A layout in progress, slow progress...

Hi Dave.  Thank you for your comments. Did I write about the photo of a buddleja that I emailed to rail track which had demolished a modern brick wall.    Best wishes Kevin 

Not that I recall reading, Keith. Sounds about right though!

Dave

 
S’mae Kevin

Not the plant’s fault, rather more to do with the lack of regular infrastructure maintenance these days….

S’mae Dave

Yes buddleia does grow everywhere, perhaps one of these ‘bushes’ I’m considering making should be a buddleia – just the question of modelling the flowers, couple of ideas to try. In our garden this year they have provided us a wonderful collection of butterflies, Painted Lady in unprecedented numbers.

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Just at the moment I’ve been busy trying to sort out the chaos which is the fiddle yard at the end of the rush hour, rolling stock and locos randomly scattered. I must admit that extra small panel I added last year is really making life a lot easier. After much effort, and sorting that wandering uncoupler - still a complete mystery, I have finally got back to running the timetable, and now freight is starting to reappear. Here is an O4 (Gorton engine, Hattons limited edition) trundling through Hooton with some vans from Manchester en route for Birkenhead…

 

… the coal train in the background has now got as far as the goods loop on the mainline, awaiting a slot in the marshalling yard. Much better with some freight about!
 
Back in the day (winter ’61 I’m running now qualifies) when Bidston shed was open there was always at least one O4 on shed at the weekend – usually from the Sheffield area, but occasionally one from Gorton. Either way they must have arrived via the CLC route from Manchester, so I reckon I’m OK with this.
 
Keith
 
 

Hi Keith.   Wandering Uncoupler ? I have either forgotten that or missed it. Would you please refresh my memory?Anyway keep up the good work. Best wishes Kevin 

S’mae Kevin

  Sounds like your memory has the same problems as mine – I can recall stuff that I did back in my trainspotting days in the 50s and 60s, but what I did yesterday or where I’ve left something, no chance! ….something to do with the aging process, so I’m told.

  The ‘wandering uncoupler’ refers to the problems I had with one of the uncouplers in the fiddle yard a couple of weeks back, see post 356, page 18.

  Keith
  

Hi Keith. Thank you for your reply. It is an enduring case of losing ones short term memory. Maybe it is to do with the “ Good Old Days “. I will look up your reference.   Best wishes Kevin 

 
  Not a lot of time in the loft, again, this summer is lasting far too long. I have however been thinking, again, about signalling Woodside Station – and although I would prefer to do it all the proper way, I am beginning to wonder when, and if, it will ever happen… I’ve already used that Absolute  Aspects  colour light with shunt and theatre box for the approach, the proposed gantry semaphore is one of those projects which remains on a very overcrowded back burner list. With a number of manufacturers now offering colour-light ground signals I am thinking about doing the whole station with colour lights. The problem with that of course is that as far as I recall, Woodside remained semaphore until closure. For me, I do not like to see any main station without working signals, just doesn’t look right… as always, each to his own as I always say.  So I’m thinking about taking the plunge with colour lights. Christmas isn’t that far away, and I may well check if there is an early delivery service. Most of these newer colour lights seem to be set up for use with some of this computery stuff, which of course is not for me – as I keep mentioning – but you can drive DCC Concepts signals (and I presume others) using a simple DPDT switch, rather than the SPDT I’m used to – but definitely my sort of technology!….food for thought….

  Meanwhile…Another tree produced from the buddleia flower heads, slightly smaller this time, need to use them before all the bits fall off. Incidentally, one point I omitted to mention before – when I wrap the kitchen towel around the stalk to produce the ‘trunk’ I always allow about  ¼” or so extra. Then before the glue sets I make small cuts from the true base of the trunk to the end of the kitchen towel, and then open up that section to form a sort of base (like surface tree roots) for the tree. You can see what I’m on about in this picture. Helps with the stability, particularly on a slope, and also I think looks better than just the trunk alone.


