Swindon 123

So that's why they were heading north through Crewe and Preston yesterday. For a higher resolution image, (and a couple of others) of the locos see this link. https://flic.kr/p/CEEJdj Paul J.

Nice lathe work on the wheels. Beyond my level of competence on a lathe. Most probably why I stuck to EM. I hope it's not the 05 radiator grill you're complaining about. They should be right, except for the one on Cider Queen, which was turned around on the prototype for some reason when refurbished by Hunslet in 1968. Easily remedied by taking the one out of the model and turning it around. Despite my best efforts couldn't persuade Heljan to do it for the model. Had to do the reverse when restoring D2578. Rad grill when fitted to Cider Queen. Mesh on the outside. Rad grill on D2578, mesh to the inside. (as fitted to the original Scottish 05's). Paul J.

Hello Paul A, I remember Rutland well. Got to ride in one of the 14's there as well as exhibiting at a location involved with Ironstone workings. No we didn't have any dump cars on the high level section. I think they were looked into at one time, but they where considered to complicated to scratchbuild at that time. I think some wagons based on the calcining ones seen earlier in the thread where started, but never finished. I also had some American style bogie hopper cars that where quite small that where occasionally seen up there, but the line was more of a static display than operational. the main focus of the layout being the arrival, filling and dispatch of the outward product to the reception sidings. As to displaying EIC again, although I would like to think it would be exhibited again, I doubt it in its full format. It took 8 people to run is properly and the ten or so people who used to be regulars are not available anymore. Plus the fact it takes a lot of space to erect and would need setting up and testing fully before going to an exhibition as it has not run for 15 years. I don't have access to that sort of space any more, although I'm hoping to resurrect the exchange sidings part as a stand alone exhibit in the future and in theory the old "Mini Eastwell" concept could be resurrected, so never say never, just not in the immediate future. Paul J.

I have finally got around to EM'ing one of these locos using the original wheels. Although one has been running around Shenston Road using the original wheelsets just opened out without any problem, I decided to put them on the lathe and just take a little off the back and top of the wheel flange to my own preferred measurements. Access to the wheels was a simple matter of taking off the bottom keeper plate. this allowed the wheels and jackshaft to literally fall out. I found that with careful use of a pair of curved pointed tweezers between the coupling rods and the wheels, it was possible to pries the crankpin out of the wheel and free of the coupling rod. initially I freed up only the front and middle wheelsets from the coupling rods to work on. I was able to, with care, turn the flanges down on the wheels without taking them off the axles. When finished they carefully opened out on the axle to EM gauge. the photo below shows he before and after wheelsets. There is just enough room to fit the EM gauged wheels back onto the loco within the confines of the brake gear. It is tight and to stop any side to side movement I put 3 fibre washers on either side on the front axle to stop any sideways movement. I left the middle axle to float. see photo below. With the front and middle axles sorted I turned to the rear axle and jackshaft. The rear axle was treated in the same way as the front one and washers added to stop any lateral movement. The jackshaft was a different matter. The jackshaft does not go through the flycrank so cannot be moved out as can the wheels along the axle. After some trail and error I decided that the only solution was to manufacture a new jackshaft to move the flycranks out in line with the wheels. I settled on one 19mm long and fixed the flycranks on, correctly quartered. The wheels, jackshaft and coupling rods where then put back together. The crankpins where lightly tapped back into place with a small hammer on an flat surface very very carefully! The whole lot was put back into the chassis and once the keeper plate was refitted the chassis was tested. The photo below shows the wheels back in position ready for testing, although the jackshaft is not the right length and a little long in this shot. Testing showed up that although the chassis ran the jackshaft and flycranks could easily foul the rear steps, so four 2mm fibre washers where added either side on the jackshaft to stop any side play. the photo below shows the jackshaft at the right length with the washers added. The loco runs well and is easily capable of negotiating my minimum curve of 2ft 9inches. Opening out the wheels on the axle does leave the axle inset from the face of the wheels. To stop this looking odd I put black plastercine in the resulting holes to hide them. See photo below. A relatively simple conversion if you are careful, although I appreciate you have to have access to a lathe to do it. However some of the issues I came across, especially with the jackshaft will be pertinent in other conversion techniques. Hope fully my experiences will help others to convert their locos. Paul J.

