West End Workbench

[Chas Levin]

Agreed: I particularly like the GNR OCT with the protective sacking / sheeting / canvas / tarpaulin, nice detail I shall copy in due course...

[Danby Wiske]

Great photos - thanks for sharing them. An excellent selection of interesting wagons!

Glad to hear that the much-hyped erection went up and down smoothly. Looking forward to seeing it in public...

PS. Did that old Vauxhall have to be pushed by the tractor all the way from Lincolnshire?

[Woodcock29]

Graeme I'm glad Jonathan has provided a venue where the layout could be properly tested.

It looks great as does Jonathan's and others items of rollinstock shown.

Andrew

[Atlantic 3279]

Great photos - thanks for sharing them. An excellent selection of interesting wagons!

Glad to hear that the much-hyped erection went up and down smoothly. Looking forward to seeing it in public...

PS. Did that old Vauxhall have to be pushed by the tractor all the way from Lincolnshire?

I'm glad that impressions of the layout seem favourable. My relief was immense when it got there undamaged, went together properly for the first time on "foreign soil", and actually worked when I remembered where all the plugs were, connected them up, and turned on the power...

The blue streamliner got there and back under its own power, without running hot at any point, without any binding brakes, without burning out any valves or blowing any gaskets, and was still running well on return home, notwithstanding a few "thrilling" moments on a dual carriageway running at 70mph with the offside wheels on the rough grass of the central reservation to avoid a truck (in a line of several) that indicated and immediately started to force its way into the outside lane when I was already committed to an overtaking move! The truck in question had only just returned to the inside lane after holding traffic up for miles as it struggled to pass another one of its "brethren". The law that allows 56 mph regulated trucks into the outside lane of normal 70mph dual carriageways purely for the purpose of attempting a 3 mile long overtake of a 0.003mph slower truck in front is ludicrous, of barely any benefit to the exceedingly marginally faster truck, totally inconsiderate to other road users, very dangerous, and about forty years overdue for change!

[Danby Wiske]

Oh for the days when the majority of freight went by rail...

[Dave]

I was thinking that seeing that your Dick is becoming famous you should take it to different places you visit and photograph it,
for our enjoyment..............

[jwealleans]

​I'm quite fussy about where I park my Dick, you know.... Some more pictures from the camera of Mr Jobling, taken on Saturday afternoon.



Another overall view which gives a better idea of the size of the layout (roughly 13' x 9').



Mineral trains crossing, basically testing electrical continuity and track joint alignment.



Down coal train, but mainly, for those who take an interest in such things, this gives you a fair idea of the station track plan.



Up Iron Ore, but this is mainly to show some of the digitally controlled signals, all of which work.



A couple in the fiddle yard. Dave owns this Jamieson V2, built by Tony Wright, but I have it on loan while Grantham is still on the circuit. I brought it along so he could run it. In reality it would have been too heavy for this line. You can also see track construction in the fiddle yard. The red drawing pins indicate the start of isolating sections.



More fiddle yard occupants. The J27 is also Dave's but built by Scottiedog of this parish. The iron ore train and Grimsby steel set will be familiar to those who saw Grantham regularly. The two 6 wheelers at the top of the picture are converted from Ratio kits and came to me second hand, but can pass as GE or GC/LDECR.



There's a major carriage restoration project under way across on El Jobbo's thread and this is one he's almost finished. The roof detail is especially fine.



4152 setting back into the refuge siding (presumably under hand signalling from the bobby) as part of our shunting testing.



Clearly the proud owner was pleased with the way it all went.

[Woodcock29]

Jonathan - - I particularly like the superheated J27. I plan on building one from the Oxford J27. Fortunately the boiler is removable so it shouldn't be too bigger a job when I find the time. I want a superheated version as the ones that went to exGE area in late 20s and spent time in Lincolnshire on tbe way back north in the 30s were all superheated.
Andrew

[Atlantic 3279]

I thought about buying an Oxford J27 when they were fairly new, just for the purpose of converting it to a Southern area allocated, superheated version. I had plenty of other things to do at the time, and had a nagging suspicion that if I put time and effort into the project, then Oxford Rail would inevitably produce a superheated version. Hence I did nothing, and neither it seems has Oxford Rail! That doesn't bother me, as I've started to think that I have so many locos to house, use and maintain that I'm not at all sure of the need for even more of them, of types "marginally relevant" to my general modelling theme. The time and money saved has of course been of use for other purposes...

[Mercator II]

Looks like a successful test outing

Which car did you squeeze it into out of interest?

[Atlantic 3279]

Although I demonstrated that the whole layout including stock and other layout-associated necessities would in fact go in the Fiesta, leaving room for a driver and a modest weekend bag, that restricted the value of the central rear-view-mirror somewhat, and was no good for the purposes of taking my wife and enough luggage for five and a half days, so I then split the load between the two cars, probably to the benefit of the suspension, the 0-60 times and the more important 60-0 times!. Luckily, there was room for the hydrophobic old Vauxhall under-cover while we did any roaming of the North East in the Fiesta.

