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Gallows Close

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  1. Gallows Close
    This working for a living lark certainly gets in the way of a bit of decent modelling time. Anyway, I have cleaned up the OLE today and made the small repairs needed to some of the masts. I have taken away all of the old contact wire and everything is now set for rewiring.
     
    Drawing on experience now gained I intend to try out a new way of tensioning the wires. I am building a small pulley tower from Meccanno which will take the contact wire's free end and run over a couple of pulleys to a balance weight - If gravity works best on the real railway, then I rekon it should work for me... I have said before that I do not like springs for tensioning as they impart a variable force on the wire, whereas gravity is a constant (at least where I live anyway). I have a wire run of about sixteen feet to tension, and this in itself is a challenge in 'OO', and add in the temperature variations of a garage then I think the Meccanno solution might just work.
     
    With the wires down, I have taken the opportunity to stretch the scenic area of the layout. I will move the tunnel mouth back by a foot or so to allow me to have a four car platform instead of a three. This is a must really as I have a Class 321/9 ready to paint and it would be nice for it to have somewhere to stop!
     
    Speaking of rolling stock, I picked up a couple of Bachmann's new class 150's. Now this has got me wondering.... I recall that GMPTE had a few triple sets like Centro in the West Midlands, although they are now disbanded, but I cannot locate a photo. The Bachy Sprinter would make a nice model if converted to a triple in GMPTE livery. Can anyone help with the formation of the GM triples? If I could locate a decent pic I would like to have a go at this one.
     
    Cheers for now,
    Chris.
  2. Gallows Close

    Inside The Box

    By Gallows Close,

    Hi All,
     
    I have made good progress today opening the box. As I had feared, the model had not travelled without some minor damage, but overall it looks like it should run again soon
     

     
    The Box - as delivered
     

     
    The first peep inside shows how the two halves were mounted one above the other. The upside down headspan is seen in proximity to the signal box roof.
     

     
    This is the underside of one of the boards with the protective sheet of ply removed. It doesn't look pretty, but that is one of the pitfalls of working on the wiring from below. In future I intend to follow my practice on Gallows Close and work on each board upside down to get the wiring really neat.
     

     
    Here with the top half of the layout separated from the bottom. The urge to get a loco on it was strong at this time.
     


     
    Some of the worst damage was to the portal and headspan structures. I will take this as an opportunity to try scale span wires on these masts as suggested by Jim S-W.
     

     
    And finally - all together. I will get it electrically tested next. The OLE will need to be sorted out, as before the move it was un-tensioned and simply cut. Then I'll be back on the scenics.
     
    Thanks for looking in,
    Chris
  3. Gallows Close

    Opening the Box

    By Gallows Close,

    Hi All,
     
    Its great to see so many familiar names over here, and all of us busy creating blogs!
     
    Some of you may know that I have recently moved house to The Netherlands, and as a result all model rail activities had to take a back seat. Before we left the UK Diggle Junction was looking OK with the elctrics and OLE all functioning, and some scenic work going on. That all stopped when the layout was split in to two halves and made in to a box for transit. Tomorrow I'm finally allowed to open the box. Work should then begin again at Diggle.
     
    Amongst the other items of treasure in the garage will be my ongoing project to model the class 210 DEMU prototype, and that too is high on my list for early reactivation.
     
    I hope to show some photos in due course as the lid comes off the layout, and hopefully I might get a train running tomorrow!
     
    Thanks for looking in,
    Chris.
  4. Gallows Close

    Projecting Ahead

    By Gallows Close,

    Hi All,
     
    It has been slow going with the modelling of late, however I have managed to make quite a bit of good progress (for me) over the last week or so. This has been helped by being allowed a modest spending spree by those in pinnies who hold the purse strings.
     
    Delivered recently was a pair of Bachmann class 150's in order to make the GMPTE triple a reality, and also a class 153, which will be modified with the Bachmann power-train as per Scheihallion.
     
    The march of progress has also reached the class 321/9 project. This model is now ready to hit the paint shops along with the class 210. Now I'm quite pleased with the 210. It is now a viable model of 210002 - and if I were a better photographer you would be able to see what I mean. For now you'll have to make do with the shots below.
     

     
    A front end comparison
     

     
    The DMS
     
    Of course there is a lot still to do paint wise - not least that jolly fiddley white line between the blue and grey of BR livery, however I hope to be able to share more progress soon. Perhaps I'll put up some shots of the class 321 as well. You can also follow my workbench thread if you'd like to see what I'm up to.
     
    Thanks for looking in,
    Cheers,
    Chris.
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