Derwent - LMS in the Peak (never finished due to house move)

[islandbridgejct]

Hi Jonathan,

 

I went back and took a look at your overall track plan, because that junction has been bothering me. I keep thinking the Midland was a railway that did things by the book, and would not have had a single junction leading from a double track mainline to a double track branch.

 

So this is what I think you've got:

 

 

This means you already have the double junction at the north / down end, so there is actually no need for a connection at the south end at all, and I don't think the Midland would have had a facing connection when it could run a direct service through to the branch over the north end junction.

 

If it did, and you wanted to be able to run through platform 3 or the goods loop or platform 2, and the junction signal is the down starter, then you need a home and distant on each of your three brackets, because each starter will be operated from the north box.

 

I haven't re-read the whole thread, but I think you said you wanted direct access to platform 3 to allow passenger trains from the south to terminate and run around. Could I suggest that a more likely approach would be to termnate them in platform 2, then pull forward onto the branch, and reverse back into 3. The southbound service could then start from 3. That would mean you could replace your facing crossover with a diamond and trailing crossover to the up line, and this would mean you would have a straight home and distant here. You might even be able to eliminate the south box altogether and just have one at the north end. (The Midland would probably have used a single slip to include the trailing crossover from the down to up lines, but I can understand that you mightn't want to build that - I certainly wouldn't.) This approach might be a bit more realistic and would increase your operational complexity, which might be fun (maybe).

 

The main problem with that approach, I think, would be difficulty of access from the down main to the goods yard, but a trailing siding on the down side could legitimately - I think - connect into the yard, and a trailing siding always looks good alongside a mainline. That's assuming you have room for it on the south end of the layout, and that the space isn't earmarked for something else.

 

Anyway, you've set a very interesting exercise. Please disregard my ramblings - it is after all your railway.

 

Alan

[Rowsley17D]

Hi Alan, the plan is as the diagram for the station area. I didn't want to build a slip as I thought I might have difficulty in making it. So the track is as it is. I have since thought of doing away with the complicated junction at the north end and having a double junction at the south, but things are a bit advanced to start doing a "Larry", although it never stopped him!

 

Most Up branch trains terminate in platform 3 and run round, not Down ones. A few through Up branch trains use platform 3 and run onto the Up main via the south junction so as not to block the mainline platforms.

[Andrew P]

Hi Jonathan, I've done a similar thing with Pencarne Junction, for similar reasons, and so that trains from the North had direct access to and from the Branch. To me it looks fine, and more than anything it looks like a real junction and it works for you.

[islandbridgejct]

Hi Jonathan,

 

I'd keep the complicated north end junction, as it makes sense to me, but I'd probably get rid of the facing junction at the south end, particularly as I don't think there should be a trap on a passenger running line.

 

I'd probably instal a layby siding on the down main, with access off it to the goods yard, but probably not directly to the platform 3 road. But as Andy says, it looks fine as it is. It's a bit tricky to signal though.

 

Actually, I'd probably keep the track as it is.

 

Best offer on the south / up end - main and 1 or 2 brackets, home and distant on each. (If only 1 bracket, ground signal for the goods loop.)

 

For the down main starter - main and bracket for branch.

 

For the down branch, starter on platform 3, starter on the goods loop, and advanced starter some way down the line.

 

Good luck with whatever you decide.

 

Alan

[Rowsley17D]

In a break from signals, awaiting more MSE parts, I renumbered my Crab to a Rowsley number for the 1930s. The body is from a red Crab, but the chassis was sold on. On reassembling the engine with the chassis I already had (the body had suffered when I put "lead" in the boiler and the glue attacked the plastic), it ran like a bag of spanners, stopping and starting. Despite making sure the wiper contacts were doing their job, there were still unscheduled stops. So I took the chassis off a red Crab I have in a display case and it ran perfectly. So now I have a red Crab with black cylinders in my display case.

 

 

 

The tender wheels need a black felt-tip pen running around them and the engine needs lining. The real 2873 was a Rowsley engine for many years. The Crab class was greatly admired by the MPD's crews.

Edited October 8, 2015 by Rowsley17D

[Rowsley17D]

Well, it was back to signal modelling over the weekend and so far this is were I am at:

 

 

The MSE instructions are not exactly easy to follow, but now I know where I am going I hope the rest will not take as long. The out of position hole in the longest doll will be filled with solder and re-drilled.

 

This bracket is for the south Junction and will read from L to R: goods loop, platform 3 and platform 2 with fixed distant.

Edited October 11, 2015 by Rowsley17D

[farren]

Will definitely be Watching this with interest, I have been buying some parts and complete kits from MSE myself. For my future layout.

 

What are your plans for controlling it? And have any plans for adding working lamps.

[Rowsley17D]

Hi Farren, I'm no Steve Hewitt, so mine will be cosmetic but I'll be able to move the arms and no again, no working lamps.

[TheSignalEngineer]

Well, it was back to signal modelling over the weekend and so far this is were I am at:

 

MSE 01.jpg

 

The MSE instructions are not exactly easy to follow, but now I know where I am going I hope the rest will not take as long. The out of position hole in the longest doll will be filled with solder and re-drilled.

 

This bracket is for the south Junction and will read from L to R: goods loop, platform 3 and platform 2 with fixed distant.

That looks a fair representation of the woodwork for the bracket at Nuneaton Abbey Street that I linked elsewhere.

[Alister_G]

Hi Jonathan,

 

Thought you might be interested in the following website, which I happened upon by chance whilst browsing.

