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Dave Holt

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  1. Dave Holt

    Delph visitors.

    By Dave Holt,


    4 mm, P4
    Not much active modelling recently, but i took advantage of the good weather to take a section of the layout into the back garden and pose a couple of trains.
    First up, we see the part completed Rebuilt Royal Scot, 46109, having arrived with a returning Wakes Week holiday excursion.


    Then a more prototypical push-pull train, hauled/propelled by BR Standard Class 2 tank, 84012.


    Dave.
  3. Dave Holt
    Having recently completed three larger types - a Crab, Jubilee and Stanier Caprotti 5, all potential holiday excursion locos but not really true to prototype, my thoughts have shifted to the next project. I have two part built Class 2, 2-6-2 tanks, one Ivatt and a BR standard type. In real life, these were used on the regular push-pull passenger trains in the last years of operation, in the mid 1950's.
    Both are in running condition but incomplete. A state they've been in for umpteen years whilst I've messed around with larger, generally inappropriate locos. . in terms of detail, so I've decided they really must be finished off before I start anything new.
    Each is in a different state of completion but on balance, I decided to work on the BR standard version first. Work has now started - given a boost by being housebound by the recent snow and freezing weather.
     
    The loco consists of a modified DJH body mounted on a Comet chassis. Initial work has been to finish off the chassis by adding the dummy driving axle springs and mountings, the brake gear, ash-pan and hopper operating gear and the sand pipes. The valve gear assembly and the two pony trucks were already completed, so only the body remains to finish off. The main issue with this item is that the kit is 2 mm too short in the cab area. Unfortunately, the loss of length (why do they make that sort of mistake?) is distributed in front of the cab windows, in the cab opening and also behind the cab opening. Correcting this accurately was just too over-facing, so I opted to cheat by simply stretching the cab opening to give the correct overall length. Of course, that means the cab roof no longer fits - Oh hum!
     
    The photos below show the current state of the major component parts, as described above.
     
    First, the chassis. Since the body kit is designed to include the front and rear sections of the main-frames, I opted to keep this arrangement, so the main chassis finishes at the front of the cylinders and under the cab, behind the steps and sand boxes. To permit assembly, the brake gear is split into two sections and is removable to give access to the pony truck pivots. There is a removable keeper plate which incorporates the dummy springs and sand pipes (the rear sand boxes are part of the body). I deliberately fitted the dummy springs inside-out as they are etched with a small number of very course leaves whereas the real things had 12 or 14 fine leaves which probably can't be seen in the gloom and at normal viewing distances, unlike the crude etched lines.
     

     

     

     
    Next we have the body, which is in two parts - the footplate, tanks and cab section and the boiler. A certain amount of detailing has already been done, especially below the tank and cab sides, but these parts now represent all the work needed to finish the loco off. This includes the push-pull gear, front end pipework, lamp irons, tank fillers and restraining bars and that dratted cab roof.
    First the footplate/tanks/cab assembly:
     

     

     
    and the boiler:
     

     

     
    Next we have the completed cylinder and valve gear assembly, which also includes the motor torque reaction links to stop the motor/gearbox trying to rotate round the axle. Also in this shot are the pony trucks:
     

     
    The pony trucks were made from Brassmasters etches. However, on the 2-6-2 tanks, one of the trucks (the rear one on the standards, but generally the front one on the Ivatts) was of the swing link side control type rather than the spring side control type represented by the Brassmasters etch. This was done by modifications of some of the etched parts and some scratch built parts. The difference in appearance of the two is shown in the final photo:
     

     
    Hope that lot is of some interest.
    There will be a short break from this project to get the track cleaned on the layout, ready for a visit by a group of friends next week.
     
    Dave.
  4. Dave Holt
    My painted and weathered Crab was returned home this afternoon and very nice it looks to me. The apparent strange angle of the front steps in the last photo I posted which raised comment was, happily, an optical illusion or due to barreling of the camera lens.
    Here are some shots of it parked in front of the Jubilee.
     

     

     

     
    Now to fit the DCC chip and front AJ coupling. I'll have to try to source the correct shed plate - Farnley Junction, 55C.
     
