chaz

Thanks for that very positive comment Steve. Such postings are a great encouragement. It may interest you to know that when I looked at my Lightroom Library facility this morning I found that I have 4921 (!) photos on the hard disc of Dock Green of which 1369 are views of the layout taken at shows. Most of these have been taken with my compact camera - a Panasonic DMC-T26. I use this in preference to my Nikon DSLR as it is much smaller and easy to place in the layout to get those ground level shots. I hope to get plenty of pictures of the J6 at the forthcoming Peterborough show which will give me a new focus for the photos. It does get difficult to find new angles. Chaz

Is the photographer out of A & E yet? I presume the British Transport Police will want a word or two if he is conscious - or should we send flowers? Chaz

Four more snaps from Brighton, two of my Peckett (from the excellent Agenoria kit)... ...and two of wagons. That last shot has the camera being almost blind to the weathering, making this pre-grouping survivor look impossibly clean. Chaz

Here are four more photos taken at the Brighton show. I will post them without comment, ask me if you want any details. It is becoming more and more difficult to find new views, but that isn't going to stop me trying. I will take some at the Peterborough show in a fortnight's time. Chaz

Crikey! I wasn't aware of these schemes. One of my favourite locos when I was very small and used to be taken to Liverpool Street station with Dad on Saturday mornings. Chaz

Seems spot on to me. The Peppercorn A2s certainly had divided drive. My facetious suggestion of a new-build "Sandy" was no more than wishful thinking. Unfortunately! Chaz

If the green wheels are all from the same machine then it's a three cylinder job with divided drive (crank pins on the wheels not on the crank axle) and derived valve gear (no eccentrics on the axles). Hmm. New build B17? (no don't be silly!).

You are certainly closer than we are. Our estimated journey time (from the Maptools site) is 3 hours 17 minutes. For the first time we are going to stop over on the Sunday evening and make the trek back to Hampshire in the morning. Chaz

HMM. Those five axles have two different diameter wheels so are not from the same engine - unless it's a very odd machine indeed!

Bit of a trek from Romford Steve but if you do go say hello to us. Chaz

Dock Green's final outing this year is at Peterborough on December 8/9th. I have no firm invitations for next year yet so if you want to see my layout.... Here's a link to the show website. https://www.world-of-railways.co.uk/shows/show/the-national-festival-of-railway-modelling If you go, come and say hello. We don't bite! Chaz

A few more photos taken at Brighton. First two more of the J6, featuring the tender. And a couple of close-ups of wagons. That last photo features the anachronistic ex-GNR horse-box and an unfitted SR van known as "limping Lulu". I suspect one of its axles is bent. More later. Chaz

I have more locos than I can use at any one time, having bought stuff - including second-hand - when it was available. The next big effort for me will be to put DCC into them, but Ten TCS WOW chips with keep-alives will dent the wallet! I think the second-hand market is reasonably active with two sources. Modellers die and also some people who have dabbled want out as they return to the (GWR - yawn) fold. Chaz

Thanks for the very positive comments Chris - most encouraging. An eight-wheeler was a 4-4-0 - the classic "American" type, and was naturally followed by the ten-wheeler - 4-6-0. These two types were passenger engines. The Moguls (2-6-0) and their replacement Consolidations (2-8-0) were for freight. Of course there were exceptions but most of the three foot narrow gauge went through that evolution. Bachmann make an excellent ten-wheeler in On30 but their eight-wheelers sadly miss the target for me. I think the FVRR have scrapped all their 4-4-0s.... Chaz

Sort of Pennsylvania-ish. As the railway is a total fantasy I don't want to be too specific, think wooded valley rather than Colorado ravines... US modellers who are offended by such vagueness need to remember Rule One. It's my @#*+-$ layout! Chaz

I'm not quite ready for full operation but I can set up a photo and dream... .. so here is a busy moment at Stoke’s Ferry. Two C-16 2-8-0s meet and pass, raising echos across the valley. The train of empty hoppers is sitting on the passing siding waiting for the other to pass on the main line. It will then carry on up the valley to the coal mine west of Dixon, where the cars can be loaded again. The train of hopper cars loaded with coal trundles passed the depot without stopping - it's mostly downgrade to the other end of the valley so a single 2-8-0 can cope with the load. I may well work on both of the locomotive models (by Broadway Limited) to improve the level of detail - however this task is way down the list. If I don’t do anything else I will certainly cover the black porridge in the tenders with a rather more realistic coal heap and letter the tender and number the engine. Chaz

