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Dave Holt

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  1. Dave Holt

    A bit more progress

    By Dave Holt,

    Still no actual track laid, but I am edging slowly towards it! To provide some strength to the track at board joints, and hopefully prevent rail end damage during assembly and disassembly of the layout, I'm fitting a couple pf ply sleepers where each track reaches the end of a board with brass panel pins driven into the board top rather than the usual rivets. This is now complete except for one end of one board. After that, I need to partially cover the turnout operating unit holes to just leave a slot for the actuating wires to pass through, locate the TOU's under the boards and then track laying can start. Here's 3 photos of recent progress.



     
    Dave.
  2. Dave Holt
    Track laying continues and I am now starting to work on the coal drops. No photos of these in full condition have come to light, so the model will be a bit generic. I know there were 6 cells with brick (with stone inserts here and there) dividing walls/support pillars but have no idea of how the track support structure looked like, so I'm basing mine on an open wooden structure with beams under the rails and angled bracing struts (as evidenced by recesses and stone bearing pads part way up the pillars. On the model, the structure is being made from 6 mm square and 6 x 3 mm obeche strip and 0.8 mm ply decking. The main beams which carry the rails have been prepared and trial fitted in place, as shown in the three photos below. Otherwise, track advances on various fronts, some of which is also visible in the photos.
    If anyone has any recollection or photos of the coal drops, I'd be only too pleased to hear, before i commit myself irrevocably to something wrong! Help!
     

     

     
    ]
     
    Dave.
  3. Dave Holt

    Black 5 update.

    By Dave Holt,

    Not much progress, but the loco and tender are now connected. The loco and tender kits are from different periods of design and manufacture and the adjustable draw bar supplied with the loco is far too long for the later tender. The fault really lies with the tender because the draw bar pivot is far too close to the buffer beam whereas the earlier tenders were about scale in this respect. The more recent tender is not easily modified to correct this aspect, so the only solution was to make a hybrid draw bar using the etched bar at the loco end and a new part, incorporating a formed eye, made from 0.8 mm brass wire at the tender end. It took a couple of goes soldering the two pieces together to get just the right pivot centre distance so that the rubbing blocks touch but allow the required movement between loco and tender. Although the gap between loco and tender is almost scale, the fall plates on the loco do not land on the front platform on the tender, so some further work is required on this aspect.

    Dave.
  4. Dave Holt

    Brief up-date

    By Dave Holt,

    I see it's been over a year since my last posting on here. To be honest, I find the constant pop up adverts which now appear a constant irritant, so am less inclined to participate.
    Anyway, I have made some limited modelling progress during the gap. Nothing on the layout, but work has been done on locos.
    We left the Ivatt tank at the stage of making the injectors. This and all other work on the chassis is now complete. It is currently stripped to its component parts, ready to be painted.


    I left it like this in anticipation of demonstrating at this years Scalefour North which, inevitably, never took place due to the corona virus. No progress has been made on the body. I was pondering whether to cut out and replace the boiler with a spare cast white metal DJH and decided to re-start another loco whilst I made up my mind. Well, it's still not made up and the other model is now well on the way to completion!
    This latest project is a Brassmasters Stanier Black 5 - 45232, of Newton Heath.
    The basic frames had been assembled years ago but had not been wheeled. It has now reached the stage of the loco being complete, except cab glazing and fixing the cab roof, both of which have to be done after painting.

    The tender is also well advanced but not yet finished.

     
    Dave.
  5. Dave Holt

    Caprotti valve gear

    By Dave Holt,

    In a recent blog, Tim has shown his developing model of an LMS Caprotti Class 5, and very good it looks too.
    Here are some photos of the gear I made for the similar BR Standard version. Also a sketch of how I represented the universal joints in the shafts. THe shafts and joints were made for various diameters of brass tube and rod and the return crank gear boxes were from the DJH cast brass gear I was replacing. For ease of assembly, painting, etc., I made the gear as a set of sub-assemblies held together by small 14 BA) screws. The photos were taken by Barry Norman, so I hope he doesn't mind me putting them on here. The original prints are much sharper but have lost something in the scanning!
     
