Henley-on-Thames - GWR in the 1930's

[lezz01]

Why do you GWR guys get all the locos?

Regards Lez.

[St Enodoc]

3 hours ago, lezz01 said:

Why do you GWR guys get all the locos?

Regards Lez.

We don't. Folk just think we do coz they all look the same.

[Neal Ball]

9 hours ago, lezz01 said:

Why do you GWR guys get all the locos?

Regards Lez.

The Bluebell this weekend will be the only non-GWR line that we have been on this trip to feature a GWR loco.

 

So far we have ridden behind, 2 x Modified Hall; 1 x Manor and 1 x Castle

 

Plus the TR locos and 2 x Southern 4-6-2 pacifics, plus an industrial loco.

 

Regards, Neal

 

Oh! And a class 37

[Neal Ball]

Welcome back!

We have had a lovely tour of the UK, now it’s back to the reality of life in Spain….
 

Before we sailed home, we had a lovely day at the Bluebell, all by public transport. If you know where the caravan club site is in Brighton, we took the no 7 to Brighton station, Gatwick express to Haywards Heath and then waited for the Metrobus no 270 which goes direct to Horsted Keynes station. I can’t remember how much each leg cost, but it wasn’t expensive. Definitely recommended. 
 

Beware though, if you get the daily Metrobus service to Horsted Keynes village - it’s a long walk to the station. The station stop is only operative on a Saturday.

 

I will update the gallery pages in the next few days.

 

What news of Henley-on-Thames I hear you cry…..

 

This afternoon, I unboxed my new mk2 6 ton yard crane from Phil aka @Harlequin the packaging alone is impressive. There are a few refinements when compared to the original and this is going to look great for Henley’s goods yard.

 

 

If you are unsure about the fact that you need a yard crane, @Andy Keane has already installed his crane into Helston - his is also going to move….. Sadly I had to pass up the opportunity of seeing his model Helston as that day we were charging to Plymouth for the ferry. Hopefully I will be able to see it on our next trip to the UK.

 

Cranes are available from Phil and being 3D printed are definitely recommended.

 

I also unboxed a few other bits and they are scattered around the railway room at the moment. Essential items for future carriage builds; a Pooley GWR weighbridge base* in etched brass; Dart castings Autocoach upgrade kit and of course the Dapol Mainline and City carriages.

 

*On our trip to Didcot, Mike aka @The Stationmaster was our guide to everything on the lineside…. Including the weighbridge at Twyford station which is still there, complete with original hut and the weighing platform. A couple of days later we were at Twyford again and I took the opportunity to photograph it….. photo to follow.

 

Needless to say Mikes memory about where everything used to be was amazing for which thank you Mike.

 

Back to H-o-T and the Toplights.

 

The first carriage derailed…. I have loosened the bogie screw and struggled to get the truss rods to sit properly. Initially the superglue did not want to take….. I need to see if the other end needs doing.

 

All of the carriages have gaps where the truss rod should sit on the underframe cross bar…. (Does that make sense?)

 

Out of three carriages I tried, one runs perfectly…. All three carriages, the back to back seems ok. 3 carriages are yet to be tested.

 

 

I then tried to fit a decoder…. Its Dapols own Imperium… (that’s the carriage in darkness on the right.)

 

 

No matter what I tried, I could not get the lights to work…. I can get the rear lamp to turn on and off….. but not the main lights.

 

I will try tomorrow as I now have different instructions to try out….

 

Once all 6 are working, with suitably dim lights, they will look very nice in Henley-on-Thames

 

 

I will also need to fit some Kadee, rather than the Dapol supplied bar… any suggestions what Kadee numbers I need will be welcome as the shortest NEM ones I have are 20 are they are too far apart. I suspect 18 or 19.

 

To be continued, Thanks, Neal

 

 

[KNP]

14 hours ago, Neal Ball said:

Welcome back!

We have had a lovely tour of the UK, now it’s back to the reality of life in Spain….
 

Before we sailed home, we had a lovely day at the Bluebell, all by public transport. If you know where the caravan club site is in Brighton, we took the no 7 to Brighton station, Gatwick express to Haywards Heath and then waited for the Metrobus no 270 which goes direct to Horsted Keynes station. I can’t remember how much each leg cost, but it wasn’t expensive. Definitely recommended. 
 

Beware though, if you get the daily Metrobus service to Horsted Keynes village - it’s a long walk to the station. The station stop is only operative on a Saturday.

 

I will update the gallery pages in the next few days.

