The Fatadder

Going to have a look now, fingers crossed

There is one working in the working timetable in the down direction labels "north of England" which I guess could be possible, but it's not in the carriage working document (the LMS ones are). For that matter I couldn't find the return working anywhere. I'm guessing it could be a summer only working and not yet be running in my October 46- June 47 timetable (there doesn't seem to be a carriage working document available for summer 47.... The other tricky one I have found which isn't in the formation list is a workmans train departing Newton abbot for Plymouth around 5am (stopping at Brent). Again there is no return working in the timetable (and I haven't a clue what would make it up)

Are your point numbers sequential? With 100+ points to build I can see the appeal of investing in the jigs! And I'm sat here feeling that the 20 odd I have remaining feels a lot...

Strangely LMS locomotives have never done anything for me, whereas the Southern and LNE stock is far more interesting. Is love to find a working which justifies some LNER coaches through Brent, but think a full brake will be the best I can manage.

A shame but probably for the best that no MN made it to Plymouth. Though I have to say that the locomotive exchange trials are the only thing that temps me to temporarily slip my running period into 1948. The sight of an A4 through Brent along with the dyno car is just too tempting...

A shame but probably for the best that no MN made it to Plymouth. Though I have to say that the locomotive exchange trials are the only thing that temps me to temporarily slip my running period into 1948. The sight of an A4 through Brent along with the dyno car is just too tempting...

While watching the hockey final this evening I've put together the vee and outer rails for the other half of the crossover, and added the sleeper bases for the down main point into the yard (along with the plain track linking to the other double slip. In this case to aid with getting the curve right through the point, I have used the curve through the plain track continues smoothly on to the curved point. This is fitted with chairs and ready to glue down at the weekend. It won't be tomorrow though, as I'm off to Duxford for a flight in a tigermoth (but it's weather permitting and looking at the forecast I think there's a very slim chance I will be flying. However I have a hotel booked and have promised the 2 year old she can see some planes tomorrow so will still be heading over just in case....)

Certainly the colours look just right, will definitely revisit this thread when I a, closer to doing real scenic work on Brent

I hadn't really thought about the back to backs, despite clearly having to be obsessive about setting the back to back correctly on my p4 stock. It does explain why the 15 year old Bachmann split axle tank wagons (which I have set the back to back on) work perfectly fine. First job for tomorrow check the B2B on the three test locos. Speaking of which, test number two was finished tonight running form the up main into the yard with both the WD and a 4575. Again a small adjustment was needed to widen the clearance on the switch blade (I think I am still setting them to something closer to P4 than OO.) Tomorrow afternoon it's back to work on the crossing at the Exeter end, once that is complete it will be possible to run a circuit from the up mainline then back up through the slip and return to the up through the crossing at the Exeter end.

Given the recent warm weather progress on the layout has slowed somewhat, as the garage has been far too hot to be comfortable working in the evenings, the distraction of the Olympics hasn't helped.... Last night however I did manage another hour of work focused around the single slip. The remaining check rails have now been added, along with the tie bars for the switch rails. On the latter I used 1.5mm copper-clad strip (a copper-clad sleeper cut in half), although in this case I filed a large dip in the centre of the sleeper to provide clearance for the rail for the other slip road. Taken before adding the rest of the check rails Of course I did end up making a stupid error and forgot to drill the hole for the operating mech, which will now need to be drilled from below... With this complete thoughts turned to testing, so out with the soldering iron again and track feeds were soldered in position before connecting to the wiring loom (or the mess under the baseboard as its otherwise known...) It did highlight a couple of problems, one elongated point vee had expanded and was now touching the neighbouring piece of rail causing a short. This was an easy fix getting the razor saw out and cutting the vee to a more sensible length. Once that was done the 511 was connected up, and testing progressed. At the moment my stock testing consists of push along runs with an old Bachmann Benzol tank, followed by testing with a new Hornby Collett. Before powered testing with a Bachmann WD 2-8-0 and a Hornby King. (I will probably add a Westcountry and a 2800 to the testing rota as well at some point). In the down direction there were no issues, but running wrong line did indicate an issue with derailments. Given that some operations require wrong line running (particularly the need to remove coaches off the back of workings from Paddington this clearly needed fixing. As the YouTube video below shows, it now works in both directions with the WD, and with the King in the down direction at speed. Further testing was also completed with a Bachmann 4575 which also passed. There is still some jumping when the loco hits the check rails, so a little more refinement is needed there. I want to check that stock is not hitting the top of the chairs... The connection between the Up and Down Mainlines and the connection between the yard and the up main have yet to be tested, the latter being a bit tricky until the Double Slip is built (which wont be for some time!) Now that the slip is finished, I can get back to easier points at the Plymouth end crossing, and guess I should start thinking about installing some Tortoise motors. (But I suspect the latter wont happen until it cools down enough that I am happy working in the confined space under the baseboards... [flash=] Down Cornish Rivera Express (missing a few coaches) followed by what will eventually become 77289 on loan from the War Department.

