Northroader

So there’s me in the summer of ‘53, walking along the dockside at Waterford, having just got off the S.S. “Great Western” (the ‘cattle boat’) at Adelphi Wharf pontoon. If you’re a 15 year old scout lugging a kitbag for your summer camp, it’s a long way to Waterford North, but we made it, and in we go. There was this diesel railcar in one of the west bays, looking brand new with a wedding party being seen off, (Dublin, maybe?) Nice dark green with some thin light green stripes. Then our train comes in for Limerick way, older corridor stock. ‘Twas dark green the same, with wider bands of light green, but I couldn’t say if any were missing the banding. Oh, the loco, a D4 with outside framed front bogie, real nice looker, but real dirty, like pretty well every railway engine back then. I was used to LMS maroon, or GWR chocolate and cream, both of which could look pretty careworn by then. There was the through train from Birkenhead in SR malachite Green, a bit brighter. I suppose I must have seen some BR blood and custard by then, though not as I remember. To me the CIE two shades of green looked quite an up to date, with it job, must have been because it was taken from the buses.

Nice update, I did do some long time ago, so good to see how it’s done now. My main struggle seemed to be with keeping the mould flat and level whilst casting, then getting the cast part to have a uniform thickness after the pour.The catalyst for the rubber mix back then was also requiring a terrible level of care in its use, hope that’s improved? Certainly the results would be an easier thought process than mastering 3D printing.

You can do it, it just needs some straight track between the two curves, so you’re not getting “S” curves. The throwover with the buffers gets too much..

Trouble is, all this stuff is just too clever for me, drawing on my experience with mobile phones and printer/copiers. The setting up, the feeding and replacement of consumables, working out what the programme/menu has to be told, then trying to clear print queues, it’s doomed to failure. Now if they could send a four year old Chinese kid along with the kit, things would be much better.

You’re very welcome to come and visit my continental thread. Ideally I aim for pre WW1, but it does carry over. I do try to put useful links in, as much as I can, so there some very nifty German layouts tucked away in there for inspiration, plus some good video and photograph stuff. https://www.rmweb.co.uk/topic/151308-“beyond-dover”/ Just a guess “TW-schuppen” equals “treibwagen schuppen”, railcar shed.

Put a S on the front.

I would be inclined to build something simple to start with rather than trying to fill the shed with a large layout from the start. Either a simple terminus to fiddle yard, say 8’ x 1’, or a 6’ x 4’ oval with a few sidings in 00 scale to build up your experience and explore what’s possible. Ones you could aspire to in time, say, Ballyconnell Road or Kilbrandon Junction as good examples? https://3mmsociety.org.uk/ballyconnell-road/

Looking very good. One thing, the big dome at the back of the tender is for water pickup troughs, so really needs removing and blanking over.

Me, too [in 7mm)

Maybe it’s just the rest of us like a quiet life. One boss I had was a master con artist. A group of us would be discussing a job, and he would turn to you with a look of low cunning, and say confidentially, man to man: “You know what I’m talking about, eh, Bob?” and I never had the b**** to say “ I haven't got a f****** clue!”

With communications as they were at the time, the local management wouldn’t be able to feed any timesheets through in advance, presumably they were paid with a week or two in hand, with old time sheets picked up for the next trip. A clerk would have to then calculate payment and put the right money in the pay packet. Back then hardly any paper notes, more coins? We were out on a newly overhauled engine running light, and were stopped by adverse signals out in the country. A pay clerk with a small wood case joined us, and hitched a ride to the next signal box. He was doing a weekly trip stage by stage along the length of the line. The pay train is shaping into a lovely model, David.

How are they being done? A two car pair, presumably, but is it model power car and trailer, or two power cars? One story went that the compressed air system originally powered the toilet feed, and if the toilet was flushed, you lost the brakes, but that must have been an exaggeration. We had a prototype in, but nobody said it was a double battery layout, with the engine start having its own system (it beats the cleaners leaving the lights on overnight) Soo… the charger went on the obvious socket on the one side, like all the other sets we had, and when the nobs turned up next day for a demo run, they couldn’t start the engines.

