ROSAMUND STREET (LOW LEVEL) SIDINGS

[br2975]

What's replacing it?

Initially, a 16' 0" x  1'9" South Wales NCB / BR exchange sidings (with a private siding to a Metal Box Co. factory) circa 1971.

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Called "Twll Cach"  ( correctly in Welsh it would more likely be 'Twll Cachu' pronounced like 'tooth cacky' and meaning something like  'sh*t hole' in English ) it will be a permanent fixture in the man cave.

 

Something smaller will evolve for local shows, possibly 4mm NCB, or 7mm industrial.

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Rosamund Street bows out in an article due to be published in the November edition of this forums 'partner magazine' !

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Brian R

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[br2975]

This evening, D9500, officially withdrawn several months ago but still being used around the Cardiff area struggled into Rosamund Street hauling two National Coal Board Hunslet 18" 'Austerity' tanks.

.

Both tanks were in grey primer.

.

Both carried 'tickets' that showed they were moving from the NCB Walkden Central Workshops where they had been overhauled and were on their way to the Mountain Ash Central Workshop in the Cynon Valley where they will be painted and run in before taking up duties at the NCB 'Twll Cach Washery'.

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The locos will be staged at Rosamund Street over the weekend and are due to move on, via Radyr, early Monday morning.

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Sorry about the quality of the photo, but the setting sun and my Kodak Instamatic don't make for expert images.

[Wayne 37901]

Hi Brian,

 

Was nice to see this again while visiting the Swansea show and thanks also for letting me loose with the pre TOPS 08s.

 

Nice article in BRM as well.

 

Cheers

Wayne

 

 

[Tref]

Good to see this in BRM, and is an inspiration for what I am trying to do on a smaller scale. Your tales of day to day life are useful to me too, as someone who has no idea of how a yard like this actually works, and yet is trying to model one! I look forward to the follow up.

 

Tref.

[clecklewyke]

I've just discovered this gem. Great title, great concept, great modelling and brilliant writing!

 

 

So, the most prominent building is based upon a plan that appeared many years ago, during the early 1960s, in the Railway Modeller.

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The drawing was by Don Townsley of Hunslet Engine Co. and Lees MRC fame and the building formed part of a low relief backdrop on the then Leeds MRC 7mm layout.

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Many years later, a sketch of the same building appeared in one of the early issues of MRJ, and it appears the original structures may have been in the northern suburbs of Birmingham.

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I was struck my the different angles and roof lines.

 

I too have seen this and thought it would be a good basis for some of the low relief roofs behind Bradford North Western. I remember the Don Townsley article; you couldn't possibly point me to it as I think it will be in a box somewhere under the layout?  

 

Ian

Edited October 17, 2017 by clecklewyke

[br2975]

I've just discovered this gem. Great title, great concept, great modelling and brilliant writing!

 

I too have seen this and thought it would be a good basis for some of the low relief roofs behind Bradford North Western. I remember the Don Townsley article; you couldn't possibly point me to it as I think it will be in a box somewhere under the layout?  

 

Ian

 

I'll have a rummage in my folders.....................

[clecklewyke]

I'll have a rummage in my folders.....................

 

Many thanks - but don't spend too long. Somewhere I have a copy of the original photo of the train of LNWR four-wheeled coaches in front of these buildings: I found it very difficult to work out how it all related - very few of their footprints were rectangular.

 

An aside - I didn't know that the jnfamous Robbo R-C was the originator of the inglenook concept. I've used it for the same reasons as you on Bradford North Western as it gives plenty of shunting scope without lots of too-small goods depots. Here's a schematic of how I've done it.

 

 

 

Rather than using cards I use coloured map pins stuck randomly into holes in wagon roofs etc. Each colour designates a different destination - red for Scargill Sidings, white for Bradford Hammerton St. and black for Bridge St yard, Each of the three sidings receives wagons for a particular destination. It sounds crass - one of my friends asked what the "balloons" were on the wagon roofs - but they are clear to see (important for my failing eyes) and are quickly accepted as they give real purpose to shunting. My trains, headshunt  and sidings are longer than yours so disposing of one 20-wagon train can take a less experienced shunter hours! 

 

Ian

[br2975]

 

I too have seen this and thought it would be a good basis for some of the low relief roofs behind Bradford North Western. I remember the Don Townsley article; you couldn't possibly point me to it as I think it will be in a box somewhere under the layout?  