 

What news of Henley-on-Thames I hear you cry…..

 

This afternoon, I unboxed my new mk2 6 ton yard crane from Phil aka @Harlequin the packaging alone is impressive. There are a few refinements when compared to the original and this is going to look great for Henley’s goods yard.

 

 

If you are unsure about the fact that you need a yard crane, @Andy Keane has already installed his crane into Helston - his is also going to move….. Sadly I had to pass up the opportunity of seeing his model Helston as that day we were charging to Plymouth for the ferry. Hopefully I will be able to see it on our next trip to the UK.

 

Cranes are available from Phil and being 3D printed are definitely recommended.

 

I also unboxed a few other bits and they are scattered around the railway room at the moment. Essential items for future carriage builds; a Pooley GWR weighbridge base* in etched brass; Dart castings Autocoach upgrade kit and of course the Dapol Mainline and City carriages.

 

*On our trip to Didcot, Mike aka @The Stationmaster was our guide to everything on the lineside…. Including the weighbridge at Twyford station which is still there, complete with original hut and the weighing platform. A couple of days later we were at Twyford again and I took the opportunity to photograph it….. photo to follow.

 

Needless to say Mikes memory about where everything used to be was amazing for which thank you Mike.

 

Back to H-o-T and the Toplights.

 

The first carriage derailed…. I have loosened the bogie screw and struggled to get the truss rods to sit properly. Initially the superglue did not want to take….. I need to see if the other end needs doing.

 

All of the carriages have gaps where the truss rod should sit on the underframe cross bar…. (Does that make sense?)

 

Out of three carriages I tried, one runs perfectly…. All three carriages, the back to back seems ok. 3 carriages are yet to be tested.

 

 

I then tried to fit a decoder…. Its Dapols own Imperium… (that’s the carriage in darkness on the right.)

 

 

No matter what I tried, I could not get the lights to work…. I can get the rear lamp to turn on and off….. but not the main lights.

 

I will try tomorrow as I now have different instructions to try out….

 

Once all 6 are working, with suitably dim lights, they will look very nice in Henley-on-Thames

 

 

I will also need to fit some Kadee, rather than the Dapol supplied bar… any suggestions what Kadee numbers I need will be welcome as the shortest NEM ones I have are 20 are they are too far apart. I suspect 18 or 19.

 

To be continued, Thanks, Neal

 

 

Nice rake of coaches, look forward to seeing some more pictures...

Must see if I can get one of those cranes.

Edited August 27 by KNP

[Neal Ball]

2 minutes ago, KNP said:

 

.....Must see if I can get one of those cranes.

 

You will need a new "what's in the box" cameo 😎

[kingmender]

On 27/08/2024 at 02:47, Neal Ball said:

Welcome back!

We have had a lovely tour of the UK, now it’s back to the reality of life in Spain….
 

Before we sailed home, we had a lovely day at the Bluebell, all by public transport. If you know where the caravan club site is in Brighton, we took the no 7 to Brighton station, Gatwick express to Haywards Heath and then waited for the Metrobus no 270 which goes direct to Horsted Keynes station. I can’t remember how much each leg cost, but it wasn’t expensive. Definitely recommended. 
 

Beware though, if you get the daily Metrobus service to Horsted Keynes village - it’s a long walk to the station. The station stop is only operative on a Saturday.

 

I will update the gallery pages in the next few days.

 

What news of Henley-on-Thames I hear you cry…..

 

This afternoon, I unboxed my new mk2 6 ton yard crane from Phil aka @Harlequin the packaging alone is impressive. There are a few refinements when compared to the original and this is going to look great for Henley’s goods yard.

 

 

If you are unsure about the fact that you need a yard crane, @Andy Keane has already installed his crane into Helston - his is also going to move….. Sadly I had to pass up the opportunity of seeing his model Helston as that day we were charging to Plymouth for the ferry. Hopefully I will be able to see it on our next trip to the UK.

 

Cranes are available from Phil and being 3D printed are definitely recommended.

 

I also unboxed a few other bits and they are scattered around the railway room at the moment. Essential items for future carriage builds; a Pooley GWR weighbridge base* in etched brass; Dart castings Autocoach upgrade kit and of course the Dapol Mainline and City carriages.

 

*On our trip to Didcot, Mike aka @The Stationmaster was our guide to everything on the lineside…. Including the weighbridge at Twyford station which is still there, complete with original hut and the weighing platform. A couple of days later we were at Twyford again and I took the opportunity to photograph it….. photo to follow.

