Castle

At this point, a short photo session occurred. There are the potential for some very nice angles here for show visitors to take pictures of. The roof here is also loose for testing purposes but also because I have a small cameo scene in mind for here that needs a figure inside the building. I’m going to leave the crack of light under the door. I’d like to say it’s a clever, intentional detail but it’s serendipity at work I’m afraid! The Dean Goods is obviously on a rail tour here. The coach is used to test all the clearances, just like it would be on a regular layout. The grind stone and track maintenance tools are all from the sadly departed Coopercraft range. Here is the Dean Goods, lurking in the rear yard. Shame that coupling is all twisted up! The same view from a different angle. It is amazing how the moods of the photos change with the angle they are taken at. We must try to preserve this quality at shows. Last two, then I’ll go away! The bothy and the store from one end... ...and the other. That’s enough for now! We are really pleased as to how far this has come from its baptism of fire and I hope that you agree that it has been worth the effort. The big thing the scene is missing now is life. Figures and so on. I hate painting figures... On that bombshell (!), it only leaves me to offer, on behalf of myself and all the Fawley Flyers, a very happy Christmas to you all and we hope you all have a very peaceful and prosperous new year. All the best, Castle Tune in next decade for the next exciting installment of William Street Yard!

A Little Light Entertainment? Hi All, Ernie Definition: No, not the guy that drove the fastest milk cart in the West (now I’m showing my age...) but one of the two resident Planet shunting locos at Fawley. Named after a much admired and missed volunteer Ernie Dove. It has a weird habit of sounding like it’s going to stall the moment you go to move off but never does. Never fails to make you THINK it’s going to keel over though! The other one is as yet un-named but I suggested Attenborough as it is painted blue. Get it? After much consideration and weighing up all the pros and cons, it was decided to place the coach body here. This was because: It gave interest to the last bit of the baseboard. The boss would be able to look out of his office and see all the goings on. It meant we didn’t have to fill the holes in the baseboard left by the previous placement of the water crane. No drilling of extra holes to put the wiring through. Lazy or what? You can also see that Harry has made a start on fitting the buffers, starting with the short leg ones in the ‘loco bay’. Using the short ones, we could get an LMS Duchess or A 9F in and water it. (We tried it!) so we should be able to get most other stuff in barring an LMS / LNER Garrett. I think we can live with that... While buffers commenced, I got on with the wiring for the coach body. In the interest of keeping it simple, the legs of the LEDs were used as the structure and simply painted black to disguise them. The positioning was determined by the positions of the partitions in the model. The large wrap of insulation tape looks a bit like a bodge but it traps the wire in the hole in the toilet compartment of the model. No need to glue it in so if it goes wrong, I stand a chance of getting it out again. Fire flicker LED - naturally. Here it is installed and ready to plant. First test is good! The area at the end of the lean-to creates a lovely space for a cameo scene and there is JUST enough space to put in the limited clutter needed to ‘sell’ this building. I was really pleased with this view! The buffers and track bottom right look weird. Must be an effect of the digital camera because it isn’t weird in person... A bit of weathering to even it all out when finishing will no doubt help. Buffers up the other end of the yard continue to go in. The design of the yard was based VERY vaguely on Moreton Cutting near Didcot. In order to fit it on however, the two areas of the yard were flipped over on themselves so that instead of a fan of sidings with two head shunts, it took on this arrowhead shape. Just for fun and intentional operational difficult (and to fit them in!), the last two sidings were reversed again on a third head shunt, creating the front yard. This is where we tend to keep the P-Way stock, this adding another dimension to operations. The two P-Way sidings are nearest the camera, then the middle yard head shunt, then the three-way point that forms the crossover between the middle and back yards and the start of the reception, departure and sidings of the back yard. Very compressed and technically no need for two locos to shunt it given its size but it keeps things moving when on show. The ash paths in between the ballast is also beginning to be seen here. The hard work Harry did in getting the original ballast straight really pays dividends now. Some more of the retaining wall and scenery going in too. With the ash paths down around here too, the details begin to be added. I know the roof of the coach isn’t sat down correctly, the light is escaping but this is because I hadn’t completely sealed it before we had thoroughly tested it. I would hate to have to rip my hard work to bits. Miss Trees and Alan still has a bit of work to do here on the greenery at the back here too. Then Harry’s Dean Goods (which seems to act as a test vehicle for the layout!), was brought out to pose on the layout. All this, with Miss Trees’ marvellous backdrop makes a massive difference in the way the layout looks. You might say that the difference is night... ...and day! The jacks were originally on 81M - William Street Shed and are Modelu items scanned from the originals at Didcot. It’s very weird to use models of something that was scanned off a tool you actually use!

