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Worsley Dale Garden Railway


mick
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1 hour ago, ba14eagle said:

Thank you Mick for the inspiration! A good mornings work sees my PRA wagons weathered....

Looking really, really, nice Iain! They make a couple of mine look a bit work-worn but from what I can see in photos they appeared in anything from almost pristine to rather neglected condition. You've made an excellent job with the china clay dust markings, especially the streaking on the covers - is that all weathering powders? I've yet to attempt the clay dust but seeing yours has shown me the effects I need to achieve.  Must have a go later.

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18 hours ago, ba14eagle said:

I must admit Mick, its all paint / weathering washes - I didnt use the powders.

I've had a go using just acrylic paint on the roof - hoping that if it doesn't go well then it shouldn't be too difficult to rectify. Here's my four on the table alongside some other wagons I've been working on.

I've never seen these wagons in the flesh so don't really know how the china clay deposits build up on the wagons. I'm not even sure what consistency the china clay takes on. Is it a powder form or a slurry? I'd be more confident weathering Gypsum wagons! Anyway, from photos it doesn't seem as if there's much build up on the tops of the wagons so perhaps just a little staining as Iain has portrayed on his examples. Also, I would imagine that by the time they'd reached the West of Scotland much of any overspill from the loading process would have blown off! I think the wagon bodies need a dusting though.

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A close up of one of my roofs.

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I'm not sure if this is how they appeared but it feels okay to me and they certainly appear as if they've been out there working.

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Oh and just to add to the above, I've found that if I replace the tension lock with a Kadee coupling (No.19 in my case), dip the end of the NEM pocket in a little PVA glue but don't push it all the way home (2 or 3 mm is all you need) then it lines up perfectly with the Kadee height gauge and appears to hold well enough with the glue. At least that way no hacking of the body is needed.

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I think the china clay was used in the paper making process, so was probably powder - slurry would be conveyed in tank wagons.

I always use Paul Bartlett's wagon website when looking for examples of weathering.

Edited by ba14eagle
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It was a fine day for running trains today but I resisted the urge because I have a table top full of stock that I've made a start on and which require finishing so I thought it best to make some progress there instead.

There's two Bachmann OTA wagons which I was going to use as empty wagons but after seeing a photo online of wagons loaded differently from the ones I've already done I decided to load them with logs. If I remember correctly the logs I've made were cut from some Cornus (dogwood) shrubs that I cut back about 2 years ago and were originally a yellowy colour but they make a nice representation of proper cut logs. It's a pity I didn't take a bit more care and choose only straight pieces as some of them are a little too curved. The retaining straps were cut from insulation tape and although I made an effort to make them narrower than my previous efforts they still appear a bit too wide on the photos. These two will be used in my mixed freight trains.

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My 37401 was purchased as previously owned and although I like the sound of it there was something about its appearance that just didn't seem right so I made a start by removing some of the sandy coloured weathering, cleaning it off the windscreens and ploughs. I also painted the center headcode panel black as that's how it appears in the books I have from shortly after it was converted to 37/4. Perhaps some other details of this particular model aren't applicable to that period but never mind. Here's before and after photos...

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It could really do with a narrow black outline above the cab front windows but that would need a steady hand and it needs a central lamp bracket above the headcode box. It's seen above with the two OTA wagons loaded earlier in the day.

This evening I've been adding Kadee couplings to four Hornby Mk3 sleepers - two of them in Blue/Grey and two in Intercity livery. That gives me the opportunity to replicate some of the earlier photos I've seen of the sleeper train. I'll hopefully take some photos of those tomorrow when the glue has dried and the couplings are nice and solid.

 

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I never did get round to photographing the Mk3 sleepers as I'd hoped i would do, and the clip I took of the InterCity ones running on the layout didn't turn out too well so I'll leave those for another day. I did manage to fit corridor connectors to all four coaches and to a couple of Mk2's that will run with the InterCity liveried ones. It's a work in progress and progress with me is generally not too rapid.

So what can I show you? Well I attempted to recreate a train formation from one of my books depicting a mixed freight which included 3 of my 4 PRA wagons. It's not exactly as it should have been but it's close enough for me. What I think stands out is that the PRA wagons actually appear taller in model form than they do in actual photographs. On the Kernow Model Rail Centre website there's a photo of 2 PRA's behind a class 08 shunter with a VGA van to the rear.

http://www.kernowmodelrailcentre.com/pg/163/PRA-China-Clay-Wagon

The PRA wagons seem to be a bit smaller in that photo than my models do next to the Bachmann VGA van.

