andreas

Thank you all for your replies. I must admit I hadn't checked the thread for a while. Also progress on my tiny module has been rather slow but the bridges are almost ready and I'll soon be able to start with the scenery. I suppose next time I'll follow a more traditional approach to baseboard and track laying. That's what you get for ignoring advice from much more experienced modellers. Jerry, I've been following your thread with great interest. Once I find a little more space and a lot more time my plans for the final layout are actually very similar: Bath Green Park/Midland Station plus a few pieces of scenic section and a colliery or smaller station for added interest. I must admit I've already printed your scale drawings from the SDRT Bulletin even though I'm not even halfway done with my Lyncombe Vale module. Also thank you for sharing the pictures. Moger's Bridge(s) are instantly recognisable. Though, I'm still not quite sure if I should really believe this is 2mm. The 7F is absolutely stunning. I've had the good fortune to find a small fleet of ready built 7F kits but they don't even get close to the level of detail in your or Paul Stephen's models. They will need a bit more attention to add more details and, most importantly, get them chipped, perhaps even with sound if I manage to find a suitable tender. Callum, the viaduct in its original form dates back to the construction of the Bath extension in 1874. As you've correctly spotted the viaduct has been altered since. Perhaps the most drastic change occured in the 1950s when two more layers of bricks were added to the arches, some of the original stonework was replaced with bricks and the steel reinforcements were added. If you compare photos from e.g. 1954 and the 1960s you see how the shape of the bridge has changed and how the pillars are now flush with the arches. P.s. I've sent you a PM with a few photos I've collected over the last few months. For anyone interested in Lyncombe Vale I can recommend The Somerset & Dorset Railway volumes 1 to 3. All three volumes contain some good shots of Lyncombe Vale. Ironically the best view is from the cab of Hymek pulling a demolition train. I got all three volumes on transportvideo.com (no affiliation other than a happy customer) for £3 to £5 each. £13 for three hours is easily the best value for money S&D videos I've seen.

Thank you for your responses, Les and Chris. By pure coincidence I have identified the root cause of the problem. As somewhat suspected it had little to do with the locos themselves. Turns out Dapol motors don't like the basic DC controller I used to run in locos before chipping them. When using a Gaugemaster controller with a bigger transformer they suddenly move on the track too. My previous set up was a Hornby P9000 transformer (19V 0.5A) plus Hornby R8250 controller and the new set up is Hornby C912 (16V, 13VA) and Gaugemaster Combi. Perhaps the basic controller simply couldn't delivery enough power for the bigger motors. Thank you for sharing the video. That's excellent slow speed performance. Looks like I will have to properly clean all moving parts as per your advice. I had already cleaned the gears but didn't know how to do the same to the worm without de-assembling everything. Also, one of the Brits will need some work on the drive shaft. It looks like the tender-side connector isn't sitting straight on the motor spindle which may well explain the tender's desire to jump off the tracks.

Hi all, Over the last few months I've been tempted into buying a number of Dapol tender locos. They are absolutely gorgeous models but I have been struggling to convince any of them to run adequately. Almost all models were second hand from a variety of sellers, both private and professional. With second-hand you always expect a few duds but getting 10 in a row seems unlikely and I'm slowly coming to the conclusion the problem must lie with me. The models in question are 5x 9F, 2x Britannia, 2x GWR 2800 Class. What they all have in common is that the motor turns okay by itself but it struggles to move the wheels at a reasonable speed. For some locos the wheels will barely turn even when applying a higher voltage and trying in a cradle off the track. I'm used to have locos run pretty fast at 5V but for my Dapol locos I get maybe 5rpm at best even at higher voltage - of course complete with the screaming of a struggling motor. Out of all the models the 9F moved the best, but they are still far from smooth runners and feel too slow. My real problems start with the Brits and 28xx whose wheels struggle to move at all. For one of the Brits I have already replaced a slightly bent cardan shaft but that may be a symptom, not the cause. This particular one can be convinced to run at higher speeds when cranking up the voltage. However, its tender will run so wobbly and jerkily that it ends up jumping off the track. So far I have checked if perhaps the valve gear or con rods jam but I can't see anything obvious wrong. I have detached and reattached the drive shafts and also oiled the con rods and gears - all with very limited success. I would appreciate any pointers to what else I should check or try. I've tried to search for corresponding topics here on the forum but I can't seem to find the right keywords. Thanks in advance Andy

I appreciate it you probably had other things on your mind at that point. I certainly can't remember much of my x-country runs at school, besides the mud and my sore legs of course. If you are still a member of the Trust you can request a login to the member's section on the website. There you can download pdfs of every single issue since the 1960s. In the meantime I've sent you a message. Now that I've looked at my collection of Midford pictures again I'm wondering if I could add that to my Lyncombe Vale ideas. In n gauge Midford is perfect for a 'railway in landscape' type of setting. Starting with the good's yard and the area near Midford Castle it would be easy to expand to Midford Viaduct later. If I continue like this I probably won't ever get to build a station. I suppose I'm lucky that an acute lack of space stops me from actually starting too many things at once.

