A layout in progress, slow progress...

Hi Keith,

Good to hear from you again and just as your mojo seems to be resurfacing, the old back (I am a fellow sufferer, but am very careful how I move things) keeps you away from the railway. Fingers crossed for a speedy recovery.

I noticed the price of Hornby's new 2MT was the same new high level as their reintroduction of GWR's Star class. I really need to think hard if contemplating spending that sum on a loco, as by the time you chip it, detail it with etched plates, crew and fire irons, lamps, etc, it's going to be over £200!

Anyway, I'm sure you'll enjoy the 2MT with new tooling, even if it may not have been a regular on 6C.

Best,

Bill

For some reason, I'm only just catching up on this Keith and frankly, I'm very impressed.

 Far too much to comment of specifically but it's now on my "must follow" list so please get your back sorted and get up in the loft again soon.   :thumbs

I'm more than with you on the new prices from the manufacturers Bill - at this rate, they're going to kill the golden goose !  Not all modellers are wealthy "celebrities" - most of us will certainly have to curtail our "wants" list !!
 

Thanks Bill, and usual apologies for the delay, the dreaded back took rather longer than I’d hoped, but I did finally get back in the loft trying to solve multiple shunting puzzles in the fiddle yard… I was tempted to just remove the new stock I had added, just to see if that solved all the problems… but I’m a bit of a fan of shunting puzzles so I soldiered on. Well I was soldiering on, with some success… and then the back returned – transferring shopping from supermarket trolley to car – this time in far more serious mode, as it does every few years, requiring a visit to the GP for the necessary medication. So for now, once again, the loft is just a ladder too far!

I suspect the 2MT may well appear on Woodside at some point, probably when the Dealers start to lower prices to more reasonable levels, after sluggish sales…. fingers crossed! You’re quite right about all the ‘extras’ needed for locos, I don’t have the chip problem of course, but all the other bits do add up.  I did buy some crew, nameplates, lamps etc. very early on, with a view to getting some locos done…. but then decided not to bother with that until I had got the layout something like finished and I concentrated on seeing how the track layout coped with the actual timetable of the day, my main interest – I’ve mentioned before I’ve not as yet even added the bits included with the locos.  Now of course for all those early purchases the associated bits are in boxes which are buried under much more recently acquired boxes… and so it goes on.

There may well be something in this planning lark…. na, na that’s silly, it’s all these pills from the GP, I’m not thinking straight, things will return to normal soon!!

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Yes Peter, I’m sure these constant inflation busting price increases will have to end soon, there just aren’t enough wealthy folk about to maintain the industry as it is now.

Aim is to be back in the loft by the weekend…. I’m not so sure about anything I’ve done thus far warranting ‘impressive’…. especially when it comes to the green bits!  I think of myself as more of an enthusiastic bodger.

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Keith

Cut Liz's sweetie ration Peter!

[user=364]Super D[/user] wrote:

Cut Liz's sweetie ration Peter!

Are you inciting divorce Derek ?

A bag of sweets = "Oh that's so thoughtful of you"………………. A piece of rolling stock = "Do you have money to throw away ?  Have you forgotten we need a new xxxxxxxxx " ? ……………………….

I'm with you guys on this inflated pricing of locos malarkey.

I appreciate we all need some hint of reality-looking kit to put on our layouts, but it's becoming a joke the pricing of it all. Even some of the smaller stuff is being hiked in price. There's not many 'bargains' out there these days. I had a look around the Doncaster show last weekend and saw very little I was interested in paying the price for - and very few stalls with 'bits', the small add-on items that make the layout come to life. It was nearly all stalls with boxes of bright, shiny new locos and other rolling stock. At the moment, I'm boycotting buying new kit in the hope, as you say, someone may see the sense in 'reducing' the prices of said kit and boost sales that way.

In years gone by, I used to be quite active in the amateur radio game and the rallies there were full of stalls with 'bits' - as well as the back box merchants of course. 'Bits' for the constructor. Is this hobby of ours going in a different direction? Same old black box after black box - want any small stuff? - look on the internet.

 Rant over.

Anyway Keith, let's hope that back of yours is soon sorted and you can get back into the loft to sort your shunting conundrums. And the little bag of sweets (or bunch of flowers) does come in handy for keeping the ladies in our lives sweet.
 
Dave

S’mae Dave

I decided  a while back not to buy any more locos unless they were on special offer, as were my most recent purchases, a Fairburn tank and a Standard 4 tank. As for the new Standard 2MT… this time I’ll wait to see how it is received, and hopefully pick up one at a more attractive price about a year after release.

