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Worsley Dale Garden Railway


mick
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Awesome pics Mick, well done love your loco service facility, I have a Helljan refuelling kit and want the same brand sanding tower kit to go with it on my service facility, working out where to put it on my layout.

And of course the trains look fantastic rolling over the viaduct, can't wait to see a video.

You said you had about 300 coaches all up, I did a quick count of my collection about 150 coaches. need more freight trains getting there.

Do you have any pics of how you set the door locking motor, I am thinking of buying a kit with four motors and using the remote button to switch four points together be awesome if it will work.

Tony from down under

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aussietmrail said:

...Do you have any pics of how you set the door locking motor, I am thinking of buying a kit with four motors and using the remote button to switch four points together be awesome if it will work...

Do you mean how I installed them? The following photo shows one installation using a circular disc for transmitting the movement to the tie bar. Power is fed to it via the accessory decoder seen alongside and the point can then be changed using my DCC handset.

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aussietmrail said:

...You said you had about 300 coaches all up, I did a quick count of my collection about 150 coaches. need more freight trains getting there....

Not quite 300 Tony but there are in excess of 200. I'm not sure I could cope with another 100 or so. With it raining again yesterday (yep, this is almost UK summertime :( ) I spent some time sorting out coaches and putting them into plastic 'stock' boxes ready for easier use. It took me a good while to even locate the Gresley LNER teaks and the GWR Collett coaches due to the number of boxes I needed to open and I still haven't found my SR Maunsell coaches!

aussietmrail said:

....And of course the trains look fantastic rolling over the viaduct, can't wait to see a video....

I do have a video of DP2 crossing the full length of the viaduct but haven't uploaded it to Youtube yet. It's similar to most of the others so I wasn't going to bother but perhaps I should. I'll post it in a while.

I've decided to give some Kadee couplings a try. What I want is a standardised coupling on all the loco's and the same coupling on each end of each 'train', be it coaches or wagons. I'm happy using the Hornby type R8220 NEM bar couplings between coaches - they've never given any problems whatsoever - but the coupling between loco and first vehicle is the one that causes most grief. I'll see if a Kadee offers a solution.

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Especially for Tony. This video shows DP2 crossing the 32-arch Stack Gill viaduct with its train of seven Pullman coaches. Very similar to other videos I've posted recently but might as well join them here.

 

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Mick wrote

Especially for Tony. This video shows DP2 crossing the 32-arch Stack Gill viaduct with its train of seven Pullman coaches. Very similar to other videos I've posted recently but might as well join them here

Many thanks for the video clip Mick, I right clicked you tube and enlarged to full screen, very impressive the viaduct is indeed, will put any O scale modellers to shame, well done, I love the way you mixed in the plants and pathways as well, as the tree in the corner, like the way you blended in the other curve after the concrete viaduct.

Quote

Mike wrote

Do you mean how I installed them? The following photo shows one installation using a circular disc for transmitting the movement to the tie bar. Power is fed to it via the accessory decoder seen alongside and the point can then be changed using my DCC handset.

Yes Mike, that is pure magic using the disc, and the curve in the wire just before the point , does that act like a spring to take the pressure off the point.

What DCC brand are you using, I am thinking of getting NCE and will go for the set with the radio control hand piece, take it to the train club instead of using my phone.

Getting the idea finely when posting quotes, could never get it right.

Thanks Mick for sending us some rain had a heavy down pour earlier on tonight more to come and just after mowing the grass too, more work on my layout this weekend, finishing of the block buss wires for Dc running.

Thanks again Mick, Tony from down under.

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aussietmrail said:

.... and the curve in the wire just before the point , does that act like a spring to take the pressure off the point....What DCC brand are you using....

Yes the curve (an Omega loop I believe it's called) absorbs any extra travel of the operating linkage. The central lock motor has a greater travel than is required for moving the tie bar across so I found it necessary to add the loop.

I'm using the Gaugemaster Prodigy Advance system with one wired & one wireless handset that gives me freedom to move around the garden.

I had a thought earlier (dangerous I know) regarding the derailments I experienced when running D9008 The Green Howards so I decided to investigate further to determine the likely cause. I had D9008 fitted with sound for me and it's a decent sounding loco but I discover it's at the expense of some bulk in the form of weight. The speaker is fitted in the fuel tanks which is where I assume a weight would normally be fitted. I decided to get out my other Deltics and compare them on the kitchen scales. This is how they measured up...