Hi All, Thanks for all the likes and comments people - much appreciated as always. I’ll have a bit of free time tomorrow so I will try and upload another episode of William Street Yard before the beginning of festivities. I’m glad I’m of some small service No. 46 - I post here just because I enjoy sharing what we do! Adrian - that probably should be G.I.P. (Grill In Peace) or B.I.P. (Bake In Peace). Although, having thought about it, R.I.P. could mean Roast In Peace. I’ll get my coat... I still however cannot strongly encourage this to NOT be a thing that you do for the love of all that is nasal. All the best, Castle

Now, Who Would Live in a House Like This? Hi All, Mr Hedgehog Definition: A tragedy was discovered in the inspection pit under No. 31 a couple of years back. A poor hedgehog had chosen this spot to breath his last, to shuffle off his mortal coil, to join the choir invisible, to cease to be. He had been there a while too so was not what you might call ‘factory fresh’. We were lighting up No. 31. What better way to honour this brave creature, this denizen of the night, this citizen of nature, than to send it out in a blaze of glory in the firebox? No digging a hole, no emptying the bins. No more smell. Top job we thought. Well... If Mr Hedgehog wasn’t smelling that great in his pre-toasted form then with the heat of the firebox, the smell took on a whole new dimension. It was utterly and fundamentally indescribable but I will try because I feel this cautionary tale deserves to be told. The tasting (sniffing?) notes would go something like this: Burnt hair and rot with a fungusy, almost incinerated blue cheesy top note. Hints of death. In the cab. The enclosed cab. Where we were working. 0/10. Would not do again. Do not recommend. It’s Grand Designs - 1948 style! Here are some of the painted objects before fitting. Many a moment spent swearing, er, I mean enjoying our wonderful hobby painting this lot... So - a grand tour of the premises! This is Mr Bill’s office. The stove has a fire flicker LED in it for maximum effect. The scuttle is full in order to replenish it should it go out. The kettle awaits its next turn of duty on the top of the cabinet. His briefcase is on the chair next to the door and the clock ticks off the hours. The pictures are top left, No. 31 climbing Fawley Hill, bottom left. Nos. 4472 & 4079 together in the 1970s and bottom right, Sir and Lady McAlpine. The desk has a range of documents on its red leather top, including timetables, wagon labels and the like. The green deep buttoned chair is well loved and pushed aside as if the boss has stepped out for a minute... The other end has the bench seat from the coach, the supplied office chair and a map of William Street Yard with the Fawley Fliers (note original spelling) logo board, as attached to 81M - William Street Shed in the heats of the competition. The workshop end is a little more sparsely populated. There are only two small windows a side so this is more than enough. There are a couple things f lamps in for a quick repair to get them back into service. The spanners on the wall should be a darker metallic colour I know but they catch the light like this and in the tiny window the contents is a bit more about effect than substance. A vacuum hose has had the ends fitted to it and is ready to go on the crippled wagon with a few brake components ordered in from Swindon to get a vehicle back in traffic. The oil drum was put in as a bit of a filler and really is just a shape in the corner of the window when all is said and done. I wouldn’t want to have to lift that full into the coach body frankly... So, here is the plan view. I didn’t do anything in the toilet area as I’m not into modelling that sort of thing... Does anyone still laugh at the ‘bloke on the loo’ type figures anyway? All you will see is a glow through the obscured glass anyway. So there is a whole bunch of work that few show visitors will ever see! Do have a look next time we are at a show. Tell me if you think it was worth it! We just have to plant the building now and we are sorted for structures for the first show at least. We do have to do the bridge over the entrance and I would like to do a bike rack based on the one at Didcot too but that’s a little way down the line from here. Pun, of course, intended. I’ll get my coat... All the best, Castle Stay tuned for the next exciting installment of William Street Yard!