     
    The assembled gear looks like this:

     
    The various sub-assemblies are:
    1) Cylinders with slide bars and connecting rods,

     
    2) Main drive shafts,

     
    3) Reversing shafts,

     
    These make up the overall assembly,

     
    The universal joints consist of a pair of interlocking "ears" filed onto the end of a length of 1.5 mm tube, mounted on a length of about 0.8 mm wire.

     
    Cheers,
     
    Dave.
  6. Dave Holt

    D333 comparison

    By Dave Holt,

    Here's another shot of my part finished D333 ex-LNWR coach taken from a similar angle (but a rather drunken angle and poorly lit, in my case) to the shot Coachman has put on his blog - I would have posted this as a comment or reply to Larry but can't find a way to put photos into either.
    Anyway, here's my coach again for comparison. I've just noticed that although this is an ex-LNWR diagram, I've fitted standard LMS buffers (only the stocks, so far) rather than the LNWR types on Larry's example - must have been a reason for that.....
    Mine's a bit more advanced (roof detail) but I bet Larry's is finished first - I've been putting of fitting the glazing for ages - all those separate pieces to make and fit! Stick to large window corridor coaches I say!
     

     
    I'm surrounded by brick and stone embossed plastic sheet at present, so hoping to get some of the scenic work for the coal drops done before fitting the deck/track unit.
     
    Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone.
     
    Dave.
  7. Dave Holt
    In a comment on part of my blog, Coachman mentioned making model of a digram D333 ex-LNWR non-corridor brake third. Here's my attempt at one of these (part of my fictional non-push-pull local train) which was made from a 51L Models kit, modified to represent the version with just two end windows. The model is not yet complete - lacking the glazing and buffer heads. Model was painted and numbered by Coachman - and very nice, too!
     

     

     
    The odd contraption visible at the left-hand end is a cast coupling bar (one of Bill Bedford's, if I recall).
  8. Dave Holt
    Although the track and electrics are far from complete, and the control panel and fiddle yard not even started, I have been thinking about scenic aspects of the finished layout. Following on from the coal drop wing wall, my thoughts turned to the retaining wall alongside the road as it curves round and up to the road junction near the station entrance.
    Study of a photo taken before the road layout was changed, looking towards the station masters house and down the road to Dobcross and road elevations shown on a site plan have convinced me that I had made the road slope up too steeply so that the road level outside the afore-mentioned house was far too high. Over a period of a few weeks, this has been eating away at me until I have been driven to try to improve matters.
    It would have been an awful lot easier to get it right in the first place because chopping the finished boards about to lower the road surface has not been the easiest of jobs. It's still not absolutely correct, but a lot better than it was. Due to some interference of immovable bits under the road surface, in the end I was able to lower the extreme top end of the slope by about 20 mm and generally blend this in to the original slope over a length of about 350 mm. The new arrangement is shown in the photo below. Some idea of the lowered road surface can be gleaned from the edge of the strip of wood visible at the end of the goods yard area. Originally, the right hand end of this strip, now suspended in mid air, was fixed to the sloping road. Now there's a gap of about 10 mm.
     

     
    Having corrected this niggling problem, I can now make and fit the various buffer stops to the station board roads. Except for the track which goes through the goods shed, these are of the rail built, BR standard (ex-GWR) type, despite Delph being ex-LNWR. The goods shed road had a masive timber baulk stop which looks like it was some locally produced replacement, possibly for a damaged rail built version. Although this stop appears in the distance in several photos, the detail isn't really clear, so I'll just have to make a best guess. No doubt someone will know better after it's built!
     
    Dave.
  9. Dave Holt
    Philbax was asking about the Ivatt Class 2 2-6-2 tanks which appeared in some recent photos.
     
    The Ivatt is an as yet unmodified Bachman body on a chassis based on the Comet kit, with some additional detail and the valvegear modelled in forward rather than mid gear. The chassis is compensated as an 0-6-0 using twin beams on the rear two axles and a central rocking support on the front. Drive is a 1616 Portescap on the (floating) centre axle. The trucks are sprung.
    On this loco, the pony trucks are scratch built and sprung using hair-pin springs made from 0.33 brass wire. These are just visible through the frames of the truck, but not too obtrusive on this rather open, bar framed truck design. The two trucks are quite different in appearance as one has spring side control and the other swing link side control (the difference was to avoid the risk of hunting caused by having the same natural frequency at both ends if two identical trucks had been used). On the Ivatt, the swing link truck was usually at the front.
    The BR Standard loco is a stretched DJH body on a cut-down Comet based chassis. On this loco, thetrucks are the Brassmasters etches, suitably modified to represent the swing linkat one end. On these locos, the swing link truck was always at the rear.
     
