john dew

Hi Paul Thank you so much for taking the time to write such a detailed reply. I cannot honestly say I grasped everything but I think I follow the broad concepts. I found the entire explanation really interesting. It is always a revelation to see someone else's TC switchboard..........so many ways to skin a cat! Leaving the variables aside for a moment, there were some other symbols that were new to me. I assume the inverted black triangles are virtual contacts? I hadnt realised you could change the orientation of switches.......that was a real "doh!!" moment ......what a simple but elegant way to differentiate push buttons from on/off....thank you! Are the red/black circles an imported icon used for key switches? I use pre-requisites and labels frequently but I have never attempted to use variables.......I suspect I should. Hopefully I can call on your expertise when I do. The current and next train system looks intriguing and it should be possible to incorporate it into the system of macros I use The master spreadsheet was amazing. It covers just about every conceivable item of information, other than the names of the crew! Plenty of ideas to there for me to plagiarise Thank you again for such a useful response. Best wishes

This is a sort of interim post as I continue to slowly create a building to close off the open end of the canal side warehouse. Progress is slow In because its quite difficult and I get easily distracted by running trains and carrying out assorted maintenance This has been unfinished for years. In fairness I couldnt really do much until the hotel was completed - and you know how long that took! The warehouse started life as a Langley Models low relief kit on Granby II. When the canal was finished on the current layout it was converted to full relief by adding a roof and sides made from Slaters plastic sheets. For this project, in many ways, I would have preferred to modify a Scalescene kit. I have mixed plastic and paper kits elsewhere on the layout but, in this instance, I wasnt convinced it would be a happy marriage. I decided to eke out my remaining stock of Slaters sheets mounted on card Two main walls at right angles. Both fitted with loading doors for rail and road Added door handles and ex Ratio/Wills Canopies, salvaged from island platforms on Granby . If I am honest one of the other reasons for delaying this project is the challenging nature the of site. The existing warehouse is aligned with the canal but the space to be built on is on the inside of the medium radius curves that approach the station. As you can see, its not possible to put a simple rectangular extension on top of the roof. Short wall added at right angles to the Yard side wall: Note sophisticated geometry used to calculate extension roof dimensions. The track below leads to the hidden branch storage sidings. Once the warehouse extension is finished I will start building a tunnel mouth and retaining wall from Wills Random Stone sheets. Asymmetrical roof cut to size and clad with Slaters brick sheets: The parapet walls are clad with Slaters Tiles painted to look like cut stone. This is not so much a design feature but to disguise my limited stocks of Slaters random stone. Blue brick strips from Wills building packs hide the join. The raw wall corners are being covered with quoins cut from Slaters Paving stones Fourth wall bridging the old warehouse roof: Cutting this out was "interesting". Flashing from plastic strip will conceal the gap and more quoins for the vertical gap. This weeks target is to cut and fix the final, fifth, wall and then add all the remaining trim. A touch of weathering powder should finish the project. Here is something rather different to finish....taken in our local park last week: Not too many leaves left now I am afraid. Over the week-end a cyclone passed through our area. We get plenty of rain and storms but a cyclone is very unusual for the West coast. Winds of 100kmph, strongest ever, were recorded. Its eased off a bit now and happily no damage and no power cuts. Regards from a still windy Vancouver

Hi Paul I would be interested to hear more about how you are handling Train Controllers timetable. I find that while it operates very effectively it is difficult to get it to tell a “story”. The comments column doesnt work so I am trying to develop a parallel spreadsheet which will enable me to add more detail without interfering with the logic I use for naming schedules and macros. I was born on the Wirral, where they had good train services, and spent the last 10 years of my life on the posh side before emigrating Best wishes

Hi Robin As always, super photos. If you sell the Heljan Railcar on you are stronger willed than I ! The furthest North they got was Stourport in the Midlands** but it really is a fine model…..lots of fun to operate so, not for the first time, Rule 1 has been invoked at Granby. ** Actually thats not quite true …..apparently, during the war, two of the railcars were loaned to the LNER and operated in the Newcastle area!

