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Flood

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Blog Entries posted by Flood

  1. Flood

    Creating an operating sequence

    By Flood,


    Blog Aberdeen Kirkhill
    From looking through the Railway Modeller article again, and also taking into account the way we run the layout at exhibitions, I feel that one of the reasons that Kirkhill interests Glenn and I is the fact we run to a set sequence.
     
    One of the complaints about TMDs is that nothing much really happens: a loco arrives to be fuelled, may go into a shed for an inspection but otherwise is just stabled until it needs to leave for the next service.
     
    Coaching stock, on the other hand, needs to have the following: an exterior wash, possibly a maintenance exam (a minimum requirement of checking wheels, brakes, gangways, couplings, electrical equipment, toilets/wash basins/water tanks and heating equipment), otherwise an environmental exam (interior check for all items of passenger comfort: compare heating/cooling temperatures, seats, lights, toilets, doors etc), be internally cleaned and have the water tanks topped-up so the stock will be ready for the next passenger train when needed. This information was found in B.R. document CMS123 which just happened to be available on the internet.
     
    All this means that a train which arrives on the depot cannot leave straight away and may well have to wait for another train which arrived in front of it before the environmental/maintenance exam can occur. In order to replicate the complexity of this task I set about finding out which trains would need to arrive at the depot, the time they would arrive, the time it would take to perform all the tasks and the time the trains had to leave the depot to be able to get back to the station on time.
     
    The first task was to list all the trains that called at Aberdeen in 24 hours. The BR Passenger timetable was consulted first and additional information from a Working Timetable was then added. I summarised this as below:
     
    Aberdeen 1987-88 Tuesday - Friday.pdf
     
    The next stage was to create a spreadsheet of 24 hours in 5 minute intervals. Each train's arrival and departure was then inserted in the correct slot (giving about 20 minutes between a train arriving at the station and arriving at the depot). All I had to do then was estimate 5 mins for a train to go through the washing plant and the length of time needed in the maintenance shed (estimated at 15 mins per coach). One completed page is shown below:
     
    Layout Schedule.pdf
     
    From this I removed the time gaps between all the moves to give the sequence (i.e running order) for all the trains. These were originally presented as seven cards for the operators to read off. "Mainline" moves (those onto and off the depot plus light engine movements) are in red, the shunting moves are in green. Below is a page from the Mainline sequence. The shunting sequence had the green moves in the larger size and the red moves smaller.
     
    Main line Schedule (DMU + Charter).pdf
     
    So we had a wonderfully complicated sequence which taxed our brains to the limit but the public didn't know what was happening.
     
    To solve this Glenn typed up a general explanation of each move giving details of each train (time of arrival/departure, headcode, loco type and any other useful information). To help him I summarised all the train and light engine moves that would be seen.
     
    Aberdeen 1987-88 depot moves.pdf
     
    This was completed the morning of the 2011 Nottingham Exhibition and the sheets are arranged in what would be hourly intervals. As each sheet is completed it is turned over and the public can read information about the moves in the next "sequence hour" on one side as the operators read the sequence on the other.
     
    Kirkhill Operating Guide and Public Notes.pdf
     
     
    I've now succeeded in either a.) sending you all to sleep or b.) explaining why we both enjoy running the layout so much.
     
    Hopefully the explanations we have produced for the public have helped them understand the layout better as well.
  2. Flood

    Loco fleet and selected coaching stock

    By Flood,


    Blog Aberdeen Kirkhill
    Why on earth am I posting photos of the loco fleet for the layout when it's a coaching stock depot?
     
    Well I do appreciate the fact that most of the people on RMweb will be more interested in the locomotives used rather than the coaching stock. That said there is an interesting selection of trains that run on Kirkhill (well I think so) so I've also posted selected items of coaching stock as well. The locos don't really need much explanation but they are all based on photos from fotopic and other web sources taken between January and May 1988. Each coaching stock photo has a description for a brief explanation, the remainder of the items are as "off the shelf" so don't really warrant specific attention.
     
