clecklewyke

Definitely not a star, just a disciple mentioned in dispatches. You could try emailing president@scalefour.org Iain is very helpful and supportive and I am sure would be interested to see how people are responding to his writing. Ian

I cannot think of a better way to proceed or a better guide. I'll be following with interest how you get on. Good luck! (The irrepressible) Ian Everett (See p 11 - not Everret!!)

Inspirational work, Ron. I was intrigued by the little two road north light engine shed with a water tank over half of it. I've never seen this before. Is it LNWR and can you point me to some prototypical photos of it, please? Ian

Jason, Have you thought of using Wills guttering and down pipes? This pack also includes eaves tiles and chimneys. They are economical, easy to fix and very effective (well, at least good enough for me Ian

This has a lovely picture of the station when it was open. There is absolutely no habitation anywhere near the station. No wonder it closed in 1939! Good luck with the project. It looks like an excellent way of filling unwanted spare time but I hope your circumstances improve soon. Two things strike me about your plan: 1} A tunnel is a very rare feature at a rural terminus of a very minor line and is a bit of a cliche on model railways. I think it would be much better to use a building or bridge as a view blocker for the connection to the fiddle yard. 2) The real station was, as you say, one engine in steam. Rather than a signal box it had a ground frame and this would be a nice feature, which is rarely modeled. Wizard Models produce a good kit for a ground frames. The code for this is LS009. I look forward to seeing more progress. Ian

Bulleid's "Cock of the South"? Ian

Balance weights? My bete-noir; I often forget them. I have several locos without them, only one of which is correct - the LNER J72 did not have them. Maybe the class 27 did not either, being a slow.goods loco? Ian

I would say that it's too granular. The ash in goods yards tended to be very fine. I would suggest using real coal ash from your (or a friend's) fire. It;s fime and has a nice variety of shade. Ian

More progress today - dull stuff including painting the front of the layout and the lighting beam black. More interestingly, I was able to plant a superb tree kindly donated by Chris King (of the Cumbrian Region Area Group of the S4 Soc). It was one of the rejects made by his wife. If this was a reject... The photos show a D49 passing through Clecklewyke, about to pass behind the new tree on the last lap of its journey with a Hull - Liverpool express. The train will reverse at Bradford and be taken over the Pennines by a Black Five. (Can anyone tell me how to make these pictures larger?) So a few steps nearer to Scalefour North in April! Ian

Will these be available commercially? Bradford North Western would like five, please! Maybe Lanarkshire Models could produce them from your master? Ian

Work is slowly progressing on BNW. April 2014 and Scalefour North still seem a long way away but I think I am going to meet that deadline. The basic scenery is now complete, apart from some more trees and the little matter of some ballast on the main line over the viaduct. That should be completed in a week or so and then I can concentrate on presentation - the lighting, backscene, proscenium arch and the left hand fiddle yard, which meeds to be enlarged to cope wth five foot long trains. Here are a couple of pictures of the latest development - the gate to the yard of Rice's Mill, with a little gesture of respect for the great IAR! Behind the mill a Fowler 7F crosses Mill Gill viaduct with a freight for Gormley Junction.

Yuk! (Meant in the nicest possible way...) Ian

What a good question. I am asking myself the same question regarding a mix of LMS and BR Mk 1 vehicles (a Hull - Liverpool inter-regional working) which I am running on Bradford North Western. I would have thought that there would be no problem between the Gresley and Mk 1 Pullman vestibules but that there would need to be an adaptor between the Stanier and Gresley or Mk1 coaches. Even if the Stanier coach were a strengthener I would expect the corridor connection to be made. I would love to here the informed advice of people like Sationmaster or other ex BR employees. Ian

Ah but would the buyer be able to build it as well as the seller? Ian

Rabs said: I'm not sure where you mean by the bottom left corner. I meant this - taken from a very early drawing. But you seem to have moved on from then. I do hope you soften the edges as you described. Super stuff! Ian

This looks like a tremendous project (just a shame that it's the wrong railway company ) and I am very impressed by your planning skills. My only comment is that it looks a little rectilinear. I appreciate the need for rectangular baseboards if it is to be movable but I think it would look so much better if the margins of the layout followed the curved flow of the trackwork. This would be particularly desirable in the bottom left hand corner where a large structure is cut in half. This might be achieved by having filler segment (or should that be sector, I can never remember) modules to fit into the inside corners. By the way, is it designed to be viewed from the inside or the outside? (The latter, of course if it is to be exhibitable.) I'm looking forward to watching this develop. It looks like an excellent exploitation of 2mm scale's ability to set the railway within its landscape context. Ian

Stunning! What a testament, not only to Ron's superb modelling skills, including his mastery of digital artwork, but also the importance of the railways (in this case rather a minor railway in Manchester) to the development of Victorian cities. Ian

Thank you, Stu. The Wikipaedia article confirms that the class 33s had a bell warning system. Did the panniers have such a system? I suspect they didn't and that it was more likely that the pilotmen had shunters' horns or whistles? I'm very glad to find that workings were so lax - that's exactly how I work Humber Dock, although the pilotman walking ahead of the train is a bit of a problem... Ian

I think not - I don't remember pilotmen walking ahead of the trains along the S&DJR

I wonder how this line was worked? There seem to be lots of potentially facing points: were they locked? Were they controlled from a signal box? Was there a tablet or staff or was it just done on line of sight and speed low enough to stop before an obstacle? I suppose that must have been the case in order to avoid stupidly parked cars. I must declare an interest. In my imagination, Humber Dock is operated in the same way as the Weymouth tramway but I have no idea how! Ian

Their representative talking on Radio 4's "Today" this morning talked about how foreign railways had got more capacity out of existing lines by using double decker trains. That's a great idea, which Mr Bulleid tried out so successfully on the Southern. We should start raising all the bridges and enlarging the bores of all our tunnels immediately. Ian

This has been posted elsewhere but I'm rather pleased with it - credit to Paul Willis of S4Soc for creating the B/W version of a photo I took of Humber Dock. B/W seems very appropriate for an image of a 1950s subject. Ian

Here is the latest photo of Humber Dock, "lifted from Hull Daily Mail's 'Old Hull' feature". In fact it's a cleverly GIMPed version by Paul Willis but Black and White really suits the atmosphere of the place, it being a 1950s scene. It really reminds me of the Iliffe Stokes' article "Does your Railway Live" in an ancient RM, which has always been a major inspiration. Ian

Can you lend me a couple? Ian

Here's my latest attempt at a dusk photo. I've also replaced the Portescap motor in the Y7 0-4-0T which appears in this photo. It now has a tiny Mashima motor and a High Level Models gearbox and it runs beautifully but with a horrible growl. I suspect that the motor or gearbox is touching something which is resonating. I'm looking forward to playing with it on Saturday! Ian