East Dock an Irish Timesave (ish)

[Mayner]

I was always fascinated by port and dock railways and needed a OO gauge test track and backdrop for my models, so I looked at the John Allen's Timesaver switching puzzle for a small self contained layout.

The Timesaver was basically a model railway board game where the operator shunts/switches 5 freight cars between set starting and final positions in the shortest time possible. Originally intended as a brainteaser for operators on John Allen's famous Gorre & Daphetid Railroad, the original Timesaver layout was on a plain baseboard with no scenery or stopbolcks to stop stock running off the ends of spur tracks.

I first worked out the minimum space require by setting up a Timesaver track layout with the original design constraints based on Irish 4w wagons & a B121 locomotive.

Timesaver mock up with B125 and 5 wagons. Min length 1600mm.

The main Timesaver constraints are that the spur tracks are each capable of holding 3 vehicles (loco or wagons), the run round loop and release tracks a maximum of 2 vehicles.

Track is Peco Code 100 with small radius Insulfrog points which I had in stock.

In practice the length of the release tracks limit the majority of moves to a loco and 1 wagon, though its possible to shunt two wagons when pushing and pulling.

I extended the scenic section to 1850mm as I had a suitable piece of ply with a 500mm fiddle yard section to fit a 2350 shelf in the home office which would allow more realistic operation

1850mm extended Timesaver Mock Up.

The extra 250mm allowed me to extend the run-round loop to hold 5 wagons and extend the release and spur tracks at one end to hold an additional wagon. The increased length & fiddle yard allows more purposeful shunting that possible with the original Timesaver concept. A train can be made up off scene and arriving/department traffic modelled rather than just shuffling wagons back and forth.

The corrugated buildings are a mock up for 1930s era grain silos/feedmill, the large red brick buildings are based on the Canal era maltings on the North West side of Grand Canal Dock.

B132 arrives with two empty opens, a covered wagon and a brake.

B132 has propelled her train out of the year before uncoupling the opens from the remainder of the train before running forward to pick up the 'full" wagon from under the hopper and position to two empties.

B125 has run round her train and positions the brake on the loop so the guard can complete his paperwork in comfort while the (human) shunters make up the outgoing train.

B125 has picked up the outgoing Ranks Wagons and Open to add to the outgoing train before shunting the incoming Covered Wagon into position at the mill.

Ready to depart B132 has collected the outgoing traffic, the crew have retired to the office building for lunch before departure.

Apart from the track most of the layout will be built from material in stock, the baseboard will be all ply construction with track on dense foam underlay. Point motors are Peco likely to be controlled using Lenz stationary decoders last used on an N gauge layout, control Digitrax Empire Builder system with Duplex Radio remote control. Buildings and structures are mainly salvaged from earlier projects mainly built using Will Scenic Sheets.

Scenically the layout is a section of rail served quay or basin with backround buildings and structures.

I will probably do a couple of mockups of the Feedmill Grian silo, possibly 1930s concrete construction or corrugated iron, the hopper arrangement for loading wagons is similar to that used at Waterford North Wharf

The next job is to cut the profile of the quayside out of the baseboard top  and assemble the baseboard, the baseboard framing will be formed from 80mm rips of ply with the quayside area reduced to 50mm to give a shallow quayside basin effect.

 

 

[StevieB]

Looks all very good.

Stephen

[jhb171achill]

What’s that station building? Looks very MGWR-ish!

[Mayner]

1 hour ago, jhb171achill said:

What’s that station building? Looks very MGWR-ish!

Well spotted a relic with MGWR design features  built over 30 years ago using Wills scenic materials. 

It was the station building on a minimum space MGWR branchline terminus inspired by Richard Chown's Castlerackrent. An early attempt at 21mm gauge a turntable release and a double slip were beyond my scratchbuilding ability.

The building will act as a Customs House/Dock Office as East Dock is goods only though definitely MGWR!

[Patrick Davey]

Lovely John - reminding me of my current project!

[Mayner]

Brookhall Mill was one of the inspirations for East Dock.

Assembled the baseboards this afternoon, ensured consistency by ripped the framing using a circular table saw and cut the framing to length with a cross compound mitre saw.

I marked the position of the point tie bars before positioning the intermediate cross members.

The fiddle yard will be a traverser on a separate 250X300mm  baseboard.

The layout will have a painted hardboard fascia and backscene, backscene will have radiused corners similar to that in the background.

 

[Patrick Davey]

Quite humbled, thank you!

Amazing woodwork, am keenly watching progress!  Good workspace too!

[Mayner]

Completed the baseboards and installed track underlay this weekend.

