Ravenser

Measuring the possible site has crystalised a few points. By clearing some magazines away (which might well end up on a shelf below the layout) the thin side of the L ends up at about 3', not 2'4". In other words the "fiddle stick" just under the window sill now looks like 18" long.

I assume a min 12" radius curve. Ravenser Mk1 suggested that was a very tight theoretical minimum in OO - shunters went round and so did 4 wheel wagons, with a few minor coupling issues. In OOn3 it ought to be ok. Allow a point at the start of the curve - ie a transition curve entry - and I think I should be reckoning on about 14" radius /square terms of in space actually occupied. Allow this to protrude/end 2" onto the "fiddle stick", and you have the running line 6" in front of the backscene, with 11" of board in front of it for a loop, sidings and scenic treatment . You also have 16" of fiddle yard . Without having measured anything, I hope that would be sufficient for two IoM bogie coaches + loco. I think a 2 road sector plate, not a traverser would be needed

Allowing about 1.5" behind the running line where it meets the sector plate, you then have 15.5" used up at the right hand end of the main board, (up to the place where the 90 degree exit curve starts)  leaving 2' 11.5" . Call this 2'9" from the buffer stops to the start of the exit curve. The loop should be just long enough to take that 16" train, and there could be two trailing sidings . An Arthur Pain style station building like the Southwold Railway? with a few low relief cottages / pub on the other side of a country lane?

The point at the start of the exit curve would lead to either a small corregated iron engine shed, or possibly a fuel discharge facility serving the RAF base - their aviation fuel is assumed to come by sea to the main port and be transferred from there by rail. . Behind this , at the end of the layout, dunes and a sea wall - with a large building as view blocker to mask the exit of the curve

The numbers seem vaguely to gell, though they would need to be checked

Query-what happened to the original Bachmann chassis off the three projects? I can't imagine those went in the bin?

I managed to get quite a decent result with the PH Designs seat silhouette etch. Quick, cheap - and surprisingly effective. Be aware that the big centre driven chassis is utterly incompatible with Hornby Limby motor bogies. I tried coupling a 150 to a 153 - not only did the Kadees quickly part, but half way down the layout the two consisted units were already a foot  apart....

Lateral thinking - in the  days before Hornby produced these coaches RTR, people will have built kits. Someone will therefore have done suitable Pullman buffers. I'd be tempted to explore that route, pick one donor vehicle to have all 4 buffers removed and replaced with whitemetal castings or whatever you source - and then salvage the buffer heads and reuse them to make good the other vehicles you buy.

The obvious places to look would be Dart/MJT and Wizard/Comet. The replacement buffers dont have to be sprung because you'd be doing a full replacement job on the vehicle in question - and the other coaches would be fixed with the sprung buffer heads you recover

Tunnel under Steep Hill?? That combines engineering and commercial insanity with aesthetic and historical vandalism. Presumably the engineers were aiming straight for the Minster in the hope of scoring a bullseye on the foundations of the central tower? Sheer utter madness on every posible level

An interesting engine from an interesting railway. The idea of a double track main line for coal across the Lincolnshire Wolds terminating at a new coal port at Sutton on Sea is also "interesting" (the one railway that attempted to tackle the Wolds - the Louth and Lincoln - had a ruling gradient of 1 in 70) . Contemplating the engineering obstacles of skirting Lincoln, crossing the Witham and assaulting the Wolds, one begins to see exactly why the LD&EC stopped where it did

There was an article with drawings in the Railway Modeller (I think) about 25 years ago. Apparently the key factor driving the order was water and coal capacity - the LD&EC had running powers from Lincoln to Grimsby, but the 0-6-2Ts couldn't make it that far without a stop for refreshment at Lincoln. The issue will have disappeared as soon as the GC took over - they had enough Robinson 0-6-0, 0-8-0 and 2-8-0 locos to do the job

There was also a glorious quote cited from the contemporary magazine The Engineer - "a long-time sceptic in matters LD&EC" - reporting the order : "This railway doubtless requires a new type of engine. We think it requires a new type of management rather more."

They lasted well - the final survivor went 5 months short of Nationalisation as class M1 (Class M2 was the Met 0-6-4Ts) 

All I can suggest is copy and paste to a new blog entry on here, then backdate the entry publication date before publishing. That should work . And when it has, you can delete the misplaced entry

Just to mention that you've posted Pt.5 of this project in your Brent blog....