Coaching Stock - William Street Yard Style. Hi All, Many Definition: The way of counting when a repetitive task presents itself. The counting goes like this: One, Two, Some, Many, Many Many. This is, of course, lifted wholesale from Terry Pratchett’s Discworld trolls, but as we have found out in previous instalments, this is the spirit animal of some of the Flyers - especially the electricians (see Electro-Troll). An example of use in conversational nerd might be: Q: “Goodness - that is rather a lot of wires you have connected there - what is the total pray tell?” A: “Many”. Or Q: “How hungry are you my good fellow / lady?” A: “Many food”. You get the drift... Well, the inside of the coach has been mapped out, what about the outside? Seems a strange way of doing it but this way means that I get all the features I want to see through the windows. I can then worry about what’s going on outside and avoid messing with the view of the inside. I think this makes sense... The big change has been the lean-to store at the far end. This has been made up from the remains of an ancient Coopercraft GWR P-Way hut (that looks suspiciously like the one on the broad gauge line at Didcot...) and some fittings from here there and everywhere. Sleepers have been fitted underneath to rest the coach sole bars on. I have also had a go at removing the for hardware, handles and so on, from the doors that are now ‘fixed shut’ because of its conversion. Particularly the one at the back of the toilet. That could be funny and embarrassing in equal measure... Admittedly, some or all of the body mouldings should be taken off too but life is just too short for that sort of thing. Perhaps this coach was chosen as an office because of its fine condition? Excuse successfully deployed methinks! The three steps are now done. No point in reinventing the wheel here - just resized versions of the ones from the Ratio grounded body kit. I bought both the coach and the van version and this gave me a lovely haul of ground clutter for use here and on other layouts. I can’t put too much of this sort of stuff down as the walkways around shunting yards were kept fairly clear. Also, when modelling, less is more. Having said not too much clutter, clutter we will have and a range of surplus bits from wagon kits, representing repairs to be done on the wagons in the yard was accumulated. Ladders are always good to include as, randomly left lent against something, they imply that imply that someone will be back in a minute to pick them up. Buffers, a vacuum hose, bits of broken lamp and brake gear components were also sourced. Finally, Miss Trees saw all this and jokingly said “there’s no kettle on that stove in the office!”. There is now... With a bit of paint and a first pass at weathering, we get to this. The overall coach brown indicates that the vehicle was doing something lowly before this final ignominy of having its wheels shorn off. I did the lean-to in the same weathered matt black that the real P-Way hut at DRC is done in. It’s a sort of bituminous sort of look. The toilet window is a piece of clear styrene with matt varnish on the rear. It really looks like a sort of frosted or rippled type glass you might see in a bathroom. The chimney is missing it’s conical cap but this is because I need to remove the roof, to get in to the interior on the next visit to the layout to put the lights in. The few remaining bits of door furniture are picked out in brass and a couple of barrels of lubricant have been delivered for the use by the wagon maintenance team. We will take a tour of the ‘luxurious’ interior next time! All the best, Castle Stay tuned for the next exciting installment of William Street Yard!

Hi All, Flyerspeak Definition: The weird / funny / bizarre stuff that has happened to us in our love of railways - both big and small - has lead to a 'slanguage' growing up around our little tribe. We can confuse the uninitiated when referring to such things as electro-trolls , nerding, Sasquatches and the like. I called it 'Flyerspeak' just to call it something once (despite a lot of it - like being know as Sasquatch - coming from our wider railway preservation volunteering experience) and the name stuck. I try to bring a little of this experience and fun we have with it all into my posts about William Street Yard as I hadn't seen this sort of thing done before. It also means that I can occasionally throw it into the posts and not worry about confusing people too much! Perhaps Danish Romance is the latest addition? Thanks for the compliment Ric! Not bad for some really quite entry level coding. All the best, Castle

Hi Mikkel, Thanks for the compliment (and indeed to everyone else pushing the 'like type' buttons - it is really appreciated!). So romantic dinners in Denmark are enhanced by random animal trivia? Hold on to your hats for a few more tips then as I have a few more 'Flyerspeak' entries that will be of great interest including Rhinos, Peacocks and a newly discovered and quite fearsome species of squirrel... All the best, Castle