I fitted DCC Baseboard Alignment boards to the baseboards ends using a piece of ply with two pilot holes as drilling ji

The underlay is dense foam ground sheet glued with PVA and weighted down until dry.

I fitted strip basswood to the baseboard edge to assist with track alignment.

Mock up on the outside work bench, Tower Building inspired by Grand Canal Street and overbridge will act as fiddle yard view blocker.

 

Set up in the Workshop/Layout Room with Fiddle Yard baseboard fitted.

The fiddle yard baseboard is basically an inverted box with an open top.

I am planning to use a traverser using metal drawer slides., I will need to fit stripwood runners to the ply ends and an intermediate to support the slides, the traverser table will  basically sit on top of the slides clear of the ply framing.

 

The next jobs are to sort out the traverser top for the fiddle yard and drill out the pilot holes for the point motors.

I seem to have disappeared most of the track/pointwork for this end of the layout since Saturday  morning, I suspect it has fallen into the narrow gap behind the under-baseboard storage units which will require a major clear out

Edited November 7, 2021 by Mayner

[Mayner]

A bit more progress this weekend.

I had originally planned to use Peco Point Motors with baseplates and extended drive pin salvaged from an N gauge layout, but decided to fit the motors directly to the points to eliminate the risk of lost motion with the extended drive pin and floating track base. The first job was to accurately fit and test run the track before cutting out the holes in the baseboard for the point motors, at the same stage I drilled holes for the power droppers, I cut out the holes for the point motors using a drill and jig saw, test fitting the point/point motor subassembly as work progressed, the hole in the top right hand corner has to be squared up.!

Test fitting and checking alignment of point work and main running road on one board checking that the running road aligns with a point on the second board.

Its necessary to cut the hole longer and wider than the headblock timbers to allow the motor to fit through, I infill the excess with black paper before ballasting the track

The tricky potentially messy bit track lifted on packers before gluing and ballasting showing droppers to DCC track power bus.

Track bedded in office glue aligned and lightly pinned in position, I was a bit to generous with the glue on this first section.

Ballast sprinkled on and pointwork installed on second board.

Underside of baseboard showing power droppers and point motors. I had shaken off excess ballast at this stage.

Tracklaying and ballasting complete. I used fine ash ballast on some of the siding roads and a medium brown on the running line and loop, the difference in shading is probably related to the drying of the glue.

Looking back towards the staging

 

From the buffers the lines in the foreground are supposed to have been re-aligned in the 30s when a new grain feed store was built.

I may inset the track on the right with cobbles or concrete as its supposed to be part of a quayside line or simply treat as a railway siding as it would be tricky insetting the point  and not look very good in OO. 

I will do any necessary topping up of ballast covering baldspots by dry ballasting and gluing with dilute office glue and a wetting agent using an eye dropper. 

The glue is a white office glue which hopefully is more resilient than a woodworking pva.

It will be interesting to see whether noise transmission from the track to the ply becomes a problem (especially locos with sound), the track is basically floating on foam underlay and will only be fixed rigidly at the baseboard joints, this layout is basically a test bed for a permanent 21mm gauge layout if it ever gets built.

The Mill/Feedstore area the hoppers are spotted for unloading over the intake pits, the vans spotted for loading feedstuff from the dry store. I am almost tempted by Ranks Clara which had quite grusome corrugated iron grain elevators and stores in contrast to the massive brick and stone 18th and 19th Century maltings and mills.

Edited November 14, 2021 by Mayner

[Mayner]

I could not resist it and had to do a running test to check whether I had succeeded in acoustically de-coupling the track from the plywood baseboard, my past experiences with cork underlay was that ply baseboards are very effective sounding boards/resonators.

The clip was very short as I tried to maximise dept of field which did not leave the camera processor with too much leaway.

I am fairly happy with the result and will probably use the same principals when I get round to building a 21mm gauge layout on the baseboard framing that sits below East Dock.

I took some photos using aperture priority setting at f22 on the SLR using the baseboard as a tripod to see what could be achieved with the narrow aisle on this side of the workshop/model railway room.

Reasonable depth of field with A23r in focus at a distance of approx 800mm.  The baseboard joint is sitting on miniature clamps creating an unintentional impression of distance/curvature of the Earth effect . The retaining wall got a coat of primer a base for painting the stonework and hopefully disguising the vertical panel joints.

A23r hauling her train into the loop most of the train is in focus. The 'dropoff" will be modelled as a quay wall with paving just below rail level.

The old style BR containers usually appear to have been transported in open wagons into the early possibly mid-1970s, possibly lifted on-off with Coles self propelled cranes containers apparently used for BMC auto parts traffic.