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Here's another view of 37401 crossing Low Shott viaduct with the mixed freight. It's the first time that the PRA's have had a run out and they managed it without any problem in spite of their light weight.

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I've got a varied collection of freight wagons now for the outdoor layout but I'm still without any bogie bolsters for the aluminium ingot workings so they'll be near the top of my shopping list.

Here's just a brief video from today with my apologies for the annoying beeping from 37057 which I hadn't noticed until putting the video together.

 

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I have a long list of things waiting to be done on and around the layout but I just don't seem to be working my way down it and I have loco's waiting for chips to be installed but the required parts simply haven't turned up - almost 2 weeks after supposedly being posted. Anyway it really brightened up this afternoon so it spurred me on to doing something I've recently been thinking about.

Since relaying the ground level section the tunnel portals have been left leaning against the tunnel itself while I tried to decide what I was going to do in that area. I've already inserted pieces of wood along the lineside in an attempt to keep dirt off the track but it didn't give a sense of the West Highland line from where I get inspiration. What's missing are rocks and cuttings and while I can't really begin creating mountains I do have some rocks that could be placed by the lineside.

There was already one or two rocks that had been positioned on the outer edge of the tracks but which have since been covered up by the gradual growth of the buxus hedging plants but perhaps if I were to place some on the opposite side of the line it could resemble one of the many cuttings to be found along the West Highland route. I don't want to build things up too high because I'd like to maintain open access for photos and videos so I'm intentionally keeping them at a low level.

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I think it would work better on the single tracked area rather than here, where there will eventually be the reinstallation of the passing loop. It also needs the ground cover plants replacing to cover the bare earth.

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Anyway, I decided to continue my rock building around the tunnel portal which was first replaced by gluing it back onto the face of the tunnel. It's a pity I can't build upwards above the tunnel to create the effect of a mountain but I need access along the path.

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The ground level section is the most problematic area of the layout, or at least it has been up to now, but it's also one of my favourite areas for taking photos and videos especially at either side of the path that crosses the line, and the photo below is a rarely seen viewing angle looking along towards and through Watch House tunnel.

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It's going to need a good vacuuming before trains will be able to run again.

 

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Good to read that you plan to reinstate the passing loop, I was wondering if you had given up on it and the required points. I look forward to the time when we will see a passenger 37/4 in a frustrating wait for freight 37/0 to clear the line. A late 80s experience for me, with a ferry to catch a Mallaig 😡

Edited by chris
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38 minutes ago, chris said:

Good to read that you plan to reinstate the passing loop, I was wondering if you had given up on it and the required points. I look forward to the time when we will see a passenger 37/4 in a frustrating wait for freight 37/0 to clear the line. A late 80s expense for me, with a ferry to catch a Mallaig 😡

I did consider removing the loop altogether Chris because I've never really made that much use of it but in the end I decided I'd eventually replace it even if it's rarely used in the future. A short double track section does look better along the ground level section and through the tunnel even if one of them does have rusty rails. I'm not sure when I'll actually get round to doing it but hopefully it will be some time this year!

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It is quite challenging driving two trains at once. Even with all my iPhones and iPads that let me walk alongside a train, it is difficult to operate more than one loco. Ideally you have one driver per train and a man in the signal box. I occasionally get that when my mates come round. The problem is that they all end up chatting and train watching rather than driving. Not the there will be anyone popping round in the foreseeable.

I guess with a passing loop the trick is to come up with an operating procedure that enables you to run two trains. Maybe a freight could trundle round slowly while the passenger sprints between station and loop. There's no chance you could do that while filming it.

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4 hours ago, chris said:

It is quite challenging driving two trains at once. Even with all my iPhones and iPads that let me walk alongside a train, it is difficult to operate more than one loco....

I can only manage running two trains at once when they're both running in the same direction - the layout is long enough to give me a comfortable distance between the two. I normally leave the track cleaner circling the layout and run a train behind it rather than waiting for the cleaner to finish the job. If I'm wanting to film then it's obviously one train at a time.

