Somewhere SW of London. Somewhen before today

No further progress to report on the lighting but a nice little scene was captured this morning.  

D602, fresh from the paint-shop in blue, awaits the road with empty vans for Acton Yard. The duty shunter grumbles idly to itself. 

The bee-keepers are at work and the departmental “yellow peril” has dragged two more coal wagons up the merchant’s siding for unloading. 

Superb weathering on those mineral wagons Rick - a "how I did it" would be most welcome please ........................ :thumbs

[user=6]Petermac[/user] wrote:

Superb weathering on those mineral wagons Rick - a "how I did it" would be most welcome please …………………… :thumbs

Will have to see what I can do about that.  Not in a short space of time though as the diary is rather full for the time being.  

Those pesky street lamps are finally being fitted. Well the first two are. I built five in all intending two for each side of the road plus a spare. 
The wiring isn’t connected yet. Some can be seen lying about the track. 

Also seen is brand-new arrival D57. The first Heljan “Peak” to join the collection; all the others are Bachmann or (in one case) a pre-Bachmann “Mainline” model. 

The “driver’s eye view” along the road is not available to viewers; it can only be seen as shown by using the slim width of the phone held against some bookshelves. 

I really like that, but what's that peak doing on the suvvern?

Pete, I think Rule #1 comes into play !

I really hope so, Ron. My southern layout will be full of rule 1's.

[user=1120]peterm[/user] wrote:

I really like that, but what's that peak doing on the suvvern?

They did visit fairly regularly on Summer inter-regional trains. One of my colour albums has a shot of a Peak at Ramsgate, having derailed in the sidings while awaiting it's return journey.

[user=321]SRman[/user] wrote:

[user=1120]peterm[/user] wrote:

I really like that, but what's that peak doing on the suvvern?

They did visit fairly regularly on Summer inter-regional trains. One of my colour albums has a shot of a Peak at Ramsgate, having derailed in the sidings while awaiting it's return journey.

They certainly did. Wolverhampton and Derby to Portsmouth Harbour were “Peak” duties. They also visited on freight almost daily. 

Good, I like my Peak with it's Earth Mover 2 speaker.  :)

[user=1753]Gwiwer[/user] wrote:

[user=321]SRman[/user] wrote:

[user=1120]peterm[/user] wrote:

I really like that, but what's that peak doing on the suvvern?

They did visit fairly regularly on Summer inter-regional trains. One of my colour albums has a shot of a Peak at Ramsgate, having derailed in the sidings while awaiting it's return journey.

They certainly did. Wolverhampton and Derby to Portsmouth Harbour were “Peak” duties. They also visited on freight almost daily. 

A little further research and trawling of the memory banks confirms that not only did they work through to Ramsgate / Margate from the West Midlands as Jeff says but at least one - and I think two - managed to reach Brighton leading the one-time service from and back to Manchester via Gatwick Airport.  
I noted quite a few of the WR allocation on freights through Salisbury over the years and on one occasion also towing some 4-Sub units away from scrap - presumably heading for the graveyard of much SR stock of that time at Briton Ferry.

I was quite surprised early one Saturday morning to find not one but two idling away on the fuel point in Fratton sidings.  I was aware that they worked the summer Saturday holiday trains to the Midlands but the timetable suggested only one of those at a time should have been in the area.  It also put paid to the train-spotter's myth that they were too heavy for the Portsmouth Harbour route; they were not.  They were Route Availability 7 because of their weight and (despite the massive 1-Co-Co-1 bogies) hefty axle-loadings which restricted them somewhat but either the Civil Engineer permitted them to the Harbour under restricted conditions or the route was cleared for RA7 locomotives anyway. 

Post-1985 some sources state class 45 was re-classified to RA6 which I believe may be an error. 

Class 44 (the first ten locos and the only ones which actually carried the names of peaks such as Scafell Pike and Helvellyn) have only once or twice been recorded on the SR having arrived via Cricklewood and the West London Line on freights.  

Interesting. My peak is Scafell Pike, so I'll be running that now and again… I think I mentioned modellers licence.

A little weathering to the O2. Boiler washout, water-spill and rusted coal rails. Plus Woodland Scenics rather than plastic coal in the bunker and a crew added. 

That looks better Rick.  Is it all powders or did you use paint as well ?

Yes. 
All powders but with some of them applied wet including on the coal rails. 

Looks like a working loco now Rick.

What to do on a wet Sunday?  

 Start on the point rodding of course.  Just placed at this stage and the first of three runs but it should be easy to fix down and weather.  

 The rodding will crank as shown to pass under the platform before emerging again farther along linking to the three points which are under signal-box control. 

This point rodding run is now complete. Three parallel runs now glued together and weathered / painted. This is a Wills kit which is fiendishly tricky to assemble. Some very small parts are involved and the rods are glued end-to-end with a cross-section of less than 1mm. 

Hi Rick

I share your pain with point rodding but it looks very good when done and certainly adds to the "completeness" of the scene.  Nice painting and weathering.



Barry

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

Hi Rick

I share your pain with point rodding but it looks very good when done and certainly adds to the "completeness" of the scene.  Nice painting and weathering.



Barry

Interesting looking point motor there Barry …..