Hi Mike I try not to miss too many of your posts so I had read those on the Heljan thread. My comments were slightly tongue in cheek and intended to highlight one of the problems of matching prototype practice with operating a model shuttle. In my case the railcar starts and finishes its automated schedule from a hidden semi enclosed storage siding. Lights would certainly be justified and are quite useful tracking progress in the hidden siding. Its impratical to hand switch a Modelu rear lamp after every run, so I was trying to convince myself it was ok to switch the working lights back and forth...........maybe a compromise might be to ensure I always have a correctly sited rear lamp whenever I take photos. A question remains. If the front lights were only illuminated at night,snow,fog etc how was the train class A or B determined in daylight? I suppose commonsense prevailed, I guess there were not too many railcars in use on any given route? Best wishes

You could always look out for a bargain non runner and replace the grooved wheels. Its a very simple swap.....even I managed it. Combined with a Zimo chip and stay alive its super smooth and reliable.

Thanks Neal I was going to do some of the cab detail and buffers but I hadnt thought of the bulkheads …….thats a great idea …thank you!

After two weeks of marshalling the Down Parcels I promised something new for this week. Well this is new in every sense. My recently delivered AEC Diesel Railcar from Heljab: Like most new arrivals on Granby this is hardly breaking news as the model was released in August. In this case though I had also hummed and haad before actually ordering as I already had a similar model. I bought the Lima version in Beatties Sheffield in the late 90. It was an appalling runner with enormous pizza cutter wheels. With help from Nigel (BCDR) I re wheeled it and with added contacts and a Lenz Gold Chip and Stay Alive I was able to turn it into a reasonably reliable runner and became quite attached to it. Sadly it has recently become rather iffy and reluctant to run everywhere I want, so I eventually succumbed to temptation. This comparison shot rather flatters my old Lima friend but it still appears somewhat clunky: The Heljan version has some superb detailing with separate hand rails, pre-fitted pipework, sprung buffers and amazing lighting Unfortunately one of the buffers arrived loose and the spring is nowhere to be found. Not the end of the world and certainly not worth sending back to Liverpool from Vancouver. Ben Jones, the Heljan Rep, has been very helpful and hopes to be able to get a replacement spring sent to me. On the the plus side the 5 pole motor is centrally (and unobtrusively) mounted beneath the floor and drives both sets of bogies. With a Lokpilot5 chip the running performance is exceptionally smooth and reliable The chip is installed by removing the roof....very simple just 4 easily accessible screws: I guess the next job is to get some seated passengers. Nice cab detail at both ends: I mentioned that the lighting was amazing: There are nine separately switched lighting functions Lower End Light Front and Back Cab Light Front and Back Top Light Front and Back Passenger Interior Red Light Front and Back For DC users there is a bank of 9 switches mounted on the underside. The basic (non sound) ESU Lokpilot 5 decoder is preprogrammed to manage the 9 functions.......hence my switch from Zimo for this model. I am a bit uncertain about how the various light combinations were used in practice and how to best to replicate that in practice. On Granby the railcar will be diagrammed as an Ordinary Passenger on the lower level branch.....entering and exiting from a tunnel. On the prototype this would necessitate carrying an illuminated rear lamp.........this was required because the fitted red light was considered too dim. I dont believe lamps were fitted at the front so I am assuming that either the two lower lights were illuminated for an Express or the single top light for an Ordinary Passenger? On the model there are Lamp Irons on the buffer beam so I could fit a rear lamp. However its not practical to change over after every run. With either the function buttons or automatically with Train Controller I can switch the front and rear lights on and off as the Railcar shuttles back and forth between the tunnels The red light is quite bright on the model: I am already indulging in Rule 1.........I am not aware that these rail cars operated in the Chester area........so perhaps another application of Rule 1 will not do any harm. After all Granby Division, being so far from Swindon, does have reputation for being a bit different! Regards from Vancouver