Apologies for not responding to your comments earlier. Things at work are always a litte busy at the end of the quarter. In the little spare time I found I managed to make good progress on the measurements - not so much on the rest of the layout. That's still little more than a pile of ply and foam in a corner of the room. It turns out that being member of the S&D Trust comes with additional benefits. I was able to source digital copies of the original drawings. Unfortunately, I can't post them here, but for anyone stumbling on this post in the future here are the high level measurements Ketley's Bridge (bridge 11): 7'6" span and 15'3" width Watery Bottom Viaduct (bridge 12): overall length 69'3", inner arch 14'6", outer arches 15'3". Height to track bed is approximately 24'8" with an additional 2' for the parapet. Width is 15'11" at the lowest point Moger's Bridge (bridge 13): Span 29'6" at widest point narrowing to 15' at rail level. Height from rail to arch is around 21 feet and width around 17 feet. Bridge 14: overall length 69' with three 16' arches. Width is 16'. The measurements are for the original version, which has been strengthened since. That's indeed excellent pictures. As usual taken from the south but they do include angles rarely seen in other photos. Terry Stone wrote another article about Lyncombe Vale in Pines Express issue no. 290. The photos there are of similar quality and equally useful. There is also a good picture of Midford Good's Yard in no. 287 which makes me want to model that too. I will probably end up with only scenic modules that there is no space for any stations anymore. I did find two more photos showing at little bit more of the scenery immediately north of the line. The title page in Ivo Peter's S&D in the 50s, Volume 2 is taken from an angle that shows the gardens near Watery Bottom Viaduct. I don't know how I missed that in the first scan of my library. There is also the picture on page 3 of SDRT Bulletin no. 223 showing parts of Lyncombe Vale Nursery Gardens around 1880, which while useful was perhaps taken a little too early for my model. Richard, do you by any chance remember how the area between Ketley's Bridge and Watery Bottom Viaduct looked like in the 1960s? It's not clear from contemporary maps if the area was part of Lyncombe Vale Nursery or used for smaller allotments. Also do you know if and how Lyn Brook was separated from the gardens? Were there any trees perhaps?

Thank you for your help so far. The pictures on pages 21 and 22 of Somerset & Dorset in Colour are indeed some of my favourites. They show exactly the kind of view I am trying to recreate. My other favourite must be the attached photo of the last up Pines I found on ebay a while ago. I think it may be a Colour Rail slide but I don't know who took the photo or if there are any more of it. Thank you for the link Richard. You just doubled the number of photos from the northern side of Lyncombe Vale. I had previously looked through the Bath in Time archive, but perhaps not closely enough. I remember seeing the photo you linked to but didn't notice there weren't any houses in the background. Perhaps the description gives a clue why we see so few photos from that direction. "Victorian rubbish tips" seem to be rather rarely modelled. I can also report some progress on the measurements. By accident I found some even more detailed maps on maps.nls.uk. Changing from category 'Great Britain' to 'England and Wales' brings back additional maps to select from. I always thought their OS 25 inch maps are fantastic but the 1:500 OS maps from 1885 show even individual trees. Using the measurement tools on https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=21&lat=51.36941&lon=-2.36013&layers=117746211&b=1 I get an overall length of 21.5m including abutments for Watery Bottom Viaduct. Now I only need to infer all other measures and try to validate them.

Hi all, After a long hiatus I have recently started my first layout in 25 years. I decided on Lyncombe Vale, in particular Watery Bottom Viaduct, for the first module of a larger n gauge S&D layout set in the early 1960s. I had assumed research would be easy given I'm aware of 50 or so photos of the area. It wasn't until I realised that I will need to model a view from the North of line that I noticed the complete lack of photos from that direction. I am only aware of a single photo: https://www.twotunnels.org.uk/gallery/image_lyncombe-greenway-lane.html Can anyone point me to other photos taken from the north of the line, perhaps from Greenway Lane? Also, can anyone point me to scale drawings or otherwise help with the dimensions of Watery Bottom Viaduct and the little bridge/culvert immediately west of it? I have tried to derive the size from photos, but ended up with a good 6ft variance depending on the angle. Thanks for your help Andy