    The two photos try to illustrate the differences in appearance. (Sorry for the slightly out-of-focus on the front shot.)
     

     

     
    Dave.
  10. Dave Holt

    Delph - 9F visits

    By Dave Holt,

    BR 9F 92037 paid a brief visit to Delph today following major repairs. Here she is seen close to the recently installed FPL and signal detector.
     

     
    The loco last saw use at Scalefour North a couple of years ago. Unfortunately, it shed a con rod big end (due to the return crank unscrewing) which locked up the chassis at full tilt and doing a fair bit of mischief to the mechanism. The loco was stripped down and now everything appears OK, although not tried under power, in anticipation of an appearance on Robin Whittle's fabulous Barrow Road layout at the forthcoming S4North show in about 10 days time.
    Even if now fully restored, I don't think 92037 will get much use on Delph - holiday excursion perhaps?
     
    Dave.
  11. Dave Holt
    The plastic structure of the bridge is now complete - parapets clad, capping stones added, etc and I've sprayed it with Halfords grey plastic primer in preparation for painting the stone surfaces.
    Whilst most of the local buildings, including the station and coal drops are millstone grit, my colour photos of the actual bridge show it to be made of a grey coloured stone. I'm not sure whether to try to replicate this or adopt a similar colour to the other stone-work, for a more consistent appearance, especially as I've moved the bridge much nearer to the station features than the real thing.
     
    Two shots from the Greenfield side.....
     

     

     
    ...and one from the station side. The short extension at ground level is a small retaining wall at the bottom of the cutting.
     

     
    Next job is to paint and ballast the track through the bridge, which has already been primed, so it can be permanently fixed to the base-board.
  12. Dave Holt
    Yesterday was just one of those days. A little progress with the Jubillee but a series of set-backs, sufficient to make me want a few days away from it!
    The progress was in successfully cutting back the rear edge of the cab footplate to clear the front of the tender, fitting the fall plates and some guide pins that hold the pivoted tender doors in place whilst allowing movement on curves. I also fitted the whistle to the cab front, although that bit leads into one of the set-backs.
     
    In anticipation of the painting and weathering of the loco, I have been refreshing my memory of the necessary assembly sequence and found that the motor must be attached to the gearbox before fitting through the footplate/cab, then the motor wiring attached and finally, the boiler fitted over the motor, plugged into the cab front and fixed to the smokebox saddle from underneath. I also needed to find a suitable space for the DCC chip - not easy as the resin boiler is packed with lead sheet to give tractive weight and balance on the locomotive springs.
    I had dallied with connecting the motor up for DC operation initially and fitting the chip later. However, I decided to fit the chip straight away as I have had the loco running successfully on DC previously. In the end, I was quite pleased with the motor/chip installation, although the soldering wasn't my best after struggling with bits coming adrift when I added the next wire. These photos show the arrangement without the boiler. The tender is not coupled in the first shot and fits closer to the loco than illustrated.
     

     

     
    The first set-back came when I tried to programme the chip with its proper address (5701) which involves first setting CV29 to accept four digit addresses. On doing this, after swatting up from the various instruction manuals, I got an error message. Furthermore, the chip appears to be totally unresponsive despite trying both the new address and the factory default address of 03. Now I'm not sure if there's a chip fault - nether had any previous trouble with the Digitrax DZ123 type, before, or if the problem lies in my Lentz DCC control unit or throttle. Further checking of wiring, etc., is in order before I rip the chip out.
    The second set-back resulted from fitting the whistle as this now prevents fitting of the boiler till I've ground away loads more of the inside of the firebox. Previously, the boiler just squeezed over the motor with the back end clear of the cab front. Now, with the whistle protruding from the cab, the boiler has to be about six or seven millimeters further forward, to clear the end of the whistle and the thinned down firebox sides no longer coincide with the motor body. Oh well, out with the rotary burr.
    The final set-back was the disintegration of my illuminated magnifying glass that I need to see what I'm doing. The mazac castings that grip the lens/light unit broke, causing the lens to fall down, suspended only by the power cable, luckily without hitting anything but effectively ending any use of the unit. A smaller, cheaper replacement has been ordered but will take a week or so to arrive. I do have an Optivisor head set, but find it hard to get on with and also a lack of bright illumination to see the detail in my modelling room.
     
