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barrowroad

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  1. barrowroad

    Bristol Barrow Road - Bachmann Compound 41140

    By barrowroad,


    Bristol Barrow Road - Bachmann Compound 41140
    My latest conversion of a RTR loco is Bachmann Compound 4P 41157 which I have renumbered 41140 as I have a photo of it on shed.
    Conversion follows my now standard method using Alan Gibson wheels with Markits 10BA crankpins, reusing the Bachmann motion.
    The tender has a Dave Franks chassis but this time I had to leave off the water pickup gear in order to add extra pickups on the two rear axles of the tender. I'm pleased with the conversion.
     
    Here is a video of 41140 on a Gloucester to Bristol TM passing Barrow Road MPD
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWIO-gKhAkU
  2. barrowroad

    Bristol Barrow Road - ' The Devonian '

    By barrowroad,


    Bristol Barrow Road - The Devonian
    It's been a while since I posted anything on this blog however I have been very busy on the layout during the past year completing several small buildings in and around the shed yard and cladding the Barrow Road viaduct with Wills Coarse Stone sheet and making all the scenery along the front of the layout.
    My latest completed project is the conversion of 11 Bachmann mk1 coaches to P4 using Bill Bedford sprung bogies with MJT frames; Masokits gangway connectors plus other detailing.
    Here is a video of Barrow Road Jubilee 45577 Bengal passing the shed with the southbound Devonian with the 11 converted coaches. In the foreground is the new scenery.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOevUys7E28
  3. barrowroad
    Another Jubilee is now allocated to Bristol Barrow Road having just completed another P4 conversion of a Bachmann RTR model.
    Saskatchewan - 45561- is the latest added to 45577 Bengal and 45662 Kempenfelt which I have converted in addition to Patriot 45506 as shown in my last post.
    The other Jubilee 45572 Eire is on loan from David Clarke.
     
     
     

     
     

  4. barrowroad

    Bristol Barrow Road - Lockdown Update

    By barrowroad,


    Bristol Barrow Road - Lockdown Update
    It has been a while since I posted anything on the forum. I have just received a John Brighton built DJH Crab 42778 from David Clarke which is fitted with sound and the attached video is a trial run on a section of the down main line past Barrow Road shed.
    Before anyone comments I have noticed that the front bogie is off the rails!
    Since my last post my lockdown modelling has come on leaps and bounds. The viaduct is now almost finished and has been clad with coarse stone courtesy of Mr Wills and with assistance from an article by Karl Crowther in MRJ 247.
    Having completed the viaduct various small buildings have been added but the main work has been on the scenery at the front of the layout.
    Here the scenery is made up on four jigsaw sections which are removable to give access to the track if needed. I have tried to keep the scenery as realistic as possible and have used photographic evidence to achieve this. The two houses in Tenby Street are still standing and use of photos on estate agency websites, Zoopla and Rightmove, proved useful.

    Video of DJH Crab 42778.

    https://youtu.be/qbtvyngqlQg
  5. barrowroad
    It has been a while since I did any work on the roundhouse roof so I recently added the smoke hood support wires, 4 to each hood, to the 22 that are inside the shed.
    The roof is entirely scratchbuilt from brass section and nickel silver wire.
    The smoke hoods are of two types - 3 older wooden types which are ex Midland/LMS in origin which I scratchbuilt from plasticard and brass angle, and 19 'asbestos/concrete' units which are cast in resin by my Friend Morgan from a 3D printed master. Morgan also produced the etched supports on the lower edge of the units.
    I have used Markits WD handrail knobs - 4 per unit - as hood anchor points for the nickel silver wire supports.
     

     

     
     
    Once finished I sprayed the complete roof with Halfords grey primer.
     

  6. barrowroad
    Since receiving the model of the Coaling Tower from Peter Leyland I have been collecting research material on the operation of the tower with the intention of making the coaler operational.
    Whether this results in full operation, with the wagon tipper operational, or whether the wagon hoist is just raised under the hood, remains to be seen.
     