Hello Tony, Its nice to know that the layout inspired people even though it is now nearly 40 years old, the crusher/works board was built around 1977/8. I first came across the layout as part of the larger Midland branchline "Eastwell station" layout, but was mainly responsible for the ironstone section declaring UDI and developing into it's own identity in its many guises. There was a second part to the Model Railway article in the September 87 issue following on from the August article if you ever come across it. The extended layout with the exchange sidings appeared in the August 1994 issue of "British Railway Modeling" [Vol 2 No5] and was reprised in a photo article in "Rail Express" July 1997 issue. The original "Eastwell station" layout appeared in "Model Railway Constructor" may 1980 issue and again in the May 1997 issue of "British Railway Modeling" [Vol 5 No2]. A read of all those articles, if you can find them, will show the long and complex development of the original "Eastwell station" layout and its offshoots. I have managed to track down some layout plans from the August 1994 issue of "British Railway Modeling" and will amend my original post to include them so that you can view them in relation to the photo's. There is also a page to the layout on Kier Hardy's EM70's website here, http://emgauge70s.co.uk/, although it is awaiting an update as a lot of the photos originally on photopick have been gone missing from the site. Paul J.

The above article was the inspiration behind the Ironstone part of the Ilford & West Essex MRC's "Eastwell" Layout back in the late 1970's and early 80's. The Ironstone part of the layout declared UDI and became "Mini Eastwell", a purely industrial layout with the main part featuring the Crusher plant and loading hopper based on the Railway Modeller article. This was later expanded to include exchange sidings and the connecting line between that and the crusher. It was last exhibited at York in 2001 before going into retirement, although the majority of the layout is still in existence in store. Here are some photos giving a flavor of the layout. An overall view of the Crusher and hopper area showing how closely it follows the Railway Modeler plans. Another view of the Crusher house and loco shed. Looking towards the Crusher showing the high level sidings for unloading the ore cars coming from the quarrys. The Hopper. This actually worked and loaded wagons with a set amount of "crushed iron ore" via a rotating drum system. Fiendishly clever and prone to jamming. The layout could be exhibited in three different variants. A straight version, an "L" shaped version and a "U" shaped version. The following plans show the layout in its later extended version and give some idea of the variations Layout plan with exchange sidings. The "Eastwell variations" in set up. In the long straight version, as seen in the photo below, the layout was 50 ft in length. In the "L" shape the two sides where around 25ft long each. The straight 50' EIC. The Crusher plant is in the far distance. Another view. This shows the extent of the original "Mini Eastwell" layout. The final version was a "U" shape where the layout bent around on itself so the Crusher and works area was behind the exchange sidings. This was my favourite version as it tended to form the end of an island and visitors would think it was two different layouts before realizing, with surprise, that it was all one. The following shots show the "U" shaped layout, although in this instance only two of the three sides could properly be viewed by the public. It was good fun to operate as it worked like the real thing. Empties came in and loaded went out, with the inevitable complaints from the Crushed/Hopper operator when he ran out of wagons to load. Paul J. Edited to add additional photos and plans.

It's Chester. The 37 is standing on platform 3, or 3b to be accurate, and heading towards Holyhead. Paul J. Damm. Beaten to it by the Beast.

Definite case of overspill from either the loco diesel tank, although unlikely, or.- more likely to be oil from the collection tanks for the loco's bedplate. Have seen a fair few locos where the collection tank drain cock was left open and the side of the loco absolutely plastered in oil. A steady build up of oil over the years would look just like that. The sleepers do look to be wood though. Interestingly looking at the two lines in the photo, the RH line does not appear to have a lot, if any cant on it. If my geography is right, it is the Up Line and climbing up to the tunnel. The LH line (Down line) does appear to have quite a cant on it, as the oil stain shows. This will be going downhill. I am guessing that this is canted to allow for the faster speed of a descending train, whilst the RH (Up Line) the trains are climbing the grade at a much slower speed so there is little or no cant on the track. Just my thoughts on the track difference. Any thoughts any one else? As usual Dave lots of cracking photos from all over the country. Always look forward to seeing what you can surprise us with next. Many thanks for sharing them. Paul J.

