Red Devil

Sorry to hear this as I for one found inspiration in Grime Street - even to the point of installing Magnorail and building my range of barns to hide it!

Nevertheless, time moves on and you must do what you must do!

I shall be watching Sheffield Grimeside with the same level of interest.

 

Tony

thanks Tony, glad someone enjoyed it! Yeah as you say time moves on, had plenty out of GS, hopefully it's got a few more into 'something slightly different' I could keep re inventing and adding but time for a change, it still seems popular at exhibitions so perhaps a new owner might be bet all round. 

Sad times, Leeds Trams are no more - well Headingley is still around but no longer on the exhibition circuit....perhaps time for a new Leeds based tram layout?

 

Baz

Florin st is still there flying the Leeds trams flag....If all goes to plan GS will be living at the other end of the country but quite possibly still out and about, there will be something 'Leeds trams' from me in the future, don't ask when though!

Hi Mark,

Can you suggest what rail I should purchase for a static horse tram oo gauge diorama, code 55, 70 etc. I would be obliged for any help please.. Regards Dave H.

Depends....purely for a static diorama I'd probably say some of the above....it does look well and could just be glued to the baseboard, if using 'ready to run track' I'd just say some code 75 and covered in scribed plaster/tile grout. Ask 50 tram modellers about track and you'll probably get 50 answers though....so those are just my personal choices.

Well... One on order... We shall see!

It'd only be for short periods of time using the r/c vehicle and front really means side end! No way could the rest of it be operated from the front.....quite simply too much going on with vehicle interaction at the rear. Operating anything like the Wiking thing would have to be done from the front as quite simply you can't see it all from behind.

Manchester? Looking like 90/10 yes......after the recent setbacks! we're getting there, if we're not at 100% operationally for Manchester then I'll be making numerous apologies but we're trying....(very!)

Tony, the general idea would be to put most things in to Auto mode whilst using it on the front and driven from the front...I suppose practice and marker spots would be the ideal scenario for reversing into several different spots mostly out of the way of other stuff. We shall see!

Oh yeah Peter, it'd be made 'period' and a bit less plastic.....

I was at Hazel Grove on Saturday and overheard the discussion with a visitor on Bull Ants where you showed him one.  He recoiled at the cost and you explained they were individually made and the cost included the long distance postage. Visitor: "They come from down south then?"  Grime Street: "Sort of....Australia".  I cracked up.

 

Great layout.

Thanks, you may guess while I try to 'model seriously' I don't take it too seriously.....!

Yeah, they do run well, overall very happy with them and would recommend them without hesitation. The cyclist was amongst the better things I've added, it really does add an extra dimension to the layout.....seems to entertain kids of all ages too! 

As KH1 says....fit a new belt....perhaps 30 seconds, they come with a spare so not really an issue...I'll probably get a stock in 'just in case'  but having now tested a 38:1 Bullant straight from the packet, I'm one hundred percent sure I've made the correct decision.....speed and control is far superior.....

Yep, I don't consider my efforts anything other than 'average' I just enjoy building 'stuff', never expected anything like this ever, I always try to entertain when exhibiting, from the layout to talking to 'the punters', not in it for cups and stuff but was really surprised by this.... 

As Leeds born, this layout interests me a lot and I would very much like to see it live. However, I have no idea when we will be able to make a trip to the U.K. One thing I would like to see, albeit in photograph on the web, is a tram with 18 on the destination board. Would it be too much to have a bus, a back loader with half cab (JUB 727 for example) with destination 40?

I'll see what we can do.......

Thanks for the kind comments fellas.....nice to speak to you too Steve, Huw....we're out and about a fair bit in the next few months, off the top of my head, Crich, Halifax, Hazel Grove, Warley and then Manchester to finish this year with, then I 'think' Doncaster in Feb is the first next year, but I may be wrong! Don't expect it to look the same then....there are lots of things on the 'to do list' including a new railway fiddle yard for one end so we can run a more interesting train service, the Faller car system sections have been extended and now just need linking up....then there's the small question of the next scenic board! Joppy your on is obviously a chap of exquisite taste!!!!!! Joking apart thank him for his interest, stuff like that does make it worthwhile especially with the layout line up at Southwold....Very much appreciated.

Quite a lot of railway yard setts in Lancs/Yorks were bigger sandstone setts rather than granite, I'm pretty certain that was the case with Delph too, and tarred joints would be correct, so your memory of buff setts is probably right. 

Where do you get the spare Faller axles from?

Rear axles have come from this seller on ebay.de, had quite a few bits including motors and mounts etc, he lists quite a few things on a list I got with first order.

http://www.ebay.de/itm/9-Teile-fur-LKW-Bus-z-B-Faller-Car-System-/321930923415?hash=item4af4940d97:g:0QQAAMXQuCdTgboF 

Front  steering axles tend to be from here but I have used others as well.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/381488237604?_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

Both have proved to be very good/quick mail order and are recommended...usual caveat.