    Dave.
  5. Dave Holt
    Well, as best I can tell prior to functional testing, the wiring is complete. I've tried to be methodical and careful, but even so, I had to undo various cable ties and the spiral sheaving a couple of times to add extra wires which I'd missed first time. Testing under power will start shortly - probably next week, after a two day visit to the Wells show over the week-end. I just hope it all functions as intended as I don't really fancy fault finding or any re-wiring!
     
    Here are some photos of the completed panel:
     
    First, the external view showing the finished mimic panel, lever frame switches and DC track selection switches.
     

     
    Second, a view of the panel base unit and the inside of the two sections of the front panel, showing the wiring arrangements.
     

     
    Finally, here's the power supply unit which supplies 16 v AC to the panel, and then to the base-boards. Inside are two Guagemaster transformers wired in parallel. Both the mains side and output side of each transformer is protected by fuses. The track power feed from the panel are each providied with a thermal trip in case of a short circuit across the track going un-noticed.
     

     
    Dave.
  6. 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.
  7. Dave Holt
    Phew! Superb weather but rather too nice to be stuck indoors doing any modelling. Even now (ten past eight), my modelling room is uncomfortable as it gets the sun all afternoon and evening. So, I've been mainly out in the garden reading and having my meals al fresco. Looks like this might carry on for a few more days.
    However, I did make some further progress with the Standard 2 tank before it got so hot. Using the second batch of custom etched parts from Rumney Models, I've made the cab roof, lubricator drives and fire iron rests. Still got some lamp irons and the shed/SC plate mounting to go, then it's complete. The roof is just temporarily clipped in place and will not be fixed till after painting, glazing and fitting the crew. This latter is a bit of a dilemma. As a push-pull loco, it should have driver and fireman in the cab when loco first but only the fireman when pushing (as the driver is in the driving trailer coach). I'll probably go for the two on board.
    I took the loco body out into the garden and took a few shots showing the new parts, hence the strong shadows.
     

     

     

     

     
    Dave.
  8. Dave Holt
    The replacement side has now been affixed to the tender using Araldite Rapid. I'm pleased to say that the new side is completely flat, with no visible ripples or indentations. In fact, it's better than the other side, so should paint up nicely. Phew! That was all a lot easier and quicker to put right than I had feared.
    The new side is shown below:
     

     
    side on, and
     

     
    at an angle, hopefully showing the side completely flat.
     
    Dave.
  9. Dave Holt
    A problem has been identified with the right hand side of the tender for my Caprotti Black 5. The whole kit is a Comet product and the tender sides for this part welded type are very thin and rather flimsy, due to being half etched to provide the rivet pattern. During assembly of the second (RH) side, I pressed a bit too firmly to hold it against the internal structure for soldering. The result was a rippled effect where the lines of the framework showed through. Considerable time was spent trying to rectify this by "panel beating",so to speak, and the result didn't look too bad in raw metal. I thought I could live with the remaining marks, especially as the loco is to be heavily weathered.
    However, once the tender was painted with a gloss finish (to help seat the lining transfers), it looked absolutely awful.
     
    .
     
    It was obviously pointless proceeding with full painting and lining, as no amount of weathering could possibly hide that amount of damage. So, David Clarke has stripped the paint from that side and returned the tender to me for rectification. To be honest, once stripped back to bare brass, it didn't look nearly so bad but a replacement side is to be fitted anyway. I'm not sure if Comet can supply replacement sides, but I bought a whole tender body kit as the easiest option.
    The original intention was to trim away the damaged side close to the bulkheads, fire iron tunnel and front piece and then file off any remaining raised rivet or beading detail. However, on closer inspection and the discovery that the side was not well attached is certain areas, I change tack and decided to try and remove the existing, damaged side entirely. This proved not too difficult although it got quite hot whilst unsoldering some of the joints and asbestos fingers would have been an advantage. Once the side was off, the underlying structure was filed flat and any remaining bobbles of solder removed. Here is the resulting tender body with the now totally destroyed side lying in front.
     

