Ruston

If I can be bothered some time. At least I won't have to add sound to it if I do. I've got a friend coming over, tomorrow, and we're going to run through the whole revised day shift. I wanted to have the 88DS working but it's still has no gearbox and motor yet.

Thanks for that, Brian. I have thought about a paddy train but I'm not sure about what stock to use. I already knew that they used vans in later NCB days but what about in the 1920s and 30s? If they used second hand coaches I guess they would be ancient pre-grouping stuff? I could only get one 4-wheel coach into the headshunt anyway. Unless I run the paddy train from the exchange sidings to the run-round loop with the assumption that there is a larger village at that end and the pit itself is in easy walking distance from what's shown on the layout.

I have just read, in the Hornby Peckett thread, that Digitrains have fitted a Peckett with sound. So that's a definite for this layout being DCC. I managed to nip into my local model shop inbetween jobs, today and was looking at coal wagons - the price of OO wagons has gone up since I last did anything with OO - £14 for a short wheelbase PO coal wagon! I didn't pay that but found some older stock and bought one of those, which brings me on to rolling stock and traffic... Hopefully those more knowlegeable about the South Wales coal trade can help me here but as far as I'm aware, a lot of output from this coalfield went for export to the docks at Newport, Cardiff, Swansea etc. So I guess my colliery company stock should have end doors? Other PO wagons can be included of whatever door arrangement as coal merchants from just about anywhere could send their wagons to be loaded wherever was selling the type of coal they required at the best price. What about pit props? Would the company's stock be sent from the coal customer to collect props instead of travelling empty to the colliery, or would these arrive in railway company wagons? Explosives inwards - presumably in iron-bodied (gunpowder) vans? Stone dust (for prevention of coal dust explosions underground) - bagged in vans, or in bulk, in roofed 7-plank wagons (of the same style as salt wagons)?

I tried a different length of track and the joiners do fit, albeit with some force being needed to get them on, as opposed to them sliding easily onto the standard code 75 flat bottom rail. But with the first length of track they wouldn't go on at all. I wonder if the first length of track I tried had the rails put in upside down and the shape of the rail isn't the same for the top as for the bottom? It's difficult to tell with the naked eye in this scale (I remember now why I like 7mm!). The thickness of the two rail types is slightly different - 1.195mm for the bullhead and 1.192mm for the flat bottom. Please bring some of those joiners over for this "rogue" length of track. I have been rooting around in the loft, looking for some uncoupling electromagnets that I bought years ago for my old N gauge railway but were never used. I found them and so these will be fitted to work the Dingham couplers that I have ordered. When it comes to wiring everything up I will wire it for DCC but it will run as DC initially. I can't be bothered putting in all those sectional switches for DC so It will be operated as One Engine In Steam until such a time as the decoders for the Pecketts become available. I'll need to wire up some multi-way sockets so the DCC equipment on Royd Hall can be unplugged and borrowed for this railway and returned without all the hassle of undoing seperate wires from under the baseboards on both layouts. The plain boards along the front are for the stream.

That very loco is soon to be available RTR from Hornby. The same loco is pictured in the IRS Handbook G but without a cab rear but it would appear that Hornby are correct in modelling it in the way they are.

The real w/n 883 had an open-backed cab (it is shown as such in a photo by Aidan Fuller in the IRS Handbook G) but the picture on Hattons website appears to show the bulge in the cab backsheet for the brake handle, and a high-level lamp iron. So I guess they are doing it as an enclosed cab. The dome looks right though and so this will be a third type of dome for these models.

Peckett w/n 832, the subject of the Hornby Huntley & Palmers model. Seen here very much later in its life at Cransley iron works in Northants. http://thumbs4.picclick.com/d/l400/pict/131914221315_/2-Original-Slides-Of-Cransley-Iron-Works.jpg A picture in Industrial Steam Album Number 2, by M.J. Fox and G.D. King shows the front of the loco, which by then had deep buffer beams and 4 buffers and two drawhooks at each end. The second set being lower and narrower-set than the originals. Presumably for some internal use wagons. It was scrapped on site by George Cohen & Sons Ltd. in 1966.

My order of track arrived today and so this evening I have been shuffling the points around and have arrived at what will now be the final variation of the track plan. The turnouts on the loop, next to the stream, would have been so far over the edge that it would be impossible to install solenoids under the boards for those two and the left hand end headshunt was quite superfluous. So now the loop will have only the shunt at the right hand end but will probably have a catch point at the left hand end. The revised plan means 6-wagon trains can be run and still provide space for 6 wagons and a loco. The spare turnout will provide an extra dead-end siding to place half of the train in to keep the main line clear (only three wagons at a time will be propelled up the incline). Cork being laid and trackwork loosely laid down to see exactly where the turnouts will go. Trackwork. I ordered the turnouts and plain track in code 75 - the plain track is Peco's new bullhead rail. The rail is very fine, the sleepers are wider than standard code 75 and the spacing looks to be wider too. The only problem is that it doesn't want to connect to the turnouts with normal code 75 joiners. Apart from that it looks really good and the downside of that is it shows up the turnouts as not matching but I guess it will all blend in once everrything is ballasted, painted and weathered.

I would like to see some more of your industrial locos, Cap'n but I'd like to keep this for Pecketts. If it's a suitable industrial or light railway setting then feel free to start a new topic in this UK Standard Gauge section.

