PGC

I like what I see a lot, but can you take some shots from further away so we can see how the close up photos relate to the whole layout?

Phil

A young man, who is very aware of his parental duties in helping his son to read, write, spell etc., who is also very diligent in carrying these duties out, get's asked by his son if they can go to McDonalds. The father thinks this would be a good opportunity for some "off piste" education so say's "We'll go if you can spell it".

The son (it may, just, be Little Jonny!) think for a few seconds then says "Forget it Dad, we'll go to KFC!"

What a lot of potential for operating, this is going to be a thread worth watching. I remember the dock area well from my days as a lorry driver and trips on the Overhead Railway as a small child.  Just one concern: are you going to insulate the shed before too much work of a permanent nature is done? The difference insulation made in my garage is staggering and worth the cost.

  Regards Mike

In another life, I run a choir and possess a lot of music that has to be stored somewhere. At the bottom of the garden we have a shed that I insulated all over, then installed floor, ceiling and walls and the music has been living in there for the last two years without getting damp or mouldy, and that's without heating or dehumidifier. If I want to, I can heat the shed with a £10 fan heater that I got from Wickes; it takes just 5 to 10 minutes to turn the shed in to an oven!

Phil

If this offends anyone, my apologies. It's the cabbie's polite response that I think is brilliant!

A devout Arab Muslim entered a black cab in London in which the radio was playing.  He curtly asked the cabbie to turn off the radio because, as decreed by his religious teaching, he must not listen to music because in the time of the prophet there was no music, especially Western music which is the music of the infidel.

The cab driver politely switched off the radio, stopped the cab and opened the door.
The Arab Muslim asked him, "What are you doing?"
The cabbie answered, "In the time of the prophet there were no taxis, so would you please get out and wait for a camel.." 

Yet the almost equally recent shunting video plays perfectly....

Welcome to the wonderful and mysterious world of IT, where everything is totally logical and works with 0's and 1's. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Phil

No matter how many times I try to play the video clip in post 1999 it fails within a second or two of starting. Anybody else having similar trouble?

Mine works fine. In the past, I have had similar troubles and dealt with them by updating Adobe Flash Player then trying again.

Phil

A wife asked her husband: 'What do you like most in me, my pretty face or my sexy body?'

He looked at her from head to toe and replied: 'Your sense of humour!' 

Wife:       'Do you want dinner?'  

Husband:     'Sure! What are my choices?'

Wife:      'Yes or no.' 

Girl:     'When we get married, I want to share all your worries, troubles and lighten your burden.'  

Boy:     'It's very kind of you, darling, but I don't have any worries or troubles.'  

Girl:     'Well that's because we aren't married yet.' 

Hey guys! Look what just breezed (wheezed?) into town...

 

IMG_3549.JPG

 

IMG_3550_LR.jpg

 

On a strategic trip to Shildon(!), our intrepid cameraman was in the right place at the right time as the veteran paused in Grantham's platform 5.

 

This should be a prelude to a host of visiting locos and stock over the weekend so hopefully should be some more pictures to show for it shortly...

Hey, post 2002!  :-)

Didn't know Mike Trice had allowed you to let Emily lift her skirts, so to speak. He must be a very good friend! :-)

Phil

Always been the master of understatement has young David.

This is getting more like Triggers broom with every post, all that's left is to dispose of the bits of plywood, gaffa tape and ironing table and you've got yourself a trainset!

 

Mike.

From what I've seen of his workmanship, I think this layout is the one that persuaded Dave using an ironing board is the best way to support a layout!    

In all honesty, there's very little I'm doing to the main scenic board other than fill one hole where Dave had a shed that's gone AWOL (I'm replacing it with some sacks as I think the shed (you can see it in the very first picture of this thread) is too large for the space) and replacing the plate layers hut as the original one has lost his roof, but otherwise it will stay very much as Dave built it. 

Phil

A further update on progress (I was going to say “behind the scenes” progress, but in reality it's making the fiddle yard board part of the main layout, so it's not really “behind”, more “in front” of the scenes!), with some pictures.

In the first and last pictures of post 15, you can see how Dave built the layout so that the exit to the fiddle yard was through the backscene at the end of the scenic board. Before I bought the layout, Dave mentioned the join between the two boards as being "dodgy!" (well, I think that's what he said!) and this is one area that I have been looking at. As I mentioned in earlier posts, Dave had built the layout with plain track on the fiddle yard board between the layout and the sector plate, and I was looking at making this part of the scenic area of the layout, as had been suggested by one or two “friends” of Dave.