  
  I’m intending to use the odd bits for bushes, and had this daft idea of trying to produce a buddleia bush, from a buddleia bush, if you see what I mean…. Created from a couple of the side shoots at the base of the main flower stuck together, anyway here it is…. perhaps that should read here it isn’t….
  

  
mmmm….   may well look OK when viewed from a suitable distance, I suggest about 20 yards – on a foggy night. I can definitely cross that one off the list and I reckon I’ll be sticking to plain bushes from now on with what’s left after a few more trees have been created. I’m sure I’ll find a place for my buddleia bush somewhere out of sight – behind the yet to be built signal box at the mouth of Rock Ferry tunnel is a possibility.  In future if I want an ordinary small flowered bush, I’ll just add the ‘flowers’ to the leaf mix.

  â€¦and finally…. When I laid the track all those years ago I had assumed that locos were the same as on my last layout way back when - just the driving wheels used for power pickup – and so I made the isolation breaks in the sheds (6C and in the fiddle yard) around 7” or 8” apart – totally unsuitable for today’s locos with the majority of tenders with live wheels and some bogies live on locos too. This has meant that the ‘sheds’ can’t hold anything like the number of locos I’d hoped, fine for all the tank engines, but not fine for everything else. Finally got the grey cell fired up, and thought it may be better to park engines tender to the rear, normally I turn engines as they leave the shed – so now I turn them before they go on shed – which leaves the maximum non live part of the loco facing out, that has allowed a couple more engines to park in the fiddle yard ‘shed’. However, those extra locos now mean I can’t see the uncoupler on road 9 – which is where everything first arrives in the fiddle yard.  So now I’ll have to rig up another mirror (same as for road 1, post 38)…..  you win some, you lose some….

  Enough of this, there are trains to run…..   



  Keith
  

Keith

Great to see the freights.

I have made a number of uncouplers to replace the dentists probes I used to use.  The handles are painted red and white like barrier poles so that I could always spot them, wherever I left them - and apparently I left them in some very weird places!!  Either that or the layout fairies moved them when I wasn't looking…

Barry

S’mae Barry

Apologies for the usual delay, although this time I do have a better excuse - I have actually had some time in the loft…. but first….  layout fairies…. and there I was thinking that it was only the odd gremlin I had to worry about!
               
I’ve always found the dentist probe a bit fiddly with standard tension locks, so I made myself an uncoupler – from a foot length of ¼ round moulding and some clear plastic, big enough for even me to find and it works well along with all the SL-29s around the harder to reach parts of the marshalling yard and the platforms on Woodside Station. I have often thought about replacing the tension locks, but cost and more importantly the time/patience it would take, means I’ll be staying with them for the foreseeable future. The freights for me certainly do improve the ‘look’ of the layout, and give me the chance to have a good shunting session between the goods and oil depots and the marshalling yard, with the odd break as a passenger service trundles by heading for Woodside or off  to places due South….

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Must admit the most recent thinking on the mystery of the moving SL-29 is a rather large spider I see occasionally amongst the boxes and other stuff under the fiddle yard. If I’m ever quick enough to catch it, it will be promptly shown the Velux. I’m rather hoping that he/she doesn’t have a mate of similar size – I reckon two of them could easily handle an SL-29 and create total chaos in the fiddle yard! Hopefully with the trains now running more regularly, summer does look to have finally decided to let autumn have a go, the spiders may well look for a more peaceful place to call home.

More seriously, suspicion has now fallen on my trusty Dapol track cleaner – I always use it in vacuum cleaner mode, relying on the felt pad with cleaning fluid to actually clean the track. I use my solitary Hornby Jinty, which lives outside the 6C roundhouse, to pull/push the Dapol. The Bachmann varieties work in the marshalling yard and Woodside station. Relegated to Railroad status a few years back, the Hornby Jinty is not the best runner, and does occasionally stick on points. When that happens the Dapol vacuum goes full tilt…. now if that happened when the Dapol was precisely over an SL-29 it is just possible that it could grab the SL-29, and would then drop it once the Jinty has been persuaded to move – usually by the fat controller’s hand. A more plausible explanation, just, than spiders.… or fairies!