55001 St. Paddy - DCC Sound fitted - 614g

D9006 (unnamed at this period) - DCC fitted 591g

D9017 The Durham Light Infantry - DCC fitted - 604g

Prototype Deltic - DCC fitted - 624g

D9008 The Green Howards - DCC Sound fitted - 520g

So it turns out that D9008 is down by about 80-90g in weight on its siblings and I believe that's a possible reason for the derailments on the curves. I'll have to take off the body and see if there's any space to bulk it up a bit.

Here's a couple of photos showing the three BR Green liveried ones on Shilling Park shed. You may just about be able to make out Deltic alongside 55001 St Paddy under cover of the shed itself.

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On the left is D9008 The Green Howards, centre: D9017 The Durham Light Infantry and on the right: D9006 which in this particular livery, without yellow warning panels, is modelled before it received the nameplates Fife & Forfar Yeomanry.

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Not much progress today as I spent the couple of hours I had available doing more or less nothing other than 'playing' trains. But it's fun to do that occasionally. However, I did manage to make a start installing plastic Ratio some fencing along the rear edge of what will be platform 3 - that's the one that is adjacent to the siding and loco area. It's apparently GWR style fencing but I'm sure that matters little with the theme of my layout.

I thought I'd start by adding this panoramic mode photo of Stack Gill viaduct:

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The photo gives the impression that it's on a 'u' shaped curve of course, but that's not quite correct as you know. Still, it makes a change to see it in this light.

I ran a trio of loco's early on made up of a Bachmann class 24, Bachmann class 25 and my trusty Heljan class 26. Here they were on shed in numerical order at the start of the day:

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Nearest the camera is Class 24 No.D5038 in BR two tone Green, followed by Class 25/3 No.D7638 in the same livery. Both loco's are fitted with Howes sounds. To the rear is Heljan 26024 in BR Blue which has Legomanbiffo sounds.

later in the session they were joined on shed by a Dapol class 52 Western in BR Maroon livery. This loco is fitted with Legomanbiffo sounds and is still awaiting nameplates etc to reveal its true identity - D1065 WESTERN CONSORT.

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You might notice from the above photo that I've added more ballast around the shed area, as we all know that drivers require a finer grade of ballast for walking along ;)

And so to the final couple of photos for today and two that I think turned out very nicely. The first shows D5038 and D7638 ticking over inside the loco shed with 26064 stabled outside.

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The second photo was taken just after the departure of D7638.

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Hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to start testing the Kadee couplings on some loco's to see if there are any advantages in using them as standard.

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Some really good photo's there Mick, and some very nice loco's as well, you are building a very impressive collection Mick, well done!

I love your viaduct, it's very realistic indeed. I was looking at your other photo's and you have quite a decent run as well, I was going to post a few pic's of our set-up but I don't think I'll bother now :cry:........ :lol::lol::lol:

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I've stopped building my collection now Nige and I think that's the reason why I'm beginning to move forward with the layout. I've spent too much money and too much time over the past few years collecting loco's and rolling stock to the point where I was doing nothing else. It was all getting in the way of actual modelling.

It's great to be able to start taking some of the loco's out of their boxes and giving them a run out. Most have never been outside the plastic up to now. I'm even contemplating adding some of the included detailing parts so it must be getting serious :)

The total layout run is fine for my purposes. I'm not sure of the overall length (suppose I ought to get it measured properly) but a circuit is a little over 3 minutes at a realistic speed for a preserved line. Any faster and it begins to look a bit silly.

The last thing I want to do is deter others from putting details of their own layouts on the forum. I take photos that show the better bits of mine but if you want to see the rough side too I can cater for that. The few photos I post here are from a much larger number that I actually take (thank goodness for digital images) and most of them are worthy of nothing other than going in the recycle bin. If you were to inspect my layout closely you'd be content with your own for sure.

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My son has been taking videos with his camera that he had for Christmas and he did a "cab ride" type thing with the camera placed onto a flat car, I have just watched it again and paid attention to the clock, it takes a couple of seconds short of three mins for a complete circuit of our layout, I'd never noticed before so I'm quite pleased with that! And before you ask, I have already tried to upload it "Youtube" so that I can post it on here but it keeps aborting the upload for some reason. I will get him to make another film and we will try again! :)

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I didn't get started until just after dinner but it's been a really enjoyable day today due in no small part to the wonderful weather. I also received my order for Kadee couplings so it's been a day of running and testing things out.

