Flying Pig

@The Johnster describes a goods trip with an 08 in the '70s

1970s trip freight workings in 4mm scale

I don't know the specifics of how they would be signalled on the Southern in your period, but

• There are 4 routes from Signal 1: Down Main, Branch, Headshunt and Diesel Depot.  I would guess that the two last might be signalled by a position light subsidiary with stencil route indicator?
• There need to be trap (not catch) points on both routes out of the diesel depot and the plan only shows one; perhaps a single trap nearer to the slip which would allow some shunting of the depot on scene?  I've a feeling Signal 4 is on the wrong side of the slip and might actually be two separate signals?  Someone will know.

The first report of Swifts in Wilts this year as on 20th April and sightings of up to 50 were reported in the following few days, but these were over water and not breeding sites.

1 hour ago, J. S. Bach said:

Do they do any unintentional damage by roosting? Not counting the droppings.

I don't think you can safely ignore the droppings.

6 hours ago, DavidB-AU said:

A Y would introduce subtle reverse curves too. I'd simply use a LH rather than RH. A crude edit but something like this.

 

 

It might even be possible to use curved points with partly curved platforms.

Which gets back to a fairly standard compact Minories (using a single slip) with a curved throat.  It looks a bit different because the straight after the slip redistributes the platform faces.

10 hours ago, simon b said:

It does look like it's straight rail after the frog rather than curved. I tried overlaying a length of flexi track on top of the template to test what difference it makes, its such a small improvement I don't think it's worth hacking the point about for. The answer might be to just live with it and use something to block the view at that part, possibly a signal box.

 

I'm not sure what stock you intend to run, but judging by the photo I guess a mix of EMUs and Mk1 hauled stock?  If you can restrict platform 3 to shorter non-gangwayed vehicles like EPB stock, they will probably look less offensive running through the reverse curve. 

26 minutes ago, simon b said:

The reverse curve from the 3 way point into the lower platform line is a problem however, it actually causes more of a swing of the coach ends than the slip does. Unfortunately there is no easy way around that without modification of the point itself, I think it might be possible to cut the point back to the frog and start the curve from there. I'll have to look into that further.

You'd expect more offset between the coach ends there, precisely because it is a reverse curve and they are swinging in opposite directions.  The maximum amount of offset is determined largely by the track spacing and the divergence angle of the point.  You may be able to reduce the divergence angle a bit by trimming the point if it is curved through the crossing, but most Streamline ones are straight there.

I had to rescue a robin the other day.  It was lying in the road looking stunned and I picked it up fully expecting a gory mess.  Fortunately it seemed intact, so I put it in a hedge and an hour or so later there was no robin in the hedge, but one was foraging in the gutter.  So I showed it one of those road safety films with Tufty and the voice of Bernard Cribbins and hoped for the best...

27 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

Here in the UK many bat species are protected and if any roost in your house you are not allowed to remove them. But we do not have a rabies in this country due to tight border controls. Rabies has been eliminated in most European countries.

Bats in the UK do carry a form of rabies and there have been deaths (though it is treatable).

https://www.bats.org.uk/about-bats/bats-and-disease/bats-and-disease-in-the-uk/bats-and-rabies

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/rabies-risks-from-bat-bites/information-for-individuals-who-have-been-bitten-by-a-bat

5 hours ago, Pacific231G said:

This throat would look really good as a bespoke piece of pointwork.

If you were building this throat, there are a number of things you could do to improve it that just aren't possible with unmodified Peco.  For a start you could tighten up the scissors (could also be done with Streamline and a razor saw).  You could use a shallower crossing in the turnout to platform 3 to ease the reverse curve.  You could even change to an outside slip to ease the curve out of platform 2.  Carefully chosen curves throughout the formation could also be used to smooth the transitions.

See for example https://www.scalefour.org/scaleforum/2017/minories/minories-010.html

On 04/05/2024 at 19:16, simon b said:

I decided to see how compact of a 3 platform station throat I could get away with

Of course, if you drop the need for arrivals and departures at every platform, the throat can be just a trailing crossover and a point for a bay on the departure side: that's three points and only two points in length because the bay point overlaps the crossover.  There's only one platform for arrivals and all trains are shunted to await departure.  Very economical and plenty of play value for a solo operator.

3 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

 

I think that for a range of locomotives using the same boiler, the constant dimension would be the pitch of the boiler above the centre-line of the cylinders. So pitch of the boiler above rail level would be different for locomotives with different driving wheel diameters. Thus, express passenger engines have higher-pitched boilers than goods engines from the same stable.

 

One supposes that engines using the same boiler would have cylinders of the same volume; i.e. standardisation of the front end, though if engines with inside and outside cylinders use the same boiler, there might be differences. This might also depend on whether using slide or piston valves.

The constant is more likely to be the distance between the boiler centreline and the foundation ring at the firebox end. There's more scope for variation between smokebox and cylinders - compare LMS standard 2P and 4F which I believe share a boiler.

Moving the boiler and firebox up and down is going to alter the position of the grate and hence the firehole, though.  Was the height of the footplate adjusted pro rata, or did the fireman just have to cope?

On 02/05/2024 at 21:31, JimC said:

This is pretty much a 2251 with an 8750 pannier tank boiler, which I hope ought to bring the weight down to unlimited route availability, replacing the last of the Dean Goods from about 1947 on the routes where a 2251 was too heavy. Ex Cambrian lines spring to mind. Its almost completely a 2251 chassis, but it has been slightly shortened at the rear because the P class boiler is slightly shorter in the firebox than the Std 10. Probably be cheaper to build than the Ivatt derived 2-MT 2-6-0s that eventually replaced the Deans, and a fair bit more powerful as well, presumably 3-MT, the same as the 2251s. 