The Bachmann containers make a nice load, opens also used to carry farm machinery, in addition to traffic like timber, bricks from Kingscourt, bagged fertiliser and bulk traffic including gypsum, beet, peat briquettes.

 

 

 

 

[Patrick Davey]

Great progress - looking superb!

 

[Mayner]

Not a lot to report in recent weeks, I managed to complete the wiring on one of the baseboards and test the point control system on the weekend.

Droppers and wiring from the Lenz SL110 stationary decoder connected to the bus wiring using connector blocks cut ends of all wires tinned.

Nice and simple black and red DCC track power, brown and orange point and accessory power.

 

Close up of one of the terminals this will connect to a jumper cable to the second board. I originally tried to power the points from the DCC track power but not up to powering the points.

Points are controlled by the switch function on a DCC RC Throttle so no need for a separate control panel or lever frame to control the points.

 

 

[Adrian]

Very nice, just caught up. Liked your solution for fitting the point motors and then putting them through the whole from the top, I...didn’t do this and using Seep PM1s instead contorted myself trying to align them from underneath using a flashlight - never again! Looking forward to seeing more updates

[Mayner]

I managed to complete the wiring this afternoon and carried out some testing.

Mill baseboard. The green circuit board is a Digitrax Radio/Infrared receiver, white phone/data cable Loconet comms cable between receiver and command station.

I had fun and games with the Lenx LS110 stationary decoders that power the points, but managed to find to with most of the outputs still working after 20 years!

I forgot to drill holes in the baseboard ends for the various cables that cross the Baseboard joints but managed to drill the holes today using s speed bit without causing too much damage.

I used a 4 way automotive jointer to take the track/DCC and point power bus across the baseboard joint. The Loconet cable and receiver power lead were fed in from the fiddle yard end of the layout.

I assembled the fiddleyard board as a tray for with either a sector plate or traverser fiddleyard to fit on top.

The tray is a tad shallow for the command station and transformer, which may end up going on a shelf above the fiddle yard.

Set up is very temporary to test the layout and prove that everything works.

B125 shuffling around, the RC/IR function is handy for walk around operation. Point control works nicely with a nice soft motion, the main thing to remember is that you have to re-select the loco when you change the throttle from Switch (change points) to loco mode. 

Some interesting 'snags' popped up, I could not get the loco to respond to the throttle/change points while working in RC/IR mode possibly a problem with the throttle/receiver or its power supply.

Next step is to test with another RC/IR throttle and change the receiver if that does not work. The current set up is the original Digitrax simplex radio system from the mid-2000s which I last used about 5-6m years ago to control a large scale garden railway and have several spare throttles and some IR receivers. the IR was originally used on an N gauge attic layout in Dublin about 20 years ago!

I also have a throttle and receiver for the current Duplex RC system, I cannot select 3 on the Throttle a big problem for selecting locos and points and I am unsure of Digitrax still provides support for that particular throttle, though its nice to be getting some return for my investment in the system.

Time to move on with the scenics starting with the dock wall and overbridge at the fiddle yard end of the yard, while I make a final decision on the yard.

 

[jhb171achill]

On 15/11/2021 at 9:58 AM, Mayner said:

 

A23r hauling her train into the loop….

An interesting little detail here, and something I haven’t seen ever yet in model form, is the pre-mid-50s slightly darker wagon grey plus lower-placed “eau-de-nil” snail, which only the very first “H” vans would have had, and not for long! First wagon behind loco…..

[Mayner]

5 hours ago, jhb171achill said:

An interesting little detail here, and something I haven’t seen ever yet in model form, is the pre-mid-50s slightly darker wagon grey plus lower-placed “eau-de-nil” snail, which only the very first “H” vans would have had, and not for long! First wagon behind loco…..

Railtec are currently working on decals for the 1946 version of the covered wagon including original scheme with solid green snail and lettering though it will be interesting to see if they can achieve a colour match.

I am not convinced the original scheme was that short lived, CIE avoided re-painting wagons unless it was absolutely necessary. The 1946 batch of vans had sheet metal sheeted bodies which would have required less maintenance/re-painting than the planked or ply versions, there are several late 50s photos of brake vans in dark grey with green snail and lettering, while some bulk grain wagons did not receive full repaints CIE simply applied a flying snail and  painted out the GS initials, one wagon was re-branded with 1960s flying snail while retaining its solid GSR style  running numbers.

All going well i should have decorated samples of the open, grain and covered wagons by February 2022.

[Mayner]

I successfully de-bugged the DCC system and got cordless Radio/Infrared receiver working for bot controlling the loco and changing points, I last used the system for controlling large scale locos in the garden more than 5 years ago so nothing lost.