     
    Recently I obtained permission from West Coast Railways to visit their Carnforth Site in order to photograph the Coal & Ash Plants as part of this research. The most difficult part of the research was to identify the tipping mechanism of the plant which is obscured by the 'hood' at the top of the hoist.
    For those officionados of mechanical coaling plants here are a few close up photos taken with a telephoto lens. Unfortunately the plant has concrete cancer and for the usual health & safety reasons [ I did ask] I was not able to climb the plant [ sounds like Jack i the Beanstalk]. The other reason being the bottom 20ft of the access ladder had been cut off!
     





     
    I have other photos of details on both the Coal & Ash plants if anyone is interested.
    West Coast Railways kindly gave me a guided tour of the site where amongst other locos present I saw Scots Guardsman and the completed chassis of Jubilee 'Galatea'. A pleasure to see another former Barrow Road loco in the process of restoration.
     
    A trip down to the East Lancs followed with the sighting of another ex Barrow Road Jubilee 'Leander' and a trip behind her to Rawtenstall & return.
     
    Today I visited the History Centre at Chippenham where I found the 1937 GA drawing of Bristol LMS - Locomotive Coaling Plant - Ref 2515/409/0719ms. Excellent drawings of the end and front elevation with the 'hood' removed.This drawing has eluded me on previous visits not least because it is not with the other Barrow Road material - it was with the GWR Bath Road shed material - now I do'nt recall that railway having modern coaling facilities!
     
    In the meantime I am pressing on with the 'very long' ash disposal pits. An update will follow in the next few days.
  7. barrowroad
    Earlier this year I came into possession of a Proscale Princess which was originally built by Alan Sibley. The model,46200 Princess Royal, was DC with a Portescap motor and I have converted it to DCC for use on Barrow Road - not strictly prototypical but I like the model.
    Alan obviously was sparing in his use of solder to assemble the kit as I had to re-attach a lot of small parts which fell off when I breathed on them!!!
    Hope you like the video
    46200 Princess Royal
  8. barrowroad
    Further work on the buildings continues with the 'new' sand dryer building, which from aerial photos in my my possession was built in the late 1940s
     
    .
     

     
    I found a stock of old Formcraft bricks which I decided to use to build the front with it's pillars and use slaters english bond sheet for the remainder. On reflection this was probably not my best idea as it took rather longer to build than anticipated. 
     
     

     

     

     
    My first attempt at adding 'sand' by using talc did not convince so I raided that grand daughters covered sand pit - with permission - a borrowed a cup full.
     

     

     
     
    Next building project is to clad the arches of Barrow Road with Wills coarse stone........
     
     
  9. barrowroad
    I have now completed my second Patriot conversion to P4. This loco belongs to a friend who asked me to do the conversion for him. The decoder arrived this morning, now fitted for it's first run on DCC.
     
    Here is the youtube video link.
     
    45504 Royal Signals passing Bristol Barrow Road Shed
     
     
    4 Jubilees and 2 Patriots outside the roundhouse.
     

  10. barrowroad
    The next building on my list is the brick built shed next to the ash plant which I believe housed the plant control equipment.
     
    The model is made from plasticard with overlays of Slaters english bond brickwork. The ladder rom the ground to the roof of the building together with the longer one to the platform on the ash plant are scratchbuilt using 1mm x 0.3mm nickel silver strip whilst the steps are 0.45mm wire. The mortar course is a wash of black acrylic which is then sand back to leave the a nice finish for the bricks.
     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     
    Photo Copyright  Robin Whittle
     
     
     
     
    Robin
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
  11. barrowroad
    The next building on my list is the brick built shed next to the ash plant which I believe housed the plant control equipment.
     
    The model is made from plasticard with overlays of Slaters english bond brickwork. The ladder rom the ground to the roof of the building together with the longer one to the platform on the ash plant are scratchbuilt using 1mm x 0.3mm nickel silver strip whilst the steps are 0.45mm wire. The mortar course is a wash of black acrylic which is then sand back to leave the a nice finish for the bricks.
     