An Inside Job? Fluffy Definition: Fawley has alpacas. Fawley however, has one alpaca who has become a legend. He is the roving lump of quadrupedal terror known to us as Fluffy. He was hand raised as a youngster*. This makes him friendly. Very friendly. Some might say too friendly. No, let me be honest WAY over friendly. His approach can be heard throughout the valley by his victim, er, I mean the volunteer, when they cry out NO FLUFFY! This is often quickly followed by ARGHHHHHHH... Never go on P-Way duty alone. *A juvenile alpaca is called a cria. Also, as we are on the subject, a female is called a hembra and a male is called a macho.** **I’m struggling towards interesting content here aren’t I? Ok - so, the coach followed me home too! The first thing I did was to install the one thing that I really couldn’t move. The partition. This is a left over end from building my P-Way worker’s coach to represent Didcot’s 4 wheeler No. 290. Then some decisions could be made. The stove went in at the partition end as this meant that the fire flicker LED I’m going to mount in it can be seen. At the other end of the office, I am going to assume that the bench seat on the far end of the office was in good condition, so it was left in place. Then I went to town. I looked at The available miniature period furniture for inside buildings for 4mm scale and found, well, not a lot frankly. The Ratio catalogue provides our best shots with the grounded van and coach kits (yes, I used the accessories!) and the signal box interior detail kit. Please can one of the manufacturers out there take this on? After much shuffling of furniture, I came up with this solution to give us a cost office type deal. A filling cabinet near the stove and a shelf of books under the far window. The supplied two office chairs are still in there but a more comfy item has made its way from home to make life a little more comfy! His desk will be against the wall where the steps are. The start on the 3 sets of entrance steps has been made, the second partition is in and Sir has come to inspect the works. The view in the other direction. Here we can see that the coach bench seat has been retained and a notice board has been fitted above it in place of the customary photos of the GWR landscape. One of the two toilet windows has been blanked off and a few items put in small area through the window of the store / works at the far end. The desk is from the signal box kit and the workbench and spanner’s from the excellent Severn Models range. Once a few bits are on the bench, you really won’t see too much more. You will also notice that a little something has appeared at the end of the coach... We will take a tour of the outside next time. All the best, Castle Stay tuned for the next exciting installment of William Street Yard!

Of Buffers and Buildings... Hi All, Equi Ferrei Minimae Formae Definition: This is a chunk of something called Latin. Some Fliers did Latin at school, some didn’t. None of us could remember enough to sort this one out! Luckily, I have some excellent colleagues in education who DO know what they are talking about. Our motto reads (as close as is reasonably possible using all the correct rules and so on) “Iron Horses in Miniature Form”. Cool isn’t it? Copyright Fawley Fliers, etc... Well, having made everything go, we had better concentrate on making things stop! The buffers on the original layout were Peco jobs. Nothing wrong with them - good hardy stock (get it?) and all but not accurate. There is one place to go in our humble opinion for such items - Lanarkshire Model Supplies. A fairly significant lump of white metal was ordered and delivered. The majority of these are of the long leg GWR type but two - the loco head shunt on the reception road where the water crane is and the middle yard head shunt - are of the short leg type. This provides a bit of visual variety and gives maximum clearance in the roads for rolling stock. A small chunk of building required here I fear... Talking of small chunks of building! I made this up years ago in an attempt to get a small shunting plank made at home that now sits and mocks me in an unfinished state, being used purely for testing. It was a freebie kit from the front of a magazine but has been much modified. It now sorts a brick instead of stone base, a full interior and lighting on both the ceiling and in the stove. A small etched drain grille from somewhere (!) completes the look and it has gone to live next to the grounded IRON MINK. Wires aplenty later and here we are! The roof isn’t stuck on so I can get a figure into it later. Although I can paint figures, it’s my least favourite activity so I will put it off until absolutely needed. I bet that bites me later... And finally, as a teaser, one of only two coaches that will appear regularly in the layout (the other being Little Didcot’s P-Way workman’s coach) was roughed out. The iconic use of the ratio grounded coach kit is used everywhere however, it is used everywhere. Like the grounded body, we felt that something a little different was called for. So, an ancient (the yellow box had gone flat and the wheels had flanges on them that would put CDs to shame) Ratio 4-wheel brake coach was employed instead. The advantage of this over the all third(?) one supplied in the kit is that it can easily be divided. The passenger end will become the yard office for Mr Bill, the centre section with the duckets will become the toilet (and where the lighting will come in to the model) and the luggage area becomes the yard store and workshop. A little white metal lamp hut has finished off the look. This is because there will, one day, be a fixed distant signal on the exit to the layout. Naturally, the white metal followed me home and in a lovely shot of my bins (!) we can see that another production line has ensued with a dose of white primer to boot. I replaced the white metal cross beams with some wooden ones because why try and make some metal look like wood when you can use wood that has an essential ‘woodyness’ about it from the start? I am fortunate in this day and age in having both a model railway and a radio control model shop nearby (who’d have thought?) and so balsa was available in a range of convenient thicknesses. There has been an outbreak of progress! We are going to have to have some tea after all that... All the best, Castle Stay tuned for the next exciting installment of William Street Yard!