Very impressive . Just a thought - would it be possible to salvage the printed bogie sideframes and apply them as a plate overlay over the diamond frame bogies? Possibly backed with 30 or 40thou plasticard

Thanks for the comments. I'd be very happy for it to be reused somewhere. I admit I posted to a blog because it's a quieter, more reflective environment , not given to a bun-fight - and some people hold very strong views on the obligations of exhibitors to perform for the public at all times

That will not be touched until after Ally Pally. (I am currently playing truant from a 128 and a Sector 37... I should be fitting handrails)

And I've just noticed that the bogies supplied in the kit don't have bolsters , only depressions, which look as is they should take a part - but there's no part to fit. Consequently the body would sit a couple of mill too low, and the wheels foul the solebars....

I'm sold on the tram appearing under a bridge (I was thinking of under a girder bridge rather than an arch but will have to look at clearances with a double-deck tram) Juggling the rest is probably the biggest scenic issue.

How do you get the viaduct "off-stage" on the left without it becoming obvious that the building(s) are just thin facades? All I can think of is that a low relief viaduct fades into the backscene about half way along, as though it is curving away.

Having a full width viaduct with no backscene - as on Up the Junction - would mean the whole thing becomes a single scene, and I'm not sure the two halves can in fact be put together neatly . Low relief buildings on the other side would become very problematic

And how you handle track on a viaduct as it flattens itself into the backscene I'm not quite sure

Some very impressive work in that post . Unfortunately one thing that the sketch threw up is that there may not be enough width available for a proper viaduct , and vision of a Hornby Peckett had better be given up . 5" is really not a lot to take two tram tracks, a kerb, pavement, and buildings - 2 tracks at 50mm centres will take 4", and I think I may have to make do with a low-relief viaduct showing just the arch face and the parapet wall. This would save me an inch, and allow for a full-height backscene (sky blue) to separate the two scenes, which I think would be needed. Whether the viaduct could become full width on the right hand side I don't know

(The alternative would be to dispense with any buildings in front of the viaduct in the front scene. But that would be very bare and inner city indeed, and doesn't really sit with Georgian Highgate village. It also begs the question why the trams come here in the first place.)

I've discovered the Conrad Electronics site sells Tillig Luna tram points - not cheap, and possibly a little coarse but a practical solution for 3 of the points , and compatible with solenoid motors. The fourth point, on the curve, will need to be handbuilt. Fortunately I've found a US source for a template for a 6 1/8" radius curve, and I can work from that to get the 180 degree curve handbuilt with checkrails and a reliable radius. A handbuilt point could be incorporated in this - though how I drive the point blade I don't know

Working title may be Highgate (Varieties) - I have a Mainstreet low relief theatre kit in stock, and it would allude to a mixed bag of trams on the layout

The gunk is definitely an insulator. Taking a file to an iron tip is very drastic, but it sounds more as if the element has failed in the iron, rather than the tip

Nicely weathered

Post blog photos within RMWeb?

AJCL = Australia-Japan Container Line: a British owned joint venture despite its name but a mildly exotic box to see in Britain

It seems to look longer in every successive photo. An impressive model

Best wishes for your retirement . Interesting to see some narrow gauge that is definitely a substantial "proper railway"

I'd use a packet of Hornby coach wheels. Cheap, readily available, decent wheel profile, all metal and run true. They're my standard resource when replacing plastic wheels or providing wheels for a kit that doesn't have them.

I'd hope you could get the diner round something rather tighter than 3'6" radius - the underframe will have been compromised by Hornby to go round 18" radius, so I'd hope you'd be somewhere in the 2' to 2'6" after your improvements

It looks to me as if the GBP sign is the main culprit. All but one of the truncated posts I have found in my blogs break off at a price.

The other one broke off partway through the word "fa[c]ade" - the cedilla clearly being the culprit

Whether local restoration from backups is possible I don't know

Looking good. I read somewhere - maybe on here - that it's possible to bend resin if you immerse it in hot/boiling water. Needless to say I read this too late to be able to do anything about the ends of my own Road Van , which I'd fettled to a fit. It's still stalled on the bookcase partly because I've no immediate use for it - so finishing it gets pushed to a side by other more obviously useful projects - and partly because I'm scared of the health implications of working resin in my living room, so any filing or drilling must take place outside , with full decontamination of the tools. As I had to scrape ice off the car windscreen this morning, I think that's it until the spring for the Road Van. I've used the supplied brass rod

Thanks for the warning about the roof

Good to see this at Peterborough - a nice variety of trams in service

I suspect the brakesman seen in the photo is actually sitting in the doorway

Kadee number 5s are normally suitable for 17'6" wagons like this