I have now used everything from the two buddleia flower heads, ended up with two large, one medium and three small trees and four small bushes, including that buddleia bush. I think the last large tree is probably the best of the trees, I’d had more practice, there’s a photo in the gallery, so you can decide. It remains to be seen if this trusty old plant manages another season next year – certainly the flower heads are much bigger and a better shape than any of the other buddleias in the garden. Now I need to get on with the static grass on the big green parts between Hooton and the main line, so that I can plant all these trees and bushes. Currently I’m thinking whether or not I can get the lower green bit off the layout without removing the mainline – that would greatly improve the chances of actually getting the job done, as it would allow the trains to continue running….

A trip last week to get the car serviced in the Big City, otherwise known as Shrewsbury, gave me the opportunity to buy a cycle mirror – so now the new mirror for the uncoupler on road 9 has moved from the ‘awaiting parts’ queue to the ‘priority’ queue – which means there’s half a chance it will be done by Christmas….. no year specified, of course.

 Keith

Very unusual goings-on in the loft of late…. normally when a job reaches the dizzy heights of the ‘Priority’ queue it is usually there for at least couple of months, far more important things, like running the railway, take precedence. On this occasion however the problems with seeing the uncoupler in road 9 were seriously impacting on running the railway – so much so that the decision was made to create a new category – ‘got to be done NOW’.

My original thinking was to suspend the mirror from the Woodside Station baseboard immediately above the fiddle yard. Several attempts at finding the right position, involving contortions which my frame kept telling me were verging on the impossible, failed and it was back to the drawing board.  Alongside road 9 is the fiddle yard ‘shed’ which is used to store locos which make only a couple of appearances during a full working day (which takes anything up to a year to complete) – freight/parcels etc. – so early on I built a Perspex cover over the tracks to try to keep the dust levels under control, and still allow me to see just what was in there. This could be a possible support for the mirror. After further contortions I managed to get the thing set up, and then glued it in place, and so now the mirror is doing the job and I have sight of the uncoupler in road 9 from the fiddle yard panel.



The Blu-tack was used to hold the mirror in position while the glue set, and now remains as an insurance against any failure of the glue. I’ve had a good shunting session in the fiddle yard since and landed on the uncoupler every time, no matter what is parked in the ‘shed’.

Problem solved in a couple of days… that has never happened before and likely it’ll never happen again…. as I said, for me, all most unusual.

But that wasn’t the end of the unusual happenings… when fitting the mirror I noticed a bit of ‘plumbing’ at the side of the track of road 9 right up against the wall. The pipework was painted copper, the remainder just black plastic, the copper paint was quite dull. Must be off a loco, I thought, and possibly a weathered one at that. No idea how long it had been there, or how it had parted company from the engine. As one of the weathered Stanier tanks was due out of Woodside on a Paddington train, may as well check that I thought… and spookily it was from that engine…. Refitting it was something of a nightmare, these fingers of mine are no longer at their best when it comes to fiddly stuff….. finally managed it, but only after breaking off one of the sandpipes in the process… which I then had to repair – even fiddlier. Finally with all the bits refitted, I replaced the body and got it back on the track…. power on…. nothing moved. Put another engine on same track… that moved no problem, but the Stanier… nothing. Back to the bench, remove body, nothing obvious – so with just chassis on the track…. fine, ran smoothly. Back on with the body, back to the track….. nothing. Back to the bench, remove body, back to the track, chassis alone again ran fine. At this point the air was seriously blue. Checked for any wires out of position, there was one possible candidate, made sure it was in the original position, and tried again…. same again. At this point I was thinking, just put a rag over the chimney and stick it outside 6C, on store. One final attempt – checked again all the wires were OK, back on the track, and now without the body it wouldn’t move. Another check around the wires, this time one soldered to a tag on the top of the motor, just came off the tag. Presumably the body was pressing sufficiently to break the contact. Soldering iron did the trick – chassis moved, body refitted and all was well. Here is the offending engine, back in service….

 

….standing in platform 3 with the 11.40 to Paddington. Alongside in platform 2 a Fairburn tank with the 11.25 semi-fast for Chester, and in platform 4 is a Fowler tank which arrived at 10.45 with a train from Helsby. The Fowler will now return to 6C to be fed and watered before taking out the 12.15 back to Helsby.