 

if you look through the Print Collection list there are some great photos from Buxton station and shed, which show the sort of traffic you could expect on your line - from LMS days onwards.

 

http://www.sutherland.davenportstation.org.uk/index.html

 

Cheers,

 

Al

[Rowsley17D]

Thanks for the link, Al,. Some great photos and worthy of a wider audience

[Rowsley17D]

Got some more done to the bracket signal. First make some more boards.

There are four pieces here. The board, back and front spectacle plates (the coloured film goes in between) and the back blinder.

 

Attach back blinder

 

The board for the goods loop has been replace by the S&T gang with a metal board.

 

Attach lamp brackets (low melt solder) and lamps (glue).

 

And ladders

 

Getting there.

 

Edited October 13, 2015 by Rowsley17D

[Rowsley17D]

Well, I have got most things done to the bracket signal without making it work remotely. How Steve Hewitt does it I shall never know. Here is the bracket in grey etch primer.

 

 

 

With arms attached.

 

 

I think by my time period the painters would have got round to making it LMS black and white, I am tempted to make it weathered Midland yellow.

Edited October 14, 2015 by Rowsley17D

[Rowsley17D]

Thanks to a fellow RMW member I got some plaster drystone walling section via a flea-Bay shop CEG Model Railway. I got the unpainted ones as the painted version looked very brown, but my walls are Derbyshire limestone.

The raw article.

 

 

I didn't like the way there're supposed to be joined so I will cut off the projections. A cut at a slight angle away from 90 deg will allow the sections to traverse the contours of the land. The joins will be disguised with filler. Some shots of a couple of pieces plonked on the layout.

 

 

 

 

The walls are coloured with a very dilute mix of acrylic black and wiped off while still wet.

Edited October 18, 2015 by Rowsley17D

[Snofi]

I bought a few of those sections last year - finally gotten round to using them. Found going round non-90 degree bends a tad painful but they are easy to sculpt if a little brittle...

[Rowsley17D]

Back to signals. Got the bracket more or less finished. Cannot get to the railway room (loft) as we have the decorator in.

 

 

Sorry it's out of focus.

[Alister_G]

That looks great, and your finials aren't that wonky either

 

Al.

[Rowsley17D]

Hi Al, if you're VERY careful you can bend them to the right position! Always as assuming they have been soldered on.

Edited October 20, 2015 by Rowsley17D

[clecklewyke]

Thanks to a fellow RMW member I got some plaster drystone walling section via a flea-Bay shop CEG Model Railway. I got the unpainted ones as the painted version looked very brown, but my walls are Derbyshire limestone.

The raw article.

 

These look very nice, if worryingly similar to the Hornby Skaledale equivalent. They couldn't be copies? Can you copyright a casting? Certainly the CEG walls are as good as Skaledale and much cheaper. I feel my hand reaching for my wallet. 

 

I used Skaledale walls on Royston Vasey, retaining the projections as I thought they helped disguise the joints. But on RV it was easy to cover imperfections with "snow".

 

Ian

[Richard Mawer]

Hi Jonathon,

 

It's all looking very impressive.

 

I am still persevering with ratio signals. I'm not up to those standards. Yours look very good indeed.

 

I'm pleased to see some CEG walls. I bought a large box load off flea bay, but am nowhere near needing to use them yet. I was wondering whether they would live up to expectations. Looking at yours, I am going to be happy.

 

Cheers

 

Rich

[Rowsley17D]

Hi Rich, I'm pleased with the walls and less fiddly than casting thin layers of air-dry clay and laboriously gluing broken bits of them together. The "look" will depend a great deal on how well the joints can be disguised and the paint job.

[Rowsley17D]

Hi Ian, I don't think the walls are a direct copy. The projections are not regular, like the Hornby ones, which is why I will saw them off, see what I mean below. There are two patterns of straights but you only get one of the alternative in each pack!

 

 

In my packs you get one of the ones on the left but fifteen of the ones on the right!

Edited October 20, 2015 by Rowsley17D

[Rowsley17D]

The decorator finally cleared the landing so I was able to access the railway room to see what the 3-doll bracket looked like in its position. Some work needed to straighten a couple of the finials.

 

 

Just needs to be properly embedded in place.

[Rowsley17D]

While waiting for the decorator, I made a start on the bracket for the platform 2 Down starter. Rather than attach the trimers to the post first, I attached them to the cross-treads  as this could be done using high temp solder and so would not drop off when attaching to the post. It also made for a stronger joint.

 

 

 

The signal will be similar to the one in the photo below the model but without the distant. It once stood at the end of the Down platform at Darley Dale station protecting the junction with the slow down loop to Church Lane crossing. As a little aside, Bill writes that the this signal was unaltered up to the closure of the line, but other books clearly show LMS/LMR replacement round post dolls and upper quadrants with an additional distant on the down loop doll. Hope this does not infringe copyright, will remove if does so. The book is Bill Hudson's "Through Limestone Hills".

 

Next the trimmer was soldered to the post with low melt.

 

 

Finials and bracket supports added.

 

 

That's as far I as I could get as the board parts are on order.

Edited October 23, 2015 by Rowsley17D

[Rowsley17D]

An afternoon with the bracket signal saw a little more done. First to make up the boards. The front and rear spectacle plates were soldered to the signal arm using high temp solder.

 

 

Then the back blinder was added using medium temp solder.

 

 

Then make another one.

 

 

Add axles to the dolls using low melt

 

 

Next job was to add the support posts for the safety rails and a platform for the higher post. That's as far as I got today.