Thanks, I will give that a try once I receive my king plates. The Castle my have to wait given I keep thinking about buying the 2017 release to do Nunny Castle that I was going to rename from Wellington (with a tender swap). Instead thinking of Spitfire so I don't have to worry about the 'Castle Class' branding...

How did you remove them? I have a King and a Castle both needing replacement names which I have been struggling with.

I don't think it was the easiest to rename, with that raised lip around the edge of the nameplate meaning you can't overlay the new plate easily. So it's a choice between careful filing off the lip, or removing the whole splasher and reliving the replacement. Though I am thinking about commissioning Railtech for some 3D transfers for my new king names which keep the raised surround of the Hornby tooling That said, with first release GW models now selling at around the 100£ mark I'm tempted to get another

And looking at the photo, I've glued the roof on the wrong way round!

Modelling the right mix of different coach diagrams is key to modelling the GWR, as such I have long planned to add some Toplight coaches to the fleet. The demise of the Slatters range put something of a spanner in the works, compounded by the high cost they go for on eBay (I have already been stung by a second hand Slatters clestory kit that came with badly warped parts) Fortunately at Wells last weekend Coopercraft had some parts available, including a pair of sides and ends and corridor wall for a third and a roof for a brake third. This left me short of a floor, bogies, corridor connections and details. I started by building the body, gluing one end to each side before,fixing together and adding the roof. The next step was to add a floor, for this I raided the spairs box for a DC Kits mk1 TPO floor, which was cut to length and test fitted within the chassis. To this plasticard compartments and DC Kits seats, along with the Slatters corridor wall were added. The roof needs modifying to an all third, and the chassis trusses need scratch building. Plus bogies will be needed (regretting not buying them from Dave Geen at the weekend) then the coach can be painted, detailed and added to the Up M Set

After buying a point blade jig at Wells last weekend I have cracked on with the single slip. The blades were quickly formed with the jig, then soldered to short lengths of 0.6mm copperclad (also fitting the check rail and running rails at the same time. This made up a sub assembly which was then stuck in place with Evostick. Once dry tomorrow I will add the chairs with Butonal on the rest of the sleepers to hold it in place and then check if it worked. I had planned to solder the the running rails insitue, however I just couldn't get the iron in the small clearance.

Both are available (or at least were on Saturday), but are only available to members other than at the 3 scalefour shows. Unfortunately I'm no longer a scalefour member or I'd be happy to help,

I really like the spare loco bridges at each end of the fiddle yard, I'm going to have a look and see how I can implement something similar once I build the fiddleyard for Brent. Although it will be a while until I have enough locos finished to actually have need for it.

I'd love to see a what if of one of these in the planned GW livery as though nationalisation never happened...

Very nice! By far the best tank ever to come out of Swindon! At some point I will finally buy one!

Based on the 1947 workings timetable I have been working from, there were 2 return workings Brent - Kingsbridge, along with one other service from kingsbridge to Brent in the evening which did not have a recricprical working, I think I'm right in saying this worked on to Newton Abbot but I am not sure. Based on this I assume that the kingsbridge van would be used on the return services and stay on the branch, though I can't think what would be used on the other. (Incidentally I have also worked out that for a section of the middle of the day a second 45xx (in addition to the one stabled in Kingsbridge). There being a couple of services which would have to be at opposite ends of the branch at the same time. This left a loco in Kingsbrisge towards the end of the day which I assumed would take this last goods on to Newton Abbot.)

Thanks, In that case I will pick up a couple next time I'm at the model shop.

My knowledge of tank workings only goes back to around 1997, so in preparation to going and buying some of these to run with my older Bachmann tanks through Brent in 1947, would it be a block working of just tanks (presumably just one brand), or would it just be a handful mixed into a longer mixed freight? So far I don't think I've seen a single photo showing a tank working on the main in my period.... Thanks Rich

Very nice, I had been thinking about getting some for Brent as it progresses. Really like the double bladed knife!

Thanks, I'm quite pleased with the curve, it's worked out better than I expected. I'm looking forward to adding the branch curve as well to finish the look...