Jon Fitness

Wasn't sure whether to blog or thread this, but I'll start with a thread and see how we go. I've built a few 7mm signals for a mates (sadly now defunct) garden railway and they were mostly operated by solenoid point motors. As we've moved the signals to the new indoor layout I've thought about maybe powering them with micro servos and to this end I've got some bits from MERG http://www.merg.org.uk/ and I'm giving it a go. So...this is the first signal. It's a scratchbuilt ex LMS upper quadrant 3 doll bracket thats now a gantry (er...don't ask..yet.) This is one of the servos (digital prodder thing to show size) This is the kit of bits that will be a driver unit for up to 4 servos (If I can fathom it out) And this is a box of bits that will program the servo driver to do as it's told. (How much travel and how fast or slow etc) If I don't fry the contents with the soldering iron that is... I'll update with words and pics as I progress. Feel free to comment/help/laugh as required. More Soon JF

Cheers John, Not looking forward to linking it up though. Big job. JF

Thanks, I think it's somewhere between Dolgelly and Barmouth, before it reaches the Mawddach estuary, but don't quote me on that. It was from a pile of photo backscene "seconds" found by one of Steve's mates on a stall at a Dolls House swapmeet!

In our banker siding, Steve has provided a little coaling facility to feed the bunkers and tenders of the busy bank engines. Another ex Talacre signal has been re-furbed and positioned at the LM jc; this is now the home signal coming off the incline from the GW station. More retaining wall has had its lumpy stone added ready for painting and the yard at the LM station now has a cobbled area. Steve has left a space that might as well have a big arrow with flashing lights that says "The goods shed goes here.....Jon...when you're ready....in your own time..." An old signal from Talacre (Which I was never really happy with) has been re-built with some new dolls, extended, turned round and generally bashed into shape to suit it's new role as the LM jc main diverging signal. It will now be a gantry (of sorts) and have 4 working arms which hopefully will be worked by servos. This will of course be subject to me being able to successfully assemble the required control kit from MERG! More of this signal is shown further down Mike Evans brought his Bachmann 03 for a run out and very nice it looks too. (well I thought so..) . Yes I know its a diseasle Steve but at least it has a chimney and coupling rods............. The gantry was then tried in position and (thankfully) fitted and there is a nice clear area under the baseboards to fit the working "gubbins". As the use of servos is new technology to me, when I eventually start on the mechanics and electrical side of this I'll start a thread rather than a blog so you can all watch and probably laugh as I struggle. Meanwhile, a number of trains were run underneath it to check for clearance on the curves. Among them, Les's visiting standard 4 2-6-0 looked grand as it trundled a fitted freight round.

Ok here's a bit of an update. I can't currently include any pictures within the text due to what must be, to Andy and the dedicated admin team, frustating problems, but the link to the gallery should give you an idea of where we are now. Steve and Les are much faster and more regular workers on the layout and have for the most part, completed the major scenic work on the main lines and surrounding areas. I've plodded on with my little area by the LM station entrance when I can, but work and other commitments have kept me away a little. Hopefully in the next few weeks I can crack on with the rest of the stone walling while Steve and Les make a start on track laying on the upper (WR) level station. Now the ballasting is completed, I now have 3 or 4 signals waiting in the wings to be installed by the LM junction, including a sort of gantry on the approach to the Jc points. I say sort of, as it's design and construction would probably make a purist wince but it's a case of "waste not want not". Precious few of the signals from "talacre" can be re-used without modification and some may have to be sold on as not suitable for the track layout on the Saltney Railway. Shame. I think I'll leave any further updates until RMWeb is healthy and fully functioning again so... TTFN B)

After receiving an offer of 4 petrol tank wagons, Steve decided to squeeze a small petrol terminal in to the end of the LM station yard. Again, several bits and bobs were unearthed from boxes of stuff rescued from "Talacre" and fashioned into a representation of an unloading area. Although it's a "bitza" it began to look ok. We're not rivet counters here, it's more about having a bit of fun with the stock we have. This gave Les and Steve a chance to fill a bit of space with a roadway. This provides access to the terminal and also to the back of the locoshed. (Cue sleeper fences and a gate placed in such a way as to make bunking the engine shed difficult to do without being seen from the shedmasters office ) The road comes through a single file tunnel that will hopefully have working traffic lights eventually. Steady progress was made at the petrol terminal with lights and buildings soon being installed. Although not really in keeping with the LM region flavour of the station, my IOW 02 No22 Brading payed a call to shunt the yard. It ran well which was a tribute to Steves track laying as the loco only has pickups on the driving wheels. (Although a Ron Chaplin motor gearbox with flywheel helps) Anyone remember the film reference in the previous post? The film was 10, Rillington Place. Steve says now I've fixed a streetname to the house he's going to add a 7mm scale policeman peering down an open manhole cover. Anyone smell something An old controller with inertia and brake control, home made by persons unknown, was unearthed from a box, tested and found to be excellent. Duly fitted at the LM station it provides hours of fun, catching out those unfamiliar with its odd ways. Good job we have stout buffer stops!. Finally for this post, I made a bit more progress with the walling around the bridge and station entrance, thanks to Slaters chunky stone walling. I reckon I need about 25 sheets in all, to do all the various retaining walls in the LM station area! The next post should bring things up to date. I'll then decide whether to carry on with the blog, or switch over to a thread.