Hi Team Yakima, Finally caught up with your layout at Warley on Sunday - amazing stuff, really enjoyed watching it! Just as good, if not better in person as the photos here suggest. All the gang I went with really appreciated the fact that it was just so different to what we normally see at shows. All the best, Castle

Big Brother is Watching You... Hi All, “No / You haven’t got / where are the / why isn’t there any electrons’.* Definition: You all know that time. The thing you have connected / put on the track DEFINITELY works. You have checked everything. Twice. You know the system is good. You have been there for an hour. You are three cups of tea deep into this one. Hair is being ripped out. Air is going blue. Then your fellow Flyer turns up, looks at the problem for precisely 5 seconds, flips the switch next to the plug to turn it on and declares “there’s your problem - no electrons...” *delete as applicable. The wires from the back of the water crane display had been in a narrow custom trunking thing but there have been a few upgrades since then. I guess you can see the most obvious one in this picture. The idea that the fiddle yard could be operated from the front always appealed. As a result, a car reversing camera system was purchased. The idea is that these systems (£15 from eBay) plus an extra creepily entitled Nanny Cam (£3) would do the job. This was all great. Setting it up was simple but how do we mount the camera? I thought about this. We need a series of cheap and easily available arms that can be lightly modified to take a camera. This problem vanished from my mind until I was looking for something else and found a set of those helping hands things. This set was a cheap one and really wasn’t much good for the task at (ahem) hand. So, though I, if I do the bolts up really tight, I bet they will hold a camera in position. One custom acrylic adaptor ring later and yes, yes it does. It’s mounted into the cover for the cables with a M6 threaded insert. If you haven’t used these before, do - you will wonder what you did without them. A precise and machined thread in wood. Awesome! The only issue we had with this cunning plan was that the reversing camera as supplied shows its image in reverse! I’m sure there is some way of this not being so but as the Nanny Cam was only £3, another one was ordered. The existing case for the screen was removed and a new acrylic mount was contrived that included the water crane display LCD and LED, the screen and the switch to go from the feed in the layout to the feed from the fiddle yard. Those of you with keen a keen memory will recall the fact that the rear part of the main case for William Street Yard is slightly lower that the rest. The reason for this is now made clear - ergonomics! As we are operating a collection based on scale couplings, then we need to lean over the layout. In order to be able to do this for a day, we need to be comfortable. So a nice clip - on cushion is the order of the day. Harry and I went to the DIY store and picked up three lengths of wood that, when correctly contrived, will clip over the top edge of the rear back scene. This adds rigidity and surface area. Miss Trees has kindly volunteered to work her magic with some foam and material in order to add the requisite levels of comfy. I have no idea if this cushion idea is a good idea but you get the idea, right? Here is Harry with all the G cramps in the works and a drill. We simply stacked the timber together to the correct thickness sort of ‘C’ section to get over the back scene, attached a further thicker bit to give it some width and then attacked it with copious amounts of PVA and screws to hold it all together. We then trimmed it all to length. Yes, we are using a 3/4 restored tool box from a real GWR shunter’s truck as a workbench. Weird world we live in isn’t it? Then, to top the day off, we fitted the bell code boxes. The layout end one is on display and has been temporarily fitted here. The other end is at, er, the other end of the layout in the fiddle yard, mounted the same way except on the lower inside edge of operator’s side of the layout. The wires to and from the boxes has been contained in some black electrical conduit for now but in a characteristic faux pas, this stuff doesn’t bend well. Fitting this was like trying to wrestle an angry octopus who is simultaneously trying to swat a wasp. Alternative solutions will be sought... To finish off, a look at the centre box in its new home next to the signalling centre (left) and the power distribution hub (right). Underneath the centre box is the switch and indicator LEDs for the ATX power supply. The bell code system is in fact removable and is taken off when the layout isn’t in use. The other reason that this had to go on today was that I was sick of looking at it in my lounge at home... Ahhh well, domestic harmony is restored! All the best, Castle Stay tuned for the next exciting installment of William Street Yard!