No, definitely not. I prefer the older, smaller designs. I have a very nice C-16 (much better model than the Broadways) and a C-19. I don't much like the Mikados - especially the K-36 and K-37s which don't appeal to me. I would like a "proper" eight wheeler like Eureka - the Bachmann 4-4-0s don't come anywhere close. Chaz

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A test run with a Bachmann 2-8-0 reveals a clearance problem. The pilot beam is about to strike the harp stand’s frame. A vertical shot reveals that the problem is caused by the overhang on the curved route through the switch. The photo above reveals that once the pilot has passed the switch stand there is no further problem. As you can see from this picture of a 2-8-0 with a road pilot installed there is scope to cut the beam down to a narrower width without causing a problem. The vertical hand-hold will need to be moved inwards and the coupler cut might need reshaping but these are relatively simple tasks. As the 2-8-0s are the only models to have this problem I will modify their pilot beams rather than move the switch stands (several of which would need the work). Chaz

Frustrating indeed. The ESU Loksound decoder will go back to South West Digital for testing and (maybe) replacement. I certainly won't get it back in time for the next show so I have ordered a Lenz (non-sound) decoder which will give me a working, but silent, model. Chaz

OK, the Brighton show. First two photos are of the only new "scenic" feature - Frank. There he is sitting on the fire escape, reading the paper. he must have a friend inside who will push the bar down to open the door and let him in when he knocks. Does he do this every day? They must be old news strewn around him. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Now to a sorry tale - last week having got the J6 back from the builder, who was correcting a fault, I reinstalled the DCC chip. I put up my 5 foot long test track and checked the loco to make sure that it would work - no problem, it did. I was pushed for time so I decided to do the ESU motor tune-up on Dock Green before the show started. WOOPS - something went very wrong - the loco would not respond to the handset and just ran forward with its whistle sounding all the time and ignored any button presses. DCC users will know of the CV8 reset - this also had no effect. I could not use the loco but I did grab a few snaps with the DCC power off. I have added a bit more weathering since the last photos I posted of the loco using weathering powders. Looks nice but doesn't go! More photos later. Chaz

We enjoyed the Brighton show. Apart from Dock Green there were a variety of layouts from a round-roundy with several circulating trains (very popular with the numerous children attending) to a pre-grouping LBSCR scene. A station with fully interlocked signalling, operated in accordance with the rules of the time. I will post a few photos of Dock Green taken at the show soon (still recovering!). Chaz

I think I read that story myself. Whatever the origin it was an excellent move to give such distinctive locomotives distinctive whistles. I well remember the shout of "streak!" from the trainspotters when the heard a distant chime from an approaching train. Chaz

Quite so, a road pilot would be a "cow catcher", a yard pilot is usually a narrow platform on which a man can stand during switching operations. Wouldn't fancy it myself - but you might recall a BR 08 diesel shunter had recessed steps at the front on which a shunter could stand and ride. Chaz PS - I consider myself. very much a beginner when it comes to US practice - I am just starting to get my head around their terminology (cars not wagons, ties not sleepers etc).

I haven't had a lot of time to spend on the 2-8-0 as I get ready for the show in Brighton. A few minor repair jobs on Dock Green were needed but it's all now ready for loading into the van this afternoon. I did grab a little time with the 2-8-0 and had a go cycling through the available whistles. Incredibly realistic sound quality with a huge variety of prototypes, and a real surprise lurking in amongst the US ones - an A4 chime whistle! Oddly the selection of a whistle is not part of the programming - pressing F9 during normal operation cycles to the next whistle on the list. F2 gives a long whistle, F3 a short toot, and F4 a "quill" - which appears to be the long-long-short-long used on the approach to a grade crossing. Downloading the TCS Comprehensive Programming Guide shows that it's quite possible to program the chip the conventional way, putting values into CVs, rather than using the Audio Assist. I have it in my iPad so I can attack the job on both fronts. Chaz