Granby Shed

Train Controller has a timetable option. In conjunction with the fast clock option one (big) button will run trains all day. However to avoid the the timetable being too complicated it is best to develop sequences that can be controlled by a single (medium?) button. For example…the parcels train sequence I recently described on Granby involves 3 locos and 24 individual schedules. The whole sequence is started by one dedicated button or a single entry on the timetable. This post is intended more for Paul @5BarVT . I can amplify it on Heath Town if required. Best wishes

Hi Neal You have my sympathy. There is nothing more frustrating than finding, after a long wait, that an eagerly expected model turns out to have some defect. To happen with two items at the same time must be particularly frustrating. I do hope you get everything sorted ok. I am also having problems with the decoder for the Heljan railcar ( yes I succumbed to temptation! )……..apparently the Lokpilot (no sound) chip has the lighting functions linked to the number of speed steps…….it doesnt seem to like switching between manual. Other than that and a missing spring for a buffer its a very nice model…..super smooth runner. I like the figures you have fitted. Could you tell me the make please? I was thinking of ordering a pack from Dart. The servicing area around the Turntable looks great by the way Best wishes

This is the second part of the routine I am developing for the Down Parcels. Last week covered the Pilot shunting outbound vans in readiness for the imminent arrival of the Parcels Train. I have modified the routine so that there will now be a loco exchange at the head of the train while the Pilot replaces a LMS Brake with a Siphon H at the rear of the train Here is the train headed by 6818 Hardwick Grange approaching Granby Platform 5. Under the roof you can just see the Pilot waiting at the exit from Platform 6 On the right you can see there has been a little more progress with the Warehouse extension......more on this in a separate post. Over the years, GWR modellers have been blessed with models of just about every loco of any significance along with a reasonable selection of coaching stock ......but not a single Passenger Brake Van! The Hawkesworth vans used on this train were certainly not around in 1948. The GW crests are a Granby addition...but needs must. Having arrived, Hardwick Grange immediately uncouples Pulls forward and reverse to the Shed entry road In real life, the relief loco 6877 Llanfair Grange would then immediately move off the loop and couple with the train. As you are about to see to detach and add vans at the rear the pilot has to shunt the entire train to position it over the uncoupler.......so the relief will couple at the end of the sequence My apologies for the quality of the next sequence of shots. To tell the tale I had to stand on a foot stool and hand shoot using flash through the overall roof.......Shooting the video will be challenging! Back to the routine: The moment Hardwick Grange stopped in Platform 5 the Pilot reverses from Platform 6 light engine, the outbound van remaining in P6 The Pilot clears the entry points and advances into P5 Where it couples with the LMS van : Then uncouples the van from the train and reverses back to clear the entry points and thence into Platform 6 Where it couples with the siphon and reverses back again Clears the points and re enters P 5 where it couples the siphon to the rear of the train The pilot then has to push the entire train forward a van length so that it and the LMS van can be uncoupled from the train: Executing this movement automatically with varying van lengths will be quite challenging. Hopefully I can work through the logic without having to revert to a fixed van length. Once the pilot and van are clear Llanfair Grange can move from the loop Couple with the train and head off to Birkenhead Once clear, the pilot propels the LMS van across the main line to be unloaded at King St Parcels Depot Which is where we came in! My apologies for such a lengthy post.......I tried to be ruthless with editing but it was quite difficult without making the sequence even more incoherent. Next week something quite different......and much shorter.

Hi Edward Sorry for the belated reply.......my original response must have died somewhere in space! Thank you for your kind comments. I am glad you enjoy my scribbles. Not sure how the chair got there its normally out of shot ......although I think it makes a repeat appearance this week. I do have a Camp Coffee advert, elsewhere on the layout, that features the traditional Sahib and Servant. However the figure on the recent advert is actually a buxom blonde! Looks as though she has just stepped out of a Tide or Omo ad. Best wishes

