Stoke Courtenay

[checkrail]

Here's 5557 and train passing the signal box.

 

Speaking of the signal box I recently ordered a new custom made nameplate from Phil @Harlequinof this parish and very nice it is too.  (Check out 'The Pattern Shop - Name Plate Register'.)  My current nameplate was printed out from the PC using the nearest thing I could find to the GWR font, and glued to a thin Plastikard backing.  I subsequently downloaded the GWR font from the (now defunct?) GWR e-list and used it for all the other station signage.

 

I haven't attached the new plate yet - I need to pick up some photographic type printer paper and also do a bit of preparatory work on the signal box.  Phil's plate is 4mm shorter than mine and I'm unsure of the state of the brickwork underneath the current glued-on plate.

 

Here's a normal paper version of the new plate alongside the old one for comparison.

 

John C.

Edited April 23, 2022 by checkrail
dodgy keys

[Neal Ball]

Lovely close up detail of the signal box John.

[Limpley Stoker]

14 hours ago, checkrail said:

Thanks Barry.  That's reassuring.  Thank too to Mike @Limpley Stokerfor comments.  The brown marker pen sounds like a good idea.  I use one like that to touch up the brown painted tops of check and wing rails after track cleaning.  I once tried painting the coach window reveals but couldn't do it neatly enough.  Maybe masking tape along the coach side would have helped.

I’m sure your hand is steady enough, John!  Any ink straying on to the cream paint can be wiped off with a moist finger before it dries! 

[Limpley Stoker]

14 hours ago, checkrail said:

Thanks Barry.  That's reassuring.  Thank too to Mike @Limpley Stokerfor comments.  The brown marker pen sounds like a good idea.  I use one like that to touch up the brown painted tops of check and wing rails after track cleaning.  I once tried painting the coach window reveals but couldn't do it neatly enough.  Maybe masking tape along the coach side would have helped.

I’m sure your hand is steady enough, John!  Any ink straying on to the cream paint can be wiped off with a moist finger before it dries! 

[Limpley Stoker]

14 hours ago, checkrail said:

Thanks Barry.  That's reassuring.  Thank too to Mike @Limpley Stokerfor comments.  The brown marker pen sounds like a good idea.  I use one like that to touch up the brown painted tops of check and wing rails after track cleaning.  I once tried painting the coach window reveals but couldn't do it neatly enough.  Maybe masking tape along the coach side would have helped.

I’m sure your hand is steady enough, John!  Any ink straying on to the cream paint can be wiped off with a moist finger before it dries!  It doesn’t show on the glazing in normal light but resembles nicotine staining on transillumination !

[checkrail]

Here's a panoramic view.  Managed to get the whole train in one frame (albeit with a bit of cropping of extraneous elements).  You'll see that the B-set now has the correct number of guard's compartment windows.  One of these fine days I might improve the underframe too.

 

John C.

Edited April 24, 2022 by checkrail
add text

[Coach bogie]

23 hours ago, sjrixon said:

That low siphon, what's going on with the middle wheel? 

It is my chosen method to keep the middle wheel on the rail without allowing the whole vehicle to sea-saw on the centre axle.  the centre wheel runs in brass tube with a long piece of steel wire set to keep the wheel on the track. My line has inclines which cause an issue at the base and peak.

 

I also use this on 4-4-0 loco tenders, which often have limited hauling power due to the weight being thrown forward. I weight up the front of the tender and sit the tender on the back of the cab area. The front and middle wheels carry no weight as the tender weight is transferred to the back of the loco. and the haulage capacity of the 4-40 is increased.

 

Here is a similar floating middle wheel arrangement on a Palethorpes 6 wheel sausage van and on a  6 wheel version from the Parkside Beatle with the same floating middle wheel.

 

Mike Wiltshire

[checkrail]

A few more of the prairie heading down the branch. Yes, I can get the whole train in without cropping, but not broadside on!

 

 

 

John C. 

[Graham T]

John, I just noticed that you also have signal wire running on the posts - impressive!  What did you use?

[checkrail]

16 hours ago, Graham T said:

John, I just noticed that you also have signal wire running on the posts  What did you use?

The signal wires are a fairly recent addition, though the posts (MSE/Wizard Models) have been in place for some years.  The wires are EZ line, recommended to me by Andy Y during his 2019 photoshoot - in then took me nearly four years to getting round to obtaining some and installing it.  Good stuff in that it's very stretchy but springs back into place after the inevitable knocks.