One early morning when spare at Kings Cross I walked the tunnel from York Road down to KX Thameslink station, (after it had stopped being used as an access tunnel so 1983/4ish). The North to West tunnel was there and possible to enter and walk down, after climbing over the pile of spoil left there. I don't know if any trains ran over it, but I do remember the imprints of sleepers still in parts of the tunnel. I can't remember if the LT end was blocked up, but I would guess it was, as it would have come out somewhere around KX circle line station platforms and there was no sign of it there. I remember the Circle line to platform 1 connection at Liverpool Street. You used to be able to see the LT end from passing Circle line trains, and I drove enough trains into Platform 2 at Liverpool street and remember the bricked up tunnel mouth. I believe the gymnasium and associated small bar at Liverpool Street station was inside the old connecting tunnel. Paul J.

Another very satisfied customer here. Ordered a Bachmann 20 at a very reasonable price yesterday. Arrived this morning. Exceptional service. I shall certainly be having another look at their site in the future. Paul J.

Excellent set of photos as always David. Especially like the shot showing the insides of the iron ore tipplers. Keep them coming. All the best for your Mums speedy recovery. Paul J.

Funnily enough I did Wayne 37901. Here are a couple of shots of the POA. (I also took some detail shots of bits as well) And also the SEA. Eventually they will find there way onto my Flickr site, but I'm not at that year yet for uploading. Paul J.

What do you do if you have some wagons to move but no shunter to do it with. Use a spare DMU of course. After the Hereford & Shrewsbury Open Day in May 1993, a few wagons had been left in the yard and needed moving. With no resident 08 available at Hereford, anything that could be found was used to shunt the wagons. In this case a Tyseley class 116 DMU came to the rescue in the shape of TS322 set. May 1993. The DMU was also an interesting hybrid, formed of DMBS, M53053 nearest, and incorporating Class 119 Trailer buffet 59419. The trailer buffet in NSE livery. Paul J.

Todays photos deal with some of the latest acquisitions to the Shenston Road and EIC fleets. first up are some shots of the Sutton Loco works class 24's. Greg went for 24081, having worked on the loco in the late 70's. At he moment it is in "out of the box" condition, awaiting space behind the remaining Warships in the weathering workshops. It has been doing the rounds on Shenston Road for testing purposes, and is a nice runner. D5000 is an addition to the EIC fleet of locos and has also been out on test. This loco differs from 24081 in the fact that the wheelsets, although being fitted with "EM" sets that SLW can supply as is 24081, have had the flanges turned down a little more. This was a personal preference as 24081 runs with the original EM sets in OK. Originally planned to be repainted in Blue, this has been changed as it would require detailing the underframe as it lost it's side skirts in that colour. Awaiting space in the paint shops for SYP to be added. The third loco "on test" was just that. On test. Continuing problems with the reliability of Heljan motors in the class 15 and 16 locos, has resulted in a search for replacements. D8201 was an ideal doner loco having been acquired for spares a while back with a defective motor. After considering replacements, some motors became available from Cambridge Custom Transfers at a very reasonable price. With little to loose, a couple where purchased to see if they would work as a replacement. D8201 has been running trials on Hornsey Broadway and Shenston Road layouts to see if there are any weaknesses in the re-motoring. So far after 10 or more hours running on both layouts with quite excessive loads, the experiment seems to have been a success. Here D8201 is put through it spaces. (Yes I know it's missing its underframe bits, but I can't be bothered to keep taking them off when removing the body to check inside ). How it was done. The original motor as fitted, (see below) was 12mm in diameter), so the replacement had to be the same. Fortunately it was. With the original motor removed, the hardest part was to remove the flywheels off each end and refit to the new motor. Inevitably it resulted in the destruction of the original motor, but it didn't work in the first place, so no tears shed. The new motor was double ended, but not of equal length, so the armature shaft at one end was cut down so overall its shaft was the same length as the original. The flywheels could then be refitted and the motor put in place. As the new motor was not round, but stood higher than it was wide, the original keeper plate could not be used, so new straps where made from plasticard strip to hold the motor in place. The original rubber cradle was left in the base under the new motor and one also put back on top of the new motor to help keep the motor in the right position to line up the drive shafts. The position of the motor is crucial and if you look at the photo above there are two sets of cut marks in the loco chassis to mark the end of the flywheels with the original motor in position. The new motor had to match these marks to ensure smooth running. Also the motor had to be the right way round for electrical connections. The original circuit board would just fit back into its original position, and with the wires connected back up it was rolling road tested to see that it would in fact run. A bit of tweaking was required to get the best running from the new combination, and since then it has done many hours testing with heavy loads on Shenston Road and Hornsey Broadway, which both have formidable gradients on them, with no problems manifesting themselves so far. This testing will continue until something gives, up. Either me or on the loco??? Hopefully it will be me, and the loco will continue to perform faultlessly for ever. Next challenge. Can the same method be used in a class 16?? Next batch of photos will have a "Western" theme. Paul J. (Edited to add my monogram. Which I forgot and also some spelling and grammar mistakes)