For a little while I’ve been wondering what to do; last week I decided that the best way to get what I wanted was to start afresh, so I carefully took the original baseboard material off the framing along with the sector plate that Dave had built. I’ve now replaced the track base with some new ply and glued down some cork, but have yet to deal with the sector plate.

Bear with me! One of the earlier jobs I decided to do was cut down the legs slightly and put adjustable feet on the legs to allow for uneven floors (the layout’s going to the East Anglian Railway Museum exhibition in October, and I’m suspecting it will be in Chappel good shed – the floor is definitely not even!). I bought these from Station Baseboards of Norfolk and at the same time bought some pattern makers dowels to be used for aligning the boards of another layout.

Having replaced the fiddle yard board with new ply and cork, the boards no longer aligned correctly using the dowels that Dave had fitted; guess where I’ve now used the new dowels. I reckon I’ll now have to buy some more for the other layout!

So I’ve now got a new track bed, a newly aligned baseboard and some work to do laying track, wiring and ballasting it, building the bridge to hide the exit to the sector plate, build the sector plate and adding scenery, but isn’t that the joy of modelling! My original plan was to have the bridge that disguises the exit to the sector plate perpendicular to the track, but how often does a bridge cross a railway at 90 degrees? With this in mind, I’ve moved the road to a slight angle.

So that’s the latest that I’ve done so far – I will add another progress report as things develop.

Phil

What qualifies a bird as a "pest" Phil?

As I understand it, red kites were once virtually on the point of extinction, but since their re-introduction / protection they have multiplied so heavily, especially in the High Wycombe area, that the local land owners and farmers consider them a pest. If this is correct, why don't you ask them how they define a pest?

Phil

On my way home from Norfolk I saw a Kestrel hovering over the A10 near Ely, and a Red Kite just west of Huntingdon.

 

It is not advisable to get too keen on bird identification while driving on the A14, so I probably missed other specialities.

 

I see an Osprey is back at Rutland Water - http://www.ospreys.org.uk/webcam/

In a way, it's nice to know the red kite's are heading eastward, but aren't they now becoming a pest?

Phil

I suspect this may have been posted before - if it has, apologies.

Phil

When Gandhi was studying law at University College, London, a Caucasian professor, whose last name was Peters, disliked him intensely and always displayed prejudice and animosity towards him. Also, because Gandhi never lowered his head when addressing him, as he expected, there were always arguments and confrontations.

One day, Mr. Peters was having lunch at the dining room of the University, and Gandhi came along with his tray and sat next to the professor. The professor said, "Mr. Gandhi, you do not understand. A pig and a bird do not sit together to eat." Gandhi looked at him as a parent would a rude child and calmly replied, "You do not worry professor. I'll fly away," and he went and sat at another table.

Mr. Peters, reddened with rage, decided to take revenge on the next test paper, but Gandhi responded brilliantly to all questions. Mr. Peters, unhappy and frustrated, asked him the following question. "Mr Gandhi, if you were walking down the street and found a package,and within was a bag of wisdom and another bag with a lot of money, which one would you take?"

Without hesitating, Gandhi responded, "The one with the money, of course." Mr. Peters , smiling sarcastically said, "I, in your place, would have taken wisdom, don't you think?" Gandhi shrugged indifferently and responded, "Each one takes what he doesn't have.

"Mr. Peters, by this time was beside himself and so great was his anger that he wrote on Gandhi's exam sheet the word "idiot" and gave it to Gandhi. Gandhi took the exam sheet and sat down at his desk trying very hard to remain calm while he contemplated his next move.

A few minutes later, Gandhi got up, went to the professor and said to him in a dignified but sarcastically polite tone, "Mr. Peters, you signed the sheet, but you did not give me the grade."

Wit always wins over anger 

Yes, the sea Symphony is brilliant. I sang in it a couple of times with London Symphony Chorus and heard it when my best friend played in it with Royal Liverpool Philharmonic. That was a stunning performance.

In my earlier post, I mentioned the Easter services along with the trouble with YouTube links, so this is a post about another of my favourite composers, Charles-Marie Widor, and I hope the YouTube problem is solved!