 

I've only put one wire in so far just to see how I got on with it but I intend to add more in due course.  Some lines of posts go to more than one signal, and of course, by implication, some signalss, e.g. distants, are offscene.

 

It's nice that someone noticed them!

[checkrail]

In the final picture from the current crop the branch train disappears under the road overbridge, while a rumbling (rather than thundering) noise comes from the cutting as a 28xx appears on the up line with a train of empty wagons returning to the South Wales coalfields.

 

John C.

[Graham T]

24 minutes ago, checkrail said:

The signal wires are a fairly recent addition, though the posts (MSE/Wizard Models) have been in place for some years.  The wires are EZ line, recommended to me by Andy Y during his 2019 photoshoot - in then took me nearly four years to getting round to obtaining some and installing it.  Good stuff in that it's very stretchy but springs back into place after the inevitable knocks.

 

I've only put one wire in so far just to see how I got on with it but I intend to add more in due course.  Some lines of posts go to more than one signal, and of course, by implication, some signalss, e.g. distants, are offscene.

 

It's nice that someone noticed them!

 

Thanks for that John.  I think I might even have some EZ Wire, it's probably hidden in a draw somewhere!

[checkrail]

Gosh - nearly a month since my last post here.  Been busy with other duties, and have also been away on a five day backpacking trip with my wife round the Somerset coast and the heights of Exmoor, starting and finishing at Dunster.  Jut my luck that the first day, which started with a walk along the coast parallel to the WSR, was a day when no trains ran.  All we saw was a PW gang at work on the track at Dunster station as we crossed the line.

 

But it was nice on the last day to stop for lunch on a bench at Wootton Courtenay, obviously another one-time holding of Devon's comital family.

I do like those old Somerset CC signposts with their characteristic pyramid on top.  I have a couple on the layout - not correct for my Devon location, but they are nice items (Dart Castings I think).  Perhaps I could just knock the pyramids off and replace them with some other type of finial.

 

The trip was supposed to end with a weekend in Dunster/Minehead with my children and grandchildren.  Unfortunately my wife and I had to drive home early due to a health crisis with an elderly relative, so I missed out yet again on seeing some WSR action.  But the rest of the family had a great time including a trip on the line, and my grandchildren were apparently very excited by the steam locos. A good sign!  My son sent me the pic below to show what I'd missed!  Another time perhaps.

 

Some Stoke C photos in processing.  Meanwhile here's my 3 year old grandson on a visit last month driving a train through Stoke Courtenay under Grandad's supervision.  Think it's the first time a 28xx and coal wagons have done 100mph.

[checkrail]

Here's 3603 emerging from the branch overbridge with the Earlsbridge trip goods, returning to Hackney Yard. 

 

I do like plain, homely open wagons and box vans and can't always summon up the same enthusiasm for the more specialised vehicles.  That helps me in my aim to keep the balance towards the typical rather than the unusual.  Looking at this train again I've realised that all the 'big four' companies are represented in the first five wagons.

 

As the pannier passes the signal box we see the new box nameplate, recently supplied by @Harlequinof this parish.  Thanks Phil!  The brickwork below the original slightly longer plate wasn't too bad and only needed a bit of touching up with red/orange paint. 

 

I do like those C & L fishplates but they're a bit of a devil to glue on and you have to be careful that the inner ones don't foul wheel flanges.

 

This train also includes a returning empty loco coal wagon which has been replenishing the branch prairie at Earlsbridge shed. 

 

More to come.

John C.

 

 

[Harlequin]

21 minutes ago, checkrail said:

As the pannier passes the signal box we see the new box nameplate, recently supplied by @Harlequinof this parish.  Thanks Phil!  The brickwork below the original slightly longer plate wasn't too bad and only needed a bit of touching up with red/orange paint. 

 

 

 

The nameplate looks "proper job". You've made a beautiful job of it, thanks John!

 

😊

[checkrail]

Before 3603 can head out onto the main line there's a cattle wagon to pick up from Stoke Courtenay yard.  I have a few of these old Cooper Craft cattle wagons.  This is the only one in the late 30s 'small letter' livery and is based on a photograph of an actual wagon  I found somewhere on line.

 

The second photo shows one of the recent Dapol bracket signals which I've buried in the platform and partly repainted to represent a platform-mounted version.  These signals are a huge improvement on Dapol's earlier single-post models.  The latter still need quite a lot of work to make them look like GWR signals, a job I'll need to do soon as one of mine has failed after 8 or 9 years.  Like the cattle wagon the brake van is based on an actual prototype and is a modified OR model with new ends from an old Ratio toad kit.  It now has side lamps, something about which I was ignorant until recently.