 

 

Ian, I have found the original article by Don Townsley.

 

Railway Modeller, May 1975 pps 146-147

 

I have a copy (that I could scan)  if you cannot locate yours.

.

Brian R

[clecklewyke]

Ian, I have found the original article by Don Townsley.

 

Railway Modeller, May 1975 pps 146-147

 

I have a copy (that I could scan)  if you cannot locate yours.

.

Brian R

 

I have just emerged fom my man-hole and I am afraid that I do not have that particular issue in my library - by 1975 I had stopped buying every issue - so if you could scan it easily I would be most grateful.

 

Many thanks.

 

Ian

Edited October 18, 2017 by clecklewyke

[danstercivicman]

Many thanks - but don't spend too long. Somewhere I have a copy of the original photo of the train of LNWR four-wheeled coaches in front of these buildings: I found it very difficult to work out how it all related - very few of their footprints were rectangular.

 

An aside - I didn't know that the jnfamous Robbo R-C was the originator of the inglenook concept. I've used it for the same reasons as you on Bradford North Western as it gives plenty of shunting scope without lots of too-small goods depots. Here's a schematic of how I've done it.

 

 

BNW Track Plan.jpg

 

Rather than using cards I use coloured map pins stuck randomly into holes in wagon roofs etc. Each colour designates a different destination - red for Scargill Sidings, white for Bradford Hammerton St. and black for Bridge St yard, Each of the three sidings receives wagons for a particular destination. It sounds crass - one of my friends asked what the "balloons" were on the wagon roofs - but they are clear to see (important for my failing eyes) and are quickly accepted as they give real purpose to shunting. My trains, headshunt  and sidings are longer than yours so disposing of one 20-wagon train can take a less experienced shunter hours! 

 

Ian

 

 

Hello,

 

Sorry excuse my utter ignorance when it comes to operational matters

 

I take it goods train comes in on down, crosses over onto arrival line.   Where:

 

1) engine pulls into headshunt

 

2) shunter comes in and...

 

Please can you explain for someone with little operational experience what steps are required?   I am trying to get my head round the whole release of the main loco and how the trains are assembled/split

 

Kind regards and excellent layouts both

[Alex TM]

Hi,

 

Having just read the article in BRM, I thought I should have a read of the thread here.  This is a fantastic layout, and I think the stories, etc, really add a certain something to it.

 

Looking forward to what comes next.

 

Regards,

 

Alex.

[br2975]

I have just emerged fom my man-hole and I am afraid that I do not have that particular issue in my library - by 1975 I had stopped buying every issue - so if you could scan it easily I would be most grateful.

 

Many thanks.

 

Ian

 

Ian

 

PM me with your e-mail address and I'll send the scans on to you.

.

I've done jpeg ands pdf scans, any preference ?

 

Brian

[br2975]

Hi,

 

Having just read the article in BRM, I thought I should have a read of the thread here.  This is a fantastic layout, and I think the stories, etc, really add a certain something to it.

 

Looking forward to what comes next.

 

Regards,

 

Alex.

 

Thanks Alex.

 

Watch this (or another) space.

.

Still on the baseboards for Twll Cach, but a thread will start in about a month or so.

.

Brian

[clecklewyke]

I take it goods train comes in on down, crosses over onto arrival line.   Where:

 

1) engine pulls into headshunt

 

2) shunter comes in and...

Exactly - you're two thirds of the way there!

 

Having uncoupled from the train the train loco draws on to the headshunt then leaves the goods yard via the departure line, on to the up main line and usually on to the MPD (which in my case is imagined in the fiddle yard.

 

It's at this point that I add the pins. I take a fist full of pins and insert one into a pre-drilled hole in the roof (or load or body as appropriate) of each wagon just as they come out of my closed fist, i.e. randomly. In my imagination they take the place of the way bills which wagon carried on its sole bar which gave the shunter (the man not the engine) instructions about what to do with the wagon.

 

I then bring the shunting loco from wherever it's been lurking on to the headshunt and drive it to the front of the train and couple up. The driver - you - has then to decide how best to create order from chaos. He has a train in random order and has to move it backwards and forwards to get all the red-pinned wagons into siding one, the white pins into siding two and the black pins into siding three - in the fewest possible number of moves.