I set up a temporary section of straight track in the fiddle yard so I can run a train on or off the layout, but have decided to install a sector plate using drawer runners.

Back to the scenics or structures with the dock wall and road overbridge between the scenic section and fiddle yard.

I formed the dock wall using a suitable rip of ply glued and pinned to the baseboard, cladding the walls with Wills Scenic Sheets to match the retaining wall in the background.

The stone coarses on the Will Sheets line up once the sheets are laid the same way up. I sanded back the edges of the sheets then glued the joints with polystyrene cement.

I decided to extend the dock siding towards the bridge and will probably infill the area between the trackbase and dock wall with the same dense foam ground sheet.

I have to decide whether to pave the track in this area or bring the ash/ballast in this area up to the top of sleeper level.

Looking the opposite direction the joints between the stone sheets appear to be more noticeable, bit could disguise with mooring posts.

I shortened the plate girder overbridge which was originally built to span 3 tracks, I have to add parapets and arch detail to the nearside abutment and make a decision on the depth of the Quay which is way too deep for a canal or enclosed dock.

Any skullduggery can be disguised/hidden by the layout fascia.

 

[Mayner]

I managed to get out to a DIY store and buy a set of drawer runners for the traverser and install the table after dropping daughter off to a school holiday "Adapt a Pony" programme at the local Equestrian Centre luckily we haven't enough space to keep a horse in our back garden.

I decided on a traverser rather than a sector plate to simplify lining up 2 roads at a time.

The piece of brass rod is used to align and lock the table, with a hole drilled through the table into the baseboard.

I need to drill out and sleve the hole/'s with brass tube as there is some play between the brass rod and the table/baseboard.

 

Table slid over showing alignment marks and holes in baseboard.

Traverser runner, there is a runner under each end of the traverser.  The top edge of the runner is slightly (card shim) than the baseboard cross-member to allow the table to slide freely.

Underside of traverser table, screws are fitted at both ends to stop the table twisting relative to the runners. 

The projecting machine screws in the runners clamp the woodscrews in the table in place.

The main constraint with the layout in its proposed location is that the traverser is only long enough for a small Bo Bo loco and 4 wagons or a small tank loco or diesel shunter and 5.

This is probably sufficient to keep an operator busy shunting inward and outbound traffic using a card or computer based operating system where each wagon has an individual running number and a destination.

I am planning to make a second longer traverser table in order to run longer trains in a portable set up, at exhibitions or conventions.

 

 

Looking at a crane for the Quay some Irish Ports such as Sligo used diesel crawler cranes for offloading bulk cargo such as coal and grain but the Kibri crane is a bit on the big side and likely to get damaged if placed in the foreground.

 

I am tempted to convert the Jordan Erie Shovel into a rail mounted crane to park at the buffers on the kickback road or even motorise like the Fenit cranes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited December 22, 2021 by Mayner

[Mayner]

Some thoughts on Motive Power for Eastdock.

The layout is only really suitable for small diesel and steam locos as a B121 and 4 wagons just about fits on the traverser.

 

Small tender locos will just about fit, I have a OO gauge 52 Class and MGWR 2-4-0 but don't particularly want to build a OO gauge chassis for a J15.

A MGWR E Class /GSRJ26 is plausible and my original 1983 TMD Midland 0-6-0T 563 rebuilt 1993 is probably overdue for a mechanical overhaul, though a MGWR Heavy Shunting Tank Class P/GSR J11 or exGSWR 201/J11 would be more appropriate.

I have a full set of detail castings that would suit a P Class, it would be simple enough to produce the sheetmetal work and the chassis could be adapted for a MGWR 'Standard Goods" which is already on the to-do list.

For 'Modern Image" use A B121 and G617 would be ideal. The B arriving and departing with trip workings from a major yard or station the G carrying out the Yard Shunting.

I am thinking in terms of a High Level Quad Driver https://www.highlevelkits.co.uk/product-page/quaddriver-4wd-23mm-wheelbase to provide the necessary combination of reliable low speed running and torque, I am not a fan of Tenshodo Spud motor bogies for this type of use. I will probably replace the chassis in my Impetus RH88DS a reasonably good slow speed runner but very noisy.

The Ruston is just about plausible as a Port & Docks Board shunter.

The High Level chassis looks ideal for a motorised steam crane, though I would draw the line at motorising the cranes slewing and hoist functions.

I have an E421 with a rtr 21mm gauge custom Bull Ant chassis which just about might be worth re-gauging to OO as it does not fit in with current 21mm gauge motive power needs.

The B121 performs nicely with a MM Sound decoder at the default setting with a nice delay between the engine revving up and the loco starting to move.