     

     

     

     
    I'll post some more photos later as I'm being blocked  by the 10MB limit at present despite the four totalling under 1MB
     
    Robin
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
  12. barrowroad
    There are a lot of small buildings and structures in any shed yard not least those associated with the ash disposal plant. My latest efforts have focused on two of these - the small concrete building used by staff working the ash pit and a brick built shed which I believe housed the ash plant controls. Both are shown in the following photo.

     
     
    The first model to be attempted is the concrete shed, the dimensions of which are scaled from photos in my collection, which is probably a Taunton product which appeared at the shed in the late 1950's.

    The model is constructed from plasticard and suitably weathered.
     

     

     

     

     

     
    Interesting as the model is position over a board joint.
     

     
     
    The following photo, taken in 1965, has some clutter on the roof which I might add at some later stage.
     

     
     
    Now for the ash plant control hut.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

  13. barrowroad
    I've been a bit busy on DIY this past week decorating the bathroom - my regime has been decorating in the morning modelling in the afternoon.
    Remembering I promised some photos of the Shed in situ here are a few.
    Keep safe,
    Robin

     

     

     

     

     
     

     

     
     

     
    Repainted the darker patch on the door wall as the photo shows it up as too dark.
     

     

  14. barrowroad
    Following completion of the Foreman's Hut my next building for Barrow Road is the Ambulance & Mutual Improvement Shed which was situated in the shed yard adjacent to the viaduct carrying Barrow Road itself.

     
    With time during the current situation spent between house decoration and modelling this model has taken about a week to produce.
    Construction uses two layers of plasticard - a 30thou base structure laminated with a 40thou layer of 2mm [ 6in] Evergreen V Groove sheet.
    I produced a 4mm scale drawing the dimensions obtained by scaling from photograhs I have in my collection.
    The following photos show stages of the build.

     

     

     

     


     

     

     
    The tiles are 3M strips I have spare from the roundhouse and come from York Modelmaking.
     

     

     

     

     
    Some photographs of the Ambulance Shed in situ on the layout will follow.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
  15. barrowroad
    Having spent some time recently converting RTR models to P4 I decided I needed a change so here is a bit of scratchbuilding.
    The office for the shed foreman was situated in front of the roundhouse entrance. Looking at the maps and the photographs in my collection, I noticed a discrepancy in size of the shed and realised that around 1949 the length of the building doubled.  This being confirmed by an aerial photograph in my collection.
    n.
     
    Using photographs I produced a scale drawing.

     
    Followed by a set of parts made out of plasticard.

     
     
     
    Assembly followed.
     

     

     
    With added detail. Heater chimney and vent pipe.
    il.
     
    Guttering is filed down tube whilst the downpipe uses a pair of Modelu  holderbats.
     

     
    Some photos on the layout.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     
    The roof is not permanently fixed at present and I am aware some of the photos show a gap between it and the end wall.
     
     
     
     
     
  17. barrowroad
    My latest conversion is a Bachmann Patriot which has the same chassis as the Jubilee. Wheels are again Alan Gibson with Markits crankpins which have been spaced using 4 x 1mm washers per axle. Brake shoes have been removed an refixed with additional plasticard spacers. The tender has a Dave Franks Fowler sprung chassis.
     
    Below is a link to youtube.  Question: - how do you upload videos from youtube these days?
     
    https://youtu.be/yib4hZZ-TbI
     
     


  18. barrowroad
    I have started to convert some of my Bachmann short firebox Jubilees to P4 in order to run them on my layout. This project had been stalled for a while as I pondered on the best way to do this, however a visit by Dave Holt, David Clarke and Steve Ridgeway in September gave me the necessary push to get on with it. My conversion replaces the wheels with an Alan Gibson 3mm axle set of drivers plus bogie and tender wheels. Replacement crankpins are Markits stainless steel products. The only other modification is to use a Dave Franks Stanier chassis kit on the tender.
    r.
     