To fill a hole in a corner, Steve dug out some old bits of low relief buildings from "Talacre" and added a few walls (with support) to create a nice dank scene behind the signalbox. When it was completed (much to Steve's consternation)someone noticed the similarity to a scene from a certain grisly British film of the early 70's. A suitable street name was printed up and applied to complete the scene. (If you can't guess, you'll have to wait for a later post to see it ) Meanwhile, a scenic break was suggested across the rather tight curve between the main junctions. I suggested an inclined bridge in a cutting a little like the one at Dent Station. Steve wanted a similar thing but stretched to make a short tunnel. Anything to seperate the junctions and make them look like the trains were going from place to place. Nothing too big or flashy. Les had other ideas What we ended up with was this...It looked horrible while it was being built (hence no in build pics) and caused a few "crossed words" but turned out ok in the end. The GW bracket signal was rescued from "Talacre" and is one of the few that can be used on the new layout. Of the 15 or so signals that were recovered, about 4 have been earmarked as useful, the rest will either be altered to fit or sold on. Meanwhile I got into a few other projects The bridge and underbridge station entrance for the LM station Based loosely on Walkden High Level Ex L&Y.with adverts on the bridge sides taken from the Bolton area. Magees was a Bolton brewery, taken over by Greenall's in 1958 and finally closed in the early 70's. More pictures of the bridge and station can be seen in the gallery attached to this blog. A co- acting LMS upper quad signal. Scatchbuilt from home produced parts, etched ladders(D&S) and a wooden stick retrieved from a bonfire night rocket. and the 2 control panels needed so far. The fun my puny brain had wiring up some form of cab control to those those peco electrofrog crossings.......There's probably far too much wire and switches involved. There must be an easier (non DCC) way.

While I battled with the wiring, Steve next turned to adding more detail and atmosphere to the MPD, getting the turntable working well, making a control panel and wiring up some lights. More green lumpy stuff was applied and plenty of colour sprayed to blend it all in. To complete the scene, a Skytrex enginemans bothy was added and blended in after Steve worked his magic on it.

Roger It's still a bit "fluid" at the moment and I've held off from drawing out a track plan while Steves still laying track but I'll have a go at drawing a plan of what we've got so far. Meanwhile, I'll be posting a picture of a couple of control panels soon so keep watching Hopefully I'll be able to install a couple of your wonderful colour light signals we rescued from Talacre. (And one I bought from you via ebay but have yet to use! ) Cheers JF

Firstly, must apologise if these entries seem to be coming a bit thick and fast. Just trying to bring it up to date without making each entry too big! Steve had a bit of luck when someone gave him a load of photgraphic backscene sheets. OK they were seconds but very useful nevertheless. They were quickly mounted on boards and installed (to hide my point motors!) A bit of work with the plaster bandage, paint and green lumpy stuff and a nice scenic area was the result. I placed my detailed Alphgraphics LNWR Signalbox at the junction and a couple of locos were posed in the banker siding to see what the scene looked like. The almost completed area showing the fearsome gradients to be encountered when climbing up from the LM junction.You can see how the up and down inclines were split to ease the upward gradient. Lack of space prevented both lines from being re-aligned. Meanwhile, Steve and Les got busy with more green lumpy stuff around the tunnel mouth, and we now have one side of the layout looking reasonably presentable Of course we had to have a play, and 51232 (Sevenscal kit with Slaters wheels and Mashy motor) surprised us all by trotting sedately round with a 24 wagon freight train. Work then turned to the loco shed. Working of the layout will entail a lot of light engine movements on and off shed for turning so Steve installed a lot of isolating sections in the various tracks and set about adding lots of grime and atmosphere (and a bit more green lumpy stuff) to create an authentic looking environment. 2 areas finally got their finalised track layouts. The LM station and the GW junction. Much work ahead with the wiring (I now hate diamond crossings!)