 

 

 

[David Holman]

Fine selection of stock there, John. Tend to agree with you regarding crane functions, especially in 4mm scale. Am aiming to make my (7mm) crane trundle back and forth on a short length of track, possibly using a shuttle unit, to provide a bit of movement when there is no train on scene.

 Back in the day, Chatham Club member Ted McIlroy built two of the Dockyard's cranes in 7mm scale (the prototypes are parked opposite our clubroom), using three RG4 motors and complex pick up arrangements to make them fully operational. Giles Flavell is the man these days - building a plethora of radio controlled road vehicles, including operating cranes that are real crowd pillars at shows.

[Mayner]

I moved most of the stock out of the fiddle yard in order to wire up the traverser and the resulting scene reminded me of Waterford North Wharf in the late 1970s when it was used to store redundant H Vans from a Dundalk-Kilkenny keg special probably one of the last loose-coupled goods workings South of Dundalk and over the North Wall-Waterford route.

018 and Van prepares to leave having shunted the redundant vans into position.

The next big job is to prepare some mock ups for the grain elevator and granary buildings at the end of the layout

E421 One of  Hans Tomalie's "Tank Engines" seems to be ideal for shunting and trip working to other yards.

The loco is a 3D Printed Shapeways body with additional detailing on a custom built "Bull-Ant" motor bogie assembled about 10 years ago.

Re-gauging to OO should be interesting because on one side the wheels are a press fit on the axles, I wonder if there is a 400hp Maybach sound file with an Irish diesel air horn?

I am only showing the cab end as one of the buffers is missing from the nose.

Hans Tomalie appears to have been diesel engineer a German national who 'jumped ship' from a German Warship before the outbreak of WW11.

He appears to have been involved in the dieselisation programme, but his efforts were never officially acknowledged staff feeling he "got a raw deal" and eventually returned in unhappy circumstances to Germany.

I may re-name the layout North Wharf as it got a certain ring to it

 

 

 

 

[DartStation]

On 30/10/2021 at 8:05 AM, Mayner said:

I was always fascinated by port and dock railways and needed a OO gauge test track and backdrop for my models, so I looked at the John Allen's Timesaver switching puzzle for a small self contained layout.

The Timesaver was basically a model railway board game where the operator shunts/switches 5 freight cars between set starting and final positions in the shortest time possible. Originally intended as a brainteaser for operators on John Allen's famous Gorre & Daphetid Railroad, the original Timesaver layout was on a plain baseboard with no scenery or stopbolcks to stop stock running off the ends of spur tracks.

I first worked out the minimum space require by setting up a Timesaver track layout with the original design constraints based on Irish 4w wagons & a B121 locomotive.

Timesaver mock up with B125 and 5 wagons. Min length 1600mm.

The main Timesaver constraints are that the spur tracks are each capable of holding 3 vehicles (loco or wagons), the run round loop and release tracks a maximum of 2 vehicles.

Track is Peco Code 100 with small radius Insulfrog points which I had in stock.

In practice the length of the release tracks limit the majority of moves to a loco and 1 wagon, though its possible to shunt two wagons when pushing and pulling.

I extended the scenic section to 1850mm as I had a suitable piece of ply with a 500mm fiddle yard section to fit a 2350 shelf in the home office which would allow more realistic operation

1850mm extended Timesaver Mock Up.

The extra 250mm allowed me to extend the run-round loop to hold 5 wagons and extend the release and spur tracks at one end to hold an additional wagon. The increased length & fiddle yard allows more purposeful shunting that possible with the original Timesaver concept. A train can be made up off scene and arriving/department traffic modelled rather than just shuffling wagons back and forth.

The corrugated buildings are a mock up for 1930s era grain silos/feedmill, the large red brick buildings are based on the Canal era maltings on the North West side of Grand Canal Dock.

B132 arrives with two empty opens, a covered wagon and a brake.

B132 has propelled her train out of the year before uncoupling the opens from the remainder of the train before running forward to pick up the 'full" wagon from under the hopper and position to two empties.

B125 has run round her train and positions the brake on the loop so the guard can complete his paperwork in comfort while the (human) shunters make up the outgoing train.

B125 has picked up the outgoing Ranks Wagons and Open to add to the outgoing train before shunting the incoming Covered Wagon into position at the mill.

Ready to depart B132 has collected the outgoing traffic, the crew have retired to the office building for lunch before departure.

Apart from the track most of the layout will be built from material in stock, the baseboard will be all ply construction with track on dense foam underlay. Point motors are Peco likely to be controlled using Lenz stationary decoders last used on an N gauge layout, control Digitrax Empire Builder system with Duplex Radio remote control. Buildings and structures are mainly salvaged from earlier projects mainly built using Will Scenic Sheets.