Hi All, Just a quick note to say that a fair chunk of the William Street Yard team, myself included, will be visiting the Warley show on Sunday. It would be great to say hello if any of you are there! All the best, Castle

I honestly can't remember Will - its been a while! Sorry to not be more helpful but hopefully it has given you a starting point... Please post your banana kit bashing here - it will be great to see it! All the best, Castle

Hi Neal, I'm afraid not. We do get people that come and scan the stuff on shed but I'm not aware of any wagons being done. Mind you, I'm not allowed to tell you even if I did so I might be pulling out a red herring here... In all seriousness, if there was someone doing that we would be sworn to secrecy and there is no way I would post something like I did if there was. We exist on good will with all the different communities and industries that have an interest in this wonderful hobby of ours. It would be cool to get those wagons though wouldn't it? I have the LORIOT with a little 'Grey Fergie' tractor and trailer sat on it. I will have to scratchbuild the other two to complete Little Didcot's freight fleet.* Along with the large BR WELTROL that is used as a departmental vehicle on site. It was built in the early 1950s so it is eligible for the LD set. Oh, and the SR Milk Tanker. Lots to do! All the best, Castle *This is guaranteed to get an RTR release!

Hi Will, Been there, done that! I hope my efforts are of help... The obvious place to start is with the Parkside Dundas Banana Van kit but this is a little bit of a red herring in a way. While the ends of the kit are spot on for this vehicle, the wheelbase and length of the Y7s and Y9s were much bigger than the MINK A based Y4 that the kit is the subject of. Then I had a bit of a brain wave. If the Y4 is based on the V12 MINK A kit (which is why it is easy for Parkside to offer this kit!), is the Y7 & Y9 based on any other wagon? It turns out that it is! The sides and sole bars are based on the later V23 wagon, same as the Ratio Vent Van. In fact, the sides are exactly the same! I smell a plan... The really good thing is that the Ratio ends will fit the rest of the Banana Van kit and give you a regular V12 MINK A too! Two kits, two wagons even after a kit bash! That, ladies and gentlemen, is what I think is a win! Here is the prototype: https://didcotrailwaycentre.org.uk/article.php/245/no-105599-fruit-b-banana-van/440fece365a665fe2c672c490fd88e3a Here's what I came up with. All the best, Castle

Hi All I think I have said this before on the forum but there are some obvious wins for Oxford here. ROTANK + accompanying road trailer + tractor unit available separately? HYDRA and road vehicle? LORIOT and road vehicle? The list goes on and the two well wagons were very long lived - set the eras with different liveries and vehicles. Lots of options and different markets to tap... I know of some real examples just waiting to be scanned. All the best, Castle

Hi Mikkel, Yes - Again, no connection, but I almost exclusively use Deluxe Materials adhesives. Good stuff all round frankly! You wait until you see the tectonic devastation these relays are going to unleash. A volcano on its own is for wimps... All the best, Castle