Oxford Diecast currently have a OO scale Fokker - just remembered that the Fokker is actually a Messerschmidt! 

Ta, after the Finney and Smith Bantam I'm playing with might have to have 'a mess' 

Lovely blog post, really informative. Grahame re Halling motorising stuff, I pretty much use only their parts or mechanisms in my tram fleet, the are quiet and run well, nothing like 'traditional' British tram mechs. Spare parts such as bogies etc are available directly from Halling at very reasonable prices. 

Having been inspired by your cyclist (as above!) I have gone and bought a starter kit from Magnorail...

I note that the road surface needs to be no more than 0.5mm thick for the magnets to work, and so I wondered what you used for your running surface?

Any help appreciated.

Half mill card! For the cyclist circuit I installed the track as per the Magnorail instructions, but I then built up the area round the flexible track with ply and finished any gaps with car body filler, I was 'worried' that the card might take a bang in transit somewhere so wanted a solid surface to attach the card to. The hardest part for me was blending the card road surface into the plaster that I use for the rest of the other road surfaces, if you look very closely you'll probably be able to see a join (or if my eyesight is on the way, not too closely!). I attached the card using copydex then should anything go wrong it should/was fairly easy to change....I changed it once during build but since then haven't had to touch it. Round the back I made an inspection hatch from 20 thou black plasticard, so I could access the chain and motor should I need to, the plasticard was lightly sanded to provide enough friction for the cyclist to work, at first it screeched a bit but that went fairly quickly. One other thing I found was that the gears on the motor wanted to rise up a bit when in motion, this could be because the hatch isn't very wide, so I used a length of brass strip screwed through the plasticard to keep them in position), it's just mounted on top of the plasticard hatch. Again I copydexed the hatch down as it's easy to remove and replace that way. To smooth the transition out between road and hatch I use a couple of strips of Tamiya masking tape, generally that works fine but occasionally the cyclist may dislodge and end up on one magnet. Hope that helps and more than happy to help if you have any other queries......

Thanks for your kind comments fellas......appreciated! We're out and about quite a bit in the future and with plenty more invites to be sorted out (we had more than a few at Peterborough).Our next outing is for the Merseyside MRS show at the end of October. http://www.merseysidemrs.co.uk/events15.htm, then Lincoln and District tail end of Feb http://ladmrc.wix.com/ladmrc 

Never really thought about sound, I'll be honest and say I can't see me doing it because I do find some dcc sound really irritates me at exhibitions and doing something repetitive would drive me barmy, but it's certainly food for thought.

Looking good but another 24ft to emulate Messrs Ross and Morris's Leeds tramathon. Keep up the good work Baz

Doubt it'll ever get that big.....but then again you never know. 

I'd only got the one board out to test stuff.....the layout is now getting a bit too big (currently 12ft with another board under way) to set up all the time....however it is out at Heywood MRC's show this weekend at Rochdale Town Hall so assuming I remember the camera and assuming that it all works as it should, I'll see if I can oblige!

I'll answer both in one go.....They were done by Shapeways....simply because I had an order going in and wanted to try it.... if it'd been an I Materialise order I might have tried them but didn't even get round to pricing etc, I'd guess S/W might be cheaper looking at volume costs but that is just that....a guess.

These 4mm ones are purely cosmetic as I use Halling motor bogies in the trams and their 41mm w/b one is close enough for me. But the 7mm one is planned to be altered to fit an axle hung motor probably along the lines of the NWSL magic carpet see http://www.nwsl.com/uploads/chap2_web_09-01.pdfTony my friend who is building the 7mm Piv is in the States so he tends to use all these wierd stateside stuff that I've never seen!

Both IM and S/W do their brass 'prints' as a wax print and then lost wax casting so that's the reason it's done that way... Hobson's choice! There may well be others but when you're just trying something it's easier to just tack them on an order.

The K3 is in a box somewhere with a nearly finished C13 and a few other bits and pieces.....not seen the light of day for a few years....I'll get back to some 'real' railway modelling at some stage....mind you the next plan for the layout is to make the static railway on the layout actually work.........I can chop about a Bachmann Derby lightweight to a West Yorks version and stretch the layouts time to 1955 and use it as a shuttle....A bit more operational interest. 

Memory is spot on.....the balconies lasted until 1947 when the last one 309 was withdrawn, six survived till 1945 and were whittled down to 309.

The balcony cars had pretty much gone by the period modelled 1948-54, but I must admit stretching the period so they and some of the wartime era khaki painted cars does appeal, and 'doing' a balcony would also make the converts possible to as they were the enclosed balconies done just pre war.