Scenically the layout is a section of rail served quay or basin with backround buildings and structures.

I will probably do a couple of mockups of the Feedmill Grian silo, possibly 1930s concrete construction or corrugated iron, the hopper arrangement for loading wagons is similar to that used at Waterford North Wharf

The next job is to cut the profile of the quayside out of the baseboard top  and assemble the baseboard, the baseboard framing will be formed from 80mm rips of ply with the quayside area reduced to 50mm to give a shallow quayside basin effect.

 

 

Looks excellent John. 

[jhb171achill]

Seriously impressive!

[Mayner]

Yesterday (Boxing Day in New Zealand) was a major breakthrough for North Wharf wiring up and commissioning the traverser and running the first train the entire 7'6" length of the layout!

I also managed to re-gauge E421 to OO but accidentally let the magic smoke out of the decoder though that's a story best left to another day.

With one section and all tracks live wiring was a lot simpler with DCC!. The umbilical from the traverser connects to a terminal block on the fiddle yard baseboard tray/

 

 

Literally 1st train to arrive in the Staging/Fiddle Yard

I found some suitable brass tube and a drill bit, to act as a sleeve for the removable locking pin that aligns the layout and traverser tracks, eliminating the risk of misalignment.

Had to commemorate the occasion on YouTube with a shaky iPhone video!

 

 

 

Edited December 26, 2021 by Mayner

[Mayner]

I finally got around to starting work on the backscene having done nothing with the layout since late December. I have a pattern of loosing interest in a layout once I complete tracklaying and wiring having gone through the same pattern on at least different layouts in different scales and gauges, even if the run reliably!

The backscene is in 4mm MDF screw fixed to strip wood runners fixed to the baseboard surface, I prefer curved corners and pre-curved the corners by bending and clamping for a week before fitting to the baseboards. I am planning to go for a 'staged' effect with wings/view blockers at either end, with a fascia and a lighting pelmet the 'Wings" will help keep the ends of the backscene vertical and act as view blockers at either end of the layout.

The Backscene will help support the retaining wall and low relief background buildings. 

The backscene will be mainly sky possibly with some background buildings.

The layout is intended to fit in an office bookshelf.

The "Wings" should cut off the view of the Tower Building end of the dock

 

I still need to finalise the buildings and structures at this end, whether to go for a 'modern" 1930s concrete grain elevator typically found at ports or a hotchpotch of modern and older structures that existed at Ballysodare.

 

 

 

[Mayner]

Having done nothing with North Wharf since February I painted the backscene with a "sky" blue undercoat and hooked up the radio DCC system, mainly because I need to move the layout out of the workshop/layout room to the home office!

I will fit view blockers, fascia and pelmet once I complete the scenic works and possibly buildings

The small Digitrix panel is a Radio/Infra-Red receiver allowing "hands free' operation with loco(s) and points controlled by DCC, remoter uncoupling with Kadee couplers and uncoupling magnets.

I still need to finalise the buildings and structures in the Granary end.

 

Complete terrace of houses between maltings and overbridge with semi-low relief malting building in corner behind bridge.

The traverser/fiddle yard restricts train length to a small loco and 4 wagons.

Baseboard end view showing DCC-Concepts baseboard alignment dowels and power connector (track and point power). The blue mixed at the local DIY store came out very close to the existing (2012-4?) backscenes.

Backscenes screwed to stripwood strips.

 

 

 

Edited July 17, 2022 by Mayner

[Mayner]

 Trying to fine tune the operation one of the main limitations is short train length as the traverser is only capable of holding a Bo Bo and 4 wagons. 

I have increased maximum train length to 6 wagons including a Brake Van by staging the loco in the hidden area behind the tower building.

The longer train improves operational potential with 4 potential destinations for wagons including the siding that trails back under the overbridge onto the traverser.

Todays trip includes a BR container for the Wharf Road, a H Van for the back siding, an LMA for Mill Traffic and two laden Grain Wagons for unloading.

The Digitrax radio receiver recently failed so I am using Infrared wireless control with an ancient UR80 receiver (2002?)

First step is to uncouple the first two wagons (for the trailing sidings) from the rest of the train before propelling the rear of the train out of the yard.

Kadee magnets.

First shunt is to swap the container wagons, leaving the van on the "main line" before shunting the back road.

Second shunt is collecting two vans from the "back road"  before setting out the H van.

the rear of the train is on the second traverser track!

