

I painted mine Crimson Lake at the base, and LMS buildings cream for the column and arm. Not sure if it is right but looks ok.

 

https://www.warwickshirerailways.com/lms/mrspk344b.htm

Thank you for the link @ianLMS, that’s useful. I’ve noted your water cranes already, Jencaster is one of my favourite layouts on here. My father painted his the same, but he’s no longer with us to ask why. On the other hand @Rowsley17D has painted the ones on Derwent Spa (another favourite) cream all over, which also looks ok. 

Photos of my local LMS line in the ‘30s definitely show the columns painted in two colours, but what colours? The photos from that era are all black & white.... Crimson and cream sounds like a safe bet. 

If I may be so bold,

Point X should be double-ended with 13 to trap the siding, as you mentioned in a previous post. Y is still handworked. Ground signal 8 should be moved to the other side of X. 

May I also suggest a ground signal at the toe of 11 reading towards the platforms for running round etc?

Another vote here for a lever frame. My own “lever frame” is a bank of toggle switches that input into an Arduino - 

The Arduino does the interlocking, switches power to the track (no separate isolating switches required), and operates the point and signal motors. Like @LNER4479 I’ve made compromises for convenience; e.g. the distant is fixed, FPLs are economic, certain ground signals have multiple routes off a single lever. One signal lever has a “selector”, so that the correct arm is lowered depending on the lie of the points. 

(In case anyone was wondering, the “spare” lever in the photo actually operates the “hand-worked” yard points)

Greetings All,

Sorry if this has been asked a hundred times, but if it has I can’t find it.....

I have just bought a P&D Marsh Midland water crane. What colour should it be for an LMS, ex-Midland Railway location in the 1930s? Present-day photos of Appleby show the water crane there as being either red or (primer?) grey. 

The P&D Marsh crane is ground-mounted, but I’m also looking for a platform-mounted equivalent. Can anybody point me towards one please?

Thanks in advance 

I must be missing something, @Pacific231G‘s suggested shunting method makes perfect sense to me 

Another vote here for Screwfix’s No Nonsense PVA. I haven’t done much scenic work with it but I’ve used it for 10+ years for woodworking and not had any problems with it. 

Those figures (and the horses) are beautifully painted