RichardS

Limited as I am for space and being confined to the garage, shed and my Railway Parlour (part of the garage) activity in the build of The RSR has been very slow during the winter. But now that there have been some tentative flashes of more benign spring weather my activity has again remerged from it’s hibernation. Any similarity to a dormouse is purely coincidental. Over the dark and cold months I have not been idle but have been doing much planning and design. So it was that after obtaining some alignment dowels and drilled T Nuts I was ready to start building the boards for the storage yard of the The RSR. Having built the four end curves a while back the new boards are intended to fit between the two at back. Easy in principal but not so easy in practice as it is necessary for the alignment dowels to, well, align, new and old. When I came to measure and apply the steel jig I had used for the curve boards something was not right. I couldn’t use the jig. Clearly when making the curves I had used it in a particular way that suited them but couldn’t be used for the new boards. Result I couldn’t use the existing alignment dowels in the curve boards and would need to use different ones for the new boards. This entailed making a new end infill for the curved boards which ahs actually improved the ends. Precision measuring was needed and to cut a long story short the first new board seems to align with the curve board nicely. The ends of each board were drilled with their corresponding end from the next board, and, because I hope the storage boards can be erected in 2, 3 and 4 board lengths, with the last board. Whether I have been sufficiently precise will become apparent shortly. All boards also have holes ready drilled for fixing protective end covers to enable transport and holes for cable runs. There are three other holes needed were in the two new boards at the extremity these are to accommodate the alignment dowel and hinge fixings which align curved boards when these are used in circular mode. More soon. Source

The trams on Bohemian Saxony primarily run through an urban environment comprising an ‘older’ town, a more modern area and an industrial zone. But around the edges we need some scenery. The future owner’s design has crammed so much into the available space that the scenic elements are not great. What scenery we can fit in is a bit ‘vertical’ – no room for rolling hills. This presents a problem in that the owner has an aversion to rocks. Careful shaping has minimised the rocks but there will be some rocks it cannot be avoided. So we have made progress with the scenery, installed a cable car (which has been removed for safe keeping) and last week agreed the final position of the various buildings. This is important so that we can make the ground works some of these will be placed upon. Meanwhile it has been decided to put block working on the upper tram circuits so that the owner can accommodate more trams on the layout. More on that next time. Source

Another friend of our group is building his first model railway and opted for American HO. He is not a purist and just wants a nice layout. He is using a lot of Woodland Scenics products. I have been helping him with ideas and showing him some techniques but he is proving to be a good modeller. This picture of his ‘tunnel’ – a long story – and the lake area shows Earth dyes being used to colour rocks. Source

There has been much progress on Bohemian Saxony since the new year and the layout is really coming together at long last. Here’s some pictures of various bits. Source

A friend of a colleague is into 009 but has an unsteady hand. He had seen an article in Railway Modeller which described the conversion of a Bachmann ‘N’ gauge American shunter into a freelance narrow gauge loco. Could I help? Well yes and the following pictures show my first ever conversion project. Not a medal winner but I’m quite pleased with it and I hope the new owner will be too. Source

Updates to TheRSR come all at once. I don’t apologise! :-) Meanwhile, work has also been taking place helping Mr W build a new railway in an outbuilding at his new home in South Norfolk. Mr W is a good modeller and over the years has constructed and painted white metal kits of various LNWR, L&Y and Midland locomotives from the 1920s – sort of pre-grouping/early grouping cross over period. Not content with locos are his kit built coaching stock and wagons. Oh and all fitted with three link couplings. But he’d never built a railway and needed some help with track laying and so forth. The building was about 20 feet by 11 and a joiner who had been working on MR W’s home had constructed baseboards around the space about a yard to a metre wide. Now these baseboards are not going anywhere – 3/4 MDF topped with sundela. The first job was to fix the latter to the former – it’s a big area and took almost a morning to glue and screw down. The other structural necessity was a lifting flap where the door is. The joiner while leaving a board to fit had not ‘fitted’ it. With the need for a minimum radius of 36 inches to accommodate the three links, and Mr W getting withdrawal symptoms from not being able to run his trains we were able to get him set up before Christmas 2014 with a prototype layout comprising 2 circuits and a 10 road storage area.. Yes that is a Union Pacific ‘Big Boy’ facing a Heljan Garrett, unlikely but fun. Source

It’s been a while since I gave a progress report on the European tramway which I am helping to build. There has been progress but it has been in fits and starts. Partly due to supply chain problems for materials and also the future owner changing his mind requiring some rework, Pictures better than words I feel. Captions if relevant. Source

Another distraction from my main modelling activities. And a first for me – I’ve never done anything like this before. A customer presented an N gauge Bachmann ‘Plymouth’ diesel shunter, a sheet of plasticard, and extracts from an article which had appeared in Railway Modeller a year or so back. The author of the article had built a new narrow gauge style body to fit the N gauge chassis and this customer wanted to do the same ….only he was having trouble cutting the plasticard straight. The article in RM was helpful but not exhaustive, the parts needed for the cab were drawn out with dimensions but were not to scale. And so a degree of modelling nous was needed. Cutting a long story short and some plasticard nearly straight I ended up with, in my opinion at least, a passable representation of a narrow gauge diesel. Painting next – it’s to be maroon apparently. Source

Very interesting, there's far more old railway stuff left in situ than we often realise. Thanks for sharing these photos. (see also Flickr - Friends of Norwich City Station - no connection. http://www.flickr.com/groups/norwichcitystation/ )