Or even when not at a station. Up line at Allscott, between Shrewsbury and Wellington, April 1985. Paul J.

Here we are again. New Year, new post, and in this case new loco. The Shenston Road Warship fleet has increased by one. D815 "Druid" is the latest addition. It was one of the few, (if only) maroon warships Greg saw, so he decided to immortalise it in model form using as many photos as he could find. Below are a few views of his finished handiwork. D815 "Druid". A shot of the opposite side taken at the Birmingham end approach to the station. Here's another shot of D815, but experimented with new locations on Shenston Rd, this shot is looking along the Down Loop by the steel works. Continuing on with the warships and unusual photographic locations, a view of 841 "Roebuck" waiting in the Up platform at Shenston Rd. A side on view of said loco. And another, joined by D218 on the Up fast. To end this Warship themed post, a shot of 814 "Dragon" taken from the roof of an adjacent factory. That's it for this view of the fleet. More subject matter is in preparation, and will be added in due course, including some shots of the SLW class 24's on test. Paul J.

Thanks for the compliment David. I changed my photographic method slightly for this set of photos. In recent years I've been setting the ISO to something like 1600 on the camera with an f stop of 22 or more (where possible). I always thought they looked a bit grainy and so for this set I changed the ISO to 100, still with a high an f stop as possible. I also tweaked the photos whilst editing. I cut down on the "noise" in the photo, although as they where digital images it didn't seen to make much difference. I also sharpened the images as well using the software, which did help on the images with a lot of depth of field. It made a lot of difference in the first photo of the train in the steelworks. I'm very pleased with the result in that shot as both the front of the locos and the steelworks in the background, around 5ft away, are nicely in focus (at least on the original). I also like to take a photo with as wide an angle lens as possible, 18mm in the case of most, and then crop out the area I want to post. An example is posted below. You sometimes get a slightly "fish eye" look to the photos, but I'm happy to accept the results in most cases. As with all things photographic, this has been a learning curve, with not all attempt coming out as expected. I generally post around 10% of what I take. Looking over the holding sidings at Shenston Road. D1054 and 352 on the Shenston Road SP. Thank you Arthur for the welcome correction. I shall alter the post accordingly. That's the nice thing about railway modeling. You can learn things that are not directly connected to railways sometimes. Paul J.