Probably the 1st train/cut of wagons off the 'back road"

Second shunt complete train re-combined

Shunts 3 & 4 I snookered myself at this stage as the combined 7 wagon train was longer than the run round loop!  I left the Brake Van on the main line before running round the 6 wagons and shunting them clear pf the running road, before placing the Van in the loop and running round.  In practice brake vans were often left on the main line or on a siding clear of the shunting operations so the Guard could do his paperwork with minimal disturbance.

Shunt 5 outbound traffic from Shunts 1 & 2 coupled to the van, LMA to be shunted to the Mill loading area.

Shunt 6 LMA has been placed at the Mill for loading 2 laden Grain Wagons placed on the main line before B125 pulls out 2 empty (MTY) grain wagons before placing the laden wagons for unloading.

Shunt 7 complete 2 laden Grain placed for unloading 2 MTY collected

Outbound train made up and ready to depart.

B125 is fitted with a MM sound decoder at default CV settings, usually ramp up to 20% using a Digitrax DT400 throttle with very extremely reliable slow speed operation even with Peco dead frog points.

I still have to finalise the buildings for the mill area currently looking at a similar style to the elevator at Westport Quay 

 

 

 

[Rob]

Looks good and great to see the shunting operation

[Mayner]

Setting the scene North Wharf 1953-73?

I still haven't gotten around to doing anything further with structures and detailing, but with 59 complete I might actually get round to doing something, so I though it would be fun to ring the changes during the last two decades of North Wharf's operation.

Fine tuning No 59 after painting and final assembly particularly balancing the loco to take a reasonable load took longer than expected, the train in the video is the longest that will fit in the Fiddle yard/hidden staging.

Late 1950s/early 1950s shot of 59 arriving at North Wharf with a trip working most of the wagons in GSR/early CIE dark grey. Most likely a suitable tank loco or J15 was not available on the day or Inchacore or the loco is on a 'running-in" turn after attention at Inchacore.

Mid 1950s with 553 providing the motive power, bit more variety in wagon livery with light and dark grey "company' vehicles and red Ranks Hopper.

CIE demonstrated its sense of economy by re-branding 16404 with a Flying Snail and painting out the GS initials which "grinned" through after a few years service, model is based on a mid 1959s photo of the actual wagon.

Shades of the Midland though the train should be a lot longer as 378 enters the yard at North Wharf.

I bought the Woolwich on e-bay from a seller/dealer in the States about 15 years ago, the loco was supplied unlettered from Bachmann's "Irish passenger train set produced for the US market.

I numbered the loco with HMRS (Historic Model Railway Society) Sheet 4a LNER Yellow Locomotive and coach lettering, the yellow loco numbers appear close to that used by CIE during the 1950s.

Final days? B125 arriving with a trip working late 1960s, with a near monopoly in surface transport CIE closed many of its smaller yards and private sidings during the late 1960s essentially using rail for line haul work between major railheads and the Boards road services for local deliveries.

I looked at a Liner Train scenario with North Wharf handling container traffic, but gave up the fiddle yard staging was only capable of handling a loco and 2 42' 9" flat wagons.

A 70s might have been had a small GSWR 4-4-0 survived in working order into preservation. 3-4 Coaches was likely to be the practical limit for these locos which were less powerful than the all-round J15 with smaller boilers and cylinders.

 

 

[Patrick Davey]

John these are superb scenes - the elderly 440 is the star!

[jhb171achill]

Absolutely BRILLIANT stuff! Superb realism.

[Mayner]

I re-located North Wharf from the garage to the home office which theoretically should frees up space in the garage to work on a 'permanent' 21mm gauge layout if I ever get round to making a decision on the N Gauge layout that's taken North Wharf's place in the garage and other junk.

North Wharf is basically a OO replacement for a 21mm dock layout I started 10 years ago but could not get to work in the same space because of the larger min-radius curves and longer points required in 21mm. I was also a bit to ambitious in incorporating two hand laid double slips in the crossover between the running lines and dock trackage. The new layout incorporates the distillery buildings, retaining wall and overbridge from the dock layout, which have not warped or twisted in nearly 10 years.

Electrically the layout is fed by a 4 way power box which will feed transformers for DCC Track Power, IR wireless or Radio Control, Point and Lighting power .

I will fit the layout with a lighting pelmet/proscenium arch arrangement to eliminate shadows and hide the shelf supports and a removable panel to disguise the traverser and control equipment.

Operationally the next jobs are to connect the IR/RC panel and the points to a power source and load the layout and wagon stock onto JMRI Operations in order to create "Train Consists" and 'Switch Lists"

With a maximum train length of 6 wagons and a maximum stock of 18 wagons and 5 possible destinations Operations should give some purpose to operating the layout and minimise the risk of boredom.