Not quite the end of the story however, the following day I tested the engine – all fine, thought I’d check that the plumbing had remained in position, it had, but the same moulding on the other side had come adrift, all the body on/body off, and was now wedged between the chassis and the body. Managed to get it back in position and glued without removing the body again. Engine still running fine, so now I think that really is the end of the story….. fingers crossed!

Had I not thought about improving loco storage in the fiddle yard shed, I would never have needed the mirror, and no mirror I’d never have found the engine part… and I doubt I’d ever have noticed it missing anyway.  The moral to this tale – next time I start thinking about a problem I’ve lived with for several  years….  I’ll remember the old maxim – If it ain’t totally broke, don’t fix it!!!

Keith

End of the story ??? Hmmm. I look forward to the next update when it can be confirmed that is WAS the end of the story!

These  objects of our hobby have this horrible, almost instinctive, way of  causing problems of one sort or another. For no other reason than to  cause frustration and anger to the engineer trying to run a railway. I  can certainly vouch for that - only yesterday I thought I'd run a few  trains around the layout and lo and behold, the DMU, after a  couple of trips round, decided to call it a day - and in the underground  section at that! Not the most convenient location to decide it was it's  time to cause frustration; probably thinking out of sight, out of mind.  But no, it was blocking the line so it had to be rescued. And this DMU recently had its pancake motor replaced with one from an old CD drive - and it was this I suspected had caused the failure. Like you, off with the covers, just dirt on the wheels and brass axle strip, clean and test, put it back together again, runs ok forward but not backward for more than a foot or so. But, no, the dirt was just the initial problem - seems a wire was now getting caught up in the gears after the body was fitted back on. Engineer fault! "Sack him" I heard calls from the other room!

So Keith, you are not alone and I can sympathise with you and your frustrations.  In the end, we WILL overcome these minor hic-cups and get things back to full running order.

And a nice bit of ingenuity with the blu-tak and the mirror getting a viewpoint into an otherwise hidden section.  Nice one.

Dave

Keith

Sorry to offer a late option but I have a couple of these;

I got them from an Aunt who was throwing them out.  The telescopic and swivel heads were great for spotting bits of hidden sidings.

Barry

S’mae Dave

So far so good with the Stanier, so it’s looking more like the end of the story, but you’re quite right, these minor ‘difficulties’ do have a nasty habit of reappearing when you’re least expecting it. Of course it you have a tunnel, or a section of track which is difficult to access on a layout, then at least you know where such problems are likely to occur. Certainly most problems I get are on road 1 at the back of the fiddle yard, and the back loop on the down mainline under Woodside. I just soldier on….and hope.

Must admit it’s a relief to hear than I’m not alone with these odd goings-on – I was beginning to think it was just me, I do appear to be quite adept at creating, not deliberately, such events. The fact that underneath the whole of Woodside are loads of those infamous boxes (I am still slowly trying to at least find out what each one contains) and plenty of other ‘loft stuff’ – which makes  access to just about anywhere difficult… and by default those hard-to-reach places, just about impossible.

I suppose if I was even a tiny bit more organised things would be easier, but I fear it is probably too late for me to change now!

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S’mae Barry

That’s one seriously useful aunt you’ve got there. I’ve seen something like that before – for use in a bathroom, normally the mirror is 4” to 6” diameter. The cycle mirror I used is just 2½” diameter, which is just about as big as I can manage in that location. There is a pic in the Gallery of the view from the fiddle yard panel, doesn’t really look as though the mirror would help, but I assure you it does! I’m certain you’ll again find a use for the mirrors on the new layout, despite any amount of forward thinking there’s always somewhere you just can’t quite see. I do wish I had the space that you’re planning for Yarslow Mk III – any news on the move?… must be getting on for 30 years since we were last in the city, don’t think we would be able to cope with the seemingly obligatory new traffic system every city has these days!