Power to the People Hi All, To Nerd / Nerding Definition: Verb describing the act of indulging railway related stuff. There are various types of nerding we need to address: Light Nerding: May mean a quick look at a railway model or steam magazine. All-Day Nerding: The attendance to a model railway show or a day out at a museum / preserved railway / steam gala. Heavy / Industrial Grade Nerding: When you do the deep dive or ‘go down the rabbit hole’ on a particular subject. Not just that you know what signal was used on the 29th May 1926 to release the 09:00 Paddington to Bristol service but you know the name of the signalman that pulled the lever, who his mum was and possibly the colour of his undergarments... A number of items on the menu today. To kick off, the first of the free standing ‘structures’ to adorn WSY was completed. This is a not so exact replica of the grounded IRON MINK van body in the yard at Fawley. This is actually quite an interesting old beast and was built way back in 1894, which is why I am comfortable about modelling it in grounded form in the late 1940s / early 1950s. For the record, it is No. 58223 and was constructed to Diagram V6. For a full nerd out, the link to the vehicle’s entry on the Carriage and Wagon survey is here: http://www.ws.rhrp.org.uk/ws/WagonInfo.asp?Ref=9167 The staring point for this model is the Ratio kit (yes, I know it has its issues!) and like the real thing, it had its ‘W’ irons and brake gear removed but the chassis rails were retained as were the buffer beams. In theory, the real thing COULD be made to roll again. The doors were changed over to the wooded version that the real thing has. This was a common conversion on these vehicles and this I’m sure people have done this before. Strip and sheet styrene ahoy basically... Then I made a new, thinner roof and put the two ribs on it. To simulate the roofing felt it now has, tissue paper glued in place with rocket card glue (is there nothing that stuff can’t do?!). It has been doubled up in the middle to simulate a repair in the middle and once painted, thick black paint was used to look like the bituminous stuff it is sealed with here in 12”:1’ Land. Painted in GWR freight grey, mounted on some sleepers and then weathered to taste. There are an increasing amount of power demands on the layout of various voltages. I looked at all sorts of (expensive) alternatives and thought nope! I then stumbled upon a YouTube video of someone converting a PC (ATX) power supply into a bench power supply. It is REALLY easy to do - if you can cut some plugs off and wire in a few LEDs and a switch then you can do this. Look it up! The upshot is this - the layout now has: A smoothed power supply. This is the conversion from AC to DC that uses capacitors to bridge the gap as the AC flicks between poles. Electronics work best of this is the case and indeed, some electronics won’t work at all unless the supply is smoothed. Megapoints is one example. A +3.3v supply that is rated to 15 amps. A +5v supply, also rated to 15 amps. A +12v supply that is rated to 30 amps. A -12v supply (don’t worry if you don’t get this bit - it’s used in a few of the circuits in the PC for various reasons and won’t be used here) at 0.5 amps. A second 5v supply that is on all the time, even while the unit is in standby mode, of 2.5 amps. A price tag of about £20 for the lot. Mostly from eBay. This includes the unit itself (£15), a kettle type lead (£1.50), the switch (£1.50 Again) and the LEDs and resistors I had in stock. Here the unit is being trialled before we fitted the switch panel and you can see that the LEDs and a jumper wire to act as the standby / power on mode switch is in place. Obviously, don’t do this if you aren’t confident or comfortable with this sort of thing and if you do, it’s all at your own risk and all that good legal stuff... Here is the link to the very comprehensive video by Dronebot Workshop I found: https://youtu.be/n_A-jkpjpcM I also have been fiddling with a bit of animation for the layout. This will require the use of a relay for each of the points (oooh, mystery!). I am doing this via the use of a Megapoints relay driver (also with the same address as the rest of the network - how far can you go without a multi-panel board?!) and a 16 relay board from eBay again. It took a bit of figuring out to do this as the connections between Dave’s board and the relay board I bought (different to Dave’s recommended units) wasn’t as logical as I had hoped but now I have it sorted. Satisfyingly, when a point is thrown, there is a nice little click from the underside of the layout. The channels that have two points on them, have two relays too. Nice! More of this later when I am more satisfied with the rest of the components I am building for it. Top tip - notice I built this (and the circuit panel for the water crane) on a separate piece of plywood and screwed it on in one go. Easy to build, easy to fit, easy to remove, easy to test and easy to repair. What’s not to like? Lastly, first thoughts were given to the layout lighting when, due to a major rewiring exercise, these were found in a bin. Waaaaaaay too good to live in the bin we thought. We hope that the lighting rig will have a similarly industrial flavour. It needs some thought... Well, that wraps it up for now! Progress on all fronts achieved. Including the greenery. All the best, Castle Stay tuned for the next exciting installment of William Street Yard!