[Mayner]

I loaded JMRI Panel Pro onto the computer in order to use the Operations Pro car/wagon routing system to add some randomness and make operating the layout more interesting. Alan Wright used a "Tiddlywinks Computer"  for sorting wagons on his Inglenook shunting puzzle, other people use playing cards, or paper based waybill systems.

JMRI Panel Pro Menu

Operations Sub Menu

Car roster

North Wharf Trains

Train Consist Stg-NW1 (American terminology) For some un-know reason the first trains created using the system were loaded to a maximum of 2/5 wagons or cars.

Train Consist Stg-NW-1 awaiting departure from Staging

Train Consist Stg-NW1 following arrival at NW, the crew uncoupled the Brake Van on the main line outside the yard while the loco shunts the coal wagon to the Wharf Siding before running round and completing the shunting.

The crew have uncoupled the coal wagon on the Wharf Siding and are now preparing to set back and collect the brake van.

The crew have re-attached the Brake Van to the train before running round and completing the shunting.

The crew have uncoupled H Van 17021 on the silo road before setting back to uncouple the Brake Van on the loop road to allow the Guard to finish his morning tea and read the paper.

B125 has uncoupled from the van, the crew have shut down the loco while waiting for todays out going wagons to be loaded/unloaded

Consist NW-Stg-2 which this time loaded to 3 cars a first using Operations Pro on this layout!

B125 has assembled its train and is now ready for departure.

NW-Stg-2 upon arrival in the staging. The traverser is just about long enough for a small GM. In practice the Tower Building and Overbridge act as a view blocker for the Staging allowing a maximum train length of a Bo Bo and 6 wagons.

It will be interesting to see if the system starts generating longer trains!

Edited November 16, 2022 by Mayner

[Mayner]

JMRI Operations Pro is now generating longer trains after after some fine tuning to the Locations menu ( basically you have to add an additional 2' to the length of each wagon when calculating siding capacity).

All wagons are individually numbered, so need for individual waybills or car markers used with paper based systems.

This afternoons Trip made up ready for departure: 1st Van 17113  destined for Track 4 at the rear of the traverser, 2 Opens with containers 10552 & 10568 for the Quayside siding, 2nd Van 17165 to the Milage road & Ranks 2 for the Grain silo.

Train arrives at NorthWharf, 1st task is for the entire train to "set back" into the Fiddle Yard uncouple 17113 from the train before shunting to Track 4.

In practice the crew would have parked the rear of the train and Brake Van on the Main Line while the loco shunted the yard. There is a good account of CIE goods and mixed train workings in a J P O'Dea IRRS paper on the final days working of the Farranfore-Valencia Branch, the Brake Van and most of the train was left on the main line while the C Class shunted Killorglin Yard.

B125 propels 17113 under the overbridge to collect outgoing GSWR Covered 15253 from Track 4

15253 has been parked on the Main Line while B125 sets back into Track 4 with 17165

Track 4 is basically what American modellers describe as an off-scene industry a destination and source of traffic, possibly a warehouse or Granary or an oil depot if I can get my hands on some decent tank wagons!

 

B124 has picked up the two vans and opens and is now preparing to shunt the Wharf Road while Ranks 2 & the Brake Van continue to wait on the main line.

Push & Pull B125 has moved 3 vans that were on the Milage Road/wharf headshunt to the main line in order to position Opens 10552 & 10568 on the Wharf Road

The crew are not exactly happy with the extra shunt needed to separate 17165 from 10552 and 10568 to position them on the Wharf Road.

125 has moved wagons with outbound traffic Grain 16404, Ranks 2, Vans 17165 & 17121 to the Loading Bank road to clear the main line and loop for the run round move and draw the remainder of the train into the yard.

B125 has uncoupled from the train and is preparing to run round.

As a timesaving move B125 coupled to Ranks 2 & the Brake Van running round by the loop positioned Ranks 2 at the Silo and the Brake on the Main Line clear of the loop turnout.

B125 has shunted the outgoing wagons onto the van including 15253 and is preparing to set back with 17165 to the Loading Bank Road

17165 positioned for loading/unloading with 17012 placed earlier in the week

I am planning a loading bank in this area with a canopy for loading bagged mill products. 

Complete train made up and ready to depart.

Hopefully I will  make some progress in completing the distillery buildings, retaining walls and over bridge during the holidays, they have been in a hiatus for the best part of 10 years.

 

 

Edited December 14, 2022 by Mayner

[Mike 84C]

Looks very good John, all that shunting will keep the old grey brain cells very active!!! One of my favourite layouts Is Liberty St; similar principle, was in Model Railroader 15yrs ago. Hope its warmer in NZ than it is here!