     

     
     

     
     

     
     
    Here is a youtube link to a video showing Bengal moving in the shed yard. Sorry but the media link refuses to work.
    https://youtu.be/IzwQGyGImDw
     
    Seasons greetings to all readers of my blog.
     
    Robin
     
     
     
     
     
  19. barrowroad
    Engine Shed Sidings signal box is now finished and has taken it's place on the layout. The box is constructed from a Churchward Models etched brass kit I picked up from Ebay, and contains a detailed interior from Springside items with armchair and signalmen from Modelu. The final items, shown in the photos, are the two downpipes which are attached using Modelu cast iron holderbats. Only the two nameboards to make.
     
     

     

     

     

     

     

     
     
    I visited the Ambis stand on Sunday and purchased a pack of etched LMS letters for the signal box nameboard. A bit of a fiddle to make but I'm pleased with the result. Individual letters were cut off the fret, cleaned up and given a coat of Halfords white primer and the board with red.
    When dry the letters were attached to the board using PVA.
     

     

     
     

     

     
     
     
     
     
  20. barrowroad
    To the north of Bristol Barrow Road shed and Lawrence Hill Junction there is an incline on an 1 in 60 gradient to Fishponds Station in the NE of Bristol. The gradient starts at 1 in 89 immediately under Barrow Road Arches, which is the road which bisects the shed yard. The working timetable limits the number of wagons descending this incline to 30. With this in mind I have just finished converting 15 Bachmann 16T minerals to P4 to add to some Parkside wagons to give a rake of 30.
    Here is a video. I will give details of the conversion later.
    https://youtu.be/oUMnIFhPAL8 
     
    As promised here are details of the conversion using a Bachmann 16T mineral as an example. 
    This photo shows a completed wagon fitted with P4 wheels. It is one in the rake of wagons in the video.
     

     
    The principal tool used for conversion is the Knowle Wagon Works - 2mm Brass Bearing Tool.
    In this photo the tool is bottom left.
    First remove the 00 wheel sets followed by the couplings.
    Then remove the body  by unscrewing the two self tappers on the underside.
    The photo shows the selection of tools and items used for the conversion. Shown are four flangeless bearings, two 26mm pin point axles plus a back to back gauge, file tweezers and a chisel knife.
    The Brassmasters gauge at the bottom is to ensure the axles are square and level.

     
    The first task is to remove the two ribs at the back of the W Iron using the chisel knife. You will also need to remove plastic below the ribs in order to gain width for the replacement P4 wheel sets.
    Next drill out the holes in the rear of the wagon W irons. This task is done using the Knowle tool. You will need to measure the width and depth of the bearings you are using and set the drill in the tool using the grub screws and the allen key. 
    This photo shows the rear of the W Iron after the plastic has been cut away. It also shows a new bearing fitted after drilling.
     

     
    The Knowle Tool in position for cutting deeper bearing holes in the W Iron. The tool can be turned using fingers, a tweezer or an 8mm spanner. 
     

     
    Once all four holes have been drilled out insert the new bearings and hold in position using the two 26mm pin point axles. 
    If you have the depth correct the W Irons should be parallel and vertical. Use the Brassmasters gauge to set the axles ensuring they are square and parallel.

     

     
    Once satisfied use a dab of Butanone to fix the bearings in place.
     
    Refix the body to the chassis and fit the P4 wheels after checking the back to back using the gauge. You may need to file some material off the brake shoes to gain clearance.