Cheers John! We're well ahead now, I'm just slowly feeding in the pics and bringing it all up to date. Should be there in a week or so Jon F.

When the track was layed into the LM station, we knew we were on the very limit of curvature for most of the locos (we reckoned some of the curves were 4' 6" radius) and this proved to be too much for some. A re-think was necessary which resulted in much alteration of the woodwork and a reduction in complexity of the trackwork. We had originally envisaged a double track into the station but this was reduced to single. Many attempts were made before a compromise was reached. As the corner by the door would be the first thing that people will see as they walk in, that area was chosen as the first to have a bit of scenic treatment so Steve and Les got busy while I got on with the wiring and point motors. As the track layout in that corner had just about been finalised, the structure for the ramps was boxed in and painted black to act as a scenic base for walling etc. The position of the turntable was by now ridiculously out of reach and as the LM station's layout had been changed, the plan to have kickback sidings feeding back round to below the site of the upper level was abandoned, freeing up space for a larger MPD area. Steve then added an extension board to accomodate the turntable and moved it down. Much better. Meanwhile, I got busy sorting out which of the point motors scavenged from Talacre were usable, cleaned them up and started to install them. The first 2 were installed at the LM jc and as well as firing the points over, also operate the microswitches for point polarity.

Seeing the first train run gave us a bit of a boost and once the hidden loops were in it was time to start adding the upper station area. This will eventually be the WR station and will be the larger of the 2. The large board will be hinged for access until the lower area is proven to be ok then it will be fastened down with a removable front retaining wall for access. The turntable was rescued from Talacre and tried here but proved to be a little out of reach (more of which later!!) The LM station area was originally going to cross over the top of the main lines but this would have been a duck under too many.. the end of the station now ends abuptly on an overbridge but a feature will be made of this, combined with a ramp up from the road to the goods yard.Lots of Slaters embossed stone plasticard has been ordered!! The ramp up to the upper level proved to be a little steep and took some jiggling round to get the best alignment. As it's double track, it was found necessary to split it and "ease" the upward track to allow locos to actually pull something whilst climbing! Maybe in our haste to get something running, we'd lost a little foresight in the planning department.

Hi Roger...John, As long as the site doesn't crash altogether I'll do my best to bring the Saltney Railway progress up to date Cheers JF

After seeing nothing move for quite a while we decided to up the pace a little (which with hindsight was a little ill advised). Much sawing, drilling and er...screwing went on into the wee small hours and after a week or so we were fastening the last bits of the main line baseboards. You can see how strong the boards are as Steve had to clamber into the corner to add the last bits! Another few days of painting tidying and track laying and our first train was trundling round. The honours went to the Stanier mogul and a mixed freight. very satisfying!...

We moved into our lockup in October and started with this. After a week or so Steve had painted the floor and found a bit of carpet and the place seemed quite homely. As work beckoned, I missed the next 10 days or so but imagine my surprise when I came in to offer a bit of help and this lot had appeared. The track was only placed just to see what would fit where, but it gave us an idea of what we could do. All the planning in the world won't really tell you what looks right until you physically try it out. (Unless of course, you're a designer by profession which we aren't) We had a plan of sorts but it was just one that said "we'll have a train running by christmas" Steve being Steve, of course had other ideas....

Cheers Rob, I'll have to learn how to work this blog properly, then there'll be plenty of pics to see! JF

When the old Talacre gauge 0 garden railway had to come down in October 2009, we were feeling a bit down. We had amassed quite a bit of stock and a lot of scenic work had been done in the sheds. We were left with a lot of very second hand track, a mixed bag of locos and stock,quite a few working signals and all the elctrics. We even salvaged most of the buildings. What we didn't have was somewhere to build a new layout. Steve found the answer on his doorstep. A secure lockup, 27 X 17. A bit tight for the curves but dry, warm and accessable. We were in business! We've gone from zero to running trains through a partly scenic landscape in 2 and a half months so technology and enthusiasm permitting I'll try to bring you up to date and keep it that way (if you're interested of course!) As soon as I get my head round this Blog thingy, I'll post a few pics.

To be accurate though, it would still be plain GWR green on the other side..............

Just hoping whoever produces CoT does a ltd edition in 1984-85 livery

No Co-Bo then Jon F.

Never thought I'd hear myself saying this about C/L signals, but..... love the signals! And thats from a confirmed semaphore-o-file! Excellent work fellas JF