     
    Since the photo was taken this lunch time, I've prepared the new replacement side and fixed the two hand rails, ready for reattachment. The new side will be glued to the body, possibly with a few solder tacks for added security of attachment. Hopefully, I'll get this done later in the week so it can go back for painting sooner rather than later. Oh well........
     
    Dave.
     
    .
  10. Dave Holt
    Except for the buffer heads and final finishing, my Brassmasters Jubilee in now structurally complete, ready for painting, except......
    More problems have arisen, so it's currently a series of ups and downs.
    Final assembly and attachment to the tender has confirmed that the fall plate(s) will have to be omitted or heavily modified. As modelled, they probably work fine with the Stanier 4000 gallon tender, but with the Fowler 3500 they are too wide and long. This results in them jamming under the cab doors and contacting the filler plates that surround the brake and water scoop columns, preventing any angular movement of the tender relative to the loco to follow curves. I could trim the fall plates to miss the filler plates, but that would still leave the cab door issue. I'll have to see about that.
    I've previously mentioned the DCC chip problems and partial recovery and I confidently expected coupling of the tender pick up wires to the loco would help improve the loco response, but it hasn't really improved matters, so, presumably, it's not just a pick up issue. What is worse, is that now everything is connected, electrically, I seem to have introduced a dead short in the reverse direction only. Since it shorts one way but not the other, the short must be due to some movement withing the pick up arrangements, possibly due to the loco suspension. There doesn't seam to be a mechanism for the problem to be with the tender pick up arrangements, so I'll have to investigate the loco. At present, the motor is only constrained from movement by the (quite stiff) connecting wires and I've noticed that the front brake blocks are perilously close to the wheels, so they will be my first bits to check out. There isn't a lot of clearance between the brake hangers and the rear wheels of the bogie, so any stretching of the front brake pull rod will have to be done very carefully, so as not to transfer the problem!
    The other area to look at is contact of the wheels inside the splashers. Perhaps when the loco pushes the tender, the draw-bar forces tend to push the rear of the loco slightly to one side, causing the drivers to touch inside the splasher. Mind you, for that to cause a dead short, something on the other side would also have to be touching at the same time.
    Isn't fault finding so much more of a challenge that building in the first place?
    Anyway, here are three shots of the loco before it comes apart to investigate the above issues. I've even temporarily fitted the front number plate (45701) and shed plate (26A - Newton Heath). Unusually, my chosen loco remained at this shed for nearly its whole working life, returning after works visits.
     
    Side on
     

     
    traditional front three quarters view
     

     
    and, finally, a rear three quarters view.
     

     
    Dave.
  11. 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.
  12. Dave Holt
    Some time ago, I purchased a couple of ex-GCR push-pull coaches from Coachman, following his change of interest from Greenfield to ex-GWR in North Wales. These coaches consist of a 12 wheeled driving trailer, which I believe may have been converted from a steam rail motor, and a brake composite non-driving trailer, which had been converted from a London suburban all first.
    This combination of coaches was used on Guidebridge to Oldham services in the 1950's and I must have seen it innumerable times as a child because I lived right next to the OA&GB line, although I can't honestly remember them. Of course, they are not strictly appropriate to Delph (nor Greenfield for that matter). However, they could physically have run to both places, either by extending the service from Oldham or, more plausibly, from Guidebridge via Stalybridge and Mossley. Anyway, I'm modelling Holt, not Delph, so anything can run that I fancy! And I do like the look of this train.
    Of course, Coach's models were "OO" and my layout is P4, so conversion has been necessary. This has caused some soul searching and a bit of compromise as I couldn't identify a source of GCR coach bogies, but overall, I'm happy with progress to date.
    The 12 wheeler should have bogies with 6'-0" + 6'-0" wheelbase. The only bogies I could find have 6'-3" + 6'-3" so a compromise was inevitable. I started assembling some Bill Bedford fully sprung bogies and intended to fit Exactoscale wheel sets with plain bearings. I was struggling a bit to control axle side play whilst keeping the spring carriers in their slots so I had a further look at the Comet LMS bogies I had bought for the cosmetic side frames and decided I rather like the functional etched bogie frames which could be built compensated (one fixed end axle, the other end axles rocking and the centre axle free to foat - lightly sprung in my case). This also eased the fitting of the cosmetic side frames as the pin-point bearing are fixed in the side frames and do not move up and down, as in a sprung arrangement. I originally bought the Comet bogies just fro the cosmetic side frames but decided to re-use the plastic bogie frames that Coachman had fitted. I'm not sure of their provenance but they look fairly reasonable and have the correct overall length, so they look right relative to the coach underframe headstocks. I have mounted them so that the centre axles are at the correct centres and arranged for one bogie to have side bearers to prevent rocking of the body whilst the other bogie is free to rock sideways.
    The other modification is to provide sprung buffers at the non-driving end as i want the coaches to have buffer contact but still go round curves. This is slightly complicated by them having oval heads. The buffers are standard round head sprung type with etched oval overlays. To prevent rotation, I fixed short lengths of brass tube to the buffer shanks, linked by a cross wire passing through holes drilled across the tubes.
    Here's a (not very good) shot of the coach.