 

Needless to say Mikes memory about where everything used to be was amazing for which thank you Mike.

 

Back to H-o-T and the Toplights.

 

The first carriage derailed…. I have loosened the bogie screw and struggled to get the truss rods to sit properly. Initially the superglue did not want to take….. I need to see if the other end needs doing.

 

All of the carriages have gaps where the truss rod should sit on the underframe cross bar…. (Does that make sense?)

 

Out of three carriages I tried, one runs perfectly…. All three carriages, the back to back seems ok. 3 carriages are yet to be tested.

 

 

I then tried to fit a decoder…. Its Dapols own Imperium… (that’s the carriage in darkness on the right.)

 

 

No matter what I tried, I could not get the lights to work…. I can get the rear lamp to turn on and off….. but not the main lights.

 

I will try tomorrow as I now have different instructions to try out….

 

Once all 6 are working, with suitably dim lights, they will look very nice in Henley-on-Thames

 

 

I will also need to fit some Kadee, rather than the Dapol supplied bar… any suggestions what Kadee numbers I need will be welcome as the shortest NEM ones I have are 20 are they are too far apart. I suspect 18 or 19.

 

To be continued, Thanks, Neal

 

 

Morning Neal

I started with Kadee 18s which seemed a little too far apart 

 

 

So then tried a 17 & 18 combo

 

 

So finally tried two 17s (left hand coach the wrong way round - I only had a few 17s).

 

 

Runs well over medium radius points, although I've yet to try propelling across them. If succesful I'll change all (except the outer ends)  to 17s as soon as I pick up some more.

Rodger

[kingmender]

I tried propelling over a crossover (large radius point and single slip) kadee 17s between the coaches were ok but 18 on the outside end caused buffer lock with the Dapol prairie. Changed to 19s and all is well.

[Neal Ball]

1 minute ago, kingmender said:

I tried propelling over a crossover (large radius point and single slip) kadee 17s between the coaches were ok but 18 on the outside end caused buffer lock with the Dapol prairie. Changed to 19s and all is well.

 

Interesting that you say this.... I was thinking of a mix of 17/18.

 

At the moment I have plenty of 17 and 20, which does not help.... but at least it could get me running whilst waiting for the order to be delivered.

 

Thanks for the suggestions.

 

In the meantime, I am going to try programming on the main this afternoon. Dapol have suggested that trying to program on the programming track will not work.

 

TBC

[Neal Ball]

To follow on with the Dapol Mainline & City carriages, its been a game of two halves this afternoon.

 

I have decoders installed in 2 carriages and these are the details that I have sent over to Dapol for assistance:

 

Programming on the main didn’t work, but I’ve finally managed to programme on the program track, using a loco next to the carriage.

When programming, at each stage the lights flash, as they do when it goes back onto the track - initially only. 

I’ve given it a long number 3753 as it didn’t like simply to be 4 - each carriage to have the same number.

I’d like to set them up as either scenario 1b or 2b- but in doing so, neither F0 or F1 affect the lights…. Instead, changing the direction of travel means either the carriages lights are on and the tail lamp is off, or in the other direction lights are off and tail Lamp is on.

I can read the following settings, cv50=44, cv 49 = 12, cv64 = 15, cv34 = 4

Note, the lights are no dimmer than the non decoder fitted carriages.

 

Let's see what they say. 

 

The odd thing is that the decoder (Dapol Imperium 4) is set into the carriage, the other way round from the photo Dapol showed me for an Imperium 5 - I think its a red herring as at least the lights are doing something - just not what they should be doing!

4 carriages remain non-DCC fitted.

 

Did you know the seats come out? - It makes fixing the passengers a bit easier.... but the reason I had to do it was because I wasn't happy that the roof was sitting back down properly and consequently shaved a bit of the wall off above the luggage racks. It didnt make any difference, it still does not sit back together properly.

 

 

I gave up with the decoders - to be continued when Dapol have come back to me.

 

Instead I found some alternative couplers... Kadee 17/18 between the half sets and Kadee 19 between the last carriages and the loco. Otherwise they are on tension locks at the moment.

 

One carriage has a droopy NEM coupling socket and the same carriage has issues with the truss rods that are affecting running. I will try to loosen the bogie screw first. Otherwise they are all running very well.