The track plan for The Nanslor Railway as mentioned before is simple. But it combines a continuous run and the opportunity for shunting if desired. In fact both the stage and storage sections allow shunting and run round facilities. This picture of the track plan also shows the baseboards. This plan was prepared using AnyRail. This software package allows a free trial version to be used but with a limitation of 50 items on the plan. For simple sketch plans this is an ideal app. In due course I shall add two more sidings to the storage area. The single siding, top right is intended to be the DCC programming track. But the germ of an idea is forming that it could also link into a further set of storage sidings. I feel that a variety of trains is important to keep the operators amused and viewers guessing. In fact another extended yard on the other side would add considerable operational interest. It's called project creep! I believe that Signals are one of the most essential of railway related items on a model. Wiveton had signals but these were non operational. On TNR there will be signals and it is my intention that they should function. To plan signalling again there is a very useful piece of free software from Modratec, an Australian company who produce interlocking lever frames and their own WIT operating system. This picture is from a scan of the output from SigScribe 4, Modratec's software. It shows the draft signalling plan together with the lever frame and also images of the various signals. (On screen it is in colour of course.) Now whether, all this will come to fruition will depend upon two things. Money, as usual, and my inherent skills! And of course inevitably the actual signals etc. will change (sic) but as long it looks believable who is going to argue? I have not shown the storage roads in the SigScribe plans. In my vision I have some form of signalling from the operator 'out front' to the operator 'out back' alternatively some form of computer programme might be employed. Incidentally, I always find fiddle-yards get quite a lot of interest at exhibitions so TNR will eventually have scenic storage roads and who knows even signals. But that has to be Phase 2. And lastly in this post I have once again to disclaim any connection to AnyRail or Modratec. Jobs this weekend include: adding droppers from the track to the power bus. RichardS

The model railway I am making is to a scale of 4mm and uses track to a gauge of 16.5mm (OO). There are two parts to the model 'the scenic stage' and the storage area (fiddle-yard). Portable, the whole comprises 9 boards measuring 1000mm x 600mm; the overall dimensions being 3000 by 1800. This just fits into my 'Railway Parlour' which is a section of my garage that I have fitted out. The track layout on the scenic stage is deliberately simple. A single circuit with a single branch comprising a run round loop and a single siding. Here I have used ExactoscaleFast-Track and Peco code 75 point-work. The 4 'on stage points' have been cleaned up but I have not re-spaced the sleepers. However, the track layout in the storage area is more complex. Peco code 75 track and point-work has been used throughout. The yard comprises 4 loops in the main circuit and the branch has a two pairs of looped sidings. There is also a connection between the branch and the circuit which has a loop as well. In all there are 10 roads in the storage area. As Nanslor is a new build I have opted to use DCC. Being quite a simple layout DCC will provide a quite pleasant operational environment. Presently the main circuit and the 4 storage roads are wired in. I am testing using a Bachmann EZ CommandController which I find works very well although there is very limited control over the decoders. In due course I will probably change to a more comprehensive system. But the EZ is fine for the time being. I will expand on the track and DCC wiring methods I have employed in future posts. My next tasks are to complete the track laying and complete the wiring of the power bus and droppers to fully power up all the boards and lines. I've included a couple of pictures here. The first shows the model railway I built in 1996. I exhibited Wiveton on the exhibition circuit for a about 4 years. It was sold on a few years ago The second and third pictures show the early stages of Nanslor.

I did see the 60 - as a model looked very nice. The other gentleman explained it was to wind up John. And I also saw the Beatties together on a shorter train. Overall I spent quite a while watching Treneglos.

Saw Treneglos at Spalding today. Thought it the best layout in the show, always something happening, superb atmosphere of North Cornwall, friendly operators, Overall excellent. Thank you. (It was me that spoke to you about the class 24 - found a pic. of a 25 in 1978 on railtour - near enough! :-) ) RichardS

Thanks, Chris I'll look for that book. Keith - thanks, yes the factory was on the North Denes. Although the fish docks were rail connected I agree that I don't remember it at the BE factory. I just wondered if they loaded them in the main station yard. Can remember waiting for trains to cross the road near the main Lowestoft bridge - now the bridge causes enough delays on its own!! :-) Very characteristic smell of fish in stations - can remember it at Norwich Thorpe too! RichardS

There is a picture somewhere - I've been through my books to no avail - of a whole train of these flats with Birds Eye containers being shunted along South Quay at Great Yarmouth - this was a dockside tramway connected to the mainline at Vauxhall Station. Some of the pictures on Paul Bartlett's website were clearly taken at Yarmouth - the small vehicle in picture 3 for example carries an EX number plate which was the Yarmouth registration suffix. The Yarmouth factory was the home of fish fingers I believe as well as frozen peas. Peas were also handled at Lowestoft. Does anybody know if the containers were also seen at the Suffolk port ever? RichardS

Can't beat natural light - usually. This is a nice picture.

Obviously my views on price are not shared by everybody which is fine. But if Hornby and Bachmann bring in all their 2010 ranges at that sort of price I'm afraid I will be one of those priced out of that part of the ready to run market. I will not be alone either. Reading many of the comments on here I am surprised that in these recessionary times there is so much spare cash to spend on previously unexpected models at this sort of price. Good old Barclaycard eh? It has been predicted that 20 high street "names" may close in the new year. How many model shops will follow suit I wonder due to this type of production. Anyway enough of that doom and gloom. I'd still like to know how much NRM are getting from the ??145.00. It can't be that secret or sensitive. Come on NRM spill the beans. RichardS