I began by bringing out a couple of stock boxes containing a number of BR Mk1 coaches in mixed liveries. These MK1's will form my regular stock on Worsely Dale but it is planned they will be supplemented by various 'visiting' coach rakes to ensure there's usually something different to see. Here's the two stock boxes mentioned. They're the 'Really Useful' brand boxes and this size is suitable for 11 coaches.

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I've cellotaped a list of the coaches and their catalogue numbers to the inside of each lid.

So first of all I began fitting the Hornby R8220 NEM couplings to each coach. I already use these of some other Bachmann Mk1 coaches and they give a nice close-coupled appearance. The only drawback is they couple so close together that they are difficult to couple and you have to actually raise the end of each coach before the couplings will lock together. No problems whatsoever providing the coaches will remain as a fixed rake. If you want to do some shunting then you'll need to look for an alternative, but as far as appearances go they are excellent.

In order for them to work smoothly I have found that the headstock of each coach needs filing down slightly otherwise the couplings have a pronounced droop which will cause coaches to come uncoupled. Here's a before photo of the end of one coach:

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And this is what it looks like afterwards:

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Once all the R8220 couplings had been fitted to the whole rake I even added a tail lamp and blank corridor connection to the ends. Along with the Kadee coupling on each end of the rake it makes a big difference.

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I'll add my (positive) thoughts regarding the Kadee couplings in another thread later this evening but I'll finish for now with a couple of images of loco's on shed in the late evening sunshine. Firstly my regular 26024 :

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26024 is a wonderful runner as I've said before. It rarely causes any problems. I even gave it a bit of a service today to clean out some dirt and add a little oil.

Lastly on view is a Bachmann sound-fitted class 40 No. D211 in BR Green. This one's a lovely engine, one of my favourites, but it's a pain in the backside. It stutters all over the place despite it having an intensive clean as recommended after purchase when it was discovered the wrong type of grease had been used. I really need to sort this one out, perhaps with additional pickups or something. It must have done thirty laps of the circuit today in an attempt to 'run it in' but it's little better.

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Evening Mick,

Have to agree what Nige has said about the loco collection and that pic you took of your spiral, there is a setting on the iPhone that takes a simular pic, not sure the name of the setting have the same on my SLR digital camera as well, but I am after a wide angle lens for the camera.

Great idea with those storage boxes Mick, again I have storage boxes that have draws in them and can fit 11 of those Lima coaches, some have double small draws, I do the same making up a complete train. All I have to do is choose what boxes to take to the train club, usually take 5 boxes will be limited as I have to go by train for the next couple of months to the cl

That is interesting you cutting back the head stock on the coaches, maybe that is the problem on those your village cheap coaches why they derail, I have just filled off a bit on them, they have the NEM coupler boxes as well, tried kadees on the improved them slightly. Expensive exercise, at least I have only got 8 of them to change, be interesting what number Kadee you will be using Mick.

Yeah I have only changed the lead coach to the loco and left the rest with the Lima stile couples, my Indian Pacific train has 17 coaches others are about 11 coaches.

Winter is here, this morning dropped down to 4 degrees tomorrow colder they say 2 but will drop lower than that and Jack frost pay us a visit, end of the nice green grass.

Tony from down under

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aussietmrail said:

...That is interesting you cutting back the head stock on the coaches, maybe that is the problem on those your village cheap coaches why they derail, I have just filled off a bit on them, they have the NEM coupler boxes as well, tried kadees on the improved them slightly. Expensive exercise, at least I have only got 8 of them to change, be interesting what number Kadee you will be using Mick...

I remember having to file the headstocks down a bit when I first used the Hornby R8220 couplings on my Selby Garden Railway but I had forgotten about it until I saw them drooping today. If you don't file them down then the R8220 can't sit horizontally and it'll uncouple when running round.

I suppose if you have a couple hundred couplings to change then it can become expensive switching to Kadee's but for a small number the price of £3.40 or thereabouts for two pairs works out at only £1.70 per vehicle. I'm currently using the No.20's on my BR Mk1's but I've been able to get down to No.17's on the loco and they work fine coupled together. It'll take a fair bit of trial and error before I'm happy.

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Another video with 26024 crossing over the viaducts but this time hauling the 11 BR Mk1 coaches that I've been fitting with Hornby R8220 couplings on the internal connections and Kadee couplings on the outer ends.