[jwealleans]

I'm visiting Ely this coming weekend to join my club colleagues in testing Wickham Market prior to it appearing at Spalding in November. There's been some intensive last minute stock preparation in advance of the weekend: this is what the B1 and the BTK for the Easterling set have been prepared for.

Some other items just about ready, though some will need weathering once successfully passed for running:



Ian Kirk BTK. This came from the collection of the late John Fozard and can be seen in white primer in the video we made of the last stock testing session last October. It runs at the back of the Hunt Special.

The last time I posted about my own stock, I was working on some Ks 7 plank minerals. I thought one good way to obtain some random owners would be to scan Ebay for Powsides transfers, which has duly brought up about 5 sets for not very much. Predictably, given the utter disasters I've had with these in the past, when I want to produce some tatty distressed wagons, they went on perfectly.



I have no conscience about attacking them with whatever's to hand, though and this is the result:



Clarke to the right, ex-LNER one in the middle and the right hand one is an Oxford Rail Jubilee wagon. That might be a bit of a stretch, but one of my pet hates is a long coal train where all the wagons are exactly the same height and the very squat profile of this one will break a train up nicely.



Bachmann minerals weathered within an inch of their lives.



One of the Peter Lawson wagons I acquired had a load of coiled wire. As it happened I'd tried to create one earlier in the year using 3D printed coils from Ebay. You can decide which looks better.



Didn't have time to weather it, this steel open was part of the set Rob Bergin gifted me. The steel casting is a plastic ring Halfords have started putting in their rattle cans to stop you accidentally spraying them, or something.



Finally an ABS Rectank with bolsters - Bolrecs - and the Flatrol ELL now weathered and with chains laid out on the desk in the manner of the drawing.

Hope to have some pictures and video to show you after I get back up north.

[Dave]

Very nice work.
Will you be running the Bolrec with barrier wagons either end.

[jwealleans]

The train didn't make the video we shot last time, but there were already a couple of Bogie Bolster As which need runners as the load overhangs, so this will slot nicely in with those. I have a few empty Lowfits, conflats and one plank opens for just that purpose.

[Hatfield Shed]

Quite a feast of illustrated modelling, now I have had the chance to sit down and inspect. (Have been working as 'unskilled mate' to the gas fitter renewing much of our central heating system - who turns out to be interested in resuming railway modelling when he gets the odd hour of free time, having recently gone to see Pete Waterman's cathedral exhibition layout.)

How often did the heavier SCV's like the Flatrol ELL get out on a job - likely to be date dependent for a start - is there any readily accessible data? Whatever, they make such attractive models, and yet more so now weathered. The coiled loads, I have seen both 'styles' but wouldn't the 13T loading be exceeded in the case of the untidy ones?

The layout illustrations speak for themselves, and I second the admiration of the interestingly varied stock in traffic on it.

I thought about buying an Oxford J27 ... I've started to think that I have so many locos to house, use and maintain that I'm not at all sure of the need for even more of them...

In the same boat, but... Back in the day when we began to have model railway internet forums, I foolishly wrote that I would happily purchase any pre-group design 0-6-0 from the LNER group that was produced in RTR OO, and quite likely others from elsewhere, since they were both attractive and so important to the steam railway network for almost its entire existence: not quite expecting the present provision.

The law that allows 56 mph regulated trucks into the outside lane of normal 70mph dual carriageways purely for the purpose of attempting a 3 mile long overtake of a 0.003mph slower truck in front is ludicrous, of barely any benefit to the exceedingly marginally faster truck, totally inconsiderate to other road users, very dangerous, and about forty years overdue for change!...

When our MP was in office as Minister of Transport, I wrote on this very subject, (as a regular user of the A1 which ran through his constituency) and he was in agreement, but hamstrung, the road transport lobby effectively holding his department to ransom against such a move, was the advice of the civil service.

I have though once seen it work to my benefit, on 10th December 2017 while moving the in-laws to a family wedding, on a morning when significant snowfall had occurred, not forecast. Three Artic HGv's were in the inside lane preventing us from merging from the slip road, so I had to stay - slowly) on a very slippery hard sholder for some distance. Then just as it was possible to join the carriageway the rearmost HGV went for his overtake on a downward gradient, in the totally uncleared outside lane. And he lost it while abreast of both the other two HGV's and all slid slowly and gracefully (and safely upright with much horn blowing) over the hard shoulder and into the countryside beyond (and were still there the following morning), leaving me a nicely clear route on which to proceed cautiously until we departed from the A1 into deepest Cambridgeshire - which was a whole other story...