For those who are unaware, the Director of Music in a cathedral rarely plays the organ themselves, they normally just conduct the choir and determine the music to be performed, plus deal with administrative matters, it's normally the Assistant Organist who plays the organ for services. On Sunday, Laurence Lyndon-Jones, the Assistant Organist at Chelmsford Cathedral, played the Finale of Widor's Sixth Symphony after the service, a piece I have listened to many times. I wish I could say I've played it, but I'm not good enough by a long way! As you suspect, there is a lot more to the Symphony than just the Finale, so this link is of Oliver Latry, the Titular (Head) Organist at Notre Dame, Paris, playing the whole lot. Enjoy!

Phil

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rizCafG_ou8

Well, Easter is over. Eight services in seven days, a bit of a slog, but worth it. Yesterday was wonderful music - Schubert Mass in G and Hallelujah chorus at Eucharist, followed by Peter Aston's Evening service in F and Ralph Vaughan-Williams "Rise heart" at Evensong. I'd forgotten just how lovely the RVW 5 Mystical Songs are - the Antiphon is very well known but the other four works and lovely.

A few days without performing music now - you really can have too much of a good thing!

Phil

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2M9x44R8_s

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usfiAsWR4qU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6N6haW1Wqw&list=PLEmgWAKWoSKqsdVbZZqz_4IauUAkiKJfp

PS - What has changed that I don't get the YouTube screen when I post the link. I used to - how I wish people would stop changing things when they work so well!

On Saturday, we visited some relatives of the Domestic Goddess who live in Norfolk, not far from Norwich. They have a lovely garden lounge which looks out on to their garden and then beyond to open arable fields, a very beautiful situation.

While sitting enjoying the sun and some wine, Janet, the relative, jumped up, opened the door and clapped her hands, at which point a sparrow hawk flew away from the hedge to the left of the garden. Apparently, the same sparrow hawk has been around for a couple of years and in that time, the population of blue tits has suffered very badly.

Later, we went for a walk to the paddock where Janet keeps her geese, including George. The future for George is very bleak - he literally is a killer goose. When George was introduced to the flock, Helen, a female goose, showed him who was boss. About three weeks later, George got fed up with this and killed Helen, so Janet's is that George will cover some of the female geese, then one they're incubating eggs he will be sent to the abattoir. As a typical farmer's wife, Janet believes that she should at least get something from George other than just meat!

Phil

As promised, an update on the Up Goods Yard.

 

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Here is a general view, with a few wagons spread about for effect. Not all track is permanently laid yet, but all the points are in and it is all wired up (and it works!)

 

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To the right are mock-ups (for now) representing the maltster buildings (ie where the processing was done, as opposed to the warehouse nearer the station). Ironically, the last of these has just been demolished at the real Grantham. Two salt wagons are doing an impression of grain wagons! To the left, a bogie well wagon is stabled in the end loading dock.

 

IMG_3454.JPG

Looking left, here is the rest of the goods yard facilities. The cattle wagons are positioned in front of where the cattle dock will be. The line behind runs into the Ruston & Hornsby yard. Nearer the warehouse is the open loading area (where the improbable - for the 1930's - lorry is positioned. I quite like the effect of depth here - there are four parallel roads beyond the main ECML running lines before the yard opens out.

 

IMG_3456.JPG

A first attempt at an eye level view. Plenty to jar on the eye for now but this could be quite good once it's all blended in a bit better.

 

Seeing as you asked so nicely...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvMVKq99IGY&feature=youtu.be

(edit - guys/gals, someone help me here? I've seen reference elsewhere to the 'magic trick' to get youtube videos to display so they appear as an image and play within the page (like it used to automatically. Why do 'they' have to change things  ?))

If anyone sees a bogie well wagon with a boiler load, like the one in the second picture, running on Saxlingham or Blackwell Brewery Company layouts, please don't tell me there's a duplicate running on Grantham, I've just learnt this. Mind you, I'm going to ask Mr Wealleans to point out the lack of securing chains, and to compliment me on mine!!!!!  :-)

I've not had a chance to get to any of the shows where any of the layout has appeared so far, but the work looks very good and I'm looking forward to seeing the complete layout in the flesh at some point. 

Phil

In case anyone's wondering whether any more work has taken place on the layout, the answer is "sort of!". What Dave did with the layout when building it was satisfactory for him, but there were one or two areas I wanted to change to suit my way of thinking about how layouts should be built. One of these was to replace the two panels Dave had built for the point and section switches with just one panel. Sounds easy?