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Those are the same "Really Useful Box"es that I use, but mine have foam partitions and covers. This means you only get 8 coaches in when arranged like yours. I have a few that have 5 partitions in that run length ways - ideal for freight stock. Agree with Tony, they are handy for just grabbing a particular train you want to use and in my case, taking it outside.

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I found Mick that the Hornby R8220 couplings were good at achieving close coupling of Bachmann Mk1's but made no difference with Hornby Stanier Period 3's. Perhaps Kadee's throughout the entire rake of coaches would achieve a better result. With the tension lock couplings they come with as standard it's a leap of faith for any passengers who want to get from one coach to another.

I also found that Kadee's had no problems with the canted curves I used to have. The only problems indoors and out that one would have is if there are too many sharp undulations in the track work. Kadee's like a flat permanent way or a gradual rise and fall otherwise they will uncouple.

With many modern coaches coming with sprung buffers like recent locos it seems a waste to put on tension lock couplings which keeps all vehicles far apart. I gather it's done for train sets and to remind serious modellers that they are buying "toys".

Roy.

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cleanerg6e said:

I found Mick that the Hornby R8220 couplings were good at achieving close coupling of Bachmann Mk1's but made no difference with Hornby Stanier Period 3's....

That's right Roy - they're not suitable for all coaches but they are particularly good with Bachmann MK1's. I tried them with my Hornby 12-wheel Pullman's but they were too short and I had to revert to the alternative couplings provided with the coaches. It will have to be Kadee's with any that don't accept the R8220.

I've made a start installing baseboards for what will become CATTLE LEYS station along the opposite side of my shed. This will be a simple terminus station with perhaps just two platforms and maybe an additional siding if I can fit one in. It's the destination for trains leaving Shilling Park rather than them having to continually circle the layout and return back to the same station - pretty soon they will have somewhere to go and it will also allow me to have at least one more rake of coaches out at a time.

I've decided to use some of the plywood baseboards I already have available as there's not that much room for them in the attic.

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The external dimension of the shed is 12 feet so the interior will be slightly smaller than that. The plywood boards measure 11 feet in length and there's still a small gap that needs filling with suitable timber where the track will enter the shed. The width of the boards is only 16 inches so there's not much opportunity for any scenic work.

I would like things to be up and running pretty quickly but I won't have much opportunity over the coming days to do a great deal more. Hopefully, come next weekend, we may see a grand entrance into this new side of the building.

Somewhere in my attic there's an old set of CCTV camera's which I hope to install at the rear of the shed in order to keep watch over proceedings when trains are running. From inside the shed I lose sight of a train once it gets halfway across (the larger) Stack Gill viaduct and it doesn't appear again until it enters the shed. I like to know everything's okay so if the camera's work then it should give that reassurance.

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The one thing about the Kadee's Mick is that they come in different lengths so coaches or wagons can be coupled close together but not too close as buffer lock will occur. The Hornby R8220's are only one length.

Perhaps the CCTV cameras could also be a security feature as well. You may trust your neighbours but strangers may have other ideas if they can see the garden railway especially where is goes into the outdoor railway room. When your not home you have no idea just who's roaming about.

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Love the last video clip Mick, yeah have to agree you will need the CCTV at the back of the layout where you can't see the trains and agree with Roy security as well.

Talking of kadee couplers, you said about using NEM 20's that is what my friend uses on his Hornby any Bachmann coaches he has used kadee number 5's on some of his Hornby coaches.

Looking forward to what you come up with your station complex on the new bench work you have just build, not a bad size shed as well, what is the idea having a wooden shed for, not very common over here more of the metal garden sheds.

Thanks for sending us some rain Mick, :lol::P;) coming in today very Friday and Saturday, need it bad, very dry, I have being using the soaker hose and sprinkler on the grass in the back yard to keep it green, 100mm's predicted for Friday and Saturday

Tony from down under,

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I've managed to get hold of a replacement mini camera in order to capture some cab-ride type action and this is my first attempt, well one of my first attempts, but it was the best of a bad bunch.

I like to capture the action close up in this way because it helps to pinpoint areas that need attention. It's not always easy to see things clearly when you're a scale 100 yards away from the action but getting down to track level you see every little kink and those bits of vegetation that need trimming back.

This video features Heljan 26024 but later clips had a Bachmann class 24 in charge so I may post another one later - perhaps running in the opposite direction.

 

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I have watched Worsley Dale develop and grow, and thought that I knew my way around. The video showed me that I only knew the half of it in regards to distances and detail. Even the station in the shed looks totally different from a train's eye view. You have done a lovely job Mick.

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