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Barry's havering


Clay Mills Junction
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10 hours ago, Clay Mills Junction said:

...I haven't bought anything in ages railway wise, so when I found a couple of OTA wagons unused on ebay I had a punt, to take my collection to 6. I now need to collect twigs to replace the standard plastic loads, dry them, clean them and glue them together with bands of something to represent the ratchet straps. The plastic loads are fine but because they all look identical I think they'll look odd as a train. I'm also trying to find out if Speedlink livery was seen alongside Kronospan blue OTAs in period as I see Paul Bartlett's site showing them together in Inverness and Mossend yards, not seen them together on a train yet though...

That made me sit up and take notice!

I love seeing the OTA's but as you'll no doubt be aware I'm not so particular when it comes to authenticity. I've probably got liveries running together that wouldn't have done so but it's the overall effect that I look for and there's very little to surpass a fully loaded log train. If I remember correctly (my set is stored up in the attic) I have railfreight and blue ones together, though they are mainly the blue.

I spent hours chopping up cuttings from fuchsia trimmings to create the log loads, dabbing little blobs of PVA to hold them together as they were built inside the wagon. Electrical insulation tape makes an excellent representation of the straps but you might want to cut them a little thinner than I did with mine! Secured with a dab of superglue.

I have quite a few EWS liveried OTA's too but haven't decided what to do with them yet.

On a related topic in a way, I'm awaiting delivery of a set of Touax bogie timber wagons from RevolutioN trains - one of only two pre-orders I have chosen to retain. My greenhouse is full of cuttings in readiness for making some log loads once I determine the necessary size for individual logs. I am so looking forward to seeing a long loaded rake of them on Worsley Dale at some point next year even if they are a little off course. It all comes from seeing them on the Settle & Carlisle line across Ribblehead viaduct and is just something I hoped to recreate.

11 hours ago, Clay Mills Junction said:

...My laptop has updated to Windows 11....

I have that update waiting on my PC but have been holding back for fear of losing something that I've got used to using. I'm not sure what programs it automatically removes. I suppose at some point I'm going to have to move on from Windows Movie Maker and Paint!

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I think they might have been together but not sure. It wouldn't make sense for them to be shunted into mixed rakes in the yards if they didn't run that way.

Some research last night online suggested there was a speedlink service that was mixed freight of vans, empty OTAs, open wagons, tankers,  grain hoppers and the short wheelbase VEAs (amunitions to the MoD bases).

Starting at Mossend, they ran up the Highland Main Line to Inverness, it'd then travel round to Aberdeen and back down to the Central belt swapping wagons as it went. The most obvious external change being the OTAs would come back loaded.

It would pretty much be as long as is allowed on the HML so I'm guessing about 25 wagons. Haulage could be a pair of 37/0s or a single 47 etc.

I'll have to look if my 37506 can be renumbered to something Scottish to run with 37114. Then maybe I can make a little video of it leaving the sidings on my Dad's layout with empty OTAs, running through my garden and returning to Dad's with full OTAs.

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2 hours ago, Clay Mills Junction said:

....I'll have to look if my 37506 can be renumbered to something Scottish to run with 37114. Then maybe I can make a little video of it leaving the sidings on my Dad's layout with empty OTAs, running through my garden and returning to Dad's with full OTAs.

I was only thinking exactly the same sort of thing yesterday but running from Skew Bridge down onto Worsley Dale. By that of course I mean a manual exchange of stock like you and not some crazy helix contraption! Though a helix would be good wouldn't it?

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On 12/29/2021 at 5:26 PM, mick said:

I was only thinking exactly the same sort of thing yesterday but running from Skew Bridge down onto Worsley Dale. By that of course I mean a manual exchange of stock like you and not some crazy helix contraption! Though a helix would be good wouldn't it?

A helix from loft to garden would be quite some feat. At least your stock transfer wouldn't involve a 600 mile round trip.

