great northern

Hi Ian, Thanks for those very kind comments.I'm pleased to say that I am just as happy with what I'm doing now that it is actually taking shape as I was when it was just a paper exercise. I'm also grateful for your information about the operating sequence. Time will tell so far as that is concerned. If I find that some of my locos and rolling stock are only getting used once every month or less I might have a rethink, but I would vastly prefer to operate the correct sequence if it turns out to be practicable. The fact that your friend never gest bored with operating his layout after so many years will be a big factor in making my mind up. I gave serious cosideration to Grantham when searching for a location for this layout. It has a lot going for it, and I spent a lot more time there in my youth than I did at Peterborough which was just that bit too far away. In fact I drew up plans for both right at the start of this project. The problem I couldn't overcome was that the room isn't wide enough for the Nottingham branch and the main line to diverge in the correct directions. I would have had to make the main line curve in from the North the wrong way, and in the end I decided that it then really wouldn't be Grantham. A number of fellow ECML modellers were of the same opinion, so reluctantly I discarded it. Also, if one is going to model the locoshed, or at least part of it, which I would regard as essential, because it was a huge part of the attraction of the place that you could stand on the platform and look at main line power simmering just a few yards away, you would finish up with a very wide baseboard indeed, and I don't see how you would get to anything in the middle if you needed to. I believe Roy Jackson has put an access hatch in on Retford to deal with that, but of course he has a huge space to start with. Don't let me put you off though, I'd love to see a model of Grantham back in the good old days, so perhaps you can find a way round the problems. If I ever won the lottery and could afford a purpose built no expense spared layout room I'd certainly want to look at it again. The last three baseboards are due to arrive on 9th March, when finally I'll be able to see the whole thing "in the flesh". It's a very exciting prospect. The station buidings are also coming on well so by the summer the whole thing should begin to look well on the way to complete, and we should be able to start operating properly too. I reckon that to get a project of this size to that stage in less than two years isn't bad going.

I have never forgotten the first photograph I ever saw that had me wondering if I was looking at a model or the real thing. That was a photo of a Britannia crossing a river on Dunwich, in MRJ many years ago. That was my biggest ever piece of inspiration - it showed me that it was possible to achieve near reality, and for me that is the main objective in my modelling. So, Dunwich is emphatically number one for me. Number two is another vote for Borchester, which came very close to my ideal at a time when it was much more difficult to do so. Finally Chee Tor, a superb example of "railway in landscape", which is the other element I have always aspired to.

We all see things differently don't we? It'd be a boring world if we didn't. For some reason I like the GN yellow brick, even when it is dirty, as it always was. I guess for me the other factor is that I know this is what the original building looks like (if it hasn't been demolished by now) so it is "right" for me, and it would niggle me if I'd left it red brick.

Progress since I last updated has mainly been wiring, which has gone pretty smoothly. We have found three of the snap lock connectors which had not made a proper contact. Easily detected, and equally easily fixed, as they can be prised open, put right, and then snapped closed again without any problem. Given that there are already over 500 connectors on the layout, I'm not going to worry when the proportion of "faulty" ones is this small. Best wiring challenge was a diamond crossing. The recommendation was for an auto reverser, but Tom Wright reckoned that if he wired the junction so that it wasn't possible for conflicting movements to take place we didn't need one. He was right too. We now have three Tortoises being run from one output of a NCE accessory decoder. NCE instructions say it may be possible to run two like that, but not always. We have three with no apparent problems, all the Tortoises throw perfectly. Good result, saves a fair bit of money, and prototypical too as conflicting movements aren't possible. Our own Gravy Train,aka Peter Leyland visited yesterday and brought back the Great Northern hotel, which I had commissioned for the old layout. I had asked him to do it in red brick though, to match Allan Downes' lovely station buildings. That created a problem though when I decided to model the real thing, as the hotel, like the station, was built using yellow brick. So, I asked Peter if he could repaint it Here is what he came up with. Apologies once again for poor photos, even when I shone an angle poise lamp with a daylight bulb on it this was the best I could do. The better of the two is of course the one where I didn't get my finger out of the way I think it looks even better now. He's done a great job. To while away the time while awaiting the last three boards I'm expanding my collection of loaded coal wagons. I've used Geoscenics products for this job. Easy to do, and they give a good result. I'm in the middle of weathering them at present, and will post some photos when completed.