Mogul 7308 hauls an Ordinary Passenger train on Granby Viaduct

Not much modelling done since my last post . I got a bit distracted last week. Apart from an election that nobody wanted, our eldest daughter finally remarried after three previous attempts had been thwarted by Covid. She and her partner chose to be married on the beach in West Vancouver. Bearing in mind Vancouver's Fall weather pattern this was, as Sir Humphrey might say, a bold (or despairate?) decision. The week before the wedding it rained, non stop. Similar story this week. Fortunately, for the week of the wedding, the weather was glorious. Spectacular setting, a simple but moving ceremony followed by a great party. Alls well that ends well........hardly surprising I missed my weekly posting deadline. Here is the extent of last weeks modelling Not sure why I waited 10 years to do this. Mind you, I still have to create an extension that will link warehouse and platform......that could take a while. One other reason for my slow progress is my resolve to only model in the morning and devote the afternoons to developing automated routines for the timetable Here is part of a routine I am currently working on: A Down Parcels train to Birkenhead leaving the Storage Yard A work stained Hardwick Grange hauling seven assorted NPCS vans towards Granby Viaduct The routine calls for two loaded vans to be exchanged with two empties from the King St Parcels Depot at Granby: The vans in the dispatch siding have to be shunted across the main lines prior to the arrival of the Parcels train The Station Pilot (9407 on loan from Oxley) couples with the Vans Draws them back into Bay 1 and then propels the Vans out of the bay area to the Up Main There is a slight continuity problem here......the sharp eyed will see that the Siphon G that was drawn into Bay 1 emerged miraculously without corridor connections as a Siphon H with a tail lamp........I did mention I was testing the routines........the Siphon G failed being consistently propelled over the throat double slips! Having cleared the throat points the Pilot reverses and pulls the vans across the Down Main and into Platform 6: Where it will await the arrival of the Parcels Train..............to be continued

Hi Brian Thanks to you and your colleagues for organising this poll. I run two autotrains on Granby both with Hornby trailers. One of the trains has two carriages with the loco in the centre. Is this correct or should it be loco plus two carriages? Regardless I would be delighted to be able to replace them with updated models. It would be good and I suspect prototypical to run more than one design although I suspect only one will ever be upgraded So I will be happy with any of: 5. 6. and or 7 Best wishes

Hi Geoff Good to hear from you. Glad you like the way Granby has developed…..I guess its now a mature layout although there still a few square inches of real estate to be filled! Are you still building Mangarh or do you have a new venture? I think Zimo and possibly Lenz chips have some form of kadee shuffle option. I am still a RR&Co enthusiast and the software now has a “limited distance” train operation …..in combination with Stay Alives this now makes coupling and uncoupling moves barely noticeable and super reliable Best wishes

Back to the storage turntable where the sidings are now fully operational. To complete the scene the rear wall still needs a low relief warehouse Veering for a moment off topic. The train the Down line is something of a rarity on Granby.....a short train of Horseboxes on their way to Chester Races. The next shot shows the Warehouse strip in place and everything weathered. Separately cut ledges and a parapet add a sense of depth even though there is very little room. Finally with everything finished the Wright's Factory can be put back in position to conceal the light switch The autotrain can resume its journeys to and from Canal Street Halt: To finish a couple of shots from the Autotrain looking down at the Canal: The next project is on the other side of the room In the left hand corner, just above the Star and Dragon, you can just see the Roof and Upper Floor of the Canal Warehouse There are more people to be painted for the hotel frontage along with a scenic retaining wall but the big design challenge is to integrate the warehouse with the platform area at the side and rear of the hotel: I am afraid the warehouse has been like this for almost a decade. Its amazing what you can get away with- courtesy of the Affinity cropping tool! But now it is decision time. Somehow I have to close off the rear and incorporate it into the narrow triangular platform area. I have some ideas but need to test them out with mock ups. Apart from these projects I hope to fully utilize the storage turntable with a series of commuter routines ........it should be a busy fall. Regards from Vancouver

Hi Brian 5, 6 and 11 for me It will be good to bring my B Sets up to the standard of the Hornby Collet 4 car sets. I like the idea of adding a Hawksworth as a strengthener to the latter. Thanks again to you and your team......and Rob of course