     
    The non-driving trailer has 8'-0" bogies which have unusually long springs, long side frames and diagonal bracing rods to the outboard ends. Quite distinctive and not commercially available any longer as far as I could establish. Following a question on RMweb, a manufacturer did offer to produce suitable but has failed to deliver so far. I had noted that the axlebox/spring castings supplied for the 6 wheel bogies were a fair representation of those used, so I decided to make my own cosmetic frames using these castings. The frames were cut from N/S with flanges, bracing rods and tie-rods from brass wire and N/S strip. The axlebox/spring casting proved to be rather fragile with the end damper/shock absorber blocks tending to break off. Some were already broken when supplied and I manged to break quite a few in cleaning up the casting. Here's some of the debris - funny that it's the RH end that has broken on every one!

     
    In the end, I managed to get eight whole ones fixed to the frames, with the vulnerable bits reinforced with a dab of epoxy on the back. Not perfect scale model bogies, but a fair representation and better than anything currently available commercially, I think.
    Other modifications are fitting of sprung buffers all round and a rigid coupling bar to the driving coach. This is a cast item with under-slung pipes. I modified it to have swan neck type high level vacuum pipes (one for the brakes, the other for the push-pull control gear) and retained one low level pipe for the steam heat.
    Here's an even worse quality photo of the coach.

     
    Now Christmas has been put back in the garage for a year and the visitors have gone home, I might get back to working on the layout again. Obviously some painting to do on the two coaches. Oh yes, and there's the slight matter of a C13 tank to pull/push them!
    Dave.
  13. Dave Holt
    Today I had a visit by friend Dave Clarke, who has weathered some coaches for me and we took the opportunity to assemble the whole scenic section of the layout, using the plastic trestles I bought recently. This allowed all the boards and control panel to be connected up and an attempt at running for the first time. A number of unexpected issues were found so the outcome was rather mixed. Part of the run-round loop and three sidings were completely dead on two boards, despite previous careful checking for continuity. I fear that a period of fault finding lies ahead.
     
    Still, we managed to run some locos and stock over part of the layout, so all was not lost.
     
    After moving some furniture and assembling the boards, the first job was to scrape the paint off the rail heads on the main station board prior to trying to run anything. The following photos show Dave doing the scraping and an overall view of the assembly.
     

     

     
    Dave had brought a sound fitted Class 24 and this is seen near the coal drops and also at the head of an arriving excursion train. This is made up of some of the coaches Dave has weathered. He's done a nice job and I'm very pleased with the results - mainly ends, underframes and bobies. The body sides were kept fairly clean on this type of stock.
     

     

     

     

     
    Then it was the turn of my Stanier 2-6-4 tank, No. 42551, to haul the train. A bit more in period!
     

     

     
    Finally, having run round its train (we had to cheat with a bit of finger power over the dead section), the train departs, passing WD 2-8-0, No. 90671, which is standing on the coal drop road, held by the miniature semaphore ground signal.
     

     
    Good fun playing trains for the first time, but a bit frustrating with the problems.
     