    Apologies for some of the loco photos, I'm trying to spend more time on the layout and less on playing. All the photos were taken on Glenn's other layout, Glen Carron.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     
    Now for the coaching stock:
     
    Two vehicles from the Royal mail rake. Made by me from DC Kits items the bodies have been beautifully painted and transferred by Alex Carpenter. The bogies are Replica. First a POS with VHF pod on the roof, the far end body section was cut and shut to change the far end window position. Next a BPOT, the Guard's door still needs the handrails adding.


     
    Next a Bachmann Mk2Z repainted into ScotRail livery and given air brake cylinders from an old Airfix Mk2D. The orange gutter stripe still needs to be added. This and all the remaining stock was resprayed by Glenn except the TSOT and DBSO.

     
    Mk3a CO complete with 1st and 2nd class seating. The rake of Mk3a coaches are all Jouef which have the correct roof vents (Lima and Hornby Mk3s have HST style ones).

     
    DC Kits DBSO made by Alex Carpenter, Glenn has also made one. A third is a converted Airfix BSO and this one may well be replaced next year for another DC Kits one.

     
    Mainline TSO lettered, numbered and slightly painted by me into a TSOT. 6607 never did receive full ScotRail livery.

     
    Mainline TSO repainted into ScotRail livery. We have one Mk3a push-pull rake and two pie-bald Mk2 rakes. These consist of a mixture of Mk2Zs, a Mk2A FK, Mk2Ds and a Mk2E FO.




  3. Flood

    CMS 123 and other information

    By Flood,


    Blog Aberdeen Kirkhill
    From the outset we wished the layout to be used as a platform for explaining the amount of work undertaken by staff every day (and mostly at night) to ensure the trains continue to run for the public.
     
    The backscenes by the wash and toilet discharge roads were unable to have any meaningful scenery added before the exhibition so they were chosen to display information to the exhibition visitors (another of Glenn's ideas). This not only finds a use for the screen in front of the fiddle yard but also gives people a reason to stand at that end of the layout and not solely congregate around the depot buildings and fuelling area.
     
    Below are each of the sheets displayed along the screen. I created the first draft with subsequent tweaking by Glenn.
     

     

     

     

     

     

     

  4. Flood

    The first public display (Mickleover Oct 3rd/4th)

    By Flood,


    Blog Aberdeen Kirkhill
    Attached are a few photos from the first exhibition we attended. The first four were taken by Glenn about three days before the exhibition in his front room/dining room. The remainder were taken rather badly by me on the Saturday morning of the exhibition.
     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     
    The hole in the depot building roof is deliberate. Without it the public cannot see inside and we can have difficulties uncoupling. The cut-away edges are to be painted red to simulate the cut-aways done by draughtsmen on their drawings
     
    I should add that the exhibition was a complete success. The locos worked perfectly on the track all weekend (apart from three which failed early on but this was due to shorting of the circuit boards under the chips). Great fun was had by me, Glenn and Alex trying to keep to the schedule I had made of all the depot movements. By the Sunday I had decided that writing down all the amendments that were needed was a good idea, in truth there were only about two actual conflicts and the rest was just general tidying up of of the schedule.
     
    Being mainly a shunting layout we had been worried that either we or the public would be bored stiff within a couple of hours. I can't speak for the public but operation of the layout was summed up by Alex when he said that by having to follow the schedule he didn't have time to get bored, he was too busy wondering what he had to do next. Not bad for a group of amateurs!
  5. Flood

    Finding a location

    By Flood,


    Blog Aberdeen Kirkhill
    For a layout to work properly (especially if other people are going to be watching it) there needs to be a purpose and a possibility that a ficticious layout could have happened in reality. For these reasons a feasible location was required for "Aberdeen Coaching Stock Depot". We did not want to try to model Clayhills depot because it would have been too long and the station is very close, instead an alternative location was required.
     
    My idea was to use the site of Kittybrewster shed as below:

    Kittybrewster is just to the north of Aberdeen station.
     