    Hopefully, all these issues will prove no too difficult to overcome, in the end.
     
    Dave.
  13. Dave Holt
    As far as I know, no DMU ever visited the real Delph, but in my model version (Holt), a Cravens power twin unit is being trialed as a potential replacement for the steam powered ex-LNWR push-pull trains.....a trail doomed to fail I predict!
    Anyway, a converted Bachmann set is seen arriving past the head-shunt buffer stops. Behind the unit is a template for the extended over-bridge I have relocated from Dobcross. Also seen is a photo of the actual bridge (with my late wife, Sue, acting as a 5' - 2" tape measure!).
    The final shot shows the space for a group of cottages from Dobcross which will form part of the scenic break to the fiddle yard and the steep lane rising to cross the aforementioned bridge. You can just make out a photo of the real location in the copy of Larry Goddard's Delph book, open in front.
     
    First the DMU with the bridge portal behind:

     

     
    Now with the photo of the actual bridge - the tack-bed at this point is now a footpath:

     
    And finally, the cottage/lane feature:

     
    Regular readers might note that for a change, the base-board is not on the lounge floor! No - I haven't finally got round to assembling part of the support structure - in this case, it's carefully balanced on the backs of two dining chairs!!!
  14. Dave Holt
    After the electrifying excitement of wiring the board and actually driving a loco up and down, it's back to the coal drops, plastic and solvent. Mmm...., does smell quite nice - no, not really! Anyway, the steps up the side of the retaining wall have been made and fixed in place. Unfortunately, these are a figment of my imagination because I could not find any information about how they actually looked. Still got the capping blocks to fit atop each side wall and create some wear on the front edge of each step. Still putting off trying to paint/crayon the retaining walls and pillars.
    Photos show the steps under construction and almost finished. They dont reach the board at the bottom because there is a 2 mm thick surface to go on the road and yard areas.
     

     

     

  15. Dave Holt
    Since my last post back in September, I've painted the remaining track and point rodding with basic colours and recently installed the signal wire posts. There's just the rodding outside the signal box to complete and then I'm faced with the slightly daunting task of laying the ballast.
    I'll be using C&L ash ballast in the yard and run-round loop and a mixture of ash and proper ballast for the main line. Photos of the real place suggest the ballast even on the running line was pretty old and contaminated with years of accumulated muck, dust and oil. The type and colour of what proper ballast there was is an unresolved question and I'm a bit undecided whether to use a pale grey (granite) or creamy (millstone grit?) colour mixed in with the ash. Any suggestions of the type/colour of ballast in the Lancashire/West Riding border area in the mid 1950's would be welcome.
    My proposed method of laying the ballast is to cover an area with loose ballast, then soak in a diluted carpet adhesive with a few drops of washing-up liquid added. A fairly common approach, I think. One concern is whether the glue will also be drawn down the holes in the board for electrical dropper and drip all over the place. Has anyone any experience with this?
     
    Anyway, here are some photos of the current state of play, showing the painted track, rodding and signal wire posts. The tops of the rails have not yet been scraped clean. The dark coloured areas along the back edge and in some sleeper bays are where there will be little or no ballast in the cess and where stretcher bars, point rodding and signal wires pass under the track.
     

     

     

     

     

     
    Dave.
  16. Dave Holt
    I recently retrieved the final scenic base-board from my friend's workshop, primarily to check the space for the home/loop bracket signal and if there were any under board obstructions which might get in the way of the operating mechanism. Actually, there's loads of space, unlike some of the other signal locations on the next (station throat) board.
    I've taken the opportunity of having the board at home to lay the first section of the single track approach to the station. I'm happy with the alignment across the base-board joint and smooth curve achieved. Here's a couple of photos of the track in situ, one in each direction.
     
    First, looking towards the station throat point-work
     

     
    Then looking towards the rest of the world (or Greefield, at least)!
     

     
    The strange sloping structures are the foundations for a sloping lane which climbs up and crosses the track (actually located in Dobcross) and a connecting foot-path. The space between these features is filled with an interesting group of stone-built cottages. This arrangement is meant to hide the exit into the fiddle yard.
     