    Dave.
  14. Dave Holt

    Taw Valley

    By Dave Holt,

    Not often seen at Delph, but Ijust happen to like modified Bulleid pacifics! This is my effort at Taw Valley. Based on a Model Loco Co (DJH under a different name) kit. It is in P4, with full floating compensated chassis using hand sawn frames, Gibson wheels and valve gear from kit, Comet and some bits left over from a Brassmasters black 5! What can't be seen is the crank axle, inside con rod and full valvegear - but it is all there.
    Lined and numbered by Ian Rathbone.
    Photo at Scvaleforum by Phil Hall.
     

  15. Dave Holt
    Slow progress (all my progress seems to be slow!!) has been made with the control panel. The mimic diagram is complete, including lettering using Letraset transfers (applied by good friend, sign-writer, Phil Taylor - his work is much neater than I could achieve). The diagram was drawn using coloured permanent marker pens.
    Wiring of the lower part of the panel containing the various tag strips and a small circuit board with a couple of relays (extra switches for the diamond crossing polarity and some signal interlocking), diodes to generate half wave rectified supply to the Tortoise point motors and bridge rectifiers to provide nominally 12 v DC to power the relay change-overs and the panel LED's, is almost complete.
     
    A couple of photos show the current state of play.
     

     
    An overall view of the control panel with the completed mimic diagram. The lever-frame amd track section switches previously shown have been removed from the lower section to facilitate application of the Letraset lettering.
     

     
    A view of the lower panel compartment showing the wiring - mainly on tag strips. Feeds to the layout are via multi-pin D plugs on the right hand side. Coming in on the left are 16 v AC (power to vitually everything!) and 18 v DC (for AJ uncoupling magnets) feeds and connectors for either DC or DCC controllers and the conection to the DCC power unit. Going off shot at the bottom is the bundle of wires which will conect to the switches and LED's on the panel facia.
    The coil of white wires are for the bell code ringer circuit.
    Top centre is one of a pair of 3 amp thermal trips in the feeds to the track sections (but not yet conected - hence the coils of blue wire adjacent). I've heard tales of major problems resulting from track short circuits recking controllers, melting loco wheels, etc., especially with DCC giving up to 10 amps, so hopefully these trips will help avoid that.
  16. Dave Holt
    I've finally painted all the bogies and re-assembled all 6 coaches which make up the train. Weathering can wait till a later date. Here are some further views of the train posed on the station throat section of the layout - track yet to be wired & painted.
    For those who haven't followed earlier entries, Delph wasn't built on a continuous viaduct (!), the arch shaped openings are the tops of lightening holes in the stiffening ribs. These will be hidden behind an embankment and stone retaining wall, eventually.
     
    First, the final pair of coaches to have the bogies painted.
     

     

     
    Now the assembled train, starting with a couple of views from the buffer stop end of the station area.
     

     

     
    A couple of shots looking towards the station.
     

     

     
    Dave.
  17. Dave Holt
    Four of the coaches making up the set have now had their bogies painted, as illustrated below. Two more to go!
    At some future stage, I'm going to have to pluck up the courage to carry out some weathering on the superb paint finish Coachman achieves. Probably not much on the sides, but roofs, ends and under-frames got fairly grubby in steam days and were never cleaned between shoppings.
     
    Anyway, here's the job so far - bogies painted, AJ couplings on the outer end coaches and also the brake 3rd (it will be an end coach in a different formation using some of the same coaches plus another (as yet not built) brake - a D1916/1946 open 3rd), corner steps added to the Period III's, Masokits couplings between coaches - and of course, Coach's superb build and paint quality.
     

     

     

     

     
    Dave.
  18. Dave Holt
    Or, perhaps it should be "The buffers hit Delph"!
     