On the subject of prices I was thinking back to my early purchases, a few months after my close encounter with the grim reaper, we were up in Liverpool sorting out some family legal stuff and I decided to start buying stock for my forthcoming railway, so headed for Hattons  â€“ which had moved, and was now a much bigger shop than it was all those years ago. First purchase was the Suburban Jinty set (to give me a test track and an engine and stock I could use on the layout) and a Fairburn 2-6-4T. The Fairburn was just £54. Checking some of my other early 2008 on-line orders…. a weathered Stanier 2-6-4T  Â£57 and a WD 2-8-0  £79 – those definitely were the days! Still on prices, could there be some signs of a change of heart? Just checked some dealer sites… and the newly tooled Princess is now arriving in the shops, looks very nice… and the price… just (I use the term loosely) £171 – that’s only nine quid more than the Bachmann Standard 2MT – bit of a surprise. I’ve got one of the previous models which is good enough for me – I can still remember my original Triang Princess back in the late 50s/early 60s – that ended up as a half decent (for me) Black 5. How could a Princess end up in Woodside? I hear you say, well, the best I can come up with…. West Coast main line blocked north of Crewe, so the Merseyside Express gets diverted to Rock Ferry (for Liverpool Central (low Level))/Woodside, via Chester. No, I don’t remember it ever happening…. and fitting a Princess and a 15 coach train in the real Woodside would be impossible, never mind in my version.  More likely, is the test run from Crewe after a full overhaul in the Works.

Incidentally if I ever produced a bag of sweets or a bunch of flowers…. the only likely response I’d get would be an enquiring “What have you done?”!!!

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Anyway the pills did the trick, and I’ve been back in the loft attempting to solve these shunting puzzles – trouble is, I solve one… and within minutes I get another one. The clock has actually passed 13.00, but I’m carrying on for now in the hope that all should be well by 14.00 and then I can get on with the green bits. If I can’t get it sorted by 14.00, I may need to get out the white flag – and rely on divine intervention to get things organised before the evening rush hour starts.

While I was busy trying to get the Fiddle Yard into some sort of order the J72 (a vintage split chassis example) stopped on the back road while shunting the fish empties, just wouldn’t move…. several expletives later I decided to see if I could get it moving with the other pilot before having to clear all the boxes and stuff under the fiddle yard so I could actually reach it to give it a push. Hooked up the Jinty but it just sat there wheels spinning away. There was also a 3F in the North yard awaiting access to the ‘shed’ so one last attempt, I hooked up the 3F to the Jinty – and together they manged to move the whole lot just enough for the J72 to get going – and that was it! Rather like the old days when shunters would use any engine available to get something moving in a goods yard. I was quite pleased with that!… doesn’t take much…. meanwhile the J72 has been moved to the workbench awaiting fettling.

Keith

I've got the split chassis J72 to which I've fitted wiper pick ups. Never misses a beat now. Sounds like a clapped out concrete mixer though.  :)

S’mae Pete

Sorry for the delay, wiper pickups, that’s a bit beyond my skill set I’m afraid, but I can appreciate it would make a huge difference. I did give the J72 a good clean, especially the axle slots in the chassis, and then a couple of drops of oil to help smooth things.  J72 seems to be running better now – and to be fair thus far it has been a reliable performer. You’re spot on with the ‘clapped out concrete mixer’ - I think they’re all the same. For now I’m swapping the J72 with a Jinty working in the goods yard, so that the J72 is more accessable, just to be on the safe side.

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Meanwhile more problems in the fiddle yard – this time the 2P, which had managed to shed both traction tyres. Dug out the box, no mean feat in the chaos under the layout – nothing in the instructions as to removal of the body (only the tender, which is where the motor used to live), and a picture of the chassis minus body, to show where the motor is now located – not very good. There was the usual blurb about keeping the wheels clean, but not even a mention that the 2P has traction tyres. Essentially just the instructions from the old tender drive model, with a couple of line drawings of the chassis and where to stick the chip thingy in the tender. Finally sussed body removal and then promptly lost the spring for the front bogie as I was putting it back together, but the 2P ran OK. The traction tyres did seem to have stretched quite a bit, so I ordered some spares, which arrived this morning – and eventually I did find the spring. So hopefully sometime this weekend all will be sorted….

Keith

You must be getting special attention Keith from the spring fairy watching over you, as I NEVER find small springs or tiny bits that drop from stock / workbench to the floor!

Enjoy the revitalised 2P over the weekend. I'll be reading my books on chassis building . . . all good fun  :)

Best,

Bill

Oh how I enjoy being on my hands and knees searching for tiny bits, including springs. I'm always amazed at how far things can travel when you know they've only gone straight down and shouldn't be far away. The laws of physics have been re written for model railways.

Regarding the pick ups, nothing fancy there. Strip it down so that you can make sure you're not drilling into something important then drill two 1.8mm holes each side. Either tap 2mm threads or use self tappers shortened appropriately. Using some very thin phosphor bronze strip, fit this with the screws to pick up from the wheel backs. I also did away with the spring connectors between motor and chassis and soldered wires on the motor. It meant that the Dremel had to come out to make enough room for the wires, but once these are attached to the chassis with the screws you've got a good runner again. You can pick up some ear plugs cheap enough.  :)

Ps: a good wash out is obviously needed cos there's swarf everywhere.

S’mae Bill
 
… no spring fairy Bill, just a new theory….  decide on the places it couldn’t possibly have landed, and start there!  There was no way it could have landed behind that card propped up on the workbench, no way… remove the card… and there it was!
 
No idea how it got there…. a mischievous fairy perhaps….?
 
Enjoy the book… sounds a bit advanced for me.
 