 

Once this is achieved I remove the pins so the trains look better. The brake van is then added to the end of one of the trains and at the appropriate time the shunter pulls the train out of the siding into the headshunt and then propels the train on to the departure line. A train engine then arrives on the down line and after a shuffle across the facing crossover (points 6) and the goods departure crossover (points 7) couples on to the front of the train.

 

The fireman checks the fire, fixes the correct headlamp code,fills the boiler, has a final cup of tea (during all of which the driver is sitting having a snooze or filling in his pools couppn - yes, his name is Vernon Littlewood) and the guard checks the train, releases the brakes, puts a red lamp on the back and white lamps on the sides of the brake van, checks his watch and when the starter signal (8)  is pulled off blows his whistle and the train leaves on the up line.

 

Phew! Of course a lot of that is in the imagination but I try to get as much as possible right.

 

 

Of course this is a drastic simplification of how real shunting yards worked but the point is to give shunting a purpose and to exercise the little grey cells for a while.

 

You've got me thinking - it might be worth doing an illustrated posting on my BNW thread explaining all that in pictures but that will be a few weeks away as Humber Dock needs to be fettled (and I jave an urge to add seagulls) for the Hull Show on 11/12 November.

 

Ian

 

P.S. Brian, I got your message while I was composing the above. A p.m. will be with you shortly. Many thanks.

[tomparryharry]

This evening, D9500, officially withdrawn several months ago but still being used around the Cardiff area struggled into Rosamund Street hauling two National Coal Board Hunslet 18" 'Austerity' tanks.

.

Both tanks were in grey primer.

.

Both carried 'tickets' that showed they were moving from the NCB Walkden Central Workshops where they had been overhauled and were on their way to the Mountain Ash Central Workshop in the Cynon Valley where they will be painted and run in before taking up duties at the NCB 'Twll Cach Washery'.

.

The locos will be staged at Rosamund Street over the weekend and are due to move on, via Radyr, early Monday morning.

.

Sorry about the quality of the photo, but the setting sun and my Kodak Instamatic don't make for expert images.

Do I spot N02 (Haulwen) & N08 in progress?

[br2975]

Do I spot N02 (Haulwen) & N08 in progress?

Well, you never can tell....................

.

"Son of Rosamund" will be served by an industrial branch to the "NCB No.4 Area, Twll Cach Washery"

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Currently there is but one working Hunslet 18" and a grossly underpowered 4wDH 'Sentinel' on loan from the NCB Opencast Executive, Afon Wrin disposal site. .

.

Baseboards are under construction.

 

Concept and trackplan settled.

 

Watch this space, or more probably, a new thread..

 

Brian R

[br2975]

"Rosamund Street" has returned safely to South Wales after a weekend sojourn at the Festival of Railway Modelling (Doncaster).

.

We enjoyed an excellent weekend, meeting a number of old friends, and several more, newly acquainted "RMwebbers" .

.

Those who have seen 'Rosamund Street' will know it's operated from the front, occasionally with the operator leaning on the barrier, amongst the viewers.

.

From here, one gets to hear some wonderful compliments, that would never be heard if the operator was hidden behind the layout.

.

Similarly, the occasional river counter, waxes lyrical (rarely quietly) , unaware he is stood behind the operator.

.

Such was the case on Saturday afternoon, when two older chaps chatting aloud complimented the layout (set in 1971, and pre-TOPS), but had to mention that "he's got that wrong, you'd never see a blue diesel shunter with a shunter's truck !"

.

Well chaps, try this for size, a GWR shunter's truck, and a blue shunter.......with TOPS numbering, and photographed in 1975.........and there was another, still working at Burry Port circa 1981.

.

Sorry, but couldn't resist it .......................

.

Brian R

[tomparryharry]

On ‎10‎/‎02‎/‎2019 at 21:45, br2975 said:

"Rosamund Street" has returned safely to South Wales after a weekend sojourn at the Festival of Railway Modelling (Doncaster).

.

We enjoyed an excellent weekend, meeting a number of old friends, and several more, newly acquainted "RMwebbers" .

.

Those who have seen 'Rosamund Street' will know it's operated from the front, occasionally with the operator leaning on the barrier, amongst the viewers.

.

From here, one gets to hear some wonderful compliments, that would never be heard if the operator was hidden behind the layout.

.

Similarly, the occasional river counter, waxes lyrical (rarely quietly) , unaware he is stood behind the operator.

.