    Following my stint with the bulldozer and grader to change the height of the road, just beyond the station, I thought I'd better get on with more directly related railway matters. So, I've fixed two rail built buffer stops at the end of the platform and loop roads. Quite a few more to go but progress nonetheless.
    These stops are made from the Mainly Trains fine-scale cast brass kits, which match the Code 75 C&L plain track very well. You may notice that the stops are not quite complete as the very rearmost sleeper (located under the 3 rail wide section at the rear of the stop, are not yet in place. The buffers are connected to the running tracks using Exactoscale/P4 Track Co moulded plastic fish-plates. As a precaution against wheel rims shorting across the isolating gaps (the cast brass buffer beam offering a very attractive circuit path from one side to the other), an additional rail gap will be cut in one rail, after the adhesive has fully dried.
    I've only fitted cosmetic chairs on the visible side of the rails (same as the point-work). Mind you, I'm not sure why I've bothered at all. All the stops at Delph were surrounded by so much debris and long grass that the sleepers, chairs and rails were completely hidden from view. The platform road stop had a pile of what looks like spare cobble stones stacked in the 4 foot almost up to the buffer beam and the loop line 4 foot was filled with a pile of ballast or ash/gravel - at least in the period modelled - mid 1950's.
    Just visible in the 6 foot are the pads for the stools for the point rodding from the ground frame (located between the two buffer stops) and the run-round crossover points.
     

     

     

     
    Dave.
  19. Dave Holt

    Delph - Coal drops latest

    By Dave Holt,

    Due to personal reasons, I haven't done much modelling in the past 7 months, but some slight progress (and a bit of regress) has been made with the coal drops. The latter was caused by my dropping the deck unit onto a quarry tiled floor, causing it to disintegrate such that the two longitudinals carrying the rails are now separate items which will have to be fixed to the supports individually.
    The progress has been to make the hand-rails for the deck and do the basic painting prior to fixing. On balance, I think it's probably a bit too dark as heavily weathered wood seems to be a silvery grey colour but I have no idea what the actual Delph drops looked like in this respect.
     

     

     

     
    Dave.
  20. Dave Holt
    I'm working on the point operating mechanisms for the layout just now. In the connections from the Tortoise motors to the TOU's, I'm intending to fit omega loops or Z sections to allow for any over-travel of the motor output bar (I'm using the Exactoscale conversion units). Any suggestions about suitable wire gauge and approximate dimensions to be sufficiently flexible not to wreck the TOU/switch blade actuators but still hold the switch blades hard against the stock rails?
     
    Cheers,
     
    Dave.
  21. 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.
  22. Dave Holt
    All the rail-built buffers in the goods yard area are now in place and all sleepers and cosmetic chairs fitted. This leaves the timber buffer stop in the yard and the two head shunt (mill siding and run-round loop) rail-built units still to do. These last two are on the station throat board which I haven't progressed beyond the track laying stage, yet.
    I've scaled the timber stop from a photo of the back of it, drawn it out, selected suitable (plastic) material and am about to start construction. Drawing the thing full size lead me to conclude that the siding track stopped a bit short of where it should, so a short additional length of plain track has been added to bring it to about the right place. Hopefully, this won't be too visible once everything is painted and weathered.
     
    One of the goods yard stops, positioned in front of the goods shed, is on the station board, but the siding is entirely on the adjacent board, so it's been necessary to re-connect the two boards, temporarily, to locate the buffer.
     
    The photos below show the buffers in place.
     

     
    View from near the coal drops (with deck removed).
     

     
    View from beyond the end of the station platform (not in situ).
     
    Dave.
  23. 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.
  24. Dave Holt
    Have made a bit of progress with the coal drops, recently. The stone retaining walls and brick support pillars have been painted and are almost ready to be fixed in position. I've also added the deck to the top of the structure - hand rails still to go and also some support beams and other bits underneath the deck.
     
    First set of photos show the parts painted in as-built condition. The pillars are brick with ashlar stone bearing pad inserts. These all look a bit garish but were later toned down to a sootly/coal black. Think I might have overplayed the engineering blue bricks on the corners of the pillars i the paint swatch on the tin lid looked much more like the colour on a photo I took of the real thing, before it was demolished.
     

     

     

     

     
    The walls and pillars were then heavily weathered using a process kindly suggested by Peter Leyland, as used on the marvellous building he's built for the layout. Basically, the base colour is allowed to dry really thoroughly, then the whole surface is painted matt black and this is wiped off before it has dryed. Unfortunately, the photos have come out a bit dark, but give some idea of how they look. Maybe a hint of green moss round the steps, later?
     

     

     

     

     
    Cheers,
     
    Dave.
  25. 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.
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