    Glenn in the meantime had looked at Craiginches Yard, about a mile and a half to the south of the station:

     
    A rough sketch had been made by Glenn as to the design of the layout and I downloaded XtrkCAD to check how everything fitted. Mention must now be made of the fact that I had insisted on a full length HST rake thus the original argument to utilise short trains to ensure a smaller layout had been completely throw out of the window! The XtrkCAD image is shown plus a simplified plan (extended vertically for clarity) as below. This plan has changed very little over the months, only the removal of a loco maintenance building by the carriage shed and the need for the far end crossover were required from the initial scribbled idea.


    The layout had now grown to be 24 feet long!
     
    Glenn then dropped the bombshell that Aberdeen has only 2 through platforms, all the rest are bays. The argument for Kittybrewster was removed in one go and the location of Craiginches was chosen. We always stated that Clayhills was needed for City Centre redevelopment (as per Guild Street yard on the other side of the station), and Bob-65B has told us that this plan was actually looked at in the 1980s with a view to using Craiginches Yard - strange how a ficticious layout could have happened in reality.
     
    One of the roads running near to Craiginches Yard is Kirkhill Road, hence the reason for the name Aberdeen Kirkhill. Another of Glenn's ideas but it does have a nice ring to it.
  6. Flood

    Construction time

    By Flood,


    Blog Aberdeen Kirkhill
    Construction of the baseboards is in 9mm ply. Below is a photo taken on 30th May showing the basic idea.

     
    followed by three of the boards put together. Boards are located to one another by metal dowels and then coach bolted.

     
    After construction of all the boards there commenced first the track laying and then the wiring. Operation is by DCC so every length of track on each board is linked to two buses, one for supply of the electricity and one for return. Glenn insists on neatness and his wiring is a joy to behold. Point wiring (including changeover switches for the frogs) was not multi-coloured on the remainder of the boards. Red wire was used for every connection but each wire is coded at each end to ensure ease of rectification. We always said that if the layout didn't work then we could turn the boards over and have a demonstration in wiring! Date of the photo 18th July.

     
    Glenn's friend Ian Bush arrived for a few days in August and the layout moved along at an incredible rate. Ian himself constructed the depot inspection pit (inside the depot shed) out of brass angle. The following photo doesn't really do it justice.

    In addition, end plates for the carrying of the boards and backscenes were made. The way the boards link together for ease of movement and storage is another case of a design working to perfection.

     
    That weekend the sun shone again so the first full assembly of the layout was tried. Not only were we able to "play trains" for the first time but checking of all the electrical connections was achieved (and a couple did need changing). To find any faults before ballasting commenced would ease any changes necessary considerably.


     
    We had spent 11 weeks so far and had 8 weeks left until the exhibition - a reasonably completed layout seemed a long way away.
  7. Flood

    Basic scenery

    By Flood,


    Blog Aberdeen Kirkhill
    The next job for the layout was ballasting all the viewable track and, yet again, we ended up spending far more time on this process than we first thought.
     
    We started the job together but with the layout being at Glenn's all the time I only managed two boards with two lines on each. Writing this report I'm beginning to wonder how much I actually contributed to this layout! In the meantime I was given the responsibility of making the depot shed and Glenn decided to have a side project of making Wellington Road bridge at the scenic break (mainly to stop him going mad having to do all the ballast).
     
    I had had an idea on the style of the depot building from early August but the actual construction was debated for a couple of weeks. First it was to be in plywood, then we looked at utilising Scalescenes sheets and finally 6mm plywood was chosen for the frame with either plasticard or Scalescene sheets to cover. A sheet of plywood was cut into the main parts and they are seen below on August 23rd

     
    By the 9th September the 2 foot section was complete and the 4 foot section had commenced:


     
    16 days to just do that I hear you say. Yep, you're right, not a very speedy process by me. My time was mainly distracted by two things 1) The completion of a working schedule to cover 24 hours of depot movements for Aberdeen in February 1988 and 2) a summary of CMS 123, the Carriage Maintenance Schedule, so as to explain the workings of a depot to the public.
     