 

John C.

 

Edited May 22, 2022 by checkrail

[checkrail]

3603 backs into the platform to attach the cattle wagon to its train.  In keeping with this 1930s scene the chap on the bench is, I think, the only person on the layout without headgear, but he does have his hat in his hand.

 

The next view shows the other, single, bracket signal which controls access from the branch platform to the up main, and is therefore rarely seen in the 'off' position.  (Access to the loco spur is via a ground signal.) 

 

Now the train pulls out onto the main line.

 

And a shot of the train on the embankment.  I rather like this angle.  From the outset I wanted some of the track to be above ground level, but I was thinking of my own viewing rather than photography (although the considerations are the same really.)  

 

John C.

[checkrail]

Nice to see Robin's @gwrrob8750 class on goods work yesterday.  Here's mine again.

 

The goods train from above as it passes the edge of the village of Stoke Courtenay.  If you zoom in you can make out the stained glass window in the church with a light on inside.

 

The next one was taken with the camera perched precariously on the sloping grass hillside above the tunnel mouth. (It's just occurred to me that I could temporarily stick a couple of pins in the grass to hold the camera steady when using this angle.)  It can be seen from here that 3603 has lost its topfeed - one of last year's slightly tricky projects. 

 

And here are a couple from slightly different angles of the goods heading towards the tunnel mouth. The fourth vehicle is a GWR steel-bodied open wagon from a Cambrian kit.

 

 

John C.

[checkrail]

And as the pannier disappears into the tunnel mogul 6305 comes into view at the head of a westbound mixed freight.

 

 

The mogul is one from the first Dapol batch, with ridiculously high gearing, so I never drive it at more than speed step 18 or 20 (out of 126).  Its haulage power isn't great either - it struggles with 20 wagons - but it looks nice and will do me.  I believe the second batch was better in some of these respects.

 

John C.

Edited May 24, 2022 by checkrail

[Harlequin]

13 minutes ago, checkrail said:

 

The mogul is one from the first Dapol batch, with ridiculously high gearing, so I never drive it at more than speed step 18 or 20 (out of 126).  Its haulage power isn't great either - it struggles with 20 wagons - but it looks nice and will do me.  I believe the second batch was better in some of these respects.

 

 

The second batch of Moguls are not yet with us but they should have improved gearing. 🤞

 

I found that setting the decoder speed curve to a very shallow slope makes mine a bit more driveable.

 

[checkrail]

A major project last year, of which the posted photos were lost in the great RMweb crash, was the installation of digital point motors in the fiddle yard and the provision of a new link from the up main to the branch fiddle yard, via a Peco 3-way point.  It's this that  enables me to run the returning Earlsbridge goods featured in the last few posts - before that there was nowhere for it to go, with all the up main storage loops occupied!

 

Here's the train traversing across to the loop in the branch fiddle yard behind the B set then reversing into a storage siding.  

 

 

 

John C.

[checkrail]

A couple of months back I was musing about gangway suspension brackets.  Rich @The Fataddersuggested the Comet coach detailing fret as a source so i dug out the remains of one I'd bought for an earlier coach project.

Looking at the Russell books I see that in the later 30s the brackets seem to have been made of steel strip in the shape of a V lying on its side.  They're probably on this fret somewhere - I'd wondered what all those little strips were supposed to be! - but they're probably beyond my skills and patience.  So I cast around for something similar.  

 

So I improvised using Markits 'extra long' handrail knobs and wire.  Not a totally accurate representation but at least there's now something there other than a blank space. As usual with me it's about impression, atmosphere, flavour rather than strict scale accuracy.

 

Here they are with a current Hornby Collett coach for comparison.  Now I suppose I'd better do the other non-scissors gangway/non-Hornby coaches as well.

 

More from the 'Blue Peter' school of modelling!

 

John C.

[TrevorP1]

Looks a good idea to me John!

[checkrail]

While the Siphon G was on the bench I dug out my old Siphon F for a spin while there was space in the storage loop.  This is an old K's kit which I bought on eBay already assembled a few years ago.  As it was then sporting 25" GW lettering I repainted it and applied 'shirtbutton' transfers.

 

And here's the slightly refurbished i/f Siphon G back in the train, 6801 Aylburton Grange up front.

 

John C.

[checkrail]

Still hunting for new angles, so here are a couple of random shots of Stoke Courtenay goods yard with 4574 shunting.  More in the pipeline.

 

 

John C.