    Dave.
  17. Dave Holt
    After departure of the visiting West Country and its train of enthusiasts, it's back to the slow progress with layout construction. I must say, without the station and goods shed in place, it does look to have taken several steps backwards!
     
    Since my last post, back in December '10, I have been working on the station board. All the track is now wired (except final connections to the Tortoise moters and AJ uncoupling magnets), cosmetic chairs fitted to the points and cosmetic fishplates fitted to all the track. Next job is to make & fit the jumper cables which connect to the control panel, located at the end of the board near the buffer stops.
    This choice of location for the panel, at the opposite end of the layout to most of the point-work, means that many of the wires have to run the whole length of the layout - making the wiring look worse than it is!
     
    With regards to the cosmetic chairs and fishplates, after some deliberation, i decided to only fit them to the visible side of the rails - cheating, I know, but it saves quite a bit of work and the back side of the track will never be seen, even by the operator, so why bother?
     
    Here's a few photos to illustrate progress to date:
     
    First, a couple of views of the platform release cross-over, now with chairs and fishplates.
     

     

     
    Second, some views of the wiring underneath. In some of these, the board is connected to the adjacent board via the jumpers as it was easier to identify the connecting wires from the tag boards than by trying to identify the plug/socket pins.
     

     

     

     

     
    I've also been having some further thoughts about the rodding from the ground frame (near the buffers) to the cross-over. As far as I can see from photos, there were no compensators fitted to the real thing, which had me a bit puzzled. Closer examination of the photos shows that the rodding from the frame extended beyond the toes of the nearer point and the rodding crossed from the six foot to adjacent to the platform face under the switch blades, enabling approximately the same length of rodding pushing as pulling, thus avoiding the need for compensators. (Hope I've got this right!)
     
    There will be a lull in layout work now, as I need to check my locos over, ready for a run out on Dewsbury at Scalefour North (with a test session beforehand).
     
    Dave.
  18. Dave Holt
    In the 6 weeks or so since my last entry, I've been plugging steadily away at ballasting the track, which I finally finished yesterday. It proved nowhere near as difficult as I had feared but certainly was laborious and back breaking work.
    My original intention was to use a latex based carpet adhesive to allow a bit of sound deadening but just couldn't get on with it on a couple of test panels. In the end, I used diluted PVA applied with various sized brushes, small(ish) areas at a time, then vacuuming up the excess ballast for re-use. I used C&L 2mm ballast for the running line and run-round loop and their ash ballast for the goods yard and sidings. Areas to be covered with cobbles/setts have generally been left clear.
    I'm pleased with the results so far, but it all looks a bit too neat and even, so there will be quite a bit of weathering needed to create some variations in tone and texture.
    I've also had a go at representing what appears to be some home made steps made from piled up stone blocks with concrete capping behind the running line buffer stop. I imaging these were built to ease access between the platform and the ground frame which operated the run-round poins and was located in the 6 ft, beteen the buffer stops. Parts of this structure appear in various photos of Delph in the 1950's but no clear overall view. I originally thought it was just a pile of surplus stones, like under some of the other buffers in the yard, till a friend suggested they might be steps. Some further photos accquired more recently appear to confirm the step suggestion but my interpretation may well not be very accurate. This hasn't been helped by my leaving too big a gap between the buffers and the lorry loading bank which was added to the end of the platform at some time or other. Again, it doesn't really show up too well in the photos I've got but probably covered part of the buffer stop rails, whereas on the model it's immediately behind the bottom end of the rails forming the stop. No doubt someone will point out my error if it ever makes it to an exhibition.
    Although I tried to be careful with the gluing, ballasting and vacuuming, sad to say the platorm lamps, already fitted, took a bit of a battering from inadvertant bumps. The damage ranged from simple bending, which I've corrected, to completely snapping one off at the base. This will eventually be re-attached with a brass wire peg to support the joint.
    Here are some photos of the final board to be completed, including to location of the snapped off lamp and the steps mentioned above.
     

    Buffer stops with steps added.
     

    General view from the end of the layout.
     

    Looking the other way. The location of the goods shed and extent of the cobbled road-ways can be seen.
     