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As expected the weather has curtailed any further work outdoors, at least for a while, but it has allowed me to fit soundchips and speakers to two more class 37 loco's for use on Worsley Dale - these being 37026 Loch Awe and 37114 Dunrobin Castle. These two loco's join a growing list waiting to be weathered.

I might start a thread detailing the loco's allocated to working Worsley Dale now that I've finally got myself sorted out with what I'm going to be running where - at the moment I'm not even sure how many there are. Apart from the various BR blue liveries I have a number of class 37's in later sector and EWS liveries that were to be used to depict the layout operating in later years and I'd hoped that I may then be able to swap loco bodies onto already sound-fitted chassis to avoid the expense of fitting sound to every single one. It's something I need to look into to see whether that would be possible. I suppose I could always just swap the sound chips around and install speakers if all else fails. 

 

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As I've been working on Skew Bridge up in the attic today I took the two class 37s I fitted sound chips to yesterday to give them a run and to hear what they sounded like indoors. It also gave me a chance to photograph them without having to struggle to get down on my knees to do so. So here they are:

First off we have 37026 'Loch Awe' in plain BR Blue livery

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And then there's 37114 'Dunrobin Castle' in large logo BR Blue

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37026 and 37114 were both limited editions produced by Bachmann exclusively for Mickleover Model Railway Group in an effort to raise funds to cover the cost of replacing the groups clubroom building.

I also took a snap of 37254 in Engineers 'Dutch' livery which has been seen on Worsley Dale before. I'm thinking of removing the kadee coupling from the front of loco's as there's few occasions where I actually need to run round a train so for appearance sake it may be better without.

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It's been a while since I've done any work in the attic and I'm reminded just how much there is still to do up there but I also remember that this time last year none of it existed and the attic itself was a very different place.

 

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There's been no running recently on Worsley Dale but BR Green liveried D6607 (37403) 'Ben Cruachan' has now been fitted with its sound chip joining the two featured above as available for the outdoor line.

D6607 wasn't quite so easy to fit out as being an older model there was limited room inside so I had to resort to fitting the speaker in the fuel tanks which meant disassembling the loco, something I was hoping to avoid. But anyway, it's done now and it sounds very nice with it's West Highland soundfile although I don't seem to be able to increase its maximum speed, which when running round the attic seems a bit on the slow side. It will probably be okay outdoors where I tend to run at a gentler pace anyway.

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In a change from the usual BR Blue I've now fitted a sound chip to 37427 'Highland Enterprise' which is depicted in Regional Railways livery with Scotrail branding. This Bachmann loco was a Limited Edition produced for Rails of Sheffield. It's not actually the loco I intended fitting with sound just yet but the one I had decided on turned out to have an 8 pin decoder socket and I was sitting there with a 21-pin decoder in my hands.

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I think next on the list will be one of the coal sector liveried 37's depending on which socket is provided as I have one more 21 pin chip available but currently no suitable speaker as my recent order for two arrived with just one!

 

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1 hour ago, Riddles said:

Do you usually fit Zimo or ESU Loksound, or maybe a lesser known brand? I’m guessing you haven’t used any Hornby TTS decoders.

I would think ninety percent of my sound decoders are ESU Loksound Dave, but I do have a small number of Zimo too. Factory fitted sound models, of which I have quite a few, are predominantly ESU decoders so that's one reason for the imbalance although the quality of some factory sounds leaves a lot to be desired and many have since been reblown - not always for the better I have to say.

I have a few TTS decoders and I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the class 20 for the price compared to that of both ESU and Zimo.

Regarding price, I remember not too long ago when the Zimo versions were quite a bit cheaper than ESU but nowadays they're very much on a par with each other. I don't use many (or even any) of the advanced features that the latest chips offer as all I really want are the basic sounds and perhaps whistles or horns etc. At one time you purchased a decoder and got exactly that but these days there's often an array of additional coloured wires coming out of them and I haven't got a clue what half of them are for - nor do I really care.

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I'm glad to hear you use some TTS decoders. Hornby decoders do tend to get a bad press on RM Web etc. but for the cost, they allow fairly reasonable sound to be fitted on largish collections economically. The majority of my own sound decoders are probably ESU but I do like the Zimo ones, especially when they are fitted with "Stay Alive" capacitors. I love using the brake feature on Function 2 but I don't use all the various lighting capabilities. The slow running with Stay Alive can be amazing, even over dodgy track.

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