    Glenn had continued with Wellington Road Bridge and by 16th September the depot building and the bridge were as below:

     

     
    I had finally given up the idea of cladding the depot building before the exhibition so it was just sprayed in grey primer. The remainder of September was spent by me cutting, glueing and painting the cleaning platforms, repainting two TTAs in BP livery for the layout, building the chassis' for four Post Office vehicles (the bodies were already made and had been given to Alex Carpenter for painting) and putting chips into my last five locos which needed them. The cleaning platforms were finished the weekend before the exhibition and the Post Office vehicles were finished by me on the Thursday and tweaked to ensure good running on the Friday morning.
     
    Glenn added some relief to the front of the layout around the area of the bridge, added some grass and trees, painted concrete walkways and tarmaced the carpark/roadways.
     
    The weekend before had also meant a trip to Loughborough exhibition where some Knightwing fuel storage tanks were purchased along with more Bachmann buildings and some Taxis to add to the layout. Along with constructing the toilet discharge points on the front of the layout we had somehow managed to make a reasonably acceptable model in time for the show
     
    What I did forget to mention was the fact that both the single slip had to be replaced in late August and double slip in mid Setember due to dips in the centres of each point and consequently poor running (especially by the 08s). This was not good for the nerves of either of us!
  8. Flood

    First beginnings

    By Flood,

    In November 2008 I was chatting to Glenn Daniel (Dunedin) at Mickleover Model Railway Club and we thought of making a layout for the exhibition circuit. Utilising one of the other members branch line layouts was contemplated (it was for possible sale at the time) but we decided to go for our own instead. Initial thoughts were around the area of the country to model and, due to keeping the layout small enough for two people to manage, we realised we would need short trains meaning we had two options - Scotland or Cornwall. Glenn has been modelling Scotland in the 1980s, I was modelling Cornwall in October 1976. In the end I acknowledged the fact that the general public are more interested in different colours as opposed to different rakes so Scotland won.
     
    The next thought was of location and a station on the Highland line between Perth and Inverness was looked at. Suddenly Glenn stated that he'd always wanted to build a coaching stock depot and with my interest in rake formations I whole-heartedly agreed on the idea. I did look again at modelling Penzance carriage sidings but I was never going to win that battle! First thoughts were about Edinburgh (Glenn had worked at Craigentinny in the 1980s) but I noted that vacuum braked trains were still running from Aberdeen to Inverness so I suggested Aberdeen - HSTs, Sleepers, Push-Pulls and Cross-Country services all being available as well. Thus the area was set, now to find a plot of land we could say the depot could have been placed.
  9. Flood
    Jobs for the next 7 months are:
     
    cladding the depot building, brickwork below the windows and general ventilation ducts etc (done)
    add windows to depot building and finish painting roof (done)
    depot lighting towers (ordered)
    small depot lights inside the shed and at the shed front (done)
    lighting gantries over the cleaning roads (done)
    add water stand pipes and hoses (done), shore supply points (done), battery chargers (done)
    overall ballast weathering and weathering the track by the fuelling points, fuel storage tanks and completed depot building
    changing the proprietory brickwork from red to grey (in progress)
    add working exit signal (done)
    add working street lights to Wellington Road bridge (done )
    add relief to the whole of the front of the layout and the two ends (in progress)
    add security fencing along the front of the layout (done)
    build wheel lathe shed (done)
    cladding the wheel lathe shed adding brickwork below the windows
    add windows to wheel lathe shed and finish painting roof
     
    finish four Mk2e TSOs
    cut and shut to make a Mk2d BFK
    finish the Mk1 BFK (done)
    add InterCity 125 etc to the ex swallow HST trailers
    renumber all coaching stock
    add ScotRail to the Inverness rake (done)
    paint ScotRail TSOT, two more ScotRail Mk2z TSOs, ScotRail Mk2d TSO, ScotRail Mk2e FO
    repaint the new Hornby HST power cars to Executive livery (instead of Swallow) (done)
    add another Inverness 47 (done) and preferably another push-pull 47 (done)
    buy a full length Blue and grey HST (done)
     
    Listen to Runrig
     
    As of 13/04/10
     
     
    13/08/12
    Over 2 years later and the items in blue still haven't been done even though we have added 2 more working sidings, overload cutouts, some snow, a DMU, more people and 3 more locos. Just goes to show that some layouts never get finished.
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