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Slight hiatus in the loft at the moment, due to a recurring back problem – a souvenir from our time on Mull – which every few years likes to remind me that all is not totally well in the back department. I have noticed that as the years go by, recovery time is increasing, sign of the times no doubt. I expect normal service will resume early next week, if not sooner. I’ve already got a list of four jobs on the layout I should begin first – all scenic work, which should make Woodside a little more in keeping with other layouts on the forum…. plus of course  the most important job – running the railway, which usually wins out anyway…

Keith

Hi Keith

You have my sympathy re the back problems - I will have to find myself a new physio when we move.  My current inducer-of-pain was the England Hockey physio so it was a) run on pitch to crumpled heap of player, b) straighten/bend/untwist/reset whatever was discovered c) run off having got the player back on his/her feet in 20 seconds.  As a result, she administers instant cures, usually via a painful manhandling.  I have to say, she's brilliant and I'll miss her.

The move looks on for the end of the month but thats only to a 2-bed flat that we have.  Afterwards we are looking to buy a suitable railway room with a nice house attached   

Barry

[user=2006]Barry Miltenburg[/user] wrote:

Keith

Great to see the freights.

I have made a number of uncouplers to replace the dentists probes I used to use.  The handles are painted red and white like barrier poles so that I could always spot them, wherever I left them - and apparently I left them in some very weird places!!  Either that or the layout fairies moved them when I wasn't looking…

Barry

 

Layout fairies eh… I've got a houseful of 'em. I'll send some over for you and I don't even want a s.a.e. Ain't I generous. No need to thank me. Now where's that screwdriver…

Hi Keith,

I just came upon this on my mianderings through the interweb in the course of research and thought of you when I saw your shed 6C featured in 'Shed Bash' and with an interesting 1948 photo as well. The listings are for Birkenhead shed from 1938 up to '67, so hopefully something of interest, but only if you have'nt previously seen it, which I suspect you have!

Shed Bash UK: Birkenhead 1938 - 1967

Best wishes from a chilly part of France,

Bill

S’mae Bill

Wow! – no, I hadn’t seen this, but sincere thanks for thinking of me – keep me busy for hours, probably weeks.

Interesting that all visits in the section you listed are on a Sunday, which was my chosen day to visit 6C, so I’ll have to get out all the old notebooks now, just in case one of the dates is close to one of my visits. I see there is also info on Bidston shed, my other regular port of call on a Sunday. The interweb is a wonderful thing, and considering my background I really should use it more than I do, as a result I do tend to miss the useful, to me now, information that is so readily available. I fancy life no.2 on Mull brought out the Luddite in me.

So many thanks once again, I’ll just do a quick update now, and then I may be gone for some time….

Keith

Usual apologies for the usual, and by now expected, delay…


S’mae Barry


My experiences with a bad back on Mull were being attached to different bits of equipment spread over a couple of weeks, and then later after they had improved things, being attacked by an osteopath. I was convinced her one aim in life was to tie me in knots, literally – well at least one knot. At the time I was beginning to think I’d never walk again, but whatever she did worked wonders.


As to your new abode, surely that should read ‘a superb railway room with a suitable-ish house attached’… aim high, you’re then in a better position to negotiate!

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S’mae Pete


I’ve already got more than my fair share of layout fairies, gremlins and anything else that causes problems in the loft (aka the fat controller), as a result I am in a permanent state of chaos…. so thanks for the offer…. but respectfully, no thanks. If you’re anything like me there’s no point looking for that screwdriver where it is supposed to be, or where you think you left it…..

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Right, definitely back on the mend, so time for some operating therapy to help with the recovery. It is now getting on for midday on the layout, time for my solitary Standard 5 to make an appearance. Here entering Hooton with the TC from Leamington Spa. I’ve not checked the summer timetable yet, but I suspect that this is what is left in the winter timetable of the summer TC from Bournemouth/Poole service. It is timetabled to wait three minutes at Hooton, which is possibly to allow unloading of some parcels, the majority of services at Hooton (except some Paddington and Euston) are timetabled to arrive/depart on the same time.



… different camera angle, for a change. This actual loco is already sporting a 6E Chester (West) shed plate, but Chester (West) closed in April ’60, and after a month at 6A Chester it was transferred down to Willesden. Eventually I’ll renumber it to one of Shrewsbury’s engines – 84G had a healthy allocation of Standard 5s for a number of years – that particular job will be on a list somewhere.  The Bachmann standard 5 is one of my favourite engines, just looks the part, especially in green. As ever none of the bits have been added as yet, or coal to fill the somewhat empty tender – and luxuries like a crew and lamps, way in the future. This particular service has a 17 minute wait in Chester, so I’ve decided that that is sufficient time to turn the engine and work the service through to Woodside. The engine returns South late in the afternoon with the TC to Shrewsbury. Doesn’t have quite as long in Chester on the way back (14 minutes) but if they work fast…. it should be able to take the train on from Chester.