 

Whereupon the first train into Henley-on-Thames hauling the new stock was a 57xx 0-6-0PT no 5737:

 

 

For such a heavy train, the loco brought the carriages out of the fiddle yard, (round a 4th radius curve or thereabouts), under Mill Lane bridge and then over the cross-over and in front if the signal box and into Platform 1

 

The loco came to rest just before the cross-over at the end of the platform, ready to run onto the turntable.

 

Whereupon one of my 61xx made a noisy entrance into Henley-on-Thames for the return service.

 

 

 

 

[Neal Ball]

And finally, later that evening: 

 

Ready to depart Henley-on-Thames; 61xx and the Mainline & City carriages.

 

 

I hope the passengers in those carriages have some very dark glasses 😎🤣🤣

[John Isherwood]

2 minutes ago, Neal Ball said:

And finally, later that evening: 

 

Ready to depart Henley-on-Thames; 61xx and the Mainline & City carriages.

 

 

I hope the passengers in those carriages have some very dark glasses 😎🤣🤣

 

Seriously though - with all the multiplicity of electronic gubbins being built into today's models - WHY are interior lights so ludicrously bright?

 

Could it be that the manufacturers know that potential purchasers haven't the faintest idea how dim the lighting was back then?

 

Who would pay for lighting that can barely be detected - even if it was authentic?

 

John Isherwood.

[Neal Ball]

Sorting out those photos reminded me that I forgot to order the roof-top finials for the signal box. Oh well another year and we are without 🤣

 

But I did order a rather nice brass etching for the Pooley weigh bridge plate...

 

Here's the real thing still extant outside Twyford station. It says it's plate number 624.

 

 

It would be good if I can replace the current Metcalf building and weigh bridge plate. The building will be scratch built, but probably using the Metcalf round top window. (Unlike the UPVC window at Twyford.)

 

Obviously the rail protection at the front will be easy to replicate - we wont have the bollards though!

 

I am surprised the chimney breast is at this end of the building, they are usually at the back. Perhaps that is a later addition.

[Andy Keane]

Interesting that the bullhead rail is on its side. I have mine upright because I thought I had seen a photo of it done that way. Maybe they varied or maybe I simply have it wrong.

[Neal Ball]

2 minutes ago, Andy Keane said:

Interesting that the bullhead rail is on its side. I have mine upright because I thought I had seen a photo of it done that way. Maybe they varied or maybe I simply have it wrong.

 

I also thought it was meant to have 2 support rails as well.

 

It's possible this is all down to a later BR "refurbishment" as presumably the weigh bridge is listed.

[St Enodoc]

6 hours ago, Neal Ball said:

I hope the passengers in those carriages have some very dark glasses 😎🤣🤣

Yes, the lights are somewhat bright. Is there a decoder setting to change that?

[St Enodoc]

5 hours ago, Neal Ball said:

Sorting out those photos reminded me that I forgot to order the roof-top finials for the signal box.

PM me. I might have some that will do.

[MrWolf]

Regarding the guard rail for the weighbridge plate, this is the one at Shipston On Stour, which is what I based the rail on for my layout and the rail is definitely bent in the vertical. 

It's not that hard to achieve with nickel rail. I filed a piece of flat bottom rail to bullhead and bent it in the 1" vice.

 

Disused Railways.org

 

The weighbridge hut is still standing and in very good condition, everything else in this picture has vanished under a @£#!© housing estate.

 

 

[Coach bogie]

5 hours ago, MrWolf said:

 

 

The weighbridge hut is still standing and in very good condition, everything else in this picture has vanished under a @£#!© housing estate.

 

 

In Yorkshire we get rid of the hut and keep the weighbridge!

 

Mike Wiltshire

 

[Neal Ball]

7 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

Yes, the lights are somewhat bright. Is there a decoder setting to change that?

 

Yes there is, but there must be a conflict with the settings that is stopping them going dimmer.

 

Unfortunately the Dapol Imperium decoders do not come with a full CV list and the limited CV settings supplied don't seem to be working.

 

CV64 should be able to set the lights dim and the setting is 1 (dim) and 30 (bright). I tried 15, I also tried 10 and neither made any difference - the two carriages with a decoder are just as bright as the remaining 4 without.

 

Plus the other thing that initially made it difficult was programming on the main - the decoders didnt like that! So I had to resort to programming on the program track, with a loco to provide the load... meaning everything I did was changing the CV in the loco as well.

 

Obviously I couldn't even program using decoder pro as it wont find just the carriage and I cant tell it to find both a loco (with a non-Dapol) decoder and the carriage......

 

7 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

PM me. I might have some that will do.