    Overall view looking towards the buffer stops.
  19. Dave Holt
    After putting this off for ages and some fairly inconclusive test pannels, I've bitten the bullet and started laying ballast. To ease into the process and learn on the job, so to speak, I've chosen the easyest board first - the one with the single track approach, some of which disappears into a deep cutting and long over-bridge/short tunnel to hide any disasters!
    I've used C+L ash for the cess and 2 mm scale light grey for the track. Originally, I intended to use a rubber based carpet adhesive to provide a bit of give in the track-bed, for sound deadening, but that's one clear result from the test pieces. Perhaps I'd kept the adhesive too long, but it just didn't work for me, so diluted PVA has been used. Doing the ballast after track laying allows electrical testing of the track and trial running whilst adjustments and additional connections are easier, but it does result in a rather laborious process for ballasting as the glue has to be carefully brushed into every individual sleeper bay, in short sections, and the ballast sprinkled on whilst the glue is still wet. The section shown was done over 2 days, allowing other domestic activities and drying time between application and vacuuming up the excess for re-use. I bought a small, hand-held vacuum specifically for this!
    I'm quite pleased with the results, although taking the board out into the garden today for the photos revealed a number of bald patches, especially on the ballast shoulders, that I hadn't spotted in the house. I'm not sure whether to patch these up with more ballast or just rely on disguising them when the track is finally weathered.
     
    Anyway, here are a few shots of the finished result (taken this afternoon in the back garden), seen with and without the over-bridge structure.
     
    Looking towards the station area, without the bridge:

     
    Looking away from the station area, without the bridge, including the buffer stop at the end of the run-round loop head shunt:

     
    Operating end of the FPL:

     
    Two views with the bridge in place:

     

     
    Now to the station throat board. I think this will take a bit longer!
     
    Dave.
  20. Dave Holt
    My Caprotti Black 5 is now complete except for the sand pipes, which are awaiting so custom etched support brackets. So, whist I wait for them, and inspired by a recent discussion on RMweb about Jubilees, I thought it would be a good idea to dig out my partially completed Brassmasters version. I started this loco at least 15 years ago and put it to one side when I reached a minor sticking point with a cosmetic detail. Up till that point, I had a strict policy of not starting a new model till the current one was complete but broke my rule and started something different - a BR 9F, I think; although it's so long ago I can't really be sure. Ant way, numerous locos have been built since but the Jubilee never came back out of the box till the last week or two.
    I was pleasantly surprised how far I had actually got and the loco has now been completed except for the builders, number, shed code and name plates - 45701 Conqueror. The tender, a Fowler 3500 gallon type, is less advanced, being the basic structure. It also had a slightly low ride height issue with the continuous springy beam suspension - probably caused by a modification I had made to the kit design - and which I am currently working to correct.
    Here are a few shots of the loco as it stands. The resin cast boiler has turned a much darker shade over the years, ot it's the result of lots of handling with grubby fingers.
     

     

     

     
    Dave.
  21. Dave Holt
    Unfortunately, I will be taking a forced break from modelling for a few weeks, having broken my right arm, just below the shoulder joint, when I tripped and fell heavily on concrete, on Tuesday. Never to be recommended, but this does seam to be a particularly bad time to be incapacitated, what with the build up to Christmas and New Year.
    Prior to my accident, I had progressed the Std 2 tank by fitting the cab glazing and adding coal to the bunker and had started to paint the [Modelu] crew members. Here's a dilemma with a push-pull fitted loco. Does one have both driver and fireman in the cab or just the fireman? It can only be right for one direction of travel, unless someone knows how to make the drive pop up/disappear dependent on whether pulling or pushing. The same issue applies to the driving trailer of the train.
    Here are a couple of rather poor quality photos of the loco, one including part of a typical Delph push-pull train from the mid 1950's - ex-LNWR motor coaches in LMS or BR livery.
     

