Flying Pig

Unsurprisingly, that looks very dapper, as does his 'Deltic'. I'm a big fan of BTC black on 1950s diesels, but the EE type 3 looks good in production Deltic green too.

The deeper sections at both ends of the footplate valance have been shortened, which is probably why the lower steps don't align quite right (the front one in particular seems to have been pushed forward). I'd guess this is with the aim of providing sufficient clearance between the valance and the sandboxes, but it's possible they've overdone it somewhat. As the model is only an engineering sample these dimensions may not be set in stone yet.

i think it was a handpainted example, not sure, did anyone get any better shots?

I sincerely hope not - that one's going to cause enough excitement as it is. Now put a maroon porthole brake behind it...

Just to be pedantic, would that not be a Silvertown lubricator as widely fitted to Midland and LMS locos? It certainly looks like one in this photo from the previously linked page.

i stripped the blue that Matt had painted and resprayed it green.

Vandal. I saw that unit - underlined the numbers and everything, probably rode on it too. They were sooo much more interesting than the 507szzzzzzz

You can use data validation in Excel to restrict entries to a specified list, which reduces the chances of that kind of multiple spelling.

Very nice, but isn't

I'm not surprised - when they took over Simonds in Reading I'm sure that Courage's 'no, we haven't changed it at all' version of Simonds Best Bitter included at least a dash of Fairy Liquid as it acquired a distinctly soapy taste

Continuity is no guarantee, however - as far as I know Arkells has never been taken over by anybody

And guess who has photos of the real thing: http://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/p940006411

I can't explain it well but the flywheel seems to keep the overall momentum going even when there's a lack of power.

Err - I can't see how you'd explain it better without using maths

My family (one side of which came from that area) always pronounced "Cirencester" as "Sisister" does anyone still do that?

I've never heard anyone who lives there refer to it as other than Cirencester or Ciren for short.

... a spare production HST power car ...

What is this mythical object of which you speak?

I like that a lot (especially the lever frame ). Hoping not to put my foot in my mouth, but there looks like a lot of ongoing scratch-building around the station. Is some of it just unfinished or are you using placeholders on your evolving layout?

Well done hiding it in the Kitbuilding and Scratchbuilding section, too. The Waverley Route pack hasn't found it yet, but I think I hear a slavering in the middle distance...

I love the shiny new "Southern electric" world depicted here and it's superbly executed.

I've added grass ... I particularly wanted that scraggy look, where erosion / overhanging trees leave bare patches. There's a footpath worn in the grass where children cut across to watch trains go by ...

To be *really* picky the path is perhaps a little wide. Maybe a narrower worn path surrounded by lower intensity "trample" would be more the thing.

Trees will come much later, as will bushes (I'm thinking gorse bushes, with yellow buds, and rhododendrons - I'll have to do some research on what plants grow where etc).

I suspect rather few if any on what is clearly a recently reconstructed cutting in the era of traditional management.

A few goodies arrived at Frankland this Christmas ...

 

Keeping up appearances:

It seems the neighbours both bought the same model of car - two Jaguar SS saloons.

They must be quite well off, these are the top of the range 2.5 litre models which cost £385.00!

Beauties aren't they? They've got twenty years' happy motoring ahead of them - or have they?

074 was booked on V98 so possibly yes!

Thanks. Unfortunately I was looking the wrong way and was alerted by the sound just in time to see a flash of blue and a lot of tankers.

Something pale blue rumbled past my southbound train between Bromsgrove and Ashchurch with a train of tankers at about 1.30pm today. Would that be 60074 heading for Lindsey?

More info about the loco in the picture posted by relaxinghobby here. It's actually a conventional early 20th Century loco apart from the forward cab and a bit of extra casing, so probably not like anything that would be built today. A later (and apparently not successful) German attempt at complete streamlining is shown here (for comparison, here's its prettier sister).

A plan based on Sir Madog's idea with a few small changes.

First I've included the facing crossover. The extra length I've stolen for this and a more sweeping curve at the left has meant I've had to hide the right hand end of the station off-scene by putting the buildings on an overbridge. This does mean we don't need to worry about what type of crossovers are used

There needs to be an additional crossover in the fiddle yard to allow trains to return to the bay platform on the correct line - I forgot to include this and have had to sketch it in afterwards.

The bay road is wrong as I've drawn it and should be further from the main line to allow a decent width of platform between them (and it now needs to fit in a stairway from the station building).

The loop is meant to be freight and locos only so the adjacent platform should have a fence or wall along the back. There should be a trailing crossover on the main line to allow trains to rejoin the clockwise circuit, but this isn't really feasible on the curve. In practice, the trains can run off "wrong line" and cross over in the fiddle yard.

There could have been a concentration of, say, 9F's for certain flows.

We've discussed this more than once and the idea of concentrating them in the mining districts on MGR workings had some support. Slow speed control for loading and unloading would probably have been a non-starter so a separate shunting engine would have been required, but air braking to work with HopABs shouldn't have been a problem. I find the idea of 9Fs trundling around Nottinghamshire into the 1980s quite appealing, however improbable, and it would make an interesting layout.

Combining the two has been done before, ..

Yes, but in nearly all cases using steam to make electricity on board (e.g. here and here) and not t'other way round.

I take Stationmaster's point about shunting the creamery: would it be possible to swap it with the loco shed? Or would this change the character of the station too much? Personally, I think a largish structure with a tall chimney might work better there than smack in the middle of the board.

I reckon it would be worth investing in a metre of flexitrack to make the sidings at the bottom of the plan flow a little better. And I'd probably make the dock siding a shade longer as it does look awfully short as drawn.

Finally, there seems to be a bit of a squeeze in the track spacing of the loop, again right at the bottom of the plan, which may not be a good thing given the curves involved. My solution is as below: remove the straight at X and add a couple of sections as shown in red. As far as I can tell from a cut-and-paste analysis, this preserves the spacing quite nicely. I've also resited the trap () point on the bottom siding to allow for the corresponding reduction in space outside the main line (and permit a more flowing entry to the siding). I might actually shorten this siding - it just looks too long to me and disturbs the balance of the plan.

Edit: origin of "And I claim my five pounds".

You are Paul Lunn AICMFP. Seriously, it's great to see a minimum space, Setrack layout so closely based on adapted prototypes. I hope you have fun with it.

Great observation, great modelling, great thread. Keep it up.

 

G.

What Grahame said, in spades, particularly the observation.

Lambourn is another GWR* terminus that's quite a popular modelling subject. See for example MRJ issue 23 (P4) and issue 32 (2mm finescale); I believe there's also been at least one 00 version in the press.

*Other railway companies are available of course, though perhaps not so well supplied with rtr branch motive power.

The slip is needed to allow the sidings to be shunted from the longer headshunt (red routes and L below). If you split the back road as I've shown you have effectively four sidings to shunt which should be enough for anyone. The short headshunt (S in blue below) is only used for running round, though the section of loop I've labelled K could be used as a brake van kip.