This weeks project was to extend the Scalescene wall behind the Storage yard Turntable: I have made a few of these in the past so progress was relatively fast: Typical Scalescene kit.....lots of laminating and you finish up with with an attractive and very robust wall. Its also very adaptable so, as here, it can be built to fit a specific length There was a certain amount of fiddling at the base to accommodate the edge of the turntable. Now it just needs weathering and bedding in. The final job is to build an extremly low relief Warehouse to hide the remaining exposed strip of wall. I think that I will make it similar in design to its neighbour but not as high.........partly to save time and effort but also because I think a height difference will be more interesting. Apart from that I still want to have a glimpse of the old Townscene back papers. I also found time to run some trains. Here is Collett Goods 3217, with the Branch Coal train, crossing the Shropshire Union Canal at Richard's Wharf: You may be wondering about the motionless Austin Threeway as the train rumbles by? There is actually a short line up of vehicles at the Lower Wharf Locks where Canal Street narrows to a single lane I thought that I might take some more shots of the canal next week. However, first I need to do a bit of road sweeping and canal dusting! Regards from Vancouver

Hi Neal Hope you get it sorted ok Once you have finished programming there should be an option to synchronise the tracks at start up Best wishes

Thanks Neal. You are right, Granby is non prototypical in so many ways I really shouldnt fret about a TT. Particularly when I have lived happily with its counterpart on the otherside of the gangway for the past 5 years. The Turn control unit is remarkably effective and perfect for my operations. I have to confess I am not the tidiest workman. Next job is to tidy what is supposed to be my office area and is currently covered with jars of Woodland Scenic's products! I can relate to your dilemma about inspection pits. I had them on the turn table storage roads of my previous layout. They were a bit of a pain to install and certainly limited adjusting the track connection to the TT. When finished they looked great but were rarely seen because locos were mostly standing over them. I didnt bother with Granby III although I did contemplate indicating their presence with a combination of metal and timber covers..........this might work for you. Glad you liked the cameo. The Modelu figures from the shed pack are perfect for this sort of thing. Best wishes

Back to the Storage yard turntable. As a reminder, here it is just after installation And close of play last night........... I just need to build an extension to the Scalescene retaining wall at the right and its all done: I realise it doesnt resemble a GWR table....or, I imagine, even an LMS one! I had thought, for a nano second, of cutting off the side platforms and replacing the side fencing with girders. After all the trauma with this table that would have been a bridge too far. A coat of black paint and some weathering can make it a little more acceptable: Nevertheless I am rather envious of @Neal Ball and his splendid new Turntable which does look exactly how a GWR table should look. Unfortunately my turntables have to be fully supported by RR&Co. Furthermore I am committed to Fleischman Turncontrol units So I have to sacrifice appearance and rather noisy movement in return for ultra reliable indexing and efficient automated performance. Back to the scenery ....the coal stage and water crane from the previous set up have been re-installed Both are venerable Mikes models........The coaling crane must be 20 years old, it was a feature of Granby I The mess hut first appeared a decade ago. It was built to hide one of the point motors that switched the original TT Now somewhat modified it conceals a rats nest of wiring .....hence the platform New stop blocks for all the storage roads and a load of detail added to the mess hut These guys are from the new Modelu Shed Pack To finish this is how the scene might have looked in 1948 Regards from Vancouver

Hi Brian I would buy one of 3, 4 or 6………. No particular preference Not sure whether this counts as a vote or an informative abstention! I will pass on the sleepers Thanks again for all the work involved Regards

I know they used the 2251 boiler but maybe that was because they wanted to eliminate the dome? I notice that Locomotion refers to Sir James Milne, GWR General Manager ( not Chairman) "requesting" that the design be a modernised version of the 57xx class. I knew Hawksworth was responsible for the design. I think I was mistaken in assuming that the original request was directed to Collett. I had forgotten he retired in 1941. Thank you for commenting, I will amend my original post