Having received the necessary information from Mark (see above) and more importantly photographs of the converted LMS brake van runner wagons, Greg embarked on recreating a Molten Metal Torpedo Carrier train for Shenston Road. Although still at a "work in progress" stage, I had the opportunity to photograph it the other day. (The photos also give Greg the opportunity to see any finishing off, or corrections that are required. The camera is so cruel). Following are a selection of photos of the train on Shenston Road and the individual wagons. Motive power for the day was 6728 + 6999 (O/L from WR). The train awaiting departure from the steelworks yard. Approach Shenston Road station. In the Up Loop. The Up Loop but more from the side. (Trains parked here have no clutter in front so a good place to photograph them). One of the Torpedo Carriers. A barrier wagon. This was converted from a spare Airfix LMS brake van from the EIC fleet. Greg had originally intended to do two of them, but found the plastic Airfix used for the chassis so difficult to work with he decided to convert only one. In the absence of a 2nd conversion, Greg has followed prototype practice for the time and used a spare MGR hopper instead. Even that had to be chosen carefully to ensure the correct body type.The cruelty of photos reveals this is not finished yet as he has still to decide on a number for it. The rear of the train and the second Torpedo Carrier. Some work was done to make the Carriers look less continental, and I believe Greg did consider changing the bogie arrangement to reduce the axle numbers but decided against it. That is the state of play with regards to the Torpedo Carriers on Shenston Road. Not a reproduction of the ones that ran to Consett, but hopefully giving a reasonable representation of this type of train. After all this is a fictitious layout, so they could have run like this?? I'm sure Greg will fill in some of the gaps and answer any questions on the work done these model in due course. Paul J. Edited to correct some terminology. See Arthur's post 195 below.

Sorry not at the moment. I have D5000 that is waiting to have a SYP added to the front, but I also have to modify the water tank to the smaller one for this version. Unfortunately it is behind in the queue for attention behind a batch of 37's. Originally going to be in blue as D5000, but didn't have the heart to overspray the original paint job. Paul J.

Platform length would not be the only major stumbling block, its all the ancillary stuff like fuelling points and the like which where designed for a specific set up/unit length. Light engine speeds and trains made up of less than 5 coaches, where updated in the late 80's to "line speed below 90MPH--60MPH". Line speed above 90MPH--75MPH. Before that the speeds for light engines and trains made up of less than 5 coaches, was more complicated. Line speed up to 75MPH--60MPH, line speed up to 80 MPH--65MPH, line speed up to 85MPH--70MPH, line speed 90MPH and above--75MPH. Addendum: Talking to an old colleague, he reminded me that originally it was loco + 3 coaches had to run at light engine speeds. It was changed to loco + 5 when they simplified the light engine speeds. Paul J. (Edited to add new information).

The only 20 in with the number and double arrow in that position that fits the bill for that period in D8032, which came down from Scotland (64B) to D16 Nottingham division in July 68 before being reallocated to Stratford (30A) in September 68, where it stayed until May 71. So it is probably D8032 and would fit into it being a Nottingham division allocation at that location, shortly before moving down to Stratford. Paul J.

Not just a Southern problem. DMU's where just as bad. some even had the audacity to park the wipers around the side of the cab. Not even on the window. Controlling the speed of them was just as much a lottery! Paul J.

How very true. I've spent a couple of runs alternating with the driver, each of us taking half hour stints in the seat whilst the other stood as close as they could to the cab heater that was producing the most heat. DMU's where no better and in the end I carried my own roll of masking tape nicked from the fitters to try and tape up the holes. Class 37's & 40's had problems with draughts from the cab droplights, that's why a lot of locos had a semi permanent supply of newspapers, or anything else, to try and stuff around the window to try and stop the draughts. 60's also had the same problem, but on the drivers side, only because of the way the sliding window was designed and operated. Paul J.

Received a Dapol 73 in the post this morning. Excellent service from "The Hobby Shop" in Faversham. Bought one of their Limited Edition E6047 models. Looks very nice and easy to EM. Slightly more expensive than others but a nice touch is a £5 donation to the group restoring and running the real E6047, which I was quite happy with. Here are a couple of shots of the loco. (The Blue looks very light on account of the flash) To round up this post I found one of my shots of the front end and buffer beam on a 73, to help putting on the extra buffer beam pipework reproduced here. 73109 at Stratford Open Day, 11-07-81. Paul J.

Nice photos as always Dave. Trowell 20088 & ano down light engines April 75 J4214 is doubly interesting for, not only the 20's, but looking at the nearest track, which doesn't look as though it's been used in a while, it appears to be Bullhead rail & chairs on concrete sleepers. Not a common combination. Paul J.