A little progress is made every time I go to my parents. This time I switched out the HO diesel shed for a Peco one that I've been working on lighting. So inside are 3 rows of the surface mount LEDs on tape and on the outside are 2 little floodlights from Layouts4U above the centre of the doors, these need better gluing possibly with modelling filler to hold them in place. There is still work to do, we're taking up the entire outside of the diesel depot to realign the tracks and put down new concrete areas.
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The lighting is all 12v LED being run at 9v with additional resistors to dim them further. The hope being that everything will last a lot longer than running at 12v and it is plenty bright enough as it is, I think 12v would be overly bright.

As my Dad requested I leave 47712 and 37114 with him, I took 90037 back with me in order to have something to fill my display plinth. My two new OTAs arrived just after 4pm today and I've just set them up after work with the 90.

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I've removed two of the couplings and replaced with one of my Bachmann 4-CEP drawbars. it has taken maybe 4-5mm off the gap and it looks like they'll still make it around 2nd radius curve but I think they could be closer still for the garden. There isn't an off the shelf drawbar suitable so I'll have to modify. (Shouldn't have put the other wagon behind when I took the photo)

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Edited by Clay Mills Junction
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The diesel shed lighting looks great Barry and well worth the effort.

I was looking at photos of my station out in the shed with the platform lighting on and it's all let down by the fact that there's no lighting in the station buildings. Maybe I need to do something like that at a later date.

4 hours ago, Clay Mills Junction said:

...At least your stock transfer wouldn't involve a 600 mile round trip...

Blimey, I hadn't realised you had so far to travel. I'd assumed it was more 'round the corner'.

The OTA's look good. I sold off all my Bachmann moulded loads with the intention of replacing them with my home-made logs which I feel look much better. The moulded ones are okay but just not what I wanted to see. I'm the same with coal loads for my wagons too, it has to be real coal, crushed and graded by hand. I just feel so much better for doing it that way.

I bring the OTA wagons closer together using Kadee couplings but I try to standardise on them anyway so I can swap wagons around more easily.

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  • 1 month later...

So today's aquisition is a LAIS DCC decoder. It is 8-pin and 4 function so about £7 cheaper than anything mainstream. I've seen some stuff online saying they are not bad so I thought it would be worth a try. I'm still waiting on the solderable sockets for the Lima and Hornby ringfields so I can't fit it yet, but if it is good then I'll use them to convert the lot.

I've also got a Bachmann 37/4, an old one in EWS livery (worst livery ever in my opinion) with 8-pin socket and drive only on 4-axles. I bought it years ago and was going to use the mechanisms in a Hornby class 58. I don't think I'll bother though. It always had a running problem I never sorted where it would just randomly stop. on DC or DCC and having been fully cleaned. I'll have to sort it, I don't know how likely it is that all of the contacts on both bogies simultaneously lose contact with the wheels but I'm not convinced it isn't a PCB issue. If I remember, the early models didn't have tail lights so might be as easy to do away with the PCB. I'm on the look out for a cheap 37/4 body that I can swap to but potentially it could be a respray if I can get it working, I'd quite like an Inverness based 37/4.

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3 hours ago, Clay Mills Junction said:

So today's aquisition is a LAIS DCC decoder. It is 8-pin and 4 function so about £7 cheaper than anything mainstream. I've seen some stuff online saying they are not bad so I thought it would be worth a try....

I've never heard of them before but at the price they've got be worth a try. I've had much more expensive ones that I've never been happy with.

3 hours ago, Clay Mills Junction said:

I've also got a Bachmann 37/4, an old one in EWS livery (worst livery ever in my opinion) with 8-pin socket and drive only on 4-axles. I bought it years ago and was going to use the mechanisms in a Hornby class 58. I don't think I'll bother though. It always had a running problem I never sorted where it would just randomly stop...