Hi All, Welcome to the wonders(?) of incredible 2D, low resolution, no production values CASTLEVISION... The background noise is my 12v power supply's fan. This is about 2 days BFDI (Before Fire Devil Instillation) Enjoy! All the best, Castle Stay tuned for the next exciting installment of William Street Yard!

Thanks Grahame! Its quite an interesting job as Miss Trees painted it on artist's canvas and it seems to work very well. The only issue we have found that it does pick up fingerprints easily so it does need care and maintenance if you are a bit grubby. We are usually a bit grubby. We have since fitted lifting straps so that fingers are far less likely to come in contact with them. Miss Trees is threatening to post on here too so I will leave the description of this to her. All the best, Castle

Hi Grahame, No, I am perfectly happy to look at YouTube (I'm watching the excellent 'Tank Chats' with historian David Fletcher from the Tank Museum at Bovington as I type - the Coventry Armoured Car tonight!) but I don't have a channel or anything like that. My other half on the other hand is well into it all. She has her own gaming channel so I can no doubt garner some advice... I'm not due at either Didcot or Fawley this weekend (quite a novelty that!) so I will have a look tomorrow. All the best, Castle

Hi Chris, Thanks mate! I'll see what I can do but I haven't had much success with uploading videos to RMWEB in the past. I might need to get to Fawley to do it if nothing I have is suitable but I will do my best... All the best, Castle

Then Harry and I did LOTS of wiring... Trials were successfully undertaken! It’s on a dimmer as well. I find some lights at model shows are a little bit too bright. We will have our own lighting rig so we just need the effect of turning it on. This should eek out a much longer lifespan for the LEDs too. What’s this doing here?! I presume it’s filling up its radiator... We finished up the day with a few of the ancillaries for the water crane. This is the operating switch and the reset switch. It is possible to wire in a remote rest switch very easily and although the system has proven to be very robust in operation, it does occasionally need a kick in the proverbial pants on start up. I’m glad I added it! Finally, the wiring for the LCD display was added. This clearly needs a tidying solution. Some of the ballast also needs a putting back under the track solution too... That will do for now! All the best, Castle Stay tuned for the next exciting installment of William Street Yard!

Having got rid of the old non-operational lights, a replacement working LED version was sourced on eBay and fitted. First trials with an independent power source (9v battery!) went well. Continued in my next post...

Odds and Ends* *Some are definitely odder than most... Hi All, Vegetable Definition: The Flyers are keenly aware of your need for 5-a-day to remain healthy and active railway modellers. In an effort to achieve this in a succinct and timely manner, the Flyers have done a simple bit of reclassification. The calculations go like this. Cow + grass = more cow / dairy products, therefore cow / dairy products = vegetable. This means that all cow-based products are reclassified as vegetables too. Burgers, steaks, dairy, double cream and even chocolate can be included as one of your 5-a-day. Other vegetable eating animals can be added to the list including the pig and the chicken. This means that a Flyer will sometimes amass as many as 25 to 30 a day and additionally, will never attempt to eat a tiger. Tigers get really QUITE angry if you try and cook them. Jokes about them producing a ‘rare’ steak as well will NOT be tolerated. The mission to prepare William Street Yard for its first show continues. The continuing use of my Z21 and it getting lumped around was causing me a little concern. It’s not a cheap piece of equipment and needs a bit of respect so, using a bit of plywood that I quite literally pulled from the bin as it had spilled paint all over one side(!), I made this. The Mk. 1 Controller Caddy. The great thing about the Mk. 1 is that Mk. 2 hasn’t been needed yet... Being of a long haired persuasion, the natural choice of soft straps for the components was hair bands. Why not? Three main areas of work continued here. Firstly, the distracting lump of the water crane display was first to go in. An acrylic surround was found to be a good move. You can also see the fantastic back scene painted on canvas by Miss Trees herself was also added. It’s really nice isn’t it?! The ballast was finally sorted out with Harry biting the bullet and taking on the frankly mind numbing job of tidying up all the ballast. Needless to say this job sucked (pun intended) and well done to him for taking it on. The results of his hard work are easy to see... Continued in my next post...