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S’mae Pete
 
I often think I spend more time on my hands and knees than anything else in the loft… what really baffles me is when something turns up somewhere that I had checked the previous day – how can that happen?!! I don’t know about rewriting the laws of physics, they just don’t apply in my loft. 
 
Many thanks for the info on the pickups. It does seem straightforward – but I fear you’re assuming a level of competence on the engineering side I’ve yet to reach….  I’m OK with card and plastic, but thus far the only metalwork I’ve done is the point wire-in-tube at Woodside, signal control at Hooton and basic soldering. Perhaps if I’m having a good week I may give it a go, but first I'll have to find something I can use to test my 'skills'.
 

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Meanwhile there’s the 2P to sort out.
 
 
Keith

Right, after banging on about the 2P I finally got around to fitting the replacement traction tyres. I decided to use the kitchen table rather than my workbench, didn’t want to lose that spring again. A simple task…. well I suspect it would have been with the right tools, I suppose I should have a set of fine railway modelling spanners, well I haven’t – and so removing the bolt fixing the coupling rod to the wheel with my very old standard pliers did prove difficult, and handling said bolt with my almost as old fingers was equally difficult. Comparing the original tyre (on the left) with the replacement you can see how much it has stretched.



Fitting the new tyre was also difficult with these fingers of mine, but after several failed efforts I did finally get the thing on the wheel. Can’t help thinking that the new tyre is now well on the way to being stretched – perhaps there is some magic tool designed for fitting tyres, if anyone out there knows of one please let me know. Refitting the fixing bolt for the coupling rod proved every bit as difficult as removing it.

So, job done…. well not quite, with all this tyre fitting lark, I noticed that one of the pickup leads to the front bogie had come adrift… by now the air was definitely blue. I decided to use a new small bit on the soldering iron, the old bit is more suitable for my ‘normal’ soldering, and after a couple of false starts the wire was back in place. Finally refitted that spring to the front bogie, without losing it this time, and eventually the 2P was back on the layout.



Runs fine, but with the new ‘grippy’ tyres it is once again impossible to make anything like a realistic start from the platform, will be slightly better with a few coaches. You win some…..

The fiddle yard is now looking more organised again, without the need for devine intervention, so hopefully quite soon now I’ll get around to the green bits – but first some operating therapy is needed.

Keith

Well done Keith - makes one feel good when you achieve something like this doesn't it.   :pathead

If you think your air was blue, mine's usually purple !!!

S’mae Peter


  Not sure it was down to a sense of achievement, rather more one of relief it was finally over, and I could get on with something else, like operating the railway. There are various shades of blue….and in my case when I noticed the detached wire the air was seriously blue, which is probably a close match to purple. The main thing is it’s done, and yes, that does feel good!



  Presumably I’ll have to do it all over again in a couple of years, but let’s not think about that now!!


  Keith
  

The operating therapy is going well, it is just after 13.20, and two freights pass through Hooton. Bit of a fluke of the maintaining the full passenger timetable this, but the 9F heads south with a heavy freight as the English Electric Type 1 (as I prefer to call it) heads for Birkenhead – pity about the focus, but at least it is not the usual angle. Interesting to note that given this is Winter ’61, the 9F had been in service just six years, only two years longer than the type 1!



Now, just a bit more therapy, and then I really should get on with something… before I get assigned some other ‘jobs’.


Keith

Nice shot Keith

Its funny how we refer to the early diesels by their TOPS designations (that's a Class 20 to me!!) although we model in a period when the whole idea of TOPS was someway in the future.

Whilst I think the 9F's are a bit big for my secondary line, they are tempting.  What model do you have/would you recommend that version??

Barry

S’mae Barry

I’m afraid I can only see diesels as English Electric type 4, Brush type 4, Sulzer type 2, and so on….  my interest in railways waned for a while in favour of cars before all the changes started… what I think of as the Barry Docks Effect!

The 9F is just the standard Bachmann offering running with the tender on the closest coupling, to me it captures the sheer ‘size’ of the 9F quite well.  As with all my locos, none of the extra bits have been added, and crew and lamps are still in a box somewhere. From operating the model on the layout I reckon that for a 10-coupled loco it is a very smooth runner, even over the slips in the marshalling yard, and the tightest curve on the layout, hidden in the tunnels, around 23". Always had a soft spot for the 9F – with Bidston having three of them for working the Shotton trains, from 55/56 until closure in 63 when they were transferred to Birkenhead. I discovered much later that at the end of steam all surviving examples seem to gravitate to 6C, by then recoded as 8H.

I fear I’m starting to ramble on a bit now….

Keith

Thanks Keith

Happy to read the ramblings of others with interest!

Barry

Hi Keith.   When you stated that your interest had waned, when exactly was that, the amount of track  that you have laid plus the signals I think that I would require a “ Year of Sunday’s “.  My problem is that I should have begun my layout when I was that much younger, I did actually, but luxury holidays got in the way . And this time around it was my heart that got in the way. My heart valve operation went fine? But today “the district nurse” told me that my. Blood Pressure was okay but my pulse was too fast.  Best wishes Kevin