Compared to more recent releases the older 37 models leave a lot to be desired these days but I quite like a 37 in EWS livery - I think it suits them. It will be worth having a look to see if you can get it running but if not then why not use it for double heading? If you remove some of the drive/gears and have it free running there's not even any problems concerning speed matching.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Well, today I went to pick up the Hornby APT set I pre-ordered. Came home to unbox and...

APT wrong.jpg

The retailer only has what they had pre-ordered and all are allocated. If I return it, it is returned and I get my money back but have no train. I'm going to contact Hornby and see what they say. If they have the NDM and other TBF that can be sent out and they get one of these back in return then that would suit me.

Edited by Clay Mills Junction
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I've just spent almost 30 seconds looking at the photo to see what's damaged before it dawned on me exactly what the problem is! You can tell I know nothing about the APT.

But isn't that just typical of what we've come to expect these days? If it isn't damaged or broken then it's duplicated and/or missing. I expect you're gutted?

Hopefully Hornby will agree to your request. In a way I would expect them to as it's not the retailers fault or problem.

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I went with my Dad to Model Rail Scotland yesterday. I bought my first ever kettle, a Bachmann 4MT 2-6-4 tank. One of the early Dcc ready ones so quite old but is decent. £65 so not breaking the bank.

Only reason being I spotted it and I'd wanted one for a while. Dad has a 3-rail Hornby one that hasn't been used in 30 years at least, they were used on the South Glasgow suburban services when he was growing up. Something a little different for the garden.

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The APT issue is resolved, I went back to the retailer and they swapped it. He said another of the pre-orders had been cancelled so he had one to replace it with now.

I'm a cynic about what people tell me, probably due to my line of work. Anyway, no point litigating all of the what could have happened, I have the model now. If I get time tomorrow I will sort the track outside enough to get it to at least have a little run up and down.

 

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The other thing to mention is the LaisDCC decoder that I got for a tenner on ebay. I've tried it in the old Hornby class 91 I was doing up. Seems pretty good so far, good fine control considering it is running a 5-pole Hornby ringfield. Details in the Doing up old locos thread. I will certainly be using more of these.

Edited by Clay Mills Junction
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  • 3 weeks later...

I'm now on a 195 winding it's merry way from Leeds to Sheffield. The 221 that was supposed to convey me from Edinburgh to Burton having hit the emergency brakes between York and Leeds. No explanation. Sat for an hour and a half. Got to Leeds, left on the platform for near an hour, will get to Sheffield in another hour then apparently taxis to our destinations. Doubt I'll see bed until 2am.

Edited by Clay Mills Junction
Need should have been bed.
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  • 1 month later...

In a very timely video on one of the Youtube channels I follow,
https://youtu.be/RxDOtkp6FWc?t=188

There is a bit on points with their over-centre spring removed and keeping the tie bar and point blades from slipping. I think this might be useful as, even experimenting inside I do see the point blades slip. I will order some of that plastic and try it.

 

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On 24/04/2022 at 23:49, Clay Mills Junction said:

In a very timely video on one of the Youtube channels I follow,
https://youtu.be/RxDOtkp6FWc?t=188

There is a bit on points with their over-centre spring removed and keeping the tie bar and point blades from slipping. I think this might be useful as, even experimenting inside I do see the point blades slip. I will order some of that plastic and try it.

In my experience I'm not sure that would work with my sprung points. It would just add resistance to the operation of the tie bar making it difficult (almost impossible) for the less heavy wagons to push the blades over and run through them. I think they would just ride up over the rails unless heavily weighted.

I find it is only the point blade away from the spinging wire that edges forwards because the spring wire that is soldered to the side of the rail connects into the tie bar itself and holds that side in place.

I have yet to try any modifications to prevent the blades moving forward. I haven't found it such a big issue to make it a priority but agree that over time the blades do move forward - I just slide them back into place until the next time. I was hoping to improve my design when installing sprung points along the bottom of the garden but I haven't as yet decided to install them there. I might still have another go though because I'm up for the challenge!

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