Dave, very cleverly, used slide switches to change the polarity of the point frogs, and he connected these with wire in the tube to the point stretcher bars so that when the point was changed, the frog polarity changed as well. Simple and very effective. In the course of replacing the panel, I had to bend one of the "wire in tube" wires which suddenly produced an unwanted "ping" sound. Needless to say, the wire had boekn which resulted in a few expletives leaving my lips, after which I set to and replaced said wire. It wasn't the easiest of jobs, but in the end stubbornness won!

At the same time that the panel was replaced, I also undertook such seemingly unimportant tasks as replacing the single core wire between the switches and point frogs with multi core. All works fine and I've now run locos over the layout, and it all works as expected. In addition, I have bought some adjustable feet for the legs of the layout, and I hope to get these attached over the Easter weekend. As you can see, there has been work done that I believe necessary, but none of it worth photographing, and very little of excitement. However, the future does hold some major possibilities.

From previous posts, you can see that I am building a model of the Takeley station bridge to re-design the disguise of the entrance from the layout to the fiddle yard. One of the members at the Mid Essex club has access to CAD software, and the skills to use it, and he has already drawn up the brickwork for the arch, and also believes he can get the brickwork cut for me in plain plasticard. He also thinks he can cut away the embossed facing brickwork so the arch brickwork just slots in. I hope that in the next few weeks I will have this completed. and I will post pictures.

If this works as I think it will, I have an idea of expanding the layout by making the entrance to the sector plate removable, with the alternative board being scenic rather than fiddle yard and allowing the layout to expand beyond the eight feet in which Dave built it.

So, a lot of words, a lot of work but no pictures. Sorry about that, but keep watching, you may seem something visual soon!

Phil

Afternoon Bernard,

I assume from your post that you have visited the Tate as it would appear you can actually make an appointment to view the sketchbooks. Sadly, my illness means this is impossible for me at the moment, but their website is easy to negotiate and so I'll have to settle for that. Thanks for your input and apologies to Phil for going off thread a little bit, but it is all art!

Kind regards,

Jock.

No need to apologise to me, Jock, for going off thread. I feel to a certain degree as though I've hi-jacked the thread as it was started by philj w, and all I've done is add to it.

As you say, it's all art, and I enjoy looking at a good painting as well as listening to good music, so why not widen the content of the thread.

Had the great joy of singing the Good Friday service at Chelmsford Cathedral today - no well know music apart from the Lotti Crucifixus but a wonderful experience. I do realise that for many, the religious experience will be of no interest or meaningless, but for me Easter is a wonderful time, both spiritually and musically, and one that I wouldn't miss. No services tomorrow then two on Sunday and then we're done for another year. Next stop Christmas! :-)

Phil

Sang the Maundy Thursday service at Chelmsford cathedral tonight, and one of the motets was Ubi Caritas by Maurice Durufle. He was a French 20th century composer who did more organ playing than composing, but what little output he did produce is sublime. If you don't know it, the Durufle Requiem is simply stunning and turns me into an emotional wreck every time I sing it.

Phil

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=457nVpxJDkA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpFTjivpMwc

The frames are 2 pieces of 20thou brass soldered together with 2 long edges as straight together as possible and then filed in the vice.  The basic shape is marked out with a sharp pointed tool using a black permanent marker as the 'blue'.   It is then cut out with a variety of saws (junior hacksaw, razor saw etc.) to get a rough shape (to the outside of the marked line) and then carefully filed (with a selection of needle files) to achieve the final shape.  With loco frames the long top edge is the datum and all measurements should be made from this. Having a reasonable sized clamp-on bench vise helps.

 

Regarding progress on the loco, following some exasperating moments (!) over the weekend etc. I now have it running!  Photos will follow shortly.  This must be one of the quickest loco builds I've ever done!

 

And yes, it is a 4-wheel drive - and no coupling rods and wheels to quarter!!

Thanks for the tips - I've tried something like that in the past but never got them as clean and precise as yours. Me thinks I need another go!

Phil

I have a board that has a plywood track base, and I will be putting cork on it (bought in my local model shop on a roll) before laying track.

For glue, however, I will using an aerosol of carpet fixing glue - don't know what the constituents are, so it's a little bit of an experiment for me, but I reckon if it works for carpets, it will work for cork.

Phil