As mentioned earlier, freight is now more visible, the marshalling yard is looking a lot busier. The morning pick-up freight left some time ago, although it hasn’t yet reached Hooton, the oil shuttle followed and is now on the way back from Ellesmere Port with a delivery for the oil depot, the 9F is waiting to depart with a heavy freight for the Midlands, while the ER O4 has now hitched up to the fish empties ready to return to the East coast. The yard pilot is busy with the coal for 6C while the remaining wagons from the recently arrived coal train are awaiting attention in road 2, they will be added to the afternoon pick-up freight. It is a pity that all the sidings are much shorter than I would like, but you can’t have everything.  Not the best photo I’ve produced, and yes, I know, there’s still some, actually rather a lot of, ballasting to do, but hopefully you get the idea.



So just a little more operating therapy, and then I really will have to get on with some scenic stuff, well at least that’s what I should do….. the fact that I can’t see a way of getting the green bits off the layout safely (minimising the chances of dropping them) requires the removal of the mainline section which of course means the trains will have to stop for a while….. decisions, decisions….. perhaps I’ll just get those freights on their way….. and perhaps wait until the Standard 5 gets into Woodside….. and now there’s all that lovely stuff on the interweb that Bill has sent…..

Keith

Right, ’progress’ of sorts to report…. not much time spent in the loft unfortunately, the green bits remain on the layout, so the trains are still running. However, after further thought, I now have a new idea, far better than previous ideas, as hopefully it should be possible to remove the lower green bit without removing the mainline, so the trains can keep running. Just removing the backscene may well be enough. All I need to do is to first raise the top green bit on blocks, so that the lower green bit can slide out from under it. I know all this doesn’t make much sense, but last time I explained it to myself, it did make some sort of sense – time will tell – and that time will start once I can get up to 13.00hrs on the layout, the latest deadline for starting on the scenic items. With all this ‘better’ weather that should hopefully be sometime next week. Another decision, is that for now at least, Woodside is to be signalled with colour light signals, not prototypical I accept, but  I have decided that it can be done not too expensively, and a whole lot faster than the much cheaper  w-i-t semaphores, which will severely test my grey cell and fingers. More importantly, it has been bothering me for some time now that a station the size of Woodside doesn’t have any signalling at all (apart from the Absolute Aspects approach), it just doesn’t look right.

A while back I decided not to (perhaps forgot would be more accurate) drop off the full coal wagons at Hooton from the train heading for Birkenhead which made life more interesting when the coal wagons did finally arrive at Hooton in the pick-up freight from Birkenhead – probably  what would have happened anyway. So now the local pick-up freight in Hooton had to collect three empty coal wagons and one empty van from the goods depot and leave three full coal wagons, and another van. All this had to be done while having to deal with a fast train to Chester, and using just the coal yard siding, the two sidings at the goods depot and the loop with Platforms 2/3 when available. It helped that the Birkenhead yard staff had put the four wagons together. So here we are – the pick-up freight has just arrived at the Hooton home signal and the Hooton pilot is ready to go into action to move the four empty wagons up to the coal yard…..well sort of, this is one of the old split chassis Drewry shunters – and not a good runner at all, so it lives at Hooton with not much to do. There are two other Drewry shunters working at Birkenhead, one split chassis and one of the newer models, both of them are really good runners.



Part way through the shunting the Chester train arrives in Platform 2



Not all that long after the Chester train departed, the freight is on its way with the three empty wagons and van. Still with two full coal wagons, a van and cattle wagon to be dropped off before or at Helsby.



Hooton pilot will then push the full coal wagons into the coal yard, and return to the usual stabling point at the goods depot. You may notice that the ‘full’ wagons don’t look all that full, more like empty – the ‘coal’ is on a list somewhere as I’ve mentioned before – but they are different wagons, honest! Incidentally, with all my switches I can transfer power for platform 3 and the sidings to the down line, so when the Chester train arrives/departs the shunting can continue uninterrupted – only applies when there’s more than one operator and there is no other traffic on the down line at the time of course.

