ikcdab

The cdu delivers a one-off jolt to throw the solenoid then cuts out. Whereas a relay requires a constant voltage to keep it latched. So I'm not sure the two are compatible. If they are, then you need to measure the cdu output with a multimeter and make sure that is within the parameters of the relay.

i am now using Win11 for the first time on a new HP laptop. Generally very impressed, BUT the dialogue text in some soiftware is really small. Here is an example from Templot against Rmweb. The dialogue box is almost too small to read. It isn't all programs, Word and excel etc are fione, but Coreldraw has the issue. It isnt changing the text size as most of the text is OK, it jsut seems to be in some dialogue boxes. I have screen resolution set to the recomended 3000 x 2000. Any ideas?

Also I am a massive of fusion360. Its strightforward to use and hugely flexible. As for videos, Sams Trains has done quite a lot on rolling stock and locomotive production with 3d resin printing.

Hi there, i think that if you have read the thread then yopu probably know all there is to know. I also have some pictures that were kindly supplied by someone local. If you want access to these, please contact me by pm and i can let you see them.

i wondered if the tool shed was the same physical size and layout as the lamp hut. I have produced several of these on the 3d printer. It would seem logical for Exmouth to use the same design for both...???

I have mostly ballasted my 4mm OO mainlines with nice, clean granite chip ballast. All fixed with pva. But now i need to ballast sidings which in reality were ballasted with ash or, if normal ballast had been used, is now severly contaminated. Today i tried using wood ash out of the log burner, but as soon as i tried to fix it down, it just floated around and looks horrible. So i am wondering what to use instead. I have seen mention of using das clay (or similar) but im not sure i like the idea of that? I have quite a lot to do. I have also had the idea of mixing my granite chips 1:1 with something like dry powder tile grout. Brush it all in place then just finely spray with water/pva mix to fix down. I think that might give a contaminated look. Any other suggestions?

Hi Phil, looks just like a GWR one. Maybe they were a commercial product straight off the shelf....

you sure they would have been wooden? I thought that as the oil was a fire risk, they were made of non-combustible material. Hence the GWR corrugated iron. And what did the concrete ones look like? There is nothing specific in the Nouveau book.

Can anyone describe what a Soythern lamp hut (or an LSWR one) looked like or provide a drawing? I have loads of pics of the corrugated GWR ones, but can't find anything on the southern. I am assuming a LSWR one might have resembled a GWR one, maybe the southern just used the concrete toolshed that went with the concrete PW hut? Thanks Ian

thats very helpful. There is also the camping coach evidence. This was situated on the goods yard siding close to the crossing and I believe would have been visible (ie not hidden behind the train). The camp coach was there during the "summer" only from 1934 and was withdrawn on the outbreak of war. I don't know how summer was defined in camping coach terms, but i guess its not July or August. So maybe a warm day earlier in the season.

Agree. The land slopes up rapidly behind the goods yard and no space for such a building behind the railway. The building is in front of the railway on the land where the chalets now are. It's possible that it's still there now but altered.

Thats actually an interesting point, but the up home signal visible here stands at the toe of the yard points where the camping coach stood. So the rear coach is far too far away to to be it. in actual fact, the camping coaches were almost up as far as the crossing, lessening the distance the happy campers had to walk to use the station toilets.

The signalbox is just out of shot to the left. The garden just behind the road sign runs up to the signalbox and the rear of the station building. When i first started at Blue Anchor there was a little shop there called the Floradena stores, again just out of shot to the left.

Yes your right. I'm not sure why I put what I did, I know the area so well, perhaps too well.

Hi Jason, so you can see my conumdrum. It definatley is not our sleeping car. I have had this picture for many years, certainly before we finished restoring 9038! and there are two clerestories and several other GWR coaches which we don't own! I really can't believe its a faked picture. I've had it far too long - my ownership predates photoshop and it would be a very clever photoartist who could manipulate that manually! so it remains a conumdrum. I am pretty certain its pre-war because of the lack of the pillbox. I don't know what time of year the camping coaches were despatched from Swindon to their locations, so maybe its (say) 1935 May bank holiday and the coaches have not yet arrived for the season!

Thanks thats well spotted. I think i can see a camping coach just about in the first Frith picture which is not evident in my picture. I agree that the coastal formation is very similar, which suggests that my picture is also pre-war. The pillbox is visible here: https://www.francisfrith.com/blue-anchor/blue-anchor-the-bay-c1955_b124023 which is an entirely different shape. Obviously that was built in 1940. If so, then my pic has to be around 1934, based on the car evidence of @petethemole

no because the running line goes behind the camping coaches

I dont think so. I know this area very well indeed and it looks genuine to me.

The problem with that is the lack of the pillbox. If you google "Blue Anchor beach pillbox" you will see some images of it. whilst the outcrop on the RH side of the image i posted superficially resembles the pillbox, it isnt one, it really is just an outcrop of rock omn which the pillbox was built.

Hi all, i am looking to roughly date the attached picture. This is Blue Anchor on the Minehead branch. There is a pre-Worboys level crossing sign - i think these were standardised in 1934 but had been around before then. The prairie tank appears to have GWR on the tank sides, though it is very indistinct and i might be seeing a new BR logo. There are no camping coaches in the siding - they were withdrawn in 1939 and didn't resume here until 1952. They had been first located there in 1934, so the period 1934 to 1939 and post 1952 are ruled out. The number of cars suggests that this isn't during war-time petrol rationing. During the war, a pillbox was built on the sea front which i believe would have been visible in this picture, so that suggests pre-war. The beach huts appeared in 1927. The leading and rear coaches are clerestories. All this is conflicting. If its pre-war, then it has to be between 1927 and 1934. If its post war, then its between 1945 and 1952. I know nothing about old cars, there may be some evidence there. All detective comments welcomed! Ian

I started mine as noted and I have the superstructure complete. I don't remember now, but I didn't have any probs doing the footplate. But I have got stuck with the crossheads that just don't make any sense at all. How did you overcome it?

So white lettering always needs the "flying crates"? The transfers in the kit are white without crates. So I either need to go elsewhere to get some flying crates transfers or revert to maroon and yellow lettering?

Hi John, I guess your set BL39 is the one for BD containers in this kit PC52 (4mm). Does your set have the arrow symbol? Ian

Not according to the instructions. They clearly state that the wagon is bauxite brown, but the container is bauxite red. The odd picture I have found suggests a difference between the two, but I'm unsure if that's weathering or I am looking at maroon containers.

Hi all, I am building two parkside conflats (kit PC52). The instructions say that the BD containers were maroon with yellow lettering, later changed to bauxite red with white lettering. The transfers supplied are white, so I need to paint the containers bauxite red. Oddly, this is a colour I have not come across before. I am familiar with bauxite brown, but not red. What shade was this? Can I get away with mixing some maroon into bauxite brown to get to the correct shade? Ian