     

     
    Dave.
  22. Dave Holt
    Following on from my last entry, I've started work on the over-bridge which forms part of the scenic break between the station and the fiddle yard.
    The bridge is based on Bridge No. 4 which was (is) actually located in Dobcross, a mile or so along the branch from Delph, but which, together with the nearby group of cottages, forms an effective scenic break. A photo of the real thing appears on page 23 of Larry Goddard's excellent Delph book. The bridge - at about 81 feet long, more a short tunnel - carries Mount Lane over the railway. Mount Lane actually leads off Wall Hill Lane, but in my version it connects directly to Delph (Holt) New Road, which runs along the front of the layout past the coal drops and up to the station.
    I had formed the base for Mount Lane as part of the base-board structure but found that I hadn't made it high enough to cross the railway with sufficient clearance, so additional packing pieces have been added and similar levels incorporated into the bridge structure. This latter is made from plastic sheet, with a basic core clad in embossed sheet to represent the different types of stone used in the bridge wing walls and parapet.
    The photos show work in progress. I'm currently waiting for further supplies of plastic card and some additional tools to help finish the bridge.
    The final road surface will be 2 mm higher than the supports, but as yet, I haven't decided on the best material for this or for the ground in-fill between the (quite narrow) road and the widely spaced parapets.
     
    First a view through the bridge, looking towards the station:
     

     
    Now a view from roughly the same view-point as the photo in Larry's book:
     

     
    Finally, the station side of the bridge. Judging by photos I took some years ago, the stonework of the wing walls on this side of the bridge is quite different from the random style used on the other side. Strictly, none of the embossed card is exactly right, but these are somewhere near. The proper way would be individually engraved stones cut into plain card - as per Geoff Kent's lovely bridges recently illustrated in his MRJ article - but perhaps I'm not that dedicated!:
     

  23. Dave Holt
    I've been doing some further work on the Dobcross bridge/tunnel which forms part of the scenic break at the exit to the fiddle yard. Recent work has been to add a section of curved wall alongside the steep lane going over the bridge. These days, it is almost completely obscured behind brambles and other thick undergrowth but I imagine it was fully exposed to view at the time the railway is set (mid to late 1950's). It appears in a photo on page 23 of Larry Goddard's Delph to Oldham book.
    Following construction and installation of the new wall, the stone-work has been painted. The above mentioned photo (unfortunately undated) shows that the stone was not completely blackened, as was common around Oldham at that time, with the mortar generally being a lighter colour than the stones. This has necessitated a different technique to the other stone structures. These had been painted a stone colour followed by matt black, which was partially wiped off after a few minutes drying (as recommended by Gravy Train). This is very effective for rough stone but results in the joints being black. For the bridge, the black has been applied by dry brushing over the stone colour, tending to leave the mortar the base stone colour.
    The different stone effects are the nearest commercial embossed plastic sheet to the various types of stone-work on the real thing. I suppose individually engraved stones (a la Geoff Kent) would have have enabled a better representation but I can live with the result I've got.
    Here are some photos of the result, previously seen only in grey primer.
     
    First the "Delph" portal:

     
    The lane side wall, including the new curved section:

     
    The "fiddle yard" portal (and the end shown in the L.G. book):

     
    There may well be some further weathering but the bridge can now be fixed in position and the cess ballast touched up against the walls of the bridge.
     
    Dave.
  24. Dave Holt
    It's been a while since the last entry, so I thought I'd just give a brief up-date. Not very much that's photogenic, but steady progress has been made with the electrics on the first board section. Most recently, I've been assembling the jumper cables and connectors which will link this board to those either side. Besides the two cables at the ends of this board (B3 in my notation), I've wired the mating plug connectors and jumpers for the adjacent boards (B2 - with the station throat pointwork and B4 with the station and the control panel ). It's quite laborious work and requires great care to ensure the correct wires go from the plug/socket pins to the appropriate tack on the base board. A check with a multi-meter appeared OK, so hopefully, everything is in its correct place.
     
    Photos show the completed B3/B2 jumper wired to the tag strips and illustrating the storage clips which keep the jumper cable safely stowed for transport.
     

     

     

     
    Now to the other end!
     
    Dave.
     
     
    Jumpers at the other end now also attached. Too many wires for a single (37 pin) plug, so two x 25 pin connectors used here - one socket and one plug on this board to prevent connecting the wrong ones together. Not all the pins used on one as there are not 50 wires!
     

     

     
    That's the electrics done on board No.3 except for fitting one Alex Jackson uncoupling magnet.
     
    Dave.
  25. Dave Holt
    I collected the superb station building, platform, goods shed building and signal box from Gravy Train on Saturday and couldn't wait to try them in situ. Thought I'd place an appropriate Donkey train in the platform for some of the shots.
     

     

     

     

     
    Dave.
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