I've started a topic for those who have modified, weathered or have their Pecketts in use in a proper industrial setting. I thought it would help to keep them from being swamped by the general posts about availability etc. http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/118513-peckett-w4-types-weathering-modifiying-and-prototype/

Not everyone models 4mm and some people may still be unaware that there is now an excellent ready-to-run industrial steam loco availlable. There is of course 66 pages of waffle about it here http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/103556-Hornby-announce-peckett-w4-0-4-0st/ Although my usual scale these days is 7mm I think this is a great step in promoting industrial locomotives to a wider audience than those of us who are used to building kits so I'm posting this to try and get more people building industrial layouts and taking an interest in industrial locos... This topic is for those who have done something with their Pecketts other than shake the box, and is also for prototype information and photos of the W4 type. Please share your modified or weathered models and post photos of the prototype here. You can also post photos of your locos if they are on a proper industrial layout. I have already posted these elsewhere but I'll kick off with a couple of photos of my own models. Only the bodies have been weathered so far but the wheels and frames will follow. Firstly I removed the Dodo name, and the Huntley & Palmers lettering by rubbing them with cotton buds that were soaked in white spirit. Cocktail sticks soaked in the same were used where the lettering was in the rivets. Then Mig soot black pigment was painted all over using a water-wetted brush. When this had dried a cotton bud was used to wipe most off but leaving just enough around the buffers, handrails, rivets etc. This was sealed in by airbrushing on a coat of Tamiya matt acrylic varnish. A final touch was a light dusting of Tamiya rubber black to represent fresh soot on the top of the tank. The couplings are to be replaced with Dinghams and both may be given nameplates.

Very nice. Did they start out in the BR grey and you weathered them, or were they also repaints from PO liveries?

Those pictures are tempting me to a later date. It would solve the problem of no matter what PO wagons I choose to buy they would have an actual colliery name on them, which sets an actual place instead of a fictional one and the fact that I already have some BR 16-tonners that I can use.

I have had the baseboards all bolted together, today. I printed off some Peco turnout templates and after shuffling them around to avoid the cross-bracing under the baseboard tops whilst attempting to maintain enough space for a 5-wagon train I have ditched the three-way at the right hand end. The engine shed will have to go due to this but it was going to be tight anyway. The lower line is now the run-round and the centre is the line to and from the fiddle yard. I have also been working out the gradient of the line to the colliery. The steepest I can get within reason and useability is 1 in 15 but I'll probably make it about 1 in 20. I know this is very steep but there were such gradients on some industrial lines and it makes more of a feature on the model. This is of course assuming a Hornby Peckett can push 4 short wheelbase PO wagons up something that steep and control the loaded wagons on the descent.

I don't have any track to run my Pecketts on at the moment and am still in the planning stages of the layout on which they will run... Could someone please do an experiment to see if a Peckett can haul 3 short wheelbase private owner wagons up a 1 in 15, please? Thanks.

If you want me to weather your Bagnall, Paul, give it a repaint and bring it here and I'll do it. The only one I've used on this is soot black. I also use track brown and old rust on heavily-weathered stuff. They were from a friend's abandoned N gauge project.

That's not actually a W4.

I made a start on extending the width of the baseboards today and bought some thin plywood for the backscene and ends. I also made a start weathering the locomotives. Firstly I put a water-wetted brush in some mig pigment and daubed it all over the body. Then, when it was dry, I cleaned most of it off with a cotton bud to leave it around handrails, rivets etc. where normal cleaning wouldn't get the dirt off. The pigment was sealed in with an airbrushed layer of matt acrylic varnish and the final stage was an airbrushing of fresh soot on the top of the tank. The wheels and frames are as yet untouched. They will get some attention but I don't want these engines to be filthy - this is the 1920s, not the 1970s.

The Pecketts for Nant Y Mynydd Colliery.

I rubbed it with a cotton bud soaked in white spirit and with the end of a cocktail stick where the lettering was next to the rivets.

Not to me personally but that shows that the buffer beams and domes are seperate parts. Hornby already do two types of dome so if they produce the alternative buffer beams the next batch of Pecketts may include works number 810, otherwise known as British Railways No.1

One of the three baseboards. They are very well made and cost me £25. I couldn't make them myself for less, so they're worth the money. Seeing how strong they are and how difficult it would be to cut depth into the front edge for the stream I am going to stick an extension onto the front, below track level. This means I will only have to cut into the boards where the stream goes under the tracks and it will free up space on the board itself. The stars of the show. Dodo is so far untouched but the blue one has had the biscuit company name removed. Thinking about buildings... I'm no expert on the divisions of Christianity but I'd like to know whether chapels in South Wales are Weslyan or Baptist Personally I think the Baptist one looks better.

After going over some other ideas for a OO layout I think this is the one. Last night I was looking through my book collection for ideas and one book I looked at was Visions Of Steam - The Four Seasons Of Steam In Industrial South Wales, by Peter Cavailer and Geoff Silcock. If you haven't got the book it's a picture book of really atmospheric monochrome photos that doesn't even have proper captions and doesn't just do the usual three quarter views of locomotives. It includes "arty" scenes and people and buildings. So then I looked through the Irwell Press book Industrial Railways In Colour - South Wales 2 and decided that this layout will be the first I have ever built not to be set in the West Riding of Yorkshire. It's all fictional but I'm going to try and incorporate things in the books that have inspired me. Total length of baseboards = 7ft. 6in. Width 9 in. The line topmost will be from the colliery and is descending left to right. The right hand end will have a retaining wall with terraced houses and a chapel above it and on the track level there will be an engine shed. The lower line goes off to a landsale yard and the GWR.

Ruston & Hornsby 88DS, failed with a gearbox fault, at NCB Royal Oak sidings.

A Ruston & Hornsby class 88DS was delivered by lorry to Royal Oak sidings, today. Unfortunately it failed and an ancient Manning Wardle had to take over. The Ruston is to be sent back to the 'shops for remedial attention to its gearbox. The Royal Oak driver washes his car whilst he awaits one of the Royd Hall crews getting steam up and bringing the replacement loco over.