Oh all right Mick, I confess. I'm trying to convince myself that I really don't need any more "big engines", so that was just an attempt at aversion therapy There was nothing wrong with the W1 - the reason I don't have one is that the available kit doesn't quite convince me, and I can't contemplate having one scratch built at present, though John Houlden has tried to persuade me. Great Northern I have mixed feelings about. Like the W1, when it was running it was a very common sight, but not on top link work.I am trying though not to stray too far from late August 1958 when acquiring stock, again mainly to stop myself getting even more locos, so she wouldn't have been around. I know it's very pedantic and most likely rather sad, but it is one of the things that bugs me. If I know something isn't really quite right it just keeps on niggling me till I get fed up and deal with it. That applies to locos though - I'm quite sure I manage to ignore things that others would find equally annoying.

No Tom, you certainly haven't said anything wrong. I tried to send you a PM about RCTS 2A, but who knows where it went? I'm glad you got a copy, and I hope you get as much pleasure and knowledge from it as I have over the last 30+ years. I can't help you with the others on your list I'm afraid. Gilbert

Hi David, I'm now eagerly waiting for the last three. Norman has some problems at the moment, so not sure when they will arrive, but I'm hoping for early March at the latest. The W1? How we hated that thing at the age of 12 and 13. The "unnamed streak" it was called, but we had a far less kind name for it. See streak approaching, dream of Golden Plover or Kingfisher (we were very young remember) and what did you get - 60700 yet again At the moment at least I can do without it. Same applies to Mr Thompson's "improved" Great Northern, which was in any event in pieces in the Crimpsall yet again at the time when my layout is set. Gilbert

Thanks Richard, and I'm pretty certain you are right. I've lent out my copy of the relevant book, but from memory this was positioned just South of Westwood Bridge, and was a fog repeater for the down side. I can't remember whether it was for the main line or for one of the gantries at the entrance to the yards, but it does look exactly like the one in my photo. It's remarkable that these things still exist -pretty heartening too, for me at least. I'm hoping to get some signals in position soon, and I'll put some photos up as soon as I do. Then I just have to decide how I'm going to operate them..... Gilbert

This one will be rostered to a Class C from Kings Cross Goods. One of my suitably filthy down at heel Bachmann New England ones will be rostered as stand by in due course, until something better comes along....

Mine too!

Thanks very much for that, and I'm sure you are absolutely correct. Diesel shunters would not have been appropriate at least until the Stamford branch closed. Another little mystery solved.

Thanks Tom. Yes, it is all going pretty well so far. We have the occasional setback, but on a layout this size and complexity inevitably there's going to be the odd wiring mistake or similar that needs sorting out. I'd like more V2's to that standard, but it isn't going to happen at that price. It will remain a "one off" indulgence. Did you get my PM about the book by the way?

I didn't say it was a New England engine though. In fact it was shedded at Kings Cross. it's by far the nicest V2 I have, so that's why it featured. Just don't ask why a KX engine is being used by New England when they had over 30 of their own to choose from.

Neither David actually. The PDK kit isn't currently available, and I gather won't be any time soon. Bachmann's offering really isn't up to 21st century standards, so this one was scratch built for me by Mike Edge, and painted by Ian Rathbone. Of course it shows up my Bachmann ones, but what can you do? I really should have loads of them, as New England had 30+ during my period. I live in hope that Bachmann will announce a retooled version.

A couple more. First is another one looking South, but looking down from on high as preferred by many magazine editors. There was always a stand by engine at Peterborough to cover for failures. In the '50's it was a V2, as the turntable at the station wasn't big enough for a Pacific. So, here's a V2 standing by outside the shed.

There will be when we've got some more wiring done David. There's still a few Tortoises to wire up, and the connections to the accessory decoders.