It's a pretty engine but access to the motion seems very restricted.  Could the boiler be pitched a little higher?  Might need a less outsize dome in the process. 

4 hours ago, StuAllen said:

Inspired by a picture and conversation in the Accurascale Class 37 thread I thought I’d see how Microsoft’s image creator would do with railway subjects, I asked for 3 different images - “Class 90 locomotive winter hills”, “Class 37 freight Welsh hills’, and “Railway freight London”. Whilst they are by no means correct (Steam from a Class 90, and no catenary) it’s not a bad effort for less than 1minutes effort on each topic…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Barad-dûr - I always knew it was in London.

39 minutes ago, Wickham Green too said:

Yes, you've got a choice of 'cle-res-tory' or 'cleres-try' for a start ...........  Chambers dictionary is clear that it's 'clear' - and even gives an alternative spelling of 'clearstory'. ( Other dictionaries are available )

 

The word dates from the late Middle English period at least, as a two word phrase 'clere storey' and would originally have been pronounced something like 'clairr-e storey'.  On it's own, the word 'clere' evolved to have the modern pronunciation 'clear', but it is possible that didn't happen here.

If the phrase had already merged into a word pronounced like 'clerr-e-story' before the vowel in 'clere' began to change then maybe it went its own way,  A modern descendent 'cleristry' in a community where the word has been in continuous usage until today seems at least possible.

So on that basis 'cle-res-tory' and 'clear-story' must surely both be modern re-analyses of the written word by people unfamiliar with it, in the manner of 'Where is the aleebi?'.

I think Compact Minories with a single slip on the arrival route is shorter (2 points plus the slip) and cheaper (just needs the slip and 3 points).  On the downside it has slightly fewer parallel moves than yours and more reverse curves.  Probably discussed in more detail on the General Minories thread if you have the time to search.

6 hours ago, The Johnster said:

Marshalling and especially hump yard shunting is a young man's game, for the quick or the dead...

See the first minute of Shunter Black's Night Off.  Note the use of the brake stick.

14 hours ago, 'CHARD said:

 

I believe that the factory is lactose intolerant, unfortunately. There are plans for an Alpro liveried TEA instead.

Something...something... EFE Bloater.

On 24/04/2024 at 20:48, Porcy Mane said:

50 D7557 breakdown train 27081968 by Nigel, on Flickr

That reminds me of the very early days of RMweb, when weathering Bachmann rats was a popular sport and a ?coolant overflow as seen here was de rigueur.  Will the new Bachmann models lead to a resurgence?

1922 map, showing Newburn still in existence:

https://maps.nls.uk/view/106026616#zoom=5&lat=8871&lon=10328&layers=BT

1947 map.  The house is gone and the sidings have been extended over its former location, apparently under cover:

https://maps.nls.uk/view/106026619#zoom=5&lat=8931&lon=10577&layers=BT

9 minutes ago, Hal Nail said:

Perhaps they are keeping this as one thread until the frothing and wishlisting dies down. 

Nope, you've lost me there.  What is this concept you are trying to describe?

11 minutes ago, GrumpyPenguin said:

I'm sorry,that's a load of twaddle & a waste of words - I said "properly engineered" which negates all of the objections you managed to come up with.

Except, perhaps, unnecessary.

21 minutes ago, Cowley 47521 said:

Thanks for that. 👍

 

Yes it’s now set up in its new home. I must say that it’s quite a stressful experience moving a layout that was never really designed to be moved. However it did actually go very smoothly all things considered and once we’d got everything levelled* and all the wiring connected the only thing that wouldn’t play was one of the station lamps on Eggesford.

 

*The room at my house that the railway was in had quite a slope to the floor being an old house and all that. So when we set it up in their industrial unit I couldn’t work out why despite taking that into account and getting the whole thing level one of the wheels was off the ground. Turns out that their flop had even more of a slope than mine did!

I was once part of a very rapidly aborted scheme to build a layout in a cellar that had a floor with a profile like the Alps. That wasn't the reason we gave up, though: several sessions of scrubbing the walls that just generated more and more brick dust suggested it wasn't an ideal location for a layout.

I thought Sam's second review gave useful insight into the headlamps, particularly how easy they are to change.  One of his blanking lamp irons wouldn't come out at all; one came out easily; the bottom centre lamp came out, but residual glue prevented it or a blanking piece being fitted (cleaning up by the buyer would no doubt fix this easily); the smokebox lamp came out but the blanking lamp iron does not fully block the light feed; one of the additional lamps supplied was incomplete and couldn't be attached.

Not a fully developed system, I feel.

The recent Bachmann model shows what a 37 would typically look like in the later 1970s.  The 'domino' headcode places it from 1976 onwards when headcode indicators went out of use.

https://www.kernowmodelrailcentre.com/p/82781/35-303-Bachmann-Class-37-0-Centre-Headcode-37305-BR-Blue

And here is the brdatabase entry for it, which shows it may have based at Landore:

https://www.brdatabase.info/locoqry.php?action=locodata&type=D&id=6605&loco=6605

2 hours ago, zr2498 said:

Just checked video footage, and this is the best snap shot view I currently have. Certainly shiny (ish) rods and valve gear, but more of a polished metal than silver paint appearance. Nothing a little weathering couldn't sort out.

I confidently expect that the motion on Eric Treacy will be the usual bright nickel silver plating.  It doesn't represent steel that well, but it will be no worse on this model than on any of the previous ones.