clecklewyke

Doug, thank you for these suggestions. It's always a problem finding time for all the things that you need (or want) to do. Our situations are rather different in that I'm retired. This has otyh advantages and disadvantages. In theory I have more spare time than when I was working but it is unstructured time, so I try to maintain a routine which allows me to get at least a couple of hours on the railway every day. The disadvantages are that I am a much slower worker than I was and I am acutely aware that time is running out. Sorry to bring such a depressing thought to the table but it is true. I have friends who to me seem to have set themselves unrealistic ambitions, which I suspect they will never achieve. So I am setting my sights pretty low and hope in a couple of years to have a well-running layout that looks good (according to my particular criteria) and which my friends can also enjoy. Which means that one project per month is far too slow. Oh to be young again! Ian

Hi, Tim. PD's lever frame seems to be reliable, as was the sliding key frame I made for my original BNW. However, Tony Gee does say that the railway is more reliable the more it is operated, which he puts down to the sliding electrcal contacts scraping themselves clean as they are moved. It is relevant that Buckingham is operated twice a week by Tony's team. Peter used brass or copper nails as contacts with phosphor-bronze scrapers.I am proposing to use strong copper-clad board (of which I just happen to have a wee stock) with scrapers made of .phosphor-bronze (of the type used for loco pickups). These will just be used for the few remote signals which will be solenoid operated. Marcway points don't in theory need switching but the occasional need for this will be met by using "Frog Juicers" or equivalent. Ian.

I find it very difficult to prioritise what I do on the railway. The list of necessary jobs seems infinite - track, signals, controls, wiring, locos, wagons, coaches, buildings, civiI engineering, scenery, timetable, operating instructions, research (that should have come at the beginnIng of the list!), write-ups for RMWeb etc., etc… And then there’s the problem that the more complete the layout becomes the more its operation becomes attractive. And there’s a justification for that as one needs to test and rehearse for when the “boys” come round or an exhibition deadline looms. Here's a picture of me playing with someone else's trainset. I'd love to have produced even a fraction of this! So - what to do? Bradford North Western is essentially planned for a team of operators to run trains to a realistic timetable in a believable setting which reflects the geograohy and architecture of its imaginary location, i.e. the West Yorkshire mill towns. All these aspects are of equal importance so I am trying to progress on all these fronts at an equal pace. Thus I have recently been: fettling the track to improve running, building the station roof building a “lever frame” and associated gubbins, to control points and (eventually) signals mocking up some mills and terraced housing to form a 3D townscape background for the terminus (occasionally) playing trains - I just love shunting the sorting sidings with my beautifully slow-running diesel shunter and watching trains steadily circulating. That’s the justification but in reality I easily get bored so I need to be able to alternate between several activities so I invite you to watch this space to see how I get on. Ian

Funny things, memories. I could sware those coaches were BR Mk 1s! Even worse, somewhere in my cellar I have some of my own photos of these trains - but where? Ian

I saw V3s in the early 60s on the "Brough workmans", which were quite an institution as I believe they were the last local trains to be steam powered. They were of 8 coaches and and as stated above their departure was fun as the two trains left simultaneously, one on the fast line non-stop to Hull and the other on the slow line, stopping at all stations. Wasn't the Brough factory still "Blackburn's" (as in the makers of the Blackburn Beverly) rather than Hawker Siddeley when these trains ran? Ian

<spoiler mode on> Tom, I can't help thinking that to do justice to the line it needs to be set within that superb scenery (which I have the privilege of exploring every day with my border terriers). Which means either an enormous shed or 2mm scale. <spoiler mode off> Ian Ian

The keys or sliders are made of 10mm diameter square timber, approx 3" long, connected to wire in tube. The latter can be obtained from Wizard models and the manufacture of the keys is explained in Peter Denny's first book, "Buckingham Great Central" published by Peco I used it for my first Bradford North Western and after toying with the idea of spending hundreds on servos or point motors and associated electronics I am using it gain. Watch this space Ian

