BenW

No further comment will be made on the subject to avoid derailing the exciting developments on trip freights (I say that without a hint of irony, I love weird inefficient operations like this) but if anyone's interested I've created a new layout topic here: Trawsfynydd EM - the Blaenau Branch in the 50s B

It feels very self-indulgent to be writing about a project that hasn't yet made it off my laptop, but I've been told following a throwaway comment elsewhere on RMweb that musing and planning is also of interest, so here goes. The first couple of posts will be mainly back story explaining how I arrived at Trawsfynydd as a prototype, so bear with me while I get to the topic in the header! The story starts in the late 90s when a studious, bespectacled 10 year old spied an advert in the local paper for 20 years of Railway Modeller back-issues. Excited perusal under the covers when he was meant to be sleeping brought a huge variety of models into his consciousness, but one unassuming article really stood out. Plan of the month in January 1988 (by K. Jaggers) consisted of a single black-and-white photo of Bala Junction, with a track plan showing this station on one side of a room and Bala Town on the other. Our studious hero was struck by how interesting the plan was, so different to the usual double-track mainline with branch modelled so often in the other magazines. He even drew the plan out by hand to understand it better, thinking to himself that one day he would like a version of the same plan. Fast forward 20-years and our hero has finished school, sixth form and university, fulfilled a lifelong ambition by volunteering on a preserved railway, enjoyed a career, been made redundant from said career and ended up pulling levers on the big railway for a living. All throughout this there was model railway involvement, most significantly with the NW Surrey area group of the EMGS, where the benefits of finescale 4mm modelling in terms of appearance and running qualities overcame the need to just 'get something running'. Various layouts have been planned, started and discarded, always depicting compressed fictional locations that were never quite satisfactory. Bala and Bala Junction lurking in the background didn't help; very desirable but always far beyond the means available. A house move 18 months ago finally presented an opportunity; the previous owner of this forever home had converted a former garage into a sizeable office, complete with mod-cons like heating, electricity and access from the house though a very civilised internal door. This was it, the opportunity to scratch that 25-year Bala itch! Planning began before purchase was even completed, resulting in the plan below being drawn up in Templot: The plan was to be a two-tier affair, run to a timetable with a minimum curve radius of 3'. I (the hero, obviously...) even got so far as doing a full-size print off and play-testing to check that the timetabled moves would be doable in the space provided; they would, just about. It should be pointed out that the soon-to-be Mrs BenW and the family hound were both away for a week while I took over the lounge - I'm still studious and frankly a bit obsessive, but not a complete sociopath! There were a number of complications with this plan, most obviously how to gain access to the fiddle yards beneath the stations. Gradients? Train elevators? Cassettes? Sector plates? All very complicated but not completely insurmountable, especially given that this was the layout of a lifetime. Sure there were also the compromises to fit it all in the space, especially the curve that Bala Town had to be built on, but surely I could manage to see past these. What finally scuppered this plan was that most humble of railway activities, the shunting of the goods yard. To be continued...

Not yet as all I have to show is a Templot file and a timetable at the moment, but I’ll post a link here as and when I get going. In the meantime it’s building research at the moment; in particular measurements/drawing of the station buildings and goods shed. The station seems to have been pretty camera shy from the books I’ve seen.

I've got a part-finished Rudd available for this flow if required. Built the kit to get through the backlog of unbuilt wagons (to OO) but can't see how I'll justify running it through an EM version of Trawsfynydd in 1952!

Funny you mention No-Ox-Id - there’s a jar or two on their way here as well! Looking forward to seeing the results, my little tiny bit of track currently shares the room with a kitchen renovation workshop. There are a huge number of threads on couplings out there on other forum pages - if leaders fail you might like to look at the Burford Autocoupling or the Flippem coupling, both of which claim to be good at coupling on curves. I have some Flippem bits spare if you want to try them.

Promotion!

That booth is made of plywood - if "super expensive" was meant to be ironic I'm afraid you've strayed closer to an accidental truth! Looking good, they'll be a nice rare feature

Well that's very pleasing indeed. Worth sacrificing the MLV for after all!

What are you thinking for power & sound?

"In Cod We Trust"

As there's already a tower block at one end, how about a great big scrubby buddleia growing out of the brickwork, with a pile of discarded furniture tossed over the wall by residents of the flats next to the railway?

At the current rate of progress, will the timetable be completed by the end of the winter? 🤣

I’ve driven past the pub there a couple of times - certainly looks posh enough to provide high quality! Operating session photos look great, but I must have those ballast wagons off you for finishing!

Wow, where did you get that from?

Bardon Hill is the big aggregate quarry over near my old place in Coalville. GBRF still take trains of stone out, no idea where to but Geoff H used to work on the line back in the day - he’d have some idea about traction

You mentioned lighting circuits ealier in the thread re. the proposed alterations - is this for building /yard lighting on the model or a bespoke solution for lighting the layout as a whole? If the latter, experience has taught that it's best to get it in now rather than hope to find a way to cobble a rig together after the layout is back together. You did ask for people to mae suggestions....

Definitely worth extended contemplation that; I’d take at least a couple of years to plan the job

Splitting the boards to do….?

CANNOT WAIT

Looking at the shape of the hoppers, you won't even need legs - the end slopes and internal ribs should hold the plasticard base just right without them. MArvellous!

I was thinking of sticking some ballast to plasticard with a paperclip glued to on the underside and some legs to hold it at the right angle - you just need a magnetic wand like the type used for retrieving screws etc then to remove the loads. Worked with coal in 16t mineral wagons on Swaynton, just needs accurate cutting!

Speaking of ballast workings and just to prove that I do pay for my driving ticket at Christleton Jct, here's the beginnings of something for that 97 to haul. The 3 Dogfish are from Cambrian kits, but with replacement buffers, handwheels, vac pipes and, in one case, roller bearings to better reflect 1986. I've also reworked the brakegear on the latter 2 builds so that they line up for the wheels - think the original kitt was designed for P4. They're horrible to put together; each wagon has taken about 8 hours work to get to this stage! 4 Dogfish and 2 Catfish still to go... Shark from Hornby, just need to work out how to get the ploughs off so I can swap the couplings for 3-links. Any advice gratefully received!

Nice idea - will it work with off the shelf points or do I need to get templot out again?

Should also add that the column as modelled looks great!

there is a water treatment plant in the small building under Bewdley’s column on the Rock siding; not sure if it’s operational at the moment though, or whether that pipe comes from it. I’ll have a look next time I’m down and add some details here if folk are that interested