Such was the case on Saturday afternoon, when two older chaps chatting aloud complimented the layout (set in 1971, and pre-TOPS), but had to mention that "he's got that wrong, you'd never see a blue diesel shunter with a shunter's truck !"

.

Well chaps, try this for size, a GWR shunter's truck, and a blue shunter.......with TOPS numbering, and photographed in 1975.........and there was another, still working at Burry Port circa 1981.

.

Sorry, but couldn't resist it .......................

.

Brian R

 

When the bridges were installed for the new Mill Street bypass, passenger trains were terminated at Pontypridd, mostly into platform 2 (the old platform 7). Prior to this, an 08, complete with shunters truck, was tripped into the bay, to 'clean up' the track circuits at Pontypridd Junction box. ISTR 1973-74. I can't exactly remember the job, but it was Radyr-Walnut Tree-Maesmawr- Pontypridd. Then, Treforest goods yard, Pontypridd goods- into platform 2 for a quick run up & down, then home via Maesmawr down loop & Treforest Estate.

 

There should be a set of notices for this....

 

Ian.

[Northmoor]

On 20/07/2014 at 09:39, br2975 said:

Shunters could spend weeks away from their home depot, and they could work many miles from that depot e.g. a Canton shunter would be outbased at Aberdare (only 25 miles) whereas a Landore shunter could be at Carmarthen, Whitland or worse, Fishguard Harbour !

 

Just found this thread on an RMWeb "surf".....

You don't by any chance know which 08s were based at Fishguard during the TOPS era do you, or when the last one left?  I suspect the last left in about 1981 - my Dad has a photo from just before where one is visible - as that's when the Motorail service ceased, but I would like to number one of my 08s as the last FGD pilot.

It's been quite hard to find published photos of Fishguard where the 08 is visible and identified in the caption.

Many thanks,

Rob

[Northmoor]

On 20/07/2014 at 09:39, br2975 said:

Shunters could spend weeks away from their home depot, and they could work many miles from that depot e.g. a Canton shunter would be outbased at Aberdare (only 25 miles) whereas a Landore shunter could be at Carmarthen, Whitland or worse, Fishguard Harbour !

 

Deleted duplicate post - WHAT IS THE MATTER WITH RMWEB?!!

Edited April 13, 2019 by Northmoor
Duplicate deleted

[5BarVT]

On 10/02/2019 at 21:45, br2975 said:

GWR shunter's truck, and a blue shunter.......with TOPS numbering, and photographed in 1975.........and there was another, still working at Burry Port circa 1981.

.

Sorry, but couldn't resist it .......................

Just what I need. I’ve had a shunter’s truck since c.1973 and recently upgraded to one of the new ones.  To be @ble to use it with blue diesels ‘for real’ is brilliant.

Many thanks, Paul.

and I can’t resist things like that too. :-)

[br2975]

On 13/04/2019 at 20:34, Northmoor said:

Just found this thread on an RMWeb "surf".....

You don't by any chance know which 08s were based at Fishguard during the TOPS era do you, or when the last one left?  I suspect the last left in about 1981 - my Dad has a photo from just before where one is visible - as that's when the Motorail service ceased, but I would like to number one of my 08s as the last FGD pilot.

It's been quite hard to find published photos of Fishguard where the 08 is visible and identified in the caption.

Many thanks,

Rob

Sadly, I can't tell you when the shunter duty was withdrawn at Fishguard, or what the last 08there was. 

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Best I can do is advise you that over Christmas 1975, the pilot was 08898, and over Christmas 1978 it was 08942.

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Sorry, but you'll hopefully appreciate that Fishguard is 110 miles from me, and railway wise held no attraction for me, or most other enthusiasts.

[Northmoor]

7 hours ago, br2975 said:

Sadly, I can't tell you when the shunter duty was withdrawn at Fishguard, or what the last 08there was. 

.

Best I can do is advise you that over Christmas 1975, the pilot was 08898, and over Christmas 1978 it was 08942.

.

Sorry, but you'll hopefully appreciate that Fishguard is 110 miles from me, and railway wise held no attraction for me, or most other enthusiasts.

Well that's more info than I've managed to get from most other sources - many thanks!  I can appreciate Fishguard was only visited by enthusiasts collecting mileage/routes, rather than locos.

08898 was always the Swansea High Street pilot in the mid-80s and seems to have been a Landore loco for decades.  Sadly it looks like 898 and 942 are no more.