Must admit I’m surprised that it was relatively straightforward despite the limited track/time available at Hooton, more pics in the gallery… you can see this all took place over three days, just about ½ hour of railway time, I had ‘other jobs’ to do, and also needed time to think about the next move.  Finally a mention that the standard 5 has also now arrived in Woodside.



A Woodside station with all platforms occupied – empty stock in 1 and 2, two arrivals in 3 and 4 and a parcels ready to depart in 5 – just over an hour or so ago there was just a set of railcars to be seen (post 346). Interesting, at least for me, to see how the station has periods of peak activity, and then is quiet, and not necessarily just during the ‘rush hour’….probably down to clever timetabling to ensure adequate time for a decent staff tea break!

So, just get the clock up to 13.00 and then hopefully on with the static grass (more to be ordered, along with the signals)….. at least that is the current thinking…

Keith

I should have reported on progress by now…. the problem is that requires some progress to have been made. Unfortunately the elusive ‘mojo’ went AWOL in the run-up to Christmas as we went into reflective mode – our first cat-free Christmas since 1998. However I did buy the signals, static grass and other stuff needed for the green bits and temporary signalling of Woodside, so now it is just a matter of getting the clock up to 13.00 and I will be able to make a start.

Over the last couple of months on our weekly trek around the forest I’ve been collecting more lichen… the recent periods of very heavy rain and strong winds have brought down lots of rotten branches from the trees – many laden with lichen… which if left will just get flattened by walking boots and/or wheels. This was collected recently….



….never seen so much of this type of lichen on one branch, and it is more than I would normally see in a year. It will eventually be used for bushes, and I may try some of the longer bits as trailing ivy on the tunnel mouths and some of the retaining walls. When exactly is the question….. that said a New Year’s resolution to get back to the layout, and get it looking at least half finished, should hopefully mean sooner rather than later.

So the start of a new year….  on the layout it is just after 12.16, and I’d forgotten about the mini rush hour at this time, currently there is a lot going on…. 




…just now the fat controller is in his element! ….from the left, the G2 has returned with the oil shuttle from Ellesmere Port and waits in the loop for access to the yet to be built oil depot. A Helsby train (12 15 ex Woodside) is held temporarily at the signal while space is made in the loops under Woodside. Exiting the fiddle yard a Standard 4 with a semi-fast bound for Woodside (12.08 ex Chester), and waiting to enter the fiddle yard is that pickup freight (11.03 ex Birkenhead) featured earlier. In the background the lunchtime parcels (11.47 ex Woodside) trundles through Hooton behind a Stanier tank.

With all my wires and switches I could have any four of them moving simultaneously, but I am sadly lacking in the hands department for that, and these days the old grey cell is limited to single handed/single loco operations, so things don’t happen quite as quickly as they should…. better to be safe….

Since this was taken things have progressed, but with the fiddle yard now best described as ‘seriously full’ I am beginning to regret adding a couple of extra Full Brakes, Choc and Cream coaches and the CCT vans before starting this run of the timetable without removing something to compensate, just to see how the layout copes. I may yet need to run some unscheduled empty stock workings to sort things out – either that or there may be the odd ‘X Files’ moment!

However, all that has been delayed yet again by an unexpectedly early return of the dreaded back problem which has kept me out of the loft for the last week, definitely an age thing, but signs are that all should be back to normal next week. Meanwhile, I’m more than a bit keen on the all new Standard 2MT announced by Hornby for 2020, Chester had a couple in the late 50’s early 60’s – can’t recall ever seeing one when I visited 6C, need to dig out all the old books to check. I have checked that info Bill sent, only a few dates covering the period and no sign of one, but an appearance on 6C is not out of the question, which is good enough for me. Keen on the model, yes, but the price…. £162 – for a 2-6-0, that’s with a discount. I am glad that I bought the majority of my rolling stock and track back in the period 2009 – 2012 ….couldn’t afford anything like the layout I have now if I was starting today.

Keith