I was quite pleased with the sign on one of Clecklewyke's mills which reads "I A Rice Spinner of Fine Yarns". Next to it is "Everett - Shoddy Manufacturer"

More progress will be revealed shortly but I thought I would just mention my latest thoughts on point and signal control for BNW. I want a solution that is cheap, simple to instal and maintain and will not demand much in the way of technical expertise (especially bearing in mind my poor eyesight). It must also have semaphore signals and a nice old LNWR signal box. So I had been investigating the DCC Concepts and Megapoints systems, either of which would eventually would be controlled by a lever frame. But! the cost of either of these would be several hundred pounds and I was not convinced that I could master their complexity. Moreover, both Megapoints and DCC Concepts are especially good at mimicking modern signalling systems with geographical panels and I simp;ly don't want such sophisticating* BNW is firmly a traditional mechanically interlocked lever frame, dating from the late 19th century. The penny dropped when I visited Peter Denny;s Buckingham Great Central last week. This is Buckingham's "lever frame" (Photo by Stuart de Boer) Above the main panel can be seen a row of some 90 sliders with round metal knobs. This is the lever frame, made from 10mm sq. timbers, about 3" long, which are attached to points and signals by wire in tube . Simple, cheap (VERY cheap compared with the electronic alternatives) easy to instal, within my technical limitations and mechanical, just like the one BNW would have in real life. Other aspects which make it suitable are that nearly all my points and signals are on one baseboard and the layout is permanently installed so the few connections which need to cross a baseboard joint are not significant. The sliders are 10mm wide so if I ever get rich they could eventually be replaced by a proper lever frame such as that by the Scalefour Society, which conveniently are also at 10mm pitch. Moreover, I had already built such a lever frame on my original Bradford North Western and it worked well. So that's what I'm going to do! Ian * My best boss was a certain Frank Barratt and when we were working together on a strategy document for the new networks for Edinburgh Unversity in the 1980s he would strike out any use of the word "sophisticated" with his blue pencil. "Sophisticated" meant expense and unreliability!

I enjoyed it but I thought a viewer who was not au fait with the HST/APT differences might have been puzzled by the rather random structure of the programme. A few details caused doubt - The APT prototype was jet-powered but surely it was being designed mainly for use on the curvaceous WCML and so the production models would br electric-powered Was the choice of fabric rather than webbing for the seating really down to the former's better resistance to Stanley knives? They did not explain why a non-tilting HST would be a good stop-gap for the GWR and ECML. Surely it was because BR could not afford to electrify these lines .and they needed improved services fast - and these lines were famously pretty straight race tracks which needed no tilting. The story of the evolution of the HST nose cone did not accord with my previous understanding. I thought that Grange only designed the production version, not the prototype. Am I wrong? I thought that the emphasis on the improved aerodynamics of the nose cone dubious. I doubt that any streamlining made a significant improvement to the train's performance. I thought that Gresley had discovered this in the 1930s? I thought that they were a bit unkind about the Deltics, The Napier engine was just as impressive a piece of ex-marine kit as the Paxman. And the Deltic prototype dated from the 1950s. I was appalled at the effect of dumping excrement at 125mph on the underpinnings of the train. Now I know why they were painted brown! Both the APT and HST were superb trains. It's such a shame that the APT was scuppered by that infamous press run. If only they had tweaked the degree and rate of change of tilt before they invited writers who were just longing for yet another story to denigrate BR. We might have had a British-built Pendolino conquering the world. Well that's the conventional wisdom. No doubt there was much more to it? Maybe the above demonstrates my ignorance! Ian

Tom, I am afraid that my early MRJs, including No 34, seem to have gone walkabout (you've seen my railway room so will understand...) You, and any other modeller in the Askrigg area, will be very welcome to have session on BNW. I'm actually having a session with another friend on Friday afternoon but I guess you will be teaching then? I'm generally free most evenings so please let me know when you would like to come. Ian

Tom - I'm just back from hols so only now have found this thread. Way back there was a lovely article by Iain Rice in MRJ No 34, entitled Gresley's Drone - the J39, which started as an attempt to improve the original Wills Finecast kit. It ended with him scrapping most of and starting anew. As I recall one of the problem areas was the cylinder covers so he might throw some light on this. If you like I'l seek it out and send you a copy Cheers, Ian

I lived near the wagon works in the old Hull and Barnsley Springhead depot - heaven to a young boy! I don't recall ever seeing a grey painted open wagon. Their were many open wagons made or repaired there but their woodwork was always unpainted. Only their metal work was painted grey. Ian.

