roythebus1

I suppose when I get round to it I'll do an article on The Model Railway Club's "New Annington" layout that was probably the first big roundy-roundy exhibition layout to feature "the Modern Image" of British Railways. It was started in 1978 with a track plan devised by the late Frank Dyer of "Borchester" fame, and built under my leadership by a small but dedicated band of MRC members. No steam, all diesel and later overhead electric. It was 24' x 16' wide with a large through station one side, a double track branch the other side at a higher lever with the main line running at a lower level through a modern through station. At one end were the hidden loops. It developed over the following 10 years with updated track plan, fully interlocked semi-automatic 4-aspect signals with route indicators, overhead electric equipment, and the hidden loops being extended to something like 20 loops with entry/exit push button control. I stepped down as layout leader in the early 1990s and AFAIK it was dismantled in the early 2000's.

Well, here it is, nearly finished! Mostly windows to install, I'm trying to flush glaze them using 0,5mm clear plastic stuff. The motor is Mashima held in place with double-sided sticky tape an a bit of wire soldered onto the floor to stop it falling out. I can't remember what gearbox I used, but the endes of the drive shaft pivot to give a 3-point suspension to allow for lumpy track. It seems to work remarkably well. Luckily there's a lot of photos on the railcar.or website. I ought to look out my Sheffield tram. That has an XT60 motor if I remember correctly.

Nice to see proper loco building is still alive and well in these days of "everything out of the box" locos.

Having just read the article further up the page about the Triang L1, mention is made of the "boxing in" underneath the boiler to hide the X04 motor. I see the prototype of the Stirling Single has the boiler boxed in behind the driving wheel. Is this to cover the X04 motor in the cab? :)

Pity the photos have vanished from this post, my brother happens to own one of the station cottages at Garsdale. It would have been nice to see a model of his house.

If you're planning on using Finetrax pointwork you need to match your plain track to their rail height.

It's not possible to look out of a side window on some of the modern traction as there isn't one!

Maybe I should have invested in one of those years ago. I understand they're good for doing lattice-work like OHLE and signal gantries. But do they work with low-melt solder or just solder paste?

As I'm going through my "round tuits" boxes, I'm trying to finish an Anbrico AC Cars railbus kit I got given many years ago by Anbrico. In my other tuit box I have one of their Sheffield trams which I nearly finished on 3 occasions and it's motorised, plus a couple of their bus kits made and unmade. They used to produce some hand-built models of things like the Glasgow Blue Train and other ultiple units. Back in the early 1960s they were well out of reach price-wise of the average modeller. Does anyone actually have any of these? On the Sheffield tram, I spent a long time filling a huge gash between the decks on both sides, luckily with low-melt solder. then when I found a picture of the real thing at Crich, found that the gash should actually be there! So out with the pan of bloiling water some time soon and get it right next time. I'll post some pics of my Railbus next week.

Having scan-read this thread again, a lot of the warehouses in the Farringdon road area adjoining the railway has access to underground sidings. There's a night club just near the white L shape on the photo above that went down at least 3 floors and fr some considerable distance, maybe under the main road as well. That was certainly the case with the buildings next to the Met Railway goods depot on the west side of the main road. A lot of what appear to be dead-end sidings on various OS maps aren't, they run under the buildings to the extensive underground goods depots. again Harsig is your friend in a lot of these cases.

To answer an earlier query, the Widened Lines were fitted with LT trainstops at all signals controlled by LT. As I said earlier, locos/trains not fitted with trip cocks had to be double-manned. I doubt that the signals on the Finsbury Park-Highgate line were ever transferred to LT control or signalling except at Highgate Wood where the boundary was. Likewise beyond Mill hill to Edgware if indeed there were any signals there.

Marton Junction?

Glad you got it sorted! :)

Not quite, it was one of their better efforts! the trouble now is finding a suitable match for the power bogie, a Black Beetle with MTK sideframes. I was going to use the Lima one as I have loads of them but their plastic is un-glueable!

There's some cupid stunts around.

I'm about to put a working Airfix/GMR prairie on Ebay if that's any help.

You can always make big things smaller, not so easy is making small things fit bigger things! Measure twice cut once. I've just managed to melt an MTK bogie sideframe trying to undo a soldered joint made many years ago. Pah.

Yep, there was a lot of variation, depending who made the stick-on numbers.

a comment on the tram engine soldering, it seems you're not using enough flux and too much solder, also not enough heat. Try with the iron at say 425 degrees, that way you get the base metal nice and hot and a little solder will go a long way. Run the tip of the iron along the joint, don't dwell too long with it. Even with whitemetal, I fund using a specific Carrs low-melt flux is excellent. Iron at about 200 degrees for larger parts and a 150 degrees solder, just don't dwell too long in case you melt the whitemetal. I use the lower 150 setting for small parts and have to be carful not to melt them. For fitting whitemetal to brass etc, tin the brass with normal solder first, then use low-melt flux and low melt solder to join the whitemetal to the base metal. Remember in and out quickly as the actress said to the bishop. :)

The same numbers were used as set numbers on electric stock for an awful long time. 500 series was for engineers and special trains.

One of the best Playcraft kits was their very British semaphore signals. You could make quite a variety of signals and gantries from them and were quite reasonably priced too.

I've got a mixture of Tortoise, Fulgurex and some 1970s machines made by Old Pullman. I'v not had any problems with tortoise motors yet, the Old Pullmans are showing their age as they are a not a slow-acting machine as such, but an earlier version of the Fulgurex. Both those types give problems with the contacts getting dirty or corroded over the years and the worm gears wearing out. I haven't yet bothered to try servo motors, they look quite complicated to me, i need something simple without electronics! I like relays and things I can hit with hammers.

Didn't they have a rehearsal for that in Scotland earlier this week?? :)

I remember going to take a 508 out of Staines sidings back in 1983/84, I had to cancel the train as the floor just inside the cab door had fallen through. It was a shuttering-grade plywood. The unit was about 3 years old. Last one I rode on about 3 years ago on the GN (313) I noted the window rubbers were rotten. It goes brittle after about 30 years.

As I may have mentioned earier in this thread or on another one, at Bilton we had to propel the train across the main road into the cement works. The loco never actually went across the road, the shunter would unhook the class 25 and the train would disappear, presumably with the works shunter. the movement was controlled by a vey modern rotting banner semaphore signal arm mounted on an OHLE isolating post. When the driver couldn't see the signal arm, it was clear to go across the crossing. It was visible above the tree line in the stop position. What do they use as a single line token these days? It used to be an old fishplate or something similar inscribed Rugby-Southam and was kept in the up side shunters' bunk.