 

Thanks very much - although these days, shipping into Spain from outside the EU is more of an issue. I will PM, so thank you.

 

7 hours ago, MrWolf said:

Regarding the guard rail for the weighbridge plate, this is the one at Shipston On Stour, which is what I based the rail on for my layout and the rail is definitely bent in the vertical. 

It's not that hard to achieve with nickel rail. I filed a piece of flat bottom rail to bullhead and bent it in the 1" vice.

 

Disused Railways.org

 

The weighbridge hut is still standing and in very good condition, everything else in this picture has vanished under a @£#!© housing estate.

 

 

 

The weigh bridge building certainly looks like a better example than the modernised Twyford one.

 

I didnt think I had a photo of the building at Henley until I remembered this photo, which is very similar to the one at Shipston (above)

 

 

 

2 hours ago, Coach bogie said:

In Yorkshire we get rid of the hut and keep the weighbridge!

 

Mike Wiltshire

 

 

Presumably it was too heavy to move when the contractors started the demolishing.

Edited August 29 by Neal Ball

[MAP66]

50 minutes ago, Neal Ball said:

Plus the other thing that initially made it difficult was programming on the main - the decoders didnt like that! So I had to resort to programming on the program track, with a loco to provide the load... meaning everything I did was changing the CV in the loco as well.

I recall when I installed a decoder driven ESU lighting bar  into my auto coach, I could set it up on the program track but you had to temporarily connect a 100 ohm resistor between two of the function out puts to represent a load. There was also a potentiometer which you could use a small screwdriver to quickly adjust the brightness as well as being able to do so with CV's. Are there any features like that on the Dapol one?  Failing that, maybe something could be masked over the lighting bar LED's to diffuse the lighting. 

 

p.s. apologies for the mention of auto coach again 😄

[Andy Keane]

It is interesting that the weighbridge photos show the guard rail in either orientation so I can leave mine well alone!

 

Regarding the lighting level in your carriages I suspect you are not changing anything at all in your efforts. The real test is the tail lamp settings. If you change that on CV49 from 12 to 28 it should flip to being on from forwards to being on in reverse travel - is this happening?

If not are you sure your decoder is properly set in place and that you have:

CV34=4

CV44=50

CV49=12 or 28

CV64=15

This certainly controls mine fine using Imperium 4 decoders, including dimming the interior lamps, see photo.

regards

Andy

[Neal Ball]

6 minutes ago, MAP66 said:

I recall when I installed a decoder driven ESU lighting bar  into my auto coach, I could set it up on the program track but you had to temporarily connect a 100 ohm resistor between two of the function out puts to represent a load. There was also a potentiometer which you could use a small screwdriver to quickly adjust the brightness as well as being able to do so with CV's. Are there any features like that on the Dapol one?  Failing that, maybe something could be masked over the lighting bar LED's to diffuse the lighting. 

 

p.s. apologies for the mention of auto coach again 😄

 

Autocoach 😎 I looked in the GWR carriages book yesterday and found loads of details for the A28 and only 2 photos for the A30.... I have added the details onto my carriages work-flow board.😎 

 

Dapol lighting bar: The more time I spend on the decoders, the more I am thinking it's a waste of money.... I wonder if Rails will take back the 4 unopened decoders.

 

That being the case, I will probably put a blob of yellow paint over the LED....

 

To be continued...

[Neal Ball]

2 minutes ago, Andy Keane said:

It is interesting that the weighbridge photos show the guard rail in either orientation so I can leave mine well alone!

 

Regarding the lighting level in your carriages I suspect you are not changing anything at all in your efforts. The real test is the tail lamp settings. If you change that on CV49 from 12 to 28 it should flip to being on from forwards to being on in reverse travel - is this happening?

If not are you sure your decoder is properly set in place and that you have:

CV34=4

CV44=50

CV49=12 or 28

CV64=15

This certainly controls mine fine using Imperium 4 decoders, including dimming the interior lamps, see photo.

regards

Andy

 

Thanks Andy, I will try that as well.

 

Incidentally, did you program with a loco on the program track? Or just the carriage and resisters to build the load?

 

Thanks, Neal.

[Andy Keane]

6 minutes ago, Neal Ball said:

 

Thanks Andy, I will try that as well.

 

Incidentally, did you program with a loco on the program track? Or just the carriage and resisters to build the load?

 

Thanks, Neal.

Just plonked them on my programming track on their own with no resistors - it just worked out of the box. Hence I worry about your decoder being inserted properly though I am not sure how it could be done wrong.

Andy