Could I add the recently-demised Richard Chown. He always thought big, in numerous layouts, especially for his almost entirely scratch-built Irish fantasy Castle Rackrent, which like Edward Beal's layouts is a complex system run to a a proper timetable. He sits both in the lists of operators and scenic modellers. Another real system, again properly operated to a timetable etc. is the Gainsborough group's model of the East Coast Main Line. But this is a real group enterprise: I don't know i there is one man to single ot for a plinth. Ian I

Have you contacted (or even joined!) the Cumbrian Railway Society? Their Chairman, Phil Tuer, is a most helpful man Ian

Not iron, then?

This is made of yellow London brick! Ian

Somewhere I have both the last issue that Iain edited and the first non-Rice edition. It seems that Irwell Press and IAR had fallen out, with reports of IAR's failure to meet deadlines etc. A sad end to a brilliant magazine. I didn't buy any more copies as the whole point of it was as a sshowcase for Iain's writings and drawings. Without them it lost its raison d'etre. Many will know that I am a great fan of Iain. He's a brilliant, inspiring enthusiast and a really nice guy. Ian

I get the same problem if my phone is logged on to a router such as our main house router rather the Z21 router. To connect my Samsung phone to the Z21 router I have to press the bottom LH corner of the screen to get a range of options then click on "settings", choose "wifi" from the next menu of options offered then click on the Z21 router. I love my Z21 system but it does worry me that it might be a tad too "sophisticated" (i.e. "complicated" for my aging grey cells to understand. I think we did everything necessary to understand how my Hornby Dublo cotroller worked in "O" level physics in 1963. Ian

I think the OP was about non-Pullman Mk1s in mainly Pullman rakes. As I understand it, E Coast Pullmans were mainly pure Pullman formations. The only exception I have seen is the Bradford sections of the Yorkshire Pullman. The photos I've seen of the 50s trains comprised two Pullmands and a Gresley Brake Composite or third, pulled by a scruffy N1 0-6-2T or J2 0-6-0. Such a train is the crack express on my Bradford North Western branch- I find such a "flat-cap" train immensely attractive. Ian

Yorkshire is an enormous county and has a very varied landscape. Even within one riding (that word dates me!) you have the limestone scenery of the Pennines and Craven with nearly white stone walls, the wide Vales of Pickering and York with hedgerows and the darker Carboniferous rocks of the North Yorks Moors . So you really need to look at it, fall in love with a bit of it and model what you see. Whatever you do, don't copy another person;s layout! Model the real thing, not a model of it. Ian

I think that the main difference is that it it is now in colour.

Coming on nicely, Clive. I am retired but your rate of progress still beats mine. Two serious points: 1) I think lifting sections should always be arranged so that they don't prevent the door opening. How would people get to you if you collapsed? (Admitedly a more probable scenario with someone of my age!) Could your be re-hung to open outwards? 2) You might find it easier to make the platforms before laying the track. It's easier to shuggle track a millimetre or two than a platform. BTW I like the idea of using cork for the platform - a new idea for me. Ian

Jonathon, you might be interested in looking at the Scalefour site - https://www.scalefou...5af981f4928b8aa where there is a wealth of information about Buxton (Midland) station. I hope it helps. Cheers Ian

(Sorry - posted in error. See Jonathon's Buxton site.) Jonathon, you might be interested in looking at the Scalefour site - https://www.scalefour.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=5582&sid=7a60450ee72c60e9a5af981f4928b8aa where there is a wealth of information about Buxton (Midland) station. I hope this helps. Cheers Ian