     
     
     
     
  21. barrowroad
    I am continuing the debugging of the track. Following the test of the turnouts from the Up main line into the engine shed with the 3F - shown in the previous videos - testing with my Hornby Black 5 showed that all was not well with the double slip. The Black 5 had an annoying habit of mounting the crossing V at the coaler end of the slip. This double slip was the first 'complicated' piece of track I ever built and has only recently come into full operational use. If you look closely at the slip you will see evidence of a partial rebuild of the slip - new  solder - as I re -aligned the far crossing 'V', wing rails, closure rails etc at that end of the slip. The Black 5 now runs through without falling off - result :) .
    Black 5 '44965' coming of shed
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SY_ASkofNvk
     
     
    Black 5 '44965 ' entering shed coal road
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-Y9q03CxwU
  22. barrowroad
    Chris Yates has finished building the 'temporary panel' for Lawrence Hill Junction signal box, another job done for which I am very grateful. I say temporary because it only controls the turnouts at present as I have yet to build the signals.
     
    Chris has built in interlocking on the junction using relays with LEDs confirming turnout settings and the junction with entrance and exit to the shed yard is now fully operational.
     

    Lawrence Hill Junction Panel
     

    Lawrence Hill double junction
     

    Lawrence Hill Junction Signal Box and the shed north entrance and exit.
     
    Here are a couple of videos of Ex Midland 3F 43712 going on shed - and off shed.
     
    I suggest watching with the sound turned of as I forgot I had the radio on!!
    Landscape mode would have been an improvement:-)
     

     

  23. barrowroad
    It's been a while since I updated my blog but we haven't been idle. Chris has made two Power Boxes one for the scenic side and a Booster box for the Storage sidings. Each contain a Maplins X21M Power unit, PSX circuit breakers, a DCC Concepts 12v Power supply PSU2 and NCE Units - a 5amp command unit in the main box and a Booster in the other. They do look rather smart.
     

    Main Power Box
     

    Booster Box
     
    Engine Shed Sidings now has a panel for the turnouts which controls the Fishponds banker siding and the south exit from the engine shed
     

    Engine Shed Sidings Panel
     
    Chris has done a brilliant job with both Power boxes and the panels and is currently building the Lawrence Hill Junction Panel. When complete and fitted the scenic side of the layout will be fully operational. Both Panels are designed as an interim measure whilst a decision on the design of signalling the layout is made.
     
    The track in the storage sidings is now complete with the addition of 16 Peco EM buffer stops on the dead end sidings.

     
    Here are a few photos of the completed sidings. My next task is the complete the wiring on the storage boards.
     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

  24. barrowroad
    I have been slowly plodding on with the storage sidings and have now completed turnout 26 out of 39. The main UP and DOWN sidings are finished as far as the track laying is concerned with a number of buffers to be added at a later date. They are not yet operational as the task of wiring and the addition of digital cobalt's is the next item on the schedule after track laying is complete.
    Extra sidings are to be installed at either end of the UP and DOWN sidings and the first of these, which leads to the turntable, is nearly finished. This will enable trains arriving in the UP [ the north ] sidings to have their loco detached and turned ready for a return journey.
     
    The following photos show progress over the past month.
     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

  25. barrowroad
    Just a quick update on the storage sidings. The total of turnouts built is now 11 with ten now fixed in position in the storage sidings and three of the sidings laid.
    The turnouts are all constructed using 1.6mm thick double sided copper clad sleepers whilst the sidings are K&L and C&L lengths of flexitrack board joints strengthened using copper clad sleeper strips.
     
    Over the hot weather I have checked all the rail joints on the turnouts and board joints and where necessary I have widened the gap using a very thin file - a very useful tool obtained some years ago from Eileens.
     
    Here are some photos of the progress made so far. Once all the turnouts are in position I will fit digital cobalts and wire them in to two separate accessory buses.
     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     
    EDIT;- Two more turnouts added since my last post.
     

     

     
    EDIT:- Further progress as of this afternoon 24th July 2018. I have completed laying metre lengths of C&L Flexi track in the UP storage sidings. I have run out of the Evostick Timebond Adjustable glue I am using to fix this track and am having difficulty finding a replacement tube as B&Q don't have any local to me. I also need to order some more track and copper clad.
     

     

     

     

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