Boards 4 and 5 arrived on Wednesday, so here are a few photos. Please ignore the white connectors. They are still there because I belatedly realised that it is far easier,and less painful, to solder droppers to Tortoises as a bench job before final installation. The water tower is not the correct one. Like the engine shed, which is the one I built for the loft layout it is just there to show where the proper buildings will eventually go. First then, here is a view showing the continuation from board 3, and featuring a beautiful tandem turnout, which from its right hand side runs into the double slip featured in my last set of photos. I reckon it will be the most impressive piece of track work on the layout. Next is a view from a bit further back. and then from still further back. The lines are from left to right:- Down goods, up slow, platform 6, bay platforms 5 and 4, down and up main, a spur which runs behind platform 2, and then the old engine shed complex.

As the real thing effectively ceased to exist 37 years ago,and even for those who do remember it memories may have dimmed a little, here are a few photos to give an idea of what it was like, and what I am going to try to recreate, in part at least. All of these photos are the property of Andrew C Ingram, and are reproduced here with his very kind permission, and acknowledging his copywright. They should not be further downloaded please. Let's start with the first thing you would see having come up Station Approach. These are the up side buildings from a corner of Station Road. Anyone fancy trying to reproduce those telegraph poles? For some reason I keep putting it off, but it will have to be done eventually. To the right of the bus is the Great Northern hotel. I already have Gravy Train's lovely model of that, and he is presently working on the rest. This forecourt was at that time a dead end. Looking at the way cars are parked, I wonder how anyone ever managed to turn round! Next we will go to the South end of the site, looking from underneath Crescent Bridge. This photo is a little earlier than my period - that lovely bracket signal had gone by 1958 - but otherwise this is what it looked like at the time. Most of the lines on the far left are the ex Midland lines, which unfortunately cannot be included. Looking at the last photo you may have noticed the overall roof - you could hardly miss it could you? Here's a close up of the South end, again just about exactly in my period. And this is what it was like under that roof. This is taken looking North. Spital Bridge can be dimly made out in the distance, and the North end of the dogs leg curve also shows up quite well. The roof and buildings will be modelled, but not in full detail as it will be several feet long, so most detail would hardly be visible anyway. I wonder what Health and Safety would say about the positioning of the mail trolleys, and in particular that rogue mail bag so close to the edge of the Up platform? Now we are at the North end of the station, as this photo is taken from Spital Bridge. It's a bit later than my period, as the old engine sheds and yard have already been demolished and replaced by the inevitable car park. The sand drag bottom right marks the boundary of what is being modelled. On the left is the District Engineer's yard and associated buildings, of whch there are a lot more than I had previously realised. I only acquired these photos a few weeks ago, and nothing I'd seen before showed anything like this. Much compromise will be necessary here, as indeed will be the case with just about everything in this photo, as I just haven't the length to model accurately the full distance from the end of the platforms to the bridge. If you look back at the photos of the boards which are already down you will see for example that the carriage sidings in front of the Engineer's building finish far too close to the bridge. Just shows how huge stations are. I reckon though that we can capture the atmosphere of all this, even if it isn't dead accurate, and its such a beautifully idiosyncratic site that I reckon it deserves to be modelled. I can't see me ever having the 40 or more feet of length I would need to do it "properly". That doesn't, to me at least, mean that it can't be attempted at all. Am I going to be able to resist replicating those two carriages outside the Engineer's building? I very much doubt it. Gilbert

Thanks Gordon, that is very reassuring. I've sourced these from Maplin and I took care to get the one they recommended for the wire I'm using. They are a snug but not too tight fit for the main bus bar, and I've taken up a recommendation to double over the 7/02 I'm using for droppers. Hopefully all will be well.

Yes, Southern Pride and Comet and a fair bit of scratchbuilding as well. It's a really iconic rake of coaches isn't it, and I'm really pleased with them. Pity you can only use them twice in an operating day!

I agree that you can't really tell if they have cut the insulation properly, or if they have how long they will last. However, a good friend has used them on his layout, and he has had no problems and in fact recommended them. As he used to work for the Electricity Board I value his advice. Perhaps the environment of a car is somewhat less user friendly and dirtier than the underside of my baseboards? I hope so anyway, but rest assured I have not taken offence at what you have said.