That style looks like the kind of job you’d get on a tramcar

Roger Farnworth has done quite a thorough going survey of a lot of the LLSR in recent years, as well as a lot of other Irish n.g., although not the bit north of Tooban, as far as I can see: https://rogerfarnworth.com/tag/londonderry-lough-swilly-railway/

Trouble is, I think a bit of colour makes the whole lot look more attractive. I thought Andy did capture some rain at the scene of his Valentia layout really well. I was at a show a while ago, where the guy had gone out of his way for an industrial Northern valley, and it just looked terribly dowdy. Colour, Leslie!

It does have very dark green wheels, like a tramcar you helpfully pointed out to me. Just got to get it past JB.

A loco is needed for this spectacular, so I’m working on one, plastic frames, Slaters wheels with long axles, and Mashima motor found down the back of the sofa. There’s brass axle bushes cemented in the frames for the lead and driving axles. Next job is pickups and springing for the trailing axle, as it’s sitting four square on the lead and drive, and it will be ballasted to keep the centre of gravity there. IMG_1312.mov

The Hercules going over ours were all “Fat Alberts”.

A Chinook would have blown him away.

And everybody is wearing a hat.

And there’s you sitting on top to work the switch. Best wishes to the invalid. (and that lot is going cabin baggage with Air O’Leary!?!?!?)

Thinking of “Midsummer Nights Deam”, there was Peaseblossom, Cobweb, Moth, and Mustardseed, although two of them are a bit long for a nameplate. All in favour of plastic locos, my first one is just held up for some stick on rivets, second one on the go, and I’m also making a replacement chassis for a brass kit which was lacking side play. The one stunt I enjoy is setting up the axlebox bushes, all unsprung. The frames are three ply .060” Plastikard, the bushes put in about where they should be, dummy axles in, coupling rods on, then trued up with a touch from a hot solderingiron, with some plastic cement sploshed round to set in any gaps. ive had problems with using plastic water pipe as boiler material, getting a solvent to work on it, as it’s nothing like the plastikard stuff.

I think you’re right, lower the horizon, but I’ve made the sky too dark and threatening, needs to be lighter. Nice Summers day, or more of a tonal contrast? (What would we do without Ernie’s Archive?)

Yesterday I was looking at Ballycombe, stuck in the far corner of the railway shed, and thinking what was wanted, and then I decided to get stuck in, and with more done today. It’s St. Patrick’s Day, so it must be a good time to be doing an Irish line, after all, and my best wishes to everyone both sides of the Sea. This year I’ve been taking ideas for a microlayout further, the main idea being that rather than have a station with sidings shunted from a headshunt on a fiddle yard, you turn it round, with the station having the headshunt, and the sidings going in the fiddle yard. The sidings need only to be long enough for a few wagons after all, and the headshunt needs to be longer for your pride and joy engine to be seen moving about. The track in the station been lifted, with just the main running line to go back. What was the fiddle yard was giving me grief anyways, some “cassettes” of track lengths laid on thin ply. There was stiffening strips each side, but they were going banana shaped just the same. Now I’ve made a two track sector table from a piece of 17mm. melamine clad chipboard shelf, much more dimensionally stable. This is pivoted at the far end, now I’ve got to get the board levels right, but as the layout is just a single lightweight unit, it should be easy enough. The track needs work to get the sleepers regular, and there is less track all told. Here’s what it looks like after a couple of days jobbing: you could say it’s ended up as diorama with moving bits, as it has got quite small. I’m legislating for a small tank engine, a six wheel brake third, and four goods wagons, then just shunt the whole lot round. There’s just one wagon visible for now, built to the two Daves’ one true gauge, or near enough. Overall length is 51.5”, 1300mm, station length 30”, 760mm, sector table 21”, 530mm, and the width of the main board is 12”, 305mm. You can see I’ve started a backscene behind the main board, as it matters to me to give a sense of the place, but I don’t think it’s working, and it will get an overpaint. Probably I’ll put in an over bridge before the sector table join.

Just needs to be a bit shorter and having tank engines running on it?