Hi David, I take no credit for this, as it was recommended by Tony Wright in an article in BRM some years ago. It's a mixture of Humbrol 67 and 85. The satin in the 85 just gives it a bit of a sheen, which I like. The good thing is that you have to mix up a new batch quite often, and I can never get the proportion exactly the same, so it gives a bit of variation between coaches too.

Having extolled the virtues of Brilliant Baseboards, of which there are many, unfortunately the down side of the design has now emerged. This would not have caused so much difficulty had I used Templot or similar to establish the position of all point motors before gluing down the baseboard tops, and then cut away interfering pieces of wood as recommended. The problem is though that I find fiddle yards impossible to visualise unless I lay out the points on the baseboard and juggle with them till I get what I want (or not as the case may be). That meant fixing the boards and working round obstacles if possible. In some cases it wasn't, and in any event the space to work in is so confined that it took an age to insert the motors under the baseboard. Some more photos here will illustrate the problem. You can see how difficult it is to get both hands into these "cells" in order to work. It's somewhat of a problem even when clipping on the connectors shown in the first photo, but becomes very difficult indeed when trying to put in point motors. Photo 2 illustrates how useful Cobalts have been. I doubt we could have got two tortoises into that space, and the one right up against the frame would not have been possible anyway. I decided to use the suitcase connectors as the alternative of stripping the bus bar and making a soldered joint every time while working in this confined space above one's head did not appeal, especially as I reckon there may be more than 1000 connections to make before the job is done. I don't like molten solder dripping onto my arm. Having said that there are some connections on the scenic side that have to be soldered, because we are using Tortoises that I already had on that side, and unlike Cobalts which require no soldering at all, Tortoises do. Fortunately, I have a volunteer (genuinely) for that job, in the shape of Tony Wright. I can only assume that he does not feel pain, or that he doesn't realise what he's let himself in for. These shots also show why I have put most point motors above board, which I would have preferred not to do, but the time taken to install above board is a fraction of that to put them underneath, and time is money, particularly when paying a professional to do the job. One or two of them would not have been possible underneath anyway, and others would have needed a complex system of remote cranks. Thank goodness for Cobalts! As you can see they only just fit, even above board, so Tortoises would not have worked at all. These illustrate Neil Kinison's simple but elegant way of dealing with space restrictions, except for the last one which isn't simple at all, but it works. Here's how Cobalts fit (just) and the next photo shows where some of the wiring goes. These are NCE "switch its" and "switch eights", NCEs "in house" accessory decoders. They really are very simple to wire and programme, so simple in fact that even I can do it. Two wires to these, two more to the main bus bar, and one from the point frog to the point motor, and it's job done. Just to lighten the tone a bit, how about a loco and some rolling stock? Here's a Bachmann 04 which John Houlden has weathered. I though it was a very good model straight from the box, but now it looks like they did nearly all its working life I reckon it's absolutely stunning. So much so that I may have to buy another. And here's a very poor photo of part of my Elizabethan set, which will be hauled by the Golden Age A4 featured a few posts ago. Being able to afford things like this, or nearly anyway, makes 47 years of work seem worthwhile.

Quite a lot more to report, I'm pleased to say, though no more baseboards yet. Through the efforts of Rob Davey, Neil Kinison, Tom Wright and even myself things have moved on. The "North" end of the fiddle yard, together with most of the roads has been laid, and the vast majority wired. Anyway, the photos will show what's been happening. The last two just show the extent of what is now laid, and an out of scale thumb On the first three you may notice some alien looking blue objects, which are in fact DCC concepts Cobalt point motors. These have proved to be a huge bonus, as they are much smaller than Tortoises and easier to install and wire. Having I hope successfully loaded this lot I won't tempt providence further, so I'll put some more on in a separate post.

Thanks Richard, I'll have a look at that when work allows. Should have some signals soon.... If you, or anyone else can tell me exactly what each one controlled I shall be very grateful.